Aqualung - Jethro Tull

Certain songs bring back vivid memories of the time they were popular/on the charts and even though this song came out in 1971, this one reminds me of the late 70's, when I was just married and happy.  Jethro Tull was a favorite of my new bride; not particularly one of mine, but I did like the few chart toppers the group had, this being one of them. The marriage didn't last all that long and after we had been divorced for a year or two, we decided we'd like to see each other again and took a trip down to Austin.  Riding along the interstate, I was digging around in her music and had to smile when I saw several Jethro Tull albums in her mobile collection. I got her to plug Aqualung
into her cassette deck and we zipped along the highway, trying to recapture something that had been lost.We failed, but the try was worth the effort.

The Brad Pitt Rule

I'm WAY past my dating prime - if I ever had a "prime" - but I thought this video was cute. It's from The Art of Manliness, a site I recently started subscribing to in my reader. I discovered it when searching for alternative necktie knots (at least more than the single one I've relied upon for years) and spent an hour or two on the site, looking at some of the other informative articles of interest to men.

Sadly, my dating days are mostly over. I'll have to depend upon a woman literally falling into my lap (and wanting to stay there) because I'm certainly not going to impress a lady with my wealth (I have none, and my standards are still high enough to where I wouldn't want a woman who wanted me only for my money. If I ever hit the lottery, I'll get back to you on that.) and certainly can't get a favorable first impression with the way I dress (I'm basically a slob) or my looks (my looks can be described as something between Mel Gibson and Homer Simpson).

The last time I tried to pick up a woman was several years ago when I stopped at a bar to have a beer and saw a cute young thing standing at the jukebox. Working up the courage that only alcohol can provide - in my case - I sidled up next to her and said "Where have you been all my life?" (I never claimed to be smooth.)

She stepped back, slowly looked at me from head to toe and said:

"From the looks of you, I wasn't even around for the first half of it."

Fired Future Famous Funnyman

Jerry Seinfeld had a recurring role on the TV sitcom Benson in 1980, playing Frankie, a mail boy who was always trying to sell jokes. Seinfeld was fired after only three episodes, learning about it when he showed up for a read-through and discovering there was no script for him.

Jerry Seinfeld on Benson

That Casserole Was Mean to Me!

I was going through recipes I had saved this month and saw one for a breakfast casserole that sounded good and thought I'd like to try some day.  I did a search on my computer and found a few more I had saved and thought I'd see if there were others on the 'net that I might want to save in my vast collection. (I save recipes, it's one of my online hobbies)  I saw this recipe at Allrecipes.com, a favorite site of mine: Christmas Breakfast Sausage Casserole.  The recipe got a four and a half star rating out of five, so I thought I'd skim through a few of the reviews.  The breakdown of the reviews was this:

Out of 1,230 ratings, 841 cooks loved it, 272 liked it, 85 thought it was OK, 22 didn't like it and there were 10 cooks who wouldn't eat it.

No matter how you look at it, that is overwhelmingly positive for the recipe.  Sure, there were a few who were tepid in their praise, some who didn't like it and only a few - less than 1% -  who thought it dreadful.   I rate movies on IMDb sometimes and even the movies I love only get a "9" because I've yet to see a movie that didn't have at least a few flaws in it.  I haven't made the casserole, but I would probably be one of the "liked it" crowd because I'm fairly conservative with my ratings of anything.  (That said, I'd give my ex-wife a "7" considering everything, probably a little generous but I wouldn't want to give her a rating of average - she deserves a few points just for putting up with me)

Now, I understand about ratings; it doesn't matter what it is, movies or mayonnaise, taste is subjective and varies from person-to-person. What I have problems with are people who like something but castigate others for not liking it.  It's one thing to dislike...say, a politician, but they should list the reasons, not dislike someone just because they're fat or skinny, black or white, gay or straight.  I'm a Cowboys fan and many people despise the QB Tony Romo, but they don't give a valid reason regarding his play on the field but criticize him for wearing his cap backwards or for dating starlets (before he was married) or liking to play golf. (they didn't want him to take ANY vacations or have a life outside of football.  Silly.)

One of the "most helpful critical reviews" on the casserole was by "hurryup2002" - posted on Oct. 12, 2003, which made me wonder if they were pleased with how fast the year had arrived or still wanted to gripe about the slow pace of time.  Anyway....

They posted this:  "This is not nice at all, i just want to let people know that this is the worst thing ever. It is not nice."

That's one of the criticisms that I wrote about above;  no reason for disliking it, no honest reason why they didn't like it, not that the cooking time was too long or too short or the bread was overly soggy w/ putting it in the fridge overnight, that it was too salty/not salty enough, etc.  No, "it is not nice."

Not nice?  When they put it in the oven, did it scream at them "Hey dummy! Set the oven at 350, not 400 deg.!" or "You don't need to eat me...you're a little too fat as it is." "Don't add any salt, the sausage has it already, ya doofus!"  ???

What's not nice is my review of that review, but it was nicer than I wanted to be.

"It's Just a Dollar"

I went to the grocery store the other day and saw they had a sale on Eckrich sausage;  I don't eat a lot of that, but it sounded good and a pkg. will make several sandwiches, plus some left to be sliced into some slow cooker beans.  I got two packages since they were 2/$5.00, a dollar off the regular price for each.

I wasn't getting many other items and happened to see that one of the packages of sausage rang up at the regular price.  I pointed it out to the young woman running the cash register and she immediately looked annoyed that I had even spoken to her.  She glanced at the register readout, sniffed in a disdainful way and said:

"It's just a dollar."

I told her if it was "just a dollar", then maybe the store could pay the difference or better yet, she could get the money out of her own pocket and pay it.  She didn't look to see the sale price in the circular, didn't call a manager or do anything else about it, just stared at me as though I was something she wanted to scrape off the bottom of her shoe.  I told her I didn't want it then, didn't want any of the items I had that she'd already rang up and I turned on my heel and walked out the door.  I may never go back, there are two other stores here in town where I'm treated much nicer than that.

I'm just getting tired of the attitude of people who deal with customers, it's happened several times over this last month.  A few weeks ago I was wearing a Texas themed t-shirt and the checkout girl told me she didn't like my shirt.  I asked her why and she she said "Texas sucks."  I wanted to reach out and slap her insolent cheeks, but instead went home, got on the company website and sent off an email complaining about the hateful little wench.  The next day I got an email from corporate headquarters and a phone call from both the store manager and the district supervisor, all apologizing and promising it would never happen again. I told them it had better not, that their competitor was just across the street.

I've always been Caspar Milquetoast on these things; when I ordered a steak and it wasn't done as I liked, I'd eat it and not send it back.  When I wouldn't get good service, I'd go ahead and leave a tip or if my pizza arrived later than promised and cold, I'd just eat it and not complain. Never again!  I got a burger yesterday at the best place in town and when I ordered, I asked that some ketchup be put into the bag, explaining to the young woman who took my order that they always left it out.  She assured me she'd take care of it, but when I got home, there wasn't a single packet in the bag.  I will be letting the owner of the establishment know about it, too. 

What these people need to understand is that, while their boss signs their checks, I pay their wages!  Without me...and other customers...they wouldn't have a job!

I worked at a liquor store while going back to school;  I was a good hand and single-handedly worked the busiest times, the evenings and Saturdays.  The morning staff never had more than a dozen customers from 10-2 and all they had to do was check deliveries (and more often than not, didn't stock the items and left it all for me to do) and were supposed to dust and clean, but none ever did.  One young "lady" told me "This would be a great job if it weren't for the customers." (she had several come in the store while she was trying to watch Days of Our Lives and that annoyed her)

I'm sick of that kind of attitude. 

Tale of the Tail

The Opossum is the only North American mammal with a prehensile tail.  It can use its hairless, foot-long tail to grasp objects and climb trees.

We know about 'possums, having had several close encounters.