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My soup favorites change with time. Clam Chowder has always been a contender. Various squash soups run high on the list. My current favorite is pozole. I liked the Panera Bread version so much that I bought a couple of cups to go and told Albert to reproduce the contents of those paper cups. He has become much better at pozole than Panera ever was. He still can’t reproduce Popeye’s Red Beans and Rice, but I’ve enjoyed eating his progress. It’s fun to hand Albert a challenge.

We have this perfect system here. He cooks. I eat. He never complains either. He’s watched me destroy eggs and other simple ingredients often enough to know that he should man the frying pan. Years ago I cooked an over-easy egg that I photographed because of its uncanny resemblance to a razor clam. The pic above is a real clam since the other clam rests in a box somewhere but, except for the fact that one clam sits in a frying pan, the two look pretty much the same.

The biography jar threw out a tricky topic, one I tend to stay away from in posts and daily life.  Among other considerations, I believe that political oratory becomes largely wasted by the late twenties. By middle-age, nobody changes nobodies mind no how. I can put all the cogent arguments in favor of the Green Party or the Libertarian Party together, express them perfectly and I will still get exactly nowhere if my goal is to change someone else’s mind. I may clarify my own thinking, but that’s another issue.

Our minds are made up. That’s part of the problem today. We reject the facts that don’t support our views as mistaken and may even classify these views as malicious propaganda. We latch on to facts that support our views, often without reviewing sources and agendas.  Americans have become polarized and, unfortunately, the best strategy I know for dealing with this clustering at the poles seems to be avoidance. You go your way, I’ll go mine.

That said, perhaps it’s time for America to reject the “wasted vote” argument. The idea that we have to vote for a democrat or republican because any other vote is useless has led many people to implicitly support a system that may not deserve our support. If we all vote repuplican or demoprat, how will we ever truly protest our leaders’ failures? These last few years have shown an appalling inability to compromise on both sides.

Next time, I think I will vote for Gary Johnson or his successor. I am more Libertarian than anything else. I want to suck a lot of government out of education and business for the sake of students and small business owners everywhere. I want my doctor friends to be able to practice medicine without losing hours and hours to paperwork each week. I want less government intervention and more personal freedom. I encourage others to vote for the Green Party, the Justice Party or whatever party most meshes with their personal views.

We are overdue for a protest vote. The problem with picking the lesser of two evils is that the lesser-evil may view their “win” as a mandate, and that mandate as an excuse not to work with the other party.  I’d like to send both parties a message:  We don’t want these extremes. We want our parties to communicate and work together.

(Actually, I’d like a Libertarian government. But I’d settle for a more functional one that listened to what the electorate wanted — all of the electorate — and acted accordingly.)

OK, guys — here’s your trivia question for the day: Who is this Star Trek character?

Continuing with yesterday’s question: Are there any events — world, local or personal that changed your life? I’d have to throw in the airing of the original Star Trek.

In a sense, Star Trek did not take me anyplace I had not been before. I had been aggressively reading science fiction, watching what little science fiction I could find, and making the neighbor children play games where I commanded rockets. Looking back, I realize the Lovato girls next door might have wanted to play something else, but I was a bit older, so I was in charge. My crew and I had a pretty good time on the porch rocket before exploring the planet in my backyard.

Still, Star Trek somehow validated my natural desire to command a rocketship. I had been a pretty weird kid. My imaginary playmate from early elementary school was a golden, jowled, lizard man from another planet, unimaginatively named Simon. (What can you expect from a six-year old whose fantasy alter-ego is the Queen of the Universe?)

Star Trek came in only a few years after the U.S. space program took off. Fantasy novels suddenly seemed possible. I was set to join the Martian Colony that many of us thought would be up and running by now.

Sigh.

Star Trek.

If you are writing a journal, what was your favorite childhood TV series? Why? Do you think the series influenced your life?