I love California. But too many cannot afford to live here. There’s always Florida. Let’s unpack that. First, let’s look at California, the good, not so good, and the ugly. Economically, California is a well-oiled machine. California has 11.5% of U.S. population and 14.3% of U.S. GDP. Florida has 5.4%…

Lyon proudly claims who they say is the most famous chef in the world — Paul Bocuse. At least our Vieux Lyon (old Lyon) food tour guide, Eillin, claimed this honor. Gus had no reason to refute this. He knows Paul Bocuse’s reputation. …

Bonjour de France. Now that Gus is in France for two months, and will be using the metric system, he wondered how many countries worldwide (there are 195) that use the U.S. Imperial System for weights, distances and heights. Drum roll please — just two — Liberia and Myanmar. Now…

Gus and Mrs. Gus are heading to France for two months. If Gus does not lose weight, he may need a second seat when returning, and they will have to roll him off the plane. And why is that? Because it’s freaking France. Gus is not a fasting, crash diet…

As I wrote in an earlier blog, a friend observed that sometime in the early 1980s we became an economy, not a society. Capitalism was not only our economic system, it now reigned supreme in our values hierarchy. We were now tethered to it, and the chains became binding. It…

Last November I published this blog: Republican Are Better for the Economy—Bull. This blog is more narrowly focused on which party is the more fiscally responsible when it comes to the national debt, with a spotlight on the past fifty years. When was the last time you heard the Democratic…

There is line from “Ratatouille” where the departed famous chef says, “Anyone can cook.” Well, yes. Anyone can cook basics. This blog is about cooking basics. Gus will assume you have basics like sugar, salt and pepper, bread and butter, milk, cereal, an oven, microwave, toaster, one or two pans…

Damn, Gus is old. Next week is Gus’s annual guys’ retreat, now in its 38th year. We used to call it our debauchery retreat, aka guys using bad judgement, but we are now too old to be debaucherous. (Is that a word?) …

· Follow the recipe the first time, even if you sometimes wonder if the chef or chefs had forgotten to plug in their brain. Use common sense. Gus recently prepared a recipe called Martin’s Broccoli Salad. He liked all of the ingredients. But although the recommended broccoli portion was pretty…