Things I miss (Or why California sucks)

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Originally posted by Davydd

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Originally posted by pdxyyz

BBq King

http://www.healthydairyindustry.org/dairy.html#cheese

Still not number one in cheese.

So, the California dairy industry "misspoke"?

I only said #1 DAIRY state with BETTER cheese which it is and not #1 in cheese production.

Newbie here! During my years in the Navy, I spent 4 years in the Philadelphia area, and 5 years in Memphis. I've been back in SoCal for quite awhile now but things I miss the most would have to be:

Memphis BBQ (or Kansas City)
Catfish and Hush puppies
Philly Steak Sandwiches (I have them hold the cheese)
Strombolis
Philly Soft Pretzels with mustard! Many places around the rest of the country CLAIM to have them, but they're not even close. But, Tri-tip and Carne Asada feeds go a long way to heal the hurt. :)

I read a couple of people mentioning Victor Valley in the High Desert. If you haven't been back here in the last 10 years, you would hardly recognize the place.

Svein

Welcome Sveinbjorn!

I used to live in Philly too - I miss the steaks & pretzels, but when summertime gets here boy oh BOY do I miss the water ice!!!!!!! YUM!!!!!!!!!!

(I agree about the dim sum quality IamsMom... and I'm still chuckling about the Lynn banter in the other thread btw...)

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Originally posted by Big Ugly Mich

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Originally posted by enginecapt

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Originally posted by johnnyblancoMan sometimes I wish I was back in NY

So do we natives.

And you honestly can't figure out why we in Flyover Country think California sucks?

I never really gave it much thought, mainly because I don't care. So there's nothing to figure out.

As far as where California get its water to irrigate the farms that help feed this nation and a part of the world, you need to study up on that subject just a bit. To help you along, I suggest you look into the Central Valley Project. This redistributes water from the abundantly watered northern portion of the state (yes Virginia, not all of California is dry) to the agriculturally rich Central Valley. That's where the edibles are grown. All year long, by the way. Try that in Flyover Country.

We don't need Flyover Country water. You can keep it for all that corn.

However, I would like to know how the collapse, way back in 1928, of a poorly designed dam (not aquifer, those are underground) that brought water to L.A. from the Owens Valley in California is germane to anything in this topic.

I live in central Ohio but I lived in Ventura County for 5 years before that....I miss the lush greenery (not the wildfires) , the mom and pop doughnuts shops, the ability to ride my bike anywhere, Little Saigon, the Ocean, and GOOD Mexican food. However with that being said I do love having four seasons with Fall being my favorite ,being 25 min from OSU campus, and having NYC, Chicago and other major cities a short roadtrip away.
Thanks for the memories

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Originally posted by enginecaptHowever, I would like to know how the collapse, way back in 1928, of a poorly designed dam (not aquifer, those are underground) that brought water to L.A. from the Owens Valley in California is germane to anything in this topic.

Because it was designed by the local resident for whom Mulholland Drive was named, and it drained the area that supplied it so now California has TWO deserts when it originally had one. The 1000 casualties (this figure includes the injured, the former just the killed, which accounts for what may be construed as a revision) stick in my craw, too. Heads are still rolling over the rerouting of the Chicago River, which killed no one, but was a boneheaded waste of precious fresh water that, like the moving of farms from the Owens Valley to the ocean shore, served no real purpose except to exploit resources that are growing less and less abundant. The Sahara used to, similarly, be a jungle until the water was wasted by the Egyptians. WAKE UP, CALIFORNIA!!! At least stop feigning concern for the environment even as you lead the nation in raping it.

THAT'S why California sucks. It sucks resources from the rest of the country, and beyond, and, at least according to you, doesn't care.

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Originally posted by BBq King Oh where do I start. California does NOT steal water from the midwest. They take it from Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Oregon as well as from it's own Owens Valley.

And Arizona and Nevada get water from Michigan. That, hopefully, stopped earlier this week.

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Originally posted by BBq King If California farms didn't exist the rest of the nation would starve for fresh fruit and vegetables.

Nah. Farmers in Flyover Country as far east as New England are paid NOT to grow these fruits and vegetables. We just wouldn't be charged twice for them. Something about California having a disproportionate share of the electorate is responsible for this.

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Originally posted by BBq KingThe Saint Francis Dam disaster was as much a result of faulty geology as it was of corruption.

Didn't that dawn on anyone after the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906? It should have. Did you miss the original Superman movie with Christopher Reeve, YOU'RE SITTING ON A FAULT LINE, AND IT'S GOING TO BURY YOU! I wouldn't give a rip, but the rest of us are going to get stuck with the cleanup bill.

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Originally posted by BBq King And one last thing you Wisconsin yokle. California is the #1 dairy state in the nation. Better cheese, better milk, better cows.

Because you whined about the use of BGH, which was only used at UW labs, and was abandoned because it simply didn't work as promised, not because of superior farm practices. You did the same thing to apple production by whining about alar. I can't fathom that, since California doesn't produce apples to any real degree.

The history of the West is one of man made alteration and manipulation, mich.
Would the dust bowl have happened if the railroads had not encouraged immigration
from Europeans who brought crops foreign to the native grasslands/deserts?
Would wild Salmon not be nearing extinction if man hadn't built numerous dams for crops and electricity?

Any production, especially agricultural production, can be described as "man made alteration and manipulation". Waste is something else altogether. Where are these dams that threaten our salmon? In the Western Deserts!

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Originally posted by Mrs.CrunchI miss . . . the ability to ride my bike anywhere,

GOD do I love being a Cheesehead! This was the FIRST OF ITS KIND ANYWHERE: http://www.elroy-sparta-trail.com/

The People's Republic of Madison is bicycle heaven, Chicago's Lake Shore Drive (going about 70 miles into Wisconsin, then hang a left on the Hank Aaron Trail) is the river Styx.

Uhhhhh.... ok. *backs away carefully from the crazy cheesehead*

Sorry BUM but didn't the Sahara dry up with the end of the last Ice Age long before the Egyptians (who have always gotten thier water from the Nile)showed up.

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Originally posted by Big Ugly Mich

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Originally posted by BBq King Oh where do I start. California does NOT steal water from the midwest. They take it from Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Oregon as well as from it's own Owens Valley.

And Arizona and Nevada get water from Michigan. That, hopefully, stopped earlier this week.

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Originally posted by BBq King If California farms didn't exist the rest of the nation would starve for fresh fruit and vegetables.

Nah. Farmers in Flyover Country as far east as New England are paid NOT to grow these fruits and vegetables. We just wouldn't be charged twice for them. Something about California having a disproportionate share of the electorate is responsible for this.

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Originally posted by BBq KingThe Saint Francis Dam disaster was as much a result of faulty geology as it was of corruption.

Didn't that dawn on anyone after the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906? It should have. Did you miss the original Superman movie with Christopher Reeve, YOU'RE SITTING ON A FAULT LINE, AND IT'S GOING TO BURY YOU! I wouldn't give a rip, but the rest of us are going to get stuck with the cleanup bill.

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Originally posted by BBq King And one last thing you Wisconsin yokle. California is the #1 dairy state in the nation. Better cheese, better milk, better cows.

Because you whined about the use of BGH, which was only used at UW labs, and was abandoned because it simply didn't work as promised, not because of superior farm practices. You did the same thing to apple production by whining about alar. I can't fathom that, since California doesn't produce apples to any real degree.

I would like to have a battle of wits with you, but I'm prevented by personal convictions from fighting with an unprepared and unarmed person. Please check you facts about things you have absolutly no knowledge about.

LOL. We Oregonians are well known as California bashers and we once had a governor who once begged Califorinans to visit but not live here. "Don't Californicate Oregon" remains a popular bumper sticker.
There are some California things i will never love(The LA Lakers top the list). But we here in Oregon have done things that are just as destructive as the well chronicled L.A. rape of the Ownes valley. The destruction of Ceilio Falls near The Dalles, Oregon destroyed a cultural way station for first nation people that had existed for thousands of years as well as a natural wonder that still astonishes me when i see it in old films.
I love the many Californias. The wet rain forests of the Redwoods, the Sierra Nevada, the computer geeks of San jose, the eccentric wonderland of San Fransisco, the fierce Mexican pride and the agricultural bounty of the central valley, the cultural wonderland of L.A., the insanely wondeful city of San Diego, the still of Death valley. I am too much in love with Oregon to ever live in california but i thank the state for the multicultural wonder and beauty of my son and the many pleasures it offers.

Well this morning the Louisville folks got a little sample of a "Shaker" ! It was like old times for us, rattling around long enough to prove it wasn't wind noise and shake. We have some old brick fronts in the downtown area that were shaken loose and tumbled to the street.

No Damage out here in the rural area...but my sliding glass door was wide open when checkd. Magnitude 5.4 is the first report and an Epicenter not far from Mt Carmel, IL in eastern Illinois (40 miles or so above Evansville, IN)

Having lived thru the Techachapi, Landers/Big Bear, and Northridge quakes in SoCal, this wasn't a "falling down" strength, but apparently it did some minor damage here in the Louisville area.

Kind of made me homesick !!

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Originally posted by Al-The Mayor-Bowen


Well this morning the Louisville folks got a little sample of a "Shaker" ! It was like old times for us, rattling around long enough to prove it wasn't wind noise and shake. We have some old brick fronts in the downtown area that were shaken loose and tumbled to the street.

No Damage out here in the rural area...but my sliding glass door was wide open when checkd. Magnitude 5.4 is the first report and an Epicenter not far from Mt Carmel, IL in eastern Illinois (40 miles or so above Evansville, IN)

Having lived thru the Techachapi, Landers/Big Bear, and Northridge quakes in SoCal, this wasn't a "falling down" strength, but apparently it did some minor damage here in the Louisville area.

Kind of made me homesick !!

Just goes to show that you can run, but you can't hide from Caliornia. It's the cheese!

Apparently some high rises in downtown Milw.felt the affects of the quake-glad all is well, Al.

We had a 4.6 aftershock thay was barely 'feelable' at about 11:20 AM and several smaller ones thru the morning. It is interesting to see the local TV do live coverage since the early morning quake happened during the "Sunrise" news program. Live coverage has mainly consisted of call-in phone reports that havethe message that the caller was awakened by a noise like a freight train (Tornado) (Wind-rattle) and lots of dogs barking. Other than a brick facade on an old building in downtown that lost some of it's brickwork, there is no damage to any structure in this area. Bridge inspectors are working on the Ohio River bridges to check them for safety, but so far no issues worth sharing.

Since earthquake experience by the residents here is rare, I can't blame the folks for the descriptions I am hearing. I did find it humorous in a morbid sort of way when I heard that students in a high-rise dorm at WKU in Bowling Green, KY evacuated the upper floors of the dorm and shared rooms with others on the lower living levels of those buildings. I thought about the many apartment buildings in Northridge, CA that collapsed down crushing the ground floor while the upper stories were damaged but not 'crushed'.

We are very grateful that there have been no reported injuries or fatalities in this seismic-event!

Damn those Californians! They still have bigger earthquakes.

Size Matters, Davy !!

Add Quakes to the list of Cheese, freeway car chases, and Disneyland that seems to be the items that the Golden State is noted for !

I was suprised that it was not on the New Madrid Fault, that is the one that everyone predicts will be the next major midwest quake.

This one was actually on the Wabash Fault, which has been more active in the past few years (magnitude 1 to 3)

A 5.2 here really suprises people round here

I read a couple of people mentioning Victor Valley in the High Desert. If you haven't been back here in the last 10 years, you would hardly recognize the place.

Svein



Victor Valley has become pretty nasty in the last 10 years!

There's a place in Orange County called "Memphis BBQ", it's pretty damn good!

From allbusiness.com:
Wise Snack Foods serves the East Coast from Maine to Florida with a full line of potato chips and other snack products, accounting for approximately $350 million in annual sales. It is one of nine business units currently being formed by Borden under an organization redesign announced in May.

I googled Wise Snack products and learned that Amazon.com is going to be direct shipping the COMPLETE line of Wise Snacks.

I made the trip all the way across back in '88-89, when in the Air Force. First, in boot camp near San Antonio, I see these strange Wise Chips packages that were red, with a totally different UPC. And that must have been as far as it went, as I never saw them any further West.
The local cake brand was Mrs. Baird's (which is also the bread), and then you had Colonial Break (Campbell Taggart, now Earth Grains, but has since dropped the entire line of cakes). This is where I first encountered the Shake Cakes, which were like Zingers, but chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. Had never seen any of this stuff back east!

In the next stage of training in Denver, they also had the Break's, but the accompanying bread label was Rainbo.
Then, finally, permanent station at George AFB in the Victor Valley. I know now they have closed the base and turned it into a regional airport.
When I was there, nothing but Hostess and Dolly Madison (as far as snack cakes), except in the Von's, where they were actually carrying Drakes! (And in LA too!). It was a deal with one person working with that one store chain (and a flea market thrift store on Main St. LA), and only family packs; and when he shortly died, they were gone! (at least until recent expansion attempts, if some of you say yoou can get them out there). I also did see the Breaks at a rest stop between LA and San Francisco, and this was the last time I was to see the Shake Cakes.

I also wonder how often you all in the desert see tarantulas? (Something you all can keep!) I always thought they were in the tropics only. It wasn't until the movie Wild, Wild West that I realized they were here in our western deserts. So I was actually out there with them! I wasn't even thinking about stuff like that then. The base was surrounded by desert, and I used to walk into town sometimes and remember that former Rt66 road and seeing off into the boundless desert, but never saw any of those things, thank goodness. I just remember nothing but Joshua trees.

I lived in the San Fernando Valley for almost four years in the early 80s before moving back to my hometown, Philadelphia. I remember that then, people who worked closer to L.A. were just starting to buy houses all the way out in places like Pearblossom, etc. I was horrified then at the long commutes. Now in 2008 - everything I read makes my hair stand on end. I've been living in South Jersey for 20 years, and no matter how I b*tch, I prefer living on the East Coast to the West any day of the week. I paid $3.51 yesterday a gallon. It took $42 to fill my tank and I started crying before I left the gas station! Seriously! I checked gasbuddy the other day and I can't imagine how bad things must be, not how good, but how bad, for Californians now, to live. To scratch a living. Never mind that people are getting laid off just all over the country now. But I'm getting paranoid. No such thing as job security, or maybe in isolated cases.

I prefer East Coast "personalities", regarding everyday people, to West Coast. Other East Coast people, particularly people from my area, know exactly what this means.

OK. The food. You cannot even begin to imitate the salt-of-the-earth wonderfulness of food originating from the Philadelphia region. I don't have to go into detail, because there's no need to brag any further. Again, East Coasters know. I'm not saying California food is bad - I'm not. The BBQ was good, but I did so much of my own cooking, I can't give a rundown on every kind of food. And I don't eat Mexican food, but there's such a large Mexican population living in this area, now opening up little restaurants, that that could be argued by someone who eats it and lives here.

And the Italian bread's the best, as well as hoagie and steak rolls - I will brag about that - because of "the water". And no, I will not go into scientific detail. Like my mom used to say, "Eat it! It's good!"

I didn't know they even made Drake's cakes anymore, but I eat Tastykake mostly.

The best part about California for me was the weather, which I prefer warm over cold any day. Also that you could go for a day trip either to the mountains, the desert or the beach, all in the same day. I have really good memories. But I wouldn't move back.

You mean you're not seeing Drakes in Philadelphia anymore?
This is not good. Drakes always were bigger east of the Hudson, but now maybe IBC is scaling them down everywhere else. You would find them on the Hostess rack, and with Hostess being the bigger brand outside of NYC, I could see the dwindling them down to nothing where you are. This happened in Florida as well.

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Originally posted by BBq King Just goes to show that you can run, but you can't hide from Caliornia. It's the cheese!

Since when is White Velveeta, often referred to as Monterrey Jack, considered to be cheese? It tastes like what cheese gets wrapped in to me.

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Originally posted by exsquidao
Sorry BUM but didn't the Sahara dry up with the end of the last Ice Age long before the Egyptians (who have always gotten thier water from the Nile)showed up.

You're correct. I meant the Babylonians. You see the same thing happening in China as we speak. It happenned just over a hundred years ago in Los Angeles, too.