Tempe has seen another great citizen pass from this life. Yesterday, funeral services were held for Ray Boles, founder of Ray’s ASU Barber Shop, the great eglitartian civic gathering place of our community.
May I extend the deepest sympathies of the Monti family to the Boles family.
Tribune Obituary and Family Tribute.
Ray’s ASU Barber Shop Official Page
Guestbook: http://www.legacy.com/eastvalleytribune/GB/GuestbookView.aspx?PersonId=105968173
Why more and more property owners will start tearing down any exisiting buildings after they are about 25 years old, so as not to risk meddlng such as this (via Fark.com):
” News: Historical but boarded up building prevents new development. Fark: Its a Denny’s”
SEATTLE - There’s no question the graffiti-strewn, rain-rotted, boarded-up old Denny’s is a landmark in the most basic sense: People refer to it when giving directions, as in, “Turn left at the Denny’s.”But is the 44-year-old eyesore, with its swooping roof line, worthy of historical designation? Seattle’s Landmarks Preservation Board thought so, saving the eatery from demolition and blocking construction of yet another condo complex.
The board’s vote last month boggled many Seattleites, who consider the building tacky at best and don’t buy the argument that it shares some architectural DNA with Seattle’s most famous landmark, the Space Needle.
“They’re saving something no one cares about,” said Jed Lutge, who was walking near the building on the way to get a cup of coffee.
From Azcentral.com: Spring training a hit for Mill merchants
http://www.azcentral.com/php-bin/clicktrack/email.php/7883962
Monti’s La Casa Vieja managing partner Eddie Goitia braced for less successful spring training month because of economic lows and the increased cost of travel.
“I am happy to report that I was wrong. This year, we seem to have more people in the restaurant. They are attending the games and taking the extra step to come down to Tempe and spend some extra money,” Goitia said. “When the economic trends are in a slump, baseball gives us a bump.”
The restaurant sees its biggest crowds after games, when fans come in for an early dinner. Goitia said many customers are local, and have taken the day off to go to the game.
Goitia said the majority of out-of-town customers hail from the Midwest and California, and crave one thing.
“They want steaks,” he said. “Large steaks.”
Am I on to something here?
Monti’s Steak-O-Gram: Cactus Cooler/True Grit on Ice
Greetings and felicitations, loyal omnivores!
The Steak-O-Gram is back after an unintentional
hiatus. After getting blasted with late-season snow outside of Sedona with my family yesterday, the chill dislodged whatever semi-loose screw it is in my skull that moves me to the keyboard so that I might disgorge some nuggets of wisdom–related specifically, in this case, to the much greater cold of Antarctica.
But first, for the sniveling whiners out there:
(HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE)
HOW TO GET OFF MY LIST INSTANTLY: If you do not want
to receive any e-mail from me ever, please send me
(Michael Monti) a message at mmonti at montis.com and I will
gladly remove you from my distribution group. See the end of
this newsletter for more detailed instructions.
In This Issue:
The “Betsy Ross of Arizona”
Easter Special
Iron Men Run on Their Stomachs
Weekend Specials / JAMN Jazz
Wrap-up And Links
What does the South Pole have to do with the Sonoran
Desert?
Well, the connection is tenuous, but within my brain
case the slightest thread is enough to stuff the sausage of
this newsletter, so here we go. Let’s begin by recounting
the history of the unique and superior flag of the State
of Arizona.
I would like to credit and profusely thank my friend–and our State Historian–Marshall Trimble for the following account
of the origin of the Arizona Flag.
“The Arizona State Flag was designed by Charles
Harris, Adjutant General of Arizona (1912-1918). Harris said
the suggestion that the state adopt a flag came from
members of the 1910 Arizona Rifle Team in attendance at the
National Rifle Matches at Camp Perry. All the other teams flew a distinctive flag, while Arizona was without an emblem
of any kind. In designing the flag, the first consideration
was historical value; the second, the colors. Blue and
gold were Arizona colors and red and gold were the colors
carried by the Spanish conquistadores headed by Coronado in 1540.
From these circumstances and from the blue of the national
flag were derived the red, blue and gold (or yellow as the
law names it. I don’t like “yellow” because of what it
connotes.) Since Arizona was the nations largest
producer of copper and the star might be easily distinguished.
The rays of the setting, or rising sun, was also considered
appropriate for the Arizona flag. There are thirteen,
for the original colonies and the colors, red and gold are
from the colors carried by Coronado.
Future Senator Carl Hayden of Tempe [Our claim to
fame--born here at La Casa Vieja! -mlm] was a member
of the rifle team and his wife Nancy sewed the first state
flag for the Arizona Rifle Team, making her Arizona’s ‘Betsy
Ross.’
The official state colors, blue and gold, were approved by
the legislature on March 9, 1915. The flag was
adopted by the legislature in 1917.”
Now, please hold still for a moment of commercial
exploitation before I continue to regale you with
stories:
Monti’s Easter Surf & Turf Special
Monti’s 5 oz. Filet Mignon & Broiled Salmon
Champagne Mimosa for $3.00
All entrees come with Roman bread, soup or tossed
salad with dressing, vegetables and your choice of baked potato,French fries, cottage cheese, spaghetti, mashed potatoes, or long grain wild rice pilaf. For Only $24.95 Make your reservations now! (480) 967-7594
So, back in the early 1970s my brother Steve Mitchell
was in the Navy. (Some Monti’s old-timers will recall him as
“Mitch” the manager.) To his surprise and edification, he was
stationed as part of Operation Deep Freeze in Antarctica at
Williams Field, “a snow runway located on
approximately 8 meters (25 ft) of compacted snow, lying on top of 80 meters (262 ft) of ice, floating over 550 meters (1,800 ft) of water.” [Wikipedia]
During Steve’s stint there, two memorable things
connected with our great State occurred. First, the late Sen.
Barry Goldwater came to visit for a couple of days. The
Arizona crewmen at the base, about six people, were invited to lunch with the Senator. (At the very end of this screed I
will place URLs to a few AHF photos of the Senator taken at
the time.) Sen. Goldwater was also known at the time for
using his amateur radio rig, on a regular basis, to help
isolated Arizona servicemen on the base to stay in touch with
loved ones at home. Important in those pre-internet days.
Additionally, Steve also nearly got beat up over the
Arizona flag. In those days, ‘photographs’ were taken by
cameras using strips of flexible stuff called ‘film’, and an
actual mechanical shutter made the clicking sound now
provided electronically to let you know that you have actually snapped a photo. Steve had a large, boxy camera that he would tote around in his leisure time to take pictures of snow, ice, seals and penguins. Sometimes he would take pictures of penguins, ice, snow and seals just for variety. I saw them all when I was a kid whenever he came home on leave.
Anyway, adhered to the side of Steve’s sizeable camera
was a very large decal of the Arizona Flag. Thus, one fine
day on the ice, Cold War hysteria befell my brother. A
second-class petty officer–much larger than Steve and clearly from a barbaric State where not even the rudiments of
geography were taught in the schools, seeing the flag on Steve’s box camera, thought it was the flag of North Vietnam (where war raged at the time). Taking my brother for a commie symp–about as far from the truth as could be, if you know the man–the rube accosted him. Flabbergasted by the onslaught, it took Steve a few moments to register why he was under assault and defuse the scuffle with a hasty low-temp lesson in vexillology (the scholarly study of flags). Was this a pardonable, honest mistake? You be the judge. Compare our flag with this one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flag_of_North_Vietnam.svg
Iron Men Run on Their Stomachs
Napoleon–or some bossy guy in a pointy hat–said that
“an army marches on its stomach.”
Naturally, triathletes also need copious amounts of nutrition. We are pleased and honored to have been called upon to handle the following schedule of events for the Ironman: Carbo load dinner Friday April 11th for 2000 people, Sunday April 13th (the actual race day, so watch for road restrictions on that date). On Monday April
14 we will handle the awards breakfast banquet for
1500, and then Tuesday April 15th, the volunteer appreciation
dinner for about 1200 people.
Weekend Specials / JAMN Jazz
Weekend Featured Entrees:
___________________________
Friday March 21 &
Saturday March 22nd
7 oz. Filet Mignon, 3 Jumbo Fried Shrimp & 1/2 Rack
BBQ Ribs $29.95
Meal includes our famous Roman Bread, soup or salad
with choice of dressing, vegetable medley and your choice
of baked potato, French fries, cottage cheese, spaghetti,
mashed potatoes or long grain wild rice pilaf.
JAMN JAZZ Continues in March and April:
“Our shows are every Monday from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Remember, doors open at 5 p.m. (not before). Cover is
$7, and dinner and drinks are available on our special Supper
Club menu. Monti’s Back Door is in the rear of Monti’s La
Casa Vieja, 100 S. Mill Ave., Tempe. For further
information on dates, call 480.345.2392.
Best Regards,
Stu Siefer, Roy Hoyt and Woody Wilson
JAMN Productions”
Wrap-up And Links
Well, thanks again for your attention and patronage. I
would like to wish all a Happy Easter. As I said before,
there are a few more informational links below, and if you just didn’t get enough bloated prose in this message, try my blog at michaelmonti.wordpress.com
Best regards,
MLM
(email: mmonti AT montis DOT com)
Goldwater Trip from Arizona Historical Foundation:
http://aslaprcontentdm.lib.az.us/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROO
T=/ahfgold&CISOPTR=141&CISOBOX=1&REC=15
The Senator made a visit to Antarctica with his son
Barry Jr.
who snapped this photo of his dad with a flag of
Arizona.
Senator John Chafee and William F. Buckley, Jr. were
among
the dignitaries that made the journey.
http://azmemory.lib.az.us/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/ahfg
old&CISOPTR=142&REC=8 Barry enjoys the company of a
colony
of penguins in Antarctica.
http://aslaprcontentdm.lib.az.us/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROO
T=/ahfgold&CISOPTR=176&CISOBOX=1&REC=16
Antarctica:
McMurdo Station; Navy’s Days of Glory in Antarctica
Dwindle
Down
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE6D91E31F9
http://www.operationdeepfreeze.blogspot.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMurdo_Station
Williams Field
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_Field
Michael L. Monti
Monti’s La Casa Vieja Restaurant– Birthplace of “The Most Important Person in Arizona History” Senator Carl Hayden
1 W Rio Salado Pkwy Tempe AZ 85281
www.montis.com (480)967-7594 Remember…friends don’t let friends eat at chains!!!! – azcr.org
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080318/lf_nm/usa_housing_consumers_dc
Reuters: BACK TO BASICS
“One of the hallmarks of the recent property boom was that buyers could get into a home with little or no money down. Those days are apparently over.
“What we’re seeing a lot of is people with good income who haven’t put any money aside and now have to save for a deposit on a home,” said Van Johnson, president of the Georgia Association of Realtors. “When people like that don’t spend, restaurants and retailers suffer and it tends to slow the economy down.”
“There will be pain in that correction,” he added.”
The ever-eloquent George Will weighs in on CityNorth and the general outrage of city sales tax giveaways:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/14/AR2008031403320.html
Arizona’s Booster Socialism
Courts have misconstrued the gift clause into a nullity, so legislators now use any asserted public benefit, however remote, to justify using subsidies to compete with rival jurisdictions for businesses and their tax revenue — or to rationalize conferring benefits on powerful interests.
Compare and contrast this from the Tribune:
“The Pink Pony saddles up for sale
Donna Hogan, Tribune
Say it ain’t so, Gwen, to paraphrase one of the most famous baseball-related quotes regarding one of its saddest events.
Scottsdale’s 60-year-old watering hole for baseball greats and those who just enjoy basking in the glory of the game.
The Pink Pony actually started cooking in 1948 on the corner of Scottsdale Road and Main Street but moved to its current spot at 3831 N. Scottsdale Road in 1970 “
With this, from Azcentral.com
“Fine-dining icon Mary Elaine’s to become steakhouse
By Howard Seftel
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 11, 2008 09:18 AM The Phoenician is announcing today that fine-dining icon Mary Elaine’s will be turning into J&G Steakhouse next October.”
Tempe needs a program like this:
Bench-Warmers Sought to Block Homeless
By Associated Press
3:35 PM EDT, March 10, 2008SAN DIEGO - A community activist thinks a few couch potatoes, strategically placed on sidewalk benches in an upscale shopping district, will keep transients on their feet and on the move.
Esther Viti, who oversees the donation of public benches for a merchants’ association in La Jolla, sent an e-mail to 45 other activists last week asking them to sit in three-hour shifts, no bathroom breaks allowed.
“After all, you MUST OCCUPY THAT BENCH continually for three hours to prevent that homeless person from sitting on that bench,” the e-mail said.
In fact, I can think of at least one local elected official who has enough junk in his trunk to displace two or three transients at once. And at no intellectual loss to the body in which he currently holds office.
I knew that somewhere, around the globe, something had gone terribly wrong…a victory for the Dark Side:
In an important victory for press freedom, a Belfast court has ruled that restaurant critics should be able to review an eatery without fear of being sued for libel.
Northern Ireland’s Court of Appeal on Monday overturned a jury’s decision to award libel damages of 25,000 pounds against the Irish News for a scathing pizzeria review that appeared in 2000.
