Amazing Milestone

Blogger’s little counter thingie (complicated technical term associated with blogging) informs me that this post will be the 500th one!!

Just imagine. Day after day of passing along reviews, tips, rants, travel notes, and just interesting things and pretty soon you have 500 of them! And that doesn’t include the many years the bottom feeder was truly at the bottom of the daily aircraft status report. That would add in hundreds more. So,I thought maybe in lieu of more of the usual stuff today I might look back and do a little something different (and now for something completely different!). Lately a few folks have asked about the various acronyms that find their way into the feeder, so here’s a little glossary and background for future reference:

Bottom Feeder: I came out here to Lexington Park in the late nineties to help with the F/A – 18 E/F Super Hornet flight flutter test program. As a little sidebar, I cam here kicking and screaming after serious arm twisting and career threatening remarks and finally agreed to relocate for a three year stay. After all that pressure, and wifely input of "Oh, for heaven’s sake just GO", I said I would go for the EMD program, but after three years and one day I would be headed back to St. Louis. So far, 15 years later, I’m still waiting for that day. Anyway, I started putting out a daily status of what the airplanes did yesterday and what we were going to do today kind of thing. That got kind of dry, so I started putting asterisks below the report and began passing along little bits of trivia on the local culture, food and restaurant stuff, and things that pissed me off. As the years passed and I became more and more interested in food and restaurants, I somehow got to calling it the Bottom Feeder. By the time I retired in 2009 after hundreds and hundreds of those I had somewhere over 500 subscribers. That was the genesis of the Bottom Feeder which then moved to the cyber world. And here we are.

MFO: probably the first acronym that arose in the feeder. When we were conducting the actual flight flutter test flights, because of the hazardous nature of flutter, we had to establish direct communication from the flutter engineers to the pilot (normally all comm with flight crew goes through the flight test conductor). So when the aircraft had taken off and was heading out to the test range, each flutter engineer would do his “push to talk” and we would count off directly to the pilot. Since I was the lead flutter guy (and also oldest member of the team) I was accorded the honor of being “Flutter One”, so I would start: “Flutter One”; then “Flutter Two” and on down the line. Of course in the world of military aviation everybody has to have a “call sign” and mine got to be “Flutter One”. I had a secondary sign of “Eeyore”, but that’s another story. So, during the course of putting out the daily status/feeder, when I found it necessary to talk about my wife, instead of using her real name, I used Mrs. Flutter One, or MFO which sticks to this day.

FOJTE and FOJTY: same sort of deal as above, used to refer to my two sons, Flutter One Junior The Elder (high school math teacher in Clayton, MO), and Flutter One Junior The Younger (police officer and now student at SEMO college in Cape Girardeau, MO). Wonderful sons, with wonderful families.

DFD: I think kind of widely known, but Dress For Dinner arose from the time we had our anniversary dinner at Café Des Artistes in Leonardtown. We of course were pretty well dolled up for the occasion (we always try to honor the food with appropriate dress) and were enjoying ourselves when a table came in near us that was composed of tank tops, logo T-Shirts, and jeans such as you would wear changing the oil in your car. Ball caps remained affixed (turned “backwards” of course) throughout the meal. Hence the campaign to “Dress For Dinner”. And, I think I have always pointed out that DFD means dress appropriately for the establishment you are dining/eating in. Above attire would be acceptable for picking crabs, but not fine dining.

So, I think that’s about it although I am thinking of launching another campaign out of recent experiences in restaurants around here. And that is the overuse of the term “You Guys” seemingly so popular with servers these days. Are "You Guys": ready to order? need another drink? still workin’ on that? ready for your check?. The same information can be passed by just eliminating the word “Guys”, and it's easier! Are you?........ Perfectly acceptable. I know MFO (see above) does not like to be included in “guys” and I suspect she is not alone. Maybe : EYG (Eliminate You Guys) although that sounds a bit hostile…

Anyway as we pass into the next 500 postings, thank you all for continuing to read them, commenting occasionally, relating culinary experiences, passing on photos of food, and providing local knowledge. I always appreciate your feedback and knowledge that I am not just howling in the wilderness. I greatly enjoy creating the Bottom Feeder, I have met some great people and it has provided me with some great experiences in the world of food. I hope that it provides a chuckle, or maybe some insight into dining or cooking, and just plain civility toward each other.

And okay, just for consistency, that reminder to

DFD

Edition 501 will recount a lunch at Charlie’s…