Sunday, March 25 – Saturday, March 31
The Week in Unwittingly Scaring the Wits Out of Someone: When I walked into my part-time job on Wednesday, three of employees were standing near the front door looking like they’d just been told horrific news. In fact, a customer had just walked into the store before me and said she thought there was someone dead in a car in the parking lot. Awful, right? So one of my co-workers held up a piece of merchandise (a notebook) and said, “The lady said the car was this color (pointing at the notebook). Did you see a car this color?” Of course I’d seen it. It was my car and I was taking a pre-shift nap. I wasn’t dead, just well-rested.
The Week in Plot-less = Loveless: I saw the Russian film Loveless this week. It’s a film about extremely self-absorbed parents whose son goes missing. There isn’t much of a traditional plot. The parents are the same at the beginning as at the end. But I think the point isn’t the story, it’s more an examination of modern life, a life the director seems to think is essentially soul-less. 3 out of 5 stars.
The Week in 1 Billion People Can’t All Be Wrong: This week I lured my Mom, Cookie, to an Indian restaurant, by promising her a glass of wine. The bad rap on Indian food as told by people who don’t eat Indian food is “I don’t like curry.” As if every dish in India is curry. Clearly, there’s more to it. On my recommendation she ordered Chicken Tikka Masala. I ordered Lamb and Mushrooms because I knew she would try it and she likes lamb. Turns out, she loved all the food. She wants to eat the Chicken Tikka next and then, I think, every chicken and lamb dish on the menu. She won’t eat the vegetarian selections except as a side dish, but she said she would try those, too. A HUGE victory for me in expanding our dining horizons and for her for trying something new.
The Week in Not Listening: On our regular Sunday shopping trip, we went to TJ Maxx where I bought some Fentiman’s Ginger Beer and I gave Cookie one of the bottles to try. I Repeatedly I told her that the Ginger “beer” we bought was Ginger SODA. Buying it at TJ Maxx should have been a clue about the product, and, I’d like to add, I told her repeatedly it was soda. One night this week she called to report this “beer” did not give her a buzz. She also said she’ll stick to regular beer. Well, I tried.
The Week in Fake Opening Day: Technically, the Reds opened the 2018 Baseball season on Friday night (with a loss to the Washington Nationals), but the traditional Findlay Market Parade had to be delayed until Monday. Emotionally, for me, the season doesn’t start until the Parade happens. On Friday, I went to one of my Opening Day Bars and watched the game on TV. I’ll be at the parade and, hopefully, the game on Monday.
The Week in You Know You’re In Cincinnati: In addition to Opening Day festivities, I got a taste of another typical Cincinnati tradition – arguing about Cincinnati Chili. The guys next to me at Arnold’s were having a fairly lackadaisical discussion about the Supreme Court before they swerved to an impassioned discussion on Cincinnati Chili. This is a typical conversation around town and they hit all the top talking points like which chili parlor has the best chili and how the rest of the country/world doesn’t eat our chili. But when they switched to trying to improve the experience and upgrade it for a modern culinary audience they got intense. They spend about 10 minutes imagining an upscale version of the $8 5-way, that people would spend $20 or more one. It was so drunk and sooooo Cincinnati.
Nothing Ever Happens on My Street 