THE WEISS CHRONICLES

Smart Tires

I first heard of this idea at least 10 years ago but I saw it first hand today.

The gage that usually shows the odometer or the trip version of the odometer, showed LF 28 when I was driving today. I reset it to the odometer and a bit later it showed LF 28 again.

I looked in my manual and sure enough, what that meant was my left front tire pressure was 28 (it should be 33).

Also, it cost me $1 to put air in the tire. I remember the 'good old days' when air was free.

posted by Martin Weiss # 10:21 PM

Friday, September 14, 2018

New Thrip Cloth Required -

As of this week, the Star K requires insect checking of vegetables to upgrade the thrip cloths used for this purpose.

The new requirement is to use the Econet 1515 standard.

I used the new thrip cloth today. One problem is that the 1515 is somewhat 'bouncy' and matter on the cloth sometimes falls off on the way to the light table (the cloth goes to a light table to be viewed under 20x magnification). The more basic problem is that even under 20x magnification it is not always easy to tell what is a piece of vegetable matter and what is a piece of an insect. Personally, if I can't tell, I do not reject the sample.

A 2014 demo of the vegetable checking is here (and back then the thrip cloth was the 4045 standard).

The reason for this stringency is that restaurants and caterers are supposed to use standards that meet the most careful ones applied by any reasonable person who might be eating there (that is 'community standards'). That is to say that there is no expectation that everyone in the community uses the community standard in there own home.

posted by Martin Weiss # 4:31 PM

Wednesday, September 05, 2018

Siena Nows Sells Impossible Burgers

As of yesterday, Siena, the kosher vegetarian/dairy restaurant nearby, sells the Impossible Burger. I was there today, as the mashgiach on duty.

With fries and a drink, a kosher vegetarian burger w real cheese is $15.

There have been a few taste testing events for this product (I haven't had it yet myself).

Reviews are mixed. Some like it, others say it isn't as good as other vegetarian paddies.

btw, they figured out how to increase the temperature of the pizza oven from 410F to 430F. From what I've read, it really should be 500F.

posted by Martin Weiss # 1:46 PM

Tuesday, September 04, 2018

Trip to Western Maryland

Ann and I left Potomac on Sept 2, stayed two nights in McHenry, Maryland and returned to Potomac Sept 4 .

I could have made this a separate blog but since it was only two days, I'm putting it in the regular chronicles.

The first image (all images are expanded by clicking on them) shows Ann in front of the picture window we had at the WISP lodge in McHenry. We had a great view of the mountain where, in the winter, the skiing takes place.

The second image shows me while riding a ski lift to the top (this was on Sept 2) of the mountain. It must have been fun because I have an unusually robust smile.

I also went on a Segway around the ski slope. The Segway had extra large tires and good tread however, it was still not so easy going uphill on rough terrain. Yes the Segway is fun to ride but this isn't the ideal place for it.

We met Irwin and Cheryl on Sept 3 and one of the things we did was see a butterfly tagging exhibition at the Garrett County Discovery Center. The third image (if you click twice you get a really good shot of the butterfly) shows a little girl letting a butterfly use her nose to launch itself on its presumed multi thousand mile journey to Central America.

Here are some fun facts: the Monarch butterfly eats milkweed which makes the insect toxic and taste bad to predators, who over millions of generations have evolved to mostly leave the Monarch butterfly alone (according to the butterfly tagger at the center).

On September 4, before leaving we went to Oakland, a few miles south of McHenry and visited some tourism sites, including the historic 1850s era passenger RR station.

In the fourth image, Ann is standing in front of it.

Fun facts: for many years, the B&O railroad got its water from this location. The company that provided it was called Deer Park Water Company.

The local town was called Deer Park at the time. The company was a subsidiary of the B&O until 1966, then spun off and became an independent company, then was purchased by Clorox and subsequently by Nestles in 1993.

The water that goes into Deer Park now comes from sources in about 5 different States.

I didn't take a picture of the four of us this time but I did take a picture in 2016 at Irwin and Cheryl's place on Deep Creek Lake. The lake looks pretty much the same now as it did then (I call this the Switzerland of Maryland).

Also, we look a lot like we did two years ago.

posted by Martin Weiss # 10:11 PM