Don’t mess with free speech. Are you going to outlaw everything that might obfuscate the recognition of a person? Then let’s have a bill to prohibit wearing those round, red clown noses. Or how about outlawing Botox because it changes the way we look, temporarily.
Some time ago, I came across a web cam that was located on Treasure Island and gave a live view of San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz Island, Golden Gate Bridge, the San Francisco skyline and the Oakland Bridge. I used this web cam to view the “YM Warranty” as she entered and left the Port of Oakland. There did not appear to be much development on this island and I thought nothing more about it. Until tonight. A Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) movie, “Charlie Chan at Treasure Island – 1939” came on (YouTube). Another Charlie Chan movie had just ended which had Chan on an ocean going vessel, and there was a hunt for parts of a treasure map. Briefly, I thought this might just be the previous movie starting to replay again because of the word, “treasure” in it’s title. But, then I vaguely thought of “Treasure Island” as referring to the web cam Treasure Island that I knew about.
I then googled for Treasure Island and found it’s rich history. This island was man-made about 1936 in preparation for the “Golden Gate International Expo” held in 1939.
I was just reading about Warner Olan, who played Charlie Chan before Sidney Toler. To my surprise Olan was actually born in Sweden. And, Olan had a drinking problem. Apparently, he walked off the set, during filming of a Charlie Chan movie and the movie had to be abandoned. Olan also died in the same year, 1938. Sidney Toler was hired to play Charlie Chan later that year and had already made two other Chan movies before “Charlie Chan at Treasure Island – 1939.” *I personally like Toler as Chan more than Olan, but all the Chan movies are pleasing. The character of Chan is like that of Simon Templar, the Saint, or Hercule Poirot. Wherever any of these three personas go, they are greeted with a warm welcome, a handshake or a pat on the back, and treated as noted personalities, and old friends “with a positive history.”
“From the Beginning” was a song by Emerson, Lake and Palmer, and was written by Greg Lake. I first heard it when I was attending Carolina, UNC-Chapel Hill, in 1972, the year it came out. This was always a melancholy song to me. I equated this song with my sense of “being out of place,” at Carolina. Hector’s, Silent Sam, the Ratskeller, Aycock Dorm, the Pit, Debbie, Chemistry and the Bell Tower.
I would get a couple of egg rolls from Hector’s, “Famous since 1969,” on the way back to my room, 318, in Aycock Dorm. The surface of the egg roll was crispy, and I loved getting the packets of Duck Sauce and Hot Mustard, and eating them.
On the way back, I would walk by “Silent Sam.” And the legend, which few probably believed, was that Silent Sam got the name because he would shoot his rifle each time a virgin walked by;-) Hector’s is no more, and Aycock Dorm had a name change after George Floyd, and Charles B. Aycock was determined to be a racist… former Governor of North Carolina.
There was a small bar in the basement, at the back of the Ratskeller. *For some reason I can’t recall it’s name, but it did have one. There was at least one “Foosball” table and a Pong Machine. Pong was the first video game I ever played. It was a simplistic game, extremely crude by today’s standards.
Don’t recall why I started listening to “From the Beginning,” tonight on YouTube, but I was mesmerized by it and have listened to it many times just tonight. I even watched about four different “reaction” videos by podcasters listening to this song for the first time.
Funny, but I watched the reactions by the women on the screen more than the men. I think that is because the song is sung to a woman as an apology. But, I don’t think these reviewers really focused on the lyrics as much as the music, but I think the lyrics are as important as the music, and the music is beautiful.
I bought a Tempur-Pedic mattress some years ago. At that time, one of the selling points was that this mattress would last 20 years. “Wow, it will last twenty years! That’s great.” Got it home, and started using it. Several years into sleeping on this mattress, the thought came to me, “Why would I want a mattress for 20 years?” That thought comes from the idea that with daily use a mattress becomes a sponge or dirt magnet for all sorts of sweat and grunginess. Mattresses don’t come cheap, but probably 10 or at most 12 years might be what I think I should keep a mattress before buying a new one. *So, I’m well over due for a new mattress.
The pillows that came with my new Tempur-Pedic were of the “Neck Pillow” style. I like these because I can turn them in opposite directions depending upon how I want my head to rest on the pillow.
I bought some pork chops at Lee’s Farm Market near Benson, NC a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t repackage them and put them in the freezer right away, and when I did, I noted an “off” smell. The first one that I cooked had a strong smell, and I thought, “did I let this spoil.” But, I cooked it and it didn’t taste bad. Several years ago, at I think it was called the “New York Cafe,” in Fayetteville, I had breakfast and some of the bacon had a similar, “off” smell, which smelled like urine. After this aroma recurred during repeated breakfasts, I think I asked about this. I think I was told that during certain times of the year, the meat took on this off smell, but the meat was still good. *And, I didn’t get sick off of three different pork chops that I cooked from Lee’s. However, I didn’t like this aroma, and I decided to buy some pork chops her in Fayetteville. I think I bought the pork chops at the IGA across town. They were thinly cut, maybe only 2 oz. per chop. Although they didn’t have that overpowering “taint” smell, they did have a hint of the smell. So, for the first chops I cooked today, I made some buttermilk (add a little vinegar or lemon juice to regular milk) and marinated them for a couple of hours, as I went about town getting groceries, drugs and money from First Citizens, before cooking. The soaking in buttermilk did make the aroma almost unnoticeable, and I will probably do this again.
I’ve made homemade buttermilk about 3 or 4 times since I read online how to do this and I’ve been very happy about the results. The milk thickens up and has a little tartness to it. For years, I’ve read about using buttermilk to marinate various meats, and I’ve done this a few times, but the problem was always that even a quart of buttermilk, meant that most of it would go bad before I used it again. Now I can make a cup or half-cup of buttermilk, use it, and not have to worry about wasting any left over.
OUR PETS
They come along,
and then they go.
They come along,
and then they go.
They come along,
and then you go.
For years I have loved driving through a “well to do” neighborhood. There are many nice, old homes and there are streets which travel along the edge of a small lake. On a single morning, I have seen a hundred ducks, most floating end to end in a crisp October morning. I have seen the lake, frozen over with snow on the ground. And, not too long afterwards, I have seen the lake almost completely drained, mostly mud, with just a very narrow channel of water flowing from it’s high end, and on down to the dam at the low end. There are two Little Community Libraries, but only one of them that I drive by quite often.
And then there was a large old home, two storied, that had a couple of full-sized dog statues standing out, in the front yard, next to the short, crescent shaped drive way. As I passed by, I could look past the house and see the lake, behind the home. For years, I drove by this house and looked at the two dog statues, one white and one black, standing faithfully in place. The statues had not been put out front at the same time, and so I had come to believe that each had been erected as a memorial to a long loved pet that had gone beyond the veil. And, after years, and years, one day I saw the statues had been removed, and the home began to look unlived in. Then the thought came to me. Our pets come into our lives. We love them, but eventually they die. At some point we usually acquire another pet, we love them in a different way, but they die also. Maybe we put up a reminder of this beloved pet. But, if we live long enough, it is us that die, and the pet lives on. At least for a while.
Our pets normally do not erect life-like likenesses of us, in our memory.
[NOTE 05/04/24]: I just started watching a movie, “The Judge,” and a lawyer’s mother has just died and he has returned to Carlinville, IN to attend her funeral. So, he is driving through town, and he’s turning to cross a small bridge across a small river, and I start to see a few things, like a footbridge, running “catty cornered” to the street & bridge. But, there is enough here for me to start asking myself if I have ever watched this movie before. I’m almost positive that I had not seen this movie, but that got me to Google Maps searching on Carlinville, IN. So, I pull up the map and almost immediately note that there is no river going through this small town. Then I google for filming locations for “The Judge,” and see that it was filmed in Shelburne Falls, MA. I don’t recall the name, but then I go to Google Maps for Shelburne Falls. And, there is the diagonal foot bridge crossing the river, and as I use Street View and cross the automobile bridge, I see familiar filming locations. I’ve looked at this town before, on Google Maps, but, not for this movie. I then google for other things that have been filmed in Shelburne Falls, MA. And surprisingly, to me, there are about eight different other movies or shows, one of them being Dexter. And, I watched several episodes of Dexter, and that is where I first became acquainted with Shelburne Falls. Without looking back at Dexter, I recall that there was a cafe, just across the bridge, that apparently was not an actual cafe.
This is one of the recent recognitions that I have come across where I’ve come to know a place through Google Maps / Street View and then later, recognize the place in some other realm. A Harry Bosch location from one of his novels, and then a video clip of an actual police chase where the person fleeing runs into a fountain in the middle of a traffic circle and damages it. Or, the Vincent Thomas Bridge near the Port of LA. I was watching a Dodge car commercial and recognized the bridge they were crossing. And, later in the commercial the cars are racing past a Port of Los Angeles Warehouse #1. I look and this warehouse is at the entrance of the Port.
And the first instance I recall is from Connelly’s description of the Hightower Apartments. I recalled seeing an old private detective movie from years ago, and the fictional detective lived at the Hightower Apartments, but I didn’t recall that name. What I did recall was the iconic elevator tower which was probably about 3 or 4 stories high, from ground (where there were rows of small garages on each side of the street). In Connelly’s book one of these small garages was used to house a victim’s, a young woman’s, car. *I went back and found the movie was “The Long Goodbye” from 1973, which originally was a Raymond Chandler novel about the fictional detective, Phillip Marlowe, and in the movie Marlowe is played by Elliott Gould. **There are many shots of the tower, elevator and the apartments both interior and exterior, and even a short clip of a car driving past some of the small garages, seen from above in Marlowe’s apartment. [end NOTE]
I love the way these pieces fit together for storage. This is a simplistic pattern that could easily be repeated. I did not “get” the symbolic shapes for the bishops & knights at first, and then… the slanted bishop wasn’t symbolic of their hats, but are diagonals, symbolic of the way they move on the board. And, the knight is an “L” symbolic of the knight’s movement on the board.
Below is a set I am making from the small, square wooden blocks, glued together and the painted. The colored thumb tacks are not “noses” but rather symbolic of shields. I bought the colored map flags to top the rooks (castles). I also bought a bunch of “small, plastic googly eyes.” Each pawn has a pair of googly eyes, and a colored shield (thumb tack). I placed a pair of googly eyes on all four sides of the rooks, symbolic of watchers upon a castle tower, defending against attack. I am thinking the King should have three googly eyes, with the third eye symbolizing his “wisdom.” The knights may just have one googly eye, opposite, symbolic of a horses eyes. There might also be something symbolizing a horses “mane.” A cross or crozier (cup holder) might work symbolically for bishops.
Still my favorite is the tubular metal set.
This is my favorite minimalist chess set. The pieces are easily recognizable. The king & the queen are easily distinguishable. The bishops have a recognizable shape as do the rooks (castles). I especially like the knights, with the two sides having different helmet shapes. *I have started making a version of this set using PVC tubing. I have cut the individual pieces but have not started shaping the distinctive elements.
Not sure, but I must have seen a “pregnant” queen sitting on a throne some time ago, and then thought what Queen would be more viscous than if she were pregnant, so from then on, I wanted a chess set that had an obviously pregnant queen. Having said this, when I saw the tubular chess set, I imagined that you could symbolically create a pregnant queen by drilling a larger hole in the side of the queen and then gluing a marble to the piece thereby making a pregnant queen.
I’ve also seen a minimalist set that has a small protruding pipe, symbolizing a knight’s lance. You might use this piping in various ways to accent the other pieces. Maybe a cross on a pole being held by the bishop. Perhaps even a flag pole for the rook.
I was in a local antiques store and happened to see a package of wine bottle corks, and then I saw the above, both black & light corks, all about the same size. I realized that I could use these to create a similar set to the metal set above.
THEMED SETS I LIKE
ISLE OF LEWIS
I like this small Isle of Lewis Chess Set for two main reasons: The pawns are in the image of little warriors and the rooks look like castle turrets. Many other sets have a rook that looks like a large rune stone or a large warrior figure. In other sets, the pawns are small rune stones. I have seen something labeled “Berserker” that gives the figures a more warrior-like look.
This was a late night series from the early 90s. I thought it might have been earlier, and didn’t recall that it was written by Stephen J. Cannell. I did think that this was the first time I had seen Stephen McHattie and he was one of an ensemble cast. But, the twist to this series was that each week was a different story, and the actors did “change up,” not playing the same character from week to week, and usually playing a different role each week. An actor might be wealthy and own a mansion and several fast cars one week, and the next week, they might be a policeman, a maid or a street bum. That change from week to week provided a real twist for the viewer to try and wrap their head around. I might have liked an actor or actress in the role they were playing last week and this week they were somebody totally different, playing a totally different role, and in a totally different story. But, I think you got to see “real acting” and how actors & actresses are able to “change for the part.” This was something you normally never see. You learn to enjoy an actor or actress in a show for a season or several seasons, playing a part that may develop more deeply as the show progresses, but usually with a slow character development.
CAST:
Barbara Parkins
George Touliatos
Kim Coates
Maxine Miller
Sandra Nelson
Stephen J. Cannell (I don’t recall if he was just the writer, or if he also acted in some or all of the episodes.)
Stephen McHattie
Teri Austin
I had googled for different restaurants in Goldsboro because I had come to the conclusion that I couldn’t justify going to my old standby, the Longhorn Steakhouse Restaurant and having my old standard, a hamburger with lobster/crab soup and eating a whole loaf of the bread they give you as an appetizer. Even if you don’t eat any of the hamburger bun and justify the whole loaf of bread in that way. Longhorn is in front of the Berkley Mall and I have the shortest route to it from Fayetteville tattooed on my psyche.
I have even taken some sweet pickles (because they only serve dill slices) and extra slices of sweet onion because they only put on a single ring of onion on the burger. The Goldsboro restaurant seems to consistently have the best tasting soup, although I have tried the soup in Fayetteville and Southern Pines.
But after I looked at the nutritional value and calorie totals, this meal would have easily been over 1K. The loaf of bread alone would have probably totaled 500 calories. And, I consider 700 calories for a meal to be very high.
So, the initial google listed several local diners that looked like they had the good country breakfasts like I had at the Rainbow for years. In the end, I pulled over shortly before entering the Goldsboro city limits and found the Laughing Owl. One of the photos looked extremely delicious. It looked like an oriental chicken dish, with hot peppers, and it was served with some rice. When I got there, my waitress was new (I don’t know how new.) and I showed her a picture of the dish I wanted. She wasn’t sure of what dish this was on the menu so she went back and asked the chef. I think the suggestion was that it was a Garlic Kang Pow Chicken dish that had peanuts. *I don’t like peanuts in my Asian dishes, but I do like peanuts in all their various forms, and I’m not allergic to them, except for one time several years ago, at Russ & Deborah’s when Jeff Mitchell have me some peanut butter candy. I think it had “turkey” in it’s name and it was like a brittle toffee. I ate a bite and was watching TV by myself in the living room. At some point, I realized that my throat was beginning to close up so I stopped eating the candy and sat there quietly hoping my throat would stop closing. It did stop closing and I didn’t eat any more and I haven’t had any problem with an allergic reaction to any peanut variations since.
I ordered a cucumber salad with the meal. The meal was disappointing. The peanuts were a distraction and the entree wasn’t spicy although there were a couple of red hot peppers (hard even after being cooked). The rice was good. The chicken was tender with a sweet sauce. I ate half and asked for a “to go” box. I ate the rest at home before dinner, when I had a pared down liver & onions, with steamed cabbage & cauliflower and one disk of polenta which I heated in the microwave.
After lunch I drove out to my favorite location to watch the jets take off and land at SJAFB. There is a road that “dead ends” at a fence that runs along one side of the runway. In the winter and as long as the summer crops aren’t tall enough to block the view, it is a good place to be self-entertaining.
There is a Little Lending Library in a nearby neighborhood, from Berkley Mall, that I have left a few books there before. I may have even taken one from there, but don’t actually recall, but today I just left one, “Two Kinds of Truth.”
I didn’t drive directly back to Fayetteville along Hwy. 13, but took a circuitous route that included Pikeville and Smithfield.
Here was the Pikeville Book Exchange.
I even turned into this “Gander Lake” housing development. The sign says these homes start at the high $200K range. This is funny because near Fuquay Varina there is one development I pass that says their homes start at the low $500K range, and they don’t look any different from these (to me). Don’t know what kind of jobs these people are going to have to be able to actually afford to live in these homes. May be like the mortgage loans fiasco several years ago where people were given loans that they really were never going to be able to afford. But who cares as long as the Developers and Bankers make their money up front. *I never actually saw a lake from the ground, but there may be one at the back of the development. Not sure if anyone living in the development actually has access to this small body of water.
I was trying to find a new business in Benson that I had seen advertised on TV. Seems like it was a man & woman, maybe married and it was either a produce or meat business. I couldn’t remember their business name (was their first names I think), or exactly what kind of business (probably a butcher with various types of meat). I ended up stopping at Lee’s Produce, and they had tomatoes, various onions and some potted flowers. I bought some cheap heirloom tomatoes and have had one at home, at its not the worst or the best tomato I have ever had. A Campari or some of those grape tomatoes from Wegman’s have better flavor, still I could make a palatable tomato & bacon sandwich, which I might do tomorrow.
This was Lee’s Produce, but this Street View as taken when they weren’t “in season.” The woman that waited on me told me they had a place at the Raleigh State Farmers’ Market. I recalled the Lee’s name, and also Tarts. I think I’ve bought peppers & other veggies at both.
I’m thinking the business might have been Lee’s Fresh Market which has all sorts of good looking meats.
I bought this peppered bacon at Lee’s and finally cooked some of it this morning (95/30/24). It was very flavorful. Delicious! *But I had also bought some pork chops there, and they had “boar taint,” and were just unpleasant to eat. They weren’t poisoned, but just smelled “off.”
So, I’m watching an infomercial for Meaningful Beauty, by Cindy Crawford. Early in the commercial, they put two melons side by side and somehow the product they are selling protects their melon from normal decay, while the other melon quickly (with timelapse) decays. And then it came to me… If you want your melons to look as good as Cindy Crawford’s then use Meaningful Beauty;-)
Cindy Crawford is 58 years old, which is the same age of Brooke Shields.
Bill Gibson, II 