Friday Music

Gordon Matthew Sumner was born in 1951 in Wallsend, England and first rose to fame in the late 1970s as the primary songwriter, bassist and lead vocalist for The Police.  The nickname, Sting, arose from the black and yellow striped jersey he frequently wore.

Formed in London in 1977, The Police blended a unique blend of rock, reggae and new wave music producing hits such as Roxanne, Every Breath You Take and Message in a Bottle.  Their 1983 album Synchronicity was a ginormous commercial success and before disbanding in 1984 were one of the largest music success stories on the planet.  They reunited briefly for a reunion tour in 2007 and 2008.

Launching a solo career in 1985 with The Dream of the Blue Turtles, Sting's virtuoso skills infusing jazz, classical and world music influences led to more albums and success over the following decades.

He has won awards and recognitions almost too numerous to count including an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Police.

Beyond music he is known for his humanitarian and environmental advocacy which includes anti-apartheid and anti-poverty efforts, humans rights, sustainable agriculture practices and rainforest preservation.

Well into his seventies he continues to tour and record; including this.

 

This past Wednesday a couple of neighbors joined us on a road trip and overnight to catch Sting in Minneapolis.

 

The sellout audience included baby boomers like ourselves and a surprising number of people our children's age and younger.  The performance was included many favorites from The Police and Sting's solo career. 

 

I'd place this performance up there among the top ten of my lifetime based solely on its solid production value and embrace of decades of fan classics.

And when we got there; holy crap.

Across the street there was this.

Between the four of us there was general agreement we need to pay closer attention to Minneapolis' scheduled lineup in their Theater District.  It might be worth another road trip.

And I'm really liking the capabilities of my iPhone 14 Pro. 

More Fall Colors

Not much more to add except some photos.

Colors are just about peak and that iPhone 17 Pro has some decent camera capabilities.

Click on images for a closer look.

 

Fall Colors

On my drive to Sturgeon Bay yesterday is was gloomy and overcast.  And I thought to myself, Geeze, it's too bad it's dark, cloudy and dank.  The trees are putting on a real fall show and it's disappointing there's no sunshine to show it off.

 

Driving home after class things had certainly changed.  The rains abated, the skies cleared and the sun showed.  A nice late afternoon sun lower on the horizon.  

 

I hopped-off the four lane and did a brief detour to checkout the fall colors at some of my favorite locations in Southern Door. 

 

If anyone believes the changing of our seasons four times a year isn’t inspiring they can fight me.

 

Last week I replaced my phone with an upgrade and have been waiting for an opportunity to test the camera on an iPhone 17 Pro.

 

Click on any individual photo for a closer look. 

 

 

American Culinary Dominance

 

I remember Chung King making it to our table on a regular basis growing-up.  It's not as good as real Chinese food served in a restaurant; nevertheless, it was fast and easy fare and added variety to the family dinner ritual.  

My recollection is that mom fried bite-size pieces of fresh chicken added the vegetables and sauce from the can and served it up with boiled minute rice and a side of crunchy Chinese rice noodles.  Yum.

As good as it was in my childhood memories I wouldn't do it today; unless, it was disaster food consumed in a bunker.  If I'm making Chinese for me and the missus the only thing out of a can is baby corn, water chestnuts and crispy, crunchy Chinese rice noodles.  Everything else if fresh, from scratch. 

Remarkably, it was an Italian-American guy named Jeno Paulucci who founded the Chung King brand when he borrowed $2500 to grow bean sprouts in Minnesota which he canned with chopped celery and sauce as a convenience food for post-WWII American families.  Paulucci was innovative in solving the mushy vegetable challenge.  He packaged the meat and sauce in one can and the veggies in a second, taped them together allowing the consumer to combine them later. 

From a purely cultural perspective it was entrepreneurs like Paulucci who popularized Westernized Chinese-American food like egg rolls, chow mein, chop suey and soy sauce; all of which left a huge imprint on the taste-palate of American consumers.  Who doesn't like Chinese food?  Heck, there is a Chinese buffet in nearby Sturgeon Bay. 

Fast Fact: Wisconsin is home to the highest-producing and largest naturally-brewed soy sauce facility in the entire world.  Take that, China!  

Anyway, Paulucci sold the Chung King brand to tobacco conglomerate R.J. Reynolds in 1966 for $63 million.  He later went on to found Jeno's Pizza Rolls, which later became Totino's Pizza Rolls. 

After changing hands a couple of times, Chung King was sold to Singaporean Yeo Hiap Seng in 1989 and eventually acquired by ConAgra's Hunt-Wesson in 1995.  ConAgra already owned Chung King's chief competitor La Choy and consequently shut-down production immediately.  By 1996 Chung King had disappeared from supermarket shelves  leaving La Choy as the sole survivor of the era of Chinese-American grocery items. 

The missus and I have a fondness for Chinese stir fry and make almost once a month on principle.  If you type "stir fry" in the search tool in the upper left hand corner of the blog's home page you will be redirected to several tutorial posts on the subject.

Meanwhile, if you like the subject of ethnic food in American popular culture the documentary - The Search for General Tso is a delightful tale about the origins and ubiquity of Chinese American food through sweet and spicy chicken.  You can find it on Netflix.  And don't forget the fortune cookies....

Survival of the Fittest

Several houses ago Jill and I purchased a beautiful, older Italianate house in Wauwatosa with cut stone, clay tile roof, spectacular plaster work, windows, hardware and a tasteful contemporary family room addition.  It was a prominent family who owned the large hardware store in town that built this house.  It featured the best stuff around at the time.  and many of its design elements were incorporated in the house we built to live in now.

Anyway, heat was provided by a boiler and distributed throughout the house to radiators.  And naturally all the pipes were insulated with the best stuff around; asbestos.  As you likely know asbestos has a sketchy reputation if you mess with it.  

Fortunately, piping within the walls is safe from disturbance; but exposed piping in the basement featured asbestos insulation at risk for disturbance and/or friability.  Disturbed insulation can release airborne fibers that, when inhaled, expose people and their pets to risk of asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma. The best guidance back then, and now, is not to disturb it.  Leave it in place and make it safe by encapsulating it.  Just like a cast on your leg or arm.  Asbestos professionally stabilized in-place is generally considered benign.

Which leads me to this.

I came across this advertisement on the web and swear we had this stuff between the attic joists of the house I grew-up in.  The ad is from October 1958  pitching Zonolite vermiculite attic insulation as 100% fireproof, rodent proof and guaranteed for the life of your home.  

This fits near-perfectly my childhood timeline.  

Zonolite is expanded vermiculite which happens to be a naturally-occurring mineral that is lightweight gray/gold/brown pebbles and flakes poured loose in attics.  In and of itself vermiculite is benign.  Heck, my dad always had a layer under the charcoal briquettes of his Structo grill to soak-up grease.  He claimed it made for easy clean-up.

This is the precise model - Web Photo

Don't get me started on the primitive state of charcoal-grilled meat in the early 1960s before the introduction of the Weber-Stephens Kettle Grill technology.  A vast wasteland of burnt and ash-covered chicken frequently undercooked at the bone and hockey puck hamburgers.  And in my situation, there was vermiculite.

Back to possibly my exposure to another environmental hazard during my feral youth. 

The problem with Zonolite was not the mineral but the source; a single, solitary mine near Libby, Montana.  Seems this mine also had naturally-occurring asbestos and between 1919 and 1990 it is estimated that 70% of the vermiculite sold in the United States came from this mine.  And you cannot tell by looking at it, if your vermiculite is the safe 30%, or the contaminated 70%.

Asbestos associated with the Libby vermiculite is a highly friable form and inhalation of the airborne fibers are associated with the diseases listed in the third paragraph above.  These diseases have latency periods that are measured in decades after exposure. 

If you have an older home and suspect you have this stuff, per the EPA, whatever you do, leave it alone.  Don't store stuff in the attic, don't let the children play in the attic and for the love of God and all that is holy, don't shovel it out on your own as a weekend project.  If you are performing any remodeling that might disturb vermiculite insulation in your attic or walls have a licensed contractor remediate it. 

The good news is there persists a Zonolite Attic Insulation Trust that will reimburse qualifying homeowners with cost-sharing funds for remediation; even if you've already completed the project.

It is a miracle any of us boomer children born in the 1950s and came of age in the 1960s and 70s ever survived to adulthood much less old age.  Vermiculite insulation, lead paint and we even drank from the garden hose. 

Fast Fact:  In 1958 Zonolite was still an independent company and wasn't acquired by W.R. Grace until 1963.  The mine was closed in 1990 and is a Superfund Site. 

Game Day

After exercising the dog we swung into Packer football.

Whew!

Now it’s LAX v. MKE @ NLCS

And with plenty of venison taco meat, the last of the frijoles and all the remaining toppings... 

 ...we’re fortifying ourselves with Custom Nachos…

                                                

Bachelor Party

Yesterday morning the Red Rocket and I ran the trail camera trapline as part of our routine chores.  

 It would seem, on account of the digital evidence, that there might just be some dandy buckaroos roaming about the joint.

For your Sunday morning coffee relaxing viewing there is this...

 

 

 In the last photo can you spot the second whitetail? 

Better yet.

Want to hunt here?