Five Minute Friday :: Disrupt

Monday at Vacation Bible School 2014
ready to collect backpacks
for Community Christian Service Center's
annual back to school initiative.

• Five Minute Friday :: Disrupt Linkup

Kate's story intrigued me and because it was familiar, I decided to piggyback on it!

Intro:

When I still was in Previous City, the place I was living needed mold remediation. In their process the contractors decided to disrupt my bedroom instead of my landlady/housemate's art studio per her request, which created awkward entry and exit from my room. (Her studio was bedroom 3 in a 3 bedroom house).

Part 1:

For the mold exit week, we found a hotel with a good deal for pets, so we took P's small dog and my two cats there. It meant two humans and three pets in a regular size hotel room. And you know what? That disruption for everyone worked out fine for all of us.

It was August and Vacation Bible School week; with the church some distance away from the hotel because of our pet-related lodging needs, every morning I traveled to VBS during rush hour. That trip was a relatively minor change or disruption from when I lived around the corner from the church and could walk there in less than five minutes, but the less familiar scenery energized me—maybe by disrupting my usual expectations and routines?

Part 2:

Because getting the mold out meant a major structural disruption of ripping out a wall, my friend decided it would be a perfect time to update the second floor bathroom that had some mostly age-related concerns and that – like at Kate's house – was the only full bath.

Back in the Tierrasanta/ Holy Land neighborhood the week after our hotel stay that also was the week after VBS, since the mold people had left, the bathroom contractors were able to start. Did I mention it was August?

Because August is hot in Southern California, one (you, me, any person) had best not skimp on showers. So? We arranged with two different neighbors to shower at their house. Two households so as not to disrupt only one every day.

Outro:

You may be expecting to hear about another disruption, but the new bathroom with a working shower finally happened, so that's the end of this week's Five Minute Friday.

Since then the church's senior pastor has retired, his kids now are adults, and the church has a new fellowship hall. Since then I've moved north to Los Angeles.

I've enjoyed reminiscing because it showed me what might be possible again. And now? It likely will take a few more disruptions before my days are full again. Thanks for reading!

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Five Minute Friday :: Sustain

• Five Minute Friday :: Sustain Linkup

What has sustained me all these bleak years?

Getting out of bed a half hour before first light and watching another new day gracefully make its way onto the world. Trying to relocate myself in better illuminated settings from my past. Can I replicate some form of those here and now? Admitting I've still been hitting a few balls out of the park over these many seasons. Despite everything.

Re-membering: bringing back together; again forming a whole from scattered parts. Dreaming. Can the future be an updated version of those parts when they still were whole, before they cracked and scattered?

This is earthquake country. Before I visited the new David Geffen Galleries at LACMA last Tuesday, I read about the project. Probably related to moment skyscraper and high rise construction that bends in an earthquake or a storm so it doesn't crack and break, the entire new museum wing can bend and extend five feet.

I may have mentioned a friend's comment that a mutual acquaintance is "very establishment," without adding a negative or a positive interpretation. They simply are. I'm still "very Y2K." That means I've experienced 911, the Great Recession that my economics degree insists qualified as another Great Depression, the Covid pandemic, the January 6 insurrection, and a long series of shipwrecks and disappointments in my own life. Along with the rest of my population cohort, I've survived global and individual assaults, so a return of anything Y2K-ish will present itself differently from the original.

Have I learned to bend in the storms and earthquakes? Yes. More by necessity than by intention. Have I cracked and broken? Or have I bent?

At my church in Previous City, during the offerings of bread, wine, and tithes, as they set the Eucharistic Table we'd sing from Psalm 116:

What shall I render to the Lord
for all his benefits to me?
I will offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving
and will call on the name of the Lord.
I will take the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the Lord.
I will pay my vows to the Lord
now in the presence of all his people,
in the courts of the Lord's house,
in the midst of you, O Jerusalem.

God invites everyone to the feast! "Jesus Christ, the bread of life; Jesus Christ, the cup of salvation!"

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Five Minute Friday :: Mall

• Five Minute Friday :: Mall Linkup at Andrew's Place

Such a nostalgic topic! I've mentioned malls so many times in this blog, mall needs to be a keyword. Here's Last Call, Last Mall inspired by the title of a song by Steely Dan.

My header pic is the Dead Cottonwood Mall I wrote about in the three part reflection I linked to. I featured it because I really like my photoshopping on the picture.

What's on today's mall docket? Long gone are the days of active, buzzing malls where teens hung out, retirees power walked, and the whole family sometimes shopped and dreamed, sometimes shopped and bought. Southern California has many dead indoor and open air malls. Between online merchandising and purchasing and the fallout from Covid, it's an understatement to say some that still are open have taken a huge hit. Ya know what? As much as I enjoy shopping of all kinds, I no longer much care for those big malls that have a national anchor like JC Penney or Macy's. That also can read that had a major anchor.

We have open air shopping centers around here; I call them Shopping Sprawls. I think they may function more or less as successors to malls.

Is it because of my interests in economics, lifestyle, and culture that I see a dozen articles every day about changing consumer habits, stores closing, brands merging, or is because those interest everyone? People source home furnishings far differently than in those olden days. Fast fashion still is a thing, though the trend is slowing down for a plethora of mostly positive reasons. If too many dollars don't keep chasing too few products, goods, and bads, does that mean people want less stuff and crave more experiences?

Where do we go from here? I enjoy most kinds of shopping. At the supermarket or the dollar store, I like to choose what I need, and I like to see what's new, check out colors and styles and possibilities. But I can't think of a mall I'd be willing to frequent in its present state of decline and sometimes disrepair.

Two days ago on my day off Tuesday I went to The Grove open air mall to see the holiday decorations. Although I wouldn't call it crowded, it didn't lack for people, but there's no way to know how many were actual customers and consumers. However, regular people don't shop at any of those stores or eat at those restaurants. It has a GAP, but I'm a Gap Factory person. It has Barnes & Noble. Sigh.

The farmer's market is an all around exciting shopping option, sometimes even offering local crafts. Does the decline of The North American Mall signal the return of profitable small shops? Let's keep waiting and hoping.

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Fashion Valley, San Diego, California

The Grove, Los Angeles, California

Square One Saugus Massachusetts Mall by John Phelan,
who says we can edit if we give him credit, so I did.

Andrew's mall picture

Sylvia

Five Minute Friday :: Recognize

• Five Minute Friday :: Recognize Linkup

Re-cognition. Being cognizant (all over) again. Revisit. Relearn.

Kate wrote beautifully and lovingly about a re-visit to South Africa and especially the sensory recognition of what she'd previously known there.

Lately I've been realizing – recognizing – that people I knew in places like City of History Boston-Cambridge and Previous City San Diego remain frozen in the time and situation where I last interacted with them. It might not be difficult to recognize chronological adults, but if someone's offspring was six years old when I saw them ten years ago, they're now sixteen!

The senior pastor at one of my churches in Previous City retired. The congregation called a new pastor, and former senior pastor has been doing a series of interim pastorates. In his newsletter article for another of my several San Diego churches (where that pastor retired a few weeks ago) where he's now interim, he described what each of his kids are doing and—they all are young adults! No!

But it's yes and though I didn't know his kids well at all, if I ran into them I'd need to ditch my previous ideas about them and recognize their adult identity. But I well could make too many assumptions that would interfere with my ability to recognize who they have become these ten years later.

In addition, I'm thinking of the times I spent at that church. According to facebook, they've been building a new fellowship hall. I have great memories of helping cook and serve Thursday night neighborhood dinners, teaching different kids in VBS, facilitating scripture study and saying a lot about the texts when that pastor led, accompanying Holden Evening Prayer on the piano—in the old fellowship hall. If I returned for a visit, would I insist on everything still being the same before I'd be willing to recognize the place and the people as the church I enjoyed in the past?

On this Reformation Day 2025, would Jesus recognize the church he gave us with his promised presence? What would he tell us when we insisted on seeking and finding how things used to be two decades or six years or seven months ago? "Discuss."


Community Note:

Our FMF host Kate will be on medical leave until January, but surprise! The wonderful poet Andrew offered to host us for the next two months, and he's even scheduled every single Friday without a break until Kate returns! Prayers and hope-filled wishes for Kate's recovery and endless thanks to Andrew for helping maintain this important space for writers.

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Five Minute Friday :: Second

• Five Minute Friday :: Second Linkup

Retail merchandise – especially clothing – isn't always exactly perfect. For one reason or another, the end product sometimes has flaws, and sometimes the usual input doesn't even result in a finished product. That doesn't mean they can't be sold, but they get various warning labels like second, irregular, or imperfect—there's even a category of thirds.

Humans aren't always exactly perfect in any endeavor or situation. Contests and competitions include first place (blue ribbon), second (red ribbon) and third (white) or fourth (yellow). An organization or sponsor even can go further down the line. Graduation classes get numerically ranked. First in your class! Valedictorian. Second? Salutatorian. Everyone can't be first. Or even second in everything.

Although I usually got good grades in school if I tried hard enough (good instructors helped), academically I've never been particularly rank or ratings conscious. However, those years I entered art in the San Diego County Fair the first place blue and the second place red ribbons I won always excited me, and I worked during the year for best results. (After writing that, I suddenly feel I need to enter the LA County Fair. It will cover the month of May with the theme Art Unleashed.)

Humans can get competitive. We tend to compare ourselves with other people, compare today's accomplishments with yesterday's and last year's. But in the end, first, second, irregular, or imperfect matters not because:

See what love the Father has given us
That we should be called children of God
and that is what we are.
1 John 3:1

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Los Angeles 2025

I started this as a response to a social media post as Los Angeles wildfires 2025 destroyed many neighborhoods and put lives on hold. I wanted to expand on my reply because just as I did, the original poster had relocated to the city of LA from somewhere else.

LA has become my home, too.

Despite almost 10 years of unsettled housing, despite opportunities that haven't happened (yet) Los Angeles is the first ever time for me that home is here and not the last place I just left.

Maybe you create a social media ID that includes your place. "Leah in LA" or "suntreeriver design Los Angeles." Like Benedictines and others who aways name their community after their city or town of residence, we can do that, too. Do you attend Lazy River Presbyterian Church? Hillside CIty Lutheran? Streetside Methodist? The building or the campus and the people who gather there then have their place in a double sense: a location defined by longitude and latitude and where you almost instinctively know your place (role, function, job).

The USA and many other countries have been impacted with frightening political, social, and economic uncertainties. Unprecedented wildfires winds recently leveled Los Angeles area neighborhoods.

In the wake of destructive fires back in my previous place of San Diego, one Sunday morning our parish associate reminded us God does not have a preferential option for a particular dwelling, neighborhood, or structure over any other. Then why did we again see one or two untouched houses or businesses beside others that were total losses? God doesn't prefer certain houses or places over others, but God does have a preferential option for those whose homes and lives have been destroyed or upended, those whose expectations have been shattered or sometimes simply not met to the degree they imagined.

As Pastor Gordon said long ago, "We're not snake-bite proof. We're rescued after being bitten."

Peruvian Dominican priest Gustavo Gutiérrez first used the phrase "preferential option for the poor."

Early on this blog in Longing for Home, I wrote about home is always the place you just left: a memoir of restless longing and persistent grace by Betty Smart Carter.

Homecoming has been one of my relentless longings and after all this time it feels impossible. Impossible? But Possibility is my star word for 2025! Late last year, I longed for home in a Five Minute Friday as I dared say what home could be:

…people who quote Philip Philips' song Home, "Just know you're not alone; I'm gonna make this place your home."

Deep in our hearts and with our entire beings, we long for the hugs and the smiles. The shared meals. Affirmations of our dreams, our calling, our gifts and preparation. Encouragement for our longing to use our talents and abilities. We long for and we need somewhere and someone to come home to at the end of the day, whether the day has been disappointingly short or agonizingly long.

Home is a spacious place. Space to breathe, to reach out, to grow, and to dream. A location and a people who take away my lostness, who help deliver me, because they delight in me.

My scripture reference was, God brought me out into a spacious place; God delivered me because God delighted in me." Psalm 18:19

Can home be in a place of blight, broken glass, fragile dreams, when there were any dreams at all? What name would we give that place? Is that the kind of situation we need to be rescued from? God would rescue us from?

Epiphany 2C

Intro

Tony Campolo, "The kingdom of God is a party." Not like a party, not some semblance of a celebration, but the reign of heaven on earth is the real thing.

This is MLK weekend. The USA and many other countries have been impacted with frightening political, social, and economic uncertainties. Unprecedented wildfires have leveled Los Angeles area neighborhoods. Wars and other armed conflicts simmer and explode across the globe.

John 2:1-11

¹ On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. ² Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. ³ When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." ⁴ And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come." ⁵ His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."

⁶ Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. ⁷ Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim. ⁸ He said to them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward." So they took it.

⁹ When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom ¹⁰ and said to him, "Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the best wine until now."

¹¹ Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

Background

So far in this year of grace and season of revelation we've waited for God in our midst, we've been awed at the nativity of the infant Savior, we've met visitors from the East bearing gifts, we've joined a crowd alongside the Jordan.

After his riverside baptism by his cousin John the Baptist that all four gospels include, each gospel brings us a different version of Jesus' first act of public ministry. How can that be? Most likely they all happened around the same time, but each writer chose a particular one because it fit their perspective better.

The community surrounding John the beloved disciple writes about Jesus' signs rather than miracles. A miracle implies suspension of natural laws (which sometimes is the case, and sometimes there is a logical explanation), but a sign points beyond itself to a place, event, person, or idea—in this case, to Jesus. The Greek here is like our word semiotic that relates to signs, symbols, meanings. This gospel includes seven signs and seven "I Am" statements from Jesus. In Hebrew numerology, seven is the number of perfection or completion.


New Creation

In Matthew and Luke, after incarcerated John the Baptist wonders about Jesus being "the one who is to come," Jesus replies "go tell John what you see and hear: blind see; lame walk; diseased become clean; dead are raised! poor receive good news."

• Luke 7:20-22

• Matthew 11:2-5

These events fulfill John's signs.

John's gospel brings us the most explicit new creation.

• In the beginning … God –Genesis 1:1
• In the beginning … was the word –John 1:1

logos, word connotes both origin (where this came from) and immanence (what this might become). Does that sound theological?

On the seventh day God finished the work. –Genesis 2:2
"It is finished!" –John 19:30

• And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden… –Genesis 2:8

The garden of Jesus' burial and resurrection becomes the new garden of Eden

• Now there was a garden in the place where Jesus was crucified, and in the garden was a new tomb in which no one ever had been laid. And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. –John 9:41-42

The first day of the week is the eighth day of creation, the first day of the new creation.

• Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. –John 20:1
• Supposing him [Jesus] to be the gardener… –John 20:15b

Of the four canonical gospels, John brings us the most fully realized eschatology (protology is the word about first things, about origins; eschatology is the word about last things, about conclusions)—the clearest right here and right now of the reign of heaven on earth. A wedding party perfectly fits that worldview!


Today's Good News

This reading begins, "On the third day." In that place and time, the third day – Tuesday – was considered the best day for a wedding. But as Easter people, we also recognize the third day as the day of resurrection that initiates the new creation. And back then and there, an extravagant wedding party where everyone gets more than the dayenu or "it would have been enough" of the Passover song would be a primary indicator of the messianic age.

Cana in Galilee was disreputable gentile territory known for thieves and petty criminals. This wedding was not at an elite venue or an aspirational destination. Jesus performed this sign among regular, ordinary, working class people. Most of the guests and reception attendants probably lived nearby; some may have worked in the vineyard.

A wedding is an occasion to party; a wedding brings families together and gathers a community in one place for a single purpose. Whatever is happening elsewhere in the world, a wedding hopes for and promises a future. The couple getting married trusts that a future will arrive.

This isn't the old band Canned Heat Going Up the Country singing about "where the water tastes like wine." This is water that has become wine, and "you have kept the best wine until now!" –John 2:10


Where We Live

At the start of his public ministry Jesus attends a party and makes the party even better, in a preview of the rest of his time on earth. But two thousand years after Jesus' death and resurrection, we still experience death, disease, destruction, deadly fires, nations at war, a threat of government that is not by the people, of the people, or for the people.

Evidently a recent article in The Atlantic informed readers we need to party more. It was behind a paywall and no one provided a summary, but I agree.

After the 911 attack on the World Trade Center, although we didn't exactly rejoice with a block party, two days later on Thursday evening several churches in our neighborhood gathered to celebrate Eucharist, a meal with the risen Christ. Here's one of my reflections about it:

• 911 :: 22 years later

Literally in spite of everything we glanced into all creation healed and whole. We briefly lived in that future moment God dreams of and calls us to help create. Did you know the chasuble the person presiding at Eucharist vests in is the wedding garment of the messianic feast?

To paraphrase Cornel West, "We are people of hope. Why do we party on Friday night? Why do we go to church on Sunday?"

Because the Kingdom of God, the Reign of Heaven is a party!

Five Minute Friday :: Trade

Star of India moored in San Diego Bay

• Five Minute Friday :: Trade Linkup

Trade implies a degree of exchange or reciprocity between parties. I frequently consider how critical free trade is to both global and local economies, yet most of the time we live at the micro level, where we cannot survive unless we can trade services for goods, or maybe use cash or a card to get what we need. (All of this fascinates me (undergrad economics major))!

As of this blogging, the Customs and Border Patrol agency of my country, the USA, has fourteen free trade agreements. USMCA has replaced the easier to pronounce NAFTA arrangement that's central to the ongoing overall friendship amongst Canada, USA, and Mexico.

The European Union has dozens of free trade agreements in place or being negotiated—along with a few on hold for now. Notice the word free or unimpeded, because those covenants have no teeth without some way to transport and receive products or commodities. In addition, excessive tariffs lessen the utility of the agreements. Dockworker strikes interfere with off- and on-loading. When truckers and railroad employees strike, when weather doesn't cooperate, if for any reason that first mile and beyond from the container ship goes on hold, trade slows and sometimes stops.

…they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan Genesis 11:31

Ever since Abram and Sarai left Ur of the Chaldees to pursue God's promise of land and progeny, dissemination of people and goods (and some bads—opium trade? cross border fentanyl crisis?) with the ability to engage outside producers and their products has helped grow civilization in general and been instrumental to achieving higher living standards.

Even in this twenty-first century, even more than rail, air, or roads, ships remain primary to getting the goods where they need to go. But ships – or the people on them – especially trade ideas! Exchange languages. Move people with their embedded cultures from an original or inbetween place to a new location. As delightful as that new goodie from IKEA can be, as much as our work and play require a particular up to date electronic device, learning our neighbors' way of life, their manner of speaking, their culinary delights – as they learn ours – is one of the best ways we connect, become community, and ultimately become friends—not strangers! What a trade!

What's your take on trade today?

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Interim Connections

an update from the very old original

The Connections

So… this afternoon I played organ and piano for new settled pastor's installation and I had a great talk with former interim pastor, who under the Formula of Agreement's provision for interchangeability ("orderly exchange") of ministers of Word and Sacrament currently is serving as interim at Holyland ELCA—in another FoA denomination. That's happening all over the place all across this country, but the crazy thing is, that church is on Flat Mesa Blvd., the same street as this church he recently left after a long called interim pastorate, so I'm wondering if his next interim position won't be at the local Taco Bell, since he's been gravitating to – or it could be that entities only located on – Flat Mesa Blvd. have been grabbing him?

Does Taco Bell have any kind of formal agreement with other (food) denominations? Oh, yes—KFC, and Pizza Hut, and The Habit Burger, all sheltered by the YUM umbrella. But if they're all YUM-affiliated, that doesn't make them different denominations, and besides, they all serve very different and distinctive types of food. Speaking of Taco Bell, I *think* the PCUSA, UCC, DoC (etc.) Taco Bell boycott has been over for some time now. Somewhat related, a while back Taco Bell launched an interesting fourth meal concept.


The Serious

Oh, how many times have I exclaimed to anyone who'd listen "sometimes I think I loved the Church more than I loved Jesus." This afternoon part of former interim's charge to new settled was to not love the church more than he loved Jesus, Lord of the Church.

Yesterday I was considering how somehow I'd become marginalized in a ton of ways from society's main streams (though not from the mainline church, since for the most part I still attend one or another), and yesterday evening I finally realized the Spirit of the Church had chased me outside the city gates, outside the assumed shelter of the walls of the city=civilization, to where I'd find Jesus, to where Jesus died—outside the city.

Am I therefore suggesting it's harder to find Jesus in the church structure, in Word and Sacrament, than to encounter Jesus outside the church? That's been suggested before. Theologian Darrell Guder accurately insists God does not limit Godself to the means of grace, and I've blogged and spoken my logical rejoinder. Nonetheless, God does bind Godself to the means of grace, and I'll add whether or not we recognize, acknowledge, or act upon that fact.

Like many others I've been thinking, writing, and blogging about liminality, betwixt, betweenness neither here nor thereness and some of the meanings, dangers, and freedoms of life as exodus people—exodus people? Better make that baptized people.

Afternoon Fog

Five Minute Friday :: History

Clockwise from upper left:

• Beach House in Truro, Cape Cod, Massachusetts
• All Saints Church, University City, San Diego, California
• Downtown Los Angeles, California
• Boston, Massachusetts skyline across the Charles River
• Five Minute Friday :: History Linkup

We can't escape those written, spoken, and/or illustrated chronicles of events in particular times and places that shape us in both hidden and apparent ways. Most of us know some of our own original and extended family history, the story of our town or city, our province or state—and country, of course. For many that includes history of the place our family migrated from a few years or a few centuries ago. Our awareness of a few millennia of world history may not be as acute as our knowledge of more local and recent events, yet it surrounds us in our habits, preferences, longings, and perspectives.

Then there's the history of the whole people of God. Earlier this month on my scripture blog I wrote a little about salvation history:

Heilsgeschichte [Heil=salvation; Geschichte=history] brings together fairly objective, empirical facts with the lived experiences of the people, often with a sense of saga or myth; Heilsgeschichte has a far greater degree of density than the evidence, cause, and effect history we study in school.

In addition to our incorporation in local and world history, baptism embeds us in the history of planet earth – of all creation – in the history of the whole people of God. Water is the womb of this planet's creation and the womb of our first birth as humans. Baptized into Jesus Christ's death and resurrection, we experience our first death, our second birth – our re-creation – as we identify with earth's history.

Very late Saturday afternoon, Saturday evening, or extremely early Sunday morning the Vigil of Easter revisits the meta-narratives of creation and of deliverance from death to life in the Exodus and Passion/Easter stories. Maybe you've heard of the Passover Seder referred to as "eating history?"

The book of Revelation foretells the reconciliation of all things, of the lion lying down with the lamb, of people from east and west, from north and south, gathered around the welcome table of the Messianic Feast. The garden of resurrection has grown into a city, where the river of life and the tree of life provide for all creation. Some theologians refer to that as the end of history! What do you think?

Our God is God of history. We are God's people. We are people of history. We are people of Easter hope.

Sunday's coming!
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Afternoon Fog

Rhinoceros Drawing

• Rhinoceros at the San Diego Zoo

• World Rhino Day now is 22 September every year.

Urban Cats

Dinos Gyros

• Dino's Gyros, "Centrally located in the heart of Clairemont Towne Square."

Especially now that they have a website, it's high time I gave a shoutout and review to Dino's Gyros. For several years I've loved to pick up their 1/4 Lemon Chicken Plate on Fridays--no special reason for the day of the week, except my Friday afternoons frequently are unscheduled. I've enjoyed their trademark gyros a few times, too.

Dino's Gyros opens onto a food court on the side of Clairemont Towne Square that includes a multiplex cinema as well as discount fabric/home textiles and hardware stores. There's inside seating for maybe a couple dozen, with outside tables and chairs for at least half that many. Large art prints of characteristic coastal Grecian scenes decorate the walls and help set a Mediterranean mood; everything about the place always is bright, light and uncluttered. You'll find the counter staff essence of politeness and hospitality and being able to observe the chefs cooking and assembling adds to the ambiance. Although there are no rest rooms, there's a no-cost community loo next door that's always clean and well maintained.

My favorite meal, the Quarter Lemon Chicken Plate, includes choice of white meat (breast and wing) or dark (leg and thigh). I always order the moister, more savory dark, except for the rare times I'm not there until after 4 and only the half chicken plate is available. I also routinely choose the simply perfect French Fries rather than the flavored rice option. Each order includes a small cup of tzatziki sauce, pita bread cut into 8 triangles and a tossed salad: tomatoes, lettuce, onions, black olive and pepperoncini, all lightly coated with tangy vinaigrette. At less than $7.00 including tax, the quarter lemon chicken is comparably priced with other offerings on Dino's Gyros mostly Greek bill of fare. They also have a wine and beer menu and specials for kids.

This definitely is a casual, come-as-you-are and enjoy-who-we-are venue. If you're in the Central San Diego area, I hope you'll visit Dino's Gyros!

Boomerangs

"You'll always come back for more."

I'll definitely go back for more to Boomerangs, San Diego, CA, where bright southwestern-hued paint and streams of natural light surrounded us from the moment we entered the building; as we enjoyed lunch, succulent burgers and accompaniments tantalized us. The website insists, "Boomerangs is the place for you. We make all of our burgers with 100% Angus beef with the freshest ingredients and our handmade sides are a must try!"

To create your own burger, you get to add any three toppings and mixers, one cheese and one homemade side to a basic 1/3, 1/2, or 3/4 pound Angus burger. Besides beef, there are additional non-vegetarian plus portabello mushroom or veggie burger options. The website displays most of the menu items we got to choose from in the restaurant. Prices are modest for such fresh excellence; due to its quality and the fact it didn't shrink much during cooking the 1/3 pound burger was so substantial I'd have been happy to be able choose a smaller, quarter-pounder, especially since the sides added more substance.

Paintings by San Diego-based artist Mark Smith arrayed themselves on the walls; Jose, our server explained the art was for sale but Boomerangs had the privilege of borrowing them for a spontaneous exhibit until they were sold.

If you're not too far from the San Diego area beaches it's worth a trip to Clairemont for lunch at Boomerangs. The restaurant is open every day of the week, so you can't miss. Other features include daily happy hour from 4 to 7 and brunch on Sundays from 10 to 2 with "free-flowing champagne and mimosas," fresh fruit and salads, hot entrees, omelets and desserts.

Most likely you'll always go back for more!

Mister Fish and Chips

restaurant review

...not exactly a developed site, but here it is....


Their ads in the semi-slick coupon clippers we get in the mail intrigued me, so it was time to try the real thing. As the name of the eating place suggests and the bill-of-fare attests, Mr. Fish and Chips, situated away from the shoreline a few miles inland (but all of Paradise is coastal community) in a strip mall on an adjacent mesa, specializes in fried seafood (pacific cod(?), scallops, shrimp and clam strips), clam chowder and batter-fried accompaniments. They serve a limited selection of beer and wine, but I didn't notice any desserts, nor is there a menu you can take with you. However, you can phone in an order that will be ready to pick up when you get there.

Evidently the family-run quick food restaurant has been in that general location almost forever, since 1975, with the current spot the result of a recent move. Mr. Fish and Chips features brightly clean ambiance, six tables that seat 4 (or 6 in a scramble), a counter toward the back where you order from the menu board so they can call your number in 5 minutes or so when your tray is ready and a constant flow of customers for eating-in and taking-out. What good deals, maybe partly because it's cash-only!

The only selection costing more than $10.00 is a family meal for a little under $20.00. For about $7.00 my neighbor and I each got a big piece of fish, either zucchini, onion rings or potatoes, fresh side salad of iceberg, red tomato wedges and chunky cucumber slices with choice of dressings. The basic price included 12-ounce cup of soda (no refills) or iced tea (with refills); you could order any item à la carte. They served the meal in paper-lined plastic baskets with disposable plastic utensils; limited staff and space likely make dish-washing impractical. The batter was light, puffy, crunchy, appetizingly golden and took up almost as much space as the food it covered. Though it didn't have a lot of its own flavor, it also didn't taste greasy or "off" in the least.

At the start of the meal I really dived into the food, but by the end all the batter and fried stuff felt overwhelming, most likely because I've been eating simpler and healthier and almost never anything more than quickly sautéed or lightly pan-fried. Will I go back to Mr. Fish and Chips for another lunch? Probably, but it will become more of an every-few weeks event than a weekly occasion.

Along the Eight

Along Interstate Highway 8 in San Diego, California
Mission Valley
Wednesday 17 June 2015