Black Friday? Not entirely. As long as you avert your eyes from the news, that is.
And from your email in-box, too. Jaysis H., etc. Everybody and his bookkeeper is trying to sell me something. Take a break, f’chrissakes. I’m still digesting last night’s feast.
Well … truth be told, as feasts go it was fairly light dining. Green chile stew, salad, freshly baked cornbread, and raspberry cobbler with whipped cream. Fake beer for me, real beer for Herself.
While feasting we watched a couple episodes of the old HBO series “Deadwood,” a tale of unfettered capitalism ascendant in which much of the dialogue sounds like Pestilence Piggy addressing the press.
In one episode a gambler and whoremonger growing fat on fear of and hatred for the government ordered the newspaper office ransacked, its machinery vandalized and shat upon.
So, yeah, ripped straight from today’s headlines. Art imitating life; horseshit and gunfire.
Before we sat down to eat I slipped out for a bracing 90 minutes on the Soma Double Cross, tooling around the Elena Gallegos Open Space and a few of its neighboring trails. Lots of folks out, hoofers and rollers, either working up an appetite for Thanksgiving dinner or sweating out the gravy. And no wonder, with temps in the low 50s, though there was still a bit of mud in the shady spots after last Thursday’s rain.
The DC is a good choice for EG: 42mm Soma Cazadero tires at 30/35 psi, a low end of 24x34T, and grippy IRD Cafam cantis for when shit gets real. Eight-speed bar-cons and XT/Ultegra derailleurs. The 54cm frame is small for me, but has a longish top tube, so I don’t look like a frog trying to hump a helmet when I’m in the saddle. The little sucker is really frisky in the swoopy, twisty bits.
I enjoyed myself so much that I went right back out and did it again today. One more thing to be thankful for. Like leftovers.
Mad Blog Media 
PO’G: When might we expect Herself’s cornbread recipe please? Please? Thank you!
Here ’tis, JD. I don’t recall where she found it, but it’s definitely a keeper. Made in a cast-iron skillet, Southern style, which means no sugar. You can eat it by itself, slathered with butter, or crumble some into your stew to thicken it a bit.
Ingredients:
• 2 cups yellow cornmeal
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoons sugar (optional)
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (or shortening), for skillet
• 2 cups milk
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• More melted butter for brushing top
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 425°. Put oil (or shortening) in a 10-inch iron skillet and place in the oven to preheat while making batter.
In a mixing bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and sugar (if using).
In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, and butter. Combine with dry ingredients and stir until all ingredients are moistened. The batter will be like a thick pancake batter.
Carefully, using heavy oven mitts, remove skillet from oven and turn to coat all of the inside surface with oil. Pour in batter and return to oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until browned. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean.
PO’G: Gracias, mi amigo! Will definitely give it a go most soonish.
And for those of you so disappointed in the Black Friday email bombardment, I’m now on the receiving end of the Cyber Monday attacks.
Oy. Black Friday, Small Bidness Saturday, Cyber Monday … the Amazon trucks in various shapes and sizes are careening around The Duck! City like bumper cars at the old Elitch Gardens in Mile High. Makes a man want to hide out with his cornbread and chile.
No kidding… I think I’ve deleted more emails and texts today than I have the rest of this month. They all need to give it a rest.
I’m getting emails from folks we dumped a dozen years ago. Who knew there was a statute of limitations on those unsubscribes?
You too? Dead solicitors have been rising from the grave like zombies hunting a brain feast during rush hour on Black Monday over here too. My block list is starting to look like the Beijing Yellow Pages.
It’s got me thinking about changing my phone number, or doing without a phone altogether. CB radio, anyone? Breaker breaker one-nine, got yore ears on, good buddy? This’s The Dog barkin’ atcha. …
I totally forgot it was Black Friday and headed out to the grocery store/mega product complex. Pulled in and went “oh shit” when I saw the parking lot packed. Decided to tough it out and into the mob I went. Only there wasn’t one in the grocery section, just on the other half of the joint where all the “bargains galore” were. And likely Tom Waits “Step Right Up” playing on the PA over there. I got out with my food items unscathed and chuckled as folks with shopping carts piled high with plastic this’ n’ that slogged by me trying to reach their vehicles with a 40 mph wind in their face. Far as I could tell POB, none of them bought any rutabagas. 😀
Jeezo, you dodged a bullet there. I made the mistake of going to a small local grocery the day before Thanksgiving to grab some “storetillas” and a carton of eggs. Ho ho, etc. No flour torts atall atall and the delicious Colorado eggs they’ve been importing were nowhere to be seen.
Thus I spent about 30 seconds and zero dollars shopping. Winning, I guess.
More for me and you, heh?
I need to rewatch Deadwood. I remember it being good but that was then. Have you watched Pluribus? It was filmed in Albuquerque. I keep looking for you to appear as one of the extras as there are a lot of them in the show. So far I’m sucked in but that could change with the next episode.
“Deadwood” holds up, Carl. Back in the Day® I was put off by the language, which I found cartoonishly obscene to no particular purpose. But we revisited it and I found myself sucked in by the nearly Shakespearean lingo between the cusswords. And Ian McShane is awesome.
We’re watching “Pluribus” — gotta support the locally grown TV, don’t you know — and it’s plenty weird, a’ight. Apple gave Vince Gilligan a lot of leash on this one.
Incidentally, that really was Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller in episode 4. And the voice on the answering machine in Episode 5? Patrick Fabian, a.k.a. Howard Hamlin from “Better Call Saul.”
Also making a guest appearance on “Pluribus”: Rosa Estrada, health and safety supervisor on “Better Call Saul,” who revives a character in cardiac arrest. Estrada revived Bob Odenkirk when he had a for-reals cardiac event in the final season of “Saul.”
As far as cornbread goes I use the premixed stuff from Lily White. It’s as good as my gramma’s. I use her cast iron skillet for it. Sugar in cornbread is wrong but so many people here eat it that way. And we’re in the deep south.
There is a special hell for spammers, scammers, and con artists. It’s described in a joke that has this punchline: OK, break’s over, back on your heads.
Snorkling in the Sea of Excrement. It’s too good for ’em.
I needed a smile today, and this did the trick:
Thanks, Steve. I saw that the other day and meant to bring it up, but got sidetracked.
In case you don’t subscribe to the NYT, here is a link to the movie information on the John Prine website. There are lots of Prine songs on my own set list. My two favorites are one of his first songs, “Hello In There” and his last, “ I Remember Everything.”
https://www.johnprine.com/news/you-got-gold-a-celebration-of-john-prine-movie
Another useful website is the John Prine Shrine, Paddy me lad. You’ll find the chords to a whole bunch of his music there.
Some of my favorite Prine songs are the ones where he was just plain having fun, like “Illegal Smile,” “Flashback Blues,” and “Come Back to Us Barbara Lewis Hare Krishna Beauregard.”
And my other favorites are “Other Side Of Town” and “Please Don’t Bury Me.” There are so many great songs about real life, and funny stuff too. Most are 3 or 4 chord songs in the key of G. He also used a capo quite a bit. I wish I could have had a meat loaf lunch with him, and I am not fond of meat loaf.
Steve Earle’s “The Other Side of Town” is a keeper too. Entirely different song, but still a toe-tapper. The whole album is top-notch, now that I think about it.
I just looked at the caption on the masthead, Pilgrim #33 Old old Kris Kristofferson just missing and a problem when he’s stoned. Got to love the old stuff.
There are more great lines in that one song than many a poet is granted throughout an entire lifetime.