Early August 2021
I wrote previously that I was saddened when the news came down that an old Prohibition era roadhouse here in Madison with ties
to Chicago mobsters called The Wonder Bar was slated to be demolished to make way
for an 18-story high rise. In a surprising turn of events, the Madison Plan
Commission saved the building by denying permission to the
developer. Considering that the owner was ready to sell and that the restaurant
has been closed for months, I am not sure that it is out of the woods yet but
at least it has been given a temporary reprieve.
********
I saw this
at the grocery store last week: sauerkraut in squeeze bottles from a company
called Sauer Frau. I love the name and logo.
A cousin of mine sent out
an email last month with a link to a photo gallery of train stations from
the days of yore. I was reminded of this missive a couple weeks ago when one of
our local papers ran an article about the debate over where to build a train
station should intercity passenger rail return to Madison.
The article
quoted a local urban planner:
"If
Madison aims high, and hires the best station architects available, then it can
have a beautiful new civic icon," he said.
Our mayor
wants to locate it on the north side in the former Oscar Mayer site which is in the early days of being transformed from a meat processing facility into something new that doesn't smell like hot dogs.
Here's a rendering showing a train station in the lower center with a clock
tower.
Of course,
there's no guarantee we'll even need a station in the near future. But let us
hope. Biden's infrastructure bill is working its way through the legislative
process…
********
Despite
having been open since 2017 and being a mere 2 blocks from our house, the Frau and I had never been to the Olbrich Biergarten until a week or so ago. Located
on the north shore of Lake Monona, it serves up beer, soda, pretzels, and
mini-bratwurst in an idyllic setting. Well, it's idyllic when the lake doesn't smell of toxic algae slime.
It seems
that all of the doomsaying by the local Cassandras didn't come to pass,
thankfully.
********
Back in high
school I read Kerouac's On the Road and Ginsberg's "Howl". It took me a
while but I have finally read something by the final member of the Beat
Generation holy triumvirate, William S. Burroughs. I don't know why it took me
so long especially considering his brief resurgence of popularity while I was
in college when he did a couple spoken word albums with the musicians Kurt
Cobain and The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, respectively. It was the Beat Generation
collaborating with Generation X.
After I
finished reading the novel, I sought out a little more about the man and found
that the radio show This American Life broadcasted a BBC Radio 4
documentary about Burroughs called "Burroughs at 100" and it can be
found here. To say that the guy was a character
is a vast understatement.
********
Now that
there's fresh, local sweetcorn to be had, I bought some at the stand just 5 or
6 blocks from us. I grilled it up fine and turned it into elote, a.k.a. –
Mexican street corn. I mixed some mayo with crema (Mexican sour cream) and
smeared it on liberally. Then a layer of cotija, a dry cheese that crumbles
into small bits easily, followed by some chili powder, and finally plenty of
lime juice. It accompanied some fresh kielbasa that was also grilled to
perfection.
The stuffing
included rum soaked raisins and, on the day I was to cook the chops, I got them
soaking first thing. I mean it was 5 A.M. and I went to the liquor cabinet to
find the rum even before turning on the coffeemaker. My morning routine normally starts
with the Brewing of the Coffee followed by feeding the cats who are noisily petitioning me with meows for breakfast so you can imagine they were not
happy and even a bit confused as to just what the human was up to. In addition
to those raisins, the stuffing had apple slices sautéed in butter, some
cinnamon sugar, and bread crumbs. The chops were braised with beer in the oven
and I think they turned out pretty well.
Bonus photo. I saw this on the back of a car on one of my bike rides. When they turn on the rear windshield wipers, Arnie flexes his muscles.
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