Songs on Sunday ~ Peter Sellers & Sophia Loren
they wouldn’t be bangers if mash wasn’t involved
Sunday ~ and as I’m going to Turkey tomorrow, today I want some Proper British Fare for lunch. And what could be more British than bangers and mash served with red onion gravy?
Perhaps the most unlikely vocal duo ever.
Please listen without getting hungry.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
sausage, potato, and green beans in foil
less British than bangers and mash
but more to American tastes
Scenes on Sunday ~ Free as a Bird
a bear, seeking freedom, the open air, and two tickets to adventure
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
on a day like today
he would blow his cares away
with the wind, the sun, and the sea
lost love’s journey’s ending
the heart’s darkest wilderness is not a place of this Earth
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I have journeyed far
through Xanadu, Samarkand, Shangri-la, and Elsinore
I traveled not for love alone
but to fulfill my quest, meet my fate, and free my soul
my heart torn apart by ardour
I wandered by the mountains of the moon’s raging river
in darkest passion’s burning fervour
I could take the pain and stand the rain as should warrior
a warrior proud, steadfast, alone forever
I wouldst take you far to Shangri-la, a land of never never
so join me, my princess most proud and fair
be my Lady, my Goddess, Queen of Camelot and Elsinore
to be together, as it ’twere long ago and before
lost love’s journey’s ending, together now and forevermore
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
darkness cannot drive out darkness
only the dawn’s early light can do that
Songs on Saturday ~ Sting
a lost man, in a lost world, on an endless quest for faith and truth
This song is for a friend of mine, who oft gives me the faith and strength to carry on when all seems lost. When I’m down and troubled she lends a helping hand, she helps me to get up again, and strive once more to be a really great guy, living a very cool life.
A bit of Shakespeare, some Thomas Malory, and a reference to Alfred, Lord Tennyson in the video accompanying this song. Who knew that Sting was educated and well-read?
King Canute’s real name was Cnut. What a great T-shirt logo, if you were brave enough.
Please listen as you look to see if you have any great literature on your Kindle.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
knighthood’s dauntless deed
beauty’s matchless eye
Food on Friday ~ Rosehips
rose hips are the fruit of the flower of love
no matter what they say, rose hips are indeed a fruit
High summer presses its heat and humidity down on us, and yet in England the hedgerows are already beginning to ripen with wild harvest. One of the hedgerow’s natural bounties is the false fruit of the dog rose, (rosa canina), more commonly known in England as rose hips.
You can do a lot of stuff with rose hips, from making syrups and jams, to my preferred use which is to make a tincture of rose hips and rosemary in apple cider vinegar. As well as sweetening and adding taste to the cider vinegar. the rose hips also add diuretic, lithontriptic, and mild laxative qualities to your brew. As for rosemary, this stuff is almost a cure-all. I just add an odd number of fresh sprigs to the bottle, (for good fortune it must be an odd number.)
The finished product, (ready in about 6 weeks and will keep for a year or a lot longer), is a great basis for a salad dressing. Diluted in water it is also a first class tonic and as part of a whole-body cleanse. There may be no truth whatsoever in the persistent rumour that this concoction is a very potent female aphrodisiac. However, it is well known to be a cure for practically whatever that ails you.
You can also make a true tincture of rose hips using medicinal alcohol, (or vodka). For those of us with a real taste for booze, just make a rose hip brandy or vodka. I have even heard of rose hip gin, and although I’ve never tasted it, I have it on very good authority, from a very close friend, that this booze is the bomb.
The dog rose is an important plant to the herbalist, because the leaves, petals, and hips all have their uses. In a hedgerow, the plant may reach six feet or more in height, its flowers can be anything from white to a delicate pink, and if will guard its bounty with some particularly persistent thorns. (You can also use the hips, leaves, and petals of the cultivated rose, but I would look for a rose variety that’s as close to the wild rose as possible.)
Some say that you must be very careful when picking fruits, berries, and salad leaves from the wild ~ the uninitiated may pick themselves a deadly poison. And that everything belongs to somebody, so be discreet. All I know is that the mixture of rose hips, rosemary, and organic apple cider vinegar is as near to a sorcerer’s brew as anything I know.
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jackcollier7@talktalk.net
a rose by any other name is still as sweet
even if it’s a dog
Food on Friday ~ Corn
sex is good, but not as good as fresh sweet corn ~ Garrison Keillor
Corn is a quintessentially American staple. Just like the potato and the tomato, corn or maize, was brought back to Europe from Central America by the Conquistadores. In actuality corn is a Mexican grain, and can be found in many indigenous recipes. While here in England we really only roast, grill, or barbeque the whole cob and serve it with butter. Canned corn is a second choice to canned peas for us.
Maize / Corn is the most grown cereal grain in the world, and the most sprayed with glyphosate, so always buy organic corn if it’s available. Most corn isn’t eaten by humans anyway ~ it’s fed to animals, makes bio-diesel, and that wonderful stuff high-fructose corn syrup.
If you’re growing your own corn, plant it in a block not in rows, and grow it alongside kale, peas, or beans.
Our first corn recipe this week is from Andrea at Cooking with a Wallflower. Her Small Batch Shrimp Boil is tossed with half-cobs and served in a buttery garlic sauce.
Small Batch Shrimp Boil
From Tieghan Gerard at Half Baked Harvest we have these great looking Bacon Wrapped Cheddar Corn Wrapped Jalapeno Poppers, looks tasty.
Bacon Wrapped Cheddar Corn Wrapped Jalapeno Poppers
Cookie + kate bring us these Sweet Corn Salad Wraps; simple, healthy, vegetarian, and tasty. What a great lunch on a warm summer day.
Sweet Corn Salad Wraps
I was looking for a Mexican street recipe and I found Mexican Street Corn Bowls at Damn Delicious. Chungah is good at street food.
Mexican Street Corn Bowls
Jessica Merchant at How Sweet Eats can always be relied upon to produce something interestingly pretty. This Coffee Crusted Strip Steak with Herbed Corn Salasa ticks all the boxes.
Coffee Crusted Strip Steak with Herbed Corn Salsa
Our collection this week is from epicurious; 79 Corn Recipes to Enjoy All Summer Long. Featured is this utterly simple, no fuss, always welcome, Grilled Corn on the Cob with Salt-and-Pepper Butter. Nothing easier or better. Who says they can’t cook? Anyone can make this.
Grilled Corn on the Cob with Salt-and-Pepper Butter
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
growing corn is highly mechanised
including scary crop-dusters
Random Jottings ~ Track and Trace
we shall meet in a secret place where social distancing isn’t known
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in-car satellite navigation isn’t private
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the Police are being taught how to say;
‘Papers Please…..’ in a menacing voice
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who controls the past controls the future
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as far as his recent lovers went, his lips were sealed
ever since he used a pritt stick instead of lip-balm
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‘sorry babes-o, can’t meet for lunch, I’m having my microchip fitted’
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these days, when you book a call girl there’s a hell of a lot of paperwork
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we all leave tracks in the sand
we just never expected that the government would follow them
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
she had no objection to telling them who she’d slept with
but she couldn’t remember all their names
Enola Gay
on August 6th 1945 the B29 Superfortress Enola Gay
became the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb
The Boeing B29 Superfortress was the most sophisticated, complex, and expensive aircraft ever built up to that time. After Japan’s leaders ignored a demand to surrender, President Harry S. Truman authorised the atomic strike, in order to avoid the millions of casualties expected if ground troops invaded Japan’s Home Islands. Under the command of Colonel Paul Tibbets the Enola Gay flew from Tinian in the Mariana Islands and released the bomb at 08:15 over Hiroshima.
At that time the B29 Superfortress was the only aircraft capable of carrying the 10,000 or so pounds of the atomic weapons Little Boy and Fat Man the approximately 1,400 miles from Tinian to their targets in Japan, and getting home again.
The Atomic age had begun.
Japan unconditionally surrendered on September 2nd 1945 after a second strike by the B29 Bockscar on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. More people were killed and injured by the RAF’s conventional bombing of Hamburg than the casualties caused by the atomic bomb at Nagasaki.
Today, the Enola Gay is exhibited at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, VA. Bockscar may be seen at The National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB near Dayton, OH.
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jack collier jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Containing COVID-19
millions are being wrongly put back into lockdown
because mass testing gives too many false results
The entire effort to contain the coronavirus is a massive waste of time and money. The greatest impact of all these efforts has been to destroy the global economy, take away our civil liberties, and to hand unimaginable powers to politicians and unelected officials. Here, the government is even talking about putting the army on the streets of England to enforce lockdown ~ that will end social cohesion for a generation.
- Closing borders does not work. Australia had some of the strictest entry rules for visitors and returning Australians, and yet the coronavirus is allegedly rampant in that country. You cannot stop aircraft from landing with mail and essential imports, you cannot stop ships docking with essential imports and to load exports, and there are always some people who are exempt from the entry restrictions. (Doctors, Politicians, and Unelected Officials.)
- The money spent on mass testing has been thrown away. Here in England the mass testing centres were mostly ignored by the public, there are far too many incorrect results, either producing false positives or false negatives, and people can catch the virus from the testers themselves. Testing offers no benefit to the person being tested.
- Recently President Trump stated categorically that lockdown doesn’t work, (at least not when it comes to containing the coronavirus). A study in New York confirmed that the infection rate was just about the same for those in lockdown as for those still walking the streets and travelling on the subway.
- The vast millions spent on ‘track and trace’ have been wasted. Here, one fifth of potentially infected people are never traced, one in four of those traced could not be contacted, and there are no numbers to say how many of those reached actually went into self-isolation ~ not very many I suspect. Most of the staff in the test and trace centres have so little to do that they play games and surf the web on their official computers all day.
- Scientific studies from the Netherlands state that face coverings are worse than useless. Face coverings may be beneficial for short periods indoors where there is a risk of close contact with people you do not normally meet.
- It takes decades to even partially contain a virus; the common cold, ebola, epstein barr, flu, HIV/AIDS, rabies, smallpox, West Nile Virus….. are all still out there. Vaccines have serious side effects.
- Vaccines have limited effect. Millions are vaccinated against the flu, but you have to get a vaccine every year because the virus mutates, and you can still get sick from flu viruses that you weren’t vaccinated against.
If you want to know what a real pandemic looks like, as opposed to the coronavirus hysteria, then read about the influenza epidemic of 1918 ~ especially how it affected the USA. Everything that is being tried now to contain COVID-19, was tried back then, and none of it worked worth a damn.
Some say the people in white coats will save us all, all those under 50 years old anyway. And that the mad scientists should take over the world. All I know is that any ‘expert’ who says there is a way to contain a virus once it is in the general population is either a charlatan or a liar.
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
bar your doors and become a hermit
you will get lots of peace and quiet
you can still get the coronavirus
Random Jottings ~ Mad Scientists
and so he created a woman, who got angry when her batteries ran down
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he was smart, but he could never get a girl
so he made one
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every mad scientist dreams of playing God
the really crazy ones believe they are God
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keep you arms in the time machine at all times
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‘that’s strange perfume…..’ he said
‘that’s not perfume, it’s formaldehyde…..’ she answered
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they had solved the theory of everything
and after a few bottles of booze they thought it was a good idea to build a time machine
things went downhill after that
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
she must be a scientist
she’s wearing a white coat
