The Roundabout in America

Roundabouts have been slow to catch on here in the USA, but they are very common in other parts of the world and they are becoming more common here as well.  This doesn’t, however, keep the average stateside driver from hating them irrationally.  Let me ask you, what's not to like about a traffic interchange that saves taxpayer dollars, saves lives, and keeps traffic moving at the same time?  If drivers in other countries can learn to use them safely, so can you!

How do they save tax dollars?  They typically require less land when they are buying expensive real estate for an intersection, and they don’t require a hugely expensive signal light system – just a few yield signs.  They keep traffic moving because even when busy, everyone can typically keep moving – there is no 45 second wait for a signal to “come around.”  Saving lives is easy, when the only possibilities for wrecks are lane-changing sideswipes and low speed failure to yield conflicts.  The left-turn fatal or serious injury collisions, the red-light-runner t-bones, and the potential head-ons at normal intersections all go away.   

Once you understand how the roundabout is supposed to work, and what the rules are for using them, they become less-intimidating and less stressful to use. If my little essay doesn’t work for you, search online for instructional videos – there’s more than one.  ADOT has one specific to Arizona that is very good, but the rules are basically the same everywhere.  Please note that this discussion is not for the "traffic circles" often used for traffic-calming in neighborhoods or business areas.  Those are different.

The first rule about using a roundabout is you need to know where you are going.  There are signs posted ahead of a roundabout that show you graphically which lane you want for which direction you wish to exit the thing.  Pay attention to those signs if you don’t already know which lane you want – and position yourself in the lane you want.  This may seem elementary, but you and I both know that a vast number of drivers don’t pay attention to anything except their cell phone conversation or even worse, their text messages (don’t let this be you). But typically, you want the right lane entry for a right turn or straight through.  You want the left lane entry for straight through, for left turning and for u-turns.

Then, on arrival at the entry point, prepare your mind to yield, not roll right on in. All roundabouts should require a yield on entry; the vehicles already in it have the right-of-way. You may need to wait a few seconds to yield and then enter the traffic flow in the circle. When you do, enter directly to the lane from which you will exit the roundabout – this is not like a turn at an intersection where you must turn right lane to right lane, or left lane to left lane.  One thing they don’t want you to have to do is to change lanes in the roundabout.

Then just drive on through. Keep in mind the roundabout is not intended to be a high-speed interchange.  Maximum speed is typically 20-25 mph.

One or two more things – if you are driving a long vehicle, pulling a trailer, etc, the center apron is designed to allow you to drive on it.   If you encounter an emergency vehicle in or near a roundabout, you yield to them the same as you would anywhere else – clear the roundabout if you have time to do that, and pull to the right as far as possible, stop and wait there until they have passed the required distance down the road before you resume driving.  If you have to stop IN the roundabout because you weren’t paying attention and they caught you by surprise, pull to the right and stop where you are.

Once you learn to follow these rules, you’ll get used to driving in roundabouts and they won’t stress you out!

Keep the shiny side up!

A Minuteman's Last Post

Having just gone to Boston and once again being enamored of and fired up about the true stories of our revolutionary war, for this year’s Remembrance Day I am posting this story. It is mostly transcribed from another source and is about a real Minuteman.  (see credit at the end)

Did you know that the Minutemen were militia members, but that not all colonial militia members were Minutemen?  The Minutemen were the elite, hand-picked for their dedication, enthusiasm, and their ability to muster at a moment’s notice.  They were our “first responders” of that day, or our original Rapid Deployment Force.  They turned out quickly and held the field (in theory) until the rest of the militia units could form and march.  Gosh, and you thought that idea was something new. 

Anyway, I’ve read the names of some Minuteman leaders, but you rarely read the personal stories of the rank and file, unless they were killed on the day of the battle.  Gordon Lightfoot said a soldier "must be dead to be admired" [Don Quixote]; apparently, this has more than a grain of truth in it. 

So, for Remembrance Day, 2014, I present you:  Mr. Thomas Hill, Esq, of West Cambridge, Massachusetts, a Minuteman, and with thanks to Mr. Thomas Kemp for the original story.

The following is an almost verbatim transcription of an encomium printed in the Massachusetts Spy, Worcester, MA in 1851. I have slightly re-arranged the order of the text for clarity.

A Revolutionary War hero, gone.  Died at his residence in West Cambridge, on Thursday morning (15 July 1851). Thomas Hill, esq, aged 90 years. Mr. Hill was a pensioner. He was in the battle of Concord, and was on Bunker Hill, but not in the engagement.

Thomas Hill…, …the only survivor of a family of seven, then in his fourteenth year, was [also] not under arms on the day of the Concord fight, but…with his father and eldest brother Abraham was of the volunteer minute men who fought at Bunker Hill on the seventeenth of the following June and later in the Eight Years War served two campaigns in the Jerseys and New York. He [was] now 89 years of age.

Thomas Hill was honored, along with four other survivors who were active in the scenes of 1775 [these were all that could be found still alive in 1851*] .  On this occasion, the citizens of the beautiful town of West Cambridge did high honor to one of the least of its quiet native-born townsmen. Thomas Hill, the old soldier, was escorted by a cavalcade of about seventy horsemen, out and home, from West Cambridge to Concord over nearly the precise route of the first instalment of British troops that marched from Boston and fired upon the collected American troops at Lexington, killing eight men, being ordered as ‘damned rebels’ to disperse by the British commander.

First printed, along with explanatory notes, by:
Thomas Jay Kemp | Posted on August 21, 2012 by Thomas Jay Kemp: Thomas Hill—American Revolutionary War Minuteman Hero Gone

Thomas Hill, age 14, didn’t stay at home with the women, the children, and the old folks.  He went out to the battle with the men and braved the fire of the angry and determined Regulars. He not only went, he went with the first of the “shock troops,” the Minutemen. 

So to honor the old soldier, they took his body on parade, accompanied by seventy mounted horsemen, along the same route Paul Revere rode in 1775 and followed that same morning by the British soldiers who initiated the fighting in what we now call our Revolutionary War -- at Lexington Green, and at the Old North Bridge in Concord.  How cool is that?

* In 1851, a soldier who was of fighting age in 1775 would have been about 95 years of age, so there were not many left.  Average life expectancy was much lower 175 years ago than it is today.

Tracy Morgan: ‘I Can’t Believe Walmart Is Blaming Me’ for Crash Injuries

Wal-Mart's driver caused the crash, but Morgan wasn't wearing a seat belt. I wonder how many other people would be just as surprised if something like this happened to them? 

Mr. Morgan called Wal-Mart's argument "despicable."  I don't think so, and neither does the prevailing legal thought in the USA - and probably elsewhere as well.  When you do not do everything reasonable to protect yourself from risk, then the other seemingly culpable party in an injury case may not be held fully responsible.  Depending on where you live, this concept may be memorialized as contributory negligence, or perhaps comparative negligence.  I am told these are two slightly different concepts (along the same lines).  If you do not wear your seat belts, and injuries result in an ensuing collision, the portion of your injuries deemed caused by your failure to wear them will likely be deducted from any claim you might win. Think about it... why would "they" shoulder the complete responsibility when the liability is, in reality, shared?

In my city, about two and a half decades ago, a local police chief and seat belt wearer was driving to a local car wash.  Since it was just a short distance, in his own neighborhood, the Chief did not fasten his seat belt.  He was t-boned by an extremely drunk driver (my characterization) and he suffered a severe, paralyzing back injury, which shortened his life significantly. He lived long enough to sue the drunk driver -- but because his injuries were judged to be about 50% caused by his own failure to wear the belt, the court reduced his award by that amount.  When you think about the costs associated with the treatment of this kind of injury, we're talking about a responsibility of millions of dollars in his case.

These concepts apply to any such liability situation -- failure to wear a helmet in a motorcycle crash, for example, or a case where a collision is a result of failures by both drivers to observe traffic laws -- you run a red light and hit someone who was drunk and speeding, just to name a couple.  A jury might decide 50/50, like in the Chief's case, or maybe 60/40, whatever.  It will vary according to the circumstances.

So if you are not convinced by the overwhelming safety considerations to wear your belts -- at least do it to protect your wallet and your family's future!

Hey... keep the shiny side up, eh?

Strawberry Shortcake

Bob's Shortcake 2014

On the face of the Earth, perhaps even in this galaxy, there may not be anything quite as perfect as good strawberry shortcake.  And while there MAY be bad strawberry shortcake somewhere, I don’t know how that’s even a possibility.

 

PINT STRAWBERRIES, HULLED AND SLICED.
Sprinkle liberally with sugar and set aside until the sugar becomes a syrupy glaze.

SHORTBREAD BISCUITS

1 cup flour

1½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ TB sugar +
2 TB butter
⅜ cup half and half (or milk)

Sift and mix dry ingredients.  Rub or cut in the butter until mixed. Add the cream and mix just enough to form a soft dough, just until it comes together and you can squish it into a ball.  A little extra milk or cream may be required.  Do not overwork the dough, no kneading.

Press out onto a floured surface to a thickness of ¾ to 1 inch.  Cut into rounds with a biscuit cutter or cut with a knife into small squares.  Sprinkle pinches of sugar over the tops before baking. Bake at 450 for 12 minutes until done.  Serve warm.  This makes about a handful of biscuits. Maybe 4 to 6.

Break or slice a warm biscuit in half, top and bottom.  Place in serving dish.  Spoon desired amount of strawberries over the biscuit halves.  Top with a spoonful or two of strawberry yogurt and whipped cream.  Vanilla ice cream is also a good choice…  It’s hard to go wrong.  Onions.  Onions probably wouldn’t work. Or peas.

Store the leftovers in an airtight container for later enjoyment.  Shortcake at 3 AM when all others are asleep and unaware!  Score!  If the biscuits have cooled, be sure to toast the halves before loading them up with the strawberries and cream!

Barbecue Pie

Bob's Barbecue Pie

So... last night I made a cottage pie, for supper. It was pretty excellent for something I just threw together.  This resulted in me eating more than usual for supper.  So that was good.  For those who don't savvy, a cottage pie is the beef equivalent of a shepherd's pie, which is made with ground lamb.  I do not eat sheep.  This got me thinking about how I could modify the concept por algunos otros ingredientes.  Mom has difficulty eating meats if they aren't fall-apart tender, so I was looking for ways to accomplish some dishes with the refrigerated or frozen meats in the microwaveable trays you can get at most grocers.  They are always very soft and tender. I used a roast beef in gravy for the cottage pie.

So tonight, since there weren't too many leftovers from that, I got a package of barbecue pulled pork and I made a sort of tamale-barbecue pie with it.  It turned out very tasty.

My cottage pie was a 16 oz package of roast beef and gravy, to which I added some sautéed carrots, mushrooms and onions.  I spread one potato's worth of mashed potatoes over it in a pie plate, drizzled a little melted butter over the top, and baked it at 350 or 400 for about 25 minutes.  Last night, I actually forgot the mushrooms, but it was still good.  Very good.

Tonight, I adapted the same concept to the barbecue pie...



First, make a corn bread batter.  I used this one...

1/4 cup corn meal
3/4 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 TB baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/6 cup vegetable oil
1/12 cup melted butter
(yes, that's one-twelfth)
1/2 TB honey
1 egg, beaten
5/8 cup buttermilk (you can sub reg whole milk if you choose)

(Note: I weigh my ingredients using a kitchen scale, so the weird measurements are really very easy.)

Sift the dry ingredients together.  Mix the wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Combine the two and mix just long enough to blend the ingredients.  I also add 1 tsp of red pepper flakes and a dash or two of dried chives to the batter.  Set this aside for a few moments.

Other ingredients:
16 oz pulled pork in barbecue sauce
1/3 cup chopped celery
1/3 cup chopped onion
1 303 can no-salt corn, or about 1.5 cups of frozen corn, thawed.
1 batch of the corn bread batter
Opt: 1 can of green chiles, drained

Prepare the 16 oz of pulled pork in barbecue sauce as directed.   At the same time, sauté some celery and chopped onion in a skillet with a little bit of oil, until tender.  Open and drain a can of sweet corn, or its frozen equivalent.  If using frozen, it needs to be cooked first, or at least thawed before going into the pie.

Spoon or dump the hot barbecue pork into a 9 inch pie plate.  Fold the sautéed vegetables into the corn bread batter along with the drained corn, and pour this over the top of the pork. 

Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes, or until the corn bread topping tests done with a tooth pick.  This might also work OK at 400 degrees, and could brown a bit more golden, in less time.

I served this with sides of coleslaw, Hoppin' John, buttered spinach and apple cake with whipped cream for dessert.  I don't know if anyone else liked it, but I sure did.  All of it.

It goes without saying that you could use some fresh green chiles, and they would be even better.  If you happen to have some on hand.

Don't have any fun until I get there!

Bob
 

Living a positive life

"Nobody is trial-free, but we have a choice.  We can choose to allow our experiences to hold us back, and to not allow us to become great or achieve greatness in this life. Or we can allow our experiences to push us forward, to make us grateful for every day we have and to be all the more thankful for those who are around us."

Elizabeth Smart

D-Day + 70

Into the face of heavy German fire, June 6, 1944

There were lots of stories today about the D-Day anniversary tomorrow, and how D-Day "changed the course of the war." 

I disagree - these are empty, unthinking platitudes from people who don't understand how the war progressed and was won (or maybe it's just lazy, sloppy reporting). While the outcome was not yet assured in June 1944, the course of the war was settled long before the first landing craft hit the Normandy beaches. The course of the war was planned and agreed upon by the Allies many months before, as our leaders met on ships off Newfoundland and in the desert at Casablanca. 

WWII was conducted in two parts - Europe and the Pacific - and 1942 was a bleak, dark year for the Allies in both theaters. The almost universally acknowledged pivotal event of the Pacific War occurred before the peak of summer - the Japanese disaster at Midway. After that, the ultimate defeat of Japan was inevitable, even though that outcome was something viewed from a distance and wasn't obvious to most participants at the time. 

In the West by that fall, the Americans also joined the continuing Allied action against the Axis in North Africa. Allied efforts drove Rommel's vaunted Afrika Corps into the Mediterranean in 1943. Then the Americans and the British went on to Sicily and Italy, driving the Italians and Germans ever northward before them in a long, relentless and hotly fought campaign. After North Africa's defeats in 1942-43, the Germans never had any lasting victories again and the Italians closed up shop early.

 

During the war, a Liberty ship was completed by
an American shipyard about every 42 days.

During that time and peaking in 1944-45, the American industrial behemoth was cranking up - American steel, American manufacturing and American transport made the massive war-making efforts possible on a global, multi-front basis and scale. It helped supply the British, it helped supply the Russians, Canadians and the Chinese, and ultimately it supplied the needs of the increasingly involved American Army, Marines and Navy.* The invasion of North Africa, increasing Allied dominance in the North Atlantic and the turn-around in Russia, all fueled by American industrial might, these are the things that changed the course of the fight in the European theater.

*At the same time, Soviet industrial output was not insignificant.  Especially toward the latter years of the war, Russian production exceeded that of Germany in many respects.  But none of them could match what American industry could build and deliver, not even close. We built what was needed, and with the help of our allies, we delivered it where it was needed.

In the end, the war in Europe could not have been won without the Russians; it is largely true that World War II was won on the backs of the Russian people and they are justly proud of how they held, and then completely stopped and destroyed the Germans on Russian soil, before driving them all the way back to Berlin.  It also could not have been won without the British and the Americans, the Australians and every other nation, people and resistance movement that contributed to the Allied war effort. 

But "the battles on the Eastern Front constituted the largest military confrontation in history.  They [the battles] were characterized by unprecedented ferocity, wholesale destruction, mass deportations, and immense loss of life [both civilian and military] variously due to combat, starvation, exposure, disease, and massacres."  [Wikipedia]. The West owes a huge debt of thanks to the people of the former Soviet Union for what they did, and for what they sacrificed, during those years.

8th AF B-17 over Marienburg, Germany

The war could not have been won without American industrial might. It could not have been won without the massive successes of Allied air power - the strategic bombing campaign had more detrimental effects on German war-making ability than anyone realized at the time.

Had we known what to hit sooner, we might have been able to end the war months earlier than we did; but the most crippling blows were not understood at the time - those specifically against German transportation systems, energy sources and synthetic fuel plants and depots. General Spaatz apparently understood this, but many other strategic planners did not. Allied air operations between autumn 1943 and D-day virtually neutralized the German air force - and almost completely prevented them from attacking the landing beaches on June 6th.  Our invasion would very likely have failed had it been opposed by the second-to-none Luftwaffe as it existed in 1943.

D-Day was the beginning of the end for the Germans in the west. German decisions and actions subsequent to the invasion hastened that end and assured its inevitability.  But that end was already underway from the Russian thrust in the east and from the Allied efforts in the Med. 

I would never discount the monumental undertaking that was D-Day -- nor the courage and sacrifice of the ones who prosecuted it. It was a necessary step. It was a huge risk and in the end, a huge success. It was the greatest sea-borne invasion in history, before or since, and a massive undertaking almost beyond comprehension. 

But it was not the turning point. Instead, D-Day was a critical step along the way to a carefully-planned outcome made possible by events (victories) that had already occurred.  If you want to pinpoint them, German failure to defeat England in 1940, the reversal of German fortunes in the North Atlantic, Rommel's defeat in North Africa and Russia's offensives causing the steady defeat and withdrawal of German forces from Soviet soil beginning in December 1942, these were the watershed moments, the "turning points."

In honor of the Allied soldiers and sailors and their officers, and our great nations, whose steadfast resolve, dedication and bravery won the greatest war ever fought, against two truly evil empires. I hope we never forget what they accomplished and at what cost.