It was a nice weekend here at GOC Central here in Beautiful Dunwoody Georgia. The weather was nice on Saturday, but Saturday is usually a kick back day for me. I finished my Friday Blog and published it. I did my regular weekly grocery shopping. And, I found a bottle of limoncello.
I am a creature of habit. I have found that often habit is a result of doing things over and over again because they either bring pleasure or they work. (Yes, I realize this is a Skinnerian response. Here I am demonstrating that I actually did pay attention when I took Psych 101 in college. Also, I often link to USS Clueless and he says he follows links back, so maybe if he reads me talking about Skinnerian responses, he'll realize I read a blog that he wrote about and actually do me the great honor of sometimes linking to me. Wishful thinking I know, but a blogger can dream can't he?) So, almost every Saturday for dinner, I grill a filet mignon, bake (or in the summer nuke) a potato, and toss a salad. Before dinner, I usually have a Stoly on the rocks with two olives. If my friend Wahoo (and yes his last name is McDaniel and no he is not the wrestler) and his significant other Jeanella come over I have to put two additional olives in my drink as he loves vodka soaked olives. Or, if Michael and Cindy come over, I eschew the Stoly and open either a bottle of Champagne or a bottle of white wine. Also, if champagne, we usually have some pistachios or salmon. Michael usually brings a bottle of red and I open a bottle of red, so the three of us knock back three bottles of wine. Caution, do not try this at home. We are highly trained professionals.
What I drink after dinner depends on the season. If it is after Cindy's birthday (the end of September) and before Easter, the after dinner drink is Delamain cognac. I used to drink the XO, but have upgraded to the Vesper. Here I use Michael's rule. My friend Cindy, his wife is a rehab nurse. When I have complications due to my condition (I'm a cripple ya know), she takes care of me. For example, I had a real bad skin sore on the instep of my right foot that I got when I was in California. Not trusting the HMO out there, I nursed it along until I got home, which turned out to be a real good choice. In the interim, it got infected and cellulitus was creeping up my leg. It required IV antibiotics and Cindy came by every day to hang them. To show my gratitude, I bought her and Michael a bottle of Delamain XO ($65) and the top of the line Delamain ($240). I also said I wanted a glass of the good stuff and wanted to do a blind tasting. The $240 Delamain was good and I could tell it from the $65 bottle. Here is an example of Michael's rule: the $240 bottle of Delamain was great, but it was not four times better than the $65 bottle. Now the Vesper, on the other hand, which sells for $90 is worth $25 more than the XO. Therefore, I have upgraded.
After Easter, I usually drink grappa after dinner. Wahoo and Jeanella, drink beer after dinner all year round. Michael and Cindy drink cognac (do they ever drink cognac!). I must point out that I used to drink Courvoisier but they turned me on to Delamain. That is why Cindy's birthday becomes the start of cognac season. I always have them to dinner for her birthday, and in addition to the three bottles of wine, we kill a half bottle of cognac. Fortunately, they only live about ten minutes away. In the summer, Michael joins me in drinking grappa and Cindy drinks water.
Recently, I stumbled across a show on the Food Channel called Mario Eats Italy. Mario is Mario Batali, a chubby blond guy with a ponytail and a beard. In this show, he travels to various parts of Italy with a cooking student named Steve Rooney. He explains how different regional products of Italy are made. On the show he has toured a sausage factory, a parmigiano reggiano factory, a balsamic vinegar factory and other interesting places. He then cooks a meal using the regional products. When he was on the Amalfi coast, he introduced me to limoncello.
Ahhhh! Let me say a few words about the Amalfi coast. It is the western Italian coast along the Bay of Salerno. It runs from Salerno to Sorrento with the city of Amalfi midway between the two cities. It is a rocky coast like the coast of California north of San Francisco. The road along the coast is like Highway 1 in California, only worse. This is another reason why I got a kick out of the letter to the AJC written by Neville Anderson that I skewered in my June 7 blog. Italian drivers are maniacs. Carlo, theresa nuttina comin the othera way arounda thata curve. Go aheadn pass. Sure ting Luigi. Holy shit! Theresa bus! (ecco l'autobus!) But somehow, they all survive. Michael went to Italy a few years back with an Italian friend. His friend was driving down a mountainside and was spending most of the time looking at Michael and talking. By the end of the trip Michael was in the backseat curled up in the fetal position and whimpering. Ahhhh! Italian drivers. Lines on the roads are suggestions. Playing chicken is an everyday occurence. I love Italy. I Iove the Italians. I think way back in my family tree there must be at least one Italian. But please, don't ask me to drive there. I'm just not that brave.
Now where was I? Yes, the Amalfi coast. They Italians have cut their cities out of the hillsides and they have terraced the hills and on the terraces they grow lemons. According to Mario, the area is known for its excellent lemons and for limoncello. Grappa is Italian white lightning. They take everything left over from the wine pressing and distill it into grappa. Waste not, want not. It will knock your socks off. It is an acquired taste. Limoncello is alcohol infused with lemons. It's not as potent as grappa and I find it is a real nice summer after dinner drink.
I had run out of limoncello and although I knew exactly where I could get some, I wanted to find a closer spot, which I did. So I bought it. Now all was complete. I had my Saturday dinner and had some limoncello after the meal, while sitting outside on the Great Patio of Dunwoody.
Sunday morning, as I was reading the Sunday Atlanta Urinal and Constipation, I came across this letter (sixth one down) from James E. "Billy' McKinney. Betcha wondered when Billy was gonna check in. Billy as you may have guessed has the same name as our beloved Cynthia McKinney the national laughingstock from Atlanta Georgia. Billy is Cynthia's father. I have to admit the letters editor of the AJC must have a sense of humor to publish this howler.
I am most appreciative to those who have now begun to recognize my daughter, Cynthia McKinney, for her honesty, steadfastness and patriotism.
Translation: You folks who think that are even dumber than Cynthia and I thought. I guess there really is a sucker born every minute.
I'm not sure I know where Cynthia found her courage.
Translation: It sure as shit wasn't from me!
Perhaps it was watching me and my colleagues during the civil rights movement.
I doubt it.
Maybe it comes from her constituents, who appreciate the way she fights for individual people against the powers that be.
Gotta keep those welfare checks and food stamps coming. Gotta keep her constituents in poverty and dependent upon government programs so she can be reelected every other year.
Although vindication was sweet and certainly hard-won,
Hold it right there Billy boy (Boy...Who you callin' boy, you redneck bastard? OK Billy Butthead), what's this vindication shit you be talkin' about? Let's analyze what your loony offspring said. She said that Bush knew about the attacks and did nothing, so as to allow his cronies in the defense industry to make money. Yeah, he received a briefing in August that terrorists might hijack airplanes. No dates were given. That's like saying your daughter was gonna say something stupid. Hell we all know that, we just don't know when. And, here's the important question: What was Bush supposed to do? The only thing that would have effectively thwarted the hijackers was to single out Middle Eastern men for additional security checks. Oh yeah I can hear the howls from you, your daughter, Maxine Waters, Hillary Clinton, Tommy Daschle, Dickie Gephardt, John Conyers, the entire Congressional Black Caucus, Danny Glover, Alec Baldwin (What's he still doing here? Wasn't he supposed to leave if Bush won?), and who knows how many others of little or no common sense about the horrors of (gasp) Racial Profiling. Jesus! We can't even do that now. You hypocritical bastards make me want to puke!
it is only a byproduct of the real success of my daughter's questioning of the events of Sept. 11. It has demonstrated my daughter's concern for the voters in her district and her trust in their ability and desire to receive truthful and accurate information.
Actually it is more of a trust in their ability to believe the bullshit she shovels by the truck load.
Her outspoken and courageous statements have placed her and our entire family on the firing line for retaliatory remarks, ridicule and inflammatory accusations.
Which with this famiy's history is right where they belong. Billy McKinney, gentle soul that he is, threatened to pull a knife on a colleague on the floor of the Georgia House of Representatives. That was a real profile in courage.
We appreciate those who recognize the value of true patriotism, who endure the arrows of adversity, and who stand with us in our fight for truth and justice.
You left out 'and the American way'. It goes truth, justice, and the American way. So if I don't stand with you and your loony daughter, I'm not a patriot? Is that what you're saying Billy Butthead? And I do understand truth and justice and you and your daughter are the total antithesis of it. Jesus Christ, your daughter is a bloody communist for Christ's sake. I'm not talking socialist, I'm talking communist.
Every father seeks the approval of his children.
I'm really sorry, but I just can't resist this. Clinton was really looking for Chelsea's approval when he was getting it on with Monica wasn't he?
Every child wants to earn the pride of her parents. I am certainly proud of my daughter --- her courage, her determination
her constant playing of the race card, her coddling of thuggish African dictators, her getting an aisle seat at every State of the Union address to get her mug on television, and her getting elected to Congress. Billy Butthead never made it that far. He is stuck in the state legislature.
and the loyalty she has earned from the people of her district.
Those would be the people in the southern half of her district and the liberals around Emory University whom I call the Emoroids. Those of us up here in Dunwoody are embarassed to have her as our representative and vote against her every election. Unfortunately, the Emoroids swing the district in her favor.
I believe that, in time, even her critics will come to understand her invaluable service.
Yeah, like that's gonna happen anytime real soon. How about never? Does never work for you?
I have remembered a lesson from watching my daughter over the last few weeks that I first learned while standing up to the Ku Klux Klan and angry gangs bent on depriving African Americans of their most basic rights during the fight for civil rights. Sometimes showing courage means standing alone. But it takes no courage to be part of a mob.
Oh yeah, let's bring up Billy's courage during the fight for civil rights. That always works. Cynthia is not showing courage by making loony remarks in a safe protected district. She can say just about anything she wants. Now, if she started talking about self reliance, about doing well in school, about sexual responsibility, and about true independence, that is, supporting one's self and not relying on the government, that would be real courage. Instead, she is one of the Democrat's attack dogs on the Bush Administration.
But I do believe, like loony Cynthia, that there should be an investigation. Unlike Cynthia, however, I think it should go all the way back to 1992 and find out why the FBI and CIA failed so miserably.
I want to thank the AJC's letters editor for printing this letter and Billy McKinney for writing it.
I spent the rest of Sunday laughing.
Posted by denny at June 10, 2002 04:05 PM