Great Scott! Are you looking for a seriously unusual Father’s Day gift? This gift idea is for entertainment purposes only unless you want to build him a time machine. On your computer or phone, go to O’Reilly Auto Parts then type 121G on the search for product bar. You will see a picture of a Flux Capacitor which is a fictional sci-fi gadget that allows Marty McFly to time travel in a DeLorean car. Doc Emmet Brown originally conceived the idea for the flux capacitor on November 5, 1955, when he slipped on the edge of his toilet while hanging a clock in his bathroom and hit his head on the sink.
“If you’re gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?” Doc Brown
Last week we had a luncheon to celebrate Hailey’s birthday. The theme was picnic food and it turned out to be one of my favorite luncheons ever. We have some very good cooks at our office. I’ve never been very good at following recipes exactly (I tend to read them, then do my own thing) but I followed this B E A U T I F U L Strawberry Salad with Balsamic exactly. Well, almost exactly. It was very good, so I’m going to share it with you. It came from the Costco Connection magazine that I receive in the mail… (how old fashioned… mail.)
Strawberry Salad with Balsamic
¼ cup Balsamic Vinegar (good quality)
1 cup Strawberries (hulled and sliced)
1 cup Cherry Tomatoes (halved)
1 cup Mini Mozzarella Balls (halved)
1 Ripe Avocado (diced)
1/3 cup Toasted Pecans
1/3 cup Basil, torn
Extra Virgin Olice Oil for drizzling
Salt and Pepper to taste
Combine berries, tomatoes, basil, avocado, mozzarella, and pecans in a large bowl, and gently toss to coat them in a splash of olive oil. When you’re ready to serve, drizzle the salad with the balsamic and season to taste with salt and pepper. (I used half as many mozzarella balls – that was plenty. I used more strawberries, and toasted the pecans with butter and honey, then let them dry a little. The recipe called to reduce the balsamic, but I think if you use a really good quality balsamic, then it is thick enough.) It was delicious. Once you mix everything together, put it in the frig so it’s really cold when you serve. You could also add fresh spinach, or goat cheese or feta instead of mozzarella.
Being a father is the single greatest feeling on earth. Not including those wonderful years I spent without a child, of course. – Ryan Reynolds
As of June 1st, it is now officially the start of the Atlantic hurricane season, and the Gulf of Mexico waters have never been so warm this early. The average sea surface temperature in the Gulf is around 83.4 degrees. The average sea surface temperature for late May based on data between 1991 and 2020, is 80.4 degrees… three degrees higher than normal. That means that the temperature under the surface is hotter too. Tropical systems need warm water to thrive, so conditions are perfect. Easy to understand why this year’s hurricane season has an 85% likelihood of being way more active than normal… but I ask you, what exactly is normal weather now? Or better yet, what is normal in our world right now, period?
Before I got married, I had six theories about raising children; now, I have six children and no theories. John Wilmot
If you are getting ready to paint, remember you can freeze your paintbrushes if you have to stop before you are finished with the job. No need to clean the brushes, just wrap the brush in a plastic shopping bag, or zip-loc bag, squeeze out the excess air, and place the bagged brush in your freezer. Or just wrap the brush in aluminum foil and freeze it. If you’re using a roller, just use a bigger bag, but remember to squeeze out as much air as you can, then use masking tape or painter’s tape and create a tight seal. Store in freezer. It will be good as new the next day.
Being a great father is like shaving. No matter how good you shaved today, you have to do it again tomorrow. – Reed Markham
The headline said… Should You Rinse Shredded Cheese? Huh? It seems that pre-packaged shredded cheese is dusted with anti-caking agents like cellulose and calcium sulfate (both used to make ground cement and tiles), potato starch, cornstarch, and natamycin, which keeps them dry, so it won’t stick together and doesn’t get moldy. That’s why you should pick up a block of cheese, then grate it yourself if you are going to melt the cheese for a recipe. It creates a different texture… but think about it… do you want all those additional ingredients in your creamy mac & cheese? This happened to me recently. I just couldn’t get the cheese sauce to look like cheese sauce. It kept separating. Now, I just go ahead, grate all the cheese and put the extra in containers to keep it in the freezer. So easy.
“Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads…” Doc Brown, Back to the Future
The difference between the words wait and await. Wait can be used without an object, like in the sentence I am waiting. Await, requires an object, like the sentence I am awaiting your response.
The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard. – David Gerrold
Alex Baldwin and his wife Hilaria, along with their seven children (all under the age of 10), will star in a new reality TV series starting 2025, called The Baldwin’s. I guess they were sitting around awaiting his involuntary manslaughter trial … thinking we should do a reality show to pass the time. He could face up to 18 months in prison. In the new trailer for the show, a body language expert said that Baldwin was drowned out by noise and chaos, and was reprimanded by his wife. Hmmm.
A two-year-old is kind of like having a blender, but you don’t have a top for it. – Jerry Seinfeld.
Recently, I was listening to NPR and the discussion mentioned Benjamin Franklin’s 8 reasons you should date older women. Hmmm. Curiosity. It is well known that Benjamin Franklin was very fond of women. Well, it seems that in 1745, Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter filled with advice for a young man on the wisdom of marrying, explaining that a single man doesn’t quite have the value he would have in ‘that’ State of Union… but should a young man not marry, he also mentioned the qualities of older women if you were choosing a mistress. That’s not exactly dating but kind of. I don’t have the space to print the whole letter, but I thought I might sometime… until I read it. It’s pretty funny, but once I started typing his 8 reasons, I realized that you will need to read it yourself because I have always tried to keep this column G-rated, therefore it will probably never be printed here in its entirely.
When women cease to be handsome, they study to be good. Benjamin Franklin
I read this next story online. And laughed and laughed. It’s kind of a revenge story from a kid, but not really. It’s more like, when parents’ divorce, they need to work together, or else the kids will not come out as winners. The writer said that when he was very young his parents told him he couldn’t have carbonated soft drinks because they were bad for him, and he could die. He also mentions that he was a hyperactive kid at the time. Really? At one point he received a genius (lightbulb moment) idea, He was living with his mother and he saw his father on weekends. His plan was on Friday evening when his Dad picked him up, he would tell him, “Mom gave me Coca-Cola because she said it’s okay, you’re going to your Father’s anyway,” His father accepted the fake challenge, hook, line and sinker, and gave him a 1L bottle of 7Up just before dropping him off on Sunday evening. The kid was pretty excited when he got home and his mother asked, what’s up? He told her the same story, “Dad gave me 7up because he said it’s okay, you’re going home to your mother afterwards anyway,” so then his mom took on the challenge, and it continued. They never spoke about it out loud, but he says it was a kind of war, with him being the instrument. But he got to enjoy soft-drinks and they didn’t have a clue he was behind it all until years later when he told them. I have to say that I laughed so hard when I read this. Kids are so smart, and don’t ever, ever think that they’re not.
“Your future hasn’t been written yet. No one’s has. Your future is whatever you make it. So, make it a good one.” Doc Brown, Back to the Future Part III (1990)
Father’s Day was first proposed by Sonora Louise Smart Dodd to honor her father, William Smart, a Civil War veteran who was left to raise six children after his wife died in childbirth. It was originally celebrated in Spokane, Washington in 1910 on her dad’s birthday of June 5th. It was a hard-sell for people to move it forward, so it wasn’t until 1972 that Father’s Day was given the recognition of a proclamation from President Richard Nixon. Happy Father’s Day folks.
LISA
Send comments to Lisa Baker at lisa@thesourceweekly.com
