Schwan’s home delivery is frequently my only contact with the outside world.

In this post: William Powell, canned shrimp.

It’s Tuesday morning, 7 a.m., and I’ve been awake since 4:45 doing practically nothing except catching up on current events via assorted news websites. Also shopping. I just ordered a box of AA batteries plus the following DVDs from Amazon because they’re very old and very hard-to-find Philo Vance mysteries starring William Powell: The Greene Murder Case (1929) with Jean Arthur and Eugene Pallette and The Benson Murder Case (1930) with Natalie Moorhead and Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd). Oh boy, people. I LOVE THIS STUFF!

If it looks like a shepherd’s pie, please avoid this crap no matter what.

In this post: Crap to avoid.

Hi, people. For your possible interest I’m introducing a new Howdygram feature — PLEASE AVOID THIS CRAP NO MATTER WHAT — that’s basically my own warped version of a public service announcement, and I’ll begin with a review of the beautiful and enormous store-made shepherd’s pie Sam bought yesterday at Costco. Long story short, it was supposed to be dinner but turned out to be PUKE. For $13.95 you get a four-pound foil pan of ground beef, peas and carrots in a gluey, thoroughly flavorless, charcoal gray gravy topped with equally thoroughly flavorless mashed potatoes and a wad of what appears to be toasted shreds of cheddar cheese, but that’s just a wild guess because it might be paint chips.