Monthly Archives: February 2019

Fashionable and Fickle

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Some music videos for today and a little bit of context. This is the best I can do on this post-Oscar Monday, with two articles blasted out the door this morning (that I worked on all weekend), a paper due for my history class on Friday, and the usual other suspects from this thing called “life.”

Basically, I was looking for an excuse to post this video, from a favorite Canadian musician of mine, Joel Plaskett. Here’s to fashionable people.

Back when I was still able to light myself on fire so others could watch me burn with enthusiasm for things like writing, and urging others forward, drawing on my own journey of reinvention, I’d often share a snippet from Seth Godin’s wonderful Poke the Box. It was about a Canadian band of over-achievers called Hollerado. Yes, they were a literal band.

I’d read the section in the book about how they released their first record, called Record in a Bag. Yes, that was the record’s actual title.

Godin obviously was impressed about these four Canadian rockers and their will to overcome adversity. Like booking their first American tour, or better: simply getting in a van and driving as far away from their home town of Manitock, Ontario, and showing up at venues where a show was happening and telling a fib about having a gig lined up down the street that fell through and asking, “Would you guys mind if we played a short set here tonight?” They ended up playing a shit-ton of shows with this ploy. There’s all kinds of other motivation, fo-shizzle.

Today, for whatever reason, I thought, “I wonder what Hollerado’s up to these days?” They’re breaking up after 10 years of striving. That’s life, and even those who are willing to Poke the Box can’t always clear every hurdle. Not sure what the circumstances are—perhaps it’s as simple as wanting to do something other than log thousands of miles in a van and deal with the fickle nature of success. Continue reading →

Thai for Lunch

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Life will always try to make you run, even if your preference is for a steady trot. I say this, but much of our stress I think, is self-inflicted. Put your phone down, get off Facebook and Twitter, and you’ll be in a better state of mind.

My own life’s rhythms ebb and flow. For public schools, this is vacation week, so no sub assignments to consider. I’m tutoring at night because the private school nearby where I work has a different calendar than the one followed by their public counterparts.

While no fill-ins as a guest educator, I do have two articles I’m on deadline for. I continue writing for National Oil & Lube News. If you’ve never read any of my work for them, the February cover feature is mine, highlighting how no industry is immune from the reach of Donald Trump’s tentacles and tariffs.

Because I’m out during what are post-dinner hours for most people, I prefer not to have the standard American dinner, traditionally the largest meal of the day. For me, for much of my work week, I’ll whip-up something at lunch that is really my dinner. I make enough so that I leave a meal for Mary when she makes it home from work, or one of her after-labor fitness classes.

I don’t know where my culinary skills fall on any kind of continuum. I know my way around the kitchen, am quite capable of dicing and chopping, and I’ve mastered some of the basics of food preparation. I’m sure in our culture of fast food, or if you’re a foodie—eating most of your meals at a restaurant where the food is overprices and in my estimation—often underwhelming, then food prep might be foreign to you. Then, factor in the continued avoidance by many in the culinary world of moving away from meat to more plant-based meals, and cooking at home is almost always preferable to paying someone else to feed me.

Pad Thai for Two (maybe three or four)

Today’s Thai for Two packet presented an option that was fairly simple in terms of assembly. I had to soak my rice noodles for 25 minutes, so there was a time commitment involved. However, while my noodles were setting up, I diced my scallions, mushrooms, and then, timed my stir-fry requirement so that when the noodles were done soaking, all I had to do was add them, stir them around with the packet of Pad Thai Sauce (which was enclosed) and “voila!” I had dinner. I even steamed some broccoli because I love it and cruciferous vegetables are a good thing.

Cooking is cool.

Continue reading →

Songs From the Car Seat

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I have two laptops. One that is my “travel” computer. It’s one of Lenovo’s Yoga Ideabooks, perfect for use on-the-go. It’s the very same version that thieves in Providence snatched after smashing the two side windows of Mary’s RAV4, the night before Mark’s celebration of life at Brown. My insurance money allowed me to buy another one.

On that laptop is a very long attempt at writing a review of Thursday night. I completed it on Friday afternoon after trekking to the JFK Presidential Library and Museum, as Mary and I had decided to spend an extra day in the city before boarding the train north for home, on Saturday. While she caught a catnap before we headed out to a romantic dinner in the city’s North End, I was banging out a review that I guess will never see the light of day.

It was Valentine’s and Mary and I were in Boston to see Car Seat Headrest (CSHR). Actually, I was the one who wanted to see the “next big thing” in indie rock, but being such a good sport, she decided to take me up on my offer of a second ticket and hit the rock show with me, even though she could care less about the indie music I’ve loved for forever: that’s the kind of girl that she is and has always been. I’m sure that quality is also why Mark loved his mom like he did.

Today is Sunday, three days after Thursday. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in an urban environment very different from where we live in Maine.  Amtrak’s Downeaster made this trip especially enjoyable.

Back from Boston (from the Prudential Skywalk)

Our time in the big city was fun. I think the reason we had such a good time is because we left the car back in Brunswick. Being able to experience a city without the hassle of driving in city-style traffic lessens the stress. That and not having to find parking is a plus, too. Of course, it helps to be in an urban environment that has a stellar public transportation system. I know the locals love to bash the MBTA, but for someone like us who live in a small town with minimal public transportation options, being able to embark on public rail to crisscross the landscape of a major American city was a plus, and kind of fun, too. Continue reading →

Presidential Girth and Finding a Healthy Weight

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William Howard Taft was our largest president in terms of girth. It is rumored that he once got stuck in the White House bathtub, and if he didn’t, had a larger one installed. Taft’s BMI topped out at 42.3.

Donald Trump’s published weight a year ago was 239. If that’s an accurate weight, then his BMI would have been 29.9. This placed him well below Taft, and trailing other portly U.S. leaders, like Grover Cleveland (34.6), William McKinley (31.1), and Teddy Roosevelt (30.2). Bill Clinton, who it was said by his wife back in 1992 that her husband “loves to eat and he enjoys it,” had a BMI of 28.3 while president. During his first campaign, his weight ballooned 30 pounds, in part due to his penchant for Southern delicacies like ribs, potato salad, and sweet potato pie from Little Rock eateries Sims Bar-B-Q and Tex-Mex dishes made with lots of cheese, from Juanita’s, among others.

Interestingly, since he had his quadruple heart bypass surgery, the 42nd president is now mainly a plant-based vegan. If you’ve seen the former president, he looks great and is likely 30 to 40 pounds lighter than when he left office.

The current president (scowling) and other recent presidents at the George W. Bush funeral.

I am once again limiting my news consumption. Like the last time, I’m tired of the never-ending cycling of themes that have little or nothing to do with my life. Given that these days, journalism seems to be not much more than recycling presidential tweets, I’m really not interested in what these arbiters of truth tell me is “important.”

Not only am I limiting my exposure to the 24/7 news cycle, I’m also being much more intentional about the foods I am eating. As a result, I’ve dropped weight in a Clinton-esque manner. I am now down half of what the former president dropped after leaving office. Oh, I occasionally allow myself to “splurge” a bit, just like I do with political news.

The other day I heard that Mr. Trump was coming up on his annual appointment with his presidential physician. Not surprisingly (if you’ve paid attention to photos and his appearances on television), the president seems to have socked on a few pounds since he assumed his new home on Pennsylvania Avenue.

On Friday, he spent four hours at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and had a check-up with Dr. Sean P. Conley, his physician. There were another 11 specialists taking part.

Conley put in writing that Trump is “in very good health and I anticipate he will remain so for the duration of his Presidency.” No word what his weight might have been. I’m sure it wasn’t 239 because on Thanksgiving, my weight was 236 and I’m the same height as the president. I’d say his weight’s considerably more than 239 these days, especially if you’ve been privy to a rash of unflattering photos of the prez, often on the golf course: he’s got a gut, and some have described him looking like a “tubby idiot.” That’s probably a little unkind, even if the president rarely shies away from mocking and making unflattering remarks about just about everyone else.

Weighing less than the president these days.

Continue reading →

I Don’t Eat Beetloaf

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In the summer of 2017, my trusty Ford Taurus sedan, a vehicle I bought new in 2008, was pushing 215,000 on the odometer and growing tired. Maine’s winters and the deterioration they cause were winning the battle. My attempts at DIY body shop touch-up weren’t able to keep up, as “rust never sleeps.”

When you’re 6’3”, compacts and sub-compacts won’t do. I figured I’d remain in a sedan, and so began my search for a lightly-used vehicle that wouldn’t break the bank. I looked at several brands including Toyota, Hyundai, and Honda. It was time to end my Ford streak I’d been on since the 1990s.

I ended up with a 2014 Honda Accord and after Sunday’s ho-hum Super Bowl and the Hyundai ad dissing vegans, I’m so glad I didn’t opt for their Sonata.

Glad I have a Honda, not a Hyundai.

I’m sure the “geniuses” that populate Hyundai’s creative suite or whoever they farm their marketing out to thought that equating a vegan dinner party with things like a root canal and jury duty among other dreaded tasks was piss-your-pants-funny, but what it really did was show how out-of-touch the creators really were. And what fucking vegan do you know (if you know any!) has even heard of beetloaf? I’ve been plant-based for more than two years and I’ve never considered making one. I have a great “meatloaf” that’s plant-based and you’d never know it if I served it to you. Continue reading →

Studying History Part I

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I have been time-traveling this week. History and historians allow all of us the privilege of looking back from where we came as a country and as a people. Thomas Jefferson has just been elected president and the Federalists are “barking” about it. Isn’t it true that the Federalists have always been a political scourge on the nation?

Thomas Jefferson in history.

Jefferson, our third president, wasn’t a perfect man. Is any leader without blemish or fault? History does inform us that his election represented a “victory for non-elites,” those non-Founders who represented the majority of Americans in the fledgling republic. Those damned Federalists once again were lamenting Jefferson and how his election represented a “slide down into the mire of democracy.”

Jefferson’s election was a “victory for non-elites. For Federalists, a slide “down into the mire of democracy.” He embraced “the politics of the masses.” He sought to convince the country that government answered directly to the people—this would lead to unity (national cohesion/union), not division (anarchy). Continue reading →