Open Threads

Long day today, and this sums up my feelings:

Is there anything better than tomato sandwiches and iced tea for dinner? I think not.

Talk amongst yourselves.

BTW- Saw the Pilot for Warehouse 13 last night and thought it was a fun show. I’m going to try to catch a couple episodes On Demand.

Monday Night Open ThreadPost + Comments (107)

I have to admit that I didn’t see this coming, but in retrospect, it was obvious, especially after 8 17 years of obsessing about the Clenis. And, yeah, you can bet they’re going to demand visual evidence. This is almost too perfect.

It cuts like a knife, but it feels so rightPost + Comments (133)

Picked a big popcorn bowl full of ripe tomatoes from our two dozen plants, first real bounty of the summer, and only a month behind the usual ETA.

Pleasant surprise of the season, so far, is the Black Pear, replacement for the Black Prince plant I couldn’t find even through the Dave’s Garden website.  It’s one of the ugliest useful plants I’ve ever seen — looks like somebody was trying to breed organic Truck Nutz, creepy potato-leafed vines crowded with clusters of twin & triplet fist-sized, sac-shaped fruit ripening to an angry, transluscent maroon-purple with lime green highlights.  But the flesh is succulent and delicious, not too tart, not too sweet, with rich flavor undertones.  They’re so delicious fresh, on burgers or rye bread, that I haven’t tried slow-roasting yet, but that may change tomorrow.

Second best for us, so far, has been the Juliet  ‘salad tomato’, which I remember from last year as prolific but not extraordinarily tasty.  This year, a rainy overcast June and July encouraged lush foliage but kept even my “emergency backup” plants — one Early Girl, a Roma, a Sweet Million cherry tomato — from setting fruit.  Only the Juliet and the Sun Gold, an orange (low-acid) cherry type, have been producing since the second week of July, when the Ripeness Rush usually starts around here.  And the Sun Golds just have not been up to most year’s standards, but the Juliets are sweet & flavorful.  Only problem is that they’re a little thick-skinned for my tastes, but after the last few weeks they have moved up next year’s shopping list from “dependable, not striking” to “must find.”

On the other side of the ledger, my basil plants — one Genovese, on small-leaf globe — have gone to flower, overnight, without ever reaching a decent size.  Fortunately, my taste buds aren’t so refined that I can’t make do with supermarket or even frozen basil cubes…

How’s everybody doing at the end of another hot,  sticky weekend?

Late-Night Open Thread (Don’t Look, John!)Post + Comments (69)

Trains, Wilco, etc.

So far so good.

CBS Sunday MorningPost + Comments (30)

I really don’t understand this. I didn’t understand Joe the Plumber either. What about parading an ignorant, abrasive beauty pageant winner around helps your party?

The Prejean decade beginsPost + Comments (152)

Expect to hear a lot about tort reform as the death panel phase of the health care debate draws to a close. Serious people believe that most of our health care ills can be cured by a healthy dose of tort reform.

As long as we’re making predictions, also look for MoDo to compare Obama to Don Draper at some point.

Tort reform, bitchesPost + Comments (52)