Kinkikali

The Levee was Dry

The Pat’s are humbled.  Kurt Warner is retired.  And Brett Farve has taken his last hit.  Like a water logged phoenix, New Orleans has come back from a very bad date with Katrina.  True Indianapolis has been weathering tough times.  But being underwater financially is far different from being underwater like the folks of the bayou.  I give my cheers to the Saints.  So many greats in helmets came from the bayou.  Now it is time for victory of the Superbowl variety to come to the Saint’s crowd.

Deadlock Deadlock

America can ill afford more silliness from its egotistical “leaders”.  Know your history you of short sight and low bearing. Smug belligerency, schoolyard ethics, and blind complacency are ingredients for a very p.o.’d public.  Play games with our destinies at your own peril.  Common sense goes with common courtesy.  And if raising the ante is all that matters then I ache for future generations, should they be lucky enough to have some some sort of one.  Show some backbone and maturity—for yourselves if not for others.

Breakfast in Hillsborough

Breakfast has been king for years.  Since 1989 the Hortons have staked a homestead in Hillsborough.  Here is the chronology of breakfast in Hillsborough:

Millview 1: On Main Street, the muffins were homemade and available via daily trivia on the blackboard.  Cindy did the counter while  Marcia did the cooking.  Popular hangout from 1989 to 1992.

Millview 2: Same place, different owners. High rent drove out Millview 1 and Millview 2.  Millview 2 was Aaron Zipper’s baby from 1992-1995.

Lost Loon:  After a strange hiatus, Zipper came back, in Antrim with a place of his own.  His well lit little eatery had salmon on bagel (bagel with lox) as its supreme creation.  Among is help was Donny who later went to pick up after Hurricane Katrina.  The Loon was active from 1995-2001.

Brunchys:  Perhaps the most interesting establishment, Brunchys was right outside of Emerald Lake Village in North Hillsborough.  The stand alone shack had terrible acoustics, cheek-jowl seating, and gossip by the gallon.  Many a Saturday morning started with french toast and dirty laundry,  Once again landlord larceny drove the likes of George and Giselle from the kitchen.  Brunchys ran from 2001 to 2005.

Hillsborough Diner:  Eating here was like returning to the womb.  The Diner had been the original “place” for breakfast.  But a diagreement over cigars put the Diner on the blacklist…until they were the only option left.  Chocolate cream pie helped to ease ill feelings.  The Diner pretty much carries the breakfast load for the town.  They reign currently…2005 to present.

Male Displacement

In the 1970’s and 1980s women began joining the workforce in greater numbers.  This was great as they had been left out for long decades.  And to today they have made fine and genuine contribution to the workforce.

The numbers in the work force (of both male and female) has expanded decade by decade. (A congressional staffer told me in 2005 that total numbers were down–but I doubted it–as unemployment was low).

Yet bit by bit, little by little males are being marginalized.  There are simply fewer jobs than those that want to work.  And this brings up that the cost of progress is in lives changed negatively.

Long term this is another imbalance to destabilize an already polarized public.  Hopefully a recovered economy will bring all who want to work back into the work force in full.

Cisco Kids

Cisco (Canada) has a neat technology ad that is worth commentary.  The main piece of the 60 second spot is set in a Canadian classroom—as determined by the flag on the chalkboard.  The kids are 4th graders or so.  A young woman visits.  The kids say they are going to field trip to China.  The young woman looks perplexed.  The big screen YV comes on and there is a room full of like aged kids.  They greet each other in Chinese.

Congrats Cisco Canada—you put together a cute, sharp adverstisement.

But in the ad the kids in Canada were doing their thing in full daylight–as the windows had the sun streaming through in full.  The brief footage showed the Chinese school room where rectangular things also beamed light–also a bright and sunny day in China.  So far so good.  But their is a 14 hour time difference between Canada and China.  Both countries have daytime classes for the schools are normal in every way.  Trouble with the 14 hour difference is that someone has to be the dark.  You can do the math.  The matter is trivial, like scraping an ocean liner against an iceberg.  Maybe Cisco has network systems to change time.  Doubt it.  But someone in their dream factory missed the clock.  Again the advertisement is really cool—your better off doing Canada and Chile—easily in the same time zone.

Catholic Medical Center

Medicine 2010 can be pretty neat.  High tech and lots of wow, CMC is running commercials on their cutting edge technology.  Trouble is what about the cost? I have been unemployed since Oct. 2007.  I had a $200 simple doctor’s visit in November.  In February with a full blood test I expect to pay around $500 which is what it just cost me to fill my oil tank.  Is that commercial misleading–in a way.  There is glittery, cool, snazzy end of medicine and then there is the crappy, stinky, awkward, poke green side of medicine.  Both are valid.  But neither alone are truthful.  The trouble with “cheery side” of things in advertisement falsifies the “gloomy side” where a great many people are stuck.   How much does that cute technology cost a ride—$5000?  $7500?  makes a HUGE difference to Penniless Peter.  All show and no tell can in my opinion go to…   Enough said.

Isreali Airport Security

The Underwear Christmas Bomber brought up all the demons of 9/11.  Fox News, the news channel loaded for bear, globbed on to an immediate solution–do like the no-nonsense Isrealis do.  Nothing beats knee jerk wishful thinking like deep and thoughtful thinking.

Yes, the Isrealis can and do security well–flake jackets and all.  But replication?  Couple of problems—

Isreal, being a tiny country, has a tiny airport infastructure.  They can take the time and effort to watch every Abdul, Elijah, and Hakim get hands on, first person scrutiny.

Here in the land of the free, an average of 25,000-40,000 Americans are airborne in US airspace on any given moment.  What resources could be devoted? Who foots the bill? What delays at the airport would result?

Taking on the “Isreali model” means taking on the “Isreali mentality”.  Going bunker means freaking at every little blip.  We don’t need that now, especially now.  From top down, everybody is on edge.  There is little thought to thinking before reacting.

There are no easy answers, perhaps no practical ones.  But Uzis on the concourse seems too heavy for blow-up briefs.  Back to the hen house Fox. There will be other days.

“Great” Overdose

WTPL-FM is a local talk radio.  Commentary is right of middle, but civil and informative.  One host, Jack Heath, has an afternoon show.  He is a self-proclaimed conservative and runs a PR company on the side (having once run for US Congress and produced TV News).  If nothing else, Jack is media savvy.

Therein is the problem.  Despite media savvy and passionate (politically) personality, Jack just can’t get away from describing everything positive as “great”.  Some broadcasts become endless streams of “great”, “great”, “great”, “great”,….

Is it truly bad?  Mindnumbing repitition, diminishing value, bland and ambigious description.  Hey, monosyllabic descriptors are easy and saves time and effort—but at what cost?

Words like awesome, fantastic, pretty neat, innovative, rich, astounding, classy, first rate, top notch, supreme, first class, unbeatable, etc. are workable substitutes.

Not only will their use spice up the broadcast, but the sponsors who you coddle (in a commercially nurturing way) will appreciate your expansive and expressive bounty beyond the “Great” wall of monotonous description.

Sushi Train “The Track”

As stated in another post, Midori was the first, original, and best sushi bar in NH.  But Midori is long gone, but many, oh so many, have come yo fill the gaps.  Here are some with commentary:

Odd Fellow Building (Nashua):  Home to a slew of in/out restaurants from 1991 to 1995.

You You (Nashua): Right by the Nashua Mall, this “fancy pants” place had more emo to it then worth relating now.

Dynamite (Hudson): A favorite of a friend, but decidedly “iffy” to me–more support for the “ugly get worse service” principle.

Kobe (Manchester): A short lived place with niddle of the road service and quality.

Taipei & Tokyo (Bedford, Portsmouth):  Introduced by the worldly Rapsis family, T & T is another middle of the road restaurant with nice locations and plenty of parking.

Sakurabana (Portsmouth): Diana, a college friend, brought me to this place when visiting her.  Very quaint location with heavy oriental decor.

Yuki (Manchester, Goffstown):  Pricey and sterile, but quality nonetheless.  Never had good mutual karma with them.

Moritomo (Concord): Replacing Week’s restauant, the Moritomo has staked claim when they were the only game in town.  Small and yet thorough–their Simka Roll is heavan with tobiko.

Green Apple (Concord): Under many names at different times, they have a sushi buffet which I have veered away from due to health reasons.  An acquaintance once commented about seeiing rats there—more like a reason to ditch a potential date. Both Moritomo and Green Apple went sushi about the same time.

Beijing & Tokyo (Concord): Around 2007 B & T set up shop in downtown Concord.  Best described a blue collar sushi bar they showed some top rate customer service during the dark days of 2007. (Also delivery came with two guys not one, delivering).

Thousand Crane (Manchester/Nashua):  When I went to work for Vision Title & Closing, LLC in 2003, I was thrilled beyond reason to find a Japanese restauant (Thousand Crane) across the street and Margaritas restaurant downstairs.  For four years T-Crane was “the place”. Following the Midori-Moritomo line T-Crane became the next “sushi home” in conjunction with Sara (see below).

Sara (Goffstown):  No longer with us, but introduced by the ubiquitous Rapsis family, this Korean-Japanese restaurant was on the way home and thus a “sushi home”.  In addition to quality sushi at excellent price, the banchan (extras) were reminiscent of the Midori.

Chen Yang Li (Bedford, Nashua, Concord): Rated as one the best Chinese restaurants in NH, CYL has high standings for the Japanese side of the menu. Had a Christmas party very recently there, nothing but good things to dsy for James and his gang. Oh, pricey, muy pricey for tuxedo service. Also THE PLACE for Manchester area sushi when Manchester had their sushi ban.

Lee & Mt. Fuji(Peterborough): Now just a few years old, this stylish retro-industrial decored restauant overlooking the falls at the Boiler House puts out a breathtaking beautiful product–pricey and far afield–the place is not to be missed, at least once.

Ichiban(Concord): This national franchise moved in to the classic landmark “Cat in the Fiddle” restaurant.  Like Tokyo Joe in Nashua and Shogun in Manchester, Ichiban does sushi.  Its trade is in teppanyaki–the grill before your eyes technique.  Whereas Moritomo has a modest four tables, Ichiban has dozens.  Ichiban does have a quiet room without the song and dance of teppanyaki.

Ginger House (Antrim): A lament of living in Hillsborough has been the distance to sushi restauants.  Ginger House opemed in November of 2009, not next door, but at the town next door.  In many ways, Ginger House is the typical rural Chinese chop joint—yet it has sushi and sashimi—and a motivated, cheery staff, bubbling with enthussiasm.  Ginger House has made the penetration to the deep rural and for that alone they get applause.

Patriot’s Game

This past decade the Patriots regularly ground opponents into dust with cold efficiency.  Team after team were left in shock.  Then came the Superbowl superflub.  Afterward Tom Brady got whacked.  Now the Patriots are just another team.

The truth is worse.

Last night the Ravens  ripped the Patriots apart.  Much was attributed to the quality of the Ravens who played sharp and “to win”.  The Patriots played like lamed octopi. Tom “Throwaway” Brady had some great receptions–to the Ravens.  The defense was clownish.  Why the Patriots were not in the game “to win” is strictly Belichek’s responsibility. 

Most incredibly you got booed by your fans.  That is bad, real bad.  When you lose your fans–sitting in the deep cold—you have truly “lost”.  Enjoy your season off, back amongst the mere mortals.