Most of the Euro places get contaminated by California and avoid the “good stuff”.
Louisiana cooking requires the local fixings that don’t ship well, and should never be frozen. It takes years to create a good iron skillet and many of the spices are local only. One of my neighbors was from Louisiana and she tried growing her own fixings, but it wasn’t the same, they lacked that Mississippi muck in the soil.
]]>Still haven’t found a decent Louisiana-style eatery. Going to have to get my fill during the Thanksgiving vacation break, I guess…
]]>The Bay area has some good Russian and Asian places, but New York covers everywhere.
Of course, you can’t really get Louisiana, except in Louisiana, but NYC has everything else.
]]>Ahhh… so is that why a taped conversation couldn’t normally be used as evidence? 😉
One thing that truly amazed me in NYC is how the city suddenly changed when night fell (or so it seemed to me anyway!) During the day, the doorman at the Sheraton was a very polite and smiling middle aged guy who was obviously part of the foundations of the place, and only the outer doors were closed (but unlocked). Come night, the doorman became the Hulk with piercing eyes and no smile, and both inner and outer doors were closed. Our LEO guide said that if I really wanted to go for a walk (I mentioned that I was nocturnal by nature and enjoyed prowling) in the evening, I should look crazier than everyone else, and I’d probably be OK! I reminded him I was carrying a licensed Glock 17. And he gave me the hardest look that promised much and that I’d be way better off staying in my room! (Do LEO’s in the USA get trained to do that BTW? Or is that just normal NYC street experience?) I said that he shouldn’t worry. I’d never needed to use my weapon and didn’t even want it, but I had no choice. I was trained to take care of problems quickly and simply with minimal injury to anyone. And he just grunted and gave me a sideways look that I interpreted to mean “Good luck with that in NYC at night!”. 😀 I liked him and promised I’d be smart and stay out of trouble. And he just smiled. 🙂
Then we went to Blooms for the 2nd time!! He introduced me to Matzo (He called it that, I discovered at Blooms it was Matzah Ball) soup! It reminded me of my training where we’d been taught that the way a field op survives is to keep mouth shut and eyes and ears open until one learns the local customs, mannerisms and way of speaking. Little things can get one in big trouble. 😉
I enjoyed NYC actually. 🙂 Though my fave place of all (that I visited) would have to be Santa Cruz. I even planned to maybe live there one day (many years ago!) 🙂
]]>It was my first trip to NYC, and the LEO was meeting us at JFK and taking us to the Sheraton (I hadn’t realised until we arrived that it was on Times Square which annoyed me actually as I prided myself on doing good research before a trip. I knew it was was on the corner of 51st & 7th.) It was at that point that I asked the LEO to take me on a tour, and explained why. We had time before we were due to meet the CG at the Aus Consulate on E42nd (I remember that because whenevr I thought about the NY Consul, it always reminded me of HHGTTG, of course!) 😉 Anyway, I apologised for him having to provide taxi service and assured him it wasn’t our idea. After a brief silence he said that if we ever had to get a cab from JFK and we wanted to arrive with luggage and ourselves intact (to which I snorted and smiled), we should follow these rules:
1. Never take expensive or new luggage,
2. Always check the driver’s ID,
3. Keep the luggage with us and if we must put it in the trunk, to ensure that the luggage was removed before payment, or give a sufficiently large tip to ensure the cab doesn’t take off with the luggage.
And welcome to NYC! 😆
The next day after discussing lunch, the LEO introduced us to Blooms! And I am forever grateful! 😀 (Lady Min can tell you how much I love a good deli and/or bakery! Mmmmmmmmmmmmm…
]]>The senior officials in the NYPD all want to be Bernie Kerik, well, up to the point where he was indicted.
It’s not as bad in the smaller jurisdictions, but it’s still political.
It’s also the reason there hasn’t been a lot of push back on dashcams in police cars. If he had a video of the arrest, there wouldn’t be any way of pulling off that crap that wouldn’t involve seeing that video on the local news if it was attempted.
I didn’t have a video, but I did have a small cassette recorder that went with me everywhere, you know, in case there was some doubt about what happened 😈 .
]]>*shrug* way it is.
]]>I hated to argue over what I charged with people who were paying their kid’s tennis coach $50/hour.
]]>I would have put it down to an excess of bile.
]]>