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Mine Creek Revelations: Smoked Meat Lost

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YES, I AM STILL HERE looking out my window on Main Street, and I am already dreading Super Bowl Sunday because I won’t have those great ribs and Cornish game hens cooked by the 4-H moms and dads to eat. I normally stuff myself while I’m not watching the football game.

Nowadays I take a knee when it comes to watching pro athletes of any sport, but I always want the smoked meats from 4-H’ers.

About the only sport I can stand to watch on tv is Brazilian women’s beach volleyball. I like the uniforms. The Brazilian women’s team uniforms would not be appropriate for the usual Saturday-before-Super Bowl 4-H cooking because cooking starts in the pre-dawn dark when the temperature is hovering around freezing. And, there are 4-H moms around. They disapprove.

AND ANOTHER annual event which has been cancelled by virus is the MLK Day celebration which for the past 15 or so years has been held at the New Light CME Church.

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ANIMAL CRACKERS. Saw an article at a BBC news site in which crows were called the smartest species of bird. Crows were said to be third in intelligence only to humans and apes.

At my place, crows have discovered the low table where I put out a handful of raw peanuts every morning. Used to be, bluejays ruled the roost, and I would sometimes see as many as six sitting atop the fence posts waiting on their turn to dive down and claim a peanut.

But now, one of the crows just sits there on the fence, staring down any jay that dares to get too close to the peanut table.

I think that my neighbor, David Rauls, told the crows about the peanut table. He wanted to get rid of them.

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MY BLOOD PRESSURE still shoots up when I see pictures or videos of the mob storming and ransacking the U.S. Capitol.

Now, the FBI is warning that organizers of those armed terrorists are urging the herd to mount protests at every state capital to show how unhappy they are at the presidential election results.

I am guessing that Arkansas will be an attractive target because our capitol building looks so much like the nation’s capitol building.

Peaceable protests are just fine. This is America, after all.

But when it degenerates into violence, vandalism and looting I am all in favor of shooting the rioters without regard to race, color, creed, national origin or sexual orientation.

One of my old Navy buddies sent me a message that it was really Democrats and ‘antifas’ (whoever they are) that were invading the Capitol. But all I saw were red caps and blue Trump flags.

A sorry spectacle. Even worse, the people who defend the rioters.

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MORE THINGS I LEARNED from opening email: Celery has negative calories. It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with. 

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THROWING FOOD AWAY. According to an article in the online publication for Dollar Shave Club, many consumers throw away food too soon because they are guided by the ‘sell by’ date stamped on the product. Well, they are talking about me.

The article said that the date is really for the grocer, and also to protect the reputation of the aforementioned vendor and suppliers.

Worldwide, about 1/3 of food is thrown away or wasted mostly because of erroneous understanding of the ‘sell by’ date. Produce is the first to go into the trash.

Some foods DO go bad quicker than others. The publication notes some realistic throwaway dates:

Meat: One to three days beyond the “sell by” date.

Dairy: One week beyond the “sell by” date.

Eggs: One month beyond the “sell by” date.

Bread: One week (or two to three weeks in the fridge) beyond the “sell by” date.

So, maybe my eggs WERE a bit old. The ‘sell by’ date was July 2016.

The BEST judge, according to the article, is your own nose.

If in doubt, feed the food to a friend. If he gets sick, throw it out.

I’ve always thought that “sell by” dates were absolutes, and if you kept something too long the kitchen police would come get you.

They’d be dressed like Official Downtown J-Turn Enforcement Officers, wouldn’t they?

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HE DID WHAT? While crews (including one congressman from New Jersey) were still cleaning up one day after the armed uprising in the U.S. Capitol, President Trump was next door in the White House bestowing the Presidential Medal of Freedom to pro golfers from Sweden and South Africa, and to a lady pro golfer who died in 1956.

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WORD GAMES. The cousins: Pints and Quarts. They want to grow up and become Gallons.

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HE SAID: “Progress is man’s ability to complicate simplicity.” Norweigan explorer Thor Heyerdahl, who incidentally is one of my heroes. I have his autographed picture.

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SHE SAID: “I am a marvelous housekeeper. Every time I leave a man I keep his house.” Hungarian actress Zsa Zsa Gabor

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SWEET DREAMS, Baby

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