h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Oh, it's that time of the year. The time of the year when the oak tree that hangs its boughs over my balcony starts to drop all its leaves

I managed to get my Sweet Gum to drop all its leaves about two months ago

Unfortunately it involved giving $1,000 dollars to a man with a chain saw

Yard looks much larger now

F S

"and probably don’t know anyone who’s had it"
http://www.wired.com/2015/02/get-silicon-valleys-unvaccinated-change-minds/
How to Get Silicon Valley’s Anti-Vaxxers to Change Their Minds

That can't be right. I've had it*. A percentage of the kids in my school would have had it around the same time, although I don't know what that percentage might be, and probably in previous years and subsequent years too, at least until the vaccine came along. I imagine the same must be true in US schools. So, effectively, anyone who knows anyone over the age of around 55 knows someone who very probably had measles.

Ditto German measles, chickenpox, mumps. I was vaccinated against whooping cough, polio and scarlet fever though, if I remember rightly.

I *think* I had the measles. But I may have been vaccinated for it. I actually stumbled across my vaccination record the other day while digging for tax receipts. (I got $327 in credit for the nearly $10,000 we spent on home improvements last year, mainly for the $7000+ Ductless Heat Pump.) But I didn't look closely at it.

I remember having the chicken pox and "half" the mumps (just one side swelled). I did NOT have the ubiquitous scar on my tricep that others my age had and I was very slightly jealous. What was that for? Polio? Measles? I don't remember. It looked "tough", though. I remember hearing the "whooping cough" of some baby, but I can't remember who it was now.

I need to ask my doctor for any vaccinations and boosters he recommends next time I see him, probably when I need to renew my cholesterol prescription.

My mother had vaccination marks on her shoulder, and she was born in the mid 1920s. I wonder what those would have been for?

We also got a tuberculosis shot, the BCG (after first being given the tuberculin test), but that wasn't until I was well into secondary school, so around 13 or 14. All the others happened when I was a baby.

OH YEAH! I knew I was forgetting something.


In 7th grade we got the TB test. Mine didn't go so well. I was a bit nervous so I twitched a bit and that made the nurse twitch a bit more and she broke the needle in my arm. SOooo...

She gave me a SECOND jab!

A week later when we go in to have the weal measured, mine was borderline. That meant I had to have chest X-rays.

I had a tiny red spot on my arm marking the spot well into my 30s.

It finally went away as well as the small, self-earned scar on my upper arm that came not from a vaccination, but a fall into the embers of a campfire when I was 4. I wanted to stay up late and look at the fire while the adults played Rook™. I tried to sit in one of those '70s era aluminium and plastic webbing folding "lawn chairs" and it collapsed forward tossing me into the coals. I screamed bloody murder. A woman camping nearby came running over with a jar of "Burn Salve" she insisted on putting on my charred flesh. My mother is an RN and knew that putting anything on a burn was no longer recommended as it will likely trap the heat and do further damage. But the woman was relentless and hysterical. So, my dad angrily grabs the jar from her and takes one little smudge of it and places it on my burn and tells her, "There! Are you happy now!? Go Away!"

So, I had a finger print sized scar and that was the only lasting damage. And I haven't been able to find that scar since my 30s either.

Have I mentioned that most of my scars have names?

I tried to name that tumor, but the best I could come up with was Dubya. While I appreciated having Dubya removed I'm not comfortable admitting Dubya was ever in my head.

A wise decision

I wonder if it'd work out less expensive to buy whisk(e)y instead of beer? I can get a bottle (750ml) of halfway decent bourbon for around $20 - $25, if it's on special offer. Call it $24, that's the same cost as three six-packs of most of the beers I buy, but I also buy beer that's more costly, like bombers (22oz bottles, which is always more expensive per ounce than six-packs), and imports.

So, sticking with six-packs for ease of working-out... I might drink two of those (12oz) bottles a night. Three six-packs is 18 bottles, at two bottles a night is nine nights for $24.

I can't help feeling that a $24 bottle of whiskey (and I do mean whiskey, not whisky, because whisky would be considerably more expensive) would last me longer than that.

And bearing in mind that the average bomber costs around $8 - $10 (some considerably more), and that has to be drunk in one go (close to half the cost of the whiskey), whiskey sounds like the better option if you're short of crinkle, some say wedge, some say rhino.

Or not.

Well that's very spooky Yesterday I was browsing the list of all the films made by the Children's Film Foundation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_Film_Foundation looking for one I particularly remember from when I used to go to the ABC for Saturday morning pictures. I found it - it was called One Wish Too Many http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049573/

And this morning there's a post in my Twitter timeline about... the Children's Film Foundation , specifically The Glitterball http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Glitterball , which I wouldn't have seen because I was too old for Saturday morning flicks in 1977.

And there's more. As I look through the cast of Glitterball I notice Barry Jackson, who I was also researching a few days ago because he was in another film I remember, and which I'd like to see again - Mr Love http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089633/

Wheels within wheels

I also see that Barry Jackson died a little more than a year ago, which I wasn't aware of at the time

I can't really say that it's a lifelong ambition; it's not that big of a thing, but something I've wanted to do for many a year is have kedgeree for breakfast. And I just have

Never heard of it.


Sounds (and looks) delicious.




Speaking of egg dishes and things I want but haven't had. I want to try spaghetti carbonara. I saw some celebrity chef make a quick and easy version on YouTube some while ago and I realized I've never seen it on a menu. A quick googling brought me this article http://www.houstoniamag.com/eat-and-drink/restaurant-reviews/articles/top-10-houston-spaghetti-list-november-2013 which suggests I need to stop by Giacomo's Cibo E Vino in Houston soon. I also discovered that the dish's name translates as "The Coal Miner's Wife's Spaghetti".

Oh, I also discovered that a local restaurant that occasionally visit for lunch, has a dinner spaghetti that I should try; "$27 Spaghetti Fisherman, a big bowl filled with spaghetti in red sauce topped with mussels, clams, scallops, fish, and shrimp—the enormous serving will easily feed two."

I'm not sure I've ever had carbonara either, but it sounds In fact it's a very long time, too long, since I went to an Italian restaurant. Or I might have a crack at making it at home http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/06/italian-easy-pasta-alla-carbonara-recipe.html

Crap... I just remembered. I gave up pork for ethical reasons.

Blimey, I don't think I could manage that. Well done, Sir. You have more determination than I.

It is tough, and I can't say I'm all that adamant. I occasionally inadvertently have pork. I just don't go out of my way to order it. But if I find bacon in my green beans or won tons, I still eat them.

Why have you given it up?