The Random Crap Thread 2: It Hits the Fan.
- Thread starter North_Ranger
- Start date
I've taken to collecting cookbooks again. Not because I need to learn to cook, or because I'm going to go through and cook most of the recipes in the books, necessarily, but more for a sense of connection to the people who contributed to the books. Specifically, I'm going through and collecting all of the little community/church/fraternal order cookbooks that seem to have come out by way of "Fund Craft Publishing" in KS, concentrating on communities local to me (but I'll take anything). Last weekend was the Coquille Kiwanis city wide garage sale, which is one of the best sources for books like these. So far I've struck gold with a couple of books from the Coquille Library Foundation. one from the Oregon 4-H Prizewinning Recipes from 1977, and the other from Dixie Mt. Grange near Banks, OR; and then there was the cookbook for the good residents of Lower Cape Fear, NC. This is the most racist cookbook I've ever read.
It's like they couldn't help but be as racist as possible. A bunch of the recipes are named "Mrs. Coon's this" or "Mr. Coon's that" and those recipes are always written in terribly broken English with tons of misspellings. There are two "poets' voices" used to introduce each section, and about 2/3 of those are written in the most stereotypical southern black accent imaginable. And it's not like they even tried to hide it, either. Every section that has food you would consider to be the fare of the more affluent families is introduced in perfect, flowing, unbroken English, as though it were written by a British playwright - but, you know, a silly one, because they're about wine and bread and stuff. Every section introduced by the stereotyped voice is full of meal stretchers, meat stretchers, casseroles, stews - you know, poor people food. You can tell that some effort has even been put into rationalizing how a meat-heavy dish that also has roasted veggies cooked at the same time is a casserole, so most of the chuck roasts and whatever else us poor people can afford is a casserole, but a prime rib roast or a crown roast of pork or lamb is a meat dish. It was really obvious when you got to the seafood section - tons and tons of recipes for shrimp with creole sauce interspersed with recipes for caviar on toast - but then you get to the casserole section and it's also full of recipes for shrimp with creole sauce, only they're labelled "shrimp n' grits," and every one of them calls for exactly the same ingredients as the "shrimp with creole sauce," except they say to serve it over grits instead of pasta like in the "seafood" section. I suppose I should just be glad that this was the fourth revised printing and not the first release. Something tells me this book was probably even more racist in 1955 than it was in 1976 when they printed my revised copy.
It's like they couldn't help but be as racist as possible. A bunch of the recipes are named "Mrs. Coon's this" or "Mr. Coon's that" and those recipes are always written in terribly broken English with tons of misspellings. There are two "poets' voices" used to introduce each section, and about 2/3 of those are written in the most stereotypical southern black accent imaginable. And it's not like they even tried to hide it, either. Every section that has food you would consider to be the fare of the more affluent families is introduced in perfect, flowing, unbroken English, as though it were written by a British playwright - but, you know, a silly one, because they're about wine and bread and stuff. Every section introduced by the stereotyped voice is full of meal stretchers, meat stretchers, casseroles, stews - you know, poor people food. You can tell that some effort has even been put into rationalizing how a meat-heavy dish that also has roasted veggies cooked at the same time is a casserole, so most of the chuck roasts and whatever else us poor people can afford is a casserole, but a prime rib roast or a crown roast of pork or lamb is a meat dish. It was really obvious when you got to the seafood section - tons and tons of recipes for shrimp with creole sauce interspersed with recipes for caviar on toast - but then you get to the casserole section and it's also full of recipes for shrimp with creole sauce, only they're labelled "shrimp n' grits," and every one of them calls for exactly the same ingredients as the "shrimp with creole sauce," except they say to serve it over grits instead of pasta like in the "seafood" section. I suppose I should just be glad that this was the fourth revised printing and not the first release. Something tells me this book was probably even more racist in 1955 than it was in 1976 when they printed my revised copy.
Dave
Staff member
Had a comedy gig this weekend and it went amazingly, but there are a few things about it that really stand out.
First, we did this same event last year and in the time in between, a casino was built in the town a couple blocks away from where we were performing. That night the casino had an event as well that had people being called up every 15 minutes to get into the "money hurricane" and the chance to grab as much cash as they could. So the comedy event that was SO high energy last year was like a ghost town. Maybe 50 people showed up.
Second, we had 4 comedians. Last year we brought 6 and we each did 15 minutes. That's 1.5 hours of comedy, which is actually a lot. We signed up to do the same time frame but this year we only took 4 people so we could do more time. We get there and the flyer they'd put up says "8 - 11". Uh....no. We did 2 hours, but doing that extra hour would have pretty much doubled our fee so they didn't want to do it.
Third, Since we stopped at a little after 10, we completely screwed up their plans. They had a charity breakfast going on at 11, but that last hour was just empty space. They played some music but it was awkward. They finally opened the breakfast bar early because people were leaving. I felt bad but this was their bad planning, not our fault.
Last, Randy went on first and did okay. Nothing to write home about, but it wasn't terrible. I went second and absolutely tore the place up. It was one of the best sets I've had in a long time. Then Eric went.
Eric is a very, VERY funny guy. But he was with me last year so he didn't want to do the same act he did then so he wrote all new stuff. He did at LEAST 10 minutes on Trump. In rural Nebraska. To say it didn't go over well would be a severe understatement. He started the set making fun of himself and the crowd was loving it, then he hit the Trump stuff and you could just feel the room deflate. He tried to get them back at the end with some of his older stuff but by then he'd lost them and they weren't coming back for him.
Our closer, Steph, came on & killed it, but even her set seemed a little subdued after Eric alienated the crowd. It was very bad.
I got home about 2 am and then had to sleep in the chair because the dog had woken up my wife. I let her close the bedroom door so the annoying pooch would leave her alone. Sunday I did almost nothing but lay around. I didn't even play that many games and what I did play I turned off because I just wasn't into it.
Who does anti-Trump material in rural Nebraska?!? I mean, read a room, dude!
First, we did this same event last year and in the time in between, a casino was built in the town a couple blocks away from where we were performing. That night the casino had an event as well that had people being called up every 15 minutes to get into the "money hurricane" and the chance to grab as much cash as they could. So the comedy event that was SO high energy last year was like a ghost town. Maybe 50 people showed up.
Second, we had 4 comedians. Last year we brought 6 and we each did 15 minutes. That's 1.5 hours of comedy, which is actually a lot. We signed up to do the same time frame but this year we only took 4 people so we could do more time. We get there and the flyer they'd put up says "8 - 11". Uh....no. We did 2 hours, but doing that extra hour would have pretty much doubled our fee so they didn't want to do it.
Third, Since we stopped at a little after 10, we completely screwed up their plans. They had a charity breakfast going on at 11, but that last hour was just empty space. They played some music but it was awkward. They finally opened the breakfast bar early because people were leaving. I felt bad but this was their bad planning, not our fault.
Last, Randy went on first and did okay. Nothing to write home about, but it wasn't terrible. I went second and absolutely tore the place up. It was one of the best sets I've had in a long time. Then Eric went.
Eric is a very, VERY funny guy. But he was with me last year so he didn't want to do the same act he did then so he wrote all new stuff. He did at LEAST 10 minutes on Trump. In rural Nebraska. To say it didn't go over well would be a severe understatement. He started the set making fun of himself and the crowd was loving it, then he hit the Trump stuff and you could just feel the room deflate. He tried to get them back at the end with some of his older stuff but by then he'd lost them and they weren't coming back for him.
Our closer, Steph, came on & killed it, but even her set seemed a little subdued after Eric alienated the crowd. It was very bad.
I got home about 2 am and then had to sleep in the chair because the dog had woken up my wife. I let her close the bedroom door so the annoying pooch would leave her alone. Sunday I did almost nothing but lay around. I didn't even play that many games and what I did play I turned off because I just wasn't into it.
Who does anti-Trump material in rural Nebraska?!? I mean, read a room, dude!
A
Anonymous
Anonymous
It’s nearly the end of the day and my boss isn’t back from her extended leave, nor does anyone know where she is.
A
Anonymous
Anonymous
She’s back, she just came in incredibly late and is hiding I guess.
Dave
Staff member
Talking about "puppers", "doggos", etc. So I voiced my disdain about the term "fur babies" because it's a fucking stupid term. Doesn't matter how much you love them or how cute they are, pets are not kids.
Dave
Staff member
Yeah, I told you I wasn't being nice. But it was in /r/meme so it's kind of a troll sub to begin with. As I said, I'm amused.
I love r/aww, but damn that baby talk can curl up and die.
Old man yells at kids.
Baby goats are kids.
Dave
Staff member
Had we been in /r/aww I would not have responded. It was a meme post about hating on names we give our pets. What amuses me is that people agree with the initial assessment but when "fur babies" is the target - regardless of how tactlessly or boorish I was being - they flipped instantly.
Isn't it ironic? Don't you think?
It is kind of crazy to me that most of you are still rocking the same avatars as when I left, and that was like 5 years ago.
Edit: 3. It was 3 yrs ago.
Edit: 3. It was 3 yrs ago.
Dave
Staff member
Some things never change. Except Gas. He's changed a lot.
GasBandit
Staff member
I'm 70% the man I used to be.
Same.
Dave
Staff member
I don't know how to react to this. I want to mark it funny, but if you weren't TRYING to be funny it'd come across very churlish at best.
No matter how much I might change, I’m still always me.
Is there ~half a shadow hanging over you?
—Patrick
Last edited:
I was being funny
.But hey, the other day Gas noted a billionaire's income with possibly negative connotations.
figmentPez
Staff member
Want to see Reddit flipping it's shit over something stupid? Check out the reaction on /r/GrilledCheese any time a post with a sandwich that has an ingredient other than bread, cheese, & butter becomes popular. "WHAT? You can't put bacon on grilled cheese! That makes it a melt! It's not grilled cheese!"
I tend to take any downvotes I get on Reddit as a sign I did something right.
At least I'm not still using this antique:
GasBandit
Staff member
That's an explicit reference to this thread. It's become a meme over there.
Jeez how old is that? I've been around since the Image boards and I don't remember that one.
That's the gas I remember.
figmentPez
Staff member
I'm not sure I ever used it on Halforums. It's from my Geocities website back in the early 2000s, "Silence is Fool's Gold". Here's an even older version from back in the 90s:
figmentPez
Staff member
It'd be a meme if they referenced it and still gave an upvote anyway. They've reached the point of downvoting most "melts" for not meeting that definition of grilled cheese. They've gone from "meme" to "pathetic".
... why is there an /r/grilledcheese to start with, and why would anyone post anything there?
Dave
Staff member
Because it's funny?
figmentPez
Staff member
Because people like photos of food, and recipes for new ways to make food. If it weren't for the stupid anti-"melt" stance, it would be a much more creative sub.
Hey, man. No matter how creative it is, even if you toast it, a sub still isn’t a true grilled cheese.
—Patrick
We've established you're a poor judge of that
Dave
Staff member
The crowd Saturday night would beg to differ, dick.We've established you're a poor judge of that
:-D