Monthly Archives: July 2009

Various & Sundry XVII

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Down AND outFor the first time since July 4th weekend, the Cleveland Indians won two games in a row. Let’s bow our heads for a moment of thanks. Last place in the division, worst record in the American League — you’d think something would have to give.

~

Suffice it to say that there are just a few problems over at E. 9th and Carnegie. I hate it when people are really, really right.

Ah well. At least we have the Browns season to look forward to. That, and there’s always next year. Heh.

So in brighter news, the Thriller and I are taking off tomorrow for a much-needed getaway for some fun at Greektown in Detroit. He got two free nights in their brand-new hotel, and a bunch of free food. Free food is good. Anyway, we leave tomorrow and will be back sometime Monday night or Tuesday. Should be fun.

I like Greektown because of its location: dropped right in the center of, well, Greektown. There is a wonderful ethnic/historic feel to the street outside the casino building. In the days when we used to park in a nearby garage and walk to the casino, the area was filled with the sound of Greek music (piped out into the street by huge speakers mounted somewhere above your head), and smells of what I am certain was all manner of exotic Greek cuisine from restaurants with names like Pegasus, Laikon, Plakas and Parthenon.

And there is no shortage of Olympic opulence in the hotel. The lobby is a knockout all by itself.

So here’s to a happy weekend for all of yous. I’ma go make coffee.

FO

Photo: casinocritic.blogspot.com

When in the course of human events…

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…it becomes necessary for people to dissolve the emotional bonds that make them suffer, go mad, or just be sad, then it also becomes necessary to watch this 3-minute video. For RtB regulars, it’s a repeat from 15 months ago. For everyone else, I hope it’s a great way to start your Finkday.

If you think there is no beauty in this world, or there is no Creator or force of good in the universe, or if your heart is broken, or if you harbor anger against a friend or family member — I got yer fix right here. Sorry, instrumentalists…you are fab and we love you (and I am one of you), but nothing translates the heart of the matter like the human singing voice, da?

Especially, the voice. “Nessun dorma” from Turandot by Puccini. For 3 minutes of your life, there will be beauty. Start off your weekend right. Er, correctly.

Link to video

Fink out (to the school house to do some singing with Tom Hanks today).

Welp, that was stinky.

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Nope, I don’t mean Mary Poppins. Something came up yesterday afternoon and I ended up giving away my ticket, so no review from me. We will have to wait until Wendell or Stoney tells us about the show. Was it too long? Was Mary really uninteresting? How much did they change the melodies of the songs? I covet a reaction.

Instead, I shall pass judgment on something else entirely.

Last night, the Thriller and I were coming home from the pharmacy and we passed a Chinese restaurant. Its vile reek followed us for a quarter of a mile. I was completely offended.

To me, Chinese food smells like old, rancid cooking oil, used 50 times over, then used some more (which is probably closer to the truth than any of us would like to admit, and not just for Chinese cuisine). It’s cloying, but in a bitter way. Bottom line: it just smells filthy to me. And that red, slimy substance they schlep all over everything is just downright wretched.

When our daughters were going to college and living with us, they would sometimes bring the offensive victuals into the house. And while they took a huge running start from the sidewalk up to their bedrooms, no effort, no matter how valiant, could kill the despicable stench of the Red Muck Squeezed From the Leaking Bowels of a Dead Yak. I ended up slapping a moratorium on the foul stuff; they weren’t allowed to eat Chinese in the house anymore. (And I am certain the Chinese appreciated it.)

Oh well. That’s just me.

Other food smells that make me gag, scowl, or just mad:

  • Cabbage (cooked)
  • Brussels sprouts (in any form)
  • Fish
  • Broccoli (cooked)
  • Every flavor of salad dressing except Caesar
  • Olive oil

Through the years, there have been people who, when I shared with them my disdain for many foods, would stand with arms akimbo and scold, You don’t know what you’re missing, and How can you not like _____?

They’re not with us anymore.

So what food smells make you want to yark? Or does *everyone* in the known universe except me love every kind of food imaginable?

I used to hate pizza. Wish I still did.

Fink out.

Long overdue

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Long overdue: my phone conversation with dear fiend and Finkville citizen, Suzanne! She and her husband are visiting the states from the Netherlands, and she called me last night from her mom’s home in Michigan. A 48-minute treat that was.

Suzanne and HaroldSuzanne and her dashing Dutchman Harold are wonderful people who met “online” and have turned their relationship into a 10-year success story. I “met” both of them on the #newbies channel on the IRC network of chat servers (for those who don’t know and don’t want to wade through the link: it’s kind of like Instant Messenger, but you can see dozens of folks talking all at once. It’s basically what AOL calls a “chat room,” only for people with brains).

!

We, along with the Thriller, were channel operators, helping people new to IRC get acclimated to software and network issues. It was fun and I think the four of us can say we met a lot of cool people from all over the world.

Suzanne was in my wedding, flying all the way from California to Florida to be with us. [Remember when your dress got lost in shipping and we had to get you another one, last minute? That was not stressful AT ALL…]

We have a lot of funny stories and some great memories. She is a super fiend, and top-drawer in my book.

Well looky thereOh yeah, and her wedding back in 1999…who’s the cute little piano player?

:-)

Make sure you check out their website for the story in Suzanne’s words, as well as some great pictures to look at: hettenvan.com.

I will let you all know about my Mary Poppins experience. I hope I won’t need a spoonful of…well, nevermind.

FO

Step in time, ya da da…

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Never need a reason, never need a rhyme…

Yes, I am going to Playhouse Square in Cleveland tomorrow to see the Broadway touring production of Mary Poppins. My fiends Stoney, Wendell (and her fam), Bar-Jai and G will be joining me.

Not sure I’m remembering this correctly, since I haven’t seen the movie in years, but here goes. Remember the scene in the 1964 film, in which little Michael refuses to hand over his tuppence (two pence) as a savings deposit, preferring instead to use it to feed the birds? Then the bank president — a grumpy old curmudgeon played by Dick Van Dyke — tries to grab it from him, which eventually causes a run on the bank. Funny how a slapstick scene from a 45-year-old movie can take on a different meaning all these years later. Greedy banks that haven’t a care about customers’ wants or needs: who knew? Hmm.

Anyway, the show is certain to be *big* if nothing else. Disney and Cameron Mackintosh, are you kidding? I’ll probably experience sensory overload before the kids ever start with “The Perfect Nanny.” I hope I’m not offended by the singing (next to opera singers, Broadway belters are the absolute worst perps of the crime of Ten-Mile-Wide Vibrato). I hear the dance sequences are sensational, though.

Did you know that scholarly treatises actually exist regarding the inherent symbolism in the character of Mary Poppins? Check this out from one paper I read in part (even I don’t have that kind of time):

  • One researcher comments on the “combination of sadism and control in Mary Poppins, ‘making order from disorder, making magic then never admitting magic took place…'”
  • Another scholar highlights Poppins’s “ability to enter into a state inaccessible to most people, distancing [herself] from the human world in order to establish a more direct relationship with the sacred and its manifestations.”

As Cheech & Chong were wont to say: heavy, man.

OK. The Thriller and I get Jakey all day today, yippy! Face and hair go into the shop for maintenance at 11, and after that…well, fiends, it’s summer vacation, so you know…quien sabe?

Happy Tuesday,

Your friend Rat Fink

Image: Disney/CML