Summer Food Fun and Drink Chapter 18 Windows 7 Floor reno · 5.08.10 by colin newell
Some photo action
Getting all new double-pane UV filtered windows at Coffeecrew HQ.
Studio has been dismantled – but I can soon start rebuilding.
Summer food fun and drink chapter 17 Victoria's best poutine · 31.07.10 by colin newell
Mathieu Lott, owner and Poutine chef at La Belle Patate on Esquimalt Road in Victoria B.C. Canada knows his potatoes. He loves his potatoes – and it shows.
And if you think that there is only one kind of spud, you are sadly wrong.
Photo right – Mathieu Lott owner and operator of La Belle Patate has a love for the apple of the Earth!
Mathieu, or Matty as his employees and friends call him, lists off the variety of potatoes that he uses and the quantities – thousands of pounds of potatoes come into La Belle Patate to be cleaned, peeled and hand-cut into perfect fries.
Because fries are the bedrock of a great poutine.
Ah Poutine. For the uninitiated, Poutine is a dish of French fries, topped with a thick and dark vegetable based gravy and a macadam of Island made cheese curds. And for those who feel that this might not be the most healthy meal – Poutine is a cruise missile with your arteries in the cross hairs. After a platter of poutine (in our case the Vege BBQ version), two “Steamie” – all dressed steamed hot dogs (and buns) loaded down with pickled cabbage (saur kraut) and mustard – washed down with two lemon Nestea drinks that have about 15 scoops of sugar per tin… Let’s just say that if your pancreas has not packed it in and your arteries have not clogged beyond repair – then the added salt is pushing your blood-pressure into the red zone.
Which is an entirely good and wonderful thing.
We try to get to La Belle Patate once a month for a “correction” in our normally great, border line hippy eating habits – because HEY, our internal organs and cardio-vascular system need to be reminded from time to time who is in charge here!
Lunch for 2 with drinks: $14.
La Belle Patate is located at 1215 Esquimalt Road a half-block past the Civic Center and Esquimalt’s original strip mall. Bon apetit!
Mathieu Lott recently traveled to New York city to check out the burgeoning poutine-scene and found it hopeful but in need of a bit of work…
Summer Food Fun and Drink Chapter 16 No Normal · 30.07.10 by colin newell
An updated edition of a mental health journal for doctors may include diagnoses for “disorders” such as child rage, binge eating and internet addiction. Experts observe, “This could mean that, soon, no-one will be classed as normal.
(I) Could have told you that. For free…
The new edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which is being tuned now for release in 2013, could devalue the seriousness of mental illness and label almost everyone as having some kind of disorder.
Like obsessive compulsive blogging or hummingbird speed twitter.
Many people previously seen as perfectly healthy could, in the future, be told they are ill.
The DSM, published by the American Psychiatric Association, contains descriptions, symptoms, and other criteria for diagnosing mental disorders. I imagine there should be something, perhaps a chapter on Facebook. At least a chapter.
The criteria are designed to provide clear definitions for professionals who treat patients with mental disorders, and for researchers and pharmaceutical drug companies seeking to develop new ways of treating them.
Members of the psychiatric community worry that the further the guidelines are expanded, the more likely it will become that nobody will be classed as normal any more. Worried? This is job security!
With the classification of so many new disorders, we will all have disorders.
Comforting.
There was a time that the phrase “If you have 9 friends and they are all normal… then you are messed up…” would give me a chuckle.
Now, it seems, we all have a screw loose.
So. The Earth is one great big asylum.
Also comforting. Anyway. Enjoy your neurosis – who knows… like coffee, at some point this new normal might be considered healthy…
Summer Food Fun and Drink 15 Life in the now lane · 29.07.10 by colin newell
One of the neat things about being over 40 – and being fairly hip to what is hot and happening in the early part of the 21st Century…
Is the fact that I am old enough to remember going into a record store to buy LP’s – when cassettes were actually available…
Photo at right: New copyright protection laws and digital locks – technology and new media – Stephen Harper wants to know: What’s on your iPod!?
(And)Seeing the arrival of CD’s in the early eighties was way cool as well.
I can recall shopping out my first CD Player (a Sony) with my one CD I owned… and then previewing the performance of new systems with Dire Straits “Brother in Arms” release (which by the way was the first million selling CD in 1985) – yes, I waited until at least 1985 to get my first CD player.
My Amp was (and is with my Mom now) a Class-A JVC high end amp with a pair of Boston Acoustic speakers (that I think need a re-coning by now…)
There was a time in the late 70’s when home video tape arrived in the form of the VHS and Beta tape – ushering in an era of home video rentals – something that is quickly going the route of DVD rentals. When DVD rentals arrived I think a lot of us figured that “this was it…” – this is the medium for home entertainment that was here to stay.
Then Blue-ray. And in some senses, that technology has hardly dug in its heels and the rental market is entirely drying up as viable internet downloading of individual shows as well as broadband on demand is becoming more available to the average person.
My point? I have seen it all – from the late sixties and album oriented masterpieces on vinyl from the likes of Led Zeppelin – and I heard ever album as they were released!
Nowadays one does not even need to leave their living room to acquire every bit of “entertainment” that is available. No need for video or DVD rental. No need for record stores. Game rentals? History my friend.
And I think that we are all poorer without the whole community experience. One wonders what kind of people we will become when we only need to go out for work or food. I wonder.
As of today, I have still managed to not download one song off of the internet – and I have never downloaded a TV show or movie. Call me square if you want – but I work with this technology all day. Which might explain something.
Currently, what is left of the music industry (and movie empire) is quickly trying to come up with some tough new standards on protecting intellectual property. I am all for supporting the artist – but everything so far has not worked.
Anyway. Stay tuned. Let’s see what is next.
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Summer Food Fun and Drink 14 Six years later and a re-launch · 28.07.10 by colin newell
Who is writing a book on global microfinance for Bloomsbury, puzzle maker for the New York Times op-ed section, travel writer, Forbes Traveler, author of Who Hates Whom, a pocket guide to global conflict outlining more than 30 of the world’s active wars and hot spots?
He is a former writer for CSI: Crime Scene Investigation – season 3 in which yours truly had a minute writing role – and a freelance writer for the show “Bones”…
Deep breath…
And a consulting producer for El Pantera, Mexico’s top original action series, former AP award-winning nationally syndicated radio commentator, former on-camera presenter for the TLC series Mostly True Stories, and a winner of over $350,000 in cash and prizes on Jeopardy! and other quiz shows…
He is Bob Harris of Los Angeles California and I have been his web specialist since 2004!
In the last couple of weeks we have been doing a soft launch of the new BobHarris.com online phenomenon. Bob, in the upcoming days, weeks and months will add to the nearly 1600 articles on the classic BobHarris.com website.
And integrate the other social media elements of Bob’s life into one great big shiny experience; Twitter, Facebook meets Web 2.0
Enjoy Bob’s website – and let me know if something is not working quite right.
Summer Food Fun and Drink 13 Thirteen is bad luck - get insurance · 27.07.10 by colin newell
Sometimes a little gamble is a good thing. It’s a fun thing. Like rolling the dice on a $1 lottery ticket or 15 minutes in a local casino with a roll of quarters. No harm right?
But who would venture South of the border to the U.S. without any personal health insurance or supplemental insurance for a loved one – particularly an elderly or at risk person?
But we Canadians roll the dice with extended health benefits. Lots apparently.
A recent survey by Ipsos Reid found 42% of Canadians always purchase travel insurance for leisure trips to the United States. The risks are somewhat higher for the other 58%. So what are they thinking?
A two-day stay in a hospital in the United States to deal with chest pain will cost you around $11,000, with only US$400 covered by your Canadian provincial health plan. Have an auto accident putting you in an ICU for 7 to 10 days and you can expect a sweet tab of around 100 grand! And your Provincial plan will cover about 6000 of that.
Doing the math?
A dear friend of mine went down to “The Islands” for a mere 4 hours last week. The “Islands” being a spot in the N.W. – in the U.S. of A.
She went with her sparky old mom – age 82.
And she had no extended health care beyond her basic Provincial coverage…
Risky? Maybe not if you are, like me, young healthy tall and generally awesome.
And even with my irrepressible awesomeness I still like to cover my back – with extended health coverage from Blue Cross – and trust me folks, that little card opens doors at virtually any first class hospital in the continental USA – and the Hawaiian Islands. And not only the doors, but the corridors to the private rooms!
Anyway – sparky old mom was minutes away from getting on the Ferry to Vancouver Island-Land and fell… hitting her head, ending up being helicoptered to a suitable American hospital with an ICU. Ka-Ching. Sparky’s daughter had to charter a flight of her own to catch up with Mom. Ka-Ching Ka-ching.
Mom was in American ICU for three days before being stabilized and moved into the general hospital population. Ka-ching, Ka-ching, Ka-ching, ka-ching!
And all of this impending financial pain could have been eliminated with about $40 of insurance for the duration.
Sparky is going to be OK. She is on her way back to Victoria and we will all celebrate with her… and her daughter. And maybe throw a benefit concert when we get around to it.
So bottom line folks – save your quarters for the slot machine and put a few dollars into prevention. Travel insurance will treat you right – and spare your pocket book a debilitating whack if you don’t.
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