The Greatest Restaurant?

Just a quick note on restaurants.  Liz and I got to visit Brigtsen's in New Orleans again this weekend.  We've been all over this country in our quest to never miss a meal.  From our incredible experiences at the Inn at Little Washington in Virginia, Il Mulino in New York, and many others, we seem to always come back to Brigtsen's as our favorite.

We got to have a nice conversation with Frank Brigtsen and his wife.  They've kept it small and they're always there.  It's not cheap, but compared to many around the country it's a huge bargain.  The food is creative and often just stunning.  There are many great restaurants in New Orleans, (at last count I'd eaten at about 150 of them - there are many I love)  Some are rated higher at different times.  The hot ones come and go. Sometimes you'll get a great meal in a restaurant, then return to find it was a fluke. 

But, for my money, year in year out, for 22 years now - Brigtsens is simply the best.  Anywhere.  It's consistency, service, atmosphere, and food leave you feeling about as happy as a restaurant can make you.  Go.

Tags: Brigtsen's, New Orleans, Frank Brigtsen

Setting a Course for The Super Bowl

September 29, 2008

Sunday in the dome with Sean was a wonderful combination of Drew’s aerial circus and a return to meaningful action by Deuce McAlister.

With sports talk shows around town providing pressure on Coach Payton, Deuce provided the bailout the Coach needed.  Adding a new weapon to the arsenal – we’ll call it “power” – McAlister repeatedly picked up the short yardage when it was needed – something lacking for the last 12 months or so.

 

Other images that stuck:  First and foremost, it’s Drew Brees, who’s playing as well as any QB on the planet right now, threading long passes (there’s 3 words you don’t see together very often) and short.

There’s Lance Moore.  Not an imposing receiver he only does two things well – get open, and catch the ball.  There’s Robert Meachum providing another deep threat and making us wonder where he’s been.

 

Say this for Payton:  It doesn’t seem like he’ll play anybody until he thinks they’re ready.  Meachum, McAlister, Mackenzie – he won’t use them until he’s satisfied.

With Dallas beaten and suddenly looking vulnerable, Washington gaining respect so that loss doesn’t look so bad in the rear view mirror, and one AFC Western Division loss (Denver) behind us, the future should look good.  The Saints should win the next 2 at home before embarking on their long road trip.  Carolina and Tampa Bay still have Denver and San Diego to face, so the division race should come down to the head to head match ups with <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Tampa and Carolina that await.  Obviously getting some bodies back will be helpful, but power wins football games, and Deuce’s return was a jolt of power for a team that needs to add a little strength to their formidable finesse.

I've always been amused when fans of a team criticize their quarterback.  "We need a new quarterback," like they grow on trees, or John Elway is going to come out of retirement.  Well, if you're a Saints fan - we've got a quarterback.  He's not going to pilot a victory every time; no one is.  But he sure is fun to watch.  Enjoy it while you can, and hope he plays as long as Brett Favre.

Fantasy Politics

December 12, 2011

 

Suddenly - Back to 49 States.

 

In a stunning move that has sent shockwaves around the world, President Sarah Palin today authorized the sale of Alaska to Canada for a stunning $3 Trillion.  In a move rich with irony on many levels, President Palin made the announcement in a tumultuous press conference. 

 

“No one can imagine how difficult this has been.  Unfortunately it is a heartbreaking day for me, my family, and the people of my home state.  But, much like Abraham Lincoln, today I had to make a most difficult choice in order to preserve our union, at least 49 states of it.  With our country on the verge of economic collapse, this reverses our position and saves us.  The money will be used to retire 2 separate trillion dollar debts that were incurred – the Iraq war and the Wall Street bailout of 2008.  The rest will be applied to the mounting deficit and return us to sound financial footing.  We will only have a deficit of $15 trillion after this transaction.”

 

When asked about the alternatives, President Palin would not confirm the recent rumors that Indonesia had bid on Hawaii and Japan had bid for Nevada, nor that Canada had also asked for Maine.  She did however concede that the rich oil reserves of Alaska were the primary bargaining chip, and the most difficult thing to value, given that oil recently crossed the $200 a barrel mark.  With gas at $8 a gallon, and the depression dragging on, it is expected that Wall Street would respond positively.

 

The response from President Palin’s anticipated 2012 opposition was swift:

Presumed Democratic Nominee Senator Hillary Clinton was quick and vicious, “This is the American people getting what they wanted – 12 straight years of Republican protection of corporate misconduct and irresponsibility at the expense of the common man.  A Fire Sale was inevitable – but I never dreamed the assets we would sell off would be our own citizens.  This may be the low point in Republican rule.  I hope those CEO’s are happy in their mansions.”

 

Presumed Rational Party Nominee Ron Paul was also quick to comment.  “For years my former party was too worried about moral issues like abortion and gay marriage.  We forgot about the ethical issues that govern the behavior of our corporations.  We failed to protect the everyman, and we’re trying to make up for this by selling America.  There’s no precedent for this action.  What’s next, sell Louisiana back to the French, and sell Arizona to the Indians?”

 

Administration officials defended the move.  Treasury Secretary Mike Huckabee issued the following statement.  “President Palin was presented with a very difficult decision.  We have debated this intensely for months as our financial situation deteriorated. With our creditors breathing down our neck, particularly China, we could not risk further foreign ownership of our assets.  This way we at least controlled our destiny, unpleasant as it was.  We all feel great sympathy for President Palin, but she held out as long as she could, and I must say did a tremendous job in the negotiations with the Prime Minister.”

 

Analyst reaction ranged from supportive to stunned.  The Fox News Network quickly fell in line, most saying that Alaska was a small price to pay for ending the second depression in U.S. history.  Sean Hannity said, “First President McCain, then President Palin, have pulled out all the stops trying to end this recession.  When the privatization of Social Security and the defeat of Universal Health Care failed to stimulate recovery, it became obvious that bold action had to be taken, or many more U.S. assets would have been seized.  The recent failed bid by the Japanese to buy Mr. Rushmore from the US government was just a sign of things to come.  They did not take kindly to being rebuffed.  When Ford and Chrysler were sold to Toyota and Tata in 2010, it became obvious that we could not compete in the global economy without an incredible infusion of capital.”

 

MSNBC was not so kind.  Keith Olberman said “Our economy has deteriorated to this point because of irresponsible fiscal and governmental policy, period.  We as Americans, and our government, by its very structure have been focused on short term and short cuts.  We have failed to discipline and regulate our corporations and they have absconded with our economy.  If we don’t address the systematic problems we have, we are doomed to repeat this.  I wonder how President Bush is going to feel when we put Texas on the block.  Will he think Iraq was worth it then?”

 

President Palin began immediately meeting with legislators as she started the process of clearing the legislative hurdles.
 

 

Tags: Fantasy politics, sarah palin

Sliding Towards the Super Bowl

We've seen a lot of losses in 40 years.
They're all the same on the record books.  A loss.
Who cares that they had every chance to win and blew it.
Again.

I thought the biggest play, and the worst play call, was on the 2 point conversion.   Meachum was spread out one on one and certainly could have gotten open.
Instead we rolled the whole offense to his side, bringing the whole defense.  No chance.

The offense played well enough to win.  So did the defense after the first 21 points. Brees did all he could do and Duece is still MIA. 

Why do I feel like the Saints exist in a permanent state of deja vu?
Is this some kind of Twilight Zone episode?  Will it ever end? 
Did they have to film this episode in HD?

Application for Bailout

Dear George,

Please put my check in the mail.

I’m sorry I’m so late with this, but I need a bailout.  Let me explain.  I had a business.  It tanked like Lehman Brothers, AIG, Bears Stearn et al.   It was a restaurant and I tried hard but lost a lot of money. 

Here’s the good news:  I never paid myself $31 million a year as the CEO.  In fact, I rarely paid myself at all, and still have bills from the business I’m trying to pay.  Didn’t file bankruptcy like Lehman Brothers.  Paid all my tax bills – eventually – out of my own pocket.  Didn’t get to play with derivatives, hedge funds, or any gimmicks to make it look like I was making money so I could pay myself a big bonus.

Sorry, I was unaware of the bailout program at the time, but I’m sure that the economy can not take a further hit by remembering my losses, so I could really use a check for $1.5 million to spread among my partners and stockholders, and my wife who didn’t see me for 5 years.  Please fed ex – the sooner I get the check the sooner the Gulf Coast economy will improve.

 

Thanks,

Rick

 

PS:  Bill the grandchildren

Week 2 - Walk to the Super Bowl

Well, we've perfected the taunting.  Now maybe we can learn to finish a game.

If you weren't buying it last week when I said Reggie Bush was a little star-crossed, I give you a man who can turn a touchdown punt return into a taunting penalty.  Didn't he learn anything in the NFC championship?  It's about winning - not scoring. There's a saying that comes to mind about dreams here, but I can't print it....

What ever happened to turning around and celebrating with your teamates - the other 10 players who just happened to contribute to the score?  In other words, every td dance, every Lambeau Leap, every self expression is in essence a dis of your teamates.  But that's off the subject of this particular foldarama.

Unfortunately, the Saints picked this week to add to their long history of building opposing quarterback's confidence.  The QB got hot.  The Saints insist on playing that press, man to man coverage, and they got burned.  Tracy Porter had played a pretty good game up til that point.  Then, evaporation.

Bad timing.  We really needed to go to Denver 2-0, as the Broncos look like a juggernaut on offense.  What's the over/under, about 80?  That would put it Broncos 50, Saints 30.  Not that this is a prediction mind you, but can you imagine Jay Cutler watching the film of Jason Campbell ripping the Saints' defense to shreds.  Wipe the drool, Jay.

Let's taunt after the game, Reggie.  2 Hours after.  And taunt a team we won't have to play again. 

Needs:  Someone that can pound it on the ground in the 4th quarter when we have a lead.  Duece?  Pierre?    Some defensive pressure that hits the QB say 8 times a game.

Well, I enjoyed the hospitality of Redskins stadium, although I didn't enjoy the heat.  Will never take that 72 degree Superdome for granted again.  Still the best place to watch a pro game.

Things I Don't Understand

A Quick List of Some Things I Don’t Understand:

 

• Why the standard length of a “big” movie has gone from 2 hours to 2 ½.  Please movie guys, bigger isn’t better.  These special effects movies are obliterating our senses.  I love them, but I’m numb, and I have to go to the bathroom after I drink that $6 Diet Coke that doubles my liquid intake for the day.  I don’t know many people that like Woody Allen anymore, except me – but he makes a short, concise, to the point movie.  Laugh and go home.  I went to see Vicky Christina Barcelona.  Good laughs, lesbian kiss, now go home. 

 

• Smoking.  Imagine 100 years from now, when it has been over for 50 years and we try to explain it.  "Let me get this straight – you inhaled smoke into your lungs?  On purpose?"

 

• Why Sarah Jessica Parker is a star.  Who thought she was good looking?  Never thought she was attractive, nor very compelling as an actress.  Which brings me to...

 

• Why there was never any real sex in Sex in the City.  Thought it was tame and lame, and about as funny as “Friends.” I thought it should’ve been called Shoes in the City.  (Check out Weeds on Showtime if you want to see something funny.)

 

• Why the right wingers, the religious right, the conservatives – are so nasty.  The negative campaigning that has been sent to me by email, usually about Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton is unbelievably nasty – and unbelievable.   I can’t figure out why people who (usually) confess such high morals would employ such tactics.  I’ll call it the Limbaugh/Rove phenomenon and wonder how people can act this way.  What ever happened to discussions of issues?  Makes me long for the good old days of meaningless campaign promises.

 

• Why the Republican party is so good at winning elections and so bad at governing.  Why the Democratic party is good at talking and so bad at winning elections.

 

• Why the central figure in rebuilding the 9th Ward of New Orleans is an actor? See http://www.makeitrightnola.org if you don’t believe me. 

 

• Why Pacman Jones is back in the NFL so fast.  Am I the only one who thinks any other owner but Jerry Jones would have had to wait longer?  If it looks like a fish and smells like a fish, it’s fishy.

 

• Why hair is so important.  To solve the energy crisis I say we take the money we spend on hair products and use it to develop solar power.

 

• Why we are so shortsighted in our energy planning.

 

• Why the Saints refuse to hand the ball to Pierre Thomas.  Nothing against Aaron Stecker, for example – he’s a nice ball player.  But, Pierre is a real RUNNING BACK.  In the one game he actually started, he only did what no Saints running back in 40 years has done – rush for 100 and catch passes for 100.  What am I missing?  Does he fumble the ball every play in practice?  Does he spill Gatorade?  Is he a bad guy?  Give him the ball 20 times a game already.  He produces.

 

• Why we think Senators can make effective Presidents. Idon’t think either of the candidates sound too bad, but let’s face it – all they’ve done is vote.  They haven’t proven that they have the administrative skills to lead or govern.  Would we let a Supreme Court judge become President?  Different branches – different functions, different skill sets.  Here we go, rolling the dice again…..

 

• Why our Presidential race is deteriorating into such mud slinging.  Wouldn’t it be nice if they both just gave us their plan and tried to sell it to us?  Here’s my mud, because I’m thunderstruck on this one….

 

• How we can have a Presidential candidate who admits he knows nothing about computers or the internet.  What?  This man is going to run an economy he can’t possibly understand, and lead us in the global competition that we’re in?  Does the man who runs your company have computer skills?  How would you feel if he got replaced by someone who didn’t?  My mother, several years older than McCain, can surf the net on her dial up connection.  And I thought she was out of touch because she was still on dial-up.  We’re about to elect a man who hasn’t dialed up yet!

 

• Why Jason David still has a roster spot on the Saints.

 

• Why hotel rooms have no receptacles.  I usually spend my first few minutes when I arrive holding an iron and wondering where to plug it in.

 

• And lastly, I don’t understand why race is still an issue in this country.  But, I do know what’s finally going to put race as an issue to bed.  Bed.  That’s right, sex.  Young people, let’s say under 30, don’t care.  They’ve been brought up in an era where intermingling with a wide variety of cultures, races, ethnic groups, is a way of life. They’ve been brought up with Diversity. They embrace it as all they know. They date, they party, and they have sex.  They don’t see race anymore.  They don’t care.  So, now the population is divided into those who embrace change and growth, and those who fight it.  But, that’s always been true, hasn’t it? 

Week 1 - The March to The Super Bowl

September 8, 2008

The Saints began their march to the Super Bowl.  You may have caught it.
Here were the highlights:

Things we haven't seen much of:
1.  Defensive Backs that actually knock down a few passes
2.  Interception by a linebacker.
3.  A middle linebacker making tackles
4.  A tight end that actually knows where the first down marker is.
5.  Reggie breaking loose.
6.  Pierre Thomas being used
7.  Some pressure from the defensive line.

Things we take for granted:
1. Drew Brees - set up to have an MVP year.
2. Marquis Colston - could someday surpass Rickey Jackson as the greatest Saint ever.

Does anyone else but me see that Pierre Thomas is a real running back? 
Does anyone else but me think we still could have blitzed a little more?  Jeff Garcia wasn't at his sharpest.   He'll play better next time.
Does anyone else but me think that Reggie Bush is a little star-crossed.  Maybe this game will be the one that builds his confidence, but
Does anyone else think that swing pass is going to get someone decapitated?
Does anyone else watching Hard Knocks on HBO not believe that the road to the Super Bowl goes through Dallas?  They are loaded.

Next game at Redskins - and although I didn't get to go to the opener because I'm in Washington, I get to go to game 2 because I'm in Washington.
Watch for me.

Piling On and Blurry Action

July 29, 2008 - The Dark Knight

It was fairly obvious that before it even hit theaters The Dark Knight was going to do record box office. 

I remember The Titanic buzz and this has the same type of chatter.

 

Don’t get me wrong.  I didn’t hate The Dark Knight.  There were several things I really liked.  For example the relationship between Bruce Wayne, his ex girlfriend and her new boyfriend is complex and realistic.  There are no easy answers and it’s a dark movie – a welcome change from the happy happy of most movies. It was good and in some parts even very good. 

The buzz, Oscar and otherwise, is all about Heath Ledger in a flashy role that’s meant to be played with an over the top gusto that few roles are.  He delivers, but the acting throughout is superb, even if the old warhorses Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine are just too predictable. 

 

The almost unanimous rave reviews this movie has received puts me at a distinct disadvantage as I begin to dissent.

 

But I’m going to.  This is not a great movie because it has the same two diseases that all the action pictures seem to have these days.

 

The first one is what I call Blurry Action.  They take a camera and jam it up close on a fight and fists go swinging and it has this great look.  But, you really just don’t see anything.  Other examples are the supposedly great fight scene in the Bourne Ultimatum.

Very quick, very dashing – but you don’t really see anything.  Compare The Phantom Menace with the first Star Wars.  In the first picture during the classic light saber fights the camera is pulled back and you see great moves.  In the last movie you see a blur. 

 

I remember walking out of The Phantom Menace next to two enthralled youngsters who were going nuts over what they just thought they saw.  Then one said it best, “I can’t wait to get the DVD for the extras so I can slow all the action down.”  Exactly.

 

Then there is the excessive length.  My first reaction as I left my seat was that I had just seen 2 movies.  They just kept piling on the action, the twists.  Afraid to stop.  Or maybe they just don’t know when to stop.  I guess you can’t make a big budget blockbuster in under 2 hrs and 20 minutes.    I call it lack of restraint and it permeates our society.

And this movie.  Too much.  Enough already.  They just kept piling it on.