Food for Super Bowl XLV

This is a picture of jambalaya from Wikipedia. Recipe follows below. But first, the easy ones.

Chicken Wings: This is the simplest thing in the world to make. Buy wings. Dredge them in seasoned flour (salt/pepper/cayenne/whatever you like) and fry them. Toss them in a sauce of butter (the heart attack kind) and the hot sauce of your choosing. Serve with celery and carrot sticks and the dressing of your choice like Ranch or Bleu Cheese.

For the uninitiated: “dredging” means put the raw chicken wing in a bowl of beaten egg(s) and then dredge through that seasoned flour. Put them in hot oil. Let fry until brown. Let cool and then “toss” them in the sauce. READ MORE

MC Hammer is a Social Media Mogul?

I’m Watching Oprah Winfrey and she has MC Hammer as one of her guests and who would have ever guessed that this guy was (and has been since 1994) on the cutting edge of technology including, Twitter, YouTube, and FlipBoard. According to show he’s lectured at Harvard, Wharton (U of Penn), Oxford, and Stanford on the effects of social media.

Go MC Hammer. But what about that reality show a few years ago?

Photo from Wikipedia.

Super Bowl XLV

Super Bowl LXV is four days away. The last line I saw:

101         Steelers +3 (-125)                            o44.5 (-110)                        +125

102         Packers  -3 (+105)                            u44.5 (-110)                        – 145

If you don’t know what those numbers mean then you shouldn’t be reading this anyway. I think the Packers are looking pretty good but I’m no tout.

But this post isn’t really about the game–it’s about food. I’m thinking chicken wings and 7-layer dip…although part of me wants ribs.

Image from the NFL.

Charlie Sheen is wrong?

Charlie Sheen entered rehab AGAIN recently because, quite frankly, he has the money and clout to get away with whatever he wants. In an article in Salon.com this morning, the writer convinces us that Sheen is indispensable at CBS and therefore can get away with murder (or at least wife-beating).

But that isn’t the issue. The writer says explicitly, “The minute we start boycotting artists based on their depraved personal lives, there won’t be much art left to enjoy.” While I have no opinion on Sheen’s personal life, I do on his character’s “cartoon-ish” parody of himself on the series. If you asked 100 men, at least 70 of them would say that they’d trade places with the character. I would. I once lived in a country where prostitution is legal. And, I always joked using the quote that has most been attributed to Sheen: “I don’t pay [them] to sleep with me. I pay them to get up, get dressed quietly and leave.” It’s never personal, just business.

And, I won’t even get into the gambling part. I’m saving that for another post on Super Bowl XLV.

You can read the article about Charlie Sheen on Salon.com here.

Photo from Salon.com.

Response from M-D County Clerk Harvey Ruvin

From the Man:

“I have been forwarded your e-mail (below), containing the link to your blog and seeking my response.  I have just read the seven part series presented there re: the Alvarez’ Recall and have several comments.
First, I do recall our brief telephone conversation a number of weeks ago.  If my memory serves me, you said you were a reporter for the [deleted] and that you had personally witnessed irregularities in the petition gathering process.

I explained that the role of the Clerk’s office in canvassing recall petitions was essentially neutral and ministerial.  I further said that if you have credible evidence of wrong doing -you should present it to the appropriate official, Miami-Dade County’s State Attorney.  After reading the contents of your blog, I certainly repeat my previous comments to you.

Second, from the beginning, we have assured all parties that the security and easy accessibility to the petitions as Public Records, are and continue to be the driving factors guiding the engineering of the petition verification process. The process limits the exposure of the petitions to loss or damage and preserves them for any future inquiries.

The 114 boxes of petitions, containing 114,334 petitions in 1758 batches are stored sequentially to enable quick retrieval of any individual petition for examination for any valid purpose. In addition, logs are being maintained that key all acceptance or rejection decisions to box and batch numbers for direct access to any individual petition form.

While there is no prescribed time for the full canvassing process, we are now confident that we will be able to complete and certify the results of the canvass by no later than mid-January 2011.  Perhaps sooner.

At that time, having systematically reviewed each of the 114,443 petition forms “on their face” as submitted for compliance with Miami-Dade Code, Section 12-23; we will then issue our statistical tabulation and certify the results of the canvass TO THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS.

Other than our custodial responsibilities in managing the continuing public record in a professional and neutral manner, our role concludes with our submission to the Board.

Alvarez Recall–Part VII–Denoument

This is a picture of a the man who will ultimately decide whether the petitions that I have been writing about will be approved–Miami-Dade County Clerk of Courts Harvey Ruvin.

From both the Clerk’s website and the Miami Herald, Ruvin himself wrote that on Nov. 5, “Mr. Braman submitted 113 boxes with approximately 113,000 separate legal-size petition forms, each with the signature of only one petitioner, the signature of the circulator and the signature and stamp of the notary. Each box contains about 1,000 forms, 10 batches in a box. Once submitted, all of them became public record!”

Ruvin says that his people will make sure all petitions are in “full compliance” with Miami-Dade County ordinance 12-23. Let’s just go line by line in Section 2 of that ordinance and I’ll tell you the truth of how it really went down. READ MORE

Alvarez Recall–Part VI

Ignorance of the law is no excuse.

I once had a fraternity brother in college who liked to joke, “C’mon, Dane, it’s only illegal in the United States.” He was right, except at this point I am not in the United States–I’m in Miami. Things are different.

This picture to the left is on the last day of petitions coming into the office. Any other day one would have to weave their way to their “area.” And if you think we had desks or the proper room, then think again.

See this picture to the left. It’s two empty cardboard boxes stacked on top of each other. That was my “desk.” That writing on the desk is a series of my petition tallies. Real high tech, huh? Yeah, I could have brought my laptop in and sometimes I did, but what would it matter? We didn’t have wireless anyway.

It was a budget job from the start. No fridge. No microwave. Minimal AC. And if you could actually see the whole picture of my desk then you would also see the outlet to the left of that chair, which is right beside that stack of petitions you see on the floor in the first picture.

For all of Norman Braman’s money he really was an absentee plantation owner. READ MORE