Uncle Si's "Cliff Bowyer" still cracks me up

 

The older I sit here the drunker I get

 

Happiness is the Wonderland Bear Band

 

Happiness is poaching an egg in a mug

 

Olive oil prices expected to nearly halve in coming months as drought ends in southern Europe

The Deoleo brands

 

Extra virgin olive oil prices in Spain’s Andalusia stood at 6 euros ($6.33) per kilogram as of Nov. 6, according to Expana, an agricultural and food-focused market intelligence firm. That’s down around 19% on a monthly basis and nearly 35% off a record high of 9.2 euros in January.

Spain accounts for more than 40% of the world’s olive oil production, making it a global reference for prices. ...

Deoleo said olive oil prices should fall to around 5 euros per liter, a steep drop from highs of 9 to 10 euros, which had become the norm in Spanish supermarkets this year. ...

Kyle Holland, senior market reporter for oilseeds and oils at Expana, said most industry players were “very, very bearish” regarding the price outlook.

“The production numbers are key. For Spain, we’re looking at probably 1.3 million metric tons, compared to last season’s 670,000 to 680,000 metric tons, depending on who you speak to, so not far from double basically.”

More.

The season's trending gift is the women's heated vest with three temperature levels

 

 ✔  cold titty

✔  warm titty

✔  hot titty

Olive oil prices have surged, so I switched again

I paid $40 for 3 liters from De Cecco. 

That's $13.33 a liter.

The origin codes for the oil in this particular can are ES (Spain) and GR (Greece).

The oil is good to April 2025.

I'm content with it.

In England and France, the equivalent of Indian Summer roughly spans Oct 18, St. Luke's Day, to Nov 11, St. Martin of Tours' Day, the middle of which is Allhallowtide

 

 Farewell, thou latter spring! farewell,

All-hallown summer.

-- William Shakespeare, Henry IV

Happiness is washing your bath towels twice

 

 

 One time in baking soda, a second time in white vinegar.

One cup, warm water setting, right in the top-loader with the load. I do a pre-soak and an extra-rinse each time as well.

Works especially well on my white and light color towels instead of detergent in my experience.

At current prices at Sam's Club the cost is about 52-cents for the two loads, about 33-cents for a cup of baking soda for the first load, and 19-cents for a cup of vinegar for the second load.

That's more expensive than using, for example, ALL Free and Clear and CLOROX 2, which are about 13-cents and 21-cents in just one load, respectively, or 34-cents total. And water is money, too, unless you have a well like me.

But I like the results better.

Disclaimers say check to see if your machine is compatible with vinegar.

A Happy Meal heals all wounds

 

Happiness is the rescue dog who rescued the boy who rescued him

 

Happiness is fair weather for the harvest

 If weather be faire and tidie, thy grain

Make speedilie carriage, for fear of a raine.

-- Thomas Tusser

Happiness is an old British confection

 Let sugar, wine, and cream together club,

To make that gentle viand, syllabub.

 

-- William King (1663-1712)

Happiness is an old hat

 The owl, the raven, and the bat,

Clubb'd for a feather to his hat.

 

-- Jonathan Swift

Happiness is Rayne Beau, the chipped cat who somehow traveled 800 miles from Yellowstone to California where he was rescued and reunited with his owners

 Meow Meow Meow Meow.

Story.

Happiness is Lou Costello, 1906-1959: I'm a baaad boy

 

Happiness is that kind of September when life is slow and oh so mellow

 

Happiness is dropping recycling guilt-free

 

Happiness is Big Mike, the genius who has solved every sailor's worst problem known as the doldrums

Happiness was professional golfer Chi Chi Rodriguez, aka Chy Chy ROD-ri-gueeze, who passed away this week at 88

 

Happiness is Caturday

 

Why do country people lock their car doors at church at this time of year but not in town?

 

 

 

Because their cars will be full of zucchinis if they don't.

Happiness is opening day of zucchini season

 

Happiness is Ronald Reagan's diary, March 31, 1981

 

Happiness is learning what makes your fireworks so colorful . . . lol

 

Happiness is a country house

 Would I a house for happiness erect,

Nature alone should be the architect;

She'd build it more convenient than great,

And doubtless in the country chuse her seat.

-- Abraham Cowley (1618-1667)

Sometimes happiness just creeps up on you, knocks you on the floor, and you just laugh out loud and roll and roll and roll

 

Happiness is Where've You Been?, Kathy Mattea, 1990

 

Happiness is Michael Martin Murphey, Whoopee Ti-Yi-Yo, 1990

 

Happiness is the temperate feast of life

 Calmly he look'd on either life, and here

Saw nothing to regret, and there to fear;

From nature's temp'rate feast rose satisfy'd,

Thank'd heav'n that he had liv'd, and that he dy'd.

 

-- Alexander Pope

Happiness is a lazy man's raised-bed-garden planter

 

To the aliens we're basically West Garfield Park in Chicago

 

Memorial Day 2024: Lee Brice, I Drive Your Truck, 2012

 

Happiness is the voice of Steve Perry of Journey in 1979's Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'

 

Happiness is global warming

 

 

 The Thames frozen twice in one year, so as men to walk on it, is a very signal accident.

-- Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)

Happiness is Sunday morning baking two dozen triple wheat muffins

 OK I ate two.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Triple Wheat Muffins

1.5 cups wheat germ

1.5 cups all purpose wheat flour

3.0 cups wheat bran

1 T baking powder

1 t baking soda

1 t ground cinnamon

 

2.5 cups milk

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 eggs beaten

1 cup apple sauce

 

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F.

Mix dry ingredients in one bowl, wet in another.

Whisk dry into wet gradually.

Add 24 baking papers to tins.

Use a 1/3 cup measure to scoop batter into the liners.

Bake about 20-22 minutes.

Cool in the pans on the counter for 20 minutes.

Serve with butter and jam. And coffee. 

Happiness is Sebn-Up

 

Happiness is taking one day at a time

 

  Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. 

-- Matthew 6:34

Happiness is . . . Neil Sedaka - Laughter in the Rain (1974)

 I remember.

Happiness is not taking your tax return too seriously

 It's for the government after all, so just make sure it's . . .

 

 

Dublin Ireland is a pretty cool place

 

Those old Germanic month names can really play havoc with your poetry

 

Eosturmonath showers bring Thrimilchi flowers.

Happiness is The Tide is High, Blondie 1980

 

Happiness is Mr. Richard Feder from Fort Lee, New Jersey, who quit smoking according to Roseanne Roseannadanna, SNL Nov 18, 1978

Last Thursday I quit smoking

Now . . .

I'm depressed

I gained weight

My face broke out

I'm nauseous

I'm constipated 

My feet swelled

My gums are bleeding

My sinuses are clogged

I got heartburn

I'm cranky and I have GAS.

-- Mr. Richard Feder, Fort Lee, New Jersey, who declined precipitously

 

Mr. Feder lived somehow to write another letter in Roseanne Roseannadanna's King Tut routine:

 

 

Happiness is the original survivalist's song A Country Boy Can Survive, Hank Williams Jr, 1982, 2007

 

Happiness is the Richard Lewis and Larry David mantra shtick

 The conclusion is very naughty, but the heart of gold starts at 1:58:

He's had a few . . .

 . . . bottles.

My current tomatoes come from Parma

 

My current olive oil comes from Puglia

 Harvested, pressed, and bottled in Italy.

My current bottle, almost empty, is best by Sep 12, 2025.

 

Peak happiness is butter, by a large margarine

 

Happiness is a be good to my dogs country song from September 1983 by John Anderson: Black Sheep

 

Happiness is The Marvelous Toy by the Chad Mitchell Trio 1963

 

Happiness is The Many Expressions of Xi Jinpingpong

 

Happiness is George Thorogood "It Wasn't Me" (Chuck Berry cover 1978)

 

Happiness is probable caws

 

Bon Appetit: Best frozen french fries are from Lamb Weston

Our house agrees. We prefer the shoestring cut.

The Standout: Lamb Weston Hand Cut Style Fries

The old story was recycled today on Pocket, and my store which carries these was nearly cleaned out as a result?

 

Happiness is lighting your feast on fire

 I used the recipe by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins in The Silver Palate Cookbook (New York: Workman, 1982), p. 136f. There are 21 ingredients.

In step 6 of 10, you light the cognac on the lamb in the skillet with a match. Very fun.

Life is short: Celebrate the New Year with a spring feast of Navarin of Lamb.

Happiness is four black birds on the fourth day of Christmas, December the 28th

 

 

  "Colly" is derived from "coal", a word at least as old as Shakespeare. "Calling" birds is a later alteration. Use of coal for domestic heating in England became more widespread in the 1500s when the wood supply came under pressure, but the Romans were mining it there already in the 100s.

"The Twelve Days of Christmas" dates to at least c. 1780, as shown here from "Mirth Without Mischief", perhaps but vaguely recollecting the traditional drunken revelry of Christmastide which English Puritanism had long attempted to mute. This work was for children, who were in any event prone to mischief after school.

Happiness is a breakfast of blueberry mascarpone toast

Blueberry Mascarpone Toast

1 slice toasted whole wheat bread

Drizzle with honey and spread to cover

Spread mascarpone cheese over the honey

Dot the toast with fresh blueberries

Yeah, that was me

 Record: MACY'S Parade Is Most-Watched Ever...

I haven't watched the parade in years, but I spent a half hour for some reason, unknown even to me, clicking on at least five different livestreams this year on YouTube looking for the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, and all I got was the Pillsbury Doughboy.

One man can make a difference.

Happiness is Dwight Yoakam Gone 1995, but maybe not for him

 

Happiness is the power of the herbalist, formerly called a simpler or simplist

 Medicine is mine: what herbs and simples grow

In fields and forests, all their pow'rs I know.

-- John Dryden

Happiness is Old Hippie by the Bellamy Brothers 1985

 

Happiness is Shelley Fabares' 1961 Johnny Angel

 

Happiness is the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's First Folio of 1623

 

Happiness is Jackson in the Valley

 

 

 

Jackson in the Valley · 2nd South Carolina String Band Southern Soldier ℗ 1997 2nd South Carolina String Band Released on: 1997-01-01

YouTube here.

'Twas back in the summer of '61, Stonewall Jackson's fame was won. McDowell marched across Bull Run, And went back runnin' to Washington. 

 

Come the spring of '62, Down the valley Old Blue Light flew. At Kernstown there he picked a fight, And gave Old Abe a fearsome fright. 

 

Rebels in the Valley, Lincoln cries alarm! Jackson's in the Valley, all fear to his harm! Jackson's in the Valley, Stonewall is on the loose! Jackson's in the Valley, all hell's a breakin' loose! 

 

Down the valley and back again, Stonewall's boys did fight and win. For two long months and maybe more, We marched and we fought and we marched some more. 

 

Now we'll raise a rebel yell, And we'll send them yankees straight to hell. We'll give them grapeshot, buck and ball, We'll march and we'll fight for Old Stonewall. 

 

We're marching though our feet are torn, And it's true our clothes are worn. Still we'll keep our muskets bright, For Stonewall's Army is full of fight. 

 

Banks and Shields and Frémont too, From our Valley they all withdrew. Jackson swept the Valley clear, And now he marches on McClellan's rear. 

 

Jackson's in the Valley, Stonewall is on the loose! Jackson's in the Valley, all hell's a breakin' loose! Jackson's in the Valley, Stonewall is on the loose! Jackson's in the Valley, all hell's a breakin' loose!

Happiness is Gussie Fink-Nottle telling off Madeline with "I shall now eat a ham sandwich"

 

Happiness is mercy

 

 The quality of mercy is not strain'd;

It droppeth as the gentle rain of heaven

Upon the place beneath. It is twice bless'd;

It blesses him that gives, and him that takes.

-- William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Scene I

Happiness is three synonyms for a simpleton

 Have you no more manners than to rail at Hocus, that has saved that clod-pated, numskull'd, ninny-hammer of yours from ruin, and all his family?

-- John Arbuthnot, History of John Bull, (1667-1735)

Happiness is knowing how to tell the age of sheep

 When sheep is one shear,

they will have two broad teeth before;

when two shear, four;

when three, six; when four, eight:

and, after that, their mouths break.

 

-- John Mortimer (c.1656-1736)