Been in a mood like yesterday all day today but at least now I know why. I have my first cold/flu in a long time and am super nasally and sinusy and lethargic. This too shall pass. Will just suck for a few days and yes all you moms I am doing all the responsible THINGS (staying hydrated, using over the counter stuff).
In other news, I know that almost every day here someone much smarter than me, David Anderson, talks about insurance and HSA’s and does a great job breaking it down but I have to get something off my chest. Health Savings Accounts aren’t about health care. They’re about getting tax breaks for rich people while feeling like you are doing something about health care. The whole fucking idea is stupid on its face- motherfucker I can’t save enough money to buy my next car I am gonna have to get loans, what on fucking earth makes you think I can save up enough for an 80k shoulder replacement or a 300k run of chemo? What fucking fantasy world are you living in? And I am one of the lucky ones in the middle to lower middle class. What do poor people do?
And I say this because I want to make sure you chowderheads understand I am not belittling David’s work- I absolutely am not. It’s vital because someone smart and decent has to keep an eye on these fuckers and put it in words that dullards like me can process and retain. It’s just for me, when I hear a politician suggest HSA’s as the way to go I mentally am thinking “oh fuck off you have no plan.” I’m allowed to do that.
Trump gave an interview with Dasha Burns, and it is every bit as dumb and incoherent as you would imagine. I tried to read the whole thing in one sitting but then because my mind hates me I started to hear it in his voice as I read it and this is where I had to tap out:
Burns: Do Ukraine has … do you think Ukraine has lost this war?
Trump: Well, they’ve lost territory long before I got here. They lost a whole strip of seafront, big seafront. Uh, I mean, you look at the maps. I … I’ve been here for 10 months. Uh, but you go back 10 months and take a look, they lost that whole strip. It’s now a bigger strip. It’s a wider strip. But they lost a lot of land, and it’s very good land, too, that they lost.
All he can think about is two things- They are losers because they lost the land, and that it was good seafront property for a Trump Hotel.
When this fucking scumbag finally drops off the face of the earth I am going to just take a week off and do NOTHING but celebrate. I’ll try to finish the rest later.
My sinuses are throbbing so I am tapping out. Talk to you tomorrow.
Open Thread: Rep. Jasmine Crockett Is Running for Senate
Baud
Belittle away. He’s no Richard Mayhew.
SpaceUnit
Now I’m craving chowder. Thanks guys.
Scout211
Feel better, Cole.
Princess
Now we know what Putin has promised Trump to settle the war in Russia’s favour — a nice seafront hotel property on the Black Sea. He’s so transparent.
Scout211
I’m wondering why I have had an ear worm all day today of Taylor Swift’s Blank Space.
Its a mystery.
Aziz, light!
@Princess: It’s a tough call which to build first, Trump Tower Gaza or Trump Tower Mariupol.
Eduardo
It seems the Democrat is going to win in Miami.
Like I have been saying the finding out has been swift and ferocious since the beginning of the year and in the last weeks has gotten much, much worse. Feeling some schadenfreude for some people I know but also pain for some other ones.
Baud
@Eduardo:
Whoa.
BeautifulPlumage
@Baud: gotta agree here 😸
Anonymous At Work
The “hot take” articles about the Republican healthcare plans where Republicans discuss their healthcare plans feature Republicans talking about what plan can garner the most votes, nothing about what will offer the most coverage at the best price. There might be a CBO score and something about coverage eventually, if Democrats hold things up. But Republicans were treating the effects of the bill as secondary to having a bill. Which means that the bill won’t do anything except give Republicans an excuse to say “It’ll be better next year [after the mid-terms]. You can judge us then.”
Aziz, light!
If only Ukraine had borrowed enough from Deutsche Bank to outbid Russia for that property.
Old School
@Aziz, light!: Trump Tower Caracas.
BeautifulPlumage
Sorry about your cold/flu, Cold, and hope you feel better soon!
My head got stuffy/foggy this afternoon, so I left work early. I think it’s the waves of the atmospheric river crossing through the PNW. Barometric changes can trigger that for me.
And good thoughts to folks in the PNW in flood-prone areas! Another couple waves to go through this week
ETA Cole! Damn autocorrect (grrrr)
Miss Bianca
HSAs are good for stuff like buying an extra set of glasses. They’re not meant to replace health insurance, they’re supposed to supplement it…oh, why do I even bother, you guys know this stuff. But apparently our Betters in Washington just…don’t. Or they just don’t care. Or both.
Chief Oshkosh
John’s take on HSAs is pretty much how every rich fucker I have to deal with professionally views HSAs. It has nothing to do with healthcare – it’s just another instrument for the well-off to avoid taxes.
Eduardo
@Baud: it is amazing how quickly it was called. It is amazing that she is a she, and that she is a liberal. And she is an ANGLO en Miami. Can’t get less zoological than this.
Moment of hope.
Omnes Omnibus
@Miss Bianca: Both parts of this comment are absolutely dead on.
Geminid
@Eduardo: AP posted an article about the Miami mayoral runoff yesterday. Reporter Adrianna Gomez Licon wrote that as a Dade County Commissioner, Eileen Higgins represents a fairly conservative part of Miami that includes Little Havana, and cheerfully refers herself as “La Gringa.”
Jackie
@Eduardo:
edited to add
NotMax
Rs have a concept of a failure.
//
Sure Lurkalot
Word from two senators, allegedly physicians:
Invisible, you say? Noseeums til youneedums?
Or, Rand, how about YOUR EMPLOYER? YOUR EMPLOYER has over 330 million members and if one person there negotiated for all, why, that would be the largest collective entity in the country!
h/t bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com
Professor Bigfoot
@SpaceUnit: The “Cousins Maine Lobster” truck is gonna be (somewhat) near me this Sunday and their chowder is “to die for,” the bisque even more so, and so… me too.
Gretchen
@Professor Bigfoot: That’s interesting. The Cousin’s Maine Lobster truck stops near me sometimes and I wondered if it was worth checking out.
Geminid
@Jackie: According to the AP I refer to at #18, Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego campaigned Higgins Sunday. Gallego did the same for Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey last month.
Betty
@Jackie: I am going to guess he’s the corrupt one. Miami has a lot of that.
Nukular Biskits
Real quick and I’m ‘sure David addressed this:
I have an HSA via my employer-provided benefits. This means, however, I have a high-deductible plan (somewhere in the neighborhood of $7K).
Which means, other than for preventive care, I’ll have to spend $7K before the standard 80/20 payment ratio kicks in (my company is self-insured but hired BCBS to manage the plan).
AND … the IRS rules for pre-tax HSA contributions are $8,550 (for calendar year 2025).
All this is wonderful, as long as I continue to have a good-paying job where I can divert +$8K/year pre-tax (which can be invested, by the way because of course it is) and have no major health issues.
Which means, when I do have major health issues, I’m fucked.
Gretchen
@Sure Lurkalot: Marshall is my senator, and I keep wondering how he got through medical school and practiced for decades without seeming to have any idea how anything works. He thinks Health Savings Accounts will pay for chemo? He thinks the reason the ACA ditched high risk pools is that they worked too well? That letting insurance companies keep 50% of their premiums again like before is a great idea? These guys all rail against Obamacare like that’s the only reason for high premiums, but they never mention things like keeping your kids on your insurance till they’re 26 or dumping people for their pre-existing conditions. Folks seem to think that those things were just something that always happened, not something Obamacare gave us.
And Cassidy seems to think that if we could just shop for ERs and cardiac cath by price when we have a heart attack that would solve the problem. Insulin is too expensive? I’ll just wait for a sale.
SpaceUnit
@Professor Bigfoot:
Here in Colorado you mostly have to settle for clam chowder from a can. Not a lot of clam habitat in the state.
Nukular Biskits
@Professor Bigfoot @Gretchen:
To each his/her/their own.
I’ve had the real thing, a real Maine lobstah, while on travel up there. Just don’t understand why people rave about it. Kinda tasteless to me.
But, then, I’m also one of those mutants who absolutely hates the smell/taste of cilantro, which just about everyone else loves.
So … pay me no heed.
Baud
I hope Trump blames DeSantis for the loss in the Miami mayor’s race.
Professor Bigfoot
@Gretchen: a couple of months ago I made up my mind I was gonna just go in waving my credit card; and while it is spendy (which is to be expected, I should think) it is frickin’ DELISH.
John Revolta
When this fucking scumbag finally drops off the face of the earth I am going to just take a week off and do NOTHING but celebrate.
For months, when it became obvious that Nixon had to go, we’d been telling everybody “Party at our place when the fucker resigns”. (We had a loft where we lived and rehearsed etc.) On the evening of the day, we set up a tape recorder and a mike (as we used to spell it) in front of the TV set and started recording when Nixon started his speech. It was just him at first, talking, but gradually laughs and rude noises started up, and then people started showing up, and the party started growing until finally you could barely hear Nixon droning away in the background, drowned out by the general hoopla.
I still have that tape (reel-to-reel natch). I listened to it a couple years ago & it’s still hilarious.
WaterGirl
@Eduardo: Let the quaking in Republican boots
commenceincrease!Professor Bigfoot
@Nukular Biskits: Brother, I went 60 years without spending a night in hospital; and that one I got hit by a car at 6.
April of this year was a major wake the fuck up call, lemme tell ya. So far this “medicare advantage” plan I have has worked out OK.
notoriousJRT
@Aziz, light!: He’s hoping to eff things up so badly that he can have Odesa.
Professor Bigfoot
@SpaceUnit: Why the Cousins truck is spendy AF… but worth it. ;^D
Quaker in a Basement
Shout it from the hilltops. Post it on every wall.
Gretchen
@Sure Lurkalot: This is one of the maddening things: People are finding that Medicare Advantage, run by for-profit insurance companies, costs more than traditional, government run Medicare. Why is this a surprise? If someone has to make a profit off something, it’s going to cost more than having someone do it who is not making a profit. That’s what profit is! By definition it’s going to cost more – the delta is the profit! So as long as we’re paying someone, whether United Healthcare or Costco, a profit to run the interface between patients and healthcare, their profit is going to raise costs! Why does this even need to be spelled out?
TheOtherHank
I’ve had a couple jobs where the high deductible insurance with an HSA option made sense for me. The thing about the annual time-to-explain-the-new-health-plan-options meetings was how long they spent talking about all the opportunities for investing that an HSA provided. Dude, I just want to have enough in there to cover the deductible and a couple pairs of glasses. I’m not going to gamble with it.
Nukular Biskits
@Professor Bigfoot:
Ms. Biskits is still dumbfounded when she sees how my insurance works, the EOB, what the deductible is, etc.
She’s retired USAF so she’s either been in the military health system or is now Tricare/VA for all her care … nearly all her adult life. She never had to worry about this shit.
Professor Bigfoot
@Nukular Biskits: Long ago I was on an SAE technical committee; and the chairman lived in Boston in a big old house.
Every year we met there in mid summer; and during the meetings we’d pass around a sign up sheet: “2 lobsters, 2 dozen clams.” “1 lobster, no clams.” and so on and so on.
Someone would literally go down to the docks and buy it all; and the next to last day of meetings we would go to the chairman’s house and we would feast on lobster and clams, washed down with a pony keg of Sam Adams.
Damn, I just drooled remembering it… ;^D
ETA: because we just split up all the costs evenly, I remember FEASTING for like $13. <drool>
MagdaInBlack
@Sure Lurkalot: So that bluesky Aaron Rupar link….is trumps klan rally, going on now, I think.
And holy cow is he on a racist roll. It’s an Adderall night.
SpaceUnit
@Professor Bigfoot:
I’m actually glad we had this exchange because I just suddenly remembered that there’s a seafood shop (not a restaurant) very near to me that makes their own clam chowder. I’d somehow forgotten about them.
I think I’ll give them a visit this weekend.
ETA: And yeah, this place is kinda pricey too.
Nukular Biskits
@MagdaInBlack:
I follow Aaron on both Bluesky and Twitter.
My gast is flabbered that Trump supporters can cheer for that shit.
Anything to own the libs, I guess.
Professor Bigfoot
@Gretchen: SO FAR it’s worked out pretty well for me— but you’re not wrong, not at all.
Gretchen
@Professor Bigfoot: I’m glad the advantage plan is working for you. I was happy with it during the couple of emergencies I had too, but my husband had some less urgent problems and they dragged their feet -try 6 weeks of physical therapy before we’ll approve painkillers, that sort of thing. Usually you can’t switch once you’ve chosen, but the BCBS advantage moved out of our town so we got a free re-do. We went with the traditional plus supplement. The monthly is higher, but he feels confident he won’t have to fight so hard if it happens again. We’ll see.
frosty
Same here. My only conclusion is that people who love Maine lobster have never had a Maryland steamed crab.
coin operated
@SpaceUnit: @Professor Bigfoot: @Gretchen: Should you ever visit the left coast, Captain Kidds Fish Market in Redondo Beach has, hands down, the best chowder West of the Mississippi. Loaded with clams. I mention it because mrs coin and I plan on hopping on the bike and riding up from San Diego to grab a bowl of chowder and some steamer clams this weekend.
MagdaInBlack
@Nukular Biskits: The ones behind him, like the one waving the “Persians for Trump” sign, are paid to wave that garbage.
Nukular Biskits
@MagdaInBlack:
I’d love to have someone explain to me what I have in common with garbage people like that.
Gloria DryGarden
@Professor Bigfoot: I’m just glad you’re ok.
My buddy went through a heart attack and some stents in the Cath lab, had a 95% blocked situation. It was nerve wracking.
We’ll never know if he finally took himself to the hospital because I got so angry with him and told him tonight wasn’t the time to die, when he called me, or if he just realized it wasn’t getting better.
I’m really glad when people make it through these things.
Gretchen
@Nukular Biskits: I thought that when I got to Medicare they’d just give me a Medicare card and that was it! Boy was I wrong! Advantage or Traditional, Supplemental, what are you going to do about Part A? Part B? Part C? Part D? We had to hire a navigator to guide us through it. If someone who has been negotiating employee healthcare and retirement without help needs to hire a navigator to figure out Medicare, it’s too complicated. I think that’s something that folks yelling for “Medicare for All” don’t grok.
Trivia Man
@Scout211:
I am one of the cool kidz now! I finally see the unobtrusive rectangle on my laptop.
different-church-lady
@Eduardo:
But it still seems to me the fucking around part didn’t really have to happen.
Gloria DryGarden
@coin operated: I used to visit my mom’s cousin in Redondo beach, walked that stretch so many times, happily collecting shells, swinging in that giant swing set that got washed away years ago in that big storm that took out part of big sur. Watched the life in the tide pools change over the years, down at San Pedro tide pools just south of Redondo beach.
Happy memories!
Enjoy your chowder!
Trivia Man
@John Revolta:
You owe it to posterity – archive.org would love to have a copy on their site.
Gretchen
@Professor Bigfoot: That sounds amazing – I’m drooling thinking about it. My cousin’s son married the daughter of a hedge fund guy who threw the wedding at a mansion on the coast of Rhode Island. As many fresh oysters as you wanted while you stood on the coast and watched the sailboats sail by. It was an amazing day, and the couple is doing well, now with 3 young daughters.
Jay
@SpaceUnit:
Canned or frozen clams + clam “juice” to make your own, even in Colorado. We make a proper chowder, not a Manhattan, with onions, thick sliced naturally smoked bacon, red, white and baker potatos.
Gretchen
@Trivia Man: Yes, we’d all love to hear Nixon’s final speech in that way.
Gloria DryGarden
When the unnameable one drops off the face, we need an immediate plan to put into action, to remove all the members of the project 2025 Peter thiel team. Take them out of their courses of action.
What’s-his-face #2, and his couch issues, but several others, too, running the show behind this current ffotus. We really need a plan. I truly hope some democratic leadership is quietly creating strategy.
no body no name
@SpaceUnit:
While I love all clam chowders it’s obnoxious every place only serves New England clam chowder around here and not Manhattan. Having relatives with lactose issues this becomes a problem.
There is always crab chowder. But one niece with lactose issues is also allergic to crab and lobster, though can eat clams.
Eyeroller
@Nukular Biskits: The cilantro thing is genetic, and not all that uncommon.
But I hate all forms of seafood. All of it. The smell of some of it is nauseating to me. I don’t think it’s genetic, I don’t really know why I am that way.
Gloria DryGarden
@coin operated: is that on the Pier?
p.a.
@Jay: One story I’ve heard about clam chowder is that the tomato broth style was first called “Manhattan” by New Englanders as an insult (as in: “New York sucks”) even though it had nothing to do with Manhattan, but was a concoction of New England’s Portuguese and Italians.
I like all 3, N.E., Manhattan, and R.I. style: clear fish/clam broth, saltpork, clams, potatoes, onions, celery, tarragon.
Gloria DryGarden
@Jay: wonder if that would come out good using coconut milk, or another non-dairy milks? Sounds so yummy.
Professor Bigfoot
@Gloria DryGarden: A thousand thanks!
I start cardiac rehab for the second time tomorrow; I’ve honestly been afraid to do any cardio since the last cath— my doc says if this doesn’t greatly improve my angina, there’s one more artery that’s harder to get to, but it’s the last thing to try to stent.
I’m hoping it’s not necessary… and I will probably find out tomorrow.
SpaceUnit
@Jay:
I might give that a try. For me, fall and winter are soup and stew and chili time. But for some reason I never tried making clam chowder.
I’ll likely pass on the bacon. Probably sounds like blasphemy to most, but I’m just not a bacon guy.
Gloria DryGarden
@Eyeroller: I have that with olives. I suspect it’s genetic. They all taste the same to me, and I don’t like it.
Sorry you don’t like fish. We never had it at home, because mom was allergic, so I always ordered it when we went to restaurants. It was a treat.
Gloria DryGarden
@Professor Bigfoot: good luck. I thought there were just two major coronary arteries. That’s all my pal had done. But glad the doc has something else to try, fir you. Hope you don’t need the backup plan.
TONYG
@Anonymous At Work: In a better universe, every single news media story about the Republican “Health Care Bill” would point out that THE REPUBLICAN PARTY HAS HAD MORE THAN SIXTEEN YEARS, SINCE EARLY 2009, TO COME UP WITH A “HEALTH CARE BILL” AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO OBAMACARE. They have come up with nothing because they do not give a fuck.
NotMax
@SpaceUnit
I like to stir in a sprinkling of caraway seeds to New England clam chowder while it’s being heated.
@Nukular Biskits
Cilantro is of the Devil. Period. Full stop.
SpaceUnit
@no body no name:
A friend of mine, once a neighbor but she’s since moved out of the country, used to make the most amazing seafood chowder. It was more of a Manhattan style but it featured cod and mussels in the shell and shrimp and crab and scallops.
It was like dying and going to heaven.
Quinerly
Trump talking about the economy tonight in PA :
“You can give up certain products. You could give up pencils. Because under the China policy, every child can get 37 pencils. They only need 1 or 2. They don’t need that many. You always need steel. You don’t need 37 dolls for your daughter. 2 or 3 is nice. So we’re doing things right.”
NotMax
@Quinerly
“Baskin-Robbins doesn’t need 31 flavors. 2 or 3 is plenty.”
//
different-church-lady
@Quinerly: “Your kids have too many toys” is a sure winner of a message.
Quinerly
Tonight
Trump: “I would say there’s one country that has probably a stronger border. You know what that is? North Korea.”
Sure Lurkalot
@Gretchen: I agree that Medicare is chonky, I think most universal health care advocates support getting rid of the gaps that require supplemental coverage. And also include eyes, ears and teeth.
Those gaps, as well as the Medicare Advantage scam, all brought forth by Republicans. Medicare Advantage may offer no/low cost plans and might fit the bill when/if relatively healthy but the horror stories are easy to find and it undermines the government program that we all paid for while working. I think you were extremely lucky to be able to switch without consequence. I hope it works well for you and your husband.
Quinerly
Tonight
Trump: “Let’s go to batteries where we have to go to the Congo and get it from China. But I actually stopped the war with Congo and Rwanda and they said to me, ‘please, please, we would love you to come and take our minerals.’ Which we’ll do.”
Trump: “Transgender for every member of your family. If they’re not feeling well that night, let’s just change their sex.”
mvr
Does anyone else have the bottom 10% of their screen taken up with a band that simi-covers the content here but with nothing on it?
Princess
@Quinerly: Only daughters like his had 37 dolls.
Princess
@mvr: I have that too. I’m on an iPhone.
Sure Lurkalot
@MagdaInBlack: Yeah, I added the link because I scarped the quotes from his site and wanted to point to their source. Besides, where would we be without Aaron Rupar’s feed of atrocities?
Sorry it led to Trump’s racist ranting. Just another day for that fucker.
no body no name
@different-church-lady:
Spare the rod ruin the child. Toys are out, the belt is back on the menu.
Scout211
@Quinerly: Not only is that horrible to tell the audience they need to tighten their belts, but this “rally” was supposed to be all about selling the message that he’s “the affordability president.” You know, that he is doing everything he can to improve affordability. So why is he now reciting the same script that he’s tried to push in speeches before, that we should tighten our belts. So he’s working on affordability by telling us to spend less?
And we need to spend less and our kids need fewer pencils and dolls, but Trump needs a multimillion dollar ballroom?
coin operated
@Gloria DryGarden: Just north of the pier parking decks. mrs coin was a resident in her early 20s and Hermosa / Redondo are her happy places. When we lived full time in Vegas, a weekend in Hermosa was a requirement every 6-8 weeks…we’re still married so I guess I understood the assignment. Might have to put you in touch with her…y’all might be from the same era.
Quinerly
@different-church-lady:
I just read thru some snippets of tonight in PA. It was in a casino. Scott Bessent was the warm up act. Judge Emil Bove was in attendance. Front row, I think. The shit show was an hr late starting.
Trump referred to Susie Wiles as Susie Trump several times. And Karoline Leavitt’s lips are like a machine gun….so he says.
Bonus…..Lots of Somali hate. Lots of cheerleaders for Hegseth.
Scout211
Excellent point. But she needed them.
coin operated
@mvr: Yes…it’s been mentioned in several threads today.
iPad using Brave here
Quinerly
@Scout211:
I think it’s hilarious that Scott Bessent was the warm up act.
HopefullynotCassandra
@SpaceUnit: still a can, but you can buy canned/tinned clams and make the rest of the soup yourself, Manhattan (red), New England (cream), or Narragansett (clear broth).
Scout211
@mvr: I guess you haven’t read the other threads today. It is most likely a test space for the future ad.
Jay
@p.a.:
I was raised on New England style Clam Chowdah, My Mother’s, rather than having or making a Manhattan Style Clam Chowder, I’ll have Choppino instead.
Geminid
@Quinerly: Sounds like a Sluremberg rally.
persistentillusion
@SpaceUnit: I’m in Colorado, near a modest man-made lake, and there are fresh-water clams in it. I see the shells and wonder at the persistence of Nature. (It would take several years of clam growth to make even a cup of chowder with these tiny clams.)
BlueGuitarist
More good special election news
Democrats flip Trump +13 gerrymandered state house seat near Athens, Georgia
the-downballot.com/p/breaking-georgia-democrats-flip-conservative
Quinerly
I highly recommend these 2 detailed pieces on Epstein. I fell down this substack rabbit hole this AM. Eye opening if true. There are 2 parts. Part 1 was 12/2. Part 2 today. I really don’t know much about Greg OLear. Hope the links work. I’m out of here. Have a great evening.
open.substack.com/pub/gregolear/p/infrequently-asked-questions-about-ad3?utm_source=share&utm_m…
open.substack.com/pub/gregolear/p/infrequently-asked-questions-about?utm_source=share&utm_mediu…
p.a.
@Jay: parihuela!
mvr
@Scout211:
Thanks for the info!
I wasn’t originally against a future ad in principle but it is using up a lot of my actual screen on a PC where there is more width than height to the page already. I can tell already that it is going to interfere with my enjoyment of this page that I won’t be able to see much without scrolling..
If ads are needed I’d prefer them on the sidebar.
no body no name
@Jay:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouillabaisse
Jay
@Gloria DryGarden:
The suggestions are to use unsweetened coconut cream blended with mashed potato’s to get the creamy texture with out the coconut cream overpowering the base. You can also use cashew milk as well, the same way.
NotMax
@no body no name
“And what about cat o’ nine tails? Two or three tails will do.”
//
persistentillusion
@Gretchen: My Medicare Advantage is run by a non-profit; Kaiser and I’ve been quite content with it. It’s not Medicaid (I experienced breast cancer while on Medicaid and it cost my a grand total of $50), but it’s pretty good when run by a non-profit.
Quinerly
Re chowder:
I do a seafood white (cream) chowder. Canned clams, shrimp, fake crab, (celery, onions, potatoes, corn, garlic sautéed in some bacon grease….don’t judge, I’m Southern born and breaded and still 125 lbs), and a hot Cajun sausage sliced and browned (I think they come from Costo). Use Penzey’s seafood stock. Finish with heavy cream once everything is cooked and flavors combined. Red pepper flakes.
I mostly cook by taste unless cooking French dishes. Then I follow a recipe. Anyway, an easy seafood and corn chowder. Lots of flavors. Penzey’s soup bases are great.
Jay
@SpaceUnit:
You can use pancetta or ham, (not country ham). It’s for that smoky note. Like with the bacon, it’s best pan fried before hand to reduce the fat, increase the flavour, and just evenly golden, not crisp.
Never turkey bacon, tofu bacon or the “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Meat” bacon.
Quinerly
@Jay:
Turkey bacon was created by Satan. That I know.
Very excited last week. A friend out here went to NC to visit her son. Brought me back 2 lbs of COUNTRY HAM. I’m hoarding it. Cooked a little the other day with homemade biscuits and grits. Made red eye gravy for the first time in over 5 years.
Pork product related…I have never had issues with Walmart’s hot breakfast sausage (the Jimmy Dean knock off). Has anyone noticed a change in it? I think they are adding some sort of weird filler in it. I swear it tastes like saw dust. I do biscuits and a green chile hot sausage white gravy. Something has seriously changed with tge texture of that sausage.
Jay
@SpaceUnit:
That’s cioppino, and it’s usually served with a rustic bread for mopping the bowl, has wine in the broth and has a small amount of spiced sausage mixed in.
There used to be a Portuguese Restaurant on The Drive, that made it “for two”, and served it with cheesy rustic sourdough garlic toast. Used to love sitting on their covered patio, in the cold in winter, eating cioppino, drinking red wine and people watching. Unfortunately, they burned down in the mid-90’s and never reopened.
Marc
I grew up in the Boston area with a grandfather who I’d occasionally accompany to the salt flats adjacent to Logan airport while we dug some bushels of clams and/or set up big arrays of hooks for “smelts”. Then we’d go to his local seafood restaurant where he’d trade lobsters for some of the clams, the stop by a farm for some corn. Various chowders would be made along with potato salad. The smelts would be fried (cleaned, heads removed, bones and tail intact, which is how we ate them) along with sliced potatoes. Everything would be boiled in salt water (if available) or fresh with salt added, plus plenty of Old Bay. Supply everyone with melted butter, giant bottles of Tabasco and/or Crystal, and coolers full of beer and grandfather’s homemade root beer. Nothing at all bland about those meals.
I will add, for further amusement, that if you wander around rural Nevada south of Carson City, you will find a number of “Maine” lobster farms which supply Reno, Vegas, and elsewhere.
John Revolta
@Trivia Man: @Gretchen: Well I thought of that but I unloaded my reel-to reel when I moved recently and I don’t want to send the original anywhere……. (what’s more it’s hard to imagine anybody being that interested other than the people who were there)
Quinerly
@Marc:
Big smelt fan!
I guess being from NC originally I’m more of a “Texas Pete” chick for hotsauce. (despite the name, it’s a NC based product). At least I prefer it over Crystal. I think it has some turmeric in it. I do like Tabasco, though, for hotter…..in a butter sauce for shrimp dipping.
This recently minted desert rat is now officially homesick for her Southern Outer Banks roots. Miss fresh seafood.
Sure Lurkalot
@persistentillusion: My in laws love their MA coverage thru Kaiser. If you don’t travel much, it can be stellar, My SIL had issues when she was out of network where there was no Kaiser. She had to fly home for surgery on a broken elbow.
NotMax
re: chowder, bisque, seafood soups
FYI, Better Than Bouillon makes a lobster base.
no body no name
@Marc:
Having lived in MD crab feasts with plenty of beer were great. While dating the current spouse I had to explain to her “one buys crabs by the bushel, they’ll steam them for you”. Not knowing that is evidently a thing us Atlantic coast types do and to everyone else it’s absolutely insane.
persistentillusion
@Sure Lurkalot: Yeah, not traveling is helpful with this coverage. As I actively try not to travel currently, it’s a good match.
gene108
@Sure Lurkalot:
Reinsurance already exists across all types of insurance. Seems like a way for Republicans to sneak in their beloved failed high risk pools, so the chronically ill can die faster.
Jay
@Marc:
@Quinerly:
Pacific Smelt can be netted off the sand beaches here, but they are not East Coast Smelt, most commonly, they are Eulachon, Rainbow Smelt or Long Finned Smelt. Because they mature in salt water and spawn in fresh water, they are extremely oily.
The Indigenous Peoples in the PNW would harvest the Eulachon, render them for their “grease” and trade it over the Coastal Mountains to Interior Tribes. The trade routes are called “Grease Trails” and the surviving ones, (us settlers turned most of them into roads) are amazingly well preserved, and still slippery from thousands of years of spilled “grease”
Eulachon are also know as “Candlefish”, because when dried, they can be burned like a candle, lasting for hours.
As a former Maritimer, when I get a “smelt” hankering, it’s from frozen, nothing like fresh. We used to just cut the heads off, squeeze out the gut, cook them and eat them, bones and all. Salt, pepper and a little vinegar.
Jay
@no body no name:
Chesapeake soft shelled beautiful swimmer sandwiches,…… yum.
beef
@quinerly Interesting reading. The repeated associations with various intelligence orgs are remarkable, and not even all covered. For example, the substack skipped over the fact that Epstein’s boss at Dalton was Donald Barr, OSS officer, and father to Bill Bar…
mrmoshpotato
@no body no name: How many crabs are in a bushel?
Sister Golden Bear
@NotMax:
But all of them must be vanilla. /s
gene108
@Gretchen:
I went through the same thing when I signed up for Medicare. I talked with one of their navigators to work out what combination of Medicare and insurance I needed. I’d been shopping my company’s insurance plan for years prior to that. A very confusing program.
One thing I realized is it helps to know roughly what your medical expenditure will be for the upcoming plan year so premiums and plan design can be optimized. As I was dealing with renal failure for the first time, it was hard to for me to make that estimate.
SpaceUnit
@Jay:
And the aroma. Perfect for Valentines Day.
Satanley (aka weasel)
@Baud:
Oh bravo! Yet another reason to vote Baud 2028
no body no name
@mrmoshpotato:
5-7 dozen depending on size.
no body no name
@Jay:
Yeah that’s a whole nother ballgame of yum.
Quinerly
@Jay:
I think it is Rainbow smelt I have had in NC. Then again maybe not. I generally love oily, fishy tasting fish. My parents were more into flounder, which I think is tasteless unless you “stuff” it with crabmeat. I will always pick saltwater trout over flounder on a menu. I also love blue fish and Spanish mackerel. I guess there’s also a King mackerel but I don’t recall ever having it.
My old area…Morehead City, NC was known for its big Blue Marlin Tournament. That was always exciting….especially the weigh ins.
As a kid, I fished from the shore and the local piers. Had crab pots I would put out on the sound side. A pretty idyllic childhood, with horses and surf boards thrown in.
I love all those smaller fish….croaker and such. I’ll even eat shad (boney and a river fish). We used to do an old fashioned fish stew with rock fish. Cook it outside on the beach. Pretty sure that rock fish (or what we called rock) is different from rock fish in other places. I got real excited here in NM a few years back seeing rock fish on a menu…nothing like what Eastern North Carolinians call rock fish.
Re smelts…Whatever I am thinking of is a whole fish fried. No head. No guts. Sardine like. Eat the bones and all. Oily.
WTFGhost
You know, when I felt, the way you posted yesterday, I, also, found an illness to blame it on. There’s always an illness, a period of stress, who knows what.
That’s all I’ll say, so as to avoid being a pain. I’m not trying to convince a healthy man he’s sick – I’m just trying to make sure a person with a subtle-as-hell sickness doesn’t waste valuable resources on the wrong things.
Matt McIrvin
I’m the only one in my family who will eat shellfish or crustaceans, so my creativity in this area has constraints. But I do like a good seafood soup. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a really varied one either. One of my favorite dishes in the world is the Szechuan spicy mini hot pot with fish filets and sweet potato glass noodles at Tasty Dumplings in Lowell, Mass.
Quinerly
@beef: did you read both parts? One part did mention Donald Barr.
Personally, I thought both parts were rather odd reads. I do think they were worth the time.
Sister Golden Bear
@Jay:
FWIW, the one fish that should never go in cioppino—as decreed by the Italian fishers in SF who invented it—is salmon, since its taste will overpower the other fish. Ironically, old-school Italian restaurants here won’t serve it with sourdough bread, instead they actually persuaded the famous Boudin Bakery to make a non-sour version. (The theory being that the sour taste of sourdough would sour the taste of the cioppino itself.)
Quinerly
@mrmoshpotato:
I don’t know that….but I do know oysters…there are 100 oysters in a bushel. I’m a big lover of steamed oysters. A peck of oysters should be around 25. I can easily do a peck and 1/2 of another peck. Steamed “medium.” Shucked by a good shucker. Hot butter, Tabasco, a little horseradish.
Yum, yum.
Jackie
Re the Georgia special election:
This HAS to be encouraging news for Ossoff! And then there’s the upcoming special election to replace MTG…
RevRick
@Miss Bianca: @Chief Oshkosh: The way to view the GOP push for HSAs is to see them as vote bribes. The sad reality is that half of all health care spending is done by only 5% of the population and half the population probably spends less than what they would get from the GOP HSA. For the healthy fifty percent, they would end up ahead of the game. But. The problem is none of knows if we’ll end up the unfortunate 5%, and who would take that bet?
What complicates all the calculations about our health care system is that it is also exceedingly fragile. The more complex a system is, the more fragile it is. And the two most fragile systems in the United States are health care and finances, and they are both quite entangled. We no longer go to a doctor who works out of their home and pay them in chickens.
HSA’s are a bandaid slapped on a complex system, and they would quickly end up breaking that system.
Gloria DryGarden
@Quinerly: he only needs 200 gold leaf curlicue thingies for his office walls. That’s nice. So glad he could set some limits with himself too.
//s
37 pencils! 2 or dolls! Sheesh.
Jay
@Quinerly:
Capelin is the most common East Coast smelt, that’s probably what you had. They are Mackerel level oily, not Pacific Smelt level oily, West Coast smelt’s can be deep fried in their own oil.
All Smelts are anadromous, Spawn in rivers and streams, hatch in rivers and streams, migrate to a large lake or the ocean to mature, return to spawn. The spawning runs when they return, are “easy picking”. As kids, when the runs were in, shad, gaspereau, smelt, we would dip them at night, fill garbage bags and buckets, process it all. Our neighborhood was poor to lower middle class. When the shad, gaspereau or smelt were running, no school, we slept in the day, everybody smelt like fish. 3 weeks, maybe four, scattered from spring to fall, where you could gather 2 months worth of free, high quality protein.
Shad, Gaspereau, are like Crappies, Rock Bass or Poo Fish, (Tilapia), bland, white, flakey, not “fishy” at all.
SW
Trump has racist Grandpaw dementia. He’ll be dead in less than six months.
JCJ
@Professor Bigfoot: Best wishes to you, good sir! I understand the apprehension regarding exercise and cardiac rehab. I had stents in 2018 (two in the left anterior descending (LAD) for a long area of stenosis, one in the right coronary artery). I had no problems with a stress echo a couple of years ago and all was well until I started noting shortness of breath with not that vigorous activity with occasional chest pain. One abnormal nuc med stress test later catheterization revealed re-stenosis in the LAD. Drug coated balloon angioplasty was done. I was quite apprehensive for resuming exercise, but it is somewhat reassuring to have monitoring done so at least I know I am not having a lot of abnormal beats. I hope all goes well for you.
Gloria DryGarden
@coin operated: I was just a visitor, out from Denver so my mom could get a break from teenage me, and so I could be mothered by my delightful favorite cousin once removed. My said cousin was a school principal at the high school in the next town north. And her boys (my first ever male relatives! How fascinating, how strange, how delightful) surely went to high school around there. They’re a little younger, perhaps 50s, lower 60s.
does mrs coin remember the big tall giant swing set? I used to swing on that thing, as high as I could, and belt out songs by Cat Stevens, and Simon and Garfunkel. It was glorious.
Gloria DryGarden
@JCJ: I’m glad your outcomes have been good.
Gloria DryGarden
@SW: that puts us at early may. How many more surprises and heinous illegal acts will have to be endured in the meantime? My poor adrenals. Our mental health… Sometimes good things come sooner than expected.
song from high school choir just started playing, from My inner dj: “soon I will be done-a wit de troubles of dis worl”
Matt McIrvin
@SW: Trump is going to outlive a lot of us. He’s got that evil powerful guy mojo that makes you live to 101.
YY_Sima Qian
Surprise, surprise (gift link to FT article below):
Marc
After 6 weeks, I’m done with the neck brace. Now I have to figure out how much of the resulting beard to shave off.
Marc
@Jay: Our “smelts” did indeed look like Capelin. We didn’t net them as that required a license. Grandfather addressed that by building frames with 20 or 30 hooks each.
Jay
@Marc:
In Canada, the Feds, (DFO) have the salt water, the Province’s and Territories manage the freshwaters. In New Brunswick, under 15’s did not need a fishing license or be accompanied by an adult with a license.
So kids did the dip netting, Dad’s kept the Coleman Lanterns going, the pots of hot chocolate simmering, and keeping the kids from falling in. There were limits, but they were very “generous”, too generous.
Melancholy Jaques
@Matt McIrvin:
Stalin only made it to 74 and he was way more powerful and evil than that asshole.
WTFGhost
@Gloria DryGarden: You know… you speak of your adrenals, have you done a social media search on those little libraries, both in your area, and in and around the city/state/US/world?
You might find yourself just as angry with Trump, and yet, much healthier and happier, for having taken 20 minutes of rage-clicking, and replaced it with 20 deliberate, mindful minutes of joy seeking, remembering that you need joy, each and every day, as best as you can manage it, so you don’t lose track of why we’re fighting in the first place.
NotMax
@Melancholy Jaques
He was also 5’4″ (some sources say 5’5″) and his left arm was noticeably shorter than his right, both of which made him self-conscious and viscerally reactive to criticism.
mrmoshpotato
@Matt McIrvin: Even with the way Putin’s bitch stuffs McDonald’s trash into his fat, orange, fascist face?
Gretchen
@Professor Bigfoot: You had a second cath? I missed that news. Good luck tomorrow. Let us know how it goes.
BellyCat
Yup. Translucent. Super annoying. But thought this was a “feature” of new (as of today) iPhone 17 Pro, so no idea if said “feature” is new or not.
Miss Bianca
@HopefullynotCassandra: New England chowder is NOT cream-based – that abortion is foisted on us by canned soup makers. Real New England chowder has a thin milk and butter base. 1000 times better.
And I have some fish and shellfish in the freezer ready to go – I think fish chowder will be on the menu for later this week!
Paul in KY
@John Revolta: Wish I’d been there! Would have been 13.
Paul in KY
@Professor Bigfoot: I’m drooling just thinking about it…
Paul in KY
@Eyeroller: That’s sad.
Paul in KY
@different-church-lady: Definitely focus grouped that one.
Paul in KY
@Quinerly: What about S. Korea? Their side is pretty secure too.
Paul in KY
@mrmoshpotato: A lot.
Paul in KY
@Quinerly: Have vacationed 15 or more times on Emerald Isle. Good times eating at Sanitary Fish Market, Capt. Bills, Ottis Seafood Restaurant. Camped at Salter Path Campground.
Great times as a kid and teenager!
Geminid
@Paul in KY: The South Koreans have developed a formidable arms industry. They’re even producing fighter jets now. These are not first-rate, but they’re good enough that Poland is buying some to supplement their top-line fighters.
South Korea’s K-2 main battle tank *is* first-rate, and Poland is buying 1,000 of them. And they’re Hyundais!
Paul in KY
@Geminid: I had a very fine Genesis G80. If the battery had been OK (not getting run down by the car’s power requirements and my lack of driving miles) I’d still have it. Was a very snazzy car.