The Paige Spiranac Of Tennis Makes A Big Announcement, Raiders 'Karen' Acting Like An Idiot & Travel Drama At Miami International
And best holiday wishes to all of you
• Sean K., a great member of the TNML, writes:
Just a short note to wish you and your family a 'Merry Christmas' and 'Happy New Year.' Thanks as always for what you do as the 'Screencaps Maestro.' It is one of the high points of my day, reading the daily 'Screencaps' missive.
And I'll be thinking of the Screencaps community as I settle in to watch my two favorite Christmas movies this year: 'Die Hard' and 'Lethal Weapon.' Those two films epitomize the brash take-no-prisoners approach of all the 'Screencaps' commentary from readers! Best wishes for the year ahead!
Kinsey:
Advice for the southerners on how to get the grill up to temp in the extreme cold
No offense to all the other cold weather pit masters out there, but I'm trusting Guy G. in western New York with this subject. Guy G. lives in an area south of Buffalo where he gets pummeled with snow. This guy has like 500 cords of wood stockpiled on his property. He might not deal with the coldest of temperatures like people in International Falls, but this guy knows winter grilling.
• Guy G. writes:
There are a few ways that I get the grills moving in the middle of winter. I don’t stand in the garage, I don’t have a roof over my grills. They are cold!
The gas grill is eliminated for the winter. It is there, but unless we have a 35*+ day, its not getting turned on. The griddle is tough too, but can be done. Crank all the burners way up, and put ‘steam covers’ over as much as possible. With this, the heat stays on top. It does take about 30 minutes to get the griddle high enough.
The best way to do it, is with an enclosed cooker, with charcoal or wood. My Egg and Weber are my go-to units. With each of these, using more than usual is the way to go. Get the charcoal in your chimney cherry hot, before putting it in. Once you pour it into your grill, add a few chunks of hardwood to the outside, for added heat and flavor.
The wood smoker is out, as that would take a week to heat that steel! But, the pellet smoker gets up to temp well, and will stay there.
All of this is best with beef or pork. Chicken gets difficult to make, without drying it out. Best to roast or smoke those through the winter.
For the ‘bread truck’ the other day, having pigs at the house, we take all kinds of odd things home. Scraps from family members, old bread, spent grains…. I think the oddest thing we took home, was a couple bags of kettle corn pieces. All the little pieces that fall through the screen, or got burned. They are well-fed!
Safe travels this weekend Screencappers. Merry Christmas! May Santa bring us a Bills Super Bowl win!
• Rich E. writes:
Go to Harbor Freight or a similar discount hardware store and buy a welding blanket. Then wrap the smoker like a Christmas present save for the exhaust. That type of blanket can easily handle the relatively low temps a smoker does its work at.
• Lloyd W. writes:
It's going to be cold in Clearwater/Largo this weekend so I can relate.
Here's the story. In "Weber's Big Book of Grilling" they tell the story of how Weber grills became a national brand.
In the mid 60's they wanted to get them in the Sears stores and catalog. They arranged a meeting at Sears headquarters for a demonstration.
Long story short, these poor bastards were gilling on a terrace at the top of Sears Tower and it's -30 F. Snowing, wind blowing etc.
They served perfectly cooked beef loin, sides, and rolls all made on Weber grills.
They had to cook the beef loin an hour longer than they thought they would.
They also held foods in the Weber for service
Needless to say, you now know why people outside of Chicagoland know the name Weber.
My advice. Practice. Burn something, undercook something.
Buy cheap cuts of meat, cook too high, cook too low..You'll figure it out. Get good at hot weather grilling. Take notes if you need to. BUY A GOOD THERMOMETER AND PUT IT AT GRATE LEVEL! TEL-TRU are the ones that come on the best smokers out of central Texas (#not sponsored) for a smoker installed easily with a drill bit and step drill. THIS IS NOT OPTIONAL.
Try different charcoal and make adjustments. Make it good enough for you. You are the most critical person of your own cooking. Once you master a Weber you can cook on anything. It really is the most challenging equipment to master a good piece of meat on.
I make beef plate ribs, pork butt and brisket on mine. Yes, you can do that on a 22.5" Weber!
The difference between a master and a beginner is that the master has made more mistakes than the beginner, learned lessons and made adjustments.
Merry Christmas and happy New Year everyone. Just act like you are working until about noon tomorrow and no one will notice the rest of the week.
Thanks for keeping my morning entertaining!
Lazy announcers using "foot in the ground"
• Tony C. is fired up this morning over announcers who have a catchphrase and then run it straight into the ground:
Long-time reader, first-time writer. Earlier this year there was debate about Collinsworth etc and other announcers quality, even muting them.
But I would like to point out a blanket statement completely stupid announcers seem to keep saying more and more as both seasons have progressed.
“He put his foot in the ground and _.”
Or “He just needs to put his foot in the ground and then___.”
Multiple announcers, multiple networks and college and pro football games. It’s just lazy and to be honest just sounds kind of dumb.
Has anyone else noticed this wonky phrase or am I just an anti-foot-in-ground guy?
Merry Christmas & Happy new Year Joe and thanks for the community I’m glad bellybutton gate seems to have run its course as I personally am taking an IG model break haha
Kinsey:
I had some extra time this morning -- not sure how -- and that allowed me to do a little Big J investigating on this "foot in the ground" thing. It turns out Twitter users have been fired up such statements going back years.
Things to remember:
Hope that helps.
NBA inflation
• John in SD writes:
A telltale sign that inflation is out of control in this country; Phoenix Suns who’ve never won an NBA championship, are sold/worth $3,999,999,999 and the Mercury is sold/worth a $1.
Kinsey:
Imagine being in the negotiating room for this deal. You want to own a sports team? Oh yeah? Well, we're going to test you -- the deal includes putting up with losing money on women's basketball so that the NBA can keep the wokes satisfied and believing the NBA cares about women's basketball.
Good luck to Mat Ishiba and his family as they enter this woke hellscape. He'll eventually get to compete against LeBron as an owner when Bron Bron woke shames the NBA into locating a franchise in Las Vegas.
Charcuterie bros in Les Halles De Nimes, France
• Mike T. had his head on a swivel today in France:
And the Nimes De Arenes
• Mike T. writes:
Built in 70 AD shortly after the Coliseum in Rome Still used for bullfighting and in fantastic shape.
Kinsey:
And yet here in the U.S. we can't save our coliseums like my beloved Hara Arena in Trotwood, Ohio which hosted such events as the pre-Halloween Nirvana show in 1993 and a 1964 Rolling Stones show that was attended by like 300 people and described as horrible. And don't forget October 1983 when Andre the Giant & Ivan Putski defeating WWF Tag Champs Wild Samoans Afa & Sika?
We must do better in protecting our own coliseums.
Sure, a tornado hit Hara a few years back leading to bulldozers coming in and leveling the barn, but it was a cesspool mess before the tornado.
The lesson today is that we need to build coliseums that will last at least 300-400 years. 1900-plus years is a big ask.
That's it, the winter solstice Screencaps is in the books. Stay warm. Good luck with the grills. Look on the bright side, the days start getting longer and golf isn't that far off.
Go give 'em hell at work and let's keep the hammer down until closing up shop for that beautiful slate of Saturday NFL games.
Have a great day across this incredible place we call home.
Email: joekinsey@gmail.com
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