Quote of the Week...from Will Self

Always carry a notebook.  And I mean always. The short-term memory only retains information for three minutes; unless it is committed to paper you can lose an idea forever.              ---Will Self

Will Self is an English journalist and writer...no, I've yet to read any of his output (other than the above quote).  I already follow his advice to carry a notebook...well, in my case a memo pad as well as a slew of folded-up pieces of paper that tend to get misplaced.  I think I have a reasonably good memory, but it frustrates me when I am searching my recent past for details of experiences or thoughts that seem to have slipped away from me...can I ever retrieve them?  For example, the cruise that Melissa and I went on earlier this month started in the early afternoon of the 2nd, on Saturday, and ended a week later in the morning on the 9th.  Let's see...today's the 15th so my experiences should still be fresh in my memory.  But, of course, some memories tend to quickly fade while some others tend to undergo some distortion.  Today I'd like to see how much I can remember about what I ate during this Royal Caribbean cruise from Tampa to the western Caribbean and back.  Turns out there was a lot to remember...

Bagel/Cream Cheese

2 Glazed Donuts

2 Chocolate Frosted Donuts

3 Bananas

Orange

Pancakes

French Toast

Scrambled Eggs

Grits

Several Pepperoni Pizza Slices

Several Caesar Salads

Greek Salad

2 Baked Onion Soups

Several Ice Cream Cones

Several Chocolate Bar Cake Slices

Tiramisu

Several Beef Tacos

Nacho Cheese Platter

Lots of Bacon

Lots of Breakfast Sausage

Several Rolls with Butter

Crab Cakes

Seafood Bakes

Minestrone Soup

Lasagna

Lemon-Baked Cod

Cheesecake

Vegan Tofu Cheesecake

Apple Crumble Dessert

Braised Lamb Rogan Josh

Mutton Entreé

Enchilada

Macaroni and Cheese

Spaghetti Bolognese

Sounds like a lot, but I know there's a lot more food that I stuffed into my mouth during this outing but simply cannot remember.  But I wonder if, had I not stopped at this juncture today to recall as much as I could, would most of these memories also have slipped by the wayside.  I don't know if I'd like Will Self's writing...maybe I'll venture to find out before long.  But since I wrote about him on this blog it is tantamount to using a notebook, isn't it, and that makes the reference to him much less likely to be forgotten.  On the other hand, I can't just go around constantly writing down everything I experience, either. By the way, my favorite dinner on the cruise was on "Italian Night", when they served minestrone soup for the appetizer, lasagna as the main entreé, and tiramisu for dessert.  Nothing I hadn't had before, but the ship's kitchen produced the very best of each of these I had ever eaten...

Just Finished Reading Carbs and Cadavers by Ellery Adams

A while back I delved into the literary subgenre of "cozy mysteries", that is, short novels...usually combined into different series...that are relatively light reading and usually carry some sort of theme appealing to various tastes.  I wasn't too impressed with what I read back then but decided to give it another try with a new author.  Ellery Adams is the pseudonym of prolific cozy mystery writer Jennifer Stanley, also writing under the name J.B. Stanley.  I just finished reading the first book in her Supper Club Mystery series, titled Carbs and Cadavers. After his divorce, college English professor James Henry has returned to his small (fictional) hometown of Quincy's Gap, in western Virginia, to assume head librarian duty there and live with and care for his recently widowed father Jackson.  James feels he has a problem with food, chiefly cheese puffs, to which he seems addicted.  He becomes acquainted with and befriends others in this small community, and they decide to start an informal weight loss support group called the Supper Club, in which they would encourage one another and hold themselves accountable for eating better.  Thet's one side of the story...the other is a murder mystery when an arrogant young man is found dead with a suspicious prescription drug in his system...from there the police hastily jump to conclusions and arrest the wrong suspect.  This involves James, his potential love interest Lucy, and the rest of the group in the mystery...which naturally ends up as a perilous climactic situation.  I felt that Stanley (or Adams, if you will) had her heart in the story and did a great job of developing its characters.  And she exhibited a lot of good-naturedness as well...but if you're particularly sensitive to "body shaming" you might not like this tale about people possessing the virtues of humility and humor working together to make each other's lives better. Since I've done my share during my adult life of yo-yoing up and down the scales, I identified with the characters and enjoyed Carbs and Cadavers...and plan to embark soon on the second Supper Club Mystery installment...  

Great Old TV Episodes...from Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown

I was dismayed three years ago when I found out that internationally renowned chef Anthony Bourdain had committed suicide in France while filming a new episode for his acclaimed CNN series Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown.  The episode I'm discussing today, PUNJAB, is from the series' third season, originally aired in April, 2014. Bourdain examined the northwest Indian state's cuisine...which he said is what most the West think of when considering "Indian food"...by eating from street-side stands (Bourdain loved these wherever in the world he traveled) as well as restaurant food and "high dining".  He went into geography, politics, history and religion: the area is predominantly of the Sikh faith and borders on Pakistan, which was artificially divided from India in 1947 to reduce mass casualties...which happened anyway when mass migrations of Muslims and Hindus across the new border drawn by a British official produced essentially the civil war that they wanted to avert when Britain granted independence. The border between the two fiercely belligerent neighbors is tight and strict...yet farm-owners on the Indian side are allowed to work their fields on the Pakistani side! After showing the Punjab's capital city of Amritsar, he took a train eastward (and upward) to the base of the Himalayas, ending in the old British colonial outpost of Shimla, where the buildings look more as if they belonged in England than India.  Bourdain also showed that dancing is a very big deal in India...there was plenty of that, too, in this episode. And other than the dinner he ate at Shimla when he tried their mutton and a chicken meal at an Amritsar restaurant, all the food in this episode was vegetarian...Bourdain, more a meat-eater, nevertheless stated that were Western vegetarian menus like that he which experienced in Punjab, he would be much more conducive to it.  Every single episode of this Parts Unknown series was interesting to me, although at times I felt Bourdain got a little too political with his emphasis (as, for example, in the Russia episode).  Still, it was a personal journey, and to each his own, I say.  I'm still sad over Bourdain's death, which apparently was due to long-standing recurring bouts of severe depression... 

Enjoyed Father's Day With My Family

I enjoyed a blessed, fun Father's Day at home today with my wonderful wife Melissa and our two grown children, Will and Rebecca.  Will visited for a while in the afternoon and the rest of us enjoyed watching our extended-version DVD of Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring together this evening...after eating a scrumptious meal that Rebecca prepared herself.  I love my family and thank them for such a great day...

Some Places We Visited in Washington, D.C. in October

The other night I was watching C-Span as they replayed the laying in state of the body of President George H.W. Bush in the Capitol Rotunda.  Having just visited there for the first time six weeks ago, it was interesting seeing all these famous public figures gathered in the same room I was just standing in. As a matter of fact, whenever I now see on TV anything concerning Washington D.C. I try to discern exactly what it is they're depicting...this is especially true for the news networks like CNN as they often present a live background of some part of the city, usually around the Capitol building or the White House.  Our brief visit there just wasn't enough to explore the many sights and attractions...aside from the Capitol, we did take that nighttime open-air bus tour and, on the last full day, explored two museums and a garden along Independence Avenue west of the Capitol.  At the close of our earlier Capitol visit late in the afternoon, Melissa noticed there was a tunnel linking it to the Library of Congress across the street...but the workers there were closing the doors for the day.  We rushed over and just got in, quickly walking down the tunnel while the "closer" kept ushering us and other lagging tourists onward.  I'm glad we got in: the Library of Congress is not only is a famous repository of books, but it is also a great historical museum...we strolled the exhibits, many of which displayed original copies of centuries-old literature describing the exploration and settlement of the New World.  That's a place I'd like to revisit to explore further...unfortunately, at the time I was experiencing a horrific toothache that interfered with my enjoyment of the library but not my appreciation of it.  I got that toothache taken care of the next morning with a root canal at a dentist only a short walking distance from our hotel...I was somehow able to dissociate the chronic pain from our touring, a talent that I had believed only Mister Spock of Star Trek fame possessed...

We naturally missed most of the many Smithsonian museums in town, but did manage to tour through the two nearest ones to our hotel, lying adjacent to one another on Independence Avenue: the National Museum of the American Indian and the National Air and Space Museum.  Both were interesting, although I was surprised to be more drawn to the one about the American Indian...that's another place that merits a return visit.  One funny experience was at lunchtime at their cafeteria, with different stations offering native cuisine from different areas in the Western Hemisphere.  The longest line of customers by far was at the Plains counter, where they were gung ho on serving beef: plate after plate I saw featured cheeseburgers and fries!  The Air and Space Museum had a series of terrific exhibits about the history of aviation, in particular the planes used by both sides in World War I & II, with some of them on display within this gigantic building.  I thought the "space" part of the museum well-exhibited, too, although it saddened me that there was very, very, little to see of what we've been doing lately in space...hopefully with the projects to send people to Mars in the near future, this will all change...

Before visiting those two Smithsonian museums on Friday, Melissa and I strolled through the United States Botanic Garden, which featured plants from all over the world, many of them responsible for producing the food and drink we consume.  I'm sadly a near-complete ignoramus when it comes to botany, but I was intrigued by what I saw there...I especially liked all of those weird types of cacti.  The photo I inserted at the beginning is of a section in this garden...

No doubt about it: I liked Washington, D.C., even if all the politicians I might have recognized were out of town at the time of our visit.  I also liked their terrific underground transit system, the Metro, and noticed that they also have a very good 24/7 bus system...a most pedestrian-friendly city!  I think the next time I visit I'd like to try out some areas north of the Mall, including some of this city's recommended eating places...oh, and I think I'd like to jog the perimeter of the Mall as well...

Quote of the Week...from Anthony Bourdain

If I'm an advocate for anything, it's to move. As far as you can, as much as you can. Across the ocean, or simply across the river. The extent to which you can walk in someone else's shoes or at least eat their food, it's a plus for everybody. Open your mind, get up off the couch, move.
                                                                   ---Anthony Bourdain

I am deeply saddened to read this morning of the death...apparently from suicide...of renowned chef, traveler, and television star Anthony Bourdain.  CNN News, which features his long-running, award-winning show Parts Unknown and in which Bourdain would visit different exotic places across the world to get to know their people, culture, and cuisine, has been careful to present on the air the national suicide hotline number. I suppose that since this public figure was so widely followed, they feared some might emulate his example...I'll repeat it: 1-800-273-8255.  I'm not going to get into Mr. Bourdain's spiritual state, although once the details of his death have been fully ascertained, that may well have played some role in it.  We do know that he was very public in that travel and food reigned paramount on his priority list...I regarded him as a bit fearless in his ongoing quest to immerse himself in the cultures of others, sometimes in very dangerous circumstances in remote and even warring locales.  That's why, at this early time of knowing about his demise, I wonder...admittedly in abject ignorance...if he had decided to end it all, then why not instead go out performing something heroic for the benefit of others?  I liked Anthony Bourdain and thought that his show was the class act of television...but I have a different way from him of seeing the world and my place in it...

I disagree with the above quote of Anthony Bourdain in that I don't think it's necessary to constantly be on the move, hopping from one flight to the next, in order to understand others from their own perspective...to me that's more of a personal character or spiritual matter.  After all, in many of the places that Bourdain visited the people there were rooted in their homelands, often living out generations of lifetimes in small localities...yet they were complete in themselves, not wanting for lack of worldwide travel or incapable of gracious hospitality to strangers like Bourdain and his entourage.  I think a lot of folks, especially in this age of Facebook and Instagram where their friends can instantly post pictures of their exciting travel experiences, feel pressured to follow suit...lest they begin to feel that their own lives are humdrum and meaningless.  This to me is a false notion...but I have a different problem: I'm the diametric opposite of Anthony Bourdain when it comes to travel...

If you read or watched J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, you'll know that the protagonist, Bilbo Baggins, is quite content staying in his home in the Shire, never wanting to venture out away from his community.  But the wizard Gandalf changes all that and spurs him on to go with the dwarfs to retake their Lonely Mountain from the evil dragon Smaug.  He manages to survive his adventure, returns home, and then true to his nature remains there until his 111th birthday at the start of another Tolkien work, Lord of the Rings.  I'm like Bilbo in my tendency to be a homebody, only unlike him I have had no Gandalf knocking on my door and stirring me to travel and adventure.  But I'm getting along in years, being 61 (the same age as Anthony Bourdain), and I can't wait for any old wizard to get me "moving"...so I'll have to purpose to do it myself.  Step one is to finally get off my butt and get a passport...

Enjoying Christmas at Home with Family

Usually I try to put out something on a daily basis on this blog.  Since today is Christmas, I just haven't got around to writing anything.  I've had a wonderful day at home with my family and hope that you have enjoyed this great holiday as well.  Right now (besides writing this, that is) I am watching Alfred Hitchcock movies on the Turner Classic Movies channel, the NBA game between Houston and Oklahoma City...and surfing around the TV dial for anything else.  I'm alternating this important activity with going to the kitchen where there are all sorts of goodies to eat.  Yesterday we all had a great time playing some brand new board games we had just bought...that Pandemic is fun but man, is it intricate.  It is "cool" that the weather suddenly changed to a wonderfully pleasant temperature...tomorrow it's going to warm up again.  Well, back to my crucial movies/sports/food...

Best Current TV Series: Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown

I've gotten myself into the habit in recent months on weekend evenings of watching CNN...it has a very special series of which it usually shows three episodes back-to-back during that time period: Parts Unknown with Anthony Bourdain.  Bourdain is a renown American chef with a compelling personality, a good screen presence, and a strong sense for adventure and interesting topics who is willing to go just about anywhere in the world to reveal its geography, history, culture...and of course, native cuisine.  Although he spends a reasonable amount in time in the good ol' U.S.A., he also has crisscrossed the planet...sometimes to famous cities...sometimes to places remote, wild, and even a bit dangerous at times.  This program has been on the air since 2013 and has won numerous awards, well-deserved in my opinion.  However, the great majority of its episodes I haven't yet seen...no problem: they're all on Netflix, to which I subscribe.  Well, seeing that this "service" almost never has the movies I want to watch, it's about time they were useful for something...

So far I've seen the episodes about Congo, Thailand, Tokyo, Tbilisi (in the Georgian Republic), Bahia (in Brazil), New Jersey, Montana, Miami, Senegal, Cologne, South Africa, Hawaii, and Iran.  But there have been some 62 episodes made so far (although 6 of these are season highlight shows) and I have a lot of "work" ahead for me on Netflix to catch up with them all.  Besides, every show demands a repeat viewing...

Season 7 of Parts Unknown will begin on Friday, July 1 at 7 pm as Bourdain visits Manila in the Philippines. I'll be working at that time, but I'm sure I'll have several opportunities to watch one of the rebroadcasts that CNN offers for each episode.  In the meantime, I think I'll watch some of the older episodes I haven't yet seen via Netflix.  If you're new to this quality series, check it out: I don't think you'll be disappointed...