How Many Of These Have You TRIED?

No I’ve not eaten this dog food enhancer, but who knows, things might be tight in 2025

How many of these have you foods have you tried? Results say most people will have eaten fewer than 20 of these. You get a point for every YES.

             1. Abalone     

             2. Absinthe    -YES

             3. Alligator    -YES

             4. Baba Ghanoush     -YES

             5. Bagel and Lox  -YES   and remember it’s not if you like it, but if you’ve tried it.

             6. Baklava   -YES

             7. Barbecue Ribs -YES

             8. Bellini   -YES great cocktail of Prosecco and peach nectar     

             9. Bird's Nest Soup   -YES

             10. Biscuits and Gravy -YES     

             11. Black Pudding    -YES

             12. Black Truffle       -YES

             13. Borscht    --YES

             14. Calamari  -YES

             15. Carp    - Going to have to go with not sure, I think so but not no point.    

             16. Caviar      -YES

             17. Cheese Fondue   -YES

             18. Chicken and Waffles      -YES

             19. Chicken Tikka Masala    -YES 

             20. Chile Relleno      -YES

             21. Chitlins   

             22. Churros   -YES

             23. Clam Chowder    -Not in a million years

             24. Cognac  -YES 

             25. Crab Cakes  -YES 

             26. Crickets   

             27. Currywurst      -YES    

             28. Dandelion Wine  -YES

             29. Dulce De Leche  -YES I make this myself

             30. Durian     -YES

             31. Eel        -YES   

             32. Eggs Benedict   -YES

             33. Fish Tacos          -YES 

             34. Foie Gras -YES

             35. Fresh Spring Rolls           -YES

             36. Fried Catfish       -YES

             37. Fried Green Tomatoes    -YES

             38. Fried Plantain      -YES

             39. Frito Pie  -YES

             40. Frogs’ Legs   

             41. Fugu        -YES

             42. Funnel Cake  -YES    

             43. Gazpacho -YES

             44. Goat        -YES

             45. Goat’s Milk         -YES

             46. Goulash   -YES

             47. Gumbo    -YES

             48. Haggis   -YES   

             49. Head Cheese     -YES

             50. Heirloom Tomatoes  -YES             

51. Honeycomb     -YES    

             52. Hostess Fruit Pie --YES

             53. Huevos Rancheros        -YES  

             54. Jerk Chicken       -YES

             55. Kangaroo

             56. Key Lime Pie    -YES

             57. Kobe Beef      -YES     

             58. Lassi        -YES

             59. Lobster   -YES

             60. Mimosa  -YES

             61. MoonPie -YES

             62. Morel Mushrooms     -YES      

             63. Nettle Tea           -YES

             64. Octopus  -YES

             65. Oxtail Soup         

             66. Paella       -YES

             67. Paneer     -YES

             68. Pastrami on Rye  - -YES

             69. Pavlova   -YES

             70. Phaal       -YES

             71. Philly Cheese Steak    -YES    

             72. Pho          -YES

             73. Pineapple and Cottage Cheese   

             74. Pistachio Ice Cream        --YES

             75. Po’ Boy   -YES

             76. Pocky      -YES

             77. Polenta    -YES

             78. Prickly Pear         -YES

             79. Rabbit Stew        

             80. Raw Oysters       -YES

             81. Root Beer Float --YES

             82. S’mores   -YES

             83. Sauerkraut      -YES     

             84. Sea Urchin          

             85. Shark    -YES

             86. Snail        -YES

             87. Snake      

             88. Soft Shell Crab   -YES

             89. Som Tam 

             90. Spaetzle   -YES

             91. Spam    -YES  

             92. Squirrel    -YES

             93. Steak Tartare       -YES

             94. Sweet Potato Fries    -YES 

             95. Sweetbreads    -YES

             96. Tom Yum. -YES

             97. Umeboshi. -YES

             98. Venison  -YES

             99. Wasabi Peas    -YES   

             100. Zucchini Flowers   

I scored an 86 unless I counted wrong. Give it a shot.

Stole this from CJ’s Blog.

ANSWER MAN TIMES TWO!

Q- All of my friends and family drink coffee, and I feel like a terrible outsider. You’ve long written about being a coffee fan— are you someone who just likes all coffee or is there good and bad coffee? Sorry if this question is really dumb.

A- Not dumb at all. There is indeed bad coffee— if you make the mistake of heading to Jiffy Lube ™ to have any work done on your car— and trust me there are a million reasons not to go there— stroll on over to the free coffee and pour yourself of some of the most undrinkable sludge you’ll ever find.

Coffee is complicated because there are a lot of elements that go into it;

1- Freshness of the beans/freshness of the grind. Unlike wine— age is not coffee’s friend. You need to start with freshly roasted beans. If someone gifted you a bag last year and you didn’t use it— throw it away. When you first open the bag you should be hit with a great roasted aroma. This goes for whole beans or grinds.

2- Freshness of the pot. Dunkin’ Donuts is infamous for this— they’ll make a pot of coffee at 8am and when you come strolling in at 1030 it might be the same pot— no sir. You want something that was brewed in the last fifteen minutes. It’s A-OK to take a sip of your coffee at DD and then hand it back to the barista and ask them for a fresh cup— they’ll brew it right there. The other vile thing they do is taking what’s left of an old pot and pouring it into a new pot. Do this 3-4 times and you have a bitter half old pot of coffee.

3- Cream, milk, sugar. When I first started drinking coffee I put cream and sugar into it. Today if you put sugar in my coffee I can’t drink it. My advice is to start with fresh coffee, add cream and sugar to taste and then as you become more accustomed to it- reduce the amount of cream and sugar you use because who needs the extra calories.

So try different brands— if you’re getting it on the road Starbucks is completely different than Dunkin’ which is different than Dippin’ and Gourmet. I personally prefer Cumberland Farms although they’ve dipped a bit in quality. They usually mark the pots with what time they were brewed so you can get the freshest possible.

I feel your pain, I struggle with finding a Tea I can tolerate— I really hate most of what I’ve tried. In Japan they had a grape tea which I absolutely loved— here in America you can buy a box of that same tea for $700 on Amazon— a little too rich for my blood.

Q- Did you get everything you wanted on Christmas? And a belated Happy Birthday!

A- I am the worst person to buy for— because I buy whatever I want through the year, but my family still manages to surprise me with great things— so yes I am very happy with how the holidays and my birthday went— I hope the same was true for yours.

Q- How do you get through that horrible period where Christmas is over and now it’s on to Winter?

A- I hold New Years as part of my “holiday” season— and Christmas doesn’t actually end until January 6th. We try to break it up by going to Florida for a bit at the end of January— and we do our best to enjoy the dribble of decent weather that pops n from time to time. We bundle up and take a walk— we pick some great movies to entertain us, we even do things like celebrate Byrne’s Night all attempts to forget the 600 days of winter.

Q- So if you can work from anywhere why do you stay in the expensive Northeast where the taxes are high and you are surrounded by a lot of political nonsense, because let’s face it from your writing you skew to the Right.

A- Family. End of story. I do skew Center Right— I’m not Far Right as many people seem to think- but yeah here in New England if you believe in small government, the right to keep and bear arms and lower taxes you’re Far Right. There’s a lot to like about New England— but you’re right my income would be a lot more impressive in other states than it is here. Who knows. My thoughts for moving are that I would have to improve my climate, my taxes and my lifestyle. We are considering buying a winter house in Japan— property there is very inexpensive.

Answer Man Time!

I like the Answer Man posts— it isn’t that I have, or even think I have all the answers, but from my College Teaching Days I always enjoyed the variety of questions I would get at the end of a lecture— keeps you on your toes.

Here are a few that have come in;

Q- You’ve talked a lot about Macs can you give us some insight into PC and Android products too? Is there a big difference say between how a drawing tablet works on one vs the other?

A- No, I’m very sorry I can’t. My entire suite of machines (3 iMacs, 2 MacBook Pros, 2 iPad Pros and even my phone are all Apple products. I’ve not had an android or PC in many many many years. I’d refer you to my good friend YouTube.

Q- What is your feeling towards Manga?

A- I appreciate it as an art form and respect the creators very much. I was able to spend a few days hanging with a group of Manga Artists on one of my trips to Tokyo and we had a lot of fun drawing back and forth. They were encouraged to see the respect I offered and that most of the West embraces what they do. Do I love everything Manga? Nope. Do I love everything American Artists produce? Hardly. But once you get used to the somewhat jarring storytelling methods they often use Manga is good stuff. I’m often annoyed by Librarians who will often confide in me that they “don’t like Manga” because its like saying I don’t like music, or I don’t like wine, or I don’t like coffee— there are so many varieties out there it betrays a lack of expanding your own tastes. I can completely understand not liking Green Olives— there is only one and if you tried it and didn’t like it that’s far— but saying you don’t like Pickles is crazy because there are literally dozens of different kinds of pickles out there (just go to Sarge’s Deli in NYC to try a good 2 dozen different kinds).

Q- What are your favorite art supplies?

A- Wow. Like my love of Persian Food I couldn’t possibly say— it depends on what I’m in the mood for— from oil paints to watercolors from gel pens to india ink quills, there is just too much to pick from. In my sketchbook I often draw with a light colored gel pen and then go over it with a black gel pen, so at the end of the day that would be the essentials— it’s what I carry on my kit for air travel so I guess if you force me to pick I’d go with that.

Q- “Scamdemic”? I know you think you have everything figured out but…

A- I’m going to stop you right there— you can read the full comment on the day I wrote that post. I didn’t coin the term Scamdemic, but let me set the record straight on what I mean by that. I think Covid was real— it was an infectious virus, likely born out of a lab as the honest media is reporting and tried reporting then, and it was very bad FOR SOME PEOPLE to get. If you were young or healthy you were likely going to get a pretty bad head cold. If you were morbidly obese, elderly, sufferred from other serious health conditions like Diabetes thaen you were in for a very bad ride.

The scam came from the dolling out of BILLIONS of dollars that were often either wasted or misappropriated or outright stolen. The scam came from junk science that ignored the concept of partical elimination and arbitrarily decided that we needed to stand six feet apart and wear masks— both of which were later admitted by Covid Chief Combat General Dr Fauci to be made up AND literally had zero impact on the transmission. To think that a scrap of cloth somehow protected you or protected someone else is akin to clutching a Teddy Bear and thinking he’s warding off evil spirits. Partical elimination is the reason we can swim in deadly cholorine and come out and towell off— because it’s 1 part chlorine to 4 million parts water— same with air— so unless you’re loking yourself in an air sealed phonebooth with someone you’re okay.

My biggest resentment is the attitude of people who treated the rules like a religion, and for any of us to question such thinking to be banished from the village. This is America, land of free thought. I didn’t wear a mask during the height of the scamdemic and I can tell you I got DOZENS of people high fiving me when I would walk through the market. Yeah some people were horrified, but DOZENS of high fives.

The people who came up with the rules for the scamdemic told us get a vaccine and you don’t have to wear a mask anymore— then they changed that and decided you should wear two masks. Nonsense. People died because they were put into nursing homes with the weak and the frail, people lost their jobs, businesses had to shutter and many never recovered, kids mental health was stunted because they were no longer in social environments— all in the same of a science that followed MADE UP RULES. All because someone was making bank on those government checks.

The people who acted criminally, who mislead us, ywho made up these damaging rules need to be held accountable and answer for their actions.

And if they pull another scamdemic as they’ve tried two times in the past four years, a LOT of us are not going to go along with it.

Lastly, let me remind anyone reading this— you are an invited guest to my blog. Pull up a comfy chair. If you don’t want to hear my opinions, if you’ve come here to debate, if you want to get angry and pick a fight— move along— go hang out on Facebook where people can cancel each other because they don’t like the same Christmas Song. This is MY blog— plain and simple.

Behave yourself or hit the exit.

Q- Do you prefer hot or cold press bristol when you draw?

A- That’s an age old argument— so for anyone that doesn’t know— Hot Press Bristol is very smooth, and Cold Press Bristol is toothy. Personally I’m a cold press guy but I use both. There are some hot press versions that are so smooth you could skate on them and it’s like drawing on Satin— don’t love that. There is some cold press that is so rough you need hiking shoes to get through it— don’t love that either.

But generally speaking, I like a little bit of a grab when my pen hits the paper, but at the end of the day, I don’t have much preference.

There are actually MORE questions to answer— but I’ll break this up.

Take Control

Welcome to the future— it’s 2025— watch out for flying cars.

I would encourage you to make the changes you want to make. Take control of your own destiny. If you need to loose weight— it’s a simple matter of math— you need to consume less and exercise more. If you are addicted to something you need to stop. Sounds easy, right?

It’s not as hard as you think.

Step One- End Procrastination. Stop promising that you’ll start tomorrow, start right now. Start. Take control and be the change you want. Write down your list of goals and put it somewhere that you can see it everyday.

You can do it.

And Like That- The Year is Over.

Years race by, don’t they?

I don’t care a whit about watching the ball drop— I care even less about resolutions that I won’t keep. Goals, sure thing— but resolutions, no.

2025— sure sounds like the future— I’ll have to buy some unitard suits.

Happy New Year folks.

How Do I Save My Retail Business?

I’ve got 20+ years in retail management experience— I miss it sometimes. Everyday I read another retailer is shuttering stores and putting people out of work. As someone who is a consumer I see the problems in stores everyday— and I can almost always predict when someone is next on the list.

1- Overall store presentation. Take a good hard look at your store— are the shelves full, are the floors clean, can someone easily shop your store? Does it look like a place someone would like to shop. I stopped into my first DOLLAR GENERAL a couple of years ago—it was a mess, I couldn’t even walk down the aisles because of dropped on the floor displays. If your store looks like its going out of business then it’s probably a self fulfilling prophecy.

2- Your Front End. The checkouts make or break an experience in your store— that’s the bottom line. I can have a miserable experience in your store and it can almost always be turned around by a pleasant, work focused, well trained cashier. Your Front End beyond every other department is what your customers will remember. Are all the employees focused on their job— no talking about their weekend plans with a co-worker— no scrolling on their phones while a customer is trying to checkout. Do they acknowledge every customer as they approach? Are they clean and well dressed? Do they seem to know how to do their job? There is nothing more frustrating for both customer and clerk than if the person doesn’t know what they’re doing. This is often a lack of training, and lack of training leads to poor morale.

I’d say this— whoever runs your Front End needs to be your best manager. They need to be able to see problems before they occur— they need to be able to hire the right people. I’ve seen managers run interviews where its clear they have no idea what they’re doing. In the interview process you should be focused on finding out some crucial points about prospective employees:

Do they Communicate well?

Do they accept blame or are they blame shifters?

Do they lack self awareness?

Do they seem engaged in your conversation?

Do they accept criticism?

A no to any of these is enough to sink the interview for me.

3- Training and Communication = Good Morale = Better Sales. This is one of my favorite equations. Every employee should be trained (and re-trained when needed). Training should just be here’s a video sit here and watch this for 90 minutes. It should involve getting them to see the store and their job through the eyes of a customer. Once you’ve hired them keep an eye on how they’re doing. This goes from full time back room employees all the way down to the part time kid who cleans your bathrooms (and make sure you have someone cleaning those bathrooms), open communications with them. Eliminate rumors, get it so that they can ask you things that are on their mind about the company, their job, their future.

If you see bad behavior— let’s say it’s two kids stocking shelves and they’re talking about a date they’re excited to go on— pull them aside and show them from the customers standpoint how this hurts the shopping experience and in turn kills sales which hurts every employee.

4- If you have to discipline an employee be straight with them. Don’t ever discount your authority or that of one of your managers by saying “The company is making me do this”— no. Explain what the disciplinary action is for, explain how it can be corrected and explain what will happen if it comes up again.

5- Fire rotten apples. There are a few in every store. They rot morale from the inside. They are disgruntled, they are happy when sales are down, or a manager gets laid off. They feel like they’ve been treated unfairly. First, try talking to them. Try to actually hear what they’re saying and at the very least make sure they feel heard. Now explain how their behavior hurts everyone and can’t be good for their own self esteem. In hundreds of cases I’ve seen most of these types of employees turn it around— in fact a number of times that same person who was rotting the crop became a cheerleader for us. Some people can’t be turned, and when it comes time to let them go do it honestly and let them grieve for whatever time they need.

I had one guy— he was a produce manager— he was terrible at his job. He didn’t know how to talk to his employees, he didn’t know how to pull bad produce off the shelves. He didn’t know how to order. So I moved him over to a smaller department where I thought he could get a better handle on operations and he was just as bad.

From there I placed him back in a training position and he took this very poorly. He had a large ego and felt like he never should have lost the Produce Manager gig. I was constantly pulling him aside and asking him if he really felt he was cut out for this. To my face he would insist he was and that he appreciated everything I did for him. Behind my back he was miserable and claimed I just had it out for him.

I worked with him may times over but it never got better. It’s easier and more cost effective to fix an employee rather than fire them, but this was clearly a case of it wasn’t working out.

When I pulled him into my office and handed him his final paycheck and his severance package he broke down crying— and crying hard. He said he never thought it would come to this. I was shocked, I couldn’t see how it WOULDN’T come to this— and I’d told him as much time and time again— he said he knew I said that but he thought it was empty threats.

We talked out a lot of his issues, I think the meeting ended up taking 2 hours— but he left shaking my hand and he got a job with the Fire Department where he was much happier.

People are worth your time, make sure they are trained, make sure they recognize what makes someone WANT to shop in their store, and most of all make sure they know that a customer is not an interruption of their work, they are the reason for it.

Today is My Birthday.

Birthdays can be heavy or light. I have a few good friends who spend most of their “big day” contemplating their lives.

I think I own too many guns to follow their lead.

I keep things light. I’m hard on myself when I make mistakes but I try my best to move on and not make the same mistake twice.

For this year I’m going to focus on some elements that I have the power to change;

1- Work on my Japanese. I’ve done well in the past but I’ve let that fall to the wayside while I focus on work, I need to get back to it.

2- Work on Stoicism. It’s a lifestyle belief I am strongly behind and want to learn more. It’s basically the principle of removing emotion and focusing on Logic as you encounter difficulties.

That’s it, today I’ll eat some Chinese food, spend time with family and friends and I’ll still get some work done.