gritty musings...Bright Shiny Pennies

Its true.  In this age of social media, absolutely anyone can critique your shop, your hotel,  your car dealership  and of course in my case my restaurant.  In one way its fantastic, instantaneous  response to what you offer.  A server is slow, you hear about...drinks weak you get it.  the kitchen screws up you know.  Fantastic right.  Even if you'd rather not know, go to sleep with the blessed ignorance of a job well done, you get to hear it...all of it.  But you know the other side is, the uniformed or mis- informed.  The guy that says all your dressing come from a bottle when they are all made in house, by you.  The lady who says your number 1 sauce on your best selling appetizer is bitter...when you sold 20 of them that night to rave reviews.  I had couple who once said I went too heavy on the mint sauce on my lamb chops...the lamb came with a zinfandel reduction that had absolutely... no mint....

lets take a moment from my normal diatribe...a brief respite from my deep dyed ramblings about all things stupid or conservative...or in other words, republican...cause it has happened, and I knew it would happen, eventually.  like leaves turning their autumnal colors...like the air conditioning getting slightly warmer on my 12 year old truck or my sweet dog walking next to me rather than dragging my arm out of its socket when we go for a walk...it came on slowly, menacingly, until it finally, revealed itself in the mirror.  I am old.  I am older than I remember my dads last birthday party.  I am old enough to tell those stories that made us groan when our dads did it.  with the gray hair in my beard came with stories...the kids that work for me, all in their twenties...listen intently, I'm sure, about the days before caller id...when we answered the phone to see who was calling.  actually fighting with your sister so you could talk to the gi...

lets leave them nameless...lets just stick pictures of  them on the wall... tape em up there.. replete with sharpie mustaches and beards..all the idiots..craning to be heard...standing deliberately in front of cameras and microphones... their you tube legacy...the rep that actually said that the wind is finite..if we put up all dem fancy windy like collectors..we could use up the wind..leaving us well...windless..holy shit...i knew this elected official went to college..probably a frat boy,but i digress...the point is whoa...another one..leading a group of octogenerian veterans to the world war II memorial...a place that honors their generations service in a confligration that claimed most of their best and brightest...he voted to shutdown the government...his employer..and yet he did not know that the momnument, all national monuments would be closed..and then in moment of his own personal zeitgeist...with cameras rolling..lambasted another fed...

So this week has been interesting...lets see navy yard shooting...house republicans pledging to shut down the government unless they can de-fund Obama care...Pakistan is releasing a top Taliban official into the cess- pool that is Afghanistan...I mean what else can we do wrong...or could we as a species do anything right... in a nation where gun violence is only topped by emerging African nations committing genocide...there is a large portion of the populace...voters ..that will fight to have a gun ..in their house..in their car...under their pillows or even in their kids teachers desk drawers...because if only bad guys have guns then we are lost as a country...where were all those gun owners when this guy was walking around killing people... or the asshole in the elementary school..the high school...the college campus...runnin in the opposite fucking direction...the only people running toward the sociopath were our police...the only americans that should possess a weapon...

We all remember where we were that fated morning.  I was in the doctors office.  Lots of old people around me, I mean I am in Florida.  There was a monitor sitting silently in the corner and usually Regis and Kelly would have been on.  But on this morning  as I lifted my head from the well worn issue of men's health I noticed the mouth a gape look of the folks around me.  I went from face to face around the waiting room.  Slowly realizing something was happening.  Something was desperately, horribly wrong.  I turned to the monitor to see just what was causing the horror I saw in their eyes.  These folks had seen some horror.  I fathomed that they were kids when Hitler and Stalin stalked the earth.  They had seen their children and grandchildren die in Korea and Vietnam.  Seen presidents and visionaries killed.  But the look was sheer terror.  One silver haired woman sat silently weeping, shaking her head. ...

Have we been at war for twelve years??  Have  we lost enough of the best and brightest of a generation to two wars that have made no sense, against an enemy that only grows larger and more rabid with our every action.  Yes we have. And  I for one am done with it.   I got into it with a liberal friend of mine the other day.  I know two liberals on one front law constitutes treason here in florida.  The argument centered on Syria.  I feel that our dependence on foreign oil and our desire to remain the big dog on the porch has left us precariously close to national demise.  The last president used his made up war against made up weapons and a propped up dictator to grab hold of oil fields and give us a base of operations to fight the big evil... Iran.  Then our present commander and chief followed suit, plunging us into the black hole of national destruction, known as Afghanistan.  This place is credited with bankrupting and destr...

we all have our own opinions..and we all believe ours are correct... lets start with that simple premise...i try, i really try, not feed  into my pigheaded nature...i read, all kinds of stuff..stuff that directly goes against my beliefs..i do this.. so as not to be a mindless fob..a spouter of propaganda, planted in my mind by people i agree with...its easy to do that  these days..because you can Google up support for your view very simply...and you can leave the page of anyone you disagree with with a simply mousey click...ill give you a case in point..i, like most liberal  fucking do gooders ,was ready to hang George Zimmerman the morning after the news report of   Travon Martin's death...but i  then choose  to read everything i could get on the legal disclosures...the evidence...the law..i came to a very un liberal opinion...i don't think a grown man should have been so afraid for his life to have shot a teenager in self defense...self defense.. t...

So i was watching a documentary on virgins...strange you might say...a constantly dwindling yet ever replaced segment of the female persuasion ...of course this doc was about evangelicals and their pursuit of the godliness...a fine pursuit...a pursuit worthy of praise...but then they start throwing out some stats...now these aren't actual..verifiable statistics...no these are...unqualified...unsubstantiated...bullshit...the first was that 40 percent of americans believe in creationism...that can't be right ...cause if it is we have become...the stupidest...most uneducated...nation in the modern world...we immediately halt all medical research...start praying over the sick and infirmed..because all of the sciency stuff that we have come up with is...just crap...cause jesus fought t-rex...and if jesus fought t-rex than what the hell is a mri...in the big picture...forget carbon dating...we got scripture...so i'm on my knees tonight...and i'm praying that we are not that s...

I am a whore...I mean aren't we all in some way or another...i sell my services to an owner and in exchange for a pittance of a salary..give everything to the  birth, growth and existence of their dream...their restaurant...I have adopted their dream as my own...transferred their ideas to my staff..and then sat back in the kitchen to watch them bathe in their adoration...in their success...I have also watched dreams dash...bank accounts dwindle...marriages crumble...partnerships dissolve...I have had great owners...down in the trenches...there with an icy drink...pat on the back..thanks a lot owners...owners who stuck money in my pocket...pulled me out into the dining room to receive the accolades of grateful clients...and i have had pimps...sweet talkers that tell you one thing...and spend the rest of the time chopping at you with an axe...whittling away at your vision..changing the deal...destroying your staff...Ive had bounced checks and bold faced liars..ive had mid night run...

i was on a train..from Paris to Rotterdam...and i remember the countryside raced by so fast in the bullet carrier that i barely could make out the bucolic scenery of western France...and i am reminded of my life...56 tomorrow ...holy shit..how i did i get here...life has literally raced by my window...days ago..i was intrigued by Paul Moyer's stir fry technique in his dirty socked apartment in altoona pa...was that the first inkling of cheffieism to come...i was swimming with some of my oldest friends or throwing yellow gritty balls against the natatorium walls ...was this the first instance of team building...traveling in a hazed and confused van from one polo match to another...wild haired and skinny...how is it that all my teams have always had a pot thing...there was those moments when ..breathless you met a woman that would change your life...forever...it has only happened a handful of times...but wow..path changing every one.. and..those friends who where a tiny bright blast ...

I promise this will be my last visceral reaction .. i realize we are a nation of very, very stupid  people...we find a need to delve head first into every single fuckin train wreck that comes our way..we are fascinated by all sorts of  creatures ... and now the "le gout quotidien de merde"(the daily taste of shit) Zim/Martin..I will, for you, the liberally enraged, qualify yet again my sincerest remorse for the lost life of a young black teen..it was tragic...but really ..boycott florida..not tipping servers to express your outrage at the verdict...by...yes i'll say it...a verdict by your peers..you are stupid..don't be enraged that your brother,another stupid man, was allowed legally possess a fire arm..carry it and kill another human being with it because he was getting his ass kicked...you all want these rights,,,you scream when anyone..usually liberal scum like me...suggests we restrict ownership...the racist among you find some way to tie the African American  ex...

omg...omg..omg...in the verbage of our times..are you fuckin for real..poor trevon..bad asshole zimmerman..a nation with young people dying  in foreign lands transfixed by the trial of a cop wanna be and a very troubled young black man ..who incidentally is now dead...i have never heard so much stupid purposeless posturing on a court case in my life..am i insensitive to the loss of yet another young African American teen to violence of our times..no i am not..it is senseless and it is commonplace... but i can argue if trevon was frightened of the man a full foot shorter than he...why not out run his fat ass...or smack him in the head.. laugh and run like hell for his parents house...no I'd sit on him and pound his head into the concrete...in Florida i read a bumper sticker.."never bring a fist to a gun fight'...ITS FLORIDA...you can bring your gun to work..keep it in your car in case someone tries to take your parking place or your lunch money...we had an old man cut off a...

I am an idiot for all things culinary..I subscribe...i inhale..all the trends ..the products ..the equipment, fuck, even the chairs and dishes that make restaurants ...I am a student of design, flow, ergonomics, lighting, non lighting, re-useable products and even bathroom fixtures.  But i can tell you now that i have hit the fuckin wall..farm to table...like that has to be pointed out..where else would it come from...i know..i am not that dense..it means all those young green hearted chefs rushing from the field back to their kitchens with baskets of freshly plucked produce ..each item lovingly nurtured with holistic  care...no chemicals or pesticides ever touching their tiny, soon to be devoured by a two hundred and sixty pound lawyer, skins... i wanna know..who has that much fucking free time..i'm in the kitchen most days 10 hours..yeah i am really gonna grab the time i could be spending eating...reading..playing with my dog...or having clean..not exhausted sex with my sign...

like a lot of things... my stuff... the stuff that exists in the electronic void of cyberspace.. had become lost...i lost my blog..i can't remember if i forgot the password..the site..the http...but to get to the point... it was gone..and i had given up on my baby..my ranting lunacy..my tossed bottles at the english occupiers...my shaking fists railed at all things... but then this morning... i found it.. my blog..and after re-establishing a password..sat back and re read all the rantings.. the tersely scribed missives...against mitt and bush..against the tea party ... non tipping restaurant patrons...i will say this,  focus, was not my forte.. i  was and remain an emotional, frustrated,  angry old man..at times comical..rarely incitefull and clearly disenfranchised..  so as we start this new period of "chefoid" enlightenment..i shall try to expand the  scope of these rantings..less political because politics have warped into a new econo-class  of parti...