For Monday night dinner last week, we had spaghetti and meatballs. I was lazy so we bought frozen from Walmart. I pulled out a pizza pan, threw forty or so meatballs on it, and slid it into the oven.
A while later, I noticed a lot of smoke coming out of the oven vents. Crap. I didn’t think about the pizza pan having holes in it. The grease from the meatballs, even though they were fully cooked, was dripping down onto the oven floor. I grabbed another pizza pan—this one without holes—and slipped it under the first.
The sauce and the pasta and the meatballs were all done and we were getting ready to serve, so I thought it’d be a good idea to run a cleaning cycle on the oven.
Without wiping the grease up first.
Now mind you, this wasn’t like a lake of grease or anything. It eventually wiped up with 5-6 paper towels.
Once I got the fire out.
You see, as we were serving, there was a terrific FWOOMPH and a huge puff of smoke erupted from the oven. Diana looked inside the oven and said, “There’s fire in there.”
I shut off the cleaning cycle so I could open the oven (because the cleaning cycle locks the door).
The puddle of grease was burning nicely, so I grabbed a hot pad to get the racks out so I could do something to extinguish the flames.
Youngest Son announces he’s getting cups for water. I immediately call out “No water, it’s a grease fire.”
“Oh, right.”
I decided I wanted to use old bath towels to smother the fire instead of the small, lightweight hand towels, so I closed the oven while going for the towels.
And what do you know? When you cut off the supply of air, the fire goes out. Pretty cool how that works.
We opened windows, turned on all the fans in the house, and moved dinner into the sunroom. Fun times.
When I picked Grandson up from school the next day and asked him how his day was, the little ratfink said, “I told Miss Allen that fire shot out of Paw-Paw’s oven last night.”
Thanks, kid.
Seating for One
I finally got over my executive dysfunction about my chair and ordered one from Amazon. Check out my IG to see what the old chair looked like.
One House or Two?
I saw an interesting thread over at /r/PoliticalDiscussion Saturday.
What is the reason for individual states having two legislative chambers?
Reddit discussion
The more I thought about the question, the more curious I got.
I understand the idea at the national level, at least under the original construction of the U. S. Senate, where senators were selected by the state legislatures. Under that design, senators were supposed to focus more on issues involving the states, while representatives focused more on the people. At least that’s the way I understood it.
But how does that work at the state level?
It happens that at one time, several states assigned their state senators at the county level, one per county. That seems reasonable, even now. But 1963’s Reynolds v. Sims Supreme Court case ruled that policy unconstitutional on 14th Amendment grounds.
Still, I wonder why states need two legislative houses. Nebraska seems to be doing just fine with a single house. Sure, it would take constitutional amendments to make the changes needed, but parties are talking about shrinking government and saving money. I’d think one of the best places to start is to do away with duplicate legislative organizations.
Oklahoma, for example, has 149 members in its legislature, with 48 in the Senate and 101 in the House. Before Reynolds v. Sims, each of Oklahoma’s counties had at least one state representative, but now several counties form a single district.
Even more interesting (in my opinion) is that despite the requirement for equal population sizes in the districts, the district lines don’t match up. I’d think that if each district has the same population, each state senate district would be the same size as each state house district.
If that’s the way it works out (and that idea makes the most sense to me), then there’s no need to duplicate efforts, so to speak. If the districts are fairly drawn, they should match between the two houses, and at that point, why have two houses?
I’d propose that the OK Senate be abolished and the OK House becomes the sole legislative body for the state. If the GOP is truly about smaller government (Ha!), they should be all over this idea. That would save the state over $1.8 million a year in senatorial salaries alone (without accounting for committee chairs and floor leader bonuses). You’re probably looking at another $2.5 million for support staff. Surely the state would love to save over $4 million a year. Just think of the projects the state could fund from the savings. Road repairs. School improvements. Anti-poverty programs. Teacher salary increases. The possibilities are endless.
But I won’t hold my breath. This is Oklahoma.
Writing
I put up another WWBC post last week, this one about “Pets I Used to Have or Wish I Could Have.” Check out “Paws, Claws, and Love: Reflecting on a Life Filled with Pets” or any of the other great posts over at Long and Short Reviews.
And I note that 13 years ago last week, I got my first (and technically only) rejection from an agent, for Don’t Stop Believing. Here I am now with three completed books and far too many works in progress. I need to get writing again.
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