We have always prepared French fries this way, but should we?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I recently got a 2024 book titled The Tried & True Cookbook by Alyssa Rivers from the Boise Public Library. Page 149 in it has a recipe for Air-Fryer French Fries, which also appeared online on October 14, 2023 at her The Recipe Critic web site titled Amazing Air Fryer French Fries.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the book, her second step is to slice the potatoes into 1/4” strips. The third step is to:

 

“Rinse the fries in cold water, and pat them dry with a paper towel.”

 

A Note at the bottom of the page adds:

 

“Don’t skip rinsing the potatoes. This step is important because it gets rid of the starch, which allows the potatoes to get nice and crispy as they cook. Just be sure to dry them really well before cooking.”   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have a criticism for that recipe critic. Why the heck are you wasting paper towels? You could just dump the potatoes into the bowl of your salad spinner (as is shown above), soak them in water to better remove starch, and dry them by spinning? But her list of Essential Kitchen Tools on page 14 of her Tried & True Cookbook does not list a Salad Spinner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Similarly, most recipes I had seen for Boston Brown Bread call for that quick bread to be steamed in a coffee can for a couple hours and then sliced (as also is shown above). I never ever tried making it myself - until I saw page 244 in the 1998 book by Mark Bittman titled How to Cook Everything: Simple recipes for great food. He says instead to bake it at 300 F for an hour in 8” by 4” loaf pans. Back around the American Revolution our ancestors had to steam it, since they had no ovens in their kitchens – but we certainly do. Mark’s description for The Basics of Miscellaneous Tools says on page 5:  

 

“Salad Spinner: Nice item, and not only for drying salad greens. It’s excellent for dunking anything that you want to rinse and drain repeatedly. Not essential, but close.”

 

Think about how you cook, and don’t get stuck in a rut. On December 7, 2020 I had blogged about What are you doing in that recipe, and why are you doing it? Earlier, on March 12, 2019, I blogged about Does the Dalai Lama eat a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast? In that post I noted:

 

“It is dangerous to assume that everyone else obviously does things the same way as we do.”

 

Images of French Fries and Boston Brown Bread came from Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

There are at least three unusual possibilities for a pole used in the pole vault

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Randall Munroe’s humorous xkcd comic (shown above in my colorized version) from December 19, 2025 is simply titled Pole Vault Pole. The second one has a profile which resembles the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. An accompanying web page at Explain Xkcd notes all the rules say is that:

 

“The pole may be of any material or combination of materials and of any length or diameter, but the basic surface must be smooth."

 

There are strategies for crisis communication that executives should master

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a useful and brief article at Speakeasy on August 1, 2025 that is titled Crisis Communication Strategies Every Executive Should Master. Their nine strategies are to:

 

1]  Stay Centered and Project Calm

2]  Communicate Early and Often

3]  Be Human and Empathetic

4]  Deliver a Clear, Unified Message

5]  Prepare Spokespeople Across the Leadership Team

6]  Address Internal and External Audiences Separately

7]  Build and Practice Your Plan Before a Crisis Hits

8]  Strengthen Public Speaking Confidence

9]  Listen as Part of the Strategy

 

 

In his 18-minute speech last night President Trump talked about reducing prescription drug prices by 400% to 600%. What would that even mean?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An article by Ted Johnson at Deadline on December 17, 2025 is titled Donald Trump used primetime address to insist “inflation is stopped” and “prices are down” – and to blame much on Joe Biden. It says:

 

“He also talked of reducing prescription drug prices by 400% to 600%, defying mathematics.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As is shown above, if we extrapolate beyond the 100% decrease which makes sense, a 200% reduction means the seller would instead nonsensically pay the buyer the full price. A 400% reduction fraudulently means the seller would pay the buyer 3 times the price - and a 600% reduction means the seller would pay the buyer 5 times the price. But that’s not the first time Trump made these very silly statements. Another article by Bruce Y. Lee at Forbes on August 2, 2025 is titled Trump Says He Will Get Drug Prices Down By 500% to 1500%.

 

 

Is that a real quotation or just a paraphrase?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday I was looking at a post on the Gem State Patriot News blog on December 14, 2025 by retired surgeon Dr. John Livingston which is titled The Seed We Choose to Grow.

 

His seventh paragraph states that:

 

“A recent Psychology Today article offers a more secular explanation; put plainly: ‘Self-hatred often leads to outward hate. People who loathe themselves frequently project that inner contempt onto others, seeing them through a lens of criticism and disdain. The result is a harmful feedback look, where internal struggles manifest as hostility, and hostility in turn deepens the internal turmoil. Hate becomes both the symptom and the fuel.’ “

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But he does not provide a link to that article, or say who wrote it, or when it was published in that magazine, or what the title was. I tried Google searching for some of the sentences in his ‘quote’ and came up empty. My conclusion is that he instead just is paraphrasing from who knows where.

 

I previously wrote about John in a post on October 22, 2024 titled How not to write a blog post (or speech) using a quotation. He is so careless a writer that you never can rely on the contents of his blog posts.

 

In Italian and Spanish charisma is spelled without an ‘h’ – as carisma. More of it could be called truckisma.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On October 29, 2025 I blogged about What makes a speaker charismatic? The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines charisma as:

 

“a personal magic of leadership arousing special popular loyalty or enthusiasm for a public figure (such as a political leader).”

 

And a further explanation there is that:

 

“The Greek word charisma means ‘favor’ or ‘gift.’ It comes from the verb charizesthai (‘to favor’), which in turn comes from the noun charis, meaning ‘grace.’ In English, charisma was originally used in Christian contexts to refer to a gift or power bestowed upon an individual by the Holy Spirit for the good of the Church – a sense that is now very rare. These days, we use the word to refer to social, rather than divine, grace. For instance, a leader with charisma may easily gain popular support, and a job applicant with charisma may shine in an interview.”   

 

But the Cambridge Dictionary says that both the Italian and Spanish spellings omit the unpronounced letter ‘h.’ If you play with words like me, then this spelling suggests a bogus derivation from the word ‘car’ and that more than carisma would be called truckisma, as shown above via a cartoon.

 

Cartoons of a car and truck both came from OpenClipArt.

 

More about mind mapping for presentations and in education

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Way back on August 4, 2009 I blogged about Mind mapping and idea mapping for planning speeches. More recently there is an article on SpeakerHUB at Medium from August 25, 2023 titled How to use mind maps for public speaking. They list the following ten steps:

 

  1] Choose your main concept

  2] Create your branches

  3] Fill out each branch

  4] Structure your presentation

  5] Create your presentation (branch by branch)

  6] Check your presentation against the mind map

  7] Practice the presentation

  8] Make any changes that are required

  9] Perform the presentation

10] Review your performance

 

There is a more general article by Sejla Hajric at CRM.org on May 27, 2025 titled All 10 Different Types of Mind Map You Need to Know About. Only the last one is specifically for a presentation. Those are:

 

 1) Tree map (hierarchical, tree-like structure)

 2) Flow map (flow chart with a sequence of steps)

 3) Dialogue map (visual representation of a discussion)

 4) Spider map (radiating out to subtopics)

 5) Multi-flow map (multiple flows representing causes or effects)

 6) Bubble map (describing a topic with adjectives)

 7) Double bubble map (two central bubbles rather than one)

 8) Tunnel timeline map (representing processes linearly over time)

 9) Circle map (where topic information radiates from a center)

10) Presentation map (used for topics in public speaking)

 

And there is a very detailed (10-page .pdf) article by Atiyeh Sadat Sajadi et al in the Journal of Education and Health Promotion on December 28, 2024 titled Using the mind map method in medical education, its advantages and challenges: A systematic review. Their Figure 2 is shown above.  

 

The third and fourth paragraph in their Introduction state:

 

“The mind map is an innovative learning method that increases student participation and consequently leads to meaningful learning. For the first time in the mid-1970s, Tony Buzan introduced the mind map method. In this learning method, a graphical image can be designed with the help of words, images, colors, and symbols, so that the student can remember the material more easily. In fact, the mind map is a visual educational method in which the main topic is in the middle of the page and ideas, words, pictures, symbols, etc. are placed around it in a branching and free-form manner. In the mind map, long texts are removed, which allows the user to synthesize, creates the best arrangement of information, increases the level of cooperation and participation within and between groups, and ultimately promotes ideation and critical thinking.

 

The mind map actually expresses the relationship between attitudes and ideas that are described visually. The use of this method has caused medical students to memorize a large amount of information for a longer period of time and accelerate the learning process. As a result, the success of students increases. The hemispheres of the brain have different functions, and these functions can be implemented in a unified way. Employing mind maps results in an elevated degree of cerebral hemisphere functionality. This approach arranges thoughts, establishes connections between ideas and perspectives, and offers a means to uncover novel subjects that can fortify existing notions and concepts. In essence, this method hinges on connecting a central idea to multiple sub-ideas.”