Month: December 2007

Chopped steak. Hamburger steak. Smothered steak. Whatever you want to call it, a ground beef steak has hardly been a matter that would make me sit up and take notice. That is most likely because pretty much all the hamburger steaks I have had over the past years have been mostly a step-up (or down)from your plain old hamburger. Today, however, I had a smothered ground beef steak and I must admit that I took notice.

At noon I found myself in Nederland, originally a Dutch settlement which makes up part of what is known around these parts as “Mid-County,” (Mid-Jefferson County, Texas). Nederland is a quaint little town with its own windmill and whose citizens are dogged supporters of their local Nederland Bulldogs.

Just across the railroad tracks alongside Texas 347 at 11th Street in Nederland, I spotted a little eatery named John’s Grill. There is something attractive in simplicity and I was immediately attracted to the simplicity of the name John’s Grill. John is not a bad name either. My dad was a John. I have a brother named John. I have a friend named John who talks rather loudly. So my history if firmly rooted in the name John.

What I noticed first about John’s Grill was that they had plate lunches, or a steam table if you will. The lunches include a meat with two sides such as rice, blackeye peas, dressing I think, something and something else.

As I said previously, my past has not been filled to the gills with wonderful hamburger steaks but I thought the smothered steak at John’s Grill in Nederland, Texas, looked rather appealing. For one matter, it was of a nice size. And to be quite honest it looked better than the beef tips and the non-existent chicken fried steak. I didn’t know if they sold out of the CFSes for the day or just temporarily. Ordinarily, I might have tried the CFS. A great CFS is like the heroin of steaks. But I came, I saw and I saw no CFS so I had the smothered hamburger steak. And Lord, Lord, Lord was that one hell of a good steak.

Without a doubt, I have to say that is the best hamburger-chopped-smothered-ground beef-steak I have ever had. I had it with a side of rice and brown gravy, blackeye peas and lots of pepper sauce, a so-so cold roll and a better than average glass of unsweetened iced tea. I don’t know what their secret was, whether it was in the gravy or in the steak or what but that steak just knocked my socks off. Well, it didn’t really knock my socks off because if that had happened it would be difficult to explain. But it was a fantastic-able smothered steak.

If you are ever around Nederland, Texas, around lunchtime, go inside John’s Grill and have their smothered steak. It will make you want to slap your grandma. Well, it probably won’t because you’re grandma might slap you back. (Or in the case of my grandma — long dead — she would have shot me with her .410. What a dead-eye that old woman was.) Oh well. You get the point.

As expected, the Prez and his apologized twisted matters ever which-a-ways today to spin the conclusions of the National Intelligence Estimate that showed Iran hasn’t worked on making nuclear weapons since 2003. Listening to Bush continue to his bid to sell the world on attacking Iran is like listening to a child who broke his brother’s toy in clear view of everyone and then flatly denies that he broke it. From Rush Limberger to Big Whiskers John Bolton all of Bush’s henchmen are trying to find an agenda under every rock which they hope will continue to confuse the citizenry. If the situation wasn’t so nauseating it would almost be funny.

One of the questions that many ask is, do we understand the Iranian issue well? Do we understand the consequences of Iran having a nuclear weapon, which it looks like they want to try achieve — to get. And the answer is, absolutely. — President George W. “Gee Dubya” Bush, May 2007

As much verbosity that our prez has heaped upon Iran and their alleged designs on making nuke-le-ar bombs, one would think old Amasneezingjob had a nuke ready to pull off the assembly line and fling it in a trebuchet towards the West post haste. So it strikes one as funny — and not in the “ha, ha, ha” sense — that our nation’s own intelligence community thinks that Iran stopped working on trying to build the better bomb several years ago and have not attempted to restart their supposed nuclear ambitions.

“We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program; we also assess with moderate-to-high confidence that Tehran at a minimum is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons,” says the preamble to a number of so-called “key judgments” derived from the latest National Intelligence Estimate regarding Iran and its nuclear intentions and capabilities.

The briefing paper goes on to say that as of mid-2007, the intelligence community has judged with “moderate confidence” that Tehran has not resumed its nuclear weapons program and it is unknown as to whether they intend to do so. But wait, here is even more of a bombshell, pardon the pun:

“Tehran’s decision to halt its nuclear weapons program suggests it is less determined to develop nuclear weapons than we have been judging since 2005.”

So what does all of this mean with respect to our president and his Boss Hog, Vice President Dick Cheney, running around the world making us think that World War III is just over the next hill due to Iran’s desire to become a nuclear power? Well, it depends on how the White House wants to spin it and spin it they will. They will say that their pushing the international community to apply pressure to Tehran is one reason for the success — but that should give us no solace, the White House is sure to point out. That is because George W. and Dick C. and Karl R. and Rush L. and Sean H. and Barney B. all want us to get into more war. More war feeds the war machine and puts the money into the pockets of those poor rich Republicans who can barely afford to feed their slaves, er, hired help, caviar. That is a very cynical statement, I realize, but after seeing the M.O. that delivered us into Baghdad one can only imagine what these evil men and women have up their sweaty, little sleeves.

In other words, what’s the big deal that we find out Iran isn’t making nuclear weapons? They did lust in their heart for those weapons just as Saddam once used poisonous gas against his people. Therefore, says the Bushites, Iran, like the late Saddam before, is guilty, guilty, guilty. Break out the shock and awe!

To which I say: Awe s**t.

Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat. Thus, I once again I am filled with wonder over usage of the word “gay,” as in “Don we now our gay apparel.”

According to Wiktionary:

“Gay is almost exclusively used today in the sense of homosexual and the related senses. The earlier uses of festive, colorful and bright can still be found, but have fallen out of fashion and are liable to be misunderstood, though if used in a way that suggests that a fashion is common among homosexuals, the two meanings do not necessarily contradict.”

Even in a relatively modern cultural phenomenon such as the “Flintstones,” the cartoon about stone-age people trapped in the suburban mid-1960s, was the word “gay” used to denote happy, upbeat, festive, or as the song says:

“When you’re with the Flintstones,
have a yabba dabba doo time,
a dabba doo time,
we’ll have a gay old time.”

Of course, Fred and Barney did spend quite a bit of time together …

Nonetheless, when one takes a form of the word “gay” to produce a noun such as “gaiety,” or the state of being happy, then the connotation is much less directed at homosexuality than gay as happiness or festivity. One would surmise, however, that gay people could experience gaiety as could straight people but it would seem the correct term to describe the state of homosexuality with respect to the word gay would be “gayness.” But then again, don’t ask me. Who do you think I am, William Safire?

So the usage of gay in the happy, upbeat sense seems very outmoded, antiquated, démodé, passé, moth-eaten, or even downright queer.

But alas gay in senses other than homosexuality is not nearly as obsolete as some of the words one may find on the page of “23 Obscure and Obsolete Words.” Here are a few examples:

“BOANTHROPY – A type of insanity in which a man thinks he is an ox.” Perhaps this type of insanity was more prevalent when oxen were more in vogue. Today, some insane people think they are Donald Trump, including Donald Trump.

“GROAK – To watch people silently while they are eating, hoping they will ask you to join them.” Although the term itself may be anachronistic, groaking is alive and well. To paraphrase Jimmy Carter: “I have groaked in my heart.”

“PERISTEROPHOBIA – Fear of pigeons.” Hmm, one who suffers from this phobia should stay well away from Union Station in Washington, D.C.

“SUPPEDANEUM – A foot support for crucifix victims.” And we are all quite thankful that this has fallen out of modern usage.

Oh well, I guess all words eventually end up on the shelf where they stay until we accidentally knock them off and they come crashing to the floor that is humanity. Is that profound, ironic, or just plain drivel? Yes. Yes it is.