Susan's Scribblings the Blog

Category: Uncategorized

• It’s Superb

  Posted at 6:51 pm by kayewer, on January 31, 2026

  The Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots (again?) will face off a week from tomorrow in what I jokingly call the Stupor Bowl, but which some people refer to as the “Big Game” or the “Superb Owl” Party. Amazing what moving a letter B from the start of one word to the end of another can do to dance around title copyrights.

  A match of two winning divisional NFL football teams to declare an annual overall champion will kick off in Santa Clara, California for an evening of tackles, men spouting statistics, Bad Bunny trying for the 19th time since 2007 to be the musical guest to top Prince’s halftime show, and corporate advertisements at eight million dollars per 30-second commercial trying to be the topic at every bar and home party in the nation.

  Last year, the Philadelphia Eagles won the championship. It was an exciting game for me, and I normally don’t watch football. Being from within eyesight of the capital of American independence (happy 250th to us this year), of course I sing the fight song and have an official jersey (bought when they won in 2018 to commemorate the victory). Some things you just can’t not bother doing, and when your local team makes the final two, even if you’ve gained a few ounces since you had the shirt made, you hold your breath and squeeze it on.

  Football is one of the American “four horsemen” of the sports apocalypse (the other three being baseball, hockey and basketball). Sports were never my thing, and gym class in school was torture because of it. We played a variety of sports, and in one sixth grade class we tried a casual version of football. I somehow got the ball and ran for a touchdown. To the wrong goalpost.

  The jersey is just fashion, folks.

  Anyway, the intensity with which this frozen final stand of the pro season can’t be denied. The grocery stores are already assembling pyramids of snacks, decking out meat sections teaming with ribs and chicken multi-packs and shuffling around pallets of sports drinks and colas from both of the beverage big two (and if you don’t know them, shame on you). Over the next week leading up to the big broadcast, speculation will be which company ads will be the most popular. Budweiser is a big contender each year with their beautiful Clydesdales often appearing. Occasionally a surprise guest ad will pop up, but the trend these days has been to stick to what people expect and then surprise them with something unexpected. I hear a recent embarrassment on a Coldplay concert Jumbotron may be spoofed in one commercial.

  Will I be watching the whole thing this year? No. Last year was enough to last until next time the Eagles go up to, um, bat?

  A friend and I check in on the scores occasionally when it’s not the Eagles playing. We snack and watch other programming we’ve grown accustomed to viewing when we get together. We let the guys work it out for themselves, and we buy what we normally do, without the influence of advertisers.

  The Pats have an advantage, having won an armload of these matches. If last year’s trend holds, the Seahawks may come out the winners this time. Come Monday, every sports network will buzz with the events of the evening before, and the Monday morning quarterbacks will have their time to cheer or gripe about what went right or wrong. The store pyramids will have been depleted, the hype over like a deflated balloon, and sports fans will turn their eyes toward basketball until baseball returns.

  Have I said much of interest here? Maybe not. However, after last week’s post, I’m relieved to say that the worst of the deadly storm system is in the past, and the near permafrost conditions left behind will be around for weeks and unlikely to be melted or dug out. I look forward to Monday, February 2, when a groundhog will hopefully predict an early spring.

  Spring. Baseball. I’m not a sports person, but I’ll take both right about now.

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  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged baseball, football, nfl, sports, writing

• The Cold Hard Truth

  Posted at 6:19 pm by kayewer, on January 24, 2026

  As I’m posting this, a large portion of the United States is about to experience an extreme weather event. Temperatures are expected to drop to well below freezing and stay there for the next eight days. On Sunday (January 25), snow and sleet will move across many states and affect millions of residents. I wonder why the anticipation of bad weather has not been made less scary by now, when we could have been fixing things before they become concerns.

  Our world, for all its modern technology, has not turned within to make life safer, choosing the development of AI over basic ecology to protect the planet we use that AI upon. Right now, millions of us are holding devices in our hands and hoping we can keep them charged without the power going out. I’m using mine to post this, so I’m equally guilty, but my purpose in calling attention to this is twofold.

  First, our electric supply system has gone solar in many places, but we still rely on above-ground power lines connecting power to homes and which can be affected by extreme temperatures and high winds, not to mention rain, ice and snow. In summer, power outages mean the inconveniences of excessive heat in some areas of the country, but in winter those outages place lives at risk. This means not only residents freezing in their homes, but repair crews who are tasked with climbing poles in dangerous conditions to restore power.

  So, we have people at home with no power, heart and breathing conditions compromised, women and small children turning into ice pops, and men and women slipping on poles yards above an uncompromising icy wasteland trying to save them and not endanger themselves. Those residents who try home remedies such as heaters, fireplaces or generators may succumb to fume poisoning. Carbon monoxide indoors in winter is as silent a killer as low temperatures.

  It’s uncertain whether the mysterious disappearance of our trash into the oceans is partly to blame for our extreme weather, but it may well be contributing to it. We are so fast to cast anything aside without a care about what happens to it afterward; I suspect we are paying off disposal companies to “make it go away” and then turning a blind eye to what they do with it. I have had nightmares about people in 2069 seeing trash from 1999 appearing in the tides as the sea gives up its unwanted waste. We aren’t burning it, and places such as India are living among piles of e-debris nobody wants to salvage. We’re a throwaway race of humans in a world which can’t accept what we are discarding in such huge quantities. The seas grow warmer, and nature fights back with extreme cold. It’s a paradox that is making our seasons challenges to our existence.

  If we don’t corral these discrepancies, our winters and summers will become worse. If Disney can have all their power works underground, we can certainly come up with a way to preserve 24/7 power for the rest of us. If we can make trash, we should also be able to unmake it. A philosophy in Frank Herbert’s Dune mentioned that whoever can destroy something has control over it. Why would we make plastics nobody wants to process once it’s used and instead toss them into landfills or feed them to our marine life? These extremes in weather may mean that our planet is fighting back, so our best defense is to give it no reason to.

  But that is a bigger question that needs a much larger answer than this short blog post.

  So, what was the second reason?

  This event, as I said before, may change lives. I don’t know what will happen during this next week. There is an actual probability of catastrophe. People may die this coming week. Your best bet is to stay where you are. Don’t drive in icy conditions and need somebody else to come after you. Layer up. Hunker down and hope for the best. That’s what I will be doing.

  Here’s hoping for the best in the worst possible conditions.

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  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged nature, snow, travel, weather, winter

• One Glove

  Posted at 6:22 pm by kayewer, on January 17, 2026

  Today was another adventure in life for me. I was at a late movie the night before and got out of bed almost past the morning as a result. So much for getting morning chores done. Still, I managed to do a lot in the two hours and change left to me before I needed to board a train for the city to see a play.

  While I was going through my Saturday morning routine, Mother Nature threw some snow our way, and the lawns and sidewalks were dusted with white. Fortunately, it was dry enough that freezing was not an issue, and the windshield of my car easily cleaned off with just my wipers.

  When I reached the train station, I caught a glimpse of a glove on the floor, but I thought nothing of it, as the rush of people coming and going would make it difficult to determine its current state. Perhaps its owner was nearby. I made my way through the turnstile and took the escalator to the platform to await the early train.

  A crowd had already begun to swarm about the enclosed station, and I happened to be standing near two older women and a man who were engaged in conversation. One of the ladies put on her right glove but searched her pocket in vain for its mate.

  The play I was going to see was about Sherlock Holmes, so the coincidence of this drama in front of me was not to be denied. I spoke up and said that I had spotted a glove on the floor downstairs. The gentleman was prepared to go check it out, but the lady waved the idea away. This is part of our stubborn and occasionally silly nature to chalk up such a small loss to karma and do nothing.

  I couldn’t do nothing.

  The journey back downstairs did not involve an escalator, but I can always use some exercise and didn’t mind the sprint. I looked for the glove, but it had been removed, so I glanced around and found it was sitting on the bench near its original location, and what appeared to be a bundled-up fellow with jacket strings dangling and their head down, was settled in next to it. I called out, “Excuse me, sir?”

  The “sir” raised their head. It was a younger woman festooned with hair extensions which cascaded over her thick jacket. When I asked, she brought the glove over, and with my face certain to be flushed with shame, I apologized for not guessing I was addressing a woman. She graciously waved it off.

  Thank goodness that sometimes waving something off pays off in more ways than one. I was emotionally in hell inside. Sir, indeed.

  I returned what turned out to indeed be the lady’s missing glove mate to her, and she was amazed that I would be kind enough to do it. I didn’t see how the fellow reacted, but we engaged in conversation until the train arrived. We were headed to the same show, which turned out to be a hilarious play with six cast members acting out multiple roles and pulling it off marvelously.

  As for me, I took extra care to make sure my gloves were accounted for in my pockets, and I’m glad the lady did not need to go without hand protection in chilly weather. The lady who brought the glove to me may well be considering her future choice of attire to avoid being mistaken for somebody else.

  And by the time the event was over, the snow had almost entirely melted.

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  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged good-deeds, lost-and-found, sherlock-holmes, walnut-street-theater

• Not a Tusk

  Posted at 3:31 pm by kayewer, on January 10, 2026

  I made a resolution to offer some lighthearted or neutral posts during this year, because we are already overwhelmed with negativity in the world. This is the first of those attempts.

  I will issue a warning that intimate anatomy is a central part of this story, so discretion is advised. Having said that, I hope adults will see that this subject matter is educational as well as funny.

  The city of Camden is known as a center of poverty and crime in New Jersey. It’s situated across the Delaware River from Philadelphia and began as a soup pot of immigrants working at the shipyards as well as Campbell Soup and RCA Victor in the early 20th century. The RCA company is famous for its depiction of the dog Nipper, listening to a gramophone. Known as “His Master’s Voice,” the art graces the former workplace converted to living space in the form of a stained glass window. The address is known as the Nipper Building. Today’s population is still diverse, but a mixture of earnings classes, and the biggest workplace is now the hospital, which grew from one brick building to a massive campus near the waterfront.

  In 2025 crime generally decreased in Camden, including a summer devoid of shootings, but a recent event has made early 2026 headlines for a reason worth at least a partial grin.

  A popular cheesesteak and dive bar restaurant, Donkey’s Place, received Anthony Bourdain’s blessing as making the best Philly meat sandwiches in the state. As with many watering holes, Donkey’s displays conversation pieces, one of which is what is known in the medical community as a baculum; what we know as a bone in many mammals which supports, um, a certain male body part. This was formerly the prized bone of a male walrus, likely measuring some two feet long. Considering the bulk of the average walrus or his potential partner, it makes sense that such a wonder of creation has to be somewhat lengthy to function as it should.

  A patron was eating in the restaurant, used a credit card, and at some point asked to see the item. While the bartender’s back was turned, security cameras captured the patron walking out with it. So they have an idea of the person’s identity and have said they don’t want to press charges, only to have the item returned to them.

  The news made Stephen Colbert’s late night show, not to mention a slew of other news media, sporting “Beloved Walrus (is Mightier than the Sword) Stolen,” and similar headlines, along with the camera footage. This was news in the first week of January.

  That somebody would hoist such a thing makes us wonder what they intend to do with it. It’s not worth much, if you ask me. It’s a quirky bar item which has a tradition behind it, while the undeserving owner of it now has nothing but the anticipation of bad karma for committing petty theft.

  The word has gone out, and the owners and patrons who have seen the item on display for decades are looking forward to its return. So am I.

  I don’t know how such things can be tracked, but if you know something, now is the time to speak up. It may be a minor issue in the grandeur of life itself, but the many small things can add up to bigger disappointments later.

  If news develops, I will certainly follow up. For now, the bar is missing a prized item. We got a giggle (as did Colbert’s audience and the world watching), and the quest continues. For now.

  I hope there is a good outcome for the bar. Sometimes a place means more than just its purpose, but its reputation and community presence. That is what is missing without the return of a missing walrus part. With luck, the person will have a change of heart, like the Grinch, and it will grow a size.

  And if you anticipated a joke there, you’re forgiven.

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  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged camden, donkeys-place, new-jersey

• False Start

  Posted at 3:46 pm by kayewer, on January 3, 2026

  I don’t know what happened to 2026, but it got off on the wrong foot if you ask me. In my region, we awoke to a January 1 surprise. I went to bed early since I had made no plans to celebrate (and no food in the house with which to do so), and I woke up to a coating of snow on the ground containing a mix of sleet. This meant I spent part of the morning scraping, shoveling, sweeping and chopping to clear the sidewalks and my car.

  Fortunately this chilly start to the year didn’t put a damper on the Philadelphia tradition of marching the Mummers along Broad Street, but it did affect the competitive portion for the string bands. They performed without their large props due to high winds. The committee responsible for the judging and awarding of prizes for the best of the bands are working out when and how to reschedule the event so they can receive the accolades they deserve.

  The string bands march last in the outdoor portion of the parade, and their elaborate performances are the highlight of the entire day. Leave it to Mother Nature to start the New Year with a long-winded weather event. It’s prudent to postpone; however, the leader of each band carries a large backpiece which, if picked up by a heavy wind, could blow him to Pittsburgh, and they still marched wearing them. The other performers, who sport smaller backings, could be bowled over by high gusts, so safety first makes sense for the staged episodes (they bring everything with them to perform at designated spots throughout the parade route). There were no reports of flying Mummer sightings.

  On Friday I had to work, so I promptly signed in and began doing reports for the end of the month and year, followed by customer feedback. We have an online form which asks for the basics, but of the dozens of incoming notices I received, practically none of them were filled out properly. I blame the lingering effects of reveling on Wednesday evening, but also wonder if people are just unable to perform such simple tasks anymore.

  When I went out to run errands today, you wouldn’t even know there had been December holidays. I stopped by a mall for a few essentials and found that Christmas had been dismantled, and much of the winter gear was on clearance with swimwear on the racks. I decided not to buy clearance sweaters, since I already have a decent supply, as well as enough to get me through spring and summer.

  The local patisserie was quiet, and I didn’t need to wait in line. However, they ran out of tongs for the usual “grab and go” ritual. I skipped going to the supermarket as this is the first weekend of the month and the benefit check cart brigades fill every store all weekend long. If you’ve never caught the spectacle, it’s a comedy of confusion as a car filled with shoppers descend and grab carts to fill to overflowing with a month’s worth of food at once. It’s not as if the stores close down, but more that the money needs to be put in the proper place right away so the family can at least eat for 31 days. Thank goodness for February and a shorter month to stretch that benefit a bit more.

  My last stops were the bird food store and my favorite bath needs place for supplies. The birds get yummy seeds, and I get cleansers and moisturizers. Luckily I still have funds left, as it was my payday as well yesterday.

  The overall impression was that we’re all exhausted from December, and returning to what we call normal on Monday won’t be easy or pleasant. But we now have 356 days before the next Christmas madness, which will fall on a Friday, as will the New Year 2027. The best we can do is soldier on and look forward to other milestones such as the start of Daylight Saving on March 8, the end of winter on March 20 (spring equinox), and Memorial Day, which is 142 days away on May 25.

  Are you blown away?

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  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged life, music

• 2025 The Year in Review

  Posted at 3:07 pm by kayewer, on December 27, 2025

  We have finally come to the end of a grueling and unpredictable twelve months. Next year America marks its 250th year as a nation, or semiquincentennial, with July 4 festivities and events filling our lives with a sense of hope and unity. Pragmatically, it should not matter what the populace in the capitol are like, as long as we hold to the values that got us through the other 249 years since the founding fathers signed documentation freeing us to be what we dream to be.

  Part of my dream was to be a regular blogger, which I have done for nearly two and a half decades, including here on WordPress. I haven’t taken a break for some time, posting each week on Saturday afternoons, occasionally adjusting when events in my life necessitated.

  In 2025 I posted articles about a variety of topics from South Korean business lunches, circus peanut snacks and how to properly fold paper around a McDonald’s Snack Wrap, to people who died and weren’t found for years, and word from the impoverished city of Camden that nobody died from violence all summer this past year. We looked at dieting and health, including cortisol and the last people using iron lungs to sustain them after surviving polio.

  I shared stories about crafting, decluttering, preparing tipsy holiday drinks, getting my feet too clean (they got blisters), and surviving being attacked by a sharp vegetable peeler.

  We looked at stadium webcam scandals, bullying, crosswalk etiquette, how to enter one’s name on an online form, the need for penmanship in schools and self-restraint in everyday life.

  With luck, some of what I wrote was enjoyable or useful.

  Now that 2026 is coming, it’s time to reflect inward and decide what the next year will entail. I know that I will probably be returning to the workplace, as my job informed me of it back in October. The target date has been pushed back to nobody knows when, but I will do what I have always done: carry on.

  The new year offers chances to make changes or new decisions, and I have quite a few coming up. Let’s hope the course is a smooth one for us all. We deserve it.

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  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged Books, faith, family, life, writing

• Yule Blog 2025

  Posted at 3:11 pm by kayewer, on December 20, 2025

  The holidays of 2025 have descended upon us again. By “the holidays,” I mean Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and New Year’s. And those are just the most commonly known ones. December 21 is Winter Solstice or Yule, the shortest day of the year. There is also Boxing Day (referring to the donation receptacle for the poor found at churches, not pugilism), and a little-known celebration on December 26 called Zarathosht Diso which commemorates the death of a prophet worshipped by the Zoroastrians for over 4000 years. Followers trek to temples or spend time in reflection and readings.

  For the second year in a row, I decided to make limoncello. Those of you who tuned in a few weeks ago know how the initial prep went on Thanksgiving. Since then my hacked-up finger has healed, and the infusion is now ready for simple syrup and distribution into jars to give to excited consumers who enjoyed my first batch.

  I still plan the usual beef for Christmas dinner and pork for New Year’s, though my beef this year will be a decent brand of hamburger as the eye roast prices are seriously over budget. A trip to “Ack-a-me” brought out the “Ack!” response upon seeing the price per pound. Albertson’s is having a bad year.

  As to other holiday traditions, I and others will tune into a Turner network at some point between Christmas Eve and late Christmas Day to watch Ralphie shoot his eye out with a Red Rider air rifle (A Christmas Story), and folks in Sweden will watch Donald Duck (or “Kalle Anka”) and the legacy Disney ensemble in a traditional holiday broadcast promptly at 3:00 PM on Christmas Eve. Also I will be bingeing a few episodes of my newest diversion on Passionflix, The Black Dagger Brotherhood. And for those rolling their eyes, there appears to be nothing about channel owner Tosca Musk’s character that screams negativity, so I’m checking out the broadcast story before reading the books and supporting the performers.

  The mall parking lots are the fullest they’ve been all year, a testament to the return of holiday shopping madness, so I have not set foot in any mall since before Thanksgiving. Also, the stomach virus has infiltrated nearby towns to our west, and so I’m trying to stay more than a lightyear away from anything or anybody from which I could pick up that gastrointestinal terror from the microscopic world of germs.

  Next week will be a recap of 2025 and a look ahead. One must have something to look forward to, and a major event is our 250th anniversary as a nation, flaws and all.

  Be safe, don’t overspend, and don’t forget to watch something holiday themed on television.

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  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged christmas, family, holiday, holidays, life

• You Can Keep Your Nakatomi Tower

  Posted at 6:10 pm by kayewer, on December 13, 2025

  This past week I have seen a few social media references to the 1988 film Die Hard being a holiday movie most popular around Christmas. The film is set around the holidays and has thus become action aficionados’ best present to themselves on television during the year-end broadcasting festivities.

  Not to be outdone, another post appeared in my feed about something I had not realized before: that December 11 is considered “Psycho Day” in the quaint city of Phoenix, Arizona. The mayor at the time, Thelda Williams, made the date official in 2018, and people are now asking if Alfred Hitchcock’s classic thriller is also considered a holiday film.

  The city of Phoenix was the backdrop for the movie’s action, which opens with a timeline of Friday, December 11 at 2:43 PM. Phoenix was decorated for Christmas in several shots featuring actress Janet Leigh and the cast before her doomed character of Marion Crane sets off to meet a ghastly fate (no spoilers here: not every human being reading this has seen the movie).

  The film itself began principal photography on November 11, 1959, meaning the cast and crew were rolling film just before Christmas. Janet Leigh herself has said in quotes that she spent seven days filming her crucial scene in a small bathroom set. Hitchcock himself oversaw everything and kept only a limited crew on hand for the most vital roles. What a Christmas present to get out of there.

  Also, December 11 did fall on Friday during filming in 1959. I know, because I looked it up.

  So, when deep diving into such a subject, the question becomes whether it matters.

  For me, this movie serves a few distinctive purposes. I was a newborn when the filming began (I probably wasn’t out of the hospital yet, as they kept new moms there for a few days back then) and didn’t see it until over a decade after it was released in theatres in 1960. My first viewing was on 1970s evening television. I was probably too young for a PG movie with that type of content (it was rated M for mature audiences at first release). It was quite a shocker, and I consigned it to my “one and done” viewing list of classics (up there with less than a handful of films such as Saving Private Ryan). I still followed up over the years and know a lot about it, but I probably will not view it again in my lifetime.

  When a film has elements of the holidays in them, is it a holiday film? My opinion is this: if you like to watch movies with holiday references in them during the holidays, it’s fine. It may not be Christmas classic material, but even a scary movie can contain elements of the season.

  Phoenix residents capitalize on the tourism aspect of the movie’s success, because quite a few of the landmarks in the scenic parts of the movie’s establishing shots are still present in town, particularly the Westward Ho tower which appears prominently, along with a half dozen other historic buildings still standing. Not to mention Arizona’s natural beauty surrounding the city.

  In Phoenix the film first screened on August 11, 1960, at a theater which is apparently still in business as well. People nationwide allegedly fainted at screenings, and film students are regularly given Hitchcock’s classic canon to examine in detail and see what makes it hold up.

  In this case, Psycho is still relevant after 65 years. The movie has earned a position of historic significance and is preserved in the National Film Registry. It has outlived its characters, its director, and appears on cable at least once on classic networks such as TCM around Halloween time mostly, but not at Christmas. It’s no more a true holiday movie than any of the Harry Potter films are, even when Hogwarts is decked out with trees and floating candles. No matter.

  And speaking of Harry Potter/Die Hard actor Alan Rickman, I’m not sure if Mr. Rickman’s plummet off Nakatomi Tower or Maltin Balsam’s detective Arbogast’s fate on the Bates house’s staircase was more exciting or gruesome, but whichever you watch on your TV, enjoy. It’s all good during the holidays.

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  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged alfred-hitchcock, christmas, film, horror, movies, phoenix-az

• Getting Across

  Posted at 3:40 pm by kayewer, on December 6, 2025

  Some people would say that we are dealing with generations of humans who, to put it politely, may have been released from the education system prematurely. From the content of some of the daily head-scratching news snippets and so-called entertainment we’ve seen lately, those opinions may be right.

  Case in point. As I was on my way to prepare this very post. I was a few cars back in a left turn lane and waiting for the light to change. A pedestrian stepped off the curb, wove between the vehicles stopped in traffic and continued to their destination of a bodega on the opposing corner. The white-lined crosswalk, where drivers expect to see pedestrians in motion, was steps away.

  Did this person call in sick from kindergarten for a full year and miss out on this basic life-saving rule? When one steps into the designated crosswalk, the drivers waiting to proceed are ready to acknowledge their presence, and the walker lessens the risk of an unexpected injury by a considerable margin.

  Many a time I have groaned in parking lots when people returning to their vehicles meander through the zones between the herringbones of parked conveyances, even ignoring those who must stop or slow to a crawl behind them. The drivers aren’t capable of parking between two lines or spacing themselves just shy of the barrier in front, leaving their expensive rides with butts or front bumpers protruding for a foot or more or at an impossible angle for others to navigate.

  One only needs to troll social media to find hilarious and, sometimes, headache-inducing examples of people who either never got the memo or decided it was wise to rebel against convention. For every news article I see about which my first question is, “What were they thinking,” I want to sit them down and actually find out. I want to get a handwritten story about them and why they did what they did, so I could better understand why things in this world have degenerated from respectful liberty to thoughtless anarchy. If you can write about it, the act of reading the thoughts of somebody who seems to be thoughtless may offer clues as to the true state of mind in some of these dim bulbs we are finding in life’s chandelier.

  Perhaps, in a twist of fate, this explains why handwriting and penmanship have been discontinued in education. Nothing good can come from graduating students who can’t even spell ransom notes out of cut-out letters from printed media, let alone submit a scrawled note.

  I saw a photo of a clothing article for sale which read, “never been weared,” which lead me to go off on a social media post this past week about folks who say “could of” instead of “could have.” For those of you who have read my past grumblings about grammar, you know I’m on a starvation diet on that hill. And no, I wasn’t interested in the item which had never been worn.

  We enjoy watching videos of people who have no clue at all, such as a popular restaurant humor feed on social media (okay, maybe two) in which people can’t comprehend the menu. One example is the different terms used for identifying the sizes of tomatoes. A customer didn’t want cherry tomatoes on her salad because she was allergic to cherries, blissfully unaware that the term describes the small, round appearance of what is one hundred percent just a tomato. Or the person who mistook Chilean sea bass for fish oddly served with a common meal of sauce and beans (what we call chili).

  The worst restaurant patrons must be visitors to a restaurant specializing in one culture’s food and expecting another’s to be on the menu. I knew somebody who always ordered one food no matter where we were eating, because they figured it was on every menu. The first problem was that they had a reading disability which was never diagnosed or treated. The other issue was one which seems to be a stubborn trait some people refuse to break free from, when the only foods that matter in their world are those to which they have been exposed, so everything else is something they would not like, even if it’s similar to a dish they know. An example includes the person who could not drink anything in the establishment because it wasn’t their accepted cola from between the two main competitors in our country. You know them both. Damn cola wars. They didn’t want something else to drink, either, in an eatery with several beverages and a full bar.

  Attitude and stubbornness contribute greatly to our ignorance, because the fight itself prevents even the inkling of a new idea from appearing for consideration. And so an entire populace deprives themselves of the joys of a whole wide world they could explore within reason.

  Sure our world has advice and precautions. That doesn’t mean your ability to think is restricted, but you may live longer to think harder if you just follow along.

  When I was young, you crossed the street at the crosswalk. The cars knew you were there, you knew everybody was stopped, you had the light, and everything was right with the world. The person who tries to pull an Al Pacino (think Midnight Cowboy) and dodge oncoming traffic often feels that they should be in the right no matter what they are doing, when it isn’t common sense in the first place. If you’re “walking here” instead of “there,” where you’re supposed to, it’s at your own risk, my friend.

  Some things are meant to be in your best interest, even if they feel like impositions, such as crosswalks and learning to create words with your hands, and understanding the basics of dining in a restaurant. The more we need to explain these things which should be common knowledge, the worse off we are as a universe of sentient beings.

  I’m sure more of these indiscretions will appear in the future. For now, I just hope nobody in all dark clothing decides not to cross at the crosswalk.

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  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged news, safety

• Fingertip of the Day

  Posted at 4:32 pm by kayewer, on November 29, 2025

  I started a new Thanksgiving tradition last year just for fun. When I saw a recipe in the local paper to make limoncello, I thought it would be a perfect distraction project. Since I don’t drink alcohol but maybe once a year (and this is about that time for once), and I had none of the ingredients or tools, I was all in.

  Try new things, they say. It will be fun, they say. And at least it’s not cave exploring or snow skiing.

  Last early November, I popped into the local food market and Target to buy the things I would need for the first part of the preparation. I bought organic lemons, my container and jars, then went to the liquor store (all in the same strip mall) for vodka. The general opinion of my inner circle is that Tito’s is the drink of choice, so I got a big bottle and, on Thanksgiving Day, I set to work.

  First, the lemons needed to be peeled to incorporate the yellow outsides with the vodka for the flavor infusion. My vegetable peeler didn’t quite meet the task, though it had peeled potatoes under my mother’s skills for decades, so I ended up using a grater. Once the peels (more like grains) of lemon and booze were in a container, I got to watch them for three weeks while they mingled and produced a yellow concoction not unlike Mountain Dew(R).

  Once the infusion part was done, I needed to incorporate simple syrup to taste. My problem was that I had no taste by which to judge what I was making, never having actually consumed limoncello. When unsure, go with your gut, I always say. A few additions of sweet water and tasting later, I had a half dozen jars of liquid joy. They went over a treat.

  This year, I had a new vegetable peeler for the task, but forgot about getting organic lemons to make the prep faster. I had bought non-organic seedless lemons, and needed to wash them in hot water to remove the wax coating. It wasn’t a bad chore, and I enjoyed watching the plumes of wax drifting in the sink water’s eddies while I worked. It added a few minutes to the prep, but we were on schedule, and the turkey would be going into the oven at the appointed hour.

  When it came time to peel, my new device started out going through those lemon rinds like a knife through butter.

  Until that butter was my fingertip in the way.

  A moment of stinging pain, and suddenly my index finger was a leak in the dam, dripping happily like it was auditioning for a slasher movie. Direct pressure stung like heck and did nothing. I had to abandon the project for a bit and sit down with my arm above my head to slow the pulsing flow of my dark red DNA infused lifeforce from exiting my body like those movie patrons fleeing The Blob.

  After seriously considering a visit to urgent care for what amounted to a pinprick wound–what a way to spend Thanksgiving–the deluge subsided, and I was able to securely bandage the spot with waterproof tape and bandages and get safely back to the project, minus one vital finger.

  As I’m typing, the finger isn’t tender, nor has the skin color altered in any alarming way, but I do have one heck of a bandage job on there to help me when I had to work yesterday (no Black Friday off for me), and so far I’ve been able to do everything in spite of the inconvenience of that thick layer of first aid.

  The limoncello is percolating at room temperature in the kitchen, soon to become my second annual homemade gift of intoxicating wonder.

  And I can honestly say I put blood* into it, if not sweat and tears.

  *(Due to my annoyingly calm nature, I was able to avoid spilling bodily fluids anywhere near the food, and I aimed my flowing finger immediately at the kitchen sink.)

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  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged baking, food, recipe, recipes, travel

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