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What a Difference a Week Makes

July 31, 2010 by pbenjay

I have spent so much time talking about the heat and NOW that the heat wave is OVER and today was just as pleasant as yesterday, I have to bring up the HEAT one more time.  Today is Saturday and the sun was warm and the breeze light.  A perfect summer day! Not so last week.

Last Saturday was brutally hot, sticky hot and just hot hot! Walking, moving at all was painful  We had tickets to see Smokey Robinson in the Great Auditorium which is NOT air-conditioned.  It was extremely uncomfortable; couldn’t figure out what to wear that would not stick to me – how silly, everything stuck to me including me to me.  I also forgot my fan and for the first time that I can remember, instead of giving the fans away, they were selling them!! The fans cost a dollar each but well worth every penny.  The entire audience was in motion.  Fans were waving all over – it was sea of sweaty people waving hot air over themselves and sweating from the energy expended to wave the fan.

Smokey Robinson was superb and how he performed in a suit, I’ll never know.  We were like limp rags and he was jumping around the stage.  The only two items allowed in the auditorium during a concert are fans and WATER !  The fans cost a dollar, the water cost a dollar and I think the Camp Meeting Association made more money from the sale of those two commodities than they did from the ticket sales!!!

See what I mean….

The Great Auditorium, Smokey Robinson, water bottles

Recycle Me

Photo by Susan Taylor (Blackberry phone)

Posted in BY THE WAY, Ha-P 2 B in OG, Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a Comment »

A Perfect Jersey Shore Evening OR The Magic of the Moon

July 31, 2010 by pbenjay

No, no it has nothing to do with Snookie and the rest of the Guido Gang….I’m talking about…………

First of all it was a glorious day and I was still alone at the cottage with the cats (my choice) and so I did some running around.  I even drove to Shrewsbury because I was sucked in by a persistent ad that has been running on the radio on The Breeze from Shrewsbury Bicycles.  I want a pink beach cruiser or mint green or yellow or well, you get the picture.  Too far to go to find out all of their bikes started around $325.00!! Oh well….

I picked Peter up at the train station around 4pm and he was glad to be back; see his wife and his cats (hopefully in that order) and finally be able to sit on his porch and enjoy a martini, something he has been unable to do because of the dreadful heat wave which made going outside a chore and not a pleasure.

That’s how the evening started and around 6:30pm we took the Metro (so cute and so much fun) and drove to Bradley Beach to Vic’s – NOW that’s a Jersey Shore kind of place and we love it.  Pasta the old-fashioned way with gravy you know.  A bowl of shells and meatballs and a Perroni, sitting on the restaurant’s patio and I was in heaven.  The breeze was delightful, the food was exceptionally good that night-we even shared an antipasta salad.

My plan was to come home and leave the car and talk Peter into walking over to Day’s because I had been abstaining from ice cream all week and wanted a treat tonight.  Here’s what I forgot; It was Founder’s Day in the Grove and hundreds of people went to the Great Auditorium at 7:30pm to hear a concert and they got out somewhere around 9:00pm and MOST of them headed directly to Day’s for ice cream- this is how we live it up here in Ocean Grove.  In all the years I have been coming to Ocean Grove this was one of the longest if not the longest line I have ever seen.  It literally was back to the corner of Pilgrim Pathway and Pitman Avenue.  Even a junkie like me was deterred.  Plan B: I suggest we go over to Nagles where hopefully the line won’t be so long.  So much for Plan B.  Trying to keep up good spirits and chatter so my companion who never wanted to walk anywhere at this hour, would not say “Enough is enough”.  So I suggest we walk to the boardwalk and wait for the moon to rise – an experience my Brooklyn-born, City bred husband has not yet seen in his life.  The breeze was delightful, so soft and cool but not cold and this is the kind of summer day and night we have been hoping for all through July.  Hot day, not humid, cool evening-God is good (after all we ARE in Ocean Grove)!

We sat down on a bench facing the ocean and watched the waves gently lap at the shore-no crashing waves tonight.  You could smell the ocean which by the way does NOT smell like any candle claiming it’s name and scent as Ocean. The stars were out, however we couldn’t really see the hundreds that were dim spots overhead because of the lights on the boardwalk.   Still, seeing as many as we did is a treat for us city folk who have to view the night sky through thousands of ground lights.  We thought we saw Mars, that is until Mars started to move North.  Oh well, astronomers we’re not.  I knew the moon was supposed to rise at about 10:07pm and like a child wanting to know “Are we there yet?” I kept asking Peter the time.  Finally the clock moves to 10:05. 10:06, 10:07-nothing.  10:08, 10:09, 10:10 and “Look, there it is”! The slightly larger than half moon popped up above the horizon as big orange beach ball, albeit a misshapen one.  Beautiful bright orange, a fiery imitation of sister sun.  And it kept rising, faster than I thought it would.  Lucky for us we happened to be near one of those put the quarter in telescopes on the boardwalk.  In went the quarter and I got to see the bumpy topography of Mr. Moon.   Lots of people were walking along the boardwalk this spectacular evening and many remarked on the orange orb floating in the night sky.

Time check – we still have time to get ice cream and surely the line can’t be as long as it was at Nagles, which was the closest ice cream venue.  I would have preferred Day’s BUT I didn’t want to push my luck.  The line wasn’t too bad and it was almost 10:30 – I can’t imagine how many scoops of ice cream were sold in Ocean Grove last night!!!  By the time I got my cone (coffee mud pie) and we were walking home, our moon had risen high enough through the atmosphere to become a creamy white.  It followed us home, the end of a perfect evening.  The photo below is not what we saw last night since the moon is waning and is at about 68%, but isn’t this a better photo anyway?

full moon, orange moon

Full Moon Rising

Posted in BY THE WAY, Ha-P 2 B in OG | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment »

FAB FOTO FRIDAY – I See RED!!

July 30, 2010 by pbenjay

I hope this is the last day that I have to apologize for not posting a blog that actually has a time line, like Fab Foto Friday and now it’s 11:06pm!  I’ve been waiting all week to post these fantastic photos depicting “Red is Where You Find It” just like Art is Where You Find It.

Pierce d nose, pierced lip, studs, Murray Head photographer

A Pierced Red Mohawk

Photo by Murray Head

Elmo

Hi! My Name is Elmo

Photo by Murray Head

Red hoop earrings, Santa Claus hat, Gray parrot, red tail feathers, fire hydrant, girl with red earrings, African parrot

A Study in RED

Photo by Murray Head

billboard, watermelon, watermelon seeds, SWP, Stick with perfection, Murray Head photographer

Stick With Perfection

Photo by Murray Head

red masks, New Year masks, Chinese New Year, good luck masks,

Lots of Good Luck Here

Photo by Murray Head

Posted in Fab Fotos | Tagged , , | 4 Comments »

Don’t Pass (up) the Salt!

July 29, 2010 by pbenjay

Two Movies in Two Days! INCEPTION and then SALT. They may have been seen only one day apart BUT they might as well be worlds apart.

Evelyn Salt, is she a Russian spy? Or a double agent? Or just a CIA agent or a Russian sleeper agent like the ones booted out of Montclair, NJ!  It’s all about her cool and her unending stare. She is the iciest of the ice maidens, I mean killers.  Her character seemed to me to be a combination of James Bond, Jason Bourne, Wonder Woman and Kung Fu.  She is an exquisitely trained fighting and killing machine.  You know we have been seeing computer digitization and computer generated special effects for so long that the fact that any character can do anything is just not special anymore.  We’ve been overexposed to feats of great skill and strength performed of course, by stunt men and the computer.  Okay, putting the obvious aside, one cannot discount the great shape that Angelina Jolie is in.  She electrifies the screen and dominates it completely.  As I said, it’s all about the cool un-blinking stare!

I have no idea how long the movie was because it was so chock full of action and I mean ACTION!  I’m sure you’ve seen the trailers, read some of the reviews, Evelyn Salt IS a super woman who can leap from the top of a moving truck onto yet another moving truck, she can rappell down an elevator shaft, kill mercilessly, find her way through the bowels of any building she is in and has the most uncanny ability to think on her feet and land on them too.

Angelina Jolie, Evelyn Salt,

Evelyn Salt

Posted in BY THE WAY, From My Point of View - Personal commentary on Movies and Books | Tagged , | Leave a Comment »

Ten Tips Thursday – WD-40 and the City Car

July 29, 2010 by pbenjay

Yesterday I told my friend Susan that I was going to try to take some of the black marks left by God only knows who or what on my car as it is parked daily on a City street with WD-40. She laughed!  Well guess who has just gotten the last laugh? That’s right, me – I just came in from my own personal adventure with WD-40.  It WORKED!!!! I started out cautiously (in hopes of success) on the spare tire wheel cover, it had some scrapes, scratches and black marks.  I sprayed on the WD-40 and rubbed the black marks off with a paper towel.  I used a little elbow grease but not much.  Success is not only sweet, it is also a great motivator-so I thought to try using my miracle can on the horrible key scratches that had so hideously marred the passenger side of my car.  When I saw the destruction wrought by some nasty hoodlum and a key, I was sick.  I can’t stand to see my car being nicked and dinged by opening cab doors, bumped by parked cars in the front and rear, and banged into by the sanitation workers as they extricate the trash from the front of our building.  I just can’t adopt a New York City state of mind about the car.  I was brought up in the rural but not country outskirts of a major Connecticut town and our cars were parked in our driveway.  When I was married and living in Connecticut we parked our cars in the garage so coming to New York City and finding out that I couldn’t afford to keep the car in a garage and that it would be parked in all vulnerability on the street was a difficult concept for me to wrap my head around.  And true to my worst fears, over the years, my little Toyota Corolla was binged, dinged, banged and bumped and ended up looking like most cars you see around the City.  A couple of years ago, we traded it in for a used but like new RAV 4.  Soon the paint on the rear bumper was nicked and chipped, then the right rear side panel received a real bang and has a dent there.  I tried not to look at the marks and vowed if I made enough money, I would have the dent fixed and the bumper repainted.  BUT THIS – THIS KEYING OF THE CAR was just heart-breaking.  And it did not take place in front our apartment building where the car is normally parked and is well in sight of our doormen who are on vigil 24 hours a day.  NO, this  evil act happened  when the car was parked down the street and my husband was in the hospital and a dear neighbor did the obligatory moving of the car for alternate side of the street parking (explanation of that particular NYC phenomena is for another blog).  YES I certainly did digress but sometimes the back story is more interesting than the main (but let’s hope not).  I rubbed WD-40 into all of the long and looping key scratches and they are almost invisible!!! Now I’m not dumb, so I know as good as WD-40 is , it can’t put “finish” back on the car where it has been scrape off BUT I do think that the basic oilliness of the product sort of filled in the marks. Maybe they’ll reappear when the car is washed and if they do, I know where we keep the can and I’ll just re-apply :))

  1. Lubricates the “fine tuner” screw on stringed instruments
  2. Makes rusty piano strings pliable again
  3. Lubricates crank motors on antique mechanical phonographs
  4. Removes rust from dog tags
  5. Lubricates hinges on beer steins
  6. Loosens stuck pocket knife blades
  7. Loosens stuck buttons on push button calculators
  8. Prevents noise on car window tracks
  9. Stops squeaks on car doors
  10. Removes black marks and light scratches on your car!!

    11. like duct tape in a can

    I LOVE WD-40

Posted in Thursday's Top Ten | 1 Comment »

Conspiracy Theory Wednesday-SUPRESSED EVIDENCE

July 29, 2010 by pbenjay

Sorry we are a day late with this post but if you read any earlier ones, you know I was without internet access for two days and in the space/time compendium of Inception,  it seemed like a week!!!!

THE ZAPRUDER FILM

One of the Warren Commission’s “proofs” of a rearward attack was a film of the assassination taken by amateur photographer Abraham Zapruder and immediately bought by Life magazine publisher C. D. Jackson.  the film was suppressed, but selected frames were given to the Warren Commission and printed in Life in 1964.  In March 1975, when the Zapruder film was first shown on national television, it became clear that the previously printed frames had been flip-flopped, and in actuality  Kennedy was thrown violently backward, his head exploding in a frontal attack undid  the work of the Warren Commission.

In 1975-1976 several witnesses testifying to the Senate Intelligence Committee about the Kennedy murder died, prompting the 1976 creation of the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA).  An accoustical study of a police radio recording of the president’s assassination led the HSCA to conclude in 1979 that there had been a least four shots, and that a second gunman had fired from the grassy knoll.

HSCA Chief Counsel G. Robert Blakey postulatied the Mafia was behind the conspiracy and developed circumstantial evidence that elements of organized crime played a role, concentrating on Jack Ruby’s ties to gangsters.  He underplayed Oswald’s voluminous CIA 201 file., demanded that all HSCA staff members and their private researchers sign secrecy oaths, allowed the CIA and FBI to conduct security checks on them, and defended his actions by asking, “I’ve worked with the CIA for twenty years., Would they lie to me?”

Assassination of John F.Kennedy, JFK killed, Dallsa Texas, Dealey Plaza, Governor John Connally, Jackie Kennedy, the pink suit, Lee Harvey Oswald, President Kennedy

President John F. Kennedy is shot in the head

The following is an excerpt from Wikipedia regarding The Zapruder Film.

The Zapruder film is a silent, color motion picture sequence shot by private citizen Abraham Zapruder with a home-movie camera as U.S. President John F. Kennedy‘s motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963, thereby unexpectedly capturing the President’s assassination.

Though not the only film of the shooting, it has been called the most complete, giving a relatively clear view from a somewhat elevated position, and on the side from which the president’s head wound is visible. It was an important part of the Warren Commission hearings and all subsequent investigations of the assassination, and is one of the most studied pieces of film in history. Of greatest notoriety is the film’s depiction of a fatal shot to President Kennedy’s head when his limousine was almost exactly in front of and slightly below Zapruder’s position.

Holding a Model 414 PD Bell & Howell Zoomatic Director Series Camera powered by a spring-wound mechanism, Zapruder stood atop of the most western of the two concrete pedestals that extend from the John Neely Bryanpergola[clarification needed] overlooking Elm Street in Dealey Plaza. He filmed from the time the presidential limousine turned onto Elm Street about 12:30 pm Central Time, until it passed out of view under a railway overpass, though with one apparent brief interruption (see below). The sequence contains 486 frames, or 26.6 seconds of Kodachrome II 8 mm safety film,[1] north of which 343 of the frames (18.7 seconds) show the president’s limousine.

By evening the film had been developed and three copies made. Zapruder immediately gave two of the copies to the Secret Service. On the morning of November 23, Zapruder sold the print rights to Life magazine, after which the original and the remaining copy were dispatched to Life’s production facilities in Chicago.

In March 1975, on the ABC late-night television show Good Night AmericaGeraldo Rivera), assassination researchers Robert Groden and Dick Gregory presented the first-ever network television showing of the Zapruder home movie. The public’s response and outrage to that first showing quickly led to the forming of the Hart-Schweiker investigation, contributed to the Church Committee Investigation on Intelligence Activities by the United States, and resulted in the House Select Committee on Assassinations investigation.

Have I got your attention yet????

Posted in Conspiracy Theory Wednesday | Leave a Comment »

INCEPTION-What’s All the Twitter About?

July 29, 2010 by pbenjay

If you Twitter and follow the Trending Worldwide list you know that Inception has been on the list for more than a week!!! That in itself is pretty unusual, almost unheard of in this day of today you’re hot and tomorrow you’re yesterday’s news – however the unknown number of Tweets devoted to this science fiction fantasy designed to mind-fuck the viewer, has to be in  the thousands. That kind of statistic should be enough to blow your mind never mind having to watch a movie that you’re never sure you’re watching anyway.

Inception, Christopher Nolan, dream within a dream, Leonardo DiCaprio

The Dream is REAL

Maybe I didn’t see it after all – it could have been a manufactured dream by Christopher Nolan or was I just a projectionist in Leo’s mind.  Well if I didn’t see it, I hope I wake up soon-hey that was one of the best lines in the movie! “Wake me up, wake me up”!

A gazillion dollar mega-movie designed to capture the insipid and the imaginative summer movie goer’s mind.  Well the timing couldn’t have been better.  I ‘ll bet there were more people going to see this movie in the Northeast than anyplace else.  Perfect formula: heat and humidity hovering in the 90’s for weeks, summer mind set as you wait for a two week vacation or regret that it’s already come and gone, supply several movie houses all icily air-conditioned and playing Inception and whammo, you’ve got a full house every day.

Let me share with you what some of the professional reviewers are saying:

Inception,” is an astonishment, an engineering feat, and, finally, a folly. Nolan has devoted his extraordinary talents not to some weighty, epic theme or terrific comic idea but to a science-fiction thriller that exploits dreams as a vehicle for doubling and redoubling action sequences. He has been contemplating the movie for ten years, and as movie technology changed he must have realized that he could do more and more complex things. He wound up overcooking the idea. Nolan gives us dreams within dreams (people dream that they’re dreaming); he also stages action within different levels of dreaming—deep, deeper, and deepest, with matching physical movements played out at each level—all of it cut together with trombone-heavy music by Hans Zimmer, which pounds us into near-deafness, if not quite submission. Now and then, you may discover that the effort to keep up with the multilevel tumult kills your pleasure in the movie. “Inception” is a stunning-looking film that gets lost in fabulous intricacies, a movie devoted to its own workings and to little else. Read more http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/cinema/2010/07/26/100726crci_cinema_denby#ixzz0v5DYs7Fz


It is a fascinating visual feast, The Matrix with heart and soul, a roller coaster ride into layers of the subconscious mind that challenges our ability to keep up.

Lori Hoffman

Are they handing out joints at the box office for this?

Kurt Loder
By convoluting the various planes of experience, by overlapping and obscuring ostensible realities and ostensible dreams, Mr. Nolan deprives us the opportunity of investing emotionally in any of it.

John Anderson
So there you have just a minute cross-sampling of what some of the best known critics are saying about this movie.
IF you saw it and loved and want to be amongst the like-minded, I say go to Twitter and add your Tweet to the multitude of adoring fans taking advantage of a public but not discriminating forum,  where you too can add your two cents to to the swarming ant hill of comments – because in Twitter, your comments (and mine) are just as important as Christopher Nolan’s and Roger Ebert’s – well at least for a millisecond before “44 New Tweets have been added since your comment.”

Posted in BY THE WAY, From My Point of View - Personal commentary on Movies and Books, Smooth or Crunchy | Tagged , , | Leave a Comment »

Tasty Tidbits Tuesday-Summer Side Dishes

July 28, 2010 by pbenjay

Sorry this is SO LATE – I was without internet access for almost two days and now have to play catch-up with my blogs! It’s time again to dig into your garden goodies or Green Market treasures and eat light and healthy and delicious summer side dishes.

CUMCUMBER AND MINT SALAD with TOASTED PITAS

4 oz. green beans, trimmed

Coarse salt and pepper

1 cup torn fresh mint

1 small seedless cucumber, halved or quartered lengthwise, and cut 1/2 inch thick

1 head Boston lettuce, leaves torn into pieces

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 TBSP fresh lemon juice

4 pitas

2 garlic cloves, lightly smashed

Prepare an ice water bath. Cook green beans in pot of  boiling salted water until bright green and just tender, about 4 minutes. Drain; transfer to ice-water bath and drain again.  Cut into thirds. Toss with mint, cucumber and lettuce.

Pour 1/4 cup oil into lemon juice in a slow, steady stream, whisking until emulsified.  Season with salt and pepper.

Toast pitas over the flame of a gas burner, turning with tongs until crisp and blackened in spots. (Alternatively char in broiler, turning). Rub with garlic and brush with remaining 1/4 cup oil. Season with salt. Tear into large pieces. Drizzle dressing over salad; toss to coat.  Serve with pitas.

Recipe: Martha Stewart Living

SUGAR SNAP PEAS with MINT DRESSING

Salt

Martha Stewart living, fresh mint leaves,

Sugar Snap Peas with Mint Dressing

1 lb. sugar snap peas,trimmed

1TBS finely chopped shallots

1 TBS rice-wine vinegar

1 tsp honey

1 tsp Dijon mustard

6 TBS olive oil

1 1/2 cups fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped

Fresh ground pepper

Brind a small saucepan of salted water to a boil; prepare an ice bath. Add the peas to the boiling water, and cook until bright green and crunchy, about 1 minute

Using a slotted spoon, transfer to peas to ice bath until cold. Drain peas in colander, and transfer to a serving dish.

Combine the shallots, vinegar, honey, mustard, olive oil, and mint in a jar with a lid.  Season with salt and pepper.  Cover and shake vigorously until well blended.  Let dressing stand 10 minutes.  Pour dressing over the peas.  Toss and Serve

Recipe: Martha Stewart Living

CUCUMBER, CANTALOUPE, and SQUASH SALAD

For the Dressing:

Martha Stewart Living, melon salad,

Cucumber, Cantaloupe and Squash Salad

1 cup plain whole milk yogurt

finely grated zest of a lime

1 TBS fresh lime juice

1/2 tsp coarse salt

1/4 tsp ground cumin

1/8 tsp freshly ground pepper

For the salad:

3 yellow summer squashes (about 1 lb) unpeeled

1 English cucumber (about 10 oz) unpeeled

1 1/2 TBS unseasoned rice-wine vinegar

1 tsp coarse salt

1/4 large cantaloupe, rind removed

Make the dressing:  Combine yogurt, lime zest and juice, sale, cumin and pepper., Cover, and refrigerate 20 minutes.

Make the salad:  Using a vegetable peeler or a mandoline, shave squashes and cucumber into wide ribbons, stopping when you reach the seeds. Toss with vinegar and salt. Cover, and refrigerate. Shave cantaloupe into ribbons, and refrigerate.

Just before serving, drain cucumber and squash ribbons, and toss with cantaloupe. Drizzle with dressing.

Recipe: Martha Stewart Living

Posted in Everyday Food, Marthaspeak, Tasty Tidbits Tuesday | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Six Word Memoir Monday-Your Life in Six Words

July 26, 2010 by pbenjay

This week has been fruitful; Look what’s happening! My  readers are sending in their personal Six Word Memoirs!! Yay!

Although a bit challenging, this little writing exercise REALLY makes you think about yourself, your life, your wishes, your loves, your losses and your goals.  AND it changes weekly or more often as your mood changes and your outlook centers on yet another side of our Rubix Cube lives.

Susan, my longtime childhood friend sent me this:

Driving Infiniti-must I come back?

And from Ruby, who recently lost her mother and whose heart is heavy:

Mothered mother and back to me.

Gail, friend, and blog contributor has this to say about these past few weeks here in the Northeast:

Too hot, too sticky, too much!

Last but not least, I am honored once again by Anna of Goannatree.blogspot.com with:

Rewriting in the Scottish summer rain.

Brilliant, just brilliant – I love it!  THANK YOU THANK YOU for participating.  Let’s keep this going.

Summer is, I am, living it. by me.

Posted in Friends, Six Word Memoirs | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments »

You Drink Too Much, You Smoke and You Cheat

July 25, 2010 by pbenjay

BUT… Don you are the MAN!

Mad Men, Don Draper, scotch, martini, cigarettes, ad man, Jon Hamm

Effortless Charm

Tonight’s premier episode of the 4th season of MAD MEN was great as was expected.  The gang is back together, regrouped and refreshed and re-committed.  It appears as if Don is the rasion d’etre – “We’re all here because of you. We just want to please you”. Sterling and Cooper may be the veterans of the business, but Don is calling the shots as in “Get out of my office”.

Betty may be remarried but she sure is not over Don! Doesn’t want to move out of the house and “he doesn’t get to decide” – sounds like still connected to me!

He is the glory man who leads a dismal existence.  Thanksgiving Day with a hooker, how traditional!!  AND getting slapped for being such a bad boy!

Oh yes it is a soap opera minus the detergent and we love it, don’t we girls???

Posted in BY THE WAY, New York Speaks, Only in New York | Tagged , | 2 Comments »

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