Here is the link to the parable of stone soup,
a parable most of you know:
http://mhschool.com/...
Soon a villager approached, holding a cabbage that she had grabbed from its hiding place. “Wonderful!” cried the soldier as he cut it up and added it to the pot. “You know, I once shared stone soup with cabbage with the king himself. Of course, my soup had a bit of dried beef in it. That made it extra delicious!” The village butcher arrived with a large chunk of dried beef for the soup.
Come with me,
below the squiggly,
and share my stone soup with me,
on this cold, cold night.
First,
to set the mood,
the weather report,
and why the weather,
hot or cold,
hits my wife and I
harder than most:
The weather in Wichita,
tonight:
http://www.accuweather.com/...
Sat
12am 1am 2am 3am 4am 5am 6am 7am
Temp (°F) 17° 16° 15° 14° 12° 10° 11° 11°
Have you ever been in an attic,
in the hot summer,
or the cold winter?
The temperature in an attic
is not much different
than the temperature outside,
just no wind.
In the summer,
that makes it feel hotter in the attic
than it dos outside;
in the winter,
it's a little warmer
in the attic,
since there's no wind.
My wife and I
are living in a room
with no ceiling.
We're looking up at the roof rafters and deck,
just under the shingles.
So our room feels like an attic.
So,
this past summer,
we battled the heat
with a small window unit air conditioner and fans;
now we're battling the cold
with two space heaters,
one filled with oil,
that glows with steady heat,
and a little metal utility heater,
with a fan
that blows,
and circulates the heat around the room.
Hot air rises,
cold air sinks,
and we live our lives
close to the floor,
so the fan is essential.
(We don't have central heat.)
(In January, during my vacation,
I'll put up sheetrock
and pink panther fiberglass insulation.)
Just now,
I noticed my feet were cold;
I've spent a few hours
wearing shoes with no socks.
So I took off my shoes,
rubbed my feet down with petroleum jelly,
to keep them supple and healthy,
and put on a pair of white cotton socks,
and,
over the socks,
I put on a pair of home made fleece booties,
made just a few days ago
by Beverly,
the woman who was my lover
for three years,
between the death of my first wife,
Pam,
and my marriage to my new bride,
Tonia,
over a year ago.
(Tonia doesn't mind
if I maintain contact
with Bev.)
And then I put my shoes back on.
That feels much warmer.
About the weather:
Have you ever seen a lava lamp?
http://www.youtube.com/...
In that video,
blue masses of material
rise as they're heated,
and sink when they cool.
That's a very good model
of the Earth's atmosphere;
the air masses move north,
across Wichita,
as they're heated,
and south,
across Wichita,
when they're very cold.
I think global warming
is causing those air masses
to move faster,
so they have less time to
cool of before they hit us,
from the south,
and they have less time to
warm up before they hit us,
from the north.
So they hit us both
warmer
and colder
than before climate change.
That's why climate change
is the reason
our warm fronts are hotter,
and our cold fronts are colder,
here in Wichita,
Kansas.
As I understand it.
Someone go ask weatherdude.
But I'm convinced
that global climate change
is the reason Wichita
is frozen tonight,
extra cold.
On a night like this,
hot soup sounds good.
I work at a supermarket,
and I often fix the soup aisle,
making it look neater,
after shoppers have grabbed
hundreds of cans of soup
since the last time we made the soup area look neat.
I once counted;
there are 24 different kinds
of Campbell's condensed
chicken soup,
and another 24 different kinds
of Campbell's condensed
other soups,
not chicken,
But my wife and I
can't afford store bought soup;
we make our own.
We make stone soup,
so to speak.
Let me give you a few examples.
Tonia taught me
to make cheese soup
from ramen soup.
Simply add about eight slices
of sandwich cheese.
It melts well,
and adds lots of protein and fat
to the ramen,
which is only carbs and seasoned salt water.
For tonight,
I took on a soup project
that takes several hours to cook;
so I had to make a short cooking soup,
so Tonia and I could eat,
while waiting for the long time soup.
The long time soup:
In a 16 quart,
stainless steel,
stockpot,
I put almost two gallons of water,
a medium sized, spiral cut, bone-in ham,
about two pounds of pinto beans,
at least three heaping tablespoons of salt,
a pound bag of fresh cranberries,
and the contents of the brown sugar ham glaze
that came with the ham.
Tonia said I should have used only one pound of beans,
and not as much salt,
since the ham has a lot of salt already,
that will cook into the beans.
I think it's pretty hard to oversalt beans.
Tonia doesn't know,
yet,
about the cranberries,
and the sweet glaze mix.
It smells pretty good.
Does it sound good to you?
For the short time dish,
that we just ate:
In a small saucepan,
I put a quart or so of water,
a can of USDA commodity canned pork,
about a half pound of pasta shells,
and,
after the shells got soft,
I put in a packet of brown gravy mix,
and five slices of cheese.
It actually reminded me of
tuna salad,
with shredded tuna meat,
mayo,
macaroni,
mustard,
etc.
But the shredded meat
is pork,
and there's cheese
instead of mayo.
Does it sound good to you?
Even before that,
to tide me over while I cooked the macaroni,
I made myself some cheese and crackers,
with a generic version of
Town House crackers,
each cracker had a dollop of
generic salad dressing version of Miracle Whip,
a small cube of cheddar cheese,
and,
on top,
spicy brown mustard.
This meal,
crackers,
cheese,
canned pork,
macaroni,
gravy mix,
spiral ham,
pinto beans,
salt,
this is all items we had lying around,
and we put out the effort,
and we made three different meals,
crackers and cheese,
just for two,
just one meal;
the pork and mac,
enough for two meals each for the two of us,
and the ham and beans
is nearly four gallons of 'stone soup',
enough for me,
Tonia,
her uncle Randall,
and her brother,
Mike,
if he wants some;
enough to feed
three or four people,
at least one meal a day,
for maybe a week or more.
That's the idea behind
the parable of
stone soup.
And that parable
is useful
in describing the difference
between liberals and conservatives
in America today.
The hard line conservative Republicans
simply don't want to give in
to the con of the beggar
making stone soup.
They are willing to let folks freeze and starve.
Liberal Democrats
want to make stone soup;
some of us,
such as myself and my family,
actually play the role of the beggars,
and we're really forced to scramble,
and put something together,
to keep each other warm,
and to have enough good meals to eat.
Other liberals
hear about us,
such as reading about us here at Daily Kos,
and want to help,
and realize that,
other than sending money,
they must at least vote for Democrats,
so that society as a whole
has some kind of hope.
And that kind of thinking,
looking at the big picture,
that's why my wife and I
plan to build a chicken coop in the spring,
and maybe get two ducks,
and eat a lot of duck eggs.
And looking at the big picture,
that's why I often preach,
and beg folks to understand,
that we need to persuade
nearly everyone
to get excited about
voluntary
surgical sterilization,
for four out of five humans,
for two generations,
until our population
is low enough,
so that it will be easy
to make 'stone soup'.
Check out my 'stone soup' recipes
at this diary:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
How many chickens,
slowly turning?
How many turkeys,
taking hours to cook?
Do we want young goats?
I've never eaten goat meat,
but I presume young goats are tasty.
Most folks like pork,
so how many pigs will be slowly roasted
over the hot coals,
with the fat dripping down
and flaring up?
Remember,
we need to feed 5,000 people,
and in my daydream,
these are your friends and relatives.
I welcome your recipes,
for your 'stone soup'.
And your comments
on the future of humankind.
Read that other diary at that link.
I put a lot of thought into it.
Thanks for reading,
on a very cold night.
Thanks again.