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And we cook them with fatback, bacon, ham hocks, Spam, Polish sausage, etc. A vegetarian couldn't eat our vegetables.

As for a use for self-rising flour, I like this two-ingredient recipe: ICE CREAM BREAD 1 pint ice cream 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour Let the ice cream melt. Stir the flour and ice cream together, mixing thoroughly but do not beat. Place in a greased (and/or Pammed) loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes until done, but don't overbake. Nut-flavored ice cream like pistachio or butter pecan work well.

I would have more respect for Christian fundamentalists if they really believed what you said. They tend to read the Bible very selectively, and they get especially selective when it comes to Leviticus, where it is not unusual for them to take a given verse and say it is immutable revealed divine Truth and completely ignore everything a verse or two away. In extreme cases, it is two halves of the same verse. If someone gets to decide which verse is Ultimate Truth and which verse is completely irrelevant, then that person himself, and not the Bible, is the real authority and arbiter of all Truth. Oh, and as for men who have sex with one another, yes, they will all die eventually.

Dom, I too thought that was all pretty clear and that the things that were ambiguous were because you meant for them to be.

Nick, your perspective on this is quite perceptive. As to swearing on something, the actual oath in Congress doesn't do that. People do ceremonial, personal, and/or photo op type things in their own offices, and often use a Bible or something to swear on. I heard that the guy borrowed Thomas Jefferson's copy of the Qur'an for his ceremony. That was a neat touch. Presidents use Bibles for their swearing in at their inaugurations, but maybe about 6 or 7 of them didn't use one even for that. If Romney is elected President, he could choose books. Mormons use the Old and New Testaments as well as the Book of Mormon. I like the irony of people swearing on a book that says not to swear on anything. (See Matthew 5:34-37.) The Democrats will be hard pressed to make the situation in Iraq any worse, so I can't completely agree with this.

I don't bake cookies (because I'd eat them), but wouldn't it help to spray some PAM on to the cookie sheet? It works for other kinds of baking.

And my suggestion of "Ramadan in Finland" didn't make the cut.

Goethe's Faust has a happy ending, and it's especially so as Mahler set it to music in his eighth symphony. OTOH, Mozart's Don Giovanni ends with the main character going straight to hell, and that's arguably a happy ending.

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A Carnivale story could take place in Brazil or a Christmas story in Australia. They could be in a winter anthology, but take place in the summer in their respective locale. February 29 could be a good theme for an anthology for next year. Ramadan takes place different seasons over time. It's probably not so great in Finland during the summer. The solstices themselves could make good themes. Or how about a meteor shower? I already have "sloth" covered by not writing anything.

It needs to fit the story. Is the ending of "The Other Side of Me" (Dom Luka's recently completed story) happy or sad? There's not a straight answer to that question. But it is an appropriate ending. And there needed to be some creepiness left to fit the story, rather than wrapping every detail into a neat package. I would have preferred maybe a happier ending for "Desert Dropping," but it could have ended much worse.

But the good news that I heard on the radio today is that it is OK to eat meat or drink milk from cloned goats.

I thought most of them were, at least at subliminal and subconscious levels. Maybe that's just the way I look at them, especially with some of the costumes used.

I never got around to learning the 3rd, but I don't think either movement describes me anyway. I do like to play the first movement. It's not that hard, and people recognize it, even with my playing. I do, too. It is more fun to play than any other Beethoven I can think of. I certainly hope no one thinks of "Path

Back then the wireless network wouldn't even reach to the outhouse.

"Status Back, Baby" by Frank Zappa

Screech.

Internet, no, not as we know it. Forums, yes. There were lots of forums on Compuserve, GEnie, and other similar services at the time. And then there were hundreds of private bulletin boards one could access. I won't even try to explain FIDOnet. Modems may have been reaching 2400 baud by then, which was at one time the theoretical maximum if you obeyed the laws of physics. There was a Defense Department network that eventually evolved into the internet from the early '60s, and TCP/IP didn't come along until 1983. The WorldWideWeb and the first browser are from the early '90s, and average people like me didn't get access until a few years later. In between, there were indirect ways to deal with the internet, as those capabilities were added to the online services and bigger local bulletin boards. If you didn't have electricity, you had to do all that by kerosene light. Oh, and I forgot to add that Al Gore was elected to Congress in 1976.

I hadn't heard that version. The more usual explanation is that when there were draconian penalties for shortchaning a customer, bakers would throw in an extra rather than risk accidentally shorting.

A cordless drill. Dave Barry suggests that as the gift to get every guy. It will always be appreciated, no matter how many cordless drills he already has. Gift cards are not necessarily impersonal. If you know that someone shops frequently at a place, then a card for there should be perceived as a thoughtful, personal gift. People would like to give me books but won't normally dare unless they find something just perfect and they're relatively sure I couldn't already have it. So people give me Barnes and Noble or Amazon gift cards. Tr

This blog entry and its comments give some reactions to the film and the novel. No one ever figures out what Frank Zappa has to do with it, though. WARNING! Don't go there if you're offended by naughty words. The writer uses them.

You might enjoy this Flash animation.

Reminds me a bit of a comment I made some years ago: "If there's been a breakdown in communication, I certainly haven't heard about it."