Random Notes from a Crank

I'm both a fan of football and American football. 

In regard to the latter and in regard to the Super Bowl outcome, it's pretty simple. The team with the best line play is most likely to play. 

Use Occam's razor. 

What we saw in Super Bow LIX is that the Eagles have a great offensive line and a phenomenal defensive line. You win game at the line of scrimmage. It's that simple. 

Or I could showcase my old-guy self and simply say, "Defense wins championships." 

I was rooting for the Eagles because of Jalen Hurts, Devonta Smith, and Landon Dickerson.

I'm not a fan of the Chiefs, but I'm a fan of the Kansas City area. I lived there for a year and enjoyed it immensely. The metro area on Sundays is very much like a college football town. 

And the barbecue. People rave about the barbecue in Memphis, North Carolina, Texas, and various parts of the Deep South. But I prefer KC barbecue. 

As for the Royals, I've always liked them. I grew up as a kid loving the Royals when they were really good in the 70s and 80s: George Brett, Willie Wilson, Hal McRae, Frank White, Amos Otis, Bret Saberhagen, Mark Gubicza, Dan Quisenberry, et al. 

And one of my favorite small breweries in the nation is Boulevard Brewing Company.

Unfortunately, I don't see it around my parts here. 

With all these funding freezes of federal grants by President Adolf, a lot of farmers, some of whom probably voted for the autocrat, are going to get fucked financially. 

Check out the article from The Washington Post: "Farmers on the Hook for Millions after Trump Freezes USDA Funds." 

I don't know much about Kendrick Lamar, but I enjoyed his performance and the choreography of his dancers at the Super Bowl halftime show. 

The article, "The Subversive Genius of Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl's Halftime Performance," covers it well as far as I can tell. 

 

That image above is pretty straightforward and symbolic: the American flag created by the backs of black men. 

Stay Positive: Oysters

When we were in Florida, we ate at one of our favorite seafood restaurants, Captain Curt's in Siesta Key. 

As I usually do, I ordered a half dozen raw oysters. The oyster is one of my favorite foodstuffs. I enjoy its silky texture and briny goodness. 

One of the times I was in Baltimore for a conference, I ate at a restaurant that offered a plate of a dozen oysters from three different places: somewhere in Canada, somewhere off the coast of New York, and the native Chesapeake Bay oyster. Of the three, the Chesapeake was my favorite. 

I liked all of them, and I've also had oysters from New Orleans and Florida too, but Chesapeake Bay oysters are my favorite with the meaty, monstrous ones from New Orleans coming in a close second. 

Fortunately, the Chesapeake Bay oyster operations are doing much better than they have. Madeleine Thomas's article in Grist, "Half-Shell Hero," sheds some light on oysters in that area of the U.S.

Random Notes from a Crank

I wonder if it's a sign of middle age if you're eating a lot of grapefruit? My daughter sold fruit for a chorus fundraiser, and we got a box of mixed fruit. I hadn't had grapefruit in years, and today I just finished the last one of the box. I remember my parents eating a ton of grapefruit when I was kid, and during those years, my parents were in their late forties and fifties. At least grapefruit is extremely healthy. 

And it seems like that occasional glass of low-fat buttermilk I drink has some solid health benefits. 

This article from my local paper ~ "New Frontier of Local Food Movement is Here" ~ offers some hope for central Illinois farmers. Once this deal gets up and running, I want to get my hands on some locally sourced bread. That would be good eats. 

I started reading Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit. I'm enjoying it quite a bit but am a bit puzzled why I haven't read any of her other books. I've liked her columns in Harper's, but I wasn't aware of her other work. Now I'm eyeing Wanderlust: A History of Walking and The Encyclopedia of Trouble and Spaciousness. 

Random Notes from a Crank

One of the simple pleasures in my life is walking around in my underwear to make my kids say, "Put some clothes on Dad!" This tactic usually happens in the morning. Just fyi. 

What gets me from time to time is how people who eat meat draw the lines on certain animals. It all seems so silly. They'll eat chicken but won't eat pork because they're "dirty animals." Please. When I was a kid, I watched my uncle Raymond's chicken coop up close. Chickens are nasty animals. I could go into gruesome detail if you like. Regardless, I understand the environmental stances against eating meat, which usually have logical coherence to them. In addition, there are health reasons that make a lot of sense why you shouldn't eat a lot of meat each day. However, I find it silly that people recoil at people eating squirrel, crawfish, rabbit, lamb, pheasant, oysters, bison, and other such varmints. They've obviously never tried them. They're delicious. Don't get me wrong. I respect vegetarians and appreciate the various reasons why people are vegetarian, but I like eating meat, though portion control is a good idea. In addition, the eating of meat is part of our evolutionary heritage because that move in our history helped homo sapiens expand brain size, which now gives us the ability to reason why we shouldn't eat or shouldn't eat a ton of meat in our diets. 

Now, factory farming is a good reason not to eat certain kinds of meat. Check out Factory Farm Map or "The Hidden Health Hazards of Factory Farms" if you're interested.

I recently got around to reading Days of Destruction Days of Revolt by Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco. I'm not far into it, but I'm enjoying it so far. 

Farming and Agency

In the June issue of Ode Magazine, there's an article by Diane Daniel titled "Farmers as Change Agents." In the piece she details a different population of folks who have become interested in farming, and it's a type of agriculture that goes against the agribusiness-induced, monoculture farming of soybeans, corn, etc. If you've read Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, you probably have a good inkling of what Daniel writes about.

Since Ode is an international publication based out of the Netherlands, some of the examples are from Europe, but the sustainable agriculture program at the University of Kentucky is featured briefly in the article. Of course, there are other alternative agriculture programs developing at other universities across the nation since some professors of agriculture see the current food system as ecologically and economically bankrupt.

It's nice to read an article that has a positive take on farming since I remember my uncle Raymond, a farmer who raised cattle and grew soybeans and corn in northeastern Missouri, telling me emphatically that "If you want a good job, being a farmer ain't it."

What my uncle was talking about then is what George Pyle discusses in his fine book Raise Less Corn, More Hell.

The article I've linked exemplifies the magazine's mantra of being "for intelligent optimists," but Pyle's book is required reading for intelligent pessimists.

Stay Positive: Buying from a Local Farmer

This evening I acquired a sirloin steak, a rump roast, some ground chuck, some hamburger patties, a pork shoulder roast, some bacon, and some brats from a local farmer from Sullivan.

Good eats, people.

I was first introduced to Lehman Farms (click HERE for their website) at the Charleston Farmer's Market during the summer a couple of years ago, and I've been a fan ever since.

The products are great, the prices are reasonable, and rather than buying meat from a massive conglomerate that is likely to squeeze farmers whenever it gets a chance, I'm buying a local product while supporting a small, family farm.