Tag Archives: New York

NYC Chili Cook-Off

27 Apr

April 27, 2014

scan0003

I spent the day at the New York City Chili Cook-Off at Historic Richmondtown on Staten Island. It was a great day, with 25 teams producing some of the greatest chili I ever tasted.

scan0001

At entry, we were given a tasting kit, consisting of a small cup and a spoon. You could get as many samples as you want, from as many places as you want. It was fantastic. Plus, it was on the grounds of old Richmondtown, a historic site, so you could see all the old buildings. There was music, and one of the best booths I have ever seen, a great soda stand with old-fashioned tin cups and unlimited gourmet soda. OK, this one stand was not free, but since there was so much spicy chili, the unlimited refills paid for the price of the soda. Miss Staten Island was there, and so were tons of families. I wouldn’t have expected this to be such a family event, but there were tons of kids running around. The weather was warm and sunny, the chili delicious, and the day was fun.

Click on any of the thumbnails to enlarge.

 

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

He Loves The Honeymooners

5 Apr

April 5, 2014

A little over three years ago, on January 11th, 2011, I wrote a blog around this letter, which appeared in the New York Daily News.

kramdenmania

Frankly, I felt sorry for the guy, he was 63 after all. I didn’t even imply that he might have gone a little senile.

I fail to see the problem here. They aired The Honeymooners at one in the afternoon on a day when most people are home and sleep late. Should channel 11 have shown it at one in the morning and forced an old man to stay up to the wee hours of the night? Did he really want to be up, at age 63, watching TV at 4 am? Is this an overreaction, or can someone explain this to me? And while you’re at it, explain to me why this guy felt the need to write to the newspaper about it.

Now flash back to  the present. I’ve pretty much given up on The Daily News. Never a bastion of journalism, they’ve resorted to doing little more than calling out random people as jerks on their front page. In the three years since that letter appeared, it is fair to say that I’ve seen The Voice of the People less than a few dozen times. So I’ll leave it to you to calculate the odds that earlier this week I should run across this letter:

the honey mooner

Three years later, same guy! Still loves The Honeymooners, in fact moved so deeply by it that he had to let the world know with his letter. I can only imagine the orgasmic letters he sends to the station that actually airs the show. But my favorite part of the letter? “I even have my lovely grandchildren imitate them.”

“Grandpa, I’m hungry. Can we eat now?”
“Not until you do the “can it core a apple” skit!”
“Grandpaaaaa!”
“Bang! Zoom! To the moon, Timmy!”

How many letters did he send in that I missed over the years? How many love letters has he sent Audrey “Alice Kramden” Meadows? And how many times has he bitten someone’s hand when they tried to change the channel?

 

.

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →