golfkat Travel Blog

SBS = Super Bowl Sunday

golfkat — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:42:11 +0000

Though my San Francisco Forty Niners barely missed another appearance in the Super Bowl, Sunday does present some weird and variable information. My focus is more on the unusual, as well as the food consumed. Can you believe it is the second largest day of food consumption behind Thanksgiving? Now, I am sure this varies among various races and ethnicities, but here in the United States, I can certainly agree with this. But I would eat the two things (liver and lima beans) I hate most, if my Niners were playing tomorrow!!! Most of you will consume 1200 calories, just snacking. This does not count meals. You are probably wondering what the most popular item served during the Super Bowl. An estimated 69.6 million tons of avocados, mostly as guacamole, will be served this year. If you decide to be lazy and order food, the most popular take-out and delivery items are pizza, chicken wings, and sandwiches. It is the biggest day for pizza sales, with Domino’s leading the way with 9 million slices. Lowly Pizza Hut has a 50% increase in business, and pizza delivery reaches 4 million miles. Tips increase from a few dollars to $20!! Americans will eat over 90 million pounds of chicken wings. This equates to 450 million individual wings, or 225 million chickens. Perhaps we should genetically engineer a chicken to have more than two wings!!!!

Even more astounding consumptions are 14,500 tons of chips, and 4000 tons of popcorn. Why, if I calculate the salt correctly, that means an increase of 8.5 mm Hg per adult in the US!!! (just kidding) But it can’t be good for you. Add to that, 5000 pounds of hot dogs. To wash it down, Budweiser serves as the exclusive Super Bowl beer advertiser for the last 17 Super Bowls. Beer sales increase $17.9 million during Super Bowl week.

For those of you who like to grill, Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest winter grilling day of the year. I wonder how it compares to the summer holidays, memorial, July 4th, and Labor Day? For the poor guy who gets stuck out on the patio grill, portable TV sales should increase as well.

Grocery stores sell $50 million more in food for the four days prior to the Super Bowl. For pharmacies, there is a 20% increase in antacid sales on the Monday after SBS. And those who cannot get that far, know that 6% of you will call in sick on Monday.

Can you believe that one in twelve of you will suffer through the football just to see the commercials and half time show with Madonna. And just 6% of us will watch the game alone, though 17 is the average number of people at a SB party. And be careful driving, as there are more alcohol related accidents on SBS on any day but St. Patrick’s Day.

For those of you concerned about the real pigskin (the football, dummy!), the NFL buys 700,000 footballs each year. But only 72 are used for the Super Bowl itself. And 35% of those who attend are able to write-off the trip as a deductible expense. I doubt that was a big deal back on Super Bowl I when the cost of a ticket was $6 at the Los Angeles Coliseum. I got in free for the Super Bowl in Palo Alto in 1984.

The only trivia that will elude TV viewers, would be which three players also coached in the Super Bowl. The obvious ones are Mike Ditka, and Tony Dungy, both TV analysts. The other one is not so obvious, a semi hometown boy from Sanger and of Hispanic decent. It was none other than Tom Flores, quarterback (back-up) for the Buffalo Bills and KC Chiefs, and coach of the Oakland Raiders. But still, it is the second most watched sporting event in the world, after only the Champions League (soccer) final.

This is the first Super Bowl to be held in Indianapolis, at the Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Indianapolis Colts. In fact, I stay right across the street from Lucas when I attend the Indianapolis 500 Auto Race every memorial Day weekend. Many famous Hoosiers that you may see at the game: Larry Bird, Bill Blass, James Dean (his ghost), Michael Jackson (no comment), David Letterman, John Mellencamp, Red Skelton (deceased), Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., and Virgil Grissom. BTW, I will not be there since my Niners fell just short.
So, my SBS will have the following: champagne, guacamole and corn chips, chili with homemade Italian sausage (that I made), and cornbread. This is way too many calories, so I will do on an hour bike ride over the river and through the woods, before the game.

Ten Words With Surprising Origins

golfkat — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 02:07:53 +0000

I borrowed the list, but certainly added some of my own commentary. I also added a few, and made up one word completely. Guess the right one, and I will name the word after you.

10. Twain

TWAIN is a standard for communication between imaging devices (scanners) and computers, and often written in upper case. But the famous line, “….and never the twain shall meet” is from Kipling’s Ballad of East and West, and takes on many meanings. I prefer twain to TWAIN, unless of course, you had a model electric twain as a child.

9. Whoop of Gorillas

But the official name for a group of gorillas is a band of gorillas. Not guerillas. The scientific and literary world is starting to use whoop. Perhaps I can bring my hula whoop out of retirement and give it to the gorillas at the zoo. The term originates from the TV show, “Not the Nine O’Clock News.” The gorillas name was Gerald, so you can see why I prefer my name, Gerry.

8. Flanger

You music nerds probably know this one. A flanger is a musical effect produced by mixing two identical signals together with one signal with a small delay. Ken Townsend, the engineer for the Beatles’ Abbey Road album, came up with this, officially called artificial double tracking or ADT. The alarm company named themselves after this effect. It sounded much better than flanger, which reminds one of a toilet plunger.

7. Booting

So, this is the reason we “boot” computers. Karl Friedrich Hieronymus, or Baron Munchausen, as he is widely known, exaggerated many stories of his past. This included pulling himself out of quicksand by pulling on his own hair (which is impossible except in cartoons). The story grew over the next century and finally made its way to America. The story became one of extricating himself out of quicksand by pulling on his bootstraps. The phrase never died and when computers came along, and in its early days, utilized a program that started from nothing and ended up as a running computer. This process was known as bootstrapping, then eventually booting. It has nothing to do with booty, as many of you probably thought.

6. Wiki

Most of you have been to Hawaii and ridden the “wiki wiki shuttle” from your gate to the main terminal at Honolulu International Airport. It has been around forever. It means quick, quick or very fast. Many of you use Wikipedia, or wiki-leaks, or wiki Vickie. But Howard G. Cunningham, not Richie’s father, started using wiki wiki in 1994 for his now famous 1995 web site, Wikipedia.

5. Epson

Seiko developed a printer used for the Tokyo Olympics to print the times of results. It was called the electronic printer or EP. It soon became incorporated into early handheld calculators. About ten years alter, Seiko developed a dot matrix printer with the US distributor naming it Epson, since the printer was the “son” of EP, not ET. It became so well-known that Seiko renamed itself Epson Corporation some years later.

4. Bluetooth

I could have some real fun with this one, but I won’t. Bluetooth is the short-range radio system that nobody uses to exchange data (voice, like on your cell phone). The tenth century king of Denmark, King Harald I, had blue teeth. And Ericsson, the Swedish company that developed bluetooth was familiar with the uniquely toothed King Harald. His major achievement was to unite Denmark and Norway under a single king, himself. In the same way, Bluetooth unites different devices under a single protocol.

3. Robotics

The word robot was coined back in 1920 by Karel Capek. He wrote a play called Rossum’s Universal Robots, as the word robot comes from the Czech word “robot” which means “serf worker” or “drudgery”. But the term robotics was first used by sci fi writer Isaac Asimov in a 1942 short story, Runaround. He was quite enamored when the term took hold when people started building real robots. I won’t even tell you how “gobots” got their name, since the developer was the same company that makes Exlax.

2. Cyberspace

William (Wild Willie) Gibson, whose grand-uncle developed the Gibson guitar, used the word in his 1982 short story, Burning Chrome. He also gets credit for predicting the rise of reality TV and the virtual worlds of video games. What a freaky guy!!!

1. Wi-fi

Actually derived from the old word, hi-fi, consultants at Interbrand coined the word when asked to come up for a name for the new system. Yet, it does not really mean wireless fidelity. It is simply a sound alike contraction of the phrase, high fidelity.

But you can guess my favorite term:

Spam is the old standby, derived from the name SPiced hAM, a canned, pre-cooked meat made by Hormel back in 1937. The ingredients are not as bad as most people think, except for the high sodium content. Spam contains pork shoulder meat, ham meat, salt, water, modified potato starch as a binder, and sodium nitrite as a preservative. My personal opinion is that nothing could possible invade the Spam meat to make it spoil.

The typical can of Spam weighs 340 grams or 12 ounces. A 100 gram serving contains 70 mg of cholesterol, 13 grams of protein, 27 grams of total fat, and 3 grams of carbs. The residents of Hawaii and Guam consume the most Spam per capita in the uS. Sixteen tins of Spam is the per capita average. It is often characterized as “poor people food”. I personally enjoy a Spam musubi on the golf course when I am in the Islands. It is a teriyaki flavored fried Spam over a small, hand packed rectangle of rice, bound together with a sheet of seaweed. It always helps me play better after I eat it.

Spam musubi

It is actually derived from the famous sketch of Monty Python’s, Flying Circus. It found its way onto YouTube. It is based on the cafe that serves most dishes containing Spam. In a fortuitous happenstance, the Spam sketch was broadcast before the days on online networking. It was sent out over dial-up phone connections at a 1200 baud rate (very slow by today’s standards). It became a joke to send the word “Spam” repeatedly so the receiver’s screen was covered with “Spam”. This became known as spamming.

But from the 1980s things changed and blurred a little. Spam became known as an acronym for “sales, promotion and marketing.” Then as the world-wide web grew, the terms merged into an amorphous blob of junk mail clogging up mail boxes.

Top Ten Weird Fruits

golfkat — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:13:21 +0000

Having done a fair amount of travel around the world, some of the fruit on this list were new to me as well. Of course, the mighty durian is on the list. Sheri loves it, as do most Thai, Malaysian, Chinese, and New York Chinese. It is, however, the Achilles heel of Mr. Bizarre Foods, Andrew Zimmern of the Travel Channel. He has not tried it thrice, and spit it out thrice!!! The last try was in NYC’s Chinatown, where the cost was probably between $50-100 per fruit!!!! It is said they sell 200 fresh durian a day there!

Personally, some of the fruit on this list are quite good, some are new to me, and some look absolutely horrid. You decide!

10. Kiwano

It sounds like someone’s last name. It is a relative of the melon AND the cucumber, and is native to New Zealand. I recall seeing it at the flea market in Christchurch. Hopefully the last earthquake there wiped out the remaining kiwano crop. They say it is best served in a fruit salad, with lots of fruit that you recognize and like.

9. Dragon Fruit

I like the name more than anything, including the fruit itself. It really does not have much taste, but is so interesting to look at. It is hard to pass up on those huge SE Asian hotel buffets. From the outside, it looks like a flame. Most of us do not know this fruit originated in Mexico. In reality, it is the fruit of a cactus, and is also known by another name, Pitaya.

8. Durian

This fruit tastes like it smells, that of a cross between stinky sweat socks and rotten onions. But its name is “The King of Fruits.” It can be purchased locally, though at a premium. It can also be purchased in smaller portions as frozen fruit, or in cakes and cookies if you are really in need of a fix. They all make me gag. On Malaysian farms, the underside of the durian tree is fitted with a net so the fruit is not damaged when it falls off of the tree. You will be evicted from public transportation or the hotel if you bring a durina into the area.

7. Buddha’s Hand

The Hand is a citrus fruit, with little fruit in the awful looking fingers. Perhaps it has arthritis? But people use them to “perfume” a room, rather than eat what little fruit is contained inside. When desperate, the fingers can be cut off and used to flavor fish or placed in salads. I have never seen this fruit, and I guarantee you it does not look at all like Buddha’s hand! It looks more like a chicken foot, which is not my favorite snack!

6. Passion Fruit

A great name for a rather ordinary fruit, in my experience. I have eaten it all over the world, and it is always the same. Very little fruit, somewhat like a tart and citrus-like apple. The juice is much better, especially when combined with papaya or guava juice. To quote Willie, “much ado about nothing!”

5. Screw Pine

Also known as Panda’s anus. It is used for dyes as well as food. I have never seen it, nor want to.

4. Rambutan

Some think it looks like a vegetarian testicle, or red hairy ball. It tastes much like a lychee, and has the same texture. I actually like these. They make a great martini, and the seeds are often roasted and eaten (the seeds are poisonous if eaten raw). They are inexpensive in SE Asia, and make a nice palate cleanser after trying the durian.

3. Akebia Quinata

The flowers are actually chocolate scented. The stem of the plant is used as a diuretic and contains potassium. The white sausage-shaped pods are filled with the goo that is eaten. Speaking og goo, how about some goo-gone?

2. Atemoya

It looks a lot like the cherimoya, since it is a hybrid of the sugar apple and cherimoya. They say it tastes like a pina colada with vanilla. The seeds are poisonous, but get this! The flowers are female between 2pm and 4 pm, but on alternating days, from 3pm to 5pm, they are male. Totally weird, man! Belongs in a botannial circus, I say.

1. Snakeskin Fruit

Pinching the end forces the skin to slough off. So, it does resemble its name. Then it begins to resemble garlic! The fruit is actually sweet and slightly acidic. I have never seen this, nor want to. It looks frightening, no matter how good it tastes.

So, no more complaints about everyday fruit like apples, bananas, melons, citrus and stone fruit. Just be glad we have such great fruit here in California. If you can find one more bizarre than these, share!

More Music Died!

golfkat — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:04:31 +0000

This is American Pie by Don McLean:

A long, long time ago… I can still remember how
That music used to make me smile.
And I knew if I had my chance,
That I could make those people dance,
And maybe they’d be happy for a while.
But February made me shiver,
With every paper I’d deliver,
Bad news on the doorstep…
I couldn’t take one more step.
I can’t remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride
But something touched me deep inside,
The day the music died.

Soo..Bye, bye miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
And good ol’ boys were drinking whisky and rye?
Singing this will be the day that I die
this will be the day that I die

Did you write the book of love
And do you have faith in God above
If the Bible tells you so
Do you believe in rock n roll
Can music save your mortal soul
Then you can teach me to dance real slow
Well I know that you’re in love with him
‘Cause I saw you dancing in the gym
You both kicked off your shoes
Then I dig those rhythm and blues
I was a lonely teenage broncin’ buck
With a pink carnation and a pickup truck
but I knew that I was out of luck
The day the music died
I started singin’…

Bye, bye miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
And good ol’ boys were drinking whisky and rye?
Singing this will be the day that I die
this will be the day that I die
Now for 10 years we’ve been on our own
And moss grows fat on a rolling stone
But that’s not how it used to be
When the jester sang for the king and queen
In a coat he borrowed from James Dean
In a voice that came from you and me
And while the King was looking down
The jester stole his thorny crown
The courtroom was adjourned
No verdict was returned
While Lennon read the book of Marx
The quartet kept practice in the park
And we sang dirges in the dark
The day the music died

This song identifies Buddy Holly by the month he died, February. He left behind a widowed bridge. “American Pie” was not the name of the doomed aircraft, but rather a simile to that great American symbol, the apple pie. The Chevy is a familiar icon of the 1950s. The pink carnation is a reference to Marty Robbins’ hit single. The crash killed Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper. A “dirge” is a funeral song. The girl who sang the blues was Janis Joplin. Waylon Jennings was Holly’s bassist, who was asked by Holly to give up his seat to Valens. The jester is clearly Bob Dylan.

Monument to Holly, Valens, and Bopper

But the point I want to make, via this great song and my friend Sian, is that we seem to be losing so many of our great musicians and singers. Yesterday, it was Etta James. In the months and years before, we lost Clarence Clemons (of the E Street Band), Amy Winehouse, Dobie Gray, Mary Travers, Norton Buffalo, Les Paul, Michael Jackson, Levi Stubbs, Isaac Hayes, Bo Diddley, Dan Fogelberg, James Brown, Wilson Pickett, and Billy Preston.

My message to you is simply this. When the great musicians appear in our area, make sure you get a chance to see and hear them. Otherwise, you may regret it. While it was not fun to see the fat and drugged up Elvis at Harrah’s in Tahoe in 1971, it was my one and only chance to see “The King.” Likewise, many old timers who are making the rounds, a little over their prime perhaps, but true legends of the music business. It does not matter if it is Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, Dave Brubeck, or Tony Bennett. Go see them before they are forever gone!!!!!

Duct Tape

golfkat — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:37:30 +0000

Duct or duck tape? Duct tape is a cloth-backed and pressure sensitive tape often sealed with polyethylene. Duct tape is a standard 1 7/8 inches in width , and generally gray or black, though available in other colors. It was developed in World War 2 by Permacel, formerly a division of Johnson and Johnson. It was originally rubber backed adhesive tape with durable fabric backing that resisted water for use as a sealing tape for ammunition boxes. As a result, it was also used to repair military equipment quickly.

Today’s duct tape has a longer lasting adhesive, and more resistant to weathering. Gaffer tape is a more specialized version that does not leave a sticky residue. It is more easily torn into thinner strips for easier application. On the other hand, duct tape has been used in motorsports for more than forty years to repair fiberglass bodywork. Duct tape is NOT intended for sealing ductwork. Building codes require a fireproof product, usually something with a metal or foil backing.

Can you believe NASA engineers and astronauts have used duct tape for emergency repairs in space. It was used back in 1970 when the square carbon filters on Apollo 13′s command module. The workaround used duct tape, saving the lives of three astronauts on board. Duct tape was also used on Apollo 17 to repair a damaged fender on the lunar rover.

Duck Products, the manufacturer of Duck brand duct tape, sponsors a competition that offers a college scholarship to the person who creates the most stylish prom formal wear made of Duck tape. A study back in 2002 reportedly proved duct tape to be an effective treatment in wart removal. A further, more controlled study proved duct tape no better than a placebo. Duct tape has been used as a temporary bandage to control bleeding. It has also become Apple iPhone 4′s most effective fix to their dropped call issue.

The Duct Tape Guys, Jim Berg, and Tim Nyberg, have written seven books about duct tape. The have sold over 1.5 million copies. Among the myths they uncovered: duct tape cannot be used to seal windows from breaking during a hurricane. It will not seal up a room from a biological attack.

I’ve got to give credit where credit is due, and the first place I can trace duct tape’s rise as a fashion trend is directly to Snooki. She flaunted her DIY skills on Twitter back in October, using a product called Duck Tape (no, not a misspelling) to leopard-ize her handbag, and now mini-Martha Stewarts everywhere are hopping on the same train…

The design movement is apparently so big it’s made it all the way to The New York Times, where today’s report says, “In an odd trend, duct tape has become the material of choice for creating fashions that showcase the wearer’s originality and ingenuity.” As evidence of the trend’s legit-ness, they cite Etsy stores that sell duct tape handbags, an increasing variety of patterns and colors available in stores, and a major spike in the adhesive’s online sales. Oh, and the reigning Miss America, a big time DIY-er, says it’s the only thing she’d take with her to a desert island.

Other uses:

Car repair

Hemming pants or slacks

Breast enhancement (creates cleavage)

Warts (not true)

Wounds (very temporary)

Silence children

Little Dutch Boy’s finger in dike

Seat belt (not street legal, definitely an after market item)

Tire tube patch

Two Buck Chuck Cover (this is its best use!)

Shoe repair

Dog muzzle

Dehair a cat

I am certain you can think of other uses!!!!

In the Pink With Pinchas

golfkat — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:20:46 +0000

How often do you get to hear a virtuoso violinist named Pinchas? Long considered one of the great violinists, along with Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zuckerman has enjoyed a 45 year career, performed with the world’s best orchestras, and recorded over 100 works. He was born in Tel Aviv, and at the age of four, was introduced to the recorder, then the clarinet by his father. The violin did not come until age 8. He was quickly discovered by Isaac Stern and Pablo Casals on their trip to Israel in 1962. From there, he moved to the US and enrolled at Julliard School (of Medicine along with Cosmo Kramer) under the tutelage of the Galamians.

He launched his conducting career in 1970 with the English Chamber Orchestra, where he trained with Bob Cobb, also known as “The Maestro.”. From there, he moved on as Director of the Southbank Festival in London, then director of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra in Minnesota. He had stints in summer festivals in Dallas and Baltimore. He was not in Milpitas or Hoboken.

He was performed over 150 concerts around the world each year. He must have a nice income! He has 21 Grammy nominations and two wins (not a good percentage), along with the King Solomon Award, National Medal of Arts, and the Isaac Stern Award for Artistic Excellence. He also has an honorary doctorate from Brown University, which amounts to a hill of beans. He has collaborated with some of the greats, including Zubin Mehta, Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, and Yefim Bronfman. He is also on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music, and founded the National Arts Centre Young Artists Programme.

His violin is a “Duchkin” guarnerious del Gesu’ from 1742. I am sure it is quite valuable. He lives in the Ottawa area with wife Amanda Forsyth, and has two daughters, both musicians. He was married to famous American actress Tuesday Weld from 1985 to 1998. I wonder what that was all about, as it seems to be as strange a paIring as sugar and wasabi.

Today, at the SF Symphony, he will play and conduct. Today’s program is highly Mozart, featuring Adagio in E major, Rondo in C major, Violin Concerto No. 3, and Symphony No. 40. Sandwiched between in Hindemith’s Trauermusik. The Thursday afternoon matinee is, of course, at the bargain matinée rate for retirees. But not that much of a bargain. Lunch in the City is always a treat too. I will be accompanied by my new Classical Music wife.

Paul Hindemith, a German composer, violinist, and conductor, wrote Trauermusik in 1936. His style is described as neoclassical, but differs from Stravinsky. Hindemith wrote Trauermusik upon the death of King George V of the UK. It literally means funeral or mourning music. I can’t wait to hear it (just kidding). Turns out he has a colorful history with the Nazis. (This was VERY dark)

Mozart, of course, is also a street on which I once resided in Alameda in the 1970s. It was only one block long, between Lincoln and Santa Clara Avenues. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was one of the most influential and prolific composers of the Classical era. Of course, he was familiar with the works of Haydn, Handel, and Bach. He deeply influenced Beethoven, fifteen years his junior.

Wolfie wrote Symphony No. 40 in 1788, one of his only two minor key symphonies. Love those minor keys and chords. The fourth movement is called the Mannheim Rocket. It is written mostly in eight-bar phrases. The four movements are: allegro, andante, menuetto, and finale.

A Day on the Mekong River

golfkat — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:53:29 +0000

We had an excellent French style dinner last night, as we ate at the famous L’Elefant. We are eating at their sister place tonight. Mike said he had the best frog legs he has ever had. I had the duck which was tasty but just a little tough. We also had a great bottle of champagne. Sheri had a nice seabass, and we topped it off with coconut ice cream with chocolate sauce.

We were so tired last night, but we walked the Night Market out front of the hotel. Finally at 10 pm, we called it a night. By the way, we have a mosquito net on our bed, just like the jungle in Peru. After a simple breakfast at our hotel this morning, we headed out. Sheri stayed behind to rest. After we visited the main Buddhist temple, we headed out on a long tail boat up the river. We passed many interesting things, such as a prison, small villages, lots of vegetable patches, gold mining, sand and rock collecting (to make cement), banana farms, and papaya plantations.

We ended up at the famous Buddhist caves, a natural cave found in the sandstone cliffs along the river. We visited both caves, with the great number of steps up to the 2nd one, enough to make a Beerlao taste good. So we proceeded to lunch across the river. We had a nice lunch of sauteed chicken, fried fish, veggie soup, and several Beerlao. We met up with a nice couple from the US that were former Eastern Airline employees. They have traveled the world, as he was a pilot for one of the Saudi sheiks for several years. They have lived in Cairo, Syria, Paris, Rome, Athens, essentially anywhere you can find a Meridien Hotel, as this guy owns 143 of them!!!!

Bidding farewell, we headed back for a faster trip back down the river, stopping only at a small village to see them make paper. We had also stopped on the way up at a Laolao (whiskey) factory, and bought a few bottles. The paper was not much, but when we gave the kids some hair bands and stickers, we were the Pied Pipers of Lao. Amazing how their shyness disappears when you are handing out gifts.

Back to town, we found Sheri resting comfortably, and headed down to the ATM and here to the Internet. With 8700 kip to the dollar, we feel very rich here. We spent millions (of kip)on our dinner last night. We plan to visit the Night Market again today, as well as the Morning market tomorrow, along with a trek up to their mid city temple. It is 400 steps to the top, so we decided to go in the early morning rather than sunset. We cannot help but remark how much better off the people seem here compared to other SE Asian countries, such as Cambodia. We decided it is because of the river and its vast riches. Also, people farm or fish for food, and seem very happy all the time. We should send the youth of today here so they can see all of this.

See you tomorrow. This has been an unexpectedly nice visit to a country we knew very little about.

Carmel Clint, Doris Day, And Others

golfkat — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:45:07 +0000

Most of you know that Dirty Harry, otherwise known as Clint Eastwood, was once the mayor of this tiny hamlet known around the world as Carmel. As locals well know, the walls of various bars and bistros contain many secrets and rumors about Dirty Harry and his antics. He once owned a downtown watering hole, the Hog’s Breath Inn.

The most famous item on the menu is of course, The Dirty Harry Burger. It is a full half pound burger, with optional cheese and/or bacon. Next comes the Dirty Harry Chili Dog, a quarter pound hot dog smothered in chili. Hog’s Baby Back Ribs are the star of the dinner menu, followed by Hog Chops. This consists of TWO center cut pork chops with apple chutney and mashed potatoes. The best deal is the Dirty Harry dinner on the early bird menu, if you dine here.

With so many better places to dine in this area, my suggestion would be to either have a Happy Hour drink and appetizer, or an after dinner drink out on the patio near the fire pits. The place is run over by tourists, crowding to buy souvenir T shirts, and asking where Dirty Harry hangs out. Secret: he does not hang out here. He is more likely to be found in the Carmel Valley or out at Pebble Beach Resort. His red Ferrari may have been parked down on Ocean Avenue today around noon.

When I worked out at the Pebble Beach pharmacy across from the Lodge, we did get visits from famous hotel guests and local residents. This included Clint, the late astronaut Alan Shepherd, Peter Ueberroth, Jack Lemmon, Earl Woods, Glen Campbell, Huey Lewis, Arnold Palmer, Bill Murray, and Kevin Costner. Of course, I was always too busy to notice, and we were told to treat them like everyone else.

You might also get a glimpse of the still attractive Doris Day, as she owns the venerable Cypress Inn in downtown Carmel. The hotel is dog friendly. Every evening, the patrons and hotel guests gather in the bar with their dogs and have cocktails. Needless to say, our little Buddy would be a liability near the occasional stray cat or two. We are afraid to take him in there, for fear of being permanently banished! Most people do not know that Doris Day started out as a singer and dancer. She got the lead in “Romance On the High Seas” in her very first acting audition.

But the best part of downtown Carmel and the Ocean Avenue shopping area are the focus on dogs. It seems everyone has one, brings them to Carmel, and walks them on Ocean Avenue. It is a very dog friendly town, almost everywhere. Jack Lemmon always came to town with his three white poodles. We feel like we are missing out without our Buddy.

The best news may be that I found some neutral color safari clothes for this summer. Most clothing comes in primarily black, followed by many bold colors. The tan section is rather non-existent. But a nice store called “Parts Unknown” in the Carmel shopping mall had a few things. But the best news is that their store manager was in Africa just four years ago, and climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. She is going to send me her photos!!

Another interesting stop for those of your who need nique gifts for children is Thinker Toys, just off of Ocean Avenue. We found some interesting things for my granddaughter Kaila. The window there is adorned with a computer generated, motorized, 6 foot high Ferris wheel made of plastic erector-set like plastic pieces.

Apple Products

golfkat — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 03:15:10 +0000

It all began with an iPhone…

March was when our son celebrated his 17th birthday, and we got him an iPhone. He just loved it. Who wouldn’t?

I celebrated my birthday in July, and my wife made me very happy when she bought me an iPad.

Our daughter’s birthday was in August so we got her an iPod Touch.

My wife celebrated her birthday in September so I got her an iRon.

It was around then that the fight started…

I explained that the iRon can be integrated into the home network with the iWash, iCook and iClean. (This inevitably activates the iNag reminder service.)

I should be out of the hospital next week!!

I hurt!!!!!!

PS: iHurt!!!

Worst Screen Couples EVER

golfkat — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 02:10:37 +0000

Who are the five worst big screen couples ever? Here are some real and imaginary.

Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp in “The Tourist”

Hallie Berry and Billy Bob Thornton in “Monster’s Ball”

Kate Bekinsale and Ben Affleck in “Pearl Harbor”

Sharon Stone and Sylvester Stallone in “The Specialist”

Rosie O’Donnell and Dan Akroyd in “Exit to Eden”

My list:

Carrie Fisher in “The Blues Brothers”

Roger Moore as “James Bond”

Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell in “Seven Year Itch”

Anne Heche and Harrison Ford in “Six Days, Seven Nights”

Jessica Alba and Mike Myers in “The Love Guru”

Julia Roberts or any leading lady with Woody Allen in ‘Any movie you care to name”

Kate Winslet and Caprio Leonardica in “Titanic”

Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise in “Eyes Wide Shut”

Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher in Vegas”

Audry Tautou and Thom Hanks in “The Da Vinci Code”

Feel free to add you own!!!!