024 - Noticing a Trend

There was a time when you would never see an ass on television. It was about the same time that the word 'ass' would never have been uttered on the radio, except in reference to a donkey - not even when it was bleeped out, because let's be honest, everyone knows the guy is saying ass anyway. Whoever came up with bleeping or blanking out of words should be hit over the head with my giant cartoon hammer... but I admit, it was a brilliant ploy and it has been widely accepted, "hey, let's bleep it out, then we're technically not saying it... but we're still saying it... muahaha..."

These days it seems like the airwaves are blanketed with shows that push the envelope so much that it's tacky. I like the Alfred Hitchcock school of sex and violence. Give people the general idea, and let them take it from there. I guess what I'm saying is that shows shouldn't have to be nasty in order to be marketable. I Love Lucy and The Andy Griffith Show are still two of my favorites, and they didn't rely on shock value to be entertaining. I realize every day how old fashioned I am... I don't want to be June Cleaver or anything, but I would like to feel a little less worldly.

Enough of that soapbox... yesterday when I hit the treadmill I actually ran... a minute here, a minute there, but I ran... and it didn't kill me. I can tell that my stamina is improving, and maybe at some point I'll spend the whole thirty minutes running. It really depends on the incline... I tend to try to stay at 5% or better because the calories burn off more quickly.

For dinner I made a yummy, yummy tomato salad. What makes it so great is that you salt the tomatoes, collect the juice, mix it with garlic and balsamic vinegar and reduce it, so that the flavors are concentrated. Then you cool it down a little, mix it with olive oil to make a vinaigrette and pour it back over the tomatoes and add mozzarella and basil. Mmmm... it makes even substandard grocery store tomatoes taste good; it's really just a slightly more complicated twist on insalata caprese. The reduction would probably be awesome as a salad dressing or even as a glaze for chicken or fish. In any case, another winner from America's Test Kitchen.