The Grand Unified Theory of BBQ - Two Sandwiches

HJ77's family is Southern, and they have opinions about Southern cooking and cuisine, which is great because I have opinions about Southern cooking and cuisine. Such as: Paula Deen should be arrested and changed with crimes against humanity.

Anyway, after the race, Heather's mother had prepared pulled pork (low and slow as it cooked for six hours the day before and there was a secret ingredient) for dinner. The base for it was a pork tenderloin which I would not use (preferring the shoulder) because the lack of fat in the meat* but JoAnn knows more about cooking pork than I do apparently. It was moist and tender and easily pulled apart. It was great. The homemade cole slaw and the beans were perfect compliments as well.


JoAnn's Pulled Pork

And then...

I have been headed through Worcester, MA fairly often since the late spring and I have seen Smokestack Urban Barbecue often enough that I have been both fascinated by it as well as developing a Pavlovian response to it.

When I had a hour in Worhester the other day, I knew that I had to try something there...


Smokestack Urban Barbecue's Sliders

Now these sliders were very good, lightly sauced and very spicy. They were a mix of the brisket and the pulled pork and one could tell the difference between the two meats. (Off topic: Idea for porn spec script Between the Two Meats)

It was worth the wait, and you know what, it is an excuse to head back to Worcester soon.

*For me Fat equals Flavor and the fattier the piece of meat the more wiggle room you have for making a mistake. I would love to be using tenderloin for pork bbq but I go with the shoulder because...well...I screw up more often than I succeed.

Edit: Changed spelling of Worcester.

Coping Mechanisms

I loved today's Questionable Content.

Do you have a recipe for a Coping Mechanism?

Yes, this is insane.

Watch it...it made me giggle.

William Shatner's Floating Head Covers Queen



Via Time

FTR: I hate Queen but I love Shatner.

Important Movie Quotes - Dawn of the Dead

With The Walking Dead coming back to television this week, I have been thinking about zombies. (Oh, and Nazis...and adults who use the word "fair" to describe perceived injustice...)

The first version (Romero, 1978) is a favorite of mine and I do really enjoy Zack Snyder's remake in 2004.


1978


2004

Yay, Zombies!

I have a couple of my own...

These made me laugh...

3. Showing up in your TARDIS during the toasts to steal the bride for an intergalactic Dalek-fighting adventure, while simultaneously dropping off a bulky gift at the reception itself instead of sending it to the designated address. No one appreciates that!

7. Grabbing the mike and trying to get your ex-boyfriend to come up and sing "No Children" with you unless the mood is exactly right.

11. Offering an excerpt from your favorite Bret Easton Ellis novel in lieu of the assigned passage from Corinthians.

15 No-No's at a Wedding | The Hairpin

Diner Food - Modern Diner

Yesterday, HJ77 and I made a pilgramage of sorts. To the Modern Diner (FTR: That link brings you to Quahog.org which I wrongly assumed was a support group for those addicted to "Family Guy") which was the first diner placed on the National Registry of Historic Places (read the Times piece about the diners in the area that features the Modern). It has be important as it has it's own entry in Wikipedia.



HJ77 had been telling me for months that we had to go here and try it, as we both have a fondness for diners and she claimed that this was one of the best. She did not lie. (Not that I would expect her to lie about something as critical as diner food.)



As you can see, it has the traditional counter and booth setup (strikingly similar to Albany's Miss Albany which is a homage to the Rhode Island diner) and it smells like well cooked food, hot coffee, and that smell that I can only describe as "diner". (The diner smell is not a pejorative...it is a very comforting smell for me and places that do not have it that are in the diner motif are suspect.)

First things first, I had to try some "Coffee Milk" as I have been tempted to, but...somehow drinking the state drink of Rhode Island in any other place than Rhode Island seemed...blasphemous.



It was tasty...like melted coffee ice cream...but...I do not think that I am going to add it to my list of preferred beverages. Why would I?

The menu is extensive when it comes to breakfast fare, and the list of specials was incredible.



But...as you know...I do not often vary what I have in diners.

Two Eggs (poached), Rye Toast, Home Fries, and Bacon. I had already tried something new with Coffee Milk so I was not going to go further out on a limb with my food choice.



The eggs were in a bowl, which is a bit of a pet peeve, and slightly overcooked. I do prefer mine very runny and I should have said something, but...I think this may be both of our faults.



I was able to transition to the toast with little problem. (The benefit of the egg being overcooked, I suppose.) I was very happy that when HJ77 and I asked for hot sauce, the server (who was great!) brought us both Frank's and Tabasco. Little touches like this make me really happy. The rye bread, which I assume was baked in-house was incredible and slathered with a lot of butter. It was just what my taste buds wanted (and caused my arteries to harden a bit more) and it was very much appreciated.



HJ77 ordered a mushroom and American omelette with wheat toast. While I did not taste it (I have an aversion to American cheese when it is in cooked eggs.), it did smell wonderful.



The food and service was very good and it made it some easy to become a member of the "Clean Plate Club".

I strongly recommend the Modern Diner, for both the food and the sense of history that comes with it.


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Anyone can play guitar

As I was travelling on Saturday (and Data Coverage and WiFi were spotty at best), I relegated myself to sitting back, reading, and enjoying the complete Radiohead catalog. (It was a very enjoyable Saturday.)



However, I kept coming back to this one song and the lyrics:

And if the world does turn
And if London burns I'll be standing on the beach with my guitar


I like how wonderfully apocalyptic that sounds. Don't you?

Pictures from the Amica Marathon

HJ77 ran well. It was a wonderful, if really long day.

Prepare for the Rapture (Coming This Weekend)

"“I do believe that we’re getting very near the very end,” he said, repeating that “we’ve learned that there’s a lot of things we didn’t have quite right, and that’s God’s good provision.” He asserted once again that Judgment Day had nevertheless begun spiritually, that God had kept them in the dark in order to “bring about the tremendous event that occurred on May 21 of this year, and which …”

And then Harold Camping did something heretofore unimaginable.

“… And which probably will be finished out on October 21, this coming very shortly, that looks like it will be, at this point, it looks like it will be the final end of everything.”

He used the word probably. He hedged."


Harold Camping’s Prediction of the Apocalypse -- New York Magazine

So, what are your plans for the weekend?

I find this disturbing

"To explain Germany's response to the crisis we must start from the fact that the country has undergone a dramatic transformation over the last 20 years. In the postwar era, leaders from Konrad Adenauer to Willy Brandt realized that, for Germany to be readmitted to the fellowship of civilized nations, it had to atone for the recent past. Germany thus paid reparations to Israel, concluded peace treaties with its eastern neighbors, and, above all, entered an unwavering alliance with former foes like Britain, France, and the United States.

But the contrite Germany of the postwar era has been long gone. Since Germany's reunification, the need to atone for Auschwitz has been replaced by the desire to draw a definitive finish line underneath irksome talk of the Third Reich.

The first decisive step in this direction was taken in 1998 by Martin Walser, a famous novelist, when he called Auschwitz a "moral baseball bat" wielded by sinister outsiders intent on harming Germany's interests. Germany's assembled political and cultural elite feted Walser's speech with standing ovations."


Germany's Not That Sorry Anymore - By Yascha Mounk | Foreign Policy

Maybe it is because I have spent the last two weeks consuming and digesting Evans' Third Reich Trilogy but this causes me discomfort. Eddie Izzard has a bit about parachuting German youth into conflict zones with the point of proselytizing for peace but this...makes me think that the peace may be enforced at the point of a gun, or at least the pen on a checkbook...

In defense of the study of philosophy...

"What makes philosophy different? It can seem self-absorbed; philosophers themselves joke about Arthur Koestler's definition: "the systematic abuse of a terminology specially invented for that purpose." But it also is a tool (like history and religious studies) for thinking about everything else, and every profession from law and medicine to motorcycle maintenance."


Is Philosophy the Most Practical Major? - Edward Tenner - Technology - The Atlantic