The problem with cooked vegetables is everyone overcooks them until they're mushy and bland. Properly steamed vegetables are delicious and even retain some crunchiness.
Raw vegetables are usually the best though. Especially carrots.
The problem with cooked vegetables is everyone overcooks them until they're mushy and bland. Properly steamed vegetables are delicious and even retain some crunchiness.
And then the only thing to do is add enough butter and salt to sink a ship and hope for the best.
Lets keep the vegetable talk in the "Food!" thread and talk of Somewhat Amusing News in the Somewhat Amusing News thread. OR I'LL BAN YOU ALL ARGLE BLARGHLE
DUBLIN, Ireland — An accident in a chemical plant Friday created a frightening-looking cloud of "laughing gas," government and emergency officials said. Nobody was reported to be injured — or to be giggling uncontrollably.
The Northern Ireland Department of the Environment said workers at Albion Chemicals Ltd. poured nitric acid into a disposal container that was contaminated, causing a reaction that produced plumes of nitrous oxide.
The gas, inhaled as an analgesic, has been known since the late 18th century as "laughing gas." It has a range of medical and industrial uses and is not toxic.
Greig Laing, Albion Chemicals' director of human resources at its headquarters in Leeds, England, declined to describe the exact chemicals and reactions involved in the accident. He said the fumes created were "fully controlled," and caused "no injuries and no environmental damage."
Belfast police and firefighters launched an emergency plan following first reports of the accident, which suggested an explosion had created a haze of unknown, potentially toxic fumes.
Una Devlin, spokeswoman for the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service, said firefighters sprayed the gas plume with water mist and shut off the plant's sewage connections to nearby Belfast Harbor. The operation lasted about three hours.
She said fire crews donned full-body protective suits and gas masks as they doused the container, which continued to emit fumes of the gas for more than an hour.
TOKYO (Reuters) - A firefighter in Japan lost his job after city officials found out he had been driving ambulances and fire trucks for over 20 years without a driver's license, an official in Takaoka City, central Japan, said on Tuesday.
The case came to light when the firefighter in his 40s, who had been working for the city for over 25 years, hesitated to show his driver's license during a regular inspection last week, said Shigeru Sawasaki, a Takaoka City official.
"He was acting awkward when the inspection took place on the 5th," Sawasaki said. "And when the inspector took the driver's license and checked, it belonged to a family member."
The firefighter, whose name the city declined to announce due to privacy concerns, had been bringing in his father's license and showing it to the inspector while hiding the photo with his fingers, Sawasaki said.
The monthly inspection of driver's licenses started last year and before that, the firefighter had filed a fake license registration number to Takaoka City in 1981, Sawasaki added.
Between April 2003 and June 2008, the firefighter, who told city officials he had gone to a driving school but failed the writing exam, drove ambulances 309 times and fire trucks 97 times, Sawasaki said.
"In terms of his driving, he has not been in any accidents whatsoever," Sawasaki said, adding that there had been no problem with his work attitude either.
"This is a misconduct where no excuses can be made to the citizens. We are sorry to fail the citizens' expectations," Keiichiro Tachibana, the mayor of Takaoka City, was quoted by Sawasaki as saying.
The firefighter appeared at the police station after he was fired and is now being questioned by the police, Sawasaki said.
(Reporting by Yoko Kubota; Editing by Jerry Norton)
Lighten up
Jun 12th 2008
From The Economist print edition
A comedic Senate campaign
AN IMPLAUSIBLE politician has just become somewhat less so. On June 7th Al Franken, a former comedian on “Saturday Night Live”, radio commentator and author of books such as “Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them: a Fair and Balanced Look at the Right”, won the endorsement of Minnesota's Democratic-Farmer-Labour party (DFL) for the post of senator.
In an era in which presidential candidates compete on comedy shows, it may not be surprising that a former comedian fancies himself a politician. But comedians have an unfortunate habit of making jokes. Mr Franken's path to the DFL nomination was fraught, thanks in part to “Porn-O-Rama!”, a fantasy he wrote for Playboy in 2000. Defeating the Republican incumbent, Norm Coleman, will be even more harrowing.
Mr Franken has never run for office before, at least not in the real world. He did once produce a satire, “Why Not Me?”, in which he was elected president on the single issue of cutting ATM fees, and then went mad and plotted to kill Saddam Hussein by beating him with a plaque reading “the world's greatest granddad”.
His Senate campaign is, for better or worse, more demure. A main task has been to convince Minnesotans that he is one of them—he grew up there, but spent much of his adult life in New York. It helps that he has traversed the state campaigning for other DFLers. At a recent DFL dinner in Mankato, in southern Minnesota, he chatted comfortably about the flaws of their Republican governor and the merits of Minnesotans' egg coffee, made with both the yolk and the shell.
The harder job is to prove that he is serious enough for the Senate. Like many others trying to unseat a Republican, Mr Franken is fond of hyphens, blaming various “Bush-Coleman” policies for America's predicament. But he can also be wonky, and speaks soberly about universal health care and support for war veterans.
Nevertheless, few candidates could inspire enemies to such gleeful moustache twirling. A Republican blogger helped lead Mr Franken to admit in April that he owed $70,000 in taxes—he had paid taxes on his income, but not in all the right states. Worse news came in May, when state Republicans merrily re-presented “Porn-O-Rama!”. Then, just before the DFL's convention, the party unveiled an article from New York magazine in 1995 that describes Mr Franken joking about rape. Mr Franken has apologised, but the resurrection of Sexbots from “Porn-O-Rama!” was hardly ideal for the founder of a “midwest values” political committee.
Despite all this, Mr Franken managed to defeat his opponent, an academic, and win the DFL's endorsement. He has tempered his rowdy sense of humour and is trying to direct attention to his policies. But his work as a comedian is a bottomless treasure chest for Republicans. Expect more Sexbots.
I was confused why this was posted now when it seems like such old news. Then I was like "Oh, right! Minnesota!" It probably is new to most of the rest of you?
The problem here is you can all joke about it while I actually have to decide if I want to vote for him!
Comments
I'll never discuss the superior food with you again!
Raw vegetables are usually the best though. Especially carrots.
And then the only thing to do is add enough butter and salt to sink a ship and hope for the best.
And I agree with Serephel, peppers and onions are amazing. (Nevermind the fact that I only started thinking this way about a year ago).
But we all know that cheese-in-a-can is the best healthy snack. Duh.
I believe that falls into the category of "Cruel and Unusual".
End of discussion. I win.
Chemical plant accident creates laughing gas cloud
Al Franken
Lighten up
Jun 12th 2008
From The Economist print edition
A comedic Senate campaign
The problem here is you can all joke about it while I actually have to decide if I want to vote for him!
I would have voted for Colbert had it been an option to me, so bear that in mind. But Franken really does know his shit.
We can't stand for this. Someone go pick me up a box of bear claws.
ohhhh the good ol' days. Borderline anorexia was such a welcomed 'problem.'