In-N-Out Burger

Is it lunchtime yet? Whatever time it is when I pass an In-N-Out Burger on the freeway, I stop to have a #1 "animal style" with extra grilled and raw onions and "animal style" fries to boot(sometimes). It's the best five bucks I ever spend all week regardless of the meteroic spike of the LDLs. My response to seeing that In-N-Out red and yellow logo is Pavlovian...no thinking needed. I see. I want. I stop. I eat. I happy.

Translation for those east of Utah: In-N-Out Burger is a fast food hamburger nirvana that serves the best burgers in the CA/AZ/NV/UT. Fast, good and cheap. Trifecta of sorts. There is nothing like it when your hunger bell rings.

I swear when I say this, after 17 years of patronage I have never had a bad meal at one of these hamburger joints and there are over 200 of them dotted strategically along the Western freeways.

So how do they do it day in and day out at In-N-Out Burger? Harry Snyder, co-founder of In-N-Out Burger now deceased, said it all: "We keep it simple. Do one thing and do it the best you can." In-N-Out's three simple words for success are: Quality, Cleanliness and Service. They deliver the goods everyday by the hands of another critical ingredient for success, their "associates" known in most businesses as employees. These simple concepts started at the first store in 1948 in Baldwin Park, California and has spawned great success across the western landscape. Because of this simple non-Harvard non-fancy management business style, In-N-Out Burger has become a California icon along the roads of the west.

Noted foodie and chef of great repute, Thomas Keller, said, "If you think about cooking, you'll find at In-N-Out Burger or French Laundry, it's about product and execution that's consistent. The quality of a restaurant goes back to the quality of the product and its execution." In-N-Out and the French Laundry in the same sentence...that is indeed tall cotton.

When Keller celebrated the 12th anniversary of his famed Napa Valley French Laundry restaurant, what did he do to celebrate the day with his staff and employees? He had 300 In-N-Out burgers and a small mountain of fries delivered to his restaurant.

To this day, In-N-Out Burger remains a privately held company which is highly unusual in the land of Wendy, Big Mac, Jack and Whopper. With sales somewhere north of $400M per annum, peanuts compared to the big fellas, it is regularly targeted by the IPO private equity folks. The sole heir, Lynsi Synder Martinez, to this point, has rebuffed all overtures.

So next time you're in the neighborhood, stop at an In-N-Out Burger, order your #1 or #2 and observe the manager of the store behind the cash register. He's the one cooking the burgers. Simple indeed but Brilliant!

I'm getting hungry...c ya.

Cabin in the Woods

Another year past,

for 25 years,

a return to
a simple cabin...in the woods...in August.

Worries aside.
Peace revisited.
Calm restored.
All is well.
In gratitude.

No TV. No phones. No on-line service. No mail. No papers.

Electricity, yes. Indoor plumbing, yes. Screens on the windows, yes.

Weather, perfect. BBQ, ready. Neighbors, close but not too...

Just you and yours together. Checking in. Being there.

Days are warm in the mountains.

Nights are cool by the stream.

The wind finds its voice in the pines.

Is this heaven?

No, just a cabin in the woods.

Go fish.

Go Take a Hike...gladly!

For me, there is nothing better than to be on nature's path to somewhere grand. On our annual August pilgrimage to the mountains, day hiking in the Sierras is the stairway to heaven. We see grandeur everyday. Awe and respect for this beauty are our constant companions. Technology is rendered irrelevant.

Our journey usually begins with a simple question, where do we hike today? So many choices...so much beauty to see and photograph. So, with worn out and dog-eared guide in hand, we select either easy, moderate or strenuous hikes depending upon our state of health.

Prep is easy and managed in an hour...daypack, boots, cameras, water, food, sunscreen, hats, 7 prong survivor kit (flint, compass, whistle, matches, mirror, knife and .357 magnum) and an early start. (Just kidding on the .357.)

We travel by car to most trailheads in the Sierras from our cabin base camp at 4000 feet. Park the car, plant our boots on the trail, start moving one foot in front of the other and start hiking...usually up. With heads down and dust a-flyin', we trudge forward and upward. The only sounds we hear are our breaths, the wind and our boots hitting the trail.

I'm sure you've heard all the tiresome poetic metaphors about hiking..."hiking is like life...there are uphill strenuous and painful sections, reckless high flying downhill sections and a whole lot of mindless wandering flat sections in between." But, all these "lifelike" sections of the path does lead one to somewhere else. Someplace new. Someplace refreshingly different. And isn't that the magic of the hike?

After a few hours, we reach our goal for the day. We rest and enjoy the moment. We admire our surroundings. The waterfalls, lakes and streams. The blue sky and white clouds. The wildflowers (yes, even in August). The wildlife. The other intrepid hikers. And after while, we turn around or do a circle route, usually downhill, and return to the beginning.

So with the car in site, we descend with feet aching but with bodies still in tact perhaps bruised and cut but now abundantly filled with a new energy that only nature can provide. So when someone tells you to "go, take a hike", do it. You will have accomplished something that is totally yours. Another memory stored away of what is truly fine.

Now let's get to the pool to cool off....

DJ's "Bunker-brain-gate"

{For the shortened version and time challenged, please omit the indented text}

CAUTION: I like Dustin Johnson, pro golfer, he seems like a very likeable fella in a Gomer Pyle kinda way and he's good for the Tour but the following may not sound like it.

Simply, I want DJ to think better when he's in the hunt. He has filthy talent but a corncob for a brain at times. Speaking of corncobs, he kinda reminds me of Sam Snead. As Ben Hogan said of Snead, "he was the best most powerful swinger I ever saw, and if Sam had half a brain he would have beaten everyone".

{Is that fair to compare Snead with DJ, probably not on alot of different levels. But the facts are the facts. DJ has blown two leads in majors this year on the final day because of not thinking clearly in the heat of the moment. On top of that, his caddy, Bobby Brown, not Whitney's-ex BB, but a former looper from Pebble Beach, hasn't helped DJ's cause. He seems equally brainstrung when the heat rises. If these two remain together and continue to jointly "brainfreeze" simultaneously, they could become golf's version of "Dumb and dumber".}

DJ's and BB's latest joint cerebral crash happened again yesterday on the 72nd hole of the last major of the year, the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits...with them in the lead...again. Remember what happened to this twosome at the US Open at Pebble Beach on Father's Day with them in the lead? They blew it physically and, more importantly, mentally, on the first four holes. What happened this time? Well, you probably know the news by now, so let me give you the "rest of the story" and a small observation from my side of the couch.

{The 72nd hole at WS is a tough par 4, if DJ pars the hole...he probably wins his first major. Not so fast. His drive bends violently right and goes 40 yards offline. Suddenly, his par and win are in jeopardy. He comes upon his wayward ball and finds it on a "sandy surface". Not grass. Not a road. Not a forest. Not a wall. Not in the grandstands. But on sand with an obvious fescue edge to the upside bank. His ball was so far offline that the fans had been standing alongside and inside the "sandy surface." DJ sizes up the next shot to the green, grounds his club behind the ball and whacks the ball towards the green. Misses the green and pitches to within 8 feet for a saving par putt. Misses the putt and settles for a bogey. Par and outright victory are now lost. But sudden death is his bridesmaid...he thinks...until the rules official tells him later that he grounded his club behind the ball before his second shot within a sand bunker or hazard. That is an automatic two stroke penalty. He slips into fifth place. Eraser please. No sudden death.}

Now the question is, was that "sandy surface" a bunker? DJ obviously didn't think so. BB could not be found. They never asked a nearby rules official if the "sandy surface" was a bunker or not. DJ's mantra is: see the ball, hit the ball, walk to the ball, and hit it again, harder. I think and hope that mantra will change now.

With over 1200 Pete Dye bunkers on that property, the tournament rules sheet clearly states that all 1200 bunkers, raked or unraked, are hazards...treat accordingly. No grounding of clubs are permitted and if so, a two stroke penalty will be affixed to the players score. The rules sheet was posted all week in the players locker room and on the first tee for all the players to read. They did this for several reasons, mainly because in 2004 Stuart Appleby incurred a 2 stroke penalty for the same offense and they did not want a redux of that debate. Sadly, DJ and BB did not read the rules. As another young golfer, Nick Watney, so cavalierly stated: "...no one out here reads those rules sheets." I would have loved to see Jack Nicklaus's or Tom Watson's or Johnny Miller's reactions to that ignorant admission.

{Golf is a game of rules. If there were not rules, Uncle Jimmy's foot wedge would be considered another club in his bag.}

I know the rules are arcane and something akin to the IRS tax code but that's why there are rules officials roaming with every group. If the players don't know what to do, they ask the officials, before you do something regrettable, particularly, on the last hole of a major tournament as the leader. In this case, DJ did not ask. DJ hit the ball. DJ lost. It didn't have to be that way.

Moral of the story reminds me of what Ben Hogan said of his famous enduring mystery known as "The Secret" for how to play this maddening game well. Hogan wrote, "it isn't about weakening the left hand grip, or fanning the club open on the backswing, or cupping his left wrist inward at the top of the backswing that are the secrets, the true secret is having the mental toughness, self-control, focus that cannot be photographed." Golf continues to be 90% mental and 10% physical. Just ask DJ.

{I suggest to DJ, BB, and the young gun Nick Watneys on tour to read Curt Sampson's book, Hogan, and maybe they will agree with Steve Jones, the 1996 US Open Champion, when Steve said, "I couldn't have won the US Open without reading this book." I'm sure they can skim it on-line...the new age non-tactile non-stick approach to learning.}

The PGA returns to Whistling Straits in 2015 and a reporter asked Pete Dye, the fabulous yet devilish designer of Whistling Straits, what changes will occur from this confused outcome of the tourney? Without missing a beat and in his own Warren Buffett-style of speech giggled with eyes a-darting and said, "we'll add even more bunkers next time."

For Pete's sake...