Welcome to My Blog
Thank you so much for stopping by my website. I hope you will find something here to interest you. So let me introduce myself. I am a novelist, a civil and mechanical engineer, a Vietnam-era Air Force veteran, a Catholic by faith. Politically I am a centrist who subscribes to neither party, although I like […]
Buena Vista Pool Hall, Arboretum, and Wild Animal Preserve Recipe 4 – Spring 2020 Rosemary Popovers
My mother used to make Yorkshire pudding when I was young, and popovers are just a “personal” serving of Yorkshire pudding. They are one of those trademark side dishes some guests remember even more than the main dish. The Buena Vista version takes an old James Beard Cookbook recipe and adds a little rosemary as […]
Buena Vista Pool Hall, Arboretum and Wild Animal Preserve Recipe 3 – Winter 2020 Black Sage Venison with Wild Rice
Since preparing a memorable meal involves a bit of effort, I like to serve dishes guests can’t order in most restaurants. To do this, I like to lean on California native herbs straight out of my yard and gamey meats such as elk, venison, or wild fish. Venison can be hard to find in Los […]
Buena Vista Pool Hall, Arboretum, and Wild Animal Preserve Recipe 2 – Autumn 2019 Beer-Poached Wild Salmon and Wild Rice
Cooking a seemingly exotic meal doesn’t have to be difficult. Here’s a simple recipe for wild salmon. Find a reasonably large non-stick pan (mine is 14” diameter). Empty a pint of your favorite beer into the pan. Add a half-pound to a pound of wild salmon to the beer. Add a half cup of wild […]
Buena Vista Pool Hall, Arboretum, and Wild Animal Preserve Recipe 1 – Summer 2019 Buttersage Popcorn
Ever been to one of those expensive Italian restaurants that charge you a fortune for that itsy-bitsy handful of pan-fried sage leaves. Well if you happen to have sage growing wild in your garden, here’s a way to cash in and serve a memorable party dish or appetizer for your next gathering that is sure […]
My Writing Cave The Buena Vista Pool Hall, Arboretum, and Wild Animal Preserve
If every writer needs a writing cave, so do I. At a remote location, nestled in the San Rafael Hills, overlooking Glendale, La Cañada-Flintridge, and Los Angeles, California, on an acre lot surrounded by wildlife and chaparral, here is where I try to make the magic happen. I like my writing space to evoke the […]
L.A. Esoterica 1914-1926 The Al G. Barnes Circus, Barnes Zoo and Barnes City
For those who enjoyed their stay at Venice Pier and the Ship Café, if they wished, they could return toward L.A. on Washington Boulevard and stop by to see the Al G. Barnes Zoo. Al G. Barnes owned a circus. When Abbott Kinney invited him to bring his winter headquarters near the Venice lagoon so […]
L.A. Esoterica 1905-1920 Abbott Kinney and the Cabrillo Ship Café
Before there was a Brown Derby, or any of the dozens of L. A. area restaurants built to look like frogs, dogs, cats, hats, airplanes or doughnuts, THE place for Hollywood stars to be seen in Los Angeles was a dining establishment on Abbot Kinney’s Venice Pier built to look like a Spanish galleon. The […]
L.A. Esoterica Colonel Griffith Griffith and Griffith Park:
As a society, we tend to either revere or demonize our celebrities, politicians, sports figures, philanthropists, and other public figures. Ignoring the grey areas demanded by the human condition, we determine these people be good or bad, acceptable or unacceptable, hero or villain. Knowing little about who they are in private, we accept at their […]
The Call-Out Culture versus the Help-Out Culture Part 1
So what might validation rackets like the Klan teach us today? I would like to think the Ku Klux Klan was just an aberration, but I doubt it. Too much profit is made in monetizing misery. The far-right and far-left have no incentive to change their game. We’ve been conditioned to believe the great divide […]
Monetizing Misery – Part 2 On Validation Rackets
In my previous post, I wrote about how the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s was a wildly successful multi-level marketing Ponzi scheme that monetized fears held by many native-born Americans. Today I’ll talk about the third item that jumped out of my research. The Ku Klux Klan was a validation racket for those who […]
Monetizing Misery – Part 1 The Anaheim Ku Klux Klan in 1924
So now we’ve familiarized ourselves with three tactics used by people in authority to overpower those around them, including: Milgramming, the abuse of authority to change good people into bad people. Gaslighting, the abuse of authority to make smart people think they are crazy, and Dunning-Krugering the abuse of authority to transfer confidence and power […]
The Dunning-Kruger Trap
In Act V Scene I of As You Like It, the court jester, Touchstone, lectures William, a countryman and minor character, “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” Four centuries later, in 1999, two American social psychologists, David Alan Dunning, and Justin Kruger decided to […]
On Milgramming and Gaslighting
While we’re on the topic of Milgramming, we need to mention gaslighting. Both are tools corrupt authoritarians use to manipulate us. They are two tools in the same toolbox, but not the same. Here’s the difference: Milgramming is the abuse of authority to change good people into bad people. Gaslighting is the abuse of authority […]
The Milgramming of America – Part 2
I’d like to write more on the topic of the Milgramming of America. To remind you, Milgramming is the abuse of authority to change good people into bad people. In the previous blog, I summarized the Milgram Experiment. Today I’d like to talk about the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment. For an overview you can go […]
The Milgramming of America – Part 1
In case you haven’t noticed, America is being Milgrammed. And what is Milgramming? I was hoping you might ask. In brief, Milgramming is the abuse of authority to change good people into bad people. This might occur when one joins or swears allegiance to any number of authority figures, be they gang leaders, organized criminals, […]