Savers (and users) of wishbones (other than a turkey wishbone at Thanksgiving with your opponent being a six-year old) is also a Scrapper booker.

(Ducking and running.)

I adore home-made roasted chicken salad. About once a month or so I'll get myself a 7 or 8 pound bird and roast it up the way I want. One of my least favorite things in the world is picking and hand shredding the meat. But then again, the resulting chicken stock is a bajillion times better than anything in a can or box. I guess that makes me a saver?

RtSO -- did we already talk about crapbooking once? I can't remember.

Horrifying Larky Laura Lee, simply horrifying

Lovely Laura Lee (love the alliteration), some how (and it's a wonder to me, too) we have not focused our considerable insights onto the whole scrapbooking sickness. (I'm betting its on the shrinks' list of deviant behaviours.) You have to know there are people out there (without close medical supervision AND allowed to bred) who have scrapbooks covering each Cheese Barrel they have visited. And each guest, at their dinner party gets the complete viewing:

Oh, and that's Tomas, who swept up the crackers Little Cindy Mae tossed on the floor; and that's Julie, who took our money at the cash register (you can just see it in the corner of the picture). Such a pretty girl, if she would just get those nasty braces off, I'm sure she'll get a date to the Prom. And notice how I used a paper towel (such nice quality, not every place has them) from the Ladies' Room as a backing the the pictures of the Ladies' Room. I got that idea from QVC.

whilst enjoying a plate of Ritz crackers generously spread with right from the jar, Cheese Wiz.

Talk about crimes against humanity.

RtSO, you are in fine form. Thanks for the laugh.

RtSO - once on a business trip to Minneapolis, I checked into the downtown Residence Inn to find that it had been almost totally booked by a group of women in town for a Creative Memories representatives' convention. They all talked like Francis McDormand in "Fargo". About scrap booking. The continental breakfasts were unbearable.

RtSO, you sound a little bitter. Are you just jealous that you didn't get a ladies' room paper towel, too?

Umm, RtSO -- look again. Laura Lee wasn't talking about scrapbooking. (That's why Owl Meat was so horrified.)

Bucky,
I know quite a few Minnesotans that have relocated here and they all have the Frances McDormand accent goin' on.

Although your stay in Minneapolis must have been hell, yah?

There are things in life that are scary: Korea or Iran have nuclear weapons and missiles to send them off. And then there are groups like scapbookers who are truly SCARY.

You should have used room service. No supervisor would be so unkind to decline the expense when told the reason.

Bucky, that trip to Minneapolis sounds like hell on toast points.

Isn't Abigail Carlson from Minnsota?

Ms Stacy, I am bitter. The towel looked so nice.

hmpstd, I assumed it was a typo, not a comment about crustaceans, and didn't want to correct the lady.

once on a business trip to Minneapolis,....

Odd watching Midwesterners turn on each other.

And somewhere a lady is sprinkling glitter on her rainbow overlay on the first page of her new scrapbook ... "and then this queer fella cut a cruller down the middle and put three Jimmy Dean sausage patties in between, slathered on some Del Monte catsup and told us about how much he liked this thing called a meatball sub. It surely was something else."

And now I'm imagining Bucky as The Dude from The Big Lebowski.

Odd watching Midwesterners turn on each other

Owl, Colorado hardly qualifies as Midwest.

I could take the cruller and sausage sandwich until you went and ruined it with ketsup.

You bet.

Owlie, you threw me into a coughing fit, I was laughing so hard. Good one.

Boy, four hours away carpooling kids and look what I've missed. First of all, hmpstd and RtSO, that was not a typo, I meant what I said and I was indeed talking about (s)crapbooking. RtSO, you captured perfectly the revulsion I have toward the "art" of the scrapbook. That bit with the paper towel will be on my top ten list of Dining@Large comments.

It's not that the concept of a scrapbook is off-putting; people have been doing that for years. Nothing wrong with a material collection of memories organized for pleasurable viewing and reminiscence. No, it's the idea of paying good money for SCRAP (definition: articles rejected or discarded and useful only as material for reprocessing) that I find appalling. And then, this boughten scrap is formulaically arranged with various misbegotten snapshots into extravagantly embellished albums. I have a sister-in-law who "creates" these things. I'm grateful that she has assumed the role of family archivist. The aesthetics are in the same league as Thomas Kinkade (Painter of Light!).

Owl Meat Grand Guignol, my stomach hurts from laughing at your description Bucky's meatball sub.

Bucky, that Creative Memories convention was one for your scrapbook, eh? My condolences. And Anonymous, don't think Bucky was picking on Minnesota; he has been chastened and will never do that again.

Owl, Colorado hardly qualifies as Midwest.

In my mind it does. The midwest for me starts in Maryland any point west of Frederick and in PA from York west. It ends when you can smell the Pacific Ocean. It's a state of mind thing.

Thank you LoisLane Laura Lee.

The aesthetics are in the same league as Thomas Kinkade (Painter of Light!).

Ha! Stop reading my mind. I was thinking about him but couldn't remember the name. There was a great article in the New Yorker on him:
http://www.susanorlean.com/articles/art_for_everybody.html

Hal wrote: Owl, Colorado hardly qualifies as Midwest.

You are correct, Hal, as usual. I was laughing so hard at Owlie's description of my meatball sandwich, I forgot to respond to that part.

Here's the guide: once you pass the Alleghenies, you come to a part that is flat. Stay on the flat part until it no longer has trees. Now you're in the Midwest. Keep going until it's not flat. Now you're in the West.

If you screw up, veer off course and head in a southerly direction, it gets a little confusing. It's still flat but now there's cactus. That's the Southwest. You can also tell it's the Southwest because you can't turn around without bumping into a good Mexican food restaurant (required dining reference.)

And what could be better than collection of figurines inspired by Thomas Kinkade 'art' inventoried in a scrapbook, including back stories engrossed in a typeface either child like or so ornate as to be unreadable.

Bucky,
Your guide to the US is perfect. I could have used that back when I was going for my geography degree.

This post has several Comment of the Week candidates.

The Dude Abides.

Thanks, Laura Lee -- I figured your original post included editorial comment, rather than the alleged typo imagined by RtSO.

RtSO, the very thought is making me nauseous. Well played.

The thought of Francis McDormand is making me smile. Laurel Canyon. The hottest actress in the worst movie (maybe) ever.

Sometimes it all just comes together. Thank you.

Joyce W. --
If you want to see a movie worthy of Francis McDormand's talents, watch Blood Simple.

Thanks, Laura Lee - will be watching soon!

Frances McDormand is great. She's married to ne of the Coen brothers and had been in a bunch of their films.

Here's a funny mashup of Marge Gunderson (from Fargo) interviewing Sarah Palin. You betcha.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEidkJJlD9I

I would say the west begins and the Midwest ends when grown men start wearing cowboy hats in public. You don't really see the cowboy hat in Missouri. I don't know what they do in Kansas. By the time you get to Colorado, I believe the cowboy hat is showing up at the mall or at the McDonalds or at the church and/or synagogue.

People who visit Texas are like people who visit Disney World. You buy all kinds of western junk (like in Disney buying all the Mickey stuff) and walk around for your whole vacation feeling very much a part of the local culture. Then, you come home and feel like an idiot and put the cowboy boots (or hat or both) away til you visit Texas again.

Texas is like New Jersey – natives always say that they are from "the good part", which is very well-hidden in both cases,
– Umberto Swarm

“You know the good part about all those executions in Texas? Fewer Texans”
– George Carlin

“If I owned Hell and Texas I would rent out Texas and live in Hell”
– Philip Henry Sheridan

“All new states are invested, more or less, by a class of noisy, second-rate men who are always in favor of rash and extreme measures, but Texas was absolutely overrun by such men.”
– Sam Houston

It would take a Texas girl to handle an ego as big as Owl Meat Gargantua.

Loquacious Laura Lee – Ha! That's all I've got. Color me subdued. Or possibly sub-dude.

Sub-dude, we created a monster when we encouraged the Lovely Loquacious Laura Lee to post occasionally.

But, she's such a good monster, in the Maurice Sendak mode, no?

Subdued?

Ever try to lasso a rainbow?

Ever try to lasso a rainbow?

I almost choked on my tongue laughing TG. Of course when I change out fo my Owl Man suit and into my lounging pyjamas and smoking jacket I am quite the delicate flower.