The online journal, notebook and playground of HFM

Dutch letters from the Jaarsma Bakery

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When I was a kid, we used to drive from Ankeny, Iowa (where we lived) to Brighton, Iowa, where my Grandma lived. On the drive, we usually went through Pella, Iowa, and if we were lucky, we’d stop at the Jaarsma Bakery and get my favorite dessert of all time… Dutch Letters. Jaarsma Bakery has been open since 1899, when it was founded by Herman Jaarsma who used recipes he brought over as an immigrant from Holland.

Dutch Letters from the Jaarsma Bakery
Originally, the Dutch Letters were made only as a special treat for Sinterklaas Day (the Dutch Santa Claus Day), December 6th. They are typically shaped into an “S” for “Sinterklaas” according to the website.

Now Jaarsma has a website and does online ordering, which quite simply kicks ass.

Jaarsma Bakery

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Polari – the lost gay language

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Fantabulosa: A Dictionary of Polari and Gay Slang – “Polari has been the secret language of British gay men and women throughout the twentieth century. Like all slang, Polari is an ever-changing vocabulary. Derived from words used by criminals, circus artists, beggars and prostitutes, it also employs elements of Italian, Yiddish, French, rhyming slang, and backslang.”
Also: “Polari (also seen as ‘Palare’) is a gay slang language, which has now almost died out. It was more common in the 1960’s when gays had more need of a private slang. However, in the last few years, more and more people have been finding out about it, and several web sites and magazine articles have been written. Polari featured heavily in the “Julian and Sandy” sketches on the BBC radio program “Round the Horne” in the late 60s, and this is how a lot of people first heard of Polari.”
Scrolling through the list on the second link surprised me… a lot of those words are a common part of the gay community today.

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Okay, look… (why you should watch Homestarrunner)

Go to homestarrunner.com. Watch the cartoons. Watch Strongbad read his e-mail. And stop asking me what the sticker in my truck window is. Sheesh.

Strong Bad

Essential viewing:

— Welcome to Homestarrunner.com (Check me out. No, seriously, check me out.)
— a Jorb Well Done
— Meet Marshie I hate that freaking marshmellow.
— Lookin’ at a thing in a bag. (My favorite StrongBad ever.)
— The Cheat video
— Draw a Dragon I said consumate V’s! Consumate!
— Trogdor, the Burninator – Game
— Japanese Cartoon

Continue ReadingOkay, look… (why you should watch Homestarrunner)

The Freeway blogger

The Freeway blogger… runs around downtown L.A. placing signs on the overpasses. We had our own little version of that here in Indianapolis at one time, when they were building Conseco Field House… a graffiti artist painted the words “big waste of taxpaper money” with an arrow pointing to Conseco on the northbound overpass on Delaware street. Soon after, the city painted it over. And soon after that, our freeway blogger posted the message “roadblocks are unconstitutional” which got photographed by a local outfit that makes magnets of local retro signage and landmarks. And that’s how our local freeway blogger ended up on a magnet on my refrigerator.
I like the L.A. freeway blogger’s idea of signage much better… cheap and easy to make, effective, but not permanent or damaging to the overpass like spraypaint graffiti is.

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The royal gay sex scandal

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You can read the actual alleged details here in the Toronto Star and also more here in Scotsman.com news. I remember reading some allegations like this years ago, but they didn’t specify Charles as being the royal involved, they just said “an immediate member of the royal family” and I just guessed that was probably Edward, since there were rumors of him being gay circulating for a long time.

Basically, the rumors say that former valet George Smith walked in on a sexual escapade occuring between Charles and another servant, who is, possibly, a guy named Michael Fawcett, according to the Guardian. And that Smith also claimed to have been raped by that same servant at another time. He made the claim to Diana, who taped the claim and asked that Charles fire the servant, which never happened. Diana kept the tape, but it disappeared at some point, and Diana’s butler, Paul Burrell, thinks the tape was stolen by Diana’s sister. Diana apparently believed someone was trying to kill her, and said so in a letter to Paul Burrell at the same time she entrusted him with some items for “safekeeping” before she died.

Last year, someone decided to charge Paul Burrell with theft of the items, and suddenly, when it looked like the whole mess was going to court where it would all come out in the open, the queen remember that Diana had mentioned giving the items to Paul Burrell, thus clearing him of the theft charge.

Then Burrell decided to publish his book, where he mentions the letters from Diana about fearing for her life, and suddenly, all these allegations are popping up again. So Michael Fawcett sought an injunction to keep the details out of the news, and Charles issued a denial that he never did what no one would allow anyone to print that he did.

What seems weird to me… is that I’ve never pegged Charles as being gay. When I heard the rumors of both the alleged rape and the sex incident with a “member of the royal family” I figured Smith was a disgruntled former employee making it all up to get back at the royal family.

The details of the stolen tape, the letters from Diana fearing for her life, and this weird “gag order” denial of something that, frankly, isn’t all that damned scandalous, is odd.

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Democrats no longer allowed to ask questions

Via the Washington Post, here’s something you should be seeing more prominently discussed in the news:

The Bush White House, irritated by pesky questions from congressional Democrats about how the administration is using taxpayer money, has developed an efficient solution: It will not entertain any more questions from opposition lawmakers.

The decision — one that Democrats and scholars said is highly unusual — was announced in an e-mail sent Wednesday to the staff of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. House committee Democrats had just asked for information about how much the White House spent making and installing the “Mission Accomplished” banner for President Bush’s May 1 speech aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. The director of the White House Office of Administration, Timothy A. Campen, sent an e-mail titled “congressional questions” to majority and minority staff on the House and Senate Appropriations panels. Expressing “the need to add a bit of structure to the Q&A process,” he wrote: “Given the increase in the number and types of requests we are beginning to receive from the House and Senate, and in deference to the various committee chairmen and our desire to better coordinate these requests, I am asking that all requests for information and materials be coordinated through the committee chairmen and be put in writing from the committee.”

*snip*

“It’s saying we’re not going to allow the opposition party to ask questions about the way we use tax money,” said R. Scott Lilly, Democratic staff director for the House committee. “As far as I know, this is without modern precedent.”

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