Popevers finally popped

Half a dozen batches of popovers made in the last few months have failed to pop. They would come out edible enough, but without the high rise crustiness that makes a popover a popover.
Today it all came together and the popovers rose, got crusty, and were delicious.
The recipe is simple, cup of milk, cup of flour, two eggs, pinch of salt (1/4 tsp actually) and a tablespoon of melted butter. NO BAKING POWDER! Preheat oven to 400F. Add the milk, eggs and salt into a mixing bowl. Beat with an egg beater til smooth and fluffy. Melt the butter (I cheat and use margarine) in a big spoon on the stove. Beat the melted butter into the eggs & milk. Sift in a cup of flour. Only this time I used bread making flour instead of all purpose flour. It has more stickiness than the all purpose flour. Grease a muffin tin liberally, the popovers can stick and their hollow nature doesn't support prying out of the muffin tin. Bake 25 minutes at 400F, back off to 350F and give 'em another 15 minutes.
Yummy.

Frosty

It's below zero this morning. Coldest it's been so far this winter. Must be global warming.

Where do they get those cars?

The North Koreans did a state funeral yesterday. Vast empty street, Snow on the ground, crowds of mourners confined to the sidewalks.
Humungous long black limousines, with a '70's look to the styling. They weren't Cadillacs. I don't thnk they were Lincolns. Were they Russian? Do they Russians make such cars? And export them? And what do they do the rest of their lives, when they aren't hauling coffins in state funerals?

Hyping your headlines

Today's airliner incident, a 737 aborted its takeoff. According to Fox TV News, the tires "exploded".
Yeah right. Any motorist knows that tires blow out, they don't explode.
But the writer's must think "explode" is catchier. Or maybe they are just ignorant. TV people are poorly educated.
But for those of us who drive or fly, "blow out" gets our immediate attention.

Words of the Weasel Part 24

Underperform. Fox News Speak (heard on air this morning) for lose. As in "Newt Gingrich may underperform in the Iowa Caucus."

Should party primaries be open?

Well, they are in New Hampshire. We allow voters to change their party affiliation at the polls on election day. And to change it back again on the way out the door. Party members often complain about this, saying it is wrong to allow non party members a voice in party candidate selection.
I disagree. To win office, candidates must attract votes from the undecided middle. The independents or the opposition. The way things are right now, about 30 percent of voters are die hard Republicans, who will vote Republican no matter what. Another 30 plus percent are yellow dog Democrats. And the remaining 40% of the electorate can vote for either side.
Allowing that 40% middle to have a vote in the primary helps nominate candidates acceptable to the middle, and thus have a chance of winning the general election.

Did Congress slip on over on us?

The news is full of talk about the "payroll tax reduction" bill that might have passed the House yesterday. Actually it's the FICA tax they are talking about. Used to be, FICA was levied only on the first $110k of income, income over that limit was not subject to FICA.
According to Tax Prof here, the new law levies a 2% FICA tax on all income over the $110k cutoff point. That's a pretty stiff tax bite. And right out of the blue, too. This is the first I'd heard of this new "revenue enhancment".