Texsox

In Franklin's book he spends a couple pages just on cutting for serving. When I was travelling more for work I would keep the Texas Monthly rankings in my truck and plan my route around visiting some of their small town picks. Pinkerton's is near the top of my list to visit when they get opened here. I haven't tried that much coffee in my rub. This time I tried some of Fiesta's Uncle Chris Steak Seasoning which was an interesting twist. But course salt and pepper and a dash or two of coffee is my usual go to. One issue with the WSM is being just 17" I'm kind of maxing out with about a six or seven pound brisket. I do miss my offset where I would put in six 12 pounders. I had a few neighbors that would bring me theirs when they knew I was going to be cooking brisket. This one was just the flat which is a challenge. Plus the butcher had over trimmed it. I'm still a bit of a slave to my thermopro. Who can resists bluetooth cook gear? I'll adjust when I wrap from about 165 to 170. If it stalls at 165 or so I'll let it run out a little before wrapping. Then I start checking when to pull it off at 203 or so. There was a rib joint near one of my customers on the south side that I would stop at back in the mid 90s. He didn't have much indoor seating but folks would be sitting on hoods of cars eating. And those cars ranged from barely running to showroom Mercedes. I wish I could remember the name of the place. He's probably retired by now but I hope someone kept it going.

She posts some great stuff. I love her account.

BTW those RV owners tend to be conservative and possibly are why we have "Lyin' Ted with the ugly wife"* instead of Beto. *Trump comments about the esteemed Senator from Texas.

Pause for a moment and consider that Trump is right. The election was stolen from him and he couldn't stop it. The courts were against him. The majority of Republicans are afraid to side with him because for some reason Democrats are allowing some of them to win. Law enforcement, including departments he runs are against him.

I'm sure John Adams made that same phone call to Georgia when he lost to Jefferson. Let's trust our system works, enjoy the show, and vote out anyone who tries to subvert the will of the voters.

I think overkill is the wrong word. Unrealistic. Unaffordable perhaps. But not overkill. The Braves rotation in the 90s would have been overkill but that seemed to work out.

Don't get attached to 'em they'll just break your heart.

This really isn't much better than the old voting system.

I passed along my big offset smoker, I just wasn't enjoying 14 hour brisket cooks anymore. But, I still enjoy some Central Texas style brisket. I picked up a Weber Smokey Mountain a couple months ago and I'm really pleased with how simple and easy it is and I'm getting good results. I put on a small brisket, just the flat, around 4:30 this morning and went back to sleep for a few hours. It took about six hours at 250 to get to 170 when I wrap the brisket in pink butcher paper ala Aaron Franklin. I just took it off the smoker about an hour ago when it hit 203 degrees and felt squishy. Now it's resting in a cooler inside an insulated bag. The bark looked great when I wrapped it. I'm using a slightly different seasoning blend. I have close family coming in an hour so I'm hoping it tastes as good as it looks. The WSM maintains heat very steady and responds smoothly to changes in the vent. I filled the basket with unlit charcoal and post oak then dumped about a dozen lit coals on top. I didn't have to add any for an almost 9 hour cook. It did seem to take a while to get up to temperature today. I assume mostly because it was hovering near freezing when I started.

My son gifted me Sennheiser open ear headphones for Christmas and I've discovered layers in songs I've listened to all my life. Plus, I've been purposefully learning more about music composition and engineering. The hook was Rick Beato's YouTube channel. It's like a whole other world opened up. I've really been digging into Neil Young's website and some Steely Dan. Even works like Dark Side of the Moon seem new.

One more thought on Trump. He doesn't seem to have aged like every other president in the past 50 years. It could just be hair dye and really good facials. Or he handled the stress better than all the rest. Kudos to him.

I'm wondering which donors Trump controls. He's been whining about a lack of fundraising so it doesn't seem like many. So mainstream Republican candidates must be afraid of turning off his voters. Which really only makes sense if you believe they will stay home. His loyalists are not going to flip Democrat in any huge numbers. The most interesting thing to me going forward is how Trump will stay in the headlines. I doubt he will retire with dignity as other presidents have done. I also don't see him working too much so a daily or weekly TV show doesn't seem assured. Will his nightly tweets be reported by everyone?

What was the government's role in developing the vaccines?

At some point, just not at the point they were voting. That's like saying at some point it was ok for me to drive 70 just not at this point. It's still illegal and wrong.

I believe fraud is more common than you think. There are a lot of folks that claim Texas as their home state to avoid certain types of income tax, but they have retired and moved away. Since they continue to claim Texas as their residency they vote in Texas even though they don't currently meet the legal requirements. There is a cottage industry helping full time RV owners establish Texas as their "home", again they do not meet the legal requirement in Texas to vote here. Then there are the people who move within the state and forget to change their vote registration but continue to vote in their former district.

My experience is there are plenty of resources but kids don't use them. Every campus I've been on has a full time staff member to help kids with this. I teach two sections of a class that is 100% focused on getting accepted into college, paying for college, being successful in college, and setting yourself up for a career. When I first started teaching the course we had scholarship Fridays where the entire class period was devoted to applying for scholarships. 90% of the kids just sat and talked with their friends. I eventually cut it back to once a month. This year I had about 30 recruiters and application committee folks from universities across the US both private and public Zoom call the classes. Only a couple kids would show up for the calls. Each of the recruiters were great sources not just about their university, but the process in general. But my generation didn't listen either, nor did my parents . . . “The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.” Socrates - circa 399 BC

So there were instances of fraud and mistakes but they were caught correctly the first time.

Which is an interesting slippery slope. I made a "mistake" and voted by mail and in person. I made a "mistake" and sent in my dead grandmother's ballot instead of mine. I'm not shocked that it's zero, but I would have expected one or two. But, yeah, in the end they found what most everyone understood, he lost because people didn't like him and his policies.

Agreed. What surprised me was every vote was 100% in compliance. Dates, signatures, every line on every ballot was correct. No one moved out of state but kept voting in Georgia. It's pretty remarkable that 15,000 forms could all be filled out without any errors. Now I wonder if they made a determination of mistakes versus fraud.

I'm slightly surprised that everyone did everything perfectly.

I'm pulling for both underdogs but honestly don't see either one happening.

Nice Alamo Bowl.

Really, over 50%? I'm looking at the 2000 Sox roster and I can't imagine that half of those guys were using steroids. I know Canseco said 80% but it seemed like he was selling books and pushing numbers for publicity. I think what you had was 15 to 20% at the most but they are the players that were setting records and winning awards. I think it's a slap in the face to players like Frank who worked hard and didn't cheat for guys like Sosa and Bonds to even be considered. The Hall of Fame is a museum that celebrates the game of baseball. It's a tourist attraction. I wouldn't mind a display that discusses the steroid era and talks about those players and their achievements. I just don't think a plaque or display equal to the non steroid using players is appropriate in a place that should be about what makes the game great, not the negative. We're planning on returning there this summer, I hope they are open.

Entire game was on steroids? What years do you think Frank Thomas was on steroids? Are you thinking 99% of the players? 95%?

My general recommendation to my seniors is don't borrow for your first two years. Community college or one of the local four year public schools. But then go away for at least two years. It makes the most sense for the most students. I do have those that are prepping for med school or a top law school and it's not as clear cut for the.