"If it ain't broke"

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.  My hats off to whoever coined this phrase.  It should be hanging over every engineer’s and designer’s desk as a reminder.  If your company is hounding you to perform with the talent you wrote about in your resume, please do so, but don’t monkey with stuff that already is working quite well for me.

For example:  Since Marge and I have a salad almost every day for dinner so I am quite familiar with the dressings available in the market and have a few favorites I use on a regular basis, but always willing to try others.  Recently I was attracted to a bottle of Italian dressing by Kraft that was plastered with labels that told me it was “New”.  Ok, time to try because my beautiful salad and precisely timed dinner was waiting for the application of this new delight.  Well, easier said than done.  Some idiot decided to wrap the top with some sort of indestructible plastic.  All I wanted to do was release the little flip top and taste my new found dressing.  I tried to turn it to break the seal. No luck.  Well, let’s see if my fingernail will do it.  Still no luck.  I next tried plyers.  You guessed it, no luck.  Ahah!  I think I may be able to use a razor knife.  Even that was still unable to remove the now famous indestructible plastic.  Took the razor knife and slit it across the top tab…….success finally.  I flipped the top and prepared to pour it on my now wilting greenery.

Wait!  I see another problem.  Since I usually have a bunch of bottles of dressing with small amounts in them, quite often I remove the top plastic tab and combine several of the partial accumulated dressings so to create a brand new culinary delight.  Mr. “New” design won’t let me do it using this bottle.  The same idiot, I have no doubts, decided to widen the top insert and also made the pouring hole bigger…I guess he decided it wasn’t coming out fast enough.

I know it’s silly for me to get pissed over such a small event, but there are many other examples of changes being made that are not improvements to the item or function.  I did, however, think of one recent change that I can soundly applaud.  The change has probably saved me a great deal of future arthritic pain in the fingers of my right hand  With my recent vehicle purchase I no longer need to worry about things like carpel tunnel syndrome due to the significant strain created by turning the key to start my car….what a relief.  It’s been a real concern for me over the years and I can’t tell you how excited I am to merely push that big button and hear the engine engage.  I wonder what my dealer will charge if a replacement is needed.  You had to figure there would at least be a little sarcasm in the blog.

I could really go on and on, such as the fact that there are probably many starving seniors because they are unable to open containers of food…..all caused by the bastard that poisoned Tylenol bottles years ago.  Packaging might be my Blog’s next bitch.

Till then, I remain your least important author.

Thanks for reading

Bill

I LOVE GREEK FOOD

I’m sitting here at the computer for the second time today attempting to create a blog entry.  This morning I really had one going.  Typed up an extensive paragraph on the subject of food.  It was called “I LOVE GREEK FOOD”.  I was merrily rolling along until something horrible happened.  I pressed the wrong key and deleted the entire work.  Not the worst thing to happen if I had saved my work.  As you will probably agree, not saving as you go along is careless and really stupid.  Even now in the afternoon, trying again, I’m still kicking myself in the ass.  Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Ok, back to the drawing board.  I was introduced to Greek food many years ago in that great Canadian city, Montreal.  A manufacturer in the small town of Mariesville, near Montreal invited me annually to visit their factory.  Their generous invitations also included overnight stays in a marvelous hotel and dinner at a fine restaurants in Montreal.  Of all the restaurants I have been to in Montreal one called Milos became my absolute favorite. Milos specialized in the freshest seafood I had ever eaten.  Fish like red snapper and sea bass were flown in daily from a select fisherman and grilled to perfection in a simple Greek fashion.  Swordfish came from the Aegean Sea and tomatoes for Greek salad were from Israel.  Deep sea lobsters as large as six pounds were from Nova Scotia. It took only one visit to open my pallet and fall in love with Greek food.  It appears that many others feel the same way since Milos now has other locations in New York City, Athens, Las Vegas, Miami, and London.

How do I replicate the great taste I experienced at Milos?  These cities are not very close to Southington and a trip to Milos also takes a very large bite out of your eating out budget.  A few years ago Marge and I were on a cruise going to Turkey and Greece that included stops at some of the islands like Santorini and Mykonos.  One day I was browsing thru Yelp looking at restaurants and discovered that there was a Greek restaurant in Newington, Ct called Mykonos.  After a peek at their menu I was elated to find that this was a local place that would surely solve my yen for Greek food.

Have been there few times now and have really enjoyed the food and the service.  My visit there this week once again did not disappoint. Our food choices for this visit were:

Arnaoutti - Fire roasted sweet peppers, served with skordalia 

Loukaniko - Grilled horiatiko, Greek sausage

Greek Prasini Salad - Lettuce, fresh green onion, fresh dill and feta with olive oil and lemon.
                            

Gyro Pita served with tomatoes, tzatziki, onion, parsley

 

I’m getting bad, another broken promise. No bitching and moaning again in my blog.  I must be getting a little too mellow.  I guess I’ll have to go back to my old standby bitches, television, restaurants, modern packaging etc, etc, etc.

Not a Bad Idea

Many years ago, sometime in the fifties, on October 1st,  Marge and I were blessed with the birth of the first of four children, a beautiful little girl we ended up calling Mary Ann.  Right after I wrote this opening sentence, I came to realize that my thoughts were beginning to wander and I began to think about the many things that occurred over the years that made her who she is today.  I stopped because this could easily turn into a biography, and I'm so not ready for that, at least not after a substantial dinner and eyes that are anxious to close for a brief nap.

Several years ago Mary Ann decided that it would be more appropriate to commemorate her birthday by having flowers sent to her Mother, that nice woman that brought her into the world.  So every October 1st, answering the doorbell will expose a florist bearing a beautiful floral arrangement. This year I had the pleasure answering the doorbell and bringing Mary Ann's thoughtful gift to her Mother.

I know, I promised "bitches" in my next blog.........I promise again, later this week.