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Joanie Bender (Grosfeld)

Jerry, thank you so much for the beautiful pictures...Love, Joanie

Jerry Morgan

Stephen...I have some friends that live on Kauai and so I have spent many a business and leisure time on the island over the years.  A couple of these folks have a little bit of pull on various island entities and allows for some things that many visitors don't get to do or see.  For instance, I've gotten private ATV trips to the Jurassic Park movie set location, reservations for the government cabins at Kokea (Entryway to the Grand Canyon of the Pacific), and other limited  locations around Kauai.  That being said in answer to your question regarding the Na Pali coast, I have had the good fortune to hike the overlook.  In addition to hiking which in itself is a beautiful hike does not  give full justice to the area.  I have seen the coast by air (helicopter) and by cruise ship (anchored off the coast).  Personally, I feel that the best method is by Zodiac.  Either by tour or as I was fortunate enough private Zodiac trips with friends.  The Zodiac can get to hidden grottos, lava tube outlets and secluded black and white sand beaches.  I have spent a few weekends fishing and camping (with and without the Boy Scouts) at a few of the many secret spots below the overlook  While we fished for food it also legitimized our right to spend overnights on the beach.  In Hawaii, the law (made to allow Hawaiians' land rights to fish) permits Hawaii residents  (of all ethnicity) to camp on the beach as long as they have at least one fishing line in the water.  This is pretty much a little bit of heaven and wouldn't be a bad last bucket item.

Jack Mallory

" . . . camp on the beach as long as they have at least one fishing line in the water."

All laws should be so sensible, well-intentioned, and socially beneficial! 

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Temps in the below 0s with wind chill the last couple of days, but 62 forecast for Th! Everything still frozen over, no kayaking yet, but it's coming. 

Sunday, the 580 Valentine's Day vaccinated vets (alliteration, Miss Casey!) return for #2. This time by appointment instead of drop-in, and we learned A LOT about procedure the first time, so perhaps not as nuts. This weekend and Monday the state is doing 12,000 by appointment, drive-thru vaccinations at the NH Motor Speedway. NOT volunteering for that! 

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Interesting and important!

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/07/travel/covid-pandemic-environmental-impact.html?referringSource=articleShare

Glen Hirose

I can tell at a glance that image is not Rockville. Sheep forced to walk on the concrete side walk; "Ghastly!" Rockville/*N.Bethesda neighborhoods would have designated a "Sheep/Goat Lane" alongside the Bike Lane, and Jogger's Lane lane. I believe the goal here is to gradually reduce motor driven transportation into just 2 dimentions. 

     *North Bethesda: Disneyesque term used by real estate agents to inflate property values.

Jack Mallory

Surely Deb and I cannot be the only people in the United States who don't give a rat's patootie what members of the British royal family think, do, or say?

Glen Hirose

Joan Ruggles (Young)

I actually do give a rat's patootie about the royal family. I find them to be an inherently tragic (in a Shakespearian way) group.  Never understood why ANYONE would want to sign on. And those trying to leave get pilloried. Truly a sad set of folks. And the job of being a royal? BORING!  So that's to me pretty interesting.

Stephen Hatchett

Glen, I dunno what that is, but it looks suspiciously like it has zuchini in it.  In that case even all those delicious tomates cannot can;t compensate.

Jack,  the royal family has a platform, and from that platform has great power for good.  Diana's leadership on HIV/AIDS and on ridding the world of land mines are examples.  What I really don't give a damn about is what's in the british tabloids.  

Helen Lambie (Goldstein)

You are close, Glen. But that's ratatouille, not rat's patootie. Jack might prefer that to the Royal Family. I, like Joan am interested in the Royal Family--I blame it on being raised in an Anglophile family. I blame my grandmother whose parents were born in Kirkwall in the Orkneys. Being 3/4 Scottish and 1/4 English the UK blood runs strong in my veins. However my life doesn't revolve around what the royals wear or do or think. That they were concerned about the color of future royal's skin doesn't surprise me, and I think Prince Andrew should be prosecuted as a pedophile. Now back to reality.

Jack Mallory

Glen Hirose

Got it Helen,

I failed to allow for the Anglicization of "Rat's Petootie".  Any way it's one of the dishes I have cherished memories of. I also have thought about the royals, and decided to vote for:

    My pick is based on his tireless promotion of the Culinary Arts.

Stephen,

I'm very fawned of zucchini; fried, baked, stewed w/tomatoes & onions, grilled, pickled, but haven't tried smoked or candied yet...

Jack Mallory

I thought we fought the American Revolution to keep aristocracy other than the Kennedys off our airways! Oprah and the rest of our media has never fawned over American HIV or anti-land mine activists like they toady to the Brits. 

Stephen Hatchett

I always thought that dish should be called :"crappy-phooey".  But anyway I do my part to keep the price of zucchini down for those who like it 

Jack Mallory

That scarey end of summer when everone's zucchini plant has outproduced the appetites of even those who love zucchini. You come into work and people have filled every in-box with zukes the size of baseball bats!

I share your distaste for them, Stephen. 

Glen Hirose

    this isn't a pod person. 

Zucchini, (Cucurbita pepo), also called courgette, variety of summer squash in the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae), grown for its edible fruits.

Joan Ruggles (Young)

I'm sorry to hear of Stephen's and Jack's dislike for zucchini! I feel that maybe you just haven't had it properly prepared! I too as a vegetable gardener have been faced with baseball bat-sized squash and have dozens of recipes for it. Best thing is to eat it when it's only about 6 inches long. But it's true, miss one hidden under a huge leaf and by the next day you can barely lift it. I feel if I sat down next to a zucchini, I could actually see it grow.  Glen's photo is most likely ratatouille as Helen says - one of the great dishes of Provence. 

As far as disinterest or even contempt for the royals goes. I remember when I was working in the kitchen of a fancy restaurant the day Dianna died. It was all over the news and the chefs all around me were saying "Who gives a f*#k. Just some stinking royal!"  I was appalled! Of course she had 2 children she adored who were left to their father who was, shall we say disengaged. In any case, I mostly feel sorry for them through no fault of their own being born into "the firm." If I'd had a daughter, I would have told her - whatever you do, don't marry a prince. Meghan and Harry seem to be just trying to make the best of it. 

Jack Mallory

A friend commented on the royal family mania, saying, "Who doesn't like watching a train wreck?" But it's a slow, boring train wreck, not even salvaged by the silly clothes!

My disinterest in the Windsors is just part of my overall lack of interest in celebrities generally. And associated ignorance. I think I've said in the past that I suffer from, well, actually enjoy, PCV--Popular Culture Void. An overall failure to know or care who Lady Gaga is, or this or that Kardashian, or movie actors or singers or sports personalities. Snotty elitism or simply trying to conserve what little gray matter is left for issues of substance?
 

Helen Lambie (Goldstein)

Just checking in to hopefully hear from Jerry that he and his family are fine in Maui. The news from the islands is pretty awful and I'm sure the rest of your classmates join me in wishing you blue skies and lots of sun to dry things out. Stay safe!

Stephen Hatchett

Jerry, please let us know when you can where you and yours are relative to all that flooding.  I know I don't have a very clear picture.  Windward sides of mountains having huge downpours, leeward not so much.

Joanie Bender (Grosfeld)

Jack Mallory

Jerry?

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Raining on Jerry, but sat on the deck in the sun for an hour today here.

You wouldn't want to fall into it, but the river is thawing. Still a few weeks before I get a boat into it, I expect. 
 

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Far worse for many others than for me, but the New Yorker captures it for some of us.

Glen Hirose

Jack Mallory

Thank you, Glen! But surely you, and I, must be mistaken about how old I am.

Glen Hirose

The number of years has little to do with a person's life. Age in years is merely a device to make commercial algorithms work. They spit out probabilities, forecasts, trends, dooms day, and what ever else sells cars. Of course they don't always work (some people shouldn't wear Spandex), but on the whole they're good for the economy. So far Jack I think you have skewed the 70-80 years' data pretty well; keep it up maybe Spandex was meant to be.

Jack Mallory

Have you hacked my webcam, Glen? How did you know about my Spandex? I think it looks pretty good on an old guy!

Taxes done. $80 back from Feds, $280 back from CA, $319 payed to H&R Block. Do the numbers. 

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Tomorrow marks the change from a two-roof couple to a one-roof couple. Deb's house goes on the market, she moves in here, retires at end of March. No, MY shoes go on that side of the closet! Thermostat at 66 or 68? Whole milk or 1%? At least the side of the bed issue was decided years ago.