Day: May 5, 2025

The Pirate And Guacamole

Welcome to ‘cinco de Mayo’.

What is life without a little whimsy?

And of course a short history lesson.

Before I start my little food history post I want to rant for a moment……we can properly pronounce enchilada, quesadilla, fajitas and so on but few can properly pronounce guacamole….it is NOT pronounced ‘gwak-camole’ but rather ‘wok-camole’….whew I feel better.

Do you know where the first English recipe for guacamole came from?

For all the perceived glamour of piracy, its practitioners lived poorly and ate worse. Skirting death, mutiny, and capture left little room for comfort or transformative culinary experience. The greatest names in piracy, wealthy by the day’s standards, ate as one today might on a poorly provisioned camping trip: dried beef, bread, and warm beer. Those of lesser fame were subject to cannibalism and scurvy. The seas were no place for an adventurous appetite.

But when one gifted pirate permitted himself a curiosity for food, he played a pioneering role in spreading ingredients and cuisines. He gave us the words “tortilla,” “soy sauce,” and “breadfruit,” while unknowingly recording the first ever recipe for guacamole. And who better to expose the Western world to the far corners of our planet’s culinary bounty than someone who by necessity made them his hiding places?

British-born William Dampier began a life of piracy in 1679 in Mexico’s Bay of Campeche. Orphaned in his late teens, Dampier set sail for the Caribbean and fell into a twentysomething job scramble. Seeing no future in logging or sugar plantations, he was sucked into the burgeoning realm of New World raiding, beginning what would be the first of his record-breaking three circumnavigations. A prolific diarist, Dampier kept a journal wrapped in a wax-sealed bamboo tube throughout his journeys. During a year-long prison sentence in Spain in 1694, Dampier would convert these notes into a novel that became a bestseller and seminal travelogue.

Parts of A New Voyage Around the World read like a 17th-century episode of No Reservations, with Dampier playing a high-stakes version of Anthony Bourdain. Aside from writing groundbreaking observations on previously un-researched subjects in meteorology, maritime navigation, and zoology, food was a constant throughout his work. He ate with the locals, observing and employing their practices not only to feed himself and his crew but to amass a body of knowledge that would expand European understanding of non-Western cuisine. In Panama, Dampier traveled with men of the Miskito tribe, hunting and eating manatee. “Their flesh is … [extraordinarily] sweet, wholesome meat,” he wrote. “The tail of a young cow is most esteemed. A calf that sucks is the most delicate meat.” His crew took to roasting filleted bellies over open flames.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-pirate-who-penned-the-first-english-language-guacamole-recipe

Now when you enjoy a cinco de Mayo bowl of guacamole and you can thank a pirate for the introduction.

Please if you are partying then do it responsibly…..

Enjoy your celebration …..Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

WTF? No Veterans Day?

The 11th of November is the day set aside for the country to honor those brave souls that gave their all in service to their country.

It is a holiday for a reason….to show respect.

It could possibly become a thing of the past if Little Donny gets his way….

President Trump says he is renaming Veterans Day to celebrate victory—and he’s giving Victory in Europe Day a new name as well. “Many of our allies and friends are celebrating May 8th as Victory Day, but we did more than any other Country, by far, in producing a victorious result on World War II,” he said in a Truth Social post. “I am hereby renaming May 8th as Victory Day for World War II and November 11th as Victory Day for World War I again!”

  • Politico calls the push to rename Veterans Day “surprising.” It was originally Armistice Day, marking the last day of WWI, but was broadened in the 1950s to include American veterans of other wars, including WWII.
  • CNN reports that, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, Congress passed a law in 1938 declaring November 11 a day to be dedicated to WWI veterans and “the cause of world peace.”

  • “We won both Wars, nobody was close to us in terms of strength, bravery, or military brilliance, but we never celebrate anything,” Trump wrote. “That’s because we don’t have leaders anymore, that know how to do so! We are going to start celebrating our victories again!” The BBC reports that Trump’s remarks are likely to anger Russia, which marks its victory in World War II, which it calls the Great Patriotic War, on May 9. When Germany surrendered unconditionally on May 8, 1945, the date marked as V-E Day elsewhere, it was already May 9 on Moscow time. The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people, including almost 9 million troops, in the war.

    Unlike Veterans Day, May 8 isn’t a federal holiday and Trump didn’t say whether he plans to make it one, which would require an act of Congress. Critics were quick to point out that despite Trump’s proposed name change, the date doesn’t mark American victory in WWII, which came months later, when Japan surrendered after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “We won World War II on August 15, 1945 when the Japanese surrendered,” Keith Olbermann said in a post on X. “Trump is a complete moron.” That date is marked as V-J Day in countries including the UK and Australia, though historians say the official end of the war was September 2, 1945, when Japan signed surrender documents aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, CNN reports

This idiot is a history MORON!

But what can you expect from this ‘person’?  After all he could not tear himself away from the golf course to go to Dover Air Base to honor fallen American soldiers when their bodies were returned to the nation.

Not only is this tool disrespecting Americans he also made some glowing moronic statements about WW2…

“We won both wars, nobody was close to us in terms of strength, bravery or military brilliance, but we never celebrate anything,” he said.

“Many of our allies and friends are celebrating May 8th as Victory Day, but we did more than any other Country, by far, in producing a victorious result on World War II,” Trump said online.

This man is an idiot to discount the contribution of the UK and France and the rest of Europe in the victory over the Nazis  (Is that his intention?)

+++Please forgive my next statement….if harsh words offend you then by all means bypass this one+++

This is to some of my fellow veterans….why id god’s name would semi-literate asshole support his disrespectful son-of-a-bitch?

I am offended as so should would any veterans that served his country in the military.

This is not a done deal so hopefully Congress will not let this travesty become law….but I have my doubts.

Anything to say?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

I Had To Ruin A Lovely Sunday

While many were celebrating the 4th of May with Star Wars movies and such I had to, being a political junkie, spoil my evening by watching Littler Donny and his Sh*t Show in an interview…..

There was more manure shoveled than a farm hand in the barn….

President Trump in an interview aired Sunday pushed back against analysts’ predictions about a recession, said he might abandon Ukraine-Russia peace talks, and, despite the oath he took on Inauguration Day, deferred to his lawyers about whether the president is obligated to uphold the Constitution’s due process guarantee. He also suggested how 11-year-olds can contribute to his trade war against China in the interview by Kristen Welker on NBC’s Meet the Press, which was taped Friday at Mar-a-Lago, per the AP. The topics included:

  • Due process: Asked if he agrees with Secretary of State Marco Rubio that everyone in the US, whether a citizen or not, deserves due process, Trump would not commit. “I don’t know,” Trump answered, per the New York Times. “I’m not, I’m not a lawyer.” Adhering to due process could necessitate millions of court cases, slowing his mass deportations of people he described as murderers and drug dealers, Trump said. “I was elected to get them the hell out of here, and the courts are holding me from doing it,” he said. Trump said his lawyers will “obviously follow what the Supreme Court said.”
  • Economic tension: The conversation became heated on a couple of points, one being some Wall Street analysts’ contention that a recession is looking more likely. “Well, I tell you something else. Some people on Wall Street say that we’re going to have the greatest economy in history,” he said. He again offered a reassurance, per the Washington Post. “Everything’s OK,” he said. “I said this is a transition period.” Another sore spot was the price of strollers, which Welker said is rising since he imposed tariffs. “Well, I don’t know, when you say strollers are going up, what kind of a thing?” Trump said. “I’m saying that gasoline is going down. Gasoline is thousands of times more important than a stroller or some place?”
  • Russia and Ukraine: Trump said he’s been close to walking away from peace talks and still might do that. “There will be a time when I will say, ‘OK, keep going. Keep being stupid and keep fighting,'” he said.
  • Dolls: Trump took heat for saying during a Cabinet meeting last week that price increases on goods caused by his tariffs might mean “children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls”—and that’s fine. Aides doubled down on that view, saying US-made dolls are better anyway, per the Hill. On Meet the Press, Trump returned to the subject. “I don’t think that a beautiful baby girl needs—that’s 11 years old—needs to have 30 dolls,” he said. “I think they can have three dolls or four dolls because what we were doing with China was just unbelievable. We had a trade deficit of hundreds of billions of dollars with China.”
  • The next president: After saying a month ago that he wasn’t kidding about pursuing a third term in office, Trump stepped back. “This is not something I’m looking to do,” he told Welker. “I’m looking to have four great years and turn it over to somebody, ideally a great Republican.” He declined to name a GOP favorite to follow him but mentioned Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as possibilities.

There was absolutely nothing of a redeeming quality in this interview….if anything it showed me how of out of touch this man really is….to say he is a clueless fool is being kind and anyone who buys any of this manure is a clueless fool and that is me being REALLY KIND.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”