The Red Brick Times

This morning I had the rather odd sensation of traveling north while my car was pointed west. I was on Gulf Rd. and had passed through the Rt 57 intersection to the bridge over the turnpike where I immediately lost it to black ice. By the time I was in the middle of the bridge I was sliding sideways completely straddling the oncoming two lanes. A pickup and car were heading directly for my passenger side and they couldn't stop either. I was literally bracing for the crash when, at the end of the bridge, I regained a little traction and was able to drive off into the empty field right there just prior to being hit. Sat for a few minutes thinking about life, went home, changed pants, went to work.
Posted 12:50 PM by whatley 0 comments

Appellate Court Rules Media Can Legally Lie.
"On February 14, a Florida Appeals court ruled there is absolutely nothing illegal about lying, concealing or distorting information by a major press organization."
Posted 8:54 AM by whatley 0 comments

We got hacked. To be more precise sometime last night the server that tRBT is hosted on got hacked and every account there had its main page changed to this. In our case it was pretty easy to fix but the hosting company will have to take things down for a while to patch the security hole.
Posted 8:09 AM by whatley 0 comments

"Experienced Bushologists let out a collective "Aha!" when Clear Channel was revealed to be behind the pro-war rallies, because the company's top management has a history with George W. Bush."
Channels of Influence
Posted 2:00 PM by whatley 0 comments

John Pais and I saw "Frank Black and the Catholics" at the Beachland Ballroom last Monday. I'd never heard of them but John, music maven that he is, likes them a lot so I took his word for it. He was right. Cutting edge indy type rock 'n roll. I've been reading about the Beachland for a long time and really wanted to see it. It's an excellent place with a very intimate concert hall that probably really was a ballroom at one time. Super accoustics. The crowd was pretty young and they don't put out seating in that case which was a bit of a drag for me. John said he went there once before for a Woody Guthrie tribute concert and chairs were put up for that. A bit of a late night for me but a good time.
Posted 12:52 PM by whatley 0 comments

There is a rumor going around purporting to know the first building attacked and destroyed in the aerial attack on Baghdad on Wednesday. Which building? See comments.
Posted 8:35 AM by Andy Allan 0 comments

Baghdad Weblog. This link is being posted on several respected sites today. They're treating it as real and it seems to be, though as with most things internet I keep a grain of salt handy.
Posted 12:25 PM by whatley 0 comments

Warriors of God - Richard Lion Heart and Saladin in the Third Crusade by James Reston, Jr. The review begins as follows: "The Third Crusade (1187-1192) is one of the best imaginable topics for a popular history. The people involved are pretty much the same disputatious crew that we meet in the film, "The Lion in Winter." They and their Muslim opponents and colleagues really did do the kind of things that are supposed to happen only in comic strips. James Reston, who has written about medieval subjects before, does not disappoint in this book. He is to be particularly congratulated for consulting Muslim sources from the period, to balance the well-known European ones. Warriors of God has a bibliography short enough to be useful."


Posted 8:20 AM by Andy Allan 0 comments

The New York Review of Books: The Way We Live Now
A review of The War over Iraq: Saddam's Tyranny and America's Mission
by Lawrence F. Kaplan and William Kristol, but then again so much more. It's an essay that can stand by itself.
Posted 2:46 PM by whatley 0 comments

The domain registrar for 7393.org sent me an email today. I'd originally registered the name for a two year period which is drawing to a close. You must renew periodically (meaning fork over some bucks) or the name can be snapped up by someone else. Gadzooks, two years and the thing's not only still running, we even added a new member recently. Who knew?
Posted 3:43 PM by whatley 0 comments

Making Maple Syrup in Ohio
We are near the end of the time of year in this area when maple sap flows for syrup making. Sap flow requires freezing nights and warm (but not hot) days. These must alternate and be in long enough series to allow the sap to move in the trees. The sugar bush in the Cuyahoga County Metro Parks Rocky River Branch just finished their evaporator run today. This year they produced only about 4 1/2 gallons of syrup, a record low. The previous low yield was 8 gallons, and they have seen over 20 gallons in a good year. We have had precious few days that alternated day temperatures in the high 40s with nights below 30. There have been single days in the 40s, and yesterday was in the 50s, but the nights and subsequent days have ben back in the 20s or below and stayed there for a week's time.

Tapping involves drilling holes 7/16 of an inch in diameter, about 3 inches deep, into the wood which carries the sap. The maple tree must be a least 10 inches in diameter and in good health before it can be tapped. It usually takes about forty years before a tree will reach tappable size. The hole is usually placed about waist high on the tree, and not near previous tapholes. Larger trees may take as many as three or four taps, but only if they are healthy. A healthy sugar maple can provide sap every year for a hundred years or more. Throughout the 4-6 week sugar season, each tap hole will yield approximately ten gallons of sap.

Maple sap, as it comes from the tree is a clear, slightly sweet liquid. The sugar content rages from one to four percent. An hydrometer can be floated in the sap to determine the exact sugar content. Sweeter sap is favored because less water will have to be evaporated to make maple syrup. It takes forty gallons of sap to evaporate down to one gallon of maple syrup. About one cord of wood or sixty gallons of oil are used to reduce 800 gallons of sap into 20 gallons of maple syrup.

The evaporator pan is divided into partitions, so that the sap is continuously flowing through the pan. Fresh sap enters at the back of the pan, where a float valve keeps the sap about an inch deep. At the front of the evaporator the boiling sap turns a golden color as it becomes maple syrup. When the temperature of the boiling liquid is 219.5 degrees F (seven and a half degrees above the boiling point of water), it has reached the proper density and is maple syrup. Another way of checking for the proper density or sugar content is to place a scoop into the boiling syrup. If the drops along the bottom edge of the scoop begin to hold together like a sheet or apron, then the syrup is done. Coming from the tree, maple sap is approximately 98% water and 2% sugar. When the syrup is finished, it is 33% water and 67% sugar. After filtering, the syrup is bottled and is ready for consumption. Sugars (mainly Sucrose - see comment appended) make 50 Calories per Tablespoon for Maple Syrup. Honey and Karo Corn Syrup are both 60 Cal per Tbsp, and Molasses is 40 Cal per Tbsp, for comparison.

The length of the sugaring season is dependent upon the weather. It may last a few, or as long as six or eight weeks. As the days become warm, and the nights rarely get below freezing, the buds on the branches of the maple trees begin to swell, marking the end of the season. Chemical changes take place within the tree as leaf buds burst and phototsynthesis and transpiration begin. The syrup made from the sap then tastes bitter, in comparison with the earlier production.
*******************
Maple Syrup Grades:

Grade A Light Amber, is very light and has a mild, more delicate maple flavor. It is usually made earlier in the season when the weather is colder. This is the best grade for making maple candy and maple cream.
Grade A Medium Amber, is a bit darker, and has a bit more maple flavor. It is the most popular grade of table syrup, and is usually made after the sugaring season begins to warm, about mid-season.
Grade A Dark Amber, is darker yet, with a stronger maple flavor. It is usually made later in the season as the days get longer and warmer.
Grade B, sometimes called Cooking Syrup, is made late in the season, and is very dark, with a very strong maple flavor, as well as some caramel flavor. Although many people use this for table syrup; because of its strong flavor, it's often used for cooking, baking, and flavoring in special foods.
****************
I was able to sample the final output this evening at a naturalist's and volunteer's gathering in the park marking the end of the sugaring-off season. The day's product was still steaming when we dipped it from an insulated cooler, and drizzled it liberally over home-made vanilla ice cream. It doesn't get much better than that.

Posted 10:11 PM by Andy Allan 0 comments

Posted 1:17 PM by whatley 0 comments

Hi, guys. Just wanted to say hello and introduce myself. It's been awhile. I, too, enjoyed the article by Harriet McBryde Johnson. The Times site does require registration, but is free (so far). Andy told me about your online chats when we dined together a couple of weeks ago. I checked it out, contacted Russ, and here we are.

After 11 years in northwest Florida, I'm still enjoying the snow. So curse me at will. I'll take the blame. The lake is gorgeous. I explored the ice at a park in Rocky River a couple of weeks ago. I snuck out on the closed pier to look at what from shore looked like a frozen wave. Ice several feet high, taller than me, about 10 yards from the beach, which I chose not to climb. From the end of the pier, I could see that the frozen wave was caused by the buckling of more ice coming in. I could see where it had been forced up and curved by the ice forcing its way in. It was very beautiful and very cool.

I've been checking the RBT a couple of times a week and will continue to do so.

Joyce
Posted 9:38 AM by joyce hicks 0 comments