1. Ever since eating a polenta bowl for breakfast at the Milwaukie Cafe and Bottle Shop this past June in Oregon, I have, from time to time, experimented with making my own polenta bowls. This morning I fried some bacon, heated up some leftover polenta in the bacon grease, fried an egg, and wilted some red lettuce in more bacon grease and seasoned it with blueberry basil vinegar, made by Nancy Turner. I combined all this in a bowl and heated it up a bit with Frank's Original Red Hot Sauce. Then I wondered, what would it be like to top this off with fresh blueberries? They would be cool in contrast to the hot sauce and soft in contrast to the crunchy bacon and it might increase the blueberry effect of the vinegar I used. So, I dumped some blueberries into the bowl and the whole thing was awesome. I loved the variety of textures, the contrasts of heat and coolness, the fruit playing off of the salty bacon, and the hints of acidity and brightness throughout the bowl thanks to the blueberry basil vinegar.
2. Around four o'clock, Cousin Lura, Lyle, Christy, Everett, the Deke, and I met for dinner at Casa de Oro. I enjoyed drinking a margarita and, for the first time in my life, I ordered pork carnitas for dinner. I don't eat often at Mexican restaurants, but next time I do, I will order pork carnitas again (and again) because I'd like to learn the different ways this entree might be prepared. The pork carnitas I ate today will serve as a basis for learning what can be done with this dish. It's one I'm interested in making at home.
3. After dinner, the Deke and I enjoyed a drink at the Hill St. Depot. The Depot was nicely air conditioned and it was quiet and we chatted idly a little bit, but mostly just enjoyed the atmosphere. We had invited Lura, Lyle, Christy, and Everett to join us on our back deck. Everett was tired after a long day of working around the house, so stayed home, but the rest of us sat around the table back there starting about six o'clock and by seven or so it was cooling off beautifully. We yakked for a couple of hours, let the mountain air relax us, and, before long settled in for the night.
I watched North Carolina grillmasters compete against each other on Chopped and, while I don't have the equipment to grill food at home, I took a keen interest in the barbecue sauces these chefs made and, when I went to bed, I read up on vinegar based bbq sauce and began to imagine how I might use them in the kitchen -- and, well, if we ever decide to buy some kind of grill, the North Carolina style excited me more than than what I saw when the Kansas City grillmasters had their competition. Some time in the future, I'll watch the Memphis and the Texas grillmasters go at it on Chopped and see what I think of their styles.
Oh! By the way, my free MLB.TV game came on at nine this morning and featured the Mets and the Reds. I watched a lot of it, not all of it, and came away wondering how Jacob deGrom ever loses a game. He pitched six masterful innings, lowered his already very low ERA, and gave me reason to ponder how he could have more losses than wins -- I mean the Mets' run support for him this season has been really awful.
Thursday, August 9, 2018
Wednesday, August 8, 2018
Three Beautiful Things 08/07/18: Changing America, The Splendid Splinter, Dinner and Then Baseball with Rich
1. I very much enjoyed staying in out of the heat, aside from watering the lawns and plants, and watching two episodes of the PBS series Ten That Changed America. First I watched "Ten Towns that Changed America" and it included a look at Greenbelt, MD, focusing on how the original city plan for Greenbelt was centered on pathways that went underneath the streets to keep cars and pedestrians apart and was also designed so that a variety of houses, apartments, and townhouses didn't face the street, but faced a large and green park area. When we lived in Greenbelt, we did not live in what's now known as Old Greenbelt where the original housing built in the 1930s is located, but the Co-op we shopped at, the gas station I frequented, the Greenbelt Aquatic Center, and the library are all in Old Greenbelt and I was in this part of town a lot.
A common thread running through the "Ten Towns that Changed America" was the fact that Greenbelt, like the Long Island suburb, Levittown, a housing development featuring inexpensive suburban houses built to help veterans of WWII be able to buy a house upon returning stateside with the help of federally subsidized mortgages, were white only. Part of the Greenbelt experiment was to create a planned community, not only of residences, but of the people who lived in them. All applicants were screened and interviewed to make sure they fit a certain profile and black people were excluded. Likewise, the Levitts, the developers of more than one Levittown in the east, wrote explicit language in their covenant that not only were these homes to be bought only by white people, but that residents were forbidden to sell their homes to black people.
Such prohibitions were not limited to Greenbelt and Levittown. Real estate developers and lending institutions across the country red-lined city maps, indicating where homes were not to be sold to black people nor would lending institutions make money available to black people, even when they were financially eligible. In many ways, being able to do well in the USA economy depends upon home ownership and, in many families, like our family, the benefits of home ownership get passed on to succeeding generations.
In my case, not only do I live in and own the house formerly owned by my parents, but when it came time to buy my first house twenty-five years ago, Mom and Dad could afford to help me make a down payment largely because they owned their home and enjoyed the financial benefits of this ownership. The only reason we could buy Mom and Dad's house last fall was because of the money we had from the sale of the house we sold when we moved to Maryland. So, not only do the advantages of home ownership get passed along, as they did for me, so do the disadvantages that come with being closed out of the housing market. It's a perfect example of seeing how history is a study, not of the past, but of continuation. Even though such discriminatory real estate and lending practices have been made illegal (but they continue), the effects of these practices live on, especially because non-white people were often shut out of the benefits inherent in getting a financial leg up by purchasing a house and were not able to these benefits themselves, let alone pass them on to future generations.
Back in February of 2018, the Center for Investigative Reporting, whose podcast is called Reveal, did a story on current lending practices that exclude black people. It's entitled, "Kept Out". It's here.
I also watched Ten Streets that Changed America which also, among other subjects, explored the lasting impact of racial discrimination and hostility, especially in the segment recording what happened when a white mob burned the prosperous Greenwood Street to the ground in Tulsa, OK in 1921. Greenwood Street was known as the Black Wall Street and was a prosperous black enclave on the other side of the tracks, segregated from downtown Tulsa.
2. The Sube needed new rear brakes and I took it down to Silver Valley Tires this afternoon and the guys there got the job done. While I waited for the Sube, I watched an episode of PBS's American
Masters series exploring the biography of Ted Williams. It was a fascinating look at Ted Williams' obsession to be baseball's best hitter and a troubling look at his family life off the field and his hostile relationship with newspaper reporters, as well as his complicated relationship with the baseball fans of Boston.
3. For the second night in a row we had a Family Dinner that included Lura and Lyle and Molly and Travis. We ate in Christy and Everett's back yard. We continued celebrating Molly's birthday. For dinner, the Deke made a fantastic dish of marinara sauce and Italian sausage over layers of zucchini, interspersed with cheese. It might best be called a zucchini lasagne. Lura made a fresh and tasty fruit salad and Carol made a crisp and delicious green salad and we had some cabbage salad left over from last night. For me, the high point of the dinner was when Christy presented us each with a Klondike bar for dessert. I liked my first Heath Klondike bar so much that I ate a second one, but switched from a Heath to an Original Klondike bar.
After a couple of hours, I slipped away from the dinner table to go home and watch Oakland play the Dodgers. When Khris Davis hit a mammoth home run (his 32nd) in the bottom of the sixth inning, I sent Rich Brock a message remarking on what a stud Khris Davis is. He was just getting home from work, had missed seeing the home run, but messaged me back saying, "Let's watch the rest of this game together". So we did. We passed a few comments back and forth about how the Dodgers' relievers dominated the A's hitters in the last couple of innings and bemoaned the fact that the A's have to face Clayton Kershaw tomorrow. It was sure fun, though, to have the game on and know that my Whitworth roommate and fellow sports fan was watching at the same time and that we could comment on the game as if we were in the same room watching it.
A common thread running through the "Ten Towns that Changed America" was the fact that Greenbelt, like the Long Island suburb, Levittown, a housing development featuring inexpensive suburban houses built to help veterans of WWII be able to buy a house upon returning stateside with the help of federally subsidized mortgages, were white only. Part of the Greenbelt experiment was to create a planned community, not only of residences, but of the people who lived in them. All applicants were screened and interviewed to make sure they fit a certain profile and black people were excluded. Likewise, the Levitts, the developers of more than one Levittown in the east, wrote explicit language in their covenant that not only were these homes to be bought only by white people, but that residents were forbidden to sell their homes to black people.
Such prohibitions were not limited to Greenbelt and Levittown. Real estate developers and lending institutions across the country red-lined city maps, indicating where homes were not to be sold to black people nor would lending institutions make money available to black people, even when they were financially eligible. In many ways, being able to do well in the USA economy depends upon home ownership and, in many families, like our family, the benefits of home ownership get passed on to succeeding generations.
In my case, not only do I live in and own the house formerly owned by my parents, but when it came time to buy my first house twenty-five years ago, Mom and Dad could afford to help me make a down payment largely because they owned their home and enjoyed the financial benefits of this ownership. The only reason we could buy Mom and Dad's house last fall was because of the money we had from the sale of the house we sold when we moved to Maryland. So, not only do the advantages of home ownership get passed along, as they did for me, so do the disadvantages that come with being closed out of the housing market. It's a perfect example of seeing how history is a study, not of the past, but of continuation. Even though such discriminatory real estate and lending practices have been made illegal (but they continue), the effects of these practices live on, especially because non-white people were often shut out of the benefits inherent in getting a financial leg up by purchasing a house and were not able to these benefits themselves, let alone pass them on to future generations.
Back in February of 2018, the Center for Investigative Reporting, whose podcast is called Reveal, did a story on current lending practices that exclude black people. It's entitled, "Kept Out". It's here.
I also watched Ten Streets that Changed America which also, among other subjects, explored the lasting impact of racial discrimination and hostility, especially in the segment recording what happened when a white mob burned the prosperous Greenwood Street to the ground in Tulsa, OK in 1921. Greenwood Street was known as the Black Wall Street and was a prosperous black enclave on the other side of the tracks, segregated from downtown Tulsa.
2. The Sube needed new rear brakes and I took it down to Silver Valley Tires this afternoon and the guys there got the job done. While I waited for the Sube, I watched an episode of PBS's American
Masters series exploring the biography of Ted Williams. It was a fascinating look at Ted Williams' obsession to be baseball's best hitter and a troubling look at his family life off the field and his hostile relationship with newspaper reporters, as well as his complicated relationship with the baseball fans of Boston.
3. For the second night in a row we had a Family Dinner that included Lura and Lyle and Molly and Travis. We ate in Christy and Everett's back yard. We continued celebrating Molly's birthday. For dinner, the Deke made a fantastic dish of marinara sauce and Italian sausage over layers of zucchini, interspersed with cheese. It might best be called a zucchini lasagne. Lura made a fresh and tasty fruit salad and Carol made a crisp and delicious green salad and we had some cabbage salad left over from last night. For me, the high point of the dinner was when Christy presented us each with a Klondike bar for dessert. I liked my first Heath Klondike bar so much that I ate a second one, but switched from a Heath to an Original Klondike bar.
After a couple of hours, I slipped away from the dinner table to go home and watch Oakland play the Dodgers. When Khris Davis hit a mammoth home run (his 32nd) in the bottom of the sixth inning, I sent Rich Brock a message remarking on what a stud Khris Davis is. He was just getting home from work, had missed seeing the home run, but messaged me back saying, "Let's watch the rest of this game together". So we did. We passed a few comments back and forth about how the Dodgers' relievers dominated the A's hitters in the last couple of innings and bemoaned the fact that the A's have to face Clayton Kershaw tomorrow. It was sure fun, though, to have the game on and know that my Whitworth roommate and fellow sports fan was watching at the same time and that we could comment on the game as if we were in the same room watching it.
Tuesday, August 7, 2018
Three Beautiful Things 08/06/18: Appointments, Expanded Family Birthday Dinner, Yakkin' on the Deck
1. I got right on the horn this morning and made phone calls: an oil change appointment at Silver Valley Tire and a request for the sprinkler guy from Artscape to pay us a visit. I tried to make an appointment with a dental guy in CdA, but didn't get through. While I was in the taking care of business mode, I got a call from Sacred Heart's transplant center updating me on my request to be evaluated to be listed in Spokane for a kidney transplant. Later in the day, I made an appointment at the Sube dealer in CdA to have the Sube's passenger side air bag replaced -- one of those recall jobs.
2. It was a big family day today. Cousin Lura and Lyle are on a vacation and they left Lolo Hot Springs this morning and rolled into Kellogg this afternoon. They parked their motor home in front of Christy and Everett's house, got themselves all set up, Lura came over to see our remodeled house.
At six, we had an expanded Family Dinner. This week is our niece Molly's birthday, so not only were we celebrating Lura and Lyle's visit, but Molly and Travis are in town and we were also having a birthday party over at Carol and Paul's. The Deke and I donated one of the hams that came from the hog we bought in the spring. Paul and Carol baked it, Paul made a glaze using quince jelly and Dijon mustard, and he grilled slices of the glazed baked ham. It was awesome. To round out the meal, Christy made a delicious potato salad, the Deke made a creative and tasty cabbage salad, Carol and Paul grilled crisp fresh vegetables, and Lura brought rolls. We had angel food cake with fresh fruit and whipped cream for dessert, at the birthday girl's request, and we enjoyed some fine yakkin' around the table.
3. After dinner, Lura and Lyle came over to our house and we yakked for an hour or so on the deck, enjoying how we could feel the temperature of the air gradually drop by degree. We told stories about our families, recalled our experiences with having our parents pass away, and remembered some of the highlights of Mom's trips to Orofino over the last few years before she couldn't travel any longer. We also remembered the last times I saw Lura's mother, Auntie Lila, and we marveled at the strength of the Walker/West women: our grandma, Mrs. Nona West, Auntie Lila, and Mom. We could have gone on and marveled at the strength of Grandma West's sisters, too, but Lura and Lyle had had a long day of travel and I started to fade, and we wrapped up a good session of family yakkin'.
2. It was a big family day today. Cousin Lura and Lyle are on a vacation and they left Lolo Hot Springs this morning and rolled into Kellogg this afternoon. They parked their motor home in front of Christy and Everett's house, got themselves all set up, Lura came over to see our remodeled house.
At six, we had an expanded Family Dinner. This week is our niece Molly's birthday, so not only were we celebrating Lura and Lyle's visit, but Molly and Travis are in town and we were also having a birthday party over at Carol and Paul's. The Deke and I donated one of the hams that came from the hog we bought in the spring. Paul and Carol baked it, Paul made a glaze using quince jelly and Dijon mustard, and he grilled slices of the glazed baked ham. It was awesome. To round out the meal, Christy made a delicious potato salad, the Deke made a creative and tasty cabbage salad, Carol and Paul grilled crisp fresh vegetables, and Lura brought rolls. We had angel food cake with fresh fruit and whipped cream for dessert, at the birthday girl's request, and we enjoyed some fine yakkin' around the table.
3. After dinner, Lura and Lyle came over to our house and we yakked for an hour or so on the deck, enjoying how we could feel the temperature of the air gradually drop by degree. We told stories about our families, recalled our experiences with having our parents pass away, and remembered some of the highlights of Mom's trips to Orofino over the last few years before she couldn't travel any longer. We also remembered the last times I saw Lura's mother, Auntie Lila, and we marveled at the strength of the Walker/West women: our grandma, Mrs. Nona West, Auntie Lila, and Mom. We could have gone on and marveled at the strength of Grandma West's sisters, too, but Lura and Lyle had had a long day of travel and I started to fade, and we wrapped up a good session of family yakkin'.
Monday, August 6, 2018
Three Beautiful Things 08/05/18: Penne, Errors and Walks, Great Chefs and Ten/6
1. In the same way that the Deke and I hadn't eaten rice for a few months when we had curry the other night, we also haven't had pasta for quite a while. We've had a bag of penne sitting around for months and I decided to boil it up and I made a version of Marcella Hazan's tomato sauce without the onion. We didn't have any on hand and so decided the sauce would be fine without one.
2. The Red Sox and Yankees played a 10 inning game tonight. The Red Sox sent the game into extra innings by scoring three runs in the bottom of the ninth off of Aroldis Chapman. It was exciting to see the Red Sox come back and eventually win the game 5-4, but it was disappointing that the outcome of the game hinged as much as it did on errors by both teams and too many bases on balls.
3. I watched the finale of last year's Alton Brown Challenge on Chopped. I won't give away how it turned out in case anyone reading this might watch it one day, but I can say that of all the episodes I've watched of Chopped, this episode was the most tightly contested and featured the best chefs I've ever seen on the show.
I picked up Ed this morning and we traveled to CdA and went over to Darren's. Darren wanted to eat at Ten/6, a relatively new Louisiana-style restaurant in Midtown CdA. Mike Stafford was in town and met up with us. Ten/6 is very popular, so we had a wait of about twenty minutes before our table opened up and the kitchen got backed up with all the customers and so our food was slow to come out. None of us minded. We enjoyed our coffee -- I had a couple of cups of their chicory coffee. I would have loved this coffee with steamed milk, a kind of New Orleans cafe au lait, but Ten/6 doesn't steam milk for coffee. No problem -- I just had to ask! I ordered the Jazz Kitchen Hash with poached eggs and Tuscan toast. The hash was a medium spicy tasty blend of many flavors: celery, onion, green peppers, queso Oaxaca cheese, herbed potatoes, Andouille sausage, and pickled collard greens (my favorite ingredient in the hash). My food was delicious and filling and was an adventure for me in that I'd never eaten a hash anything like this one before.
2. The Red Sox and Yankees played a 10 inning game tonight. The Red Sox sent the game into extra innings by scoring three runs in the bottom of the ninth off of Aroldis Chapman. It was exciting to see the Red Sox come back and eventually win the game 5-4, but it was disappointing that the outcome of the game hinged as much as it did on errors by both teams and too many bases on balls.
3. I watched the finale of last year's Alton Brown Challenge on Chopped. I won't give away how it turned out in case anyone reading this might watch it one day, but I can say that of all the episodes I've watched of Chopped, this episode was the most tightly contested and featured the best chefs I've ever seen on the show.
I picked up Ed this morning and we traveled to CdA and went over to Darren's. Darren wanted to eat at Ten/6, a relatively new Louisiana-style restaurant in Midtown CdA. Mike Stafford was in town and met up with us. Ten/6 is very popular, so we had a wait of about twenty minutes before our table opened up and the kitchen got backed up with all the customers and so our food was slow to come out. None of us minded. We enjoyed our coffee -- I had a couple of cups of their chicory coffee. I would have loved this coffee with steamed milk, a kind of New Orleans cafe au lait, but Ten/6 doesn't steam milk for coffee. No problem -- I just had to ask! I ordered the Jazz Kitchen Hash with poached eggs and Tuscan toast. The hash was a medium spicy tasty blend of many flavors: celery, onion, green peppers, queso Oaxaca cheese, herbed potatoes, Andouille sausage, and pickled collard greens (my favorite ingredient in the hash). My food was delicious and filling and was an adventure for me in that I'd never eaten a hash anything like this one before.
Sunday, August 5, 2018
Three Beautiful Things 08/04/18: Jeff and Leon at Art on the Green, Banh Mi at Daft Badger, Trickster Flight
1. The Deke and I piled into the Sube and swung on over to CdA and attended the annual festival, Art on the Green. This weekend marks the 50th anniversary of the festival. This means a lot to my longtime friend from CdA, Eugene, and Whitworth, Jeff Steve, whose mother was one of those who got this festival going in 1968.
Today, guitarist Leon Atkinson, who taught guitar at Whitworth and whom I heard perform at Whitworth over thirty-five years ago, played a set at Art on the Green this morning. I knew from text messages we'd exchanged that Jeff would be there from Ventura to hear Leon and that Jeff might perform during Leon's set -- and that's exactly what happened. Jeff played one piece solo and Leon joined in and they played a duet on another piece. Jeff composed both of them. Leon's set transported me back to when he played on occasion at Forum at Whitworth and triggered very pleasant memories of when his playing inspired me to buy at least one Julian Bream album and other classical guitar recordings. It was part of a project I undertook all through college and graduate school, at NIC, Whitworth, and the U. of Oregon, to expose myself to all kinds of classical music. After Leon's set ended, Jeff and I embraced, I introduced him to the Deke, we chatted for a while, and we made plans to meet up on Thursday.
2. The Deke and I didn't hang around the festival long after making plans with Jeff. Instead, we headed up to Daft Badger and enjoyed a beer and spilt a Banh Mi sandwich and an arugula salad. After watching the documentary The Vietnam War, I know that the French occupation of Vietnam was awful. If, however, anything good came out of that occupation, I would very tentatively say that it was good that the French introduced the Vietnamese to the baguette and that the great Banh Mi sandwich was born. The Banh Mi combines pickled vegetables with fresh crisp ones, herbs, some kind of meat, and often includes a brilliant sauce of some kind. The Daft Badger's Banh Mi was made of smoked turkey, pickled daikon radishes and carrots, fresh cucumber, cilantro, and two Asian sauces -- one was a lime sauce and I can't remember the other one. It was a superb sandwich and reminded me of the Banh Mi I enjoyed one day in Eugene at the eatery called Bon Mi on East Broadway.
3. The Deke wanted to buy some yarn so we stopped in at the yarn store near Fred Meyer on Kathleen in CdA and then, since we were in the neighborhood, we decided to stop in at the tasting room at Tricksters Brewing where we shared a flight of their beers which included their Blonde Ale, Pale Ale, Juice Box IPA, a collaborative IPA, an Amber Ale, and their American Stout. I want to return to Trickster Brewing and try to define for myself better what made their beers unique, especially the Blonde Ale and the Pale Ale. I enjoyed the beers a lot and found them way different from any other beers I've enjoyed in North Idaho, but I can't quite say what made them unique. One day, I might figure it out for myself. The Deke and I like, on occasion, to shop at the Fred Meyer near Trickster, so I'm thinking we might not only continue to shop there, but also add on a quick stop at Trickster when its hours and our shopping coincide.
Today, guitarist Leon Atkinson, who taught guitar at Whitworth and whom I heard perform at Whitworth over thirty-five years ago, played a set at Art on the Green this morning. I knew from text messages we'd exchanged that Jeff would be there from Ventura to hear Leon and that Jeff might perform during Leon's set -- and that's exactly what happened. Jeff played one piece solo and Leon joined in and they played a duet on another piece. Jeff composed both of them. Leon's set transported me back to when he played on occasion at Forum at Whitworth and triggered very pleasant memories of when his playing inspired me to buy at least one Julian Bream album and other classical guitar recordings. It was part of a project I undertook all through college and graduate school, at NIC, Whitworth, and the U. of Oregon, to expose myself to all kinds of classical music. After Leon's set ended, Jeff and I embraced, I introduced him to the Deke, we chatted for a while, and we made plans to meet up on Thursday.
2. The Deke and I didn't hang around the festival long after making plans with Jeff. Instead, we headed up to Daft Badger and enjoyed a beer and spilt a Banh Mi sandwich and an arugula salad. After watching the documentary The Vietnam War, I know that the French occupation of Vietnam was awful. If, however, anything good came out of that occupation, I would very tentatively say that it was good that the French introduced the Vietnamese to the baguette and that the great Banh Mi sandwich was born. The Banh Mi combines pickled vegetables with fresh crisp ones, herbs, some kind of meat, and often includes a brilliant sauce of some kind. The Daft Badger's Banh Mi was made of smoked turkey, pickled daikon radishes and carrots, fresh cucumber, cilantro, and two Asian sauces -- one was a lime sauce and I can't remember the other one. It was a superb sandwich and reminded me of the Banh Mi I enjoyed one day in Eugene at the eatery called Bon Mi on East Broadway.
3. The Deke wanted to buy some yarn so we stopped in at the yarn store near Fred Meyer on Kathleen in CdA and then, since we were in the neighborhood, we decided to stop in at the tasting room at Tricksters Brewing where we shared a flight of their beers which included their Blonde Ale, Pale Ale, Juice Box IPA, a collaborative IPA, an Amber Ale, and their American Stout. I want to return to Trickster Brewing and try to define for myself better what made their beers unique, especially the Blonde Ale and the Pale Ale. I enjoyed the beers a lot and found them way different from any other beers I've enjoyed in North Idaho, but I can't quite say what made them unique. One day, I might figure it out for myself. The Deke and I like, on occasion, to shop at the Fred Meyer near Trickster, so I'm thinking we might not only continue to shop there, but also add on a quick stop at Trickster when its hours and our shopping coincide.
Saturday, August 4, 2018
Three Beautiful Things 08/03/18: Shawn Returns, Silver Valley Charcuterie, Beer Club
1. It was much cooler today and Shawn began a two day job over at Christy and Everett's and he took care of a few things at our house: our hot and cold water taps were accidentally reversed in our bathroom sink and that is fixed, our lazy Susan glides more smoothly now, and some insulation that needed to be put back in place is where it belongs upstairs. It was fun having Shawn around, especially because we had a Beer Club meeting planned tonight.
2. I had already purchased beer for Beer Club, but I went to the store and picked up some pita bread, hummus, salami, smoked oysters, apples, and red pepper and returned home to make a platter of finger food to snack on while we sampled some beers. I was especially curious to find out if we would enjoy the smoked oysters. I have these indistinct boyhood memories of Mom and Dad serving smoked oysters out of Bumble Bee tins around Christmas Eve and I indistinctly remember that the smoked oysters were regarded as a special treat, served only on special occasions. Shawn, Teresa, and the Deke all liked them, as did I, and that made me more happy than a guy should be -- I mean they are just smoked oysters after all!
3. We sampled Series 009 of Firestone's Luponic Distortion, Superfuzz, a Blood Orange Ale from Elysian, Mango Mambo, a Hefeweizen from 12 String, Redd's Blueberry Ale, and we ended the night with a small sample of Founders' Double Trouble, their dynamite Double IPA. We were sipping out of six ounce glasses and we enjoyed the variety of our samplings. We sat on the deck where it was remarkably cool and comfortable and had a great time yakking about everything from the glories of the beer, food, mountain biking, and golf in McCall, Riggins, Kamiah, and Worley to mathematics and engineering.
2. I had already purchased beer for Beer Club, but I went to the store and picked up some pita bread, hummus, salami, smoked oysters, apples, and red pepper and returned home to make a platter of finger food to snack on while we sampled some beers. I was especially curious to find out if we would enjoy the smoked oysters. I have these indistinct boyhood memories of Mom and Dad serving smoked oysters out of Bumble Bee tins around Christmas Eve and I indistinctly remember that the smoked oysters were regarded as a special treat, served only on special occasions. Shawn, Teresa, and the Deke all liked them, as did I, and that made me more happy than a guy should be -- I mean they are just smoked oysters after all!
3. We sampled Series 009 of Firestone's Luponic Distortion, Superfuzz, a Blood Orange Ale from Elysian, Mango Mambo, a Hefeweizen from 12 String, Redd's Blueberry Ale, and we ended the night with a small sample of Founders' Double Trouble, their dynamite Double IPA. We were sipping out of six ounce glasses and we enjoyed the variety of our samplings. We sat on the deck where it was remarkably cool and comfortable and had a great time yakking about everything from the glories of the beer, food, mountain biking, and golf in McCall, Riggins, Kamiah, and Worley to mathematics and engineering.
Friday, August 3, 2018
Three Beautiful Things 08/02/18: Baseball and Writing, Green Curry with Beef, Aimless Yakkin'
1. It was fun having my free baseball game on MLB.TV come on at 11 o'clock this morning. I turned on the game, featuring the Royals and the White Sox, but I didn't watch it closely. It provided old familiar sounds of the murmurings and cheers of the crowd, the crack of the bat when players hit the ball, and the drone of the broadcasters' voices. With these sounds in the background, I wrote out an essay in response to one of the three sibling assignments we have on the table. I wrote about my old love relationship with Whitworth College as a student, campus ministry employee, and instructor. It was one of the best romances of my life and I enjoyed remembering how much I loved Whitworth from 1974-84. When all three of us siblings finish our assignments, we'll post them together.
As far as the game goes, I loved it when Chicago's Dan Paulka slammed a three run pinch it homer in the bottom of the eighth. It was his third pinch hit round tripper of the season. The last ChiSox player to hit three pinch hit homer in a season? The late nearly great Oscar Gamble, one of my very favorite almost great major league baseball players from 1969-85. Oscar Gamble blasted those three pinch hit dingers in 1977.
2. It was slightly cooler today and so the Deke and I decided that it would be all right to do some cooking in the kitchen. I hadn't made any curry for a long time and so I bought nearly a pound of tri tip pieces at Yoke's, fried them up with garlic and ginger, and folded them into a green curry I made with paste, ginger, garlic, onion, coconut milk, fish sauce, soy sauce, and brown sugar. I added broccoli crowns to the curry and let it simmer while I iced Christy's knee. The Deke cooked up some jasmine rice and we agreed: the curry was nearly perfect. It had heat, but the heat wasn't overpowering. I put in an excellent amount of sugar and the fish sauce and soy sauce deepened the sauce and the ginger and garlic and onion added to the layers of flavor. We hadn't had rice for several months and we loved our return to eating a fine curry and rice dinner.
3. I loved how cool it was this evening on the deck. I enjoyed a couple of rum and cokes with a ton of lemon and the Deke and I chatted aimlessly and enjoyed the refreshing mountain air. When she took a call from Laura in Eugene, I retired to the television room and watched part 2 of the Alton Brown Challenge on Chopped. As always, I couldn't help but think that if I'd been confronted with the baskets they had to work with, I would have been toast.
As far as the game goes, I loved it when Chicago's Dan Paulka slammed a three run pinch it homer in the bottom of the eighth. It was his third pinch hit round tripper of the season. The last ChiSox player to hit three pinch hit homer in a season? The late nearly great Oscar Gamble, one of my very favorite almost great major league baseball players from 1969-85. Oscar Gamble blasted those three pinch hit dingers in 1977.
2. It was slightly cooler today and so the Deke and I decided that it would be all right to do some cooking in the kitchen. I hadn't made any curry for a long time and so I bought nearly a pound of tri tip pieces at Yoke's, fried them up with garlic and ginger, and folded them into a green curry I made with paste, ginger, garlic, onion, coconut milk, fish sauce, soy sauce, and brown sugar. I added broccoli crowns to the curry and let it simmer while I iced Christy's knee. The Deke cooked up some jasmine rice and we agreed: the curry was nearly perfect. It had heat, but the heat wasn't overpowering. I put in an excellent amount of sugar and the fish sauce and soy sauce deepened the sauce and the ginger and garlic and onion added to the layers of flavor. We hadn't had rice for several months and we loved our return to eating a fine curry and rice dinner.
3. I loved how cool it was this evening on the deck. I enjoyed a couple of rum and cokes with a ton of lemon and the Deke and I chatted aimlessly and enjoyed the refreshing mountain air. When she took a call from Laura in Eugene, I retired to the television room and watched part 2 of the Alton Brown Challenge on Chopped. As always, I couldn't help but think that if I'd been confronted with the baskets they had to work with, I would have been toast.
Thursday, August 2, 2018
Three Beautiful Things 08/01/18: Lincoln's Assassination, Guyanese Cuisine in Queens, Sweet Home Run
1. For years, I thought war was like a baseball game. To opponents representing different places battle each other and, in the end, one side wins, the other loses, and the conflict is over -- the losing side submits to the power and wishes of the winning side. I watched American Experience: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln today. Even though it wasn't really the point of the program, I came away from it with a deeper understanding than I've ever had that with Lee's surrender at Appomattox, the physical warring between the Union and Confederate forces ended, but not the philosophical and political conflict. John Wilkes Booth, in fact, embodied Confederate bitterness and represented, in one man, the resentments of many.
For years, I've understood history as the study of continuation, not a study of the past. History doesn't repeat itself so much as ideas, conflicts, institutions, human impulses, and our stories about the past endure or continue. The idea that experiences like a war or slavery or the Great Depression or the standoff at Ruby Ridge or the destruction of the World Trade Center's Twin Towers in 2001, to name a few, are over with, are events or experiences we need to put behind us, is antithetical to how we experience things in life. As when I watched the Vietnam War series, when I saw the battlefield images from the Civil War, I thought a lot about how the Vietnam War did not end Communism and how the Civil War did not end the conflicts that divided the USA in the 19th century and that endure on into the 21st. That I see things this way means I live with many questions I cannot answer.
2. In the same way that Anthony Bourdain was a thoughtful, open-minded, adventurous guy who became famous because of his television show, so the chef Marcus Samuelsson has made a name for himself as a successful restaurateur and television celebrity. He is using his fame, charisma, intelligence, and goodwill to bring immigrant neighborhoods from across the USA into our homes through his PBS show No Passport Needed. A few days ago I watched his episode focused on Mexicans in Chicago. Today I watched his episode exploring immigrants in Queens, NY from Guyana where the influences of India, China, Africa, and the Caribbean intersect in the customs, religious practices, recreation, and food of the Guyanese. Samuelsson visited a handful of Guyanese eateries and visited the home of a family where he cooked alongside a family's grandmother and mother. Until today, I had never given one moment of thought to Guyanese cuisine or to the cultural vitality of people from Guyana and now I would love to try to cook something like Guyanese food and, if I ever have the chance to roam around Queens, I'd love to eat at one or two of the places Marcus Samuelsson featured in this program.
3. Today, I once again watched about 80 percent of a baseball game. MLB.TV's free offering today was a matchup between Tampa Bay Rays and the Los Angeles Angels. I didn't really care who won the game. I thought maybe the Angel stars, Mike Trout and Albert Pujois, might do something special, but neither did. My favorite moment in the game came late when Rays rookie Jake Bauers hit a home run. The home run merely padded the Rays' lead -- they beat the Angels 7-2 --, but Bauers' swing was sweet, pure, fluid. I love watching left handed hitters, maybe because I hit left handed when I played ball forty-six years ago, and Bauers' home run swing from the left side of the plate last night gave me the same kind of pleasure I feel when I see an Ansel Adams photograph or a painting by Monet. As any number of sportscasters might say, it was picture perfect. (And I'll be keeping an eye on this kid Jake Bauers.)
For years, I've understood history as the study of continuation, not a study of the past. History doesn't repeat itself so much as ideas, conflicts, institutions, human impulses, and our stories about the past endure or continue. The idea that experiences like a war or slavery or the Great Depression or the standoff at Ruby Ridge or the destruction of the World Trade Center's Twin Towers in 2001, to name a few, are over with, are events or experiences we need to put behind us, is antithetical to how we experience things in life. As when I watched the Vietnam War series, when I saw the battlefield images from the Civil War, I thought a lot about how the Vietnam War did not end Communism and how the Civil War did not end the conflicts that divided the USA in the 19th century and that endure on into the 21st. That I see things this way means I live with many questions I cannot answer.
2. In the same way that Anthony Bourdain was a thoughtful, open-minded, adventurous guy who became famous because of his television show, so the chef Marcus Samuelsson has made a name for himself as a successful restaurateur and television celebrity. He is using his fame, charisma, intelligence, and goodwill to bring immigrant neighborhoods from across the USA into our homes through his PBS show No Passport Needed. A few days ago I watched his episode focused on Mexicans in Chicago. Today I watched his episode exploring immigrants in Queens, NY from Guyana where the influences of India, China, Africa, and the Caribbean intersect in the customs, religious practices, recreation, and food of the Guyanese. Samuelsson visited a handful of Guyanese eateries and visited the home of a family where he cooked alongside a family's grandmother and mother. Until today, I had never given one moment of thought to Guyanese cuisine or to the cultural vitality of people from Guyana and now I would love to try to cook something like Guyanese food and, if I ever have the chance to roam around Queens, I'd love to eat at one or two of the places Marcus Samuelsson featured in this program.
3. Today, I once again watched about 80 percent of a baseball game. MLB.TV's free offering today was a matchup between Tampa Bay Rays and the Los Angeles Angels. I didn't really care who won the game. I thought maybe the Angel stars, Mike Trout and Albert Pujois, might do something special, but neither did. My favorite moment in the game came late when Rays rookie Jake Bauers hit a home run. The home run merely padded the Rays' lead -- they beat the Angels 7-2 --, but Bauers' swing was sweet, pure, fluid. I love watching left handed hitters, maybe because I hit left handed when I played ball forty-six years ago, and Bauers' home run swing from the left side of the plate last night gave me the same kind of pleasure I feel when I see an Ansel Adams photograph or a painting by Monet. As any number of sportscasters might say, it was picture perfect. (And I'll be keeping an eye on this kid Jake Bauers.)
Wednesday, August 1, 2018
Three Beautiful Things 07/31/18: Chilaquiles in my Future?, Yakkin' with Tim and Jim, Watching the A's
1. Today I connected our television to a web browser and watched more segments of "Chopped After Hours" on YouTube. In one episode, Amanda Freitag made chilaquiles, a traditional and very flexible Mexican dish. Aaron Sanchez was particularly excited about Freitag's chilaquiles and it made me wonder if it were something I could make at home. So, I searched for recipes and videos at www.americastestkitchen.com and, sure enough, I found both and watched and watched again a video demonstrating how to make chicken chilaquiles. I could do it and it will open up a new world for me when I do: cooking with dried peppers.
2. Tim O'Reilly is in town until Friday and I knew that I could see him again if I went to his brother Jim's weekly get together in his spacious garage this afternoon. It was a lot of fun. Tim and Jim told stories about being kids at St. Rita's church, about some nuns in the parish, and paid loving tribute to Father Coleman King. Until Sharon recently posted a picture of the old St. Rita's building a couple weeks ago, I had forgotten it burned and Jim and Tim talked about the fire and about their dad's efforts, as a Kellogg fireman, to rescue the building. It was a very good session at Jim's garage and my hope is that I'll travel to the DC area sometime in the next year to see Molly, Hiram, and our grandchildren and see Tim again in McLean.
3. I've been wondering over the last several years about how, when I was younger, I kept my love for baseball alive year after year. I've concluded my love was fueled and informed by baseball cards, the daily newspaper, television, and talking baseball with friends. I loved watching the Saturday baseball game of the week, I often watched the Monday night game, and I have great memories of watching the program, "This Week in Baseball". As I entered my thirties, I watched less and less television and lived many years without it. I continued to follow baseball in the newspapers, but not as ravenously as when I was younger. For some reason, I've not been very successful at following baseball on the World Wide Web.
Well, this smart new television and Fire Stick we bought recently gives me access to an MLB.TV app. By logging into MLB.com, the app provides a free baseball game every day, not of my choice, but as chosen by MLB.TV. So, tonight, the app offered me a telecast of the Toronto Blue Jays playing the Oakland Athletics in Oakland.
I immediately thought of my three friends who are Oakland A's fans: Don Knott, Rich Brock, and Rick Taylor. I got kind of fired up that if I watched this game, I'd learn more about the A's and I could also form some impressions of what kind of team I think they have.
The A's impressed me. Khris Davis looked powerful when he homered to center field; Matt Chapman made two brilliant plays at third base, the second reminiscent of Brooks Robinson and Graig Nettles; in the third inning, Marcus Semien and Mark Canha executed a double steal, with Canha stealing home, a rare and thrilling play I've rarely witnessed in the majors; and, lastly, the A's bullpen was fierce as Yusmeiro Petit, Jeurys Familia, and Blake Treinen closed out the Blue Jays over the last three innings. Oakland is surging and this win moved them to within a game of a playoff spot as a wild card team and, from what I saw tonight, it looks like they have a solid chance of earning that spot over the last two months of the season.
If I'm around the television this afternoon, MLB.TV is making the Angels v Tampa Bay available. I might just check it out.
2. Tim O'Reilly is in town until Friday and I knew that I could see him again if I went to his brother Jim's weekly get together in his spacious garage this afternoon. It was a lot of fun. Tim and Jim told stories about being kids at St. Rita's church, about some nuns in the parish, and paid loving tribute to Father Coleman King. Until Sharon recently posted a picture of the old St. Rita's building a couple weeks ago, I had forgotten it burned and Jim and Tim talked about the fire and about their dad's efforts, as a Kellogg fireman, to rescue the building. It was a very good session at Jim's garage and my hope is that I'll travel to the DC area sometime in the next year to see Molly, Hiram, and our grandchildren and see Tim again in McLean.
3. I've been wondering over the last several years about how, when I was younger, I kept my love for baseball alive year after year. I've concluded my love was fueled and informed by baseball cards, the daily newspaper, television, and talking baseball with friends. I loved watching the Saturday baseball game of the week, I often watched the Monday night game, and I have great memories of watching the program, "This Week in Baseball". As I entered my thirties, I watched less and less television and lived many years without it. I continued to follow baseball in the newspapers, but not as ravenously as when I was younger. For some reason, I've not been very successful at following baseball on the World Wide Web.
Well, this smart new television and Fire Stick we bought recently gives me access to an MLB.TV app. By logging into MLB.com, the app provides a free baseball game every day, not of my choice, but as chosen by MLB.TV. So, tonight, the app offered me a telecast of the Toronto Blue Jays playing the Oakland Athletics in Oakland.
I immediately thought of my three friends who are Oakland A's fans: Don Knott, Rich Brock, and Rick Taylor. I got kind of fired up that if I watched this game, I'd learn more about the A's and I could also form some impressions of what kind of team I think they have.
The A's impressed me. Khris Davis looked powerful when he homered to center field; Matt Chapman made two brilliant plays at third base, the second reminiscent of Brooks Robinson and Graig Nettles; in the third inning, Marcus Semien and Mark Canha executed a double steal, with Canha stealing home, a rare and thrilling play I've rarely witnessed in the majors; and, lastly, the A's bullpen was fierce as Yusmeiro Petit, Jeurys Familia, and Blake Treinen closed out the Blue Jays over the last three innings. Oakland is surging and this win moved them to within a game of a playoff spot as a wild card team and, from what I saw tonight, it looks like they have a solid chance of earning that spot over the last two months of the season.
If I'm around the television this afternoon, MLB.TV is making the Angels v Tampa Bay available. I might just check it out.
Tuesday, July 31, 2018
Three Beautiful Things 07/30/18: *Two Days in October*, *Chopped After Hours*, Revisiting *Hearts and Minds*
1. The temperature topped out at close to 100 degrees today in Kellogg, so the Deke and I spent much of the day inside, keeping the house closed up and the fans going. We stayed pretty comfortable. I retired to the television room and poked around the offerings available from PBS's American Experience series. I watched a riveting story called "Two Days in October". It documented the events of October 17 and 18, 1967. It juxtaposed the horrifying ambush suffered by US troops at the Battle of Ong Thanh and the forceful action taken by the Madison, WI police in order to clear out a building at the U. of Wisconsin being occupied in a sit-in by students protesting the presence of Dow Chemical recruiters on campus.
By moving back and forth between the terrible ambush the US soldiers suffered at Ong Thanh and the bloody force employed by the Madison police, the documentary provided a snapshot of, on the one hand, the formidable challenges US forces faced fighting the Viet Cong, and, on the other hand, the growing tensions on the homefront as protests against the war increased and as more people across the country joined the protests after seeing the images of the Madison police clubbing and bloodying the students occupying the Commerce Building.
To me, the documentary's director, Robert Kenner, tied the two stories together by examining the lies that officials, higher ups, told about each event. To cover up the incompetence that led to the ambush, the Army brass both denied that an ambush had occurred and claimed victory at Ong Thanh; the police brass in Wisconsin portrayed the police officers as defending themselves against the aggression of the protesters, protesters who were sitting on the floor of the Commerce Building, packed in so tight they could hardly move. All of the photographs and videotapes documented that the police were the aggressors and the police officers interviewed for "Two Days in October" described themselves as initiating the clubbing of the students. Likewise, the surviving soldiers and officers who fought at Ong Thanh described the battle as an ambush in which the US forces were not only defeated, but decimated.
"Two Days in October" is based on a book by David Maraniss, They Marched into Sunlight.
2. I've been immersing myself in the history of the Vietnam War years by reading about Watergate, watching documentaries about the Vietnam War and the conflicts at home, and watching the two KSPS documentaries I watched about Expo '74.
I decided to take a break from this immersion and switched my attention to the Food Network and watched three episodes of my favorite Food Network show, "Chopped After Hours". In it, the judges from "Chopped" take on the challenge of cooking dishes using the weird combination of ingredients that "Chopped" contestants have used. These chefs/judges are about a million times more adept in the kitchen than I am, and have ingredients in their pantry and cooking supplies at their disposal way beyond what I have on hand -- like I don't have an ice cream machine or a meat grinder!--, but I love watching their ingenuity. I marvel at the depth and breadth of their cooking knowledge. And, most of all, I enjoy that it's not a competition. The chefs all eat one another's masterpieces, heap praise on one another and talk in some detail about what they enjoy in the food, and they joke around and drink wine together. It's awesome.
3. During my senior year at Whitworth, probably in the fall of 1975, the word was out around campus that the Magic Lantern was screening a riveting documentary about the Vietnam War entitled, "Hearts and Minds". Back in April of 1975, "Hearts and Mind" had won the Best Documentary Oscar and I was eager to see it, although very nervous. The movie unnerved me that fall. In 1982, when I bought my first videocassette machine (a BetaMax!), "Hearts and Minds" was being shown on the old cable movie channel, Spotlight, and I recorded it and watched it several times over the next few years.
Tonight, I rented "Hearts and Minds" from Amazon and watched the first half of the movie. My experience was similar to reading Elizabeth Drew's book, Washington Journal in that the movie was released shortly after the US had withdrawn troops from Vietnam, but the actual end of the war hadn't happened yet, In other words, the movie was contemporary with the war, looking at it as a current event, not looking back on the war so much. Much of the footage, by now, has become familiar thanks to all the documentaries and movies that have been made in the last forty years or so, but watching "Hearts and Minds" tonight reminded me how raw it all felt in 1975 and how shocked I was by the images of the wounded and dead soldiers and civilians, the man being shot in the head in Saigon during the Tet Offensive, and the destruction of the land of Vietnam. I'd spent time talking with and listening to veterans of the Vietnam War when I was a student at North Idaho College. It was as if "Hearts and Minds", back in 1975, gave me a concentrated tour in images and interviews of what these vets had talked about at tables we shared in the Student Union Building.
It's still overwhelming.
By moving back and forth between the terrible ambush the US soldiers suffered at Ong Thanh and the bloody force employed by the Madison police, the documentary provided a snapshot of, on the one hand, the formidable challenges US forces faced fighting the Viet Cong, and, on the other hand, the growing tensions on the homefront as protests against the war increased and as more people across the country joined the protests after seeing the images of the Madison police clubbing and bloodying the students occupying the Commerce Building.
To me, the documentary's director, Robert Kenner, tied the two stories together by examining the lies that officials, higher ups, told about each event. To cover up the incompetence that led to the ambush, the Army brass both denied that an ambush had occurred and claimed victory at Ong Thanh; the police brass in Wisconsin portrayed the police officers as defending themselves against the aggression of the protesters, protesters who were sitting on the floor of the Commerce Building, packed in so tight they could hardly move. All of the photographs and videotapes documented that the police were the aggressors and the police officers interviewed for "Two Days in October" described themselves as initiating the clubbing of the students. Likewise, the surviving soldiers and officers who fought at Ong Thanh described the battle as an ambush in which the US forces were not only defeated, but decimated.
"Two Days in October" is based on a book by David Maraniss, They Marched into Sunlight.
2. I've been immersing myself in the history of the Vietnam War years by reading about Watergate, watching documentaries about the Vietnam War and the conflicts at home, and watching the two KSPS documentaries I watched about Expo '74.
I decided to take a break from this immersion and switched my attention to the Food Network and watched three episodes of my favorite Food Network show, "Chopped After Hours". In it, the judges from "Chopped" take on the challenge of cooking dishes using the weird combination of ingredients that "Chopped" contestants have used. These chefs/judges are about a million times more adept in the kitchen than I am, and have ingredients in their pantry and cooking supplies at their disposal way beyond what I have on hand -- like I don't have an ice cream machine or a meat grinder!--, but I love watching their ingenuity. I marvel at the depth and breadth of their cooking knowledge. And, most of all, I enjoy that it's not a competition. The chefs all eat one another's masterpieces, heap praise on one another and talk in some detail about what they enjoy in the food, and they joke around and drink wine together. It's awesome.
3. During my senior year at Whitworth, probably in the fall of 1975, the word was out around campus that the Magic Lantern was screening a riveting documentary about the Vietnam War entitled, "Hearts and Minds". Back in April of 1975, "Hearts and Mind" had won the Best Documentary Oscar and I was eager to see it, although very nervous. The movie unnerved me that fall. In 1982, when I bought my first videocassette machine (a BetaMax!), "Hearts and Minds" was being shown on the old cable movie channel, Spotlight, and I recorded it and watched it several times over the next few years.
Tonight, I rented "Hearts and Minds" from Amazon and watched the first half of the movie. My experience was similar to reading Elizabeth Drew's book, Washington Journal in that the movie was released shortly after the US had withdrawn troops from Vietnam, but the actual end of the war hadn't happened yet, In other words, the movie was contemporary with the war, looking at it as a current event, not looking back on the war so much. Much of the footage, by now, has become familiar thanks to all the documentaries and movies that have been made in the last forty years or so, but watching "Hearts and Minds" tonight reminded me how raw it all felt in 1975 and how shocked I was by the images of the wounded and dead soldiers and civilians, the man being shot in the head in Saigon during the Tet Offensive, and the destruction of the land of Vietnam. I'd spent time talking with and listening to veterans of the Vietnam War when I was a student at North Idaho College. It was as if "Hearts and Minds", back in 1975, gave me a concentrated tour in images and interviews of what these vets had talked about at tables we shared in the Student Union Building.
It's still overwhelming.
Monday, July 30, 2018
Three Beautiful Things 07/29/18: Shopping, Tilapia Family Dinner, Remembering Expo '74
1. I returned from a fun trip to Worley with Ed and the Deke and I started making plans for tonight's family dinner, which we were hosting. I shopped a bit at Yoke's and stopped for a very enjoyable talk with Sue as she was going in and I was going out. I was especially interested in confirming news I had heard about the work her middle daughter is pursuing and was happy to hear it's true. Yoke's was out of tilapia so I buzzed into Stein's and they had the bags of frozen filets they usually carry. At Stein's I saw Meredith and I knew from past conversations that she loves hot weather and she confirmed that, indeed, this current heat wave was making her very happy. Of all the people I've talked with over the last few days, Meredith is unique in not complaining about the heat, not simply enjoying the heat, but enjoying it.
2. Back home, in order to comply with the guidelines of the Keto plan, the Deke made a "potato" salad using cauliflower instead of potatoes. She also made cold stuffed sweet peppers, using a delicious cream cheese mixture for the stuffing. I melted butter in our cast iron pan and on our stovetop grill and fried tilapia fillets seasoned with Old Bay seasoning, salt, and pepper. I was very pleased with how the tilapia turned out and I took a spin as the boring big brother during our meal and yakked for a while about National Bohemian beer in Maryland, known locally as Natty Boh, and how much I enjoyed having a Maryland Margarita or a bohgarita at Old Line when Kristin used to occasionally pour me a Natty Boh in a glass rimmed with Old Bay seasoning. I think she might have declared me to have become a true Marylander when I accepted her offer of giving this way of drinking Natty Boh a try.
3. After dinner and after icing Christy -- who has a had a painful and difficult past 24 hours -- I returned home and downloaded and activated the PBS app on our television and registered KSPS, the PBS station in Spokane, on the app. One of the offerings on this app was documentaries made at KSPS and I browsed them and decided to watch a couple of KSPS shows that looked back at the 1974 World's Fair in Spokane, Expo '74. It was fascinating to revisit the way the construction of the Expo transformed the railroad yards along the Spokane River and Trent Avenue into a glorious site that is now Riverfront Park and includes the Convention Center and what I've always known as the Opera House, now known as the IMB Performing Arts Center. I didn't spend a lot of time at Expo '74, but these programs helped me remember singing at Expo with the NIC choir, being staggered by the movie that played in the IMAX theater, seeing the USSR National basketball team play a team of USA college all-starts at the Coliseum, and going with my Whitworth classmates who were also taking a History of Russia class to hear a tedious lecture given by a tedious man from the USSR.
2. Back home, in order to comply with the guidelines of the Keto plan, the Deke made a "potato" salad using cauliflower instead of potatoes. She also made cold stuffed sweet peppers, using a delicious cream cheese mixture for the stuffing. I melted butter in our cast iron pan and on our stovetop grill and fried tilapia fillets seasoned with Old Bay seasoning, salt, and pepper. I was very pleased with how the tilapia turned out and I took a spin as the boring big brother during our meal and yakked for a while about National Bohemian beer in Maryland, known locally as Natty Boh, and how much I enjoyed having a Maryland Margarita or a bohgarita at Old Line when Kristin used to occasionally pour me a Natty Boh in a glass rimmed with Old Bay seasoning. I think she might have declared me to have become a true Marylander when I accepted her offer of giving this way of drinking Natty Boh a try.
3. After dinner and after icing Christy -- who has a had a painful and difficult past 24 hours -- I returned home and downloaded and activated the PBS app on our television and registered KSPS, the PBS station in Spokane, on the app. One of the offerings on this app was documentaries made at KSPS and I browsed them and decided to watch a couple of KSPS shows that looked back at the 1974 World's Fair in Spokane, Expo '74. It was fascinating to revisit the way the construction of the Expo transformed the railroad yards along the Spokane River and Trent Avenue into a glorious site that is now Riverfront Park and includes the Convention Center and what I've always known as the Opera House, now known as the IMB Performing Arts Center. I didn't spend a lot of time at Expo '74, but these programs helped me remember singing at Expo with the NIC choir, being staggered by the movie that played in the IMAX theater, seeing the USSR National basketball team play a team of USA college all-starts at the Coliseum, and going with my Whitworth classmates who were also taking a History of Russia class to hear a tedious lecture given by a tedious man from the USSR.
Sunday, July 29, 2018
Three Beautiful Things 07/28/18: Overwhelmed, Another Summit, Meeting a Reader of this Blog
1. For four hours, I watched the last two installments of The Vietnam War. These last two episodes drained me, even though Burns and Novick ended their seventeen hours of filmmaking with some positive developments, including POWs returning home, US veterans of the war returning to Vietnam with some working on reconciliation efforts between the two countries, the power of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, and eventual normalized relations between the USA and Vietnam. But, these two episodes were most memorable to me for detailing the story of disillusionment in the USA, especially during the Nixon and Ford years, detailing the impact on South Vietnam of US troops withdrawing and the Paris Peace Accords agreement that North Vietnamese soldiers could remain in South Vietnam, and detailing the chaos surrounding the eventual and inevitable fall of Saigon in 1975 and the grueling aftermath of the war ending.
Over the years I've read and listened to countless people's points of view regarding the Vietnam War and subsequent USA military intervention in other countries. I've listened to friends and people I'm related to. I've read and listened to politicians and historians and pundits. Many of these people assert their point of view regarding US intervention and our involvement in war with utter certainty, whether supporting or opposing what our country has done in the past and is doing today. I search for clarity and certainty. I've come to deeper understandings of why people support our war efforts and why others oppose them. As I dig into this history and into the present more deeply, mostly I experience feeling overwhelmed by the enormity of it all.
2. The Deke and I are trying to work out some decisions about what we'll be doing over the next twelve months. We enjoy going over to the Hill St. Depot, grabbing a thinking and talking table, enjoying a drink or two, and talking things out. We did this again late this afternoon. We didn't arrive at any conclusions, but I might have come to understand better why it's not quite time yet to make up our minds about what lies ahead.
3. We returned home. The Deke helped ice Christy's knee and then we went up to the Inland Lounge. When we walked in the door, Cas welcomed us and told me he wanted me to meet someone who knew a lot about me, but whom I had never met. In fact, this man and Cas had just been talking about me when the Deke and I coincidentally strolled in. The man's name is Gary. He lives in western Washington and also owns a residence in Wardner. Years ago, he was doing some searching on the World Wide Web that was Kellogg related and he came across this blog and for many years my daily posts have been a part of his daily reading. We had a fun conversation. He graduated from East Valley High school the same year I graduated from Kellogg and I learned more about his life living in the Spokane Valley and what he's been doing since then. My blog doesn't have a very big following. I know many of the people who read it, especially those who read it and post responses on Facebook, and I know the people to whom I send my posts via email. It was fun tonight to meet Gary and find out that he discovered that he enjoyed my writing and has been a regular reader of kelloggbloggin for several years.
Over the years I've read and listened to countless people's points of view regarding the Vietnam War and subsequent USA military intervention in other countries. I've listened to friends and people I'm related to. I've read and listened to politicians and historians and pundits. Many of these people assert their point of view regarding US intervention and our involvement in war with utter certainty, whether supporting or opposing what our country has done in the past and is doing today. I search for clarity and certainty. I've come to deeper understandings of why people support our war efforts and why others oppose them. As I dig into this history and into the present more deeply, mostly I experience feeling overwhelmed by the enormity of it all.
2. The Deke and I are trying to work out some decisions about what we'll be doing over the next twelve months. We enjoy going over to the Hill St. Depot, grabbing a thinking and talking table, enjoying a drink or two, and talking things out. We did this again late this afternoon. We didn't arrive at any conclusions, but I might have come to understand better why it's not quite time yet to make up our minds about what lies ahead.
3. We returned home. The Deke helped ice Christy's knee and then we went up to the Inland Lounge. When we walked in the door, Cas welcomed us and told me he wanted me to meet someone who knew a lot about me, but whom I had never met. In fact, this man and Cas had just been talking about me when the Deke and I coincidentally strolled in. The man's name is Gary. He lives in western Washington and also owns a residence in Wardner. Years ago, he was doing some searching on the World Wide Web that was Kellogg related and he came across this blog and for many years my daily posts have been a part of his daily reading. We had a fun conversation. He graduated from East Valley High school the same year I graduated from Kellogg and I learned more about his life living in the Spokane Valley and what he's been doing since then. My blog doesn't have a very big following. I know many of the people who read it, especially those who read it and post responses on Facebook, and I know the people to whom I send my posts via email. It was fun tonight to meet Gary and find out that he discovered that he enjoyed my writing and has been a regular reader of kelloggbloggin for several years.
Saturday, July 28, 2018
Three Beautiful Things 07/27/18: Lunch with Longtime Friends, Yakkin' at Wallace Brewing, Old Friends at the Lounge
1. Last week, Kenton Bird had emailed me, wondering if I'd like to get together with him and Tim O'Reilly for lunch in Kellogg. I told him I'd also invite Christy and later on I invited Scott and Ed and Diane. Diane was out of town, but the other six of us met today at Radio Brewing for a fun reunion of five class of 72ers and Christy, from the class of '73. We all have long and deep history with one another and it was fun to get caught up on how things are today and to remember back to some things from the past. Everyone was impressed with Christy's mobility and the progress of her recovery and I don't think she had any problem with her knee over the 90 minutes or so we were at Radio Brewing.
2. Later in the afternoon, the Deke and I piled into the Sube and landed at Wallace Brewing. Our hopes of seeing Conversational Beer take place were dashed by our late arrival and by Wallace Brewing's internet being out. We met up with Emma and she was at a table with a bunch of other people and the only one I met was Michelle who is Amy Lynn's partner. I remarked that it seems like I can't go anywhere in Wallace without meeting a member of the Lynn family tree or a resident of King Street and we had a good laugh and some great conversation. The people I didn't know left after a while and Cathleen and Chase joined our table and I absorbed all kinds of lively stories about contemporary life on King Street and ended our visit with a short discussion with Chase about when their Imperial IPA is available.
3. The Deke and I raced back to Kellogg and swooped into the Lounge and Ed was talking with Julie and I sat next to Bird Legs, whom I hadn't seen for a while, and we gabbed away, and before long Jake and Carol Lee arrived and another party was underway. Jake and I left after a while to go across the street to the Elks where the KHS Class of 1968 was having a 50 year reunion meet and greet. Tim's wife, Katie, is a member of this class so we knew we'd find Tim and my hope was to find Sharann. We did find Tim, right away, and soon Sharann and I were embracing each other and after we talked for a while I invited her to the Lounge to meet the Deke. Pam was also at the Lounge and I hadn't seen her for a long time and she told a story about when her family came to see ours and her brother, Dood, was excited to play with me but I put him off because I was busy reading a volume of our encyclopedias. I was probably five years old. Dad had me put the encyclopedia down and taught me to be a better host. We all got a good laugh out of that story! The 68ers returned to the Elks and Eddie Joe arrived and he and I yakked with Tim and soon it was time to head home, bringing a really fun evening to an end.
2. Later in the afternoon, the Deke and I piled into the Sube and landed at Wallace Brewing. Our hopes of seeing Conversational Beer take place were dashed by our late arrival and by Wallace Brewing's internet being out. We met up with Emma and she was at a table with a bunch of other people and the only one I met was Michelle who is Amy Lynn's partner. I remarked that it seems like I can't go anywhere in Wallace without meeting a member of the Lynn family tree or a resident of King Street and we had a good laugh and some great conversation. The people I didn't know left after a while and Cathleen and Chase joined our table and I absorbed all kinds of lively stories about contemporary life on King Street and ended our visit with a short discussion with Chase about when their Imperial IPA is available.
3. The Deke and I raced back to Kellogg and swooped into the Lounge and Ed was talking with Julie and I sat next to Bird Legs, whom I hadn't seen for a while, and we gabbed away, and before long Jake and Carol Lee arrived and another party was underway. Jake and I left after a while to go across the street to the Elks where the KHS Class of 1968 was having a 50 year reunion meet and greet. Tim's wife, Katie, is a member of this class so we knew we'd find Tim and my hope was to find Sharann. We did find Tim, right away, and soon Sharann and I were embracing each other and after we talked for a while I invited her to the Lounge to meet the Deke. Pam was also at the Lounge and I hadn't seen her for a long time and she told a story about when her family came to see ours and her brother, Dood, was excited to play with me but I put him off because I was busy reading a volume of our encyclopedias. I was probably five years old. Dad had me put the encyclopedia down and taught me to be a better host. We all got a good laugh out of that story! The 68ers returned to the Elks and Eddie Joe arrived and he and I yakked with Tim and soon it was time to head home, bringing a really fun evening to an end.
Friday, July 27, 2018
Three Beautiful Things 07/26/18: High School and Vietnam, Reading Vietnam, Splendid Salad and a Superb Beer
1. Being a high school student in Kellogg, mostly concerned about friends, basketball, working my jobs, and listening to Cream and Creedence Clearwater Revival, I didn't know what to make of events like students being shot at Kent State and Jackson State, buildings being bombed across the country by members of groups like the Weathermen, the My Lai massacre, and other stories documenting the hellish realities in Vietnam and the divisiveness and violence here in the USA. The only way I had of thinking about the possibility of getting drafted was to think of basic training as a series of really hard basketball practices. I had no way of thinking about combat. This all came back to me today as the documentary series, The Vietnam War, moved into covering the years I was in high school. If I was too preoccupied with being a teenager back in 1969 and 1970 to be unnerved by the war and the violence in the USA, today was different.
2. This afternoon, I dove into The New Yorker's online archives and read the first installment of Frances Fitzgerald's 1972 four part series on Vietnam. These pieces in The New Yorker later became her book, Fire in the Lake. In her first installment, Fitzgerald works to help her readers understand the philosophical, spiritual, historical, economic, and political history of the country of Vietnam so that readers can understand how very foreign the ideas of Western countries like France and the USA were to the Vietnamese and how little the French and the Americans cared about how the Vietnamese see the world and understand living day to day life. It's hard for us in the USA to comprehend, but traditionally the Vietnamese have had little concern for individual freedom or individualism. It's a genuinely western concept.
I also read book review I'd read earlier in the year of Max Boot's book, The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam. I also read Frances Fitzgerald's account of returning to Hanoi in 1975 and what she observed and learned as Vietnam was working to shape itself in the aftermath of the war. The last article I read was by Seymour Hersh and his return to My Lai in 2015.
3. The Deke made a splendid shrimp salad from lettuce from our raised bed along with cheese, avocado, apple, and a variety of vegetables and we topped it with the raspberry vinaigrette she made, using raspberries from our yard.
Before dinner we split a 22 oz bottle of Breakside Brewing's Imperial IPA aged in gin barrels that had once held Old Tom Gin at Ransom Distillery in McMinnville, OR. This was a most unusual and enjoyable beer, very floral and aromatic. It gave me a thrill similar to what I experience with Uncle Val's Botanical Gin -- a burst of herbal and floral flavors that are preceded by the great pleasure Uncle Val's and this beer gives my nose.
2. This afternoon, I dove into The New Yorker's online archives and read the first installment of Frances Fitzgerald's 1972 four part series on Vietnam. These pieces in The New Yorker later became her book, Fire in the Lake. In her first installment, Fitzgerald works to help her readers understand the philosophical, spiritual, historical, economic, and political history of the country of Vietnam so that readers can understand how very foreign the ideas of Western countries like France and the USA were to the Vietnamese and how little the French and the Americans cared about how the Vietnamese see the world and understand living day to day life. It's hard for us in the USA to comprehend, but traditionally the Vietnamese have had little concern for individual freedom or individualism. It's a genuinely western concept.
I also read book review I'd read earlier in the year of Max Boot's book, The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam. I also read Frances Fitzgerald's account of returning to Hanoi in 1975 and what she observed and learned as Vietnam was working to shape itself in the aftermath of the war. The last article I read was by Seymour Hersh and his return to My Lai in 2015.
3. The Deke made a splendid shrimp salad from lettuce from our raised bed along with cheese, avocado, apple, and a variety of vegetables and we topped it with the raspberry vinaigrette she made, using raspberries from our yard.
Before dinner we split a 22 oz bottle of Breakside Brewing's Imperial IPA aged in gin barrels that had once held Old Tom Gin at Ransom Distillery in McMinnville, OR. This was a most unusual and enjoyable beer, very floral and aromatic. It gave me a thrill similar to what I experience with Uncle Val's Botanical Gin -- a burst of herbal and floral flavors that are preceded by the great pleasure Uncle Val's and this beer gives my nose.
Thursday, July 26, 2018
Three Beautiful Things 07/25/18: Vicious War, Simple Steak Dinner, Christy Update
1. I spent much of the day continuing to watch The Vietnam War. The stories survivors told of intense battles and firefights unnerved me and deepened my understanding of the vicious ferocity of this war and the terrifying situations the soldiers confronted, not only in the jungle and in the highlands, but also in the urban firefights, especially during the Tet Offensive, like in the Battle of Hue.
2. It was fun cooking dinner tonight. I fried some bacon to make grease and in that grease I fried circles of onions until pretty much caramelized and then quickly fried two thin rib eye steaks. On Tuesday, the Deke had made a superb cabbage salad and it rounded out this simple and delicious meal. We ate on the deck where by about 7 o'clock the air was beginning to cool and it was refreshing, in contrast to the day's heat. Earlier in the day, I took a break from Vietnam at one point this afternoon and learned how to fix homemade Rice-a-Roni, called Rice and Pasta Pilaf by the people at America's Test Kitchen. It looks really fun.
3. Christy had a very busy day: she had a hair appointment, another appointment uptown, and her book group met. She had been told by her physical therapist that she was ready to go up and down staircases and so she made her first visit in about a month to the basement of her house. By this afternoon, since she didn't have an ice treatment in the morning, she was more than ready to be iced. Afterwards she took a nap to recover from all her activity and I went over after dinner and ran the ice therapy machine again. Incrementally, Christy continues to improve and I think she's always up against the question of what to do and what not to do because she's been advised not to overdo things. She has more things to do in the next few days -- another appointment uptown, more physical therapy, lunch on Friday (we hope), and her high school class reunion on Saturday. I don't think she'll overdo it. She has plenty of time scheduled for elevating her knee, being treated with ice, and resting. From my point of view, it looks like things are going very well in her recovery and that she's being sensible about her activities balanced with rest and ice treatments.
2. It was fun cooking dinner tonight. I fried some bacon to make grease and in that grease I fried circles of onions until pretty much caramelized and then quickly fried two thin rib eye steaks. On Tuesday, the Deke had made a superb cabbage salad and it rounded out this simple and delicious meal. We ate on the deck where by about 7 o'clock the air was beginning to cool and it was refreshing, in contrast to the day's heat. Earlier in the day, I took a break from Vietnam at one point this afternoon and learned how to fix homemade Rice-a-Roni, called Rice and Pasta Pilaf by the people at America's Test Kitchen. It looks really fun.
3. Christy had a very busy day: she had a hair appointment, another appointment uptown, and her book group met. She had been told by her physical therapist that she was ready to go up and down staircases and so she made her first visit in about a month to the basement of her house. By this afternoon, since she didn't have an ice treatment in the morning, she was more than ready to be iced. Afterwards she took a nap to recover from all her activity and I went over after dinner and ran the ice therapy machine again. Incrementally, Christy continues to improve and I think she's always up against the question of what to do and what not to do because she's been advised not to overdo things. She has more things to do in the next few days -- another appointment uptown, more physical therapy, lunch on Friday (we hope), and her high school class reunion on Saturday. I don't think she'll overdo it. She has plenty of time scheduled for elevating her knee, being treated with ice, and resting. From my point of view, it looks like things are going very well in her recovery and that she's being sensible about her activities balanced with rest and ice treatments.
Wednesday, July 25, 2018
Three Beautiful Things 07/24/18: Kidney Day II, The Politics of War, George and Martha at Eddie Joe's
1. Kidney Day II got stretched out over a few hours, but as long as my blood sample makes it to Baltimore, all turned out well. As I thought might be the case, when I took my blood kit to the clinic uptown at 8 a.m., the people working at the clinic didn't know how to deal with it in their system. A very helpful front desk person took my kit back to the lab and came back with handouts as to where LabCorp labs can be found in CdA and told me that if I saw my primary care provider, I could get a code assigned to my blood draw and then they could poke me and send the sample to Maryland.
I thought to myself, no problem. I'll bet my provider Linda Jo Yawn will cut right through all of this and I was right. I made a 10 o'clock appointment, went home, returned, and when Linda Jo Yawn sauntered into her examination room, heard why I was there, and inspected the blood kit, she said, "I'll go see who's available at the lab and if no one is, I'll draw your blood." And she did. She told me she'd figure out a way to get my monthly blood draw entered into the system at the clinic so that things would go smoother next time.
So, yeah, it took a little over three hours to have a vial of blood drawn, centrifuged, and mailed to Baltimore, but I had anticipated that what I need done every month might be unfamiliar to the staff at the clinic, so I was prepared to be patient and understanding -- and I was -- and it all worked out. In the end, the clinic staff were very happy to have learned what I needed and to have figured out how to help me.
2. Once back home, I settled into the third episode of Ken Burns' and Lynn Novik's documentary series, The Vietnam War. By 1964, the Vietnam War had become something much bigger that an armed conflict. It had become much more political. By that I mean that LBJ was making decisions about how many troops to send over and whether to negotiate with the North Vietnamese based as much on how it would affect the 1964 presidential election than on military decision making. In addition, LBJ and the USA leadership could not cut their losses and get out of Vietnam because of the deeply ingrained idea that the USA cannot fail, cannot lose, even though, in private, these leaders talked openly about how this war would probably never be won. It's grueling to watch this documentary knowing that politics and concerns for the USA's national reputation kept us at war as much or more than fighting Communism or helping the South Vietnamese did.
3. The Deke and I held a successful Hill Street Depot Summit late in the afternoon to talk about decisions that lie before us over the next few months. Afterward, the Deke hosted a Sock Monkey making party with Ashley, Becky, and Tracy. I met Cas at Eddie Joe's for a few beverages.
When I walked into Eddie Joe's around 5:30, a scene was unfolding that reminded me of when Mom and Dad went downtown in Spokane to see Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf in about 1966. Mom's famous remark when they returned to Grandma's house was, "I didn't have to go to the movies to see that. I can just go to the Sunshine Inn."
Well, Eddie Joe's is across the street from the Sunshine Inn and all I had to do to hear some screaming and berating was go to Eddie Joe's.
I didn't know the 2018 Eddie Joe's version of George and Martha. I don't really know what today's Martha was screaming at George about, but I can say that Edward Albee did not infuse his scenes between George and Martha with the generous flow of f-bombs that our local Martha was dropping on our local George. I joined Cas at the bar who said, "Welcome to Eddie Joe's. It's not always like this." After a while, our local George retreated to a buddy bar and I think Martha went outside to have a calming smoke and guys rallied around George, telling him he'd done a good job keeping his cool and not to worry, that Martha was just drunk. I think George knew that.
There were no more eruptions and Cas and I yakked with Chip and Pat and Danny and Ron. We were well taken care of by Adam behind the bar and around 8:00 we went down the street to the Sock Monkey party. Before we got out of Cas's pickup, we listened to two tracks from a superb album by Willie Nile, Positively Bob: Willie Nile Sings Bob Dylan. We went inside and admired the newly made sock monkeys. Cas and Tracy hung out with the Deke and me on the deck for a while and after they left, the Deke and I capped off our evening by splitting a 12 oz bottle of Founder's Double Trouble, reviewing the day, and soon I retired for the night.
I thought to myself, no problem. I'll bet my provider Linda Jo Yawn will cut right through all of this and I was right. I made a 10 o'clock appointment, went home, returned, and when Linda Jo Yawn sauntered into her examination room, heard why I was there, and inspected the blood kit, she said, "I'll go see who's available at the lab and if no one is, I'll draw your blood." And she did. She told me she'd figure out a way to get my monthly blood draw entered into the system at the clinic so that things would go smoother next time.
So, yeah, it took a little over three hours to have a vial of blood drawn, centrifuged, and mailed to Baltimore, but I had anticipated that what I need done every month might be unfamiliar to the staff at the clinic, so I was prepared to be patient and understanding -- and I was -- and it all worked out. In the end, the clinic staff were very happy to have learned what I needed and to have figured out how to help me.
2. Once back home, I settled into the third episode of Ken Burns' and Lynn Novik's documentary series, The Vietnam War. By 1964, the Vietnam War had become something much bigger that an armed conflict. It had become much more political. By that I mean that LBJ was making decisions about how many troops to send over and whether to negotiate with the North Vietnamese based as much on how it would affect the 1964 presidential election than on military decision making. In addition, LBJ and the USA leadership could not cut their losses and get out of Vietnam because of the deeply ingrained idea that the USA cannot fail, cannot lose, even though, in private, these leaders talked openly about how this war would probably never be won. It's grueling to watch this documentary knowing that politics and concerns for the USA's national reputation kept us at war as much or more than fighting Communism or helping the South Vietnamese did.
3. The Deke and I held a successful Hill Street Depot Summit late in the afternoon to talk about decisions that lie before us over the next few months. Afterward, the Deke hosted a Sock Monkey making party with Ashley, Becky, and Tracy. I met Cas at Eddie Joe's for a few beverages.
When I walked into Eddie Joe's around 5:30, a scene was unfolding that reminded me of when Mom and Dad went downtown in Spokane to see Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf in about 1966. Mom's famous remark when they returned to Grandma's house was, "I didn't have to go to the movies to see that. I can just go to the Sunshine Inn."
Well, Eddie Joe's is across the street from the Sunshine Inn and all I had to do to hear some screaming and berating was go to Eddie Joe's.
I didn't know the 2018 Eddie Joe's version of George and Martha. I don't really know what today's Martha was screaming at George about, but I can say that Edward Albee did not infuse his scenes between George and Martha with the generous flow of f-bombs that our local Martha was dropping on our local George. I joined Cas at the bar who said, "Welcome to Eddie Joe's. It's not always like this." After a while, our local George retreated to a buddy bar and I think Martha went outside to have a calming smoke and guys rallied around George, telling him he'd done a good job keeping his cool and not to worry, that Martha was just drunk. I think George knew that.
There were no more eruptions and Cas and I yakked with Chip and Pat and Danny and Ron. We were well taken care of by Adam behind the bar and around 8:00 we went down the street to the Sock Monkey party. Before we got out of Cas's pickup, we listened to two tracks from a superb album by Willie Nile, Positively Bob: Willie Nile Sings Bob Dylan. We went inside and admired the newly made sock monkeys. Cas and Tracy hung out with the Deke and me on the deck for a while and after they left, the Deke and I capped off our evening by splitting a 12 oz bottle of Founder's Double Trouble, reviewing the day, and soon I retired for the night.
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
Three Beautiful Things 07/23/18: Kidney Days, Koreatown and Test Kitchen Tacos, Family Dinner
1. Coming into this week, I had declared, to myself, Monday and Tuesday as Kidney Days. I determined that on Monday I would buckle down and fill out the paperwork that would continue the process of being evaluated at Sacred Heart in Spokane to be listed for a kidney transplant. I did that. I also need to start having my monthly blood draw performed uptown at LabCorp and I got everything ready to go up on Tuesday and see about making that happen. I filled out the paperwork. I mailed it in. I made the photocopies I needed to make for Tuesday and will go uptown as soon as possible and be done with Kidney Days.
2. Before and after I vacuumed our living room, kitchen, and bedroom -- floors, rugs, and furniture --, I watched food shows on television. The Koreatown episode of Parts Unknown was awesome as different residents of this section of L. A. took Anthony Bourdain into eateries, including a Sizzler steakhouse, along with a dumpling joint, Beverly Soon's Tofu Restaurant, a Bangladeshi place, a Korean taco truck, and, maybe best of all, the family home of one of his hosts. I love Korean food with its emphasis on fermentation, bbq, spiciness, and multiple layers of flavor and dearly wished Korean cuisine were nearby Kellogg. Well, I shouldn't whine! All I need to do is go to Spokane!
I also watched an episode of America's Test Kitchen and I was particularly intrigued by watching one of their chefs make tacos using beef shredded from braised boneless short ribs, topped with an awesome looking slaw. In order to have access to this recipe and about 14 billion others in the Cook's empire, I needed to buy an online subscription -- so I did -- and I started a board on Pinterest with my America's Test Kitchen/Cook recipes. I am looking forward to making the braised short ribs one day, even whether we use the meat for tacos or eat them as they are. I spent time, then, exploring other America's Test Kitchen recipes and, lo and behold, I found some recipes for Korean, or at least Korean style, dishes that look fun and delicious -- especially once the weather cools off and I don't mind heating up the kitchen.
3. Carol and Paul hosted family dinner tonight. Even with her knee far from 100% healed, Christy didn't seem to have any problems getting over to Carol and Paul's and coming into the back yard -- this was very good to see. Carol made sauerkraut and sausage and Paul grilled lettuce and a mess of vegetables and it was a splendid dinner out on their patio. It was a very comfortable evening nicely punctuated when Carol served Limoncello, but I declined and opted instead for a delicious Brandy Alexander made with heavy cream.
2. Before and after I vacuumed our living room, kitchen, and bedroom -- floors, rugs, and furniture --, I watched food shows on television. The Koreatown episode of Parts Unknown was awesome as different residents of this section of L. A. took Anthony Bourdain into eateries, including a Sizzler steakhouse, along with a dumpling joint, Beverly Soon's Tofu Restaurant, a Bangladeshi place, a Korean taco truck, and, maybe best of all, the family home of one of his hosts. I love Korean food with its emphasis on fermentation, bbq, spiciness, and multiple layers of flavor and dearly wished Korean cuisine were nearby Kellogg. Well, I shouldn't whine! All I need to do is go to Spokane!
I also watched an episode of America's Test Kitchen and I was particularly intrigued by watching one of their chefs make tacos using beef shredded from braised boneless short ribs, topped with an awesome looking slaw. In order to have access to this recipe and about 14 billion others in the Cook's empire, I needed to buy an online subscription -- so I did -- and I started a board on Pinterest with my America's Test Kitchen/Cook recipes. I am looking forward to making the braised short ribs one day, even whether we use the meat for tacos or eat them as they are. I spent time, then, exploring other America's Test Kitchen recipes and, lo and behold, I found some recipes for Korean, or at least Korean style, dishes that look fun and delicious -- especially once the weather cools off and I don't mind heating up the kitchen.
3. Carol and Paul hosted family dinner tonight. Even with her knee far from 100% healed, Christy didn't seem to have any problems getting over to Carol and Paul's and coming into the back yard -- this was very good to see. Carol made sauerkraut and sausage and Paul grilled lettuce and a mess of vegetables and it was a splendid dinner out on their patio. It was a very comfortable evening nicely punctuated when Carol served Limoncello, but I declined and opted instead for a delicious Brandy Alexander made with heavy cream.
Monday, July 23, 2018
Three Beautiful Things 07/22/18: Hathaway and Lewis, Lunch with Kristen, The Vietnam Slog
1. Sometimes it is all right just to be blissfully out of it. The episode of Inspector Lewis that I started on Saturday and finished this morning was written as the last episode of the series and I didn't know that as I watched it. I was going merrily along, letting the episode fool me into thinking this guy, then that guy killed the professor, his wife, and, years earlier, a post-doc student and I enjoyed the satisfaction of Lewis and Hathaway digging their way to the truth about the murders. Then, all of I sudden, Lewis and Hathaway were ending their relationship as coppers over a beer and it was understated and tender and my tears welled up and I realized that I had randomly selected the farewell episode of Inspector Lewis.
It turned out, though, that it wasn't the last episode. I did some reading and discovered more episodes were made starting a year or so later. In due time, I'll check them out.
2. Around 12:30 or so, I sprang into the Sube and met Kristen Chesmore at Radio Brewing for lunch. Kristen and I first met nearly forty years ago at Whitworth when I was teaching part time in the English Department and she was getting underway as a student. Kristen took some time away from Whitworth, returned, and so did I. In January of 1984, she was a student in my Jan term course, "The Family in American Drama". I've kept somewhat current with Kristen through Facebook. Her brother, Peter Blomquist, and I are good friends and he told me a bit about how Kristen was doing when Peter, Mark Cutshall, and I got together in Newport, OR in September, 2013.
Kristen and I immediately and comfortably launched into a couple of hours of conversation. We updated each other on our families and our sons and daughters and grandchildren. Recently, Kristen traveled with a group working to observe and understand the frightening and dangerous conditions in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador that give rise to people leaving, seeking asylum in the USA. She also told me about the volunteering she does at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma and told me stories about two women she talked with for months who have now been deported. I talked about how much I loved living among people from all parts of the world in Greenbelt and Alexandria and what I experienced in wandering around the Washington, D.C metro area. Kristen told me more about her experiences in Central America and volunteering in the Seattle/Tacoma area. Being out in the world and having daily interactions with people who have come to the USA from all over the world has enriched both of us and I loved talking with Kristen about all of this.
3. Back home, I took everything out of the refrigerator and cleaned its interior. I returned to the television room and watched the second episode of Ken Burns' and Lynn Novick's documentary series, The Vietnam War. The episode explored the brutal irony of the idea that the military and civilian leadership of the USA, with some exceptions, imagined that we could make war in a country as a means of helping its people combat Communism, destroy crops, burn villages, indiscriminately kill Vietnamese people, often mistaking allies for enemies, force people to leave their homes and live behind barbed wire in strategic hamlets, and expect the support of the Vietnamese for our efforts. Many Vietnamese had come to resent the colonizing presence of the French over the decades and, similarly, came to resent the presence of the USA. This resentment emboldened the Viet Cong and helped them in their recruitment. What had once seemed like a limited action that would be over in a matter of months turned into a long and deadly slog. It's a terrible history to watch unfold.
It turned out, though, that it wasn't the last episode. I did some reading and discovered more episodes were made starting a year or so later. In due time, I'll check them out.
2. Around 12:30 or so, I sprang into the Sube and met Kristen Chesmore at Radio Brewing for lunch. Kristen and I first met nearly forty years ago at Whitworth when I was teaching part time in the English Department and she was getting underway as a student. Kristen took some time away from Whitworth, returned, and so did I. In January of 1984, she was a student in my Jan term course, "The Family in American Drama". I've kept somewhat current with Kristen through Facebook. Her brother, Peter Blomquist, and I are good friends and he told me a bit about how Kristen was doing when Peter, Mark Cutshall, and I got together in Newport, OR in September, 2013.
Kristen and I immediately and comfortably launched into a couple of hours of conversation. We updated each other on our families and our sons and daughters and grandchildren. Recently, Kristen traveled with a group working to observe and understand the frightening and dangerous conditions in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador that give rise to people leaving, seeking asylum in the USA. She also told me about the volunteering she does at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma and told me stories about two women she talked with for months who have now been deported. I talked about how much I loved living among people from all parts of the world in Greenbelt and Alexandria and what I experienced in wandering around the Washington, D.C metro area. Kristen told me more about her experiences in Central America and volunteering in the Seattle/Tacoma area. Being out in the world and having daily interactions with people who have come to the USA from all over the world has enriched both of us and I loved talking with Kristen about all of this.
3. Back home, I took everything out of the refrigerator and cleaned its interior. I returned to the television room and watched the second episode of Ken Burns' and Lynn Novick's documentary series, The Vietnam War. The episode explored the brutal irony of the idea that the military and civilian leadership of the USA, with some exceptions, imagined that we could make war in a country as a means of helping its people combat Communism, destroy crops, burn villages, indiscriminately kill Vietnamese people, often mistaking allies for enemies, force people to leave their homes and live behind barbed wire in strategic hamlets, and expect the support of the Vietnamese for our efforts. Many Vietnamese had come to resent the colonizing presence of the French over the decades and, similarly, came to resent the presence of the USA. This resentment emboldened the Viet Cong and helped them in their recruitment. What had once seemed like a limited action that would be over in a matter of months turned into a long and deadly slog. It's a terrible history to watch unfold.
Sunday, July 22, 2018
Three Beautiful Things 07/21/18: Squirming through *Birdman*, Remembering Vietnam, Inspector Lewis and the Lounge
1. Today I watched my first movie using our new Blu Ray player and new television. Mostly I experienced discomfort as I watched Birdman. The movie took place in the world of a Broadway theater and was populated by characters whose cynicism, self-centeredness, insecurity, narcissism, crudeness, instability, and physical temper tantrums made me squirm. I might have been fidgety, also, because the movie struck close to home. Michael Keaton plays Riggan Thomson, who made a name for himself playing a movie superhero named Birdman. He hasn't played that role for twenty years and has decided to infuse new life in his career by mounting his own adaptation of Raymond Carver's What We Talk About When We Talk About Love on Broadway. Self-doubt, fear that his life has added up to very little, insecurity about his abilities as an actor, especially when he's not Birdman, and guilt about his failures as a father torture Riggan Thomson throughout the movie, often via the voice of his old character Birdman that lives inside him and mocks him from within his subconscious mind, undermining his best efforts to reform himself and make art on stage rather than be a comic book character in the movies.
So, during the movie, my own self-doubts, my own fears that my life has amounted to very little, my memories of my own overreaching, and stores of guilt I've carried for years inevitably sprung to life and so the movie's script and my life's script intersected. I squirmed. I nearly turned off the movie. But I couldn't, largely because even though I wanted these unappealing characters out of my life, they were played so brilliantly by Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Amy Ryan, Lindsay Duncan, Andrea Riseborough, Zach Galifianakis, and, to me, especially Emma Stone that their performances thrilled me even as I strongly disliked the characters they played. The last time a movie's characters made me feel this uncomfortable was when I saw Sideways nearly fifteen years ago. Both movies are, in their own ways, dark comedies. Both are satirical movies, and movies of this sort work best when they make viewers cringe.
I cringed and squirmed frequently watching Birdman, making me think the movie succeeded.
2. I let Birdman sink in for a while and then I decided to watch something wholly different and clicked on the first episode of Ken Burns' and Lynn Novick's documentary series The Vietnam War. I appreciated how deeply this first episode explored the history of France's colonial ambitions in Vietnam. France's exploitation of Vietnam's resources and human labor and their repression of dissidents triggered resistance. This first episode also explores that automatic opposition to Communism crippled our country's ability to see that the resistance in Vietnam was grounded in the drive for national independence and self-determination. The aspirations of the resistance were similar to our country's aspirations when revolting against British colonial occupation. It's painful to watch as USA involvement in Vietnam escalates and the quagmire of the war thickens.
3. The Deke was out in the living room watching a French crime show and so I decided I'd treat myself to a British crime show/mystery and watched about half of an episode of Inspector Lewis I had never seen. I used to access streaming episodes of this series through my library membership in Prince George's County when we lived in Greenbelt. I remembered fondly cold winter nights slowly drinking brandy and hot water sweetened with cinnamon sticks and watching Lewis and Hathaway dig into crime after crime and I enjoyed reliving those memories and, even more, enjoyed being back with these investigators as they try to suss out who murdered an alcoholic professor recently released from prison for having killed a child while driving drunk. I'll find time Sunday to finish this episode as my viewing this evening was interrupted by a dinner of salad, salami, and Huntsman cheese and relaxing time yakkin' with Cas at the Lounge.
So, during the movie, my own self-doubts, my own fears that my life has amounted to very little, my memories of my own overreaching, and stores of guilt I've carried for years inevitably sprung to life and so the movie's script and my life's script intersected. I squirmed. I nearly turned off the movie. But I couldn't, largely because even though I wanted these unappealing characters out of my life, they were played so brilliantly by Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Amy Ryan, Lindsay Duncan, Andrea Riseborough, Zach Galifianakis, and, to me, especially Emma Stone that their performances thrilled me even as I strongly disliked the characters they played. The last time a movie's characters made me feel this uncomfortable was when I saw Sideways nearly fifteen years ago. Both movies are, in their own ways, dark comedies. Both are satirical movies, and movies of this sort work best when they make viewers cringe.
I cringed and squirmed frequently watching Birdman, making me think the movie succeeded.
2. I let Birdman sink in for a while and then I decided to watch something wholly different and clicked on the first episode of Ken Burns' and Lynn Novick's documentary series The Vietnam War. I appreciated how deeply this first episode explored the history of France's colonial ambitions in Vietnam. France's exploitation of Vietnam's resources and human labor and their repression of dissidents triggered resistance. This first episode also explores that automatic opposition to Communism crippled our country's ability to see that the resistance in Vietnam was grounded in the drive for national independence and self-determination. The aspirations of the resistance were similar to our country's aspirations when revolting against British colonial occupation. It's painful to watch as USA involvement in Vietnam escalates and the quagmire of the war thickens.
3. The Deke was out in the living room watching a French crime show and so I decided I'd treat myself to a British crime show/mystery and watched about half of an episode of Inspector Lewis I had never seen. I used to access streaming episodes of this series through my library membership in Prince George's County when we lived in Greenbelt. I remembered fondly cold winter nights slowly drinking brandy and hot water sweetened with cinnamon sticks and watching Lewis and Hathaway dig into crime after crime and I enjoyed reliving those memories and, even more, enjoyed being back with these investigators as they try to suss out who murdered an alcoholic professor recently released from prison for having killed a child while driving drunk. I'll find time Sunday to finish this episode as my viewing this evening was interrupted by a dinner of salad, salami, and Huntsman cheese and relaxing time yakkin' with Cas at the Lounge.
Saturday, July 21, 2018
Three Beautiful Things 07/20/18: TV and A/C, Smokes and Suds, Beer Club and the Lounge
1. Some things came together really well today: the Blu Ray player and Fire Stick are hooked up to the television and it all works and we are ready to watch some movies and other stuff. The Sube was ready to be picked up and the air conditioning runs consistently, not intermittently, so that repair deal is completed. My last pressing project is to get paperwork submitted to the transplant center at Sacred Heart.
2. After I picked up the Sube, I glided down Government Way and decided to check out Smokes and Suds, a vape and bottle shop in Dalton Gardens. I'd read much praise for this place written by members of the Beer d'Alene Facebook group and discovered all that praise was very well founded. Since we were having a Beer Club session at Shawn's today, and since he had declared today's club meeting to have a tequila theme, I was very happy to find a bottle of 2017 Abyss, aged in tequila barrels. I purchased some other barrel-aged ales, some for future Beer Club sessions, and some for the Deke and me to enjoy at home. I will write more about them as we open them. I am stoked to return to Smokes and Suds again and can hardly wait to take the Deke there.
3. We had an awesome Beer Club meeting. I was very happy to introduce Shawn, Teresa, the Deke, and Patti to one of my favorite styles of beer, gose. Gose beers are tart, not as biting as a sour ale, and fruity with a hint of saltiness. Since our Beer Club session was loosely based on tequila, I was very happy when, on Wednesday, I discovered cans of Sierra Nevada's Otra Vez Gose-style ale, brewed with lime and agave. For anyone interested in dipping a toe into the waters of sour beers, I'd say the Lime and Agave Otra Vez would be a perfect beer. It's light, refreshing, tart, but not mouth puckering, and the lime and agave compliment each other beautifully. As we sampled the Lime and Agave Otra Vez, Teresa mused that it might taste good with tequila mixed in it. So, Shawn brought out their bottle of tequila and we heartily agreed that a small hit of tequila enhanced this beer's taste. We were all smiles.
Friends of Shawn and Teresa's had come to Kellogg earlier in the week and had a single can of Bell's Hopslam and Shawn told them he'd like to save it for Beer Club. Now, understand this: Hopslam is a powerful Imperial IPA weighing in at 10% ABV and is released just once a year in January. I never dreamed, after drinking some Hopslam at Old Line in Beltsville, MD and drinking a four pack in our apartment home in Greenbelt that I would ever see a Hopslam out west in Kellogg, Idaho, let alone have one sitting in front of me on a July evening. I was thrilled and the Hopslam pleased me deeply. I'm glad we shared the 12 oz can around the table and I just loved entering back into the grapefruit aroma and the hoppy fireworks in my mouth lit by drinking about five ounces of this superb beer.
Next, it was time to dive into the dark and mysterious depths of Deschutes' masterful Imperial Stout, The Abyss. I will admit that I didn't taste the impact of the beer having been aged in tequila barrels, but no problem. I loved sinking into the black bottomless blend of molasses, black licorice, cherry bark, vanilla and other rich tastes that make The Abyss one of my favorite ways to indulge my nose and my taste buds in joy and pleasure.
I enjoyed the beer and, even more, the company at Shawn and Teresa's. Rod, Patti, and Cathleen came to tonight's Beer Club and I loved yakkin' about all kinds of different things, getting to know everyone's dogs, and learning more about everyone.
When we left Shawn and Teresa's, the Deke and I hadn't had quite enough good cheer among good people, so we stopped in at the Inland Lounge and the joint was buzzing with the happy sounds of people around our age talking and laughing and enjoying a gorgeous July evening in Kellogg. I talked with Eddie Joe about his round of golf up at Stoneridge, had fun conversation about golf and other things with Jim White; Riles came up to where the Deke and I were seated and he talked lovingly about his and my parents, especially Mom, and about working at the Bunker Hill. I got to yak with Cas, had a good session with Mike Grebil (but had to accept the news that his brother Steve, who is recovering from an elbow infection, won't be in the Silver Valley this weekend for Mike's daughter's wedding), and talked with Harley about his meat smoker.
I left the Lounge beaming, having enjoyed seeing so many fellow Silver Valley people and being a part of so many people enjoying one another. It was epic.
2. After I picked up the Sube, I glided down Government Way and decided to check out Smokes and Suds, a vape and bottle shop in Dalton Gardens. I'd read much praise for this place written by members of the Beer d'Alene Facebook group and discovered all that praise was very well founded. Since we were having a Beer Club session at Shawn's today, and since he had declared today's club meeting to have a tequila theme, I was very happy to find a bottle of 2017 Abyss, aged in tequila barrels. I purchased some other barrel-aged ales, some for future Beer Club sessions, and some for the Deke and me to enjoy at home. I will write more about them as we open them. I am stoked to return to Smokes and Suds again and can hardly wait to take the Deke there.
3. We had an awesome Beer Club meeting. I was very happy to introduce Shawn, Teresa, the Deke, and Patti to one of my favorite styles of beer, gose. Gose beers are tart, not as biting as a sour ale, and fruity with a hint of saltiness. Since our Beer Club session was loosely based on tequila, I was very happy when, on Wednesday, I discovered cans of Sierra Nevada's Otra Vez Gose-style ale, brewed with lime and agave. For anyone interested in dipping a toe into the waters of sour beers, I'd say the Lime and Agave Otra Vez would be a perfect beer. It's light, refreshing, tart, but not mouth puckering, and the lime and agave compliment each other beautifully. As we sampled the Lime and Agave Otra Vez, Teresa mused that it might taste good with tequila mixed in it. So, Shawn brought out their bottle of tequila and we heartily agreed that a small hit of tequila enhanced this beer's taste. We were all smiles.
Friends of Shawn and Teresa's had come to Kellogg earlier in the week and had a single can of Bell's Hopslam and Shawn told them he'd like to save it for Beer Club. Now, understand this: Hopslam is a powerful Imperial IPA weighing in at 10% ABV and is released just once a year in January. I never dreamed, after drinking some Hopslam at Old Line in Beltsville, MD and drinking a four pack in our apartment home in Greenbelt that I would ever see a Hopslam out west in Kellogg, Idaho, let alone have one sitting in front of me on a July evening. I was thrilled and the Hopslam pleased me deeply. I'm glad we shared the 12 oz can around the table and I just loved entering back into the grapefruit aroma and the hoppy fireworks in my mouth lit by drinking about five ounces of this superb beer.
Next, it was time to dive into the dark and mysterious depths of Deschutes' masterful Imperial Stout, The Abyss. I will admit that I didn't taste the impact of the beer having been aged in tequila barrels, but no problem. I loved sinking into the black bottomless blend of molasses, black licorice, cherry bark, vanilla and other rich tastes that make The Abyss one of my favorite ways to indulge my nose and my taste buds in joy and pleasure.
I enjoyed the beer and, even more, the company at Shawn and Teresa's. Rod, Patti, and Cathleen came to tonight's Beer Club and I loved yakkin' about all kinds of different things, getting to know everyone's dogs, and learning more about everyone.
When we left Shawn and Teresa's, the Deke and I hadn't had quite enough good cheer among good people, so we stopped in at the Inland Lounge and the joint was buzzing with the happy sounds of people around our age talking and laughing and enjoying a gorgeous July evening in Kellogg. I talked with Eddie Joe about his round of golf up at Stoneridge, had fun conversation about golf and other things with Jim White; Riles came up to where the Deke and I were seated and he talked lovingly about his and my parents, especially Mom, and about working at the Bunker Hill. I got to yak with Cas, had a good session with Mike Grebil (but had to accept the news that his brother Steve, who is recovering from an elbow infection, won't be in the Silver Valley this weekend for Mike's daughter's wedding), and talked with Harley about his meat smoker.
I left the Lounge beaming, having enjoyed seeing so many fellow Silver Valley people and being a part of so many people enjoying one another. It was epic.
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