I can agree with getting rid of the penny, but that doesn’t go far enough. It currently costs 2 cents to make each penny, and 14 cents to make each nickel. Stop making the 1 cent denomination of coin, but use the same copper coated zinc coin (current penny) to make the “new” Copper Nickel. That way the new copper nickel would only cost 2 cents each to make, thereby saving the Government 12 cents for each new nickel.

Heck, make the new copper nickel slightly larger than the current penny, so that there would be less confusion between the old copper penny and the new copper nickel. And changing the size of the current penny slightly, making it a little larger, maybe 3 cents extra for a little more copper. Even if you raised the production cost by 2 cents, you would be saving 10 cents on each new copper nickel.

Now that I think about it, why coat the new coin with copper? You could just use Zinc for the new “Zinc Nickel.”

And AI puts in his “2 cents”: “Yes, a completely zinc coin is technically possible, but it’s not common practice due to concerns about wear and tear as pure zinc is relatively soft; however, the US penny is essentially a “zinc coin” as it’s made of almost entirely zinc with a thin copper plating, meaning the majority of the coin’s material is zinc.“

The current U.S. Nickel is 75% copper, coated with 25% nickel, so… why not use a nickel plated zinc coin?

And because AI can’t keep her mouth shut: “A “nickel plated zinc coin” refers to a coin where the primary metal is zinc, but it has a thin outer layer of nickel plating, giving it the appearance and feel of a traditional nickel coin, while being lighter and potentially cheaper to produce; this is sometimes considered as a potential alternative material for coins in some countries, offering similar aesthetics with different metal composition.“

Do we have any vending machines, telephones or other coinage operated machines that use nickels? If not, then changing the size and weight of a nickel to that of the current copper coated zinc penny is easily possible.

I did not realize how easy it would be to change our current coinage and cut production costs drastically. Our current nickel is 75% copper. What’s up with that? If you can coat zinc with copper to make a penny, you could make a copper nickel the same way. Or, can you coat zinc with nickel, and it be cheaper to produce a nickel?

Okay, the President does not control the U.S. Treasury which controls the United States Mint, so he can suggest, but not mandate. Still this would probably be a good idea for Congress to get the ball rolling and make a change within two years.

When Tombstones Were Made of Zinc

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Why in the fuck dick yourself up like that?

I almost always follow that comment or thought, by adding the comment, “Life is painful enough without me going out and finding more pain by having a tattoo.” But, I also think of at least two examples of what I would have called, “beautiful blonds,” who had large black tattoos on their bodies. It has been several years ago but I was having lunch at “Thai Pepper” near the FSU Campus, and I was facing the cash register, so I was watching a steady stream of customers as they came up to pay for their meals. At some point there was “the beautiful blond” who came up in line. She was standing about 15 feet, directly in front of me, with her profile facing to my right. As I looked at her my eye did a laser focus upon the side of her lower leg, just below her knee, where she had a large, black, intricate tattoo. It wasn’t distinctively recognizable and reminded me of a large dark bruise on her leg. And, I don’t care how beautiful a blonde, brunette or black haired woman may be if she had a large bruise on her leg, or arm, or neck, or elsewhere that is visible, it isn’t attractive. *Which reminds me of a thought that I always have when I see a woman with an actual bruise on her leg or arm, especially if there are a couple of small bruises that look like a hand. Did her husband or boyfriend hit her?

I was checking in for my appointment with Dr. Norem last time and the nurse taking my information had a tattoo on her neck. It was just two black dots about two inches apart. I say dots, but they were about the size of the width of a rubber eraser on a pencil. My curiosity got the better of me and I asked her what it was. She said that they were vampire bite marks. It must have been how her face changed that made me ask if she had ever regretted having the tattoo. It appeared to be an odd question and she responded with “no.” I think I said that I had first thought it was missing the Smiley Face mouth.

The thought just came to me if she could have changed the color from black to red dots, representing blood. The AI response was:

“Yes, you can tattoo color over an existing black ink tattoo, but it’s important to know that achieving vibrant colors over black ink can be challenging and often requires pre-fading the black tattoo with a laser to achieve the best results, especially for brighter colors; consult with an experienced tattoo artist to discuss your options and the potential limitations.“

In another vignette, I had gone to the First Citizens Bank at Westwood Shopping Center to cash a check. It was a short wait, because no one was ahead of me in line and the teller finished her assistance of the person ahead of me. I walked up to the counter and presented my check, with my NC driver’s license, and told her, “My First Citizens account number is written in the bottom left of the check.” Since coming to Fayetteville in 1995, I have continued to use my credit union account for my necessary checking and have always written my FC# on my credit union checks. I guess that is one reason why I have my FC# memorized, and know that one day, when I forget that number, it will be a sign of my decline in my old age. But, not yet. And I have a trick for remembering my NC Driver’s License # and my latest telephone number. I do remember my Social Security Number, but I don’t have any trick for that.

She asked if I wanted to cash the check and I responded, “Yes.” As I watched her, I noticed a small 3 star tattoo on her hand, near the crook in the hand were the thumb and index fingers come together. I asked, “Does that tattoo mean something.” She told me that it was a symbol that was on every page of the Harry Potter books. She then went on to explain that she loved to read, and that set me off. I asked if she was aware of “Little Lending Libraries” where you could “take a book,” and sometime later should “leave a book.” She thought that was an exciting idea. But, then I also said that the Cumberland County Library was supposed to have it’s quarterly book sale in about a week. It was actually about three weeks, and now is 13 days on February 21st. *I’m thinking I might stop in to cash another check some time in about a week and see if she is still interested in the Library Book Sale.

I don’t care if you dress her in pink and put a tutu on her, she’s still a hoss.

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As is my nature, it finally came to me that with all the good food that I have shown on this site, I should also show some of the things I’ve either eaten, or made, and for some reason, they just didn’t work out.

I’ve written about the Speckled Butter Beans, Yellow Eye Beans & October Beans elsewhere. I bought all three of these beans at Cara’s Corner at the WNC Farmers’ Market. I had never heard of them, nor tried them. All three were a disappointment. The Yellow Eye Beans were reminiscent of Black Eyed Peas in flavor but just weren’t as flavorful. The Speckled Butter Beans turned out too salty and the October Beans ended up reminding me of Pintos. No reason to fix October Beans when I could buy canned Pintos.

Several years ago when I was passing through Macon, Georgia I stopped in a “Ole Times Country Buffet” for lunch. One of the items I tried were called “Zipper” Peas (or that is what the waitress thought their name was). These peas were extremely good flavored for my first helping, but the second helping not so much. Don’t know why.

I made a lentil soup last night. It was a vegetarian version with fennel & Rosemary, but just wasn’t tasty to me. It was much better with the Spicy Chili Crisp.

I included a picture of one of the “To Be the One” pizzas that I had at “Sticks-n-Stones” in Greensboro, North Carolina. But if you look at it closely you should note the large uneven crust that circles the sauce. I’ve had great pizzas there, but this was one of a few that failed, and I think that Elvis may have left the building. A shame!

I tried Burrata and it just didn’t float my boat. But then Mozzarella isn’t anything to write home about either.

There is a picture of a Mexican Salad in a glass cup. It had all the things that I like, like corn, black olives, sour cream, lettuce, tomato & Bell pepper. Why oh why didn’t it work? I don’t know. But, maybe with the right sauce this might be a winner.

I was looking online and saw a picture that captivated my interest from the first moment. I was attracted to the seared scallops, the bacon bits, and the bright green garden peas. I think I had tracked down the cookbook that the photo came from and had bought it in the first 15 minutes. I even found the recipe online and had fixed it before the book arrived. The original recipe called for Mint, but I would prefer Tarragon. *I’ve also shown my version and there is hope. I added a red cabbage & corn side, a polenta waffle and some grape tomatoes. The cabbage & corn needed something, maybe vinegar & mayo, with sweetener.

The mustard sauce shown above included some flour with the yellow mustard. This didn’t work, but sometime later, I left out the flour, and may have added sweetener & even horseradish and it worked on steamed cabbage.

I had left over rotisserie chicken and tried the Fireside Stew. Just a basic stew, but not special. *The one good thing I got from this was that the chef mentioned in a video to keep all the scraps of onion, carrots & celery to add to the homemade chicken stock. I’ve been freezing these and may make some more stock at home in a week or so.

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Things that do work:

Steamed Cabbage with mustard sauce.
Steamed Cabbage with Asian flavoring.

Nice Thought

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The following images were from three different days of pizza at Sticks-n-Stones Pizza in Greensboro, North Carolina. These were all their Margherita Style pizzas which they call “To Be The One.” I also added Jalapeno peppers (not pickled).

Two of the three had really good flavor, but the first one shown was lackluster. One sign of the poor pizza was the irregularity of the outside crust. Look at that. Why would I want all that barren crust? I think if you were to determine the ratio of sauce to barren crust at least a third, if not more of the bad pizza had no sauce. I don’t want to pay for pizza and just get crust. The other thing might be less noticeable. I think they used cheddar cheese, or some yellow/orange cheese on the poor pizza. *Unfortunately, the last two pizzas I have had at Sticks-n-Stones have been nothing to write home about. And, since I have had a bunch of really good pizzas. The kind I said as I was eating them, “Now that’s a really good pizza,” I know a good pizza from a poor one.

“from crackers to slipperozin to dropsy to snide“

This phrase or something like it was what I heard a couple of friends saying to each other years ago, in high school. I didn’t question them further, but just filed it away. My impression, as they quoted this phrase back and forth to each other, was that it sounded like a sports announcer following the path of a ball (in baseball) from player to player as they threw the ball around the bases. I guess it should be written with some caps (for the names) as, “From Crackers, to Slipperozin, to Dropsy, to Snide.” And I guess you should expect someone to say, “and they’re out,” to complete the phrase.

So I had not thought about this phrase for many years, although it would come to me sporadically through the years. And tonight, because it is still a little before midnight, the phrase came to me again while I was in my bathroom. As far as I can tell, there is nothing that triggered me thinking about the phrase again.

This is an odd night because I usually do not go to bed this early. I probably went to bed before 9 pm, and then awoke to go to the bathroom. But, tonight after I thought of this phrase and repeated it to myself, I decided to google it to see if there was actually a phrase similar to this out in the Public view.

Almost immediately I realized the what sounded like “slipperozin” might be spelled differently, but I valiantly pressed on. The next question that came to mind was, “Does the phrase start with ‘from Crackers,’ or is it just ‘crackers to slipperozin.”

To my surprise the phrase, or something like it, actually came up in my Google search. And another comforting thought was that I saw “Mad Magazine” referenced in one of the search results.

Yes, “Mad Magazine” would fit. The two friends were also interested in motorcycles and I would hear them talking about a “Moto Guzzi.” And for the longest time, I thought the “Moto Guzzi” was just a made up name they had come up with. It wasn’t, it’s not.

And to solidify their quirkiness, these two were part of an intricate plot to confuse an elderly school librarian. Now this remembrance I was just reminded of recently. I came across a very old “high school reunion” pamphlet. In it, one of the above perpetrators recounted the group antics that got them all suspended from library use for a year. Seems that about five boys took it upon themselves to check out over a hundred books, using various names (some made up), over a short period of time… and then to finish the prank they brought all the books back in at the same time. The result was the confusion of the library staff, and the suspension of the boys.

Oh my gosh, this search just took an odd turn. “Magersfontein Lugg is a fictional character in the Albert Campion novels, written by Margery Allingham (1904-1966). Lugg, in The Fashion in Shrouds (originally published in 1938), is the originator of the curious sentence, “It’s crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide”. Mad Magazine just hijacked it.” — and another —  which is hardboiled British slang for “it’s crazy to bribe a police officer with counterfeit money.” However, this comes across as a total Word Salad in American English, and was used as a Running Gag in MAD for many years.

Without looking it up further, Campion was a fictional British aristocrat that had sleuthing tendencies.

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“It’s crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide.”

The sentence means, “It’s insane to try and bribe a policeman with fake money.” But no one knew that. It was just a funny-sounding phrase that a Mad writer discovered in a British gumshoe novel. Margery Allingham wrote a series of books featuring detective Albert Campion. His trusty sidekick was Magersfontein Lugg, a colorful character who coined the phrase in one of the stories.

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“It’s crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide.”

— meaning —

“It’s insane to try and bribe a policeman with fake money.”

• Chinese Stir Fry Green Beans
• Chinese Buffet Green Beans
• Chinese Garlic Green Beans
• Chinese Buffet Green Beans

[NOTE]: I have first been steaming the green beans from 7 to 10 minutes, and then putting them in the wok in a little Toasted Sesame Oil. The idea is to tenderize the beans before you actually crisp them up on the outside.

As they fry, I add some soy sauce, garlic powder, and white sesame seeds. I might add a little ground ginger also. Just thought, I have’t tried red pepper flakes yet. Maybe lemon juice and zest? And, a little sweetener.

I had some of these with a sirloin hamburger, and also had Asian Steamed Cabbage (just add the flavorings for Asian Cucumber Salad, except for the vinegar, although…). Would go well with rotisserie chicken, or a pork chop. *I might add them as a side to my stir fry, but I usually have way too much stir fry and don’t need anything else. [end NOTE]

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I recently bought some green beans at Food Lion and a couple of days later I looked and about a third of the beans had some kind of whitish moldy growth on them. Threw them out. But a day or so ago, I saw some good looking green beans at the IGA and bought them. They appeared to be cheaper than the fancily packaged versions, and all looked good.

I was browsing the Web and happened to see this photo of a soup. I immediately said to myself, “That’s lentils.” And after I clicked on the image I was taken to a page with the title, “Red Lentil Soup Recipe with Vegetables.”

How many times have I made a lentil soup/stew that looked like this? A bunch, and, the lentils, almost always cook down to this “baby shit” color. My simple recipe is to use Andouille Sausage, mixed lentils (red, green, black), carrots, onions, hot pepper flakes (or fresh hot peppers) and some type of greens (Dandelion, Parsley, Chard) and chicken broth. A basic recipe that works. I love the earthy flavor of the lentils. I like the spiciness of the Andouille and other sausages, like Polska Kielbasa or even Hot Italian Sausage do not quite rise to the level.

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Lemony Lentil Vegetable Soup with Rosemary & Fennel

*I made this, in the early morning, and ate two helpings. It is vegetarian. It looks really good. Nothing to write home about. I did try it with the Spicy Chili Crisp and it did taste much better, but It wouldn’t be worth the trouble, or the extra cost of the ingredients, each time. Of note, it didn’t increase my blood sugar, or not that much. Yesterday’s “resting” was 104 (which is low for me), and this morning it was 125 (still good for me), and my weight had gone up to 251.2 (after about seven days below 250).

Ingredients & Instructions

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Beef & Lentil Soup