Words Like Locusts Flew From Her Fingers

Guess Who?

DRUDGE REPORT FLASH 2004®: ““We are not hated for who we are. We are hated for what we do. It is not our principles that have spawned pandemic hatred of America in the Islamic world. It is our policies.” “

Guess who wrote that. Some liberal probably, right?

Ha! WRONG!

Pat Buchanan.

Yes, that’s right. Pat Buchanan.

Too bad he’s still a complete nutbar on some other issues. He’s sure got this whole Middle East thing figured out. Read excerpts from his new book at the Drudge Report site, link above. Be amazed.

Where Do These People Come From?

NPR : The Middle East and the West, A Troubled History
Wow…this is a really great series by NPR. (You know…those guys the Republicans want to quit funding.) Check out the web site and listen to the program installments. You’ll need Real audio software (it’s free) to listen. There are interesting graphics on the web site and explanatory text.

There are still a couple of installments of the series that NPR has yet to broadcast so, stay tuned (or keep checking back at their web site.)

I swear, once you start listening to public radio, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it.

What’s for Dinner Tonight

I’m guessing that some of you might like new ideas about what you could make for dinner, so this will be a continuing series…um…whenever I think of it.

Tonight’s Dinner
Gardenburger “Riblets”
French Fries
Sweet Corn

Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Separate the two riblet packets that come in a box. Punch a couple of holes in each packet. Stick ‘em in the microwave and nuke for 4 minutes. When they’re done, remove the riblets from their plastic packets and put them on a sheet of foil. Top each riblet with extra barbecue sauce of your choice. (We like KC Masterpiece Original.) Wrap the foil around the riblets to make a package. Put the riblet package on a baking sheet along with the french fries (Ore-Ida steak fries and Tater Tots tonight) and bake for 20 minutes. After putting the tots/fries and riblets in the oven, start the water boiling for the corn. The way it worked out tonight, the corn was finished at the same time the riblets and spuds were done. I had a couple of ears of sweet corn that I’d busted in half so I could fit them in a smaller pan. Smaller pan=faster boiling time. (Oh…in case you didn’t know…once the water with the corn in it has come to a boil, let it boil for 10 minutes. Then take it off the heat.)

Dessert was brownies.

This is a really good meal. Those riblets are extremely tasty! Mark loves them as much as I do! Riblets are available in the frozen foods section of many large grocery store chains. I never see them at Food Lion but Giant and Safeway often have them. They’re a vegetarian product.

Recipe: Stir-Fried BBQ Chik’n with Veggies

Stir-Fried BBQ Chik’n with Veggies

Ingredients
One BBQ Chik’n piece, microwaved for 2 minutes, cooled, then diced
1/2 small onion, diced
1/3 cup sweet red pepper, diced
1/3 cup snow pea pods
2-3 tsp canola oil
1 cup cooked white rice

Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat.
Add canola oil and let it heat for a couple minutes
Add onion and red pepper, stir-fry for 3-5 minutes until they start to cook
Add BBQ Chik’n pieces and continue stir-frying
Add cooked rice, continue stir-frying
Add pea pods only 1 or 2 minutes before removing pan from heat to avoid over-cooking them.
Add salt and pepper as desired.

Serves one or two people…and is VERY delicious!

It’s Lonely At The Top

Abu Ghraib Probe Points to Top Brass (washingtonpost.com): “An Army investigation into the role of military intelligence personnel in the abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison reports that the scandal was not just caused by a small circle of rogue military police soldiers but resulted from failures of leadership rising to the highest levels of the U.S. command in Iraq, senior defense officials said.”

Well….DUH! Didn’t I call it, people? Didn’t I (and a few million other people) already say they believed the blame for this could go all the way to the top?

“…No Army officers, however, are expected to face criminal charges.”

That’s a little surprising. I’d have expected at least one to be singled out as a scapegoat for the sins of the whole group.

“…”The interrogation policy was misunderstood, and it was one of a few policies that failed,” the official said. “There was total confusion about the military intelligence tactics, techniques and procedures.”"

I’d say that’s pretty much 100% bullshit. The officers knew what was going on and while, perhaps being a little bit smarter and hip to which direction the shit rolls, they may not have specifically ordered their underlings to abuse the prisoners, neither did they stop the abuse which I believe they knew was occurring.

A bioethicist investigating the case “…noted that a psychiatrist helped “design, approve and monitor interrogations at Abu Ghraib”; that a physician permitted an untrained guard to stitch a cut on a prisoner’s face; and that doctors “routinely attributed detainee deaths on death certificates to . . . natural causes” when the deaths were the result of torture.”

Cantina d’Italia

As is our practice on most Wednesday nights, last night Mark and I had dinner at Cantina d’Italia. It’s located in the Fair Lakes area of Fairfax in one of those sprawling shopping centers you see all over the place.

I love this restaurant. The food is fantastic–and I’ll talk about that in a minute. The atmosphere is what I want you to know about first. It’s like one of those restaurants your parents used to go to with their friends. It’s a grown-up’s restaurant. There aren’t any bright colors or loud music. There’s a bar area, but it’s very separate from the rest of the restaurant and is rarely occupied by more than a few people who might be waiting for the rest of their group to arrive. It’s quiet. The background music is often something sort of “croon-y” like Dean Martin but it’s always turned down low enough. If people bring their children in with them, they are generally well-behaved and quiet. It’s not the sort of place where people let their kids run amok.

The wait-staff is excellent. They’re friendly and attentive without being intrusive. I have never had one of them screw up my order in any way. Even new staff are pretty obviously experienced. It’s quite a few steps up from what you might experience at, say…Don Pablos.

And the food! It’s always delicious. My current favorite meal is the Margherita Pizza. It’s a delicious marinara type sauce and mozarella cheese on a flavorful crust. They don’t use too much cheese like so many places do. The crust tastes like it must be made right there in the kitchen. It’s really really good. When I don’t want pizza, I’ll often have the Gnocchi ala Chef. This is the yummy little potato dumplings served in a zingy pink cream sauce with mushrooms. The gnocchi aren’t overly gummy. The sauce is fantastic. I think it’s cream mixed with the marinara and…something else? The mushroom don’t appear to be canned. I’m not a big fan of mushrooms (they remind me too much of slugs), but these are not bad at all. Mark usually has spaghetti and meatballs with no cheese. Apparently he likes it! All entrees (the pizza is considered a sort of appetizer) are served with a tossed salad and a basket of bread. The salad is always good. Very fresh and crisp with a simple (but fresh and delicious-tasting) vinagrette. The bread is the usual warm white italian loaf.

We always differentiate between eating out at Cantina d’Italia and eating elsewhere. When you get your chow at Don Pablo’s, you’re just eating. When you’re at Cantina, you’re dining.

What’s for Dinner Tonight

Tonight we’re having one of our favorites: A big tossed salad and boiled potatoes. That may sound like a strange meal to you but you’ll be surprised by how delicious and satisfying it is.

The Salad
It varies from time to time, of course, depending upon what’s available. Tonight it contains iceberg lettuce, baby spinach leaves, sliced radishes, diced tomato, sliced onions, and pecan halves. (I got a really good price on a big bag of pecan halves at BJ’s Wholesale Club this past winter. I store them in a plastic bag in the freezer and just take out however many I need. They’ve held up really well this way.) Serve the salad with whatever dressing you prefer. For me, it’s blue cheese. Mark likes italian.

The Boiled Potatoes
…are just that. Just plain old boiled potatoes. I serve them hot. I usually put butter and salt and pepper on mine. (Mark doesn’t like butter–yes, he’s very weird–so he just has salt and pepper.)

I usually have a glass of wine with dinner, too. Lately I’ve been enjoying Rosemount Estates Cabernet/Merlot blend. Pretty good stuff for $6.95 a bottle. (I think that’s what I paid for it last time.)

Bon Appetit!
(And may Julia Child find peace and a banquet in her honor in “the clearing at the end of the path”)

Feet on the Brain

No Pain, No Gain (washingtonpost.com): “These are the sorts of shoes that tempt a woman into recklessness. Like scoundrel boyfriends, vodka-soaked olives and flourless chocolate cake, the shoes have little redeeming value other than a delicious, fleeting pleasure.”

Say what? There’s certainly no physical pleasure involved (unless one is of the masochistic bent) in cramming an innocent foot into one of those too narrow, too unstable contraptions known as a “fashionable” shoe.

I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while now. What is it with lots of women and shoes anyway? I understand that a few people were traumatized somehow when they were children and, as a consquence, can only get off sexually on feet. These folks fall into the same category as those guys who like to dress up in their mother’s underwear. It’s sad, but it sometimes happens. That’s why it’s all the more a mystery why so many women insist on fetish-izing their own feet! I mean it…how weird is that?!?! They’re feet for Pete’s sake! Don’t get me wrong. I don’t have any particular problem with feet. I don’t think they’re dirty or anything. They’re just…feet. They’re what you walk around on. They’re…functional. Not particularly attractive. Not hideous– but not the sort of thing a normal person would want to pay special attention to.

So then, what is it with lots of women and their feet? They dress them up with nail polish and goofy “toe rings” and crap and then cram the poor things into horrendously uncomfortable and, frankly, stupid-looking shoes and hobble around town like this.

It doesn’t make any sense. I simply do not believe that the majority of men have a foot fetish and can only get excited by a woman who does this. My own experience as a woman who has never done the whole shoe thing has shown me that most men really don’t give a shit one way or another what kind of foot-gear a woman is sporting.

So…women are objectifying and sexualizing (and torturing) their own feet for no good reason.

That’s just bizarre.

My own favorite shoes, in case you’re interested (and of course you are!) are black canvas numbers I got at Wal-Mart for 2 bucks a pair. They’re comfortable. They’re not made out of dead animals. And they’re inexpensive. That’s all I need from a shoe, thank you very much.

America’s First Oprah President

Powell’s Books – Review-a-Day – My Life by Bill Clinton, reviewed by The Atlantic Monthly: “A reasonable semblance of soul-searching was what Knopf paid him $10 mil for, and it’s certainly true that My Life features damp wads of much more intimate pseudo-introspection than, say, Eisenhower’s memoirs — not that I’ve gone back to check. (‘What caused my hostile feelings about German armored divisions? Mamie, years of therapy — and okay, golf — helped me face the truth.’)”

I’m almost certainly not going to read Bill Clinton’s magnum opus but you should absolutely read Tom Carson’s very amusing review of it.

Another tease…

“Saluted long before she actually appears, Hillary, by the way, is simply and grandly “Hillary” from the start; the Titania-and-Oberon aspect of this is delightful.”

…as is Tom Carson’s prose, I might add.

Meadowlark Botanical Gardens

Today was my first day as a volunteer at the Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna, Virginia. It’s one of those truly wonderful places that, on the one hand, you want to tell everyone about because it’s so great but, on the other hand, you don’t want to tell people about it because then it might get crowded.

Fortunately, Meadowlark charges an admission fee and that scares a lot of people off. Plus they have very firm rules about not messing with any of the plants and there are lots of volunteers (people like me!) surreptitiously floating around in the background most of the time to help enforce the rules.

I’m a horticulture volunteer so I’ll be spending my time working with the plants. Today I helped transplant seedlings from their “group” pots into their own individual little pots. Next week I could be dead-heading flowers out in one of the gardens or weeding somewhere or… who knows. One of these days fairly soon my “boss” is going to wade into one of the lakes to remove some or all of the giant lotuses that are growing there. I wouldn’t mind helping with that… it sounds like fun! (As long as one of the snapping turtles or giant catfish-like carp doesn’t take after me!)

I’m really looking forward to spending time at the Gardens. I’m happy to be helping support such a beautiful place, of course, but I also get a chance to satisfy some of my intense gardening and nature-type urges.

This morning, when I pulled into the side parking lot where volunteers enter, there were two fawns (still with spots!) eating grass next to the lot. Pretty cool…pretty cool, indeed.