“If only mosquitoes sucked fat instead of blood.”
Today is the ideal day. The breeze is constant. The bright sun is glinting off every leaf. It is 74°. I’m thinking it is time to put on the screen doors.
The other night I watched a WWII movie, The 1000 Plane Raid. The title is a spoiler. It is the entire plot. Though I had already seen the movie, I watched it again. The movie was released in 1969. I saw it in 1970 in Niamey, Niger of all places. It was at an outside venue. The showing was sponsored by the American Embassy. I don’t remember if there was popcorn. What I do remember are the mosquitoes. They were relentless.
When I was a kid, my father hunted mosquitos. He’d chase them with a rolled up magazine in hand. He’d go from room to room weapon in hand. I’d wake up when he was on my mattress and juggling his feet back and forth to keep his balance. The mattress rolled so much I remember thinking I’d get seasick. I remember his cursing when he killed a mosquito which had already bitten. The bloody spot stayed on the ceiling. I remember the blotches.
Summer suppers were more casual. The oven made the kitchen too hot to use. The heat just stayed there lingering in the air. We were not a salad family except when I was older, but it was potato salad, not green salad. We ate a lot of corn on the cob mostly in August. My father loved his native tomatoes slathered with mayo. I ate hot dogs often and never minded how frequently. I topped them with mustard and piccalilli. We only had yellow mustard back then. Nobody ever put ketchup on a hot dog. That seemed like desecration. When I was older, I ate cheeseburgers. That pattern still continues. I eat a lot hot dogs. My mustard right now is honey pineapple. I don’t cook burgers at home, but I order them often when I eat out. Sometimes I use mayo and other times ketchup. I like my roll toasted.
My dance card this week is uke heavy. In addition to practice and my lesson, I have three concerts. Our book this month is across America.
keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
June 9, 2026 at 3:15 pm
I do like, in moderation, English Mustard, and also wasabi. I have never encountered any other flavour such as honey pineapple. We are currently very much into salads eaten with warmed pitta bread and humous.
Mosquitos are a despicable curse. I am allergic to their bites, and I believe malaria is spread by them in many countries. We also have another biting insect, midges. Again, some of us react badly to their bites. From much personal experience, I can vouch that the worst bites are inflicted by the Scottish midges.
June 9, 2026 at 3:51 pm
I hiked the West Highland Way and can attest to the ferocity of the midges. I’ve hike all over the world and their only rival were the midges in what was then Burma.
June 9, 2026 at 3:40 pm
Before there was ever a thing called “The Smash Burger” I ate and worked at an iconic place near the UT campus, “Dirty Martin’s”
A man we from the ghetto all knew was Mr Wesley, Wesley Hughes, was the grill cook there
Wesley could cook there but we couldn’t eat there until 1962. I worked there as a car hop in the winter of 1968.
Watching Mr Wesley was a show. The ground meat came in 20 pound boxes kept in an old chest freezer on the far side of the kitchen from the grill. He would reach into the box and grab a handful into a ball (always got the same amount every time) then toss the meat across the kitchen onto the grill. 12 at a time. The meat would land like soldiers lining up in formation. Then he would do a jig over to the grill and smash the balls onto the griddle while singing old show tunes.
Best hamburgers in town.