This weekend there was a story on FOX NEWS about comfort food, in that it seems in these times economic uncertainty, America turns more to comfort food.

http://www.foxnews.com/video/index.html?playerId=videolandingpage&streamingFormat=FLASH&referralObject=3134672&referralPlaylistId=playlist

Which brings me back to a few posts I made four years ago asking the musical question: what is comfort food? Is there really a dish (or dishes) that make people feel better about themselves, about the economy, about life in general?

I still am lost at this concept. Never have I had a rotten day at the office (or in my commute) and came home thinking I'd like a bowl of to feel better. Sure, I get hungry -- that's fine. If there's a movie I want to watch, do I think popcorn? Yes, but I am not guaranteed to make any. Do I sometimes forage around the kitchen for something? Of course, but that's again hunger.

But as for cravings? No, I can't say I've had them.

The steadfast comfort food favorite, from my limited research, has been macaroni and cheese, but I still receive perplexed looks from people when I ask whether baked ziti would be an equivalent. Not that I ever crave ziti, but that baked ziti is - in most preparations - macaroni and cheese, yet no one seems to equate it with the traditionally known mac and cheese - perhaps it isn't the food, but the color of the cheese that comforts?

Apparently, I am in a certain minority with this opinion, as Technorati has plenty of hits on the subject of comfort food.

The FoxNews story above suggests soups and stews are becoming popular. Should I hazard to guess those dishes usually become popular in the fall, or would that be obstinate? Consider, however, that stews and soups are often relatively easy to prepare, use relatively inexpensive ingredients, and can be reheated with ease, making a large pot last a longer time; with all the doom and gloom reported about the economy these days, doesn't a meal with such versatility make even more sense?

When I last discussed this on another blog (the now defuncted A Small Victory) I was told of people who look to comfort food as a way of triggering their memories of childhood (the video above makes a similar reference). Now I recognize that aromas are powerful triggers to memories, and while I suppose I had a good childhood, I cannot think of any meal that triggers a specific recollection of any specific good time that would make me crave a certain dish. And believe me when I tell you: my mother, my grandmother: both kick-ass good cooks, as is my MBH.

So I ask you, the readers, to educate me: what is comfort food to you? What does it mean, and why? When do you indulge in this comfort, and how often do you do it?

And to those who are like me, who don't get comfort food: speak up... maybe there's a marketing myth to this comfort food sensation, and we've been all conditioned to accept mac-n-cheese as the perennial favorite because of some evil cabal of a pasta and dairy consortium.

Or maybe it's just me: maybe I am just simply lacking something that all others apparently have in their psyche. Heh, it wouldn't be the first such missing item...

So this week my trusty desktop PC at home went down, hard.

On Monday evening it locked up: the screen would freeze, mouse and keyboard were unresponsive (even NUM LOCK could not be toggled), the screen saver would fail to kick in, the clock would stop. Cold boot time.

Tuesday, midday, it happened again. On Wednesday I couldn't get it to boot at all. The symptoms included no POST beep (that is, when you first power up a PC, there is what is known as the PowerOnSelfTest - POST - where it does a quick inventory of its overall health, followed normally by a single beep). The hard drive and optical drives would spin, but nothing else happened. No signal was being sent to the monitor. My USB hub, normally with a lit status LED right after boot, remained dark.

The PC was dead.

Being that I work in software engineering company, I asked one of the techies (a true MSCE) to look over my box. He stripped every component out - taking him about 15 minutes whereas I would have spent at least an hour to do the same - which eliminated those items as the cause. When I saw him removing the heat-sink from the CPU, I knew my PC wasn't likely to boot ever again.

His trip to the CPU was to ensure it was seated properly in the socket - sort of a hail-Mary pass - and once he determined it was, we checked the time and noted the TOD. That I bought the Dell 4400 new in February 2002, I really can't complain too much that it died.

He then did me a courtesy of pulling the hard drive and plugging it into a second PC he had to verify the data was still there; thankfully, it was. I have an external back-up at home, but it's so much easier to have the original at hand.

So now I need to decide: take some effort and invest some small amount of money (~$100, so I am told) and time (both of which are at a premium these days) to buy a replacement motherboard and attempt to install it. I have never done that sort of work before, and it may well be fun to do. But it would likely suck up an entire weekend, with no clear guarantee of success. And in this case, the definition of success means being little more than I was on Monday.

Or should I spend a bit more money (~$300-500) and get a new PC, and start fresh? I can easily install the old hard drive (either internally or in an external case I already own) and be up and running with my data and apps in a short period of time, with brandy-new PC.

I can go a little cheap on the new PC, because my last PC had two optical drives: DVD/burner and a CD. Since both are still fully-functional, I can get away with one DVD/burner (much faster than the 6 year old model) and install the old DVD/burner in a slot. And since my MuchBetterHalf gave me an LCD monitor for Christmas, I can even buy a PC without any monitor, too.

But even as fuel prices are slowly falling, I am still putting out about $27/day, and that is sucking up my surplus budget in a big way.

Lets see what deals I can find today and tomorrow... still, I miss having my MS Outlook calendar at hand.

The POLLS ARE OPEN!

"I will not run if nominated, and if elected I will not serve."

http://twurl.nl/tw6t7z

The other day my son asked if I had heard the new song called Sweet Home Alabama. Hearing in my mind the opening chord of Lynyrd Skynyrd's classic song (..."turn it up"), I said that the song was probably 20 or more years old. He assured me he heard a new song, possibly a cover of the original I was thinking, and I told him I'd keep an ear out for it.

Keep in mind; he and mom are Country Music fans, through and through. There are a few songs from that genre I find worthy, so much of it is just background noise to me (see prior posts). When I drive alone, I generally have talk radio on, because my taste in rock n' roll is tough to find on the dial these days. In the '70s it was called AOR, or Album Oriented Rock.... The kind of songs that never fit into the stereotypical three minute format found on the Pop music stations (pretty much most of the AM dial in those days). As Billy Joel opined: ....

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This is an excerpt from my humble blog. Because cre8Buzz doesn't support HTML in these posts (not yet at least), the numerous links and musical embeds won't show here. I hope you'll click through to http://whatsit2you.blogspot.com/2008/08/setting-tune.html and read the rest of this post.

So it's another summer weekend!

Tomorrow we're heading to POCONO RACEWAY; after residing less than an hour from the track for 16 years, I figured it was time to go.

Well, that and I got a deal on Saturday tickets. True NASCAR fans (the kinds whose blood type is measured in octane) might opt for the $500 ticket package, giving them unlimited access to the track, the infield, the garages, for the three days. Sadly, that price is out of reach this summer.

Me? I am a passive fan. I get into the race in the last 10 laps or so, but that's about all.

As much-better-half and oldest son are to two hard-core fans, it really ought to be she and he going, but she hates the hot/humid weather, and she thinks it would be something he'd enjoy with me.

Tomorrow there will be a few practice runs for the drivers competing in Sunday's race. Then there's an ARCA race in the afternoon. The NASCAR Sprint Division is like the Major League of Baseball; the Nationwide Division is like the AAA Minor League. ARCA is to AA baseball... some up and coming stars, to be sure.

Should be a great day in all! Then Sunday will be the day for the 6 year old brother (who would not do well in the heat and the noise), since he'll feel a little left-out once he knows where big-brother went.

Ah well... that fatherly juggling job never ends!