Well, I can't help myself--I got home yesterday to an excited bunch of kids who informed me I had a package on the doorstep, all the way from Utah! (The package, not the doorstep.)
Obviously, my first thought was that it was a package of lovely collectible Marie Osmond dolls as well as a torrid love note and several naughty pictures (like I get from her every year). However, when I saw the return address, I knew it must be something even better--and it was! It was from the Axis of Weevil's own Ambassador to the Beehive State, Nate McCord!
I busted open the box and was attacked by one of these little cuties. After prying its vicious snarling teeth off of my arm, I noticed the enclosed note:
Terry, the possum's a little gift for you that I just couldn't pass up.
I hope you and your family have a blessed and spiritual Christmas.
Merry Christmas to all your Oglesby clan from the Utah chapter of the Axis of Weevil.
Nate
Also of interest was the little hangtag that came with the animal, full of intriguing facts about opossums. Did you know:
The opossum hideouts are located in a variety of areas including stumps, haystacks, vine tangles, attics, garages, road culverts, hollow trees, rock piles, crannies, under buildings, and in the abandoned burrows of other animals.
Okay, well, I do like the garage. It's really difficult to keep a rolling toolbox and do any kind of engine work in a hollow tree.Opossums are not territorial and do not maintain separate home ranges.
First I've heard of that. I guess I should quit walking around my house marking my property line with pee.They are exceptionally non-aggressive and non-destructive. They will not harm people or pets.
Yeah, right. You just keep thinking that, m'kay?They are more immune to many diseases than the other animals and are far less likely to carry rabies.
That frothing at the mouth? Just root beer foam.Opossums are beneficial to the environment because they eat pests, snails, and slugs.
Lemme tell you, it's not easy bein' green.They have a remarkable resistance to poisonous snakebite such as the rattlesnake, cottonmouth, Russell's viper, and Asiatic cobra.
I credit my remarkable resistance to snakebite to be the result of being scared of them enough to not get bitten.Opossums do not hibernate, and they are active at night.
That's why you see so many possums at all-night raves.ANYway, that's your possum fix for the year. Thanks once more to Nate for making this all possible!
...some things sound so good it would be a worse transgression not to share.
Case in point, Janis Gore's Sweet Tater Bread Pudding, which came to me in an e-mail via Chef Tony, the reading of said e-mail causing me to lick the monitor.
1 1/4 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and finely chopped
2 cups raisins
1/4 cup dark rum
5 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 quart whipping cream
2 cups half-and-half
2 tablespoons cane syrup
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 (16 ounce) loaf French bread, torn into 1-inch pieces
Rum Sauce
Whipped cream
Arrange sweet potatoes in a steamer basket over boiling water. Cover and steam 10 minutes or until tender. Set aside.
Combine raisins and rum. Set aside.
Combine eggs and next 5 ingredients in a bowl; add bread pieces, sweet potato, and raisin mixture. Spoon mixture evenly into 2 lightly greased 11 x 7-inch baking dishes. Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour or until set, covering with foil to prevent over browning, if necessary.
Serve warm with Rum Sauce and whipped cream. Serves 16.
Rum Sauce
1 1/2 cups butter
1/4 cup dark rum
3 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 egg yolk
Melt butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat; stir in rum. Add confectioners' sugar; stir with a whisk until smooth. Stir in egg yolk; cook, stirring constantly, 5 minutes or until mixture reaches 160 degrees F.
Makes 2 1/2 cups.
That, my friends, is some good food.
Now then, in other matters, since I've got a short week this week and won't be here next week, I want to wish all of you Hebrew folks a Happy Hanukkah, all you pagans Lo Saturnalia, all you Christians a Merry Christmas, all you Constanzans a Happy Festivus, all you African Studies majors a Joyous Kwanzaa, and you atheists a cordial end of December/beginning of January.
Best wishes to all who still come by Possumblog every so often, despite the fact that we're closed and retired and all that stuff, and may the upcoming year be a good one for you all.
On the way in to work this morning, and decided to pull in at McDonald's for one of their nutritious McSkillet breakfast burritos, as I on occasion am prompted to do by the combined effects of hunger and hip McGen-X advertising Mciconography I see on the tee-vee.
Ordered, heard my order mumbled back to me, and drove around to the window. Watched the driver in front of me pay, wondered when he'd get through with his chat with the cashier. He drove on, I rumbled up. Stuck my hand and my money out the window, and the girl said, "He pay for it for you."
I had one of those rare, genuine, flummoxed double-takes that you have when someone says something that simply doesn't compute.
"Do what?" said me, with an accent heavy with wtf.
"That man, he pay for your order. Is free!"
Well, I'll be doggone.
I didn't know what to do, so for some odd reason I smiled and thanked the cashier (who graciously accepted it), then rolled forward and did a double-tap on the horn and waved as the fellow in the Nissan Pathfinder drove off.
He waved back.
Just one of those nice little things that make you think nice little thoughts all day long. And to think--the guy was a Georgia Bulldog fan!!
Maybe there's hope for mankind yet!
...if you are a moron.
My lumpy old gray hunk of Swedish iron just turned over the quarter-million-mile mark!
A testament to the basic solidity of the thing, as well as the maniacal devotion to scheduled maintenance by the previous owner.
In any event, I believe I deserve a Federal bailout totalling $1,245,010,000.12.
UPDATE 12/9/08--OH, GREAT--now EVERYbody's getting in on the act!