Last Gravenstein Apples of the Season

I picked the last remaining Gravs from one of my friend Lynn Deedler's Gravenstein trees... making apple sauce out of most of them, eating the rest with Vella Dry Monterey Jack cheese and Trader Joe's Pita crackers. The Grav is on the endangered fruit variety list, Sebastopol used to have hundreds of acres of orchards, now mostly taken over by vineyards. It's my favorite apple and I am pleased that I ate so many this year.
Photo below is from the Apple Fair in Sebastopol earlier this month. Most Gravensteins are greener than the ones in the photograph. You owe to yourself to have one some day.

Another Unexpected Story I Almost Missed!

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Dell Inc reported a stronger-than-expected quarterly profit on Thursday, showing it was better able to cut costs and protect prices on its products than analysts, or its own executives, had predicted.

Gotta love them analysts... getting paid to be wrong, and consistently too!!

Today's Unexpected News

GDP Declines 1 Percent In 2Q, Better Than Expected

WASHINGTON — The economy shrank at an annual rate of 1 percent in the spring, a better-than-expected showing and more evidence that the recession is drawing to a close. Many analysts believe the economy is growing in the current quarter, but they caution that any rebound will not be accompanied initially by rising employment.

Nothing happens in this country finanacially that is expected. No wonder things are in such bad shape. Where do we get a new crop of analysts who can replace the current, inept ones?

I love the irony of the photo accompanying this story. Those all are "real beer" pulls and no AB anywhere to be seen.

Extra points if you noticed the Dogfish Head logo on the pull at the lower right corner, the green one with the shark outline. That's an IPA and one of the finest ales made in this country. Very high alcohol so you have to restrain yourself from over imbibing but it's the kind of beer/ale that AB and Millers and Coors wish they could make, but never will.

If you are in Austin, get it (both the 60 and 90 minute versions) at The Ginger Man pub and tell them I sent you.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Required Reading for Everyone Fed Up With The Lies About Health Reform

In an excerpt criticizing the NYT's poor coverage, this paragraph caught my eye while reading Fire Dog Lake blog:

"So the front page part of Kevin Sack's story was completely misleading; it should have said, right from the beginning,

Conservative media sources, including Fox News, Russ Limbaugh, and Matt Drudge, have been persistently misleading people about health care reform proposals. As a result their listeners, as the experience of a Georgia couple illustrates, have become victims of unjustified fear and needless anxiety, fed by the false impression that the federal government is planning to deny or ration their health care.

These conservative media efforts are provably dishonest, but despite having the facts repeatedly corrected and the distortions denounced by numerous experts, the conserative media continue to repeat the false information, leaving those Americans who rely on the sources even more anxious and confused."

Read the full account here: http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/7545

This Week's Unexpected News

Once again, those perceptive analysts have come thru:

Consumer sentiment rose more than expected in August ..

The New York-based Conference Board said Tuesday its Consumer Confidence index rose to 54.1 from an upwardly revised 47.4 in July.

Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected a slight increase to 47.5.

New Jobless Claims Rise Unexpectedly To 576K

Third "unexpected" story of the week.



Is this nation's business analysts consistent or what!!
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Excellent Reading About Health Reform Protesters.

http://www.prwatch.org/node/8506

MSNBC's <i>Maddow Show</i> Propels Growing DC "Christian Mafia" Scandal

This is scary reading but it's a story being totally ignored by corporate media. I for one will be paying very close attention from now on.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Analysts Blow It Again

Only Tuesday and already we have a second example of the "experts" getting it wrong again.

Here's the latest "unexpected" news (from NPR website):

Wholesale prices fell sharply again in July, capping off a record 12-month plunge, while new housing starts for the month also dropped unexpectedly, underscoring the shakiness of any economic recovery.

Wholesale prices paid by retailers dropped 0.9 percent last month, led by big decreases in energy and food costs, according to the Labor Department. The figure is triple the decline most economists had expected.

Katie Couric Denounces "Fear" And "Ignorance" Driving People To Town-Hall Forums On Health Care Reform

Very interesting reading and very germane. I especially like the paragraph quoted here. Nice job of summarizing the current GOP operations.
About Katie Couric
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Interesting Site I Have Found

If you can put down your iPhone long enough to read, I found this site to be on top of the social networking scene:

http://socialnomics.net/

Anti Gay Marriage Donor Now Hates Hetero Marriage
From CrooksandLiars.com:

From San Diego CityBeat:

In July 2008, hotelier and developer Doug Manchester donated $125,000 to help gather signatures for a proposition that would ban same-sex marriage in California. The early money was crucial to getting the initiative—which ultimately passed—on the ballot. At the time, he told The New York Times that he made the donation because of “my Catholic faith and longtime affiliation with the Catholic Church,” which preferred that marriage remain between a man and a woman. Indeed, the Catholic Church has vehemently opposed gay marriage. Then again, it’s also not too keen on divorce.

On Oct. 9, 2008, Manchester ended 43 years, eight months and nine days of marriage to Elizabeth Manchester by moving out of their La Jolla abode. The couple spent the next several months trying to reach a quiet settlement on how best to distribute millions of dollars in cash and other assets. In July, those talks totally broke down, and Doug started playing financial hardball with Elizabeth, allegedly draining the couple’s shared accounts and stealing her mail. On Aug. 6, Elizabeth filed a petition for redress in family court. All of the information in this story comes from those petitions. CityBeat contacted attorneys for both parties, but neither returned calls by press time.

This ardent defender of traditional marriage didn't just try to cover his buns in the divorce, he downright abused his wife of 43+ years:

In March, Doug told Elizabeth he’d no longer maintain the bank account the two shared to pay her expenses, and that she should submit her bills to his office. She followed this procedure, but was surprised to get a call from AT&T saying her bill was past due.

“Doug began dragging his feet on paying my expenses,” she writes, “refusing to pay certain expenses until I accepted his demands regarding our property division. I believe Doug did this to squeeze me financially.” Read on...

Now THAT, my friends, is what real, heterosexual, traditional marriage is all about! Snark/ You gotta love those GOP family values...

Thought For the Day

"I think it is very hard because [Democrats] don't have the message machine the Republicans do," said George Lakoff, a UC Berkeley linguistics professor who has advised some Democrats on how to sharpen their message. "The Democrats still believe in Enlightenment reason: If you just tell people the truth, they will come to the right conclusion."

Conservative Economist Slams Town Hall Demonstrators

Bruce Bartlett had a lot to say about the noisy, mindless demonstrators (orchestrated by Dick Armey's organization) today in a post in the Daily Beast. Here's an excerpt that summarized the situation nicely:

"...conservative activists, who seem to believe that the louder they shout the more correct their beliefs must be, are less angry about Obama’s policies than they are about having lost the White House in 2008. They are primarily Republican Party hacks trying to overturn the election results, not representatives of a true grassroots revolt against liberal policies. If that were the case they would have been out demonstrating against the Medicare drug benefit, the Sarbanes-Oxley bill, and all the pork-barrel spending that Bush refused to veto."

Twang Ditty Rides Again!

Yes, one of my favorite bands to see live made an appearance last Tuesday at Tailor Maid Coffee's annual customer appreciation party. An easy gig for Andy, the bass player, since he works for Tailor Maid but the band worked hard at bringing back fond memories of such classics as "Harper Valley PTA" and "Ring of Fire" and the incredibly rare "North to Alaska."
Amongst all the wine-sipping, pork roast eatin and beer drinkin, plenty of toes were tapping to this fun music. And of course, plenty of coffee was drunk too, including do it yourself espresso making. An all around great Sebastopol style evening.

More Food Experiences

And what would summer be without that traditional Wisconsin dish, Paella?
Well, the seafood is traditional anyway. Savor the photo below. I can still smell the satisfying aroma of saffron joining the shrimp and sausage wafting on the summer breeze (just after a violent downpour of rain and hail).
Laura Bingner, gracious host and wife of brother-in-law Eric of Ft Atkinson, WI is responsible for this incredible dish. She used saffron she purchased in Barcelona, Spain couple years ago when Kay and I joined her and Eric for travels in France and Northern Spain.
With trusty Nikon camera in hand, I captured the visual beauty before we went on an eating rampage!

Food, Food, Glorious Food!!

Been a fine summer thus far, with cuisine opportunities at the top of the fun list.
Where to start?

How about Santa Rosa, where hushpuppies have come to town. As a self-proclaimed savant of southern cuisine, I began eating them at an early age. And unless you live in certain parts of the South you don't find them on the menu very often. However, I can report that the Red Rose Cafe in Santa Rosa has them as part of their lunch buffet and they are authentic. Basically they are cornbread with a little onion in them, deep fried as only true Southern food can be, and a very tasty side to accompany yams, black eyed peas and of course fried chicken. As we say in Sebastopol's south side: Yum!! For those unacquainted with this culinary highlight, in the photo the hushpuppies are the small balls occupying the place of honor at the top of the plate.