Winter Salt Marsh

Here's a photo of a North side Salt Marsh in Dennis on Cape Cod taken this Winter as I was inspecting a high value home that abuts this marsh. The owners said they often see deer frolicking in this marsh. Oh dear, it was cold that day! I guess that happens during the Winter; some days are cool and some days are cold.

Every year we having Spring and Summer warming trends and longer days and the days get shorter with cooling trends in the Fall and Winter. For some reason, and maybe it is just me;I think the sun has a lot to do with global warming and cooling based on the length of the days and the angle of the solar radiation as evidenced by the four seasons. Yes, to me the sun is the star of determining global temperatures with a lot more of an important role in temperature changes than any effect than mankind can or cannot affect the climate. Yes, there was "climate change" each year in the northern hemisphere even before the dawn of man.

"THE SECRET WORD GAME"

A few times last year "Annie" who worked with me at the Soundings motel front desk on Cape Cod and I would play the "secret word" game with each other to see who could say certain key words to the other fellow employees first and to see if the other employees would comment about the words we used. For example, it is best to use unusual words such as "Yikes!", "Golly" "Shazaam!", "Gee", or "Gosh" in a sentence such as "Yikes!, there sure are a lot of check-ins arriving at the same time, "Gosh" I wonder if they all got stuck in the traffic on the bridges or the Cape Cod tunnel;"Gee", I wonder when it will slow down to a more reasonable pace of activity, "Shazaam!" here comes some more people.

From what I hear Groucho Marx of the "Marx Brothers" had a television show a long time ago when he had on contestants that had a conversation with "Groucho" and if the contestants said the secret word they would win a prize. I saw a few shows but can't remember too much about them. My secret word game is pretty much the opposite of the Groucho Marx game as we would say the words and gauge the reaction and keep track to see who could say the secret words first.

You should try this game yourself some time. It probably works best with uncommon words or sayings and not as well with phrases "like you know", "n' stuff", "whatever", "and a ", as these are possibly things you say all the time in regular conversation.

Herring River Jetty

Here's a photo from the Herring River Jetty in West Harwich on Cape Cod Mass taken today 3/7/10 with the Belmont Beach and condominiums in the background with Herring river on the right and Nantucket Sound on the left side. I don't know who lifted all the boulders that make up this jetty during construction but they must have been pretty strong. Maybe they used machines of some sort or a barge ship as it would be tough to drive in the water with a tractor without rusting out the tractor or stalling out the engine by getting the engine water logged.

"The Best Restaurant in Town"

Working at a seasonal resort motel on Cape Cod for over thirty years at the front desk I am often asked directions and recommendations for good places to eat by the many Cape Cod visitors each year. Front desk personnel actually have a lot of influence in determining where these visitors end up eating during their visit and help frame the memories of their Cape Cod experience.

If I were a restaurant owner I would name my restaurant "The Best Restaurant In Town" because that is what many guests ask when they come up to the front desk for their dinner advice and driving directions. Hopefully with a name like "The Best Restaurant In Town" this restaurant would be a quality establishment but with a name like that even if you had terrible food and service and were located in the middle of a sewage disposal plant you would get a lot of referrals from the front desk staff and probably everybody around the town as we always want to be cordial and helpful to our tourist friends. I can see it now. "Excuse me, this is our first trip to Cape Cod and we would like to go to the best restaurant in town; (said the tourist to the front desk representative). The front desk representative replies, "Oh, you don't want to go to "The Best Restaurant In Town". The tourist replies, "Yes we do! Can we have please have directions?" The front desk representative replies, "Very well, You take a right on Dutch Elm street, take a left on Abbey Road, then a right on Sunset Boulevard then a left on Mulholland Drive cross Route 66 and then take your second exit off of Highway 69."

So there you go for better or worse, you are bound to get some business if you name your restaurant, "The Best Restaurant In Town".

"The Cunning Senator Bunning"

What's this I hear about Kentucky Senator Jim Bunning trying to stop unemployment benefit extensions and other expenditures just because there was no offset or way to pay for these measures. Since when in Congress has anyone ever stopped to consider where all the money for their out of control budget busting bills and wasteful political pork projects?

Jim Bunning used to be a professional baseball player, a Hall of Fame pitcher in fact, for the Detroit Tigers, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Los Angeles Dodgers, and was known for the "brush back" pitch where you throw a fastball close to the batter who is crowding the plate. This man knows how to play "hardball" and now he is playing political hardball by trying the novel approach in the Senate of insisting the the Senators consider paying for some of their proposed bills. How "cunning" Senator Bunning but don't you know in America what we do is "kick the can down the road". We never seem to try to solve issues or pay the cost of current governmental programs when we can stall or just borrow the money from China and worry about paying the real costs in the endless future. Not only do most people in Congress not consider the costs of their lame brain schemes but they get all worked up if someone like Senator Bunning tries to make them show some fiscal accountability. They scream "This is an outrage" and "It's not fair for one Senator to hold up the important work of wasting taxpayer money" and trying to label Senator Bunning's actions as "extreme" and "heartless".

It is a fairly lonely position to take in the modern day Congress of trying to restore some sense of fiscal responsibility. The cunning Senator Bunning has got the Congress running when his major point is his audacity to suggest that Congress follow the supposed lead of President Obama who said that we should stop treating tax revenue like monopoly money. I'm sure President Obama was as surprised as the Congress that someone would actually follow the principle of 'pay as you go". I for one applaud Senator Bunning's efforts to "strike out" against unfunded congressional proposals and his "pitch" for fiscal restraint. This attitude may be the start of a whole new "ballgame" in beltway politics even if it leaves some of the current congressional members in a "foul" mood.

"INVENTING POTATO CRISPIES"

As further described in the posting below, here is a photo of one of my recent brainstorms where I decided to experiment and see what would happen if I cut up a potato into thin slices and fried them in olive oil in a pan over my stove top.

It actually is quite edible, tasty even, and I think I might be on to something big with this idea.

"POTATO CRISPIES"

I'm not a renowned chef or anything but sometimes I come up with a creative idea or two in the kitchen. Just recently, I was in the kitchen and I was getting ready to bake some potatoes in the oven. Now of course everyone has heard of baked potatoes and mashed potatoes but this day for some reason I decided to experiment and I said to myself, "I wonder what it would taste like if I tried to cut up this potato and fry it it olive oil over the stove top?" I also came up with the idea of cutting the potato real thin so it wouldn't take too long to cook. I also had some home made sea salt next to my stove and thought I would experiment and sprinkle some sea salt over these thin potato slices then see how they would taste.

"Eureka"! I said after trying one of these crispy potato slices. "These are real tasty!". I then thought "You know, I'll bet these potato slices would taste mighty fine if I ate them while drinking a beer or a cold soda pop." By Golly!, I tried some of these thin fried potatoes with a beer and really liked this combination. In fact, I liked this combination so much that I applied for a patent on this thin fried potato invention. So, please don't try this at home unless you wish to pay me a licencing fee for this new invention.

Next I had to come up with a name for this tasty salty snack. I ran through a few name choices such as "fried thin potatoes, thin salty potatoes, potato slices, potato crisps," among the many name choices for this new culinary treat. I even thought of potato chips but quickly discarded that idea as they really don't look like chips to me. To me, potato chips would mean little nicks of potato not the slices that I developed. But, potato slices don't convey the fact that these crispy treats are cooked so I think the best name is "Potato crisps" or even better "Potato Crispies".

I am pretty excited about the prospects for my new patented potato invention and intend to try to mass produce these crispy treats and maybe even see if some of the supermarket chains or even bars would be interested in selling this product. I also recently tried eating some of these potato crispies for lunch with a sandwich and thought that was a combination worth exploring. I'm even thinking of trying different flavoring on the potato crispies in the future such as cheese, barbecue flavor and maybe even salt and vinegar.

So what do you think? Does this invention have any potential? I can even imagine some day people might even want to eat my product while sitting on their couch watching TV while a movie or sporting event is playing. Call me crazy but I think "Potato Crispies" just might catch on.