Category Archives: Uncategorized

I today brought home from Staples some paper copies of the second edition of my first little book The Accident so I could have some for the Kindle-less.  They look great but lack one functionality of a Kindle, the ability to access any link.  There are only four links in the book, two to songsContinue reading “more links”

You really have no right to write about how great a party was unless you’ve got a good hangover from it.  I had that thought as I dragged myself out of bed this morning.  With that biologic memory of last night’s blowout fading as we crept into Saturday afternoon, I figured I better get crackingContinue reading “Wasn’t that a party?!”

Kathy and I have decided to celebrate Bastille day by making some genuine French fries, even though we knew they were mainly a Belgian thing, or maybe not https://delishably.com/vegetable-dishes/Is-it-French-Fries-or-Belgian-Frites.   We acquired the genuine McDonald’s recipe https://www.food.com/recipe/mc-donalds-classic’french-fries-copycat-433745, and had the necessary beef tallow on hand (secret ingredient) https://wordpress.com/post/theviewfromharbal.com/1384.  Prior to 1990, all McDonald’s  fries were friedContinue reading “want fries with that?”

Are you spooked by this yet another new strain of COVID?  Don’t be.  When I first wrote about 2019-nCoVBetaCoV/Wuhan/WIVo4/2019 (Mr. Corona’s full name) back on March 13, 2020, just as things were starting to heat up (1), I mentioned that the little sucker mutates like a mink.  The error rate in reading coronavirus RNA isContinue reading “delta schmelta”

So what’s in those books I plugged recently? I thought I might clarify things by posting the forward that’s in each volume. Musing through a pandemic.  A year and a half with Mr. Corona. How did this all start?  There I was, 6 months into a forced retirement and finally shaking the bitterness while beginningContinue reading “a follow up on those shameless plugs”

Last month, I finally got around to reviewing and organizing the 170 odd posts I’d put up since starting this blog in January 2020. I thought that they might make up a book, strung around the theme of living through this pandemic. When I started, Mr. Corona was just making his way over from WuhanContinue reading “more shameless plugs”

I made a shameless plug a month ago for my second book https://wordpress.com/post/theviewfromharbal.com/1606, this one about the funnest band ever- Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen – and all the good times they and their alumni have provided me over the past 50 plus years. It was too slim a volume for Mr. BezosContinue reading “links”

We were hanging this evening listening to Spotify Louis Prima channel, a pretty fun and lively place.  A song came up, say that’s my theme song!  At least for my kitchen.  You denizens of this blog will notice that I like to punctuate my posts with a tune.  None of my kitchen and food postsContinue reading “when they come to my house”

Growing up, I don’t recall paying much attention to the fleshy, edible stalks (petioles) of species and hybrids (culinary rhubarb) of Rheum in the family Polygonaceae, which are cooked and used for food.  I recall my older relatives swooning over rhubarb pie once it came in season, but I don’t recall them offering me a taste.  Maybe theyContinue reading “rhubarb!”

Julia Child has a wonderful simple sauce recipe for any kind of berries.  But a key ingredient is sugar, which the missus abhors since going on keto.  We’ve adapted our strawberry shortcake recipe, so we decided to do the same with the current crop of berries. We had some fading strawberries plus some prime newContinue reading “sauce”