Bill McCreary Was A Trailblazer

 Bill McCreary, an Emmy Award-winning journalist, died in Brooklyn recently.  He was 87 years old.  He was one of the first Black television journalist in New York.  He filled a noticeable gap in local public affairs reporting.  He was hired by WNYW, the flagship station of the Fox television network in 1967, and remained a familiar on-air presence until he retired in 2000.  He rose to the rank of vice president of Fox 5 News in 1978.  McCreary co-anchored the station's 10 o'clock News into a ratings powerhouse.  He became managing editor and anchor of Black News in 1970, and The McCreary Report in 1978.

There was little reporting on ethnic issues at the time, because there were few black journalists on television.  McCreary reported on inner city issues, and places like Harlem and Bed-Stuy.  McCreary won several Emmys, and in 1987, was given the N.A.A.C.P's Black Heritage Award.  Among the figures he interviewed were Rosa Park, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Nelson Mandella.

Unlike a lot of journalists today, Bill gave you the news, not his opinions.    "You never knew where he stood on any issue.  Bill McCreary told the unvarnished truth, and that's what set him apart.  He told it with tremendous dignity and integrity", sos said Cheryl Wills, an award winning reporter who considered McCreary a mentor.

What a Mother's Day

 

What a wonderful Mother's Day!  Lucky me.  I had my mom with me for the day, and although my kids all live far away, I had Facetime conversations with everyone, all the grandchildren, and my three wonderful daughters-in law.  I wanted to make the day special for my mom.  Unfortunately my sister in Temecula was unable to join us, so we carried on, just the two of us.

For breakfast I prepared a dutch baby pancake with blueberry compote.  It was just delicious, and we spent the rest of the morning talking to children and grandchildren.  We did a little shopping in the afternoon, then headed to Sunshine Vineyard and Tasting Room in San Marcos.  It's a little known special place that I like to take out of towners and even locals who enjoy wine, music and a beautiful view.

We weren't the only ones who thought of going to Sunshine Vineyard.  We arrived around 3:30.  The place was packed.  They have spacious table groupings out on the patio, overlooking the vineyard and San Marcos.  It's really quite beautiful, but there were no seats.  We got our wine from the tasting room, and figured something might open up.  Well, I saw a table for four with two people sitting with their two dogs.  I asked if we could use the chairs, and they invited us to join them.  This couple likes to dress up their two beautiful, calm pit bulls in costumes.  Nutmeg wore pearls, a necklace, a flowered headband, a dress, and painted toenails.  Bruce just had a scarf and goggles.  So funny.

A wonderful musician played guitar and sang, children and moms danced, and the adults all enjoyed their wine.  We went home around 5:30, made a wonderful creamy parmesean chicken with spinach for dessert, and watched a Netflix after dinner.  The movie  was with Helen Mirran and Richard Crowe.  I can't even remember the name of it, which tells you how much I liked it.

All in all, a wonderful Mother's Day.  I am so lucky to still have such a "youthful" mom.  We still enjoy so much together.  Lucky me.

Ocean Hills Country Club Celebrates Moms

 Our golf club at Ocean Hills had a belated celebration for all the moms.  My friend Peggy invited me to join their foursome in a scramble.  I was happy to participate.

All participants were asked to wear their pajamas.  After all, it was a celebration of moms, and what makes us comfortable?  Lounging around in our PJ's.  Most women participated, and what fun we had.  The men really pampered us. Here's what they did.

As we arrived at the clubhouse, there was a man (our caddy) to take our clubs up the hill to the the first tee.  What a treat.  At the second (or maybe the third) hole, there were two gentlemen there, all dressed in tuxes, to serve us mimosas.  What fun!  Next, several holes later, we had caddys to clean our clubs and balls.  On the last hole of the day, there were two men there to hit off the tee for us if we wanted.  We needed a good drive, so we let the men hit for us, and we ended up with a birdie.  Finally, a parting gift for each mom, a little bag of homemade goodies, brownies and cookies.

It was such a special day, and we all appreciated being treated like queens for the Mother's Day Scramble.  Our team ended with -2 for the day, a pretty good showing, and a great time was had by all.

Blade 1936 in Oceanside: Great Food, Lots of Noise

 Blade 1936 is a modern Italian eatery featuring Neopolitan pizza, pastas, and a modern twist on some old favorites.  The restaurant opened about a year before the pandemic hit and I was never able to get there, but in May I finally visited it.  

The name of the restaurant, Blade 1936, is a nod to the Blade Tribune, a newspaper that was published in Oceanside from 1936 -1960's.  The historic building was built by famed architect Irving Gill.  It's a real treasure.  

I thought Blade 1936 would be a rather elegant upscale restaurant (I don't know how I got that idea), and was surprised when I entered the extremely noisy restaurant.  The front of the restaurant has a bar area, semi open kitchen with a beautiful pizza oven, and large tables, around which people stand, drink and eat pizza.  This was not was I expecting.  The waitress took us to the quietist inside table, which wasn't very quiet.  There were four of us for dinner, and we almost had to shout to be heard.  However, the food was delicious.  Paparadelle with butter and mushrooms, spaghetti bolognese, bruschetta, muscles in broth with charred bread, were just some of the items we ordered.  

In all fairness, there is a tented outdoor area with heaters that we could have eaten at (should have eaten at), and next time, yes there will be a next time we will eat outdoors in the tented area, which is much, much quieter.

Blade 1936 attracts you people, families, and a few older folks.  No matter, the food is good, and if you go at lunch I am sure the noise will not be a problem.  If you go for dinner, sit in the tented area.

We did not have pizza, but they looked amazing and will get one next time.  Food was outstanding, so go for lunch or dinner in the tent.  You will love the food.  (The restaurant is just steps from the Oceanside train station).

Hikers Are Nice

 On a Saturday morning in May, Fran and I decided to explore.  We've been walking the same route (more or less) for at least 8 years, so we decided to be a little more adventurous.  Rather than walk, we looked for some easy hikes in North County.  I found the perfect 3 mile hike in Solana Beach.  What a day we had!

I picked Fran up and we head to a cul-de-sac at the end of N. Rios near the lagoon in Solana Beach.  I guess we weren't the only ones that thought it was a nice day for a hike, as the streets were loaded with cars.  Our destination was Annie's trailhead, which leads into narrow canyon.  The trails were dusty, thus slippery, but most areas had handrails.  

Most of the hikers were families with young children, families with older children, and young couples out for a beautiful hike.  Then there was us!  We were the oldest people by at least 20 years, but what impressed me most was the friendliness and helpfulness of everyone we met.  Young men who saw us struggling were happy to help us up or down a rough spot.  In fact, some of them insisted on helping.  Rather than take the "moderate" route, we took the "more difficult route."  Unfortunately, we were not able to make it to the top.  Trying to navigate between the walls of a very narrow space was difficult, and our motto is always, "safety first."  I would say we made it about 70-80% of the way, or at least that's what Fran thinks.

We talked to so many nice young people, families, teens, young men.  They all wanted to help us get to the top, but we decided it was just too much for us.  We turned back, and continued the rest of the way on the moderate trail.  So much fun to get out in the lagoon area of Solana Beach and experience beautiful canyons there too.  All of this is just steps from the 5 freeway.

We were so happy to see people of all ages, races and abilities, out in nature.  Everyone wanted to help each other have a good, safe, experience.  It gives me hope that we are good people.  I just have to turn off the news, where all we seem to hear about is another shooting.  Most people are good.  Maybe more people should get out and hike! 

The Many Uses Of Vinegar

 There are so many household products that have multiple uses.  I recently wrote about the many uses of hydrogen peroxide. Now you will hear about ways to vinegar.  You will be surprised.

1.  Brush your teeth with vinegar once a week to keep your teeth shiny and white.

2.  Eliminate carpet stains.  Mix 2Tablespoons of vinegar and 1/4cup of salt or baking soda.  Take the mixture and rub it into carpet.  Allow to dry before vacuuming.

3.  Revive old towels and make them fluffy again by adding 1/2 cup vinegar to wash.

4.  Keep fleas away from pets by taking 1 part apple cider vinegar and 1 part water in a spray bottle.  After Fido's bath, let him dry.  Then spray lightly with this mixture.  This should eliminate fleas.

5.  Want soft feet without getting a pedicure?  Mix vinegar and mouthwash and soak feet in the mixture for 15 minutes.  Scrub feet and remove dead skin.  Your feet will be nice and soft.

6.  To speed up the healing time for bruises, soak a paper towel in distilled white vinegar and press on bruised area.

7.  Spray distilled apple cider vinegar on a sunburn to relieve pain.

8.  Add 2 Tablespoons vinegar and 1 teaspoon sugar to cut flowers.  They will last longer.

9.  Spray on stains as a stain remover.

10.  Add some vinegar to a load of laundry to remove any mildew smell, especially if wet towels have been sitting around for awhile.

11.  Heal mosquito bites by dabbing with vinegar.

12.  Use as an air freshener by combining vinegar, water and a few drops of lemon essential oil in a spray bottle.

You may know of other uses, but these are some that you might want to try.  

Coded Bias

 I'm not sure where to start on the subject of Artificial Intelligence that I learned so much about from the Netflix documentary, Coded Bias.  There's so much I didn't know, and all I can say, is please watch Coded Bias.  I will tell you just a little of what I learned about this fascinating topic.

Artificial Intelligence was first developed in 1956 at Darmouth, by a group of all white men from the math department.  It was first used to show that a computer was smarter than a human by beating humans at chess.  Artificial Intelligence has moved way beyond that.  It is now used throughout the world by police departments, colleges, school districts, finance companies and apartment complexes, just to name a few.  It uses historical information to make a prediction.  That is the definition of an algorithm.  Unfortunately unconscious bias is imbedded in technology.  The result is that facial recognition analysis works best on light skinned males.  There is a very high probability that when a white male is identified using facial recognition technology, they have identified him accurately.  However, when a man or woman with darker skin is potentially identified using this same technology, the rate of accuracy is far less.

There are 9 major companies in the world that use AI to track you, find out what you like and dislike, and steer you toward making decisions favorable to that company.  This includes Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Alibaba.  

In China, every citizen is in the database.  Everything a Chinese citizen does is monitored.  Who they associate with, what they buy, where they go.  It's all tracked.  They have something called a "social credit system," to improve behavior!  Who you befriend is likely based on their credit score.  If you do something bad to affect your own score, it will also affect the score of your friends and family.  Chinese citizens know this, and behave accordingly.

The difference between China and the U.S. is that China is transparent about their surveillance.  We aren't.  Right now there about 117 million U.S. citizens in our database.  It's a biometric photo that the government has, which is like having your DNA or fingerprints  These can be used without permission for all kinds of reasons.  

AI is a fascinating field.  To learn more about this subject, watch Coded Bias.  It will open your eyes.