Nothing funny about feldspar

The NPR Sunday Puzzle

Next Week’s Challenge

Take the phrases “move over” and “local call.” In each case, the last three letters of the first word are the first three letters in the next. Name a familiar animal, in two words, in which the last three letters of the first word are the first three letters of the next. Hints: It’s a furry, four-footed animal that can grow up to six feet in length. The first word in its name has five letters, the second word has eight.

There are lots of hints embedded in the clue, so I’m not going to give you any more!

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It was a chilly and rainy day today, perfect for stew and bread dinner. This is a recipe I made up all by myself

1/3 lb bulk sausage
1 large onion, diced
6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 medium sized butternut squash
Salt
Pepper
Curry powder
Pumpkin pie spice
Dried sage
1 can chicken broth
1 can water
1 cup rice
2 cups swiss chard, chopped

Brown the sausage in a pan, breaking it up into small pieces as you go. When it’s almost done, add half of the onion and brown it. Put the other half of the onion (uncooked) into the slow cooker pot. When the sausage is cooked, add the onion/sausage mix to the slow cooker pot.

Chop up the chicken and the squash into slightly larger than bite-size bits, and put them into the slow cooker pot.

Sprinkle the spices over the stuff in the pot. I use at least 1/4 teaspoon of everything to begin. Just whatever seems the right amount for the stuff you’ve got.

Pour the chicken broth over the stuff, and then the can of water. Cook on low for about 4 hours.

Add the rice, stirring it gently into the liquid. Let cook (on low) for at least 60 minutes (might need longer, depending on the rice).

About 30 minutes before you want to eat, taste and adjust the seasonings. Add in the swiss chard.

Serve in bowls with freshly made bread alongside.

Makes a large amount — enough for 6 at least (it’s pretty filling).

REVIEW:

It was a bit gloppy, but tasted pretty good. The rice absorbed much more liquid than I expected. The chard was put in way too early — maybe only 10-15 minutes next time?

Like many people, I do all of my best thinking in the shower.¹ This morning I was wondering about petroleum.

Here we have have some stuff, a resource that up until about 150 years ago was little used. Then someone figured out a way to use this stuff more efficiently, and it replaced all of the other burning oils (animal fats, generally) in use. And then came cars and then came plastics, and the rest, they say, is history.

And now there is some concern that the wells are running dry, and we’re having wars over oil and can’t afford to fill up our cars and trucks and OMG WHERE’S THE OIL!?!! LET’S DRILL EVERYWHERE AND SUCK DOWN THE LAST DROP SO NO ONE ELSE CAN HAVE IT!!!!1!!

We neeeeeed it!

What other thing have we (broadly defined as “historical peoples”) needed, have only known recently that we needed it so much, and yet we used it up so completely that our economic society was completely transformed into something else, and what was that something else?

Was it caves -> lack of room for our burgeoning population -> built dwellings? Was it grazing lands -> deserts -> irrigation? Those, I think are long, slow changes. I could see climate changes having a large local effect in a short period of time, but then the people move (like the Anasazi, perhaps). Is there a pattern we are following, that perhaps we can learn from, or break free of?

And then what is the next thing, corn?

1. Sometimes that’s the only time I think at all — the rest of the day I’m on autopilot.↩