CPCP: Death and Taxes and Breaking Up

The return of the Crock Pot Crosspost...several months and a day late.

Death by Text: The Pathology of a Bad Breakup meet Death by Chocolate in a Crock Pot.

Happy reading and bon app!

CPCP: You Have Beautiful Eyeballs

Today's Crosspost comes from Persephone Magazine, my favorite ever online feminist mag. And, yes, I wrote it. We've already addressed the fact that I'm very self-promotional, so get off my beans about it!

Crosspost:

We Try It!: Pickup Lines

Crock Pot Recipe:

What else? Date pudding! (from About.com's Southern Food page).

Happy reading and bon app!

Crock Pot Crosspost: Rock This Test!

I'm taking the Millers Analogy Test tomorrow which means: a) I don't have time to go poking around the webbernets today looking for something neat to crosspost and comment on; and b) I need to get pumped up!

Crosspost: 

In light of both a) and b), I present: the Rock This Test! music video created by the 5th graders of Centennial Arts Academy in Gainesville, Georgia. It's inspirational power speaks for itself, no commentary required.

And I am going to...ROCK THIS TEST! [Insert motivational side kick, WTAAH!]

Crock Pot Recipe: 

Spinach and lentils are two of the brainest foods around. Spinach is rich in Vitamin E and lentils have all that good glucose so Double Lentil, Sausage, Brown Rice, and Spinach Soup from Kalyn's Kitchen makes for the perfect pre-test meal. Who knew your crock pot could make you both brawny AND brainy? That's two Smurfs in one, a very good value. Like test rocking, value shopping is a smart people pasttime.

Happy reading and bon app!

p.s. For those of you who know me in meatspace (I just learned that word so it's still really funny to me, and it makes me picture this) you may be wondering why I am considering applying to graduate school when I already have a doctorate. Well, it's because I want another one. Like the Kanye album says, "You know what keeps me warm at night? That's right! Those degrees."

This CPCP is Filled with Regret...sy

C’mon! I’m only three weeks and two days late with the humpday Crock Pot Crosspost! If you knew me better, you’d know I’ve been waaay later on stuff than that.

Crosspost:

The webbernets have opened up a whole new world of commerce, and this is mostly neat; BUT as I peruse sites like Etsy.com (looking at totally normal things, like Barbie clothes) I often stumble across really crackerjacks items that no one would want…ever.

We were better protected from these items when everyone and son oncle wasn’t free to sell wares online. And though the barriers that kept creators from getting products to market needed to come down, or at least have a few fence posts knocked out, once those barriers were down, they were sooooo down.

Which means, we now have products like this “Steampunk” costume duct-tape dress (for $120.00 US) out there in the world. And we maybe could have done without.

So in the spirit of celebrating(?) what e-commerce has brought us, today’s crosspost is actually an entire website, Regretsy | Where DIY Meets WTF. Please enjoy.

Crock Pot Recipe:

It’s spring, the days are getting longer, we’re drinking more (or I am), so today’s feature recipe is for a cocktail and comes to us from drinknation.com: the Last Night Regret.

Oh, and please give your crock pot the night off on this one! This cocktail should be served Daryl Mitchell. Serving it hot would be more regrettable than that duct-tape dress.

Happy reading and bon app (or rather, tchin-tchin)!

Crock Pot Crosspost: This Is Nerdery!

If you're a nerd, you may have just taken the Jeopardy! online contestant test like I just did. I think I did pretty well, but this is my first crack at it, so I don't really know what, if anything, "pretty well" gets you in this game show application game. I can assume, based on the fact that there's a Jeopardy! newsletter and numerous Jeopardy! fan sites, that trying out for Jeopardy! is its own nerd subculture, and since I'm already an active participant in several other nerd subcultures that take up a goodly amount of my time, it's not one I'll be joining.

I did have fun taking the test, however, and it got me thinking about the guy who pwned Jeopardy! week after week yet humbly accepted defeat at the hands of a dweeby supercomputer named Watson (which I personally think is a dumb name for a supercomputer, I would have named it something cooler like...Supe...Supey...no, Super Duper...Pooper Shooter the Supercomputer, or Jim), the one and only Ken Jennings. Yeah, I know there are probably, like, two hundred people named Ken Jennings in various phone books throughout the U.S., but you know what I meant.

Ken Jennings is not only a Jeopardy!-slaying beast, he's a pretty funny guy. Which is why today's CPCP is from Ken Jennings' blog, Confessions of a Trivial Mind.

Crosspost:

KJ's blog FAQs, the most Jeopardy!-tryout related work of literature on these united webbernets.

I found KJ's responses to the questions frequently asked of him endearing and clever. And now that I know he does a Wordplay Wednesday feature on his blog, I think I'm becoming a fan. What are Ken Jennings fans called, anyway? Jemmings? Like Jennings combined with lemmings? Or human supercomputer superfans...who area also human? That one's kind of wordy. I don't know what we're called (yup, I used "we", so I think that makes my fandom official) but we're out there! Get used to it! Kick rocks, Watsonites!

Crock Pot Recipe:


In honor of today's game show theme, I present crock pot Cornish game hens as today's recipe, courtesy of Greyson Ferguson at About.com.

Happy reading and bon app!

Crock Pot Crosspost: A Lie is a Lie is a Lie

Nice try, Mike Daisey, but nobody's buying it. You got caught in a lie, excuse me, LIES. And what you should be doing is apologizing, PROFUSELY, to everyone who's integrity you put on the line with your stories. What you're doing instead is pretending like this was all part of some great plan to highlight a "bigger truth".

Bull merde! Pardon my French.

Daisey's attempts at talking himself out of this corner are about as skillful as what I'd expect a middle schooler, who learned about the art of persuasion yesterday, to come up with when caught behind the baseball fields smoking.

First of all, Daisey's current message is inconsistent. If "it's not journalism, it's theatre," then why would Daisey have participated in a program like This American Life in the first place? And why would he have needed to talk with fact checkers at all, or hide a translator from TAL? He could have simply said, "the details aren't important because this is fiction; I did research to create an air of reality for this work of fiction, but it's not intended to be taken as the truth." Taking "a few shortcuts," which he sooo generously admits to, would have been irrelevant, because art doesn't require substantiation. The reason Daisey never said anything like that, of course, is that he never thought of this as theatre rather than journalism, until he had no other choice.

Second, if veracity does matter (which Daisey seems to half believe), who the balls does Daisey think he is to decide what constitutes the "bigger truth"?  What does "bigger truth" even mean? If it's something other than just plain truth, then I've got another word for it. Young children are generally able to grasp that, when it comes to details, there is truth, and there is un-truth (also known as lies). Of course Daisey's "bigger truth", his narrative, is not a truth at all. It's a subjective, steeped in his imagination, significantly fabricated fable designed to fit his premise. When scientists alter their data to fit their hypotheses it's called fraud. Daisey's story, with the lies added in, might be more interesting and titillating for the lies, but clearly, it's fraud.

That a lot of what Daisey presented did pan out, doesn't change anything either. The scientist who has 90% of the data he needs to substantiate his hypothesis but fabricates the final 10% is not forgiven the deceipt because "a lot" of what he presented was true. One drop of poison spoils the soup. And if we really value journalism we'll not make comments about how Daisey said a lot of truthful things too. It's so plain to me that this isn't important. Most dishonest people still tell the truth a lot of the time, but there's no credit for that. A cheater doesn't get credit for all the games where he didn't cheat, a kidnapper doesn't get props for all the kids he didn't kidnap, and Daisey doesn't get credit for the truthful things he included as part of a fraudulent show.

Daisey's attempt to persuade the public that he didn't intend to mislead, or worse, that he's just above petty little things like truthful details, is an insult. And one that would be dangerous, if anyone was buying it. Fortunately, no one is. And it's a relief that in a world where the silver-tongued serpents of industry, media, and politics rely on the pervasiveness of gullibility, there's still no one stupid enough to buy this bridge.

Today's Crosspost:

Mark Baumgarten of City Art's Magazine shares some thoughts on having been lied to by Daisey in At Large: On Getting Duped by Mike Daisey.

Today's Crock Pot Recipe:

Liar's Tomato Soup by Annie at Tastebook.

This soup can be served chilled, so you can give your crock pot the week off if you want to. And if serving the soup hot, you can heat this soup in a saucepan or use your slow cooker, just keep the temp and time in your slow cooker loooow. This soup shouldn't come to a boil.


Remember, friends: shortcuts are just fine in cooking, but not in journalism.

Happy reading and bon app!

Crock Pot Crosspost: Dear Richies, Silence is Golden…and You Like Gold, Right?

Crosspost:

It’s Hump Day! And you know what that means…no, I’m not talking about business time, I’m talking about crosspostin’ and sloooow cookin’!

Today’s crosspost comes from Cracked.com. David Wong basically nails it with 6 Things Rich People Need to Stop Saying, and that is reason enough for his article to win the coveted Wednesday Crock Pot Crosspost slot, but for the sake of full disclosure, his article also links to a piece I wrote for Persephone Magazine called Don’t EVEN Get Me Started, Mythical Bootstraps College Student.

Despite the fact that today, like many days, I’m feeling a little self-promotional, I hope you’ll nod in agreement and mutter, “Mm, hmm. MMM HMMM. Yes, THIS!” whilst reading both Wong’s and my words. Because we’re right, and stuff.

Crock Pot Recipe:

As you nod in agreement with Wong and me, I hope you’ll take in the rich, savory aroma of braised pork ribs simmering in your slow cooker. To make that happen, check out Christine Cooks’ recipe for crock pot braised pork ribs with whole garlic cloves and fresh rosemary.

You’ll like it. It’s rich and uses plenty of cracked pepper. A feast fit for a Rockefeller. Little known fact, Nelson Rockefeller, like pork, was once called “the other white meat.” True story*.

*Not a true story.

Happy reading and bon app!

Crock Pot Crosspost: Leap Day Magic's All Around As Leap Day William Comes to Town

I'm a sucker for oddball holidays--oddballidays. Waitangi Day is marked on my calendar and I celebrate it by watching Flight of the Conchords (New Zealand's 4th most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo) videos on YouTube all day.

Given this love for lesser celebrated holidays, you can imagine my excitement when 30 Rock (a show that sometimes feels like a documentary about my life as a woman who speaks German poorly and wears huge cotton underpants) featured Leap Day as the central theme in last Thursday's episode.

Crosspost(s):

If you, like me, hope to celebrate Leap Day with gusto, you'll appreciate today's crossposts: A 30 Rock clip succinctly explaning the rich history of Leap Day through song, and a Huff Post nod to everyone's favorite fictional Leap Day comedy, Leap Dave Williams.

Crock Pot Recipe:

For your Leap Day feast, MomsWhoThink.com has a great crock pot shrimp marinara recipe. A marinara dish is appropriate to the day since marinara sauce means mariner's sauce, and Leap Day William (the patron saint of Leap Day) is a marine figure who resides in the Mariana Trench.

Ingredients:

1 (16 oz.) can of cut tomatoes
2 tablespoons minced parsley
1 clove of minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 (6 oz.) can tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
1 lb. cooked shelled shrimp
Grated parmesan cheese
Cooked spaghetti

Directions:
1. In a crock pot, combine tomatoes with parsley, garlic, basil, salt, pepper, oregano, tomato paste and seasoned salt
2. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 7 hours
3. Turn control to high, stir in shrimp, cover and cook on high for 10 to 15 minutes more
4. Serve over cooked spaghetti
5. Top with parmesan cheese

Happy reading and bon app!

Crock Pot Crosspost: Parenting, It's Not French Rocket Surgery

Crosspost:

Today's crosspost is a Wall Street Journal essay titled Why French Parents Are Superior. I like the article, though I reject the premise that French parents have cornered the market on good parenting. Every example of good parenting that the essay references is really just an example of classic parenting, French or otherwise.

Mind you, classic parenting might be less common in the US today than it is in France, but it was very common in the US even twenty or so years ago. It's definitely how I was raised.

Growing up, life did not revolve around kids. We were expected to entertain ourselves; and, in group settings, the adults were the focus, not the children. We got plenty of attention, but in its time and place, not non-stop. It's also very clear, looking back, that my parents' withheld things (treats, toys, activities) to shape our expectations. At the time it seemed like they were arbitrarily refusing to give in on certain things, but now it's obvious to me that they were letting us kids know that we weren't in charge.

For more on the benefits of righteously withholding stuff from your kids, read my Persephone Magazine article, The Wet Banana, Shared Phone Line, and Wool Coat of My Youth.

 

Crock Pot Recipe:

To complement today's focus on classic parenting, or French parenting, whichever you conclude it is, I present to you, classic French onion crock pot soup from yummly.com.

Happy reading and bon app!

Crock Pot Crosspost: Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Gone to Pot...Roast

Humpday is devoted to Crock Pot Crossposts. Each Wednesday I'll throw something up on the Buster Blonde blog that's been posted elsewhere on the webbernets AND I'll share a crock pot recipe. It's dinner and a show!

Today's Crosspost:

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills: Abusing the Abused

Today's Crock Pot Recipe:

A housewife favorite, traditional pot roast --

Ingredients:

• 3 lb chuck roast (though this recipe will work with a roast as big as 4lbs)
• 1/2 can of beef broth
• 1 cup flour
• 2 cloves garlic (do not serve this dish to any member of the Cullen family...unless you find them as annoying as I do, in which case, please do)
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 tbsp olive oil (though I substitute cooking spray)
• Kosher salt (or truffle salt if you reeeeally want to treat yourself right)
• Cracked pepper
• Garlic powder

What to do:

• Wash roast and pat dry
• Season generously with salt, pepper, and garlic powder
• Coat with flour
• Place floured roast in oiled skilled (cast iron if you've got it) and brown ALL sides (this is key, make sure you use tongs and brown those edges too, my dad says so and he's never wrong about food)
• While you're getting a good brown on that roast, add diced onion to the skillet
• Put roast and onions into greased crock pot and add in the whole garlic cloves
• Pour half a can of broth over the roast and add a dash of salt and pepper
• Cook in a crock pot on low for 8 to 10 hours

If you serve this dish with tatoes, the roast leavings make an amazing gravy. It's good on it's own, or you can add a thickening agent for a fuller gravy.

Happy reading and bon app!