Janus Words

Janus Coin

Aloha, as in hello or goodbye, in my previous post made me think of those words which contain opposite meanings.  There are a couple different names for them but since this one starts with a J, I prefer to call them Janus words.  

With greetings alone, in addition to "aloha" you have other words such as "shalom" and "ciao" that can also can mean either hello or goodbye. Thanks to the goggle machine, here are some other examples for you to "give out" - get it?  click here.

Aloha!

Usually I like to be in Hawaii for my birthday in mid-February.  However, this year I held off a couple of weeks so I could be there to help daughter Ryan celebrate her upcoming birthday on 2 March.  As I head west, my thoughts turn naturally to the North Shore's Jack Johnson.  Nice song of his here even if there is a sad backdrop to it  click here.

SCYC

Pat Stover came into Buzzy's Country Store Saturday wearing a hat that read Shit's Creek Yacht Club. He assured us that it was a real deal yacht club and was even a 501(c.)  However, when they filed their 501 papers they had to change their name to the more appropriate sounding Santa Claus Yacht Club.  Still, they were able to retain their logo (right.)  Check out their website click here.

Kenny and Ricky Bobby

Since it's Academy Awards time, here's  a question for you - what movie star/celebrity would best fit in at Buzzy's Country Store?  
My vote is for Kenny Powers and to see some reasons why I say this click here. (Some of these are of the PG-13/R variety so beware.)

Then again, with the Daytona 500 today, a case could be made that   Ricky Bobby might also be able to sit awhile in Buzzy's, as long as he didn't attempt to pray.

Bagels, Buzzy's and Whores

While visiting the folks in Florida earlier this week, Pam's brother Norman and I were tasked with going out and bringing home the breakfast bagels. While waiting for service in the New York Bagel shop, I saw a couple of signs that led me to think that perhaps the Buzzy approach to customer satisfaction may be spreading.  I apologize for the quality of my cellphone photo here but the sign on top read "$5 Charge for Whining."  Signs posted side by side read:  "I Can  ONLY Please ONE Person A Day.  Today is NOT Your Day.  Tomorrow Doesn't Look Good Either."  "Prices Subject To Change According to Customer's Attitude."

Then on the subject of customer satisfaction and doing business, Bill Mitchell sent me the following cartoon. If I thought about it long enough I could probably come up with some clever connection between the cartoon and the Bagel shop signs e.g. charging a whining fee, servicing one customer at a time, getting what you give etc., but the blog muse just wasn't with me today.  (She's probably out at the Mustang Ranch making money.)

Another Nice Place to Live

In response to my post the other day about Boone, N.C. being rated as a good retirement place, Jack Wise sent me this email on his adopted hometown in Wise, Virginia.  

"Wise County promotes itself as the safest place to live and it is a lot cheaper than Md. I retired to a 3 bedroom rancher with a detached 2 car garage on 2.5 acres which cost me $145,000 four years ago. My electric bill is half what I was paying in Md, and my taxes are lower. The pace of life is what it was in St. Mary's County 30-40 years ago. The weather here is just as crazy as in Md., with 5 inches of snow on the ground Monday morning, which had almost all melted by sunset to an expected high of 70 degrees on Thursday. And the mountains are beautiful all 4 seasons. All my little valley needs is a country store close by."

 May just have to do a road trip that way and check things out.  I can see it now "Buzzy's Big Stone Gap Country Store."
 (for more info on Wise County click here.)

Hollywoods

Hollywood Beach, Florida

Today driving home from the airport as I passed thru Hollywood, Maryland, I thought how ironic it was that just 24 hours previously I  had been in Hollywood, Florida.  I looked for a picture of our Hollywood online but the best I could come up with was this Wikipedia entry.  And what do you know, it turns out that once again a country store played a key part in our County's history.

Leads me to wonder what the store  owner would have named the place if a Dogwood tree had been planted in front of that store.

Monte Carlo Fallacy/Reality

When Buzzy and I toured Monaco, our tour guide pointed out the famous Monte Carlo casino but noted that admission was not part of the tour.  However, for roughly a $5 fee we could go in and check it out to which Buzzy said "I'll pass."  Usually I'd follow his lead on these decisions but decided to pay the admission fee and go in.  

Glad I did because as we entered the big room, there before us was a full up card game going on just like you see in those James  Bond movies.  This was at two o'clock in the afternoon with the  men in tuxes, beautiful women in gowns, dealers raking in chips, and dour looking pit bosses overseeing things.  No photo's were allowed and we were quickly ushered into a rear room where the slot machines were waiting to take our contributions.  It was something to see.

When I came outside, Buzzy asked me how it was.  I tried to play it down so as not to make him think he missed something cool.  Nonetheless he said, "I could kick myself in the ass for not doing it.  What's $5 when I'll never get to see this again."   Thereafter, whenever we would be somewhere and it required a fee or a surcharge to see or do something and he would hesitate, I could always sway him into doing it by saying simply "Monte Carlo."  He'd just smile and fork over the fee as he'd learned a lesson that when you get a chance to do something, you do it.

Hey Chuck, Find Me a Place to Live

Description of Boone, N.C.

U.S. News and World Report does their annual ranking of the 10 Best Places to retire and as usual no Maryland address makes the list.  However, did have to smile when I saw that Chuck Mettam's Boone, North Carolina makes the list click here.  With Maryland continuing to raise taxes and fees like they are doing, may have to start checking out those Carolina mountains.   

Happy Birthday Sol

In addition to it being Mardi Gras,  today my Father-in-law Sol Aroesty turns 80 years young.  Wish him and his wife Stella all the best.  Hope that when I turn 80 they also have a party for me in New Orleans.

American/Buzzy Gothic

From Kottke.org

Little tidbit above on the models for Grant Wood's famous painting.  So there Charlie, this should prove that yours truly was not the model. For the rest of the story click here.

Magnet for sale at Buzzy's Country Store

Reagan Master Degree

My daughter Reagan completed her Graduate work on  a Master's Degree in Marketing last December (click here.)  

Yesterday she received her diploma in the mail (left.)  Way to go Reagan!  May have to put you  to work on  how we can market the sale of more 10 ounce Budweisers at Buzzy's Country Store!

Re: time flies, here is a photo I took of  Reagan at her graduation from Villa Julie College (now Stevenson College) in 2006.

It's Too Late

Saw Whitney at Wolf Trap in July 1993 as part of her Bodyguard Tour click here for review.  Went with friends Jenny and Larry Crum who were celebrating their wedding anniversary.  At the start of the concert, Whitney  apologized for her raggedy sounding voice with the excuse that she had been at King's Dominion the day before riding the Cyclone all day.  I guessed that that meant she was screaming as she rode the ride so much and that's why her voice was suffering as it was.  I remember thinking then "Come on Whitney,  you got to be smarter than that."  In retrospect, maybe not being smarter about taking care of herself was her biggest problem.  Proves another Buzzy saying - you either take care of  your problems, or your problems will take care of  you.

Barbara and Jack Engaged

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Congratulations to Jack and Barbara upon their engagement.  The ring here on Barb's hand makes it official.  Maybe they will have the ceremony at Buzzy's.

Cybil and Frank

As a followup to my post on Frank Sinatra the other day, Bill Mitchell sent me this email:

Just finished my morning with Buzzy’s blog... Check out the lyrics to Frank’s rendition of “Winners”.  When I was coaching Girls Basketball at Ryken, we used to sing along with Frank following every win.  The Class of 2002 won 39 of 40 games over two years, really took the song to heart, and became quite vocal along the way.

"Winners" lyrics follow.  (Thanks Bill.)
Here's to the winners, lift up the glasses
Here's to the glory still to be
Here's to the battle, whatever it's for
To ask the best of ourselves then give much more

Here's to the heroes, those who move mountains
Here's to the mountains they make us see
Here's to all brothers, here's to all people
Here's to the winners all of us can be.
Then last night Pam and I stumbled upon Cybil Shepherd in a Hallmark movie  Mrs. Washington Goes to Smith.  I usually try to avoid watching anything on Hallmark, but always had a thing for the Moonlighting lady, so we watched it.  In keeping with Bill's girls basketball theme, here's the movie's climatic scene.   

Sports Couples

In honor of Valentine's Day yesterday, the radio sports talk boys discussed famous sports couples.  Mentioned were couples such as Joe Dimaggio and Marilyn Monroe, Chris Evert and Jimmy Connors, Tony Parker and Eva Longoria, David Justice and Halle Berry (left) and the Beckhams.
They also mentioned Tawny Kitaen and some baseball player I don't recall named Chris Finley.  However, I sure do remember Tawny and her connection with Whitesnake.

Neighbors - Good and Bad

Walking around the neighborhood this morning two houses caught my eye. The first  is across the street from me and is in need of some serious TLC.  The other night at my birthday dinner with the kids, Brady told me that he had run into David McNeal who used to reside in this house years ago with his folks. David had been by, seen the house in its current run down state and couldn't believe that it looked the same as it did when he lived there 20 some years ago only with no subsequent maintenance.  
The second house is a little ways up the street from me and belongs to Don and Darlene Degraves.  As you can tell, they have some grand kids who enjoy celebrating whatever day is deemed special such as today's Valentine's Day.  It always makes my walk a little brighter to see their place decorated like this.  Too, it makes passing the across-the-street mess a little more tolerable in a yin yang kind of way.

Happy Valentine's Day

Winnie today.  Should have moved faster, Kevin.

Moonshine Pt. 2

Following my post on Moonshiners, I received the following from Jack Wise:

Hey J. Scott,

     Jack Wise here. The show is based in an area about 1 hours drive from where I now live in SW Virginia. There is still some of that going on where I now live; you can even find flavored moonshine. I've had some berry and apple flavored that was so smooth but could really kick you on your butt.

Speaking of apple moonshine, there is a legally distributed  product named Junior Johnson's Apple Pie Moonshine (left) that I recently started stocking in Buzzy's Country Store.  Per my buddy Greg Madjeski's suggestion, we're going to break  one open here soon and do a little taste test to see how it compares to the real thing - not that we have any of the real thing around mind you but just for comparison purposes. 

Kitchen Confidential

Thought of Anthony Bourdain this morning, the morning of my 61st birthday.  For the longest time, I carried around in my wallet a list that some literary critic had compiled of the funniest books ever written.  I would consult the list when visiting the library and trying to find something fun to read.   

That is how I came upon Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential which was on that list.  (To read an excerpt from the book click here.)  Since then I've always kept an eye out for whatever Bourdain has been up to including his T-V shows on the Food Channel.  

On the flight home from Tahoe last month, I saw something on him in one of the airline magazines that read "I'm still here - on my third life... I feel like I've stolen a car - a  really nice car - and I keep looking in the rear view mirror for flashing lights.  Nothing yet."  

Without going into too much incriminating detail about stealing a car,  I do know how Bourdain feels about being at this stage of one's life and enjoying the ride.  However, also like Bourdain, I do keep one eye on that rear view mirror.

The Real Day the Music Died

I had taken a blog oath that nothing remotely related to or concerning this Bieber twit would ever grace these Buzzy pages.  Let's just say that he's on the no fly blog list along with other wastes such as the Kardashians, Snookie, Regis and Ann Coulter.  

So from the never say never files, and to show you how flexible I can be on occasions, here is something (left) sent to me from John Carbone.  (I would have included a video from Justin but didn't want to spend  the time looking for one.)

However, all of this does afford me the opportunity to show this photo of Frank checking out the scenery before one of his shows.

Lisa Helfert

Photo by Lisa Helfert

Lisa Helfert is a photographer who works for Maryland Life magazine and took the photo's for the magazine's article on Buzzy's Country Store.  To see some of her other photo's, here is the link to her website click here.  If you go to her Portfolio and click on Editorial you'll see this great  portrait of Brother Tommy who could have at least tried to have smiled for his closeup.

Moonshine

Check out the show Moonshiners on Discovery.  The other day in Buzzy's Country Store, the 4 O'clock Club was discussing moonshine and how prevalent it used to be here in the County.  My contribution to the conversation involved something my Mom told me that occurred when Buzzy first purchased the Store in 1953. 

Buzzy used to have folks pull up around back at night after he had closed the Store and he would load them up with sugar.  When she asked Buzzy what was going on, he told her that she didn't need to know.  My Mom says she then told him "Well, if I don't need to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it."  Turns out that Buzzy was helping folks keep their sugar purchases out of the public eye because the large quantities of sugar were being purchased to make moonshine.  

One of the stars of a previous Moonshiners' show was Popcorn Sutton who passed away last year.  Watch this video on him below and then check out his R-rated interview with Johnny Knoxville @ click here.

You Know You're From St. Mary's County

My buddy Steve Raley directed me to this "You Know You're From St. Mary's County" Facebook page click here.   Has some great photo's from long ago but also some current items such as a recent party at Andy and David Dent's "Chief's Bar" in Tall Timbers.  From another post on the site, by Daryl Williams, I copied this picture of the band Southridge at Pennies Bar.    Featured is our very own First District rock n roller Jay Dameron.  (Still waiting for a Montells reunion.)

Maryland Life Magazine Article on Buzzy's Country Store

Thanks to Jason Tinney, the author of the article, here is the link to the Maryland Life Magazine feature on Buzzy's Country Store click here.