Thursday

Delaware's Big Fish Grill Has a Major Problem; Local Delaware Politics 2006

We re-visited Delaware's Big Fish Grill and while the food's still good, there's one major problem with this eatery that will keep us away from now on.

And a look into those local Delaware races, including son of Senator Joe Biden's bid for Attorney General against the Thomas Capano prosecutor.

Beau Biden has NEVER prosecuted a criminal case; his main qualification for the office would seem is being the son of a loud-mouthed Senator.

And you'll never guess who's endorsing Beau Biden.


Pic of the Day
Sleepy Puppy and Contentment




Quote of the Day
A baby is born with a need to be loved - and never outgrows it.
Frank A. Clark


Web Site Worth the Visit
Country Western Music Anyone?

It’s a veteran’s site but provided at the link below, many of the favored country-western tunes of wise veterans.

Country Western Music



TIDBITS

How to Get Your Baby to Sleep

Let her cry it out? Rock her till dawn? Here, six things to consider when deciding what works best for you

1. Your baby's temperament
Your baby's personality is a key factor in determining the right sleep strategy. Some babies are born self-soothers. Others (usually active ones) may put up a big fight at night. Maryland mom Mary Kay tried for months to put 15-month-old Sophie in her crib while she was still awake, but Sophie screamed so hard she'd actually throw up. Finally Mary Kay decided to rock Sophie to sleep -- cry-it-out books be darned. "Sophie winds herself up so much we all end up awake and upset," she says. "I've decided to go with my gut, and if rocking works, so be it."

2. How much sleep your baby's getting
Sleep experts say 6-month-olds should doze 12 to 13 hours a day, including naps. A baby who isn't getting adequate rest may be clingy, short-fused, and uninterested in exploring, or she may go into overdrive and have a harder time nodding off. Sound familiar? Then rethink your bedtime approach. While she may love your 3 a.m. strolls around the house, too much stimulation could be keeping her from drifting off. Would letting her try to soothe herself work? Some babies wail in their cribs because they aren't tired or calm enough: What can you do to make her sleepier at night (aside from skipping naps, which isn't a good idea)? Could rocking her to sleep help?

3. How much sleep you're getting
Parents lose more than 200 hours of sleep in their baby's first year, according to the National Sleep Foundation. That's no surprise: When your infant is still eating around the clock, getting the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep a night is unlikely. If your baby is no longer a newborn, though, and you're a total zombie from rocking and feeding all night long, it's time for a change. After three sleepless months with her twins, Tampa mom Angela felt she would die of exhaustion. Instead she hired a sleep coach, and she stopped giving the babies bottles to get them to sleep. "They cried a lot, and that was really hard for me," she says. "But I was at the end of my rope. The crying was less painful than the agony of getting up."

4. Your personality
Thinking about your own needs when choosing a sleep strategy doesn't make you selfish. In fact, it can help you pick a plan you'll be able to stick to. If you're schedule-oriented, you may function best knowing your baby will fall asleep at a certain time. More laid-back? You might not mind following his lead. But remember, whatever your ideal routine, life with a child can throw it for a loop. New York City mom Hilary always stuck to a tight schedule. But her son Jake's up-every-few-hours sleep pattern put an end to well-planned evenings. "Now I roll with the punches," she says. "I think that's really helped Jake."

5. Your history
Issues from your past can also shape your views on getting your baby to sleep. A mom who feels she didn't get enough attention from her own parents may feel strongly about comforting her baby when he cries at night. And moms who had fertility issues, difficult pregnancies, or preterm babies may not want to let their infants cry. Still others may react to their own chaotic upbringing by making sure their kids have predictability early on. As long as feelings about your past don't keep you from creating a sleep environment that works in the present, do what feels best.

6. How much help you have
While you and your partner may not always agree on how to get your baby to sleep, you'll need each other's support, whether it's another set of arms when yours ache, or a hand to squeeze when your child's crying it out. If your current sleep methods are pulling you apart instead of bringing you together, it's time to regroup. Georgia mom Claire spent so much time rocking her daughter to sleep in the first year that some nights she didn't see her husband. "It put a strain on our relationship," she says. After months of his urging, she tried putting Mia in her crib while still awake. Mia's wails made Claire frantic, but her husband convinced her to keep trying. Now, says Claire, "She's asleep in five minutes. She's better off -- and so are we."
-- Hollace Schmidt


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Delaware Attorney General Race Most Interesting of All

Who’d think that a local race for state Attorney General would be so interesting? Yet here in the swamps of Delaware we’ve just such a local race underway.

One candidate is Beau Biden. If that name looks familiar, think Joe, think hairplugs, think plagiarism. Give up? For sure we have Delaware’s Senator Joe Biden’s son, Beau, up against Ferris Wharton, who has his own claim to fame.

Let’s begin with First Delaware Son, Beau. It began when the elected DA left office to take another job. Nanny Minner, Delaware’s Governor who has people shot on sight for smoking, was about to appoint Beau Biden to the position. The hue and cry of the electorate caused her to back down from this stupid idea. Thus First Delaware Son, Beau, must get elected all by his own self.

And First Delaware Son, Beau, is fighting mighty hard for the job. He’s even, get this, managed to get famous crime commentator John Walsh to do a commercial for him. John Walsh’s son Adam was a murder victim of a child predator and John is currently host of the TV series “America’s Most Wanted”. I used to like John Walsh. I will never watch his TV series again because, hey, I’m a Delaware voter. I do NOT think that being the son of a Senator is enough of a qualification to hold the highest legal position in the state. If John Walsh thinks this is a good criteria than hey, I’m not going to watch his show. I can do this. I live in America. I hope Beau’s campaign paid John Walsh well for his nosy insertion into a local race that he had no business in.

There is a reason why John Walsh endorses Beau Biden in so many of those sycophant commercials now airing across Delaware’s air waves. Beau Biden has made a campaign promise to establish a Delaware “child predator” unit. John Walsh then became Beau’s perfect pitchman what with Walsh’s son himself dead at the hand of just such a predator.

Come on folks. With a properly function police department, there should be no need for any vaunted child predator unit. Said unit would be nothing more than slapping a name on a door somewhere while using the same resources as currently used to prosecute child predators. Delaware is notorious for starting up special committees and units, all for window dressing. Governor Nanny Minner loves to hire big political contributors to investigate something or other, conclusions of these special groups which are never used.

Ferris Wharton is Beau’s Republican competition for the AG position. Ferris Wharton’s claim to fame is that he was the successful prosecutor for one of Delaware’s more notorious True Crimes. When you’re talking true crime you’re talking right up my alley.

For Thomas Capano currently sits on Delaware’s death row, prosecuted for the murder of Anne Marie Fahey. Thomas Capano was himself once a state deputy attorney general.

Capano Blog posts HERE, and HERE and HERE.

Only Ferris Wharton has some issues himself, at least by me, and he too fell for Beau Biden’s proposal for setting up new Delaware special units. Recently Delaware voters have been promised a new special unit on crime and I’ve got a sneaking feeling this is in response to ole Beau’s vaunted Child Predator section. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m not at all keen on promises of more bureaucratic layers, especially here in the swamps of Delaware where they practically live by these things.

Ferris Wharton’s Site here.

Delaware's Ferris Wharton


Some campaign hype from the Ferris web site:
“If Beau Biden thinks that he should be the Attorney General having never prosecuted a criminal in Delaware, what’s to say he won’t appoint someone to lead the sex crimes unit who has no experience prosecuting rapists and child molesters. That’s a scary thought.”

“Delawareans can be certain that with Ferris Wharton as Attorney General, if one of their loved ones is the victims of rape, murder, or any crime, they’ll have experienced and proven prosecutors fighting for them.”

Wharton is right, of course, as regards the precious Beau and his total inexperience for such an important position. But I have a question for Mr. Wharton. Which he may or may not be able to answer but it’s a question on the minds of Delawarians.

Thomas Capano got the death penalty. SO WHEN IS HE GOING TO GET THAT NEEDLE?!!

It’s a double-edged sword for Mr. Wharton. He was the successful prosecutor in this case but he’ll also be forever associated with this case. Thus I must wonder if this so-called death penalty Capano got will ever come to fruition. Capano’s crime was especially heinous. He killed Anne Marie for the crime of breaking up with him then cut her body to pieces to fit it into a Styrofoam cooler. With a little help from his brother, Capano dumped Anne Marie’s body in the ocean.

Yet like so many blue states, Delaware gives the death penalty but never actually does the deed.

I predict that Wharton will win the election but only because of mighty conservative Sussex county. There are only three counties in Delaware. Two of them are bluer than blue and one great big one, Sussex, is solid conservative. Sussex county will never elect Beau Biden. Everyone here already dislikes Joe Biden and will likely have no urge to elect his son.

Ehrlich Fights O’Malley in Merryland

Getting a clue, the hopelessly liberal Merryland followed the trend of so many blue states and elected a Republican Governor.

Martin O’Malley is the Mayor of Baltimore and as corrupt and as entrenched a Democrat as there ever was. O’Malley is fighting an uphill battle although the Baltimore dead vote will give him some help. It’s doubtful the rest of Merryland, save the liberal counties surrounding D.C., will elect O’Malley over Ehrlich.

Below some campaign hype from the Ehrlich web site:
·
Under Martin O'Malley the City school board recently LOWERED standards and reaffirmed their failed policy of social promotion.
· While the state has increased funding to the City school system by $176 million, Martin O'Malley has only increased funding to his own school system by less than one third of one percent.
· Martin O'Malley's public charter school funding is so low that the courts ordered him to double funding to these public schools.
· "This school system right now is broken." (Doc Cheatham, Baltimore NAACP, on the Chip Franklin show: April 26, 2006)
· Martin O'Malley says he cares about education, but the facts just say otherwise.

It might be campaign hype folks, but every word of it is true. Merryland schools, especially Baltimore schools, are hopeless. O’Malley’s had almost eight years to fix it. So why hasn’t he?

Michael Steele Running for Merryland’s Senator

Maryland candidate Steele
Scuttlebutt has Steele as a dark horse and this may be. Already the nasty Merryland Dems have been doing really mean hit pieces on Steele, including illegal investigation into his credit report by the Senate’s Chuck Schumer.

This race is too close to call. How great it would be if Merryland would overthrow those entrenched and entitled Democrats that have ruined that state so much that we had to move just to get away from the liberal craziness?

More Delaware posts HERE
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Delaware’s Big Fish Grill-A Re-visit and A Vow to NOT Re-visit again

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This is a second review of this Rehoboth Beach, Delaware famous eatery. Original review HERE

Although I’m not sure that “famous” is the correct adjective here in that I certainly never heard of this eatery before moving to the swamps of Delaware. Yet go there on a Saturday night, and this AFTER Labor Day, and you’ll have an hour and a half wait, easily. Somebody’s obviously heard of this place.

It was time for a mother-in-law visit and as I stated in the first review in the link above, she does adore the Merryland crab cakes made from lump backfin crab meat and broiled to perfection.

But is it worth the hour and a half wait?

As a group, husband, myself and mother-in-law, we decided it was not.

Which is not to say there isn’t fine food offered at the Big Fish Grill, including fresh fish perfectly prepared. The restaurant also has a busy carry-out section and if looking for fresh seafood to prepare for dinner, one can’t go wrong here.

On this most recent visit I had two “whale” sized soft crabs and as a native Merrylander (not that I’m necessarily proud of this fact) I consider soft crabs God’s gift to the weary earth.

Soft crabs are, however, a tricky thing to make but I was confident Big Fish Grill would do a good job. And they did.

Those soft crabs were huge and fried to crispy perfection. My mother-in-law was amazed that people even eat such things. Just for effect, I pulled off the claws of the soft crab one by one and munched on each joyfully as if potato chips.

Soft crabs are usually blue crabs caught during the act of molting off their old shell and right before a newer, harder shell replaces it. The crab is cleaned of what Merrylanders call “the devil”, really the crab’s lungs, and the eyeballs are removed for aesthetic purposes. Although I’d eat the eyeballs, no problem. Beyond that, the soft crab is then simply dipped in seasoned flour and fried quickly to a precise crispness. That’s all there is to it. The entire soft crab is served, complete with legs and the now crispy outside shell. The legs, if eaten correctly, are removed one by one and eaten right on down. The body of the soft crab can then be cut with a knife or torn apart by hand and again, sent down to a happy stomach.

The soft crabs were indeed “whale” sized and I could only eat one that night of the visit. The other made a delicious lunch later in the week.

Husband had a barbecued shrimp appetizer and a fried flounder for his dinner. Mother-in-law had her signature crab cakes and it’s a treat she’s come to enjoy on her annual visits.

Big Fish Grill serves above-average side dishes with their seafood offerings. Their mashed potatoes rates an A+. I had a side of stewed tomatoes, a side dish not offered nearly often enough. All entrees usually include the Grill’s cole slaw, a good side with large shreds of regular and red cabbage, lightly dressed.

Husband’s barbecued shrimp appeared to really be barbecued in that black grill marks on the skewered shrimp indicated they’d actually been cooked on some sort of grill affair. The flounder was perfectly prepared as would be expected from this restaurant’s specialty.

Beyond the very good food, and make no mistake Big Fish Grill does their seafood job well, there’s no way that long wait is worth it. At some point a diner has to decide and these diners decided that the wait is simply too long. We have lives out here in la-la land and whiling away hours waiting to eat is a waste of a busy life. And no, we didn’t get to the front of the line in honor of our name…FISH. Heh.

In addition, the Big Fish Grill is so crowded and noisy that we couldn’t talk to each other without strain as we enjoyed our meal.

Nope. Just not worth the bother. Perhaps a weeknight visit or in the dead of winter, maybe. Unfortunately mother-in-law visits revolve around a weekend. She specifically arrives after Labor Day in the resort area just to avoid the crowds.

Next year we intend to avoid the crowds at the Big Fish Grill. Too bad. They really do serve excellent seafood.

Big Fish Grill web site.

Below some selections from the Big Fish Grill’s menu:
Seafood Offerings

FRESH ½ LB PEEL & EAT SHRIMP “SERVED COLD” W/ COCKTAIL & OLD BAY

FRESH BAKED MUSSELS W/ GORGONZOLA & LIGHT LOBSTER SAUCE

FRESH FIELD GREENS W/MANDARIN ORANGES, PINE NUTS, GORGONZOLA, & HONEY DIJON

FRESH SMOKED SALMON NAPOLEON W/ FRIED WONTONS, WASABI & HAWAIIAN BBQ GLAZE

FRESH HAND ROLLED SHRIMP&VEGETABLE SPRING ROLLS W/HAWAIIAN DIPPING SAUCE

FRESH PRIME 14OZ VEAL CHOP OVER MASHERS W/ GORGONZOLA & PORT WINE DEMI

Appetizers
=========
Chopped Salad
Romaine, carrots, tomatoes, corn and cucumbers tossed in our buttermilk garlic dressing

Caesar Salad
Homemade recipe using pasteurized eggs

Grilled Charcoal Shrimp
Served with melted butter

Fried Grouper Fingers
Served with homemade tartar sauce

House Smoked Fish Dip
available for take out

Homemade Garlic Bread
Soup of the Day

Other
==========
Big Sirloin
A 10oz. sirloin over mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy and your choice of one sides

Big Chops
Twin center-cut chops served over mashed potatoes, homemade gravy and baked spiced apples

Steak and Shrimp
A petite filet and our grilled charcoal shrimp

Big Shrimp
Twelve large shrimp sprinkled with our famous char-seasoning served over saffron rice

Big Chicken
A juicy 10oz breast served over mashed potatoes

Mom's Meatloaf
Served with mashed potatoes and gravy

Big Chicken Sandwich
Grilled 10oz. breast topped with cheddar and bacon served with fries and a pickle

Fried Grouper Sandwich
Hand-Breaded "Farm Raised" Grouper filets served with fries and tartar sauce

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

A little more info on Baby Boy Biden -

Failed the DE bar exam 3 times.

Leapfrogged over more qualified applicants for the Justice Department job that Daddy-O got him.

Attended events that candidates are specifically banned from.

Has only had 3 criminal trials in his career, has never prosecuted a criminal in Delaware and has never prosecuted a capital murder case, ever.

If this kid gets elected I hope to goodness I'm never a victim of a crime - half the AG's office will resign once he comes on board.