I was a Agency Production Manager for 25 years. Here's all I know:

1. There IS a mistake, find it.

2. Organization is not the same as accomplishment.

3. Perseverance is almost everything. Knowing what the hell you’re doing is the other part.

4. All prices are a function of supply and demand. If you want it bad, you're going to get it bad.

 5. Don't let one problem divert your attention from your primary focus.

6. Check a big job at its final point and its middle point -- not just the starting point.

7. Accept responsibility for what you are responsible. Expect others to do the same.

8. To a vendor, I am a paying customer, their deference to me is not because of my good looks or charm.

9. Every plant manager wants a quick “sign-off” on the job. That's not my problem. Sign off when it is right, not before. Period.

10. Resist the “no, it can’t be done” reflex. It usually can be done.

11. Know what level of imperfection the customer can accept because every printing job is imperfect, except the National Geographic, and I'm not producing the National Geographic.

12. Never whine. Girls whine.

13. All problems seem insurmountable at 3 o'clock in the morning. But they aren't.

14. Everyone gets along until there is a problem.

15. My boss or customer is paying me to worry for them.

Why We Hate to Travel

I35 to Austin, 6th St., & Hut's Hamburgers

My son had to drive the to Austin yesterday and asked me if I would like to make the drive with him. Happy to escape the paint-roller-scraper routine of the home remodel, and happy to take any opportunity to spend time with one of my children, I said, yes, absolutely.

The reports I hear from regular Austin I-35 commuters fall somewhere between resignation to hatred. Understandably. There is a steady traffic stream almost any time of day and an abundance of trucks, all of which, to me, is a sign of a good and vibrant economy, but to the normal travel is just a beating. Our traffic and drive was actually pretty light, the weather was perfect, and the morning sausage rolls at the Czech Bakery in West made "all God's chillen happy."

I know it's not financially viable now, but in the future, a high speed rail between the triangled "metropoli" of DFW, SAT, and IAH would be high on my list of public works spending. Imagine riding your bike to our train station, taking a 2 hour ride train to Austin, sight-seeing there a while, and coming back that same day.

On to Austin.

Austin, downtown on 6th Street, has a nice feel to it. It is pedestrian busy, which is nice to see and I like the view of a Capitol dome in any American city. We walked around downtown looking for a good hamburger lunch and finally found Hut's on 6th Street. Hut's has been selling hamburgers in Austin since 1939 and I'm glad they made it to 2010 because that is one good hamburger. My son and I both like the tastefully old lunch place that doesn't have a lot of anything but chairs, tables, customers, and good food. Friendly and attentive waitstaff helps, as does a mounted animal head or two. Hut's has all of that. And good burgers. I don't like a tricked up burger, so I ordered the regular cheeseburger, which in Hut's case is #20. We split an order of onion rings and fries. All very good.

Then there's good traveling music, like this one released in 1969.

Sweet Sammies

I am working my way through the various West 7th shops and restaurants.

I have been to Paciugo. How can you not like gelato? And I have been to Yofe, Fresh Fruit & Yogurt Cafe. I liked it as well, but it is not my preference for a dessert treat.

And then Friday night we went to Sweet Sammies, which of the three will most likely be my diet downfall for the simple reason that I love ice cream and cookies -- and that I can resist anything but temptation.

Sweet Sammies is ice cream. Blue Bell ice cream. Sweet Sammies is cookies. Made at the shop daily. These two components make an ice cream sandwich that is very good AND, at least for now, costs only $1.75. If you don't want an ice cream sandwich Sweet Sammies serves a single scoop of ice cream for a buck.

Bailey's Prime Rib is next on the agenda, but I think that will cost me more than $1.75.

Freda's. Coffee. Breakfast. Lunch.

In a recent post,  Eat This Fort Worth annouced that a new coffee shop had opened at the old Art Gallery, so I stopped by this morning. The newly opened Freda's Place is serving coffee as well as breakfast and lunch. The menu includes breakfast plates and sandwiches, as well as soups, salads, sandwiches and daily hot plate specials for lunch. Freda's also serves a grilled-after-you-order hamburger. I thought I saw an Aduro Bean coffee bag on the counter, either way, I had the dark roast coffee this morning and it was excellent.

We now have three, count 'em, three, independent coffee shops in the downtown area.

Freda's Place is on Jennings, just south of downtown. Good luck to all involved.

Freda’s
609 S. Jennings
Fort Worth, Texas

Neil Young in Dallas

On June 7, Neil Young is coming to Dallas' Morton Myerson Symphony Center. Almost everyone is familiar with his falsetto-like vocals, but Young is as much a lyricist as he is a vocal performer, and belongs to that elite group of still-active '60's-era musicians (the decade not the age), that includes Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Eric Clapton, and Paul McCartney. He keeps writing new music, and performing it. Young has some 400+ songs to his name, including Down By the River, Southern Man, Old Man, & Cinnamon Girl.

The lightning that he caught in the '60's and '70's will probably never be captured in the same way. Not that I get the impression from his interviews that he wants that. He is doing what artists do.

I am sure it will be a great performance, but it is all a little too tame, too smokeless, and too comfortable, when viewed from the lens of my memory. Besides, I think I'm too old to try to sneak into concerts anymore.  But I still love the music. If any music reminds me of the summers of my youth it is 1970 album, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Deja Vu, with songs like Helpless, Country Girl, and Woodstock. It is the background music of many memories. For that alone I wish Neil Young well.

Out of town visitors: visit Fort Worth. Take the Trinity Railway Express from Dallas to Fort Worth.  $7.50 for an all day pass. Fort Worth has a beautiful downtown with good food, great music, and great places to walk and shop.

Torta Wars: Melis vs Salsa Fuego.

I am a huge fan of the torta. I've said that before.

In the last week, I have visited both Melis and Salsa Fuego restaurants looking for a good one. I prefer Salsa Fuego.

But I am still searching for the smaller, steak-roll version of the torta sandwich. If you see one please let me know. Until then, the torta war champion is: Salsa Fuego's pork carnitas torta.

Opinions welcome . . .

Antonio's. Is it the Best?

Regular Joe's Guide, a good and detailed, local restaurant-review weblog, recently posted its favorite Mexican restaurants in the area. The number one favorite, of both the author and his wife was Antonio's near the NorthEast Mall. Last Saturday night my wife and I went to try it out.

I agree with RJG that Antonio's is not your average Tex-Mex restaurant, it is a quality and more traditional Mexican fare, freshly prepared. And it is very good. The chips are made fresh and served hot. My entree, camarones wrapped in bacon and topped with an avocado sauce, was perfection. The mixed vegetables served with the shrimp were freshly cooked and slightly crispy, just the way I like them. The avocado sauce for the shrimp was very nicely done. My wife had an enchilada plate and it, too, was very good.

Would I give it the same high praise as RJG?

The salsa for my taste was a little weak. I prefer an almost pico de gallo hot sauce with a little more bite. But salsas are very much a personal thing. Also, I was disappointed that they weren't busier. I think they had four two-top tables filled. I can't blame them for this, and we were eating early for a Saturday night, but the buzz was low.

In order for me to call them "numero uno" I would need two things. First, a location with a better atmosphere on the outside. The restaurant is tastefully decorated in the modern minimalist kind of way, on the inside, but I think the food quality demands a little nicer location for diners. It is a casual but dining atmosphere and the restaurant being crowded into a strip shopping center nearly underneath the 820/121 cloverleaf doesn't draw me back. We like to walk, or window shop, and grab some coffee or ice cream after dinner. Secondly, I think the salsa is weak. It's mild, tomato saucy, and without much vegetable texture.

Maybe I'm being picky. The service is excellent.  It is priced as you would expect. We were at $29.00 for two, no alcohol, without tip. Comparable to Mi Cocino, Cantina Laredo and Pappasito's. Are they good enough to draw us away from downtown Fort Worth dining? I don't think so. I do know that I could eat at Antonios everyday -- if they moved downtown.

My thanks to Regular Joe's Guide for the suggestion.

The Subway Breakfast Sandwich.

This morning, I stopped by Subway for their newly offered breakfast sandwich and coffee. I like a couple of their lunch sandwiches, and I like how Subway moves people through the line. Not that one needs to worry about long lines for breakfast because there aren't any, at least not at the Subway I visited. As a matter of fact, the one employee at the store this morning was having her morning smoke at the entrance as I arrived. Not being in a hurry, and out of respect for the simple pleasure of a morning smoke and coffee, I encouraged her to continue and enjoy her break. She respectfully ignored my advice, and came in to take my order.

First the coffee: Seattle's Best. Served from a canister. Hot, fresh, a little weak, but not bad at all. Actually, quite good.

The sandwich: I should say that the cost for a coffee and sandwich is $2.50. That's important because expectations are not high for two bucks. I chose the egg, ham, and cheese on an English muffin. It didn't taste bad, I think I may have even detected a hint of egg taste, but the smell of the sandwich was off-putting. I'm not sure if it is the reaction of the egg to the heating apparatus they use or what, but it did have an unusual non-food odor.

The second problem is the appearance of the egg. The eggs are precooked and scrambled, of course, and one has the choice of yellow or white. I assume the yellow has some yolk in it, and the white, no yolk. But the egg is cooked into a thin, crepe-like shape and has the appearance of that plastic vomit kids use to scare other kids. Sorry, that's just the best way to describe it. I would guess the egg, in volume, is about one-half of a small Waffle House type egg, if you know what I mean.

Is it worth $2.50? Well, not really. But if they could figure out the egg part, the muffin, cheese and ham were pretty tasty. And the coffee is good.

My suggestion: call it a breakfast ham and cheese and lose the egg, or whatever that yellow thing was.

Melis Taqueria

I visited Melis Taqueria the other day. The little taco and sandwich stand on Vickery. I was told they a made good torta.

Now, I'm a big fan of the torta sandwich. Huge. It's Mexico's iteration of the Philly cheese steak, and like the cheese steak in Philadelphia, the torta is made and served from street stands all over Mexico. I spent a few summers in San Luis Potosi, Mexico and had a favorite restaurant named Tortugas that made them to order while you sat at the bar-type counter. For about a dollar (back then about 12 pesos) I was served two small but delicious sandwiches and a Coke.

Apparently, there are two major types of torta sandwiches, those made with a soft, almost sweet-roll, like the ones at Melis, and another, like I ordered in Mexico, which are served on a smaller hard roll. I prefer the latter.

It's not that I didn't like the sandwich. For $5 Melis serves a fair sandwich. My sandwich was a little shy on the meat and avocado, but like I say for $5 it wasn't bad. It was tasty and served hot, but I prefer the harder, smaller roll that has been grill toasted.

Just my opinion, folks -- and I will go back to Melis. 

Melis Taqueria
4304 W Vickery Blvd
Fort Worth, TX 76107

Still Benefiting . . . After All These Years.

Back in the glory days of print and mail advertising, around 1982 or thereabouts, I received a piece of mail selling a small set of nuts and bolts. Included were the requisite assortment of screws, nuts, bolts, washers, lock nuts and some-such, plus a plastic cabinet with drawers. I think it sold for around $15.95. I bought it thinking it might come in handy and save me a few trips to the hardware store.

Whoopee-do, I know, but hang in there while I digress to the even less interesting.

At the time, magnetic data storage on hard drives and "mag" tapes had spawned a new way to reach people at home and work, and a better way to "target" potential buyers. Almost overnight the modern mailing-list industry was born and the "renting" of names and addresses of subscribers, buyers, donors, and owners. I had probably been "targeted" as a new home buyer in my direct mail piece.

To put this in the context of other computer products: the personal computer boom was beginning. The IBM PC had landed on desktops with its floppy drives and green monochrome monitors (man they were ugly). Microsoft was selling MS/DOS 1 (boooring) and still 4 years away from their initial public offering. Apple was producing the Lisa Desktop unit (dud), but the first Mac was two years away, as was the first HP laser printer (the miracle machine). Thirty years now, into the popular electronics boom and "Direct Mail" is no longer the best way to target an audience for most companies, the web is, and web-marketing develops in different ways almost daily.

Back to my non-point. I still have the nuts and bolts set purchased in the mail and have just used about 20 of the washers for a shelf I am building. At the cost of gas today I figured it just saved me another five bucks. But the money saved is not what interests me now. It's that I am still finding use for a pretty lame nuts and bolts kit I bought in the mail almost 30 years ago. That, in a old-guy-dad kind of way, is kind of fun.

Kimbell Art Museum. The Torment of Saint Anthony.

We visited the Kimbell tonight for a member's open house -- as guests, I should say. It was a very enjoyable evening and I got to spend a few minutes enjoying this Michelangelo, acquired by the Kimbell just last year. I am always a little shocked that I can be so close to one of these, and appreciative of life in Fort Worth even more.

Michelangelo Buonarotti

The Torment of Saint Anthony

c. 1487–88. Tempera and oil on panel

18 1/2 x 13 1/4 inches.

Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth

36 Hours in San Antonio, Texas.

The "36 Hours" feature of the New York Times  has a nice hook. Every week the article reviews a different city, but with the premise, "Where should I go if I only have a weekend?"

This week they spent their hours in San Antonio, and as usual, listed the ten or so places to visit, including a few restaurants. As regular readers know, I like San Antone and am fortunate enough to visit a couple times a year. I have reviewed a  few San Antonio restaurants and a hotel or two. Also, we have a few regular readers from the Alamo city who comment. Okay, one reader, and he's my son.

Anyway, here is the unedited-and-without-comment list of the New York Times, "36 Hours in San Antonio."

For the full list and descriptions see the NYTimes / SanAntonio:

• La Villita historic district / shopping
• Il Sogno Osteria / restaurant
• Casbeers at the Church / music
• Pearl Brewery / historic site
• The Cove / Burger
• Museo Alameda / Art
• River Walk and Alamo
• Aldaco’s Stone Oak / patio dining
• Green Lantern / cocktails
• Smokehouse / barbecue
• Brackenridge Park / walking 
• Riverwalk Vista Bed & Breakfast / B&B
• Valencia Riverwalk / smaller hotel
• Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa / new hotel on the northside

Final note: The Marriott Hill Country is new and by the looks of it pretty spectacular. It is on the north side of the city and a bit of a drive into the Riverwalk area. But if you are looking for a weekend resort-type stay, the hotel should has wonderful views of the Hill Country and outdoor activities available.

The Risen Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalen

oil on canvas (61 × 50 cm) — 1638

Royal Collection, Buckingham Palace, London 

Rembrandt

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Happy Easter to all, thanks for stopping by and for contributing through the comments.