Robert G. Anstey's Blog
4:41 pm Jun 18th 2010 UTC
NHL Money Blues
The NHL has been ruined by money. No longer is talent the issue. Teams get what they can afford to pay. A GM can’t just look at talented players now; he has to look at his salary cap first to see if he can afford the talent he wants. If he can’t afford it, he has to let the talent go. No wonder it’s such a watered-down league and why NHL hockey is so boring to watch. It’s also why there is no loyalty in players anymore. Gone are the days when a player would play his whole career with one team. That’s because if he shows his talent, someone from another team will soon offer him more money and he’ll go. Money has ruined the league and the game.
8:33 pm Jun 14th 2010 UTC
Retirement Blues
Nowadays there’s a lot of talk about social security funds that will not be available for seniors. The fear is that the government will run out of money. Well, many senior citizens are now living below the poverty line so something has to be done. The solution to me is to simply take it away from those who don’t need it and give it to those who do. It’s the Robin Hood syndrome. Many seniors have very good retirement plans and pensions from other sources. Doctors, lawyers and others who have made an above average living during their working life and then retire with a hefty income should not be eligible for social security. This only seems logical to me. Anyone making over a certain amount of money shouldn’t be eligible. This would free up millions of dollars for those who are truly in need. Problem solved! (Why don't they ask my advice on these things?)
5:17 pm Jun 11th 2010 UTC
Bob’s Baby Carrots in Ginger Garlic Sauce
A while ago I picked up a bag of those peeled baby carrots in the store because they were on sale and cheap. Normally I would buy regular carrots and peel and chop them myself but this looked like a pretty good deal so I went for it. I then came up with an idea for a sauce to drown them in and it worked out very well.
I bag peeled baby carrots
2 tbsp olive oil
1” chopped or minced fresh ginger
ginger powder
3 cloves minced garlic
1/8 cup water
1/4 cup orange juice
2 tbsp soy sauce
drizzle honey
black pepper
1/2 tsp corn starch
dried or fresh parsley
2 tbsp Thai red pepper sauce (optional)
Steam the baby carrots for a few minutes until they reach the desired tenderness and set them aside.
Lightly saute’ the garlic and ginger in the olive oil for a few minutes and then add the other ingredients (except the corn starch.) Bring to a boil and then decrease the heat and simmer for a few minutes. Add the corn starch (mix it in a little bowl with a little water and pour it in) and stir to thicken. Pour the sauce over the carrots and stir it in well.
As I said above, you could easily use regular carrots instead of the peeled baby ones and that would probably even be better. You could also add any other ingredients you want to. Everything is optional.
8:54 pm May 28th 2010 UTC
Understanding Bob
To say that I don’t understand Bob Dylan is an understatment but that isn’t anything new to a lot of us. Dylan has changed so much over the years with his appearance, his musical sound, his voice, his image, etc. that no one can keep up with him. Maybe he wants it that way. I was a big Dylan fan in the 60’s. Like a lot of kids at that time I had all his records and listened to them all the time. I, like a lot of other musicians, was influenced by him to the point where it was hard to separate his sound from my own flegling attempts at music, singing and songwriting. Along the way I lost touch with him and his music but every once in a while I’d hear something and take a renewed interest in him. There were always those flashes of genius and those great songs that came out of nowhere and you knew that Bob was still out there doing it.
By the late 90’s I got sort of bitten again and started to listen to all his stuff with a fresh heart and new ears. But I found a disturbing trend in his newer music and that was a constant repetition and a falling back on simple blues themes. The music was mostly blues (which I knew from a musical perspective didn’t take any originality or creativity at all because you were simply playing what musicians call a “one, four, five” chord progression over and over. So musically he wasn’t doing anything that would knock down the doors and lyrically I didn’t hear anything that made any sense. Now I know that the lyrics to Subterranean Homesick Blues or Obviously 5 Believers don’t mean anything either but over the years I had hoped that he had progressed beyond simple poetic rhymes to a level of writing something meaningful that we could get our teeth into.
And then there was the voice. Dylan’s voice was never what you’d call a good voice. Nothing like, say Paul McCartney or James Taylor but it was effective and it worked for what he did. But in more recent years his voice has deepened to a gutteral growl that almost defies any melody at all. (I’m not sure which is better; singing out of tune or singing in a dull monotone.) The problem is that every song comes out sounding pretty much the same with the same blues progressions in each song and the same gravelly monotone that makes you wonder which song he’s actually singing. It soon grows tiresome and it’s something that I don’t understand. How come all these new musicians out there can write strong new songs that really say something both lyrically and musically and he can’t? Is he just too old? Is he no longer able to write a good song? Well, if that’s so then let him be and stop writing about him like he’s still a creative giant and a musical genius, etc. And stop buying his records like they were the Next Big Thing. And what’s with that keyboard? (Is that thing really plugged in?) I’m not even going to mention the Christmas album and the constant flogging of signed Dylan artifacts like harmonicas, etc. And I don’t want to talk about his drawings and his paintings. Is this all just a money grab or what? (He can’t need the money.)
No, I don’t understand this new Dylan. I just can’t keep up with him. I don’t know Bob anymore and I just don’t know what he’s doing. Maybe after all these years he’s finally been reading his own ink and it has gone to his head. I wonder if even he knows what he’s doing these days.
5:06 pm May 22nd 2010 UTC
Curried Chick Peas
This isn’t really a recipe; it’s really more of an idea. I wanted to eat chick peas because beans and legumes are good for you and a great source of protein and fibre. So I just thought of ways to flavour them and this was the first thing I thought of.
I can chick peas
1 tbsp curry paste
1/4 cup hot water
Rinse and drain the chick peas. Mix the curry paste into the hot water until it’s well blended and stir it into the chick peas. Heat and serve. That’s it.
I tried this idea out the other day and I was very pleased with it. Coupled with all the other things that I eat like steamed vegetables, rice dishes, etc., this worked very well as sort of a side dish.
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