Helpful: Gin recipes from Plymouth

We went out tonight shopping on Clark Street and got some presents, and some North Shore Gin! Local booze always tastes better. But Gin and Juice is so 1998. We found this instead from the Plymouth Gin website:


Silver Bronx
50 ml (1 shot) Plymouth Gin
1 dash Sweet Vermouth
1 tbsp Egg White (whisked)
25 ml (1/2 shot) Orange Juice (Fresh)
1 dash Dry Vermouth


Fill mixing glass with ice
Add the Plymouth Gin, vermouths, orange juice and whisked egg white (optional)
Shake well
Strain into a martini glass

Delicious.

Helpful: An Iraq War Vet for Mark Pera for Congress IL-3

Why is an Iraq War Vet working for Mark Pera - watch this video to find out.



Mark Pera for Congress '08 : Video Clips

NOTE: This has been reposted with the correct video link. Sorry if this shows up twice on your feeds.

Helpful: Amazon Wish Lists

It's easy to set up, easy to share, and who knows, maybe **COUGH COUGH** your friends and beloved family **COUGH COUGH** will get you some good stuff this year. Not that you weren't thankful for last year's gifts, of course.

Interesting: Major League Soccer salaries

I'm working on a long post about relegation and promotion for MLS, but in the meantime, I found a list of salaries for players in MLS.

MLS Players Union :: Player Salary Information

The total of all salaries this year is only $42,000,000.
Highest, LA Galaxy - $9.3 million
Lowest, Chivas USA - $1.7 million

In baseball in 2006:
Highest, NY Yankees - $192 million
Lowest, Florida - $14 million

Interesting: Surprisingly Doable

I saw this in the Red Eye a few days ago and couldn't believe it. Condos are so easy!

Adrants » That Hot Chic...And Chicago Real Estate Are Surprisingly Doable

Interesting: Homeless vets

Absolutely shameful.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- More than 25 percent of the homeless population in the United States are military veterans, although they represent 11 percent of the civilian adult population, according to a new report.

On any given night last year, nearly 196,000 veterans slept on the street, in a shelter or in transitional housing, the study by the Homelessness Research Institute found.

Everyone says that the US is the richest nation in the world. Well, obviously not. If we can't use our trillions of tax dollars so that all people have at least their basic needs met, then shame on us. And if we can't agree that all people deserve to have their basic human needs met, no matter what their choice of occupation, then God help us.

Helpful: How to Be Interesting

Tonight, I went to an event that had a lot of people I didn't know. I wasn't very interesting, I think. I got bored, felt awkward, and left. Turns out, rather than being interesting, I should have been interested.

Oh,and I should also start collecting something. Do soccer jerseys count?

Not Helpful: UMC Judicial Council Shenanigans

Some inside baseball on the church front. At the big "C" church level, I'm part of the team that is fighting to open up the United Methodist Church membership, clergy ranks, etc. to people of all races, genders, sexual orientation, and any other status. The church has some contradictions to work out, namely:

1. The UMC constitution states that people should not be denied membership based on status
2. Sexual orientation was recently ruled by a regional church judicial body to be a qualifying status
3. Other regional judicial bodies have ruled that pastors can deny membership based on sexual orientation

Like in the US government, there is a supreme judicial branch, the Judicial Council. This summer at our Annual Conference, we in Northern Illinois approved a formal petition to the Council to address this contradiction, and to rule that discriminating based on status should be unconstitutional.

Result:
They punted, saying that we didn't pass our petition correctly.

This is bogus. All of our petitions were available for debate and were voted on. The Judicial Council is literally making up law as it goes.

Interesting: Record Disapproval

USATODAY.com: Meanwhile, Bush reached an unwelcome record. By 64%-31%, Americans disapprove of the job he is doing. For the first time in the history of the Gallup Poll, 50% say they 'strongly disapprove' of the president. Richard Nixon had reached the previous high, 48%, just before an impeachment inquiry was launched in 1974.

Interesting: Mod styles

This would be better suited for another blog, but check out these styles from the year of my birth, 1977...




15 Minute Lunch: Strap in, shut up and hold on. We're going back.

Interesting: Halloween 2007

Great party, great location, great friends!

Picasa Web Albums - Matt - Halloween 2007

Interesting: Brokeback to the Future

Amazing.