A Crummy Commercial

source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g24WKKj0kA4 And the White Sox are already in last place: This game reminded me of a Jean Shepherd story about the White Sox: source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2e3Ov1lFyg The Old Man hated Lou Gehrig ?  I shudder to think what he said when The Pride Of The Yankees premiered !  And what would The Old Man have said when Munetaka Murakami (the big money slugger from Japan) hit a 9th inning homer into the 2nd deck in right field for the Sox on opening day 2026 ?  Just like Lou did  :) Lou Gehrig: source:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou_Gehrig Ted Lyons: source:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Lyons Zeke "Banana Nose" Bonura: source:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeke_Bonura   Munetaka Murakami:    wiki:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munetaka_Murakami   BTW, if any part of Jean's story is untrue I don't want to know it :) update: here is the story on the Shepherd WOR...

This was the input: from the side: kid sitting and soldering at a workbench, plans on wall. in front of him, posters and pennant on wall to his right, open small suitcase on floor with a skunk in it These were the results: This was the original McCloskey drawing from Homer Price: the skunk's name is Aroma, he rides up to Homer's room in that basket Anyway I got 20 Microsoft Rewards points by trying it. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

The new stand is working well - it was mentioned here: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2026/03/new-perch.html Then a couple things happened.  First there was the snow storm so I wasn't able to get any sap to boil.  The second was that I realized something.  I hadn't checked the calibration on the refractometer in a long time.  So I put a little distilled water (sap) on the slide and zeroed the reading. there is an adjustment screw under the round black cap above: ATC I was able to restart the boils after the ski experiment: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2026/03/red-ski-is-for-right-foot.html The last few boil results have been good (ideal brix is 66.7): boil    brix    evaporation in grams (roughly 1 percent) ----    ----    ----  29     66.5     44  30     67       47  31     67       46  32     65...

Henry Reed, Inc. is a kids book from 1958, written by Keith Robertson and illustrated by Robert McCloskey.    https://archive.org/details/henryreedinc00keit The McCloskey drawings are what make the book for me.  Mentioned him previously: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2024/06/homer-price.html I am pretty sure I read Henry Reed, Inc. in the 6th grade.  But maybe it was a similar book - I remember it because we had to do drawings with our book reports and mine was of a runaway balloon that had to be shot down like the one in Henry Reed, Inc. : It's a fun book - I noticed two items that would have passed me by in 1966-67, first sunspots: Since the book was written near the greatest sunspot peak in the radio era but I was just into radio at that point and hadn't known that.  Anyway it must have been the thing to blame everything on sunspots in the late 1950s. The second item was this: I remember hearing Jean Shepherd voice the same opinion so I don't know if it was c...

wood skis with bamboo poles !   Yes, they are two different cross country skis (wooden and from Finland, yet !) but they are the only ones I have with the old fashioned ankle-breaker bindings.  The skis I had as a kid had bindings kinda like these.  If you get them adjusted just right the ski will come off if you fall rather than mess up a leg.   The more modern cross country skis require what I think of as clown shoes with an extended sole in front.  There's a clamp on the ski that holds this extended sole down in front while letting the skier raise their heel in back - these aren't like the click in bindings and boots of downhill skis. I had dug a path through the snow to the storage building where I keep the skis so I thought I'd try getting out the skis to check on the maple sap.  I haven't been out to the trees for a week and a day.  Here's my path out there: Actually the snow drifts were highest by the house.  There were some bare patches by...

I'll admit it, somewhere along the line I started watching Rick and Morty .  It can be seen for free on the Adult Swim website.  Rick and Morty is a cartoon featuring 6 main characters, Rick Sanchez (mad scientist, wears a lab coat), Morty Smith (Rick's 14 year old grandson), Summer Smith (Rick's granddaughter, couple of years older than Morty), Jerry Smith (father of Morty and Summer), Beth Smith (daughter of Rick, mom of Morty and Summer) and Space Beth (it's a complicated story).  Anyway I finally decided to buy seasons 1 to 8 on DVD: 16 DVDs ! I've never seen this kind of DVD packaging before it has a spindle and a little button to hold them in place The Rick and Morty  show is heavily into the multiverse so this extended Smith family features Rick C137, the self proclaimed smartest being in the multiverse.  They live in a reality where the residents pronounce parmesan as par-me-zee-ann.  Rick and Morty go on adventures, usually involving crime, viole...

When I was a kid my Mom did almost all of the cooking.  Sometimes they'd grill stuff in the brief time that the Milwaukee area weather would cooperate - and my Dad would do that.  He also made pancakes on Sunday morning which eventually transitioned to waffles.  But on a Saturday night he would make the yellow box option: He would mix and raise the dough in an aluminum bowl that his Mom used.  All that extra aluminum as a kid from the Mirro products in our home - hope that wasn't bad for us !  Then using a little Crisco as the lubricant he'd spread out the raised dough onto a round pan with his hands.  The canned sauce was then applied - he'd also usually add clumps of raw hamburger.  Finally he'd finish by sprinkling the tin of Parmesan cheese over the pizza and bake.  That was my conception of pizza.  One time our family had a pizza revelation.  We went to see my Mom's friend in Pewaukee and had their pizza.  No Crisco on a round ...