Category Archives: Family

Memphis, Tennessee

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Since I’m encouraging vacation travel on a budget, I’ll rerun part of a previous post I wrote a while back.

If you’re looking to hear the blues, Memphis is the town.

Looking to savor the sweet taste of BBQ? Memphis is a good choice.

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A word about Beale Street–I was expecting something similar to Bourbon Street in New Orleans, but Beale Street is much shorter, only extends about a block or two. Therefore, it doesn’t have as many shops, but what it lacks in shopping, it makes up for in good food and fantastic music. The entire time spent on Beale Street is a party for the senses.

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There is one important fact to know about BBQ, it comes “wet” or “dry.” At the Pig On Beale, you can order your ribs with a dry rub. Take it from me, if you’re ever at the Pig, dry is the way to go.

The final Memphis highlight that I will touch on has a lot of “soul.”

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photo from

We only had time to visit one museum and, boy, did we make a good choice–STAX. Museum, with just the right mixture of history, made for a memorable visit.

There are bus tours galore that will take you to Graceland, if you yearn to see the King’s home. We ran out of time.

New York, New York

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The Big Apple

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When you read that title, New York, New York, tell the truth, didn’t you automatically hear the lyrics in your head? I can almost picture a line of dancers kicking up their heels in unison at the Radio City Music Hall.

New York City is the next city on my countdown for vacationing on a budget and where to do it in the U.S. To be absolutely honest, New York City is pricey, but when compared to hopping a plane abroad, it’s a real bargain. It has everything, including the most diverse cross-section of ethnicity in this country.

How does one describe the city that never sleeps?

I’m just going to tick off  “some” of the things you will find in NYC.

  • Central Park, which encompasses the Central Park Zoo, the Central Park Conservatory Garden, (2) Ice-Skating Rinks,  and an outdoor Theatre in the Park. (If you’re a birder–Central Park is your own personal heaven.)
  • Statue of Liberty
  • Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, Rockefeller Center
  • Chinatown
  • Harlem
  • Broadway (You haven’t experienced a play until you’ve seen one on Broadway)
  • Museums (My favorite–Metropolitan Museum of Art– you can spend days there and still not see it all) There are loads of other museums, though. Another popular museum is MoMA, Museum of Modern Art
  • Times Square (If you visit, be sure to grab a burger at the McDonald’s at Times Square. You won’t believe your eyes.)
  • Greenwich Village
  • The Garment District

There’s more, but the list would go on and on into infinity. Suffice it to say, every neighborhood has something new and different to offer and you can see it all because cabs are at your beck and call day or night.

And there is actually one freebie in NYC. The Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museums are free on Friday evenings. Not bad!

I’ll close by reminding you that shopping in New York is phenomenal. Bring some extra cash.

Philadelphia, PA

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Sculling on the Schuykill

If you’re vacationing in the U.S., Philadelphia is a good choice. It’s got a little bit of everything: history, art, sports, Broadway-caliber theaters, nightlife and great food.

It’s an historic city. Just a handfull of sites you can visit: Independence Hall, Betsy Ross House, the Liberty Bell, the Mint, although they don’t give away any of the money.

It houses some great art: Philadelphia Museum of Art, Rodin Museum, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Norman Rockwell Museum, and the little known, Mutter Museum. They call this museum “disturbingly informative, heh, heh–the kids will love it–skulls and body parts.

Speaking of kids, a visit to Philadelphia isn’t complete without a trip to the Franklin Institute. Actually the adults enjoy it, too. A little bit of science about every conceivable subject, even sports. And the Philadelphia Zoo is a must.

If you’re into sports, Philadelphia is a real sports town. Their professional teams: Phillies (baseball), Eagles (football), Flyers (ice hockey), and 76ers (basketball). If you’re more interested in water sports, go down to Boathouse Row along the Schuykill River. On weekends, you can see the scullers practicing on the river and if you’re lucky enough to be in town for one of the big regattas, all the better. You can even take a sculling lesson or two yourself, if you have a mind to.

If you plan to visit, the best places to stay are in Center City. South Broad Street has the best hotels and they’re all a short cab ride to all the trendy haunts, theaters and tourist spots.

And NEVER, NEVER visit Philly without sampling an honest-to-goodness cheesesteak. Lord, that’s something not to be missed.

San Antonio, Texas

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Photo From

In keeping with my suggestion that you vacation in the good ole’ USA, here is another suggestion.

If you want to visit a city that has something for everyone, San Antonio, Texas fills the bill. When I visited, I stayed at a hotel located on the RiverWalk, so I could exit the hotel and stroll along the cobbled path that winds along the San Antonio River. There are lots of shops and restaurants along the way.

My best experience while in San Antonio included a stop at the IMAX Theatre to see the story of the Alamo. Next I walked across the street and toured the Alamo. If you happen to visit in the month of March, a reenactment of the battle is performed on the Plaza.

Other attractions include: SeaWorld, Six Flags, McNay Art Museum, Tower of the Americas, Loads of Golf Courses, and while I was there I found some interesting Antique Shops.

Like I said, something for everyone.

Good For The Waistline, Good For The Pocketbook, Too

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cheeseburger

It’s time to cut out some of the fast food drop-ins on your way home from work. Notice I say some, because there are days when you’re just too tired to cook, or you don’t have time to cook, or you’ve got to have a greasy cheeseburger, no matter what!

On those days when there’s no getting around it, be prepared. It doesn’t have to be a fast food burger. I buy a pound of ground beef, but instead of freezing it, I shape it into four burgers (very simple–nothing whatsoever added to it). Those individually wrapped burgers are always in my freezer. I freeze burger buns, too. Instant meal!

And if you want to make it healthier, smother every burger with tomato, lettuce, pickle, onion and a little cheese. The more lettuce, the better. It adds crunch.

Another thing you might want to consider is, once the kitchen is cleaned after dinner, put up the “Closed” sign. I don’t mean literally, but I remember my mother wiped and dried her kitchen sink. She shined the faucet and folded the towel and, believe me, you didn’t mess up her sink after that. It was her way of closing the kitchen for the night. It was a good policy. No one in our family had a weight problem back then.

And, incidentally, if you want to read a book about losing weight the fun way, try reading a book written by Janice Taylor titled All Is Forgiven, Move On. I mention her book because one of her suggestions is to close your kitchen at 9:20 p.m. every night.  My mom was doing that back in the 50’s.

Janice also has some nifty charts, some great recipes and motivation ideas for getting healthy and staying that way.

You might also want to visit Janice’s site http://ourladyofweightloss.com/ It’s an interesting read.

Ghosts, Candy & Hitting Up The Drunks

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Back in the day, Halloween was sheer delight. No one worried about razors in apples, or the safety of the streets. Parents stayed at home and gave out candy. Kids went door to door showing off their costumes. (most homemade using a bit of ingenuity.)

Every year, after the trick or treating was over for the younger set, my mother circled around to the back of our house and returned through our front door dressed as a ghost, screeching and making sounds that I guess she figured a ghost might make. My father and I  always made quite a fuss until the ghost disappeared out through the back of the house again. A few minutes later, my mother would reappear, usually coming up from the basement steps. (Sheet stowed away for another year.)

We didn’t receive mini bars of candy, either. Full-size candy bars were the order of the day.

And nobody frowned about teenagers coming around for treats later in the evening. If people ran out of candy, they dropped nickels in the bags. Neighborhood stores stayed open and gave out great treats, and when I became one of those teenagers, my friends and I always stopped in at the local bar. We thought of it as “hitting up the drunks” (My mother would’ve passed out if she knew.) But the drunks handed out some A-#1 largesse. They’d take change off the bar, usually a lot more than a nickel, and drop it into our bags. They actually liked being included in the fun and asked about our costumes and laughed and joked with us.

Those were the days.

What Does Chewing Gum & A Mental Disorder Have In Common?

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I guess I’m stuck in some frivolous time warp because this week I’m going to discuss chewing gum. Did you know that if you want to chew gum nowadays, most of the gum on the market contains aspartame? This applies to all chewing gums, not only sugar-free gum.

The reason I’ve singled out chewing gum is because if I chew gum that contains aspartame, my tongue develops small, painful cuts. After many months of wondering where these cuts were coming from, I finally realized it was the aspartame in the chewing gum. So, here’s the problem if you happen to like chewing gum. Try to find some that contain no aspartame–Chiclets and Big Red are the only ones I’ve found. That’s it!

Considering what aspartame does to my tongue, it got me thinking what it could be doing to one’s stomach.

This from a blog written by The Enlightened Homemaker

High intake of the artificial sweetener aspartame may lead to the degeneration of brain cells and various mental disorders, according to a research review conducted by South African scientists from the University of Pretoria and the University of Limpopo and published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

That is definitely a whole lot worse than my little bitty tongue problem. So, it’s time to rethink your thoughtless ingestion of aspartame. Cut back, or cut out entirely. Read the labels, even if the product is not low-cal, because my tongue problem pales in comparison to what could be happening.

There are many other scientific studies being conducted on aspartame. More than I care to list here. But in regards to chewing gum, perhaps Italian artist Maurizio Savini is making the best use of chewing gum. He sculpts with it.

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“Dumbfounded” by Matt Rothschild

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Before I even started reading this memoir, I had to chuckle over the Author’s Note. Matt wrote:

“I’m not going to feed you that same old baloney about how memory is imperfect…The truth is that while everything in this book happened, it didn’t always happen the way I say it did. Sometimes I changed names or descriptions of people and places. Big deal. Sometimes I altered chronology…made people look foolish when they weren’t so foolish, made people look good when they were fools…–I know you’ll love this one–said things happened in one place when they really happened somewhere else. Okay, so maybe that is a big deal…Some of this stuff is damn funny and some of it’s tragic. Just don’t take the window dressing too literally.”

I suppose Oprah would have apoplexy over that statement. It had the opposite effect on me. I wanted to read more.

You don’t expect a book written by a Jewish fellow to start off with a chapter involving Santa Claus, but this one does. The first chapter is titled Why I Don’t Believe In Santa Claus and it has nothing whatsoever to do with religion. As a matter of fact, Matt didn’t even know he was Jewish until he was in the second grade.

Abandoned as an infant by his mother, Matt was raised by his grandparents, while their daughter, his mother, chose to hobnob across Europe. If this makes the book sound like a tearjerker, pack that notion away. Although some chapters are poignant, for the most part, the book is fresh, humorous and, at times, uproarious.

His grandfather, who was a genteel, aristocratic gentleman, had the good luck to marry a woman who was a real firecracker. She jokingly referred to the Rothschild family as a crazy cult. Speaking to her husband, she made remarks like:

“…your cult’s had so much shock therapy that if they held hands, they could provide enough electricity to power New York City.”

Getting to know Matt’s grandmother through his eyes is an unforgettable trip you won’t want to miss.

Peppered throughout the memoir are other fascinating characters–Elaine, who once convinced him that since they spent so much money in FAO Schwartz they should be entitled to some free gifts, The Petty Thieves.  His short association with a reclusive old woman living in his building, who hadn’t been seen by any of her neighbors in thirty years, Greta Garbo Lives Next Door, leaves you wistful, wishing he had time to find out more about her.  And there was his third-grade teacher, Ms. Wood, who delighted in giving him D’s on his papers, which he hid from his grandparents until they were eventually found, All in the D’s. His grandmother didn’t pull any punches that day,

“Oh, Matthew, what the hell are these?”                                                            .

Although this book is written by a person who lived just steps away from the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Fifth Avenue, you never get the impression that it’s from the perspective of a rich kid. If anything, you feel Matt didn’t even realize he was rich until he reached puberty. (That’s another amusing story to read about).

What makes this memoir beautiful is that it is honest, in spite of what Matt tells you in the Author’s Note. His writing is witty, sincere, unerringly compassionate, hilarious and totally entertaining. Pick up this book; it’s a memorable read.

[Goodnight, Mr. Newman. We loved you.]

DO NOT Keep a Diary

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About a week ago, I sent an email out to several friends asking them to share a favorite childhood memory with me. Many of those who replied were the same people who have been telling me they can’t write.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know I strongly feel everyone should be writing something –anything– so that the only thing one leaves behind isn’t just ashes. What would be the point of your being here if that’s all you leave?

Don’t even think about keeping a diary. Because you probably won’t. However, having a notebook sitting on an end table, a pretty one with flowers or something on the cover, might be just the thing. If it’s there, maybe you’ll write in it once in a while. I guarantee someone from the future will thank you for it.

From time to time, I’ll show some of the responses I received to my question. The ones I’ve chosen to share today probably took a mere five minutes (if that) for the respondents to write.

Here’s one from Judy H. It’s only two sentences long, but it says a lot about how kids entertained themselves before computers, and about the lack of crime in our neighborhoods.

I think my favorite childhood memories were playing games in the street – like “giant step” and neighborhood games like “Cops and Robbers”. Those were the days when you could run around the neighborhood without being afraid.

This one is from Judy C. Again, very few sentences. This one is a whopping three sentences. Who knew before there were Good Humor trucks, there were Good Humor bikes?

Let’s, see, I think it would be when my grandfather was a VP with Good Humor. I used to visit the warehouse where all the Good Humor Ice Cream bicycles were kept and riding them around the warehouse, not to mention eating the Good Humor ice cream birthday cakes he used to have made for me. Wow, that was a looooooooooooonng time ago!!

It doesn’t get much more succinct than this from Denise O.

When my sister ;o) got me Tony the Pony
>Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox LOVE THAT TONY!!!

For the record, Denise is my sister and I bought the Tony the Pony for her birthday when she was four or five years old. Tony is a legend in our family. But who would know the story of Tony if we didn’t write about him?

Trust me, you need to buy yourself a notebook.

Things My Mother Told Me

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My mother would say to me,”Don’t spray cologne on your neck.”

Here’s her rationale. The skin under your chin, the “front” of your neck, is thin, delicate skin. It is one of the first places where people show their age. Since the first ingredient in cologne is alcohol, this is NOT a good thing to spray on your neck year after year after year. Her advice–spritz a little to the “back” of your neck, your wrists and the inside of your elbows.

This was another of her favorites.  “Is there any reason why you have to look in the mirror at yourself while you brush your teeth?”

At the time, this seemed a little peevish to me, but I wasn’t the one cleaning off the tiny specks of dried toothpaste off the mirror. I am now. I don’t look into the mirror while brushing anymore.

Here’s another. “Always make sure you have money in your purse.”

Notice she didn’t say a “dime” (which way back when, that’s how much it cost to make a phone call in case of an emergency). She meant “real” money. To this day, I never leave the house with less than $10.00. And I have experienced my share of little emergencies when I was glad I had that money with me. Especially one night after midnight, when I got a flat tire and a good samaritan stopped and changed it for me. I forced that $10.00 on him, he didn’t want to take it, but I had it to give, and at 1:00 a.m. in the morning, I wished it could’ve been more.

She had some kooky ones, too. “Always make your bed in the morning.”

This had to do with one of her many “what if” scenarios. What if you went to work and there was a fire, (The firemen would see my unmade bed?) or what if you forgot something at home and had to send someone to your house to fetch it for you. (They would look through my house mainly to see if my bed was made?) Believe me, she had several more freaky reasons why my bed should me made, but I think she just liked the idea of a home that was always in order. This was her way of scaring me into being orderly.

Evidently, she was not alone with this last piece of motherly advice. I have friends whose mothers told them the same thing. “Always wear clean underwear.”

I will spare you the “what if” scenarios that go along with this one.

Many people recall insightful advice they’ve received from a parent. The young mother over at Verlanderville remembers an admonition from her mother.

Growing up, my mother told us that we were not allowed to use the word hate for things like vegetables, songs, people, etc.  She said that it was a very strong word and that we should only use it for things like sin, injustice, math, etc.

Clearly, dads can give good advice, too. See Mom & A Microphone

It was my 7-year-old’s first flag football game of the season. I was secretly dreading it, since my mother and father were always sitting on the sidelines at Griffin’s games, cheering him on. This year, Dad wouldn’t be there. Dad was Griffin’s biggest fan. Last season, when I expressed concern that I “wasn’t sure this was his strongest sport,” Dad told me, “be patient. He’ll get better with time.” And just like all the other advice my father has given me, he was right.

Makes you smile, doesn’t it?