Is The World Getting Crazier?

I don't think so. I think we're just too connected. Every little thing is instantly spread by 24 hrs news outlets, twitterbugs, and bloggers. (Hey, I'm one of them! Bloggers, I mean.)

So onto my craziness target.  We have a real, live celebrity (er, wannabee) about 45 minutes away.  Pastor Terry Jones is in a Dearborn (MI) courtroom waiting to find out if he will be allowed to hold a protest that includes buring a Quran outside a Deaborn mosque.

You know, I don't care if you're the president of the virginity league and you want to burn a racy novel.  Book burners don't sit well with me. For that matter, neither do book banners, but that's for another day.  In this country you are able to burn an American flag if you wish, under the premise of free speech.  I guess that means that books are not off limits either, even if they are considered books of faith.  And if we let a whacko lead us down the path of abridging our First Amendment right to free speech, well, then shame on us.

As distasteful as this man is, I think he has the right to assemble and protest, and yes - even burn a holy text.  But that's as far as I will go.

I think he makes a mockery of religious leadership.  How can a 'Christian' espouse such hatred? Oh, I know, it's the 15 minutes thing.  He's had a couple of 15 minutes ventures into the limelight, decided that he liked it, and is back for more - and more, and more and more.  I further believe that he is a very small human being and he is disguising his hatred for the Moslem world under the cover of 'free speech'. Hey, whatever it takes to get in the media.

I did a little background on 'Pastor' Terry Jones and discovered that he is not really a graduate of any divinity school.  He is an 'appointed' Pastor and was released from a church position in Germany in 2008 "due to his indefensible theological statements and his craving for attention." (See Wikipedia reference http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dove_World_Outreach_Center)

Apparently, his church does well enough to get him and some of his followers to places around the country for well publicized and emotional protests. His congregation (The Dove World Outreach Center) is reported to be around 50 strong, with 30 or so at weekly services. I guess we should be happy that it's not double, triple, or more than that. It has been classified as a hate group by the Southern poverty Law Center for its anti-gay activities. 

In Metro Detroit, a coalition of religious leaders representing many different faiths have rallied together to denounce this 'protest'.  Hopefully, this group will hold its little protest, pack up into their cars or bus and head back to Gainesville, Florida, where their Mayor has termed them an "embarassment to the community.

Will Donald Trump Run?

Does anybody really care?  While he's busy trying to prove that President Obama isn't really an American that's not all he's doing.  He recently (this week) bought a Virginia vineyard at foreclosure. Perhaps that will give him something constructive to do rather than muddy up an already cloudy political lagoon.

He would be the most inept President ever. Even worst than Warren G. Harding, who reportedly played poker while allowing his friends to plunder the US Treasury. In fact, a famous quote attributed to him was, "I am not fit for this office and should never have been here." Wow. That's a mouthful.

Perhaps Mr. Trump could keep to his apprenticing and wine making and prevent us from seeing the first President that says to himself, "you're fired".  With conviction, of course. My estimation of politicans in general is at an all-time low, but if we're looking for a non-politican 'savior', it most surely won't be Donald Trump.

I have nothing against the man personally, but he's is probably the definition of what we don't need as our commander in chief. Stick to the mindless medium of television - please.

Parking Lots and Door Dings

I hate to sound like a lousy, stinkin' whiner. Really. I do.

I've had a rash of scrapes and bumps on my car doors that is enough to test the patience and reasoning of any sane person.  How freaking hard is it to move your shopping cart into one of the little collection bays? I normally park a bit further to the back of a lot, even if there are closer spots.  I always think that there are people who have a lot more trouble getting around than myself and they need the spot - even if they're not officially 'handicapped'.

So how do I collect so many blemishes on my doors?  I've seen carts left in the parking spots even when the cart corral was right there!  I see people just sending the carts 'on their way' when done loading. It's different if you're a mom with little ones that you just strapped into their car seat and you have to walk a distance to the corral, but come on.

It only takes a few seconds and does so much for your fellow shoppers.  My award for best cart management goes to the Howell (MI) Meijer's.  A lot of corrals, and frequent collection by staff keep their lot quite orderly.

My award for worst is the Brighton (MI) Costco.  Not a lot of corrals for starters. And their carts are HUGE. It really is a chore to walk a cart to a collection point in this lot.  I always make sure to park wa-a-ay out if I visit this store. I try to keep my purchases to a minimum and use one of those great big Tractor Supply Company (TSC) re-usable shopping bags. They hold a lot more than the typical bag and are constructed to be a lot sturdier. That way I don't need to deal with a cart at this store.

And don't even get me started on drivers that don't know how to park inside the lines of the space. We'll save that for some other time.

Commercials & Infomercials

Lordy.  I thought I had seen it all with the 'Amish Fireplace' (it's free! limit two per household!).  If you watch the 40 minute version, as I did one sleepless early morning, there's a shot in the middle with an "authentic amish worker" that has an electric nail gun in his hand. Working on a fireplace mantle.  Pretty funny. He's easy to spot. He's the young guy with what looks like a stick on beard.

I just saw a short commercial on IFC for the $50 buffalo nickel-style gold piece.  Proper disclaimer about not being legal tender, it starts by saying that production was going to have to be stopped due to a lack of available coin blanks.  Near the end comes the meat of the pitch. "Clad in the purest gold - 0.9999 pecent 24K gold".  Wow, that's impressive.  Next is a quick remark about 14 mg of gold used on the gold 'clad' coin.  Hmm.

1 oz of gold = 28 grams.  14 mg is .014g of gold.  That makes 14mg = 0.000493 oz of gold.  The current gold price is $1,433/oz, so this 'limited edition collector's piece' actually has about 70 cents worth of gold in - or more accurately - on it. There could be some intrinsic value in the craftsmanship or the limited 'collectibility', but I'm pretty sure that won't equal the rest of the $49.30 in value.

Random Thoughts and Cabin Fever

It has certainly been a long winter.  I keep saying that I love all four of Michigan's seasons (and I do!), but wow, almost a record snowfall for February (31" for the month) and a prolonged period of really cold weather had me a bit - "out of whack."

At least we're getting some sunshine and the promise of Spring. I keep looking for my little crocuses (croci?) and daffodils to confirm that Spring is here, but they're under too much snow at this time.

February was also a very busy month for me business-wise, and a busy month for other interests, so I didn't play much poker. For the first time, I didn't earn a small cash award for PokerSchoolOnline (PSO). I only played about a dozen tournaments, but I did have enough points to get a freeroll ticket for March.  I had two or three really quick departures which cost me in the points department, so I guess I should be happy that I qualified for the freerolls this month.

I started March out horribly with my monthly live game.  Been playing once a month with the same group of guys since March 2003.  It's dealer's choice, no hold 'em, and we rotate bringing the food for the group.  It's really more of a male bonding night than a real poker night.  Stakes are ultra-low so nobody gets hurt badly, and it gives a chance to catch up with each other's lives and happenings.

Nobody leaves the hand and it's practically impossible to bluff at these stakes, too.  So you're left with some basic calculations of probablility and outs and the rest is pure luck.  Last night, not even switching decks helped.  I had a few really good hands but the rest were pretty poor. A lot of Omaha hi-lo and seven card hi-lo games were dealt. So even when you win you're usually splitting the pot.

We were also playing short since one of the guys had to go on a 'date' with his wife (it was her birthday - what a wimp) and the other was driving back from Cleveland.  Two others were just missing in action, but we had our reserve player make it to give us a table of five.

It's always a good time and this month I was most definitely a 'donator', but this game is really not about money. Even on a great winning night, nobody gets rich. Actually, we'd have trouble filling up an empty gas tank with our winnings at the current prices. But we always pull half of one ante out of the pot to donate to a local Children's Cancer fund.

I'm hoping that I will turn things around, but I've noticed that when I get really busy with other parts of my life I lose my poker concentration.  That leaves me with the quandry of playing losing poker when 'life is good' or not playing at all.  Hopefully I will work through that issue sometime and figure it all out.  I have some free entry tickets for the Poker Stars SCOOP series, so I will definitely give those a whirl and try to progress in that tourney.

WBCOOP 2011 On The Way!

I've registered for the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker, but I'm having trouble getting the registration symbol to display. I am getting an error of:

Please correct the error below, and submit your template again.


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XML error message: The element type "img" must be terminated by the matching end-tag "".

When I check the code, it appears that everything is present and correct. Has anybody else had this problem?

Holiday Turkey - Brining Discovered

This year, we pulled the straw to bring the turkey to Christmas dinner. I would have rather had the gathering at our place but it was decided that we'd have it at mom's instead.  So I was determined that this would be a really, really good turkey, even though we'd cook it in Brighton and drive it to Dexter.

Now, I think I do quite well with poultry in general, but I needed an 'edge'.  So I began some light web browsing and came across 'brining'. Hmm, that sounds interesting, I thought.  Brining is basically a way to marinade an entire bird, or large cut of meat. Brining is a way to tenderize and keep meat moist when cooking, and you can also impart some additional flavor to it.

After looking a various recipes I settled upon one that was pretty basic. I wasn't sure how much flavor might be transferred so I was cautious.  For our 15 lb. turkey, most sources agreed that 12-24 hrs of brining was in order.  I couldn't find any 'brining bags' and preparation was less than a day away, but luckily we had a box of the extra large (really large) zip loc storage bags - you know, the kind you use for clothing.  It looked like it would accomodate the bird.

So I began the brining solution.  I used a 2qt saucepan and added a half cup of coarse sea salt, a half cup of sugar, a quarter cup of cracked black pepper, and a few bay leaves. Boiled, then simmered, then diluted into a total of a gallon and a half of water. The turkey went into the bag. This was a two person job, by the way.

As I started pouring in the cooled brining solution, we saw a leak in the bag. The darned turkey wing had punctured it. We had one last bag and carefully slid the turkey into it, transferred the solution and then added one large navel orange, sliced very thin, a few strips of cut sweet (vidalia) onion and zipped it shut.  This was also a two person job. Don't forget to remove the giblets and make sure your bird is totally defrosted when you do this.

The solution totally covered and immersed the bird. The bagged turkey went into a large plastic bin (in case of leaks), the refrigerator shelves were moved to accomodate the turkey in its bag and in its bin, and we had 25 hours and 10 minutes for it to brine. Perfect.

Christmas morning we were up early. The bird was removed from the bag and thoroughly washed inside and out, and patted dry.  I was having trouble getting my big hands into the turkey, so my wife took a handful of sea salt and just tapped it around inside the cavity. We let it set for the 45 minutes or so that it took to prepare the stuffing.  After stuffing, young Tom Turkey went into the roaster pan (uncovered), and the convection oven was set to 325 F. I set the timer for an hour, then pulled it out and basted it with extra virgin olive oil, topping it off with a light amount of McCormick's Montreal Chicken Seasoning.  It went back in the oven covered with a protective layer of foil and was re-basted about every 90 minutes.  For the last hour the temperature was increased to 365 F and the foil removed.

The meat thermometer confirmed that it was done pretty much on schedule and it was pulled to sit on the counter while we got the car loaded with presents, cookies and other dishes for the party. It was a perfect looking turkey! I hoped that it would taste good, too.

It took about 35 minutes to get to mom's and the turkey was ready to be carved as soon as we got there. I have to tell you that it sliced beautifully. It was also very moist and tasty, although I really couldn't detect any of the favors that were in the brine solution. Perhaps that was because I was conservative with the amounts. I don't know.  But it was a very good turkey.

I'll try brining again on whole chickens and even cut up chicken parts. Of course they'll need less time, perhaps 1-3 hours instead of 24, but I will be a bit more daring on the concentration of the flavorings to see what happens. I'm very satisfied regarding the tenderness of the meat, and that was my main goal.

I will also take the time and trouble to add some seasoning to the olive oil for basting the next time, but since we were in uncharted waters I wanted to keep things fairly simple.  That's one of the things I like about cooking - find something that works, then dress it up to be even better.

You can find your own way to brine by doing a web search for 'meat brining'. There will be enough links returned to keep you reading for a while.