Archive for January, 2010

Not Quite Slyders

Saturday, January 30th, 2010

 Harold: I want 30 sliders, 5 french fries, and 4 large cherry cokes.
Kumar: I want the same except make mine diet cokes.
- from Harold & Kumar go to White Castle
While White Castle may not have invented the hamburger, and in fact that tasty treat’s origins are a matter of some dispute, there are a couple [...]

Day of Reunion of Ukraine

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

 The territory of Ukraine, divided over the centuries, including Galicia, Bukovyna, Carpathian Ruthenia, and Dnieper Ukraine will now become a great united Ukraine. Dreams, for which the best sons of Ukraine fought and died for, have come true.
- translation from the Zluky Act, January 22, 1919
A good percentage of my ancestors are from Belarus, or [...]

More From the Turkey Sandwich Front

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

 Every few thousand years some shepherd inhales smoke from a burning bush and has a vision or eats moldy rye bread in a cave and sees God.”
- Kerry Thornley, co-founder of Discordianism
I stand corrected, or rather sit. You see, I made fun of the claim of Boedo’s Café Margot that the turkey sandwich was invented [...]

Alongside the Far Beaten Track

Monday, January 25th, 2010

 Railway termini are our gates to the glorious and the unknown. Through them we pass out into adventure and sunshine, to them, alas! we return.”
- E.M. Forster, author
A recent bout with the vagaries of Argentine supply and demand led me far afield. It was the sort of thing that would simply not have occurred to [...]

Mediterranean Privacy

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

 Everything secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.”
- John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, First Baron Acton of Aldenham
Our business in private parties has picked up again, slightly later this year than usual – the last three summers we’ve been flooded with [...]

Slow as Molasses

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

Celebrating wasn’t the correct word. After all, it was a disaster we were talking about. 1919 and twenty-one people lost their lives and more than 150 ended up in the hospital with injuries. But it wasn’t your typical disaster – no plane or train or automobile crashes, no tsunamis, earthquakes or volcanoes. No, it was [...]

Sandwiches

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

 Too few people understand a really good sandwich.”
- James Beard

Growing up in the midwest, lunch was virtually always a sandwich. Even to this day I tend to prefer that for lunch, regardless of whether it’s some basic comfort version like grilled cheese, peanut butter, or tuna salad, or something fancy like a club. In general, [...]

To Buenos Aires, Twice

Monday, January 18th, 2010

So who knew that Trujillo had a beach? I knew the city was located on the coast, but somehow, I’d pictured it slightly inland. After all, when anyone talks about going to the beach, they talk about Huanchaco. Then again, Playa Buenos Aires is not much of a beach.

First, of course, is getting there – [...]