Back in 1995 when I first joined a group of musicians in Dryden, NY who fancied themselves a nascent band, the bassist (and basement rehearsal host) was a gentleman named Dave Brown. In addition to being a senior member of Cornell's Extension community and a Food Science instructor in the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, he was a well-known and highly regarded cheese judge. He'd also been in bands just about as long as there'd been such a thing as rock and roll, and he kept a solid beat and sang good backups. Moreover, Dave was a quietly funny guy who knew how to keep rehearsals light but productive.

I eventually named the band "Revolving Door" based on our inability to maintain one, stable lineup, but Dave was one of the original members. We had only played out a few times (in fact the userpic for this entry is a photo from one of those gigs, at the Savoy in Watkins Glen) before there were a few more personnel changes, and Doug Dann took his place, later to be replaced himself by Jim Smolos. Revolving Door went on for another few years, while Dave continued to be a strong part of the central NY music scene in a variety of capacities, both in bands and otherwise.

Dave passed away this week at the age of 63. His music and his laughter will be missed.

I slept in a bit this morning, but not as much as I'd have preferred. I had to take care of some business, the rental of a road bike. With the help of the intarwebz and a lovely front desk attendant named Christina, I found The Bicycle Doctor, a quick cab ride from the hotel. Given the dual challenges of my not having removed and brought along my own pedals (the kind of cleat I have on my shoes is a bit out of fashion these days, except on some types of mountain bike), and most bike shops that do rentals being outside the actual city of Denver (and me without a car), this was my only option, and I'd thought I'd have to rent a hybrid. It worked out that they had just finished building a couple of Legato 3.0 bikes this morning, and they're just about as close as hybrids get to road bikes, narrow tires and all. After raising the seat a bit, one of them was nearly a perfect fit. So I rode the city bus back to my hotel (Denver's buses have those cool bike racks on their fronts, something Ithaca has had for many years and I wish New York City would adopt as well, but that'll likely never happen).

On the recommendation of the Westin's concierge, after wandering the Tabor Center and Larimer Square areas for a little while, I stopped by Osteria Marco for a late lunch. The gnocco frito (fried cheese crisps) were light and rich, and the Classic Italian panini (sopressata, salami, peperonata, and robiola) was outstanding. A mellow Montepulciano accompanied them brilliantly. I also got through another chunk of "Limitations," the Scott Turow novel. On the way back I picked up a small piece of Oreo fudge from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, and a Chai latte from the Starbucks in the Westin's lobby.

It snowed a bit during the day, but more to the point it started getting rather cold and windy. A few of the other Cornellians in town and I had seriously contemplated a trip via light rail out to the Denver University campus to watch a Denver vs. Quinnipiac men's lacrosse game at 7:30, but I decided tonight wasn't a good night for sitting outdoors. If it had been Cornell in a playoff game or something, that would be another matter, but with tomorrow's bike ride, I didn't really feel like risking my health. Instead I took it easy in the hotel, and wandered up the 16th Street Mall for dinner when the time came.

The 16th Street Mall is a pedestrian commercial district, much like the Ithaca Commons, but a great deal longer and apparently somewhat more successful in meeting its aims. All lit up:



Upon my check-in yesterday, the man at the front desk had recommended Rock Bottom Brewery to me for local flavor, but when I arrived tonight there was a considerable wait. So I wandered a little further, and on a side street I found Los Cabos II, a Peruvian restaurant of some local repute. The mixed seafood ceviche special I had was extraordinary, and just the right level of spicy/piquant for my taste (and for my stomach, which at this point in my life gets picky about such things after a certain hour of the day). The stew-style beef main course I had was decent enough, though a little disappointing given that I'd hoped to have pollo a la brasa (one of my favorite foods since I discovered Flor de Mayo in my old neighborhood seven years ago), but their rotisserie machine was on the fritz. I finished "Limitations" at about the same time I finished dinner; it's a nice, light read, with some fun twists, but not up to Turow's highest standards.

I'm going to try to get to bed at a reasonable hour tonight, because Alicia from TNT is picking me up at 8am. I hope it's a little warmer tomorrow morning than they expect it to be... I brought my cold weather riding gear with me, but it's only effective to a point. Between the cold and the altitude, I really hope I don't embarrass myself and the New York City TNT chapter on the ride!

In 1991, the parent company of Cracker Barrel announced that nobody would continue to enjoy employment at their restaurants who did not display "normal heterosexual values which have been the foundation of families in our society." They fired thousands of openly gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered employees - and many more they suspected to be.

I was never that big a fan of Cracker Barrel anyway, so it wasn't a big deal to me to boycott them. But I have since encouraged others to avoid supporting those stores if they could, because I thought that such a policy was reprehensible (if not, alas, exactly shocking). Every few years when I have the conversation with someone, they ask me if I'm sure it's still true - sometimes I can find evidence on the net that this policy was still in place, sometimes I can't, but I've certainly never found evidence that their discriminatory policies had been ended.

Today that changed. After their annual shareholders' meeting on Nov. 26 of this year, Cracker Barrel's parent corporation voted unanimously to revise its non-discrimination policy to include sexual orientation. Naturally, conservative groups are in a tizzy, which means that for a while at least, someone will still be boycotting Cracker Barrel.

But that won't include me. There isn't one for many miles around Manhattan, but there is one near Binghamton on my usual route to and from Ithaca. And on my next trip to Cornell for a weekend of hockey, I plan to stop in and treat myself to a snack, a meal, or whatever strikes my fancy - for the first time in sixteen years.

(I hope you will forgive me this crossposting from my other LJ account, tucsonorbust (and the resulting potential duplication on your Friends page), even though I have given you the option of "friending" it or not based on your own personal level of interest. But this entry is too important, and deserves a wider audience. Thanks for understanding.)

When I left Cornell and Ithaca over seven years ago, I left behind some wonderful people. Sandra and Greg Busby were two of them. Sandra and I were colleagues in the Alumni Affairs & Development Division, and her husband Greg - in addition to being a fellow avid Big Red hockey fan - often joined us to perform in the campy little song-and-dance sketches we'd do for Trustees & Council, or for a group of Reunion Campaign volunteers. A couple of years after I left, they started a family.

Their five year old son Robbie went to the doctor with a stomach ache two weeks ago, and was diagnosed with Burkitt's lymphoma, a non-Hogdkin lymphoma that accounts for close to half of childhood lymphomas. It is generally a quite treatable form of cancer; in fact, faster-growing cancers such as Burkitt's often respond faster to chemotherapy. But it will not be pleasant or easy. Robbie will be receiving a series of treatments at Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse over the next 6-9 months. Greg, Sandra, their three year old daughter, Kristi, and 3 month old son, Paul, are now supporting Robbie through the beginning of a long and difficult course of treatment.

If you'd like to keep up on Robbie's progress, there's a CaringBridge hosted web site at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/robertbusby.

If you'd like to help the Busby family with expenses by making a tax-deductible donation, you can visit the Jonathan Cancer Fund at http://www.jonathancancerfund.org/ for info about this Central New York non-profit that supports families fighting cancer. If you donate, please make sure to specify it's for Robbie Busby.

For the past five months, I've been telling you how you can help fight blood cancers on a larger scale, by helping the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society tackle them at the source through research grants and patient treatment infrastructure. Now I'm asking you to join me in helping one person and his family fight something he's not even old enough to understand. If you can help, please do.

Today and tomorrow are the Feast Days of Saint Andy of the Third Street and Saint Jane. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I shall let belmikey explain.

The proper commemoration of these saints' days is very specific. On each of these days -- or on two reasonably proximate but more convenient days -- you are asked to observe a moment of silent contemplation in honour of a Lost Temple of Decadent Breakfast, and its proprietors, Andy and Jane, and then take some time to eat the most decadent meal -- ideally breakfast, but it's the decadence that's important here -- you can either find on a nearby menu or come up with yourself, in honour of that Lost Temple's most famous offering, the French Toast Sandwich.

Please post here what you come up with, and share your decadent breakfast experiences!

The Background

This year marks the seventh anniversary of the passing of Andy Castrenze.

I never knew Mr Castrenze personally, but he and his wife have earned places on my personal Calendar of Saints (even though Jane is still alive) for the simple reason that they venerated the provision of really tasty breakfasts to the masses.

The Castrenzes were the proprietors of a restaurant in Ithaca, NY known as Andy's 3d Street Café. Back when I was actually a student at Cornell, Andy's was known primarily as a great place for breakfast. The highlight of their menu was a French Toast Sandwich -- two very thick slices of french toast, with a generous quantity of sweet cream-cheese filling and drenched in fresh fruit. Extremely bad for you, extremely messy, extremely tasty. Decadence as food, food as decadence.

In the last few years of the café's existence, they tried expanding the business, obtaining a liquor license and basically acting as a bar by night even as it continued to be an excellent cafe by day. Bands would play there -- including The Infamous beeeej's former band, Revolving Door -- and booze would flow like a river of melted marmosets.

Sometime in early 2000, I think, the restaurant closed for good, and then, on 15 August 2000, Andy closed his eyes for good.

In years past, the Feast of Saint Andy was proclaimed on 16 August, due to misinformation on my part as to the day he'd passed away. Last year, The Castrenzes' son, Patrick, found my entry on the subject and corrected me as to the date of his passing, and also stressed that Jane deserved equal recognition. So now, the festival is extended to two days.

Thank you, Mikey. For today's breakfast, I stopped in at Pax Wholesome Foods on my way to work, asked for an order of french toast glopped with cream cheese, and an order of bacon very crisp. I added some Mrs. Butterworth's Thick'n Rich instead of fruit, as the available fruit didn't appeal to me as french toast topping. My beverage was skim milk.

I have just finished my breakfast, and I'm ready to go back to sleep. Jane, I salute you; and Andy, I dedicate this burst left ventricle to your memory and that of your Café.

Been meaning to get around to this post for nearly a week...

Since I moved away from Ithaca almost exactly seven years ago, I think I'd managed to spend a total of about four or five hours with chesther and psyllisa catching up properly or just hanging out (I don't count Gram's calling hours two years ago; that wasn't exactly social). For much of the previous several years, though, we'd been practically inseparable.

So while I was sorry for his predicament, I was delighted to hear from Chris that, due to his unusual employment & commuting situation, and the fact that he only got one day off for July 4th, he was out of pocket and wondered if he could come hang out in the city. Absolutely, I said. I helped him navigate a little, and he did an excellent job of making it to my place on the Upper East Side via public transit with very little difficulty for a guy who'd only been to Manhattan twice before.

We didn't get to spend any time with the woman I'd been seeing for a few weeks, because, well, she was spending the holiday with another guy she'd apparently been seeing. 'nuff said. :-) But we caught up over huge, excellent burgers at Jackson Hole, then headed to Park Slope, Brooklyn for a BBQ friends of mine from law school were throwing (which made the burgers at Jackson Hole decision look kind of silly, but oh, well). We hung out for several hours over much beer and many varieties of yummy foodstuffs, as Chris met and conversed with a bunch of my law school friends. He somehow managed to stay awake nonetheless!

Late in the evening, we watched two different fireworks shows from our vantage point on Doug & Joni's roof; a more distant one over Jersey City, and a closer one over South Street Seaport. Chris noted it was the first time he'd ever seen the Manhattan skyline in person from outside Manhattan, which is amazing, but true. The rain mostly held off, and we made it back home with a minimum of fuss. Chris crashed on the airbed, and we somehow got going very early the next morning to our respective workplaces.

It was definitely great to hang out with him after all these years, and I hope circumstances allow him (and Celisa) to visit again soon.

Today, I took a quiz to qualify to be a contestant on the game show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" (yes, it's still on, in daytime syndication, hosted by Meredith Vieira). I was one of about twenty people who passed the test, out of about a hundred and twenty.

The twenty of us were then subjected to brief, individual interviews. Within a few weeks, I'll get a postcard notifying me if I've made it into the "contestant pool" on the basis of my charm and wit. Even if I make the pool, there's no guarantee I'll ever be on the show, but it was a great feeling just to pass the test.

Those of you who spent time with me in Ithaca (or on #Ithaca) may be amused to know that, had it not been for all of you, I wouldn't have known that the alpaca is most closely related to the llama. :-D