Tom McMahon

The Uppity Fund Has Raised $160 From 4 Supporters

2010-09-02T10:35:33-05:00

The Uppity Fund Has Raised $160 From 4 Supporters

I guess in 2010 even Uppity is down.

Four Tires Removed on the Car of My First Cousin Once Removed

2010-09-02T09:22:22-05:00

Four Tires Removed on the Car of My First Cousin Once Removed

Life in Barack Obama's Chicago. It could have been worse, tho. If she had been twice-removed they probably would have taken eight tires.

August 19, 1939, 11 Days Before The Start of World War II: The Daily Telegraph Reports Heavy Buying of Copper and Rubber by the Germans

2010-08-29T08:33:26-05:00

August 19, 1939, 11 Days Before The Start of World War II: The Daily Telegraph Reports Heavy Buying of Copper and Rubber by the Germans

The Home Front: A Really Terrific World War II Radio Documentary

2010-08-29T08:09:44-05:00

The Home Front: A Really Terrific World War II Radio Documentary

From AudioBookVault:

The stirring drama of the war years, told through voice and song by people who lived it. The Home Front is an audio program prepared for radio broadcast. It is a composite of songs, music, newscasts and commentary that presents a view of the years 1938-1945. It even includes pauses for commercials, “We’ll be right back. . . .”

Three veteran broadcast journalists share the narration. The recordings of famous people’s voices, from Princess Elizabeth speaking to the children evacuated from the London Blitz to Humphrey Bogart delivering lines from Casablanca, are the highlights of the series. The script of historical events is blended with original soundtracks of movies, Broadway shows and news broadcasts. 1985 radio documentary.

This would be great to listen to on a long drive. While not available on CD, you can find the used cassette version on Amazon.

How To Season a Cast Iron Skillet

2010-08-28T21:31:05-05:00

Left: Unseasoned Right: Seasoned

From Wikipedia:

A seasoned pan has a stick-resistant coating of polymerized fat and oil on the surface. Seasoning is desirable on cast-iron cookware and carbon steel cookware, because otherwise they are very sticky to foods and rust-prone. For other pans e.g., stainless, aluminum, enameled), the same chemical phenomenon can occur, but seasoning may not be desired for cosmetic reasons (it makes a pan look splotchy), or the pan may already be stick-resistant (e.g., at medium heat, a clean stainless pan with oil is very stick resistant to many foods). ...

As with other cast iron vessels, a seasoned pan or dutch oven should not be used to cook foods containing tomatoes, vinegar or other acidic ingredients. These foods will damage the new seasoning. Instead, newly seasoned ovens should be used to cook food high in oil or fat, such as chicken, bacon, or sausage, or used for deep frying. Subsequent cleanings are usually accomplished without the use of soap. Because modern cleaning methods (detergent soaps, dishwashers) will destroy the seasoning on cast iron, manufacturers and cookbook authors recommend only wiping the pans clean after each use, or using other cleaning methods such as a salt scrub or boiling water.

From KitchenEmporium.com:

Cast Iron Cookware must be seasoned properly and it will last a life-time. ( I still use my Grandmother's cast iron skillets on a regular basis and they must be at least 60-70+ years old.)

New Pans

Heat the oven to 250 - 300 degrees
Coat the pan with lard or bacon grease. Don't use a liquid vegetable oil because it will leave a sticky surface and the pan will not be properly seasoned.
Put the pan in the oven. In 15 minutes, remove the pan & pour out any excess grease. Place the pan back in the oven and bake for 2 hours.

Repeating this process several times is recommended as it will help create a stronger "seasoning" bond.

Also, when you put the pan into service, it is recommended to use it initially for foods high in fat, such as bacon or foods cooked with fat, because the grease from these foods will help strengthen the seasoning.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett Adjusts To The Light

2010-08-28T20:57:35-05:00

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett Adjusts To The Light

The University of Phoenix Updates Their Logo

2010-08-28T20:03:04-05:00

The University of Phoenix Updates Their Logo

From Brand New:

As an evolution, the new Phoenix is a great improvement in all aspects. The head turning outward and front makes more sense — I have yet to find a corporation or organization that prefers anything in their logo looking or moving backward — and is more dynamic. The thicks and thins are better proportioned. The wings are less stubby and more embracing. And the tail is the biggest improvement, because it doesn’t look like the Phoenix is pooping, it actually looks like flamed feathers. The change from that 1970s, tightly spaced serif to a better spaced FF Milo is a very welcome change too.

Third-Generation Kennedys: Really Stupid

2010-08-28T19:39:06-05:00

From Hyman Hayden:

The Martha Moxley case is unusual because the man on trial, Michael Skakel, is related to the Kennedy family, and because the crime took place more than 25 years ago, when both Skakel and Moxley were 15 years old. Subsequently, Skakel became an alcoholic, and entered an abuse treatment center where, according to Coleman, Skakel confessed to killing Martha in a jealous rage when he saw her making out with his brother. This proves Skakel is an idiot. Why not just kill his brother? That way, he'd have a better chance with the girl.

New GE 7-Point Program Helps You Plan And Obtain Nuclear Research Reactor

2010-08-27T08:42:34-05:00

New GE 7-Point Program Helps You Plan And Obtain Nuclear Research Reactor

The 1950's was such an optimistic decade, eh?

The Bataan Death March: Bad Manners To Wear Hat In Presence Of Sacred Symbol Of Rising Sun

2010-08-26T07:12:35-05:00

The Bataan Death March: Bad Manners To Wear Hat In Presence Of Sacred Symbol Of Rising Sun

From the 1961 Dell comic book Combat!: The Death March of Bataan

The 1968 Pattonville Heights Bunter Abend

2010-08-25T22:24:00-05:00

The 1968 Pattonville Heights Bunter Abend

May 4, 1968, about halfway between the MLK assassination and the RFK assassination. I can still mumble some of the songs.

Why Does Bud Selig Get A Statue At Miller Park When The Three Workers Who Died Building It Do Not?

2010-08-25T21:11:50-05:00

Not The Real Workers

This statue is a politically correct homage to "Teamwork" featuring a white guy, a black guy, and a woman. Here are the real iron workers who lost their lives building Miller Park:

Jerome Starr, Jeffrey Wischer, William DeGrave

So back to my original question: Why Does Bud Selig Get A Statue At Miller Park When The Three Workers Who Died Building It Do Not?

Barack Obama, Our Yuppie President

2010-08-25T20:34:45-05:00

From Victor Davis Hanson:

Hypocrisy is an important attribute of yuppies, safe in the “right” urban and suburban enclaves, and thus free to pontificate in the abstract about the sort of life they studiously avoid in the concrete. Yuppies like teachers’ unions for our children; but they send their own children to charter, private, or prep schools where teaching excellence and results (defined by getting kids into the top private universities) matter.

Yuppies preach racial and class ecumenicalism, but they usually associate with their own kind. Yuppies compensate for their lack of physicality through hyper-expressions of gym- and sport-induced fitness. Put Obama in a pickup truck scrounging for voters, and in comparison Dukakis’s tank ride would seem like George Patton in a Sherman. Reagan knew how to use a Weed Eater; Obama would worry about machine-induced allergies and cite studies on hearing damage.
The earthier David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel are in a dilemma. They know now that the public has caught on, and that they must manufacture an empathetic First Couple, who in times of severe recession understand what the middle and working classes are going through. But they also know that nothing in Obama’s own prep-school, Occidental, Columbia, Harvard, Chicago Law School, Annenberg Foundation past would have imparted such a feel for blue-collar folks. (He is no Bill Clinton, whose studied yuppism was an escape from, and a conscious veneer over, a real trailer-park genesis.)

You Know What Would Be Fun? Have R. Lee Ermey Be The Moderator at All Remaining Debates in Wisconsin This Year

2010-08-25T20:26:17-05:00

You Know What Would Be Fun? Have R. Lee Ermey Be The Moderator at All Remaining Debates in Wisconsin This Year

Russ Feingold Is Looking a Little Tired These Days

2010-08-25T07:40:40-05:00

Russ Feingold Is Looking a Little Tired These Days