Sick of eating weird cookies that taste of dirt? Need cannabis for pain relief? Then check out Cannabis Catering, a San Francisco-based outfit that specializes in marijuana cuisine. The brainchild of Chef Frederick Nesbitt, a California Culinary Academy-trained chef who has worked as personal chef for Jerry Rice and John Madden, Cannabis Catering offers four and five-course meals laced with ganja.
The idea for Cannabis Catering came to Nesbitt when he learned that his friend’s diabetic mother had been diagnosed with cancer. “I would bring back edibles [from the dispensary], but they’re so high in high-fructose corn syrup that she was high off sugar rather than being medicated,” he says. So Nesbitt began experimenting with his own pot food–starting with mashed potatoes. Now Nesbitt cooks an array of cannabis-laced delectables. A sample menu might include salad, lobster bisque, whiskey tri-tip with a demi-glazed sauce (containing marijuana tincture or ground-up hashish), and an infused Belgian chocolate fountain
It costs about $100 a head and is only available in San Francisco if you have proper documentation (read: a medical marijuana card). Read more here.
by admin on September 7, 2010
When I retire completely I want to move somewhere with a lower living cost and nicer weather. A while back I spent some time in West Texas and fell in love with the small towns around Big Bend National Park. So now I often look at real estate listings to dream on. This house is offered by West Texas Realty and was built approximately 1898. Originally this adobe home was the home of a French family though now it is used as a B & B, it could be converted back to a residence. The main building has 3 main bedrooms, 3 upstairs, each with a private bath. There is a large sitting area that opens out onto a large covered balcony. This balcony was added later on by the present owners. There is a family suite downstairs with a shared bathroom. Outside is an additional room with private shower. Outside there is a private courtyard with an eight-person hot tub, barbeque area & a great place just to relax with a good book. The courtyard enclosure is made from the doors of an old Irish prison. It is on for only £165,000, which seems a hell of a bargain to me!
by admin on September 7, 2010
There is an awesome Johnson City Press article about two Washington County Sheriff’s deputies caught drinking and having sex at a U.S. Forest campground. They are now off the county’s payroll. The event that led to the firings happened on a Friday night when the deputies were off duty. The U.S. Forest Service office and a Carter County deputy, working off-duty with the forest service at the time, came upon the two deputies together with a third person at a local campground. According to the federal citations charging the three:
The forest ranger saw the three at a camp site drinking alcohol in the open and then engaging in sex.
No one has been able to say how long the U.S. Forest Service Officers stood watching the trio, but in one officer’s report he wrote:
He saw Dennison and Adkins engage in three sex acts and then Adkins and Walsh began to fondle Dennison.
The three were charged with possessing alcohol in a prohibited area, public nudity and public intoxication. One of the three had an additional charge of child endangerment because his 2-year-old son was asleep in a tent at the campsite… Classy!
by admin on September 5, 2010
In a tragic report from my old home state of Louisiana I read of the death by drowning of six black teenagers:
When 15-year-old DeKendrix Warner accidentally stepped into deeper water while wading in the Red River in Shreveport, he panicked. JaTavious Warner, 17, Takeitha Warner, 13, JaMarcus Warner, 14, Litrelle Stewart, 18, Latevin Stewart, 15, and LaDarius Stewart, 17, rushed to help him and each other. None of them could swim. All six drowned. DeKendrix was rescued by a passer-by.
There were adults with them, none of whom could swim either. The report goes on to say that 70% of US blacks cannot swim almost twice the rate for whites.
Why can they not swim and why do they have such ridiculous names?
by admin on September 3, 2010
by admin on September 3, 2010
I have written about these two before but had to write again after listening to Tim Harford. Harford is the Financial Times’ Undercover Economist, and has looked at the furor over the Spirit Level’s statistical analysis. The original book, The Spirit Level – US link
/ UK link
, purported to explain that almost everything – from life expectancy to depression levels, violence to illiteracy – is affected not by how wealthy a society is, but how equal it is – That societies with a bigger gap between rich and poor are bad for everyone in them – including the well-off. There have been numerous methodological complaints about the books premises and evidence best expressed in The Spirit Level Delusion – US link
/ UK link
.
Harford starts out by asking why some countries were excluded from the original book that disagreed with the evidence and the interviewee, Kate Pickett, has few answers – claiming “inadvertent errors” for example! Also he complains about the lack of multivariate analysis and the fact that the entire book, The Spirit Level – US link/ UK link, is based on bivariate analysis without controlling for other variables. Harford also complains about the lack of data in the book. To this the writer claims nobody would understand them if they did. Harford audibly scoffs! Finally Harford makes the point that correlation is not causation and there may be many other explanations. The writer has little answer to his questions and I feel Harford has thoroughly fisked The Spirit Level – US link/ UK link as to its value, especially as a policy tool. The end of the interview is so full of wool it is funny! And Kate Pickett is caught lying. You almost feel sorry for her… But not quite!
by admin on August 30, 2010
The Smoking Gun reports on a rather astounding Cincinnati woman who was caught simultaneously masturbating with a sex toy and watching a pornographic video while driving last week. According to police reports Colondra Hamilton, 36, was pulled over last Tuesday evening in a traffic stop which is when the police officers noticed that Hamilton’s pants were unbuttoned. And she had a vibrator in her lap. Questioned by cops, Hamilton admitted:
Engaging in auto erotic manipulation, and revealed that she had also been watching a porno movie that was playing on the laptop of a friend in the passenger seat.
And why was she doing all this? The answer may be found in the fact that she was also charged with possession of drug paraphernalia since cops found a “broken piece of crack pipe” in her purse. That is a girl who knows how to have fun!
by admin on August 30, 2010
There is fascinating post up on Inspiration and Chai written by Bronnie who for many years worked in palliative care. The writer worked those who had gone home to die, spending the last three to twelve weeks of their lives. When the dying were questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently common themes surfaced again and again. Here are the most common five:
- I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
- I wish I didn’t work so hard – apparently especially true of the men but s not a worry I have!
- I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings – don’t carry resentments.
- I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends – something I am very poor at doing.
- I wish that I had let myself be happier.
Bronnie concludes that life is a choice. It is YOUR life. Choose consciously, choose wisely, choose honestly. Choose happiness.
by admin on August 30, 2010
I am reading Out Of America – US link
/UK link
at the moment. I first heard of this book when it was first released back in the nineties but was unable to buy it as I was living in Central Africa. Then I forgot about it and just remembered it a few weeks ago. What a great and brave book it is.
In Out Of America – US link/UK link, Keith Richburg takes the reader on his extraordinary journey that sweeps from Somalia to Rwanda to Zaire (now now as Congo) and finally to South Africa. He shows how he came to terms with the divide within himself: between his African racial heritage and his American cultural identity. Richburg was an experienced and respected reporter who had paid his dues covering urban neighborhoods in Washington D.C., and won praise for his coverage of South-east Asia. But nothing prepared him for the personal odyssey that he would embark upon when he was assigned to cover Africa. In the book he shows how he came to terms with the divide within himself: between his African racial heritage and his American cultural identity. Are these really my people? Am I truly an African-American? The answer, Richburg finds, after much soul-searching, is that no, he is not an African, but an American first and foremost. To those who romanticize Mother Africa as a black Valhalla, where blacks can walk with dignity and pride, he regrets that this is not the reality. He has been there and witnessed the killings, the repression, the false promises, and the horror. He concludes following his horrific experiences:
Thank God my nameless ancestor, brought across the ocean in chains and leg irons, made it out alive, he concludes. Thank God I am an American.
The conclusion is even more moving because of Richburg’s experiences of American University education during the Seventies – the height of the ”Black Studies” experiment. And especially so given the rise of Obama who came up through that, almost, separatist ethos.
by admin on August 30, 2010
Tyler Cowen has a great piece up about the art and practice of diplomacy. With this great quote:
” Diplomacy is the art of saying “Nice Doggie” until you can find a stick”
He goes on to discuss how diplomats either enjoy serving their country or they enjoy the ego rents of being a diplomat or both. It is a false feeling of power, borrowed power from one’s country of origin rather than from one’s personal achievements. For the spouse the required phoniness is even worse. The whole thing is worth a read.
by admin on August 28, 2010