First, I don't think it should be a mandatory celebration just because we traveled on another year. No one celebrates November 1st which is the official holiday season...New Year's resolutions are silly -- you know you've got a problem (smoking, drinking, weight gain) well get off your languid ass and do something about it NOW. Wistful thinking isn't going to get you anywhere. Discipline will.
New Year's and St. Patrick's Day are the only two annual events that seem to be mandatory celebrations in a bar. Huh? Christmas is (by and large) reverential; Easter is joyous for reasons not clearly understood by me - death by cross has got to be extremely painful over a number of days.
I think it's healthier from a pyschological point-of-view to be grateful for all of the things that you currently enjoy. I'm grateful that Richie and I have a good, sound marriage; that we own more of the house than the bank does; that both cats, the cockatiel and (for the moment) both goldfish seem to be in good health. That we have "money enough" to indulge in an occasional splurge. For example, we bought tickets (instead of trying for Coach on MAA - which would have been free) to Paris. Air France is direct; MAA is not.
No, if I had to wish for something in 2010 it's that the following people would Just Disappear Awready!
*The entire Loham clan - attention junky Daddy, stage mommie Dina and Linsay who needs a pyschiatric intervention. Perhaps Sam Ronson would like to go with her.
* Johnson & Johnson heiress Casey and her mother. Same mental institution just for fun.
* Jon Gosselin. He's ugly, badly behaved and how the hell is he still "news"? Ans. He isn't.
* Every one of the exploitive TV shows -- survivors, bachelors, dancing, talent -- you get my drift. It's the days of the Roman circuses all over again. And that's not good...
In any event, do your best and have a happy New Year and 2010. NEVER DRINK AND DRIVE.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Book Review
"It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time" by Moira Hodgson Doubleday 335 pages $24.95
Hodgson is a food critic for the NY Observer, a cookbook author and travel writer. This book has recipes, too.
Hodgson is the daughter of a British Foreign Service officer who was promoted to diplomat status. He later confessed to her, well after he retired, that in actuality he'd been working for M16 (British security and espionage.) Prior to being moved to the United Nations, New York, when she was 17, she'd already lived in Saigon, Berlin and Sweden in addition to an education in England.
Chafing at parental discipline, she moved in with a man with whom she spent the next seven years. Both were freelance travel writers and visited and lived in Lapland, New York and Mexico. After they broke up, she had an extended stay in Marrakesh where she developed a cancerous tumor in one eye and subsequently lost it. She treats this major event candidly without whining.
She traveled in a rarified world of other writers, famous chefs and other notables. An anecdote about Lilliam Hellman contained the observation that the much-older Hellman had a mother/son relationship with her young consort -- he was the mother; she was the son.
It was an interesting read and a lot of the interest came from my watching-a-train-wreck happening gaze at what she not only managed to eat but enjoyed. Me? Undoubtedly fainted dead away at some of them. Happily, reading about them is not the same as having to eat them...
Hodgson is a food critic for the NY Observer, a cookbook author and travel writer. This book has recipes, too.
Hodgson is the daughter of a British Foreign Service officer who was promoted to diplomat status. He later confessed to her, well after he retired, that in actuality he'd been working for M16 (British security and espionage.) Prior to being moved to the United Nations, New York, when she was 17, she'd already lived in Saigon, Berlin and Sweden in addition to an education in England.
Chafing at parental discipline, she moved in with a man with whom she spent the next seven years. Both were freelance travel writers and visited and lived in Lapland, New York and Mexico. After they broke up, she had an extended stay in Marrakesh where she developed a cancerous tumor in one eye and subsequently lost it. She treats this major event candidly without whining.
She traveled in a rarified world of other writers, famous chefs and other notables. An anecdote about Lilliam Hellman contained the observation that the much-older Hellman had a mother/son relationship with her young consort -- he was the mother; she was the son.
It was an interesting read and a lot of the interest came from my watching-a-train-wreck happening gaze at what she not only managed to eat but enjoyed. Me? Undoubtedly fainted dead away at some of them. Happily, reading about them is not the same as having to eat them...
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
This Restaurant Has a Bocce Court!
Tin Roof Bistro, 3500 N. Sepulveda, Manhattan Beach tinroofbistro.com
Richie dropped me off in front and went to park the car. I looked around me with interest ... a low building with a sprawling front veranda with comfortable-looking chairs and tables. Between the veranda and the street was a long strip of raked sand. "Must be getting ready to sod it," I thought. It wasn't until we were seated and looking at the menu that I realized! "That's a bocce court."
Bocce Hour - 4 to 7 p.m. daily $2 off drinks, pizzas and salads - in the bar or Bocce Court area only.
Nothing shabby about the interior either -- banquets running along with walls with tables and chairs in front of them, subdued light, much of it from the spacious windows. Our server said the restaurant was supposed to reflect a Napa Valley winery.
Richie ordered a Simmzy's Berger with Tillamook sharp cheddar, sweet onion chow chow and aoli ($9.50.) I was hungry and the "fish and chips" appealed - homemade jumbo lump crab cakes, Napa cabbage slaw with chili vinaigrette, shoestring fries and tartar sauce ($21.50)
We ordered a draft beer - a traditional Belgian wheat beer; light, slightly cloudy (not wildly appealing in looks) with a spicy aroma (missed that part) and a big lemon back taste (got that.) ($12 for two.)
Our plates arrived and the plates were well filled. The crab cakes were big and round (like a meatball) the shoestring fries took up a third of the plate and the "slaw" the rest. Composed of chopped curly cabbage and red and yellow peppers, marinated in the vinagrette. The flavors were sweet and a little hot. Richie's burger was more than juicy. Our served passed him paper napkins, remarking "That's a two napkin burger!"
Future visits will allow me to explore such as: Pizza Bianca with figs and bacon ($12) or Baby Golden Beet salad (sugar and salt baked beets, goat cheese, shaved fennel, hazelnuts, red onion - and hold the arugula) for $10.25 A dessert caught my eye -- Brown Sugar Panna Cotta with a walnut and sea salt brittle and tangerine ($6.50)
Lunch and two beers came to $47.47 and I tipped $12 - that's how good the service was.
Richie dropped me off in front and went to park the car. I looked around me with interest ... a low building with a sprawling front veranda with comfortable-looking chairs and tables. Between the veranda and the street was a long strip of raked sand. "Must be getting ready to sod it," I thought. It wasn't until we were seated and looking at the menu that I realized! "That's a bocce court."
Bocce Hour - 4 to 7 p.m. daily $2 off drinks, pizzas and salads - in the bar or Bocce Court area only.
Nothing shabby about the interior either -- banquets running along with walls with tables and chairs in front of them, subdued light, much of it from the spacious windows. Our server said the restaurant was supposed to reflect a Napa Valley winery.
Richie ordered a Simmzy's Berger with Tillamook sharp cheddar, sweet onion chow chow and aoli ($9.50.) I was hungry and the "fish and chips" appealed - homemade jumbo lump crab cakes, Napa cabbage slaw with chili vinaigrette, shoestring fries and tartar sauce ($21.50)
We ordered a draft beer - a traditional Belgian wheat beer; light, slightly cloudy (not wildly appealing in looks) with a spicy aroma (missed that part) and a big lemon back taste (got that.) ($12 for two.)
Our plates arrived and the plates were well filled. The crab cakes were big and round (like a meatball) the shoestring fries took up a third of the plate and the "slaw" the rest. Composed of chopped curly cabbage and red and yellow peppers, marinated in the vinagrette. The flavors were sweet and a little hot. Richie's burger was more than juicy. Our served passed him paper napkins, remarking "That's a two napkin burger!"
Future visits will allow me to explore such as: Pizza Bianca with figs and bacon ($12) or Baby Golden Beet salad (sugar and salt baked beets, goat cheese, shaved fennel, hazelnuts, red onion - and hold the arugula) for $10.25 A dessert caught my eye -- Brown Sugar Panna Cotta with a walnut and sea salt brittle and tangerine ($6.50)
Lunch and two beers came to $47.47 and I tipped $12 - that's how good the service was.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Book Review
"The Best American Travel Writing" edited by Simon Winchester Hought, Mifflin Harcourt 351 pages $14
When I saw it on the library shelf, I thought, "Ah-hah! Perhaps this can help me write 'travel' better!" and promptly checked it out. At home, my enthusiasm waned. Titles such as "The Generals in Their Labyrinth," "The End of the End of Revolution" or "Ecotouring in Honduras" didn't interest me.
Many would argue that "Travel is politics" and to a great degree it is. We travel (largely) to see things that we don't have at home. These, by their titles alone, were "thinky" pieces. Clearly I was out of my depth ("And not for the first time," many mutter.)
Still, determined to improve myself, I pressed on. The only name I recognized was Calvin Trillin, whom I enjoy very much. He wrote about Texas barbecue in a familiar, homey sort of way.
Encouraged, I pressed on to an account of a foreign correspondent's attempts to build himself a secluded cabin - in Patagonia. "Bolivia's Wrestlers" are women, of a certain age. "Tracking Down James Bond" was an examination of the ski slopes and the stunt skiers in many of the Bond films. "Terminal Beauty" was an examination of architect-designed airports. The Chattanooga River, sctting for the movie "Deliverance" was written by the daughter of the book's author.
But I still haven't gotten around to "Ecotouring in Honduras."
When I saw it on the library shelf, I thought, "Ah-hah! Perhaps this can help me write 'travel' better!" and promptly checked it out. At home, my enthusiasm waned. Titles such as "The Generals in Their Labyrinth," "The End of the End of Revolution" or "Ecotouring in Honduras" didn't interest me.
Many would argue that "Travel is politics" and to a great degree it is. We travel (largely) to see things that we don't have at home. These, by their titles alone, were "thinky" pieces. Clearly I was out of my depth ("And not for the first time," many mutter.)
Still, determined to improve myself, I pressed on. The only name I recognized was Calvin Trillin, whom I enjoy very much. He wrote about Texas barbecue in a familiar, homey sort of way.
Encouraged, I pressed on to an account of a foreign correspondent's attempts to build himself a secluded cabin - in Patagonia. "Bolivia's Wrestlers" are women, of a certain age. "Tracking Down James Bond" was an examination of the ski slopes and the stunt skiers in many of the Bond films. "Terminal Beauty" was an examination of architect-designed airports. The Chattanooga River, sctting for the movie "Deliverance" was written by the daughter of the book's author.
But I still haven't gotten around to "Ecotouring in Honduras."
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Our Correspondent in Israel
The BBC showed "Bethlehem by Night" on Christmas Eve and I was appalled at all of the neon! I e'd our correspondent in Israel, 'Don't they have any kind of historical preservation group there? Not that I'm particularly religious (I'm not) but the juxtaposition of the two was not pretty."
Shortly thereafter, she replied, "Unfortunately, Bethlehem is part of the Palestinian territory and therefore mainted by them. You were lucky to see it by night and to not see all the crap that is there -- little Jesuses, crosses, endless. Also, the names of the places beggar belief. "Manger Square" is a good example. By comparison, Jerusalem which is a part of Israel, is wonderful, totally in keeping with what Jerusalem is. Nazareth, which is an Arabic town, but within Israel, has also been brought into modern times. Of course, if you watch the main stream media you will probably hear that "due to the embargo, Israel only allows neon and plastic to be allowed in."
She added, "However, to the people who have the vision of "the little town of Bethlehem," the trashy modern version will not make a difference. They walked where Jesus was born; they will probably buy a plastic Jesus and go away - cleansed. I was shocked in Rome to see some of the religious crap they had. A picture of Mary if you looked at it from the right; an image of Jesus if you looked to the left. I guess money is the biggest God of all."
And I think she's right!
Shortly thereafter, she replied, "Unfortunately, Bethlehem is part of the Palestinian territory and therefore mainted by them. You were lucky to see it by night and to not see all the crap that is there -- little Jesuses, crosses, endless. Also, the names of the places beggar belief. "Manger Square" is a good example. By comparison, Jerusalem which is a part of Israel, is wonderful, totally in keeping with what Jerusalem is. Nazareth, which is an Arabic town, but within Israel, has also been brought into modern times. Of course, if you watch the main stream media you will probably hear that "due to the embargo, Israel only allows neon and plastic to be allowed in."
She added, "However, to the people who have the vision of "the little town of Bethlehem," the trashy modern version will not make a difference. They walked where Jesus was born; they will probably buy a plastic Jesus and go away - cleansed. I was shocked in Rome to see some of the religious crap they had. A picture of Mary if you looked at it from the right; an image of Jesus if you looked to the left. I guess money is the biggest God of all."
And I think she's right!
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Poor Guy...
Richie looked out our kitchen window yesterday and reported, "The kid across the street got a motorized airplane -- he's flying it from the middle of the street."
"Oh," I nodded.
This morning, he looked out again and reported that the airplane is now on our next-door-neighbor's garage roof. There is no way to get it down without asking permission to board (so to speak) and using a ladder.
Reminds me of the year I got roller skates -- and it snowed. Or the year I got a sled and it didn't. Experiences common to all of us I have no doubt.
I just checked and the little airplane is flat on its back -- in a rain puddle.
"Oh," I nodded.
This morning, he looked out again and reported that the airplane is now on our next-door-neighbor's garage roof. There is no way to get it down without asking permission to board (so to speak) and using a ladder.
Reminds me of the year I got roller skates -- and it snowed. Or the year I got a sled and it didn't. Experiences common to all of us I have no doubt.
I just checked and the little airplane is flat on its back -- in a rain puddle.
Friday, December 25, 2009
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