TimesTalks in LiamLicks

LIAM'S WINE AND FOOD FEST, HE THOUGHT HIS WINE SAID WOOF, WOOF

I am on the LIRR to Penn. I am reading the tweets between Mario Batali and Michael Symon.  I will see them soon. I am meeting my friend for our traditional TimesTalks chef interviews and the pair from TV's The Chew is first up at 11AM. Their tweets show a fun relationship and a comfortable savvy with social media. This weekend is NYCWFF (New York City Wine and Food Festival) and many events are going on all over the city...food demos, contests, lectures, interviews, seminars, tastings, book signings and more 

I AM HERE... TIMES TALKS

The following link has pix of our two chefs and also across the top are sections you may click on to get an idea of what goes on during this festival.
http://www.nycwff.org/timestalksymonbatali
The M and M Virgo chefs are born on same day, September 19. I am with my Virgo pal so it seems like kismet. Mario and Michael really do not need an interviewer as they are their own show. Mario wore his signature orange shorts and crocs and Michael had jeans, a vest and a plaid shirt. This casual dress code is representative of their disavowal of the fancy cult of the celebrity chef and an embrace of authenticity.
When Mario and Michael arrived for The Chew job interview, they thought they were applying for the same job, the only cooking job. The show quickly evolved into a group of cooks and chefs.  Here is a clip
The discussion was about cooking fast and with basic ingredients... Mario sprinkling educated words and Michael reacting with his unique laugh. A questioner asked each what was the most necessary item in his kitchen... Michael's item- iron skillet (I think) Mario's item- his head... when pressed for a non-body part he said ...a knife. I tape The Chew every day: I have been to one of the first shows. Attending this seminar has renewed my interest in watching. They both are Twitter folks and do their own tweets. They give back as good as they get. When asked how he handles a nasty tweet, Mario explained that usually one of his thousands of followers will blast the tweeter. He does tweet answers, and praise as does Michael.
Here is a review of their TimesTalks interview
http://www.thebraiser.com/batali-symon-authenticity-nycwff/
Emeril-  Famous for so long. Unbelievably did not watch him too often on his many shows. I watched here and there. This man made the Food Network what it is. He is now on Top Chef as a sort of adviser and sometime judge. He was dressed more formally than M and M with a white shirt, dark pants and leather shoes...not a chef's attire  He was a solo interview and he had the quite warm witty Kim Severson to engage him. They developed a relaxing repartee. And that accent! I have been thinking he is a New Orleans chef so I must be hearing a gumbo of accents. No, he is from Fall River Ma and that is a Northeast accent I am hearing. Wow! Here is a bit of Emeril

He revealed that he gave up a full music scholarship and instead set out to learn to cook.
A questioner thanked him profusely for dancing with her mother at charity event a few years ago. She brought him a thank you surprise which was brought up to the stage. Not opened in front of us. A CIA student asked if he would try her hot sauce which she had brought in a little gift bag. It was accepted and placed on the side.  And another questioner made a statement that he cooked Emeril's dinner recipe for his girlfriend 19 years ago and as a result they married. Emeril asked what he cooked. He remembered rice pudding and wife shouted down from the top row "shrimp"... a review of the interview follows
http://www.thebraiser.com/emeril-reflects-on-food-network-paula-deen-nycwff-times-talks/

Then we are done-tickets x'd

We went to David Burke's Townhouse http://www.davidburketownhouse.com/and here are some of our treats

spicy lobster dumpling &coconut soup crispy chicken wing, bok choy, straw mushrooms, bean sprouts

pretzel crusted crabcake tomato orange chutney, poppy seed honey

quiche with many ingredients

side view of quiche

I tweeted to David Burke and my tweet was favorited  to his followers(thousands) see...

David Burke favorited your Tweet

19 Oct:

Thanks to Orlando Ramos #davidburke townhouse for a perfect brunch after our TimesTalks sessions #NYCWFF @chefDavidBurke

Where is Liam? Home. Exhausted from his day with his person, Paul... watching The Chew and Top Chef and tweeting with his doggie friends. Yes, he has friends on Twitter, hashtag #petchat. Here he is listening to The Chew. He prefers it that way. His hearing is quite superior to mine. I do hear our chirping parakeets in the corner.

Woof, Woof

Hats Off

LIAM AND MANHATTAN HAT

 I watch the fervent sale of the summer hats as we sip our Starbucks drinks. I am at my monthly meet up with my friend on Columbus and 67th, the celebrity Starbucks. The corner location is across from ABC studios and audience members of Kelly and Michael and The Chew come here before and after the shows. And the celeb guests walk by before and after the shows. They even have lockers here for storage. A good venue for a vendor. We have hats for sale on this June day. The hat guy is affectionately accosting pedestrians. If you look at a hat, it is on your head. From our enviable window seats we are part of the action as hat-deciding customers use our Starbucks glass front as a mirror. The stand is deep with racks of straw, hemp, rope and bendy cotton hats... trendy, artsy, beachy... a few Great Gatsby looks.


I watch for 2 and 1/2 hours. I have my hat picked out.  At the end of our session I announce I am stopping, looking and buying. My hat is still unsold. We leave and are absorbed into the tableau we have been observing.

He is a persuasive, passionate salesman; my friend and I are wearing hats before we can say a word.  Hat guy loves his products, bragging of their wonderful materials which are from a distant country, Zambia, I think he says. I point to my hat. It has ribbon, flowers, leaves and berries. I want it. Sixty nine dollars. What! No hat price on a street in NYC ends in a 9. That is a department store price. Street prices are clean with zeros. I stall. Try on others. I buy it. Wear it home feeling very Project Runway. Where are you Tim Gunn?

  

There is a smell. Liam knows.

Eucalyptus. 

Herbal. 

Medicinal.

Incense

Marijuana

It is my 69 dollar street hat. Is it the ribbon, flowers? Is it the hemp, rope, woven vine? Not a terrible smell but hardly mellifluous.If Liam will wear it even for a second it must be a worthy sniff. Liam tolerates it for a second or two. He is not a hat wearer. Not when a Kong stuffed bone is around.

 I put it in the freezer hoping the smell will be killed by the temperature. It thaws and becomes fragrant again. In July, I wear it to meet our friends for a city outing (the wifely half being my Starbucks friend)  I figure Manhattan and my malodorous hat will mix their smells. Sort of. I leave the hat in their car while we eat. It might permeate the restaurant. We part after dinner. I forget to retrieve it from their car. Hat goes home with them to Riverdale for a month. Friend and I meet at celeb Starbucks in August. No vendor. I had planned to confront him, hat in hand. A month in her car has not reduced the hat's odor. Still smells. That night I wear it to Crabtree's to ask opinions. All say it is the weave, the hemp. It is not so awful, they say. I ignore the hat for all of September. Maybe it takes time.
Today, I try again...No, as pungent as ever. Musty mixes in now also. Maybe it will lull Liam to stillness with its powerful scent. It does. Maybe I should sleep with it and ditch my klonopin. Its smell is sort of hypnotic. See Liam. No barking. Stillness.

Bad Hat

it is not such a great hat for protection.

its weave is loose and the sun comes through the holes

its brim is short and my nose is uncovered. Sunburn.

Good Hat

it repels insects like citronella

it calms Liam...works like a thundershirt

it provides a story

I will be looking for the vendor every month. He must know his hats are fragrant. He should add that to his sales pitch.
If anyone sees Hat guy, let me know...Meeting my friend tomorrow. Maybe I will store the hat in one of the Starbucks lockers.

There is a Friends episode that was on the other day at my health club. It is the one where Phoebe sings Smelly Cat...just substitute Smelly Hat and think of us

Woof Woof

He Is His Own Person

 

"He is his own person." My mother said this about Liam.  I asked what she meant, knowing what she meant but wanting to hear it spoken. "No one owns him; he is singular in the world." Was she being a bit anthropomorphic? She displayed his puppy photo on her desk to remind her to remain independent and be her own person. I found it there when cleaning out her apt. It was the only "person" pic on her desk. She felt he was people.

HIMSELF, PERSON AS A PUP

An article in the NY Times this past Sunday argues for this position. Dogs are trained to enter MRI machines fully conscious. While there their brains are scanned, and what results is supporting evidence that indeed dogs do feel and have emotions, read here for more nyti.ms/178Q3Bs
In the canine world those who care for a dog are termed his/her person. I am Liam's person. Paul and I together are his persons/people.
I did not do a study but I have some visual evidence of Liam being personable.
The following video shows Liam in Ruth's garden...contemplating, no barking, no chewing, no digging. Being in stillness. Zen.

and personally enjoying a long latte foam lick.

Since last week's blog "Quibble with Kibble" we have switched to dry food with turkey, salmon, duck and many veggies and fruits and herbs, no grain.

old food 2.5/5 rating
http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/performatrin-ultra-grain-free/

new food 5/5 rating
http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/hills-science-diet-dog-food-adult-dry/


Is there a change? Only with us.  We walk around imitating ducks quack, quack and turkey gobble gobble to get a reaction from Liam. We do not know if salmon emit sounds, so we make fish faces. Liam gives us looks, trying to attribute human characteristics to his persons who are quacking, strutting and sucking in their cheeks.

WHAT'S ALL THIS QUACKING FROM MY PEOPLE?

Woof, Woof

 

MAYBE IF I CLOSE MY EYES THEY WILL STOP

Quibble about Kibble

READING TED KERASOTE'S BOOKS

 Several dog related happenings in the 'hood in September. I read several books by Ted Kerasote. Amazon offered me Merle's Door for $2.99 on Kindle. I am on their "dog" list. Merle is the dog in Ted's first book, his first dog as an adult. I read a free excerpt. Then I thought, Come on...it is $2.99! I bought it, finished it and was hooked on Ted Kerasote. I borrowed his next two books, Pukka, the Pup After Merle and Pukka's Promise. Merle had an unleashed free life in Kelly Wy. with Ted. Merle is gone now and his successor Pukka (pronounced Puck-uh, meaning genuine/first class) lives there now with Ted. Ted writes, hunts and eats elk, passionately engages in outdoor activities, researches, travels. He wants Pukka to live long and well.  How? In his latest book Pukka's Promise he explores how to do this. Here is his Facebook page so you may learn more https://www.facebook.com/TedKerasote

LIAM OUTSIDE LIVING HIS DOG LIFE

And a review of Pukka's Promise by our Twitter and Blogger friend Garth's Mom
http://theworldaccordingtogarthriley.blogspot.com/2013/08/book-review-pukkas-promise-by-ted.html

Ted presents info about vaccines (too many?) diet... is kibble the best for our dogs? Spaying, neutering, shelter dogs vs purebreds, shelters, breeding. All of this has me thinking about Liam's life...Is he living his best life? What can I do to increase its quality and prolong it? Kibble is grain based. No meats. His is a kibble only diet. I thought this the best. Now I am annoyed-about its ingredients and processing and packaging. Is it being pushed by vets? If so, why? Because it is beneficial to dogs? Quibble, quibble

And while I am reading these books a new pet store, Pet valu opens adjacent to my Starbucks...http://us.petvalu.com/ three of the Starbucks baristas apply for and secure jobs there. They will work in both stores. So we have familiar faces in both places. Many know of Liam and some read LiamLicks. I bring Liam to Pet valu for a visit and then to their Open House on Saturday, September 28. See flyerAnother neighborhood event we must attend.  Liam gets a new harness with a breast plate...he requires a large due to his-massive neck and chest.  All his 35 pounds tilted toward the front. One of my baristas on her Pet valu shift helps measure Liam and shows me how to secure him in it. He feels like a gladiator ready for battle. We sniff and lick and when done go next door to get our Starbucks supplies. I go in and announce "Liam is here." Paul and Liam stand outside and are greeted by Starbucks staff and guests. "Liam from the blog! He is outside! Come see. He is so much smaller than we thought." I enjoy the attention as much as Liam. And I am thinking. The new store's values dovetail in many ways with those espoused by Ted. They bill themselves as the Whole Foods of Pet stores. Based in Canada, this New Hyde Park location is only one of three on Long Island. Its wood floors, homey ambiance and savory smells are attractive. Like a country store.
Will it be Liam's Whole Foods? I am a Petco online shopper, convenient, efficient, ebates credits, yet Pet valu is right there and I can go to Starbucks also. Both businesses know Liam. Hmmm.

Liam outside with our reading (he does not do Kindle, too paw sensitive)
 Wondering...






Should
I switch to a no grain diet? a sometime grain diet? Liam loves to eat wild berries, dandelions, twigs, weedsAnd excess parakeet husks and seeds I toss in the yard. Seeds, really? Yes, he fights the birds for his share... and these are not wild bird seeds. Would he accept being a little carnivorous? A dog who likes acorns, popcorn and grass? I remember him snaring my turkey sandwich in one leap and swiping a short rib with a wolf worthy lunge.

Vaccines? Does he receive too many? He has a schedule.

Thinking. Do I ignore it a little...  not adhere to every reminder. Are we about to open a new door...Liam's?
One thing for sure. He will still get his latte foam licks from my daily visit to Starbucks. and maybe I will drift in to say hi to my baristas in Pet valu. And maybe I'll pick up some meaty things. Elk anyone?

PROUD LIAM IN NEW VEST HARNESS

Woof, woof

My Love/Hate Affair with the Street Fair

ARE WE GOING TO THE FAIR?

I have to go to the New Hyde Park street fair. Date Saturday September 21. Must go. Now that I am a retiree I am part of the community. I am connected with these folks in ways I never was when working. As I drive down the block I now know the folks walking by. I know the staffs of my Starbucks, Twin Park Health Club, Hillside Library as well as their clients and customers. I know dogs and their owners. I even know some neighbors. Only took 19 years. I see many of my fellow residents on my daily routines as well as in my scheduled activities. I ask Paul to accompany me for fair browsing. He agrees to go. Very reluctantly. Liam is a "no"  either too friendly, too scared. Paul asks a few times "why?" I know that trick. Wear down the spouse. And that does not deter me. We are going. The weather forecast is for clouds and sun. Fine. Our agreement is that we will go to the street fair then to Starbucks. This is a clever plan from Paul. Of course I will make quick work of the fair then to Starbucks.

LIAM LATTE LICKING

However weather intervenes with a shower, then a break, then a deluge producing street flooding. All quick and unexpected and also I suspect temporary. That is it. Paul is done with the street fair. "It is a rainy day, the storms have come 10 hours early. The vendors will be going home and packing up." Hmmm. I don't think hundreds of vendors are going to run. They are in place. No matter. Paul is done. Onward to Starbucks. I will go to the street fair alone.

   

And I do. I will know people.  I plan to park in the Twin Park lot
see link
https://www.facebook.com/twinparkfitness
walk down and approach from the western end.







The fair occupies Jericho Turnpike from New Hyde Park Road to Covert Avenue (Dunkin Donuts landmark) I bring a tote in which to place my purchases. I do not really think I'll be buying. You see it is all too much for me. So much sensory input. But let's see how it goes.

I enter to a show of shawls, pocketbooks, beaded jewelry, hanging scarves interspersed with food and shouting politicians, realtors and community activists. I feel on overload already. There is a wicked whippy wind and my expertly layered hair is hitting me across the face at every place possible. Whenever I brush a strand away I am handed a brochure, announcement or schedule.

A COLLECTION OF HANDOUTS FROM THE NHP STREET FAIR

Many colors, smells and sounds. Too many carriages, some the size of mini coopers. Too many groups strolling side by side causing me to step aside often...Liam would not do well at this street fair. He jumps on people. He does not step aside.

NO EYE CONTACT HEAD DOWN, STREET FAIR MODE

I see two folks I know but each is engaged in a conversation. I stop and try to make eye contact. I am out of context. Eyes go through me. That's okay. Let it be. I really want to locate my health club table and say hi. I see the pickle vendors. I want a pickle on a stick but the lines are too long. Never had a pickle on a stick. That pleasure will have to wait. I see the petting zoo and the ancient tortoise makes its way towards me at a quick pace. Really? I thought they are slow. The wind captures store ads and food wrappers. The street is littered. I step on and begin to slide on an oily zeppole wrapper. Though adding oily is redundant. Only my practiced yoga balance poses keep me upright as I fall forward then back and helicopter my body upright again. The shock of almost falling shakes me up. Halfway through and I have not bought a thing.

It is an event. Huge. Got to get out. I reach the end... the horses are gone and have left some fragrant deposits. Maybe Liam should have come. He is home wondering and waiting. Anticipating some food fair smells. See following You Tube
I walk back to the gym. It is deserted. The staff is at the fair at their designated table. I knew it. Walked right by them. Never connected. Alone on the treadmill in an empty gym while thousands are a few blocks away.

Love/ hate affair with the street fair is over for this year at least in NHP. 

LIAM AND MY SHADOW SHOOTING PIC

I feel like I supported the community. I was one of few who took all the handouts. And shook hands with the politicians I did not litter. I did not fall and crack my head open. I took pix.
I am publicizing them. Even though I did not eat a pickle, buy a scarf, take a chance on a raffle; I am participating in my own way by talking about it blah blah blog...Liam and Paul stayed home. Neither looked too sorry. Next year both guys are joining in. And I will find my gym's table and help a few vendors with a purchase or two.

LIAM IN CHAIR IN BACK

Woof, Woof

Looking Around and Up Harvest Moon Time

LIAM LOOKING AT SUN AND SHADOWS OF FALL

  We are out in the yard. The flowers are the tallest and bloomiest they have been since planted in early June. Always happens when we are heading to less outside time and cooler and shorter days. The grass is rough and coarse and spikey. Entire patches are dead, making a pleasing crunchy sound when walked upon. The biting bugs are around but not as nasty or bloody as they have been. This week the temperature lows are lower and the highs are slipping lower also. Is the sun lower? Yes it is. Shadows long and reaching. The clouds and sun peek in and out. Liam finds autumn sunspots in less used parts of the yard. Gives him a new vantage point for squirrel watching.

THIS IS A NEW SUN SIT SPOT

THE SQUIRRELS CANNOT SEE ME

THE CLOUDS AND SKY COMPETE FOR SPACE

 ROLLOVER IN SUN AND SHADOWS

Liam enjoys this time in the yard. Acorns falling from above, treats from the trees.  A rollover. The dead brown grass evaporates under his weight and he pops up coated with golden dust.
And the sky is showing off this week.
The Harvest Moon is out for a few days. We thank that crazy NYC weather guy who alerted us in his report. Check it out for a startling backdrop photo of the harvest moon at his intro on his September 16 post.http://nycweatherguy.blogspot.com/

Some sky events
Saturn and Venus should be visible all week

Full Harvest Moon- Thursday morning, September 19 and the rest of the week

Uranus  all night Thursday near the moon

Autumn Equinox  4:44 PM Sunday September 22

This link will help if you want to go out and look up

.http://earthsky.org/space/harvest-moon-2

Look up. the sky is performing for us.

JERICHO TURNPIKE FROM MEDIAN BEFORE ENTERING CRABTREE'S

Liam plans to hound howl at the moon. And look up. First though, a sniff, a roll, a sneeze and a stroll. See following You Tube video...less than a minute

LOOKING RIGHT

LOOKING LEFT

and a chair sit













look around and maybe up. Different points of view and angles

                                                            

     and leaving you with a song,   

Neil Young's Harvest Moon

more than a minute

Woof, Woof