respublica

The Worst Cities in Illinois for Covid cases

The reason for these cities being worst in the state may be know by someone, but looking at the list I see a bunch of college towns. Whether that plays into it is just a guess.

 

MSA	Population	Total cases	Cases per 100,000	Total deaths	Deaths per 100,000
Danville, IL	77,563	22,635	29,182.7	247	318.5
Decatur, IL	105,528	24,446	23,165.4	289	273.9
Kankakee, IL	110,637	25,439	22,993.2	310	280.2
Carbondale-Marion, IL	137,573	31,565	22,944.2	353	256.6
Bloomington, IL	172,578	39,398	22,829.1	255	147.8
Champaign-Urbana, IL	226,323	51,648	22,820.5	254	112.2
Peoria, IL	406,883	91,501	22,488.3	1,094	268.9
Rockford, IL	338,356	74,646	22,061.4	792	234.1
Springfield, IL	209,167	46,130	22,054.1	338	161.6
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI	9,508,605	1,800,530	18,935.8	20,767	218.4

 

 

 

 

A Sam's Club question

I came across this article today which gives a new deal for new members. It sounds like something which would make me actually get a membership. But I don't know if this is really on the up and up.

It's only open to new memberships and is 19.99 plus a free rotisserie chicken and a batch of cupcakes. This price is for one year.

More shortages, higher prices

The news this week which seems like a repeat of news from last week, is prices on grocery items will continue to rise. This is said to be due to Omicron taking its toll on workers being off sick in all areas of the supply chain.

Prices are expected to rise for eggs, cheese, meat and milk. There are also many news photos and videos of grocery shoppers in front of wide swaths of empty shelves. I've noticed various grocery aisles around here which often have empty areas but not to the extent it must be happening in other parts of the country. Around here we could count on Super Bowl Sunday weekend having just about everyone buying out chili fixings and chicken wings. And black olives for Pete's sake.  On New Year's shrimp was hard to find as was some other fish items. And even weirder to me was the run on frozen vegetables over the holidays. Before Christmas flour, sugar, etc was going like crazy for baking. Local people have also been buying meat like there is no tomorrow. Also trash bags!

About the only place I go these days is the grocery store and I watch what's going on as I move through the store. The employees doing the stocking look tired and just fed up with us customers. I've seen way too many people taking things off the stocker's cart and one old guy decided it was a good idea to just sit down on the floor in front of the jars of gravy until he found what was on his list. He sat there for the longest time while others of us stood around waiting.

When snow was predicted local people headed to the stores and bought out milk and bread and lots of produce and junk food. So many buying that the stores could not keep up with re-stocking. Normal. What there is too much of is, all the insta-cart shoppers. They are everywhere treating the aisles like they own the place. Maybe it's just me, but I find them somewhat  irritating.

But like everywhere else, we do see food areas which are slow to be stocked up due to not having the items to put out or not enough people to do this. I have to make a grocery run today and am interested in what is and is not available.

An different way to day clothes

I came across a discussion about the best way to dry clothes if your dryer is on the fritz. Or, for those who want to dry a small amount of clothes and not bother with the dryer.

Along came a recommendation which has its roots in Great Britain-heated airers.

Now I've never heard of these. They look much like those old fashioned accordion style racks with the horizontal rods across the top. My mother had one of those and I bought one a year ago just for drying onions and garlic I'd harvested.

This British site has images of various types of heated airers available, all of which work by electricity. Plug it in and the rods heat up which dry your clothes. Many swear by this technique.

Amazon has many for sale, most without customer reviews of feedback. This may be due to it being a fairly new British idea yet to catch on with Americans. But now that i think about passing on this thing, it would be just like our dryer to stop working.

This must be produce day

The January/February issue of Food Network Magazine has a page on "To Your Health", another promotion of fruit, vegetables and nuts. We eat a lot of these things so I'm fine with seeing one more discussion of it.

However, this part gave me pause: "In Season: Cauliflower.

I don't know where these writers live, but while we can get cauliflower at the store, it sure isn't in season here. The short paragraph on the benefits of cauliflower did not mention just where this in season vegetable was being harvested. All cauliflower is high in fiber, B vitamins, vitamin C and folate. Whatever folate is. All of which made me Google just where this vegetable is actually now in season. I have nothing else to do today what with snow outside.

In season states right now: Arizona, California, Florida, Louisiana and Texas. Getting cauliflower in our stores right now means it comes from one of these states or maybe Mexico. I am only looking at the 50 state list. 

Illinois is August to October and Missouri is Mid-May to mid-July. This bothers me a bit since part of southern Illinois borders on Missouri so where we live, the in season time should mirror that state.

I have too much free time today.

But I am now wanting some roasted or air-fryer cauliflower

Organic or not?

The Clean Food Fresh website has laid out an interesting look at which foods are best purchased as organic and those which do not. Here is a look at their decision.

Most of the time produce with a thicker outer skin which is not eaten are likely to provide less chemical exposure and are safe to buy in conventional form."

Most of the time those labeled organic are not grown with the use of pesticides. The entire article is worth reading if the topic of food interests you. I believe, and could be wrong, that giving the non-organic fruits and vegetables a good wash before eating is helpful.

The Clean Food Fresh site is a good one to look through now and then for information and also good recipes. One interesting article is on the benefits of mint.  And this recipe for Garlic-Herb Chicken tray bake looks good enough to try tomorrow.

Amazing photos

I'd guess most of us have seen this famous photograph of iron workers having lunch way up high and sitting on nothing buy a steel beam. This was taken during the construction of the Empire State Building.

What we haven't seen much of, is the man who took the photo and how he did it.

I can't copy the actual photos due to copyright rules in this case, but here are the links.   The guys eating lunch.

The Photographer, Charles Ebbets

I will have to say, the one photo shown of Ebbets standing on a beam looks more like Tom Cruise, the but squatting picture is for sure Ebbetts.

Unexpected history

This is one of the craziest sport photos I've seen, made nuttier because it involves women instead of men. Men are more prone to doing things like this, IMO.

I've seen this picture twice today, the first had the date as 1956, the other as 1934. But either way, it happened in Venice Beach, California. Women playing volley-ball on stilts.

There is no way they moved right to left or forward and back so the stilts must have been secured into the sand somehow. The bathing suits don't look like the 1930's, more like the 50's but I could be wrong. Actually after googling 1930's bathing suits, it could well have been 1934.

About masks

We are back again getting strong advice on the importance of wearing masks and N95 or KN95 masks being the most protective. Cloth masks are now said to be less effective.

I guess I'll be getting some of these today even though I am not crazy about the big round blob of their look. Some companies have begun making them in fun colors and designs which help somewhat.

The N95 masks are designed to form a seal around the mouth and nose. It is also said that you can tell if you have a fake one if your glasses fog up while wearing it. The good mask will not allow fog.

Also the KN95 masks, also recommended are made in China while the N95's are not.

Harley and Davidson

I came across this photo yesterday taken in 1914.  It is a photo of William Harley and Arthur Davidson sitting on their namesake motorcycles. I found it kind of fascinating to have faces to a product still around today.

Risky places

One of the first things I read this morning was an article on the top ten riskiest places to be during the latest Covid outbreak. Which means places that make the spread much easier. Most include places where lots of people are together indoors.

So a later article from the Edwardsville Intelligencer had me dumbfounded and wondering about all the mixed messages we get from the news. This headline read: "Fishing Catches on for Thousands in Collinsville." This past weekend a fishing show was held at the Gateway Center and that brought in the thousands. The story made this seem like a good thing, fishing is now really popular and those who attended were thrilled.

Frankly, even though I am no expert on contagion, this seems way over the top for safety. I am aware of how many of us are now pretty tired of restrictions and warnings, but the number of rising cases should give us pause.

Best way to de-fog the windshield?

This sort of stopped me in my tracks this morning. A headline which read, "Using Shaving Cream to clear up that foggy windshield."

My first thought was how hard it would be to get that cream off after the window cleared of fog or frost. Can be used inside and outside on the window. Some people swear by this method, but I doubt I'll try it. My method is to get the car running before we have to leave with the defroster running.

I have used a vehicle ice melt spray in frozen door locks and doors themselves at times.

I won't take this dare

Here is a full page ad which came with today's New York Times:

When this fell out from the other sections of the paper, I was totally mystified and curious enough to spread it out on the kitchen floor and read just what this meant. What it means is there is a new theory that as much as we Americans like chicken, it can be produced better by making it out of plants. "We’re chicken lovers who believe eating more plants and treating animals better are both pretty important things. It's why we're working to make chicken better in every way."

So making chicken better means not having chicken but fake chicken made from soy, spices and sunflower oil. Then they sell their Daring chicken pieces and give a few recipes. All this can be found on their website if you are interested which I am not. An 8 piece bundle costs 56 dollars.

Is their a market for this plant chicken? Probably. But enough of a market for this group to make a go of it? I'm skeptical.

Speaking of cooking and food, today I'm going to make a pot roast, something I haven't made in a long time, but it just sounded so good on a very cold Sunday. But, is there anything in the kitchen heavier than a cast iron crock pot? Maybe this is why I've neglected pot roast for so long.

Lawn cleaner

Now this cleaning idea came out of no-where, but it is so weird that it just might work. During a discussion on the best way to clean oven racks, someone testified to the success of doing this:

 "Throw it outside in the grass and leave it over night then wipe clean the next day."

Another agreed: "Apparently it’s the moist grass that loosens the grease. I’m sure my slugs would have a feast in my garden."

A third said: "Put your racks outside on grass for 24 hours and the next day all the burnt on stuff just wipes off I'm going to give mine a go."

Does anyone have faith this will work? I don't know if tossing the racks onto the lawn in winter would work well, but I may try this with a grill rack just to see. If the grass moisture cleans those racks, how wonderful would it be to not have to use the harsher oven cleaners?

Memories

One thing I've come to appreciate about Facebook is the daily Memories link to things I posted "on this day" over the years. Today's January 7th memories are many with some mirroring what is going on today. Like really cold temperatures.

On January 7, 2015 we had a -6 windchill with a dusting of snow. In 2010 we had a lot of snow and many local kids were sledding on the hill on the east side of the campus facing Demun.

So today's really bitter cold is nothing new on the 7th of January.

 

Dale's new ride

Yesterday Dale was finally able to take possession of an old Divco milk truck he'd been given by the owner of the Farm Fresh Dairy. It's a story many years in the making, but after a years long wait in a local barn and 4 years of renovation, the truck is better than new. The debate during the renovation years was what would we do with it when it was finished. We sure did not want that sitting out on our driveway in all kinds of weather and the garage is too small. Finally this past summer Dale wound a vehicle storage place not far from home and we backed it in there yesterday. It's big enough for us to use a good part of the unit for storing our Christmas Tiny Town buildings and lots of other things. So a win all around.

The original look

The people at Precision Restorations even saved the original side sign for him

Then he spent some time driving it around and then over the river to Collinsville. Now it is resting gently in its new home.

Not Prunes!

I learned this morning there is now a coffee drink named, Prune Latte. Cold Brew Prune Latte is being touted by Sunsweet. I realize there has been a lot of messing with coffee flavors in recent years, but this seems a bit much.

Prunes should know their place and stay out of coffee.

I really miss Kruta's Bakery

Collinsville's Kruta Bakery is without argument the best anywhere. But they have closed for two weeks to complete a renovation and boy, is it hard to find a decent donut or danish anywhere else. What do they do that other bakeries do not? This week I've tried Schnucks which has a display of donuts which look good, but are not. They are too dense, maybe too thick or chewy, I'm not sure how to describe them. The apple fritters which look good, but are dense and almost tough by the time they get to our house.

I hope to try a couple of the other local donut shops today. I doubt though, any will be as good as Kruta's.

This wins the worst traffic award

The morning news has been covering a total botch-all on Virginia interstate 95. This highway is a main road, into and out of. the District of Columbia. Every day during rush hours it is filled with federal workers and others heading home from work.

Yesterday Virginia, DC and Maryland had a huge snow fall and not much in road clearing was done. Here is what happened, something which is the stuff of travel nightmares.

"Hundreds of motorists were stranded all night in snow and freezing temperatures along a 50-mile stretch of Interstate 95 after a crash involving six tractor-trailers in Virginia, where authorities were struggling Tuesday to reach them.

Both directions of traffic on I-95 came to a standstill Monday between Ruther Glen, Virginia, in Caroline County and exit 152 in Dumfries, Prince William County, the Virginia Department of Transportation said. “Crews will start taking people off at any available interchange to get them,” the agency tweeted at 5:20 a.m. Tuesday.

The tractor-trailer collision Monday afternoon caused no injuries, but brought traffic to a standstill, and it became impossible to move as the snow accumulated. Hours passed with hundreds of motorists posting increasingly desperate messages on social media about running out of fuel, food and water"

The images of bumper to bumper traffic at a stand still for miles since yesterday afternoon and all through the night is stuff of nightmares. 19 hours!

A bacon cheeseburger trick

I was rather bored this afternoon and found myself in the basement watching a few YouTube videos on Blackstone Griddle grilling. I love our Blackstone Griddle and enjoy getting hints and recipes from Chef Nathan Lippy. He and his video guy have fun with these videos, but most importantly, I've learned a lot.

Here is one video he did which has great advice which I intend to use any time I make cheeseburgers. Which is many times. There is nothing like a burger made on the griddle. Seriously. Anyway....Lippy did this:

He said most bacon cheeseburgers have the bacon put on top whole length which means an inch or two of the bacon is always hanging outside the bun. What he did was fry the bacon to a nice crisp, then the burger. When the bacon was done he cut each piece into about one inch pieces, then laid them on top of the cooked burger so they filled the top of the meat with no hanging off. Then a slice of cheese was put over the whole thing and waited a bit so that the heat from the meat melted the cheese right over the bacon. Eating it was easy and the bacon stayed put.

It was an eye-opener for me and such a great idea.

He also has some interesting advice on slicing the onion, making a sauce and the lettuce. The lettuce advice is worth the wait.

All in all if you like food, this video is fun and full of great tips.