Happy leftovers, y’all!
Well, our turkey roll wasn’t very good, I woke up this morning with a streaming cold, and Florence Henderson died in the night.
On the other hand, nobody had her in the Dead Pool and I bought Doom 2016 for 67% off. It kicks several different kinds of ass. So, a draw.
Good weekend, everyone!
FIDEL IS DEAD! FIDEL IS DEAD! FIDEL CASTRO HAS FINALLY POPPED HIS CLOGS! Congratulations to Deborah HH, who has won dick in the most satisfying possible way. We all know what this means — DEAD POOL ROUND 91. Be here Friday.
November 25, 2016 — 10:01 pm
Comments: 27
Turkey ’bout done
When I went picture shopping, the caption to the Obama image was like “The President sheds a tear over…” and I didn’t even click the link to find out “over what.” I had a frisson of delight thinking — oh, I know. President Trump will let us down in a thousand ways — but it will surely be a long, long time before we see a president boo-hoo in public over anything again.
I haven’t forgotten — Leaky George Bush started it. And let’s not think about John Boehner.
Hope your turkey was de-lightful. Ours isn’t done yet — we do Thanksgiving as a midnight meal. With champagne. It’s a tradition. Hey, you move to a foreign country, you get to make all this ancient traditional shit up.
That’s a few hours yet, so I’m just boiling the sweet patooties (preparatory to candying) and pre-soaking the dressing. In butter. Last of the imported Pepperidge Farm. Man, I love this holiday.
p.s. We are totally stoked — we just heard a real, live owl going HOO HOO HOOOOOO in the back garden!
p.p.s. Oh, yeah – and I arrived in the UK for keeps Thanksgiving 2008. Eight years of limey goodness. T’day was the 27th that year — the 24th, the movers came and sucked all my worldly goods out the front door. May I never witness such a thing again!
November 24, 2016 — 9:03 pm
Comments: 18
Here we go!
We’ve just got back from buying an obscene amount of food for tomorrow. The best part is, what does he know from Thanksgiving? I can tell him, “oh, yeah, dude — gin and red velvet cupcakes are totally part of a traditional Turkey Day celebration.”
Brits don’t celebrate Thanksgiving (duh), but they are aware of it and they try to show willing. I’m often asked if, like, they should buy me a card or something. I’m going in for a bit tomorrow, but taking Friday to accommodate the tryptophan coma.
So who and what are you having tomorrow?
November 23, 2016 — 9:48 pm
Comments: 20
Funny, I had no problem…
Did I ever tell you my spider story? I was a kid, watching the tube with my mother, when a big fat spider skittered across the wood floor in the blue light of the TV. We were both arachnophobes (I caught it off her, probably). So I bravely grabbed a can of Coke and smished it.
And five hundred tiny baby spiders came boiling out in all directions.
November 22, 2016 — 7:55 pm
Comments: 16
Hail Sithis!
By one of life’s happy accidents, I had just reached the Dark Brotherhood story arc in my play-through of the Skyrim Enhanced Edition — you know, the part where you get locked in the coffin with the 300-year-old corpse of the Night Mother and suddenly she starts sweet-talking you — just as Hillary Clinton made her first appearance in public since the election.
Those of you who don’t play Skyrim, you don’t really need to know what that means. HERE’S A SILLY PICTURE.
November 21, 2016 — 9:57 pm
Comments: 14
Word of the Day: braggot
A braggot is a mixture of honey and barley, used as an alcohol base (like malt for beer, or corn for moonshine). Remember, kids, yeasties eat sugar and pee alcohol!
I learned this word from this NPR story about reviving an ancient brew based on analysis of an archaeological find. Specifically: the cauldron in the picture. It was dug up and analyzed in Germany.
The 2,500-year-old brew was made with barley, honey, mint and meadowsweet. Barley and honey to feed the yeast, meadowsweet in place of hops as a bittering (and preservative?) agent, and mint for flavor, I guess. The author said it was strong and tasted pretty nice, but there are no plans to sell it.
I’m still unclear why alcoholic beverages need a bitter component, except hops are also a preservative agent. You would not believe how huge hop production was here until pretty recently. Even more so next door in Kent. The whole area is covered in old oast houses, once used to dry hops. Now converted into ultra expensive houses for the most part. They are dreadful cool.
Right! We know what tomorrow is. Friday. 6 WBT. DEAD POOL ROUND 90.
November 17, 2016 — 9:59 pm
Comments: 14
LOOK AT THESE CHIKKENS!
Just LOOK at them! The breed is (usually) called Polish in the US, or Polands in Europe. Also sometimes Pols, which is closer to the thing. Calm down, mein Führer, they don’t (probably) have any relationship to actual Poland. It’s a very old breed and the name likely comes from the Middle Dutch word Pols, which meant “head.” Because duh.
And yes, they bump into things if you don’t trim around their eyes. Though I saw one lady who hated to trim and gathered the feathers up in a hipster topknot with a teeny, tiny rubber band instead. It was adorable.
Yeah, I want one of these in the worst way. I haven’t worked out yet if they come in a Pekin bantam variant — little chicken, feathery feet — except possibly as an accidental crossbreed. I shall investigate. Anyway, I promised Uncle B our next birds would be lemon cuckoos, which are a pretty little Pekin bantam. Very fat and sweet tempered.
I wonder if I could persuade someone to breed me a Polish lemon cuckoo. Hell, that would be worth doing for the name alone.
Anyway, I bring this up because I was looking for a picture of a chicken skull (as you do) and I found this picture of what a Poland’s head bones look like. I thought it was a diseased chicken at first.
Whatever they keep in that thing, it’s probably not brains.
November 16, 2016 — 10:22 pm
Comments: 20
Oh, somebody left me a shrew today
I’m hoping it wasn’t Uncle B.
Cat and mouse from the 14th Century chapel in St. Mary Magdalene Church, Newark, Nottinghamshire. Pinched from FaceBook. I feel like a villain not giving credit more explicitly, but I try to keep People FaceBook and Weasel FaceBook separate.
Yeah, Weasel has more friends than I do. Thanks for asking.
Anyhoo, I inherited an old computer from work today. They were going to throw it away, so I thought I could put it up in my leetle art room.
Anybody remember how to speak XP?
November 15, 2016 — 8:59 pm
Comments: 17
Now, how do I change the subject?
Ah, yes…chickens playing the xylophone. No, no link. Unfortunately, it’s a FaceBook video — I refuse to link to ’em, and I can’t find this particular video elsewhere. Never mind. If you enter “chickens xylophone” into YouTube, you will find literally minutes of wholesome entertainment.
Chickens like sounds. They will return again and again to peck things that have no food value but make an interesting noise, like empty buckets, wooden gates or my banjo.
So anyway, I have thoroughly enjoyed the political salt storm this week. I intend to continue enjoying (and probably posting about it) for some time to come. But, let’s face it, it’s politics — if you get pulled in too far, it will always break your heart.
No hostages to fortune.
p.s. Tell me electric blanket stories. We bought an expensive one last year, got a whole luxuriant season out of it, fired it up this year and…control burnout. To be fair, I think the big fat cat napping on it during the heat-up cycle tripped the heat sensor — but it’s a lousy failsafe design that permanently breaks when overheated. Any advice?
November 14, 2016 — 7:25 pm
Comments: 19
Good weekend, all!
And, just now announced, Robert Vaughn has shuffled off today, as well. It was a bit of a shock to see a picture of him as an old man; in my dessicated old brain, he’s still the embodiment of cool.
It’s too late to queue a new Pool this week, so gather ’round next Friday.
FRIDAY – NOVEMBER 18 – 6WBT – DEAD POOL ROUND 90
November 11, 2016 — 7:06 pm
Comments: 7