September 21. Space Shuttle flying over House.

Surprise excitement as the Space Shuttle twirled around California on its very last flight before landing at LAX to be hauled to the science museum in Exposition Park.  I hadn't been paying a lot of attention, but the plan was for the shuttle to do some low-flying circles around Los Angeles on Friday morning.  It was one of those jolly and unexpected communal events.  The boardwalk wasn't packed, but there were plenty of people out, hanging out of windows, on the beach, on Ocean Front walk, glancing north in anticipation.  No-one knew (or at least I didn't know) exactly what we were expecting.  Then suddenly, looming down the coast was an enormous 747 with the Endeavor atop.  Just as it hit our neighborhood, it turned eastwards--everyone I know thinks it flew directly over them--and perhaps it did--it was very big indeed.

In any case, whatever anyone's thoughts about the space program, it's beginning, it's end, whatever, this huge photo op--made everyone unexpectedly happy.

In anticipation of my departure for New Jersey, I've begun massive cleaning, but took a break to bike to Ralph's for flowers and perhaps some protein.  At the never-too-inspiring fish counter, I spotted fillets, that looked thin and elegant and were on manager's special--an excellent buy.  It was called arrowtooth flounder and was described as wild caught.  "It's like sole," the guy at the fish counter told me.  I always assume "manager's special" means cook immediately--so there was dinner ready to go.

Before cooking fish, I made a side dish of sauteed onions, zucchini, red pepper and aging garden tomatoes with lots of garlic and parsley.  Always looks better un-cooked, chopped or not.

Once the vegetables were nicely cooked, I moved them out of the frying pan into a sauce pan, wiped the pan, dipped the filets in milk, then in the mixture of bread crumbs and panko which had worked so well on halibut fillets a while back.

This has generally been a pretty effortless project.  The fillets were large--so I made one first.  It fell apart as I served myself, but worse yet, it was completely mushy and almost tasteless.  It seemed thoroughly cooked, but perhaps I hadn't browned it sufficiently.  For my second helping, I added a bit more oil, and cooked until it was browner and crispier.  But now, the only bits that were tasty were those well browned bread-crumb mouthfuls.

As you can see, I had a pretty high ratio of brown to white mush, but can't say it was a taste sensation.  But this is a moment to  praise Google.  I checked out arrowtooth flounder and learned that although it is the most common fish in the Bay of Alaska, it is basically inedible--due to its complete mushiness. The stuff I read might not have been completely authoritative--there was speculation about an enzyme that in response to heat caused fish to turn to mush.  But there was no speculation at all about the fish's ultimate unsavoriness and mushiness.   There you have it.  Lesson learned  Do not buy arrowtooth flounder.  Unlike that twirling space shuttle, it will make you very sad.