Old School: Red's Eats Review Repost

The list of publications that have extolled the virtues of an out-of-the-way trip to Red’s Eats is infinite. That’s because there’s an entire FRESH lobster in their lobster roll. Yeah it’s $12, which is a lot for a sandwich, but that’s a very good deal for an entire FRESH lobster.

I made my first-ever trip to this Lobster Roll Mecca two weeks ago as I left my beloved state of Maine. It was an hour out of the way. My mom and I were driving separately through the back routes of Maine, each car packed to the gills with my shtuf (hybridic slang for stuff and sh*t, like ginormous), when, after yet another rolling hill and angry traveler passed us on the double lines, she called my cell to say, “This place better be friggen good.”

And do you know what? It was.

If you don’t believe me, google “Red’s Eats.” You’ll find a million hits. I’m not going to go on about the tastiness of my sandwich for the rest of this entry, since that’s what all the other reviews give. Instead, I turn to the town in which Red’s is located..the infamous Wiscasset, Maine on Route 1.

Wiscasset holds a special place in my memories of Maine. I was an RA in Aroostook Hall at UMaine in 1998. We had about 100 residents in the dorm. About four were NOT from Wiscasset. Wiscasset used to house Maine Yankee Nuclear Power Plant. I think the waste got in the water because each one of my Wiscassetian residents was LOONY. That didn’t stop me from adoring them. There were a few cutie pies who I more than adored: Virgil, Adam AKA “Nuke” and Christian. (Oh and Jason P. but what happens in Quebec stays in Quebec.)

Virgil was nice. He had green blue eyes. I kissed him at a kegger once, which is mildly unethical for an RA but whatever, I was in college.

Adam named his room “Miami”— after the Will Smith song that was popular at the time,— had parties in that room every weekend— which I didn’t break up because I was a too-lenient RA and he was too fun and adorable,— and then failed out of college. He probably caught the lobster that I ate at Red’s the other day. Then he went home to his fiancee. He’s getting married this summer. It is nice to hear he’s growing up.

Christian was a dick. I loved him. I had this decade-long habit of liking a$$holes, and Christian was no exception. I couldn’t tell you specific things that he would do. He was just one of those self-conscious guys who showed his insecurity by being a jerk to everyone around him. Especially silly girls who fell for his face thus rationalizing away his crappy attitude. My best friend saw him in Portland last fall. She says he got a little chunky and bloated, like he hasn’t stopped the binge-drinking habits of college. That was nice to hear.

In addition to my crushes, there were also Ripley, Honey, Jason (not really a resident but was there all the time), Adam W, and Jeremy. Maybe Vic, too. All from Wiscasset. All in my dorm. All absolutely batty in a very enticing way.

If you go to Red’s and see any of them, tell them I said, “Hi.”

I can talk like a pirate

International Talk Like a Pirate Day

It is International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

I just ate Trader Joe's garlic fries. Friggen yum.

This is the International Talk Like a Pirate day version of that statement:

Argh, I just partook me o' some o'the fries that be drenched in ye Trader Joe's garlic sauce. The tubers that were abso-floggin-lutely from the heaben's o-bove, I tell ye. Curse be the cook that dreamed thar recipe for they be widening the thighs o'this maiden fer sure.

That was difficult. But fun.

To hear an interview with the founder of International Talk Like a Pirate Day, go here.

7 Spice Garbonzo Bean Stew

In double pot with the steaming thingy on the top and water on the bottom:

Steam until slightly tender:

can of drained garb. beans
1 carrot
2 celery stalks
1 half sliced onion
1 half roughly chopped pepper
1/4 cup dry rice

Take water from steaming, add 1/2 cup to small saucepan with half veg boullion cube
Add vegs and beans, stir, cover but no need to heat. Set aside.

In the emptied steaming pot thingy:
Heat up tbs of evoo
Sautee finely chopped celery, onion, pepper and tsp of garlic until clear, sweated nice a mixed in flavors.
Add a can of diced tomatoes.

Now add the following spices. These amounts are approximations. Add more or less, if you wish:

1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp curry
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cinnamon (yes, cinnamon)

Then add the veg/beans. Bring to a boil. Simmer for 25 min.

Stir occasionally. Scoop, serve and enjoy.

It's mad mad mad good.

Remodeling the IN THE PINES blog

So, what do you think of the new formatting? Just a little bit of a change. Like going to Ikea and buying new drapes and comforter. (See this entry).

I had to teach myself HTML and some CSS to get this to be this way. It took all of the Red Sox game, Forget Paris and half of An American in Paris. Then I went back during the Flavor Flav roast and did some more stuff.

An enriching night of vegging on the couch and playing with my blog.

Do you like the colors in the banner and the left nav? I would call it lavender but HTML calls it thistle.

Do you like the left hand navigation instead of right? And the smaller outer columns for more text within the body?

Figuring all this out was like figuring out how to read Don Quixote with a Spanish dictionary and limited knowledge of Latin. But it was fun.

Because I'm a geek.

Anyway, feel free to leave your comments below.

I hope they still show up now that I've rearranged things...

Address

Presidential Address

904- Stop smirking. Is that tie indigo? Someone put on too much blusher on him before the camera’s started rolling

905- Our tomorrow starts today. Hmmm…Taoist

906- That wrinkle between his eyes is getting very deep. Stress. I never noticed how much he looks like a bird

907- You can see his eyes moving as he reads the teleprompter

908- bored

909- Oh a truth! Yes, the troops are extraordinary. See new banner above if you agree.

910- Christmas time. How sentimental. One question: have you really accomplished everything you wanted to? We’ll get back to this later.

912- Return upon success. The more successful we are, the more troops to come home. Hmmm…OMG WTF are you saying???? That didn’t even make sense!

913- Engagement beyond the of Bush. (See below for when that ends.) Like Korea. Thomas Ricks actually thought this was an okay thing. It prevents the looming human rights disaster of major civil war and genocide. ... A free Iraq. A free Iraq. A free Iraq. Hmmm…smacks of MLK and “free at last free at last.” Bastard speech writers and their Civil Rights leaders allusions. (And illusions.)

914- Oo, there it was. September the eleventh evoking. I still don’t see how going into a country that everyone has confirmed has nothing to do with 9/11 has helped us be safer. Because it quite obviously hasn’t. It has in fact weakened us.

916- "Iraq neighbors- lemme gib u a shout out. Stay cool, yo. Keep enduring Iraqi refugees' influx due to my complete mismanagement. And the innahnashunuls-waddup waddup waddup. Ken a brothuh git a han’ here!"

917- "You are serving far from hom-ah." Like a preacher. Here comes the anecdote about a fallen solider. And then the letter from the parents. The way he read it, as if he were actually reading it. It was like a terribly staged play. And the parents who say, “Freedom isn’t free,” like a country song. I know a SHITLOAD more parents and family members of fallen soldier who are duly irate.

917- And it's over. The end. Number of truths: 1 (soldiers good services). Number of 9/11 references: 1. Number of countries in the coaltion: 37 (Really? Where? I'm sure the Amer military would like to know where those other countries are.) Number of lies: 10000000000, as ever.

And Democratic Response, from Jack Reed of RI (an army vet with a serious Rhode Island accent. Coooowafee .)

Anyway, here we go.

920- Here here! to everything you're saying. Yep, no real change has happened. Yep, only clear and achievable missions should be waged.

921- "Any foe on battlefield can be defeated by our soldiers. But our Iraq problems are POLITICAL." Excellent point.

922- Yep, in the middle of another civil war. Redefine mission in Iraq. Change course. Health care mentioned at 2 minutes in.

923- Diplomacy. Hm. Novel....Rapid redeployment---I worry about that. The ensuing chaos to follow and all.

924- Oh, join us. Oh, urging American people.

924- Missions worthy of our sacrifices. Yep yep.

MSNBC coverage

Keith Olberman just threw out the word: verisimilitude.

Chris Matthews has said ass three times in the last hour on MSNBC.

I missed the 37 country coalition mention. I was getting my pink lemonade martini. It’s the only way that I could tolerate the speech. Anyway, that is very stupid.

It’s kinda scary but sometime Pat Buchanan and I agree on things. Like tonight. He said Bush is relying too much on Petreaus for policy instead of the war effort.

Rachel Maddow commented that Bush said Anbar peeps don’t fear beheading. “Yeah, now they fear being blown up,” because one of the Anbar leaders was car bombed today (and not in the Guinness, Jameson and Bailey’s way but the horrible death way.)

Joe Biden is just all yelling and being Biden-y: angry and whatnot. He’s kinda cranky. He needs a nap. “I don’t know what in God’s name he’s talking about!” There’s a bit of a gaffy. I was wondering when that would come out.

Huckabee’s on sans tie. And a 5 o’clock shadow. The trail is wearing on him.

Okay okay. Let’s see what Fox is saying. Keep yer friends close and yer enemies closer.

It’s a bizarro world. Huckabee’s on MSNBC and Obama’s on Fox. Oop, commercial. Back to MSNBC.

Hmm...KO just said to stick around for the commercial. We did. It was Jon Edwards telling us to urge Congress to cut off funding for the war. Interesting. Base playing to Iowa.

Alrighty, time to get going. GH is on.

Still with Huckabee. He has giant eyes. And the lost weight (115 lbs) makes his neck a smidge on the jello-y side. But credit where credit’s do. He looks v.g.

Round Table 3-Petraeus Goes to Washington

So, now that we've settled the oh-so-impt issue re Kayne and 50, it's time to move on to General Petraeus's testimony. If only our country were as riveted and vetsed as the Iraqis, who stayed up very late in the evening to watch or listen. Millions upon millions, actually.

And, as noted int he previous email, we can't even garner over a million hits on it. Pathetic.

Anyway, most important part of the testimony: I thought Obama's silk blue tie was really sharp. It brings out his beautiful black (or not black enough or whatever) skin because of the contrast.

I thought John Kerry had some v.g. questions for the General. He wasn't even that loquacious, for himself. It's like he began to relax and let loose, for him, in his career as a Senator since he lost in 2004. This of course makes him a better candidate now than then. Paradox.

Continuing on, overall I'd have to say this little gem from Tuesday's testimony was my overall 100% favorite part of both days.



Read more here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/09/11/petraeus-i-dont-know-_n_63982.html

And if you juxtapose it, as I will right now, with these little nuggets of history:



And this from August 2002



It just makes me want to go to a congressional hearing and wear pink and scream like an absolute loony so I can be fodder for YouTube and blog postings.



But really, I thought the Code Pink Ladies were kind of annoying. Nevertheless, I like that they were there. I like rabble rousers.

Rep Ike Skelton, though, I have one word for you : curmudgeon

6 degrees of Kevin Bacon: the presidential version

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, the presidential version:

Fred Thompson to Chris Noth via Law and Order

Chris Noth to Sarah Jessica Parker via Sex and the City

Sarah Jessica Parker to Kevin Bacon via Footloose.

That was way too easy.

Retraction

Okay, okay. So, I have to admit it: I'm starting to tolerate, sometimes even like, Glenn Geffner. I know, it's disloyal to Troup, but he's moved on and so must I.

Therefore, I retract my opening day rant. (Read rant here.)

Here's the thing: Glenn can be funny in a weird way. And he knows WAY too many insignificant details, which I LOVE because I love random factoids. Hence my obsession with NPR and Trivial Pursuit. But I can also see why this annoys others.

Anyway, here' the thing that is the most factoidal (made it up, don't bother spell checking) that Glenn has ever said, so far: "Actress Cameron Diaz is here in New York tonight. She often comes to these games. She is a Red Sox fan...She was here for opening day, actually, in 2005."

WHY WOULD YOU KNOW AND RETAIN THAT INFORMATION? Or, if you were reading that from someone else, which I doubt, why would the producer find that worthy of sharing? I still thought it was funny, though.

But that's exactly why I like him. He is clearly a man obsessed and unabashedly so.

Regardless of my retracting loathing, I'm still not a fan of the hair today, gone in 2004.

Now, there's this picture, below. Something's different between the two...

It begs the question: Why get a toup for radio? I say do the shaved head thing.

Now I Feel So Informed!!!

Now I Feel So Informed!!!: or,
I Want My, I Want My, I Want My NPR

I was really into my last game of Snood, so I didn't bother getting up to change the channel even though the local news is on.

Now I feel like I need a shower.




First and foremost, now that I know about a fire, a fire, a local murder, a fire, the no hitter that happened yesterday, the coming category 5 in Belize, and a kayak incident, I now feel sooooooo informed. I mean, who needs a story about, say, Iraq, or the numerous outgoing Presidential aides, or any of the people running for president, or even the not-gay Senator that finally resigned? It is, of course, far more important that I know that four people who went kayaking did not get hurt even though they were in slightly perilous circumstances.

There was, however, SOME news from Washington DC:

FD big P-I-M-P'n in DC

So, now I feel informed. Good thing.

Is it any wonder why I am so devoted to NPR.

An Historic Occasion: The No No Miracle

000000000 000 : It's a Beautiful Thing - Clay Buchholz No Hitter

Clay Buchholz

The little kid pictured above was the pitcher at tonight's game. (FYI, he turned 23 on August 15.) It was his 2nd major league appearance ever. He was called up from the majors very recently. (Willy Mo Pena was traded so as to make room on the roster for him.) And tonight, he threw a NO HITTER.

AND I WAS THERE.



It was so exciting. I kept shushing people who almost started saying the nh words before the end of the game.

The Mets fan behind me was taking pics so I gave him my email address to send me them. I'll post them once I get them. (Isn't the 21st century amazing?)

In the meantime, does anyone know how to upload photos from a Razr to the computer? I took a bunch on my phone...

LATER...well, I obviously figured it out because I added that pic of the jumbtron. And this one, too:


This is the last pitch of the game. I wish I were in a television world of FBIs of NYPDs or CSIs. Then I could crop and pixelize and whatnot the photo so that it was clearly the last pitch. But it really, truly is.

In closing, tonight-ight-ight-t-t-t I feel-eel-eel-l-l-l like the luckiest-est-est-t-t-t man-na-na-na in the world-rld-rld-d-d-d. This is why you go to baseball games.