Many of you know my dear niece Leslie. A sweeter human being has never existed on Earth. I credit her with saving my mother’s life. It is a long story and I won’t bore you with the details but just take my word for it she is amazing and I love her dearly. The problem here is that she is a vegetarian and a real animal lover. What I saw today blew my mind and would tremendously upset her. So my warning to her is to NOT LOOK ANY FURTHER.
Today was a day of more judging. We arrived at the judging area early so I decided to take a stroll around the park. The competitors for the Whole Hog competition had just had their meat inspected and they were working hard getting things ready for tomorrow’s competition. At the first tent I was greeted with this sight:
The next booth I reached was from Mexico. I could hear Spanish being spoken as I approached and was excited and hoped that I could practice my language skills. But as I got closer I realized that the Mexicans had two ringers in their midst. The two workers in the middle of the picture below were doing most of the work and did not sound like they came from south of the border.
After my little tour I returned to the tent where Patrice and I judged poultry. When I first sit at the judging table I like to exchange greetings with the other judges. The judge sitting across from me said his name was Julian. I told him that I have a grandson named Julian. He seemed pleased when he said, “I don’t meet many Julians”. I asked where he was from and he said “D.C.” at which point the judge to my right said, “You’re from the Swamp”. Julian seemed confused. I explained to him “We are in Trump Country”. Julian smiled and said, “Oh”.
Getting back to my mom (who is now 102 years old) I called her tonight. I like to check in with her on regular basis. She asked where we were. I told her Memphis and then asked if she received the trip itinerary that I mailed her. She said yes, so I asked “Then why did you ask? You already knew where we were.” To which she replied, “I wanted to check to see if you knew”.
Dinner was a blast. We went out with our friends Gary and Smooch to a restaurant called Tsunami [928 Cooper St, Memphis, TN 38104] located in a upscale area called Cooper Young. We read about the area in American Ways magazine (the American Airlines inflight magazine). The food was great. We ordered lots of appetizers (tapas style eating) but many of the dishes came in orders of 5. I asked the group, “Why is it when they have a party of 4 they just don’t give you 4 or 8 pieces so the diners can divide the portions equally?” When we ordered the next appetizer we asked the waitress if we could get 8 shrimp instead of 5. At first she said yes but then came back and said the chef could only make us one or two orders of 5 shrimp. We decided on the the single order and then I went on a tirade talking to the group about the educational system in our country and how I see young people on a regular basis who cannot do simple math. I finally settled down and we finished our meal. When the server brought our bill. She asked if we wanted her to divide the check in half to which I said, “No, in fifths”.
Tomorrow we have the judging finals.
Robert Reiss Travel Blog and Other Ramblings 