Nobody 717

Sunday, November 4, 2007
Nobody # 717

Nobody Asked Me But:

“Romance is difference.” – John Updike

Delights of the road:

Let’s see. Where to start? Well, since we made the trip primarily to see and hear Richard Russo (picture) and have him sign “Bridge Of Sighs,” his first novel in 6 years, the signings seem like a good beginning. Russo won the Pulitzer Prize for “Empire Falls” and is the author of many other outstanding books including “Nobody’s Fool,” “Risk Pool” and “Straight Man.”

We saw him twice, Friday night in Danville and Saturday night in Corte Madera. It was a double treat. He was great both times – personable, friendly, interesting and funny. He read from different sections of “Sighs’” each evening, and the very large audiences (over 125 Friday and more than 100 Saturday) asked intelligent questions. One obvious one was repeated. How did he like the Paul Newman, Bruce Willis movie made from “Nobody’s Fool” and the HBO special from “Empire falls” – also with Paul Newman and staring Ed Harris?

He replied that Hollywood had treated him well. He thought Robert Benton’s screenplay of “Fool” was perfect and that, although he was drafted into writing the screen play for “Falls,” he was given great support by the actors and director. Harris and others even requested that he put back in a few parts of the novel that he had cut.

Other delights – small towns

It was our first visit to both Pleasanton, where we stayed, and to Danville. Pleasanton is the older and has a naming sign above its main street. It also hosts an annual high school band parade and contest, which was going on last Saturday as we left. We stayed on Main Street at The Rose Hotel. (picture)Our room was, when adjusted for price, (neither cheap, nor hugely expensive) one of our neatest ever. Just down the street was an incredible bakery and across from the hotel a Mexican restaurant that served the best Chile Verde that I have ever eaten. And I have eaten lots of Chile Verde. But enough! My editor thinks I write too much about food.

As much as we liked Pleasanton, we liked Danville (two pictures)even more. So much, in fact, that as we were leaving Barb pondered the question of if we had discovered it 15 years ago, would we have had the courage to move there? It also had a great downtown as well as an upscale, water-centered small shopping area on the outskirts.

Our third stop was an on-the-way visit to Berkeley – shoes for Barb, Cody’s great bookstore for me and a cheese roll for both of us.

Then it was on to Marin, as wonderful as ever. We stayed at a new and nice place in Mill Valley. (picture) That night’s signing was our first visit ever to Book Passage. (picture) Visiting two GREAT independent bookstores in one day was too much for me to handle. I went wild. How wild? I bought as many books as Barb did pairs of shoes. That’s really wild!

On Sunday we returned to some of our favorite places in Marin to Christmas shop in small stores. But first we revisited the best small grocery store in our world, the Woodland Market in Kentfield. I have written about it before in Nobody. All the produce is marked for place of origin, etc.

While there I wanted to take a leak (picture right) but decided against it.

Bradley Ogden was born in the same small Michigan town as my mother, Traverse City. He was executive chef at the Compton Place Hotel until he opened one of America’s finest restaurants, the Lark Creek Inn in Larkspur. Since then he has opened seven restaurants including his latest at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.

One of the seven, the casual Yankee Pier, is just a half-block from The Lark Creek Inn. It was there we ate Sunday night in a much-anticipated return visit. The restaurant was everything we remembered and more. My dinner - flatiron steak, celery root mashed potatoes and kale – was delicious, as was Barb’s beer-battered shrimp. His signature clam chowder was the best I have had west of New England, and the equal of any there. And his super-signature butterscotch pudding was everything we remembered and more. Perhaps the more was because this time, rather than share, we each ordered our own and left the place somewhere between satisfied and satiated.

Our final stop was a quick one – at Taylor’s Refresher in the San Francisco Ferry Building for lunch. It was a shame to limit one of our favorite cities to such a short stop, but will we do it justice when we return next spring.

Ok, there is food again, so despite the warning from my editor that I may lose my viewers, here is my best food list. I have already covered the best meal, so now, my best tastes – in order:

The Chile Verde sauce - Emilios.
My espresso malt at Taylor’s Refresher – a close second to Fosselman’s.
The cheese roll in Berkeley. (this is # one on my editor’s list).
The butterscotch pudding at Yankee Pier.
The blueberry cream cheese roll at the bakery in Plesanton. (My editor’s raspberry, hazelnut muffin from the same bakery was # 2 for her)

A time out:

Call me stupid, but I do not understand how Cypress, that special voice directing us from Barb’s GPS system, can find her and our way through every town in the western world but get so lost on every return to LA. It’s true. On our way back we had to listen to her constant protests and insistence that we were going far astray, and all because we knew the way better than she.

The best summary of our trip is a return to the Updike quote – “Romance is difference.”

“If Mukasey is not clear about whether the methods used constitute torture, he should experience them and then give an opinion.” - Ronald Sederoff (From a blog response in the LA Times)

The question is simple:

Does the president’s authority to defend the nation trump his obligation to obey the law?

The answer is equally simple:

NO

Until the otherwise highly qualified Judge Mukasey can state that unequivocally, he should not be the Attorney General of the United States.

As we were all taught:

1. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land.

2. The Constitution delegates the law-making power, including that of providing “for the common defense” to the legislative branch.

3. The Supreme Court, not the president, decides when Congress exceeds its authority.

We have a president out of control. Let us all rejoice that not even such a man dares challenge our democratic tradition that subjects him to the will of the people every four years.<<<

And while on the subject of our scary leader, I see that he recently warned Cuba that the U.S. will not accept a political transition in which power changes from one Castro brother to another.

Who does our nutzo president think he is to dictate government succession to an independent neighbor?

It is my understanding that Bush will try to resurrect Batiste so that the Cuban exiles in Miami can return to once again walk on carpets made out of the poor.

And while on the subject of the supernatural, is it true that our President plans to reincarnate as a dictator somewhere?<<<

Even as American causalities in Iraq are a surcharge we pay (seemingly willingly) for Saudi “friendship” and the resulting cheaper prices at the gas pump, so too are they a price we pay for allowing the war to be prolonged so that American business can keep raking in corrupt dollars under the accepting eye of our government.<<<

JIM’S WISDOM (a name, not a claim) SPORTS SPECIAL

UP: The Dodgers for hiring Joe Torre.

DOWN: San Diego Padres General Manager Kevin Towers for saying - "A good manager is probably worth a game or two.”

That’s just plain crazy. A good manager is worth at least a dozen games a season, maybe more.

UP: Arron Affalo. On Thursday, the former Bruin was the first rookie to start for the Pistons in 20 years.

Here’s Piston coach Flip Saunders on AA: "Arron Afflalo, you know what you're going to get. He plays as hard as anybody in this league, and I think he's got a chance to be a lock-down type of defender. He plays extremely physical. People are going to love watching him play, and he's going to be a guy that's going to play because of his defensive ability and he's not afraid to take shots."
UP: Kevin Love who was everything Bruin fans hoped he would be in their first exhibition game Friday night. His double-double made for a great debut.

UP: The whole Bruin team for looking as good as their number 2 ranking (or better) as they opened their (exhibition) season with an 111-61 win over Azusa pacific last night.

WAY UP: Lorenzo Mata-Real for being so gracious about the possibility of starting his senior season on the bench. He was the first to stand and applaud when Kevin Love scored his first points.

WAY, WAY DOWN: Injuries. On the first play of the exhibition season Darren Collison sprained his knee and in practice yesterday, Mike Roll, who looked primed to have a breakout season, hurt his foot. Thankfully Darren’s wasn’t serious and he will miss only a couple of games. Roll wasn’t so lucky. It looks like he will be out for at least a month.

This team has the potential to be outstanding – if only injuries don’t get in the way.<<<

Mitt, (oh how I hope that he is the Republican nominee), Romney, while recently campaigning in a New Hampshire diner, sat down with two gray-haired women in a booth and pointed to a creamy drink on the table. “Is this a malt or is this a milkshake?” he asked.

“It’s a frappe,” one of the women replied.

This guy is the former governor of Massachusetts and he doesn’t know that milkshakes are frappes in New England? Heck, I know that, but, of course, I am something of an expert in the shake/malt field.

A moment later, the conversation turned from frappes to health care, and he asked, “Is it O.K. here in New Hampshire?”

“I live in Vermont,” one of the women responded.

“I live in Massachusetts,” the other said.<<<