calibanjr.

Holy Cow! I thought SD had a better chance against NE than SD against Indy! Shows what I know! Anyway, a bit anti-climax to the season with Indy gone. Vegas spread is NE by 14. Don't want to jinx the Pats, but I'm contemplating who I'd prefer to play in the Bowl. Green Bay probably, just to add another scalp to the year's list.

Those unable to disagree without being insulting ought to be smacked, relatively hard, on the bum.

That's a threat just like "mother" used to make! And she backed it up! (So to speak)

the ark bar in chaweng ,muffin back bacon ,with or without spinage,not bad aroung 150b......

I am a chef and inquire from you how can eggs Benedict be made without Spinach?

Very easily unless you want to call them Eggs Florentine!!!

I concur. At least in the Eastern U.S. and Bay Area (my only two culinary areas of deep experience) that's the case.

Actually from help with cooking website:

Variations

It seems that many people all over the world love the eggs Benedict recipe and have enjoyed adapting it to their tastes and local ingredients to create plenty of new recipes for everyone to try.

Read the following variations to see whether there are any that you would like to create in your kitchen:

* Eggs Florentine - replace the ham or bacon with spinach.

* Eggs Maryland - remove the ham and serve poached eggs drizzled with Hollandaise sauce on top of crab cakes.

* Waldorf Style Eggs - replace the English muffin with toast and serve with poached eggs, sautéed mushrooms and mushroom sauce.

* Norwegian Eggs - replace the ham or bacon with thin slices of smoked salmon.

* Artichoke Eggs - replace the English muffin with cooked artichoke hearts.

* Eggs Blackstone - use streaky bacon instead of back bacon and add a slice of tomato.

* Asparagus Eggs - substitute the ham with asparagus spears.

* Country Eggs Benedict - Replace the bacon or ham with sausage slices and cover with sausage gravy instead of Hollandaise sauce.

Where I'm from (New England) pretty much Eggs Benedict and all the variations are the Hangover Breakfast of Champs, when one is employed. When on the dole, I recommend McDonald's and a chocolate shake as "the cure".

How to make Eggs benedict? Reciepe please!

From help with cooking website:

Eggs Benedict Recipe

Ingredients (For 4 people)

* 4 fresh English muffins

* 8 rashers of back bacon

* 8 eggs

* 1 tsp of white vinegar

* 4 egg yolks

* 2 tbsp of lemon juice

* 9 oz (255 g) of butter

* pinch of cayenne pepper

* salt and pepper

To make a simple Hollandaise sauce:

1. Place the 4 egg yolks, lemon juice, cayenne pepper and the salt and pepper into a fairly large saucepan and with a hand whisk, whisk all the ingredients until they have blended together.

2. Cut the butter into small chunks and add to the saucepan.

3. Turn the heat on the cooker to medium and begin to whisk the ingredients. As the butter melts, make sure that you blend it thoroughly into the egg yolks. Continue to whisk vigorously until all of the butter has blended into the eggs.

4. If the sauce begins to separate, add 2 tsp of water to the sauce mixture and whisk briskly until the mixture has combined together to form a creamy sauce.

5. Once all of the butter has melted and a sauce has been formed, continue whisking until the sauce thickens to the desired consistency.

6. Add more salt and pepper if required.

7. Remove from the heat and keep the sauce warm before serving for up to 30 minutes.

Once the Hollandaise sauce has been prepared and set to one side, you can concentrate on the other ingredients.

The next step is to prepare the eggs and the ham, if possible simultaneously.

1. Preheat the grill to a moderate heat and cut the bacon or ham into circles that will just cover the base of the muffin.

2. At the same time start to poach the eggs (see our section on: How to poach an egg).

3. Place the bacon or ham under the grill and cook on both sides until browned. Keep warm if the eggs are still cooking.

4. When the eggs and the bacon are almost ready, tear the muffins in half with your hands, taking care to break them evenly and place them in the toaster or under the grill.

5. When the muffins have been lightly toasted, butter them generously and place in the middle of a warmed plate.

6. Remove the bacon from the grill and sit one circular piece on top of each half muffin.

7. Arrange the drained and trimmed poached egg on top of the bacon or ham and finally spoon the warmed Hollandaise sauce over the egg.

8. Serve immediately.

You are a fool. And for that I feel sorry for you.

A young man is dead, It sure sounds to me like a murder. Plain and simple.

Please refrain from ignorant comments about something you know nothing about.

I am from Ontario and there is NEVER a bad word spoken about anyone from ANY other province in this country,

we are not like that.

The fact that our government seems to have done nothing does not surprise me, I didn't vote for them.

Other than that I would politely like to ask you to refrain from slandering anyone, Canadian or otherwise,

from behind your computer screen.

Kindly,

Jeff

A bit over the top don't you think Jeff. For one thing ThaiGene never even mentioned the slain couple, only the Canadian government. And You slandered the same government in the same post. On top of that you expect us to believe that in Canada there are no regional biases. Now we know you are from Ontario for sure eh? C'mon Jeff there are at least five Canadians contributing to this thread. What are you trying to defend?

BTW, I think ThaiGene is one of them Canucks.

Well, I think Jeff IS a bit over the top, insofar as he responded to such a DAFT post after all. Doesn't Thaigene imply that Ottawa is in Francophone Canada?

the ark bar in chaweng ,muffin back bacon ,with or without spinage,not bad aroung 150b......

I am a chef and inquire from you how can eggs Benedict be made without Spinach?

Very easily unless you want to call them Eggs Florentine!!!

I concur. At least in the Eastern U.S. and Bay Area (my only two culinary areas of deep experience) that's the case.

My Thai wife (been together for 5 years, married for 1.5) wants one with me, but isn't freakishly insistent. She has two sons, 5 and 8, whom I support. I think she feels like a child of ours would cement our relationship, which I personally consider as terminal anyway. As an overly-analytical secular humanist neurotic to the nth degree, I'm wimping out on it (I'm 41) on a permanent basis. She ain't punished me yet, as far as I know!

I do, however, enjoy, uh, "practicing" with her, as much as possible, still.

McD's doing free WiFi in Chiang Mai? I just got back from a two month trip to LA. After a few weeks of Thai food, I'll be up for the McMuffin bfast. If the WiFi's there, I might not get out til after lunch!

McD's coffee in the states is serviceable for a decent price. It is weak, "American" style coffee, but I'm used to it. Starbucks or real serious "cafe" coffee is more of a treat for me. Favorite "worker-bee",cheap but effective coffee is Dunkin' Donuts coffee, on the East Coast. Way more popular than Starbucks in New England.

Greedy postings:

1.Dam_n'd Welker and Watson drops cost Brady his perfect passing percentage!

2.Dam_n'd run stuffing at the end made the punter have to get up off the bench!

Garrard and Jax both played as well as they could have hoped. Made the Pats look that much more deadly efficient. Brady was ridiculous, esp. on the switch from the left flat throw to rolling right and lofting a perfect ball to Stallworth, where only an outstanding tackle by the def. back saved a dagger in the heart long TD reception (even though that play pretty much sealed the game, anyway).

Still scared about Indy. After they BLOW OUT the Bolts, I'm guessing the line is NE by 4ish.

There are some quality QB's riding the pine. I think the guy Rosenfels in Texas could be a quality starter. I think Quinn in Cleveland will be good, the guy who plays in front of him came out of the blue to have a whale of a season. The guy behind Brady, Cassell, someone needs to get that guy because I think he could be a good player.

I don't think it's so much the quality of play by the QB's, I'm going out on a limb to say the O coordinators sometimes get crossed up by the D coordinators on the other side, the defense switches, with the opposing offense expecting what they saw on film earlier. The most successful QB's are the guys calling the plays at the line.............

No Way! One of those surreal occurrences that I'm enjoying! Cassell goes through an entire college AND pro career winning championships and NEVER starting a game! Don't let that ride stop! I love it!

Fortune Town, big mall, office complex. Phraram9 (Rama 9) subway stop. Can't miss it.

It has been a wasteland as far as college football goes. ESPN usually shows some bowl games at the end of the year, but they are typically second or third tier. Forget about the big games...

But I'm wondering... Now that UBC has pay per view (I think they've shown or are showing Cricket) maybe, just maybe, they'll show some college football. I for one would be willing to pay for some games, depending of course on the price.

(No reason to believe that they actually will do this. Just a wild fantasy on my part.)

College Football, especailly the Bowl games, are pure pleasure. Maybe there are enough Americans who appreciate the greatest sport on earth to band together and watch the games. I talked to the manager in a new club in Bkk, the Sports Authority, you can see it on the second floor on Sukhumvit walking down the Asok skytrain station. He has a number of rooms that have Tv and could be rented for a reasonable fee. These are classy rooms, very sofisticated decor, as is the whole club. There's a pool table in each room and some comfy chairs. And of course the friendly and beautiful waitresses.

I'll be there looking for a Super bowl live showing.

If you haven't heard, LSU beat up on Ohio for the BCS Championship.

LSU Q's names is Flynn. MVP of the NFL's name is Brady. Tis a fine time ter be Irish.

Unless you're Brady Quinn!

Weather for the Pats game, as forecast today, appears to be a non-factor. Thirties, no precip. Gotta love New England weather, I was there last week, low temps 4 F (actual, -15 C) with 20 mph winds, following heavy wet snow so everything was a frozen mess, and it will be 60 F tomorrow!

I got to see Patriots All Access, filmed after the Giants game, and it was great to see behind the scenes of this historic game. Great segments with Belichick, using film to illustrate 3rd down conversions and detailed explanations of defense/coverage/offense, Tom Izzo (best films of 2007?; he picked most of my favs including the hometown "Gone Baby Gone") and an interview Adalius Thomas. Great to see some old favorites: Mike Lynch, Mike Dowling, Steve Nelson.

Loma, you feel confident about a forecast this far in advance? I don't, but I'll hope it's dry, that's all. Cold and snow even won't hurt Brady's game, just wind mostly and maybe sleet/slippery stuff. As I mentioned, from what I saw, unless there's a huge turnover discrepancy, it's gonna be the Pats, big. But I'm paranoid about the following week, till it's over.

Back from a long non-fun 8 week stint in LA. At least I got to watch the games in roughly the same time zone. Man, after all the Jax hype, they didn't really show me much. All of BenR's INT's were balls that shouldn't have been thrown. Brady doesn't really do that so much. Good Jax QB pressure, but BenR repeatedly held the ball too long, another thing Brady doesn't do. It looks to me like Pats 33 Jax 17, unless the Titans pull out their game against SD. Not likely.

Still gonna remain antsy about the eventual Indy game till it's over.

I don't think that I've seen a worse call in all of the 45 years that I've been watching NFL football than the Pass Interference call that went against the Patriots, and handed the Colts their second Field Goal. It was clearly OFFENSIVE Pass Interference! But, despite that, and the bogus PI call made later in the game, the best team won. End of story!

Wow! We're used to the Colts getting dodgy PI calls against the Pats, ESPECIALLY at Indy, but the cumulative total of CLEARLY bad calls deserves some attention. Two bad defensive PI calls, the second which could have been offensive PI. Then 3rd down and K. Faulk has his hands dragged away, which went completely unnoticed, even though Brady was raving at the ref. The offensive PI call on Moss was SURREAL! If the Pats don't score a TD in spite of it, that would be a BIG-TIME issue with the League. Since they over-came it, it probably won't be pursued, but basically it's the case that given the calls, the refs are either incompetent or biased, no other real reasoning I can see. Either way, the should be suspended, fined, reprimanded, whatever. Of course nothing will happen. We usually get more even judgements at Foxboro, and with the weather and the field, the Pats should run it up a little better on Indy in the AFC Championship (the de facto Super Bowl).

Macbeth has a bunch of good ones, but one recurringly useful one is:

"Come what come may, Time and the hour run through the roughest day."

I've actually had to cite it to myself in a tight spot quite a few times.

Whence I've actually taken my nick, from "The Tempest":

Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,

Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.

Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments

Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices

That, if I then had waked after long sleep,

Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming,

The clouds methought would open and show riches

Ready to drop upon me; that, when I waked,

I cried to dream again.

Caliban, Act 3 Scene 2

He's kind of a untrustworthy primitive wild man, but this is an accurate portrayal of the perplexing bemusement I feel often, no matter where on Earth I am.

That reminds me of the last time I cooked a lobster, a BIG lobster.

I was in Maine and a friend of mine bought the biggest darn lobster I had ever seen. A monster! Live, of course,

So we took it to his cabin in the mountains and started boiling the water. Put the beast on the floor and it was crawling around and a bit scary to catch and put in the pot (oh cruel world).

This was as fresh as it gets but it was absolutely the worst tasting lobster I ever had. Tough and nearly tasteless. The thing was way too big, meaning way too OLD, to be delicious. It was like eating old man lobster. (Never again.)

Usually true for me. I'm from lobster eating land (coastal New England) and I always buy 1.5 lb to 2.5 lb lobsters (medium size) when I'm doing a clambake. Anything bigger is too tough. Lots of people there like the big ones, the claws on them are still tender. Don't know what size they put into lobster rolls, but I love them. One of my top 5 things to eat in the world.

Warm-water lobster (Caribbean or Asian, whatever) is a totally different deal: no claws, no real taste, just a distant hint of the texture of N. Atlantic lobster. I don't ever bother with warm-water lobster as a meal, but it's good as a texture accent in a stew.

As to the OP, glad everything went O.K., but I wouldn't eat any lobster that wasn't boiled alive or killed that day. Seafood sickness of any kind is too debilitating/dangerous IMO for the risk.

I just went up in Chiang Mai at 21:57

I'm still down in Chiang Mai. Using wonderful dial-up. Hope I get my ADSL up before the Pats game at midnight or the Sox at 7 a.m.

.. Than there's beautiful art of using the manual gearbox for breaking ! ! i am the guy who whizzes past most of you on either town , or a highway, but when shit hits the fan i am sure, that my Manual will come to a screeching halt twice as fast,as any Auto possibly could, even with well adjusted handbrake, and i can vouch for it saved me a good many times, here in Thailand especially !

I beg to differ. Using a gearbox for braking slows down the braking process. You loose time and concentration instead of applying full power to the braking pedal. Also, don't forget to disengage the clutch for a really hard braking. Step on the clutch and the brake at the same time for a maximum brake. Otherwise the engine will continue to pull the car forward. The method where you shift and brake and jump around the pedals, maybe even double clutch while shifting down, braking and accelerating at the same time is totally outdated. This was fine when there was no synchronization in the gearbox.

And don't use your handbrake in an emergency stop. Keep your hand on the steering wheel. Hopefully you have ABS and can avoid an obstacle while braking. The handbrake will imbalance your car and the spin follows immediately.

Great fun in a snowstorm or on an icy parking lot! We used to get up a running start and yank the "e-brake" (handbrake, parking brake, whatever you call it). Great cheap fun, unless you hit something.

Not relevant to Thailand, really, but standards (manuals) are a MUST in the snow. There are situations where you have to be creative with the momentum back and forth with the car when it's stuck, and it's always advisable IMO to avoid braking and use gears to vary speeds in slippery conditions.

Also, when you get an old beater and/or a dodgy battery, the old running "jump start" is a manual specialty!

I'm pretty experienced driving old dodgy cars in the snowy realms, need a manual there. Here (Chiang Mai), I drive a manual (well, a Honda Wave125 really).

What's the easiest, most versatile (all kinds of phones, parts, etc.) shop for mobile phone repair in CM? I've lived here for over 2 years and never had a problem, now I need to fix my Motorola and might as well fix my old lay-about Nokia. Is there a place like MBK's magic 4th floor? I've seen Central Airport's area, any place better?

No farangs I know buy clothes at Tesco. They dont carry farang sizes nor do local markets

erm..what? I dont mean to be blunt, but you must know some very big farangs! I think Tesco stocks some pretty big sizes. I rarely go there but when i do i gen buy some of their cheap items like T-shirts or shorts. I even find there L size can be a bit large. Ive also seen farangs (male and female) shop quite happily in the clothes section of Tescos.

Maybe its just your local tesco?

But anyway..off-topic, sorry!

Actually for clothes I was thinking more of Big C but those big stores seem to carry similar stuff. I do know that Tesco has zero in the way of footware US size 11 and up. I'm 6' 2" 200 and I have zero luck finding anything big enough at those stores

So your avatar isn't a recent picture of you then?

No that picture was back in 1986 but I was the same height and weight. I'm a big athletic guy. Ex-baseball player

O.K., I'll bite. You're not THE Jim Abbott, are you? I'm a 41 year old guy from Boston, so of course I care way too much about baseball, I gotta know. Great pitcher, (even if he did a stint with the Yankees).

The best scientists today predict that we have so much oil to burn that we are in danger of a carbon summer.

Sorry. Can't let this one go by without a comment. Actually, no serious geologist believes this. Sure, a few climatologists who can operate a computer have made a funny model that suits their political and funding agendas, but even their mildest prediction is almost certainly way too severe in my opinion, and the opinion of many others.

The elephant in the room is peak oil, and it's here already. Ghwar is in decline, and nothing can stop it. Climate change is real, but it will be mitigated by substantially fewer fossil fuels. Ask Dave Rutledge at Caltech. He did a very good paper on exactly this subject.

Don't confuse political events in the '70s with geological realities today. There will be a serious shakeup in the world before this gets better. Oil production is in irreversible decline, and no technologies are available to take up the slack at the rate depletion will hit us. The only thing that will work is demand destruction, which will take the form a severe economic depression. History teaches us war will be the solution to this, and in the words of some of our most famous leaders today "all options will be on the table."

There will be population reduction. It will be due to war, starvation and disease. Has nothing to do with apocalyptic thinking. Has to do with basic science, and happens everytime an organism exceeds the carrying capacity of its environment. Fossil fuels allowed us to expand into overshoot for a brief while, but like all organisms, we will experience the collapse that results from this. Much as we like to think we are different, we just aren't that far removed from bacteria.

Believe it... or don't believe it. Up to you. It will affect you all the same. Staying in denial will just make it harder. Governments know this. They are all silently preparing. They aren't telling you though, that would just cause panic.

The sad reality is there is nothing that can be done about overpopulation at this point. It might be possible in theory to feed everyone on the planet right now absent fossil fuels if people were willing to accept a mostly 3rd world lifestyle. I believe people will not accept that outcome, and therefore crash will ensue. No religion involved here. Simple biology, math and physics coupled with an understanding of human nature.

Sorry for the morbid tone of this post. Peak oil is important though. Everyone should study it and take it seriously. Based on the crude+condensate numbers we passed the peak in 2006. Wishful thinking won't change that basic fact. And while nobody can predict the future, barring a miracle, certain things do appear inevitable.

Good post, gregb.

Just a WEE bit better than people who "rebut" the opening post with such profound statements such as:

"Rainman, you must be COMPLETELY out of your mind, to post such drivel!!! (excuse me for saying so)."

Wow, such COMPELLING rhetoric!

Anyway, Rainman, glad you got one post that showed some contemplation. I do think the using the word "irresponsible" in the title sort of front-loaded the responses to be of the defensive/reactionary type. I believe that most people don't and won't go into in-depth consideration of the ramifications of the current and progressing resource-intensive and ecologically stressful modern industrial economic system. More reactionary dismissal on the way for your opening post because people are very defensive of their "inherited" lifestyle and the "fruits of their labors" , etc. I agree that it's an impending problem and unfortunately I'm as pessimistic as gregb., but I stay out of ruining peoples fun. Not faulting you for it, though!