Green Bean Casserole

 A recent racist holiday was just celebrated by most and it helped me recall a true tale that I remember roughly 60-years later, with a smile.

 

The racist holiday – not Independence Day or Columbus Day, not Halloween nor Veteran’s Day – no, it was that gut wringing Thanksgiving Day, which led me to this story.

 

Thanksgiving Day is a well-established holiday celebrated in the United States and Canada.  Its creation was to celebrate harvests of the land since the Protestant migration to the New Land in the early 1600’s

 

President George Washington proclaimed Thanksgiving Day a national holiday in 1789, to be celebrated annually on the last Thursday of November.  And it seems as though some self-anointed among us have been trying to shame the rest of us ever since – hence, the racist reference.  But I digress.

 

I recall our family developing and modifying various traditions for this much anticipated fete over the years.  Of course, the centerpiece of this meal is the turkey, followed by mashed potatoes, gravy, and cranberries.

 

Here’s where the traditional Thanksgiving Day fight begins, though.  My personal family has dressing; it’s a concoction of old, dried bread seasoned-up to taste, to which celery and broth are added.  It’s called “dressing” because it is cooked and served outside of the turkey.

 

Stuffing, on the other hand, is stuffed into the turkey cavity, where it is cooked and from whence it is served.  Although dressing and stuffing appear similar, this where arguments start, but rarely end.

 

Then a traditional classic side dish consisting of green beans, cream of mushroom soup, and crisp fried onions, also makes its appearance on many Thanksgiving tables.  And this is where today’s saga begins.

Typical green bean casserole

 

It was more than six decades ago, when I was a young lad that my Dad had given up on growing grass in a particularly difficult spot in our yard.  This sliver of land received only 11-minutes of sunshine per day, which is why my Dad couldn’t grow grass there.

 

Out of frustration, he “deeded” me this strip of barren mud to with as I pleased.  I had a fleet of Tonka trucks and heavy equipment that could easily make quick work of developing this postage stamp-sized parcel, but I was gravitating toward being a farmer.

 

We were poor and didn’t know it because nobody told us.  Don’t misunderstand – we had shelter, food, warmth, and transportation.  Our clothes were neat and tidy, and we always fit in.  But being a unionized factory worker who was regularly on strike, had its challenges.

 

As a roughly seven-year old, my plan was to help with providing food for the family by growing copious amounts of fresh vegetables for meals.  And what a brilliant plan it was.

 

My Grandmother decided to make my dream come true.  Off we went to Woolworth’s, via city bus, to secure some seeds and a Woolworth’s Lunch Counter banana split.

 

As I recall, seeds were in the nose-bleed price range of 5¢ per package; I bought carrot, corn, and green bean seeds, as an inaugural planting.

 

Being a novice, I was unfamiliar with planting rows of anything, so my carrots closely resembled a Picasso painting.  Still, after some friendly advice from kin, I later used string as a guide to secure a more orderly path for the green beans to follow, as I did with the corn.

 

Each day I diligently checked on the progress of ‘north forty,’ while I conscientiously watered and weeded.

 

There’s an old adage about learning from ones mistakes; that’s because if we are successful, we make no improvements, even though there may be plenty of room for them.

 

It seems a though I was soon flush with wisdom.

 

That “free” land from my Dad was free because the 11-minutes of daylight it received precluded any use other than a rock garden.  The soil wasn’t properly worked beforehand, and those nasty city squirrels kept digging up – and eating – my corn.  Alas.

 

Eventually THE day came when I carefully picked the carrots which were the size of skinny toothpicks, I believe I pulled any remainder of the yellow corn crop up as a misidentification as weeds, and systematically removed all the green beans, placing them into a colander for immediate preparation.

 

There’s a Bible story about Jesus feeding a multitude of hungry fishermen and their families by multiplying loaves of bread and freshly caught fish. 

 

Our dinner that night amazed even me.  A large bowl chock full of green beans became the star of the meal.  And accolades flowed freely from everyone seated at this banquet.  I later realized that the green bean harvest was secretly augmented by my parents as well as my Grandmother.  still, we all kept mum.

 

This agricultural experiment began in earnest and ended with a Thanksgiving-style feast which all enjoyed.

 

Memories of others attending our special non-thanksgiving Thanksgiving have faded or simply passed away.  But my memory remains, begging for its place in history.  And now you know why I selected my future career.

 

And no, it wasn’t farming.

Random Thoughts 11

 Be prepared for one more iteration of Random Thoughts, this time both gluten-free and free-range.  Please enjoy the ride.  By the way, Smokey the Cat contributed to this posting.

 

• Why did it take a nation chock full o’ lawyers 49-years to realize the word “abortion” does not appear in the U.S. Constitution?
• Let’s wager on AG Merrick Garland investigating Hunter and Joseph Biden
• Paul Pelosi luckily just purchased $1,000,000’s in semi-conductor stock manufacturers, just ahead of a guvment contract vote without inside info
• Let’s train prisoners to make boots for our troops rather than us buy them from China
• Heck, let them make everything we buy from China
• Arrest Nancy Pelosi, Liz Cheney, Adam Schiff, and the other liars for insurrection
• I hope Mayor Pete Buttigieg is doing well after his birth of twins
• And Lia Thomas has been nominated for the NCAA Woman of the Year – yea!
• Why is Newsmax trying to commit suicide?
•  Fox News is now shunning Donald Trump, too
•  I’ve got my fingers crossed that the environmentalists can stop hurricanes and tornadoes
• But what if they can’t, after spending trillions of dollars on altering the weather?
• Who owns the manufacturing of those rechargeable EV batteries?
• Cheap bologna now costs $6/pound
• A 28-ounce can of Dunkin’ Donuts ground coffee is selling for $22!
• The White House should be shuttered in hopes the lying stops
• Why is Monkeypox now an official pandemic?
• Is Mayor Pete still lactating?
• Speaking of which, where’s all the baby formula?
• Someone should check Janet Yellen’s pulse
• An electric vehicle for $70,000 without a complex internal combustion engine is sinful
• Are we still listening to the criminal thugs about defunding the police?
• How come those pro-baby murderers could locate the word “abortion” in the Constitution, but not the words “Keep and bear Arms”?
• I just witnessed Hurricane Ian devastate Florida, Georgia, S. Carolina, and N. Carolina; how is that costly climate change thingy working out?
• If cows are responsible for methane flatulence, why is nothing being done about MSNBC’s gasbag, Joy Reid?
• I wish had my old Frye Boots from my college days
• Karine Jean-Pierre can’t possibly be getting paid for acting as the White House Spokesliar
• Mimes are still the worst
• The Biden Organized Crime Family is a close second, though
• I think the racehorse, Pay Chester, just crossed the finish line; he started the race in 1973.
• Taylor Swift is really whiny
• Gisele Bundchen: Gimme a call
• And Brittney Griner won’t be packing any more drugs to Russia again, I bet
• What kind of nonsense is The White House going to lie about this week?
• I just got a full tank of gas for $22!  Of course it was for my lawnmower
• What a strange day…first I found a hat full of money.  Then I was chased by an angry man with a guitar
• I hate when people act all intellectual and talk about Mozart while they’ve never seen one of his paintings
• I don’t think a therapist is supposed to say “Wow,” that many times in your first session
• And lastly, the people who think men can get pregnant are suddenly worried about misinformation on Twitter.  Ah, yes.

Please print and save for future adventures with us.  Thank you!

 

Let Them Go Hungry

 Here’s some special anniversary news: It’s been about ten years since we heard about someone named Jack Phillips.

 

You may, or may not, know Phillips by name.  If you’re thinking, “Yeah, I recognize that name…he was played by Tom Hanks in the modern day pirate movie, Captain Phillips.”

 

Great guess!  But you’re wrong.  Hanks portrayed Captain Richard Phillips in the aforementioned flick.

 

Today’s Phillips – Jack, in particular, is a Christian baker.

 

To recap, Jack Phillips is a Colorado baker who is also a celebrity because a decade ago he became embroiled in a situation where he declined to make a cake for a same-sex wedding.  He merely invoked his Constitutional right to freedom of speech, and was taken to court.

 

Before you jump ahead, Phillips is not discriminating because he, too, has protections – against harassment, in this case.  Phillips’ bakery, Masterpiece Cakeshop, in Colorado, is not the only bakery in Colorado, making this situation suspect.

 

A legal counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom “argued that the district court erred in its June 2021 ruling that Mr. Phillips violated the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act,” according to The Washington Times.

 

Not a true likeness, but a beautiful cake

Here’s the stroke of luck: “’On the same day that the Supreme Court decided to hear Phillips’ first case, plaintiff called Phillips’ shop and asked for a custom blue and pink cake to celebrate a gender transition,’ Mr. Warner told the three-judge panel.”

 

Clearly the Alliance Defending Freedom doesn’t own a calendar, otherwise their repeated dogging Phillips would seem to be a case of pestering at the very least.

 

Here’s the rub.  Phillips is a Christian who maintains certain personal values about gender relations and the way they affect his religious beliefs.  The in this particular instance, Phillips appears to be targeted by people whose beliefs are not in sync with his.

 

Rather than let the proverbial “sleeping dogs lie,” the Alliance appears intent on rubbing Phillips’ nose in his earlier court victory. 

 

And rather than finding another, more amenable bakery that is sympathetic to the gender and sexually-oriented legal gymnastics, Warner and the Alliance seem to make their goal to punish Phillips for the way he follows his religious tenets and beliefs.

 

Bankrupting a legitimate business, such as Masterpiece Cakeshop, would probably delight the people whose thoughts and actions differ widely from others, are now seen as enemies to be defeated and summarily punished.

 

This same school of thought is woven into the texture of social media, schools, and even some ultra-liberal religions, all of whom attempt to cater to the non-conformists and misfits in today’s culture.

 

Much like Jack Phillips has thoughts and beliefs that are his – and perhaps his, alone – other machinations of society are actively using these same sordid tactics to silence and sway the balance of civilization, without the benefit of honest thought or discussion.

 

Take the climate change crowd, for example.  Since the early 1970’s, a wide variety of thoughts, ideas, and notions, have peppered media, eventually finding their way into schools.  There, those premises eventually solidified into official classes, eventually culminating in actual areas of study, and finally, degrees.

 

Large corporations with seemingly endless purses politely hired people with burning desires to “save the planet,” “keep humanity alive,” and “protect Mother Earth.”

 

Based on now-questionable computer data, long-since “established” regulations, statutes, and legislation, have been passed and implemented, all in the name of “science.”

 

Unfortunately, not everyone living on Mother Earth’s epidermal believes our planet is in peril.  Still, something called “group think” has summarily taken over the psyches of much of Earth’s population.

 

Group think, by its very definition, discourages creativity and individual responsibility. Unfortunately, those limitations present speed bumps to effecting science and facts.

 

Scientists who were driving the climate train since its inception are now jumping off because of the copious amounts of “corrections” in the science that contradicts long-held climate change studies.  It should be noted that Al Gore was a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2007, because of his work on this now-flawed study.

 

Still, disbelievers and non-believers, alike, are publicly chastised and ridiculed for not adhering to the half- and non-truths presented as facts.  Period.

 

Social media sites and even banks are suddenly punishing users for not adhering to the contrived climate-related data.  Yes, banks are engaging in what is called “ethical banking” and “ethical savings accounts,” to better serve the world.  Sure.

 

Just as with Jack Phillips and his beliefs of surgery to permanently alter the sex of people, or merely foisting their personal beliefs upon total strangers for some reason that’s unknown to me, is akin to the religion of climate change that has found its way into a once free culture.

 

And that sort of false god or idol is something that will have to be dealt with in the afterlife with someone way beyond my pay grade.  Enjoy your self aggrandizing while you still can.

Fish Shooting

 
Just as with most people, I enjoy an occasionally simple day tackling world issues, as well as those that directly affect me.  And today is one of those days.

 

Midterm elections are officially held tomorrow, November 8^th, 2022.  At stake are a few consequential issues that can, and will, influence the direction of America, for Americans as well as the rest of the world.

 

Although we know Election Day is established as 11/8/2022, countless people have already cast their ballots – some at least six-weeks ago – according to their particular jurisdictions.  That can be troubling.

 

Several races in different states have been contentious and have been clearly guided toward The Left by both the politicians and media, alike.

 

Not unlike the way the media has been regularly ignoring the facts of life, they are still cherry-picking stories and half-truths that continue to shape our nation’s policies of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

 

Contrived news articles from half-baked authors clearly influence teachers, schools, and subsequently students – for better or worse; today, teachers at all academic levels are stuffing lies into impressionable student minds, with impunity; and tomorrow looks equally bleak due to libraries salted with sexually explicit content that would make a sailor blush.

 

But here we are.  What can we do to separate fact from fiction, in order to formulate an informed voting decision?  Turn to late night TV for an embarrassing guide to American politics.  Oh, my.

 

One host, Stephen Colbert, has been the standard unfunny emcee of American and Conservative-hating media, regularly cheered on by equally clueless audience members.

 

Colbert, who made headlines in November 2020, over the last Presidential Election, was repeatedly reported as fighting “tears while eviscerating Trump’s Election Lies.”

 

This overly emotional Democratic Party shill has been carrying their water for years under the guise of comedy.  Too bad it is not funny.

 

Claiming “democracy” is being threatened, Colbert recently crawled out from under his rock in an attempt to sully other currently running Republicans.  He has touted false narratives of stories from strong, female Republican candidates, only to be exposed as being a liar, himself.  My bet is that his show will soon be canceled out of mercy.

 

Not to be outdone in the please-look-at-me category, Barack Hussein Obama, William Jefferson Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Kamala Harris, are all burning those irreplaceable fossil fuels, traveling hither and yon, to stump for desperate in-trouble Democrats.

 

But it seems as though the long-term voting span has created a somewhat perplexing situation for those early voters; unfortunately, new information has been popping up like the proverbial turd-in-the-punchbowl, leaving those eager beaver voters with little recourse.

 

One race in particular is in Pennsylvania. There’re voting on a U.S. Senate seat between John Fetterman, current Lieutenant Guvnor, and Dr. Mehmet Oz, a well-known television personality.  But there’s a glitch in this contest.

 

Fetterman suffered a stroke earlier this year, and is now trying to straddle the line of being disabled, and able, simultaneously.  Of course the media is leading the march to publicly shame anyone who criticizes Fetterman.

 

However, Fetterman needed no help proving he is currently incapable of serving mashed potatoes, much less serving as a U.S. Senator.  A one-and-done “debate” between Fetterman and Oz proved what many viewers suspected the results would be: a catastrophe.  Still, the fix is in.

 

President Biden has been taking his amusing show on the road to get credit for his accomplishments: the economy, border, gasoline prices, supply chain, foreign relations, inflation, world peace, and racial harmony, are just a few of his braggings.

 

Throughout his public appearances he regularly stutters, stammers, slurs his speech, and fabricates his words, all while wearing a distressed look that often switches to anger.  Yet, he rarely tells the truth.  Alas.

 

On the other hand, Republicans – many of whom ignored and disrespected President Donald J. Trump, during his term – still seem to anticipate a good fight to lose this “gimme” election.

 

All this comes at a time when the idiom “Shooting fish in a barrel,” should ring true.

Shooting fish in a barrel refers to a ridiculously easy task for which there should be no chance of failure.

 

Long known as being gifted for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, Republicans commonly switch between being frightened and hapless.  Like a baby’s diaper, politicians need to be changed regularly because they eventually stink as they are full of poop.

 

Let’s hope Conservatives grow a spine and begin fish shooting.  It’s about time.