Pasta For All!

You can't even get people to agree on how many forms of pasta there are in the world. Some say 27, some say 30.

You have your bucatini, angel hair (cappellini), Cascatelli, Cavatappi, Elbow Macaroni, Farfalle (Bow Ties), Fettuccine, Linguine, Penne, Ravioli, Rigatoni, and, of course, Fusilli.

And how about this? Recent estimates say that Italians ate over 60 pounds of pasta per person, per year, easily beating Americans, who gobbled about 20 pounds per person.

But, beside the fact that you can tell the young person in your family planning on their future career that there is a job out there estimating how much pasta people in all different countries consume annually, there is this fact: Spaghetti is the most-loved pasta shape in the United States, according to Barilla.

And even there, you have choices:  Angel hair? Linguine? Fettuccini? 

So many choices on what to cook or order, but you can figure it out if you use your noodle.

A long way

How does it come that I can remember the word for when you can't think of a word or something's/someone's name...that's lethologica...but the other night I tried to remember the name of the instrument Bon Scott "plays" in the "It's A Long Way To The Top" video, and all I could come up with was "airbag"?

Take a minute to enjoy the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-qkY2yj4_A

I guess I had been thinking about Bon since reading that his ex-wife Irene Thornton passed away in November, and now she has the enviable task of trying to get the pint-sized wild man to settle down up there. Such a shame that we have lost so many great entertainers and personalities.

So many funerals, so many bagpipes playing.

Bagpipes! That was the word!

Bon and Irene, 1977

For Dr King

    “With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.” - Dr Martin Luther King, Jr

Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. was a preacher in from Atlanta, serving as minister of a Baptist church in Montgomery, Ala. It's hard to believe, but this occurred in America sixty-some years ago: Black citizens were required to ride in the back of the municipal buses (they did pay the same fare as all others), and were not allowed to shop in certain stores, dine at some restaurants, or even use public toilets or water fountains. Or Vote. 

Inspired by the resistance of a hard-working seamstress named Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her bus seat to a white man and move to the back of the bus, Dr King led a boycott of those buses.  It took almost two years, but in the end, the buses in Montgomery were desegregated, open to all.  

Today, we pause from the day-to-day to honor a man who had the courage to lead the nation away from the awful practices of legal racial prejudice and discrimination.

 He went on to lead the fight to allow all citizens to vote.  Again, I am writing this for the benefit of the young, who might find it hard to believe there was a time and place in this country when a man or woman of legal voting age could be denied the right to vote because of the color of their skin.

Of course, even the young can see that a political platform that damns an entire race or religious group or seeks to keep them from coming to the Land Of The Free is based on "hair-brained" foolishness.

There was an interesting article in the Washington POST the other day about the Dr King Memorial in Washington.  National Park Service guide John W. McCaskill, stationed there, encounters all sorts of visitors to the monument.  Some are just learning about the fight for civil rights in the US, and some are people who were there on the front lines of the fight - literally.

One day, he met Rev. C.T. Vivian.  In 1965, Rev. Vivian was on the steps of the Birmingham municipal building, trying to register new voters. And a violent sheriff, one Jim Clark, stood in their way and said they could not register.  

Vivian stood firm for the right to vote. Clark hit Vivian so hard that he broke his hand. As blood poured from his nose and mouth, Rev Vivian had the courage to say this to the news cameras recording this horror:  

   "We are willing to be beaten for democracy."

And that courage flowed from the heart of the man whom we honor today. 

Please remember that, the next time that voting seems an inconvenience, or kindness to persons of a different faith or background seems to be too much trouble. 

Sunday Rerun: Hats On

 The question was put to me the other day by the Mrs, "Why do men like to wear a hat?"

I think she had been listening to That 80s Station and heard Men Without Hats doing the Safety Dance, I don't know.

But it is true, I don't like to leave the premises without a hat on, and it's usually a baseball cap that's atop my melon.

Even as a wee lad...

I could think of five reasons right away:

1 - A hat with a brim will keep the sun out of your eyes. Frenchmen sporting berets and anyone wearing a beanie know how tough this can be,

2 - I am way past the age of wanting to fool with my hair. No sprays or mousses or gels or macassars for me, please. When I wear a cap, for all anyone knows, it's all perfectly coiffed under there.

3 -  A hat lets you show your affiliation with a certain team or cause. (This is why I banished all my red hats, no matter what symbol they bore.) Try this simple test someday when you feel lonely: wear an Alabama Crimson Tide hat and see how many friendly folks give you a strong "Roll TIDE!" It will warm your heart, doggone ya.

4 - Combined with the bandana that you should always have, a cap become an emergency tote sack.

5 - Hats offer protection from spiderwebs getting on your bean. Every spring, the trees around here are goalposts between which spiders construct elaborate webbery.

I'm sure there are other reasons, but 6 -  I'm keeping the rest under my hat.

The Saturday Picture Show, January 17, 2025

This is the Feline Gene Simmons, welcoming you to this week's Picture Show!

Maybe next week, what do you think?...

A pair of thin waffles sandwiching some syrup is the Dutch treat known as "Stroopwafel."

This is a wildflower spring in Texas. Sing it: "You've got a smile like an acre of sunflowers, and your eyes are a Bluebonnet blue...Shake hands, it's grand you're from Texas, 'cause I'm from Texas too!" (But I'm not.)

For such a beautiful area in which to live, nature is not going to just send any old swaybacked hoss! Look at all this beauty!

Sorry for you vegetarians and vegans and avocado fanciers. This is the ne plus ultra of the carnivore experience. Pass the Worcestershire sauce, please!

You've heard of the sardonic expression "rearranging the deck chairs on the 'Titanic' ", meaning to try to straighten up a hellacious mess before the whole thing sinks in the North Atlantic. Well, this is an actual deck chair from the 'Titanic," and it's arranged nicely!

This shrimp is all alone. I usually see them fried up with eleven of their friends, aswim in cocktail sauce.

The good folks at Waffle House have set up break areas for employees to enjoy a few minutes of peaceful solitude, away from the din and clatter of the bacon and batter.

This does not look a bit like the plastic stork they always have at baby showers. I was part of that unenlightened generation whose parents handed out nonsense about the stork bringing babies and metal desks saving us from radioactive fallout and working hard for giant corporations bringing security and happiness. 
 

Infamy

Wednesday, January 14, 2026, will long be remembered as the day when the cell phones stopped working for half the day, and oh my heavens! The weeping and wailing!

It was just after noon when I looked at my phone and saw "Emergency Calls Only" where it usually says "Verizon." I tried to figure if I had fatfingered something wrong, but then Peggy said her phone said the same thing, so I figured it was some network outage. 

Within minutes, two great teams went to work on the problem. First, the network engineers, who, some 12 hours later, figured someone unplugged something or the whole network needed to be rebooted or whatever, and then the public relations all-stars went to work, putting out soothing messages about how "we know this is an inconvenience to your day" and "our people are working to restore service as soon as possible." My guess in these techie things is that someone had to call home and ask their 17-year-old kid what to do. As always, one of them knew, and then went back to watching his K-Pop.

This is not a picture of someone with the measles. It's a chart of the Verizon snafu.

This morning, we awoke to news that Comcast was going to give us all 20 bucks for the inconvenience, but the last I saw, we had to go online and submit a request for the double sawbucks. They know exactly who was out and who should get the 20 simoleons, but they're going to make us work for it.

I should ask that bigshot's kid how to get my twenty.

And oh yes, it was fun to be back in 1991 again - no phone, no text, nada. My landline still worked, though, and this is why I told Peggy I will never ever again ask if we can get rid of it. You can call us to hear how we feel about that landline! It's either 1-800-DONTNEED IT  or 1-800-GLADWEHAVEIT.

NYPD True

Yesterday we talked about the goof who was caught porch-pirating from the Police Commissioner of Baltimore City.

So let's talk today about Willie King, the New Yorker who mugged a 94-year-old lady in 1996, getting away (but not far) with her wallet with family pictures and $90 inside.

The little old lady was out for a walk with her son, Louis Gigante, as in the Rev. Louis Gigante, a priest.

Father Gigante did mention this to his brother, the lady's other son, Vincent "The Chin" Gigante, who was, at the time, the city's most feared Mafia don. Although Vince, or "Vinnie," as he liked to be called, was at one time an amateur boxer, he didn't come by his nickname for taking punches on his chin. Seems that as a boy, he was called "Chenzo," a short form of Vincenzo. 

Vince, 1957.

In much the same way, pugnacious Yankee manager Billy Martin, born Alfred Manuel Pesano, was such an adorable child (!) that his grandmother called him "Bello,"  meaning "beautiful" in Italian. Other people in the area, refusing to see Alfred as handsome, guessed she was trying to say "Billy," and it stuck.

Anyhow - naturally Willie was a little scared when he found out whose mom he knocked down while stealing her purse. But not to worry: Father Louis told him "the Chin" was a forgiving sort:  “This is stupidity,” he told the press. “I know you like to talk about my brother. I just want to be left alone. My brother is sick enough to be what he is. He’s home with mama.

During his arraignment later, King, 37, was all loose and smiley, and his defense attorney, Steven Wershaw, saw no reason to ask for protective custody for King.

“He does not seem to have any fear,” Wershaw said. “Mrs. Gigante was not injured in any way, and other than the alleged reputation of the family, I don’t think he has anything to be worried about.

Other than that, Mrs Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?

The Chin had his own legal problems. The government was trying to try him on murder and racketeering charges, so Gigante took to wearing a bathrobe and walking around the streets in a bid to mount an insanity defense.

A heck of a town, New York is.