We had delivery pizza for dinnera new nights ago. Unfortunately, they screwed up the order. Instead of Italian sausage and onion, which is my pizza of choice, they delivered a pizza with sausage and banana peppers. What a choke! Is there any lamer pizza topping than banana peppers? Even when you peel them off, they [...]
Archive for July, 2009
Pizza
Posted in Columbus, Food, Humor, Uncategorized, tagged Columbus, Food, Humor, pizza, restaurants on July 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Lines Of Communication And The Sam Adams Summit
Posted in America, Politics, tagged America, communication, Politics, President Obama, race on July 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
UJ says I always criticize our President — which I don’t believe is true — but in any case let me say something positive about his decision to sit down with Professor Gates and Sergeant Crowley in an effort to put the Cambridge incident behind him. I don’t think that President Obama should have gotten [...]
The Step-Down Phenomenon: The Ohio State Fair
Posted in America, The Economy, Travel, tagged America, economy, Ohio, Ohio State Fair, The Step-Down Phenomenon, Travel on July 31, 2009 | 1 Comment »
The 156th Ohio State Fair began this week. As with every Ohio State Fair, this year’s edition features entertainment acts, performances by children’s choirs and bands, a butter sculpture, and tasty but horribly unhealthy foods, like elephant ears and the enticingly named “fried dough.” This year’s hot new food option apparently is deep-fried buckeyes — that is, [...]
A Big Hole In the Sky
Posted in Science, tagged Jupiter, Science, Space on July 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Last week NASA reported on an apparent large comet strike on Jupiter that left a visible “mark” on that gas giant’s upper atmosphere. The object punched through Jupiter’s sky near its south pole, and the notable change in Jupiter’s appearance was first spotted by an amateur astronomer in Australia. I mention this because I think [...]
The Step-Down Phenomenon: Dining Out
Posted in America, Food, The Economy, tagged America, economy, Food, McDonald's, recession, restaurants, The Step-Down Phenomenon on July 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
A few weekends ago we went out to dinner with friends on both Friday night and Saturday night. Friday we went to a relatively new restaurant in the Arena District and had an exceptionally good meal. Saturday we went to a restaurant at a busy corner in the Short North and had a pretty good [...]
Dixie Electric Company
Posted in Growing Up, Ipods, Music, tagged Bee Gees, dancing, Disco, Dixie Electric Company, Ipod, K.C. and the Sunshine Band, Music on July 29, 2009 | 20 Comments »
When disco was king during the mid-’70s, discos sprouted in shopping centers across America like mushrooms after a long rain. During that era, the Columbus disco of choice was called Dixie Electric Company and was located in the Great Western Shopping Center, far out West Broad Street. Behind its unassuming storefront facade it had everything [...]
Weighty Taxes And Personal Freedoms
Posted in America, Healthcare Reform, tagged America, freedom, Health care, Health Care Reform, health Nazis, Obesity, taxes on July 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
This is a predictable (and predicted) development: people are now advocating levying hefty taxes on foods and drinks that contribute to obesity in order to help pay for health care. The underlying concept is that obesity has contributed mightily to increasing health care costs, so behavior that contributes to obesity should be discouraged. Taxes on [...]
The Step-Down Phenomenon: Community Colleges
Posted in America, College, The Economy, tagged College, Columbus, Columbus State Community College, community colleges, economy, education, The Step-Down Phenomenon on July 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
By all accounts, community colleges are having a banner year. This article reports on 30 percent increases in applications to some community colleges and notes that community colleges are far more affordable than four-year public universities or private schools. It is obvious that, in these recessionary times, many would-be students simply can’t afford to go [...]
Who To Believe?
Posted in Politics, tagged Congress, corruption, Politics on July 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
It appears that the Senate Ethics Committee is investigating the “sweetheart” mortgage deals that Countrywide Financial Corp. gave to Senators Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad. According to this article, the Committee recently received secret testimony from a former Countrywide employee who testified that the Senators knew that they were getting special treatment and went ahead [...]
Fear Of August
Posted in America, Healthcare Reform, Politics, tagged America, Congress, Health Care Reform, Politics on July 27, 2009 | 1 Comment »
A lot of politicians on both sides of the health care reform debate are holding their breath as Congress prepares to take its August recess. They are terribly afraid what members of Congress will encounter when they leave their enclave on the banks of the Potomac and return to their states and districts, there to [...]
Leisure Suits, Disco, And The Ford Granada
Posted in America, Growing Up, Humor, tagged cars, Clark Griswold, Ford, Ford Granada, Granada, Humor, National Lampoon's Vacation on July 26, 2009 | 3 Comments »
I’ve been amazed by the steady show of interest on my prior post on crummy Ford cars of the 1970s. Interestingly, all of the attention has been to one particular car — the Ford Granada. We get data on what searches have been used to find our blog, and every week there are multiple searches [...]
The Step-Down Phenomenon: Foresaking Vanity
Posted in America, The Economy, tagged America, budgets, cars, Congress, economy, modern culture, Ohio, The Step-Down Phenomenon, vanity license plates on July 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Some months ago I heard a report on NPR that described what I have come to call the “step-down phenomenon.” The phenomenon addresses what people do when times get tough, family budgets become leaner, and belts are tightened. In effect, people “step down” from more expensive items to less expensive items, rather than cutting out [...]
Squirrel Superheroes
Posted in Humor, tagged Animals, house and grounds, Humor, Squirrels on July 25, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I was surprised to see this article about squirrels being horrible pests, because in our backyard the squirrels are a source of significant entertainment and, frankly, some pride. My experience with our backyard squirrels began when I decided to try to keep our bird feeders stocked with bird seed this year. We have two curved [...]
What If India Won’t Play Ball?
Posted in America, Environment, Politics, The Economy, World, tagged America, business, economy, Environmental, global warming, India on July 25, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
India not only is balking at agreeing to limitations on carbon emissions, it also apparently is challenging the science underlying global warming theories. This development is noteworthy, because if India and the other growing economic powers — China, Brazil, and Indonesia — refuse to participate in some kind of binding worldwide effort to reduce our [...]
