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Merchendising

AC/DC has announced that they are teaming up with an Australian winery to produce their own brand of wines.  While KISS has probably been on more branded products than anyone could ever think of, I’m sure there are other bands and products that could be mated up:

Britney Spears – Home hair care and DIY haircut kits
Whitney Houston – Pseudophedrine cold medicine
Adam Ant – Pest control

The Chambers Brothers – Watches and clocks
The Commodores – Masonry construction
Dire Straits – Scratch and dent appliances with free installation
George Thorogood – Scotch, Bourbon, and/or Beer
Meat Loaf – Take home comfort food
Moody Blues – PMS remedies
Motley Crue – AED lifesaving devices
Paul Simon – Color Film
Red Hot Chili Peppers – “I dare you to” level hot sauce
Ron White- Scotch and cigars, what else?
Van Halen – Colorful sneakers
Willie Nelson – Rolling papers

What do y’all think?  Feel free to add to the list in comments.

by daddybear71 on August 15, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in music

Posted by daddybear71 on August 15, 2011

https://daddybearsden.com/2011/08/15/merchendising/

Dear Warren

While I appreciate your candor in your recent newspaper article, in which you opined that the rich in our nation should pay more in taxes, please keep it to yourself.

You see, while I’m not super-rich by any measure, I am working my butt off to bring my household’s income to the level that President Obama says ‘rich’ starts at, $250,000 a year.  I’ve got a long way to go before that happens, but hard work will pay off over time.

As it stands now, I’m giving a lot of money to the government in both taxes I pay directly and money I give to businesses when they pass on their tax bills to me in the price of their goods and services.  I pay income tax, property tax, energy tax, sales tax, as well as taxes on many of the services that I purchase in order to maintain the level of comfortable living that I want.

I don’t think I need to pay more taxes, and while you may envision only the rates for the highest earners going up, the slippery slope theory of tax law leads me to believe that when that particular snowball gets going, my tax rates will go up and my upward mobility will slow or stop.

Mr. Buffett, if you feel you should be giving more of your income to the government, please feel free to do so.  In the mean time, please allow the rest of us to do the same if we so choose, or to do something meaningful with our money, either through investing, spending, or saving.  In other words, do something that makes you feel good and leave the rest of us alone.

Sincerely,

Daddy J. Bear

by daddybear71 on August 15, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Politics, taxes

Posted by daddybear71 on August 15, 2011

https://daddybearsden.com/2011/08/15/dear-warren/

Good, Bad, and Worse, and Worst

Good – Shucking and blanching another bushel of sweet corn, this time Silver Queen, and preparing a half bushel of tomatoes to be canned as diced tomatoes.
Bad – While pouring 3 gallons of boiling water into the sink so you can clean out the pot it’s in and start sanitizing canning jars for the tomatoes, hearing water splashing in the cabinet under the sink instead of gurgling down the pipes.
Worse – Realizing that the water isn’t running out onto the kitchen floor, but is running down the back wall into the basement
Worst – Acting without thinking and putting your hand into the stream of steaming corn water to try to force the popped pressure fitted pipe back into place and burning the living daylights out of it.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

I’m OK.  My “Oh crap, that hurts” reflex beat out my “Oh crap, I’m flooding the basement” reflex.  A little cold water and some judicious swearing in multiple languages took care of it.  The basement is also OK. The water went into an unfurnished part of the basement and only ruined a bag of charcoal.  a few feet to the right, and I’d have been trying to get corn water out of the couch.

by daddybear71 on August 14, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized

Posted by daddybear71 on August 14, 2011

https://daddybearsden.com/2011/08/14/good-bad-and-worse-and-worst/

Thought for the Day

Would Peter Pan have been a more interesting story if Captain Hook was into trap and skeet instead of treasure hunting?

“Ha, ha, you old codfish!  You can’t catch me!  I’m an eternally immature male protagonist who can fly!”

“Smee, fetch me my 20 gauge.  It’s in the crocodile skin case with Tinkerbell accents.”

Discuss.

by daddybear71 on August 14, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Thought for the day

Posted by daddybear71 on August 14, 2011

https://daddybearsden.com/2011/08/14/thought-for-the-day-76/

Breakfast This Morning

This morning Irish Woman left me and Boo to our own devices while she ran to do a few things, so I thought I’d make a “Dad” breakfast.  This is a recipe that I make when we’re camping.  It uses up leftovers from cookouts and camp dinners quite well, if I do say so myself.

Ingredients:

2 links of sausage (bratwurst, smoked, italian, chorizo, whatever.  I used two of the venison smoked sausages from last night’s cookout)
1 cup roasted potatoes and onions, also from the cookout
Spices to taste
3 eggs
Your favorite shredded cheese.

Melt a small amount of bacon grease in the bottom of a cast iron pan, using just enough to wet the bottom of the pan.  Cut the sausages into 1/4″ coins and add to the hot pan.  Turn several times until all surfaces are browned.  Add potatoes and onion, and allow to brown on both sides and heat through to the middle.  Add spices to your own taste.  Crack eggs into a bowl and beat for scrambling.  Pour over potatoes and meat, and stir gently until the eggs are cooked through.  Put on plates, sprinkle with cheese, and serve.  I douse mine with a bit of hot sauce, but just enough to add some heat, not so much the flavors are overwhelmed.

Since everything but the egg is already cooked, all I’m doing is heating the sausage and potatoes through and browning them, so this only takes about 10 minutes from refrigerator to plate.  I served it this morning with sliced apples and cold milk for boo and a nice glass of iced tea for me.

Got leftovers?

by daddybear71 on August 14, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Recipe

Posted by daddybear71 on August 14, 2011

https://daddybearsden.com/2011/08/14/breakfast-this-morning-2/

Had a bit of a storm

Well, I won’t need to water the garden tonight.  We had a very fast, quite violent rain and wind storm come through a couple hours ago.

Here’s a couple shots of the cloud wall as it approached us:

About 10 minutes after I took those, it got dark as night and the wind started blowing hard enough to make our 60 year old maple trees bend about 1/3 over, and our fruit trees were pretty much bent in half.  Luckily none of our trees lost more than some dead wood.  I’d hate to have to replace fruit trees now that ours are producing, and a big maple does nothing but break things when it falls.

Our neighbors weren’t quite so lucky:

That’s an 80 to 100 foot tall pine tree with a base of between 3 and 4 feet.  It missed the power lines by a few feet, which is lucky for us.  I checked out the part that broke, and it wasn’t rotten at all.  The tree just gave out under the wind.

After the storm passed, I went down the road to the grocery to pick up some little things we need for breakfast tomorrow, and the stop lights along the main street were out until I was well into town.  For the most part people were doing the right thing and treating it as a four way stop, but there was at least one accident bad enough that they had to call a wrecker to haul off the carcass of a Toyota.  There were several large trees down in the park behind the house, but no other damage.

I’ll have to do a couple minor repairs tomorrow on the rain gutter, but other than that it’s just picking up some pieces of kindling in the back yard.  Guess we got lucky.

by daddybear71 on August 14, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in weather

Posted by daddybear71 on August 14, 2011

https://daddybearsden.com/2011/08/14/had-a-bit-of-a-storm/

Must be a new record

A young man who was about to start attending classes at Western Kentucky University has been told to stay off campus by the college’s administration.  It seems that he has made a habit of “planking” on various things on campus and leaving stickers advertising his activities on the targets of his attention.  He made an appearance on TV about his escapades, and seems to be surprised that he is being told to stay off school property.

This bluntskull defaces school property, and is then surprised that he’s told to go away and not come back?  Under “chutzpah” in the dictionary, we’ll find his mugshot.

You know, I knew a few guys who were asked to leave the Army a couple of months after joining up because they either just didn’t fit in or had screwed up so badly that the military didn’t see the value in trying to make soldiers out of them.  Irish Woman reports that several people she knew in college didn’t make it through their first semester before being asked to pursue their academic careers elsewhere.

But this talented young man didn’t even make it to freshman orientation.  That’s gotta take some talent for poking the pooch right there.  Imagine being fired from a job before they even embroidered your name on your shirt.  Something tells me this guy is going to have that experience more than once in his life.

So way to go there, genius.  You worked hard all through high school to get into a pretty good school, and threw it away so you could do your “Look at me!  I’m cool and special!” routine before you even signed up for classes!  I’m sure you’ll do well in whatever endeavor you screw up next, and your parents won’t mind you trying to get through enough community college while living in their basement that you can re-apply to another university in a few years.  Good job!

by daddybear71 on August 13, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Uncategorized

Posted by daddybear71 on August 13, 2011

https://daddybearsden.com/2011/08/13/must-be-a-new-record/

A question

Got a question for you preppers and ammo hoarders out there:

Most ammunition that you can buy in bulk is Full Metal Jacket (FMJ).  It’s cheaper than soft point or hollow point, and you can buy it in bulk more often.  One of the reasons FMJ ammunition is so prevalent is because that’s what militaries use.  The Hague Conventions prohibit the use of any ammunition that easily expands or flattens, so FMJ is the ammunition that most militaries, including ours, issue to their troops.  Since it’s mass produced for the military, it’s cheaper on the civilian market than SP or HP, and is what most shooters, including me, do most of their practice shooting with.

In the event of having to deal with a goblin breaking into your home, or a horde of goblins breaking into your neighborhood, a lot of people are going to grab their AR-15’s or other rifle caliber carbines to deal with the problem.

My question is:  Since you’re not bound by the Hague Conventions in what ammunition can be used to shoot a human being, do you or would you have soft point or hollow point ammunition on hand in enough quantity in your carbine’s caliber for these situations?  Most people have SP or HP on hand for use in their pistols, but what about those who will use a rifle or carbine for defense?  It seems to me that HP or SP would make sense for doing more damage with the first shot than FMJ, and less chance of pass-through of the goblin and into whatever is behind him.

Please leave thoughts in the comments.  I’m actually curious about this.

by daddybear71 on August 12, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Guns

Posted by daddybear71 on August 12, 2011

https://daddybearsden.com/2011/08/12/a-question/

News Roundup

  • From the “Up In Smoke” Department – The LAPD bomb squad detonated an suspicious briefcase and found that it contained a movie script and a laptop computer.   The owner had brought it to the talent agency where it was found in hopes of getting someone to read his magnum opus.  Since the laptop was destroyed, I hope this guy invested in some backup software or has a really deep line-up in his liquor cabinet, because he’s going to be using one or the other.
  • From the “Heart Attack on a Stick” Department – A vendor at the Iowa state fair is selling battered and deep fried sticks of butter for $4 apiece.  You know, you wrap that puppy in bacon, give me a cold beer, and hook me up with a blood pressure/cholesterol medicine IV drip, and you’ve got a deal.
  • From the “Well, duh!” Department – Police in Oklahoma are refusing to investigate an incident in which a woman stripped to her skin at a golf course because no-one has complained.  I could make a sexual or mysogenistic comment here, but I probably don’t need to.
  • From the “Stupid’s Supposed to Hurt” Department – A woman in Florida lost three fingers when her attempt to utilize fireworks to wake up her husband went horribly wrong.  This just goes to show the value of a good alarm clock.
  • From the “Yeah, That’ll Work” Department – Scotland Yard is in negotiations to bring the former head of the Los Angeles Police Department to England to act as a consultant on how to deal with riots.  Because if you need to quell a riot, you know you can call the LAPD for good advice.
  • From the “Better to Live in Sin” Department – The management of the “Sesame Street” television program have reacted to an on-line petition to have the puppet characters of Bert and Ernie admit that they are in fact gay and get married.  The statement says that while the puppets are male and have lived together for 40+ years, they have no sexual orientation.  My response to the whole thing:  Don’t we have anything better to worry about than the sexual orientation and marital status of two foam rubber puppets?
  • From the “Update” Department – The man who was arrested after urinating on a 11 year old girl on a flight has been kicked off of the United States skiing team, where he was apparently trying to get ready to compete at the Olympics.  I’d hate to see everyone who makes a mistake lose their dream like that.  It seems to be a slippery slope to me.
by daddybear71 on August 12, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in news

Posted by daddybear71 on August 12, 2011

https://daddybearsden.com/2011/08/12/news-roundup-98/

Thought for the Day

When sitting on a conference call with co-workers, it is always a good idea to check to make sure your “mute” button is engaged before wondering out loud if someone on the call is capable of reading English and can tell time without having to know where Mickey’s hands are.

by daddybear71 on August 12, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Thought for the day

Posted by daddybear71 on August 12, 2011

https://daddybearsden.com/2011/08/12/thought-for-the-day-77/

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