Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Heard at the Syracuse Airport

The other night I was returning to Syracuse from a West Coast trip. As I entered the terminal late at night, a fellow passenger sighed and said: "Other airports smell like wonderful food. This one smells like Clorox."

Hey, at least they're killing germs along with good first impressions.

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Pizza to travel for
From my travels, here's a plug for The Independent Pizzaria in Seattle -- and yes, there's a Syracuse connection.

You'll find The Independent Pizzaria in tony Madison Park about a block from Lake Washington. It's small and is open Wednesday-through Sunday, dinner only. Expect to wait-- and to be glad you did.

This is first-rate stuff, and as an incurable pizzaholic I don't say that lightly. The menu is in Italian but the friendly staff helps with that. You can go basic or exotic. The Farmer, a pizza with soft egg and prosciutto, blew all of us away, and we had some less--than-adventurous eaters in our party. My only regret is that I had a hard time concentrating because I was catching up with old friends. Damn them!

Upon leaving, I paid Tom the highest compliment a native Seattleite can give a chef.  I told him that from now on whenever I return to the Emerald City of my youth, I'll now be making two mandatory  food stops: Dick's Drive-in ( A Seattle institution) and his place.

Btw, there's a Syracuse connection to the pizzaria. Tom grew up here, and his parents, Vicky and Joel, walk dogs with my wife at Helping Hounds in DeWitt.

http://houndsrescue.com/

http://www.theindiepizzeria.com/blog/

http://www.ddir.com/


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Good news on the super-Chihuahuas I blogged about earlier. Sibling puppies Chu Chu and Cha Cha have been adopted to separate homes. The two adult dogs are no longer at the shelter either. One was adopted and the other is in foster care. None of this is any thanks to me, but it's good to know there are people out there who have room in their hearts for Chihuahuas grandes.

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Congratulations from this New England Patriots fan to Buffalo Bills fans for a much-deserved victory this past Sunday. Now, can we please move past all this "Brady is a lady" crap?

 For the seven years or so I've been traveling to Orchard Park to see my Pats play. Most Bills fans are terrific -- long-suffering, but terrific -- but there's always a contingent of idiots who find it the height of hilarity to throw homosexual slurs at future Hall of Famer Tom Brady. It's not cool, and it's not funny, especially a week after a 14-year-old Buffalo kid killed himself after being the subject of anti-gay bullying.

If an appeal to basic human decency doesn't carry the argument, let me try this: In ending a 15-game losing steak against New England, the Bills just beat one of the best quarterbacks of all time. So where is the logic in Bills' fans impugning his manhood? When you run down your opponent, you devalue the accomplishment of beating that opponent.

I understand that attending an NFL game isn't the same as attending a lecture on Jane Austen. But stupid is stupid and cruel is cruel ... in any venue. If being married to a super model, winning three Super Bowls and being the first unanimous MVP pick in league history makes you gay, I''ll take an Amaretto Sour, please.