Quote of the Day

"Atlas Shrugged and 1984 weren't meant to be used as instruction manuals."

Soft Shell Surprise

So after church yesterday we had some time and no work messages, so we hopped the 1 shuttle bus to South Ferry and went over to Staten. The botanical garden there at Snug Harbor has a Chinese garden that is worth checking out and it made for a good Sunday daytrip. The grounds are pleasant there and the flowers were nice enough, although they are renovating which removes some of the attractions at the moment.
They also have these five cool cottages. One hosts the gift shop and Chinese garden entrance. Another used to hold Cafe Botanica until it got DOH'ed.

So it was getting late and we were hungry and it wasn't obvious what was around there. The bus came just then as well so we headed back to the ferry terminal. Then I suggested looking for food in downtown St. George's. We had a tour map of the island given out at Snug Harbor and it mentioned a downtown diner right by the ferry, so we figured we'd check it out.

The place turned out to be Karl's Klipper, more casual neighborhood restaurant and bar than diner. The menu looked comfortable enough, and then I noticed the specials board.

Soup of the day: Spinach and parmesan.
Entree: Soft-shell crab. Either fried on a bun with fries and salad or sauteed in garlic with linguine and vegetables. $10.95

That's right: soft-shells in NYC for $10.95!

Service was pleasant and the fried soft shell plate came with tasty fries (battered-style), buttered bun, and macaroni salad. The garlic one looked and tasted good too. A little bit light on spice, but otherwise darn good.

Five memorable burgers

Burgers are a nice thing to eat in los Estados Unidos because you get a lot of chances to compare and there's some variety to the construction. Here's a few I remember:

5) Cheeseburger on French - Rotier's - Nashville, TN

These can be erratic (greasy), but I remember my first one. After looking the better part of a week for something local, Josh dragged me over here. Cheeseburgers go great with french bread, and this one hit the spot.

4) Cheeseburger - Burger House - Dallas, TX

For a good diner-style burger in a wicker basket with a Dr. Pepper, this is the place. The one on Hillcrest (the one I went to) is in a nice area, too.

3) Dumont Burger - Dumont or Dumont Burger - Brooklyn, NY

A burger with style. A burger with class. A burger that works either in a bar or in a courtyard. And my favorite NYC burger, from a restaurant group that sports a Michelin star.

2) Cheeseburger and Fries - Burger Joint - San Francisco, CA

Niman Ranch beef. Flavor. And the best veg toppings ever put on a hamburger. Pair this with Anchor Steam and you're set. Plus, they're at the airport!

1) Mushroom Cheeseburger and Baked Potato - Port of Call - New Orleans, LA

The king mac-daddy of burgers. And they usually come with a side-order of crazy goings-on.

SID Chip

Brooklyn Vegan has a good post and news-story-link here about the C64.

Too bad Commodore didn't squash the empty-box IBM PC and clones. You need graphics, you need an add-on card. You need sound, you need an add-on card. Took 15 years for PC makers to start putting things like that on the main board.

College Football Playoff Rubbish

It's time for the annual college football BCS bashing bash. But for all those BCS-haters with their 8-team playoffs with suspects like Georgia and Kansas, I have my kind of playoff:

(#12 Central Michigan @ #5 USC) @ #4 Oklahoma
(#11 Florida Atlantic @ #6 West Virginia) @ #3 Virginia Tech
(#10 Navy @ #7 Hawaii) @ #2 LSU
(#9 Central Florida @ #8 BYU) @ #1 Ohio State

Yep, the Rose Bowl loses its silly Big 10/Pac 10 game (unless it gets Arizona State and Illinois). And there's no Georgia, Missouri, Kansas, etc. in here. But every conference champion gets a shot. There are $ for every conference and home games for the big six conferences.
You also get the possibility of good match-ups: a Navy/Hawaii game that's a double-home-game, and the possibility of a West Virginia/Virginia Tech second rounder. Not to mention the chance for some low-seed upsets or games like USC/Oklahoma.
But I'd rather have Central Michigan and Florida Atlantic in there than Georgia. However, the media would never have that...

BCS worst nightmare

Just imagine:

Ohio State wins next 3. Michigan wins out.
West Virginia and South Florida win out.
LSU wins next 4 but loses in SEC championship to Florida.
BC loses to VPI, who loses in ACC championship to team X.
UCLA wins out.
Missouri wins out.
Hawaii wins out and gets to #12 in BCS.

Your BCS bowls:
Rose: UCLA (who couldn’t beat Notre Dame or Utah) vs. Michigan (who couldn’t beat App State)
Fiesta: Missouri vs. Hawaii
Sugar: Florida vs. South Florida or ???
Orange: ACC champ vs. South Florida or ???
Championship: #1 WVU (who couldn’t win their conference) vs. #2 OSU (who couldn’t win their conference)

Black coffee

It's always fun to trace back the bits of behavior picked up from others. For me, whenever I have a fill-in-the blank office coffee black (usually something like Extra Bold Dark Magic) with no sugar, I have to blame this dude for corrupting me.

Ghost Train

Ah, the fun of NYC travel. Saturday morning we had to make the interesting trip from Atlantic Avenue to Greenpoint. Decision: hipster bus or G-train. We got too close to the G-train stop when the bus showed up so we went with the train. But, being a G-train, it decided not to show up for a while.

When it did, it was completely dark. No lights. I didn't think unlit trains were safe to run through tunnels. It was really cool watching people try to read by the light of the one thing that worked: the dull yellow train display that said "G".

And then the next day we went down into the abandoned Atlantic Avenue LIRR tunnel. I guess there's legitimate caving here...