President Nero?

We are all familiar with the story of how Emperor Nero "fiddled while Rome burned" during the great fire that consumed more than 70% of the capital city of the Empire in 64 AD.

Everyone assumes it must be true. The facts however don't support it. The first historical record of the existence of any bowed instruments similar to a modern "fiddle" were from the Byzantine Empire in the 10th century - a thousand years after Nero. And the first modern violins emerged in Europe nearly 500 years after that. Further, records from that fire indicate that significant and prompt action was taken by Nero and his subordinates to provide relief to those injured and displaced by the great fire. In other words, you can be told a story and believe it, and it still can be utter bullshit.

Fast forward.

We are now being told that it is abominable that a President seek something to clear his head when the world is burning. A round of golf, we are told, is an unacceptable way for the Commander-in-Chief to blow off some steam after dealing with a crisis. Why? Because "it looks like he's fiddling while Rome burns".

The first time I remember anyone being critical of "how it looked" for a President to seek relaxation on the golf course during a crisis was in Michael Moore's movie "Fahrenheit 911", when George W. Bush is caught on the golf course, and admonishes all nations to take on terrorism, and then says, "Now watch this drive." The criticism of President Bush caused him to swear off golf the rest of his time in office. However, he still did manage more days on vacation than any President in history.

http://youtu.be/pJvRUL81ZU8

Prior to that, I don't recall the President's need to escape into a mindless activity for a bit to clear his head ever being called into question.

For instance, this picture of President Reagan was taken on October 23, 1983, by an AP photographer during the President's vacation at Augusta National Golf Resort in Georgia, the day after Reagan was told of the plan to invade Grenada, and less than an hour after he was briefed on the bombing of the Marine Barracks in Beirut, Lebanon that killed 241 US Marines. The New York Times nonchalantly reported, "Mr. Reagan, on vacation, and others in the Administration were ”shocked and grieved” at the deaths, a spokesman said."

Why was there no hair on fire outrage in 1983? Wouldn't a military invasion and the terrorist killing of 241 Marines a day apart be a bigger crisis than anything the current President has yet faced? Could it be that in that kinder, gentler time, it was acknowledged that the President is first, and foremost, a human being? And could it be that it was understood then that human beings often need to escape with their thoughts into a book, or a movie or a game to clear their minds in order to make better decisions?

I, for one, am thankful for the opportunities that Presidents get to relax. It is likely the world's most stressful occupation. Just look at how rapidly they age in office. And I frankly don't care if his instrument of choice was made by Stradivari or Titleist.

Why I Cook - Geneva and Julia

I cook. I do not call myself "chef" because the only people, in my opinion who have earned that honor are those who have been the "chief" (en Français = chef) of a kitchen, in the French brigade tradition. I have not. There are many I know who also have not, but have no problem wearing the term "chef" loudly and proudly, anyway. But that's not me. I'm a cook. I have not earned the "chef" moniker.

Two women most influenced my decision to cook - Helen Geneva Wright Thomas and Julia Carolyn McWilliams Child. The former was my paternal grandmother, and the latter, the most famous chef in the world.

When I was a teenager, we kids would be shipped off to "the farm" with Geneva and Ray Thomas - my grandmother and her husband. The farm was really a house in a remote area of St. Clair County, Missouri, a few miles east of Lowry City. There was a barn, a small lake, a huge garden and woods. It was adjacent to the south of my great aunt & uncle, Faye & Roy Vinyard's dairy farm.

I learned to garden, to cook, to smoke meats and to can foods from my grandmother, Geneva. Mostly because I prefered her company to her crusty, grumpy old Marine husband, Ray. He was cantankerous and surly. She was joyous and kind. She had a record player on an old wooden chair in the corner of the kitchen. She didn't cook without a stack of records on the record player. From big band jazz to old time country, her music was the sound track of my earliest memories in the kitchen. And to this day, I can't cook without music.

Then came Julia. I was a newbie cook, playing around with recipes in my 20's, in the 1980's when I discovered a public television show called "The French Chef", starring a 6'2", lumbering woman with a raspy voice, who defined what I had learned, and put wheels under it.  I learned later that she was the wife of a spy, and all kinds of other amazing things that made her my hero. But at that time, I only knew that she mesmerized me. She wasn't afraid to screw up. She took everything in stride. She made cooking look fun, and yet stressed discipline and structure. She taught me the importance of mis en place. She taught me the value of knife skills. She was the most remarkable, enthusiastic and intelligent person I'd ever seen work a stove. She inspired me to take what I had learned at my grandmother's apron, and improve it - push it - learn more, do more.

So today I cook. Some say pretty well. But I would have never cooked without the inspiration, knowledge and enthusiasm of two brilliant women - Geneva and Julia. I will be forever in the debt of you both - may you both rest in peace.
DD

What would you be if you didn't even try?

I understand too little too late
I realize there are things you say and do you can never take back
But what would you be if you didn't even try
You have to try
So after a lot of thought
I'd like to reconsider
Please
If it's not too late
Make it a cheeseburger

Stupid is as Stupid does.

With all due respect to one of my dearest friends, Rusty Crewse, who is in a Kiss tribute band, Gene Simmons is a mouthy ignorant asshole. He is Rush Limbaugh Junior. And anyone who agrees with these ignorant fools is sick and needs help.

Robin Williams' death is only more important than any of the other tens of thousands of suicides from depression because he was a celebrity, but it does appropriately focus much needed attention on the issue. I've had many friends who have sadly met similar fates. Far too many.

Depression is every bit as real a disease as diabetes or hypertension or cancer. People have fundraisers for illnesses that impact organs other than the brain, but blame the afflicted for their disease when the brain is the organ impacted. If you aren't smart enough to get that - like, apparently Rush and Gene - you need help, too. As the son of someone who has suffered for more than 45 years with this nasty illness, learn the facts before you get diarrhea of the mouth and constipation of the brain.

If you agree with Gene Simmons and Rush Limbaugh, please stop being my friend, but I will pray for your recovery from your diseased mind.

DD

What is marriage anyway?

So many people are so vitriolic about who does and doesn't have the right to get married. What is a "marriage" anyway?

Marriage really has two definitions. One civil and one religious. And they are not the same thing.

Let's talk first about the civil definition of "marriage. I'm not a lawyer, but I've discussed this with several. It is simply a contract between two people, which entitles both parties certain legal protections and rights under the law. It is very similar to an LLP or LLC in corporate parlance. The state certainly has an established right and purpose in setting certain exclusions to this sort of contract. For instance, there's no doubt but that there is plenty of precedent that the government can set a minimum age limit for engaging in such a contract. No reasonable person can deny that. The government also has an interest in the mental capacity of those who enter into such a contract, to ensure one is not taking unfair advantage of the other. LLP's, LLC's and other contractual entities also establish that there is a legal precedent for determining the number of persons who may be involved in the contract. So an appropriate number of persons of legal majority, and of sound mind may enter into the contract. So far, so good.

Name one other similar contract for which there is an established precedent in which the government has any interest, whatsoever in the gender of the parties to the contract. To my knowledge, there isn't one.

Then there is the religious definition of marriage. Currently there are over a dozen established, recognized entities, including several mainstream Christian churches, who perform same-sex marriages within their interpretations of the scriptures. The "free expression" clause of the first amendment prevents any laws which discriminate against these churches and other religious entities from performing such unions, and those unions being legally recognized within the law the same as any other.

So, please, someone explain to me how same-sex marriages are any of the government's business, and why any laws against such unions pass any level of constitutional muster.
DD

Robin Ferguson Stewart Putin Mashal Maliki Zuckerberg

No, I can't begin to make sense of today's news. I refuse to get sucked into the racial, gun culture, anti Semitic, anti Muslim, freshly re-frozen cold war crap.

One of the worst things about social media is the "Lord of the Flies" democracy. Mob rule, groupthink, lowest-common-denominator willingness to "like" and thus give tacit approval and support to the most insidious behaviors because they are on the post of someone with whom you usually agree. I am outraged and disgusted by the bulk of what I've seen.

I have to admit that I do credit social media for one thing. I never really understood just how ugly and vulgar a huge number of people really are, when you scratch beneath their pleasant, superficial veneer. I didn't understand how vulnerable many perceptively strong people are. And don't even get me started on how people in their 40's, 50's 60's and beyond never let go of teenage angst, juvenile drama and catty feuds.

The reverse side of the coin, I have learned the inner strength of the timid, quiet and shy. I have learned the sacred serenity of those I perceived as aloof and agnostic. I've gotten to know the truth about "dear friends" who never really were, and distant acquaintances who were much closer to me than I ever knew. I have come to love members of my own family in a deeper way than I ever knew I could. I've met people who are "just facebook friends" who have become some of the dearest, closest people I know. I have people I can confide in that I've never been in the same zip code with, while simultaneously learning that people I've trusted and confided in for years, weren't trustworthy.

I have come to question all I think I knew about what is real, and what is superficial. I have learned that nothing you think you know is exactly real. Every data set is biased, and can be refuted by another angle. There is always more to any story than you will ever know. Everyone has secrets. Nobody is better than you - you are better than no one, either. Sanity and insanity are a sliding scale, and no one has a clean report card.

 Every time I give in to knee jerk reactions, mob mentality and succomb to buying into things at face value simply because the source agrees with me on most things - when I seek out sources of information that reinforce my current beliefs and avoid sources that provide rational disagreement, I become a weaker, less informed and more vulnerable person.

Also, anytime I question myself, question authority, question sacred cows, question reality, question the sources who agree with me, I become a stronger, more rounded and informed person.
DD

Tomatoes are not forever.

Tonight I had a BLT.  It was a multigrain artisan bread. Bacon from the farm. Organic leaf lettuce and a gorgeous Cherokee purple tomato from my garden. On the side, some homemade giardiniera and a perfect avocado with nothing but fresh lemon juice and French gray sea salt.

A BLT is one of my favorite things on earth. BLT's, San Francisco cioppino, cheeseburgers and Chef Carl Thorne-Thomsen's flash-fried octopus are just about the only things that keep me from becoming an orthodox Jew. That and not being Jewish.

Because edible tomatoes have a season, BLT's have a season. Right now they are perfect. 

I cannot for the life of me understand why restaurants continue to offer tomatoes on sandwiches through the winter. Is it just because they are too lazy to change the menu, or put up a sign that says the tomatoes are not up to standards?

I credit Jasper's in Kansas City that they refuse to do one of their signature appetizers when tomatoes are terrible. Admirable, but just the first step. 

I have a serious pet peeve. Chef Pete Peterman might relate to this - why in the day livin' shit does anyone put a sickly, anemic, pathetic, off-season, hot-house grown and gas-infused zombie tomato on a sandwich? Or a salad? Or anything else? Dear lord. Off season tomatoes are total crap. Don't offend my sensibilities by trying to convince me otherwise.

DD 

The voices in my head needed a better outlet.

Welcome to my blog. I have had several people ask me to start a blog to give a proper soapbox to the voices in my head. Facebook has it's place, but it really sucks as an outlet for how you really feel about things. This gives me the opportunity to post the random thoughts that rattle around inside my bone brain box, without the requisite filter necessary in social media.

This will not be a "political" blog. It will not be a "food" blog. It will not be a "sports" blog. It will not be a "music" blog. It will not be a "social justice" blog. It will be all of those things, and much more at times (and likely much less at other times). It will be a composite of what I think, what I feel and how I arrive at my opinions.

If you care to stop by, you're always welcome. If you care to reply, I'm OK with that, but I will filter due to spam issues, and the fact that this is my home, and the posts are by my rules. Please treat it as you would anyone's home you'd visit. As I try to always do in someone else's blog. I love differing opinions, and always respect hearing them, but if they become insulting or abusive, they'll be rejected.

Anyway - here's what it's like - Being Doggity.
DD