2013 archive
My Cheese Steak Search Is Over 0
If you see the words “Philadelphia Cheese Steak” on a menu in these parts, whatever you get is likely an abominable and detestable crime against nature.
I’ve finally found an exception–a place that knows that putting steak and cheese in a bun does not magically morph them into a “Philly Cheese Steak,” that cheese steaks do not include chunks of chuck, portions of peppers, tablespoons of tomatoes, or, for Pete’s sake, mounds of (shudder) mayonnaise.
Elias Cafe at Aragona and the Boulevard just a few blocks west of Pembroke makes as good a cheese steak as I ever had at the Deerhead (where the Deerhead double with everything is the cat’s meow and the bee’s knees).
Try it.
They also throw a good breakfast, a great Greek salad, and gorgeous gyros.
Afterthought:
My friend was irritated by my habit of interrogating wait staff about their so-called “cheese steaks” on their menus.
Then she had a cheese steak at Elias Cafe.
She still may not approve, but now she understands . . . .
Facebook Frolics 0
Twits on Twitter 0
The Stupid is strong in this.
The Secesh 0
Out in the New River Valley, the Roanoke Times is hosting a duel between the secesh and the sane.
Indeed, Godwin’s Law has come into play.
Here’s a snippet from a column by Halford Ryan in response to an exercise in Confederate revisionism by John C. Cahoon (that’s right, “Cahoon,” not “Calhoun”):
The Crazification Factor 0
It’s a reliable, steady 27%. For example, from Delaware Liberal,
“The Times They Are-a Changing” 0
Last night, we watched Wheel of Fortune, as both of us like word puzzles (my friend is an editor by trade and I’m a punster by avocation); I also like to marvel at Vanna White’s state of preservation, as in amber.
One of the contestants, during the intros at the beginning, allowed as to how he was married to his wonderful husband (Giuseppe, I think) and that they were in the process of adopting their first child. Yes, “he.”
And nobody batted an eye.
Afterthought:
I wonder whether the audience received any special preparation for the moment. I rather suspect so.
I bet that the studio’s mail will be interesting for the next couple of days.
Backfire 2
Dick Polman dissects the Republican backpedaling from the decision by Senator Cruz-missile and his teabags to blow up the economy over the Affordable Care Act. It doesn’t seem to be working out all that well for the geniuses behind it.
A snippet:
(snip)
Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of politics – a minority of a minority in one legislative chamber can’t outfight a president who handily won re-election – knew that the GOP would wind up the loser in a shutdown showdown. Indeed, the smartest conservatives knew it, and warned against it.
Instead, the saboteurs are currently looking for something, anything, that might pass muster with President Obama and help extricate them from their ill-fated drive around the ideological cul de sac.
Expect the teabaggers to portray themselves as martyrs willing to nobly sacrifice themselves for the greater good. Heaven forbid they be seen as power-hungry hacks who think governance is a video game in which it’s okay to sacrifice the general welfare for hit-points.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 4
Politeness is essential in a disciplinary hearing. (No doubt you’ve heard of this police chief and his crackpot videos.)
The loaded semi-automatic handgun landed inches away from Gilberton Chief Mark Kessler and his attorney. It did not go off, but attorney Joseph Nahas said that he and other officials were concerned about the safety of everyone in the tiny, crowded meeting room at borough hall.
I am continually taken aback by the number of gun fetishists who have no idea how to practice safe gats. You’d think they at least would agree on “safe words” before their sessions.
And in other news of the polite . . . .
Republican Wedgery 0
PoliticalProf attempts to make sense of the Republican fixation on the Affordable Care Act and concludes that it’s not about the issue; it’s about the wedge.
A small nugget:
Pro-life abortion politics is one such issue. As a practical matter, abortion, as an issue, is fraught with an array of emotions, perceptions of rights, and beliefs about what is right and what is wrong. It is possible, and indeed quite common, for individual voters to hold an array of what might be termed “liberal” political positions — pro-labor, pro-environment, in favor of increasing taxes on the better off — while holding a “pro-life” position on abortion at the same time. No voter is perfectly ideologically consistent.
Read the rest.
It makes more sense than any other attempt I’ve seen to explain the Republicans’ willingness to shoot the economy to get their way.
Theft of Services 0
Another tale of what happens when public responsibility is outsourced to profiteers.