Author: marymom

WHAT A PUZZLER!

TODAY’S CONGRATULATIONS

I have been corresponding with Patrick who is Ryan’s sister’s boyfriend. Professionally, he is an actor and on the side he creates crossword puzzles. Patrick and I realized we had a naturally affinity for one another when we bandied about such words as amah, nene and ani. These are words that every puzzler needs to know. From time to time he has sent me a puzzle that he is developing. I have fun solving them and making suggestions. He has been submitting his puzzles to the New York Times Crossword puzzle editor, Will Shortz. This week he sent me the exciting news that one of his puzzles has been accepted and will appear in a Thursday paper. For those of you who don’t do these puzzles, Monday puzzles are the easiest and the escalate in difficulty through Saturday. A Sunday puzzle is about the level of a Thursday. So this is a great success for Patrick. Congratulations!

Enigmatology

About Will Shortz, from his NPR bio –
Will Shortz, born in 1952, has been the puzzle master for NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday since the program’s start in 1987. He’s also the crossword editor of The New York Times, the former editor of Games magazine, and the founder and director of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (since 1978).

Will sold his first puzzle professionally when he was 14 — to Venture, a denominational youth magazine. At 16 he became a regular contributor to Dell puzzle publications. He is the only person in the world to hold a college degree in Enigmatology, the study of puzzles, which he earned from Indiana University in 1974.

OLD FRIENDS

TODAY’S WORRY

Why do we lose touch with people? Or why don’t we work harder at staying in touch? It is so easy to communicate these days. There’s instant messaging, email, telephone and letters. My cost per minute to make a long distance phone call is less than $.03. That means I could talk to a friend every week for a half an hour and it would only cost $.90. Is it just that we are lazy? Or do we sometimes let too much time go by and then it seems either monumental to catch up on all the details or too embarrassing because it’s been so long? I just spent a week with my dear friend Sophie. We really haven’t had much time to visit over the past few years. It was so lovely to be with her again. We spent time with our other good friend, Eileen. It makes me truly value these friends who know me so well and with whom I have so much shared history. From now on, I will do better at keeping in touch.

REMARKABLE

TODAY’S WORRY

About 75% of Americans are Christians. About 25% of Americans are either non-Christians, agnostics or atheists. Part of the greatness of America is that these groups can live together in harmony. Throughout history, various religious groups have been at each others throats for different beliefs. There is even bloody mayhem today within major religious groups – Catholics and Protestants (both Christian) in Northern Ireland; Sunnis and Shi’ites (both Islamic) in Iraq. Our Founding Fathers did a great job in framing our Constitution and Bill of Rights to make sure that there is no interference by religion in the affairs of state. So I found President Bush’s comments after attending the Pope’s funeral disturbing. According to an AP article, Bush is quoted as saying, “No doubt in my mind the Lord Christ was sent by the Almighty,” Bush said. “No doubt.” This type of remark might be appropriate in his church, or to his minister or to his family but not to reporters on Air Force One in his official capacity.

Half-staff

I was confused when I saw the flag being flown at half-staff last weekend and this week. I wondered if it were for the Pope. I didn’t think that foreign leaders or religious leaders were accorded this great American honor. However, from searching flag etiquette sites on the internet, I found that the president can direct that the flag be flown at half-staff as a symbol of respect for other officials and foreign dignitaries. Traveling through Arizona, Utah and Nevada this past week, I found that that there was some inconsistency in lowering the flag. Some flags were up and some at half-staff. I wonder if this was intentional or not.

ODD MAN OUT

TODAY’S WORRY

I was alerted to the following story on salon.com by Sarah, the Braisin’ Hussy. The Vatican had apparently limited the size of the official U.S. delegation to five. I had heard on the radio that President Bush and his wife and former presidents Bush and Clinton were going. I wondered about President Carter. He was not so great a president but he is a great humanitarian. However, according to the aritcle “former President Carter had hoped to go as well, but backed off when told the Vatican had limited the official delegation to five “and there were also others who were eager to attend,” said Jon Moore, a spokesman for the Carter Center in Atlanta.” And who was this person more important to have attend than President Carter? Condoleezza Rice.

Ecclesiastic Jargon

With the death and subsequent funeral for Pope John Paul II, there is a lot of ecclesiastic jargon being thrown about. If you are not Catholic, you might not know what it all means.

ecclesiastic – of or associated with a church (especially a Christian Church)

see – the official seat, center of authority, jurisdiction, or office of a bishop

pontiff – the head of the Roman Catholic Church

cardinal – a high church official, ranking just below the pope, who has been appointed by a pope to membership in the College of Cardinals

Painted Pony, St. George, Utah

For an up and coming retirement area, St. George has a woeful lack of restaurants. Except for a number of Mexican and Chinese restaurants, there are very few non-chain establishments. Fine dining in St. George usually means Outback Steakhouse or Tony Roma’s. Painted Pony is an exception. It is on the second floor in downtown’s Ancestor Square. The interior has a subtle desert theme. We started by ordering a bottle of wine from a smallish wine list. Sometimes in St. George you are treated like you are some sort of alien when you order a bottle of wine, but the wine service went smoothly. After we ordered our salads and main course, and the wine had come, we waited a while and wondered why no bread had been served. After the salads came, I asked the waiter if we could have some bread and he said they only served bread if people asked for it due to the low carb craze. We thought that it might have been better if the waiter had asked us if we wanted bread. When the bread came it was puffy Parker House rolls like you buy at the grocery store. Actually, I don’t think they should worry about throwing out too much of it.

John and I had the mixed greens to start. This dish was done well with slivered apples, blue cheese and walnuts. Sophie had the spinach salad which included small balls of goat cheese but needed a little more dressing. John’s main course was salmon with a fresh salsa served with a black bean cake. He said the salmon was excellent although cooked to medium instead of medium rare as he had asked. The black bean cake was a weird side to the salmon with tasteless beans and grainy polenta. Sophie had the pork tenderloin. This came with a red chile mole which she said was very good and a lot of baby bok choy which she didn’t like. The pork had an apricot stuffing. The pork itself should have been cooked a little less as it was somewhat dry. I had the Painted Pony’s signature dish, escolar with a sesame crust. It is served with sweet potatoes. Both the fish and the sweet potatoes were excellent although an odd choice to serve together. We shared a bourbon creme brulee for dessert. I like creme brulee better served in a low wide dish so there is more of the crunchy sugar on top but the custard was very good and we all enjoyed it.

So mostly good food from an innovative menu in an attractive restaurant. The downsides were an inattentive waitstaff, entrees cooked a little more than we had asked for, and strange bread service. Sophie adds that the water glasses being metal make your hands freeze!

John – B-
Sophie – B
Mary – B