Category: Orphans

Since I have nothing better to do today I should not feel bad that I spent most of the afternoon listening to the various, wonderful tunes on Los Lobos’ Web site. So I am not feeling bad. Quite the contrary. I feel very uplifted that I sat for a couple of hours listening to songs off “Will The Wolf Survive,” “By the Light of the Moon,” and “Kiko” as well as “The Town and the City” and even “Acoustic En Vivo.”

Listening to Los Lobos songs is a little like taking a crash course in musical history. There is absolutely no doubt that this little band from East L.A. is first and foremost a rock and roll band. But they throw in the kitchen sink of styles and genre — jazz, blues, Tex-Mex, Cajun, various Latino styles and perhaps some types of music yet to be invented.

If there are regrets of mine they would include not having listened to enough Los Lobos, such as “Kiko” which is kind of like an East L.A. “Dark Side of the Moon.” Today was the first time I listened to “Kiko.” And I have to say it pretty much knocked my zapatos y calcetines off. There are definitely worst ways to spend a Sunday afternoon.

It is, sadly, predictable that something so putrid as the news the CIA destroyed video tapes on which questionable interrogation tactics could be found has surfaced. It is just one more instance of just how morally bankrupt is our current presidential administration. I would not expect the CIA under a George Orwellian W. Bush government to leave evidence lying around that might put some top governmental officials in the crosshairs of international war crimes tribunals. Hey, haven’t you heard? 9/11 is our excuse to act morally reprehensible in front of the rest of the world while we preach our perfection of democracy, with the littlest “d” possible. It’s a good thing that a lot of people who live in this country, such as myself, actually love our country. Because if we didn’t feel like this nation wasn’t worth saving we would be facing probably days much darker than those of the mid-19th century. Are matters really that serious facing our nation and its future place in the world? You bet your ass they are. And the quicker people start figuring that out and getting sick of the kind of crap we are letting the Bush regime get away with the faster we can once again be a nation that can truly hold up its head and make our world neighbors enviable instead of disgusted.

MITT

ROMNEY

BRIGHAM YOUNG

Mitt Romney’s speech at Aggieland USA this morning was hardly a JFK moment. But if I had it to do over again I sure would have liked to have been Mitt Romney’s dentist. I mean, does he have great teeth or what? And that hair. He out-hairs Rick Perry.

At least nine people are dead after a man opened fire in an Omaha, Neb., mall today. Included among the dead was the gunman.

While this is certainly sad and somewhat shocking to most people it is even more shocking that incidents of such nature don’t occur more often. A high body count can take place anywhere a high number of targets happen to gather. I’m not saying that to be callous or certainly not trying to be funny but rather I am stating a fact. And, especially during the Christmas season, people’s nerves are all on jagged edges and they may occasionally fall over those edges. You never know when someone is going to snap and if he or she has a gun when that break happens, then Katy bar the door. Or rather, Katy hide behind the door.

Having spent three days in the VA hospital last week plus hearing of this latest mass shooting raises a thought I have had time and again. It is that I am amazed more people don’t go over the edge and shoot up their local VA hospital or clinic. You have people — both patients and workers — who may have serious mental health issues and veterans who are VA patients may sometime get treated like the worst piece of s**t on your shoe in such facilities. Perhaps the fact that most VA facilities now have armed police may act as a deterrent but I kind of doubt that would deter someone who really wanted to light up the place.

I hope my biggest hopes that nothing of that sort happens at a VA hospital or clinic. But some of the smart asses or worthless states of matter who occasionally get jobs at the VA may just piss off the wrong person one of these days and the news will be all over it and people will say: “We didn’t see this coming!” Well, yes, you really should have seen this coming but I don’t care to be the one to say “I told you so.”

Chopped steak. Hamburger steak. Smothered steak. Whatever you want to call it, a ground beef steak has hardly been a matter that would make me sit up and take notice. That is most likely because pretty much all the hamburger steaks I have had over the past years have been mostly a step-up (or down)from your plain old hamburger. Today, however, I had a smothered ground beef steak and I must admit that I took notice.

At noon I found myself in Nederland, originally a Dutch settlement which makes up part of what is known around these parts as “Mid-County,” (Mid-Jefferson County, Texas). Nederland is a quaint little town with its own windmill and whose citizens are dogged supporters of their local Nederland Bulldogs.

Just across the railroad tracks alongside Texas 347 at 11th Street in Nederland, I spotted a little eatery named John’s Grill. There is something attractive in simplicity and I was immediately attracted to the simplicity of the name John’s Grill. John is not a bad name either. My dad was a John. I have a brother named John. I have a friend named John who talks rather loudly. So my history if firmly rooted in the name John.

What I noticed first about John’s Grill was that they had plate lunches, or a steam table if you will. The lunches include a meat with two sides such as rice, blackeye peas, dressing I think, something and something else.

As I said previously, my past has not been filled to the gills with wonderful hamburger steaks but I thought the smothered steak at John’s Grill in Nederland, Texas, looked rather appealing. For one matter, it was of a nice size. And to be quite honest it looked better than the beef tips and the non-existent chicken fried steak. I didn’t know if they sold out of the CFSes for the day or just temporarily. Ordinarily, I might have tried the CFS. A great CFS is like the heroin of steaks. But I came, I saw and I saw no CFS so I had the smothered hamburger steak. And Lord, Lord, Lord was that one hell of a good steak.

Without a doubt, I have to say that is the best hamburger-chopped-smothered-ground beef-steak I have ever had. I had it with a side of rice and brown gravy, blackeye peas and lots of pepper sauce, a so-so cold roll and a better than average glass of unsweetened iced tea. I don’t know what their secret was, whether it was in the gravy or in the steak or what but that steak just knocked my socks off. Well, it didn’t really knock my socks off because if that had happened it would be difficult to explain. But it was a fantastic-able smothered steak.

If you are ever around Nederland, Texas, around lunchtime, go inside John’s Grill and have their smothered steak. It will make you want to slap your grandma. Well, it probably won’t because you’re grandma might slap you back. (Or in the case of my grandma — long dead — she would have shot me with her .410. What a dead-eye that old woman was.) Oh well. You get the point.