Sunday, March 19, 2017

DEATH AND DECONSTRUCTION

We lost a couple of good ones again.

Chuck Berry, who some (Chuck?) say invented rock and roll, dead at 90.

His voice, along with those of Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley, was in my head in the 1950's when I was a high school student.

His bizarre "duck walk", which became a trademark, evolved from an accident where he fell while playing.

Troubles with the law led to several terms in reform school and prison.

He was emblematic of the times and the trade he took up.

But it didn't stop him from writing and performing some of the great songs we all grew up with.

And this morning we learn of the death of Jimmy Breslin at 88.

A consumate newspaper reporter for decades in New York City, Jimmy told the stories of the common man so well he won a Pulitzer Prize.

A cigar-chomping, hard drinking "ink stained wretch" of the newspaper business with a knack for finding and telling a story.

Who else would think to interview the man who dug the grave for John F. Kennedy?

We'll miss them.

For the second part of my post, take a look at what Chef Judy, aka SWMBO, created for the evening meal yesterday.



It's a deconstructed (or Inside-Out) Vietnamese Spring Roll.

Shrimp, rice vermicelli, carrots, peppers, peanuts, mint leaves.

Topped with a spicy peanut sauce (unshown) it was delicious.

I know.

I'm a lucky man.

13 comments:

  1. Breslin and Royko were two of my favorite columnists, both were writing when Cary and I spent a year in Chicago in '73, I was doing a residency at Northwestern, she was finishing her masters.
    Did you use those rice wraps you can get for those spring rolls? I've tried them a few times, with limited success. I can't get the correct amount of water on them, they usually fall apart.

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  2. Chuck will be missed.

    Steve

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  3. Breslin used to come into the AP bureau in NYC to borrow a typewriter on deadline and then regale us with a few tales before heading to the bar. In addition to finger on the pulse city stories, he was keen political observer which he demonstrated during coverage of Watergate.

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  4. I met Breslin and even interviewed him on a couple of occasions. He was a great newspaper writer and raconteur.
    The deconstructed spring roll looks marvelous.

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  5. 88 and 90 with the life style those two led...pretty amazing. Both the best at what they did.

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  6. So sad to hear about Chuck Berry, but he had a great 90 years (except for that prison thing) so maybe he's due some R&R. Rock on Chuck!

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  7. That deconstruction looks tasty!

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  8. Sorry to say I thought Chuck Berry passed ages ago. He was certainly influential.

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  9. Best comment, "now Chuck can tell Tchaikovsky the "news" in person."

    Pete Hamill said he quit drinking after watching Breslin and Norman Mailer get loaded one night in NYC

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  10. Good info on those who are lost to the world, but a perfect image of a worldly treat!

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  11. With so many rockers who die young, Chuck lived a long life.

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  12. The spring roll looks great! A lot of younger people don't even know who Breslin is -- and I must admit that even I, a journalism student and lifelong reporter and editor, have never read him. At least not that I recall. Newspaper journalism is such an ephemeral business, even for famous writers.

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