Some Links to chew on.

 I know these funnies aren't for everyone, most are kinda quirky and scientifical, but that pretty much describes yours truly.  They're Camp Massawomee's  Winter Solstice gift  to the rest of humanity.  

This here one is my favoritest comic strip, almost.  Scenes From A Multiverse    though I like Calvin and Hobbes maybe morer.  The Perry Bible Fellowship is pretty cool too.  The Abstruse Goose goes down easily as does PHD Comics.   Are we sensing a theme developing here?  Well let's add this one to the mix xkcd.

The above is a t-shirt found at the Shop and Save in Mannington and photoed by my friend Jack Bailey.  I thought it special.

And lastly I want to thank all of my blog's followers.  Both of them....Happy holidays Patricia and Sean.

Christopher Hitchens

     I did not know Christopher Hitchens until he died.  I had not read any of his works, nor seen any of his television appearances.  Missed all his lectures, debates, and book signings.  To me he was a cipher, a zero.  Then he dies, and instantly there are obituaries everywhere, encomiums  galore, sprouting like dandelions on a warm spring day.  Such praise of a man I had not heard of before piqued my curiosity, and after reading laudation upon platitude I find him a kindred soul, but too late this recognition.  Ah, but  the printed word is nigh immortal, and I have a lot of reading to do to catch up with Christopher Hitchens.  But I aim to try.  To paraphrase someone else..."The world is a much more ignorant  place now".  

WTF

Attention:  This is a rant.  If it offends you, then fuck off.

     Several days ago I received a request to send a form letter to the Department of Justice/Attorney General and President Obama requesting them to reconsider their stand on Medical Marijuana.  Yesterday I got it returned to my mailbox with the notation that it was rejected by the addressees as SPAM.   My letter was rejected as spam'
     I'm sorry,  it may have been a form letter, but it said what I wanted it to say to the President and Attorney General of the United States  of   my belief that medical marijuana is beneficial to our society and should not be outlawed, and did it much better than I could.  I do not send spam.  To say my letter is spam is disrespectful at the least and certainly against the spirit of our Constitution.  Am I not allowed to let my voice be heard.  Are  the president and attorney general  of our great nation deaf to the people?  I guess we will find out.  I'm for sacking all 537 of our elected officials in DC.  Start off with a clean slate.  Cannot possibly be worse than what we have now.

     The cherry on top of this fiasco is that I normally wouldn't have known that my letter to holden and obysma was rejected as spam because I get so much spam I bulk erase/empty my spam folder  every three/four days and don't look at the contents  But a friend wanted an address for an  site that sends me spam for viagra/cialis and the government reject was sitting directly next to it.  My letter that was rejected as spam  was automatically put in my spam folder.  Go figure....
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Doing a friend a favor, or strange things I saw this week

     I think it was my friend Trish who took me to the grocery last, the time I broke down and bought two out of season tomatoes.  The smaller tomato of which when I sliced into it for my tomato, egg and cheese sandwich, had sprouted seeds inside.  Either that or there were little green wormy seedy things growing inside the tomato and either way they didn't improve the taste of the bland vapid love apple.  Guess it's time for canned.  And speaking of which I recently read an article "Five things experts won't eat", and canned tomatoes was one of them.  Seems the plastic lining has some sort of biphenol that leaches out of the lining because of the acidic nature of the tomatoes.  The expert said eat only tomatoes canned in glass, which you can't find in the store, only on the shelves of home canners.  I'm not a home canner, and I'll brave the biphenol,  perhaps that's what improves the taste of canned tomatoes over the frankenmato we find in the stores most of the year.
     I picked my friend Jack up at the Pittsburgh airport Friday night,,,always a pleasant chore, but this was late (10:30) at night and I had trepidation.  One of the reasons the trip to the airport is pleasant is that they have a pretty good newsstand.  But being so late I thought they would be closed..They were open...yeah...but the only newspaper I saw was "USAToday".  I picked up a copy, looked around for "Games" magazine.  None to be found, so I got a copy of "Golf Digest"  my reasoning being I could read it for tips to playing Tiger Woods Golf on my Wii.  I checked out and the cashier Chris asked me if I wanted a bag, I said no, and as I said that I spied a large blue plastic  basket back behind him that seemed to be filled with newspapers.  Couldn't tell which one, they were all the same but they didn't seem to be the USAToday, unless they were yesterday's issue.   So I asked him what they were and he replied Pittsburgh Post Gazette.  Well that's cool I thought, "I'll take it".  Then the cashier asked if I  would you rather have  the  Tribune-Review.  "Both" I said, "do you have the New York Times?"  His answer made my heart soar like an eagle.  "Yep, got it.  You want it or the New York Post?"  "Both" I gleefully responded.  Bingo I had struck it rich.  Thanks Jack.  But damnit it was too late for coffee, all the shops were closed. That's another good thing about the airport in Pittsburgh, the coffee not too bad.
      I had gassed up in Mannington before the trip so I didn't need gas, but for all of you who have been to the Pittsburgh airport, have you noticed that the gas station there is internal, and if you stop for gas you have to go all the way around again,,,about three miles worth of going round again...what's up with that.
      Jack hadn't eaten all day so we stopped at Quaker Steak and Lube near Robinson Township.  Always a treat because the place in filled with automobile memorabilia, and Jack is fluid in Car Talk.  Eating hot wings and having Jack talk cars is pleasant enough, but this time we got into a discussion about the Harley with the Santa Claus rider hanging from the ceiling directly over a couple next to us in a booth.  While Jack went on about the speedometer half-way up the left front fork, and if the small tube on the right side of the machine was an oil filler tube or the oil pressure gauge, or both and just where was the shock absorber for the rear wheel, none being evident.  While all this is going on the couple under the motorcycle are sure were talking about them as they can't hear us, the TV drowning our voices out, and all they notice is we're looking in their direction with great animation.  The guy's bigger than both Jack and I together and I'm thinking take a hit on my inhaler now, or wait till he says something.  I wait, he doesn't do anything and I eat my fill of sub-Atomic wings and some really good fries.  Oh and a Small Guinness.   Small...I was driving.  Oh and at the door as we were leaving was a big thick newspaper "Pittsburgh City Review".  Icing on the cake.
     Only saw three deer all the way back to Mannington, then spooked three in my driveway as we pulled in.  No horns so they won't be pulling the load in a couple of weeks.

We are stardust, and that's the problelm

According to the best minds on the face of the earth, we, you, I, everyone, the dog Kissyface, every cockroach, mushroom, flu virus, rock, ocean, sea, rainstorm, everything except molecules of hydrogen and most helium are remnants of exploding stars.  Everything we see, taste, smell, feel everything that has existed, exists, will exist, save for the hydrogen and some of the helium, came from the interior of an exploded star.  That concept is so beautiful,,,,that if it were not true...I would think it so.   But it is true,,,We are star people...with star pets, eating star food, and that's the problem.

Or the solution to the Fermi paradox..

Sad note

Lynn Margulis, wife of Carl Sagan, died Tuesday from complications of a stroke she suffered a week earlier.  She was a visionary scientist and an inspiration to those of us who believe in Gaia.

RIP

Chicken again?

Right now I'm sitting back with a Martini made with homemade Tanguerey, having just taken a much needed nebulizer treatment and getting ready to watch an episode of "Burn Notice" on Netflix via my Wii.  I had to take the Nebulizer treatment a couple of hours early because like the beer bellied lung challenged ignoramus that I am, I ate five large chicken drumsticks along with a big scoop of leftover rice and broccoli with a cheese sauce.  My stomach is full pressing against my traitorous lungs, I'm struggling for breath and I'm smiling.  Content that even though I can't breathe, I have got a recipe for fried/baked chicken I am truly proud of.  This link KFC-Original-Recipe-Fried-Chicken-Recipe  Will provide the herbs mixture.  I don't use the eggs.  And it doesn't need that much sugar, tends to darken to much.  I marinate the chicken overnight in Buttermilk and Sirachi sauce, then when I'm ready to cook I wipe off the buttermilk and dust the chicken with the herb/spice mixture, Dump what's left of the herbs into a paper bag with a cup and a half of all purpose flour and shake the chicken to coat with flour and fry till deeply golden.....Stay hungry my friends.