Ticket To Ride

Ticket To Ride                              1855

Wednesday, September 28, 2005-11:24 MDT

Days off suck.  There's no sense of purpose, no direction.  I don't kill time well.  However, I did get on the phones and squeezed four weeks of work out for 2006, so that's a plus.

Headliner Bob Jay accompanied me to the Dickinson, North Dakota Public Library's bookstore where I cleaned up on some resale prospect books.  Anyone who knows me knows that I'm an avid Half.com salesman (www.half.com) and make some good money in my off time buying books at thrift stores and the like, and reselling them online.  I bought about 10 bucks worth of books today, and I've already sold two of them.  When you're supporting a wife and child on a comedian's salary, every spare dollar counts.  Although, I got word that I'm going to be in a commercial that is being shot next Tuesday, so that's going to be some nice extra money for the cause.

So after the book shop excursion, Bob retired to his room, leaving me on my own for lunch.  In the plaza across the street from our hotel, there was a Bonanza steakhouse (clearly a Ponderosa that went independent), so I grabbed a local paper and had a nice lunch.  I discovered a North Dakota regional delicacy called Knoephla, which is pronounced "NUFF-leh."  It's basically a chicken 'n' dumpling soup, and it was so good, I went back for seconds on it.  I did some investigation, and found a recipe for it here; The NDSU Libraries: Germans From Russia.  The folks at the Bonanza steakhouse told me they feature that soup every day that they're open, and they go through about 300 gallons of it a week.  I found that pretty impressive.  If you have a spare moment, call them at 701-225-4481 and ask them what their soup of the day is.  When they say "knoephla," ask them what it is.  I think it would be a neat prank for people to call them from all over the U.S. asking them what knoephla is.  Please remember that Dickinson, North Dakota, is on Mountain time, so call at the appropriate hour.

Bob talked me into going to see "The Brothers Grimm," which was playing at a movie theater, also across the street from the hotel.  I'm not a huge Matt Damon fan, aside from "Rounders" which is one of my favorite movies, but "Brothers Grimm" was really good.  It was directed by Terry Gilliam of Monty Python's Flying Circus, who also did "12 Monkeys" with Bruce Willis (another of my faves) and it was an amazing visual spectacle.  I'm glad I went.  It's pretty dark, like Johnny Depp/Edward Scissorhands dark, so if you go to see it, be prepared.

I have a 683-mile drive tomorrow, and I lose an hour going into the Central time zone, so I will close here.  Wish me luck as I make my way closer to home.

Ralph Tetta

Rochester, NY

p.s.  The picture above is my pal, SnaxTheCat.  Snax has been with me for 12 years now, and he's a good boy.  Here, he's taken up residence in a nook in our bookshelf in my office.  We thought he was cute there, so Pam and I took a picture of him, and I'm happy to share it with you.

RT