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I’m an old lady, but I’m still tickled by the NORAD Santa Tracker.They now have a chatbot named ‘Radar’, and the kids can ask it questions (try ‘How do reindeer fly?’ Or ‘How does Santa do it in one night?’)http://www.noradsanta.org/en/As I compose this, we are 1 day, 10 hours, 50 minutes and 57 seconds to liftoff.The story of how the tradition began is fun too:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NORAD_Tracks_Santa

Ben Carson gave a wonderful talk at the 'Pray, Vote, Stand' summit (20 minutes):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnUXIw5WPMI

Sorry for the vanity; (and also sorry for the length of this). But I’ve gotten good advice from people here about household problems in the past; and now I have a couple more. 1. For the first time that I can remember, I have had an infestation of fruit flies. We think it may have come from a bag of potatoes, which is something we’ve never bought before – we usually just buy the few single potatoes that we are going to use immediately. We got rid of that bag, and every fresh thing – onions, tomatoes, whatever - that...

I’m not a fan of Paltrow – I think she’s sort of ‘flaky’; and she acted very disingenuous and immature during this trial, through her facial expressions and body language. But if I had been on the jury, given the evidence and testimony, I would have found the same way. I watch trials for the same reasons others watch football or basketball: sport and entertainment. And this is one of the most hilarious trials I’ve watched – including the pleasure of betting with myself every day on WHO would be the next person in that room to come down with...

Farmer Derek, in Kansas, has a lot of fun videos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs_-emj1qR4&t=6shttps://www.youtube.com/@klingpossum

I think this is the longest, best and widest ranging interview I've seen with Dr. Vallee. In it he discusses his concept of a 'control system', and the little-known 1945 San Antonio, New Mexico case, which is a subject of his latest book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHsroufqesk&t=40s

For those with kids, grandkids - or just the young at heart- here is the official Norad Santa Tracker. At this writing, it will commence in a little less than 11 hours. https://www.noradsanta.org/en/Fun story as to how the Norad Santa Tracker began: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NORAD_Tracks_Santa#History_and_overview

If you subscribe to Fox Nation, there's a wonderful series there called 'Yellowstone One-Fifty', about Yellowstone National Park, featuring Kevin Costner. It's fascinating history and stunning photography. We watched the first two episodes tonight, and highly recommend it to anyone interested in American and natural history, and wildlife.

I think I’ve posted the Russ Parsons/Judy Bird dry brining technique for turkey every year since I found it. It makes the best turkey we’ve had, and is a lot easier than the wet brine. A recent change I’ve noticed is that they now advise that you can even begin this while your turkey is still frozen and thawing: https://food52.com/recipes/15069-russ-parsons-dry-brined-turkey-a-k-a-the-judy-bird************************************* My favorite recipe for cranberry sauce comes from Tasha Tudor. It’s very simple but makes quite a lot if there aren’t many in your crew who like it. I usually halve the recipe and do it in a smaller mold:...

One of my favorite routine recipes is a very simple broccoli cheese casserole, made with layers of broccoli, a roux, finely diced onions and cheddar cheese. Looking for something slightly different, I found Julia Child’s recipe for a Cauliflower au Gratin, which uses Swiss cheese and is a little more complicated but would make a great side dish for a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. Here is the recipe from the website ‘Two Chums’: https://www.twochums.com/cauliflower-au-gratin**************************************************** When I first began this cooking thread at the beginning of 2015, I posted a recipe for Peanut Soup, a Southern classic since the 1700s; and...

Jerusalem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yaxVYNGaUU

If anyone wants to watch it at leisure (starts at about 10:50): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ffvlm5gbz8

Last month, Freeper ‘Mylife’ posted a recipe for a version of Mexican Street Corn, made as a ‘bowl’ or salad. When I went to try this, our stores didn’t yet have good fresh corn; so it’s still on my list. I’ve seen some recipes that suggest using frozen corn or canned corn, but I don’t suggest you do this – I don’t think it will really ‘char’ properly or taste right. Make this with fresh corn, carved off of the cob. For the cheese, as the recipe suggests, you can use Feta if your store doesn’t have Cotija, but a...

I have a question that I hope someone here can help with – especially if you taught elementary school education in the late 1950s to early 1960s or have knowledge of public education history of that era. I remember nothing about how I learned to read! I recall that my parents never really talked ‘baby talk’ to us; as soon as we were able to learn words and speak, they spoke to us in more or less adult language. So, I grew up knowing a lot of words, and probably using a lot of them without really knowing them except...

We have another month or so of Summer left, and I received a suggestion that we do a thread on ‘Summer Desserts’ - preferably no-bake ones, as my correspondent was recalling days before air conditioning :-). From the website ‘Catherine’s Plates’, comes a ‘Pina Colada Cream Pie’, made with pineapple, coconut and rum extract: https://catherinesplates.com/pina-colada-cream-pie/******************************************************* Freeper 'Nopardons' has submitted some of her recipes, including this ‘No Bake Strawberry Jello and Cool Whip Pie’: 1 package of strawberry Jello 2/3 cups of boiling water 1 cup of ice cubes and cold water 8 oz of thawed Cool Whip 1 cup of...

There are many inventive recipes to celebrate our Independence Day, but I don’t think any are more expressive that the simple ‘Flag Cake’ that can be made with berries. This one from the blog ‘Cake is Love’ looks like it can be adapted very easily to using packaged brownie (or cake) mix and icing: https://blogcakeislove.blogspot.com/2012/07/4th-of-july-american-flag-brownies.html *************************************************** *************************************************** Lucile Wright was a renowned caterer in Savannah, Georgia, who became even more well-known when she was featured in the book ‘Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil’, by John Berendt and in the film of the same name. She was especially...

- Photo: GreatLeap.com.my The cake pictured above is a Malaysian Lapis (layer) Cake. It’s usually made as a ‘spicy’ cake with cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and it can take an entire day to make one. They are generally purchased for special occasions in Malaysia. If you’re up for trying something as colorful but not quite as gruelling to make, the blog ‘Mel’s Pantry Kitchen’ has posted a simplified ‘rainbow’ cake: https://melspantrykitchen.blogspot.com/2012/09/rainbow-lapis-legit.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarawak_layer_cake_______________________________________________________ I’ve been seeing an Arby’s commercial lately about a Chicken-Pecan salad sandwich. It looks wonderful in the ad, but there isn’t an Arby’s very convenient to us here, so...

I bought some new gadgets and products recently. I think the most interesting was the ‘Sushi Bazooka’. There are lots of these available, but they all work along the same lines and make it much easier to fill and roll Maki Sushi, California Roll, etc. It doesn’t always come out as perfect on the first try as some videos make it look, but with a little practice it’s great. 'How Daily' shows how it works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe8GsJ3M4F0I was introduced to this type of sushi by a Korean friend who calls it ‘Kimbap’. She made it with imitation crab (but the little...

My grandmother made a wonderful navy bean soup, and my husband makes a good one, too. Beyond those - besides a very good canned black bean soup that Goya makes - I don’t have a lot of experience with beans. But I’ve recently discovered heirloom beans, and want to broaden my bean horizons. They are supposed to be far superior to the mass-produced beans available in supermarkets, and two companies that offer many varieties are Zursun Beans in Idaho: https://www.zursunbeans.com/And Rancho Gordo in California: https://www.ranchogordo.com/I’m especially interested in the various Black Lentils offered, and the French Flageolets; and I found...

In the interest of remembering that the average people of Russia and Ukraine are not much different from US, and are not their leaders: There's a great Russian/Ukrainian band called 'Leonid and Friends', which began as a Chicago cover band and I think has branched out. (I believe they've been mentioned here before.) My husband discovered them recently, and they're pretty amazing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kQ1llzPiB4A documentary was made about them (rather long - 26 minutes - but interesting for the explanation of the founder's concept of what he wanted to do with the band): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVXUlV86bAM&t=54s