In Praise Of The Smaller Sized Pimento Stuffed Olive Jar And Other Superfluous Beauty

Woman in Cannery LOC 1920s US Food and Drug Administration

“The Nothing is spreading," groaned the first. 

"It's growing and growing, there's more of it every day, 

if it's possible to speak of more nothing. 

All the others fled from Howling Forest in time, but we didn't want to leave our home. 

The Nothing caught us in our sleep and this is what it did to us."

"Is it very painful?" Atreyu asked.

"No," said the second bark troll, the one with the hole in his chest.

"You don't feel a thing. There's just something missing.

And once it gets hold of you, something more is missing every day.

Soon there won't be anything left of us.”

― Michael Ende, The Neverending Story

I waited for over a month for the small size jar of the spanish palmento green olives to come back in stock at Food Lion. It is the cheaper per ounce green olive jar. I would glance over quickly looking for the vase shaped glass for months. When we finished off the jar this week, the loveliness of the jar hit me. The wider base that tapers to a smaller top, the decorative stripes, and the bottom has the slightest shade of green tint. I couldn't throw it away. I'm a highly visual person. This sensitivity could be a sign of peri-menopause. Or, maybe my people from the Old World of the 1980s remember the days of beauty and design everywhere. I don't like how generic everything in daily life has become. 

1960s Atomic Starburst jelly jar and generic green olive jar.

The tiniest hint of sea green bottom.

I come from people that saved pretty jars. My people kept and reused these jars. I grew up drinking from old jelly glasses covered with atomic starbursts, Garfield, or the Smurfs. There was beauty and color everywhere from galaxy bowling alley carpets to Christmas paper towels. This week while washing out this pretty jar to save, I realized that I don't see pretty jars anymore. I don't see shapes or colors. Everything is a cylinder. Everything is one color. Even our billing statements are becoming colorless or one color. Companies are getting rid of multicolored logos due to costs. Even our plain checks from the bank are no longer blue background but gray. Colors cost money, and money is all anyone thinks about in the New World. 

In the Old World of the 80s and the 90s, there were colors everywhere. People thought it was worth the extra money to spend on whimsy, pattern, and designs on everything. It was delightful. For example, the Taco Bell shown below was similar to the one I went to in high school. Actually, mine had additional colors in a Southwestern vibe-- peach, teal, and pink. Today's stripped down purple Taco Bell makes me sad. My people thought 10 colors for the fast food restaurant decor was worth the extra money. We were color ballers!

Taco Bell employees at the Barksdale Base Exchange recover from a busy lunch rush. 2011

Taco bell restaurant at 3502 W. 16th Street in Indianapolis, Indiana. May 2018. 

 Taco Bell Opens in WA. 2021

My people also loved shapes. We loved shapes in everything. I am sharing this in case these too will be replaced with a generic cylinder. Shapes cost money and the New World doesn't think shapes are worth it. The New World wants everything on a utilitarian flat screen. Everything is about the bottom line. I looked around my kitchen and found only a handful of shapes and textures. They stick out in my fridge and pantry. These are what remain from the past. These are artifacts of the Old World. I remember when everything had design. Do you remember the yellow mustard in a barrel shaped bottle? I think we took it for granted. 

David Holding Mustard Wikkicommons

On the left, two old glass juice bottles with pebbled texture and form. Today's plastic fake on right.

New lime juice, no longer in green plastic lime shaped. Now plastic wrapped label.
Front and back detail of honey bear. The hair on the back is precious. The detail. 

Two beautiful jars that will hold yard flowers. One from my childhood and one from today. So rare.

Olive Jar with Crape Myrtle buds & hydrangea. Frosted face lotion bottle with hydrangea.

Found mini liquor bottle with blanket flowers. Jelly jar with Crape myrtle & Lime Light cutting.

Where I come from, beauty was abundant. Beauty had value and was worth the extra money. That is why I praise this lovely olive jar, a jar with a little beauty and form. Both are rare qualities today. Anything beyond the absolute minimum is to be honored especially in a world of bean counting, bare bones, private equity slop. Do you remember?

Thank you for reading, and God bless you.

Paul Cézanne - Still Life with Flowers in an Olive Jar 1880

The Hunt for the Easy Garden: Tough Ass Tomatoes For The South Carolina Hellscape

View of the Adriatic, 1864. Anton Melbye

Oh, we've gotta hold on, ready or not

You live for the fight when that's all that you've got

Whoa, we're half way there

Whoa oh, livin' on a prayer

Take my hand and we'll make it, I swear

Whoa oh, livin' on a prayer

                        -BON JOVI

I started my garden heavily influenced by how to videos on YouTube by homesteader types and gardening geeks. I was sold on the hope of delicious heirloom tomatoes and placed my order with Baker Creek. The one Bonny's Best tomato that made it was delicious. Year after year, I bought the seeds that some influencer stated was the best tasting or the most productive tomato ever. Every year, we got nothing except for our Early Girl (a hybrid.) The Early Girl tomatoes always gave us a few tomato sandwiches. 

Here is the brutal truth about growing things in South Carolina. It's hard.  This is our fifth year growing tomatoes poorly in the South Carolina midlands in zone 8B. It is really hot and humid here. We have months of temperatures over 90 degrees. Watering is always an issue. It is either feast or famine in regards to rain. We get weeks of drought or days of non-stop rain. Me and most of the plants in my yard are miserable out there. We both hate the heat. I do not love gardening. I grow for the frugality and the delight of how great everything tastes. Right out the gate, please know I am a just a regular, tired, low energy, low budget, half ass gardener. I don't have hours and hours to give to the garden. If you are a tired low energy person, too, maybe this can help you. I have been on a five year journey of failures. Finally, this year I've made some changes. It's been our best year yet!

What I've learned the hard way:

1. NO DIVA TOMATOES. NO HEIRLOOMS. 

In the beginning, my main criteria for tomatoes was simple. Do they taste good? I wanted the very best tasting tomatoes. I went and searched for the top tomatoes. All the foodie gardeners from up north or behind a camera with lots of time and perfect soil sung the praises of delicious heirlooms. I bought the following heirloom tomatoes. Every one of them succumbed to disease. 

Bonny's Best (Patara's choice)

Ace 55, Red Centiflor Tomato (Michigan Gardener)

Arkansas Traveler and Chocolate Cherry 

Roma VF 

For years, I blamed myself. Maybe I didn't water enough, or our soil was bad. The only tomato that gave us anything to eat was my Early Girl hybird. Some say she doesn't have the best taste. Who cares how good it tastes if you never get any tomatoes? Our Early girl Tomatoes are infinitely better than any store bought tomato. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. I am not going to be the slave of my garden plants. I have given up on the fantasy heirloom garden. I like to eat real tomatoes that actually grow here. 

2. OUR SOIL IS NEVER GOING TO BE PERFECT.

After a few years of failure, I changed my main criteria for productivity. I wanted the most productive tomatoes. Once again, all the salesman gardeners suggested "disease resistant" heirlooms. I bought the seeds and quickly learned that "highly disease resistant" in Michigan or Appalachia means nothing in South Carolina. What a waste of time and money! Once more, the only tomato that produced was that subpar big corporate Early Girl hybrid. I realize now that maybe those disease resistant tomatoes do grow well for them with their paid garden help, fancy drip irrigation systems, truck loads of bought soil, and their expensive amendments and fertilizer. My soil isn't great. Your soil isn't great either. Don't feel bad about it. The South Carolina Gardening Facebook group I follow is covered in daily posts of pictures of dying tomatoes. The gardeners list all the protocols and amendments they tried to no avail. Then, the gardening scientist comes out to diagnose the disease or lack of water. Maybe it's this? Maybe it's that? Maybe try this spray? Maybe buy this fertilizer? What if we just find tomatoes that can handle our terrible weather and soil?

We didn't buy any soil or compost or fertilizers for our garden beds. We do the lasagna gardening method. This method uses compost, cardboard, and grass clippings to create an easy garden bed. I am not testing my soil. I am not identifying every disease. I am not getting a degree in tomatoes. I am tired. Our weather is awful. Our soil is a work in progress and is certainly covered in disease. Our budget is under 10 dollars. The mental bandwidth I have to give for a future tomato sandwich is very little. I only want tough, disease resistant, and heat tolerant tomatoes. 

3. THE ROACHES OF THE TOMATO WORLD

This year, my main criteria in choosing tomatoes was to select the most disease resistant varieties. My Early Girl hybrid was my best producer. Even the Better Boy hybrid tomatoes (Old Alabama Gardener's choice) didn't produce. I found out that Better Boy's disease resistance was the same as Early Girl except for ONE disease, Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV.) That was the light bulb moment. These diseases had names. Billy Bob's family tomato that was regarded as "highly disease resistant"was not accurate enough. I think they are vague on purpose. They gaslight you with crap about crop rotations, not getting your leaves wet, and spraying schedules. I went looking for the most disease resistant tomato varieties with similar resistance to Early Girl. Your grandmother never did a soil test. Your grandmother didn't have drip irrigation. Your grandmother bought her hybrid seeds from Walmart. Maybe, if you do your gardening perfect enough, your tomatoes will grow. I am looking for the roaches of the tomato world. These are the tomatoes that will grow in the worst weather and soil. I want true survivors.

4. HURRY UP. THE BUGS ARE COMING. SHIT OR GET OFF THE POT

Lastly, I have a criteria of quick maturing tomatoes. South Carolina is covered in bugs. Every kind of hungry bug is waiting to destroy your tomatoes. I've tried the mesh bags and spraying with dish soap and water. It's a lot of work. In response to this reality, I want fast growing tomatoes. I want tomatoes that hurry up and can be brought in to ripen on the counter. I don't have time for those huge tomatoes. Faster is better. It's a tomato horror film out there.

5. GIVE UP THE FANTASY GARDENING

Stop gaslighting yourself. You have a lot of things to do each day. You are never going to do your garden perfectly. No one does. It's OK.

I start my seeds in solo cups inside a laundry basket. I place it near the window. Nothing fancy.

6. A FEW MORE TIPS FOR TOMATOES

WE USE ONLY COMPOST IN OUR BEDS. Throughout the fall and winter, I dig holes into the beds and bury the compost in the beds. I think it helps to disturb the bug eggs, too. Again, I'm no scientist.

WE COVERED ALL OUR BEDS WITH GRASS CLIPPINGS. The grass clippings had seeds in it, too. We raked the grass in the fall and covered every bed in a thick layer. We dumped the grass over weeds, etc.  In a few weeks, the mulch settled lower with the rain. It has helped all of our plants. We can't afford to mulch our entire garden with wood chips. 

I BOUGHT REALLY WELL MADE FOLDABLE TOMATO CAGES. They are easy to store away. They don't rust. We should have them for the rest of our lives. They are "set it and forget it." I don't have time or resources to build a cattle panel trellis or clip the vines up a stick every week. The cages are 5 feet tall. I plant the tomato and put the cage over it. I never think of it blowing down. I think regular people should put their money into systems like this that save you time and energy.

PRUNING POORLY. I removed all the leaves from the bottom of each tomato plant. I don't want any leaves touching the ground. I also remove some of the remaining flowers on a cluster of already fruiting tomatoes. For example, if there are three tiny tomatoes in a cluster with 4 remaining flowers, I trim off the flowers of any cluster. I want all the energy to go into the 3 fruits. 

HALF ASS POLLINATION. I will shake the flowers to help with pollination. I also take my finger and swipe my finger into different flowers. This is my version of half ass hand pollinating. 

TUMS. I place a few Tums (fruit flavored generic) into the ground near each plant. It helps with blossom end rot. (There is debate if blossom end rot is a calcium or an inconcistent watering problem.) I water inconsistently, so I hedge my bets.  

WATER DEEPLY. I hand water with two big green plastic watering cans. I count to 20 when watering each plant. I want it to count and encourage deep roots. 

FREE SHADE CLOTH. I used old t-shirts with holes in the pits for "shade cloth." I attached the cloth piece with wooden clothes pins on one side of the cage. I also used some foil strips I cut from corn tortilla chips bags and tied them in a knot on my tomato cages to scare off the birds. So far, it is working.

PICK TOMATOES EARLY. I pick tomatoes everyday and check for worms and bugs as I pick. I pick everything as soon as it blushes. I don't wait. I want to get them before the bugs do. I place them in a closed paper bag and let them ripen inside.

TOMATO WORMS GLOW NEON IN BLACK LIGHT. You can buy a cheap plumbers black light flashlight. Go out at night, and the worms are easier to see. I bring a solo cup of soap water and wear a glove to pull them off the stems and drown them in the water. You can squeeze them, too. I can't stomach it. 

A DAILY CHECK IN 15 MINUTES. I water each plant for 20 seconds. As I water each plant, I check for bugs and worms. I pick any blushing tomatoes and shake some stems of flowers to help with pollination. I have a little plastic basket that I carry out with pruners, soapy water spray, gloves, and room to hold the bounty.

CLEMSON EXTENSION GARDENING RESOURCE. This is your new best friend for gardening tips in South Carolina. Here is the page for tomatoes.

ASK THE LORD FOR HELP.  Lastly, Mr. Peasant has been saying this prayer everyday after the Angelus. Ultimately, God gives us every blessing. We both think this is the most important change we've made. 

A GARDEN PRAYER.

We beseech Thee, Almighty God, in Thy goodness,

to pour down Thy blessing on these young shoots and sprouts

which Thou hast permitted to grow with due sunshine and rain,

and make them to grow into mature fruit.

Grant to Thy people that they may always give thanks to Thee for Thy gifts,

and fill the hungry with Thy gifts

which the fruitful earth produces in fullness

so that the poor and needy may praise Thy glory.

Amen.

I bring in the tomatoes when they slightly blush. I place them in a paper bag to ripen faster

What finally worked in my lazy, imperfect, disease ridden, unpruned, unfertilized, unreliably watered, hot, humid, bug covered South Carolina garden?  Here are the unfussy hybrid tomatoes that are giving us 4 tomato sandwiches for lunch and handfuls of tomatoes for a salad each night. 

EARLY GIRL (52 days)

SUPER SWEET 100s (70 days)

DARK STAR (80 days) Burpee

MOUNTAIN MAGIC (70-80 days) Burpee

Dark star hybrid tomatoes from Burpee. 

Darkstar. Supposed to be like Cherokee Purple but more productive.

Supersweet 100. I am getting handfuls everyday. I pick them when they blush.

Darkstar and Early Girl about to be eaten in a tomato sandwich.

I have spent a lot of time chasing a tomato that would grow well here. I am sharing this, so you won't waste your time. The best part of growing tomatoes is eating them. Thank you for reading and God bless you and your gardens. 

 Abide in me, and I in you. 

As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, 

unless it abide in the vine, 

so neither can you, unless you abide in me.

I am the vine: you the branches: 

he that abideth in me, and I in him, 

the same beareth much fruit: 

for without me you can do nothing.

                                                                                                    JOHN 15:4 DRA

Alfred Jensen Dreimaster in ruhiger See 1911

Mr. Peasant On Grasshoppers And Ants

Henry Ossawa Tanner - The Young Sabot Maker 1895

A Grasshopper frolicked while an Ant stored food for the winter. When winter came the Ant was comfortable; the Grasshopper not so.

Prepare for the future.

AESOP

Happiness cannot be found in the world and in worldly things. I have known this truth for my entire life and explains why I have always been an ant by temperament. Happiness can be found only in God. I haven't always known this truth, but I have known where happiness wasn't. Happiness wasn't in chasing hedonistic pleasures and material things. Though I knew this, the rest of the world did not get the memo on this. These are the grasshoppers.

The Ant and the Grasshopper by Charles H. Bennett 1857

I wondered to myself when I became an ant, but I realize that I have always been an ant. I have also searched my memory bank to recall if I ever knew of anyone who was a grasshopper who became an ant. I can't remember any such conversions to the ant lifestyle. I am convinced that the ant vs. grasshopper thing comes down not to life experiences but temperament. Grasshoppers seek happiness in pleasures and possessions. Ants seek happiness in thoughts and activities.

That fundamental difference in temperament is why grasshoppers can never become ants. Conversely, ants can become grasshoppers, but this usually happens through association until the ant wises up and cuts ties with the grasshopper. Never date a grasshopper.

Waiting for a Bite, Central Park, John George Brown. 1886

Grasshoppers believe in material happiness while ants believe in kinetic happiness. An ant likes to go fishing. A grasshopper likes to buy a new rod and reel and a boat. The ant takes more enjoyment from a simple cane pole while the grasshopper grows bored with it all fairly quickly necessitating another frivolous and wasteful purchase.

Ants enjoy life more than grasshoppers. This is a secret, and it is one that grasshoppers and merchants are desperate to keep secret. Living and doing will always be better than buying and spending. This is common sense. You can't buy living and doing anymore than buying ropes and carabineers will make someone a rock climber.

There will always be a material dimension to the ant's activities and kinetic lifestyle. You have to buy or borrow a book to read a book. But does it matter if it is a rare first edition printing or a yellowed paperback from a thrift store? None of these considerations disturb the ant while the grasshopper is desperate to prove that the increased outlay of money has heightened their enjoyment and experience. Then, that needs to be validated by your envious audience on Facebook.

Grasshoppers are incredibly stupid. They live paycheck to paycheck, and do nothing to prepare for the troubles in life. If they get out of their troubles, they have an amazing ability to get right back into those troubles. This is why ants would be wise to leave the grasshoppers to their folly. You can't change them. Don't let them change you.

Thank you for reading!

Ada Thilen - Girl Reading in a Landscape 1896

Mrs. Peasant Goes To The Movies: Against the Sicko Cinema of the 70's

Edmund Blair Leighton: The Accolade 1901 
Henry VI the Good of Wrocław is knighted

But to be a person is to be precisely in a story 

and it's narrative is what gives coherence and meaning to events. 

Otherwise they are just random. 

It's just one damn thing after another.

                                              

-MALCOLM GUITE 

I wasted a lot of time as a teenager in the 90s and early 2000s watching really awful films. I wish I could enter a montage of all the faces I made walking out of the darkened theaters. There were all faces of confusion and anger from the wasted time with no payoff. I tried for years to get into indie films and the award winning films. I went to see the films the critics in the paper thought were excellent. I thought all of them were literal trash-Trainspotting, Pulp Fiction, Three Weddings and A Funeral, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Evita, and The Ice Storm. Everything I saw was bad. So, I gave up on new movies for 15 years. 

When I met Mr. Peasant, he introduced me to so many great movies. Mr. Peasant is an English major, and he is all about the story. We watched tons of free old movies on Tubi and bought DVDs for a dollar at the thrift store. I cherish all the great films we watched together! Mr. Peasant picks the movies, and I watch them. 99% of the time it is wonderful. But there have been a few of Mr. Peasant's picks that aren't so wonderful. All of the films I don't care for happen to be from the 70s. 

Mr. Peasant requested that I write about my ideas on film. You see, friends, I am very particular about what I will NOT watch. I am a visual person, and I have a list of images I don't care to see. I don't want these images in my mind and certainly not in my dreams. Some images are so excessively gross I don't find them entertaining at all. The key word is excessive. I know that life is filled with monsters and sin. I just don't need to see every gory or lustful detail. I can fill in the blanks after a brief suggestion of an event.  Many people have grown desensitized to scary and sexy stuff. I have not. I call these movies SICKO films, and I don't want to watch them. 

Mr. Peasant and I love a good western. He was so excited for me to watch The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. I love the music of Ennio Morricone and was excited to see the film. I hated the movie. I literally spent half the film with my eyes closed. I didn't like when they tortured the guy for 5 minutes. I also hate movies where there is no hero. None of the characters are good. Why do I even care what happens to a bunch of bad guys? That movie is a sicko, violence for violence's sake. The mental exercise of rooting for the least evil guy is not very satisfying. It's not really a win. Maybe it would be a tragedy type story except nobody cares. The viewer has no emotion toward any of the characters, and there is no feeling. 

The Knight Errant b John Everett Millais 1870.  
"The distressful maiden has been despitefully used by robbers,
who have been dispersed by the gallant knight.
Some of them can be seen in the right distance.
This is the only nude female figure painted by the artist."
(From the Tate Gallery)

The second type of film I don't want to watch are films where the stories are wonky and disordered. There is no good guy. All the characters are shades of bad. It forces you to root for the least bad person. Since there is no hero, I can't really invest in any of the characters. These are the films that you walk out of the theater thinking, what the hell was that about? Or, if I am being charitable, you might think wow. They have no real endings, or the endings are gray or a big weird shock. I call these movies "art films," and I don't want to watch them.

I remember shouting at the TV screen when the first Rocky ended. I hated the first Rocky. I couldn't believe he didn't win the fight. I couldn't believe I sat through that entire film and the main character got his ass whipped in the end. I looked over at Mr. Peasant and said, "Is this an art film or something?" I remember asking Mr. Peasant to explain the ending to me. It reminded me of movies from the 90s with letdown endings, the kind of endings where they punk the viewer with realism. It's a movie. It's fiction, so make it magical. I would much rather watch The Karate Kid than Rocky. If I want realism, I'll read the newspaper. I like a happy ending. Rocky is an art film. Quentin Tarantino reveres Rocky as a rare film of optimism from the 70s. 

The art/sicko film throws all the soda flavors in one cup and dares you to drink it. What if you just want a Cherry Coke? Once you are in a state of grace, you look at the world differently. I only see the beautiful order of God and the disorder of sin. I have custody of my eyes, mind, and heart. I do not want to let lust or indifference come into my heart. I always want a hero. I always want the bad guy to be seen for what he is. I never want to root for evil, adultery, or sin. I want a reason for watching. I like watching a film about something disordered becoming ordered in the end. I want to catch the bad guy. I want to finish the quest. I want to have fun watching. I want to see them get together in a one and only romance. I want an ending that is ordered. Or, I want the ending to reveal the darkness of the disorder. I want disorder to be shown as sad, dark, and bad. I want the sky to be blue and the grass to be green. I want a Cherry Coke. That is why I hate 70s/90s films because what they call "daring" is really just nihilism. 

Joan of Arc - John Everett Millais 1865

Mr. Peasant On The Trade Off Problem

From How to be Happy an old catalog, 1901.

There are no solutions only trade-offs.

THOMAS SOWELL

We have heard a variation on this theme many times. The theme is that every solution breeds new problems. When making decisions, we are forced to weigh the costs and benefits of those decisions. No perfect solution exists or can exist. That is the nature of existence.

We hit the trade off problem whenever we go shopping. For instance, you can buy a toolbox in either blue or red, but you can't have it both ways. Every positive decision comes with a negative. Choosing one thing means not choosing the other thing. This doesn't seem like such a big deal in this example, but it is a big deal in many other examples. Should you buy metric wrenches or standard wrenches? I have learned that you need both.

There is a magic solution to the trade off problem, but it is a false solution. This is the solution known as "one size fits all." With the wrench example, you could buy an adjustable wrench and learn to live with stripped bolts and nuts. There's a reason adjustable wrenches never took over.

Mr. Peasant's practical solution to the trade off problem is "one size fits most." I have learned that every solution has its limits. I personally went through this journey when trying to decide between a 4 wheel drive pickup versus a 2 wheel drive pickup. The 4WD has more utility because you can go off-road and drive in the snow. For me, these situations are exceedingly rare. The rest of the time is spent paying more for gas on the 4WD and the all terrain tires that never leave 2WD. I had to choose between utility and fuel economy, and I chose fuel economy. Over the last decade, that has turned out to be a genius decision.

I went with the vehicle that covers 80% of what I need in a truck. That's close enough. If I need something more robust, I will have to seek out alternative solutions such as renting a truck. This flies completely in the face of the larger culture that wants as many options and features as exist. This would be the smartphone with a thousand apps or subscribing to more streaming services that can possibly be watched because there aren't enough hours in a day or a lifetime.

Goldilocks or The Three Bears, 1911. Jessie Willcox Smith 

Why do people go to such excess? I think it goes back to that old maxim that says that it is better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. The problem with that maxim is that it never accounts for the cost of having a lot of things that you don't need. One of those costs is the rent on a storage unit for all that unused stuff that you might need.

I find myself living in agreement with the wisdom of Yvon Chouinard who said, "The more you know, the less you need." This is hippie wisdom that people in the homesteading and prepping communities would be wise to learn. What we think we need will always be larger than what we actually need. This is because we don't know anything.

In my experience, I find those 80% solutions to be the best. What happens when those solutions aren't sufficient? This happens. I have learned to follow the strategy of the Marine Corps known as "adapt and overcome." That covers the 20%. I also refer to these strategies as the "white trash option." The result is that my method is a quilt work of improvisation and intentionality. I keep the intentionality at 80% and the improvisation at 20%. That is a nice ratio.

Another issue that comes up is choosing "tactical" gear and options. This is opposed to "practical." What is the difference between tactical and practical? I would say the difference is about $200 because this is how much you will pay more for a Goruck tactical backpack as opposed to the JanSport practical backpack. At the end of the day, a backpack is a compartment with two straps. Those tactical backpacks have those cool looking MOLLE straps, but I have rarely seen anyone actually use the things. Generally, you want to carry your gear inside the bag instead of outside of the bag because this is practical. But I digress. . .

Something is called tactical because it is designed for a narrow purpose or activity. Something practical is designed for general purpose activities. I have learned over the years to aim for the practical while eschewing the tactical. That is a way to achieve "one size fits most." Tactical is "one size fits one."

You can get away with using a tactical backpack to carry books to class the same way you can commute to work in a Jeep Wrangler. Why would you? This hit me decades ago trying to work in a pair of jungle combat boots when I just needed a basic and more comfortable pair of work boots. Those jungle boots looked bad ass, but they were crippling on a concrete floor for twelve hours a day.

Woman and child buying shoes. Drouin, Victoria 1944

I remember in high school in the 1980s that the local National Guard unit had Army Jeeps. They also had a basic Chevy pickup truck they painted camouflage. That pickup truck was their preferred vehicle for doing anything. It even lasted into the Humvee era because it was so practical.

Tactical isn't just limited to military type stuff. Hippies get into the act with their mountain bikes and gravel bikes when they would find more use in a beach cruiser bike. The same applies to trail specific shoes that are basically sneakers with some traction on the sole. The term the hippies use isn't "tactical" but "technical." It is the same animal. Your wallet gets lighter without any benefit over the practical option.

The bottom line is that marketers and businesses seek to undermine your confidence in the practical option of one size fits most. Because you know little, you need more stuff. A better investment of your purchasing dollar is to spend more time and money reading in an effort to know more. When you know more, you need less stuff. This knowledge boosts your confidence and allows you, Gentle Reader, to tune out the frequent pitches for your hard earned dollars.

Thank you for reading!

What Happened then stories. 1918. Ruth Dyer 

In Praise Of The Brother Printer

Portrait of Jean Miélot, The Scribe at Work. 1456. Jean Le Tavernier

A printer consists of three main parts: 

the case, the jammed paper tray 

and the blinking red light.

                                   

                            -DAVE BARRY

Today, I want to share with you a printer that made our life so much easier. I have hated every printer I've ever known. In the offices of my workplaces, I dealt with huge machines that jammed up all day. In my home, our personal HP ink jet printer went through ink cartridges like an old chain smoker. We were always running out of ink. I think we got 20 pages per ink cartridge. And even though we weren't heavy printers, it would always run out of ink during the most important and time sensitive moments. In those hectic deadline situations, our HP printer always failed. The fifth page would be nothing but faded lines. We would rush to Walmart and pay $25.00 on a new ink cartridge. During Covid, we bought a DIY ink refill kit to save money on HP ink.  One morning before an important appointment, I went to print a document. Of course, I had to refill the ink. My hands were black with ink, and the pages came out smeared with ink globs. I was trying not to get ink on my clothes before our appointment. And that, my dear readers, is when I lost it. Having a bad printer made everything chaotic.  

Unidentified female office worker sitting at a desk using a large computer. 1981-1990 circa

I know a product is awesome when I never have to think about it. This is the case with my Brother printer. I've had it for three years. It is the easiest printer I've ever used. It has never jammed or smeared ink. It has a paper tray that can hold 250 sheets of paper. Best of all, we are still on the first ink cartridge three years later! I found out about it from a woman who runs a money saving website called Southern Savers. She prints out a lot of coupons and did the math on the most economical printer. She stated her black and white Brother printer was the best printer. Boy was she right. Here is her old post with the Brother printer model number and ink info HERE. Listen to what she says about the Brother printer:

The Brother Printer is a black & white laser printer.  It can print 500-700 sheets with the toner it comes with and then you can replace the toner with a high yield cartridge for around $20.  The replacement will print 1700-2000 sheets!  For the cost of one inkjet replacement you have a new awesome printer!! Seriously guys, I have 2 of these and haven’t replaced the toner in either of them in the past year.

We bought a Brother HL-L2320D in July 2022 from Staples. It came with the ink cartridge that we are still using. Unfortunately, that model is no longer available now. I truly believe that any Brother laser printer would be dependable. And for the mid tech users like us, they have wireless printer models that can use wires.

When you break free from your ink jet printer trap, you can finally use your printer and not just for your updated car insurance cards while keeping your fingers crossed praying it will print. You can print fun things. In my opinion, a printer is a really fun overlooked analog tool. It's a way to take online information and make your own hard copy. Today, I use my Brother printer with abandon. I print recipes. I print out letters to my family. I print out prayers like our favorite daily Auxilium Christianorum Prayers. I print my Clemson University garden planting date guide (4 pages long) for my garden binder. I have printed a typed list in alphabetical order of all our DVD titles in our collection (easy site to alphabetize.) I even printed out our primary election sample ballot, so I can research candidates better. I print out all these extra things because printing is no longer difficult. Printing is cheap and fun. Please buy a Brother printer and break free. It might cost a little more upfront, but you'll never have to think about printing ever again. And, that my friends, is priceless. God bless you and thank you for reading!

Illuminated page "Ave Maria, gracia ple[na]",15th century. Robinet Testard

Letter R Crop Crop of folio 52r w:Heures de Charles d'Angoulême

Mr. Peasant On The Low Hanging Fruit Of Frugality

Boy Scouts pick fruit for jam. Cambridgeshire, England 1944

Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Frugality is a tough sell. Nobody wants it. They prefer to keep blowing money without a second thought on the matter until circumstances force the issue. The truth is that people want to do better, but they don't want to do better today. The needed change will not come a moment sooner than too late. Then, desperation takes over which leads to very poor decision making. With money, the desperation leads the desperate turn to the usurers who are quite happy to exploit this desperation. A better way is to turn to this handy guide that generates savings immediately.

When people think about frugality and saving money, they have visions of refinancing mortgages and loans, clipping coupons, and hiring some sort of financial advisor. If that financial advisor is worth a damn, he will share the tips in this post than I am giving to you for FREE. None of these tips are sophisticated but are just plain common sense. The problem is that they all involve some form of deprivation and doing without. Frugality is more about having fortitude than brains. Here is the low hanging fruit of frugality.

1. Give up cigarettes.

Vices are expensive, and cigarettes are a very expensive vice. In my state, the average price for a pack of smokes is $8.50. Assuming you smoke a pack a day, that amounts to $255 per month. The price is even higher in other states. New York State is the most expensive at $14.55 per pack which amounts to $436.50 per month. People can argue and bicker over this "injustice," but assuming you are in the right, it is still going to cost you a lot of money. Many people could solve their money woes just by giving up this one vice. Just cutting back on the smokes will generate hefty savings. I won't get into the savings on healthcare expenses. That is in the realm of high hanging fruit.

A girl drinking wine and a boy smoking a cigar, 1893 Albert Roosenboom

2. Give up booze.

After tobacco, alcohol is the next most expensive vice for many people. On a unit price, a can of Budweiser beer will cost a little over a dollar in my state. Wine and spirits are obviously more expensive than beer. The real expense is a drunk driving conviction and the need for a liver transplant, but that also gets into the high hanging fruit. On a single serving basis, one beer is not so expensive. But who drinks one beer? People like to get hammered, and this costs money. I don't know of anyone who gave up the booze who was not better off for it.

3. Give up gambling.

A single ticket for the lotto is not so bad, but many people are addicted to those scratch off lottery tickets. You don't need to go to Vegas or Atlantic City to become a gambling addict. Your local convenience store is now a casino. I have heard of people blowing their entire paychecks on these scratch off tickets.

4. Give up Starbucks.

I don't consider coffee to be a vice, but Starbucks has made coffee cost as much as a vice with a single venti serving of java costing as much as a pack of smokes. There are people who drink Starbucks daily, so their caffeine habit becomes as expensive as any nicotine habit. Fortunately, the answer is to get cheaper coffee at Dunkin', McDonald's, or the Waffle House. Brewing your own at home is even better. I would recommend investing in a good travel mug or a Stanley thermos for taking hot coffee with you on the go. Personally, I think Starbucks is a scam. Anyone who goes there on a daily basis is an idiot.

Elderly couple eating at their home on Lamont Street N.W. Washington DC, 1942

5. Give up fast food, convenience store meals, and microwave meals.

Paying for food you didn't make yourself is a massive expense. You're paying someone to make it for you, but it isn't cheap. Buy your ingredients and make your own food even if it is just a sandwich. People will claim they don't have the time for this, but this is utter horse crap. It takes me less time to make my own sandwich than to watch someone else make it for me at Subway and then pay them for the convenience. Microwave meals are essentially fast food that you make at home.

6. Give up soda pop.

Soda pop is sugar water, but a can of the stuff will cost you a dollar now. You can probably save a bit more by getting a generic store brand in the 2 liter bottle. Mrs. Peasant does this with her once a week purchase of diet soda. She only buys one per week for a treat with her Chef Boyardee Pizza on Sunday.

At this point, the Gentle Reader is howling in indignation and despair because Mr. Peasant is removing all of the joy and pleasure from life. My defense is that I think you can have the same level of joy and pleasure but at a fraction of the price.

I don't drink soda pop except on the rarest of occasions. I prefer to drink tap water. I put a splash of cranberry juice or muscadine juice in it for health benefits, but I stick to water and coffee. I don't do booze or soda pop. I don't feel deprived at all, and there is something to be said for being properly hydrated.

7. Give up cable, satellite, and streaming subscriptions.

I don't expect people to give up entertainment, but I do expect people to stop paying so much for it. I cut the cord on cable a long time ago, and I stopped paying for Netflix when they were still delivering the DVDs by snail mail. I recommend watching over the air television on an antenna while you can still get it for free. I also recommend watching free streaming services like Tubi and Pluto and the free content on YouTube. I don't watch very much visual content, so my entertainment comes from reading used books and listening to the radio on my 20-year-old Sony Walkman. (Sports fans will be happy to know that they can cancel the football package and listen to all their favorite games on the radio for FREE.)

8. Adjust your thermostat.

This is a Mrs. Peasant tip. She sets the thermostat at 78 degrees in the summer, and 58 degrees in the winter. If this sounds extreme, this is where the electric company recommends you set your thermostat. You can set it higher or lower if you're not going to be home during the day because of your job and whatnot. I am used to the summer setting because I am a lizard and prefer to be acclimated to warm weather. In the winter, I break out my house hoodie that I wear exclusively around the home. It is almost 20 years old now and still does the job.

Couple in a Train Compartment, 1895. Ricardo López Cabrera

9. Give up expensive travel and entertainment.

There is a certain type of person who cannot enjoy life at home. They have to go out on the town each weekend and spend two weeks of vacation each year on an exotic cruise or relaxing at a resort. I don't know how anyone can relax if they are living paycheck to paycheck and can't make ends meet. When Mrs. Peasant needs to get out of the house, she goes to the thrift store or to the garden center. In the past, we have been to parks, libraries, museums, the zoo, and kitschy roadside attractions. They have all been fun and done on the cheap. Otherwise, our life is a staycation. Home is a sweet place to be.

10. Give up that flagship smartphone.

The Peasants use durable flip phones that last longer than the cellphone networks. These phones are not cheap but don't cost anything close to the $1000 plus flagship smartphones that people buy every two years. Sometimes, they drop the smartphone and break the screen. This is why they pay insurance on these things like you would with an automobile. This is crazy.

Charles of France, Duke of Berry. 1701- 1725. Nicolas de Largillière

11. Give up fashion.

I gave up fashion in high school and wear work clothes and boots until they disintegrate. Fashion by its nature is short term and expensive. The expectation is that you will change your entire wardrobe twice a year in spring and fall. I don't even change my wardrobe twice a decade. I recommend establishing a uniform for yourself like Steve Jobs did and wearing that gear for as long as it lasts. The interesting thing you will note is that no one is paying attention to what you are wearing. You have to wonder why you are dressing to impress people who don't care except for their own clothes that they are wearing.

Conclusion

As I said, frugality is a tough sell. These tips are falling on deaf ears, and I am OK with that. Just stop whining at how hard your life is and how you are up against it. The reality is that your lifestyle is a choice, and choices come with consequences. I find the consequences of frugality to be easier to bear than the consequences of being a spendthrift. If you are a spendthrift, do us a favor and suck on it as hard as you can. Your misery is free comedy and entertainment for the rest of us who know better. (Listen to The Ramsey Show for some of that free entertainment.)

I don't feel sorry for the grasshoppers in life. No one is up against it. The thing that the person earning $40K a year has in common with someone earning $240K a year is they both have no savings and live paycheck to paycheck. Where does it all go? Most of it goes to the things I just wrote about. I think the average person can save at least $1000 a month just with the low hanging fruit. That amounts to $12K per year.

The high hanging fruit of frugality involves living in a modest home and buying used vehicles while eschewing high price toys like a motorcycle or a boat. The irony is that many people could afford the payments on these large purchases just by going for the low hanging fruit of frugality. Personally, I recommend going for all of the fruit of frugality. The low hanging fruit is for those folks already in trouble and need to generate savings today. This is when they hear the repo man coming down the street to take back their stuff. But that is a topic for another post.

Thank you for reading!