Stuff They Love: Kinderhook Snacks on Golden West

Just about a year ago, I had the very sweet opportunity to write about Katie Horn and Marie Stratton, the ladies behind Baltimore's Kinderhook Snacks.

If you haven't had the snacks, you should. They're so good - my favorite are the macaroons - and it's a bonus that Horn and Stratton are super, super nice.

When I asked them to talk to me about something they love in Baltimore, they had a million glowing things to say about the food, beer and - most importantly - the staff at Golden West in Hampden.

Golden West has been a part of the Hampden community for years and people love it for a lot of reasons. For Horn and Stratton, it's a port in the storm when they get busy. "Since we started Kinderhook, we've had so many long days and late nights in the kitchen, after which we are needing a good beer and good food. Golden West has been our most favorite place to go in these seemingly dire situations and the staff there continually lifts our spirits," they say.

"They recommend great beers, they don't judge us when we finish off an entire Green Chili Cheeseburger and fries (in fact, they congratulate us) and they always seem to know when we need a shot of tequila."

The Kinderhook ladies love that not only does the GW bar staff feed them burgers and tequila, they also have interesting creative pursuits of their own. David Spelce is one of their favorite bartenders, they say, and "a wildly talented artist."

And Edan Perrigo, Stratton and Horn's former Charles Village neighbor, works behind the bar and is also part of Great American Canyon Band, a Baltimore indie-folk band releasing a new album this spring. The band has already released one video from the new album, which I'm sharing (with permission from them) here:



This is some of what I love most about Baltimore. It's the kind of place where you can find a home at a restaurant because you like the food...then discover that the people behind the bar are talented artists and musicians and great bartenders. And you never know - maybe the people on the stools next to yours make great snacks, too.

Big Weekend Tales

All the photos above were swiped from Alicia's Facebook. Clockwise, from the top left: Cooper, Alicia and Alicia's cute bag at 13.5%; Kyle, Mary and me right after Kyle pranked Mike, also at 13.5%; Toasting Bill (with tequila shots) at Holy Frijoles; Alicia and I enjoying some serious beer at De Kleine Duivel.

Bill turned 42 last Sunday, which doesn't seem like all that exciting of a birthday. Oh, but it can be.

Our little local group has been super busy lately - no busier than usual, probably, but as all of our kids get older, it does feel like our lives get more hectic. It used to feel like we spent at least three nights a week basking in the glow of one another, just standing around somebody's kitchen island, drinking beers, eating pizza from Toss and making funny jokes. Now...well, we still do that. But it doesn't seem as frequent.

Last weekend, though, we just crushed it. Friday night, we ordered sushi at Kyle and Mary's, sat around, drank wine and made ourselves laugh so hard I am sure someone wet their pants.

Saturday, we organized some babysitting and went out to celebrate. First, Holy Frijoles, where Alicia's brother is a manager and the chili is just gorgeous. Then, De Kleine Duivel, where I was approximately 6,000% less cool than the average customer...but I loved my sour beer. (I asked for the least sour sour beer, as I know that will be my favorite, and the Liefmans was exactly what I wanted.) We ended the night sitting in the front window at 13.5%, where we drank some wine (Spanish) and some cocktails (gin-y) and I got to check out the scene in Defie Mois, the new late night basement space. I just rolled down for a quick second and we didn't eat, but it was cool. Also, Kyle tied Mike's shoelaces together while we were all sitting at the table. Apparently that is a joke that transcends age.

Finally, on Sunday, everybody came over to our house for meatball sandwiches (with very nice meatballs from Ceriello...in part because I didn't know that Mastellone's closes at 2 p.m. and we arrived at 2:06!). They were delicious - but not as delicious as the pretzel and ice cream cake Missy made for Bill. It was his actual birthday on Sunday and I feel confident saying that it was a good one. He watched his kids play soccer then ate meatballs and ice cream cake, which is totally his favorite, then closed out the night with red wine and a fire on our patio. Gorgeous, all around. The night, the fire and the whole weekend. We get so busy...but we do have a good time.

August So Far

Today is the first day of school for Dixon. Shortest summer ever (literally - it was barely two months, from start to finish). 

We did make the most of that time, though. I have some writing to do about June and July...but I haven't organized those photos yet (I will...one day). So, instead, here's August - so far:

Top from left: BBQ at Willie's; beef tallow at Sugarvale, post-concert McDonald's, Kit + Erin at Willie's
Middle: Pretty carrots; me with friends Zim and Gene at George's bday; pre-ZBB Bill; Left Foot Braking band
Bottom: Cherry Slammer by Alicia; Curious Traveler shandies; Snacks at Bluejacket; end of summer dinner at our house

Week One: We kicked off August with a 40th birthday party for Bill L., at his house in Annapolis. My friend Rob's band, Left Foot Braking, plays, and a good time is had by all. Later in that week, our friends Sam and Stacey, and their kids, come to visit and I fail to take any photos at all. But we did have a fun lunch at CVP and a lot of very, very big laughs about the old days, when Sam and Cooper were post-college roommates.

Week Two: This was a big one. Tuesday night, we celebrated George's 40th with a surprise party at Greene Turtle in Towson, which was a very good time. Thursday, we had drinks with local friends and Friday, Cooper and Bill and I took a half day to head to DC for the Zac Brown Band/Avett Brothers concert at Nationals Stadium. We met my sister and Clark for the show and also got to hang out with a bunch of other friends, including Alicia's cousin Kelly. 

We had pre-concert snacks at at Bluejacket, including fried chickpeas, soft pretzels and a charcuterie plate, then we walked over to Willie's Brew and Que, where we were pleasantly surprised, especially with the pulled pork and pimiento cheese - we'd headed there mostly for the beer, to be honest. While there, we also got lucky: I won a raffle, including tickets to the show and a hat for Bill. Since we already had tickets, I gave the prize to a nice girl repping Sam Adams - in exchange, she hooked us up with a bunch of Curious Traveler shandies. Funnily enough, the company actually sent me a couple of the shandies earlier in the summer - and I loved them. So that all worked out!

Post-concert, we discovered that the area around the stadium is severely lacking in late-night food. So...Bill bought all of the food at McDonald's. And it was good. There's nothing quite like a 1 a.m. cheeseburger to make you feel good about yourself in the morning.

The next morning, we returned to Baltimore and wrapped the whole experience with a killer breakfast at Miss Shirley's in Roland Park. Just good stuff all around.

Week Three: Things calmed down a tiny bit last week, but we still managed to end the summer with a bang. Friday night, we had a fin d'ete dinner at our house, starting end ending with cherries, courtesy of Alicia. She made gorgeous cherry, vodka and lime cocktails to start and, for dessert, a cakey cherry cobbler. In between, we ate roasted carrots and fennel, a tomato, plum and mozzarella salad, crab cakes and, thanks to my general skittishness with poultry, slightly undercooked chicken (yum).

Saturday, Cooper and I went to another 40th party and, while we had a sitter, also squeezed in a couple great drinks and snacks at Grand Cru and Sugarvale in Mount Vernon, where we ate the beef tallow candle (sounds gross, tastes good, looks awesome).

And what I haven't mentioned is that on the in between nights, we went to about 8 restaurants - my reviewing schedule has been intense lately - and also put in some dinner-at-the-pool time. 

This month has been so much fun. I'm exhausted, even after just writing this, but it's been a blast. And now, with Dixon back at school all day, I'm ready to buckle down. To prepare for...more fun things. 

Anniversary Celebrating

Last week, Cooper and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary.

My parents marked the occasion by going to Chart House in Annapolis, where our reception was. We, on the other hand, kept it in Baltimore, going out to dinner for the fourth night in a row.

We started with drinks and a shucker's choice dozen at Dylan's Oyster Cellar, the pop-up oyster bar in Mount Vernon. I've been dying to get there - and I wasn't disappointed. Cooper had a beer (we got to take home the sweet koozy) and I had a vodka and lavender cocktail that was so well-balanced. Our oysters - all from Virginia - were gorgeously shucked and both the cocktail and mignonette were seasoned just right.

It's a cute space and I'm sorry that they're not staying forever.

After oysters, we rolled over to Fells for our first trip to Peter's Inn. We've heard a million good things about the restaurant - our friend Dr. R has been trying to get us to go there for years. It's charmingly divey and the food was very good (especially the cauliflower fritters with harissa dipping sauce and my risotto carbonara with a duck egg on top).

I think, though, that our expectations might have been too high. We liked it a lot - there was nothing wrong with anything we ate - but I might have been expecting something transcendental. It's also possible that we were experiencing the tiniest bit of restaurant fatigue. (We'd been going out a lot...but we mostly took this week off from restaurants.)

After dinner, we tried to go to Vaccaro's for dessert but the line was out the door. Instead, we ended up back in Towson, hitting Royal Farms for Berger cookies, which we brought home ("What?" you ask. "You didn't enjoy them in the RoFo parking lot?").

With the cookies, we drank (some of) the bottle of Calem port we bought on our honeymoon, in Portugal. When we bought it, our plan was to drink it on our tenth anniversary. And it worked! Though neither of us is an enormous fan of port, we both very much enjoyed the way this bottle had mellowed over the years. It was sweet, yes, but in a good way.

And that was it. Ten years on the books. It's kind of crazy - when I look back, the two or three years before I met Cooper seem like to have stretched out forever, but the (almost) thirteen years since we started dating have gone by in the blink of an eye.

It's been a good ten years, though (a good thirteen years, really) - and so full of good food.

Fake St. Patrick's Day Recap

Me, Stacy, and a few of those props.

Another Fake St. Patrick's Day has come and gone...and it could not have been more fun. We saw tons of friends and friends of friends at Ryan's Daughter on Saturday - it was, as always, an absolute blast filled with funny jokes and lots of Irish props and funny t-shirts.

This year, the addition of a philanthropic element was an important one. We raised $750 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society - just from people donating and from the raffle for a Ryan's Daughter gift card.

My high school friend Rasim won the gift card, which was fitting since he was both the biggest donor overall and also the person who, last year, suggested we make it a charity event.

As soon as it was over, we were all already talking about next year. It's such a really great time - and just keeps getting better.

Fake St. Patrick's Day - TOMORROW!

This is Mike's St. Pat's shirt - from a few years ago.

Come one, come all to Ryan's Daughter, tomorrow at 3 p.m., for the 6th Mostly Annual Fake St. Patrick's Day celebration. We will be decked out and drinking - and also raising some money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

For those unfamiliar with the holiday, it started seven years ago, when I organized a small group of friends for St. Patrick's Day. We went to Ryan's Daughter on a Sunday afternoon, planning to meet post-parade revelers there.

But we were a week early. The parade wasn't until the following week - and we were at RD, all greened up and nearly alone. It was awesome.

We've gone back almost every  year since - and the party  has steadily grown. Friends from all parts of our our lives come - and they bring friends of their own. (It's also moved to Saturday, after one particularly fun Sunday nearly crushed us all.)

Last year, my high school friend Rasim asked why we weren't raising money for a charity. After all, if you're out on a Saturday afternoon, you might as well be doing something good, right? So this year, there will be a couple fun ways to encourage donations to the LLS - a Ryan's Daughter gift card raffle (thank you to RD for the donation!) and a tiny bit of swag as a gift to recognize donations.

So if you're in town, stop by! And don't forget your green!

This Week: February 8th to February 14th

This week is pretty much the last straw, weather-wise. If Facebook has taught me anything, it's that everyone on the East Coast is about to crack. Happy Valentine's Day?

Snow days aside, we have actually had a couple of great food experiences this week. First up, last Saturday. Dixon went to a birthday party at The Rotunda (the Lego Movie) and instead of Cooper and I going home for a couple hours, we went to Hampden - shopping at Trohv, eating at The Other Corner and then a final drink at 13.5% Wine Bar.

I'd been dying to get to The Other Corner and it did not disappoint me in the slightest. It's cute and cozy and friendly - and while we were there, the music was very Monsters of Classic Rock. Think Ratt, "Round and Round." It was great.

We started with drinks - something like a Pisco Sour for me and a Corpse Reviver for Cooper. Then we switched to wine - The Other Corner's house red is St. Cosmes Cote du Rhone, which used to be a particular favorite around here (I bought the very last case at Wells on two separate occasions).

We ate our way through much of the menu, starting with the house charcuterie board:

And escargots:

And bone marrow - ridiculous as always (plus, they sent our scraped bones home with a couple who has a dog - so nice):

Dishes not pictured include a cold smoked trout salad and blood sausage in a warm tomato sauce. They were great. All of it was.

After a couple hours, we decided to walk down the street for one more drink at 13.5%, which is as cool and mid-century inspired as The Other Corner was charming and rustic.

Our drinks - a floral prosecco drink for me and a lemon and honey drink for Cooper:

It was, truly, the best use of a birthday party ever.

I've done some snowy and cold cooking, too - including a big batch of tomato sauce we ate on Sunday with pasta and venison sausage (the Bargers and Swartses helped). I was flustered while I was cooking - the weather took a turn for the worse and Cooper ended up having to go out to help a bunch of people get their cars unstuck. As a result, I forgot to take a picture - and I really wanted to photograph the huge spiral of venison sausage. It triggered a lot of jokes.

We got our venison on last night, too, with a stroganoff:

I've made this a couple of times and am pretty pleased with it. I use this recipe as a starting point but tinker with it here and there - last night I subbed tarragon for the dill. It's hearty and has fantastic flavor.

Tonight, our big Valentine's Day plans include a Malbec Throwdown at the Bargers' house. Should be interesting. And then it's going to snow again. Woohoo?

Something Social in Severna Park

When I was a kid, my parents were very social. The adults in Ben Oaks, our Severna Park neighborhood, spent a lot of time drinking in people's backyards, or under the willow tree at our beach, or on their boats. You get the idea.

I loved it. When you're eight, if you're parents are having fun, that means you get to stay up later and maybe have a spontaneous sleepover. My friends were the kids of my parents friends - and when our parents were having a good time, we did everything we could to stay out of their way. The less we bothered them, the longer we had to hang out.

My parents still live in that neighborhood, though many of the houses have turned over to younger families. A ton of the people who live there now grew up there, with me. It's still social as hell, but on recent visits - both to Ben Oaks and to other friends throughout Severna Park - I've noticed something new. People go out.

My parents have told me stories of going out to Annapolis bars before they  had kids and when I was a baby. But I don't have any memories of my own of them going out - not like that (dinner is something else). Today, there are a handful of bars - including Mother's, The Point and the Severna Park Taphouse - competing for the local 21146 attention. A new spot called Libations is just about to open on Veteran's Highway.

My high school friends check in at these places and post pictures on Facebook, rolling up to The Point on their boats or seeing bands at the Taphouse.

I can't quite tell if this is a change in the Severna Park social scene or if it has more to do with my generation. After all, I go to bars sometimes, too (though a) live near a lot more of them and b) go on special occasions, not just to hang out).

Either way, it's something new. Which is always cause for chatter in SP.

Back to Canton

Long, long ago - back in the pre-Cooper days - I lived on Fleet Street in Canton.

My roommate Alison and I fancied ourselves social butterflies. We went out at least five nights a week, though we didn't branch out too much in our choice of venue. Claddaghs, Coburn's, maybe  Razorbacks or Canton Cabana thrown in once in a while.

Then Cooper and I started dating (we met for the first time at the Cabana and our relationship sparked, I guess you could say, at Claddaghs). And Alison moved in with her boyfriend Sean (aka Cooper's college friend and Mike's lifelong BFF) and we all grew up and got married and had kids.

And our Canton days came to an end.

In the nearly 11 years since I moved out of the house on Fleet Street, Canton has grown up quite a bit. Claddaghs still sits in its corner on the Square, but most of our other old haunts have moved on, replaced by new places and new crowds (who, let's be honest, aren't actually that different from the old crowds). New houses have popped up all over town. New restaurants, too. And the people we went out with - the ones who didn't move out before the housing market collapsed - now have kids, so the neighborhood has a new sheen of family-friendliness.

Family-friendly wasn't our goal last weekend, when Cooper, Mike, Alicia and I piled into a cab and headed down to the Square. But as it turns out, our first stop - Plug Ugly's - was pretty packed with kids.

We got there early, around 6:30, which probably explains the kid-friendly atmosphere. Our plan was to have a few drinks and some appetizers before heading to a surprise party, thrown by Alison for Sean's 39th birthday.

Actually, our initial plan was to go to Mama's on the Half Shell, but even at 6:30, there was a line out the door. Plug Ugly's was a perfectly good substitute.

Cooper and I had a drink there last summer, on Jeff's birthday, and liked the space very much. Housed in the old Helen's Garden, Plug Ugly's renovation was legendary for its craaaaazy slow pace. All that time was worth it, though - the space is warm and comfortable, and it reflects the late 19th century time period for which the bar is named (the Plug Uglies were a political gang of sorts).

Overall, we were very happy with our experience. We were psyched to see bowls of half-and-half (mixed cream of crab and Maryland crab soups) on the menu - Island View Cafe is the only other place I've seen that (outside of my own dining room). Plug Ugly's versions of both soups were excellent.

The rest of our crab-oriented apps were just as good. Crab and corn fritters with Old Bay aioli were lighter, but just as tasty, as we expected and the crab dip was some of the best I've had in a while, with noticeable lumps of crabmeat. (And I eat a lot of crab dip.)

House-made potato chips, seasoned with Old Bay, were a great call, too - and perfect for dipping in the crab dip.

The only controversial dish was a plate of mussels with sausage, steamed in a saffron beer broth. Cooper and Mike loved them. I thought the mussels were cooked nicely, but that the broth had a sort of weird metallic flavor. Alicia didn't like them at all.

However, I maintain that the wine Alicia and I were drinking was the problem. We both liked the wine - a grassy sauvignon blanc - but I think it didn't mesh well with the saffron in the broth. These things do happen.

So the food was good, but the service was better. Even before she knew that Mike is old friends with the owners - even before Mike's aunt walked through the bar with one of the owners' dads - our waitress was sweet, helpful, and prompt. More impressively, she wasn't the only one. Every kid bussing tables was polite and attentive - we watched them keeping an eye out for empty water glasses and dirty plates.

After dinner, we headed northeast a few blocks (via cab - it was cold!) to the Cardinal Tavern, where we'd help Sean ring in the year leading up to the big four-oh.

It would be hard for any of the four of us to be objective about the Cardinal Tavern, since we all go way back with Larry, the owner. He's a super likable guy - big heart, jovial, etc. - so it's no surprise that his bar is very likable, too.

It's under renovation right now, so from the outside, it looks like a big old mess, with scaffolding and a ton of dust. But inside it's warm and cozy, with exposed brick and lots of polished wood.

Larry's into music, so it wasn't too much of a surprise to see a jukebox in the corner, but it did remind us that jukeboxes seem like a rarity these days. Cooper and I spent a lot of time huddled over jukeboxes when we first started dating; we did the same thing as soon as we got to the bar last Saturday night. The music is decidedly un-poppy...which I like, and which felt right for the place.

Because we were at a party, I didn't have much of a chance to saddle up to the bar to really get to know the bartenders and what the place is all about. But I will say this - drinks came quickly and the mixed ones were good. So there's that.

Apparently an expansion and possible food might be in the cards for the Cardinal Tavern, which would make it even better.

A few hours, and several drinks, later, we piled back into a cab, which then drove us home via 95 (despite our requests to go through the city), charging us 50% more than the cab driver who drove us downtown.

Definitely not like my quick stumble home during the Fleet Street days. But still better in so many ways.

The Lists Are Up

The Baltimore Sun's lists of the area's 100 best restaurants and bars are online (restaurants here and bars here). I have some thoughts, but I also have some deadlines, so I'll just leave it at this:

• On the restaurant list (and FYI, I was not involved in making the list), I especially like the write-up for Petit Louis. It's perfect. I wouldn't have rated Cinghiale quite that high, though, and I wouldn't have included Severn Inn at all. That place has some of the least consistent service and food in Annapolis (which is saying a lot, considering the lack of consistency in Annapolis). I'm happy to see Dogwood still rated so high. And I would've rated Food Market higher. It's so good. Also to note: Wit + Wisdom at #48. That seems right, but I can't imagine that management is happy about it.
• I have less experience with the bars - I haven't been to as many of them. Here's how I know I'm old: Gin Mill is described as "quiet." Back in my day (she says, creakily), Gin Mill was always so crowded it was annoying. But some things never change: the list also calls out the people who make out on Mother's dance floor. Other observations: it seems wrong, but maybe indicative of those age-old new city-old city struggles, that Townhouse is ranked higher than J. Patrick's. I wish EPH was ranked higher (it was last year) but I'm happy to see its neighbor Cardinal Tavern in the top 30. I love seeing Mahaffey's ranked #12 - Cooper and I met there way back when it was Canton  Cabana. Nacho Mama's at #4 is just right. And finally, I think I need to go to Willow. Ryan Perlberg knows how to run a bar (Rye deserves its #5 rank).

And no, I'm not linking to each one of those restaurants and bars.

Deadlines, people. Deadlines.

Wow

Esquire recently published a list of the best bars in America. It's a long list and unsurprisingly heavy in the NYC and California areas. I have only been to one bar on the entire list, but guess what? It's the most highly rated bar in the entire country. And guess what else? It's Brewer's Art.

Good call, Esquire, good call. It is a great bar. And congratulations, Brewer's Art.

Dictionary Friday: Volstead

Volstead Act
The Volstead Act, which reinforced the prohibition of alcohol in the United States of America, was popularly named after Andrew Volstead, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which oversaw its passage. However, Volstead served as the legislation's sponsor and facilitator rather than its author. It was the Anti-Saloon League's Wayne Wheeler who conceived and drafted the bill.

The bill was vetoed by President Woodrow Wilson (largely on technical grounds, because it also covered wartime prohibition) but overridden by Congress on the same day, October 28, 1919. The Act specified that "no person shall manufacture, sell, barter, transport, import, export, deliver, furnish or possess any intoxicating liquor except as authorized by this act". It did not specifically prohibit the purchase or use of intoxicating liquors. The act defined intoxicating liquor as any beverage containing over 0.5% alcohol and superseded all existing prohibition laws in effect in states with such legislation. The combination of the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and the laws passed under its authority became known simply as "Prohibition" and enormously affected United States society in the 1920s (popularly known as the Roaring Twenties).

Today marks the 75th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition, officially, the Volstead Act. Seems like a good reason to celebrate, no? Also seems like a good day to head to Volstead's in Federal Hill, huh?

Also, how cool is this? It's an article from the April 15, 1921 NYT about a Maryland member of the House of Representatives calling for the repeal of the Volstead Act.

History and Beer

Sloshspot has compiled a list of the 10 oldest bars in the US and it's pretty cool, even if the writers did accidentally overlook about half the actual oldest bars in the US (including The Horse You Came in On in Fells Point).

Also not mentioned: Reynold's Tavern in Annapolis. Maybe it doesn't count because only the Sly Fox part of it is really bar-like?

Regardless, it's a cool list and the motivation behind it (the author was drinking in a pub in Europe and naturally started thinking about how young everything is in the US...so he looked around for some of our not-so-young places).

I've never lived very far from pretty intensely colonial areas, so I thought I had a decent appreciation for history - until I went to Europe for the first time. That said, our history is pretty great. So why not absorb a little of it while you drink?

Disturbing, Indeed

In the Epicurious blog, Michael Y. Park notes a trend that is nothing if not distressing: the disappearance of the "buy-back" - that on-the-house round that good bar customers (used to) get after buying a couple of drinks.

I spent many hours during my early bar-going years planted on one barstool or another, single-handedly lowering the average customer age at McGarvey's. It's not the oldest bar ever, but it is something of an Annapolis institution and, in my experience, both the clientele and staff adhere to old schoolish pub guidelines in the best kind of way: big tips, patience (on both sides) and, yes, regular buy-backs.

The tradition isn't limited to places that cater to an older crowd, either. I live in a college town now and before we had Dixon, Cooper and I went out fairly often. We were good customers and, as a result, were bought drinks by bartenders everyplace from Souris' to Bateman's.

Except for one place, and that's the reason for this post. There used to be a tiny dive on York Road in Towson called Angel's Grotto. It was dirty and cramped and half the songs on the jukebox wouldn't play. For whatever reason, we saw a lot of charm in it - especially since it wasn't as overrun with college kids as some of the other local places. And the bartenders were nice, too - super friendly and good to talk to.

But the owner was a gigantic jerk. And despite the hundreds of drinks we bought there, he never bought us one single round back.

And that is, actually, why we just stopped going. The bar has changed hands now, but we have such negative associations with the place that I'm not sure we'll ever return (forgetting, for a minute, that we're old now and have a baby, so our bar-hopping days are slightly behind us anyway).

The moral of this story, though, is one that I beg bar owners to heed: a little love goes a long way. The distinct absence of love goes a long way, too - just not in the right direction. Let the buy-back live. Please.