Random Thoughts About Thoughts Random

rass · Post by **rass** » Fri Jan 20, 2017 7:06 pm

More or less distinct images (of her, not of Holiday or other random related singers) than you have fingers?

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Fri Jan 20, 2017 7:37 pm

More than a dozen distinct images of Bessie Smith. Some are album covers. (Maybe your filter is limiting the number?)

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Fri Jan 20, 2017 10:31 pm

Here's a random thought. The first time I had guacamole was when Daveinseattle made it at hood to coast. Hat was some good guac that got me hooked on the stuff. So thanks, dis!

Yes. I was 31 at the time. In a bubble.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Sat Jan 21, 2017 7:51 am

My mom never had avocado until she was mid-60s because she thought they were spicy.

Johnnie · Post by **Johnnie** » Sat Jan 21, 2017 4:18 pm

Never really dawned on me to eat guac until I started living in Arizona. Never grew up with the stuff and never bought it when I went food shopping. And it didn't dawn on me that I could make it myself until a friend in Arizona bought avocados and did so in front of me. Nowadays an avocado with chipotle Tabasco sauce is my favorite complement to lunch.

Rush2112 · Post by **Rush2112** » Sat Jan 21, 2017 4:51 pm

I love avocado tomato and cheese sandwiches. I like guac, but prefer straight salsa on chips.

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Sat Jan 21, 2017 5:31 pm

fwiw, my wife regularly puts avocado in our salads.

Kind of funny related subject - if you ever see "California Burger" on a restaurant menu, it means it includes avocado.

Gunpowder · Post by **Gunpowder** » Sat Jan 21, 2017 10:42 pm

A_B wrote:Here's a random thought. The first time I had guacamole was when Daveinseattle made it at hood to coast. Hat was some good guac that got me hooked on the stuff. So thanks, dis!

Yes. I was 31 at the time. In a bubble.

Whoa, I'm older now than you were then wwwhhhhooooooaaaaoooooaaaaaaoaaaaaaa

DaveInSeattle · Post by **DaveInSeattle** » Sun Jan 22, 2017 1:34 pm

A_B wrote:Here's a random thought. The first time I had guacamole was when Daveinseattle made it at hood to coast. Hat was some good guac that got me hooked on the stuff. So thanks, dis!

And that was the first time I had Woodford Reserve, so consider it a fair trade!

Good guac is so easy to make! Very simple....guac, cilantro, garlic, a touch of jalapeno and white onion. Don't go putting lime juice in it in the misguided notion that it will stop it from turning brown. Its the exposure to air that makes it turn brown. Guac doesn't keep...have to make it fresh every time.

Johnnie · Post by **Johnnie** » Sun Jan 22, 2017 1:41 pm

Is that why lime juice is added? I thought it was for flavor. I like the lime juice and diced tomato variation. But I'll have to try yours.

DaveInSeattle · Post by **DaveInSeattle** » Sun Jan 22, 2017 2:07 pm

Johnnie wrote:Is that why lime juice is added? I thought it was for flavor. I like the lime juice and diced tomato variation. But I'll have to try yours.

Usually (at least what I've always heard). Rick Bayless, the master of Mexican Fine-Dining, puts lime juice in his (recipe here: Simple Guacamole, so who am I to argue with that, but I'm not a fan of the lime taste in my guacamole.

A little diced tomato is fine, if it works for you. Another good trick is to save some avocado and do a dice on it and stir it into the mashed up stuff. Makes the guac a little more "chunky".

DSafetyGuy · Post by **DSafetyGuy** » Sun Jan 22, 2017 4:14 pm

sancarlos wrote:Kind of funny related subject - if you ever see "California Burger" on a restaurant menu, it means it includes avocado.

And if "California" is used as an adjective for other sandwiches, sprouts are likely also involved.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Sun Jan 22, 2017 4:15 pm

And suntan lotion in place of mayonnaise.

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Sun Jan 22, 2017 4:23 pm

Why do radio broadcasters of a football game feel compelled to tell us "the Packers' offense is moving right-to-left", or some such? It is really meaningless to a radio listener. (And, obvious to a tv viewer.)

bfj · Post by **bfj** » Sun Jan 22, 2017 4:40 pm

sancarlos wrote:Why do radio broadcasters of a football game feel compelled to tell us "the Packers' offense is moving right-to-left", or some such? It is really meaningless to a radio listener. (And, obvious to a tv viewer.)

Helps paint the picture.

Post by **brian** » Sun Jan 22, 2017 8:17 pm

sancarlos wrote:Why do radio broadcasters of a football game feel compelled to tell us "the Packers' offense is moving right-to-left", or some such? It is really meaningless to a radio listener. (And, obvious to a tv viewer.)

Yeah for radio only gonna disagree with you here.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Mon Jan 23, 2017 9:39 am

I like it for hockey. Helps me orient my brain.

The Sybian · Post by **The Sybian** » Mon Jan 23, 2017 1:14 pm

rass wrote:I'm helping the third grader with a Black History month project. She has to write (fill out) a 6 page biography of 20s blues singer Bessie Smith. The project requires she draw a picture of the subject for all six pages. There are not that many pictures available of this particular early 20th century blues singer. I'm definitely including a US stamp, and debating including her tombstone.

My older kid had the same project (Stevie was her subject) and she was able to both print pictures and type up and print out the written portion, too.

My son has to read a biography of a famous person of his choice, and write a report. He chose Jackie Robinson, and the book must be dated, as my son's report kept referencing "colored people."

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Mon Jan 23, 2017 1:53 pm

Yeah, dated 01-20-17.

(In case you've forgotten, that was the date of Trump's inauguration.)

bfj · Post by **bfj** » Tue Jan 24, 2017 7:41 pm

I really can't stand having a teenager in my house anymore. Nothing but attitude and zits.

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Tue Jan 24, 2017 9:44 pm

bfj wrote:I really can't stand having a teenager in my house anymore. Nothing but attitude and zits.

No doubt. I was bragging about my kid recently in the Parent thread, but this sort of shit happens in my house, too.

BSF21 · Post by **BSF21** » Tue Jan 24, 2017 10:38 pm

bfj wrote:I really can't stand having a teenager in my house anymore. Nothing but attitude and zits.

And semen.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Tue Jan 24, 2017 10:39 pm

I have two. Yuck

DC47 · Post by **DC47** » Wed Jan 25, 2017 1:54 am

The Sybian wrote:
rass wrote:I'm helping the third grader with a Black History month project. She has to write (fill out) a 6 page biography of 20s blues singer Bessie Smith. The project requires she draw a picture of the subject for all six pages. There are not that many pictures available of this particular early 20th century blues singer. I'm definitely including a US stamp, and debating including her tombstone.

My older kid had the same project (Stevie was her subject) and she was able to both print pictures and type up and print out the written portion, too.
My son has to read a biography of a famous person of his choice, and write a report. He chose Jackie Robinson, and the book must be dated, as my son's report kept referencing "colored people."

My oldest daughter was in fourth grade when her class was assigned to choose characters to enact in a "wax museum." They dressed the part of their chosen famous person and gave a first person report. It was pretty cute.

My daughter was way into baseball at the time and chose Jackie Robinson. She was intrigued by the number 42 on the rightfield "Wall of Fame" at Comerica Park, to the right of the last names of several Tigers legends' and their retired numbers (except Cobb of course). Their statues stand directly above on the concourse. Robinson's number is up on the wall because it's retired in every park.

DCdaughter#1 did a wonderful job depicting Robinson's point of view as he broke into segregated major league ball. As long as you could suspend any disbelief due to the blond ponytale sticking out behind her cap. Parenting tip: cutting out "Dodgers" in script from a piece of felt to paste up on the front of the uniform is best done by talented artistic hands. I assigned myself the script "B" for her ballcap.

DCdaughter#1 is now at one of those elite leftist colleges. The other day we were discussing her wax museum project -- now a family legend. She told me she could never get away with choosing to depict Jackie Robinson today.

Cultural appropriation, verboten. I understand the argument. But she was the only kid in the class who chose a character that crossed over either racial or gender borders. The rest of the class stuck to "their" race and gender. It struck me at the time that the other kids were missing -- perhaps due to parental influence -- a rare chance to have a mild experience of seeing the world from the point of view of someone quite different than themselves. Silly me, how could that be educational?

rass · Post by **rass** » Wed Jan 25, 2017 7:08 am

I guess the true horror of cultural appropriation has yet to hit some portions of suburban NJ as the third graders at my daughter's elementary school are doing a wax museum next month. I believe a flapper dress and some feathers will be the extent of one tiny little white girl's transformation into Bessie Smith (who, some minor changes to hair length notwithstanding, looks almost exactly the fucking same in all of the at most a dozen or so pictures of her available so how the fuck does sancarlos expect a fucking third grader to draw six distinct fucking pictures of her).

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Wed Jan 25, 2017 8:36 am

When I was younger...

"Cultural Appropriation" referred to an exploitative situation. Like borrowing from a traditional ethnic musical style (I believe the first time I heard the term was after Paul Simon's "Graceland" came out)

Pathetic that a gesture that is solely intended to honour someone is now considered offensive.

The Sybian · Post by **The Sybian** » Wed Jan 25, 2017 1:07 pm

rass wrote:I guess the true horror of cultural appropriation has yet to hit some portions of suburban NJ as the third graders at my daughter's elementary school are doing a wax museum next month. I believe a flapper dress and some feathers will be the extent of one tiny little white girl's transformation into Bessie Smith (who, some minor changes to hair length notwithstanding, looks almost exactly the fucking same in all of the at most a dozen or so pictures of her available so how the fuck does sancarlos expect a fucking third grader to draw six distinct fucking pictures of her).

Same thing here. In second grade, my son's class gave presentations on famous people, and dressed the part (wax museum?). There was a white Jackie Robinson and white Harriet Tubman, a Chinese George Washington with a thick accent and limited vocabulary, a Russian Oksana Baiul (highly controversial in Kiev), and others. Honestly, it never even dawned on me that this could be seen as inappropriate, and I'd be surprised if any of the mostly Liberal parents who attended did, either. How can presenting Jackie Robinson

I don't think the whole PC thing is nearly as bad or far reaching as the media and the Right make it out to be. The argument always pins the hyper-PC stuff on all Liberals, and I think it is a very small but vocal minority that push that crap. OTOH, truly racist people believe being called racist for saying and doing racist things is PC run amok. I'm seeing since Trump was elected, people saying they can finally say what they truly feel.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Wed Jan 25, 2017 1:23 pm

Its all the dumbshit "anti-PC!" crowd saying "I bet someone would be offended by _______" and they count that as someone actually being offended.

Jerloma · Post by **Jerloma** » Wed Jan 25, 2017 1:37 pm

Everyone's against political correctness...right up to the moment that their own ox gets gored.

Johnnie · Post by **Johnnie** » Thu Jan 26, 2017 2:55 am

This back and forth reminds me of the controversy with the mixed race parents in the Cheerios commercial.

The Fine Brothers did a react vid to it with a bunch of kids. And they reacted better than adults would.

As far as PC stuff, I'm always in constant eyeroll mode when I am constantly briefed/lectured about "what someone may think of the military" if I were to ever have a risque opinion on anything or use colorful language. Every situation is prefaced with "What if someone were walking by, heard what you said, and reacted to it?" And then I think about being in a profession where I'm indirectly responsible for killing people. Perspective is lost on some people. Yes, I'm aware of a line. But the arbitrary line, much, much closer than the real one, is what's imposed.

Or better yet, saying something in a group of people, and a reaction to it is "You know, someone can be offended by that. You shouldn't say it." And then you look around, no one is offended, and the person that says it becomes "offended" by proxy because you proved him/her wrong. An adult would either be offended or not -- not pull that bullshit. And yes again, I get that having behavior like that at work could lead to a decline in discipline, etc. But it's all context and intent. And, again as well, being in a job where you make sure the bad guys die.

Much easier to go with a zero tolerance policy because it's lazy than to have a grown up, nuanced discussion because some people can't handle reality and potential blowback.

Gunpowder · Post by **Gunpowder** » Thu Jan 26, 2017 8:48 am

Jerloma wrote:Everyone's against political correctness...right up to the moment that their own ox gets gored.

Brian's tweet about bedwetters encapsulates the far right so perfectly in so many areas.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Thu Jan 26, 2017 8:48 am

This feels very Groundhog's Day.

Post by **brian** » Thu Jan 26, 2017 11:23 am

Dan Harmon was Periscoping his morning cardio workout on Twitter (yeah, I have no idea why or why I was watching) and it occurred to me that if I grew my hair and beard out I'd probably look just like him.

ETA: Not necessarily a good thing or self-aggrandizing observation as those of you who know what he looks like realize.

The Sybian · Post by **The Sybian** » Thu Jan 26, 2017 3:22 pm

Gunpowder wrote:
Jerloma wrote:Everyone's against political correctness...right up to the moment that their own ox gets gored.

Brian's tweet about bedwetters encapsulates the far right so perfectly in so many areas.

What did he say?

Post by **brian** » Thu Jan 26, 2017 3:33 pm

Steve of phpBB · Post by **Steve of phpBB** » Thu Jan 26, 2017 5:03 pm

brian wrote:

Ooh, I know! I know!

September 12, 2001.

The Sybian · Post by **The Sybian** » Thu Jan 26, 2017 5:44 pm

brian wrote:

Thanks, well done.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Fri Jan 27, 2017 3:21 pm

Just sneezed all over my hand. If I were at work instead of working from home, that would have been a serious problem.

rass · Post by **rass** » Fri Jan 27, 2017 3:32 pm

mister d wrote:J.zed all over my hand. If I were at work instead of working from home, that would have been a serious problem.

DaveInSeattle · Post by **DaveInSeattle** » Wed Feb 01, 2017 12:09 pm

We had a guy apply for a software engineering position, and in the "Personal" section of his resume, he states that he is in a "progressive rock band with international exposure".

Damn right we are bringing him in for an interview.