pho: king of cheap eat-outs

Dining at home is economical, and if done properly, a pleasure. Your home prepared meal can be made with superior quality, fresh ingredients and seasoned to your liking. While there is a certain amount of effort involved with preparation, the process can be a satisfying creative outlet or even become a social activity. For this, you will need friends. If you don't have any, I suggest placing an online personal ad. Folks come out of the woodwork for a free meal. It's reasonable to demand that they supply the wine and, of course, be sure to hide your valuables.

Serving at home is rarely the same relaxed activity as being stroked for tips in a restaurant. But at home you can have your water refilled without needing to catch anyone's eye. Also, you avoid the scads of annoying lardasses who might otherwise be seated three feet away. That is not to say that it is uninteresting to hear about a stranger's colonoscopy in the next booth, depending on your entree.

Still, there is a certain je ne sais quoi about eating at a restaurant, particularly if the fare is something you could not or would not want to prepare at home. Some meals are inherently complex or messy. And there are dishes that are more costly to make at home than have out, simply because they require many packages of special ingredients that will never be used and instead will clog the bowels of your pantry and eventually emit a ghastly odor.

One of the most satisfying meals that can be consumed in a restaurant is pho (Vietnamese noodle soup). If you live in a major metropolitan area, there are likely a number of choices available. In Seattle, my recent favorite is Pho Ha, on Aurora Avenue North. They have the best savory broth and the meat quality is in the top quartile. You can get a meal-sized bowl of pho for $5.00, which is the going rate at any number of joints around here. Keep in mind that this is for the small size. The large is an extra dollar and more food than most people can handle.

Pho is superb for lunch or dinner and many places are open until 10 p.m. or later.

flush motown

Free market capitalism is not a perfect economic system. Most notably, it does not protect the environment or human rights. But it performs as simply as nature itself. The fit survive; the unfit find themselves in the jowls of wolves. The only way to protect the entire herd from toothy canines is to migrate as slowly as the weakest animal. But when a herd slows, the food source runs out and the net effect is the same. Instead of getting chomped to death, the weak starve. The buzzards feast instead of the wolves. Of course, if we could find that place where the herd lounges in the land of plenty alongside the wolves and buzzards... and they all prefer tofu, that would be splendid. Until then, tough decisions must be made.

I am a former Detroiter, so I've given myself a bit more license to disrespect the city. It has been duly earned. A lot of shockingly bad chariots have come out of Detroit over the past 40 years, with GM and Chrysler leading the pack. Not only is the quality shameful, but the products themselves have been a mismatch to the consumer market.

Now the automakers, led by GM, are asking the government to lend them a hand... and $50 billion. They claim this is needed in order to retool so that they can make fuel efficient vehicles that are environmentally friendly. They have been producing monstrosities such as Suburbans for decades, while Toyota and others have been making a host of fuel efficient, environmentally friendly models that hold together at the seams and retain value. Detroit has destroyed their market share over a period of years and now they find themselves at the edge of the abyss and they are screaming. Shut up, I say.

It's too late. While the weak economy has made a bad situation worse, it is just the acceleration of the inevitable. All over the world, weak companies are being forced to shut their doors. Whatever it is that they made or sold is now going to be made or sold by the competition that survived. If GM folds, people will open their wallets for vehicles made by someone who had a little more vision and a little less hubris.

An argument has been made that if a major auto manufacturer fails, the domino effect will be catastrophic. No doubt, many will suffer. But the number of lost jobs and the resulting damage to the economy has been greatly overstated by those with a vested interest in getting bailed out. For every battery or axle that does not go into a new Hummer, another battery or axle will go into something that sells after the Hummer goes the way of the Edsel. Resources will migrate toward the survivors.

Let capitalism do its work. Reach back, wipe, and flush the toilet.

car douche

Other than in extreme cases, washing your vehicle will not improve performance. You may want to consider not washing it at all, or doing so infrequently. If I am feeling flush, I like to target once or twice a year.

If there is an opportunity to wash for free, then the undertaking becomes more attractive. For example, if you wait until your neighbors are away, you can use their garden hose to do the job. Of course, this may cause you to burn in hell, so weigh the consequences carefully. If you decide to use a commercial carwash facility, you probably have a few options, unless you live in a very rural area.

The coin operated self-service approach is best if you simply want to remove a layer of debris and are not too particular about the appearance. But, if you want a pristine result, you will spend more this way than if you simply go to a full-service facility. Also, keep in mind that much of the sludge that flies off your vehicle will end up on your clothing and face. If you live in a very rural area, this may not be an issue.

Some gas station have drive-thru washes that are supposedly discounted with an 8 gallon purchase of fuel. These often cost as much as an independent full-service wash, so you will want to compare prices rather than assume you are getting a deal. Also, your car will not get any cleaner than at the self-service because these washes are strictly minimalist. True, you don't get sludge on you. But, bits of your vehicle may be torn off by the machinery.

If you can find a high quality drive-thru carwash, provided you go infrequently, this is often the best value. By all means, choose the least expensive option. Do you really think they are spraying hot wax on your car when you pay an extra $5.00? Most of these places have some kind of guarantee that your car will come out clean, so if your car is really caked up with road film and kill, you may even get to drive through twice.

21 drumstick salute

Tonight, the country is electing a replacement president. Thousands of people are crowded into bars, making whooping noises each time their candidate is the projected by a TV network to have won a state.

When all is said and done, it's not much different than when your team wins or loses. It's not really your team. It is a group of people who are paid to play a game and wear an unseemly uniform in exchange for money. And when you wake up tomorrow, you will have the same pair of shoes and your hair will be 0.4 mm longer.

My point here, if I must have one, is that what impacts your life the most is what gets talked about the least. What happens in DC will not determine whether the bus arrives on time, the condition of the sidewalk, when the bar makes last call, or whether it's legal to build a tool shed in your backyard.

Am I advocating that you become a local activist? Not really. If you feel the draw of civic duty, I applaud you. But once you have your fill of dedicating free time toward making infinitesimal change, you may want to focus on those things that will make your life simple and delicious.

Given that we are heading into a period of protracted economic hardship (aka: The Lesser Depression), you may want to begin with a focus on what you can eat that is inexpensive, healthy, and tasty. After all, what you put in your pie hole today will have a lot more bearing on your overall happiness than whatever a bunch of thick-necked lawyers argued about in DC.

Tonight I am roasting 21 drumsticks. I paid 5 bucks for the package and the seasoning cost 25 cents. Including electricity to power the oven, my total cost is about 28 cents per drumstick. I may steam some broccoli, or perhaps I will keep it simple and eat a few sticks with a fine glass of malbec. That glass of wine, which I purchased at an outlet store, will cost under $1.50.

So the point here, if I must have one, is that I will dine marvelously for under 3 bucks. And this is not an anomaly. Other than an occasional splurge on a restaurant meal, it is quite feasible to eat well on less than $10 per day. If you enjoy what you are putting between your lips and it is not mutiliating your wallet, life can be splendid. So ignore the bozos in DC and have a drumstick.

simple living in an airstream?

prudent acquistions

Frugality lives next door to simplicity and they get on well as neighbors. Being frugal requires wise resource allocation and convervation. These are some questions that should be asked before making a purchase:

1) Will possessing this item bring happiness that offsets the cost?
2) Is the price fair and competitive?
3) Can I realistically use this particular size or quantity?
4) Do I need to consider the opportunity cost of this purchase?
5) What are the costs of ownership that occur after the purchase?

There are other things to consider, as well. For example, are you spending waaaay too much time thinking about this? There is a difference between frugal and cheapass rigid.

The notion of frugality does not stop once something has been acquired. Rather, the focus shifts toward conservation. For durable items, this usually amounts to prudent maintenance (e.g.: oil changes for an automobile). For consumables, it is often a question of proper storage and apportionment. There is much that can be said on this topic, but it will be reserved for future discussions.

In the interim, ask yourself this question: Is it frugal to purchase a 9 pound container of oatmeal?

upcoming art show

On October 30, 2008, there will be an art opening at Vermillion (gallery) in Seattle. See the debut of Cheryl Gilge's Spatial Transgression series. This is an investigation of the co-dependent relationship of forms based on the conceptual idea of the blueprint. Vermillion has a bar and all of this will make perfect sense to you once you've thrown back a few.

Here's Vermillion's website for more information: http://www.vermillionseattle.com/