Buffalo Gal

A commenter asked for the recipe for Cully’s French dressing…so here is a repeat of that recipe:

14 oz bottle of Heinz catsup
1 c. sugar
2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 clove garlic pressed or chopped
1 cup Mazola oil
1/2 cup white Heinz vinegar
1 big sweet onion, chopped

That is what they werved at the old Cully’s restaurant in Dilworth so long ago.

I heard part of radio talk show today when I was driving from Fargo back to the Buffalo Bluff. Callers were loudly berating ESPN for 1. not starting the FCS championship game at the kickoff..ESPN continued broadcasting the end of a basketball game 2. the broadcasters were “in favor” of SH university 3. ESPN did not cover the trophy presentation. 4. The play- by- play callers on ESPN were stupid—-
And there were other complaints.

My solution to not liking to listen to ESPN play- by- play: turn down the sound totally and listen to Scott Miller, Steve Walker and Jeremy Jorgenson.
There is a time gap but it is kind of nice..you hear what happens on a play and then you see it. I like that feature. There is nobody as good as the Miller-Walker-Jorgenson team of broadcasters…none whatsoever. All the games that have been on TV this year (Bison games) we turn down the TV sound and listen to KFGO radio..much preferable even to the local play- by- play on KTHI channel 11.

THE GREAT SIGNS SEEN ON ESPN:

One said ‘MY, OH, MY!” ——–and all Bison fans know who says that!!!!

The other was a clever pun:
‘
“SAM HOUSTON FALLS OFF THE FRISCO CLIFF”

Clever fans for sure!

Teh big H I refer to is HYPOCRISY…the more than common ailment of politicians, presidents and Hollywood stars(?)
There is an ad for gun control featuring some Hollywoodies..none of whom I recognize because the current Hollywood movies are not a part of my life and have not been for decades.
The last truly good films disappeared sometime in the 1960s–with a few signature exceptions—-”Saving Private Ryan” was one of those exceptions and the new “Lincoln” movie is another.
But the so called “stars” who appear in the anti- gun ad are the biggest of HYPOCRITES. Someone has re-done the ad with added film clips of these “earnest pleas” for gun control coming out of the mouths of the Hollywood personalities. Superimposed over their anti- gun screeds are clips of themselves in movies in which they are firing guns and killing people.
If these Bleeding Hearts” were at all serious about gun control and anti- gun rhetoric they are mouthing, why would they agree to play roles in violent gun bearing movies that they have been part of???
A true advocate of anti- gun sentiment would refuse to be in any movie that involved gun violence or any other form of Hollywood violence….car chases, fiery crashes, horrific scenes gratuitous murder and mayhem—–
It is the same old, same old—–the Hypocrites speak self-righteous words but their actions prove them to be liars and frauds.
And Americans who speak up against guns and think they should be eliminated from our society—- (whoops! there is still that bothersome amendment in our Bill of Rights that guarantees citizens of the U.S. the “right to bear arms”)
all of these Hypocrites ought to
NEVER see another Hollywood movie that features gun violence and any other forms of violence. If American movie goers swore off these Hollywood violence movies, the Hollywoodies would get hit where it hurts the most…in the wallet and the bank account.

Back in 1980 when our oldest son made his decision to attend college at NDSU we were introduced to the Bison Nation..which has grown and developed tremendously since that day in September 1980.
We became Bison football fans in the fall of 1984 when our youngest son wanted to see his brother so badly that we went to all the Bison home football games and became as “hooked” as it is possible to get.
We followed the Division 2 teams of the mid-1980s and into the time they moved into the Fargo Dome in the 1990′s.
We have missed very few home games in those years..even after all three sons graduated from NDSU and went on to graduate schools, we kept going to the Bison football games and have continued to do so right up until yesterday when we jubilantly watched the 2012 Bison take their back- to- back championship trophy in Frisco, Texas.
The oldest son (who started it all for us) was there with a good Bison friend and the two middle – aged guys had the time of their lives being in on the practices and the big pep rally on Friday night. It was a dream fulfilled for our son; he has loyally followed his Bison for many years since he went there in 1980 as a student.
We wore our new Bison gold shirts that said “National championship game, 2013″
I think we will now have to get the WINNERS’ gold shirts soon…they will be on the racks today.
Yesterday was such a good day even in our own living room where we watched every moment of the game..and had listened to radio coverage on KFGO from the time it came on in the morning.
For the Bison fans like us who have “bled green and gold” for years and years, the championship game was yet another “jewel in the crown” of Bison football.
I know there are many who don’t give a hoot about Bison football— but for those of us who do…it was the greatest of days once again.
We look forward to many more to come.

For those of us who are waiting for the American premiere of the third series of DOWNTON ABBEY…it is almost time. The Brits got it in September and some of the content has leaked out ……but for playing in Britain so much earlier it is still unknown to American fans what happens in this series. The little bits I have read about make me a bit “uptight” ..I did not like hearing that there is a death among the main characters; I did not like hearing that the family fortune may be lost in this series and also that there are more struggles between Matthew and Mary….the end of series 2 was so lovely we were all hopeful we would see a happy wedding in series 3..but long British series even though they resemble sophisticated soap operas..are filled with the stuff of soap operas….wrenching breakups, awful setbacks….We, who make up the huge number of DOWNTON ABBEY fans, are waiting impatiently for series 3 to begin and we will be recording or being in front of or TVs on Sunday nights once again.
There was an interesting article in today’s FORUM about the lengths to which some Downton Abbey fans are going……
some women plan to wear hats and clothing similar to the Edwardian theme of D.A. for the premiere night on Sunday.
Elegant teas and other Edwardian themed soirees are in vogue also.
I suppose like the Harry Potter and Startrek fans the “Downton Abbeys” can get into the spirit of their series too and wear clothing and hats and drink tea with their pinkie fingers sticking out of their teacup handles like the Crawleys of D.A. are seen doing in the series that have already been shown.
Michelle Obama is such a Downton Abbey fan that she used her influence as the First Lady to get an earlier than ususual DVD of the new series already.
It must be nice to “throw your weight around” for favors like this! She got her DVD already…cheater, cheater!!!

I have been surprised to learn since D.A. began in the United States on PBS that there are many males who are also taken by the story….I have a cousin with a PhD in English that is entranced with the series and I have heard of other men who like the series as much as the women do.
It is a good story …(epic or saga) much like the all time most popular PBS series of years ago….UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS.
I think Downton Abbey is better.

I cannot resist a pun so I had to title my blog today after Paul Revere’s famous cry: “The Redcoats Are Coming! The Redcoats Are Coming!”

I have just read recently about the British (Redcoats or Lobsterbacks to the Colonists) marching to Lexington and Concord in 1775 in the most excellent biographey of JOHN ADAMS by David McCullough.
But the Redpolls are coming to the Buff- Bluff every day—-to the deck feeders where I supply them with finch food..a combo of seeds that all the finch varieties seem to like better than nyger seed. They keep me on my toes buying their food….I am not keeping track of the cost of the bags of finch food..I would be too horrified if I did.
I love feeding winter birds and that is what Redpolls are. I do not see them in summer because their range extends pretty much all over Canada where they go in wamer seasons.
I researched a bit about them and they are associated with birch trees since birch buds are a favorite wild food. One picture of a Redpoll identified it as being on a tree in Finland so they are more than North American birds.
I think they are as common as the many kinds of sparrows.
The goldfinches have gone elsewhere since December but they will come back again…they return when it gets a bit more like spring weather.
The Redpolls do not fly in to the feeders as individuals…they come in a “Cloud” of Redpolls and even fly in a sort of formation like tiny fighter jets attacking…..attacking the finch feeders in this case. They also fly out in a cloud…..I can see them cruising by windows and it seems like there are hundreds of them.
I also have large sparrows feeding but they are much bigger than the sparrows I see in summer. There are so many pages of sparrows in my bird guidebook that I have not bothered to identify them….sparrows are so much alike it is hard for me to tell them apart. But these I see now are BIG sparrows.
The Juncos are busy on the deck floor picking up the finch food I leave there for them. Juncos do not seem to ever eat at feeders.
I have been bringing large containers of mixed bird food and scattering it under our blue spruce trees which form a thick shelter belt that is so full of cheeping birds it is hard to describe ithe cacophony of sound. As soon as I approach with my small bucket, the entire line of trees goes silent but as I leave, they are chattering again as they fly down for the fresh food.
The female Pileated Woodpecker showed up today after being absent for a couple of weeks. There is a good supply of their natural food in in the trees’ bark in the river bottoms.
She must’ve decided to have a bit of dessert (suet) this morning.
Bluejays stick around all winter too but they have not come to the feeders.
They are bullies so I am glad they stay in the woods where they must have an abundant supply of wild food.

Feeding winter birds is a delight…it gives me a good excuse to sit down every now and then in one of the old rocking chairs and watch the Redpolls and their buddies eating on the deck.

I read a piece by a lady named Laura Hollis written a few days after the election this past November. Hollis is a law professor at Notre Dame.
She is a conservative so if you are a big time liberal and are going to freak out—- stop reading right now. She makes sense to me but I am also a conservative.

Hollis does her own analysis as to why the election happened as it did.

1. There is the factor of being outnumbered. Those who vote according to moral and ethical principles are far fewer than those who don’t vote that way.
There was huge turnout by Catholics, Married women, men, Independents and Evangelicals..all voted for Romney but it was not enough to win. A larger segment of the population is not concerned anymore about living in a free republic and are willing to vote for more socialism/communism in this nation. There are also fewer Americans who do not wish to demonize successful people in order to justify taking from them.

2. It wasn’t the candidate. Mitt Romney was a good candidate; his campaign was well managed and well run.
But Romney was not willing to attack Obama on things like Behghazi because he found it distasteful..he is a gentleman unlike a lot of other candidates who are willing to do or say anything with highly personal attacks that apparently apppeal to the more ignorant among the voting populace.

3, Concervatives have abdicated control of the culture. The largest social institutions like education, the media, have become nothing more than an assembly line for cranking out little liberals. If Conservatives do not fight to take back some of this ground they can kiss every election goodby from now on.

4. America has become a nation of adolescents . The real loser in this election was adulthood: Maturity; Responsibility. The understanding that liberty must be accompanied by self-restraint. President Obama is the leading spoiled child and the behavior and language of his followers makes it clear how many of them have a teen age mentality. Blaming, finger pointing, name calling and irresponsible spending are all hallmarks of an adolesent citizenry.
“The warnings are all there…..the looming economic disaster, the inability of government to respond to crises like Hurricane Sandy; the growing strength and brazenness of our enemies . American voters stick their fingers in their ears and say Lalalalala— I can’t hear you. It is unpleasant to think about the circumstances that it will take to force Americans to grow up.”
(Hollis, direct quote)

5. The only War on Women was the one waged by the Obama campaign which sexualized and objectified women. The almost unmentionable things that happened at the Democratic national convention….speak loudly about the war on women….women who were willing to dress up as one of the intimate parts of a woman’s body—- suggesting that one should lose their virginity to Obama— and the wilingess to continue killing unborn babies in their mothers’ wombs are all hallmarks of the Obama campaign’s war on women.

6. Obama does not have a mandate.
“And he does not need one. I have to laugh bitterly when I read conservative pundits trying to assure us that Obama has to know that he does not have a mandate so he will have to govern from the middle. What are they smoking?”
(Hollis)

7. The corrupt media. “I have been watching the media try to throw elections since at least the early 1990′s. In 2008 and again this year we saw the media cravenly cover up incompetence and the deceit of this president, while demonizing a good, honorable man with lies and smears. This on top of the daily barrage of insults that conservatives must endure at the hands of this arrogant bunch of elite snobs. Bias is one thing. What we observed with Benghazi was professional malpractice and fraud…”
(Hollis)

8. “Small businesses and entrepreneurs wil be hurt the most. Wall Street versus Main Street Obama’s statist agenda will benefit the biggest corporations –as with the public sector unions–are in the best position to make campaign donations, hire lobbyists and get special exemptions from Obama’s healthcare laws, his environmental regulations, his labor laws…it will be the small business, the entrepreneur, and the first time innovators who will be crushed by their inability to compete on a level playing field.”
(We have alreday seen the exemptions from Obamacare handed out to some big corporations and to good friends of people like Nancy Pelosi who have big businesses. It will continue no doubt.

9. America is more polarized than ever.
My own observations of what has happened in the past four years and will continue to happen in the second terms is that Obama is a skilled community organizer… who plays by Saul Alinksy’s “rules for radicals”. He is not a leader as presidents ought to be. He has succeeded in using racial and class warfare to divide this nation as it has never been divided before.
And he does not know the meaning of true compromise and negotiation with his opponents in Congress.

10. America may have to hit rock-bottom.
“I believe that those who voted for Obama have no idea what they are in for. America is on a horrific bender..the warning signs of our fiscal profligacy and culture of personal irresponsiblity are everywhere—too many to mention. We need only look at other countries that have gone this route to see what we have in store.”
(Hollis)

The analysis by this writer is in line with what has been on my mind since the election of 2008. We are seeing “change” all right, but the “change” is not what most of America thought they would be seeing.
It is all to the detriment of our republic as we knew it.

When one of my children was about 4 years old, he was totally “taken” with dinosaurs. We read (aloud) every book about dinosaurs that the public library system possessed plus we bought a few dinosaur books, also. He simply could not get enought of dinosaurs…but the end of the books distressed him because they all said that “the dinosaurs died out” at a certain period of time. He could not handle it so he told me one day that the dinosaurs had NOT died out but they had all gone to the MAGICAL SPOT…and were still all alive there.
I could not figure out, at first, where this MAGICAL SPOT had come from until one day we were reading our picture book of Peter Pan and Wendy and her siblings and the Lost Boys…who all lived in……THE MAGICAL SPOT!!!
Now I knew where the words had come from..the Magical Spot was a safe place to put the still-alive dinosaurs who HAD NOT died out after all! This satisfied him til he was old enough to handle the truth.
I would like to send some people to that MAGICAL SPOT right now. All the hack politicians who are “dealing with” (Hah) the “fiscal cliff”…..I wish I had a powerful, yet harmless, laser device that would transport a lot of these Pols to that MAGICAL SPOT..where they could stay permanently and do no more harm to our country. They could be provided for so they would be comfortable but they could not go back to the US House or Senate..or to any Washington postion of power….ever again.
The trouble with this plan, of course, is that anyone who replaced them in Congress would soon become as rotten as the ones who were sent to the MAGICAL SPOT. They would grow corrupt like their predecessors…..beholden to lobbyists and those who give money to their all important NEXT CAMPAIGN because that is what seems to count with the DC Pols..getting elected and re-elected over and over again til we all grow dizzy and wish we had seen the last of them as they hang on to their perception of “power” for decades beyond their usefulness or their actually representing the wishes of their constituents.
Included in this MAGICAL SPOT group would also be many people who “serve”(?) in administrations of presidents and presidents themselves….Begone! All of them who seek only their own good and never do anything for the American people….other than their own relatives or friends or Money Bags.
Wouldn’t it be great if Fantasy could come true–at least for a week or a month or a year. (Sigh) It would truly be MAGICAL…..for awhile.

I had the radio on when I was driving and doing errands today..I caught bits and pieces from some local stations but the one that really got to me was somebody who is subsituting for a regular host on a local show….there are no regular hosts at the moment–they all take time off over holidays like Christmas and New Year. This person talked about the “PHYSICAL CLIFF” as my English teacher mentality took over and I found myself screaming silently at the ignorance/uneducated-ness/idiocy of this “substitute host”.
How—- or why—- do they get on public airwaves???? (I am still gnashing my teeth and it hurts.)
Gone are the days when radio/TV/ news people actually knew and used the English language correctly.

No I am not a gourmet cook who only does fancy French dishes. But a very nice Christmas gift I got was a French Press coffee pot. I absolutely love my little French coffee maker…have not used my Mr Coffee electric coffeemaker much since Dec. 24 because it is so much fun to use my French Press pot.
I had admired these little coffee presses for a long time often cruising into CREATIVE KITCHEN and gazing at the ones on display. Since I make it my habit not to buy things that are not absolutley necessities, I only gazed.
But a good friend had been with me on one of the Creative Kitchen gazing cruises and she gave me the little French Press pot for a gift. She is a great friend and and an observant one.
She has often given me things she knows I admire but will not buy for myself..that is a leftover trait of being raised post – Great Depression by parents who went through it and were always frugal and sensible about buying things. “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”.
So I have done without a lot in my life and been perfectly content doing so.
The French Press makes coffee like nothing else I have tasted. It requires “roughly ground” coffee so I use the roasted beans and my little coffee grinder (from Wal Mart!) I am also using a lovely gift from my oldest grandson and his Sweetheart….roasted coffee beans done by her uncle in Appleton, Wisconsin. The uncle has a coffee roasting business in his home and the beans are wonderfully fragrant and make delicious coffee.
So I am benefitting from 3 wonderful, thoughtful people every time I drink a cup of French Press coffee (which I am doing right now!)

Robert Burns wrote the words to “Auld Lang Syne” in 1788 and it was set to the music of a Scots’ folk song soon after. In the United States bandleader Guy Lombardo made it popular with his orchestra playing it live on New Year’s Eve just as the new year came in at midnight. The broadcast from New York of Lombardo’s orchestra playing “Auld Lang Syne” was a feature of the new year for many decades. It is still heard from NY on New Years’ Eve but I doubt if it is “live” like Lombardo’s rendition was.

“Should Auld Acquaintance be forgot/ and never brought to mind? Should Auld Acquaintance be forgot and Auld Lang Syne?”
So familar to many of us “of an age”. I learned it when I was a child from hearing adults sing it and also from listening to the radio broadcasts from New York on New Years’ Eve.
“Auld Acquaintance” means “old friendships” and the first line of the song asks the question should such friendships be forgotten or ignored?
Of course the answer is NO—- they should not be forgotten.
It is good advice. Friendships are so important to people—and even to animals who cherish friendships also.
Friendships should be kept up to date…person to person, by letter or telephone or email, in whatever way you can do it. The loneliest people are those who do not have many friendships.
We renewed some friendships today–one very old one (over 40 years) and one fairly new one..no longer than two years. Two familes came for Swedish Pancakes this morning and we had a wonderful afternoon with these friends who are Auld Acquaintances, truly.

The friends of more than 40 years are about to leave for their winter stay in Hawaii where the days are all the same…sushine mixed with rain and about 72 degrees every day. It is an ideal spot especially in the rural area where they live in wintertime.
The other family are still young with a preteen son. They are newer friends who were born and raised in China and are now living in the U.S. as PhD’s in specialized sciences…one is a researcher and one is a college professor.
They love their lives in the United States but still visit China to see their families.
These are both precious friendships and we had a wonderful Auld Lang Syne today just two days before the New Year.