Capn Bob

Okay...maybe while you think about this subject, you should drink some Peruvian beer brewed the *traditional* way, as below: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/dining/09beer.html

And in the desolate wilderness that is Akron OH, resides Mad Capn Bob...in other words...me.

I remember when SuperBalls first came out. We were living in Illinois then, my father attached to an air defense installation. I rilly rilly wanted one...never got it, of course. What I got instead, a few months later, was a free trip to Germany. Growing up, I might not have been to the ocean, but I've been over it...

Late tho I be in replyin'...he shoulda used a Nerf cannonball...

I'm not trying to insult anyone's wife here, but this might be of interest to the company: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1209405/First-intact-ball-chain-drowned-prisoner-mud-Thames.html

Just finished reading "Flint and Silver", which I enjoyed and found more true to the spirit of "Treasure Island" than the book "Silver". I am planning on reading Alistair Horne's "The Fall of Paris", and am looking to lay paws on "Achtung Panzer", by "Schnelle Heinz" Guderian.

Really? I didn't even know they could cook! They make damn fine soup. Especially the endangered ones.

Well, that didn't take long, did it? Well, then...yer up!

And since I *am* up...and have been since 6.15 am this morning...here is my ever so glorious quote...guess it if ye dare! "...That's so. Even a tramp like me, no matter what happens, I know there's always a brother who won't refuse me a bowl of soup."

"No...*I'm* Spartacus!" The first Spartacus movie...I *knew* I had seen the quote someplace...

Kind of a mixed bag here...currently reading "The Franco-Prussian War" by Geoffrey Wawro...and "The Mycenaeans" by Rodney Castleden (2005, so its pretty up to date so far as scholarship and excavations are concerned),,,and just finished "Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go" by Dale E. Basye (with a surprise appearance by ol' Neddy Teach, as Heck's gym teacher). I'm waiting to get hands on "Flint and Silver", and awaiting "The Color of Magic"...the dvd, based on the Color of Magic *and* The Light Fantastic by Pratchett.

I am about to dig for buried treasure. All right, I'll be honest...or at least as honest as usual...I'm about to scoop out the kitties boxes. Adventure, excitement, really smelly things! Later today, I'll be doing up some laundry and playing France 1940. Playing the Dyle Plan scenario right now, on turn 72 (out of 88 turns), and I have a major victory against the fro...French.

I just noshed a bit of my Rum Soaked home made jerky, which came out very tasty for home made mummy meat...and after I get home from woik (which is my current location), I'll be eating some old fashioned Bean Soup...with some crusty Portugeues rolls (about as close to Brotchen as I can get in these parts) dripping with butter. Trouble is, soup's an odd choice for today's weather, which is swelterish...90 plus degrees and 64 percent humidity (dew point is 74)

Yes indeed, Mary Charleton, the "German Princess"...now there's an interesting story...the online version of the Newgate Calender has an article about here, but since its on the longish side, I'll just provide the link, which is: http://www.exclassics.com/newgate/ng34.htm

Well, I can't respond to "Hillbilly Swedish", but my Geman speaking grandparents on my mother's side were from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and my mother grew up hearing their version of German, which was not Hochdeutcsh. As time passed, she forgot a lot of German, but when we were stationed in Illesheim Germany, and went into town at Bad Windsheim, the townsfolk pegged her as Austrian, or at least having Austrian connections.

Way back whenever, I started out making me jerky using the oven, but I was given a dehydrator for Xmas one year...just a very simple and basic unit, nothing fancy...curious about how the rum based marinade will work out...if nothing else, the meat should be drunk...

Okay, I was helping this lady find some soup cookbooks, right (I work in a library), and in the process I came across a food dehydrator cookbook. Since I got one of them food drying thingies, I snatched it for meself, looked thru it...and the result that I have some meat soaking in a marinade, and I'll be drying it tomorrow. What sort of marinade, ye might ask? Well, I followed the recipe more or less exactly, but I doubled the amount of liquid smoke (from 1 tablespoon to 2), left out the salt (to make me physician happy), left out the onion juice (stores don't seem to carry it, and I ain't buyin' a juicer just to squeeze dry and onion)...oh, yes, and I left out the beer and used rum instead. So this is not just mummy meat, but buccaneer mummy meat!

I do use "Aye" (as an affirmative" in everyday talk...I usually get blank looks. As for my using a dialect or accent...I don't. 12 years growing up in the Army has resulted in my already having an accent that no one can identify, and I've been tagged as German, French, Brit, Irish, Scottish, Aussie, and even Libyan (admittedly, that was when I had a beard you could hide a badger in), and I don't remember what all else. So...no false accents for me...things are bad enough with what I got.

If you can find it, cuz its been discontinued, the Jonathan Miller production of Beggars Opera (1984), with Roger Daltry as a very good Captain Macheath. There's some great music in this, my fave being (as it should be for all gentlemen of fortune) "Since Laws Were Made for Ev'ry Degree" Amazon has it here: http://www.amazon.com/John-Gay-Jonathan-Gardiner-Soloists/dp/B00004Y7I5/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1248964263&sr=8-6

"Ying tong iddle i po!" Goon Show "Spoon! Give it to Royster! I do not take you up, sir, indeed I don't, for there's a thumb under the girdle or my name's not Trucklebed! I'll have two slices, if I may!" The Burser, Discworld novels, before a dose of Dried Frog Pills All time fave..."Ook." The Librarian, from the same set of books as quote #2

Tried some flintknapping a couple weeks ago, after not having done any for...quite a while. Discovered I was way out of condition for it. You wouldn't think, would you, that sitting around in a garage bashing two rocks together would give you a workout, but... Of course, there's way more involved than bashing two rocks together. I was using me copper boppers one a couple of large spalls, and I guess I just don't get the platforms right, because I had my usual trouble with step flaking. I do better with pressure flaking, but after a bit of that, I was wore out. Knappers do saw that too much pressure flaking will make your forearms look like Popeye's. Wot's all this to do wi' pyracy? Well, this be "Random Topics" for one, and for two, why, if more pirates knew knapping (and not just for gun flints, which is a very specialized form of knappery), getting marooned on a desert island wouldn't hold the terror it normally does. Provided it has the right type of rock, of course.

Lake Erie has many shipwrecks...being the shallowest of the lakes, when a bad storm blows thru (the "Gales of November"), there's a very real chance of hitting a shoal and splitting your keel. To add to the fun, there's the Bass Islands, Kelly's Island (visit the Glacial Grooves), and Point Pelee on the Canada shore. The point has many shipwrecks around it.

Oh yes...nothing special at all... Right now, I'm noshing on a hard salami sandwich with stone ground mustard, mayo, and cheese. Just...cheese. Earlier, it was early lunch at Longhorn...had a voucher for the ribs...

And are they...big guns?

Not me...but I got memories of the Autobahn, I do...I used to get motion sick on it, going from Bad Windsheim to Nuremberg...