Human Obedience School
Best Laid Plans
So, I sort of got hoisted on my own petard last week. Nothing too exciting for us in any flyer, but I had that huge birthday offer from Shoppers. Spend $50 for 20K in points? That's a straight 40% off. So, I spent $50.18, got milk and cream for SWMBO and planned to hunker down until Thursday. Then I got a craving for coleslaw. All bets were off. Cabbage was not on sale anywhere and they were calling three pounds of carrots for $3.50 a deal. Jeesh. So for $6,99 a pound (!) I bought a little cabbage along with those irradiated naturally imperfect mutant carrots for $6. I spent Saturday afternoon making a big tub of coleslaw and Sunday making a two 6 x 9's of cabbage casserole. The slaw was acceptable; the casserole was excellent. The recipe is below. A large dollop of sour cream doesn't hurt.
Black Gold ... Texas Tea
Let talk petroleum for a moment, shall we? Trying to understand the interplay between exploration, drilling, refining, delivery & pricing is difficult. then you need to add politics. I found Mr. Global on TicTok about a year ago. Although an American, he speaks to both sides of the border, exposing the lies and half-truths surrounding this complex issue. He shows you empirical evidence, charts and excerpts from trade journals. He identifies those promoting misinformation on this topic, regardless of their far-left or far-right affiliations. I am pretty sure politicians of all stripes hate this guy, which puts him high on my Christmas Card list. What I have learned from him lately:
1) Canada needs pipelines. To Quebec for internal delivery. To the west coast to expand our markets. The Keystone XL pipeline was to run 1900 kilometers from Hardisty, Alberta to Steele City, Nebraska. That would have connected us to a major U.S. pipeline hub and allowed us to move 830,000 barrels daily to the gulf coast refineries. Our oil would have global reach from there. We are not giving the Americans a discount on our crude oil. We can only delivery "locally" so we have limited bargaining power. Below is a picture of our somewhat embarrassing national pipeline infrastructure. Justin's dad had a plan. He formed Petro-Canada and developed a national crude oil strategy. It included pipelines. Then big oil and the Alberta conservatives started a whole campaign against it. "Let the eastern bastards freeze in the dark" Anyone old enough to remember that? Early eighties.
2) There are already folks in the U.S. (Connecticut) paying 30 cents / kilowatt hour for electricity generated by natural gas. There are already folks in the U.S. (Maryland) paying $700 a month to heat their homes with natural gas. Mr. Global sees prices rising steadily. The right would have us believe it is those DEI policies forcing Esso to hire all those trans oil rig workers in Texas. Ya, that's not a thing. Check him out:
Flyers & Offers
Oh course, now that I am on my high horse about boycotting American products, they have great deals on Florida orange juice and California Seaquest products. I am going to stay strong. They can stuff it. The flyers were pretty average this week with our normal deals on chicken and pork. The online site this week from Optimum was kind of weird? They had a new Digital Offer section exclusive for Shoppers. It was trash. The main body of the display for Zehr's was also pretty much bereft of deals. What I did find funny was the Continuity Offers that give us the biggest weekly bang were buried in the Digital Offers? I suspect they are not getting the views in there that they would like, so they are playing hide the baloney. I gave you a pretty big list but it's only because I showed you the continuity offers. If you get near one, go for it, but I would suggest you go easy this week if you can? It's a whole new month next week and a whole new list of continuity offers. Save your ammo. Here's your list:
Cabbage Casserole
In ancient Greece, what we might now call a one-pan meal was called kuathion. Scholars believe that Latin speakers in medieval times adopted that word as cattia, meaning "saucepan". In Provence, dishes like kuathion are called "little" because of simplicity, not size. Saucepans are "cassa". Little saucepan? Casserole. Whew. Cabbage rolls are thing in our family. Mom always added sauerkraut. You actually don't need the "roll" part to have exactly the same taste. Ground meat, rice, cabbage and tomato sauce are just as happy in a less laterally constrained environment. Made that up myself!!
What I'm Reading
Keith Laumer
What We Are Watching
Unforgiven on Britbox - Off to a good start
The Penguin on Prime - Colin Farrell is a marvel
Silo Season Two on Apple TV - It's hard to take Steve Zhan seriously
Shoresy Season Three - SWMBO has had enough. I cackle like a lunatic
In Case You Care
Remember to vote? Remember the Green Belt land grab for his billionaire friends which didn't work. Remember the Science Center land grab for his billionaire friends which did? Remember how happy he was that Trump won before there was any talk of tariffs? Now he's got that Not For Sale hat on, but we remember. He is hoping you won't. He is hoping you will stay home.
Maddie has SWMBO and I on a new obedience program. She has me running around hand feeding her while offering helpful suggestion on sitting and being good. She has SWMBO hand stitching the holes she has ripped in her bed so as to extract little balls of fluff which are scattered about the house or found in her turds.
Mitch & Maddie