Flaxen-haired Ho's and Other Random Thoughts

TV host Ed Shultz calls a woman a "slut".

Don Imus calls a group of women "ho's".

Both offer profuse and seemingly heart-felt apologies to the women, as well as to the viewers of their shows.

Shultz gets a slap on the wrist and is suspended for a week.  Imus loses his job.

A ho is a slut, and a slut is a ho, right?  Close enough.  Would they not be equally demeaning terms towards a woman? 

I know that if someone used either word about my wife, a niece, a sister-in-law or any woman in my family, there would be blows thrown.    Immediately.  If I heard them used in my presence about ANY woman, the speaker would be told to STFU, and it might come to blows.  Call me old fashioned.

The reason for the radically different outcomes for Imus and Shultz?  The color of the skin of the women.

It's OK to publicly demean a white woman, and it's not OK to do it with a "woman of color".

I'm sure Dr. King would be proud of how the media and society have so fully embraced his vision.
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I made some cheese from evaporated milk.  I took two, 12-oz cans plus 3 cans of water.  Brought it up to 180F, took it off the heat and added 1/4 cup of white vinegar.  It curdled and I strained it through cheese cloth in a colander for 10 minutes or so.

I then put the curds in a bowl, added perhaps a 1/4 cup of milk to smooth it a bit.  A couple of tablespoons of dried onion flakes, a teaspoon of salt and some dehydrated parsley for color.

Absolutely fantastic bagel shmear!

As a side note, before adding the onions/spices, you're supposed to rinse the curds under water to get rid of the vinegar taste.  I forgot to do this, but I'm not sorry I did.  It added a bit of a "tang" to the flavor that was quite nice.
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If you care about such things, here is a great article [link] in CoinWeek that gives the low-down on when a coin dealer is required to report certain precious metals transactions to Uncle Sugar.
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I've been prepping for a long time.  I'm pretty well set with regards to food and equipment to withstand a complete loss of store-bought food for a good long time.

I know, I know, you can never be too prepared, and I still buy a few cans of meat and some dried pasta virtually every time I go to the store.  I've also recently been picking up stuff to make the food I have taste better by buying things like dried chiles, cans of diced green chiles, tomato paste, the aforementioned evaporated milk, etc.  Frosting for the cake, so to speak.

I can't give a hard-fact reason, but last week I bought yet another 25-pound sack of black beans and one of white rice.

My gut said, "buy," so I bought.

There is such a jumble of information flying about right now concerning potential food shortages, Israel getting dumped on, the whole Middle East coming unraveled, President Barry giving away metric tons of wheat and other foodstuffs to God-knows-who, precious metals prices climbing again, etc, etc.

My gut is usually pretty spot-on.  If you haven't read it, I suggest picking up a copy of "Blink" [link]. It's a book whose basic premise is to trust your gut.  It's usually not wrong.
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I'm trying to come up with lists of multiple uses for certain staple foods.  I'd really like some input and ideas.

For instance, what about tomato paste.  Off the top of my head, it could be converted to tomato juice, a pasta sauce, a flavor additive, and a marinade.

What other uses can you think of, and what other items could fall under the category of "multi-purpose foods"?
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Remember, the Memorial Day holiday isn't about beer and BBQ...

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