Canned goods

I've seen the Northern Lights a couple of times but solar activity must have been weak; they were barely visible but still pretty cool looking.  I was disappointed that there wasn't any accompanying sound like you have with lightening and thunder but instead of thunder there would be electronic sounds like you get with a theremin.  Are the Northern Lights completely silent or is there some kind of sound, like static, that you can hear as you approach the magnetic north pole?

Anyhow, in another bit of synchronicity there was a recent post at the Hackaday site about the Carrington Effect.  This effect deals with solar flares, coronal ejections, and the effects on the atmosphere, i.e., Northern Lights.  Another result of solar activity is the disruption of telecommunications, something that we aren't well prepared to deal with.

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It's funny that Uncle Ken just mentioned Spaghetti-Os.  A few weeks ago one of the YouTube channels that I follow did a comparison of Spaghetti--Os and Spaghetti-O types of canned pasta; no surprise, the real Spaghetti-Os won.  But I don't think I've eaten them, or if I did it was so long ago that I had no memory of it.  Same thing for Spam; I surely must have eaten it at some point in my life but I have no recollection of it.  So, I got some Spam and Spaghetti-Os; I wasn't expecting much and I wasn't disappointed.  Spam was much too salty, hiding any pork or ham-like flavor and the texture was weird.  I ate it cold, right out of the can, so it might be better after soaking it in cold water to remove some of the salt and then frying strips of it in a skillet.  If the Maillard Reaction can work it's magic and carmelize some of the proteins you might have a tasty snack, but that's an experiment for another day.

The Spaghetti-Os (with meatballs!) were nondescript but the meatballs had a little flavor.  My best description of it would be tomato soup with soggy pasta pieces and tolerable meatball-like formed pieces of protein product.

But those meals were a couple of weeks ago and today I took the big step with another canned food that I don't recall ever eating.  Yes, I bought a can of the infamous Dinty Moore Beef Stew today and was pleasantly surprised and found it more than edible.  I used a sauce pan to heat it up instead of Uncle Ken's can-in-the-boiling-water trick; I think it heats up more quickly and is easier to stir once you add some fresh ground pepper.  The quantity and quality of beef was fine, as was the flavor, but it could have used more potatoes and carrots.  As it was heating up and I seasoned to taste I was thinking that it would make a fine base for a more complex stew.  A little prep work could work wonders; start by sautéing some onions, garlic, peppers, tomatoes, or what have you and you could end up with a killer stew.  Or a nice pot of chili; there are a lot of directions you can go in with using Dinty Moore as a starting point.  Have you guys done any experimenting?

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After reading Mr. Beagles' tale of the Darr-Oliver, it seems to me that his paper mill had a management problem.  I found this: Dorr-Oliver, founded in 1910, manufactured systems and equipment for the pulp and paper industry based out of Orillia, Ontario Canada.

The machines are still in use and can be repaired and seem integral to the operation of a paper mill.  Somebody "upstairs" should have made the decision to either fix it or get rid of it.  They get paid to make those decisions and shouldn't have shirked their responsibility but that's just my opinion; talk is cheap and I wasn't there.