crunchtastic

hahahahahahahaha! That's brilliant. The 'major banks' are barely solvent themselves. I will refrain from stating the obvious. Except to say that the supporters of publicly-funded stadia are welcome to pay my share of the Reliant/Toyota Center/MMP bailout tab.

Yay! More homes only the wealthy can afford!

I know. Bleh. Doddering old dilettante. He certainly has assaulted my mailbox, though. I've probably gotten 10 mailers from his campaign this past month.

This is but one reason I prefer to read the news--at least I can imagine a hot man. Because lord knows they don't work in front of the camera in cable news.

Well, there's one good thing about being so low on the salary pole......

Turn off the tv and get a subscription to The Economist.

Which is precisely why her books were heady stuff --for teenagers and misfit geeks, that is. It's the people who don't grow out of it that you've got to worry about. Like the board of the Federal Reserve.

Oooh, I have not been over to TBP yet today. I'm pleased to see someone else think of soap opera and Rand in the same sentence. Red, The Big Picture is excellent. You'll want to visit often.

Hey Attica, just for you, I've come up with 2 new shorthands from fun film quotes. I think they are pretty good. We should be able to get a lot of use out of them: LUF: Lighten Up, Francis TYRG Take Your Ritalin, Garth

This must be the time of day the FNG is actually working. It's been more than 2 hours since his last post.

Well, it was Kansas, so I guess the cop didn't notice that you were transporting a minivan full of undocumented Venezuelan models and untaxed cigarettes across state lines. Lucky, huh? Kidding, of course. Welcome back.

You are right. Much the same way Journey and Reo Speedwagon drove me straight into the arms of punk rock, a taste of Ayn Rand at an early age led me soon enough to Emile Zola. Now he's probably a largely forgotten footnote in discussions of Flaubert and Balzac and the naturalist painters. But Sinclair has new life these days, what with the continuing stream of bad news about the food supply and meat processing in particular.

Fun Fact, the original Central Market in San Antonio is called Gucc-E-B.

I'm sure there's some rustic roadside place in Calabria where it's all authentic and stuff, but the soft egg on pizza thing is NASTY to me. I have been considering trying Pink's, and they deliver to my office, but a few different people have told me that their sauce is overly sweet, and not in a good way. Anyone a Pink's fan? I've been begging the Romanos guys to deliver to my building, but they won't. And everyone on my floor is so tired of Star they won't hardly touch it. I need a new delivery option for my work peeps when I call lunch meetings!

I'm enjoying the Hess tower views from the east end. It is starting to be a real exclamation mark on the skyline, from my vantage.

I'm all about that 'old meat' as well. Piano Man Kroger usually has a very good selection. I often buy and cook within a couple of hours, so I always shop the old meat first. They almost always have a good piece of sirloin for 3 or 4 bucks. They also have a good day-old bakery section. Not as robust as old meat, but.... I'll stop now.

Heh. Scene-chasers on YELP tend to have the attention span of a gnat, so the fire will burn out quickly. I'll continue to do my part to support the greater East End by hitting the sweet spot this week (aka the Dowling/Leeland intersection) for a Sparkle burger, and an after dinner treat from the Royal Crown liquor store.

Yessir!! I cook based on what meat is for sale that week. You just need a well stocked pantry, flexibility with your weekly produce buys, and a little skill--good to go. The worst food buys (other than frozen and pre-made stuff) is boneless, skinless anything, and lunch meat. What most people spend on processed chicken breasts is my liquor money for the week. On topic: I split my time between HEB, Kroger and Fiesta. Only the true believers will want to shop the Wayside Fiesta, but their produce is way better than the Gulfgate HEB. I will say this about West Gray Kroger: they have great manager meat specials if you are buying and cooking the same day.

Like Marmer, I was fascinated with her books when I was young. In the same way I encountered Henry Miller; some of the French modernists; reading those books was like dipping a toe into the grown-up world. Even then I knew I disagreed with much of her economic philosophy, but her characters were compelling, and as a teenage girl, who isn't going to be swept away by Howard Roark? Some time ago I re-read the Fountainhead, and was surprised at how much I still liked it. How much of that was influenced by being a fan of old Gary Cooper movies, and the memory of smart guys in college using the book to try and get into my pants, I don't know. I really liked her short, early works (We the Living, Anthem) as a better vehicle for her politics, but IMO she was not a skilled enough writer to do the dystopian fiction thing well. Her skill was longer, potboiler narrative. She had the capacity to be a much better writer, but I suspect her politics got in the way of that. I've heard the latest remake of Fountainhead has been in and out of studios for years now. Wonder if that will ever come to be?

Man, somoene needs to put down that 19th century Made-in-America crack pipe and pay attention to the Fed, the too-big-too-fail banks, and the world economy. No one will be taking anything back in 2010. ...Except perhaps GS, who should be back to their historical 50% compensation-to-revenue average... We can put sparklers in Glenn Beck's piehole and wrap him in the flag and put him on a year-long America Now Tour, we can put every lazy brown person on a bus back to Mexico or to work detailing cars, we can repeal all the regulations and taxes that hinder business, and it's not going to matter. As long as global economies are predicated on consumer spending and the trading of debt, your inheritance will continue to shrink, jobs will continue to be lost, real wages will continue to decline, the world's top 2% will entrench further, and everyone else continues the downward spiral as the next securitized debt bubble bursts and currencies continue to erode. It could be years until this fully plays out. All the warbling about the American Way isn't going to fix a damn thing. Or did you mean get back to the 'basics', as in the gold standard, slavery, or walled city-states?

I so totally think I have a future in being the barfly blogger. You could be my jukebox reviewer. We could start at Warren's. I think there are 4 or 5 people who haven't heard of it yet. You'll love this: Mike brought home a homemmade flier advertising our state rep Carol A doing an appearance this coming Tuesday at the 'award-winning' D&W Lounge.

Me, Tmariar, and all of my hot internet boyfriends. Fewer people than I had hoped, but a long and fun night for the usual degenerates. There were even some yelper/hipsters checking out the Houston Press-approved dive bar action. The young cool ones were drinking lones star and discussing where they would go next to find some women. The older uncool ones were discussing all of the other dive bars in the paper as if they were on a quest for the holy grail. The regulars were discussing whether it was a dive bar or a hole-in-the-wall, and if any of the new places in HP had cheap beer for happy hour. These 6 pm regulars knew the pricing at nearly every bar in downtown and were really friendly. I heart good barflys. The Lone Star is great little place.

Just in time for some great weather, our first post-summer HAIFy Happy Hour is this evening at the Lone Star Saloon, downtown at Travis and St Joe's Pkway, beginning 5-ish. Hoping to see some new faces again. All are welcome!

yay! the cool breeze has made it to the east end.

Yessir, that's the beans poem I grew up with. My dad, god love him, recently taught it to his 7 year old granddaughter. Oh, the circle of life!