When I ride, my iPhone is usually in my jersey pocket playing my 70’s playlist. I have about 12,000, 1970’s pop songs cataloged, tagged, rated, and organized in iTunes on our server! (Doesn’t everyone have their own server…remember, I’m anal).
As most would agree, every song in our memory has at least two versions:
- The version that the artist wrote
- and the version that we believe we hear
But wait, I think there’s a 3rd AND 4th version of every song!!!
Neapolitan Word of the Day!
Before I continue, this is a new feature of my blog, It explores words from my past that I want to make sure that my grandchildren learn, and most importantly, not forget…today’s word:
moozedell (pronounced – moo z del) – aka mozzarella (who the heck calls it that other than Amerigans?). “Real” moozedell is made from buffalo milk! (see this). And, of course, it originated in Napoli!
The Song We think We Hear!
For example, in the late 70s, Manfred Mann had a hit song “Blinded by the Light.”
IN MY WORLD, I heard the song’s chorus as “Blinded by the Light, Wrapped up like a Douche…blah blah blah…” As a naive HS’er, I wondered, “What’s a douche?” and “How does one get blinded by a douche?”
In the late 70s, TV first started to have commercials for female hygiene products. It was the first I’d seen of a curved, tip topped, bottle for “cleansing.” “Oh,” I thought, “that’s how you might get blinded!”
Obviously, what I heard are not the words that Manfred had in mind. But they are the words that I heard, and even though I know the “real” words, I continue to repeat what I’d previously heard….over and over, and over… for over 45 years.
Carm Driving – Part II
In my previous blog post (link here), I mentioned that I had a few more stories of Carm’s driving. Here’s one…
For a couple of summers during college, Carm and I worked together. One job was as part of a maintenance crew at Linde Wire. We were asked to seal the asphalt roads of the plant. Unlike a driveway, there were likely 2-3 miles of plant roads to seal!
The first day, we did it the “old” way of filling up 5-gallon buckets from a 50-gallon drum, carrying it out, pouring the bucket, then squeegeeing it out! We barely made a dent that day.
Day 2, I had an idea, by that time, I’d transferred to engineering school, and really felt that I knew stuff! I’d worked at the plant a few summers and kind of knew my way around.
Although I wasn’t part of the union, the maintenance foreman knew me since I had a cousin who was a foreman and another cousin that worked there as well.
I asked the maintenance foreman if I could gather a bunch of pipe and fittings AND borrow the Kalamazoo! He graciously obliged!
”What’s a Kalamazoo?” It’s a small, propane-powered pick-up truck. Click here to see.
The Plan
My (our?) plan was to connect the pipe and fittings directly to the 50-gallon drum, then hang to drum off the back end of the Kalamazoo to distribute the sealer.
Carm would drive the Kalamazoo. Meanwhile, I held and tilted the drum off the back of the pick-up to pour the sealer directly onto the asphalt. No more hauling of buckets across the plant property…WHAT POSSIBLY COULD GO WRONG!?
This worked great…FOR ABOUT 5 MINUTES…when the sealer stopped pouring out of the fittings! So, instead of getting larger diameter fittings, I simply tilted the drum some more (remember…50-gallon drum full of sealer…let’s say 500 pounds…see link).
As I was “tilting more”, we hit a bump. I lost control of the barrel and my balance! I flung off the side of the Kalamazoo! Before Carm even knew I fell off, he felt another bump….which was my ankle being run over by the back end of the Kalamazoo…ooh!
Carm felt terrible. He didn’t need to. I was the chooch that hung a 500 pound barrel of sealer from the back end of a Kalamazoo! He stopped by that night, and we watched the Indians (same thing I’m doing as I type this)! Obviously, I’ve recovered!!!!
BTW – there’s another Carm driving story…next blog post!
Version 3? A Song’s Interpretation!
Just as funny as “what we think we hear” are our interpretation of a song’s lyrics!
For example, the song “December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)” by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.
I was 50+ years old when the “Jersey Boys” toured through Rochester. The lyric “I felt a rush like a rolling from a thunder….it ended much too soon…” I never truly thought about, nor knew, the true meaning of those lyrics until it was explained in the play…OOPS!
“What about the 4th Version of every song?” NEXT BLOG POST!
Please feel free to send along “what you thought you heard” and “your interpretations”…I’m sure we’ll find some that are more funny than above!
GPS #25 – Sylvio’s Pizzeria, Charlotte, NY
Last week, Frankie Q. and I rode from the “east side” to a “west side” of Rochester to meet a couple of other buddies, Rapid Robert and Jeffy to pick up some PO’s that I needed to capture. STRAVA LINK
This is a big deal for a couple of reasons….
1. there is no bridge across the large bay that separates the towns along the lake in Rochester. Therefore, we need to bike around the bay and through the city on bad traffic roads and questionable neighborhoods.
2. simply, to us “east siders”…they’re “no good, west siders…” despite the fact that
Rapid Robert and Jeffy live there 🙂
On the way to Rapid Robert and Jeffy, we rode through Charlotte along the beach.
ASIDE – Rochester “dialect” is similar to Neapolitan. So, Charlotte is pronouced “Shar Lot” not “Shar Let” as the rest of the civilized world. END ASIDE
Just off the beach, Frankie Q. pointed out a Sylvio’s Pizzeria. We noted that it had the look of a joint, and that we should consider
stopping on the way back to the “east side”.
We met up with Rapid Robert and Jeffy and captured 4 more west side PO’s, dropped them back off, and continued to Sylvio’s.
Ambiance and Presentation = GREAT
From the outside, Sylvio’s has the “look” of a joint. Inside, though, didn’t have the joint look of tables along the side and the counter along the back.
BUT, THE OWNER HAD A BROWNS PICTURE ON THE WALL AND IS A BROWNS FAN.
Because of that, IT’S A JOINT and gets a Ambiance and Presentation Rating of GREAT!!!
Dough and Crust = MEH (which is not good)
After such excitement about the Browns pic, I hoped that the pizza would also WOW me…NOPE!!!!
The crust was either a pre-made, pre-cooked shell, or it was “last night’s” pizza that was re-heated given that we showed up immediately after the joint opened.
Also, the crust had “cross hatches” along the bottom, like one might see with a pre-made shell. If this is true, then this is contrary to the “About Us” on their website!
In any event, the crust was thick and dry like it was overly re-heated. The cornicione was hard…blah! Dough and Crust Rating = MEH
Sauce = MEH (which is not good)
First of all, there was not much sauce, nor there was little sauce taste. To top that, the sauce that was adjacent to the cornicione was dark red which is another indication of re-heat. Sauce Rating = MEH.
Cheese = good
There was a great amount of moozedell, and it had a nice salty taste. But there was little or no parmagian taste. Sauce Rating = Good.
Overall Rating = MEH (which is not….?)
I come from a long line of pizza re-heaters; the line is so long, I could actually be called a pizza re-heat legacy! So, when I think a pizza is re-heated, I think I have excellent experience to call that out! Overall Rating = MEH.
Would I go back = ?????
A pizza joint with a Browns picture on the wall….hmm….tough call, but I probably wouldn’t go back. So, would I go back = No!
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