Flu suggestions could result in lower gas prices.

Here is a swine flu comment from my friend Al who lives down below, somewhere in Kalifornia.

Public Health Officials are suggesting that everyone stay inside. As in, do not travel, minimize your visits to public places, etc.

Think of the gasoline savings. With more people doing less traveling to the store, errands, etc., fewer people will be buying gasoline.

Fewer gasoline customers COULD result in lower gasoline prices; and, that COULD save you some money.

Business 'Characters'

Remember, to ask a question, please contact me at askgrampsaboutanything@Verizon.net

Here is a comment and question from another reader: Is it just me, or do you also notice a paucity of "real characters" in the business world and society as a whole. It seems that now days the only characters are those business tycoons with lots of money who have P.R. people or those that get entangled by the law.

Examples of past "real characters" would be Mr. Bumbleberry and Col. Sanders. You know, real promoters, and real people with real histories. Gary Dahl, aka ”Mr. Pet Rock,” and Howard Hughes would be others.

What are your ideas on why our society is often so bland? Can it have to do with everyone being so concerned about appearing so P.C.?

-Bored with the status quo”


Dear “Bored with the status quo,” I understand what you are saying. To add to the list, there are, of course, the “technical entrepreneurs.” One only has to look at the photo of the Microsoft founders, taken in 1978, to see a real “bunch of characters.”

http://kennethg.blogspot.com/2006/06/microsoft-founders.html

Who in their right mind would have risked investing any money with these people? Well, some folks did, and of course they became very, very, wealthy.

Hewlett–Packard had its beginnings in a tiny garage in Palo Alto, CA. William Hewlett and David Packard were ‘characters’ who spent a lot of time thinking about ways to improve things.

Don’t forget Ray Kroc, the milkshake machine salesman who became the icon of McDonald’s.

Harvey Gross, the founder of Harvey’s Casino and Resort at Lake Tahoe, Nevada, was another character, a meat salesman, who believed in quality. He and his wife opened a little place at Stateline, Nevada, and grew it into Harvey’s Resort and Casino.

Present day, though, there does seem to be fewer characters in the business world. Maybe it is the PC.

Fire Extinguisher Training

Today’s topic comes from an avid http://askgrampsaboutanything.blogspot.com/ reader, David somewhere in NorCal. “So few communities have any type of education and hands on classes for learning how to properly use a fire extinguisher. I would think that house insurance companies would help underwrite the costs with the local fire depts. It only seems that I ever see any education of this type being offered in small towns never larger cities. Gramps, what do you think? David..."

Well, I think David has a point. The main ‘costs’ in doing this are the costs of servicing the fire extinguisher and refilling it with chemicals. One would think the fire extinguisher service companies could team with the fire departments, and some progressive thinking insurance companies, to provide such hands–on classes to the public.

The fire department personnel are either paid and on duty, or volunteers who volunteer their time in such an educational effort. So, in most respects, there is no real or actual cost to the fire departments to have personnel providing this type of public education. Though, city or county pencil pushers or bean counters might argue about that.

Back when I was a firefighter, I participated in several such training sessions, and was very glad to do it. People were always amazed at how close they would have to get to the flames in order to have fire extinguishers work effectively to put out the flames.

By the way, oil fire training school taught us firefighters how to put out a flaming pit of oil and gasoline, about six inches deep, and 15 by 30 feet, using only a garden hose with the standard nozzle and typical residential water supply. Now, that was not only a very hot fire, but it was a very interesting experience.

So, I agree with David. There ought to be more training like this available, not only to school students, but adults as well.

Also, if insurance companies cannot step up to the plate, maybe it could be an opportunity for a business person. I realize that most businesses have so many requests for donations. However, if someone had a little extra money, and needed an authentic tax deduction, he or she could step forward and donate a couple thousand dollars to help pay for the fire extinguisher chemicals and servicing for such an educational effort.

If someone did that, more than likely, there would be very favorable publicity regarding such a community service – positive advertising that money cannot buy.

Dining Out?

I do not eat out very often, but when I do, in addition to convenience and quick food, I always look for a good value. Yesterday, on the way to a board meeting of The Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, I decided to stop for a snack. As I was arriving, at the Golden Corral, I could see my friend Lynn and his son arriving too.

We sat together and enjoyed the variety of fresh foods. Lynn and I are veterans and we like to support Golden Corral, because of how Golden Corral supports veterans. Scheduled close to Veterans Day, Golden Corral provides free meals for veterans, as a way of thanking veterans for their service to our country.

Lynn and I agree that the food is top quality, consistently, and there is a big variety. Plus, the table attendants do an excellent job. If you like salads, there is a big salad bar. I like to fix up a salad and get some pot roast. If you like pot roast, you need to try a Golden Corral. Imagine that, all you can eat salad and pot roast! Mmmmmm...

Golden Corral is a privately owned company with locations in about 40 states. Last I heard they had close to 500 restaurants. To find a location near you, visit their website.
http://www.goldencorral.com/

Oh yes, I forgot to mention, they do serve Chocolate Cream Pie... !! Mmmmmmmmm....

Chocolate Cream Pie

It is no secret that I like chocolate cream pie; and, lemon cream pie, and blueberry pie, and apple pie. Of course, the apple would have to have a side of Tillamook® French Vanilla ice cream, OR, a slice of Tillamook® extra sharp white cheddar cheese...

A few days ago, I made a chocolate cream pie, using Jell-O® dark fudge chocolate pudding mix, the type you must cook. From past experience I know that one should not add things to the recipe, because adding things to the pudding mix interferes with how the cooked pudding ‘sets’ in the pie crust.

However, I decided to tinker with the recipe a bit. Instead of using the recommended amount of milk, I used an eighth of a cup less, and I used half–and–half instead of milk. When the pudding ‘set’ into the pie crust – a pre-made Oreo® crumb pie crust – the result was a thicker pie filling.

By the way, the Oreo® pie crust takes chocolate cream pie to a new level of wonderful, especially when served with Reddi-wip®, extra creamy whipped cream, of course!

FISH NIGHT

Are you old enough to remember when Friday night was “Fish Night” for nearly all the good Catholics? Often the aroma of cooking fish would waft through the neighborhood. In my neighborhood, no one could tell about the point of origin, it was always a mystery.

Well, Friday, or any other day of the week, is a good day to cook and serve fish. My favorite is Salmon. I like to use the fillet (tail end) because there are fewer or no bones. I like using coconut oil, enough to lightly cover the pan. Quickly sauté both sides of the salmon. Sauté the flesh side first, and then turn to cook the skin side. Add your favorite spices to the flesh side.

I usually like to add a tiny amount of butter, a very light sprinkle of onion powder, and a light sprinkle of dried dill. Then, I add some water, maybe a half an inch in the bottom of the pan, and cover the pan with a lid, reducing the heat to low. This lets the salmon steam. While the salmon is steaming, I prepare some Minute rice, and blanche some asparagus or green beans.

After about five minutes, everything is finished cooking. During that five–minute wait, I prepare fresh tartar sauce. I use almost a cup of mayonnaise, a sprinkle of dried dill, one Medium Claussen dill pickle, finely shredded, and about one teaspoon of onion powder. Mix well into the mayonnaise and have ready to serve with your meal. Of course, one can serve lemon slices, to help flavor the fish.

Total prep time from start to finish is about 22 minutes, and it is a great meal.

Roquefort and Blue Cheeses

Are there any Roquefort or Blue Cheese fans out there, other than me? I enjoy Roquefort cheese made in, of course, France.
However, rumor has it there are going to be very costly import duty fees on all French cheeses. Political posturing by the countries always makes all the folks suffer.
Please, DO NOT DESPAIR, because, there is Maytag Blue Cheese, made in the USA.
If you love blue cheese, and have not tasted the delightful creaminess and flavor of Maytag Blue Cheese, you owe it to yourself to do that, the sooner the better. Did you know that Oprah Winfrey likes Maytag Blue? To learn more about Maytag Blue go to: http://www.maytagdairyfarms.com/aspx/welcome.aspx

'PIRATES'

Hmmm...

I wonder how well these "Somalian pirates" can swim, and for how long?

It would be fairly easy for all merchant ships to have at least one person trained to use a .50 caliber rifle, with a scope. It has an effective range of about one mile. http://www.barrettrifles.com/rifle_82.aspx

As a small ‘pirate’ boat or skiff approaches the larger vessel, one should be able to tell if they are fishing, or on a pleasure trip, or, if they look like they are up to no good.

An effective, loud, speaker, or flare signal can order the intruders away from the ship. If they fail to do that, and keep coming, a shot or two from the .50 caliber, aimed at just below the water line, should cause that boat to take on water.

I guarantee you that one shot from a .50 caliber into the motor of the pirate conveyance, would disable it. Followed by another shot into the floor, to cause a gaping hole.

It would be interesting to see four or five 'pirates' trying to bail water out of their boat. If the pirates do not believe in life preservers, all the better.

Hijacking, no matter where it is, or how they do it, is not acceptable. If the pirates die, or become shark food, while trying to swim back to shore, too bad. They made a bad choice.

When there are enough bad choices, the pirates will find something else to do, like move to Nigeria, and start sending emails.

These pirates are nothing more than kidnappers and terrorists looking for easy money. All nations need to consider better "get tough" policies and procedures - to discourage the pirates.

Hmmm...

I realize that I should never judge by appearance. However, by appearance, Phil Spector, recently convicted of 2ND degree murder, looks like a very sleazy hairball of a human being.

With any luck, he might get 15 to 20 years in prison.

Maybe the State of California can make a deal with the State of Nevada, to house Phil Spector and OJ Simpson in the same cell.

Now, THAT would be poetic justice.

Some of you might know the definition of an ATNA.

However, if you do not, an ATNA is a person who is "All Talk, No Action."

I get the feeling there are many ATNAs, and some of them are criticizing the White House folks for doing or not doing.

Well, the below link will give everyone, especially the ATNAs, the chance to "crap or get off the pot," so to speak...

Please feel free to make some or all of your present political concerns known to staff at the White House.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/

You’ve all heard the term, “well that suits him/her to a T.” Well, my “Activities Director” and I met a nice young lady whose teas suit her to a T. Her name is Tobi, and she blends her own teas. Very soon, I will have a link to her webpage, where you will be able to learn about, and order, her custom blended teas.

It is cold and rainy here in the Pacific Northwest, and the weather folks have been mentioning the ‘S’ word, possibly for the lower elevations.

I still am waiting for the right weather conditions to bottle some samples of my fiery spice mix. Also, I still need to find a commercial kitchen, in the Marysville, WA area, one that will allow, or accommodate, pepper fumes, so that I can bottle my spice mixes for sale to the public. So that will be a "stay tuned" detail for the near future, hopefully.

It's taken me about 40 years to fine tune my spice mix recipes, so a few more days or weeks will not hurt.

In the mean time, I will be fooling with, and fine-tuning, a recipe for deviled eggs.

Most people have no clue about Sharia law, especially in Afghanistan, where the U.S. has thousands of troops trying to rescue the average Afghani from the clutches of the Taliban.

This is a very graphic video showing adherents of the Taliban, and Sharia law, 'punishing' a 17-year-old girl for appearing in public with a man who was not her husband, brother or father.

When we speak of religious freedom, this is part of the right-wing Islamic/Muslim beliefs.

I believe U.S. Troops should track down such 'men' and give them a dose of their own medicine.

Rumor has it that the Obama administration is ok with Sharia law.

WARNING - FOR SOME, THIS MIGHT BE VERY GRAPHIC OR UPSETTING...

http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2009/04/taliban-flog-17-year-old-girl-in-public.html

Looking at recent news, here are three contrasting articles about veterans. I hope you find these articles interesting.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/10/national/main4936048.shtml?tag=topHome;topStories

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20090411/NEWS01/704119875&news01ad=1#A.daughters.gift

http://www.nwcn.com/statenews/idaho/stories/NW_040709IDN-AP-VA-fraud-plead-LJ.b00df841.html

The arrival of Easter usually means boiled eggs for most of us. What to do with all those eggs. If the eggs are cracked during cooking, you need to use them as soon as you take them out of the water. If you paint or decorate the eggs, and they get cracked during Easter egg hunts, you should discard them. I give them to the crows. They like boiled eggs, and eat the whole thing, shell and all.

Otherwise, one can make deviled eggs. There are zillions of recipes on how to make deviled eggs. To ‘devil’ eggs means to heavily season them, but most “deviled eggs” have mild seasonings. Some of the ingredients could be mayonnaise, mustard, salt, pepper, maybe some horseradish. I do not use horseradish.

I will let you in on a secret though. I press the cooked egg yolk through a strainer. When mixed with mayo and mustard, the strained egg yolks produce a creamy consistency. Is there a secret ingredient? You bet, and it is a tablespoon of sweet pickle juice.

Give it a try, and see what happens! Be sure to let me know if your deviled eggs were tasty.

I spent about 13 years in the fire service, including almost two years as a sleeper. That meant I was on duty every night. I like to cook, and the other guys on shift did not like to cook. So, in no time at all, I ended up cooking and they cleaned up the mess. That was a win-win situation. For most of those years, I was always part of a cooking crew for fire department events.

Being a sleeper at the firehouse, gave me the opportunity to experiment with foods, seasonings and sauces. I learned about peppers, spicy foods, and how to prepare very mild to scorching hot items. Every night it was dinner for three or four, sometimes more. Sometimes, the married guys would eat at the firehouse and not at home.

One night, I prepared and cooked two roast Long Island ducklings, with all the trimmings for about 13 of us, including two sheriff's deputies. It was a feast, complete with pumpkin pie. One of the commissioners stopped in as we were just starting to eat. We offered him the chance to grab a plate, but he just wanted some coffee.

The very next day, though, there was a new rule. Only people on shift could eat at the firehouse, unless it was a sanctioned event. Apparently, some of the wives had called him to complain that their husband was choosing to eat at the firehouse instead of at home.

However, that same commissioner was the one who would ask me to make breakfast for 30 to 45, whenever there was a house fire during the night. Almost any house fire always had about an hour or two of clean up, and get the engines back in service. A 1:30 AM fire, would often see folks in the firehouse until 6:45 AM - time for breakfast.

I developed a quick recipe for Fire House Chili, and that is featured in a book about the history of the Saratoga California Fire Department. It is available through the Saratoga Historical Foundation. 20450 Saratoga-Los Gatos Road, Saratoga, CA 95070-5935 · #408-867-4311.

If anyone has any questions or comments about food, I am waiting to read and respond.

With regard to the increasing numbers of homeless folks, I am very afraid that this is only the tip of the iceberg. We must add to the statistics, the growing numbers of people, including "senior citizens," who now are living in their vehicles. Plus, a significant portion of the homeless are veterans of the U.S. military.

Almost every area in our country is being touched by homelessness or folks at-risk of losing their housing.

This results in all helping agencies, including Volunteers of America, St. Vincent de Paul, and local food banks, struggling to meet the increasing demand to help others in need.

Now, more than ever, these helping agencies need your help. Please consider sending a donation to your local VOA, S.V.d.P., and food bank, to help others less fortunate than yourself. Everyone can cut back a tad on buying coffee or lunch out, to try to help others. Whether it is $5, $10, $500 or more, every donation really does matter, and they need your $$ help NOW...

How many of you folks like spicy food?

I am at the wuss end of the heat meter, but I do know how to make food spicy hot for others to enjoy. I have been developing seasonings for a long time, and have settled upon a certain mixture of spices and peppers, including the Ghost Pepper, (aka Bhut Jolokia - pronounced buhoot joelowkeeaa), the world's #1 hottest pepper. There are some interesting stories developing about close encounters with this pepper.

Are there any ranch dressing fans?

I made a discovery about ranch dressing, and will share it with you. I've developed the taste for dipping French fries in ranch dressing. I've tried ranch dressing at Jacques', (Jack In the Box), Wendy's, Mickey D's, (MacDonald's) and Burger King, to name just a few. I believe that Burger King serves the best tasting ranch dressing.

Recent news indicates that many 'seniors' are living in their vehicles. Thus, they are becoming a bigger and more significant part of the homeless statistics.

Many sources mention that U.S. veterans make up a big percentage of the overall homeless population.

Within the fast increasing numbers of older homeless people, more than likely, there will be many veterans.

There are programs that might be able to help some or most of the homeless veterans, and those programs vary from state to state.

Many people do not like to look at a homeless person, at least to make direct eye contact.
Maybe they are subconsciously thinking, there but for the grace of God…

The state of Washington has one of the more progressive “department of veteran’s affairs” agencies. The WDVA, under the leadership of John Lee, is working to provide alternatives for homeless and at-risk veterans. WDVA is recognizing the fact that soon there will be large numbers of new veterans from the U.S. military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Unfortunately, service providers, and the criminal justice system, are already seeing homeless veterans from that group.

I believe it is time for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to develop a safe housing network. At one time, all veterans went through basic training. They were told what to do, when and how, and how often to do it; and, they did those things remarkably well in most cases. There should not be any homeless veterans.

Most larger cities have an industrial area, and in most cases, there are unused or derelict buildings. While I was in the Air Force, I lived in a Butler Building for nearly four years. The VA can spend some money to convert some of the unused or derelict buildings to living units, very similar to a barracks.

Yes, there should be programs and case managers, and a defined plan to get the veterans back on track toward becoming a productive member of society. With nearly all homeless veterans, there are mental health issues. So, this living arrangement should have a very comprehensive array of assistance.

I realize the VA does help sponsor some living units. However, the number of rooms available does not meet the existing need, and will not be sufficient to help the future needs.

What are your thoughts about this?

Hello all...

Whether you are a veteran seeking information about veterans' benefits, or just someone needing another opinion or advice about anything that concerns you, now you can Ask Gramps About Anything, and I will do my best to provide an honest, informed answer, without any BS.