Friday Fish Wrap: January 14. 2010

It might just be me, but after this week, I really needed a little warm and fuzzy time with a cross-eyed opossum. Heidi the Opossum - or as she is known in Deutschland: Die Schielende Opossum (‘Squinting Opossum’). The cute Heidi couldn’t have burst onto the international scene and our pop culture consciousness at a better time.

This Opossum is so homely, as my grandmother would have said, that she’s cute. And, she’s a wonderful substitute for drinking, smoking and thumb-sucking. All those crossed my mind lately as an escape from the grim reality of it all. Sigh.

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As the nation, families and grieving parents bury a sweet nine-year-old girl and five others, and a young Congresswoman clings to life - victim to a tragically deranged person with a gun he shouldn’t have been able to buy - Sarah Palin and Sharon Angle are now making the circuit, busily painting themselves as the real victims here. Personally, I love the dark waters swirling around Palin’s ankles as she mis-uses words that she failed to Google. “Blood Libel”? WTF?

Yes, even my Jewish friends are confused about how and why she managed to dig that up, not to mention wedge it so inappropriately into a bitter-sounding “it’s all about me” commentary about how some in the media have managed to connect the dots. Keep talking, girlfriend. And, the Tea Party band played on …

We watched the memorial address by Obama … Pastor-in-Chief in this instance. He is a really fine orator, and this is a bully pulpit that he can - and should - do something big and positive with. If he can start some serious national dialogues about hate-filled, intolerant rhetoric, guns, societal violence and the tragic consequences of slashed mental health budgets (seen the ‘homeless problem’ lately?) then we might be able to say they didn’t die completely in vain.

I’ll be watching, a month from now, six months and a year from now. I hope this won’t be another case of important turning points for the nation falling through the partisan cracks into the void. I’m enough of a grown-up to know there is no Santa Claus, and I won’t get everything my little heart desires. But, if somehow, we could turn a corner here and be a bit more like what that sweet little girl believed we were, or could be, then I’d be some kinda happy me.

Talking about delusional “it’s all about me” thinking … just how divorced from reality is Sen. John Ensign, R-NV these days? He wants to run again, against Dean Heller?

Why, when he could just slide quietly away and go into a lucrative career as a male model?

A while back, blogger friend ‘Blue Lyon’ and I went to lunch to discuss the possibility of starting up a skeptics group modeled after the Skeptics in the Pub movement in merry old England. Drinking and philosophy just seem to be made for each other. Maybe this is why England has produced so many philosophers of note.

Little did Carissa and I realize that there was a nascent Skeptical drinking group already here in Reno. “Yippee”, we said. “Count us in.”

 “The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality. “
- George Bernard Shaw

The next meetup of the Reno Skeptics will be on January 22, Saturday, at 7:00 p.m. Location TBA.

I love how sometimes a crazy idea just turns out to be really great. This is what happened with my Carrot Confiture creation - Carrot Jam for the French challenged. We had it on english muffins for breakfast, and then later I slathered some on a whole grain cracker to let a friend sample. Yikes. It’s even better now that it’s sat over night.

I bought more carrots at the grocery store today.

Oh, and my skiing damaged knee is continuing to improve. Keeping ice on it for the first two days, then heat really helped, as did physical therapy and E-Stim. Exercising it with my ‘bands’ and doing Pilates based strengthening every morning this week have paid off big time. I’m not back to skiing yet, but will be giving serious thought to it later next week. And, yes … I’m going to be more careful, probably adjusting the bindings, too.

I’ve been watching, with growing anxiety the last couple of weeks, as my weight went up, up and away for no apparent reason. Eating the same. Exercising the same - bum knee cut it down a bit, briefly. So, what gives?

As I thought it through, I remembered how much hot soup I’ve been guzzling down in restaurants during the recent cold, dark days. We go out to lunch here, always have. Damn near daily. And I have soup or a half sandwich. Lately, I’ve been sucking down soup at one particular spot more than usual. Hmmmm. Stopped having soup, and weight went down.

I thought it was kinda salty tasting, but jeeze, this is ridiculous. Can you people back in the restaurant kitchens get a handle on the salt, please? Do us all a favor.

Alert Reader, Shelley, submitted this nugget. Earth Bound Pets is a group of pet-loving atheists that will be here- terra firma bound - to look after you pets after you ascend heaven-ward at the rapture or mass delusion or whatever. This is screamingly funny. It’s also smart. They charge $135.oo per pet. You’ve gotta love the enterprising nature of Americans.

Well, I’m signing off. My knee is really tired after putting on a dinner for friends. Ow. Time to get out the hot packs and take my weight off it.

Stay tuned for some awesome recipes. The celery root puree was killer tonight.

Have a fun weekend.

-maven