Monday OT - July 13: Want Fries With That?

July 13 is day 195 of the Gregorian Calendar year,
Prickle-Prickle, Confusion 48, 3186 YOLD (Discordian)
And let us not forget 13.0.7.12.1 mlc (the Mayan Long Count)

Tuesday Lunch French Fries

French Fries

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July 13, 1854 was the Battle of Guaymas wherein Mexican forces stopped a so called Filibuster by a freebooter named Gaston de Raousset-Boulbon. Like William Walker this guy was just a  brigand, pirate or freebooter.   Somehow these jackasses came to be called Filibusters:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filibuster (military)

A filibuster or freebooter, in the context of foreign policy, is someone who engages in an (at least nominally) unauthorized military expedition into a foreign country or territory to foment or support a revolution. The term is usually used to describe United States citizens who fomented insurrections in Latin America, particularly in the mid-19th century (Texas, California, Cuba, Nicaragua, Colombia). Filibuster expeditions have also occasionally been used as cover for government-approved deniable operations.

Filibusters are irregular soldiers who normally act without official authority from their own government, and are generally motivated by financial gain, political ideology, or the thrill of adventure. 

What this really means is that they are technically Brigands or Outlaws (homo sacer), so beyond the pale that "every man's hand shall be raised against them". From Roman common law up through the so called laws of warfare, they have no rights under any laws anywhere at any time

Unfortunately, since the forties, they are all too often CIA agents, operatives or assets, US Presidents, and other disreputable people who are nonetheless granted covert protection by the US government and who may even be given overt protection by the US government.

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On this day in history:

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587 BC – Babylon's siege of Jerusalem ended after the destruction of Solomon's Temple.

1787 – The Continental Congress enacted the Northwest Ordinance setting governing rules for the Northwest Territory. It also established procedures for admitting new states .

1793 – Jean-Paul Marat was assassinated in his bathtub by Charlotte Corday

1830 – The Scottish Church College, was founded by Alexander Duff and Raja Ram Mohan Roy, in Calcutta, India.

1854 – In the Battle of Guaymas, Mexico, General José María Yáñez stopped a freebooter invasion led by Count Gaston de Raousset-Boulbon.

1863 – New York City draft riots: In New York City, opponents of conscription begin three days of rioting which will be later regarded as the worst in United States history.

1878 – Treaty of Berlin: The European powers redraw the map of the Balkans. Serbia, Montenegro and Romania become completely independent of the Ottoman Empire.

1919 – The British airship R34 landed in Norfolk, England, completing the first airship return journey across the Atlantic in 182 hours of flight.

1956 – The first conference on artificial intelligence took place at Dartmouth.

1962 – Harold Macmillan dismissed seven members of his Cabinet

1973 – Alexander Butterfield revealed the existence of a secret Oval Office taping system to investigators for the Senate Watergate Committee.

1985 – The Live Aid benefit concert took place 

1985 – Vice President George H. W. Bush became the Acting President for the day when President Ronald Reagan had surgery to remove polyps from his colon. Sadly, they left his head up there.

2011 – Mumbai was rocked by three bomb blasts during the evening rush hour
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Born this day in:

“Convenience is the American way.”

-- Cheech Marin

100 BC – Julius Caesar, politician and cutlery collector

1527 – John Dee, mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer

1579 – Arthur Dee, physician and chemist

1607 – Wenceslaus Hollar, painter and illustrator

1756 – Thomas Rowlandson, artist and caricaturist

1793 – John Clare, poet and author

1863 – Margaret Murray, archaeologist, anthropologist, historian, and folklorist

1892 – Léo-Pol Morin, pianist, composer, and educator

1900 – George Lewis, clarinet player and songwriter

1908 – Tim Spencer, country & western singer-songwriter and actor

1913 – Dave Garroway, journalist and television personality

1915 – Kaoru Ishikawa, author and educator , quality circles & fishbone diagrams

1918 – Ronald Bladen, painter and sculptor

1918 – Marcia Brown, author and illustrator

1923 – Ashley Bryan, children's book author and illustrator

1928 – Al Rex, musician

1934 – Wole Soyinka, author, poet, and playwright, 

1936 – Albert Ayler, saxophonist and composer

1940 – Paul Prudhomme, chef and author

1942 – Roger McGuinn, singer, songwriter, and guitarist

1946 – Cheech Marin, actor and comedian

1948 – Catherine Breillat, director and screenwriter

1954 – Louise Mandrell, singer, songwriter, and actress

1956 – Mark Mendoza, bass player and songwriter

1960 – Ian Hislop, journalist and screenwriter

1962 – Rhonda Vincent, singer, songwriter, and mandolin player

1964 – Paul Thorn, singer, songwriter, and guitarist

1965 – Eileen Ivers, fiddler

1966 – Gerald Levert, singer,songwriter, producer, and actor (

1974 – Deborah Cox, singer,songwriter, and actress

1984 – Ida Maria, singer, songwriter, and guitarist

1988 – Tulisa, English singer, songwriter, and actress

1989 – Leon Bridges, singer, songwriter, and record producer

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Died this day in:

Walt Kuhn - Pumpkins and Gourds in a Basket

~~ Walt Kuhn

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1628 – Robert Shirley, soldier and diplomat

1762 – James Bradley, priest and astronomer

1893 – Young Man Afraid of His Horses, Oglala Lakota chief

1896 – August Kekulé, chemist and academic

1921 – Gabriel Lippmann, physicist and academic, 

1934 – Mary E. Byrd, astronomer and academic

1946 – Alfred Stieglitz, photographer and curator
1949 – Walt Kuhn, painter and academic

1951 – Arnold Schoenberg, composer and painter

1954 – Frida Kahlo, painter and educator

1960 – Joy Davidman, poet and author

1974 – Patrick Blackett, Baron Blackett, physicist and academic, 

1979 – Ludwig Merwart, Austrian painter and illustrator

2003 – Compay Segundo, singer, songwriter, and guitarist

2010 – Manohari Singh, saxophonist and composer

2017 – Liu Xiaobo, literary critic, human rights activist, and philosopher

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Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:
It is National French Fries Day.

It is also National French Fry Day (one french fry? who does that?)

Beyond that, it is Gruntled Workers Day, and, coincidentally enough

Fool's Paradise Day

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Music goes here, iirc, well, With apologies Wink

George Lewis

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Al Rex

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Albert Ayler
free jazz

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Roger McGuinn

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Louise Mandrell

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Mark Mendoza

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Rhonda Vincent

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Paul Thorn

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Eileen Ivers

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Ida Maria

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Leon Bridges

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Compay Segundo

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Manohari Singh

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Image is public domain

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It's an open thread, so do your thing

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EDIT: fixed some typos, formatting and grammar

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Comments

Lookout's picture

Before 1990, McDonald’s fried up their french fries in beef tallow. It was a mix of fat and starch perfected over years of experimentation. Then a man in Omaha named Phil Sokolof had a heart attack. His doctor told him that saturated fat and cholesterol were to blame and Sokolof went on a national crusade to take the fat out of America’s food, with McDonald’s on the top of his kill list. And somehow he won.

McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, et al changed their oils to corn, soy, or cottonseed oils. This, in turn, created a whole mess of other problems because those oils are trans-fats heavy — which is by far worse than saturated fats. Gladwell notes that the big fast food chains devised vegetable oil blends that eliminated trans-fats, but created an extremely unstable oil for cooking with, especially when compared to the stability of animal fats.

https://uproxx.com/life/mcdonalds-fries-oil-gladwell/

And so it goes. Imagine trying to squeeze oil out of corn or soy or cotton seeds (Crisco is crystallized cottonseed oil). You have to use nasty solvents, and yet we were misinformed for most of our lives that these were healthy. Today I use olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, butter (grassfed), and bacon grease as my healthy go to oils and fats.
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/th...

I still eat the occasional potato, and even fried some up in butter recently. We do grow a few Yukon gold potatoes, but more often I eat a sweet potato (which we also grow). So enjoy the fries...just use a healthy fat.

Thanks for the OT and music. Have a good one!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

enhydra lutris's picture

@Lookout
animal fats still continues, in various guises, and is probably permanent. We still do plenty of potatoes, including home fries, but don't cook French Fries because of the lingering odor and the fact that it uses huge amounts of oil. We don't do too much fats outside of butter, peanut oil for the wok and EVOO for most everything else. (We do eat mucho queso, however)

be well and have a good one.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

@Lookout

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Anja Geitz's picture

C0D01AB1-E638-4B35-A68A-4B2831558793.jpeg

But personally, I’ve always favored the Belgium fries.

E5134765-42B2-4D66-AB4B-A8DBAD9EB99B.jpeg

Interesting to see how people eat their fries around the world though. Leave it to the Germans to incorporate bacon with their fries.

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

@Anja Geitz

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travelerxxx's picture

@aliasalias

My dear wife says that growing up in her neck of the woods - NW New York state - poutine was known as Disco Fries. She claims they were known by that name even in New Jersey. Never heard of either as a youth in Kansas.

I saw some pictures. No thanks...

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enhydra lutris's picture

a cute costume on the kid.

I just do Fries with salt, unless with fish and chips, when I go with the malt vinegar. My wife used to be a ketchup dipper but lately switched to ranch, which I won't say anything about. At our age, and given the rarity of fries in our diet, anything goes in my opinion. I would love bacon with fries, for sure. I'm sort of a more basic type, when I get fries I'm looking for two specific things, potato flavor (with salt enhancement) and fried texture. If I wan't melted cheese or garlic oil or something like that, I will pick some dish better suited to it.

get and/or be well and have a good one.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Anja Geitz's picture

@enhydra lutris

Are important things to consider in ones French fry eating. Unless you’re dressing up as one, in which case, having a costume that covers your bum would be more important.

I’m on the second round of antibiotics. Not feeling worse but not where I need to be. Will give it another day and then go back to the doctor and ask for an ultrasound.

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

earthling1's picture

by lightly coating them with spray cooking oil and baking them.
I have noticed over the years that everything tested better cooked in lard, like im the 60s.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

enhydra lutris's picture

@earthling1
Lard is really a key ingredient in a lot of cuisines, like
proper tamales for example. I'd love to use more of it buy my wife wouldn't go for it at all. California even has a town named for it - Manteca - Spanish for lard.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Below is the list of the top 20 potato growing countries in the world from Where Are The Most Potatoes Grown?

Went to an Indian buffet before lock down, and potato curry seemed to be a recurring item on buffet table. Pretty good.

I was somewhat surprised that China was thee number one grower.

Countries With The Highest Potato Production
Rank Country Potatoes Produced (metric tons)
1 China 99,205,580
2 India 48,605,000
3 Russian Federation 29,589,976
4 Ukraine 22,208,220
5 United States of America 20,017,350
6 Germany 11,720,000
7 Bangladesh 10,215,957
8 Poland 9,171,733
9 Netherlands 7,391,881
10 France 7,342,203
11 Belarus 6,414,755
12 United Kingdom 6,218,000
13 Iran (Islamic Republic of) 5,102,342
14 Turkey 4,800,000
15 Peru 4,776,294
16 Algeria 4,606,403
17 Belgium 4,416,665
18 Canada 4,410,829
19 Egypt 4,325,478
20 Pakistan 4,142,399

All I can say is what the hell on the following story/link. Basically, with the shut down of restaurants and hotels, and food service providers, the demand crashed.

Good on the Idaho farmers who were trying to give away as many potatoes as they could. We have so many billionaires. Why can't one of them rent out fleets of idle trucks, get the potatoes, and distribute them to food banks. Very hard to watch.

Why potato farmers are stuck with billions of pounds of potatoes

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enhydra lutris's picture

and wide for a few decades now thanks to the potato institute in Peru, the original home of the lowly spud. Peruvians domesticated them centuries ago (pure native spuds are toxic) and have been developing various cultivars ever since, seeking to produce some appropriate for every climate and growing condition on the theory that they are the ultimate basic food.

be well and have a good one.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Is our state mascot (Hasbro).
One of our local farms harvests tons of taters every year.
Being almost Irish, taters have a certain appeal.
Normally don't peel them though.
All the good stuff is in the skin!

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snoopydawg's picture

@QMS

D5CCEFAB-E533-439A-BCB6-31F238D109AB.jpeg

Yuk yuk

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

enhydra lutris's picture

@snoopydawg

be well and have a good one.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

enhydra lutris's picture

@QMS

All the good stuff is in the skin!

All too true.

be well and have a good one.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

magiamma's picture

et al

Spent the morning in the garden. Blackberries and plums. Green beans and squash. Yum.

The fossil fuel industry is going to town...

Oil Industry and Allies Look to Pump Brakes on Democrats’ Plans to Move Transportation Off Petroleum | DeSmog

https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/07/02/democrats-climate-plans-transporta...

This week Congressional Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives put forward policies, including passing a $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill on July 1, aimed at cleaning up the number one source of carbon pollution in America — the transportation sector. The oil and gas industry and its supporters quickly weighed in, framing “the critical role” of the industry in addressing climate pollution and in some cases outright attacking these plans' efforts to move away from petroleum-powered transport.

The infrastructure bill comes on the heels of a new climate action plan.

Of course it does.

Take good care and have a good one.

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