10/12/2026
Trivia tonight!
Yes, even on a holiday. And in the best tradition of Crossroads as contrarian, this trivia has absolutely nothing to do with the holiday. Today our trivia is entitled GROWING PAINS. It also has nothing to do with the 80's tv show, but if you know the Riddle of the Sphinx, that might give you a clue. Not a helpful one, but good job if you do.
730 as always, and as always it's best to call ahead for a table!
Specials from last week continue! Ravioli, Fried Cauliflower, and the "Fat-Bottom-Swirl" Ice Cream Cookie tower.
A candid and unsolicited comment about "Columbus Day," aka "Indigenous People's Day:" Columbus sailed west in order to create a quicker and more safe trade route to China and Japan, because the Mediterranean was dominated and controlled by then-hostile Arabs, and the Southern route around Africa was controlled by the Portuguese, plus he considered it a god-given quest. So you can debate whether that's heroic or not, but it's true that sailing straight over an unknown ocean, even armed with scientific evidence that the earth was round (not a new idea, by the way, despite popular belief to the contrary) was a brave thing to do. That's about the extent of his heroism, because based on his own diary and the words of his scribe, he met peaceful natives and was instantly focused on their gold and explicitly considered the natives easily subjugated and used for the purpose of extracting wealth on behalf of European powers (which he went ahead and did, to brutal and horrific effect). Europeans started coming over in droves, and many of us are here as a result, and history is history and that genie's out of the bottle and it can't be changed. But it's probably fair that given his motivation and subsequent actions, Columbus doesn't REALLY belong on a pedestal, brave as he was to make the trip. It's also very safe to say that another European would be making the same trip sooner or later. Who knows how it might have ended up? There was going to be a clash of civilizations, and people being people....
It's not much consolation for the tens of thousands of innocent natives who suffered at the hands of the invading Europeans - not to mention the lost legacies of their civilizations and the actual freedom of their descendants, but calling it "Indigenous People's Day" is not too much to ask, is it? Give Columbus credit for being the first to test the waters, so to speak, but let it end there.
That's all, thanks!
(JH, speaking from my own brain)
