Here are some more "lost" articles, rescued from my email pages.
This first one is an article I did on actor Richard Kiel, who is best known for playing the villainous "jaws" in the James Bond flicks "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "Moonraker". I was excited about this interview as I am a huge Bond fan. I got to interview him in his home here in Clovis and get photos taken with him (they are below the article). To prepare, I read his autobiography "Making It Big In The Movies" and another biographical novel he had co-written on the life of Cassius Clay (which was AWFUL)! The article wasn't that great--but whatever. I did feel bad when he died though...
Oh God! A fashion article---for children's clothes? UGH! I wrote this? SNORE!
On your mark, get set, GO!
By Shawn Gadberry
{Talk Staff Writer
In the world of high school sports, Lemoore High School hosts an event every year that literally raises the bar. The best of the best high school athletes come from all over the Valley, Los Angeles and other areas of the state to compete in the Kiwanis Invitational Track Meet.
“We have the fastest and farthest-jumping people in our area participating in the meet,” says Kelly Brown, head track and field coach at Lemoore High.
Now in its 54th year, the meet showcases the talents of young athletes. Although competing at the Kiwanis Invitational does not guarantee an athlete a chance to compete for the California State Meet in June, if they are good enough, their scores could help them qualify for it. What this event does is take the cream of the crop and help eliminate all but the very few who truly are the best.
“This was started, to my understanding, to showcase one of our athletes— Dale Messer,” says Tom Sembritzki, Lemoore High School athletic director.
Lyndy Dale Messer exemplified the spirit of the Kiwanis Invitational. He excelled in football, basketball, and track and field while at Lemoore High. He was the first Bulldog from California State University, Fresno, to have his jersey number retired — having been named All-American twice, as well as winning numerous other awards for his abilities. He was eventually drafted by the San Francisco 49ers and played for five seasons.
“If you’re an athlete and you’re invited to attend this meet, you’re probably one of the better athletes in the Valley,” Sembritzki says.
Lemoore High School had several athletes competing this year. Among them were seniors Jace White, team captain for the boys varsity team, and Brooke Maciel, team captain of the girls varsity team. Both of them excel in the long jump.
“It’s Lemoore’s biggest event,” White says. “It’s where you can really show yourself. I feel pretty confident knowing what I can do myself, but it’s always a challenge seeing what else is out there and pushing myself to do better.”
“It always feels good to beat other people, but I just want to beat my personal record — 16 feet, 5 inches,” says Maciel, who has been doing long jump since she was in the third grade. “It’s pretty exciting when we get to Kiwanis — there’s more competition, they’re more at my level.”
But there’s more to the event than just competition. As Brown says, the whole idea of the meet is to bring these athletes from all over together. They all share athletics in common, they’re all the best in their school and they get a chance to interact with each other, which they normally would not get to do otherwise.
“Fellowship is mostly what this meet is about,” he says. “Brotherhood and sisterhood — that’s what Kiwanis is all about. It’s more of a community meet than just a meet for Lemoore High School."
By Shawn Gadberry
{Talk Staff Writer
Almost everyone loves good barbecue. The trick with preparing any meat is cooking it at just the right temperature, for just the right amount of time — and adding just the right seasonings. That’s a knack Bill Raven has. And as his reputation has grown over the years, so has the love for his meats and seasonings.
Raven and his wife Marlene bought Armona Frozen Food Lockers in 1972 to use asa custom slaughtering business for ranchers. It wasa very modest business venture. As the saying goes, one thing led to another and...
“I started doing some catering on the ranches,” Raven says. “People would give parties for their employees. I wasa cook in the service, so I knew how to field cook.”
That gave folks their first taste of Raven’s expertise on the grill. During a slow period in the butchering business, Raven got creative and started to make his own seasonings. He gave samples of it to his customers to try on their steaks and tri-tips. His customers raved and by the late ’70s, he was bottling it.
Before long, Raven started curing and smoking his own hams and bacon.
“My brother came in and told me I needed to make jerky.” Although his brother gave hima recipe for jerky, Raven needed to give it his own spin. “I had to rework it,” he says.
The jerky, not surprisingly, proved to be a hit.
“It’s just an old-style jerky,” he says. “It’s natural — no preservatives.”
During the early ’80s, the butchering business slowed down again. So Raven decided to experiment with another meat product. There is a large Portuguese population in the area. His wife, in fact, is of Portuguese descent.With her help, they created their version of the popular Portuguese sausage linguica.
“It took off and then the butchering came back,” he says. In 1994, Raven decided to try something new. He openeda café. “That was my dream — to havea deli,” he says. “Everyone said I was crazy. We started with tri-tip sandwiches. We’d barbecue it out back. The day we opened, we had customers. They’ve been coming back ever since.”
Since the café was a success, Raven added to it. He madea popular deep pit-style beef, which led to deep pit-style pork and then deep pit-style turkey.
“AndI developed the seasonings and everything to go with it as well.” he says.
The turkey causeda sensation. At Thanksgiving the first year, 100 of the deep pit-style birds were sold. Last year, nearly 2,500 left Raven’s business to be enjoyed at dinner tables in the area and across the state.
“One lady comes from San Francisco every Thanksgiving for her turkey,” Marlene Raven says.
“On Thanksgiving, they havea line of people clear out to the back,” says Jim De Brum,a long-time customer.
The turkey and other deep pit-style meats, linguica and the tri-tip are available every day in the café, as are the seasonings, jerky and other specialties. There’sa different luncheon special daily and, although the place is nothing fancy, one long table is reserved at lunch time for the regulars who eat there every day.
But the Armona-based business’ success has spread beyond the walls of café. Raven Brand seasoning and jerky are available at various stores throughout the state.
They’ll even ship their products worldwide. And the Ravens, who are very patriotic, give discounts to orders being sent to servicemen in Iraq and Afganistan. They also prepare gift baskets for those on leave in Lemoore who have no family.
“My dad’s dying words were ‘God bless America,’ ” Raven says. “I do all I can to support our troops.”
SNORE! That's it. We're done.
CHEERS!
This first one is an article I did on actor Richard Kiel, who is best known for playing the villainous "jaws" in the James Bond flicks "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "Moonraker". I was excited about this interview as I am a huge Bond fan. I got to interview him in his home here in Clovis and get photos taken with him (they are below the article). To prepare, I read his autobiography "Making It Big In The Movies" and another biographical novel he had co-written on the life of Cassius Clay (which was AWFUL)! The article wasn't that great--but whatever. I did feel bad when he died though...
Here are the two pictures we took together in his study at his home.
All I remember of this article (vaguely) is the topic---a travel company that is geared for single women travelers. Is it even still in business? Hmm.
Oh God! A fashion article---for children's clothes? UGH! I wrote this? SNORE!
And while we are talking about SNORE-iffic articles, this one should be included. I wrote it but don't remember it. Also there is an editorial mistake. It is called "6 Ways To Make A Heart Beat Faster"...well, the article only includes five ways. Oops! Someone screwed that up.
Brandon Molale? Is this guy still getting acting gigs? He was from Fresno (or at least he attended Fresno State), so I had to do a little bio of him. He was never a big star...or even a B or C-lister. Just another guy who was (is?) in movies, but never had his "big break".
This last one (which is really two articles) I must have copied and pasted into an email. There's no jpeg of the page---just text and photos----all nothing I remember at all
Kiwanis Invitational draws top athletes to Lemoore
By Shawn Gadberry
{Talk Staff Writer
In the world of high school sports, Lemoore High School hosts an event every year that literally raises the bar. The best of the best high school athletes come from all over the Valley, Los Angeles and other areas of the state to compete in the Kiwanis Invitational Track Meet.
“We have the fastest and farthest-jumping people in our area participating in the meet,” says Kelly Brown, head track and field coach at Lemoore High.
Now in its 54th year, the meet showcases the talents of young athletes. Although competing at the Kiwanis Invitational does not guarantee an athlete a chance to compete for the California State Meet in June, if they are good enough, their scores could help them qualify for it. What this event does is take the cream of the crop and help eliminate all but the very few who truly are the best.
“This was started, to my understanding, to showcase one of our athletes— Dale Messer,” says Tom Sembritzki, Lemoore High School athletic director.
Lyndy Dale Messer exemplified the spirit of the Kiwanis Invitational. He excelled in football, basketball, and track and field while at Lemoore High. He was the first Bulldog from California State University, Fresno, to have his jersey number retired — having been named All-American twice, as well as winning numerous other awards for his abilities. He was eventually drafted by the San Francisco 49ers and played for five seasons.
“If you’re an athlete and you’re invited to attend this meet, you’re probably one of the better athletes in the Valley,” Sembritzki says.
Lemoore High School had several athletes competing this year. Among them were seniors Jace White, team captain for the boys varsity team, and Brooke Maciel, team captain of the girls varsity team. Both of them excel in the long jump.
“It’s Lemoore’s biggest event,” White says. “It’s where you can really show yourself. I feel pretty confident knowing what I can do myself, but it’s always a challenge seeing what else is out there and pushing myself to do better.”
“It always feels good to beat other people, but I just want to beat my personal record — 16 feet, 5 inches,” says Maciel, who has been doing long jump since she was in the third grade. “It’s pretty exciting when we get to Kiwanis — there’s more competition, they’re more at my level.”
But there’s more to the event than just competition. As Brown says, the whole idea of the meet is to bring these athletes from all over together. They all share athletics in common, they’re all the best in their school and they get a chance to interact with each other, which they normally would not get to do otherwise.
“Fellowship is mostly what this meet is about,” he says. “Brotherhood and sisterhood — that’s what Kiwanis is all about. It’s more of a community meet than just a meet for Lemoore High School."
 |
The best of track and field athletes from around the Valley were invited to the Kiwanis Invitational Track Meet last weekend.
Photo/Bob Marcotte
|
Ravin’ for Raven’s
Armona deli offers great meats and more
By Shawn Gadberry
{Talk Staff Writer
Almost everyone loves good barbecue. The trick with preparing any meat is cooking it at just the right temperature, for just the right amount of time — and adding just the right seasonings. That’s a knack Bill Raven has. And as his reputation has grown over the years, so has the love for his meats and seasonings.
Raven and his wife Marlene bought Armona Frozen Food Lockers in 1972 to use asa custom slaughtering business for ranchers. It wasa very modest business venture. As the saying goes, one thing led to another and...
“I started doing some catering on the ranches,” Raven says. “People would give parties for their employees. I wasa cook in the service, so I knew how to field cook.”
That gave folks their first taste of Raven’s expertise on the grill. During a slow period in the butchering business, Raven got creative and started to make his own seasonings. He gave samples of it to his customers to try on their steaks and tri-tips. His customers raved and by the late ’70s, he was bottling it.
Before long, Raven started curing and smoking his own hams and bacon.
“My brother came in and told me I needed to make jerky.” Although his brother gave hima recipe for jerky, Raven needed to give it his own spin. “I had to rework it,” he says.
The jerky, not surprisingly, proved to be a hit.
“It’s just an old-style jerky,” he says. “It’s natural — no preservatives.”
During the early ’80s, the butchering business slowed down again. So Raven decided to experiment with another meat product. There is a large Portuguese population in the area. His wife, in fact, is of Portuguese descent.With her help, they created their version of the popular Portuguese sausage linguica.
“It took off and then the butchering came back,” he says. In 1994, Raven decided to try something new. He openeda café. “That was my dream — to havea deli,” he says. “Everyone said I was crazy. We started with tri-tip sandwiches. We’d barbecue it out back. The day we opened, we had customers. They’ve been coming back ever since.”
Since the café was a success, Raven added to it. He madea popular deep pit-style beef, which led to deep pit-style pork and then deep pit-style turkey.
“AndI developed the seasonings and everything to go with it as well.” he says.
The turkey causeda sensation. At Thanksgiving the first year, 100 of the deep pit-style birds were sold. Last year, nearly 2,500 left Raven’s business to be enjoyed at dinner tables in the area and across the state.
“One lady comes from San Francisco every Thanksgiving for her turkey,” Marlene Raven says.
“On Thanksgiving, they havea line of people clear out to the back,” says Jim De Brum,a long-time customer.
The turkey and other deep pit-style meats, linguica and the tri-tip are available every day in the café, as are the seasonings, jerky and other specialties. There’sa different luncheon special daily and, although the place is nothing fancy, one long table is reserved at lunch time for the regulars who eat there every day.
But the Armona-based business’ success has spread beyond the walls of café. Raven Brand seasoning and jerky are available at various stores throughout the state.
They’ll even ship their products worldwide. And the Ravens, who are very patriotic, give discounts to orders being sent to servicemen in Iraq and Afganistan. They also prepare gift baskets for those on leave in Lemoore who have no family.
“My dad’s dying words were ‘God bless America,’ ” Raven says. “I do all I can to support our troops.”
 |
Photo/Bob Marcotte
The deli at Raven’s Brand Products & Deli started with tri-tip sandwiches.
|
SNORE! That's it. We're done.
CHEERS!
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