“I still believe that peace and plenty and happiness can be worked out some way. I am a fool.” - Kurt Vonnegut
"Everybody plays the fool, sometime. There's no exception to the rule, listen baby. It may be factual, it may be cruel, I ain't lying. Everybody plays the fool." - Aaron Neville
I asked The Execrable Bede for a special April Fool's Day song. Bede reminded me April is the Anniversary of Lady Day's birth in Philadelphia, PA, on April 7, 1915.
Hen and Chicks is a Succulent. A succulent, is any plant with thick fleshy tissues adapted to water storage. I have discovered where one can learn about Succulents in Philadelphia.
The Philadelphia Cactus and Succulent Society was founded in 1942 to exchange knowledge of and experience with succulents among its members. Membership is open to anyone with an interest in growing and learning more about succulents. There are more than 100 members at all levels of expertise - beginners and experts, collectors and growers.
Gardening is a lot of work. I am a lazy gardener. I like plants that are easy to grow, good to look at and fill odd spots in the garden that would be otherwise filled with pesky weeds.
Hen and Chicks meets all my qualifications. This link directs you to a Succulent Lover's gorgeous blog. I have fallen in mad love with succulent plants.
This plant will grow in partial shade and not much soil - both good qualities in a city garden or on a sunny window sill in Winter. Hen and Chicks produces flowers when the Hen reaches maturity.
Irish Potato Candy is a Philadelphia Spring tradition. Delicious! Indeed, Philadelphians created the candy.
You can buy O'Ryan's made Irish Potato Candy at the market or online.
Or you can make this simple candy at home. The recipe is fun to do with children. No hot stove. No special equipment. For a recipe that actually contains potatoes for Vegans and others go HERE,
NOTE: Be sure to use regular cream cheese, not whipped or reduced fat type. You may need more Cinnamon and Cocoa for dipping.
In a large bowl, cream together the Butter and Cream Cheese. Add Vanilla and Confectioners' Sugar. Beat until mixture forms a ball. Stir in Coconut with a spoon. Roll the mixture between your hands to form small potato-shaped candies or roll into small balls. Place Cinnamon and Cocoa in a shallow dish and roll the balls in it. Place the balls on a cookie sheet and chill for about 1 hour or until firm. If you prefer "dirtier potatoes" roll the candy a second time after they have chilled. You can also add a few chopped Nuts to look like 'eyes' if you want to get really artistic.
This is the month in which we celebrate Saint Patrick. Where else can you get a catechism and a candy recipe on the same page?
Frankly, speaking as a Roman Catholic, I much prefer representation by Stephen Colbert than porky nasty Bill Donohue of the Catholic League. Yes, I even think politics on holidays.
I praise Stacey Abrams. Oh yes I do-ooh. I heart you Stacey. You turned Georgia Blue-ooh. You keep winning. You do. Oh Stacey you do YOU. Selah.
Tomorrow is Right Wing Protest Day. And the media is whipping up excitement. I think I will have an orgasm of schadenfreude watching Corpos and Republicans and Right Wingers suffer. Galations 6:7.
Trump tormented Raffensberger into anxious desperation. What do anxious tormented Republicans like Raffy do when anxious and tormented into a corner? Their last desperate stand? They tell the truth. Their 'mace' becomes fact.
And now as the gunnies and trumpistas gather tomorrow, as they threaten civil war, stupide Kochs are going 'Gee maybe we made a mistake.' I do not know whether to laugh or cry.
Rebel Josh Hawley is an over educated underspanked elite douchebag. I was going "Hawley who?" So I listened to a tape of him talking about his 'rebellion.' He is going to challenge my State's election results. I know how our system works in PA and Philly. I vote here. I want to rip his tits off.
I am going to contrast and compare the state of DC infrastructure after a 'protest' by right wingers. I am really looking forward to this. What is the popo going to do? Is TrumpUS going to call out the teargas, rubber bullets, a general and a bible during the festivities? Is a teen Jesusgunner with a big gun going to shoot a proudboy for us?
I have been so frightened. I am beyond that now. I am LMAO. Helter Skelter Bunky. Has Manson been right all along? aardunza has kindly added to our playlist. You have a song you think appropriate? The comments are yours, Cher.
I do not tire of old standards especially when they are mine. Repeating this as a public service. The PWD is moving its content. I have written to them and when I get new information, I will correct the links in this article.
The Philadelphia Water Department has some excellent information about Rain Gardens. You can make that boggy place in your front yard a thing of beauty and help clean and conserve water. Once planted, such a garden is maintained with little to no effort. The photograph is a rain garden in Philadelphia, designed by Edgar David. Rainwater that flows from the house roof to the stone cistern is used to irrigate an intimate collection of woodland plants. You can read more HERE.
Spring is here. I am ordering Herb Seeds. It is raining gently outside. I am getting that Happy Green Feeling. Now for some Velvet Fog. I repost this every April because I am a fan of Mel Torme, gardens, soft April rain and elegant jazz.
Midnight. It was a soft day. Now it is a balmy night. A gentle breeze is sending smoke from the chemical plant out to sea.
Miss Norma is parked outside my door in her running car. I can smell the engine and hear the exhaust. Norma is dancing in her seat with the windows closed and the bass turned up so high the car is pulsating. She has been tossing her hair and waving her arms about for 20 minutes now. Norma has good taste in music, thank you God.
Norma is living in the rowhouse next door with another single Mom and eight children. Norma is sheltering a family while their house is repaired after a fire. The combined children range in age from 3 to 14. It has been three months now. You would be pulsating in your car too. Norma was so trashed after the Eagles game that she was out there pulsating at 2 am. She told me "I do not think I can make it inside." Offers of aid were refused. All must be well because she is running another concert tonight.
Norma has five children. Rosy Posy is my favorite. I promised crayons to all the kidniks for Xmas and then I fell. For awhile I could not write a sentence or even read. I need the boxes with the sharpener and all the colors. Soon children, soon. The girls came by after Christmas and politely reminded me I made a present promise. They are beautiful and I love them.
Norma and I, we have an unspoken deal. I ignore the constant pile of dogshit in her backyard, and her blood curdling howls of frustration that penetrate the brick walls that divide our rowhouses, and she lets me borrow the children and pretend I am their Grandma. Solid.
I just cannot work right now. I can fart around on twitter because it gives me instant gratification.
I was trucking - doing great after my fall. A doctor told me I could do better with a brace for my foot. I got the fucking brace. Wearing the brace put my back out. I had to go and get injections in my back for pain relief. I was also prescribed pain and anti anxiety meds.
Even if you take them as prescribed, meds tend to build up in your brain and body. I get to being unsteady on my feet. My back does not hurt so no more pain meds. But the other meds help me sleep. I am going cold turkey and I have been awake all night. Gaaaahhhhh! I hope to go to sleep soon. No pills for me.
The good news is - I walk to the bodega without my cane. I am back on the buses. Fired up. Ready to go. Click the LOVE picture to get to Indivisible PHL.
I oppose it. You are taxing the wrong folks. Tax the Corporate Suits, not the poor and middle class. Tax the sugary drink and snack makers who make beaucoup money and socialize the costs of doing business. Convenient and disposable? Their detritus is on every street corner for the people and the City to clean up. Got the courage to sue Nestle Coke Frito Lay etc., Mayor Kenney? It will make you famous. Come on, Dude. This is Filthydelphia. Let us lead on this.
I am tired of cleaning up the chip bags and drink containers that flow downhill from Frankford Avenue and clog the sewers and filthy the sidewalks. It costs our City money to collect this garbage and dispose of it. Make the Corporate Persons pay their fair share.
Pay attention. Reality is. These folks will tell you all about what is happening to our watersheds. It is not good.
Penzey's makes good clean genuine spices and spice mixtures. Before the election mess, I was a customer. I love cooking. And Penzey's is that good.
Now we discover that Mr. Penzey et al are good and they are good. This is the kind of man Bill Penzey is and why he made the news in Nashville.
Last week, Bill Penzey Jr., CEO of Penzeys Spices sent an email to customers, as he does each week, with a message that left many customers quite offended. The email focused on Thanksgiving and the United States as a nation of immigrants, with, of course, a marketing message (he is a businessman after all). The email ended with the following:
"My advice: Get at least one of the $10 Kind Heart Boxes, but a half-dozen might be even better. What happens going forward will be all about hearts and minds. The open embrace of racism by the Republican Party in this election is now unleashing a wave of ugliness unseen in this country for decades. The American people are taking notice. Let's commit to giving the people a better choice. Our kindness really is our strength."
I will go out of my way to the Bourse to buy ALL my spices now. Unthinkable to buy McCormick paprika in a pinch. Yeah that is a pun and I committed it. Make a point of shopping Penzey's where they have more than one kind of paprika. Try the yummy smoked paprika on deviled eggs!
Even though I am sick to death of this election, I am going to make telephone calls at the Democratic Party local headquarters on Wednesday night.
I give good phone. I used to work on the phone selling advertising for the Princeton Packet group of newspapers. I started in classified and won a prize selling the most Pick a Present ads at Christmas.
Never volunteered for a political party before. Did lots of volunteer church work. Trashmouth old me cleans up good if I have to. It is so hot that I spend most of my time at home in my undies. This was a good excuse to put on a skirt, some jewelry, a little Chanel.
I met Alvin, my section leader. He is 26 and cute. Too clean cut for me. I like the faintly evil type. August, the month of boredom and flies. Art from Freaking News.
Smile is based on an instrumental theme used in the soundtrack for the 1936 Charlie Chaplin movie Modern Times. Chaplin composed the music, inspired by Puccini's Tosca. John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons added the lyrics and title in 1954.
Kathryn Knott, Dad, Bucks County Sued for $5 Million for “Retaliation” Over Anonymous Internet Comments Read more at...
Now send the Bucks County detectives after me, Knotts. I have bupkis and balls of steel. Will be a hoot to participate in a free speech mess. I am old. I got nothing to do but hang out. And I have a new screen name. See the comments.
Written February 9, ,2016
Kathryn Knott is going to jail for gay bashing. And she has been kicked out of the City of Philadelphia and cannot enter without a compelling reason to do so.
God bless the Judge and Jury for keeping the Gayborhood safe for everybody. Philadelphia Magazine provides an archive of the whole affair.
Hugh E. Dillon's photographs of Brian Sim's protest in Love Park show you that in Philly, we really do take 'brotherly love' seriously. No bashing people just because you can.
There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats. - Albert Schweitzer
I shop at Reading Terminal Market weekly for fresh ground coffee and real bread. Iovine's for fresh produce. The Amish butcher for breakfast sausage and honey. Then I eat lunch at Pearl's Oyster Bar. Music and good food is Paradise.
I love the City of Brotherly Love. You never know when a random act of culture by the Philadelphia Opera Company may appear.
I need to get out more. I love my funky city. I had no idea we had an annual Naked Bike Ridein Center City. The 12 mile ride through the city is part of the World Naked Bike Ride movement.
The World Naked Bike Ride is an international clothing-optional bike ride in which participants plan, meet and ride together en masse on human-powered transport (the vast majority on bicycles, but some on skateboards and inline skates), to "deliver a vision of a cleaner, safer, body-positive world."
My heart hurts, my mind is befuddled, and I see no solution. I love Pope Frankie. I hate the Roman Catholic Church.
I am a Roman Catholic, baptized and confirmed. I wish the RCC would stop working so hard to manipulate me into sanctity.
I left the RCC behind when I was 13 years old. I made occasional check-backs to see if there was any change in their sexual and cultural insanity. In the Mass I went back to, a priest's homily contained the priest's observation that homosexuals 'deserved AIDS for their sin.' Left again and did not go back until this year.
I know this: the Vatican hired a Fux Snooze public relations guy when Benedict was Pope. They needed a whitewash desperately. The RCC's poisonous pedagogy has closed nine parishes in Philadelphia.
And then Pope Frankie appeared. And I love him. I exhibit clearly that I love him and why I love him HERE. I love him especially when he tells it like it really is to his own. I feel proud to be a Catholic. I have not felt that in a long dry time.
And then critics of the RCC point to reality. Nothing has changed. The Magisterium takes no responsibility for their own doctrine. They begin to blame the laity for going the way they sent them. Some Catholics are intolerant and cruel, but it is all lay Catholics fault because we are not praying hard enough. Or praying correctly. I pray fervently often. Are you saying that I can pray religious insanity and zealotry of others away? I will work on that as soon as I have prayed my own away.
Caro Frankie, are you telling me that my not praying is why some priests stuck their dicks where they did not belong and Krol and Bevilacqua kept the dirts out of jail? My not praying hard enough caused Savita Halapavannir to die a miserable painful death? My not praying hard enough is why the Magisterium is not hearing the laity? Who is the Church. Its priests or its people?
I swore this oath below when I was a child and I meant it. Now the adult-me is trying to comfort the child-me who was earnest and believed what the RCC taught me. I was made to swear to things as a child that the adult me does not believe for a moment, I could repudiate my baptism but my inner child would scream in pain. In a very real way, Catholicism is me, my family, my culture. And I cannot run away from myself.
During the rite of Confirmation, the candidates stand as a group for questioning by the presiding bishop:
Bishop: Do you reject Satan and all his works and all his empty promises?
Candidates: I do.
Bishop: Do you believe in God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth?
Candidates: I do.
Bishop: Do you believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified, died, and was buried, rose from the dead, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father?
Candidates: I do.
Bishop: Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who came upon the apostles at Pentecost and today is given to you sacramentally in confirmation?
Candidates: I do.
Bishop: Do you believe in the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting?
Candidates: I do.
Bishop: This is our faith. This is the faith of the Church. We are proud to profess it in Christ Jesus our Lord.
All present: Amen.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush warned America is “creeping toward multiculturalism” during a campaign stop Tuesday, and said he worries about areas where the assimilation process is “retarded.”
In response to a young woman’s question about how to empower immigrants as Americans, Bush said at an event at a Cedar Falls, Iowa diner that multiculturalism should not be the goal.
“We should not have a multicultural society,” Bush said. “When you create pockets of isolation, and in some cases, the assimilation process has been retarded, it’s wrong. It limits people’s aspirations.”
- By KATHERINE KRUEGER
Creeping toward multiculturalism? When did we leave it behind? Both my Grand Mothers were immigrants. Neither of them spoke English or needed to. They lived in ethnic enclaves. I learned more than one language to talk to them. I would go back in time to live in those ethnic enclaves in a heartbeat if I could.
I am not giving up the bodega and their Dominican Beef Stew with Rice and Peas. I am not giving up sight of the beautiful women in native dress at the mosque on the corner. Such colors. I am not giving up the ladies of the Hood View and our late at night on the pavement sometimes drunken multicultural discussions. I am not giving up having my choice of cuisine done by Thai, Ethiopian, Greek, Korean, Polish, Italian, Chinese, Vietnamese cooks in small family owned places. I am not giving up the Gay Pride Parade or dancing in the Gayborhood.
I live in the City of Brotherly Love. I do not want to live in Whitebread City with you Jebya. Not ever. Fuck you Jebya. Eat my stromboli.
Scott Walker came to Philly. What can I say? We have our own unique style of political dissent - Urban Uncouth. You pick the sign you like the best. I am laughing too hard to choose.
Who is the big guy on the left with the big head and the big gun? Given the sentiment in the tweet below the picture, maybe he is Scott Walker's security? This is the best election ever.
Scott Walker cut in line at Geno's to order a cheesesteak with American cheese and no onions. He's not getting out of Philly alive.
VISITORS - Do not go to Geno's or Pat's for cheesesteak. Only tourists go there. Go to Jim's Steaks on South Street. And if you want to try something new, go to Tony Luke's for the roast pork and escarole sandwich. So good.
The Library of Congress possesses a treasure trove of the finest examples of American graphic art ever silk screened and printed.
I selected a few of the posters created by WPA artists for your enjoyment. Then as now, the government is not shy about giving us good advice. You can see more of these incredible posters HERE:
You can purchase prints of many of these posters. There is more than one Zoo poster. You want to see them all. I had a hard time selecting which one to use here.
The Federal Art Project (FAP) was the visual arts arm of the Great Depression-era New DealWorks Progress AdministrationFederal Oneprogram in the United States. It operated from August 29, 1935, until June 30, 1943. Reputed to have created more than 200,000 separate works, FAP artists created posters, murals and paintings. Some works still stand among the most-significant pieces of public art in the country. - Wikipedia
PA Lawmaker Wants to Make it a Crime to Taunt Police Officers Because Feelings May Get Hurt
"Also taking part in today’s meathead intellectualism de jour, was former Pittsburgh Police Officer and current House member Dom Costa, who proposed that taunting cops should be a crime because feelings may be hurt and egos may be bruised. At the press conference, Costa said:
This nonsense that is going today on where police officers are being taunted by people and being provoked, lets face it we’re all human beings, and eventually that emotion will break. And that’s what they’re trying to do. So, what I’ve talked to some of my colleagues and the senator [Senator Rafferty] is that we have a bill about taunting a police dog. It’s illegal. There should be out that you can’t taunt a police officer because you’re going to get those emotions up. I myself and Representative Vereb are looking at that bill to put it forward in the House, and I am sure the Senate will follow. Or at least support that bill. - Rep. Dom Costa"
Read more about it at Raging Chicken Press - a first class Pennsylvania politics blog.
Oink oink at you from Philly, Dom Baby.
You know, where the cops were investigated by the FBI for not pursuing rapists.
Where the cops grab your tit while invading your home on a bogus drug bust and tell you "Too bad Lady, nobody is going to believe you."
Where the police assaulted Rev. Clarice Harris for asking for a badge number while they were beating someone.
The Pennsylvania State Police are no better. Some of their handiwork ------------>.
Dom Costa is an Oinker. Come onna my house, Costa. Soooo Eeeee Pig Pig Pig.
Now come and get this Old Lady. Arrest me. I hope you put aside the money it is going to cost the State of PA when the ACLU comes for your ass. I am a cute Old Lady. We will make you famous.
Dumbass. I could care less you are a Democrat. I am a nonpartisan scoffer. You are a dumbass. Dumb is you, Dom.
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