Me and Al Pacino Made It Through Another Year - and Lesser News

Both of us were born April 25, 1940.  He arrived in Manhattan; I debuted at Axtel General  Hospital, Harvey County, Newton, KS. and got out of Kansas as soon as it was feasible and possible. 

It is fun to Google your "zodiac twin" and I recommend it for a rainy afternoon's amusement.

He's 5 ft. 7 in., I am (now) 5 ft. 5 In.  He married twice - from 1988 to 1989; and again from 1997 to 2003.  I married in 1983.  He has fathered three children;  happily we never had any.  He began working as an actor in 1965; I started my illustrious career in 1958.  His Social Security payments are no doubt a great deal more than mine.  But I bet his squeeze didn't do what mine did - he handed me my yogurt this morning with a birthday candle stuck in the middle, blazing away.

And we both made it through another year.  Here's lookin' at you in 2018, Al!

Comment:  It wasn't raining this afternoon, but I discovered that my zodiac twin is Jennifer Anniston ... puke.  Matt

A misleading headline

The Daily Mail did it again.  They headlined a story about the double executions yesterday in Arkansas?  Alabama?  to make it look like both were dispatched on the same gurney!  An interesting idea for  prison economics.  Stack'em up!  All they need is an arm sticking out of the pile ... 

In the real world as opposed to the land of journalistic excesses, let's set the record straight.  One's doors were blown off at 7:20 p.m.; the other didn't depart until 10:33 p.m.

Although I must say the gurney looked reasonably roomy; certainly spacious enough with a little crowding  but, hey! who cares? 

The London restaurant that serves only airplane food. 

But briefly - this pop-up was open today and closes tomorrow.  Air New Zealand in an attempt to get ink, put together a space with airline seats and trays for ambience and the menu is from their flight menus. 

From England to New Zealand is a popular route and Air NZ's competition is the excellent Qantas (has never crashed.)  Management was smart enough to cull some interesting data:  one in five passengers say that bad food is the worst thing about flying;  one in four say airplane food is worse than that served in hospitals or schools.  Admittedly, this is a pretty low bar to tackle.

Since only one diner (on the ground) was quoted as to what he'd eaten (lamb with minty peas, braised lettuce with bacon lard-ons and salt-roasted crushed potatoes) I went to their listed menus online.

Premium Steerage (jumped-up coach) where breakfast might be (there is no surety on a plane; you're a prisoner, remember?) the following:  Scrambled eggs with pork apple sausages, creamed spinach and tomato relish, hot cakes with spiced plum compote, yogurt and vanilla syrup. 

Up in Business, the dinner starter was seared venison filet, kumara crisps (kumara is a sweet potato there) red onion, smoked chili and "micro herbs." 

If this is the sort of thing that is meant to entice the pax into spending a great deal of money for a very long flight from almost anywhere to New Zealand ... God bless them for trying.  The rest of us?  Pack a picnic hamper to dine and swill down all of the free wine possible. Get your money's worth somehow.