Subj: 358 etc. and etc. was

ML> go to Point Barrow for the astronomical solstice ...
ML> This group has made a tradition of celebrating the solstice in
ML> an appropriate way; one year it was looking for bears on Kodiak,

I can certainly appreciate those kind of celebrations ...

On Dec 21, 1979, the winter solstice, a group of us snowmobiled 55
miles northwest from Fort Good Hope up the Mackenzie River to get 39
miles due north or a little over half a degree of latitude for a
midnight shore supper right on top of the arctic circle (give or take
a few hundred feet). At the arctic circle there is exactly one day
day of 24 hour sun and one day of 24 hour night. We had bacon,
beans, bannock, champagne and rusty nails.

And back on Dec 31, 1973 another group of us trekked from St.
John's, Nfld. to light house on Cape Spear so as to be the first
people in North America to see the sun come up on Jan. 1, 1974. I
don't remember the breakfast menu but liquor was involved then too.

ML> once a barbecue at Dutch Harbor

Now that would be a cool destination!
 
This solstice some of my friends will be involved in the 24 hour
golf marathon held on the beach of Long Lake (with sand fairways and
artificial turf greens) and my BIL Matthew will be hosting a large
BBQ on the Yellowknife River (June 21 is also National Aboriginal
Day which gets lip service in Ottawa but is a real stat holiday
here). During the Midnight Madness street carnival I'll be at the
Coldwell Banker parking lot selling $1 hotdogs for Habitat For
Humanity. Actually because Aboriginal Day events have become an
important part of all Northern lives, the traditional golf tourny
and the downtown Midnight Madness thing have been moved up to the
night of June 20th so as to not compete.

  Subj: 360 Costco things

ML> Kirkland Signature products
ML> Tellicherry black pepper grinder - very aromatic and peppery
ML> with just a little varnish note. Hot. The grinder seemed okay; I
ML> find it amazing that these throwaway grinders work better than
ML> the ones we paid $10 for half a century ago.

I bought a Loblaws President's Choice Tellicherry grinder a few
months ago and was very pleased. The peppercorns were fresh, very
aromatic and quite hot, and the grinder delivered uniformly coarse
pepper. The peppercorns were actually cheaper than an equal weight
of generic pre-ground pepper and so the grinder was essentially
free.

  Subj: 379 trout

 ML> Maryland "lake trout" is really a hake or whiting!

So not trout-like! But the King's English and the Lord's truth are
often subjected to machination in fish markets and seafood
restaurants,
             
  Subj: 380 Appetizers or no

 ML> I gave Lilli a lesson in chucking last week, getting a largish
 ML> chuck roast and separating it into three sections.

My store had a sale on beef so I loaded up. I was amused to see
blade, round and sirloin steaks all priced $5/kg higher than their
respective roasts. So I bought the roasts and carved up my own
steaks which are thicker and therefore better than the pre-cut
ones as well as cheaper.

 ML> the Green Giant potatoes showed a very high incidence of
 ML> defects, so be careful of that brand.

This summer I am finding that all the bagged potatoes are in poor
condition no matter who's name is on the bag. I'm wondering if some
major potato producing region had a poor year and the market is
seeing grade 2 spuds being sold as grade 1 and culls that are normally
pig fodder being sold as #2 because of supply issues. The loose ones
in the bins look OK but as you pointed out they are triple the price.


Cheers

Jim


... I can be Googled; therefore I am.

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