Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Daily Newsletter content...

A long, long time ago, I was a staff photographer for the metro newspaper in Southern California, Now it is called the San Diego Union-Tribune.

When I was there in the 1960s, the morning paper was The Union and the afternoon one, the Evening Tribune.

They merged after I left, similar to what my hometown papers did when the  News and Courier was blended in with the Evening Post and now is the Charleston Post and Courier.

This is a long introduction to explain that I receive a daily newsletter, written by and for, about 500 former editorial employees of the San Diego papers.

It is called the 919 Gang, named for the address of the paper when it was still located downtown at 919 Second Avenue.

OK. Now you know the background of the issue I received today.

Editor Jack Reber has been at the helm of The 919 Gang for 10 years and encourages all of us to contribute items recalling old friendships, what-ever-happened-to? and surprising topics such as farting.

Naturally, I had to chime in and make a tie-in to my hometown. Read on..


       Good evening, 919 Gang. I was wrapping some Christmas presents tonight and Mary informed me that the color of the bow should match the color of the ribbon. Who made that rule? Did we vote on it? Is it in the Constitution? I view this as an attempt to stifle my creative genius.

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CHUCK BOYD writes: 
Speaking of "shooting a bunny" - or a rabbit - a friend of mine reminded me that in the movie "Caddyshack," Rodney Dangerfield was playing a brash, loud, lout in a country club banquet setting.
          In the middle of praising himself to his tablemates, he paused, lifted a cheek and cut one,  and bellowed "Hey, did somebody step on a duck?" 
http://tinyurl.com/ya5g82jv
Bill Murray lives here in Charleston and can be seen often roaming around. A local bar commissioned a noted graffiti artist to decorate its walls with portraits of famous people, and Murray, as he was seen in STRIPES, has a prominent spot behind the bar.


          I happened to drop in while the artist was working on Murray's iconic face.


 To my knowledge, he never has stopped in The Sparrow but I have seen him in several "Bill Murray sightings" as we call them here in Charleston. 
          One often repeated episode: Murray was seated nearby as a young couple was eating burgers. When she got up to go to the restroom, Murray slid into her seat and started eating her French fries as her startled date just stared. 
Murray had a few more fries, stood up and said "She won't believe you," and left.
http://tinyurl.com/ycabjzwl  


BRIAN CLARK writes:
          Since I started the exceedingly low-brow discussion of flatulence, breaking wind, passing gas, cutting the cheese, etc., etc., I must help the thread continue. One of my favorite expressions, which I associate with picnics and other outdoor activities for some odd reason, is to attribute the sound created by flatulating to a “barking spider.” In the meantime, a joke: While at a dinner party, a man toots. Another man says "How dare you fart in front of my wife". The first man says "Sorry, I didn't realize it was her turn.”  If you’d, heaven forbid, like to read dozens more, see http://www.jokes4us.com/barjokes/fartjokes.html

          KEN WILLIAMS writes:
Rex Salmon meant to type "poot," which is informal in the US for "an act of breaking wind." Yes, I heard that term often in Ohio, where I grew up among the "O'Tucks." Let's see who among us know what that means.

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REBER: I complained last night about the TV commentators who just chatter nonstop during football games.

CHARLES BOYD writes:
Like you, I feel the incessant chatter is annoying. Watching a game or a NASCAR race, I keep the sound very low or silent. 
If something spectacular happens, it is repeated and I might turn up the sound for that...then lower it again.
          Want to talk about all the Big Pharma ads with half the message being the serious side effects? They are clustered on the evening TV news and/or with a bevy of trial lawyers proclaiming huge judgment jackpots as bait. Oh, and silly phone numbers: all 7s, all 8s and all 9s.

          REBER: The TV and magazine ads for pharmaceuticals (the non-addictive ones) are nothing more than an attempt to get people to dictate to their doctors what medications they should take. I’d like to see those ads ended. Does California outlaw advertising by lawyers? In Las Vegas, there are billboards everywhere. These lawyers are just begging you to have an auto accident. I don’t see those ads in California.

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 Editor Jack used a headline of "She Won't Believe You."



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posted by chuckography @ 9:44 AM 0 Comments

Sunday, November 04, 2018

Contain yerself!

I can remember when cargo ships were unloaded "by hand."

Many dock workers converged on a ship that tied up and huge nets lifted break bulk material stacked on pallets from the hold of the ship.

Very labor intensive.

Cranes hoisted the filled nets into the air and.....
I don't remember what happened next.

I guess the material was placed in trucks and they drove away.
It was a LOT of work and it took many union longshoremen to load and unload a ship.
  •  Break bulk cargo is typically material stacked on pallets and lifted into and out of the hold of a vessel by cranes on the dock or aboard the ship itself.  
  • The volume of break bulk cargo has declined dramatically worldwide as containerization has grown. 
Today we are used to seeing container ships coming in and out of our harbor.

But, the reality is it is too costly to ship empty containers back to where they came from so they tend to stack up.
Hmm, maybe there is another use for them?

Local celebrity Bill Murray and his partners envisioned a concept of cutting in windows and doors and using them as "rooms" for a business.

Say, a Container Bar where food trucks are invited to come, hook up and serve a variety of foods at the unique neighborhood bar.

The food trucks now have an answer to where do you sit down to eat the food that's just been plated and handed to you.

Standing with food in one hand and a beverage in the other would not be a problem here.

Adding a bar, outdoor and indoor seating and some A-C spaces would round out the amenities.

I have no idea if the costs were very different using these pre-fabricated "buildings" as opposed to building from the ground up, but it is indeed different!

A business likes to stand out and this qualifies.

Instead of aging stacked metal units that would slowly rust sitting outdoors in a large lot, creating an eyesore,  Murray and his partners carved out a new neighborhood destination around the corner from their successful Rutledge Cab Company restaurant.

I kept an eye on the proposed opening and stopped by a week after it opened its steel doors and was warmly welcomed by a young and talented staff.

Good thing that I did because several weeks later, my daughter and her spouse came to visit from Oakland, California.

I was pleased with their reactions when we stopped by for a beverage.

We took advantage of an authentic "Italian" pizza from a parked food truck so explored all of the Container Bar's possibilities.

My daughter remarked that the food truck owner was literally on the phone with his Mom in Italy when we ordered.

He later stopped by to see how we liked his pizza.

He added that his Mom told him she liked the phone call but it was very early in Italy when he called home.

He quickly promised he would watch the time difference in the future. Ciao!

(Click on the link and photos for more details.)

Do yourself a favor and check out this new addition to the local food and beverage scene.

Now that the heat has simmered down a bit, both the outdoor and indoor seating will add to the enjoyment.

Something new in the neighborhood!



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posted by chuckography @ 12:33 PM 1 Comments