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Highlands Today

Who's On Second?

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 12, 2008

Actually in the old Abbott and Costello routine, Who's on first and What's on second. But here I'm editorializing a bit, as in "Who came second?"

During the summertime our TV diet, other than old-time movies, is one of the endless reruns of one version or another of "Law and Order" or "America's Got Talent." On a recent edition of AGT they announced that last year's winner, ventriloquist Terry Fator, had just signed a $100 million Las Vegas contract. This is the same Terry Fator who said that he had once put on a performance at a 1,000- seat auditorium where only one ticket had been sold. Ah fame and fortune.

But what was the name of the person who came in second? Old what's his name, what was his fortune?

Fair or not, coming in first seems to be of paramount importance. There are people today, even after nearly 400 years, who are quick to announce to anyone within listening distance that their ancestors came to America on the Mayflower. This heritage, they feel, elevates them to some social stratosphere.

But how about the guys who came over second?

The Mayflower was the first ship of Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620. But what was the second ship to bring additional Pilgrims?

Fortune Without The Fame

The second ship to drop anchor at Plymouth was called the Fortune. It came in November 1621, just a year after the Mayflower. While the Mayflower carried 102 settlers, the Fortune carried 37. But by the time the Fortunites landed there were less than half of the original Pilgrims remaining. A harsh winter and disease had claimed the rest. So the settlement's total 1621 population was a sparse 85. The next wave of Pilgrims didn't show up until July 1623, more than doubling the population.

It is thought that the first true "Thanksgiving" was held to celebrate the arrival of these 1623 colonists and much-needed supplies; although there was a "harvest festival" in October 1621 held by the original pilgrims and the natives establishing the fall date of our annual event.

By the way, before the Fortune there was another pilgrim ship: the Speedwell. This ship set sail with the Mayflower but had to return to the port of departure because it was not seaworthy. BTW #2: singer Cas Haley came in second on last year's talent show.

Another Bag Use

Here's a sort of unique recipe I recently came across. It's a boiled omelet. We tried it and it works slick. The neat thing about this egg dish is that each person can have his own individual omelet served at the same time.

Take a Ziploc Freezer Bag (We assume the brand name is used because it's sturdier). While the instructions we found say to use a quart-size bag we used a pint-size with good results.

Crack (no more than) two eggs into the bag and shake it up to combine them. Then add to the eggs any variety of ingredients you want: cheese, ham, sausage, green peppers, tomatoes, hash browns - well you get the idea. Each person puts the ingredients they want in their own bag. Shake the bag to mix everything well. Squeeze the bag to get the air out and zip-it-up.

Put the bag(s) into rolling, boiling water for "exactly 13 minutes." The more omelets, the larger the pot of boiling water. Remove the bags, cut the tops off (scissors work good) and roll out onto a plate.

Serve as you would any other egg dish. Enjoy.

The recipe says that you can put all the mixtures in a bag the night before and have a hassle-free morning. We haven't tried this but it makes sense. While we did boil our omelets 13 minutes, I don't know why it is so precise, but we didn't want to risk spoiling the concoction. Drop me an e-mail if you find out what's magical about the time.

Overheard

Overheard at the checkout counter: Did you read where one of those political polls revealed that Obama leads McCain among people who don't have pets? I wonder how he's are doing among people who only have cats?

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