SEASONED NUTS. People sometimes ask me if I have anything in my chocolate room with little or no sugar in it. However, I wonder if these people really mean it when they ask me that. We will see. I also frequently get requests from grad students for something that is easy to share at meetings (and perhaps butter up an advisor?) I now have 5 varieties of seasoned nuts, all of which have very little sugar in them. I would appreciate your reviews!
1. Colonel Beauregard Tarses’ Georgia Glazed Pecans. 2. Colonel Beauregard Tarses’ Kentucky Bourbon Pecans. A traditional Southern confection. You won’t taste the alcohol. It evaporates in the roasting process.3. Mao Tse Tarses’ Chinese Glazed Walnuts4. Rembrandt Van Tarses’ Dutch Cocoa Almonds. Bittersweet because they are made with cocoa powder instead of chocolate. 5. Alejandro Tarses’ Spicy and Smoky Chipotle Almonds.
TILEX MOLD AND MILDEW REMOVER. The rainy season has started. You may see mold spots in wet areas at this time of year, most likely on bathroom walls and ceilings. If you would like a free bottle of Tilex Mold and Mildew Remover, just come over to the chocolate room and pick it up. Just spray it on, wait a few minutes, and wipe it off with a sponge or sponge mop. Wipe the area with clean water after you are done to remove the bleach odor.
If your microwave oven isn’t working, never try to fix it yourself. You could kill yourself. It really is that dangerous. First, you could electrocute yourself. With most electric appliances, there is no risk of electrocution if the appliance is unplugged; however, the high voltage capacitor in a microwave oven can give you a lethal shock even if the microwave oven is unplugged and has been unplugged for weeks. Yes, I know that sounds impossible, but I’m told it’s true. Second, the beryllium oxide in a microwave oven’s insulators can be fatal if it gets in your lungs. What can you do if your microwave oven isn’t working? First, make sure it is getting electricity. Plug in something else into the outlet and see if it works. You may have just flipped a circuit breaker. Second, push the ‘stop’ or ‘clear’ button and try again. Third, unplug the microwave oven and then plug it back in. If that doesn’t work, either call a factory service repairman, or if you have a cheap or old microwave oven, just replace it. And remember, you can’t put a microwave oven in a garbage can. It is considered toxic electronic waste, and you can be fined for improper disposal of it. You can drop off an old microwave oven at the Computer and Technology Resource Center on Page Street in Berkeley. There is no charge.
In August, Governor Bill Lee of Tennessee signed an executive order giving parents the right to opt-out of local school mask mandates. Governor Lee said in his order that he supported Covid vaccination. He said that vaccines are: “The most important tool we have to fight the pandemic.” However, the governor said he was issuing this order because he is opposed to public school mandates and government mandates in general. Well, don’t they have school mandates in Tennessee? Yes, they certainly do.
Public school mandates in Tennessee are among the harshest in the country. In Tennessee, schoolchildren as young as 7 years of age have been arrested and taken to jail in handcuffs for offenses such as cursing in a school playground. In 2016, 11 schoolchildren were arrested in Rutherford County for watching a fight. The 2 children who were fighting were 5 and 6 years old and were not arrested because of their age, but the children who watched the fight were older and arrested and taken to jail for failure to stop the fight.
Does Tennessee allow paddling and beating of school children? Yes, but with one exception. Disabled children cannot be beaten by school teachers or school staff in Tennessee without permission of the parents. If the parents give their permission, then school teachers in Tennessee can beat physically and mentally disabled children for offenses such as tardiness. The hypocrisy of some politicians about their opposition to school mandates seems astonishing to me! Over 700,000 Americans have already died from Covid. How many school children have died from tardiness? Yes, I know. I have written about this before.
GEORGE WASHINGTON AND SMALLPOX. Anti-vaxxers say that vaccination mandates violate their rights as American citizens. Well, the Founding Fathers of the United States didn’t feel that way. Early in the American Revolution, smallpox ran rampant through George Washington’s army. During the Battle of Quebec in December 1775, Washington’s army was so weakened by smallpox that they had to call off the battle and retreat back to New York. Washington tried a number of measures to control the epidemic, including quarantines, but nothing worked. Finally, in 1777, Washington opted for smallpox vaccination of his troops. Although the method of vaccination available at the time was crude, it works. Once a soldier was vaccinated, he got a lifetime immunity from smallpox. Washington ordered all of his troops vaccinated for smallpox, and with no exemptions, no opt-out. Washington informed John Hancock of his decision. Hancock was the president of the Continental Congress at the time. Neither Hancock nor any other member of Congress objected to Washington’s decision to make smallpox vaccination mandatory. So – we actually know that the Founding Fathers were not opposed to mandatory vaccination. Below is a famous photo taken around 1900 of two 16 year old boys. Both were exposed to smallpox at the same time. One boy was vaccinated. The other was not. This photo appeared in newspapers all over the U.S.
Last month, I said that I got a phone call saying that I failed to report for jury duty and that I would be arrested unless I paid a fine in Walmart gift cards. Last week, I got a phone call from a Mr. Rollins who said he works for the ‘Department of Distributions’. He said that they sued my bank and got a class action settlement and that I am entitled to receive a portion of it. He said that my bank reported that I used their ATM last year, so I am entitled to receive $5,000 as my share of the settlement, and they will mail me a check as soon as they receive $200 from me for the processing fee, payable in Starbucks gift cards. It seems hard to believe that anyone is gullible enough to fall for a scam this obvious, but lots of people do. I think the federal government should be putting serious resources into stopping these telephone frauds. Federal law enforcement agencies don’t need new legislation to do that. Telephone scams have been a federal crime for a long time, but I very rarely hear of anyone getting arrested or going to prison for running these boiler room operations.
CORRECTION. Weasel Coffee is Not Civet Cat Coffee. Last month I said that weasel coffee and civet cat coffee are the same thing, but I was wrong.
What is the most expensive coffee in the world (that didn’t come out of cat or weasel poop)? The idea of drinking coffee from beans that were picked out of animal poop does not appeal to me. I suspect that most people feel the same way I do about that. The most expensive coffee in the world produced the normal way (by picking the beans off coffee bushes by hand) comes from the small island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean. After the Battle of Waterloo, the British exiled Napoleon Bonaparte to St. Helena, where he lived until his death. Napoleon didn’t live in a prison, but a mansion. He was allowed to have guests visit and stay with him, including old comrades. The British also allowed people in France to send Napoleon gifts, including furniture, furnishings, food, and wine. Napoleon wrote letters to his admirers in France who wanted to send him gifts with suggestions. Among the things Napoleon specifically told people not to send him was coffee. He told people that the coffee grown on St. Helena was exceptionally good. Napoleon said: “The only good thing about St. Helena is the coffee.” When people in France heard that, everybody wanted to get coffee from St. Helena. However, the island is very small, and only a small portion of the land is suitable for agriculture. St. Helena only exports a few hundred pounds of coffee beans a year. Their coffee has won a lot of awards. If you want to buy coffee from St. Helena, you can order it online from growers on the island. It costs between $150 to $300 a pound.
