Charlie's Steak, Ribs and Ale May 11th auction failed to capture a buyer!

Forsyth MO. - On a rainy and frankly a rather cold day in May, an upscale restaurant formerly known as Charlie's Steak, Ribs and Ale went on the auction block.

The owner's had hired Larry McKnight, owner of McKnight Auction Service and Reality, LLC as the agency that was going to do their best to sell the property lock stock and barrel. Mr. McKnight informed those assembled that the property was being 'sold as' is and that whatever price it was sold at would not have any hidden fees or attachments other than the regular closing costs associated with the sale of commercial properties. I estimated that the number of individuals was at about 25 plus. Sadly, the auction proceeded with not a single bid coming forth from anyone present.

Mr. McKnight did inform me that their company would explore 'other options', but to also make sure and tell anyone who had an interest in buying that they would work very hard to move this fine piece of commercial Real Estate. McKnight Auction is located at www.mcknightauctionservice.com!

Hot Dog with great condiments!

As bad as the average wiener is nutritionally, there is still a lot to be said for the All American Dog! This day, I just kicked it up just a notch with some great condiments!

I had a couple of Bananarama peppers that grew on a stem that had been cut down the year before in the fall and then left over the winter on my condo balcony. But, lo and behold, there was a couple of green shoots growing out of that old stem by the following February! I brought the pot back in and placed it on a south facing windowsill. Amazingly, I got two small peppers to grow by that April. I decided to harvest one and cut it up as a spicy addition to my hot dog!

When choosing a wiener, I almost always go with something by Oscar Meyer. I also like the Ballpark brand of buns. For my choice of condiments, I chose the above mentioned pepper that I diced; a couple of Mezzetta Hot Pepper rings that were also diced and then a dash or two of  traditional mustard and ketchup. And OK, at the last minute, I added a bit of sweet pickle relish just for the heck of it.

Now, for a bit of pseudo DanO culinary science. While I wanted the pickle relish to remain just as it was, I did not want to squander the subtle heats of the pepper rings or the Bananarama by leaving them as chunks! To that end, I chopped down both these guys to a really fine structure (DanO's method of blended taste distillation). That way, I got the 'essence' of minor heat with each bite.

The end result was a slightly warm dawg that was way too satisfying. 

American Beauty Rotini and sauce!

For anyone with an interest, Rotini is a spiral form of pasta that is known for the manner in which it can hold onto a good tomato sauce! I enjoy eating this form of noodle fairly often which might explain my growing waistline!

A 56 gram serving or 2 ounces dry pasta will fill about ¾ of a cup. Add in a couple of tablespoons of Hunts spaghetti sauce, some garlic bread and you will be pushing 400 calories!

After setting a pot of salted water to boil, I add the pasta and set a timer for 9 minutes on simmer. In the mean time, I will take about 2 to 3 tablespoons of Hunts Original Spaghetti sauce and heat that over a stove top on low. After the pasta is done, I strain the noodles and then add them to the sauce. A couple of minutes later, I'm ready to add them to a plate alongside a couple of slices of garlic bread!

A stormy day in spring!

The day began calm enough with partly cloudy skies, nice temps at about 70 and the only sign of coming trouble the very persistent winds out of the east. It was a though there existed a mammoth floor vacuum somewhere just over the western horizon that was sucking for all it was worth.

DanO was sitting in his easy chair, sipping on a cup of hot coffee when the first rumble of approaching doom sounded outside. He got up and went over to a west facing balcony where he could see very dark clouds boiling upwards with occasional lightening flashes lancing out like heavenly arrows. Just then, my weather alert radio went off. Grimacing, he quickly walked over to it and slammed my hand down on a button to silence the pesky device. The room then lit up with a dazzling lighting flash and at that moment he knew what he had to do.

“It's that damn climate change', he mumbled to himself as he went to the sliding glass door of his forth floor condo and firmly closed the drapes. He then shuffled off in my robe to climb back into bed to sleep through the coming storm....

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Fifteen minutes later, DanO was sound asleep as a category F-5 tornado sporting winds of over 290 miles an hour tore through the entire complex leveling every building in a mindless inferno of wind and debris that left nothing much alive above ground. The half mile wide path of destruction used an elaborate set of boat docks as the bullseye leaving not a shred of evidence that anything had ever existed there before. But wait! There's more!

In what scientists would later describe as nothing short of a miracle, old DanO managed to survive even after the twister first tore open the ceiling above his bed and then scooped it up to go flying hundreds of feet into the air with a not very much awake man holding on. That ride lasted for over five minutes and ended as the man and the bed were almost gently deposited in a field near a park over five miles away!

Emergency personnel, upon arriving at the scene, were shocked to see the man completely unharmed. And rather than going to the hospital to be checked out, he requested they drop him off at area thrift shop, as all his clothes had been stripped from his body.

And so began the legend of Twister Dan the Naked Man! [Novel to come in the fall of 2019]

Would-be armed carjacker fatally shot by concealed carry holder in Loop!

Chicago IL - A 22-year-old man died after being shot in the head Friday in the Loop.
A 41-year-old man told police that he was in his 2015 BMW when a 2019 Volkswagen driven by the younger man rear ended him about 3:15 a.m. in the first block of Ida B. Wells Drive, Chicago police said.

The older man got out of the BMW to see the damage, went back to get his cellphone and the driver of the Volkswagen approached him with a gun, police said.

The younger man demanded the keys to the BMW and pushed the man into the car, police said. The 41-year-old, who has a concealed-carry permit, pulled out a gun from the vehicle and the shot the man in the head.

He was taken to Stroger Hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.
The shooter is being questioned by Area Central detectives.

No further information was immediately available.

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Opinion: It is my hope that the perpetrator was not a black, a Democrat, an atheist or an ACLU activist! This could incite a riot in the streets of Chicago as a unjust action by that 22 yr old assumed white guy. If they were both black, that would be OK, as they are killing each other by the dozen every night. [Article from Fox 32]

Three trillion!

Three trillion cells I marshal each day

feeding them all while carrying their waste away.

God did give my body daily challenges, so true

yet, I've lived these many years and was never blue.

Ten years, twenty and now fifty or more

the potholes of life have become a bore.

Still, as I walk daily through many deep pains

I know that God supports me and watches me gain.

My soul, full of scratches and metal so torn

has made me a man now truly reborn.

Life in all its crazy and insane many ways

now grants me deep peace, in my later days.

On the next morn, I will rise and do it all again,

cells by the billions still on the mend.

I'll be ever seeking a purpose for Dan

praying that God has a really neat plan...

CDC: Measles at highest levels in 20 years!

The number of reported measles cases in the United States have reached their highest level in nearly 20 years, federal health officials said Wednesday.A big part of the reason due to the 'misinformation' campaign to dissuade citizens from getting the vaccine.

There were 695 reported cases of measles across 22 states as of Wednesday afternoon, the highest since the disease was domestically eradicated in 2000, according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.

The World Health Organization noted a 300% increase in measles cases worldwide earlier this month in comparison to the first three months of 2018.

"Stopping these measles outbreaks is a priority for CDC and we are working 24/7 to protect Americans from this contagious disease. Vaccination is the best way to protect against measles," the CDC said. "Today, the overwhelming majority of parents choose to protect their children with vaccines, and we’ve seen high and stable immunization rates in the U.S. for several years."