Ye olde editor’s
note: this was penned late in the afternoon of Sunday (the 23rd) so depending on when you see this, there is kind
of “dated” material here and there
Well the winter games of the XXII Olympiad are over.. .. well,
kind of over. In reality, the closing ceremonies have
concluded and the torch (has literally) passed to Korea for 2018. However, intrepid NBC continues to pretend
the nine hour time difference doesn’t exist and won’t let us see the closing
ceremonies until this evening. So before getting to some food content, I’ll
muse a little on the games just concluded.
I have never been competitive at sports (or little else for
that matter) but the former athletes and competitors used as resource people for commenting
on the events seem to stress that mostly who you are competing against is
yourself. They measure success by their own
standards, being satisfied if they did the best they could, not what’s hanging
on their necks at the end. And speaking
of measuring success, have you noticed the distinct lack of showing the “medal
count” now that USA didn’t “win” the Olympics.
Slap shots
Having coached the sport for many years, I had special
interest in the Hockey games and pretty much enjoyed the “big ice”, wide open, version
played in the Olympics as opposed to the NHL version we see here. Passing, skating, and play making are
important, and I personally did not see or hear of any fights. So much more entertaining. A closer version is played here in the college
games where you see 100% effort every shift and only minor pushing and shoving
(it IS a contact sport).
I also noted that it was thirty four years ago yesterday
that the “Miracle on Ice” occurred in Lake Placid. That team was composed of amateur players,
and the defeat of the Russians in the semi finals has been called one of the
top sports moments of the 20th century. Like other apocryphal moments in history I still
remember exactly where I was. I was in
the Dellwood ice rink in Florrisant, MO (suburb of St. Louis), in a little
locker room with a bunch of little kids fresh from practice. It was a great
experience. Bringing things back to the
present, I think one reason that this year’s USA team was excused was exactly
the same as recognized by MFO in those old days in St. Louis hockey rinks whose stentorian “Too
much Dancin’!!” could be heard from the stands when that last extraneous pass
or an attempt at a cute stick handle move resulted in a turnover. Sound familiar? The companion MFO message was “Shooooot the
puck!”. That particular piece of advice was echoed
in these Olympics by none other than Eddie (the Eagle) who routinely commented
that: “It’s never a bad play to put the puck on the net”. Great
sport.. see you in four years…. Hopefully !!
Oysters
Funny how things transpire..
Sometimes I never know where I’m going when I start to hammer the
keyboard, and the words that flow take me someplace I had no idea of when I started. Earlier this weekend I was working on my
piece for the SMC tourism website and wanted to talk about something to cook in
this dark winter we’re suffering.
Naturally, I thought of Oysters, and browsed my collection of
cookbooks. I ran across one from the
past days here at Pax River
The cover image of a still complete Cedar Point Light House
and the words NATC kind of give its age away.
I THINK it was published during the flight test program for the “original”
F/A-18 Hornet, as part of a fund raiser for something as these types of “comb
bound” volumes generally are. I remembered
a particular recipe that I used to make that was always appreciated even by
those who normally don’t eat oysters, in the form of Scalloped Oysters. Easy to make not much fuss and is really
good.
Alert local food people will note the name of the
contributor in the upper right. In the
day, Bill Taylor was known as the “Dinner Designer”, and catered elaborate
dinner parties around the county. His invitations
were always a work of art, hand written in beautiful script (I still have a
couple someplace). In later years (‘90’s),
his house was a museum of show costumes, playbills, and memorabilia devoted to
musicals and shows. As age overtook him,
he became an irascible character, one of those people who had different persona
between public and private. He is no
longer with us, no doubt planning dinners….somewhere. But he was part of the fabric of Southern
Maryland Food… and by golly he was
ALWAYS
DFD
Reminder: Downton Abbey season ends tonight… DVR!!… remember last year’s
surprise ending!!
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