Thursday, November 24, 2011
R.I.P Obrycki's
I was never there for Thanksgiving dinner, but I wish I could have been. This month, what was easily one of the best sea food restaurants in the world closed after decades on the same street in Baltimore. These photos were taken on earlier visits (mostly while waiting for friends to get there -- I'm always early and friends are always late), as I went there for dinner nearly every time I was in Baltimore.
Having been born in Nebraska, I found the whole idea of eating a crab, or even seeing one, foreign when my family moved to the D.C. area, but it wasn't long before my friends overcame my initial reluctance (well, those friends who weren't trying to scare me off with tales of "dead men's fingers" and "mustard"), and soon enough I was making runs to places like Ernie's Crab Shack or down to the D.C. Marina to get steamers. Once my brother Dennis and I decided to get steamers; then decided to go to the movies. My apartment had no equipment for crabs -- we left them in the bathtub when we went to the movies, then had to recapture them upon our return. I had no crab pot, so we used a roasting pan -- you get the sorry picture.
But Obrycki's easily had the best crabs, crap cakes, scallops, shrimp you could ask for, and it was always a fun place to be. I'll miss it on my next trip to B'more -- though there will be a smaller version at the airport where, it is promised, we will at least be able to get good crab cakes.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Institutional Failure
In the wake of the breaking news of the Penn State disaster I have learned that as long ago as last March the Harrisburg newspaper carried revelations of the fact of the grand jury investigation in progress into complaints about serial child abuse by former coach Sandusky. I confess that I do not read the Harrisburg papers, or even the State College paper; a negative effect of my commuting life.
But two things are immediately evident. Schultz, Curley and Spanier all knew that a grand jury investigation was in progress, and so far as I can tell did nothing to prepare Penn State for the horrible revelations that were sure to come. And I am certain that there are people in our university administration who follow the news from the state house and environs as part of their job responsibilities. What did they make of this news? Why was no action set in motion to meet the day when the grand jury report would be released? Why was our institution left so exposed and so vulnerable?
I have no idea if such questions will be included in the investigation now under way by the trustees, but they should be.