Level Up!

My first job out of university was with Prudential Bache Securities. A Wall-Street investment firm that was looking to get into fixed income in a big way, they had come to Florida and opened shop. The problem was, their in-house spreadsheet demos, the 1989-era software they used to show their clients how various portfolios would work, were all stock-oriented. Fixed income is bond-based, and they needed updates stat. Fresh from college with an accounting minor (no, really, and no, I don't remember a damn thing about it, hated every second of it, Omaha handles the household's finances) and a programming major so dark-ages I had COBOL in my CV, Bache hired me.

I mention all of this just to keep in mind the dress code at Bache. This was flamin' Florida, man, and yet the Wall Street Dress Code™ specified coat-and-tie every flamin' day. I swear, Bache's employee manual required sock garters, although blessed be nobody ever checked if I was wearing any.

But there was a constant. The coat may have come from Burdines, the pants from JC Penny, the shoes only God knows where, but the shirt and the tie were pure Brooks Brothers.

Today, I walked into Brooks Brothers for the first time in over twenty years and bought a shirt. It was the first shirt I've bought in years that goddamned fit. I have the build of a swimmer with the gorilla wingspan to match, and shirts at big-box stores just don't make it: every shirt with arms long enough for me also features necks for bouncers and blouses for beachballs. If I wanted to wear a tent, I'd buy my clothes from Coleman.

It was an expensive shirt. It was the cheapest shirt they sold, and it was $73. Even with my tatty herribone sport coat and Costco-bought black chino slacks, it was one hell of an upgrade from the sports-store bought shirt I'd worn into the store. I haven't looked like that in twenty years, like I ought to be commanding a million dollars. I was astonished by the effect of buying clothes that fit. Which is what I really did-- I bought a shirt that actually fit me for the first time in twenty years.

Anyway, I warned Omaha that if the shirt wore and laundered well over the next month, I intended to buy three more of them.

He's gone. That's three...

It has now been more than three weeks since Bosco went missing on August 9th. Either he's landed somewhere with someone who is feeding him, and who has not taken him to the vet, or... well.

Dinah was an indoor cat for much of her life, especially at night. Bosco was a nighttime kitty, often not coming back until two or three AM, once he'd figured out that we'd always let him in if he did come back.

Two other cats from the neighborhood have gone missing in the past two years, too. Something about the woods behind my house, possibly even that damned raccoon, has been killing cats at an alarming rate.

I couldn't sleep well, partly out of thinking about this. It's why I'm blogging at 5am. Necco senses something is wrong, because she's not sleeping in anyone's bed anymore, preferring the living room couch. When Bosco would sleep at my feet, she'd sleep at Omaha's. Unless Storm was at her mother's house, then she'd take Storm's bed over and peer down at Kouryou-chan in the lower bunk all night long.

Damn.

Context is everything.

If a Muslim in America killed 40 people, the right would claim it was because of Islam, and the government wasn't doing enough to keep "dangerous Islam" out of our country.

If a Christian in America killed 40 people, the right would claim he wasn't a true Christian, and if he attended a church it was only a stealth campaign on his part to discredit Christianity.

If a hurricane killed 40 people, but only in New York City, the right would claim the government hadn't done enough to get people out of harm's way.

A hurricane killed 40 people, but none in a major media market. Therefore, the threat was oversold and the government's efforts to get people out of harm's way were a waste of time and effort.

Um, far be it for me to disagree with His Holiness, but...

In an article about the financial crisis of 2008, this comment caught my eye:

Italy's Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti observed, "The prediction that an undisciplined economy would collapse by its own rules can be found" in a 1985 paper (see Market Economy and Ethics, Acton Institute) by then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, which Tremonti called "prophetic".

Excuse me, Pope Benedict, but Karl Marx is on line one, and he would like to have a word with you.

Tonight's recipe: Grilled Pork Chops in a brown sugar glaze, blackened corn with shallots.

Tonight's dinner was:

Grilled pork chops with a Worsterchire & brown sugar glaze, rice pilaf with shallots in chicken stock, and grilled corn cut from the cob and tossed with sautee'd shallots.

The pilaf was simple: two diced shallots, sautee'd in medium-high heat until soft in four tablespoons of butter, added 1 cup of rice and stirred until glossy, then added 1 3/4 cups of stock. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

The pork chops cooked very fast, even on low heat in the gas grill. The corn was warmed, and then scorched on the grill. While this was happening I quickly sliced two shallots and tossed them into a pot with three tablespoons of butter on medium heat.

I moved the pork chops to the "keep hot" tier of the grill and slathered them in a mix of 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce and 2 tbsp. brown sugar. I took the corn inside, cut it free of the cob, and tossed it in with the other pot of shallots, stirred once, put in a healthy pinch of salt, and all was done.

And now I have to go marinate a chicken for tomorrow's dinner.