our 87th weekly open mike
Let’s see what happens when your host (me) has nothing to say. Step right up, speak your mind, tell a story, sing a song, whatever.
7/4/2026
Anything goes: 7/4/2026
29 responses to “Anything goes: 7/4/2026”
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I wish everyone who reads this a happy fourth of July. We’re kinda fucked, but I’m hopefully and a bit determined that we find our way out of this.
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I’ve never had less enthusiasm for the 4th of July. Never had much, but jeez, today it’s less then zero. Empty fireworks going off now…
Happy 4th, for anyone happy on this 4th.
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GI’m momsitting at my sister’s house, and here comes my stoner nepher George, loud, barely coherent, talking but not conversing, and he brought his damned dog and left it here.
Oh man, I’m gonna write about this…
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Sad? Amused? Rightouse? Popcorn ready.
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It was a 45-minute eyeroll. George is everything we’ve been talking about — he’s human, alive, but his head and soul are rooms for rent.
Deets to come. (:
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Funny July 4th in the midwest. We were boiled in our cages, and it’s funny because I’m not ancient in age but I still remember that the first 3 apartments I lived in on my own had no AC and nobody really even cared. There were a few 90+ days that were bad but it wasn’t anywhere on my list of deal-breakers. Someone that had air, it was kind of like “Oh, nice.” I mean I grew up in an apartment with AC and lived in Florida for a year too, so it’s not like I wasn’t familiar with the concept, it just wasn’t necessary most of the time. Today I couldn’t even imagine living somewhere without AC, and I don’t think I’ve gotten softer or more picky. This week would have probably killed hundreds without it. The last few ticks before the irreversible environmental tipping point are going to come from us strapping metal boxes to every available window to avoid the previous few ticks.
The debilitating heat gave way to random, violent and unpredictable storms just as we headed into the weekend, wiping out some of the dumber parts of the holiday. Navy Pier in Chicago went ahead with theirs but just an hour before they were to start, a dense fog rolled in. The city went ahead anyway except the fog trapped the smoke near the ground, making visibility even worse. This is a new and hilarious aspect of climate change that I was not prepared for.
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Don’t know how old you are, but I can assure you, having lived through the 70s/80s/90s, that it was hot as balls in the midwest then, and anyone (ie me) without AC suffered like a bitch. In fact, I can’t remember the last time my town went over 100 degrees, but we absolutely did – repeatedly – in the decades I mentioned above.
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I remember in the 70’s 80’s getting super hot and humid and my mom would just shut down. We had those old windows with beads in the glass and she would pull all the shades, put fans everwhere possible and she would dissapear to the bedroom.
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You mean glazing beads? I’ve never heard of beads embedded in the glass. Supposed to keep the interior cooler?
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It was 108° the afternoon my wife and I arrived in Kansas City. What hell have we moved to, we wondered… A few months later came the ice storm, the most terrifying weather I’ve lived through yet.
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Certainly was, Chicago had a notoriously lethal heatwave and possibly one of the most lethal in recent times around 95 or 96. I didn’t have AC that summer, that week was horrific, but I really don’t recall anything else that summer or the years around it that caused any grave (pun not intended but works) concerns.
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It’s truly dangerous to go through with events in the middle of a heat wave, but if they start canceling, people will call the organizers lily-livered libruls.
I grew up in Seattle, an area cooled by the ocean. 90° was rare and 95° was unheard of, but a couple of years ago this city had a “heat dome” event with highs around 118°. Numbers like that quantify just how stupid the science-deniers are, which is very, very stupid.
My house has no a/c and gets uncomfortably sticky when it’s 85° or higher, and yup, most folks in Seattle — even the deniers — now see a/c as a necessity.
Spent 20 years or so in the Midwest, Missouri and Wisconsin, and there’s weather there — with no ocean, winters get very damned cold and summers very damn hot. Both places we lived had a/c, shitty a/c but appreciated, and I’ve never lived anywhere else that had a/c. Have the Midwest highs gotten higher, the lows lower?
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Happy 4th and this picture sums up our feelings.
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I get my CIA atrocities mixed up. That pic is from … Afghanistan? Guantanamo? The so-called Gulf War? So many tortures to choose from…
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Holland, how come you never review pizza places? I know Seattle SUCKS for pizza, but it’s a great dish, and there’s plenty o’ pizza in your town.
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It begs the question. What makes a great pizza?
Is it the crust? I personally like a crispy light crust, not thin but not chewy thick either.
Is it the toppings? Are we talking about quality or amount or both? Flying Pie is PDX dumps a metric ton of toppings on thier pizzas, it great but are we just loving the amount?
Sauce? I’ve never had an exceptional sauce from a store bought pizzas but I’ve made some kick ass sauces on my own. If I found a place that had the right heat, I’d love it.
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Pizza was an exotic and expensive foreign food when I was a kid. Don’t believe I ever tasted it until my 20s. No idea what makes a pizza good, really. If the crust gets left on the plate, though, the pizza sucked.
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I just never eat at pizza places — when I eat pizza, it’s either frozen or delivered.
You lived in Seattle for years, right? Any recommendations? Vince’s, the local chain, has always looked tempting to me, but pricey, so I’ve never been there. My brother took me to lunch at some overpriced plastic place a few years ago — forgettable pizza, bland decor, holy moly hot waitress. I should’ve reviewed her…
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Man, it’s been twenty years since I lived there… We were in Wallingford, so there were lots of good places on 45th, and nearby in Fremont and The U, as well as Greenlake. Sadly, I can’t recall a single name. I bet they’re all out of business, though.
Fuck pizza, you should go to Taste of India on Roosevelt, near Scarecrow. Superb Naan, and everything else.
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Pretty cool that Taste of India has a Taco Tuesday special. It’s a long bus ride to Roosevelt, though, so probably ain’t happening until Mom either croaks or gets well enough I’m not at her house every day.
More likely is this place I’ve been eyeballing for weeks in Renton, Pabla Indian Cuisine. Founded in Punjab in 1947, then opened in Renton in 1998 after the owner immigrated to America.
As for pizza, Proletarian Pizza in White Center has been my go-to delivery, but I haven’t ordered pizza there or anywhere since going vegantarian.
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Both of those look great.
The Pesto Caprese at the pizza place is basically my perfect pizza – simple, not top-heavy, and green sauce instead of tomato.
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That’s my general issue with Italian food — tomato sauce on everything. A genuine cook can pull it off, but tomato sauce from a can is nasty.
I like white pizza, whatever the white sauce is. No tomato sauce.
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Yeah white sauce is excellent… chicken, sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke…
I can always taste the sugar in tomato sauce, ruins it for me.
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Yup, if I want sweet I’ll use frozen raspberries to make the sauce, then serve it over ice cream.
Best tomato sauce I can remember was in some overpriced box of frozen ravioli.
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I started making my own pizza last year (changing diet thing, zzzz) and I’m honestly puzzled why they add sugar. It’s sweet enough without them.
This is more or less the recipe I use: https://www.abeautifulplate.com/the-best-homemade-margherita-pizza/
Sauce modified with fire roasted tomatoes (I don’t puree, I like it kinda chunky), fennel seed (must on any pizza), oregano, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and garlic.
It’s super simple, the only drawback is waiting 2 hours on the dough. Sometimes you just want to fucking eat.
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> For the best margherita pizza, you will want to preheat your oven to the highest temperature possible. For my oven, that is 550 degrees Fahrenheit. I allow my baking steel to preheat for at least 30 minutes (regardless of whether my oven is ready as it takes time for your baking stone to come to temperature). The higher the temperature the better.
Black smoke is belching from the oven, and the Fire Department is on the way, or would be, if I tried this.
Bet it’s excellent when you know what you’re doing, though.
You’re using canned tomatoes for the sauce? I’m assuming you don’t fire-roast them yourself. (: For my mouth, any tomato product from a factory needs a buttload of spices and trial and error to become tongue-interesting. But wtf do I know? Nada.
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Yeah I don’t do any of that shit lol
I have a normal round pizza pan, I parbake the dough + brushed olive oil for like 6 minutes while the oven’s preheating, then cook the full thing at 525 for 10 minutes.
Tomatoes are from the can, and quite a lot of spice!
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(Meant to say “pre-bake” not parbake but I’m an uneducated savage.)
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Dang, look what I just learned.
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