All Wound-Up

I can remember this from my childhood.  We didn't have one as it was a luxury feature on your typical suburban lawnmower.  A neighbor had one however; and come to think of it, this was a technological marvel of the time.

The Briggs & Stratton wind-up starter, technically an impulse starter, was a mechanical alternative to the more common rope-pull recoil starters that persist to this day.  (My cursed rototiller has a rope-pull).  Anyway, in the 1960's this breakthrough allowed a user to start a lawn mower without yanking on a rope multiple times.

The technology relied-upon a spring that stored energy as it was wound with a crank. Flipping a release lever allowed the spring the snap back, spinning the crankshaft much faster than a yanking on a rope and starting the engine.  The Briggs Easy Spin version incorporated a patented camshaft feature that kept the intake valve open slightly longer on the compression stroke thereby reducing the force needed to turn the engine over.  Spiffy.

A victim of their own complexity and as electric starters became more affordable this technology fell out of favor.  It persists - although you won't find it in your garage.  In situations where there is no electricity (lifeboats, military applications, generators, disaster relief) impulse starters are used for diesel engines.  

Speaking for myself, rope pull starters suck.... 

Sunset

From tonight there was this...

View to the northwest

And the reflection in the view to the southeast  

 

Lord Of The Flies

I read this book as a youngster. 

Written in the midst of the Cold War the power struggle on the island was an allegorical microcosm of the ideological divide between liberal democracy and the totalitarianism of communism.  

I suppose nowadays if parents allowed a preteen access to such literature they’d be turned-in to county social services.   Or it might already have been banned in your community as it has in others. 

Anyway, this is a riveting redo of a very dark tale of stranded schoolboys attempt to build a democratic society on a deserted island. 

Order quickly dissolves into tribal savagery and murder as they succumb to their primal instincts and a terrifying imaginary beast.

We got hooked after the first of four episodes.  Like I said; it’s dark.  View it at your own peril. 

British novelist William Golding’s Lord of the Flies….

 

May Astronomy

 

click on image to enlarge

A clear dark night, 11:16 PM, last potty call for doggo and me.  This is a time-lapse photo using the iPhone 14 Pro stabilization feature and Snapseed filters to enhance the exposure.  View is directly at the heart of the spring triangle featuring three constellations.

View south from the porch.  Because camera filters pick-up a lot of faint stars that the naked eye filters out finding the shapes can be a bit of a connect the dots puzzle.  

Leo the Lion, high in the southwest (upper right quadrant of the image) is easily identified by the sickle asterism that appears like a reversed question mark.  The anchor stars include Regulus the period at the bottom of the shape and Denebola to the left.

Virgo the Maiden, located lower and to the left of Leo is the second-largest constellation in the sky and the largest constellation of the Zodiac. It also contains the bright star Spica.  Look for a lazy, sprawling "Y" shape of stars lying horizontally just above Spica which is situated in the lower right center of the image. 

Boötes the Herdsman, is situated upper left quadrant high in the southern sky and resembles a kite shape.  The very bright star is Arcturus; the brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere.  Extending up and slightly left of Arcturus you can trace an elongated kite of ice cream cone shape.

The Spring Triangle is a large asterism (an equilateral triangle) formed by the three bright stars from the preceding constellations: Arcturus (top left), Spica (bottom right) and Denebola (upper right). 

You can be sure..

  ...if it's Westinghouse!

This vintage commercial for the Westinghouse Food File Refrigerator highlights the product's design solutions for growing families who now find their post-war models too cramped.

Storage capacity offered more than twelve feet of storage space - considered cavernous in the mid-1950s.  Westinghouse's Food File organizer with a place for everything and everything in its place; included patented roll-out shelves, a Meat Keeper, Humidrawers for produce, in-door storage sections for fruit, cheese butter and eggs and a full-width freezer overhead. 

Naturally, the commercial concludes with the brand's long-standing slogan:  "You can be sure if it's Westinghouse"

Other brands of that era included Frigidaire, GE and Kelvinator.  I cannot recall seeing full size Westinghouse fridges on a showroom floor when we were looking a few years ago.  The US market for this brand is mostly compact, beverage and specialty models.  Nevertheless, kitchen models continue to be manufactured and sold globally.  The interweb tells me they're the top choice for Australians.  How 'bout that, mate!

Before the tariff regime hit we replaced all of our major kitchen appliances and our three-door GE Profile fridge sports many of the same features 70 years later.  Except it has 27 cubic feet of storage space and manufactures ice faster than a thirsty deer camp can consume it. 

Grilling Tip

It's raining today; consequently, it's an indoor day.  A far cry from the glorious sunshine and warmth of the latter half of the week. 

I’m going to let you in on a secret to making something we call a California Burger.  Although, it has nothing remotely associated with California.  Let me explain.

Start with a 1/3 pound ground chuck patty and bakery Kaiser roll from Marchant’s in Brussels and light a fire in your Smokey Joe.

Anoint your beef with Penzey’s English prime rib rub and a spritz of EVO. Sear over hot coals taking care to turn 90 degrees for grill marks and flip only one time. Medium to medium rare. Remove to rest.

Meanwhile, toast your sliced rolls on the grill. Butter is optional (but recommended).

Assemble as follows from bottom-up.   Roll, Duke’s mayo, raw Vidalia onion, burger, two slices of tomato, lettuce, mayo and bun top.  Wavy chips on the side.

Cheese, ketchup, mustard, sautéed onions, pickles, jalapeños, etc. all optional. Make your burger your own.

The last coupla days have nearly felt almost like summer. Grilling completes the circle.

Real men grill with fire; not with electricity…. 

 

The Gift Of Fungus

Last week some neighbors of ours gave us a couple of bags of mushrooms sourced from local Brussels growers - Wild Eastons.  Oyster and Lion's Mane shrooms to be exact.  They had travel plans so we scored a gift of two big packages of beautiful fungi.  

For a couple of days I pondered what to do with them.  Pizza came to mind first.  A pasta dish next. And then a light came on; how about soup?  Homemade mushroom soup.  Consulting with the missus she agreed.  And suggested that there was a good mushroom soup recipe in the older of her two Moosewood cookbooks; the 1974 edition.  She shared that she used to make it for herself back in the day.

So I looked it-up; Mollie Katzen's Hungarian Mushroom Soup. And I had everything needed on hand to bring this recipe to life.

Upon serving, Jill declared, This is the soup I remember!  And it was fantastic; a rich and hearty mix of two mushrooms in a chicken stock accented with three kinds of dairy and a couple types of Hungarian paprika.  The only substitution I made to the recipe (linked above) was heavy cream instead of milk.  Because I could.

I'd make it again.   Come to think of it, Until now I don't ever recall knowingly eating a Lion's Mane mushroom before. Fantastic!