HWW, if you know any good recipes featuring half-and-half, post them. We have half a quart from New Years that we ended up never opening, and it's only going to be consumable for a couple more days.
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"CLEOMOE" was my ancient and evil ancestor. He was also the true Fourth Stooge. Kind of like that one guy who everyone says could have been in the Beatles but became a milkman instead.
So you understand why he turned evil.
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Ram Boy's letting me borrow his wintertime digs in Costa Rica for the sweepstakes. Everything you've heard about them is true, BTW. Even Oprah's palatial estate on that private island in Hawaii pales in comparison.
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Ssshhh... c'mon, People! We agreed not to talk about the [cough] "flowers" until after 10PM! We'll get in trouble with the FCC again!
<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">Quislet insists that spoilers are NOT a legitimate legal defense! <span style="font-size: 11px;">Hah! "Bold new administration," my fanny... [grumble grumble...]</span></span></span>
Oh, and it's Cobie's turn to go on the 1AM taco run, so make sure you all give him exact change, or as exact as you can manage. [cough] Remember what happened last time...
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Eh, it's okay, Lardi. I've only seen about seven (non-consecutive) Buffy eps in my whole life. I didn't hate it, honest. It just didn't send me like it did every other geek I know.
My reaction to Serenity was likewise "meh."
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Originally posted by Stealth: It's a "Mystery Science Theater 3000" reference. Cleome and I are both MST-ies.
You'll be happy to know that today at work, when they played the inevitable Big Name Crappy Beer Ad (for the 752nd time this month) and the announcer went into the spiel about how said BNCB is "lovingly slow hand-crafted with the finest hops, malt, rice, and yadda yadda yadda," I could not resist booming (a la Tom Servo):
<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text"><span style="font-size: 14px;">...AND YET <blink>THIS</blink> IS THE RESULT!!!</span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: 10px;">It's okay that my immediate supervisor looked at me like I was nuts, because I hated her guts all day anyhow.</span>
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Well, the radio's on all the time. I'm the only person who's occasionally enough of a snob to request public radio. Heck, even THAT isn't ad-free anymore, but at least the ads are less strident on "public" radio.
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The weird part is: ADM is a major sponsor of public TV and public radio-- and I used to work for them years ago. Or at least, I worked for some other giant soulless food conglom that they ultimately swallowed up.
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"It is likely that Mt. St. Helens will have one or more small eruptions during your lifetime, but probably unlikely that it will have another big one."
So, in theory, it's possible cleome is giving us an early warning before she blows her stack. I'd advise evacuating this thread just to be on the safe side.
Don't trample each other racing for the door, unless Ram Boy produces some kind of Naltorian credentials or something.
The way they're running me around at work, I'm lucky if I can blow bubbles through a straw into a glass of skim milk at the end of the average weekday.
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I have a "White Cuban" recipe somewhere that replaces vodka with rum. I suppose there's no point in looking for it until I can afford to buy some rum, though.
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Pilsners are wonderful, deddy! Though at this time of year, I usually prefer stouts.
The day I got laid off from temping (again), I popped over to a nearby brewpub for Happy Hour consolation and tried their Apricot Ale. It was pretty tasty. Also, when the bartender heard I'd just been sacked, he bought me a second pint. (Don't worry. I tipped him really well.)
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Miss Cleome should visit the Victorian Flirting Thread, in which a contingent of young men await her presence, with glasses of illicit lemonade. (Warning: knock before entering)
I'd like to take a moment and offer a little story that will demonstrate, once and for all, the truly heroic nature of our dear friend and associate cleome.
The story involves a kitten, a tree, a crying child, a frantic mother, yarn, a stick, some gum, a couple of pairs of shoes, a rock, a slingshot, an even louder crying child, an eye patch, a phone booth, a firetruck, a hunky fireman, a motel room, dawn, coffee, a change of clothes, a ladder and plenty of gumption. Now, one day, as cleome was walking down the lane to choir practice...
Wait, I think I should save this story for the all-CLEOME TESTIMONIAL thread.
Nah, although after I first saw Kill Bill I fantastized about getting a yellow number like the one Uma Thurman wore. I never did, and as for the movie itself, it didn't hold up to more that one viewing, typical of Tarantino films (except for the ones that suck at FIRST viewing.)
Illogical and utterly pointless goals, but nonetheless...
BTW, they changed my volunteer shift and I'm pretty relieved. Monday at work + two hours of volunteering afterwards was making cleome a very, very tired-out camper.
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I don't actually have black hair. It's just dark brown (with some gray in it). But don't tell MLLASH. I prefer the drama invoked by black hair, actually.
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Sadly, no. They're just traditional ol' brown. But I'm willing to pretend, since I adore cartoon Shrinking Violet, and she totally rocked the violet eyes!
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Well, Ram Boy, I've always admired Ladybug from Cricket magazine, if that helps.
Also, in honor of the big Four-Four being only one week away, I think I should change my online handle to either "Sawed-Off Sister" or "Sawed-Off Lass," but just for one week. Which one do you all think has the better initials?
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Since Legion Tracker asked for my slaw recipe, here it is!
<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text"> CALICO SLAW:
Allow yourself at least an hour or so before serving. Better yet, make it the night before.
A food processor is your friend here. Though it will be easier to get large/coarse pieces if you cut by hand.
Ingredients:
1 sm, or ½ a large head of red cabbage 2 sweet peppers, any color(s) you like. (Or one sweet pepper and one large carrot) 4-6 stalks celery, include the leaves if they’re there 1 10 oz can of corn (NOT creamed), drained, liquid reserved in a small mixing bowl.
¾ C white or cider vinegar ½ C olive or other vegetable oil 1 tsp sugar 1 tsp salt ½ tsp cumin ½ tsp black pepper ½ tsp dry mustard 1 T caraway or poppy seed
Directions:
Rinse all veggies.
Remove the core and the outermost leaf (or leaves) from the cabbage and discard them. Shred or chop (fine or coarse is up to you) and place in a (very large) mixing bowl. There should be 10-12 cups. It will shrink/pack down a little after seasoning.
Remove stem, seeds, and membrane from the peppers. Chop them coarsely and add to bowl. (If using carrot, peel and remove the ends. Then chop or slice thinly.)
Trim any dried or brown ends from the celery stalks. Use a vegetable peeler to remove any discolored areas. Slice thinly and add to bowl.
Add the drained corn. Mix everything gently to combine.
Prepare the dressing: Combine all remaining ingredients with the corn liquid that you’ve reserved in the small mixing bowl. Mix well to dissolve sugar and salt. (There should be 1 3/4 to 2 C of dressing altogether.) Add them to the chopped veggies and mix/toss gently but thoroughly.
Pack the mixture into one or two large containers and cover tightly with lids. Let “steep” at room temperature for at least one-half hour, turning and shaking occasionally in the covered containers to mix the dressing around well.
Taste the slaw and correct the seasonings if you like. (The proportions here are pretty mild. That is, only moderately salty/sweet/sour/spicy.) If you correct them, let the slaw sit out again at room temp for another 30 mins. Refrigerate once you’ve got the seasonings as you want them, at least 1/2 hour before serving.
Makes about 10 cups of slaw. Keeps well in the refrigerator for at least a week.</span></span>
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Did somebody say... <span style="font-size: 18px;"><font face="cursive">Gingerbread?!</font f></span>
(This stuff is not for weaklings. It's dense and it's DARK. Don't be surprised if when you pull it out of the oven, it looks more like chocolate cake than like traditional gingerbread. Cover any uneaten portion loosely after it's cooled. Good the first day, better the second.)
<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text"> Ingredients: 1 T cider vinegar 3/4 C Milk 2 C Flour (sift once before measuring!) 2 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp baking soda Pinch of salt 2 tsp ground ginger 1 tsp cinnamon 1/4 tsp ground cloves OR coriander OR cardamom 1/3 C sugar 1 egg 1/2 C dark molasses 1/4 C honey
Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease an 8" x 8" x 2" pan.
Add the vinegar to the milk, and set aside. Sift together twice the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream the shortening. Add the sugar gradually and cream well. Add the egg and whip until fluffy. Add the molasses and honey and mix.
Add the dry ingredients to the shortening mixture, about 1/4 at a time, alternately with the (by this time) curdled milk. Stir only until mixed after each addition.
Turn into prepared pan and bake 40-45 minutes, or until bread rebounds to the touch when pressed gently in the center. </span></span>
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Very classy! I especially like the "swirls" in the background. Makes the girl look like she's stepping on... well, a nautilus shell is the nearest shape I can think of. (PS - you sent me from LW Thanks for the gingerbread recipe!)
The red cherries and the red uniforms of the marching band make such a good image of red. And the bar cutting across the cake is really interesting. Makes me think, is that really a cake, or... well, something else.
...I think Cleome should give episodes of the orignal Transformers cartoon a chance, because one of the heroic Autobots is named after one of her favorite kinds of music: Jazz.
...I think Cleome should give episodes of the orignal Transformers cartoon a chance, because one of the heroic Autobots is named after one of her favorite kinds of music: Jazz.
I think we should watch it together. Then you can chime in every couple of minutes with lots of facts about characters and storylines.
Sort of like how I "helped" poor mr_cleome along when we were watching the DC 'toons together.
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And now I think I'll cut up some fresh veggies to have with my tea. It's not beer and nachos but (small portions of) that could happen later tonight. I'm an optimist.
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Started a new Willa Cather book this week and every time I do that, I always think of the wonderful Cleome, whose recommendation brought her to my attention!
Plus, fresh veggies and tea sounds really awesome right now.
I'm almost finished with the last story in that collection I mentioned in the Reading thread, Cobie. It's called "The Enchanted Mesa." I'm trying to read super-slow, because I don't really want it to end.
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I read a couple of Cather books: The Professor's House and My Antonia. Cather wrote in a very different style than I'm used to . . . sort of rambling and taking its sweet time to get to a point, but the journey was worthwhile and there were all those vivid descriptions.
O Pioneers! just gets me in the gut every time. No matter how often I know the end is coming, it's still... [leaves out spoilers for anyone who still wants to read it]
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I haven't read that first one, but the second is a favorite. I often wonder what the real-life Bohemians I'm now related to by marriage would make of their depiction in Cather's stories.
On another note: I think when I hit 22,222 posts, we should have a party. Or do I need to wait for 33,333 so we can have a Cargggian theme?
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I read a couple of Cather books: The Professor's House and My Antonia. Cather wrote in a very different style than I'm used to . . . sort of rambling and taking its sweet time to get to a point, but the journey was worthwhile and there were all those vivid descriptions.
Been re-reading the last few pages of this thread, and...OH, MY GAWD...based on He Who's description of her writing, I must be a distant descendant of Willa Cather! Will seek out her writings today, as I'd already planned a trip to a nearby branch library to do research for future fics. Thanks, all, but, of course, special thanks to Cleome.
I thought that she imparted others with the gift of photosynthesis. The increased metabolism resulting in little happy flurries of posting when she passes by.
"...not having to believe in a thing to be interested in it and not having to explain a thing to appreciate the wonder of it."
I haven't read enough good fiction in several years (too many work-related books to cover). This year is fiction year. I just added O Pioneers to my list.
"Everything about this is going to feel different." (Saturn Girl, Legion of Super-Heroes #1)
I'm glad my latest prolonged disappearance has been forgiven so easily.
I'm still not getting enough offline reading done, though. I got a copy of June Jordan's We're On from the library two weeks ago, but I've only picked at it a bit.
On the other hand, my Photoshop doodling is progressing nicely. Don't forget to click the sig line link if you like seeing open-faced sandwiches morphed into propellers, etc.
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This is also a good place for me to tell her about that Stanley Dance book, "Jazz Age: The 40s", which she inspired me to borrow from the library.
It's basically a jazz guide with a very long introductory essay by Dance (the individual artists are reviewed by Dance along with several other writers.) I found it very informative and well-written, as well as a good primer for someone like me who only knows a handful of jazz artists by name. The one part that made me raise my eyebrow was Dance's seemingly disdainful attitude towards the Bop movement, and in particular its visual signifiers (berets, dark glasses, etc.) At the same time, since the book was written in 1960, just before all the young white college kids started appropriating those very same signifiers, made it hard for me to not indulge in a chuckle.
That's interesting, because Duke Ellington, who was so close to Dance, had lots of praise for bop founders like Monk and Mary Lou Williams. (He wrote a piece called "Frere Monk," in fact.)
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Previous Thread
I'm speechless. 
![[Linked Image]](http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp155/maplekia/breadanimation1.gif)
![[Linked Image]](http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f185/MLLASH/cleome.png)
![[Linked Image]](http://flora.huh.harvard.edu/FloraData/201/TaxonImage/Cleome-sp.jpg)
