Mickey Mousing Around For Thanksgiving – Part 1

So, let's just jump into it, shall we?  Wednesday morning the alarm went off @ 2:30 am, the cab arrived at 4:00 am, and by 6:30 am, Cora, The Daughter, and I were on a plane heading for LAX and Disneyland to meet up with most of her family for Thanksgiving.

Jealous yet?

The flight went smoothly, there was no real issue with holiday travel crowds at all.  Now, the Super Shuttle people getting us to our hotel seemed like they were making it up as they went along, but eventually a van zipped at 70 mph to our hotel, where it turned out that our hotel room was ready early!

And we were in the Disneyland park by lunchtime.  The castle was decorated for the winter, but the weather was far from wintery.

In fact, it felt a lot like Halloween around the Haunted Mansion.  Since "A Nightmare Before Christmas" is The Daughter's favorite movie, we made many, many, many passes through its haunted halls.

We tracked down a couple of cute kids from Cora's family, and got them to pose with Jack Skellington.

And we got nice little video of Jack chatting with the family.

We hung out with the family the rest of the day, riding rides and hearing about their cruise the week before.  The Daughter was so psyched to see them all, but she REALLY missed Boy-Cousin and Grandma the most.

As night rolled in, the lights came on, and our get up and go, got up and went.  So, we trudged back across the street to the hotel and passed out.

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Notes:

• This is my third "Disney" visit and my third Disney park.  First was Euro (now Paris), then came Disney World, and now Disneyland.  World is my favorite park, but this was my favorite trip.
• This was The Daughter's third Disney visit, all to Disneyland.  She has never seen the Haunted Mansion in its traditional form.  Always decked out for Nightmare Before Christmas.  And she likes it that way.
• We met up with Cora's mom, sister, brother-in-law, their three kids, her brother and his girlfriend.  We were scattered across various hotels.
• I saw far more Jack Skellington T-shirts than Mickey Mouse T-shirts.  I think Disney is seriously going to need to consider making a permanent Nightmare attraction, probably in California Adventure, maybe by the Tower of Terror.

Poetry For Un-poetic Justice

Over the past year and a half, the below E. E. Cummings poem has been popping into my head a lot.  I first read it in a college rhetoric class, way back in the day.  (Don't want you thinking I'm some kind of hippie going to poetry readings at some beatnik joint.) It's a poem about a guy not believing in the horrors of war.  That is until the Japanese drop a bomb on his head.

In a "real world" situation, I am routinely left gobsmacked (hence the picture) by how utterly myopic a certain person I'm dealing with is. They, with a determination and assurance of a right and noble cause that would make a Jehovah's Witness blush, have continued to plunge headlong and headstrong through things heedless of the consequences; ignoring all advice to the contrary.  (What a sentence.)

And now, Mr. Cummings…

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plato told

him:he couldn't
believe it(jesus

told him;he
wouldn't believe
it)lao

tsze
certainly told
him,and general
(yes

mam)
sherman;
and even
(believe it
or

not)you
told him:i told
him;we told him
(he didn't believe it,no

sir)it took
a nipponized bit of
the old sixth

avenue
el;in the top of his head:to tell

him

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Phriday Phunny

This is ancient.  But still an utter classic.  And this just goes to show you kids out there, that even as there is talk of upping TV resolution from "HDTV" to "UHDTV" (Ultra), you can improve picture quality, but you can't always improve on content quality.

This was filmed live, and Tim Conway (as is his nature), went off the rails trying to bust up his cast mates.  If you've never seen this before, be warned, it is not nearly as fast paced as today's shorter attention spans call for, but it is comedy gold.

**SNORK** – That bit still kills me.

Have a good weekend all.

Chicago - Off The Eaten Track Part 4

Do you like eating? I like eating. And odds are, some of the foods you grew up enjoying aren't the same in other parts of the country. Heck, they may not even exist at all. Everywhere has their own styles of foods and drinks. Styles that are unique to your region, and which may even be world famous. Or local secrets. Lobster rolls. Cheesestake. BBQ. All good food that sections of the country take pride in.

Chicago has it's famous foods. Chicago style pizza. Chicago hotdogs. Ribs. And if you're in town for a while, here's the stuff you should try.

POPCORN

There really is no other choice on this one. It's Garrett's. Everybody knows it. This is truly a "Taste of Chicago". And you have to do the "Chicago Mix". Cheese corn and caramel corn. Mixed together.

A few quick points:

• Yes, cheese corn and caramel corn mixed together. Trust me, it works.
• Grab more napkins than you think you'll need, and grab about 3 more. You're fingers will be yellow. Your face will need some, too.
• There may well be a line out the door. Yes. For. Popcorn. Why? Because it's worth it. Don't worry, it moves fast.
• Garrett's is basically either in the Loop or at O'Hare. If you're out in the burbs, forget it. But they will ship you a tin if you need.

CHEESECAKE

It's Eli's Cheesecake. Eli's started out as a steak restaurant in Chicago, that had a really good cheesecake dessert. The restaurant is no longer, but the factory is still churning out some tasty cheesecake. The factory is about 5.5 miles due west of me, and while you can get a taste of it at the factory, you can also pick it up at about any grocery store in town. But you may not even need to hop on a plane to try some. They may be available in a grocery store near you. I know, you think that you can get cheesecake from anywhere. But this is GOOD stuff.

CHOCOLATE

Chicago's a candy city.  Probably our biggest is the Wrigley Company.  Yeah, Wrigley Field.  The Wrigley Building.  Then there's also Tootsie Roll.  We used to have Brach's (the hospital that blew up in The Dark Knight was their old factory).  And then there's Fanny May (not to be confused with Fannie Mae, the mortgage place).  They only recently declared bankruptcy, were bought and sold a couple of times, and had production moved to Ohio.

But they still have shops all over the area, and they make some killer chocolate.  My wife, Cora, is a chocolate aficionado, and loves her some Fannie May.  Trinidads.  Pixies.  Mint Meltaways.  But you don't have to get fancy, even their candy bars are awesome.  So are their ice cream bars.  So if you need a little boost while walking around, Fannie May will give you that little boost to keep going.

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So, if I'm in your town, what sweets would you recommend?

Chicago - Off The Eaten Track Part 3

Do you like eating? I like eating. And odds are, some of the foods you grew up enjoying aren't the same in other parts of the country. Heck, they may not even exist at all. Everywhere has their own styles of foods and drinks. Styles that are unique to your region, and which may even be world famous. Or local secrets. Lobster rolls. Cheesestake. BBQ. All good food that sections of the country take pride in.

Chicago has it's famous foods. Chicago style pizza. Chicago hotdogs. Ribs. And if you're in town for a while, here's the stuff you should try.

BBQ RIBS

Chicago ribs are pork ribs.  (I'm a beef rib man, myself.)  There are a lot of good places to get ribs.  Some of the big boys are Carson's & Robinson's.  There are also little guys like Smokin' Woody's or Fat Willy's.  But for my taste, nothing beats Twin Anchors.

The ribs are good.  Maybe not the best in town, but pretty dang tasty, but the atmosphere… Oh, the atmosphere…

The place joint is in the heart of the Old Town neighborhood.  It was a favorite of Mr. Frank Sinatra his-own-self.  And he's even on the well stocked jukebox, but as is emblazoned on all the staff's shirts, "Positively No Dancing."  The bar up front is about as large as the back dining area.  Did you see "The Dark Knight"?  That scene where Two Face confronts the crooked cop in the bar?  Twin Anchors.  Did you see "Return to Me" with David Duchovny and Minnie Driver?  Much of it was shot at Twin Anchors.

A rib joint.  But so much more than just a rib joint.

Burritos

Chicago's after bar food is definitely burritos.  Don't ask me to explain it, it just is.  Especially in Lincoln Park.  Which is a fun place to go out drinking for the 20 something to 30ish crowd.  And my favorites there La Bamba ("Burritos as big as your head.") and Taco and Burrito Palace #2.  (Because you just don't want a corporate Chipotle late at night.)

There's not really anything "Chicago Style" about them.  La Bamba is good enough that I eat there once a month or so for lunch.  And for the vegetarians, the cheese quesadillas are pretty good.

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What's the "after bar" food in your area?  Some places it's pizza.  Others get breakfast.  What do you do?

Chicken-In-A-Biskit

Did you grow up in the 70's?  If you did, then you remember Chicken in a Biskit crackers.  When your parents brought out those rippled edged crackers with the ranch-eque flavor seasoning, you knew there was going to be a PAR-TEE!  This was the era when adding French onion soup mix to sour cream to make a dip was going all out.  The snack food companies hadn't really gotten into gear with flavors.  Oh, there were BBQ potato chips but salsa and chips hadn't penetrated the group conscious.

If you wanted a flavored chip, Chicken in a Biskit was your go to move.

I bought some recently, and discovered something that blew my mind.

• Oyster crackers – Contain no oysters
• Goldfish crackers – Contain no goldfish
• Girl Scout Cookies – Contain no girl scouts
• Nips – Don't get me started on why something called a "nip" is square and has a hole in the middle instead of being round with a bump in the middle.

But Chicken in a Biskit? 

Yes, there is "dehydrated cooked chicken" in Chicken in a Biskit!

Seriously!  Look right over there.  Dehydrated Cooked Chicken!  There's particulated dried chicken matter in/on the crackers.  I know it says it in the name, and all, but like I said, you shouldn't trust the name for the content.

Did you know about this?

I know people will describe snake or rabbit as "tastes like chicken".  But never once when I bit into the zesty goodness of a Chicken in a Biskit snack cracker did I think, "Hmmm… Tastes like chicken."

Not that this is going to stop me from eating them, mind you, I just found it startling.