JP weighs in with a 'contenda'...



Right out of the Torry Ave. oven, 12/2/11

Got this email this morning: "I’ll be slicing into this hunka dough

 in a little while.  best one yet...."

An impressive performance, indeed, on JP's 3rd try (the other
two loaves were very good, mind you, but he said that there
 were some minor technical problems on them that have
clearly been surmounted as evidenced above).


Bottom line:  Once you get familiar with the process,
 kickass bread will always be on your menu....


PS  Just ran across a great post about this method with
 step-by-step photos and a recipe for parmesan-pepper
 bread (which I WILL be making this weekend). 
Click here:

PARMESAN-PEPPER BREAD
 

Best Bread Ever.

Right out of the Warrington Drive oven, 10/31/2011

Yes...you too can make bread exactly like this with a simplified recipe offered

 up by Jim Lahey and the Sullivan Street Bakery in NYC.  Once you've mastered

 the basic method (as easy as making, say, pancakes), the sky's the limit.  You

 can then mix and match flours and add seeds, nuts, raisins, etc.-- everything but

the kitchen sink.  It all works spectacularly. 

I consider this process to be a step up from the "Artisan Bread in 5

 Minutes a  Day" technique that some of us have been using for

 several years now.  That bread is very good, mind you, much better than

 "store-bought," especially when toasted.

  

This bread, on the other hand, is outstanding, up in the Zingerman's 

stratosphere without the hefty price of $7.50 - $26 (yes, some of their

 breads sell for that much).  If you're interested in checking this process

 out, first watch this

VIDEO.

For reference, the  recipe itself is right HERE.

Any questions?  You know how to get ahold of me....

Go BLUE! Er, Purple and Gold!

Annapolis, MD - October 22, 2011, ECU at Navy

The Current Maggie:  Now a budding trainer tending to the

 ECU Purple & Gold at a recent game, but we're not fooled...

We KNOW where her heart lies...

The Original Maggie: True Blue from Day One.

In case you missed it...

Apart from Santa himself, always the biggest hit at America's Thanksgiving Day
 Parade (formerly known as the J.L. Hudson Thanksgiving Day Parade):

Click HERE.

Then be transported back to 1962 by clicking HERE.

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all.

Mt. Pleasant, MI, circa 1959

Not sure if this is Thanksgiving, but Martha has broken out candles, her best

 china (Pomeroy Royal Doulton, "produced from the original Davenport

 engravings, 1793"), and the meal** has been memorialized by this shot,

 so it could well have been.  Note ashtray in foreground near where

 WJM would be sitting if he hadn't been the photographer. Also check out

the beverage of choice for all minors: milk (except for RJ - mostly hidden

 by little bro, JP - who has a pitcher of martinis in front of him). 

Appropriately, the china (how it survived our abuse I'll never

comprehend) is now in Julie's possession, and the table was

 passed from JP to me, and is still alive and well in Ann Arbor.  (Now,

its conveniently broad surface is usually loaded with LDM's legal

 and medical books, magazines, paperwork, accoutrement, junk mail,

 and miscellania until the next big holiday or special occasion when

 it is cleared, cleaned, set, and pressed into service once again.... 

**Could that be the remnants of a turkey dinner on my plate?

48 years ago today...

Dallas, TX, 11/22/1963

JFK's last moments are pictured above. In a saner, less violent world,

 Kennedy would have survived into old age and now be a doting 

94-year-old grandfather.  Instead, he was shot in the head while

 sitting in a Lincoln Continental convertible, blithely smiling and

 waving to admirers. 

His wife, Jackie, was sitting next to him during the entire

traumatic event.  He was 46 and Jackie was 34.

Demystifying Holy Water...

Sacred Heart Church, Glengarriff, County Cork, Ireland

I say old boy...a spot of tea with your Harringtons?

Kenmare, County Kerry, Ireland, February 2010

Probably long-lost cousins who got off the beaten path in Cork

and end up in Kerry.  Could be they took the Healy Pass in the

wrong direction and never looked back....

According to Char...

"The photo [see posting for October 28 below] was taken at Rich's wedding!  I have a photo of myself in the same dress dancing with Mark at the wedding-the photo must have been taken while we were outside-that's the only time we all were together."  L,Char

Ed. note:  Char...we need that shot of you and Mark dancing (for genealogical purposes only, of course).  Just wondering...were you two doing the Freddy, the Hully Gully, the Frug, or the Mashed Potatoes?  Help us out here....

 

You dirty rat...Take THAT see...

[Note: Photo is circa 1958-1959.]
This guy CLAIMED to be some chap named George Ludwig.
  NOT.  Clearly, this is James Cagney, showing off for the
 notorious Gas Light Gang up in their northern hideaway.

Anyway, it's a good day to conjure up a few pleasant thoughts
 about William J, born on 11/14/14, a very sobering 97 years ago....

RIP, Dad.

City Slickers III? You be the judge...

November 2011, Moab, Utah - Julie, Mark, Jason

May 1993, Moab, Utah - Billy, Jack, Bruno

License to Bill.

The site:  McCormick Place, Chicago

Admission to the Illinois State Bar Ceremony 

November 10, 2011

The lawyerly licensees:  Luke & Mav

The Sheepskin itself:  Wow.

The Aftermath:  Waiting 45 minutes on the

parking structure's 5th level to exit. 

We finally did escape, popped a
much-deserved bottle of champagne,
and went off for a splendid Italian repast. 

(Congratulations on your perseverence, 
Mavourneen and Luke -- not necessarily for
fighting your way through law school and
 the bar exam and then being sworn into the
Illinois Bar - all very impressive feats for
which we loudly applaud you, of course -
but in particular for surviving our madcap,
 detour-ridden drive to the swearing in
ceremony itself.  Whew!)

As they say, all's well that ends well, and
 this day, most decidedly, ended well.   

Please. Call me Norm.

As I was saying...

Got this from Amira just yesterday!  I'd asked her about QR codes (at the time, she knew nothing about them, living in her Parisien bubble, eating her fresh baguettes from the corner patisserie, sipping her Mariage Freres tea, savoring her rectangles of 64 % cacao Palmira chocolate from Valrhona, and scarfing down macaroons from Macarons Laduree by the handsful, well, you can easily fall out of the loop), BUT amazingly, she wrote this...

   "...so a couple days ago i received an envelope in the mail from a friend in nyc (sarah) who is starting her own streetwear collection. the envelope was filled with stickers which i assume she wants me to put all over paris as a marketing campaign.  check out the pic attched!!!! the code takes you to her blog. (attached pic)"

Here is that photo:

Wait!  There's more...

Great article on QR codes, if you want more info...click HERE.

The Hackfester QR Code...

Yes.  I am cutting edge.  Sort of.  The problem is, you probably

 aren't.  Yet. Which means that you can't scan the above image with

your QR code reader on your smart phone, assuming you even have

a smart phone, not one of those dumb ones that starts ringing

exactly when you're taking your first bite at dinner or the moment

 you sit down the on the toilet. Which means that you're missing out

 on all the fun.  (IF scanning a code like the one above with a cell

 phone can be considered fun.) 

 Keep your eyes open...this code is popping up everywhere.

  Here are a couple of examples...

So what exactly IS a QR code??  The best definition I've seen
so far is that it is a '...paper-based hyperlink.'  Not bad.
For more information, simply google:  What

the hell is a QR code?  (A lot faster than me

trying to explain it to you further....)

Oh, by the way, if you did scan the top code,

if would take you to the old hackfester site (maybe,

if I created it properly).  But I can't say for sure because

I have one of those dumb phones, and so far, haven't been

able to find a QR code reader app for it. 

Time to upgrade.

PS (Just found this):

Japanese cemetery headstone

"By simply snapping a shot of the code with their cellphones,

 visitors  will be able to view photos, videos and other information

 about the deceased. The device would also keep a log of each time the

 code was scanned so family members can keep up to date with

 when other relatives last visited the site."

And these...