Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

Washington, D.C. is being dumped on, and not by angry Tea Party members. This time it’s snow. LOTS of snow. Record amounts of snow. To which I say, Good. Let it snow.

In his extraordinary book, “The Worst Hard Time; The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Dust Bowl, author Timothy Egan tells of the time that dust started falling on Washington, D.C. It was years into the man-made ecological disaster and devastation. Congress kept saying, it was a temporary problem, it would blow over, it wasn’t really happening, just a minor weather problem, the problem was being exaggerated, a conspiracy by Roosevelt liberals to tax and spend to try to fix the problem, and all those other deja vuish articles of faith we now hear said about “global warming.”

Then dust started fallin on Washington, DC. The sky darkened, literally, and the dust fell. For days and days. Dust from Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, the Panhandle. Dust falling from dark skies at high noon. For days. Scared hell out of the Congressmen who woke up and said, “We got a problem here,” and finally allocated funds for the CCC and various farm bureau programs to get to work planting trees, teaching and instituting soil conservation measures, and buying out near-dead farmers and excess, “toxic” farmlands that never should have been farmed in the first place.

Slowly, through human efforts and the end of a drought cycle, much of the land was restored and the dust blows stop. All it took was dust to fall on Washington D.C. Tons of dust.

Since we have a similar situation with this Congress (global warming is a myth, it isn’t caused by humans activity, it’ll blow over, it’s just a conspiracy by Obama liberals to tax and spend to help avert the coming disaster, & etc.) I say, Let it snow. And snow. And snow. Darkness at noon in D.C. is what we need now.

On the Other Hand

Tim Rutten, in his L.A. Times column presents a far darker problem. Congress itself. Do nothing Congress in the form of Senator Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala) “who has put a personal hold on more than 70 executive branch appointments until the Obama administration agrees to fund a couple of pork-barrel projects hehas earmarked for his state. One involves tens of millions of dollars for an FBI laboratory focusing on improvised explosives – something the bureau desn’t think it needs. The other involves contract specifications for an aerial tanker that Northrop Grumman and Airbus would manufacture in Alabama, if they win the deal. . . . Unless the administration agrees to give Shelby what he wants, he intends to invoke an archaic senatorial privilege that allows him to prevent the chamber from considering any of the administration’s nominees to executive branch vacancies, no matter how crucial. Without the 60 votes to force cloture – another archaic convention – there’s nothing the Democrats or the White House can do. . . . Outside the Senate, Shelby’s conduct would be called extortion: inside the chamber it’s a ‘parliamentary tactic.’

“It’s also the sort of shabby situation that brings into sharp focus both the sources of congressional dysfunction and the popular discontent on both the left and right with the congressional parties. Earmarks and pork are anathema to a majority of conservatives and independents; the Senate’s outdated, made-for-obstruction rules and susceptibility to special interests are a source of increasing frustration to liberals and some independents. Yet, here we have one senator from one Southern state obstructing with impunity an entire nation’s business – purely for his narrow constituency’s financial interest.”

Compared to what global warming will do to this country, the devastation of the Dust Bowl is miniscule. With a dysfunctional government, a clueless, asleep-at-the-switch citizenry, even a mile-wide glacier falling on D.C might not be enough to do the trick.

Get the rowboats.

Oh, Wait, That’s Right.

Republican Vice Presidential candidate and former (resigned) moose-shooting Governor of Alaska (who can see Russia from her house) announced on Fox News that she would consider running for President if she felt it was the right thing for her.

Thank Goodness. We are saved!

Your Super Bowl Sunday Soup

Oh, I know, you’re gonna being gobbling greasy chicken wings and sour crème, but if you might want something lighter, this wonderful, simple to make soup is from the February Sunset Magazine, Fast & Fresh article and was submitted by Rita King of Scottsdale, AZ. I made a few changes, (tossed an extra apple into the soup mixture; you could also add a fennel bulb) as this soup invites changes. The soup freezes very well, but if you plan on freezing it, I’d leave the milk/cream out until just before reheating and serving. I’ve had it both with and without the blue cheese, with and without the garnish apple chunks and for sure the blue cheese really kicks up the flavor. Yum.

Celery soup with apples and blue cheese.

1 head (bunch?) (1 ½ lbs) celery, Slice off bottom, clean of any sand,
½ sweet onion, chopped
1 qt (box) reduced-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
2 tsp butter
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and one finely diced, the other chopped and added to pot.
½ cup half and half – or milk
1/3 tsp each salt and pepper
1/3 c chopped flat leaf parsley
1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese

Cut celery into 1 in. chunks, peel and chop one apple. In large pot, boil celery, apple and onion with broth, covered until tender, 20 -25 min.
Meanwhile, melt butter in a small frying pan over medium heat. Peel and fine dice the second apple and cook in pan, stirring occasionally, until carmelized and soft – about 10 min. Set aside as garnish.
Using blender or stick blender, puree soup mixture. Stir in half and half (milk), season to taste. Ladle into bowls and top with parsley, cooked apple and cheese crumbles.

Rainy Day Activities

I know, it's Saturday and it's raining and we can't go out to play. So, here's a few fun things to do until the sun comes out.

1. Visit the Allee Willis Musuem of Kitsch at www.awmok.com. Don't be shocked to find things there that are duplicates of things you may have laying around the house. Didn't know you owned museum quality things, now did you?

2. The late David Levine was a brilliant artist and caricaturist whose works regularly graced the pages of the New York Review of Books. AT www.nybooks.com/gallery, you can click on any year and take a gander of some of the amazing drawings of noted people throughout the years. His was an extraordinary talent that will be missed.

3. Now it's cleared off it a bit, head down to the San Luis Obispo Art Center (1010 Broad St on west end of Mission Plaza ( www.sloartcenter.org) to see the 25 year retrospective of the work of David Settino Scott, "California primitive."

I knew David centuries ago in L.A. We had some of his early works in the downtown Simard Art Gallery where I worked. When I moved to Los Osos in 1984 I rather lost track of the L.A. art scene and years went by and up popped a Tribune "Ticket" story on a "David Settino Scott" show at Cuesta College Art Gallery. The name "Settino" wasn't familiar, but the images featured in the story sure were, so I went to the opening and sure enough: David Scott. Unbeknownst to me, he and his wife had moved to the Central Coast about the same time as I did and he'd been working away quietly ever since.

I've been following his career since then and couldn't be happier that he's having this wonderful show. His work's quite amazing, especially the stunning tryptichs and screens. Oh, and be sure to look for three of his wonderfully Poe-ishly creepy and beautiful, beautiful wood, wire, fabric, and encaustic (pigment in wax) black "crows." Woa!

Hell of a show, David. Hell of a show.

Hoot Time

If you're fans of that wonderful local group, " Cafe Musique," or have ever attended a concert by that amazingly ecclectic group, "Vagabond Opera," there's another group -- Fishtank Ensemble -- coming to the Coalesce Bookstore in Morro Bay on Friday, Feb 26, 7 p.m. and also at the Castoro Cellars in Templeton., Saturday Feb 27 at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $20 and available from SLOFOLKS (as is more information about the group) or from the book store itself. (Cash only for tickets bought at the store.). SLOFOLKS website is http://www.slofolks.org/ for further information. (Slofolks is a great outfit that brings amazing musicians to the central coast. Sign up on their website to get notices of upcoming events.)



From this week's Bay News: "Fishtank Ensemble is world music like you've never heard before. Electrifying stage show combining opera scat, jazz, gypsy, and Flamenco violins. The brainchild of no one, Fishtank is the serendipitous reunion of six gifted and misfit muscians. " Who play violin, musical saw, banjoele, percussion, upright bass, guitar and baglaman.



Baglaman? Woa, who would want to miss that??

Ya Wanna Run That One By Me One More Time?

So, let me see if I have this straight. Let’s say you’re an assistant CEO of a California County and your employment is a [correction] "non-civil service contract job, which means you can be unhired/fired for a variety of good reasons" And it turns out you were canoodling a gentleman with which your duties required you to negotiate over contracts, and otherwise engaging in inappropriate email banter with your immediate supervisor.

So your ultimate bosses, let’s say a Board of Supervisors, found out about this, spent over $300,000 of the taxpayer’s money to investigate you and your canoodling and then unhired your sorry [non civil service] behind.

So you sue the county for a bundle, claiming that you were sexually harassed by the Supervisor whom with you were exchanging inappropriate email. And the county – facing over a million in legal fees needed to defend themselves from you – decide to cut their losses and offer to settle for $180,000.

So you sign the settlement and walk away with $180,000.

Ah, well, nice work if you can get it.

Ask! Hup One, Two; Tell! Hup, One, Two

The Commander in Chief, President Obama, wants the “don’t ask, don’t tell” military policy rescinded this year. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff testified that he felt that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military is the right thing to do. General Powell, who derailed allowing gays to serve in 1993, has had a change of heart and now wants the ban “reviewed.” Defense Secretary Gates wants to issue orders that will relax the law’s enforcement until a year-long “review” can take place, but to date no stop-loss order has been issued regarding gay service personnel, a simple military order that would put dismissing gays on account of their gayness alone on hold.

Meanwhile, Joint Chief Mullen said the Pentagon will decide how to change the way the military is enforcing the law now and will begin a year-long “study” of how dumping the ban would work, including changes to be made in military benefits and other “equal treatment under military codes” would work.

John McCain, who had previously (when trolling for votes) said that if the top military brass told him lifting the ban was O.K. he’d be fine with that, has suddenly had a change of mind and after hearing from the top military brass saying they’re fine with lifting the ban, he now opposes it (trolling for future votes, fingers to the wind again, eh John?). And some of the loopier homophobe Congressmen went on record to speculate then hyperventilate about totally weird made-up “gay” scenarios pulled out of their psyches, which is always so creepily revealing. But scary, knowing those sexually kinky, fetid, roiling imaginariums are the same ones crafting laws that can do serious injury to the citizenry.

The whole thing brought about a very funny bit on The Daily Show wherein it was proposed that McCain wasn’t being a hypocrite but that he had forgotten what he’d previously said on account of his being old, so what we really need to keep our country safe is to ban OLD people from serving in Congress. After all, if they’re forgetting things, that’s a dangerous situation in a place that writes complex laws. Totally disrupts legislative preparedness and congressional cohesion. Worse, it becomes an awful burden on all the rest of Congress, having to deal daily with these OLD people all the time, often in close quarters, creeping up behind people, fiddling with their hearing aids in public, really icky stuff like that. We really shouldn’t have to subject our elected officials to such rampant OLDNESS. Awful!

Well, this is all déjà vu-ness. All the same tired old arguments were heard when it was proposed that Africa Americans be integrated into the general military population. Ditto when women wanted to sign up. Now, it’s the gays turn in the barrel. Nobody learns anything.

What remains so sad about all this is how willing, easy and quickly We The People are to enact laws that deny or remove basic rights and block or deny equal protections and deny equality under law from our fellow citizens.

And how hard and fiercely we battle -- spending years and years “reviewing” and “studying” and foot dragging -- when it finally becomes more than obvious that such laws need to be struck down or repealed.

Speaks volumes to our self-righteously, publicly professed commitment to “equal justice under law.”