What Goes Around

The man behind a creative Obama poster:

Fairey is known for putting his stickers and posters in unlikely and often illegal places."That's always been my style," Fairey says. "I don't get permission. I just do it."

The posters have become quite popular.

"But Fairey, whose posters have helped raise money for the campaign, says he has little patience for people who have copied the image for personal profit or resold his posters — at huge markups — on eBay."

Seems to me Mr. Fairey has a nice double standand going there.
Read it here.

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things

There was this:

"We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country. The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than they are for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don't tell me we can't uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination. You know, passions may fly on immigration, but I don't know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers. But this, too, is part of America's promise -- the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.

I know there are those who dismiss such beliefs as happy talk. They claim that our insistence on something larger, something firmer and more honest in our public life is just a Trojan Horse for higher taxes and the abandonment of traditional values. And that's to be expected. Because if you don't have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare voters. If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.

You make a big election about small things.

And you know what -- it's worked before. Because it feeds into the cynicism we all have about government. When Washington doesn't work, all its promises seem empty. If your hopes have been dashed again and again, then it's best to stop hoping, and settle for what you already know."

And this:

You know, this country of ours has more wealth than any nation, but that's not what makes us rich. We have the most powerful military on Earth, but that's not what makes us strong. Our universities and our culture are the envy of the world, but that's not what keeps the world coming to our shores.

Instead, it is that American spirit -- that American promise -- that pushes us forward even when the path is uncertain; that binds us together in spite of our differences; that makes us fix our eye not on what is seen, but what is unseen, that better place around the bend.

That promise is our greatest inheritance. It's a promise I make to my daughters when I tuck them in at night, and a promise that you make to yours -- a promise that has led immigrants to cross oceans and pioneers to travel west; a promise that led workers to picket lines, and women to reach for the ballot.

This:

The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America -- they have served the United States of America.

So I've got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first.

And this:

America, we cannot turn back. Not with so much work to be done. Not with so many children to educate, and so many veterans to care for. Not with an economy to fix and cities to rebuild and farms to save. Not with so many families to protect and so many lives to mend. America, we cannot turn back. We cannot walk alone. At this moment, in this election, we must pledge once more to march into the future. Let us keep that promise -- that American promise -- and in the words of Scripture hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess.

There is more. Read the speech here.

My Prediction

I have to post this now because otherwise no one will believe me 8 years from now when I claim I made this prediction. If Barack Obama becomes the next president, Hillary will kick herself for not showing up to support him tonight. She's thinking he'll lose and she can run in 4 years. But if he wins, she can't beat him in 4 years and in 8 years he won't back her for the nomination.

I'm putting a reminder in my google calendar for 2016 and we'll see how I did.

Not So Dumbo

I think these zookeepers are nicer than Disney circus people but the article still reminded me of:

Needs More Seasoning

I think Norm is supposed to be the Las Vegas version of Louella Parsons, who chats about what the celebs are doing in our town.

In today's column, he asks Rich Grant, seasoned spokesperson for the Denver Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau to share some of the weirdest questions his staff have been asked.

Grant's favorite?

"What season is it right now?"

I don't get why that is weird. Maybe Grant isn't so seasoned after all. Does he not realize that seasons are different in different parts of the world? For example, Culture.Gov.Au lists the seasons for Australia:

Like all countries in the southern hemisphere (the hemisphere south of the Equator), Australia's seasons follow the sequence:

Summer: December to February
Autumn: March to May
Winter: June to August
Spring: September to November

So perhaps the tourist who asked the question, just wanted to know what season it was in the United States.

Put Some Lime In The Coconut

Last April I headed off to El Dorado County for our annual food and wine tasting event. In the course of the trip, we tasted some great spicy ginger and lemon shrimp on rice. The chard it came with was pretty good too but the shrimp was yummy. Scott and I were determined to make our own version.

When we returned from our weekend, we poached some shrimp in vegetable broth to which we had added ginger and lemon. Once the shrimp was cooked, we removed it and then added some cream and red chili sauce to. We simmered the sauce for a long time but it never reduced enough to be a nice thick sauce. The taste was good but not perfect.

Last weekend I returned to Reno/Tahoe for another event and we decided to try the shrimp dish again. This time we used chicken broth instead of vegetable broth and we used coconut milk instead of cream. We also made a roux of butter and flour to thicken the sauce with. Good but not good enough. And very white! I definitely didn't like the chicken broth flavor.

Today I found this recipe and tonight I experimented some more. I halved the recipe. I added about a tablespoon of grated ginger to the marinade. I used vegetable broth (next time I may add fish stock). I didn't add jalapeño. I also didn't use the cilantro but not because, like my SIL and verbatim, I don't like it; I just forgot to buy it. I also sprinkled my dish with some chopped cashews. I cooked the rice in broth, adding just a pinch of saffron. And I used basmati rice. Adding the coconut milk to the just cooked rice was a tasty touch. Here's a picture of the final result.



I think we've almost got it perfected.

More Math

Maybe I'm missing something but this article confused me. It tells about two teens who collected samples of sushi and had the samples tested to see if the fish was correctly labeled. Reportedly, 25% of the tested sushi turned out to be mislabeled.

The results showed that 25 percent of the girls' samples were mislabeled: half of the restaurant samples and six out of 10 grocery store samples.

If 50% of the restaurant samples were mislabeled and 60% of the grocery store samples were mislabeled how could the final result be 25%? Maybe they meant 50% of the restaurant samples were mislabled and 6 samples of all the samples taken from 10 grocery stores were mislabled? There were 60 samples altogether. If 18 of the samples were from restaurants and 42 were from 10 grocery stores then 15 of the 60 were mislabeled, or 25% of all samples.

But that isn't how the article reads to me.

Do The Math

Here's an interesting article in the Washington Post (via verbatim) that shows the differences between the Obama and the McCain tax plans. Those of you making more than 600K per year should probably vote for McCain.

I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I enjoyed this book a lot. I listened to it on a long drive and it was the perfect book. It was engaging and well written; it entertained me for the entire drive. I like Ed and all his friends. His adventures were funny and kind, scary and poignant at different times.



I didn't give the book five stars because I haven't decided yet how I feel about the ending. At first I thought it was contrived and somewhat of a cop out but I'm becoming adjusted to it.



The audio tape I got was unabridged and had a great reader. He really was Ed.


View all my reviews.