Some of you may have been wondering where I got off to. The Chile Underground has been fairly quiet since the start of the year. Well, the secret can now be told! I was doing something I hadn’t done in many years: I was seeking gainful employment.
Yes, yours truly was out there looking to be [...] Read more »

The Research Elves at the Chile Underground are sleeping off their latest foray into hallucinogenesis have dug around and found a Most Important Item for you to consider. It’s well within the specific parameters that delineate the wonderful event that is the Month of Eating Dangerously; namely, whatever we say they are.
The item in question [...] Read more »

Short cuts make for long delays, a stature-challenged (and hairy-toed) individual, Peregrin by name, once opined. After his adventures he was an authority on the subject. I had to take his word for it, of course, up to today at least. All my shortcuts have always worked perfectly. No, really.
Today, however, I finally learned the [...] Read more »

We made opening day (October 10) at the Texas Renaissance Festival this year. We hadn’t done that in a decade or more! We went prepared fore wet weather, as a cold front passed by during the night. We didn’t have any rain all day, though. There was quite a bit of water in the low [...] Read more »

A major portion of the Clan is making its annual pilgrimage today to the Texas Renaissance Festival near Plantersville. It’s opening day, and rain is expected; we know it’ll be slippy-slidy crazy good fun! Period music (Cantiga, The Burly Minstrel Jim Hancock, Wine and Alchemy, Istanpitta, The Bilge Pumps, The Gypsy Guerrilla Band, Tartanic) shows [...] Read more »

With the month about to wrap up, I thought I’d bring in some “short bites” that won’t make a full article for the Underground:

The Austin Chronicle reviews a new book by a local author, Ms. Gesine Bullock-Prado: “Confections of a Closet Master Baker.”
If you’re in the Austin area, check out some of the food events [...] Read more »

Okay, so it sounds odd. Labor Day, the unofficial end to summer here in the States, is often a mad paroxysm of travel, camping, beach and water fun, football games (college and high school this year; the NFL took a break) and cookouts. Here in Texas, it’s often just an excuse for another long weekend [...] Read more »

Some men are born to greatness. Some achieve greatness. Some have greatness thrust upon them. And then there’s Abel Gonzalez, Jr., who, through a singleminded pursuit of the perfect State Fair midway food, has invented deep-fried butter. That’s right, folks, step right this way and taste the newest snack sensation to hit the Texas State [...] Read more »