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The most popular talks of all time | Playlist | TED.com
A must-add to my 2015 “reading” list…. The most popular talks of all time | Playlist | TED.com. TED is the Chautauqua circuit of today – the best, most intelligent speakers on important topics for today. Well worth your regular attention.
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Wrigley Field
It’s the wonder of holding your dad’s hand, walking through that dark tunnel, and seeing a huge open space where men play a little boy’s game. Billy Crystal, in Ken Burn’s Baseball
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tea and sympathy
This year’s elections are taking shaping as a battle between Tea Party-ers and progressives. One can only hope this means the end of Republicans and Democrats. Probably not. But I love the more starkly drawn line between this year’s combatants: Progressives vs. Tea Partyers.
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Chicken and Corn Chowder
I like having seasons. Even when we’ve lived places where it’s hard to tell winter from fall or spring from summer, there’s something about the change in temp in October or November that triggers the soup instinct in me. The Queen featured this great family favorite in the church cookbook…
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Mrs. Fields chocolate chip cookie recipe
We’re serious about finding the best chocolate chip cookie recipe, so of course we had to do some basic research. Here’s a classic with a video to let you in on the key secrets of getting these favorites just right in YOUR kitchen. Thanks to POPSUGAR Food. Mrs. Fields Chocolate…
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The best homemade chocolate chip cookies
They say this is The Best Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies. (Offered by PBS.org) We’ll just have to see how they stack up and report back later! Dad
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1968
1968 was the worst year ever. MLK and RFK. Riots. Viet Nam. An unrelentingly bad outlook for a mostly clueless college junior turning 21 that summer and thinking a lot about what sort of world he would be graduating into the following year (a much better year!). Drugs and beer…
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catastrophe
Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated on June 28, 1914. A month later, no one was at war. A month after that, 20,000+ were being killed in a single day on battlefields in Europe. By the end of 1914, France alone had suffered one million casualties (killed, wounded, missing, or captured)…
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Reading projects
Since I got our first Kindle seven or eight years ago (?) I have read much more than in the preceding 20 years. But I’ve never had reading projects per se until this year. Now, I’ve really gone overboard: Goals Read the Robert B. Parker Jesse Stone series. Six books…
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About blogging
I have a love-hate thing, apparently, with blogging. Since I can remember, or at least since I was 7, I’ve always seen myself writing. Blogging is the perfect way for me to quickly and easily write down my ideas, musings, and reflections. And yet, I have this mostly insurmountable barrier…
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Dad’s classic cook-off chili
The Queen gave me a great cookbook for Christmas some years ago that was full of the Best Recipes of 1999, according to someone. About the only thing I’ve made more than once is a chili recipe, although I’ve played with it to the point where it’s now a classic…
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Andy Pafko was a local legend.
Star Cub Andy Pafko was a local legend – Daily Herald. By the time I got my Andy Pafko autograph fielder’s mitt when I was about eight, Pafko had already moved on from the Cubs to the Dodgers and Braves. I never knew he was the center fielder on the…
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The Prodigal Sons – NYTimes.com
The Prodigal Sons – NYTimes.com. Great commentary brought to you by my man David Brooks, Tim Keller, and the Gospels. A lesson for our time.
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the freedom to do good
I haven’t seen The Monuments Men movie yet, but I will. I did just see the feature on CBS Sunday Morning and have been following the various interviews with the movie’s stars on Letterman. Several years ago, a rich Texan named Robert Edsel got interested and then got really interested in the…
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learn something today…
“The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That’s the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your…
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Cicero, past and present
Guy Cicero grew up in Cicero, Illinois, U.S. of A. Here’s an article about the town’s history from the public radio website at WBEZ.org: Cicero, past and present. Cicero was a good place to be a kid in the 50s and 60s. Great schools and pretty safe neighborhoods helped by…
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Brussels sprouts are the new green beans
For holiday feasts, that is. I have nothing, exactly, against the standard green bean, mushroom soup, onion things casserole. But unless you make it from scratch, it just doesn’t compare, for flavor with this easy and candy-esque treatment for b’sprouts. One of the secrets, of course, is bacon. The other…
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Pumpkin cheesecake
Chef John does it again. The Queen has asked for pumpkin cheesecake. I check out the version on ATK, but am so taken with Chef John’s production values, I decided to include his version here. Dad’s version will revert to a graham cracker crust and add bourbon to the whipped…
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Easy Southern green beans
A friend, Betty Lou M., who grew up in Richmond, Virginia, says she has made this recipe ever since before she was a young bride 60+ years ago. These beans are very easy and mighty good, a great side for any occasion. We think they would probably be even better…
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the true believer…
Ted Cruz’s true believer rants only remind me of another senator who took us to the brink of a govt. crisis… why are these men smiling?
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Jeff Bezos Does His Part
Reading: Jeff Bezos: A Brief Anthology – NYTimes.com. Let’s face it. Whether you think the Kindle and e-books are a gift from God or the Devil, I hope we can all agree that Jeff Bezos is one great business guy. The same guy who took the broken world of book publishing…
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One Man’s Meat-A Review
One Man’s Meat by E.B. White My rating: 5 of 5 stars 1968 was the worst year ever. MLK and RFK. Riots. Viet Nam. An unrelentingly bad outlook for a mostly clueless college junior turning 21 that summer and thinking a lot about what sort of world he would be…
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Leftover impasta
Ham leftovers masquerade as prosciutto in this recipe. Easter rolls around and I think about ham. That was our family tradition when I was growing up. A ham dinner and an Easter Lamb Cake. But that’s another post. These days, ham means spiral-cut backed ham, with the sugar glaze, in…
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Learn to make cake
My recent coffee crunch cake and chocolate cakes experiments, having turned out so well, makes me want to try more! But before I do, I’m thinking about enrolling in this cake-baking course from America’s Test Kitchen…one of Dad’s Helpers :). Here’s the infomercial….
Publish It Yourself with help from Touchwood Press.
Guy Cicero 