Day 671: The Wonderful World of Readership

I’m a little taken back… people are actually reading my blog.  Some folks for over a year.  What in the world is going on?  Honestly… this feels a lot like dancing around my house in my underwear singing ‘Old Time Rock ‘n Roll’ into a Pickle… only to think, “Huh… I wonder how long the curtains have been open… oh look… it’s the neighbors… hi neighbors.”  The good news is I’m wearing clean underwear.  Thank God for small miracles. 

Then again… I’m the one who opened the curtains before dancing in my underwear in the first place… right?  Kerry, my good friend from college who comments from time to time, would totally call my bluff right now, “Oh shut your mouth, you love it and you know it.”  And Kerry would be right… as always.  I do love it… but it’s still crazy.  For the past year and a half I thought I had 5 readers… and  now?  I don’t know… maybe a 100?  No one knows for sure… and so far, I’ve found two different sites syndicating my daily blathering.  This realization happened pretty much over night folks… so give me a little time to process.

So what now?  I don’t know… what do I do?  Maybe I should focus less on my obsession with movies and TV… or childbirth… or crazy strange websites… maybe I should be more professional… maybe I should start proofreading my posts... or learn to spell.  Erg… I don’t know!  I have to spell and use complete sentences at work… this is my blog, where I rule and get to make up words like Schutz-tastic and get to run on sentences for as long as I want because you are looking at the stream of consciousness meanderings of me!  

That felt good.  That was very cathartic. 

So, what now?  Whelp… if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. SchutzHappens every day.  Besides, if you made it past my endless diatribes on the Oscars, Olympics, Child Birth and Conan O’Brien… I know you’ll want to hear the nine part epic story of the glider chair we bought in London.  London… man… LONDON!  I am totally behind on my London stories… I really need to step it up.

Anyway, if you like what you’ve seen so far… stay tuned… because SchutzHappens is about to go unaccompanied to Pakistan... and bid on our following post.

Can you dig it? 

Oh, I just know you want us to come serve with you… I can just tell.  You’re transparent that way. ;)

Day 670: Newspapers and Nudity

I hear American newspapers are really taking a hit financially these days.  As people continue to look for digital alternatives, how in the world do you keep physical newspapers relevant?  Well, Serbian newspapers seem to have figured one very specific marketing strategy: ‘sex sells’.  Now, I’ve been living in Belgrade for a year and a half, however, since I don’t read Serbian I haven’t really looked at a Serbian newspaper.  Until yesterday.  I was hanging out, waiting for my carpool after work and on a nearby counter sat a stack of Serbian Newspapers.  Bored and very innocently I walked over and began fingering through one.  I quickly noticed an abnormal amount of skin in the paper… but since I couldn’t read the words, I had no idea what kind of relevance bikini clad women on the beach or slut-i-phied dancers jiggling in cages had on the world of Serbian news… but it was there… and there was lots of it… and it kind of make me wish I could read the articles.  But, I couldn’t.

Anyway, I quickly leafed through the first paper and tossed it aside with very little thought and moved on to the second.  Again, simply leafing through just to fill the time… this one was pretty tame… and them… BAM!  Nudity!  This newspaper had a page dedicated to naked women, posing Playboy style.  I was caught so off guard that I dropped the paper.  My brain tried to process, “Did you really just see that?  A naked woman posing in a newspaper?”  Well… for the sake of investigative journalism I had to be sure.  And yes… there she was… in all her glory… and look... she brought friends.  After confirming my discovery and feeling confused and ashamed, I quickly closed the paper and put it at the bottom of the stack and moved far away from the counter.

A few days later I started asking around.  Is nudity in newspapers normal thing… or just something they do special for Tuesdays?  “Oh, that’s the ‘daily pin-up girl’, it’s completely normal.”  Strange… I later found out that the paper best known for feature naked women on a daily basis is one of the most conservative newspapers… and I can only assume… one of the most widely ‘read’ newspapers too. 

Day 669: Poisonous Vietnamese River Fish, Part 3

REF: Day 643 & Day 660

Back on day 660, first time commenter ‘Chacho’ posted:

 “careful what you read on the internet. :) cheers,” http://www.ava.gov.sg/FoodSector/FoodSafetyEducation/Debunking+Myths+on+the+Pangas+Fish.htm

Now, I don’t mean to rip on you Chacho, I love my readers… all eight of them… but I took a look at this site… and well… I don’t think my opinion on Pangas has changed at all.  The site doesn’t seem to offer any hard facts except for the various names Pangas goes by around the world and the fact that it is ‘fit for human consumption’.  And the site certainly doesn’t address the fact that Pangas is a breed of catfish farmed in a polluted river.  Catfish are bottom feeders and I don’t eat catfish in the States… from a clean river.  And I’m not terrible excited about farmed fish either… but I am a fish snob and I am comfortable with that. 


I’m pretty certain Pangas IS ‘fit for human consumption’.  If you cook anything long enough and hot enough it will become ‘fit for human consumption’.  However, ‘fit for human consumption’ isn’t really what I look for in my meals. But I am in a position where I can make that decision.  I complete understand this is not a choice everyone can make.


A month ago I was blissfully unaware of Pangas.  Now?  I am noticing it in places I wish it wasn’t.  Like at a ‘fancy’ restaurant.  Last week Serena and I went out to eat with our neighbors to a restaurant called ‘Little Bay’.  It is a very nice opera themed restaurant chain (based in London) that has a pretty reasonably priced menu.  The food is quite good too… considering the fact they serve fillet of Pangas. 


Below, I have included a link to their menu… however, their Belgrade location menu is only in Serbian Cyrillic, and so I’ll need to talk to you through it a little. 
http://www.littlebay.co.uk/LittleBayBeogradJelovnik0310.pdf


Scroll down to the third heading, “ГЛАВНA ЈЕЛА” (Main Course).


I had the 7^th item down, “Бифтек”, a beef steak, for 895 Serbian Dinars.  At the current exchange rate, roughly 75 Dinars = 1 USD, my cost was about $12.00.  Roughly the same cost as a “Renegade Top Sirloin” at Longhorns.


Serena had the item just above, “дин.Ростирани филет лососа”, a fillet of salmon for 695 Dinars or $9.50.  


Now, these prices are insanely good… however, take a look at the very first item, the “Филет пангасиуса” for 395 Dinars… $5 Bucks… it’s a fillet of Pangas.  The price difference is very telling… even at a reasonably priced restaurant… they are essentially giving the Pangas away for free.  This certainly does display any confidence in the product as a quality ingredient… but I guess its ‘fit for human consumption’… so it has that going for it.

Day 668: Welcome janeway529

Ref: Conan/Leno Series

I just want to give a quick shout-out to janeway529.  Welcome to SchutzHappens!  And thank you for your comment on my Conan vs Leno Post.  And actually... I need to give a shout-out to everyone who's come out of the shadows and let their presence be know... and thanks for letting me know about all the other sites we're being linked too.  Crazy.  So, any non-Foreign Service folks who are not related to me... or didn't do to school with me at some point in your life lurking around?


How in the world did you find us.

Day 667: HOLIDAY – No Dirty Dishes Day

Yet again I have stumbled across a pretty interesting ‘holiday’ of sorts.  However, based on my web research… the true meaning of ‘No Dirty Dish Day’ seems to be locked in an interpretive battle similar to debates about the true meaning of the Bible.  But, no matter what your philosophy on the day might be… I will support you in your beliefs.  That’s how SchutzHappen’s rocks it.

So, what are the philosophies behind ‘No Dirty Dish Day’?

Philosophy 1:  ‘Don’t Generate Dirty Dishes’
One segment of the ‘No Dirty Dish Day’ celebrating populous believes May 18^th is a day where we should refrain from dirtying a dish.  Zero impact on dirtying dishes if you will.  It’s not as easy as you might think.  Try it; it’s pretty hard to make it through the day without dirtying a dish.  And honestly?  I think this is a noble exercise in restraint… I think it would be fun to consume, or try to consume, without impacting dishes for one 24 hour period.

So how do they do it?  Well… it looks like they rely heavily on disposable dishes: Paper and Styrofoam plates and plastic utensils.  I was a little shocked at this… to me, using disposable plates and utensils defeats the purpose of leaving “zero impact”.  Well, apparently, I wasn’t the only one.  NDDD insiders have been pushing for a more Earth Friendly approach to the holiday.  Their solution?  Eating all of your meals out.  Yep, that’s right… eating out.  Apparently it’s okay to dirty a dish on NDDD as long as YOU are not the one who has to clean it.  Does anyone else see the contradiction here?  These people are a disgrace to No Dirty Dish Day.

Philosophy 2: ‘Embrace the Task’
Other NDDD celebrants have taken a completely different approach to the holiday.  It’s a day to celebrate the monotonous, yet necessary, task of washing the dishes… by making it fun and leaving “no dirty dish” behind!  Just imagine… an entire day dedicated to dish washer loading races and dish washing relays.  Go on, challenge your neighbors!  Make it a family affair!  I’ll wash if you dry! 

Philosophy 3: ‘Abstain’
This philosophy is pretty straight forward… just don’t do the dishes.  Take a day off… do them tomorrow!  Come to think of it… I think I celebrated ‘No Dirty Dish Day’ most of my college career.  Oh how I loved this holiday.


Philosophy 4: The SchutzHappens Philosophy
You know?  I don’t mind doing the dishes.  I used to hate it because it’s an incredibly boring task… however, except for a brief time in college, I’ve been doing the dishes for about twenty-five years… and when you’ve been doing something that long, just about every day, you find things about the task that you enjoy.  I enjoy the uninterrupted time it gives me to think.  I like to throw my head phones on, think about my day, my next SH post, and just chill out.  The division of labor in the SchutzHappens house clearly states that dishes are my job, and I take a lot of pride in doing them.  I wash every night after dinner and most mornings before work I try to empty the dish washer.  I like to leave Serena with a clean Kitchen.

Although I see the temptation of Philosophy 3… Abstaining doesn’t really make sense anymore… I’ll still have to do them tomorrow… and there will be more dishes and it will take longer to complete.  And I don’t like doing the dishes that much to dedicate more time than necessary. 

Philosophy 1 sounds very interesting… but I don’t think the people ‘celebrating’ this version of the holiday has a clue about what they are celebrating… although I really like the Zero Impact idea and would be interested in exploring that.

On the other hand, I am quite taken by Philosophy 2.  It sounds quirky and funny and a very SchutzHappens approach to the Holiday.  It could be fun.

Day 666: Yeah… so… ummmm…

So… has anyone seen the remake of ‘The Omen’?  Starring Live Schriber and Julia Stiles?  Yeah… me neither.

Anyone listen to the Beetles ‘Helter Skelter’ album lately?  Yeah… me neither. 
Yeah… so… ummm… when I was really little my parents took me to ‘Devil’s Courthouse’… you know… Richard Dreyfuss sculpted it out of mashed potatoes in ‘Close Encounter of the

Third Kind’… yeah… that’s a good movie.

Seriously folks… what else can you talk about on Day 666?

Day 665: Mex-Tastic

Ref: Mexican Food Series

It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed the ‘fine’ attempts at Mexican cooking in Europe. And by ‘fine’ I really mean ‘mediocre’ at best.  I was reminded the other day by a friend who was complaining about a Burrito she ordered the previous weekend which contained peas and carrots… peas and carrots… yeah… I don’t know about that.  A Burrito stuffed with peas and carrots sounds more like something Serena would make for Grayson to hide vegetable rather than a dining experience.  But, this Mexi-Oversight is quite normal here.

However, hearing the story of my friend’s woes made me remember a dining experience of Mexi-Worthy proportions that was quite surprising.

Serena and I had been to Pizzeria Snezana a couple of times… and it seems to be our normal lunch stop whenever we take people to the Kalemegdan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalemegdan) and the restaurant itself is located on the famed Knez Mihailova Street, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knez_Mihailova), so it makes for a pretty fun journey on a Sunday afternoon.

Anyway, as the name “Pizzeria”, might suggest, the restaurant specializes in pizza… and we never deviated from that part of the menu.  However, on our last trip I wasn’t feeling the pizza mood and started looking around the menu.  Two items caught my eye.  1) a Chicken Quesadilla; and 2) a basket of Chicken Fingers.  I had to have them… so the family decided to order both, plus a pizza just in case the items turned out to be suck-a-roo.  And when our smorgasbord arrived so did all of my hopes and dreams.  The Chicken Quesadilla and Chicken Fingers were fantastic… especially the Chicken Fingers.  Delicious!
 
Serena gives me a hard time regarding my praise for the Quesadilla, “How hard is it to make a Quesadilla?  It’s melted cheese between two tortillas.”  True… very true… it’s just melted cheese between two tortillas.  I will give her that.  And honestly, because of the cheap simplicity behind the dish, I’ve never ordered it at a restaurant before… however, when living in a part of the world where peas and carrots are added to Burrito’s and cheese is completely left off the menu, like my experience at the Burrito Bar and Kulin, I believe that screwing up a Quesadilla is very possible... and Pizzeria Snezana certainly DID NOT screw it up.  Hmmm… tasty!

DISCLAIMER: I’ve been in Belgrade for a year and a half… I’m not sure how long it’s been since I’ve had real honest to God ‘Mexican’ food or classic American ‘Bar’ Food… I’m not even sure if they exist anymore.   This separation may have influenced my review.