Worst Plane Seat?

After reading this screed, one can only assume that it is 29E. BTW, I filed this under rants because it is one… even if it is not mine.

Decadent Lobster

Simple but effective…

Lobster w/ Cognac & Caper Sauce

1 lb Lobster meat (tails, claws, legs) cut into bite size morsels
Flour for dredging (season with a dash of cinnamon)
1 garlic clove, minced
1 small shallot, minced
1 stick butter
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons capers
1/4 cup Cognac (use the good stuff)Dredge the lobster lightly in the flour. Melt the butter over medium-high heat in a saute pan. When the butter has melted, add the garlic, shallot, and lobster. Turn the lobster after about a minute. Let it cook for another minute (2 minutes total). Stir in the lemon juice and capers.Remove the pan from the heat, pour in the cognac and ignite it. When the flames have subsided, grab two forks (one for your significant other) and eat it right out of the pan…

This post is (hopefully) participating in Electric Venom’s linkfest…

iPhone Voided

So you stand in line all day to be one of  the first suckers, er, lucky consumers to purchase an expensive gadget. What’s the first thing you do with it? Why void your warranty, of course!

Supreme Court Screws Consumers?

It has long been a pillar of US anti-trust law that a competitive retail market was supported by making it illegal for manufacturers or sellers to agree on fixed prices. Of course, this device was easily circumvented. Manufacturers who wanted retailers to always sell at a given “suggested” price and never discount were able to enforce their intent by conveniently being out of supply when discounting retailers needed to purchase inventory. On June 28th it was reported that the US Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, stated that manufacturers could, indeed, set a fixed price for their products and forbid retailers from offering discounts.

Does this bode well for consumers? Or does it merely codify that which has already been taking place? It’s certainly one of the most pro-business rulings that I have heard of in a very long time.

iPhone Suckers?

Were you one of the poor souls in the US who was so desparate for gadget acquisition that you waited in line to buy an over-priced toy that runs on the secondary network of single carrier that could wind up costing you upwards of $2,000 over the two year contract that you probably signed…?

Bus Birth Control

LOGAN, Utah – A 76-year-old woman has been barred from the bus station after giving unwanted birth-control advice to mothers with large families. “I think it’s wrong. It’s a violation of my First Amendment rights,” Laura Stevens said. She was arrested Tuesday for trespassing, a misdemeanor, according to police records. “She’s been making comments to some of the Hispanic passengers that they should be on the pill, that they’re taking over our society,” said Todd Beutler, general manager of the Cache Valley Transit District.

This is gonna go over really well. I thought folks in Utah were all about big families?

Congrats Craig

I’m not a big baseball fan. The game just never captured my imagination. But for the past 20 years, Craig Biggio has been playing baseball for the hometown Houston Astros. Last night, the Astros beat Colorado 8-5 at home at Minute Maid Park. Biggio also became the 27th player in the entire history of major league baseball to reach the 3000 hits mark. Truth be told, the Astros have pretty much sucked this year and Craig’s performance has shown that he is most certainly at the end of his career. That said, this is an overwhelmingly bright spot in an otherwise dismal season. Way to Craig!

Appliance Repair

I loath, despise, and detest appliances. I don’t like it when they break. I don’t like buying new ones. I don’t like shopping for them. Back in November, our clothes dryer crapped out after almost 20 years of service. At the advice of a neighbor, we went to a local “scratch and dent” retailer and bought a brand new Whirlpool electric dryer. The dryer had a big dent in it, but was priced at $209.99. It also had a 12 month warranty on parts and labor with a $50 charge for in-home service if we did not bring the unit in for repair.

Fast forward to today. The dryer will not heat, but it will run… and not stop. We’ve tried resetting the breakers, etc. but no help. I live in house with three females, one of whom is a teenager. I’m getting slowly buried in dirty laundry. So I call the place where we bought it. Sure, we can send somebody out to have it fixed; that’ll be $65. Umm, I’ve got a receipt (contract) that says $50. Prices have gone up. I’m sure they have, but my receipt says $50… The technician calls me up and gives me all kinds of grief about being an independant contractor and how the money doesn’t go to the store, that he now charges $65. I explain that I can sympathize with his situation but that I’ve got a contract for $50 and if he wants the extra $15, he can get it from the store. Now the technician is pissed that I’m causing all this stink for $15. And I explain to him that a contract is a contract. Next, I get a phone call from the store manager crying the same song and dance. I tell him that this is sort of like buying a car and getting one of those $19 oil changes every 3,000 miles for 3 years thing. I’m sure that the car dealer isn’t actually performing the work (it’s his independent contractor mechanics) and that a person would be mighty upset if, 6 months after the purchase, the price of those oil changes rose to $30.

So how does this evolve? The manager on the phone says that he will come out and pick up my dryer and bring it back to me tomorrow.  He’s going this to solve the problem… and get the $50 for himself.  You see, those “independent contractors” actually work for him on an hourly rate during the day. They make the big bucks when they work side jobs like this in-home repair after regular hours. I don’t know if my dryer will actually get fixed or if dead animals will be stashed in the appliance walls. Have I mentioned that I hate appliances.

Update: I got a little angry after my being annoyed passed. I decided that nobody was gonna get the $50. I disconnected the dryer, pulled it out of its warren in the utility room, tipped over onto a blanket, slid it through the house, got it out the front door, put it on a two-wheeler, got it to my TrailBlazer, and managed to get the thing in the back by myself. I drove the 5.1 miles to the store and asked for the manager. Amazing how he knew who I was and greeted me by name as I walked through the door. He promises that my dryer will be ready to ick up tomorrow by 4:00. I’m still expecting the worst.

Blood Suckers

I hate mosquitoes. I put them right up there with fire ants as creatures that should be forcibly ejected from existence. If you have a bit of concern about bathing in gallons of potentially toxic chemicals that might cause a third arm to grow out of your forehead, you might want to consider these more pedestrian combat techniques from Curbly :

10. Eliminate standing water. Objects that can collect water provide for perfect breeding areas for mosquitoes. This includes plastic wrappers, tarps, tires, planter saucers, kids’ toys and clogged gutters. Also, if you’re a fan of birdbaths, change the water in them at least twice a week, and, of course, change the water in outdoor pet bowls regularly. For items such as recyling bins, drill drainage holes to prevent standing water.

9. Grow the right plants. Plants such as horsemint, rosemary, marigolds, ageratum, agastache cana, and catnip are said to have odorous attributes that mosquitoes detest. Simply crush the leaves to release their scent, or rub them on your skin and clothing for the most protection.

8. Burn a bit of the herb. (Not that herb.) The next time you barbeque, throw some sage or rosemary on the coals to repel mosquitoes.

7. Save your parsley. You can make your own mosquito repellant by putting crushed parsley in a jar of apple cider vinegar. Rub the concoction on your skin or dip a handkerchief in it, which you can tie around your neck or hat band.

6. Attract bats. It is said that one small brown bat can catch 600 mosquitoes per hour. In an effort to attract these opportunistic insect eaters, you might want to consider building or buying a bat house. And if you’re worried about contracting rabies from the bats you attract, consider the Niagara Frontier Wildlife Habitat Council’s statistic that the less than half of one percent of all bats that contract rabies, which all mammals can do, ‘they normally bite only in self-defense and pose little threat to people who do not handle them.’ For a free bat house pattern, go to Bat Conservation International.

5. Weed wack. Adult mosquitoes love to chill in extraneous vegetation. If you get rid of it, you’ll get rid of them.

4. Keep it light. When considering your attire for outdoor activities, think white and light as mosquitoes are attracted to dark colors.

3. Keep it breezy. Mosquitoes don’t like strong wind currents; sitting next to a fan will keep the little pests away.

2. Go fluorescent. Mosquitoes are attracted to incandescent lights. For outdoor lighting, considering installing fluorescent lights, which don’t attract or repel mosquitoes.

And the #1 way to repel mosquitoes the low tech way….

Eat more garlic. When you eat garlic, especially large quantities of it, an invisible layer of garlic oil seeps from your pores and creates a mosquito barrier. If you don’t like the thought of eating more garlic, you can also use garlic juice to make a natural repellant. According to hometownannapolis.com, ‘Mix one part garlic juice with 5 parts water in a small spray bottle. Shake well before using. Spray lightly on exposed body parts for an effective repellent lasting up to 5 to 6 hours.’ And if you don’t like the idea of reeking of garlic, you can dip strips of cotton cloth into the malodorous mixture which you can then hang in strategic areas such as patios, decks and such as a local deterrent.

More On Bong Hits 4 Jesus

The more that I read the musings of the Venomous One over at Electric Venom, the more I know that we would become good friends sitting in the driveway and shooting the breeze. She opines on the Supreme Court ruling over the silly Bong Hits 4 Jesus case in this blog post. I read the whole Wikipedia entry and let me say this: I may not support the criminality of marijuana, but I absolutely support the right of the principal to run his/her school appropriately. Kids do not enjoy the same free speech rights as adults. These kids were displaying a drug message (albeit a silly one) at a school event. It doesn’t matter if they were actually truant during the event. The kids have probably learned an important and very public lesson: there are limits to everything.