What's In Ohio?

When I told people I was going on a 7 day trip through Ohio with my mom and Regina, they all looked at me quizically and said, "What's in Ohio?"  After spending a week there my answer to them is, "Lots, in fact we could have stayed a few extra days."  Here are just a few of the sights you will see if you ever go to Ohio.

We started in Cleveland, and a visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  It's an excellent museum, and for those of us of a certain age, it brought back lots of memories.  The Cleveland Art Museum is world class, and we were lucky enough to catch an exhibit called "From Impressionism to Modernism,"  which we all enjoyed.  Cleveland is actually a small city, under 400,000, yet there's a lot to see and do.  We had other areas to explore, so we headed for Ashtabula next.

Ashtabula and the area surrounding it, contains more covered bridges than just about any other place in the state.  In all, there are over 100 covered bridges in Ohio.  Many of them have been refurbished, and are just a charming feature of the landscape.  There's a map available that shows you where they're located.  We ran into an old timer at one of the bridges.  He had lived in the area his whole life, and one of the bridges was named after his family.  He took us to a local museum to see all the artifacts related to covered bridges.

Next we toured the Amish country.  We stayed two nights in Berlin, the heart of Amish Ohio.  It was so interesting to learn about the ways of the Amish, and do see and talk to them in markets and restaurants.  After spending time in Amish country, we drove to Dover, the sight of the Warther Museum.  This was one of the most amazing museums I have ever seen, and Mr. Warther is the greatest craftsman you have never heard of.  Totally self taught, he produced works of art that will amaze you.

We stopped in Columbus for lunch and a tour of the Franklin Botanical Gardens.  The Dale Chihuli exhibit was mind blowing.  Beautiful glass works throughout the gardens were magical.  After a nice lunch, we headed for Cincinnati.

What a beautiful little city Cincinnati is.  Only 300,000 people, a beautiful, clean downtown, with murals everywhere.  Cincinnati also has an Underground Museum, which tells the story of slaves being brought north on the underground railroad.

I could go on and on.  We visited an apple orchard, street markets, some good restaurants too.  Every place you visit has lots to offer.  You've just got to seek it out.  We found so much to do, including an evening theatre performance in the Amish Country of a comedy show.  So we would definitely say that Ohio has lots to offer any visitor.  Leaves were just beginning to turn, but the landscape would have been stunning in a few more weeks. 

Is This The Best We've Got?

 I try to stay out of politics on this blog, but there are just times when something has to be said.  I look at the evidence piling up on Donald Trump, and say to myself, "How much evidence do you have to have against someone to indict?"  Obviously a lot!

The number of lawsuits underway is huge, but the criminal and civil investigations into his behavior as president and his financial antics is bigger.  Here is just a smattering of investigations he and his friends are facing:  Attack on the U.S. Capitol-  Did he break the law in trying to overturn the 2020 election?  Did he commit seditious conspiracy?  Wire fraud- Trump raised $250 million from supporters to advance fraudulent claims that he won the election, but steered much of the money elsewhere. Georgia election tampering- Did he try to get the Secretary of State in Georgia to find enough votes to declare him the winner?  The answer is clear, he asked him to do that.  New York criminal inquiry-  did his family's real estate company misrepresent the value of properties to get favorable bank loans and lower tax bills?  Yes, they did.  New York attorney general civil inquiry- a civil investigation into the above matter is also under investigation.  Removal of Documents- Did Trump take government records, some personal, others confidential, secret and top secret nuclear secrets to his home in Florida?  Yes, he did.  This, in itself is a crime, but asked to return all the documents, he still kept hundreds of documents that under no situation, belong to him.

There are literally hundred of lawsuits against him, from improper sexual behavior, to defamation, and much more.  So I ask you, is this the best we've got to represent our country?  If if it, we're in more trouble than I thought.  Democrat or Republican, do we want people in office who are trying to bring down the country?  Who are doing everything to enrich themselves?  Trump has always weaseled his way out of trouble in the past, but he may have dug a hole too deep this time, that even he can't escape.  I hope so.

Oh, and by the way, if you or I did any ONE of these things, we would be behind bars for a very long time.  So much for equal justice under the law.

Sheet Pan Dinners Are Quick and Delicious

 Cooking for one and still enjoying delicious, healthy meals is a challenge.  It's so easy to just open a can of soup and call that dinner.  Fortunately, I still love to cook, so I've started making sheet pan meals which take minutes to prepare, and pack a lot of flavor.  The most recent one I made was for four people, so I ate 1/4 of the meal, save another 1/4 for another night next week, and froze the rest for next month, during a busy week when I won't want to cook.

The idea came from The Kitchen, a Food Network program that gives me so many great ideas.  I changed the recipe just a bit, but you can find their exact recipe on the Food Network website, and type in Sunny's chicken meatloaf.

                                    Sunny's Chicken Meatloaf Sheet Pan Meal (with a few modifications)

1 lb ground breast of chicken

1/4 cup chopped basil

1/2 cup chopped parsley

1/2 chopped onion

1/4 cup parmesean cheese

1/4 cup panko bread crumbs

1 egg

1 tsp  salt

2 tsp paprika

2 cloves minced garlic

1 bunch chopped scallions

Mix all ingredients except the chicken together until well blended.  Then add chicken and mix lightly.  Do not overmix.  Form 4 oz chicken loafs (freeform) and place on a foil lined baking sheet.  Add broccoli florets and yams cut in 1/2 inch rounds.  Season with salt and a little lemon juice.

Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.  Remove and add the following glaze:  1/2 cup barbeque sauce, 1 tsp honey,  1 tsp hot sauce or chili flakes, or chinese spicy chili crisp.  Paint on top of chicken loafs, cook for an additional 15 minutes.  That's it.  Eat and enjoy.

A Feel Good Story

 I was playing bridge one day at my weekly Friday game, and my friend Lorraine came to our table.  Lorraine is a beautiful woman of around 85 years of age, inside and out.  She told us about her experience at dinner the night before.  It gave me hope that are truly good people in the world.

Lorraine stopped into a local restaurant for dinner.  She was alone.  She was sitting there, waiting for her meal to arrive, when she noticed a couple (probably in their 40's) looking at her.  She didn't think anything of it, but a few minutes later the couple came to Lorraine's table.  They said they had run out of things to talk about, to each other, and would she like to join them and have dinner with them.  She thought that was very nice.

Lorraine and the unnamed couple had dinner and drinks together, talked for two hours, took pictures of each other, and the couple picked up Lorraine's check for dinner.  She said she had not spent such a pleasant evening in a long, long time.

What a lovely thing for this couple to do!  They saw an older woman sitting alone having dinner, and thought they might enhance their lives, and the woman's life, by having her join them.  They certainly did that.  Next time I'm out for a meal, see a single person alone, I may do the same thing.  Yes, there really are some good, kind people in the world.

My Favorite Warm Weather Salad

 When fresh corn is at it's peak, there's nothing better than a fresh corn salad.  It goes with anything you choose to barbeque, or tacos, or whatever you cook indoors.  I use fresh corn cut from the cob, but you can also grill the corn first, then cut it off the cob.  Either way, it's a winner, and you can assemble in in minutes, and make it the day before.

                                                  Fresh Corn Salad (serves 4)

2 ears fresh corn, cut off the cob

1/2 English cucumber, diced

1/4 red onion, diced

Fresh parsley, chopped (use a lot or a little)

3 T. red wine vinegar

2 T. olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Put all vegetables in a bowl.  Add the oil and vinegar and salt and pepper to taste.  If you like your salad very tangy, as I do, use a little more vinegar and a little less oil.  Put in an air tight container.  It is best the next day, when the flavors have a chance to blend.  You can alter this recipe by adding any of the following ingredients:  green or black olives, halved, cherry tomatoes, halved, and crumbled feta cheese.  Enjoy.

What We're Learning From Space X

 Every time another space ship, manned or unmanned takes off, I hear many people talk about why we are doing this.  They think it's a waste of money when there are so many problems on earth.  Billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are spending much of their fortune on developing rockets that can take us to the moon and beyond.  Much of it is billionaire competition and ego, but there are are many benefits beyond this. 

Space X and NASA have partnered on much of the new exploration.  Private development of space exploration is much less expensive, and I daresay faster, than U.S. government exploration.  What makes space exploration so exciting to me, beyond the obvious of wanting to know what's out there and are we alone, is the hundreds of scientific experiments that are being done that will benefit us all.  Experiments include studies on the aging of immune systems, organic material concrete alternatives, and cardiorespiratory effects during and after long-duration exposure to microgravity, studies of bioprinting, crystalization of monoclonal antibodies, changes in immune function, plant gene expression changes, processing alloys.  These are just some of the more than 200 science experiments and technology demonstrations that take place on missions.  Installing telescopes in space, and other photographic material is also done.

So next time someone tells you that space exploration by the billionaires is just for their ego, you can remind them that probably the most important work of the missions is really not talked about by the media.  The hundreds of experiments across many scientific disciplines, done in every mission,  will benefit all mankind.  

Mixed Reviews on Newsroom Diversity

 I was watching a news program one morning when I was struck by one of the reports.  A white female anchor, who had been a newsroom reporter for 35 years, was fired.  She was fired because she had let her hair go grey, and the powers that be felt she should color it!!!  A female veteran of 35 years in the newsroom is let go because of her grey hair, while a male reporter in his 50's or 60's with grey hair, is said to look distinguished and wise.  There's something wrong here.

The Pew Research Center surveyed 12,000 journalists and reports that newsroom diversity is a work in progress.  Journalists give their news organizations mixed grades on how well they are doing in building a diverse staff.  Still, newsrooms today, about 82% of decision makers are white men.  Over 70% of on anchors are white male.  There are many women in high profile reporting jobs, but we need more.  People of color, especially Asian Americans and Native Americans still lag far behind.  We live in California, where there is a great deal of diversity in news reporting which reflects the population, but if you go to other areas of the country, this simply isn't so.

Diversity at the upper levels of management and decision making, means there will be more diverse stories reported.  This is what I want, and hopefully you see this as a good thing.  One Asian American reporter from the mid west was told to move to California, where she would have a better chance at success.  That may be true, but hopefully not for long.

Newsrooms are changing, and hopefully older, experienced reporters, especially women, will not be locked out of jobs because their hair has gone grey and they like it that way.  Reporters around the country should reflect the diversity of our country, and hopefully give us a greater perspective on the world.

What Is The F Factor Diet?

If you spend a lot of time on social media, you probably already know about the F-Factor Diet.  It's a high fiber diet intended for weight loss, created by Tanya Zuckerbrot.  Tanya is also a nutritionist, and has built a high profile brand around the diet, serving as the official dietitian to the Miss Universe Organization.  She has become a media personality and has created a line of high fiber food supplements, and branded clothes and accessories.

In 2020 fashion influencer Emily Gellis spoke publicly about what she considered the dangers of the diet, purporting a variety of negative side effects from the diet, including rash,  GI distress, hair loss, bloating and psychological symptoms.  Zuckerbrot has denied these allegations, and brought a lawsuit against Emily Gellis.  The lawsuit ( I think there are several suits) has not yet been settled.  There's a lot of not so nice media talk back and forth about the two women involved, and the diet itself.

Tanya has written a book outlining the program.  It's a high fiber, low net carbs diet.  The first phase of the diet allows only 35 net carbs per day.  That number increases over time, but it's the side effects and long term effects that have people concerned.  

While the lawsuits are not yet settled, you can listen to the podcast, The F-Factor, as I have, and find out more details about the women involved and the diet itself.  There's always a new weight loss program out there, and this is just one of hundreds that will probably come and go.  Some people are gaining financially, and others, while they may be losing weight, may also be jeopardizing their health. 

A Great Summer (or anytime)Sweet Treat

You know I love to cook.  You know I'm always looking for creative new dishes to make, so what I came up with probably won't surprise you.  It's an "ice cream" where the only ingredient is bananas.  Here's what I did.  I took a very ripe banana (even if they're turning brown you can use them).  Break it into a few pieces, then put it in a baggy and freeze it.  Using a Vitamix or Ninja (the motor has to be super strong), pulverize the banana until it becomes the consistency of soft serve ice cream.  EAT.  It is delicious, or you can freeze it, and then it will be more like traditional harder ice cream.

I got a bit creative.  I made some sugar free instant pudding, and added about 1/4 of the finished pudding to the blender, and made chocolate ice cream.  You could add other items, like chocolate chips, coconut, nuts or nutella to make other flavors.  Since I'm on WW, I wanted a 0 point dessert, so I made the plain banana, but for just 1 point you can make the chocolate ice cream.

The trick is having the right blender.  It must be powerful.  If not, you can also make it in a food processor, which takes a little longer.  It breaks up and eventually becomes the soft serve ice cream consistency.

Other options are to freeze other fruit, like peaches, pineapple or berries, and use them with the banana to make the ice cream.  If you use other fruit without the banana, your product will be more like sorbet, which is also delicious.  Experiment and try some of these low calorie, delicious desserts. 

What's The Fastest Way To Relieve A Headache?

 Luckily I don't get many headaches, but if and when I do, I'm going to follow the advice of some recent Johns Hopkins researchers.  They found that if, after taking the pain meds, you lie on your right side, the medication will get into your body faster and relieve your pain.

The fastest way, using gravity and anatomy, to get the drugs out of your stomach and into your intestines and to work, is to lie on your right side.  Researchers tested several positions and found that lying on your right side sends pills to the deepest part of your stomach, where they dissolve 2.3 faster than when you are in an upright position.

Pills take 10 minutes to dissolve on the right side, 23 minutes on the left side, and 100 minutes when lying on the left side! The researchers were surprised that posture played such an important role in the dissolution of pills.  The moral of all this:  Your mother was right.  Posture is very important!

Do You Have A Doppelganger? Probably

 I'd never heard of the word doppelganger until recently.  It has several meanings, but the meaning I'm referring to is " a person who looks like an  identical twin to you, is unrelated to you and you probably don't know, and likely shares much of your DNA"  

Even facial recognition may not be able to tell doppelgangers apart.  They seem to have genetic similarities, according to a new study.  Many had similar weights, similar lifestyle factors, and similar behavioral traits like smoking and education levels.  This may mean that genetic variation is related to physical appearance and potentially may influence some habits and behavior.

I always thought there were an infinite number of features that would make finding two look alikes unlikely, but apparently that is not true.  There may be a random person in Brazil or Iceland or China that looks just like you, and shares much of your DNA, although you are not related.  Here's where the internet is extremely useful, as it can scan millions of faces and find matches.  The picture here is of doppelgangers.  Who knows where your doppelganger may be.

  

The High Cost of Rebuilding After Hurricanes

 Let's face it.  Hurricanes are a fact of life in Florida and surrounding states.  They are stronger and more frequent than ever before.  There have been 17 hurricanes in Florida in the past 20 years!  Do we continue to spend billions of dollars to rebuild these areas, only to have them knocked down in the next hurricane?

Let's look at Katrina (New Orleans).  The federal government allocated $15 billion to rebuild Katrina.  The total cost of rebuilding New Orleans was $125 billion, and it's not even done yet.  Puerto Rico.  Billions of dollars spent to rebuild, and here we are again, another hurricane and billions more in damage.

Should people be allowed to rebuild in areas that are hit year after year by devastating storms?  Who should foot the bill for the damage?  Mobile homes are not built to withstand 150 mph winds, and the after effects of hurricane Ian show that.  Mobile homes were decimated during the recent storm, and should not be located in areas with yearly storms.  Updated building codes are part of the answer.  Florida has updated their building codes dramatically over the past 20 years, and structures built with new and more stringent standards withstood the latest storm.  So,  stricter building standards are definitely needed.  What about insurance?  What about relocating to less dangerous areas?  

We have a big, beautiful country, with lots of unused land.  Let's develop other, safer  areas of the country to house people.  I know we all want to live near water, but let's face facts.  In this age of more frequent, stronger and deadlier storms, this is not possible.  Billions of dollars to rebuild, and then have the same thing happen next year or the following year?  It doesn't make good sense.

Lawmakers have some hard decisions to make, not all of them popular.  Will they make the decision that gets them reelected, or the one that serves their community?

Hurricane Andrew Was 30 Years Ago

I was watching TV the morning of the 30th anniversary of Hurricane Andrew, which hit landfall on August 24, 1992.  Many of the reporters who covered the original story are still active journalists, and recalled the harrowing experiences they encountered.  They remembered it like it was yesterday.  One of only a few Category 5 hurricanes to ever hit the U.S., it wreaked havoc everywhere, crushing whole towns in minutes.  It even destroyed much of the Metrozoo in Miami.

One of the iconic images from that hurricane is a picture of a dozen or so pink flamingos in the bathroom of the zoo.  Miraculously only a few mammals were killed in the hurricane, but several hundred birds of various kinds were killed.  The structures at the zoo came down like a house of cards.  With winds from 165-212 mph that's what you would expect.  Zoo employees who were present that day acted quickly.  They herded the flamingos into the bathroom for safekeeping!.  Most of the flamingos were spared, and in 2013 the new Miami Zoo, with a beautiful flamingo habitat was created.  The new area is designed with hurricanes in mind.  There is a structure near the habitat that the flamingos have been trained to go into in case of disaster.  The new building is storm proof.

Flamingos can live to be 50 years old, so many of the 40 flamingos in the Miami Zoo were there in 1992 and survived.  I wonder how they like their new digs.  Through the kindness and generosity of thousands of Floridians and animal lovers around the world, the zoo was rebuilt and is a place of beauty, for all to enjoy.