Cleveland Sports Forum

J.R. wrote:All systems go for Felix Baumgartner's 23-mile-high freefall toward sound barrier

Published October 01, 2012

If he makes it back in one piece, Baumgartner plans on settling down with his girlfriend and flying helicopters in the U.S. and Austria, performing mountain rescues and firefighting.

"After this," he promises, "I'm going to retire because I've been successfully doing things for the last 25 years and I'm still alive."

I'm impressed, though not in full understanding of the value of his mission.

I free fell from 13,500 to 4,000 on my sky dive, and that was 43 seconds of exhiliration was enough for me. I guess if I had jumped 2,000 plus more times, I might want to take on a jump from 23 miles high just to say I did it.

Baumgartner broadcast is on LIVE now:

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2012/10/ ... ther-hold/

EDIT: Just been postponed due to gusty winds. @ 1:45

My favorite sandwich of all time is a Reuben. I particularly crave them in the Autumn months for some reason. When I lived in Miami FL decades ago there was a landmark deli called Wolfie's that had my benchmark for a Reuben for many many years.

Many and most places have a tough time coming up with a classic Reuben these days.

I've made my own the last few years, including baking my own rye bread at times, but still seem to have always known something more needed to be done.

This week I wanted a Reuben for watching the VP debate, and went searching online for a recipe.

I found one, which I copied precisely down to the orders of the layers. I used Boar's Head corned beef and lacey swiss, and I warmed the end production in our Panini press.

It might be as good as what I had at Wolfie's in the late 1970's......

INGREDIENTS

3 tablespoons Thousand Island Dressing
2 (1/2-inch-thick) slices rye bread
1 1/2 ounces sliced Gruyère or Swiss cheese
1 cup sauerkraut, drained and squeezed of excess moisture
4 (1/4-inch-thick) slices pastrami or corned beef (about 4 ounces)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened

INSTRUCTIONS

Spread 1 tablespoon of the dressing on one piece of bread and top with half of the cheese, half of the sauerkraut, and all of the meat. Spread another tablespoon of the dressing over the meat and top with the remaining sauerkraut and cheese, in that order.


Spread the remaining tablespoon of dressing on the remaining piece of bread and place it on top of the cheese, dressing side down. Press firmly to close the sandwich, then evenly spread the butter on the outside of the sandwich.


Heat a heavy-bottomed frying pan over medium heat, place the sandwich in the pan, and press down on the sandwich with a spatula. (Alternatively, you can cook the sandwich in a sandwich press.) Cook until the bread is crisp and golden brown, about 4 minutes. Flip and cook until the second side is golden brown, the cheese is melted, and the sandwich is warmed through, about 4 minutes more.



http://www.chow.com/recipes/18630-reuben-sandwich

I'm ultra selective about adding new TV shows to those I regularly care to watch, and tout even fewer.

When I saw the "pre-season" teasers for "The Neighbors," Wednesday on ABC, I was thinking I would not look in.


But I did, and I'm glad I did.

It's funny, has continuous smart dialogue, and is very tightly acted with a superb cast for which the casting director deserves accolades.

It borrows and nods to "My Favorite Martian," "Lost in Space," maybe "Bewitched," and in some ways to a Dr. Seuss story town setting.

The premise would bore me if I heard and make me not want to watch. But here it is...

A colony from another planet lands their space craft on Earth. They were charged with scouting out future suitable planets by theirs, but then things happened to make it difficult for them to get back where they came from.

Buying time, the colony buys all the homes in a New Jersey gated subdivision as it is all new construction. They live completely among themselves, without any contact with humans outside their subdivision, for over a decade.

One of the alien families finds motive and opportunity to head back to the home planet, and their home is sold to a family consisting of a husband, wife, and three kids moving to suburbia from Bayonne NJ.

The family from Bayonne moves into the neighborhood and laugh when they learn all the residents share names with famous American sports stars.

The primary neighborhood residents (the aliens) are parents Jackie Joyner-Kersee and "Lawrence" Bird, with their kids, Reggie Jackson and Dick Butkus.

And then it gets funny from there, with an occasional unexpected poignant moment.


The episodes are available for free from season beginning on Comcast On Demand, and probably on the ABC website as well.

Felix Baumgartner did his jump today, breaking the sound barrier on his way down:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/chrissmith/ ... upersonic/

RUEBEN RUEBEN, I Been Thinking.

Thanks for the recipe will try that soon!

Happy 50th birthday, JIM IN NEB!
Delani is 10 years old now...

Wow, I never fully realized how much younger Jim was than me. It's getting close to the time of the year I seek out an animal shelter and donate with a thought to him.

I'd offer my time as well to the shelters but I am deathly allergic to cats.....and I do like cats very much.

Maybe Loufla can jump in my truck with me and help me find a new place for donations in my new domicile. He'd need to make sure he has a purple shirt in his wardrobe as I always wear one with a nod to Jim's Barberton Magic fandom. In my days, Barberton was my school's arch rival.

The majority of folks where we live seem to know how to do OK for themselves, and seem by my initial observations to donate to organizations pretty freely in this immediate vicinity.

Road trip to Immokalee?

Click the above 54 second video and catch a comedian Dennis Miller Cleveland Indians reference this evening. As to the topic, here's a clue:

Jay Leno is a repeat tonight, but it was great to see this photo from his Headlines portion again.

Sign on a train platform in England:

How stupid can one be? Do these people get to vote?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3ROaB9GdIo

You were right to bring this to our attention.

loufla wrote:How stupid can one be? Do these people get to vote?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3ROaB9GdIo

A few weeks back my wife and I truly saw two deer cross Bonita Beach Road with the traffic signal mostly in their favor and then dash down the driveway to the Naples-Fort Myers Greyhound Track. At first glance I thought they were possibly escaped dogs, but they certainly were deer. We've seen deer in the evenings a couple of times further south on Old 41 and I'm guessing these were headed to the same area. No idea where they were coming from though.

Driving in very rural Nevada on US 50 ("The Loneliest Road in America") there is an area just east of Eureka NV marked "MAJOR DEER AREA." They are serious, as that is not a normal Nevada highway marking. I've seen deer there a couple of times on that drive.

It's the "Open Range" signs that get my attention out West after numerous sightings of cattle and horses on rural roads. We were close to Area 51 one evening and there was an entire frickin' herd of cattle on Nevada 375 (The "E.T. Highway). We had to inch through them as they gazed into our car.....the only car around for miles.


I lowered the window and asked one directly if it was an alien who took on an Earth life form for disguise.

I really did.

There was no response, one way or another.

Sunday late afternoon my wife and I headed to Fort Myers Beach to catch The Gulf sunset. I've been visiting Fort Myers Beach for years, posting here from there many times, and it's neat to now live in the immediate area.

I thought I had patronized every shrimp shack and restaurant at the beach, but Sunday paid my first visit to the Smokin' Oyster Brewery, or simply The SOB for short.

I'm a big fan of conch chowder, appreciating the tastiness, the uniqueness, and the relative healthiness. I've often said that I first order the conch chowder in a South Florida seafood place, and my appreciation of their version is normally an indicator of how much I'm going to like the rest of the menu.

"The SOB" had a requisite conch chowder, and they also had clam chowder. I noted a menu item that seemed to indicate they offered a conch chowder that included clams.

I opted for the latter, and was surprised when the server delivered a bowl with traditional conch chowder tomato in the middle, and then ringed by something white. I presumed initially they had dobbed in some sour cream for me, as I often do.

I was wrong.

Turned out the menu item was actually a combo of their conch chowder, swirled in their clam chowder.

And damn, it was good.

$3.99

And that with the Happy Hour smoked fish dip with jalapeno and crackers brought my food tab to $9.99. I had a bottomless refill of my $2.50 Coca Cola.

My wife had a killer shrimp caesar for I think $10.99, and her beers were $3.



Oh, and they had a nice live guitar player doing soft country and blues with NASCAR and the NFL on the TV's.

It was under roof, but open air with "misting machines" on the roof to keep it very comfortable, but still with the fragrance of the adjacent sea salt air.


I think we'll be visiting again.

The guy on the right has lost some weight, but he needs to find some more hair and get back to regular gym days after the first week of November. His high forehead doesn't show as much without wind, but it was windy today and blew that frontal comb right back.....

The guy on the left sounds like a Kennedy when he speaks. If he ever runs for political office I'll coach him on the syncopated arm moves that Jack had as he spoke.

J.R. brought his boat down and we watched The Browns game at a Gulf access bar the Browns Club was essentially kicked out of last week due to non-compliant behavior, or something as we unexpectedly learned upon entrance today.

The bar ownership told J.R. and I we could stay and watch the game, apparently as we looked less harmless as compared to last week's Browns Fans in attendance.

Looks can be deceiving.....