Red Rubber
I almost always have a documentary playing from YouTube when I am resting my eyes for a few moments in the afternoon. SWMBO insists that sometimes I rest my eyes for a couple of hours while snoring? Lies.
I found this great channel called Slice Experts and was watching a documentary on Europe just before the First World War. Am I the only one who didn't know about the dark history of Belgium and the Belgium Congo? King Leopold convinces the leaders of Europe to gift him (personally!) 900,000 square miles in central Africa. He was going to use it to extract elephant ivory while helping those poor people become civilized. Then, an Englishman comes up with the idea to use a tube of rubber filled with air to revolutionise bicycles tires. The idea goes instantly viral, and everybody on the continent wants them! Guess where might be the only place you can find rubber trees in the Western Hemisphere? Yup, central Africa. Now, this could have been a great story. All that was required was an ounce of humanity. Billions are going to be generated. The king can enrich himself, the Congo gets modernized, schools, hospitals, roads, dams. The Belgians could have could have taught the Congolese to grow hops and brew beer? All noble pursuits. Especially the last one! That is not even close to what happened. What happened was they shipped in a small army of Belgian overseers. These were men trained in the South African Boer Wars! Village by village, they impose quotas, forced labor, beatings, widespread killings, and the quaint little habit of holding family members hostage, then hacking hands and feet off their children when production quotas were missed. Estimates are tough without written records, but the number I keep reading is at least two and as many as fifteen ... million killed!! For rubber. Not just rubber. The king did get rich, they didn't miss that part of my plan and he commissioned some of the most splendid architectural sites in Europe. Here are just three of the little projects completed with the proceeds of this genocide:
I have resisted the urge to publish pictures of children with their hands and feet hacked off so you can enjoy your cornflakes. You can find them easily if you are interested. This was probably a larger atrocity than the Holocaust, and nobody even talks about it. Oh, and the guy who invented the pneumatic bicycle tire? His name was Dunlop. You can't make this stuff up.
Glad I Could Help
It has become obvious to me that where ever I hold a news subscription, there will be enough wrong in their world, that I will feel the obligation to try to help them out. Since the Western Standard is actively supporting treason, I may have to rethink sending them a small stipend each month but in the meantime, the premier (of whom I am not a fan), needs my help. You would think she might know something about the oil business. Now this:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/northwest-alberta-unpaid-oil-tax-9.7018017?cmp=rss
Seems that Core Energy (of Alberta) just declared bankruptcy, leaving Big Lakes County (in Alberta) holding the bag for 8.7 million in unpaid land taxes. On the way out, they sold themselves to a U.S. company (also in Chapter 11) which will shield their executives from any liability. So, knowing nothing about the oil and gas industry, I am going to offer some savvy advice about managing this sector from farm country Ontario:
1) Oil is pumped using electricity. You control that, Madam Premier? If an operator is in arrears on their property tax bill, turn it off. They will pay their tax bill. You don't need to negotiate, you need not send three or four warnings! CLICK. Problem solved.
2) Apparently, this is not a one-off. Alberta municipalities are out nearly $300,000,000! How about setting up a site clean-up fund using this arrears money? I hear that's a big problem and this would be found money if you got it back? Give companies a 10% discount to get current within X months and put that money aside for the ones that leave you hanging. You get a couple of billion in there, who knows, perhaps you could fund some emergency room spending in Edmonton? You wouldn't have to leave a heart attack victim laying on the waiting room floor for eight hours?
Our Optimum Week
I suggested that this past month we would eat out of our larder and freezer? We did pretty well. Our fiscal month ends when my CIBC PC Insiders MasterCard statement comes out. On a solid suggestion from two buddies (DM & IFK) just before I retired, I run pretty much everything through that single card. Everything. The statement comes out, I close the books and pay the bill. It works for us. We did the entire month for $681 and that included $106 at Pet Value for pee pads and dog food. That's about 50% off our normal grocery spend! I can see some daylight in the pantry, but the freezer honestly still looks pretty stuffed. I think we will do it again in March. Bonus Redemption is today through Sunday at Zehr's, so if you have 250,000 (or a multiple of that), this might be your window. I still think you are better to spend points during the giant redemption events at Shoppers for non-perishables, but to each his own. Here is your list:
I Am Reading
Page after page of Google generated instructions on migrating from two antiquated Windows computers to a brand new shiny MacBook Pro. Well, not that new and not that shiny. It has been sitting in my dusty basement for two years after I bought it for mucho dinero January 5, 2024. Honestly, I have been afraid. Apple has the slickest migration software on the planet, but when it goes wrong, it just sits there. Like Budha. No messages, no error codes, no "back" button. "How do you like me now?' Apple help suggestions change for every frigging make, model and year of every device they have ever built. It is infuriating. Every help suggestion on every topic says: "try this" if this doesn't work: "try that" or "have you checked over here?" I will take forty more seconds of your time and give you an example. This week, I am trying to get my Google bookmarks across. It's really quite simple. I am to open Finder and click Go while holding the Option Key. After I Google where I might find the Option Key, I proceed. Then, I am to select Library and navigate to Application Support > Google > Chrome > Default. If I were foolish enough to have loaded Tahoe (which I was) it may have created a folder on my desktop called Users/Shared/Relocated Items. What I am supposed to do, should I find this magical folder, is apparently still a closely guarded secret at Apple Headquarters. Loading my shrink-wrapped Microsoft 365 bundle nearly brought me to tears. SWMBO took pity on me and came to find five different Microsoft executables all fighting it out in the background. You might think that under the DOWNLOADS icon you might find a status bar or something (a Window perhaps) showing that a download was running? Nope. I am getting there.
We Are Watching
Yellowstone (Season 3) on MTV - Getting silly. Watching Beth wreak havoc is the principal attraction. Three stars.
The Bluff on Prime - It's a pirate movie! It's not a bad pirate movie. Amazon spent some money on a first-rate cast, great special effects, and a cliche filled script that somehow feels fresh. Four stars.
The Leafs - I missed hockey. I am glad it is back on television.
A Clamour I Say
A buddy admitted that he sucked at homemade soup, so in deference to his wishes, here is a starter recipe that anybody can do. When I started watching YouTube videos about twenty years ago, there was this old guy that had a cooking channel. He'd open a can of stew, put it in a pot, heat it up and put it in a bowl. Add some crackers and maybe some green onions. It was funny. He was great. In his defense, his generation probably thought it was the height of gender bending for a man to venture into the kitchen and cook something. I have always appreciated kitchen hacks. The most famous one is perhaps chef Jean-Pierre turning a box of store purchased stock into the real deal, demi-glace and all. Twenty million views. This brings us to the tomato soup I made last week. Open a can of Campbells. Pot. Half a can of milk, half water, heat and serve in a bowl with crackers to SWMBO. For what's left in the pot do this:
That's grape tomatoes, yellow pepper, onion, garlic, Herb de Provence, basil and chili flakes. Drizzle with olive oil and broil in the toaster oven until softened and the edges turn black. Add that back into your leftover Campbell's and add a 14 oz. can of tomatoes (I used my preserved tomato sauce). Simmer for 30 minutes and hit it with the immersion blender. Add a splash of cream, stir and serve with croutons. You now have a soup that I would pay for in a restaurant. It's bright and fresh. It has a complex texture, and no one need know you started with half a can of lowly Campbell's soup. You are welcome.
Mitch & Maddie
Next Week
Venezuela - I let the dust settle
Chicago - Crime is way down. No need for ICE raids?
Keema Gajar - Ground beef with carrots
... and the ghost of Jobs willing, I will be coming to you from the new laptop ... m