Hot under the collar, and it has nothing to do with you-know-who

Today around noon, I developed a bad cough that wouldn’t go away.  I’m really not a cougher.  Around 2pm, my friend (and fomer coworker from the 90s, Susie) called to tell me she had just returned home after being in the hospital for 7 days following gall bladder surgery.

I couldn’t hide my coughing, she asked if I had a fever.  I said I’d check, and I didn’t.  I wished Susie well and decided to lay down for an hour.  Couldn’t stop coughing, darn it.

I was going to have a stuffed pita for my Early Bird dinner, but opted for a scrambled egg instead.  I began shivering very hard and checked the indoor/outdoor temperature.  It was 71F inside, and 65F outside.  Positively balmy out there.  I take my OWN temperature (above), 101.3.

I’m now aching from head to toe.  My long covid head WANTS to explode, but doesn’t understand this good old American cold or flu. 

At least, I hope that is what this is.  I do have a covid test in my cupboard, if I’m not feeling better in the morning, maybe I’ll take it.  Thanks for letting me share, I’m in misery right now sitting up to type this, so I will probably be out of commission for the time being.  Take care everyone.

If only real life were more like the movies… just venting, don’t mind me

Remember that final scene in the 1956 movie “The Bad Seed” starring this little angel, Patty McCormack?  After her mother realized her darling daughter was a pint-sized psychopath, she tried to snuff out the kid’s life and her own with a handful of sleeping pills.  But she failed, and while she languished in the hospital, little Rhoda was sent home.  And one stormy night after everyone was asleep, she put on her raincoat and snuck out of the house. 

Rhoda was headed back to the lake where she drowned her schoolmate Claude at the start of the picture.  She wanted to retrieve his penmanship medal, presumably in the shallow end of the water.

Well, you know how girls are about jewelry… just kidding!  This kid’s a Bad Seed.

Call it what you will—karma, God, Mother Nature, the 1950s Hollywood Morals Code—but a lightning bolt comes ripping down from the sky and blasts this monster to smithereens.  Good riddance!

That isn’t how things ended in the book, but in 1950s Hollywood, evil was not permitted to win in the end.  Good must prevail.

And now, in 2025… if only real life were just a movie.

In this terrifying sequel, a pathological liar convicted of 34 felonies convinces a slim majority of US voters to put him back into the White House.

Better to have a “technically white” dictator than a black woman president in charge. Didn’t the Dems know what they were dealing with?  Sadly, no.

True to form, 10 days after taking office this walking cancer rescinds the former president’s drug pricing reforms for Medicare & Medicaid patients—and insulin prices go from $6 to $80.00 again.  Wait, he’s just gettng started.

With the help of a car & rocket billionaire with delusions of infinite power, the two begin dismantling democracy as we know it.  His followers, in denial of the fact that their leader is determined to make life more difficult for them, cheer him on!

There’s one hopeful scene where the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania takes this crud administration to court for cutting off $2.1 billion dollars in Federal funding to his state, and WINS IT ALL BACK. 

(That really did happen, you know.  Just a couple days ago in my state.  Thank you Governor Shapiro.)

As this shitshow continues, the Democrats (and much of the world) watch in disbelief as a president of a war-ravaged nation is invited to the White House, only to be beaten down even further.  The glorious leader’s second-in-command even chastises the man for daring to appear before them without the appropriate attire! 

“Wait, did Musk really do that?”  No—it was Trump’s OTHER Nazi saluting evil animatron, the new Vice President.  After 6 weeks in storage, someone finally activated him. 

Well, if this were a movie, karma or God or Mother Nature or Hollywood would be stepping in about now and taking care of things.   

But it’s not, this is real life.  All I can do is feebly protest and dream about big-ass lightning bolts.      

The End

In need of a sweet treat: pineapple butter cake squares to the rescue

I went shopping yesterday, planned to buy some Archway raspberry cookies to have with my evening coffee, and plain forgot. 

Around 7pm, I’d been done with dinner a couple hours and wanted a treat.  Well, I have flour butter & sugar, and this small can of crushed pineapple…

(Every so often I buy ham salad from my local deli.  I’ll add a couple tablespoons of crushed pineapple to it, really ups it’s game.) 

Pineapple Buttercake Squares

• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• small can Dole crushed pineapple with juice drained
• 2 teaspoons powdered sugar

1.  Put 1 stick softened butter, 1 cup sugar & 2 eggs in large mixing bowl.     

2.  Use a hand mixer and cream them up good.  (The Rival hand mixer my grandma gave me in 1984 died last year, this Hamilton Beach mixer is brand new with some pretty big beaters and other attachments like a whisk)

3.  Sift the flour, salt & baking soda together.  Add them to the mixing bowl and use that mixer again.

4.  Drain the juice from this small can of crushed pineapple into a glass to drink later, and plop the pineapple into your bowl. 

DON’T use the mixer; blend the pineapple into your batter with a spoon.     

5.  Preheat the oven to 350F and spread the pineapple batter into a greased square 8x8 or 9x9 pan.  (Mine is 9x9.)  Bake for 30 minutes.

6.  Nice & golden brown.  Let it cool for 10-15 minutes before cutting into nine squares. 

7.  Sprinkle powdered sugar on top.  Forget the coffee, this calls for cold milk!These are very dense & very moist; I’d recommend using a fork.  And don’t worry about them being too sweet, they’re more buttery than anything.  The powdered sugar on top made them just right.