Chicken has definitely lost its flavor as noted by Mark Bittman in a New York Times Magazine article from today titled “Why Take Food Seriously?”

So, if you care not to buy designer chicken – ha! – check out the simplest “make chicken actually taste good again” recipe ever!

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees. You can also cook on grill but I haven’t done so yet. Wash inside and outside of chicken off.

2) Open a beer and drink 1/3 of it. Pour a few tablespoons of seasoning in the can of beer. Stuff the can of beer in the chicken and stand upright. If you’re using a large whole chicken – seen below – use a wide can of beer. Heineken and Foster’s will get the job done. If you’re using a normal sized whole chicken you can use any size can of beer. Moreover, I don’t think the kind of beer matters. The seasoning does all the flavoring as the beer provides moisture.

3) Rub the chicken down with poultry seasoning. Be generous.

4) Cook in a dutch oven (the chicken will sweat/splatter all over your oven if cooked in a shallow pan) for 2 hours at 400 degrees.

5) Remove can over a sink. Be VERY CAREFUL with the removal! It’s a 2 person job – 1 to hold the chicken and 1 to pull the can out. There will be EXTREMELY hot beer in the can and the removal may require some pulling of a slippery a$$ can.

6) Carve away and enjoy! Whole chickens will feed a family for a few days.

Live blogging from row 1 (!) at the MSU/Northwestern game…

I hadn’t seen the full version until this morning.  Funniest thing since Matt Damon’s interview regarding sarah palin…

Erin, thank you.

The wheels have completely fallen off the old, old mccain bus.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/10/palin.investigation/index.html

Ouch! Which other base of his support is mccain going to offend next? As seen originally on BccList.com here, there are only three types of republicans – rich, racist, and religious.

He already offended rich republicans with his “Georgetown cocktail party” rant seen here. As seen below, he just offended the racist republicans. By the way, I love the anguish you can hear in the crowd’s boos and jeers! Up next, are there plans to somehow offend the religious republicans?

“We’re scared of an Obama presidency” and… “I’ve heard about him and – he’s not, he’s not, he’s a – he’s an Arab.”

I actually feel bad for the old lady at the end of the clip as she walks away shrugging her shoulders thinking “well, I tried.”

I would turn this into a drinking game – a shotgun beer every time this painful line gets said – but, I don’t want to visit the hospital with alcohol poisoning as this would prove embarrassing for anyone over the age of 25.

Regardless, as long as I’m not forgetting about any plans tonight, I’ll be keeping a live running tally of each time an announcer says the most obnoxious phrase ever – “Red Sox Nation” – during tonight’s Game 1 of the ALCS. My conservative guess is at least 20-30 times. This could potentially put my blood alcohol level in the “emergency room” zone.

Update: Damnit – I’m an idiot. The game is in Tampa Bay tonight. So, game 3 will be a nightmare and I’ll wait to run the tally until then. Although, I’m confident “Red Sox Nation” will be brought up at least 10 times tonight.

Everyone remembers this mccain lowlight from the debate…

“But you know, one of the real catalysts, really the match that lit this fire was Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. I’ll bet you, you may never even have heard of them before this crisis.”

Well, here’s the story from the questioner – Oliver Clark.  Great read.

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/10/09/1523335.aspx

Conor, thank you.

While I ignored the majority of mccain’s attacks during the debate – because they are lame and he is rapidly dying – I didn’t know his continuous jabs regarding the projector were completely ridiculous.

http://chicagoist.com/2008/10/08/mccain_and_the_adler_planetarium.php

“One of its most popular attractions and teaching tools at the Adler Planetarium is the Sky Theater. The projection equipment in this theater is 40 years old, and is no longer supported with parts or service by the manufacturer. It has begun to fail, leaving the theater dark and groups of school students and other interested museum-goers without this very valuable and exciting learning experience.

McCain’s phrase suggests Obama spent $3 million on an old-fashioned piece of office equipment that projects charts and text on a wall screen. In fact, the money was for an overhaul of the theater system that projects images of stars and planets for educational shows.”

Yes, outside of the best view of the Chicago skyline, the Adler Planetarium is one of the lamest Chicago attractions.   But, it receives some high foot traffic from schools in the hopes that such a visit somehow kick starts student interest in science.  That seems like a pretty important initiative.

Jason, thank you.

P.S.  As the link above highlights, the project was never funded.  Way to go mccain – you senile bastard.

As seen on “Crappy Graphs!”…

Amy, thank you.

The Fed – less than 30 minutes ago – cut the interest rate. Of course, I highly disagree with a rate cut since $5.00 a gallon gas, $4.50 a gallon milk, and $3.50 for a loaf of bread doesn’t excite me.  But, the Fed’s previous incompetency have resulted in a no win situation.

This interest rate cut along with the bailout means there will be too many US Dollars in the market at too cheap of a price. Translated: the cost of goods will skyrocket as Americans make their same non adjusted for inflation pay. Please see the following “definition” of inflation. I’m begging you to do so.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation

Bla, bla, bla – here’s the important part of this posting…

We originally made REALLY GOOD money shorting crude oil futures here. Currently, you should be in another short position around the $95-$100 a barrel range as mentioned here. Get out of this trade IMMEDIATELY since all commodities – in a “normal” trading market – should immediately spike in price after a Fed interest rate cut.

Hey, we’re not to the $80 a barrel target price I predicted but you’ll be making a pretty good profit by buying back at the current price of $89 a barrel. DO NOT WAIT TO GET OUT OF A SHORT/SELL POSITION ON ANY COMMODITY – THE SKY IS NOW THE LIMIT ON THESE PRICES.

P.S.  I’ll call it now – within the next few days Iran will do something stupid so the analysts can blame a spike in oil futures price on instability in the middle east.  Or, maybe OPEC will conveniently cut production.

As was debate #1, tonight’s debate was lame as hell. Seriously, these guys are politicians. A requirement of this job title is knowing how to debate. While Obama seemingly “won” – backed up by the CNN uncommitted Ohio Voters meter – these guys suck ass.

Here’s what we got so far – best to worst debate performances during the general election…

1) Biden
2) Obama #1
3) Obama #2
4) mccain #2
5) mccain #1
6) palin

P.S. Each of the 3 moderators so far have been fcking brutal – but, Tom Brokaw has easily been the worst. Why can’t Tim Russert still be alive? He’d moderate a fcking debate like it’s supposed to be moderated and at least make things somewhat interesting even with this sorry cast.

Coffee is about the last thing I’m too civilized for. Ladies and gentlemen, the worst ad of the day award goes to Todd & Holland Tea Merchants…

Charles and I definitely believe anything else would be uncivilized…

P.S.  Wow – is this what I’ve become now that the general election has wrapped up?  I guess I’ll have to learn to live again…