respublica

Ranting over

Yesterday I went over the top grousing about grocery shopping. Going into the Richmond Center Schnucks the past few days was probably the topper to a way too busy time right now. There is so much going on, so many places to be, so much to do, that I let a small thing like the grocery store get to me.

These days I often feel like the circus performer who tries to keep dinner plates spinning on poles.

On the other hand, things look so good around here no that Christmas is shining all over.

St. Louis soccer

I like sports and follow most professional leagues fairly closely, but have never gotten into pro soccer. I'll pay attention to local high school soccer teams and the American team during the World Cup, but that's as far as it goes. However, there is a huge soccer interest in St. Louis and many of those fans dearly want a professional team.

There is a push under way to get a team and all of a sudden there are two ownership groups vying for a stadium. One SCSTL has been working with the city for some time and now all of a sudden another mysterious group appeared with an offer of 80 million dollars to get the stadium plan underway without having an April ballot tax approval.

The Major League Soccer president said the league would only deal with SCSTL not Foundry. Mayor Slay said Foundry people have not come to him with any details and he doesn't really know who they are except for the spokesman. Part of the desire by Foundry people seems to be keeping any tax hike off the ballot in April, believing that any pro team or stadium should be privately funded.

Whether this 80 million dollar offer is legitimate or not, it sort of feels like the old adage, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't."

Lets talk grocery shopping

We've all heard about road rage, but I've become a person who gets grocery aisle rage. Whatever has turned food shoppers into people who think they're the only ones in the store is beyond me, but more than frustrating.

Way too many people move their carts down the middle of the aisles and then stop to stare at the shelves. No one else can get by. Stay to the right people! Just like on the highway. Then there are those who actually leave their cart in the middle of an aisle or worse, the middle section, where others have to move through to get to another area. And then people who enter the store and just stop a few feet from the door while they take off their gloves or peer at the sale paper tacked to a wall. Everyone else is backed up waiting. Same with carts.

At the self serve bakery cabinets people pull up their carts right up to the display cases then walk back and forth from one end to the other so that no one else can get near it. Leave your cart to the side, out of the way, please.

Most local grocery stores have the better liquor locked up in a glass case and if you want something from it you have to find someone to unlock it. And that person is rarely around.

And what is with the grocery stores changing the location of things without warning? Suddenly things aren't where they've always been. Yesterday after circling the entire produce section at the Richmond Center Schnucks, I had to ask the shelve stocker, "Where are you hiding the garlic these days?"

All of this is doubly frustrating when you take into consideration all the hand trucks loaded with boxes used by the employees constantly stocking shelves. They alone take up much of the space in food aisles and they will not move much less even look at you trying to get a product or get through.

And what's with baggers putting only two or three things in each bags? There are times when I walk out with 8 bags when 3 would have sufficed. This is why I try my best to go to the self check out, but sometimes it's not possible. Why does the Collinsville Schnucks not have a self check out lane? Speaking of self check out lanes, don't go to one if you don't know how to use it. Watching people stare at the screen while trying to figure out how to scan produce is agonizing.

Anyway, I'm done ranting.

 

We were down

Yesterday Typepad, the site I use to put up my blog, was down for a good part of the day. I finally gave up trying to post anything and got on with working on our outside Christmas village (Tiny Town). Now we're back online.

Walking around St Joseph history

I was very surprised at the wealth of history found in St. Joseph, Missouri over Thanksgiving. The Pony Express began its routes in this city, Jesse James was shot and killed there, it was Missouri's second largest city during the Civil War and that war pit neighbor against neighbor in the worst way, and it was a major place for the manufacturing of dry goods and hardware.

The first thing that interested me was, of course, Jesse James, one of the most famous bank robbers in American history. He and his brother Frank robbed banks and trains for 15 years, robberies which occasionally led to people being shot and killed. He came to St. Joseph to hide from the law after a Minnesota bank robbery turned into such a botch all that every one of his gang was killed except Jesse and his brother. In the end, he was shot in his own living room by a member of his newly formed gang, Bob Ford. Jesse was 34. When you think about his age, he began his crimes at a very young age.

His father Robert was a Baptist Minister who founded William Jewell College in Liberty Missouri and some historians believe Jesse was religious (in his own way) but probably not a Robin Hood who gave his stolen money to the poor. No one really knows what he did with all the money he stole.

Here is the home Jesse James was killed in located near and above old downtown St. Joe.

This house is now part of a museum which also covers several of St. Joseph's founders.

Then there is the matter of the Pony Express which consisted of relays of men riding horses carrying saddlebags of mail across a 2000-mile trail. If you are are old enough to remember western tv programs and movies, you'll remember the Pony Express. It was founded by William H. Russell, William B. Waddell, and Alexander Majors. Plans for the Pony Express were spurred by the threat of the Civil War and the need for faster communication with the West.

The service opened officially on April 3, 1860, when riders left simultaneously from St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California. "The first westbound trip was made in 9 days and 23 hours and the eastbound journey in 11 days and 12 hours. Eventually, the Pony Express had more than 100 stations, 80 riders, and between 400 and 500 horses. The express route was extremely hazardous, but only one mail delivery was ever lost. The service lasted only 19 months until October 24, 1861, when the completion of the Pacific Telegraph line ended the need for its existence."

There is a mural painted on a building wall a block from the museum which depicts the evolution of mail delivery and western travel.

And lastly in this same area above the old downtown are huge old stone homes built by the local captains of industry and trade back in the Victorian era of 19th Century St. Joseph. These homes are amazing and still being lived in by someone. A few are being restored, others just barely lived in and testifying to past vast wealth.

 

 

 

Thanksgiving 2016

The St. Louis contingent of our family made the trip to my sister's hourse in St. Joseph Missouri for Thanksgiving this year. Beautiful house and a yard and basement meant for keeping boys and dogs occupied. The food was fantastic, Thanks Joella!

In the basement which is really more honestly a lower level nicer than our own upper level, had a small gym which the grandsons loved.

The food was beautifully prepared and tasted as good as it looked.

Most everyone helped at least a little bit.

then the wait.

A truly blessed day.

More seminary Christmas lighting

Yesterday a couple of the more difficult things to light were tackled. The first was what we call the star tree behind a classroom building which faces the Demun park. It's named that because one of our students, Nick Shultz, made all the iron stars which were wrapped with lights and hung on branches. It's a hard job because each year the tree grows higher.

You'll notice star maker Nick did not get up in that tree. Gayle has nerves of steel.

Last night when we walked around to look, Dale starred himself

Then there was the job of lighting up Luther statue. Each year we have students who really like doing this and yesterday our second year student, Adam, had help from one of our May graduates who loved doing this in past years and came back to help.

Here came Kevin and Adam, pure joy

And down. Great work. Luther looks great with his lighted clergy stole and collar.

 

 

 

Let's talk turkey related injuries

Vox.com tweeted this headline to a story link yesterday: "There’s a clear age bias in turkey-related emergency room visits". That subject made me click the link to see what age bias had to do with turkeys. The actual story headline was: "The most dangerous part of cooking a turkey isn't the deep fryer."

Ok now, two entirely different subjects and the highest number of injuries requiring emergency room visits came from using a knife. "we have data on emergency room visits at about 100 hospitals, and of the more than 358,000 recorded visits in 2015, 47 involved turkey-related injuries. Forty-seven injuries is thankfully low, but of those 47 turkey-related ER visits, nearly half involved a knife."

If you're like me you're wondering just why this was worth tweeting about. In one year only 47 turkey injuries, most with a knife, so why did the headline even get involved with a deep fryer. Here are the stats for the 47:

20-Knives

7-stove top or oven burns

6-deep fryer burns

5-refrigerator or freezer mishaps !!!

4-strained lower backs from lifting turkey

2-wild turkey attacks !!!

2- random kitchen accidents

1-instance of smoke inhalation

So far in this story there is nothing about age but almost all turkey related injuries occur in November. Duh! Finally after scrolling the topic of age (51-70) comes up briefly: "Older Americans experience more turkey trauma" but not all that many actually. The story then goes on to relate that injuries to men and women are about equal.

Certainly knives are understandable what with all the carving and peeling. And, I would hav thought back injuries would be higher. Frozen turkeys are really heavy as anyone knows who has moved them around while trying to find the right one in the grocery store bin. Then the lifting from car to fridge to defrost, moving it again to unwrap and wash down and lifting again into the roasting pan and finally hauling it out of the hot pan to the carving board. That would bother anyone's back no matter the age.

In the end, though, the story headlines and the stories don't really match up and they turned out to be much ado about not many people statistically speaking.

 

 

Still lighting up the campus

Many students and staff have been working to get the seminary's outdoor and indoor Christmas lights and scenes up and working the past week, work which continues through this week. We are readying our personal outdoor Tiny Town Christmas Village, touching up paint, rewiring some things and buying a couple of new items. One of the things I impulsively purchased recently was a lighted Santa Cow which will stand next to the Barn Dale built some years back. That barn is very popular with local kids because we set out toy combines and tractors and such. Now it will have a cow. I love this cow, he's been standing in our living room and his eyes seem to watch everything we do.

And, oddly, Ferdie has taken to this cow like it was part of his family of stuffed animals. Every night he sits or sleeps by the cow.

They're buds.

Let's talk stuffing

I'd guess most of us have stuffing or as some call it, dressing, about twice a year-Thanksgiving and maybe Christmas. Not sure why it's often referred to as dressing but it's recognizable either way. There are people who put giblets in their stuffing and even in the gravy. I'm not one of them.

Even the word Giblets is a turnoff to me. Giblets. Ugh. What are giblets anyway? The neck, the gizzard (a muscle that grinds up food before it enters the digestive system - think of it as a second stomach), the heart, and the liver and occasionally a kidney. None of these things appeals to me and I have contact with them only when I am preparing the turkey for roasting and have to pull them out of the cavity. Ick. My mother used to simmer the giblets until tender and then sliced them up to add to the family dog's dinner. I won't even do that.

But back to the actual stuffing. We've entered an age where food experts warn not to put the stuffing inside the bird as has been traditional for generations. Now it's not safe, better to bake it separately. I pretty much ignore that advice and put some stuffing inside loosely packed so that it will heat to temperature when done. Then I have a second pan to bake alone and combine the two for the dinner. We've always been fine and have been since I was a kid before every food on earth could make you sick.

A month or so ago we had chicken for dinner and stuffing sounded really good so I bought a box of Stove Top packaged stuffing. Oh boy. That was like eating a mouth full of pure salt. While I don't used day old bread to make ours, I do buy the Pepperidge Farm cubes and do my own seasoning like sauteing celery and onion in melted butter and adding whatever else sounds turkey-ish. Then toss into the bread cubes. Consumer Reports gives a list of the packaged stuffings which taste best and you can take this as a guide or forget about it. Not long ago I was in the car listening to reports on the best this or the best that according to Consumer Reports and the expert said, "If it's Consumer Reports, do the opposite." So take it for what it's worth.

The most important thing about stuffing is that it should be bread based, served hot, and have enough for everyone.