The Treaty of Ghent ended the War of 1812. It was signed in December 1814, a few weeks before the landmark Battle of New Orleans. The difference between the two events allowed by the challenges in trans-Atlantic communications.
John Quincy Adams was signatory to the Treaty of Ghent and the then-future 6th President (1825-1829).
See's Candy. One of the advantages of living in a divorced family is that both parents try to buy your love. My mother wouldn't just get us any candy - she'd drive me and my brother down to go into a See's Candies - the actual store with white decorations, white aprons, glass display cabinets, and divine smelling products. We'd pick and choose what went into our dozen. My brother loved the chocolate-covered cherries. I loved the dark chocolate nougats and the nut-sprinkled-chocolate-covered toffee that was kind of like Almond Roca. The store was also near one of Mrs. Field's first stores, so we would occasionally see Debbie Fields. As Debbie said, it's gotta be warm or it's free.
I can tell you one thing that's wrong with this recipe vs. actual Mrs. Fields and it's not ingredients - it's technique. The first step says to cream the butter/sugar. You do not want a soft sugar/butter mix. See how flat the cookies are in the picture? That's what happens when your butter is too soft. A cookie is essentially frying carbohydrates into a latticework. You can hold up the lattice by using powder/soda to leaven the structure - but that makes the cookies "cake-like" in structure. You want a semi-homogeous mixture of butter and everything else. When you bake the cookie, you are rendering out the butter and essentially frying the carbohydrates in-situ. You do that by keeping your butter cold. Too cold to cream. So you mix the crap out of cold butter using an iced bain marie and a strong enough mixer to crumb the dough. Then you moosh the crumbs together. Your cookies will be crispy, taller without being cakey, and light.
I make this recipe (usually just half and it still comes up with like 25-30 cookies depending on the size) and it tastes very close to what I remember. Of course it's probably been 35 years since I've actually had Mrs Fields, but it's pretty close.
When I was a high schooler at Disneyland, I gave a White Rabbit candy to a cast member dressed as Alice (in Wonderland). She looked at it and looked very confused. My high school friends with me were horrified.
This Christmas my cousin's kid had a game where there were a bunch of things connected to strings and everyone got to choose a string and get something. He included Haw Flakes and White Rabbit candy.
As a kid we never had Botan and we didn't buy Pocky. I'm not even sure I've had Botan ever. The salted plums I have had. I can have 1 maybe 2 at a sitting. My relatives did have them during holiday dinners.
There are also almond cookies and those twisted sweet cookies (?) that are flaky. Not sure what they're called.
My mom's family lived/worked for nearly a century in/around San Jose's Japantown. If we got Asian candy, it was going to be Botan. The candy itself low-key sucked, but as a kid who would eat anything if it had sugar in it, it was better than nothing. The best thing about it was that it came wrapped in individual edible rice paper, which you'd peel off the candy and then eat the "paper".
I finished the third part of Cobra Kai (15/17 Netflix). I guess thinking about it the ending made sense. It was where the series was always headed. I liked the way they tied up the stories.
I'll watch the upcoming new Karate Kid movie with Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan, though I haven't seen the Jackie Chan movie. I'm not sure I want to watch the Jackie Chan version, but maybe I will before watching the new movie.
The end of Cobra Kai had a tremendous (and appropriate) amount of fromage/queso/cheese product. The combo Rocky/Karate Kid training sequence was wonderful! I don't get enough completely mindless entertainment, and this filled my need for it more than adequately. It was impressive to see so many loose plot ends tied so neatly. 15/19.
Fuck this guy and his complaints. He did this and now he's got to live with the legacy that he empowered this all to happen. He conjured up the Balrog and he couldn't contain him.
McConnell (subverting the Supreme Court nominee system, refusing to impeach Trump after Jan 6, and making Congress a uncompromising dysfunctional logjam mess) and Roberts (with Citizen United, which directly led to Trump twice and now Musk) are main culprits of the breakdown American Constitutional democracy. I also believe Obama played a role with his heavy use of executive orders. I understand why Obama felt the need with an obstructionist Congress, but it set a terrible precedent that has also led to what we have seen over the past three weeks.
I assign blame for Citizens United not so much with Chief Justice Roberts as I do with Justice Kennedy; he wrote the majority decision. Citizens United is one of the two most consequential decision made by the Roberts Court and probably ever, even counting the despicable Dred Scott decision. Citizens United and Trump vs. United States have the power to end the American experiment in democracy if we let it.
The criticism of the use of executive orders you voiced is well placed. It was an inevitable consequence of the Obama White House finding a way around an obstructionist Congress. A very good argument can be made that Article II is being badly interpreted and has been badly interpreted for more than 50 years. The imperial presidency was test-driven under Nixon, then Reagan sought to add the line item veto. Since then, Congress seems to have abdicated its powers to declare war and derogated the instigation of military action to the president with or without consulting Congress. It is well past time for Congress to assert itself, but I would argue it should do so by reining in the president who is clearly running amok and without regard to the Constitution.
I once flew SFO to Sydney. Left SF sometime in the evening and arrived in Sydney early in the AM. I had three seats across to myself so actually got a decent sleep. Good times.
I was talking with a friend's dad and we were talking about the state of Cal BB and I said we should've hired Gates way back when. That is when we dropped the ball. Of course he probably would've moved onto a higher profile job, but still, I feel like 3-4 years of Dennis Gates would've been much better than what we got.
It’s time once again for Oski Disciple’s Question of the Day.
What conflict was brought to a close by the Treaty of Ghent? What year was it signed and what future U.S. president was a signatory?
The War of 18Ghent?
@The Ghent war of course!@
The Treaty of Ghent ended the War of 1812. It was signed in December 1814, a few weeks before the landmark Battle of New Orleans. The difference between the two events allowed by the challenges in trans-Atlantic communications.
John Quincy Adams was signatory to the Treaty of Ghent and the then-future 6th President (1825-1829).
FAVORITE CHILDHOOD CANDY
See's Candy. One of the advantages of living in a divorced family is that both parents try to buy your love. My mother wouldn't just get us any candy - she'd drive me and my brother down to go into a See's Candies - the actual store with white decorations, white aprons, glass display cabinets, and divine smelling products. We'd pick and choose what went into our dozen. My brother loved the chocolate-covered cherries. I loved the dark chocolate nougats and the nut-sprinkled-chocolate-covered toffee that was kind of like Almond Roca. The store was also near one of Mrs. Field's first stores, so we would occasionally see Debbie Fields. As Debbie said, it's gotta be warm or it's free.
Almond Joy bar. Idaho spud was always a welcome treat too!
You're welcome!
https://www.food.com/recipe/authentic-mrs-fields-chocolate-chip-cookies-83777
I can tell you one thing that's wrong with this recipe vs. actual Mrs. Fields and it's not ingredients - it's technique. The first step says to cream the butter/sugar. You do not want a soft sugar/butter mix. See how flat the cookies are in the picture? That's what happens when your butter is too soft. A cookie is essentially frying carbohydrates into a latticework. You can hold up the lattice by using powder/soda to leaven the structure - but that makes the cookies "cake-like" in structure. You want a semi-homogeous mixture of butter and everything else. When you bake the cookie, you are rendering out the butter and essentially frying the carbohydrates in-situ. You do that by keeping your butter cold. Too cold to cream. So you mix the crap out of cold butter using an iced bain marie and a strong enough mixer to crumb the dough. Then you moosh the crumbs together. Your cookies will be crispy, taller without being cakey, and light.
But the Mrs Fields cookies aren't crispy and taller. They're flat and soft-ish. At least that's the way I remember them being.
I make this recipe (usually just half and it still comes up with like 25-30 cookies depending on the size) and it tastes very close to what I remember. Of course it's probably been 35 years since I've actually had Mrs Fields, but it's pretty close.
I had many. There were a couple Chinese candies including White Rabbit candy, a milk based candy with vanilla flavoring.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Rabbit_(candy)
When I was a high schooler at Disneyland, I gave a White Rabbit candy to a cast member dressed as Alice (in Wonderland). She looked at it and looked very confused. My high school friends with me were horrified.
Also forgot about Haw Flakes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haw_flakes
This Christmas my cousin's kid had a game where there were a bunch of things connected to strings and everyone got to choose a string and get something. He included Haw Flakes and White Rabbit candy.
White Rabbit and Haw Flakes? You're only missing Botan, Pocky, and those nasty salted plums for the Hall of Fame for classic Asian candy.
As a kid we never had Botan and we didn't buy Pocky. I'm not even sure I've had Botan ever. The salted plums I have had. I can have 1 maybe 2 at a sitting. My relatives did have them during holiday dinners.
There are also almond cookies and those twisted sweet cookies (?) that are flaky. Not sure what they're called.
Botan is the standard for us Japanese.
My mom's family lived/worked for nearly a century in/around San Jose's Japantown. If we got Asian candy, it was going to be Botan. The candy itself low-key sucked, but as a kid who would eat anything if it had sugar in it, it was better than nothing. The best thing about it was that it came wrapped in individual edible rice paper, which you'd peel off the candy and then eat the "paper".
I was a black licorice aficionado (and still am). I liked Big Hunks and Tootsie Rolls too.
https://media1.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExeGEyNnd3cmhxN3VmYWZndTRiaGZnNzB5MTVjbjNpOWUwdGp4c3c4YyZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/esR1eKgmOnxWKR627f/giphy.gif
Crunch bars, and Jelly Bellies when I got older.
Apropos: This hilarious and bizarre account by Caity Weaver about her own unusual appetite for candy as an adult: https://archive.ph/2025.01.26-132524/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/25/magazine/quit-sugar.html
DBD AV CLUB
The missus and I added Britbox to our streaming options. Lots of good content there. I'd recommend Sherwood. We just finished the first season. Top quality. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherwood_(2022_TV_series)
I finished the third part of Cobra Kai (15/17 Netflix). I guess thinking about it the ending made sense. It was where the series was always headed. I liked the way they tied up the stories.
I'll watch the upcoming new Karate Kid movie with Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan, though I haven't seen the Jackie Chan movie. I'm not sure I want to watch the Jackie Chan version, but maybe I will before watching the new movie.
The end of Cobra Kai had a tremendous (and appropriate) amount of fromage/queso/cheese product. The combo Rocky/Karate Kid training sequence was wonderful! I don't get enough completely mindless entertainment, and this filled my need for it more than adequately. It was impressive to see so many loose plot ends tied so neatly. 15/19.
I guess they knew this was the last season so they could just tidy everything up with a nice bow.
THE WACKY WORLD OF POLITICS
Mitch McConnell not to run for reelection. No shit.
Fuck this guy and his complaints. He did this and now he's got to live with the legacy that he empowered this all to happen. He conjured up the Balrog and he couldn't contain him.
McConnell (subverting the Supreme Court nominee system, refusing to impeach Trump after Jan 6, and making Congress a uncompromising dysfunctional logjam mess) and Roberts (with Citizen United, which directly led to Trump twice and now Musk) are main culprits of the breakdown American Constitutional democracy. I also believe Obama played a role with his heavy use of executive orders. I understand why Obama felt the need with an obstructionist Congress, but it set a terrible precedent that has also led to what we have seen over the past three weeks.
I assign blame for Citizens United not so much with Chief Justice Roberts as I do with Justice Kennedy; he wrote the majority decision. Citizens United is one of the two most consequential decision made by the Roberts Court and probably ever, even counting the despicable Dred Scott decision. Citizens United and Trump vs. United States have the power to end the American experiment in democracy if we let it.
The criticism of the use of executive orders you voiced is well placed. It was an inevitable consequence of the Obama White House finding a way around an obstructionist Congress. A very good argument can be made that Article II is being badly interpreted and has been badly interpreted for more than 50 years. The imperial presidency was test-driven under Nixon, then Reagan sought to add the line item veto. Since then, Congress seems to have abdicated its powers to declare war and derogated the instigation of military action to the president with or without consulting Congress. It is well past time for Congress to assert itself, but I would argue it should do so by reining in the president who is clearly running amok and without regard to the Constitution.
That won't happen as long as it is seeded with Trump supporters and those that fear losing their career if they oppose Trump.
We can agree on that. Nevertheless, it does not remove the necessity.
Now he says Trump is bad. After everything the Turtle did to enable Trump.
The Supreme Court is his fault going back to blocking Obama.
PROFESSIONALS
Baseball begins! First spring training game between the Dodgers and the Cubs starts today at 12:05 PM.
More importantly Giants vs. Rangers on Saturday.
Which reminds me. I'll be in Scottsdale next Thursday/Friday for my annual pilgrimage of Spring Training/Liver Punishment. Post away, my pretties.
I'll be flying to Singapore Fri night. For once, I have a late night flight overseas so hopefully I can get a good amount of sleep for half the trip.
I once flew SFO to Sydney. Left SF sometime in the evening and arrived in Sydney early in the AM. I had three seats across to myself so actually got a decent sleep. Good times.
ELSEWHERE IN INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETICS
Exciting to see Dennis Gates' Missouri team doing so well, that win over AL was great.
I was talking with a friend's dad and we were talking about the state of Cal BB and I said we should've hired Gates way back when. That is when we dropped the ball. Of course he probably would've moved onto a higher profile job, but still, I feel like 3-4 years of Dennis Gates would've been much better than what we got.
CAL
Go Bears!!!