One of the most popular videos that I posted on this blog last year was the one of New York butcher Ray Venezia giving instructions on how to carve a turkey. All you fellow turkey carvers will find it highly informative and entertaining.
Also, check out Mark Bittman’s video on how to roast a turkey in 45 minutes, although I’m not sure I’d try that for the first time on Thanksgiving.
Have a joyous Thanksgiving!
Football is an integral part of Texas culture. So, when a big game is around the corner, it seems as if everyone around here is talking about it. And some of the talk can get pretty entertaining.
The big game this Saturday pits the undefeated and 2nd-ranked Texas Tech Red Raiders (10-1) taking on the 5th-ranked Oklahoma Sooners (9-1) in Norman, Oklahoma.
The game has generated added interest in these parts because the 3rd-ranked Texas Longhorns (10-1), who lost to Tech a couple of weeks ago on a last second TD, could bolt back into the BCS Championship Game picture if the Sooners beat Tech.
And frankly, many Texans are pulling for Tech to beat the Sooners and remain in contention for the BCS Championship Game because Tech has never reached such heights before.
But that support doesn’t immunize the Red Raiders from some good-natured razzing, such as the following OU message board comment about the above Tech promotional picture for the game:
"Why is Yosemite Sam attacking Guymon?"
Meanwhile, on the opposite end of the college football spectrum, perennial cellar-dwelling Baylor’s decisive win last Saturday over the Texas A&M Aggies has also generated a fair amount of conversation in Texas football circles this week.
As has been noted many times on this blog, the devotion of many Texas A&M University alumni to the A&M football program is an endearing part of Texas culture that has generated some rather awkward moments over the years.
The A&M fan base overwhelmingly considers losing to Baylor in football as another such awkward moment. To make matters worse, the A&M football program has fallen on such hard times over the past several years that, relative to the size of the football budget, the A&M program is currently among the poorest-performing in major college football.
So, with that backdrop, check out the following post that a Baylor fan posted on an Aggie message board earlier this week (the post was quickly taken down by the owners of the Aggie board; thank goodness for Google Cache). On the heels of Baylor’s big win over the Aggies, the Baylor fan’s post passes along some key tips to the Aggies from the "hit" book, How to Handle Being The Worst Team in the Big XII South:
I wanted to share some thoughts from the hit book "How to Handle Being The Worst Team in the Big XII South". This book, originally authored by fans of Baylor University, with foreword by Oklahoma State, has been a work in progress for 25 something years now.
Now that we have handed that prestigious torch off to your school, and it looks like it will stay that way for quite some time, you and your Aggie friends may want to really get into this material. Here are some highlights:
Chapter 1 – Bring up past records when discussing your program with friends. The best way to do this is to start from the present and go back through the past until you can find where you have more wins than "x" team. Inconsistencies in time frame does not matter – it can be 5 years for one team and 45 for another.
Heather Headly and Andrea Bocelli sing a stirring rendition of The Prayer. Enjoy.
Comedian Louis CK sums it pretty well:
Although not many people care much, the 2008 World Series has turned into a first rate mess.
Game Five is currently suspended while the Phillies and Rays players sit around Philadelphia waiting for the inclement weather to end. This after they nearly injured themselves while inexplicably being forced to play 5.5 innings during a driving rainstorm on Monday night. The remainder of the Game Five might be played tonight.
Moreover, Game Four began at 10 p.m. EDT because of rain most of the day on Saturday. That game finished sometime after 2 a.m. Sunday on the east coast. Not exactly the way to keep the young fans interested in the game.
Meanwhile, the umpiring in the series has been atrocious, with multiple of MLB’s supposedly best umpires blowing easy calls and routinely calling strikes on pitches that are clearly out of the strike zone.
And just to make matters utterly unbearable, Fox Sports imposes senseless announcers Joe Buck and Tim McCarver on the few folks watching on television. These two babble on endlessly describing the utterly obvious without ever saying anything remotely insightful. Often, they say things that are simply flat wrong.
But as bad as the World Series has been, it’s nothing compared to legendary Baylor and Chicago Bears linebacker Mike Singletary’s first game this past Sunday as interim coach of the San Francisco 49’ers. Coach Singletary’s post-game performance has already become an overnight YouTube sensation and is being touted as one of the all-time great coach tirades.
AP sportswriter Greg Beacham summed up Coach Singletary’s bad first day at the office well:
Mike Singletary ended his head coaching debut by apologizing to 49ers fans above the locker room tunnel. Tight end Vernon Davis got sent to the showers like a petulant teenager, QB J.T. O’Sullivan was benched after his 11th fumble of the season, and the San Francisco defense let a 242-pound fullback catch two long touchdown passes.
Take a couple of minutes to watch the trailer for what may be one of the most important movies of our time, My Beijing Birthday (H/T James Fallows).
You know things are really getting bad in the financial markets when FT.com’s always-lively Dear Lucy column (previous post here) receives the following letter from an investment banker:
"At a dinner party last Saturday I was asked by a fellow guest what I did and I said I was an investment banker. I might as well have said I was a paedophile. Suddenly the whole table – all friends of my wife from the art world – turned on me with such venom I was really taken aback. I tried to defend myself by saying that I had nothing to be ashamed of in the work that I do in M&A, but the more I argued the more hostile the other guests became."
"Next time this happens – and I fear there will be a next time – should I accept guilt for what isn’t my fault, or should I lie and say I’m a librarian?"
Investment banker, male, 42
Among the many entertaining reader comments to the letter were the following:
"Bit surprised you were invited to dinner in the first place."
"Confess and beg for another glass of wine."
"A sensitive investment banker……….. whatever next?"
Whew! After the past couple of weeks, we all could use a little levity.
The creator and star of NBC’s clever sitcom 30 Rock — Tina Fey — has been getting quite a bit of publicity lately because of her spot-on impersonation of GOP VP candidate Sarah Palin. But the real star of 30 Rock is Alec Baldwin, who plays Jack Donaghy, the self-important television executive who oversees the fictional television show that 30 Rock revolves around.
In the clip below, Baldwin’s Donagy helps counsel Tracy Morgan’s character (who is the star of the fictional TV show) through a therapeutic role-playing session that a psychologist has arranged at Donagy’s request to bring Morgan out of a personal crisis. In just over two minutes, Baldwin resolves the root cause of Morgan’s crisis (estrangement from his family) by assuming the roles of Morgan’s father (a black man from "funky North Philly" with a droopy lip), Morgan’s mother, the white boyfriend of Morgan’s mother, Morgan himself and a Hispanic neighbor of the family, Mrs. Rodriguez.
Television these days doesn’t get any better than this.
