kochleffel

29 minutes ago, cruising sister said:

People were laughing at the warnings that HAL gave us saying they were just trying to scare us. Those same people were some that were carried off.

There have been news reports this summer about travelers being found dead in remote places in Greece because of the heat. Many of them were people over 70 who went off alone on long and difficult hikes despite warnings.

On 7/15/2024 at 1:11 PM, clo said:

So would that be considered "formal"? I guess I assumed, for men, suit and tie or tuxedo.

I have an Emily Post etiquette book from about 1922 in which she explains painstakingly that black tie (tuxedo) is informal. Then, formal meant white tie and tails.

The expensive lines are so far out of my budget that I've never really thought about them. But in 2021 I had a booking on Celebrity for which I feared that my clothes wouldn't be good enough! (Yes, I know that Celebrity isn't considered a luxury line, but it has a form of class separation.) The cruise would have been from Yokohama and didn't take place, because Japan still wasn't allowing leisure tourists.

18 minutes ago, Quartzsite Cruiser said:

 

Thanks for the correction.  The source I used for the information about the highway didn't make it plain that Senator John H. Bankhead was he uncle.

 

Lenda

It must be unusual for brothers to be in Congress at the same time, one in the House and one in the Senate, representing the same state. Two cousins, Thomas and Mark Udall, were in the Senate at the same time, but represented different states.

10 minutes ago, Quartzsite Cruiser said:

Wow, Paul, about all the problems with the conference.  I hope the actual conference goes more smoothly than the lead up to it.

Also (but this is almost the only thing that they're organized about), they've scheduled my presentation for the last morning of the conference, when people from the eastern half of the country will already have left.

4 minutes ago, Quartzsite Cruiser said:

Senator John H. Bankhead, Tallulah's father

Uncle. Her father was Speaker William B. Bankhead.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_H._Bankhead_II

The conference gets ever more disorganized.

They just sent me an e-ticket for transportation from the airport, timed for two hours before my flight arrives.

44 minutes ago, JazzyV said:

Oh oh, on the person with you-know-what; hopefully it wasn't passed on to anyone else.

I haven't heard of any other cases, but I'm not connected to the grapevine very well.

This week is the time when I would be staying out of circulation anyway. I wore a mask to the grocery store and will wear one on the plane.

I've never had a retainer, neither international nor domestic. (I had to check which kind of retainer the day is for.)

Tallulah Bankhead appeared as a character in a novel by Elliott Roosevelt, who portrayed his mother as a detective. Eleanor referred to Tallulah as "Speaker Bankhead's daughter"--her father was Speaker of the House.

No on the salad (shrimp). I was surprised by the idea of cherry grenadine: historically grenadine was made from pomegranate, from which the name comes, but since World War II it has been made from raspberries in the U.S. I shouldn't have been surprised that the cherry growers have gotten in on the act. No Lambrusco in the Finger Lakes, but for a sweet red maybe Bully Hill's Banty Red, $9.99 for a bottle or $18.99 for a 3L box.

Does anyone remember where we keep the bubble wrap? I got a knock on the head yesterday.

Remember the funeral? At least one person who attended both the funeral and one of the services at the family home later tested positive for you-know-what.

I wouldn't turn down caviar but I don't think I'm likely to be offered any. However, from a breakfast buffet in Iceland (this is cod roe, not sturgeon):

It won't be as hot today, but I still don't want soup and I finished the savoy cabbage yesterday. I would be afraid to order a Mickey Slim, because in a noisy environment the bartender might hear it as Mickey Finn. I was startled by the DDT reference but it seems to be genuine: at one time people thought it had hallucinogenic properties. Absinthe is the substitute because people also thought that it was hallucinogenic. However, some countries banned absinthe for a long time because of its general association with dissolute behavior.

There is much more Merlot in the Finger Lakes than there ought to be. I'll suggest the 2016 from the Element Winery, $35.99. "Blackberries, plums, currants and herbal, savory notes are balanced on the nose with gravel and stoney minerality. The palate is plump, but with tension and verve. This wine has a long future in front of it."

I had a hypoglycemic episode around 9:00 p.m. last night, the first in several years. I'm not on any medication to reduce blood sugar, so it was quite a surprise. After it I was very tired and so went to bed early, unfortunately waking at 4:00 a.m.

22 minutes ago, Seasick Sailor said:

Are you a teacher?

Kinda sorta

6 minutes ago, Quartzsite Cruiser said:

I knew about the meat and dairy dishes and cookware, but some how never considered separate flatware.

It gets worse! Some segments of the Jewish world  (not mine) believe that it's unhealthful to combine fish and meat. This is why a fancy Jewish menu is fish-soup-meat instead of the European sequence of soup-fish-meat. In a household that follows this practice, the fish dishes and utensils would be completely removed from the table before the soup was served; the soup is a buffer between the fish and the meat.

I was cleaning out the dairy flatware drawer in the kitchen (a kosher kitchen has separate flatware for dairy and meat) and washing the pieces that aren't in daily use. These included: oyster forks, although oysters aren't kosher; pastry forks; individual butter spreaders; grapefruit spoons; and a cold meat fork, even though this is the dairy flatware.

Without looking, I can tell you that the meat flatware set includes pastry forks, fish forks, and fish knives.

Of these things, the pastry forks make some sense, because the somewhat similar salad forks might already have been used for salad. A celebratory kosher meal would include a fish course, a soup course (in that order), and a main course, so I suppose that the fish utensils might also be used. But I'm still rather startled by all this.

The number of homes without electricity in my county is down to about 5,000 but the utility is saying that many of those will not have power until tomorrow afternoon.

The salad would be OK. So would the drink, if I had the nerve to order it. Chardonnay is produced in the Finger Lakes but not in boxes and not that cheap. The closest I could come was a Seyval-Chardonnay blend from Chateau LaFayette Reneau at more than twice the price.

On the travel-agent subject from yesterday: my experience with travel agents in the past -- not cruise specialists, to be clear -- was that they paid little attention to what I wanted and tried to sell me what they would like. There is only one travel agency still in business anywhere near me, and while they will book cruises, they seem to book only expensive ones. The list of lines about which they accept inquiries emphasizes Seabourn, Oceania, Azamara, Viking, Windstar.... They do include Holland America, but I would bet that they would only book suites and only for Grand Voyages and the like. RCI lists them as a travel partner but they won't actually take inquiries about RCI.

22 minutes ago, JazzyV said:

Oh my on the widespread power outage, especially in this weather. I'm glad you're not affected at home. 

The latest news is that one of the cooling centers has had to close because the 'lectric went off there.

There was a tornado warning earlier this afternoon but I didn't know it. We had just some wind and a little rain.

Power is still out at 11,143 households in this county. Those are more than 30% of all households. The number actually went up this afternoon when NYSEG got its math right.

A friend about 100 miles away posted this photo. I don't think it will be convenient to have their screen house on the roof.

5 minutes ago, Vict0riann said:

Sam, too, our big (Alaskan) Lab would lie on the tile floor of the bathroom when the heat got to be too much for him.

Addison, to all intents and purposes a Maine Coon cat, long-haired and double-coated, would do this, too.

It turns out that in my zeal to get the trash to the curb, I forgot to take my blood-pressure medicine.

Yesterday around 5:00 p.m. we had a big thunderstorm. It caused little damage in my immediate neighborhood, but the office at the synagogue, only four blocks away, is closed today because internet and phone (VOIP) are out. More than half the medical offices in the area are closed: no power at a big health campus on the east side and also at some freestanding offices on the west side. Emergency management is distributing water and ice and has opened cooling stations. One TV station was off the air; it's back on now but can't produce news broadcasts.

1 hour ago, RMLincoln said:

We had rattlesnakes on rare occasions in the desert terrain around Albuquerque but they are very quick to leave people alone. As an EMT we’d get called out for snake bites- usually the patient provoked the critter; typical scenario is a young adult male with bite to hand!

Two places that I hike occasionally have warning signs about timber rattlers, but they are rare and I've never seen one. It was unnerving to walk in parks in southern California with numerous warning signs about both rattlesnakes -- not rare at all -- and mountain lions.

I'm sure that snakes have their place but I believe that it is far away from me. A friend of mine used to be a personal chef, which she distinguished from catering by cooking only for dinners in the clients' homes, and only for the number they could seat at tables.

No soup today unless it's a cold soup, and I am still avoiding cold foods, so no soup today, but I think that a mom who puts butternut squash in minestrone deserves rocks in her socks.

I was confused about whether "rye and ginger" should be made with rye whiskey or with Canadian whiskey, but here's what I found: whiskey in Canada was originally distilled from wheat, but distillers began importing corn from the U.S. because it was more economical. Corn whiskey has relatively little flavor of its own, so distillers began adding some rye whiskey. It takes only 10% rye to impart a distinctive flavor. Before Prohibition in the U.S., rye whiskey was dominant, and the rye character of Canadian whiskey made it familiar, which helped both Canadian distillers, especially Hiram Walker's in Windsor, and the rum-running trade. A Canadian who wanted rye and ginger south of the border would want to order Canadian and ginger.

A number of Finger Lakes wineries produce Pinot Gris under its official name, but Seneca Shores winery offers it as Pinot Grigio, $13.99. "Dry. Crisp. Hints of Grapefruit and Honeydew Melon.  Crisp Beginnings, Dry finish, Complex aroma…  For those who like their white wine Cold, Crisp, and Dry…  This Pinot Grigio has complex notes of mineral and citrus, slightly smoothed over by a fullness of body."

I remembered to take the trash out this morning. I even remembered to empty the vacuum cleaner before closing the trash bag.

I'm ruminating on which luggage to use for the conference later this month. Including a night in Rochester so that I can get a morning flight without getting up at 3:00 a.m., it will be six nights with no way to do laundry, and I have to take a laptop computer. The Eagle Creek rolling duffel holds the most, but with another bag on its handle it tends to tip over, so I may use a 22-inch bag that is potentially a carry-on (but I'll check it) that is expandable and never tips.

Cruise boarding doesn't feel to much like this, but airline boarding always does.

The salmon dinner would be OK if it didn't require the oven. Actual dinner will probably be fish, most likely cod, steamed with chard, if I get chard at the farmer's market this afternoon. I would like the drink. For a Finger Lakes pinot noir, I'd like to try Lakewood's 2022, which would be $30 plus a wine club membership that I don't have. "Velvety layers of cherry, plum and toast define this exceptionally smooth and elegant wine. Classic and versatile."

There is a story to go with this cartoon (continued below).

Story: my mother's birthday was in November. One year, concerned that she might not be eating properly (or at all), I made a batch of extra-nutritious pumpkin and date cookies. I mailed them from Indiana a week before her birthday. It took them an entire month to go from Indiana to Ohio, so they must have been well past their prime. She told me that they were the worst chocolate-chip cookies she had ever tasted.

Could we please having something along with the corn salsa? I would probably like the drink. For yet another Syrah/Shiraz, we'll go with the 2020 from Anyela's Vineyards, maybe the only one in the FL that is labeled as Shiraz, at $22.95 but out of stock at the winery. "This wine has a rich dark color with a slight garnet hue. Oaked for 14 months, displaying a combination of spicy black pepper, ripe plums, and toasted wood-like characteristics. The phenolics are prominent and ripe, which translates into a firm yet not overwhelming mouthfeel. This exemplifies the potential of the eastern US to produce a well-balanced Shiraz varietal that stands among the best."

I haven't been to the Cockburn Channel. I used to watch the Beagle Channel on cable, but never saw Snoopy.

I intended to do some yard work this morning even though I try not to use outdoor power tools on Sunday morning, but I slept fitfully and didn't attempt it. Later I'll head to CVS/Target for a prescription, and the blue store for shelf supports since one broke and spilled a shelf of books onto the floor. Lunch will be the leftovers from dinner last night: vegan sausage, rice, and Savoy cabbage all cooked together.

25 minutes ago, RMLincoln said:

Oh no… my post is lost, oh well, have to head out now, maybe again later!  🤦🏼‍♀️

Your last post before this one (that is still here) is

The chicken kebabs would be OK but I'm not making them. Today is also National Beans and Franks Day, but I'm not making that, either. Pass on the cocktail. I'll counter the wine with a Fulkerson 2018 Zweigelt, $25. "An early ripening Austrian red grape variety that is soft, fruit driven and medium bodied. A dry wine with medium tannins and pleasing cherry and currant fruit flavors. A very easy wine to drink."

I just saw that Dr. Ruth Westheimer has died. I didn't listen to her program regularly, but the hygienist in my dentist's office always had a radio playing and I always seemed to be there during Dr. Ruth's show. When the hygienist had to leave the room, she ordered me to listen carefully and catch her up.

More on Night of Nights:

Night of Nights is an annual event held on the 12th of July by the Maritime Radio Historical Society (MRHS) to commemorate the history of maritime radio and the closing of commercial Morse operations in the USA [in 1999]. These on-the-air events are intended to honor the men and women who followed the radiotelegraph trade on ships and at coast stations around the world and made it one of honor and skill.

Once, the maritime mobile bands were populated edge to edge with powerful coast stations operating from virtually every country on every continent. Once, the ships of world trade and the great passenger liners filled the air with their radiograms—and with their calls for help when in danger on the sea. Now those bands are largely silent.

https://www.nps.gov/pore/planyourvisit/events_nightofnights.htm

The commercial Morse transmitters that are still operable will sign on tonight and transmit Morse code until midnight.

Maybe I will make chicken burgers tonight, if I can get ground chicken. The drink would be OK but those who take certain medications will need to avoid it because of the grapefruit juice. Finger Lakes wineries excel in dessert Rieslings and ice wines; throwing budgets to the winds, we'll go with Weis Vineyards Noble Select Riesling 2020, $109.99. "Our 2020 Noble Select Riesling is hand crafted in the German style of Trockenbeerenauslese (TBA), meaning "Dry Berry Selection," this wine is made using meticulously hand selected Riesling grapes of the highest quality. The grapes contain a naturally high sugar content occuring with the help of Botrytis Cenera (Noble Rot).  TBA style wines rank among the greatest sweet wines in the world.  This wine will age comfortably for decades."

A hint for Cheering Up The Lonely: you don't do it by going up to them and shouting "CHEER UP!"

It is cool enough to make soup but I'm not going to. I would like the drink. It is getting hard to find a Finger Lakes Sauvignon Blanc that I haven't mentioned before and I am starting to hate New Zealand, so here's a 2021 Vignoles from Keuka Lake Vineyards, $19. "This Vignoles is made from grapes grown on our eastside estate vineyards, specifically--Turkey Run, Silvernail and Garden. Between the three sites there are a variety of soil types including well-draining gravel, glacial till, clay, and sandy soils in portions of Turkey Run. The wine is bright and flavorful, with citrus and tropical aromas."

I was concerned that the prayer service last night might not have a quorum, because of the forecast for severe thunderstorms, but it was just noise and a brief splash of rain, and there were plenty of people. Tonight is the last night, by the family's choice; it could have continued through Monday.