Challenge

challenge

of course tolerance has a place in America,  but  why SHOULD we be "tolerant" of those  who blow us up in a spectacular show of hate, let us "get over it" and then return to the scene of the crime to build a monumental mosque to the faith that dictated 9/11. A cultural center? Of course it will be a cultural center. It will daily reinforce their cultural belief since the 6th century to dominate the world. Don't you know this? what does Islam offer us as Americans? You and yours demonstrate a stupendous revelation of naiveté´; how ignorant if not cowardly the media has become; they so yearn to belong to the minority, the "elite", if you will, the small crowd of dummies who think that they and their fellow dummies are totally cool, whatever that means. Unthinking and ignorant to the tenets of Islam, you are laying down the red carpet for an idea so foreign and harmful to the way you live your life - this is a very personal thing. They will hang America in one way or another down the road, patient as they are. This will be the feather in their hat if they succeed in building on the bones of 9/11. Sure it's a "cultural thing". The muslims running the show must be laughing at lemmings like yourself who fill the bill titled Useful Idiots. Are you dumb or do you like your bully pulpit too much- Read up on Islam and discover how tolerant they are.heresnan.blogspot.com

A few years back  I was at Marco Island for the first time and ran across an Italian place --lots of families totally Sinatra on walls and music - a family from Chicago ran the restaurant and I suppose we had spaghetti but I do remember the before-dinner serving of crusty dense bread served with olive oil, freshly chopped basil and coarse black pepper ground on site over the oil and basil.. there are simple things in life you never forget if they are good enough to remember--this little saucer was full of an arrogant introduction to the unexpected.. dipping crusty bread into  this  triple combo which pleased the palate to no end  wish I could remember the name of the place--franchised restaurants offer olive oil and the ground pepper but no basil until asked for -- waiters go to check--the basil leaf comes  sort of chopped up-like a vague  afterthought-  why don't "Italian" restaurants offer this palate-pleaser  in my part of the planet as introduction into  Italy-most everyone understands olive oil and pepper but  Basil? -slightly peppery -mint? clove? ...franchises  aim to "please" palates  with "inoffensive"no surprises-allowed-servings  of food and this after all those fascinating menu options presented and  written in a fine calligraphy  which-if you let it take you-  confidently -  to  Tuscany or Umbria, Calabria or Romagna! -your imagination running away from  the mundane and just as you are getting a good idea of it all your confidence is   immediately shot down with officiously dutiful English translation directly beneath in plain old typewriter letters-no mystery involved whatsoever--over the edge into the unknown I say-what's the matter with  educating  the palate, creation of and  deserved appreciation of food has to be something more than  homogenized offerings-is the Capellini Pomodoro really Toscana? ..what about the  Tortelli Romana ..are we really talking Rome here?  

Dear One and Only - So what about Fort Traut?  Margaret has kudos coming to her; she defended her right to provide not only authentic ouhouses but cabins with chipmunks for the few who appreciate this rare experience and we know that true rusticators and Margaret and Eddie --may they R.I.P. --all benefited from this agreement-a touch of living in the rough and the touch of money --a fair exchange --if those cabins would stand strong and true for another fifty years there would be no takers because the rough and ready of us are disappearing..belonging to the elite troop of Traut followers, a handful no more, we and the Trauts won't go down in written history but in the oral tradition, eventually becoming lore and the stuff of legend...I miss the leaky boats and the cracked oars  and the bear swimming across the lake, and the Captain in the lodge playing the upright and singing Oh Baby won't you please come  home..the lodge where you could sit up to the bar and talk sense with your kind of people over a bottle of  Hamms even if it didn't make sense ....and..

North

yes the old Hamm.s beer commercials not only sold Hamms it sold the northwoods idea...now if I could walk into that place with the jukebox, vintage library and 15 year old wine bottles covered with dust set up behind the bar with a droopy old lady on one of the stools facing the door saying --droopily--  well, well look who's here - I'd be off in a flash-- and pay through the nose to see the barkeep limping along from one end of the bar to the other serving up beer and brandy with his nose to the till while droopy narrated her version of that damn man Edmund Fitzgerald himself --those two stalwarts provided not only themselves but a piece of Americana  with a real outhouse and cabins with chipmunks to boot.. how ya goin'  t'beat that?