This Amish hot sauce has whiskey in it!

While I was visiting a friend, recently, the conversation wandered off into a discussion of spices and hot sauces. And, though I had considered myself to be something of an herbal aficionado, I didn't hold a candle to her stash of hundreds of jars and canisters of just about every herb and sauce that has ever been produced!

One item that caught my eye was a small bottle of hot sauce. I picked it up and noted that it was an Amish Country Store product by the name of Woodpecker Hot Sauce. Most interestingly, I saw on the ingredients list that it contained some Jack Daniels whisky! I just had to give that shit a try and so begged her to loan out the bottle for a while, so I could try it out.

Now, please understand that I'm no glutton for burned lips and gums! However, I do go for the special (not as hot) flavors that come from adding these sauces from hell to a good chili while it's cooking. Apparently the heat reduces the hotness, if you get my drift!

So saying, I made up a batch of my favorite chili, making sure to add about a teaspoon to the pot early on in the cooking process. When it was ready, I grabbed a sample and dug in. To my surprise, there was quite a kick left in that bitch of a sauce! The effect, however, was quick and then faded. My thought at the time was 'not too shabby'.

Thanksgiving is all about people!

A big heartfelt thank you goes out to my good neighbor, Carol, who went to the effort to bring this aging old gnome a 'Thanksgiving platter' that contained some of the best tasting food I'd had in quite some time! All I needed to do, after enjoying that repast, was to try and figure out the amount of exercising that would be needed to stay on my diet - ( a failing effort, but one that my heart was into).

As I ate this meal, I had cause to reflect that so many souls who make Earth Earth their home, had precious little to eat. Not just on a holiday like Thanksgiving, but on any given day. It made me happy to live in such a country of plenty, while also very sad that so many suffer elsewhere..... One of my dreams has always been that perhaps someday we may yet learn to live together, in peace.

God has bequeathed us all a beautiful world in which to live, to work and to love. God Bless America and God Bless the American people! And at the risk of being called a pareidoliac, I swore I could see
Pelosi's bloomers in those clouds....

Critique: SmartMade Roasted Turkey and Vegetables!

At about $3 and a half bucks, the Smart Ones folks, ( a Kraft-Heinz company) latest creations called SmartMade meals are not to shabby! They offer about 19 different combinations of which I tried their Grilled Peppercorns Beef and Vegetables about a week prior. It was a 'bowl' type deal with strips beef mixed in with 'oriental-styled' veggies in a sauce resting on rice. When I nuked it up, for the first time, I had my doubts. Those were quickly put aside, however, after just a few minuses of eating. The blend of separate tastes was inspiring and I even felt fairly satisfied. No small feat in a 255 gram – 260 calories frozen creation!

So, as I was then somewhat hooked, I went back to the local grocery store on a cloudy November day and quickly selected the Roasted Turkey and Vegetable item from the frozen food shelf. This 240 calories meal was advertised as 'Roasted white meat turkey medallions with honey glazed roasted sweet potatoes and citrus green beans'. That sounded pretty good to me, and so into the shopping basket it went!

Now, anyone who would bother to read the nutritional label would be hard pressed to find anything that was out of line. This is a low cal, low salt and low fat meal a deal! What's more it delivers a decent carb-blast that doesn't really overdo it at just 36 grams! (I was in awe and also a little doubtful as it is very true that in the world of food the better the nutrition, the more many of us will run the other way – It's like a carrots versus French fry kind of deal).

The directions to make are simple. It's one of those vent-nuke-stir-cover and nuke again kind of prep deals. I have no problems with that and in short order a steaming tub was on the table before me. And yes, I generally eat right out of the plastic container as it saves dirtying up a dish and I can do pretty much what I want anyway. 

As I motored through this repast, I found everything to be just OK. Not great. To add to my displeasure there were all those sweet potatoes, which I couldn't quite wrap my head around. I'm more of a regular potato kind of guy, but soldiered on. Overall, a mediocre experience, and whenever they get around to using regular potatoes, call me!

The mentally ill are roaming our streets!

Source: http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/issues/state-mental-health-america

If the headline in your local paper were to state that 'Gangs are running wild in our streets', there would very likely be a great cry from yourself and those around you for law enforcement to do something about it! And you would be justified in feeling that way, for such a problem would be a clear and present danger to the safety and security of the law abiding men and women in your community. That makes sense, right? Yet, that is clearly not the case when it comes to the mentally ill living in America today (see graphic above)! In my opinion, there currently exists a silent and ongoing epidemic of mentally unstable people who receive poor, little or no care at all! Many of these people walk our streets, and when it comes to seeing effective mental health legislation coming out of Congress, all you can hear is the sound of crickets chirping...

When I'm asked if I'm surprised at some of the horrific mass killings that have occurred in recent times, I answer that no, I'm just surprised that there have been so few! And, when I'm asked if more gun control is needed, I respond, 'Are you crazy'? People who are mentally ill are sometimes like criminals in one respect - They could less about what's lawful. You see, they really are 'sick' in the truest sense of the word. Duh.

So, while the various groups; political, media oriented, left, right or in between cry for increased control and the expansion of gun laws, the elephant standing right there in the room is being virtually ignored! And until we can get a grip on the humane, fair and solid treatment of our mentally ill, I'm afraid these mass killing are doomed to continue and even to increase. And, until such time, I kinda go along with old Peanuts here...

Pop-sickle stick fantasy's!

There are things that we all see as we go from day to day that bother us. It might have been something on the TV, something we heard about or observed and then wondered about. My bothersome thing fell into that third category!

One of my flaws, (and I have many), concerns my near addiction to ice cream bars! Even in the trenches of an out and out diet fight to the death, you can find a box of Blue Ribbon Classic ice cream bars tucked safely away in the freezer compartment of my home! I generally eat one to two a day and love the about to death. However, those little wooden pop-sickle sticks that are left behind have driven me cuckoo over the years. I'm the kind of guy that reuses stuff like plastic grocery bags as trash container liners as I have a firm belief in all things conservative. And those sticks really do look like they could be useful, if only I could figure out how...

So, that's how I ended up making these cute little billboards. My analyst thinks that there are some deeper issues going here and I'd tend to agree... Go here for the song It's a Turn Down Day - a piece originally penned by David Blume the day after the JFK assassination!

ADE, my new logo!

As I wander my way on towards 2018, I've had the foresight to understand that changes in ones life do not begin on New Years Day, but rather needed to be well entrenched by the time January the 1st rolled on by!

So, it was that sometime in September of 2017 that I elected to follow a new life direction. One that involved just four rules; no alcohol, a proper diet, daily exercise and a renewed belief in God and the teachings of Jesus. That's what the logo implies and that is my new mantra for the coming year!

Is Bardarbunga about to erupt!

Iceland - Say it ain't so! Back in 2010, the Iceland volcano known as Bardarbunga blew her top. This event caused utter travel chaos causing more than 10 million air passengers to be stranded as a result of its ash cloud and cost the European economy an estimated £4 billion ($4.9 billion). And now geologists are warning that pressures are once again rapidly building. Another eruption could bode ill for travelers in America who might be seeking travel to Europe in the coming months!

Dutch capital bans pedal-powered bars!

AMSTERDAM – A ban on group-powered pedicabs that are popular with inebriated tourists and stag parties has taken effect in the busiest sections of downtown Amsterdam.

The ban on so-called "beer bikes" kicked in Wednesday, a day after a court rejected arguments from four operators that the prohibition promoted by the Dutch capital was too drastic. The Amsterdam city government says the contraptions are a public nuisance.

The pedal-powered vehicles resemble small trailers more than bicycles and are configured to work as bars on wheels. Passengers sit around a table on stools fitted with pedals and trundle around the city while they are served beer and other drinks.

Beer bikes have long angered Amsterdam residents, who complain they block roads and cycling paths and encourage drunk and rowdy tourists.

Not to be discouraged, I took the bull by the horns on this issue and have sent Mayor Bill de Blasio a proposal that New York City take up the cause and resurrect this time honored tradition in his fine city! After all, I reasoned, the place is already full of drunks and other assorted rowdies... What could go wrong?