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A Message To My Cycling Friends (more photos from Lon)

Now that I have some extra time I decided it would be a good to purge my closet of older cycle clothing….I swear that my male jerseys and Margaret’s female jerseys have wild orgies in our closet and produce ever more jerseys…we have a lot (and the piles of  t-shirts are even bigger).  Between the two of us we had about 15 jerseys that were in good enough condition to warrant a donation.  Just so happens that I received my weekly issue of RoadBikeRider digital newsletter that day where I read an article about donating used cycle clothing and bike parts to Lon Haldeman’s PAC Tour organization.

Lon and his wife Susan Notorangelo have been leading bike camps for many years.  In 1999 they traveled to Peru and found many young people interested in cycling but they were too poor to afford the correct clothing let alone bikes.  Since that time Lon and Susan have raised monetary funds and bike parts and clothing to help those less fortunate in Peru and most recently Ghana, Africa.  As they say on their website  “During our travels by bicycle we became friends with several cyclists from Peru. These friends were active in promoting races and cycling events. We got to know these cyclists better when they joined us on our tours to different regions of the country. We could see their equipment was very basic and outdated but the riders were very strong and passionate about riding bikes. We decided to try and help them get better equipment.“

Lon and Susan have been very successful in supplying these young Peruvians and Africans with the means to keep their cycling and racing passion alive giving them the self esteem everyone, even the poor, deserve.  If you or someone you know have a closet full of jerseys and shorts or a garage full of bike parts consider donating them to Lon and Susan’s cause….click HERE for more information.

Below are some photos Lon emailed from recent cycling events they sponsor in Peru….

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“The Hamster Wheel States of America”

Margaret and I are big fans of European travel writer Rick Steves.  If you’re not familiar with Rick, he has been traveling to and writing about European travel for many many years.  His philosophy is to explore travel destinations as if you were a local; stay at mom-and-pop lodgings, eat where the locals eat, take public transportation to experience life as if you lived in the city, town or village you’re visiting.  In other words have an authentic experience in your travels.

When we travel to Europe we use the Rick Steves travel guides as our bible.  Before our trip we consult the guide for lodging suggestions (no chain hotels suggested here!) and tips on transportation between destinations.  Once we arrive at our destination the travel guides are great for dining suggestions, short cuts for avoiding long lines at tourist sites plus suggestions on entertainment that is authentic to the region.  Rick takes great care to enhance your travel experience while saving you money.

If you love to travel or just like to read about interesting places subscribe to the Rick Steves on-line newsletter that features stories from Europe and other destinations.  His website is full of great information about European travel and includes a great readers forum to answer questions on every country in Europe by travelers with first hand knowledge.  And even though Rick Steves has become an industry with his guidebooks, tours, DVD’s, travel products, PBS broadcasts, webinars and seminars, he has kept true to his core value which is providing travelers with the tools to have a great experience while traveling in Europe.

So why is this Blog’s titled “The Hamster Wheel States of America“?  This is reference to an article-travel-news-02-15-corporate-hamster-wheelarticle in Rick Steves’ most recent newsletter.  What struck me about this article is Rick’s perspective on the world and America’s place in it.  As he states in the article “There’s no question that, economically, we are firmly established on top of the world. Yet, we are never reminded that half of humanity is struggling to live on $2 a day.”  Here’s a link to the entire article…..let me know what you think about it;  http://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/travel-news/february-2015/the-hamster-wheel-states-of-america

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Nothing Sweet About This ‘Cake’

Margaret’s Mini Movie Review: Cake – w/Jennifer Anniston. Cake ain’t sweet. Well, not in the sentimental way. Story of a woman who suffers from chronic/severe physical pain. Jen is terrific as the woman – you never think of Rachel and you totally believe this woman is suffering, deeply. It’s a small independent film and she has gotten excellent reviews. I concur with the professionals. It’s not a pretty or sweet film, but worth your time if you like character studies and good acting. Good rental. Grade = B+  Peter’s thoughts;  Although at times difficult to watch, Cake kept my interest as I tried to decide how the plot would unfold.  This is a movie where one wishes for a ray of hope, as we’ve been conditioned to do in ‘Hollywood’ movies, but this is not that sort of film.  Cake is about real life, just not the type of life anyone wishes on their worst enemy.  If you want pure entertainment this is not the movie for you.  If you like films that portray real life, excellent writing with actors who know what to do with it, see it.

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30 Hour Mini-Vacation

Where can you take a 30 hour vacation to help recharge your life? Simple;  the Len Foote Hike Inn at Amicalola Falls, that’s where!  What, you may ask, is the Hike Inn?  It’s a lodge way back in the woods of north Georgia accessible only by foot on a five mile hiking trail.  That’s right; no cars, trucks, snowmobiles, go carts, golf carts or pack mules….just your own two feet.

Sunrise from the lodge
Sunrise from the lodge

My wife Margaret thought a good mid-winter break from the city doldrums was due so we asked some hiking buddies if they’d like to spend the night at Len Foote.  We’d all been there in the past…in fact this same group (excluding me) went on the coldest day recorded last year.  It was quite the adventure considering the temperatures, attesting to the fact that the usually filled lodge had only two other visitors.  Regardless they loved it and most returned this year. Read more

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America The Marvelous

For many years there has been a series of books published annually with titles such as Best American Short Stories, Best American Science Fiction, Best American Non Essential Reading, etc….you get the picture.  I’ve been giving my brother-in-law Best American Short Stories for about 14 years, picking up the tradition after my mother died…..John has quite a library of that anthology.

As someone who thrives on travel I started reading Best American Travel Writing  a couple years ago.  The included stories come from magazines, blogs, travel websites, etc, that have been published in the previous year.  Some authors are very well known (Paul Theroux) to more obscure writers.  Last night I was reading the 2014 anthology and was struck by an article originally published in Vanity Fair Magazine titled America The Marvelous.

I’m not usually one who wears his patriotism on his sleeve….in fact no where near that person.  I’m often critical of our American culture (yes, I can be a snob).  I’ve traveled to Europe several times over the past few years and see most Europeans as more sophisticated than Americans….at least that’s what I decided to take away from my overseas experiences.  That said, I was always relieved once the wheels of the jumbo jet touched American soil on our return to the states.

So what do I see wrong with our country?  Are we not the fattest and least healthy country in the developed world?  Why can’t we see that we’re eating ourselves to death?  Why does our government  feel it’s our role to police the world?  Is racism really dead in America?  And is a society based on consumerism good for our souls?  Shouldn’t we value the arts, our diverse culture, friendships among the diverse nationalities that make up our population?  Why do we all feel it’s our way or the highway?  And why is your religion, or lack of, more ‘right’ than my beliefs?  “Can’t we all just get along”?

That’s just part of a long list of gripes I consider when watching  CNN, Fox, ABC, CBS and reading The Huffington Post, Grist, the AJC, Esquire, etc, etc, etc…  But I gotta tell you, A.A. Gill, the author of the above mentioned article America The Marvelous, has made me rethink my criticism of our country.  It’s so easy to look at the negative, so easy to be critical of those who don’t agree with your values and so easy and self righteous to think my way is the right way to live ones life.  Read the article….it’s short, succinct…and it just may give you a perspective that many of us have lost about America….it did me.

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2013/07/america-with-love-aa-gill-excerpt

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Add Some Zest to your “Friday Date Night”

Our friends Eve and Roger have a great blog called Friday Date Night.  They started the blog (see ABOUT below), that reviews local restaurants, when they found themselves dining out every Friday night as their weekly ‘date night’….what a great way to keep the relationship with your significant other fresh!  They’ve been writing the blog since 2011 and it is now the  #7 Ranked Blog on Urbanspoon….what a great accomplishment in so little time.  But once you start reading their reviews you understand why…they have a straight forward, common sense approach to critiquing restaurants….these are reviews for folks like you and I who want the bottom line as to the quality, service and value of a restaurant.  There have been many times when Margaret and I have taken their recommendations never to be disappointed.  And there have been times when we’ve decided against trying a restaurant because Roger and Eve have already done so to negative reviews (thanks for saving us the time and $$).

So check out their blog and if it serves you as well as it has us Follow it….it just may  steer you toward some great new eats or save you some hard won dollars from visiting restaurants not worthy of your time.

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ABOUT THE BLOG

What happens when two people who like to eat out (and take pictures of their food) start a food blog? We go out to dinner every Friday as a standing date night. Fridays are great for eating out…everyone wants to celebrate the end of the work week and we have found that restaurants tend to have a festive buzz about them on Friday nights. Sometimes we go out on other nights and occasionally we will go to a restaurant media event or go on a lunch date. We have been blogging about our experience since June, 2011.

Who are we? We are a couple of television directors who have been married for 30+ years. We hate sitting in traffic on Fridays and would much rather have a nice beer and a meal instead of stressing out in Atlanta bumper-to-bumper. We live in Marietta, but as you will see, that doesn’t stop us from sampling restaurants from all over the ATL. Our only rule is that we try to go to a different place every week. You will enjoy our culinary adventures throughout the city.

For feedback or to get in touch with us, our e-mail is strauss@mindspring.com.

Our social media is:
Twitter: @FridayDateNight
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/datenightfriday

We hope you enjoy the blog, and let us hear from you.

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Two More Mini Movie Reviews

Once again Margaret’s fingers were typing away to review the two movies we viewed this past weekend; one at the theater, one on DVD.  My comments follow each….

Mini Movie Review: American Sniper – yes, I’m late on this one. Many of you have seen it and I’m sure have heard all the bruhaha about it. I am not getting into that. As a movie, I thought it was extremely well made and well acted. Intense? YES! Humorous? YES Sad? YES True? Mostly. I cannot imagine being in a war and keeping it together like these young men did. God bless them and ALL soldiers who put themselves in harms way – whether we agree or not with wars, someone has to fight them. Thank a vet when you see one. Grade = B+  Peter’s comments; this movie stays with you well after you leave the theater.  Very intense, very real.  Clint Eastwood has crafted an excellent movie…the direction seems effortless.  As with his last couple films, I never felt I was watching a Clint Eastwood movie.  Whether you support the efforts of politicians that decide on what wars to fight, or abhor them, see this movie to understand what those decisions mean for those who are put into battle.

Mini Movie Review: DVD rental. Lucy w/Scarlett Johannsen/Morgan Freeman – This is a SciFi movie – which is NOT my preferred genre. I really, really liked this one. ScarJo is a woman who innocently is forced into the world of drugs, violence and much more. She has to use her wits to survive. Her brain is enhanced, but I won’t give away how. She is terrific as a terrified young woman who will do what she has to in order to survive. Check this one out even if you don’t like SciFi – it’s worth the rental fee. Grade = B (warning: extreme violence)  Peter’s comments; pure fun!  This is a movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously, it’s just non-stop science fiction fun that makes you think.  Yes there’s a background of extreme violence (so extreme to be almost comical), but the premise is thought provoking.  Amongst the shooting and blowing up the storyline brings to mind one’s mortality, the earth, the solar system, evolution, infinite space and our place as humans in it.  It stuck with me….

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Obituary For A Friend I Never Met

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Harry and Ron welcoming Ernie….

 

While having my first few sips of coffee early Saturday morning I went to the CNN app on my iPhone….top story headline read ‘Mr. Cub Ernie Banks dies in Chicago at 83’…my heart sank.  ernie202wayGrowing up in Chicago in the fifties, sixties or even the early seventies you’ll understand how this headline would be a sucker punch to the stomach.  And even if you were one of those  Chicagoan’s who mistakenly rooted for the Sox over the Cubs this news was sure to sting.   Ernie Banks represented an era of baseball, and for that matter professional sports, when the game is what mattered most, not the fame and money, and with him that era died.  Always the consummate professional Mr. Cub represented all that was good about baseball.

There are so many memories tied to the love of the Cubbies from my days growing up in Chicago….memories that are not learned but are in your DNA.  As long suffering fans we can’t help ourselves when, at the beginning of each season, we know deep down that this will be “our” year.  What kid in Chicago didn’t want Ernie’s #14 sewn onto his home made jersey while playing baseball in the alley, an alley barely wide enough for a single car to pass, but for us it was like playing at Wrigley Field.  And what about those Saturday afternoon games at Wrigley with your dad, sitting in the right field stands or, if by some luck, box seats on the first base line so you can see Ernie work his magic at first.  Unfortunately I’m too young to remember when Ernie shined as the greatest short stop of all time until Cal Ripken Jr. came along.  And if you were there, as I fortunately was, who can forget Ernie Banks Day at Wrigley in the late sixties when Ernie hit a home run and the place went wild (“hey-hey”)!

Banks was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama
Banks was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama

So if you’re not from Chicago you may ask what made Ernie Banks such a great player?  His stats speak for his role on the field (see below) but his personality speaks to him as a role model.  His passion was playing baseball, having a good time doing so, putting on a great show for his audience and making himself available to the fans.  He never shied away from a handshake, never ended a game not wanting to “play two” and never started a season without a motto; “The Cubs are great in sixty-eight”, “The Cubs will shine in sixty-nine”.  He always had a smile on his face, a good word to say about his fellow players and the optimism that the Cubbies had a chance at the pennant.  He was just a good guy.

Since his death just hours ago so many great articles have been written by real writers…here are links to some of my favorites.

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/chc/history/chc_feature_banks.jsp

http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/id/12219755/ernie-banks-former-chicago-cubs-great-dies-age-83

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/23/ernie-banks-cubs-dead-dies_n_6536258.html

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The Moth (not the flying kind)

I love listening to podcasts downloaded from iTunes on my iPod when I’m out walking or driving around town.  I have several that are in my repertoire; This American Life, Snap about-mothJudgement, WTF (use your imagination), Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, Fresh Air, Here’s The Thing, SERIAL (more on that in a future blog) etc…  Most of these are podcasts taken from weekly public radio programs, but I like to download the podcasts to enjoy on my schedule.  My favorite podcast is called The Moth, ‘True Stories Told Live’.  The concept is simple; people telling stories based on a theme without the use of notes or scripts told in front of live audiences.  “Moth Ups” are held all over the country, although the podcasts are taken from Moth Ups with ‘really good’ story tellers.  Even though I like almost all of the stories every once in a while there’s one that really moves me, and the four stories on the Moth Up Hour I listened to this morning were all outstanding.  This particular Moth Up was presented at the World Science Festival from a couple months back.  Here’s a link to their website to listen now or download for future listening.  Be sure to listen to all four; the last one titled Who Can You Trust has an amazing ending.  Enjoy!  And if you have a favorite podcast please share it with all of us…. Click HERE. Read more