Okay Baby Boomers. If you only indulge in cannabis once a year, this is your day!! Allegedly started by some highs school-age Boomers in San Rafael around 1971, 420 was code for smoking at their usual 4:20 PM time. Or something like that. Nowdays there’s a celebration on “Hippie Hill” in Golden Gate Park.
If cannabis is not your thing, then raise a toast to you fellow Boomers to show that you’re really hip.
-Jet Cannon
I miss the Cold War. As wars go, it was a good one because hardly anyone died. And yet it generated really cool stuff like nuclear submarines that could launch nuclear-tipped missiles from underwater, long-range bombers, ICBM silos in South Dakota farm land, Nike rockets perched on local hilltops designed to shoot down Soviet bombers, powerful radars searching for enemy bombers or missiles coming over the North Pole, and underwater listening devices to seek out Soviet subs. My lunch box featured nuclear ballistic missile sub USS George Washington. That sucker could launch 16 Polaris missiles at the Soviets in a matter of minutes! Good thing, too, because during the Cuban Missile Crisis a few Soviet sub commanders were minutes away from firing nuclear-tipped torpedoes at our ships blockading Cuba. And had they fired, well, we would have had to retaliate.
Just to make sure our bombs worked, there was extensive testing of those devices. More than one thousand tests. Seems like a lot. But how much fun would that be!! Code-names Trinity (first), Able, Baker, X-ray, Yoke, Zebra, Fox, Dog, George (first thermonuclear), Item, Sugar, Uncle, King, Nancy, Ruth, Dixie, Ray, Badger, Climax, Romeo, Hornet, Project 56, Kickapoo, Mohawk, Franklin, John (air-to-air missile), Saturn, Newton, Rainier, Argus I (300 miles altitude), Swordfish (anti-submarine rocket), Raccoon, Packrat…… you get the idea. Lots and lots of tests. Many air drops. In other words, not buried to contain the radioactivity. I had a thermos of milk in my USS George Washington lunch box. No doubt my milk was laced with Strontium 90 from all that fallout circling the globe, landing on the grass that our patriotic cows dutifully ate.
Remember fall out shelters? We had one at my elementary school. Maybe Dad dug one in the back yard. How about those sirens that went off every week at the same time on the same day.(some powered by hemi V8 engines….. very loud). Duck and cover kids! Don’t look at the flash.
And yet, we’re still here!!
Jet Cannon
Want to work up a powerful, cotton-mouth thirst? Read the latest from our favorite RV warriors. Luckily, they also offer a cure. Read more.
There are so many creative cocktails on the Interweb and I rarely have the ingredients I need. I don’t want to invest in an expensive bottle of some obscure liqueur that I will rarely use. Modern Gourmet Foods has created a step in the right direction to help me out. Airplane bottle-sized flavorings to create, in this example, summer vacations mixers. Tropical Painkiller, Brazilian Caipirinha, Pina Colada, Blue Hawaiian, Ruby Red Sangria, Peru Sour, Singapore Sling, Peach Bellini, Margarita, and more. How cool is that? Just add alcohol. I’m hoping they have similar box for Fall and Winter! Stay tuned for taste test results.
– Jet Cannon
Where is it that somebody, anybody, knows your name? That you’re greeted with a hearty “welcome”! ? Or the bartender remembers what you prefer to drink and begins crafting your cocktail after receiving only a subtle nod of your head.
One local watering-hole, The Point, is home to the Beer Boys on Friday afternoons. It invites over 21 year olds only. Baby Boomers make the cut. No kids allowed. We like kids but not always when enjoying a coveted cocktail. Where do you find an adults-only setting anymore?
Another local establishment, The Tin Room, located in a former small business where they made I’m-not-sure-what from tin, features cloth napkins and cocktails poured from shakers into a proper cocktail glass right at your table. The bartender definitely knows your name and would shake your hand pre-Covid. It’s a place where you feel like you belong.
It’s nice to belong. That’s the point.
– Jet Cannon
As a seven or eight year old, I have vivid memories of getting brief tractor rides with grumpy Grandpa Herb as he plowed the fields on his Christmas tree farm. I lived for those rides. The noise and the smell of hydraulic fluid. I loved those rides, however infrequent and short.
My good friend, let’s call him Old Man Earl (several months older than me), just called from his pheasant-hunting property in Eastern Washington where he had just finished using his tractor and brush-hog to mow down great swaths of undergrowth. He was high on life. It didn’t hurt that he had a whiskey and ginger highball in hand with a ribeye on the grill and his trusty canine companion Hank by his side. Oh, but the city-boy turned gentleman-hunter was reveling in the pure joy of manly-man, machinery mojo! Caterpillar Second Shift Steel Toe Work Boots. Carhartt Duck Bib overalls. Farmer’s tan. Nearly-callused hands. Heaven.
Maybe I’ll pick up one of those little green lawn tractors. Not only would it cut down my mowing time to about three minutes total but it could bring back the all-consuming joy of riding the mighty, snorting, mechanical steed.
– Jet Cannon
National Submarine Day, on April 11th, honors the day the United States Navy acquired its first modern commissioned submarine, says nationaldaycalendar.com. On April 11, 1900, the Holland VI became the Navy’s first modern submarine.
My plan is to visit the Horse & Cow Bar & Grill in Bremerton, Washington which is basically a bar in a submarine museum.
Have you seen the Progressive commercial where the don’t-become-your-parents counselor asks, “Who reads submarine books?” And the sheepish answer, “My Dad.” Well….. that’s me.
– Jet Cannon
Photo quota.com
Whether or not you enjoy golf, the splendor and tradition of The Masters is unmatched. Thanks to wealthy members, the Augusta National Gold Club, opened in 1932, maintains a lush setting with tall pines, abundant azaleas (30 varieties) and, for TV, painted greens. Noting that Presidents seem to enjoy golf, President Eisenhouer played Augusta 29 times during his presidency. Augusta over the years has painted a vibrant canvas of sports and passion and beauty. Take from it the aspects you enjoy.
The same goes for the signature cocktail of The Masters. I’m not certain of the recipe used in the club bar but the Interweb recipes vary. That’s perfect for us. Choose Vodka or gin, lemonade or pineapple/lemon juice. Just be sure to add a splash of grenadine and garnish with fresh fruit. Then enjoy the color and pageantry and tradition of The Masters.
– Jet Cannon
Photos Courtesy of Golf.com and homebartendr.com
Do I like vodka? Not really. But not not really either. C’mon, it’s vodka!! It’s stealthy, I’ll admit that. My personal lasting early impression of the stuff – aside from waking up bleary, a ~16 yo, next to a seagull pecking at trash near my high school face, the morning after an ill-advised alcoholic score – is of the girl with the really reeeally long hair in 11th grade with her huge macrame purse that ‘concealed’ her bottle. Vodka is, and ever has been to my mind, just like that…clear and pure and clean. The perfect liquor, which is to say, the most serviceable but also the most dismissible. Doesn’t smell like anything. Nobody ever said, ‘you stink like a vodka factory’. It should taste like…ethylic alcoholic water… nothing!! It should taste like nothing. Only it so f’s you up. No notes is good notes!!! I’ll have me some gin please! But I digress.
Au nyet. Madison Avenue (is there still a Madison Avenue??!?) disagrees strongly. So did the Europe Union, recently quibbling over what vodka ‘is’, which led to the Schnellhardt Compromise. Something about alcohol content or the kind of potatoes or whatever, but a compromise. I guess that’s good, we certainly don’t want any more unpleasantness among the Eastern Euro people.
But come the mother f__ on!! It’s vodka, Fricken vodka!! The less taste the better, everybody knows that!! It’s neutral. And yet (see pics), my local BevMo has many many many many ‘varieties’ of The Vodka. Some of them behind glass, lock and key. Call an associate for that $weet $tuff!
It’s like water. Wahh..ter. Where I grew up – Maryland – Wuoouh-der. Let’s face it, the best water tastes like…absolut nothing. Nothing at all. But again, the ad men would disagree. There IS a difference…you can TASTE the difference. Your mouth can FEEL the difference. Just tryyyy it!
I really can’t/won’t. Vodka gets you buzzed, and the cops can’t smell it. Good water is nice like air; you don’t need to think about it. Good water tastes like nothing at all. And good vodka tastes like the 11th grade.
For those of you who sometimes wonder if you would enjoy the blacktop nomad life, or alternately, are so certain that you would hate it that you want to read about it with lurid curiosity and schadenfreude – read on. I’ve detailed what life inside (and outside) of Stanely Skystream the Silver Armadillo (his formal title) is like.
Hunter S.
Yeah, National Beer Day is tomorrow, so while you’re laying in supplies, April 7th is also National Coffee Cake Day! So get your flour, and I assume coffee, to make coffee cake (maybe that’s not right) or just buy some COFFEE CAKE, like me, to eat with your morning coffee tomorrow. Then we’ll be alert, nourished, and ready to properly celebrate National Beer Day by, I suppose by enjoying a beer or two!
– Jet Cannon
Coffee and Cosmos
What do people in the state with the oldest population, in median age, prefer for their libations? Well, Maine gets the honors for having the most people leaning towards the Baby Boomer years. The best selling spirit in Maine is Allen’s Coffee Brandy. Nice for cold weather. However, the most popular cocktail is apparently the Cosmopolitan. Interesting combination. We’re not sure what to make of that!
– Scuba Robin
