Cookout Country Playlist

Posted on July 15, 2011 by fast eddie

There is no better soundtrack for your summer cookout or barbeque than some great country music. Combine these great tunes with our July 4th Barbeque Recipes and have a good ole time this weekend. Here are some of my favorites, including some classics:

  • Coal Miner’s Daughter, Loretta Lynn
  • Crazy, Patsy Cline
  • Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue, Chrystal Gayle
  • Don’t Take The Girl, Tim McGraw
  • Don’t Take Your Guns To Town, Johnny Cash
  • The Gambler, Kenny Rogers
  • Girls Night Out, The Judds
  • Here For The Party, Gretchen Wilson
  • I Fall To Pieces, Patsy Cline
  • I’m Alive, Kenny Chesney with Dave Matthews
  • Independence Day, Carrie Underwood
  • Kentucky Rain, Elvis Presley
  • Knee Deep, Zac Brown Band
  • Lucille, Kenny Rogers
  • Luckenbach, Texas, Waylon Jennings
  • Making Memories of Us, Keith Urban
  • Mama He’s Crazy, The Judds
  • Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson
  • Need You Now, Lady Antebellum
  • On The Road Again, Willie Nelson
  • Orange Blossom Special, Johnny Cash
  • Picture To Burn, Taylor Swift
  • Redneck Woman, Gretchen Wilson
  • Save The Last Dance For Me, Emmylou Harris
  • Stand By Your Man, Tammy Wynette
  • There Goes My Baby, Trisha Yearwood
  • These Are The Days, Keith Urban
  • Till We Ain’t Strangers Anymore, Bon Jovi with LeAnn Rimes
  • Tim McGraw, Taylor Swift
  • Two More Bottles of Wine, Emmylou Harris
  • Walkin’ After Midnight, Patsy Cline
  • Where The Blacktop Ends, Keith Urban
  • Wide Open Spaces, Dixie Chicks
  • Your Cheatin’ Heart, Elvis Presley
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Board Games

Posted on July 14, 2011 by fast eddie

Board games can destroy relationships. They bring out the worst in people. My advice to young people is to play Taboo or Pictionary with your boyfriend or girlfriend as your partner before you get engaged. If you survive, your marriage has a good chance of success. If they call you an idiot because you can’t describe Bill Clinton with out using the words ‘horny’, ‘cheat’, ‘cheeseburger’, ‘Bubba’ or ‘President’ or ridicule you if you can’t draw a picture to describe ‘existentialism’, then you should reconsider your future together. And if you do get married, never play games against each other or on opposing teams. My wife plays online Scrabble against the computer and gets upset when she loses. I shudder to think of the consequences if she lost to me.

Board games can also interfere with your sleep. Never start a new game after dinner. Inevitably, one of the players will not let anyone quit until the game is over. Monopoly and Risk are particular killers. Just think about how long it took Napolean to conquer Europe or Trump to go bankrupt the first time before you start one of those games. Online board games are even worse. They can last for days. If you are in the midst of 12 different games of online Scrabble, don’t bring your iphone or ipad anywhere near your bedroom unless you want to be up all night thinking of three-letter words that end in ‘j’ (haj, raj, taj) or how to get rid of the ‘q’ when you don’t have a ‘u’ (qi, qis, qadi).

Board games can also destroy your self esteem. If you’ve ever played Charades and had to act out The Jungle Book, you will know how humiliating these games can be. And if you are over 50, you should forget about playing Trivial Pursuit. You will drive yourself crazy trying to remember things that you once knew. And most of what you once knew doesn’t even rise to the level of trivial anymore.

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Sunset Bitch

Posted on July 13, 2011 by fast eddie

Sunset Beach is the epitome of the worst aspects of summer in the Hamptons, arrogant, obnoxious and devoid of even the minimum standard for service. And it isn’t even in the Hamptons. It’s in Shelter Island, so you have to make a special effort to be abused. Part of the Andre Balazs group of boutique hotels and restaurants which includes The Standard, The Mercer and Chateau Marmont, Sunset Beach has perfected the art of making its clientele feel insignificant. The main attraction of Sunset Beach is, as one might have guessed, its setting. Every few years the memory of my last flogging at the hands of their staff has faded sufficiently that I take a group of guests there for drinks and dinner while watching the sun set over Little Peconic Bay.

Last week, we decided to go on the Tuesday night after the holiday weekend to avoid the crowds. As the sun was scheduled to set at 8:30pm, we asked for a 7:30pm dinner reservation. The reservationist (whose principal qualification for the job was that she didn’t speak English) reacted with horror at our request and offered 6:00pm and 9:30pm, two times that would appear to belie the whole point of dining there. After a brief struggle, she conceded she had a space available (obviously hoping for someone more important than us) at 7pm. We arrived shortly before 7pm and were made to wait in the bar for an hour, while the bartender carefully avoided making eye contact. We finally made it to our table at 8pm and, at least, had the view that we came for. As we surveyed the menu, our discerning waiter recommended everything we asked about and answered ‘yes’ to every question. All of our food, both starters and main courses, was served at the same time.  The manager was incredulous that we would find that objectionable and asked “what do you want me to do–take it back?” The food was average at best.

The sunset was beautiful. You can see the same sunset across the street at the beach, with a blanket, some beach chairs, a picnic and no reservations. Bon appetit!

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The Attic

Posted on July 12, 2011 by fast eddie

We started cleaning out the attic today. I can’t remember why. We must have been looking for something. I’m not sure we ever found it. We became diverted by all the other stuff that you just know that you should really throw away, but it’s so hard to do.

Like my classroom notes from Introduction to Political Science, for example. Machiavelli, Hobbes and Rousseau haven’t changed very much since my freshman year in college (1973). Or my Black’s Law Dictionary (1977 ed.). Who knows when someone will want a precise definition of res ipsa loquitur? Or how about a brand new package of Eaton’s Corrasable Typewriter Paper–The Original Erase Without a Trace Paper. Don’t you just love clean white typewriter paper? Does anyone out there have a typewriter to keep it company? Then there was an unused college essay exam booklet. This may be the source of my recurring nightmare that I failed my last exam and never graduated from college.

Or how about the stuff that you are afraid to throw out because you are not really sure what it is–like the carton filled with co-axial and USB cables, extension cords, computer wires, software disks, computer speakers, wires with multi-colored prongs, chargers, plugs and unopened packages with other electrical accessories. What if I really need this stuff? Or what about the stuff that could come in handy during an emergency (if we can find it again) like a manual on “How to Choose the Right Flotation Device”. Or the camping equipment that I’ve been saving to take my grandkids camping (once I have some).

Fortunately, we finally found a box that was simply labelled “Memories”. This was very reassuring because we thought we had lost ours. Maybe that’s what we were looking for in the first place.

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Revenge of the House Guests.

Posted on July 11, 2011 by fast eddie

I need to be nicer to our house guests. I like to organize activities for them to make sure they have a good time when they visit. I get them up at 4:30am for fishing trips (See Fishin’). I take them on 60-mile bike rides. Or three hour kayak trips. Or I make them run wind sprints. Or lift weights. Or run pass routes. Or soccer dribbling and passing drills. Unfortunately, they have started to retaliate.

Our most recent guests forced me to go with them to Soul Cycle, an uber-trendy spinning  (indoor cycling) class from NYC that opens up for the summer in Bridgehampton. Picture seventy people crammed into a old barn on indoor bikes at the peak of midday heat. Now add blaring energetic music and a screaming cycling fanatic yelling “encouraging” instructions for an hour while you are pedaling furiously, jumping up and down out of your seat and rocking back and forth and from side to side while doing bicep curls and shoulder presses with dumb bells. All while staring straight into someone’s sweaty butt jiggling one foot in front of your face (it is VERY important to choose the right butt at the beginning of the class–you would not, for example, want to be staring at mine).  Apparently this is all intended to be a great cardio-fitness workout that burns lots of calories. As far as I could determine, it must have gotten it’s name, spinning, from the effect it has on one’s appetite and willpower–e.g., spinning-out-of-control. I ate half a cherry pie with ice cream as a “reward” immediately after  returning home from the class.

Next weekend, I am planning to take my house guests to the movies and make them breakfast in bed.

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