'Tis the Season for Everything Pumpkin!

Happy Labor Day!  September marks a magical time of year.  This week marks the beginning of fall, practically speaking (kids are in school, so don't give me that equinox nonsense!).  For the next three months, the most famous of orange gourdes will permeate our restaurants, stores & beverages.  I'm talking about the pumpkin.  Or as Peanuts character Linus more aptly describes it, the Great Pumpkin.  Let's have a look:

When I first saw this as a kid, just like Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Lucy, I thought this kid was a real blockhead.  There's no "Great Pumpkin."  But years later, in my adulthood, I've come to learn there is a Great Pumpkin.  Not a person who delivers treats on Halloween, but rather a spirit and atmosphere that makes all our culinary endeavors extra delicious.  Make no mistake about it: if it were socially acceptable, I would consume pumpkin flavored products all year round.

I don't want to keep this magical flavor all to myself - it's too amazing not to share with the rest of the world.  For the next few moments, I'm going to do a thorough, but not exhaustive, rundown of pumpkin treats you can anticipate this fall.  Let's explore!

Out of the Pumpkin 

Before delving too deep into the deliciousness of pumpkins, I find it necessary to recognize the obtaining of pumpkin taste - pumpkin patches and pumpkin carving.  Those may sound like kiddie activities, but I think as long as I'm able to walk and deemed coherent enough to wield a sharp object, I envision myself at a ripe old age running through an open field of pumpkins, searching for the best one to take home, gouge open it's innards, and cut out a crude-looking picture on the exterior.  As you get older, don't take yourself so seriously that you can no longer enjoy these magical experiences.

From the inside of the pumpkin we the key ingredient for pumpkin pie filling - a staple of the fall.  Pumpkin pie is hands down the greatest pie ever made.  It has just the right blend of sweet and spicy.  It's texture is solid enough where you can take massive bites at a time, yet it's soft enough where you only need minimal chewing to swallow.  In short - it's amazing!  Buy it at your local grocery store.  Get it for dessert at restaurants.  If you don't have a slice on Thanksgiving - move to Russia!  And because everything's bigger in Texas, the state fair offers a deep-fried pumpkin pie.  I'll wait a moment for you to wipe the drool off your screen.  We also get pumpkin bread, which makes great fall comfort food.  If you make a batch at home, don't be afraid to throw a few chocolate chips in there!

And the seeds - don't throw away those seeds!  Hose down a baking sheet with an oily substance, lay out your seeds (after you wash them, of course), sprinkle on some salt, cinnamon or whatever else is laying on your spice rack, stick it in the oven that's been pre-heated to 300-400 degrees (it doesn't really matter, as long as it's hot) and leave it for approximately 15-18 minutes (feel free to flip seeds over at the halfway point, but again, probably doesn't make a big difference), and voila! You know have a delicious, high-sodium fall snack!  My wife might just "pin" that recipe verbatim.

Pumpkin Coffee

Disclaimer: when it comes to coffee, I like Dunkin Donuts (DD) much better for a variety of reasons - I would need a separate blog to explain why DD trumps Starbucks.  For now, I'll just try to celebrate what they both have in common: the goodness that is pumpkin.  But if you are a Starbucks fan, please forgive me in advance if I slip in a few jabs at the popular Seattle-based chain.

Starbucks made a big announcement a few weeks ago that they would release their Pumpkin Spice Latte in late August.  This is a delicious beverage, and while Starbucks is typically over-priced (even some of the most rabid fans would have to agree), it is definitely worth your time and money to make a trip to your nearest Starbucks (for the average American that's like .2 miles from home).  I also remember them offering a pumpkin bread, it wasn't the most amazing pumpkin bread I've ever had, but considering Starbucks pastries are terribly underwhelming, it's your best bet if you need to get food while at a Starbucks this fall.

However, the aforementioned "early" release of the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte is bogus - Dunkin' Donuts has been releasing and expanding the variety of Pumpkin products around Labor Day weekend for years.  Dunkin freakin' Donuts is the capital of all things pumpkin.  First, they offer a pumpkin coffee (Starbucks will still be offering the Pike Place and Verona as the extent of their coffee varieties this fall).  You can get a beverage to drink on the spot or the ground coffee - but there is a difference.  The in-store offering is a pumpkin syrup in the regular coffee, whereas the grounds has an inherent pumpkin flavor.  Have no fear though, both are great!  I drink my coffee black, so I usually grab a bag of the pumpkin grounds to enjoy a smooth fall taste at home.  However, I have a sweet tooth, and pumpkin is magic, so the syrup option at a DD location is like a treat yourself moment!  They also offer the Pumpkin Latte, and it's very delicious.  I can honestly and objectively say I'm on the fence on whether it beats the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte.  It's close, I could literally toss a coin.  But you can get 2 DD Pumpkin Lattes for the price of one at Starbucks, so if the taste is that close, I think price makes the vote for DD academic.

You may be thinking at this point, all this talk about Dunkin Donuts, but where's the donuts?  Slow down cowboy - Dunkin Donuts has not one, but two pumpkin donuts!  The first they've had for years - it's a glazed, cake texture with a strong pumpkin taste. But just when I thought the pumpkin donut had been perfected, last year they go and introduce the pumpkin pie donut.  The concept is similar to a boston creme, except the top is an icing with cinnamon-ish crumbles on top, and the inside has pumpkin pie filling. Pumpkin Pie filling in a donut.  It exists, and it's delicious.  Finally, there's the pumpkin muffin.  My go-to, year-round pastry at DD is more often than not their muffins. I make sure to grab the pumpkin muffins as many times as I can throughout the fall, because I know it will be a whole year before I can enjoy it's pumpkin crumbly goodness.  I should also probably mention the pumpkin bagel. Ok... you got me... the pumpkin bagel was disappointing.  I guess one bad option out of 300 bajillion is still good though. 

Frozen Pumpkins

Ice cream is available all year round, but pumpkin ice cream is a special frozen treat to be consumed once a year.  It all starts at your local grocery - get some pumpkin ice cream!   I can't recommend a particular brand.. just about all of them make it, some are better than others, but it's all good!

September usually introduces the Pumpkin Shake at Sonic.  I can't understand why they don't do a Pumpkin Blast, but we can always hope.  In the meantime, the Pumpkin Shake is good, but truth be told, I typically only get it once a year - definitely worthwhile though.

What you really want to mark your calendar for is the month of October when Dairy Queen releases the Pumpkin Pie Blizzard.  Unlike other pumpkin treats that are available all fall, this one is only open for a 31-day window... but it's worth it.  I think the exclusivity makes it taste even better.  Most Blizzard treats have chunks of the respective flavor in them, and the Pumpkin Pie Blizzard is no exception - there are actually  pumpkin pie pieces in it.  Let that settle for a minute.  Chunks of pumpkin pie frozen in pumpkin ice cream. Just stop reading this blog post and go pitch a tent in front of your local Dairy Queen now! (Actually, don't do that.  The lines aren't that long and supplies aren't that limited.  You probably have a job/school to go to.  And there's no bathroom in the tent.  And my ego needs you to continue reading and validate my self-esteem).

Pumpkin Breakfast

If you like pancakes, you need to visit IHOP at some point this fall for the pumpkin pancake.  The taste is just as fun as the alliteration seems to indicate.  When at your local grocer in the frozen section, keep an eye out for Eggo's pumpkin waffles.  It's worth having a box in your freezer when you want to break up the monotony of your morning breakfast.  For the same reason, get a box of the pumpkin Pop-Tarts.  Don't lecture me about how bad they are for you - 8 toaster pastries over a 3 month span won't kill you!

There's a lot of things to get excited about in fall: football, beautiful weather, foliage (at least for our friends up north), but do your taste buds a favor and make room for the delicious flavor of pumpkin! 

Unicameralism: Half the Government, Double the Fun!

Last week, I took a family road trip to Nebraska.  It was a quiet, relaxing trip.  Perhaps one of the highlights though, was our day in Lincoln, during which we toured the state capital building.  On this tour, I learned one of the most mesmerizing facts about ANY state government: Nebraska is the ONLY state in the union to use unicameral legislature.  "What is unicameralism?" you may ask.  Great question... I sure didn't know.  All the other state governments, as well as the Federal Government, use 2 houses of representatives, or a "bicameral" legislation: a Congress and a Senate.  Nebraska, on the other hand, only has a Senate.  There are 49 Senators each representing about 35,000 citizens.  Why in the world would they adopt such a format?  A unicameral legislation is ultimately more cost-effective and efficient:

• Fewer stalemates between the two houses
• More accountability for representatives
• Reduced staffing costs
• Currently, houses negotiate their differences through "conference committees," a bureaucratic waste of time and resources.  In the unicameral system, this would be eliminated.
• Much simpler process for passing bills
• Fewer opportunities for influence from lobbyists

As the tour continued, I couldn't shake the thought: "what if we applied this model to the Federal Government."

Case Study: New York State

Before we look at the big picture, I think you can appreciate Nebraska's unicameral model better if we contrast it to a state where bicameralism has failed miserably.  I was a resident of New York State from 2006-2009.  As I tried to learn more about my local government, I observed a complete mess, the climax of which, hitting in 2009:

• March 29- Both the General Assembly (what New York State refers to as it's Congress or House of Representatives) and the Senate had been struggling to reach an agreement on the state budget by the April 1 deadline.  Behind closed doors, Governor David Patterson, along with the Speaker of the General Assembly and Senate Majority leader, hash out an outline for said budget
• June 8 - Two Democratic Senate leaders, Hiram Monserrate and Pedro Espada, form a coup with the Republican members, essentially agreeing to "vote Republican," thus giving the GOP a 32-30 majority rule.
• June 15: Monserrate decided to side with the Democrats again, causing a 31-31 split.  The result was a month-long stalemate, in which both sides resorted to childish name-calling and attempting to lock each other out of the Senate chamber... seriously, Democrats sat in the chamber with the doors locked, and the Republicans were scrambling to find a janitor or anyone with keys!
• July 8: the Lieutenant Governor's seat was vacant at the time.  Patterson had been appointed governor a year earlier because his predecessor, Elliot Spitzer, was busted in a prostitution scandal.  Patterson tried to appoint a Lieutenant Governor to break the tie, but then Attorney General (now Governor) Andrew Cuomo deemed the appointment illegal. 
• July 9: Espada decided to return to the Democrat side, effectively ending the crisis.  For one month, nothing got accomplished, Senators still received paychecks, the General Assembly could not move anything forward, and New York tax dollars essentially went to waste.

I could not believe the utter incompetence I was witnessing.  In September of that year, I attended the Hamilton County Republican Picnic (Yes, that's a real thing; if you're too cool to vote, yes, it's as lame as it sounds; if you're a political junkie, yes, it's as awesome as it sounds!).  I had the opportunity to speak face-to-face with our State Senator at the time, Betty Little.  I asked her candidly how such a debacle could ever be allowed to happen and where the accountability was.  Her answer was underwhelming, but there was one portion of it that has always stuck out as peculiar to me - she referred to New York State Senate meetings as "New York City Council Meetings II."  She flat out admitted that there were segments of the population whose voices were not heard.  Our legislative branch was broken.

I left New York disgusted and in desire of radical change.  Around the same time, former US Congressman Rick Lazio wrote a brief, but compelling piece for the New York Times citing the recent debacle in Albany as an example of why New York could use the unicameral system.  I was unaware of both the article and unicameralism at at the time (I just came across it this week), but had I read it then, I would have been fully on that band wagon much sooner.  Let's take the New York model of disaster, see if we can draw parallels to the Federal government, and look at how Nebraska can be an example for the entire country.

Trim the Fat

In case you haven't noticed, our government is very inefficient.  It takes FOREVER for bills to pass, our spending gradually increases while cost-cutting measures actually decrease, the two houses constantly bicker, and most representatives seem to only have their political careers in mind rather than the interests of the people they are "serving."  It's a mess and disgrace.

New York barely passed a budget on time in 2009, and even then, it was behind closed doors with a lot of pork spending attached to it.  The U.S. representatives are no different.  How many years in a row have we heard threats of a "government shut down" if a budget isn't passed in time?  How many years has it been now where the solution is to raise the debt ceiling, only punting the problem to a later date?  If these clowns were accountants at a Fortune 500 company, they would have been fired a long time ago.  Currently, we have a combined 535 representatives between Congress and the Senate.  That's 535 salaries the US tax dollars are supporting right now to do nothing for this country.  Here's a thought: if they can't come up with cost-cutting measures to get out of debt, we can save money by cutting the number of salaries in half!

Reduce the Chatter

As mentioned before, states and our Federal Government use "conference committees" to negotiate differences between the 2 houses.  Remember the first point in the New York case study?  After months of negotiation between two houses, the final decision came down to 3 men in a closed room.  This happens in Washington all the time.  What that means for you and I is that we go from having a collective body representing the entire population and making the important decisions for our country, to just a handful of people deciding what's important behind closed doors. Furthermore, these snakes tend to solve their differences by making shady deals behind those same closed doors.  I don't know about you, but that's not the kind of cronyism I intended my votes or tax dollars to go to!  

Get 'er Done

As Lazio aptly mentioned, the New York legislature moves at a snail's pace because the two houses can't agree on anything.  Sound familiar?  With one house, a decision gets made much sooner, and once it's passed, it's done!

Critics will argue this will lead to poorly thought out, hastily-made decisions.  Hmmmm.  Poorly thought out, hastily-made decisions.  Where have I heard that before?  I seem to remember our now very-flawed Affordable Health Care Act being passed overnight.  I believe opponents referred to it as "shoved down people's throats."  Keep in mind, the bill was almost 2,000 page long.  Surely all 535 representatives had plenty of time for that leisurely read before voting.... right?  

In this case, I'll take the pro over the con.  I'd rather have fewer representatives able to think more clearly with less chatter, thereby making decisions with less bickering.  In other words - leaders who can accomplish something!

Can you hear me now?

One concern of the unicameral system, is that if we just went to a body of Senators, the individual pockets of voices around the country are no longer heard.  However, in the words of the State Senator I cited earlier, that's already the case.  Let's be honest, how many of you reading this actually feel like you're concerns are being addressed at the state and national level?  Right now, we have too many career politicians (I could write a whole separate blog on term limits) more concerned about advancing their careers than serving the people who voted them in.

In a unicameral system, there's more accountability.  If something doesn't get passed, leaders can't blame members of the other house for not doing their part.  Many people also don't even know who their representatives are these days.  Part of that is due to apathy, but the other part of that is sheer number: 535.  I barely have that many friends on Facebook, more than half of whom I haven't spoken to in years!  How are we supposed to keep track of so many representatives?  I believe that in addition to term limits, a smaller crowd to hide behind and no second house to punt to would make a lot of politicians take the voice of the people more seriously.

How would this work?

I don't know.  But there are smarter people than me that could figure that out.  What I do know, is that if it were to happen, I'd gladly volunteer to hand out the pink slips to the Congressmen and Senators that would get released.  I'd even wear a pink tutu and plastic wings, calling myself the pink slip fairy - prancing up and down the halls of capital hill putting pink slips under office doors.  Bye Bye Nancy Pelosi. Hasta La Vista John Boehner (yes, this is a bi-partisan axing!) Sayonara Barbara Boxer.  Smell ya later Bob Casey Jr.  You get the picture.

I understand that this likely will never happen.  The people in charge have gained too much power to ever prevent a sweeping reform like this from ever happening.  And that's the real problem.  Our government is supposed to be by the people and for the people.  Now it's by the people who bother to show up to the polls and for the politicians.  So let me scale back my previous suggestion.  Why don't we start by getting educated (who is your representative?).  Go vote (when's your next general election?).  And when the people in charge don't do their job, write them a letter.  There may be 535 representatives, but there's like 535 million citizens.  If the squeaky wheel gets the grease, a noisy engine gets full-scale transmission work.

Why?

Welcome to The Full Court Press!  You may be thinking "Oh great, another blog.  Dave, what possessed you to do this now?"  Great question.  The answer: shameless self promotion and venting.

I get a lot of random thoughts.  My poor wife has to listen to endless monologues and soliloquies of my ranting about everything from why the Steelers are so frustrating, how annoying it is that it takes forever for that light to change on Parkwood Blvd., or how unprofessional it is that Dunkin Donuts applies my free drink coupon to the coffee instead of the latte.  I need an outlet, and I don't care who listens. Even if my wife is the only one who ever reads this blog, I'll be happy knowing I got it off my chest.

"Ok, Dave, what are you going to enlighten us about?"  Man, you are rolling with the good questions today!  In general, it will be a cornucopia of random thoughts.  However, more specific will be: theology/culture, sports, or something I find hilarious like this:

It's going to be a wild roller coaster ride (I say that now, but it will probably end up more like the trolley in the parking lot of the amusement park).  I tend to be conservative about what I put on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, etc.  I'm sure we've all seen posts 3 paragraphs long about how "person I won't name is such a jerk," or posts with 40+ comments debating the merits of Republican vs. Democrat (they're both awful).  Rather than subject everyone I know to all my knee-jerk reactions of life (many people I know couldn't care less what I think about ESPN's SEC bias), I'll just put all my thoughts here.  And in case you can't tell, I'm verbose.  If you've ever received an email, text or rare Facebook message from me, you'll know brevity is not my strength.  Here, I'm not constrained by Twitter's 140-character limit.  I'll probably put a link on Facebook and Twitter to my most recent posts, but fear not, you do have a choice:

Take the blue pill, and this can be your first and last experience of The Full Court Press.  When it shows up on your timeline - just keep scrolling.  Take the red pill, and you keep reading.  Get ready for a "Full Court Press" of thoughts and opinions.  Hopefully some will make you think.  Hopefully, it can spark civil conversation.  And maybe, you just might get a chuckle, even a couple of yuks.

I've had the blog idea on my mind for a while - i.e. I've formulated some blog posts in my head the last few weeks as a reaction to current events, but I've had nowhere to put them.  So, as time permits in the next few weeks (I work for a minor league baseball time, and opening day is 2 weeks away), I'll trickle some thoughts that might be a little dated.  But I promise I'll do my best to keep them somewhat relevant.  In the mean time, here's a preview:

• The American Fairy Tale:  I have a confession - I watched the majority of the most recent season of The Bachelor.  My wife and I boo-ed and hissed along with the rest of America at Juan Pablo.  I found most of the individuals on the program to be shallow and naïve.  I can't get over the audacity of ABC to think they can script one of the most unpredictable human emotions - love.  And in the midst of the insanity, I couldn't help but see an ironic twist: The Bachelor highlights many of the truths of the Bible's book on romance, the Song of Solomon.
• March Maddening: At the writing of this post, we are wrapping up conference championship week in college basketball.  This is the first half of what makes March so exciting for hoops fans.  At the same time, this might be one of the worst things about college basketball.  Is it time we start thinking about trading the excitement of conference championships for a less-diluted pool of talent in the NCAA tournament?  Do I really want to see a 16-16 Mount St. Mary's play for a shot at the national championship? (spoiler alert: no)
• Better than Fallon: I'm in an overwhelming minority of Americans - people who don't think Jimmy Fallon is funny.  Well, he can make me laugh from time to time, but I hardly think that merits the holy grail of late-night television.  Most of America disagrees.  But remember, this is MY blog, so I'm going to give my alternatives for who I think could do a better job and why.

Enjoy!