Episode 30: Fleet's In

Tall Ships Sail Into Newport
Few sights thrill me as much as watching a flotilla of frigates and barks and whalers tacking into a harbor under bellying canvas, or when moored at rest, sails furled, only the hawsers creaking as if eager to challenge the sea again. So on impulse, we drove to Rhode Island for the July visit of 22 tall ships from 11 countries, one as far away as India.
Bestowed the apt, if banal, moniker of "City By The Sea" by its early boosters, Newport offers much to reward a visit. For architecture buffs, it is a living library of styles from Colonial Saltboxes to Georgian/Federalist townhouses to Queen Anne Victorians to the unimaginably ornate summer palaces called "cottages" by the wealthy families of the post-Civil War Gilded Age.
Sybarites appreciate the ministrations of the staffs of an unprecedented collection of luxury boutique hotels and inns, many of them occupying lavishly appointed 19th and early 20th Century manor houses.
And the relentlessly active can exhaust themselves with sailing, swimming, tennis, windsurfing, flying kites by the shore, and hiking the 3.5 Cliff Walk that runs behind the Bellevue Avenue mansions.
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"We'll be a great country where the fabrics are made up of groups and loving centers."
- George W. Bush, Kalamazoo, March 27, 2001

*************************************************************************************A Neighbor Visits
Our house is on the side of a hill high above a river valley that lies within the Atlantic Flyway, the aerial freeway used by birds migrating twice a year between Canada and points south. We often look down upon falcons, ospreys, eagles, and hawks. One year-round resident is a red-tail, like the one here.
He's gotten used to us. Lately, we've noticed him perching on limbs of trees closer and closer to the house. He stays longer and longer, regarding us with the fierce contemplation that is the only expression available to raptors. After determining that we are probably too large to eat, and that there are no likely rodents in view, he flaps leisurely away.
Yesterday, though, Jo yelled for me to come quickly. I ran upstairs. There he was, on the railing of our deck, not ten feet from our French door, staring at us. Our presence didn't disturb him. Jo said she felt like she was being stalked.
We named him Skylar.
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BRING 'EM HOME
A reader of this blog has a boyfriend serving a second tour over there. She's come up with a highly creative way to influence our foot-dragging politicians. Geezer doesn't want to give her inspiration away, so please go to http://www.camocampaign.org and cheer her on. (Click VIEW PICS at the bottom of the her opening page.)

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So Were You Lying Then Or Are You Lying Now?
When he was running and serving as governor of liberal Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, said he supported a woman's right to choose and the principle of stem cell research and he went along with allowing gay marriage.
Now, running for president, he's executed a 180. Maybe even the Republican base views the transformation with skepticism. His fundraising has fallen off and he 's had to dump a few million of his own fortune into the kitty. Why?

"Because I have to, all right?" he snapped. "My message is important and critical to get out."

Which message is that, Mitt?
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Male v. Female

Husband: You talk twice as much as I do.
Wife: Because I have to repeat everything.
Husband: What?

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Family Schmalues
*You've heard about Republican Senator David Mitter of Louisiana, right? He planted himself on the moral high ground from the start of his political career, vigorously opposing abortion, same-sex marriage, and any effort to solve the immigration problem.Then it was revealed - and he admitted - that his telephone number was in the little black patron book kept by the madam of a D.C. escort/call girl service.
But did you hear that Mitter was also a regular at a pricey New Orleans brothel in the 1990s well before he went to Washington?
And, he is the Southern campaign chairman for Rudy Giuliani.

*On July 11th, Bob Allen, a member of the Florida House of Representatives, was arrested for allegedly soliciting oral sex from an undercover cop in Titusville. No big spender, Allen offered twenty bucks for the deed.
In March, he was appointed co-chairman of the Florida campaign of John McCain.
The Senator was already having a rough week. He acknowledged that his cash on hand had fallen below two million dollars, his two top aides quit/resigned, and dozens of other paid workers were canned.
McCain is toast. He just hasn't crumbled yet.

*Talk about grabbing the high ground: Pope Benedict XVI, in his ongoing campaign to piss off every other religious group in the world, has reasserted the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church while noting "defects" in other Christian faiths. In the same document, he declares that his Church alone is the mediator of all salvation.
That would be the very same Church whose Los Angles Archdiocese has just agreed to a $660 million settlement with 508 victims of sexual abuse (including forcible rape) by members of its priesthood.
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Geezer's Indispensable Pans & Paeans

*You absolutely must go see Michael Moore's Sicko. It is his most disciplined film to date, apart from a couple of errant detours. By turns witty, melancholy, sarcastic, and outraged, he lays down a highly lucid case for universal health care, comparing the U.S. system unfavorably with those of Canada, England, France (gasp!), and even Cuba. Yes, he skips lightly over the fact of the crushing taxes required for coverage in those countries, but isn't it time for hedge-funders and Internet billionaires to start ponying up?

*How bad could Evening be? It has three of the greatest actresses of our generation - Vanessa Redgrave, Glenn Close, and the glorious Meryl Streep. They even filmed it in one of Geezer's aforementioned favorite places, Newport. As it happens, it comes in just above unwatchable. The tragic figure moving much of the action is an annoying, self-pitying drunk. Redgrave plays a dying woman suffering dementia and Streep is only on screen about six minutes. Close, whose character is an upper-class WASP, is made to shriek and wail like an Iraqi mother who has lost three children to a car bomb, in as culture-deaf a scene as might be imagined. Worst of all is Claire Danes in the primary role, an actress who has received unaccountably good notices in previous appearances. In the end, Evening is little more than a glossy chick flick.

*Chances are you couldn't care less about Edith Piaf or even know who she was. That's okay, but don't let it keep you from La Vie En Rose. The singer is portrayed by Marion Cotillard in one of the most powerful performances you are likely to see this year. Yes, it's subtitled, and Piaf wasn't one of the world's most sympathetic creatures, but run to the nearest art house before it gets away.

*Knocked Up tells the story of a pudgy, shaggy, unshaven, socially inept slob who lucks out one night with a smart, leggy, gorgeous blonde. He is woefully ill-equipped for the ensuing adventure, seeing that he shares a house with three other guys whose joint ambition is constructing a website that gives the exact minute in a movie when the lead actress gets naked. Given the bottom-scraping level of all-too-believable post-adolescent vulgarity, those with tender sensibilities may think twice about attending. But this comes from the guy responsible for The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and it's hilarious in the same ways.

*It takes a while to get past the fact that the hero of Ratatouille is a rat. He's a classy critter, though, with a keen sense of smell, a culinary genius who uses a slump of a human to create fabulous meals for an evil food critic. The setting is Paris - a big plus! - and the restaurant kitchen that is center stage is remarkably authentic. Superchef Thomas Keller was recruited to demonstrate the fabrication of key dishes. Geezer hasn't seen a G-type film since he was 11, but this one is a winner.
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Today's Recipe
Rhode Island makes the most of one of its principal edible products, and it often goes its own way. Newport has three or four polished purveyors of high cuisine, a half-dozen pretenders and at least a score of mid-level, middlebrow eateries. But Geezer never misses a chance to eat at Flo's Clam Shack in Middletown, a few yards away from the Newport border (4 Wave Avenue, 401-847-8141). The handwritten menu is plump with tasty variations on the state's favorite bivalve.
There are clam rolls (go for the whole-bellied variety), deep-fried, nutty, crunchy outside. Classic "stuffies" are fat quahog clams chopped up with peppers and bread crumbs, the mixture packed into the two shells the clam came in and baked. And there are clam cakes, tasty fritters known best for their near- absence of clams.
But Little Rhody most clearly asserts its culinary individuality in its signature chowder (pronounced "chowda" in these parts). Where Manhattan clam chowder is tomato-based and the Boston version uses cream, Rhode Island chowder uses neither. No masking the briny central ingredient here. A simple version follows.

Rhode Island Clear Clam Chowder
Serves 4

24 Cherrystone clams
2 strips thick bacon, diced
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
2 medium potatoes, any type, peeled and diced
2 stalks of celery, diced
Salt & freshly ground pepper to taste
3 springs of fresh thyme, leaves removed and chopped (if large)
1 dried bay leaf
Pinch of crushed fennel seeds
1 tablespoon parsley, chopped

1. Scrub the clams under running cold water. Put them in a large saucepan with and pour in enough cold water to almost cover. (Bottled clam juice can be substituted for the water.) Bring to a gentle boil and cook until the clams start to open , about 8 minutes. Remove each clam as it opens and set aside in a bowl. Discard any clams that haven't opened after 12 minutes.
2. Strain the broth through cheesecloth or a fine mesh screen. Reserve.
3. Remove the clams from their shells, rinse, and chop. Set aside.
4. Fry the bacon in the same saucepan. Add the onion and cook until it is soft, not brown. Add the clams and the reserved broth.
5. Add the potatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the celery. Cook until the potatoes are tender, but not mushy.
5. Add the bay leaf, fennel seeds, and parsley. Serve.

Notes: For a little kick, stir in a quarter-teaspoon of hot pepper flakes at the end. The chowder is often served with a small pitcher of whole milk on the side, to be added to the bowl, if desired.

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