Top Ten Movie Cars

When I initially decided to create a top ten list of movie cars it really didn’t dawn on me what a daunting task it would truly be. There are so many great cars to choose from that it actually took me a considerable amount of time to come up with my list. Finally though I was able to finish it and I feel very comfortable with my list of the Top Ten and the Honorable Mentions. -HD

TOP TEN MOVIE CARS:

10.        The beautiful black 1971 340 4-speed Cuda from Phantasm; which sold for $1,000 after the movie and hasn’t been seen since.

9.           The 1964 Munster Koach, an absolutely amazing functional work of art created by George Barris using three model T bodies and taking over 500 hours to complete.

8.           The 1977 Pontiac Trans Am from “Smokey and the Bandit”.

7.           Mad Max’s 1973 XB GT Ford Falcon Coupe Interceptor.

6.           The 1974 Dodge Monaco “Bluesmobile” from the Blues Brothers.

5.        The 1969 “General Lee” Dodge Charger from the Dukes of Hazard.

4.           The 1970 440 R/T Challenger from Vanishing Point, a terrific rebel against “the man” movie.

3.           The 1955 Lincoln Futura used by George Barris to create the iconic Batmobile; which is currently valued at over two million dollars.

2.           The 1932 yellow 5-window Ford Coupe from American Graffiti.

1.           Steve McQueen’s 1968 Ford Mustang GT390 from Bullitt.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

The gorgeous black 1968 440 R/T Charger from Bullitt (in my opinion a much more beautiful car than McQueen’s Mustang).

James Bond’s 1964 Aston Martin DB5 from the movie “Goldfinger”, it’s fitting that the greatest James Bond car is driven by the best James Bond.

The 1969 Dodge Charger from “Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry”.

The 1966 GTO Monkeymobile; which ended up in Puerto Rico being used as a hotel courtesy car for years until it was purchased at auction for $5,000 and brought back to the states and restored, “thank god!!”

The 1959 Cadillac “Ecto-1” from Ghostbusters; which was up for sale last year on ebay for $40,000 but didn’t sell.

And even though I don’t think it’s ever been in a movie no list of the top cars would be complete without Billy Gibbon’s 1948 Cadillac Cadzilla!!!!

Excelente Mexican Cornbread

In creating the absolutely best Mexican cornbread recipe I performed a lot of research and found that the majority of Mexican cornbread recipes are relatively similar in their ingredients. The hard part is picking which one to choose from. I’ve removed that problem for you and I think that if you follow this recipe you’ll be very happy with the results.

INGREDIENTS:

½ cup melted (salted) butter.

1 cup of white flour.

1 cup of yellow cornmeal.

½ cup of white sugar.

4 large eggs, you use the yolks and whites.

1 cup of shredded cheese, a combination of cheddar and Monterey jack is good.

15 oz of cream corn, you could use non-creamed if you like but then you end up with the texture not being as smooth.

4 oz of chopped and drained green chili peppers, you could substitute whatever pepper you like to create the heat intensity you want. Just make sure that they are chopped pretty fine.

4 tsp baking powder.

¼ tsp sea salt*.

DIRECTIONS:

Lightly grease a 9x13 dish and set aside then preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

In a bowl mix together the sugar, butter, and eggs. Then add the cheese, chili peppers, and cream corn. Make sure to stir all these ingredients but you don’t have to overdo it.

In a mixing bowl, I use my KitchenAid mixing bowl at this point, combine the cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and flour. Once all these items are together then add the contents of the other mixing bowl. Stir all the ingredients together, or use the lowest setting on your mixer.

Once the batter appears to be smooth pour it directly into the lightly greased dish then place it on the middle rack in the oven for an hour. At the end of the hour the edges should be brown and if you insert a toothpick in different spots it should come out clean.

Once you take it out of the oven let it sit for a couple minutes then cut and serve. -HD

* I generally use sea salt for all my recipes because sea salt is a more natural salt with very little refining. It basically has the same chemical make up as the heavily refined mined salt and generally comes down to personal preference.

Skrapy’s Lemon Drop Martini

This is a favorite and generally the most requested martini type drink at our parties. The only special tools needed are a bartender’s shaker and a twist peeler.

Ingredients:

Your favorite vodka, my wife likes Gray Goose.                   

Lemons

Triple Sec

Sugar, fine sugar is best but any white sugar will do.

Ice

Instructions:

I would like to point out that to speed up the process I suggest chilling your vodka in the freezer for a while and keeping the lemons in the refrigerator. A refrigerated martini glass is also a nice touch.

Use the twist peeler to peel three or four loops from a lemon, try not to break the peel as you do this, once your done set the peel aside for now.

Cut the lemon in half and if you have a lemon squeezer use it to squeeze the entire lemon into the shaker, or it can be done by hand but you lose some of the juice by not using a squeezer.

Pour ¼ inch of sugar into the bottom of a small plate, if you don’t have a glass rimmer. Then take your trusty martini glass and rub the rim of the glass all the way around the top with one of the squeezed lemons. There should be enough residual juice in the lemon you just used to add a nice sheen of juice around the entire top. Turn the glass upside down in the sugar and gently spin it in the sugar to apply a nice even coating of sugar around the entire rim of the glass then set the glass aside.  

Pour 3 oz of vodka into the shaker.

Pour 2 oz of triple sec into the shaker.

Add 8 medium sized ice cubes to the shaker.

Put the lid back on the shaker then while holding the top and bottom of the shaker shake it somewhat briskly up and down for 10 seconds or so. Once your done take the end cap off the shaker, depending on what type of shaker you’re using, and pour the contents into the martini glass. There should be enough to fill the glass to just below the bottom of your sugar mark on the rim. The final touch is to gently add the coil of lemon peel into the glass and serve. -HD

The Truth about Failure

Recently a close friend was laid off from a job he had maintained for over fifteen years. He stated that as a result of losing his job the period of time spent working this particular job felt like a waste of time and also gave him a feeling of failure.  While attempting to provide some solace for his grief I suggested that he look at the alternatives to simply referring to the situation as a failure. It was in this conversation that I found the desire to delve beyond the superficial meaning of the word failure.

In taking the word at face value it appears to be a bleak wall of self-degradation; which every person since the beginning of time has faced. When one does find oneself facing failure its initial emotional impact inspires dark thoughts such as hopelessness, despair, depression, etc.

In life’s journeys every human being faces failure on a daily basis but it’s how we respond when we encounter failure that truly counts. Do we stare hopelessly at the bleak wall and consider it insurmountable or do we interpret the wall more as a step towards our intended goal and strive boldly forward.

Nietzsche states that only a fool sees failure as anything but failure. I would suggest that Nietzsche’s definition of the word is myopic; which I suppose places me in the position of donning the mantle of “the fool”.

There are only two terms that are unwaveringly simplistic in their definition and they are “beginning” and “end”, or life and death, and everything we do from our humble beginnings is in preparation for the end.  Although initially the word failure appears simplistic in meaning, such as beginning and end, it is anything but. The word itself is intangible and only in our own thoughts do we provide it the sanctuary to flourish and exist.

As an example imagine a traveler wandering on foot through a forest attempting to reach a town. He reaches a fork in the path with two possible routes. One route he knows leads to the town while the other does not. Without any prior knowledge on which path is correct or any markings at the fork to help guide him he must make a choice if he wishes to reach his destination. In taking the incorrect path the traveler has simply eliminated one choice in reaching his goal and therefore confirmed which path will provide the desired outcome. This would then mean that through failure he found success and therefore failure is not absolute.

During our short journey from the “beginning” to the “end” human beings constantly encounter what we interpret to be failures or obstacles in our path but its how, or if, we choose to surmount the obstacles that truly gives credence to whether there will be a favorable outcome or not.  Our beginning is but a journey towards our inevitable end. Our successes and perceived failures along the way are merely experiences to be relished and relived once the journey is complete, because the successes and perceived failures are what make the journey worth undertaking to begin with. -HD

Helmets and Flip-flops

I’m not one to rain on anyone’s parade when it comes to personal freedom as I believe everyone should have the right to do as they wish with their lives as long as it doesn’t interfere with anyone else.

The helmet law in California, and various other states, for motorcyclists is a good example of government making a decision for you because you’re not bright enough to decide for yourself. Just to get it out on the table I think every adult should be able to make up their own minds on if they want to wear one or not. I personally dislike the helmet law on the grounds that, to me, it’s the government encroaching on our personal freedom to choose; like it says in the Declaration of Independents Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

To me the helmet law is an unnecessary law that steps all over our unalienable right to liberty. If I want to risk death, brain damage, etc by not wearing a helmet when I ride that should be up to me. I know that proponents of the law say that not wearing a helmet poses a burden on our healthcare system by forcing the taxpayers to support those that end up being vegetables etc. If they were honestly that concerned about it why not force everyone that drives a car to wear a helmet? You run a serious risk of a head injury when you drive and I’m betting there are a lot more head injuries every year as a result of automobile accidents then motorcycle accidents. The reason I believe they don’t try to create such a law for automobile drivers is that even though they want you to wear one they don’t want to wear a helmet when they drive their cars.

As our personal freedoms are slowly and methodically stripped away we become more a nation of sheep that forget what it’s like to be able to choose how we want to live our lives and happy with just going to work nine to five then coming home to a microwave dinner. After dinner then plopping our ever expanding fat asses down in front of the boob tube for a few hours of mind numbing TV before going to sleep then doing it all over again the next day. The whole thought of that type of existence should scare the hell out of people but I’m betting most people don’t even give it a second thought.

We need to maintain as many freedoms as we can if we want to hold onto our individuality as a person and as a people. This nation wasn’t founded because we were happy following British rule it was founded because we weren’t and we wanted our freedom to choose for ourselves how to live our lives.

For me the helmet law shouldn’t be a law but rather a suggestion. I personally prefer to ride without a helmet because for me riding is all about the freedom of body and soul. I would suggest though that if you’re going to ride wear decent clothing that will at least present some defense against cheese grater asphalt should you go down and for God sakes stop wearing flip-flops!! -HD

BBQ Bison Sliders

Most fast food burgers are just slop fests and I gave them up a long time ago, once in a while maybe a Wendy’s chicken club but that’s about it.

For me I prefer to make my own burgers at home so I can control what goes in and on my burgers. On a whim I picked up a “slider” patty press a while back and have been enjoying making little sliders instead of the normal sized burgers.

Generally a really good recipe for sliders is using fresh Bison meat seasoned with a mixture of sea salt, medium grind black pepper, garlic powder, and some ground habanero, or if you don’t have that cayenne works well. Mix it all together with the meat then put it in the form and press out however many patties you need. Dealing with a bunch of little patties on the bbq sounds like a pain but never fear there are slider patty baskets for the bbq that will hold a bunch of them in one container so you don’t need to mess with flipping each one and only have to flip the basket.

Once the patties are cooked you can lay out a plethora "thanks for burning that word into my vocabulary El Guapo" of condiments for people to build their own little burgers. This makes a nice change to the normal bbq burgers that are served at most parties. It also gives you the ability to make several different ones to enjoy a range of flavors without getting overly full.

I personally enjoy a little pepperjack cheese, salted and mixed ground avocado and bacon paste, a few leaves of fresh spinach, and some thin sliced Roma tomatoes on my Bison sliders. As for the bun you could go with a premade white or wheat slider bun, available at most grocery stores, or be creative and try using a flaky homemade biscuit. -HD

The politics of politicking and the price we paid

When I was young I was swayed towards the same political party that my parents belonged to, as I think most young people are. It didn’t take long before I realized how I differed from the standard Republican in that I didn’t appreciate the way Republicans conducted business or a number of the things they stood for. I also found that I didn’t care much for the Democrats for pretty much the same reasons and the Independents always seemed a little “out there” and I never felt that I could really trust them.

This left me in a dilemma of which side should I belong to? The Republican machine that generally wants government smaller; which also makes it easier to sneak things past the American people. Or the Democrats that want big government because we as a people aren’t smart enough to take care of ourselves. I choose both yet neither; which I suppose makes me an Independent.

In recent years the independent vote has become more and more of a key factor in elections as more and more people realize how disingenuous their party of choice really is and turn independent.

Both parties claim to have “the peoples” best interests at heart but do they really? I see a lot of big talk about increasing jobs, education, higher wages, lower taxes, being more non-partisan, etc when they are running for office or reelection but after they secure that position that they promised would bring all those things to the American people it turns into the same ol’ politics as usual.

I remember how emotionally moved I was after 9/11 when that group of those Senators and Congressmen started singing patriotic songs together on the capitol steps. Even though 9/11 was a horrible event I had hopes that out of this tragedy our politicians would put aside their partisan biases and truly come together, enlightened and finally as one. It didn’t take long for my hopes to be quickly dashed. Within a week I started seeing the finger pointing blame game as one party tried to pin 9/11 on the other party. The bottom line honest to God’s truth of it is that 9/11 is both parties fault! If they spent the effort working together that they use in trying to one up the other side we would not have near the problems we currently have in our nation and most likely 9/11 would not have occurred.

I’d love to be able to present an answer to this problem but I can’t think of a realistic one. The only advice I can give is when you vote make sure you understand who and what you are voting for and don’t ever just vote along the party line because it’s easier than doing the research yourself. -HD  

Conan's big come back and late night talk shows in general

I wouldn’t say that I’m a big fan of any one specific late night host, if I had to pick I’d say it was Craig Ferguson more than any others but even Craig starts to get tedious after a while. I can imagine that it wouldn’t take all that long to start running out of new fresh ideas to keep people watching and so the writers start regurgitating the bits that worked well, over and over.

The formats for all the talk shows are pretty much generic….Opening monolog, current events/news, guest, possible second guest, various well accepted bits, musical guest, another bit or some other filler, closing monolog. Then pepper the whole thing with piles of unimaginative commercials. You can’t really blame them for using this format as it’s a time tested method that has worked since the late night shows first aired.

As for Conan’s first show of his big come back. I enjoyed the opening as it was kind of fresh and I liked his brazen attitude towards the fiasco that occurred at his last job. I think that he discussed what happened at length to try and get it all out, show he had some backbone, and develop a fresh start. It ran a little long so there wasn’t much to say about current events or news so in sticking with the standard format the next step was the first guest. On came Seth Rogan who has been slightly amusing in a few of his man-child rolls but in general his banter becomes annoying within seconds, not to mention his “nails on a chalkboard” constant cackling.

I’d like to give my opinion of the rest of Conan’s big come back show but I turned it off during Seth Rogan. I understand that they picked Seth because he matches the demographic that they are shooting for but possibly a little more effort could have gone into picking more than just a popular name and actually pick someone that is at least interesting and doesn’t have to be coddled through an interview.

I would have appreciated someone more like Steven Hawking to talk about Gliese581g and his opinions about life beyond our little planet….Maybe that’s just me though.

Galifianakis' outrage over Mel Gibson

Galifianakis is just another Hollywood “tool”, I mean that in every sense of the word, and apparently ok with changing his moral code according to how the prevailing winds of Tinseltown are blowing. For Galifianakis to be so up in arms over Mel Gibson’s verbal temper tantrums but ok with working with a convicted rapist, Mike Tyson for those that live in a cave, is beyond reproach! I’m not a fan of anything Gibson said but putting it in prospective….He SAID it he didn’t do it. Unlike Tyson who RAPED an 18 year old girl in a hotel room. I believe Galifianakis’ mock outrage is purely a dog and pony show to impress the Hollywood elitist community. It’s something that’s pretty easy to spot in Hollywood, when an actor/actress doesn’t have enough talent to propel their careers any further then bit parts they pretend to care about this or that cause, etc that they know will get them an attaboy from the mainstream Hollywood crowd they so desperately wish to be a part of. -HD

Obama's trip to India

When you take the average cost of a one day booking on a Friday for a single occupancy queen bed room at the Mumbai Taj Mahal Palace of 14,500inr (16,000inr per/day double occupancy), which converts to $330.108us or $364.423 x2/occ, then multiply that figure by 870 rooms you end up with a daily expense of $287,193.96 or $317,048.01 for 2x occ.  This is just for sleeping one night in a room!!!!!! I don’t know about the total expense being quite $200 Mil per/day but even if it isn’t that high our country is currently suffering a monstrous financial crisis right now and the last thing we need is our hard earned tax dollars being used on lavish undeserved vacations for those people whose job it is to get us out of this crisis! Obviously these people are either completely out of touch with what the American people are going through or they just don’t care and are showing their contempt for the millions of Americans that are suffering by wasting more of our tax dollars! -HD

Portobello and sausage vodka sauce pasta

Here is an amazing dish that takes less than 20 minutes to prepare that will really wow you’re guests.

INGREDIENTS:

1 jar of vodka sauce (Classico has a very good flavor for this recipe).

3 hot Italian sausages, not precooked!

10 small to medium sized Portobello mushrooms.

1 box of Farfalle (bowtie) pasta.

1 tbsp olive oil.

1 pinch of sea salt.

Parmesan cheese, I prefer fresh but the shaker type works too.

PREPARATION:

Start a large pot of water, with a pinch of sea salt, on the stove on high and while you’re doing you’re other prep work you want to bring it to a boil.

Pour the jar of sauce into a medium sized pot and place on medium high heat.

Clean and cut the Portobello mushrooms into ¼ to ½ inch disks, unless you bought precut. Once they are cut up place them into the pot with the sauce then gently stir the Portobello’s so they are covered by the sauce. Reduce the heat to medium keep an eye on the sauce occasionally stirring, try not to let it go to a boil.

Cut up the sausages into half inch disks, if you don’t have a decently sharp knife for cutting raw sausage clean kitchen scissors work very well. Pour the olive oil in a sauce pan on medium heat then add the cut up sausages. Keep an eye on the sausage as you don’t want them to burn but you do want them to develop a light char to both sides of each piece. Once they are cooked drain the grease/oil from the pieces then place the sausages into the pot with the sauce. Reduce the heat to low and keep occasionally gently stirring the sauce with all the ingredients in it.

Pour the Farfalle pasta into your large pot of boiling water then gently stir. Keep stirring every few minutes to make sure the pasta does not stick to the pot.

The pasta should be done in about 13 minutes or so. During this time keep occasionally stirring the pasta and the sauce. When the pasta is done place it in a strainer to separate the pasta from the water. The sauce will be done at the same time as the pasta.

SERVING:

In serving this dish I generally place a few ladles of pasta on a pasta plate then a ladle or two of the sauce over the pasta. Top it off by adding some grated parmesan then serve. -HD

 Classico Signature Recipes - Pasta Sauce Vodka Sauce - 24 oz

Sharia law in the US

Proponents of this want to either rewrite or destroy the Constitution because for Sharia Law to be allowed then the First Amendment must be thrown out…..“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” What happened to the separation of church and state? Sharia law is based on the Qur’an and the teachings of Muhammad. It’s religious law and therefore unacceptable to even be considered law in this country!

Kanye's rant during the Katrina telethon

The best part of the video for me was Mike Myers. If you watch the video of Kanye's rant you can see the fear on Mike Myers’ face during the entire rant and at several points I thought he was about to bolt like a deer off the stage. The coup de grace though was the end of the rant when Mike tried to regain some control and Kanye then jumped in with the comment that "Bush doesn't care about black people". At that moment you can actually hear the air being sucked out of the room by all the crew gasping and Myers looked like he might have pooped a little.

Kanye obviously lives in a bubble of self delusion and has surrounded himself with yes men servants. There’s no way he even has one true friend because a true friend would step up and keep you from making a fool of yourself like that.

As for Bush acknowledging Kanye’s comment to me that just shows that Bush is a human being with human feelings. He apparently felt so strongly about the insult that he felt the need to respond. Some people have suggested that he did it to help drive sales of his book. I'm sure that those people that would buy a book on politics don't care about what Kanye thinks and those that do care what Kanye think wouldn't buy a book on politics anyway. -HD

Political Three Card Monte

It’s amusing how politicians switch the blame around for our floundering economy like a street corner hustler playing three card Monte. The honest to God’s truth is that our economic problems are the fault of the same politicians whose job it is to protect us from these problems. It’s not the fault of the overzealous home buyer that was tricked into taking on an ARM loan that would sink him. It’s the politicians that allowed such a loan to exist in the first place. It’s not the hundreds of small businesses that constantly fail because they can’t compete with cheaper products produced by near slave labor in other countries. It’s the politicians that allow those foreign companies to export their garbage to the US. It’s not big business because they are pure profit driven animals and like a dog and a bone they need our lawmakers/politicians to bring them to heel; which they are not. I point the finger directly at Washington (both parties) for putting their own selfish desires first and only giving us the American people consideration when it’s in their own greedy self interest!

Green tea ice cream recipe

If you’re a fan of this amazing ice cream finding it can prove exceedingly difficult. My first memory of green tea ice cream was during a visit to “Japantown” in San Francisco at a sushi joint that I can’t recall the name of.
From that day on green tea ice cream vaulted to the top of my list of favorite ice creams and one I would readily spend time to search out.  It was disheartening but on the rare occasion that I did find this elusive frozen treat more times than not it was of poor quality.
Eventually I decided that if I was going to have it I would have to make it myself. I did a great deal of research and through a lot of trial and error with various recipes I finally discovered a recipe that reproduced that magical frozen treat and rivaled the best green tea ice cream I have ever had.

(Following this recipe will produce about a quart of ice cream)
1 ½ cups Vitamin D milk
4 egg yolks
10 tbsp of cane sugar
1 ½ cups heavy cream
2 tbsp Matcha* (powdered green tea)
6 tbsp hot water

Mix the Matcha and hot water together and set aside while you prepare the rest of the recipe.

Gently mix the milk, egg yolks, and sugar in a pot on low heat. Remember to continually, but gently, stir these ingredients until they thicken. Determining correct thickness can be kind of difficult if you’ve never done it before. A simple rule of thumb is when the mixture leaves an even film on the back of the spoon you’re using to stir with run your finger across the film and if it leaves a clear streak and doesn’t run then it’s done.

Once the mixture has thickened remove it from heat and cool. Normally to do this I prepare a large bowl of ice and place the entire pot in the bowl then stick the whole thing in the refrigerator for a while until it cools.

When the mixture is cooled off add the Matcha and heavy cream then mix well, I use my trusty
Kitchen Aid blender on the lowest setting for a couple of minutes.
After mixing place the entire bowl with all the ingredients back in the refrigerator until it reaches about 40 degrees, this will assist with the freezing process of most ice cream makers.

Once the mixture has reached approximately 40 degrees place it in your ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer’s instructions, I personally use the ice cream attachment for my Kitchen Aid and it works great.

When the ice cream is done place it in a good freezer quality container and pop it in the freezer for a few hours to help it set up. –HD

*  Matcha is not readily available at most supermarkets and other then having it shipped I’ve located it at specialty tea stores and most Asian markets. If you’re not in a huge hurry try to shop around a little because it can be rather expensive.

BBQ'ed French bread

So that wonderfully expensive prime rib is cooking and you’ve uncorked the cabernet to let it breathe for that perfect dinner. Now you’re down to making the ho’hum French bread, which is nearly required on the side for this type of meal. Here is something you can do to make that average bread side really pop for your guests and move it closer to center stage of your meal.

I like to pick out a nice soft French bread from the bakery, avoid those two day old bricks as the price difference really isn’t that much considering the difference between qualities.

Once you’re ready to BBQ the bread cut it down the sides which will results in a top and bottom. Then apply a light even misting of habanero infused olive oil* to both sides of each piece. Apply a hot mixture of butter, sea salt, pepper, oregano, parsley, and minced garlic. I generally don’t measure when I’m doing this and just base the amounts of butter and other spices on the size of the bread I’m cooking but if you want something to go off of use something along the lines of 30% garlic, 20% pepper, 10% salt, 20% oregano, and 20% parsley. You also want to try to apply all the ingredients to the bread as close to the time that you’re going to bbq it as possible because the butter will over saturate the bread causing it to become soggy. A good idea is to preheat your BBQ to 350-375 prior to prepping the bread.

Once all the ingredients have been applied place the bread on the top rack of the bbq face up for a couple minutes then flip it to face down. When its face down some of the ingredients will inevitably fall off and into the flames so be gentle when it’s face down to reduce the loss. After a few minutes flip the bread face up then apply a light even coating of Mexican blend finely shredded cheese to the top. Monitor the bread until the edges start to brown and remove from heat. I generally cut the bread into strips then place in a basket and cover with a clean kitchen towel, try to initially keep the towel off the top of the bread as the cheese will stick to the towel until it starts to cool a little. Keeping the towel over the bread helps maintain the heat during serving. –HD

*  I will address how to make the infused habanero olive oil in another blog but for now if you don’t have a mister prepped then pour some olive oil and chopped chili peppers, whatever flavor pepper you prefer, into a bowl and mix. Be careful about heating this mixture in enclosed spaces as some chilies could cause you to cough and make your eyes water, kind of like spraying pepper spray in a room. Once you have the ingredients mixed apply it with a soft brush to the both sides of each piece of bread.

Shorter attention spans or shorter patience?

So I’ve heard a lot of various “experts” saying that the American public’s attention span is shrinking; which sounds suspiciously like a veiled insult and just another way of saying that we’re getting dumber.

Even though I don’t consider myself an expert in whatever field would allow them to make such a bold statement I am part of the American public and therefore I believe that entitles me to weigh in on this subject.

There used to be a time before cable, satellite,  hulu, etc that the TV viewing masses had an infinitesimal amount of channels to choose from if they wanted their TV fix. So you were stuck watching every feminine hygiene, toilet paper, or car dealership commercial they threw at you if you wanted to watch Kwai Chang Caine’s search for his elusive half brother. When the commercials came on you quickly had to decide between clicking over to one of the other limited viewing options, doing something productive or not so much, or sitting on your thumbs and waiting the commercials out. Well since we didn’t have any way to view the highly anticipated fight scene we might have missed while running out to get the mail, going to the bathroom, getting a soda or whatever generally I think most people just waited the commercials out. This quite possibly gave the industry “experts” the illusion that we were actually interested in being mountain fresh or not squeezing the toilet paper.

Jump forward a few years and we now have a multitude of options at our finger tips to deal with these annoying commercial distractions from our shows. If you have a decent DVR you can simply get up and go do something else then when you’re done come back and rewind to right after the commercials, you can click record and just walk away, you could jump on the laptop and check out the latest news, etc.

Generally for myself I prefer to preselect the shows I want to watch and preset them to record on the DVR so when I have the time and interest in watching the show I can sit down at my own leisure and enjoy my show with the added perk of being able to fast forward through the commercials.

I believe that this act alone disproves the so called experts that we the American viewing audience are losing our attention span. To take the time to setup a DVR to record a series or show and then specifically take the time out of your day to sit down with the full intention of watching that particular show I believe reflects a more refined attention span not a reduced one.

I don’t think we’re losing our attention span as a people I believe that our attention spans are becoming well honed by the massive amount of information available at our fingertips and our different options for viewing that information. I would suggest if anything we are becoming less tolerant of advertisers interferences between ourselves and the information we wish to see. -HD