Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Transferring Domains

I prefer having my own domain, but, for right now, this blog will appear at http://gonemild.blogspot.com/. I think. Sorry for the confusion.

New Site for the Time Being

I prefer having my own domain, but, for right now, this blog will appear at http://gonemild.blogspot.com/. I think. Sorry for the confusion.

Still playing with blog mechanics

This old dog is trying to learn a few ftp tricks.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Blog Mechanics

Going to try to migrate my blog to a new system this morning. Times like this make me wish I understood technology better . . .

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Elvis Costello and local politics

My column over at the KCFreePress this week discusses dirty tricks and local politics, and it works in two of my Elvis Costello quotations - "There's no such thing as an original sin" and "I used to be disgusted and now I try to be amused."

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Thursday, April 22, 2010

Olive Oil and Homebrew

I've written about my willingness to violate the German purity law in making my homebrew, but I never thought I would go this far. I've started adding olive oil to my beer.

The issue is oxygen. Yeast need a certain amount of oxygen to do their work in converting sugary wort (the beer juice that you boil) into beer. The amount they need is a bit more than will wind up in the wort under normal brewing conditions, employing normal brewing techniques.

There are a few ways of getting more oxygen in the wort. One way is to shake the heck out of the carboy (the big bottle where you add the yeast and let it ferment) for a half hour or so. The downside of this method is that it's a lot of work to shake up a 50 pound bottle of beer, and I make ten gallon batches, so the work is doubled.

Another way is to bubble air through an aquarium pump and aeration stone (usually employing a filter in the tubing to get rid of floating wild yeast, bacteria, etc.). The problem with this is that you get a ton of foam, and it takes forever to add some air, wait for the foam to subside, add more air, and repeat until you bubble enough air through. Plus, the foam you create is composed of the same proteins and stuff you want to help your beer form head when you pour it, and, in a nutshell, when you use it you lose it. So you might wind up with a good, but flat beer.

The most professional way is to add straight oxygen to the wort, again, using an aeration stone. There's a little expense involved, and the stones are a bear to sanitize, but it's the best way to add oxygen. Sometimes, though, it can be too effective, and too much oxygen in the beer can make the yeast generate all kinds of off-flavors.

A little olive oil avoids the need for so much oxygen. I'm not biochemist, but much of the oxygen needed by the yeast goes to help form cell walls. Olive oil reduces the need for oxygen in this stage, because it provides the kind of fatty acids that the yeast would otherwise need to create by itself. The science is complex, but here's a 35 page thesis on the subject if you're interested.

To adapt the process to homebrewing, you want to use a minuscule amount of olive oil. Too much could conceivably affect the flavor profile, and way too much could destroy the head.

For a few recent batches, I've split my wort into two 5 gallon carboys, and added a tiny amount of olive oil to one of the carboys. I've straightened a paper clip, flamed the end, and dipped the tip into olive oil, then mixed it in with the wort as it runs from the boiling kettle into the carboy. The other carboy gets my normal method of oxygenation, which consists of a splashy trip into the carboy and a bit of shaking.

The results have been subtle. In a recent Vienna Lager, both versions had the same final gravity, but the one with olive oil tasted a bit smoother. In an amber ale, the difference was again subtle, but I preferred ever-so-slightly the olive oil version. (It wasn't a blind tasting, so it might reflect my bias in favor of a spiffy cheap way of improving my beer.) I've detected no downside to the method, and head retention is not impacted at all.

It sounds weird, but it seems to work. So, until I'm convinced otherwise, I'm bringing a bit of Italy to my homebrew.

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Wednesday, April 21, 2010

5 Honorary Meat Dishes

I'm a shameless carnivore, happy to be perched near the top of a providentially-designed food chain. I enjoy chunks of animal protein, I always have, and I always will. On this point, I share common ground with the Sage from Wasilla - "If God had not intended for us to eat animals, how come He made them out of meat?".

But even I find myself having meatless meals from time to time. Sometimes, my appetite strays from its carnivorous tendencies, and I find myself realizing after a tasty meal that there wasn't any meat involved in a perfectly satisfying entree. Those entrees never are fussy messes of too-sharp onion, mesclun that looks and tastes like lawn clippings, or tofu. Instead, they are classic meals that transcend the need for meat.

I propose that the following 5 entrees be considered honorary meat dishes, and henceforth be recognized as unifying meals that can cause vegetarians and meat-lovers to sit down together without compromising satisfaction or principle.

1. Pizza Margherita: Dough, tomatoes, cheese and basil baked together in a pie that satisfies. Inspired by royalty, the classic Pizza Margherita's ingredients achieve a purity that can only be sullied by pepperoni or italian sausage.

2. Macaroni and Cheese: Many of us lived on boxed versions of this during college years of relative poverty, and sumptuous new takes on the recipe often include lobster or pancetta. They're all good, but the good old classic, with bread crumbs on top, deserves a spot in the pantheon of great meals.

3. Falafel: I was in college when a friend introduced me to fried globs of ground up chickpeas in pita bread; he told me it was the "Big Mac" of Israel. Falafel has been among my favorite foods ever since - a great one has flavors and textures that can blow you away.

4. Welsh Rabbit (or rarebit): It seems too simple to be satisfying, and too small to be filling. But the toasted english muffin with a savory, rich cheddar sauce described in The Vegetarian Epicure cookbook caught our attention back during the Reagan administration, and its simple satisfaction has remained a favorite. Served with a hearty ale, it's a warming meal.

5. Pierogies: I may be a bit ahead of the curve on this one, in that pierogies are not as universally known or appreciated as pizza or mac cheese, but, trust me, these over-sized mutant ravioli are Polish soul food. Locally, Pieroguys are soon to open a cafe in the River Market, and their frozen offerings are found in a few grocery stores. Closer to home, you can make my mother's version by following my narrative recipe.
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What else belongs on this list? Eggplant parmesan, grilled cheese sandwiches, spaghetti with marinara sauce, portabella sandwiches?

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Monday, April 19, 2010

Schools First - Can't We Agree on Anything?

The level of discourse among the chattering class of Kansas City is sometimes astounding. Occasionally, though, a conversation with someone removed from the political sphere casts a shaft of light into the room, and the ugly reality of political gamesmanship is revealed in all its sordid detail.

A friend this weekend asked me what I thought about Funkhouser's Schools First initiative. I started to discuss the challenges it will face, and whether Jan Marcason and a couple others will do their best to sink it, and what the ramifications of the bonds would be, etc.. My friend looked at me with something near disgust, and shut me up with a few simple words. "It's a good idea, isn't it?"

Wow.

Lost in all the maneuvering, all the intrigue, all the paybacks is that simple question. "It's a good idea, isn't it?"

It IS a good idea. The Schools First initiative would direct some of the city's resources toward one of its most troubled areas of public service, perfectly timed to build upon the spirit of change and opportunity developing in the Kansas City Metropolitan School District. Each of the 5 facets of the initiative would have a positive impact on the lives of children and families in our city.

Only in the oxygen-starved rooms of Council Chambers and Star Editorial cubicles can that be a bad thing. When all is said and done, the Schools First initiative is about helping children and families. Can't we at least agree on that?

What's wrong with using $100 million in general obligation bonds to improve infrastructure around the schools? The need to upgrade the city's infrastructure is universally acknowledged - the only question is where to start. Why not start where it will help the lives of children and families?

What's wrong with renewing the public safety sales tax and using it to support security around schools? Jefferson City stands ready and willing to make the necessary changes to the law so that we can spend our money on people instead of buildings.

What's wrong with prioritizing schools in city services? Why wouldn't we want to clean up graffiti around our schools first, and clear weeds from where school children walk?

What's wrong with seeking grant funding in partnerships with schools?

What's wrong with putting someone in City Hall in charge of making all this work smoothly?

Only in the misguided power world of politicos and editorialists is there anything wrong with helping children, families and schools. I hope that those members of the City Council who are "struggling" with this simple decision will come to their senses and work to improve the lives of children and families.

If we can't agree on that, voters will have a clear direction on whom to vote for in 2011. A lot of voters will agree on that.

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Thursday, April 15, 2010

If I Recall Correctly . . .

One of the funnier moments in my visit to the "Taking Our Country Backwards" tour came when some local radio guy handed the microphone over to a distant relative of President Obama (they share a great-great-grandfather). The guy started spouting debunked lies about health care reform (16,000 IRS agents? really? that lie got demolished weeks ago) and then begged people to go to recalldennismoore.com.

Ignore the fact that Dennis Moore is retiring. Ignore the fact that no congressperson has ever been recalled in the history of the United States. Ignore the fact that state recall of a federal officer faces some major constitutional hurdles. Go ahead and ignore the fact that Dennis Moore has not done anything wrong. Ignore all that pesky real world information.

The site he directs you to is a scam.

If you go to that site, which is registered to a proxy, it takes you to a blogspot page that features an internet petition, requiring you to surrender your email address in order to "sign" a "recall petition" purporting to support an "application to recall Congressman Dennis Moore".

Sorry, folks, that's not the way the real world works. If you signed this petition, I suspect you've put your email address on a list that is being sold world-wide as a prime source of gullible potential customers of pharmaceuticals, get-rich-quick schemes and whatever else they dream up.

This is NOT a legitimate recall petition.

If you want to see how the Kansas recall process works, go look here for how to do it.

I'll cut to the chase, though. It's not done by circulating an email petition.

Anybody who tells you it works that way thinks you're a chump.

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Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Olfactory KC - To Heck with Folgers - Let's Come to Our Scents

Kansas Citians are disappointed to hear that the Folger's Plant will be decamping to New Orleans. Some PR opportunists are even mounting a futile Facebook campaign to get the plant to stay, and thousands of the gullible have joined. Kansas City doesn't want to lose that aroma.

Viewed correctly, this is not a civic loss, it is a civic opportunity.

Kansas City could be the first major American city to choose its own scents to match its mood. And we could do it for a minuscule fraction of the money that we spend on other schemes that produce far less obvious results.

The science of scents has progressed a long way, and Kansas City could be unique in embracing the opportunity presented. With a few industrial sized scent diffusers placed strategically throughout the city, we could choose our scent day by day, to reflect our mood and our agenda.

There are thousands of choices. Imagine the scent of gunpowder filling the air on Independence Day. Cotton candy when the circus comes to town. Horse manure on days when the Jackson County legislature is in session. Sulfur when the Raiders are in town. The possibilities are endless.

A quick online check shows that you can easily find thousands of scent varieties for $120/gallon - you could probably get it cheaper if you did it by competitive bidding. Figure 20 gallons of this potent stuff sprinkled throughout the downtown loop would be a heavy dose - we might be able to get by with less. Multiply that by 365 days a year, and you come up with a total of $876,000 - an embarrassingly small total for a civic initiative in this town. Add in the capital cost of 20 gigantic scent diffusers, (I don't know - maybe $10,000 each?) and you barely clear a million dollars - civic chump change. We could even repurpose those Sky Stations . . .

Compare this to the millions and millions we're spending on the Power and Light District, and you will see that we can replace Folgers' aroma at a fraction of the cost, and there wouldn't be racially-charged dress codes to deal with. And maybe, if we're lucky, this investment would distract those city council people who are foolishly considering a disastrous multi-million dollar risky investment in a useless downtown convention hotel. (Something smells really bad about that deal.)

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Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Roy Blunt - Out of Step With Missouri

For years, Roy Blunt has been a Congressman from a different part of Missouri and I could pretty much ignore his philandering and prize-winning corruption. But now he's trying to become my embarrassment, too, as a candidate for Senate, so I'm starting to pay attention to whether he can fill the shoes of Senator Kit "Earmark" Bond.

Yesterday, Roy Blunt announced that he is opposing "pre-existing condition" coverage in Health Care Reform. He wants insurance companies to be able to deny coverage for those with high blood pressure, minor skin cancer, diabetes, even genetic conditions. It really is a shocking position to take - 89% of Americans support the provisions requiring coverage of pre-existing conditions.

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Monday, April 12, 2010

Partyng with the Tea Baggers

On Saturday, I went to the "Taking Our Country Back" Tour at the Sprint Center. It was a whole lot less impressive than I thought it would be. I'm not sure if the place was air-conditioned, or if the presence of Karl Rove sent a chill through the air.

If you're interested, I wrote a lot more about it at KCFreePress.com.

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Friday, April 09, 2010

Stephanopoulos Makes a Fool of Himself

George Stephanopoulos is not a fool - but he can't help behaving like one sometimes. In this exchange, President Obama demonstrates that not every dog must be wagged by the tail end of our national intellect.
STEPHANOPOULOS:I want to get to some of those broader issues [of nuclear proliferation]. Because you're also facing criticism on that. Sarah Palin, taking aim at your decision to restrict the use of nuclear weapons. Your pledge not to strike nations, non-nuclear nations, who abide by the nonproliferation treaty. Here's what she said. She said, "It's unbelievable, no other administration would do it." And then she likened it to kids on the playground. She said you're like a kid who says, "Punch me in the face, and I'm not going to retaliate." Your response?

OBAMA: I really have no response. Because last I checked, Sarah Palin's not much of an expert on nuclear issues.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But the string of criticism has been out there among other Republicans as well. They think you're restricting use of nuclear weapons too much.

OBAMA: And what I would say to them is that if the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff are comfortable with it, I'm probably going to take my advice from them and not from Sarah Palin.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But not concerned about her criticisms?

OBAMA: No.

Bravo, President Obama. Bravo.

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Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Courageous Mental Health Blogging

Todd Elkins has been blogging about his struggles with mental health, even to the point of listing his medications and their costs in a series of posts about how he manages to get his hands on the medications he needs. If he were writing about a struggle with some variety of cancer, he'd be lauded as courageous. Because the illness is mental, though, he draws haters and even his supporters, like me, tend to lurk in silence because it's not a topic we're accustomed to being honest about.

Keep up the good work, Todd, and thank you for offering a window into a world many of us are too chicken to look at.

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Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Politics Elsewhere

I've been neglecting this blog a bit, but that's just a temporary thing. If you care to read more, I'm doing a weekly post for KCFreePress.com. This week's piece addresses the efforts to increase the role of money in selecting Missouri's judges.

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