“The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous” : Chapter 38: Good-Bye John Lennon

I spent three days in a New York hospital. The bullet had gone clean through my shoulder except for nipping a bit of bone which X rays revealed came to rest a few centimetres from my heart. Those hollow point bullets are nasty things.

In considerable pain I headed back to my room at the Ritz Carlton Central Park South thanking the effects of morphine on the pain. I thought about The Rolling Stones song “Sister Morphine”. It made me gloomy and lethargic. The press circled the entrance to the Ritz-Carlton wanting to speak to the man that was holding John Lennon’s hand and was comforting him as he lay bleeding on the pavement. I took a big swing with my good arm and knocked a camera to the ground. Out of control I screamed obscenities at these newshounds. Thank God hotel security darted out and dragged me into the lobby.

Yoko decided there would be no funeral for John but rather a cremation service. Ringo was the only Beatle that appeared in New York and at the request of Yoko both Ringo and I minded Sean while the cremation service occurred. Ringo told me he simply could not attend the service due to the violent death of his former bandmate. It would shatter him to pieces. If he had only died a natural death Ringo lamented.

Yoko returned looking haggard and dreadful. I was asked to attend a small reception in the unit but declined. I had a long conversation with Ringo about John and while he was no saint he was a decent man. The stories Ringo told me were said in confidence so I can’t repeat them here. Ringo said we should keep in touch.

So how did I feel about the death of John Lennon. I was crushed with the tragedy and furious with “America” for its history of violence and its gun obsession. How could a little fucked up fucker like Chapman possess a 38 special? Chapman was so fucked up he was reading “Catcher in the Rye” calmly across the street from the murder scene when he was apprehended. I had to leave this country.

Yes I recall reading John’s tea leaves and seeing a menacing figure and what looked like an ambulance and having a sinister shiver eating some ice cream that day, Chapman’s…John’s favourite.

So I had witnessed a tragedy as a spectator and around the corner was a deep tragedy that would take my mind and body where it had never been before. Was it the morphine talking?

RKS The Tea Meister: Tea Squared’s Cranberry Purifier

For many years I have been steadfastly avoiding “kiddie teas”. Kiddie teas often have no tea at all as an ingredient but nonetheless they list “tea” as one. They have a melange of flavours primarily all types of fruit.

I have backed off from avoiding kiddie teas as a result of a recent experience I had while reviewing the Woodbourne Inn in St. Davids Ontario home of the famous double breakfast. I made a bold decision to try a Sakura Rose tea (from Toronto’s Genuine Tea) with both my breakfasts. Yes rose petals! Well it suited both the first and second breakfasts the latter being a gourmet French toast with pa pa cream. The rose petals matched the French Toast to a tea! Sakura Rose is now an occasional inclusion to my breakfast routine.

The Cranberry Purifier from Toronto based Tea Squared has no actual tea in it and rather reminds me of a breakfast cereal with apple chunks, hibiscus blossoms, cranberries and natural flavours. It is a zero caffeine “beverage”.

Aroma: Rose, peach, cranberry dried cherries, watermelon and a bit of strawberry jam.

Palate: Floral and fruity without excessive sweetness. There has been no sugar added. No tannins to speak of. A warm inviting beverage. Cranberry, mango, peach, McIntosh apples with a moderate finish.

Food match: French toast made with Challah bread topped with preserved peaches.

Price: $8.99 for 100 grams. Free shipping on Canadian orders over $50 and on US orders over $75.

RKS 2023 Tea Meister Rating 88/100

Misadventures in Wine Chapter 4: Wine Drinker Profiles: “The Higher the Price the Better the Wine”

This could be known as The Filthy Rich Club where money is no object other than a means to glorify “good taste”. A Chilean Carménère at $18.95 could be rated a 93/100 but isn’t that a marker of rotgut…..cheap wines. In no way fitting for a mighty industrialist, tech baron, cardiologist, big time corporate lawyer or a neurosurgeon. Mere dentists excluded please. Château Snob only even if pharmaceutical barons in China mix it with Mao cola. Wine, the car you drive, defines your power, privilege and good taste! A Randy Kurniawan heaven!

RKS Literature: Passage of the Day: Eternal Youth? (Nikos Kazantzakis)

“He murmured to himself, ‘It’s really a shame, that youth in human beings doesn’t last a thousand years! Is God perhaps afraid that we’ll take His throne away from Him? Is that why he craftily dismantles us, piece by piece? He pulls out our teeth, screws our knees up stiff, wears out our kidneys, dims our eyes and dribbles slime and spittle out of our noses and mouths…Death doesn’t worry me: by my soul it doesn’t worry me. There’s something to be said for getting over it once and for all. But I can’t do with this business of turning gradually into a caricature.’ “

Nikos Kazantzakis “Freedom and Death”, 1956

RKS 2023 Wine: Chilean Carménère: Siegel Gran Reserva Carménère

Aromatics:  Heavy raspberry markers with black cherry and strawberry in tow.

Palate: The tannins are not quite reaching the moderate level. Plenty of stuffing in this wine. Virtually bursting with black cherry but held in a straight jacket for the moment, Put another way the wine may just be on a holding pattern before landing on a runway of greatness in 2024 when the wine opens up mid 2024 to reveal its fruit in all its glory.

Personality: When the clock strikes midnight on December 31, 2024 I am not turning into a pumpkin but a stellar wine. I do request you respect my present firmness until at least 2023-year end when I begin to show what a great Chilean Carménère I am.

Cellarability: Will be in its prime from 2024-2026 but still enjoyable now if you like a firm but not austere wine.

Price: $18.95 (Ontario).

In a nutshell: A debutante ready to bust out at the ball.

Food match: The wine now is food centric  Roasted duck breast and shredded duck confit. Italian farro maitake mushrooms, kale, salisfy, Jerusalem artichokes and pearl onions with foie gras jus.

RKS 2023 Wine Rating: 92/100. Timatkin.com 91/100. 

(Siegel Gran Reserva 2019 Carménère, Valle de Colchagua, Vińa Siegel, Pamila, Chile, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 25639, 750 mL, 14%).

Misadventures in Wine Chapter 3: Wine Drinker Profiles: “The Point Slaves”

Today don’t we have so many people and institutions thinking for us? The Point Slaves rely on the wine writer in their purchase decisions. Just walk the aisles of your liquor retailer and see how many 90 plus signs and stickers you see. I wonder how much the winery is charged for appending a 92 on their bottle. If there is no 90 plus mark on the merchandise can the whole point craze be denigrated as if no 90 plus rating then why not simply ignore those lesser wines. And when you see the wine is a medal winner how much was the entry fee for the competition and how many wines did the judges have to slog through shredding their palate along the way? How much is charged for buying gold medal stickers? Is every entry guaranteed a medal of some sort?

In a busy society where there seems little time for so many things, including thinking, it is easy to cruise the aisles and pick up any wine with a 90 plus rating. Someone has done the thinking for you. And you may be surprised about wine writers throwing around wine scores in the mid to high nineties. How many of these writers or their organizations they work for charge to review a wine (to cover administrative costs it may be said)? Can these writers be impartial? Are they whisked on media junkets to wineries? Do they pay for the wines they are reviewing or is a winery or third party sending “samples”? Is a wine writer a “citizen above suspicion”. Have you heard the expression “pay to play”?

One must mention those wine drinkers that use wine writer comments and scores as a helpful guide now and then to assist in their selection which is far different than blind adherence.

“The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous”: Chapter 37: Caught in the Gunfire: John Lennon Down!

I arrived at JFK Airport in New York on a late and foggy November evening, Given the water damage to my unit at the Dakota I made reservations for myself at the Ritz-Carlton Central Park South. I checked in had a double Martini (the best in New York aside from the Yale Club) and had a brisk walk to the Dakota. I had chatted with John Lennon upon my check in and we were to meet to inspect the damage to the unit. John had let my insurance company adjuster in to assess the damage last week.

The doorman announced my arrival to John who came down to meet me at the lobby. We headed up to my unit. The kitchen ceiling had collapsed leaving a terrible mess and John said the disaster recovery service hired by the insurance company cleaned up the mess but the damage was so extensive a new kitchen would be required. All the hardwood floors adjacent to the kitchen had been saturated with water and had buckled. They would have to be replaced. A terrible inconvenience. John asked me up for a gin and tonic. He comforted me on my mini-disaster and to cheer me up invited me to see “The Elephant Man” on Broadway starring Bowie on December 9th with James Taylor and Yoko. John would never hesitate to extend his compassion to many.

I dealt with the insurance company and architects over the next few days and in no time construction was underway. I had my daily noon call with Ginevra and noting her increasing tension on each successive call I asked my sweet Campanian plum why she was stressed. Well Cyclops was becoming more threatening with Daddy, Don Lupara. Could I come back as soon as possible. I said I would return to Naples on December 11.

John asked me to meet him on December 8th in the service delivery entrance of the Dakota so we could head out to Jamaica New York for a late-night roti. I headed down to meet his limo around 22:00 hours. His limo approached and he exited with Yoko. I heard several loud cracks just when I was approaching John. A hot fiery pain seared my shoulder and I spun around hitting the pavement. John was down immediately saying numerous times that he had been shot. With blood pouring out from my shoulder and ready to pass out I staggered over to John. Yoko was standing over him sobbing. I took his hand and said to John that I had been shot and we would both be OK and walking in Central Park again. He looked very bad with multiple wounds. After I heard gurgling sounds coming from his mouth when he attempted to speak I passed out. I recall saying to myself how much sicker the United States could get. A man of peace gunned down.

Misadventures in Wine: Chapter 2: Wine Drinker Profiles: “The Nationalists”

The Nationalist supports the wineries in the country or territory resided in. The support may be even narrower than that and be limited to provinces/states within a country. For example a Canadian residing in the province of Ontario could decide to drink wines from all provinces of Canada or may focus on wines from Ontario. An American in New York could decide to support wines from New York. The Nationalist support could be an absolute or a preferential one.

The Nationalist supports not only the winery but all facets of the economy involved in wine production that would include but not be limited to labour, transportation, winery equipment and supportive professional services. It is not simply a bottle of wine but the spin-off benefits of wine production to the economy.

Commendable as if your local economy benefits well then so do you.

If your chosen jurisdiction makes a wide variety of wines the Nationalist approach just might satisfy the palate but that is a rare jurisdiction. For example in the province of Ontario if you prefer red wines you can cruise along with Gamay, Marechal Foch, Cabernet Franc and perhaps Pinot Noir but no such luck can be found with so many other grapes not even grown in Ontario such as Carménère from Chile . A Nationalist wine drinker might fare even better by focusing on wines produced throughout Canada which would include British Columbia, Quebec and Nova Scotia but still so many wines are produced ex-Canada the Nationalist would be depriving themselves out of a vast array of wines. Some wine drinkers can co-exist with that deprivation. Some can’t.

On occasion politics may come into play. When the Trumpster was on his blustering mumbles insulting Canadians (and just about everything else but himself) I encountered many Canadian wine drinkers happy to give a cold shoulder to American wines.

There is no need to criticize the Nationalists as if they are a happy lot why butt in! You may love that foot trodden Touriga Nacional from the Douro but the Nationalist couldn’t give a damn.

“The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous”: Chapter 36: Let’s Plan the Future with My Sweet Campanian Plum That is Eating Three Pizzas at a Shot? John Lennon to the Rescue!

Upon our return to Naples we continued our holiday mode for a few weeks seeing the sites of Naples and eating for three. Ginevra was expanding rapidly. It would be two pizzas for dinner and many scoops of gelato afterwards. As my sweet Campanian plum was expanding rapidly my confusion was as well.

After a pizza extravaganza where Ginevra ate three tasty artichoke and anchovy pizzas it was time for a chat. What was our future aside from founding a branch of Weight Watchers in Naples?

Of course, we were deeply in love. But love must be tested.

What was our role in Naples? Ginevra had no doubts. We were to stay in Naples. We were to prepare to step into the shoes of Don Lupara when he was retired. Not when he retired but when he was “retired’. Don Ginevra was to rule the Scampian narcotics business and I was her head of the crews doing the on the ground business. An enforcer, executioner and arm of the family. Entertaining the crew and burying the endless cadavers and ensuring the families had a “survivor’s pension”. I would need lessons in Neapolitan, arms training and narcotic purity training.

My life was to be one of crime, violence, benevolence, paternalism and terror.

It had a ruthless attraction but heck I was a lawyer upholding the law or so thought I but as I knew very well lawyers served the highest bidder like hired guns, defending street rapists and corporate rapists depending on who was paying the bills. But a ruthless thug? My dad Paneer Gupta was a hashish dealer in a milieu where all shared the trade as opposed to wiping out each other over minor transgressions. I was coming to the conclusion my sweet Campanian plum might just be no better than a Campanian Charles Manson.

Thank goodness I received a call from my pal John Lennon saying there had been a bad flood at the Dakota and my unit was damaged and I should come home…home? Where was my home? So saying adieu to Ginevra I headed back to New York to deal with the Dakota situation.

In the horizon tragedy upon tragedy was awaiting!

Misadventures in Wine

Chapter One: Wine Drinker Profiles: The “I Don’t Care” Crowd

These drinkers may differentiate between red and white wine and have price points but one bottle of wine is just a bottle of wine. Country of origin or appellation makes no difference. A Zinfandel from Mexico or Lodi or a Pinot Noir from Lake Erie North Shore or the Willamette Valley makes no impression or invokes any curiosity. In fact a Pinot Noir or a Plavic Mali makes no difference. Red is red. White is white.

Are these wine drinkers to be pitied?

That rather depends on who is doling out the pity! Pity isn’t going to help these easily pleased people. They don’t twist and turn in bed at night worrying about terroir, acidity, tannins, length or cellarbility. Oenophiles may smirk and say ignorance is bliss but if the “I Don’t Care Crowd” doesn’t care or know about their ignorance let them revel in their contentment. Back off with your judgement! Adam and Eve were in bliss until the apple was eaten.

They are perfectly at ease ordering a glass of wine in a restaurant not knowing how many days the bottle from the pour has been open. Was the pour from a 4-litre tetra pack of Spanish wine brought in in tankers like oil? Was it used in a sauce preparation or to swill the toilet bowls. These people are a sommelier nightmare! But they don’t have the nightmare. The sommelier does!