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CROCKPOT BEEF STEW II

1 lb. beef bourguignon (or cheaper cut)
3 large sweet potatoes (cut into 1" thick slices)
2 cans beef bouillon (or broth or consommee)
2 small cans tomato paste
3-4 handfulls of assorted veggies (I used frozen green & yellow beans and carrots)
1 lb. fresh mushrooms (quartered)
1 large onion (diced)
2 cloves garlic (minced)
1/4 cup flour

Mix bite sized pieces of meat in flour, brown in some oil along with the diced garlic.

While meat is browning, combine beef bouillon & tomato paste in a crock pot, mix well.

Pre-cook the sweet potatoes until just tender, add to crock pot along with onions and any raw veggies that you may use. Add enough water to cover and cook on low for as long as you want, (I let it cook for about 5 hours.

I added the frozen veggies and some quartered mushrooms for about the last 1 hour or so.

I thickened it with a bit of flour and water, let it cook another 15 minutes uncovered and that was it.

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Roasted Red & Green Pepper Dip

1 red bell pepper
1 1/2 c mayonnaise
1 ts dried parsley; crushed
1 green bell pepper
1/2 c sour cream

GARNISHES

1 fresh parsley; chopped, or
1 paprika
1 dried parsley; crushed
2 tb lemon juice
1 tb fresh parsley; chopped, or

Slice the peppers in half, vertically, and remove the seeds. Char under the broiler on both sides (about 5 minutes per side). Remove and cool. Peel and dice the peppers and set aside. Blend the mayonnaise and sour cream until smooth. Mix in the lemon juice and parsley then blend in the peppers. Cover and chill. Garnish with additional parsley and sprinkle with paprika, if desired. Makes about 3 cups of dip. SUGGESTED DIPPERS: Deli Meats, Elephant Garlic Chips, Baby Corn, String Beans, Carrots, Bread Sticks

Yield: 6 servings

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Whether a boy of fifteen should have a gun or a rifle is a question that parents will have to settle for themselves. There is no question but that a careful boy who has been taught by some older person how to handle a gun is more to be trusted than a man who has never learned the proper use of fire-arms and who takes up the sport of hunting after he is grown up. Most of the shooting accidents are caused by inexperienced men who have never been accustomed to guns in their younger days. Once or twice I have just missed being shot by friends who had never been hunting before, and who became so excited when they unexpectedly kicked up a rabbit or walked into a flock of quail that they fired the gun without knowing whether any of their friends were in range or not. When a boy is allowed to have a gun it should be a real one. Air rifles and small caliber guns are all the more dangerous, because they are often looked upon as toys.

In handling a gun, always treat it as though it were loaded, no matter if you know it is empty. By this means it will soon become second nature to you never to point the gun at any one even carelessly or in fun. A guide once said to me, “A gun is a dangerous critter without lock, stock, or barrel, and if a feller ever points one at me I think he means business.”

A gun can never be trusted. Accidents happen so quickly that it is over before we know it and the terrible damage is done. Sometimes the trigger will catch on a coat button or a twig, and, bang! an unexpected discharge takes place and if you were careless just for an instant, it may cost some one his life. Especial care must be taken in loading and unloading a gun. It is at this time that a gun is most likely to go off unexpectedly.

The best way to learn how to handle a gun is to watch the methods of an old hand. Never fire a gun when you are standing behind another person. You may know that you are not aiming at him, but the concussion of the air near the end of the barrel is terrific, and your friend may have a split ear drum as a result. A shot-gun is better for a boy than a rifle, for the reason that most real shooting except for big game is done with a shot-gun, and besides, it takes a lot of practice to shoot well with it. A shot-gun is not a weapon for play but a real tool. In almost every section of the country there is some small game to be hunted and there is usually also an opportunity to practice at clay pigeons.

No one would think of hunting quail, ducks, or rabbits with a rifle, and even if you were an excellent rifle shot at a still mark you might not be able to hit moving game at all. A shot-gun is less dangerous for the reason that its range is limited to a little over a hundred yards, while a rifle may carry a mile. A cheap shot-gun is far more dangerous than a cheap rifle. Until it is possible to buy a good one it is better to have none at all. A good American-made gun can be bought for about twenty-five dollars. A gun suitable for its owner should fit just as his clothing fits him. When a gun is quickly brought to the shoulder in firing position, there is no time in actual hunting to shift it around. When you buy a gun, remember that your canvas or corduroy hunting coat makes more of a bulge at the shoulder than an ordinary suit and accordingly see that the stock is the proper length. The “drop” of a gun is the number of inches that the stock falls below the line of the barrel. If the stock is bent too much you will shoot under your game. If it is too straight the tendency will be to shoot over game. The average stock is made to fit most people and will probably answer most purposes unless you can afford to have a stock made especially. The principal thing is to do all your practicing with your own gun until it becomes second nature to bring it up quickly and have the eye find the barrel instantly. A shot-gun is not aimed in the same way as a rifle. The method of good shots is rather to keep their eye on the game and when they “feel” that the gun is pointed right to fire. A skillful shot can tell whether he is shooting too high or too low just as he pulls the trigger. The brain, head, and eyes and trigger-finger must all work in harmony or you will never be a good shot. Never flinch as you shoot. This is a very common fault of beginners and it is fatal to becoming a marksman.

The first lesson in handling a gun is to understand perfectly how it works. If it is a hammerless gun, remember that it is always cocked. When you open the barrels you cock the gun automatically. For this reason there is some kind of a safety device provided, which should always be left at “safe” except at the actual instant of firing. It is just as easy to learn to push the safety off when you fire as it is to learn to pull the trigger, if one starts right. Never carry your gun with your finger on the trigger. Wait until you put the gun up as you are ready to shoot. Don’t forget the safety. A great many shots are missed because the hunter forgets whether he has left it on or off and in his anxiety to hit the game will tug and pull on the trigger until, just as the game disappears out of range, he will remember that he did not release it. This shows the importance of acquiring the proper habit at first.

It is harder to correct bad habits in handling a gun than to teach the beginner the proper way at first. On your first lesson in the field, walk on the left side of your teacher so that your gun will be pointing away from him. If you come across any game, try to take your time before you fire. Nearly every one shoots too quickly. As most shot-gun shooting is what is called snap shooting, there isn’t much time at best, but a good shot will be sure that he has covered his game before he fires, while a beginner will trust to luck. This will be the hardest fault to correct. Consequently a beginner should if possible hunt alone for a while, as the presence of another gun alongside of him makes him too anxious to get in the first shot, and gets him into bad habits. If your teacher also has a gun, he must assure you that he does not intend to shoot and then you will try harder to get the game and run less chance of missing. Always unload a gun before going into a house, under or over a fence, or in or out of a boat or carriage. If you leave your gun, even for a minute, unload it. Never rest a loaded gun against a tree or building. Never pull a gun loaded or empty toward you by the muzzle. In unloading always point it toward the ground. A jar will sometimes discharge a gun and very often a discharge will take place when closing the breech on a tight shell.

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Your diet is the key to your health. Diet is an important factor in the cause and cure of many ills. The wrong foods can cause allergic reactions ranging from the well-known straw-berry rash to death from allergic asphyxiation. The right foods can help you clear up such allergic reactions. The wrong foods can bring on overweight, sap your energy, rob you of zest and well-being. And in the degenerative diseases of the heart and blood vessels, diet is the key; it is the difference between active good health and dangerous illness.

Not all doctors are agreed as to the exact role of the high-fat diet in the development of those circulatory disorders that account for more than one-half of the total deaths in this nation each year. But a careful and continuing study of the subject for more than 15 years, both in the laboratory and in my private practice, has left no doubt in my mind. It is diet that cocks the trigger of the deadly weapon now aimed at the hearts and brains of millions of Americans. Whether that trigger is ever pulled will depend, admittedly, on a number of other things: heredity, occurrence of other diseases in the victim, certain hormones, stresses, biochemical factors, and so on. But why play Russian roulette with your heart?

By eliminating certain foods from your diet, by including others in the right amounts, and by the use of nutritional sup-plements, you can achieve at least a 50 per cent protection against heart attack. We shall consider dietary supplements in Chapter 5. Now let's see what foods are good for your health and which foods are not.

Unfortunately, as simple as proper dieting is, doctors have found it to be one of the most difficult measures to prescribe for their patients, and one of the most difficult to get them to follow consistently. Proper diet is the easiest and safest thing a physician can prescribe. But because eating habits are so firmly established with most patients, and because dietary therapy takes time, many follow a stop-and-go routine that offers little long-range benefit.

A healthy diet does not mean starvation or tasteless foods. Yet a corrective diet does not mean either starvation or the grim necessity of eating unpalatable foods. Moreover, a little experimenting in the kitchen will soon produce meals that, from the standpoint of taste and esthetic appeal, will be equal if not superior to, the high-fat dishes to which you are accustomed.

In the following pages you will find ways and means of satisfying your appetite and of stimulating it in such a way that it can be constantly surprised and pleased. This is done by a little originality on your part plus a break with old cooking and eating habits that have grown into fixed, and often monot¬onous, dining patterns. Your palate will be grateful for the change. And you will experience on the low-fat diet a startling increase in vigor and vitality, a new sense of well-being.

You do not have to lose energy—good diet increases vigor. Neither does it mean a loss of energy or a sharp reduction in poundage, unless you are overweight, in which case the excess fat is melted off. In fact, if you adhere to the low-fat, low-cholesterol diet recommended in these pages, you will feel better, have more vigor, and firmer muscles than before. If you have a faulty fat metabolism, the diet may substantially prolong your life. You will find more energy. You will be able to accomplish more and enjoy better what you do accomplish.

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There is a story of a politician who had acquired a mannerism of fingering a button on his coat while talking to an audience. On one occasion some friends surreptitiously cut the particular button off, and the result was that the speaker when he stood up to address the audience lost the thread of his discourse. Gladstone had a mannerism of striking the palm of his left hand with the clenched fist of his other hand, so that often the emphatic word was lost in the noise of percussion. A common habit of the distinguished statesman was to reach out his right hand at full arm’s length, and then to bend it back at the elbow and lightly scratch the top of his head with his thumb-nail.

Balfour, while speaking, used to take hold of the lapels of his coat by both hands as if he were in mortal fear of running away before he had finished. Goshen, at the beginning of a speech, would sound his chest and sides with his hands, and apparently finding that his ribs were in good order, would proceed to wash his hands with invisible soap.

The strange thing about mannerisms is that the speakers are usually unconscious of them, and would be the first to condemn them in others. The remedy for such defects lies in thorough and severe self-examination and self-criticism. However eminent a speaker may be with objectionable mannerisms, he would be still greater without them.

Every public speaker has certain characteristics of voice and manner that distinguish him from other men. In so far as this individuality gives increased power and effectiveness to the speaking style, it is desirable and should be encouraged. When, however, it is carried to excess, or in any sense offends good taste, it is merely mannerism, and should be discouraged.

There is an objectionable mannerism of the voice, known as “pulpit tone,” that has come to be associated with some preachers. It takes various forms, such as an unduly elevated key, a drawling monotone, a sudden transition from one extreme of pitch to another, or a tone of condescension. It is also heard in a plaintive minor inflection, imparting a quality of extreme sadness to a speaker’s style. These are all departures from the natural, earnest, sincere, and direct delivery that belongs to the high office of preaching.

Still another undesirable mannerism of the voice is that of giving a rising inflection at the close of successive sentences that are obviously complete. Here the speaker’s thought is left suspended in the air, the hearer feels a sense of disappointment or doubt, and possibly the entire meaning is perverted. Thoughts delivered in such a manner, unless they distinctly require a rising inflection, lack the emphasis and force of persuasive speaking.

Artificiality, affectation, pomposity, mouthing, undue vehemence, monotony, intoning, and everything that detracts from the simplicity and genuine fervor of the speech should be avoided. Too much emphasis may drive a thought beyond the mark, and a conscious determination to make a “great speech” may keep the speaker in a state of anxiety throughout its entire delivery.

A clear and correct enunciation is essential, but it should not be pedantic, nor should it attract attention to itself. “What you are prevents me from hearing what you say,” might also be applied to the manner of the speaker. Exaggerated opening of the mouth, audible smacking of the lips, holding tenaciously to final consonants, prolonged hissing of sibilants, are all to be condemned. Hesitation, stumbling over difficult combinations, obscuring final syllables, coalescing the last sound of one word with the first sound of the following word, are inexcusable in a trained speaker.

When the same modulation of the voice is repeated too often, it becomes a mannerism, a kind of monotony of variety. It reminds one of a street-piano set to but one tune, and is quite as distressing to a sensitive ear. This is not the style that is expected from a public man.

What should the speaker do with his hands? Do nothing with them unless they are specifically needed for the more complete expression of a thought. Let them drop at the sides in their natural relaxed position, ready for instant use. To press the fist in the hollow of the back in order to “support” the speaker, to clutch the lapels of the coat, to slap the hands audibly together, to place the hands on the hips in the attitude of “vulgar ease,” to put the hands into the pockets, to wring the hands as if “washing them with invisible soap,” or to violently pound the pulpit—these belong to the list of undesirable mannerisms. At the beginning of a speech it may give the appearance of ease to place the hands behind the back, but this position lacks force and action and should not be long sustained. To cross the arms upon the desk is to put them out of commission for the time being. Leaning or lounging of any kind, bending at the knee, or other evidence of weakness or weariness, may belong to the repose of the easy chair, but are hardly appropriate in a wide-awake speaker seeking to convince men.

Rocking the body to and fro, rising on the toes to emphasize, crouching, stamping the foot, springing from side to side, over-acting and impersonation, and violence and extravagance of every description may well be omitted in public speaking. Beware of extremes. Avoid a statue-like attitude on the one hand and a constant restlessness on the other. Dignity is desirable, but one should not forget the words of the Reverend Sam Jones, “There is nothing more dignified than a corpse!”

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When the Curtain opens, you again see the kitchen, but it looks a good deal different, because the chairs that Grandmother and Grandfather used to sit in have been moved out; so has the small table on which Mother washed the dishes in the First Scene; and now in front of the fire-place is the great big table that Mother Goose told you about. The table cloth on it is so big that it hangs all the way down to the floor. At one end of the table sits Father; then next to him, back of the table facing you, is Grandfather, then Gertrude, then Walter, then Grandmother and at the other end of the table, next to Grandmother, Mother is seated. The children have on those bright-colored paper caps that the house-fairies made. MOTHER, who is helping the pudding, is the first to speak and this is what she says:

There’s the first plateful of our Christmas pudding, and that goes to Gertrude, of course. She hands it to Grandmother, who passes it on to Walter.

Um! says WALTER, holding it for a moment under his nose. That smells good! He passes it to Gertrude.

GERTRUDE asks, Shall I wait till everybody else is served, before I begin?

No, not today, says FATHER. Begin at once. We all want to know how it tastes.

Gertrude tastes it. Oh, it is good, she says.

Mother meanwhile has helped another plateful, and passed it to GRANDMOTHER, who says, Walter, here is yours. And she hands it to him. He tastes it. Is it good, Walter? asks GRANDFATHER.

WALTER with his mouth very full can only say, Um! Pass this down to Father, says MOTHER, and she starts to hand another plateful of pudding to Grandmother.

Oh, Mother, exclaims GERTRUDE, aren’t you younger than Father? Yes, just by two months, answers MOTHER, keeping the plateful of pudding in her hand. You think I ought to be helped next? All right; we’ll keep strictly to the rules, and I’ll set this aside for myself, while I help the others. She helps another plateful. This is for you James, she says to Father, and passes it along. And Grandmother, she says, this is for you. She hands a plateful of pudding to Grandmother.

Grandfather, here is yours last of all, because you are the oldest of us, MOTHER says, and starts the last plateful of pudding on its way to Grandfather.

Suddenly FATHER, who has been eating some of his pudding, exclaims, Here’s something new. You never put nuts in the plum pudding before, Mary.

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Lord Doyne, the man of action, pushed them aside and tried the door-handle. It yielded, the door stood open, and the gust of cold wind entering the house extinguished the candle within. They entered and found themselves in a miserable stone-paved kitchen, furnished with poverty-stricken meagreness—a wooden chair or two, a dirty table, some broken crockery, old cooking utensils, a fly-blown missionary society almanac, and a fireless grate. Doyne set the lamp on the table.

“We must bring him in,” said he.

They returned to the threshold, and as they were bending over to grip the dead man the same sound filled the air, but this time louder, more intense, a cry of great agony. The sweat dripped from McCurdie’s forehead. They lifted the dead man and brought him into the room, and after laying him on a dirty strip of carpet they did their best to straighten the stiff limbs. Biggleswade put on the table a bundle which he had picked up outside. It contained some poor provisions—a loaf, a piece of fat bacon, and a paper of tea. As far as they could guess (and as they learned later they guessed rightly) the man was the master of the house, who, coming home blind drunk from some distant inn, had fallen at his own threshold and got frozen to death. As they could not unclasp his fingers from the broken bottleneck they had to let him clutch it as a dead warrior clutches the hilt of his broken sword.

Then suddenly the whole place was rent with another and yet another long, soul-piercing moan of anguish.

“There’s a second room,” said Doyne, pointing to a door. “The sound comes from there.” He opened the door, peeped in, and then, returning for the lamp, disappeared, leaving McCurdie and Biggleswade in the pitch darkness, with the dead man on the floor.

“For heaven’s sake, give me a drop of whiskey,” said the Professor, “or I shall faint.”

Presently the door opened and Lord Doyne appeared in the shaft of light.

He beckoned to his companions.

“It is a woman in childbirth,” he said in his even, tired voice. “We must aid her. She appears unconscious. Does either of you know anything about such things?”

They shook their heads, and the three looked at each other in dismay. Masters of knowledge that had won them world-wide fame and honour, they stood helpless, abashed before this, the commonest phenomenon of nature.

“My wife had no child,” said McCurdie.

“I’ve avoided women all my life,” said Biggleswade.

“And I’ve been too busy to think of them. God forgive me,” said Doyne.

The history of the next two hours was one that none of the three men ever cared to touch upon. They did things blindly, instinctively, as men do when they come face to face with the elemental. A fire was made, they knew not how, water drawn they knew not whence, and a kettle boiled. Doyne accustomed to command, directed. The others obeyed. At his suggestion they hastened to the wreck of the car and came staggering back beneath rugs and travelling bags which could supply clean linen and needful things, for amid the poverty of the house they could find nothing fit for human touch or use. Early they saw that the woman’s strength was failing, and that she could not live. And there, in that nameless hovel, with death on the hearthstone and death and life hovering over the pitiful bed, the three great men went through the pain and the horror and squalor of birth, and they knew that they had never yet stood before so great a mystery.

With the first wail of the newly bom infant a last convulsive shudder passed through the frame of the unconscious mother. Then three or four short gasps for breath, and the spirit passed away. She was dead. Professor Biggleswade threw a corner of the sheet over her face, for he could not bear to see it.

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EASTER DREAM BAR COOKIES

1 c margarine
1 c brown sugar
1 ea egg
2 c flour
1 ts vanilla
12 oz chocolate morsels
1 c nuts, chopped

Mix together margarine, brown sugar and egg, Add flour and vanilla. Mix well, and spread on a large well greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. (until lightly browned)

Melt chocolate morsels, spread on top of baked mixture. Sprinkle chopped nuts on top of chocolate, pressing with spatula into chocolate so the nuts will not fall off when cutting.

When cooled cut into 1-inch squares.

Makes 8 dozen 1 inch squares.

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Chapter 7: Writing and Editing

Text Editors

WARNING: Text editors are *not* the same as word processors; know the difference. A text editor such as NotePad won't put things in the file you can't see. Exception: sometimes another text editor may display a ^M wherever there was a carriage return in the file created by NotePad. This generally has no real effect, as long as you remember to always upload in ASCII. On the other hand, a word processor such as MS?Word or Word Perfect will put all sorts of strange stuff in the file. It's supposed to do that; they are special characters that don't display but are used to control the way a document looks on screen and on paper. These special characters will wreak havoc on a script. It's just not possible to create a properly functioning script with a word processor. Don't even think of using one.

There are plenty of free or inexpensive text editors available. If you don't like the ones that come with Windows, or whatever OS you're using, feel free to use something else.

My personal favorite is Unix program called emacs. It's found on virtually every Unix system. It's included with all Linux distributions. So is "vi", but I didn't learn that one. One of the coolest things about emacs is that it is capable of some basic HTML editing. Plus, it's great for writing computer code because it will "highlight" reserved words (used for commands, etc.) in different colors from the other text. Comments are highlighted in still another color. It checks for mismatched parentheses and "curly braces".

These functions help keep you from writing code that won't work. The reserved word "sub" that signals the beginning of a subroutine is highlighted, along with the name of the subroutine ? if the routine is written legally. Other clues like the presence or absence of bold text tell you when and where there is something seriously wrong with your code.

Bonus Advice: You don't have to take my advice, but you paid for it so here it is. I encourage you to consider installing the Linux operating system on a second hard drive, or even a separate computer. Unlike Windows, it will run very well on an older machine with a less?powerful processor. You'll get a nicely graphical user interface, access to tons of free software from a bunch of sites on the Web and it already comes with emacs and other great tools. You'll get a complete set of Perl files, so you can write, debug and test your scripts without any practical limitations.