Haines His Way

Happy Birthday, DR Jed!!!
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BK - Maybe you should have reached Harold Wheeler through the ABC television show DANCING WITH THE STARS? He's their music director/conductor.

Re: FISH - I love to chomp on lobster and jumbo shrimp, but, when I do, I am reminded that they are scavengers that eat all the garbage at the bottom of  the sea! Oy.

I try to eat salmon (wild caught) once a week. I buy it frozen at Trader Joe's (my favorite place to shop). The recipe is simple. Thaw the fish in the frig. Place some oil (I prefer olive) in a skillet and turn on the heat to medium. Salt and pepper both sides of the fish and place in pan. Cook approximately 4 to 5 minutes on both sides. Serve with a small baked potato and green vegetable.

Thanks for the tip on frozen salmon. When we move, we will not only have a working kitchen with a dishwasher (and laundry facilities, whoo hoo!) but we will also be near the new Trader Joe's. So we will probably start cooking, finally!

Favorite fish: I never met a fish I didn't like. I love sushi!
But one time I was snorkeling in the south of France with my little French boy. He brought forks, which I thought were a strange snorkeling accessory. It turned out that these were for prying sea urchins off the rocks. We gathered a bucket of urchins and mussels and brought them up to the boat. Our hosts cooked the mussels, and then opened the sea urchins and ate them raw. They insisted I eat one, too. As I put this disgusting slimy yellow creature in my mouth, they took my picture. I think it was the most foul expression I've ever exhibited. Apparently this is some French form of hazing...

My favorite seafood meal: A few years ago, we attended a scholar's conference in Rome with a special emphasis on Sacco and Vanzetti. We showed the trailer for our film and did some shooting in Rome and Puglia, Sacco's hometown.

There were huge dinners every night---man, those academics know how to party! One night we went to a restaurant---very tucked away, we would never have found it on our own---that specialized in seafood. There was a theme to the meal that consisted of travelling from the bottom of the ocean to the top.

So the meal started with salad (representing seaweed) then the bottom feeding fish and crustaceans and worked its way through any number of fish (many different herring) with a few more green vegetables. As is typical of European meals for us, we never know how to pace ourselves or when it's all going to stop!

The meal finished at the top of the ocean, with white lemon gelato representing an ice floe. As we settled in with our amazing Italian coffee (I did not have a bad cup o' joe in Italy!) guitars were brought out along with more wine and the singing commenced with lots of old Italian folk songs that everyone but us seemed to know. I wish we had brought the video camera---it was like something out of a Fellini movie. It was one of the most unforgettable evenings and meals of our lives.

Happy Birthday DR Jed!

Good morning DR Edi ...  DP Kerry and I went and saw The Prestige this past weekend.  I thought that it was a really fascinating story, and wonderfully complex characters were written.  But each time I thought I had started to get a handle on what was going on, a new quirk or twist would happen, and I felt like yelling "..Aaaaarrgggghh !"  Of course, DP Kerry had figured out most of it about a third of the way into the film !!?!

I too have found Tesla an interesting character.  When I was in high school, I was definitely a semi-geek, because in addition to being in the drama department and the choir, I was also in radio club and ran projectors.

I had a step-father at the time who was a real shit of a person, and so I took an old unused neon sign transformer and built a fairly good sized "Jacob's Ladder" in our garage.  It scared the crap out of the step-father and he wouldn't come near the garage.....so of course I left it plugged in and "zapping" away as often as I could!

Happy Birthday to DR Jed. He hasn't officially left us, so I'm not going to call him former DR. I suspect he's just very busy working, planning a wedding, and rooting for his beloved Seattle Seahawks.

Thanks for the gorgeous pictures, DR Tom. They're breathtaking.

Not a huge fan of fish, but I do like fried flounder, and salmon can be good fixed any number of ways. I despise all that is sushi.

Yes, I'm really looking forward to THE PRESTIGE. I have liked Christopher Nolan's films a lot over the past few years, so I'm anxious to see what he's come up with this time. And just watching Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale on the screen is pure pleasure in itself.

Anthony is on the mend MG. As you said, he's getting better each day. He's still somewhat tired but he's moving along on the path toward full recovery. Thanks for all the vibes and wishes on his part. I send them back to all of you who wished it so.

Guess I better go get cleaned up for today's outing. Ex-partner Frank will be here in an hour.

WBBL.

I was in the Astronomy club and my father ran numbers.

My father was a drug dealer. (Pharmacist.)

BTW, I'm working on a new original comedy series for TBS called "My Boys". I hope DR Matt will give us a review on the show after it starts airing at the end of November!

'Morning, BK. Has your finger healed? Hope it wasn't the one used when driving! :-)