The Weekly Notes 2007
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Back to the Weekly
Notes 2007 Archives They seem to
have a huge crime problem. They are becoming the murder capitol of The first
problem is with the citizens. They bitch like all get out but they will not
finger the killers or testify in court. They are afraid or retaliation. So
what? They are getting shot anyway. The other problem is in our laws. I will
repeat a theme. The law should be, anyone who is convicted of using a gun to
commit a crime would get life in prison without parole. If that were our law,
no convicted felon would ever get a chance to commit a second crime. MITA: The Michigan Infrastructure and Transportation Association
is trying for a gouge of the driving public in If you want to talk about needing money for roads, I have
an anecdote. Last summer the local government decided to pave the road that
fronts my property. They did not ask me if I wanted it paved. They did not
ask anyone. They just did it. From that, I saw first hand why they
don’t have enough money. First, they dug up and hauled off a perfectly
good 5-foot deep roadbed. Then they replace it with a roadbed of exactly the
same materials. Then they took an entire summer with about 50 men plus heavy
equipment to pave a one-mile stretch of road. I am here to tell you, the road
building industry in Our choppers are like ducks in a shooting gallery over there. They are getting shot down almost every day. If they fly high they get hit by missiles, if they fly low they get hit by small arms fire. There is no safe space. We get reports like 21 Americans killed; seven die in chopper crash, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. And the damn fool keeps saying we will win. It’s sickening, the waste of American kid’s lives. At Charles Gibson Asks: Why are the hybrid cars piling up on the dealers lots? They think it’s because gas is less expensive now. Maybe, but there is a more basic reason. Mr. John Q. Public has discovered that their performance is terrible. Like it or not, the American people still want power and speed. The hybrid does not give us those things. The gasoline engine does. Another Local Event: A five-year-old kid brought a plastic pellet gun to school and shot a girl in the head with it. The pellet did not hit her in the eye, so she was not seriously injured. That is, if we don’t count a moment of terror as an injury. Actually, it is a serious injury to the psyche. It’s a trauma. What ticked me off most was the media constantly calling this weapon a toy. Even thought they are made and marketed as toys, they are not. It is possible to maim or even kill a person with one of those guns if the pellet hits them in the eye. It is unconscionable of the manufacturers and the retailers to sell them as toys. It is unconscionable for a parent to buy one of them and give it to a five-year-old kid. Plum Pudding: We had this stuff every Christmas when I was a kid. I didn’t know what it was because my mother called it Suet Pudding. She was clever, but she was not very sophisticated. Whereas we use shortening, or sometimes lard, as the binder in most confections, this one uses suet. It is based on the English recipe and in olden days, suet was what they had, but most of them called it Plum Pudding even though there are no plums in it. I tried making this myself several times and was not satisfied. Then I discovered my sister still had my mother’s old recipe card file. Sure enough, she gave me the recipe and I made it. It was a dream and I was way back in 1940. The secret is not only in the pudding, but in the sauce which my sister also explained to me. The pudding is simple, but it takes time to make. Here it is. In a large bowl, mix together, 1 cup chopped suet (use a blender to make it very fine), 1 cup raisins, 1 cup dried currants, ½ cup molasses, ½ cup brown sugar, 1 cup sour milk (just put a drop of lemon juice or vinegar in a cup of milk and let it sit about an hour), 1 tsp. Baking soda, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. nutmeg, and 2&1/2 cups flour. When you get this stuff all mixed up, it looks like baby poop. Put this gunk in a container that you can seal. The container cannot be more that 2/3 full. I used a stainless bowl and sealed it with aluminum foil tied with yarn. Put the container on a rack in a large covered pot. Put water in the pot and steam the pudding for 3 hours. If necessary, add more hot water to the pot. When it comes out, it no longer looks like baby poop. It looks like a soft misshapen fruitcake. That’s what it is, really. Let it age for at least one day before slicing and serving it. Slice it thin, like fruitcake. The sauce is also simple. In a double boiler, combine 1/3 cup sugar, 1&1/2 tbsp. cornstarch, and 1 cup milk. Heat and stir until
thick. Remove from heat and stir in 1 tbsp. butter, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1 tbsp.
white rum. sprinkle in 1/2 tsp. nutmeg. Spoon it hot over the pudding.
It’s to die for! Back
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