Family Song Circles

I just found this video of my dad singing the original version of "Hound Dog" with my aunt. This is definitely a treasure, and I wanted to share.

Black Walnuts

I had a beautiful moment today.

At the dinner gathering after my father's funeral, we had a traditional family potluck. When dessert time came, I chose a brownie and sat down to enjoy it. I took a bite and tasted something I loved but couldn't quite recall. After a few moments, I realized that the brownie was made with black walnuts. Black walnuts, as opposed to English walnuts, have an extremely unique taste. Wildman Steve Brill says:

Black walnuts have a strong, rich, smoky flavor with a hint of wine. Use them any recipe that call for nuts, but unless you’re featuring the black walnut's flavor, use it sparingly, or it will overpower everything else. I often combine one part black walnuts with three parts commercial (English) walnuts.

A lot of people don't like them, but they grow everywhere here in Missouri and we used to pick them up off the ground to eat them. I'm not even sure you can find black walnuts in SF. Anyway, it was just one of those moments in which I found immense joy in being from the Ozarks and felt a real sense of coming home.

You Know You're From Springfield When...

although I'm actually from a small town outside of Springfield, all of these made me smile with a bit of nostalgia this morning (especially after the crazy changing weather we've had here in SF the past couple days...I miss thunder!)

You know you're from Springfield, MO when...

you take out-of-town guests to Bass Pro Shops.

your high school had more pickup trucks than cars.

you still have to think every time someone says MSU.

you knew someone you went to school with/dated/taught/worked with Brad Pitt.

you've crashed other schools' proms.

you started watching "The Bachelor" second season.

you've bought live bait at a local gas station.

the concept of numbered streets is totally foreign to you.

you know which restaurant owner invented cashew chicken, and you debate where to get the best.

when someone mentions minorities, you think they're talking about underage drinking.

your whole town stood outside watching tornados rather than taking shelter.

road construction and lake levels lead the local news.

you go to the park at 3pm to enjoy a sunny day, and by 3:05 you're running for cover from the thunderstorms.

you can count all the escalators in town on one hand.

you mark significant events by which ice storm it was closest to.

you can throw a rock from any corner and hit either a church or a chinese restaurant.

you only know who Robert Franklin Stroud, John Gotti, Larry Flynt, and Manuel Noriega are because they were patients at the federal prison medical center, and you cheered when Johnny Sack died on The Sopranos because you knew the place.

you cruised Battlefield.

Springfield MO in the Times!

I've blogged about Springfield's Cashew Chicken in the past, but now the New York Times is on board!

David Leong, creator of Springfield cashew chicken said: “When I moved here in the 1950s, people kept telling me about fried chicken,” Mr. Leong said. “I did what they wanted. I gave them fried chicken with Chinese oyster sauce and cashews.”

None of the original restaurants are still open, and Leong family that started it all is retired from operating their own Chinese restaurants, but you can still get amazing cashew chicken at a number of places. My favorite is Hong Kong Inn, on Sunshine. It was on my way home from work when I lived in Springfield, and was a weekly staple in my healthy southern/midwestern diet. I also really like Yen Ching, in Ozark. The family has daughters living in San Francisco, so we always chat about that a bit. They do a take on cashew chicken that I adore when it's on the menu. They remove the gravy and add an apple gravy-like sauce, take out the cashews and add apples in, and use the same crispy fried chicken. YUM. Seriously good. Hmmm...I'm kinda scared to go home now. I'll probably gain 20 lbs on the visit.

Anyway, read the NYT article. Not often that Springfield makes it big. :) Well, not since Brad Pitt, anyway.

Proud of My Missouri Roots

From MyWayNews:

DE SOTO, Mo. (AP) - The naked truth: Three eastern Missouri men were willing to go to extreme lengths to get some beer.

That's the accusation after an incident in the early hours of August 18th at Fish's Quick Stop in De Soto. Store clerk Vicky Gaines says a masked man walked in and began doing the hula dance.

Police say the plan was for the naked dancer to create a distraction while another man took a case of beer from the store. It didn't work.

Gaines called police. As the naked man and his accomplice joined a third man in a car, a customer got their license plate number. All three were caught a few days later.

The men, ages 19 to 23, face charges of shoplifting and indecent exposure.

WUSTL Rankings

This article gave me justification for the fact that I've got $26k to go on my student loans:

UNIVERSITY HITS THE TOP TEN AGAIN: In three national ratings - faculty
scholarly productivity, black student college graduation rates, and number
of National Merit Scholars in the freshman class - Washington University
ranks in the top 10. The University is ranked in the top 10 in five broad
areas and 19 specific disciplines, according to Academic Analytics' Faculty
Scholarly Productivity Index, a new quantitative method for ranking
research universities' doctoral programs.

The full story is in the Wash U faculty paper, The Record.

Even better is the fact that the Psychology department is listed as 4th in the nation! Now only if I was in a psychology field.

I Think I'm Spoiled

I watched the fireworks over San Francisco bay last night.

But all I could think was, "this is it?"

In comparison, this is what I grew up attending on 4th of July:

I Love America Celebration

Natural Disasters

Most of you have probably heard about the storms that ripped through the midwest this past weekend. The Chronicle even covered it in yesterday's paper.

Hundreds of homes and businesses were destroyed or damaged in Missouri alone by the tornadoes, high wind and hail as big as softballs. There were no immediate damage estimates across the Midwest.

These are a couple of the hailstones my nephew grabbed out of the bed of his truck when he got home Sunday.



And they all asked if I was scared of getting hit by earthquakes out here.

So I've spent the last 6 days having fun and not dealing with life. Now it's time to catch up and get reorganized and all that jazz.

My friend John flew in from Raleigh last week so I could show off the Ozarks and exploit the Herschen Family Entertainment Corporation by using my discount in all possible situations. I explored Silver Dollar City for the first time in quite a few years. It was fun, but still slightly lame. Celebration City, however, was much better. Okay, still lame, but with some fun rides. John and I debated the creepy effect of the twilight that made everything look all fake and pristine. Actually, the pristine quality added to the fakeness. Everything was super clean. They must have invisible janitors on duty at all times. Oddly enough, we later found a photography book called Twilight that examined the creepy effects of dusk.

I rode all the big scary rides! :) Yay, ME! I cussed through most of 'em...but I rode them.

Don't laugh. They WERE scary, dammit.

After explaining the coolness of Route 66 and watching money get wasted on an evil carnival game where we didn't win a huge stuffed Cookie Monster, we explored Branson from above...by riding the ferris wheel. You know, there's really nothing to see. It's sad.

We went horseback riding on one of those nice little trail ride things. I love horses, but I have to say, I just don't get why someone wants to ride around for an hour on a horse that's very slowly and uncomfortably making his way down a rocky hillside and not getting anywhere. I thought it would be fun, but if you're gonna ride a horse, really, you should ride the damn horse. None of this following another horse's ass crap. Seriously. Smack that horsey butt and let her fly. That's riding.

Spent the rest of the few days getting asses slapped by Jordan's very drunk but usually very sweet and innocent type roommate Ashley, fighting the kittens off my toes at night, and trying to find more things to do in this region that civilization refused to rescue. They were good times.

Also, went on a quest for chocolate cheesecake. Couldn't find any in Springfield OR Branson. Guess I'll have to make it. Dammit, Amy, I need you here to make yours for me. We all know it's the best ever.

Oooooh, tried a new thing. Lavash, I think. It's like a tortilla wrapped around lunchmeat and pimentos and sliced into little rolls. Interesting, but very good. Got it at Wal Mart. Weird, huh? Lavash in the Ozarks at Wal Mart. I feel incredibly cultured now.

I've decided that Kansas City doesn't really exist in this world. Or at least it crosses over with another realm somewhere. See, when you drive to St. Louis, you kinda feel like you're in St. Louis about an hour before you get there. Suburbs start popping up and everyone in every town will tell an outsider they're from St. louis. When driving through western Missouri, you're in the middle of fields and pastures and flat countryside, when all of a sudden up pops a Kansas City city limits sign. Then, a few miles down the road, there's another one. Then another one. On the way to the airport, I think we counted a total of 8 city limit signs for Kansas City. What's that all about? Very twilight zone-esque. Could only have been more surreal had it actually been twilight.

Decided I could live in KC if I actually got to live in the posh suburb of Overland Park. Right next to Half-Price Books, of course. Why don't we have one of those here? And why haven't I heard of this place before? It's amazing. CHEAP Dali, Bressan, and San Francisco art books. My my. I do believe I have reason to head back that way again. :)

Seven is my new lucky number.

It's also the time I have to leave the house in the morning, so I'll be signing off now. Over and Out.

I spent the past week showing a friend around the lovely Ozarks. After two days, I was without new things to show. Of course, there are hundreds of wonderful things out here: caves, streams, lakes, forests...but when it's 104 degrees outside with Missouri humidity, the outdoorsy stuff gets old pretty quickly. So, with rediscovered boredom with my town, I bought a few cheap photography books on San Francisco. After driving back from the Kansas City airport (because Springfield has to make it all that much harder for me to get out of here or let in respite for awhile) I sat in the living room flipping through the pages of my gifts to myself. I actually started crying when I saw the view of Marin county and the Golden Gate in the afternoon sun. Dude, something is seriously wrong with me. So I had a night of grieving over my lost city. Mom asked me if I wanted to have a funeral. Maybe I should. This is so much more heartbreaking than any man has ever been. Perhaps I can marry the city? Monika Francisco. Doesn't that sound good?

Ah, so.

I'll make it back someday. After my night of mourning.

Perhaps I can transfer some of this love to Frankfurt. It does have an incredible skyline!