Scattershot

Proverb: “It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good.”

At the beginning of the pandemic all those years ago, when the end of the world was thought to be upon us, the restaurateurs in our area went through one crisis after another. First we weren’t supposed to gather in public spaces at all, which included their establishments. Then when later on this prohibition was relaxed, they couldn’t get their former employees to come back to work.

Many gave up on the whole thing and shuttered their doors. Some radically altered their manner of doing business, as when buffets disappeared altogether, never to return. There were a few that saw an opportunity to gouge their customers and blame the price rises on COVID. One restaurant in Silverton suddenly raised their prices from a previous average of $12.00 to a loftier $17.00 per sandwich.

Gouging was not limited to restaurants, however. Everything cost more and then more again at our supermarkets, adding to the economic strain on families.

So I see the ill wind … where’s the good part, you ask? In our case it has been a push toward doing what we might have done already, and that is to change our eating habits. Less meat, fewer processed foods, more often chowing down on rice and beans than steak and potatoes.

We’re not vegetarians yet, but I think we’d fit into the “flexitarian” pigeonhole. Which is a category of gourmands comparable to agnosticism.

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From The New Yorker

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The debates are coming! The debates are coming! What debates, you ask? Surely you jest, I respond. When President Biden and ex-President Cluck face off on the evening of the 27th. In case by some magic you haven’t been forced to follow their respective back-stories, I have prepared a chart outlining a few of their differences.

	BIDEN	CLUCK
Political party	Democratic	Himself
Political philosophy	Democracy	neo-fascist
Moral fiber	highly developed	none found
Can be trusted to keep an oath	yes	oaths, shmoaths
Relationship with Russian dictators	adversarial	subservient
Attitude toward fallen soldiers	respectful	contemptuous
Honesty	95%	10%
Age	too old	too old
Would you have let him date your daughter?	no problem	where’s my shotgun?

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The over-warm days mount up. I finally gave up on waiting for something moderate, having been made (by myself) a prisoner of the weather. So out onto the streets and paths with my trusty electric steed went I. Carrying enough water on my back for a small company of the French Foreign Legion, I covered about 23 miles before putting the bike away for a recharge. Ambient temperature 94 degrees.

When you can sweat and evaporate you can tolerate quite a lot of heat, unless your water runs out.

There is a new restaurant along the bike path, a brewpub called Shelter. It has the best restaurant location in town, right along the bicycle path and Uncompahgre River. Toward the end of my ride I stopped in for a light supper and found that the menu included a “BLT salad.” Curious as to what this might be, I ordered it.

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Verdict = tasty, but way too much lettuce. In fact, I had to take a trip to the ER to be treated for Romaine overdose. This is not a pleasant activity, involving tubes and solutions and what can best be described as a medically enthusiastic Roto-Rootering.

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