F$#@, I'm Old!

I just got back from upstate New York, a 6-hour drive.

In my younger days, I'd follow this up by 3 hours of blogging. 

These days? Not so much.

No Blogging Tonight

I just finished a drive up to Central New York.

One of Sharon's oldest friends is getting an arts award this weekend. (A Laurel on the SCA)

I have just finished a 6-hour drive, and I am completely done.

Great Split Pea Soup, Lousy Toothpick Dispensers

If you have taken California's coastal highway, and not had some of Pea Soup Andersen's split pea soup, you are a fool.

It's excellent soup.

That being said, be careful with the toothpicks.  I have been ribbed about this for over 4 decades. 

In any case, here is the recipe.  It's vegetarian, but you can order it with ham.

If you wanted to keep kosher, you could add pastrami.

Andersen's Split Pea Soup

Vintage recipe for Andersen's Split Pea Soup from Andersen's Restaurant in Buellton, California. Family recipe. Vegan, Gluten Free.

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time45 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr

Course: Soup

Cuisine: American

Keyword: soup recipe

Kosher Key: Parve

Servings: 6 servings

Calories: 236kcal

Ingredients

• 2 cups green split peas
• 1 rib celery, coarsely chopped (single piece from a stalk)
• 1 large carrot, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 1 small onion, peeled and chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon thyme
• 1 bay leaf, crumbled into very small pieces
• Pinch cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

• Sort the peas in a mesh strainer, removing any stones or impurities. Rinse them clean.
• Combine the peas, celery, carrot, onion, thyme, bay leaf and cayenne in a soup pot and cover with 2 quarts (8 cups) of water.
• Bring the pot to a boil. Keep at a high simmer for 20 minutes.
• Reduce heat to a low simmer. Let the mixture cook for another 25-30 minutes till the peas are completely tender. Towards the end of cooking, add the seasoned salt, then add salt and pepper to taste. I use about 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp of pepper. Use less if you're sodium-sensitive.
• Process the pea mixture through a food mill or a fine mesh sieve. A food mill will create the smoothest, creamiest texture.
• Process the pea mixture until all of the liquid is pushed through, and only pulp remains.
• A creamy soup will result.
• Bring the soup to a quick boil once more on the stovetop, then remove from heat immediately. If the soup seems too thick, add some hot water to thin it out to the desired consistency.
• Serve hot. I like to garnish the soup with a few breadcrumbs. Omit them to keep the soup gluten free and vegan. Keep leftover soup in a sealed tupperware. When the soup is chilled, it will solidify. Adding a little water and stirring as you reheat will help the soup to heat up more smoothly.

Notes

You will also need: Soup pot. mesh strainer, food mill

Nutrition

Calories: 236kcal | Carbohydrates: 42g | Protein: 16g | Sodium: 216mg | Potassium: 720mg | Fiber: 17g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 1825IU | Vitamin C: 3.4mg | Calcium: 46mg | Iron: 3mg

 

No Blogging Tonight

I got back from Dayton late this evening and I'm completely wiped

I did get the opportunity to spend a little bit over 2 hours at the US Air Force museum in Dayton, and that was quite nice. 

I will show pictures later.

Just as an FYI

I opted out of facial recognition at the TSA check in.

The entire exchange took perhaps 5 seconds. 

Just to be clear, this has nothing to do with the Libyan hush money allegations.

On the Road Tomorrow and Thursday

Heading to a customer meeting in Dayton, Ohio, which means light posting.

That being said, I do think that I will have time to hit the US Air Force Museum there, and hopefully, I will generate some kick-ass photographs. 

On the Way to Manhattan

Stopped at Waffle House (breakfast for dinner) and blogging. 

I love going to New York, but not for a funeral.

One Step Back from The Handmaiden’s Tale

A federal judge has ruled that Alabama cannot prosecute anyone who helps someone travel out of state for an abortion.

While there have yet to be any such charges filed, the state AG has announced that he is looking into this, so there is already a chilling effect on healthcare providers:

Alabama’s attorney general cannot prosecute individuals and groups that help Alabama women travel to other states to obtain abortions, a federal judge ruled on Monday.

The US district judge Myron Thompson sided with an abortion fund and medical providers who sued Alabama’s attorney general, Steve Marshall, after he suggested they could face prosecution under anti-conspiracy laws. Thompson’s ruling declared that such prosecutions would violate both the first amendment and a person’s right to travel.

Marshall has not pursued any such prosecutions. However, he said he would “look at closely” whether facilitating out-of-state abortions is a violation of Alabama’s criminal conspiracy laws. The ruling was a victory for the Yellowhammer Fund, an abortion assistance fund that had paused providing financial assistance to low-income people in the state because of the possibility of prosecution.

………

“It is one thing for Alabama to outlaw by statute what happens in its own backyard. It is another thing for the state to enforce its values and laws, as chosen by the attorney general, outside its boundaries by punishing its citizens and others who help individuals travel to another state to engage in conduct that is lawful there but the attorney general finds to be contrary to Alabama’s values and laws,” Thompson wrote in the 131-page opinion.

It's like prosecuting people for organizing a trip to Los Vegas, and it i9 clearly unconstitutional.

Or at least it is until the Supreme Court issues yet another corrupt ruling.

Heading Back to Charm City

Just found my seat for the flight back.

Obviously, this will be a light posting day.

Posted but mobile.

Epic Retro Hotel Sign

We are staying at this hotel and heading back to Baltimore tomorrow morning.

For Your Mental Health and Relaxation

Think of this as a way to lower your blood pressure in this crazy world of ours.

We were down in Nescowin, Oregon for a memorial service for my stepmom.

Neskowin is a beach community on the coast of Oregon, and it is beautiful. 

The first post is a video with sound of the ocean on Sunday, followed by panoramic pictures in chronological order, followed by regular pictures in chronological order. 

We came in Friday afternoon, which was beautiful, 18°C and clear, a rarity on the Oregon coast in October. 

It was still that way on Saturday until about 2, when crowds started rolling in, and if anything it became even more beautiful. 

On Sunday, it was rainy and foggy and chilly, but more beautiful still.

Pictures are after the break:

Now I Get It

I had a bathroom scale in the trunk of my car (long dull story) and I brought it in the house so that I could weigh the luggage that we were checking. (Don't judge me)

It's a digital scale, which is more marketing than anything else, it has an encoder reading marks on a rotating, while the analogue version has your eye reading Marla on a rotating disk.

I needed to get the weight of our bag, it needed to be under 50 lbs, and the bag was large enough that it covered the readout.

So I weighed myself (none of your f$#@ing business, that's how much) and then I weighed the suitcase and me, and subtracted the difference.

The latter confirm was unstable enough that the number never settled.  

In the old style scale, I could simply look.

But this was a speaking scale, something that I had always thought was useless, so I could put the suitcase in the scale and hear the weight.

It was overweight, and I made adjustments.

I had always thought that a talking scale was worse than useless.

I stand corrected.

Posted via mobile.

At the Gate

Flying to Portland International Airport, and then driving to Nescowin on the Oregon coast for a memorial for my step mom.

Changing planes in Sea-Tac.

I'll probably post some more during the layover.

Posted via mobile.

I am Clearly in the Wrong Timeline

When antivaxxer, hypocrite, bat-sh%$ insane fruit loop, and former Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announces that he is under federal investigation for beheading a dead beached whale, all of use are clearly in the wrong timeline:

Robert F Kennedy Jr has said that he is being investigated by federal authorities for collecting the head from a decapitated whale carcass.

During a campaign event on Saturday for the Republican nominee, Donald Trump, in Glendale, Arizona, the former independent presidential candidate said: “I received a letter from the National Marine Fisheries Institute saying that they were investigating me for collecting a whale specimen 20 years ago.”

He added: “This is all about the weaponization of our government against political opponents.”

Kennedy, who endorsed the former president after dropping out of November’s election, fell under scrutiny in recent weeks after the resurfacing of a 2012 interview that his daughter Kick gave to Town & Country in which she addressed the whale in question.


Recounting how the creature washed up on a beach near Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, she said: “[He] ran down to the beach with a chainsaw, cut off the whale’s head and then bungee-corded it to the roof of the family minivan for the five-hour haul back to Mount Kisco, New York.

“Every time we accelerated on the highway, whale juice would pour into the windows of the car, and it was the rankest thing on the planet. We all had plastic bags over our heads with mouth holes cut out, and people on the highway were giving us the finger, but that was just normal day to day stuff for us.”

Seriously?

I don't know what's coming next in this year's parade of dysfunction, but if I had to make a prediction, it would be that RFJ, Jr. would be outed as a sadistic equestrian necrophiliac, but that's probably beating a dead horse.

No Blogging Tonight

Went to an SCA event in Culpeper County, Virginia, about a 250 mile round trip, I just got home,  and my brain is fried.

Posted via mobile.

Worst Team-Building Exercise Ever

It appears that there was some sort of team-building exercise in Colorado, and abandoned one of their cow-orkers on top of a 14,000 foot peak.

A Florida man on a corporate retreat became separated from his co-workers during a hike in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado last Friday, leaving him missing in the wilderness for a day and forcing him to brave a bitter storm overnight before being rescued, search and rescue authorities said.

(emphasis mine)

It's always a Florida man, isn't it? 

“He’s lucky to be alive,” Evan Brady, the public information officer for Chaffee County Search and Rescue South, said of the man, Steve Stephanides, of Apopka, Fla.

At sunrise last Friday, Mr. Stephanides, 47, and 14 of his co-workers at Beazley, a London-based global insurance firm, started on a popular trail hike to the summit of Mount Shavano, a 14,000-foot peak about 75 miles west of Colorado Springs, Chaffee County Search and Rescue South said in a statement. During the trek, Mr. Stephanides stopped for a break while his co-workers continued on the route, Mr. Brady said.

Sorry, at 14,000 feet if someone needs to take a break, you do not leave them alone.

………

As he tried to find his way to the correct trail on Friday, Mr. Stephanides sent his co-workers at least one more location pin from his phone, but became further disoriented. About 9 p.m., Chaffee County Search and Rescue South was alerted about Mr. Stephanides’s status as a missing hiker and used search teams and a drone pilot to try to find him. Ten local volunteer and professional search teams, as well as helicopters, were deployed to assist.

But rescue efforts were thwarted Friday night because of a “brutal” storm that rolled into the mountain range, Mr. Brady said.“Teams encountered high winds and freezing rain, which made reaching the summit unsafe, and presented many difficulties for the drone operator,” the county’s statement said.

I am by no means a wilderness maven, but even I know that leaving someone alone on a rather tall mountain is a recipe for disaster.

So, for that matter is someone going off on their own in such an area is foolhardy.

Buddy system, folks.

A Little Gem

We are heading up to Rochester, New York, for the SCA event Pax Interruptus.

We're also going to see Sharon's old friends thaad not seen in years.

So about 100 miles (170 km) in, ourz stomachs, as well as a few other organs, demanded a break, and we stopped at a diner that was open, the Liverpool Diner, at 1412 Susquehanna Trail, Liverpool, PA 17045.

The food was good, reasonably priced, and plentiful.

Sharon ordered a Greek salad, and it came with anchovies, which is not something you typically encounter at a random hash house.

Posted via mobile.

Getting Your Historical Freak On

Arabic and Hebrew lettters


Front and back, assembled


Another close up view


This is meticulous and beautiful work


Verifying its authenticityThere are two areas that I find most interesting, linguistic development, because it provides insights in how societies and peoples moved in ways that are far more accurate than the written record, and ancient tools. 

I loves me some ancient tools, and the more precise and more extreme, the better.

Astrolabes fit the bill, and they are also beautiful, even if you don't know how they work.

Cambridge University historian Federica Gigante just verified that an 11th-century astrolabe at the Fondazione Museo Miniscalchi-Erizzo is real.

Kewl:

Cambridge University historian Federica Gigante is an expert on Islamic astrolabes. So naturally she was intrigued when the Fondazione Museo Miniscalchi-Erizzo in Verona, Italy, uploaded an image of just such an astrolabe to its website. The museum thought it might be a fake, but when Gigante visited to see the astrolabe firsthand, she realized it was not only an authentic 11th-century instrument—one of the oldest yet discovered—it had engravings in both Arabic and Hebrew.

“This isn’t just an incredibly rare object. It’s a powerful record of scientific exchange between Arabs, Jews, and Christians over hundreds of years,” Gigante said. “The Verona astrolabe underwent many modifications, additions, and adaptations as it changed hands. At least three separate users felt the need to add translations and corrections to this object, two using Hebrew and one using a Western language.” She described her findings in a new paper published in the journal Nuncius.

As previously reported, astrolabes are actually very ancient instruments—possibly dating as far back as the second century BCE—for determining the time and position of the stars in the sky by measuring a celestial body's altitude above the horizon. Before the emergence of the sextant, astrolabes were mostly used for astronomical and astrological studies, although they also proved useful for navigation on land, as well as for tracking the seasons, tide tables, and time of day. The latter was especially useful for religious functions, such as tracking daily Islamic prayer times, the direction of Mecca, or the feast of Ramadan, among others.

………

The Verona astrolabe is meant for astronomical use, and while it has a mater, a rete, and two plates (one of which is a later replacement), it is missing the alidade. It's also undated, according to Gigante, but she was able to estimate a likely date based on the instrument's design, construction, and calligraphy. She concluded it was Andalusian, dating back to the 11th century when the region was a Muslim-ruled area of Spain.

For instance, one side of the original plate bears an Arabic inscription "for the latitude of Cordoba, 38° 30'," and another Arabic inscription on the other side reads "for the latitude of Toledo, 40°." The second plate (added at some later date) was for North African latitudes, so at some point, the astrolabe might have found its way to Morocco or Egypt. There are engraved lines from Muslim prayers, indicating it was probably originally used for daily prayers.

There is also a signature on the back in Arabic script: "for Isḥāq [...]/the work of Yūnus.” Gigante believes this was added by a later owner. Since the two names translate to Isaac and Jonah, respectively, in English, it's possible that a later owner was an Arab-speaking member of a Sephardi Jewish community. In addition to the Arabic script, Gigante noticed later Hebrew inscriptions translating the Arabic names for certain astrological signs, in keeping with the earliest surviving treatise in Hebrew on astrolabes, written by Abraham Ibn Ezra in Verona in 1146.

“These Hebrew additions and translations suggest that at a certain point the object left Spain or North Africa and circulated amongst the Jewish diaspora community in Italy, where Arabic was not understood, and Hebrew was used instead,” said Gigante. “This object is Islamic, Jewish, and European, they can’t be separated."

They don't make tools like this any more.

Up in Chicopee

Picked up Nat from their position at the Isabella Freeman Center where they were charged with the care and instruction of children with regard to nature and the like.  (This appears to be more difficult than herding cats)

We will be having a day-late Thanksgiving and then head down to a Nest of Pirates.  (Baltimore)

FWIW, in the, "You learn something new every day," category, don't throw squashes into the woods.  It attracts bears.

(No children were harmed, though a shed might have been.)

No Blogging Tonight

Heading up to pick up the Natl-unit from Connecticut.

Will have a delayed Thanksgiving on Friday.

Busy packing.