Stay Positive: Wine without Arsenic

There's a disturbing article out about a lawsuit about a great many California wines that have high arsenic levels. Check out "List of Wines Cited in Lawsuit as Having High Arsenic Levels." 

Thankfully the only brand of those wines I've had are dark wines put out by Menage A Trois  and Corbett Canyon. 

Wild Irish Rose is no surprise. That crap is horrible. I used to sell that stuff all the time to winos when I worked at my dad's liquor store. The list also reminded me of one night my fraternity brothers had a "Cisco Night" that turned out horribly for them. 

The Urban Dictionary definition of Cisco is worth a read. Here are two of my favorite lines: 

• "It is in the family with the common street wine Wild Irish Rose - except WIR would be a newborn baby and Cisco is the abusive step-father with boundary issues. "
• "The hangover that can result from Cisco is the equivalent of sticking your head up the ass of a Kentucky Derby horse in full sprint and being ejected into a brick wall all while undergoing Chemotherapy treatments that could kill an elephant."

And bumwine.com has some fine description about that "liquid crack":

• "Often, people on a Cisco binge end up curled into a fetal ball, shuddering and muttering paranoid rants.  Nudity and violence may well be involved too."  
• "Our research shows that Cisco is actually the second best tasting of the five great bum wines, especially if you're having one of those hankerings for cheap Vodka, Jello and Robitussin."  
• "A test subject reports, 'Strawberry Cisco has a bouquet similar to that of Frankenberry cereal fermented in wine cooler with added sprinkle of brandy for presentation.'"

So here's to enjoying wine without arsenic. Let's stay positive folks. 

Music Friday: "Disconnect"

iTunes classifies the music of the Rollins Band as "alternative and punk." How 'bout just hard rock? 

Regardless of that goofiness, in a world of social media saturation and me reading the paper every morning thinking about how America is in a lot of trouble, I offer "Disconnect." 

Stay Positive: Woodpeckers

The Nasty family has been walking the trails around Lake Charleston created by the Parks and Rec department. 

Because I had gotten my work done today, I traveled there alone for a walk in the woods. 

As some readers might know, I'm a lover of birds. I'm particularly fond of woodpeckers. I enjoy hearing them tap the heck out of trees. 

Here are the two species of woodpeckers I saw this afternoon. 

The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

And a species I haven't seen in a while: the Red-headed Woodpecker. 

Random Notes from a Crank

Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam wrote "Bushleaguer" about Generalissimo Dubya. I wonder if he's working on any song/s about Moscow Don? 

Mrs. Nasty got a new car, and it has Sirius XM radio. I was pleasantly surprised to see that under the rock category there's a Pearl Jam radio along with stations devoted to Springsteen, Tom Petty, and some station that presents live performances often from "jam bands." I hadn't listened to Yonder Mountain String Band and moe in a good while. 

Swedish officials mocked Moscow Don's bullshit. Check out this article from The Guardian. It's not surprising that 45 takes his policy nonsense from FoxNews because he's unlikely to read anything that has depth and decent analysis. We now have a country being steered by the crap presented by FoxNews. Margot Wallstrom is smart as a whip: “Both functioning democracy and constructive cooperation between states require us to speak with, and not about, each other, to honour agreements and to allow ideas to compete. They also require us to respect science, facts and the media, and to acknowledge each other’s wisdom.”

The former prime minister tweeted this: “Sweden? Terror attack? What has he been smoking? Questions abound." I doubt Moscow Don is a smoker of Mary Jane, but it wouldn't surprise me if he did or does cocaine (remember all that sniffing during the debates?). Regardless, the real drug is the programming on FoxNews. 

And here's an article of real journalism from the Washington Post that shows that crime is not on the rise in Sweden and Germany. Facts vs. Bullshit. Link: "Here's What's Happening There." 

[Belated] Music Friday: "Time"

As debut albums go, Blind Melon's first album has to be my favorite. It's a great album to listen to from start to finish on a road trip. 

Here's what might an underappreciated song from that fine album. 

Random Notes from a Crank

I enjoy satirical letters to the editor. Check out John Kilgore's "Trump Move Great for Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster." 

The Church of the FSM has been noted before on this blog via an article from The Atlantic. 

Here's an article from Alternet that is quite disturbing but not surprising: "A United States of Hate Has Exploded Under Trump." 

As I watch Parks and Recreation, I find myself attracted to the character of Leslie Knope. 

How you doin'?

Random Notes from a Crank

I'm quite late to the party, but I recently read Nick Offerman's book, Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man's Fundamentals for Delicious Living. A fine piece of nonfiction. Two back chapters, "Horse Sense > The Bible" and "Leviticus Can Blow Me," are worth the price of the paperback. And there is plenty of wisdom in those pages. 

Like me, Mr. Offerman is man who enjoys a fine whiskey. I, however, prefer bourbon. I'd like to try some of the Scotches he touts though, but those single malts are expensive for this nice hombre. 

Reading his book made me start watching Parks and Recreation on Netflix. Great show. Like I said, "late to the party." 

Regardless, his "Leviticus Can Blow Me" chapter got me a bit riled up about how people use the Bible to discriminate. A person's religious "liberties" are not being protected if they refuse to sell this or that to a gay person. That person is just being an asshole. 

Speaking of Leviticus, let's explore some of the injunctions found in that crazy-ass book of the Bible that bigots like using to discriminate against gay people. 

Here are some selected ones (I cut the ones that are downright gross or common sense--you know, the ones about screwing family members and farm animals, etc.) that so-called Christians should be following if they really believe that the injunctions of Leviticus are proper guidelines to live one's life:

• Eating fat
• Touching an unclean animal
• Letting your hair become unkempt
• Tearing your clothes
• Eating an animal that doesn't chew cud and has cloven hooves
• Eating any seafood without fins or scales
• Touching the carcass of a weasel, rat, any kind of great lizard, monitor lizard, skink, etc.
• Making idols or "metal gods"
• Picking up grapes fallen in one's vineyard
• Stealing 
• Lying
• Perverting justice by showing partiality to the poor or rich
• Spreading slander
• Seeking revenge or bearing a grudge
• Trimming your beard
• Cutting your hair at the sides
• Getting tattoos
• Not standing in the presence of the elderly
• "the foreigner residing among you must be treated as one of your native-born"
• Working on the Sabbath
• Selling land permanently

Obviously, you can see how some people of the Jewish faith abide by these rules (eating pigs and shellfish, for example). 

But what I'm trying to get at here is that some Christians obviously use Leviticus to discriminate against gay people, whereas they're not apt to follow injunctions found in the same book about eating fat, touching animals, eating pork, having crappy looking hair, eating shellfish, having non-typical pets, lying, gossiping (spreading slander), getting themselves tatted up, and doing stuff on Sundays. Also, this whole principle about treating "foreigners" should be relevant to the Republican Administration's executive order about banning people from seven certain countries that recently got overturned. Some of these Christians love to cherry-pick passages that fit their needs. Keep "loving thy neighbor," douchebags.  

Music Friday: "I'm Not So Sure"

I've been listening to Roy Hargrove quite a bit this week, particularly Earfood. 

Here's a live performance of "I'm Not So Sure" to enjoy. 

Fumbling Toward Culinary Talent: Kale Soup

It's become almost a cliche to prattle on about how kale is so good for you. By all accounts, it is incredibly healthy. Some people hate it. Other people hate hearing about kale. And yet other people are prone to make jokes about kale ~ how they'd never eat that @#$% and so on and so forth. 

I like kale, but I'm not about to proselytize about the leafy green. 

So if you're someone who likes kale, here's a soup recipe. 

Ingredients
1/2 of big bag of chopped kale 
2 and a half quarts of free range organic chicken broth (Aldi has it at a reasonable price)
1 lb. of turkey kielbasa, halved and sliced into even slices
half of yellow onion, chopped finely
1 can of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 can of pinto beans, drained and rinsed
Half a package of button mushrooms, sliced relatively thinly 
1 bay leaf
Smidge of thyme
Smidge of basil
Smidge of red pepper
Smidge of smoked paprika 
Salt and pepper to taste

Process
Chop the onion and sausage and brown them in a cast iron skillet with a little bit of oil. Transfer that to a slow cooker. Add in the broth, beans, seasonings, and kale. Cook on high for at least two hours. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed. Add in mushrooms near the end, so they don't get too small during the cooking. 

Music Friday: "Land of the Red Man," "Hands Up," & "Hades Pleads"

This past weekend I caught Parker Millsap's performance on Austin City Limits. 

He has an interesting. lively sound ~ sort of 50s rock-n-roll mixed in with alt country and the blues. Here are a few songs from the dude. Enjoy.