rike52

nurse!

I missed Valentine’s Day and couldn’t even get it together for his birthday 11 days later. But my friend finally got his gift last Wednesday. It was something I knew he needed to hear ever since I met his new girlfriend Paula several years ago. The recipient would be Ott, named Terry by his parentsContinue reading “nurse!”

You Tube!

I’ve just uploaded 5 videos to my YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjgcSvb5riojGVFQnxYcjgg which I established expressly for this exercise. My favorite band ever is Commander Cody and His Lost Planer Airmen. I’ve never been happier than I’ve been at their concerts. I’ve been privileged to establish relationships over the years with Bill Kirchen, Commander’s lead guitarist, andContinue reading “You Tube!”

drink down Dunedin

This all happened last weekend. We took the sunshine home from Florida, but dropped about 45 degrees. I hope you’ll feel as warm after reading through this as I still do. Remember, flights to TPA are cheap. Our adventure actually began at least a day before, maybe two. We departed TPA Friday morning after anContinue reading “drink down Dunedin”

unsubscribe!

Unsubsribe! It was a scene you’d expect from a millennial bar: two denizens at the corner with their noses intently in their phones oblivious to their surroundings. But the Palm Pavillion at Clearwater Beach was clearly a boomer bar, complete with a young duo in the corner faithfully belting out hits of the 70s atContinue reading “unsubscribe!”

garlic* paste

My love of Allium sativum* isn’t lifelong, but it will surely last till the end of my days. In my Dutch and German-English grandparents’ and parents’ days, eaters of the bulb were of the lower immigrant classes, identified by their reeking, something my always-clean folks wished to avoid. Not till my widowed dad began takingContinue reading “garlic* paste”

Fauci’s feeble-minded fear-filled followers.

Let’s call ‘em 5-F. That’s one more than 4-F, and we all know what that used to mean: you weren’t going to ‘Nam, but there was something wrong with the designee that rendered him pinch a’ shit unfit for military service, a low bar in those days given the war’s need for cannon fodder. ButContinue reading “Fauci’s feeble-minded fear-filled followers.”

‘squeat*!

Heard on 4th floor, Chicago House, West Quad circa 1970, every day around 5:30: “d’jeat?” “no d’jew?” “’squeat!”. And on this momentous day in Michigan “squeat” out! is possible, and I don’t mean “outside dining”! In honor of this day, which it seems we’ve awaited for an eternity, I’d like to recount the finest mealContinue reading “‘squeat*!”

good for your heart

What good is a new recipe if you can’t tell someone about it? It was Donna, my red-headed Dixie chick girlfriend from North Carolina who got me cooking and eating black-eyed peas, greens, and cornbread for New Year’s (boy, do I feel lucky) that I had to tell about this latest concoction. So yesterday IContinue reading “good for your heart”

fam

Donna asked that I fill in the blank with my family (ies) so she could keep things straight. Like Paul sang in “She came in through the bathroom window” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVv7IzEVf3M “oh, look out!” So we need to start with the family I grew up with. I’ve been unable to unearth the photobooks of mine from those times,Continue reading “fam”

rational drinking

Since my first taste of beer in view of the White House in March ’69, me an innocent 16 year old junior, I have not met an alcoholic beverage I didn’t like. This would seem to be incongruent with my supposedly high powered brain, but man I loved those weekend evenings with a car fullContinue reading “rational drinking”