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Thoughts and suggestions about varied topics

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A Tale of a Different Bumper

So, you finally bought that new car. How long was it before someone dinged it in a parking lot? Was it some inconsiderate slob who didn’t pay much attention to how close he/she parked and opened the door too fast and too hard and too far? Or was it someone pulling in or out of a space turning too soon and dragging a bumper down the side of your vehicle?

Washing my wife’s car the other day, I discovered six spots where someone had either scraped or dented the car. None of the offenders had the courtesy to leave a note for her saying they were even sorry. Maybe they didn’t hear the crunch with the cell phone stuffed in their ears?

            Just last week I had the occasion to be in the bank (getting a new credit card because someone needed to steal my money instead of just getting a job, but that’s another story). I was in the bank for no more than 20 minutes and when I came out someone had managed to squash the corner of my rear bumper in by about six inches. They were too lazy, or too busy or just plain too irresponsible to walk inside and inquire as to who owned the car. There were only four people in the bank at the time. It wouldn’t have been difficult to determine who owned it. I suppose whoever did it just assumed that if I could afford a new car I could also afford the eight hundred dollars for a new bumper on my new car. Rude, and just plain irresponsible people seem to be fast becoming the norm.

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On PizzAmore and Life.

My response when asked why I do what I do

Why do I do the things I do? Well, I built my house the way I did because it was an economical way to build it. 32 years ago nobody seemed all that worried about how they heated their homes. We’d been through the artificial oil shortage of the 70’s and most folks had tossed wood stoves on the dump when they switched back to oil. Those same people suggested that heating a home in Maine with the sun was just plain silly.  That was just one reason do build a solar house. If someone says it’s a bad idea I'm pretty sure to go ahead and try it. Now those folks are asking lots of questions about how we did it and how they might be able to retrofit their own places to be more efficient. The combination of passive solar and a masonry heater, backed up with oil heat allow us the opportunity to shift easily from one source to another or between all three, and to be comfortable at the same time.

When a friend asked if I wanted to help him build a wood-fires pizza oven that was all I needed to begin research into the idea. Having built one at his house, building another here at our house was much easier. The refractory work that makes up the internal parts of the oven go together easily once you have a concept of how high temperature brick is different from regular building bricks. After the interior of an oven is complete the exterior becomes a palette to practice your own artistic talents. We chose Monson slate for the exterior. It matched what we used throughout the house that we’ve built over the 32 years and was much less expensive than planed slate, which ends up looking like it was manufactured in a factory. The natural faults of rough slate only enhance the appearance of an outdoor oven here in the woods of central Maine.

But that only answers the question of why I built a house and a pizza oven. The other reason for having a wood-fired oven in the front or back yard is to meet new people and expand your own knowledge of how others view the world. Personally, I really enjoy seeing people experience something new in their lives. Life has become so predictable now. No matter what big box store you enter, they look alike the world over. Chain restaurants serve predictable food that tastes the same no matter where you are. While that’s ok if all you want is to feed your body, it doesn’t begin to feed the soul. We must try new things, whether experiences or food. If we do the same things all the time and eat the same foods all the time after a while we’re only eating to feed out bodies and doing things just to keep busy. Now that we’ve had the oven for over 6 months and served food from it about many times I've discovered that the food, while good, is only half the fun. It’s great when people visit each other while waiting for the next pie to come out, and even better when they come in where I'm cooking, usually one at a time, to ask questions and feel the dough. Who would have thought that such a thing would be interesting? Many people have commented that they never imagined that whole-grain dough could be so smooth, fine and tasty. Trying new dough recipes and adding various herbs to them to see how they taste with different toppings is always an adventure. Sometimes a combination doesn’t work. Most of the time even the most outrageous combinations are really interesting. When I first put together a marmalade/ pulled pork topping on spinach crust with oregano some people made a face that indicated they thought that rather odd, but the sweet marmalade over the savory herb, mixed with the smokiness of the pork turns out to be a perennial winner no matter who’s here to eat pizza.

We try to make at least one new combination at each session. The latest was a ricotta cheese over spinach multi-grain crust with shrimp scampi and asparagus. The succulent Maine shrimp marinated in lime juice and Bartlett Maine Estate Winery’s Honey Mead wine and then sautéed at 900 degrees for less that a minute in the oven before being used as a topping was terrific – at least that was the word from the tasting floor.

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On Summertime in Vacationland

Ramblings on the season 

June 7, 2008. It’s nearly the official start of summer here in Central Maine. Ah – Vacationland. When you happen, as we do, to live in Vacationland it’s sometimes difficult to decide just what activity to attend. With all the fairs and festivals in the State sometimes it’s easier to just stay home and putter in the garden. 

Sitting outside with a book and a glass of iced tea always sounds good, until the blackflies and mosquitoes start bothering. Yes-we could just smear on the bug dope and brave them. Just a little breeze will usually make them bearable, but the air is calm today and the humidity left over from yesterday’s steady rain has all the bugs very active. A rocking chair by the window maybe. Why, it’s like being at camp all year long. No surprise that people from all over the world want to be here, despite the insects in summer and cold in winter. Face it – neither is so bad as ‘normal’ life elsewhere. Our worst weather only lasts a short while and then the sky clears and it’s beautiful again.

            Today is a quilt festival in Waterville, in support of cancer research. Maybe we’ll go see that? The streets of Belfast are decorated with interactive art that will surely amuse and intrigue. That will be in place all summer long so maybe a special trip today just makes no sense at $4.00/gallon. But then, the people who went to all that work to produce amusements should be rewarded by visitors. And gee, the restaurants in Belfast are first-rate.

            Then there are all those microbreweries and pubs to try. What to do? What to do?

            Maine is a great place to be any time of the year. Come on up and take advantage of our seasons and our interesting events, restaurants and places to stay. If you're not sure what’s going on there’s always the Internet or you can just call us and ask what’s up. Maybe PizzAmore!           

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On politics

Doesn't much seem to matter how big or small the arena of politics. It would seem that there's a dedicated contingency whose sole purpose is to hold back progress while spending inordinate amounts of time, energy and money on things that only matter to a few individuals. Meanwhile the more important issues go by the wayside in the frenzy to "fix" things that are not in the least broken. Have you taken the time to participate in your Town's Government? Perhaps if you did then the same people who have run things by default for so long might be pushed to the fringes where they belong, to allow the visionaries to get your town pointed towards the future. That doesn't mean condos and shopping centers. It might just mean a solid infrastructure to build on. The people who do try to think of the future tend to get worn down by the constant negativity presented by those with tunnel vision and total lack of what might happen in the future if we stay on the same path. As the size of the Government entity gets larger, the issue just presents as a bigger problem, but the underlying issues are the same. Apathy by those who can think leads to control by those who chose not to think rationally.

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Looking for Barbeque in Maine?

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On the "War on Poverty" (And the lack of exit strategy for it)

"By the mid-1930's, thanks to the New Deal,  self-reliance had begun to be left behind, prompting H. L. Mencken to declare: 'There is no genuine justice in any scheme of feeding and coddling the loafer whose only ponderable energies are devoted wholly to reproduction.  Nine-tenths of the rights he bellows for are really privileges and he does nothing to deserve them.' Despite the billions spent on an individual, 'he can be lifted transiently but always slips back again.' Thus, the New Deal had been 'the most stupendous digenetic enterprise ever undertaken by man.... We not only acquired a vast population of morons, we have inculcated all morons, old or young, with the doctrine that the decent and industrious people of the country are bound to support them for all time.  The effects of that doctrine are bound to be disastrous soon or late."

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My own opinion on public support of art?

If all the people who think the Government should take away money in the form of taxes and then spend it to "support the arts" actually spent their own money buying real art, the perceived need for Government support of art would disappear.

Buy local art - it's the right thing to do

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