It is under some duress

that we at Priddy wish Brigitte Bardot a happy birthday.

Apparently you are
a major bigot ass hat.
But I like your hair.

Sasha Fierce

David Letterman:

*displays photo*

Barry:

*long pause*

I hope that's Sasha.

*long pause*

Because otherwise there's been a serious breach in security.

http://www.cbs.com/late_night/late_show/video/?pid=gFt6B0WR4_mQt8pMYe48CeKXusX7Ffjn

Pygmy horses

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

Be a human---roll the nominees

my favorite part of the emmys last night:

close second:

also v. cute:

and a little Hay, Ho:

and then there was beautiful:

Aurrrrrrrrrrgh!-uring the future

Broo wrote:

how does the 14th through the 17th work for you?

DJ wrote:

i don't see any conflict.

Broo wrote:

oh, there will be . . . there will be.

gentlefolk, start your Tifauxs!

i will be watching the emmys for my Daily fix.

In search of

amigos, leave your favorite tried-and-true pancake recipes after the beep. mama's looking to fill out her collection.

blueberry pancakes + pancake 101

post, in its entirety, and images pulled from http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/07/blueberry-pancakes-pancake-101/

In the Great Deposit of Food Phobias post, a few of you said that you were afraid of making pancakes and my instant un-asked-for retort is that you all clearly didn’t grow up in my house, where I am pretty sure that knowing when to flip a pancake was one of the first cooking tricks I ever learned.

Mom made pancakes at least a couple weekends a month, and was loyal to the Joy of Cooking recipe, a page so batter-stained and grimy, I am pretty sure the book falls open to it even when the red ribbon isn’t at that page, which is never. And though I promise not to judge you, please, whatever you do, don’t say that Schmisquick word to my mother. It upsets her. I still remember sleeping over my friend’s house and coming over and saying that her mom made pancakes for breakfast, and that they were okay.

“Pfft,” my mother said. “She uses [that word that rhymes with Schmisquick].”

Mom was ruthless, and apparently I wasn’t much better. In college, my friends and I took to driving out to the 24-hour IHOP in Arlington whenever it struck our fancy, but I never ordered pancakes. At IHOP. Because they tasted like they were from a mix. And my mother, rather than discouraging the “Pancake Snob” label my friends were giving me, beamed with pride.

But that’s enough about all the ways my mother poisoned me against anything but homemade things. I’d much rather take you on a tour of how easy pancakes can be.

10 Pancake Tips

• First things first, the recipe: Though I have nostalgia for the Joy of Cooking everyday pancakes, I particularly like Martha Stewart’s Best Buttermilk Pancakes from her Original Classics book, so that’s what I used today. If you read between the lines, you’ll probably figure out that this just means I had a lot of buttermilk to use up, but honestly, I do think that tang goes a long way to making pancakes better and brighter. It is an almost one-bowl recipe, too; utterly perfect for the simultaneous demands for homemade pancakes and having them “now.” In a pinch, you can substitute yogurt.
• I mix the dry ingredients in a big bowl, melt the butter in a little ramekin in the microwave, beat an egg into the buttermilk, and mix it all together---just barely. Winker said that she’s “horrible” at pancakes . . . “. . . even when I mix them from the box. Too dense, under cooked, burnt---Never Light and fluffy.” This is where the “just barely” mixing comes in: you want small- to medium-sized lumps in the batter. No lumps means a dense pancake.
• If you want your pancakes even lighter, the best way to get that is to separate the eggs, mix the yolks in the with the batter, and whip the egg whites until stiff. If you fold them gently back into the batter---this should be your very last step---your pancakes will be unbelievably light, with an extra-crisp edge.
• Once you’ve got your batter all ready, the next tip that I cannot underline enough is to keep the pan on the low side of medium. Cat’s pajamas says that her pancakes always burn or not cook at all. “Isn’t there a happy medium . . . like perfect?” I find that too-hot pans can both burn the edges and keep the insides of a pancake runny. Low-to-medium is the answer. Your patience will be rewarded.

• Once the pan is heated, I like to brush it with a very thin coat of melted butter, which is my tip for Celeste, who says that she struggles with the amount of oil when making pancakes. “I’ve gone with too little and scraped them off the pan, and I’ve gone with too much and been accused of making funnel cakes.” The brush–or even a spray of Pam, though you’ll get less awesome flavor–gives just the right amount of oil, without them tasting fried. They’re not fritters; they’re breakfast, right?

• It’s time to flip the pancake when bubbles appear on the surface. You’ll see tiny ones quite soon. Once you see a whole bunch, go ahead and flip it. If some batter oozes out–this always happens to me, lacking a griddle, I find it hard to get a clean flip because the sides of my frying pan gets in the way–just push it back into the pancake with your spatula. I had more than one blueberry roll out, and simply pushed them back under.

• Once you’ve flipped your pancake, it cooks much faster on the other side, just a minute or two. Because your pan won’t be too hot, though, it won’t be too brown before the insides are cooked.
• Sometimes when I flip a pancake–ahem, often–it tears or oozes so much that a bit of batter comes through on the cooked side. If so,once the second side is done, I’ll flip it back for 10 seconds or so, until that excess batter gets cooked.
• Pancakes can absolutely be made ahead. Keep your oven at 175°F, have a baking sheet or oven-proof plate ready, and store the pancakes in there until you’ve got them all cooked. I wouldn’t do this for more than 30 to 45 minutes–they can dry out–but for a short period, they’ll be as good as just-fried.

• If you want to make blueberry pancakes–and you really, really should, especially now that they’re in season, though I’ve used frozen and they were almost as good–the best trick I’ve learned is from Molly, of the dry-rubbed ribs fame, who was kind enough to make us blueberry pancakes a couple times when I lived with her back in 1999: Keep the blueberries separate, and plop them onto the batter once you’ve poured the pancake into the pan. This keeps the whole thing neater, as they only touch really the pan directly on the other side. Mostly.

And that’s it! Now I shall go scavenge the extra pancake in the fridge, because writing this post has made me hungry for seconds.

Best Buttermilk Pancakes
Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Original Classics Cookbook

recipe and image found at http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/best-buttermilk-pancakes-by-martha

Yield: Martha says this makes 9 6-inch pancakes; I got about 16 4-inch ones, which are closer to the size I like

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, or slightly less table salt
3 tablespoons sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 cups buttermilk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus 1 tablespoon extra for brushing griddle (I’ve made these pancakes with and without the butter mixed in, and can say with confidence they work either way. They’re just richer with it, of course.)
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen and thawed (optional)

1. Preheat an electric griddle to 375°F, or place a griddle pan or cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a medium bowl. Add the eggs, buttermilk, and 4 tablespoons melted butter, and whisk to combine. The batter should have small to medium lumps.

2. Test the griddle by sprinkling a few drops of water on it. If the water bounces and spatters, the griddle is hot enough. Using a pastry brush, brush the remaining 1/2 teaspoon butter onto the griddle. Wipe off the excess with a folded paper towel.

3. Using a 4-oz. ladle, about 1/2 cup (for a 6-inch pancake), pour the batter in pools 2 inches apart. If you wish to make blueberry pancakes, arrange a handful over the cooking pancake, pressing them in slightly. When the pancakes have bubbles on top and are slightly dry around the edges, about 2 1/2 minutes, flip over. If any batter oozes or blueberries roll out, push them back under with your spatula. Cook until golden on bottom, about 1 minute.

4. Repeat with the remaining batter. You can keep the finished pancakes on a heat-proof plate in the oven at 175°F. Serve warm.

Promising

Dean: ah, good morning! many of you are half-way through your first week here at Greendale, and as your dean i thought i would share with you some thoughts of wisdom and inspiration. What is community college? well, you've heard all kinds of things. you've heard it's "loser college" for remedial teams. twenty-something dropouts. middle-aged divorcees. and old people, keeping their minds active as they circle the drain of eternity. that's what you've heard. however, I wish you luck!!

Ian Duncan: i still can't figure out how you got a jury to connect September the 11th with my DUI. let alone why that helped.

Jeff Winger: well, 2002 was a much simpler time.

Duncan: you can't talk to me that way! i'm a professor!

Jeff: a six-year-old girl could talk to you that way.

Duncan: yes, because that would be adorable.

Jeff: no, because you are a five-year-old girl, and there's a pecking order.

Shirley: you have been sexually harassing me since the very first day of class.

Pierce: sexually harassing? what? that makes no sense. why would i harass somebody who turns me on?

Jeff: do you know what makes humans different from the other animals?

Troy: feet.

Pierce: bears have feet.

Jeff: and troy. who cares if troy thinks he's all that? maybe he is. do you think astronauts go to the moon because they hate oxygen? no. they're trying to impress their high school's prom king.

Jeff: i made it up. that's what i do. i make things up. and i got paid a lot of money to do it before i came to this school-shaped toilet. i was a lawyer.

Abed: you know, i used to think you were bill murray in any of his films. but now i think you're michael douglas in any of his films.

Jeff: yeah? and you have Asperger's.

Jeff: i don't have any of the answers. i'm gonna flunk the test.

Troy: just, like, study for an hour. it's not that hard. you seem pretty smart. you've got a sports coat.

Community, NBC Thursdays at 9:30 EST.

"The third wheel is what makes it a tricycle."

Michael: Stanley is having a mid-life crisis.

Dwight: Stanley is *way* past the middle of his life. Especially considering his height-to-weight ratio.

Michael: It's like the movie Spartacus. I have seen that movie half a dozen times, and I still don't know who the real Spartacus is. That's what makes that movie a classic whodunit.

Michael: Did you hear Pam is pregnant?

Meredith: Really. She's gonna hate being a mom.

[is it wrong that i like andy bernard's superpreppy tie? that's the one i've been trying to find for g. for a few years now. --ed.]

Andy: On the record I prefer women. But off the record I'm kind of confused.

Jim: Really.

Andy: Yeah, the evidence is kind of stacked up against me.

Angela: You know a baby conceived out of wedlock is still a bastard.

Pam: What?

Michael: Okay, I made it all up.

Andy: Even the fact that I'm gay?

Michael: Mm-hmm.

Andy: Yesss.

welcome back, you beautiful, beautiful people.

My mind is going, and with it my sense of security

DJ wrote:
http://www.slate.com/id/2215499/

Hoser wrote:
meh . . . i don't mind posing. . . .

but anyways:
"That said, almost all laptops have a light that turns on whenever the camera is on—a feature that hackers can't disable since it's controlled electronically, not programmatically."

so, relax.

DJ wrote:
*snort*
you don't mind POSING??

*hoser primps, applies lip gloss, before logging on*

Hoser wrote:
don't forget the "easy tear-away" clothing!

DJ wrote:
*is very, very sad*
*doesn't eat for a while*
*gradually weakens*
*doctors grow concerned*
*intravenous feeding is discussed*
*lies limp*
*is disconnected, uninterested*
*fades away*

Down, but not out

Though temporarily stymied, Lenard refused to accept defeat; just as surely as he got *into* this swaddle, he would get himself out.

Perspective

http://www.yousuckatcraigslist.com/?p=2909#comments

thanks to 'leechay for pointing this out.

Things for which there is no accounting

The Spoon wrote:
Ever since you were a little girl . . .

http://www.ripkenstadium.com/event/weddings/

DJ wrote:
No.

Heed the call

"If you want peace, work for justice."

No Waiting Room

from America: The National Catholic Weekly

http://americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=11869
THE EDITORS | SEPTEMBER 28, 2009

They say the best place to keep an appointment with the devil is at a crossroads. We are again drawing near another political crossroads on health care. If we cannot move past our own diabolical short-sightedness and partisan tendencies this time, we will miss a historic opportunity to put our health care system on a path toward sustainability, fairness and common decency. It could be decades before the chance comes around again.

We cannot afford to wait to reform our system. It is costing us too much as individuals and as a society. The current system regularly turns medical misfortune into personal tragedy and economic ruin; it also weighs down U.S. industry, hindering American manufacturing in an increasingly competitive global marketplace. It also drains fiscal resources at the local, state and federal levels that could be better invested in preventive care, better education for our children or shoring up our crumbling infrastructure.

As people of faith we can be guided by a long tradition of Catholic social teaching that unambiguously supports public initiatives to ensure access to health care when markets alone fail to achieve universal coverage. Those who express exaggerated fears of a government takeover and bureaucratic centralization tend to portray government as somehow a threat to the people and their freedom, but Catholic social teaching consistently reminds us that public authority is the ordinary mechanism by which people undertake collective action. The principle of subsidiarity provides a check against needless centralization, but it must not be misinterpreted as an excuse to forgo truly necessary national initiatives.

Catholic social teaching offers a distinctively organic view of society that calls all parties to be open to sacrifice for the good of the whole. That common good springs from true cooperation, not merely the competitive interaction of self-interests. Reforming health care should not be reduced to a partisan issue, with the eyes of negotiators distracted by the goal of scoring political advantage. We will achieve the aims of reform—extending coverage to the uninsured, rationalizing procedures and policies and lowering costs—only if all parties check their egos and partisan interests at the door and work together.

The greatest temptation now is to despair of true reform any time soon. After all, powerful special interests have a stake in the status quo, and the major political parties clearly desire different outcomes. But the light shed by Catholic social teaching reveals the possibility for progress, a progress that can be assured only if we recognize that health care is not just another commodity to be distributed according to people’s ability to pay. Many resources within Catholic social thought—including its requirement of a preferential option for the poor—challenge us to re-imagine health care as a basic human need, no less a religious obligation than providing food for the hungry, shelter for the homeless and clothing for the naked.

The church has for more than a century stood for the civic components of our God-given human dignity, a dignity that our current system too often diminishes. We cannot now allow a handful of discordant voices to confuse what has been the church’s longstanding position: that in a just society, access to effective health care is a human right, not a negotiable social privilege.

That does not mean that the church should compromise at all on its clear resistance to any deployment of federal resources for abortion services. It does not mean that any watering down of conscience clauses for Catholic health care workers should be tolerated. These are breaking points for Catholic support on health care reform, and the Obama administration appears well aware of this. Thanks no doubt to the vigorous interventions of the advisers from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, it was no accident that assurances on these two principles appeared in the president’s speech before Congress on Sept. 9. The president is keenly aware that he must win over Catholics if he is to win over Congress in November.

The time has come to put aside our childish ways on health care. Other industrialized nations resolved the challenge of universal and equitable care decades ago. It is unacceptable that in a society as wealthy as the United States, which may ultimately spend as much as $3 trillion on a war of choice in Iraq, millions are without access to reliable health services; that as many as 18,000 die each year because of poor access; and that an unknowable number die because they were denied care by the for-profit entities to which they had entrusted their lives.

In his speech the president threw down the gauntlet to the fear-mongers and the Congressional hired hands of the status quo. It is time to stop dithering and get behind the president’s proposal.

Ovaries, you are on notice.

Jak wrote:
Cuteness from the girls yesterday:

Madeline and Anna snuggling in bed:

MADELINE: Anna, I will love you forever and ever and ever.

ANNA: And I don't want to give you away.

ME: What?

ANNA: I want to keep her, Mama.

Anna, who insisted on dressing festively for the occasion, wishes Mad good luck on her first day of first grade.

Behind the curve

"I felt that no boy should have to depend either for his leg or his life upon the ability of his parents to raise enough money to bring a first-class surgeon to his bedside." --Tommy Douglas

Exhibit A

In a recent email exchange it was shrilly asserted that:

absent photographic evidence, they can't prove that anyone took off any clothes!!!

Goddamit!

Eff you, Kanye, you frigging jackass!

Sniggle redux

And while we're feeling sentimental . . .

Frenemies

"I'll trade with anyone who has a jacuzzi!"

"We've learned that it will take more than one generation to bring about change. The fight for civil rights has developed into a broader concern for human rights, and that encompasses a great many people and countries. Those of us who live in a democracy have a responsibility to be the voice for those whose voices are stilled."

Gotcher back, hon. Singin' your song, baby.

RIP, Mary Travers.

Once again proving his presidential mettle

No, Barney, no. We've made our decision.

DJ will cut her hair into a glorious, high-body mullet in remembrance.

Jay Ess, Kitty Jay, and SKM like this.

TBH: I won't be putting Baby in the corner. In remembrance.

DJ: ALSO ON TO-DO LIST IN REMEMBRANCE:
-carry a watermelon

TBH: -agree to dance the Pachanga, even if you don't want to

DJ: -procure back-alley abortion

'Netta: -buy a fresh pair of white Keds. Refuse to read Robby's copy of Ayn Rand. Tip my plumber.

DJ: -refuse the sexual advances of the scheming cougar in cabin 20A

Hoser: -have "fun" doing pottery while listening to that annoying song from "Ghost"

Joyful: -dance on a log dangling high above a stream in the middle of the forest, barefoot, with a tight white tank on

DJ: -keep the peace at the Roadhouse

Hoser: -dance topless in tight black pants with the late, great Chris Farley

DJ: -and *win* that audition, because, dammit, Barney brought out the best in me!

Honorable Meme-tion

Kibble put me onto this. Gracias, GMP!

Click

Happy Herfday, Berf!

I wish you lived closer and I could have baked you a pretty Benjamin Button cake like Michelle bakes.

And in third place . . .

Telling me what I didn't even know I already knew

t'autre day bill moyers was interviewed at length by the oft-abrasive bill maher on the latter's HBO show Real Time. the interview was genius. that is, bill her just let bill yers talk, which . . . i gotta say, bill moyers is now rivaling my love for barry.

part 1

part 2

part 3

(partially transcribed at Salon.com)

On what's really happening in the health-care fight:
MOYERS: I don’t think the problem is the Republicans. . . . The problem is the Democratic Party. This is a party that has told its progressives -- who are the most outspoken champions of health care reform -- to sit down and shut up. That’s what Rahm Emanuel, the Chief of Staff at the White House, in effect told progressives who stood up as a unit in Congress and said: "no public insurance option, no health care reform."

And I think the reason for that is -- in the time since I was there, 40 years ago, the Democratic Part has become like the Republican Party, deeply influenced by corporate money. I think Rahm Emanuel, who is a clever politician, understands that the money for Obama’s re-election will come from the health care industry, from the drug industry, from Wall Street. And so he’s a corporate Democrat who is determined that there won’t be something in this legislation that will turn off these interests.

Money in politics -- you’ve had in the last 30 years, money has flooded politics . . . the Supreme Court saying "money is free speech." It goes back to the efforts in the 19th Century to give corporations the right of personhood -- so if you as a citizen have the right to donate to campaigns, then so do corporations. Money has flowed in such a flood into both parties that the Democratic Party gets a lot of its support from the very interests that -- when the Republicans are in power -- financially support the Republicans.

You really have essentially -- except for the progressives on the left of the Democratic Party – you really have two corporate parties who in their own way and their own time are serving the interests of basically a narrow set of economic interests in the country -- who, as Glenn Greenwald, who is a great analyst and journalist, wrote just this week: these narrow interests seem to win, determine the outcomes, no matter how many Democrats are elected, no matter who has their hands on the levers of powers, these narrow interests determine the outcomes in Washington, even when they have to run roughshod over the interests of ordinary Americans. I’m sad to say that has happened to the Democratic Party.

I’d rather see Barack Obama go down fighting for vigorous strong principled public insurance than to lose with a [corporate-dominated] bill . . . the insurers are winning. . . .

. . . Everyone already knows the White House has made a deal with the drug industry -- promising not to import cheaper drugs from Canada and Europe -- promising not to use the government to negotiate for better prices -- that deal has been cut . . .

There’s this fear that Barack Obama will become the Grover Cleveland of this era -- Grover Cleveland was a good man, but he became a conservative Democratic President because he didn’t fight the powerful interests -- people say Obama should be FDR -- I’d much rather see him be Theodore Roosevelt -- Teddy Roosevelt loved to fight -- I think if Obama fought instead of really finessed it so much . . . I think it would change the atmosphere.

On Afghanistan:
MAHER: What do you think of Obama's policy in Afghanistan -- you were around for the Vietnam debate and the escalation -- it may have been why you left the White House?

MOYERS: I’d think it would be a tragedy beyond description for this young, bright, exciting President to be drawn into an endless war in the same way that the last young, bright, exciting President was drawn into -- intervened in Vietnam. I was there when Kennedy chose to send advisers to Vietnam -- and was there when LBJ escalated -- they both acted from noble intentions -- actually they did -- they wanted to stop Communism in Asia and spread democracy -- but the advisers soon became bombers and the bombers became grounds troops and pretty soon, it became a regional crusade --and 12 years later, billions of dollars, and millions of lives later, including 60,000 American troops -- we lost -- because the U.S. is not good at that sort of thing.

Here Obama has 68,000 troops over there and the Generals are asking for another 20,000 -- maybe 30,000 more troops -- saying it’s not enough. The military and the hawks will always say "not enough." Obama has to say "enough" -- or he’s going to be drawn into it.

Now they’ve shifted the mission of troops: to protect the villages of Afghanistan. 100,000 Americans can’t protect the villages of Afghanistan -- and now they say we’re going to be there to build a nation -- we’re not good at building other nations -- we’re hardly good at building our nation. If you're an Afghani and look up and see Arnold Schwarzenegger and the California legislature coming to build your nation, you’re going to run -- you’re going to put up a No Trespassing sign. We need to come home.

On the U.S. as a declining empire:
MAHER: There are so many parallels -- I hate to say it -- between great empires that were on their decline and what’s going on with this country right now -- a sort of internal malaise, where we are debt-wise, how much money we owe the world . . do you still think we’re a great nation?

MOYERS: We are a very crippled giant suffering from self-inflicted wounds that if we do not treat and heal, will in fact bring us to our knees and ultimately to our doom. . . .

We can’t say, though, it’s over -- we can’t. What makes us great -- we’re not smarter than other people, we’re not more intelligent, we’re not wiser -- we have that First Amendment -- that self-correcting faculty -- that enables people like this to climb up on the ship and say: "that’s an iceberg out there . . ." We wait a long time until almost the ship has sunk. . . . We’re close to losing the moral, financial and economic muscle and wisdom that makes a huge nation a great nation, but it’s never too late.