I was so pleased with my new Shun knife, that I decided to visit Sonoma Williams so that I could see what other knives are available.

When I got to the display case, a sales clerk came right over to help me.  When I noticed that her thumb was bandaged,  she told me that she cut herself with a Shun knife and didn’t even feel it.

Now, that is sharp!

I just purchased a 6.5 inch cleaver.  It has a razor sharp edge and reminds me of a straight edge razor.  I named it “Beaver”, “Beaver cleaver”.  It was hand made in Japan.

Since the knife is Asian, I guess I should have named it “Beavasawn”.

Since I was tired of trying to do Chinese vegetables with my French Chef knife, I decided it was time to buy a cleaver.  Cleavers were designed by the Chinese for doing Chinese cooking.

Since I didn’t know which brand to buy, I checked with my Cooks Illustrated to see what they recommended.  Their choice, with out a doubt was, Shun.  So, I  checked with Bed Bath and Beyond.  They carried it but it was special order so I ordered one.  5 days later, it arrived.

It was beautiful!  It was well balanced and horrible sharp.  It reminded me of a straight razor.  The blade was hand crafted with a “water fall” style and 16 layers of Damascus stainless steel.  The handle was hand crafted from wood and designed to fit the hand.  Very nice.

I have found a new knife manufacture for my kitchen.  YES!!

Spring has arrived.  This has been  confirmed by my flowers and my tree toads.  But, the biggest indication of spring is the ice cream shop which is now open.

YES!!!

A few years ago, we bought a couple of Cutco knives.  Our daughter was selling them at the time and we really felt like we should buy some.

The knives were sharp and expensive but there was nothing special about them.  Plus, they never needed to be sharpened.  But when they did need to be sharpened, a Cutco representative would do it for free.

While the sharpening was free, you had to sit through another sales presentation.  And, unless you were very strong willed, you ended up buying another knife just to get rid of the sales person. (no longer my daughter.)

In our particular case, we ended up buy a cheese knife that we would never let just anyone use for fear of injury.

But, I am glad to say that our Cutco days are behind us.  I have found a new knife manufacturer that I absolutely love.  They are made by Shun.

Hello Shun, good bye Cutco.

Recently, a drunk driver hit an on coming car killing a husband, wife and two children.  The drunk driver sustained only minor injuries. The drunk driver was driving on a revoked license.

Unfortunately, this is all too familiar.  The drunk looses his/her drivers license, but drives any way.  Then, when they get in an accident, they serve 90 days in the county jail only to drive drunk again.

So, the question becomes how to protect the public from drunk drivers.  In this area, the judicial system is a total failure.

Of course, if the drunk happened to have some child pornography on his/her PC, he/she could get life.  But, if the drunk just runs over and kills three children on their way home from school, he/she might get only 2 years in prison.

Where is the justice!??  I don’t get it !!!!  Don’t get me started!

The other day, I had a craving for fish for lunch.  And since there was a Long John Silver just down the road, I thought that I would give it a try.

I ordered their White Fish fillets and got them to go.  When I got back to my office, I opened the box and took a bite.  What I tasted was salt followed by grease.  YUCK!!  The breading was as thick as the fish and they were both pretty tasteless.  Finally, I put some tartar sauce on the fish in an effort to hide the taste of salt and grease.

The fries were just as bad.  They were very soggy and tasteless.  Fortunately I had some ketchup to hide the grease.

I ended up throwing out most of the meal as it was truly uneatable.

I think I know why Yum wants to get rid of them.  It is too bad.  There could really be a market for fast food breaded fish.

The other night, when I got home, it looked like there was home made tapioca on the stove.  I started to stick my finger into it for a sample but changed my mind.  Later I found out that it was really paper machete paste.

I am glad that I waited.

A recent study noted that obese people often drink diet sodas.  Therefore, they think that there is a correlation between diet sodas and obesity.

Well, all of the obese women that I work with eat oatmeal every day for breakfast.  And these women and been eating oatmeal for breakfast for many years.  So, I think that there is also a correlation between oatmeal and obesity.

A Rhode Island judge has banned a 17 year old from driving for life.  The youth, who was driving on a suspended license, crashed his car injuring himself and his three passengers.

While I applaud the judge for being concerned about not having the youth on the road again, he has missed one critical factor, the license of the youth was already suspended.  Therefore, the youth should never have been on the road in the first place.   So, if a suspended license did not deter the youth from driving, I doubt that a life long driving suspension will have any appreciable effect.

Sorry your Honor, close but no cigar.