The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Sports & Leisure => Topic started by: Golfhaus on August 09, 2008, 01:02:22 pm
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Anyone watching the Olympics these days? I'll confess to being a huge Olympics nerd. I was fascinated by it as a young'un in 1984, and have followed the games with much interest ever since.
I don't much care for the gymnastics, or the swimming, or the basketball, or the soccer. I was excited to find that soccer and basketball had their own dedicated channels this time around, to free up the other eight members of the NBC family for the uncommon sports that I love to watch every four years - judo, table tennis, team handball, that sort of thing. So at this moment, here's what going on:
NBC Basketball Channel: USA-CZE women's basketball
NBC Soccer Channel: BRA-CZE women's soccer
Universal HD: BRA-CZE women's soccer
USA HD: USA-CZE women's basketball
MSNBC: BRA-CZE women's soccer
NBC: nothing until 10:30
CNBC: nothing until 5:00pm (really? on a Saturday? Who the hell is watching CNBC on a weekend?)
They DO have online feeds of everything going on, though, which is hot. I was up until 3:00 this morning watching judo and fencing. I have a feeling most of my niche fandom will be coming from the online feeds.
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Just as an aside, I just watched the Italy-Russia volleyball match, featuring Ekaterina Gamova. I kept searching the stands for an intelligent-looking, smartly-dressed bear, but to no avail. I'm sure at some point Cornelius has made some public proclamation about Tibet that kept him from getting a visa or something.
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I watched the Puppy Games on Animal Planet. It was much superior to Puppy Bowl in the number of smush-faced dogs involved.
They actually invited me to watch the filming but I was working that day and since I'd recently done a story on Puppy Bowl I knew I couldn't get an article out of it. I would have thought harder about how to make it if I'd known they were going to have a pug, bulldog, Boston terrier, and something that might have been a French bulldog. Curses!
As for the real Olympics... not having any ice skating is like not having any smush-faced dogs. I can't get excited about it. It is of theoretical interest to learn that they have something as weird-sounding as team handball, but not enough to make me actually watch it.
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So much of the gymnastics events seem too contrived. I can't get into something so artificial. "Ok heres two rings in the air, now show how strong you are by moving around in the air with them, well score you on something"
Swimming, in comparison, is something people do. its something weve always done, and seeing who is the best and fastest swimmer seems like a natural evolution.
Team sports at least have strategy and evolve from battle. There are definitive goals that can be met and that is the score.
Handball looks fuck*ng bizarre. Soccer with your hands?
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Handball looks fuck*ng bizarre. Soccer with your hands?
Soccer with your hands on a basketball court. I actually think, of all the sports Americans don't get, handball is one we'd probably enjoy if we just gave it half a chance. I mean, people go to see Arena Football, ferchrissakes.
If I can commit to it, I'd consider starting to take judo as a means to get in shape.
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Handball always weird me out because it reminds me of primary school. Do they allow 'Catchies' at the olympic level? This seems a legitimate question.
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We had sort of a drinking game going last night to make the opening ceremony a little more interesting. Any time a medium-sized or bigger country was due up, we'd try to guess the number of atheletes they had. Canada had about 6 times as many as my guess, but I was only off by a couple dozen on China.
I also realized, quite sadly, that the only olympians I recognize are NBA players.
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One of the SO's coworkers is competing for American Samoa. Because she lived there for like a year as part of a fellowship and they were really hard up for athletes, especially for stuff like swimming. Apparently the Olympic Committee is really lenient about them using American citizens.
I haven't really watched the Olympics for years. All the sob stories about how the athlete was diagnosed with cancer of the nostril after seeing their mother get shot in the face while at their only brother's funeral but, dammit they persevered got really old. Plus the thing where Keri Strug (sp?) injured herself for no reason whatsoever but everybody acted like she single-handedly won the gold and wouldn't shut up about her for like like a year.
I do kind of like beach volley ball, though. I blame Super Spike V'Ball (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Championship_V%27Ball#NES_version).
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It all looked like a goddamned Nazi rally to me.
Fake smiles, explosions, thousands of people doing things in mechanical unison so that they aren't beaten.
Call me nuts but it looked like the kind of frightening display of national unity/power/ability-to-waste-resources that connotates a desire to invade a neighboring nation within about three years.
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So I was watching the sailing race. Spain won. And evidently their reward was this topless woman hopping on their boat. The camera guy made a point of zooming in on her a couple times, fully exposing her tits. This is not the first time I have seen tits on the internet, but it is the first time I have seen tits on NBC, and during the Olympics.
Screen Grabbed because I needed proof:back (http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j236/yuhaszc/olympictits.jpg)
front (http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j236/yuhaszc/olympictits2.jpg)
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Dude! That's a dude, dude.
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Handball always weird me out because it reminds me of primary school.
Totally. If there's handball and ping pong, why not marbles and tiddly-winks?
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I haven't really watched the Olympics for years. All the sob stories about how the athlete was diagnosed with cancer of the nostril after seeing their mother get shot in the face while at their only brother's funeral but, dammit they persevered got really old.
I remembering reading that they started this kind of coverage to attract more women viewers. For the record I would like to say that this shit does NOT make me more inclined to watch.
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Wait, even better than marbles and tiddly-winks - how about dodgeball and monkey-in-the-middle?
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Wait, even better than marbles and tiddly-winks - how about dodgeball and monkey-in-the-middle?
For monkey in the middle, you could just toss the medal around, and if you don't get it - no medal.
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Wait, even better than marbles and tiddly-winks - how about dodgeball and monkey-in-the-middle?
Red rover, red rover I call over.... Uruguay!
Schoolyard olympics, I think this is an idea whose time has come!
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I would punish at the distance-spitting-off-of-the-swingset event.
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It all looked like a goddamned Nazi rally to me.
Fake smiles, explosions, thousands of people doing things in mechanical unison so that they aren't beaten.
Call me nuts but it looked like the kind of frightening display of national unity/power/ability-to-waste-resources that connotates a desire to invade a neighboring nation within about three years.
Rush Limbaugh made an almost identical point.
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Wait a minute, did they just say on the radio that there's steeplechase racing at the Olympics? Now that I would watch. It's probably on at 2 in the morning though, right?
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Read about the switch in child 'singers' for the opening ceremonies today. Disgusting to me. Having a 'prettier' child lip synch to the singing of the child some politburo muckety-muck determined not to be the face China presented to the world in the final day cramps my undies. Crooked teeth was one of the slipped reasons.
I thought this story was actually almost funny. I mean, it's just amazing how the Chinese government doesn't get it, so hard. You'd think that any idiot would realize that this, and pre-taped fireworks, and destroying people's neighborhoods to build venues, and scaring them into getting rid of their pets as we discussed in another thread some time ago... that all of these things would be bad publicity. And that publicity would have a worse effect than crooked teeth on a little girl. And that all of these things would not be secrets in the rest of the internet-saturated world. And that this would NOT have the effect on China's reputation that they seem to desire. Seriously what were they thinking?
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Phelps comes off as kind of dumb as he doesn't articulate himself well at all. Maybe he damaged his brain when he was out getting underage DUIs.
In other news, you will go your whole day without hurting as much as this guy: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=33a_1218642189&p=1 (http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=33a_1218642189&p=1). Bonus points for the Chinese minders with blinders at the ready.
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During the opening ceremonies, a boy accompanied Yao Ming during his flag-bearing duties. He was 9 years old, and had some scars and stuff... partially shave head, etc.
Turns out he was in school when the earthquake hit a few months ago. He dug his way out, found some authorities, and WENT BACK IN because he knew where survivors were. And when they asked him why he did what he did, he basically said, "I'm a hall monitor. I'm a leader among my class, it's what's expected of me."
We have college students that can't write complete sentences, and the Chinese have 9-year-olds re-entering earthquake rubble because they are a student leader. The neighboring country they're going to invade is us, and we're not going to have a damn clue what to do about it.
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Im completely underwhelmed by a country where 1 out of 10 people can't read or write, half of the people are farming, and the top 10% is doing 35% of the consumption.
Literacy: Total population: 90% Females: 86% - The total population averages 6 years of education.
GDP - per capita (PPP): $5,300 (U.S. is $45,800)
Labor force - by occupation: agriculture: 43%
Household income or consumption by percentage share: highest 10%: 34.9%
Electricity - consumption: 2.859 trillion kWh (we use a trillion more kWh). Petroleum consumption is also small in comparison.
For all of those people they aren't producing much of value. $5k PPP? That's laughable, really. The country is staffed by low-skill uneducated laborers.
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While you're comforting yourself with stats A-Cap here's another for you: 1.3 Billion people.
With more than 4 times the USA's population and a society used to doing what the government tells them it doesn't matter if they have a smaller proportion of educated people because in raw numbers (maybe not yet, but soon) they'll still have more than us and those poor uneducated slobs your dismissing? They're going to be the power to back it up whether militarily or in terms of cheap manual labour.
My history's never great but wasn't the USA's economic rise basically due to it's huge industrial ability based on low-pay factory jobs?
My (incredibly, deeply uninformed) guess is the main thing holding them back so far is that their social structure is so borked they have too much trouble keeping their own house in order to worry about the rest of the world.
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Phelps comes off as kind of dumb as he doesn't articulate himself well at all.
I don't think it's fair to expect athletes to be articulate. I mean, my editor doesn't expect me to swim on top of being able to write a coherent 800 word story, you know?
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LFM yells at me for reading books because they aren't "real world" and Doc hates factual numbers that represent real world data. Can't please everybody I guess.
1.3 billion doesn't really mean much to me. 520,000,000 farmers and 130,000,000 people over 15 who can't read. That hall monitor kid certainly is pretty cool, too bad he's likely to end his education in a couple years.
The "not now, but soon" argument doesn't really hold together. This is one of the oldest societies in the world, I don't see any outstanding reason for them to suddenly get it together. Militarily, they don't have many options. They survive on our trade so any aggression toward us or our allies would be crippling - to them. We're also talking about military technology and a military budget much older and much smaller than the U.S. in raw numbers and percentages.
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I know this is so cliche, but I've always liked the Chinese people. The government not so much.
a society used to doing what the government tells them
I've come to have a very pragmatic view of governments and how they relate to cultures. Yep, the Chinese have a very authoritarian, bureaucratic system of government. Just like they have for the past 5000 years. Putin is turning into the next Stalin/Tsar. The middle east continues to wallow in tribalism. And we seem to slide faster and faster into oligarchy. It may be a little facile, but sometimes it seems like thing never really change much, no matter how they appear on the surface.
Also, I don't care if Phelps drools on himself and can only say "ugh." That motherfucker is impressive. I mean the dude sets a world record and he isn't even breathing hard afterwards. Shiiiiiiit!
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LFM yells at me for reading books because they aren't "real world" and Doc hates factual numbers that represent real world data.
Hey don't start that, I'm nothing if not all about the empiricism. I was calling you out for quoting statistics with no context, you seem to be over-focusing on proportions and ignoring what those numbers actually represent in terms of raw manpower.
The fact that China rely on the western world for trade doesn't mean you should discount them, we rely on them for manufacturing. What's more likely: that they will catch up to us technologically or that we're suddenly going to sprout a working class big enough to replace them? You're talking like there's some stable equilibrium between China and the rest of the world that isn't going to change any time soon but the less isolated China becomes the faster they are going to catch up with the world technologically.
How comforting is it having them in your backyard?
It's freaking awesome! They buy all the iron and uranium we can dig up. We're going to be cutting you suckers loose soon.
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I like me some womens softball. Rising fastballs, ponytails and visors are hawt.
And on this we can all agree.
Holy God, softball players are either knock-out drop-dead gorgeous or... look like me. There's no in-between.
It's kind of amazing.
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... look like me.
I don't meant to be a douche on a guy's birthday but... AH! That's a frightening thought.
I didn't see any softball but women's hockey? Damn! The whole stick and ball thing introduces worrying imagery but for women with calves like those I'd risk it.
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My friend who's watching a lot of the Olympics keeps referring to the three man dinghy races. She's making that up, isn't she?
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I think so - although every permutation of crew number from 1-8 and oar style (row or scull) and gender does seem to be competed. Also kayaking. And sailing.
I get a backache just watching those folks.
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They will find a way to turn his lack of media savvy into a selling point. Sounds like they've already sold you.
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Did anyone else see Phelps in that last race where he won by 1/100th of a second. It was protested by the Serbian 2nd place coach and I believe rightly so. The slow-mo replay played over and over shows that the serbian really should have won, he was winning for the entire race and then somehow the sensor picked up Phelps first. Incredible, painful to watch stuff.
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Ah, the Serbian wasn't really a Serbian, he was just an American of Serbian descent and the only reason they both are allowed to swim is because we can't test for the New and Exciting Drugs they're on yet. At some point, we'll find out that neither of them speak with their actual voices but rather with the voices of people less attractive but more eloquent than they are.
The fun will be figuring out which parts are fake, that's all, that's all.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7562840.stm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7562840.stm)
Breakfast (and lunch and dinner) of champions, that is.
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It turns out that there really is one person and two person dinghy but here is the shocking part: I have somehow gone my entire life thinking that a dinghy is a rowboat and apparently it is actually a sailboat.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7562840.stm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7562840.stm)
Breakfast (and lunch and dinner) of champions, that is.
A bunch of people have tried eating his daily meals. A local news guy in DC tried breakfast and threw up less than halfway through. Some guy at the Guardian tried it too, but he ate something called "porridge" instead of grits.
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something called "porridge"
That would be oat-based grits.
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No one actually likes grits. Ive learned this. People pretend to like grits, but they don't actually "like" grits. Its all an elaborate act put on by people south of Maryland. I have yet to see someone put plain grits in their mouth and be like "yeah, this stuff is awesome".
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No one actually likes grits. Ive learned this. People pretend to like grits, but they don't actually "like" grits. Its all an elaborate act put on by people south of Maryland. I have yet to see someone put plain grits in their mouth and be like "yeah, this stuff is awesome".
I agree that grits are not good food. But your description sounds a lot like beer to me. Or any acquired taste, really.
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Grits, like escargot or baked potato, is largely a vehicle for butter.
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I am watching men's trampoline at the moment. Men's gymnastics has a stigma of "fuck*ng gay" attached to it, but those guys are frickin' RIPPED to do what they do on those things. It's not my thing, but I try not to snicker too much about it.
Trampoline, on the other hand. This is gay. Super gay.
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I respect trampoline a little more after watching a world-class trampoliner on Ninja Warrior. He was no gas station employee but he was still pretty damn good.
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But your description sounds a lot like beer to me.
MAY ALL YOUR SONS, AND THEIR SONS AFTER THEM, ON THEIR TWENTY-SIXTH BIRTHDAY, BECOME QUEEEEEEEER!
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No one actually likes grits. Ive learned this. People pretend to like grits, but they don't actually "like" grits. Its all an elaborate act put on by people south of Maryland. I have yet to see someone put plain grits in their mouth and be like "yeah, this stuff is awesome".
Pedro likes grits. Actually, actively, enjoys them. Will order them in restaurants because I do not, will not, cook them at home.
I think they're disgusting, but then, he visibly shudders when he sees me eat oatmeal, so, diff'rent strokes I guess.
Also, I have been asked to review the official video game for the Beijing Olympics, so I guess I'd better start paying attention to stuff now.
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Polenta!
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Pedro likes grits. Actually, actively, enjoys them.
You're telling me the man just eats plain grits? With nothing on them? No butter or cheese or whatever?
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He likes them with a little butter, maybe some salt, but otherwise unadorned.
But his favorite is shrimp and grits, which is the ultimate in meals I will never ask to share with him, because I'm allergic to shellgiraffe and grits make me gag.
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I think they're disgusting, but then, he visibly shudders when he sees me eat oatmeal, so, diff'rent strokes I guess.
I have only rarely had grits, but they seem perfectly normal to me.
Oatmeal, on the other hand - I eat it frequently, but if I were to stop and think about it, I might shudder too.
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I tried grits once... I won't again. The texture is all wrong in the matter of being something I want to put in my mouth.
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I just don't like corn products. Grits, cornbread, corn dogs, corn tortillas, creamed corn. All unwelcome on my table. Although I cook with cornstarch are the frickin' time.
A quick dinner of very dry instant oatmeal with farmer's market raspberry jam is the only reason I even own a kettle.
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I just don't like corn products. Grits, cornbread, corn dogs, corn tortillas, creamed corn. All unwelcome on my table. Although I cook with cornstarch are the frickin' time.
A quick dinner of very dry instant oatmeal with farmer's market raspberry jam is the only reason I even own a kettle.
I'm the same way about potato products. Baked potato, mashed potato, any other kind of potato except french fries and potato chips, I'm not interested. I would make a terrible Russian.
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MAY ALL YOUR SONS, AND THEIR SONS AFTER THEM, ON THEIR TWENTY-SIXTH BIRTHDAY, BECOME QUEEEEEEEER!
I think that only works if you're a king on his deathbed. Of course, the "deathbed" part can be arranged if thou durst continue to besmirch the good name of grits.
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I'm the same way about potato products. Baked potato, mashed potato, any other kind of potato except french fries and potato chips, I'm not interested. I would make a terrible Russian.
This. How can any of you go 'Mmmmm a great big bold of bland mealy starch!'?
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Poverty. It trained me good.
Just because I had shrimp and lobster off the grill this weekend doesn't mean I go back and besmirch the starch of life.
Poverty trained me that the extra two hot dogs after the buns are gone are for putting in the Ramen Noodles.
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Poverty has taught me I can go three days (or more? we will find out on this episode of job search: denver) without eating.
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OK, so the US softball team beat Japan twice in this year's tournament, including the semifinal game. Then the final was Japan over the US. Somebody please explain this?
Also, how the hell did the US women win the gold in soccer? Did the rest of the world forget to field teams? We're the US, we're supposed to be comically inept at soccer to the point that we don't even call it by the right name.
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Poverty has taught me I can go three days (or more? we will find out on this episode of job search: denver) without eating.
Poverty has taught me that dinner is just a social construct, a habit one can shed.
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OK, so the US softball team beat Japan twice in this year's tournament, including the semifinal game. Then the final was Japan over the US. Somebody please explain this?
Also, how the hell did the US women win the gold in soccer? Did the rest of the world forget to field teams? We're the US, we're supposed to be comically inept at soccer to the point that we don't even call it by the right name.
Not 100% sure about softball, but I think they had pool play first (in which the US beat Japan), then the top teams from pool-play went into what was basically a double-elimination tournament. So the US beat Japan in a semifinal, which sent Japan to the final of the losers' bracket, which they won.
As for soccer, we may be comically inept on the men's side, but one thing the US is REALLY good at compared to much of the rest of the world is developing female athletes. Title IX actually did what it was supposed to do in that regard.
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Plus it is legal for ladies to wear ##### in public.
This helps a lot.
During the Olympic Opening "This Isn't At All Like The Berlin Games Because We're Using Computers That They Didn't Have In 1936" Ceremonies, I loved when there was some Middle Eastern Muslim kingdom and the announcer pointed out that they had their first female athlete in the Games and... oh yeah... that's because she's the King's daughter or some such.
And I was like... yep. People. Oh man, people.
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Did you catch the Bahraini (?) runner all dolled up in a clerically approved sprint-burkha? She's made it all the way to the finals, (I think) and should get bonus time for an equipment handicap.
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I thought she was very tastefully attired. Some of the other women in that race were practically naked.
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Some of the other women in that race were practically naked.
Can't have that in the Olympics, can we?
(http://www.pbs.org/empires/thegreeks/img/background/illustrations/2b.jpg)
;)
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my favorite was the lady sprinter with makeup on.
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my favorite was the lady sprinter with makeup on.
At first I thought makeup was weird but then I decided it was understandable. Did you see some of the closeups of the gymnasts? You could practically see up their noses. I'd wear makeup too if I knew they were likely to do that.
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I sort of regretted not getting off my butt and getting my satellite system HD-ified before the Olympics. You can bet the TV-friendly gymnasts are in HD makeup. Its not for the folks in the stands.
Maybe I can get it done before football season starts in earnest.
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So there IS such a thing as men's beach volleyball... we weren't sure. But they don't play it in bathing suits! They wear shirts! WTF!
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So there IS such a thing as men's beach volleyball... we weren't sure. But they don't play it in bathing suits! They wear shirts! WTF!
Huh. I remember watching some AVP on TV back when beach volleyball was in vogue (mainly thanks to NES games) and the men rarely wore shirts. Usually just long shorts. I still remember Randy Stoklos's and Sinjin Smith's names. Although they've probably retired and become color commentators by now.
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Well I don't know if this is some newfangled development but, I was looking at all the photos on the website to see if I should bother staying up past 11 to watch, and they all had shirts on.
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It must be an Olympics thing. Because I just googled some random AVP (pro beach volleyball) pictures (90% of which were the women) but none of the men I saw had shirts on.
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yeah, they are wearing shirts.
I did love the women's USA team playing in wet white bikins last night.
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Final Medal Table (http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/INF/GL/95A/GL0000000.shtml)
Congratulations China, you are the Olympians of the week(s) with a massive 51 gold medals. Commiserations to the United States who were comprehensively outclassed despite doing extremely well, achieving a very respectable 36 gold medals and finishing with the most overall medals. The rest of the top 10 are as follows:
Russia, with 23 golds
Britain, with 19 golds
Germany, with 16 golds
Australia, with 14 golds
Korea, with 13 golds
Japan, with 9 golds
Italy, with 8 golds
France, with 7 golds.
Special mention to Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt, the former for basically having a personal medal tally better than France, and the latter for celebrating mid-way through smashing the 100m world record. In the finest Greek tradition.
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I don't know about 'outclassed'. I was watching TV and they were profiling one of the synchronized swimmers. Her coach was very shocked a few weeks ago when she asked for a few days off from training. You see, she had never asked before. When they asked her why she needed the time, she told them she hadn't seen her family in twelve years.
China is the new USSR. They consider it a national priority to collect Olympic medals and so they take the promising children away from the families and basically train them full time. The above example may have been extreme but certainly sad.
I wonder what happens to the medals. I don't know what a family from some distant, rural province in China would do with such a bauble. I tend to think the Chinese government probably keeps them in a hall dedicated to whatever their ideals are. Meanwhile the athletes toil away for the good of the nation and their families remain without them and in the same situation. Poor, in the dark, and guaranteed continued happiness by their government which goes to great lengths to control every aspect of their life and the meager information they are afforded about the rest of the world.
Yeah, they got the most Gold medals. But I don't think they outclassed, outsmarted or fooled anyone.
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I liked that Brazil got fuck-all medals at all (I don't know, one gold in ass-jiggling, one bronze in speed reading?). Maybe they'll lose interest in the whole thing come the next event... Who am I kidding, Pelé started lobbying for Brazil [Rio de Janeiro] to host the 2016 Olympics... excuse the fuck, do you have any shame at all? You're not gonna charm the ****** of the world with trained fleas, no matter how enthusiastic they look, and cute slum kids singing about how nice it is to keep your spirit while on a diet consisting of huffing glue and wet shoestrings, after China ignited a hemisphere-deafening mock-up war in the sky after building a 3rd Reich-like sports centre inside their already 3rd Reich-like capital. Well, what do I know. Maybe there'll be free blowjobs involved (you gotta work with what you have...)
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One thing from the closing ceremonies last night that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere: the mayor of London looked like a complete goober. Ill-fitting suit, didn't know how to stand when he was waiting his turn to wave the Olympic flag. Not that I'd do better, but you'd expect a guy like that to have handlers. London's "presentation" was, on the whole, embarassing--Mrs. del Vaca and I were all "get back to the crazy Chinese stuff!"
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The Mayor of London is a complete goober.
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One thing from the closing ceremonies last night that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere: the mayor of London looked like a complete goober. Ill-fitting suit, didn't know how to stand when he was waiting his turn to wave the Olympic flag. Not that I'd do better, but you'd expect a guy like that to have handlers. London's "presentation" was, on the whole, embarassing--Mrs. del Vaca and I were all "get back to the crazy Chinese stuff!"
My take on it was England showing that they're not all about poshness and shaken vodka martinis. Here's a regular shlub, lurching about and dwarfing the locals. Oh, and he's the Mayor!
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Oh, and he's the Mayor!
You can tell from the hot bloody fat on him.
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I think the London organizing committee needs to hire Chris Cunningham to do the opening and closing ceremonies for 2012.
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No one actually likes grits. Ive learned this. People pretend to like grits, but they don't actually "like" grits. Its all an elaborate act put on by people south of Maryland. I have yet to see someone put plain grits in their mouth and be like "yeah, this stuff is awesome".
For your Edification (http://www.flickr.com/photos/pmcd9/2801472185/)
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A little far afield of the Olympics, but:
I have have never lived in the south.
I loves me some grits.
With eggs, I like 'em with butter salt and pepper. I work a little egg in there from the sunny-side up eggs and they're awesome.
Alone, with sugar or brown sugar, cinnamon, maybe nutmeg.
Aug points out on the flickr thread the awesome and any meal deliciousness of cheese grits.
They really aren't very different from polenta (which is awesome too). Plus, I think we had this discussion once before although without photos from Paul.
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Plus, I think we had this discussion once before although without photos from Paul.
Then it never actually happened. Paul's photos define reality.
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If people keep bagging the mighty grit I'ma going off on tomatoes again. Nasty Stylezz, yo.
You know, you might be on to something. I'll bet grits would be good with tomatoes.
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See, that's what I want to see. A melding of delicious flavours and concepts.
[except for maybe the tomato part]
I have polenta on the shelf right now...
I hate polenta, but the SO makes some kind of baked/broiled polenta with black beans and chili powder (or southwest seasoning) that at least looks good.
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I just want to announce that I am with Ash on tomatoes being The Nasty.
There's a reason God only made one food with that texture. It makes it that much easier to avoid.
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Growing up in Ohio, I never had grits except once, at a WaHo on the road trip the family took to Florida. No, we didn't go to Disneyworld, we went to my grandma's trailer park. They told us it was Disneyworld, of course. Naturally I detested them for my whole life until...
Once at a restaurant with the now-missus, I ordered a piece of giraffe that was served with grits. It was a good restaurant, and I was looking forward to the giraffe, it may have been trout. The grits were AMAZING. They had been cooked just perfectly, with some corn and cheese added in to improve the texture. Since then I've been all about the shrimp&grits (which require barbecue sauce) and while I like grits with breakfast on occasion, I much prefer to try to reproduce that side dish. I've never quite gotten it but I've come close a couple times.
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Raw tomatoes are disgusting.
That is all.
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Tomatoes are delicious. I can eat cherry tomatoes by the punnet or just cut a big one up and eat it like an orange.
You're all terrible.
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Finally someone gets my back. Thanks Doc. Tomatoes go well with tiny cans of Dr Pepper.
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Yeah, I eat tomatoes like apples. Maybe a little salt, which would be ridiculous to put on an apple.
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yeah i'm with Doc, Paul, and Keith. Eat it like a potato: rinse, dry. bite, salt, repeat.
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Rise up my brothers! Throw off the chains of the oppressors!
yeah i'm with Doc, Paul, and Keith. Eat it like a potato: rinse, dry. bite, salt, repeat.
... wait a sec, I feel a schism coming on.
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But... all that slimey gooey seedy crap in the middle.
It just Isn't Good.
Chop it up salsa-style, it's one thing but... damn... eaten whole, you got the nice tomato meat but you gotta eat all that berry jizz with it.
And... no. That is not an acceptable answer.
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Yeah, I eat tomatoes like apples. Maybe a little salt, which would be ridiculous to put on an apple.
My dad puts salt on apple slices. I've had it. It's not bad. Like kettle corn.
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Good God, Ash. Have you been reading the Stainless Steel Rat again?
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TIRESOME
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yeah i'm with Doc, Paul, and Keith. Eat it like a potato: rinse, dry. bite, salt, repeat.
I prepare tomatoes the same way I prepare potatoes. I leave them sitting, untouched, in the store. I walk past. I may glance at them, I may not. They are merely decoration on the way to the stuff I do eat.
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What have you guys got against nightshades?
Wikipedia's calling you unamerican, by the way:
In the United States, potatoes are simply beloved: they have become one of the most widely consumed crops and thus have a variety of preparation methods and condiments.
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What's not to like about potatoes?
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What's not to like about potatoes?
Texture, mostly. Too squishy. The only potato products I eat are fries and chips, where texture is rendered moot.
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I like potatoes in certain forms. Chips and fries, good. Mashed or baked, fine (with lots of butter and absolutely no lumps). Hash browns...I'll choke them down if they're good and crispy. But under no circumstances will I eat potato salad, potatoes au gratin, or soup with big chunks of potatoes floating it.
Loaded potato skins, for some reason, are OK. I think the cheese and bacon mask the potato texture sufficiently. Plus, I load them down with sour cream.
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Can you do a potato pierogi, JL?
Please say yes so you can be my friend.
It is my secret shame that although I am very Polish I have never had Peirogi.
Gramma don't cook no more.
I have had empanada at my MIL's house, tho, and I can do that just fine.
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Potatoes are God's way of saying that being in trouble is a fake idea.
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It is my secret shame that although I am very Polish I have never had Peirogi.
OMG that is the saddest thing.
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It is my secret shame that although I am very Polish I have never had Peirogi.
Gramma don't cook no more.
I have had empanada at my MIL's house, tho, and I can do that just fine.
What, they don't have frozen Mrs. Smiths in your crazy NC supermarkets? Buy a box and boil them sumbitches up.
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I'll eat pierogi pan-fried but I actually prefer them boiled. Luckily it's also healthier this way, which is unusual.
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"healthier" being a relative term.
Potato chips fried in sunflower oil are healthier than chips fried in palm kernel oil. So go ahead and eat the whole goddamn bag!
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What, potatoes and cheddar cheese wrapped in a noodle isn't health food?
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Let me check to see if they have them in the grocery store first. But don't get your hopes up. We can't even get real keilbasa here -- all they've got is that stank-ass Hillshire Farms crap. Which Pedro's grandmother once presented to me, microwaved in a paper towel, as "Real Polish Ki-bassy!"
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Friends don't let friends buy meat in the grocery store.
GET YOU TO A MEAT STORE!
Also, if Kielbasi is a problem, seeing as how I live in an extremely Polish part of the world (still Polka Bands at parties here!) so there are actual Polish meat shops, which is the YUM plus, almost every Catholic church has old ladies making handmade pierogies for sale to raise money. Not to mention homemade pierogies at the Friday night giraffe fry during lent.
Man I'm glad I moved back just for that.
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Yeah, we smuggle kielbasa across the border when we go visit my brother in Toledo. Nothing like J&G's House of Meats for some good ol' fashioned sausage goodness.
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Yeah, we smuggle kielbasa across the border when we go visit my brother in Toledo. Nothing like J&G's House of Meats for some good ol' fashioned sausage goodness.
Man, I am ALWAYS being accused of smuggling kielbasa. I can't figure it out.
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Better that than be accused of smuggling Vienna sausage.
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OK, empanadas gets you back on the huuuuuugs list.
I occasionally yell out at Family "They're not just for Christmas!!!"
Why would Empanadas be a Christmas food??
They are yummy. But my grandma always puts weird things in them, I like really basic ones. In Chile we went to this famous empanada place where they only make cheese empanadas... they were amazing.
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hah.
I just had a moment where I thought "wait, I DO tend to eat empanadas and sopaipillas and stuff around christmastime..."
and then I realize that that is because my grandma is here at that time. OOPS!