Not A Problem

Back when I lived in Johannesburg, I never lived anywhere that had air conditioning because, quite frankly, it wasn’t necessary — you’re hot, you open a window.  Maybe turn on a small fan if there’s no breeze, but there was always a breeze.

Because of that, I had to keep my butter in the fridge because otherwise it would spoil very quickly.

Now?  Forget it:  with a/c and a constant (cool) temperature, I always leave the butter out (covered, of course) because I hate tearing up my bread with stiff, cold butter.

Apparently, this is a thing.

WE have all been storing butter wrong – and we should make a very quick change to revamp our use of the dairy delight, according to one campaigner.

Joelle Mertzel is the leading the charge to change the way people treat their butter – insisting it should be kept out of the fridge. The 49-year-old says that butter does not have to be chilled – and can instead be kept happily on the counter for weeks on end. Joelle, a mum-of-three, from California, has even commissioned lab tests to prove her theory.
And she is campaigning to make the American government change their butter guidelines. 

Keyword:  guideline.

In other words:  who cares what the .dotgov “recommends”?  Remember when the Food Pyramid was their big deal?  And, as we all know, the pyramid has been proven to be totally fucked up, like oh-so many government “guidelines”.

Methinks the Californian woman has too much time on her hands if she’s bothering with this shit.

In passing, I should point out that in my house, no pound of butter has ever lasted longer than a few days before being consumed, so the whole issue is moot.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll make myself a sarnie.

Well That Explains It

Had a little email exchange with Reader Brad_in_IL, after he pointed  me to this article and asked me if I remembered any or all of the items and products (follow link to see what he was talking about).

I replied that I remembered all of them, and had in fact used all of them, to which he responded:  “Okay .. you’ll have to explain how/why you used that hair dryer !! “

And my response:

When I was a pro musician, I used to have highlights put in my hair. Monthly trip to Armando’s, one hour in the dryer.  It was the 70s, FFS.

We did a lot of stupid shit like that back then.

Never Mind Your 5-Year-Old

…it appears that even a raven can do what Jackson Pollock did:

It’s Jackdaw Pollock! Odin the raven paints just like the American artist whose work is worth millions

A creative raven has the art world in a flap after producing a stunning range of experimental paintings – with her beak.

Eleven-year-old Odin uses an array of vivid animal-safe paints and food colourings to make her amazing abstract works, which are flying off the shelves…

My favorite part:

for up to £15.

…which is about what people should be paying for Pollock’s stupid splashes and daubings, instead of millions.

Gratuitous Gun Pic: Walther P38 (9mm Para)

Considering that the P38 / P.38 design was groundbreaking at its launch, was used during WWII by the German military and for many years post-war by several police forces around the world, I guess you can say that Walther done good.

The silly Europellet chambering aside (see rants passim), the P38 is a brilliant pistol:  reliable to a fault, safe to carry and use (except for the individual on the naughty side of the muzzle), and considering its non-adjustable sights, way more accurate than almost anyone who shoots it.  I’ve fired many P38s, made either by Walther, Mauser or Spree — they’re identical — and almost uniquely among pistols, I never once experienced any kind of stoppage or failure.  The only thing I can fault about it is that silly heel-located mag release (common among many pistols of the time), and the quality of workmanship makes this a gun I would happily carry today, without a single reservation.

The WWII-era P38s are too expensive nowadays, of course, even though close to two million were made — for some reason, people prefer the steel frame over the replacement P1’s aluminum frame, but I can honestly say I can’t tell the difference between the two — and certainly not in operation.

Want.

Ending Stupidity

and about time, too:

It appears the Biden Administration has ceded to increasing calls for an onerous COVID vaccine mandate to end for international air travelers, along with federal workers and contractors.

Stuff doesn’t seem to have worked, caused possibly thousands of unnecessary deaths all by itself, and was the basis for so much governmental overreach and, in some cases, outright thuggery.

Good riddance, and don’t bother doing it again, no matter how scary the poxes and plagues look.  We’re not going to be panicked, or bullied, next time.

Another Useless Law

I think I’m correct in saying that alone among the lower 48 states (i.e. the ones which have interstate highways running through them), Illinois is the only one which still stubbornly enforces a 55mph speed limit on its various highways.  It’s a huge PITA — like so many things about traveling through Illinois — and we all know that it’s not just Sammy Hagar who can’t drive at 55.

Anyway, the lower speed limit didn’t seem to help much (if at all) a couple days back:

A fiery 60-car pile-up happened late Monday morning on I-55 in central Illinois. The horrific wreck appears to have been caused by loose dirt and high winds. Normally, dust storms connote the deserts of the Southwest, but the combination of dry conditions, loose soil from freshly-plowed fields, and high, gusty winds resulted in extremely low visibility which led to multiple collisions along the stretch of interstate south of Springfield, Illinois.

I’ve driven through this kind of dust storm before — the ones I hit in southern Idaho, South Dakota and South Africa’s Orange Free State and Karoo desert come to mind — and it’s no small danger.  Typically, I’ve driven at 10mph or slower under those conditions, the problem being other drivers, who seem to have sooper-dooper x-ray vision and don’t have to slow down until they collide with your car’s rear end.

The same is true of snow storms, of course, the only difference being that snow doesn’t invade every crevice in your car and cause you to choke helplessly while peering through the suddenly-opaque windshield.  Then again, you’re unlikely to freeze to death in a sandstorm, so I guess it’s a crap shoot.