Fifteen observations

[gurdonark]

1. I found a dirty sand dollar on a dawn beach. It'll wash.
2. The novel "True Grit" is wonderful.
3. It's great to get together with an LJ friend. voodoukween is very nice. I wish I could have gotten together with my other San Diego LJ friends. I ran out of time.
4. Tijuana is wonderful and terrible and grand and petty, all at once, and I own it as if I had the deed.
5. folk art turtles can be gotten at only 3 times their worth at quince for cinco, and make wonderful gifts to lawyers
6. Navy seals may cheerfully scream "It's a great day to be a petty officer" while standing between a luxury hotel and the open sea, but should save "It's a good day to fight" for another day.
7. pollo! spit fire! Si!
8. It's not fair to have to leave the first Harry Potter movie on HBO to attend a business meeting
9. Around the entire country, conference rooms are conference rooms
10. Vis a vis a new thought prosperity book--I am still convinced that positive thinking has power, but not THAT much power.
11. endangered rail birds catch my fancy on marshy forgotten sea preserves
12. Southern California dark clouds often bear no rain
13. I love to listen to the BBC when I land in Dallas near midnight.
14. if I DID have the faith of a mustard seed, I'd definitely eat more mustard greens
15. I am on the San Diego Trolley to Mexico in my soul every day.

Comments

[mery-bast.livejournal.com]

Mustard greens are actually quite tasty!

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I LOVE mustard greens. They and turnip greens are my very favorite green things. but I almost never have them now. I usually eat broccoli, also good, instead.

[voodoukween.livejournal.com]

i regale in your refreshing perspective.....

a must for the southern cal populace!

an i love all greens, my favorite being kale and collard

i had to be born in the south in some other life

yum!

[cathla143.livejournal.com]

I used to mix kale, collard and dandelion greens and cook 'em up as a side dish. Yummy down-home goodness...

I also like pinto beans and cornbread... and biscuits with gravy...

[missprune.livejournal.com]

thou art a poet. Love the forgotten marshes.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Very kind of you.

Re: yum!

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

pinto beans with cornbread are wonderful, altho I admit I like my cornbread with more sugar, northern-style, more than tart and southern.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

You are probably secretly from Savannah, Georgia, and just don't know it! It was nice to get to meet you in person.

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Mmm... mustard greens. I ate quite a lot of those over the summer, nearly raw and covered with fried catfish and onions. Too bad the catfish from the local Safeway is farmed and blandly flavored; otherwise those meals would've been perfect.

This list of yours is a fun list, señor.

[lonesomenumber1]

Tijuana is wonderful and terrible and grand and petty, all at once, and I own it as if I had the deed.

Oh, you Texans. Always thinking you own parts of Mexico. :-)

[milly-bogtrot.livejournal.com]

Ok, I'm going to barrel in and show my ignorance here....

What are mustard greens? Are they something that is possibly called something different over here in the UK?

I'm always excited to try new green things :)

[corivax.livejournal.com]

A delightful thing to read before dragging myself to work in the morning. I don't know if you made me feel better or worse about it, though. :)

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I always feel badly about this issue :)

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Feel better! Imagine work as a large folk art bazaar! or is that bizarre?

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

The greens of mustard plants are "mustard greens". I imagine that some form of mustard must exist there, as I think it is an import from there originally, which "went wild" here. I am not sure.
I suspect you have the plants available, but nobody there eats the greens. They are very sharp, tasty greens, almost a tart taste, very full bodied for a green. I think that only in the south here do people think of the "greens" as foods, but they are in fact a delicacy. Classic "soul food".

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I approve of farm raised catfish as an alternative to over fishing. But pond wild catfish do taste better. Of course, bland is better, to my mind, than the "muddy" taste some river cats can have :).

Thanks for commenting!

Re: yum!

[voodoukween.livejournal.com]

pinto beans and cornbread still!

deeeelish!

[voodoukween.livejournal.com]

yes, i would not know it as i have yet to go there in this life

and the feelings are mutual

i'm still appreciating the piece of mexican folk art...the lady in the moon with rabbits and such and wonder if you remembered when buying it that i am known in some circles as moonmama.....the piece is perfect choice for me and my habitat!

[gregwest98.livejournal.com]

Like Jack Handy said: you may think that a sand dollar is a cracker that someone left on the beach but trust me, they don't taste like it.

Wot's mustard greens? I swear I grew up in the South and I don't know.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

it's funny that you tell that Jack Handy tale. Therein lies a real life tale not so dissimilar. For some reason, this particular business meeting was not in a San Diego business hotel, but in the venerable Hotel del Coronado, a 19th Century vintage huge tourist hotel on the "island" (i.e., peninsula) of Coronado, very near San Diego. Every night the
turn down yielded not a mint or chocolate, but an aphoristic quote and a bit of marine life.

The first night, I twigged that the starfish was, well, a starfish, and not a Snickers bar. But the second night, I mistakenly thought the sand dollar a chocolate mint. Its back side melted--right in my mouth :). Or should I say, :(.

Mustard greens! You may not be as big a redneck as I was, but they are sharp, great overlooked greens. Unlike Spinach, which is often too bland and weedy for my taste, mustard greens have kick.