Every Time I Do Research on Cooking The Thanksgiving Dinner

I always think of this collection of scenes from ‘The West Wing’ when I’m researching ways to cook the bird each year. You know, I may just call the Butterball Hotline this year. This year, I want to use the convection roast feature on our convection oven instead of the convection bake option. I’ve only discovered the use of the convection roast feature a few months ago and I’m amazed at how well things are turning out. However, just about everything I’ve found directs me to convection bake instructions instead of convection roast.

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Bag of Randomness for Monday, November 21, 2016

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  • This might be the only Bag of Randomness I make this week.
  • Concussion talk:
    • Thanks for the well-wishes, symptoms are lasting longer than I thought – sensitivity to light, impact area still sore, headaches, troubling describing things or forgetting commonly used words, tiredness, “saluting” lasting longer than four hours, webbed feet, etc.
    • How did the concussion occur? It’s a long story, but I’ll just state it involves DaughterGeeding and a frozen turkey.
  • I mentioned last Thursday was the ten year anniversary of my mother’s death. I was wondering where I’d be at the exact time of her death. It turns out I was at the emergency animal hospital with OtherDogGeeding. Thankfully, he’s making a strong recovery.
  • VP Elect Mike Pence and ‘Hamilton’ thoughts:
    • It was crappy of the audience to “boo” Pence as he walked towards his seats.
    • ‘Hamilton’ is often described as a hip-hop American history musical in which our Founding Founding are played by a multiracial and multi-cultural cast. That’s not something many would think would appeal to an old white male evangelical Republican. So I think it was great of VP-elect Pence to show a willingness to embrace something outside his constituency.
    • The cast addressing Pence after the performance shouldn’t be a big surprise considering what the musical is about and makeup of the performers (I bet at least one cast member is gay or an immigrant). It would have been a surprise if the cast of ‘Wicked’ or ‘Phantom’ did such a thing. And with that in mind, I didn’t have any issue with the address and I thought it was said with respect, though it kinda started out like it was going to be disrespectful, but overall, I thought it wasn’t done in poor taste.
    • Good on Pence for stopping to listen to the performers address him from the stage. I’m sure he was only leaving early because of Secret Service protocol, but he stopped and took the time to listen. And good for him saying he wasn’t offended and that’s what freedom sounds like.
      • Armchair political consultant – I would have advised Pence to have met the cast backstage and talk for 10-15 minutes, take a picture with them, and then tweet some sort of message of their performance and how he will he and President-Elect Trump will respect all people regardless of race, sex, orientation, etc.
      • Armchair political consultant –  If I were Trump, I wouldn’t have complained or condemned the ‘Hamilton’ address to Pence but emphasized the importance of the First Amendment, especially the freedom of speech and expression.
  • I’ve been fascinated with the Secret Service and read several books about how they protect the President. They all state the President will never be sleeping in a room above the fourth floor (or something like that) because that’s the highest a firetruck can reach. With that said, Trump’s residence in the Trump Tower is on the 66th floor. I wonder how the Secret Service is working with him and his living arrangements.
    • Those books all state that hotels which have a “presidential suite”, commonly on the top floor, are never used by an acting president. It’s all really a marketing gimmick.
  • I heard this said of anyone of Trump’s “enemies” agreeing to work with him, “when hypocrisy results in greater civility, we should give it a pass.”
  • A lot of Republicans favor the Electoral College because they feel lower populated areas are fairer or better represented and it’s worked in their favor twice this century. Now this won’t happen, but, if there were enough “faithless electors” to elect someone other than Donald Trump on December 19, I’m willing to bet they would no longer be in favor of it.
  • The Electoral College is constitutional, however, the term never appears in the Constitution
    • However, the term “electoral college” does not appear in the Constitution. Article II of the Constitution and the 12th Amendment refer to “electors,” but not to the “electoral college.”
    • Here are other tidbits of interest I found on the National Archives website. As usual, I think I have a handle on something until I do more research and find there’s a lot more to it, or realize, what I thought I knew was either wrong or not quite they way I thought.
      • Note that the 12th Amendment, the expansion of voting rights, and the use of the popular vote in the States as the vehicle for selecting electors has substantially changed the process.
      • Reference sources indicate that over the past 200 years, over 700 proposals have been introduced in Congress to reform or eliminate the Electoral College. There have been more proposals for Constitutional amendments on changing the Electoral College than on any other subject.
      • If the President-elect fails to qualify before inauguration, Section 3 of the 20th Amendment states that the Vice President-elect will act as President until such a time as a President has qualified.
      • If the President-elect fails to qualify before inauguration, Section 3 of the 20th Amendment states that the Vice President-elect will act as President until such a time as a President has qualified.
      • As to a candidate who dies or becomes incapacitated between the meeting of electors and the counting of electoral votes in Congress, the Constitution is silent on whether this candidate meets the definition of “President elect” or “Vice President elect.”
  • I found this part of a NY Times article on the Electoral College interesting:
    • In 1920, for the first time, the Census Bureau counted more people living in urbanized America than in the countryside. This hasn’t been a rural nation ever since.
      • I always thought rural America was less populated than urban areas. Actually, I think I knew that at one time and now I’m just reminded of it.
  • I have no problem with Trump’s son-in-law becoming a part of his administration, though I know nepotism rules won’t allow it. If someone happens to be the best person for the job, I don’t think being related to someone should disqualify anyone.
  • So far the upcoming Trump administration is going to have a lot of Mikes – Pence, Flynn, Pompeo, and most likely Huckabee.
  • Vince Neil now says he’s not playing at inauguration
  • The Cowboys game was on CBS. I feared Phil Simms’ commentary and any mention of the highly over-rated Hard-8 barbecue, but surprisingly he didn’t do the game.
  • Jeff Fisher ties Tom Landry for second-most losses by an NFL coach
    • He is now tied with Tom Landry, who went 250-162-6 in 29 seasons, all with the Cowboys. By comparison, Fisher is 173-162-1 in 22 seasons with the Rams and Oilers/Titans.
    • It’s also worth noting Landry won 270 games, 2 Super Bowls, had 18 playoff seasons, and 20 consecutive winning seasons.
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  • This year’s Cowboys have the longest regular winning streak in franchise history with nine. More than any Landry or Jimmy Johnson team.
  • A short video of Dak Prescott throwing a paper cup away, misses, and then takes the time to put it in. It’s a tiny thing, but I think it speaks to the character of the man. I’ve seen high school and college sidelines littered with cups because players feel entitled to just throw them on the ground for someone else to pick them up, yet this professional is still able to do it.

  • A story about a 55-year-old man playing college football, his son plays for the Packers.
  • In case you weren’t the only one surprised Al Michaels wasn’t in the booth last night.
  • Isla Fisher reveals she fooled friends and family by putting doppelganger Amy Adams on her family Christmas card
  • I think the “in” thing you’ll hear a lot this Christmas season is, “Something you want, something you need, something to wear, and something to read.”
  • E.T. The Extraterrestrial was airing this weekend and it reminded me of an E.T. lamp one of my closest friends had. While trying to find a picture of the lamp, I totally forgot this was an actual toy product I played with (no pun intended).
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  • Watching E.T. as a child and then as an adult is an entire different experience. It makes me want to revisit a lot of books and movies, but overall, it makes me understand how experiences will change one’s perception. Oh, and it made me appreciate Netflix’s “Stranger Things” even more.
  • I caught a few episodes of “Diff’rent Strokes” recently which lead me to Dana Plato’s Wikipedia page. I totally forgot how “wheels off” her life story was, especially the fourth bullet point below which reads like an episode of “The Simpsons”.
    • She claimed she was offered the role of possessed child Regan MacNeil in the 1973 film The Exorcist.
    • In addition to her acting career, Plato was also an accomplished figure skater; at one point she trained for a possible Olympic team spot.
    • Diazepam overdoes when she was 14.
    • On February 28, 1991, she entered a video store, produced a gun, and demanded the money in the register. The clerk called 911 saying, “I’ve just been robbed by the girl who played Kimberly on Diff’rent Strokes.” Approximately 15 minutes after the robbery, Plato returned to the scene and was immediately arrested. The gun was only a pellet gun and the robbery netted Plato $164. Las Vegas entertainer Wayne Newton posted her $13,000 bail.
    • She came out as a lesbian, although she later recanted.
    • On May 7, 1999, the day before she died, Plato appeared on The Howard Stern Show. She admitted to being a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, but claimed that she had been sober for more than ten years by that point, and was not using any drugs, with the exception of prescribed painkillers due to the recent extraction of her teeth. Many callers insulted her and questioned her sobriety, which provoked a defiant Plato, who offered to take a drug test on the air. Some callers, as well as host Howard Stern, came to Plato’s defense. The next day, Plato and Menchaca were returning to California, the couple stopped at Menchaca’s mother’s home in Moore, Oklahoma, for a Mother’s Day visit. Plato went to lie down inside her Winnebago motor home parked outside the house, where she died of an overdose of the painkiller Lortab and the muscle-relaxant Soma. Her death was eventually ruled a suicide.
  • John Astin, best known as Gomez Addams, is still alive. I forgot he had a recurring role in “Night Court” and his adoptive son is Sean Astin.
  • Hey Google, the first 100 times I saw your commercial for your Amazon Echo competitor Google Home with the catchy whistling of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” was great, but you are airing it ad naseum.
  • During the children’s church part of yesterday’s worship service, we noticed BoyGeeding playing with SisterGeeding’s hair the entire time. I’m surprised she was able to keep her composure.

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