Nobody 765

Sunday, April 26, 2009
Nobody # 765

Nobody Asked Me But:

Good morning. Before I write about our trip, I have two other comments to make. First, I read that, citing the budget crisis as the reason, the Los Angeles Unified School District is proposing a change in state law to allow them to ignore seniority and fire “for cause.” They claim they want the right to keep good younger teachers and fire the bad older ones. Sounds good until you factor in the trust level, or lack thereof, earned over the years by the district administrators. Do that and it becomes easy to see that they really want the right to fire the higher-salaried teachers and keep the cheaper ones.

Second, I see that there is growing criticism that President Obama is not spending the bailout money fast enough. I have a solution. Give me a grant to buy a house in the Sausalito hills overlooking San Francisco and the Golden Gate. Not enough? Then throw in a dinner for Barb and me at the French Laundry in Yountville. Those two items should add up to about $1B. As you can see, President O, I am always willing to help.<<<

THE TRIP

THE GREAT
Our first night’s dinner - chicken fried steak at Sow’s Ear in Cambria. Texas is the official chicken fried steak state, and every cook there, from chef to short-order, pilgrimages to California to worship at the Sow’s Ear.

Getting out of town – except for the getting out of town. Even the not-so-far-away-places are adventures in newness. But fighting the near-away traffic makes getting started a royal pain.

Doc Bernstein’s: The fabled ice cream parlor in Arroyo Grande did not disappoint. We stopped both going and coming to indulge in cones and a sundae and filled a freezer chest with our special order to bring home.

(When you go, be sure to try the mocha almond fudge. It is the best I ever tasted.)

Here’s to the vine! Did you know that each vine produces 18 pounds of grape per year? That means you get 6 bottles of wine per vine.

Stepping out of the shower to a view of Mt. Tamalpais.

V. Sattui’s chicken salad and our picnic outside the winery: Buchon bread and cheese, tomatoes and avocados, cookies and nuts and the chicken salad, (as delicious as always). What a super experience.

The great tomato search: MY wife vowed that we would have grape tomatoes for our picnic even if it meant going to five stores to find them. It did and we did.

Taylor’s malts: Taylor’s Refresher is a walk-up, drive-up that has been in Napa Valley (St Helena) since 1949. (They now have diners in San Francisco and the city of Napa as well.) Their mocha malts are the best in Northern California.

Views of San Francisco: From park side in Tiburon, to glimpses from the Marin roadways, I am always thrilled by the city on hills. And we were lucky enough to see it in sunshine and enshrouded by fog, where just the tops of the tallest buildings and the towers of the GG Bridge were visible.

Buchon: – Thomas Keller, the great American chef who owns French Laundry in Yountville, also has a bakery there called Buchon. I am down on violence but his chocolate almond croissant is too kill for.

Rustic Bakery: We have long seen and sampled the products of Rustic Bakery in LA Stores, so imagine our pleasant surprise when we discovered the bakery itself. The warm blackberry crumb coffee cake was so good that we returned the following morning for seconds – and an incredible strawberry scone as well.

Fieldstone winery: Fieldstone is where Barb bought my birthday present Cabernet with a UCLA label. It was fun seeing the place and buying a bottle of red.

Picco: Picco is an upscale Italian restaurant in Larkspur with an attached pizza kitchen that has a small counter and several tables outside. We have seen it on previous trips, always crowded. This time we braved the crowd for a counter seat and were rewarded with great pizza and fabulous Straus soft ice cream. It was simple and delicious, my memory meal on a trip not short on excellent food.

Small bookstores: North Bay has many terrific ones, and once again I bought a book at each one visited. The pictured, Book Passages in Corte Madera, is probably the best independent bookstore in California.

Tees: If you have peeked into my drawers, dresser drawers that is, you may have noticed that I have enough tee shirts to open my own store – with branches in every major city. But, fool that I am, I still bought several. My favorite is from Tommy Bahama’s new Asia line that I purchased in Healdsburg.

Ciao Bella: You can buy this brand of gelato in Whole Foods Markets or, if better still for the total experience, you can jump into your car and drive north to one of their Bay Area cafes. For a little taste of heaven, try the ScharffenBurger dark chocolate.

A Bohemian Garden: This was the theme for Macy’s, San Francisco’s annual spring flower show. The store windows and the entire first floor were decorated. Color and beauty were everywhere. (see pictures)

237 – The number of months, as of last Monday, that Barb and I have been married. To celebrate we made our yearly pilgrimage to Bradly Ogden’s downscale Larkspur restaurant, Yankee Pier. My wife loved her beer-battered shrimp and my flatiron steak was just as good. And Ogdon’s signature butterscotch pudding was as wonderful as ever.

THE GOOD
Prunedale: Don’t laugh, and no prune jokes. I added my only new Starbuck’s on the trip here. (#351)

Signs: Farmers post cool signs along 101 telling what is being grown in their fields or orchids.

Vampires: The legion is true! We drove through Gilroy, the garlic capital of America, and did not see a single vampire.

Vintage Inn: I have always liked this place in the heart of Napa Valley a lot. I still do, for the beautiful grounds and the great complementary breakfasts – yes they still serve my egg salad. However, our room was only OK and the lights in the lobby were poor for my morning reading.

Crab mac and cheese and tomato soup at Boudins: As good as we remembered from last time.

“Little Children:” I read Tom Tom Perrotta’s very good novel on the trip and loved this line - “She, as usual, was dressed for church as if ‘Dirty Dancing’ was the Eighth Sacrament.”

THE NOT-SO-GOOD
The almost accident-tragedy: Barb started to pull into a parking place in St. Helena when a bicyclist suddenly passed us on the right. Only his reflexes saved him.

Global warming: San Francisco and South Marin in the 90s are HOT. Too hot to enjoy for very long one of the areas best pleasures – sitting outside and reading.

The Sporting Green: The San Francisco Chronicle’s famous green sporting section is no longer green except on Sundays.

Wine tasting: Free tasting at the wineries used to be one of life’s great bargains and pleasures, but like lunches it ain’t free any more. Heck, it’s not even $5 or $10 any more. Most places charge from $15 to $25. Heck again, I can buy 12 ½ bottles of Two-Buck Chuck for that.

Rick Perry and the coming Civil War: The big question during our time away was (and still is) – will Rick Perry lead the charge when Texas secedes or will he hide in the Alamo?

Back to great: Hugh, you did an excellent job of keeping the Dodgers in first while we were gone.

(The pictures that are not identified in themselves are of Jordan Winery, Rustic Bakery, Macy's Book Passages and sunset from our hotel in Marin.)

Nobody 764

Sunday, April 12, 2009
Nobody # 764

Nobody Asked Me But:

My bad!!!

When I wrote my Book of Answers in 2001, one of my responses was incomplete. I want to correct that.

Q# 156 - On an airplane, you are talking pleasantly to a (woman) stranger of average appearance. Unexpectedly, the woman offers you $10,000 for one night of sex. Knowing that there is no danger and that the payment is certain, would you accept her offer?

What I failed to include in my original answer was that this identical situation happened to me at least a half-dozen times when I was single. I was always a nice guy and said yes, but regrettably, each time afterwards I blew the entire $10,000 on wine and song.<<<

The latest Turner scientific survey finds that:

In 60% of all cell phone conversations, one of the parties is driving a car. In the other 40%, one of the parties is crossing in a pedestrian crosswalk.<<<

Evaluating teachers is not as complicated as many make it out to be. And those doing the evaluating don’t need to rely on test results. They simply need to apply the Supreme Court’s obscenity rule to bad teaching - hard to define but you know it when you see it.

As for good teaching, it is like beauty. Once again, you can’t define it, but you immediately recognize it.<<<

Here’s something what bothers me a lot. And it applies to not only the auto industry but to many other businesses both national and local.

1. Some level of government passes a law. Lets say it’s about environmental protection and that it has a deadline.
2. Those businesses to which the law applies drag their feet.
3. Then, as the deadline approaches, they find an excuse for not being able to meet it.
4. The government backs down.<<<

In a recent column, David Brooks divides the first cause debate (no, not creation, current financial debacle) into greed v stupidity. He chooses stupidity. I say a combination thereof.<<<

If you are wondering why New Orleans is not suffering from the recession nearly as much as the rest of the country, check out the huge number of Federal dollars that are being poured into its reconstruction. Could it be that conservative Republicans are wrong again and that New Deal type stimuli really works?<<<

GENTLEMEN, START YOUR ENGINES – ONE MORE TIME

Yes, we used to be the world's model for building fine cars. What happened? I think that along with poor management and a greedy union it was workers losing their edge - much like our country in general has lost some of its edge. I believe this happens to any society, group or organization when complacency replaces ambition. Hopefully we can all get our "IT" back.<<<

READY TO GO ON A GILT TRIP?

For 350 UK pounds you can try an Umo 24-carat fold facial. Using the latest in Japanese technology, a therapist will first slather you with Gamma PGA (a potent hydrating compound) followed by an ultrasonic nano mist spray that releases negative ions to prepare your skin for the good stuff. After manual lymphatic drainage, pure 24-carat sheets are placed over your face, followed by more nano mist and a gentle massage until your skin absorbs all the gold.

And you thought you had to settle for a Goldfinger.<<<

Bristol’s ex-fiancé speaks out – says the practiced safe sex “most of the time.” And all this time I thought they only did it once.<<<

Color me uninformed (I seem to be writing this a lot lately): White Oak Street is just a few blocks west of our house. I have always loved the Deodar cedars lining the several blocks north of San Jose St. But I did not know that several scenes of E.T. were filmed there. (The ones with the flying bicycle.)<<<

THE FOUR STAGES OF LIFE: 

1) You believe in Santa Claus.
2) You don't believe in Santa Claus.
3) You are Santa Claus.
4) You look like Santa Claus. (But only if Santa has lost a little hair.)<<<

Ah, the desert. One of the first questions new Arizona basketball coach Sean Miller’s son asked when he learned they were coming west was “Does Tucson have grass?”<<<

And don’t misunderstand me. I think Sean Miller is an excellent hire by UA. But if, as they are saying, he is their” dream choice,” why did they try for so many others ahead of him?<<<

FORGETTING THE JUST IN JUSTICE

Phillip Alpert had a sixteen-year-old girlfriend. Being into the new teen rage, sexting, she e-mailed a naked picture of herself to him. Sometime later they had a fight. A vengeful Phillip sent the picture to her family and friends. Does this make him a sex offender – right there with the peepers and pedophiles? Florida says yes.

But Florida is wrong. Alpert deserves a public scorning in the town square for being criminally stupid, but he is not a sex offender. He should not he have to carry that abominable label on his back for the rest of his life.

Inflexible laws and inflexible sentencing, are short cuts that mock justice.<<<

So Chief Justice Roberts hates the “sordid business” of “divvying us up by race.”

Me too. But I hate the sordid business of unequal opportunity even more.<<<

THIS WEEK’S ARROWS

UP - President Obama for announcing that he will follow through on his campaign promise by initiating a debate that will lead to a new and better immigration policy and legal status for 12 million illegals.

DOWN – The shock to the American psyche. Can Americans handle a president who keeps his campaign promises?

DOWN – Republicans who say they will seek to mobilize popular outrage against any effort to legalize unauthorized immigrant workers. One was heard to say: “Elections! We don’t need to win no stinki’n elections.”

DOWN – the federal prosecutors who allowed the obviously guilty former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens to go free with their pre-trial misconduct. (Withholding evidence.) I think they deserve 40 lashes with the Bill of Rights while chanting “no convictions without due process.”

FAR DOWN – The ten priests who claim that Notre Dame is risking its soul by allowing President Obama to speak.

Almost as far DOWN as you can get – The LA Times for prostituting journalism by running ads ON THEIR FRONT PAGE!

Even farther DOWN than that: America’s illicit love affair with guns and the mass murders that are becoming almost daily occurrences. It is true that guns don’t kill people, but people without guns don’t kill very many either.<<<

Austin Peay is a small university in Tennessee. Their best know basketball star was James, “Fly” Williams, a high scorer, who had a brief career in the NBA and who Wikipedia names on of the 50 best streetballers of all time. But he is better remembered as the inspiration for inspiring one of the 50 best student body cheers of all time:

THE FLY IS OPEN! LET'S GO PEAY!!!<<<

No Nobody next week as we will be in NoCal drinking red, eating great food and enjoying the wonderful world of elsewhere.<<<

Nobody 763

Sunday, April 5, 2009
Nobody # 763

Nobody Asked Me But:

The pictures at the left show that the United States and France differ in their approach to a hands on foreign policy.

Viva la France!

OVERHEARD IN THE CEO LOUNGE

All these layoffs are truly regrettable…………….but necessary if we are retain our salaries and bonuses.<<<

I need help. As you know I have chosen my "Sports Rushmores" for several cities and am trying to come up with a national one to be carved on a mountain somewhere in DC. These four sportspersons need to be identified as national, more than local, heroes. Two are easy - Muhammad Ali and Tiger Woods. But what about three and four? I probably will move the Babe from his NY City mountain to this national monument, because he belongs to baseball even more than he belongs to the Bronx, but that still leaves me needing one more. (Plus a replacement for Ruth in New York.) Please help.<<<

HEADLINES I WOULD LOVE TO SEE, BUT PROBABLY NEVER WILL

P-trade: Dodgers send Juan Pierre to the Padres for Jake Peavy.

McCain admits that Palin was a huge headache and a major mistake.

Michelle Obama named Ambassador to The United Nations.<<<

Are you both a reader and a movie fan? Then you will enjoy the article “Ten Best Screen Adaptations From American Fiction; 1930-1939." It is written by, one of us, Jim Hitt, who has had several books on films published. You will find it in the spring issue of "The Straightjackets," the on-line literary magazine that Jim co-publishes. Here is the link.

http://www.straitjacketsmagazine.com/support4/books.into.films.spring2009.htm

POINT BY POINT - THE PRESIDENT AND THE GENERAL – MOTORS, THAT IS:

Q. Do I want the President “running” GM?

A. Somebody has to. At least he is responsible to the people. The private GM executives are responsible to no one - not even stockholders - or else they would not have made the inferior products that got them into this mess.

Q. Is this designed to save UAW? I don't think so. Neither does the NY Times - (“Now the union will be asked to make even bigger concessions on a new wage and benefits contract and health benefits for retirees.”)

Certainly there must be union give-backs. There have been some already. But why should the workers fall on their swords to bail out mismanagement? Cut themselves? Yes! Suicide? No!

Q. Who are the villains in this auto-opera?

A. Not the government. They didn't create this mess. The CEOs did with a great deal of help from their counterparts in the UAW.

On second thought – actually the government does share responsibility. Had they been tougher on Detroit, had they passed and enforced a hard deadline on cleaner emissions for example, the industry would have been forced to clean up at least part of its act.

In summary: I am all for a leaner, cleaner, meaner GM, but I have zero confidence that it will happen without close government oversight.

We are seeing a long-overdue reversal of the famous Charles Wilson comment – “What’s good for General Motors is good for America.”

If the President does it right it will now be – What’s good for America is good for General Motors.

About time!<<<

PITCHING TO STAN MUSIAL

Here are two pitchers, both Dodgers, who knew the secret of pitching to Stan, “The Man.”

Preacher Roe: "I throw him four wide ones and try to pick him off first base."


Carl Erskine: "I've had pretty good success with Stan by throwing him my best pitch and backing up third."

HITTING AGAINST SANDY KOUFAX

According to Willie Stargell it was "like trying to drink coffee with a fork."

MORE ABOUT “THE CAR DEALER IN CHIEF:”

That’s what David Brooks called Obama yesterday, not without some affection. He gives the President an I for idealism but a D for dreaming the impossible dream.<<<

Since this seems to be grading day, I give the Rush bomb an N for not knowing his history. Limbaugh, in his daily radio rant, said, "There's always been a line, ladies and gentlemen, over which no president would cross with respect to the distinction between the public and private sectors. Obama has now crossed that line where there is no limit to government's destruction of private activity or control over it."

Oh really?

What about during the Depression when FDR placed limitations on agricultural production in a bid to boost farm prices?

Or In 1971 when Richard Nixon sought to roll back inflation by imposing a freeze on wages and prices?

Or when during the Reagan administration bank regulators ousted 10 members of the board of Continental Illinois Bank of Chicago, the nation's eighth-largest bank and recipient of a federal bailout?<<<

THE MOVIE STAR I WILL SEE IN ANYTHINNG

Joe Morgenstern – Wall street Journal - Fred Astaire
David Ansen - Newsweek - Marlon Brando
Manohla Dargis – New York Times - M Monroe, Nichole Kidman
Todd McCarthy – Daily Variety – Francoise Dorleac (Catherine Deneuve’s sister)
Ella Taylor – LA Weekly - David Strathairn
Kenneth Turan –LA Times - Clint Eastwood
Jim Turner – Current – Clint Eastwood, Past – Henry Fonda<<<

TRUTH v THE TORY PRESS

TRUTH: It is reported that the Queen was so taken by Mrs. Obama she even said: "Now we've met, will you please keep in touch?"

TORY PRESS: It is reported that the Queen was so taken by Mrs. Obama she even said: "Now we've met, will you please never touch?"<<<

In the Spring, a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of …….. baseball.

Tomorrow – the season opens. Today – I will tell you how it is going to turn out.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

EAST – Boston. I like their balance. But the Yankees make it close this time.
CENTRAL – Minnesota. Tough call, but again, I like their balance. The Tigers could surprise if their young pitchers make a comeback.
WEST – Angels. But only if their pitchers shake off early season injuries.
WILD CARD – Yankees.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

EAST – Phillies. Hitters playing in a hitter’s paradise.
CENTRAL – Cubs. Excellent rotation, just enough hitting.
WEST – Dodgers. Excellent hitting, just enough pitching.
WILD CARD – Mets. Could challenge Philadelphia for Eastern title.

FYI: Arizona had a major league-low average in ticket prices for the third consecutive year, at $14.31, with Pittsburgh at $15.39, Atlanta at $17.05 and AL champion Tampa Bay at $18.35.

And, finally, guess where this old Yankee hater is going to spend his birthday? (Actually, the day after.) New Yankee Stadium. And I am thrilled!<<<

Nobody 762

Sunday, March 29, 2009
Nobody # 762

Nobody Asked Me But:

SORRY! WRONG PICTURE! When I said $SC went bust in the tournament, I meant the basketball team.<<<

As some of you know, through a third party I recently made contact with a close friend from my teen/young adult years. Jim Bauersachs was an usher at my first wedding, but we fell out of contact for 50 years. Now we are exchanging long e-mails and catching up. There were two stories in his most recent communiqué that I would like to share. The first is a “whatever happened to” stories and the second a great sports story about Jim’s boyhood in St. Louis.

One of my great pleasures as a teen and young man was playing softball at Tucson’s Oury Park. The lights were so dim that pop-ups and high fly balls were adventures, and one of the umpire’s jobs was to burn old tires beneath the stands to keep the mosquitoes away. We were in a church league, but once a season we played a semi-pro woman’s team from Phoenix. The first baseman was both a good hitter and a good politician. Her name was Rose Mofford and when “Crazy” Ev Mecham was impeached in 1988, she became governor of Arizona.<<<

This second story is all about Jim, and is so cool that I want to tell it in his words:

“When I was a kid in St. Louis, Stan Musial was a neighbor. Ball players were pretty regular guys in those days, winter jobs, rode the bus home from the ballpark, etc. He would bring home scuffed balls, cracked bats, etc. ("Tire tape" would fix those, remember?) His son, Dicky, about my age, hated baseball, and would be at my house reading my comic books while I, along with other kids, would shag flies and grounders in the street from Stan. In those days, Wheaties gave a case of cereal for a home run, so all the moms in the neighborhood would send their kids to Mrs. Musial’s house to get cereal. ("And remember to say "thank you, Mrs. Musial"). It was stacked high on their back porch. Every time I'm in St. Louis, I drive by, thinking if anyone is outside I'll tell them that "The Man” used to live there.”<<<

Talk about both wanting and eating your cake, Republican representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin wants to privatize Social Security but socialize the risks. Sorry Paul, that’s not free enterprise, that’s risk-free enterprise.<<<

CNN Daily Poll - Should Treasury Secretary Geithner be given new powers to fix failing corporate giants?

Yes – 44%
No – 56%

I’m one of the yeses. I don’t trust Congress to do it right – dueling parties, dueling egos, dueling ambitions. The power and the responsibility should be centralized. Give it to the executive department.<<<

You all know that I am not big on the Second Amendment, so is it any wonder that I feel betrayed that Michelle Obama is a champion of the right to bare arms?<<<

The big lie as told by the big liar, Thomas Sowell.

He wrote in his column yesterday that, “politicians and bureaucrats micro-managing the mortgage sector of the economy is precisely how today's economic disaster began.”

Anyone with a brain and the ability to read knows that the opposite is true. It was the refusal of politicians to regulate the mortgage sector that led to our current disaster.

It is clear that Sowell and his ilk think that a lie told over and over becomes the truth. How can a great university like Stanford employ this man?<<<

Meghan McCain, on Larry King – the good and the tattoo.

McCain: “I was raised open-minded Christian -- one to accept people, love people, not pass judgment. ...

I believe in gay marriage, I personally am pro-life, but I'm not going to judge someone that's pro-choice. It is not my place to judge other people and what they do with their body.”

I love it! Too bad that she is a marked woman.

King: “Are you a tattooer?”
McCain: “I have one. My brothers have a lot of tattoos. I love tattoos. I do. I know, you never would have thought me, right? But I do.”

I know – Jim the judgmental. But I am glad that at least it is only a star on her foot.<<<

Color me uninformed. Years ago we ate at the Chart House on the waterfront in Boston. I had no idea that the building was once the office of John Hancock.<<<

Color me uninformed times two. I did not know that when the Secret Service, for security reasons, denied Nikita Khrushchev’s request to go to Disneyland during his 1959 visit to the U.S., he was taken on a motor tour of a housing project in GRANADA HILLS. NO LIE!<<<

Color me xenophobe - 50% of world’s aspirin comes from China. Personally, I would rather have my pain killed by an American.<<<

According to Maureen Dowd in today’s NY Times, surveys show that people with blue eyes are considered more intelligent, attractive and sociable. Modesty prevents me from telling you my eye color; so let’s just say that Frankie stole his nickname from moi.<<<

The nerve of those guys: Did you read that Countrywide is suing AIG unit over its failure to cover loan losses for the bad loans made by Countrywide. Clearly the buck doesn’t stop there.

On second thought, I suppose it depends on how you define buck.<<<

Among the things I must learn before our New York City trip this summer – especially when we go for pizza:

1. I stand on line, not in line.
2. I do not order “for here” or “to go” but, rather, “to stay” or “take away.”<<<

“Why should teachers be a protected class?” asks former teacher Larry Sands in an op-ed column in the LA Times. He goes on to say that during this financial crunch, they should be axed like everybody else.

Larry, it’s the students that need to be protected – from the overflowing classes that will be the result of teachers being laid off.<<<

The auto review line of the week comes from the LA Times where the reviewer said this: “As for the powertrain, it's so much a product of evolution they probably won't teach the Prius in Kansas.”<<<

“This game doesn't mean anything" - Arizona point guard Nic Wise on their 39-point loss to Louisville in the Sweet Sixteen. I wouldn’t have been shocked to hear a UCLA Bruin say the same thing. Both teams need players that take their losses hard.<<<

TWO MESSAGES

1. Happy Birthday to my brother Pat.
2. Dorothy – may your recovery be speedy and complete.