Comfort Food

...Say what you like, come what may -- a breakfast scramble of eggs, green onions, Castleveltrano olives and Manchego cheese makes up for a whole lot of things.  Especially with a deep-red grapefruit half for afters!

Oh, You Shouldn't Have

     ...But they did anyhow.  We've got a Democrat Mayor in Indy and my district has a Democrat councilman, too.  The party has a one-seat majority on the City-County Council.

     I would have greatly preferred a divided government.  It keeps 'em busy in less-harmful ways.  On the other hand, my disappointment is probably minor compared to that of Ohio's would-be pot-growing barons, who found their marijuana-legalization/constitutional monopoly scheme received a resounding No from voters, while the measure barring that state from ever granting any kind of monopoly via the state constitution squeaked to a narrow win -- and yes, it was inspired by the attempt to get a chokehold on commercial production of legal pot.  (I figure legal herb is an inevitability -- but maybe not real soon, at least in the Midwest.  I could be wrong, one way or the other.)  I'm not a fan of the stuff -- but remind me, was there more (and less-moderate) drinking during Prohibition, or after Repeal?

     Still, for now Ohio's still saying, "Lips that touch ganja shall never touch mine," and there it stands until next time -- and Indy's given a big ol' open-mouthed kiss to the Democrats.  We'll see how King Stork works out.  Just keep the streets plowed, Joe Hogsett, and don't let 'em jack up my property tax any higher.

Get Up, Get Donuts, Vote, Go To Work

     Do you know where to vote in Indiana today?  Find out!

     I have to go to work an hour early today (self-inflicted project) and it's Election Day.  And I wanna donut.  So this is a canned posting.  Go vote, if you can.  Use your best judgement, we'll be stuck with these idiots for awhile.  Let's at least get a fresh crop.

The War On Some Drugs Ruined Sassafras Tea

     As I child, I loved sassafras tea.  It was a very occasional treat, delicious, copper-colored, sweet and hot.  I treasure my memories of the aroma and taste, and of the very first time I had a cup of it. 

     You can still buy supposed sassafras concentrate.  It doesn't taste a bit like the stuff tasted when I was young.  Good sassafras faded out gradually -- I used to find short lengths of the root in simply-labeled cellophane packets at the grocer's, Indiana-produced and presumably with most of the safrole steamed away.  But I guess even that was too much for the drug warriors; you'll look in vain for it now.  Safrole, the stuff that gives sassafras a distinctive taste, was determined to be more bad for you than good and withdrawn from commercial use in 1960.  By 1976, the DEA labelled it a drug precursor: it's used in the manufacture of MDMA, "Ecstasy."  And not only is it illegal as can be,* overuse of MDMA appears to be not at all good for you, either, and in several ways.

     There are small amounts of safrole in many spices -- cinnamon, nutmeg, star anise, black pepper, the Cajun spice filé (ground sassafras leaves!) -- and that's a pretty good list of "spices Roberta X likes," as well.  Coincidence?  I don't know, but here's another: M.D.s have tried me several times on various SSRIs to deal with my chronic headaches, and that stuff just destroys me after a few days: nothing's any fun, nothing's worth doing -- or even worth not doing, either.  There's something goofy going on with all that but given that SSRIs and kin are only barely understood by the people who do understand them,† don't look to me for theories; I figure it means even if I could get real sassafras tea, I would be wise to enjoy it only sparingly.

     Past that, I don't know.  But I'm sitting here drinking a mug of frikkin' bluejohn pseudosassafras tea, and it hasn't got the right taste.  Not even close. It's not even the right color! A bottle of "Sarsaparilla" soda pop comes closer on both counts.  I'm pouring this weaksauce dishwater out and brewing some chamomile instead.
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* That falls under the "doing stuff" section of the rule, "Don't go stupid places with stupid people doing stupid stuff."  Felonies are, by design and definition, not fun.  Go do something else and don't get caught in the gears.

† This is one reason why I'm kind of cynical about doctoring.  Yeah, they have a whole wagon-load of pills and powders these days, but for many of those patented and trademarked nostrums, all the medical profession really knows is they work on some specific problems some of the time, somehow.  Good doctors are humbled by by this and hand the stuff out with much thought and care.  They're not miracle-workers; they can reduce fractures, lance boils and figure out if you've got gout or the flu but the laser-like precision implied in drug company ads on TV generally does not exist.  M.D.s know what they do often works better if you think they're ten moves ahead of whatever ails you.  They're frequently not, but being very clever, well-educated and aware of the remarkable effects of the Tincture of Time is the next best thing, and that, most of them have got.

Oooo, Recycled Daylight

     Or is it reclaimed daylight?  Siphoned off the end of the day in clear violation of causality and now we must pay the piper, but who am I to argue with King Canute and Congress, and their desire to get me to drive home in the dark only half the year?

     In Indiana, we go between double-daylight saving and regular daylight saving, being as we are at the extreme western end of Eastern Standard Time.

It's Noo- Eleve- Twel... Aaaaagh!

     You did it, you messed with time and blew it all up, didn't you?

     Well, I hope you're pleased with yourselves.

The Man In The High Sukayaki?

     Watched the second episode of the Amazon's take on Philip K. Dick's The Man In The High Castle recently.  It's still excellent.  They used this old pop tune in the music:

     The title is entirely unrelated -- translating the original results in a very Country & Western-sounding, "I'll Walk Looking Up (So My Tears Won't Fall)."  Nice tune, widely covered.  And chilling in the show's context.

Off On A Tangent

     "Sine and drive," the car dealers TV ads tell me.  Never "Cosine and drive,"* never "Tangent and drive."  Hmpf.
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* More like "Cosign and fret," the parents of kids buying their first car tell me. Point taken.

Later Than I Thought!

     Spent too much time looking up The History Of Cheese (it may be older than wine -- the ancient Greeks thought so) and reading how the President blames Indiana's "lax gun laws" (like the Federal one that makes direct cross-border handgun sales illegal?) for Chicago's crime problem.  And he wants us to fix it by making illegal stuff even illegaler! Um, sir?  Sir?  How come Indianapolis, despite our recent surge of violence, is still less crime-ridden than Chicago?

     Here, sit down, Mr. President.  Relax.  Have some nice cheese.  Ya nitwit.

     Time to go soak in Epsom Salts.  Dissolved in hot water. That's for me, not the President.  I'm sure the Secret Service will draw him one if he wants.

Yogurt: Not A Fan

     I can't deny the truth.

Man Goes Crazy? Freeway At A Standstill!

     I was half awake; I thought the news story was about some unfortunate with mental problems, in trouble on an interstate through town.

     A cup of coffee and another turn of the newswheel later, I caught the real story: Mangoes!  Crazy enough.  It's a big mess at the North Split between I-70 and I-65, the aftermath of a semi wreck.  They're still cleaning it up -- the truck has been hauled off but the slippery mess of pulped fruit and rainwater remains.

     It was almost better the other way around.

Keep Talking, Pinko

     Bernie Sanders was just on NBC's Today show, talking about about socialism and "free" stuff, including "free" college.  --Of course, someone has got to pay for it; some professors might teach for free, but the cafeteria ladies and the fellows who run the steam plant and most certainly the administrators want to get paid, on time and in full.  Something is broken in higher education, and someone is already getting "free money from the government" -- universities, in the form of guaranteed, no getting out from under them student loans, which have ballooned prices way over the rate of inflation no matter how you figure it.  Do you suppose those big schools would welcome the kind of austerity a responsible fully government-funded college system would entail, or will they want to keep the good times a-rolling?

     But Mr. Sanders, he handwaves his way past that, and goes on to claim the National Park System as a fine example of socialism in action.  That would be the National Parks first set up by the noted socialist, Theodore Roosevelt. Yessiree, Teddy and Engels, they were best buds....  Right?

     The more Bernie Sanders talks, the wilder and more alienated from core American values he sounds, and if you started out thinking, "at least he'd shake things up," you'll likely end up worried about this sincerely, deeply, wrong-headed man.  He is innocent of real economics, innocent of the degree to which profit provides motivation, and sincerely believes he's the fellow to Fix Everything.  He appears to be a nice man and more's the pity -- it's the guy who believes in his heart that he is Doing Good who often does the worst harm: double-dyed villains might get the trains to run on time (or at least have the worst slackers taken out and shot) and no one is very sorry at the end when the dictator is hanged from the nearest lamp-post but do-gooders create chaos, weeping real tears as their victims pile up, unable to grasp why they've not yet "built Jerusalem in [this] green and pleasant land" and redoubling their efforts as the goal slips farther and farther away.  (There's some deeply weird stuff that's gone on....)

     Yeah, kid, he makes your Dad see red (or Red*) and your Mom sigh in despair, but that's not actually a good reason to like him.  There's plenty gone wrong in the U.S. politically, economically and socially, and people of good will can reasonably disagree about the problems and possible solutions -- but Bernie Sanders is exactly one flavor of what we don't need.

     Unfortunately, his opponents within and without his own nominal party are most of the other flavors of the same repugnant dish.
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* Remember when The Media told use they were going to alternate red and blue for Dems and GOPpers every Presidential race?  --And then as soon as they flipped the Republicans to red, they froze the color-coding?  Sheesh.