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It just seemed a bit much this year.  It’s not the high cost of beef.  I’ve got a 4 pound brisket in the freezer.  We’re nearing our limits again on available refrigerator space for leftovers.  I was drawn to another of my favorites.  Didn’t have any pie for pi day yesterday, so maybe this dishContinue reading “Éirinn go Brách”

Today, March 10th, marks the second anniversary of the report of the first 2 COVID cases in Michigan (1).  In response, our Gov. Bimbo – a.k.a. “That Woman from Michigan” (2), Gretchen (half) Whitmer of the plastic face and the 40Cs – declared a State of Emergency.  Within a week, she urged social distancing andContinue reading “burn on II”

This is about a family event that happened 2 and a half weeks ago. Since the event was a Christmas celebration occurring 8 weeks after Christmas, what’s a little further delay? Dateline Onstead, MI (pop’n 1,132): Cowboy Creek Lodge 40 or so of the spawn of my late bio–Dad Dick Spei plus their spouses haveContinue reading “Chimney!”

John Phillip Sousa – the March King – died 90 years ago Sunday March 6th in Reading Pennsylvania.  He was 77.  His prodigious output – 134 marches, 690 total recordings in an era spanning a time when placing a needle on a wax cylinder was considered an advance (1)  – included some songs about Michigan.Continue reading “Hail Sousa! Hail Elbel?”

Is that horse dead yet? (1) Reference Flam F. Mask mandates didn’t make much difference, anyway. Washington Post February 11, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/mask-mandates-didnt-make-much-of-a-difference-anyway/2022/02/11/57760db6-8b3b-11ec-838f-0cfdf69cce3c_story.html P.S. My sweetheart sent this pic to remind me there are indeed effective anti-viral masks

When I hinted to my wife I was thinking of publishing a 5th volume of Musings devoted to food, she asked “is explodey soup in there?”.  A legendary entry in our family’s food lore, I never had occasion to blog about it.  I explained it to my English teacher Mrs. Pharriss, but not every exchangeContinue reading “explodey!”

Today was the day to make kitchen sink soup.  Everyone has a recipe, and they’re all just loose suggestions.  Whatever is laying around neglected and unused is a candidate for the pot.  That savoy cabbage I bought for the colcannon I made for Imbolc was great, but what to do with the rest of it? Continue reading “kitchen sink”

Here in Michigan, our quaint local tradition for this time of year has been “delayed”. Because of the weather! Isn’t this exercise supposed to be all about weather? It inspired me to fire off an e-mail to my Vicksburg buds. So our own (Howell’s) Woody the Woodchuck was to venture out yesterday, survey the presenceContinue reading “don’t screw with my groundhog”

My love for posters, like many of my degenerate tendencies, started in college.  Every bookstore and headshop sold them – cheap – and what a way to cover up a blank boring wall.  Each was a form of self expression, as you could announce your musical likes, political tendencies, sexual attractions, or just general coolness,Continue reading “posters”

Some readers of this blog may have picked up by now my deathless devotion to that 70s band out of Ann Arbor, Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen.  Has any band had a wilder name?  And, I submit, no band was more fun.  In my life, I’ve never had more fun than what IContinue reading “CC&hLPA!”