gritty musings...Bright Shiny Pennies

So the purple discus...the thing I was just ranting about ...the insane cost of the thing...$272 bucks...the fda says in a report released yesterday that it may be harmful...or neigh deadly in some users situation...how does that happen...it passes testing...it changes peoples lives...it bankrupts self same people...and now people must have died...i mean if 1 person died nobody would have said a thing...so some...maybe alot of people must have expired to cause an agency to make a public announcement...how fucked up is that...I mean i have been trying to afford the damn thing...I travel to mexico once a year just to save a thousand or so bucks...and now it's deadly...shit...I am verklept...besides that...to return to the whole rescue inhaler thing is beyond depressing...just another situation where the pharmaceutical companies are shoving it up are collective arses...I read that the new tactic is to increase the co-pay by like three hundred percent on non generic prescriptions to co...

What struck me as truly odd last night was...that it was warmer in Vancouver than it is here in st. pete...that just ain't right...winter just sucks all over ...my friends in Pa....they have just about had enough of the whole winter wonderland thing...and here in Florida...well....I have had to wear long pants...and socks...and my leather jacket every day for like a month...how much farther south do i have have to move anyway...el nino my ass...shit just ain't right...i have a buddy that called me last week cause he had snow on the ground at his beach bar in Hilton Head...I remember being in Cozumel one Christmas and it was like 50 degrees...all the mexican workers were like huddled around with parkas and gloves on.. I bet the whole global warming issue is a liberal conspiracy...yeah thats it...the democrats have caused the cold...check it out it's the lead story on fox news...Sarah Palin has a cure for winter...more conservatives in Washington...that way the whole liberal ...

the hallmark day...thats what they call it...created by an industry to support greeting cards and awful chocolates...when I was a civilian...(not in the restaurant industry)...I kinda liked it...now annoying...lots of couples who haven't been out in a year scrambling for reservations...and because they haven't been out they are more than a little short bus on the whole thing...they show up late... strategically a no-no...special order the kitchen to death...stay too long... tip the staff too little...in general.. ...I have some basic rules of restaurant dining that I suggest to anyone when they go out... 1. its a menu...you are not at home... find what you are most interested in and order it...it's not a mix and match affair... give the chef enough credit to try what he or she is offering...after all you were interested enough to make the reservation in the first place...so dont't for example say..."ohh I love pompano but can't you prepare it like you do the l...

so i have some lung issues...those of you that know me know I have had them my whole life...inhalers...shots...the whole nine yards...but mostly in my youth the "asthma"...thats what they called it was treated by the symptoms...you know an inhaler when you couldn't breath...and pills to reduce the effect...but now they call asthma something else...ocb...or something...and guess what they have a cure...advair the purple discus...you've seen it on the teli... well I have news for you..it works...I haven't had to carry a rescue inhaler for years...awesome right...my entire lifetime struggling to take a breath and along comes this wonder drug...wham...a normal person...so what would a drug like that be worth...priceless right...well thats exactly what the pharmaceutical industry believes...so they charged me $190. 00 a month for it....no insurance... I got used to it...breathing you know...but then I head down to mexico...hey you know what...same drug...same packagi...

Baby its cold outside...ohh my friends in Pa are getting it again...nothing by comparison but the weather in florida has sucked this winter...I know, I know, who fuckin cares but I moved here to get away from cold and gray... I survive with the dream...the dream of isla...Isla Mujeres...the water so blue...the sand so white...close your eyes,,,you can hear the bad jimmy Buffet music playin on the mexican boombox...sure its five months away but I can dream can't I...This little joint is stop#1...hotel de Media luna...over looks the carribean...cheap...you wouldn't believe it if I told you...the little picture is Villa La Bella...not so cheap..but its a palapa on a cliff...no air...just a hammock...a fan...and the sound of the waves crashing around you...Remember its not the guy with the most toys that wins...no its the guy or woman that closes their eyes when they are old or the day is just too overwhelming... and can be sitting on that beach...or... on the Seine in Paris......

Chefs are by nature clever...Well we should be...and frankly alot of are not...I am an old school guy...which surprises me about myself...when I was learning my trade I was all about surprising people with wild combinations of styles and ingredients...I embraced cross cultural blending...I actually made grilled kobi sushi...and springrolls filled with chicken and chillis...but as I defined my craft...it came to me that the surprise should lie in surpassing the expectations of the diner...the steak being created, seasoned and sauced in a way that makes you stop mid fork and look astonishingly at the steak like you have never had it before.. to find the zen in the spaces between food...not to pile it all together....subsequently I managed to avoid foams and dusts...I found deconstruction-ism far, far too clever... What I have found is that the food network...has a very two edged sword affect on my industry...it has educated the customer to new foods and showed them ways to prepare them.....

So I am listening to the box and hear the story about Rham Emanuel referring to some politicos as "retards".. And then the head of this weeks "retard" brigade Sarah "what the fuck" call for his immediate resignation for denigrating all people with developmental disabilities. What a fucking "retarded" thing to say. Yet proving once again that this vapid glamor hog has nothing credible to offering in any intelligent conversation. No one was calling anyone with any disability any names. He was calling college educated legislators "retards". He could have used imbecile, fool, dolt, moron, pinhead or twit. But to his never ending mugient pain, he did not. His words had the same meaning and he could spared us all another 10 minutes of "palinism" for the tea party" retards" to latch on to. We all know who we are referring to when the word "retard" is used and its never the most special person in the room. ...

Man I have a great dog...I have had quite a few...it all started with maggie...a 1/2 sheepdog, 1/2 lab..with bad skin and a great disposition...I was not a good dog owner when I was younger...I don't know if my expectations were too high and my intelligence was too low or what.. but there was a lot of yelling and swatting and other reprehensible behavior that I now know serve no purpose with dogs.... there have been many dogs since then...lots of labs...but a few different breeds...a min pin...a beagle...a chow...all great dogs...but to be honest I like the idea of having a dog more than the responsibility of owning one...at least thats what the women in my life point out..and since it has been pointed out on more than one occasion...then it must be true...but Iam trying...to spend time and effort with our Bella...she is a lovely yellow lab...smart and funny...she was standoffish as a pup....not one to curl up in your lap...when we picked her, she sat at the end of the kennel look...