Chris Knight – Awesome!!!!!
OK. click on the links above for some pictures and a little video. Don’t miss T Bone.
This is just a taste of the Larry Joe Taylor Texas Music Festival and Chili Cook-off.
Microwave
I know this is long but read it out. It’s pretty fascinating.
I received an email from a friend this morning. Usually I would dismiss this kind of email as urban myth nonsense but read the article and then read my comments at the end.
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A convection oven is even better, as it cooks faster and more evenly and browns beautifully, too. (Convection ovens are inexpensive, and have a fan that distributes the heat more evenly. Almost as fast as a microwave, and lots safer!)
OK this is me again.
Normally I don’t give much credence to these kind of “scientific” findings but coincidentally I read an article a few weeks ago about American obesity that addressed microwave ovens.
The subject of the article was how drastically American obesity has increased since the late 70’s and early 80’s which was also about the time that microwaves were becoming really popular.
The conclusion of the article was that since microwaving had made cooking so much faster and easier we were overeating.
The interesting thing in the email below is this:
“I have known for years that the problem with microwaved
anything is not the radiation people used to worry about, It’s
how it corrupts the DNA in the food so the body can not
recognize it. So the body wraps it in fat cells to protect itself
from the dead food or it eliminates it fast.”
Pretty scary stuff.
Also, during this same period of time cancer rates have gone through the roof, Autism is at historic highs as are many other conditions and diseases.
Now many of these may just be a coincidence or attributable to other factors but it makes you think.
uo Plate in Texas? God Forbid?
There has been a proposal by the mercenary outfit known as MyPlates (another egregious example of the State of Texas reneging on its duty) to have an uo plate for Texas drivers.
I could make lots of inappropriate comparisons to mosques in New York and Swastikas in Washington but I don’t want to go completely over the top.
The fact is that this so called university kidnaps and hypnotizes with the promise of riches dozens of Texas’s best football, basketball, baseball etc. etc. players every year and fields these unfortunates in the ugliest uniform on the face of the earth. Crimson and cream. Even the picture that that brings to mind is disgusting to the point that I cannot point out what it reminds one of.
I realize that there are some Texas children who in the throes of immaturity attend this alleged university because they cannot make the grades at Dallas County Community Colleges or some other institution of true higher learning.
The athletes are of course stupid beyond all comprehension and could not be expected to understand what they are really doing. Either that or the much hoped for scholarship to Trinity Valley JC fell through and this was the backup plan.
All of that aside.
uo plates in Texas?
Does ok offer Texas Longhorn or Texas Aggie plates in their little piece of desert?
No.
Because they only have about 27 licensed drivers and they all have farm plates for the corn and marijuana crops. Crack does not count as a farm product.
Ask yourself a logical question.
Why would any boy or girl athlete want to leave the verdant plains, mountains and coasts of Texas to go live in a wasteland of grass and sand?
No one would who is not either stupid or rebellious beyond belief. And not rebellious in a good way but a stupid way.
Oklahoma was one of the last states to join the union and that would have never happened if the accidental discovery of oil had not been made ( Jed Clampett reference needed here).
As a matter of fact, any person who goes to uo without “academic” reasons should automatically have their citizenship of the Republic of Texas revoked and banned from ever stepping foot inside of Texas again except to get their a**es beat by true institions of higher learning and morality.
It is a well known fact that Bob Stoopids is the spawn of the devil. He is the lowest form of life known to mankind.
Why ask for trouble?
Leave oklahomo to themselves and their inbreeding and let Texas cars and trucks alone.
Please. Oh, the humanity!
Keep Me In Your Heart
Before Warren Zevon’s 2003 album “The Wind” he was diagnosed with Mesothelioma.
This was only after Zevon, who had a phobia about doctors, was told by his dentist that he needed see a physician.
When Zevon was writing the songs for” The Wind” he knew he was dying.
He accepted his fate and even appeared on “Late Night with David Letterman” as the only guest shortly before his death.
He was only 56.
One of the great songs from that album and one of my favorites by anyone is “Keep Me In Your Heart“.
As our family prepares for the passing of our loved one it seems very appropriate and poignant.
Shadows are falling and I’m running out of breath
Keep me in your heart for a while
If I leave you it doesn’t mean I love you any less
Keep me in your heart for a while
When you get up in the morning and you see that crazy sun
Keep me in your heart for a while
There’s a train leaving nightly called when all is said and done
Keep me in your heart for a while
Sha-la la-la-la la-la-li li-lo
Keep me in your heart for a while
Sha-la la-la-la la-la-li li-lo
Keep me in your heart for a while
Sometimes when you’re doing simple things around the house
Maybe you’ll think of me and smile
You know I’m tied to you like the buttons on your blouse
Keep me in your heart for a while
Hold me in your thoughts, take me to your dreams
Touch me as I fall into view
When the winter comes keep the fires lit
And I will be right next to you
Engine driver’s headed north to Pleasant Stream
Keep me in your heart for a while
These wheels keep turning but they’re running out of steam
Keep me in your heart for a while
Sha-la la-la-la la-la-li li-lo
Keep me in your heart for a while
Sha-la la-la-la la-la-li li-lo
Keep me in your heart for a while
Keep me in your heart for a while
What Matters
I have been thinking about what matters.
We all spend a lot of time and effort worrying about what matters.
We may call it different things.
We may call it being relevant.
We may call it being right.
We may call it “finding ourselves”.
We may call it a thousand different things but it all boils down to what are we doing with our lives and what difference does it make?
Life is hard.
Anyone who tells you differently is either lying, insane or trying to get something from you.
Things don’t often go the way we think they should. Or maybe we just pay more attention to the bad things.
we were never promised by anyone that is trustworthy that we would have perfect, pain free, tragedy free guiltless lives.
Those preachers who say that this is not true are either the worst liars or they have never read the gospels. Probably some of both.
So, what does matter?
Money. It comes and goes. When we die what good is it?
Security? Right.
Prestige. See Money above.
Family. You may not have a family as we think of it but there is a family.
Love. Hopefully we all have had someone who has loved us. We certainly have One who loves us radically and unconditionally.
Last night I read the Beatitudes in Matthew.
Start at the beginning but if you are impatient start at chapter 5.
Don’t read it as though it is abstract or for some future date but as what Jesus was teaching us then and right now.
What matters?
Our babies.
Our freinds.
Our family.
All those we love.
All those we hate.
I hear a lot of vitriolic talk today about the president and the government. I don’t agree with a lot or even most of what is going on. But, we are told to love our enemies and pray for them.
What matters is today.
Right now.
Those who are close to you.
Those who are not.
Those who have passed on.
Those who are estranged.
Those who hate you.
Right now.
Tomorrow has enough problems of its own. Let’s deal with what is right in front of us and know what is truly important.
We cannot control what other people think or do. We can control what we think and do (sometimes).
Love like there is no tomorrow.
Laugh like you mean it.
Cry and be cleansed not defeated.
Be good.
Be bad.
Be happy in spite of all the things and people that say not to be. Not stupidly as the prosperity preachers tell it but just because you can.
Do something sacrificial today. Or don’t and don’t feel guilty about it.
Tell someone that you love them and mean it. Or don’t and don’t feel guilty about it.
So? What matters?
I may be bankrupt in a few weeks.
I may be sick.
My loved ones may be sick or hurt or hurting.
Love. Love. Love.
What matters?
You.
(I just liked this picture.)
Words of Wisdom from Warren Zevon
I really like Warren Zevon.
He passed away in in 2003 and left a great body of work behind him.
Caution!: He could be vulgar and direct but he was always honest and had something to say.
Most people only know him from the song “Werewovles In London” which while good is not his best.
In light of some of the recent discussion here I would like to post the lyrics to his great song “Don’t Let Us Get Sick” from the CD “Life’ll Kill Ya” from 2000.
Don’t let us get sick
Don’t let us get old
Don’t let us get stupid, all right?
Just make us be brave
And make us play nice
And let us be together tonight
The sky was on fire
When I walked to the mill
To take up the slack in the line
I thought of my friends
And the troubles they’ve had
To keep me from thinking of mine
Don’t let us get sick
Don’t let us get old
Don’t let us get stupid, all right?
Just make us be brave
And make us play nice
And let us be together tonight
The moon has a face
And it smiles on the lake
And causes the ripples in Time
I’m lucky to be here
With someone I like
Who maketh my spirit to shine
Don’t let us get sick
Don’t let us get old
Don’t let us get stupid, all right?
Just make us be brave
And make us play nice
And let us be together tonight
Are We So Shallow?
I accidentally ran across an article on the internets that described some kind of spat between Katherine Heigl and Seth Rogen.
There were at least 500 comments generally taking one side or the other.
Really?
Have we become so vacuous as a people that we care that much about what two actors are saying about one another?
I love movies and music and art and books but I don’t care about the petty feuds of the participants.
I guess this kind of shallow mindlessness is why “reality” TV is such a big deal now. Who watches this crap? It’s clearly scripted and so phony that it makes professional wrestling look like Shakespeare.
But I digress.
I’m really not a culture snob (ask anyone who knows me) but this obsession with celebrities and their lives is beyond foolish.
I’d be willing to bet that the average person could not tell you who their representatives to congress are but can tell you who Kim Kardashhian or Kobe Bryant are.
Hey! Wake up! Read a book and not one about Cher or Gwen Stefani.
A book review: Oil! by Upton Sinclair
I have just about finished reading Oil! by Upton Sinclair.
This the book that the movie There Will Be Blood is supposedly based upon.
First, the book has almost no resemblance to the movie at all.
I don’t know why Paul Thomas Anderson didn’t just call it an original screenplay and take full credit for it.
Even the names are mostly changed. Some of the places are similar but the similarities stop there.
The book is a long, long overblown treatise on Socialism, Communism, government corruption and greed based in the early part of the 20Th century.
The point of worker exploitation is made early and often. And then made again and again and again and again……………
This is one of those books that I cannot wait to finish I so bored with it.
Dad in the book, who I suppose is meant to be some kind of villain, is actually a pretty fair minded person and generous to a fault.
His spoiled and narcissistic son is a good kid but blown about by every wind that comes his way.
Other characters are lifeless and not fleshed out.
This is another example of a so called “classic” book that may have been something sensational in 1927 but is a big bore in 2009. Like The Great Gatsby, another horribly boring book.
Unlike other great books from the past there is very little here that is instructive or enlightening about the human experience.
I did not know and was never taught in school that there was an American troop deployment in Northern Russia at the end of WW I. that was interesting and I intend to find out more about that.
The only other thing I am getting out of this book is the almost alien thinking of 80 or 90 years ago and this may only be Mr. Sinclair’s opinions.
Don’t buy this book unless you are an insomniac like me.
Barbecue outside of Texas? No way!
A blog I read often which has nothing to do with barbecue neverthe less got my culinary brain all fired up.
This person claimed that southeastern Kentucky was the capital of BBQ.
Preposterous!
I have travelled the US and especially the South and can tell you that the “BBQ” cooked elsewhere we would be ashamed to feed to our dogs.
First, true barbecue is NEVER cooked directly over the flames or heat.
It is smoked for hours with the heat and smoke from and indirect source.
Second, sauce is for possibly dipping and is NEVER, EVER put directly on the meat during cooking or immediately afterwards.
Third, the art is in the DRY rub and maintaining heat.
See this article: Texas Barbecue.
We Texans are nuts about many things but one thing we take dead seriously is barbecue.
It is not the slop in Memphis or the Carolinas.
Georgia? Hah!
The setup below is what I use. I realize it’s a little small but I can usually feed 30 or 40 people.
Great Sign
As seen facing East on the oklahoma-Texas Border.
