http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/06/dining/in-hawking-seafood-ben-sargent-reeled-in-a-show.html

In Hawking Seafood, He Reeled In a Show

Ángel Franco/The New York Times
Ben Sargent, the star of a new Cooking Channel series that shows him fishing for and cooking his catch.
By JEFF GORDINIER
Published: July 5, 2011

THE morning began with a promising sign.
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Urban Fisherman
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Michael Nagle for The New York Times
COOKING IN Mr. Sargent in his Brooklyn home. He sold samizdat lobster rolls from his apartment in the guise of his alter ego, Dr. Claw.
Ben Sargent, an avid urban fisherman and the star of a new Cooking Channel show about seafood, had just begun casting his line into the coffee-colored, trash-strewn broth of Meadow Lake in Queens when something leaped out of the water.
“There’s one right in front of us!” he yelled.
Mr. Sargent slid his waterproof boots into the slop and moved out to where the water was waist-high. “I have no idea where this drops off,” he said.
He also had no way of knowing whether the splash belonged to a northern snakehead, a voracious saw-mouthed species that has invaded a few American waterways. But a few years back Mr. Sargent had caught a snakehead, one of the “angriest fish alive,” beneath these same willows here in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. He was determined to land another. He planned to deep-fry it and set its flesh adrift in a tongue-stinging soup of Thai spices.
The night before, he had gone out on reconnaissance to Flushing restaurants and spice markets for a sense of what a Thai chef might do if a fresh, live snakehead were to materialize in the kitchen. (Throughout much of Asia, snakehead soup is seen as having medicinal properties.)
He subsequently scouted for ingredients like palm sugar paste, tamarind paste and krachai root. “There was one thing I couldn’t find,” he said. “It was called water mimosa.”
Clearly the man was not messing around, although he was, by now, rather deep in that Meadow Lake muck, and it was starting to give off a fetid fragrance as the sun basted the surface. While planes taking off from La Guardia Airport angled upward and cars whizzing by on the Grand Central Parkway, the Long Island Expressway and the Van Wyck Expressway created a constant hum, Mr. Sargent snapped his rod back and then forward, letting the line arc out to where the splash had been. He tugged at something as he reeled the line back in — something that turned out to be a wet, weedy tangle of vegetation.
This did not discourage him.
He wasn’t sure of the best approach, so he planned to experiment with a variety of lures, casting methods and stationary rods plugged into the mud at the rim of the lake. “Luckily I fish with really cheap rods, so if a snakehead takes one, it’s not the worst thing,” he said. “My strategy today is basically to try everything.”
That’s been his career strategy for a while, too. His journey to the Cooking Channel, where his series “Hook, Line & Dinner” had its debut in June, can be attributed in equal portions to his passion for food and his Abbie Hoffman-esque aptitude for attention-getting stunts.
“The programming team has always felt there was something unique about Ben,” said Bruce Seidel, the senior vice president for programming at the Cooking Channel, a year-old younger-skewing, punkier spawn of the Food Network. “Ben has such great energy, and is a new face of what’s happening in the food world.”
Mr. Sargent, 33, a French Culinary Institute dropout, has followed an unconventional route to culinary fame during his 12 years in New York. The native New Englander has sold an array of chowders at the Hurricane Hopeful Chowder Bar in Brooklyn, regularly fished in the East River, and, most recently, hawked samizdat lobster rolls out of his apartment in the guise of his alter ego, Dr. Claw, a Beantown-accented seafood gangsta.
“I was so obsessed with that character that I couldn’t transition out of it,” he recalled. “I was like, ‘Ben can’t come out right now, he’s busy in the kitchen, but Dr. Claw can help you.’ ”
Eventually he was forced to abdicate the pincers. The New York City health department cracked down on Dr. Claw with a three-page cease-and-desist letter, “saying I would be thrown in jail if I continued to do what I was doing,” Mr. Sargent said.
By then the underground lobster-roll ring had become a news media sensation, and that never hurts when it comes to attracting the attention of TV producers. Which is not to suggest that there was some Dr. Claw-hatched strategy for media conquest. “I just think he came up with this funny character to get more business,” said Susan Povich, an owner of the Red Hook Lobster Pound. “He did not have some grand scheme of becoming the Cooking Channel dude.”
Ms. Povich, in fact, used to sell her lobsters to Mr. Sargent, even though he was a direct competitor. “He charmed me,” she said. That charm, paired with his rugged good looks, seems to have carried him far enough that it’s hard to resist wondering whether his interest in cooking is almost ancillary. “He knows food,” Ms. Povich said. “He knows fish really well. He makes a mean chowder. He’s not going to be cooking at Le Bernardin, but that’s not what he’s about. Ben’s the guy you want doing your lobster bake on the beach.”

Ben Sargent needs no introduction if you live in Greenpoint.  Perhaps you know him better as Dr. Claw (below).

Perhaps you only know him as the guy who sold Lobster Rolls secretly from his Greenpoint, Brooklyn apartment as though he was selling drugs on the corner.  Out of sheer curiousity and a love for seafood, I remember a year ago or so, going to 1001 Lorimer Street to place the text message order: “1 Lobstah Roll, Please!” Within minutes I received a text message to appear at a different address in 15 minutes with my cash folded up and prepared to exchange the money in a handshake (No change given). $14 each. We shook hands and he handed me a brown sandwich bag.  I walked a few blocks and sat on someone else’s stoop and ate the delicious roll.  Lots of lobstah, lots of butta. It was an authentic culinary experience with a very tasty product.  And then it got buzz. And then it got busted by the DOH. And that was that, but Ben’s motives were probably on target the whole time, because he was creating an identity with buzz and busts.  And now Ben Sargent has his own TV show on the Cooking Channel, called, “Hook, Line & Dinner“.

From their description: “Ben Sargent, expert fisherman and obsessed seafoodie, sets out on the ultimate coastal road trip from Brooklyn to Maine to show us the best clam shacks, lobster pounds, and chowder pots serving up the freshest seafood in New England. He’ll join up with expert local fisherman who show him how they battle the elements to bring in the catch of the day, and he’ll follow that catch straight through to the best seaside kitchens.”  Has anyone seen this? It’s been on for a few weeks now.  Now I want a lobstah roll.

Can’t you guys just get along?

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Kevin Siers in the Charlotte Observer:

What have you guys gotten yourselves into?

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Dana Summers in the Orlando Sentinel:

Why haven’t they listened to the vast majority of voters?

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Tom Toles in the Washington Post:

So how will you be able to win the Presidency in 2012?

Ben Sargent — Source: Texas Observer

Republicans favor the Rich and their Budget reflects that case…

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Nick Anderson in the Houston Chronicle:

… and they want to replace Medicaid with a new Block Grant program… after all: No Pain, No Gain…

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Chip Bok at Bokbluster.com:

… but wait until Tax Day and see who really has the Pain and who really makes the Gain…

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John Sherffius in the Boulder Daily Camera:

… but don’t take my word for it. It’s all written down in black and white.

Signe Wilkinson in the Philadelphia Daily News:

So Democracy for Workers costs more than an Arm and a Leg!

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Tony Auth in the Philadelphia Inquirer (big week for Philly):

It’s all about Organizing…

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Joel Pett in the Lexington Herald-Reader:

It’s helping us become one big country again…

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Ben Sargent of the Austin American-Statesman:

The attention to detail is what makes everything work…

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Mike Luckovich in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

At least they’ve given us someone to blame…US!

They will open the first session of the House by reading the US Constitution in its entirety. This is most certainly another “symbolic” event and is being done in deference to the Tea Party movement. When brought up by new Speaker of the House, John Boehner, he confused the wording of the Constitution with the opening of The Declaration of Independence… so maybe it is a good idea that they actually listen to what IS in the Constitution.They might not find what they are looking for, however.

Editorial Cartoonist Ben Sargent summed up the call for sticking to the Constitution by the Tea Party folks in this great cartoon:

So let’s keep our eyes and ears open as the new Congress starts us off on two years of political fun. It looks like a blockbuster couple of seasons for The Daily Show.

Related Articles

• the New 112th Congress goes to work … (ynative77.wordpress.com)
• Pointless Constitutional Symbolism In The 112th Congress (outsidethebeltway.com)
• Barney Frank: “It’s an air kiss they’re blowing to the Tea Party” (riehlworldview.com)
• Republicans to Live Stream Opening Session of Congress on Facebook (gloucestercitynews.net)
• House GOP files health care repeal bill ()
• House GOP sets repeal vote (washingtonmonthly.com)
• New year, new them (politics.nashvillepost.com)
• GOP Rules Committee Brings Transparency to House (powerlineblog.com)
• GOP Cannot Obstruct Health Care Law’s 2011 Changes (bigthink.com)

This here’s a snippet. Check it out:

Ben Sargent Editorial Cartoon on GoComics.com

Clay Bennett in the Chattanooga Times Free Press:

Let’s look at how a political party thinks about the great mass of Americans…

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Tom Toles in The Washington Post:

…and where it gets the money to keep that mass under its sway…

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Ben Sargent in the Austin American Statesman:

… or how they just remove those middle class Americans from any kind of participation in their country…

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Don Wright in the Palm Beach Post:

… after all, corporate interests and their representatives are now taking over… EVERYTHING!

Related Articles

• WaPo Ombudsman Scolds Own Paper for Spiking ‘Where’s Muhammad?’ Cartoon — With No Prophet Image (newsbusters.org)

It’s the election season and we’re all invited to The Show…

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Tony Auth in the Philadelphia Inquirer:

One side of The Show has its own Network….

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Stuart Carlson at Universal UClick:

It’s sometimes hard to tell who the sponsors of The Show are…

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Clay Bennett in the Chattanooga Times Free Press:

…so let’s settle in for the show with a nice cup of Tea.

It seems that the GOP Pledge is recognized as fiction…

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Tony Auth in the Philadelphia Inquirer:

… but the Republicans find it something to dance to…

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Steve Sack in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

… at least it gives the very rich what they want…

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Lee Judge in the Kansas City Star:

…but in the end, there’s nothing new under the sun.

It’s important to identify real enemies…

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Ben Sargent in the Austin American-Statesman:

It’s important to hang on to your past…

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Bruce Plante in the Tulsa World

It’s important to help others…

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Tom Toles in the Washington Post:

But it’s most important to really work out the problems…

Related Articles

• anti-Tea Party cartoon reveals ignorance (redstate.com)
• Lessons of 9/11: ‘Fear of Islamophobia inhibits discussion’ (fullcomment.nationalpost.com)
• Obama: Quran burning ‘a recruitment bonanza’ for al Qaeda (crooksandliars.com)

Ben Sargent, Austin American-Statesman (GoComics) March 17, 2010

(I first saw a Ben Sargent cartoon published in the Daily Utah Chronicle in about 1974.  35 years of great stuff from that guy.  He officially retired from the Austin American-Statesman in 2009, running one cartoon a week now.)

Tip of the old scrub brush, again, to Steven Schafersman and What Would Jack Do.

Also note this January cartoon from Sargent:

Texas State Board of Education social studies curricula - Ben Sargent, Austin American-Statesman, January 24, 2010

Here is a selection of some recent editorial cartoons

In this cartoon by Ben Sargent, the mother is Obama disgusted with the lazy boy on the sofa who is “public opinion”. Many Americans hold the contradictory position that they don’t want the government interfering with their lives, but they do want the president to do something to improve the economy and the jobs situation.

Vocab

meddlin‘:

1 （他人の事などに）よけいな世話をやく, おせっかいをする, 干渉する｟in, with …｠

You shouldn’t meddle in other people’s affairs.｜他人のことにちょっかいを出すのはよせ.

buzz off:

4｟主に英俗｠行く, 去る｟off, along｠Buzz off! ｜うせろ.

Tom Toles is one of my favorite editorial cartoonists. Although his drawings are deceptively simple, they usually carry a powerful message. In the cartoon above, a global warming skeptic on the left introduces the snowman (representing the recent heavy snowstorm in Washington D.C.) as evidence that global warming is nonsense. In the small drawing at the bottom, the snowman has melted due to the very global warming the skeptic has been doubting.

Vocab

global warming:

地球温暖化 (現象)

evidence:

1（…の）証拠, 根拠, 証明｟of, for …, to do, that｠

reliable evidence｜確かな証拠

a strong piece of evidence｜強力な証拠

We need stronger evidence to convict him.｜彼を有罪とするにはより強い証拠が必要だ

There is not enough evidence to decide the matter.｜その問題について決定を下すだけの十分な根拠がない

The police have hard evidence that he is the thief ［＝of his being the thief］.｜警察は彼がどろぼうだという確証を握っている.

2 （…を）明白にするもの；（…の）しるし, 徴候, 形跡｟of …, that｠. ▼この意味でも複数形は現在ではまれ

evidence of peace and prosperity｜平和と繁栄のしるし

give ［bear, show］ evidence of …｜…を示す

The test results are clear evidence of the student’s ability.｜その学生の能力は試験の結果に歴然と表れている

There was evidence of struggle in the car.｜車には格闘の形跡が見られた.

nonsense

1｟時にa 〜｠意味をなさないもの [こと] 無意味な言葉, たわ言, ナンセンス.

2 ばかげた発言 [考え]

You’re talking complete nonsense.｜まったくばかげたことを言っている.

3 愚かな行為knock [take, beat]

the nonsense out of …｜…のばかげたことをやめさせる

Stop this nonsense, Tom.｜トム, こんな愚かなことはやめなさい

I stand no nonsense from my son.｜息子のたわ言は（親として）聞き捨てならない.

________________________________

Speak! English Salon/スピーク英会話サロン
http://web.me.com/josephcamcinnis
福岡市中央区大名１－１２－３６

★ためにならない日本語ブログ↓↓↓
http://22311221.at.webry.info/

OK… this week and the upcoming weeks following will give the Dems a chance to show they are not Weenies… and maybe they’ll get Health Care through. But I doubt it.

First, an opinion piece arguing, among other things, that the families of September 11 victims would benefit emotionally from seeing Khalid Sheik Mohammed brought to justice at the site of the crime…an interesting perspective.

And then, who but Ben Sargent, one of my all-time favorite skewerers of fatuousness editorial cartoonists, should offer a thought:

Score: 8/10

What can I say? This brings me back to my working year in Texas for CSC… and everytime I got beyond the liberal bastion of Austin, I ran into the heart of monstro-religious America.

For starters, Austin American-Statesman cartoonist Ben Sargent drew up this one last week:

And just a few minutes ago, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s blog (Poli-Tex) ran another “will he, won’t he?” story about Perry ending up at Texas A&M. I began to think the post had nothing new to add to the conversation, until this interesting note at the end:

Perry has brought on board a new chief of staff, Ray Sullivan — a former staffer and campaign aide for both Perry and former Gov. George W. Bush — to replace Jay Kimbrough, who is expected to return to his own post at Texas A&M.

What could this mean?  Well,  if he felt he needed another pillow to help his landing after a tight primary battle with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, Perry has one in his former chief of staff (which, ironically, was the same role the school’s current chancellor, Mark McKinney, once held).  As always, stay tuned…

But I also want to call attention to this brilliant graphic — a sort of photographic political cartoon, and it’s quietly, subtly, savage:

What things in this photograph were paid for by taxes?

Oh, there are a couple of inaccuracies — the phone lines were probably paid for by the telephone company, but eminent domain was used to get the easements in many cases.  (Who did the photo and the captioning?  Anyone know?)

Ben Sargent was a little less subtle, in the Austin American-Statesman, using that Oliver Wendell Holmes quote we looked at some time ago.

Ben Sargent, Austin American-Statesman, copyright 2009

cartoon copyright Ben Sargent, reprinted from The Texas Observer

Otherwise the day was depressing as hell, since two of the aforementioned cartoonists were out of work, along with a great many more of their ilk across the state and nationwide, which circumstance was pretty much the gist of the story I was there to report.

We were all gathered at Baylor University for the opening of an exhibit called “Drawing Power,” instigated by a journalism prof named Robert Darden, who autographed his 1983 book of the same name — his master’s thesis — without calling me any kind of fucker at all, which I appreciated. It now takes its place as the only book of editorial cartoons in my library. 

My Texas Observer story on the sad state of the art published today. I’m especially proud of the headline, which I wrote, despite the fact that the 20-something staff writer in my office has no idea what it means. Damn kids. Oh crap. It’s come to this…