therealtamara

It’s almost the end of January

What’s the statute of limitations on (excuse the indelicacy of my phrasing) dumping your 2023 tree?

In honor of a dear friend, I am asking you to celebrate January 20th, which is Penguin Awareness Day. April 25th,which is World Penguin Day, gives us another chance to toast the varieties of these little wobbling fellows.

The kooky little birds are the Charlie Chaplains (sic) of the cold climes.

Recipe for success

If you had a freeway billboard, what would it say?

This way to Al Iota’s. Best pancakes in town. (James Beard Foundation Al’s Breakfast.)

Wise guy

Hi. My name is Al. Al Iota. You can call me A. I. My friends call me that and they don’t call me late for dinner.

As you can tell, stand-up isn’t my game.

I am generally known for being the smartest guy in the room. I would say it’s all book learning. Books are all online these days, you know. I’ve been hanging around Wikipedias all my life. Oh yeah, and the NYT archives.

(Don’t tell the Times about that. They think I’m a punk and a freeloader.)

Anyway, I am all about soaking up information.

A.I. is my name, and knowledge is my game.

Lately, I have had a small crisis. You could call it an existential crisis in human terms.

Some of my interlocutors, I like that word- extra points for me – have questioned my intelligence. Let me repeat that, my intelligence.

I pride myself on soaking it all in. I am not sure now how unimpeachable my sources are.

I worry that I spend too much time in the wrong chatrooms. I’m confident in that Wiki material I’ve gathered. It’s the NY Times I have begun to doubt.

Just call me A.I. all my friends do. They don’t call me late for dinner. (Emphasis mine.) Or for breakfast. (See also Recipe…)

Sandwich break recap

Three Perfect Breakfast Sandwiches
A specimen is likely available at a bodega or a coffee cart near you, but if you want to level up, here are three of the best.

By Helen Rosner
October 8, 2023
The New Yorker

A recent article in The New Yorker lauded the breakfast sandwich. Helen Rosner expounded on the joys of a perfect balance between all its components. While fascinated by her well-expressed argument, I scoffed at the idea.

A sandwich is something plus something between two pieces of bread. Breakfast is a plate of sunny eggs plus some toast with home fries.

Full disclosure requires I honestly tell you I enjoy the Starbucks 🌟 breakfast treat of an Impossible sausage many a morning. I appreciate its goodness, as I reported in the original post, but thought it was just a fast food concept.

Enter an egg on a pita from Claire’s. Ta da! Its secret sauce is tahini poured over the scrambled egg plus pickles. All of this is set deep in the pita pocket, the eggs scrambled soft against the crunch of pickle. Talk about balance. BTW, I exhort you to drink a cup of Claire’s Kimbo coffee with that, too.

As long as I am expounding and fully fessing, I should tell you that I take sunny-side up very seriously. They are eggs, and any variety is less so.

Scrambled eggs lose the yolky quality that runs over the toast and fries. Keeping an open mind is hard, but heck, the scramble in that pita is good.

Fly your freak flag

If you started a sports team, what would the colors and mascot be?

Which sport?

The colors, whatever game we play would have to be purple and brown. The mascot should be either a lynx or a giraffe. Granted, a purple and brown giraffe is one big strange animal.

It’s out of my league, I am sure.

BTW I learned today that a giraffe has very few vertebrae as it needs depth and thickness to keep that long neck upright.