Random Notes from a Crank

Someone should do a documentary on the actors who were in the High School Musicals. Because I've seen all of them multiple times because of my kids, I'd be interested to see what those folks are up to. 

That thought reminds me of my daughter playing Sharpay in High School Musical Jr. in middle school. It was quite a treat. 

I'm a frustrated Dad up in the stands this basketball season. My son dresses varsity but rarely gets to play. The head coach is playing guys ahead of him who are clearly not as good as him. Those players are seniors and/or are sons of people who work in the school district. 

As a coach I would be committed to playing the guys who give me the best chance to win. Small town bullshit. 

As much as these basketball teams want to chuck up threes all the time, if you're not going to play good defense, you're going to get beat. 

I saw the image below online on Bluesky. It's a good image to reflect what Project 2025, Moscow Don, and his goons are going to try to do. 

I have not read The Handmaid's Tale, but I get the general premise of the novel: men wanting to control women. I recently ordered a copy and then cancelled the order because I'll just get a copy from my local library when I feel like reading some fiction. I'm more of a non-fiction reader. 

Today's my birthday, and two of my presents are the following: Tottenham won 3-0 in extra time in their FA Cup match, and Manchester United beat Arsenal on penalty kicks in that FA Cup match.  

Stay Positive: Caribbean Red Habanero

Over twenty years ago I grew Caribbean Red habaneros when I was a grad student at the University of Alabama.

It wasn't until this summer that I grew another Caribbean Red because I had never seen any around these parts in East-Central Illinois. I found the plants at a local place over in Mattoon, the family owned and operated de Buhr's Seed & Feed.   

The Caribbean Reds are twice as hot as a regular habenero. I made some salsa for my wife today, and I could tell a difference once I tested the sales to see if I got the seasoning right. 

The Caribbean Reds have more of fruity/citrusy quality than regular habaneros from my tasting. 

Regardless, I will be growing them again next season if de Buhr's has them again. 

Random Notes from a Crank

I got this image from the InterWebs. It reflects the dual nature of my personality. 

Our little area of the country was featured by CBS evening news because of all of the damn cicadas. Check it out. 

The only error I noticed is that the location is described as "southern Illinois" when in reality it's east-central Illinois. I guess it's southern if you think of downstate Illinois as south of Chicago. 

Here are some percentages from the June "Harper's Index" that might factor into college choices:

• Percentage of U.S. college students who say reproductive-health laws were at least somewhat important to their school choice: 71
• Who say they were highly important: 38
• Percentage of Republican college students who would prefer to attend a school in a state with greater access to reproductive care: 63

Fumbling Toward Culinary Talent: Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

I haven't made gumbo in a long time. My first attempt last week failed because I let the roux go too long. So I learned from my mistake and made it today for supper. 

Ingredients

1 cup of vegetable oil

1 cup of all purpose flour

1 lb. of boneless chicken thighs, with fat trimmed

1 lb. of andouille sausage, cut into half-moon pieces

1 large yellow onion, chopped finely

1 bell pepper, chopped finely 

3 stalks of celery, chopped finely

8 cups of water

Healthy amount of Cajun seasoning

Healthy amount of cayenne pepper

Healthy smidge of roasted garlic powder

Salt and pepper to taste

Process

In a large Dutch oven or soup pot, put a little oil at the bottom and put to medium heat.

With the chicken, I trimmed the fat and cut it up into small, bit-size pieces. Then I sprinkled a good deal of Cajun seasoning to coat the meat. Place the chicken in the pot and brown on both sides. Pull out the chicken and set aside on a plate. 

Add the cup of vegetable oil and flour and continuously whisk the roux for approximately an hour until it gets a nut-brown color. I started at medium heat and backed it down gradually to still medium but a bit on the low side. 

Once you have the color you want (and the roux should smell nutty), add in the aromatics for about a minute and then add the water a cup at a time while whisking. 

When the water is incorporated and the liquid is a thick soup, add the partially cooked chicken and sausage. Add a good amount of seasoning. Bring to a healthy simmer with the lid mostly covering the pot.  

Reduce the heat a bit, so it's a leisurely simmer and simmer for about an hour. Check the seasoning from time to time to make sure you have the right level of flavor and heat you want. 

For example, because my andouille sausage was bought here in Illinois, it wasn't the greatest, so I had to add a strong amount of Cajun seasoning and cayenne. 

Next time I need to get andouille from somewhere in the Deep South.  

Random Notes from a Crank

For the first time in my life I voted in a Republican primary on today (Tuesday). It made my skin crawl to do so, but here's why I did it. 

My county votes primarily GOP in national elections, which isn't surprising since I live in east central Illinois. I simply focused on races where I didn't want certain candidates to win the nomination. 

The easy vote was for US House Rep where the GOP has two abhorrent choices. I chose the less abhorrent candidate. They are both terrible, but one candidate is less terrible than the other. 

As for the ass-wipes running for Governor, I chose the candidate who is the least likely to win against Pritzker. The GOP candidate I voted for is an intellectual bumpkin. And for county judge, I voted for the incumbent who seems to be doing a decent job. I voted against a person in a local race out of spite and experience. 

I could write a long diatribe about the Supreme Court overturning Roe vs. Wade, but I'll leave that to better writers than myself. 

However, it's inconsistent that guns aren't covered by "state's rights" but a woman's body apparently is. 

At my son's baseball tournament this weekend, there was a team there that had a player exclaim "Eyes like a beaver!" whenever one of his teammates was up at bat. 

It's an odd but humorous saying to say the least. 

After some cursory research via the InterWebs, I suspect the 14-year-old got the saying somehow from the Urban Dictionary definition of "beaver eyes," which is defined as "using abnormally good eyesight to see something clearly or something concealed." 

With a bit more research about beavers, the saying does not make any sense because beavers don't see that well according to various nature-based websites. 

So where the heck did this term "beaver eyes" originate from? Considering the definition came from Urban Dictionary, I have some obvious suspicions. 

Music Friday: "Unpleasant Breakfast"

Another album I picked up recently is Open Door Policy by The Hold Steady. 

Here's a song that's a pleasant ear worm of renown. 

I'm late with this post. I just forgot about it. A large part of Friday was spent doing a campus visit for my daughter, and then we went to a hometown Friday night high school football game here in east central Illinois. 

Cheers.

Musing of the Moment: A Flag Pole & Bankruptcy

There's a home down the road from where I live here in east central Illinois that has a huge yard and a large flag pole. Atop the flap pole is an American flag, and below that flag is a Trump 2020 flag. I noticed the other day that at the bottom of the flag pole, the owner of the home has strewn razor wire about the base of the flag pole. 

What kind of maniac does such stuff, especially considering that Moscow Don lost the election? What kind of weirdo still keeps up a campaign flag? 

This stupidity is even more acute that Moscow Don regularly floats conspiracy theory and lies about how he won the election. 

The Washington Post profiled his despicable call with the Attorney General of Georgia in "Trump Pressures Georgia's Raffensperger to Overturn His Defeat in Extraordinary Call." He pleaded with him to "find" votes for him. 

The 45th President is the most corrupt Executive in our nation's history. And the GOP clowns who plan to contest the electoral college votes are aiding and abetting a con artist/criminal who is morally and financially bankrupt. 

Random Notes from a Crank

The Guardian has an interesting article that ties in habitat loss, loss of biodiversity, and climate change to the likelihood of more pandemics. It's good reading: "Protecting Nature Is Vital To Escape 'Era of Pandemics.'" 

Because of my area of east central Illinois spiking in cases, our region now can't have eating in at restaurants, and bars will be closed. 

Even Russia is mandating masks in contrast the dumbass that is Moscow Don: "Trump's Ideal Strong Man, Putin, Orders Nationwide Mask Mandate as US Flounders Under Weak Leadership." As Cole notes, "But in the US, the mask refuseniks are about half the population, and they are led by the denialist-in-chief, Donald Trump."

"Mask refuseniks" is great phrasing. And Cole puts it well toward the end of the post: "Trump has confused ignorance and genocide by neglect with machismo." 

Random Notes from a Crank

We've had beautiful weather around this part of east central Illinois. 

Even though the pandemic has hit our county, I'm still taking the dog for his daily walks and working in the yard. 

Yesterday it was tree trimming, and every other day or so I weed the garden. With the stay-at-home order, I should have a pretty weed-free garden this year. 

I'm still unsure whether wearing a mask in public really helps much of anything, but I guess I'll do it. I have some masks from when I ripped out carpet from the whole main floor of our house. And Mrs. Nasty found some that my daughter had to use during a dance competition because she came down with strep throat. 

I found out recently that the writer O'Henry coined the term "banana republic." Unfortunately, the US under Trump has its own banana republic effects under his work. I call it "work" because I won't call it leadership. 

Case in point is the The Washington Post article, "Trump Removes Inspector General Who Was to Oversee $2 Trillion Stimulus Spending." 

Stay Positive: French Fries & the Chicago Dog

As Mrs. Nasty and I were sitting at a Freddy's yesterday, we had a brief discussion about what form of French fries are the best. She likes the thin little fries that Freddy's and Steak-n-Shake feature. However, they're probably my least favorite form of fries. 

With that said, I hereby provide my rankings of the forms of French fries:

1. Crinkle cut fries such as the ones features at Portfillo's and other places
2. Steak fries
3. Fast-food fries such as the ones at Wendy's and McHughs (for readers in east central Illinois)
4. Waffle fries
5. Curly fires
6. Thin little fries

So you might be wondering why I went to Freddy's when I don't like their fries?

Well, they have a good version of the Chicago dog. I get it just without the onions because I dislike raw onions. 

Now, if you cook onions, they're fine. 

A good Chicago dog, which I usually get when I go to Portillo's, has to feature a hot dog that has great snap to it. 

Huzzah for sport peppers. 

Music Friday: "Please Stay"

This past week I watched my daughter sing in her high school chorus for their fall concert. The advanced chorus sang this song. It was pretty darn compelling. 

The description before the performance gives you the lowdown. 



My daughter's high school director did a great job with the piece. At the end of it, the chorus came out into the aisles among audience as they were singing the song toward the last minute of so of the piece.  

Music Friday: "No Roots"

Sirius XM's The Spectrum station has been playing the hell out of this tune over the past months. I don't know much about the artist at all, but one of the people who spun the tune once said the song is based on her life because she moved around a lot. 

So there you go. 

I guess I can kind of relate. Compared to the community in which I live, Mrs. Nasty and I are outliers in that we both grew up in Iowa (separate cities and didn't know each other until her college days) and have lived in different places. 

As for me, I lived in Waterloo, Iowa up until college; Kirksville, Missouri; the Kansas City, Missouri area (Gladstone to be specific); back to Kirksville; Tuscaloosa, Alabama; St. Louis, Missouri; and now Charleston, Illinois. 

Most of people around here where I live haven't lived many other places, if any new ones,  at all. 

But I'd like to think I have pretty good roots now. 

However, I still consider myself an Iowan. 

Random Notes from a Crank

I live in east central Illinois, and from time to time I see people who have "Salt Life" emblems on their vehicles. Certainly this "Salt Life" journey they are on is aspirational because we're landlocked as Hell. Sure, the person driving the car may vacation at places where there's an ocean, but the only saltwater one is going to find around here is a saltwater pool. 

John McCain had a pretty damn good line of criticism about MoscowDon and his ilk: "To refuse the obligations of international leadership and our duty to remain 'the last best hope of Earth' for the sake of some half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems is as unpatriotic as an attachment to any other tired dogma of the past. We live in a land made of ideals, not blood and soil... We have the moral obligation to continue in our just cause, and we would bring more than shame on ourselves if we don't." Of course, MoscowDon might understand what McCain is talking about: all those complicated sounding words and phrases that he doesn't like, understand, or connect to like "leadership," "spurious nationalism," "attachment," "tired dogma," "moral obligation," "just cause," and "shame." Read about it here from The Washington Post: "'It Won't Be Pretty': Trump Promises to 'Fight Back" against McCain." 

But then the Senator goes along with Trump's asinine tax plan. Jesus H. Christ. 

Game 3 of the National League Championship Series is really difficult to watch for this fan. The Cubs are not hitting worth a damn, and the bullpen is stinking.

Random Notes from a Crank

Last weekend, as usual, we spent a small fortune on school supplies for my kids. 

On Sunday I took my daughter to the last day of the county fair. She found a few of her friends, so I just sat on a bench and people watched. County fairs are prime targets for people watching. Here a few of my observations:

• I don't get some articles of clothing that people wear. 
• People who wear hi-tops for regular walking-around shoes probably aren't that good at basketball. 
• Corn dogs and fruit shake-ups are hard to resist.
• Either there many Cubs fans in my area of Illinois (there are more Cardinals fans), or a number of people have jumped on the Cubs bandwagon.
• I'm not about fat-shaming people, but Americans need to get in better shape, myself included. 

Check out Greg Fuchs' poem, "Make America Again," from Brooklyn Rail. 

Random Notes from a Crank

On Monday Mrs. Nasty had the day off, so we took the family and two of my kids'  friends to the Kickapoo State Recreation Area. We kayaked the the Middle Fork River, which from what I gather is around eight miles. It was a lot of fun. The river was cool, and there is great scenery. We plan on doing that again. 

Heck, if we get that into it, we might consider getting our own kayaks. 

On the Fourth of July, Syfy Channel provided a Twilight Zone marathon, which is fitting because narcissistic, pathological lying, juvenile #MoscowDon is POTUS. 

I taped a bunch of those episodes during the marathon. With all the reviving of old shows like The Gong Show, Love Connection, etc., the show that needs to revived is The Twilight Zone. That would be good television. 

Random Notes from a Crank

Here are some select, interesting factoids from recent Harper's Indexes (April and May):

• Factor by which more Americans work in the solar industry than work in the fossil fuels: 2
• Ratio of average annual number of deaths in the United States cause by drowning to those caused by gun violence: 1:8
• Of federal research funding for drowning to funding for gun violence: 1:1
• Percentage of Trump voters who believe he should be allowed to have a private email server: 42
• Who believe he should not: 39
• Factor by which sales of George Orwell's 1984 increased during the three weeks after the presidential inauguration: 90
• Number of books on a list that a Virginia judge assigned to five teens for defacing a historic black schoolhouse: 35
• Average percentage change in suicide rates among gay and bisexual teens after their state legalized same-sex marriage: -14
• Percentage change since 1997 in the number of times married Americans have sex each year: -19
• Length, in minutes, of a weekly break during which employees of a Swedish town are encouraged to have sex: 60

I'd call that last one a "nooky break."

Because of my son being on travel basketball and baseball teams and my daughter being on the volleyball and track teams for her middle school, I've gotten to visit some of the hamlets in east central Illinois. Friday we were in Teutopolis for a track meet, and that school system has one of my absolute favorite mascots: wooden shoes. 

If I'm not rooting for the Charleston Trojans, I root for the Shoes. FEAR the Wooden Shoes. 

This all leads to "10 Unique Illinois High School Mascots." The Shoes are the staunch rivals of the Flaming Hearts by the way. 

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

Bill McKibbon has some points to make in "After 525 Years, It's Time to Actually Listen to Native Americans." 

I've never really had houseplants, but this article in Treehugger, "5 Houseplants for Removing Indoor Air Pollution," makes me consider buying some. Might have to put one in my office. 

There's an air show this weekend in this little corner of east central Illinois. I've never gotten into going to those. Like NASCAR, it just seems like a waste of gas. 

We are going to a high school football game this Friday. They have a "grill on the hill" for the first game of the season. We'll see if they pull off a win. The team is in the midst of 17-game losing streak. It's gotta get better sometime soon, right? 

If the Democrats had a really good candidate for president, he or she would be trouncing Trump in the polls right now. Makes me implausibly wish that Elizabeth Warren or Martin O'Malley had won the nomination. If Clinton can't beat Trump, then she's an utter failure. Truly a "loser." 

Music Friday: "Fell on Black Days"

It's been a rough spring here in east central Illinois and other parts of the state whose economies are tied to state universities. Yet the Governor and the rest of the dunces in Springfield twiddle their beans and use higher ed appropriations as a political pawn. 

So I offer you an appropriate song. 

Random Notes from a Crank

The other day I was driving on I-57 and passed a heavy duty pickup truck pulling a very large boat, a vessel that looked like you could live on it. The name of the boat was "Final Argument." I'd like to learn the story behind that name. 

I'm desperate enough for some small-screen drama that I'm rewatching the seasons of Daredevil and Jessica Jones on Netflix. 

Mrs. Nasty and I decided we're going to do some 5Ks this year. To follow up on that verbal commitment, I bought some running shoes recently ~ a fancy pair of Sauconys. Thank goodness I bought them at a store that had all their stock 40% off. I do look forward to the Zen quality my mind gets when running, but I'm not looking forward to getting started and running in the cold. 

I ran today on a little over a two-mile route that I ran on a regular basis years ago. I had to stop about halfway through because it was cold as heck and I felt a little upchucky. After a bit of walk, I started running again and finished off the route. I probably ran a mile and a half. Baby steps...