Ace, of course. Which is better, this:
a penguin-sucker of the Swedish variety.
or this:
snow-wops and icebacks
or this:
. . . the puffin-sucking luge-humping shaved Yetis we know as “Scandinavians.”
By the way, for those of you who are exceptionally sensitive (or these days, just about everybody), Ace is about as far from “sensitive” or PC as it gets.
From a discussion group. I offer it with no comment, except a “Geez, am I that old?” groan:
Also, the records (four in total) were issued with side one and side 8 on one record, with side 2 and 7 sharing the next lp, etc. Whatever could have been the reason behind this practice? I could think of no logical explanation.
Gosh but I feel OLD having to explain this…. Vinyl records were most often played on a spindle with an automatic loading arm, and you could listen to 4 or 5 records in sequence, as they were loaded one on top of each other. It was felt that if you were going to listen to an opera straight through on vinyl, without pause, it was easiest if you could flip the entire stack ONLY ONCE. So they were laid out 1-8, 2-7, 3-6, 4-5… making only one trip to the machine, in the middle of the opera.
On the television now (the 1965 performance, from the Kleines Festspielhaus in Salzburg, with Karl Böhm (and who else would you want to conduct Strauss, other than Strauss himself?), Sena Jurinac, Reri Grist, Hildegard Hillebrecht, and Jess Thomas). You can see Grist singing Zerbinetta’s Aria and Hillebrecht and Thomas in the finale here. Jurinac sings a marvelous Komponist, and Grist is an incomparable Zerbinetta (eat your heart out, Kathleen Battle), but what makes this performance astounding is Jess Thomas, who not only can sing the tortuously high music, but even on his final notes, his voice rings like a trumpet on top, with no hint of strain. That’s something you hear rarely. The weakness is Hillebrecht — and a weak soprano in a Strauss lead is almost as rare as a strong heldentenor in a Strauss lead. Es gibt ein Reich and Ein schönes war are fine, but Thomas carries her in the finale, a rarity indeed (usually, the soprano is carrying the croaking tenor by the end of the finale — and the tenor doesn’t even appear in the opera until the finale).
And I managed to get to the store, get what I needed (only because I nixed all but one thing, which is right by the cash register lines), and even found an empty line with a (cough, cough) male cashier, and got back fifteen minutes after I left!
Another thing about the restaurants here. We have yet to see fried chicken on a menu — and I mean fried chicken, not some boneless tit fried and served with some silly reduction (you do see that on menus here). I mean, what do these people eat on Sundays?
So I guess I’m going to have to make it myself. Off to the store for a list of specific items, and back after I get stuck in the aisles at least five times, and have to wait in line because somebody (cough, cough) will fish around in her purse for five minutes looking for the money, and somebody else will suddenly realize the salad dressing has too many calories and want to go get the low-fat version instead . . .
Another contender for line of the week:
Somewhat like your typical PETA member.
You really need to read the whole thing to appreciate it fully.
You’ll want to read this (and sincere thanks to Jules Crittenden for the link).
From the Gun Nut:
Political correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical liberal minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.
Hot tea is okay (apologies to the rest of the Anglosphere). I like it, though I don’t like the tannin — what’s good about drinking something that makes you thirsty? So unless I’m in someone else’s home and they offer me (hot) tea, I only drink iced tea.
Well no. Sweet tea (not to be confused with sweetened iced tea. A glass of tea with one teaspoon of sugar in it is sweetened iced tea, but it ain’t sweet tea.) I have a brother and sister-in-law who swear by sun tea, and I’ve had tea at their home and it’s great. The problem with sun tea — as well as the traditional method of making iced tea — is that you have to wait at least a good hour before it’s cold enough to drink.
Here’s how we made tea when I was a kid (well, after my parents went through the instant Nestea fad, and that didn’t last long). The downside of this method is that you may have to do it a couple of times before you get it just right. The upside is it’s ready to drink as soon as you make it.
You need a pitcher. Fill it to the top with water and measure it, if you don’t know how much it holds. Measure half the amount the pitcher holds and bring it to a boil (there’s a reason God gave us microwaves). Add sugar and teabags. Steep twice as long as you normally would — you need the tea to be twice the strength you want it when you drink it. This is why you may need to do this a couple of times before you get it just right.
Fill the pitcher to the very top with ice. Discard the teabags, stir well to make sure all the sugar is dissolved, and pour over the ice into the pitcher. The hot tea will melt half the ice, and exactly fill the pitcher. You only need to let it sit a minute or so before it’s really good and cold.
Sweet tea. It’s what’s for . . . uh, never mind.
Pennsylvania’s largest gun shop–and just 30 miles away! Of course, there’s Lion Country Supply on the other side of Skytop (though I hear they’re expensive), J&E Guns right across from the courthouse in Bellefonte, Robbins Gun Shop, also in Bellefonte, Rapid Fire Sports in Centre Hall, and a guy who has a family business not a quarter mile down the road (there’s also a guy with a small family business in Bellefonte). That’s just within ten miles in the county, and it doesn’t count all the sporting goods stores that sell firearms.
Oh. And of course, we have two Wal-Marts (though as a general policy, I only buy ammunition at Wally World, and not firearms).
Denny Nau isn’t the only Sheriff in Pennsylvania who respects the Constitution and has his head on straight: Sheriff against efforts to limit handgun sales.
Okay, I knew this would get me in trouble. Look, all shopping is not equal. Grocery shopping is entirely different from, say, looking at cars or guns.
Let’s say you need cocoa. You have two options: dutch-process or regular. For either, you may have three brands. Provided you don’t have a brand preference, it takes all of ten seconds to compare prices, toss a can in the cart, and be on your way. It takes even less time if you have a brand preference. Grab, toss, and run. The same applies to salad dressing, anything in the damned grocery store.
Grab, toss, and run.
Just about every item in a grocery store is going to cost you at most a few dollars (and if you want it but aren’t happy with the price, you’re out of luck unless you’re willing to go to another store). Let’s compare that with, say, buying a car. A car is a major investment. Grab, toss, and run would be stupid when buying a car. There are all kinds of factors to consider carefully.
Or guns. Sure, some people know exactly what they want when they go, but most don’t, other than the type of gun and the caliber. Few people go to the gun shop specifically for a Mossberg 500 in 12-ga and nothing else will do. Most go to the gun shop looking for a pump-action 12-ga shotgun, and the gun shop may have fifteen or more on the shelf, ranging anywhere from 300 to 2000 bucks, all with different pros and cons. The same applies to a .22 or .45ACP handgun. So not only do you have a far greater investment, but a large range of options to consider, as with the car.
And both qualify as toys. It’s like . . . uh, okay, never mind, because I don’t want to be crass or vulgar. But you probably know where I was going to go. Both are more than merely functional items. They’re objects that demand admiration. Going to the auto showroom or the gun shop isn’t just shopping. And I don’t have enough experience with women in either to compare between the two sexes; it’s not often you see women perusing the gun case. I don’t remember seeing even one woman at the gun case any of the (many) times I was at MC Sports in Bloomington (there are more places that sell firearms here, but for various reasons, Pennsylvania’s de facto gun registration being one, I haven’t visited any of them).
But even if I am only noticing the women who poke around and block me in the aisle, I have yet to see a woman who gets her money out and has it ready to pay ahead of time. Not once. Never happens. And I never have figured that out.
We stumbled upon this just down the street from the Old Market, right around the corner from where we were staying:
We watched the episodes on TiVO after we got back. You know, the altruistic stuff is great, but that’s all Discovery has run since they gave Trademark their own show, and I’d like to know when they’re going to get back to business.
By the way, I watched My War Diary for the first time yesterday. I give it a thumbs-up.
Today's Lectionary
