Barbecue. In the United States, the origins of barbecue trace back thousands of years to Native Americans cooking in buried pits, including the tribes of California. When the territory became Spanish Las Californias and then Mexican Alta California in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the Missions and ranchos of California had large cattle herds, primarily for hides and tallow. Large pit barbecues cooked the remaining meat when the culling and leather tanning season came to an end. The outdoor cooking tradition continued in the early days of California statehood for fiestas, becoming popular across the country in various shapes and forms.
Barbecue in my family meant chicken, pork ribs and/or beef tri-tip. With only one cut per side of beef, for decades the tri-tip found itself cut into cubes for soup meat or ground into hamburger. When butchers carved their own beef it didn't make sense to try and market one of something. With institutionalized beef packing, the tri-tip became a staple for the grill. Once an overlooked piece of meat , it is relatively inexpensive, flavorful and a favorite among those who have tried it.
For decades, the big draw for tri-tip was California. With expatriate Californians came the pull of the tri-tip, and now it can be found in many areas of the country. The tapered shape makes it an ideal cut of meat to produce a range of doneness from medium in the center to well done at the narrow tip.
Barbecue is the story of a social institution, acting as powerful social magnets, drawing people together. Cindy and I were in Santa Barbara last weekend to celebrate my sister's 50th birthday with family, friends and barbecue. The chicken and ribs were wonderful, but it was the tri-tip that drew me back to the serving table.
Spring has sprung here in the Great North Wet, and like the natives we have learned to take advantage of a sunny day. I snuck in some grilling yesterday, and yes, it was a tri-tip. While our family footprint here is smaller than in Southern California, we nevertheless gathered around the table, gave thanks for our meal and enjoyed each others company.
My sister gets the blame for many things that happened during our childhood. Better known as "The Agitator", it was her goal in life to get me in trouble. As previously discussed, she would agitate and aggravate and torment me to no end, until all that poking and prodding resulted in her having an imprint of my hand somewhere on her body, which would then result in me getting yelled at from the front seat by our parents, leaving a smirk on the face of Little Miss Innocent that required removal with another well-placed hand imprint and the cycle would replay itself over and over.
She continues in her ways to this day. Julie is completely and irrevocably to blame for getting me hooked on geocaching. Like a drug dealer, she told me about how fun it was. She even took me on one when I visited her recently; just the two of us, she found the geocache in short order and made it look sooooooo easy. She made it seem it was socially acceptable by taking me in a group to look for caches. It seemed okay...other people did it. I became hooked, and then she cut me off, told me I would have to get my own phone app and log my own finds.
Some of the puzzles are impossible to figure out. The other day I stood in the rain in a parking lot looking for a geocache, just trying to find one to satisfy my cravings. I leave work early or reschedule appointments to allow for geocaching, justifying that it helps me relax and provides exercise. I have even logged a cache when I really didn’t find it myself, just so I could run up my total count. I have been questioned by security patrols and received many strange looks from people around me as I stand and rock back and forth wondering what evil person hid a needle in a haystack.
I made Cindy go with me yesterday and talked Laura and Bryan into going today. I'll need another fix by tomorrow, so I'm scoping out possible finds right now. Now I survive by hanging out with other addicts, trading secrets and looking for that next big score.
I blame my sister. Perhaps I can learn to forgive her once I complete the Geocachers Anonymous program.
March 3 marks the birthday of Alexander Graham Bell in 1847, a scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone. Bell's father, grandfather, and brother were associated with work on elocution and speech, and his mother and wife were deaf. Bell's work was influenced by his family, and his research on hearing and speech further led him to experiment with hearing devices, eventually culminating in Bell being awarded the first US patent for the telephone in 1876.
March 3 also marks the day in 1885 when Bell established the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, which we know today as AT&T Corporation. This company maintained what they referred to as a natural monopoly on telephone service in the United States; this meant one firm could better serve the public than two or more. For much of its history, AT&T and its Bell System functioned as a legally sanctioned, regulated monopoly. The fundamental principle, formulated by AT&T president Theodore Vail in 1907, was the nature of the technology would operate most efficiently as a monopoly providing universal service. Classic examples of regulated monopolies include the utility industry and the telecommunications industry, which are subject to governmental price control.
It has been said that nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky, and such was the fate for Ma Bell. In 1974 the U.S. Department of Justice brought an antitrust lawsuit against AT&T, which eventually led to the 1982 breakup of the Bell system into the regional holding companies, or Baby Bells. Those have come and gone, changed names and been folded and reshaped numerous times.
What does remain, however, is our attachment to the telephone. Whether it is corded or cordless, comes through copper wire, cables or microwaves, we want to be connected. Was I walking around with a personal cell phone 20 years ago? Nope. Can I imagine not having one now? Yes, but why would I want that, as the benefits definitely outweigh the costs. According to Pew Research Center surveys, cellphone ownership among American adults is around 88%.
Numerous other inventions marked Bell's later life, including groundbreaking work in optical telecommunications, hydrofoils and aeronautics. He became one of the founding members of the National Geographic Society in 1888, and has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history. Still, in retrospect, Bell considered the telephone, easily his most famous invention, an intrusion on his real work as a scientist and refused to have a telephone in his study. He knew then, as we try to remember today, that eliminating distraction is the best way to complete our work.
But enough of this...time to get back to the approximately 3,000 advertisements I will see today, not to mention the 5,000 distractions caused by constantly checking messages from phones, emails, IM’s, wall posts, tweets and more. This is progress, right?
