Author: pvbella

I was safe from the Facebook shutdown the other day. When I realized the glitch, I did what I normally do when there are internet bugaboos. I yawned, stretched, and scratched. When Facebook returned online, one would have thought there was an apocalypse. People were pissing and moaning about the outage. Geez, don’t these people have a life off social media?

God forbid X went down. The whole country, including the lazy news media, would be paralyzed. Politicians and celebrities’ heads would explode- no great loss to humankind. Influencers would lament their loss of influence. Geez people, there is a life beyond social media. Get one.

Staff at the migrant shelters are limiting hygiene products for their charges. Migrants must reuse dirty diapers and women are limited to one pad a day while on their periods. Worse, the staff retaliates against them if they accept donations of hygiene products. They also must ask for toilet paper before using the restroom. This treatment is inhumane.

Once again, the staffing company is failing and showing total incompetence in caring for people. They should have been fired last year. Mayor Brandon Johnson inherited Favorite Healthcare Staffing and he refuses to fire them for their failure. They are costing the city 1.5 million dollars a day for incompetence. And inhumanity Like former mayor, Lori Lightfoot, Johnson believes failure is success. It is past time to put people in charge who have experience in these situations instead of bloodsuckers.

I am voting no on the Bring Home Chicago robbery tax. The money from this tax is supposed to go for assistance to the homeless. This is Chicago. Money earmarked for something is usually used to plug some other budget hole. I do not trust the municipal government in Chicago. Also, it is not what it seems. It is not a tax to help people. It is a tax to punish homeowners and building owners. Progressives have been pushing for this punishment for years and they finally got what they wanted. Taxation is not supposed to punish people.

It will take years before the tax yields enough funding to help the homeless population. City Hall is fooling people again. What else is new? There will not be any assistance for a long time. They could have helped the homeless before the migrant crisis. The city could have set up shelters in unused buildings and staffed them with professionals, unlike the dolts who are running the migrant shelters.

The McCaskey Ken Dolls are pushing for a new stadium on the lakefront. It is estimated that the new stadium will cost about two billion dollars. The NFL could kick in four hundred million dollars if the team can finance the rest. In true McCaskey fashion, those cheapskates and chiselers want public funding to pay the bulk of the cost. They should concentrate on putting a winning team on the field instead of soaking the taxpayers. If they want a stadium, they should pay for it. The city and state should only pay for necessary infrastructure improvements.

I was in my happy place, watching baseball. I am happy that baseball returned. The Cubs were playing the Padres. I was sipping beer. The saloon was almost empty. There were only three other patrons. No one screamed at the television. No one played the jukebox, cutting off the game sound. It was a pleasant, sunny afternoon to watch my favorite sport. Unfortunately, both the Cubs and White Sox lost.

I am not a fanatic. I do not care about game or player stats. I only care whether the Cubs or Sox win. If the teams do good in the pre-season, I may splurge for tickets on season games. It is a tough proposition since they are so expensive. A day at the ballpark with drinks and food can break the bank. But there is nothing, I mean nothing, like watching a ballgame in the park.

When I was a lad, a neighbor had season White Sox tickets. He would take his kids and their friends to games at Comiskey Park. These were the first of many games I went to. I was an Andy Frain usher in the late 1960s. I worked at many Cubs and Sox games. Sometimes on the same day, the Cub’s day game and the Sox night game. Once the games started, we could watch them.

In college, we ditched classes on opening day and sat in the Wrigley bleachers. It was great. There were many unusual characters in those bleachers. So many that a play, “Bleacher Bums,” was written and a smash hit. There was betting on every aspect of the game. Cash floated throughout the bleachers along with cigar smoke.

Songwriter and singer Steve Goodman loved the Cubs. He wrote two songs about them, “Go Cubs Go” and “A Dying Cubs Fan Last Request.”

My daughter has been an avid Cubs fan since she was young. One year when she was nine years old, her mother and I gave her a Christmas gift of going to spring training. A friend lived in Arizona and set the whole thing up. It was the first time she would fly alone.

A few weeks before her departure, her mother asked me what to tell her to say if some freak talked to her on the plane and made her uncomfortable. I told her to tell my daughter to say her father is a hitman for the Chicago Outfit. If he did not leave her alone, her father would kill everything he loves. His mother, father, wife, children, dogs, cats, birds, fish, horses, goats, everything. Then he would kill him. It would take him three days to be killed.

Her mother did not think a daughter should think if her father like that. I agreed. I told her to forget the animals. A daughter should not think her father would kill innocent animals. About a week later, they came up with a solution. I was still a police officer. She would tell the freak, “My father is old, crazy, and carries guns. All his friends are old, crazy, and carry guns. Would you like to meet them?” Fortunately, the flights to and from were uneventful. My friends and I did not have to meet anyone.

Baseball is back. Time to rejoice.

Early voting for the primary election starts in all fifty wards on March 4^th. Get out there and vote. We do not need another embarrassing election where only 35% +/- of registered voters turn out. Chicago needs to up its game. Voting is the most patriotic thing you can do. Our city, state, and country are facing multiple problems and crises. The politicians need to know we care and demand better. The only way to do that is at the ballot box.

If it was up to me, I would throw all the career bums out and put fresh people in office. However, that does not work in this county and state. Once elected, they are almost impossible to get rid of. Most are overpaid liars and grifters.

There is no such thing as an honest politician. All politicians are liars. Not all liars are politicians. Politicians give liars a bad reputation.

“After the combative Lori Lightfoot, Johnson seemed like a candidate for Mr. Congeniality. But Johnson’s communication missteps appear to have exhausted the bank of goodwill with the reporters who cover him — and, in turn, has kept the public in the dark about what his administration is doing.” (Chicago Sun-Times)

It appears that the kissy-faced Chicago news media honeymoon with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is over. According to the Times, the “City Hall press corps has turned hostile, openly frustrated with a mayor who is seldom accessible and evasive when he does take questions.” It is about time. Johnson was just as evasive on the campaign trail. But the gullible so-called journalists ignored it. Some even referred to him as a great politician.

They gave Johnson the benefit of the doubt for way too long. Johnson is proving every day he is not fit to hold the office of mayor of Chicago. There are also discussions that Tony Preckwinkle is disappointed in her protégé. Governor J.B. Pritzker is said to not be too happy with him either.

Johnson came into office with what many claimed were good or popular ideas to reform municipal governance. Unfortunately, good or popular ideas do not always translate into good public policy. His mishandling of the migrant crisis is one example. Johnson is not hiring the best and the brightest on his leadership team. People in the neighborhoods are angrily disappointed. Their voices are not being heard. Even some alderpersons are tired of his way of doing things. I know people who not only voted for him but championed and contributed to his campaign. They are sorely disappointed and angry.

Every time Johnson faces the cameras, he looks like a deer in the headlights. He never answers a question. He dances around the issue. When that does not work, he reminds us who and what he and his family are, as if that matters. As a county commissioner, Johnson spent little to no time with the media. He was not prepared to answer their pointed questions, especially over critical issues.

Johnson is not only in hot water with the media. His ratings are in the 28% range, near the toilet. Citizens are fed up, alderpersons are not happy, and the City that Works is not working. If this goes on much longer, Johnson may be another one-term mayor.

“I don’t say he’s a great snowman. Willy Snowman never made a lot of money. His name was never in the paper. He’s not the finest character that ever lived. But he’s a snowman, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid. He’s not to be allowed to fall into his grave like an old dog. Attention, attention must be finally paid to such a snowman.”

The brutality of winter finally struck. Temps are going down and windchill will be sub-zero through the weekend and into next week. We lucked out with the blizzard, getting only a couple of inches of slush Friday and a dusting of snow Saturday. Today is brutal, with below zero temps and double-digit below zero windchills. I have my warm, clean, well-lighted place to work from.

However, when the name of Bulls general manager Jerry Krause — who built the Bulls 90s dynasty but some fans blame for breaking it up — he was booed in front of his widow, Thelma. She was in tears. (NBC Sports)

What was supposed to be a memorable night at the United Center turned into a disgrace. The Chicago Bulls hosted a Ring of Honor to be awarded to several players and others on Friday. When the late former general manager, Jerry Krause’s widow, Thelma, stood to receive his award, the crowd booed, causing her to break out in tears.

These people had to be middle-aged or older if they booed. Younger people do not even know who Jerry Krause was. This is one of the lowest-class acts witnessed in Chicago by the lowlifes who inhabit this city of scoundrels. These people are scumbags. It is too bad they could not be tossed out of the stadium and barred from the Bulls games forever and a day. That is the least that should happen, though I can think of some rather excruciating painful things to do to them.

Besides being a city of scoundrels, Chicago is a city of cowards- our elected officials. Chicago is experiencing a migrant crisis caused by Texas Governor Greg Abbott. The migrants are being sheltered in substandard buildings and being served garbage food by the over-priced politically connected vendors the city hired. The Chicago Way is alive and well.

The White House, human rights groups, and others stated that Abbott’s stunts are illegal, human rights violations, and even crimes against humanity. Yet, for some yellow-bellied reason, Abbott is immune from investigation or being held accountable for his actions.

Mayor Brandon Johnson has consistently ignored this and refuses to go to federal court to stop or curtail Abbott’s actions. The Biden administration is just as bad. The Department of Justice should investigate, yet they do nothing.

Worse, charities like Catholic Charities/Texas are aiding and abetting Abbott in his filtration scheme. They are putting people on the buses out of Texas. It is time for donors, especially major donors, to reassess their giving donations to Catholic Charities. There are other more worthwhile charities that do not take part in inhumane racist actions.

Then there is this- Three migrants, a woman and two children, drowned Saturday in the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas – very recently the epicenter of the migrant crisis – just days after state authorities blocked the US Border Patrol from accessing miles of the US-Mexico border, authorities said.

Make no mistake, Greg Abbott is a hardcore racist and the closest thing to Hitler we have holding public office in America. Abbott advocated shooting migrants if could not be charged with murder by the Biden administration. It is past time for Mayor Brandon Johnson to grow a pair, muscle up some testicular fortitude, and go into federal court to stop or curtail the Texas fuhrer in his tracks. Maybe even forcing Texas to reimburse the city for the hundreds of million of dollars spent on the migrants.

I do not see that happening. Brandon Johnson joins a long line of cowardly Chicago politicians. Either that or he is too stupid to be the mayor of Chicago.

Today, I start my 71st orbit around the Sun. Much to the chagrin of many, I am still alive and kicking. I plan to stay that way. The only thing that changed is I am older, crabbier, uglier, more tired, meaner, and more miserable and ornerier than usual.

While I am no longer 175lbs. of rompin, stompin, dynamite, I am older, wiser, smarter, and in a pinch still modestly dangerous- as long as a shock does not bring on the debilitating, heartbreaking, widow, and orphan-making, heart-a-stroke.

Life has been good, bad, and ugly. As a priest friend once said, life is messy. Looking back, the bad or ugly times were not as bad or ugly as I perceived them. They were just messy.

I survived an almost thirty-year career as a Chicago Police Officer without being killed, catastrophically injured, fired, indicted (Came close), or imprisoned. Being a Chicago Police Officer was the best job in the world. No two days were alike. Over sixteen years ago, I retired. I do not miss the circus. I just miss the clowns.

There are always new things to keep me occupied. I am a constant learner, bookworm, photographer, urban wanderer, foodie, cook, and whatever else my over-curious mind leads me to.

So far, I have survived the COVID pandemic and Chicago’s violent continuous crime pandemic. I take all the precautions to stay well and safe. I do not have to enjoy living like this. I must do it. Self-survival is the first and highest law of nature. I am a survivor.

I am fortunate to have friends and acquaintances from all walks of life, cultural and social strata. The number is not large and gets smaller every year. I am good with that. My friends and acquaintances are people I enjoy spending time with, no matter how often or seldom I see or talk to them.

I do not tolerate anyone. Toleration is a lie. People tolerate unruly pets and impish children. I accept people for who and/or what they are. I treat people the way I want to be treated. The older I get, the more open-minded I become.

I try to believe most people are good, and they do what they can to right the wrongs in my city. Unfortunately, I do not believe most of our politicians are good. If they were, Chicago would be a paradise instead of a shooting gallery. Good people must demand better from our elected officials.

I try to stay occupied and sometimes make a few bucks. Sometimes my curiosity gets the best of me, and I go down hours-long rabbit holes. In June, I had an exhibition of my street photography. It was my first exhibition. I am humbled that I was invited to do this. I am grateful to my pal, the artist Tony Fitzpatrick, for the opportunity to exhibit in his Dime Gallery. I am also grateful to Rick Kogan, Bob Chiarito, and WGN Morning News  for the publicity.

I am not the same person I used to be. Life is about change, constant learning, and understanding. Books and schools are not the sole repositories for knowledge. Knowledge is never static. Learning is a lifelong process. Understanding is just as important as knowledge. Learning and understanding are evolutionary processes. When you think you know it all, you are wrong. You are stuck on stupid.

Every morning, if I open my eyes, I thank the Great Comedian for another day above ground. I get another chance to watch the sunrise and set. Another 24 hours on this spinning orb.

No one makes it off this orb alive. I know one day my time will come. Since we die in alphabetical order, I will be near the top of the list. I will have no regrets since I already rued my life’s commissions and omissions. I will not go quietly. I will go kicking and screaming. Hell, I may as well go out the same way I came in.

Life is short, no matter how long you keep breathing. Live, love, laugh, and eat the damn sandwich.

As my late friend Shelley Howard used to say:

“Hug someone. Smile more. Tell the people you love how you feel. Paint your tapestry with bold colors and rich designs. Postpone nothing. Establish boundaries. Exhibit patience.”

I stopped going out on New Year’s Eve decades ago. It is the first amateur night of the year. All the amateur drinkers are out, getting beyond drunk, aggravating other patrons, puking their guts out, and driving drunk. No thank you, I will stay home or go to a house party walking/stumbling distance to my lair.

I worked many New Year’s Eves over the decades, Around 11:30, we would find a safe hiding place, usually under a viaduct. The Chicago Police Department frowned on us bringing the cars in full of bullet holes. At midnight, there were so many gunshots, it sounded like the 4^th a war zone. We made dead pools. We would bet on what police district would have the first murder of the year. One year I handled the first murder.

 If we were lucky, we made an arrest before midnight. Then we spent a few hours of the New Year processing the arrestee. Worse were the drunken bar fights near closing times or the early morning drunken domestic disturbances, which had the propensity to turn violent.  

Making New Year’s resolutions began in ancient times when people promised the gods they would live better lives. In the present eras, they range from sincere to ludicrous. People vow to lose weight, join gyms, live a healthier lifestyle, quit what they consider bad habits, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Some are ludicrous because people aim to promise the impossible.

I only make one resolution, to live another year. I only strive for two things. Strive being the operative word. One, I try to be a better person and citizen of the world. Two, I will keep learning new things. These are relatively easy, as they are the things I do regularly. Being a better person is the most difficult, as I am old, crabby, ugly, tired, mean, miserable, and ornery. You know, perfectly normal.

I am a lifelong learner. I try to learn something new every day. The more one knows, the better person one becomes. I try to associate with people who have more knowledge/skills than me. I look, listen, and ask questions. One thing I never ever do is seek perfection. Never ever is a long f**king time. There is no perfection in nature. Humans created perfection to enslave them in a maze they can never escape.

I am fortunate. I know people from all walks of life with various talents and skills. Through conversation, asking questions, or observation, I learn from them. I try to improve on what they provide through practice or more research.

My motto for several years is, if you think you know everything, you are wrong.

Happy New Year.

A five-year-old boy became sick at one of the city’s migrant shelters. He was rushed to a hospital where he died. They denied Jean Carlos Martinez Rivero previous requests for medical assistance. This shelter in Pilsen has been the subject of criticism because of horrendous and inhumane conditions.

Borderless Magazine was founded in 2019 to report on issues migrants face in Chicago. Borderless Magazine won or was nominated for many journalism awards. Their work has appeared in other local news organizations.

This story, “Investigation: Migrants Describe Inhumane Conditions At Chicago’s Largest Shelter” deals with the inhumane conditions at this migrant shelter in Pilsen. It demonstrates that the Johnson administration is responsible for inhumane conditions in the migrant shelters. The city just does not care about people. The Johnson administration only cares about publicity and sermons. Here are some quotes from their article on the Pilsen shelter:

“Maria* feels the dust and fiber-like particles fall from the ceiling and blanket on her family every time she tries to sleep on her emergency cot nestled among hundreds of other Venezuelan migrants.

It’s cold on most nights. If there’s a heating system in the building, she doesn’t feel it.. You can’t have anything here,” Maria said. “Nothing. No privacy.”

“However, interviews with those living at the shelter and videos Borderless reviewed of conditions inside the building show that the result of that scramble is a building that fails to meet the basic standards for emergency shelter laid out by the U.N. Refugee Agency.”

“In recent weeks, migrants described outbreaks of various illnesses, including chickenpox, the flu, and upper respiratory infections, spreading without sufficient medical attention.”

“Staff have barred migrants from recording or taking photos inside the shelter and “threatened” to kick migrants out if they speak with members of the media.”

“Many of the migrants sleeping in the warehouse’s Zone A and B described frigid temperatures and “fiber” particles falling from the ceiling. Some parents with children at the shelter told Borderless their children were suffering from eye infections they believed to be caused by the falling debris.”

“Several migrants also said shelter workers often rationed water, distributing only half a cup during meals.”

“You have to stand for two to three hours to get food. It’s ridiculous.” 

“A recent arrival at the shelter was hoping to get antibiotics to help him recover from a throat infection and the flu, but the clinic staff didn’t provide any medication.”  

“They’re constantly threatening you,” Maria said. “You have to be so careful because they write a report for everything. If you slip, they report you and kick you out. It’s a bit frustrating.”

“They treat us terribly — like dogs,” another young woman said.”

Who is running this site? Favorite Staffing, the same organization that has been failing the migrants since they got the overly boondoggle contract. This inhumane company should be run out of town and sued to get the tax dollars they cheated us out of. Instead, the Johnson administration quietly renewed their 100 million dollar contract. The Chicago Way is alive and well.

One would think that the building would have been inspected before the migrants were allowed in. One would think the building would be checked for asbestos and lead-based paint. How about if the HVAC system is operating properly? Those are just a few inspection and safety points that should have been performed.

One would think wrong. The Chicago Way does not work like that. Make no mistake. Brandon Johnson is a faithful disciple of the Chicago Way. Make the developers and chosen vendors rich while creating conditions of inhumanity.

So much for the humane treatment of migrants by a supposed progressive mayor. His only goal was to get the migrants out of police stations and cram them into substandard facilities to stop criticism of his ineptitude. Worse, the city hired facility managers Favorite Staffing who do not care about the health and welfare of the migrants. They only care about getting the big kachingos$.

Johnson claims the city is looking into the death. All he has to do is read the article in Borderless.

Now the city is separating families before placing them in shelters. Gee, where have we seen this before? Shades of Donald Trump.

There should be an independent investigation of this administration’s handling of the migrants and the tens or hundreds of millions of dollars spent/wasted on vendors and contractors like Favorite Staffing. We deserve answers and information. All we get is secrecy and accusations of racism and right-wing extremism. Now Johnson is blaming Governor Greg Abbott for the death and condition of the building.

Mayor Brandon Johnson told reporters Monday afternoon that “we are obviously deeply sorry and hurt by this loss” before placing the blame on Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has been busing migrants to Chicago and other liberal cities for the past 15 months.

“They’re just dropping off people anywhere. Do you understand how raggedy and how evil that is … and then you want to hold us accountable for something that’s happening down at the border? It’s sickening,” the mayor said. (Chicago Tribune)

Favorite Staffing refused to get timely medical attention for that child. Brandon Johnson is the mayor.  He is responsible. No one else is responsible. He wears the hat. Johnson should fire the people who chose that building without an inspection. He and his administration are as raggedy and evil as Gregg Abbott.

The City of Chicago spent almost one million dollars to remediate the hazardous waste site in Brighton Park that was to be used for a migrant encampment. Now, the site will not be used for an encampment. Mayor Johnson claimed the money did not go to waste because they could use the site for other purposes.

The money did not go to waste? Yeah, right? Tax dollars are used for remediation and the owners do not have to pay.? That money is on top of the over 90,000 a month lease that the city pays out. We got hosed. We should force the land owners to reimburse the city for the remediation. Hell will freeze over, and pigs will fly before Brandon Johnson tries to get the squandered money back.

The Chicago Council voted on the Chicago Police contract. They voted yes on the economic and other issues. They voted no on the arbitrator’s ruling, allowing officers facing severe disciplinary issues to choose arbitration instead of the Chicago Police Board.

“If you’re asking this body to just simply accept something because it’s law, that would be the antithesis to how this stage even exists,” he said. “Could you imagine if women just accepted the law and did not continue to pursue justice? Black folks, or brown folks, or Asians?” (WBBM Radio Chicago)

Brandon Johnson is advocating legal disobedience over what he considers an unjust law. The ruling will go back to the arbitrator, who decided the issue He showed he would not change his mind. This will set up a court fight the city will lose. Johnson stated he would try to get the law changed. Good luck with that.

Brandon Johnson will go down in history as making the most cringe-worthy statements. The only mayor who is worse was Big Bill Thompson. Johnson should think before he speaks. He is not only infuriating people but also people who supported and voted for him. I know people who regret voting for Johnson.

20^th Ward Ald. Jeanette Taylor said it best:

We should not be on the Fifth Floor. … We’re pretending like now we got the power, let us show you how it’s supposed to be done. And we look real stupid right now.” (Chicago Tribune) It is not “we” alder. It is Johnson who looks “real stupid right now.” He stands alone in his stupidity.

Brandon Johnson needs to think before he speaks, if that is possible. He is clueless when it comes to his own public relations. He is spending tens of millions of dollars on the migrant issue with no letup in sight. He stubbornly refuses to take the state of Texas to court to stop the inhumane filtration of migrants to Chicago. The White House stated that what Governor Gregg Abbott is doing is illegal. Even getting a temporary restraining order will give the city some breathing room. We are currently caring for approximately 26,000 migrants. What is Johnson afraid of? Is he a coward?

His solution is to sue the bus companies. It appears he is getting legal advice from a Cracker Jack box.

Johnson is proving every day he is incompetent to lead the City of Chicago. He does not know what he is doing or should be doing. But he sure gives damn good sermons.

“Christmas in Chicago was a special time. Electric lights twinkled, and snow glistened on the ground, just right for an impromptu snowball fight. The bitter cold wind off the lakefront nipped at ears and faces, turning cheeks rosy. Frozen breaths hung in the air, suspended like cartoon balloons over the heads of passersby. All these signs pointed to just one thing; it was time to visit Marshall Fields.” (Marshall Fields- The Store that Helped Build Chicago/Gayle Soucek)

I have fond memories of Marshall Fields. When I was a boy, my mother would dress me to the nines to go downtown and Christmas shop. I would wander the magical toy department while she shopped. Then we would go to the Walnut Room for lunch.

Fields would decorate their front windows for Christmas. They were always themed to Christmas stories. There were animatronic characters twirling around. You walked from one window to the next until you got to the end of the story. Many people went downtown just to see those windows.

Afterwards, we would go to Stop and Shop. Before there was Treasure Island and other stores offering foodstuffs from around the world, there was Stop and Shop. It was another magical place for people looking for gourmet foodstuffs from around the world. It was finely decorated for Christmas time and had even more delicacies on hand. As an adult, I used to do most of my Christmas shopping at Fields, then pick up some delicacies at Stop and Shop.

When I was in college, I worked over the holidays at Stop and Shop in their gift department. One day, the owner, Mr. Gardener, wanted to see me. I went to his office. He was very pleasant. His reasons? First, he told me I was the only one who said hello to him in the elevator. (Note, I did not know who he was.) He said no one ever talked to him on the elevator or when he wandered through the store. Then he held up two green personnel cards. He handed me one and asked me if I knew who the person was. I looked at it. It was my father. I did not know he worked there as a butcher. Years later, I found a picture of my dad behind the butcher counter at Stop and Shop.

The Loop was a wonderful place during the holidays. Even on the coldest or snowiest days, it was a place of wonder, especially after dark, when the decorative lights showed off their colored finery. People would hustle and bustle on State Street with shopping bags full of gifts and goodies.

Somehow, the magic disappeared. Maybe it is because I am an old grumbletonian. Or the retailers lost the celebratory spirit and pared things down, using supposed sales to draw customers instead of magic and wonder.

I found out one thing never changed. There was a recent story about the brownie being invented at the Palmer House Hotel for the 1893 Columbian Exposition- the World Fair. Bertha Palmer, whose husband owned the hotel, asked a pastry chef to concoct a pastry confection that women could carry in their hands. The recipe is still the same as it was in 1893. One point of the recipe was to use as little flour as possible. At least some things never change.