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)

Happiness is Talking Heads' Once in a Lifetime 1980

What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; and there is nothing new under the sun.

-- Ecclesiastes 1:9

Meteorologist Donald Trump on Hurricane Hilary

 

Happiness is The Vapors' Turning Japanese 1980

 

LOL of the day

 

Happiness is a bed of leaves

 Within a thicket I repos'd, when round

I ruffl'd up fal'n leaves in heap, and found,

Let fall from heaven, a sleep interminate.

-- George Chapman (1539-1634)