Bookstores and COVID 19

The interior of Dove and Hudson Books, Albany, NY
Photograph courtesy of J. Nathan

A keenly felt loss during the COVID-19 shutdown is access to bookstores. Although bookstores are not considered “essential” businesses in many states, they are essential

• to parents with children participating in school from home
• to people who want to continue their life-long learning and
• to those who read to battle the many sources of anxiety.

While bookstores are essential, they pose unique challenges for operating within spatial distancing and other guidelines. Many stores have aisles and reading areas where customers would find it difficult to maintain the six feet distance that is a de facto national standard.

Nevertheless, booksellers are working as hard as they can for their customers within the current quarantine limits. One bookseller walked around his store’s children’s section with his smartphone in video conferencing mode, so a mother and her children could look at titles and get a good collection of books to order.

The New York State Writers Institute, at the State University of New York, Albany, recently hosted a webinar with owners and managers of five Capital Region bookstores. An overview of the discussion and a link to the nearly one-hour long program can be found at the following address:

https://www.nyswritersinstitute.org/post/joining-forces-to-support-the-capital-region-s-indie-bookstores

Governor Newsom amended COVID-19 guidance in a way to lead to California bookstores reopening, with curbside service, starting Friday May 8, 2020. This is a step forward but customers and booksellers continue to yearn for a safe way to reopen an entire store.

During the Writers Institute program, all the booksellers said they are eager to reopen. But they also said they will only reopen if they can do so and protect the safety of customers and staff.

Many bookstores encourage customers to buy gift cards. This generates revenue and makes a commitment to bookstore futures. It's better to buy a gift card as an in-person or doorstep gift. If you mail or ship a gift card and it gets lost, the Postal Service and many carriers do not insure the loss for the total value of the gift card.

This post is a survey of how some of my favorite stores are doing. It is a small sample because of my limited travels and the blog format. Any stories from readers or owners would be welcome.

Dove and Hudson Books, 296 Hudson Avenue, Albany, NY 12210

518-432-4518 doveandhudson@gmail.com

Dove and Hudson Books sells quality used books. It’s the only bookstore in the city limits of Albany, New York. Joseph Nathan recently bought the store from long-time owner Dan Wedge. In a conversation before he sold the store, Dan said the two most often requested books during his tenure were Robert Caro’s biography of Robert Moses, The Power Broker and William Kennedy’s O Albany! This is so fitting, given the city’s prominence with writers and politics.

“We’ve been closed,” Joseph said, “since Governor Cuomo issued the PAUSE order in March.” “Things are not normal right now,” he continued. “We are,” he concluded “ in an unprecedented moment in history.”

In response to COVID-19 and the closing of bookstores, Joseph said the bookstore is retaining existing practices and undertaking new ones. He continues to fill mail orders and is offering curbside pick-ups. Joseph is building a website for the bookstore.

A particular strong point of Dove and Hudson is that it has a computerized inventory system that might be the envy of bigger stores. It helps Joseph quickly answer queries about whether titles are in stock and, in happier times, tell customers where the book is in the store.

The Open Door Bookstore, 128 Jay Street, Schenectady, NY 12305

https://www.opendoor-bookstore.com

The Open Door is Schenectady's locally-owned independent bookstore and gift gallery with deep community roots. In 2021, it will celebrate its 50th anniversary. In the Writer’s Institute program, Lily Bartels, the store's buyer of adult books, said “We now have generations of families who have an emotional connection to the store.” The Open Door carries a wide selection of literature, with an emphasis on children's books and those of local and regional interest, It also has an expansive variety of toys, gifts, jewelry, stationery, personal accessories and home goods.

The bookstore has been closed since the Governor initiated the PAUSE closures. However, the bookstore offers customers several ways to shop. Customers can place an order at the bookstore’s website and they will be shipped to the customer’s home.

In addition, the Open Door offers a personal shopper service. The service is available for books and gifts in the store. According to Janet Hutchison, the store’s owner, “Customers can email a request to general@opendoor-bookstore.com along with their name and phone number.” “A staff member,” she continued, “will call you to discuss and process your order, and to make sure you get exactly what you're looking for!” With the personal shopper service, customers can discuss obtaining items by mail, some limited delivery service or a no-contact pick up at the store. If a customer is not sure what they want, they are invited to email and staff will work to match an item to the customer’s needs.

The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza and Little Book House, 1475 Western Avenue, Albany, New York 12203

518-489-4761 https://www.bhny.com

Market Block Books, 290 River Street, Troy, NY 12180

518-328-0045 Same website as Book House

The Book House and Little Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza have strong selections of adult and children's books. The store is exceptionally well-designed for browsing, and has a welcoming place at the front of the store where a reader can sit and preview a book before buying it.

They say that book stores can transport a person to different places and worlds. But the Book House can help you literally go somewhere. The store's map and travel guide inventory - - backed up by knowledgeable staff - - is one of the best there is on any of the coasts. And even if no one may travel right now, it's all right to just dream or plan.

Many businesses have come and gone from Stuyvesant Plaza, in the eastern part of Guilderland, but the Book House has remained - - and prospered - - during all these changes.

Market Block Books, in downtown Troy, is the companion to the Book House. The store is in the Market Block, a charming building designed in the Greek Revival style.

According to the Book House website, Book House and Market Block Books staff are answering telephones, Monday through Saturday from 10 A.M. to 2 P.M. These staff can take orders and arrange for curbside pickup.

The website goes on to say the stores “are still closed to public mingling.” But customers can order 24/7 through the store website; most books will be shipped ASAP from the store’s warehouse partners.

Book Alley, 1252 East Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena, California 91106

bookalley@bookalley.com 626-683-8083

I discovered Book Alley while searching for The Man on the Train, a World War II thriller about a Nazi plot to assassinate Winston Churchill as he traveled by train through upstate New York and Vermont in December, 1941, on his way from Washington, D.C. to Montreal.

I found this book on one of those giant online book selling websites. But rather than order through cyberspace, I called the store, sent them a check and got the book soon after.

We have at least one pilgrimage a year to Book Alley. We go in with a mental list. We always leave with something. It may not be a book on the list going in, but it is something delightful. I especially like the store’s California and railroad book sections.

As in New York, California bookstores are closed for browsing.

However, Book Alley is still operating. Its three employee staff, a shipping clerk, bookstore owner and assistant manager, are taking online orders and shipping out books six days a week. Update: Book Alley is now taking orders for curbside pick-up. The store's website explains the process for customers who wish to use the service.

According to Donna, the Assistant Manager, “We are a little swamped with locating books on the shelves and processing them.” “There isn't always someone near the phone to take calls. If you tell us the book(s) you are interested, we can verify that it is still on our shelves before you order. Sometimes we will have difficulty locating books as they are either misplaced or have sold without being deleted from our inventory."

Book Alley’s user-friendly, online searchable catalogue makes it easier for customers to place orders.

Vroman’s Bookstore, 695 Colorado Avenue, Pasadena, California 91101, 626-449-5320 and

Vroman’s Hastings Ranch, 3729 E. Foothill Boulevard, Pasadena, California, 91107, 626-351-0828

Online at www.vromansbookstore.com

The City of Pasadena has two exceptional bookstores within a 10 minute drive of each other. Book Alley nicely handles the used book market segment; Vroman’s is the master of the new books and gifts segment.

Vroman’s is taking online orders. On Friday, the store began a program with online purchases and curbside pick-ups. It is also projecting an active presence online, with book discussion groups and programs.  

But Vroman’s is a strong reminder of why the pandemic is so hard for book lovers. The Colorado Avenue store is three stories tall. There is something to catch the eye on every floor. Their greeting card selection has rescued us many times when we needed a card for a special occasion, for example.

The store is doing its best to stay in contact with its customers. But until it reopens, customers cannot wander the store and look at the countless appealing books, gifts and other accessories. And we do not have the chance to benefit from the readers' advisory insights of its booksellers.

All the stores in this post are delightful places to browse and reflect and not being able to visit them is a loss. Let’s hope that with the ingenuity of booksellers and a fewer COVID-19 cases that we can shop and browse again in bookstores.

Notes on the New Book "Drive - Thru Dreams"

If you love fast food, or if you are frequenting drive-thrus during these trying times for a meal or coronavirus test, you will find Adam Chandler’s book, Drive-Thru Dreams: A Journey Through the Heart of America’s Fast-Food Kingdom, enjoyable and educational.

Drive-Thru Dreams explains how scrappy entrepreneurs created fast-food chains, and how these chains interact with people and society. This lively, witty, well-organized and thoroughly researched survey is the first book by Chandler, a journalist and Houston, Texas native who now lives in Brooklyn. 

Author David Chandler is a Houston, Texas native who lives in Brooklyn

Speaking of wit, Chandler offers a bon mot on almost every page. In describing Harlan Sanders’ efforts to franchise Kentucky Fried Chicken after Interstate 75 put his location in Corbin, Kentucky out of business, Chandler writes that Sanders set out in his White Cadillac with his spice recipe and a cooler full of chicken, “a broken hero on a last-chance poultry drive.”

Chandler opens the book by describing the origin of the White Castle hamburger chain in Wichita, Kansas - - generally considered the first national fast-food chain in the United States. In 1916, after much experimentation, Walt Anderson learned how to make well-cooked hamburgers quickly. He used small, square burger patties, to speed cooking and to allow more burgers to fit on a grill. He discovered that a bun, rather than bread, allowed diners to eat a burger neatly and without silverware.

When Anderson opened his three-stool stand in Wichita, the hamburger was suspect food. But according to Chandler, Anderson started “the rise and redemption of the hamburger, which forever changed the country and the world.”

Anderson emphasized cleanliness, making, Chandler writes, “a public display of grinding fresh meat and then grilling it in a clean cooking space.”

When Billy Ingram became Anderson’s partner in 1921, he helped Anderson reinforce White Castle’s brand by conveying “both stateliness and cleanliness.” The duo standardized restaurant design and decor, employee uniforms, menus, cooking directions and ingredients.

These steps ensured a customer would have a hygienic, predictable dining experience, whether eating in Wichita or New York City.

Chandler devotes subsequent chapters to: Harlan Sanders and Kentucky Fried Chicken; J.F. McCullough and Dairy Queen; and Ray Kroc and McDonald’s. Later chapters are thematic. and describe significant regional fast food companies, such as the now shuttered Burger Chef in the Midwest and In-N-Out in the Southwest.

The chapter, “Drive-Thru America,” describes how drive-thru became so embedded in fast food restaurant business models.

At first, Chandlet observes, drive-thrus ranged from “the practical (pharmacies) to the brilliant and perhaps ill-conceived (liquor stores) to the downright spiritual (chapels).” He relates New York Times reporter Isabel Wilkerson’s story about a Chicago-area funeral home with a camera-operated drive-thru!

Unlike the relatively clear historical record that White Castle’s was the first fast-food chain, the origin of the drive-thru in fast food is not as straightforward. Of all the places that Chandler lists as claiming the first drive-thru, I most believe that it was a Kirby’s Pig Stand in Los Angeles.

But, like Frankenstein’s monster, a working drive-thru concept came from bits and pieces, from different fast food chains. In-N-Out claims to have introduced a two-way speaker, so diners in the car could place their orders. A San Diego Jack in the Box added a menu board to the two-way speaker.

Chandler asserts Dave Thomas at Wendy’s was the first to take drive-through big time. As drive-in restaurants lost business, he reasoned, a speedy drive-thru would attract customers who used to drive in.

McDonald’s was late to this game, lagging behind Wendy’s, Burger King and Kentucky Fried Chicken. But by the late 1980’s, the chain had 7,000 restaurants with drive-thrus; in 1988, over 50 percent of its sales came from the drive-thru. Since the 1990’s, drive-thru sales account for 60 to 70 percent of business at all the chains.

Drive-thru meals are embraced by time crunched Americans and they shaped the design and popularity of minivans and sport utility vehicles. The fast food footprint has an incredible size. In For example, Chandler states McDonald's has sold 300 million Filet ‘O Fish sandwiches. One of my friend Bill’s best Facebook posts was an article that said Coke tasted the best in McDonald’s because the company sells so much of this beverage!

In “The Culinary Consciousness,” Chandler examines the health effects of fast food and compares them to new “fast casual” restaurants. He concludes fast casual restaurants offer healthier options. Yet some are less transparent in providing nutritional information and others have menu items as sodium and calorie-laden as fast food.

He describes how fast-food chains have improved meals with healthier ingredients and describes efforts to offer healthier menu items. Nearly all the healthier menu items he lists failed. This book was printed before the New Yorker published Tad Friend’s September 23, 2019 article on new products such as the Impossible Slider (White Castle) and the Impossible Whopper (Burger King). These meat alternatives may be more appetizing and may have more staying power.

This chapter includes Chandler’s conversation with Michael Pollan. In the conversation, Pollan, whose thoughts on fast-food and healthy eating are deeply considered and nuanced, concludes by observing that fast food is “fine as a special-occasion food . . . when it becomes a default is when we get into trouble. And that’s what happened in the last couple of decades. One-third of American kids are [literally] having fast food today.”

Growing up in Bloomington, Indiana, my father, sister and I loved to go to a Burger Chef and my mother did not. She would mutter remarks, such as, “I just saw a truck pull up and unload its brake grease for the meal.”

It took me 15 years to bond with McDonald's. Burger Chef left the onions off a burger with no fuss. McDonald's at the time would only do this by special order. The "special orderer" had to wait, while the rest of a hungry crowd got their orders right away.

But with age, the fast food’s appeal and pleasing taste hits an alimentary reality afterwards. Even smaller portions or healthier choices seem to sit, like a rock, in the stomach for a long time. I eat it as Pollan’s “special-occasion food” but it’s uncomfortable to eat more often than that.

Drive-Thru Dreams suggests that fast food restaurants are not just restaurants but social hubs, “local” pubs without the alcohol - - although Chandler says that hundreds of fast-food franchises in Europe and East Asia sell beer.

When work took me to Hancock, New York, I saw people gather for a social breakfast at the McDonald’s there. Retirees gather at a Burger King on Oahu to play guitars and ukuleles in a kanikapila - - a traditional Hawaiian jam session. Seniors in Fort Kent, Maine meet at the McDonald’s there to play Charlemagne, a French-Acadian fusion of bridge and cribbage. When things got nutty at work, my friend Rob and I would discuss fast food and share the occasional BOGO (buy one get one free) meals.

In a recent e-mail conversation, Chandler explained why he wrote this book. “I grew up in Houston, Texas,” he began, “where car culture reigns supreme and fast food is a central part of how people eat, gather and live.” “The a-ha moment that inspired this book,” he continued, “was the realization that I was living in Brooklyn, where fewer people drive cars and have this natural, inherent affection for fast food.” “This impression, that fast food had a common appeal regardless of location,” he concluded, “was an unexpected and interesting way to think about America and the similar and different perspectives we have inon a lot of things, not just food.”

With his strong writing, wit and careful research, I can’t wait to see what subject Chandler tackles next!

Drive-Thru Dreams is available as a real book in bookstores and libraries. It’s also available as an e-book, in Kindle and other formats.

Bees and spring - - and a Correction

Snow drops .
Photograph courtesy of L. Sayahi

Happy Beginning of Spring!  It may be a challenge to feel happy with all the medical matters swirling around us, but we have reached a positive milestone in the seasonal cycle.

In early March, my friend Steve stepped away from thinking about the cold weather, to think about better things ahead.  He wrote the following comment and it may be a comfort with all the other matters to confront.  (sorry I do not know why the print here is tinier than around it)

"We get hundreds of bees every day when the garden flowers bloom. They are so preoccupied with their gathering skills that I can walk right through the workers and talk to them and move the flower stems around while they're working. I truly enjoy that short commune with nature. Wonder when the wax will finally hit the fan."

Some years ago, my friend Allen and I were sitting outside enjoying an atypically warm later winter/early spring day.  Only a few flowers were up but the warm temperatures brought out the bees and it was a joy to see them at work.

In addition to these thoughts and recollections, friends and relatives have advised that their bees did well over the winter.  

In many parts of the United States, it may be snowing or unseasonably cold.  I remember fishing on April First in several years when it was snowing or small ice blocks were floating past.

March Snow, photo courtesy of S. Edelman

The weather can still have many surprises but better weather is ahead - - sometime!

The correction:  In my previous post "Knifely Done," I called the wooden pieces on either side of the knife handle "hinges."  My friend Jonathan advised me they are really called "scales."  Sorry for confusing everyone with the wrong term.

"Knifely Done!"

To borrow from King Lear, because of habitat destruction, pollution and overfishing, salmon are “more sinned against than sinning.”

But this time, it was the salmon’s fault.

Last October, Sprouts Market had frozen filets of wild caught Pacific salmon on sale. Because the filet was three pounds and frozen, I wanted to cut it into single servings and needed a hefty knife.

My daughter Lily kindly lent me her large chef’s knife for this task.

However, despite her generosity, I realized I could not bother her each time a big kitchen job appeared. I looked for a larger knife and soon became disappointed. I would either have to buy a set with knives that I did not need, or buy a single, expensive knife.

Then, I remembered that a large chef’s knife was in our kitchen drawer. It was part of a set in an Omaha Steaks gift order that my mother had sent us some years ago. Trouble was, the hinges, the plastic pieces on each side of the knife handle, had come off. Why this part of a knife is called a “hinge” is a mystery.

A few weeks later, I was at C & E Lumber , where they cut down a walking stick to better fit my stride. On a whim, I asked Matthew, who cut down the stick, if the store sold hardwoods. He took me into a bay of one of the buildings and it was Christmas for hardwood aficionados! They had walnut. They had cherry. They had oak. They had some kind of maple. They even had exotic tropical hardwoods.

After seeing all this beautiful wood, I thought it would be great to rehabilitate the knife by putting hardwood hinges on it.   And after this idea surfaced, I thought the five most dangerous words in carpentry, “How hard could this be?”

After speaking to my friends Greg, Seth, Rob Fitch, Steve and Dennis, I decided that putting on red oak hinges would be doable. On YouTube, I found a video with a Frenchman, who may have had too much caffeine, showing how to do the work. And if it’s on the Internet, it has to be true - - right?

The Frenchman advised cutting the hinges and then securing them to the handle with epoxy and rivets through the wood and the handle.

Rob Selover and the people at Different Drummer's Kitchen told me that a typical chef’s knife has a three-quarter inch thick grip, consisting of the metal and the left and right hinge.

Victoria at C & E Lumber cut a piece of oak for me. Holding the oak meant that the idea was advancing. I could gaze adoringly at the wood but it was now in the house and that was one less excuse for not moving ahead.

Since the board was a bit more than three-quarters of an inch thick, I thought I could cut it in half and the two pieces - - combined with the metal of the handle - - would equal three quarters of an inch.

Using a handheld circular saw, I cut the two pieces.

The first try: A cut with a hand-held circular saw.

And then with the help of my friend Dean, I used a jigsaw to shape each hinge. The shaping worked well. But the two pieces were not the same thickness and that would have resulted in a cock-eyed grip.

The first try at the hinges.
The knife and hinges are resting on Dean's jigsaw case.

When I mentioned this to my friend Steve, he kindly offered to help me, by cutting the wood to a consistent thickness with his table saw.

No brass posts, like those in the YouTube video, were available. Then, Kevin at Robinson’s Hardware showed me a fastener called a “screw post.” Although the knife handle did not have holes through which to put a fastener, the screw post could be tightened to add some tension to keep the handle and hinges together.

The knife handle.  Note the lack of holes for a fastener.

The screw posts were an inch long, requiring thicker hinges. But that has made the knife easier to hold, in the way that those OXO “Good Grips” kitchen tools fit more comfortably in the hand.

To avoid having two uneven pieces, Steve suggested cutting a long strip of wood half and inch thick and then using a jigsaw to cut the pieces to the shape of the handle.

The red oak cut to one half inch
and ready to be cut to fit the knife

Steve’s idea worked well, but then I cut one hinge too close and it was back to the table saw and jigsaw to make a replacement.

We used half of the amount in a Gorilla Glue epoxy package to secure the hinges to the handle. Because so much glue was used, I used three clamps to hold the pieces in place and let the glue cure for 36 hours - - longer than the recommended 24 hour curing.

After the 36 hours elapsed, I used a six-inch disk sander on a drill and smaller pieces of sandpaper with a sanding block to shape the hinges. If I do this again, I will get a five inch disk for the first sanding, to get into more of the tight spots.

Top: the knife with the rough cut hinges ready to be sanded.
Bottom: a second knife of the same size, showing the plastic hinges.

I planned to start sanding with medium sandpaper and finish with a finer grade Steve suggested using only fine sandpaper. Even with fine sandpaper, it is sobering how quickly a person can remove a lot of wood. If I had used medium sandpaper, I might have ground away half the hinge thickness or done something equally as blockheaded.

Steve set up a drill press with a specialized bit to countersink the screw post heads. For some reason, none of the bits in his set were exactly the same width as the screw post heads. As a workaround, I covered the heads with crazy glue, to prevent water or food material from getting between the post and the sides of the holes. The result did not look as attractive as planned, but hopefully the glue will keep out the water and debris.

My friend Dennis told me about a product designed to protect wood, that is food-safe. I will get that item in the future; for now, I brushed vegetable oil on the hinges to help protect them from the water.

Someone suggested discarding the knife and getting a new one. That would have been easier and the finished product would have looked more put together. With drive time and the cost of materials, a mass-produced knife may have been cheaper in time and effort.

But rehabilitating the knife taught me a lot about woodworking - - and was another reminder of how friends rally round and help!

Thanks to Steve for the pun that is this post's headline. 

Travel Like A Canadian

An Air Canada Boeing 777 taking off. 
Photograph courtesy of Air Canada

In 1975, my father took me to British Columbia. From there we went to Washington, Oregon, California and Colorado. He spent time in California and Colorado. He was a big fan of Canada. The trip covered many bases for him and it was a great time.

After the trip, I was filled with recollections. In British Columbia, near Victoria, we saw the power of the Pacific Ocean. All along the beaches were enormous logs. If they were trees, they would have been giants. But they were casually cast up on shore in the way that smaller pieces of driftwood litter Eastern beaches.

In northern California, the Pacific flexed it muscles again. While driving to the coast one afternoon, the Pacific was a fog machine and it forced us to turn back. We crossed the Straits of Juan de Fuca from Victoria to Port Angeles, Washington on a large ocean ferry. Despite the size of the ship, the water in the Straits so rocked the ship that I was seasick - - an unpleasant surprise after spending time afloat on the Atlantic.

Traveling south, we had an atypical two days in Seattle - - it was not raining. We saw Mount Rainier, Crater Lake National Park and Mount Hood. We probably saw Mt. St. Helens but didn’t know it at the time. On the way to Crater Lake, big chunks of pumice were by the road. It was weird to pick up a big rock that was featherweight.

The trees along the way, redwoods and firs, were enormous. Along one Oregon highway, the firs were routinely six feet in diameter. They brought a pleasing scent of pine to the air. The sound of the wind in the firs was appealing. It was a low, constant whistling.

A view of the northern California coast from a historic postcard

We saw a golden eagle in Colorado. We saw where the San Andreas Fault went out to sea at Point Reyes National Seashore and ate the most amazing food everywhere.

Air Canada flew us from JFK to Vancouver, on a DC-9 and Boeing 727. Flying over Canada took us across the vastness of Lake Superior. Canada is so large that the flight included intermediate stops in Winnipeg and Edmonton before we landed in VancouverEach time, we landed and returned to the air, we had a new air crew and another meal.

Because of this congenial trip, I have always been fond of Air Canada. When, a few weeks ago, a fleeting image of an Air Canada commercial flashed across the computer, I wanted to see the entire thing.

I found the commercial on YouTube and learned there were two bonuses.

The first is that Sandra Oh is in the commercial. She brings verve and wit to the enterprise. The second bonus is that Air Canada has two commercials.

Both are appealing and are based on the theme, “Travel Like a Candian.” They are around a minute long and can be found by searching YouTube for “Travel Like a Canadian.”

To learn more about the commercials, Jennifer Wasley, Vice President for Integrated Media at Weber Shandwick Advertising Agency in Toronto, put me in contact with Christa Poole, Senior Manager, Media and Public Relations at Air Canada. Ms. Poole said the videos are not on television but are available online in Canada, the U.S., the UK, Japan, France and Australia.

She went on to say the Travel Like a Canadian theme “is an opportunity to share on a global stage how values like multiculturalism, diversity, openness, compassion and equality make Canadians some of the most accepted and loved travellers in the world.” The videos, she continued, are “a tribute to those values, and central to the story we are telling to celebrate our love for Canada.”

While waiting at the baggage carousel, Judy, played by Sandy Sidhu, is
trying to decide whether to help a fellow traveler, played by Margo Kane, with her luggage.

Sandra Oh suddenly appears and inspires Judy to
"Do the Canadian thing." 
Keep scrolling to see what happens.

The commercials also offer a short course on Canadian life. Ms. Oh and a fellow Canadian discuss “loonies and toonies,” one- and two-dollar Canadian coins. When two kids are bickering, Ms. Oh smooths things over by offering them “poutine,” a Quebec delicacy with French Fries, cheese curds and gravy.

Sandra Oh sharing poutine with two bickering kids

There’s also mention of “bagged milk,” Canadians typically get milk in a one liter bag instead of a carton, and “ketchup chips,”potato chips flavoured with ketchup. Of the latter, Poole advises, “think BBQ chips but ketchup instead of barbeque sauce. Delicious!”

The commercials are set on an airplane and in an airport. Despite both locations being cramped, high security settings, Air Canada had a leg up during filming. The airline has its own hangar where it keeps aircraft between flights. “When we need a plane,” Poole observed, “we don’t necessarily need to be inside an airport.” “We also have,” she noted, “spaces like our Maple Leaf Lounges in airports where we can have more freedom than you might in the rest of the airport.”

For the two commercials, Air Canada had access to aircraft
and airport spaces that are not readily accessible to others.

After seeing these commercials and recalling our travel on Air Canada, I went to the airline’s website, to see if I could fly with them in the US, instead of one of the grim domestic carriers.

Americans can fly Air Canada to Canadian cities and abroad from those cities. However, the airline does not offer domestic service.

The ads, Poole observed, are “directed at international travellers to position Air Canada as the alternative of choice to domestic airlines.” They are, she continued, “part of a wider strategy to add travellers to our growing global network of nearly 220 airports on six continents.”

If the ads inspire you to fly Air Canada overseas, the airline flies you from an American city to Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal; the international flight departs from there. When my nephew Russ Bielawski was traveling to Ontario on business, he told us that Pearson Airport in Toronto was appealing. If Air Canada fares, schedules and travel times fit your itinerary, it might be more appealing to fly with them, instead of flying from one American airport to another which offers international service.

Margo Kane gave Judy her bag first and declares,
"I've been TLCing before TLC was a thing!"

The Air Canada website said it will air future commercials with other Canadian celebrities. Poole said there’s not a date for the next ads, “You’ll have to stay tuned!”

Best of 2019

Well, 2019 was so busy that it took longer than expected to say what was best about it.

Thanks to all of you who have read, commented on and suggested blog posts in 2019. It would have been much harder to do this without the insights and support of family and friends.

The old dining room at Musso and Frank,
Photograph courtesy of Tina Whatcott Escheverra

Musso and Frank Grill: As noted in the blog’s September 24th post, Musso and Frank Grill in Hollywood celebrated its centennial in 2019. This restaurant, which Dorothy and I discovered for ourselves some years ago, remains a great destination, with some of the best servers in the nation, a menu with much variety and expertly mixed cocktails.

The Barnsider: The Barnsider, in Colonie, New York, an Albany, New York suburb, continues to be an excellent, independently owned restaurant. It has a dining room and a bar with a tavern, also called the Iowa Hawkeye Grille. I am not sure why a place named after a Big 10 school ended up in the Albany area. But don’t wonder; the food and drinks are all you need to know!

In addition to many appetizer, meat, fish and salad choices, the Barnsider has tavern snacks: popcorn, pretzels, Ritz Crackers and that cheese spread. A Ritz commercial once said “Everything sits better on a Ritz” and that’s definitely the case when the cheese spread is added to the cracker.

One of the excellent martinis at the Barnsider

Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute: About an hour from Albany, New York, is Williamstown, Massachusetts. In addition to being the home of Williams College, the village is home to “the Clark.”

Robert Sterling and Francine Clark opened the museum in 1955, as a place to display their collection of paintings, silver and other artwork that they acquired with Clark’s inheritance from his grandfather’s share of the Singer Sewing Machine fortune.

The first building on the Clark campus.
Photograph courtesy of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute

Clark died in 1956. But the Institute remained a living memorial to him, expanding in 1973 by adding a new library and gallery space and expanding again in 2014.

The new Clark Center, added in 2014.
Photograph courtesy of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute

The genius of the Clark is that it has something for everyone. It’s collection of paintings is astonishing and makes people grateful that Sterling decided to come to Williamstown. There are concerts and lectures throughout the year, on a wide variety of cultural topics. The 2014 expansion allows the Institute to bring in larger traveling shows and more modern art.

Richard Frisbie: Although Richard Frisbie died in 2018, his book It’s a Wise Woodsman Who Knows What’s Biting Him can still be found in used bookstores and some libraries.

In It’s a Wise Woodsman, Richard introduced the concept of “red blood density . . . describing a man’s awareness of himself as red-blooded and alive.”

He also introduced the miniaturized adventure. A person may be able to sail across the Atlantic, he observed, “but you can rig a sail on your canoe or rowboat and leave the shore astern.”

Writing styles and reader interests change. Books can be different when re-read. Despite 50 years of changes in outdoor technology and practices, the book remains relevant and indispensable. One reason for this is that Richard concentrated on basics rather than on products. For example, he focused on staying dry while hiking or camping, instead of whether the materials should be Gore-Tex, nylon, plastic or rubber.

The boxed set of postcards with Bob Eckstein's bookstore paintings

Bob Eckstein: I learned about Bob Eckstein’s art and love of books when my daughter, Lily, gave me a set of postcards with 50 of Eckstein’s bookstore paintings. Nearly all the painting first appeared in Eckstein’s book, 2016 book, Footnotes* from the World’s Greatest Bookstores.

Footnotes includes paintings of 75 bookstores. The book has an appealing accompanying text, opening with a Foreword by Garrison Keillor and an Introduction by the author.

In addition to sharing the world of bookstores past and present, Eckstein is a New Yorker cartoonist and author of The Illustrated History of the Snowman.

Eckstein invites people to visit his website where they can subscribe to his newsletter. A recurring subject in Eckstein’s cartoons is football. If you visit his website soon, you are likely to find cartoons inspired by the 2020 Super Bowl.

Milano Pizzeria: Pizza is one of those intensely debated subjects for the ages. I have fond memories of Santora’s Pizza from Buffalo in the first five years of my life. When our family moved to Staten Island, I added memories of different styles of pizza from places there.

Lately, my favorite pizza is from Milano, on Western Avenue in Westmere, a suburb of Albany, New York. The crust is thin yet well-cooked. The chef puts down the right combination of cheese and tomato sauces. The cheese pizza alone is great, but if you want toppings those are great, too.

Although Milano’s is my local favorite, a person can never have too many favorite pizza places.

So, my friends and I will continue in 2020 - - on regular luncheon missions - - to search for outstanding pizza places in the Capital Region.