Things that were not immediately obvious to me

One of life’s little pleasures is a well-roast chicken, juicy enough that it falls off the bone, and wrapped in a crispy, seasoned, flavorful skin. I’m particularly partial to the rotisserie birds from Draeger’s deli section … when just-cooked, they’re sublime.

Of course, such meals end unhappily for the chicken, as our vegan and vegetarian friends will be quick to remind us. This is true, but to forgo meat is to deny our predatory nature, of which nothing good can come. Besides, animals would eat you if they could.

In that connection, it’s worth pointing out that the fact that the same magical animal gives us pork chops, bacon, ham, and prosciutto is indisputable proof of God’s beneficence.

Turkey, on the other hand, is the devil’s bird.

So, Jerry Lee Wilson’s autobiography has been making the rounds of the intertubes. (You can download the slim volume here.) Wilson is the inventor of the Soloflex and, more significantly, the infomercial. He’s an interesting case study in just how specific cleverness can be.

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Today I replaced a toilet fill valve. I could have called a plumber, of course, but after my alternator experience I decided I’d prefer to do it myself. It was surprisingly gratifying to fix something physical, as opposed to pushing electrons around all day. Anyway, a few tips:

• Although the connections only need to be hand-tightened, they may need to be mechanically loosened. Make sure you’ve got a wrench, or, preferably, some channel locks.
• The nuts (one each for the valve and supply line) are bigger than they look, and you’ll need pretty wide tools to grip them. This is why channel locks are better than wrenches or pliers.
• Supply line valves (the things mounted in the wall) are surprisingly leaky. (Maybe because they spend 99.99% of their service life in the “open” position?) Make sure you’ve got a bucket or something to catch water from the disconnected supply line while you’re swapping the fill valve.
• There are a bunch of different types of supply line fittings, and each one has slightly different rules for re-attachment to the fill valve. Figure out which one you have before you start disconnecting anything. (Also note that the fill valve will probably come with hardware for reattaching the supply line, but that you probably won’t need it.)
• Disconnect everything (that needs disconnecting) from the fill valve before you unbolt it from the tank. You don’t need to be wrestling with connections while keeping an eye on the leaky, balky, disconnected supply line.
• Be sure to keep a grip on the fill valve while tightening both the mounting and supply line nuts. It’s pretty easy to spin the valve into an undesirable position inside the tank while tightening things up.

Perhaps this will be useful to you one day.

(Editorial note: This is pretty U.S.- and California-centric.)

For the past few years, there’s been a fair bit of chatter about same-sex marriage. Many of those who argue against it speak in terms of “defending marriage”. For instance, the National Organization for Marriage describes itself this way:

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) is a nonprofit organization with a mission to protect marriage and the faith communities that sustain it.

Founded in 2007 in response to the growing need for an organized opposition to same-sex marriage in state legislatures, NOM serves as a national resource for marriage-related initiatives at the state and local level. …

I find it remarkable that these people don’t seem to notice that they’ve already lost the war — that marriage, as it had been understood for generations, started dying in 1969, and is (in the U.S.) good and dead today.

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Once upon a time, I played a modest amount of paper-and-pencil Shadowrun. Recently, due to the magic of emulators, I had the opportunity to play (in a totally IP-respecting way, for sure!) both the Genesis and SNES 16-bit Shadowrun games. So here, 16- or 17-years late, some reviews for you.

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