respublica

Debate truth

Last night I watched part of the democratic debate and during one of the breaks there came a commercial for a new movie about to hit theaters. The Art of Racing in the Rain will open on August 9th and one of the main characters is a Golden Retriever. Someone commented on Twitter during a discussion of this movie, "The ad was the best part of the debate."

I'd have to agree, Dale and I saw this ad earlier in the day and both of us agreed we go see it. We never go to movies, but because of the dog, we'll be there. Actually I read the book this is based on last summer and found it really good until the end when some very questionable theology popped up. Other than that, the main character (other than the dog) is a man who works to become a successful race car driver. His lessons on how to drive are worth reading the book. One thing he said I think about all the time when I'm driving: "Where your eyes go, you'll go".

If that isn't the truth these days while on the road.

Ice Cream filled with stuff

I rather like Ben and Jerry's ice cream mainly because the chocolate seems to be real chocolate, dark and creamy and rich. Too many chocolate ice creams are such a pale beige you'd think it was a darker vanilla. But, Ben and Jerry's doesn't make their pints with just ice cream alone, they pack it with with other things like brownies, cherries, cookies and cookie dough, peanut butter cups, bananas, cheesecake, chunks of waffle cones and on and on. There is just too much of the other things to get much ice cream. In fact a new ad for a new cookie dough flavor reads: "More dough than you ever thought possible." That would not sell me on this.

There is an ice cream brand on the market that does a good darker chocolate, Jeni's. But Jeni's is not sold in many places (our local Schnucks by the seminary has it as does Straubs) and it is 9 or 10 dollars a pint. That is a bit much although it is justified by the ingredients they use or don't use.

"Jeni,s ahead-of-the-trend vision—using whole ingredients and dairy from grass-pastured cows, rather than synthetic flavorings and commodity ice cream mix—coupled with inspired flavors sparked the artisan ice cream movement more than a decade before it would become a top food trend."

First world problems.

Laundry weirdness

Out of nowhere today came two stories on laundry. One is stranger than the other.

The first advises adding cracked black pepper to your wash to keep your color clothes from fading. The theory is the pepper works as a light sandpaper removing any residual soap from the clothes. I'm not going to try this, you try this.

And there is the non-electric, foot powered, mini washing machine made by Yirego and which won some kind of big award for product design this year. You just have to watch the video on how this works and ask yourself if you'd go to all this trouble. By trouble I mean the things which are not answered. The idea is you can carry this thing anywhere and wash anywhere. You put a few clothes in to the top, add detergent and a couple quarts of water and then press the foot pedal for a couple of minutes and your clothes are done.

However, what I didn't see was how you drain the soapy water if you decided to do this in your living room or kitchen or dorm room or outdoors. Then you have to go and add rinse water I'd assume. It's cute, but it seems like a lot of extra effort for a couple of pieces of clothing. Unless there is a way of draining water into something else which you'd have to empty, I can't see where you would even use this.

Calorie counting to the extreme

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, yes this does exist, has come out with a list of the most calorie laden dishes at chain restaurants. They call this list, the 2019 Xtreme Eating Awards. On Monday, the center unveiled its annual list of chain eatery dishes that make “the usual 1,000-calorie restaurant fare look sensible” in terms of calories, fat, sugar and sodium.

Number one is Cracker Barrel's Country Boy Breakfast and oh, man, who could eat all this?

Another is Topgolf's Injectable Donut Holes. This appealed to me at first read because I like donuts and getting a little syringe with chocolate to squirt into them seemed kind of cool. But then I saw the photo and those donut holes look awful and why is a golf store offering donut holes? 

I mean, these things look burned and hard.

In any event, the entire list of high caloried, fat filled, winners are here with photos.

Green pond

Last year our Academic Quad pond was totally green with algea. Nothing we tried got rid of it and it looked just toxic. Early on in the summer we bought about 8 pond plants hoping they would reproduce themselves enough to block the sun from the water which is one culprit in the creation of algea. After a couple of weeks the plants were beginning to form new plants and we were happy about that. Well, then one day we walked into the quad and noticed there were much fewer plants and realized someone had come in there and taken most of them. They left a few small baby water plants and walked off with the rest. Just one more frustration we had with local neighbors.

But this year we have plants on the water! And boy do we have plants, the original 12 we bought early on have reproduced in a way that shocks us. We've even taken to removing many just so the fish can see some sky.

Not all green is created equal. We went from bad green to overwhelming good green. If you know anyone who could use some, we'd gladly share.

A non update convention update

This is one of those posts on the LCMS convention which is not about anything officially happening since what is official usually takes forever to accomplish one after another. So these are a of couple of non-voting, not issue, photos.

We're beyond the day when everyone involved is alert and interested. Now it's like the back side of a marathon, just get us out of here. And that includes delegates who are praying each issue left to be voted on isn't dragged out by all kinds of questions and points of order. Lots of delegates seem to know how they're going to vote on most things and oddly, the same percentage of delegates do the same on every question. It gives me pause.

Anyhow, this is just background posting today. We will be hosting a reception tonight of any alumni in for the convention and for the first time we will be co-hosting with the Fort Wayne Seminary and their alumni. Everyone is looking forward to this.

The two seminary presidents, Rast and Meyer

Our grandson Christian who has been helping in the seminary's exhibit hall booth.

Also for the first time, the two seminaries shared exhibit hall space and it turned out to be fantastic as well as eye catching.

The two presidents even swapped shirts.

Our Holy Cross pastor is a delegate and here he is with one of the seminary professors, Tom Egger.

There was a bit of free time for Dale and Christian to take a boat ride

It has rained every afternoon and then stopped. Pretty typical for Florida summer "they say'.

 

There is no last straw

We all know that old expression, "That's the last straw." Well, since environmentalist people began focusing on the problems caused by traditional paper straws, more and more food service people have giving out reusable straws. It's become against the law in some cities to even give out a paper/disposable straw.

But there seems to be a huge market for straws so what to do?  People are constantly walking around with some sort of drink with a straw in it. Even water in the reusable cups. I mean seriously, Americans are always holding a container of liquid. Some smart marketer saw an immediate way to make money off of our desire to be environmentally kind as well as our need for straws.

This came apparent to me in a big way down here in Tampa with the LCMS Convention. So many exhibitors are giving away cups/glasses with re-usable straws. Some vendors even give away just straws. I have some in hard plastic and others in some kind of metal. Frankly I have no use for them, but will take them home anyway.  This is just weird to me.

How do you clean these re-usable straws? A dishwasher will only get the outside, so do we have to fill up a sink with suds and let the straws soak for a time and then rinse really well? You have to do something about cleaning them or germs will take over. And, if you don't want to clean them, you'll be throwing them away which goes against the point of them.

Modern life. Just weird.

A space survey

According to PEW Research, half of Americans believe space travel will become routine in the next 50 years but most are not interested in going. I'm one of those who has no desire to blast into space. Dale on the other hand, would go in a minute.

Here's a new traffic issue

From Rodger Brand, KMOX's traffic reporter: "OK, here's an odd one: A report of a raccoon with a can stuck on its head near West Outer and Miller roads. Use caution...

Also, an old issue. A mattress this morning along 141 near Romaine Creek.

Mattresses 66

Ladders 65

Remembering your dog in a wonderful way

The woman who runs the Golden Ratio on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube lost one of her dogs late in the spring. It about broke her heart and sometime later she came across a person who makes small, felted, replicas of dogs. She sent in photos of the dog she lost and yesterday the replica arrived. It is so real you'd think it would wag it's tail.

Here is the link to how it turned out.

I know in my heart our Ferdie is wearing down and getting weaker and it's getting closer to the day we lose him. So I've made a note of where this felted dog maker is.