Opus 2026-219: Click Bait: Learning to Count

You would think I would learn but it isn’t happening.  I keep falling into the trap of people lying about things that are minor.  I got sucked in again.

The caption claimed the delicious results of only one cup oatmeal and one egg.  I am looking for simple recipes that I can make with little fuss.  I have experimented with journeycake, oat flour and water, which came out edible but nothing worth lying about.  I tried it with honey and cinnamon and it was a little better but I have not gone back to it.  I never tried it with egg so I was a victim waiting for a trap.

When someone says “only” I assume that means only.  Adding salt and pepper does not violate the contract.  Those are season-to-taste items.  I began to have doubts when they added cinnamon.  Then came baking powder.  Then honey.  It also required a blender which technically is not an ingredient so I let it go.  I can’t remember is there were more.

What came out, surprise, were pancakes.  They poured like pancakes, cooked like pancake and looked like pancakes.  I do not hate pancakes but they are far down my list of choices when I go out for breakfast.  If I come to your house and you are serving pancakes I will eat them with gusto and compliment you on your culinary skills.  I would be sincere, but I still would never choose them on my own.

Since I still want to develop some simple meal preps I will continue to seek ideas but I think I can put the “only two ingredient” mantras in with the posts that claim to be the most hilarious or shocking.  When Trump talks that way I can tune it out and still get some information.  When it comes to You Tube, life is too short.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-232: Headlines: Forgetful Science

Fake is not just for news any more.  A recent headline at the Daily Wire highlighted some revelations about research into Alzheimers.

This trumpets the issue of fake science and fake research.  We hear a lot about how we need to trust the science.  If we don’t comply we are called _____________ deniers.  Fill in the blank any way you want.  The reason we are skeptical is because it is becoming common for research to be faked and no one bothers to check.  This has been a problem for a long time but it takes something like this to bring it to the public’s attention.

Whether the public will remember tomorrow is another question.  It is not just the elderly who have short memories.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-220: New Info

It has been an informative morning.  I just learned that my granddaughter has two daddies.  One of them milks cows and the other gives piggy back rides.  It seems the cow milker is more interesting.

As things unfolded I was informed my daughter has two husbands.

They have cows that give milk all over their bodies, much of it chocolate.  They mix the chocolate milk with popcorn.

My granddaughter also confessed to having dementia.

And after that things really got bizarre.

Another day of being a grandparent.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-083: Headlines: So What?

I read in American Thinker a link to Newsweek which claims 40% of generation Z identifies as being LBGTQ.  Some people will publish anything.  Some people will read it.  Some people will believe it.

Let’s assume that the information collected in the survey is accurately reported.  I know that is a gigantic leap of faith, but stick with me.  It doesn’t mean that 40% of Generation Z are LBGTQ.  We keep falling into the trap of accepting the vocabulary and assumptions of the Proregressives*.  What if 90% of thinking conservatives identified as fully vaccinated.  Would that make any difference to the leftists?  Would it have any correlation to truth?

One of the advantages of things that are published on line is that it doesn’t waste paper.  Often it is just waste.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-301: New Terms: Reality

At our bi-weekly Baby Zoomer meeting I have been hearing repeated references to something that I think is called “The Amazing Race”.  I finally had to stop and ask, “What is ‘The Amazing Race’?”  The simple answer is, another reality show.  I suggested that they needed to get library cards.  They didn’t get huffy but they came close.  Several showed me their library cards.  Of course they also admitted that they had not used them in a long time.  To give you an idea of how long, one guy talked about handing his books to the librarian at check out.  If you don’t know how old school that is then you need to update your card and get out a little more.

But I digress.

What gets me is that we have labeled these things “Reality” Shows.  Where is the reality?  I broke down and watched the trailer I found on You Tube for this show.  It looked like a remake of Around the World in 80 Days.  I liked the short shot of a guy racing down a river with a camera man taking a close up.  It takes a lot of reshooting to make a staged moment look like reality.  I guess they do a good job.

How do you film spontaneous moments in a mad race?  The only clue I could find without actually watching the show is that it is broken down in segments.  I suppose that is so they can post thousands of cameras along the possible route to catch millions of shots to chose from.  If they were making a reality show out of the Indianapolis 500 they would probably keep restaging the crashes until they got the lighting right.  I get the feeling that these shows are as spontaneous as an Obama speech.

I have three library cards.  I have to renew them every year.  At one library all you do is have the computer scan your card, lay your books on the tray and decide it you want a receipt.  The librarians are hiding behind plexiglass, wearing masks and looking at you with fear in their eyes because you might ask a question on your way out.  Or maybe you might read a book that makes you think.

That is my reality show.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-054: Headlines: Fake News or Misunderstanding

Recently I wrote about Bed Bath & Beyond dropping My Pillow products because he spoke out in support of President Trump.  My wife then announced to me that HEB, our local grocery chain, had also dropped his products.  This could cause a serious change in my shopping habits.  Since it would cause a bit of difficulty I decided to do a little homework.

My first stop was a search of HEB and My Pillow.  This brought up numerous hits and they all seemed to agree that HEB was guilty.  Since this seems to be totally out of character with an iconic Texas merchant I kept investigating.  I found the usual boilerplate writing which is a reflection of how lazy reporters are.  I finally noticed a little phrase saying that HEB had not responded to AP.  AP?  Why didn’t they say so.  I could have written it off as Fake News from the beginning.  Not wanting to be lazy myself just because it is convenient to be ignorant, I kept looking.  I noticed that all the stories came out in the same news cycle.

I decided to go to the horses mouth.  The local HEB site did not give me any place to call so I did what I should have done to start with and did a search for “corporate offices HEB”.  It came up right away, I dialed the toll free number and, after a bit of voice mail options, got a living person on the line.  She knew what I was asking and was very clear that HEB still carried My Pillow products.  She pointed out that not every store would have them but they were still available.  How come I could get a response and AP couldn’t?

So for now I am good.  I did my homework and learned once again that you can’t always believe what the media tells you.  That goes double when they all say exactly the same thing.

homo unius libri