“Order of the Stick” web comic creator Rich Burlew successfully raised over one and a quarter MILLION dollars with his Kickstarter project! OOTS is a long-running webcomic and one of my inspirations to create MBE in the first place. Congratulations, Rich! Check out Order of the Stick here.
Ever noticed that it’s the shade that’s both the problem and the solution?
Mark it down to yet another of those crazy ideas of mine that sound so good when I start them, yet utterly fail when it comes to executing them. I don’t really know why I have so much trouble finishing things I start. I’m sure a psychologist would have a really hard to pronounce condition that means “lazy underachiever”, but that would cost money I don’t have to reinforce something I already know. Sort of like every government printing office publication. Oh well. No one reads this anyway, so it’s not like anyone’s out anything except faith in yours truly. As usual.
In the category of Names for Things You Didn’t Even Know Had Names, I found two odd ones today. Remember the division sign they taught you in elementary school? The one that looks like a minus sign with a dot above and below it? This one: ÷ ? It actually has a name, and it’s an “obelus”. I think it’s funny that I’ve used obeli for forty years and never known what they were called. Apparently the Firefox spell checker has never heard of it either, but that’s how it’s spelled. In a similar typographical vein, the “paragraph sign” that looks like a filled-in backwards “P” with two stems is called a “pilcrow”. Looks like this, if your browser supports it: ¶ .
The other day, an old schoolmate of mine posted on Facebook that her husband was cooking at a local restaurant and asked us all to come out if we could. I try to support my friends wherever I can, so I made plans to head out there on Friday.
I had eaten at The Catfish House before, but the old chef was not the best one could hope for. The food was of uneven quality, and the prices were a bit on the steep side for what you got. I figured the meal would be mediocre, but what the heck, friends are friends, right?
Happily, I was wrong.
There was an insert to the menu that night, advertising New Orleans cuisine next to the standard fried fish fare. This gave me pause, since most cajun-style cooking has a tendency to be over-spiced or overcooked. Still, the French Quarter Grouper looked interesting, being a blackened filet with a cream sauce and choice of two side items.
Now, blackening an item takes skill, since it is far too easy to drown the flavor of the entree in spices, or to overcook delicate items while trying to scorch the spice coating black. Fortunately, Louisiana native David Hackney, the new Executive Chef at The Catfish House, knows exactly what he’s doing. The grouper was cooked to perfection, moist and tender from tip to tail, with just the right amount of spices charred to a flavorful black. The big surprise, however, was the “seafood sawce”, a creamy concoction of cheese, seafood chunks, celery bits, and other spices. Served on the side in a generous portion, the rich, savory sauce made a wonderful balance to the spicy tang of the blackened grouper. Not too salty, not too cheesy, the sauce turned a good meal into a great one. Finish off the meal with a warm pecan brownie served with hot fudge sauce and vanilla ice cream, and you’ll definitely want to come back for more.
While the standard fried catfish all-you-can-eat special might be the big draw to the restaurant, the New Orleans menu might just be the best-kept secret in town. Since I suck at keeping secrets, I want everyone to know what a delicious dining experience is just right down Moody Road in Warner Robins.
The Catfish House is located one mile south of Russell Parkway on Moody Road. Open Wednesday through Saturday for dinner only. Entrees $12-$22. Dress is casual. (478) 922-2828.
I miss Calvin and Hobbes. It was a brilliant look into a child’s imagination that has had no equal. I don’t claim to be anywhere near as talented a writer as Bill Watterson, nor as talented an artist as someone sneezing onto your screen. (Obviously. Snort some tri-colored pepper and lean close–you’ll make better art yourself!) Yet, the idea of a child (and not even a human one, at that) in a totally different environment amuses me. So, I’m just going to have fun with that for awhile.
Still working on the overall look of the characters. And no, the dialogue will not always be this bad. I’m trying to get the feel of working with the tools, so a lot of this stuff is just placeholder.
Hey, the original Dilbert drawings were pretty bad, too, but Scott Adams is a zillionaire now. Go figure.
Some jokes just write themselves…
If you are under the age of 38, no living being has walked on the Moon in your lifetime. Go fix that.
Even with my many talents, I still regret not being able to draw the most.
So we all know what it’s like in the beachfront of life, right? Everyone wears the same feathers, scratching out a living on scraps with all their seagull buddies, trying to find an unoccupied fencepost, and laughing at all the slowly-roasting vacationers below. Except for THAT guy…
Yeah, him. He thinks your sports team is stupid, your music is noise, your college sports team is even MORE stupid, your politics naive, and chugging down your own weight in sardines with your frat buddies is about as appealing as shoving your beak into a belt sander. Twice.
Oh sure, he could sport the preppie white-n-gray plumage of the haute couture du jour, but brown and tan is just so much more comfortable, and useful as camouflage, and summer doesn’t last forever, dammit!
But it’s a big beach, after all. He doesn’t want your piece of it, just his. Besides, all the dropped Cheetos are under the gazebo, and no one ever throws an Alka-Seltzer at the hopping guy. Live and let live is his motto–but could you kindly stay downwind after the sardine benders? Thanks. ‘Preciate it.
So what are we to do with that guy? Give him his own blog? Or see what he has to say, below?
