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Right On Target. And Starbucks

4/29/2016

(See yesterday's post).

Yesterday in protest of the now over a million pledges by Christians with The American Family Association to boycott Target,

...I promised to go shopping today at Target even though I didn't really need anything.
Of course, once I started roaming the aisles of the store I came across quite a few things that I realized I needed.
   Does that ever happen to you, too?
     But I digress. I was planning on also stopping by Starbucks and Barnes & Noble as well, since, though they haven't been marked by the religious self-righteous crowd for boycott like Target has been - I expect it would be too much to ask even the most fiery zealots to give up their morning Grande Salted Caramel Mocha Frappuccino and, well, I don't know, maybe that crowd just doesn't go to Barnes & Noble all that much - those two stores also stood up for transgender rights.
     Anyway, despite my best intentions, I made it to only two of my three destinations. Long story short, a week ago I busted up my pinky toe good (I won't even go into the dumb though quite creative way I did it).

Here is my black-and-blue little toe and foot shortly after the event, swelled up to approximately three times normal.

     I neglected seeing a doctor, figuring my toe would heal on its own, until this morning when I realized that one week after the event my foot was still feeling not great.
      So I called the foot doc this morning, he said come to his office posthaste, which I did, posthaste, and he wrapped up my ailing toe, assuring me that I'd merely ripped holy heck out of a ligament and that my little piggy would most likely be right as rain in a few weeks,
      Still, I spent most of the morning into the afternoon at the doctor's office, and though my foot was feeling hundreds of percents better when I left his office, I was now crimped for time before I had to get to work

teaching little hands to make beautiful music,

...and besides, by the time I'd finished my Target shopping my bad foot was begging for mercy.
     Subsequently I never made it to Barnes And Noble, but I promise I will give that stores its due in the, hopefully, not too distant future.
     Anyway, during my drive over I was wondering if the million-person boycott was coming home to roost at my local Target at Easton Town Center.

Judging from the crowded parking lot,

...and the busy check-out area,

...I guessed not.
Since I'd arrived at Target directly from the doctor's office I figured I'd start my afternoon of Shopping For Justice with some lunch from the Target snack bar,

...from whence I was able to snag a Hot & Tasty mini-pizza and a diet Coke,

...killing two birds with one stone: 1) lunch and 2) dropping some coin at Target.
I actually ended up killing three birds since, as luck would have it, there was a Starbucks in this Target.

Not a coffee drinker, I opted for a dessert. There were quite a few nice-looking dessert choices,

...with quite a few calories.

So I went for my originally intended choice, a 140-calorie cake pop.

You know, for its small size that little ball has got to be one of the most concentrated calorific units on the planet.
But, boy, was it good! I could easily have scarfed down two or three more of those fattening little pink bad boys,

...but I resisted and got on about the business I'd come here for.
    Spending money.
    Which I ended up having no problem doing.

I bought a new watch. (Actually I bought two. I must have a watch on at all times while teaching lessons, otherwise I won't know when to stop, and as I lose watches left and right, I always like to have a spare in my purse and a couple spares at home).

I also purchased some new socks,

...some new curtains,

... new stickers with which to reward my hard-working little piano students,

...and, in a burst of inspiration,

a cute blouse as a gift for a transgender gal pal.

Then, feeling satisfied that I'd spent a righteous amount of money, I sought out the check-out counter with the shortest line and waited my turn.

As I piled my merchandise onto the belt I asked the young sales clerk how business was.

The clerk pulled in a deep breath. "Really busy," she sighed.
    I told her I'd been wondering whether business would be down today because of the boycott.
    The girl didn't know what I was talking about. Just as well. I didn't tell her.
     Why disturb calm waters?

4 Comments

Shopping For Justice

4/28/2016

6 Comments

       I don't really need anything from Target at the moment, but tomorrow I'll be going shopping at Target anyway and I will spend some money.
      And though the few dollars I spend at Target may not be commensurate with the amount the almost one million good Christians who signed a pledge with The American Family Association to boycott Target have vowed not to spend since Target took a stand for transgender rest room rights, well, one does what one can to fight hatred and injustice, even if only a few dollars at a time.
      After my shopping trip to Target

I'm planning on making an acquisition or two at Barnes And Noble, which, like Target, has announced its policy that in its stores transgender people are free to use the restroom of their gender identity.

And though I don't drink coffee I'll probably also swing by Starbucks, too, maybe grab a cup of tea and one of those too-yummy little cake pops which at 170 calories I don't really need,

...still I will make the sacrifice and eat one in support of Starbucks, another business whose official policy is that transgender customers and workers may use the store restroom of their gender identity.

Question - will someone please tell me why in the United States of America in the 21st century we're going on about who can use which bathroom?

       Oh well.
       Anyway, tomorrow while I'm shopping at Target, who knows?, I may have to share the restroom with a transgender woman. But that's okay, I don't mind. At least I won't have to share my space with any bigots.
        Anybody want to come shopping with me? ;)

References:
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/28/business/target-steps-out-in-front-of-bathroom-choice-debate.html

2. http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/04/27/retailers-transgender-bathroom-policy-lgbt/83560714/

3. http://www.wnd.com/2016/04/nearly-1-million-boycott-target-over-transgender-bathrooms/

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Dazed And Confused, Especially In Pennsylvania

4/26/2016

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    Until this election cycle I truly didn't how little I understood the presidential election process in our country.
     Mayhaps I'm not the only one having a demon of a time trying to figure out this Democrat/Republican/primary/caucus/delegate/superdelegate thing.
      Some state primaries, such as ours here in Ohio, are fairly straightforward and easy enough to understand: on the Republican side, whoever gets the most votes gets all the Convention delegates and on the Democrat side the delegates are divided among the candidates proportional to the votes received.
       In places like Iowa, on the other hand, they pick a night to duke it out for delegates in school gymnasiums and church halls, and then there's places like Colorado, where they pick their convention delegates by some arcane process by the light of the moon and a puppy dog's tail. (There's no sense even trying to figure out what goes on in Colorado).
       And then there's the Pennsylvania Republican primary, which is being played out even you read this (provided you're reading this on Tuesday, April 26 before 8 pm Eastern Daylight Savings Time), which can only be understood by persons possessing at least 2 1/2 college degrees, one of them in Political Science.

Luckily, I happen to be married to someone with 2 1/2 degrees, one of them in Political Science,

...who, with the assistance of an article in the New York Times on the subject, helped me deconstruct the process of how the Pennsylvania Republican primary works.
Anyway, the way the Pennsylvania Republican primary works, as I understand it, - not that I can understand why anybody would do it this way, but oh well - is that Pennsylvania will send 71 voting delegates to the Republican National Convention to vote for a presidential candidate. Of these 71 delegates from Pennsylvania, 17 will be committed to voting for whoever received the most votes in the primary election.* But the other 54 delegates, whom Pennsylvanians vote for along with their choice for presidential candidate,

...are uncommitted, and can vote for which ever candidate they want at the Convention, which is really only an issue in a case where one candidate has not reaped enough committed delegates to wipe out all the competing candidates for the nomination - in other words, in a case such as this year's election may turn out to be

if Ted Cruz and John Kasich

...keep nipping at Donald Trump's heels in the remaining primaries,

...and subsequently prevent him from arriving at the National Convention with the 1,237 committed delegates he needs to win the nomination on the first ballot.
     Anyway, Pennsylvania has 18 congressional districts, each of which will today elect 3 vote-for-whoever-they-want delegates from a slate of 162 people running for the 54 slots.
     Got it so far?
     So, in short, today in Pennsylvania if you are a voting Republican, you are voting: 1) for your choice for presidential nomination and, 2) for three delegates who will vote at the Republican Convention, hopefully for the same candidate as you voted for today.
    Which begs the question: How do you know that the delegate you're voting for will vote for your man at the Convention?
     Well, in truth, you don't. As one Pennsylvanian who planned to vote for John Kasich told The New York Times, "If I want a delegate who's going to vote for John Kasich, then how would I know?"
     Apparently one could have researched the positions of each of the delegates running in one's district to find out which candidate each is committed to, if one had the time and devotion to do so; and then one would have to trust that the delegate one voted for would remain true to their word by the time the Convention rolls around.
     Fellow Buckeyes of the Republican persuasion: does it not make you feel happy, at least once every four years, to be from Ohio? ;)

* If, however, on the first round of voting no candidate receives the 1.237 votes required to win the nomination, there is second round (followed by as many subsequent rounds as necessary) in which the previously committed delegates will be free to vote for whomever they want.

References:
1. "GOP Delegate Job Is Out Of Obscurity", by Jeremy W. Peters and Trip Gabriel, The New York Times, Friday, April 22, 2016.

2. http://videos.pennlive.com/patriot-news/2016/04/republican_primary_how_the_pen.html#incart_article_small

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The Posse Goes Greek, Or, A Tale Of Two Greeks

4/24/2016

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....And the eat goes on.

I can't pinpoint exactly whose idea it was for The Panera Posse to play hooky last week from our sacrosanct Wednesday morning ritual,

...but it all started the Wednesday morning before last when I asked my girls if anybody had any ideas for a rehearsal dinner venue for my nephew and his fiancee,

...and everybody pulled out their smart phones to look up rehearsal dinner venues, and somebody scrolled upon a Greek restaurant, which got us off the subject of rehearsal dinners and onto the subject of Greek food, which it turned out we all liked, and which reminded one of the members of an eatery over on East Broad Street in nearby Whitehall called "The Mad Greek" which most of us had never heard of though we all agreed that it would be great to zip on over to the place right then, as talking about Greek food had put us all in the mood, except that none of us had time that day, however we were soon all in on the idea of skipping out on Panera the following Wednesday and doing lunch at The Mad Greek instead.
Which we did.

Now, up until this point my favorite place for Greek had been another Whitehall establishment called King Gyros (which I mentioned briefly back in the 9/10/2014 post on my recipe for Hungarian stuffed cabbage),

...after making the acquaintance of The Mad Greek I'd say there's some serious competition going on in Whitehall for great Greek food; unless the two share ownership, which I kind of have a suspicion might be the case,

...as upon entering the dining room of The Mad Greek one is greeted by a pastry case full of the same kind of scrumptious-looking pastries that are on display at King Gyro,

...the walls of both restaurants are painted in blue and white murals evocative of the sunny Greek isles,

...and Zorba The Greek-esque music emanates throughout both restaurants.
However King Gyro is more of a semi-fast-food place, as one orders from a menu posted on the wall at the counter and one's food is delivered, and the soft-drinks are self-serve, while The Mad Greek is sit-down,

...and has a bar.

But the food at both establishments is wonderful. In the case of The Mad Greek this is attested to by the fact that when we arrived just as the doors were opening at 11 am the place was empty, whereas by noon on this ordinary Wednesday afternoon every seat in the restaurant was filled,

...as were most on the outdoor patio as well,

...buttressing my theory (see post from 4/19/2016) that people will always discover a great restaurant, be its location ever so inauspicious and its outer trappings ever so tchotchke.

But anyway, since we were the first ones in the place we were able to grab a nice sunny table by one of the wall-to-wall windows that fills the dining room with natural light.

We started off with appetizers to share:

...a plate of hummus, spinach dip and tzatziki,

...and some over-the-top delicious stuffed mushrooms hidden under a splendid sauce which was great for pita-dipping.

Among us we followed up with:
Beautifully presented gyros with the delicious tzatziki pleasantly on the side,

...salad,

...a vegan plate,

...and feta with olives and spinach pies in philo dough.

I somehow neglected to get a shot of the fries that I ordered, but they were wonderful, skin-on, small, irregularly cut and oh, so hot and crispy.

For dessert we shared a plate of yummy baklava which the chef garnished with a ring of chocolate sauce and some yummy almond cookies.

It was a great meal with great friends, well worth the short jaunt from our turf in Gahanna to Whitehall and the stray from our well-loved Panera routine.
And I've come to the conclusion that The Mad Greek must indeed be related to King Gyro; between the decor, the music and the food, I always leave King Gyro longing to visit Greece.

I left The Mad Greek feeling the same way.

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Good Stuff In Cincinnati

4/22/2016

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     "Boy, you eat out a lot!" remarked a friend who follows my culinary comings and goings on this blog.
     "Wul, no I don't really" I said defensively, "I mean, not really."
      "Yeah, you do," my friend stood her ground.
    Sigh. Yeah, I do.
       To whichever cosmic entity I owe and apology to for eating out a lot, I now say, forgive me for eating out a lot.
       That being said, last Sunday Tommy and I drove to Cincinnati to visit Theresa and Phill,

...and their kitty Dori,

...who, by the way, has her own amusing and widely followed twitter account, @ADoriBear, in case you, like me, are a fan of funny cat tweets.

Anyway, our plan was to hit the Ikea store to look for a piece of furniture or two for Tommy's new apartment - I find it passing unseemly that Cincinnati gets to have an Ikea store while we here in the state capitol have none, but mine not to reason why - after lunch at a neat little pub Phill and Theresa had discovered called Gordo's

Gordo’s specialty is its gourmet burgers, one of which Phill ordered, The French,

...topped with brie cheese, bacon and carmelized onions, and which he pronounced delicious, as were his hot steak-cut fries which he graciously allowed the rest of us to pick-plate at will.

Tommy had the likewise tasty vegetarian Black Bean burger with a side of lovely-looking roasted veggies.

However Theresa and I also enjoyed our non-burger choices:

Theresa, her artistically-presented and oh-so-fresh arugula salad,

…and me, my yummy, yummy fish tacos.

But what I really loved about Gordo’s was the outdoor patio,

...because as soon as I stepped out onto the plain concrete yard with the wooden fencing on one side,

...and the parking lot on the other,

...I was reminded of some of the little cafes Tom and I ate at in Spain along Camino de Santiago de Compostela (see"And Lighten Your Pack") whose outdoor patios just seemed to be out in the middle of everything.

I also liked the urban-ness of the place, as if we were in Chicago or New York instead of suburban Cincinnati.

(Not that suburban Cincinnati isn't nice, too!).

After our lunch at Gordo's we were sufficiently fueled for an afternoon of roaming around
Ikea - for me always a pleasant place to while away an afternoon,

...fantasizing about my house looking like this,

..and this,

...and this,

...wanting to buy a whole new houseful of cool, kicky furniture, but in the end always deciding against it, always opting instead to spend my portion of discretionary coinage on eating out.

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Saturday Night With The The Folk Ramblers

4/21/2016

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Last Saturday night a couple of the Posse members and I grabbed our partners by the hand and headed one suburb over to beautiful downtown Westerville,

... to Java Central, a coffee shop/art gallery/music venue,

...for an evening of singing along to the folk music of the 1960's with The Folk Ramblers,

Carl Yaffey,

and Bill Cohen.

Yaffey and Cohen are members of the Columbus Folk Music Society, "a nonprofit society committed to folk traditions and the people who want to share in them", and from time to time The Folk Ramblers lead '60's-style sing-alongs at various venues around town to raise money for charitable causes.
The six of us going to the sing-along decided to meet for dinner beforehand at

Thai Grille,

...a cute little spot just around the corner from Java Central,

...where, they tell tea-totaling me, the tall, cold Thai beer is really good,

..and where, I can attest, the food is really hot!
       One has the choice at Thai Grille, of mild, medium, or hot level of spice on one's food.
       Three of us, me included, chose mild, two of us chose medium, and one chose medium-plus.
       The presentation of each dish was colorful and appealing,

...I especially liked the flower-shaped carrots on my crispy pork,

...but do not ask me what my crispy pork or cute carrots or any of the other items on my plate tasted like; after a a few bites my tongue was on fire; by the time I'd finished as much as I could my tasted buds were totally seared and I couldn't feel my lips. I wanted to call 911 to send out the ice-cream brigade, stat!
     And I'd ordered the mild level of spice.
     The others agreed that the heat of the food, even the supposedly mild level, was intense, but then some do like it hot. Not moi.
      After our spicy, spicy meal at Thai Grille we walked to Java Central,

....where the friendly wait staff was glad to make me up a frozen caramel mocha without the coffee.
After a few sips of the frozen drink the fire in my mouth was extinguished and, to my relief, I was able to feel my mouth again,

...which was a good thing, as we were there, after all, to sing.

Down a hallway behind the cafe we found the art gallery where The Folk Ramblers were setting up,

...and where tables had been set up for the audience,

...though after that room filled up the audience spilled out into the hallway,

...then into another adjacent room and out onto the patio, where speakers had been set up so that those outside could participate as well.

Then we the audience settled into an evening of singing along with the old folk ballads from back in the days when every other kid had a guitar and could strum out at least the three or four chords needed to play the songs that we of that era used to love to sit around and sing: songs about freedom, justice, civil rights, peace, love, all those things we children of the 60's longed to bring and sing to the world.
Perhaps we didn't succeed in singing away the world's troubles back then, but it was fun to spend an evening singing away our own for a couple of hours, and in singing the old songs, to be, for a just little while, young again.

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Scali

4/19/2016

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,     "You ever been to Scali?" asked my friend Barb.
     As I'd neither been to, nor in fact had ever even heard of Scali, we agreed that I definitely should make the acquaintance of the place, and so we made a date including our hubbies Kevin and Tom for last Friday night to meet at Scali.
   Scali, as I learned, is an Italian restaurant located at the end of a strip mall located in Reynoldsburg, Ohio (the next suburb over from Gahanna, Ohio), set back off the busy 5-way intersection of Route 256, Livingston Avenue, and Slate Ridge Avenue.
     It never ceases to amaze me that, even when tucked away in some obscure, out-of-plain-sight nook or cranny, a good restaurant will always be discovered and will pick up a following.

This is indeed the case with Scali,

...which is apparently the place to be in Reynoldsburg on a Friday night.

Happily, early in the week Barb had made a 6 pm reservation for us. Otherwise our chances of snagging a seat at Scali at that time would have been zip-o-a-lady-o.

Despite its unassuming outward appearance in its humble place at the end of the strip mall,

...the interior decor of Scali is fun,

...and the menu and wine list offerings are upscale.

Soon after we were seated we all fell upon the bread, which was spread with melted butter and which one of us came up with the phenomenal idea

of topping with some of the the Parmesan sitting in a glass canister on the table. I for one found myself subscribing to Woody Allen's quote from the movie "Scoop": "I could make a meal out of the bread, I could make a whole meal out of just the bread".
Considering all the Parmesan-topped bread we scarfed down in advance we all probably should have made a whole meal out of just the bread.

But no, the best was yet to come, and I'm not even talking about

the lovely house salad,

...or our entrees,

the Vitello Piccata (veal scallopini) with a side of kale that Tom ordered,

...my Pollo Alla Marsala (chicken marsala) with a side of pasta,

...or the yummy-looking pasta that Barb and Kevin ordered;

No, for me the pieces de resistance of the evening were the desserts:

...the gargantuan portion - think twice the size of Cheesecake Factory - of blueberry cheesecake that Kevin and Barb shared,

..and the almost-plate-filling, nut-and-whip-cream-topped-caramel-drizzled-cream-cheese-and butter-cream-iced-and-layered-carrot cake,

...one of which Tom and I each ordered and I believe cost $8.95 a piece and probably weighed in at 3 calories per penny, but I swear it was worth every penny and calorie.

Calories and cost be hanged, there's nothing like a great meal with great friends.

2 Comments

North Carolina, I Apologize

4/16/2016

1 Comment

In response to my previous post condemning North Carolina's Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act which forbids transgenders from using public bathrooms of the gender they identify with,

my friend Sharon,

...wrote the following on Facebook:

Ah, yes. North Carolina. My new home. I am SOOO proud (not!)

I felt badly after reading Sharon's response, because Sharon is among the kindest people, and among the most supportive of social justice, on the planet;

.....here's a photo of her from the '70's working among the poor in Appalachia (see posts from 11/18/2015).

   And so I apologize to you, Sharon, and to all the good folks of North Carolina, for my comment in my previous post about North Carolina's "dismal moral climate". I certainly wasn't talking about you.
     I've never been to North Carolina (though I'm planning on going there in August for a visit with Sharon and other members of the old University of Dayton group who volunteered in Appalachia in the 1970's. See posts from 3/9/2015 and 3/10/2015) but I'm sure it's a beautiful state full of good people who are just like most people. I believe that most of us just want to live and let live wherever we live and that most of us have no interest in hurting or putting down anyone else. I believe most people in North Carolina probably have nothing personal against transgender people or gays, though I suppose for some it can be hard to overcome the prejudices they've been so carefully taught since birth, especially when these beliefs are intertwined with religion.
       Question: Though I'm not really sure why God created us gay, straight, transsexual, male, female, Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, or from among any of the infinitely diverse manifestations of humanity, why would God, the Master Builder, have created anyone as God didn't mean them to be?   And how could it possibly please God to see one group of us being mean to another group of us?
       I believe God created diversity among us because God wanted diversity among us.
       But I digress.
       What I mean to say is, it's the jelly-filled lawmakers of North Carolina, led by Governor Pat McCrory, who, unduly influence by a (hopefully small) cadre of loud, intimidating constituents, are responsible for the institutionalized discrimination recently legitimized in that state. I didn't mean to disparage North Carolinians as a whole or their state .
       Sharon, don't feel badly, it's people like you who make North Carolina a good place.
       Forgive me for not acknowledging that as well.

1 Comment

North Carolina's Real Problem

4/14/2016

2 Comments

     Riddle me this:
     Where in this country is the moral climate so dismal that even the rankest purveyor of wholesale pornography refuses to tread?
      Answer: North Carolina.
      Last Monday, in protest of the passage of a law in that state called The Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act that forbids transgenders from using public bathrooms of the gender they identify with, and for forbidding cities to pass their own LGBT anti-discrimination laws, the porn website XHamster.com began refusing to allow its product to appear on the screen of any computer being used North Carolina.
      Apparently websites can figure out where you are when you're looking at them, which is kind of creepy, especially if it's a porn website you're watching, and which also makes you wonder what else they can figure out about you.
       Anyway, along with Paypal, Deutsche Bank, Bruce Springsteen and Ringo Starr among others, XHamster is standing against injustice in North Carolina by cancelling its commercial relations with the state.
       Which in the case of North Carolina, means sacrificing a sizable chunk of change for XHamster; because for all its self-righteous bible-thumping, North Carolina is a big customer of the porn site.
       According to an article in The Washington Post, Mike Kulich, a spokesman for XHamster, reported that, "Back in March , we had 400,000 hits for the term 'transsexual' from North Carolina alone. People from that state searched 'gay' 319,907 times."
        And that's only those categories of pornography on that particular website.
       I'd say that instead of wasting so much time and money persecuting gays and transsexuals, the dishonorable governor of North Carolina,

Pat McCrory,

...and his bigoted legislature should be addressing North Carolina's pornography-addiction problem.

Reference:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/04/12/porn-giant-is-latest-to-place-a-ban-on-a-southern-state-in-protest-of-an-anti-lgbt-law/

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