The Deets

Cajun Lucy (Jucy Lucy), originally uploaded by edkohler.

This is my first stop in what could turn into an epic trip around the Twin Cities in search of the best Jucy Lucy. For those who aren’t in the know, a Jucy Lucy is a cheeseburger where the cheese is on the INSIDE of the burger. That’s right. The inside.

You have to be careful about biting overly aggressively into a Jucy Lucy since the cheese can become as hot as the sun on the inside fo a burger. The best strategy is to take a small nip of the burger, blow on the magma before taking the next bite, and repeat.

This Jucy Lucy expose is off to a controversial start since my first stop was NOT at Matt’s Bar in Minneapolis or anywhere else in Minneapolis. Again, for those who aren’t in the know, Matt’s Bar proclaims to be the home of the Jucy Lucy. We’ll have to get to the bottom of that claim at a later date.

Now, about this particular Jucy Lucy: The Groveland tap offer a variation of the original Lucy. This particular model uses pepperjack cheese and jalapeno slices. Yes, I realize there isn’t a funny symbol over the ‘n’ in that last sentence, so you’ll have to figure out the appropriate pronunciation for that pepper on your own. The jalapeno (sp) slices seem to be of the jarred variety, so they have some kick, but not the kick of a vine ripened, sliced on spot, better be sure to wash your hands before using the bathroom variety. That’s a story for another day.

Here is the Tap’s take on their own Lucy:

The spicy twist on the original. We stuff this one with jalapeños and molten pepperjack cheese. Again we said molten… it’s still hot! Order a basket of fries or onion rings to eat while it cools.

Overall, I’d give this Lucy an 8. The bun is fresh, it holds together well, the meat isn’t over cooked, and the basket with fries is mighty tasty. The coleslaw can go wherever coleslaw goes after showing up in a basket like this.

Mineral Water, originally uploaded by edkohler.

As of the day after Thanksgiving, I’ve gone off soda - or should I say “pop?” Either way, no Coke, Diet Coke, Diet Coke Zero, Diet Coke Vanilla, Wild Cherry Diet Pepsi, C2, etc.

This is my next 30-day challenge after the vegetarian thing that wrapped up on T-day.

One thing I’ve noticed is a radical transformation in the recycling bin at work. This is a shot from earlier today of what normally looks very silver from all the Diet Coke cans filling the bin. Now it’s taken on a blue hue due to the only non-soda option in the Coke machine, Mendota Sparkling Water, seeing a sudden spike in sales.

Seriously, it really doesn’t matter how much they pay me at work. They get it all back through the pop machine.

I received a notice today from my good friends at AAdvantage Dining. It’s a rewards program offered by American Airlines’ miles program where I earn miles for dining at restaurants in their network. Apparently, I haven’t been picking the right restaurants so I got a slap on the wrist and warning that I would lose my premium status if I didn’t dine at 10 AAdvantage approved restaurants between now and the end of the year.

Being a restaurant junkie who rarely eats at home, the challenge of eating out ten times in 33 days at appropriate restaurants didn’t phase me. However, after taking a look at the qualifying restaurants in the Minneapolis area, I realized there is absolutely no way I’ll meet the required goal.

The problem really comes down to the quality of the restaurants. I think the best way to describe them would be non-chain restaurants with uninspired offers. The food offers are similar to what I’d expect to find in an Applebee’s, TGI Friday’s, Ruby Tuesday’s. Nothing particularly interesting. I’m a HUGE fan of non-chain restaurants. In fact, that’s one of the main reasons I’m a city guy rather than a suburb guy. But I’m not going to hit a restaurant simply because it’s not a chain.
Of course, I’m generalizing and there are a few gems but not enough to add up to ten meals in 33 days. Take a look if you want to see what I’m sayin’: http://www.aa.rewardsnetwork.com/

My zip is 55406. What restaurants do you see on the list worth hitting?

In case you find the program interesting, I believe it pays 10 miles for every dollar spent. At least until you don’t live up to their expectations. I believe the same program is available through other airlines, including Northwest Airlines as the iDine program. On the plus side, the beauty of this program is you don’t have to carry a special card like the Entertainment Book has. You just register your credit card numbers with the service and reap the bennies when you happen to eat at a qualifying restaurant. Painless.

I figure day to day life in Iraq much be pretty rough. With limited access to power, thus refrigeration, things we take for granted like drinkable milk in the refrigerator become impossible.

Unemployment numbers are insanely high, but beyond that, something like 2 million people have be dislocated from their homes due by either having their homes destroyed or simply due to the danger they faced living in their now-dangerous neighborhoods.

So, what does a person without a job, a home, refrigeration, and general safety do? I imagine just about whatever it would take to provide those basic needs for themselves and their families. I’m certain that if someone kicked down my door in an attempt to find WMDs, the first thing I’d do after they left would be to repair the darn thing. Would you be able to sleep at night without a secure door on your home?

With this in mind, I find the behavior of the US troops in this video from Iraq absolutely disgusting. According to the non-FOX News reporter, the US troops featured in this video stumbled across a group of men and children who were looting lumber. This, of course, is a crime and deserves some attention. Considering my preface to the video above, what would be an appropriate solution to deal with this situation? I’d like to see something like this:

1. Ask them why they’re looting lumber. Maybe they have a justifiable reason.

2. Arrest them.

3. Make them return the lumber.

Or, you could do what the US troops did: shoot the looter’s car then crush it with a tank.

I’m not sure what the punishment is for looting lumber in the United States, but looking at the lumber on their car, it looks like it would probably be a misdemeanor charge in most states. I imaging a typical US judge would listen to the defendant’s case, “Your honor, the doors to my home were destroyed by US troops, and my kitchen is missing due to an errant shot from a tank. This is why I look, your honor.” Somehow, I think the sentence would fall somewhat short of a crushed car given the circumstances.

My questions:

Why didn’t the troops arrest the looters?

Isn’t there a criminal justice system set up to deal with things like this?

Does the punishment fit the crime?

Who made the troops the judge and jury?

What do these troops do when the camera isn’t running? When a reporter isn’t standing right there? When children aren’t present?

Any thoughts?

Mike over at Jackalope Ranch came up with the idea for Brie String Cheese back in ‘03. At the time, one of his concerns was that someone would steal his brilliant idea once he released it into the public domain. With more than three years having passed and no sign of string brie on the shelves at my local Rainbow, Cub, Lunds, or Bylerly’s, I think Mike’s idea was either too early, or the world’s best food scientists with an emphasis in dairy have had as many problems bringing this to market as Bush has had figuring out what to do about the war he started in Iraq.

Personally, I find the concept of a string brie somewhat beyond the reach of even 2006 dairy technology based on the simple fact that brie is not a stringy cheese. I think a more practical answer to the challenges faced by Mike (primarily inconvenience of dealing with the typical wedge with rind) would be a snack pack. Ideally, the snack pack would allow for rindless packaging and pairing with appropriate crackers. Brie eaters being the cheese snobs they are would certainly lead to painful focus grouping by the good folks at Sargento in Little Chute, Wisconsin and other fine cheese towns.

Assuming I’m on the right track with a snack pack for brie, why not pair it with an appropriate wine? A perfect impulse buy for Carly and I would be a brie and Pinot Noir Snackables placed right next to the French baguettes in Whole Foods.

A product like this is the perfect way to unite this country. Taking a French product and making it our own in a way that would completely disgust the originators across the pond. If brie Snackables existed, I bet Lee Greenwood and Toby Keith would put them on their concert riders.

Be sure to check back in 2009 to see if any progress has been made on this important issue. Until then, what will come first:

a) String Brie
b) Brie Snackables
c) End of War in Iraq

The eco-warrior blog on the TimesOnline has posted 10 tips on how to be a winter biker. Good stuff. It looks like the problems I noticed are fairly universal: keeping hands and feet warm.

Other than those two, the biggest challenge I’ve encountered is the lack of light. My commute from Eden Prairie to Minneapolis is almost entirely on a rails to trails trail with little lighting. For some reason, suburbs don’t seem to find the money to invest in lighting the trail with Minneapolis does.

Since I’m on trails rather than the road, my biggest concern is having a head-on collision with another biker or plowing into a dog walker or runner. All could be ugly for all parties involved. I decided to pick up this cateye light to help make myself more visible to oncoming trail traffic and cast some light on the trail:

What I like about this light is that it’s easy to install, runs on four AA batteries, so it’s easy to keep charged (I use rechargeables), and it’s pretty darn bright.

I’ve mounted it on my fork just above my breaks to keep it from sliding down. This worked out well because I already have a handlebar bag crowding out room on my handlebars. The only challenge with the fork mounted position is getting the light to point down or straight rather than up due to the angle of the fork. The mount can be adjusted with a screwdriver to correct for this, so you shouldn’t have any problems unless you have a particularly curvy fork.

Imagine the gall of this woman putting up a Christmas wreath in the shape of a peace symbol during the run-up to the holiday celebrating the birth of the Prince of Peace.

The Colorado woman pictured, Lisa Jensen, was threatened with a $25/day fine for displaying this sign of peace on her home. Apparently, peace is offensive to some people.

All I know is that I’d rather see peace wreaths, circular wreaths, or basically anything coniferous over an inflatable Bart Simpson in a person’s yard. In fact, I’d take a coniferous Bart Simpson over an inflatable JC on the cross if I was forced to make a choice for my own yard.

Apparently, the homeowner’s association president has resigned since this story caught on. Homeowner’s association politics can get nasty. Hopefully, the energy put into this non-issue can be redirected to more meaningful issues.

Should we chalk this up as a defeat for the war on peace? Or did the war on war just win a battle?

I bought a can of Mendota Sparking Water when I got to work today to wet my whistle (I’m off soda through Christmas). However, the can was warm. How disappointing! I figure the Coke machine must have just been refilled before I purchased it.

In other news, before leaving work last night I purchased a can of Mendota Sparking Water from the Coke machine. I remember buying it, but don’t remember drinking it.

Coincidence?

I’m heading to San Francisco for a business trip next week. You know, that crazy left-wing town represented by people like Nancy Pelosi - the Grandmother of five who’s going to drag our country into the gutter, unlike Newt Gingrich, Ted Haggard, and Tom Delay who prefer American’s to as they say rather than follow what they do in their not so private lives. One more not-so-moral authority on this subject of San Francisco is Keith Olberman’s favorite whipping boy, Bill O’Reilly, who apparently claims to have coined the term “San Francisco Values” with the negative spin only FOX News could put on such a term. Kos took at look at those values today and brings up some interesting points about San Francisco:

But let’s talk about “San Francisco values”, you know — tolerance, entrepreneurship, and creativity. Since O’Reilly boycotts everything he hates, I look forward to his boycott of all Bay Area-origin products. Same with every conservative who bashes San Francisco and the Bay Area. So no iPods or anything Apple. No HP computers. No Google. No Yahoo. No eBay. Those conservative bloggers using Blogspot, MovableType, or TypePad? Sorry. Those products are Bay Area-based.

That’s a lot of innovation for an area that’s a LOT smaller than most red states. How do they do it? Maybe one of their not-so-secret secrets is by tapping into the labor that flocks to SFO from less tolerant red states who put their short-term intolerance ahead of their long-term financial interests? That was one of the theories put forward by Richard Florida in The Rise of the Creative Class:

Or, as Kos puts it:

Yeah, those “San Francisco values” sure are dragging the region down. Making it weak as it falls behind the rest of the country — the parts that don’t share “San Francisco values” — economically and socially.

Or, maybe — just maybe — it’s made the region a magnet for the world’s smartest, most innovative, most entrepreneurial individuals and an incubator of the world’s most dramatic technological advances.

All I know is, I really could care less who you’re attracted to, love, want to spend the rest of your life with. If you’re willing to work your ass off making products that make all of our lives easier, if you’re willing to join our military to defend us, or if you’d like to simply get a job and reap the same benefits every other American is entitled to, have at it. Anyone opposing such obvious civil rights is simply fighting society’s inevitable move toward tolerance of all people. It’s a shame things move as slow as they do, but it’s nice to know that we have history on our side.

I’ll be on the lookout for smart, innovative, entrepreneurial individuals in San Francisco next week. In fact, that’s the core mission of the trip: to seek out such individuals and tape their stories. And one question I seriously doubt will be raised during any of the interviews is, “are you gay?” Why won’t it come up? Because I care more about people’s minds and talents than their sexual orientation.

If you’re looking for a stocking stuffer for a loved one, here’s something to consider:

This is a USB jump drive, but it comes with a 2GB SD card, so it’s both an SD card reader and a jump drive. It can be used to transfer files between computers. The SD card could be used in a camera then transfered to a computer using the USB dock. Small and easy to use. I just got one and really like it. It’s a much better solution than carrying around a camera USB cable.