Seen on a church announcement board on Capitola Road

"Reason is the guillotine of faith"

plain, real popcorn in the microwave: no plastic involved

First, buy popcorn. Not the weird little microwave bags with all the extra packaging, foul chemicals, and extra cost. Old fashioned popcorn, either the store brand in the bags or better yet, the bulk kind from the kind of store where you buy things out of bins.

get a bowl. The one I used is a tempered glass mixing bowl of I think a 2 liter or maybe 3 liter capacity. Put about a half of a cup of popcorn kernels in it: make it skimpy, to minimize unpopped kernels: you can always pop more. A cup is roughly a quarter of a liter, so say 100 -- 150 ml. Sprinkle a little water on them, and if you want a little butter, put that in there too. Cover the bowl with an ordinary plate. Push the button for five minutes. I don't know whether this is high or low power -- just the default on the machine.

Be careful taking it out because the bowl gets really hot.

On another front, I had to have a second round of anasthesia to get my crown put back on today, and that never happens. Oh, and we were talking about just stuff as usual, and Dr. Ramirez said, "I come from a long line of addicts." While I'm trying to figure out what to say, he follows up with, "They're addicted to huevos con chorizo. My father had a massive heart attack crossing the street from one taqueria to another."

I understand this way too well.