Marinating Tips & Restaurant Reviews

For my post about MARINATING TIPS, please CLICK HERE .

To read RESTAURANT REVIEWS, please CLICK HERE .

Meet the Boozers

I found this in the news recently:

SCHERERVILLE, Ind. – Indiana state police said that after a mother was arrested for drunken driving, the three relatives who came to pick up her 1-year-old son also had all been drinking. A state trooper stopped a minivan for speeding early Saturday on U.S. 30 in Schererville in northwestern Indiana. He arrested the 24-year-old woman on a drunken driving charges.

The boy's father arrived later to pick him up, but officers determined he was intoxicated and also arrested him on a drunken driving charge.

Police said the boy's grandparents then arrived. Both of them also had been drinking, state police said, but the grandmother who was driving was not over the legal limit, so officers escorted them home with the child.

Sourdough Stuffing Recipe

One of the problems with diabetics is that it's not just sugar that puts a damper on what we can eat. Fat and carbohydrates are problems, too, and they can be just as bad as sugar. With carbohydrates, flour, especially bleached, is not very friendly to us. Fortunately, we have a friend in sourdough. For some reason, sourdough bread is a lot safer to eat in moderation. Because of this, I found a recipe. I must be honest, I have not tried it, but it looks pretty good.

Sourdough Stuffing

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter or margarine
3 medium onions fine diced
3 cloves garlic minced
2 bell peppers fine diced
3 tablespoons fresh sage minced
1 teaspoon each dried marjoram and thyme
2/3 cup fresh chopped parsley
1 loaf (1 lb size) day old sourdough bread cubed
1 1/2 cup broth (vegetable or chicken)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Melt butter in pan and saute onions, peppers and garlic until tender. Stir in herbs. Remove from heat. Place bread cubes in a large bowl and stir in vegetable mixture. Pour on broth and mix well to moisten . Place in buttered pan and bake 400F covered for 25 minutes and then uncovered for another 20 minutes.

This recipe from CDKitchen for Sourdough Stuffing serves/makes 10

Ready in: 30-60 minutes
Difficulty: 3 (1=easiest :: hardest=5)

Vagenta

Your monitor and television are made up of RGB, or red, green and blue combinations, and they are responsible for all of the colors you see on your screen. They are referred to as primary additive colors because they are light projected. In other words, there is no light or white present until those colors are turned on, like a flashlight. To prove this, turn off your TV or computer screen and tell me what you see.

CMYK - cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black) are the colors used in printing. Combined, they are referred to as 4 color process. They are known as primary subtractive colors because they are added to the (generally) white paper they are printed on. In other words, you are subtracting white by printing over it. Cyan, magenta and yellow are capable of printing all colors but true black. The black you get looks very washed out, so black is added. It is also used because it minimizes CMY ink usage, cutting printing production costs.

Next is a sample breakdown of a 4 color photo of the Grand Tetons in CMYK separations utilized for printing. The final photo shows how it would print.

Now that you understand primary additive and subtractive colors, you can tinker around with RGB or CMYK combinations to make your own. The sky's the limit.

As I got more involved in color printing and moved away from the mostly stark world of newspapers and black & white, I played around a bit. Years earlier, I had come up with velvis and reincornation as funny words sometimes referred to as portmanteaus, so it was inevitable that I would create something visual since I was in the graphic design profession. In light of this, I came up with a new color and called it vagenta. I'll let you figure it out.

Obama Breeze

Obama Breeze is a play on the Darden restaurant chain, Bahama Breeze. I’d been tossing the idea around in my head for a month or so, and then , darn if he didn’t go ahead and win the election. I figured, sure, why not give it a try.

Then I thought, with a couple of choice words like that, there should be a drink to go along with it. The following recipe is one I came up with when I bartended at the Union Hotel in Flemington, NJ, in the late 70s. I called it a Full Moon back then, but I think it will work well with its new name, probably for the next 8 years…

OBAMA BREEZE

All equal parts:

Bacardi Rum
Smirnoff Silver
Jack Daniels
Triple Sec
Coca Cola
OJ or sour mix

Splash of Grenadine (optional)

Pour over crushed ice and shake well. Garnish with orange slice and maraschino cherry. Substitutes will not produce the same drink. Also, consuming more than two or three of these may get you arrested. Obama will not come to bail you out.

©2008 David B. Knechel All Rights Reserved

There is also a drink called the Bahama Breeze and the recipe can be found here.

Why the Republicans - and McCain - lost

Please allow me to preface this article with something. If you don't believe Barack Obama has ushered our nation into the 21st century with a big BAM! - then stop here. When the entire world sits up and pays attention to an American election, the likes of which they've never seen, it means the world still looks to us for guidance and a sense of direction. After George W. Bush rebuked allies and enemies alike, it's refreshing to know we may, once again, stand tall with our global neighbors.

A lot of Republicans are scratching their heads these days, trying to understand what went wrong. They ceded both houses to Democrats 2 years ago, but this time around, they handed our next president a larger, more comfortable margin of friendly faces and willing supporters. As far as the presidency, it was apparent from the start that Barack Obama was going to win and Republicans had a long, treacherous road ahead of them to try to take it away, no matter who they nominated. After all, he had Oprah, one of the most powerful women in entertainment and popular culture, behind him all the way. Early on, he recruited millions of volunteer supporters to go out among the people to secure votes. He raised more money than any presidential candidate before him, and he knew how to work the media and the Internet. Let's not forget, the man can speak, and he did it much better than John McCain.

Post-election, there's going to be some finger pointing, but instead, the Grand Old Party needs to focus on rebuilding itself into the party it once was. It has lost those values. What happened to states rights and less government interference? The federal government grew exponentially, along with the deficit, during the 8 years of the Bush administration and the president, in particular, disappointed an awful lot of Americans. We cannot forget the war in Iraq and his handling of it since he invaded the country. Because of his tunnel vision and stubbornness, this administration has neglected to pay much needed attention to who our real enemies are: al Qaeda and its splinter groups. To his credit, we have not been attacked since September 11, 2001.

When it became evident that McCain would become the Republican nominee, infighting began in earnest. He was always branded as too liberal by the majority of party faithful. The GOP looked like a top gyrating out of control in spite of McCain selling his soul to gain the confidence of the far right of his own party. It didn't work. What Barack Obama had going for him, the Republicans did not. It remained an awkward alliance. The top stopped spinning when McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate. Way too folksy and not presidential timbre, it turned Obama's lack of experience into an asset while splintering the Republicans even further. The entire McCain campaign was a textbook lesson in disorderly conduct and I cringed at every turn. It was too painful and I sensed the long and arduous concession speech had begun to take form when he accepted his party's nomination at the Republican convention. Had John McCain been left alone to be John McCain, he would have fared better, but he still would have lost even if the economy hadn't bottomed out. That, my friends, spelled failure, yet it started many years ago and had plenty of time to fester.

The biggest problem the Republicans had looming this time around, the one that guaranteed doom, was BUSH, BUSH, BUSH, as the late Tim Russert might have said; and they will have to wait until January 20, 2009 to shed that onus. Not to take away from Obama's qualities; I just don't think he would have made it to the top post had it not been for America's terrible disdain for George W. Bush and his entire administration. When Dick Cheney stated he didn't care what the American public thought, that this administration was going to do it their way, what he was clearly saying to the country was screw you. I think the pivotal point in the presidential race came when Cheney made that statement. That, and years of failed policies and a malaise brought on by Bush. We became very frustrated and wanted to see change. I supported him in the beginning, but I took to task his "you're either with us or against us" ultimatum and I was insulted that by questioning him on any subject would infer that I was unpatriotic or, God forbid, a dreaded liberal, as if that were some sort of pariah. For years, the Republican led Senate and House toed the Bush line and today they suffer a great humility. The American people did an about face on November 4 and that included a fair amount of typically conservative voters - Bush supporters from the past 2 presidential elections.

We are not a nation consisting of the mentally blind. We do not need to be led like lost sheep as the Bush administration so fervently believed. That we could not render our own thoughts and decisions was a fatal flaw the Republican party never considered. We needed to be spied on to keep ourselves safe from not just foreign terrorists, but our own selves and that did not sit well. We needed to torture terrorists and deny them all human rights. And at every twist and turn, Bush & Co. circumvented the court system. They wrote their own rules and history will prove that. What will the party do now? I don't know. It's got to bring itself into the 21st century and admit that global warming, for one, is real and that there's an astute possibility that we humans are contributing to it. Heck, even if a majority of party members don't believe it, at least recognize that a vast majority of people worldwide do. Bend a little. Accept the fact that PETA and Greenpeace are real and not radical threats to our nation. Stop meddling into the personal affairs of individuals by legislating moral values left over from days gone by. What people do in the privacy of their own bedrooms, for example, is no ones business as long as it's between consenting adults. Stop pandering to big business and the upper class while neglecting the middle and lower classes. The only thing that's trickled down is the party itself. It's trickled itself down into the basement. Republicans have got to leave the Reagan years behind and catch up with the population of today, and as unbelieving as it may sound, our president-elect was a fresh faced, just turned 19 year old voter when Jimmy Carter lost to the Great Communicator. That's proof we live in a new world, folks.

For Obama, it was never a matter of race. Before the election, I had high hopes that the nation had transcended race as a factor. November 4, 2008 proved that to be true. The Republicans never really brought the color of his skin into play, but instead chose to go after points they wrongly assumed the stupid public knew nothing about or could not conceive and they needed to be forcefully educated about. That made people angry for questioning their intelligence. Why they kept hammering on the theme of Obama's Muslim faith, something he is not and never was, was too much to bear. Fringe elements of the conservative right continued to question Obama's citizenship and to produce a birth certificate. To the naysayers who kept pounding home the notion that Barack Obama was not born in the United States, I say this: Do you really believe the government is that stupid? If the FBI, CIA, departments of Homeland Security, Immigration and Naturalization, Defense and every other agency that investigated his past could not find any truth to those asinine accusations, why did you continue to whine and gripe about it, right up to the end? If you think your own government is incapable of running its own investigations, then you deserve what you get. He's a socialist. He's a Marxist. He's a terrorist. The list could go on and on and it turned the nation off, especially young voters, the demographic he targeted first; the ones who insured his election. I like to think our population is made up of moderates and I think we get sick when all we ever hear is that the sky is falling. This race turned out to be the Democrats against the Chicken Littles. I'm a registered Republican and I watched the Republican party implode throughout the race before exploding in the end.

In the final days of the presidential race, the McCain people and Republican party continued to play the same old song, that Barack Obama was not qualified and didn't have enough experience to command. It was old and stale and it reflected the state of the party. In particular, the commercial showing an empty desk in the oval office with the voice-over that said he had never run anything was completely out of kilter. What they failed to realize, but the American public did not, was that he ran the best campaign in the history of this great nation and that was what played in the minds of voters. He stared down the Clintons without blinking an eye while taking out the Republican party. If that's not showing leadership, then what is?

Let's hope the new, nonpartisan-promising, president-elect and the rest of the Democrats learn something from the fall of the Republican empire, lest the same fate wrest power from their hands. If history proves itself, they will falter, but we are living in different times, aren't we? Changed times we can believe in?

Let's go to Somalia and get stoned

I don't normally like to write about news events, but this story just struck me as one of the most heinous of crimes against humanity.

Poor Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow went to local authorities to report that she had been raped by three men. In response, punishment came swiftly from the Islamic militia in charge in Kismayo, a southern port city in Somalia. They stoned the 13 year old girl to death for committing adultery.

"This child suffered a horrendous death at the behest of the armed opposition groups who currently control Kismayo," David Copeman of Amnesty International in Somalia stated Friday.

Dozens of men stoned her to death in a stadium packed with 1,000 spectators, Amnesty International and Somalian media reported. Somalia is one of the world's most violent and poorest of countries. The nation of about 8 million people has no functioning or central government since warlords overthrew its dictator in 1991 and then began to fight with each other.

I'm surprised she lived that long. 25% of the country's population die before age 5, and just about every institution is in shambles. You gotta love those terrorists. For that matter, how many Islamic countries treat women as equals to men, let alone just having basic rights all humans should be allowed?

Would you believe me if I told you that this Islamic militia, al-Shebab, has ties to al Qaeda?

A Scary Story

A close friend e-mailed this to me. I think it's rather funny and cute.

x

They were together in the house.

x

Just the two of them.

x

It was a cold, dark, stormy night.

x

The storm had come quickly

x

And

x

Each time the thunder boomed,

x

He watched her jump.

x

She looked across the room and admired his strong appearance...

x

And wished that he would take her in his arms,

x

To comfort her and protect her from the storm.

x

Suddenly, with a pop, the power went out...

x

She screamed...

x

He raced to the sofa where she was cowering.

x

He didn't hesitate to pull her into his arms.

x

He knew this was a forbidden union and expected her to pull back.

x

He was surprised when she didn't resist

x

But instead clung to him.

x

The storm raged on...

x

They knew it was wrong...

x

Their families would never understand...

x

So consumed were they in their fear

x

That they heard no opening of doors...

x

just the faint click of a camera......

x

x

x

x

x

x

Absolute proof that Barack Obama was not born in Hawaii

I knew I'd seen that face before.

Moai statue of Baracku at Rano Raraku on the Polynesian island, Rapa Nui, better known as Easter Island.

This should make the naysayers happy.

©2008 David B. Knechel

Could Prevacid cause platelets to drop?

In February of 2005, I was diagnosed with GERD, which is Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease. I think it’s just a fancier term for acid reflux. My doctor put me on Prilosec OTC, but after a few months, I started taking Prevacid and continued to do so until now. He was a good doctor and ran periodic blood work on me. The testing became more routine - meaning every 3 months - after I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, about 2 years ago. One of the things he noticed was that my red blood cell count, hemoglobin, hematocrit and in particular, my platelet count, had all dropped below normal levels. My white cell count dropped too, but never below normal. I became anemic and was diagnosed with thrombocytopenia. All of my counts continued to drop and no one knew why. To give you an idea of platelets, the normal range falls between 150,000-450,000 / 10ˆ3/uL. Mine had dropped to 113,000. My doctor couldn’t pinpoint the problem and when he moved, I wasn’t sure what would happen. Fortunately, I found a new one, his replacement, and I not only like her very much, I appreciate the fact that she has been very diligent and concerned about my well being; because up until now, there had been no viable explanation for my blood problem. Believe me, I’ve been poked and prodded, including a CT scan of my brain, to no avail. No one could find any blood leakage. Why was I so anemic? Why were all my blood counts dropping? Bear in mind, I have no health insurance and all costs come out of pocket. The thoughts of more testing and the expenses involved were beginning to take their toll. It was all so perplexing. I was probably staring at a bone marrow biopsy, too, and that frightened me. My mind went to work. Why was my bone marrow not producing enough platelets? Think, Dave, think. I knew it wasn’t leukemia, but could I come up with a solution?

I’ve always been rather good at investigating things and I Googled just about everything I could to figure out the cause of this problem, but too many variables popped up. Besides, I’m not medically trained, by any means, other than playing doctor when I was a kid. Well, I’ll leave it at that. After I felt I had explored all avenues, I sat down to rethink my strategy. I asked the doctors if any of this could be related to diabetes. No, they responded. All along, I had requested copies of all blood work, so I had files dating from February, 2005, through the middle of August, 2008. I scrutinized all side effects of every prescription I was taking, including possible conflicts, but nothing stood out. Suddenly, a light bulb lit up in my head. I typed prevacid+low platelet count in Google for one simple reason: it was the only medication I had been taking all this time.

BINGO! It wasn’t the mother lode, but the answer may have been staring right at me. Here are some of the possible side effects, although rare, of taking Prevacid:

• Aplastic anemia
• Low counts of all blood cells including red and white blood cells, and platelets
• Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura

Was this it? Did I find something my doctors, including specialists, weren’t aware of? After lab work in August, I had a follow up visit with my doctor. I told her of my discovery. She had a PDA or Palm Pilot of some kind, looked it up and said, yes, you are right; there might be a correlation between taking Prevacid and low platelets. She instructed me to stop taking it and to return a month later for blood work. Why not? It’s worth a shot. After a month, guess what? My counts all came up! For instance, the platelet number shot up to 163,000 and that falls within the normal range. Am I suddenly cured? Was Prevacid the culprit all along? My doctor feels rather confident it is, but I was left with another problem. During that month, the GERD came back with a vengeance. She had advised me to take Zantac while off the Prevacid and while I took 300mg/day, the maximum amount; it did absolutely nothing for me. Subsequently, she prescribed Protonix. We’ll have to wait and see, since it is very similar and in the same class of drugs as Prevacid, if this affects my blood the same way. If it does, I don’t know what will be done about the GERD because chronic low blood/platelet counts and anemia are more of a serious health risk, but she has ordered a battery of tests to determine if I have underlying issues causing GERD, details of which I will not get into. Trust me; you do not want to know.

Please rest assured, the reason for taking my own path to find an answer was not to usurp the power or knowledge of a doctor, nor was it from a lack of faith. Quite the contrary. Why not join the fight? Besides, I don’t think a physician could possibly know everything about every malady, nor do I think they should spend every waking hour studying all medications and possible side effects. That’s too much to ask for. Doctors see hundreds of patients a week. To explore every complex issue with every patient is absurd. Of course, that is why they go to medical school, but we are all humans here and if I can research something, by golly, I will. Who cares where the answer comes from? Besides, it might have been solved down the line by a hematologist or some other specialist.

I am through taking Prevacid, no doubt about that. My doctor will continue to monitor my blood. We can’t be absolutely positive this is the answer to my problem, but it does seem to point in that direction. Certainly, I’m not advocating self diagnosis by any means and anything and everything you find must be discussed with your primary care physician. Clearly, the Internet has opened so many doors, but we must understand that there are plenty of crackpots out there and we must be able to ascertain the differences between truth and fiction, but I think being able to do online research today is an incredible asset. Who would have thought it possible 10 years ago? Happy birthday, Google. Thanks for your help. It’s not every day a patient gets to impress their doctor. Thanks for saving me a ton of money, too.

A pretty interesting history lesson

The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number.

Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England, and English expatriates built the US railroads.

Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.

Why did 'they' use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.

Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.

So who built those old rutted roads? Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (and England) for their legions. The roads have been used ever since.

And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Therefore the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Bureaucracies live forever.

So the next time you are handed a Specification/Procedure/Process and wonder 'What horse's ass came up with it?' you may be exactly right. Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses. (Two horses' asses) Now, the twist to the story:

When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRB's. The SRB's are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRB's would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRB's had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRB's had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds.

So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's ass. And you thought being a horse's ass wasn't important? Ancient horse's asses control almost everything.. and CURRENT Horses Asses are controlling everything else.

- Courtesy of Mike Townsend and Seeing Eye Dog Brent

Barack 'n' Roll

©2008 David B. Knechel

Just to prove I'm not a staunch, ultra-conservative, right-wing Republican like it might seem from my previous presidential bumper sticker, here's a completely different and opposite approach. Another idea I had was GO FOR BARACK! Now guess which side of the political fence I sit on.

I thought of this one months and months ago, during the heated primary race. Years ago, I designed political ads, sometimes for people I wouldn't necessarily vote for.

OBAMA bin BIDEN

Design ©2008 David B. Knechel

Obama bin Biden

Hot off the press and with all due respect to the candidates, I just couldn't resist, given the not so subtle innuendo.

Actually, the idea popped into my head after Obama was, obviously, going to be the Democratic party nominee. Wouldn't it be great if he picks Biden to be his running mate, I thought then. Little did I know, and little did I think about it again, until this morning, when the idea suddenly reappeared. I created and saved it in Adobe Illustrator and exported it as a JPEG.

Tales from the Otter Side

Every year I used to take a trip to New Jersey from Florida to visit friends. The last time I trekked up there was in September of 2002, just before the first anniversary of the worst thing that ever happened to America, at least during my lifetime. I had mentioned to my best friend, Stewart Bacheler, that if we had the chance, it would be nice to go into the city. Sure, he responded. He and his wife, An, lived in Toms River then, but they moved to southwest Florida a few years ago. They were the friends I always stayed with. Well, Frank, too. I've almost known him as long as Stew and that's been forty-some years now. I've written about some of my comical experiences with the illustrious and almost famous Frank Foran here.

After making some of the usual rounds spending time with friends and visiting old haunts, Stewart, An and I decided to go to New York City for the day.

"Will we be able to go near the World Trade Center?" I asked him.

"Sure. I've been by it many times." I had no idea it was business as usual down there near Ground Zero, well, as best as could be expected, anyway. But then again, this was New York, the most vibrant city in the world. America has always had a can-do spirit and New York City did it's best to put that spirit and drive into high gear. Not only did we drive right by that hollow, sacred ground, we were able to park nearby and walk right up to the chain link fence and peer into it. Construction crews were rebuilding the subway to link back up to the south side, down to the Battery. A lot of people were milling about. No one seemed happy. We all stole glances down into that giant void, thinking about what once stood there. Some guy was reeling out names of the slain. Tall and noble buildings that once flowed with activity lay dead. A giant American flag draped across one of them that was shrouded in black to hide the destruction. We spent a good deal of time down there. It was two days before the anniversary and satellite dishes were set up across the street, on the west side, to broadcast the solemn ceremony that was to take place. I have always been a very spiritual person, yet I felt nothing from the souls lost there. Nothing.

After paying our respects inside the sanctuary at Trinity Church and walking down Wall Street, we had seen enough. I will never forget that place. I had been inside the WTC years earlier. Once, on the roof. What a sight to behold. The second time, it was too windy and the roof was off limits, so we could only go as high as the building would allow. When I peered out at the other tower, I could faintly see the sway between that one and the twin I was standing in. What power they exuded. The whole city does and it's always been an inspiration to me. There's no place like New York.

We drove up to mid-town Manhattan and decided to window shop on Park Avenue and some of the surrounding streets. We needed to do something more upbeat after seeing what was left of the World Trade Center. We visited FAO Schwarz, where Stewart had worked earlier in his career. The year was 1988 and I remember calling my girlfriend. She and I had just seen the movie, Big, and weeks later, there I was. I had to call her. Did I get to stand on the floor piano? Yes, but it wasn't the same one used in the movie. Oh, Joy, she was so excited. I think the store still had a floor piano on my last visit, but I'm sure it was an updated model. After a while, shopping got a little old, so we settled on a visit to the Central Park Zoo. Why not? If I had ever been there before, I didn't remember it.

Central Park and the zoo are far contrasts to the hustle and bustle of the rest of the city. You look up at the trees and magnificent buildings stand behind them as a reminder of where you are. Yet, man and the wild live together in a balance of harmony with nature. Here you stand, side by side with penguins and polar bears. Exotic birds. Seals and walruses and their trainers entertain crowds of children and their parents. Out in the park, people of all ages frolic in the open fields. Others sit on park benches as joggers and inline skaters race by.

We meandered over to the otter pool. One of the otters was swimming back and forth. He'd swim on his belly and push himself off the far side bank. Then he'd swim upside down to the other bank with his belly up in the air. Round and round, over and over. There were kids and moms standing to the right of us. This was where the friendly little otter swam, putting on a show in front of these children who were, quite obviously, thoroughly delighted. What a ham he was, too, and what a good time he was having.

Otter at the Central Park Zoo

"I'll bet I can get that otter to swim to us," I declared. I don't even know why I said that.

"Oh yeah? I don't think so," said Stew. Now, that was a challenge.

"Yes. I think I can."

"OK. Do it... We're waiting..."

I had to think fast. All of a sudden, I blurted it out. "UNGAWA!" and just like that, that little animal changed directions and swam straight at me, to the amazement of Stewart, An, the children and their mothers. "UNGAWA, UNGAWA," I said. He kept swimming back and forth to me.

"I don't know, Dave." An and Stew shook their puzzled heads. The mothers and children just looked at me. They would remember me as that guy who took the otter away. I stole their happiness in a New York second. OK, time to move on. We wandered around a while longer. About 15 or 20 minutes later, we heard the crowd of children screaming, "UNGAWA, UNGAWA... UNGAWA, UNGAWA, UNGAWA!" as they walked down a nearby path.

"Oh, great, Dave. Look what you started," Stew lamented, as if to throw a guilt trip on me.

"Yeah, I can hear them all the way home to New Jersey or Connecticut. Those parents are not going to be happy with me. UNGAWA!" We laughed.

We stopped by the gift shop and I bought a Central Park Zoo coffee mug for my mother. When we left, we went to Tao for dinner and to relax. After all, we had done quite a bit of walking that day. Tao is a very popular pan Asian restaurant. One of the appetizers was Kobi beef, sliced very thin, for $12 an ounce. We each decided to try it. When it arrived - there were about 4 or 5 slices for each of us - Stewart and An began dipping the meat in the accompanying sauces.

"Hey, Dave, how come you're not dipping your meat?"

"Hey, Stew, for $12 an ounce, I want to taste the meat, not some sauce." They stopped dipping. I will say, it was delicious, but had the kitchen run out of Kobi and given us Black Angus instead, I wouldn't have known the difference. Tao was a very nice experience. The food, service and ambiance were worth the price. I highly recommend it, although I guarantee the menu prices have gone up since we ate there.

Now, it was time to go home. It was a long day and darkness had fallen hours earlier. As we approached the Lincoln Tunnel, I fumbled around for my coffee mug.

"Oh no, Stewart! I left the mug at the restaurant. No way is it going to still be there."

"Hey, I'll turn around. No problem. Better now, while we're still in the city."

A good half hour had elapsed since we left, only to return. I ran inside, darted up the stairs and went to the first server I saw. "Excuse me, I left my Central Park Zoo coffee mug on our table." No way was I going to get it back.

"Oh, that's you? Yes, we saved it, hoping you would return." I couldn't believe it. "Your server and everyone around you said what nice people you were. Come with me." There it was, still in its bag. I thanked them profusely.

I don't get it. Some folks don't like New York. They say people there aren't all that friendly. Huh? For the most part, almost everyone has been nice to me, but I guess I was always used to seeing the other side of the city; the fun, positive side. Even from the otters.

Vlad the Impaler

Blood Putin

2008 Olympic Games - Gymnastics Competition and Television Schedule

This was sent via e-mail. It is the tentative TV coverage schedule as I know it today, August 4, 2008.

<http://www.nbcolympics.com/gymnastics/index.html>

Time Zone Note: Beijing is 12 hours ahead of Eastern Time. A competition
beginning before noon in Beijing will begin the previous date's evening
in the United States.

NBCOlympics.com Online Video: Online video of the competition will be
available on NBCOlympics.com
<http://www.nbcolympics.com/gymnastics/index.html> following the NBC
television broadcast of that event on the west coast

Universal HD will provide re-aired Olympic events broadcast on both
MSNBC and CNBC

Competition
Date/Time
(Beijing)

Competition
Date/Time
(Eastern)

Competition

TV Broadcast*
(Eastern)

8/9 - 12pm

8/9 - 12am

Men's Qualification - Subdivision 1
<http://www.usa-gymnastics.org/Portals/0/Images/events/olympics/draw_men.pdf>

8/9 - 8pm-12am - NBC
8/10 - 4am-2pm - Tele

8/10 - 1:30pm

8/10 - 1:30am

Women's Qualification - Subdivision 2
<http://www.usa-gymnastics.org/Portals/0/Images/events/olympics/draw_women.pdf>

8/10 - 7pm-12am - NBC
8/11 - 2am-6am - Tele

8/12 - 10am

8/11 - 10pm

Men's Team Finals

8/11 - 10pm - NBC
8/12 - 2am-6am - Tele

8/13 - 10:15am

8/12 - 10:15pm

Women's Team Finals

8/12 - 10:15pm - NBC
8/13 - 7:30am-12pm - Tele

8/14 - 11am

8/13 - 11pm

Men's All-Around Finals

8/13 - 11pm - NBC
8/14 - 2am-6am - Tele

8/15 - 11:15am

8/14 - 11:15pm

Women's All-Around Finals

8/14 - 11:15pm - NBC
8/15 - 2am-6am - Tele

8/16 - 11am

8/15 - 11pm

Trampoline - Men's & Women's Qual.

8/16 - 12:35am-2am - NBC
8/17 - 4am-2pm - Tele

8/17 - 6pm

8/17 - 6am

Event Finals (Men - FX,PH; Women - FX,VT)

8/17 - 7pm-12am - NBC
8/18 - 2am-6am - Tele

8/18 - 6pm

8/18 - 6am

Event Finals (Men - SR,VT; Women - UB)

8/18 - 8pm-12am - NBC
8/19 - 2am-8am - Tele

8/18 - 6pm

8/18 - 6am

Trampoline - Women's Final

8/18 - 8pm-12am - NBC

8/19 - 6pm

8/19 - 6am

Event Finals (Men - PB,HB; Women - BB)

8/19 - 8pm-12am - NBC
8/20 - 8am-10am - Tele

8/19 - 6pm

8/19 - 6am

Trampoline - Men's Final

8/20 - 12:35am-2am - NBC

8/20 - TBA

8/20 - TBA

Gymnastics Gala

8/20 - 8pm-12am - NBC
8/21 - 6pm-8pm - Oxygen

Be sure to catch "Gymnastics - A Daily Look" on the Oxygen network
weekdays at 6-8 p.m. ET from Monday, Aug. 11 until Wednesday, Aug. 20

TV Broadcast Notes:
Tele = Telemundo
Check local listings