Cereal Cynic

Uncle Jack is not sure why he bought a box of Wheaties a couple of weeks ago but he did and he is working his way through it at a fairly good clip. He used to eat a lot of Wheaties when he was a kid but to tell the truth he never liked them all that much because if you ask him they got soggy too quick. That is the main reason that when he grew up he switched over to those nature cereals which are full of hard stuff like nuts and seeds and dried coconut husks which are still crunchy enough to break your fillings an hour after you pour the milk on.

The main thing Uncle Jack liked about Wheaties when he was a kid was the boxes. He was always a great reader even at a very early age and the Wheaties boxes always had plenty of interesting stuff to read such as testimonials from famous athletes who always said they wouldn’t have amounted to much except for eating a bowl of Wheaties every day.

Uncle Jack suspects that was the main reason he kept on eating Wheaties even though he wasn’t too crazy about them and he did wonder sometimes how that mushy mess in the bottom of your bowl could turn you into a superstar like Joe DiMaggio who could win the hand (and everything else attached to it) of somebody like Marilyn Monroe.

Later on he found out that those famous athletes actually got paid for saying they liked Wheaties and right then he turned into the cynical, doubting person he has remained to this day.

Like he said he does not know what compelled him to buy a box of Wheaties after all these years but he can tell you that after reading the box every morning for the past couple of weeks they have hardly changed at all. They have this picture of a smiling football star on the back and on the inside there was a nice picture of another football player who is one of the 25 “Hot Superstars” he can get if he buys 24 more boxes of Wheaties.

Also the box had a coupon which he can send in with $19.95 and get a videotape called “Learning Football the NFL Way” where these superstars will teach you the fundamentals such as how to pick a good agent, how to beat a urine test, and how to set up a deferred payment plan that will keep you in Wheaties long after the ligaments in your knees have turned to tomato aspic.

Uncle Jack is just kidding. They probably have some stuff in there about blocking and tackling and being a good sport, too, with demonstrations of how to help the opposing quarterback to his feet after you have broken both of his legs.

The side panel of the Wheaties box is still the same, too, with all that stuff about nutrition such as how one bowl gives you 4% of all the protein you need for the whole day (as long as you go right back to bed and stay there). Uncle Jack is not sure how that compares with one regular Krispy Kreme glazed but he did notice that the second main ingredient in Wheaties is sugar which is what they are probably talking about when they say that Wheaties give you “Energy that you need to get going“.

Anyway Uncle Jack really did enjoy his box of Wheaties and he was happy to learn that some things in this world never change. Next week: What Joe DiMaggio really liked for breakfast.

If you haven't seen this article about the museum: http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=113474&ran=184268

it has a great story about a chance meeting at our Open House in August that has led to a great show at Roanoke Island Festival Park on Friday, December 1, 2006. Chuck and Robert Redd, formerly of the Charlie Byrd Trio, will be presenting :

THE CASINO REMEMBERED: Chuck and Robert Redd will perform a program of music associated with the many great artists that graced the stage of the legendary Nags Head Dance Hall, The Casino. The program will include the music of Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong,Glenn Miller,Fats Domino,Woody Herman,Artie Shaw,Gene Krupa and more! Please come out and share your Casino memories with us. Contact the Roanoke Island Festival Park Visitors Center at 252-475-1500 to reserve your seat. Admission is FREE, donations suggested.

Information from our web site: http://osob.net/_wsn/page2.html

The Beachcomber Museum will be presenting the first public performance of the Redd brothers in Nags Head the following night, December 2, 2006, at the Red Drum Taphouse.

from: http://chuckredd.com/schedule.htm

We appreciate your support and look forward to seeing you next weekend!

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    Uncle Jack explored the battered Seagull Drive area this morning.  Pictures follow.

Exciting morning on the Outer Banks. Strong winds and heavy rain all night. Mountainous roaring surf. And then to top it all off the power went off all over Dare County at about 5 a.m. Uncle Jack is writing this on his battery powered laptop at 8:30 and the power is still off in South Nags Head although it has been restored in Kill Devil Hills.

There was a lull in the rain and wind and the sun actually broke through at 8 a.m. for a short time so he and Mrs. U.J. walked up to the beach on Ciltvaira Street near the 17 milepost. Foamy overwash was streaming down the street and a neighbor’s car was stuck in sand that collected around it during the night. The ocean is as wild as they have seen it since Isabel with huge breakers all the way to the horizon. The pictures show that major sand removal is taking place and beaches in our neighborhood are going to be at least ten feet wider than they were a few days ago except, of course, where sandbags are preventing Mother Nature from doing her job.

One of the major hazards of a storm like this when it is accompanied by a major power outage is that the only source of information is a local radio station which specializes in country and western music. Uncle Jack can testify that serious brain damage can result from listening to this station for more than ten minutes.

The Nags Head commissioners can breathe a sigh of relief that the proposed $32 million beach renourishment project was not completed recently because this storm would surely have undone much of it.

Power was restored in South Nags Head at 3:45 p.m. Uncle Jack will go out and see if he can get some more pictures for tomorrow’s blog. Who knows, we might even have a sunrise tomorrow.

We are off to Heathrow tomorrow (Tuesday) morning and if the terrorists don’t mess things up at the airport we should be back home by Wednesday night.

Our last big cultural event was the Lord Mayor’s Show on Saturday which has taken place annually for the past 800 years and draws a gigantic crowd every time. It is a combination of the most refined and elegant pageantry you will ever see, complete with golden carriages and liveried horse guards, juxtaposed with humble farm tractors and costumed peasants. We have missed Mike Kelly’s St. Patrick’s day parade for several years running but the Lord Mayor’s extravaganza has helped make up for it a little bit.

Lord willing, a Sonag sunrise on Thursday morning!!.

This week’s cultural pursuits have included two return trips to the British Museum, a visit to the London Cartoon Museum, a hilarious play called “The 39 Steps” (a spoof of the Alfred Hitchcock movie of the same name) and a musical called “Billy Elliott” (based on the play of the same name). At great cost Uncle Jack and Mrs. U.J. have reconfirmed their lack of enthusiasm for musicals as an art form. They left at the intermission, bored to tears.

They have four days left in London and he has to say they will not be unhappy about having to go home. The weather has been very nice for this time of the year but the air pollution in London is relentless, as it has been since the middle ages. It will be therapeutic to get back to the fresh air of the Outer Banks after four weeks of fighting for every breath.

Remaining events include a performance of Ben Jonson’s “The Alchemist” about which they know nothing but which has received rave reviews from most of the critics. Needless to say it is not a musical. Also on Saturday they will watch part of the Lord Mayor’s Parade, an annual event in the City of London since about 1250. On Sunday they will take in the monthly gathering of antique print and book dealers at the Great Russell Hotel on Russell Square. The high point of this event is lunch in the King Edward Room of the Russell which is a Victorian era bar furnished with huge leather chairs and sofas in which to quaff a beer or two and munch roast beef sandwiches. Heaven on earth.

This could be the last blog from London but rest assured Uncle Jack will be back with a Sonag Sunrise in a week or so. (Wouldn’t you know that the cable guys arrived at their apartment today ready to install the new wireless internet system. It should be ready in a week or so they say. Sigh.)

When Uncle Jack and Mrs. U.J. first vacationed in London about ten years ago they rented a flat in the east end near the Tower of London which was also within a short walk of the Spitalfields market which has provided east enders with fresh fruits and vegetables and much more for well over a century. The market is essentially a large shed, much like a train station with a glass and steel roof, and it is filled with stalls operated by small merchants who bring their wares to Spitalfields every weekend and now attract crowds of buyers from all over the city.

We have made return visits to Spitalfields (and its sister attractions, the Petticoat Lane and Brick Lane markets) every year since we first discovered it and we did it again last Sunday. For the past several years we have viewed with alarm the relentless encroachment of “progress” in the form of new office buildings which are gradually taking over much of the area around Spitalfields. A couple of years ago part of the old market building was torn down and barriers went up around the construction sites so you couldn’t tell what was going on. All has now been revealed and it is not a happy sight except to the megabucks developers who have turned half the charming old market into just another glitzy glass and marble shopping mall full of the same chain shops (starting with Starbuck’s) that fester everywhere else in London.

Uncle Jack talked with a man named Jon Helberg from Baltimore who has operated an American-style BBQ restaurant in Spitalfields for the past 20 years who said that he is being kicked out by the new owners of the market who say that his funky eatery would lower the tone of the “new Spitalfields” they are developing. His lease is up next summer and he will be forced to move. Needless to say he is not happy about it and neither is Uncle Jack who is saddened by the increasing homogenization of London as the national and multi-national chains crush the small shop owners and bit by bit destroy what is left of the city’s commercial heritage. What the blitz couldn’t do the developers will, eventually.

Monday was a lovely day so they walked over the Thames on the Millennium Footbridge to the Tate Modern gallery, a former power plant, to see the installation of “slides” by a German “artist” whose name Uncle Jack has repressed which now partially fills the huge turbine room space. What this has to do with art escapes him but it was a lot of fun to watch kids slide down the twisting tubes, screaming their heads off all the way.

They also took in a show of sculptures by an American artist named David Smith who was a pioneer in the use of scrap metal and other found objects like farm implements which he fashioned into “art”. Uncle Jack has to admit that some of the sculptures were really interesting and the show was much more rewarding than some he has seen at the Tate Modern which have included such “works of art” as a cow’s head crawling with maggots (which recently sold to a private collector for several million dollars) and an unmade bed. Needless to say a trip to the Tate Modern is always amusing if nothing else.

Saturday was a glorious fall day in London, a perfect setting for two major outdoor events. The first was the run-up to Sunday’s annual London to Brighton rally in which over 500 “Veteran” cars will participate. About 150 of these vintage vehicles (all pre-1910) drove through central London this morning and then parked in the middle of Regent Street where passers-by could examine them and take pictures and talk to the owners. Many of the owners are Americans (obviously wealthy) who had their cars shipped over just to participate in this event. Mrs. U.J. spoke to the wife of one of them who said her husband owns 18 antique cars at last count and she is giving serious thought to divorce. On Sunday morning all the cars will assemble in Hyde Park before 7 a.m. and then set out for the seaside resort of Brighton about 50 miles south of London. Most of them will make the whole trip but a heartbroken few won‘t even get out of the park. Uncle Jack watched the start of the rally during his first visit to London in 1971 and he has never forgotten it. (For this reason he will sleep in on Sunday morning instead of getting up at dawn and taking the bus to Hyde Park).

The other big event of the day was a rally in Trafalgar Square to demonstrate public concern about the perils of global warming. Police estimate that the crowd Saturday afternoon reached nearly 15,000 but all was peaceful except for the raucous rock and roll bands that performed for assembled throng. How much good it will do is anybody’s guess given that Britain is estimated to produce only about 3% of the world’s output of carbon dioxide.

On Saturday night Uncle Jack and Mrs. U.J. returned to Trafalgar Square for a concert of works by Handel, Vivaldi, Bach and Pachelbel in St. Martin-in-the-Fields church. Sir Neville Marriner would have been pleased by both the turn-out and the program. Uncle Jack is pleased to report that he managed not to kick over a kneeler this time as he did during the last concert they attended in St. Martin’s.

Uncle Jack and Mrs. U.J. have continued their headlong pursuit of culture for the past several days with the complete cooperation of Mother Nature who has shone her face upon us generously for a change. Tuesday’s major entertainment was a matinee performance of Tennessee Williams’s “Summer and Smoke” at the Apollo Theater on Shaftesbury Avenue. It’s always fun to listen to English actors grapple with American southern accents but we have to admit this group did very well. On their last visit to London in January they saw Williams’s “Night of the Iguana” starring Woody Harrelson of “Cheers” fame whose southern accent was not nearly as convincing. The only American star currently performing in the west end this month is Patrick Swayze who is starring in a new production of “Guys and Dolls” which we have decided we can afford to miss. Or can’t afford to attend. Whatever.

We strolled through the dazzling sunlight TWednesday morning over to the British Museum and spent a couple of hours ogling a wonderful show of artifacts from the museum’s South Seas collection. As a former serious student of anthropology (M.A., University of Virginia, 1957) Uncle Jack was bowled over by some of the items on display, a few of which he was able to photograph clandestinely without getting caught. Further trips to the museum will be necessary in the next two weeks in order to check out several other special displays now on view. (All free to the public courtesy of the fools who buy National Lottery tickets.)

Perhaps their most exciting theater experience of this trip came Wednesday afternoon when they attended a matinee performance of John Mortimer’s autobiographical play “A Voyage Round My Father” starring Derek Jacobi who is perhaps England’s finest living stage actor. Uncle Jack saw this play at the Haymarket theater about 35 years ago with Alec Guinness in the starring role and he has to say Jacobi was every bit as impressive. His character died so convincingly on stage this afternoon that Uncle Jack doubts they will be able to revive him in time for the evening performance.

Thursday was spectacularly sunny and almost warm so they wandered down through Chinatown to the National Gallery again to take in a couple of special free shows that they learned about while perusing the Velazquez exhibit last week. One was called “Cezanne in Britain” which title was a bit misleading because Cezanne never actually visited this sceptered isle. All of the paintings on display are owned by the National Gallery, however, so they are “in Britain” whether they want to be or not.

The Cezannes were lovely but they were somewhat eclipsed by the treasures on view in the other show entitled “Manet to Picasso” which featured several dozen of the National Gallery’s finest paintings, most of which were purchased back when they cost hundreds of pounds rather than the millions they are now worth. Uncle Jack got to see his all-time favorite painting again, Seurat’s huge pointillist masterpiece usually known as “The Bathers”. It shows a group of totally indolent people sitting and lying in the sun on a grassy riverbank just enjoying doing nothing whatsoever. He has always found it to be one of the most inspiring works of art ever created.

Friday morning was sunny again so they took the bus to Bermondsey to see what they could find at the famous flea market (hours: 4 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Friday for the past couple of hundred years). They were slightly surprised to find that half the area traditionally devoted to the market is now fenced off and a large construction project is underway. Nevertheless there were still many dealers set up with their bewildering variety of small antiques, most of which are priced far out of our range because of the extremely unfavorable exchange rate with the pound sterling which now stands at nearly two to one, the worst ever.

If this weather holds up it’s going to be hard to leave London. So much to see and do, so little time.