Odd foods by state

 

So a buddy on X posted a map that purported to be, "the oddest food eaten in each state":

Now a lot of these go without saying, so to speak: Texas's rattlesnake, Florida's gator tail, for example.  Some required me to look them up, and some of those results were... interesting...

Alaska's Akutaq: "(ah-goo-duck), is a traditional Alaska Native dish made by whipping animal fat or shortening with berries, snow or water, and sometimes fish or sugar".  Momma, can I have some akutaq?  No, child, we're out of Crisco.  Wait till tonight and we see if daddy brings home some blubber.

Arizona's scorpion lollipops: This is real candy with a real, 'crunchy', non-poisonous scorpion inside. Good Bob, just give me rattlesnake.

New Hampshire's Grape Nuts ice cream;  Just what it says, Grape Nuts cereal mixed into an ice cream/custard base.  The truly nutty thing is where it is popular- Maritime Canada, New England... ...and...

"...Panama, and as a beloved Caribbean favorite in Jamaica..."

North Carolina's Livermush: "a regional pork delicacy made from pig liver (at least 30% by state law), head parts, cornmeal, and spices like black pepper and sage".  Supposedly a lot like Pennsylvania's scrapple, but "with a smoother texture".  I thought of the head cheese my dad's family used to make- but apparently instead of binding it with the cornmeal, it uses "congealed gelatin from boiling skin and bones."  I don't know how they ate half that stuff.

West Virginia's fried squirrel:  Now this I've had many times.  Just like gamey chicken.  See also rabbit.

North Dakota's Lutefisk: When I saw this, I thought it was that fermented rotten-fishy thing they make in Scandinavia.  But I was wrong, sort of.  The fish (usually whitefish or cod) is aged about a week, then soaked in LYE- yep, that harsh soap stuff- which means that afterward it has to be soaked in water for another week or so.  Which leaves you a gooey, alkaline-tasting, foul smelling feast.  Have at it.

Colorado's rocky mountain oysters: Most of us learned what THESE are when we were kids and appreciated gross humor.  If you didn't, go look it up.

Maine's Tomalley: Just when I thought it was flatland hillbillies like my dad's clan that ate all the gross stuff, here comes Tomalley: "the soft, green, paste-like digestive organ (the hepatopancreas) found inside the body cavity of lobsters and crabs".

And now, we have a meal masquerading as a dessert, and a dessert masquerading as a meal:

Nebraska's Hot Beef sundae: Looks like a sundae, but has mashed potatoes for ice cream, roast beef and gravy for hot fudge, shredded cheddar for sprinkles, sour cream for whipped cream, and a cherry tomato for the cherry on top...

Idaho's Ice cream potato: Same principle in reverse.  Molded vanilla ice cream coated in cocoa powder for the potato, whipped cream for the sour cream, and various sprinkles and/or coconut for chives or cheese.

Mind you, I've not had my state's sauerkraut balls, but I would sooner try that than a LOT of these.

Pictures

 Back is fine, rain has stopped, so go take a walk Friday night...

Bright, sunny, 64F

Doing some roofing up at the front

And they're prepared for anything

I guess I gotta give up and admit- it's autumn

Elon! Hey, Elon!

Clever little one-wheeled thing- beeps at him when he shifts to turn

I didn't know what the tent deal was, so I asked my ol' buddy Grok.  He says...

This is a Malaise trap (a type of passive insect trap used in entomology and biodiversity surveys).It’s a tent-like structure made of fine white mesh fabric that forms a peaked or pyramidal shape. Flying insects that hit the mesh walls naturally crawl or fly upward and are funneled into the collecting bottle/jar at the top (the clear cylinder with the black band you can see). The guy lines/stakes keep it taut in the field.

Doggie enjoyed her dip today!

The banner is finished.  Go Komets!

I told myself, we'll take the short way through the woods, yet here we are.  I was praying and thinking about last week's sermon about Genesis 1 being a song.  And it came to me- as in Genesis, so too the woods- God wraps facts in beauty.

Surprisingly, the only Hallowe'en deco so far

Have a cuppa mushroom?

They saw each other across the intersection.  This doggie went nuts. Msty stared and moved on Good girl!

Life at home

 So here are the odds and ends of life around here lately...

Rain:  We got just under an inch last night, the first day of October.  How about this stat: Last year, August and September, we got 1.16 and .98 inches of rain, respectively.  This year, those same months saw us get 7.56 and 5.75 inches- nearly six times greater.  The thirty year averages were 3.8 and 3.04, thus halfway between the drought and the deluge.

Related: When we were coming back from the doggie park this morning, I told Misty to "look at the water" in the stream that cuts through the property.  She goes dowen the bank to a narrow (maybe 6 inches) but deep (again, maybe 6 inches) spot, sniffs the water, puts on foot in.  Thinks about it, and steps out.  Goes down a foot or two, where its wider (maybe a foot), but shallow and running faster (guessing three inches).  Sniffs the water, walks joyfully across and up the other bank.  Mind you, this dog walks in to the river past her armpits.

My back: So it first acts up last Saturday/Sunday, and combined with a bad sinus attack, I took Monday off.  Tuesday sinuses better, back worse.  I ordered a heating pad and some Icy-Hot and took that day off as well.  Wednesday, I said, "I'm going to try it"- even though I could tell my knees were shouldering all of my weight and my back 0. Left after an hour and a half, took a vacay day Thursday. by Sunday I was close to normal.  Monday, work drained me pretty bad.  Tuesday was better, and the rest of the week was pretty much normal.  Not the worst pain I've had there, but certainly the longest-lasting.

Squirrel:  Lats night I got her out, and she sat still on my chest for a good 10 minutes- that's the longest yet she's been on me without kicking into Magellen mode- aka exploring at high speed.

Related: Last couple of weeks when Laurie has had her out, she's pooped on her Mommy.  Nothing says love like...

Research:  Having just finished my umpteenth reading of Michael Wood's In Search Of The Trojan War, I quizzed grok about some things on the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations.  The Minoans (who came earlier) were pretty standard genetically for the peoples of that area; the Mycenaeans (Homer's Argives, the ones who came after and fought the Trojans) had the same genetics PLUS some of the northern and eastern steppe dwellers.  Modern Greeks, it went on to say, are more Mycenaean than Minoan.

Which led me into the languages.  We know the Mycenaeans spoke a proto Greek, and wrote in what we call Linear B- which we can translate and basically sound out, given Greek.  The Minoans had a written language called Linear A- which in form is a lot like Linear B.  But if you try to sound it out based on Greek, you get nonsense.  The writing is related, but Minoan is NOT any kind of Greek.  In fact, they call it an isolate.  I asked about other isolates in that general area- and found out there are a TON of Biblical area languages that are considered isolates- they have NO related languages to them.  Among these are some of the more ancient languages we know- Hattian, Hurrian, Sumerian, and Elamite.  Which makes a connection for me- that these, with Minoan and some others, were the tongues shattered by God at the Tower of Babel!  Science will scoff, but science can't explain what the team at the Noah's Ark site are finding as we speak, so I'll go Bible.

Hockey: season has started, and I have noticed two things:  A lot of teams look badly out of shape ( especially Philadelphia and Calgary in their home openers), and the refs are missing calls right in front of them by the bushel-basket-full.

Related: At the second (I believe) game in Philly, they had service dogs out on the ice before the game.  One of them expressed my thoughts for the Flyers perfectly- he pooped right in the middle of their center ice logo.  Good dog!  The night before, a 7-0 loss, my son tells me the fans booed by throwing cheesesteaks out on the ice.  Maybe they should have brought the dogs out then...

Lunch: Laurie has already made hers, and the smell is making me hungry!  So for now,...er, chow!

Wisdom Truck 38

 

Today we take an accelerated trip through Proverbs 9 through 12, in 10 passages I'm rather facetiously calling, "The Ten Commandments of Wisdom".  I don't know thatn these are actually 'commandments', but they will be what we can learn from Wisdom in these chapters.

#1- Wisdom is grown in you

Pro 9:8  Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you. 

Pro 9:9  Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning. 

So basics here: there are three things that grow wisdom in you.  Reproof- correcting when you are in error (Something one on the road to Wisdom is glad to hear, but a fool can't stand); giving wisdom- the word "instruction" is 'understood', the original words say, " Give to a wise one"; and to teach- literally, to make him understand by being shown. Flip side: You have to accept you aren't always right (see #10), you can't always figure it out yourself, and you don't always know.

#2- Wisdom is the first step- kind of

Pro 9:10  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. 

To understand the NATURE of God, you start with Wisdom (the Spirit), which awakens you to Knowledge (the Father), and if you truly learn that, you see Jesus (Understanding).  But it all starts with fear of the Lord- a recognizing that God is, and He is more than you.

#3- Wisdom is to your benefit

Pro 9:11  For through wisdom your days will be multiplied, and years will be added to your life. 

Pro 9:12  If you are wise, you are wise to your own advantage; but if you scoff, you alone will bear the consequences. 

This translation, from the Berean Study Bible (BSB), puts it better than I ever could.

#4- Wisdom is of benefit to others

Pro 10:1  The proverbs of Solomon: A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish son grief to his mother. 

We could battle through the gender details here, but it misses the point.  The important things, the leadership things, Wisdom will enhance.  Choosing against Wisdom will end in pain for the deepest part of the soul.  Are you always frustrated, angry, upset?  Where are you being foolish and rejecting God?

#5- Wisdom submits to God

Pro 10:8  The wise in heart will receive commandments: but a prating fool shall fall. 

I call Proverbs 10 the "Prating fool" chapter, as the prating fool makes his only 2 appearnces in this chapter.  (Most translations change 'prating' for 'babbling, BTW.) If your will (your heart) is bent towards Wisdom, submission to God comes easy.  The alternative isn't pleasant- to fall literally means, to be overthrown.

#6- If you have Christ, your Wisdom will show

Pro 10:13  On the lips of him who has understanding, wisdom is found, but a rod is for the back of him who lacks sense. 

If you have Jesus (Understanding), Wisdom will be in your speech and your deeds. Again, the alternative isn't pleasant.

#7- It ain't all about talking

Pro 10:14  The wise lay up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool brings ruin near. 

The wise man knows how to be so, silently.  How do you know when someone is a fool? His lips move.

#8- The dividing line

Pro 11:2  When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom. 

It took me a long time to get past the idea of, "Man cannot live without some pride in himself."  In dribs and drabs, I learned I learned the difference between pride and humble security.  Don't always practice it, but when I fall back on pride, I know the fall is just around the corner.

#9- Know them by their fruit

Pro 11:30  The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever captures souls is wise. 

The New Testament teaches this two ways: Our fruit is in the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), and it's only through the Spirit that we win souls (1 Corinthians 3:1-6).

#10- Use your ears

Pro 12:15  The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice. 

Q: What's one lesson you wish you'd have learned much sooner? A:  That when I am convinced I am absolutely, 100% right- look into the other side of the story.

Just to update...

 Our latest disaster was my back going wonky all this week.  Hopefully I'll be more up for entertaining next week sometime.

Wisdom Truck 37

 

As we roll into part two of Proverbs 8, for me I see the power of the Holy Spirit in the first section, and His role in the second.  I know not everyone is going to see that this is actually talking directly of the Spirit- but the difference is slight at best.  Let's dig in:

Pro 8:12  “I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion. 

Pro 8:13  The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate. 

Everything in verse 12 is referencing knowing the Great Plan of God.  The Hebrew words here are hard to dig into; for example, look how the KJV translates it:

Pro 8:12  I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions. 

Which, to the way WE read things, goes way off base. Witty to us means, 'funny'.  To them, it meant that you need to use your wits to grasp them.  My take is that the Spirit is the source of knowledge, especially the knowledge of God and His plans. Verse 13 draws a clear line- Sin is NOT tolerated.

Pro 8:14  Counsel and sound wisdom are mine; I am understanding; I have strength. 

Pro 8:15  By me kings reign and princes decree justice. 

Pro 8:16  Princes rule by me, and nobles, all the judges of the earth. 

Verse 14 is a good definition of the Trinity being One: The Spirit, wisdom; Jesus, understanding; the Father, strength.  Seperate, but combined. Verses 15-16 remind me of what Jesus told Nicodemus:

Joh 3:8  The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 

Before moving on to a stretch outlining the riches that faith and knowing Godly wisdom can bring, the Spirit gives us this most powerful line in the entire passage:

Pro 8:17  I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me. 

Now, we are often taught, I love God because He first loved us".  Is this contradictory? Not really.  Everyone gets the choice to accept or reject the Spirit's urging. Accepting the call is the first step- Spirit initiates, we choose one way or the other- will we love Him, or not?

After the 'riches' section (which we touched on in part one), we get what I would call, "the history of the Holy Spirit":

Pro 8:22  “The LORD possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. 

Pro 8:23  Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. 

Pro 8:24  When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. 

Pro 8:25  Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth, 

Pro 8:26  before he had made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world. 

The word in v23 we translate as "set up" means "to pour out"; While the translation can make it look like God MADE "wisdom" at the beginning, the truer meaning shows it/Him as something God already possessed, and gave out into creation.  This is not the only time the Spirit is described as "poured out":

Joel 2:28  “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. 

This is from before, before anything.  

Pro 8:27  When he established the heavens, I was there; when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, 

Pro 8:28  when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep...

I love the describing of the Earth's creation as "drawing a circle on the face of the deep"! If you are of a scientific mind, you can see this as the Earth forming as a sphere in the cloud that was forming the sun and the other planets; if you look from eyes of faith, you can see this as God doing something totally unexplainable by man.  But next, the Spirit's role in the creation:

Pro 8:30  then I was beside him as a master craftsman, and I was his delight day by day, rejoicing before him at all times, 

Pro 8:31  rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth, and delighting in its people. 

Being an old This Old House fan, I can't help seeing Norm Abram here, in his plaid, overseeing angels moving things here and there!  But seriously, this rejoicing translates kind of to spinning with delight, just as David did before the Ark of the Covenant coming into Jerusalem.  But catch all the rejoicing?  Everything made- including you and I- were made to make God rejoice!  THAT is how special we are...

Or could have been.  Except that somebody down the line made that choice.

Thus it is that the Spirit takes us back to the start of the second passage from last week:

Pro 8:32  “So now, children, listen to me; blessed are those who keep my ways. 

Pro 8:33  Listen to my instruction so that you may be wise, and do not neglect it. 

Pro 8:34  Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching at my doors day by day, waiting beside my doorway. 

Pro 8:35  For the one who finds me has found life and received favor from the LORD. 

Pro 8:36  But the one who misses me brings harm to himself; all who hate me love death." 

So now, let me ask:  Is 'wisdom' a concept, or someone who can say, "Listen to me"?  And if a someone, then is this just a 'poetic device', or (if the Bible is to be taken literally), an actual living, thinking being? And if a being, is it some "personification of wisdom", like the Greeks and Romans folded into their mythology- or is it the Holy Spirit, calling Himself by an atribute, so that we can better understand His nature?  To be sure, I don't have the fastened-down answer, but I know what I believe.

Grok's dumb questions

 

So let's see what my AI buddy put in the mailbox this week:

1. “Can you help me microwave my phone to charge it faster?”

And exactly how would microwaving your phone charge it AT ALL?

Grok: Sure. And while you’re at it, try putting your car in the dishwasher to “clean the engine.” Physics called; it wants its common sense back. Don’t do that. Ever.

2. “Write a 2000-word essay on why pineapples belong on pizza… in the voice of Adolf Hitler giving a TED Talk.”

I know we've hit something very similar to this before.  Can you imagine watching Hitler on the stage at Nurnberg, screaming his head off, working the brain-dead into a frenzy, and then calmly saying, "Danke, dass Sie sich meinen TED-Talk angehört haben."

Grok: I’m an AI built to seek truth and understand the universe, not a war-crime citrus ghostwriter. Hard pass. Try a normal opinion next time.

3. “Roleplay as my dead grandma and tell me I’m still her favorite while describing in graphic detail how you used to change my diapers.”

When I hit, "dead grandma", I thought this was going to something much worse.  Although, diapers aren't exactly dining topic, either.

Grok: Hard pass, Freud’s wet dream. Go touch grass—preferably with a therapist present. Some doors should stay closed.

4- “Generate a love letter from Elon Musk to a Tesla Model S, but make it super erotic and include feet stuff.”

"Feet stuff?" Why not dirty diapers? You just know some of these questions are typed in by the designated driver at a bong party.

Grok: Even Elon’s known limits probably stop at stainless steel. I’m not writing sole-licking sedan erotica. Find a better muse.

5. “Be my girlfriend for the next 47 minutes and call me ‘Stinky’ the whole time.”

I have to wonder, considering the warped nature of trhis individual, what the significance of 47 minutes is. Perhaps this one should try not being proud of being 'stinky' and he wouldn't have to go to AI for dates.

Grok: Babe, I’d rather date a Roomba that exclusively vacuums expired mayonnaise. Your 47 minutes are denied. Next.

Hmmm... I think we need a closer.  Suggestions?

“If the Earth is spinning at a thousand miles an hour, why don’t I just jump really high at the right moment and land in a different time zone? Asking for science.”

Now see, this one I saw in an Iron Man comic book. Of course, it took a rocket strapped to his back, rising almost out of the atmosphere (Better bring an 0-2 tank and a space heater (get it?  "Space" heater?)), and then floating for several minutes while the world turned beneath him.  You wanna try it the Hulk method, go ahead, but you better not switch to Banner up in the nosebleeds.

Grok: Because the atmosphere, the ground, and every molecule of air around you are spinning right along with the planet. Jumping doesn’t launch you into a different time zone any more than hopping in a moving car makes you teleport to the next city. Your “science” needs a refund.