Coffee Break [25/1/21]

Your mid-morning pick me up

25/1/21 Hannibal 64

One of the nice things about having a new, adult administration is that I can waste less time doom scrolling, and spend more time taking stupid Buzzfeed quizzes. Like this one, The Foods You Pick Will Reveal Which Unusual Pet You’re Most Like.

I got PIG

You’re super silly, playful, and down to earth. You love to joke around and to make your friends laugh. Your close circle of friends knows to always turn to you for advice or to cheer them up because you will always help anyone in need.

Which unusual pet are you? And how are you wasting time?

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64 Comments

  1. I got chameleon:
     
    You’re a carefree person who never takes life too seriously. Most of the time, you tend to blend in with the crowd but you also love to stand out and show your individuality.
     
    As an example of this show of creativity, over the weekend I said to the Life’s Helpmeet, “You know, I do these fridge-n-freezer sweeps every week so we don’t waste food, but I never do it for the bar…” I came across three things we don’t drink often: rye, Campari, and sweet vermouth. Rye and sweet vermouth is a Manhattan, which I love, and which we used to drink a lot more of. I’ve had Campari on its own as a little summertime treat. I was going to make a batch of Manhattans, since it had been a while, but then I was thinking…
     
    Off to the internet I went and on the Robb Report website, of all places, I came across The Boulevardier.  They have a drinks column and the writer is incredibly knowledgeable. Three parts rye, two parts Campari, two parts sweet vermouth. Reader, it was delicious. The writer says that it is traditionally made with bourbon but it’s better with rye and I have no cause to doubt him. If I can remember to I’ll repeat myself in a Happy Hour comment.

    • I’ve had  Boulevardiers and they are delicious, but I haven’t tried it with rye. I’ll order on next time I’m able to go to a dine in restaurant.

      Chameleon is a good unusual pet

      • A friend of mine growing up had a couple of chameleons, so I don’t know how unusual they are. For that matter, there was a brief pot-bellied pig craze and one used to show up our local dog run, with I used to haunt with my dog(s). All the dogs loved the pig and she them, but I don’t think all the dog owners did and one day the owner disappeared, he and the pig never to be seen again. 
         
        When Giuliani was Mayor he had these very strange obsessions. He never moved an inch to curtail smoking. That was one of Bloomberg’s white whales; he started banning it everywhere and tacking on fees and taxes to make them prohibitively expensive, and he raised the legal age from 18 to 21. He also prohibited them from being sold individually, those famous “loosies,” with the result that something like 70+% of cigarette sales in NYC are bootleg (official city estimates; surely they must be higher) and looses have never been more popular, despite the extortionary fines. In one case the cops arrested a man on Staten Island for selling loosies, he resisted arrest, they put him in a chokehold, and he died. I don’t think the cops were even charged. 
         
        No, one of Giuliani’s favorite hobbyhorses was ferrets, which are, or were, illegal to keep as pets. He used to froth at the mouth whenever the subject was broached. He must have been bitten by one as a child. A friend of mine had one of those and they are adorable. I have another friend who buys, breeds, and sells rats and I think they are adorable, so maybe I’m not the best judge of what most citizens think are unusual pets.

  2. Snail
    You are pretty shy around people you don’t know but you come out of your shell when you get to know them. You love to relax, watch your favorite TV shows, and hang with your friends.
    yikes I’m boring!
    I need to buy some sweet vermouth because that drink sounds great!
     

  4. I am also a pig (In elementary school the boys would call us pigs and we’d say thank you because we claimed that “pig” stood for “pretty intelligent girl”) and that description is actually pretty accurate. I’m both goofy and down to earth, and everyone comes to me for help!

  5. I got Horse- You’re free-spirited and love to be outside enjoying nature. You’re seen as the leader of your friend group and always know how to get out of a sticky situation. You’re courageous,  and loving, and ambitious. 

  6. Just got the call that my kitty is out of surgery, bright and alert and purring at the techs trying to convince them to let her out of her cage. I guess her blood pressure started dropping towards the end of surgery so they had to finish up quickly – so they inform me that “the enclosure is not the prettiest, but should heal perfectly”. I guess he had to use staples instead of sutures. Guess we’ll see in a few hours when I go get her. It’s going to be interesting keeping a cone on her for two weeks until she goes back to get the staples removed. 

  7. As a vegan, not only do I feel excluded but also victimized by Buzz Feed.

    If you’ll excuse me I am going to go back to hate-watching The View on which John McCain’s daughter (did you know he had a daughter?) makes a fool of herself by making everything about her and her victimization.

  8. i also got pig
    i feel like this result may not be entirely accurate tho as they didnt have my pancake of choice
    a bacon and cheese pancake
    (pancakes dont have to be sweet you know)

    • …the first time I had one of those dutch pancakes that was like a massive circular sandwich with a savory filling was something of a revelation, honestly…sadly they’re not something that’s available frequently where I am & my attempts to construct them myself have been nowhere near as good

      …is there some sort of cheat-sheet or is it just one of those things where practice makes perfect?

      • i think its the latter..as mine rarely work out as they should…
        course instead of trying harder i just give up and walk down to the pancake boat and order one

      • I think I can help with the Dutch Baby pancake! There are a few tricks I know. Use a cast iron so you can heat it on the stove first before putting it in the oven. Start it at high heat and then turn it down towards the end. I’ve heard using room temperature eggs and milk is also important. 
         
        In a food processor (or just in a bowl with a whisk) combine: 3 eggs, ½ cup flour, ½ cup milk, and 2 Tbsp sugar. Mix for about 15 seconds or until there are no chunks. Set aside.
         
        On the stovetop in a cast iron pan over medium high heat, melt ¼ cup butter. Once it’s nice and foamy, pour in the batter. I often do them plain, but add mixins if you like. Chunks of apple or pear are classic. Blueberries work well. You can also pipe in a little cinnamon swirl if you’re fancy (2 tbsp butter, 2 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, 2 tsp molasses). 
         
        Place in a preheated 425°F oven and cook for 20 minutes. Then lower the temperature to 350°F and cook for an additional 5 minutes. 

        • …thank you kindly…I guess I’ll have to give it another shot at some point…although the sort I was thinking of are kind of like a pancake that then has, say bacon & cheese like farscythe mentioned as a layer on top with a second pancake laid over that rather than the sort I’ve seen described as “dutch baby”…& I tended to end up either not getting the cheese in the middle properly melted or kind of over-crisping the pancake on top

          …& now I’m hungry…& jealous I don’t have a pancake boat within walking distance

  10. Chameleon
    You’re a carefree person who never takes life too seriously. Most of the time, you tend to blend in with the crowd but you also love to stand out and show your individuality.

    This what I got.

  11. Ok, I took it and got spider… Gross. (I had to pretend the chicken question was about different types of tofu haha.)

    Sometimes, you may come off as shy or intimidating. But once you open up, people see you for who you truly are which is intelligent, playful, and brave. You love to be active and have the most fun when you’re working out or playing in the park.

    Shy and intimidating, sure, but I most certainly do not love being active and working out, and I have no idea what answer gave them that impression. Avocado toast? 

  12. I hate day traders.  I get why, but this idea of selling/buying stocks daily ups and downs is  basically gambling for nerds and fucks things up for my savings.
    Why?  I invest a little in the market.  After having zero money to invest since 2011, I ended up with some extra cash to drop into the market last year.  I bought some stocks that blew up and others that made me some $.  One of my long term picks was BlackBerry aka RIM aka “Nortel 2.0” because I know a little something about the software/telecom industry and learned that they were mostly a software security firm now (they have a good rep for security.)  Network security being a big thing these days.  Long term position.
    It blew up since the markets reopened in Jan.  Up almost 300%.  Mostly for no fucking reason except speculating morons.
    Now I’m freaking out cause I’m being an indecisive ninny by not being sure whether to hold on or lose whatever gains I had because of these shitheads.
    /investor class problems/

    • @ManchuCandidate I hate day traders because they’re so damn annoying, always droning on about their remarkable stock prowess. Yeah, sure, that’s why you’re still driving a 1998 Toyota Camry. Not that I have anyone in particular in mind!

    • Do you have another stock in mind? If I were you I’d realize some of my BlackBerry gains and take a chance on something I think is promising. But I am the king of diversification.

      • I mean, not all your BlackBerry, just an amount you’re comfortable with and see how a second option might fare. You’re Canadian, right? Right around the turn of the century I came into some money and found only one Canadian fund, a really small one that Fidelity offered. Fidelity offers tens of thousands of funds, so of course they would have one. When they finally tracked down someone who could call me back about this his first question was, “Can I ask why you’re interested in this?” 
         
        I’ll tell you why I was. I come from Canadian stock and go to Canada often, much more often in those days, so it wasn’t some “God knows what they get up to up there” situation for me. The Canadian dollar was weak and oil and mineral prices seemed awfully low (so essentially I was prepared to go long in the commodities markets.) Also, TD (Toronto Dominion) seemed to be popping up everywhere, and I thought if they could successfully penetrate the American market who knows what their growth would be. And your friend, the BlackBerry.
         
        As it turns out I didn’t go with it and I beat myself up for it. Commodities prices rose. The oil markets recovered. The Alberta shale fields opened up. Huge new natural gas reserves. Canada exports a lot of one specific thing, I forget what, and China suddenly had a voracious demand for it so its price shot through the roof. Also, and this I didn’t foresee, the US started its clean energy push, while at the same time decommissioning an excellent source of cheap, clean energy, its nuclear power plants, so demand from HydroQuébec took off. BlackBerries became ubiquitous and if you didn’t have one it was like you didn’t have indoor plumbing. Even Luddite me bought a BlackBerry, it my first smartphone, one of the happiest purchases of my life.
         
        But then, as these things often do, there was a collapse. So in the long run I didn’t miss out on much and at least I Can’t Blame Canada.
         
        And then, as happens, 

    • I had Moderna stock before they became the leader in the vaccine race & after making a substantial profit, started to panic when it started to drop and took my gains.  Right after that it shot up again to the stupid number it is now!  I usually tell my financial guy to set a sell if things drop below doubling my money on those kind of things but sometimes that can bite you in the ass.  I don’t give stock advice but if Biden can get things he wants done, green energy could be the place to invest if you do your research.

  16. I got a snail
    Snail

    You are pretty shy around people you don’t know but you come out of your shell when you get to know them. You love to relax, watch your favorite TV shows, and hang with your friends.

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