Dog On A Root

- jim Young “I was never obligated to growing UP, but I had no choice in growing OLD.” - Steve Greeley Calculating my age. I don't know about you, but I literally have to stop and do the calculations whenever someone asks me how old I am. And even then, because I was born at the end of the year, I usually have to deduct 1 anyway. Minus-ing even 1 in my head is sometimes a mental challenge these days. Maybe it wouldn't be so hard if the number didn't change every year. Why can't we celebrate birthdays just every 5 years instead? Sure, our age would then be recorded in 5 year increments, but it might be easier to remember. We’re 60 for 5 years, then 65 for 5 years and so on. To let people know we are using the “5 year aging scale” we could qualify that by adding a plus sign to it. Let’s face it, if you want to be technical, even one day after our 65th birthday we are really 65.0028 years old (rounded to 5 digits). Telling someone we are 65+ is really mor...

Whenever Trump opens his mouth you can count on one of three things happening. 1) He will blatantly lie. 2) He will quote untrue information. 3) He will do both. And he didn't disappoint us again.

- jim Young 19920613 This is an article I wrote in 1992 that was lost during the transition of my site to a new server. As it is Father’s Day today, I thought it was an appropriate time to reprint it here now. On this, the occasion of my first Father's Day without my father, I address the following letter to Dad. George Young 1925 - 1991 circa 1980s Dear Dad, There's no doubt in my mind that you knew how much I loved you, even if the words were never spoken. For that I will be eternally grateful. I'm sure Leah prepared a nice room for you. Did she make you some homemade peanut brittle? Were you able to eat it? Is it true that they take your false teeth and give you back your real teeth in heaven? A lot has happened in the short time since you left us but I probably don't need to tell you that. I've felt your guiding hand with me throughout most of it. We've moved to the country now. I think you knew that was in the back of our minds for some ...

- jim Young 20190615 When preparing a recipe that involves dipping your food into any kind of batter or sauce, such as chicken wings or fish, I inevitably end up with extra batter or sauce left over. Or worse - not enough to finish the job. In most cases, since I've been dipping raw meat into my batter, it's probably been contaminated and not worth the risk of food poisoning by trying to keep it for another time. Recently I was preparing some Baked Buffalo Wings  when I somehow had a considerable amount of both the wet, egg/milk mix and dry, flour/breadcrumb dipping mixes left over. It seemed a shame to throw it out but I had nothing handy to use it up on. Rather than carry two bowls to the garbage, I combined the two mixes into one bowl. It occurred to me then, that perhaps I could mix it up and bake them into biscuits. I imagined my biscuits would be pretty bland however, so I looked around my kitchen for ideas and decided to add some of my hot sauce mix that I...

- jim Young 20190614 “My Wife: It’s dinner time. Are you hungry? Me: What’s being hungry got to do with eating?” I like chicken wings. That's not really a revelation to anyone that knows me. Last year when I was in the city for a week-long assignment I ate out every night and ordered chicken wings for dinner each night. There are so many good places to enjoy your wings in Barrie, but the wings at Tiff’s Bar & Restaurant  are - well - they’re legendary. Don’t believe me? You can check it out for yourself right on their menu . Panzerotto Pizza and Wing Machine at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Barrie An unlikely spot if you’re looking for good wings in Barrie is the Royal Victoria Hospital. You won't have to be admitted as a patient, however, you’ll find these wings in the food court at Gino’s Pizza and Wing Machine. At least they were good wings when they were known as the Panzerotto Pizza and Wing Machine. There are probably 40 or 50 places that you can get...