Chef Mojo

Now, Here's A Bit Of Green I Can Deal With...

Periodically, I go to the website for Moon River Brewing Company to sign up for their mailing list. For some reason, I tend to get dropped off the list, even though I'm pretty fanatical about Moon River's brews.

This time, when I signed up for the newsletter, I got an email confirmation with the following bit of information:

Please note our big news:

We have upgraded to corn plastic to-go cups that are 100% compostable.

 

"We are becoming better corporate citizens and want to be a local leader in the green movement that is sweeping our industry," says Gene Beeco, general manager and co-owner. "We hope that other area restaurants will join us in our efforts, and I believe that in the future recyclable materials may become the law."

The brew pub uses 52,000+ cups each year. The new cups cost about 9¢ more each than regular plastic cups.

Huzzah! This is environmentalism I can get down with. To understand my enthusiasm in this regard, you have to understand the concept of the "to-go cup," or "go-cup." This is one of the true expressions of a drunkard's paradise; In Savannah, you can walk around with the adult beverage of your choice, as long as it's in a "go-cup." If you're in a bar, and you want to go somewhere else - say, another bar - then you just take your current drink, grab a "go-cup" from the stack (every establishment supplies these...), pour your beer, wine or cocktail into the "go-cup" and stumble on your merry way. 

I am simply thrilled that the next time I'm in Savannah - hopefully soon - I'll be able to stumble about with a clear conscience as far as the carrier for my beverage is concerned. It's nice to know that said container will eventually compost and assist in the growing of, hopefully, more plants with which to create adult beverages.

That Sceptered Isle

When I lived in England, I pretty much took weirdness for granted when it came to place names. There were some wondrous, tongue twisting and befuddling names out there. Slough. Great Snoring. Little Snoring. Towns named after obscure saints. Houghton St. Giles? 

And then there were the other ones:

In the scale of embarrassing place names, Crapstone ranks pretty high. But Britain is full of them. Some are mostly amusing, like Ugley, Essex; East Breast, in western Scotland; North Piddle, in Worcestershire; and Spanker Lane, in Derbyshire.

 Others evoke images that may conflict with residents’ efforts to appear dignified when, for example, applying for jobs.

 These include Crotch Crescent, Oxford; Titty Ho, Northamptonshire; Wetwang, East Yorkshire; Slutshole Lane, Norfolk; and Thong, Kent. And, in a country that delights in lavatory humor, particularly if the word “bottom” is involved, there is Pratts Bottom, in Kent, doubly cursed because “prat” is slang for buffoon.

 As for Penistone, a thriving South Yorkshire town, just stop that sophomoric snickering.

 “It’s pronounced ‘PENNIS-tun,’ ” Fiona Moran, manager of the Old Vicarage Hotel in Penistone, said over the telephone, rather sharply. When forced to spell her address for outsiders, she uses misdirection, separating the tricky section into two blameless parts: “p-e-n” — pause — “i-s-t-o-n-e.”

This is one of those things you think of when you're having a bad day. As bad as it gets, at least you don't live in Titty Ho.

Unless you do. Guess I can't help you there.

Haiku

Look out the window
Red Dawn rising to the east
Honey, get my gun

Maybe Truer Than He Knows...

Amidst the gloom, this gave me a serious chuckle. Count on the Onion to put things in perspective:

Black Man Given Nation's Worst Job

WASHINGTON—African-American man Barack Obama, 47, was given the least-desirable job in the entire country Tuesday when he was elected president of the United States of America.

(...)

Said scholar and activist Mark L. Denton, "It just goes to show you that, in this country, a black man still can't catch a break."

AAAIIIIEEEEEEEE!

    She had an horror of rooms
    she was tired
    you can't hide beat
    When I looked in her eyes they were blue but nobody home

    She could've been a killer
    if she didn't walk the way she do,
    and she do
    She opened strange doors
    that we'd never close again

    She began to wail jealousies scream
    Waiting at the light know what I mean

    Scary monsters, super creeps
    Keep me running, running scared

    David Bowie
    Scary Monsters

At some point, girl, you should really just retire to the Riviera or a little Swiss chalet way high up on a mountain.

Before you end up worse than the parody of yourself you already are.

Sorry, but the workouts and makeup are not working as advertised...

UPDATE:

Well, if Hollywood ever gets around to filming, The Madonna Story, they've got someone just as freakish to play the lead. Someone so warped, twisted and damaged that she would define the concept of the perfect typecast.

I give you Mary Kate Olsen...

I knew there was something bothering me about Madonna's new look...

 

Investment Advice I Can Live With

From The Spectator:

If you had purchased £1000 of Northern Rock shares one year ago it would now be worth £4.95, with HBOS, earlier this week your £1000 would have been worth £16.50, £1000 invested in XL Leisure would now be worth less than £5, but if you bought £1000 worth of Tennents Lager one year ago, drank it all, then took the empty cans to an aluminium re-cycling plant, you would get £214. So based on the above statistics the best current investment advice is to drink heavily and re-cycle.

Well, if you're going to take a loss, you might as well get a buzz while you do it...

(tip 'o' the hat: Instapundit)

Life Imitates Nigerian Spam

Dear American:

I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude. I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.

I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transaction is 100% safe.

This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.

Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.

Yours Faithfully Minister of Treasury Henry Paulson

Via Samizdata

International Talk Like A Stupid Pirate Day...

Well, you can't say these guys don't have balls. Balls the size of pickle jars, I'd say.

Somali pirates demand $20-mln ransom for Ukrainian ship

MOGADISHU (AFP) - - The Somali pirates who captured an Ukrainian freighter carrying an arms shipment on Sunday demanded a ransom of 20 million dollars and confirmed that they have been surrounded by foreign warships, a spokesman for the pirates told AFP.

"We have only demanded 20 million US dollars," the spokesman Sugule Ali said when contacted aboard the ship via a satellite telephone.

"The crew are safe and not harmed; what we are waiting eagerly is the 20 million dollars nothing less, nothing more."

He also said that "it is true we are surrounded by three foreign military vessels and there are some others we can see from a distance."

Emphasis mine.

Stupid or brave? I'd say mostly stupid. They don't make pirates like they used to.  But they do make them, which bothers me a bit. I thought one of the things that the Navy was supposed to do was to keep the sea lanes clear of these scum.

I guess the Navy has changed, too. Something to do with a lack of yardarms to hang pirates from, I imagine.

Noted In Passing

Dave Freeman, Co-Author of Travel Book With a Deadline, Dies at 47

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dave Freeman, co-author of “100 Things to Do Before You Die,” a travel guide and ode to odd adventures that inspired readers and imitators, died on Aug. 17 after a fall at his home in the Venice section of Los Angeles. He was 47.

Um. Ok.

Here's how it works: Every now and then the stars and all the firmaments of heaven align just so, bringing a sublime, yet absurd, convergence into being.

I'm thinking this is one of those times.

Mr. Freeman’s relatives said that he had visited about half the places on his list(...).

Bumper Sticker

Noted on a black and grey Honda Element this afternoon.

We are the Borg. You will be assimilated.