Tribute to Blackcurrants

This is going to be a revelation of another one of my weird, obsessive sides, so brace yerself.

The blackcurrant...oh what a berry. One that we Americans hardly know! So far I have had the pleasure to sample a handful of blackcurrant products (there's naught more than a handful anyway around here!). They include: a blackcurrant jam and a red currant jelly, Twining's Blackcurrant Tea, McVites blackcurrant digestive biscuits, Lindeman's Cassis Lambic, Unibroue Ephemere (blackcurrant version), Mathilde Cassis, and I'm sure a couple other things. But I've just sent off a check to a New York nursery that is trying to bring back the blackcurrant in the US, and I'm going to do my part by cultivating currants in my backyard.

Moving on...

Watched "24" last night, second time I've watched it and actually paid attention. Very entertaining show, although the pseudo-soapy "personal" moments when the world is hurtling towards annihilation and those in charge pause to say..."hey, how are you doing, I heard Trevor was back with Maureen, even though she just learned that Clarissa had come out of her coma." Bollocks. But nonetheless, very good and gripping TV show...understanding that I'm a person who can almost never stomach serious TV shows. Last night it skewered the terror sympathizers in the ACLU/Amnesty Int'l pretty well. Tools of the enemy, all too often.
But here's my idea...I noticed to some degree of amusement how similar Kiefer Sutherland sounded to Jason Bateman (of Arrested Development) in his voice. After thinking of some humorous applications of soundtrack editing (to overdub selected A.D. dialogue into "24"), Debra and I realized what would really be funny...an Arrested 24 episode. Tobias as the evil mastermind Habib Marwan, George Sr./Oscar as the president and vice president, GOB as...oh anything, he's masterful. And Buster as the huge African-American CIA interrogator..."heyyy brother!". No really, this is funny stuff. Seriously. Lucille could be the martini-wielding CIA chief...the woman they put in those roles are comically about 20 years too young, anyway.

And yes, my gunfever is wafting here and there. Lately I've been somewhat taken with a copy of an MP5 PDW, the supercompact H&K submachine gun in civilian format. Small, powerful, and quick-firing. Although honestly, a rifle has advantages, still. END POST!