Lost in the Supermarket: Dr. Jack edition

In Borgesian style, there are a bunch of Virtual Memories posts that were never written but sound truly awesome. Two of them involve cooking. One is a photo-essay of the time I prepared an MRE at home. We brought an MRE back from our first post-Katrina visit to Amy’s family in Louisiana. I remember sitting in her parents’ backyard, reading some F. Scott Fitzgerald while Amy & her mom were out. Her dad came out to ask me if I wanted to go out and get some lunch.

“Or we could stay here and have some MREs.”

“. . . You have MREs?”

They’d been given a couple of 24-pack cartons of them at a relief site after they returned home (they were smart enough to bug out before the storm hit). We decided to go out instead, but during the rest of that trip, enough of Amy’s relatives talked about their favorite MREs and the best ways of preparing some of their contents. We were intrigued enough to bring two home (Jambalaya and Cheese Tortellini) and try it out.

Why I never wrote about it, I don’t know. In fact, I’ll post the pix later this week and try to write it up just for you. (Remember, it was almost 4 years ago, so I probably won’t have much to say about the food itself. Still, the pix are pretty neat.)

* *  *

The other food-post I never wrote? The time I used a Jack Daniel’s Mesquite EZ Marinader to prepare a steak. (On a dare, natch.)

I imagine it would’ve gone a little something like Patton Oswalt’s review of the KFC Bowl.

I never thought anything would compare to the vileness of that “authentic smokey sweet flavor from mesquite wood, complemented with Jack Daniel’s® Tennessee Whiskey flavor and a special blend of spices,” but then I discovered I could “grill and chill with the rich, bold taste of Dr. Pepper®”!

Now, I’ve consumed a lot of questionable foods over the years, but even I wouldn’t go anywhere near this combo —

— because it’d likely dissolve my steak, knife, fork, plate, and dining-room table.

See the whole Lost in the Supermarket series!

What It Is: 8/10/09

What I’m reading: Moby Dick.

What I’m listening to: The soundtrack to The Big Lebowski. I really never imagined that “I Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)” was sung by Kenny Rogers.

What I’m watching: Yankees sweeping the Red Sox, Diner, and Slaves to the Rhythm, the Princes Trust charity tribute concert to Trevor Horn from 2004. We saw a shorter version once on HDNet, and got the DVD from Netflix. It’s a really amazing concert, with performances by a ton of great acts that Horn produced, including ABC, Pet Shop Boys, Grace Jones, Seal, Yes, and Frankie Goes To Hollywood (with a new lead singer because Holly Johnson apparently has irreconcilable differences with the rest of the band and Horn). We also caught I Am Legend, which, um, hey. . .

What I’m drinking: Juniper Green & tonic.

What Rufus is up to: With the promise of another Sunday thunderstorm, we canceled our grey-hike. Of course, it never rained. Still, it was so muggy that the hike would’ve been awful.

Where I’m going: Nowhere in particular.

What I’m happy about: That I was able to disassemble a Mac Mini, upgrade the hard drive and memory, and actually get it to work again when I put it back together! Now I gotta figure out how to configure it as a media server . . .

What I’m sad about: That the Red Sox managed to score two runs in the finale of the Yankees’ 4-game sweep, after being held scoreless for 31 consecutive innings. I was hoping for 3 straight shutouts, but I’ll take a 4-game sweep, esp. after the team’s early-season struggles.

What I’m worried about: That I too will fail a steroid test because I was careless with my supplements and vitamins.

What I’m pondering: How to integrate my pal Mark’s recent post on our dumbification and partizaniness with this article by NYTimes movie reviewer A.O. Scott on Hollywood’s responsibility for national infantilization. And how to tie it up in a neat bow with this ad for the new Melrose Place:

hump

The Blood Club

On Monday, I wrote that I was going to launch a recurring Thursday feature reprinting mean-spirited reviews I wrote for The Comics Journal back in 1998. It was going to be Klassik Komiks Kritikism, but my lawyers have informed me that title could be construed as a sign that I’m a member of the Bloods, like this guy (I thought he was a member of the Inks, but hey):

So beginning next Thursday, get ready for your Classic Comics Criticism Post! Now no one can mistake me for a member of any gang, except maybe the former Soviet Union.

(Alternate title for this series: How To Get Bob Fingerman Pissed Off At Me All Over Again.)

Even 0-fers Get the Blues

In honor of Sam Anderson’s “I never liked you” review of the new Thomas Pynchon novel (a book I’m uninterested in reading), which is based in the wonderful world of 1970, this week’s 0-fer is . . . Tom Robbins!

I’ve never read a word of any of Robbins’ novels, even though he was the go-to suggestion in my early college years whenever I’d mention that I was a fan of Pynchon’s work.

In later college years, Don DeLillo was the go-to suggestion. Sadly, I have read some books by him. I’m sure David Foster Wallace took the “If you like Pynchon, you’ll like . . .” role later in the ’90s. I have no idea who it is now.

F*** You, You Whining F***: Don’t Look Back edition

In an op-ed in today’s Washington Post, CIA Director Leon Panetta pulls a Mark McGwire and asks Congress to stop looking into the CIA’s role in running secret torture prisons and planning political assassinations:

I’ve become increasingly concerned that the focus on the past, especially in Congress, threatens to distract the CIA from its crucial core missions: intelligence collection, analysis and covert action.

Why should we look to the future? Well . . .

The CIA no longer operates black sites and no longer employs “enhanced” interrogation techniques. It is worth remembering that the CIA implements presidential decisions; we do not make them.

That’s right! They were just following orders! Even the “enhanced” ones!

Nowhere in Mr. Panetta’s piece is there a “we learned our lesson” moment, because he hands responsibility for the agency’s actions to the office of the President. The closest we get is

[After 9/11] Judgments were made. Some of them were wrong. But that should not taint those public servants who did their duty pursuant to the legal guidance provided. The last election made clear that the public wanted to move in a new direction.

The thing is, without investigating those actions, we’ll never understand the processes that led to them, how that “legal guidance” was formed, and how people who should have been nowhere near the levers of power managed to put grotesque policies like this into place.

Read the whole thing.

What It Is: 8/3/09

What I’m reading: I was bored by Edwin Mullhouse, so I put it down after 25 pages. In honor of the finale of The Deadliest Catch, I started re-reading Moby Dick. I also re-read Ghost World, which was a really wonderful comic.

What I’m listening to: Nothing in particular; just some shuffling iTunes.

What I’m watching: That Deadliest Catch finale, Be Kind Rewind (haters need to explain to me why they were so down on this movie), and Step Brothers.

What I’m drinking: Abita amber

What Rufus is up to: No grey-hike, on account of rain, but he got to meet lots of people and doggies at the Saturday farmer’s market in town.

Where I’m going: Nowhere in particular.

What I’m happy about: That Patsy turned out to be champion of the Ghurkas. And offered to put up Nepal’s Olympic team in her house for the 2012 games.

What I’m sad about: Talk Magazine launched 10 years ago? Boy, I’m getting old. And boy, that Gwyneth Paltrow S/M photospread remains one of the least sexy things I’ve ever seen:

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What I’m worried about: Someday I’ll lose my mind and find that sexy. <shudder>

What I’m pondering: Whether I should forward this career advice article about drinking with co-workers to our office drunk, or just forward it to every other employee in our company.