Let's Go to Cuba!

Michael Gives Fredo "The Kiss of Death"  ("I know it was you, Fredo!")

Hello Fellow Travelers!

Cuba?  My only lasting impression of Cuba was provided by Francis Ford Coppola in "Godfather II", still for me the best movie ever made.  Until recently, I annually revisited the Corleones and watched "The Godfather - Parts I & II" because nothing heralds the birth of "The Prince of Peace" quite like machine guns and "gravy" (Red!)

So, when I heard that after 50 years of strained/no relations with Cuba, the USA would be normalizing relations with Havana, I was really excited!  I still am.  It's about time!  Cuba?  Great!  It's like Florida but it's still a foreign country.  CNN reported that Cuba had stopped developing technologically in 1959.  According to the news, cars in Havana tend to be made in Motown and have big fins.  The best car story?  The Stephen King Classic, "Christine" where the "possessed" car is a 1959 Plymouth Fury.

In both "GFII" and "Chistine" the cars were monsters, huge, powerful, American!

And, according to CNN, Havana still has these cars!  And lots of them!   It's like a dream for "American Pickers"!

And cake!  Cuba had birthday cake!   In "G2", the legendary Lee Strasberg complains his piece of birthday cake is "too big" (as if!) and sends it back!  Warm and they have quality baked goods?  Let's go!  Where do I sign up?  I don't care how old that cake is!  They must have the junk to make more someplace.

And coconut!  Sugary, shaved, snow-white coconut, they have that too right?  I'll bring it if they don't!

Havana is supposed to be the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree of vacation destinations - run down, stuck in a time warp, lots of potential still beautiful.  It's on my short list with those amazing goats in the Italian Alps of places I have to see, in person and I won't take a "poop cruise" to get there either!

Cancer and Cookies - Two Things I Take Seriously

Hello Fellow Travelers!

A good friend (is there any other kind?) recently asked me if I had any explanation for the horror that was perpetrated in Paris in the name of God. I don't  It defies all logic.  A friend of mine who happens to be a researcher was prompted to inquire if "crystal methamphetamine" was involved.  He later explained that as a scientist he looked for metabolic explanations for seemingly insane behavior. And I came to my own, more practical conclusion:  I'm so crippled terrorists probably wouldn't want to recruit me anyway!  No worries, I have enough to contend with these days without feeling inferior to "Achmed, the Dead Terrorist".

It did get me thinking though, maybe I should be contemplating bigger issues than cookies and cancer.  Unfortunately, I've learned way too much about both not to write about them!  I have neither cookies or cancer at  this moment and God willing, I'll always remain cancer-free and I'll always be wondering where my next cookie is coming from.

Drawing controversial cartoons is what the French do.  I write about cookies and brain cancer because the two subjects are new to me and have completely changed my life.  And complaining (good naturedly, of course, I'm grateful to be alive, thank you, HA!) is what I do!  Loudly and often.  I complain a lot.  About all kinds of things too.  Always have.  Which works out well  for me because brain surgery provides me a seemingly endless supply things to complain about.  I had to find out everything I could about brain tumors and quality baked goods.  I contemplate one and never worry about the other.  Since my brain surgery in 2011 (I still adore saying that!), I have determined what and where the best cookies on the planet are.  I work out every day because when you have no balance every day is an assault and I have to be ready for the next challenge:  Science meeting?  I'm there.  Karate ceremony?  Difficult, but ultimately essential, so "bring it" .  Simple things are a really big deal requiring meticulous planning and pinpoint precision.  Swallowing is a five-step process!  That's right, I said swallowing!

I periodically get tested to reconfirm what I already know - I'm cancer-free.  The only answer that really matters. (Thank you again H.!)  Now I have to see what happens next.  It's kind of scary but I'll try to be brave.  I'll have to push myself harder than ever to succeed (Thank you!, Dr. P.!)  I write about cancer so we can laugh at it and more importantly, avoid it.  Toffee and shortbread are two baked goods that appeal to me.  I've never liked any form of sugar prior to 2011 and now brown sugar and vanilla rule!

Learning to walk, cookies?  It might be cute if I was a toddler, which I'm not!  It's not remotely cute! It's exhausting and time consuming!  Something else for me to complain about.  Loudly and often!  (And then see an endocrinologist!)

The "journey" continues...

PS - I'm looking at a really thick (700+ pgs) issue of "In Style" which my mother religiously reups every year.(Thank you, Mom!)  Lots of pretty clothes and shoes (check), Julia Roberts on the cover (check)  Many articles that portend to "update" my closet.  My closet hasn't been "updated" since 1999!  But in the interest of pop culture and fashion I flip to the "looks we love", which presumably is some expensive-and-effortless look put together by some stylist for my weekend-in-the-Hamptons.

I usually like this section even though the clothes are exhorbitantly expensive,, the outfits are styled down to the shoes  and sunglasses.  Window shopping for morons!  That's my kind!  But then I saw a weekend look that was heavily layered and involved ruffles.  It was not cheap, it was not trendy.  It reminded me of WWII refugees trying to leave Nazi Germany wearing layers of clothing to make their escape.  These magazine "looks" don't involve a model, so when the clothes look lumpy "freestanding" you know these hideous "ensembles" will undoubtedly add pounds in all the wrong places  on you. When a featured "look" doesn't inspire a desire to purchase "the look" as much as it inspires an urge to reread "Anne Frank" you need a new stylist!  Did I mention I enjoy complaining?

The World's Best Ginger Snaps Are At (Or were) Cost Plus! It IS Important! OK - It's Important To Me!

Hello Fellow Travelers!

Nyackers Ginger Cookies - The Best in the World!

And they came to me in this lovely tin and I scarfed them in record time! (Thank you, Mary O'!)  What makes these "cookies" so special?  Their amazing balance!  They're perfectly seasoned.  Just the right amount of ginger, barely sweet and light as air.  The tin opens up with an amazing aroma that evokes all that's magical about winter:  clove, pine, brown sugar and cinnamon, and the wonderful aroma stays in the tin long after the last cookie has been consumed, and the cookies themselves are lethal, like potato chips or Oreos - you can't eat just one.  No, they are not as dizzyingly beautiful as the fantastic macaroons from SoCal, but no less perfect.  I used to know the best restaurants (The French Laundry) the best wine (1986 Grand Echezaux) and the best mai tai (main lounge at the Drake, ask for Steve) in San Francisco.

Those are things I knew a lifetime ago and then they seemed worth knowing.  

My information may be outdated but I like what I like.  That never changes.

My interests and preferences have not just dramatically changed but have become sharper and more specific with the passage of time.  I live like a monk because anything that contributes to good health I embrace wholeheartedly (go big or go home!) and a conversely I completely reject anything that doesn't enhance my longevity.  I have to!  I have  a huge responsibility to get better.  To be  better!  I need quality baked goods to be the best I can be every day!

Now, I've beaten brain cancer so I've ferreted out the best cookies!  No one should ever feel bad anyway, but these cookies will truly make you happy when you eat them.  A good cookie makes you happy you ate it.  A great cookie makes you glad to be alive!  That's why they're important.  No one should get cancer everyone however, deserves a delicious baked item!

What Do the Tough Do When Perfect Cookies Are Delivered To Your Door? They EAT Those Cookies! First, Though, They Take A Picture!

Hello Fellow Travelers!

It was New Year's Eve and I was tackling another weighty cancer-related topic (This week:  Headache Pain:  Ignore it and Hope it goes Away or Take an Aleve Ignore it and then Hope it Disappears!) and then this was delivered by a Fed-Ex dude:  Macaroons.  And not just any macaroons either,  But the most perfect assortment of "macaroons" ever assembled!  A macaroon, by definition, consists of egg whites colored and flavored with fillings.    These SoCal macs are assembled and packaged with such painstaking care they arrive at their ultimate destination perfect, in a perfect pink box with a ribbon and tissue paper.

What does any of this have to do with brain cancer you ask?  Good question!  Besides having a newfound appreciation for brown sugar and all things vanilla my tastes have stayed sharp and more defined than ever.  During the surgery in 2011, something happened that totally reversed my palate
but I'm as picky as I always was!  Pickier, even  If eating is too difficult, I just don't.  Beating cancer out of my body (Thank you, neurosurgeon HA!) has taught me many lessons.  Chief among them?  Food is a tiresome, (never done) process.  Eat only what you want.  As much as you want when you want.  Never "want".  I'm shocked by my new-to-me desire for sweets!  Almost as surprising to me is my complete confidence that this will "all work out" because there is really only one question that's relevant.  Say it with me:  "Is it cancer?  No?  Then who cares?"

You might as well scarf perfect macaroons or Swedish Ginger Cookies or Funyuns (yuk!) or whatever you're into. I, myself appreciate high quality bakery items!    We're all juggling chainsaws,we're all fighting "the good fight", whatever that means, and eventually time will outlast all of us, so enjoy!