question of the moment

in the west people seem obsessed with the question of what happens to
you after you die ... why doesn't anyone ever ask, what happened to you
before you were alive?

dust storm

death valley national park

quote of the moment

"Yes, people do say: 'You're lucky to have had 24 happy years.' She
was great fun. I miss her so much: our girly days out, our holidays
together. But, if I'm truthful, I think I'd rather have endured a
life without her in it at all than to suffer — every day for the rest
of my life — the terrible pain of losing her."

-- june taylor, mother of carrie taylor killed in the 7/7 london transit
bombings

denny's maple bacon sundae review

dear instigator,

you were right, of course, in tipping me off to denny's new maple bacon sundae as part of their baconalia celebration.

the menu certainly looked promising:

with their description of the maple bacon sundae front-and-center:

bacon makes a classic ice cream sundae even more awesome.  we start with maple-flavored syrup, and a scoop of rich, creamy vanilla ice cream and then a generous sprinkle of our diced hickory-smoke bacon.  add another sweet layer of syrup and vanilla ice cream topped with even more bacon and a drizzle of syrup.

the person who shall never be mentioned and i each ordered one using the BOGO coupon that, to use the words of julia child, i had prepared earlier.

while waiting and wondering what the future might be, i got to look at the new bacon pyramid.  

sadly realizing that, as always, i'm eating too many items from the top, and not enough from the bottom.

somehow the kitchen managed to bang out the order quickly (even though there was an entire other family in the restaurant) and the sundae arrived.

the taste.  well.  how should i put this ... it was fine, but not great.  

i like my bacon "soft not crispy," and you just know that as soon as you show a piece of bacon to ice cream it's gonna stiffen up ... no matter how soft it is to begin with ... and of course that won't matter if the pig is baked to the point of being rye crisp .. which this was.

i have a pathological revulsion to hearing other people chew, so it was all i could do to keep my claws in as the person who shall never be mentioned ground through the top "sprinkle" layer ...

figuring that the sound of crunch in my head would drown out everything else, i dug in as well ...

a few things hit immediately.  

one is that the tastes aren't that far afield.  i mean, if you sit and think about it for a second, salted peanuts and bacon are definitely taste cousins ... salty, fat ... you get the idea.  and you wouldn't pause for a second to think about whether you could put a salty peanut on ice cream ... and that's ignoring the fact salted caramel ice cream is one of my favorite flavors.

another is that maple syrup is a somewhat subtle ice cream topping.  things like hot fudge and caramel pack a much bigger taste wallop, and really the only reason maple syrup stands up at breakfast is that you're serving it with fat over one of the more tasteless breads that can be found in the western flavor palate.  

and yet another is that the bacon flavor is very subtle.  part of this, for sure, is the fact that denny's uses cheap-ass bacon -- so it's thin and lacking flavor (or as woody allen puts it, "'the food in this place is really terrible.'  'yeah ... and such small portions").  the person who shall never be mentioned thought it added a certain smokiness to the ice cream flavor ... it seemed to me that all it really added was crunch.

of course the ice cream isn't very good, but what the hell do you expect?  it's denny's  and this sundae is costing me a buck and a half.  

so overall, i like the idea better than the execution.  but i'm not for a second going to say anything bad about it because there's some joker out there at denny's who fought like hell to get this concept pushed out to the planet ... and that person (almost certainly a guy) needs to be encouraged as much as possible.  

i've lost over 30 pounds since eating my first double down.  i can only assume that the more of this kind of stuff american chains bring out, the faster i'll hit my ideal weight.


and you've got to hand it to me, instigator.  i went from hearing about this, to shoveling one in my pie hole (at a discount) in less than two hours.  that's pretty goddamn responsive, eh?

food alert!

this passed to me by the instigator ... denny's is at the start of baconalia, including, that's right, a bacon maple sundae ... he said, "i expect a full report."


as if i'd ever go overboard eating strange fast food items.  or eat too much ice cream.


a shame i'm not still in the valley or we'd make this an outing and single-handedly crush the whole-nut will of special K.


i'll report back.  oh yes, i will.


(here's the coupon for BOGO bacon maple sundaes, by the way.)

haiku of the moment

growl notes as you sing
pound the floorboards with your feet
mourn pinetop perkins

trivia of the moment

the average person's odds of having a heart attack are 1 in 1,000,000.
in the hours following sex or exercise, the odds increase to 3 in
1,000,000.

source: journal of the AMA

trivia of the moment

strongest predictors of a coronary event:

1. prior heart disease.

2. age.

3. low HDL.

quote of the moment

"Police: Cavity search of Pa. woman produces more than 50 bags of
heroin, cash and loose change"

-- associated press headline

quote of the moment

"please be the savior of japan."

-- email from wife of firefighter yasuo sato as he headed to douse a
fukushima daiichi reactor

quote of the moment

"You cannot challenge their conclusions because they use a
spreadsheet."

-- the instigator

trivia of the moment

500K people have been evacuated as a result of earthquake, flood,
reactor failure and volcanic eruption in japan in the last week.

source: christian science monitor

quote of the moment

"street food is not a crime"

-- T-shirt; las vegas, NV

mr. crypto will be launched!

thanks to everyone who actually gave a damn, we have a lottery winner. 


mr. crypto and his family will get to see the penultimate launch of the shuttle.


thanks again to all who tried -- your collective efforts made a family dream a reality.

quote of the moment

"An attempt by armed forces from the semiautonomous region of Puntland
to free a Danish family from a pirate gang failed Thursday, when the
security forces were ambushed by pirates, a pirate and a Puntland
official said."

-- new york times

quote of the moment

"the way to a person's heart is through the ribs."

-- TC, owner/manager of TC's rib crib; las vegas, NV

quote of the moment

"who needs water?
who needs beer?
i've got both those things,
right here!

hydration!
carbonation!
libation!
litigation!"

-- beverage vendor, las vegas NASCAR

greetings from las vegas NASCAR

quote of the moment

"pork: be inspired"

-- US national pork board

(this campaign is replacing "the other white meat")

the greatest music review ever written ...

... passed to me by solid G.

http://rebuilttrannyrecords.com/2011/03/02/muziek-express-presents-searching-in-the-wilderness-1966-vinyl-to-mp3-download-or-how-european-garage-rock-razed-the-sutro-baths/

quote of the moment

"65% of adultery victims are women."

-- billboard; henderson, NV

launch mr. crytpo!

a good pal of mine* is looking for tickets for his family to see the penultimate launch of the space shuttle on april 19.   as a commoner in our democracy where everyone is equal, the only way to obtain "official" viewing tickets to stand next to the other equal people (all of whom got their tickets through connections in the government and at the cape), is via lottery.


mr. crypto and thinks (and i agree) that tickets will be hard to come by.  he's asked me to enter the lottery on his behalf, which i'm gladly doing.  but why should i stop there?  that's why i'm posting ...


if you, dear reader, would like to help one of the few hardcore readers of the archipelago, you can enter with him in mind as well.


lottery registration is here and you're simply putting a name, birthday and address.  no obligation to buy, no credit card to register.  you may be surprised to learn that you don't even have to take a tour of a crypto time-share to participate.  mr. crypto guarantees he'll take any/all tickets you don't want (i'll back that guarantee if you don't know him).


may the most crumpled ticket win.




*anyone who lets me stay for free, with no notice, in one of the most expensive cities in the world, is by default "a good pal."  just think, you could be too ...

best blog i've seen in awhile ...

... run by ukrainian feminists.
the hot topic of the moment is a new zealand radio station has awarded a
ukrainian bride to a contest winner.


FEMEN: пришла, разделась, победила.
http://femen.livejournal.com/


{google translate is your friend}

quote of the moment

"breast milk ice cream confiscated"

-- BBC headline