Maryland Diners: Kountry Kitchen, Thurmont Maryland

So, I'm noticing a few things as I continue to review Maryland Diners.  (As a reminder, I once reviewed every diner in Whatcom County, Washington.)  Eggs Benedict, my go-to choice for seeing if a kitchen can handle simple but significant orders, are not nearly as popular here in Maryland as they were back in Bellingham.  So my second go-to, the club sandwich (the exhibitionist of sandwiches) has often become my choice since I moved back east a few years ago.  Second, Maryland diners don't play music.  Or at least the ones I've visited don't.  Seems a shame, really.  Anyhow, let's see how things went at the Kountry Kitchen!

Antietam Battlefield

Some pictures from a recent trip to Antietam Battlefield about 20 minutes west of Frederick.  At top is the infamous Cornfield, where the day's fighting started for the most part.  Next is a monument dedicated to Clara Barton who worked to help the wounded and dying throughout the day (and later to found the Red Cross).

Project Hail Mary: Wut I Thunk

The Martian Part II this is not.  Yes, the hero is a snarky nerd guy who has to science the fuck out of various math, velocity, and (here) chemistry issues to save the Earth.  But (mild spoiler, but if you've seen the trailer you already know) now he has an alien companion.  Basically, it's a buddy movie in space.  And it works very well, maybe better than it should.  A younger me would probably complain about how cheesy bits of it are.  Older me was quite satisfied to sit back and enjoy the ride.  It's 2026.  I can't blame anybody for wanting a little more grace (ahem), a little more teamwork in this life.  It mostly nails the landing too, but there's one small change from the novel that I think hurts the overall product maybe just a bit.  Still though, if you don't leave this one smiling (maybe cheering a little inside?) your heart is a lump of inert metal.  It's science.

Five bump-fists out of five!

Something New

I'm starting a new job this Wednesday.  It's been nice to have a little time off, and a relief to have gotten out of a very toxic previous work situation.  It's going to be tough, but I'm excited to be doing something new.  It's -- education adjacent, I guess you could say.  It also pays well and offers full benefits.

We'll see how it goes!

Reluctant Spring

The first blossoms are out, but It's supposed to be 40 degrees tomorrow.

Guess we need to take what we can get.  The birds are out too though.

"a Big Mac in a cornfield in Kansas"

"Back in the plane, alone with Quintana, I took one of the hamburgers the teenagers had brought and tore it into pieces so that she and I could share. After a few bites she shook her head. She had been allowed solid food for only a week or so and could not eat more. There was still a feeding tube in place in case she could not eat at all.

'Am I going to make it,' she asked then.

I chose to believe that she was asking if she would make it to New York.

'Definitely,' I told her.

I'm here. You're safe.

Definitely she would be okay in California, I remembered telling her five weeks before.

That night when we arrived at the Rusk Institute Gerry and Tony were waiting outside to meet the ambulance. Gerry asked how the flight had been. I said that we had shared a Big Mac in a cornfield in Kansas. 'It wasn't a Big Mac,' Quintana said. 'It was a Quarter Pounder.'"

-- Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking

RIP Len Deighton

Len Deighton, master spy novelist, visual artist. World War II vet, published cookbook author, and the first to use a computer to publish a novel, has left us at 97.

He was one of my Dad's favorite writers.  During his last few years as we lived together, I read the Game, Set, Match trilogy, among others, and got to share my interest in these books with him.  Dad wasn't capable of reading full-blown novels any more, but he definitely remembered the characters and their triumphs and shortcomings.  Our best moments together came, as always, through conversations about life or, in a pinch, about art.

"If ever this motorcycle..."

My little mini-project these days is to replenish my stock of 90s and 00s music, much of which was eaten by iTunes over the years.  (iTunes is awful. Do not use iTunes.)

Anyhow, Amazon for used CDs ain't bad.

And this album (EP?) oozes filth and creativity.

"a cold touch in the midst of the familiar"

"I want to talk here about two stories dealing with the archetype of the Bad Place, one good, one great. As it happens, both deal with haunted houses. Fair enough, I think; haunted cars and railway stations are nasty, but your house is the place put your shield away. Our homes are the places where we allow ourselves the ultimate vulnerability: they are the places where we take off our clothes and go to sleep with no guard on watch (except perhaps for those ever more popular drones of modern society, the smoke-detector and the burglar alarm). Robert Frost said home is the place that, when you go there, they have to take you in. The old aphorisms say that home is where the heart is, there's no place like home, that a heap of lovin' can make a house a home. We are abjured to keep the home fires burning, and when fighter pilots finish their missions they radio that they are 'coming home.' And even if you are a stranger in a strange land, you can usually find a restaurant that will temporarily assuage your homesickness as well as your hunger with a big plate of home-cooked fries.

It doesn't hurt to emphasize again that horror fiction is a cold touch in the midst of the familiar, and good horror fiction applies this cold touch with sudden, unexpected pressure. When we go home and shoot the bolt on the door, we like to think we're locking trouble out. The good horror story about the Bad Place whispers that we are not locking the world out; we are locking ourselves in ... with them."

-- Stephen King, Danse Macabre

So Cute, So Obstreperous

Chingu doesn't have any rent money for this month.  Typical.

How to Make a Killing -- Wut I Thunk

A strong premise and strong first half -- nice guy decides he does, in fact, deserve to inherit his horrible family's fortune by way of serial murder.  This film soars when it gets into just how insufferable the idle rich can be.  The second half stumbles though, loses a lot of energy, when it starts to feel a bit formulaic.  Not dark enough for a dark comedy, not quite as interesting of a love triangle as the director thinks.  Still, enough laugh-out-loud moments to carry us through and root for a murderer.

Three White Basquiats out of five!