bigbonton

This BBQ place never really got going.
and then the Interstate came through, and then people started eating salads instead of BBQ and then they quit going to the beach, "what with the price of gas these days" . . .

Earlier we've stated some (made-up) rule about how a tin roof and smoking pit guarantees good BBQ eating.
This is an exception to that rule, even the tin roof couldn't save this BBQ joint. Maybe the food wasn't good or the cooks were surly & glum?

Today the parking lot has a tree growing up through the pavement. Couldn't photograph from my part of the parking lot because some rapscallion ne'er-do-wells were conducting some sort of business on that very spot by the tree - whoops! - we didn't see anything, don't know nothing 'bout nothing. Sure wasn't going to point a camera at 'em.

All I know is I don't know.

We documented the failed BBQ stand and departed before they could come over.
As we shifted into 2nd gear we heard the crime boss yell
"You best Ge-et out this lot!".
Right. Some threat, lame bravado crowing from the rural poor.
But here's another made-up rule:
"Don't get in a fight with someone that has nothing to loose".

3rd gear, 4th gear, and we're laughing and I'm checking the rear view mirror - as if!

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The Gibbs Museum of Art, Charleston, SC.

       

A magnificent bust, non?
Oh! She eees too bee-yoo-tee-foo.

click photos to enlarge in new window

No Photography! - the sign said.
Lucky for us I cannot read.

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photo below, from the top:
1) Spanish Mackerel, caught trolling over the Betsy Ross Reef
LORAN C-45504.1/61061.9 // GPS-32 03.427/080 24.851
2) A large mouth surprise photo'd at the dock. I shot this one.
With this camera. It was much larger than the cooler it was draped over - about 4 feet of solid fish not including the tail. He could swallow your head up to your shoulders.
3) Sea Bass, from 40 miles offshore. Not telling where. Off Hilton Head in the Atlantic. Look at those eyes - clear means fresh.


click the photo!
Actual fish are larger than they appear.
I grin everytime I read that.

Quite a haul & by the time I reeled in my last thundering Sea Bass of the day I'd fished myself out. We got a big laundry basket full of fish. Even after cleaning we had a cooler stuffed full of meat.

At the reef our Spanish Mackerel catches were often partials - barracuda found us and were biting off our Spanish Mackerel catch before we could land them. We were pulling up heads or fish with a significant bite missing from their abdomen.

More yapping about fishing:
"I" caught the biggest shark until my buddy one-upped me. But mine fought more!
"I" also made the biggest commotion over nothing, hooting & crowing while reeling in a "shark or something" that turned out to be some sort of epileptic sand dab / guppy. It felt big. Perhaps a shark did a bait & switch?
"I" claim to have caught the most, but admit most of mine were from an Elementary School and were tossed back to graduate.

One undisputed superlative "I" earned:
"I" tossed cookies the most. Twice.
Nobody else got sick over the side although some looked like they felt like it on a few trolls. When I hurled, my experience at sea showed. Everyone agreed that I really know how to barf with finesse.
Along with the "Most Urps" award "I" also earned the "Best Bounce-Back" award: "I" ralphed, "I" rinsed my mouth, blew my nose to clear the stomach acid from my sinuses, and "I" re-started fishing & yapping again without delay.

"I" persevered against these obstacles and kept on fishing.
Then I accused a guy of hogging the "Luck Corner" of the boat when he caught several in a row and I was on a dry spell.
Fish, Fish, fish-fish. Fishing!

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The episode in which we see how lack of attention led to a horrible transformation...
and the panic of the emotionally frail Miss Lass.

This character came out of the bush and scared our field correspondent so badly that the lass fled into a safety container with a peephole, a wildlife-watching hut.

Miss Lass could hear BADbonton bark on the other side of the fiberglass, “Argh! You wanna see wildlife? Grr Grrrl! Come out, come out wherever you are. Oh, duh, you're right inside there. Anyway, come out. I know you're in there. I can hear you breathing."
BADbonton mistook her high energy level from his unpolished apple applications for a prim excitement over his being all frisky in the field.

“Who said apples were good for you,” Miss Lass queried sillyly. “His purple eyes are bugging. Look at what one wedge of a Granny Smith apple did to his smile! The guys teeth – they are beyond carnivore – why he, he’s a OMNIVORE oh my!”

Apples are good for you but pity the guy getting an apple for dessert when he was eyeing her sweet apple cheeks. Thus the May Day Mangler mixed up Miss Lass, rather than polishing her person and mussing up her May day.

Fielding affection from another fine lass will fix him right up.
Any takers?
“Replacement Lass needed"
"Urgent field research with dynamo.”
Prudes or the verve-less need not apply.
Bring your own moxie.

Posted by bigbonton at 5:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

“Carolina Moon, keep shining,
Shining on the one who waits for me,
Carolina Moon, I'm pining,
Pining for the place I long to be,
How I'm hoping tonight, you'll go,
Go to the right window,
Scatter your light, say I'm all right, please do,
Tell her that I'm blue and lonely,
Dreamy Carolina Moon.”

The waning crescent moon and the king of planets, Jupiter.
Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system.

This combo looks a lot like the SC state logo, you know, the crescent moon and palmetto tree. A logo that is overdone on belts, lapels, shirts, wallets, golf balls, hats, T-shirts, socks, purses, (let me catch my breath), and bumper stickers, license plates, tattoos, visors, flip flops, crocs, nail appliqués, headbands, and so on... You get the point. Overdone.

Now back to the photo: it's especially nice to have some land in the foreground. The image uses benefits from two worlds - fine light from a sunrise over the ocean framed by live oaks on a barrier island. Land and sea combined forces to bring you this image.
So "'Please enjoy properly' - the Management"

This pre-sunrise moonrise at 5:30 AM occurred on the eve of Earth Day eve April 20, 20009, that's Four Twenty Oh Nine, 4/20. Took a few trial handheld photos from the dock that were too shaky. Got a tripod, went to the dock, shot a few frames and cropped this result.

Been thinking a lot about a phrase,
"We have a whole river between us."
It was initially said to mean,
"We have a lot in common.”
A whole river of relevancy. Connections, references made and understood. A flow between here and there, despite distance, without separation of place or needs of the moment

But life gets in the way and good things get pushed aside.
The symbolic river gets a metaphoric logjam.

Both things are true, there is a river between us but the water is wide.
People don't cross the chasm when it's all oh so irrelevant anyway.

Another phrase that’s been on repeat in the noggin,
something from scuba and Jacques Cousteau and the Talking Heads:
“There is water at the bottom of the ocean.”

Letting the days go by / let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by / water flowing underground
Into the blue again / after the moneys gone
Once in a lifetime / water flowing underground.

Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was.
Appreciate a unique one-of-a-kind pre-sunrise moonrise at
5:30 AM on the eve of Earth Day eve.
April 20, 2009. 420 2009.
Once in a lifetime!

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Below decks aboard the Poseidon II, the Chief Inversion Mate shows how seriously the maritime outfitters take their 1970’s fiction films (and the 2006 do-over).
As you see in this stealth photo, this bilge is ready for a little rollover action.

“When the mother of all rogue waves appears abeam and
slams us, then we’ll crawl to the lower decks – they’ll be the top decks after the rollover. Then we’ll be ready for rescue from the waterlogged bowels of the overturned ship. Yep, she’s fine and she’ll earn her pride once her bottom is skyward,” according to the shore-starved Mate-in-Waiting.

Equipped with a reasonably comfortable sitting arrangement, art on the walls, and side table whatnot knick-knacks, the First Class 180 Compartment of the Poseidon II shows she’s in touch with her feminine side.
Yar.
Happy April 1st, 2009.

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Sometimes it doesn't take that much to turn something plain into something exceptional.
The down home Elvis sandwich, the PB&B, the peanut butter & banana sandwich, is a blank canvas, a platform standing at the ready for your enhancements.

In this installment of the Lay Gourmet, we poked our heads into the kitchen appliance cabinet and felt like playing with the waffle-making waffle iron. This created our alternate for ordinary sandwich bread - the… you guessed it, the waffle as breadie bookends for our custom sammich-making episode.

Instead of using waffle mix we stirred up some cornbread mix, using organic ingredients as much as possible. Buttermilk can work well too, some say it calls for a pinch more baking powder or separated eggs (eggs whites only), but in your kitchen you rule the roost. Pinch or separate or leave it alone, your call. The only change is that the cornbread will be a bit lighter if you do those things.

Back to the topic… cornbread in a waffle iron for a peanut butter & banana sandwich…

The reasoning is two fold: I love cornbread so figured why not feature it whenever possible; and I love crispy cornbread crust so why not make it crispy crisp using the best tool for the job, the waffle iron. No flipping, no timing, since this is an electric model with a timer for pre-heating cooking, and keeping warm – no rush no fuss. Except rush to spread the peanut butter while the bread is hot, add honey first if you really want to trick it out, bananas, Vietnamese cinnamon, pecans, or anything you can think of. Just ask yourself, “What would Elvis do?”

Voila, a sandwich fit for a King.

The Big E liked his PB&B pan fried in butter. Whatever, it still can be all-organic. If he'd had me in his entourage he'd still be shaking a leg because he'd eat right and be alive.

"It’s a good thing." Isn’t that the Martha Stewart catchphrase?

DO TRY THIS AT HOME, but...
Are the two above-mentioned celebrity names actually role models for us to emulate? Martha on what's right and good, and Elvis on sustenance?

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The original bigbonton barbecue tours of the South started on a lark, became a bit of a vice, morphed into a hobby, then here it is 2009 and this photo blog has a life of its own.

You gotta eat, right? So while in the Lowcountry of South Carolina and Georgia why not dine on what the National Barbecue News calls the "Best of the Best" at Savannah’s Wiley’s Championship BBQ restaurant and catering. Their subtle nuances include their BTS “Better Than Sex” sauce, which a layman may describe as "tangy" but the creators call "tingly". And oh how it does tingle on the palette. It's not hot, it's just tingly...

We dined with a vegetarian, yes, a vegetarian in a BBQ joint, (people will follow me anywhere) and she loved it all. Well, I mean she loved the potato salad, cole slaw, (my benchmarks for comparison) and bread pudding. The texture of the bread pudding was the opposite of tingly, whatever that word is.

Attribution:
Wiley’s Championship BBQ
Whitemarsh Island (at Highway 80 & Islands Expressway)
6 easy miles from Savannah’s downtown Historic District
4700 U.S. Highway 80 East, Suite N
Savannah, Georgia 31410-2942. (912) 201-3259;
click to email for catering or what not: bbqgeneral@gmail.com; fax 912-201-3262

click for their website: Wileys Championship bbq .com

Tell 'em bigbonton sent you and see how far that gets you...

Posted by bigbonton at 4:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Feb 24, 2009 is both Fat Tuesday - Mardi Gras
and the 53rd birthday of Steve Jobs,
the man who out-Disneyed Disney (with Pixar),
who was a $1 a year iCEO (where i = interim)
when it was the coolest coincidence in the world that
iMacs and i-everything Internet was happening,
the man who is really not very old but has rocked the world and provided the tools that so many-many use to earn a living.

 

The man with the great comeback story of being ousted from the company he started but then had a triumphant return
.
 "God Bless Steve Jobs!" 

Steve Jobs, co-founder and CEO of Apple, was born on February 24, 1955. This father of four is also a co-founder of Pixar Studios and, since its acquisition, is the largest single shareholder of the Disney corporation. In some ways, he is an uber-GeekDad. He is currently on a leave of absence from Apple due to health reasons.

MADE ON A MAC 

Proudly made on a Mac.
Hey, Steve! Look what I can do with your tools!

Posted by bigbonton at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

bontonmobile: 1
Bambi: 0

OH! Stop the "save the whale" righteous indignation over Bambi. It's not like the bontonmobile actually won anything.
Here's how it went down:
There were two deer in the road and both of 'em clearly had signed a suicide pact. Neither could be persuaded back into the woods to roam free and enjoy another day.
The one on the right looked up and stepped back just enough be become an observer. But the one on the left was too intent on seeking tender clover from the solid yellow line. That deer on the left even acted insulted that a car horn and headlights would intrude on his nocturnal activity.
Oh well, some fancy steering threaded the needle and today the deer on the right plays in the meadow and the deer on the left is natures reminder for us to play safe, keep your speed down, remain ever vigilant behind the wheel, and be thankful for every day that you make it home to a meal and a warm bed.

The dumb deer on the right is likely trying to figure out if it was the car horn or the car headlights that killed his buddy... not connecting the dots... Just glad they weren't elk.

BTW, a large sea otter was narrowly avoided just 5 miles prior. Sounds like a night drive through the zoo.

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Hello, my baby
Hello, my honey
Hello, my ragtime gal
Send me a kiss by wire
Baby, my hearts on fire

Learned a lot while spending time with her. For starters, her Burqa is a very nice material with a silken drape in a eye-catching shade of blue - which was unexpected after having been pre-programmed by Westerners to expect a scratchy stiff fabric in a black drab hue. But no, it's not poorly done, her burqa is actually a nice article of clothing. After seeing her clothing hanging on a hanger (or perhaps dropped carelessly on the floor) then one can understand the rationalizations that go on to perpetuate the wearing of the Burqa. It's a cultural thing, no doubt. Some women wear it with pride because it's the best item they own; to others it's all about cultural identity. There are plenty of reasons that make it okay...

... Having said that... once she slipped it back on over her head it got scary. Over and over, the flash, the shocking realization kept coming that she was in there. Think about it - SHE was IN THERE, yet she couldn't be seen or recognized. She says the lack of sensory comprehension goes both ways - she could hardly see out, so people (well, okay, it's ALL males) sometimes take advantage of her limitations of vision and movement so on the street they'll thump her head and taunt her without recourse; she cannot identify the culprits.

Regardless...
Happy Valentines Day SweetHeart!
Let me call you Sweetheart
I'm in love with you
Let me hear you whisper
That you love me too
Keep the love light glowing
In your eyes so blue (as blue as your Burqa!)
Let me call you Sweetheart
I'm in love with you

For more about burqas, click for wikipedia. Thanks Wikipedia!

And click here so you don't miss their photo proving the color isn't just black!

Posted by bigbonton at 9:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Oh No! You didn't!

Yes we did, because we can!

Want your own?
Click and say "Obama Icon Me, Please!

But always remember,
"Just because you can,
doesn't mean you should."

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