Personalized Critiki Maps

The Critiki website now displays on your profile a map of all the tiki bars you say you've been to. Rather cool if you ask me. 

Upon first glance it looks as though I've only been to two, if you zoom in you can see more locations.

For Minneapolis, the tiki icon marks the current Psycho Suzi's Motor Lodge. The "pin" above the tiki icon shows the location of the original Psycho Suzi's which closed in 2004. I made it to the original location only once but have been to the current location multiple times.

For San Francisco, the tiki icon on the left marks The Tonga Room and the one on the right marks Pagan Idol. I'll soon be able to add Adrift in Denver to the map.

Wahine Wednesday

Wahine (wah-hee-nee)

Etymology - Borrowing from Maori wahine (woman)

(from Wikipedia and Wiktionary)

Tiki Tuesday

Art by Shawn Dickinson

Mermaid Lounge Decor

Bought this this past weekend for the Mermaid Lounge.

The Suffering Bastard

I recently obtained a Shag tiki mug that's based on the Suffering Bastard mug. Click on the link below for an article that claims to have the true story of the Suffering Bastard cocktail.

http://justcocktails.org/2014/01/29/experimenting-suffering-bastard/

Photo of the Suffering Bastard mug offered on the Trader Vic's online store (shop.tradervics.com).

Shag Tiki Mug

My latest tiki mug purchase from the Shag Store arrived in the mail yesterday. According to the store's online description, it's based on Trader Vic's Suffering Bastard mug. 

Mermaid Lounge Decor

Found this solar powered lamp at IKEA this past weekend. I figure it will make a nice addition to the Mermaid Lounge decor. I'm not sure that the print would qualify as a polynesian pattern but the colors are right.

Happy St. Patrick's Day - Tiki Edition

Happy St. Patrick's Day. Photo of one of my own tiki mugs. Hat provided by a phone app.

Tiki Tuesday

My latest creation.

Tiki Bob's/Pagan Idol

Found this posting recently on Instagram by hummus, who runs the critic.com website. Interesting because I just recently visited Pagan Idol in San Francisco.

"Did you hear this jaw-dropping discovery??? @paganidolsf used to be a Tiki Bob's, back in the '50s. Even the Pagan Idol crew didn't know! HopeChest on Tiki Central made the discovery. I've updated Critiki with the info, and there's an article up on Critic News about it, with a lin to the TC thread: news.critiki.com."

- humusf, on Instagram

Alan Hale Jr.

Yesterday was the birthday of Alan Hale Jr.  Gilligan's Island was one of my favorite programs as a kid and I watched it without fail practically every day after school. That the show took place on a Polynesian island was an added bonus. It would be hard for me to pick out a favorite character as I loved them all. Alan Hale Jr. brought to the Skipper a jovial good natured disposition that I especially appreciated. Alan Hale Jr. died in 1990 and his ashes were scattered over the Pacific Ocean.

Me-TV, which currently airs the program recently posted some facts about Alan Hale Jr. on their website. They include:

 1)  Alan Hale Jr. Graduated from high school with Mickey Rooney from Hollywood High in 1938.

 2)  He served in the U.S. Coast Guard between 1942 and 1945.

 3)  He played a chef named Gilligan on the 1960s Batman television series.

 4)  He owned a seafood restaurant called Alan Hale's Lobster Barrel starting in the late 1970s. Hale would often appear in costume at the restaurant.

 5)  He later owned a travel agency that arranged boat cruises. How appropriate for the man who played The Skipper.

 6) He appeared as The Skipper on two 1980s sitcoms, The New Gidget, and Alf. Bob Denver, Russell Johnson, and Dawn Wells also reprised their Gilligan's Island roles on the same episode of Alf.

  7)  Jonas Grumby was the real name of the character of The Skipper. 

(The above information in numbers 1 - 7 was originally posted by Me-TV staff on their website on March 8, 2016.)

Hawaiian Burger

Dale and I ate at the Lowbrow tonight. The special was a Hawaiian burger which I didn't even know was a thing. However, upon a little research I've found that there are tons of recipes for this type of burger online.  All recipes found online include pineapple (mostly grilled) and most include cheese (frequently provolone but also mozzarella or Swiss). Some recipes included bacon (Canadian and also applewood smoked) which gives it a connection to Hawaiian pizza. Sauces were usually a teriyaki/mayo type. Other ingredients I saw included onion and red pepper. A list of different types of hamburgers on Wikipedia say the Hawaii burger is "topped with pineapple and teriyaki sauce" and is "from the Japanese American culture." Other than this I could find no other references to the history of this type of burger.  The version at the Lowbrow included pineapple, provolone, and a barbecue type sauce. It was delicious.

Tiki Tuesday

This guy is my own creation. I did the line drawing and an app helped me touch it up to make it look like this. 

Tiki Mug

With the tiki mug Scott bought for me at the Pagan Idol.

Wahini Wednesday

Wahine (wah-hee-nee) - The Hawaiian and Maori word for woman.