kochleffel

State says Louisiana family must give up beloved pet nutria

The O'Possum clan is not alone!

The writer Harriette Simpson Arnow had been a teacher in the Kentucky hills, where she boarded with a family. Once the children giggled all through dinner and finally said, "Teacher doesn't know what she's eating!" It was opossum, I mean O'Possum, and the way it had been prepared was similar to the way one of the Michigan churches prepares muskrat. She said that, after all the cleaning and soaking and boiling and frying, it could have been anything.

The muskrat dinners are usually fund-raising events and I guess that enough people attend them to make it worthwhile. In the 17th century, the Bishop of Quebec obtained a ruling that another semi-aquatic mammal, the beaver, could be eaten during lent, and there have been similar rulings about otters and capybaras.

Catholics in at least part of the Archdiocese of Detroit are allowed to eat muskrat on Fridays during Lent, and a few churches hold muskrat dinners: A long-standing permission allows local Catholics to eat muskrat — a furry, marsh-dwelling rodent native to the area — "on days of abstinence, including Fridays of Lent," according to the Archdiocese of Detroit. The custom dates to the region's missionary history in the 1700s and is especially prevalent in communities along the Detroit River. https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2019/04/16/catholics-permitted-eat-muskrat-during-lent/3485498002/ The Bishop of Lansing says that there is no formal permission, only custom, but “anyone who could eat muskrat was doing penance worthy of the greatest of the saints.” https://www.detroitcatholic.com/news/the-history-of-detroit-catholics-muskrat-eating-tradition-and-yes-its-still-a-thing

Oh, please don't tell the Junior Cat about Sasquatch! She is already upset by the report that the DEC is trying to catch a troublesome bear in another suburb. That suburb is all the way across the city, but she is on alert.

No corned beef and cabbage here, but maybe shepherd's pie. I lived for several years in eastern Connecticut and knew submariners from the New London Submarine Base, which is not in New London at all; I officiated once at a wedding in the officers' club on the base. I mentioned recently that my mother had been a Camp Fire Girl. The halibut would be fine with me and the wine might be. I think that the cocktail is named for the Chicago Cubs. My one attempt to visit Japan didn't take place; the itinerary wouldn't have included Kobe or Osaka. I'm not usually up at this hour and I don't want to be--I woke at 4:35 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep.

My favorite way to cook a whole chicken is casserole-roasted, using a variation on the poulet en cocotte recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, but I include carrots, which is very un-French. Excuse me, but a tequila old fashioned is not an old fashioned. I would like the wine. I had trouble sleeping last night, and as the day wore on I started to feel it more and more. I was able to work at home for most of the day but eventually had no mental energy left. We were just talking about buzzards....

My former cats were both black on the upper part and white on the lower, the typical tuxedo pattern; the opposite would be safer for humans sharing the house. The Junior Cat is almost all white except for her tail, which is black. Note that a flashlight is no help at all if you keep your eyes closed.

Oy! I'll be using gift certificates to pay for my next booking, but final payment is not due soon. At the moment it's my only HAL booking.

I lived sort of near Hinckley for a decade or so, but never went there on Buzzard Day.

Buzzards have an important role in nature, but I'm not enthusiastic about the other special days. I also don't much like coconut and think that the cocktail is a waste of good Bourbon--if there's Woodford Reserve I'll have mine with a little spring water. The wine is a bit above my budget, but if you're pouring, please save a glass for me. I'll report from last night that the vegan taco mix wasn't good enough to buy again. The only product of that general type (shelf-stable) that I liked has disappeared from the market and I suspect that the manufacturer has gone out of business. The YKW has stopped and it is sunny but not very warm. I need to get to a grocery store today.

In Chicago, if you order a brandy old fashioned, or brandy and soda, the bartender will assume that you're from Wisconsin and ask if you want cheese with it.

Dinner tonight is apparently going to be roasted potatoes and Brussels sprouts, plus vegan taco mix minus any actual tacos. I suppose it could be made into a very non-paleo meatloaf, if I had the other ingredients needed for meatloaf. YKW has started to fall again. I discovered this when I went out to bring in a delivery of the Junior Cat's wet food (she is finicky about it now) from Wally World.

I think I've mentioned this before, but the one I'd chosen based on reviews went on sale just as I was about to buy. There was one on display, so I got to see it before placing the order.

From another site: Pi day is a made up holiday to sell more math.

I am learning about butterflies and will be planting more host plants for them this spring. I like potato chips a little too much. Pie is probably not on the horizon--I lost 5 pounds during the covid and noro episodes and don't want to regain them. I'll pass on the paleo meatloaf. Paleo as a whole doesn't impress me: it seems to focus too much on meat, while I seem to do better on a varied diet. I'd be pleased to have an Old Fashioned, but I think the flavors blend better when it's made with brandy. Just thinking about the price of the wine makes me dizzy. The forecast was for 4 to 7 inches of YKW but the accumulation so far is just an inch. There could be more during the day. My school district is open but some rural ones are closed or starting late. I started looking for flights back from Fort Lauderdale after the Spanish Farewell. I'll need to fly on Delta where I get a free checked bag, and there are routes via Atlanta, Detroit, and the NYC airports. The Detroit route is the most efficient and least annoying, but the connection time is short and it would probably require changing concourses, so I may choose Atlanta.

I think it's particularly discouraging when it's the doctors who are saying that the treatment isn't warranted. They're not the one with the condition.

It seems almost ghoulish to congratulate someone on qualifying for surgery, but in this case it might be appropriate.

I'll skip all the special days and pass on the meal, as it seems to contain pork. I could tolerate the cocktail but would prefer the wine. I haven't been to New Zealand.

When The Kardashians series started on TV, I asked, "What's a kardashian?"

Why daylight saving time is worse for your body than standard time An animated story of what science says about changing our clocks in the fall and spring https://wapo.st/3yzsAPo

My mother was in Camp Fire, not Girl Scouts. Maybe their country village didn't have both. As a student in Vienna a long time ago I ate Goulasch frequently; it was ubiquitous then because so many of the cooks (in restaurants) were from Hungary, have crossed the border during the 1956 uprising. Goulasch denoted a stew; the soup version was Goulaschsuppe. On my last visit to Vienna, however, I never saw Goulasch anywhere. I will pass on the cocktail but would like the wine, only not with goulash. This morning I taught a Hebrew class over Zoom at 9:30, and after posting this I'm going back to bed--I didn't get to sleep until 3:00 a.m. I take it that those who are posting from Bridgeport are in Barbados, not Connecticut. Actually, members of Congress are proposing that the US use Daylight Saving Time year round. I think that this is a horrible idea; I'd rather stay on Standard Time all year. The original reason for DST was to conserve energy, but with changes in work patterns and the prevalence of air conditioning, it no longer applies.

As a professional religious worker, I have to oppose the worship of tools, but it is OK to be grateful for them. For travel I prefer a small cross-body bag to a fanny pack. I haven't been to Reunion, but I have a story for the garden club. The Bourbon rose originated on Reunion in the 19th century, apparently as a natural hybrid between China or tea roses, which are reblooming but not winter-hardy, and damask roses, which are hardy but not reblooming. Reunion was formerly called the Ile de Bourbon. As Vita Sackville-West put it, "They married in secret." Bourbon roses are very vigorous and free-blooming; they can actually outgrow blackspot; many grow as climbers. They're not suitable for my garden, alas, because most are thornless or nearly so, and deer eat them. The only lasagna I could make at home would have to be vegetarian, because I don't combine meat and dairy foods. The hospital had my lab results ready by last night, and today I also received them by email from my doctor. Everything was in the reference range or very close to it (a few were one point above or below). They included some additional tests to check for liver or kidney impairment from covid; those tests were completely normal. My cholesterol was the lowest it has ever been, and hemoglobin A1C, which I don't think had ever been tested before, was precisely in the middle of the normal range. This is boring for the doctor, but he doesn't object -- unlike the hospitalists when I had surgery for a broken arm, who were bound and determined to diagnose a serious heart problem and grew frustrated and angry when they couldn't find one.