I love the acronym that people use to describe grievance-filled, Trump-cult, racist, xenophobic bible-thumping anti-vax people: CHUDS. And so many CHUDS are dying! They publicly spread vaccine disinformation, refuse to get the shots, and then perish. Good.

For those over the age of, uh, 50 who don’t know - calling Trump people CHUDS comes from the fun schlocky movie C.H.U.D. (1984) which is about radioactive monsters that emerge from the sewer to hunt and kill humans, including a cop played by John Goodman. Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers!

Ignorant, toxic monsters who live in filth in the bowels of the sewer system and constitute what is basically a death cult. CHUDS!

Killing yourself is fine - that’s why drugs should be legal. That’s why we let people buy booze and cigarettes. Refusing to get vaccinated and spreading a horrible disease to others? That’s CHUD behavior.

On a positive note: Right wing CHUDS won’t be voting in the next election if they refuse the shots and then die, alone, with a plastic tube shoved down their throats. Good. #schadenfreude

• Caleb Wallace, anti-mask organizer and co-founder of the San Angelo Freedom Defenders, dies of COVID-19

• Winter Haven woman hospitalized with COVID-19, comes home to find husband dead

• Anti-vax radio host Marc Bernier has died after being hospitalized for COVID-19

Wok You

Seattleite J. Kenji López-Alt has a new book coming out in March called The Wok: Recipes and Techniques. As a normal person, I don’t have much in common with Kenji. He makes beautiful bookshelves out of expensive hardwoods, is teaching himself piano so he can keep up with his daughter’s lessons, lights and photographs his food at a professional level, published a best-selling cookbook, writes for the New York Times and has a wife who makes high six figures at Google. That sort of overachieving person is strangely interesting, though - and in 2021 he is basically the profile of someone who can still afford to live in Seattle.

Whether stir-frying, deep frying, steaming, simmering, or braising, the wok is the most versatile pan in the kitchen. Once you master the basics—the mechanics of a stir-fry, and how to get smoky wok hei at home—you’re ready to cook home-style and restaurant-style dishes from across Asia and the United States, including Kung Pao Chicken, Pad Thai, and San Francisco–Style Garlic Noodles.

I can’t wait to get this book!

School's Out Forever

With school starting, Nirvana Wok will now probably do just one hot food donation per month. Yikes! The last time we did one was on August 4!

Prediction: In-person school will be cancelled again. If you have unvaccinated children under the age of 12 please do not subject them to this potentially homicidal experiment. Keep them home! We are sending our (vaccinated) kids to school for now, but I don’t think any school in the United States will still be open by Halloween, even in the CHUD states.

Subslackers

I’ll probably do just one or two Nirvana Wok newsletter posts per month in 2022. The great thing about this Substack platform is that it’s “free,” so after paying $50 to point my domain name to Substack there is no monthly fee. Hard to imagine what venture capitalists who have valued Substack at over $600 million think will make this site profitable. From what I can tell it’s just a blogging platform created in Wordpress with backing from Wall Street. “Innovation.”

–Chef Alex