It's all in the name, yum!

An example of the C&D
Photo: Shelby Carignan, The Forecaster

  At the Little Big bake shop in South Portland, the owners got a letter, or rather two letters.  The owners are two chefs implanted from New York.  As a treat one day they made a dozen Cro-Nuts.
Cro-Nuts are a composite of croissants and donuts - thus the name.
  It turns out the Little Big used the Cro-nut name and got a letter to cease and desist; so they changed the name to Crauxnuts (still pronounced Cro-nuts) and got another cease and desist order.
  The name was changed to C&D which stands for, you guessed it, Cease and Desist.  The treats are so popular that Little Big takes calls for reservation orders, two or three weeks in advance!  I'd try one but don't want to travel that far to get one, nor do I wish to pay $3.00 for a "donut".

Not quite yet

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I put together a little piece for you today - it just popped into my head.

Where spring has gone I do not know,
it's hard to tell with six inches of new fallen snow.
There are no flowers, to delight the eye,
only falling ice comes down from on high.

There may be warmth so time away,
but there'll be none to see, at least today.
We can but wish and wait,
to see what comes with natures fate.

We can wish, with all of our hearts,
for things that flowers and leaves and grass imparts.
We must decide to just sit and stare,
at all of the trees whose limbs are bare.

Good things may come "to those that wait",
but I am chomping at the gate.
Let loose of Spring we must declare,
for it will come, to those who care.

If you're tired of waiting don't give up hope,
and please don't sit around and mope.
There are things we can do to be in control,
put up a screensaver and let the good times roll!


Spring?

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  It's Spring!  Like hell it is, at least not here in Levant, Maine - it's snowing!  We are expected to get 2 or 3 inches of fresh snow to add to the two or so feet already on the ground.  No, I'm sorry Spring is a ways away.  And I am staying home this morning, I need to go into town but it can wait - it's supposed to be 40 degrees later (way later probably).
  Does it occur to you that the ads for 1800 Tequila show a bully?  It does to me.  Maybe you haven't seen any of them, you may not have if you don't watch sports.  And Budweiser wants to know if you know who made your beer.  I'd guess it was Budweiser.  Listen, I used to drink it by the gallon, do you think I really cared by who or where the damned stuff was brewed, no.

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  If, by any chance, you are hard of hearing you'll get this strip, or if you happen to live with a "deaf" person you will understand.  This is me in the red shirt, and my lovely wife Linda and it's what I put her through, unless by chance I am wearing my hearing aids.  If I have them in I only do this half of the time!

Hither, Tither and Yon

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  It was a regular Tuesday.  Up at 2am, coffee at 5am and a couple of small, simple errands.  I went to my friend Jeffs at 7am and we watched part of a taped baseball game while we waited for the sun to get a little higher.  Driving from Bangor to Brewer at sunrise is brutal, but not bad if you want to be blinded.
  Some shopping for Jeff, a seat on the bench for me because I have a "corn" growing on my instep, and I'm trying to treat that, it's painful.  If you have any suggestions use the comment section.
  Jeff and I had lunch at 10am and wandered around a couple of stores until 11am.  We waited with some friends and went to a noon meeting, after which I came home.  I'd been gone over ten hours!
  I'm worried that I'll get one of those "you heart attack will happen....." notes in one of the meetings, then I'll have to take just one low dose aspirin :).
  Here are some updates:  1) The "attack cat" in Oregon is now a resident of a shelter.
2) Maine is making a "major attempt" (according to the Governor) to increase production of Maple Syrup.

On being replaced.....by a robot

Packing and shipping
Photo: istockphoto

  Wilbur and I have probably packed and shipping a couple of hundred items during our working days.  Now I guess we would be replaced with a robot, which could very well do the job.
  Robots will replace bank tellers, loan managers, barbers and bicycle mechanics, so says the study which wasn't written by a robot.  I'll direct you to a slide show which shows a number of occupations and the odds that they'll be replaced.
  I guess it should bother me, but it doesn't because I already bypass tellers most of the time by using an ATM, which can be seen as a robot - according to me.
  Take a look at the show:

http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Jobs-that-are-threatened-by-technology-5317900.php#photo-4342303

Bicycle mechanic
Photo: Mike DeSisti Maclatchy Tribune News Service

Words, you gotta love 'em

It's all about words
Illustration: www.dogfoose.com

  Did you know that apron, umpire and adder all used to start with the letter "n"?  No, I didn't either.  Words change over time the letter arrangement, the pronunciation or a complete spelling change, because language evolves.
  Bird was originally spelled brid and wasp was waps - the spelling changed, but look closely at how each of those words are pronounced - tricky.
  We won't even go into words in use now that we never used, or how we each pronounce things a little differently from each other.
   Take a look at the article: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/11/pronunciation-errors-english-language

That sweet smell...

The "old way" to collect sap
Photo: www.knoxvillefirearmschool.com

 

The geezers cooked up (pun intended) a special today,

and he's written a special poem, just for you.

When springtime finally gets here, and we are sure it will;

it's time for the maple sap, to start and run downhill.
It's placed there in that big vat, and heat is applied,
and that's just the beginning of how syrup is supplied.

 

It's going to be syrup time, in Maine and that's for sure,
time to go and taste the treat that's all fresh made and pure.
It's something that's been happening since times of old;
and the product gives new meaning to the saying, "good as gold".

Click on the photos to enlarge:



A sanitary tap is put in to a tree, sanitary means
the sap isn't exposed to the air like the old way above
Photo: John Clarke Russ - Bangor Daily News

The web of tubing, runs downhill of course
the sap will be boiled down to make syrup.
Photo: www.twodogfarmvt.com