I read a story from 2019 today that kinda hit different.

It was out of Smithsonian magazine, and is titled A Young Arctic Fox Traveled From Norway to Canada in 76 Days.

It's remarkable. She's so small...

Elise Stromseng/Norwegian Polar Institute

I mean, just look at this journey...

Arnaud Tarroux/NINA

I wish I knew why this story makes me so sad for her. It's like she kept going because she didn't know what else to do?

Then I got it.

It's the same for most of us. You just keep going because you don't know what else to do.

The difference being that I can turn on a movie and forget about survival for a bit.

It's gotten to the point where I must disconnect from the world for at least one waking hour each day. It's just too much. The level of cruelty, ignorance, violence, and stupid that's inundating all aspects of our lives day after day after day is simply not mentally sustainable.

And so... I'm trying to read or play a board game each night before bed.

It's not the perfect solution. The perfect solution would be a giant meteor destroying the planet. But it does make the assault of daily living a tiny bit smaller.

And I feel incredibly grateful I am lucky enough to be able to dip out for a bit each day. All too many people are not so lucky.

When I was in high school, there was a pizza joint in town which had some of the best pizza I've ever had. The secret was in the sauce. It wasn't just bland tomato sauce. It wasn't loaded with Italian spices in a failed attempt to make it interesting. It had a unique flavor which straddled the line perfectly and also had this kinda wine note which wasn't interfering, it was just there in the background keeping things delicious.

My favorite pizza they made was their famous Taco Pizza. Basically a cheese pizza with taco ingredients on top... ground beef, lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, and hot sauce. Delicious. After I graduated, I still ate there quite a bit, including after I became a vegetarian. I just ordered the Taco Pizza without the beef, and it was still amazing.

I have never found a frozen pizza that's any good. And believe me, I've tried ever one I can get my hands on.

I have never found a pizza place which had that amazing sauce.

But I still crave that Taco Pizza, so I've come up with the best approximation I can. And I'm sharing the recipe today! Here is what you'll need...

• Tony's Cheese Pizza. No, this is not even close to what the original was. No, it's not even the best frozen pizza out there. But it does seem to marry with the pizza toppings in the best way I've found. And the crust is good for what we're building.
• Vegetarian Ground or Ground Beef. This is entirely optional. Most of the time I skip it. If you use it, season with Taco Seasoning.
• Shredded Lettuce.
• Shredded Cheddar Cheese.
• Diced (or sliced) Tomatoes.
• Crushed Taco Chips. Not found on the original. I added these because the salty crunch tastes phenomenal.
• Cholula Hot Sauce. My favorite Mexican hot sauce, but feel free to use your own favorite.
• Sour Cream. Optional.

Because the lettuce and tomatoes will turn sludgy if stored in a refrigerator, this is not something you want to have leftovers with. This recipe serves 2-3 people so, if you're dining alone, use a bread knife to saw the frozen pizza in half (you can put the cut on the edge of a breadboard and snap it in half, once you've sawed half-way through). Then wrap the other half and stick it back in the freezer.

Cook the pizza according to directions, adding heated seasoned vegetarian grounds or fully-cooked seasoned ground beef on top half-way through.

Once cooked cut into slices then top generously with shredded lettuce, shredded cheese, tomatoes (diced or sliced), and crushed taco chips. Top with dashes of hot sauce, then put a small dollop of sour scream on each slice if you wish.

Grab a fork and enjoy.

You're welcome!

   
• noPhone! Well, shoot. Guess I'm saving my money and not buying a new iPhone 18 Pro Max after all. Turns out the only thing I give a crap about, the new variable aperture, is a non-starter because the photo sensor on the iPhone is so small that the aperture doesn't really have much of an effect when it comes to depth of field...

And so... maybe next year. Because right now the camera on the 18 Pro is not enough for me to switch just as the 17 Pro wasn't before it.

   
• Eyesight! On Friday I had to run to the Big City for work. While I was there, I dropped by Costco. Where I spent way too much money. I bought new silverware because my old stainless steel stuff (which I love) is starting to get messed up... I bought new reading glasses, because it's time I bumped up from -1.5 to -2.0, alas... and I also bought a 2-pound tub of Rojo's Street Corn Dip, which I will end up eating in less than a week...

Because it's just that insanely delicious.

   
• The Great Beyond! After Costco, I ran by Fred Meyer to pick up five packages of Beyond Stack Burgers. But before I picked up my online order, I went inside and picked up an additional five packages because they were on sale for a crazy good price. Thank heavens I bought that small freezer for my garage!

So now I have 80 burgers ready to go. Since I eat them morning, noon, and night, I figure they might last me until mid-November sometime. Hopefully they will go on sale by then, because they're way expensive when they're not on sale. Of course, I'd rather pay full price than have them discontinued by Fred Meyer, since they are the only store in the entire valley which has them.

   
• Reach for the Sky! The latest season of Reacher was incredible. I was very sad it was over and I'm having to wait months or years for new episodes. However... we did get a new series to help lessen the blow, a Neagley spin-off!

The show is amazing, as expected. And, talk about lessening the blow, Amazon Prime may have given us Neagley... but they canceled Ride or Die, which pisses me the fuck off. The show was highly regarded, highly rated, and had great promise for a second season. How the hell do they decide where to spend their money?

   
• Rarity! Now this is fucking cool as all getout...

Isn't stuff like this incredible? Doesn't it just blow your mind that a substance like this can exist?

   
• Interplanet Janet! Alrighty... we're going from cool shit dug out from the earth to cool shit we're doing in space! This is an incredible video. And the visualizations they're using are some of the best I've seen. Well worth your valuable time to watch...

We are capable of some truly great things as we reach for the stars. Sadly, we would apparently rather spend our time fighting in the dirt. What a waste.

   
• The Incredible Shrinking Food! Thanks to idiotic fucking tariffs plus out-of-control fuel costs thanks to an idiotic fucking war, the price of food is insanely expensive now. And once again food companies are trying to camouflage it with shrinkflation. My hummus was advertised as having a lower price... BUT THE CONTAINER WAS NOTICEABLE SMALLER...

And don't even ask me what the fuck this is. According to the company who makes these chips, this is a full bag. Seriously, I haven't touched a single chip yet!

It's all so fucking insane. We're paying record prices for "LOWER GROCERIES ON DAY ONE" yet getting fuck-all for it.

   
And now back to being even more bitchy than what I can blog about.

The cats are unhappy about the changing weather. No more lazy nights out in the catio because it's starting to get chilly out there at night.

So they spend more time indoors wanting to have my attention. Sometimes.

The nice thing about my cats taking naps next to each other while I'm trying to work in bed is that I don't have to be holding their feet or petting them the whole time. They are able to be happy laying next to each other without me...

Probably time to think about pulling out the warming pads and heated blankets!

I woke up this morning to piles of the most stupid levels of willful ignorance I have ever encountered.

It's a call to boycott a beloved family-co-op-owned Pacific Northwest brand: Tillamook. A company which is most famous for their cheese, but they make all kinds of dairy products... all of them amazing. Sour cream, yogurt, cream cheese, butter, ice cream, and the like.

And why a boycott?

Was their owner found to be in the Epstein Files 38,000 times? Or tried to incite an insurrection? Or has been found guilty of sexual assault? Or has been credibly accused of sexual assault by numerous women? Has bragged about grabbing and kissing women without consent? Has bragged about going into dressing rooms where women are in various states of undress or are naked? Or has been convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records? Has openly been abusing their position to steal wealth and power from the American people? Has been caught in so many lies that you would be forgiven for thinking that they are incapable of telling the truth?

No? None of that?

Then what? What could it possibly be?

Telling people which of their products are safe for people observing halal? Are you fucking kidding me?

The absurdity here cannot be understated.

Food manufacturers put all kinds of marks on their food products! Non-GMO marks, Gluten-Free marks, Vegan marks, Organic marks, No Corn Syrup marks, No Seed Oils marks, Kosher marks (for observant Jews), and Halal marks (for observant Muslims). And that's just the beginning! There's all kinds of marks for all kinds of people to help them with all kinds of dietary needs and dietary preferences.

And it's not just Jews who use Kosher marks and Muslims who use Halal marks. Many people use them. PEOPLE LIKE ME! Kosher Pareve marks tell vegetarians and vegans that the food contains no dairy, meat, or poultry. Halal marks tell people that the facility producing the food adheres to strict cleanliness standards. If you don't care about that kind of thing, THEN JUST IGNORE THE FUCKING MARKS, LIKE I IGNORE NON-GMO MARKS!

For non-Muslims, Halal marks on Tillamook cheese merely says that the facility is clean and free of disease, and if the cheese contains rennet that the animal from which it came was killed by a Muslim in a humane, clean way with all effort made to keep the animal calm and free of distress. And, oh yeah, the Muslim doing the slaughter must kill the animal while saying "Bismillah, Allahu Akbar"... which means "In the name of Allah, Allah is the Greatest." Which is the same idea as Christians offering prayer and thanks to Almighty God before eating a meal. It's a "God is good, God is great, let us thank him for our food" kinda thing.

That's it.

Lord, Yahweh, Jehovah, Allah, Adonai, Elohim... just different names from different faiths and cultures for the same God of Abraham. And for the offended Christians out there: in Islam, Jesus is a major prophet, the Messiah, and considered a messenger of God. So your Savior is revered and respected in the Islamic faith as well.

So let's sum up the ritualistic slaughter of animals for it to be Halal, shall we? The kill is made in the name of God in a humane way, since God is merciful and is the only one who should take a life, then they say "God is the greatest."

Yeah, totally boycott that.

If you're an ignorant Islamophobe.

As for me?

I don't eat a ton of dairy any more, but when I do I support a local, farming-family-co-op-owned business with the highest possible quality standards who wants to help people find products suitable for their diet.

Whatever that diet may be.

Clearly... clearly... I was born into the wrong class.

I was looking through what was suggested for me on YouTube and a 12-year-old video popped up which I feel to my very soul is the lifestyle I should be accustomed to. Not because of the luxury, but because it isolates you from other people.

First Class is for peasants...

Can you imagine?

The closest thing to flying private that you can get.

Which I also feel is a suitable accommodation for me. I was just trying to lower my carbon footprint.

I'm going to say the same thing I said about the Democratic Party when they wanted Biden to run for a second term... the Republican Party wheeling out a confused Mitch McConnell because they needed his vote is elder abuse.

Hell, Mitch was so confused that he was going to vote with the Democrats before his Republican colleagues stepped in to stop him. It's all so disgusting how people are so eager to take advantage of older people whose minds are not capable enough to understand what's going on.

Public officials and politicians make decisions which affect our lives. If they are demonstrating signs of confusion or dementia... whether due to age or not... they need to undergo a mental evaluation which is then made PUBLIC if they are deemed mentally capable. If they are not deemed mentally capable, they should be relieved of their duties. I'm sick and tired of these behind-the-scenes evaluations which are kept secret. If they are so mentally capable as to hold office, why is the evaluation not made public? If they aced the evaluation, what possible reason could there be not to release a video of what took place?

There isn't one. Full stop.

The current hostile atmosphere in the "Land of the Free" towards my Muslim friends has me worrying about their safety. All they want is what all of us want... to live their lives in peace. But because they worship God differently than other people, they get villainized for anything and everything. And they're having to endure the consequences of Islamophobic rhetoric coming from the highest level of government.

How can you possibly compete with that?

How about fact-based comedy?

Politicians and their advocates use buzzwords like "SHARIA LAW" to control people... despite the fact that the vast majority of people know nothing about it... except what gets thrown at them by people who pick-and-choose the pieces. Which is hardly surprising, because these same people pick-and-choose what they're going to believe from the Bible.

It's only fitting that the fear mongering gets lobbed back to those who are propagating it, which is why this video is so perfect.

Because in a time where most every headline makes you want to tear your hair out and cry until you have no tears left, comedy is the best medicine.

The first fashion designer I ever knew by name is Bob Mackie.

He got a shout out on The Carol Burnett Show, which I was obsessed with as a kid when it was on television reruns. I learned that he was responsible for the outfit designs on the show, and eventually I found out he was responsible for a lot of designs on a lot of shows of the day... including those amazing outfits worn by Cher and Marilyn Monroe! And he never slowed down. He was still designing incredible fashions for stars like Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Zendaya, and many more.

Lest we forget his work for Elton John!

But there's always that one dress I'll forever remember him by, and it's probably not the one you think...

It's comedy genius on a level that few will ever achieve. And its story is best told by the man himself...

Rest in Peace, sir. You made the world a more beautiful place.