December, 2008
December 31st, 2008
Happy New Year
Not sure how I missed this video as it was apparently one of the viral hits of 2008. Anyhow, it’s a winner:
Here’s some info on the video and a couple of recent interviews with the two guys in the video:
December 30th, 2008
Detroit
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard people say “nobody lives in Detroit.” Occasionally I point out that about a million people live in Detroit, and despite a strong desire to do so, I’ve never followed up by asking whether poor black people count as people. Of course that’s not what they mean, they’ll claim, but really it’s pretty much exactly what they’re saying.
I don’t love Detroit. I’ve been there 7 or 8 times (although 3 of those visits involved doing nothing more than going to a sporting event and then leaving the city), and found it a fine place to visit. There’s some decent food, nice sports stadiums, and a good black history museum, some isolated pockets of revitalized downtown, and a spectacular park. But all of it is overwhelmed by the blight that dominates the city – the unrelenting poverty, the lack of hope, and the countless abandoned buildings.
It’s a once-great city that has fallen farther than any in the country; yet rather than being supported or even pitied, it typically only enters the national consciousness as the butt of a joke.
A writer at the Weekly Standard recently spent a week there and wrote a fantastic article.
December 28th, 2008
I Rocked Channukah
Just one month after I mastered Thanksgiving, I took Channukah to previously unimaginable heights.
First up, my new bag of charcoal. I’ve upgraded from 10-pound bags from Home Depot that cost about $8 to a 40-pound bag that costs about $18 from Berger Brothers, a charcoal maker that typically sells to restaurants:
Like Texans, Jews love brisket. Some Jews insist on Kosher brisket, which costs about 4 times as much and meant I had to go Romanian Kosher Sausage Co. Since I was there, I picked up a 2-pound version of their awesome salami, but that is all mine and was not shared at Channukah dinner.
I used a new rub today – one I made up by combining a few different rub recipes that I found online. I ended up with:
4 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons dried chipotle chile powder
1 tablespoon ancho chile powder
1 tablespoon guajillo chile powder
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon coriander
1 tablespoon ground pepper
1 tablespoon cayenne
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon mustard powder.
Before putting the rub on, I coated the brisket with yellow mustard. Here’s what the pre-cooked product looked like:
Here’s the finished product:
I also made some excellent cole slaw that I forgot to get a picture of. The dressing had mayonnaise, yellow mustard, cider vinegar, white sugar, salt, white pepper, black pepper, garlic, and lemon juice.
Finally, I made some goat cheese chocolate truffles. They look like turds, but they taste much better. Next time I think I’ll use a lighter goat cheese, but it’s definitely a recipe worth keeping in the repertoire:
Tonight, I learned that Fred is health conscious – he loves peas:
December 26th, 2008
A Dog Who May Be Smarter Than Fred
Fred is pretty smart as dogs go. The few times I’ve bothered to train him, he picks things up pretty much right away. But there are dogs out there smarter than Fred and one of them lives in Murray, Utah.
On Wednesday, this dog walked into a supermarket without a human companion, went to the aisle where the rawhide bones were, took one, avoided the manager who tried to stop him, and stole the bone.