47 Pilsner

Today I am 47-years-old. To take advantage of spousal birthday guilt I bought a freezer. Therese hates it because we have no good place to put it, but it's my birthday. I also bought an analog refrigerator thermostat. Why? Well for the first time in my life I am going to brew a Bohemian Pilsner beer. To do that I need to be able to ferment the beer at a constant 50 degrees. Brewing in a controlled colder temperature was one of my two brewmeister goals this year. My second is to switch from bottles to kegs, but I'll do that later.

Super Bowl and Super Sucky 2012

The Super Bowl will be played in New Orleans in a couple of weeks. Nobody I know is that excited. Quite the opposite, as never before has a Superbowl been held in a city that has so much hatred and anger towards the National Football League. It's not because of the construction and sign police and all of the other nonsense, but it's because of Roger Goodell and "bounty gate." His unprecedented suspension of coaches and players crushed this city. I think there is a good chance that Roger Goodell will get punched, and I'm hopeful that he gets booed loudly during the game. But at least the Atlanta Falcons lost in the NFC Championship game. It was a nightmare to think about Goodell handing the Falcons the Lombardi Trophy inside the Superdome. I believe that Goodell's suspensions cost the Saints several games, and that they would have been in the playoffs again without that draconian punishment. This also hurt the value of my season tickets. But today Sean Payton was reinstated as coach, and the Saints should be pretty good next year, if they can fix their defense.

This past football year overall was the worst one I can remember. My favorite college team, Nebraska, did what they always do under coach Bo Pelini. They have at least 9 wins and four losses each of the five years he's been coach. They lose big games. They haven't played in a BCS game since 2001. While it wasn't nearly as bad as the 2007 Bill Callahan season, it was painful. Hopefully a playmaker will emerge on defense, and QB Taylor Martinez will continue to improve for his senior year.

I Can't Hardly Wait

The Replacements' song "I Can't Hardly Wait" has a special meaning to me. It was the closing track to one of my favorite albums:  Pleased to Meet Me. But my connection to the song was solidified back in the summer of 1999, when I said goodbye to my wife and daughter who were soon to be living more than 7,000 miles away from me. The song spoke sadly about being apart, and states "I'll be home when I'm sleeping, I can't hardly wait." That simultaneously made me feel both pain and hope.

Therese, Kalypso and I had been living in Amman Jordan at the American Center for Oriental Research. It was an amazing year. For the first and only time in my life I was able to visit the remarkable countries of Syria and Lebanon. I traveled to Egypt with Kalypso and my birth mom. In Jordan we attended the funeral of King Hussein. I remember Kalypso saying in a crowd "I am so sad that King Hussein died." Many people nearby were touched and came up to see her, and as often happened then, to touch her hair. The nostalgic mood ended when Kalypso said "I get boogers." The magic died. At the close of the my fellowship in June of 1999, Therese and Kalypso were heading back to UCSD in San Diego, and I was heading to south Jordan to excavate Jebel Hamrat Fidan. It was very hard to say goodbye, knowing I would miss Kalypso's 4th birthday and so many other things. I played the song "I Can't Hardly Wait" repeatedly. I cried quite a bit when their taxi drove away. 

I've always been a sucker for sad songs about being apart. Songs such as "How I Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd, "A Few Hours After This" by The Cure, "Leaving on a Jet Plane" by John Denver, and "Homeward Bound" by Simon and Garfunkel come to mind as some of my favorites. 

Today I was surprised and interested to learn that originally the song "I Can't Hardly Wait" was about suicide. The character in the song was going to climb a water tower and jump. So instead of "Can't Hardly Wait" to dream and be with someone he loves, he "Can't Hardly Wait" to be dead. This grim version of the song was left off the album Tim. The change in the lyrics appears to be because the following album Pleased to Meet Me already had a controversial song about jumping off of a building called "The Ledge."

Here's the original version of the song about suicide, it was an outtake from the album Tim. Notice Bob Stinson rocking out on guitar, the song is far less poppy than the later more famous recording:

Finally, here's the homesick version from Pleased to Meet Me. I also learned today that Alex Chilton played guitar on this version. That's cool:

My First Attempt at Scottish Ale

Lately, my curiosity about Scottish Ales has increased. They are less hoppy, more malty, and I'm told they are great to use in cooking. I just brewed the following recipe in an attempt to create a 70 shilling ale similar in color, taste and strength to Belhaven:

4 lb. Warminster Maris Otter Pale Base Balt

.5 lb Cargill Munich Malt

.125 lb Muntons Roasted Barley

I steeped the above grains at 150 degrees for 3 hours

Then after sparing, I used a 3.3 lb can of Muntons Maris Otter Light Malt and .5 oz of Fuggle Pellet Hops (4.3%) for a 120 minute boil. For the last half hour I added .35 oz Kent Golding Hop Pellets.

In a couple of weeks I'll use Edinburgh Scottish Ale Liquid Yeast.

Some Superstorm Sandy Advice from New Orleans

My heart goes out to all of the people on the east coast who are about to be learn that their insurance won't cover their wind and water damage. My advice, after three hard years of rebuilding following the failed levees in New Orleans, is to keep a detailed journal. You will likely have many different insurance adjustors, countless meetings, phone calls, and emails. This will include government agencies as well as your insurance company. Keep a detailed record of the time, topic, and people involved. Insurance companies often times will wait until just prior to the court date and then settle. They are more likely to settle in your favor if you keep arduous records. 

My other advice is that rebuilding takes much longer than you would expect. I very much wish that my father, who passed away in 2007, could have lived another couple of years. He worried about our situation, and couldn't believe what the insurance industry was doing. I really wish I could talk to him and let him know that we made out OK, and we and his grand kids are doing great.

But I'd estimate and hope that most people will be treated fairly by their insurance companies. It's just about 20% of cases that have problems. But that is still way too many of course.

Advocating Squirrel Hunting

Today for the first time in my life I read The Advocate. It's a Baton Rouge newspaper that is attempting to break in to New Orleans now that the Times-Picayune isn't publishing daily. The Advocate has a New Orleans edition, so there were many good stories that pertain to New Orleans. However on the back page of the sports section was a long article entitled "Squirrels plentiful this season."

There's a picture of some guy in camouflage holding the tails of approximately 8 dead squirrels. In the article I learned that 2012 will be a great year for squirrel hunters. That's because last year was a bumper crop for nuts, and with the rains we've had lately the acorns stay on the trees and get plump, so those gluttonous squirrels have plenty to eat. Hunters usually go after the fox squirrels, as they have the most meat. Then there's this club called EASL: East Ascension Sportsman's Club, and every year they have a "squirrel rodeo." Unlike the more common rodeo with cowboys riding broncos and bulls, at a squirrel rodeo you get a large gun and hunt squirrels. I don't know the rules but I imagine you could rope the squirrels to make it seem more in line with the traditional rodeo. You get a prize if your bag of dead squirrels weighs more than other people's bags. I wonder if the bags are camouflaged also? The article doesn't say, but I don't really see a need for camouflage. Here in the city squirrels seem bright enough to see me coming no matter what I'm wearing. And they get pretty close to me, probably because we don't shoot them and put their carcasses in bags. The squirrel rodeo is this Saturday but you can't participate unless you pay the $10 to become an EASL member. Other big news: it used to be illegal to hunt squirrels with air rifles, and now it is legal. I'll bet that was a huge victory for the NRA. My favorite paragraph follows:

"The only other squirrel species seen in Louisiana's woods is the black squirrel, a species that isn't all that common and is highly prized by hunters. More often than not, taking a black squirrel means taking a trip to the taxidermist."

Truer words were never written. I don't think I've seen a black squirrel in New Orleans, but they are plentiful in Nebraska. I'm thinking about trapping a few and letting them loose at the 2013 squirrel rodeo. Oh to see the never-been-to-the-dentist smiles on those camouflage wearing squirrel eaters hootin' and a hollerin' and shootin' their guns in the air. Ayyyyyeeeeeeeee!

So, The Advocate, thanks for sharing with us city folk in New Orleans what life is like in Baton Rouge.

Growing Up

Gilgamesh's latest class picture shows that he has mastered the art of looking apathetic. He's in the sixth grade and despite his haircut he is not a fan of Justin Bieber as far as I know.

Freedom Hating Terrorists or Reaction to Foreign Policy or an Imbecile's Movie?

Two days ago the U.S. Embassies in Cairo Egypt and Sanaa Yemen were attacked. Protestors scaled the walls and burned U.S. flags. It was far worse in Benghazi Libya, where four people including the U.S. diplomat were killed in a lengthy nocturnal gun battle. Today there are reports of protests occurring all over the Muslim world, including Bangladesh, Sudan, Iran, and Tunisia. Tomorrow is the Holy Day of Friday, and it would seem that after the noon prayer there will be violence directed towards the U.S. in many parts of the world. Why?

According to the U.S. media, these are small pockets of terrorists who hate our freedom. The vast majority of the people of Libya and Egypt love the U.S., and they are our friends. They condemn these extremists for dampening our cozy relationship, especially on the anniversary of 9-11. 

The Arab media, and the whole Muslim world, instead focusses on a disgusting digital movie trailer called "Innocence of Muslims"  that depicts Muhammad as a bisexual idiotic pedophile who converts a talking donkey to Islam. Now that the video is viral, the people involved with it are scrambling out of a legitimate fear for their lives. The main person responsible, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, seems to be the "Sam Bacile" who directed and produced. It would seem that he probably won't be alive a year from now without some serious government intervention. Several actors and actresses are claiming they were duped by the imbecile Sam Bacile. They filmed scenes, they claim, for a movie called "Desert Warriors" that wasn't about religion at all. This is all very reminiscent of the Danish Muhammad cartoons, as well as Theo van Gogh.

But could a tasteless video trailer spark a cultural war? I'm thinking that perhaps this is "the perfect storm." With tensions between Iran and Israel growing daily it wouldn't surprise me to see Netanyahu order a bombing of the nuclear facilities in Iran. Then there's the presidential election in the U.S., with the consensus being war would benefit Romney. It would seem that once again we are at a precipice where an individual can create global tragedy. I'm reminded of Amir's assassination of Rabin that ended the push for Israel/Palestinian peace, or the criminals who flew the planes on September 11th. 

What no media is pushing is a much more complicated story about U.S. foreign policy since World War I, but especially since the end of WWII. I have educated Muslim friends in the Middle East, and they would claim that while the "Innocence of Muslims" is a spark, this fire is fueled by the past 50 years of foreign policy in which we supported ruthless dictators and fought unjust wars to fulfill our oil interests. Now I am going to say a prayer for the world tomorrow, but before that, check out the Wikipedia page for "Innocence of Muslims." Perhaps the battle for the soul of the earth is being fought out there.

Hurricane Isaac & The Price to Live in "Paradise"

Hurricane Isaac sure sucked. We lost power Tuesday (Aug 28th) night and didn't get it restored until Saturday (Sep 1) night. We lost internet/cable as well until Monday when I climbed the utility pole and fixed it myself with a crimp cable connector. So everything is back to normal except there is a giant tree that fell from our neighbor's yard and took out our back railings. Now it's hanging like the Sword of Damocles making our backyard a very dangerous place to be.

With the rogue restoration of the internet I'm now becoming aware of the devastation that hit places like Plaquemines, Braithwaite, and LaPlace. It's hard to rebuild and I wish these people good luck and fortitude as they try. One nice thing about the 100 hours without power was that we spent some extra time with our neighbors Bart, Xy and Persephone. One night we hooked our generator up to the TV and DVD player and watched The Wizard of Oz. It was fun to watch Persephone (age 4 1/2)'s facial expressions. Without power it was hard to sleep due to the heat. Our bulldog Enkidu had a very difficult time breathing. One early morning I was listening to fishing specialist Don Dubuc on WWL radio. Caller after caller from the swampy coast said they lost everything, and this was followed by the phrase "That's the price we pay to live in paradise." What? I'm guessing these callers haven't travelled much. Psychologically this has been a difficult week with the 7th anniversary of Katrina. Bart commented that it seems to smell like Katrina with all of the dead oak leaves. Also with garbage pick up delayed and electricity-less freezers, the trash cans smell like rotting flesh. But you know, that's the price we pay live in "paradise."
Today I met for the first time with my Prophets and Prophecy students. It's like we lost a week here at Xavier. I had my first class Monday, August 27th, and my second class Tuesday, September 4th. Thankfully none of my students thus far had their homes flood. Some still don't have electricity though.

Moustache

I cut off my moustache. I grew it for well over a year so it would look great for the movie The Theologians. Now the movie is done, and the moustache is gone. Wearing a moustache is not easy, especially when eating. It does give you lift when you jump over cars though.