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Post by stepper on Mar 6, 2009 1:07:10 GMT -6
rutabaga - Darn it! I can't even blame this one on the cat.
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Post by Phalon on Mar 6, 2009 18:55:18 GMT -6
Oh, rutabaga - my Mom and Dad used to love it; especially my Dad. Even though he passed away just over a decade ago last month, every time I visit Mom, she's still got a rutabaga or two in a basket on the counter.
And yanno what's strange? In all the time growing up, though I heard them exclaim many times how much they liked rutabagas, and we always seemed to have at least one in the kitchen, I never saw Mom cook one, or never saw either of them eat it. Shoot, I don't even know how to cook a rutabaga, or what it looks like cooked. I've certainly never tried it - it was one of those things my brothers and I turned our noses up to just by looking at it in its raw state.
Of course, Mom might have cooked it and sneaked it into something we didn't know it was in....kinda like I do with the girls and spinach. Dontcha know those little green specks throughout the meatloaf or spaghetti sauce are spices? Spinach? Never.
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Post by katina2nd on Mar 6, 2009 20:01:54 GMT -6
Rutabaga, are they as nice as Swedes, cause I love a nice Swede.
;D
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Post by stepper on Mar 6, 2009 23:24:26 GMT -6
Rutabaga, are they as nice as Swedes, cause I love a nice Swede. ;D Rutabaga has the advantage of coming with that wax coating that preserves them longer. Swedes are nice, but spoil way too quickly.
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Post by stepper on Mar 6, 2009 23:30:03 GMT -6
Of course, Mom might have cooked it and sneaked it into something we didn't know it was in....kinda like I do with the girls and spinach. I add cooked rutabaga to potatoes and mash 'em all together. It changes the color and flavor. Of course, the cooked rutabaga makes the potatoes a little orange. If you prefer that pale green color, you may want to stick to the spinich. If you ever try it, be careful not to overwhelm the potatoes with too much rutabaga - even one large one can be too much - unless you like turnips.
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Post by Phalon on Mar 7, 2009 7:51:34 GMT -6
Really? I woulda thought you'd prefer a nice Norwegian, Katina.
Ah-ha! Now that jogs my memory. I think I remember now mom mashing them like potatoes. Whether she mixed them with the pototoes though, I don't know. I'll have to ask her one of these days. I may have eaten and actually liked rutabaga and not even known it.
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Post by vox on Mar 8, 2009 14:31:03 GMT -6
I too cook rutubaga and add them to mashed potatoes. I also like them chunked and roasted in olive oil with herbs!
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Post by stepper on Mar 8, 2009 22:54:24 GMT -6
I too cook rutubaga and add them to mashed potatoes. I also like them chunked and roasted in olive oil with herbs! OOO! Roasted. I didn't even think of that one. I'll have to give it a shot. Thanks!
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Post by Phalon on Mar 9, 2009 6:24:44 GMT -6
Ooooo.....me too! I'll have to try rutabaga roasted and herbed, if for no other reason, just to say I've tried rutabaga. Who knows; I might actually like it. Roasted and herbed is my favorite way to eat parsnips. Mmmmm.
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Post by Mini Mia on Mar 9, 2009 16:51:57 GMT -6
Rutabagas could be the next topic on "Turn Members On To Something New!" ... Those in the know can post pointers and links to the best recipes to try, etc. That is why I created the thread, so those with experience can mentor those without.
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Post by Phalon on Mar 12, 2009 4:13:57 GMT -6
I mentor to get in there, Joxie, and post about something else, but I keep forgetting. Maybe I need a memory mentor to teach me memory tricks....
Here's a memory for ya....remember full-service gas stations? It was so windy and cold here yesterday that I said to LX when I pulled into the gas station, I wished it was full-service. She had no idea what I was talking about, of course, and couldn't believe there was a time when a customer didn't have to pump their own gas.
I remember when self-service pumps started popping up at gas stations; my parents thought they'd never catch on. By the time I was driving, though, full-service was a thing of the past - I never got to utter the phrase, "Fill 'er up". I wonder how they'd do if they made a come-back? There have been many times, I'd rather have had someone other than myself stand in the rain, wind, cold, or snow to fill my car with gas. Oh, and wash my windshield - dang, I always forget to do that.
Where's that memory mentor when ya need him?
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Post by Mini Mia on Mar 12, 2009 16:33:14 GMT -6
You need to move to another state, Phalon ... some women I knew took a trip together and made a stop at a gas station in a state I can't recall, and one woman was almost put in jail because she got out and filled up the car. It is against the law there. A man was waving frantically at her, but she just figured him a weirdo and ignored him.
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Post by Phalon on Mar 12, 2009 21:37:55 GMT -6
Too funny, Joxie - I can just imagine the look on both the woman's and the attendant's faces.
It'd be nice to at least have a 'full-serve' or 'self-service' option. I wonder why they always seem to build gas stations in the windiest location they can find?
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Post by katina2nd on Mar 12, 2009 21:51:39 GMT -6
Have a mix here, still a few full service stations around but they're pretty scarce and heading the same way as drive in movies I think, just a distant memory before long.
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Post by Phalon on Mar 13, 2009 6:31:01 GMT -6
Ah, yes...drive-in movies. Then there were drive-in diners; not the hand-you-your-food-in-a-bag-and-you're-off-on-the-road-again fast-food drive-thrus. It seems people used to spend a lot more time in their cars - not just driving, but doing recreational activities.
But back seats were bigger then; big bench seats that you could really stretch out on....uhm...that's a recreational vehicular activity that is but a distant memory.
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Post by Siren on Mar 13, 2009 11:33:07 GMT -6
Reminds me of that big ole car you had when you met Hubs, Gams. A Cougar, wasn't it? With the backseat made for sin?
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Post by Phalon on Mar 14, 2009 6:25:40 GMT -6
"The Seat of Sin" - LMAO, Siren. Yes, it was a Cougar....and oh, the Mercury's rising.....or at least, rocking back and forth.
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Post by Siren on Mar 14, 2009 16:59:02 GMT -6
LOL!! That's a story your girls probably don't need to hear. It would only gross them out, anyway!
I've noticed a common item that seems to be going out of style: wrist watches. The younger people I work with - I'd say particularly those age 30 and under - don't wear a watch. They get the time by looking at their cell phones. I think that's silly, since it's often easier to just glance at your wrist than to get your phone out. But they apparently disagree.
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Post by stepper on Mar 15, 2009 0:21:23 GMT -6
I'm with you Siren. Wristwatch is easier and faster. Plus, where I work, cell phones are a no no. There's no reception even if they weren't banned. Besides, I have an extensive collection of Snoopy watches. Although, an increasing number of people are dropping home phones and going cell phone only. They're using the cell phones for phones, internet, all kinds of stuff.
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Post by Phalon on Mar 15, 2009 21:17:05 GMT -6
Now that you mention it, it does seem as if not many younger people wear wrist-watches; I guess it's more fashionable to use state of the art cell phones. Remember Swatches though? Watches strictly for fashion.
It seems cell phones do nearly everything these days, but cook dinner and serve it to you. They are like little complete entertainment/information centers. But “little” is a big deal as far as my preferences are concerned. A cell phone is too small to stay put when tucked between your ear and shoulder, allowing you to do other things with your hands….in my case, talking with them. Shoot, I can carry on a three way conversation by myself; my mouth and my two hands keep interrupting one another. I don’t even use a cordless phone for the same reason; the handset just doesn’t stay put without a hand to hold it. My cell phone is only for emergencies – I still like my big old clunky phone with the cord attached because of its ear-tucking ability.
Like my clunky phone attachment, I’m not ready to give up my wrist watch either. I don’t feel completely dressed without it. It helps, though, if when I wear it, I wear it right. The other day, I was visiting with Xena-Sis in the little park around the corner, while our dogs played together. She asked me the time. “Oh, shoot!” she said, “I’m going to be late!” We’d been out longer then we thought and she had to get her son to the dentist’s as soon as he got home from school. LX’s bus stop was on the way home, so I figured the puppy and I would met her there. Waiting, waiting, waiting…the bus was late…..until I looked closer at my wrist watch and noticed I was wearing it upside-down. Bad habit of just glancing at the minute hand, and I’d been a half hour off the whole afternoon. I wonder how much longer than necessary Xena-Sis's son had to sit in the dentist's office?
No wonder I don’t like cell phones with all their modern technology. I can’t even operate a simple wrist watch correctly! (eye-roll)
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Post by stepper on Mar 15, 2009 21:50:46 GMT -6
The most technologically challenged person I ever knew was my mother. She couldn’t even set the time on the VCR. Every time the power went out one of us would have to go set it for her again. She never did figure it out, but you always knew the power had gone out because the VCR would be flashing 88:88. Second most challenged was mom’s next door neighbors. Very nice people, but they simply couldn’t figure out how to connect the cable TV converter, VCR, and TV. One day when I was home mom asked me to go help them out. It didn’t take that long, but they wouldn’t let anyone else touch the wiring after I got it working for them. Several years later when the VCR finally gave out on them and they had no choice, they bought a cable ready TV and bypassed everything else so they could have TV again.
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Post by Phalon on Aug 3, 2009 20:56:36 GMT -6
Remember a time before Map Quest, and GPSs, TomTom navigators, and cars that spoke to you? Remember when you had to rely on an actual person to give you directions?
I'm going to my brother's this week; Mom's physical rehabilitation center is less than five minutes from his house. I've only been to bro's house a handful of times, and always coming from my other brother's, since that's where the family always converges. But driving to other brother's house first is about an hour and a half out of my way. Map Quest, (or any of the other on-line map services), are of no use in this case; they may give the shortest mileage, but there are construction zones everywhere, and besides, brother knows short-cuts which neither of us can not get to come up on an on-line map, (after hearing his directions, it's no wonder why).
So he gave me directions the old-fashioned way: verbally.
"Go west. When you get to Ann Arbor...."
"Before I get to Ann Arbor, or am I passing Ann Arbor?"
"Before I think; maybe partway into, but not after.....close to exit 168....maybe 170? Definitely after 168, take 23N. Or maybe 14, then it kinda jogs around to 23. Once you figure out how to get on 23, take that to M59. Or maybe it's Highland Rd; I can't remember what the sign says, but you want to be on M59E toward Pontiac or Waterford. Take that to Williams Lake Rd. Go left when you see an airport on the right. When you start seeing a bunch of fast food restaurants, that's Dixie Highway - pass that. Then there's a small light...."
"A small light? An itty-bitty light? Is it so small, I'm not going to be able to see it?"
"Not a tiny light - a sometimes flashing light."
"Right, ok...there's a small, flashing light, (eye-roll), what next?"
"Go through it."
"Even if it's not flashing, but red."
"Go through the small, but not red light only if it's green or flashing. Next normal-sized light is the road you want. It only goes left. Curve right."
"Uhm....if it only goes left, and I curve right, wouldn't I end up somewhere I don't necessarily want to be?"
"Follow the road to the left, then curve right...then it goes left again. Pass a party store, and then a church...."
That's usually how it goes - party first, repent later. And if I make it this far, I'll definitely be hitting the party store, leave with a six-pack, and see if I can make confessionals at the church....because I'll certainly have been b!tching and cussing the entire drive.
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Post by Phalon on Jan 31, 2010 23:51:45 GMT -6
I thought we used to have a "Remember when..." thread in here somewhere. Maybe I'm mistaken....or didn't look far enough back. Came across this one on page three, and what the heck, it'll do just fine. Or at least is as close as I'm going to get right now.
BP brought this up today as she and I were watching Bugs Bunny cartoons on View on Demand. Every cartoon she picked to watch, of course, I'd seen....and told her I'd probably seen every Bugs Bunny episode umpteen million times because we didn't have a whole lot of choice waaaaay back when I was a kid.
Yeah, she says....apparently her social studies teacher explained how television was waaaay back then, (when he was a kid too). BP brought up something he told the class that I'd completely forgotten about: television broadcasts used to stop during the night.
No such thing as late night T.V.
Now that she mentioned it, I remember specifically when it went off the air for the night. Right after "Love American Style" ended, (I think at midnight...maybe 1am?), the National Anthem played, and that was it.
Nothing after that but the vertical colored bars or ant fights until morning. Nowadays, you still see them, but only when your cable which airs 24 hours-a-day is out.
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Post by stepper on May 29, 2010 0:00:11 GMT -6
Commonplace Rarities is probably a good place for this one. John Finn died this week. Who was John Finn? The oldest living Congressional Medal of Honor winner. Gravely wounded durning the attack of US facilities in Hawaii on 7 December 1941, he manned a 50-caliber machine gun mounted on an instruction stand in a completely exposed section of the parking ramp, which was under heavy enemy machine-gun strafing fire. In other words he was under attack from several airplanes, but stood out in the open and returned fire using a 50 Cal training gun. Finn was at Kanoehe Bay where at least one aircraft was shot down. Commonplace, because death comes to us all. Rare because he was awarded the CMH. Rarer because he lived. As the saying goes, Freedom isn't free.
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Post by Phalon on Jan 13, 2013 8:22:50 GMT -6
I wondered if this thread was still around, or if it went the way of some of the stuff contained therein. I was at the used bookstore the other day, struggling not to buy anything while the proprietor checked to see if they had any of the titles of the books I was trying to sell. I contained myself, remembering the reason I came in the first place - I've got too many books. It was soooo tempting though, to replace the ones I was getting rid of with new (old) books. I love the bookstore. The following day, it was a coincidence that a friend gave me an article about bookstores. I thought it was a good article on nostalgia, and would fit in this thread. www.parade.com/news/views/guest/121118-richard-russo-wonder-of-bookstores-reading.html
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Post by scamp on Jan 27, 2013 23:59:11 GMT -6
I'm currently trying to tame my CD's by storing them in special CD boxes that protect the CD's and have a slot for the cover art/booklet. (Yeah, okay, so now I also have two 30 gallon bins full of empty, non-recyclable jewel cases that no-one will even accept as a donation.)
Today I found something I have absolutely no memory of receiving: a personalized, sign CD from Karla Bonoff. Next to it I found a similarly signed CD by Tanita Tikaram. Where, oh where did these come from? They're 20 years old...when did I get too old to remember them?
So I did the only thing I could think of doing: I bought tickets to go see Karla Bonoff. It ought to be an interesting couple of weeks: Lady GaGa, Mary Gauthier, Judy Collins, and then Karla -- all within 13 days. Methinks I have become rather odd.
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