CAJUN GOODNESS

We had to make a trip to Phoenix today to take care of some business.  But one has to eat, doesn't one?  SWMBO picked the eatery . . one of our favorites even though it is a chain . . Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen.  It just looks like New Orleans to me.



We like to eat in the bar, where you can either sit "at the bar" or in adjacent big leather booths.

As befits a drinking as well as eating establishment, a large assortment of different types and shapes of glassware is sparkling and ready.



Try as I might, I can't seem to get away from the blackened catfish fillet over dirty rice.  I order it every time I go here.

And today that was accompanied by a Sam Adams Octoberfest brew in an iced flagon.

By the way, we did precede the entree with a shared appetizer:  six Oysters Pappadeaux.  They are baked on the half shell with crabmeat and spinach and topped with Hollandaise sauce.  Unfortunately, we dug into them so fast I forgot to photograph them.  But trust me.  They, like everything else, are delicious.

We were seated next to a very large man and his wife who we learned were visiting the restaurant for the first time on their 2nd wedding anniversary.  He was declaiming loudly about how good the food was and I chatted with him briefly.  He said he wanted to try alligator so he had the appetizer.  He was so delighted with it he ordered an alligator entree.  And he told the waitress he had never left a restaurant with unfinished food in a "doggy bag" before.  But he told me this restaurant was his new "supremo!" 

We, too, by the way, had doggie bags with us as we left.  And as I shook my neighbor's hand and congratulated them once again on their anniversary, I left him with a quick "See ya later, alligator!"

CAR TROUBLE

About mid-day Saturday I set out for Phoenix in our '98 Dodge Neon to attend a celebration of the life of a former colleague who recently passed on.  My timing was perfect but as I got off the freeway at the intersection where the event was being held at a hotel, my car stopped running.  I managed to coast through the intersection.  Then several good citizens stopped and pushed the car by hand up a hill and into a caution lane so I didn't block the traffic any longer.  I had already called AAA and the guy showed up as I stood at the edge of the road staring at the big motel where the event was happening.  He loaded the car up on the back of his truck, put me in the passenger seat and off to a garage we went.  He said maybe it's something simple, they can fix it and get you on your way.

The garage was closing minutes after we got there and had no one to look at my car.  So I left it there, had a shuttle from the garage take me back to a Denny's restaurant alongside the freeway where an airport shuttle picked me up about 45 minutes later.  And a little over an hour and a half later, I was back home.

Today I got a call from a guy at the garage.  He didn't waste any time.  After he identified me, he said "are you sitting down?"  Then he told me the timing belt had broken, a significant amount of water had leaked from the water pump, several other belts looked like they needed changing and an engine mount was sagging.  He said they could fix all that but the car might still not run because possibly the valves had been damaged.  At this point, I asked him how much money he was talking about.  He said "around 16 hundred dollars."  I laughed and said that the car was only worth 15 hundred, probably less.

So we're going to sell it to a salvage yard that has offered 200 to 300 dollars for it.

Fortunately, we have another vehicle that belongs to the BRD that I drive for courier duty for her business.  She will allow us to use it until we can get a new car.  Which, right now, we can't afford. 

As I've often said "life got complicated when the first horseless carriage was invented."

A NASTY WAY TO SEND OFF CHIPPER

Chipper Jones played his last game with the Atlanta Braves tonight after a 19 year career with just one team.  But his career ended on a sour note from his team's fans.

The game became controversial with a bad infield fly rule call that came late as the St. Louis shortstop and left fielder both failed to catch the ball.  Atlanta fans went berserk and held up the game for a long 19 minutes by tossing beer cans and liquor bottles on the field.



There is a tradition of fans growing angry at umpires' calls that go against their team.  But even though it appeared this was a terrible call, the terrible acts of a lot of Atlanta fans was even worse.  It makes me wonder if American fans are going the way of the soccer rowdies in Europe.

St. Louis won the game 6 to 3 and ended the Braves' season.

Atlanta's manager told the umpires he was officially playing the game under protest.  A ruling is expected later tonight.

POTPOURRI



"Ask not for whom the chime tolls, it tolls for thee." 

(Bowdlerized version of a John Donne poem refrain.)

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Well then, the debate.  Like virtually everyone who watched it with an open mind, I thought Romney stuffed the President.  Mr. Obama seemed professorial, bored, wishing he was somewhere else.  Romney was incredibly aggressive.  He won but today's Gallup tracking poll shows hardly any change in the President's 4 point lead over Romney.  So, do debates have any effect on the campaign?  It will have to be up to a much wiser political commentator than myself to tell.

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If you want to see an amazing video of a master kite flyer, hie thee over to my friend Warren's blog from Tucson - Touch the wind - and watch the show until the end.  Fantastic.

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If you want some real fantasy fun, plan on cyber-attending Tess Kincaid's annual ball at Willow Manor. 



You can meet anyone you've ever wanted to or even bring them yourself.  I hear Bobby Valentine is now free.  Maybe you could bring him.  Go here for all the details

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I finally got the movie Salmon Fishing in the Yemen today and watched it.  As a hopeless romantic, I give it 5 stars.  The other day I watched a 1979 flick A Little Romance, Diane Lane's first movie at the age of 13.  She co-starred with Laurence Olivier and the charming child actor Thelonious Bernard.  Bernard won a couple of awards, made one more movie and quit the business to resume his studies.  He went on to become a dentist and live quietly with his wife and children in France.

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O.K. lords and ladies.  That's my Thursday report.  Here's hoping your TGIF tomorrow is eventful and fun.

CLASSIC

I had to make a stop at the grocery store this morning and look what I found in the parking lot.



I don't think it's totally authentic.  Looked to me like there was some extra hardware under the (nonexistent) hood.



I had to double-park to quickly snap these pictures so I forgot to check on what kind of car it was.  Does anyone know?  The back license plate said either "Tom's 24" or "Tom's 29".

I know.  I used to be a much better reporter.

OLD FASHIONED TECHNOLOGY

I sent this picture to one of my granddaughters the other day.  She's a very intelligent girl who has a degree in International Studies after spending several years at a University in Israel.  But she's never used it and works now as a prison guard.  Well she says they're called corrections officers now but she still works in a state prison and carries a gun.  But her other job, which is self taught (I should have mentioned that she has the family gene for artistic prowess) is that as a tattoo artist.  So, as I said much earlier, I sent her this picture recently.

Being blessed also with a great sense of humor, she responded with a laugh and said she'd have to find one and put her own label on it.  She said she had one client who got a wedding band tattoo when he got married, then had it lasered off when he got divorced four months later.  Now he's asking her about a new tat for his new wife-to-be.  She said it reminded her of this Norman Rockwell painting.

She said those guys who constantly change their minds, as well as their wives or girlfriends, are great for business!

SATURDAY AT THE PALACE

When I was in Prescott the other day, I stopped at the Palace Saloon for a beer.  I took this picture in the mirror of the back bar.



The Palace is the centerpiece of Whiskey Row in Prescott.  There are a handful of other saloons along "the Row" but the Palace is the place for tourists and locals alike.  It's been up and down over the years.  Back in 1900 there was a fire that burned down pretty much the entire block.  Patrons of the Palace managed to carry the back bar across the street to the Courthouse Square where drinks continued to be served.  Later when the saloon was rebuilt the bar went back where it belonged.  It originally came to the Palace in the 1880's. 

Among the legendary names of former patrons are Wyatt Earp, Virgil Earp, Morgan Earp and Doc Holliday, all of whom visited or lived in Prescott before moving on to Tombstone, Arizona. 

In present years the Palace has been restored to the grandeur of days

gone by.  But the Old West lives on.  Here are a couple of local characters I sat next to at the bar.

If you ever visit Prescott, Arizona, you have to stop in at the Palace.  I'll meet you there for a cold one.