. Originally posted December, 14, 2009/December 23, 2011 /Dec 20, 2012 @ 8:00 Some new text has been added. Fourth posting December 14-23, 2014 Fifth posting December 5, 2016 Sixth posting December 5, 2018
Panettone French Toast
When the Christmas season rolls around one sees so many of those red and gold boxes in the food stores, it’s the Italian Christmas-bread, Panettone.
I doubt that it’s a coincidence that this regal loaf is shaped like a crown and embedded with jewel-like bits of fruit. Continue reading →
This is a Moon video from The Old Farmer’s Almanac
“November’s full Moon was called the Beaver Moon because it was the time to set traps, before the waters froze over. This Moon was also called the Full Frost Moon.”
Full Beaver Moon – November 17th at 7:16 A.M. Las Vegas Time
The following video, featuring Amy Nieskens, is from The Old Farmer’s Almanac
The Moon will be 100% full October 18, 2013 at 4:37 P.M. Las Vegas time.
From The Old Farmer’s Almanac
Some Native American tribes referred to this Moon as the Full Hunter’s Moon, as it was the time to go hunting in preparation for winter.
It rises around sunset and sets around sunrise, the only night in the month when the Moon is in the sky all night long.
This full Moon is also called the Travel Moon and the Dying Grass Moon.
From The Huffington Post The Huffington Post | By Sara Gates | Posted: 10/16/13 EDT
Penumbral Lunar Eclipse 2013: Earth’s Shadow To Fall On Full Moon On Friday, Oct. 18
October’s full moon has a bonus in store for skywatchers this year.
A penumbral lunar eclipse — so called because only the incomplete outer portion of the Earth’s shadow, or penumbra, falls across the moon — is expected to reach its deepest point at 7:50 p.m. ET on Friday, Oct. 18.
Unlike total eclipses, in which Earth’s umbra — the central region of its shadow — darkens the moon entirely, a penumbral lunar eclipse involves only a slight dimming. Skywatchers should expect to see a much more subtle sight — with a shadow on the lower half of the full moon — like the eclipse pictured below. More from The Huffpost.
This is a quick, update post – Patsy’s has been reviewed before (there’s a link at the bottom of this post.) Pardon my grammar, the editor is otherwise indisposed, and I wanted to get this out there. Story by William Carbone
Patsy's Italian Restaurant
Patsy’s Italian Restaurant
3651 Navajo Street
Denver, CO 80211
(303) 477-8910
Mural in Patsy's dining room
Mural on the north-side-wall of Patsy’s: did someone tell me that an itinerant artist painted this mural for food and a room to sleep above the restaurant – or did I imagine this?
“With a history that spans more than 80 years, Patsy’s Italian Restaurant is Denver’s oldest Italian restaurant. Founded in 1921 by the Aiello family, Patsy’s has undergone a few changes over the years but the heart and soul of tradition have remained the same” read more…
One thing that hasn’t remained the same is the food. I’m laying down my cards here, saying that the food is getting better, probably better than anytime in Patsy’s long history – not that I’ve been around for all of those years. I’ve been enjoying the pasta since the 60s. That was when business-men in suits and ties, and secretaries with stiff-hair would drive up from downtown Denver to lunch. So what’s new besides transplants moving into the Lower Highlands neighborhood and joining long-time locals who have been returning to the restaurant, week after week, since the days when Patsy’s was in the center of *Denver’s Little Italy?
It’s 2013, tons of sophisticated transplants are moving to the Lower Highlands and diners are generally becoming more hip to the nuances of restaurants/food. Someone at Patsy’s is doing a good job raising the bar. That would (most) probably be (a relative of Chubby Aiello, the original owner) Ron Cito, and Kim Delancey, the current owners.
The homemade noodles and the other traditional Italian dishes have always been good. The soups, salads and desserts, always good. The bar has always been impeccably, vintage cool.
The food – though still based in tradition – has become more sophisticated. The marinara sauce has been jacked-up, jacked-up with garlic. Owner Ron Cito shared his secret of the great, gastronomic, garlic flavor: he steams the garlic. Other food items are more subtly seasoned, and there are, in addition to standard, old-school favorites, new creative dishes on the menu.
This, in my opinion, is Patsy’s signature dish: Homemade Spaghetti with meatball or sausage, served with soup or salad and bread ($10.75.)
The elegant Italian Fried (Ruby) Trout served with garlic cream spaghetti, soup or salad and bread ($13.75.)
What else is new? The restaurant itself is a time-capsule from the 1920s, definitely not new. The owners and staff are new. The service is generally good, sometimes it’s a notch above good. We do miss “Sherrie,” who was a real asset to the business.
*In the late 1800s and the first half or so of the 1900s the area in Denver between Broadway and Zuni Streets on the east and west and 46th and 32nd Avenues on the north and south was known as “Little Italy”. It was an area of Italian grocery stores and bakeries, community bread ovens, churches, and schools; an area where a new wave of immigrants from all over Italy moved to and where they were comfortable and socially secure in this new country read more…
In my mind way up on top of that pedestal those irresistible, slinky, rock & roll back-up singers never seem to get the credit they deserve.Carolyn Leonhart (aka Lyn Leon)
From ALuckyDogLife.Blogsotop.Com
“Did I mention that Steely Dan is a favorite? Or that I have a thing for red leather? And that I always seem to focus on the female backup singers as much as the star of the show when attending a concert ? I’m working on that with my shrink” Well, check out the middle backup singer in the Kid Charlemagne video below. Red leather pants and a rock babe attitude. Oh my. You get to enjoy a great song, too. [Sorry I don’t have the other gals names in this song.]
From LVBC:
She is the great back-up, girl singer/singer Caroline Leonheart-Escoffery with features as fine as wisps of smoke, who moves like gentle ocean waves, and who blooms like a flower at Steely Dan’s live shows and elsewhere. A singer in her own right, she has soothed us with so many righteous STEELY DAN SONGS.
Here she is taking the lead on the soulful DIRTY WORK singing with the other Embassy Brats: Cindy Mizelle, and Catherine Russell.
Walter Becker introduces the band, including Caroline Leonheart-Escoffery and Cindy Mizelle on Steely Dan – Hey nineteen Live
The Embassy Brats are:Carolyn Leonhart, Cindy Mizelle, and Catherine Russell.
The beyond fine drumming on Kid Charlemagne by Bernard “Pretty” Purdie. And the ridiculously out-of this-world guitar solo is by rock virtuoso, Larry Carlton, I think.
Bucks begin to grow new antlers at this time. This full Moon was also known as the Thunder Moon, because thunderstorms are so frequent during this month.
Comments Needed for Cibola-Trigo Environmental Assessment
Dear Wild Horse & Burro Supporters;
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages wild burro herds at disastrously low numbers throughout the West. One of the few viable burro herds lives in the immense Cibola-Trigo Herd Management Area (HMA) in southwestern Arizona along the Colorado River—a 600,000 acre area.
Yet, even here, burros are in danger. The inept Sun J roundup crew is set to swoop into their peaceful desert home in early April, the height of the foaling time for burros.* Pregnant jennies are in danger of spontaneous abortion and small foals can be permanently damaged or killed.
350 burros will lose their freedom—roughly half the herd.
Even worse, the BLM plan calls for capturing and gelding 50 males and releasing them back to the range. Returning geldings into a reproducing wild herd would set a deadly precedent. There are no studies that measure the potential damage to a society of wild burros (or horses). From a behavioral standpoint, geldings have no role in either a wild horse or wild burro herd.
BLM rejects the use of dartable infertility drugs saying they have not been tested on wild burros, yet they opt for surgically sterilizing jack burros. In fact, PZP was successfully tested on the U.S. Virgin Islands wild burro herd in 1996.
BLM states in their EA “at no time should cryptorchid jacks be released back into an HMA.” The EA continues saying that they will be “shipped to a BLM facility for appropriate surgery or euthanasia (emphasis added) if it is determined they cannot be fully castrated.” If the jack is a full cryptrorchid (two undescended testicles), it is likely sterile, yet will display all the natural behaviors of an intact male. By allowing these jacks to remain on the range, BLM could avail themselves of a natural form of population control.
To justify removing half the burro herd, BLM cites a high adoption demand for burros. (If this reasoning holds true, then BLM should immediately cease the removal of any more wild horses from their homes on the range!)
Below are suggested points to make in your letters. Please use your own polite words.
Comments must be submitted by Tuesday, February 28th, no later than the close of business at 4:30 PM Mountain Time. If you feel like a little light bedtime reading, you can read the EA here.
Comments can be submitted via mail to:
John MacDonald, Field Manager
BLM Yuma Field Office
2555 E. Gila Ridge Rd
Yuma, AZ 85365
Or via email at: BLM_AZ_YM_WHB@blm.gov – with “Cibola-Trigo EA Comments” in the subject line.
Dear Sir;
Select the No Action Alternative
Conduct an accurate, current census using the most up-to-date technology
Consider other methods of population control (PZP)
Return cryptorchid jacks to the range as natural population control
Do not kill healthy burros for any reason
Consider capture methods other than a helicopter roundup (bait and water trapping)
Do not run small foals and pregnant jennies with a helicopter
Do not geld the jacks and do not release gelded jacks into the herd area
Do not threaten the social dynamics of a wild burro society by returning geldings to the range
Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement before taking the drastic sterilization actions outlined in this EA
Do not skew the sex ratio
Do not remove any elder animals
Do not use our tax dollars to conduct this costly roundup
Sincerely,
[Your name]
*Burros are polyestrous and foal throughout the year in the American southwest, but the documented height of the foaling period is March and April according to international expert and CITES representative for asses, Patricia Moehlman.
The Moon will be 100% full: January 9, 2:32 A.M. Las Vegas time.
From the Old Farmer’s Almanac Full Moon Names
January is the month of the Full Wolf Moon. It appeared when wolves howled in hunger outside the villages. It is also known as the Old Moon. To some Native American tribes, this was the Snow Moon, but most applied that name to the next full Moon, in February.
From Western Washington University
American Indians gave names to each of the full moons to keep track of the passing year. The names are associated with the entire month until the next full moon occurs. Since a lunar month averages 29 days, the dates of the moons change from year to year. Here are titles most closely associated with calendar months.
BACK EAST
Cherokee – East Coast, Carolinas Cherokee Woman
In the Cherokee language the word for January’s moon is unolvtana or cold moon.
OUT WEST
Hopi – Southwest, Arizona Vision Quest - generic photo
In the Hopi language the word for January’s moon is paamuya or moon of life at it’s height.
by Fortune Valley Hotel Guitar - Photo by Jeffrey V. Smith
The drive up was easy, the drive down was a bit dicey for a minute, due to the snow that hit this little mountain town last night around midnight, so I’ve heard. I actually was there but I was in the room by midnight watching the tube and eating a Brooklyn Panini ($5.95) consisting of meatballs with marinara and a slice of cheese on Panini bread, brushed with butter, and toasted in that special panini-press. Included for the $5.95 are chips and soda. I normally don’t do a lot of these but I guess it’s called Panini bread.
I received a brochure with two free-money coupons and a coupon for a free room from the Fortune Valley Hotel Casino in Central City, Colorado two weeks ago. I made a reservation for Wednesday the 30th of November. One cash coupon was for November, the other for December. So I cashed one in Wednesday night, the other the following day, Thursday the 1st of December.
Fortune Valley Hotel Casino in Central City, Colorado - Colorado Casinos.net
This wasn’t my favorite hotel in the Central City/Black Hawk area – in fact it was one of my least favorite of the larger hotel/casinos on the mountain.
Fortune Valley has undergone a makeover.
The first clue was the slick technicolor, coupon-brochure that I got in the mail. It was first-rate, first-class. The images were crisp with vibrant colors, attractive people, lots of blue – the color – and guitars. The guitars representing the (brand) new theme of the hotel – Rock & Roll! Resplendent with dozens of guitars: hanging, in cases with other rock memorabilia and positioned here and there. Having owned an easy dozen guitars over the years, of course, guitars attract me. 60s and 70s rock posters of Jimi Hendrix, The Stones et-al, an exact replica of Peter Fonda’s “Captain America” bike from one of my favorite movies, Easy Rider, as well as other motorcycles and other hip eye-candy all work – to some degree – to create a warm(er) ambiance. Definitely an improvement over the last incarnation. Mirrors on the ceiling would raise the – somewhat stifling – low ceiling, raising the virtual headroom. Listening management? Ceiling mirrors would double the warmth/lighting factor of the casino (check out The Peppermill in Reno). If mirroring the entire ceiling would be cost-prohibitive maybe patches of mirrored ceiling would help.
My remaining problem with the casino is with the video/slot machines. It’s not easy finding a straight $.01/.05/.10/.25 Video Poker or Keno or Black Jack etc. machine. Most of the machines are of the new breed: Cartoon Video Machines. It’s not easy maintaining a serious Vegas Vibe with childish cartoon figures everywhere. But maybe that’s just me. How about more freek’n artistic machine-graphics? How about adult images? Not as in porn, but as in grown-up.
Aside from the gaming issues, my comments will address the basics. The hotel/gaming areas have a new energy. The look of that energy is warm, colorful and qualitative. The rock memorabilia, guitars, new blue lights, carpet and whatever else I might not have noticed contribute to a thumbs up for the makeover. I’ll return, but probably not to gamble. I’ll play my nickle 10-5 Video-Poker Bonus game at Ameristar, and I’ll play $.05 Multi-Card Keno at Ameristar and $.01 Multi-Card Keno at The Gilpin Hotel. I’ll return for the vibe, and try the other food outlets. In addition to the little shop where I got the Panini they have a small (one-trip, I think) buffet and a pizza area as well as what looks like a first-rate restaurant, Ardore”s “A Tuscan Steakhouse and Wine Experience” with what appears to be a vast wine store. Also the Guitar Bar seems to be a good place to hang out. There was a beauty sitting at the bar last night around 8:00 P.M. I didn’t but I’ll have to taste the video-poker machines on the bar top.
The hotel room (thanks Fortune Valley) was more welcoming than I remember from my last trip to FV. I remember that last room (from three years ago) as somewhat garish with garden green wall-paper and miscellaneous things that were off-putting. This trip, the room was nicely appointed with a basic black, grey and off-white theme with one wall and a huge matching pillow in yellow. There was a flat-screen on the wall, a small fridge, a desk and a very nice, new bathroom with a hair dryer. A little coffee machine was ready at the entrance.
Fortune Valley's Guitar Bar - Photo by Jeffrey V. Smith
The moon will be 100% full Thursday, September 23, 2010 at 4:18 A.M. Las Vegas time.
From Western Washington University:
“American Indians gave names to each of the full moons to keep track of the passing year. The names are associated with the entire month until the next full moon occurs. Since a lunar month averages 29 days, the dates of the moons change from year to year. Here are titles most closely associated with calendar months.”
Back East Abenaki Children
Abenaki – Northeast, Maine
In the Abenaki language, the name for the September moon is “skamonkas” or “corn maker moon.”
Out West Pueblo Girl
Pueblo – Southwest, New Mexico
The Pueblo people refer to the September moon as the “moon when the corn is taken in.” No name is given for the September moon in the Pueblo language.
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