salmon and cream cheese

Ever since I was introduced to a bagel with lox and cream cheese, I have been a fan of the combination.  In some places, you can buy a premixed product from Philadelphia, but not here in Little Rock.  So I played around with it and came up with a recipe that seems to do the trick.  Oh yes, good bagels are very thin on the ground here too.  Nothing to do about that.

Ingredients:
3 oz. smoked salmon
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1 12 oz. tub Philadelphia cream cheese

Instructions:
     Mince the salmon together with the chopped green onions.
     Mix the salmon and cream cheese together thoroughly.  Chill.

Pretty simple.  The secret is to mince the salmon very fine so it mixes with the onion and then the cream cheese.  I like it.

The Strange Ones

Working at the River Market in Little Rock, you run into characters.   Some are rather fun; others you wonder if they should be out on their own.  But then there are the tragic, strange ones.

Some of the fun characters have been the mime who situated himself in white face on a raised platform and scared the heck out of passers-by who weren't paying attention.  There are the dog lovers who take (or carry) their furry friends to market.  Almost all of these canines are delightful and well behaved.  At least one of the Master Gardeners who work with me at our clinic can not resist coming out and kissing the nicest of these.

Of course, the children are fun to watch too.  In the rain, they stomp through the puddles or jump into the middle of them.   They drop leaves or pieces of paper into the flowing puddles and follow their makeshift boats to the sewer drains.  The goggle at the large fruits or relax patiently in their strollers as their parents shop and pass time with friends.  The walking littles are sometimes not so patient; and that's amusing too.

We have our share of musicians who stake out approved corners.  They play their different tunes.  One couple plays excellent island music.  They appear too seldom for my taste.  But there are other farmer's markets and venues for them to play.  There is a family group (young girls) who play a variety of instruments.  They play them very well and their repertoire is very much to my taste.  Yesterday, a lone folk singer with guitar was at our corner.   She used no amplification so most of what she sang was inaudible to us.  Occasionally, a lone music student will stand with open instrument case, playing exercises, usually not well.  Happily, these don't last long.

We have our share of petition signature petitioners.  But they usually haunt the center of the Market, where they can waylay more people.   They petition for everything from statewide prohibition to medical marijuana or casino gambling.  If I can get away from the clinic, it's fun to listen to their spiels.  Most of them are quite sincere, but there are a few who obviously are reciting from a script.

A recent, welcome addition to the Market is a stall at which restaurant chefs can strut their stuff and give out free samples.  These are mostly made from the things they buy at the River Market.  Most of the time they are delicious.  But I have to skip all the sweets because of my diabetes.

Itinerant preachers occasionally wander through, handing out tracts.  Sometimes they are pathetically happy to stop for a while and talk about Jesus or whatever.   Because of our geographic location, it's mostly Jesus.

Then there are the sad ones.  The first one I met had been with the Fourth Infantry Division and in Vietnam at the same time I was.   He was suffering from PTSD and the stall keepers had been feeding him for weeks before we met.  It had been twenty years.  His health had deteriorated seriously and his mental state was slightly confused.  My coworkers and I did our best for him until I made the mistake of mentioning that I could get his records straightened out at the VA and get him some medical care.  He spooked.  The next time we held the clinic, one of the other homeless guys told me that he had left town, afraid that if the VA got ahold of him, he would be institutionalized.

Yesterday, we were approached by a normal looking man.   He wanted to talk about a horrendous accident he'd had and how his faith had pulled him through.  He maundered on for about half an hour and when we had to pack up, he latched onto one of our members.  Her husband was meeting her, so she stayed out in the open and listened while I shopped for veggies.   When I returned, he had left.

I've also run into a nice, talkative guy who, from the gossip used to be a music producer.  According to the story one of the club managers told me, he had been mugged, hit in the head and not been right since.  But he is a sweet tempered guy with lots of great stories to tell.  Apparently, he still has an apartment in downtown and someone to look after him.

These people are the forgotten.  I can not forget them.

I might post some photos one of these days.

My First Robot

     What you see is a Neeto robotic vacuum cleaner.  In this photo, it is vacuuming our bedroom floor.

     We are having an interesting, learning relationship.  I watch as its tiny brain navigates (sort-of) around the house.  I regularly have to free it from areas where it gets stuck; or if it just runs short of power, move it back to its charging station.

     From the instruction manual, I expected it to move in a logical pattern around each room.  It doesn't.  I fear that the minuscule capacity of its processors and memory are not up to that kind of effort.  Happily, I do not have to watch continuously.  If it has a problem, it "politely" rings a bell and squeaks to alert me to its difficulty.

     The cats seem more at ease with it than a larger, noisier vacuum.  In fact this morning, it had to nudge one to get it out of the way.

     It's a long way from "I ROBOT".

We grow too soon

     In case you're wondering, the title is from an old Pennsylvania Dutch saying: "Ve grow too soon oldt undt too late schmart."  Translation: We get old too soon and smart too late.  Yah!

     In the case of this quote, I am altogether in agreement.  I learned far too late to do me any good several things about making girls interested.  This short blog comprises two of them.

     Thing the first: babies are CHICK MAGNETS!  It's true.  Holding a small child in your arms or merely looking after it in the lobby of a busy hotel will pull just about any woman over 20 over to admire the child and its antics.  Too late!!  I learned this only when I became a grandfather.

     Thing the second:  Using a good line from Jane Austen's novels will win long conversations with well read, young women.  Again too late, far too late, I must add.  I learned this only this morning when two very attractive young women sat near me in a coffee shop.  Looking at them, I was struck by their eyes.  Both had nicely shaped eyes of a pleasant color.

     When I quoted Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice, they were delighted and spent the rest of their time in the shop chatting with me about their love of reading, their jobs and other things.  Would that I had understood this fifty years ago.  Again, too darned late.

     Thing the third: Women like to hear about themselves.  Before I was married, I spent most of my time with women either showing off, bragging or trying to get them into bed.  I believe that if I had talked about my dates to them and more importantly listened, I would have had more fun, gotten more second dates and (possibly) even gotten laid a time or two.

     Oh well.  I guess it's better late than never.  I still enjoy the company of women.  When they are young and pleasant to look at, I enjoy even more.  But it is W A Y to late to take them to a drive in movie and neck frantically through the feature.

     Like I said at the beginning, too soon oldt und too late schmart!!!

"Austenland" by Shannon Hale

          We are talking about one of the best novels I have read in years.
          Shannon Hale has combined the best parts of a Jane Austen novel, a modern romance, a comedy and a mystery.  What am I saying?  Austen did these things with her writing.  This goes from the nineteenth century to the twenty-first.  I do not believe that the reader has to be a fan of Austen's writing or the delightful films made from them to appreciate "AUSTENLAND", but it will definitely help to review some or all of the above.

          Shannon Hale has put a marvelous fantasy together.  Her characters develop as the story moves along.  Jane, her main character grows both through the story line and by the insertion of brief stories about her various, unsuccessful loves.

          Briefly, the story concerns Jane Hayes and her visit to Pembrook Park.  Jane is a moderately successful graphic artist in New York.  Pembrook Park is one of England's stately houses that has been turned into a vacation park for people, mostly middle aged married women, who want to relive a regency romance.  The non-vactioners, from the gardeners to the gentry, are all actors.  The gentlemen are in sufficient number to pair up with the vacationing ladies.

          The pairing is one of the first mysteries.  But some of the actors seem to jump outside their roles and romance the ladies for real...  Or do they?  The second mystery.

          Ms. Hale gives a delightful interplay between modern and old; acting and real; fantasy and the world.  Each major character moves delicately among these and among their memories and the present.  The tracery moves the reader through an intricate minuet.  It is a joy.

Renovation (the World Science Fiction Convention) update #1

     This is the staff pin for Renovation, the 2011 world science fiction convention.  We are in beautiful Reno, Nevada.  The pin features the convention logo and is, presently, the only con photo I have loaded on my computer.

     I turned a 3 day drive into a little over a week by routing myself through St. Louis, Denver and several national parks.  It was a long, lovely drive.  But the Arapaho National Park was very dry.  Many of the pines had died.  I suspect that the pine borer beetle that killed so many trees in New Mexico is the culprit.

     This is the second official day of the con.  Of course, the people who are responsible for smooth running of events and stage management or just organizing their staff have been working since Sunday.

     My staff is slowly trickling in.  Last night, there were just two volunteers on duty.  We did party patrol, but had to close the office earlier than we wanted.  Of course there was a problem while we were out, checking functions.  My boss was called in at 0200 this morning.  She did not appreciate having to open our office and hang out until the problem was solved.

     As I said, folk are beginning to volunteer.  Next post will have more pictures.

Libya: Does anyone get the message?

The more I hear our president speak about this situation, the less I think he understands.  Certainly the talking heads of the media are demonstrating huge naivete about what is going on.  So let me say a few things from an ex-soldier's point of view.

Currently, the resistance to the rule of Colonel Gaddafi appears to be a rabble with rifles.  The on-the-ground reporters seem surprised that Gaddafi's forces push them back when they wish.  The resistance consists of men who are armed mostly with rifles and rocket propelled grenades (RPGs).  These are good weapons against conventional infantry.  It appears they also have some anti-aircraft (AA) guns and machine guns.  These are obsolete.  Against a modern fighter jet, they are usually ineffective.  I'll go into the reasons for that later.

Gaddafi's forces are trained infantry, artillery and armor.  Aircraft, for the most part, are denied the battle field due to the NATO "no-fly" zone.  These forces are accustomed to working together.  They appear to have good communications.  It has been demonstrated that they know how to aim and use their weapons and to act as a team.

It would seem that there is an idea out there to level the battle ground by giving advanced weaponry to the resistance.  In the old days, such an idea might have had merit.  But there is a LOT more to firing a modern artillery piece than just shoving a shell in the breach and pulling the lanyard.  To be fair, that is basically what is done.  The trick is to do so in such a way that the projectile lands where the firing team wants it to.  That takes experts who can calculate the proper direction of fire (azimuth) the elevation of the barrel and the charge behind the projectile.  Firing artillery effectively takes a team, one that knows the current position of the target, its speed and direction.  Remember that tanks and the like don't just sit still and wait for someone to shoot them.

The resistance lacks teamwork.  They lack communications, command and control (C3).    Without these, even well trained soldiers are not as effective as those with it.  That is why during Operation Desert Storm, the allies first hit Iraqi communication centers and, of course radar.   Those things tell soldiers where the enemy is and which way to go to hit him.  The resistance lacks discipline and leadership.  Even our Department of State is not completely sure who they need to talk to in order to negotiate and work out aid programs.

Machine guns and AA canon usually can't hit modern aircraft.  Even as far back as WWII, gunners had trouble hitting aircraft, even the ones that were flying down their throats.  Hitting a moving object with a gun requires the gunner to lead it and fire at where the craft will be when his bullet or shell reaches the area.  Anyone who has played shotgun games like trap or skeet can tell you that it looks easier than it is.  The clay targets that are used in shotgun games don't shoot back or drop bombs on the shooters.  Going back to WWII, thousands of rounds were expended for each hit on a plane.  Those rounds were being fired by men who were trained in that type of marksmanship.  That training takes time, more time that it appears the resistance has.

I do not believe that NATO forces should be the ones training the Libyan resistance.  Countries in the Mid East that have stated sympathy for them are the logical ones to supply arms and training.  They have more at stake.  Their soldiers share a common language with the Libyans.  Supply lines from Saudi Arabia or Egypt or Jordan are much shorter.  If Arab states supply the arms, training and leadership, there can be no accusations that the US, UK or other NATO countries are meddling in Islamic affairs.  A stable Libya is of significant importance to its neighbors.  The countries surrounding Libya have a better understanding of the psychology and politics of that country.  Their intelligence services probably know the players better than we do.

Let's face it.  The United States and NATO simply can not afford the monetary cost of another war.