"Muskrat Maryland" - on the menu!

You find gold in your book collection. These are pages from my grandmother's cookbook. It's a real post-apocalyptic treasure. It even tells you how to treat all types of game.

Only the best . . . . .

Going to go back down into the wastes of my basement tomorrow in full anti-C garb. Should be fun.

Chinese academics compare smog crisis to nuclear winter

So long world!

About 15% of China has been blanketed in dense smog for a week.
http://cir.ca/s/wgJ

Egon is dead

I saw this story on the BBC News iPhone App and thought you should see it:

Ghostbusters star Harold Ramis dies

Actor Harold Ramis, who starred in and co-wrote the hit comedy Ghostbusters, dies aged 69.

Read more:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/26327020


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Flipmode

Our basement became somewhat of a toxic wasteland over the last couple of weeks, thanks to the wonderful combination of an overflowing toilet, an impenetrable Pergo vapor layer, and 60 year old asbestos tile and adhesive. I like to call it our world famous fibrous shit sandwich.

The Pergo and vapor layer have been removed, leaving only a minefield of alternating solid and popped loose tile that makes a nice crunch when weight is applied toward the corners of the tile. To be fair, we don't know if the tiles are asbestos yet. We mailed the sample out today for analysis. If it comes back negative, I'll rip out the tile myself. If not, I'll pay a pro to come in and do the job right. I have all the equipment, time, and expertise to do it myself in a safe manner, but I lack two key things: desire and motivation. Suddenly I realize that this statement applies to an ever-widening array of situations in my life.

In the meantime, all essential operations have been moved out of the basement to the first floor. I had expected the loss of approximately half our living area to be a lot harder than it was. After a day or two solid of hanging out upstairs, I don't miss the basement at all.

It's rejuvenating to realize that you don't need all that space. That all the things you need could fit in a space about twice the size of a standard two bedroom apartment. And the floor plan upstairs isn't even optimized. Once you have more space, you fill it up with more useless crap that you don't need. And all that crap comes with extra maintenance that I, for one, prefer not to do.

Then I wonder why we have a house at all. You have to worry about the roof, siding, gutters, fencing, garden, shed, deck, paint, flooring, appliances, etc., etc. etc. And don't get me started on yard work. Fescue my ass. If I had my way I'd burn all the grass down and Astroturf that crap. Or asphalt, whichever's cheapest.

Even that accursed car and truck in the driveway. Do I really need them? Having to wash them after every snow, get the oil changed, dump tons of cash into the tank to keep them running, pay insurance, and worry which one is going to explode on the road first. Insurance on a motorcycle is around a hundred bucks a year. And driving a motorcycle is pretty much the only time I've ever felt truly free in my life.

And don't get me started on these damn cats. Barfing, pissing, meowing monstrosities sent to poison my soul like locusts in the apocalypse.

How much could we accomplish if we weren't always worrying about our nice, neat, flaming little shit? And wouldn't shedding all this unjustifiable garbage free us up to do something, if not enjoyable, perhaps a bit less soul crushing.

Flipmode back to reality: it's screwed. "This world hasn't become hell. This world has always been hell, from the very start." I'm locked into my own version of the American nightmare. And I wouldn't have it any other way. Guess I'm a masochist after all.

¡No es real! As I write this, on comes the Social D:

"Times are hard, getting harder, when you're born to lose and destined to fail . . . . "

Alcoholics Learn To Make Their Own Beer In Canadian Program

Interesting way to go:  "we'd rather them drink something they made than hand sanitizer."

I found the following story on the NPR iPhone App:

Alcoholics Learn To Make Their Own Beer In Canadian Program
by Bill Chappell

NPR - February 21, 2014

Call it a new twist on the old "teach a man to fish" adage. A group in Vancouver, British Columbia, is teaching inveterate alcoholics to brew their own beer and make their own wine, in an attempt to keep them from drinking unsafe liquids to get an alcoholic high....

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/02/21/280885577/alcoholics-learn-to-make-their-own-beer-in-canadian-program?sc=17&f=1001

Clean start

Starting fresh with a new look, before and after the razor:

1 In 4 Americans Thinks The Sun Goes Around The Earth, Survey Says

America:  from blatant plutocracy to total IDIOCRACY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I found the following story on the NPR iPhone App:

1 In 4 Americans Thinks The Sun Goes Around The Earth, Survey Says
by Scott Neuman

NPR - February 14, 2014

A quarter of Americans surveyed could not correctly answer that the Earth revolves around the sun and not the other way around, according to a report out Friday from the National Science Foundation....

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/02/14/277058739/1-in-4-americans-think-the-sun-goes-around-the-earth-survey-says?sc=17&f=1001

The only reason to watch

Now, I hate the Olympics.  But when stuff like this happens, I love it.

This guy eats a whole plate of teriyaki through the back of his head:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpSw7p0PQt0

Say what you want about the snow

At least it will melt!

Java volcano sends thousands fleeing

Some 200,000 people are told to evacuate their homes in Indonesia after a volcano erupts on the island of Java, with at least two people killed.

Read more:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-26183880


** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.

Letting the toilet know

That it's number 11 in my book

Charging up for manual labor

With a Taylor's ham, egg, and Brie sammich:

Duo lingo waxes morbid

Strange sequence for a language app!

The dilbert guide to life

Pretty dead on. From the comparison of youthful idealism in the workplace to skydiving with a handkerchief, to the many all too true statements like the one below.

If he's including the incompetent under "imbecile" then I wholeheartedly agree.

Most interactions with management will leave you nothing but a slimy, dirty feeling. As if you need to immediately find an acid bath and dive in.