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All posts for the month May, 2011

The Greatest Spectacle in Racing: Indy 500

Posted by golfkat on May 28, 2011
Posted in: Sports, Travel. 6 Comments

This will be my fifth and perhaps last trip to the famous Indianapolis 500 Auto Race.  In the midwest, this is a tradition, much like the Kentucky Derby in the Ohio Valley, the Boston Marathon in New England, and the Gay Freedom Day Parade (just kidding!!!!) in San Francisco.  But this really is middle America at its best.  Families of all shapes and ages spend the month out at the race track.  On race day, they begin arriving at sunrise. set up the vans and campers in the infield, and prepare the first of many meals throughout the day.  The female family members are equally represented, and just as knowledgeable about Indy car racing and their favorite drivers.
 
Though this town is owned by Colts quarterback, Peyton Manning, the Indy 500 is like a religion here.  Every one and every business is geared for the race weekend.  It starts at an early age, with school age kids wearing Indy 500 T shirts.  Many fans have a stop watch tied around their neck.  Almost all of them have binoculars, several layers of sunscreen, and a large beer belly hanging out of a faded tank top.
 
Some of the many events to look forward to besides the big race are the Parade the day before, the Indy 500 Museum, the sound of 33 cars starting their Honda engines, and a large barbecued turkey leg.  Every year, I ask what happens to the rest of the turkey.  No one seems to know, and certainly no one cares.
 
The flight from San Francisco, via O’Hare in Chicago, and on to Indy in a puddle jumper, is always full of race fans.  I always rent a car, just for convenience, and to help handle the hot and humid weather.  But on race day, it is best to take a Race Day shuttle bus from any one of several downtown locations.  With a crowd of around 350,000, there will be a some traffic, and lots of drunk drivers.
 
 The most popular driver, Danica Patrick
 
We are actually celebrating the Centennial of the race from 2009 to 2011.  The track opened in 1909, and the first race was held in 2011.  Three Indiana businessmen pooled their resources to build the speedway as an auto testing ground.  And as most race fans know, the first race was won by Ray Harroun in a Marmon Wasp on May 30, 1911.  He had the first rear view mirror, primarily because he did not have a mechanic riding with him to serve as a lookout!
 
Among the many traditions are the singing of “Back Home Again in Indiana” by Jim Nabors.  Florence Henderson is always here to sing “God Bless America”.  And the Purdue University Marching Band plays the National Anthem every year.  Gasoline Alley is the nickname for the garages that house the race cars, and their team of support staff, spare parts, and secret weapons.  The Pagoda, finished in 2000, is a symbol of the Speedway, as much as the finish line of the remaining bricks.  It stands 13 stories tall.  The yard of bricks at the finish line is all that remains of 3.2 million street paving bricks. 
 
The winner’s drink of milk is also an Indy 500 tradition.  Three time winner Louis Meyer drank a bottle of buttermilk in victory lane in 1936.  A dairy industry executive vowed the make the bottle of milk a yearly tradition. 
 
The Tony Hulman Family purchased the track in 1945.  The Hulman’s made their fortune in the Clabber Girl Baking Powder Company.  By 1955, chief announcer Sid Collins coined the phrase, “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing”.  It was not until 1953 that the race was covered in its entirety on the radio.  The track is 2.5 miles long, with 5/8 mile straight-aways, 1/4 mile turns, and 1/8 mile chutes between turns 1 and 2, and 3 and 4.  The banking of the track is at only 9 degrees and 12 minutes.  Three drivers have won the race four times: 

A. J. Foyt, Rick Mears, and Al Unser.  The youngest winner was Troy Ruttman, at the age of 22.
 
Five women have raced in the Indy 500.  The first was Janet Guthrie, followed by Sarah Fisher, my favorite driver, Danica Patrick, and Milka Duno (a real joke of a driver).  This year, I would expect about two or three more to join this elite club.  The last driver to win as a rookie was Helio Castroneves in 2001.  The race is filled with a grid of 33 cars, or eleven rows of three, based on qualifying times during the month of May.  The fastest lap ever turned on the Speedway of 239.260 was by Arie Luyendyk in 1996 during a practice lap.
 
As I have mentioned before, I do have ties to this race.  First, my Dad came here twice in the Fifties when he was alive.  He loved racing, and I first visited here to honor him.  I wish I could have brought him here now.  Second, the two-time winner of the 1953 and 1954 races was Bill Vukovich from Fresno.  He grew up down the street from my Mom’s family in Sanger, CA.  He was known as the “Mad Russian”, and drove fast and aggressively, perhaps leading to his death while leading the race in 1955.
 
The National Anthem will be sung by Kelly Clarkson and Seal.  Jim Nabors will do “Back Home Again in Indiana”, and Flo Henderson will do “America, the Beautiful”.  It will be a great weekend for racing.  Forget those bumper cars called Nascar, this is the real deal!!!

Beer at Ballgames, An American Tradition

Posted by golfkat on May 21, 2011
Posted in: Cultures, Entertainment, Sports. Leave a comment
Having a beer and a hot dog at a baseball game is one of the great American traditions. The beer is almost always overpriced.  It never tastes like bottled beer unless they pour it from a bottle, like at Yankee Stadium in New York last week.  Most of the time, it tastes like watered down, stale, cheap beer.
 
In days gone by, beer companies were one of the major sponsors of baseball, both at the ballpark and on television.  The St. Louis Cardinals were owned by the Busch Family that owns Anheuser Busch.  The Saturday Game of the Week was presented by Falstaff Beer.  And the Colorado Rockies play in a new stadium in Denver called Coors Field.  And the team from Milwaukee calls themselves the Brewers.  At one time, the team from Houston called themselves the Colt 45s, perhaps the gun rather than the beer.
 
 A cool one!
 
As far as calling the beer sales a scam, take a look at San Diego.  It costs $8.50 for a beer, for one of three domestic draft brands, Miller Lite, Miller Genuine Draft, and Budweiser Select.  They only contain 3.2 percent alcohol by weight.  In a bar, most beer will have an alcohol content of 4%, while light beers run 3.4%.  Of course, San Diego Padre management says it is part of their “beer management plan” to keep patrons from overindulging.  I say it is part of a plan to maximize profits at the expense of loyal baseball fans.
 
In reality, 3.2 beer goes way back to the days of Prohibition.  Before 1933, Congress allowed for 3.2 beer in an attempt to jump-start the economy.  Can you imagine baseball back then without a beer?  Even after repeal, six states, Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Utah, continue to have 3.2 beer.  So, for me, that means avoiding Twins, Rockies, Royals, and Cardinals baseball games.
 
But beware the baseball beer scam.  Someone did some beer research, lucky guy, at Dodger Stadium recently.  These were his findings, assuming he did not drink all the evidence.
 

Ballpark Beer Chart
Size Price Volume in Cups Volume in Ounces
Small $6 2 1/4 cups 18 ounces
Regular $8 2 1/2 cups 20 ounces
Large $10 3 1/4 cups 26 ounces

 
Nationwide, the average per capita beer consumption is 30.6 gallons for the population age 21 and older.  If you eliminate people who do not drink, minors, recovering alcoholics, and me, that consumption level is truly remarkable.  In California, it is slightly lower at 26.4 gallons, perhaps because of our great wines.
 
Of course, we do not even come close to other countries in terms of beer consumption.  Numero uno is, of course, Ireland at 155 liters.  Second is Germany, and third is Austria.  I would have placed Arkansas or Alabama first or second, ahead of an entire country of drunks!  Actually, the US is ranked at #8.  I am sure ballpark beer is a good part of that.  Per capita drinking of alcohol in the US is highest in Alaska and Maine, where the incidence of alcoholism and mental illness is the highest!
 
A recent study of beer consumption at two major league baseball games reveals 41% of patrons tested positive for alcohol.  The highest consumption was in the 20 to 35-year-old cohort.  10.8% of this group had blood alcohol levels above 0.08%, the legal limit. 
 
For myself, I see drinking beer at the game very expensive.  It also increases the need for extra runs to the little boys room.  I see no advantage to drinking a large amount of beer, unless the beer vendor is very attractive.
 
Paul Gage and Miller Lite Topless Body Painted ModelsI have yet to find them!!!!!
 
 
 
I rest my case (of beer). 

Booze and Flooze of the Bay to Breakers

Posted by golfkat on May 17, 2011
Posted in: Entertainment, Sports. Leave a comment

Having run the Bay to Breakers Race so many times, I cannot imagine this year’s “rules” prohibiting alcohol, nudity, and floats.  Talk about ruining an institution, a living testament to all of us who have ever run in this great race.  OK, I will dismiss the floats.  But nudity and alcohol go together like Laurel and Hardy!  Since I have never been a real spectator, I was planning to take BART into the City and observe the festivities for the first time.  But the cold and rain has forced me to stay home and watch the Giants and Cubs game of TV.
 
When running the race, the biggest problem is to avoid falling or running into someone.  It is rather difficult to catch a glimpse at interesting costumes, or lack thereof.  As far as alcohol, I found it detrimental to my running, but excellent for an after race celebration.  A cold beer after the rather hit and miss race regimen is quite welcome.  Most of the time, I preferred water.
 
I have run the race both as a solo runner, and with a group of friends.  Needless to say, it is rather hard to keep a group of more than two runners together, when some of the races had over 100,000 registered runners, centipedes, dogs, and floats.  In most cases, many runners were yet to cross the start line by the time the elite runners finished the race.  And I was never able to find myself on television reruns.

 See me there?  I ran about a dozen times in the 80s and 90s.
 
My fondest memory of this race was in 1986.  My ex brother-in-law had been training for the race the year before.  He jumped off of the roof of his home and broke his ankle.  A year later, we ran the race together.  It was the pinnacle of his recovery!
 
One year, I ran with some friends, a bunch of good ol’ boys from Hotlanta and Little Rock.  Talk about a wacky way to spend a Sunday morning.  First, we stayed up most of the night before drinking in their hotel suite.  Then Frank and Jerry went to breakfast with me, and tossed their cookies at the start line of the race.  Somehow, they finished the race, badly dehydrated, and in need of a celebratory beer or five!  They went right back into party mode until I dropped them at the airport late in the afternoon.
 
The best costume(s) I ever saw were a pair of runners, one dressed like a carrot, in full orange with a bushy, green top, being chased by a white rabbit, who just cannot quite reach the carrot.  The worst costume is a tie among many, but the one I remember is gross.  The guy (I assume it was a guy), was dressed as a penis.  His prop was a can (or several cans) of shaving cream.  I need not tell you the rest.
 
I never wore a costume, though I was invited to join some of my clients in pushing a hospital bed through the race.  I felt it was difficult enough to get myself through the race, much less push a bed and help a dozen drunks stay on course.  Of course, the nurses were dressed rather scantily with band aids in appropriate places, and the docs only wore red jock straps and

.  I am not sure if they made it onto local TV or not.

But this is a uniquely San Francisco and Bay Area event.  It was always the most enjoyable race of the year.  One of the biggest beneficiaries of the race were the homeless.  As each of us crossed the start line, we shed our jackets and sweatshirts, tossed them on the ground or onto the sidewalk.  The homeless would come along and pick up the discarded clothes.  The same went for various snacks, sports drinks and water bottles.

The New and Improved Yankee Stadium

Posted by golfkat on May 13, 2011
Posted in: Sports, Travel, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

Perhaps the pinnacle of sports stadiums in the world, Yankee Stadium stands as a monument to the mighty New York Yankees.  The world’s most successful sports franchise (27 world championships) has a new ballpark across the street from the old 1923 Yankee Stadium.  It just opened on April 2, 2009, and incorporates many of the architectural features of the old stadium.  It was none other than “The Boss”, former Yankee owner, George Steinbrenner, who led the campaign for the new stadium back in the 1980s.
 
The stadium’s exterior is made up of 11,000 pieces of Indiana limestone, granite, and pre-cast concrete.  The design closely mirrors the old stadium, with seats laid out in a similar pattern, with capacity at 51,000.  There are 56 luxury suites located throughout the stadium.  Perhaps the most recognizable architecture in the stadium is the roof with the replica of the freeze that was the trademark of the old ballpark. 
 
File:Yankee-stadium-frieze.jpg Famous roof
 
When I was growing up, I became a big fan of the New York Yankees.  The Saturday game of the week, sponsored by Falstaff Beer was the only televised game.  Most games were Yankee games, and the famous stadium was easily recognizable on our old black and white televisions.  I became familiar with all of the star back then, like Whitey Ford, Mickey Mantle, Moose Skowron, and Yogi Berra.  Later, when the expansion Angels were formed in Los Angeles, I would always prefer to see them play the mighty Yankees.
 
But it is Monument Park, in center field that is one of the main attractions for me.  It features the retired numbers of Yankee players, along with plaques and monuments dedicated to distinguished Yankees.  Besides a Yankee Museum on the site, there are also a Hard Rock Cafe, and a NYY Steak house with visits from celebrity chefs.  The building also has 227 miles of wired ethernet cable, with 1100 high-definition monitors within the stadium. 
 
My parents visited the old Yankee Stadium in the 60s.  My Dad took the bus back to Manhattan from the Bronx, quite an experience for some country folks from California.  I plan to take the subway, and complete my trifecta of baseball stadiums.  And I will cheer for Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, and Jorge Posada, the three old-time Yankee stalwarts.  They are but mere shadows to greatest Yankees, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Joe DiMaggio.  But they are today’s Yankee heroes.
 
Do you recall that George Costanza became the “Assistant to the Traveling Secretary” of the Yankees?  Do you remember George had lunch everyday with “The Boss” since they both liked calzone?  And that George had the audacity to build a little cove for napping under his desk?  Or that he seduced his assistant, and promised her a salary raise during the heat of passion?  How did the Yankees win all of those World Series with George in the organization.
 
The topper to the story is the $5 ticket I bought at the ballpark this eve.  I spent more on one beer and a Nathan’s dog!!!!

The Acela Express (Beantown to Big Apple)

Posted by golfkat on May 12, 2011
Posted in: Travel. Leave a comment

How did the northeast corridor get a high-speed rail line before California?  The Acela Express or simply, Acela, is Amtrak’s high-speed rail service between Washington, DC, and Boston, with stops in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City.  The technology that enables the faster speed is called tilting.  It enables the train to travel at higher speeds on the mostly curved track, by lowering lateral centrifugal forces., based on the concept of banked turns. 

AmtrakAcela2035atNewHavenUnion.jpg
 
It will be interesting to compare it to the Shinkansen in Japan. While the Acela highest speed is 150 mph, the average speed is less than half of that.  Business travelers make up the majority of passengers, having taken over half of the market share of air and train travelers between Washington, DC and Boston.  And on our route between Boston and New York City, the market share is 37% of the air and train travel.  Last year, Acela carried 3.2 million passengers and is one of the few Amtrak routes that turns a profit. 
 

 
The Acela Express consists of two power cars, a cafe car, a first class car, and four business class cars.  There are 44 seats in First Class, and 260 Business Class seats in each train set.  Business Class has four seats across (two seats across on each side), and four-seat tables.  First Class has three seats One seat on one side, two on the other) across, and four seat tables.  Best of all, the car adjacent to First Class is designated the quiet car where passengers are asked to refrain from loud talking and mobile phone conversations.  I wish this were the case on BART, and other public forms of transportation.  First Class also offers a free newspaper, hot towel service, and access to ClubAcela Lounges in the station.
 
The train staff is only one engineer, one conductor, and as few as one assistant conductor.  But best of all, the Acela has two First Class attendants, and a Cafe Car attendant.  The Cafe Car has a buffet service, and on some trains, an attendant will also provide a steward service with refreshments throughout the train.   First Class passengers are served meals at their seats.  Wireless internet service began in 2009, initially free, with a roll out to other Amtrak trains over a five-year period.  I did not have wi-fi on my trip from Chicago to the Bay Area.
 
File:Acela First Class.jpg Looks like First Class on the plane!
 
So, now the big question is a comparison of fares, time schedules, and access on either end of the trip.  From Back Bay, Boston to Penn Station in New York, the one way Business Class fare is $99, with an additional $74 for First Class.  The highest is $115, available at some parts of the schedule. Both ends of the trip are near public transportation, subways, trains and buses.  A typical airfare from Boston to New York on United Airlines is $398.  The elapsed time in the air is about 80 minutes compared to 2 hours and forty minutes on the Acela.  So, there is a trade-off with greater time, but less expense for the Acela.
 
So, Hello New York City!  Do I want to wake up in a city that never sleeps?
 
Side bar:  All of the good restaurants in the area were packed, with at least one hour waits.  Thanks to our exposure to Middle Eastern food, we walked right into an Indian place called Tantric, and enjoyed a great meal.  Thanks to our friends, Z and Navid!

Take Me to Fenway, Teddy Ballgame!

Posted by golfkat on May 9, 2011
Posted in: Entertainment, Sports. Leave a comment

One of the greatest hitters of all time roamed the short left field of Fenway Park in the 40s and 50s.  He was Ted Williams, the last of the great hitters, a proud man who resented sport writers as much as his Salvation Army mother.  I have always wanted to go to a baseball game at Fenway.  I have been to Wrigley Field in Chicago on previous occasions.  It was baseball at its best, day time only, and close to the field.  I could actually see the ball curve or knuckle, hear the players and umpires argue and talk, and see the sweat on their brow.  So, on this trip to Boston, I am attending a Red Sox game at fabled Fenway Park.
 
 Ted Williams, aka “The Splendid Splinter”
 
Fenway Park has been home to the Boston Red Sox since it opened in 1912.  It is the oldest baseball stadium still in use today.  Though it has been remodeled and renovated many times over the years, the famous Green Monster remains in left field.  Though the wall is slightly over 37 feet tall, it sits only 310 to 315 feet from home plate.  This Green Monster serves as an inviting target to right hand power hitters.  It also serves as a challenge to left fielders, to play the bounces and caroms off the wall.
 
File:Green Monster.jpg

A manual scoreboard still remains in the wall, now constructed of plastic over the wooden wall.  It did not get painted green until 1947.  The Green Monster is famous for preventing line drive that would be home runs in most other ball parks.  It is especially difficult on left-handed pitchers.  Up to 274 fans can be seated in “Monster” sets atop the wall and scoreboard.  The official capacity of Fenway Park is 39,928.  All ballparks built after 1958 are required to have foul lines longer than 325 feet.  They say the narrow foul ball territory adds from 5 to 7 points to batting averages. 
 
I remember Fenway and the Red Sox mostly for the “Curse of the Bambino”.  It began when the Red Sox traded Babe Ruth (aka The Bambino) to the rival New York Yankees in 1919.  Before that, they had won five world championships.  From 1918 to 2004, the “Curse” had taken on a life of its own.  In game six of the 1986 World Series, the Red Sox came within one out of winning the World Series.  Many think the “Curse” allowed a ground ball to go between first baseman, Bill Buckner’s legs, allowing the Mets to win game 6, and move on to game 7 for the big win. 
 
 George Herman Ruth, “The Babe”
 
I consider this visit to Fenway Park part of my baseball trifecta.  This trifecta consists of Chicago Cub’s Wrigley Field, Fenway, and on to the New York Yankee’s new Yankee Stadium, which I will visit next week.  Cross it off of the old “Water Pail” list, Jack and Morgan!

Been to Beantown, Benny?

Posted by golfkat on May 6, 2011
Posted in: Cultures, Entertainment, Travel. Leave a comment
 Of all the cities on the east coast, I enjoy Boston perhaps more than Washington, DC.  Much like most of the eastern seaboard cities, public transportation allows for easy local access to the hotel, restaurants, and points of interest.  Along with freedom and democracy, Boston is also the birthplace of American transportation.  It all started with a family operated ferry business.  The transit system is the oldest, and the fourth largest in the country.  Mass transportation began in 1631 when Boston was a peninsula connected to the mainland by a narrow strip of land that is now the South End.  People rarely went beyond the borders of their neighborhoods.
 
Thomas Williams began what was probably the first chartered transportation service on the continent; a ferry from Chelsea to Charlestown and on to Boston. For almost the next two hundred years, sail and row boats carried freight and passengers on the three-mile run across Boston Harbor, from the foot of Hanover Street to Winnisimet Street, Chelsea. After the revolution, more settlers came to the Boston peninsula.  Landfill projects began and bridges were built.  In 1793, a stagecoach service began.  In the 1820s, an omnibus, with lengthwise seats, could carry larger numbers of people.
 
In 1856, the first horse-drawn rail car service began, despite objections to laying rail on city streets.  By the late 1800s, there were twenty different horse-car companies offering service.  In 1887, they were consolidated into one company, the West End Street Railway. But taking care of 8000 horses, and the resulting manure became a city problem.  So, in 1889, the first electric streetcar line began.  Oliver Wendell Holmes even wrote a poem about it.  And again, by 1911, they were consolidated into one company, the Bay State Street Railway.  After bankruptcy in 1918, Bay State became the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway.  It was taken over by the MBTA in 1972. 
 
Chronicle Transit
 
But Boston’s streets were clogged with streetcars.  A debate raged about elevated railways versus subway systems. Eventually, the Boston Elevated Railway company was commissioned, and began operation in the late 1890s.  The Boston “El” innovated the articulating or bending (in the middle) streetcar to handle the narrow, twisting streets in the Hub area.  In 1922, Boston’s first motor bus route was established.  This was followed in 1936 by the first trackless lines.  The development of automobiles and better roads proved to rob them of ridership.
 
The Boston Elevated Railway was absorbed in to Metropolitan Transit Authority in 1947.  In 1957, a rapid transit line began on abandoned Boston and Albany commuter rail lines.  After years of changes, and challenges, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority was formed in 1964.  The authority expanded service from the original fourteen cities, to 78 municipalities.  The “T’, with the help of Federal funds, began an aggressive capital expansion and improvement program.  The system was strengthened by various legislative and Federally mandated programs.  The MBTA remains the 5th largest mass transit system in the country.
 
So finally, here is the famous story of Charlie: 
 
The well-known folk song about Charlie on the M.T.A. is actually entitled “M.T.A.,” which stands for Metropolitan Transit Authority, the predecessor of today′s MBTA.  The song was written as a campaign song for the 1949 Boston mayoral race of Walter A. O′Brien, Jr.  O′Brien was the candidate of the Progressive Party, and the song was meant to call attention O′Brien′s opposition to the recent fare increase, which saw subway riders charged an extra nickel to exit trains at stops above ground.  That′s the reason that the last verse of the song goes:

 Now, citizens of Boston, don′t you think it is a scandal / That the people have to pay and pay? / Join Walter A. O′Brien to fight the fare increase / Get poor Charlie off that MTA!

Most of the lyrics of the song were written by Jackie Steiner, a young, O′Brien supporter and classically trained vocalist who had just discovered folk music.  Bess Hawes, another O′Brien supporter and member of a famous folk song-collecting family, contributed the song′s most intriguing verse:

Charlie′s wife comes down to the Scollay Square Station / Every day at a quarter past two / And through the open window she hands Charlie a sandwich / As his train goes rumbling through.

 Hawes also chose the tune, setting the lyrics to the melody of a song she had sung as a member of the Almanac Singers called “The Train That Never Returned,” which itself was based on a Civil War song, “The Ship That Never Returned”.  In 1959, the Kingston Trio recorded the song, and the album actually reached #1 on the charts.

 

 

Here are the lyrics to M.T.A.

 Let me tell you the story of a man named Charlie
On a dark and fateful day
He put ten cents in his pocket and he kissed his loving family
And he went to ride the MTA.
Did he ever return?  No, he never returned
And his fate is still unlearned
He may ride forever ‘neath the streets of Boston
He′s the man who never returned.
Charlie handed in his dime at the Kendall Square Station,
And he changed for Jamaica Plain
When he got there the conductor told him, ‘One more nickel′
Charlie couldn′t get off the train.
As his train rolled on through greater Boston
Charlie looked around and sighed
“Well, I′m sore and disgusted and I′m absolutely busted
I guess this is my last long ride.”
Now all night long Charlie rode through the tunnels
Saying, “What will become of me?
Oh, how can I afford to see my sister in Chelsea
Or my brother in Roxbury?”
“I can′t help,” said the conductor
“I′m just working for a living but I sure agree with you
For the nickels and dimes you′ll be spending in Boston
You′d be better off in Timbuktu.”
Charlie′s wife goes down to the Scollay Square Station
Every day at a quarter past two
And through the open window she hands Charlie a sandwich
As his train goes rumbling through.
Now, citizens of Boston, don′t you think it is a scandal
That the people have to pay and pay?
Join Walter A. O′Brien and fight the fare increase
Get poor Charlie off that MTA!

The point to this long story is this.  The MBTA is a great, easy to use, and handy public transportation system.  Use it when you visit Boston, as there is no need to rent a car.  Oh, and why didn’t Charlie’s wife just hand him a nickel?
 

 

 

 

True Grits

Posted by golfkat on May 2, 2011
Posted in: Cultures, Food. 1 Comment

Having been all over the United States on business and pleasure, I am still perplexed about the popularity of grits in the American diet.  Grits actually had their origin with the Native Americans, common in the southern U.S., and often served for breakfast.  Grits are made from coarsely ground corn.  The word grits is derived from the German “grutze”, meaning crushed or coarsely ground corn.  Others say the word came from the Old English, “grytt” or “greot”, meaning something ground.   Grits are similar to other thick corn-based porridges from around the world, such as polenta or farina.
 
The basic grits recipe is one part grits, and two to three parts boiling water, seasoned with butter and salt.  It only requires 15-20 minutes of cooking until the water is absorbed and the grits reach a porridge-like consistency.  Of course, the grits expand as they cook, and required constant stirring to prevent lumping and clumping.  Some areas of the country add grated cheese on top, while others top it with sausage or ham (red-eye gravy).  Local lore says closer to the Mason-Dixon Line means sugar is added instead of salt. 
 
The only form of grits that I can tolerate are the fried grits.  It is fried into a firm block in a pan of grease, butter, or better yet, bacon fat. At this point, a pat or two of butter, and a gallon of maple syrup are poured on top to make it palatable, in my opinion.  A side of bacon or sausage is a welcome relief from the monotony of this rather bland and tasteless concoction.
 
Grits1.jpg It looks like mush!
 
Of course, grits are considered an institution in the south.  Recently, in Charleston, we had shrimp and grits as an appetizer at a seafood restaurant.  I ended up eating only the shrimp.  The corn is dried on the cob, then removed, and soaked in a solution of baking soda, lime or wood ash.  This causes the hulls to soften and swell.  The kernels are hulled and degermed using friction, then dried.  Grits can be ground and made into tortillas.  However, the alkaline soaking process unbinds the niacin from the corn, and changes the protein balance.  The result is an increase in lysine and tryptophan in the grits.  Pellagra, a niacin and tryptophan deficiency, was common where corn was the main source of food. Somehow, civilizations discovered the process that made corn a more balanced source of nutrition. 
 
Some of the other things that go with grits are sweet ice tea.  Grits are commonly paired with cheese, onion, garlic, shrimp, sausage, and butter.  To a Southerner, eating grits is a religion. A breakfast without grits is truly unthinkable.  A true grit lover would not even consider instant or quick-cooking grits.   When paired with shrimp or sausage, grits can be part of lunch or dinner.  We had a sweet version of grits with sugar, cherry preserves, and syrup up in Sonoma at the Fremont Diner.  Three-fourths of the grits served in the US are from a belt of the coastal states stretching from the Carolinas to Louisiana, also known as the “Grits Belt”. 
 
 Shrimp and grits
 
bowl of gritsJimmy crack corn, an’ I don’t care
Jimmy crack corn, an’ I don’t care
Jimmy crack corn, an’ I don’t care
The master’s gone away.

American folk song called “The Blue Tail Fly,”
by Daniel Decatur Emmett (1815-1904), American musician and songwriter, 1846.

  
Grits can be considered one of the first truly American foods.  When the colonists landed in Jamestown in 1607, they were offered bowls of this boiled corn substance by the Indians.  The Indians taught the colonists how to thresh the hulls from dried corn.  In 1976, South Carolina declared grits the official food of the state:  
 

Whereas, throughout its history, the South has relished its grits, making them a symbol of its diet, its customs, its humor, and its hospitality, and whereas, every community in the State of south Carolina used to be the site of a grist mill and every local economy in the State used to be dependent on its product; and whereas, grits has been a part of the life of every South Carolinian of whatever race, background, gender, and income; and whereas, grits could very well play a vital role in the future of not only this State, but also the world, if as The Charleston News and Courier proclaimed in 1952: ‘An inexpensive, simple, and thoroughly digestible food, [grits] should be made popular throughout the world. given enough of it, the inhabitants of planet Earth would have nothing to fight about. A man full of [grits] is a man of peace.’
 
Such is life.