The Magic Bus in Fremont

By Jack Brummet

I spotted this amazing adver-bus this afternoon, parked on Fremont Avenue in Fremont/Seattle. It looks like an animal crackers box without the string. . .

click to enlarge

detail:

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ATIT Reheated (from 2008): John McCain tells ATIT "OK. I drilled Vicki Iseman. So what?"

By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Ed.


In an interview today with All This Is That's national affairs editor, Pablo Fanques, Senator John McCain at first mocked the New York Times recent revelations about a possible relationship he had had with the lobbyist Vicki Iseman.

Fanques: So is there any whiff of truth to the story?

Sen. McCain: Sure, I guess there's a whiff of truth. She is a woman, and a good looking woman. It's more convenient to pin her on me than it would be a male lobbyist. That's for sure. Every person on the hill deals with lobbyists.

Fanques: But the New York Times also alludes to something deeper than a drink with a lobbyist.

Sen. McCain: Sure they do. Have you read the 'paper lately? They allude to a lot of things. And the Times has a stake in getting their boy Obama elected. They shredded Hillary Clinton, and now they're coming after me.

Fanques: But that still doesn't really answer my question.

Sen. McCain: But isn't this interview supposed to be about how I would support the arts after I'm elected?

Fanques: It is, indeed. But this seems a little more important.

Sen. McCain: Than what?! This is a f***ing sideshow you're running here. Let's talk about The Issues.

Fanques: We are. This has become the issue.

Sen. McCain: Look. I've become a threat to the Democrats and to the New York Times. So you drag up a ten year old story and start flogging it. It's not relevant to the campaign.

Fanques: So just what WAS your relationship with Ms. Iseman?

Sen. McCain: I think I explained that. Several times this week.

Fanques: But the New York Times and some of your staffers seem to think otherwise.

Sen. McCain: You're talking about Pravda here. A paper that is ashamed of the United States. And some traitor staff members who will be rapidly disposed of. Pardon me for ending that sentence with a preposition.

Fanques: But Senator, you've explained that you did some business with a lobbyist. Now, it seems, you need to explain the accusations that have been lodged against you about having a romantic relationship with Ms.Iseman.

Sen. McCain: Really. OK. I drilled Vicki Iseman. So what? Do I get the same pass you gave Slick Willy? Do I get the same pass you've been giving Obama and Hillary?

Fanques: Pass? I don't recall hearing these sorts of allegations against them?

Sen. McCain: Then you have your head in the sand. Because it's all out there. This interview is over. [click].

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Drive, Monkey, Drive!

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Drawing: Self-portrait

By Jack Brummet

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The northern lights as seen last night from the International Space Station

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Alien Lore: Tom Waits on Aliens

By Jack Brummet, Alien Lore Ed.

"My dad was a radio expert in the army, and in addition to bicycle repair, he had me building my own radios and sending away for kits and creating my own little shortwave radios. And I picked up things when I was a child that I swore were extra-terrestrial, and maintain to this day that I made contact, or at least I was on the receiving end of a relationship with an extra-terrestrial but was unable to communicate with him because my radio couldn’t transmit...... It was a language that did not exist. It was not Russian, I was picking up Russia and Poland and Hungary and China— It was a language, but it was not from around here. And here I was unable to transmit. On earth, we never acknowledge that they exist because it doesn’t fit into our beliefs about the creation of the universe. God made the earth in seven days, then he rested. The idea that there would be creatures out there. The government is apparently keeping creatures they found, and in top secret bunkers in New Mexico, never to be viewed by the public. I believe that." [from a conversation with Jim Jarmusch recorded in 1992]

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Cooking with Jack: Irish Stew for St. Patrick's Day

By Jack Brummet

• 2 1/2 lb. lean beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch cubes** (Or better yet, 2 1/2 pounds lamb shoulder)
• [a lot of Irish Stew recipes use bacon, I don't, but feel free]
• 3 tablespoons oil, divided
• 2 tablespoons AP flour
• 1 teaspoons salt and ground black pepper to taste
• 1 healthy pinch cayenne or 1/2 tsp. Tabasco
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 cups stout 
• 1 sprig fresh thyme (a teaspoon dried is OK)
• 2 1/2 cups carrot, cut in thirds
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley for garnish

1. Toss meat with 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil. 
2. In another bowl, mix the flour, salt, pepper, and cayenne. Dredge the beef in the flour.
3. Heat 2 TBS oil oil in a cast iron skillet or Dutch oven on medium-high heat. Add the beef, and brown on all sides. 
4. Add onions and garlic and lower the heat to medium, cover, and cook for 5 minutes.
5. Pour 1/2 cup of the beer into the pan, and as it begins to boil, use a wooden spoon to loosen the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. 
6. Pour in the other cup and a half of beer and add the thyme, and tomato paste. 
7. Lower heat to a slow simmer, cover and cook for 1 hour 30 minutes (stirring once in a while). 
8. Add the carrots and cook another half hour to 45 minutes.
9. Check seasoning and garnish with chopped parsley.
10. If you want, serve with boiled or roasted potatoes (don't cook them in the stew). 

**Note: With beef, use chuck. Other lean cuts like, say, sirloin, just don't break down right and you end up with these tight little nuggets rather than tender. chunks But your own chuck and cube it yourself rather than buy the unknown cut in generic supermarket "stew meat." For lamb, for the same reasons, use lamb shoulder.

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When Irish Eyes Are Smiling (Frank Zappa version)

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Alien Lore - How to report a UFO

A P.S.A. video from the Mutual UFO Network:

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Poem: Into The Wind

By Jack Brummet



I watch three herring gulls
Fly South into the wind
And they're losing ground,

Tumbling and righting themselves
In the shifting currents
Scouring the air.

It's not that they want
To migrate South
So much as not go North.

Something in the gull's hearts
Tells them to stay clear
Of Ketchikan, Skagway, and Nome.
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Poem: The Quest

By Jack Brummet

It’s all one story—
                           A ragged

                                        shape-shifting tale

Of incredible coherence and constance,
                                                           encompassing all you know,
                                                           all you don’t know you know,
                                                           and all you one day will know.
There is more
                     To be

                              seen,

                              tasted,

                              heard,

                              and felt
                                           than can ever be known or told.

Our myths flourish and spread,
Person to person,

And the mysteries of the seas and skies and stars
Fill our collective conscience

With mystical scenes,
Quests, and tales of greatness.

These myths, tales, and fables
Cannot be invented, ordered, or denied.

When you strip away

The stage flats, makeup, and costumes,

It’s all one story
Starring our private heroes and dreams.
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Drawing: Faces No. 1039 - The Benghazi Investigators

By Jack Brummet

[Scribe on India Ink scratchboard; second image digitally reversed - click to enlarge]

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