Fall is here. Leaves are dropping. Furnaces are being cranked up. Property tax statements are being prepared. And Friday night prep football is in full swing.
Which means fans in attendance typically have an opportunity to sample the various menu choices available at a snack shack, barbecue grill or other outdoor dining venues (so very pandemic-friendly when you care to think about it).
Hot dogs, burgers, nachos, chips, popcorn, soda, you name it, are available; the stuff is timeless. Few, though, would allege that most of it is somehow of the gourmet variety. But it works.
Now and then, there’s a pleasant surprise, something beyond the norm to tickle the tingling taste buds. We are referring to what’s called “The Triple Play.”
This gargantuan grilled concoction is more than a massive mound of manly meat. It’s a culinary experience, a marvelous meal unto itself.
The Triple Play is comprised of a double-cheeseburger, topped with a generous slather of tri-tip enclosed in a pair of accommodating buns. The condiments, naturally, are entirely up to you — but onions, a slice of tomato, mustard and your favorite pickles are strongly recommended.
The Triple Play stands virtually alone as a caloric celebration of bovine excess, a testament to America’s devotion to happy cardiovascular challenges of all persuasions.
And, no, expando slacks are not included. Bring more than one napkin.
CIVIL WAR ROUND TABLE: Want to know more about Pickett’s fateful charge at the Battle of Gettysburg? Wondering why the geography/river resources at Harper’s Ferry were so important to the Union’s vast armament needs? Interested in living conditions in Vicksburg during the long Union siege of that Confederate city along the Mississippi River? No problem.
For help with those pressing historical questions, just hightail it over to the next scheduled meeting of the Peninsula Civil War Round Table. Someone there can no doubt help.
The group convenes on the third Tuesday of each month at 11:30 a.m. at Harry’s Hofbrau in Redwood City (located not far from the community’s Union Cemetery).
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The next scheduled gathering is Oct. 19. For more information and relevant updates, you can access peninsulacivilwarroundtable.org.
RALSTON’S UNHAPPY ENDING: Following up on an item in this space last week, it should be pointed out that the life of William Ralston, for whom Ralston Hall in Belmont is named, did not have an especially happy ending.
A wealthy San Francisco businessman and financier in the 19th century (he founded the Bank of California and built the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, among other accomplishments), Ralston got his first taste of real riches via Nevada’s incredibly valuable Comstock Lode, a trove of silver.
He was riding high. But a combination of negative factors — escalating expenses at the hotel, a land deal gone bad, a decline in his bank’s stock value and residue of a national financial collapse — proved devastating. In 1875, his body was found in San Francisco Bay. The cause of death was not determined.
LEE QUARNSTROM PASSES AWAY: Lee Quarnstrom, a former Peninsula newspaper reporter who could turn a phrase with the best of the breed, passed away last week.
He worked as a reporter at the old San Mateo Times back in the early 1960s. His stay was relatively brief. Other more provocative and stimulating journalistic venues beckoned in the Bay Area and beyond, including a stint at Hustler magazine, a notorious purveyor of porn.
He later found a home in the Santa Cruz area where he reported on local matters for many years. Quarnstrom died in La Habra in Orange County where he had been living. He was 81.
SORRY, NO ALBERT EINSTEIN HERE: It’s a sappy throwaway line in a feel-good TV commercial touting an East Coast college: “The world in which we live equally distributes talent but it doesn’t equally distribute opportunity.”
If that’s true, I suppose I should have been as gifted as Michael Jordan, Albert Einstein or John Lennon. Really? The last time I checked, I can’t dunk a basketball, understand the nuances of nuclear fusion or create a hit tune with any degree of skill whatsoever.
Talent is not handed out equally via genetic makeup, individually or on a grand scale. Never has been.
Contact John Horgan by email at johnhorganmedia@gmail.com.
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