Poke around; sometimes something delicious pops up - other times, not too savory!

Random thoughts on food, news  and health:

For the past  two years diners around this country have been salivating over Poke - a  simple dish from Hawaii that fits the bill for healthy/easy and fast. Enjoy as  a fish salad, or serve as an appetizer or main. Chunks of fresh raw fish (often tuna) with or without rice in a bowl  (some clever foodies offer Poke Burritos) are usually seasoned with soy sauce, sesame seeds, wasabi - your choice. Japanese seasonings do nicely.  Poke "shops" are appearing in the U.S. and Canada; Bloomberg wrote that all you need to open a business is an electrical outlet to cook the rice and a refrigeration unit for the fish”. Career change, anyone?

The armchair smarties are now commenting on Houston's lack of zoning restrictions contributing to the horrific water damage from Harvey. Duh! I always marveled at the stunning, large beautiful houses in that city - next to a gas station! Forget about unlimited pavement spreading its tentacles - non-stop - with no place for water to drain.

I'd rather hear comments about our greedy, self-serving narrow minded governor who, as attorney general of the state said big chemical companies didn't have to let anyone know what was in their storage tanks and changed Federal law to have his way. (and fill his pockets?) And how come we never hear about the Trump University case a few years back - all ready to go to trial in Texas - quashed/shelved whatever; and how nice that Abbott got a $25,000 campaign contribution from Das Trumpf when he ran for Governor.  Oh, Ann Richards, I miss you so much!

Health care is always on the table and resistance to an equitable plan for all often comes from well heeled people who are afraid they'll have to give something up. An excellent paper in the June 8, 2017 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine titled "Income and Cancer Overdiagnosis - When Too Much Care is Harmful" (authors H.G. Welch, MD and E. S. Fisher. MD) concluded that "the possibility that what may be given up is unnecessary care". Food for thought in a country that practices over screening, over diagnosis, over prescribing and yields higher morbidity and mortality rates than so many countries that spend less on health care for their citizens.

And I couldn't leave without a Trumpism dig - like his calling a senator in the corn growing state saying he loves "ethanol" - just before his son is supposed to testify at a senate hearing. And what about adviser Conway who claims Das Trumpf's number one trait is "humility"? And the crook who was added to Betsy the Etsycator's party - in charge of fraud? After having been convicted of really big bucks fraud at a private university?

Hot off the press - a Real news flash: Did you see the nice peaceful marchers in Charlottesville?

Our esteemed leader announced that the "peaceful marchers" in VA were protesting the removal of Lee's statue. And all that tumult was perpetrated by the bad guys on the "alt-left".

Yeah - Get your Tiki Torches, clubs, knives etc. and march through the streets shouting: "Jews will not replace us!" Really peaceful. Believe me!

And then he has the chutzpah to ask if G. Washington' or Jefferson statues will be the next targets.

How is this different from 1930's Hitler rallies - brown shirted young men marching through streets, breaking windows.......? 

BTW: in case you don't remember - when our Trumpf was taking care of daddy's apartment houses in Queens, NY - Black people were not allowed to rent any of their apartments. 

And - "daddy" -AKA Fred Trump, a member of the KKK - was arrested  as a young man when he paraded/caused damage as part of a KKK demonstration against the Police Force in NYC - because most policemen were Catholic!! 

I'm waiting for Congress to wake up and do something before it's too late.......

Some of my best friends are (Jews, Blacks, Muslims) - even my son-in law!!

Me racist? A bigot? Please - everybody - don't you know "my son in law is Jewish and my daughter converted?"
It only took two days for Das Trumpf to revise his original bland statement after the Virginia tragedy. Today his handlers made sure he had something to read - and stayed on text. Until the next fiasco!
With Herr Bannon and Herr Miller hanging around the White House - does anyone  really think he's changing his tune?  And how about his Hungarian Nazi - Gorka - who after the Mosque bombing said maybe it was fake - that the Mosque members might have bombed the place themselves so they could make the "whites" look bad. Dumplings and goulash never looked so unappetizing.

By the way - a large gathering of baboons  is called a "troop" - not a "congress". The erroneous item circulating online is an insult to these animals. (Baboons are much smarter than many members of Congress)

Tomorrow will be better?

Anything to take the Russia story out of the news - even nuclear war!

Not "loving" "88" today.  More frightened than loving. Warlike words from New Jersey - what happened to his golf game/vacation?
But, as usual, Das Trumpf  got what he wanted - ATTENTION ! Here and all over the world.

Changing the subject: Strawberries - love them and it seems that there are some companies that love them so much they include them on their food labels - even though there's no sign/smell of the berries in sight. Somebody is suing Annie's because their "Summer Strawberry Organic Bunny Fruit Snack" offers no sign of berries - not even passing through. (What the "snack" does have: tapioca and sugar!)
And Yoplait is selling a  strawberry flavor "custard" yogurt - with not a sign of the berries, flavor derivative or even smell in the container.
"Fake news" - or try "fake" strawberries! "Fake"is contagious. Caveat Emptor!

On the other side of strawberry land - it seems that Japanese scientists have discovered how to make ice cream that doesn't melt quickly. It was an accidental discovery; they found that liquid polyphenol extracted from STRAWBERRIES! had properties that made it difficult for water and  oil to separate. Eureka! How about adding this to ice cream? Love those scientists;  they created popsicles/pops with the added extract and the pops held their shape for three hours.

"Honest Abe" didn't have a telephone

But lucky for us, Das Trumpf can use the phone to report all the wonderful - really wonderful -  the best ever, calls announcing his greatness - in a very BIGLY sense.
(Thank you Washington Post for the January transcripts with Mexican President and Australian Prime Minister) added to the make believe Boy Scout phone calls and other whoppers.
And the pols in Congress continue to rest on their rears - do I hear a peep?
What to do?

Visit your favorite bartender and have him/her whip up a delicious Frozecco (maybe with sliced strawberries thrown in!)
Cheers!