CENTENNIAL OF THE 1909 OCEAN TO OCEAN ENDURANCE CONTEST UNDERWAY FROM NEW YORK TO SEATTLE
55 Model –Ts Ambling Their Way from White Plains to Seattle
As this moment, a group of car enthusiasts are making their way --at the wheel of one of their beloved antique vehicles--from Olathe, Kansas to Abilene in what is the 10th leg of a month-long cross-country car race. The racers, mostly well-heeled middle agers who care about things historic, geographic, natural, and on four wheels, are traveling from White Plains, NY to Seattle, Wash., in celebration of the Centennial of Robert Guggenheim's original 1909 race that helped promote the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific (AYP) Exposition in Seattle that year.
The original race started in New York City on June 1, 1909, when President William Taft pressed a golden telegraph key from Washington, D.C., setting off two events at once: the opening of the AYP Exposition in Seattle, and giving the signal to New York city Mayor George Brinton McClellan, jr. to fire a golden revolver, thus, launching one of history’s greatest, if not most colorful, cross-country car races.
Today, hearing the story warms your heart: what with all that American ingenuity and energy and innovation at the dawn of the invention of the automobile. It conjures an appealing and inspiring image of men in their peculiar machines enduring a 22-day trip and overcoming miserable driving conditions. The summer rains were relentless, and the mud, quicksand, desert and badlands consumed the drivers and their cars in one way or another throughout the formidable journey.
Henry Ford entered two automobiles, convinced correctly so that a “cheap, tough, lightweight, flexible car” was what was needed for the impassable roads along the 4,106 mile trek. And it was Ford, consummate industry force that he was, who in fact claimed first place at the finish line of the race, though, in truth, the victory did not belong to his 1909 Model-T, in spite of the vehicles’ heroics: one for catching fire and the other for sinking four feet in the snow. It was the Shawmut, in fact, that was the victor, though it arrived 17 hours after the Ford.
Indeed, the Ford 1909 Model T was declared winner at the finish line, on the spot today where the Drumheller Fountain sits in the center of the University of Washington campus. Henry ford was on hand—his photo captured that day—and thrilled to no end. He would go on to leverage the victory so effectively in the ensuing six months that the world became convinced through his brilliant media blitz that the Ford Model T was the car to buy, and for the next eight years, more than 15 million Model Ts were manufactured.
Quietly, in November 1909, the Shawmut, a heavier car as compared to the Model-T, more akin to its fellow entrants the Stearns, Acme and Itala, was acknowledged winner of the race by the Automobile Club of America. Of course, the victory was too little too late. That the Ford team had broken one of the race rules by illegally substituting the engine for part of the distance bore no repercussions—and today, the 2009 centennial race has in its line up more than 55 Model-Ts that are following the original route, stopping in towns in which racers stopped a century ago.
How quintessentially American is that? We forgive, we forget and we move on, unwavering in our love affair with cars.
Forthcoming post: The 2009 Centennial Race Participants' Profiles and Reporting.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
NEWS: SUMMER MEAT
The (Rib) Eyes Have It
Northern Virginia’s boutique butchers are unanimous: hands down, the best thing for this year’s summer grilling are the ribeye and hanger steaks.
“The hanger steak is unattractive and people don’t give it a shot,” says Cheryl Furlow of The Organic Butcher of McLean. Furlow, and store owner Don Roder, recommend buying their hanger steak in the store’s homemade ginger soy marinade, as “the hanger absorbs marinades so well-- or just season either the rib eye or hanger steak with salt and pepper before you grill,” they say. Roder, a Virginia native, opened the Organic Butcher of McLean about three and half years ago, while his brother-in-law runs a sister store, The Organic Butcher of Charlottesville. The Organic Butcher sells a rather exquisite selection of meat and fish, like Berkshire Porkchops, prepared meatloaf and crab cakes, and its sought-after ground sirloin or chuck. The meat is delivered daily from a variety of different sources, mostly local farms that raise animals on diets that are antibiotic and hormone-free, while the fish, such as the Wild King Salmon, may come in from points as far as Sitka, Alaska.
Located in the heart of McLean, the boutique-size shop, with its black and white parquet floor, recalls a typical French boucherie, where in addition to its premium priced meat, a small selection of carefully chosen marinades, sauces, meat rubs, rice, wine, some fresh greens, locally-made, custard-infused ice cream, and other eclectic ingredients (i.e. fresh crushed ginger) are available so that you can come away with a complete meal. Says Furlow, “Our most popular meat is everything we sell.”
The Organic Butcher of McLean, 6712 Old Dominion Drive, McLean, VA 22101, 703-790-8300, info@theorganicbutcher.com
Australia native Steve Gatward opened Let’s Meat On the Avenue in Alexandria’s Del Ray neighborhood about one year ago. He too is a big fan of the ribeye and hanger. “I also like the flank steak and New York strip, seasoned just with salt and pepper,” he says. The store seems spartan at first glance on a quiet Tuesday afternoon, its glass meat case looking a wee bit bare with only some sausage and pork chops on view, but Let’s Meat has a solid following, particularly on weekends, where some of the store’s regular patrons make a pilgrimage from parts of Metropolitan Washington and Maryland to buy the Andouille, Spicy Italian, German Stadtwurst or homemade Gypsy beef sausages and specialty meats like Kobi beef top sirloin, burgers and hotdogs from golf pro Greg Norman’s ranch in Australia. Gatward explains he keeps most of the meat in a large locker right there in the middle of the store. “On Saturdays, the glass case is full and empties out pretty quickly,” but for slower days, he prefers to keep it fresh in cooler temperatures.
In the notoriously dog-friendly village of Del Ray, where just about every vendor along its ten-block main drag puts out a water dish or a biscuit jar, Let’s Meat rises to the occasion with a premium treat featured in huge bowls in the store’s front window: smoked beef marrow bones, $3 for the Parsons terrier size-pup, and $8 bones for your Great Pyrenees or Rottweiler. “Once the dogs eat the marrow, I tell customers to reuse the bones by putting peanut butter inside and freezing them for a bit.” And what good is an Australian butcher if he’s not peddling kangaroo meat? Gatward, who has a customer coming in later that day for a fairly large portion to take on a camping trip, shows a visitor a few of the slick brownish slabs of the meat while describing it as “cross between venison and buffalo.” He warns that kangaroo meat has absolutely no fat and must be cooked quickly, adding that once customers try it “they always come back for more.”
Let’s Meat on the Avenue, 2403 Mount Vernon Avenue, Del Ray, VA 22301, 703-836-6328, www.letsmeatontheavenue.com
To the Northern Virginia layman and the at-home cook alike, it is a terrific stroke of luck that tucked under Interstate 395 at South Glebe Road is M. Slavin & Sons Fish, a retail store whose inventory also happens to get delivered now and again to the White House. M. Slavin & Sons in South Arlington is one of only two retail stores that carry the Slavin name (the other one is in Brooklyn) in what is otherwise a hugely successful family-owned fish wholesale outfit—a wholesale distribution and processing plant is adjacent to the Arlington store-- that serves much of the East Coast, with six locations from Point Judith, Rhode Island to Puerto Rico. “It’s a nice store, it’s clean and we have beautiful fish,” says John Leary of the Arlington shop, which also sells Florida-made Key Lime pie, spices, some fresh greenery and an ample frozen fish section. Leary was recently hired by the company to help manage their wholesale operation in the Washington region, and was interviewed upon returning one recent Spring day from a delivery—they were short a driver so he took a few runs to points west in Virginia-- to The Inn at Little Washington, where he had left fresh Maryland crabmeat, halibut and softshell crab. Leary is a fish industry expert and has been in the business all his life, getting his start out on the east end of Long Island and later moving into Manhattan, where he ran his own wholesale and export operation for years and is an expert buyer of premium fish. As for a summer grilling recommendation: “Halibut is going to be great all summer,” Leary said. “And Red snapper and rockfish—I understand they call it rock fish down here, but it’s wild striped bass.”
For good measure, Leary weighed in on the red meat side of the equation on what he felt was the best for grilling this summer. “My business was in the middle of the meat market on New York’s west side—I knew all the meat guys and we used to trade back and forth fish and meat,” said Leary. “I’m big on a good ribeye or a nice Porter House, a nice big porter house. Always keep it on the bone.”
M. Slavin & Sons Fish, 2710 South Glebe Road, Arlington, VA 22206, 703-486-0400, www.mslavin.com
Northern Virginia’s boutique butchers are unanimous: hands down, the best thing for this year’s summer grilling are the ribeye and hanger steaks.
“The hanger steak is unattractive and people don’t give it a shot,” says Cheryl Furlow of The Organic Butcher of McLean. Furlow, and store owner Don Roder, recommend buying their hanger steak in the store’s homemade ginger soy marinade, as “the hanger absorbs marinades so well-- or just season either the rib eye or hanger steak with salt and pepper before you grill,” they say. Roder, a Virginia native, opened the Organic Butcher of McLean about three and half years ago, while his brother-in-law runs a sister store, The Organic Butcher of Charlottesville. The Organic Butcher sells a rather exquisite selection of meat and fish, like Berkshire Porkchops, prepared meatloaf and crab cakes, and its sought-after ground sirloin or chuck. The meat is delivered daily from a variety of different sources, mostly local farms that raise animals on diets that are antibiotic and hormone-free, while the fish, such as the Wild King Salmon, may come in from points as far as Sitka, Alaska.
Located in the heart of McLean, the boutique-size shop, with its black and white parquet floor, recalls a typical French boucherie, where in addition to its premium priced meat, a small selection of carefully chosen marinades, sauces, meat rubs, rice, wine, some fresh greens, locally-made, custard-infused ice cream, and other eclectic ingredients (i.e. fresh crushed ginger) are available so that you can come away with a complete meal. Says Furlow, “Our most popular meat is everything we sell.”
The Organic Butcher of McLean, 6712 Old Dominion Drive, McLean, VA 22101, 703-790-8300, info@theorganicbutcher.com
Australia native Steve Gatward opened Let’s Meat On the Avenue in Alexandria’s Del Ray neighborhood about one year ago. He too is a big fan of the ribeye and hanger. “I also like the flank steak and New York strip, seasoned just with salt and pepper,” he says. The store seems spartan at first glance on a quiet Tuesday afternoon, its glass meat case looking a wee bit bare with only some sausage and pork chops on view, but Let’s Meat has a solid following, particularly on weekends, where some of the store’s regular patrons make a pilgrimage from parts of Metropolitan Washington and Maryland to buy the Andouille, Spicy Italian, German Stadtwurst or homemade Gypsy beef sausages and specialty meats like Kobi beef top sirloin, burgers and hotdogs from golf pro Greg Norman’s ranch in Australia. Gatward explains he keeps most of the meat in a large locker right there in the middle of the store. “On Saturdays, the glass case is full and empties out pretty quickly,” but for slower days, he prefers to keep it fresh in cooler temperatures.
In the notoriously dog-friendly village of Del Ray, where just about every vendor along its ten-block main drag puts out a water dish or a biscuit jar, Let’s Meat rises to the occasion with a premium treat featured in huge bowls in the store’s front window: smoked beef marrow bones, $3 for the Parsons terrier size-pup, and $8 bones for your Great Pyrenees or Rottweiler. “Once the dogs eat the marrow, I tell customers to reuse the bones by putting peanut butter inside and freezing them for a bit.” And what good is an Australian butcher if he’s not peddling kangaroo meat? Gatward, who has a customer coming in later that day for a fairly large portion to take on a camping trip, shows a visitor a few of the slick brownish slabs of the meat while describing it as “cross between venison and buffalo.” He warns that kangaroo meat has absolutely no fat and must be cooked quickly, adding that once customers try it “they always come back for more.”
Let’s Meat on the Avenue, 2403 Mount Vernon Avenue, Del Ray, VA 22301, 703-836-6328, www.letsmeatontheavenue.com
To the Northern Virginia layman and the at-home cook alike, it is a terrific stroke of luck that tucked under Interstate 395 at South Glebe Road is M. Slavin & Sons Fish, a retail store whose inventory also happens to get delivered now and again to the White House. M. Slavin & Sons in South Arlington is one of only two retail stores that carry the Slavin name (the other one is in Brooklyn) in what is otherwise a hugely successful family-owned fish wholesale outfit—a wholesale distribution and processing plant is adjacent to the Arlington store-- that serves much of the East Coast, with six locations from Point Judith, Rhode Island to Puerto Rico. “It’s a nice store, it’s clean and we have beautiful fish,” says John Leary of the Arlington shop, which also sells Florida-made Key Lime pie, spices, some fresh greenery and an ample frozen fish section. Leary was recently hired by the company to help manage their wholesale operation in the Washington region, and was interviewed upon returning one recent Spring day from a delivery—they were short a driver so he took a few runs to points west in Virginia-- to The Inn at Little Washington, where he had left fresh Maryland crabmeat, halibut and softshell crab. Leary is a fish industry expert and has been in the business all his life, getting his start out on the east end of Long Island and later moving into Manhattan, where he ran his own wholesale and export operation for years and is an expert buyer of premium fish. As for a summer grilling recommendation: “Halibut is going to be great all summer,” Leary said. “And Red snapper and rockfish—I understand they call it rock fish down here, but it’s wild striped bass.”
For good measure, Leary weighed in on the red meat side of the equation on what he felt was the best for grilling this summer. “My business was in the middle of the meat market on New York’s west side—I knew all the meat guys and we used to trade back and forth fish and meat,” said Leary. “I’m big on a good ribeye or a nice Porter House, a nice big porter house. Always keep it on the bone.”
M. Slavin & Sons Fish, 2710 South Glebe Road, Arlington, VA 22206, 703-486-0400, www.mslavin.com
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