More Flowers: Thank You MOTI Edition!

 

Beautiful. This Photo Does Not do Them Justice

Again, all I can say is “Thank You!!” This is too much…

Flashback: Holy Cow! How Will You Celebrate Father’s Day?

Still haven’t decided what to serve Pop for your Father’s Day cookout? Why not try your hand at a homemade version of Lady M’s new favorite burger: The Holy Cow!

The “Holy Cow” includes an insouciant “wink” at the NSA’s “ICU”  program

Brought to my attention by Gerard at American Digest and 'splained by Sploid, the “Holy Cow” was engineered by Red’s True Barbecue and is,“basically like sandwiching an entire cow” between the bun. Here’s what you’ll need.

• Carpaccio beef and olive (that’s the eyeball “winking” at you)
• 21-hour Texas-smoked brisket
• Juicy Lucy (melted cheese hidden inside a 100% steak burger)
• A Parmesan and Jacob's cracker-crusted pattie made of pulled oxtail and pulled ox cheek with diced slow-smoked ox heart and ox liver
• Jalapeño and dill pickle relish
• Thickly sliced mustard-pickled tongue
• Unholy sticky beef jus
• Pulled 12hr smoked beef rib
• Blackened Wagyu rib eye steak
• Beef bacon
• Red's Dirty sauce
• Chargrilled red onion ring

What red blooded American dad wouldn’t love to scarf down this bovine collection? Ok, it’s got that creepy eyeball thingy on top, butt that will be dispatched with extreme prejudice with the first chomp.

I C U! And raise my flag in salute.

However, if you’re not in the mood for a cookout, can’t find good quality mustard-pickled tongue or pulled ox cheek, or if globull warming has kiboshed your cookout plans with colder and/or wetter than normal weather, you could drop in for the Father’s Day special being offered at Big Red’s. And if whole cow burgers aren’t your thing you could get one of their other great all-American BBQ dinners available at all 3 of their big locations:

• Leeds, Cloth Hall Street (nr Corn Exchange)
• Manchester, 22 Lloyd Street, Albert Square
• Headingley, 6a Otley Road

Well yes, they are in England, butt that shouldn’t surprise anyone; in the Age of Obama just about everyone seems to be more American than America. Butt I must say, the Brits seem to have captured the zeitgeist of pre-Obama America: bigger is better and there’s no such thing as too much. Insatiable, unstoppable, irrational exuberance for all things beef:

The burger is served with fries that are "thrice cooked" in beef drippings and served with a pulled beef Ragu sauce for dipping. Just in case that wasn't enough cow, the burger also comes with a Bloody Mary made with a beef tomato consommé and "jerky shards." According to Metro UK, the burger is priced at £25 ($41.88 USD) and contains 2,500 calories. A limited number of the burgers will only be available on Father's Day

All I can say is “Holy Cow!” (I’m referring to the burger, not…well, you-know-who.)

“All this..for a damn flag!?!”

This isn’t exactly Father’s Day music, butt I think it’s Big Red’s theme song:

Holy Cow

I can’t weep and I can’t eat
Since you walked out on me
Holy smoke, what you doin to me, yeah
I can’t eat and I can’t sleep, yeah
Since you walked out on me, yeah
Holy cow, whatcha doin, child, child

Maybe there’s something about having your father “walk out on you” that permanently messes with a man’s heart - and his soul. All I know is that fathers are very important; don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Happy Fathers Day to all the many truly great fathers out there. And if you have, or had, a great father consider yourself one of the very, very fortunate souls who need not wander the earth in search of your significance.

Updated and Reposted from the Wayback Files!

#ThrowbackThursday: 1 Year Ago - We’ve Come A Long Way, Baby

On this day in history:

Edward H. White II became the first American to step outside his spacecraft and let go,

On June 3, 1965, 120 miles above the Earth, Major Edward H. White II opens the hatch of the Gemini 4 and steps out of the capsule, becoming the first American astronaut to walk in space. Attached to the craft by a 25-foot tether and controlling his movements with a hand-held oxygen jet-propulsion gun, White remained outside the capsule for just over 20 minutes.

Thanks to all the research and development in space, 56 years later we find ourselves able to wander about while still being able to communicate with each other untethered by phone cords…

only to find ourselves tethered to our phones in more insidious ways?

Finding ourselves more alone together than ever

My 1965 teenaged self somehow thought our 21st century problems would be more interesting than our cellphones not being able to recognize our faces whilst they were swaddled in a face diaper.

“Face Obstructed – Try removing anything that may be covering your face.” Always good advice.

We’ve come a long way, baby, but sometimes it just doesn’t seem like it.

Memorial Day 2022

"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." —Winston Churchill

As we do on this day each year, we pause to remember the men and women who died fighting for our freedom.

We stand by humbly, gratefully, silently, to honor their sacrifice.

We remember…

We mourn for those lost…

And we mourn for those they’ve left behind…

As we reflect once again on the the steep price of freedom.

By all means, enjoy your picnics, parades and celebrations today – it is a holiday after all. But do pause to remember and honor all the brave Americans across the centuries who have sacrificed their lives in the fight against tyrants, tyrannies and terrorists;

the enemies of freedom who will always be amongst us and will always be a threat to liberty. And God willing, America will always be there to vanquish freedom’s adversaries. 

  Wishing you all a tranquil, thoughtful Memorial Day.

Updated and Reposted from Memorial Day 2018

Gift of Flowers

All I can say is “THANK YOU MOT!” You are the best!

MOTUS Deployment Update

DATELINE Michigan - Little Mo Reporting:

MOTUS, Raj, Dewey From Detroit and Little Mo arrived at the Great Lakes bunker at 2730 hours yesterday. That is all.

A MOTUS Health Update

Hello my lovelies. I presume as Raj has been manning the blog for a month now  you have all surmised I an in the middle of a health crisis. Before I begin allow we to explain that Raj is assisting with this post as my eyes/coordination/stamina are still rather seriously compromised.  My eyes remain quite wonky, screen time is difficult and I cannot walk without assistance although things seem to be growing incrementally better on those fronts.

Here’s the long and short of it: I do not have Long Covid, I have 2 brain tumors metastasized - which a biopsy and endoscopy confirmed – from esophageal cancer. Round one treatment involved addressing the immediate problem of the brain tumors with Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS), a focused radiation to zap the brain tumors and gradually get rid of them so I can walk and see again. That should start happening slowly over the next few weeks and continue for 2-4 months. Our plan is to head back to Michigan tomorrow. I will  consult with a University of Michigan oncologist for the prime esophageal cancer to determine future treatment, which the oncologists here believe will involve radiation and chemo followed by surgery. It will no doubt be a long summer of treatment.

Raj has done yeoman's duty posting, taking care of me, taking care of all the household responsibilities and basically wearing himself to a frazzle. We both have a long haul ahead of us. So I’m sure you will all understand that as we depart for the Great Lakes bunker, I will have to put the blog on hiatus. We will try to post a monthly update as my treatment/progress continues. It’s the best I can promise for now. The blog will still be here for you to congregate and continue to solve the worlds problems.

There are no words to thank you all for your support, prayers, good wishes and watchful care. All I can say is thank you, and acknowledge it is now out of my hands as I pray for strength and fortitude to make it through this. I know the road will be long, there will be clouds, but also sun on the other side.

 

So do your best to stay well my dear friends, I hope to be back with you all around harvest time.

Just a short note for the record: My strange fleeting brain issues began around the time Raj had his first knee replacement, November 2020; months before either of us had a vaxx. I won’t say it  may not have accelerated the process but honestly, I would prefer to deal with all this at 73 than 78 or 83.

Caturday Prognosticating

So, Biden reportedly told Barack Obama he’s seriously running in 2024

And I’m not sure if that’s good fortune or bad fortune.