Black Friday

 The turkey has been consumed and the carcass is simmering for stock.The only "black" relevant to my Friday is the color of the 3 inch 12 Ga.  BB shells I will be loading in my shotgun hoping to down some geese for the table.

 Today I am heading to the duck hunting club to set up for geese this afternoon and ducks tomorrow at zero dark thirty. I saw and heard lots of geese moving all day yesterday. Hopefully the snotty weather North of us has driven down the migratory stragglers who will find our decoy spread inviting.

 This will be my view from the blind this afternoon.

 The Lehigh v. Lafayette tailgating was splendid. Sadly the school from Easton gave our boys a rather severe spanking :50-28.

Nevertheless, it was great hoisting beers on a cold crisp day in the Lehigh Valley. There is continuity and comfort in seeing guys you have known for 30 years and sharing beer, nips of bourbon, and laughs.

Meat Hunters

 In the early 17th century, one did not go to Whole Foods and select a turkey from a refrigerated bin fill of cryo-sealed fowl. All the birds in the 1600's were "free-range." The religious zealots who came to these shores had to set off into the woods and fields to seek meat for the table. They had unreliable and hard to aim flintlock weapons. Their gunpowder supply was precious and fickle. A missed shot was a lamentable event.

 Deer and turkey were abundant in the fields and forests of New England. But first they had to be located and harvested. It was work. It was also work to drag the game home and clean it. Cooking over wood fires is no game either.

So when we belly up to the table tomorrow, after hauling the store-bought bird from the Viking range, remember what our ancestors had to do in order to plate the Thanksgiving meal. The local Native Americans were not caterers. To the PETA types out there...how is that Tofurkey tasting....yuch.

Number 149

In the mid 80's it was still in Taylor stadium. The administration allowed the Fraternities to populate the parking lot in the far end-zone and swill keg beer from the back of pick up trucks during the entire game. It was tailgating inside the stadium. My first view of Lehigh football  was an end zone perspective thru a chain link fence with a 12 ounce plastic cup of cold keg beer...usually Hamm's. The PA system would crackle "Shigo on the tackle" and "touchdown...Renny Benn."
We had one eye on the game and one eye on the Sorority girls from Alpha Phi and Delta Gamma. Room temperature hot dogs and stale chips were the beer sponge of choice. This was not tailgating in the Grove at Ol' Miss with coat and tie and Southern Belles; this was 1AA football in the Northeast in a steel town. Banker's Club whiskey and A-Treat ginger ale and Popov Vodka  fit the house social budget so this was as far as the cocktail menu extended. We cheered as the Engineers triumphed over Colgate or Bucknell. We screamed "Lafayette Sucks" on the day of "The Rivalry."
This Saturday I will do it again...with the same guys from that end zone.

Mid-Week Amusement

An old high school friend posted this on Facebook. The set and sentiment just hit me and literally made me laugh out loud.

Bad News

I wrote about this vixen of the slopes back in 2010 when we were focused on the Vancouver Winter Games. Here we are about to see our U.S. athletes compete in 2014 Winter games and one of our big guns...the only American woman to ever win Olympic Gold in the Downhill...has suffered an injury in training. She was already coming off a serious surgery to her knee after an injury back in February. Now we have to worry whether she will be able to compete in Sochi Russia) Where the Hell is that anyway?)

I have been a huge fan of this beautiful blonde with the Gold Medal chops...a world class skier on all levels. To think she will not compete in the upcoming games is depressing. Here's hoping she makes a speedy recovery!

A New Benchmark

 During our stay on St. John I sampled and was mesmerized by a new local rum. Bones is being distilled by some guys on the island. It is a dark rum with complexity beyond its relative rookie status. We drank it with a local Virgin Islands Ginger Beer. I had never tasted Fort Bay before...let alone heard of it. The combination, with a squeeze of lime, is my new benchmark for a Dark and Stormy.

Perhaps part of the equation is that I was drinking this delicious cocktail while enjoying this view.

Return to the West Indies

 The first time I was here, I had just finished the Bar Exam. One of the Lehigh crew was running a sailing and diving school out of Tortola and kept one of the leased sailboats for a few extra weeks so the boys could have a rum soaked debauch around the U.S. and British Virgin islands.

 After Law School final exams and prepping for and taking the Bar, my brain was soup. I blew the money I had saved working 3rd year in a law firm during school on a plane ticket to St. Thomas.From there I had to take a Ferry to Road Town,Tortola to meet my buddy Chip who was running the show.

 Before I boarded the Ferry there was time to kill. I killed it dead in a open air roadside bar in Charlotte Amelia. I met up with some navy boys from a ship that was in  port as I sat at the bar. I bought them shots of Bourbon  and Red Stripes and asked them what it was like serving in the Navy.I was 25 and they were 19 but the age difference seemed more distinct and they were just kids away from home. They were jealous I had finished law school and they were sure I was going to be rich. I was jealous they spent their days on the Ocean and got to drink cold beer in ports around the Globe while I faced 75 hour weeks toiling in a law library . They appreciated the beers and the shots and gave me shipboard addresses to write them when I paid the bill and headed for the Ferry dock.

 The time that followed on the 47 foot vessel "Con Brio" was scuba and fishing and rum and buffoonery with 9 of my college buddies. We were in Spanishtown on Virgin Gorda when the effete ex-pat Brit harbor master criticized our loading of supplies and made some remark about spoiled young Yanks. As we motored from the harbor I flipped him the bird and called him a Limey wanker.

I am going back tomorrow. This time with my wife. One of the Lehigh guys from the Con Brio will be with us with his wife...and a few other couples. We are celebrating my wife's birthday and getting in some much needed vacation. I hope to do some sport fishing and we will snorkel and scuba and drink rum and cold beer on the beach. Until my return...this spoiled Yank is off-line.