Feed me, hooman!

Song of the day, 20 October 2026

The Cthulhu madness continues!

R.I.P. Delta Beer Lab

Word has come out that Delta Beer Lab on Madison's south side is set to close next week.

The Lab will end regular operations at its taproom at 167 E Badger Rd on Sunday then will stay open for limited hours next week to sell its remaining packaged inventory. The Lab is also rolling out its final beer, SUPERNOVA West-Coast IPA, to mark the closure.

...

"Persistently rising inflation year after year has led to reduced consumer spending nationally and locally, while operational costs, including labor, have continued to rise," founder and chief beer officer Tim "Pio" Piotrowski said. "We fought as hard as we could, but we have ultimately run out of resources."

I shall miss the chance of drinking their unfruited Gose.

Song of the day, 19 October 2026

I spent the past few days at Gamehole Con where I ran 3 Call of Cthulhu scenarios. Many died and lots of sanity points were lost. So I am in the mood for some Lovecraft-inspired sounds.

Willow got a new blanket

...and enjoys lying on it to bask in the sun.

Hooman! I am looking at you!

Casting shadows

Walk away from the tyranny of convenience

A couple fine podcasts for your listening delectation:

The first is entitled "The Joy of Walking" from BBC radio's The Documentary. It's partly about how the simple act of going for a walk has multiple benefits to stories such as one about a doctor who has integrated walks with patients into their healthcare regimen.

The second is from CBC's Ideas podcast - "The inconvenient truth about convenience culture". An interesting jeremiad against the onrush of AI and the concept of letting machines do everything for us, generally speaking.

It looks at the view that embrace of convenience is a progressive one, one that indicates you welcome the future which, by definition, is better than the present. There's also the proposition that convenience is anti-human, essentially, but also incredibly difficult to opt out of.

Lots of food for thought.

Song of the day, 9 October 2026

While I haven't given the new Son Volt the proper listening to that it deserves, the lead off track is an instant classic.

A cat and her toys

Song of the day, 8 October 2026

Since I and my music movie watching pal went to see Queen Budapest last night on the IMAX, today it's some Queen.

Booties

Cooking up a storm, continued

I am not going to have to cook for a few days now. In addition to the bread and clafoutis, I also made a quiche this past weekend.

A simple one, really - ham, cheddar, and onion.

It turned out well and I made sure to garnish it for my ladyfriend.

A friend of my lady's is Ukrainian and she brought over some homemade borscht for us.

It was excellent! I'd never had borscht with beans in it before.

Last night I baked a porketta from Fraboni's and there's plenty of leftovers so I am taking a few days off from cooking outside of making coffee, tea, and perhaps toast.

Pounce!

Cookin'

Yesterday I did a lot of cooking for my ladyfriend and her guests. One visitor brought some Asian pears and I turned a few of them into a clafoutis.

It turned out alright and was quite tasty. I made it with einkorn instead of normal hard red wheat or whatever your typical all-purpose flour is made of hoping that my ladyfriend wouldn't suffer any achy joints after eating it. Plus I have just started using einkorn and am running it through its paces. I have an idea of its limitations in breadmaking and now I want to learn how other treats turn out when using it.

I also made a loaf of maple bread.

The recipe called for 3 tablespoons of maple syrup and the bread had a slight maple flavor to it. Very good and I can imagine that it would make some fine French toast.

(I also made another apple crisp.)

Will loves her tunnel

Beer and chops

Sadly I wasn't able to grill pork chops yesterday due to the rain and so they were ovenbound.

I began preparing dinner by busting open a Bare Cheeks from Lake Louie.

It was quite tasty, with some nice banana notes and restrained clove taste. Since the hefeweizen was my brother's favorite beer style, some warm memories came to mind taking that first sip.

I went to the Northside Farmers' Market last Sunday and made an impulse purchase - some BBQ rub.

I'd never heard of Underground BBQ and my spice rack was devoid of any spice blends to use as a base for a rub and so I figured I'd look to a local for help. With pork chops and chicken in my freezer, I went with the Chicken Rub.

A fine rub! It was mellow in that the pepper didn't provide heat and there was a slight sweetness to it which balanced all of the earthy-smoky flavors from the paprika. I think the addition or coriander also helped give it a bit of a sprightly taste.

Song of the day, 2 October 2026

Today is the 85th anniversary of the start of Operation Taifun (Typhoon), the German assault on Moscow. So it's a perfect day for some Sabaton.

Eastern Front? What Eastern Front?

Chris Hedges recently interviewed philosopher Susan Neiman with the conversation centering on her latest book, Call It Evil: Understanding the Trump Era. At one point the conversation moves to, essentially, how good people let bad things happen with Nazi Germany being the archetypal example. 

Neiman says:

The Nazis did not confront people with Auschwitz in 1933 or 34 or 35, OK? People really did not know much about the mass murder going on at the Eastern Front until the '40s.

What?

First of all, Auschwitz was SS-free in 1933-35. It was in Poland and populated by Poles. (I think it was a military base.) It didn't become Germany territory until after Germany invaded Poland in September 1939. 

This brings me to #2. There was no Eastern Front in 1933-35. There was no Eastern Front until September 1939 when Germany Blitzkrieged Poland.

Lastly, the mass murders on the Eastern Front - I presume we're talking Final Solution-Holocaust mass murders - didn't even begin until the '40s - 1941, to be exact. There was formulating and planning done in 1940 but it really began in '41. (As I learned a couple months ago, Zyklon B got its trial runs in'41 during Operation Barbarossa.)

I had to stop listening at this point. While this doesn't disprove anything she has to say about moral decay in our society today, I just had a hard time taking her seriously after hearing this blunder. It made any parallels she wanted to draw with Germany in the '30s or any use of that place and time as representative of human behavior more generally suspect to me.

Willow, 2 October 2026

Willow on a sunnier day