Wednesday evening: Stuff, just stuff

1. A hearty Liamverse welcome to hotspurre and kdsorceress!

KD's icon has the Citgo sign in the background!

2. My wife just deposited a dish containing fresh brownies covered with locally made Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream.

3. Earlier this evening, she made the filling and dough for baked pakoras.

4. Work is cranking up and getting busier. Week after next I will actually be going out and working with kids on portfolios and resumes.

5. We won't be going to War Camp this weekend in Eisental. Just too much going on. I am afraid that event is going to be a casualty of the change in Pennsic dates, and for us in this area, the two preceding weekends are taken up by GNEW and Northern Region War Camp.

Either that, or it -- and other events -- are going to start becoming more regional rather than kingdom-wide.

I do think that there might be an argument for a decent-sized event on the weekend before Labor Day, now that Pennsic ends a week earlier.

6. The secrets of gyros, as explained by the New York Times. There is also video.





7. I was actually not going to post tonight, but then I saw this:



Chicken Fried Bacon

This ode to bacon won the award for Best Taste at the 2008 Big Tex Choice Awards. Creator Glen Kusak had been a fair vendor for 12 years running, but 2008 marked his first year entering the annual State Fair of Texas food contest.

Other great fair foods.

Oh no, PETA, no!

John Carlson
Des Moines Register

And you thought the Butter Michael Jackson strangeness couldn't get any stranger.

Wrong.

The often-detested, sometimes-loved and always-controversial People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals thinks Michael Jackson's image most definitely should not be sculpted in butter at the 2009 Iowa State Fair.

Heck, PETA doesn't even think the butter cow should be made out of butter.

The animal rights organization recommends using something called "Earth Balance," which it describes as a "nondairy buttery spread." Either that "or another vegan spread instead of butter."

Not likely, since the butter cow is one of the most popular attractions at the fair every year, the display is sponsored by the Midwest Dairy Association and the fair is a meat-centered food extravaganza where pork chops on a stick are more popular than cotton candy and deep-fried Snickers bars.

So count on the cow being there, its butter body kept cool at a constant 40 degrees in its usual place of honor in the Agriculture Building.

Jackson's presence is up to Iowans, who are voting in an online plebiscite. Go to www.iowastatefair.org and tell them what you think.

Link and more