Penn Maryland Whiskey

It's kind of a whiskey night tonight well... just because.  I suppose it's because I want to celebrate my promotion at work to Asst. Department Manager but not an over the top celebration.  One whiskey I won't be drinking is the one in the ad above.  Penn Maryland whiskey was one of over 20 different rye whiskeys distilled in Baltimore, Maryland before prohibition.  After prohibition the brand returned but was snatched up by National Brands and disappeared altogether sometime in the 1960's when the taste for rye whiskey was being replaced with bourbon and the vodka crowd.

Remember Real Money?

I remember a time in my youth when money actually had some value left to it.  When I was hired for my first job my pay rate was $4.25 an hour which was a good starting rate in 1991.  I worked with a bunch of Polish nuns as a gardener at a retirement home and they treated me well, at least better than some of my bosses in later years.  Now I'm making more than double that and finding it hard to make ends meet.  Why?  Because over the last 22 years the value of the dollar has declined sharply.  In addition to this those of us left in the workforce find ourselves being taxed out of existence to support the mendacity of the welfare class, the so called "poor" of the nation who somehow seem to accrue more material goods than I can yet deign to call themselves poor. 

Working In Alaska

I made the decision this year to stop working in Alaska.  This comes as a result of much thinking on my part because it is quite a bit of money to be saying goodbye to but I have come to the realization that my time up there is over.  Thanks to the US Government's change in visa policy the former J-1 College Students from foreign countries that made up the bulk of our workforce are now gone and they have been replaced by US college students.  I saw the beginnings of this last year and knew it was heading for disaster with more fights, more drunken boobery and just a basketful of problems for me as night watchman to deal with.  No thank you.  I'd rather be an OFW in Kuwait or some other Muslim country, at least I'd know what I was in for.

Speaking of Kuwait, back when I lived in the Philippines I was still working in Alaska.  Twice a year I would have to fly to the US and then back to the Philippines.  It was fun at first and I loved getting flights on various airlines so I could at least say I set foot in various countries even if just for a layover.  One time I was even looking at a kuwait airways booking but that would have involved a rather long trek to the east as opposed to the (sort of) shorter trip to the west when going back to the Philippines. 

In the end I wound up going with Cathay Pacific and transiting through Vancouver and Hong Kong.  As for Alaska... well I thank you for the years of work up there it was fun and I had dreamed of going to Alaska since I was in High School but I have a new job now that I just got promoted in and maybe finally I can have hope for a career.

Dragon's Blood Sauce

I posted before about how I had some business cards printed up for the blog.  These were mainly for use at work where I could give them to customers in need of a recipe.  Since I had them printed I think I've given out about 100 of them so far and I hope that at least some of the people I gave them to found this site helpful in their kitchen endeavors.  The handing out of business cards has reaped other benefits though.  I came to have a nice talk about vintage recipes with a couple of wonderful ladies and in the course of conversation the one lady who was visiting from up north stated how she had these old cookbooks and she would love to give them to me to help me with the blog.  Fantastic!  I love old cookbooks and according to her they were church compiled cookbooks which is even better because they often comprise of family recipes that are much better than the advertiser recipes I usually deal with on here.