What did you think of Charlie's Off Main in Belleville, IL?

Charlie's Off Main is a historic restaurant and bar in downtown Belleville, IL that recently reopened its doors after a pretty extensive renovation, and being from Wisconsin, where we love our fish fries, ever since moving to southern Illinois, finding a proper fish fry is impossible. So, when I heard that Charlie's was serving up a Stag beer battered haddock, I was sold on the idea that very soon I'd be giving them a try.

And last night we did exactly as my wife and I met up with my sister and brother-in-law for a couple's night out for some dinner and drinks.

It was a Saturday night and when we walked in, the place was full of people and bustling. We told the hostess we'd have a party of four, and were told it would be about a 25-minute wait since we wanted a table.

Our wait time was what we were promised, give or take a few minutes.

Meanwhile we sat at the bar and service was attentive and good, although when my sister and brother-in-law arrived and were conversing behind us, standing, I did have to flag down the bartender who had walked past several times not acknowledging them for them to order some drinks.

Granted, the place was very busy.

My wife and I ordered the fish and chips, which was the Stag beer battered haddock with a side of fries and a small sauce container of cole slaw. 

Overall, I thought the fish was a bit overcooked, and for $20 I expected more than one filet. But it was still good, even if the portion size and being overcooked a bit missed the mark. They could have spared more than a couple of tablespoons of cole slaw as well, although there were plenty of fries.

It was no Wisconsin beer battered fish fry, but not something I won't have again. Perhaps it's something to order on a less busy night when the cook has more time to tend the fryer.

My only other complaint was being served our fish on metal platters lined with paper. I'd have preferred it served on a plate, as the paper is thin and cutting into the fish, the paper was tearing, and I am sure I probably ate some bits of paper with some of my fish.

Overall, our experience was good, and I thought the place had a nice atmosphere even if it was rather loud. They also have plenty of other menu items, and so on our next visit there we may certainly try other offerings.

If I were to rate them, it would be as follows:

Service: 4 stars
Atmosphere: 3 stars
Prices: 3 stars
Quality of our platters: 3 stars
Portion size: 2 stars

Despite our minor issues we had, I think Charlie's Off Main is a fantastic place for a night out and I would recommend giving them a try.

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© 2024 Jim Bauer

It's the Low Information Voter and Idiots Who Are Scared

There are what we like to call low information voters and then there are idiots, and some people are a little combination of both.

Hey, I am not trying to be mean. I am just trying to keep it real.

I am referring to a recent post I saw on Facebook following the very real realization that our 47th president would be Donald J. Trump. The post simply read, "We are fucked," followed by "the economy is about to be messed up."

First of all, what economy are you referring to? The one where median income has been whittled down to nothing due to 40-year high inflation? That economy? The economy littered with myriad retail and fast-food jobs because someone decided we didn't need good manufacturing ones, or oil and pipeline jobs that pay at minimum $70,000-$120,000 a year? The economy where housing is practically unaffordable at any income level and people have racked up credit card debt in record trillions of dollars just to pay bills and buy groceries? 

Look, the reality is that there are two people who have not really been touched all that much in this economy. The rich who have the money to deal with it, and the poor who are given the money to deal with it.

And that's not to disparage the rich or the poor. It's simply to make a point. Some people won't feel the economy in the way that say, the blue-collar middle-class working families will, who bear the full brunt of everything.

If you are living on rental assistance and food stamps, not only are you less impacted by the economy, but you are also insulated from it as well because, of course, it's not your money.

The post had other comments of course, as well, citing a wide range of things. But come on, how it is a bad thing that we will once again have a secure border? What's so bad about declaring energy independence and using our natural resources as a source for fueling a better economy that we can all benefit from?

We can't kill inflation. It already happened. But we can stall it dramatically if we can bring the cost of things down by bringing down the cost of energy which is baked into higher prices in a very big way. Trump's going to do that. Harris had no interest in it. They wanted more solar and more windmills, while at the same time denying adding to grids to produce all the power we need to fuel the electric everything technology they want to curb fake climate change initiatives.

Look, I could comment all day on all the benefits of a Trump administration. But I know my audience. I'd just be preaching to the choir. We know what they are. All I will say is that people who think we would have been better off with Kamala Harris in office clearly have their heads buried deeply in the sand and either are beneficiaries of government subsidy in one form or another, or like I alluded to before, are simply stupid.

Open borders. High crime and looting. Appointment of soft on crime prosecutors and judges. 40-year high inflation. Gas and energy prices straddling hardworking Americans. Poverty at all-time highs. Men competing in women's sports. Boys in girl's locker rooms, bathrooms and showers. Median income decimated. Businesses struggling to survive due to ridiculous minimum wage laws.

I could go on and on.

That is what we voted against. That's why Harris lost. Because nobody wants any of those things. We are not fucked. That already happened over the past four years. If Harris had won is when we'd have really been fucked.

As for people now wanting to say they want to move to Canada, I say pack your bags and go. Canada is already there when it comes to liberal policy. They are way ahead of us. If that's what you wanted, they have already done it. If you need an Amazon link for some nice luggage, let me know. I'd be happy to provide it.

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© 2024 Jim Bauer

Has Dawn changed its formula?

My wife and I tend not to be brand loyal people, although there are a few things we do tend to stick with. Rain-X windshield washer fluid, for example. It works great and I like the way it beads rain on the windshield. We also prefer Cottonelle brand toilet paper.

Years ago, we also stuck with Dawn dishwashing detergent. We had used several brands before it, and nothing would last as long in the sink or bust down grease better than Dawn, hands down.

But I think over the years they must have changed the formula, because I have not been impressed. The soap doesn't last as long through a round of dishes and barely cuts grease like it used to. In fact, it is quite noticeable how much less effective Dawn is at cutting grease than it used to be.

It can't just be my imagination. It is quite a noticeable difference. I should note that I started seeing this difference before inflation, so I don't necessarily think "shrinkflation" in the sense that they have watered down the product to increase margins is the cause.

This was an intentional effort to change the product but still sell it and market it as the same product. But I don't think it is.

As a result, Dawn dishwashing detergent has pretty much lost our business, and we will switch to a cheaper value brand from now on. We were willing to pay the premium for the brand name because it worked. But if the product no longer works, it's not worth the added cost. Plain and simple.

Businesses do these things and have this idea that customers will not notice the changes. But we do. And when we are sure changes were made, we make changes as well to our buying habits, and it seems to me that businesses should be aware of this.

It takes years to build a loyal customer but only seconds to lose one.

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© Jim Bauer 

Do you ever do the math on eggs, or just buy them?

Well, by math what I mean is, comparing the price of different sized cartons. Generally, when you think of eggs you think of them in terms of one dozen. But of course, you can buy them in cartons of 18, and 36 when you buy the twin packs at Walmart, for example.

I always do the math because I want to know if there is a better deal or not if I buy them one way or the other, or if they are sold somewhere else at a different price that I am aware of.

So, if I want to know how much per dozen an 18-pack of eggs costs, I divide the price of the carton by 18, and then multiply by 12.

Let's say the 18-packs costs $3.49. $3.49 divided by 18 equals 0.1938 cents per egg times 12 equals $2.33 per dozen.

In this example, I know the price per dozen at Ruler Foods happens to be $1.99 per dozen, so they are cheaper than the bulk 18-pack at Walmart. 

Unit cost is what I am almost always concerned with when it comes to comparing food prices, and it helps to guide me in the right direction when making purchasing decisions. Is it a good deal or isn't it? I can't know unless I do the comparisons.

Comparing ounces, pounds and so on and so forth is very helpful in knowing whether one price is presenting more value than the other.

I may use these comparisons in other ways as well. For example, buying a box of instant mashed potatoes. Say the box costs $2.99 and is 8 ounces. That's roughly $1.50 per pound. But I can buy a 10 pound of potatoes for $3.99 or 39 cents per pound. Even if I add in the butter and milk and any other ingredients, aside from the additional time it may take to make mashed potatoes from scratch, clearly the better value is the raw potato sack.

One final piece of trivia if you were curious, going back to eggs for a moment. One dozen eggs weighed on a scale is roughly 1.11 pounds. If you account for the shells, which you don't eat, the yield of a dozen eggs is about one pound. You can use that as a guage to compare whether you want hamburgers or scrambled eggs for dinner one night.

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© 2024 Jim Bauer

What Are The Pitfalls of Being A Conservative Blogger?

I hope what I am going to say doesn't disappoint. It's not about the lack of money. It's there. It's not about the lack of an audience. It's definitely there. It's not even about getting hate mail or being lambasted and ridiculed in other places by people who disagree with me all over the Internet.

It is that politics is a constantly moving thing, and the news cycle is fast and furious. 

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Just as soon as you digest the news of the day, analyze it, and then spit out your commentary and observations about it, it's pretty much old news already and very quickly people have moved on to the next thing.

At best, your posts will have a life cycle of about a week. But most begin to die off rather swiftly after a day or two.

It just means you really have to love what you do and be okay with having to do it constantly. It's a lot of material. It's a lot of time spent. And it's of course a lot of writing that has to happen. How much of the stuff that gets written is evergreen?

Hardly any of it.

It does surprise me how often older posts do still get reads though on subject matter that when you look at it, should no longer be of interest to anyone. Yet, someone searched for it and ultimately someone found their way to it.

Maybe it's to research something? Or perhaps some people just enjoy the history of it?

Take Herman Cain as an example. Not only is he long out of politics, but he is also dead. Yet time and time again I see reads on posts about Herman Cain and his presidential campaign efforts from years ago.

Remember his 9-9-9 plan?

The point is that it's just an ongoing effort that sometimes you do find exhausting, and some days you do scratch your head a bit and wonder, "Is it all worth it? Wouldn't it just be better to write something that has no time stamp on it and let that just earn for you forever?"

Even going back and rereading certain older material to see if you can rehash some of it and make it new again can be a fruitless effort, because it's all directly tied to the news of that day when it was written. There's not a lot that can be recycled. Even funny lines or phrases often don't have any lasting value.

At the same time, I do feel like it is still an important thing to do. That is, to write about these things anyway and be able to share my thoughts and perspectives. People do read them, and hopefully they also walk away from some of it with a different take on things that maybe they wouldn't have otherwise considered.

Being a conservative blogger certainly presents its challenges. All of it is worth it in the end though. Besides, when one is a writer, I guess it doesn't matter what you write about or the work that goes into it, or even who it reaches or for how long. You're going to do it anyway.

There may be some days when conservative blogging can seem aimless. But it does still have a purpose. And even if I am only fulfilling that purpose for a day or two after I run my mouse over that publish button, I know that each post may be but a small ripple in a vast ocean of discourse, sparking thought, debate, and perhaps even change.

However short lived that happens to be. I'll take it.

THE WRITER'S LIFE

"Like that elderly man in that tiny studio apartment, one never stops doing it. Because writing is more of a thing a writer must do to exist than to eat. The words within them are as much a part of their being and as vital to their survival as the next beat of their heart. When the words come, they must find their way onto an empty page."

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© 2024 Jim Bauer

What Are Your Thoughts on Trump Media?

I am a Trump supporter, but as an investor, I simply find the Trump Media stock to be weird. Not in a strange way like, "This is a really weird thing." But more in the way that it moves.

I have been investing for several decades and the stock makes little sense to me, at least as an investment.

To me it's acting more like a gauge of voter sentiment than a stock—or moreover a gauge of voter sentiment when it comes to Trump supporters. How many democrats do you think own the stock? I'd guess very few, if any.

Take the most recent dip following the debate. It's not like anything has changed with regard to the company itself. Profitability hasn't changed, there's nothing moving the stock up or down except what shareholders, who are no doubt tied to Trump politically, feel are Trump's chances of winning.

I think it is also a way for shareholders to indicate in a very direct way whether they like what Trump is doing or not.

"We sold our shares," they say. "Because we thought you did not perform well enough during the debate and we want you to step up your game, sir."

I won't begrudge the company or its shareholders. They can do what they want with their shares and their investment. But it is not supposed to have anything to do with the valuation of the underlying business, and by all measures, the company is grossly overvalued, with the stock moving for reasons that are not tied at all to the business.

Whether or not Truth Social or Trump Media has a future, even, is debatable. I guess it would depend on what happens in November and how much interest anyone would have in Trump's social media page after the fact, especially if he loses to Kamala Harris. So, for that reason, to even call it an investment seems like a bit of a stretch.

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© 2024 Jim Bauer

Should There Be Another Presidential Debate?

Well, I think so even if Trump is on the fence about it for the moment. An offer has been put out there by Fox News, and certainly Fox News could be fairer to the former president and harder on the vice president than ABC's moderators were.

Trump is adamant that he won the debate. I think on a technical level he's right. But I think in the eyes of most, only accounting for the debate performances themselves, Harris won.

A technical win, you say?

Here's the thing. We already know who Trump is. And that's true no matter which side of the aisle you are on. Even the independents and the undecided voters know who Trump is. Who they were at the debate to see was Kamala Harris.

Well, because she's the supposed "new and improved" Kamala Harris, complete with a whole new package of goods she's selling.

I think what the independents and undecideds wanted to know more than anything is how she would explain her sudden changes of policy. Of course, that never happened because David Muir and Linsey Davis, who moderated the debate, pretty much spent the whole night grilling Trump and giving Harris a pass.

Unfortunately, the technicalities aren't what matters in debates like this. It's about how you look. It's about how you perform. It's about how you answer the questions, or don't.

Trump had some good responses. But he did lose focus more than once, and I think one of the greatest opportunities he missed was to lash back at Harris after she brought up that confounded border bill Trump was against, that the media adamantly refuses to not tell the truth about.

The fact is that the Biden administration never needed the bill to secure the border. Just as easily as, on day one, Biden sat behind his desk in the Oval Office and reversed all of Trump's border policies, he could have sat behind that same desk and restored them.

Trump could have said that. Trump should have made that abundantly clear. But he didn't, and that was a serious missed opportunity, I think, that (at least in the eyes of some voters) mooted his other points about the seriousness of the border issue even though I still think most people get it.

Trump's take is essentially that he won. For him, that's all he needs to know. As he told Sean Hannity after the debate, the only time you ask for a rematch is if you think you've lost. But again, he only won on technical basis.

Granted, it may still be way too early to say whether or not the debate had any impact on either candidate. Polls will have to be done, and we probably won't know any real answers on that until days later.

Harris had a good day. At least for all intents and purposes—again, regardless of whether or not anything she said was true or could be taken at face value. That's not the point. So close to the election and with this crazy roller coaster ride getting wilder and wilder, I don't think Trump should pass up any opportunity to do a debate and get his message out, and potentially expose Harris for what she really is.

A complete fraud.

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© 2024 Jim Bauer