Home, Home On The Range

There's a song by the repugnant Theodore A. Nugent about this. The Lakota tribe believes that the birth of a white bison calf portends better times ahead. Recently, a baby white bison was seen running around Yellowstone National Park...but it has not been spotted for almost a month.

They (you know "them") say that one white bison calf is born out of every one million. 

There were some photos taken earlier, and they show the little critter to be leucistic, meaning it has a partial loss of all types of pigmentation.  An animal with albinism is totally lacking in pigmentation. The newborn out there has black eyes and hooves.

Yellowstone is home to about 4,550 bison (census taken before the calving season) but one in five calves dies shortly after birth because of natural hazards, so no one is sure if this Great White Buffalo is still with us.

In native American lore, there was a time when the Lakota stopped praying to the  Creator. But a young woman in white buckskin came to them to teach them seven sacred rites. She also brought to them the White Buffalo Calf Chanupa pipe, which they use in their tribal ceremonies.

I hope they find the little white buffalo and that he will appear on "Live With Kelly And Mark" very soon!

 

We the jury

In August, 2020, Christopher Nguyen was a police officer for the City of Baltimore. He was found guilty of allowing a man to assault another man as Nguyen looked on and did nothing.

At trial in 2022, he was found guilty and sentenced to 60 days in jail. Nguyen resigned from the force and the judge, while keeping the verdict intact, dropped the jail time. 

And here we are in 2024. The former officer, once sworn to protect and serve, is taking his case to the Maryland Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court of Maryland

His appeal will be heard in September, as the court considers whether there is a "duty to protect" incumbent upon police. Specifically, when one person assaults another in the presence of a police officer, is that officer required to do anything about it?

Two other officers testified that they would have separated the two combatants, or at least stood between them. The court will decide whether that testimony proves that Nguyen "grossly departed from the standard of conduct that a reasonable, similarly situated police officer would have observed."

Not to pile on the Baltimore department, but a year ago, a block party turned into a murder scene as several people were shot, two fatally. Police investigated and found “Officer indifference may have compromised the awareness, planning and response to Brooklyn Day prior to the large crowds arriving.”

"Officer indifference"? 

What's next? Does anyone have to do anything anymore, or is society crumbling to a point at which police don't have to police? If the court finds for the disgraced former officer, does that mean firefighters won't have to fight fires, teachers won't have to teach, lawyers won't read the law?

Does anyone have any idea what's going on in this crazy world? I just can't believe it would ever have come to this.

Monday Rerun: It's What's For Dinner When You Don't Feel Like Dinner

 In summertime, no one feels like preparing (let alone eating) a big heavy meal with gravy and potatoes and boiled carrots and all that. Toss together a nice green salad and call it dinner.

There's always the standard tossed salad with iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, radishes, beets, celery, and so forth. Very popular and easy to toss together, although not as much with the grocery store salad bars being closed down 😢😠

We like that kind of salad and we like Caesar salads too, here at the Lazy "C" chuck wagon. You only need romaine lettuce, croutons, anchovies, garlic, Parmesan cheese, and black pepper.

The story is that a restaurant owner named Caesar Cardini was swamped with diners on July 4, 1924, at his restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico. He decided to throw together whatever he could find, and do it tableside in a large wooden bowl, to add a dramatic flair to the dining experience.

I assure you, there will be 37 different versions of that story if you ask 37 different descendants of Caesar Cardini. Does it matter what happened in Mexico? You want dinner tonight. So toss the ingredients above in your large wooden bowl that you got as a gift all those years ago, and add this dressing:

 

INGREDIENTS

2 small garlic cloves, minced and mashed (make a paste by adding little salt)

1 tablespoon anchovy paste

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 cup bottled mayonnaise

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan

black pepper

 

 

In a bowl, add the mashed and minced garlic paste. To this garlic paste, add the anchovy paste.

Mix both the pastes well together as their flavors merge.

Pour in the lemon juice and stir with a spoon to mix.

Shower on some pepper and then mix well. 

Pour in the Worcestershire sauce along with the Dijon mustard and drop in the cup of mayo. Last, mix in the cheese.

Stir with a large spoon.  The dressing should be thick! Plop some on the salad just before eating and mix it up real nicely.