If You Know

And just in case you don't, you should.

Starts at eleven this morning.
-bill kenny 

A Decade Later....

Somethings are more permanent than others. 

For instance, the hilarity that permeates my entire body when I read this from ten years ago and that I still smile and smirk in equal measure as I did at that time. When I first authored this, I called it: 

Brand New Roller Skates Are Always Trumped by Baseball Bats

This is one of these 'torn from the headlines' items that, as the pretend adult I am, I'm supposed to counsel 'don't try this at home, kids!' except...it happened at home and it was kids. Aside from that, no resemblance to reality, implied or expressed is intended.

This is sort of Bob H's fault because he sent me the original item Thursday afternoon but I was so busy, I really didn't read it and it didn't sink in until Friday about the middle of the day. 

When it showed up in the New York Daily News, I was impressed: Teenagers mistakenly assault woman's sex partner after they mistook her screams of passion for cries. And people despair for the next generation! 

I will very probably never meet Torrington Police Lt. Bruce Whiteley, but if anyone has Joe Friday down better, I'd sure like to meet them. In describing what had happened, this is his ENTIRE summation, "Swanson and Arnold had not been fighting." Yeah, once you've read the article, that conclusion just jumps out at you. And the comments offered by readers, as ungrammatical and borderline illiterate as they are, in their own way are as funny as the story itself. 

I think the young Mr. Roger Swanson should be very grateful he hadn't planned on a day-night doubleheader. And whoever said 'safe at home' has certainly never been a gentleman caller of Ms. Melanie Arnold's.
-bill kenny

A Thought for The Day After

"Loving your country shouldn’t just mean watching fireworks on the Fourth of July. 

Norwich (CT) Harbor 2019 Fireworks

"Loving your country must mean accepting your responsibility to do your part to change it. 

Norwich (CT) Harbor 2019 Fireworks

"If you do, your life will be richer, our country will be stronger.”-President Barack Obama
-bill kenny

Star-Spangled Matrimony

Everyone in the United States of America I would hope is celebrating Independence Day today, as am I but...

Today, as of from now on, is also the day our son, Patrick Michael marries the love of his life, Jena (I think choosing today's date is a remarkably clever way for him to always remember his anniversary; sort of how I chose the feast day of Saint Wendolinus as the day his mom and I wed).

I have no words to describe the absolute joy as a parent I have right now so I'll borrow some from Paul Stookey and wish both Pat and Jena every happiness, forever and ever. 
-bill kenny

We Come on a Ship They Call the Mayflower

Don't be distracted by the spectacular fireworks display at the Harbor tonight (weather permitting) tomorrow is actually Independence Day. In a country where more and more and more of us identify politically as just red (Republican) or just blue (Democrat), with the other side always suspect, maybe it could be a much-needed reminder that two hundred and forty-three years ago, patriots saw themselves as red, white and blue. 

Between today and tomorrow, a lot of us will spend a great deal of time cooking raw meat over hot rocks, quaffing malt and barley beverages, or playing whiffle ball in the backyard and just taking it easy. All are equally worthwhile, more or less, and I suspect, crabby people like me to the contrary, those who gave their lives in the course of the wars fought for, in, and by this nation, wouldn't have a problem flipping a burger, draining a cold glass or pitching an inning or two and letting it go at that. 

We've all seen the bumper stickers proclaiming 'Freedom isn't Free' to the point where I'm not sure we appreciate fully the meaning of the words, much less the importance of the thought they express. We who've always enjoyed all the protections our Constitution and Bill of Rights provide sometimes take for granted what others elsewhere cannot, in their wildest fantasies, ever imagine. For centuries and generations, everyone everywhere has wanted to come to America in order to be free. Here's a newsflash, they still do. 

There's a reason why we have a Statue of Liberty in the New York Harbor and nobody else does and it doesn't have anything to do with who gave what to whom as a present. Who we are and what we do is the envy of the world even when we sometimes do inexplicably thoughtless, hateful and hurtful things. 

We are the most powerful nation on earth (and in the history of the world) and we are a rare and noble notion that we and we alone should determine who we are, where we live, how we worship and for whom we vote as leaders. 

We are the United States of America, not because our cars are faster, our grocery shelves better stocked, our homes prettier, our armed forces more powerful, our hair bouncier, our teeth whiter or our clothes cleaner. We are the sum of all of that and ten thousand other things--the freedom to get up tomorrow morning and move across the street or across the country and never need anyone's permission. The right (some feel it's a duty) to think our elected leaders are cloth-eared clowns who are leading us to ruin (and have been since 1776, I guess). 

We have more freedoms we never use than the rest of the world put together, made possible by everyone who has ever been an American ever since there's been an America to be from. George Bernard Shaw once noted "(p)atriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it." But I don't believe we think ourselves superior because I'm not convinced sometimes we think at all. 

But if we did, and do, think, then Independence Day might be a good day to think a little harder about who we are and how we're going to pass what we have to our children, and to their children, as our parents did for us. 

We're a country whose Founders insisted our birthright included, "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Maybe that doesn't make us 'better' than other nations, only different-but at least for this holiday, maybe we can all agree that different is better and sing an American tune in whatever key we choose.
-bill kenny

And We Lived to Tell the Tale

I'm not clear on the difference between gourmet and gourmand, or even if there is one. But for sake of argument. let's say there is. I have spent over six and a half decades above ground eating food. I'm quite good at it in that 'if practice makes perfect then perfect practice makes it more so' kind of way. 

If you were to ask me what I know how to prepare at meal-time, I'd list Lipton Chicken Noodle Soup, canned corned beef hash, hot dogs, chili, most microwave stuff unless it gets complicated and requires me to do any form of math, and no sixth thing that comes to mind immediately. 

Yeah, I'm clueless on how to make food that's not already food or nearly so. That's why I'm not sure when our daughter, who was visiting the other day and leafing through a free food magazine that I picked up at the Stop and Shop started reading aloud some of the salad as meal recipes, my fancy was tickled by something called "BLT Salad." 

She also was kind enough to show me how the oven worked without my having to burn the kitchen down while trying to bake the bacon (and also how to use the timer on the range instead of the smoke alarm to know when the bacon was done in the oven).

Magazine's concept of BLT Salad

I appreciate the 'simple swap to use nonfat plain Greek yogurt in place of mayonnaise for the same tangy taste with less fat,' but since I was tossing some of the ingredients overboard before we got to the water's edge, the simple swap didn't matter to me.

The recipe had me at bacon. I decided to add some pre-cooked chicken pieces, for protein (I have no idea what that means except it sounds cook-like), to two large cut-up hydroponic tomatoes and a spring salad mix (I'm guessing the container didn't know it was July). And I tossed it all in the biggest bowl I could find which was almost not big enough.

I left out: 1/2 cup light mayonnaise, 1 clove garlic, 2 tbsp. wine vinegar, 1 tbsp olive oil, 3 tbsp chopped fresh chives and 2 cups Italian seasoned croutons. If you're keeping a running total, yes, there were more left-outs than put-ins. (and thank goodness for hyphens or instead of Italian dressing I'd have been expected to use Russian).

My version in repose
(scratch and sniff not available)

I quite liked it and my life-long lover seemed to enjoy it as well. Perhaps next time I'll take a stab at English Muffin pizzas. I mean, we have catsup and cheese (and Thomas' English Muffins, the official muffin of the Kenny household). The rest is just the genius of improvisation. I hope.
-bill kenny     

Can You Hear Me?

"In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. 
And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. 
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."

"And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so."
-bill kenny