Labor Day Lamentations
The road to Albany is paved with good intentions. Labor Day is Monday. It’s the unofficial end of summer. In theory I suppose I should hang up my white linen pants for the season. In practice, I’ll probably still keep them on the ready should we have any more particularly balmy evenings.
I’ve always been a strong believer in bending the rules.
That said, I cannot make more days of summer. And there were a bunch of things I wanted to do this summer which seemed to have passed me by. Two of them are easy to take care of today. The last will just have to wait until fall.
Anyone remember that Carvel gift card giveaway? Well, that never happened. I blame the move. I can’t believe it’s been the whole summer, and I never tried Carvel’s Nutella ice cream. I did just share a Nutella stuffed croissant at Crisan with Young Master Fussy though. Damn, that was good. So if you don’t win the gift cards, you can always find some chocolate hazelnut satisfaction on Lark Street.
Regardless, I finally found those sneaky gift cards tucked away among some papers. So let’s choose some numbers at random and give those suckers a home. Random.org selected 4, 6 & 9. So congratulations to Aaron M, Pam C. and Jessica R W.
Amazingly, we have old business that dates back even further. And as far as I’m concerned the prize is even sweeter. It’s that set of 518 Fridge Phrases magnets. But I was supposed to choose a winner all the way back in March. Oops. Let’s see who Random.org picks for this one.
Congratulations to Jon in Albany, 23 turned out to be your lucky number.
Now do you know what else didn’t happen? The FLB Summer Savory Tour of 2014. Dammit. And it’s unlikely that I’ll be able to pull it off until after the next cider donut tour. We’ll make it up. It just throws my rhythm all out of whack.
Most likely, I’ll take the Monday holiday off. So before I sign out, I’d like to leave you with a few Labor Day weekend thoughts involving the impending end of summer and its summery things.
1) If you are grilling, it’s a cookout, NOT a barbecue.
2) Put those crisp white wines in the fridge and drink them soon.
3) Finish up any leftover white rum and tequila.
4) Should you freeze pesto, don’t freeze the cheese.
Now get out there and enjoy the heck out of the last remaining days of summer sunshine. Just keep your fingers crossed that the rain passes us by this weekend.
FUSSYlittleBLOG 
Have a great holiday weekend Mr. Fussy.
Woohoo!
I’d love to lay on some guilt over this egregious delay…but truth be told, I don’t remember entering a drawing.
“1) If you are grilling, it’s a cookout, NOT a barbecue.”
That assertion is such a tired, weak internet cliche and it sets me off every time I see it. There is a whole club of dullards who wear it like a badge of honor that they go around parroting this nonsense. A word is a word and when it enters the vernacular with a commonly accepted meaning or definition that is what it means. And this is opinion is coming from someone with a degree in Linguistics who also owns an elaborate, temperature controlled smoking rig and who has more than a passing interest in the art of real barbecue. Below is the definition of the word for your convenience.
Anyhow, it is perfectly acceptable to call anything that involves cooking crap outside a BBQ and if you aren’t OK with that you are probably no fun at BBQs anyhow.
bar·be·cue
noun
noun: barbecue; plural noun: barbecues; noun: barbeque; plural noun: barbeques
1.a meal or gathering at which meat, fish, or other food is cooked out of doors on a rack over an open fire or on a portable grill.
synonyms: cookout, wiener/wienie/weenie roast; BBQ
“a backyard barbecue”
a portable grill used for the preparation of food at a barbecue, or a brick fireplace containing a grill.
NORTH AMERICAN
food cooked on a barbecue.
Mister Dave, it’s so good to have you back. For the record, I’m a great deal of fun at cookouts (or “BBQs” if you insist). I too am aware that words change. Fighting that change is part of what I do. I’ve long railed against cocktails being called martinis and despise the term “martini glass”. I believe (perhaps incorrectly) that “pesto” should only refer to Pesto alla Genovese. If I’m not mistaken, I recall that you and I share the same concerns for the misuse of “Bolognese”.
Yes, there are greater injustices in the world than the changing meaning of the words we use to describe food and drink. But there are plenty of people fighting those other battles. I’ll be the champion for the Martini, Barbecue, Pesto, Bolognese, etcetera. If that makes me a dullard, so be it.
Ahhh, I remember the Bolognese thing… I was holding you to your own standard. The Hazan Bolognese is not the officially accepted Bolognese standard, so I thought that if we were picking nits on authenticity we (the royal we, meaning you, haha!) might as well be consistent.
Anyhow, MY POINT STANDS!!!! A BBQ is a BBQ whether I serve authentic Texas brisket or gall-darn Ballpark franks with ketchup.
FWIW, C and I are with you on the term barbecue. Barbecue is NOT a cookout, rather it is slow-cooked meat. If it takes less than 16 hours to prepare (and that’s even not quite long enough), it’s not barbecue. :)
I ran a half marathon along the Rockaway Boardwalk yesterday (which, by the way, NYS and FEMA need to get on rebuilding the rest of that, there are still large sections missing), and we have an assortment of delicious summer craft beers in cans to enjoy poolside today with friends and family. What better way to celebrate the tradition of the American worker (and the rights he fought for in the workplace) than with American craft beer? Happy Labor Day. :)