Make Mine Black

by



Buy the new book, "Beaucoup Arlo & Janis!"Today's "Arlo & Janis!"
Coffee always is a source of inspiration early in the morning, either directly or indirectly. My coffee maker is black, incidentally, for exactly the above reason. If you haven’t visited the site since Friday, you’ll notice the subtle link at the top of the page that will enable you to purchase the new A&J T shirts. I want to thank all those who have already bought a shirt. I know you’re wondering: most of the shirts that have been ordered to date will ship tomorrow.

66 thoughts on “Make Mine Black”

  2. The key to a clean coffee pot is, place a second filter on top of the grounds. It is the water splashing onto the grounds that is the cause of coffee oil getting all over. First response ever, but have been following for more than ten years.

  3. I wish I could say I was free of addictions, but the devil Caffeine still has me in it’s clutches. *sigh*

    The easy way to clean the water tank of a coffee pot-and I am assuming that’s what Arlo and Janis are looking into-is to put a couple of cups of white vinegar in then finish filling the tank with water. Let it sit for about 15 minutes, then let it run a normal cycle. Of course, you will have to run a clear water cycle to rinse it, but you will have a clean coffee pot. 🙂

    Or get a black coffee pot. — JJ

  5. Lurking for 10 years? Why wouldn’t one want to join the fray here? Oh, wait..I may have just answered my own question. 🙂

    But yes, AlohaCJ, welcome. Better late than never.

  7. Mark, yes, egg-production regulations, like all regulations, have a ripple effect. Some people apparently do not realize that regs and unfunded mandates are not “free”; they all come with a cost to someone.

    Not saying we shouldn’t have any, only that there is more to consider than how good something looks on paper, or how good it makes people “feel”, before implementing it. Regulations can, and do, have the effect of making businesses unprofitable to the point they close or move out of state, causing a loss of local jobs and tax revenue, and leaving some of those “feel good” people wondering why their good intentions led to…well, you know where that road leads.

  8. My Ghost, no coffee drinker? You keep getting more attractive every day. But then there is that small addiction you have………

    Good morning everyone it’s the witching hour when the witch gets out of bed. And gets dressed after an iced tea with limes because she doesn’t make coffee.

    I will share a Facebook post of mine here since I have no idea how to put the photo here:

    “Cuban coffee………..the reason Meth never caught on in
    Miami”

  9. Ghost, correlate the basic ideas behind what you said and the multiple news articles about how major grocery chains still have not opened in “food deserts”. Or had to close new stores in these areas because they cannot run indefinitely without making money (unlike government agencies).

  11. I think a better solution than a second filter or a black coffee pot is what I do. I don’t drink coffee!….OK OK I don’t want to see a mass of crazed people pounding on my door in Royal Oak. My wife drinks coffee, does that help?

    Jimmy, can you check your orders and see if you have seen any orders with my last name? My wife and daughter (from Chicago) promised to order me one each. All right, I’m being naughty.

  12. Breaking News from Breaking Tee Shirt News™ (When News Breaks, We Fix It)…

    The Cobra™ 100 – THE Cat™ 68

    Stay tuned for all the latest updates.

  13. I don’t like the taste and sweet tea will give me the caffeine. Which reminds me, why do some of the restaurants in Kentucky not have sweet tea? I know that the sugar is on the table, but if I wanted to do it myself would have stayed at home.

  15. Jackie, and anyway, sugar won’t dissolve very well when the tea is already cold. It just collects as sediment in the bottom. By the way, it was Ruth in Winter Park who suggested Mindy make her own ornaments. For a bit yesterday I thought you were telepathic, since I was thinking about the bead kits, but I didn’t post it here! Then I backed up and reread the posts above that and found who really suggested it.

    Perhaps Mindy could get some small acrylic rods, heat them gently and then twist them together and shape the crook at the top. Using heat resistant gloves, of course.

  17. Re Friday’s baking strip; I had a near identical response to a failed custard for a chocolate silk pie last year. After a bit (lot?) of swearing, plus a beer or two, I devised a solution that ended up producing the best chocolate pie I have ever eaten. And I have been asked to reproduce it several times since.
    Yes, I kept notes on my ‘fix’ so I have been able to recreate the pie.

  18. Did you ever look inside a real English teapot? ewwwww – must be that’s what I look like inside too. I have a black coffee maker – for my friends who drink coffee – and I keep it clean with white vinegar. That doesn’t work for the teapot … but a spoonful of bleach does.

  19. My grandmother boiled tea in an aluminum pan on stove. You cam imagine how tannic. And black. Everyone added their own sugar until their teaspoon stood up in glass.

    Somehow none of this took on me. I don’t use sugar added to anything and never learned to like sweet beverages or fruit with sugar added.

    I do use bath products and body products that smell like toasted sugar so I smell like cookies like the Archangel Michael as played by John Travolta.

  20. Bryan: You poured the rest of the six-pack into the failed custard?

    Archangel Michael, perhaps, but I’m pretty sure John Travolta doesn’t smell like cookies.

  22. Just received email notification tee shirts for this address have shipped. Even provided a USPS tracking number, now I can agonize watching the slow progress of my package.

    Picked up the coffee addiction in the Army, already had the others 😉 Quit smoking for true love. Gave up alcohol for health reasons. Quadrupled down on coffee, thanks to Starbucks. While not into their syrupy drinks, those four shots of AM espresso are a must.

  23. sand, in my experience, USPS updates their tracking feature so slowly that the parcel usually gets to me when tracking shows it’s still two or three states away. Perhaps that’s just here in the boondocks, and it works better in The Big City™.

  26. Unless it’s changed, USPS tracking is not real-time each time it leaves one facility for another like the big boys. When USPS started their tracking service it was one scan when accepted and one scan when dropped off.

    And if you order anything online and get a tracking number that tells you it is FedEx Smartpost, you are going to be waiting a while. That is where the shipper turns it over to a FedEx carrier who sends it to the nearest major USPS hub and gives it to them to deliver. A******n prime sent me a guaranteed two-day delivery that way last year. It arrived 3 days late and the tracking information showed it was delivered two days before it actually showed up.

  27. The amount of sugar which will remain in solution (with excess falling to the bottom of the container) is determined by the present temperature of that solution/drink and not its history.
    If one loads sugar into a warm drink, some amount x will saturate the warm drink. If the warm drink is then cooled, a lesser amount y will stay dissolved, with the excess [= x-y] precipitating out.
    If one simply puts the sugar into the cool drink, the same amount y will dissolve if the drink has the same volume and temperature in both cases.

  28. c x-p:

    1. Lovely. We sure do have a way of spoiling all their fun.

    2. We just experienced the Northern Hemisphere’s earliest sunset. Many years, it’s 7 Dec. It’s all Kepler’s fault.

    Peace, emb

  29. I’ve borrowed and shortened this account from an online friend. I wish I could tell stories as well as he:

    My lovely wife has always been an animal person, and over the years she’s softened me. Our home has always corralled a herd of beasts of every ilk. It’s always hard, and saddens us when one passes on, but the strangest phenomenon occurs. I never actually thought about it until recently but just before a loved pet passes, we mysteriously attract another. Right before the passing of our dog Jubilee, a stray we named Jazzie showed up. Jubilee’s passing was hard, but Jazzie filled the empty spot and almost seems to be the embodiment of Jubilee’s spirit.

    Just before a beloved cat died, a stray showed up and adopted us. I wasn’t too enthusiastic but he quickly wormed his way into the household and became integral, and in fact was with us for 14 years. When he was aging suddenly another stray showed up in our carport. I was adamant no we weren’t taking her in but she faithfully followed me around as I worked outside and I finally acquiesced and she became my lap cat. When I worked out of my home office she would lie quietly in my lap and often talked to me. The old cat seemed to pass on his personality to the new one.

    These animals have become family. So it’s pretty incredible how with the passing of one family member another arrives. Why I never noted the pattern earlier I’ve no clue but in retrospect there is no question strays are sent to fill a void in our family.

    Yesterday, I noticed a guy about my age hanging around my house…

  30. I didn’t mean to make my last comment Anonymous. For some reason my name disappeared and I didn’t notice. I was interested to read about the difference in adding sugar to warm or cold tea. Cracker Barrel used to have the best tea by far, but it isn’t the same now. Has anyone been to the Corvette Museum? I drove by it, but I didn’t have time to stop. Maybe another trip.

  33. I went by my mom’s apartment earlier this evening, and she proudly showed me that her two Christmas cacti are beginning to bloom. One has white blooms and the other red.

    She also asked me how she could listen to some Christmas music. I tuned the FM radio in her kitchen to a local “All Carols-All the Time” station and found the holiday music channel on her cable system. After the first two “carols” on cable, I began to wonder who exactly curates the content there. About that time, she commented that she knew the songs but not who was performing them. “No ma’am,” I thought to myself, “you probably don’t know who Barenaked Ladies and Lady GaGa are.”

    Then Elvis started singing “Blue Christmas”, and she said, “I know him.”

  34. Good for you Ghost. And best wishes to your mom. I showed mine where to find the music channels on our satellite service. So when she’s not watching Oak Island or Ghost Adventures, she’s listening to the all Elvis channel. She spent her life working to make a home for us, so it’s worth it to help her enjoy the life she has now, just like your mom.

    My brother put up a Christmas tree and decorated it, and she has the fun of watching the cats play with the tree while the rest of us hunt up the decorations and rehang them.

  35. Mindy from Indy, I think this is the kind of thing you need. All you would need to do is to heat the rod till it softened enough to put the candy cane crook on it. Unfortunately, this dealer is in the UK, but if you search for acrylic spiral rod you have a good chance of finding it.

  38. emb
    Meteorological winter has already begun.

    Debbe
    Tear Mender SKU# 887 235

    The reader holder is by ReadeRest (readerest.com) ares are by
    a distributor other than True Value – ours are retailing about $6.99
    not a big mover about 3 a year.

    Just got a new product —
    Chicken Poop lip balm to prevent chapped lips –
    “put Chicken Poop on your lips to prevent licking them.”

    True Value SKU# 190 308
    We put 25 out this morning and within 2 hours they were all bought.

  40. Bat-Guano Crazy Lady was a big fan of H2 programming on cable, mostly the pseudo-scientific entertainment (UFO/Aliens) programs. I knew she was just a big grown-up geek girl, and I thought that was kind of amusing…at first.

  42. Mindy from Indy, nope, neither of those. Even before the net came along I had a talent for finding things, from lost car keys to good sales on things. Most of the time now, I can use the net, but I know I have to keep looking, trying different search terms, till I find what I am looking for. I just seem to be wired for that type of thing.

    Ghost, can’t help there, although a lot of the naughty girls seem to be online too, gauged by the stuff that shows up online! If you have a name in mind, try Zabasearch.

  43. It’s okay Mark, your secret is safe with me. (Gotta keep up those appearances, I get it. 🙂 )

    Thunder was limping worse today. I am going to attempt to keep her on the porch for a few days. Keeping fingers crossed she uses the litterbox I put out for her. If she won’t use it, she can’t stay inside. So far, so good. She slept most of the afternoon.

  44. I thought I sent a post here this aftetnoon, gone to cyberspace.

    Mindy I sent you some photos I snapped that might work on your tree to Facebook. Ran into big clear and iridescent ornament assortment. Those are big, look good, inexpensive. If you like any I’d like to buy them and send them to you as a gift. You have done many, many things I think make you special and I’d like to say thanks.

  45. Caution – this link contains pictures of Sean Connery, Paul Newman, Audrey Hepburn, and Sophia Loren, among others. A young, buff Clint Eastwood and one really well filled sundress may cause bps to rise. You all are welcome.

    http://twentytwowords.com/these-pictures-show-how-classy-the-past-really-was/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=22G+-+M+-+Classy+Past&utm_content=2015-12-02+125+%2810%216037433139177%21qwaya%210%29&utm_term=Nostalgia+-+F+18UP

  47. Curmudgeonly (!!!) Ex-Professor: I do understand every word you wrote concerning solubles and precipitates. I learned about super-saturation before I could pronounce it. My mother made rock candy for me. I won’t bore you with the recipe; I’m sure someone can help you with it. Later in chemistry I learned the words and rules of nature similar to how you pompously describe it, and successfully made alum crystals. But I would never dream to tell a forum full of southerners they don’t know sweet tea. I might ask if they have noticed the sludge in the bottom of the pitcher when rinsing for the next batch. This technique introduces an opportunity to: first, check the information I have; second, gauge another’s interest; third, allow them to not feel stepped on. What was to be demonstrated, by my dictating to you without invitation.
    In fairness I have not taken the time to perform your experiment under laboratory conditions. I do know my Coca-Cola® syrup won’t settle out no matter how much ice I put in it, must be wizardry.
    As another, bless his heart, is fond of saying regardless of his level of intended offense, and feigned innocence: peace.
    [the above was posted with a substantial quantity of comment]
    {My down arrow didn’t work. I should look into that}

  48. Good morning Villagers….

    And a big welcome to our ten year lurker….AlohaCJ I never could keep quite for that many years.

    Gasp….yesterday’s horror started as I drove down the road and saw the escalator and the “spent hen” truck. Had tears in my eyes as I walked up the steps, Andrew was standing there and told me not to look in. They took a break and I walked some allies to see if belts were clear. Started bringing in eggs, they came back in and started purging again. Unfortunately, I had to check the front lines and I saw how they grabbed and threw the hens into the kill boxes. I won’t go into any more details….Agri is a cruel business.

    They are finishing up today, and they will be up front and I still have eggs to bring in…..I will keep my composure, as I know that George the Rooster and his Miss Prissy are safe and warm.

    Old Bear, thanks for the info…..Lordy, when the boys start scraping the manure off the curtain backs I’m going to have them carry buckets and start selling me some of that chicken poop lip balm….I’ve got a fortune in that pit 🙂

    TR…loved reading your story, and I believe in it too.

    Indy Mindy, did I miss something? You have a new cat? Hope Blacklight takes to Thunder.

    Jerry, just click on the link I posted yesterday morning on the “Half Baked” thread, it will take you to the video of Elvis. I’ll work on her comments and the other video

    Have a blessed ‘hump’ day…….

  51. Jerry, scroll down to her second or third comment….and she posted the same link I posted, it is green lettering…..but your first have to read the strip….I’ve posted there, I even thought about asking her if she reads Arlos and Janis and mention their cat Ludwig, who is purple….that is if JJ doesn’t mind.

  54. Did people have more class in the past? Oh, Lord, yes! That’s a no-brainer, especially considering that few now have any at all. Hat tip, Lady Mindy.

    Odd that the real-time series should be about a Christmas tree and tradition just as I am struggling to bring both back into my life. Or perhaps it’s not.

  56. JJ, I *do* have a black coffee pot, but I still clean it with vinegar every once in a while. 😉

    c-ex-p and eMb, I read your explanation of why sugar won’t dissolve in cold tea, and while it’s very nice and sciency, I just know no matter how much I stir it, the sugar won’t dissolve. And no, you didn’t spoil my fun; I know my limitations when it comes to science. 🙂

    Debbe, bless you, Honey. You’re stronger than I am. And thank you for the link to the BCN boys!

  57. Debbe, hang tight.

    As to sugar in ice tea, it never stopped grandpa from stirring 7 teaspoons in his glass. Guess science only works if you believe in it. 😉

  59. Mindy
    There is a story about someone coming from the past seeing how people dressed
    today and thinking that we were so poor and destitute that it was not worth going on.

  60. Decided to measure some of our tee shirts to help decide what size A&J shirts to order. In addition to confirming the suspected inconsistencies among brands, I discovered that I already own a shirt from Gildan. Happy to say that it’s one that I like the way it fits – and that it has held up well. Still wish that we could get them in women’s sizes.

  61. Remember when people dressed up to go on a commercial flight? The deterioration of on-board airline service and amenities seemed to begin about the same time as rampant sloppiness of dress among their passengers. I wonder if there was any causation connected to that correlation…and if so, in which direction.

    On the bright side, it’s probably just a matter of time before one of us will see someone on a flight wearing an A&J tee shirt.

  62. Today’s TIP BlogSpot; the other site is still the knitting bit. Haven’t tried to track this down, but am guessing the subject is Wagner, and wondering where in Germany it was and if it survived WWI and WWII.

    Haven’t looked at the newer posts above.

    Peace, emb

  63. c x-p: Your post was not pompous; maybe just a vocabulary problem.

    sand: ‘Guess science only works if you believe in it.’ No, it works exceptionally well to pretty well, depending on scientists’ skills, and on subject matter, but not on popular opinion or misinformation. As noted here before, however, it is always tentative, and never certain.

    We know pretty what will happen when a fuel-laden Boeing [?] rams into a skyscraper [and the guys figuring that out weren’t Ph.D.’s]. But we don’t know when the roughly every 500 yr. [on average] Big One will next rip the Cascade Fault. When it does, everyone west of Interstate 5 will probably be toast. The last rip was well over 500 YA. Think I’ll stay here. Besides, winters aren’t as severe as when we came in ’58.

    Science happens. The dinosaurs didn’t believe in it but, 65 MYA, it happened. RIP.

    Peace, emb

  66. While science and scientists do their thing, I will accomplish my tasks. Installing a new printer and monitor in Loon’s office. Moving an existing printer / copier to a new location. Joys of wireless networks : -) Cooking a pot of vegetarian veal bean soup and getting ready to make a round of bread.

    Mir vsem i vsemu dobroy nochi

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