August 2014
This looks very cool. It’s a $49 TiVo DVR that lets you schedule recordings of free over-the-air (broadcast) TV programs, as well as stuff on Netflix Streaming, Hulu Plus, etc. The digital OTA sub-channel market is exploding, primarily due to soaring cable and satellite charges in an economy where many people are experiencing serious financial hardship. We get five broadcast channels where we are, with a total of six sub-channels, most of which show stuff like either Bachelor Father and Mister Ed or old movies you’ve never heard of — lotta minor noir, which is cool. I could definitely do without 99% of cable/satellite TV. I’d miss Al Jazeera, which does some very good real reporting, although in my darker moments I’ve taken to calling it The Misery Channel. But CNN is a bad joke, MSNBC & Fox are flat-out unwatchable, and that leaves what … House Hunters? It’s moot anyway, because we have to cancel the satellite next week.
As usual, thanks to all the wonderful people who support this little circus with subscriptions and donations. If you can spare a few doubloons, please consider subscribing. And yes, it mortifies me to say that every month. But your support literally keeps the lights on around here.
And now, on with the show….
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Silk:
August 31st, 2014 at 12:19 am
When we were very young, the commercial banana was the Gros Michel. But because bananas are not grown from seed, but from shoots, the plants are all genetically identical, so when the Panama Disease fungus came along, it spread like wildfire among the Gros Michel. Cavendish and Grand Nain cultivars are inferior to Gros Michel, but are resistant to Panama Disease, so that’s what we have today. There are worries that Cavandish and Grand Nain might be susceptible to some kind of black rot that is spreading, so growers are trying to breed a new type.
There ARE much sweeter varieties out there, but they don’t ship or store well, so unless we go somewhere they grow, we’ll never taste them.
Silk
admin:
September 1st, 2014 at 12:04 am
Fascinating, and sad, of course. Thanks.
YesWeHaveNoBananas:
September 22nd, 2014 at 9:26 pm
Here in California, in the Mexican grocery stores they sell a mini banana like you describe: sticky to the point of being resinous, but at the same time slippery as all get-out, and full-flavored. But the taste is a little different than the “Chunky Monkey”-type flavor. I wonder if you can get those in Ohio. If so, you could see if they are more like the ones of yore.
Mike:
September 23rd, 2014 at 4:33 am
Perhaps you can thank GMOs for today’s bananas..
Magda:
October 16th, 2014 at 4:55 am
That’s BOLOGNA (aka “mortadella”) sandwiches. Baloney is not edible in general… ;)