JACK BERNARD'S TRAVELS

Posted by jdbernard743

· March 29, 2025

“Only the Best People…”

It will be interesting to see if anyone still visits Jack Bernard’s Travels. It’s effectively been on pause since the fall of 2023 when I went back to school for a low residency two year novel writing program at Stanford. No novel yet, but last week I finished the last required course which means I now have more time and flexibility to write here.

I’ve missed writing the JBT blog and commenting on things that matter to me—art, film, food, books, travel (and occasionally politics)—and I’ve missed hearing back from you about what you like or don’t like. I haven’t been totally absent–in 2023 I posted twelve essays and last year I wrote two restaurant reviews, a critique of Boeing’s engineering failures, and three essays on why I couldn’t support Biden (before he pulled the plug). Nevertheless, JBT has been off more than on.

***

So today, when I looked at this blank page, I didn’t know where to start. The world has changed so much in the last year and half…and so have I. So much turmoil. War. Autocracy. Climate disasters. Political chaos. The world is changing at warp speed. It’s inconceivable. So much to think about. So much to write about. It hasn’t been an easy time.

But there have been good things too. I’ve seen so many good films, read so many good books, seen so much good art, listened to so much good music – but I’ve also lost too many good friends. But, before I write about anything else I need to address the elephant in the White House.

I don’t plan to go “full monty” and only comment on politics, but I am concerned about what’s happening. And though I’m more interested in the arts, film, books, sports and food than I am in the day to day drama created by a vengeful, tantrum prone 78 year old infant I can’t ignore it. In the interest of brevity, I’ll limit myself and focus on the list of “only the best people” now populating the people’s house, You judge for yourselves. Here’s the lineup as of March 29, 2025:

A felonious sexual predator, pathological liar, racist, grifter, draft dodger and failed businessman
A heavily tattooed sexual predator and Fox News host with an alcohol problem who rose all the way to Captain in the National Guard (the same rank I achieved in the Marine Corps) without getting reprimanded
A pneumatically augmented canine assassin who looks like a sex toy and chose a tight white T-shirt and jeans for a prison visit in El Salvador
A tech illiterate who fecklessly called a strike group meeting on an insecure platform where minute by minute attack plans were posted and shared with a journalist mistakenly invited to join the call
A creepy anti-vaccine advocate with a worm in his brain and known to carry dead animals in his car
A World Wrestling impresario’s wife
A Fox host-looking blond with a law degree and questionable integrity
A Fox News host/reality TV star with nine children who, as FAA boss, “hopes they can travel safely.”
A military veteran who spouts RT propaganda and won’t say she thinks Edward Snowden is a traitor
An NFL veteran and motivational speaker with no experience in housing and urban development
A woman who grew up on a farm now in charge of US Agriculture
An oil and gas CEO who thinks “renewables are Soviet-style communism.”

And then there’s the South African born, chainsaw brandishing, three passport holding, proto-Nazi with Asperger’s syndrome and enough money to buy the US government thanks to the Supreme’s Citizens United decision.

From Chaplin to Sellers to Musk

From Hitler to Strangelove to Musk

From farce to dark comedy to fascism

***

Now, on a more positive note, I hope you’ll go back to the top and enjoy the view of Mt. Baker from Brackett’s Landing in Edmonds where I walk every morning. It’s quiet, peaceful and calming. Far from the “the best people.”

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Categories : Ethics, News and Media, Personal/Family, Politics, Uncategorized, Writing, Writing

Posted by jdbernard743

· November 4, 2024

· No Comments

Getaway…

T. S. Eliot wrote that “April is the cruelest month.” For me it’s November. The days have suddenly gone from the warm bright colors of Indian Summer to the rainy grays of approaching winter. The transition comes quickly, and now I have to think twice about whether to wear a rain shell, a down parka or both. Adding to sunlight affective disorder (SAD) is the darkness and impending doom of this week’s presidential election.

M and I used to getaway by getting on an airplane and flying to some exotic destination. It wasn’t so much getting away as getting to, but times have changed. We have aged. Our world is smaller. And, today we focus on local pleasures—especially food and friends.

Here, in the Northwest, it’s hard to find the perfect getaway. Not impossible but difficult. From our apartment we look out at Puget Sound and just north of us are the San Juan Islands. In October, M’s son Matthew gave her the escape valve we needed—a gift certificate for dinner at a James Beard nominated restaurant on Orcas Island. The irony is that he thought we could jump on the ferry in Edmonds and walk-off on Orcas. Unfortunately the ferry to Orcas leaves from Anacortes, a two hour drive north of Edmonds.

It was a great gift, and last week we reserved two places on Friday evening at Matia Kitchen’s chef’s table. Then we booked a room in a charming, no TV, Bed and Breakfast called Kangaroo House. (Don’t ask. I have no idea how they came up with the name). Getaway weekend. No TV. No barrage of political news. A much needed break.

The tasting menu at Matia (pronounced May-sha) is ten courses with eight paired wines, and we were served at the kitchen counter by Julia, a professional sommelier-in-exile, who received her training at several of San Francisco’s fine dining restaurants before returning to the Northwest.

Ten courses and eight wines are a challenge for the chef, the server and the guests. Orcas is an island and seasonal. In the summer it’s full of tourists – sailors, cyclists, campers and summer residents. In the winter it’s cold, wet, dark and empty. Matia is a destination restaurant. It can’t survive on local business. I know what that’s like, having owned and operated Piccolo, also a seasonal restaurant. It’s always a struggle. Piccolo wasn’t fine dining but it was upscale and expensive to operate in the slower seasons. Like Noma it’s famous Danish counterpart, Matia’s survival depends on two things – a quality dining experience and a reputation that extends beyond its local geography – and it takes time to establish that reputation no matter how high the quality.

Matia opened in 2016, having established itself as a fine dining experience, first as a pop-up then in a storefront before taking over its current upscale contemporary location on Prune Street in Eastsound. The owners, Chef Avery Adams and Manager Drew Downing, were determined to offer the highest quality dining experience with locally sourced products whenever possible. It started attracting attention beyond the islands in 2021 when it was nominated as one of the James Beard Foundation’s Best New Restaurants. It garnered another nomination in 2022 and Adams was a finalist for Best Chef Northwest in 2023 and 2024. All well deserved.

As with other multi-course tasting menus, portions are small and demand your attention. Our first course was an oyster from Judd Cove, just down the road, served with a savory Matia hot sauce and seaweed garnish accompanied by an Alsatian sparking Crémant.

I won’t go course by course through the menu, but suffice it to say they varied from smoked celery root to Dungeness crab with sweet peppers to a braised local pork chop and finished with an eggplant chocolate, sesame ricotta accompanied by a sweet Pineau des Charentes.

Last month, I wrote about our dinner at Bouchon in the Napa Valley, and I have to say this experience at Matia was its equivalent. I remarked then that the perfect restaurant experience is like the operation of Swiss watch—so many synchronized moving parts and elements. The tasting menu at Matia changes nightly, so there is a lot of detailed planning required. The menu is professionally printed for each meal. The food is served on beautifully crafted, locally made pottery, and the wine served in a variety of glassware from sparkling-wine goblets to large balloon shapes to smaller dessert wine glasses. Our pairing even included an organic Saki (yes, it’s a rice wine) with the lobster mushroom course somewhere in the middle of the meal. Delicious.

Most satisfying about the experience was being transported from the helter-skelter world of presidential politics to an Epicurean world of simplicity, quality, friendship and community. Our meal was very expensive – far beyond the means of people living paycheck to paycheck – but the couple seated next to us were a local electrician and his social worker wife who were anxious to try their famous neighbor’s famous food and willing to splurge for the experience. We bonded and parted as friends. Food brings people together. It was a great escape and well worth the expense.

Epicurus believed that happiness was the ultimate goal of human life and could be achieved through moderation, simplicity, friendship, and community. We agree. It was a great getaway. Thanks, Matt.

Categories : Food/Restaurants, Personal/Family, Travel, Uncategorized

Posted by jdbernard743

· October 21, 2024

· No Comments

Cracks in the Edifice and What’s Troubling Me…

In fourteen days America will have a new (or old) president, and it is not hyperbolic to say that democracy is at stake. My Inbox is full of doomsday scenarios, pleas for money and hysterical exhortations to get out the vote. Oracles and Cassandras abound. Democrats are raking in millions but need even more to fight off huge money dumps from Trump’s billionaire coven – Elon Musk, Miriam Adelson, Timothy Mellon, the Uihlein’s and Peter Thiel.

It’s the train wreck you see coming but have no power to prevent or ignore. Will they or won’t they? How did we get here? Is our system of government so broken it can’t be reengineered? It feels like it, but maybe it’s always been that way. For 240 years Americans told themselves that the great democratic experiment was working. And it was—but imperfectly. Three equal branches. Checks and balances. Free and fair elections. “One man, one vote.” And, the peaceful transfer of power every four years. Most of these things were philosophical constructs, stories we told ourselves for more than two centuries. The truth is darker.

For 93 of those 240 years only white men were allowed to vote. It took another 51 years for women to get the franchise, and though the Fifteenth Amendment guaranteed all men the right to vote, the victory was pyrrhic since Jim Crow laws kept the majority of African Americans without a vote for 94 more years and enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Not exactly “a more perfect union.”

Four US presidents have been assassinated. Americans killed six-hundred-twenty thousand of their own in the Civil War, and gun-related deaths in the US (murder or suicide) have risen annually from 20,000 in 1968 to 49,000 in 2021.

I was a believer and considered myself a long term optimist even when things looked threatening in the short term. I saw the “glass half full” until 2016. Today my glass is almost empty. It isn’t that I don’t see the potential for renewal. It’s that the system is failing those of us who still believe in the republic, and the tools that could repair it are hopelessly locked up. Our government is divided, gridlocked and ossified.

***

Even our most cherished institutions have been corrupted. The Supreme Court has been politicized. Justices Thomas and Alito no longer even pay lip service to the institution’s history, promise of impartial constitutional analysis and adherence to stare decisis. They vote according to their grievance based far-right political preferences and are shameless as they do.

***

Similarly, the co-equal legislative branch, Senate and House of Representatives is also broken, polarized, and ineffective. On January 6, 2020, without evidence of fraud or other inappropriate activity, 147 Republican members of the House of Representatives refused to certify the presidential results and the legitimacy of President Biden’s claim to the office. In effect they voted to overturn the results in favor of Donald Trump. To this day the loser refuses to acknowledge the legitimacy of his loss.

***

Here are the three things that trouble me most about America and the upcoming election:

Democrats have argued that democracy is at stake, and I agree. But it’s an argument that feels hollow. If this is a democracy governed by and committed to the “rule of law” then how is it possible for a convicted felon who remains under Federal indictment for sedition, is a pathological liar, and was found to be a sexual predator by a jury of his peers even be allowed on the ballot? The Supreme Court and Congress are bending over backward to be “fair” to him. What about being fair to the American electorate? The system is broken and the only way to begin the needed repair is to deny him the power he craves. VOTE!!!

2. But democracy is not only at stake in America. Autocracy is gaining strength around the world. I may not be able to change that elsewhere, but I may be able to exert pressure here. One of the most egregious examples of autocracy in action is what’s happening in Israel where the US is complicit in Netanyahu’s genocidal fatwa on the Palestinian people of Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon. Yes, the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 was heinous, but obliterating Gaza and killing more than 41,000 Palestinians in pursuit of a handful of Hamas leaders is equally uncivilized. President Biden has tried for months to exert pressure on Netanyahu and been brushed off like an irritating insect. Netanyahu’s determination to extinguish “Hamas” looks more and more like a “final solution” corruption of everything Israel stood for under Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, Yitzhak Rabin, Menachem Begin, and Shimon Peres. and that America is complicit by continuing to provide weapons and money supporting the war. Like Trump Netanyahu is under indictment and struggling to stay in power by pandering to the hard right. America should take an effective stand in favor of a democratic Israel. New leadership can effectuate that change.

3. And finally I, like the majority of Americans, do not understand how or why seven “swing” states can be allowed to elect the president of the United States, the most powerful elected official in the world. James Madison, the primary architect of the Constitution, feared that if a majority of voters could determine the winner it might also disenfranchise a minority. But, times have changed and gerrymandering has skewed the “one man, one vote” principle and made the archaic Electoral College a dangerous anachronism. Minorities need to be protected but the current system allows for tyranny by a minority. I highly recommend Bill Petrocelli’s Electoral Bait and Switch, a review of the Electoral College with suggestions for improvement (available on Amazon).

It’s time to seal the cracks and refill our glasses. Don’t be silent. I urge you to vote.

Categories : Books, Ethics, News and Media, Politics

Posted by jdbernard743

· September 21, 2024

· 4 Comments

The Bear vs. Bouchon…

Creating the perfect meal is nearly impossible. Like opera, the most complex of the arts, something almost always goes wrong. Carmy gets locked in the walk-in freezer on opening night. Richie dumps a plate of pasta on a celebrity guest. Donna Barzatto creeps out Natalie while she’s in labor with Danny’s baby. Everyone loves The Bear, the true-to-life fictional TV drama about creating a fine dining restaurant with all its loose ends and tangled relationships.

I know how hard it is to deliver the perfect meal. I’m no Carmy, but in the 80s and 90s I owned, managed and made all the pasta for Piccolo, our small Italian bistro in Sun Valley. I loved it. And, it’s enormously satisfying to feed people – especially people who love food – but with all the moving pieces it’s hard to pull off a superior dining experience with grace and style.

Thomas Keller is a master chef/restauranteur in Yountville, California (and makes a guest appearance on The Bear). Before we left home for our annual trip to the Bay Area, M and I decided to go for the big Napa Valley splurge–dinner at Keller’s The French Laundry. What the hell; we’d rather eat well than save.

On an earlier bike trip to Napa we peeked through the window at the famous 3-starred Michelin restaurant. This time we wanted to see it from the inside, but we weren’t naïve. It’s almost impossible to get a reservation. We did our best but, alas, the window for reservations opened at 10 a.m. on a Monday, but we weren’t able to connect until 10:20 and by then everything was booked for the next 60 days. Back to the drawing board with new enthusiasm and motivation.

Having decided on a big splurge and been denied at The Laundry, we were even more determined to treat ourselves. There are dozens of high quality restaurants in the Napa Valley. We had tried several on earlier trips including Mustard’s, Tra Vigne, and Auberge du Soleil, but there was another Keller option—his one-star Bouchon Bistro just a block away from his flagship. It’s not exactly settling when the alternative also has a Michelin star.

Cutting to the chase…we took Lyft to Bouchon, so we weren’t worried about drinking and driving, and checked in with the hostess. The table in the far corner of this photo is where she seated us. A perfect place to watch everything and everyone.

Bouchon is a bistro. Hard surfaces. Tables close together. Mirrors. Noisy. Waiters. Busboys and more than one sommelier. Done right it’s magical. Like the Swiss-movement inside the steel case of a Rolex Submariner everything moves synchronously. Bouchon was like that.

I think Bouchon is unique among fine dining restaurants in that it offers carafe wine chosen by the sommelier as an alternative to its more expensive list of bottled wines. We liked the idea and opted in. We chose the Napa Valley grenache, a Rhone-style red that was light and full-flavored. When we asked, Braulio, our waiter, told us it was from Three Clicks, a winery that sells only to restaurants or online. Now we’re getting into the weeds, but that’s the way it is. Everything at Bouchon is handpicked and special.

When it came to ordering food it was easy. M wanted steak frites. Classic French bistro. She remembers how delicious the pan-seared flatiron steak with caramelized shallots and crispy, thin, fries were during our Paris days. But, I’d been waiting a long time to test Julia Child’s recommendation that the best way to assess a French restaurant’s quality is to order poulet roti—plain old roast chicken. So I did.

But, fine dining is more than just an entrée. Our food preferences are different but M and I are adventurous eaters. Her choice for the first course was a simple laitue, lightly dressed butter lettuce, but I wanted something out of the ordinary and chose the chilled corn soup with herbs and thinly sliced shallots. (see right).

Second course. Bingo. Julia nailed it. My roast chicken was brined and astonishingly moist with crispy skin surrounded by a sweet corn, mushroom, bacon lardons and Dijon jus, and M’s steak was so tender she cut it with her table knife.

But the perfect restaurant experience is more than the food, service or ambience. In my experience it’s also the serendipitous surprises that make it memorable—and ours came in conversation with the group at the next table. I don’t normally talk to strangers in a restaurant, but M talks to everyone. And, she usually finds interesting people. That was resoundingly true at Bouchon that night.

As we were finishing our entrées one of the women at the table next to ours leaned over and asked how we got the best table in the house. Were we important or just lucky? She told us that her tablemates wanted to know more about us. She said they had been talking about us since we sat down, because they liked the way we were engaged with each other. She wanted to know how long we had been married. She was surprised when we told her it was only 14 years but nonplussed when we told her we had known each other for 75.

We were curious about them too and learned that she and two of her tablemates were chefs who were in Napa to film an episode of Guy Fieri’s Tournament of Champions Top Chef competition. Her name is Antonia Lofaso and she has three acclaimed restaurants in Los Angeles including Scopa in Venice, CA.

We finished dinner with an espresso and split a lemon tart—the perfect palate cleanser. And finally…when we asked Braulio, our waiter, for the check he noticed the Navy wings on my ID bracelet and asked if I was military. I answered, “Once upon a time,” and when he returned the check included a $35 “military discount” bringing the total, with tip, to just under $200.

No question…everything about the Bouchon experience was memorable. The Swiss-movement operated flawlessly, and though we would gladly have paid the going rate of $390 per person at The French Laundry we ended up having “perfect” meal with the same chef for less than a quarter of the cost. We Lyft-ed back to the hotel and slept like babies.

Carmy is out of the walk-in now and just picked up another Emmy. We can’t wait for Season 4 next fall, but in the meantime we’re looking forward to Food Network’s Tournament of Champions and hoping Antonia walks off with Top Chef honors. Sante’.

Our swing through Napa knocked it out of the park. Thanks, Chef…

Categories : Art, Food/Restaurants, Friendship, Travel, Work and Adventure

Posted by jdbernard743

· August 26, 2024

· 8 Comments

Where’s My Walter Cronkite?

It takes reliable information to make good decisions whether you’re buying a new car or deciding who you’ll vote for. But, election cycles always heighten questions of trust and the reliability of news sources. Who can we believe? Who can we trust? Who is most insightful?

In the 4^th Century BC, the Greek philosopher, Diogenes, famously carried a lantern around daytime Athens “looking for an honest man.” History doesn’t tell us if he was successful, but wandering around town with a lantern isn’t going to do the job these days.

When the avalanche of information available on the Internet came, I felt that education’s primary purpose was to teach lifelong critical thinking skills, especially the assessment and credibility of information sources.

Last week a friend asked why I hadn’t posted a blog lately. The only answer I could offer was a case of PTSD caused by the dismal state of political discourse. It felt like we were condemned to watch two old dogs scratching at each other for position in the doghouse, one hobbled and dissembling, the other sclerotic overfed and whining about how unfairly he was being treated. With four months to go, the prospect of that stale fare was beyond depressing.

Even though I knew the 2024 presidential election would be critically important for the future of American democracy, I couldn’t overcome the torpor of the campaigns. Blogging about it would just be a repeat of my earlier expressions of disappointment. It looked like America’s future was going end up in the hands of a doddering octogenarian—one well-meaning, the other malevolent.

Then, miracle of miracle, close friends, political operatives and advisors prevailed on President Biden to step aside and let his younger more vigorous Vice President prosecute the case.

I can’t guarantee my PTSD is completely gone. It was eight years in the making and deeply ingrained, but I’m cautiously optimistic. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz look like the America I want going forward. It’s early, but their enthusiasm and growing momentum have helped revive the spirit and energy I felt during the Obama years. Their “joy” is refreshing and seems to be contagious.

***

I’m probably exposed to too much news. I wake up to NPR or BBC then watch CBS Mornings. In the evening M and I get a mixed menu of MSNBC, CNN, and Fox. And while there are a couple of personalities I’d miss, my life would probably be better if our TV went dark until after the election.

What I would miss, however, are the satirists. Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, SNL, Bill Maher, and John Oliver along with print folks like The Borowitz Report, The Onion (now coming back with a print version), and Maureen Dowd.

Lately, wehave started our day by watching last night’s The Daily Show rather than CBS Mornings. It makes us smile rather than frown and fret. Jon Stewart is back on Monday night, and we’ve developed a liking for the rest of the cast – Desi Lydic, Jordan Klepper, and Ronnie Chieng – as well. Stewart’s take on politics is refreshing, funny, and entertaining. But he’s also a serious journalist. I remind myself, and you, that he’s devoted 23 years to making sure first responders are compensated for the health consequences of their service on 9/11. And while the cast of The Daily Show may lean left, they have a take no prisoners approach when political stupidity presents itself. Right or left.

Fox also has a “satirical” off-beat take on the news, but it feels more mean-spirited. Greg Gutfeld is the smirking host of Gutfeld, but his panel of experts, lounging in easy chairs, looks more like Jimmy Buffett’s Gypsies in the Palace than serious journalists or a comedy ensemble. They include a snarky pro-wrestler (Tyrus), a former NFL sideline reporter (Michelle Tafoya) and an aspiring libertarian comedienne (Kat Timpf) charged with making political commentary in a talk show format. I haven’t figured out if they’re a sideshow act or a trashy new version of The Talk.

No one has that problem with SNL or Late Night with Stephen Colbert. Their skits and monologues are plain old political satire. Make no mistake, satire is serious, but it’s tongue-in-cheek serious not mean-spirited serious.

Everyone gets the Borowitz headlines, “RFK Jr. Brings Much Needed Sanity to Trump Campaign” or “George Santos Declares Jim Jordan’s Identity Not Worth Stealing.” Everyone knows Colin Jost and Michael Che are being satirical on SNL’s Weekend Update (but I do miss Stephan). What makes satire so effective is irony, humor and exaggeration. It’s often an effective way to understand a society and provide insights into its collective psyche.

But, even I know we can’t just rely on political satire for our news. We need to figure out the serious side of the news as well. Who’s giving it to us straight? Who is today’s Walter Cronkite? Who’s going to tell us we’re losing the war—or our democracy? I don’t think there is a Cronkite or Huntley/Brinkley. Today’s network news is a series of sound bites that tease but don’t satisfy, and the PBS News Hour that used to be great when Jim Lehrer and Robin MacNeil were hosting now puts me to sleep. I still like NPR for daily reporting, but when I want serious opinion with historical context I like Heather Cox Richardson’s daily newsletter (available on Facebook) and Jill Lepore’s long form articles in the New Yorker.

There are 71 days until Election Day. This may be the last election I’ll see. I want a positive outcome so I can pass the baton to my children and grandchildren with hope for a bright future. Let’s do the right thing and elect the responsible grown up—who happens to be a woman and person of color. That’s an America for the future. Let’s get it right on November 5, 2024.

Categories : Ethics, News and Media, Politics, Uncategorized