The Ferris Wheel

Everybody is psyched over our new Ferris Wheel. So am I kinda. But am stupified when I remember we had a Ferris Wheel, 45 fun rides, a spookhouse, a butt-tightening rollercoaster, a million-memories pavilion with 100 pinball and video games and we wrecking-ball'd all that down to make way for a new computer-operated Ferris Wheel. Maybe now we'll build a new computer-operated pavilion.

OFF SEASON

Off season is called that for a damn good reason. Thoreau who cooed, “Live each season as it passes, breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit…resign yourself to the influences of each season.” Well Thoreau didn’t know dookee about the Myrtle Beach restaurant off season.
In one fall full moon you rappel from the rarified air of Everest to the cash-register emptiness of the Marianas Trench. Some winter days you open the door and absolutely no one (zero, nada) darkens your door cept a map salesmen and a coupon-book purveyor dunning you for overdue bills and an Irish Traveler offering you a too-good-to-be-true asphalt patch.

Another except from Dino's book

The Rochester Newmans

The Rochester NY Newmans and their beautiful family dined at their favorite Myrtle Beach restaurant, Cagneys Old Place. 35 years straight they have arrived in matching pastel sport jackets. Whoops! This time they came in unmatched sweaters. Worried, we called a marriage counselor. Everything's still peachy. They're still lovey dovey. Mr Newman has a dollar bill signed by every Cagney's server since 1976. Our entire server history is all there on a dollar bill!

Tumbles out of his chair

Hand-wavin, veiny nose customer tumbles out of his chair while demonstrating his backswing. I help him up. He's laughin at himself, says he's fine as I hoist him up. Few swings later, he falls out of his seat again. Only this time he lands under the feet of the adjoining table. I go over and help him up again. I make a joke about his jerky golf swing, cozy him back into his seat, remove my belt and buckle it around him and the back of the chair. Everybody laughs, including him.

Few weeks later he calls and threatens to sue me for embarrassing him. Wants to know if some kind of monetary policy is available to avoid a lawsuit.
"What do you do for a living?" I ask.
"I own an insurance company."
"Then my advice is quit drinkin, increase your accident insurance and only dine in padded booths."

Greek Boy-Growing Up Southern

PRESS RELEASE:
For those who enjoy Ebook readers, Kindle, Nook, Ipad, etc.
Dino Thompson's HILARIOUS memoir "GREEK BOY-GROWING UP SOUTHERN" (a Myrtle Beach memoir) is NOW available on KINDLE & NOOK & iPAD readers for 8.99.

All 590 pages and 85 vintage photos will be available for DOWNLOAD at $8.99.
Now you won't have to get tendinitis holding the 3-lb printed version or phlebitis setting it on your lap. But of course if you still love print, you can go to www.greekboy.info and order the printed version or drop by Flamingo Grill or Cagneys.

Let Dino know if you have any ideas how to get the word out.

Wine and Oenophiles

Excerpt from Dino's new book:
I poke fun at wine snobs cause any kinda snob oughta be poked.
Remember, we're talkin about a concoction traditionally prepared by hairy-leg wives and daughters jumpin panty-less into grape-filled wooden vats.

Check out this description I lifted from Edward Dietch's wine column.

"What emerges is gorgeous aromas of ripe, dark berry and cedar. Then an array of tastes that include blueberry, plum, blackberry, cedar, and mocha as well as hints of nutmeg and cinnamon. The wine is well structured, refined yet slightly earthy. The tannins have softened to provide texture but they don't intrude."

So tell me...Is this bon vivant a 16-adjective genius or is this a cork-sniffin snob who don't know his butt from an oak barrel? What is the dude tryin to say? Is the wine good, great or salad dressing?

Or get a load of this Gael Greene wine description from her book, Insatiable.
"....the first sip was bombastic, 3 baritones in simultaneous assault. After a bite of pepperoni and cheese, and a few minutes in the glass, the deeply regal red warmed and softened, complex as a poem in a foreign language, like satin on my tongue. and I wept."

Well I wept and wet my Calvins when I read this rococco dribble. That paragraph would bring a tear to a glass eye. Gael is the queen of well-seasoned adjectives. I'd wash her size-10 manicured feet with warm Mountain Dew and dry them with spun silk if she were here.

Wine should be fun, easy, non-intimidating. I've savored good farmer-made elderberry wine fermented in a musty bacca barn. I've dis-savored a way over-priced '67 Lafitte Rothschild and couldn't swallow my first swig of Chateau Margaux. But I like most wines, even jug wines are drinkable. They don't need fancy stemware, combo adjectives or swirlin instructions. Screw top, stainless steel, oak, don't matter, you like em or you don't.

The golfing Cruds

The Cruds dine again at Flamingo Grill.
Russell Barringer, Dusty, Page and his classy bunch of buddies have been coming to the beach for golf, cameraderie and memories for 40 years.
For over 30 yrs we've served and laughed with them at Cagneys and Flamingo Grill. These boys to men have enjoyed many a large time. Like a lot of us, the once hard chargers are getting long in the tooth and short on the drives. There's only 16 this year but they still have a twinkle in their eye, a helluva sense of humor and a hearty appetite.
Polish up those foot wedges boys.