The Eve of December

That's one down and two to go.  In its wake, Black Friday and Cyber Monday,...

And let's not forget Small Business Saturday, Uncle Ken, another new bit of consumerism hype.  From what I've read the term Black Friday as a holiday spending spree is relatively recent, dating from the 80s.  I remember learning in school that Black Friday referred to the start of the Great Depression of 1929 but it goes back much further than that, to the middle of the 19th Century when a couple of scoundrels tried to corner the gold market.  In any case, it always seems to be about the money and not much more.  Imagine a Christmas holiday season with no presents at all, focusing only on the birth of a certain baby.  Wacky concept, huh?

That's why I like Thanksgiving, a holiday with no particular agenda or gift-giving, just a chance to get together with folks and share a meal.  This year's trip to my sister's new home was a modest affair, with her traditional lasagna.  I've noticed a growing trend of people acknowledging that they don't really like turkey (or green bean casserole) but everything else is fine, especially the stuffing and other traditional side dishes.  This year I brought my popcorn popper and made a couple of batches, movie-style and a sugar glaze kettle corn type.  Very well received and historically valid, I think.  I also showed off with a little bit of baking.  I like bagels and cream cheese and I've often wondered about the recipes on the inside of the Philadelphia Cream Cheese package.  The Double-Lemon Cream Cheese Bars seemed like a good challenge and I gave it a shot.  Not a simple task but the result was excellent and I'll make them again; slightly extravagant but they freeze well.

-----

And I am jealous of, may I call him Tom Tom, Old Dog's Roma tomato...

No, you may not.  It's just a damn tomato; not everything needs a name or adjective.  Jolly Jay, Gutsy Gretch...sheesh!

-----

How was y'alls weekend?

I wonder where that y'all comes from?

Mr. Beagles is well tuned into the zeitgeist, Uncle Ken, as shown by this recent online article: https://theconversation.com/yall-that-most-southern-of-southernisms-is-going-mainstream-and-its-about-time-193265

And the zeitgeist is tuned into Mr. Beagles, as shown by this recent design from one of my online T-shirt sources, with a nod to Abbey Road:

-----

The Red Mango has some competition; a Yellow Mango has entered the chat room.

The holidays

 That's one down and two to go.  In its wake, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which are the waves of Christmas battering down on the bones of the turkey and the broken dishes of the yams and cranberries, and all that crap the eating of which is more a chore than, I don't know, our expression of thankfulness.

I never liked that food especially, and when my sister's plan to have that kind of Thanksgiving in her apartment fell through because one of the nephews decided to go to his girl friend's family for the holiday, that was fine with me.  Harry Caray's offered some kind of Thanksgiving dinner which I declined in favor of spaghetti and meatballs and I never regretted my choice, the meatballs were big and the sauce was thick and tasty.

So now the joy of Christmas lights and the painful din of Christmas songs, and there is some kind of general gemutlichkeit among the citizens which is pleasant.  And you know sometimes it seems to just go on and on, and then suddenly it is right there in front of you.

The last couple of years we have gone without giving any presents at all, and it has been great, but now for some unknowable reason my sister wants to bring it back.  The horror, the horror.

In the height of my beer-drinking days I embraced New Years Eve wholeheartedly.  Perhaps the less said about that the better, but anymore I just mope around and nurse a few beers until The Fireworks.  It seems like they get bigger each year.  They shoot them off not only at Navy Pier but from all of the bridges, so that they are exploding at eye level maybe fifty feet from me, and they go on and on and on.

And then I am ready to face all of long January, all of short February (the longest little month of the year), and maybe halfway through March there are reports of the slender girl in the pea green gown hanging out with the crocuses.  Can tomatoes be far behind?

And speaking of tomatoes, I am sure Old Dog has heard of this:  https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/spacex-launches-tomato-seeds-supplies-to-international-space-station-3558150

Tom Tom Tomato may be bursting with pride on the north side, thinking about how, just by being delicious, his ilk has been able to use humankind to launch into space, and after this the whole universe likely.  That experiment of achieving world domination by not being destroyed in the human digestive system has come a crapper, but this new plan is so crazy that it just might work.

The C-word

 Here it is:

C word

I had the complete word up there, just to see if it would get a reaction, but after a couple hours it just looked so nasty, especially on Thanksgiving that I took it down.

scandal at the Institute

 I think the phrase WTF has become like it's own word now, you know like SNAFU, the fuck has been subsumed by the acronym.  What did I say fuck right out in the open there, well I'll be a mother fucker?  Did I say mother fucker?

Why yes I did about five years ago.  And fuck?  I've said that many times over my time in the Institute.  Time in the Institute, have to say that I do not like the ring of that.

I have been using that search function to do detective work on this.  I think the four syllable word has only been used that one time, but the famous four letter word has been used, well, a lot.  

But, let's call it the C-word, has only been used that one time.  And like five years ago.  My guess is that at some point since then the censors at blogspot decided that it belonged behind a warning and since then some bot has been searching back issues for it, like those wheels I was talking about on my last post before all this excitement, grinding exceedingly fine.

But why not mother fucker then?  My impression has always been that that is the big kahuna of cuss words, but maybe it is used so often that it has lost its bang, and maybe the C-word, used more sparingly, still retains its power.

But I am guessing it is more of a lgbtq thing (google tells me that that has been supplanted by lgbtqia+, but let's tackle that another day).  I didn't want to risk blogspot putting this behind a warning so I will test the C-word in a subsequent post.

Happy Thanksgiving Dawgs.  

WTF?

 This is a test.... This is only a test.  I read somewhere once that it's not considered to be profanity if you just spell out the initials.  Let's see if they flag this one.  By the way, I did not receive the email.  The first I heard of it was when I read about it here.

I seem to remember Old Dog once telling us about a relative of his developing something like this.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/snipex-alligator-the-ukrainian-sniper-rifle-capable-of-penetrating-armored-vehicles/ar-AA14tBCy?ocid=winpstoreapp&cvid=cb92ee2074514b6dbf1c52c5590fbf32

Mea culpa!

It's all my fault and I take complete responsibility!  I would think that the context, in reference to The Economist, would be legitimate use but I guess not.  If the Powers That Be (TM) want to put it behind an "Adults Only" warning that's fine with me.  It's their game; they can make the rules.  But it sure took them long enough to flag the post, didn't it?  No complaints in the comments section either, to the best of my knowledge.

Keep calm and carry on, as our friends across the pond would say.

 

 

Your post titled "Same but different" has been put behind a warning for readers

 I'm guessing Beagles got this email also, Old Dog (The offender) maybe not because he is not a founding member. 

I guess you may skate for seven years but the long arm of Blogger will eventually grind you exceedingly fine.  Mixed metaphor, did that on purpose.

Hello,

    As you may know, our Community Guidelines (https://blogger.com/go/contentpolicy) describe the boundaries for what we allow-- and don't allow-- on Blogger. Your post titled "Same but different" was flagged to us for review. This post was put behind a warning for readers because it contains sensitive content; the post is visible at http://talkswithbeagles.blogspot.com/2016/08/same-but-different.html. Your blog readers must acknowledge the warning before being able to read the post/blog.

    We apply warning messages to posts that contain sensitive content. If you are interested in having the status reviewed, please update the content to adhere to Blogger's Community Guidelines. Once the content is updated, you may republish it at https://www.blogger.com/go/appeal-post?blogId=2098621150745021924&postId=4544729758155381757. This will trigger a review of the post.

    For more information, please review the following resources:

    Terms of Service: https://www.blogger.com/go/terms
    Blogger Community Guidelines: https://blogger.com/go/contentpolicy

    Sincerely,

    The Blogger Team