Buffalo Night At Jenny Wiley State Park, January 25, 2025

Yesterday, January 25, 2025, my wife Candice and I went to Buffalo Night at Jenny Wiley State Park. Historically, these events have always been held in the lodge dining room. In fact, we had the Thanksgiving Dinner there this past November. When we arrived at the park, we found that the event was being held in the convention center near the now abandoned amphitheater. I had been in that facility once or twice before including once, not long before the long running Jenny Wiley Summer Music Theater had been abandoned along with the amphitheater. At that event, we had gone to see the Jimmy Dean written musical "Big River". It got rained out and instead of offering rain checks the theater gave the performance in the convention center which had been a total bust. There is actually a large commercial kitchen in the convention center. But the room where this Buffalo Night was held is simply a large, windowless convention room set up with tables, all of which are designed for eight people doing work sessions in which they must face each other. That was a bit of surprise to be seated at a table for eight when, at brief times, the dining room door was left open and others, waiting to be seated for as much as half an hour, were able to look through the door and see two people seated at a table for eight. A windowless room is never a good site for anything other than a jail. Despite some bad weather in the last three weeks, the turnout was predictably large and the place was reasonably well staffed. But for these events, all of the state parks seem to schedule employees in the park system who have nothing to do with food service to work on event night and many of them have no experience in the areas in which they are working. We spoke to one woman who said she was working as a housekeeper in the lodge. We were seated at that large table conveniently in the front row near the buffet line which makes it a lot easier on Candice if she serves herself, or if I serve her and make two trips to the buffet for each of us to get a plate. The room was probably 40 feet wide and buffet was set up with the salad bar against one wall, the dessert table across the opposite wall forty feet away, and the main buffet line across the end wall at least fifteen or twenty feet away from the other two sections of the buffet. Thankfully, we had a young male waiter serving our drinks, napkins, etc. who was excellent, highly attentive, and robustly working the room all the time we were there. Ethan was a blessing in the middle of much that wasn't in other areas. In general, all of the staff, despite their sometimes being forced to work well outside their expertixe, are friendly, congenial, and nice. But it would be far better if other food service staff could be shifted from within the state park system for these high volume special events. The buffalo was served three ways, roasted and sliced on the line, presliced and cooked in deep hotel pans in boiling water, and as meat loaf. The roast was excellent and the female employee who served it was gracious, friendly, attentive, and experienced. The meat loaf was excellent, self service on the line, and made in the Eastern Kentucky style with catsup on top. The presliced and boiled was unappetizing looking and I niether of us even tried it. The vegetables were short sections of corn on the cob (over cooked but tasty); good, well made scalloped potatoes; green beans;greens with ham hocks sliced in them; and, there was also buffalo chili and fried catfish which Jenny Wiley usally serves as an alternative to the main meats at any special dinner. There were only two deserts, banana pudding in which I never saw a banana, and a berry cobbler. I happened to reach the dessert table after a cobbler had been demolished and left with only a thin skim of berries in the hotel pan. But I had manfully picked up one of their overly small, plastic (I assume disposable but maybe not) dessert dishes and was ready to settle for berries only (they appeared to have been mixed berries.) when a servers stepped up beside me and said, "I'm getting ready to set another cobbler down, would you like to wait." I had the pleasure of taking the first piece of that cobbler out of the pan to my table. I enjoyed some parts of the meal and the trip, was very appreciative of the waiter Ethan, and won't totally slam the event. But it did have some things lacking and could definitely be improved on before the next event. It is usually done far better at Natural Bridge State Park in Slade, Kentucky, where we also go regularly. Yes, I will probably be at the next special event dinner at Jenny Wiley, but I must insist that it be held in the lodge dining room.

"Yesterday's Treasures Today's Memories" Cookbook by McDowell-Minnie Area Senior Citizens 1998

I regulary say here in blog posts, for one reason or another, that I regularly go to low end resale stores, junk stores, such as Goodwill, Salvation Army Stores, and little local places which do the same thing to browse for and buy used books. I happened to be in Prestonsburg, Kentucky, yesterday, January 25, 2025, for Buffalo Night at Jenny Wiley State Park, and went inside the Goodwill store there where I came away with three or four interesting used books including a hardback copy of "Ulysses" by James Joyce. But the real treasure of that trip was a little fundraising type cookbook called "Yesterday's Memories Today's Treasures" by the McDowell-Minnie Senior Citizens which had been published in 1998. It is small compared to many of those types of cookbooks but I really like them especially if they are from the Central and Southern Appalachia Region. This one is centered in two old coal camp communities on Left Beaver Creek in Floyd County Kentucky located between Martin and Wheelwright. I grew up across the ridge on Right Beaver Creek in Knott County, and have known these communities ever since I was big enough to remember. I grew up about 3-5 miles away from them as the crow would fly directly over the ridge, but probably 10 or 15 miles if you actually drove a car. But I have to say I don't recognize any of the names of the contributors to this particular cookbook. It is small for such fundraising cookbooks, just over a hundred pages, and several of those pages, perhaps a dozen of those pages are just the typical filler material which the publishing companies always add to such books, things like lists of measurements, weights, temperature guides, and advertising for the company. But this little cookbook is loaded with recipes which are worth remembering and trying. Some of them I had never seen. Some I have cherished since I was a little boy watching my mother cook at home. There are recipes for both Pickled Beans and Pickled Corn which rarely show up in any cookbook. But when I was growing up, many people around that area still made both Pickled Beans and Pickled Corn in five gallon crocks and ate them all winter. This book lists both recipes in the "Appetizers, Relishes, and Pickles" section, but in my childhood both were seen as staples for winter survival and eaten fried just a bit as a regular vegetable. I can't automatically recall another cookbook I know which has those recipes in it. Most people think of making good white milk gravy only with regular or "sweet" milk. This book contains a recipe for "Buttermilk Gaavy" which I don't recall ever seeing my mother make. But we always had "sweet milk" because we always owned a cow. Amazingly for the time about thirty years ago, it has a recipe for what it calls "Frog's Eye Salad" with the possessive spelling instead of the normal singular which I had always known. This salad is a relatively modern addition to foods in that area and I grew familiar with it probably twenty to twenty-five years ago in my extended family. It contains sugar, flour, fruit, and spezzielo pasta. The book could have a misspelling of the name but the pasta in question is small, round, bits of pasta which gave the salad its name "Frog Eye Salad" due to the size being about the same as a frog's eye. When made well, it is a delicious dessert and often seen in the area at family gatherings and church events. There is also a recipe for "Seven Layer Salad" which I have always loved and a former roommate of my Eve Downey used to make it to perfection. There is a recipe for "Fried Dry Land Fish Mushrooms" or morelles. But Dry Land Fish has always been the local colloquial name for morelles in Knott and Floyd counties. There are recipes for Fried Rabbit and Fried Squirrel. I love both squirrel and rabbit but not fried although that has always been the most common way to cook them in the area. I make a joke sometimes that in that area you can mention strawberry pie and somebody will yell out "I like mine fried.". There are recipes for Turnips, Pinto Beans, Cushaw, Squash, Hominy, and a couple for Poke, both boiled and fried in stalk form. All those vegetables are becoming less and less common in most people's everyday cooking. There is also a recipe for "Pinto Bean Pie" which I only recently discovered at Jenny Wiley State Park doing a special event dinner. But it was obviously being made on Left Beaver in thos coal camps at least thirty years ago. The book also contains a great, classic recipe for "Corn Bread" to my great delight, not becasue I don't know how to make it but because most others don't. This recipe contains five ingredients, the correct five: meal, flour, baking soda, buttermilk,and water. And, as it should be, sugar is nowhere to be seen. If you wnat to bake a cake, bake a cake, but don't add sugar to it and try to call it cornbread. This is wonderful treasure of a little Eastern Kentucky cookbook. But the odds that you can ever locate a copy for yourself are mighty slim. It was most likely published thirty years ago in 1998 in an edition of about 500 to 1,000 copies and most of those are probably either treasured in the now deceased contributors extended families or lost forever. I am truly glad I located this one by accident, or intention, simply by walking into a Goodwill Store at the right time. I hope you can find one.

The Minimization, Normalization, and Endorsement Of TREASON!

On Janaury 20, 2025, TRAITOR Trump signed a blanket pardon form for somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,600 individuals who had all been charged in the worst insurrection ever perpetrated against the government of the United States since the Civil War. Not only was it the worst insurrection of modern history against the USA, it was perpetrated by the very TRAITOR who was pardoning those other TRAITORS, Insurrectionists, and enemies of the legally constituted government of the United States. The text of that pardon statement only names 14 of the TRAITORS but attempts to also provide "a full, complete and unconditional pardon to all other individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021". The language in that pardon statement is highly suspect from a legal standpoint. It attempts to provide that "full, complete and unconditional pardon" to some uncounted number of unknown and unnamed criminals whose crimes are not even known and can have been perpetrated at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021". The geographic area is not remotely delineated and could even be construed to cover the crimes of the still unknown TRAITOR who placed two bombs near the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican parties. I sincerely doubt that this "pardon" document would be held to be legal if reviewed by an unbiased court of law. Would the horribly dangerous Right Wing Radical Repugnican majority on the US Supreme Court uphold that document? I honestly don't know the answer to that question. But you can bet your ass that some prosecutor in the general area at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021" should file an appeal and take the case all the way to the US Supreme Court to find out what they would do. But with the US Department of Justice now being in the control of TRAITOR Trump and whatever nominee for US Attorney General he can manage to get approved by the US Senate, you can bet that no appeal of the order will come from any US Attorney under that jurisdiction. But it is my impression that the City Attorney For The District Of Columbia should file that appeal before the Supreme Court and force them to take some position or other on this release of at least 1,600 TRAITORS and the possible intervention into the cases of any future TRAITORS the law enforcement community can manage to charge for crimes such as the attempted bombing of those two political party headquarters. This attempted pardon is also already placing the United States government and its citizens under a great deal of danger because those 1,600 TRAITORS have already been released from the US Bureau of Prisons and are walking free in our country just as their TREASONOUS supporter, TRAITOR Trump. This attempted pardon is just as criminal, just as TREASONOUS as the crimes of January 6, 2021, by both those named and unnamed in the document. It is just the first of what are certain to be other crimes by TRAITOR Trump, the Criminal Syndicate which is now being composed in the US Senate to pose as a "cabinet". God Help Us All!

"Maggie: A Girl Of The Streets" by Stephen Crane

Many time on this blog, I have mentioned that I often buy books at what I refer to as "junk stores", Goodwill, Salvation Army Thrift Stores, etc. I find all kinds of less common books in such places. One of my favorite little places to buy such books is at a little shelf outside the door of the snack shop, gift shop near the entrance to Pavilion H at the University of Kentucky Hospital. It is actually located in the hall between the entrance to Pavilion H, the old main hospital section, and the kiosk where patients sign in. I believe the little gift shop is operated by some arm of the hospital auxillary. The little book shelf operates solely from donated books which must come from a variety of sources including medical staff, auxillary members, patients and their visitors and might contain anything at any given time. All the books sell for some minimal price, usually 75 cents. Due to the fact that my wife has frequent appointments at the Kentucky Clinic across the street, I often take a long walk around the medical buildings in order to get my exercise, cruise past the little bookshelf, about 2 feet wide and 4 shelves high, browse what it contains, and buy anything that interests me. My last purchase there included the book I am writing about now, "Maggie: A Girl Of The Streets" by Stephen Crane, the author of "The Red Badge of Courage" which is a much better known book. The edition of "Maggie..." which I found there is actually A Norton Critical Edition which contains a great deal of critical and historical material in addition to the full text of "Maggie..." which is actually a novella of only 58 pages. But this edition also contains about 200 more pages of the supporting writings, photographs, and maps of New York City in the late 19th century. It was edited by Thomas A. Gullason, Ph. D., an English Professor at the University of Rhode Island. It is an excellent piece of work both from the simple aspect of being a fine novella by one of America's best early novelists, and by virtue of being a fine piece of editorial work by someone who clearly understood his materieal well. The book was originally published in 1893 and the text Dr. Gullason used is that original text. He has wisely not fiddled with the language of the time, has inserted numerous and sometimes voluminous footnotes to provide extensive information about the language used, geography at times, and other aspects of life in New York City in the late 19th century. I read the book with my wife Candice as we do nearly every day. I read aloud from our chosen book as she washes our breakfast dishes. When she finishes, I rinse the dishes. We take turns choosing the books we read and it is an exercise that works well for us in terms of both literature and personal relationship. This was obviously a fast read, in terms of the text of novella alone. In light of its brevity, it was a very nice book to read. Crane's writing does use some now antiquated words at times but he was a fine novelist as anyone knows who has ever read "The Red Badge of Courage". His writing style was actually much more modern in nature than most of his peers at the time. The novella still stands up to just about anything from any modern author in today's times. Maggie is the oldest daughter of a poor, Irish, working class family living in an early tenement in New York. Her mother is an abusive, alcoholic. Her father is an abusive, heavy drinking wagon driver in the streets of the city. Her brother Jimmie is a street urchin with a violent nature. The entire family and every one around them is simply striving to stay alive in a very hostile environment. As Maggie matures into a young woman, she becomes enamored with a friend of her brother named Pete who is a bartender and passes himself off as being much more than he actually is in terms of his money, lifestyle, worldly ways, etc. Maggie falls for Pete, leaves home to be with him after a particularly violent incident with her mother. She is wined and dined by Pete early in their relationship, taken to concerts, bars, and other forms of entertainment and comes to believe that Pete will improve her life. As the novella progresses, it becomes apparent that Pete is a womanizer who is totally in everything purely for his own satisfaction. Eventually, Maggie leaves Pete after he tires of her and moves on with an older woman whom he considers more interesting, charming, and attractive. Maggis is rejected by her mother and the family as a "fallen woman", and dies on the streets. It is obviously a very dark novella filled with poverty, alcoholism, womanizing, prejudice toward minorities, and nearly everything negative that New York offered in the 1890's. But it is a fine novella and well worth reading. If you can find a copy, get it, read it, and come to understand the poverty that immigrant working class families suffered in the early days of our country. And, in light of the recent hatred, animosity, and aggression toward the immigrants who once were and still are the real builders of our country, it is fine novella to read in today's politically disastrous times.

The Blackest Day In American History Since April 12, 1861!

On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina which was the beginning of the Civil War. For many years, it could be considered the blackest day in American History. That is no longer necessarily true. Today, January 20, 2025, at noon has become the blackest day in American History at least since the firing on Fort Sumter. There is a perfectly rational argument that it is actually the blackest day in all American History. Today, for all time, will surpass other dates such as December 7, 1941, the date Pearl Harbor was attacked; September 11, 2001, the date of the attack on the World Trade Center; April 14, 1865, the day President Lincoln was assassinated; and October 24, 1929, the date of the stock market crash which preciptated the Great Depression. This date, January 20, 2025, the date TRAITOR Trump has managed to slink inside the White House again accompanied by the worst Criminal Syndicate ever assembled in American History, a criminal syndicate which is far more dangerous than any of the Five Families of Cosa Nostra due to the fact that this Criminal Syndicate and TRAITOR Trump have every intention of destroying the United States, American Democracy, and the entire federal government. TRAITOR Trump and his TREASON are, without a doubt, the worst case of TREASON ever documented in this country or the entire world. After having been impeached twice during his original illegal occupation of the White House, having been indicted for 94 felonies for stealing government documents and lying to the FBI about those thefts, being found judicially responsible for the rape and defamation of woman whose reputation every day of her life has been far better than his on the best day of his life, after having been the perpetrator of the worst insurrection against the US government since the Civil War, and after having been the leader of a previous lesser Criminal Syndicate whose members collectively were indicted in at least 215 cases, this worst of all TRAITORS in all of history has managed to construct the worst conspiracy against the United States in more than 275 years of lesser history. He is a far worse TRAITOR than Aaron Burr, Sacco, Vanzetti, or Aldrich Ames. He is literally the most dangerous man in the world with the single exception of Vladimir Putin, the man who actually has owned and controlled TRAITOR Trump ever since the day Russian money saved him from his casino bankruptcy. God Help Us All!

The Public Creation Of A Criminal Syndicate In America!

For the first time in the history of the United States, a major criminal syndicate is being formed in full public view of the entire country, covered daily by all the news services of the world, generally ignored by a majority of the populace, and endangering the continued existence of the United States and American Democracy as it has not been endangered since Fort Sumter was fired on. This criminal syndicate is also being supported in its organization by the full press power of the government. The criminal syndicate I am speaking of is being labled as the "cabinet" of TRAITOR Trump as he prepares to complete his lifelong goal of destroying the United States for his Russian Owners. Not one of the nominees is qualified to hold the position for which they have been nominated. None of them is fit to lead a one car funeral. They have been chosen for two criteria: 1) they have sworn personal allegiance to TRAITOR Trump instead of the US Constitution; and, 2) they are willing to commit TREASON in the group effort to rob the United States Treasury and destroy the country for TRAITOR Trump. Nearly all of them have long histories of public statements about destroying the particular departments for which they have been nominated. There has never been a more unfit group of individuals suggested as directors of the departments of the US government in the entire history of our country. The titular head of this criminal syndicate, TRAITOR Trump, has been indicted on 94 felony accounts in recent years; convicted of 34 of those felony charges without ever having served a day in prison; held judicially responsible for the rape and defamation of a woman, and ordered to pay her more than 80 million dollars for those crimes; found, along with 2 of his sons to be unfit to head a business in the state of New York; and found to be guilty of robbing the coffers of a fake charity he created along with having robbed the "students" of a fake "university" he created. At least two more of the male members of this criminal syndicate have also been accused of being sexual predators including one whose own mother confronted him about his total disregard for women in a now public e-mail message. Another has publicly stated that "a worm ate my brain". He has never been doubted in the accuracy of that statement. He is also a well known cocaine addict whose own extended family very publicly refused to endorse his own effort to run for the presidency. Yet another of the members of this criminal syndicate has been suggested as an ambassador to France after having served actual penitentiary time for major business crimes. A female member of the criminal syndicate bragged in her autobiography that she shot her hunting dog because she didn't like the way it hunted. Yes, for the first time in American History women have been admitted to the top tier of a criminal syndicate. If you have read this far and failed to understand that the members of TRAITOR Trump's criminal syndicate are unfit to be seen in public without a parole officder present, you are much more naive than I believe my readers generally are. We are facing the greatest danger to American Democracy in the history of the nation. We are highly likely to suffer from this gang for the next four years and lose the most valuable aspects of our democracy along the way. They must be held judicially responsible for their crimes, both past and future, and all of them from top to bottom must be removed from any official or semi-official position they manage to gain. We must all make a heartfelt commitment to fight them every day until all of them are gone from public view. We must win every upcoming election for members of congress. We must demand that these criminals not be approved for the positions to which they have been nominated. We must resist this criminal syndicate on a daily basis and never allow such a tragedy to ever happen in the United States again.

The Truth About Greenland, Iceland, Panama, and TRAITOR Trump's TREASON!

In recent days, TRAITOR Trump made numerous asinine and inflammatory statements about wanting the US to own Greenland, Iceland, the Panama Canal, and even Canada. He also suggested that he would like to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America despite the fact that it has been known as the Gulf of Mexico since 1607. I have seen at least one of his minions, who have all be chosen for the lack of credentials and willingess to commit any crime including TREASON for TRAITOR Trump, attempt to support his claims that the US should own and control all those countries, islands, and bodies of water. Others have reacted in extreme fear of the possibility that he might actually carry out his despotic threats to use military force to achieve these goals. So what we have to ask ourselves is why did TRAITOR Trump prove to such an overwhelming extent to prove once again in public that he is an idiot and a would be despot. There are several reasons he did those things besides the widespread and fully justified belief that he is an idiot.

First and foremost, these kinds of statements from TRAITOR Trump are a diversionary tactic. They are used to divert attention from other crimes he and his co-conspirators are committing at the time. They are, in this case, also an attempt to divert attention from President Joe Biden, a person upon whose ass TRAITOR Trump is not fit to be a pimple. As the Biden administration is coming to an end far too soon despite his having saved the country and world from TRAITOR Trump and his co-conspirators, TRAITOR Trump wants to divert attention from all the good to great things which have been accomplished by President Biden both over the last four years and over the fifty years of his life in nonstop public service. These asinine statements from TRAITOR TRump divert attention from the fact that President Biden was recently voted our 14th president of all time while TRAITOR Trump was voted as the worst all time occupant of the White House. Keep in mind that I have never and will never use the word "president" to describe TRAITOR Trump, and use the word in this context only to report that the organization American Political Science Association polled its membership and those were the results they delivered. This asinine attempt by TRAITOR Trump is also intended to divert attention from the upcoming confirmation hearings for his nominees to various cabinet level positions by the US Senate. None of these nominees are remotely qualifed to hold the jobs for which they are nominated. They are simply willing to become members of what is actually TRAITOR Trump's Criminal Syndicate and to commit any crime up to and including TREASON at his behest.

Secondly, TRAITOR Trump loves chaos, especially chaos he has created. He receives both simple psychological pleasure from chaos and outright masturbatory glee from chaos, especially if it is chaos of his own creation. He is a relatively simple minded excuse for a man whose simpleton ways include a perverse and widespread sexual depravity. He receives gratification not just from the physical act of sex, if he is actually still able to perform sexually, but he also receives sexual gratification from any means by which he is able to exert control over others which is also the basis of at least 26 accusations of rape against him.

Thirdly, TRAITOR Trump is a megalomaniac. He wants to control everything and everyone he can. He actually believes the US military would obey commands from him to invade Canada, Mexico, Panama, Iceland, and Greenland which is actually a territory of Denmark which he no doubt believes he could also successfully invade. You should never doubt that he would do that if he thought he could get away with it as easily as he has previously gotten away with TREASON, Rape, Business Crimes, and thousands of other assaults, injuries, and injustices against both the nation and the world.