03 July 2011
Ice, custard, happiness
For those of you that thought Philadelphia was famous only for Cheesesteaks, an old bell, Rocky and that Tom Hanks movie with the song by Bruce Springsteen then you should know about Rita’s. Although not that old in comparison to the Liberty Bell (1752 for the bell, 1984 for Rita’s) it has become something of a local speciality (so much so that a local will probably want to take you straight there from the airport before doing anything else!). I can only attest to the Italian Ice (which tastes a lot like ice from…
01 July 2011
Gateway to the West
Peter Sellers will tell you that Balham is the Gateway to the South, but he never mentioned that St Louis is the Gateway to the West. More specifically an inverted catenary structure known as the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial is that Gateway. At 630 ft high and only 17 feet wide at the top, this is not a monument for those afraid of heights or small spaces. To reach the top you must travel in a capsule slightly larger than a handbag. Once at the top, if you can overcome claustrophobia and acrophobia, there…
05 June 2011
At the Drive-in
f you read the rules for the Showboat movie theater you’d undoubtedly be confused. For example: -Please do not sit on top of your vehicle -No outside cooking -Speed limit is 5mph -Do not spin your tires -No barefeet And, my personal favorite: -Please do not throw rocks Clearly we are at the drive-in. A few years ago if you’d said “At the Drive-in” I would respond with “The Mars Volta”, the two being bands featuring both Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodríguez-López. It would be unlikely that you’d be suggesting we go to an…
20 May 2011
What to eat in Montreal
Being originally from Sunderland it was reassuring to find that one of the most popular dishes in Montreal consists of chips, gravy and cheese (curds). Now if only there was a Chinese curry sauce version too (possibly with a side of stotty cake) I think Montreal would be immediately twinned with the former leading shipbuilding town in the world. The origin of Poutine is, as usual, uncertain but it appears that the dish became commonly know in the 1950s in Quebec. The origin of the name is even more uncertain. French-Canadian for “mushy mess” seems to be the most commonly…
10 May 2011
Somewhere at the end of a rainbow
There are many interesting company names and often those names have interesting etymologies. For instance: - IKEA is a random collection of letters, based from the first letters of founder Ingvar Kamprad's name in addition to the first letters of the names of the Swedish property and the village in which he grew up: Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd. - Lego is a combination of the Danish phrase "leg godt," which translates as "play well." - Cisco is short for San Francisco, where the company is based. It’s hard to imagine what the founders of Pot-O-Gold Waste Services were thinking when…
15 April 2011
Cape Cod
An Englishman called Bartholomew Gosnold took an expedition to an area called various things (including the Promontory of Vinland) in 1602 and named it Cape Cod. He died 5 years later so who knows what it might have been called. Given the large number of English town names (Barnstaple, Sandwich, Bourne) here then it might have been called Canvey Island. Cape Codders should feel happy then. Cape Cod is technically and officially an Island since in 1914 the Cape Cod Canal was formed making the only access via the Sagamore or Bourne Bridges. This is the Bourne Bridge (the way…
13 February 2011
The Streets of Los Angeles
Question: What do all these songs have in common: - La Cienega Just Smiled - Ryan Adams - Melrose - Tangerine Dream - Hollywood - Thin Lizzy - Lost in Hollywood - System of a Down - Ventura Highway - America Answer: They are all songs about roads in Los Angeles. But why do so many people write about roads in Los Angeles? It could be because Los Angeles is a wonderful place and people have such good memories of it that they want to write a song. As we know from previous visits (http://sevenflagsovertexas.me/index.php/blog2/item/62-in-and-out-and-about-in-la) Los Angeles, and California in…
27 December 2010
Adventures in Aggieland
Here’s some attendance figures for sporting events in 2010: - Six Nations Rugby - 70,351 (average) - FA Cup - 88,335 - FIFA World Cup - 49,670 (average) - Regular College Football Game between Texas A&M and Oklahoma University - 81,259 At only $80 (!) a ticket for seats in the nosebleed section, its not surprising that College Football is big business. Coaches get paid amounts that would make many Premier League managers happy. Mack Brown of Texas got paid $5.1M in 2010 (compared with Roy Hodgson of Liverpool who got £3M for the same year). Bob Stoops of Oklahoma…
25 April 2010
Einstein’s riddle
It is claimed that Albert Einstein came up with this riddle when he was young and still living in his Native Germany in the late 1800s. The actual details may have changed over the years but the idea is always the same: “- In a street there are five houses, painted five different colors. - In each house lives a person of different nationality. - These five homeowners each drink a different kind of beverage, smoke different brand of cigar and keep a different pet. The riddle is: Who owns the fish?” To solve this you need these clues, some…
12 March 2010
Tempus Fugit
One minute its November and you’re in Niagara Falls, the next its March and you’re in Heathrow airport on your way back to Texas from the UK. Time definitely flies, as Porcupine Tree (amongst others such as Yes) remind us: “But after a while You realize time flies And the best thing that you can do Is take whatever comes to you 'Cause time flies” So back to November 2009. Thanksgiving is a major holiday event in the US so what better way to celebrate it than a trip to Toronto, Canada, eh? (have to practice saying “eh” at the…