Believe It or Not

            I never thought I would ever experience anything to rival the exploits of Robert LeRoy Ripley.

According to Wikipedia, Ripley, who was born on Christmas Day in 1890 and died of a heart attack in 1949, was an American cartoonist, entrepreneur and amateur anthropologist, who created the world famous Ripley’s Believe It or Not! newspaper panel series, radio show, television show and museums which feature odd 'facts' from around the world.

“Subjects covered in Ripley's cartoons and text ranged from sports feats to little known facts about unusual and exotic sites, but what ensured the concept's popularity may have been that Ripley also included items submitted by readers, who supplied photographs of a wide variety of small town American trivia, ranging from unusually shaped vegetables to oddly marked domestic animals, all documented by photographs and then depicted by Ripley's drawings.”

My “Ripley” experience followed an occurrence in Center City Philadelphia in mid-October of this year.  I put a quarter in a parking meter but no time registered so I put another quarter in and again no time registered.  I then put a bag over the meter to indicate it was out-of-order.  When I returned to my vehicle I found a $36.00 ticket on the windshield for “parking overtime.”  I encountered a meter man as I drove away and he told me that I could not put a bag over a meter but that I could call the phone number on the ticket to complain about the alleged broken meter which I did.  My call initiated an “investigation” by the City’s Parking Violation Branch.

Less than a month later I received a form letter from the Parking Violation Branch which said “Our investigation has found your complaint to be accurate and valid and, therefore, the ticket has been administratively cancelled.” Believe It or Not.

What is likely more believable is my continuing travail with the Parking Violation Branch about another ticket I received for not feeding a Philadelphia meter the day after a major snow storm at the end of this past January, that is January, 2011. The meter was buried in mounded snow and was unreachable. Repeated phone calls and correspondence have resulted in my winning a hearing on the matter, now scheduled for February 21, 2012. Believe It or Not.  

Bagels and Lochs

         

            I am not a fan of sushi.  In fact I find it kind of yucky.  So I was surprised to open a mailed packet of discount coupons and find one promoting a new place called Yuki Sushi.  I phoned the

Newtown Square

, PA place and learned that they pronounce the name of the place as Yookey but seeing Yuki in print right off the bat made me wonder whether they could have chosen a better name.

            On the other hand I am a big fan of another fish that some find yucky…lox, cured, smoked salmon. I think that one of the world’s great culinary combinations is bagels, cream cheese and lox. Scotch Salmon is also cured and smoked and I think also goes great with bagels and cream cheese. After recently reading a New York Times travel article it occurred to me that some salmon in Scotland come from lochs.  Bagels and lochs, a natural combo.

            I’d like to share the observations of The New York Times travel writer who said “The Isle of Skye stretches out from the west coast of Scotland like a skeletal hand; sheltered between those finger-like peninsulas are the sea lochs, where much of the marine bounty is harvested.  The reputation of Skye’s seafood isn’t anything new of course: ‘That the sea abounds with fish needs not be told, for it supplies a great part of Europe,’ wrote Samuel Johnson in 1775, after his visit to the island, a fact that is still true.”

Among the starters you can have at one of the seafood restaurants dotting the coast on the Isle is a plate of peat-smoked salmon sliced thin and presented in a crown shape. “Unlike Nova lox,” the travel writer reported, “this salmon was a particularly pale shade of pink, and was less salty and greasy, more delicate, with a pleasant chew.”

Another one of the special dishes offered was a small piece of steamed organic salmon, presented with a trio of sauces: avocado, beet and red pepper.  The salmon was described as having “a delightfully crispy skin and tender, flaky meat.”

None of the aforementioned dishes included bagels or cream cheese in their presentation but there is no doubt in my mind that they’d be enhanced by such an accompaniment.