Mountain Views News          Saturday, July 31, 2010

7

Food & Drink

RICH Johnson

Will Rogers On America

 
As many of you know, I am 
a big fan of William Penn 
Adair Rogers. He was born 
November 4, 1879 and died 
tragically in a plane crash 
on August 15, 1935. 

 Will Rogers pre-wrote his 
epitaph and it is memorable 
to this day: “When I die, 
my epitaph or whatever you call those signs on 
gravestones is going to read: ‘I joked about every 
prominent man of my time, but I never met a 
man I dident (sic) like.’ I am so proud of that I can 
hardly wait to die so it can be carved. And when 
you come to my grave you will find me sitting 
there, proudly reading it.” 

 Mr. Rogers commented on many facets of 
American life that are still relevant today. Such as:

 The Economy: “Things are in a poor state right 
now. I know a hitch-hiker out here in California 
that is having such poor luck getting a ride, he is 
standing in the middle of the road, offering to go 
either way.” (November 21, 1932)

 Immigration: “We make drastic laws and stay 
with them. Didn’t we pass an immigration law to 
even keep people out of our country? Well, that 
was all right. It was a good law. It’s our country 
and we got a right to say who shall come in, but, 
of course, it was discrimination.” (March 20, 1927)

 National Debt:   “Let’s sell off enough of this 
country to somebody and pay off all national 
debts, then the taxes wouldn’t be nearly as much. 
The Democrats will agree to peddle Texas and 
Florida. And I am certain the republicans will let 

Massachusetts and Rhode Island go.” (December 
16, 1928)

 War and Peace: “I have a scheme for stopping 
war. It’s this - no nation is allowed to enter a war 
till they have paid for the last one.” (August 29, 
1928)

 Politics: “Politics ain’t nothing but reciprocity, 
you know. Congress will vote for anything if the 
thing they vote for will turn around and vote for 
them.” (October 12, 1935)

 Politicians: “I’m just like a politician - the 
less I know about anything, the more I can say.” 
(January 27, 1935)

 Presidents: “It’s a tough life, this thing of being 
President and trying to please everybody - well, 
not exactly everybody, but enough to be re-
elected.” (September 22, 1929)

 U.S. Congress: “There is an old legend that years 
ago there was a man elected to Congress who 
voted according to his own conscience.” (1919)

 U.S. Congress: “Congress meets tomorrow 
morning. Let us all pray. Oh, Lord, give us strength 
to bear that which is about to be inflicted upon us. 
Be merciful with them oh, Lord, for they know not 
what they are doing. Amen.”

 U.S. Government: “We got a long-sighted 
government. When everybody has got money, 
they cut taxes, and when they’re broke, they raise 
‘em. That’s statesmanship of the highest order.” 
(March 27, 1932)

 On a local note, and pertaining to the proposed 
water rate hike, any suggestions as to how we 
should deal with the problems associated with an 
aging infrastructure? 

 Mountain Views News Saturday, July 31, 2010

TABLE FOR TWO 

By Peter Dills

Burger Continental

 If you have lived in 
Pasadena long enough, 
you will remember 
there was no 210 
Freeway; there was no Old Pasadena. Back then 
the center of attention was South Lake Ave., 
where Macy’s stands today. Bullock’s was the 
trendy shop where the who’s who of Pasadena 
and San Marino did their shopping. Jurgensen’s 
was the beautiful Gourmet Grocery Store. Long 
before Whole Foods thought up the concept. I 
do miss those unforgettable Turkey Sandwiches. 
And around that time two brothers, who just 
graduated from Blair High School, decided to 
open up a restaurant. Burger Continental, the 
restaurant, was small and had a garden shop that 
took up most of the back area. 

 Forty years later, the landscape has changed, 
but not completely. Burger Continental remains a 
reminder of an Era. While dozens of restaurants 
have come and gone throughout the Pasadena 
area, they continue to entertain and serve the 
community. Sure, they have gone through their 
changes as well. The Patio is now covered and the 
Fountain in the back now has a covering. I recall 
many an afternoon on the back patio waiting to 
hear my number called so that I could get the 
food. All of us found some childlike amusement 
in the number calling. I picture the Saturday 
Night Live Skit, where he says. Cheese Burger – 
Cheese Burger - Cheese Burger. I guess some 
of you may be too old to remember that classic.

 Don’t let the name deceive you. Yes, they 
have burgers, giant burgers in fact, but they are 
anything but a burger place. When the belly 
dancers come to your table you will know exactly 
what I mean. 

 They have a Sunday Brunch, a Breakfast 
-Lunch Special - seems as though there is always 
some type of special going on no matter the time 
of day. 

 On my visit this week, I had the Loin Lamb 
Chops “Salonica” with roasted garlic ($14.99). 
They were so tender and delicious that I wish 
they were all you can eat. It happened that Gary, 
one of the brothers, was there, so I asked him the 
secret. Gary said that once a month he gets a 
secret supply of spices flown in from the Middle 
East and that only Customs Agent “Bob” knows 
what they are. 

 I had no idea that my meal needed a passport. 
I will stamp that passport any day! My friend 
Kevin, the bartender extraordinaire from 
Parkway Grill, joined me and was quite pleased 
with his Lula Kebab ($11.99). He gave it two 
thumbs up. A little secret, the pizza ($10) may 
be one of the best in town. I think their secret 
is that they have a very old and seasoned pizza 
oven that adds incredible flavor to their pies. 
Check out the Sunday Champagne Brunch: it’s 
a buffet with just about everything on the menu. 
Plus, on any given Sunday you’ll find Crab Legs 
and Sushi. There is the always reliable fresh fruit 
and an omelet station. It’s ($19) for adults and 
($10) for kids, great place for a large party and 
families. Gourmet? I would not go that far, but a 
real value in these times when your dollar needs 
to be stretched.

 Burger 
Continental 

535 S. Lake Ave.
Pasadena 

(626) 792-6634

Please listen to 
me This Sunday 
at 5 Pm on Talk 
Radio 790 KABC 

Email me 
thechefknows@
yahoo.com


Ask jai……


Ask jai is a weekly column that will strive to honestly answer your job search 
questions relating to job searching techniques, networking skills, resume 
writing and interviewing. The employment situation is getting better, however, 
it is still a challenge finding were the jobs are located and how to get pass the 
“gate-keepers”. As an Executive Recruiter I was privy to working directly 
with Corporate Recruiters and understanding their process in selecting which 
candidates to interview and hire. I will candidly answer your questions, 
possibly bluntly answering you questions, but I will be totally honest. My 
objective is to help you achieve your employment goal. 

Q: I have been 
interviewed by five 
employers within the 
past month. They have all called to inform me that 
I am no longer being considered for their positions. 
I finally asked one recruiter for feedback as to why I 
did not get the job. The recruiter said that I did not 
pass the initial interviewing process based on my 
responses. She said that my interviewing skills were 
not up to date and that this made it very difficult for 
the hiring managers to determine my future success 
with their company. What am I missing? Is there a 
new way to interview? P.T.

A: Dear P. T.:

 My knee jerk emotional reaction answer would 
be…maybe this job was not for you. Don’t sweat 
it, move on and keep positive! 

 My rational answer is that for the past 
seven years or more, employers have moved 
from Traditional Interviewing to Behavioral 
Interviewing. Traditional interviewing is based 
on typical specific and direct questions from an 
employer. “Tell me about yourself,” or “Where 
do you see yourself in the next five years?” This 
style of interviewing usually results in a candidate 
giving intuitive rather than insightful responses.

 The Behavioral Interview process has been 
embraced by employers in order for them to glean 
information about a candidate’s past and possible 
future performance in certain situations, their 
problem solving skills (motivation, analytical, 
people and leadership skills) and situation 
outcomes. Employers believe that this style of 
interviewing helps them to more clearly evaluate 
candidates and make good hiring decisions.

 How do you prepare for a Behavioral interview? 
Research, review and practice. Look on-line for 
Behaviorial Interviewing processes. Research the 
employer’s method of interviewing by networking 
or contacting former employees. You could even 
ask the employer before the interview if they 
would be conducting a Traditional or Behavioral 
interview. However, I would suggest that you 
prepare for either or a combination of both. 

 And congratulations! You were contacted five 
times by employers for an interview based on 
your resume and accomplishment statements. 
Your achievements are the bases for you to build 
your behavioral interview answers. Review 
your resume accomplishment statements and 
develop them into “Story Telling” responses. The 
employer wants to hear about some of the kinds 
of situations or problems you have faced, how 
you solved it/them and the results. How did you 
behave while meeting this challenge? The result 
should always end positively and illustrate what 
you learned from the situation. Always listen to 
the question and respond only to that question. 
Keep your responses short and concise. Practice, 
practice, practice! I can not overly express how 
important it is to practice interviewing. Find a 
friend or recruiter and ask them to conduct a 
mock interview with you. Good luck.

Jai Johnson has over 20 years experience as a 
national and local Executive Recruiter, Job Search 
Advisor and Career Coach. She has assisted 
thousands of job seekers to find and secure 
employment in their chosen field of education and 
experience. Ms. Johnson is a member of NRWA 
and CPRW. Send your job search questions to 
her at: j.johnson@mtnviewsnews.com

 
This week’s subject for book 
review is “The Shallows: What the 
Internet Is Doing to Our Brains” by 
Nicholas Carr (June 2010, W.W. 
Norton and Company, 276 pgs). 

 In this book the author 
broadly touches upon the topic 
of Neuroplasticity or how new 
experiences literally reshape the 
physical structures of our brain. 
In a more direct sense the author 
details with solid research, anecdotal information, 
and most importantly, his own personal 
experiences and perspective how the most 
important media tool in our modern lives changes 
not only how we think but quite literally who we 
are. Never before has a technological invention 
come to exert such an influence over our being 
the way the Internet does today. The Internet itself 
has come to eclipse all other previous forms of 
media and, as a result of this ingestion process, 
remade old media in its image. As a result of this 
state of affairs, slowly and almost imperceptibly, 
we have become remade ourselves in respect to 
how we now view and process information. It 
seems that our collective minds now expect to 
take in information the way the Internet presents 
it. Where we once nurtured the capacity for deep 
reading, we now value quick skimming over deep 
immersion or, as the author puts it,” Once I was a 
scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along 
the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.” This quote puts 
into a nutshell the net effect of our new culture of 
distraction and ever-connectedness. 

 It’s probably a safe bet to make that this particular 
bell can’t be un-rung, so the next logical step is to 
evaluate how these changes affect the way we think 
and our ability to deal with the world in which we 
find ourselves. Studies elaborated on in this book 
show that increased Net usage has the effect of 
decreasing the quality and depth of attention due 
to the rapid-fire nature of the content delivered by 
the Net. Any desired data

delivered to our desktops comes surrounded by 
other data and the text itself is usually sprinkled 
with links to other relevant data. All of this 
extraneous material serves to tempt the users’ 
attention away from the initial search and unlike 
footnotes found in traditional print media, these 
links don’t just point the way to other relevant 
information, they propel us there. And the effects 
of the Net don’t just magically stop at the edge of our 
computer screens, either. Other once-dominant 
media forms have also been affected by the Net. 
A cursory glance at any of the network and cable 
news broadcast will give the user the impression 
that they, too, are extensions of the web. Heavy 
graphics, multiple text crawls and the emphasis on 
story brevity make it all too plain that broadcast 
news has changed profoundly. Print media hasn’t 
escaped the transformation, as attested to by the 
changes instituted by newspapers and magazines 
to shorten articles and encapsulate news stories in 
order to cater to the shortened attention span of 
the audience-at-large. Old Media seems to have 
little choice than to play by the New Media rules.

 All of this net-centric activity is changing the way 
we think and these changes may very well leave us 
unable to efficiently cope with the world in which 
we find ourselves. Regardless of the source of 
news information consulted, it is plain to see that 
we are living in an age where the problems we face 
require solutions that reflect a talent and proclivity 
for deep, contemplative thought, coupled with the 
attentive resolve necessary to carry those solutions 
to a successful conclusion. It is also plain to see 
that this is not the type of mental activity excessive 
Internet exposure intends to foster.

Book Review: The Shallows


SIERRA MADRE’S FARMERS MARKET

Wednesdays - 3-7pm

 

Fresh vegetables and seasonal fruits from California family farms. 

Specialty foods, vegetarian and vegan dishes, ethnic foods and hot food - 
Everything you’ll find at the farmers market has been made or picked fresh, is 
pesticide-free and preservative-free. Free public parking on Mariposa.