Aesir's Notes

Sometimes you find the strangest things while walking in the woods. See the full set of ten here.

Football Facts

Have you ever noticed that NFL coaches have short first names? This is the list of Super Bowl winning coaches with one-syllable first names:

Vince Lombardi, Weeb Ewbank, Hank Stram, Don McCafferty, Tom Landry, Don Shula, Chuck Noll, John Madden, Tom Flores, Bill Walsh, Joe Gibbs, Mike Ditka, Bill Parcells, George Seifert, Mike Holmgren, Mike Shanahan, Dick Vermeil, Brian Billick, Bill Belichick, Jon Gruden, Bill Cowher, Tom Coughlin, Mike Tomlin, Sean Payton.

24 in all. The list of Super Bowl winning coaches with names longer than one syllable: Jimmy Johnson, Barry Switzer, Tony Dungy.

So it's clear. If you want to win the Super Bowl, you need a one-syllable name, or at most two syllables ending with a "y". It doesn't look good for Raheem Morris or Marvin Lewis. Romeo Crennel never had a shot.

2010 Indy 500 Thoughts

A pretty good race; they saved the best for last.

The most memorable thing was how everybody was trying to be the slowest near the end. Racing is about being the fastest, but not this time. The need to stretch the fuel to the end led the drivers to get slower and slower. It was edge-of-your-seat stuff, but it was bizarre, too.

I thought Helio would be able to go to the end and might be able to steal the win, but he had to pit for fuel. Tony Kanaan ran a surprisingly strong race, but had to pit as well. Dan Wheldon could have won it if his team had known he had enough fuel left to run flat out to the finish, but he settled for second.

Give the ironman award to Ryan Hunter-Reay, who injured his thumb in a collision on pit road. The collision caused the steering wheel to spin and catch his thumb, tearing the ligaments. He realized it was serious when he went to push a button and his thumb bent back. It must've hurt like hell, but real race car drivers don't get out of the car just because they broke their thumb.

There were more wrecks than usual, including a spectacular one at the very end. I don't need to post it here. If you didn't see it on the news, you can find it on YouTube.

They're Everywhere!!!

Saturday I was out looking for a good place to put a new geocache, and once again came upon some deer. Sometimes all I see is their tails as they go bounding away, but I've discovered that if I'm quiet, they'll mostly ignore me. So of course I took some pictures, and this time I even got a movie.



After taking the pictures, I decided to creep quietly away from them. They followed me. It was spooky. They're just not very afraid of humans. Maybe they've discovered that they outnumber us. If they had opposable thumbs, they'd take over.

Spice Cabinet

The jar of Old Bay is required for all Marylanders. I think it's a law or something. The hot sauce is used fairly often. I use whatever-- Crystal, Frank's, Texas Pete, etc. Anything but Tabasco, which is too hot and has a distinctive taste. Cayenne pepper sauces are better.

The Pumpkin Pie spice isn't used much; I think it's cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. The Italian seasoning is oregano, basil, rosemary, parsley, and garlic. It goes in tomato sauces. The unlabeled jar is oregano; it and the minced garlic go into tomato sauces, too.

The paprika gets used fairly often; it's a part of the perfect tuna fish salad recipe. The pepper's been getting used more lately, and the salt is a mainstay. Too much salt in the diet? Impossible.

That's it. Anything missing? It's probably not needed. Mostly just a dash of hot sauce or a bit of paprika is all that's required.

Something Strange in the Woods

A geocacher named brentbeebe posted in the cache log for Careful, I bite back on on July 12, 2009 about seeing a "stage" located at N39 01.095 W077 05.950, and included a picture. It made me curious, so I decided to investigate. On March 18, 2010 I visited the spot.

The snowpocalypse of February 2010 was hard on buildings; this is no exception. The structure was in worse shape than in brentbeebe's picture.

(click any image for bigger)


I found a bag of nails under the floor. The bag came from Whole Foods, which has a store a few miles north of here in Rockville. I can't say the bag definitely came from the Rockville Whole Foods store, but that store (originally called Fresh Fields) became Whole Foods in late 1996.


There was a rusty saw tucked into the rafters. I found other objects nearby which appeared to be a sleeping bag and a parka. In the general area were a candle in a vase, an empty bag of "Hotsticks" (a brand of kindling wood), and a black plastic tarp (which was also used in the structure's roof). I did not find many food-related items. There was an empty plastic yogurt cup, but there is plenty of random litter of that type in the area.


The floor joists are viewed from below. Notice the nails (rather poorly) hammered in along the length of some of them. I don't know if the nails actually held anything together. None of the wood was painted or finished in any way. There was no writing, carving, or other marks on any of the wood. The general level of decay suggests that it has been abandoned for several years.


My best guess is that a homeless person built this as a shelter around 2000. I don't know where the wood came from or how it got there, although it was probably carried in. The barriers formed by the Beltway and Rock Creek, as well as the soft ground and many trees would make it difficult to bring in a vehicle. If the parka and sleeping bag came from the structure, it suggests that it was abandoned without removing anything. Perhaps the occupant was arrested, sick, or injured and unable to return.

Picture of the day

What is This?

On Hiatus

It's official now. I'll resume posting... sometime.

His 15 Minutes of Fame

...are just about up.

What Took You So Long?

Let's hear it for the IRL race at Kentucky on Saturday night. They made some changes to the engines and aerodynamics, and it all came together. Side-by-side, wheel-to-wheel, edge-of-your-seat racing.

Commentators are saying that the IRL should have made the changes earlier this season. Me, I think it should have been done years ago. I remember the seasons of 2002 and 2003. That was the best racing ever. Whatever was right back then slipped away from them, and it took half a decade to fix it.

Is it just a coincidence that Tony George was just recently ousted as head of the IRL? That handed control over to Brian Barnhart, who I have immense respect for. He knows how to run a race. NASCAR could learn a thing or two from him.

Whatever the reasons, the Indy Racing League is back, and I couldn't be happier. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the season.

Look What I Found In the Woods

I was doing a bit of geocaching in a local park on Monday, and as I was hiking along, I spotted this fellow about 25 feet away. He didn't seem worried at all. He just sat there while I pulled out my camera and took his picture. It's not the first time I've gotten close to some calm deer. Here's a picture of some does I saw in Aspen Hill a year ago:


Those are houses in the background. (The tombstones? It was the Aspin Hill Pet Cemetery.) I've noticed that the deer are pretty bold around here. Maybe they're getting used to seeing humans without hearing BANG! noises. Between DC and Montgomery County, they have a pretty big safe zone. Still, this is the first time I've gotten this close to a seven-point buck.

World's Worst Nachos

So bad, they're good. Part of my "World's Worst" recipe collection, which includes pizza, cheese fries, and eggs. More about these in the future.

To make World's Worst Nachos, you need corn chips, American cheese, and hot sauce. Put the chips on a plate, and cover them with strips of American cheese:


Then microwave for about 20 seconds until the cheese melts. Douse liberally with hot sauce:


Don't overcook them or the cheese will get tough and make the chips hard to separate.

United Breaks Guitars

I have a policy against having more than one video post on the front page at a time, so click here.

As the happy owner of a Taylor Guitar, I can sympathize. I'll be most reluctant to fly on United Airlines in the future. Maybe with a ukulele that I can put in the overhead storage compartment. Not with a checked guitar.

UPDATE: Proving once again that companies can be jerks in private but respond well to being publicly shamed, United now wants to "make it right" with the guitar's owner. That didn't take long.

A Bollywood Blast From The Past

The name of the song is Char Dinon Ki Hai Yeh, but I call it Yadda Yadda. I don't even want to know what this movie is about. It looks like The Wizard of Oz with motorcycles. They even try to steal a dance step from Dorothy and company at 2:45, and fail badly. Nice song, though, and Parveen Babi is always worth watching.

Watch for the part near the end where she waves, sings, and drives the bike, all at the same time. Don't try this at home. You could try adding oil to your gas to make smoke like that. I'm sure your neighbors will thank you for adding a little Bollywood flair to their otherwise humdrum lives.

R.I.P Karl Malden

(scene from Baby Doll)

An outstanding actor. I liked his performance in Baby Doll best. Watch it in its entirety here. He also had notable roles in On the Waterfront and A Streetcar Named Desire, among others.

Something Green

I was out in the park for a dose of green-ness. It kind of makes up for all this rain we've been having.

It's Lydia Time Again

(click image for bigger)

Words fail me. But a picture is worth a thousand, right?

Product Recommendation

This is the Accutire MS-4021B tire gauge. I've had one for a couple of years, and it's great. I've given a couple as presents, and gotten positive feedback. Accutire makes several other gauges, but I like this one because it doesn't have all that programmable junk that I don't need, and you can replace the batteries.

I got mine at Target for $12.99, but Amazon has it for $8.99. The Amazon comments are interesting. People actually gave it a one-star rating because they didn't remove the sticker that says 28.5, and thought that was the actual reading. Always read the directions.

Another reviewer thought it didn't work because they got 0.0 every time, and didn't realize that they were getting the calibration reading. That reminds me: one of the reasons I really like this gauge is that it can be calibrated. I've thrown away too many gauges because they lost their accuracy.

Being a race fan has made me realize the importance of tire pressure. My cars have gotten much better performance and mileage ever since I started checking the pressure regularly. I typically use the air pumps at Shell stations, because they're free.

Here Comes Le Mans

The world's biggest and most important stock car race is coming up in a couple of weeks, held in the beautiful French countryside. I hear you ask, "Isn't the biggest stock car race in NASCAR?"

Uh, no. While NASCAR still calls itself "stock car" racing, the cars haven't been stock for over a quarter-century. They are what's known in racing as prototypes. Each car is built one at a time at each team's race shop. Nearly all of the parts come from suppliers other than Ford, Chevy, Toyota, or Dodge. The race car may say "Impala SS", but it has nothing to do with the car Chevy makes besides the name.

Real stock cars come off a production line. (Thus, they are called "production" cars in the racing world.) You can go down to a car dealer and buy a car very similar to the one you see on the race track. There are races for these real stock cars, and the most important of them is the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Chevy will be there, but they won't use the Impala SS. If they did, they'd finish last. They race the Corvette. Winning at Le Mans confers some serious bragging rights, and this is where the Corvette legend comes from.

The 'Vettes race in a class called GT1, the fastest production class in racing. There is also a GT2 class for less powerful cars. They're still some impressive beasts, like the Porsche 911 and the Ferrari 430. Next year, the GT1 class will be eliminated. Corvette racing intends to get a head start on the switchover by racing a GT2 version for the rest of this season. It'll be fun to see how they do against the Porsches and Ferraris.

While these cars are getting sorted out, they have to make room for some absurdly fast prototypes, cars that would make NASCAR cars whimper and run away. Audi and Peugeot will bring three diesel-powered monsters each, and Aston Martin will challenge them with three gasoline-powered cars of their own. Last year, the Audis and Peugeots fought an epic battle. The addition of Aston Martin promises to raise it to another level.

I can't wait. This is the stuff I live for.