Oral Roberts and Gorgeous George

My step-Grandson Dakota was over tonight with Ron and Shannon, my stepdaughter and her husband. As we watched episodes of Dog the Bounty Hunter, I told Dakota the producers of the program made it more dramatic for the camera and that little about the story was actually real.

“It’s real,” he said. “It’s all true.”

Dakota is only nine and still believes in Santa Claus. My Grandmother - although much older than Dakota - also believed in the impossible.

Grandmother Rood liked two things in life: Oral Roberts and Gorgeous George, and not necessarily in that order. Oral Roberts, as most people know, is an evangelist. Gorgeous George was a professional wrestler. They both had a couple of things in common.

Oral Roberts started out as a tent preacher and raised lots of money from “true believers.” When touched by the Holy Spirit, his voice would grow louder and higher pitched. Often, before administering the healing touch, his thin hair would become mussed, and as wild as his hypnotic rants.

Gorgeous George made no pretense of being holy, but in the heat of every wrestling match, his beautifully coiffed, bleached blond hair would become mussed. GG was a middle-aged flabby white man, but he was supposedly one of the best professional wrestlers of his day. Even as a kid, I could tell the fix was in.

“You don’t really believe this is for real, do you Grandma?” I would ask.

It did not matter if I were asking about Gorgeous George or Oral Roberts, her answer was always the same. “Of course it’s real.”

I loved my Grandmother dearly, but even at a very young age, I knew that she was letting faith get in the way of her good sense.

Tonight, as I watched Dog the Bounty Hunter, the very popular reality show, I realized just how gullible the American viewing public is, and that little has changed since I was a kid.

Eric's Website

Oyster Dressing - a recipe

Oyster Dressing, New Orleans Style

3 doz. Oysters
1 qt stale bread, wet and squeezed
2 tbsps butter
1 chopped onion
1 tbsp parsley
1 sprig thyme
1 bay leaf
3 tbsps sage
salt and pepper to taste

Drain the oysters, carefully removing all bits of shell. Save oyster liquor for stuffing. Wet stale bread with hot water, squeezing thoroughly. Mix and season with sage. Chop fowl’s liver and gizzard finely, and put 1 tbsp butter into frying pan.

Mix in chopped onion, and chopped liver and gizzard in the pan. As the mixture browns, add the herbs, and then the bread. Mix well. Add remaining butter and stir, blending thoroughly.

Add the oyster liquor, and then mix in the oysters. Stir for several minutes before using it to stuff the fowl

Fiction South

Fiction South

Here's a new video from Eric Wilder.

Eric's Love Potion - a recipe

Jilted by your lover, or maybe just temporarily lost use of your mojo? Here's a recipe to reverse your fortune when it comes to amore:

1 cherry, the juice from
3 grapes, the juice from
1/4 cup of banana paste
1 cup of ice chips
1/4 cup basil
1 pinch sage
1 tsp vanilla
1 honeysuckle bloom
Crushed pieces of geode, preferably with amethyst
3 rose petals
Few drops of rainwater - March rainwater is best
2 pine needles
3 spiderweb threads

Mix the potion and add but a few drops to the drink, preferably alcoholic, of the person you wish to desire you. Use sparingly.

Eric's Website

Message From an 1111 Lightworker

I got this fascinating comment to my article on the meaning of the number 1111. I am publishing it in its entirety because it contains lots of both interesting and enlightening information that I want to share with everyone. Thanks, Bing, for your wonderful post.

A Message from an 1111 Lightworker

My name is Bing and I am an 1111 Lightworker. I like the picture of you and your dog. My wife and I are Basset hound lovers. We are currently on Basset Hound number six Chloe. I have a “Google Alert” that searches the web for individuals who are interested in 11:11. If you are curious about the 11:11 time prompts and are looking for more information please follow these links and they will help you immensely.

http://board.1111angels.com/viewtopic.php?t=4
http://board.1111angels.com/viewtopic.php?t=345
http://www.urantia.org/papers/paper77.html
http://new-birth.net/

In a while, you will notice that the prompts will change to include the number of the hour plus 11, 22, 33 and so on. You will start to see the prompts on sales slips, license plates of cars that “just happen” to pull in front of you, and on addresses. Another topic that you may find interesting is Crystal and Indigo children. These are children born with a raised level of consciousness. Some of them have two extra genes that allow them to see auras and be more psychically in tune. Here are some sites that will provide information on this topic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMhdm6EpLZ4
http://www.starchild.co.za/what.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQAd3FxKVUY
http://www.artakiane.com/home.htm

A book that I would recommend is Angel Numbers by Doreen Virtue.
http://www.angeltherapy.com/.

The links leads to some short inspirational videos that I hope you will enjoy and pass on to others. I have no connection to the authors; I just like the messages.

http://www.hasanyonetoldyou.com/
http://www.youarethelightmovie.com/
http://www.mayyoubeblessedmovie.com/

Here is a link to a site that will help you to focus on the Law of Attraction. I have read these books and they come highly recommended not only by me but by many professional book reviewers and people who have followed their advice. These books will really bring what you want into your life.

http://www.abraham-hicks.com/lawofattractionsource/index.php.

These two links are to great meditation music sites. The first one is a link to the music of Chuck Wild who goes under the artistic name of Liquid Mind. The second is to an online radio station that is free and features 10,000 genres. This particular genre is New Age relaxation music.

http://www.liquidmindmusic.com/video/index.html
http://www.live365.com/stations/jazzmodem.

The following link is to a definition of the word Namaste that I feel should become more commonplace in our vocabularies. Whenever I feel that I am becoming judgmental, I say this word to myself and it puts me back in the right frame of mind. There is no us and them - only US”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namaste

I hope that this information will help you on your journey to become a better person, and to help raise the level of Life, Light and Love in our world.Throw some love into the wind

Namaste
Bing

Eric's Web

Aunt Dot's Southern Pecan Pie

My grandparents had a large pecan tree in their backyard and it must have been a hundred years old. Summers in Louisiana are hot and in the fifties, no one had central heat and air. Most houses had window and ceiling fans, but they did little to cool the sweltering summer nights.

My family spent lots of time outdoors during the summers, not because they enjoyed swatting mosquitoes, but because it was cooler and more pleasant outside than indoors. My grandparents had a half-dozen or so lawn chairs and a garden swing beneath the giant pecan tree, and the family congregated there on many a summer night.

Grandpa’s pecan tree, it seems, produced tons of pecans every year and he always gave bushels to my mom and dad, and anyone else that asked. When I was young, my parents bought six mail-order pecan trees. None of the trees even came to my waist when Dad planted them.

Three of the pecan trees still survive. They are large, although none as big as Grandpa’s pecan tree, but they still produce tons of pecans. For years, while my parents still lived in Vivian, they gave us pound after pound of pecans, usually already shelled, thanks to my wonderful mother.

This past Thanksgiving, Marilyn used the very last bag of my parent’s pecans to bake a pie. Marilyn is a great cook and the pie was wonderful. When I asked her for the recipe, she informed me that it was in her head and sometimes changed, depending on the mood she is in when she bakes.

Here, instead, is a recipe from someone that is also a great cook and that knows firsthand how to make a great pecan pie – My Aunt Dot Pittman Pourteau. This recipe is from her cookbook All the Foods We’ve Loved Before.

Aunt Dot’s Southern Pecan Pie

3 eggs, beaten
2/3 cup sugar
Dash of salt
½-cup white Karo syrup
½ cup dark Karo syrup
1/3 cup butter, melted
1-cup pecans, chopped or whole
1 pie shell

Beat 3 eggs, thoroughly with sugar, salt, dark and light Karo Syrup, melted butter. Add one cup of pecan halves. Pour into 9” unbaked pie shell.

Bake in moderate oven (350 degrees) 50 minutes or until knife inserted halfway between center and edge comes out clean. Cool and enjoy.

Eureka Springs Scene - a pic

Here is a colorful picture I took in scenic Eureka Springs, Arkansas. You can tell by sky that it is early autumn. The New Orleans Hotel is in the background, up a level in this little town built in a circular tier.

Eric's Photo Page

Beer Battered Baker

My good friend David Beatty of Livingston, Louisiana is a Renaissance Man. He does many things well and is now into baking. Here is his learned primer on the do's and don'ts of making bread:

I have recently gotten into baking bread, and above are two recent examples of my newly found skill. In an attempt to be healthier, I have been making whole wheat and sourdoughs. All who have seen and tasted my early attempts might find it difficult to describe what they ate as bread. Things have changed.

Bread making is a science. It requires a chemical reaction, and thus an exact recipe. Add the ingredients in the correct amount and bake. Presto, you have bread. Well, not exactly. If you have success at making bread, it may be because you followed the recipe exactly as written. If you do not, the world as you know it may not be the same.

With the chance of sleet and snow tonight and in the morning, the weather in south Louisiana looks very much like the Christmas season, so it must be bread-making time. The first whole-wheat loaf I baked was beautiful, and with butter and jam, was something for which you might even pay good money. That is where my troubles started.

Once I made the first good loaf, I got cocky and began considering myself a real baker. This loaf tastes so good, I thought, why not improve it by adding a few favorite ingredients - some additional this, and a little extra of that. Before long, you have the perfect, new and improved loaf of bread. Well, not exactly.

It could have been the small amount of sourdough starter that I added, or the extra yeast, or that little detail of using instant buttermilk instead of the required milk. About now, some of you are probably thinking that I added too much beer to the mix, or perhaps drank too much of it myself during the process. WRONGAMUNDO, ladies and gents!

I refer to the aforementioned pictures of my culinary creations. The loaf on the right is actually the second loaf I made; the near-perfect loaf on the left included the liberal addition of my favorite beer, not only in the batter, but also in the baker.

Therefore, the moral to the story is this: Be very careful when you alter a proven bread recipe, unless, of course, the altering ingredient happens to be your favorite alcoholic beverage. Then, as you can see, you cannot go wrong.

Eric's Web

You Can't Juice an Avocado

Marilyn and I recently purchased a new juicer and she is juicing practically every morning. I began juicing years ago when my second wife Anne and I learned that she had cancer.

The two primary treatments for cancer are radiation and chemotherapy. Both treatments harm a person’s entire body, as well as the cancer cells, and most patients soon lose their appetites and desire to eat. Anne used to say that most foods tasted like the working end of a ball peen hammer.

An oncologist told me once that many cancer patients die of malnutrition because ice cream and a few cold desserts are the only foods they can tolerate eating. As Anne’s cancer progressed, this became a problem.

Some friends of ours had juiced for years and suggested that I get a juicer. My cousin gave me a basic recipe that included soy protein, but it was much too bland and doughy. I would not eat it myself, so I knew it was a lost cause trying it out on Anne. I devised my own recipe instead and I began making it for her every morning. It did not cure her cancer, but I feel strongly that it kept her alive, and with a better quality of life, for at least an extra six months. Here is the recipe:

The Juice

2 apples, any variety
1 pear, any variety
3 carrots
1 broccoli stalk and crown

I would often add grapes, blackberries, blueberries, red bell peppers, etc. Try these out for yourself. I like to experiment, and sometimes the ingredients that I like make others wince.

Other Ingredients

½ cup of soy protein
½ cup of green stuff *
1 banana (a mango, papaya or other similar type fruit can be used instead – be creative)
½ blender of ice

I think this product is Source of Life, but I cannot really remember. It came in a large round can with a pop-off top. The product itself was dry, like flour, and green. It contained practically every nutrient, enzyme, and vitamin known to humanity and was very expensive (about fifty bucks). The product did not have an appetizing look and I don’t mind telling you that I thought about the movie Soylent Green every time I opened the package.

Put all the ingredients in the blender and then pulse until thoroughly blended. Makes 2 large shakes.

Along with Anne, I drank variations of this concoction for over a year. I never got sick during this time, not even a sniffle. My blood pressure was perfect, as was my cholesterol, my body weight, etc. I also had exceptional strength, and I believe I could have lifted the front end of a heavy car if I’d had to.

There is no good disease, and in the case of cancer, sometimes the side effects of the attempted cure are almost as horrible. I am not a juicing spokesperson here, but if you are trying to care for a person with an appetite destroyed by radiation and chemo, try my shake on them. If you are simply looking for a healthier life, try it yourself. You might even like it.

Hey, if you try to juice an avocado, it'll just turn into pulp. Use it instead to make guacamole.

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Check out Eric's books on his Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iBook author pages.

Alligator Gar - a pic

Here is a recent pic of a hundred pound alligator gar caught by my stepson Shane. He caught the gar in the Red River where it borders Oklahoma and Texas.

Eric's Photo Page

Headaches and Padded Bras

My stepdaughter Kate lives with her Dad in Texas and she visited Marilyn and me during the Thanksgiving holidays. She had a headache when she got here and Marilyn quickly did something to rid her of the pain, and put a big grin on Kate’s face.

Marilyn left her daughter lying on her bed and went to the freezer for something cold to put on her forehead. When Kate saw what Marilyn handed her, she burst into laughter.

“Where did you find this?” she asked.

“I don’t know, but I keep it in the freezer and use it when I have a pain in my head.”

“Mom,” Kate said. “This is a silicon insert from one of my Victoria’s Secret bras.”

“Well I’ll be damned!” Marilyn said. “I thought it was a headache thingy from Wal-Mart. That’s how I’ve been using it for six months now, and it works like a charm.”

When Kate quit laughing, she placed the silicon falsie over her eye, learning a valuable lesson in the process: Almost everything has more than one use.

Eric's Web

The Meaning of 1111

Shortly after a life-changing experience, I began to notice the numerical sequence 1111. I would suddenly glance at a digital clock, whether in my car or on television, precisely at 11.11. I know this sounds strange and I thought so too. It is strange!

Digital dials were not the only place this number would appear. I began seeing it on license plates, billboards, newspapers, etc. Well, you get the picture. I decided to search the internet to see if anyone else had noticed this phenomenon. To my amazement, the answer is yes.
Like me, many others have noticed the numerical sequence 1111 but no one seems to have a precise explanation for why it appears. After seeing the sequence for many years now, I have developed a theory of my own.

I am neither physicist nor mathematician but there are things I do know about nature. Everything in the universe connects with everything else. Even chaotic events form perfect patterns. A precise mathematical function can explain almost anything. Any action by a creature or object, no matter how small, affects the entire universe. Those of you that have seen the movie Butterfly Effect or have heard about Archimedes Last Breath know what I mean.

The last breath expelled by Archimedes before he died has supposedly mixed and remixed so perfectly that every time anyone on earth takes a breath, that person is breathing at least a single molecule of the same air that Archimedes last breathed.

My thinking is that everything is universally connected (not an original idea) and the universe a giant mathematical function. The numerical sequence is a sign. I have become to believe it is a sign from the universe, of which we are all an integral part. What does 1111 mean? It means everything is okay in the universe.

Eric's Web

Anna's Porkchops - a recipe

Aunt Dot sent me one of Anna Pourteau’s recipes. Anna, Dot’s mother-in-law and Uncle Bertrand’s mother, was a wonderful cook. It sounds great, and Dot - a wonderful cook as well - gives me her personal guarantee that it is.

Pork Chops, English Peas & Tomatoes with Steamed Rice

4 pork chops, center cut
¼ cup canola or olive oil
14.5 oz tomatoes, diced
15 oz LeSuer English peas, undrained
15 oz chicken broth (fat free)
½ medium onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ c green bell pepper, chopped
½ c red bell pepper, chopped
½ tsp sweet basil
2 tsps parsley
½ tsp oregano
¼ tsp thyme
½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
¼ tsp Louisiana hot sauce

Steamed Rice

1 c rice
2 ¼ cups water
½ tsp salt

Salt and pepper pork chops. Put oil in large non-stick skillet. Heat oil to a medium hot temperature, add pork chops and brown on both sides. Remove from skillet. Turn heat down to medium and add onion, celery, bell peppers and garlic. Cook until limp. Add tomatoes, chicken broth, basil, parsley, oregano, thyme, salt, pepper, Worchester sauce and Louisiana hot sauce.

Stir, mixing all vegetables well. Add pork chops back to skillet and cook until tender. When chops are tender, add English peas. Taste to see if you need to re-season. Simmer approximately 10 to 15 minutes. Cook rice and serve the pork chop with tomatoes and English Peas over the hot steamed rice. Enjoy.

NOTE: Cook rice according to directions. Serve pork chops, tomatoes and vegetables over hot steamed rice. Serves 4.

Eric's Website

Jalapeno Hushpuppies - a recipe

I grew up eating catfish at the many restaurants on Caddo Lake. It didn’t matter which place you visited, the five courses were always the same: catfish, French fries, Cole slaw, green tomato relish, and hushpuppies. I’m not saying that I liked the hushpuppies the best, but they are much like potato chips – you can’t eat just one. Here is a recipe for jalapeno hushpuppies I think you will like.

2 cups cornmeal
1 cup flour
2 eggs, beaten
3 tsps baking powder
1 ½ tsps salt
1 small can cream corn
3 jalapeno peppers, chopped
¼ bell pepper, chopped
1 small onion, minced
buttermilk
A pinch of soda

Combine all ingredients using just enough buttermilk to create the consistency of cornbread batter. Shape and drop into medium-hot oil and cook until golden brown. Enjoy.

Eric's Website

Silkwood Story

In 1974, Marilyn and her two children, Shane and Shannon, lived in a small apartment near the Edmond college that is now the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO). Living in an apartment directly across from Marilyn was Karen Silkwood and her roommate Sherri Ellis.

Karen Silkwood was the subject of the 1983 movie Silkwood that starred Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell, and Cher. Silkwood worked in the Cimarron plant that processed plutonium for Kerr-McGee. Mysteriously contaminated with plutonium, she died shortly after in a single car accident while on her way to give an interview to a New York Times investigative reporter.

Karen, according to Marilyn, had discovered that a large number of the workers at the plant had developed cancer, as had she. She, along with many others, believed it was because the plant had lax procedures for handling the deadly plutonium. The plant had de-unionized and she was one of the few remaining members. As such, she felt it was her responsibility to expose the plant’s dangers.

As a union spark plug, Silkwood became a target, either by workers fearful of losing their high paying jobs or by Kerr-McGee itself. More than once, Marilyn observed Silkwood in intense arguments with some man driving a blue pickup, the last argument occurring the day before her death.

Before her death, Kerr-McGee personnel conducted a search of her apartment, finding high degrees of contamination. They even found an object, clearly marked as radioactive, in Shane’s toys. The Company maintained that Silkwood had contrived to contaminate herself, and thus implicate Kerr-McGee.

Karen Silkwood swerved off the road on her way to meet the investigative reporter. The car, when searched after the accident, contained no contaminated evidence, but had blue paint on a rear fender from an accident with another vehicle.

Did Kerr-McGee plant radioactive material in her apartment? Did Kerr-McGee have Silkwood killed? Did she have illegal drugs in her body at the time of the crash? I do not know, but I do know that the resultant lawsuit filed by her family settled out of court for more than a million dollars.

As a geologist, I also know that Kerr-McGee had another plant in Gore, Oklahoma - a place that insiders now consider one of the most contaminated places in the United States. Carroll, a friend, and fellow geologist, once worked for Kerr-McGee Minerals and told me that they would calibrate their helicopter-borne Geiger counters by flying over Gore.

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Born near Black Bayou in the little Louisiana town of Vivian, Eric Wilder grew up listening to his grandmother’s tales of politics, corruption, and ghosts that haunt the night. He now lives in Oklahoma where he continues to pen mysteries and short stories with a southern accent. He is the author of the French Quarter Mystery Series set in New Orleans and the Paranormal Cowboy Series set in Oklahoma. Please check it out on his Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iBook author pages. You might also like to check out his website.

Naked and Possessed

Many people believe voodoo is the practice of black magic. This is only partially true. Voodoo is a contraction of the word Vodoun, a religion brought to the New World from Africa, primarily by slaves.

Vodoun is a complicated religion that has morphed many times since reaching the New World, adding elements of both Christianity and Native American beliefs. Priests and priestesses of the religion are houngans and mambos, respectively, and they often practice both magic - black and white - and the healing arts.

In my novel, Big Easy, Book No. 1 of my French Quarter Mystery Series, Mama Mulate is a conundrum within the religion: a practicing voodoo mambo with a doctorate in English literature that teaches at Tulane University. Unlike most practitioners of Vodoun Mama uses her talents only for good. In the novel, she comes up against a vicious serial killer that is the embodiment of voodoo deity Baron Samedi.

A turning point in the novel occurs during a ceremony on the banks of Bayou Rigolettes. An influential mambo assumes the persona of Lasyrenn, loa of fishes and Queen of the Sea, to instruct a naked initiate. Homicide detective Tony Nicosia, a non-believer, accompanies Mama Mulate to observe the event relevant to the murder case involving voodoo he is investigating. Possessed by Lasyrenn, he becomes an unwitting participant in the sexually charged voodoo ceremony.

How does the experience affect the long-time N.O.P.D. homicide detective? Read Big Easy and find out.

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Born near Black Bayou in the little Louisiana town of Vivian, Eric Wilder grew up listening to his grandmother’s tales of politics, corruption, and ghosts that haunt the night. He now lives in Oklahoma where he continues to pen mysteries and short stories with a southern accent. He is the author of the French Quarter Mystery Series set in New Orleans and the Paranormal Cowboy Series. Please check it out on his Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iBook author pages. You might also like to check out his website.