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United States, North Carolina, Carrboro, English, Paul, Male, 56-60, All Music, All Food.

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Sunday, August 10, 2003

In Vietnam, it was the unpredictable nature of television that brought the ugliness of the war home. In Iraq, the Pentagon anticipated this and sought to control the news coming out by using embedded reporters and controlling or marginalizing non-friendly media. Once again, however, they failed to anticipate the new medium – individual communications from the front by email. The truth will always out. Check out this story in The Guardian:   'Bring us home': GIs flood US with war-weary emails   An unprecedented internet campaign waged on the frontline and in the US is exposing the real risks for troops in Iraq. Paul Harris and Jonathan Franklin report on rising fears that the conflict is now a desert Vietnam Sunday August 10, 2003 The Observer Susan Schuman is angry. Her GI son is serving in the Iraqi town of Samarra, at the heart of the 'Sunni triangle', where American troops are killed with grim regularity. Breaking the traditional silence of military families during time of war, Schuman knows what she wants - and who she blames for the danger to her son, Justin. 'I want them to bring our troops home. I am appalled at Bush's policies. He has got us into a terrible mess,' she said. Schuman may just be the tip of an iceberg. She lives in Shelburne Falls, a small town in Massachusetts, and says all her neighbours support her view. 'I don't know anyone around here who disagrees with me,' she said. Schuman's views are part of a growing unease back home at the rising casualty rate in Iraq, a concern coupled with deep anger at President George W. Bush's plans to cut army benefits for many soldiers. Criticism is also coming directly from soldiers risking their lives under the guns of Saddam Hussein's fighters, and they are using a weapon not available to troops in previous wars: the internet. 5:29:48 PM    comment []

The Lowdown on "Damn Good" Chili Mix: Don't bother. No heat. Rice in chili? We added Tabasco and then it tasted like Tabasco. Get a bag of Old El Paso if you want chili in a bag. Where are the peppers. Edble. Okay. Not "Damn Good." 4:53:15 PM    comment []

I just turned Roomba loose in the bathroom and closed the door. Liz says I have a cruel streak but “even you aren’t that cruel,” she says when I told of my idea to lock Twyla up in the bathroom with Roomba. Little does she know…   Liz and I both picked up a few cans of canned salmon at Lowe’s Food yesterday, on sale for 97 cents. Coming from Alaska, I suspect it’s not farm-raised. Now it is canned salmon that did give salmon a bad name for many years, but it also led to some incredible salmon cakes. Liz made some with panko instead of ordinary bread crumbs and inspired me.   While at Lowe’s, I saw some Bear Creek soup mixes. What caught my eye was the “Damn Good” Chili Mix. I am a solid believer that all chili is sacred and that it’s what was served at The Last Supper and probably instead of those silly communion wafers for the early years of the church (until somebody farted from the beans – which is why Texans insist that chili not have beans to this day. I need to do more research…).   The next thing that caught my eye was the price - $4.49 for the package you see. Ridiculous! But this morning, while shopping for bird seed at Harris Teeter, I saw the chili mix again. Remember that Pulp Fiction scene with this classic line?   Vincent: That's a pretty fucking good milkshake. I don't know if it's worth five dollars but it's pretty fucking good.   That went through my head and I wondered how a five-dollar chili mix would taste. I picked up a pound of chuck roast too, which raised the total cost to nine dollars. I’m getting set to coarse grind the meat and will report back if it’s as good as a five-dollar milkshake. They say it’s “damn good,” which means it might be even better than “pretty fucking good.” 12:27:35 PM    comment []

My first batch of Kaiser Rolls. 5:04:32 AM    comment []

I gave 'Ove' Glove a bath and let him drip dry. He's become quite fond of Roomba. I had to promise him I'd let him take a ride next time Roomba roams. Kinda like Gumby and Pokie, no? Maybe they'll move to Montana and raise a crop of lonely dental floss...   5:02:10 AM    comment []

Making Kaiser Rolls…(link unavailable, search King Arthur Flour recipes). Here is the basic dough:   3 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour 1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar 1 1/4 teaspoons salt 1 large egg 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 3/4 cup water   This makes a stiff dough. Even the kneading hook on the KitchenAid couldn’t handle it. It flipped the mixing bowl off the retaining clips and I had to do an emergency shutoff. That meant hand-kneading, which is good exercise because it gives you a finished product.   There are a couple of interesting details in the shaping process:   Shaping:Transfer the dough to a lightly greased work surface, and divide it into six equal pieces. Shape the pieces into round balls, and place them on a lightly greased or parchment lined baking sheet. Working with one ball of dough at a time, center your kaiser stamp over the dough. Press down frimly, cutting to the bottom but not all the way through the dough. This is important; if you don't cut deeply enough, the shape disappears as the roll bakes; if you cut too deeply (all the way through), the roll will form "petals" as it rises and look like a daisy, not a kaiser roll. Practice makes perfect! Repeat with the remaining rolls. Place the rolls cut-side down (yes-cut-side down--this helps them retain their shape) onto a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Cover the rolls, and allow them to rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until they've almost doubled in volume. Turn the rolls cut-side up. Dip tops in milk and coat with poppy or sesame seeds, if desired.   (1)     The greased (not floured) working surface – a concession to the stiffness of the dough. (2)     Cut-side down!   I’m on the second rise, preparing to bake 15-17 minutes at 425º F. 3:50:51 AM    comment []

With all the commotion about the Roomba here I nearly forgot to post a picture of this new product - shaved beef steak. I found it at BJ's today. My lab results came in yesterday with LDL=118 and HDL=56, triglycerides=80, so I'm ready to pig out on some tasty animal fat - maybe a nice Philly Cheese Steak, made with drippy Cheese Whiz...Mmmmm... 1:49:28 AM    comment []

Blogger's Block on Doonesbury... 1:42:19 AM    comment []

Roomba Update: It's at work in the living room right now. It's quiet, except for when it bumps into the door. It doesn't seem to pick up everything. It does miss some of the sunflower seed shells I tracked in earlier today, but it gets most of them. My living room is oddly-shaped, but it's tracking fairly well. It reverses when it hits its "virtual wall", an included accessory that shots a beam of IR (or something magickal) across the floor. Claudette is curious about it, but not afraid - until it threatens to bump into her. Twyla, on the other hand, is frightened. Not as much as for the regular vacuum, which sends her into the bedroom closet where she hides on a shelf until a couple of hours after the all clear. She's in the computer room, behind the shredder (where I grow mushrooms), a location she favors when someone brings a small dog over (up to about terrier size). She has not gotten behind the computer, the position she occupies when larger sized pooches visit. It just stopped. At first, I was disappointed because it had only run about half an hour and had pretty much ignored the center of the room. But it wasn't finished, it had simply stopped to let me know its little collector bin was full (it holds about a cup). I emptied that and its off again... (later...It's in the kitchen now, doing battle with linoleum and holding its own. It has this funny little spinning brush on one side that "feeds" it dirt, it's a robotized dirt eating rotifer!) 12:07:58 AM    comment []