August 29, 2023 – Wheels, Yachts, Games, Broken Arrow

Nothing beats sitting on my yacht, up on Cripple Creek, playing backgammon and eating brie.

Nuggets of Information: I Want My Umami 

Boo’s N.E.W.S. favorite Tom “Walkin’ Man” Cutler submitted a gruesome entry about an Italian man, Giacomo Chiapparini, 74, who was crushed to death when thousands of wheels of Grana Padano cheese fell on him. While you may expect this article to go on to discuss other cheese-related deaths, I instead want to use this opportunity to counter any arguments that Parmesan-style cheeses are dangerous, murderous or nefarious. In fact, they are quite delightful, and should not be feared or avoided. Seek first to understand…

For those of you who wouldn’t know your Asiago from a hole in the ground, here is a breakdown of these umami-rich Italian hard cheeses.  

• Parmigiano Reggiano – Traced back to the 13th century, the “King of Cheese” is a cow's milk cheese, aged 1-3 years, and is specific to the provinces of Parma or Reggio Emilia in north-central Italy. As a “Protected Designation of Origin” (PDO) cheese, its production has a set of rules that must be followed, and it must be made in a specific place to call itself by that name. This rich, nutty cheese is tightly regulated, with the milk only heated in copper kettles, by cheese-makers with at least 10 years' experience. In the EU, only Parmigiano Reggiano cheeses can be called Parmesan, but here in the US, those PDO restrictions are not in place.  

• Grana Padano – Another cow’s milk cheese, this Italian beauty goes back almost 1000 years, and is another PDO cheese, from the Po River Valley. There are three age profiles, ranging from 9-16 months to over 20 months. A lovely cheese to eat as-is but can also be incorporated into cooking.  

• Asiago – This cow’s milk cheese from the northeastern region of Italy is more mildly flavored and semi-sweet, with shorter aging profiles. Perfect for pasta and risotto.

• Pecorino Romano – This popular cheese is made from sheep's milk, is aged for 8-12 months, and typically hails from central and southern Italy. Saltier and sharper than Parmigiano Reggiano. Great for grating on pastas, salads and soups.  

• Parmesan – If you are in Europe, this refers to Parmigiano Reggiano (see above), but in the U.S., according to the US Food & Drug Administration guidelines, can refer to any cow’s milk cheese with a granular texture, aged for at least 10 months, and with a hard and brittle rind. Many of us first tried Parmesan cheese from the green can on the table during family spaghetti nights.  

I LOVE Parmesan style cheeses. They are rich in umami, my favorite of the five basic tastes. I’ll confess that sometimes, at night, I’ll sneak into the kitchen, pinch a handful of shredded parm in my hand, and lick it like some dirty pervert. Don’t judge me!! 

Enrichment:  Big Yachty 

This past Saturday, we set sail for Cadence Bank Amphitheatre, affectionately known by locals as “Chastain” to enjoy the smooth groove stylings of Yacht Rock Revue. Chastain is Atlanta’s oldest outdoor music venue, with a blend of lawn seating, traditional chair/bench seating, and fancy schmancy table seating. It is this last category that allows the venue to use the more bougie AmphitheaTRE spelling, instead of the pedestrian AmphitheaTER spelling. Our group, comprised of the Boohers, Shivers, Cutlers and McCarthys, is known for our schmanciness, so we opted for a table. As luck would have it, the table next to us was unclaimed, so we had plenty of room, and welcomed more friends to our area.  

The crowd was a blend of middle aged white people and middle aged white people. The prevailing attire of choice was either a Captain’s hat or a neck fan. I was shocked at the open use of drugs everywhere I looked. From statins to beta-blockers to ACE inhibitors, you could get anything your heart desired, or your cardiologist recommended. I heard that in the VIP area, they had platters of Ozempic and Wegovy just sitting out! 

Yacht Rock Revue has been around since 2007, delighting audiences with covers of smooth rock hits from the 70’s, 80’s and occasionally 90’s. As part of their contract with Live Nation, they tour nationally, playing over 100 shows a year, but they started in Atlanta, and their home crowd always welcomes them enthusiastically. Recently, they opened for Kenny Loggins’ “This Is It” tour. I have seen Yacht Rock Revue, and their subsidiary Yacht Rock Schooner many times over the years, with the highlight being their performance of Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense back in January at the Eastern. I have seen a lot of really good live music this year, and with the exception of Billy Strings, that Stop Making Sense show was the best I’ve experienced so far.  

I am an infant of the 60’s, a child of the 70’s and a teen of the 80’s. This music is the music of my youth. It was a simpler time back then. The world seemed smaller. And maybe it was, as evidenced by one song they played: Sade’s “Smooth Operator” which offers the geography-lesson lyric “Coast to Coast, L.A. to Chicago.”  

The show did not disappoint. The intro and outro house music was the theme to the “Price is Right,” a tribute to a legend of that era, Bob Barker, who recently passed away at the age of 99.  They played 29 songs over 2 1/2 hours. Some highlights: 

• Toto’s “Africa” - the greatest song ever - which went directly into Abba’s “Dancing Queen.” Even the people with pickleball injuries got up and danced to that one. 

• Gerry Rafferty’s “Baker Street” – with its classic saxophone solo, was amazing. David B. Freeman, who handles Saxophones, Keyboards, Flute, Piccolo, Percussion, and Vocals, came out to the very front of the stage, bathed in colorful lighting, and just nailed the sax solos.  

• Another Toto song – “Rosanna” – showcased the versatility of the musicians. Nicholas Niespodziani and Peter Olson alternated singing and playing a single set of bongos. They were in perfect sync the whole time. Very impressive. 

A personal highlight for me was when they played Paul Simon’s “Loves Me Like a Rock” - the song I danced to, with my Mom, at my wedding. It will be two years ago next week that she passed away, so that one had special meaning to me.  

If you like music from that era, please go see Yacht Rock Revue whenever you can. They are extremely talented. Also – support them by buying their album Hot Dads In Tight Jeans or other merch from their website.  

Workshop: Don't Hate the Player, Or the Game 

I love playing games and have my entire life. From board games to card games to backgammon to word games, I love them all. As a boy, games like Clue, Scrabble, Operation, Mousetrap, and Password were always in play. We were part of the Trivial Pursuit generation, then embraced Pictionary, and now laugh hysterically playing Cards Against Humanity. Uno, Skipbo, Racko and Phase-10 are perennial faves. I am in a poker group, and we play a variety of poker games each time we gather. I’ve dabbled in chess, Go, Chinese Checkers and Mancala. The greatest benefit of my AARP membership is the online games they offer that help keep your mind sharp.  

Lately, my morning routine features three New York Times games which I play on my smart phone. After my morning walk, I pour my coffee, pet my dog, then play Wordle. There is a five-person text thread where Lisa, Dan, Tom, Chris and I share our Wordle scores. Get it in three, you get the “!!” reaction. Get it in 2, you earn the heart reaction. It can be a frustrating game – my aggregate scores, viewed sideways, looks like someone flipping the bird. But I have more 3’s than I do 5’s and have never not gotten it in the 6 guesses allowed during my 319 game streak.  

Next up I play the NY Times Mini Crossword. Samantha and I both play this, and I’m grateful for at least one daily communication with our remotely located college student. It only takes a minute, give or take, and I am pleased that she has bested my time several times since she has gotten to college. Glad that expensive university education is starting to pay off. 

The third game is my favorite – Connections. A new game from NYT, it had a soft summer release and is now available to everyone. In this game, you are presented with 16 words in a grid. Your goal is to pick sets of four that have some relation. It could be types of shoes, or brands of laundry detergent, or fashion magazines, or breakfast cereals – you have to figure out the … connections. The editors are sneaky little summavabiches, often giving you 5 or 6 words that all fit a theme. You can only miss four times and then you are out. Diabolical! Get one grouping right, and it pulls those words into a row, and you move on to figure out how the rest of the words fit.  

An honorable mention also goes out to a game Chris Shiver introduced me to – Redactle Unlimited. In this game, you are presented with a Wikipedia article, with all but the basic prepositions blanked out. You guess words until you have figured out the title of the article. You have unlimited guesses. Tricky, educational, fun.  

What are your favorite games? Share them in the comments!  

Selected Content: Take a Load Off Robbie 

Earlier this month, Robbie Robertson passed away. Robertson first gained widespread attention as a guitarist for Bob Dylan, notably when he “went electric” in 1965. His work with the Band followed that, for the next ten years, culminating in The Last Waltz, a star-studded concert that was later turned into an amazing rockumentary, with added interviews and songs, by Martin Scorsese. Robertson continued to be productive, releasing six critically acclaimed solo albums, with the last being released in 2019.  

Robertson’s impact lasted for decades and had broad appeal. This video of the Band’s famous song “The Weight” is a great example of just how prevalent his work was, featuring musicians from around the world. I hope you will check it out and watch some of the other “Playing for Change” videos on YouTube.