From: “Abranco” <demoonth@demo.ontha.com> To: <recipient list> Subject: Government Job Offer
Dear Sir or Madam
Would you like to work for the Government organization and participate in the development of the United States? Perhaps it is your talent the country needs at this moment.
Requirements – U.S. citizenship and minimum age 21
We invite you to work closely, anyone who does not care about the life of the state.
If you are a student, military, businessman, retired – we’ll be happy to listen to the opinions of everyone and take help from you.
Please send a brief summary to the human resource assistant on the lyne.holt@gmail.com and you will be assigned to interview.
Yupyup, gotta get me some of that action.
Just in case you’re not sure about emails like this? They’re total frauds. Government bureaucrats may not be the brightest candles on the cake, but most of them know how to speak English; the writers of emails like this always leave behind telltale signatures: poor grammar, odd constructions, and mis-spelled words.
Some time ago I posted about vintage candies and treats that have gone to their reward. In that article, I mentioned my love for Sara Lee All-Butter Brownies, which came in a little tin about the size of a piece of printer paper, and which were sold frozen. As I said elsewhere, they came in a tin; you took the cardboard lid off, and there was a little paper cutting guide, which I routinely ignored, cutting myself massive slabs straight from the freezer. I would kill to have these in the stores again.
The image above, from the late 50’s or early 60’s from the looks of it, features a billboard in the background advertising these little bits of heaven. I can’t stop thinking about them. Just recently I stumbled across this recipe, which my wife made for me the other day:
Ingredients
1 stick butter
1 cup water
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 cup oil
2 lg eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp baking soda
Brownies:
Combine first four ingredients in saucepan and bring to a boil. Pour over combined flour, sugar, and salt.
Add remaining ingredients and mix well.
Pour into 13 x 9 inch pan.
Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes (or 350 for 30 minutes) or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Frosting:
1 stick butter
1/4 cup cocoa
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 lb box powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Combine first three ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Pour over warm brownies and chill well.
The flavor was almost exactly as I remembered them, but the consistency was different – these brownies are more like cake, and the frosting was pretty runny. But they were wonderful just the same.
Today I encountered this recipe for Pinot Noir brownies, and the picture at the website looks pretty much the way Sara Lee’s did:
Ingredients
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1tsp vanilla
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 Tbsp Handcraft Pinot Noir
3/4 cup Ghirardelli sweet ground cocoa
2/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped, toasted walnuts
For the Pinot Noir Icing:
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 oz unsweetened chocolate
4 1/2 Tbsp granulated sugar
3 Tbsp HandCraft Pinot Noir
Preparation
To Make the Brownies:
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Combine eggs with sugar and vanilla; add butter and wine. Stir cocoa with flour, baking powder and salt. Combine with egg mixture; add nuts. Spread into greased 8 x 8-inch pan.
Bake 25 to 30 minutes.
To Make the Chocolate Glaze:
Melt butter over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and add chocolate, sugar and wine. Continue heating over low heat stirring often, until mixture is smooth – don’t let it boil.
Spoon hot icing over fresh brownies and let stand for a minimum of an hour; 12 hours is best.
Notes
I tested my brownies at 25 minutes and that was it for me. I like mine ‘just’ done and not dry so while the toothpick did not have any dough clinging to it, it was just slightly damp with chocolate…and perfectly moist. This is a very rich and dense dough…over-baking would not be good!
A Canadian box cover recently spotted by my wife. Yup, that’s them.
Edit: this website claims to offer Sara Lee frozen brownies in bulk, but per a comment below, they are sadly not the real thing but rather an oil-based knockoff.
At this point I need to compare both recipes and see if the best of both possible worlds can be combined. I feel as though we’re getting close. But if Sara Lee would get their act together and reintroduce these, I wouldn’t have to go through all this back-bending.
A comment recently appeared at this post, which read as follows:
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OK, as you wish. I’ll write my next article about what douchebags you are.
First of all, I’ve written before about blog spam – it’s probably one of the scummiest, most unethical ways of promoting a business, product, or service. So that’s red flag number one. Any business that needs to advertise or boost its page rankings by seeding other people’s blogs with random, idiotic comments and embedded links is a business or product or service or opportunity that sensible people will stay far, far away from.
Second of all, this particular link leads to a commercial offer from “Duncan Capicchiano, ND, fully Qualified Naturopath, Nutritionist, Herbalist, Medical Researcher and Author.” How loud can you scream “bullshit”? I like the way you screamed that. The touted system, available for only $67.00, trumpets
“You’re about to find out that it’s possible to reverse impaired kidney function and avoid dialysis and/or kidney transplant surgery.”
The (probably fake) testimonials included at his web page say things like:
“As soon as I had downloaded it (which was a piece of cake) I rushed out and bought bottles of Nutrient Name, Vitamin, and Herb Name (I already had most of the other recommended ingredients) and started the course.”
People: This is DANGEROUS. If you have impaired kidney function, no herbal remedy is going to help you. If you’re already needing dialysis, do not put your faith in phony systems or nostrums or remedies. For the love of all that you consider holy, stay away from patent medicine or herbal scams of this nature. Just stay away.
I’m not saying vitamins or herbs are bad. Some of them have overall systemic benefits. But there’s a reason the FDA makes nutritional products include the disclaimer,
“These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.”
Herbal or nutritional supplements are not regulated, and their effects are largely anecdotal; some people may see results that others don’t. If a program like this were truly effective, you would see a whole raft of peer-reviewed research about it in medical journals like JAMA or Lancet, but this bottom-feeder is operating out of Australia, so he doesn’t have to comply with FDA regulations – he can promise you the moon, add a bunch of important-sounding qualifications after his name, and rake in the money. If, as he advertises, 1,694 people have bought his system, he’s already banked about $113,000 – and he hasn’t delivered a single physical product – just a bunch of PDF files.
People like this are scummy, immoral, unethical, and harmful. They make me angry, especially when their shills post crap at my blog site. Do yourself a favor, and never give them a penny.
In 2010 I posted this over at Livejournal, but the The San Pellegrino list of the top 50 restaurants for 2013 is now available, so I thought it was worth posting here as well, with the appropriate update.
And hqiz, I still haven’t eaten at a single one of them. And probably couldn’t afford to.
On the other hand, I have my own list of favorites. Decidedly less highbrow (with perhaps the exception of No. 12), but good, good eating. Note that with the exception of No. 1, there is no rank or hierarchy.
Famous for 7-course meals of relatively average food, but in absolutely brobdingnagian quantities, the best analogy I’ve found today is Buca di Beppo – but even they don’t place these gargantuan wedges of cheese on your table and let you take them home. The restaurant was taken over by a large gastronomic conglomerate and promptly destroyed by the bean counters. Tragic.
4. The Proof of the Pudding, New York City, NY
This was Frank Valenza’s first 7-table restaurant of this name. I remember their duck à l’orange and the wall of bricks that you could sponsor.
5. Dër Ratskeller Pizza Shoppe, Salt Lake City, UT
You can read a full-blown post on this place. The best American style pizza I’ve ever had.
Short of buying Håæœøgen Daðþz, or however they spell it nowadays, you couldn’t find better ice cream. Nothing beat a banana split with caramel cashew ice cream. The building is now just offices of some sort, but the sign is still there, tormenting those who remember it with great fondness.
Amazing potato pancakes (or latkes). I loved these with applesauce. 75¢, according to the menu:
9. Horn and Hardart Automats, New York City, NY
I’ve mentioned these here. Also, in the same article, Prexy’s.
10. The Waverly Inn, Cheshire, CT
This was a restaurant de grand luxe in Cheshire – my mother used to take me here to eat during her annual visits to campus. There was also a burger joint and soda place called the Farm Shoppe – while it was not extraordinarily memorable, I recall it fondly because it was one of the few places off campus that we could go as seniors.
An upscale chain restaurant, mentioned in James Thurber’s “The Catbird Seat.” I remember eating there any number of times.
Eateries, some still here and some fondly remembered.
The Old Wolf is now hungry.
[1] That’s not the third-person pluperfect subjunctive, but rather the fish – which can refer to a specific type of fish, or whatever happened to be on special yesterday.
Back when I was working at Dër Ratskeller Pizza in Sugarhouse (a southern suburb of Salt Lake) in 1974 – more about this enterprise later – just down the street from us at 780 East 2100 South was a little brown shack called Piccadilly Fish and Chips. Periodically we’d call them up and swap food – their employees invariably got tired of fish, and ours (rarely) were in the mood for something other than pizza.
This little restaurant, one of several in Utah at the time, had the best fish and chips I have ever found in America, hands down. I remember that when they were open, there was a neon sign that said ‘Now Frying.” In the 60’s, there were 10 locations; as of 2008, they were all gone. An article in the Salt Lake Tribune, dated March 19, 2008, had this to say:
Salt Lake City’s Piccadilly Fish and Chips, the last surviving restaurant of the 39-year-old chain, will close in April, owner Allan Jones said Tuesday. “The food cost has gone up, and so have taxes and wages,” said Jones. Jones purchased the restaurant at 1446 S. State St. about 19 years ago when most of the other Piccadilly locations were closing.
Piccadilly, a Utah chain, had 10 locations in the 1960s, but they started closing in the 1980s, said Jones. The most recent Piccadilly closure was the Ogden restaurant, which closed in 1991, leaving Jones with the sole Piccadilly restaurant. The restaurant closed in May 2004 after the landlords at the former location at 780 E. 2100 South planned a renovation of the property that didn’t include Piccadilly. But, Jones reopened the restaurant at its current location in December 2004.
Jones said he has had a lot of feedback from longtime customers, who say they will miss the restaurant’s homemade clam chowder, jumbo shrimp and halibut. “Every week we have people come in who say they used to go to the other locations,” said Jones.
Jones has sold the building, but did not disclose the details of the transaction.
– Brianna Lange
I was heartbroken to find out that the restaurant was gone for good; very shortly after the restaurant had closed, I got to thinking about it and wondered if it still existed anywhere. I did a search, and Street View actually showed the restaurant on State Street.
I hastened down to the address, but sadly found only this:
It was the end of an era, and I had missed it by only a few short months.
One review by “spumoni” at CitySearch read like this:
What a cozy shack. Staring at the counties of England on your way in is always fun. The fish is a little soft for my taste but the batter is good and stiff. Great chips and chowder and iced tea, and always a great deal. A little heavy, but every now and then who doesn’t want their entire lunch deep-fried? … They also have halibut and shrimp if you’re not into cod; chicken and egg rolls and stuff for people not into seafood at all. Equipped with Malt Vinegar and Lemon Juice at every table, you can almost feel the sea-wind hit the dark wooden walls outside.
Seriously, their fish and chips were divine, and their clam chowder was hard to equal. Sigh… I guess if I want good fish and chips I’ll have to spring for a ticket to London.
If anyone reading this has a picture of the old shack on 2100 South or an image of their menu, please let me know – I’d love to add them here.
The Old Wolf has spoken.
[Edit: it’s really a tragedy when stores like this close down forever and their recipes are lost. People ought to post their secret formulas online, especially if they know they won’t ever be getting back into business. Just sayin’.]
Shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Kennedy White House installed a teletype hotline to be used as a direct link between the heads of Washington and Moscow. It was created on 20 June 1963, and announced to the public on 30 August of that same year.
This device was used for the first time during the 6 Day War of 1967, when Lyndon B. Johnson communicated with Soviet Premier Alexsei Kosygin. Leaders would type their messages in their native languages, and the received communications were then translated.
No, one of these was never used as part of the Kremlin hotline. This one was from the Carter era, probably part of the Defense Red Switch Network.
The teletype system was which was replaced by facsimile units in 1988. Since 2008 the Moscow–Washington hotline has been a secure computer link over which messages are exchanged by email.
The Old Wolf has spoken, and the NSA is listening.
This is a picture of a pottery fragment bearing what is believed to be the earliest alphabetical written text ever found in Jerusalem. See more at Sci News.com.
Even older, the image above represents an artist’s conception of Warren Field in Scotland about 10,000 years ago, with material burning in one of several pits which comprise the world’s oldest calendar.
Playing in the World Game 