My money's on the mid-May blahs. Similar to the mid-September blahs, but milder. Sun's out here in the big smoke; I'll see if I can't send a sunbeam your way.

cm is always a ray of sunshine in this space.

(no joke!)

::blush::

I am the angry/plucky little raincload. Angry or plucky depending on which side of the Channel you are on.

man, you think youre having a blah day, how about that elephant you referenced. i'm an elephant from tropical africa and i'm in the fucking alaskan zoo. no wonder he's frigging overweight and won't go on the treadmill. i gain 20 pounds every winter because the weather bums me out so bad and i'm from nova scotia and i living in fucking maine! the alaskan zoo! that's like hell for monkeys and elephants. who i'd i piss off to land my furry (and/or leathery wrinkled) ass in this place? he must want to die, the poor thing. and their solution is to put him on a treadmill? buckets and buckets of jim beam would be more like it.

the dumb stuff that people come up with just astounds me. it's dark fo six months a year. i know, let's go get an elephant and make him live here so we all have something to look at when we're friggin depressed out of our minds. i hope that elephants stomps on somebody but good - a guy in a track suit.

and skinny asparagus all the way.

Copyright theft? Is that like me claiming I wrote the Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction"?

How exciting! I think cm and the rest of us need to spread the love Portland's way. I used to think he was a normal guy, but obviously the rain and clouds have gotten to him, exposing his inner FREAK. Like the nerdy guy who gets fired from the post office and then the next day he goes in and....

Portland does have a point, though. I mean, really, wouldn't a sunlamp be a better idea than a treadmill? (Although I do like the Jim Beam idea.)

I don't care if my asparagus is fat or skinny, as long as it's wrapped in bacon.

What about asparagus with a nice cheese sauce? Cheddar?

I didn't mean to spin the Flea into a funk. All I really meant was why is it I cannot come up with something to write about. Aparagus loves a little orange juice in the steamer. And portland is right - why take an elephant to Alaska in the first place. Maybe all he needs is gin.

Yes, a nice gin and Fresca will cheer him right up.

I've never had asparagus with cheese sauce.

I havn't either, cm, but it tastes good on broccoli (and most other things) and if I suggested asparagus wrapped in textured vegetable protein Canadian bacon (yum!) for us vegetarians, I figured you'd laugh.
The Gen X at 40 insane recipe exchange....

I'd laugh at anything wrapped in Canadian (or back) bacon. Back bacon should only be served at the Ex, in a mushy hamburger bun with lots of mustard. Or on an English muffin with a poached egg and hollandaise sauce.

I stirfried bok choy on a GenX40 recommendation.

Then there was that whole thing with Marian and the big African yam. The wife came home the other day with a big so-called sweet potato (or non-African yam) and although a person might normally say 'what the hell do I do with this?' one need only look back at last fall's yam discussion. Shaken, not stirred.

So is that the difference, then, between a sweet potato and a yam - one's not African and one is? I just chop 'em and roast 'em. Unless I'm doing a simmering steak, in which case I simmer 'em. I have a very limited repertoire.

I failed that test, cm, but I am sure the answer is important to some people.

It is a tough time for the great North American domesticated elephant.

I wondered if you'd seen that. :-) What I'd like to know is who complained in the first place? I mean, why would you?