The Blog According To Buzz

Picture Butte rhymes with cute, not butt. Still, I call it Picture Butt. I thought the boys would think it cute to head out to a place where you “take a picture of your butt,” or “pick your butt.” Apparently, I’m the child in the family.

On a rainy weekend that washed out our plans to go camping, I took Zacharie on a road trip southeast of Calgary to visit Nanton, Vulcan, Little Bow Provincial Park, and .. Picture Butte. (did you read it as butt in your head? I did)

All in all we spent about 9 hours on the road, put 450 km on the car and had an awesome adventure looking for something to do in Picture Butte.

Picture Butte doesn’t have an actual butte anymore. They eroded it away when building the city decades ago. So there isn’t a picturesque butte to see in what is now called The Livestock Feeding Capital of Canada.

Picture Butte is a town of less than 2000 that has a reservoir, a main street, a grain elevator and a tractor museum. That’s about it.

There is not much to do in Picture Butte, but as someone who likes to collect pictures of prairie grain elevators, I absolutely had to add this one to my collection.

“We know we don’t have it all, as they say, but what we have is terrific and we are proud to call this town home,” says Mike Derricott, Chief Administrative Officer for the Town of Picture Butte.

While I missed Koster’s Bakery, I did pop in to the Frosty Dip (seemingly the only place open on Sunday of the May Long Weekend). Classic burgers, dogs, and handmade milkshakes are what you’ll find here. Perfect.

Just south of town is the Prairie Tractor and Engineer Club Museum. It is a large piece of land featuring a dozen or so heritage buildings from around Southern Alberta as well as a collection of hundreds of pieces of farm equipment. They’re all lying out in the field, and you can drive around, wander about, or climb in all of them. Admission is by donation and it’s a fabulous place to kickstart the imagination of kids who love mighty machines.

“Southern Alberta has a rich history, filled with inventors, collectors, pioneers, bootleggers and more. This collection of history does not simply include pictures and the items used during those times, the Coyote Flats Pioneer Village is assembled by the very buildings the people who shaped our history lived in. Brought in from around the province, the history is kept alive. Walk the streets, see the history written about in books and the activities that kept our ancestors busy throughout their days.”
[Prairie Tractor]

A visit to Picture Butte makes for a long daytrip from Calgary (it’s 450km round trip), but if you’re already headed to the south of the province on other business or a longer vacation, spending a lunch break in Picture Butte is a great way to stretch the legs for an hour or so.

This surf and turf recipe is so cheap and so so easy. It’s a steak, and some shrimp. That’s it, although you could easily grill some asparagus alongside the steak or toss a salad if you need veggies.

I got a nice, thin, 5 oz steak in a pack at WalMart. 2 for $5. Awesome. I got the shrimp already cooked, with tails on in the seafood couter. They were dead cheap too.

A thin steak and precooked shrimp means this wicked easy surf and turf recipe takes 5 minutes. TOPS.

Ingredients:

1 Steak
7oz / 220 gram cooked shrimp/prawns
1 Tb butter
1 clove garlic finely chopped
1 Tb fresh chopped Italian parsley
1 Tb fresh chopped cilantro

Method:

Preheat the barbecue.

Melt the butter in a pan over medium / high heat. Quickly sautee the garlic.

Toss in the shrimp/prawns

Barbecue should be heated by now, throw on the steak.

Toss the shrimp with the butter and garlic. We’re just trying to warm up the seafood here, they’re already cooked.

Head outside and flip your steak.

Toss in the parsley and cilantro. Knock a few turns from your pepper mill in too. Again, we’re just trying to get everything mingling here. It’s already cooked.

How’s the steak?

Plate the shrimp, head outside and plate your steak.

That, friends, is the easiest, fastest, cheapest, best surf and turf recipe you will find. 5 minutes to cook surf and turf, and less than that to eat it. Love.

Ladies and gentlemen of the class of ’99, wear sunscreen.

Do you remember Baz Luhrman‘s 1999 recording of Mary Schmich’s 1997 newspaper column?

A speech, with a little bit of music, climbed the pop charts. As a radio host, I remember playing it over and over and over again. That, and Vitamin C‘s Graduation. You forgot about that one, I bet.

Now, as grad season approaches again (and everyone graduates every year it now appears – even kindergarteners), instead of a ‘song’ going viral on the radio, one has hit it big on YouTube.

8 years ago, award winning novelist,  David Foster Wallace, gave the commencement address to the Class of 2005 at Kenyon College.  The speech was called This Is Water.  For years the audio version was passed and shared between fans. And now, it is everywhere.

Wallace’s 20 minute address was edited to 10 and beautifully turned into a short film by The Glossary. They added some background music, and some clever graphics.  Basically, they  have done the modern version of what Luhrman did when he took an old Chicago Tribune op-ed and turned it into a hit.  4.7 million views, and counting ..

This Is Water is a lesson in empathy. It’s a lesson in seeing the unseen. It’s a lesson in remembering the little things. It’s a lesson in not sweating the small stuff. He gave the speech to a college grad class, but he could have just as easily given it to each and every one of us.

When we become adults we get so wrapped up in our day in, day out routine that we can’t see the forest for the trees.

Life is beautiful. Relax. You’re not the only one having a bad day, we are all trying to get our grocery cart through the checkout to get home. You can choose to let it get to you, or you can empathize with those around you. Enjoying life is a choice after all, this is water.

The capital-T Truth is about life BEFORE death.

It is about the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over:

“This is water.”

“This is water.”

It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive in the adult world day in and day out. Which means yet another grand cliché turns out to be true: your education really IS the job of a lifetime. And it commences: now.

I wish you way more than luck.

- David Foster Wallace

 Image via iStockPhoto 

The Body Worlds exhibit lands at the Telus World of Science in Edmonton this month. I had a chance to see it in Calgary in 2010, and these are some photos and thoughts from that visit:

The perspective the display gives you on yourself is inspiring.

Dr Angelina Whalley, von Hagen’s wife, has seen first hand how millions have been moved by the exhibit and says “they realize how wonderfully the body is made up and how fragile it is. It really changes people’s minds. They often leave saying “I have a completely different view of myself and I won’t take my body for granted as I did.”

That’s exactly how I felt. I can’t take this magical machine for granted.

STUNNING

I paused and lingered with each exhibit, staring intently at the way tiny nerve fibres pierce each muscle. I examined intently the way the body is mapped and wired and how each piece fits to work with another while making room for something else.

I peeked inside and around and wandered behind each body form to get a complete view of exactly how everything works.

IS IT OKAY FOR KIDS?

Originally I was invited to view the exhibit as a parent and someone who could give perspective as to whether it was suitable for children.

Dr Whalley remembers a 9 year old boy viewing the smoker and non smoker lungs side by side and immediately jumped at his father when he saw how black the smoker’s lung had become.

“Daddy daddy did you see that? I want you to stop smoking! I don’t want you to look like that!”, she recalled him saying.

Thinking about the profound effect that sample can have on children, she added “I’m sure he will never ever touch a cigarette in his life.”

Zacharie is nearly 3 and has a wild imagination. He is just developing a sense of fear to the point where some episodes of The Backyardigans upset him. I very often give him the benefit of the doubt and will probably take him to view the exhibit, but will make sure there’s an easy out in case he needs to leave.

Tickets for Body Worlds are legendarily in high demand.

HIGHLIGHTS:

- This new version of the groundbreaking anatomical exhibition series allows visitors to witness the body living through time—as it changes, grows, matures, and finally wanes.

- The exhibition features 20 full-body plastinates in various action poses and more than 200 real human specimens.

- See individual organs and systems as well as full-body plastinates in various action poses, including hockey players, a baseball player, a ballet dancer, ice skaters, a woman executing a yoga pose, and more.

- The Artists’ Gaze is a part of the exhibition exploring the sight and visions of artists Claude Monet and Edgar Degas who suffered from cataracts and retinal eye disease.

- Centennial Village is a part of the exhibition examining geographic clusters around the world where the longest living people live and the common traits and lifestyle practices that are worthy of attention.

- Additional highlights include multimedia displays showing the physical effects of aging and plastinated specimens showing the effects of the aging process in our bodies.

- The exhibition celebrates life in all stages, including childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age.

Body Worlds & The Cycle of Life opens at The Telus World of Science in Edmonton on May 18, 2013.

He said yes!

In search of a parade marshall for the 2013 Calgary Stampede, the Stampede Committee started pitching Chris Hadfield via Twitter yesterday and YouTube today.

.@calgarystampede Calgary in July sounds lovely! Anything worth coming to see that time of year? #Stampede101

— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) May 8, 2013

Of course they would go to Twitter to pitch the man, that’s where he’s made his name and spread awareness of his mission. His daily photos of the planet are a chance to look in the interstellar mirror that we rarely see.

His Twitter conversation with William Shatner was pure geeky genius. And now, again, Commander Hadfield has a wonderful Twitter conversation that has raised cheers.

“Space suit, white hat, cowboy boots – I’ll be ready to ride anything that stays below 8km a second,” he reponded to the original idea.

Then, after the formal invitation was made, Canada’s biggest star accepted.

.@calgarystampede I would be THRILLED to be the Stampede Parade Marshall! A great reason to come back to Earth! twitter.com/Cmdr_Hadfield/…

— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) May 9, 2013

Chad Klepaycuk of Okotoks claimed his $15.8 million dollars this week. He was one of 4 people holding a winning ticket in the largest jackpot in Canadian lottery history.

The first question all reporters ask winners of big jackpots is “what will you do with the money!?”

Chad, like many winners, was vague in his answer.

“I have no idea at this point,” he said.

“Maybe a new truck. I don’t know, possibly lots of warm trips and a condo on the ocean.”

You have to admit, nearly $16M in one shot is a lot of cake for a refrigeration and air conditioning technician apprentice. To that end, Chad has already quit that gig.

I know exactly what I would do if I won the lottery. Perhaps it’s because I’m the grandson of a man who has rolled the dice with a loonie or two every week for my entire life. Perhaps it’s because I’m a dreamer.

First: Buy a house. Big enough to not complain about being cramped, but not too ridiculous. Most likely it would be on or near the water in West Vancouver, it would depend on where the boys would go to school.

Second: Split it up with family and friends. Mortgages would be paid off for many people that we know, we’d share that wealth as best we could.

Third: What next? I mean – really – what next? Chad quit his job, but at 25 years old what is he going to do with the next 60+ years of life he has ahead of him? Driving trucks and sitting in oceanfront condos would get tired pretty quickly.

For me, I would start a foundation. I was a cross-country runner in high school, and now I’m a runner for Team Diabetes. My foundation would sponsor high school cross country or track teams from across the country to travel to Team Diabetes events. 8 or 10 kids every couple of months would get a chance to see the world, learn about their health, and spread the word about diabetes awareness.

I’d still have something to do, and it would be something that would be giving back.

Then I’d buy a truck, take a trip, and grab an oceanfront condo for escapes.

I can’t be the only one who has plotted out the ‘what if I won the lottery’ scenario – am I?

Image via Sam Craig

The Naaco Truck picking up their award for Best New Midway Food for 2012

Here we go again. The diet goes out the window at the county fair. The Calgary Stampede has released their deep fried midway food list for 2013. Look out tummy, hello yummy.

I’ve waded my way through Donut Burgers, Macaroni and Cheese Pizza, Turkeytinis, Pork Chops As Big As Your Head On A Stick, Deep Fried Kool-Aid, and Deep-Fried Wagon Wheels.

When it comes to food on the midway of a county fair, toss out the Canada Food Guide, or whatever pyramid you use to balance your diet because it isn’t going to matter. Wrap it in batter, deep fry it, put it on a stick, and you might find yourself with a winner.

In 2011, the Best Stampede Midway Food was Kubie Korn Balls. A corn fritter with kielbasa sausage that tasted like pancakes.

In 2012, the Best Stampede Midway Food was Naaco Bites from the Naaco Food Truck. A delicious butter chicken fritter with a cool slaw. Wonderful.

Here is some of the deep fried food list going for the honours at the 2013 Calgary Stampede:

Double Bacon Corndog: A hot dog is wrapped in bacon, deep fried, dipped in real bacon bit infused batter, deep fried again and served with maple syrup and more bacon bits.

Sweet Corn Corndog: Fresh sweet corn is husked, cut off the cob and added to traditional corndog batter to create a fresh twist on an old favourite.

Deep Fried Butter: The old adage that calories don’t count during Stampede is put to the test with this treat. Cubes of butter are tightly wrapped in homemade pie crust before being deep fried to perfection.

Deep Fried Pie: Homemade pie crust is filled with your choice of pie filling before it is wrapped, deep fried and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. Soft service ice cream is available to top it all off.

Deep Fried Doritos: A deep fried snack made of Doritos, beer and bacon, could it get any better? Doritos are dipped in a beer batter, sprinkled with bacon bits and deep fried.

Deep Fried Bubble Gum: Despite the name, deep fried bubble gum is not of the bubble blowing variety. Puffy marshmallows are infused with bubble gum flavoring, dipped in a pink pastry batter and deep fried. The result is an unexpected gooey delight!

Deep Fried Avocado: Pieces of avocado are coated in light tempura batter and deep fried.

Naaco TNT: A sweet, salty, spicy, fresh & crunchy puffed rice based salad from India. It is made by mixing a variety of vegetables, sauces/chutneys, spice powders, fresh herbs, lime and puffed rice together and serving it in a waffle cone.

Cochinita Pibil: A pork taco with Adobe salsa, lime, red onions, habaneros (for the REAL Cowboy)

Flautas de Pollo: Rolled chicken tacos that are deep friend and with sour cream, Lettuce and Salsa on top

Chocolate Dipped Jalapeno: Just as it sounds. A jalapeno is dipped into chocolate to make for a sweet and spicy treat

Chocolate Covered Bacon: Combining two of our favourite food groups, bacon is dipped in chocolate and served on a stick.

B52 Fudge: Fudge with a buzz! Baileys fudge is topped with Grand Marnier fudge and then topped off with Kahlua fudge.

Chocolate Cinnamon Bear Fudge: Cinnamon Bears are added to this crowd pleasing fudge to blend sweet and spicy.

Western Cake Pops: Finally cake on a stick. Gooey chocolate cake shaped as cowboy boots and hats then dipped in milk chocolate. Giddy up!

Dessert Fries: Home cut french fries are coated in cinnamon sugar and served with a side of special frosting dipping sauce.

Chocolate Bacon Fudge: Bite into this decadent chocolate fudge and you will discover bacon bits that have been added to the mixture. Sweet and salty!

Chocolate Bacon Apple: No fair is complete without a chocolate coated apple and Stampede is no exception. Roll that apple in bacon bits and you are on a new playing field.

Godzilla Mac and Cheese: Classic gourmet Mac and Cheese with a Japanese flair. ‘Reel Mac and Cheese’ is topped with Nori (roasted seaweed), teriyaki sauce and a squiggle of Japanese mayo. Arigoto.

Pickle Shooters: Think you have the stomach for it? Shots of pure pickle juice are available for those daring enough to try.

Images via Calgary Stampede