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There is an article on spring cleaning in The Taste of Home magazine which I saw linked online, and it includes a checklist for things to do in every room. Quite honestly after a winter stuck inside and closed up against the cold and snow, I'd agree the house needs some shaking up. But this is list is beyond my ability to even attempt.
Here is a look at all the things we should be doing. click to enlarge
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This past Sunday our family had a milestone in church. The two oldest grandsons acolyted together for the first time. This was Connor's debut and he was all smiles. There is something so wonderful about this.
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Yesterday Lance Hildebrand got a twitter question from a listener in which he was asked: "Does a ladder in the roadway count if it is in Florida?"
You just have to laugh, but Lance responded politely, "a fair question...one that I have gotten several times before...the answer is...no...we're just keeping tabs on mattresses and ladders in the STL metro area. Thanks for asking!
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Growing up on the south side of Chicago, we were Lutheran, but in our Roseland neighborhood we had many friends who were Catholic and there were several huge Catholic churches in that area. So we heard a lot about saints from the neighorhood kids. My dad was adamant that we do not pray to saints, but we pray directly to God the heavenly Father through his Son Jesus Christ. In any event, hearing that today is St. Joseph's Day I decided to see what this is all about.
This day always falls two days after St. Patrick's Day and the color is not green, but red. It is a feast day in commemoration of Joseph, husband of Mary, who tradition has it was prayed to during a horrible famine in Sicily during the middle ages and he answered their prayers and the famine ended. "With the ending of the dreadful famine, a special feast of thanksgiving was held in commemoration of the Saint. This celebration became tradition. Wealth families prepared huge buffets. They then invited the less fortunate people of the village, especially the homeless and sick."
Much symbolism is in the food prepared and the feasts goes on all day and all night. People can come and go. Dan Bovino, a former Roseland native who grew up there sort during my time, posted a photo today of a fairly typical St. Joseph's Day feast. It must still be tradition in many Catholic churches and homes, although we don't hear as much about it.
I find this rather fascinating and if you'd like to read more about today's St. Joseph Day, here is a link with much more information.
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I was riveted to a car chase broadcast on Fox 2 News this morning. Bommarito Sky Fox traffic helicopter followed an SUV which was stolen in Maryland Heights and raced at speed which reached 115 MPH over to Illinois and back across the JB Bridge to south county. The young men did a home invasion in Illinois and then headed back to the Missouri side. Watching this clear video and seeing how fast this car was going sliding from lane to lane to pass rush hour traffic and big trucks was just unreal.
Eventually the two gave up, stopped on the shoulder of 55 near Reavis Barracks, got out and started running through a local neighborhood. At one point they tried to get into a house but it was locked. They then ran around that neighborhood for a bit until they just had no escape and County and city and probably state police got them.
The thing is, this could have caused as disastrous crash with any number of people injured.
KMOV's traffic copter was following this too, but their station had gone to national news so it was not broadcast live, but here is a good write-up and video.
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If I had to choose an end of the season championship for any sport, I think I like the NCAA basketball tournament the best. It's exciting, most people have some sort of rooting interest whether it's their own school or the state they live, or some such. It's great that St. Louis University got in this year, they probably won't go past the first round but it's exciting.
If you do put together a bracket just for fun, here is are the rankings from number 1 to number 68 for all the teams in a tournament. Just to help a bit.
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I'm totally puzzled by all the mattresses which have dropped onto St. Louis highways this winter. But here's the latest this morning on 270 at 55.
Mattresses 30
Ladders 22
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Dale was in Ethiopia for ten days and while he was there he came across a coffee shop Bishoftu. That city is also known these days for the plane crash which set in motion the grounding of all 737 Max 8 Boeing airplanes.
It's Kaldi's! Dale took this photo vertically which I discussed in a posts below. The logo is similar to the Starbuck's logo.
"Kaldi was a legendary Ethiopian Sufi goatherd in Ethiopia who discovered the coffee plant around 850 AD, according to popular legend,[1] after which it entered the Islamic world then the rest of the world.: It is so ubiquitous to that country it is known as the Starbucks of Ethiopia. Somehow or other, the name was chosen for the St. Louis Kaldi's Coffee shops. The logo looks very similar to the Ethiopian coffee shops.
The legend of the Ethiopian coffee is about a goatherd who found the coffee plant and Kaldi's in St.Louis uses a goat on their coffee packaging.
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On his way home from Eithiopia, Dale had a stop over in Dublin Ireland since I have Irish ancestors. I was pretty excited by that, but sadly, he didn't even get to get off the plane. All they did was re-fuel. But he did get one thing, a picture.
This is one of those instances when someone takes a picture with a phone in portrait mode (vertical) and when it is posted to a website, it goes to landscape or horizontal mode. There is almost nothing that can be done to change this, I've tried everything. So here is his picture flipped on its side.
The one link I found when Googling this problem was a post with the headline: Stop taking vertical pictures already! I agree with this completely, have been through too many photo flips that I know not to do this. And, I have mentioned to Dale to stop doing vertical, but it seems to be just too obvious a way to take some photos. However if you use a real camera not a phone, the orientation will be fine in vertical or portrait mode.
He got a picture of the Dublin airport control tower in the rain.
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Well, maybe the NCAA basketball tournament ties high school for excitement at the end of the season. But for people in the St. Louis Metro East it's going to be fun to keep track of the Illinois boys state tournament this weekend. 3 local teams have made it to Peoria in different divisions. There is nothing, nothing like the Illinois state basketball tournament.
Belleville West is in the largest school division 4A, East St. Louis in 3A and Nashville played for the 2A championship last weekend and lost to Chicago Orr.
Belleville plays tomorrow night in the semi-finals against Chicago Curie and East St. Louis plays their semi-final tomorrow afternoon against Peoria Manual.
A personal note on Belleville West. They won the state championship last year and are coached by Joe Muniz who we've known since he played for Collinsville High School. His brother Jeff was in the same Collinsville class as our daughter Katie and he is married to Katie's lifelong best friend, Bliss. The mother of the two Muniz's was a longtime Latin teacher at Collinsville HS and both our daughters had her as a teacher. There is a third Muniz coach, Brian, who is at O'Fallon Illinois High School.
So yes, we have a rooting interest.
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A ladder fell on 55/70 at the Edwardsville/Marine exit this morning and Tuesday a mattress fell on 270
Mattresses 29
Ladders 21
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A new word (to me) that is slowly but surely showing up in stories and promotions for salmon is Frankenfish. Last night I saw a headline from USA Today which stated, "GMO 'Frankenfish' salmon could be in stores as early as next year."
What is Frankenfish I wondered. Well, the salmon which has been genetically modified to grow faster is now being allowed to be imported to the US and stories about this often use the adjective Frankenfish. I thought this might be salmon being imported from Norway since the word sounds a bit Scandanavian. But no.
It is actually the name of a 2004 horror movie of the same name and dealt with genetically engineered fish in the Louisiana bayou. One of the huge modified fish jumped up out of the water and decapitated some guy standing along the shore. Another bit off a woman's legs while others somehow got out of the water, were able to breathe and attacked boathouses by biting holes in them which made them sink.
I've never seen or heard of this movie, probably won't watch it now, but I'd bet it makes a comeback when these GMO salmons hit our stores. There are many food people out there who aren't happy about modifying what we eat. So naming this coming GMO salmon Frankenfish is their way of getting their point across.
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This must be the week for these cakes. The post below this one is about two different Gooey Butter Cake contests and now Ted Drewes Frozen Custard is getting into the act. They just unveiled their new mystery flavor for this season and it is named, The St. Louis Classic.
It will be a Gooey butter cake topped with vanilla custard, tart cherries and a Dad's cookie. In a cup, not a cone. It looks really good.
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About a week ago, KSDK News Facebook page had a question for Gooey Butter Cake fans. It was, "Who has the best Gooey Butter Cake in Town?" There were tons of comments from people who all had their own favorite place to get a Gooey Butter Cake. What I loved was how many voted for Kruta Bakery in Collinsville. If I had to guess, Kruta's most likely was at or near the top for those who voted. I don't think they picked a fan favorite, it was just a fun story survey.
Today what should show up on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch food page, but a story on Gooey Butter Cakes written by Daniel Neman. He arranged a Gooey Butter competition among 6 of what he called, 6 of the Best Known Bakers in the area. And no, Kruta's was not chosen which was just wrong. The 6 picked are certainly good bakeries, but to leave Kruta's out was culinary negligence by a local food writer. Maybe Daniel Neman beieves "the area" means only the Missouri side of the metro area. He added a 7th cake to the test and that was one he baked himself at home.
The bakeries involved in this bake off were: Federhofer’s Bakery, Gooey Louie, McArthur’s Bakery, Missouri Baking Co., Park Avenue Coffee and Russell’s on Macklind.
But getting back to the Neman competition, the 7 Gooey Butters were blind tasted by four judges, no bakery names beside each piece. They then got together and picked the top 3 and came to a unanimous decision on the first place/best Gooey Butter Cake. Guess which cake won.
Daniel Neman's homemade cake.
I mean, come on.
Not only does a food writer from St. Louis ignore one of the best as well as being well known, bakeries because it's in Collinsville, but he wins the contest? Chutzpah.
Thanks Paul for passing this story on.
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This winter has been ridiculous but naming all the storms has gotten out of hand. Today we're hearing that a rare Bomb Cyclone is likely to hit Colorado. What the heck does that even mean?
Get this. It's not made up, but a scientific phenomenon that is the aftermath of Bombogenesis. Which doesn't tell us much except that the people of Colorado need to know what's in store rather than being frightened by weird words. So the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tells us this Bombogenesis is a popular term that describes a midlatitude cyclone that rapidly intensifies. A rapid pressure drop of at least 24 millibars.
They also look ahead to blizzard warnings bringing heavy snow and 50-70 mph winds.
So what about us hear in the midwest? We're forecast high winds and heavy rain beginning this afternoon.
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Someone asked this question the other day, someone who like most of us is just fed up with this winter. "What is the German word for spring lust?"
And there is a German word for the longing for Spring and it is Frühlingslust. It sounds kind of harsh, but so is the winter we've lived through.
In Spanish it's primavera lujuria
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The tally for mattresses falling onto St. Louis roads jumped up in the past week by 4 while only one ladder fell.
Mattresses 28
Ladders 20
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I was scrolling through Twitter and came across a post by someone who asked the question: "What does bi-monthly mean? Twice a month or every two months?"
That brought about lots of responses many saying it was twice a month others every two months. I liked this answer: "If it was twice a month it would bi-weekly." The response to this was, "Twice a month would actually be semi-monthly."
"Doesn’t biannually mean twice a year though?"
and on and on and on
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Today I learned we've become a nation of people who need help opening a candy bar wrapper. I mainly laughed, but after thinking about it, I wondered just why a candy bar company would believe we'd need directions. I picked up a Kit Kat bar in Schnucks after church and noticed the instructions. When did this happen?
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We've had enough bad winter weather on weekends this year that each new forecast has begun to make me pretty nervous. We've had bad ice, snow, wind, bitter cold. Today I'll confess to being anxious about the strong thunderstorms this morning followed by 50 mph winds. After seeing the damage done by the 60 foot tree which fell across our fence and onto our cars and part of the house, I'm more aware of what could happen.
I've been looking around the perimeter of the house and there are big trees everywhere. One in the back yard is right next to the power line. And not just any power line but one connected to that big power canister.
If Dale was here he'd tell me not to worry, but he isn't so there's that.
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