I put my Lodge 12″ dutch oven in my Weber Sub-Silver grill to re-season it, figuring I’d let the temperature get up to around 450 degrees farenheit before turning it off.

At about 425 degrees the usual white smoke my grill emits (the remains of the last grilling project burning off of the grill surface) turned oily and black, and I realized there was flame coming off of the grease “funnel” (the removable piece below the burners, which has a hole in the middle through which grease will drip, ending up in the small, also-removable grease pan.) The whole surface of the funnel was on fire, which meant there were flames BELOW the burners. I turned the burners off, and the grill kept burning merrily. I’d say “cheerily” but the smoke was too black and stinky to be cheerful.

Long story short: no damage to the grill. What should have been a 20 minute “clean-and-season the dutch oven” project turned into a 90-minute “extinguish the grill, clean it up, then re-clean and re-season the dutch oven” project. The good news is that I didn’t have anything better to do with my time, and now the grill is nice and clean. Burning the stuff in that funnel, dangerous though it may be, made it a darn sight easier to clean than last time. And hey, I got to play with fire. Any day that has THAT in it is all right by me.

–Howard

My 18″-viewable CRT (NEC Accusync 90) is about to give up the ghost. In order for it to be bright enough for movie viewing or game play (not that I do much of either) I have to crank the contrast and brightness all the way up. In that mode, though, the display of large white areas (like a document editing screen, for instance) starts to fuzz out badly. That, and the screen just doesn’t seem as sharp as it did three years ago when I got it.

I’ve been looking at possible replacements. For around $400 I can get a digital flat-panel that’s about the same size, but that has less actual screen real-estate to offer. I’d love to have a full 1600 pixels (or more!) of width, because that would allow me to do my coloring at 25% zoom (a comfortably non-distorted factor of two) without having to scroll left or right. But that’s a convenience I’d be paying an extra $400 for.

The FIRST $400 was over budget. The second one, well… let’s just say that the cartoonist doesn’t get to splurge so wantonly as the product manager (may he rest in peace for effing-ever, please) did.

I’m not asking for donations. I’m just musing aloud on my computer needs. If any of you out there have experience with large TFT/DVI displays, feel free to post your horror stories. I could use a big bushel o’ them sour grapes right now.

–Howard

The melatonin seemed to work last night. Either that or I was just ready to go to bed when I went to bed.

A sleeping drug whose effects I’m unable to distinguish from natural sleep is probably a good thing.

–Howard

I’m out at dictionary.com looking up the word redolent, which I know means “smelly,” but it never hurts to know the finer points of usage.

In the right column were some Google ads. I like Google ads, because 95% of the time I see something either innocuous, interesting, or humorously juxtaposed.
I also like Google ads because they’re paying my grocery bill, and maybe my rent this month.

The top ad in that column began with the headline “embarrassing vaginal odor.”

Well, yeah. I guess that would be redolent, and I suppose if it were embarrassing, vaginal, and redolent, and in my house, I’d want to know about products that solve the problem.

Do the folks selling those products pay money to Google for placement alongside the word “redolent?” Dare I look up the words “stench” or “putrefaction?”

–Howard

p.s. I’m not going to tell you what word I looked up in the dictionary to pop a Google ad that promised me a product that would, and I quote “Deodorize Poop Itself!”