Stephen Whitty of the Star-Ledger has posted an article over at NJ.com about one of my all-time favorite movie stars, Humphrey Bogart.
From the article:
Close your eyes and you can still see him.
The fedora, pulled low. The trench, belted tight. The shoulders hunched up, and the eyes squinting with suspicion. The right hand, with a bourbon in it, or a Chesterfield, or just pulling, ruminatively, at one ear.
I’m a chili snob. There. I said it. A little personal insight into the twisted mind of Shawn E. Bell.
For decades I’ve cooked chili, attended chili cook-offs, sampled great (and not so great) chili, and traveled wherever there was chili to be had. I’ve amassed hand-written notebooks and computer directories that are chock full of recipes for every kind of chili known to man. I’ve had quinoa chili, white chili, black bean chili, bison chili, squirrel chili, varmint chili, Texas chili, Cincinnati chili, con carne and straight chili. Chili from Pink’s, Tommy’s, Hemingway’s, Wienerschnitzel, and many other restaurants that touted this awesome food.
Wherever there is chili to be had, I am there.
CSX2287 and I have had a long and tumultuous relationship. I have been deeply involved with Cobras, Daytonas, and GT40s since I made a mistake and sold a car for much less than I should have. Once you make a really expensive mistake like that, you either hate your stupidity or you gain the kind of knowledge necessary so that you NEVER EVER make that mistake again. So I learned about these cars. I learned everything. I knew every car in the Southern California area – who owned it, who made it – just by the sound the car made as it drove.
At one point, I found out that this particular car was somewhere in Southern California, and that – if I could find it – I’d be paid a handsome finders fee.
On this date in 1854 Sherlock Holmes was born.
One of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous characters, Sherlock Holmes was a “London-based consulting detective whose abilities border on the fantastic.” Mr. Holmes was famous for his logic, reasoning, and forensic science skills.
All but four of the Sherlock Holmes stories were narrated by Dr. John Watson; of the four that weren’t, two were narrated by Holmes, and two were written in the third person.
On this date in 1775 Captain Samuel Nicholas formed two battalions of Continental Marines into the first naval infantry.
Since their inception, the United States Marine Corps (USMC) have helped to found a country, beaten back evil and tyranny and create men who stand head and shoulders above the rest. They truly are the few and the proud.
It pissed my Air Force colonel father off to no end to know that I was born on the same date as the United States Marine Corps. I’m not a Marine, but I proudly share their birthday every year.
Happy Birthday Devil Dogs!
