Insomnia got you down like it's got me down? Maybe reading something boring will help you to fall asleep. You're lucky I have the perfect solution... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Ophelia! Taylor Swift released the video for The Fate of Ophelia (one of my favorite tracks off of The Life of a Showgirl), and it's beautiful. And probably very, very expensive...

What's remarkable is that Taylor both wrote and directed it. Which is to say she might have the chops to do that if she ever gets tired of making music.

   
• What Are You Doing Here?! In a day and age where every moment brings new horrors... I love moments like this (language NSFW)...

I have so many friends around the globe. I'd love to drop in and surprise them like this.

   
• Rollercoaster! And now I want a rollercoaster in my back yard too...

I wonder if my HOA would allow it?

   
• Great American Cities! My list... which includes my priorities of art, culture, American public consciousness, world consciousness, and food: #1 is New York. #2 is Los Angelas. #3 is Chicago. #4 is Boston. #5 is San Francisco. #6 is New Orleans. #7 is Seattle. #8 is Atlanta. #9 is Miami. #10 is Las Vegas.

Now, this list is always going to be subjective, but the fact that New Orleans wasn't even considered at any metric feels insane to me. It's my favorite American city, so maybe I'm biased, but WTF? And, my God, Las Vegas wasn't considered? To many people in the world, it is the metric from which American excess is pinpointed. The omission that I'm going to catch heat for is Washington D.C., which would have made my list easy... except the art and culture is being gutted now, so I'd prefer to leave that option to the past. Hopefully it can return one day. There's other cities which seem somehow wrong to omit from my list. Minneapolis. Honolulu. San Diego. Nashville. Memphis. Philadelphia. San Antonio. Santa Fe. Portland (both of them). St. Louis. Savannah. The list goes on and on. There's a lot to love about so many American cities which could make them contenders when you consider the metric which makes them special.

   
• Drone... um... Strike? A drone show goes terribly, terribly wrong in China...

I can't for the life of me figure out what happened here. If I had to guess, the combination of a drone show with a fireworks show wasn't timed properly the fireworks took out the drones? This is awful.

   
• Science, Bitch! A critical video that everybody needs to watch. Especially if you're buying into the anti-science bullshit that's fucking us over and killing people...

I am beginning to think that humans going extinct out of fucking stupidity is the best-case scenario for the planet.

   
• Follow the Money! Sooooo... states that put more dollars into the government than out are getting their funding cut? This is repugnant. I can't recall any other administration so intent on fucking over people who didn't vote for them like this. Presidents Biden, Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, Carter, etc. tried to be a president to everybody, even people who didn't support them. They were presidents for the entire country instead of just the Americans they like...

Maybe these states should start withholding their money from the fucking government and let everybody else sort out their own shit. This is beyond fucked up. Especially since that $8 billion is probably going to all his wealthy owners and in his own pocket.

   
And now I'm going to bed early. Though I don't know why because I can never seem to sleep.

   
Why do I watch the news? It just keeps getting worse and worse.

It's a cold, dreary, and wet day, so I'm guessing Fall must be here, but I won't be wasting time mourning the end of Summer... because an all new ALL FOOD & EATING Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Food Talk! I fell down another rabbit hole on the internet... this time with a podcast called Lunchbox Envy. The episodes are like potato chips in that you can't watch just one. There's also a clips channel with short videos that have interesting food facts...

Food is always interesting because it reflects the culture and environment of the people eating it. But there's something to be said about discussing interesting things about the food you eatmin your own culture.

   
• Plum Sweet! I could watch bats eating all day long...

Bats are adorable in all the right ways. But bats eating is next level.

   
• Taters! I've had all these dishes because I love potatoes so much, and have tried well over 100 recipes for them...

I'm a little sad that the Japanese croquet included meat, because when I was traveling to Japan, the way they make them without meat is amazing because of how they're seasoned. The most interesting option here is the Turkish baked potato, which I had without the hot dog. It seems a weird combination of toppings, but it really works... and I need to make one soon, because I haven't had it in at least a decade. And I can make it with a veggie dog!

   
• We'll Be Having Eggs! Chef José Andrés broke the internet when he unveiled his secret for an amazing omelette in less than a minute (on Rogan, of all places). It's just and egg with mayonnaise mixed in. I had one this morning and can verify that it is indeed very delicious and very easy to make...

I have been buying microwaveable frozen omelettes because I don't eat a lot of eggs any more, and don't want them expiring. I am very curious to know if the José Andrés omelettes can be frozen and still taste good, because that would be a lot cheaper.

   
• Sliced! Slicing bread is not an overwhelming task. You pull out a serrated knife and you start sawing it. But when you make a lot of bread, a tool like this looks pretty fantastic, just because it looks like it makes perfectly even slices...

But the problem with stuff like this? You then have to clean it. Which doesn't look fun at all.

   
• Food Map! D gets me Southern Italy, India, China, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, a good chunk of Greece, Japan, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Turkey, a nice chunk of the Middle East, the Philippines, and more? Sign me up...

I would badly miss Mexican and African cuisine... and I'd be missing most of the European dishes I wouldn't get... but, yeah, D... second choice G. They have the best variety of what I most love to eat.

   
• UtiliBread! I have a sourdough starter that I use for absolutely everything bread-related. From loaves to pizza crust to hamburger buns... it's good for anything I could want. Then I found this interesting no-knead dough that I very much want to try sometime...

Because you can never have too much bread!

   
• Umami Whammy! It's bizarre to me how MSG is in so many foods, yet people treat it like some kind of toxic chemical or something (seriously, look at the ingredients on a bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos and get back to me). The misinformation campaign started as a way of discrediting foreign foods (MSG is a staple of Asian cooking), and became urban legend so people think it causes headaches or whatever. And yet most people are eating it without knowing and don't seem to complain? Well, I love the stuff. It only takes a small amount, and I put it in many foods that I make (it makes potato salad and vegetarian meat-substitutes sing). This guy does a test which compares common foods with and without MSG, and it's a pretty great video which mirrors my experience...

So... if you want to add some mouthwatering appeal to your cooking and ignore the misinformation that plagues it, try just a small amount of MSG and find out if it makes a difference to you.

   
• Cost of Living? Can anybody tell me to get those cheaper groceries that were promised on "Day One?" Because I just paid an astronomical sum for a very small amount of groceries. The only thing that seems to be down in price are eggs (which makes sense because the chicken population is being restored after so many were killed because of the Avian flu). Alas, I don't eat many eggs... so that means I'm paying more for everything I'm buying. Price indexes say we're paying 29% more than 2020, but that actually seems an understatement, because the size of products is decreasing as prices are increasing. And the prices are only going to get worse... likely far worse... because tariffs, deportations of agriculture workers, and climate change are driving up prices with no end in sight. Just like economists said would happen before the election. I don't understand how somebody who prioritizes personal gain and funneling money to his wealthy corporate donors while knowing nothing about how tariffs work was ever going to be a solution to high prices. The guy bankrupted a casino... A CASINO! And where is all that tariff money going? Tax breaks for billionaires, I'm guessing.

   
I should probably go out and start pulling all my dying plants for compost, but it's not at all pleasant outside so I guess I'm holding off on that. Instead I think I'll cook something because I'm hungry all of a sudden.

I am at such a loss as to understand how our toxic society became "anti-science" that I feel like I must be insane.

But then I saw something which put it in clear perspective for me...

And there it is.

Science has been such a huge fucking miracle in our lives that we can't conceive of what life was like before the discoveries we've been blessed with. And so kids are dying from preventable diseases and laws are in process to deny people from even having the option to get vaccinated.

Welcome to the death cult mentality which is fucking up the entire world.

It's gotten to the point where I'm afraid to read the news.

I keep adding key words to automatically delete the horrors of the day from my feed reader but, with new horrors arriving daily, it's a never-ending battle. Just when I think I've filtered out everything that sends my anxiety skyrocketing, heeeeeeere comes dread and despair!

The sad thing is that I usually pride myself on being up on current events and well-informed about what's going on in the world... but this? This?!??

Where is that world-ending giant meteor when you really need it?

Cannot get my hands to stop smelling like the onions I just cut, but I'll try my best not to throw up on my keyboard... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Plague Doctor! I was researching the bubonic plague (don't ask). Eventually I got to Alexandre Émile John Yersin, the Swiss-French doctor who co-discoverer of the cause of the plague and figured out it was being spread by rats. He's a pretty amazing guy with some amazing accomplishments. But here's the thing... he's also a total snack. JUST LOOK AT THIS PHOTO!

He was apparently celibate, dedicating his entire life to making other people's lives better. Which he probably did by melting ovaries as he walked down the street. — And here's where it gets interesting... I remember the "American Market" in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), which is also called "Yersin Market" because it's on Yersin Street, named after our boy here because he ended up moving to Vietnam for the remainder of his life of research (where he founded the Medical School of Hanoi, and was a pioneer in cultivating rubber trees!). When it comes to heroes of history, this guy is definitely on that list.

   
• Neverending! Nothing quite finding a cover of a song that you prefer over the original. This is pretty cool...

Not that the original Limahl track was bad by any means...

I just like the new synth arrangement of the material better.

   
• Addams! The first half of the second season of Wednesday is fun. And there's a couple cameos that are so flawlessly cast that I almost didn't believe it. Yeah, yeah, I know there are people who are big mad that it isn't faithful to the source material, but it can be its own thing and still be entertaining...

Though, to be honest, I still prefer the two films starring Raul Julia, Anjelica Huston, Christopher Lloyd, and Christina Ricci over any adaptation of the original The Addams Family comic.

   
• It's Doug! All the Jeopardy and Black Jeopardy sketches on SNL are hilarious, but I find myself watching this one at least every-other month...

The fact that Tom Hanks was willing to make fun of himself this badly makes it even more funny than it already was. And, of course, Mr. Hanks is no stranger to Jeopardy sketches... he has a hilarious role on Black Jeopardy...

Though Eddie Murphy's impersonation of Tracy Morgan in front of Tracy Morgan remains one of the funniest things I've ever seen...

You know it's funny when you can break Tracy Morgan while playing Tracy Morgan.

   
• Unhappy! Watched Happy Gilmore 2 last night. Good Lord. Was looking forward to something charming, nostalgic, and funny to distract me from the day... instead Netflix approved a two hour mess that's more depressing than funny. Adam Sandler is an alcoholic ass-hat who accidentally killed his wife at the very beginning of the movie? Hilarious...

You know you're in deep, deep trouble when you're looking forward to seeing Shooter McGavin more than the main character. Hell, you're happy to see anybody except Happy on the screen (Bad Bunny continues to surprise me with just how good he is... just like in Bullet Train, his character is a highlight). Fortunately, there's some genuinely funny moments and a lot of great cameos which allowed me to get through the film on nostalgia alone. But... come on... in a day and age when life is depressing enough, can we not do this? Killed his wife in the first two minutes? Really? This is where we're at?

   
• Just Fuck Off Already! Precious few people are a bigger piece of shit than Bill Maher. I have never understood his popularity. He has bad take after bad take based on misleading statements and outright lies, and has shown himself to be a dick of the highest order every chance he gets. I ignored him forever... until he was taken to school by Ben Affleck, of all people, over his shitty fucking Islamophobia. From then on I actively loathed him. Which is why Big Joel's latest video really hit for me. Well worth a watch...

Lord. If you want to be dishonest with your audience so you can be a self-righteous douche, nobody's stopping you. But if you actually think that's makes you a better person, who the fuck are you?

   
• Slop! I reported a Facebook page that is nothing more than fake AI-generated bullshit about Dolly Parton dying...

Anybody willing to lay odds on Facebook hitting back with "We didn't delete this page"... because Facebook is ALSO run by fake AI-generated bullshit? In all seriousness, fuck these AI scammer pieces of shit. Dolly Parton deserves far better than this stupid crap.

   
• NEWSFLASH: Tim Cook appeals to Trump’s love of gold with a 24-karat base for Apple plaque. So what's next? Tim Cook just flies the Apple jet to DC and blows Trump on the White House front lawn at a press event? I don't know what's more embarrassing... the fact we have a president who requires you suck up to him personally so you can keep your company in business, or the fact that CEOs are lining up to do it.

   
And now I'm back to smelling like onions.

I'm way too tired to blog, but here I am again... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Memories Do Pass. It seems so strange that two more musicians from my youth have passed... namely Ozzy Osbourne and Chuck Mangione...

As if that weren't enough, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, most known for playing Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show also died in a tragic drowning accident. I prepared for getting to the point where all the people from my memories were going to start dying, but I wasn't prepared for how quickly they're passing. Every month a couple more seem to leave us, and I can't help but wonder how many more will go before I do.

   
• McMissing McPies! I don't give a shit how "unhealthy" McDonald's fried pies were... I want them back. Who eats at McDonald's to be healthy?

Of course McDonald's is so fucking expensive now that I can't really afford to eat there any more, so it's not like it matters. Though I might be willing to take out a second mortgage if it meant I could have a fried McPie again.

   
• Perfect 'Maters! When I had to transfer my tomato plants outside, I was certain that they would be pecked at by birds and spoiled by bugs. But no....

Am I just phenomenally lucky? Because the biggest problem I have is to wash off the water spots. They tomatoes themselves are beautiful.

   
• Ares! The original Tron is one of my favorite films of all time. The sequel was okay but hardly in the same league. About all I could say was that the special effects were darn good. And now another sequel has landed and... well... the special effects look darn good...

It looks far removed from the initial concept, though the idea of computer constructs from the digital world being able to make their way into our world was where the sequel ended up, so here we are. If nothing else, I hope it's at least entertaining.

   
• Mickey Kicked the Bucket? ZOMFG! WHEN DID MICKEY MOUSE DIE?!??

When I was at the Walt Disney World Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party last year, I saw that there are people lining up to buy dozens of the special event popcorn buckets and sipper cups. That's some big business on eBay, apparently.

   
• Leaving Las Vegas! Pre-pandemic, I had several work trips to Las Vegas for the charity I volunteered with. But over the years there were fewer, because we were finding the number of conventions wanting to hold events in Vegas were fewer. This video offers some interesting insight into the many problems which make Sin City a less-desirable vacation destination...

#1 on my list? Fucking "resort fees." I personally avoid Vegas for this one reason. I hate being lied to about the rate I'm paying. Hotels country-wide should be forced to list the TOTAL PRICE YOU WILL BE CHARGED at the time you book your lodging. And those absurd fucking "Restaurant Fees" and "CNF Fees" are #2 on my list.

   
• Republican Speaker of the House Just Loooooooves Pedophiles! Well this should shock absolutely nobody... "Speaker Mike Johnson said he would send lawmakers home early for their summer recess in order to head off Democratic demands for votes on calling for the release of files from the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein." Gotta protect pedophiles at all costs, I guess. There must be some huge donors and very important politicians on that list. Why else would you protect pedophiles?

And now we just wait for Ghislaine Maxwell to give an interview with the FBI where she says that no Republicans were on the list, names a few token Democrats, then gets mysteriously pardoned by the President of the United States for finally "telling the truth to the American people." Because keep in mind that only the President can pardon her crimes of supplying underage girls to Epstein Island.

   
And on that depressing note, off I go to try and get some sleep before facing the horrors on a new news day.

Professor Dave has created an in-depth video addressing RFK's horrific, life-destroying misinformation campaign. Of particular note is how the head of the Department of Health & Human Services profits from his bullshit.

No matter what side of the fence you're on, I'd urge you to watch this entire video... if, for no other reason, to listen to the debunked lies that are easily verifiable by looking up the misrepresented citations RFK presents as "facts in evidence" to know the truth. So even if you don't take action for your own self, at the very least you're not propagating misinformation which convinces others to risk their health and lives (or, more tragically, the health and lives of their children)...

You know what refutes science? Better science. Not whatever the fuck RFK's stupid shit and lies are supposed to be.

So the year is officially half over.

Which is to say that Americans just got fucked in record time.

This country is adding trillions of dollars to the national debt while slashing benefits for average Americans all so 60% of the resulting tax cuts are going to the top 20% of the wealthiest Americans.

Typical.

I get how the math isn't understandable by most people. Math is hard. Fooling people about the math is easy.

But how is it that people don't understand that preventative health care for all Americans is in everybody's best interest? If people can't afford to go to doctors when problems are small and can be resolved relatively cheaply, then they wait until health problems are very large and incredibly expensive. Then they can't afford to pay. So they don't. But that money has to come from somewhere. Which is to say that we all end up paying far more for their care than we would have if they had gotten early treatment... whether it's via our taxes, higher insurance premiums, higher doctor costs, or whatever, WE pay for it! This is a simple concept that people are apparently too fucking stupid to understand.

The politicians supporting this shit understand it all very well... they just don't give a fuck if people get sick and die. And they also don't give a fuck if American taxpayers end up paying more money... just so long as their wealthy owners don't end up paying for it. Which they won't, because the vast majority of the tax cuts are going to them.

It's a horrific situation we're all being put in.

For example...

I really hope that nobody out there has a parent with dementia.

When I did, there was insurance and options for veterans available and it still wasn't enough. I took out a loan for my mom's care... but, even so, without Medicaid to help cover some of the costs, I have no fucking clue what I would have done after she got to the point she had to be put in a facility. Medicaid is a safety net that we all pay into so that if tragedy strikes, we can get care. And without that safety net, what happens?

This Big Pile of Shit Bill is going to fuck over so many people. And most of them don't even know it yet.

All because the millionaires and billionaires who own our fucking politicians want even more of our money and don't want to pay their fair share.

I kept my mom with me even after her doctor said she needed to have professional help. Because I thought it would be better for her than sending her to go live with strangers. I was wrong. There's a point where a dementia patient requires specialized round-the-clock care which I wasn't equipped to provide. But now people will likely be forced into this situation anyway because assholes somehow get elected who don't give a fuck about the people they represent. So everybody loses. Except millionaires and billionaires, who always win even when they lose because the system is set up to always, always, always benefit them.

I cannot fathom what this disgusting, cruel, and utterly vile bill is going to do to the future of this country. The things we will lose are not something you can bring back by snapping your fingers. The sad truth is that even if everybody wakes the fuck up and puts a stop to this senseless destruction, it could take decades to undo the damage. If it can be undone at all. We're going to be paying more for less for a very long time.

But, hey, those toilets on billionaire's jets aren't going to gold-plate themselves! People losing Medicaid and dying is apparently a small price to pay so they can live the excessive lifestyle we provide to them.

Or so we're being told.

I tell you what... we've gotten to the point where I have to seriously ask myself if the universe would be better off if a giant meteor would just fucking wipe all humanity off the damn planet.

Because, for the record, if somebody fucking answers "No comment" when you ask if they're pro or anti slavery, they gave you their answer...

When it comes to fucking owning a human being, there's room for debate? There's wiggle-room for interpretation? Jesus.