Rocket Jones

August 04, 2007

Rocket Jones Goes to the Opera

Last night was our annual trip to Ash Lawn, home of President Monroe and current venue of the Ash Lawn Opera Company. Once again, daughter Rachael is working there for the summer as assistant costumer.

The performance that we chose to see this year was Puccini's La Boheme, possibly the most famous opera of them all. Unfortunately, with the extreme heat and humidity, Liz decided she'd better not go, so I went with Rachael and the other assistant Brittney. Once there, I met several of the technical crew and walked around the grounds for a bit.

There was much concern about the weather because some rather ominous looking clouds were headed our way, and the rumble of thunder was getting louder and more frequent. Most of the audience headed for the indoor pavilion, assuming that the performance would be moved under cover, but many of us stayed put and waited for Mother Nature to make up her mind. The breeze picked up and cooled things off nicely, the humidity dropped noticeably, a few small drops sprinkled on us, and after a 40 minute delay the show started in the outdoor amphitheater. We were treated to a nice little lightning show going on in the background during the first act as the storm that just missed us receeded into the distance.

I spent that delay time having a nice conversation with the people around me. A lady had flown in from Austin, Texas to see the shows (The Sound of Music is the other performance that the company is doing this year). Her daughter was part of the chorus in La Boheme and played Lisle in The Sound of Music (...I am 16, going on 17...). Another nice couple were the Dean of Libraries at William and Mary college and her husband. For a Friday night, the crowd was very much on the older side, there weren't many there that were younger than I. I didn't relate the tale of how a few years ago, a snake fell out of one of the trees overhanging the stage and audience, although I was sorely tempted.

Among the "regulars" at Ash Lawn are three skunks, one of which is an albino, and a peacock with the most horrible ear-splitting screech. At random times during the performances, the peacock will let loose. You can always tell first-time guests because they jump when the feathered beastie screams. If you're not used to it or don't know what it is, it's positively blood-curdling.

So, I haven't much said anything about La Boheme, have I? I really enjoyed it. I did not cry at the end, but there were a couple of moments where the music really did move me, and I think I'll be searching out more opportunities to attend the opera.

Posted by: Ted at 08:54 PM | Comments (73) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

August 03, 2007

A Pause for the Cause

Liz and I are headed to Charlottesville this morning to visit Mookie. Tonight we'll attend La Boheme. I'll be back tomorrow, in the meantime check out The Dangerous Blog (link on the post above this one).

Posted by: Ted at 06:05 AM | Comments (161) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

August 02, 2007

Movie Review (Their Loss is Your Gain) - part II

Deep Red is the second half of the double feature with Silent Night, Bloody Night. It's also an Italian giallo by Dario Argento, who followed up with Susperia and Tenebre, two amazing flicks. Unlike many of his other movies though, this one has a reasonably coherent story to tell.

Oops! What's a giallo? From Wikipedia:

"Giallo" films are characterized by extended murder sequences featuring excessive bloodletting, stylish camerawork and unusual musical arrangements. The literary whodunit element is retained, but combined with modern slasher horror, while being filtered through Italy's longstanding tradition of opera and staged grand guignol drama. They also generally include liberal amounts of nudity and sex.

Gialli typically introduce strong psychological themes of madness, alienation, and paranoia.

This is a typical Dario Argento movie. It’s filled with lush colors, surreal moments, brutal murders, sudden shocks, an exceptional music score by Goblin and a storyline that is vague enough to not get in the way of the imagery that Argento is striving to project. Calling it “typical” though doesn’t make it ordinary, as if anything he did could be merely ordinary.

Marcus (David Hemmings – Blow Up) is a professional musician. Helga (Macha Meril) is a psychic who can read minds. What they have in common is that they live in the same apartment building in the city.

One evening, Helga is appearing on a panel discussing paranormal phenomenon when she detects the thoughts of a killer. Someone in the audience is radiating enough murderous hatred that Helga is quite overcome by the emotion. It’s powerful enough that she also learns who the murderer is, although she doesn’t reveal that because there’s no proof beyond her psychic detection.

Later that night, the murderer goes to Helga’s apartment to permanently prevent her from revealing the truth. Marcus witnesses Helga’s brutal (understatement alert!) murder from the street below their apartments, and when he rushes upstairs he is too late to save her life. The killer has escaped, yet Marcus is certain that he saw something that positively identifies the murderer, if he can only remember what it is. Even though the police are handling the case, Marcus becomes obsessed with they mystery and starts to investigate himself, aided by pretty newspaper reporter Giana (Daria Nicolodi - Tenebre) and Helga’s fellow psychics.

The killer seems to anticipate his every move, and each time he makes progress towards solving the mystery another person who knows something important winds up dead in a savage and entertainingly gruesome way.

It’s not all murder and mystery though. Several humorous scenes involving the Gianna and Marcus are used to ease the tension, and the contrast heightens the impact of the darker moments.

You’re kept guessing right up to the end. The butler didn’t do it.

The city where this all takes place is never named, other than being in Italy. The direction offers frequent moments throughout the movie where a scene is framed as a static tableau, and it lingers there until movement intrudes upon the carefully crafted still-life. At other times, the cuts are frantic and almost subliminal as multiple viewpoints flash by onscreen. The storyline is more prominent than Argento’s next film, Susperia.

I was taken by surprise when the movie switched from English dubbing to Italian with English subtitles and back, sometimes within the same scene. What I’ve since learned is that quite a bit of the movie was edited out before the English dubbing was done. This version restores much of the original film, but it’s only available with subtitles because it was never dubbed in English. Apparently several versions of the source material were used because in a few scenes you can tell that the Italian is dubbed! As quirky as that was, I was able to quickly get used to it and before long I hardly noticed it.

For the most part, the acting is excellent, although the scenes where the police were involved didn’t match the tone of the rest of the movie. Perhaps it was intentional, but the various cops come across as knuckle-dragging dolts. Not just ineffective police officers, but as uncouth paint-chip-eating boors. Maybe that was to give Marcus a reason to continue his personal investigation.

Damn good movie. Highly recommended.

Posted by: Ted at 05:53 AM | Comments (403) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

August 01, 2007

Been There, Done That

When weeding in your garden, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant.

Posted by: Ted at 11:27 AM | Comments (46) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Movie Review (Their Loss Is Your Gain)

I submitted a couple of reviews to Joe Horror a while back which weren't accepted due to editorial considerations. I thought we'd worked it out, but they still haven't been posted there, so I'll post 'em here. I put effort into these things, dammit, so somebody is going to get to read them!

I picked up a stack of horror/thriller double features at the flea market a few weeks ago. They're one step up from no-name releases, but I recognized enough of the titles to take a chance on four of 'em (for about ten bucks and change).

First up is Silent Night, Bloody Night. After watching this movie and putting down my initial impressions, I did a little research on it. I discovered that it was made a full two years before the seminal Black Christmas even though both movies were released in 1974. Black Christmas is considered by some to be the original slasher flick, but this movie was actually the first to introduce the main elements of the genre.

Silent Night, Bloody Night is a low budget effort that mostly works, right up until the surprise ending. Yes, it was a surprise (to me anyway), but it really stretched my capacity for suspending disbelief. Stretched it right beyond the breaking point. The plot itself is somewhat confused, but I had no problem following the main arc of the story.

The movie opens with a nifty little point-of-view scene (shades of Halloween!) where someone uses a monkey wrench to bludgeon their way to freedom as they escape from a mental hospital.

Next, in a narrated flashback we witness old man Butler burning to death in his front yard. He set himself on fire in one of those freak fireplace accidents you hear about all too often. You haven’t? Me neither. In his will, the old man left his mansion to his grandson, with the proviso that the house be left empty. Over the years, the house gained a reputation for being haunted.

Thirty years later, the house is up for sale. Nobody has lived there in accordance with the wishes of old man Butler, but a caretaker has kept the property and house in good repair. A hotshot city lawyer is in town to handle the process, and he offers it to the town council for a fraction of what it’s worth. The town council jumps at the offer for reasons that become clear later on. The lawyer and his girlfriend are staying at the house overnight, even though the council members offer to put them up in a motel. Ominously, the town’s switchboard operator offers to re-connect the telephone service to the house “just in case”.

Having that phone connected comes in handy, just not for the lawyer and his girlfriend. They get brutally hacked to death while having sex. Afterwards, the axe-wielding maniac uses the phone to place chilling calls to the members of the town council, inviting them out to the house.

The grandson himself makes an appearance and ends up accompanying the Mayor’s daughter (Mary Woronov) through the rest of the movie. When asked why he’s selling, he simply answers that he needs the money.

The rest of the plot is your now-standard fare, as victims are isolated and killed one by one. It’s only interesting here because the slasher genre that we now know so well hadn’t evolved yet, at the time of this movie it was all brand new.

The acting was pretty good all around. Woronov as the Mayor’s daughter has the best role in the flick. John Carradine plays one of the members of the town council and he communicates by ringing a desk clerk bell when he agrees with something that someone else said.

Ok, back to the ending that I hated so much. It’s memorable, because the whole background story about the house and the Butler family is told, accompanied by an extended flashback done in sepia-tone. The actors that appear in the flashback were all from Andy Warhol’s Factory. While the story told is chilling, the writers took it one step too far. Sharks are cool, sharks with friggin’ laser beams on their heads is silly. You know what I mean?

The first axe murder in the movie is nicely gory, but after that most of the killing happens in darkness, making it impossible to see details. Part of the problem is the original camera work, which is strictly low-budget, but the video transfer on my copy was very poor. The movie has been released several times by different distributors and the picture quality varies among them.

The opening music to the movie was a creepy version of “Silent Night”. Done in a minor key and using unexpected dissonant chords, the song was recognizable and yet the entire feel of the music went from reverential to sinister. Very nicely done.

Silent Night, Bloody Night is kind of a missing link between 60’s horror and how the genre evolved into the slasher craze, and for that reason alone I think it’s worth seeing.

Posted by: Ted at 05:29 AM | Comments (947) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

July 31, 2007

Light Racers

This announcement came in the email today, from the Spaceward Foundation:

The Spaceward Foundation opened registration today for the 2007 Great Light Racer Championship.

The Light Racers Championship, a space technology competition, challenges kids, young adults and grown ups to design, build, and race beam-powered lunar rovers that could help NASA get to the ice deposits located in the permanently shadowed craters of the lunar poles.

Total prize purse this year is $10,000.


For the Light Racers, teams build and remotely control vehicles that capture a beam of light (from a spotlight) and convert that energy into power to navigate a course. There are both hard-surface road courses, for speed, and an off-road course with obstacles. There are no batteries or fuel carried, all power is supplied by the lightbeam. More details are here.

This is the same foundation that sponsors the Space Elevator Games, which is its own special brand of coolness.

Posted by: Ted at 05:54 AM | Comments (17) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Case for Population Growth

Over at Transterrestrial Musings, Sam has fired up an interesting debate with a post about population growth.

States should not be in the business of pushing people to have babies.

Yes they should. A baby will become a taxpayer and a useful citizen. Zero population growth did far more to hold back development of China and India than Reagan's (anti-) family planning policies.

He goes on with:
A populous world is a rich world. There will be greater grand challenges that can be tackled. There will be more people to conceive more ideas. A world with one trillion people at the current standard of living would have GDP of $10,000 trillion or $10 quadrillion dollars a year. If 0.2% of that was spent on space exploration that would be $20 trillion/year. At $20,000/kg, that's enough to lift one billion kg. At $200/kg, that's enough to allow one billion people to emigrate to space every year.

A populous world can be the Garden of Eden to settle a harsh solar system and galaxy.


Read entire, especially the comments, where an actual exchange of ideas happens, rather than the too-common degeneration into name calling.

Just imagine, millions and millions of young Asian babes... mmmmmmm.

Posted by: Ted at 05:41 AM | Comments (428) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

July 30, 2007

ZappaStrasse

A fitting tribute:

Frank-Zappa-Strasse or Frank Zappa Street - formerly Street 13 - lies on the eastern outskirts of Berlin amid empty industrial buildings in what was communist East Germany.

The street is home to Orwo Haus, a former Communist-era film factory that now provides practice studios for more than 160 bands.

Musicians at Orwo Haus campaigned for two years to have the street's name changed. Eighteen bands, including the Frank Zappa cover band Sheik Yerbouti, celebrated the renaming this weekend with an all-night concert for more than 2,800 people.

Bravo, Berlin!!!

Posted by: Ted at 11:29 AM | Comments (54) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Obviously Named Before Political Correctness Training Became Mandatory

I didn't know this. In 1954, President Eisenhower initiated Operation Wetback:

The operation began in California and Arizona and coordinated 1,075 Border Patrol agents along with state and local police agencies to mount an aggressive crackdown, going as far as police sweeps of Mexican-American neighborhoods and random stops and ID checks of "Mexican-looking" people in a region with many Native Americans and native Hispanics.[1] Some 750 agents targeted agricultural areas with a goal of 1000 apprehensions a day. By the end of July, over 50,000 aliens were caught in the two states. Around 488,000 people fled the country for fear of being apprehended. By September, 80,000 had been taken into custody in Texas, and the INS estimates that 500,000-700,000 illegals had left Texas voluntarily. To discourage re-entry, buses and trains took many illegals deep within Mexico before being set free.

This was the second such operation, the first being during the Great Depression when Mexican nationals and other illegal aliens were "invited" to return to their native countries because they were competing for scarce jobs with American citizens.

Posted by: Ted at 05:15 AM | Comments (24) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

July 29, 2007

Flower Blogging

I went outside this morning and spent quite a bit of time watering the flowers because it's been very dry around here lately. I also took a bunch of pictures of the various plants, but I used my old digital camera instead of Liz's new one, and the pictures were too blurry to use. Another day, maybe.

Anyway, as I'm deadheading and watering and generally putzing around the garden, I'm watching the activity around the various flowers. We have a basket of purple blossoms called petras that are like crack to bees. Little tiny bees, big-assed carpenter bees, bumblebees, wasps, mayflies and more. The entire plant is just swarming with 'em, lined up to grab a spot at the blooms. They're so intent on the flowers that they ignore me as I reach in with the soaker hose to water the pot. Bees and I get along, so there was no problem there.

I posted a picture a couple of years ago of a mandevilla that we grew up against a trellis. It's a tropical and didn't survive our winter. This year I've been trying to grow another clematis. Actually, I've planted four there, of which one is still alive. It's scraggly and chewed on and spotted with fungus, but damned if it doesn't keep stretching upwards and weaving its scrawny self through the trellis bars. After all of that, it even managed to pop out a single pretty bloom. I hope it makes it through the winter, because this is a tough little plant and I admire its deterimination to survive.

You followed that link above, right? The other photo there is a shot of New Guinea Impatiens. Around here (northern Virginia), Impatiens and Vinca are *the* go-to annuals. Quick growing, prolific blooming over the entire summer and fall, easy to care for and resistant to insects and disease, if you need to add a spot of color, then plant one or more of these. Spectacular. This year I planted six vinca in the front bed, and they're doing nicely. They probably won't overflow the bed like in that photo, but I didn't plant as many and they were planted relatively late.

We did find a nice variety of impatiens that we hadn't seen before though. It has variegated leaves and the blooms look like little roses, about 1 inch across. Very pretty.

In the side bed we have another O'Hare-esque situation, this time involving a pink phlox and some blue pincushion flowers. Butterflies especially love the pincushions (which have the rather unattractive "official" name of scabiosa), and there will generally be anywhere from six to two dozen assorted butterflies flitting around these plants. What's funny is watching the bumblebees land on the pincushions, because their weight causes the flower stalk to immediately crash to the ground, like an overbalanced painter on a tall ladder. When the bee falls off, the flower springs back into the air. The phlox and pincushions are both perennials, and will come back bigger and better every year. Teamed up with some white Dragon Flowers (a Virginia-native perennial cousin to snapdragons) and an interesting little annual called Agaretum with tiny blue pom-pom blooms about the size of your pinky nail, the side bed has a nice mix of whites, blues, purples and pinks. Come fall, our order of blue asters and purple coneflowers will arrive and we'll get them established to make that side bed entirely perennial.

When I'm stressed from the work week, sometimes the best remedy for me is to watch rockets majestically climb into a big, blue sky, and sometimes it's better for me to look closely at the amazing amount of nature that's happening right in my front yard.

Whoever said "stop and smell the roses" was a friggin' genius.

Posted by: Ted at 01:12 PM | Comments (216) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

July 27, 2007

"DON'T POUR THE FUEL OR YOU WILL MESS YOUR HELL OF DAY"

This is funny as hell. Some guy over at Amazon has posted reviews of a couple of items using his less than perfect English (link from the comments over at Trying to Grok.

While reviewing an electronic Russian-to-English dictionary, he goes off on an anti-American screed. I think.

And also, those mental condition will never make you to speak another language. FIRST THING YOU HAVE TO KNOW IS KNOW YOURSELF SUCKS BALLS AND YOU CAN BE BETTER AS YOU STUDY, AND TRUST ME IT IS HARD TO REALIZE YOURSELF SUCKR OR NOT.

His review of a Zippo lighter is a bit better, in that he stays on topic and offers lots of handy advice:

I THINK I SOLVED ALL QUESTIONS now, JUST REMEMBER, LIFE TIME GUARANTEE AND YOU JUST CALL THEM AND QUEST THEM TO FIX, THEY WILL DO IT FOR FREE (OF COURSE YOU NEED TO BUY LITTLE POSTAGE-STAMP IN ORDER TO SEND, OR JUST WALK TO CLOSE ZIPPO SHOP, AND THEY WILL NOT CHARGE YOU A CENT FOR IT AND THEY WILL POST BACK TO YOU, OF COURSE FOR FREE)

I wish this guy had a blog.

Posted by: Ted at 05:45 AM | Comments (135) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Thinking Blogger Award

thinkingbloggerpf8.jpg

Zoe Brain nominated me for the Thinking Blogger Award, for which I'm very grateful and humbled. I'm also aware that with every recipient nominating five others, that within 17 days everyone in the blogosphere will have the award. Methinks Zoe may be misidentifying thought provoking ideas with the confusion caused by reading my nonsense. That's ok though, I'm not giving it back.

And now I am supposed to link to my five nominations for The Thinking Blogger Award, and since we're all Thinking Bloggers or esteemed readers of a Thinking Blogger, I'm going to label my choices in hexidecimal. Congratulate yourself for understanding the complexities of a 16-base numbering system, and by all means follow the links. These are in no particular order.

1. Hold the Mayo. "The Truth Served Plain", and a long-time friend. He doesn't post often enough, but when he does it's a treat.

2. Lovable Pixie. Not well known yet, but she's got the right idea about starting interesting conversations.

3. Mapgirl's Fiscal Challenge. Financial matters from a young single professional who's a little freaked out about her future.

4. The Ministry of Minor Perfidy. An ecclectic group blog, and by that I mean the guys (and girl) writing there range from a BDS-afflicted commie to a right-wing potential tower-sniper. They post beer recipes too!!!

5. Random Nuclear Strikes. Another group blog, with a major focus on the Pacific Northwest. If tree-hugging hippies piss you off, visit here and get a glimpse of what it's like to live amongst the rainbow-heads.

So there you go. Be honest now, how many folks caught my little trick? Number 4 wasn't hexidecimal, it was actually octal!!! Don't you feel smart? That's why you come by, isn't it? To feel smarter than...

Hey!

Posted by: Ted at 05:14 AM | Comments (237) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

July 26, 2007

You Say "Tomato", I Say "Worthless Cocksucker With No Honor Whatsoever"

You've probably heard about the "Scott Thomas" affair, even if you don't recognize the norm-de-ploom. The New Republic published supposed first-hand accounts of alleged abuses by US troops in Iraq under the title "Shock Troops".

As you would expect, people across the spectrum reacted in accordance with how well the described actions fit their preconceived notions about the military. Certain shrillbots screamed vindication because this proved what they'd been saying all along. Others on the other end immediately called bullshit.

I am firmly in the "bullshit" camp, mainly because the stories don't pass the smell test. Parts of the story don't add up, and corroborating witnesses are as anonymous as "Scott Thomas". Just in case you haven't heard, here are the three alleged "eyewitness" accounts: 1. Soldiers in a chow hall make fun of a female contractor who has been facially disfigured by an IED. 2. Soldiers uncover a mass grave full of children's bodies and one soldier wears part of a skull like a hat for the remainder of the day. 3. In a Bradley fighting vehicle, the driver purposely and repeatedly swerves to run over dogs. In each of these cases, "Scott Thomas" gives a first-hand account, placing himself as part of the act. Not as an observer, but as a participant.

Over at QandO, like many places on the 'net, the fact checking has begun in earnest. You can follow links as well as anyone if you want to know more about the specifics, but that's not my point for this post.

What has become clear is that too many Americans today lack honor. Furthermore, they have no concept of what honor is or understand why it is such a powerful motivator for those with it.

A quote from the comments at QandO:

Honor or dishonor is irrelevant and a matter of opinion.

That's from a college professor, by the way.

Here's the reply:

No. NO it is not. That you can even make such a claim just shows that you don’t understand what honor is, which probably means that you have none.

Honor isn’t about opinion. It isn’t about supporting someone’s narrative. It isn’t about speaking truth to power. It’s not about agreeing with someone or not. Honor is about honesty, responsibility, integrity and true compassion.

"Scott Thomas" was a participant in these horrible (and alleged) actions. An honorable person would have reported the second and third to their superiors. In the first case, he would've stepped in and stopped the cruel teasing immediately.

So if what he claims is true, then he is just as dishonorable for his actions during as he is if he's lying about it all.

Honor is something found in greater concentration in the military than anywhere else in society. Those who have never served may never be able to grasp what honor is, why it is important, and how it motivates those "poor stoopid kids" to keep volunteering. They will never understand the lofty ideals that honor inspires, the willingness to risk everything to protect even those who refuse to acknowledge it, and the optimistic belief that by performing their mission they are giving each and every one of us the opportunity to thrive and achieve greatness.

Honor isn't an exclusive trait of conservatives or liberals or white people or the left-handed. It doesn't matter if you agree or disagree or like or dislike an honorable person. You will always know in every situation how that honorable person will act. With "honesty, responsibility, integrity and true compassion."

Thanks Michael.

Posted by: Ted at 08:05 PM | Comments (29) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

July 25, 2007

Voracious Jumbo Squid Invade California!!!

I was all set to panic and then I read the story... they mean Voracious Jumbo Squid Invade the ocean next to California!

Damn.

Posted by: Ted at 05:19 AM | Comments (23) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

New Movie Reviews

This week at Joe Horror, my review of Killer Klowns from Outer Space, and many more.

Posted by: Ted at 04:52 AM | Comments (39) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

July 23, 2007

Fibromyalgia

Friends and long-time visitors know that my wife has fibromyalgia. She can no longer drive or work, and outside of our home she must use a wheelchair. Now there's a new fibromyalgia website with lots of information about the disease. It's worth a read, because with 6 million Americans suffering from fibromyalgia, chances are you know someone who's dealing with it.

Posted by: Ted at 05:37 AM | Comments (328) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

July 22, 2007

De-Romanticizing Moonlight

When the first rock and dust samples from the moon were returned, many folks were surprised because they were dark gray, almost black. We think of the moon as light colored because it's the brightest thing we see in a dark sky, but in actuality it's not very reflective. In fact, on average, the surface of the moon only bounces about 7% of the sunlight back. That's about as reflective as asphalt.

Posted by: Ted at 07:36 PM | Comments (32) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

What I Did For Summer Vacation

I promised you a picture of my latest project.

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She makes her maiden flight on August 18th. The white part of the airframe is where I had to stretch it to make room for a new, larger altimeter bay. It'll be painted black to match this week. I also plan to stretch the rocket another fourteen inches in the near future to accommodate the "big honkin' motor" that I originally envisioned flying in her.

Posted by: Ted at 01:19 AM | Comments (1041) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

July 21, 2007

Someone's in the Kitchen with Diinaaaaah!

Here's a simple dessert that will impress guests.

Caramelized Pineapple

1 fresh pineapple, cut into chunks
1/2 cup sugar
4 Tbsp butter, divided
4 Tbsp dark rum, brandy or water

Preparing the pineapple: If you've never done this before, you will be amazed at how easy it is. Using a sharp knife, cut off the end with the stem. Cut off the bottom. Slice the pineapple in half from end to end, then cut the halves into quarters, then again into eighths. Now slice off the inside wedge containing the tough middle (there's a reason for pineapple rings) and slice off the outer skin. Chop the fruit into 1 inch long chunks.

Put pineapple chunks into a bowl and sprinkle with the sugar. Toss to coat all of the fruit well.

On high heat, melt 2 Tbsp butter in a large non-stick skillet. Add the pineapple to the hot pan and cook for 10 or 15 minutes. Don't turn too often, but shake the pan frequently. You want the sugar to form a rich brown crunch coat on the pineapple. When it's ready, remove the pineapple.

Add the remaining butter to the pan juices, then the rum or other liquid. Heat and cook, stirring frequently and scraping up any tasty bits that stick to the pan, until it thickens a bit. If you used water instead of spirits, a small dash of almond extract can be added too.

Serve the hot pineapple over vanilla ice cream with a drizzle of the sauce.

Posted by: Ted at 07:12 AM | Comments (40) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

July 20, 2007

World's Oldest Swinger?

I had no idea that Cheeta, the famous chimp who appeared in so many Tarzan movies in the 30's and 40's, is still alive!

He turned 75 last April.

Posted by: Ted at 11:26 AM | Comments (189) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

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