Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame) has a blog entry up about his favorite April Fool’s pranks. His don’t seem particularly inspired, but there are some real gems among the comments.
Monthly Archives: March 2007
Recipe: Jambalaya
Serves 8 as a main-dish meal
Ingredients
- 1 lb andouille sausage, sliced
- 2 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into small pieces
- 2 medium onions, chopped
- 1 large or 2 small green pepper, seeded and chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, pressed or chopped
- 1 large (28 oz) can diced tomatoes with juice
- 5 cups low-sodium chicken broth (add another cup more if you like your jambalaya soupy)
- 1 pound cooked shrimp
- 3 cups UNcooked long grain rice
- 1 cup shrimp stock or clam juice
- salt and pepper to taste
In a large pot (a Dutch oven is good) brown the andouille until cooked. Remove from pot and set aside. Drain all but a little fat. (Leave maybe 1 tablespoon.)
Brown the chicken thighs in the reserved fat. Remove from pot and set aside with the andouille. If there is more than tablespoon of fat, drain all but 1 tablespoon.
Put the onion and green pepper in the pot with a little salt. Sweat until onion is translucent. Add garlic and cook one minute more.
Add rice and stir until coated.
Add tomatoes and all liquid ingredients. Bring to a boil. Add the chicken. Reduce heat to barely simmering and cover. Simmer for 30-40 minutes. Resist the urge to look in the first 30 minutes! If it smells like it is burning, reduce heat a little more.
Check seasonings and adjust as needed. Add andouille and shrimp and set aside for a few minutes. Residual heat will warm the shrimp.
Serve in bowls with hot sauce if desired.
Building fires
I have a nephew who has always been fascinated by my ability to start a fire with non-traditional tools. We had a camp-out once where I started our camp fire with a chunk of metal, a rock, and a knife (magnesium shavings and sparks will start a fire even in wet conditions.) He spent quite a while trying to figure out what the “trick” was.
Here’s a site that provides instructions for starting fires with primitive tools, including bow drills, hand drills, and flint/steel. They also sell bow-drill equipment, which sort of seems like it defeats the purpose, but hey, whatever lights your fire.
Inverted plant holder
How to make an inverted planter out of an old soda bottle.
Inventions the world doesn’t need
This is just so wrong. (May be slightly NSFW.)
Herb Garden
You’d never know it from this photo, but by dusk tonight this space will have become an herb garden.
Management Lessons
Corporate Lesson 1 : Naked Wife
A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her shower when the doorbell rings. The wife quickly wraps herself in a towel and runs downstairs. When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the next door neighbor. Before she says a word, Bob says, “I’ll give you $800 to drop that towel.”
After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her towel and stands naked in front of Bob.
After a few seconds, Bob hands her $800 dollars and leaves. The woman wraps back up in the towel and goes back upstairs. When she gets to the bathroom, her husband asks,”Who was that?”
“It was Bob the next door neighbor,” she replies. “Great!” the husband says, “Did he say anything about the $800 he owes me?”
Moral of the story:
If you share critical information pertaining to credit and risk with your shareholders in time, you may be in a position to prevent avoidable exposure.
Corporate Lesson 2
A sales rep, an administration clerk, and the manager are walking to lunch when they find an antique oil lamp. They rub it and a Genie comes out. The Genie says, “I’ll give each of you just one wish”
“Me first! Me first!” says the admin. clerk. “I want to be in the Bahamas, driving a speedboat, without a care in the world.”
Poof! She’s gone. “Me next! Me next!” says the sales rep. “I want to be in Hawaii,relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of Pina Coladas and the love of my life.”
Poof! He’s gone. “OK, you’re up,” the Genie says to the manager. The manager says, “I want those two back in the office after lunch.”
Moral of the story: Always let your boss have the first say.
Corporate Lesson 3
A priest offered a lift to a Nun. She got in and crossed her legs, forcing her gown to reveal a leg. The priest nearly had an accident. After controlling the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg. The nun said,”Father, remember Psalm 129?”
The priest removed his hand. But,changing gears, he let his hand slide up her leg again. The nun once again said, “Father, remember Psalm 129?”
The priest apologized “Sorry sister but the flesh is weak.”
Arriving at the convent, the nun went on her way. On his arrival at the church, the priest rushed to look up Psalm 129. It said, “Go forth and seek, further up, you will find glory.”
Moral of the story: If you are not well informed in your job, you might miss a great opportunity.
Corporate Lesson 4
A crow was sitting on a tree, doing nothing all day. A rabbit asked him,”Can I also sit like you and do nothing all day long?”
The crow answered: “Sure, why not.”
So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the crow, and rested.
A fox jumped on the rabbit and ate it.
Moral of the story: To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very high up.
Corporate Lesson 5
A turkey was chatting with a bull “I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree,” sighed the turkey, but I haven’t got the energy.”
“Well, why don’t you nibble on my droppings?” replied the bull. “They’re packed with nutrients.”
The turkey pecked at a lump of dung and found that it gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree. The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch. Finally after a fourth night, there he was proudly perched at the top of the tree. Soon he was spotted by a farmer, who shot the turkey out of the tree.
Moral of the story: Bullshit might get you to the top, but it won’t keep you there.
No idea where these came from, a friend just emailed them to me and I thought they were worth sharing!
Panorama Photos
Someone asked where I got that photo that’s current gracing the site header. It’s actually a bunch of individual photos stitched together with the demo version of Autostitch, a program that does automatic image stitching. It’s pretty slick.
Oh, and the image itself is taken from the path on the jetty that separates the Mission Bay inlet from the San Diego River. The big white building in the center of the picture is the Hyatt Islandia. The Sea World tower is toward the right. My sailboat is in that forest of masts between the Sea World tower and the bay.
Flowers in My Garden
Apropos of nothing, I just like the picture.
Genealogy
Anyone with the name Hicinbothem is probably related to the rest of us. I’ve been interested in the genealogy of our name for many years. Here’s what we know:
The Hicinbothems in the US came from Ireland, but we have no information about their early days.
The first arrivals were probably brothers, David, Robert, and William, possibly along with their father or uncle, also a David. They arrived by ship from Liverpool, England, in 1840. At least one more came over somewhat later; there are records of a Sidney Hicinbothem in the early 1850s, but she did not settle in the NYC area with the rest of them. The 1840 date is interesting; it predates the Irish potato famine by several years, so one has to wonder what prompted their exodus. There may also have been yet another arrival; we’ve found a branch of the family in Idaho that has no known connection to the rest of us. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to get any information from them so far.
The original male Hicinbothems settled in the Morrisania section of New York in what is now the Bronx. Quite a few of them are buried in Greenwood Cemetery there. All of the brothers married and had families, and their sons had families, and so on through six or seven generations, so there are now probably a couple of hundred Hicinbothems spread out all over the world. We have extensive records of most of them here.
Alas, in this age of identity theft and internet rogues, we do not allow unrestricted access to our extensive database of Hicinbothem genealogy anymore. If you have a legitimate interest, you’re welcome to request access by sending us an email.
If you already have the username and password, click here and you’ll get an offer to log in. Please note that three login failures will immediately block your IP address from further access; you’ll need to email us to get it turned back on.