Don't be like this dude - don't drink and drive tonight.
Stay home with your sweetie.
Be safe.
This is absolutely nuts......
From the Lord's Prayer.
Meet Cyanocitta cristata - the Blue Jay.
A larger bird with a showy blue and white-appearing plumage with black accents. I use the term 'appear' as the feathers of this bird do not contain blue pigmentation. It is the refraction of sunlight that casts the blue hue.
First really good measurable snowfall of the year came overnight.
Enough for the plow guy to come and clear the driveway early this morning and for the County to plow the roads around here.
And if you are a Labrador retriever it doesn't get much better than this....
It's the Wurst Käse scenario…….
On this day in history - December 26, 1944 - Army Lt. Charles Boggess was in command of a 38 ton Jumbo Sherman tank named Cobra King. Boggess replaced the tank's previous commander - Charles Trover - who had been killed by a sniper three days earlier as he was standing in the turret.
Running at full-speed with guns blazing, four miles and 25 minutes later Cobra King linked-up with the 101st Airborne.
Later, this tank, and a different crew, continued the push into Germany. It was during Patton’s controversial and failed mission to rescue allied POWs from a prison camp Cobra King took a round that penetrated its armor. The resulting fire took it out of action permanently.
Following the war the tank was recovered from the battlefield and served as the ‘Gate Guard’ at McKee Barracks in Crailsheim, Germany where we lived in the 1950s.
Following an exterior restoration on August 3, 2017, Cobra King was installed at the new National Museum of the United States Army at Fort Belvoir outside of Washington, DC.
The staff here at The Platz would like to extend their best wishes for a blessed Christmas holiday.
And may you find another new chew toy in your stocking...
Yield One 1½ - pound loaf
Time 1 hour 30 minutes, plus about 20+ hours resting time
Here is one of the most popular recipes The Times has ever published, courtesy of Jim Lahey, owner of Sullivan Street Bakery. It requires no kneading. It uses no special ingredients, equipment or techniques. And it takes very little effort — only time. You will need 24 hours to create the bread, but much of this is unattended waiting, a slow fermentation of the dough that results in a perfect loaf.
3⅓ cups all-purpose or bread flour, plus more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
2 teaspoons kosher salt
In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1½ cups plus 2 tablespoons hot water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 20, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.
Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.
Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Place back in the bowl on parchment paper, cover with a clean dish towel and let proof for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.
At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Lift the dough by the parchment paper corners and transfer to the pot. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.
Originally a traditional German folk song this tune had
little if anything to do with Christmas - or describe a decorated Christmas
tree. The original lyrics had everything
to do with a fir tree’s evergreen quality as a symbol of constancy and
faithfulness. You see, a Tannenbaum is a
fir tree.
The folk song eventually
became associated with the celebration of Christmas when Ernst Anschütz added
two additional verses of his own to the traditional verse in 1824. The custom of the Christmas tree developed in
the course of the 19th century and with Anschütz’s
changes the song came to be seen as a Christmas carol early in the 20th
century.
Merry Christmas.....
Lest you be under the mistaken impression that post deer season there are no remaining whitetails left on the landscape I offer you this.
I stitched-together several short, silent video vignettes of a small herd of deer approaching the camera and exiting stage right and left - only the return bounding into the field of view from somewhere behind the camera.
Just like a returning boomerang.
Crazy.
One of the fun things about winter is the night sky. Cold, clear, winter skies are characterized by a lack of humidity and if you live in the country there is very little urban light pollution creating some spectacular opportunities for star-gazing.
December brings a couple of meteor showers to the night skies. The more prolific was the Geminids from a week ago.
December 17th thru the 26th brings the Ursid meteor shower with 5 to 10 shooting stars per hour as the Earth passes thru the debris field of Comet 8P/Tuttle.
Mark your calendar and if your catch a cold, clear, winter sky bundle-up and take some time to sit outside and observe the heavens.
There’s no mosquitoes this time of year!
I posted them on my Face Book page and guesses were racoon, fox, bobcat and dog. Small paw prints space 8 to 10 inches apart.
As I expected - a Ditch Tiger......
Tomorrow - December 21 - marks the day when the sun’s transit across the sky reaches its most southerly point - known as Midwinter Day. Christianity co-opted the ancient pagan midwinter festivals with Christmas falling only a few days after the astronomical midwinter.
Because the sun is at its lowest in the sky – this is the one day you will want to go out and see your shadow. Your noontime shadow on the solstice is the longest it will be all year.
The word solstice comes from the Latin - solstitium - which translates to: point at which the sun stands still.
It was the Renaissance astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus who advanced
the notion that the earth revolved around the sun. Copernicus really rocked the religious and
scientific worlds with this fact. Until then
it was accepted as fact that all of the celestial bodies revolved around
the earth. He was branded a heretic, purveyor of fake news and
the believers of the time wanted to lock-him-up.
I'm tickled to live during a time when science holds sway. Most of the time anyway.
Raising a toast to longer daylight and a true Renaissance Man.
Cheers!
Yield 4 servings
Time 30 minutes
This dish is an adaptation of a recipe that arrived in my in-box this last week courtesy of the foodies over at the New York Times.
There is an incredible number of recipes for this classic Roman dish, and everyone has an opinion on how it should be prepared. This version is more stew than soup, but it can be loosened up with the addition of more water if needed.
It begins with sautéing onion, tomatoes, garlic and rosemary in olive oil, then tossing in the chickpeas, and smashing a few to give the stew a creamy texture. Liquid is added, then uncooked pasta, which cooks as the stew simmers (one less dish to wash). Coarsely-chopped greens are folded in right before serving. This flexible stew can go in a number of directions, so tweak it as you see fit, but don’t forget to finish each bowl with grated cheese and a drizzle of olive oil.
Extra virgin olive oil
1 medium Stuttgarter onion from the garden, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
½ teaspoon Penzeys cracked Spanish rosemary
½ teaspoon red-pepper flakes
Fresh ground sea salt and black pepper
1 pint of garden tomatoes, drained (reserve the juice)
1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed
1 cup smaller pasta you’ll find lurking in your pantry
1 (8 ounce) bag of fresh baby spinach, stems removed (substitute kale, escarole or other greens)
Grated
hard
cheese
for serving
Heat 3 T oil in a stock pot over medium. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic, rosemary and red-pepper flakes and cook 1 minute more. Season well with salt and pepper.
Stir in the tomatoes and the chickpeas, breaking up the tomatoes with the back of your spoon if needed and smash about 1/2 cup of the beans.
Add water to the reserved tomato juice to reach three cups of liquid. Add this to the pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and simmer, stirring frequently to assure nothing sticks to the bottom of the pan, until the pasta is al dente, about 10-15 minutes. The liquid will mostly be absorbed by the pasta. (I added additional water to achieve my preferred consistency). Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Add the greens and stir until wilted. Taste and adjust seasonings accordingly. Ladle into bowls and top with grated cheese and a drizzle of olive oil and serve with a crusty bread.
Pro Tip
The addition of smoked sausage, uncooked shrimp or cooked chicken makes for a heartier dish.
2020 is coming to a close with a flurry of astronomical events including a couple of meteor showers, the winter solstice and this – a conjunction (alignment) of the planets Jupiter and Saturn.
On the evening of December 20th Jupiter will have yet to catch-up with Saturn and by the evening of December 21st it will have passed. Nevertheless, at dusk on December 21st these two giant planets will appear to the naked eye as the merging of two very bright stars into a single even more brilliant star. Under ideal viewing conditions this could be spectacular.
Planetary alignments are not uncommon yet for these two planets this is exceptionally rare considering how close the planets will appear. This is the first time the alignment will appear since the Middle Ages.
Some have referred to this event as The Christmas Star – a reference to the account of the birth of Jesus and the wise men following the Star of Bethlehem. It is entirely possible that the star the Magi followed in the Gospel of Matthew may have been a similar planetary conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter.
From my location on the peninsula the planets will become visible around 4:35 PM with the onset of dusk. I will have to look 16° above the SSW horizon. The planets will then gradually sink below the horizon setting 2 hours and 25 minutes after the Sun at 6:37 PM.
Both planets should be visible to the naked eye but will also fit within the field of view through a pair of binoculars or a telescope.
Fingers-crossed for good viewing
conditions as this won’t occur again until May of 2080.
With the coronavirus crisis deepening the economic fallout has also deepened. According to Labor Department statistics by the start of December more than 20 million workers were collecting unemployment benefits under state or federal programs.
From February to November more than four million people left the work force entirely. They are neither working nor actively seeking a job. The last time this many workers left the workforce it took almost a decade to get them back to work.
Roughly half of the individuals who lost their jobs when Donald Trump tanked the economy have been rehired. At this rate it will take another 29 months to return to the previously-robust 2019 employment levels. While it is true that many who were laid off in the spring have returned to work – despite actively looking there is a growing subset that has been unable to find new jobs. The share who have been out of work for more than six months is now approaching 40%. We can only hope that under a Biden economic recovery the return to normalcy will be faster.
More families today are unable to meet their basic needs. In a nation of cheap and abundant food more families today are experiencing food insecurity - with the impact falling disproportionately-upon children. Think about that. Furthermore, mortgage delinquencies and evictions will reach record levels over the holidays. They are higher today than before Trump took office. And by the close of 2020 the Donald Trump economy will lay claim to the largest number of business bankruptcies in the history of this nation.
If sin exists in this world here it is.
In the run-up to the election Donald Trump was fond of bragging about employment gains among people of color. The truth of the matter is that in the Trump recession the unemployment rate among black men is now 11.3% - double that of white men. For context, never during the great recession did the overall unemployment rate ever rise above 10%.
Not all is grim news, however. There are rays of hope. On a positive note, wages and salaries have experienced a v-shaped recovery. This bounce is encouraging evidence of a swift return to normalcy.
Concurrently, the pandemic has altered our day-to-day lives. Remarkably, it hasn’t halted our spending as much as it has altered it. The consumer economy has shifted from services to goods. Think: grocery purchases have supplanting eating out.
While it is true that half of all businesses that were closed during the depths of the Trump shutdown in March of this year will never reopen there is a bright spot on the economic horizon. Instead of being stopped in its tracks the economy may be adapting. New business applications are up 43% over last year.
Bottom line is that there are green shoots appearing in the wreckage of the Trump economy. A decade after the Great Recession the American economy has shown itself remarkably resilient. Stimulus programs that are scheduled to expire at the end of this month should be extended with a stop-gap COVID relief bill from congress. For those sectors hardest hit - such as the travel, airline, hospitality, restaurant and other service business - this would do well to address short term suffering and ameliorate long term harm to the economy.
Composed by Lou Reed in 1970 this song was subsequently released by the Velvet Underground in 1973. Another really good year for this blogger.
Most of readers will remember the amped-up, hard rock, version with an extended introduction which was written by Steve Hunter and recorded live in 1973. It was subsequently released on Reed's Rock 'n' Roll Animal album in 1974.
Sweet Jane.....
The Bible story of the virgin birth is at the center of
much of the holiday cheer this time of year. The book of Luke tells us that
Mary and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem because Caesar Augustus decreed a census
should be taken. Mary gave birth after arriving in Bethlehem and placed baby
Jesus in a manger because there was no room for them in the
inn.
I recently had the opportunity to watch a brief video of a doc from Door County Medical center explain the spread of Covid. The interesting thing about Covid is that the amount (dose) of the virus you are exposed-can determine whether or not you become critically ill, mildly sick or are asymptomatic.
This makes sense – because a healthy individual can fight-off a slight exposure without developing any outward symptoms of disease (and also trigger an immune response). Exposure to a very high dose of the virus might result in a dangerously serious outcome. Of course there is a range of responses in between.
Because the spread of Covid is dose-dependent this is the argument for social distancing, avoiding crowds, washing your hands and wearing a mask.
Masking is not government overreach and it is shameful to have been politicized. The use of a mask reduces the dose an infected person might spread and an uninfected person might receive. While it is not 100% guaranteed effective – it does reduce the odds of higher dose exposure.
Of course, individual differences have to be accounted-for. Outcomes may vary for individuals that are elderly, are medically fragile or have a compromised immune system. For some individuals even a small dose can result in a seriously bad outcome.
Until a sufficiently large-enough number of the population is vaccinated and we attain herd immunity - do the right thing – wear a mask when you cannot appropriately distance.
Suck it up people.
Now that the cold and early darkness of winter have descended-upon the land there is the joy and light of Le Pain Français from the kitchen.....
This, from a dear friend.....
And the people stayed home. And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still. And listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently.
And the people healed. And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.
And when the danger passed, and the people
joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices,
and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth
fully, as they had been healed.
~Kitty O'Meara
A few remaining words about Friday's unanimous SCOTUS ruling dismissing Donald Trump's baseless claims.
In the real world of laws and courts there is a standard for a meritorious claim.
The definition of meritorious is something that has value or that is deserving of praise or rewards. A lawsuit that actually makes a valid legal claim for which the plaintiff should receive legal relief or compensation is an example of a meritorious lawsuit.
Without proof it is a baseless - or frivolous - lawsuit.
One of the fun things about winter is the night sky. Cold, clear, winter skies are characterized by a lack of humidity and if you live in the country there is very little urban light pollution creating some spectacular opportunities for star-gazing.
December brings a couple of meteor showers to the night skies. The more prolific of the two is the Geminids with as many as 120 to 160 shooting stars per hour. Shooting stars are most often associated with the Earth’s passage thru the debris field of a comet. Gritty debris burns-up as it collides with the upper atmosphere. The Geminids are a bit of a mystery as they are related with an extinct comet which also happens to be a near-earth asteroid named 3200 Phaethon.
The Geminid meteor shower began December 4th and will remain active thru the 17th. It will be producing its peak rate of meteors this Sunday thru Monday evenings.
For the duration there will be a chance of seeing Geminid meteors whenever the shower’s radiant point – found in the constellation Gemini – is above the horizon. The number of visible shooting stars increases as the radiant point rises to its highest point in the night sky.
The New Moon is December 14 so there's no moonlight to spoil the show.
Fingers-crossed for cold and clear night skies.
10 Tips for Watching the Geminids
Some of you readers know that we've been hosting a Snapshot Wisconsin camera here at The Platz.
This project utilizes volunteers to help identify and count the
animals recorded on these trail cameras.
Crowdsourcing the data of where and when each photo was taken will
hopefully lend further understanding of wildlife population distributions
across Wisconsin and how these distributions change over time. Snapshot
Wisconsin is a consistent mechanism to monitor all types of wildlife throughout
the year.
Wisconsin started as a pilot program in only two counties in 2016 but expanded statewide in 2018. Today, there are more than 1,800 volunteers, monitoring over 2,100 trail cameras across the state. Furthermore, the Snapshot program receives approximately 45,000 photos per day from all these cameras. Just stop and think about how incredible that is!
The Bushnell Snapshot camera we host was deployed at the end of October 2018 and it continues to faithfully and patiently gather photo documentation of the critters here.
Snapshot Wisconsin recently reached an important milestone -
The 50 millionth photo!
As a thank you to everyone who has helped the program out or followed its success (and to celebrate the 50 millionth photo milestone), the Snapshot Wisconsin team selected some of their favorite photos from the first 50 million and used them to build an interactive map of Wisconsin. This tool highlights each photo and tells a short story about the photo itself or the species shown. It serves as a “snapshot” of how the program has grown over the years.
Rare species sightings, unusual animal behaviors, species facts, and even a few multi-species encounters can all be seen in the interactive map.
Check it out!
Here is one of our favorite Snapshot photos - a bald eagle - April 13, 2019
Shrimp Bisque
Serves 4
Ingredients
Extra virgin olive oil
6-7 scallions - chopped fine - white portion reserved separately from the green tops
1 rib of celery diced fine
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 T all-purpose flour
32 oz carton of low-sodium chicken stock
2 T tomato paste
1 pint heavy whipping cream
1 T chili powder
1 t ground cumin
1 t ground coriander
1 pound uncooked large shrimp, peeled and deveined – shells reserved
Directions
In a covered sauce pan simmer the stock and shrimp shells for 30 minutes – remove from heat and allow to steep for an additional 30 minutes. Strain and reserve the stock.
In a saucepan, saute onion and celery in EVO until tender. Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer. Stir in flour until blended. Stir in the stock, tomato paste, cream, all the spices and bring to a boil. Reduce heat; and simmer for 15 minutes. Soup should thicken to a creamy consistency.
Cut shrimp into bite-size pieces; add to soup. Simmer 5 minutes longer or until shrimp turn pink. Garnish with thinly-sliced green onion tops, chopped parsley or cilantro and additional shrimp if desired. Serve with crusty bread so you can sop-up every last spoonful of this goodness.
Pro Tip - This recipe lends itself to expansion and improvisation. Inclusion of scallops, crab meat and par-cooked potatoes, additional garden vegetables along with the shrimp would make a very hearty solstice meal for a small crowd. Pair with Oktoberfest beer and white wine.
This tune was composed by Graham Nash while a member of the Hollies - although it was not recorded or performed by that group. I was released in 1970 by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. The original recording also feature Jerry Garcia on a pedal steel guitar. Who knew?
The single peaked at 16 on the Billboard Top 100 that year. An altogether memorable year for this blogger.
This version is features Crosby, Stills and Nash along with James Taylor and Emmylou Harris at the 1997 Hall of Fame inductions.
Teach Your Children.....
Yesterday more than 3000 of my countrymen died of Covid. Do you remember as recently as only several months ago when the daily death toll of 1000 lives was alarming?
Let's think about this carnage in scalable terms.
This is the
largest number of dead in a single day during this pandemic - and it is higher than the death toll
in the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001. For you older students of history the daily death toll alone now surpasses those killed in the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.
The total number of dead approaches 300,000.
More than 947,000 workers filed new claims for state unemployment benefits last week.
Foreclosures and evictions will reach record levels this holiday season.
By the close of 2020 Donald Trump's economy will own the largest number of business bankruptcies in the entire history of the United States.
Congress continues to dither on an economic relief package as the Trump economic damage continues to pile-up.
Food lines soar as hunger reaches record levels in the wealthiest nation on earth.
And in the midst of this hot mess the president hits the golf course daily and obsesses over crazy legal efforts to overturn a legitimate election that he lost fair and square.
We are living in interesting times for sure......
Last weekend we ran the trail camera trap line to see what's-up when we're not there to bear witness.
There are a lot of deer on the landscape!
You'd think that of the nine deer that died on our lonely eighty acres they'd been wiped-out.
Nay, nay.
I've been experimenting with the video editing software that was installed when I had an update performed on my laptop and I took the opportunity to stitch-together four silent 15 second consecutive video vignettes captured by the camera set on video mode. While it is a continuous video of the same animals it is choppy as the camera pauses briefly between four individual bursts of filming.
Check this out......
Poll workers needing police protection as a consequence of death threats.
The Governor of Michigan nearly kidnapped and murdered.
The wife of Georgia's Secretary of State getting sexually explicit threats.
Armed protesters threatening a family at home.
The president does not denounce threats of violence on his behalf.
We are living in interesting times.
On July 24, 1956 there was this amendment to
Chapter 115 – Treason, Sedition and Subversive Activities:
§2385. Advocating overthrow of Government - Whoever knowingly or willfully advocates, abets, advises, or teaches the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying the government of the United States or the government of any State, Territory, District or Possession thereof, or the government of any political subdivision therein, by force or violence, or by the assassination of any officer of any such government; or
Whoever, with intent to cause the overthrow or destruction of any such government, prints, publishes, edits, issues, circulates, sells, distributes, or publicly displays any written or printed matter advocating, advising, or teaching the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying any government in the United States by force or violence, or attempts to do so; or
Whoever organizes or helps or attempts to organize any society, group, or assembly of persons who teach, advocate, or encourage the overthrow or destruction of any such government by force or violence; or becomes or is a member of, or affiliates with, any such society, group, or assembly of persons, knowing the purposes thereof—
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both, and shall be ineligible for employment by the United States or any department or agency thereof, for the five years next following his conviction.
If two or more persons conspire to commit any offense named in this section, each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both, and shall be ineligible for employment by the United States or any department or agency thereof, for the five years next following his conviction.
As used in this section, the terms "organizes" and "organize", with respect to any society, group, or assembly of persons, include the recruiting of new members, the forming of new units, and the regrouping or expansion of existing clubs, classes, and other units of such society, group, or assembly of persons.
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