Merry Christmas: The Mid-Day Christmas Eve Edition -- December 24, 2020

Report: mortgage rates hit record low for record 16th time this year. 

Fossil fuel is dead. Long live fossil fuel!: China issues higher oil quotas for 2021. Link to Charles Kennedy. Too bad Russian and Iran will be the big beneficiaries as Biden environmental team shuts down the US oil sector.

The never-ending story: some reports suggest we have a deal! Brexit. But later, from EU's Michel: "The process isn't over." LOL. 

Another never-ending story: let Biden deal with it. US extends protections for Citgo from PDVSA creditors through July, 2021.

GM: recalling almost a million vehicles; apparently some concern that seat belt brackets may not have been secured to the seat frame. Only question I have: how in the world does that happen? 

Herd immunity: WHO dismisses the concept.

$600: not so fast. House, Senate, Trump seen in disarray over Covid relief. Who's in charge here?

AAPL:

• coronavirus led to much high sales of laptop, desktop computers in 2020; shipments of PCs estimated to be up 15% compared to last year;
• even better: Apple Car won't require Tim Cook to actually build anything
• every year, a new group of first graders get their school-issued iPads pre-loaded with the SeeSaw app and WebEx (Cisco)
  

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The Book Page

The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science, J. Kenji López, c. 2015. Link here. A chance discovery. 

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The Weber Grill Page

Grilling: the "snake" method. This is really, really cool. Link here. And, here.

I had a most wonderful dinner last evening prepared by a grill master. He had two large gas grills on the patio, state of the art, and an old Weber grill. He only used the Weber. With no special attachments or gimmicks, he can grill "almost" anything and even use the standard Weber grill as a smoker. Pretty amazing.

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The Rub

For wings: