The first is sort of a crunchy cracker that is a spiral of noodle, kind of buttery sesame, with an herbal finish
Maybe a hint of honey?
Fried and tasty. I would eat a lot of these.
They sent me a big box of treats, so more to follow!
Also had some Seeroh (Sooji Halwa) Known as सूजी का हलवा in Hindi, this is a dish of semolina (coarse, purified wheat middling) toasted in butter or ghee and then simmered in milk and/or water much like porridge oats.
Sugar and spices like cardamom, saffron and nuts are also added at the end of the cooking process.
Sort of the consistency of a rubbery cookie dough, sweet and really good.
I’ve always been interested in the strange stories that turn up around the Blue Ridge and Appalachian Mountains. There are plenty of local legends, sightings, and odd little bits of folklore that don’t get much attention outside the areas where they’re told. Some probably have perfectly ordinary explanations, while others leave you wondering what someone might have seen out there.
One story that caught my attention is the Devil Monkey, a creature reportedly seen in and around Southwest Virginia.
One account dates back to the spring of 1994. A woman from Ohio was driving toward the Outer Banks when storms and road construction forced her off the highway and onto a dark, two-lane road south of Roanoke, around 2:30 in the morning. A flash of lightning briefly lit up the roadside, revealing something walking alongside the road.
She described it as roughly six feet tall, with a muscular but lean build, short black fur, pointed ears, a flat snout, and a long, thin tail. The closest comparison she could make was something between a monkey and a wolf. It didn’t seem particularly interested in her or the car, and simply continued walking away.
There were other reports from the region: A couple near Shawsville reportedly saw a similar creature, and their German Shepherd later disappeared. Farmers around Shawsville, Elliston, and Vinton described hearing strange screams coming from the woods. They sounded like a human yell mixed with a hyena’s cackle. I’ve been in that area and that isn’t a usual sound of the nighttime woods.
Similar sightings have been reported in Tennessee, West Virginia, and eastern Kentucky, going back to the 1970s and 1980s. Near Saltville, an elderly man reportedly saw a black, dog-faced creature with monkey-like features rummaging through his trash. Hikers near Marion spoke of being followed through the woods by something that grunted and snapped branches as it moved. They said it kept pace with them for more than a mile.
The creature has gone by a few different names over the years: the Devil Monkey, the Mountain Ape, and the Ridge Runner. L.B. Taylor Jr. included accounts of it in his book Monsters of Virginia: Mysterious Creatures in the Old Dominion.
There have been suggestions that the sightings might involve an escaped zoo animal or some other exotic critter that found its way into the mountains. That’s certainly one possibility, although there’s no photograph, specimen, or official record confirming what people saw. At this point, the story rests on eyewitness accounts, some of which are separated by years and considerable distances.
I can’t say what was walking along that road over thirty years back. A misidentified animal is certainly possible, especially in the middle of a storm during the early hours of the morning. Still, the description is interesting, particularly when you start finding similar stories from other parts of Appalachia.
I suppose that’s part of the appeal of local folklore. You don’t necessarily have to believe every story to enjoy looking into it. Sometimes it’s the details, the differences between accounts, and the way a story gets passed along that make it worth exploring. Around here, there are plenty of back roads and wooded hollers with stories of their own.
This is the first entry in Tales from the Holler, a series about strange stories, local legends, and unexplained happenings from around the valley and beyond. I’ve got a few more things I’d like to dig into, so this probably won’t be the last time we go looking for something unusual in the mountains.
American Jewish groups like the ADL so bought into "Republicans are the pro-Israel party who will protect us from the anti-Israel left" that they are unprepared for a world where JD Vance runs on "Israel betrayed MAGA." And unlike Mamdani, he won't be careful to distinguish "Israel" from "Jews."
listen up democrats: we did not vote for you for y'all to find common ground and reach across the aisle. we voted for you to crush our enemies, to see them driven before us, to hear the lamentations of their women
For the record, cobalt blue bottle for bottle trees and haint blue for porches are not even close to the same shade. Haint blue is really pale blue-green and cobalt is much darker / vibrant.
I mention, as the most salient characteristics (of the collective unconscious) chaotic multiplicity and order; duality; the opposition of light and dark, upper and lower, right and left; the union of opposites in a third; the quaternity (square, cross); rotation (circle, sphere); and finally the centering process and a radical arrangement that usually followed some quaternity system . . .
C.G. Jung, Psychology and Alchemy The mome rath hasn’t been born that can outgrabe me.
Proton CEO Andy Yen projects a calm persona and rails against Big Tech and critiques AI. Internally, he is pushing engineers to build Proton with AI, even when they have security concerns.
Alternatives to Proton software
A comparison chart titled with Proton services on the left pointing to privacy-focused alternative services on the right using green arrows. The listed alternatives are:
• Proton VPN points to Mullvad VPN • Proton Authenticator points to both 2FAS Auth and Aegis • Proton Drive points to Filen • Proton Mail points to Tuta Mail • Proton Pass points to both Bitwarden and 2FAS Pass
When I was a kid, one of the priests I knew co-opted jack-o’-lantern making as a Christian thing.
The Pumpkin Gospel or Pumpkin Parable is a Christian teaching tool or children’s ministry activity that uses carving a pumpkin as a metaphor for spiritual rebirth: picking a pumpkin represents God choosing a person; cutting the top and cleaning out the inside represents removing sin; carving a smiling face represents a new creation; and placing a light or candle inside represents letting Jesus’ light shine outward.
That’s all nice and everything for him, but I remember rolling my eyes at age 8.
Somehow, to me, having your brains scooped out and replaced with the light of another mind is a horror; that level of loss of self seems beyond existential.
