Mini-Trip, Clown & Potatoes

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I was going to “not write” this week because we are in Ocean City, Maryland with my brother Tee, his wife Karen and my sister Kim, and her husband Frank.

Kim and Frank own a nice condo near the beach which is in partnership with my nephew Chad. It’s a short trip, just the weekend. 

Last night we had dinner at “Bull On the Beach,” a great restaurant that specializes in beef, my favorite being the “Bull Brisket” sandwich.

This morning, Tee is making bacon, a service that he enjoys and is infamous for.

Todays restaurant is going to be Seacrets, another one of our favorite places.

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“The comedy that clowns perform is usually in the role of a fool whose everyday actions and tasks become extraordinary—and for whom the ridiculous, for a short while, becomes ordinary. This style of comedy has a long history in many countries and cultures across the world. Some writers have argued that due to the widespread use of such comedy and its long history it is a need that is part of the human condition.”

This is an excellent description of my brother Tee. The more laughs he gets, the more he performs, much to the chagrin of his wife Karen. Especially when things touch close to “home.” It’s never a dull moment when he is present.

Clem Kadiddlehopper

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Please pray for one of our Epiphany parish friends Mildred who joined our Lord on November 3.

“Eternal rest grant unto Mildred, O Lord,

and let perpetual light shine upon her.

May her soul and the souls of all the faithful

departed, through the mercy of God,

rest in peace. Amen.”

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“Autumn Digression: Potato Dancing” By Russ Lockwood 

“While contemplating the maneuvers, I was reminded that the area around OberEssling had once been populated with potato fields. Next to the beergarden was once a pair of towering potato silos holding the crop and a special outbuilding that boasted a most ingenious wood-fueled contraption to squash the potatoes, move and heat the fibers into vapor, and condense the vapor into a potent white-ish, almost clear, alcohol called Taterweiss. 

Indeed, local lore has it that the von Trappeze family created a rather popular drinking song that starts out: "Taterweiss, taterweiss, Ich liebe jetzt zu trinken..." which doesn't make much sense unless you've consumed vast quantities of Taterweiss. 

In any case, one year the UberSeptemberFest resembled a Venetian masked ball with all involved wearing a variety of masks – a few charming, others alluring, but the vast majority grotesque. The more alcohol consumed, the rowdier the party became until it just got out of hand. The inebriated crowd complained the contraption wasn't squashing the potatoes fast enough to make Taterweiss vapor. One unknown genius suggested using their feet to stomp on the potatoes, much like crushing wine grapes, to speed the process. 

Fueled by UberSeptemberFest joviality, the crowd stumbled to a silo and smashed in its side to get at the potatoes. Unfortunately, the silo toppled to the ground, spilling the potatoes all over the place, including through an iron gate and into the family burial grounds. 

The crowd surged inside the gate and started stomping on the potatoes, the flowers, the headstones, the statues, parts of the iron fence, and even some of their fellow revelers who had twisted their ankles and fallen down. 

Worse, other revelers fed an overabundance of wood into the contraption with the idea that the larger the fire, the faster the potatoes would vaporize. The whole contraction burst and set the outbuilding and silos on fire. To the horror of the owner, amidst the flickering flames, the Taterweiss-fueled, grotesque-masked denizens kept stomping on the potatoes in a dance macabre. 

As von Franken surveyed the burning wreckage of his buildings and the drunken crowd wearing grotesque masks a hopping and a stomping in his family burial
ground, he moaned, "They mashed the mash, they were a
monster mash. The monster mash, it was my graveyard 

smashed..."
This became a popular Taterweiss drinking song 

in taverns around the area.

Really.”

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There is a frost coming to Virginia. It is suppose to be 27 degrees Saturday night and 31 degrees Sunday night. That means that the grass will stop growing but the leaves will be falling faster. “If it ain’t one thing, it’s another.”

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The Irish lads play their last home game for this season against the Florida Seminoles.

The Spiders are now 3-6 as they head to their last home game against the Maine Black Bears. 

Go Spiders!

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Matt Maher - “Hold Us Together”

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Go over to "This Ain't the Lyceum," where Kelly is hosting more takes.