Tasty Salmon Marinade

1/8 cup white wine
1 ½ Teaspoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 Teaspoon basil
½ Teaspoon ginger


Marinate in plastic bag for ½ an hour.

The Question Mark Butterfly

The Death of Roman Emperor Claudius or "Maybe I'd Better Pass on the Mushrooms Tonight."

Claudius was already very ill, but Agrippina, his wife, was an impatient woman (she had things to do, places to go), so she had the poisoner, Locusta (this guy was officially employed by the palace) poison a mushroom. In the event that should fail, Agrippina had the doctor put more poison down the emperor’s throat – on the feather being used to cause him to vomit up the first poison!

Git-R-Done!

Government

"Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program."

~ Milton Friedman

"A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away."

~ Barry Goldwater

"Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys."

~ P. J. O'Rourke

Dogs of War

I spent the last few days with the two great dogs below, Buddy and Sky. Fun days as usual!

Sky

Buddy

Road-kill Chili Cookoff

From my old Army buddy, Larry Lester, in Louisiana comes this story of Cajun cookin’:

The locals have a deal called the Road-kill Chili Cookoff, and what they do is select a stretch of highway the day before the cook-off and mark with orange paint all the road-kill they find on the highway. The next day they go back to that same stretch of highway and take all the road-kill that hasn’t been painted orange. This ensures fresh kill, and presumably an mmm mmm good chili!

Casey

My niece's Blue Heeler and the World's Luckiest Australian Cattle Dog.

Neighborhood Model

OG

http://www.fitnessheadtotoe.com/figure_&_fitness_modeling.htm

White Smoke Rising

We have a winner! A new pope has been selected but not officially announced. The secret conclave made the selection within an hour of meeting yesterday but decided to withhold the announcement so the 115 Roman Catholic cardinals could relax, stroll the Vatican grounds, talk over old times, drink some cognac, and soak in the Vatican hot tub. One cardinal (he shall remain nameless) notified this blog of the selection, despite risk of excommunication. Who knows why.

So without further ado (and remember, you heard it here first), the new pope is Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 68, archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina. He’s a Jesuit priest who combines a scholarly background with concern for the Third World. He enjoys ping pong, back rubs, and sing-alongs.

Congratulations, Jorge!

Fields

"Once, in the wilds of Afghanistan, I lost my corkscrew, and we were forced to live on nothing but food and water for days."

~ W. C. Fields

Taxes

It's outrageous how we are taxed in this country and how some of that tax money is spent, and it really pisses me off that the government has allowed the tax code to become so complicated that now over 60% of us have to pay someone to do our taxes.

This from the Tax Foundation:

The individual income tax is highly progressive – a small group of higher-income taxpayers pay most of the individual income taxes each year.

• In 2002 the latest year of available data, the top 5 percent of taxpayers paid more than one-half (53.8 percent) of all individual income taxes, but reported roughly one-third (30.6 percent) of income.

• The top 1 percent of taxpayers paid 33.7 percent of all individual income taxes in 2002. This group of taxpayers has paid more than 30 percent of individual income taxes since 1995. Moreover, since 1990 this group’s tax share has grown faster than their income share.

• Taxpayers who rank in the top 50 percent of taxpayers by income pay virtually all individual income taxes. In all years since 1990, taxpayers in this group have paid over 94 percent of all individual income taxes. In 2000, 2001, and 2002, this group paid over 96 percent of the total.

The President’s tax cuts have shifted a larger share of the individual income taxes paid to higher income taxpayers. In 2005, when most of the tax cut provisions are fully in effect (e.g., lower tax rates, the $1,000 child credit, marriage penalty relief), the projected tax share for lower-income taxpayers will fall, while the tax share for higher-income taxpayers will rise.

Palindrome of the Day

A man, a plan, a canal: Panama

Shaker bench

"Do all your work as though you had a thousand years to live, and as you would if you knew you must die tomorrow." ~ Ann Lee, founder of the United Society of Believers (Shaker Movement)

Forgive him, Father, he knows not what he says...

Last week during the 24-7 pope coverage, CNN’s Larry King asked this question of actor Jim Caviezel (who played Jesus in “The Passion of the Christ’): “Jim, you think he’s with Jesus now? We only have 30 seconds.”

Dawn
Yesterday
The Jefferson Memorial
Washington, D.C.
 

"Word Origins for 200, Alex..."

Whole Nine Yards

Generally means "all of it, everything," and comes from the construction industry, the nine yards referring to the maximum capacity a cement-mixer truck can carry - nine cubic yards of cement.

Cherry Blossoms 

Observation

Have you seen impressionist Steve Bridges?

He’s does a dead-on take of Dubya. He’s better than Will Ferrell.

Check him out if you get a chance.


Edy’s Double Fudge Brownie ice cream. Sooo addictive! The government should put this on the controlled substance list; it’s that bad.

Unwittingly, I started down the Double Fudge Brownie trail some time ago, and I’ve been unable to come off it. I now need to go to go some sort of ice cream rehab.

The double fudge creates the craving it satisfies, a horrible cycle of bliss and regret. Don’t think you can handle it; you can’t.

Canna

Photo on display at
the Hanover Area Arts Guild
32 Carlisle St.
Hanover, PA 17331

Zappa

"There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life."

~ Frank Zappa

April Fools

Draining a Beer Truck

KFMB-AM, a San Diego radio station, announced that a beer truck had jack-knifed and could not be towed away until the beer had been removed from its tank.

Over 100 people showed up at the site where the accident was supposed to have occurred to help drain it.