Festage Review

With my plans to retire early quashed by an attack of low blood sugar... I guess it is time to blog!  Anyways, tonight I had a quite wonderful evening.  I joined the Cleveland Civil War Round Table, which meets every month in Independence for dinner and a lecture.  While I ordered my space too late for dinner, I snarfed salad and dessert, and sat with a bunch of fellow Civil War buffs (I am on the younger side of this group, which is not a bad thing at my age).  The speech was a bit -- not the battles analysis or high politics I prefer, but not uninteresting.  And, one of my Conference Presidents is a member -- he was surprised as I was -- and we talked shop.  Bit late but I will indeed return!

Anyways, I hit three ethnic fests this weekend, so I owe you reviews.  Saturday I lunched at the St. Sava Serbian fest in Broadview Heights; as it was a mile from my house, I walked -- the temperature was fine, and with the grub I would be putting away, steps are not unwelcome (I have regained my cyclospora-related losses, sigh).  They use those silly tickets -- sigh! -- so I bought $25 of tickets, and got myself some chicken paprikash and a sausage platter.  The chicken was perfect; the dumplings less so -- they were homemade, but the large ones were... not quite cooked through.  There was ample gravy, so I plowed through, but it was the difference between B+ and A.  The church is interesting -- LOTS of icons and artwork, and while I recognized some, some I did not.  The docents spoke Serbian first so my queries were a bit limited.  I have to admit, we have a guide to all the art -- the statues, the windows, the frescoes -- at the Shrine, and it is genius.

Saturday nite dinner was at St. Rocco.  They have those Catholic greeters who ask if you are Catholic, light candles, etc. (the boys were better looking than the girls, not that I noticed).  It is a pretty church, not St. Stan's pretty, but you get the drift.  I made sure to look at the ceiling art -- as I told one of them, someone went to the trouble of putting it there, and we should honor that at least.  Then it was off to dinner...funny, I always say I will eat inside, but then I bump into I know, the line is long, and I end up with a sausage sandwich and a bowl of pasta.  The sandwich is solid; the meatballs quite good, and the pasta is...fine?  I suspect it is better at Our Lady of Mount Carmel.  Next year I will actually eat inside and make a full compare.  Yeah, surre.

Sunday I went to the Hungarian Fest at German Central.  It was... an experience.  First, the parking lot is... tight, and there is one narrow road in and out (more on that later).  You also have to pay $12 admission.  I mean, if I liked the music and the accoutrements, it would be ok, but as I have the tin ear... anyways, you do have a wide range of interesting food options, though I went with chicken pap again.  It was quite good -- I think the noodles were store-bought, but they were small and cooked through.  The sauce was the orange/yellow one expects, and the torte I ordered was quite good.  But...you have to use tickets there (grrr) so I decided not to try something else.  I bumped into a former coworker there, so it was nice to catch up. But, as I told him, dinner and dessert was not $26, but $38 with admission -- and that is steep, no matter the economy.  Getting out was an adventure, as you had to go down the narrow road (cars were coming in, looking for parking, and there were pedestrians).  It worked, but barely.  I noted that people were going in, not finding parking, and then street-parking in the developments off York (lucky homeowners on those streets).  The grub was good but I do not think I would go back...

There are a few more fests -- St. John Cantius, St. Barbara's pasta dinner -- and I will try to hit those, but we are running low on fests and summer.  You will note I skipped St. Andrew (and a Max Miller sighting) due to tickets and a sense that they were a bit over their heads... I just hope we don't have that this year.

Catching Up

It was, in the end, a very busy weekend for me, as evinced by my lack of posting.  I didn't do as much as I had wanted to, but that is my fault.  I will summarize my ethnic fests I went to this weekend tomorrow; today I slept in a bit, hit the gym, had coffee with a friend, made some pasta for a few days, catch up on some work, and then helped a friend complete a move -- his dog is quite inquisitive, and we all know how much I love inquisitive dogs.  But it was fine; they are just...friendly.

Is it me, or is the UM clock scandal immensely funny?  No one believes that this was anything put on by the Big10/UM to keep them from an embarrassing loss, so why doesn't the conference just say "We screwed up" and move on?  They're not going to replay the down or give WMU a win, so...they are just making a bad situation, and for all they have done to show themselves as meaning more than the SEC... this just kills that.

Rehabilitating Richard – The Analog Antiquarian
Interesting, and I need to check out the rest of the links on the page.  I have read a couple of Langley's books, and saw the movie, and they are delightful, though I am not sure she is fully correct -- or, if she is, she will need more work to verify it, and I suspect the evidence (if it ever existed) is long gone.  I think part of the issue is that Shakespeare and everyone else shit upon Richard III at every opportunity, and people with a sense of fair play have put it on themselves to defend him.  This is fine and admirable, but there is the Princes in the Tower bit, and I find it hard to believe that Richard III is blameless -- one way or another -- in their disappearance.  Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln...

The Republican Party’s Midterm Nightmare Is Taking Shape - POLITICO
One would have thought POTUS would have thought of this, and that either he did and did it anyways, or disregarded it... as I said tonight, I think Trump 1 was a hell of a lot more fun than Trump 2.

College Football Kickers Were Underpaid. Then They Started Texting. - WSJ
I am not sure that the people who cooked up the current system thought this would happen, or would be a good idea, but here we are...

The Food Stamp Reform Is Working - WSJ
I completely agree!

Not-So-Lazy-Friday

Finally, Labor Day weekend.  I had planned to go out tonight, but as we can see, that didn't happen, and maybe that is ok.  It was a long week -- and a long day -- and some home time, reading, catching up on stuff, doing the paperwork...might be ok.  

There are a LOT of things to do this weekend -- plenty of ethnic fests, other stuff -- and I intend to hit a couple of them.  Funny; I have some stuff to do -- work, house stuff, OC stuff -- but I think I will do as many of them as I can tomorrow, just to free up the rest of the weekend.  In theory, of course.  I need to plan a Fall Meeting for SVDP.  I asked people for dates, no one responded.  Sigh.  I know we are busy, but...it would be nice if some people would get back to me.  Alas, alack.

The Social Security benefit cliff is here. Washington is struggling to wake up. - POLITICO
Has any President tried to solve this?  W, and he was creamed for it.  Boehner tried as speaker, and Obama turned him down.  Quite frankly, as the Dems have no idea or credible plan to do this, they should be held responsible, but I think we all know what will happen, so... I mean, I realize none of the options are good, but they only worsen as this goes on.

After the heat and the constant AC running yesterday...today was pleasant?  To be sure, the early storms were a bit rough, but the windows are open now, and the home is filled with cool and gentle breezes, which reminded me once again why the expense of getting the windows done was so worth it...  I have been delaying the next project -- I like having less debt than usual -- but there are some things I would like done before winter, and there is no reason why I should not do them...

Mattie Cooks...Frugally

New month, still hard to believe.  Yesterday was good -- productive, lots of work, but a bit stressful.  Oi.  This morning I woke up at the buttcrack of dawn and went to Acme in Fairlawn -- pop and other stuff was on sale; I spent a lot but I also got all of the stuff I needed for a Polish Festival basket that uses the $2 chip clips I won (my sense of economics is often faulty).  I saw pasta and sauce was on sale, so I bought one of each -- it has been years since I made it, and I wanted to buy ground meat, like Mom did... it is quite pricey, so much so I didn't.  Rather, I thawed some frozen shrimp and veggies, cut them both up, and made a pasta primavera with shrimp.  My Mom, were she alive, would have accused me of cooking that way on purpose, and I will neither confirm nor deny that.  I have three more servings of pasta, and half a jar of sauce; I think I have another box of pasta somewhere, so we will be eating that for a while.

Funny, because last week (ok, Sunday) I pulled some chicken thighs out of my freezer, thawed them, added some sliced veggies, and baked them for a couple of hours in the oven.  It was quite delicious -- I should have added more veggies -- and I ended up getting six servings out of it.  I bought it at 28 cents a pound as a manager special, so... methinks I need to shop at the GE more.

I thought the Vance speech was quite awesome, and if we can make some inroads into the Jewish vote... it seems a more natural constituency for us.  Less good -- the war in Iran continues, gas prices are high, and Trump is sitting on his cash.  In a blue wave it will probably not matter, but... I suspect this whole thing has been poorly managed, and we -- and the country -- will suffer for it.

UCLA has a seat on the Big Ten gravy train, so why are its finances such a mess? - The Athletic
Interesting?  Odd?  It does seem that not owning the stadium is a bigger issue than expected...

Penn State to open Paterno Family Football Experience Room inside Beaver Stadium - The Athletic
I can't wait for the ostrich exhibit to open, too!

Not crashing

Good Lord, it is already September!  Summer is pretty much over (tonight's heat wave not withstanding; the AC ran almost all day), and the Labor Day weekend is... well, I will appreciate having an extra off day.  I am already planning for the things I want to do, and the inevitable disappointment when I do not do it all.  To be sure, I would like to do some fun things... 

The last two nights I crashed on the floor, and while I should know better and NOT lay on the floor (as I am now), there is something to be said for laying out and relaxing.  Even if it causes me to get sleepy.  Of course, if I slept more...  but, there is just too much to do!

General Dynamics Failed to Build Artillery Shells for the Army — ProPublica
This could be me, but isn't this as much -- if not more -- the fault of the Biden Administration as it is the Trump one?  To be sure, we should be shutting this down now, but it was their idiocy that caused this in the first place.

A Father Named Marcus Coleman Just Took Congressional Democrats to the Woodshed – HotAir
Impressive stuff, and quite frankly, every Democrat on the committee should have been called to the carpet by the chair.  Of course, we don't do that, but....sigh.

Relief

This could be me, but too much and not enough was made of UNC's win at TCU.  Too much, of course, because one game is one game, but I also think the idea of underestimating Bill Belicheck is... unwise?  Especially in this NIL era, when he could recruit some players of his own, put in his own schemes tailored to them, etc.  To be sure, it is one game, but I would like to think the man could win one game if he needed to...and with the vultures starting to circle...

Last night I had a haircut in Lakewood and with a couple of hours to kill, I decided to go to Sarita -- never been there, heard it was good, and there I was.  Of course, the parking was a hot mess, and I could not help but note -- given the Acton signs -- that I was in enemy territory.  As for the grub, it was pretty good -- I had a peach burrata appetizer that was desserty, a chicken francaise (bit salty) with mushroom risotto (quite good), and bread pudding (I skipped lunch).  I think Rood is better, but it was good on its own.  Then off to Mahall's for Emo Night, which was glorious, as always.  

OC duty today -- 106 the count, but with five Saturdays, we expected it -- about 30%, I would say, had been there already and either forgot or were scamming.  Alas.  More seriously, all the produce is gone, the tables were wiped off, and we cleaned/consolidated the freezers; we are closed next week for Labor Day, and we can't have stuff lying around.  My month is over, and I can... not worry about crap.

Glenville football players accused of stealing $4,500 from Dick’s Sporting Goods - cleveland.com
This story amuses the hell out of me; for one, these kids should know better.  Two, we aren't going to hear from Teddy Ginn -- all about the kids, you know -- about this.  If we had real reporters, of course, they would be asking him about this.  But, we do not... 

Mattie is back

Long week.  Sigh.  And, one of my coworkers -- our Research Associate -- was let go today.  I feel badly for her -- a lot was on her plate, and she was trying to do that and learn the business of building products.  I mean, I understand, and the housing market is not good, but...  

Couple of days ago I dummied into a Creationism podcast on Youtube, and of course I had to listen.  It was...interesting.  Like, there is a lack of funding for Creation Science, a bunch of these guys want to go to Alaska to see if there is any DNA in the bones there, and that all the coprolites are evidence for Young Earth Creationism (the only kind!).  OK...But then it took an interesting turn; they discussed the Curse of Ham and how some groups -- especially on the right -- are using it to spread hate and racism.  I really paid attention here, because one so rarely hears this sort of thing, but they were quite animated about it; the Curse of Ham is NOT a racist trope -- and nor should real Christians partake.  Rather, the Curse is about those who turn from God.  Honestly, I had not heard such a strident denunciation of this -- and from a right-leaning site, if you will -- that I almost want to listen to another.

The moon disappeared!  I have been going out intermittently to check the eclipse, and it was one thing to see it in part, but it is completely different to not see the moon at all (even with the clouds).  Reminded me of the Totality during the solar eclipse, even if it was not quite so jarring...but still cool.

Getting Ahead Has Never Been Easy - A Wealth of Common Sense
I have seen the site referenced a couple of places, and there is something to be said -- that was once rare is now commonplace, and what was once a luxury, even poor people can enjoy - I always get a kick out of the large TVs you see when doing home visits (prolly rented at exorbitant rates, too).  Nothing like a bit of financial education couldn't cure...

What’s Cool in High School? Personal Finance - WSJ
Ask and you shall receive!  More seriously, this is good, even if for some people, it may as well be Greek...

Trump changed Republican economics. Now the GOP has to figure out how to sell it. - POLITICO
Dare I say that the combo of tariffs and the Iran War makes this...impossible?  I mean, the man would have a compelling case without both, and with one you can make an argument, but now...

Polynesian Wayfinding: How these sailors navigated the open Pacific with no compass or GPS
This is awesome, and if I had the stones, I would do the same...

‘There’s no real rules’ for NIL agents. And some like it that way - The Athletic
The whole time I was reading this article, I was like... isn't that the point?  I mean, there should be some rules, but it is not like the college coaches (ahem, Lane Kiffin) seem to operate with any, so why shouldn't everyone else do the same?