Ode the Fabulous Fried Shrimp

Ok so I feel like I write a lot of blogs about food, but this was supposed be added a couple weeks ago. So as I posted in a previous blog, I went to NY April 17-19th and while I was there, I had the most amazing fried shrimp I have ever eaten. O'Flanagans Restaurant on First Av. between 65th and 66th St. is an Irish Pub meets American Sports Bar. With a menu full of Irish as well as American favorites including Sheppards Pie, Crab Cakes, Fried Shrimp, and Chicken Tenders, the resturant has a wide variety of foods to choose from.
More on the shrimp: Well It's 14.95 for 6 jumbo beer battered shrimp and a huge basket of french fries. The shrimp is not greasy at all, lightly battered, and has just enough salt. If you are a seafood lover like me, looking for a cheap deal, and venturing in NY, check out O'Flanagan's

http://www.oflanagans.com/

Tis The Season For Icecream

With summer weather SLOWLY approaching (with the weather ranging from 83 one day and 63 the next), it makes you think of going out for ice cream and other frozen treats. Although I am not an extreme ice cream enthusiast, I do like the occasional soft serve, so I decided to investigate the information no one wants to know about these delicious desserts, THE CALORIES. Now I must warn you, if you like going out for ice cream--don't read on LOL.
Comparing three different resturants Coldstone Creamery, Dairy Queen, and Friendly's, I wanted to know which one was "better for you" calorie wise, and I was very surprised. Friendly's is probably the best for you and Coldstone is def. the worst. Although I could not a distinct chart for Friendly's, various articles point out that their ice cream is between 140-300 calories a serving *not including toppings*. Dairy Queen is between 600-1000 calories *including toppings* and Coldstone is between 500-1000 calories not including toppings, so with one to two toppings, the calories might be close to 1300-1500 for one medium size cup. *That's 3/4 of the daily calorie intake**, so Coldstone lovers BEWARE!

For Full Menu Calories, here's a link to DQ and a Coldstone PDF
http://www.shapefit.com/dairyqueen.html
http://www.coldstonecreamery.com/nutritional/nutrition_information.html

Town to Cancel 4th of July Fireworks

Not to be too obscene, but in AIM language-- WTF Wallingford--. Because of the current economic times, Wallingford CT may cancel its annual fourth of July fireworks display set off at Moran Middle School. At a reason town budget meeting, the mayor decided it would be best to cancel the fireworks because of recent job and pay cuts. His logic, "if we can't afford to pay the workers, we can't spend 30,000 to 40,000 dollars of a fireworks show, unless we want to raise taxes". Although this is understandable and no one wants to pay higher taxes, I am very disappointed to say the least. The fireworks show is a tradition in Wallingford for numerous family and friends, that will be truly missed if it is canceled. Although it is not entirely a def. cancellation, I am still worried that summer will not be the same. Here's hoping the economy turns around, so my small town can enjoy one of the joys of summer.

600,000 and 1 Daffodils!

Meriden's "Daffodil Festival" celebrated its 31st year this year and it has been the best weekend in about 20 of those years. I can honestly say I used to dread going to the Daffodil Festival in Hubbard Park every year because it was always freezing or raining or both. According to the website, there are 61 varieties of Daffodils and every year they add more and more to the 1800 acres of land. This year the grand total is 600,001 daffodils. With food, crafts, home, and healthcare vendors as well as enertainment, amusement rides, of course tons of nature, the festival sparks the interest of the young and old. They even have a parade *which I missed yesterday* that crowns a "Miss Daffodil and Honor Escort". This is essentially a boy and girl from each of the elementary schools in Meriden. Although it is a beautiful festival and the hot dogs were delicious, I must say the sun is overwhelming. At one point, I helped my mother work at her healthcare tent, and I had to walk around just to get some air. Being enclosed around a tent is even worse than being out in the sun walking the park. Also, although the festival is amazing on many levels, the parking is not! You must take a shuttle bus from various parking spots just to get over to the park. Overall, I highly recommend it if you see this post before it closes tonight at 5pm tonight. I plan on editing this post tomorrow once I get the number of total visitors. It'll be interesting to see the increase in numbers because of the glorious weather.

Rodney Dangerfield Comedy Club

This weekend I ventured out to NYC for the senior class trip (where only 15 seniors in all of CCSU attended. As part of our trip, we got to go to the Rodney Dangerfield Comedy Club on W 61st and 1st Av. Now being a fan of the late Rodney Dangerfield himself ever since seeing the film Ladybugs in the early nineties, I was extremely excited but unsure what to expect. Dangerfields is one of the most famous comedy clubs in NY, but is actually quite small. Appearing just like another shop or resturant along the NYC strip, it is easy to miss, but if you do come across it venture in. With a bar, small stage, and a dimly lighted room with little red lamps on all the tables, it sets a friendly and familiar atomsphere much like that favorite small local bar everyone has. We got to see four acts and the performers (although their names escape me) were extremely funny. All the guys were either "as seen on comedy central" or hbo and were very talented even incorporating the token college group (CCSU) sitting in the corner. We became some good material for the night. My favorite of the night... "You know when your school's name is the direction of a compass, its gotta be real shitty..."

Anyways, so if you are ever in NYC check it out. Famous comedians like Jerry Seinfield and Robin Williams have been there, just beware of the "$ 20 cover charge--two drink minimum per person" Drinks are like 12 dollars a piece.

Childhood Foods

So I got a lot of inspirations for blog posts because of the readings this week. The snoke piece and the writer's childhood connection to the food strongly reminded me of connections I made to foods recently. As everyone knows, it's Girl Scout cookie season and Girl Scout cookies seem to cause a little nostlia in everyone. Everyone has their favorite. I indulge in a more recent cookie because it reminds me of childhood. The Lemon Chalet Cremes are clearly a lemon cookie, but so much more. The cookie is lemon with a tart yellow center, but the actually cookie part reminds me the animal cracker cookies you used to get from McDonald's Happy Meals. Does anyone remember those? It was like the sweet treat of happy meals besides the cool toys. Anyways, the cookies are fantastic and have sentimental value.

Reflection about the Gary Wolf Piece

As stated in class I really enjoyed this piece. Although I was unclear about its Arts and Entertainment value, I am really interested in pieces that deal with genetics or life span. This strongly reminded me of the 2005 film The Island. Released in July of 2005, the film deals with essentially a labatory of clones that were bought by upper class people. If you haven't seen it, I'm sorry I might spoil the film, but it relates to our class discussion. When Karyn mentioned that Kurtweil's "extending lifespan regimes" being crazy expensive, it just reminded me of the film. I feel like if Singularity does come to existance, it will only be affordable to the rich. The Island reflects on the new high tech ways to prolong their life. The clones in the film are essentially used for prolonging one's life. The clones are real people, but the people that "own" them don't know that they are actual humans and are unaware that scientists kill these clones to keep their owners alive. Okay, I hope that makes sense. To put it another way, say an owner of a clone needs a new heart, the clones are told they have been chosen in the lottery and get to go to "the island". "The island" is an operating table where they are killed and their heart is taken for their owner. Okay, so it indirectly relates to the Wolf article, but Kurtzweil reminded me of the film.

Seth Adam and Band

Since I mentioned the band I previewed and reviewed in my last post, I thought I should give a brief background of who the band is in case any one wants to check them out. Seth Adam is the lead singer of the band. (They need a more orginal title!). I found him while at Happy Hour at Brother's resturant in Wallingford that I blogged about before. The band is out of New Haven and has grown extremely popular along the local scene since break out in 2005. He does acoustic at local bars often, but prefers to perform with the band. His influences include The Beatles, Counting Crows, and Tom Petty to name a few. Although Seth performs orginal music, mostly off his 2007 CD Where You Come From, he also does Counting Crows, and John Mayer covers when he performs acoustic. In person he sounds a little Chris Daughtry esk, but if you like that sort of sound, you will def, fall in love with his voice.

Here's a link to his myspace page where you can access his older and current music. His myspace has music that spans the last 5 yrs of his career.
http://www.myspace.com/sethadam

Songs for Stressful Days

As the end of the semester approaches rapidly, so does the tons of homework and paper deadlines. Spring break is over and it's time to get rolling on school work that you have put off since the beggining. Now with all these papers and tests catching up to you, life can get rather stressful (okay so we all know that's the understatement of the year. Anyways, I find that when I am totally stressed out and cannot seem to get my head around the endless piles of work, I rely on music. Certain songs can just put me in a better mood and take me away from that growing pile, even if its just for five minutes. For this blog post, I created a playlist from my ITUNES that makes my life a little less hectic. Now my ITUNES has 1789 songs on it, so there are def. some I forgot, but if you want to add more, feel free to comment.

1. Blister in the Sun- Violent Femmes
2.Hold On Loosely- .38 Special
3. This Afternoon- Nickleback
4. Two Princes- Spin Doctors
5. Thanks A Lot- Third Eye Blind
6. 99 Red Balloons- Nena
7. You Shook Me All Night- AC/DC
8. Bennie and the Jets- Elton John
9. Chicken Fried- Zac Brown Band
10. Save Tonight- Eagle Eye Cherry
11. Sublime Cover- Jack Johnson (I don't know the name of the ACTUAL song, but it comes up as this on Limewire Search)
12. Beautiful- Akon
13. Steal My Sunshine- Len
14. Get Up- 5ive
15. You May Be Right- Billy Joel
16. Saturday- Fall Out Boy
17. Live Your Life- T.I.
18. Sweet Child of Mine- Guns and Roses
19. Keep On Loving You- R.E.O. Speedwagon
20. Song for My Friends- Seth Adam and Band (the band the previewed and reviewed)