Month: May 2017

A Trace of What?

/ Leland Olson Hoel / 1 Comment

 

Daily Prompt
 Trace 
Write a new post in response to today’s one-word prompt.

A Trace of What?

The Food and Drug Administration Administration in the United States readily admits there are Trace Amounts of just about anything and everything in the food we eat and in the water we drink and also in all other beverages.

We have become a nation of fast food Junkies, with an overweight problem unequaled in the history of the world. Life expectancies have increased up close to 100 years old, for the past Century and now that trend is in reverse and we will soon be back the way it was in the 1800’s when a person might feel fortunate to live to be fifty years old.

In the 1800’s it was from the lack of nutrition and proper diet and disease. In the 21st century, it is from over indulgence, fat, fast foods, artificial sweeteners, and food additives and preservatives in everything that is consumed.

There’s an old saying, “You are what you eat.” This is a very true quote, if you choose your food carefully, prepare it properly, eat a balanced diet you can maintain very good health even in a polluted world. Preparing your food after you purchase it from the market takes some extra effort, but I do believe life, a long life is worth the extra effort.

“Der Mensch ist, was er ißt.”
That translates into English as ‘man is what he eats‘

I would consider this following article a good read for anyone who might have an interest in the past trace elements of chemicals or other harmful contaminants in the food, water and drink worldwide. List of food contamination incidents

https://lghoelson.wordpress.com/

Buff the Blues Buff the Shoes

/ Leland Olson Hoel / Leave a comment
buff

Buff Beach Bodies

 
Daily Prompt
Buff

 

Write a new post in response to today’s one-word prompt.

Buff the Blues Buff the Shoes

Buford was a young boy from the country, they had no neighbors for miles. Buford loved to run around in the buff as a little boy, his little body was brown as a berry from top to bottom. Young Buford loved the country life but as he saw more movies on Saturday night at the movie theater in town, his thoughts wandered to Sunny California. He fell in love with the movie stars in California, young and beautiful, buff bodies at all the ocean beaches. His mind made up, still a teenager, he just had to go and seek his fortune on the Gold Coast. “Go West Young Man,” as Horace Greeley said. Buford had read that someplace, now it was his time to take action. “GO WEST, YOUNG MAN, GO WEST” was an expression first used by John Babsone Lane Soule in the Terre Haute Express in 1851. It appealed to Horace Greeley, who rephrased it slightly in an editorial in the New York Tribune on 13 July 1865: “Go West, young man, and grow up with the country.”

Young Buford went West hitchhiking and catching rides on freight cars, he arrived at the Pacific coast ready for action. He found out work was very hard to find, he got a janitor job sweeping up at one of the movie studios. He soon realized that was as close as he was going to get to the movie stars. He didn’t think his chances of being discovered there with his talents was very good. The young and beautiful did go to the beaches, he mingled with all the buff bodies playing volleyball in the sand, frolicking in the ocean and just plain having a good time 24/7.

Buford soon realized the young ladies at the beach were not paying very close attention to him, he didn’t think he was that bad looking, he had to come up with a plan. That evening on the way home he stopped by the market and asked for a baking potato, a fairly long one. The store manager asked, “Are you sure you only want just one potato?” Buford replied, “that will be just fine.” The next time he went to the beach, Buford placed that potato in the front of his swimming trunks, it was as if a magic wand and been passed over him, the buff, young girls were all looking at him very closely now.

Young Buford couldn’t get a decent steady job, so he decided to join the Army, he was quickly sent off to boot camp, to the world he had no idea existed. It was certainly a new way of life for the young Farm Boy to become accustomed to. One thing he did like about it, after standing in the chow line the food was well worth it and you could eat all you wanted. Buford took to the chow hall very quickly.

One thing Buford was not very comfortable with was being yelled at and taking orders from a drill instructor, who seemed to dislike the young fellow from day one. Buford was told to shine and buff his pair of boots until they shine like two mirrors. He worked for hours, used the whole can of Polish, plus lots of spit and many rags and buffed and buffed. He finally ended up with a shoe shine that he was very proud of, he could actually see his face on the toes of his boots. He was ready for any inspection the ornery old drill instructor was ready to give. Sure enough that same morning after close order drill they had an inspection.

boot

G I Shoe Shine

 

 

The Drill instructor looked down at Buford’s boots and asked, “Is that as good a shine as you can buff out?” “You better learn to buff your shoe shine a lot better than that, buff, buff, the buff is what it’s all about” Then he stepped on one of Buford shoes and wiggled his foot back and forth and completely destroyed the shoeshine Buford had spent days working on. Buford asked, “Why did you go and do that?” Then the Drill instructor did the same thing to his other shoe. Buford suddenly became bitter with buff!

I’m certainly no psychologist or war expert but I would think there must be a better way to get the troops mad enough to want to fight.

https://lghoelson.wordpress.com/

Copper Ore, Loosed by Detonation

/ Leland Olson Hoel / 1 Comment

Post
May 29, 2017
Daily Prompt
Detonate

Write a new post in response to today’s one-word prompt.

Copper Ore, Loosed by Detonation

The Daily Prompt word for May 29, 2017, is Detonate. As soon as I saw that word I thought of the Fourth of July, and all the fireworks that are detonated all over the country to celebrate Independence Day. Millions are spent on pyrotechnics each year. $675 Million Expected total for consumer sales of fireworks in the U.S. in celebration of July 4 this year, according to the American Pyrotechnics Association That is a lot of money for the enjoyment of those who love to watch fireworks displays.

The next thing that came to my mind was the open pit copper mines in this country and the blasting that they do, they detonate large amounts of explosives to loosen the copper ore so it can be hauled in huge trucks from the mine to the crushers and smelters.

I drove an  8000-gallon tanker transport when I lived in Arizona, one of my jobs was to deliver diesel fuel to the bottom of some of these open pit mine. It was a thrilling experience, especially on days they were blasting. The one that I delivered to the most often was at Bisbee,  Arizona. It was owned by Phelps Dodge, they  owned the town too and everything in it.” I Owe My Soul to the Company Store”, was written from the heart!

Kennecott Copper had several copper mines in Arizona and Utah. To be around one of these open pit mines when they blasted was an earthshaking experience for sure. They used a combination of nitrates and diesel fuel for the explosives charges to blast a large area of ore lose all at one time. That is a long way from black powder charges used in hand drilled holes in Norwegian Copper Mines in the late 1700’s.

This ore blasting is being done in northern British Columbia. I’ve never been to this mine, but it looks like the open pit mines here in the USA.

https:wordpress.com///lghoelson.

Infuse Bone Grafting

/ Leland Olson Hoel / 4 Comments

infus

Infuse
Write a new post in response to today’s one-word prompt

Infuse is the Daily prompt word, I think it should be used for peace. In this world we’re living in today with terror and hatred, we should all think of using the word Infuse in a way, where everyone would Infuse each other with caring and sharing and love. To get along as brothers throughout the whole world, to see everyone infusing each other with goodness, happiness and peace would be a glorious new chapter in this world today.

Infuse Bone Grafting

I’m going to use the word Infuse with a medical connection. Modern medicine is moving ahead at a pace almost beyond comprehension, every day there are new methods of treating every human condition that can come about, there are new treatments, new healing being devised almost daily. What I’m going to write about here is a new method of infusing bone, and bone grafts, in people who have a problem with a vertebrae condition or possibly a condition where there is a problem with bones in the jaw area.

In 1964 I had a spinal fracture, the vertebrae in my spine needed to be fused together at T-12 and L-1. The doctor removed some bone from my left hip and used that bone in a fusion to grow my broken vertebrae back together. This was a routine spinal fusion at that time my hip was sorer than my back, it remained sore for many months, where the bone was scraped from my hip. It did work well though and it healed my vertebrae back together, almost as good as it was before it was broken.

In the year 2000, I had to have surgery done on my neck for spinal stenosis. The doctors removed the front half of one of my vertebrae in my neck so they could clean out pieces of bone and calcium deposits around the spinal cord. After they got done with the Roto-Rooter job in my spinal canal they put the vertebrae back in place and drilled holes into each side of it, then put in dowels that were made from human bone. I guess it was human bones, not monkey bones, it was bones that came from a bone bank. These dowels were just about the same thing as wooden pegs, the only thing they were made out of bone and they helped grow the vertebrae back together in time. To protect the vertebrae during the healing process a stainless steel plate was put on over the front of it, this was held in place with 6 screws, this was also done to help keep my head from falling off I presume.

The Infuse technology that is described below sounds like it will be a great help for people like me who have to go through bone fusions. It says a lot for medical technology and the money spent on research in this world, let us hope research money continuous to be available for the benefit of all people.

INFUSE® Bone Graft Advantages & Benefits
INFUSE® Bone Graft stimulates the growth of bone-forming cells, manufacturing new bone to replace or heal existing bone. It does this by using a type of protein called a bone morphogenetic protein (BMP).
How INFUSE® Bone Graft can help
It is FDA-approved for certain spine, oral-maxillofacial and orthopedic trauma surgeries. For these surgeries, it can offer several benefits, including eliminating the need to harvest bone from the patient’s body in a secondary procedure, shorter operating times, lower administrative costs, faster rates of fusion or bone formation.1
The active ingredient in INFUSE® Bone Graft, rhBMP-2, is a manufactured version of a protein already present in the body that promotes new bone growth.

https://lghoelson.wordpress.com/

Macadamia Nut Chocolate Chip Cookies

/ Leland Olson Hoel / 3 Comments

mn s

Macadamia Nut Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/8 cups sifted all-purpose flour
41/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup macadamia nuts, chopped
1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 2 large cookie sheets with vegetable shortening.

Cream the butter and sugars together in a large bowl. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract until well blended. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt; gradually blend into the batter. Stir in the chopped macadamia nuts and chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto the cookie sheets, about 2 inches apart.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the cookies are golden brown. Remove from the oven, and transfer to cooling rack.

https://lghoelson.wordpress.com/

Too Many Cooks Spoil the Gravy

/ Leland Olson Hoel / 2 Comments

brothchefs.png

Too Many Cooks Spoil the Gravy

I recently was made aware of these words of wisdom that have been in use for hundreds of years. My wife baked a chicken in the oven last Sunday, this creates a lot of leftover food for two people to consume. She decided on Tuesday, that we would have hot chicken sandwiches for dinner that evening. The idea was to put some leftover chicken on some bread next to mashed potatoes, dressing and a vegetable, then cover the potatoes and meat with a liberal helping of chicken gravy.
My wife started preparing the food around 5 p.m. She asked,” where is the strainer?” I replied, “in the cupboard where it always is.” I asked,” why do you want a strainer”? “She replied, to strain the chicken stock.” She got out the strainer and got it done and put the liquid into a pan. Then she announced that “she wasn’t feeling well and asked if I would finish preparing our meal?” I said, “I don’t mind doing that.” After she sat down, I went into the kitchen, the chicken was already out on the stove ready to be cut up. I thought I better prepare the gravy first so it was good and hot before I put the food on the plates.

I put her kettle of chicken stock on the front burner and made some thickening with flour and water. While I was waiting for the chicken stock to start getting hot to make the gravy, I cut up chicken meat put it on some sliced bread, put on a couple scoops of potatoes and some dressing along with some broccoli chunks. It was ready for the hot gravy and the microwave oven. The chicken stock started to boil, I slowly stirred in the thickening and soon had a very nice looking gravy, I tasted it with a fingertip it didn’t taste like chicken at all, I put in a big scoop of chicken stock base from a jar, and added some salt and pepper,

I continued to boil the gravy until it got nice and thick, it looked real good.
I put a liberal amount of gravy on each one of our plates, then gave each one about 3 minutes in the microwave oven, they were very hot and ready for the table. I announced to my wife that dinner would be served within a few minutes, so she better come to the table right now. When she got to the table she said, I don’t feel good, I think I’ll just eat some watermelon. I felt kind of bad, I went to all that trouble making the gravy that she just had to have, had the plates ready, all she had to do was sit down and eat but she only ate watermelon.

Food doesn’t seem to taste the same when you cook it yourself but my hot chicken plate did not taste right. I told my wife, I made caramel in your chicken stock kettle yesterday.”Did you wash it real good before you put your chicken stock into it? There was caramel stuck all over the inside of that kettle after I got done making the caramel corn. I don’t think you washed the caramel off the kettle before you put the chicken stock in. Oh yes, “I did she says.” Well, my gravy does not taste right!. I never waste food so ate almost everything on my plate.

I was going to be a real boy scout, later I did the dishes, there was some stuff in the food strainer, I couldn’t figure out what it was, after a closer examination I realized it was pieces of rhubarb. She had made rhubarb sauce on Saturday, she must have taken the rhubarb sauce out of the refrigerator thinking it was her chicken stock, strained the rhubarb out of the sauce then asked me to make chicken gravy with it!

I cannot believe it, this actually happened, I think possibly through all this madness, I have come up with a new type of sweet and sour sauce. How else could I have eaten that whole plate full of food? I just had another thought that is even crazier. Did she do this on purpose! Just to see my reaction, that is why she only ate watermelon? I guess nobody will ever know if it was a mystery or just Murphy’s Law at work.

Prov. Cliché Too many people trying to manage something simply spoil it. Let’s decide who is in charge around here. Too many cooks spoil the stew. Everyone is giving orders, but no one is following them! Too many cooks spoil the broth

https://lghoelson.wordpress.com/

Wind Will Power the Future

/ Leland Olson Hoel / 2 Comments

towers.png

The power that the world gets from all of the oil in the Saudi Arabian Peninsula will look like a few buckets of corn cobs sitting by the old cook stove in the future.

The power of the future lies in the Wind that continuously circles around this sphere we call mother earth. There is enough wind going around this globe to supply enough electricity for all the world and maybe export some two other planets.

Wind Energy Resource Map United States

Wind projects accounted for 42% of all new electric generating projects in the US, and wind now delivers nearly 2% of the nation’s electricity supply!

Wind power blows away records in the midwest-texas.

https://lghoelson.wordpress.com/

Non-Notorious Me

/ Leland Olson Hoel / 2 Comments

notorious
Daily Post
May 19, 2017
DAILY PROMPT
Notorious/

Did You Know?
“Notorious was adopted into English in the 16th century from Medieval Latin notorius, itself from Late Latin’s noun notorium, meaning “information” or “indictment.” “Notorium,” in turn, derives from the Latin verb noscere, meaning “to come to know.” Although “notorious” can be a synonym of “famous,” meaning simply “widely known,” it long ago developed the additional implication of someone or something unpleasant or undesirable. The Book of Common Prayer Offices of 1549 includes the first known use of the unfavorable meaning in print, referring to “notorious synners.”
Notorious

Non-Notorious Me
I just read the meaning of notorious in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, all of a sudden I became very depressed. Notorious can mean widely known and well-known for good things. It could also be well-known or notorious as a bank robber, or an Axe Murderer. What really shook me up, I don’t believe I’m notorious for anything.

That leaves me somewhat in limbo, twisting in the wind, so to speak. I will have to study this hard, try to recall comments from anyone and everyone, for clues about any notoriety I might possess. It could be good and it might be bad but not secret, then nobody would know, I don’t even know for sure because nobody tells me. Some give me funny looks. Somebody gave me a clue once, I might have bad breath. Being notorious for bad breath would be the world’s worst thing to be notorious for! I didn’t take a chance, I easily solved the problem with a case of sen-sen. Many who are out of the loop don’t even know what it is.

Somebody gave me a clue once, I might have bad breath. Being notorious for bad breath would be the world’s worst thing to be notorious for! I didn’t take a chance, I quickly, and easily solved the problem with a case of sen-sen. Many who are out of the loop don’t even know what Sen-Sen is.

sen

We are sad to announce that Sen-Sen has been discontinued by the manufacturer and our supply is sold out. We are disappointed too. sen-sen

Now, what shall I do? My world just came crashing down around me, my bad breath could be the end of me, as I know myself. The Sen-Sen company is out of business I believe it’s an act of treason, this country, and the world will not be able to survive without Sen-Sen. Soon everyone will be wearing respirators and surgical masks,. I can see the handwriting, scrawled all over the walls, written by some Notorious graffiti artist.

https://lghoelson.wordpress.com/