Viking Cruises aim to educate, inform, and enrich their passengers. Each in-port day includes one or another tour opportunity. On each cruise, one port visit is included. Other opportunities are available, at a cost. Seizing one of the additional opportunities is a matter of desire. For the most part, we took advantage of the included tour. You had...
Do you know what's scarier than Halloween? Election Day on November 8. We stand, all 335 million of us, at a fork in the road. This mid-term election is as threatening to our Republic as December 19, 1860; the day before South Carolina seceded from the Union, heralding the beginning of the Civil War. One way leads us on the level path. We are not a...
Our anniversary cruise would be aboard the Viking Star, one of a seven ship class of small cruise liners in the Viking fleet. She was put into service in 2015. Unlike the huge liners, she carries only 930 passengers. She is 745 feet long and 95 feet wide and can cruise at 20 knots (23 mph). Our stateroom was on the port (left) side of the low...
I'm not sure if I'm shaking it in wonder, disgust, shame, or bewilderment. Each day those we have chosen as leaders, or those vying for the job, appear to go out of their way to prove that they are incapable of understanding the most basic concept of the word. Some are in thrall (or is it fear) of a pathological liar and narcissist, a would-be dict...
Did you like that title? I did. But it is a bit deceiving, and you will discover why as you keep reading. I'm dedicating the next few Thursday posts to the cruise that Linda and I took last month. We took a Viking Ocean cruise from New York City (New York City!!!!) to Montreal, via Boston and a few other ports of call (just wait). This was to be ou...
"How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?" If you don't know the punch line to this old joke, it's at the end of this post. Once again, a minority on a sacred mission is attempting to legislate morality. We seem to be doomed to repeat the failures of human history. The Roundheads attempted it in the English Civil War in the 1640s...
We all have places we want to go, things we want to do, and experiences we want to have in our lives. It's only natural, I suppose. Some of us want to attend the Super Bowl, others the Rose Parade, or a Papal audience. Maybe your dream is to visit the top of the Eiffel Tower or the bottom of the Grand Canyon, Antarctica, or the Macy's Thanksgiving ...
Small wonder that the survivalists are putting aside rice, beans, and instant water (just add water) against the coming cataclysm. The evangelicals are looking for signs of the apocalypse. From every mountaintop some self-proclaimed prophet is shouting the doomsday lyrics. The end is coming! From the right and left come the clarion call of doom. I ...
If you know me, you know that I'm driven to create. Creating comes in many forms. I am a worker in wood. I write stories and books. I love to cook. All are forms of creation. I'll admit that my woodwork is not world famous. Those who have read my books are numbered in tens. And, those who have enjoyed the fruits of my culinary labors are limited to...
Where did the American soul go? Our leaders, great and small, local and national, and I use that term leader with great despair, are exemplifying all of the worst characteristics of third-world despots. What happened to civility? I've heard members of the Legislative branch threaten and insult members of the Judiciary. Multiple members of the Execu...
Well, I'm sure there are a thousand recipes for rice, but I just want to point out a few familiar, flavorful, and famous ones as an example of the versatility of that tiny white grain. Each of these recipes is a cultural icon in its own right, yet each is a close cousin to the other. I'm talking about Paella (Spain), Jambalaya (The U.S. South), and...
I think I may have finally defined our governmental process. We have become the mob in a flashback to ancient Rome; Patricians versus plebeians. It is class warfare at its bloodiest. For centuries, men of worth (money-wise, at least) would gather in obscure places around a wooden ring to fight aggressive roosters. They called it the 'sport' of cock...
A tip the pot lid to Oryza Sativa – Asian rice, first domesticated in the Yangtze River basin between 8,200 and 13,500 years ago. Quite simply, rice is the world's food. Sixty percent of the world's population obtains its major nutrition from rice. While more corn is produced than rice, annually, most corn is processed into other inedible products,...
"Make America Great Again!" What a slogan. Supposedly, it says it all. I'm just not sure what it says. But it's not the first campaign slogan by any means. Slogans to promote presidential candidates go back to, at least, 1840 and the campaign of William Henry Harrison; "Tippecanoe and Tyler too." Some other memorable slogans endure, such as: 54:40 ...
I saved the best for last, creamed chipped beef on toast. I'm not sure when I was first introduced to this comfy delight. It may have been in my childhood, or certainly at Navy Boot Camp in 1965. The Armed Forces Recipe Service version (AFRS card L052) is a mixture of salty and creamy, but remains otherwise boring. That said, I don't remember lefto...
By its own words, the Constitution is able to defend itself, needing only the strength of the population to uphold it. In a recent court ruling in New Mexico, a county commissioner was removed from his elected office as 'disqualified' to hold any office. The county official had been found guilty of participating in the January 6th insurrection. Spe...
Armed Forces Recipe Service card number L 030 is for Creamed Ground Beef, good old SOS. Back in the day, this was the preferred something-on-toast on my ships, both when I was enlisted and when I held a commission and was responsible for feeding the crew. It is, quite simply, a cream gravy made from a flour-shortening roux, milk, Worcestershire sau...
It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis (1935) As sometimes happens, my attention was drawn to this novel while reading an off-the-wall other book, a pre-WWII mystery that has nothing to do with the story I'm bringing you. Sometimes, fate just intervenes.. In brief, the story is one of a fascist take-over of the United States, in 1935, through ...
Previously known as the General Mess Historically known as The Mess Decks or Chow Hall Now that we've got the politically correct renaming of that place where millions of American's have eaten breakfast out of the way, I want to jog memories of dented steel trays, one-size-fits-all spoons, and coffee cups full of grainy reconstituted orange juice. ...
Let me set the stage. I am a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant Male Heterosexual Retiree Navy Veteran who joined the Republican party during the tenure of Richard Nixon and resigned in disgust in 2021. That gives me a certain imprimatur to speak about the aforementioned Republican Party. As I observe the ultra-conservative political servants of the evan...
