Dining with the "He's Just Too Marvelous" GourMario!

 

Memoirs of a Geezer

  

Reflections and Observations -- A Bright Passage from the Fantasies of Youth to Illuminations of Advanced Maturity!

This Episode:         

Dining with the "He's Just Too Marvelous" GourMario!  

Why must they pile stuff on top of stuff so that you can't see what's under there?

My faithful devotees may likely have heard about or read my CV...  To wit, regarding my reputation as a gourmet and a gourmand, with widespread renown for my taste in and knowledge of fine cuisine.   NONE OF IT IS TRUE!  (I don't know what the hell they've been hearing or reading!  False information and rumors do circulate, after all!)

However, as a person neck- or follicles-deep in the morass of GeezerHood, I have had some experience with restaurant choices and fine dining; ...none of which has had any lasting effect on my appreciation or awareness of fine cuisine and the many fine restaurants known for serving said fine cuisine!........  (Possibly some of my senses have gone afoul!)  

Here comes the "However Part":   I do have some favorite dining establishments, and I'm certain my loyal readers and followers are eager, even anxious, to have them shared

Benji is Yummy and very
Affordable!  Highly Desirable!

via this writing!  Right?  Aint it so?  

Used to be a lot of these in our fine
community!  What happened,
fer Pity sake!

I don't know what ever happened to the "Ham n' Eggers," for example.  (I think I had unlimited credit in at least two of them!  Or was it Jack R. I'm thinking of...!)  I thoroughly enjoy Benji's!  Oh, and thank goodness Colectivo has come to its culinary senses and resurrected Baked Oatmeal and its fruity accompaniments!  My favorite edible dish at that establishment!  I normally request Steamed Skim on the side...  I like to dip my spoon it its foam prior to scooping a glob of oatmeal!...

  (This is just a probably unwanted aside:)  My    dear old mother used to make me eat certain portions of wilted and gloopy slop...  like canned spinach, soggy cereal with hot cocoa, and the aforementioned would form a most unpalatable skim on top.  Oh yes, and soggy potato chip casseroles!  I gagged a lot in my distant youth, still do of course...

Tell your Mom to avoid
canned spinach at
all costs!  Horrible stuff!
You could gag a lot!!

My children and grandchildren have urged the family -- all of us -- on occasion to sample certain trendy purveyors of fine food...  E.g.   Room Service; Lebnani House (shouldn't there be an "r" in that word?!); Naf Naf; I do like the various Shawarma House locations; Stella's; Zarletti; The
Capital Grille (Why must they put an "e" at the end?); Bartolotta's (various...  Had a free lunch at one of them...  That was satisfactory!); Mason Street Grill...  (Nothing wrong with any of them!  The better, more highly regarded ones are just kind of wasted on my undistinguished palate!)

I do fancy The Knick, and have enjoyed its fare on a few occasions.  Same with the Cafe at the Pfister, also Tre Rivali.  I've never dined at Bacchus, possibly (possibly??!!  Great Plumpy Aubergines!  Very little doubt!...) a bit beyond my / our financial wherewithal.  (Perhaps you'd care to verify with SweetHeart!!??)

Interior Photo of Old Town
Serbian Gourmet House!
Very Yummy Fare!

Oh yeah!  I should mention Old Town Serbian Gourmet       House, and Three Brothers.  SweetHeart, Joan, our daughters, certain friends and relations fancy both, and they have been our default locations on holidays and other festive occasions.  Wonderful stuff...  Some like the stuffed courgettes and some prefer the stuffed peppers! 

I really enjoy breakfast foods, anytime.  There's a number of fine breakfast houses in Milwaukee and vicinity.  (I mean...  How far does "Vicinity" actually travel?  I mean, Union Grove, Sturdevant, Caledonia, Cleghorn, Foothill...??)

Consider, for example, Toast, North Avenue Grill, Uncle Wolfie's, Blue's Egg, Melrose, Benny's, Comet Cafe, Honey Pie, Sweet
Diner, National Cafe, Anodyne Coffee...  I tend, lately, to prefer Scrambled Eggs with Onion, raw or cooked...  doesn't matter!  In
Turkey, I always used to order an Onion Omelette!  You know, in the "Chow Line." The cooks got to know me well!  They even became quite fond of me...  Oh...  until I started requesting a Three-Minute egg!

(Special Note of Dedication:    To SweetHeart, Bethie (who whenever I mention a restaurant or cafe I'd never heard of announces she's been there six or seven times!), Alie (she's only been there once or twice!), our Beloved Grandchildren, all of whom are far more gourmand, gourmet-ish or "Foodie" than ever I am or shall be!  Love to all, and may all of your / their dining experiences be delectable, delicious and memorable...  Mostly!!  Oh...  And hardly anyone experiences a blotchy tunic...  hardly!!)

(Humbly Submitted 09-09-2025 by Joel K!)

  

 

 

 

  

 

Coffee or Tea, Anyone? Both?......

 

Memoirs of a Geezer

  

Reflections and Observations -- A Bright Passage from the Fantasies of Youth to Illuminations of Advanced Maturity!

This Episode:          Coffee or Tea, Anyone?  Both?......

For the record, I once participated in an "International BORE OFF" with a chap who was reputed to be the most tedious and boring of humans anywhere on the planet.  However, I won, and walked off with the trophy held high!!  What an accomplishment!

I think the contest may have been rigged!  

In any case, as a Geezer in Full command of my faculties, sort of,  and in the full flight of GeezerHood generally, I'd like to present to my beloved and faithful readers a new presentation about the wonders and glories of COFFEE and TEA consumption, and the marvelous venues that serve the finest of those concoctions (or are they confections?) 

Some people, we're told, do not care for coffee, and some prefer "mud" over tea, we're told...  reliably, sometimes!  (I have a friend who prefers hot tea to coffee.  Very strange!)

(Both coffee and tea, by the by, contain nutrients and antioxidants!  Both help protect the body against cell damage.  Do we need more reasons to drink the stuff??!!  One should think not!!  Oh yeah, and Vitamin B2...!)

SweetHeart and I do not start our day without a trip to a favored coffee house.  Wait!!!  Don't leave yet...  I'm not finished!  She prefers decaffeinated coffee with a modicum of hot water at its base.  I, on the other had, prefer a puddle or a quarter slurp of caffeinated, dark roast coffee with the balance filled with the purveyor's finest decaffeinated blend!  Oh, and did I mention the superb aroma of fine coffee??!!

Whilst positioned at said coffee house -- lately, Stone Creek's Harwood Avenue location; sometimes Downer Avenue -- we tend to haul out our electronic telecommunications devices, explore certain puzzling challenges and commence attempting to solve said puzzles!  E.g.   Wordle, Connections, Mini-Crossword challenges.  We generally succeed in conquering said challenges!  I mean, what fun, what joyful pastimes for those of us still in control of our brainwaves and sentient powers!  (Before they fade?...)

This morning, I'd like to add, in case anyone is wondering, or curious or perhaps already stupefied, we repaired both to Stone Creek and to Colectivo, the Oakland Avenue location.  (We enjoy interacting commercially and personally with Frank at the latter locale...)  Sometimes a second cup of mud is necessary, or at least greatly desired and

appreciated.  Sometimes iced coffee is a nice treat, particularly in the warm and sunny days, or, put another way, the blazing moments of summer!  Wouldn't you agree??

In the afternoon, we tend to prefer, not hot tea, but ICED SPORT TEA -- light ice and a slice of fresh lemon, if you please...   A large of cup of ice to take away with us, also please, as often the light ice is insufficient, 

Could be an image of a fabled coffee house
on Capitol Hill in Seattle, Washington!
Once thought to be the American
birth place of popular coffee houses!

 (not sufficient), and we prefer more tea than ice, you see....  One needs to re-ice the tea lest it warms too quickly!  We are nothing if not astute, possibly even quite brilliant,  about maximizing our quantities of tea.  If one does not specify "Light Ice," one might enjoy a few brief sips and nothing accosts one's nose but large and uncomfortable cubes of ice destined to freeze the proboscis!  Resulting in very little actual TEA!

There are highly important lessons to be learned here!!

But let us now return to the crux of this writing, or posting, if you prefer.  Coffee in the AM, Sport Tea in the PM!  Pay Attention!!  

Could be the Foundry...  Our 
favorite among certain
of them!  

   When during my wandering         days, I landed in the Seattle-    Tacoma region of the western     states, and discovered Capitol Hill  (high atop Seattle) and the many     fine coffee houses situated

 thereupon; thus I fell a bit     mesmerized and thus found myself amorously captivated by     and enthralled with the glories of truly good coffee.  A discovery most delightful and profoundly delicious!
Thus my eternal fondness for fine coffee began in earnest!!  

I don't think I have anything more to report...  The aim, here, is merely to extoll the virtues of great potables such as coffee and iced sport tea (Maybe hot tea as well...  Black, Green, etc.).  And to share with all and sundry the pleasures of both beverages, just in case some of my devotees might be seeking pastimes and potables yet undiscovered.  Thank you, and happy imbibing...  Oh, this has nothing to do with and is in no way intended to steer my beloved devotees to spirited or intoxicating beverages.  Thank you!  (Did I say that already?)

Humbly Submitted in August of 2025 -- by Joel K.

 

 

The Thing about Music....!

 

Memoirs of a Geezer

  

Reflections and Observations -- A Bright Passage from the Fantasies of Youth to Illuminations of Advanced Maturity!

This Episode:         The Thing about Music....!

Those Marvelous Turks make the Most Wonderful Music.. Oh and that's a Picture of Ataturk in the Background! Thank you...
(Can you Spot the Baglama?.... Or is that an Oud?)

That's Him...  That's
Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk!

    Reflection:   Is it a highly prevalent sort of contemplation, or         maybe meditation? A  practice among those who have entered     into the realm of, how shall I put this... GeezerHood, maybe?...  the     Age of "Greater Wisdom" or Elderlyness, perhaps, Historicalness     (could be?)...! Take Music, for example...

    I readily confess that my knowledge of and taste in music is         anything but exemplary, eclectic, or broad based, or extensive.  (Hope I'm not being repetitive or redundant or monotonous or     constant...   You may weigh in with your own observations about my     redundancy, if you wish!)  

   Where was I?!  Oh yes, the realm of music.  As a youngster, or an                   adolescent, I was eager to escape my home life, and thus I resolved to dash away, straw suitcase pre-packed, near at hand, or to seek and find a more propitious means of finding my way in life.

In the end, having come to my senses and having heeded advice from those brighter and perhaps more insightful than my, then, young self, I chose to enlist in the U.S. Armed Services.  You know...  ready availability of shelter, food, clothing, etc.    

Fresh out of secondary school, I reported to the local military recruitment center, swore

the appropriate oath, and before I could ask myself, "What the hell are you doing, you ridiculous bubblehead?..." I was on a Braniff flight, bound for a basic training center in Texas.  The weather was hot in June!  We did a lot of sweating.

Eventually, if we were well behaved (or our training leaders, perhaps, were sick of the sight of us!), we were offered what our lead Training Sergeant termed, "a Patio Break."  The music on its ancient jukebox was exclusively Country, not a standard nor an aria nor an R&R tune within ear shot.  I began to taste straw and alfalfa; I imagined tucking my thumbs into bib overalls, drawling and dribbling "Dixie Speak" and lots of Y'all's, Yonders, Reckons and fixins!

After suffering through the ear-piecing bellowing of training sergeants, calisthenics far too aplenty, "Attentions," "Forward or Backward Marches," and more insults than even my own dear father heaped upon me, I was dispatched to a training school in another

Texas location.  (Thought I'd never get out of Texas...), not to mention never hear another but a country ballad by George Jones, Buck Owens, Patsy Cline, Merle Haggard, Bob Wills, Texas "Fats" Pimpslee...   Hell, even a quite young Willie Nelson?

Then, before I could ask my pal, Rex Winkle, who originated from an obscure village in Southern Utah, "Hey, y'all goin don to the boozy waterin' hole made just for enlisted trash...?" I was sent to a strange foreign land...  TURKEY!  That extraordinary land southeast of

Bulgaria, south of the Black Sea, southwest of Georgia and Armenia, west of Hellas (or Greece, to lots of Americanos!)...  where I listened to lots of Turkish music...

Dede Efendi, Serdar Yilmaz, Baha Yetkin...  and the beautiful tunes of the famous, Zeki Muran (two dots above the "u), including "Let's Tweest Agin Lak We deed Last Sooomer"!  Zeki was the Turkish answer to...  I don't know...  maybe Elvis, maybe Bill Haley...  

We listened to that and other of Zeki's fabled melodies whilst speeding along dark, narrow, gravely roads at night courtesy of our favorite taxi driver, Hikmet, his ancient cab fitted with a 45 RPM record player buried somewhere in the dash board!  He spent more time looking at us in the back seat recommending others of Zeki's modern tunes!  "Face forward, look at the road!!..." someone hollered, brow dripping with sweat!

I mean, the point of all of this is this:   I missed my teenage music years!  Had no idea who were the Beatles, Everly Brothers, Byrds, Doors, Stones, Who, Floyd Pink, Beach Guys...   Truth is, I am very fond of all sorts of music -- Rock, Blues, Standards, Opera,

Who the hell are these oddly
appareled guys again??

Classical stuff, Country too...   It's just that I missed the 60s!  (I was keeping the world safe for democracy after all!!...  something like that!!)

When at last I matriculated, that is, entered University Life, having been honorably dismissed from military service, I had no idea what the hell my classmates or contemporaries were talking about!   "Who the devil are the Shondells, the Rhondells, Pips, people Grateful to be Dead??!!"  I was lost, out of it, ridiculed, but I could sing "Merhaba," "Nasilsinez," "Bishey Deyil," "Teshaker Ederim," and of course "Let's Tweest Again......."   

I should of course mention that one of my military compatriots in Turkey (there were four of us to a barracks room!) had a boat load of 33-1/3 RPM recordings of Warbling Persons...   E.g.  Julie London, Frankie Sinatra, Dean-o, Sammy Davis Junior Junior, Perry C., Billie, Nat, Ray, Mario, Ella, Bing, Pat, Dinah, Judy, Tony, Louie, Eartha, Dorseys, Mills Bros., Woody, Sarah, Fats, Vaughn, Mel Torme (I just remembered his surname!)

In the 70s and 80s I caught up with Willie, Waylon and the boys, having been indoctrinated by them on the aforementioned "Patio's"...  State Fairs, Summerfests, other concert venues!  I'm still a bit dense about popular music.  I constantly ask SweetHeart, Tad, and others, "Who's that?"....  Who sang, "Norwegian Wood Floors...  Do I like that one, SweetHeart"...? 

And thus, to end this foolish reminiscence, I apologize to music purists, to those with encyclopedic knowledge of modern tunes and their composers and singers of songs!  I apologize to Bob, John, George, Ringo, Paul, Norman, Tad and SweetHeart...  (Was there a Norman?)...

(Special Note of Dedication:  For SweetHeart, Tad, Alie, Bethie...  and for those four "insect guys," Zeki (who's probably dead), that saloon owner in Okauchee, and all others dedicated and devoted to all manner of music and to keeping memories alive and tunes warbled when lyrics and melodies or wandering notes wafting on the winds of time enter their thoughts!)

Humbly Submitted 07-16-2025 -- Joel K.

 

   

Good Gosh!... Canals??!! Have We Been Spirited (Moved?) onto a Narrow Boat?... Ridiculous??!!...

 

Memoirs of a Geezer

  

Reflections and Observations -- A Bright Passage from the Fantasies of Youth to Illuminations of Advanced Maturity!

This Episode:           Good Gosh!...  Canals??!!  Have We Been Spirited                                                (Moved?) onto a Narrow Boat?...  Ridiculous??!!...

What is it about relocating in the Age of Geezerhood that's strange, almost ghostly, like a haunting!  I look about myself and I'm on the stern, tiller in hand, ploughing resolutely on a slender canal, slowly, as if having just having acquired my own narrow boat.  Have to reach my destination...  many canal miles to navigate!!...   

Its predominant color is dark blue, the boat, that is.  "Geezer One -- Destination Unknown!" painted boldly in brilliant white, emblazoned on the side, in unmistakably large lettering!  "Not for Hire"!  I recognize the font!  It's "Shrikhand Bold."  I'm quite certain...  

(I think I acquired this font during one of my recent attempts at fashioning a logo design for a client...  Good Grief!!  Was the client a British narrow boater??!)  

Very strange indeed, eerie.  I awake in the night gripping the tiller, knuckles white, bulging.  My hand cramping!  I cannot seem to release my vise-like grip.  My thoughts

So many tunnels in the
canals!  Scary sometimes!  

slip from sloshing water, bleating sheep, honking and quacking geese and ducks.   I moor along the tow path side, tied up to a bollard, sweating profusely...  I pad to the kitchen and check the batteries, walk cautiously along the gunwales to check the elevation of the solar panels at the top of the boat...    

Wait a minute....   What!!??  I'm in the bathroom.  I grip the sink.  Turn on the faucet and splash water on my exhausted

mug.  Still, I rock back and forth as if the motion of the narrow boat and those passing on my left cause a wake and an uneasy loss of balance! A passing captain, right hand on his own tiller, waves with his left!  Smirking!  Who was that?  Someone I know?...,

Insane! bizarre!  It's the move, the relocation.  Odd dreams?  Panic?  Maybe it's "Narrow Boat Journeys"?  Television programs show them on certain, strange streaming channels!  Maybe that's it...   Channels, Canals...!!!  Is that the catalyst??!!

I must get back into bed.  I must sleep.  I must focus my thoughts away from Narrow Boats and thousands of miles of British canals.  Realign dreams!  In another incarnation,

Ghost Canal Boat?  Was it actually 
lost under the turbid ripples?  Does it plow
aimlessly, Haunting the canals
to this very day?

perhaps?  Transporting coal to foundries and iron works!?  That damn steam train!  It's destroying our haulage business...  We'll lose everything...  Wait, I'm awake again.  It's that "alarm-like" freight train just south of our building, across the river!  Couple of hundred noisy freight cars and oil tankers, clanking along steel rails!...  Making a hell of a racket!!

The steady clacking of the narrow boat engine.  Four miles an hour...  I'll never get to wherever the hell I'm going...   More sheep!  Swans dart across my bow, paddling furiously for the safety of the other side of the canal!  DRAT and BLAST!  I drop my windlass into the canal.  I must don my snorkel and sea goggles and execute a search.  I hate plunging into the filthy canal soup!  I must recover the windlass!!...  Without it I cannot raise the paddles, cannot allow water to flood the lock chamber!!...  

I'm submerged in the liquidity of the dream.  A length of rope is caught in the propeller,

something else....   trapped...  weeds, snarled, waterlogged, putrid, immoveable...  I must raise the weed hatch, stare below, remove the tangled mass...  Can't motor forward...

Obsessed?!  Alas!  Most likely!  Watching too many Narrow Boat adventures.  "Cruising the Cut," "Great Canal Journeys"...  others perhaps?...  That's the trouble.  They invade my dreams...  Hypnotic images!  Those darn things are taking over my usual fantasies!!  I'm drowning in them!  Waterlogged!  That's the whole trouble.  I must start watching mountain climbing adventures...   No...  I might sleep walk, climb, trip...  fall off the balcony!!  HELP!!

Humbly submitted 07-10-2025 -- Joel K.

        

  

 

      

   

Spending Time Wisely... Pondering Identity, Sometimes Our Own, Sometimes that of Others!

 

Memoirs of a Geezer

  

Reflections and Observations -- A Bright Passage from the Fantasies of Youth to Illuminations of Advanced Maturity!

This Episode:             Spending Time Wisely...  Pondering Identity,

                    Sometimes Our Own, Sometimes that of Others!

Deep in the mists of geezerhood, with all of its obscurity, challenges, wonders and expectations -- ever Closer to surrendering the Illusion of Immortality -- in an effort to escape the clutter and cluster of urban smog and dust-scape, we tend to wander...  Where?  Somewhere!  Anywhere...  perhaps north, sometimes in other directions?!

At the beginning of a recent such brief odyssey, we were delighted to spy two BlueJays, each a buzz of glorious color.  As if the pair -- blurred but unable to conceal themselves entirely -- were speed painting their 

primary hues, spreading then onto the contrasting green of flora, some of it incipient, some in the full explosion of spring beauty and color!  

Heading south toward the river, SweetHeart and I were attempting to discover the oddly narrow stream of what we believed to be a tail of the river and how it joined its larger body.  In the end, thwarted by a power pole and impassible shrubbery, we were compelled to cross to the other side.  To no avail, we could not bend our vision to follow its path and the probable junction of a small thread to a larger skein! 

Having crossed, we found ourselves on a flag-bedecked vision of various contours of field and meadow, a greensward, bordered by vestigial woodlands, still spare, just budding in the nascent burst of early springtime.   

In the clubhouse on that purposely limited expanse of greenery, on which a number of combatants were attempting to strike dimpled white spheres, we donated one such found object to a surprised and grateful young woman about to participate in that very same campaign.  So many of them!   Swinging, striking, missing!  Possibly cursing!  What has happened, I wondered, to American productivity.  "Doesn't anyone work anymore?" Perhaps owing to fear and frustration, a feeling of ennui and hopelessness, the absurdities and lunacy of a political landscape populated by feckless buffoons whose aims and language many fail to fathom, perhaps never will!

Never mind all that.  We move on!  I suppose some would question our own dedication to the betterment of the nation's economic health.  We are old, yes, but we continue to work as much as we're able.  Being older, or historic, as our grandson describes us, we sometimes seize moments when industry fails to beckon, and thus we wander.  Our attempts to find joy in simple pursuits, to spend time in peaceful reflection, visions of wings, the undulating and constant movement of water, gorgeous vistas of green, purple, pink, lavender, sepia, emerald and sage!  Dazzled often by its variety, complexity, beauty and memory!  

Our wanderings do take us, or perhaps lead us inexorably, to destinations comprised of those aforementioned joys, miracles and colors, where ospreys soar and dive and capture

river fish with which to feed their young and themselves.  Until late summer when offspring begin to fledge, testing courage and wing strength, ability and that ancient, instinctively-rediscovered route to winter feeding grounds far to the South. 

We often wish that our forte, our primary bread-winning focus, were educative travel, leading followers to distant shores, exotic cities and towns, to far-away places, fascinating ideas, customs and faces!  (The word "forte" -- by the by -- contains a Silent "E" and is pronounced "Fort," and means one's strength, one's matier, one's principal gift or talent, one's "Thing," so to speak!)

Alas, at least for now, we wander in limited scope and distance, but we can and do dream of greater escapes.  Well, to be honest and accurate, we've both traveled somewhat

extensively, in our distant past -- to France, Spain, Morocco, Italy, Estonia, Turkey, Mexico, Canada, England, Finland -- and to many destinations in our own country.  Mustn't grumble, but still we long to wander further afield, and oftener!  

Meanwhile, we have our Great Lake, the Confluence of Three Rivers, our namesake river and other bodies of water in which big ships plow their way to ports and harbors and depositories.  Many offloading their goods and their essential cargoes from great, cavernous holds, or collecting commodities to ferry to other faraway places, ports and harbors, many great vessels with self-discharging structures aboard, destined for as many ports with enormous collection canyons and conveying contrivances on their shores!

As we steer our course toward oblivion, or a pleasant terminus in the realm of wander, I suppose we do at times tend to consider our own identities.  Who are we, what is our aim or purpose in life?  Do we continuously ponder our identities, what we're intended to do or be.  Our friend, Bill, cares deeply about such inponderables.  We, on the other hand, do not, or usually we do not.  We do, however, care about how to spend our time enjoyably and profitably, meaning profitable in terms of happy enterprise.  And we will, I hope, continue to do so when time and tide enable us to wander leisurely, even aimlessly, through the often bewildering mists of GeezerHood!  

(Special Note of Dedication:   For SweetHeart and all of our good chums and relatives who have been elevated to the status and the state of Wisdom!  I note that aristocrats speak of being "Elevated to the Purple," that is, achieving a position of royalty.  Those of us not of the peerage or royal lineage achieve veneration through the process of aging gracefully, and should therefore be accorded great respect and admiration...  possibly purple garments too!)  

Humbly submitted 05-13-25 -- Joel K.