How To Survive The Apocalypse:An Entertainment

Don't want to grow radishes and ride a bicycle?
The always wicked Jason Linkins has some better ideas than the Tea Party crowd.
Hint: You'll need lots of pockets, of course.

Open Invitation To Esperanza Spalding

There is a place reserved for you among the honored Contrariennes Emerita.

Hunter S. Thompson Lives

It just dawned on me that Matt Taibbi, who's been lashing Goldman Sachs for months in Rolling Stone, writes things like "“The great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity” all the time.
I kinda like that. Especially today. GS goin' down? Who can say.

The Fun Begins

"Ms. Kagan, are you now or have you ever been a member of the Lesbianist Party?"

Just In Case You Hadn't Noticed

Commenter Hussein over at TPM sums up:

wow - what a couple of weeks - Obama negotiates a nuclear agreement with Russia, gets China to join sanctions on Iran, and the Justice Dept. indicts BOTH Goldman Sachs and Blackwater!

Word O' Teh Day: Phallophanies

Say it with me — phallophanies!

Guess What?

According to Stat Counter, the Rethinking Elena Kagan got a visit from the Executive Office of the President. I am stunned. Administrator of the Courts, too. Of course, they're searching for anything with Kagan's name and probably nobody read Contrarienne, but still. I love the intertubes.

Friviality Friday

The iPad is just a very pricey cat toy. Who knew? Dogs know.

Dog Sledding

River and Trout in Sugarbush, Vermont

Eww O' Teh Day

Oh goody, a new leech.

The creature lives in the remote parts of the Upper Amazon and has a "particularly unpleasant habit of infesting humans", the scientists say.
Studies also revealed that it had "a preference for living up noses".

FOX News: Go Directly To Jail

Bet You Didn't Know

John Quincy Adams (to whom I am said to be related) is Tweeting. Follow here.http://twitter.com/JQAdams_MHS

No Comment Necessary

YouTube found this for me. Thank you, YouTube.

Is America A Great Country or What?

Apparently you can buy a false penis that pisses clean urine for those with that particularly weird sexual practice in mind, or fool a drug test, whichever comes first. Refills available.

The Whizzinator retails for $139.95. And the strangest thing about the marketing here? It is available in white, brown, black, tan and “Latino.”

Rethinking Elena Kagan

From The Economist, this.

If You Haven't Seen Mad Men

this should tell you all you need to know. If you have, this should see you through until the new season.


Word is Sara Benincasa does a mean Sarah Palin, too. Check her out here. Who says comedy is dead?

Damn!

The porn star isn't going to run for office after all.

Last week, for example, she officially declared herself to be a Republican -- saying that the party had swayed her with the RNC's spending of $2,000 at a bondage-themed night club in West Hollywood.

Zsa Zsa Gabor Is Still Alive?

Yes, but expected to die this year, along with 49 others on the official Death List, which contains a lot of Brits you never heard of and don't care about. Still, it's something. Or not.

Laughed Til I Cried

Quote O' Teh Day

From Taplin:

The Republicans have decided that their strategy on health care reform was so successful, they are going to double-down on Financial reform

Kagan For Supreme Court

I want this to happen, especially after reading this excellent profile.
Tidbit:

Two weeks ago, Solicitor General Elena Kaganm a leading contender for appointment to the Supreme Court, presented her sixth argument there. She bantered easily with the justices, and she seemed to have a special rapport with Justice Antonin Scalia, at one point responding to a question from him with one of her own.
Justice Scalia’s reply suggested she had crossed a line. “Well, I’m not making the argument,” he said, declining to answer her question.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who has had some testy exchanges with Ms. Kagan over the last seven months, made the point more sharply.
“Usually we have the questions the other way,” he said.
“I apologize,” Ms. Kagan replied.

Well, also, Thurgood Marshall used to call her Shorty. There's that.

Nastiest Restaurant Review I've Ever Read

So nasty, in fact, it sounds truthful.
Nello (I've actually heard of it, though not that the food is terrible), from the NYT.
Tidbit:

During the day, the crowd is women who shop and women who dress like their daughters and men who meet them for lunch. There are air kisses and the tinkle of tennis bracelets against wine glasses.

Tax Advice For The Tardy

Health Care Reform Summary

A pretty good one recommended by a Kos diarist is available here from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Done Your Taxes Yet?

Heed this timely warning.

Kissinger: Still A War Criminal

or is it, again a war criminal?

Bob Dylan on NOLA

"There are a lot of places I like, but I like New Orleans better...Everything in New Orleans is a good idea...In a lot of places you have to change with the times, it's not necessary here."

Bob Dylan, Chronicles (written pre-Katrina)

You Know It's A Good Day...

When while cleaning out the secondary silverware drawer, you find your 40-plus-year-old cream cheese pastry recipe. I swear to goddess, it's the best. Like buttah, only bettah, Sweetie.

Uh, okay, all the little tidbits to make with it, but no basic recipe. So I found what looks right on Cooks.com.

My recall is that this pastry needs to be chilled at least two hours before working with it, then the more folding and rolling you do, the more flaky layers there are, unlike regular pie crust, which becomes tough with too much handling.

Anyhoo, Sugar

Cream Cheese Pastry

1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
□   1 c. butter, softened
□   2 c. flour
□   3/4 tsp. salt

Combine cream cheese and butter. Mix until well blended. Add flour and salt; mix well. Form into a ball; chill. Divide dough in half. On lightly floured surface, roll out each half to a 12" circle. Place in 2 (9") pie plates, trim and flute edges. Prick bottom and sides with fork. Bake at 450 degrees for 12 minutes or until golden brown.

Sausage Rollups

Make and chill pastry dough.

Simmer 2 doz. small link sausages in a few tablespoons cold water 4-5 min.
Drain, brown lightly.
Cool and cut into bite-sized pieces, about 1 1/2 ".
Divide chilled pastry in four pieces, roll each 1/8 inch thick. Cut in small rectangles just big enough to wratp sausage pieces (2" X 2 1/2" is about right).
Moisten one edge, roll up pastry around sausage, press edge to seal and pinch dough at ends. Place seam side down, on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in moderate oven (375F) 15-20 min. Makes about two doz.

And just because I love ya, I also looked up the other long-lost favorite, Dill-Cottage Cheese Batter Bread.

DILLY CASSEROLE BREAD

Printed from COOKS.COM

---

□   2 - 2 1/4 c. unsifted flour
□   2 tbsp. sugar
□   1 tsp. salt
□   1 tbsp. instant minced onion (optional)
□   2 tsp. dill seed
□   1 tbsp. dill weed
□   1/4 tsp. baking soda
□   1 pkg. active dry yeast
□   1 tbsp. softened butter
□   1/4 c. very hot tap water
□   1 c. creamed cottage cheese, room temperature
□   1 egg, room temperature

In a large bowl thoroughly mix 1/4 cup flour, sugar, salt, instant onion, dill seed, dill weed, baking soda and undissolved yeast. Add butter.Gradually add very hot tap water to dry ingredients and beat 2 minutes at medium speed of electric mixer, scraping bowl occasionally. Add cottage cheese, egg and 1/2 cup of flour or enough flour to make a thick batter.
Beat at high speed for 2 minutes. Stir in enough additional flour to make a stiff batter.
Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Stir batter down, turn into a greased 1 1/2 quart casserole. Cover and let rise until double in bulk, about 50 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake 30 to 40 minutes or until top is golden brown. Turn out of pan immediately and cool on wire rack.
Note early. Easy and great!

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P.S. I love the intertubes.

Who Knew What, When?

There was not only no evidence against most Guantanomo detainees, we didn't even know why most of them were there.
Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld. Hang 'em high. And give Lawrence Wilkerson a medal.

Quote O' Teh Day

The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed.
—Novelist William Gibson, quoted in The Economist, December 4, 2003

So Many Contrarrienes, So Little Time

Just when I thought I'd come to terms with death global warming, something new to worry about.

In 19 countries, from Singapore to Iceland, people have a life expectancy of about 80 years. Of all the people in human history who ever reached the age of 65, half are alive now.

It's all Otto's fault:

The idea of a retirement age was invented by Otto von Bismarck in the 1880s, when as chancellor of Germany he needed a starting age for paying war pensions. He chose the age of 65 because that was typically when ex-soldiers died. But today in developed countries, and soon in poorer ones, women can expect nearly 30 years of retirement, and men 20 years.

Lord, Let It Rain

And rain some more. Thunder, too.

Play 'em both at once, way cool.

Jump!

No, you first.

NSFW Dept.: Semi-Productive Procrastination

Don't say I never gave ya nothin'.
Here's 30 nothins.