Facebook
Academy, a Comedy
The featured article on the front page of Tuesday’s Knoxville News Sentinel was a first-hand account of Jamie Satterfield’s experience in the FBI Citizens Academy. Her experience was a lot like mine. I took the eight-week class two years ago. The article was a topic of conversation at the annual FBI Knoxville Citizens Academy Alumni Association holiday party on Tuesday night.
The group often holds its monthly meetings on Tuesdays, which is the same night that I perform each week with Einstein Simplified. When this year’s holiday party was being planned, I suggested that the event could be held at Side Splitters Comedy Club since I was going to be there anyway. Side Splitters turned out to be an ideal venue. Activities chair Pat Payne chose a menu of salad, chicken parmesan, risotto, mushroom ravioli, and shrimp.
Dinner was served in the showroom at 6:00 p.m. After we ate, Association president Dennis Reedy and Special Agent in Charge Rick Lambert made a few remarks from the stage. Lambert presented the outgoing officers with awards to show the Bureau’s appreciation. Pat Payne and I also received recognition for our efforts in helping to plan activities throughout the past year. Once the meeting was over, the showroom doors were opened to the general public. The FBIKCAAA members stayed for the 8:00 p.m. improv show, comprising about half of the audience.
Skilled Skillet
Lunch at Monell’s was like another Thanksgiving feast, except with strangers. My wife and son and I arrived in Nashville an hour before he was to catch a ride back to school. Fortunately, there was no wait for a table on a rainy Sunday while the Titans played across town. We sat at a long table for ten where everyone passed the meats and sides to their left.
The suggestion to eat at the family-style restaurant came from Mary Constantine, the food writer for the Knoxville News Sentinel. She responded via Twitter to an inquiry I had posted on Saturday. Mary promised that they would have excellent fried chicken, which they most certainly did.
Last year my family had a family-style meal at The Loveless Cafe, which still had the feel of a restaurant. At the Loveless, we sat at our own four-top table and chose meats and sides from a menu. Monell’s feels more like you’re visiting someone’s home. Unless you show up with your own party of ten, you’ll sit with some people you don’t know. There is no menu; you eat what’s on the table. The meat selection varies by the day of the week but skillet-fried chicken is served at every meal. Everything was tasty. I liked their fruit tea, which was made with sweet tea, orange juice, apple juice and pineapple juice. I also liked their banana pudding, which was so fresh that the Nilla Wafers still had some crunch.
Ginger Sale
The gingerbread houses were once again more interesting to me than the trees at Fantasy of Trees.The annual event benefits East Tennessee Children’s Hospital. Several of the best entries were made by the Greenback School FCCLA students. I also liked a display that used jumbo marshmallows to make snowmen.
.
.
That’s the Spirit
The congregation at the 8:15 a.m. Mass at All Saints seemed fairly nonplussed by the changes to the Roman Missal. In the United States, the Catholic Church started using a new English translation this weekend, which was the first Sunday of Advent and the start of the new liturgical year. Two factors made it an easy transition. The 8:15 draws a crowd of regulars, which meant that the specific congregation was well-prepared for the change. The Mass was celebrated by Fr. David Carter, one of the youngest priests in the diocese, who also happens to be a canon lawyer and pays attention to details.
Like most of the congregation, I read aloud from a laminated card during the Confiteor and the Nicene Creed. However, I caught myself giving the old response when I glanced away from the card during the sign of peace.
I am looking forward to a day when different musical settings for the parts of the Mass are available. The Diocese of Knoxville chose to implement a setting called “Misa Luna” for at least the next year. It’s not my favorite music. On my next trips to St. Louis, I will be happy to hear something different such as the “Mass of St. Ann” or the revision of the popular “Mass of Creation.”
The real test of the new translation will come in four weeks when the CEOs (Christmas and Easter Only) show up. They are more likely to find it difficult to respond “and with your spirit” instead of the old “and also with you.”
Convection Connection
The old argument about cake vs. pie turned up in two unusual places last weekend. First, I saw a photo on Facebook of a cake in the shape of the Greek letter Pi. Then, I saw cupcakes that looked like pies at the annual Harvest of Blessings bake sale at All Saints Church.
Each year our friend Kathy and her daughter Karie strive to make something interesting. The night before the sale, Kathy’s husband Keith reminded me to bring my camera to church the next day. In addition to the pie cupcakes, Karie had made chocolate cupcakes decorated like fishbowls. I bought one and enjoyed it right there.
For the first time, my wife baked something for the sale. I got a recipe for Iced Pumpkin Cookies from a co-worker. Most similar recipes contain eggs but this one did not. My wife held back a dozen cookies to share with friends after our Thanksgiving dinner.
Pump It Up
One item got cut from our 2010 Thanksgiving menu when we realized we had too many other side dishes. This year, my wife prepared a rice-stuffed pumpkin, which was our contribution to the Thanksgiving feast at a friend’s house.
When we lived in Burbank, we spent most of our Thanksgivings with friends. The rice pumpkin was part of their traditional menu. They said they used a “sugar pumpkin.” The gourd we bought this year was labeled “pie pumpkin.” We used Near East Long Grain & Wild Rice but not the flavor packet that was in the box. Instead, my wife improvised her own seasoning mix. She used pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, a sautéed onion and a Granny Smith apple.
Pumpkin was on the dessert menu too. My wife baked iced pumpkin cookies that were a hit with the other guests. So was a delicious pumpkin pie that another guest purchased at Graeter’s in Cincinnati before driving south for the party.
Syncopated Rhythms
The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is broadcast on both NBC and CBS. The official telecast on NBC is too scripted while the coverage on CBS isn’t scripted enough. The hosts of “Today,” who work together every day, recited the banter that had been prepared for them. It always has the same feel as the forced repartee of co-presenters on an an awards show. Meanwhile, two correspondents from “The Insider” were given the freedom to ad-lib on CBS. Unfortunately, they spent much of their time talking over each other. It was a downgrade from last year’s CBS telecast.
A guy dressed as a baker on the Morton Salt “Home Baked Goodness” float looked more like Santa Claus than the Santa on the North Pole float. Macy’s Santa had a forked beard. The celebrity on Morton’s float was “American Idol” winner Scotty McCreery. He got caught off-guard by his own song and raised the microphone to his lips after his pre-recorded voice had already started singing. The same thing happened to Avril Lavigne on the Cooking Channel’s “Tom Turkey” float. A little later, seasoned pro Neil Diamond showed how it’s done while aboard the South Dakota Tourism float. I wrote on Twitter: “Neil Diamond doesn’t wait for the lip-sync track before lifting his mic. The lip-sync track waits until Neil Diamond is ready!”
My favorite marching band performance was by the Dobyns-Bennett High School Marching Band, which covered the song “Dynamite.” One of the band members received the Bob Hope Band Scholarship Award.
NBC fills the first hour of their broadcast with performances outside Macy’s while they wait for the parade to arrive. Daniel Radcliffe showed off some impressive dance moves with the cast of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.” I was surprised to learn that a version of the movie flop “Newsies” is coming to Broadway as a musical. The costumes from “Priscilla Queen of the Desert” were bizarre, as I’m sure they were intended to be.
My friend Jessica commented on the parade via Facebook. She responded to another of her friends by writing, “you weren’t kidding about the Priscilla number being a little outré for family TV. Also, I was playing the ‘which one of those dancers is in drag; and which one is a female made up to look like a man in drag?’ game.”
-
Site Search
-
A Word from Our Sponsors
-
With Humble Appreciation:
-
Connections:
-
For Your Consideration:
Frank Murphy in "Fish Bait: the Movie" -
Welcome Visitors
-
Olden Days Archives
2005
- August 2005
- September 2005
- October 2005
- November 2005
- December 2005
- January 2006
- February 2006
- March 2006
- April 2006
- May 2006
- June 2006
- July 2006
- August 2006
- September 2006
- October 2006
- November 2006
- December 2006
- January 2007
- February 2007
- March 2007
- April 2007
- May 2007
- June 2007
- July 2007
- August 2007
- September 2007
- October 2007
- November 2007
- December 2007
- January 2008
- February 2008
- March 2008
- April 2008
- May 2008
- June 2008
- July 2008
- August 2008
- September 2008
- October 2008
- November 2008
- December 2008
- January 2009
- February 2009
- March 2009
- April 2009
- May 2009
- June 2009
- July 2009
- August 2009
- September 2009
- October 2009
- November 2009
- December 2009
- January 2010
- February 2010
- March 2010
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010