"NOT TODAY!"

Love it.

"14 White Chefs Frolicking Blithely in a Field of Daisies"

Hat tip goes to Diane who posted this on Facebook.

What's your favorite article title?

Happy Turkeygiving Day!

Help Natalie Dubose get her bakery back!

This lady had her business demolished by the mob looters in Ferguson. Here's a page where you can help her out, or click the picture



I just gave.

People in Ferguson are going to need a lot of cakes, cookies and celebrations to get the taste of wretchedness out of their mouths.

Update: When I posted this around Noon I think the amount contributed was around $89,000.00. Now it is up to $112,000.00! It is an amazing country we live in.

It's Magic! Easy Garlic Peeling

Don’t be sad when the nights are over...

"Wh-what are you listening to?"
"You wouldn't dig it, man."

Makes me smile everytime.

We are so there

It's Tuesday. It's been one of those days. I have five kids under 10 years of age. Kids eat free at Bearden's on Tuesdays. Orders at the counter equals no waitresses, no tips. Ergo, we are so there.

Mustang Sally, baby.

View of my C-Barrel table

This all went down over in Piqua at the C-Barrel right next to La Quinta where I was staying.

Let me tell you what this all about. Right here is what we got. We got ourselves some of that catfish, some of that fried okra, some of that sweet potato casserole. Them greens got shredded hamhock in there the way I like. Two them corn pone muffin with butter. And I know all y'all's mouths must be watering. Don't worry, they don't call it Cracka Barrel fo nothing, they lets crackas in all the time and crackas work there and eat there.

View from my Desk Chair

Working lunch today, people. And now I'm blogging during my digestion time. Isn't that efficient of me?

The sandwich is sliced ham and orangish-yellow cheese and green lettuce on some kind of wheat bread. The tiniest bit of mayonnaise topped it off. (Warning: you might vomit if you read that link with a full stomach.)

The yogurt is Oikos brand Greek Yogurt with some type of fruit flavor. The color was orange so I think the flavor was as well.

Topped off with a Lake Erie Highball on the rocks.

So... what are all y'all eating? Keith, I'm hoping nothing strange has flown into your mouth recently, no antelope heart tartare or perhaps Iron Man's kneecap?

View From My Chair

This was the view from my chair at Panera today. This is not the "view from my table". The "view from my table" would be my bulging eyes and drooling mouth. So I don't know why anyone would want to see that.

So we can see on the right the Spinach Power Salad which is comprised of "Fresh baby spinach, roasted mushrooms and onion blend, diced eggs, applewood-smoked bacon, frizzled onions & smoky Vidalia® onion vinaigrette." On the left is a cup of Low Fat Vegetable Soup with Pesto which allegedly contains "water, tomatoes, yellow wax beans, zucchini, onions, barley [may contain wheat], cauliflower, red bell pepper, Swiss chard, seasoning [modified corn starch, sugar, autolyzed yeast extract, salt, onion powder, garlic powder, natural flavors], tomato concentrate [roasted tomatoes and tomato paste, salt, sugar, natural flavoring, and cilantro], tomato paste, basil), basil pesto (basil, canola oil, water, romano cheese [pasteurized cow's milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes, powdered cellulose], extra virgin olive oil, chopped garlic and salt."

I washed it all down with a small plastic cup of water with a lemon and three non-cubic ice cubes. You can see the cup in the background with that cute, black plastic swizzle straw. The food tasted pretty good and cost $8.40.

I know you guys were simply dying to see this. So you're welcome.

Thanks for reading my blog. For current commentary and what-not, visit the Est Quod Est homepage

Est Quod Est Phrase of the Week

The phrase of the week, IMHO, is "free-range dog meat." I found it in this HuffPo piece from December 2009.

Within Thailand, this no-stoplight town known as Ta Rae evokes free-range dog meat the way Memphis conjures thoughts of hickory-smoked ribs. The village does not showcase its signature industry, which relies on bribery and crime. Nor does it openly embrace dog eating, regarded by mainstream Thai society as hickish and uncivilized. The local dog meat vendors operate on a dusty side street, outside the town's sanctioned outdoor market. But the village's discretion is for naught: Ta Rae is regionally known as a nerve center in Southeast Asia's stray dog meat trade. Here, Northeast Thailand's seemingly infinite supply of wild dogs are corralled, graded, crammed into wire cages and prepped for export. The destination: Vietnam, where demand for grilled dog sells for triple the price of pork.

So the remaining questions. Is eating a free-range dog a sacramental thing to do (reference)? I mean this meat has got to be organic, right? Even if it is a bit diseased.

If you watch the video on the HuffPo page, you'll probably laugh at the line "[A]nimal welfare advocates... think the dog trade taints Thailand's reputation." What reputation is that? Give me a break.

"Me have given lectures"

More CM.

"Possible unintended consequences"

Remember this episode?



Well... what shall we tell Mr. Osequeda and his colleagues about this? Excerpt:

McDonald's Corp. has warned federal regulators that it could drop its health insurance plan for nearly 30,000 hourly restaurant workers unless regulators waive a new requirement of the U.S. health overhaul.

The move is one of the clearest indications that new rules may disrupt workers' health plans as the law ripples through the real world.

Trade groups representing restaurants and retailers say low-wage employers might halt their coverage if the government doesn't loosen a requirement for "mini-med" plans, which offer limited benefits to some 1.4 million Americans.

Yeah, the real world―that's where all us little people live. Damn those "unintended" consequences!

Come on

My friend, Blake, just sent me an email. Turns out he's looking for a job, and so he's emailing everyone in his address book. That normally wouldn't bother me, but I was busy buying some shrimp online when I got the email, and seeing his email looking for work made me totally forget how much shrimp I needed to buy. I mean, come on, man; you might be unemployed, but I'm not and I am trying to buy shrimp. And lobster.


Blake, please don't bother me again with your trivialities when I'm buying shrimp. Some things may seem important to you, but other things are simply more important.

Snip, snip; the kind of thing my wife reads

My wife doesn't have a blog, but she reads a lot of blogs, probably more of a variety than I do. She should have a blog; it would be really good, but she is entirely uninterested.

On Saturday, I was walking past the dining room when I noticed a big grin on her face. So I went over to see what she was reading and saw this: "Calf Nuts on a Cowboy Hat, Chapter 2". Thus I learned that castrating boy cows can be hugely entertaining for the cowboys. Of both genders.

"I think this is funny," she said. I think I went to bed really late Saturday night.

Isn't Dissent Patriotic Anymore?

Andrew Breitbart exposes the inconsistency of those cheesed off at Whole Foods and its Founder/CEO, John Mackey for his aforementioned alternative health care reform article.

Yet amid the cries of "dissent is patriotic" - a phrase seen on the bumper stickers of cars in the Whole Foods parking lot - the antiwar movement grew and grew, unfettered by the war's supporters or by the party in power.

As the Hollywood Left churned out antiwar film screeds, it was creating a narrative of its victimhood as it victimized Mr. Bush and his administration with the false accusation that dissenters were being persecuted. But now that they are in power, Democrats are brazenly wielding punitive weaponry against dissenting Americans and are using the power of the state to shut up citizens.

The Democratic leadership - and its friends in the mainstream media - seem determined to brand opposition to the president's legislative agenda as illegitimate, even racist in origin. Individuals and grass-roots organizations are helping the statists' cause by advocating boycotts and other means of stifling dissent.

The strategy is clear: Intimidate people from speaking up or from attending public protests by telegraphing that anyone can be made a demon for standing up and exercising basic, constitutional rights.

To call these people hypocrites would be a grave insult to those who fail to live up to their own standards. Liberalism has never been about establishing a universal standard. Liberalism is simply intellectual cover for those wanting to gain political power and increase the size of the state.

Well, I think I'll mosey on down to a nearby Whole Foods store to check it out. If they really are "anti-union", then that sounds likes a business I'd be into supporting.

Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Here's the lowdown from my man, Saint Ephrem:

Son of God, grant me your own admirable Gift that I may celebrate the wondrous beauty of your beloved Mother! The Virgin gave birth to a son while preserving her virginity; she suckled him who gives nourishment to the peoples; in her immaculate breast she bore him who carries the whole world in his hands. She is Virgin and Mother, what will she not be hereafter? Holy in body, all beautiful in soul, pure of mind, upright in intelligence, perfect in feeling, chaste and faithful, pure of heart and filled with virtue.

May the hearts of virgins rejoice in Mary since of her was born the one who set humankind free from dreadful slavery. May the old Adam, wounded by the serpent, rejoice in Mary; it is Mary who gives Adam a posterity that allows him to crush the accursed serpent and who cures him of his mortal wound (Gen 3,15). Let priests rejoice in the blessed Virgin; she has brought the High Priest into the world who gave himself as a victim, putting an end to the sacrifices of the Old Covenant... Let the prophets rejoice in Mary, since in her were fulfilled their visions, in her were realized their prophecies, in her were confirmed their oracles. Let all the patriarchs rejoice in Mary since she received the blessing promised to them, she who, in her son, has brought them to completion...

Mary is the new tree of life who, instead of the bitter fruit picked by Eve, gives to mankind that sweet fruit on which the whole world is fed.

"The top of my own personal head appears to be an unsuccessful attempt to grow okra"

Just read Dave Barry's parody of the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings. Hilarious.

"My own personal head", LOL.

H/T Father John Wauck

Apropos of nothing...

"Hey, this is astroturf!" ...cracks me up.

American Food

Last night I asked my wife, "Is this meatloaf pizza?" and she said, "No -- it's Sloppy Joe pizza." Whoops. Did I ever feel stupid. But it made me remember this.



We're having spinach quiche tonight.