Outdated Cultural Depictions

 

I am personally not fond of the nanny state. This is not a rant but rather a reflection on how far we have not come.

I was surfing the 'higher tv channels' the other night. You know up there where we never go. Where infomercials are actually more entertaining than most of the shows. Anyway, I paused on a screen that read:

THE FOLLOWING PROGRAM DEPICTS IMAGES OR CHARACTER PORTRAILS THAT REPRESENT OUTDATE CULTURAL DEPICTIONS.

Well, you know, one just has to hang around to see what evil, not PC enough show was about to scandalize the nation.

Before you scroll down, here are a few hints. You get one guess per hint. 

1) A network television series ran from 1959 to 1973.

2) Family drama. 

3) Set in the Western United States.

4) Ponderosa

Yes, the warning for Outdate Cultural Depictions was for Bonanza.

Care to take a guess why?

Scroll down for the "correct" answer.

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It was/is the character of Hop Sing, the Chinese cook on the ranch.

In addition, Disney has added the same sensitivity warning to films such as Lady and the Tramp, Dumbo and Peter Pan. Can you say Woke? I knew you couldn't.

Waxing & Waning Interests

 

"I may have not been sure about what really did interest me but I was absolutely sure about what didn't." - Albert Camus

The topic of "interests" came up the other evening whilst we waited for darkness to fall and fireworks of commence. At first there some generalized debate about the concept of what exactly are interests. Hobbies, perhaps? Reading genres. Politics, sports, life, death, security, love, cats . . .

Overnight I pondered what interests I have these days and more interesting to me, what interests have fallen away over the years.

Sports come to mind. Professional sports in particular. I might check an NBA score, if the Warriors are playing. During the season I note the standings ever week or so, but watching a game before the finals, never again. And this year I even surfed a bit during the games. I do like to catch Pardon the Interruption on ESPN, but that's for the commentary and critique of the games, which bolsters my waning interest. 

Politics remains a high priority for a couple of reasons. First, the psychology of the nation around who, what, when, where and WFT! Second, those fascist bastards are attacking fundamental rights. But that discussion, we all follow on a daily basis. Politics as an American hobby has become a blood sport for more than just the engaged participants.

Poker Speaking of a hobby or three. I still play a far bit of poker online. Not so much live poker up here in Michigan. I do miss the live games at the rec. centers in The Villages down in Florida. The other parts of my poker obsession with the professional players and tournaments has been left behind.

Las Vegas -greed, greed, greed . . . never again.

Reading I still read some science-fiction but my leisure reading is a lot more diverse these days. Some best sellers and a fair number of classics I never got around to in my career filled younger days. For age related reasons, I read a fair amount of medical journal articles, both for my own maladies and those of friends and family.

Travel is really off my radar in my dotage. I last time I was on a plane I returned from Australia in 2007. After that I did a lot of driving around the country: California, Oregon, Nevada, Texas, Michigan and Florida plus all the pass-thru states to reach those destinations. These days the road feels like a chore without a pot of gold at the end of the highway.

Educational exploration remains a sustaining interest though now mediated via the internet. The last time I sat in the classroom was in the 20-teens when I took advantage of the elder programs at UCBerkeley. The policy then was free audits to seniors in any class that was not full.

So, in conclusion, I wrote this blog over six weeks ago and never hit the 'publish' button. I guess blogging is also a fading interest.

Is it me or . . .

 

Imagine, if you will, it is 1975. You are 70-something years old and up way past your bedtime. This new late night show comes on after the news - something about New York and Saturday night. You check your wall calendar and indeed, it is Saturday night. It appears to be some sort of comedy show with some young people, names like: Aykroyd, Belushi, Curtin, Morris, Newman and Radner. 

You are not amused by their jokes and skits. The show will never catch on. You go to bed.

~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~ 

Last night, I caught the current rendition of SNL. Two skits and one guest singer in, I was not impressed by the comedy or the performer. But then, I realized I was now 70-something, perhaps I was no longer the audience for SNL and it was past my bedtime.

But just as I reached for the remote to end my evening viewing, Weekend Update came on. The standard SNL trope was still around and it was still really poignant and I laughed at nearly every bit of wit and satire.

So was it me or was it the current staff of SNL writers? Did I leave the audience or did they leave us?

Money Memory Mush

 

Yesterday, I pulled a bag of books out of that hidden space in the back of my mid-size SUV. I know the bag had not been inspected since I bought the car back in 2016. Inside were some half-read titles on writing, editing and a copy of my dissertation from 1999.

Why not, sit down and see if I had anything useful to say 22+ years ago. The title was and is: Exploring the Nature of Qualitative Research: Assumptions, Attributes, Definitions and Antecedents.

Fear not, this post is not about my acute, penetrating and sagacious insights back then. Nor shall we spend even a moment on the dense academized verbiage I once wallowed in. Nope, this is about money.

Whilst reading my own words, around page 22, a dollar bill dropped out of the pages. I assumed I had at one time use the buck as a bookmark. Around page 50 there was a ten ($10) and a twenty ($20) dropped on page 78. 

I unearthed a vague memory of storing cash in the book back in my Berkeley days (2010-2015). A nice little windfall, I thought and read on. Later, after lunch, I picked up the dissertation again and lo and behold a Benjamin ($100) fell out around page 99. 

While I will reread the entire tome later, I had to fan forward to discover a total hidden bequest of $331. Who says a Ph.D. is worthless.

April 23rd

 

Apparently, there is a day for everything. With or without governmental approval, there really is a day for almost everything. Below is a partial list of "The Days" for April 23rd. See if you can locate which one prompted this post.

• Canada Book Day 
• German Beer Day
• Impossible Astronaut Day 
• International Marconi Day
• Lover's Day
• National Cherry Cheesecake Day 
• National Day of Puppetry
• National English Muffin Day
• National Picnic Day 
• Pixel-Stained Techno-peasant Day 
• Slay a Dragon Day 
• Talk Like Shakespeare Day   
• Vagina Appreciation Day
• World Book Day 

William Hurt & Me

 

William Hurt has always been one of my favorite actors. For most of the obvious reasons, I enjoyed and related to his film work. Kiss of the Spider Woman won him an Oscar. But my connection comes from one of my most treasured films - The Big Chill (1983). 

Skip forward to 1988. I am at a "family party" in Redondo Beach, California. This family being my L.A. family from the 80s. On the far side of the room, a conversation turns to film roles that mirror someone in our gang. After glancing around the room, someone begins this conversation.

"Oh, Tim is easy."

"What film?" someone asks.

"The Big Chill."

"Oh, of course, the William Hurt character."

"You're right, I never made that connection."

"Wait, which role was that?"

"You know the rebel with the pills, the war injury, the camera."

"Right, yep that's Tim."

"Hold on," I jumped in, "this appears to be a conspiracy."

The conversation became very one-sided, basically me against anyone and everyone who had seen the film. I attempted to make some points by implying this was a Southern California assessment and those who knew me before would not see me in that role.

To prove my point I got on the phone and called one of my best friends from the early 70s in Michigan. Took a few minutes to locate this number, but he was home.

"Lee, it's Tim."

"How are you, it's been a long time."

"I know, look I will call you tomorrow to catch up, but I need you to settle an argument we are having."

"Let's hear it."

"I'm putting you on speaker.You've seen The Big Chill, right?"

"Of course, the movie where William Hurt plays you."

[inset long pause with background chorus of laughter]

R.I.P. William Hurt and many thanks.

Ann Arbor @ Curbside (February 2022)

 

Restaurants

Common Grill (Chelsea) R.I.P. We note with sadness the announcement that Craig Common will be closing his great restaurant in Chelsea after 30 years. Final date is March 13th. We wish the Commons a peaceful retirement.

UPDATE: The Common Grill will survive.

February 20-25, 2022

So many choices, so little time, six days to be exact. We managed three selections this year.

Mama Sotto (715 N. University St., Ann Arbor) Restaurant Week special - four courses $25 per person. We have consensus that both the crab soup and the dumpling soup were excellent. Tempura doesn't travel well, it needs to be hot out of the fryer and reheating makes it soggy. The seaweed salad was tasty and both of salmon & crab main course sushi were well seasoned and fresh. Big complaint, our order was short several items, there was food enough for four but not the complete order we had paid for. 

Blue Tractor (207 E. Washington St., Ann Arbor) Another special, barbeque for four $55. For the barbeque lovers this was a find. The ribs were meaty and perfectly cooked. Pulled pork was a generous serving. Mac & cheese was done with fusilli, which we prefer to macaroni. Good cole slaw, corn bread and to top off the barbeque feast - a large squeeze bottle of sauce.

Pacific Rim (114 W. Liberty St., Ann Arbor) Our clear Restaurant Week winner! We have avoided Pacific Rim for takeout because we just thought the excellent menu would not carry-out all that well. We were wrong, wrong, wrong. Here are our selections:

 

Saigon Spring Rolls 
Pacific Rim Crabcake 
Roasted Winter Squash Soup 
Winter Salad with Soy-Balsamic Vinaigrette 
Miso-Teriyaki Salmon 
Thai Bouillabaisse 
Chocolate-Passionfruit Mousse 

 Each course was as good as the last and the first course was outstanding. The squash soup was just perfect, great sauce on the crab cake. A+ for Pacific Rim. The Restaurant Week special was three courses for $28.

Boutique Foodie Destinations

Grand Traverse Pie Company (291 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor) 2 feta quiche slices ($5.49 each), one regulation regular crust apple pie ($18.99) first time we went with the standard fair instead of the crumble crust, one chocolate-cherry muffin ($2.49) for the drive home. The muffin was delicious. Quiche is always good at GTPC and comes with warm pumpkin bread. I must admit the apple pie is just too standard for me, also my fault for not ordering the crumble crust.

Argus Farm Stop (see last month's review) Argus is now a regular, if not weekly, foodie destination for us. The bread selection is the best in town.

Yoon's Bakery To experience the tastes of Yoon's one must leave our American taste buds at home. Both the sweet and the savory treats here are from the Asian palette. We had mixed reviews of four or five samples, only because we were not ready for the range of flavors. Definitely, worth a revisit and a wider selection of offerings.

Home Meal Delivery Kit

Green Chef. I don't know, it was late, I was surfing and Green Chef popped up and there was an introductory discount and I mean what can I say for $41 we got 3 meals (2 servings each). As with most of these services the key is advertised as "No more meal planning, just cooking." All the ingredients are included except salt, pepper and oil. "Dinner in 30 minutes or less." Thirty minutes does not take into account the time to read the eight step directions, nor my less than professional knife skills. But I digress. 

Green Chef is mostly vegetarian in five categories: Keto & Paleo, Vegan, Vegetarian, Fast & Fit, and Mediterranean. We went with vegetarian:

1) Truffle Butter Risotto

2) Hoisin Mushroom & Edamame Bowls

3) Mushroom Curry Udon Bowls

My assessment is that each of the dishes was a bargain at the introductory price of just over $7, however, at the everyday tag of over $15 not so much. Flavor, taste and ingredients were all quality, we enjoyed each of the dishes and noted more than adequate spices and sauces. Also, several dishes took five, six, even seven pots and pans.

Not sure if we will be trying out any further meal delivery services, stay tuned. If anyone is interesting in trying Green Chef, let us know, we have some introductory referrals that can save you money on your first order.

If you are considering any or all home meal services, there are lots of comparison reviews online, we suggest this one from The New York Post 2/1/2022.

Lord of the Rings: A Re-Re-Reread

 

I am reading The Lord of the Rings for a third time. I know that's not a significant feat for LOTR fans. According to a Facebook meme today, Christopher Lee read the books every year for forty years before he became Saruman. I first read the three-book series in the late sixties, more than a decade after first publication. The second read was in the early nineties during another interregnum in my life. Today's reflection on my current immersion in conversation with the many times viewed films.

First, I would observe that most of the Peter Jackson tropes in the films were brilliant and effective summaries of long passages in the text. No real LOTR fan can forgive the omission of Tom Bobadil and Goldenberry but that is for another time. Just last night I finished book one finding a greater artistic respect of both J.R.R. Tolkien and Peter Jackson.

I am struck by how much of the writing is description of the land, the trees, the weather, the sky, all the environment of Middle Earth. A good 35%-40% of the entire story is rendered in such detailed, descriptive language. At times, I admit, I skim the approaching storm clouds or the darkening forest. But Peter Jackson was right in shooting the films in New Zealand. The Kiwi landscape mirrors the vivid and varied environs imagined by Tolkien.

Jackson also pours more character into the nine members of The Fellowship of the Ring. Boromir, Gimli, Logolas, Aragorn, even the hobbits are pale in the books, at least through the first volume. Only Frodo and Gandalf are fully formed characters at the one-third mark where I am now. Aragorn is somewhat more vigorous than the others but Merry and Pippin are vague shadows to this point.

I wonder going forward how the battles will be played out. The one major criticism of the films I have is the lengthy battle scenes. Good versus Evil in the story is a more nuanced confrontation than the sword and armor portrayal in the films.

I have no plans to re-re-reread The Hobbit, which is a prequel to The Lord of the Rings. The Hobbit was published in 1937, as a children's fantasy tale. Tolkien had no thoughts of LOTR back then but was encouraged by his publisher to write more on Middle Earth. The Fellowship of the Ring was published 1954. The Two Towers and The Return of the King followed in 1955.

The Lord of the Rings under a toasty electric blanket in a Michigan winter. Yes, this works for me

Ann Arbor @ Curbside (January 2022)

I'm back in Ann Arbor, so it's time to resurrect our curbside noshing reviews. Reader feedback has led us to incorporate several tweaks in the information we provide, chief among those additions will be price.

Seven (7) reviews this month:

We begin with a new section for non-restaurant establishments we are calling Boutique Foodie Destinations (BFD).

Zingerman's Deli (422 Detroit St., Ann Arbor) Being that we live less than a mile from Zingerman's in Kerrytown, we often stop by for bits and bites of our favorites. This trip we picked up black olive bread ($10), balsamic vinegar ($14 on sale), Zing's own English muffins ($6) and two pot pies ($12 each, pictured above). We went with a Fungi pie and a Cheshire pork pie. High grades for the pork, perhaps a touch lower for the mushrooms, but both good with top notch crusts. The pies come frozen for an easy reheat at home.

Vestergaard Farms (4408 Wagner Road, Saline) Good news, we picked up some Maddy J's bread ($8) and a couple of indulgent ice cream treats (2x$3). Bad news, our favorite reason to visit Vestergaards is to pick-up a supply of Bakewell frozen quiches. We did get the last two on the shelf but Bakewell has had staff and health issues causing a shutdown for the month of January. Plans are to restart in February but those same issues of staffing and health make all plans tentative.

Argus Farm Stop (325 W. Liberty, also 1200 Packard, Ann Arbor) You do know about the marvelous bread at Argus, don't you? Go for the locally sourced weird mushrooms, lettuce and lots of other veggies, frozen items, plus coffee/pastries and stay for the bread! A variety of rotating loaves from a host of local, Detroit area and out of town bakeries. Avalon, Crust, etc. Our recent find and favorite is Hammonton bread from Crust in Fenton. Full of sesame seeds, moist and chewy. May only be available on Mondays. Check the bread delivery schedule at the checkout counter. Don't mis the day-old section of breads/pastries near the 2nd register to snag some carb-loaded bargains.

And now to actual restaurants with curbside pickups:

Zamaan Cafe (3580 Plymouth Road, Ann Arbor) This is a new find for us. Advertised as "Mediterranean Flavor" and Halal, we went with Baba Ghannuj and Tabbuleh for starters. Excellent both, though I always add crumbled Feta to Tabbuleh. We also had to pita wraps, an eggplant and rice with garlic sauce, which Diner #2 reports as excellent. I had the Chicken Tawook with some very good garlic sauce. $28 total. We tend to be generous Covid tippers, but are not including gratuities in our food cost reports.

Maddy J's (972 E. Michigan Ave., Saline) Chipolte Turkey Avocado grilled sandwich for me ($11) and a Veggie Quiche ($5) for Diner #2. Both were big hits. We really like Maddy J's. Fortunately, their bread can be found at several outlets including Vestergaards above.

Spencers (113 E. Liberty, Ann Arbor) And now for another take on dining in the time of Covid. Spencers does curbside two days a week (W. & Th.). In person dining, not our thing, Friday and Saturday. The curbside menu is set for two consecutive weeks, there are no substitutions. $65 for two, includes tax and gratuity. We had Willi Lehner's clothbound cheddar, piccalilli, winter salad, and a root vegetable pot pie (there was a chicken alternative). The pie was huge, even for two people. The sauce in the pie was outstanding, Overall, the main course was our highlight of the month. The cheese was excellent, but you had to provide your own crackers, Piccalilli was tasty and different, the salad greens was fresh and plentiful. The tiny homemade Milano cookies were a mini-dessert only for those on a diet.

Bell's Diner (2167 E. Stadium Blvd., Ann Arbor) We switched from our standard Bi Bim Bop to a couple of Bento Box choices. One spicy pork and one tofu. A lot of food, with untouched salad leftover for the next day's lunch. Because it was carry-out, no traditional segmented box presentation with dibs and dabs of interesting food in each compartment. I was most satisfied with the spicy pork, though it could have been spicier (they did ask for a spice level, next time . . . more). Bento boxes are $18.99 each, which seems a fair price.

another addition to Ann Arbor @ Curbside: we are inviting Guest Reviews from our many local gustatorily inclined friends. Submissions to my email, you have it, right?

Reverse Snowbird