When Should I Thaw My Turkey?—Sultry Pilgrim Says Have Veggie Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Day is almost here and you need to know when to thaw your turkey.
Though you do have the option of a vegetarian Thanksgiving.
The folks at PETA would like you to consider a veggie Thanksgiving.
( Please click here for my other sultry Pilgrim post this Thanksgiving.)
VegCooking. com has meat-free Thanksgiving recipes.
As for me. I’ll be having turkey and I would like the turkey to thawed correctly.
These turkeys below are thawed, but they seem not quite ready for the table.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has some guidelines for thawing a turkey.
Follow these guidelines so you do not poison your family and guests.
Should your guests be poisoned, think of how better we would all be with a government option for health insurance and universal coverage so that all the guests you’ve made sick could get good care.
From the USDA instructions—
Fresh or Frozen?
Fresh Turkeys
- Allow 1 pound of turkey per person.
- Buy your turkey only 1 to 2 days before you plan to cook it.
- Keep it stored in the refrigerator until you’re ready to cook it. Place it on a tray or in a pan to catch any juices that may leak.
- Do not buy fresh pre-stuffed turkeys. If not handled properly, any harmful bacteria that may be in the stuffing can multiply very quickly.
Frozen Turkeys
- Allow 1 pound of turkey per person.
- Keep frozen until you’re ready to thaw it.
- Turkeys can be kept frozen in the freezer indefinitely; however, cook within 1 year for best quality.
Do not play around with this stuff. Do not make others sick.
Here is more of the USDA suggests— Read more »
Good, Or At Least Neutral, Intentions Sometimes Make No Difference
I was unable to convince these seagulls that I meant no harm while walking on the beach in Galveston three days ago.
It is not that I talked to them or sought to reason with them.
Though I would try if I thought it would help.
They just flew away from me because I was within 10 feet of where they were walking around on the beach.
Signals get crossed or people are not willing to listen—- And good, or at least neutral, intentions make no difference.
I’m Listed By Annise Parker As A Supporter—I Hope The Joke Is On Me
I went to the Annise Parker web page today to see if she had moved ideologically to the left in her campaign for Mayor now that she has released a poll saying she has a 13 point lead on Gene Locke in the Mayoral runoff election.
I thought that maybe being ahead in the polls would free her up to speak a little more truth than she has so far in the campaign.
Ms. Parker’s campaign has been touting Ms. Parker, a Democrat, as a so-called “fiscal conservative.”
It is obnoxious and disheartening that a Democrat is making this claim in a majority Democratic city.
If I want a so-called fiscal conservative, I’ll vote for a Republican. Given the absence of a Republican in the runoff in our majority-Democratic City of Houston, maybe what folks in Houston want is a government that helps people and that has a place in people’s lives.
While visiting Ms. Parker’s web home, I checked out the list of supporters her campaign team has complied.
Below is the link to that list. (You’ll have to cut and paste it–Sorry. I’ve got this new Apple computer and it is giving me fits. I can’t get links inserted into the blog that you don’t have to cut and paste. I’m sure I’ll figure it all out with time. Maybe.)
http://www.anniseparker.com/supporters/
My blog is on the list!
I have indeed endorsed Ms. Parker. It is correct to put my blog on this list.
Though if you read the post, it was not a fully flattering endorsement.
http://texasliberal.wordpress.com/2009/10/28/with-hestiancy-im-voting-for-annise-parker-for-mayor-of-houston/
Nor is this more recent post 100% supportive of Ms. Parker–
http://texasliberal.wordpress.com/2009/11/15/gene-locke-willing-to-tell-bigger-lies-than-annise-parker-to-win-right-wing-voters/
The comment beneath the 11/15 post is one of my fellow Houston progressive bloggers suggesting that I was smoking weed while writing the post.
Ha!–Nope. Maybe just drinking some carrot juice.
I give the Parker people credit for putting my blog on the list of supporters.
Maybe they are thick-skinned—That is a good trait to have.
Maybe —To paraphrase the 1964 Barry Goldwater campaign—in their hearts they know I’m right.
Maybe it is a small joke on me. You can’t click though to my blog from the Parker site. So as far as anybody knows, I’m 100% on-board.
I hope it is to some extent a joke at my expense.
Better than playing a joke on others, is a joke at one’s own expense.
All the world is a stage.
I just hope that Ms. Parker recalls I was a supporter even before the first round of voting two weeks ago.
I’m looking for an appointment as city alligator commissioner. I’m hoping the city will give me a boat to cruise up and down the bayous and a net to catch the gators.
I Mailed A Letter—Someone Would No Doubt Enjoy A Letter From You
A few days back, I mailed a letter for the first time in at least 3 or 4 years.
Below you see my notecard, envelope, dictionary and pen.
I mailed the letter to someone I know in Amsterdam.
I’m thinking that I may start to write a letter each week.
I bet there is somebody in the world who would be happy to get a letter from you.
People should slow down and reflect and keep in touch with others.
If you don’t, you’ll always be rushed and out of touch. Who wants to live like that?
Staircase To The Ocean
Here is a picture of a staircase that leads to the ocean. I took this picture yesterday.
The staircase extends from the Galveston Seawall to the Gulf of Mexico.
The oceans are all connected and occupy a great deal of the Earth’s surface. Though you would not get very far into all that connectedness if you were to walk down this staircase.
There is a path to feeling connected to more of our world. The most obvious and visible route may not be the route to that feeling of connection.
Names On The Land Is Lunchtime Reading On Shores Of Gulf Of Mexico
It is always good to read a book with lunch or with any meal.
Find some time by yourself and use that time to read and think.
With my seafood platter in Galveston today, I read Names On The Land—A Historical Account Of Place-Naming In The United States. This book, written by George Stewart, was first published in 1945 and revised in 1957 and 1967.
As you might guess from the title, this book discusses how place names orginated in the U.S.
For example—Wheeling, as on Wheeling, West Virginia, comes from a Native American word that means ” place of the head.”
This is the name of Wheeling becuase the city was founded at a place where these native people had killed a captive of some sort and stuck his head on a sharp pole.
At First There Was No Sun, But Now There Is Some Sun
This morning there was no sun at all in Houston and Galveston. As you can see by the picture, there is at least some sun now in Galveston and the Gulf of Mexico.
Things are looking up.
Though clouds or sun, it is always a good day to take a walk in Galveston.
Most Muslims Want No Trouble—It Is The Simplest Stuff That Needs To Be Repeated Most Often
An Islamic person is the alleged shooter in the Fort Hood massacre earlier this week.
There is a mosque that has connections to Houston that is under federal investigation for links to Iran—but nothing yet has been established as certain.
Muslim individauls are seen by many in our nation as guilty by defintion for acts of terrorism.
But the fact is that there are hundreds of millions of Muslims in the world, and very few of them want trouble.
They want satellite television and Coca-Cola and porn and soccer and they want their kids to be able to come to America and get high SAT math scores.
It is possible that many Muslims could be complicent by silence to bad acts. Though this is a charge that could be brought against people all around the world.
It is often the simplest stuff that needs to be repeated the most.
Even decent people can fall into a mental habit of seeing people for something other than what they truly are in life.
There are hundreds of millions of Muslim folks in the world and very few of them want any trouble.
Are American Workers Overpaid?—We Need To Find A Viable Economic Future
A recent New York Times story suggests that the wages Americans earn for manufacturing work may have to decline as much as 20% to remain competitive with global rivals.
From the story—
“Of course, workers in the United States should earn more than their peers in China, Moldova or Vietnam. Americans take advantage of the higher productivity that makes their country rich: better education and infrastructure, abundant capital and a strong work ethic. But how much higher should American wages be? The answer depends in large part on two measures: the difference in productivity in making goods that can be traded across borders, and the quantity of such goods. Both measures point to a narrowing wage gap. Many factors are raising productivity in poor countries. Fast development, cheap capital and more efficient shipping all help. Cheap communication via the Internet reduces costs and makes it easy to trade many more goods and especially services.The global wage gap has been narrowing, but recent labor market statistics in the United States suggest the adjustment has not gone far enough.
One indicator is unemployment, which has risen unexpectedly rapidly. The 7.3 million jobs lost are more than triple the 2 million during the 1980-82 recession. Some of that huge increase reflects the sharp decline in gross domestic product, but there could be another factor: the recession shows that many workers are paid more than they’re worth. Another possible sign is the huge surge in reported productivity, which has begun while output is declining. That suggests that some production is being outsourced, often to lower-paid foreign workers.
The big trade deficit is another sign of excessive pay for Americans. One explanation for the attractive prices of imported goods is that American workers are paid too much relative to their foreign peers.
Global wage convergence is great for the poor but tough on the overpaid. It’s possible to run the numbers to show that American manufacturing workers should take average real wage cuts of as much as 20 percent to get into global balance. The required cut may be smaller. But if American wages get stuck above global market-clearing levels, as in the 1930s, the result could well be something approaching Depression-era levels of unemployment. Anything would be better than that. Both moderate inflation to cut real wages and a further drop in the dollar’s real trade-weighted value might be acceptable.”
It is hard to look at the future and see good prospects for the average American worker. Most folks are never going to be able to find jobs in “knowledge industries” or whatever term is used at the moment to denote jobs for the relative articulate and skilled few in a country that has no real interest in educating all people. Why would our elite pay the taxes needed to create competitors for their children for the shrinking supply of good jobs? Where would a fully educated workforce find jobs?
This fact of a hard-pressed American labor force is one of many reasons the health care reform “debate” is so maddening. Where do people think they are going to find good benefits in the future? If government does not help provide good health insurance, where do people think it will come from as employers cut back?
The American Prospect, a liberal magazine of politics and views, has a series of articles that discuss the role regulation, organizing by workers, and sound public policy can play in helping maintain a supply of good jobs in our country.
Regardless of one’s politics, how can anybody in this country look at the economic future and feel hopeful about the path ahead? The issue is not people in other countries who have a right to decent lives no different from anyone in the United States. The issue is what we do as working people here in America to make sure that we have a viable future in a changing world.
People Often Do Lousy Things Simply Because They Are Able To Do So
The illustration in this post is of folks shooting alligators for the hell of it on a boat traveling on Houston’s Buffalo Bayou. This was in the late 19th-century.
People do harmful things often not for any real reason, but simply because they are able to do so.
I Missed Chance For Chocolate Covered Bacon
Here is a picture I took of the chocolate covered bacon stand at the Indiana State Fair last August.
This was the only time I’ve ever seen chocolate covered bacon for sale. I wish I had bought some at the fair.
I’m not certain when I’ll ever get another chance to enjoy this delicacy.
Welcome To Texas Liberal
Texas Liberal is a blog of politics and political history.
My name is Neil Aquino. Here is my profile.
Additional focuses of the blog are books, art, poetry, personal relationships and, also, sea life and marine mammals.
( The picture above is of the Houston Ship Channel. A narrow channel can lead to a wide sea.)
The signature post of this blog is the Martin Luther King Reading & Reference List. This list is the best of it’s kind on the web.
Another good post is my reciting the words to the Shaker hymn Simple Gifts on Galveston Island, Texas as a ship passes behind.
I live in Houston, Texas and I do sometimes write about political issues in Houston and in Texas.
I also often write about my former hometown of Cincinnati, and about the great beach city of Galveston, Texas.
I define liberalism as a role for government in the economy to help make life more fair, and a broad acceptance of people regardless of who they are.
This is why it says “All People Matter” at the top of the blog.
A blog grows one reader at a time. If you like what you read here, please consider forwarding the link.
Texas Liberal began regular posting on July 25, 2006.
I also blog at the Houston Chronicle as one of eight featured political bloggers, and on Where’s The Outrage? which posts out of North Carolina.
I can be reached at naa six one eight at att dot net
Thanks for reading Texas Liberal.
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