There is a reason they are called the greatest generation.

Michael Haz said...

I spent part of the day with the old man. He has cancer now, abdominal mesothelioma. Not curable and the treatments available are mostly as bad as the disease. He's chosen to skip the treatments and let the cancer run its course.

He's lost 15 pounds in the last month. He was strong and muscular six months ago; the muscles seem to be melting off of him now.

We've had the long talks about his will and plans for funeral and burial. He's filled out the DNR form with his MD and hospital, gave me a copy, and posted one on his refrigerator door. Next week we'll sign him up for one of those emergency call button services, and he wants to pick out a walker because he's a bit unsteady on his feet now.

He hasn't uttered one word of complaint. Hell, he spent two damn years on Guadalcanal and never complained about that or anything else in his life. All he said about being in the South Pacific was that he learned to like papaya and guava and still likes to eat them.

When we discussed whether or not he'd have treatment he said that he believes the when we are born each one of us is given a number of days to live. Some are given more days, some fewer, but our days our numbered and his time is up. He'd rather live out the few days he has left in the way he chooses, not what some well-meaning physicians might suggest.

We've invited him to move in with us. Maybe he will, maybe not. it's his choice. I do know this: I won't outsource his care to strangers during the last months of his life.

I'm a fatalist by nature. Maybe that's because I'm RC to the bone. Maybe because that's how I was raised or maybe because I'm a realist.

When you scrape away all the other stuff we fret over, the only purpose of this life is to get to the next life, and to do some good stuff along the way while we're on earth.

What kind of cars we drive, how many "followers" we have, which social circles we are admitted into are all meaningless in the end. What matters is leaving our loved ones with good memories of us, for as long they are alive.

"Why should I have a big funeral?" he asked me. "All my friends are already dead. I want a small service, then take everyone out for lunch. All I am is what you remember. I'll be gone, and I'll see you on the other side."

Here's hoping we'll all see each other on the other side someday.

Winters coming!

In the spring.

Season Two of Game of thrones starts Sunday night. It covers book two and three of the series by George RR Martin. There will be several  new characters. Stannis Baratheon. The Red Witch, Melisandre.

And you old favorites. Tyrion. Jamie.Renly. Joffery. Cersi. Jon Snow. Samwell Tarly. All the the characters that made the first season so great.

Check it out from the beginning. It is great TV.

Shit Brooklyn People Say

The Rule of Three

Sorry that I haven't been posting but it has been a very crazy couple of days.

The wife has a group of close girlfriends since she was in grammar school. Just as I have several friends from grammar school. Nobody can call you on your shit like people who know you from when you were eating paste in kindergarten. These girls get together a couple of times a year to stay in touch and talk about what is going on in their lives. They all went to Catholic school together but what is even more interesting is that their mothers went to grammar school together too! That was what Brooklyn used to be like!

There are two sets of sisters. On set moved to Jersey and the other set moved out on the Island. Now one of the girls husbands has been sick. He was getting chemo but he seemed to be recovering. So we were really shocked two weeks ago to get a call that one of the other girls husbands had died. We all went out to Jersey for the wake and the funeral and it was pretty tough. This was out of the blue. It was very sad as the guy was only 57.

Well Monday we got a call. The other guy was dying and only had hours to live. He passed on Tuesday. We jumped in the car and went out there to be with the family. I got a bunch of cold cuts and bread and pastries from all the good stores in Brooklyn for them because so many people were coming to pay their respects at the house. We were there all day and have been going back for the wake. They are burying him on Saturday morning.

It is really really tough as they have young kids and they were a very close couple. They did everything together. It will be very tough for the wife to go on alone. So they really need their friends at a time like this. Lisa is a very maternal figure to them as she envelopes them in a hug and just listens. I help with the food and the financial questions. We need to be there for them.

The most fucked up thing is that these two girls and Lisa are very close. And about five or six douche bags have come up to me and said "Be careful Jim these things happen in threes." Can you punch somebody in the face at a wake?

I guess at an Irish wake but these guys are guineas. So once again I have to swallow it and not do what I want to do. Some people just don't know what to do. You can't teach them. You just have to ignore them.

Anyway I am not ignoring youse guys. Just busy. So carry on. Play nice.

The Bensonhurst Spelling Bee

Did I ever tell you about the time.....

Did I ever tell you about the time I went to clog dancing class with Sinead O'Conner?

It never turns out the way think it will

We are in the how stretch of the show and it never turns out the way you think it will. The network had a totally different view of what they wanted and that will be what you will see. It will be good TV but not exactly the way we wanted it to turn out. We still have to do the interviews which will really shape the show and I hope more of our personality will come through. They are still really committed to the show so we have a good chance to go forward with a second season. But we still have to see how it will work when the audience view it.

We have the title and it is not the one we hoped for. But we will live with it. I can't tell you it yet but will announce it when TLC says it is ok to put it out there.

We do know that we will air on Tuesday May 29th at 10pm right after the "Live" What Not to Wear. So we will get a strong lead in and that should help us a lot. We just have to pray that it is good enough to give us a leg up and help us to be successful.

But I think we would be a lot more popular if they use the scenes of me molesting the mannequins.

It takes a lot of balls to tell the truth

It takes a lot of balls to tell the truth about bad stuff that happens to you and I have to say that R A Dickey has a lot of balls.

He is a Met's relief pitcher and you all know how I feel about the Mets and their crybaby loser players. But he has just completed a very honest autobiography that I intend to purchase. In it he details how he was abused as a child and sexually used by his babysitter. I bet that happens a lot more than we know. He also details how he saw needles on the floor of the clubhouse when he was a Texas Ranger in the Juan Gonzales, A-Rod and Pudge days. It looks like a very interesting book. He is only a journeymen pitcher but he has been around the block and is not afraid to tell the truth.

I can't wait to read his book.

I bet he is going to talk about Bobby Valentine touching him in the shower. Just sayn'

IT'S TEBOW TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They are having a press conferance to welcome Tim Tebow to the Jets and Giants and their fans are just laughing at them.

You see they share a staduim and when we played this year Rex Ryan kept saying how the Jet's owned New York and were going to win the Super Bowl. Since it was an officail Jet's home game they took fabric and put it over the Giant's championship throphies and banners in the Staduim.

Now they have to buy more to cover up another World Championship.

John Mara was funny according to MSN:

Asked if New York was big enough to handle both the Giants and Tim Tebow, Mara joked the Jets would not be the only local team holding a news conference Monday to announce the signing of a backup quarterback.

"I don't know [if the city is big enough], but the David Carr press conference will be tomorrow afternoon, too," Mara said upon arriving at the NFL meetings in Palm Beach, Fla.
Jets owner Woody Johnson did not respond to the poke from his local rival, but Rex Ryan did.

"You can say anything you want, because they're world champions," Ryan said. "That's all fine and dandy ... They accomplished what I wanted to, but instead of being the best team in New York, they were the best team in football. But we'll take a swing at them."

Swing away Rex you fuckin' loser.

Somebody should tell him that the New York Giant's won the Superbowl and he should shut up until he wins one. Just sayn'

I hate it when you girls fight....can't we just get along?

Deep Thoughts.....By Titus

Titus said...

I had a dream last night that I waked by Mamam's house and she told an army of turkeys to attack my rare clumber and me.

They were mean turkeys and wore hard hats and had backpacks on. They ripped the insides of my rare clumber apart right in front of my eyes and then came for me.

Mama was just up on her porch knitting during the entire rampage.

It was awful.

tits.

Hari Krishna baby......

In 1969 a lot things changed. The surety and the rock hard unity that was the basis of the church and neighborhood was starting to shatter. We didn't know it at the time but the process was begining where the kids riding bikes with baseball cards in the spokes were to be replaced by people with tattoos sipping $2 cups of coffee while walking a frou frou fucking dog on a leash would take over the place where Nunzio and Enzo and Guiesseppi used to hang out on the corner and sing Dion songs.

There was a convent on the corner of Kane and Henry Street that housed an order of cloistered sisters. The Nursing Sisters of the Poor. They worked in hospitals and hospices but had little contact otherwise with the outside world. Well quite of few of the sisters had decided to leave the convent and go out in the world of the wild and wooly 1960's. There weren't enough of them to make it worthwhile to maintain this big structure so the church put it up for sale. And it sold pretty quickly. To the Hari Krishna's.

Now this was long before we knew anything about cults or eastern religions or new age or any of that stuff. We just saw these people in orange robes banging tamborines. They would come and go from the house and didn't have much contact with the neighborhood. Of course there was a reason for that.

One day in one of the first weeks after the cult  moved in they had a couple of the Krishnas start to talk to some of the kids who hung out at PS 29's School yard which was across  the street from the Krishna's new temple. One of them went and told his father who was a connected guy. Now he wasn't connected to Con Edison if you know what I mean. So the next day this guy and couple of his friends from the Wimpy Boys Social club knocked on the door and asked to talk to the head freak. When they came downstairs Big Louie grabbed him by the neck and held him up against the wall. They politely informed him that tif any of the bald headed freaks talked to the neighborhood kids they would burn down the temple and everyone in it.

So the Hari guys sort of kept to themselves after that.

It was what you called neighborhood community policing as it were.

I miss those days.

I fit in then.

I don't fit in so much anymore.

Wait I have to go to the front of the store. Somebody wants to bring a frou frou fucking dog into the store.

Nestle Quick Sensi

So today was the first day in nine weeks that we could take some time for ourselves. We scheduled a day to exercises and treat our hurts. We had massages and acupuncture. And we tried Yoga for the first time.

Now the wife lied to me because Yoga didn't have anything to do with picinic baskets or Yankee baseball. It meant we had to twist ourselves into pretzels on smelly mats. But you know what? It was kind of fun.

The girl who is the receptionist is the one who teaches Yoga and all I ever do is bust her chops when I come into the shop. So know it was the time for the Yogi's revenge.She had us do all these poses that burned my fucking balls they hurt so much.

The first thing we had to do is sit on these blankets on the floor in a lotus position. Naturally as I try to lower myself onto the blankets I fall over and knock over the table with the Ipod that places the cult music that they use to brainwash you. I almost broke it and it took ten minutes to figure out what was wrong. Anyway we did a bunch of these crazy poses. The Happy Warrior. The Downward pissing dog. The Stretching open handed squat or something. Each one hurt more than the next.But we got through it. You definitely felt like you did a workout and stretched and used your muscles. So it was all good.

Then we had massages and acupuncture to try to come back to human. Which was great.  A soak in the tub. A steak wrapped in bacon and a bottle of wine and all is good.

At the end of the session you bow and say that little saying "Nestle Quick Sensi."

Or something like that.

Why do I have to write a ransome note to comment now?

I went over to our pal EBL's site and saw that nobody has commented in quite awhile. Since most of his posts are political I can understand that but we should drop by now and then and show some support. She posts up a storm and often has an interesting take. But you have to do some bullshit with word verification and what not. Lost of blogs have instituted that. Supposedly to avoid spam. I haven't had a problem with spam so I don't do it. I can't imagine that these blogs have that problem. I don't get. But I do think the harder you make it to comment the less people want to comment.

It takes one procedure to turn you into Cat People....blake

Blake knows that position.

What they think Trooper looks like at TOP

They are not nice people. I mean they might be right but they are not nice.

What they think DBQ looks like at TOP

Those people are just not nice.

Double down on stupid

The Jets have as usual totally fucked up this Tim Tebow trade. First they didn't read the contract and ended up owing Denver millions of dollars. Then they announced it before it was finalized and pissed off the Broncos as well. Now they are announcing that they want Tim Tebow to live in Jersey so he won't be "tempted" by the bright lights of Manhattan.

This is the team with a receiver with ten kids from nine different mothers who can't remember all of his kids names.

This is the team that signed Plaxico Burress after he got out of jail.

This is the team with the coach who goes to the ladies room of the Vince Lombardi Rest Stop on the Turnpike to smell ladies feet. (This has come out in the press yet)

Now they are worried that the foremost Christian athlete in America will become Marvin Barnes. (Do you guys remember Marvin Barnes?)

The Jets are idiots. Their fans are idiots (sorry Chuck) This is a disaster waiting to happen. The first bad play Dirty Sanchez makes will start a tsuami of crazy.

Did I tell you lately the Giants won the Super Bowl.

It lives!!!!!!

The Thing of the idols, the green, sticky spawn of the stars, had awaked to claim his own. The stars were right again, and what an age-old cult had failed to do by design, a band of innocent sailors had done by accident. After vigintillions of years great Cthulhu was loose again, and ravening for delight.

Most horrible of all it seems it has spawned another monster from its foul lions even more terrible than it could ever be. The Child of Cthulhu has arisen and the heaven's wept.

Whose that Baby Jane?

She not only looks like Joan Crawford but her life reads like one of her pot boiler movies. She is the worst Housewife by far.

Whose that girl?

They love to hate Tim

It has been pretty amazing to listen to the sports station about this messed up Tim Tebow trade. It seems that if someone is  a witness to their faith and lives it out in their everyday life it is a license for people to attack them. The things they say about him are a lot worse than what people were saying about Michael Vick the dog murderer.

I found that being a practicing Christian is not a good thing to a lot of people. I was discriminated against and forced to go against my religious practices and it was made very difficult to attend services without a big fight when dealing with the Hollywood secularist crowd. I was not able to do what I wanted to do and I will regret to my dying day that I didn't fight harder against them. I acquiesced out of greed and ambition. I can only admire somebody like Tebow who provides a witness and is not afraid of the consequences. One of which is getting traded.

I hope he goes somewhere other than the Jets.

Do you want a water back?

One of the most famous adherents of the liquid diet was the Old West gunfighter Doc Holliday. Although his skeletal countenance is often credited to consumption or tuberculous as it were in fact it was due to his strict adherence to a liquid diet. This diet consist of whisky, tobacco juice, laudanum and flem and was duplicated by a method actor who played the part in a film and lost 150 pounds during the making of the movie. Strangely enough the one liquid that Doc Holiday would never imbibe was the juice of the huckleberry.
(What's That Smell, The History of the Fad Liquid Diet, by Doris Kearns Goodwin, General Mills Press 2011

Allie gets it

AllieOop said...

Whaaaat? Titus wishes me dead?! Say it ain't so Titus.

No I didn't think you were snubbing me, just busy. So Troop does some creative editing? Ah, now I get it.

By the way I have decided to quit my job and go to work for the Rick Santorum campaign. He is my kind of guy. He likes dogs too! Maybe a little too much but still.

And he has a pretty mouth.

You don't say o_O.

Tebow Interruptus

 
Is Tim Tebow a Jet or not?

The dog ass Jets managed to fuck up this public relation move by not reading the contract before they announced the trade. It seems there is a poison pill in there to stop someone from trading for Tebow. The new team would have to reimburse Denver for monies already spent on the contract so that the team would refuse and the Broncos could not trade him

It is interesting how so many people are knocking Tebow and saying he is no good. I mean he just won a playoff game while taking his team to the playoffs this year. He seems like an unconventional qb but I think he is a winner. He kind of reminds me of Fran Tarkenton who played for the Giants many years ago. The difference is that he is a much better runner and not just a scrambler. Fran the Scram had a rag arm that is just as bad as Tebow but I remember a lot of guys who were winners but couldn't throw for shit. Joe Kapp. Jim Plunkett. Billy Kilmer. All guys who went to the playoffs and the Super Bowl. I mean fucking Jeff Hostetler went to the Super Bowl. Tebow could take the Jets to the big game. Dirty Sanchez never will.

The reason so many people hate Tebow and dog his game is the reason so many people like him. He is a vocal Christian who is not afraid to bear witness to his faith. In today's secular society that earns you many many enemies. It is the reverse of how our country used to be. It used to be that the clean cut church going guy was the model who people rooted for and wanted to be like. Now it is the drug addict sex machines like Arod or your metrosexual posers like Aaron Overrated Rodgers. You need to knock up a super model and leave her and your baby like Tom Brady to be  a hero. The world is upside down.

I hope Tebow comes to the Jets and plays great and causes a big controversy and gets that blowhard foot licker fired.

The Giants will just calmly go about winning another Super Bowl.

Did I tell you lately that the NY Giants won the Super Bowl?

We have to get ready to go back to Astoria

Deep Thoughts........by Titus

Titus said...

I think it is interesting how people have a thing for trees.

There was a big dustup recently that I heard on the news where this woman, who was getting stoned blew up this really old tree somewhere-I believe in Florida.

People were really pissed.

My parents love their pine and blue spruce trees. I planted them with my dad at his farm and at our house when I was like 10 and now they are fucking huge and beautiful.

In the winter the birds that stick around hang out in them.

And don't get me started with the birds, my dad is fucking crazy about all the birds in the backyard. He feeds them, changes their water, has special bird bathes. Names them. Knows which birds are "coupling". And when the humming birds come back he is in heaven. People really love birds.

My Mom hates birds. You see she had a bad experience with them on her honeymoon in San Fransisco and ever since she has been afraid of them. Of birds. And birds in trees. And of Suzanne Pleschette.

I think it nice people like birds and trees.


tits.

Do you want a water back?

The first President to attempt a liquid diet was William Howard Taft who was induced to start the diet by noted fraud and cereal maker John Harvey Kellogg of Battlecreek Michigan. He got the rotund chief executive to follow his fad diet because of his fear that the vigorous Theodore Roosevelt would best him in the up coming presidential election where the former president ran under the banner of the Bull Moose party. Since President Taft often enjoyed eating an entire moose at a sitting he decided to follow the diet where he would eat no solid food but simply consume liquids. The principally consisted of a thin consume, Saki and smoothies made from rotting fruits and hard boiled eggs. President Taft did begin to see positive results as he lost eight pounds in the first week. Which was not in fact unusual as he lost as much every time he went to the bathroom. Since the effect of this diet was to confine him to the bathroom it was not unexpected that he would loose the weight. He had to have a specially designed potty chair created for him for Cabinet meetings as he could not always make it to the bathroom in time to void his liquidy bowels. The diet almost cost him his marraige as his wife was outraged that he dropped weight faster than she did and she threatened to divorce him if he didn't let her win. Fortunately for America and his marriage he lost the election and could go back to consuming an entire calf at lunch and end his frivolous pursuit of a fad diet that ruined his Presidential campaign and his nuptial bliss. He never had a smoothie again.
(What's That Smell, The History of the Fad Liquid Diet, by Doris Kearns Goodwin, General Mills Press 2011)

Raylan is an interesting book

Elmore Leonard has reversed the usual trajectory of film to book. He has written a book based on the TV series that is based on his books. Think about that one for a second.

He has taken the characterization of Rayland Givens that was created in the series "Justified" and written a best seller based on three new loosely connected stories using the characters from the series. You can recognize how he has changed up some of the facts of the matter as the Crowes track the same behavior as the Bennett clan of season two. And he introduces a couple of characters who appear in Season 3 including the nurse who steals kidneys who Raylan has to shoot. It is a hoot and well worth getting especially on your kindle.

Elmore Leonard is one of the best of all time in the mystery suspense field and he hasn't lost his touch. He is also a great Western author and I particularly enjoy some of his Western novels. So many of the elitist shit heads look down on people who enjoy Westerns but I love nothing better than reading something from Elmer Kelton or Max Brand or classics from Zane Grey. Elmore Leonard's westerns like "Valdez is Coming" can stand up to any of them.

Although Raylan Givens is just about his best character.

It is a quick fun read. Highly recommended for leisure reading in the hammock on a sunny afternoon.

This ones for you weepy bitches

You know what a liquid diet leads to?

You end up blowing everything out your ass!

Liquid Diets are a fad promoted by quacks. And if you are on one once you go off of it you will just get all the weight back. You just need to eat sensibly and exercise.

That means eating a big steak and salad and having a lot of hot sweaty sex.

Now that's a diet!

There is a name for people who hate the NY Yankees

There is a name for people who hate the New York Yankees. Who revel in their misfortune and hope for their demise. Who are jealous of their success and hate on their future Hall of Fame players of class and distinction like Derek Jeter.

You know what they call those people?

Losers.

56 is a terrible number

We had a tough day yesterday. We spent all day at a wake for the husband of one of my wife's friends. She has a group of about six or seven girls that she has been friends with since the first grade. They get together at least once or twice a year for dinner or whatever. Anyway one of the husbands passed away suddenly and we had to go to Jersey to be there for her as is only right.

The crazy thing is that the guy was fifty six. Now that is a touchy number for us. You see my Dad, Granddad, and five uncles on my fathers side all died at 56. So for years I have been telling my wife "You can be mean to me now but I am only around till I am 56 and then you will be sorry." Then she punches me and tells me I take after my mother and will be around a long time and she will haunt me if I leave her. We have been doing this for about ten years now. And fifty six is only a couple of years away.

So when I heard that this guy had passed I asked "So how old was he?" "Fifty six." "See?" And she punched me.

Happy Paddy's Day Trooper York

Trooper York said...

I am glad I don't go out anymore on St Paddy's day. I am retired. From Accounting. From real partying. From drinking more beer than a college fraternity in one Friday night.

So St Paddy's day is one where the wife and I stay home and have a nice home cooked dinner and a couple of bottles of wine.

Just enough to drive the snakes out of my head.

Happy Paddy's Day Windbag

Windbag said....

Nothing crazy ever happens on Paddy's day in our small town. I mean I sell a lot of pistachio ice cream and every once in a while I have a Bailey's Irish Cream cake to make but other than that not much happens that is ever different.

We like to have a party at home to celebrate the great contributions of the Irish. I just have to be careful I don't over do it because the wife sometimes takes that opportunity to send me a message.

She always said my face is really easy to read.

Happy Paddy's Day MamaM

MamaM said

It is always a festive time at MamaM's homestead on Saint Patricks day. The whole clan gathers and we sing songs and east corned beef and cabbage and curse the English. I enjoy a few draughts of Guinness and a few boiled eggs because I want to be prepared for the farting contest.

I have won five years in a row.

Happy Paddy's Day Titus

Titus said.....

I am spending St Patrick's day at the Cape natch. My beautiful Indian husband and I are going to a fabulous barbeque at my friend Pepper's house. We will be enjoying sausages, hot dogs, kielbasa and hot linc's. Just lot's of hot wieners between a soft white bun.

Here is a snap from last's years party. It was a lot of fab all in one place.

Tits.

Happy Paddy's Day Blake call back!

Blake said.....

I don' t drink so I don't have a lot funny stories about St Paddy's Day. The only one I have was when I was living in the valley and I would go to that coffee shop where Leah Remini would always come in. One St Paddy's day I was there and she rolled in really drunk with her girl friends and went to the counter and pushed in front of everyone. This one English dood got all upset and she turned and beat the shit out him with her heavy breasts.

That man was Ricky Gervaise.

But it was ok. You see she thought it was Sharon Osbourne.

Dust Bunny Queens Corned Beef....Happy Paddys Day

Roasted Corned Beef with Mustard Brown Sugar Glaze


Saint Patrick's day is coming up and the corned beef is on sale. Buy one and get one free!!! I bought four. Going to cook one and plan to freeze the others. After all, why should we only have corned beef just once a year? I used to cook the meat the way my Irish Mother learned it from her mother and so on. Boil the crap out of the meat, skim some fat and add the potatoes and cabbage. It is always good with a creamy horseradish and lots of leftovers for sandwiches and corned beef hash. However, I have found that I much prefer my corned beef done in the following manner. It also has the stamp of approval by my husband. This recipe is rather free form as is most of my cooking.


Oven Roasted Corned Beef with Mustard Brown Sugar
Glaze 5 pound piece of corned beef.
One head of cabbage, cored and cut into quarters and then the quarters cut into halves
 8 to 12 small to medium sized red new potatoes
 4 to 5 carrots, peeled and cut into 2 inch sections
 One onion cut into eights
 Dijon mustard
 Brown sugar
 Fresh bread crumbs

 FIRST: Bring to a boil and then simmer on low heat the corned beef for a couple of hours until it is fork tender but not falling apart. Be sure to pour the corned beef juices and spices into the water to get all those good flavors. Remove the corned beef and put into a foil lined shallow roasting pan or oven proof casserole, fat side up. Cover with foil and refrigerate until you are ready to proceed. You can even do this part early in the day or the day before. Let the broth cool and skim off any foam and excess fat. Don't take ALL the fat out. The cabbage is best when it has a light coating of the fat. Yummy flavor.

SECOND: Make a paste of mustard, brown sugar. If you don't have Dijon use a nice stone ground brown mustard. Please... please! do NOT use that ballpark yellow mustard crap. Save that for your hot dogs. Notice the vague instructions? I don't know.....Depending on how large your piece of meat is about half and half of each to equal about 1/3 to 1/2 cup. You want it to be pretty thick so start with the brown sugar and add the mustard gradually until you get a thick paste. Too thin and it will just run off of the meat. Set this aside.

NEXT: Preheat the oven to a low temp. About 275 to 300. Roast the meat covered for about an hour or hour and half. Again. Vague and imprecise.

THEN: Raise the temperature to about 375, uncover and spread the mustard/brown sugar paste on the top surface of the meat. Sprinkle on the bread crumbs and cook uncovered for about 20 minutes or less. Check the meat to make sure it isn't drying out. You can always take it out of the oven and cover until the crisping process.

MEANWHILE: Put the whole potatoes in the broth along with the onion and bring to a boil. When the potatoes are about half way done about 10 minutes or so (firm but not hard as rocks when a fork is stuck into them) toss in the carrots and let them cook for about 10 minutes. Then at the last toss in the cabbage and cover the pot if you can. Shove those puppies down into the broth and cook for only 5 minutes. Shut off the heat and leave covered while you are crisping the corned beef.

CRISP THE MEAT: If it isn't already looking a bit brown and crispy on the crumbs, turn the heat up to 450 or better for about 5 to 8 minutes. Take out of the oven and let set for a bit while you are scooping the vegetables out of the broth. Be careful though...Don't crisp for too long...you don't want dried out corned beef. That is why we par boiled and cooked it, covered at a very low temperature. On the other hand....what the heck, we're going to slather it in a creamy horseradish sauce and drown the potatoes in butter.

How I serve this: Cut the meat into slices and layer like shingles down the middle of a platter. Lift the potatoes and other veggies from the broth and arrange on each side of the meat slices. Horseradish in little cups for each person. Lots of butter for the carrots, potatoes and cabbage.

 Good dessert for this is the Lazy Day Oatmeal Cake.

(Reprinted without permission but since she sent me this photo from last St Paddy's day I bet it is ok)

Happy Paddy's Day Chuck

Chuck Tuze said....

I hate when we are lorfing on Paddy's day because I always wear the wrong outfit....and as a Healer I have to deal with all the puking and the diarrhea.

It's enough to make an orc plotz.

Happy Paddy's Day Ricpic

Ricpic said......

I love Patricks Day. I don't call it Saint Patrick's because we Jews don't believe in Saints. But we do believe in corned beef so on the day I get together with Scholmo and Hershy and Moishe and we hit a few Shabbos table for some Corned Beef and Manischewitz.

Oy my yiddisher pickel it is a good time!

Happy Paddy's Day Chickenlittle

Chickenlittle said.....

I never march in the St Patrick's Day Parade. But I do run in the annual marathon that they hold in San Bernadino the day.

Of course I was motivated.

Happy Paddy's Day ND Spinelli

ndspinelli said...

The best St. Pat's Days were when we lived in Chicago. The parade[noon] would be the unofficial end of the work day. Now, they always hold them on Saturday. My very temperate drinking Eyetalan father, would love to come to visit w/ my very Irish mother. It was one of the few times I would ever see him get drunk.

I always get maudlin on Paddy's Day. I go down to the firehouse and have a few pints with the guys and my Irish side is happy and my Irish eyes are smilin' But then my Italian side gets all riled up and I want to call people to tell them off. This year I tried to call Ralph on the big white telephone. But he never answers. The fuck.

Happy Paddy's Day Darcy!

 

Darcy said..

I've meant to post a pic of Tiggy! I will soon I promise.

But I think it is really mean that Trooper posts those St Patrick Day's photo's of me every year. I don't know where he get's them from. I think Tiggy might be a double agent.

Happy Paddy's Day Allie!

AllieOop said...
I'm off to a Barbeque with stuck up Californians who think our Wisconsin steaks are not real steaks because they come from cow, instead of steer, I say who cares? My Porterhouse is always delicious.

They're usually half in the bag by they get there anyway, always bring their own wine.

I do think it was mean of them to take this photo of me last Paddy's Day and put it on Facebook.

What happens on Paddy's Day stays in Paddy's Day.

Happy Paddys Day Go Down To The Old Pub Instead

Look out you Cat's it's time for Tweetie

I held out as long as I could but I am advised that I have to start tweeting because of the show. It seems that social media is a big part of what goes on today so they think it is a good idea to tweet to bring up page views and get people talking and thinking about the show.

I won't be tweeting as Trooper York at this time even though Darcy had so kindly reserved that name for me so long ago. I will be tweeting as Lee Lee's Husband which after all what I will be know to America since it looks like I won't be saying more than one or two words in the show.  So can you guys please follow me and tell me if I am tweeting it good  or what.

Thanks.

Iceberg....Rube Goldberg.....Somebody HELP!

So I am so busy I didn't have time to monitor and change stuff on the blog. What happens is I get to look at it and somehow Blogger has changed how the blog works without telling me or notifiing me or anythng.

Now it seems that when a thread goes over 200 you can't load the page and get the comments over 200. The way is formerly worked was that you clicked on the post itself and it would let you get to the comments that are over 200. But that doesn/t work now and I don't know why.

I am gonna try to contact blogger to see how to fix it if I can but if anyone has an idea please let me know. It seems that they also put in a thread thingy where you can reply to a comment and add a comment stream or something but I don't know how this works. I want the old style comment section and I will try to get it back if I can.

Advance copy of Obama's Convention Speech

CAN YOU DIG IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Girl Gang at Trooper York..........The Lizzes

Darcy always says that we are all Lizzies at Trooper York

You either are or you ain't

There are two kinds of husbands who appear on reality TV shows. There are guys like Al Manzo, Chris Laurita, Jim Bellino, Don Gunvalson and Bobbbbbbbbie Zarin who are basically businessmen who are contemptuous of the process. They have their own businesses where they are the boss and they know an asshole when they see one so when of this Hollywood fanoicks start ordering them around they have to grit their and get through it so they don't kill the douchebag who is running the show. They are supporting their wives who love the idea of being on TV and are natural TV presences and who thoroughly enjoy being on TV. They are just doing it for the wife but they could give a shit about being famous on TV.

Then there are the guys like Joey Gorga, Slade Smiley, Eddie Judge and Simon Van Kempen love to be on camera and in the middle of all the drama. They love to be filmed and I bet they take directions very well. I bet they take it all. They take it deep. Because they all have something else in common. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

 So which kind of reality husband do you think I was?

I wish I was back at L& B

I wish I was back at L&B Spumoni Gardens with a big Sicilina pizza and a bottle of wine and some Spumoni for dessert.

That would be perfect.

Big Ange meets the paparazzi

Marilyn's Diary

I hated my cousin Eddie. He was a little pervert. He was all nice and sweet to his parents and played the perfect little boy. But he was a horror

He loved to peep at me in the bathroom. I mean I could understand if he wanted to catch me naked in the shower. That's what Uncle Herman loved to do. But Eddie didn't have a healthy curiosity about a women body. He only wanted to catch me going to the bathroom.

They tried to make him normal. Aunt Lily insisted he do the normal things a young boy would do. Collect baseball cards. Ride his bike. Play:Little League. But he got thrown out of Little League when the coach caught him collecting the jockstraps of the other little boys and sniffing them.

After Uncle Herman and Aunt Lily got divorced and I moved out of the Munster Mansion I lost track of Eddie. I hear he raises rare clumber spaniels and lives in Boston. He is big Red Sox fan and lives with his roommate who works for customer service for Dell computers.

I hope he got over his bathroom obsession. But somehow I doubt it.

Whose that author?

Let's talk, you and I. Let's talk about fear. The house is empty as I write this; a cold February rain is falling outside. It's night. Sometimes when the wind blows the way it's blowing now, we lose the power. But for now it's on, and so let's talk very honestly about fear. Let's talk very rationally about moving to the rim of madness...and perhaps over the edge.Be afraid.....be very afraid.

If Star Trek was like J Date

"So it this your first time at the Starfleet Speed dating event?"
"Yes I thought it was the logical thing to do. So what do you do here at Star Fleet?
"I do communications baby because I am very oral."
"Fascinating. Have I ever told you about the Vulcan Vagina pinch?"
"Sounds groovy baby. Oh there be the bell. I have to go talk to the chink. I see you later."

Horse Porn?

Sarah Jessica Horseface has been pegged to play Gloria Steinem in the Linda Lovelace biopic starring the girl from the Abba movie and the Mormon TV series. She picked the little filly when Demi Moore dropped out because she got sick after smoking horse tranquilizers.

Wait a minute! Maybe Sarah Jessica Horseface gave he the stuff. Yeah that explains. I don't see how else she could get a job.

Until they make the Secretariat Movie.

My dearest Pat

Ever since I first saw you at the auditions for the "Dark Towers" I have thought of Thee and your alabaster Irish skin. When I think of Thee, Dick Nixon can only imagine your perky pink nipples poking out of your small round mounds. I would want Thee to come to your door with nothing on your sweet young body but your good Republican cloth coat. The wispy hairs of purest sandy blond hair on your virgin mound is never far from Dick Nixon's thoughts. I yearn for thee but if you will not reply than you will not have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore.

Please write to me and let me know when I can see Thee. I can not eat my oatmeal for the yearning for your voice and Thy sweet touch on my five o'clock shadow. I will be away for a few days as I am going on a camping trip with a young Cuban boy who is a friend of mine.

But I will call Thee upon my return.

You dearest and most passionate friend,
 Dick Nixon.

Today's Gospel as always is right on point.

I have been going to church every Sunday since I was old enough to remember what was going on. I very seldom miss Mass on Sunday. I love the ritual and the familiarity. The prayers. The sense of contentment and repose and renewal I get during the mass. The spirit of love that I get when I take Communion.

And I really like the stories.

They are always right on point.

This week was the gospel where Jesus threw the money changers out of the temple. He turned his ribbons  into whips and scourge the evil degenerates out of the Temple. Turning over tables. Throwing them out on the street with their money rolling down the street. Getting the evil and corrupt people away from his family and friends.

I kept elbowing Lisa and going "Are you paying attention?"

Father Chris said in his homily that we have to remember all the aspects of Jesus. The Jesus who sat with the children and the lambs. The Jesus who suffered and died on the cross. But there was also the angry Jesus. The Jesus who went out looking for fight. The Jesus who let his righteous anger let him unleash his power to defend his faith.

Father Chris said it was his favorite Gospel. When we were walking out and I shook his hand I said "That's my favorite Gospel too."

The Seven Sisters

One of the plot points in an episode of the show is how Lisa names her dresses after members of her family. She has 36 first cousins but this episode is about the seven sisters.

Lisa's grandmother was one of seven sisters who all lived within a few blocks of each other in Brooklyn. Here they are pictured sitting behind the bride and groom in the early sixties. There is a scene where we name each dress after one of the sisters and how these dresses sort of embody a characteristic of one of the sisters. It should be a great scene.

If they don't cut it out.

The City lights

We went to the Brooklyn Promode at Fulton Landing at the end of our trip. We wanted to see the City lights from a different view from the morning. It was an unbelievable and beautiful site.

The kids had never seen the city from that spot before and they loved it.