BUSHI'S - TUCSON, AZ

Wonderful Japanese restaurant. Its never crowded, has lots of private booths (with high backs), food is excellent and the service is geisha superb. Its located in the Sprouts strip mall on Speedway and Swan.

I ordered vegetable tempura. Very good combo of broccoli, sweet potatoes, zucchini, and onion. The tempura also came with edemame beans, miso soup, a salad and rice. All for just $10. Bill got his usual; salmon teriyaki.

I had a bite of Molly's yakisoba and it was very tasty and they used thin noodles not the thick rope-like noodles. I'm going to order that the next time we come here.

FOXCATCHER

Very interesting and well-acted movie about multi-millionaire John du Pont (a deeply dysfunctional insecure mama's boy who was always trying to get her approval which never came) and his relationship with the Schultz brothers, Mark (Channing Tatum) and Dave (Mark Ruffalo). They were Olympic gold medal wrestlers who were training for another go at a medal in the 1988 Olympics.

The brother's relationship was also dysfunctional. They were on their own from a young age and developed quite a parasitic union with Mark also being insecure and lacking any social skills (just like du Pont) and relying heavily on his brother for his psychological needs and approval.

I guess Mark who wrote a book about the relationship with du Pont initially cooperated with the making of the film and then in a very immature kindergarten "you've got my pail" way lashed out at the director for portraying him as a dumbbell and hinting that there was a homoerotic component to his interaction with du Pont.

I DO think there was that sexual aspect but it didn't come from Mark but from du Pont's need to excel at something; to lead a team (he said his nickname was Golden Eagle), to garner power and praise and to get his mother's love. (a pathetic scene in the movie was du Pont sponsoring a senior wrestling match and then paying off his opponents so he could win).

Steve Carell played du Pont and he was really good.

For those of you who don't know what happened (the movie is based on a true story), i won't reveal it here.

I gave the entire production and acting and music and photography a 7.5 but both Bill and I didn't really like any of the characters; especially du Pont. And Bill said he really holds in contempt people who use money to 'buy' other people which is what du Pont did to get Mark and then Dave to join his Foxcatcher team and to be considered the coach as they train for the Olympics.

POLISH COTTAGE - TUCSON, AZ

We haven't eaten here in quite awhile and the dinner we had was much better than I remembered it being on our last visit.

We had a great table. Because the place isn't that big, a lot of the tables are "tater tots" - right in the middle of traffic lanes or close to the next table.

bill and I shared Hunter's Stew (a wonderful mixture of sausage and sauerkraut and tender beef and cut up potatoes) and pierogi; 4 mushroom and 4 potato. The pierogi was accompanied with sour cream and caramelized onions. The stew came with a Kaiser roll which was as old and stale and crusty as i remember it from our previous eatings here.

The pierogi was a little over cooked around the edges so it provided a nice firm 'handle' for the little dumplings while dipping in the sour cream; a little too hard to  chew on.

and we had left-overs for lunch.

The decor must resemble a Polish kitchen but if you asked me, I couldn't tell you what sort of decorations they had or even the color of the walls. The service was good. The entrees (its all a la carte) range from $12 to $18. Restaurant is located on Broadway between Columbus and Swan.