Musing of the Moment: Old Movies

I've been watching some old movies on Turner Classic Movies over break, and I've come to one solid conclusion: Grace Kelly is hotter than the hinges off the gates of Hell. 

I watched Rear Window the other day. 

I put out a query on FB about movies that came out before 1980 that any young person should watch. Here's what the mind hive of friends produced:

• Rear Window
• The Maltese Falcon
• Taxi Driver
• Blazing Saddles
• Dog Day Afternoon
• 12 Angry Men
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail
• Airplane!
• A Clockwork Orange
• Alien
• Rocky 
• Enter the Dragon
• Star Wars IV: A New Hope
• Godfather I and II
• The Blues Brothers
• Animal House
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
• Saturday Night Fever
• Grease
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind
• The Shining
• North by Northwest
• The Graduate
• French Connection
• The Sting
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
• Cool Hand Luke
• Casablanca
• The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Roman Holiday
• Poltergeist

I've seen most of these except for the following: Taxi Driver, Dog Day Afternoon, Close Encounters, Cool Hand Luke, and Roman Holiday.

The one movie I would add to that list is Life of Brian. 

Music Friday: "Swingtown" & "The Joker"

The Steve Miller Greatest Hits album is one that evokes some memories. 

Here are two songs that can get you grooving. 

Music Friday: "Lazy Eye"

A band that I've been getting back into listening to more often is Silversun Pickups. 

I was reminded of them via a discussion on a FB group I'm a member of that talks about grunge and 90s alternative rock. The question asked in the group was something along the lines of what is a current band that reminds you of 90s alternative rock, and I said this band. 

Here's a tune from one of the two albums I have from the band, Carnavas.  

Stay Positive: Cannery Row (the Movie)

Last night I watched a film that I taped from Turner Classic Movies. It was the 1982 film Cannery Row starring Nick Nolte and Debra Winger. 

I remember my friends and I renting it and watching it on VHS. After watching it, we later made beer milkshakes that the novel made famous. 

It's not a great film by any stretch of the imagination, but it made me want to read the two novels it is based on, Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday. They are Steinbeck novels, which are very much of their era.

And I've always liked Steinbeck even though in some literary circles Steinbeck is seen as "too easy" for literature professors. And there's also the stink that is attached to Steinbeck because people read his works in middle school and high school, such as my son having to write a literary analysis paper this semester about Of Mice and Men. 

Despite the literary snobbishness aimed at Steinbeck, he's an excellent writer, who actually could write literature that has humor in it. 

Music Friday: "Nothing Can Hurt You Now"

I hold that Glossary is one of the most underrated bands of the 21st century. It's just straight-up rock-n-roll with great lyrics. 

Here's a tune from the 2007 album The Better Angels of Our Nature.  

Musing of the Moment: Considering 8 Mile

The movie 8 Mile came out over twenty years ago, but I never watched it until last night.  

I like Eminem but not as much as to watch the movie way back then or to buy any of his CDs back when people bought and listened to CDs. 

I watched the movie last night and enjoyed it. 

The film takes you on the journey of hero made famous by the work of Joseph Campbell. The white kid outsmarts the rap battles dominated by black guys after a number of setbacks. 

The minor gaffe in the movie though is making Kim Basinger, who plays B-Rabbit's mom, try to have a consistent Southern accent. And she's not good at it. 

Why? 

The movie is set in Detroit. 

Music Friday: "One Last F.U."

An album I acquired earlier this year that was a new release was Should've Learned by Now by the great band Lucero. 

Here's the opening track from the album and a live performance of it.  

Fumbling Toward Culinary Talent: Eggy Spaghetti

It has been a long time since I made this makeshift dish that one of my fraternity brothers showed to me decades ago. 

It's basically a scrambled egg and spaghetti mash-up that is great to eat after a hard night of drinking. 

I didn't have a drunken night, but I have lots of leftover spaghetti, and I didn't feel like eating it with my homemade pasta sauce. 

Ingredients

3 eggs

A healthy dollop of sour cream

Leftover spaghetti

Avocado or canola oil

A healthy sprinkling of parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

Process

Grab a couple of good handfuls of leftover spaghetti and put it in into a cast iron skillet. Chop up the spaghetti with a spatula, so the pasta is in smaller pieces. Heat the skillet to medium and coat the pan and pasta with oil.

Crack your eggs into a bowl and add in the sour cream, which makes scrambled eggs fluffy. Add in salt and pepper. Blend with a fork. 

Once the pan is hot enough, pour the egg mixture over the spaghetti and treat it like scrambled eggs. Sprinkle a healthy does of parmesan cheese on top when you plate the dish. 

Sunday Hangover: Georgia

SEC Champions.

Unfortunately, I don't think that'll matter to the playoff committee because Washington, Michigan, and Florida State are all undefeated and Texas beat Alabama in the regular season. 

Regardless, I enjoy booting Georgia out of the national championship hunt, and Alabama is the champion of the SEC. 

After Georgia's initial drive, I was concerned because they marched right down the field. Then the defense got it together. 

The pass to Jam Miller for a touchdown was beautiful. 

Roydell Williams did well as the lead back with McClellan out with a foot injury. 

We probably won't win the mythical national championship, but the coaching job by the staff this season is admirable. 

Alabama is likely to have four guys go in the first round of the NFL Draft - Latham, Turner, Arnold, and McKinstry - but I expect the Tide to be part the expanded, 12-team playoff next season if all goes well. Milroe is going to grow even better I suspect, and the OC will develop game plans to take advantage of his talent. 

Roll Tide.

Since Alabama is not in the national playoff hunt, I'll start growing my beard of mourning. 

Addendum: My son informed me this morning that Alabama made the playoffs and will face Michigan in the Rose Bowl. 

I'm very surprised, but I look forward to the twelve-team playoff starting next season. 

Random Notes from a Crank

I doubt I'm the only person in the U.S. who does this, but when I change from one pair of shoes to another pair of shoes, I often have the Mister Rogers song in my head. 

"Won't you be my neighbor?"

Since Moscow Don is likely not immune to being sued for his critical part in the Jan. 6 insurrection as related by NPR ("Appeals Court Says Trump Isn't Immune for Jan. 6 Riot Lawsuits"), I wonder how may class-action lawsuits can be lodged against that fascist wannabe goon. 

I hope that white-supremacist grievance merchant is buried in even more lawsuits. The more the better. He's a serious threat to our country. 

And the people who support him are delusional morons. 

Even worse are the people who will vote for him who know he's a fascist-in-the-making, but they vote for him because of whatever issues he supposedly supports. In reality, he's a Republican in name only, a RINO. 

He's not really conservative except for the far-right social-issue dog whistling he does on a regular basis. 

Music Friday: "Ghost in the Machine"

I had no idea Dawes has put out a new album recently. Misadventures of Doomscroller came out sometime in 2022, so it's new music to me. 

Counter to their previous releases, this album has sort of a jammy feel to it. I like it. It's different. They have fewer songs on the album, but they're just longer and feature some solid instrumentation.

Here's one of the songs that caught my ear right away after listening to it. 

Sunday Hangover: Auburn

I enjoy watching Auburn students cry. 

This season's Iron Bowl was frustratingly glorious. 

4th and goal from the 31, and Milroe throws a dime to Bond in the back corner of the end zone. Apparently, the name of that play is "gravedigger." 

I highly doubt Alabama makes the four-team playoff even if they beat Georgia. They are just too many unbeaten teams, and I would bet that Texas beats Oklahoma State in the Big 12 championship game.

I still want the Crimson Tide to win of course.

However, I'm not confident at all because of the way Auburn ran the ball on us. Auburn is one dimensional. Georgia is not. 

As Coach Saban intimated in the post-game interview, Alabama finally got some good luck at Auburn. Usually it's the other way around.  

Musing of the Moment: Harper's Indexes

Here are some interesting stats and numbers from the November and December Harper's Indexes:

• Percentage by which U.S. women are more likely than men to have a tattoo: 41
• Portion of U.S. adults with tattoos who regret getting at least one of them: 1/4
• Increase since 1984 in the median age of first-time U.S. home buyers: 7
• Portion of prospective U.S. home buyers who say they consider climate change when evaluating where to live: 4/5
• Percentage change this year in sales of Bud Light: -16
• In sales of Modelo Especial: +11
• Factor by which beer imports from Mexico have increased since 2013: 2
• Percentage by which beer imports from other countries have decreased: 29
• Percentage change in the divorce rate between 2008 and 2020: -31
• In the divorce rate between 2020 and 2022: +2
• Percentage of millennials who are not planning to get married: 21
• Of adult Gen-Z-ers who are not: 7
• Percentage of U.S. adults who say the political system is working "very" or "extremely" well: 4
• Who express little confidence in the future of the political system: 63
• Who say there is too little attention paid to the important issues facing the country: 78

I have noticed women tend to have more tattoos than men these days. I had a student write a paper years ago that went against the conventional wisdom that tattoos people get are there to show one's individuality. His take was that getting a tattoo was more of a herd mentality issue with many people getting the same kinds of tattoos (certain trends), especially women. 

The so-called conservative war against Bud Light because of a transgender spokesperson is so stupid. Apparently many of these Bud Light drinkers are switching to Modelo, which is humorous because during the Trump administration that company ran TV ads that were clearly trolling Moscow Don and his hateful speech about Mexicans and immigrants. That's some serious irony. 

The rise in the divorce rate obviously has a number of factors, but it's possible the pandemic was a significant cause--and possibly the support of a certain presidential candidate. But then again, that increase should have happened in 2016. Maybe it was because certain people voted for that charlatan a second time?

With the GOP having an advantage with having two Senators for dinky population states and the stupidity of not giving Puerto Rico and D.C. statehood and an uninformed citizenry voting for candidates for stupid reasons, it's no surprise 78% think the political system is not paying attention to climate change, economic inequality, pollution, the wage gap, educational issues, good jobs in the U.S., and other concerns. 

The House, for example, has done next to nothing for years under GOP leadership. Many members of Congress are more concerned about winning elections and raising campaign funds than actually doing something to make the country better. They just want to do some political hokum to get votes. 

The GOP asserts that the "government" doesn't work. Then they get control of a significant branch of it and show everyone that it doesn't work because of their leadership. A dog chasing its own tail. 

Sunday Hangover: Chattanooga

The outcome was expected. The Tide took care of business quickly in the game, and the Mocs got a great payday for their program. 

Surprisingly, Ty Simpson was the leading rusher of the game. He outgunned Jam Miller by one yard with 78 yards of rushing. People tend to label him as a pro-style QB, but if I remember right, we was classified as a dual-threat QB by recruiting services. 

In addition, he looked good when he was given a chance to pass the ball. 

The major positive is that Alabama got to give playing time to lots of guys. 

Next up, of course, is a trip to Auburn, a team that somehow lost to New Mexico State and paid them for the match. 

I expect it to be a tough game for the Crimson Tide regardless of how Auburn lost to the Aggies.  

Music Friday: "God Shuffled His Feet"

I think one of the underrated albums of the 90s is God Shuffled His Feet by Crash Test Dummies. 

Here's the opening track of the album. 

Sunday Hangover: Kentucky

With Alabama's win versus Kentucky and with Georgia manhandling Ole Miss, we're back to a SEC Championship of Alabama versus Georgia. 

Alabama dominated Kentucky. 

Milroe was excellent again, and Alabama seems to have found an identity. The OC has built in some QB runs. That wrinkle coupled with Milroe's improved passing has created a fun offense. 

There were some significant mishaps though. McKinstry having a ball go through his hands on a punt return, which then gave the Wildcats great field position, and Milroe throwing a pick when he should have thrown it away were not good.

But the dude threw for 234 yards and three touchdowns. And he ran for 36 net yards and three touchdowns. 

I thought the Tide's defense would get a few more sacks. They only had three. But they totally shut down Kentucky's run offense. One of the best RBs in the SEC only gained 26 net yards. 

The Tide had 9 tackles for loss. 

For whatever reason, Lawson was out, but Campbell played admirably as the defense's signal caller. 

Next up is Chattanooga before the Tide travel to Auburn, who is a team that has improved. 

Fumbling Toward Culinary Talent: Salmon Spread

I was browsing through the cookbook that my parents' church made decades ago and rediscovered this recipe that my Mom contributed to the cookbook. 

Thanks Deloras - love and miss you.

Ingredients

1 can of salmon, drained well

1 package (8 oz.) of softened cream cheese

1 tablespoon of lemon juice

1 teaspoon of horseradish

1/2 teaspoon of liquid smoke

2 tablespoons of cooked onion

1 green onion, chopped finely

Salt and pepper to taste

Process

Set out the cream cheese for a couple of hours, so it softens. When you're ready to make it, dump the canned salmon in a strainer and push down with a spatula to drain well. Sauté the onion. 

Put the cream cheese and salmon into the standing mixing bowl. Add in the lemon juice, horseradish, liquid smoke, green onion, and cooked onion. Mix well. 

I'm going to use it on bagels and crackers. 

Music Friday: "What About Us"

Here's a song that follows up the outstanding title/first track of This Land by Gary Clark Jr. 

Sunday Hangover: LSU

The second half didn't start out well for Alabama. LSU got the kickoff, marched down the field, and scored a touchdown. After that negative though, they didn't score again. 

The Tide dropped 42 points on the Tigers. 

Alabama featured a run-centric offense for the most part with a lot of key runs from Milroe, who had four touchdowns and netted 155 yards of rushing stats. 

I think we'll see more of this kind of game plan with Milroe doing more with his legs. The great development is that Milroe seems comfortable passing too. Usually he's excellent with the long passes. 

But last night he didn't hit any of the long, deep pass plays but instead did well on the short and intermediate routes, which is a significant change of form. 

During the broadcast, the commentators were intimating that Turner could have been called for targeting Daniels on the play that knocked him out. I don't think so. To me, it was a clean, hard hit. He didn't use his helmet as a weapon. He just hit him hard. 

Music Friday: "Overfloater"

I've listened to a lot of Soundgarden this week. 

One of the underrated songs on Down On the Upside is "Overfloater." It's a great tune that I think most people don't think of when they think about great Soundgarden songs. 

So here you go. 

Musing of the Moment: Next Steps for the Vikings

With Kirk Cousins going down for the season and the trade deadline happening today, the Minnesota Vikings are in an untenable situation. 

They're technically in the playoff picture as a seven seed (I think) because the team's record is 4-4, but without a proven QB to lead them, the future ain't bright at all. 

I doubt they go out and splash a bunch of money on a proven quarterback, especially because the options aren't that good. 

If they do anything, I think they just stay pat with Hall and Mullens and Mannion, or they could sign some veteran QB off a roster or the broadcast booth to help out in the quarterback room. 

As much as I'd hate to see them have a bad record this season, they'd probably garner a decent position to draft in the first round. I'm not saying they should tank the season, but I'd rather see them keep their draft and real capital and just see how the season shakes out. 

I know next to nothing about Jaren Hall, but I guess it's worth giving the rookie a shot. He'll have plenty of good receivers to throw to, and I hope he's mobile. 

The Lions are going to win the division anyway. 

Music Friday: "Burning Down the House"

This semester has provided a decidedly negative point of view about people doing what they're supposed to be doing and people's willingness to follow pretty simple directions. 

The stuff I'm asking people to do shouldn't be that difficult. 

They need to get their shit together. 

In light of that mood, I've providing this video mainly because I watched four members of the band talk about the rerelease of Stop Making Sense on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. 

Random Notes from a Crank

I don't know why all these razor blade companies are making razors with five blades. The cartridge is just too large to get around the small spaces on one's face, such as around the nostrils. I had to use my son's razor a while back when I forgot mine when we rented a lake house when visiting my daughter in Southern Illinois, and I much prefer my Mach 3 razor. 

I can't find the article because the whole GOP fiasco to nominate a new speaker has taken so many twists and turns, but one of the reasons Moscow Don and other GOP clowns opposed his nomination to be the next Speaker of the House is because Emmer apparently supports the movement to move to a majority vote for the President of the U.S. and eliminating the arcane and stupid Electoral College. 

I'm a huge proponent of moving to a majority vote for President. 

If you're voting for a Republican candidate for President, say, in Illinois, your vote doesn't count. If you're voting for a Democratic candidate for President, say, in Alabama, your vote doesn't count. 

Those votes don't really count because of the outdated Electoral College, which should have been thrown in the dustbin of history, screws the minority voters in certain states. They should have moved to the majority vote for President sometime in the early 20th century. 

It's ridiculous. 

Sure it's our tradition. But it's, as Thoreau wrote, a "foolish consistency." 

As traditions go, it's DUMB. 

Unfortunately, going to a majority vote for President doesn't address the other problem in our country: two parties don't really represent the political leanings of most voters. 

For someone like me who is strongly liberal on a number of social, educational, and environmental issues but is kind of middle of the road or somewhat fiscally conservative, I almost always side with the Democrats because the views of GOP candidates on various aforementioned issues are abhorrent. 

I'd like most Democratic candidates to be more frugal about some economic issues even though there are some lines I won't cross for GOP talking points about publicly funding private education and their "voodoo" economic theories that make no flippin' sense, among other legitimate concerns about their asinine trust in the so-called free market. 

For example, even though a number of people were taken with the ideas of Bernie Sanders, I backed Hillary Clinton because she was actually asking, "How are you going to pay for that?" Grandpa wanted to let the kids eat whatever they want, but Mom wanted the kids to eat a nutritional meal and then have dessert. 

My work this semester has made me become quite jaded about students' willingness to do the work that's necessary to improve. As much as some people have grading contracts or labor-based grading (based on Marxist principles, which is problematic), it's hard to give people grades on work when they turn in their work. 

Sunday Hangover: Tennessee

The first half of this game made my dog go into hiding in our walk-in closet because I was yelling so often in anger at the TV. 

Then Mrs. Nasty and I went to a retirement party for her former boss, so I only followed the game via my cell phone in the second half. When we got back, I watched the second half.

And what a second half it was. Tennessee didn't score, and Alabama scored 27 points. 

As crappy as Alabama's offense and defense were in the first half, they really got their shit together in the second half. 

The defense played like I expected them to do. 

The offense played much better because of the offensive line, and the OC ran more designed runs for Milroe, which I think is key to keeping opposing defenses off kilter. 

Another key was that Alabama only had one penalty. 

I'm hoping the bye week helps Alabama focus on playing a complete game because they'll need it when LSU comes to town in two weeks. 

Music Friday: "I Just Want to Celebrate"

I heard the is song a while back when my son was at a baseball camp/showcase. The coach in charge was playing tunes while kids were doing their drills. I had forgotten how much I liked this song. 

After we got back home, I bought a greatest hits album from Rare Earth. It's good stuff. 

Sunday Hangover: Arkansas

The second-half offense of the Crimson Tide in yesterday's game did not inspire confidence. 

The offensive line is just giving up too many sacks. 

The Tide ran the ball well for the most part, for 217 yards. But they lost 40 yards on five sacks. They have to get better in pass protection. It's that simple. 

The one drive in the second half in which a stupid facemask penalty kept the Arkansas drive alive resulted in a touchdown that kept the Hawgs back in the game. 

And then the Tide's offense sputtered mightily in the second half. They only scored a stinking field goal in the third quarter, which was the difference in score. 

I haven't watched a Tennessee game at all this year, but the Tide need to get it together if they want to win at home this coming Saturday. 

Music Friday: "Kristine from the 7th Grade"

I finally got around to buying the new album by Ben Folds, What Matters Most. 

This tune got my attention on the first listen. 

We all know some Kristines, who might be the new Karen. 

Sunday Hangover: Texas A&M

What a second half. 

But as Mrs. Nasty likes to question, "Why do we always have to wait until the second half to get it together?"

Fair point. 

The Aggies had 17 points at halftime, and they ended the game with 20 points. The defense really stepped up in the second half and even did so with one of their leaders in the defensive backfield, Malachi Moore. 

The return of Lawson to the linebacking corps helped. It was good to see him back playing. 

With A&M's stingy run defense pretty much shuttling down the Alabama running attack - and this Alabama team really wants to run the ball - the weight of the offense rested on the shoulders of Milroe. 

And he looked good. He threw for 321 yards, three touchdowns, and one unfortunate interception that was quickly followed by an interception by true freshman safety Caleb Downs. 

A defensive lineman, Tim Keenan, led the squad in tackles. In the second half, the defensive line and backers turned it up a notch and shut down the Texas A&M offense for the most part. 

But if you think back to the first half, A&M had two early drives that only accounted for 3 points. 

The Alabama offense found a weak link in A&M's coverage, which created a great day for Jermaine Burton. He was Milroe's go-to receiver for a good part of the game, garnering 9 receptions for 197 yards and two TDs. 

And Isaiah Bond featured prominently with 7 receptions for 96 yards and a TD. 

The incident that burned the hell out of me is when the refs denied a block, scoop, and score for Chris Braswell. 

They called Alabama on a blindside block, a call that is utter nonsense if you watch the play. All the Alabama player, and I believe it was Dallas Turner, did on the run-back was give an A&M defender a meager side nudge while Braswell was running ahead for the score. 

Total crap. 

Music Friday: "Find the River"

R.E.M. is one of the bands I listened to a lot during my formative years as a teenager and twentysomething. I was first drawn to them because I was an avid reader of Rolling Stone, and their albums were typically in the college radio album charts. 

Remember those? 

Life's Rich Pageant is probably my favorite album from the band, but I like them all. 

Automatic for the People was one of their more popular albums that had big songs like "Drive," "Everybody Hurts," and "Man on the Moon." 

I listened to that album this week. So here's the final tune on that fine album in official video format and live from Koln, Germany in 2001. 

Stay Positive: Embracing Agnosticism & Atheism

I read an opinion piece in The Washington Post today that I had to share.  

It's titled "America Doesn't Need More God. It Needs More Atheists" (gifted article) It's an article reformulated from Kate Cohen's book We of Little Faith: Why I Stopped Pretending to Believe (and Maybe You Should Too). 

The article speaks to me in many ways. 

If I had to describe myself from a faith-based standpoint, I'd call myself a skeptical agnostic or, if you go by the bar Cohen has in the article, I'm basically an atheist. 

I guess it's possible that there's something going on with the "thousand faces of the hero" (Joseph Campbell's work) and the similarities of many different religions, but the likelihood of there being some divine being or set of beings who created the universe and have a hand in what people do in their lives is highly improbable. 

Slim chance. 

If anything, if we consider Jung's archetypes and Freud's idea of wish-fulfillment, perhaps myths/religions are simply a manifestation of some massive human wish-fulfillment that there's something after we die and that there is some kind of higher meaning to everything. 

I doubt it. 

Cohen has some great points for her thesis that the world needs more atheism and less religion. 

Here are some good points to be positive about being an agnostic or atheist:

• "My children know how to distinguish between fact and fiction - which is harder for children raised religious. They don't assume conventional wisdom is true and they do expected arguments to be based on evidence. Which means they have the skills to be engaged, informed and savvy citizens." 
• "We need American who demand - as atheists do - that truth claims be tethered to fact." 
• Researchers have done the appropriate data crunching, and it seems the percentage of atheists is around 26%. 
• "In some ways, this [being atheist] makes life easier. You don't have to work out why God might cause or ignore suffering, which parts of this broken world are God's plan, or what work is his to do or what is yours." 
• "But you also don't get to leave things up to God.... Atheists believe people organized the world as it is now, and only people can make it better." 
• Apparently atheists are "more politically active" and "about 30 percent more likely to vote than religiously affiliated voters." 
• Basically, instead of relying on a divine being, atheists think people need to do good in the world. 

Cohen does an excellent job of providing the perspective that many atheists are unlikely to share their dispositions because they are a minority in a world where lots of people want to share their religious ideas and force their religious/political viewpoints on others. 

As a result, we need to rebuild the "wall of separation between church and state" that Jefferson talked about and Cohen references.  

And like Cohen relates, people should embrace their agnosticism/atheism because there are a lot of us out there. 

Sunday Hangover: Mississippi State

I haven't gotten to watch the whole game since we were on the road the spend the night in a hotel before my son went to college baseball clinic/showcase today. I was able to listen to the first half in the car, and once we got to the hotel, I was able to watch the second half. 

The Tide put the game away basically in the second quarter. 

However, the Bulldogs' first drive in the third quarter didn't inspire confidence in the Alabama defense. 

But Alabama righted the ship and closed out the game. 

I don't have a lot of analysis to provide right now. 

But I know Texas A&M, who is up next at their place, has a good offense the Crimson Tide will have to contend with. 

Now Alabama needs to show more consistency on offense and a stronger defense. From what I saw of the game, I didn't notice Lawson at the LB spot. I hope he can get back for this next game. 

Music Friday: "Lay It Down Clown" & "Left of the Dial"

The Let It Bleed reissue edition of Tim by the Replacements came out last week, and I purchased a copy because the band is one of my favorites. 

In fact, my first real concert was seeing the Replacements play at a theatre in Cedar Rapids, Iowa when I was in high school. If I remember right, it was the band's tour after Pleased to Meet Me came out. 

Tim competes with Pleased to Meet Me as my favorite album by the band. 

And the Let It Bleed edition that came out last week clears up the weird production quality of the original album. It's much cleaner and sounds a lot better. 

The reissue also provides a recording of a live gig the band did in Chicago in January of 1986. 

I'm prattling on. 

Here are two great songs from Tim. 

Unpopular Opinion: The Lyrics of Bon Jovi Suck

I was listening to the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame SiriusXM channel the other day, and a Bon Jovi song came on. 

I immediately turned the channel. 

Bon Jovi's lyrics are terrible. 

It's like the dude picked a bunch of cliches and patched them together. It's just bad writing. 

Take, for example, the lyrics of one of the band's biggest hits, "You Give Love a Bad Name."

Here is a list of tired cliches from that song:

• shot through the heart
• you're to blame
• you give [insert noun here] a bad name
• put me through hell
• loaded gun
• nowhere to run
• damage is done
• play my part
• play my game
• blood red
• school boy's dream

I could go on and on, but I'd rather not analyze more bad lyrics. 

Listeners should demand better songwriting. 

Fumbling Toward Culinary Talent: Pepperoni Pizza Chicken Cutlets

I've made these before using a cast iron skillet and then finished them in the oven. Now that I have a Blackstone griddle, I did them on it. 

Ingredients 

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

Marinara sauce

Small slices of pepperoni

Grated mozzarella cheese

Salt and pepper mixture

Process

I have a four burner griddle, so I got it going with two burners set on medium-high and the other two burners on low. 

I cut both large chicken breasts in half and pounded them out with meat mallet/tenderizer, so they are of uniform thickness. I pounded them pretty thin. Use a mixture of salt of pepper on both sides. I used a combo I created that is a mixture of salt, pepper, Penzey's roasted garlic powder, and Penzey's smoked paprika. 

With the one side of the griddle scorching hot (475-500 degrees), place the chicken cutlets and press down if you want. I used a solid brick wrapped in aluminum foil on each cutlet for about 20 seconds to get a good sear.

Once you've seared both sides, cut off the burners to the smoking hot side and move the cutlets to the low heat side of the griddle. Put pepperoni on top of the cutlets first, top with marinara, and finish with cheese. 

Cook for a little while to melt the cheese, and they should be ready to go. 

Stay Positive: In Praise of Cottage Cheese

Probably because I follow a number of cooking-related sites on FB, an ad/article came across my feed today touting an article by The New York Times titled "Cottage Cheese Makes a Comeback."

The line below the title says, "The diet staple of the 70s is jiggling back into the mainstream--bringing with it a host of benefits." 

I don't have a subscription to that great paper, but I got intrigued by the health benefits of cottage cheese. 

And I've always liked cottage cheese. It looks weird - sort of like really white brains - and it tastes good. 

I grew up in Iowa. One of the best dairies in the state is Anderson Erickson out of Des Moines. They have some great cottage cheese and chip dips. Their cottage cheese is excellent. It's old fashioned. 

So I did some sleuthing on the InterWebs and found a few articles I thought I'd share.

"7 Reasons Why Cottage Cheese Is Good for You" from the Cleveland Clinic

"Cottage Cheese: Are There Health Benefits?" by WedMD

"Why Cottage Cheese Is Super Healthy and Nutritious" by Healthline

It's high in protein and gives you a good helping of B12, selenium, riboflavin, and phosphorus. Also, people also recommend it when one is trying to lose weight. 

I've always been a fan of cottage cheese. Now I like it even more. 

[Belated] Music Friday: "Say That to Say This"

When I was working Thursday, I listened to all of the Trombone Shorty albums I have. 

Here's the opening tune of the same titled album. 

Sunday Hangover: Ole Miss

I haven't had a chance to watch the whole game yet since I got back from Nashville this afternoon. However, I did get to watch the majority of the game at a bar there. If I remember right, I think I got started watching the game when Ole Miss was up 7 to 3. 

So I got to watch the ineptitude on offense in the first half from Alabama, and then the offense played much better in the second half. 

What's a major positive is that the Tide held Ole Miss, who is usually a high-scoring offense, to only 10 points. 

The Rebels hit some long pass plays, notably one on 4th and forever that made me blow a mental gasket, but overall Alabama had a good pass rush with five total sacks and nine quarterback hurries. 

A major concern is about how hurt Lawson might be, but I haven't heard anything about that injury yet. 

In contrast to last game, McClellan was the main contributor at running back with 17 carries for 105 net yards and a touchdown. 

Another star on offense was true freshman Jalen Hale. When he caught his first pass in the game, I was confused about who he was. 

During the game I bitched about the offense not throwing to the TEs enough. The TEs caught four passes out of a total of seventeen, but I'd like to see them pass to them more often because of the obvious mismatches they create. 

The game saw Alabama get more of its murderball personality back. I'd like to see more of that come out when the Tide travel to Starkville on Saturday. 

Fumbling Toward Culinary Talent: Spicy Peanut Chicken & Vegetables

I can't find the original recipe on the website of The Washington Post, but that is where I got this recipe that I slightly modified. 

The recipe calls for using a wok. I don't have one of those, so I did it even better by using my four-burner Blackstone griddle. 

Ingredients

4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into small pieces

half of a yellow onion, roughly chopped

half of a bell pepper, roughly chopped

2 carrots, cut into skinny medallions

2 cups of broccoli, cut into small florets

1-2 cups of sliced baby bella mushrooms

1/3 cup of creamy peanut butter

3-4 TB of low-sodium soy sauce

2 ts of red pepper flakes

1-2 TB of minced or grated fresh ginger

2 garlic cloves, minced

Juice of half of a lemon

Rice

Salt and pepper to taste

Soy sauce

Vegetable oil

Process

I first made the spicy peanut sauce. In a large bowl, combine the peanut butter, soy sauce, red pepper flakes, ginger, garlic, and lemon juice. Bring together with a whisk. If it's too sour tasting because of the lemon, add a little water to smooth it out. 

Coat the griddle with vegetable oil and get it to medium-high heat on one side of the griddle. Set the other side to low. 

Start with the chicken and season and fully cook. Toward the end add in some soy sauce. Move the chicken to the side of the griddle on low. 

On the hotter part of the griddle, add the vegetables and cook thoroughly. Just like with the chicken, season and add some soy sauce at the end. 

Put the chicken and vegetables in the large bowl with the peanut sauce and coat thoroughly. Serve over rice. 

Sunday Hangover: South Florida

That was a win that doesn't inspire much confidence in Alabama making the playoffs. 

If the Tide can only muster a meager win against the Bulls of USF, I think we're in for a rocky season in the SEC. 

Buchner got the start and looked shaky at best. They finally went to Ty Simpson in the game. He did okay. 

But just okay is not good enough if you want to challenge to win the SEC West. 

I'm worried. 

Based on what I've seen, I think they either go back to Milroe or stick with Simpson. 

The shining light on the shit show that was yesterday's game was Roydell Williams. He had an outstanding game, racking up 129 net yards. He may take over as first back in the game when Alabama plays Ole Miss. 

The Tide has to improve and do so soon. 

Music Friday: "Move Over Mama"

23 years ago this week Justin Townes Earle put out what is arguably his best album, Harlem River Blues. 

Here's the third cut from that great album. 

Fumbling Toward Culinary Talent: Cayenne Shrimp Roll

I stumbled across an intriguing recipe in The Washington Post. It's called a "Spicy Shrimp Roll." 

I modified it to fit the needs of the Nasty household since my son doesn't like horseradish. Also, I didn't have raw shrimp, so I just thawed a pound of fully cooked shrimp and cooked it quickly on my Blackstone griddle. 

Ingredients

1 stalk of celery, finely chopped

1 lb. of frozen fully cooked shrimp

1/2 cup of mayonnaise 

5 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice

2 teaspoons of cayenne pepper

2-4 tablespoons of chopped Italian parsley

2 tablespoons of butter

Hot dog buns or better rolls to sop up the goodness and serve as the sandwich-like base

Smidge of Old Bay seasoning

Smidge of roasted garlic seasoning

Salt and pepper

Process

After thawing out the shrimp, take off the tails and roughly chop up the shrimp. Add the chopped celery and set aside. 

In a separate bowl, combine half of the parsley, the cayenne pepper, lemon juice, roasted garlic, and salt and pepper. Mix together and set aside. 

On a griddle or in a skillet, melt the butter over medium heat and add in the shrimp/celery mixture. Add in the Old Bay. Sauté for roughly five minutes. 

Move the shrimp to the bowl with the mayo mixture and mix well and add in the rest of the parsley. 

Spoon the ingredients into a good roll. I made the mistake of using regular hot dog buns. They worked okay, but the eating would have been much better with more substantial rolls. 

Sunday Hangover: Texas

There isn't enough beer or bourbon in the world to erase that performance from the Crimson Tide last night from my memory. 

It was a bipolar game from Alabama--mostly on the depressing side. 

The lot was made about the penalties from the broadcasters during the game because of the terrible amount of penalties in the previous matchup. It's true penalties were a factor. 

However, the main factors that lost that game were giving up big pass plays, the state of the Tide's pass blocking, and quarterback decision making. 

Alabama gave up too many explosive plays in the passing game. It's that simple. There are the two bombs for touchdowns, which were great throws by Ewers, but there were also intermediate passes with the TE and other receivers roaming free. 

The Tide has talented personnel in the secondary along with a number of veterans, but Sark, like I expected him to, targeted the green players. 

The offensive line play has to get better, especially at pass blocking. Left tackle Proctor surely has a game that will make him get better by working harder, but he had a horrible game. It was bad. I was surprised he didn't get pulled and replaced in the game. 

While pass blocking was poor, Milroe didn't exactly distinguish himself by passing the ball to open receivers. Sure, he was pressured, but in the first half especially he acted like he was looking to run more than actually passing the ball. 

At least from what I read from the armchair quarterbacks on the Huddle forum of TiderInsider, it sounds like there were receivers open. Milroe was just too quick to run. 

I got frustrated at times from the play calling of both the offensive and defensive coordinators although I wonder how much of the offensive problems last night rest more with the play of the offensive line and the quarterback. 

I got pissed a number of times when we only rushed three on third and long, and Texas easily picked up a first down because Ewers had all kinds of time. Even with rushing four or five, the Tide usually didn't get enough pressure on the Texas QB. 

But what a lot of people will focus on are Milroe's interceptions. They were terrible reads. Texas translated two interceptions to 10 points. 

The Tide lost to the Longhorns by 10 points. 

I don't know if the quarterback competition is back on, but I have to think the coaches are thinking about it based on what they saw Milroe do--both good and bad--last night. 

My son is a big proponent of Simpson getting a shot. 

I agree with him.

Music Friday: "No One Knows"

I shared some post on FB this week that commemorated an anniversary of dropping of the album Songs for the Deaf by Queens of the Stone Age. 

I listened to it today in between classes, and here's one of catchier songs on that fine opus. 

One is an official video, and the second is live recording. 

Unpopular Opinion: I'm Tired of the Mannings

What do the Mannings and Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" have in common? 

Oversaturation. 

I'm a big fan of Pearl Jam, but back when music videos were a staple of a young person's life, the constant airing of the music video of "Jeremy" ruined the song for me. 

It's a great song. However, Mtv at the time had that video in heavy rotation. It seemed like it played once an hour. 

It was relentless. 

To this day, it's not a song I enjoy much from one of my favorite bands. 

As much as it's clear the both Mannings were hall-of-fame quarterbacks in the NFL and had strong college-football careers [a little overhyped in my opinion, but I'm an Alabama alumnus], I cannot take the constant onslaught of their long faces looking at me from the TV screens. 

Whether it's the various damn commercials in which they're shilling for this and that or whether it's their Monday Night Football watch-along show, I've had enough. 

Oversaturation. 

I thought once their careers were over that they'd get less air time. 

I obviously guessed horribly wrong. 

I've seen enough of them for my lifetime. 

Random Notes from a Crank

The past month or so I've been watching Game Show Network on a fairly regular basis. It's astounding to me how stupid the average person is. 

Watching these shows in which people give dumb answers reminds me of the statement by George Carlin: "Think of how stupid an average person is and realize half of them are stupider than that."  

Since I've been a kid, I've had the uncanny ability to stub my little toe on either of my feet about once a week if I'm lucky. The nails on my little toes are bashed to ugliness. 

I've discovered the HBO show/podcast Talking Sopranos that I'm enjoying a lot. I'm revisiting that great series. 

A while back I rewatched all of Boardwalk Empire. I had forgotten what a great TV series that one is. 

I bought a book recently that is likely to be banned by some idiotic parents in school districts because the non-fiction book talks about racism, sexism, and antisemitism, among other issues. It's titled Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed by Dashka Slater. 

I don't normally read books that are typically labeled "young adult," but this book looked interesting.

Sunday Hangover: Middle Tennessee State

Well, it looks like they started the right QB on Saturday. Milroe ran for two touchdowns and threw three of them to Bond, Burton, and Niblack, respectively. 

I was kind of surprised that Buchner came in second in the game because at least from what I've seen, Simpson has a great arm and has quite a bit of speed to his game. 

That showed up later in the game because both Buchner and Simpson are mobile QBs, but Simpson looked faster on his touchdown run than Buchner did. 

If there's any qualms I have about the team, I have three of them. 

I didn't think the Tide ran the ball well as they could have against the Blue Raiders. We had a some good runs from the running backs, but considering the competition, I thought McClellan and Williams would have done better because of the strength and size of Alabama's offensive line.

At halftime, Coach Saban noted the mediocre pass blocking, and I saw that too. MTSU did a good job of throwing everything at the line, and the Tide offensive line needed to do a better job of protecting the QB. 

My final issue was the run defense. We gave up too many long runs from Middle Tennessee. I thought our line would be more dominant. However, the linebackers, especially Deonte Lawson, played well. 

He was second on the team in tackles, only behind true freshman Caleb Downs who started at safety. 

From what I recall, we had two true freshmen start last night: Downs and left tackle Proctor. 

Next up is a difficult matchup at home against the Longhorns. Sark is a good coach, so I expect the game to be a tough one. 

Music Friday: "Chipping Mill"

Turnpike Troubadours have a new album out titled A Cat in the Rain. 

Here's a tune from that album. 

Music Friday: "Look on Down from the Bridge"

Since there are no new episodes of the Late Show with Stephen Colbert happening because of the long writers' strike, I've been watching various streaming services. 

I discovered the HBO podcast/show Talking Sopranos that has the actors who played Christopher (Michael Imperioli) and Bobby (Steve Schirripa) in the series talk and reminisce about the episode after they had watched it again, I assume (it looks like Zoom), during the Covid lockdown. 

They often talk about how the writers and producers selected certain songs for certain specific reasons. 

At the end of "The Meadowlands" episode Imperioli points out what a great song ends the episode, and this one is it. 

I never bought the Mazzy Star album that gets a lot of critical attention, but I like their stuff. 

Here's the tune. 

Music Friday: "Longest Days" & "A Brand New Song"

I saw John Mellencamp has a new album out. For me, one of my favorite albums of his is Life, Death, Love & Freedom. 

Here are the opening and closing songs on that fine album. 

Musing of the Moment: Returning the Shopping Cart as "the Ultimate Litmus Test"

 First off, I got this from the InterWebs since I've seen if floating around social media before. 

One of my acquaintances on FB asked folks about whether they return shopping carts, and I shared this to her feed. 

Strangely enough, there are some unnecessary quotation marks around the dude's name, the lead singer of Danzig. 

Regardless, I am behind what he's stating here. I'm not going to go as far as stating that people are "animals" who don't return shopping carts to their appropriate places, but I consider not doing so to be a major dick move. 

Music Friday: "If She Could Only See Me Now"

Deer Tick came out with a new album this summer that is garnering a bit of attention from folks. 

The band has been around for a good while. I saw them play in St. Louis quite a long time ago. 

Hopefully the new album will expose folks to the band's earlier work, which is quite good.  

Musing of the Moment: Life after Kane

It finally happened. Harry Kane is departing Tottenham Hotspur for Bayern. 

It was iffy whether this move was actually going to happen, but at least Daniel Levy got the fee the club needed to depart with its greatest player in its history. 

I've watched the videos from the various YouTube pundits bemoaning the loss of Kane. 

It's a brutal loss, but I'd rather get money for him leaving now rather than him moving to Manchester United or, for God's sake, Chelsea after the season is over. I could not stomach seeing Kane in a Chelsea kit. That would be a major kick in the short and curlies. 

Not all is lost though. 

Richarlison will move to the position that he's actually best at playing--as a number 9. While he had an underwhelming campaign last season, I'm confident he'll be a positive force without now being under the shadow of Kane.

He's Brazil's no. 9. His performance last season was shite for the most part, but he didn't get regular playing time at all under Conte due to injuries and Conte being Conte. He was not able to establish any kind of rhythm as a player. 

The money from the sale of Kane to Bayern could help Spurs sign another center-back, which is sorely needed. I like Micky van de Ven, but we need another swift and strong center-back although I still have hope for Tanganga. 

In addition, part of the funds could go toward acquiring someone like Gift Orban and/or Brennan Johnson. 

If Spurs decide to sell Hojbjerg, they could also go shopping for another midfielder. 

It appears Tottenham is going through the rebuild that Pochettino called for years ago--just this time without Kane. 

Time to move on and trust the fun system that Ange has created. 

We aren't going to be a football club that relies so heavily on one player to score. I suspect the goals will be spread around. 

Apostrophe Abuse: Oakland As Cap and a Jesus Bumper Sticker

 

This is a new feature for this blog. There's an old blog that documented "apostrophe abuse" that is no longer available on the InterWebs. So I'm taking up that lost writer's mantle. 

And I'll have another feature that takes after another defunct blog titled The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks. 

I care about the proper care of language. 

The first culprit of apostrophe abuse is the cap for the Oakland Athletics. There's not need for an apostrophe. 

It should be just like this: As

I actually kind of like the Athletics, but I can't stomach buying one of the team's caps with the unnecessary apostrophe. 

The other culprit I saw today when I was running errands. There was a mini-van ahead of me that had this bumper sticker: "Jesus loves you," but the "loves" was spelled with a heart image followed by an apostrophe and an "s."