"It's our policy"

 Diego Hernandez, 25, and his fiancée, Zoe Vandeloo, were supposed to be married in a few days - November 20.  Diego and Zoe paid almost $16,000 to Posey Meadows, a wedding venue in San Marcos, Texas, last year, setting up the big day for them.

And then Diego died this past April 25.

 On April 27, Zoe's sister stepped up to help her grieving sibling, contacting the wedding coordinator to tell her of the tragedy. The coordinator promised a 100% refund on her part, but the owner of the venue said she was “so incredibly sorry” about the death, she was “not in a position to issue a refund,” pointing to the cancellation clause in the agreement the couple signed.

And the venue later said they might issue a partial refund IF some other couple came along and wanted to book that now-open date. They archly stated that this would be a “discretionary courtesy, not a contractual obligation.”

I don't know how this will all play out in the courts. But I am told on good authority that there is a fiery waiting room in Hell for people who do things like this. 

Let's all wish for better days for Zoe. I mean, really.

The loaf

Not gonna even lie, I like bread. You give me a slab of bread with some olive oil, and I'm in hog heaven, I say.

The Washington POST had article the other day about whether sourdough bread was the best, or is white better? I only like bread with a little substance to it, so that rules out plain white bread, the only use for which is deep-fried as the host for shrimp toast. Those grainy breads are great and I like them fine.

But here's a little bit about sourdough. Things went crazy after gold was discovered in California in 1848. People were breaking their necks from all over the world to get out there and start panning for gold, but a lot of people realized that prospecting for gold was tough work and the people who did it would like to eat something.

Fortunately, a lot of the new arrivals brought with them sourdough starter, the mix of fermented flour and water that made a base for bread that required no yeast - it was self-rising.

And as the population and the demand for food increased, so did the price of things such as eggs, but a smart cookie could extend their stash of starter by adding a little flour, and baking a loaf out of it.

Josey Baker, founder of Josey Baker Bread in San Francisco, says "Sourdough starter was a way to turn something that was essentially shelf-stable into something that was a bit more delicious, but also more nutritious."  

The "sourness" of the bread came from the new bacterial inhabitants in the starter, and since a lot of the baking was done in or near San Francisco, that city came to be known for sourdough bread, although it can be made anywhere. There is a bakery out there, Boudin's, which makes what they call “the Original San Francisco Sourdough.” They still make their bread daily from a base of starter that goes back to the gold rush days.

I have a friend whose dining room set goes back to Levitz next week unless he comes up with some dough. 

Rerun from 2025: There goes the judge

 Up in rural Petersburgh, New York, they need a new town justice.

Former Town Justice Richard T. Snyder was ridden off on a rail because he said something out loud that he really should have not said (let alone thought): in an effort to get himself excused from jury duty, he actually said, "all defendants are guilty."

He said this to another judge, who adjudged Snyder egregiously wrong, and quickly reported him to the state Commission on Judicial Conduct, which august body conducted a lengthy investigation.

Summonsed for grand jury duty, Snyder introduced himself as a judge, and said he couldn't do the job of a juror because he figures all the defendants brought before him are guilty.

So, he couldn’t be impartial. 

“I know everybody come in front of me, I know they are guilty,” he told the presiding judge, according to the court transcript. “They would not be in front of me.”

That was enough to get him off the jury. But then he explained himself to the Commission: 

“I meant that, reason why people got tickets is because they did something wrong, but I know people’s [sic] not guilty. They’re innocent until proven guilty,” he said. “I know they’re guilty because they did something wrong. That’s how they got a ticket.”

 “I mean, that they were guilty because they did something wrong. But they’re not guilty till they come to court. They’re innocent till proven guilty.”

His Honor is seen here either hauling off a box of extra robes and gavels, or working a new delivery job. I can't say.

The Commission sent him packing with a promise that he go far, far away, and never seek a judgeship again.

in the words of Commission Administrator Robert Tembeckjian, “It is bad enough that a judge would seek to avoid such a fundamental civic responsibility as jury service. It is astounding that the judge would claim an inability to be impartial, and to declare under oath that the accused must be guilty or they would not be in court.” 

You think you've heard it all; now here's a judge who hadn't heard a word in freshman Civics.

The Saturday Picture Show, November 7, 2026

 

Beautiful fall this year in Oregon. Prettiest time of the year!

I was thrilled with the vote turnout this week. I don't care whom you vote for, but I have no respect for those who can't be bothered.

Very well done, Alex Kasyan! I don't know you, but I like your painting.

What was this architect thinking? Or is this a place for a little study corner or something? Problem is, no electric outlets...

If you're out of town, it might surprise you how attached we are to our high schools in Baltimore. "Wheredja gota high school?" is asked with the same intensity as "Will you marry me?" and sometimes even more often. But a tip of the maroon and white cap to my dear old Towson High, where football has been played since 1966, but not until this year was there an undefeated season. Go Generals!

Newspapers and the like always publish celebrity recipes as if they are different from your mother's. I promise you, I saw a recipe online for a BLT. Really. But if you want to be cool, try a Martin Burger this weekend!

In its time (1991) this was considered a daring Luann cartoon. It's the one where she tells her buddy Bernice that she got her first (.) last night. Get it?

You've seen all the election maps - forecast and results, but this is the map you
need this weekend. It shows the states where it's legal to own an otter.

The Pope from Illinois is a big fan of the Dylan from Minnesota. They met up the other day and we wish we could have been there to listen in.

Example #2 from my list of "What was the architect thinking?" These are known as "death steps" in the construction industry.

Cheap Eats

 One of the funniest things that happened to us happened at Bob Evans. a sausage-and-pancake joint near us. (The one in this story was torn down a year or so ago, to make room for a new Chiplotle. We're no strangers to the finest of chow in these parts, yes sir.

I can't tell you what I had for dinner that night, but Peggy had a porkchop, the usual, with mashed potatoes, sumthin' green, and applesauce. The bill came and by mistake the server handed it to me. And I happened to notice that they called Peggy's dinner "SR PORKCHOP."

There was nothing especially Mexican about her dinner, so I wondered why they called it "Señor Porkchop." But then the light of recognition dawned like a lightbulb over me, and I said, "Hey, they gave you the Senior Dinner!" And we were faced with the age-old conundrum: take the discount we didn't deserve (neither of us were in the Senior status at the time) or show that Bob made a boo-boo.

I recall telling them we weren't old enough to get the old-folks break but the cashier said not to worry about it. It was a pretty good supper, as I remember. And now I wonder if the Chipotle that took the place of the Bob Evans might indeed have a Señor Porkchop, but I don't know.

Your reward for reading all this is a link to this list of cheap deals for the aging. Even if you're still on the sunny side of 50, go for it! What are they gonna do?

https://tinyurl.com/y89axjfj

Since Tuesday, the expression "sour grapes" keeps coming up in my feed. It goes back a long, long way, to one of Aesop's Fables, #15 to be exact.

In the story The Fox And The Grapes, a fox is trying to nibble grapes from a vine that he is not tall enough to reach, and he has no ladder. So, instead of admitting that he couldn't get to the grapes his mouth was watering over, he just told the other foxes and who-all else was hanging around his warren that he didn't want those grapes anyway, because they were sour. "Oh, you aren't even ripe yet! I don't need any sour grapes." This was a fox who talked to grapes, you understand.

Like I say, this story is running through my mind for no particular reason, but people who sneer at what they can't get, or claim they didn't really want it. are often told the story of the fox and the "sour" grapes.

 

Truth or Consequences, New Mexico?

 I have a lifelong fascination with the true birth names of actors, disc jockeys, and lieutenant governors of Texas (Daniel Patrick Goeb is a former DJ now serving the One Star State under the sobriquet "Dan Patrick") who've taken on fake names to further their missions in life. 

If you remember chiseled-featured, stentorian-voiced actor Robert Lansing...well, he was born Robert Brown, and called himself Bob Brown when he did a deejay's job on WANE in Ft. Wayne, Indiana.  But when he went to try acting, the actor's union said he couldn't act under his name, because there already was a Bob Brown in the union. 

He was in Lansing, Michigan while all this was going on, so he decided to take the town's  name as his own.

How lucky for him that he wasn't in Sheboygan, Walla Walla, or Oblong, Illinois!