Red's Best Pancake House Or The Viking Club? Or Both?

8:45

Fog Off  Long Point

It's 7:50 and I am listening to a podcast from the 7th Avenue Project, an interview with Rebecca Goldstein called 'Why Philosophy and Plato Still Matter.'  Well, I am sort of listening, falling in and out as they talk, as it's a bit early to listen carefully.  I did like her definition of philosophy, "an attempt to give our world coherence." And she reminded me that Socrates was put to death for asking questions, supposedly corrupting youth by teaching them to think critically, to question authority."

The sun has risen somewhere but it's not evident here, as it's cloudy, a gloomy gray morning here at the lake.  It's 32º out, a light rain/ice falling, a day like the past few days.

The podcast just ended with a rap by Dr. Awkward on Plato's Allegory of The Cave, really cool. Goldstein's interpretation of the cave is quite similar: believing in any ideology is like living in a cave, and we have move outside the cave, question the beliefs we have been sold, to get to the truth. Wow.  If only our politicians would venture out of the cave!

 Here is the rap's chorus:

I've seen something new
The greens and the blues
I've opened my eyes, and I've seen the truth
And I've learned of life
And I've learned to feel
And closing your eyes doesn't make it less real.

The Allegory Of the Cave can be seen on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfUX6omiKeA

A Plump Black Capped Chickadee

Shake A Tail Feather

Almost Sated

Yesterday Evie slept in till 9:00, lucky girl, and I went to yoga at 9:00, having gotten up at 5:45, way to early for me but it allowed me to have breakfast, write my blog, and be on the way to yoga by 8:35.  It was a mixed class, as we moved more quickly from one position to another but I felt great after it and rewarded myself with a coffee from Ryder's Cup.  And I bought a plastic bottle of an analgesic called China Gel, which produces a penetrating, relieving heat when applied on a sore muscle.  Danielle, our teacher, uses it in her massage studio.  It reminds me of Tiger Balm which we used to use when we lived in Hawaii back in the late 1960's.

A Disappointing Black Bottom Oatmeal Pie

When I got home, Evie was thick into the extended process of making a pie, after all it was PI day.  It was a pie we both had read about on the Smitten Kitchen blog called Black Bottom Oatmeal Pie.  It's an elaborate process, making the dough, letting it sit in the refrigerator a couple of hours, roll the dough, then in the freezer for 20 minutes, baking it for twenty minutes, before making the filling, roasting the oatmeal, and so on.  O, yea, as she was making this, she put together her vegetable soup, enough for our lunches for a week.  And in her spare time, she made me lunch, home fries and fried eggs, so I would not have to miss a minute of a basketball game.  I may have said this before but 'what a women.'  If we are too think back on our day, as some suggest, and think about what we should be grateful for, well, I am always grateful for a wife like Evie, but especially yesterday!

Our Cozy Living Room

We spent the afternoon watching both basketball and some TV with occasional trips to the kitchen.   We relaxed around 6:00, with wine and brie, a fire, and listened to Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor.  And dinner was a no brainer, leftover meat loaf and mashed potatoes, so Evie could really enjoy her evening.  Both were great heated up, again, just what I wanted.  Unfortunately, desserts are not always as tasty as their write up and our Black Bottom Oatmeal pie was only average, not one Evie would make again.  We watched the first two episodes of the third season of The Americans, a series we have enjoyed, about a couple of Russian spies, who are living a typical American domestic life in the Washington, D. C. area, with two teenagers.

A dilemma this morning for us, whether to drive to Sherman, to Red's Pancake House for breakfast or go to the Viking Club in the afternoon for their St. Patrick's Day bash, with green beer, corned beef and cabbage.  Or do both and live it up?  Time will tell.