Online winkelen

I like to check out the local paper from my old home town, now and then, to see if any of my friends have been arrested for anything interesting. No familiar names today, but I did find this story:

QUEENSBURY -- A 24-year-old Warrensburg woman who police said had sex with two 13-year-old boys, getting impregnated by one of them, was sentenced Wednesday to up to 6 years in state prison.

Wow.

It gets better.

Baker was arrested in 2006 after she petitioned Warren County Family Court to have the boy she believed impregnated her pay child support. That led to a police investigation because the teen was well below the age of consent of 17 when they had sexual relations in 2003.

That's Fark-worthy.

Here's another:

HUDSON FALLS -- A Derby Street man was arrested Thursday after police found 89 marijuana plants growing in his home, according to Hudson Falls Police.

Hudson Falls Police officers came to the home of Peter J. Lemery, 31, investigating a tip he might be growing the drug there. They found an "unbelievable" smell of marijuana when Lemery opened the door to his home, said Hudson Falls Police Sgt. Scott Gillis.

Police asked if he was growing marijuana, and Lemery replied he "might be," Gillis said.

Might be?

It's that time again...

1. Adrian Belew - Walk Around The World
2. Lucinda Williams - Broken Butterflies
3. The Beatles - Blackbird
4. Andrew Bird's Bowl Of Fire - Beware / A Drinking Song
5. King Crimson - The Sheltering Sky
6. Led Zeppelin - Bron Y-Aur Stomp
7. Michelle Shocked - The Incomplete Image
8. Sea And Cake - Left Side Clouded
9. Polvo - Bombs That Fall From Your Eyes
10. Mission Of Burma - Nancy Reagan's Head

It is as it was.

So that's what those things were!

Flew back to NC from Boston yesterday afternoon. As we were crossing VA into NC, I started seeing these huge plumes of smoke, trailing across the landscape for tens of miles. I first thought they were factories of some kind. But that didn't make any sense - no factory could put out that much smoke without getting shut down. Then I though they might be fires from developers clearing brush, but there were too many of them - I must've seen a dozen of them.

Turns out they were wildfires. Wish I got a picture... but the same winds that were fanning those fires were working on the plane to create the roughest flight I've ever been on. It was quite a ride.

Step into a crosswalk in Boston, traffic will stop for you - even city busses and the insane cab drivers.

Step into a crosswalk in Raleigh, expect to die on the front grille of a Ford Excursion.

It's a joke down South that all the bad drivers are merely the Yankees who've invaded the southern cities and brought their rude, reckless driving habits with them. It's funny because it's wrong.

In an article about the decline of the "guilty pleasure" - in which she insists there is no such thing so it can't be in decline in the first place - Paige at Flux-Rad writes:

Liking things for irony’s sake is a complete waste of time, a total trivialization of the chance you’ve been given as a human to experience art and culture, and does little more than confirm your position as a simple-minded elitist masquerading as purveyor of good taste by acceptance of bad.

Wow. Type the name of the city and "weather" into a Google search box and it gives you a four-day forecast at the top of the search page. ex: boston weather

So cool.

John Cole gives five good reasons against Clinton and five good reasons for Obama. I agree 100% on all 10.

Clinton is wearying, and I don't want to live through 4 (or 8!) years of refried wingnut crap from 1996. If she wins, it'll be another decade of anti-Clinton conspiracy theories and constant demands for Congressional investigations. Plus, she seems willing to ignore the line between honorable and dishonorable (as she's making abundantly clear in the primaries), and will probably deserve a good portion of the investigations her opponents demand. Please, spare us.

Doodie Call

I made some grouper for dinner last night, and was going to serve it with a shittake mushroom risotto (my default side for fish). But, I changed my mind and went with a simple lentil stew - a version of this, without the ham and potatoes and with about 1/3 the tomatoes - instead of rice. But that left me with a handful of unpurposed shittakes. Since the lentil stew was going to be nice and hearty, I thought maybe they'd be good if I just sautéed them in butter, and plopped them on top of the fish at the end. And so I chopped em up, along with a couple of plain white mushrooms I had lying around, dropped em into a little sauté pan with a healthy chunk of butter, some sage, black pepper and a bit of salt. I let them cook down till they were nice and soft and buttery and yummy.

But, next to the burner where the mushrooms were sizzling, sat the last little bit of a bottle of Bowmore 17 year. Hmm... I applied my usual test: put the prospective ingredient above the cooking food and smell them together. A perfect fit! Just a tablespoon of whisky into the mushrooms, let them sizzle for a few minutes more. to get rid of the alcohol... maybe a little more butter. Ahh, totally awesome. The mushrooms, the peaty, smoky whisky, the butter, lentils, thyme, sage, Swiss chard.... mmm. Scotch mushrooms. Awesome. I highly recommend giving this a try - it'd be great with steak, too, I bet.