More of my views

It's coming up on Thanksgiving, and I thought I should share my grandmother's secret for baking a pie. If you have a recipe for pie crust, and it says to add water, throw that recipe away. The author has no idea what he is talking about. Use MILK instead! I use two cups of unbleached flour, 1 stick of that wonderful buttery-flavored Crisco that comes in a pack of three sticks, and enough milk (added a few drops at a time) to make a good pie crust dough. Cortland apples are wonderful, but they are not available in my area now. There are some newer apples that are not supposed to turn brown when cut, but I use a mixture of about five large Granny Smith apples, and three large Golden Delicious apples, and I bake it in one of those 9-1/2" Pyrex pie plates. I add a few fresh cranberries, and each time I cut an apple, I put it in a bowl, then add a mix of sugar and Cinnamon, and I put a little loose flour in the bottom of the crust to help thicken the juice up a bit. A little brown sugar can be added, which will get a bit crunchy, so don't overdo it.... That should make the best apple pie you ever ate! Oh, yeah...don't forget to put a cookie pan under the pie plate, because this will bubble over and put a big mess in the bottom of the stove if you don't!

We need to bail out the auto industry. I remember telling my sister to buy Chrysler before the government bailed it out in 1980 or so. That bailout worked well for all concerned. It is stupid to think that this nation can get along without one or more of our auto manufacturers. After all, who builds our military vehicles in times of war? And what will happen if we let them die? all of their suppliers will die as well, and unemployment will drop to 15-20% overnight! What happens to our economy then? I have spent some time employed in car dealerships, doing everything from changing tires and oil, to running the desk when all of the real managers were in a meeting. Every dealership has about 20-100 employees even in the smallest towns in America, and those jobs will impact every town out there. And remember, the auto industry is often supported by the government in other countries! We need to make sure that the bailout money does not come from the $25 Billion already promised to help develop more efficient cars, or we will have bigger problems down the road. Other companies are already subsidizing their companies in the fight to develop more efficient cars. As far as the use of private jets to fly the execs to Washington goes, those jets were bought when there were profits being made, and they allow the execs to fly all over the place without bothering to check flight schedules. They can therefore be in more places in any given amount of time. If the man is earning over a million dollars (now there is an area where there is room for downward improvement), improving his efficiency justifies the price of those jets. The uproar over that is just people ranting without thinking!

The army slogan should be "You made them strong, now we'll make them army dead." Oops, that sort of hints at an idea I had for a Boston Legal show. When I tried to suggest it, they turned me down cold, and would not allow me access to anyone involved in planning the shows. So okay, here it is, open to the public. If anyone uses it, I want to be paid, however.... Son sees army ad aimed at black children in single-parent families, and convinces his mother to let him join the army, where he gets sent to Iraq and gets killed. Mother seeks the aid of Boston Legal (Crane, Poole and Schmidt) to sue the government for false advertising.

And by the way, the US already has one of the largest single-payer health plans in the world. It's called the VA! Why can't we model a universal health care plan on that one? Sure, there are long waits for service, and I would not want to trust them to make decisions for me were I on life support, but it seems to work out very well for our veterans in most cases. (Sure, there are horror stories now and then, but most vets are pretty happy with it.) One question, though, if Wal-Mart can give us generic drugs for $10 every 90 days, why do we have to charge our veterans $24 every 90 days for the same drugs????