Wanted: Good Buns…as in the bread that holds your burger

Posted inFood & Drink

Wanted: Good Buns…as in the bread that holds your burger

Eric Flowers

Nice Buns, Hon. My boyfriend is a hunter, so we have a freezer full of ground venison. Our favorite quick-and-easy dinner is a grilled venison burger with melted Oregon blue cheese and caramelized onions. I season the burger just right to bring out its flavor, and he grills them to a point in between medium and medium-rare that meets my fancy every time. But finding a good bun to cushion this carnivorous creation has been quite an undertaking.
Forget looking in the bread section of the grocery store. Even at the most illustrious of grocers in Bend, the search for a bag of buns is disappointing at best. Whether white, sesame or whole wheat, every bag I pick up has the same insurmountable problem: the list of ingredients includes high fructose corn syrup.

Posted inFood & Drink

Wanted: Good Buns…as in the bread that holds your burger

Eric Flowers

Nice Buns, Hon. My boyfriend is a hunter, so we have a freezer full of ground venison. Our favorite quick-and-easy dinner is a grilled venison burger with melted Oregon blue cheese and caramelized onions. I season the burger just right to bring out its flavor, and he grills them to a point in between medium and medium-rare that meets my fancy every time. But finding a good bun to cushion this carnivorous creation has been quite an undertaking.
Forget looking in the bread section of the grocery store. Even at the most illustrious of grocers in Bend, the search for a bag of buns is disappointing at best. Whether white, sesame or whole wheat, every bag I pick up has the same insurmountable problem: the list of ingredients includes high fructose corn syrup.

Posted inNews

Blowin’ In The Wind

Eric Flowers

This past week the State of Oregon sent out a health advisory announcing that a former mine and toxic waste disposal site along the Deschutes River near Terrebonne is nothing to worry about. That's news to neighbors who say they have been inundated with what they say are cancer-causing dust clouds. They say the state has downplayed the risks associated with the site even as its owners lay plans to redevelop the former mine as a rural housing subdivision.

Posted inOpinion

Bend Voters’ Choice: Community Interests vs. Special Interests

Eric Flowers

Bend voters have a clear choice between community interests and special interests in the November 4 election.
Four City Council candidates-Jim Clinton, Linda Johnson, Peter Gramlich and Jodie Barram-stand out because they have demonstrated a commitment to the community and are not beholden to special interests.
Their four opponents-Don Leonard, Kathie Eckman, Tom Greene and Jeff Eager-are the candidates of special interests, specifically the political action committees (PACs) of Central Oregon's realtor and developer organizations that are blatantly trying to buy this election.
Oregon Secretary of State records (www.sos.state.or.us/elections) show that the Central Oregon Association of Realtors and the Central Oregon Builders Association PAC (called Central Oregonians for Affordable Housing) have contributed $49,669 of the $99,460 raised by Leonard, Eckman, Greene, and Eager-an astounding 49.9 percent.

Posted inOpinion

Political Intolerance

Eric Flowers

Somebody - we think it might have been Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes - said that freedom of speech means freedom not just for the speech we like but, more importantly, freedom for the speech we don't like.
In this frenzied presidential election campaign, hysteria is mounting on both sides and people are showing their dislike for other people's exercise of freedom of speech in some rather alarming ways.

Posted inOpinion

Numbers Don’t Lie: Palin loses Alaska, race baiting and Madonna’s sex schedule

Eric Flowers

With the latest poll numbers showing Obama's lead widening, Sen. McCain appeared this week on Meet the Press to engage in a Bush-esque denial of reality, claiming that the race was actually getting more competitive in battleground states (perhaps because McCain is bailing out of key states like Michigan and conceding them to Obama). The reality of the situation is that the GOP campaign is coming apart at the seams, the election is still a week off and the finger pointing has already started. There were widespread reports that Palin and her inner circle are revolting on their GOP handlers waging a sort of "rogue" campaign that reflects her ticket’s desperate position - give her credit, at least she recognizes that the ship is sinking. Publicly the campaign has retreated into scare tactics and aggressive attacks that do little but incite the party's base of wing nut conservatives. (Check YouTube "McCain" and "Rally" if you have any doubt as to with whom the ACORN and William Ayers accusations resonate).
So much for a home field advantage.

Posted inOpinion

BAT is No Frill

Eric Flowers

Soviet Leader Vladmir Lenin said, "A lie told often enough becomes the truth". Unfortunately, sometimes once is enough. Accordingly, this letter is a response to the 10/24/08 letter by Steve Stambaugh wherein he states the ridership of BAT "is declining….down to one person per mile".

That claim is as far opposite from facts as the claim that, "the Holocaust never happened." The facts are that BAT ridership is constantly increasing to the extent that sometimes there remains only standing room.
Transportation is not a luxury; it is a necessity. During World War II, of which I am a veteran, General Patton and Rommel spent as much time racing for sources of fuel (necessary to keep their tanks rolling) as they did fighting each other.
Within the limitation of 400 words, I cannot state all the advantages of a public transit system for Bend and thus voting YES for measure 9-60. For one thing, thriving businesses are absolute necessities for a thriving economy. And what is necessary for a business to thrive? Customers. Regardless of its goods or services or location, a business (any business) must have customers. And the more customers, the more that business thrives.

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