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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas

Opinion

Mac McKinnon

Tuesday, March 31, 1998

OBSERVATIONS


By Mac McKinnon

Grilled pizza takes
top honors at festival

Have you heard that pizza is not an Italian dish? I'd been
told that but according to a report in this week's U.S. News
& World Report, what I had been told is not correct.

According to a report in the magazine, the first pizzeria
opened in 1830 in Naples Italy and the first pizza delivery
was made in 1889. The first U.S. pizzeria opened in New York
City in 1905.

Now, I don't know if that place in New York actually served
New York style pizza back then but if you haven't tried it,
I don't recommend it. We tried it in a place in Virginia
last summer and it was......not very good.

According to the magazine, Americans consume 100 acres of
pizza a day or 350 slices per second and spend $30 billion
on about 3 billion pizza pies annually.

The 61,000 U.S. pizzerias now outnumber hamburger
restaurants. Who would have thought it?

Other interesting statistics include the fact that 61
percent of Americans favor thin-crust pizza - which is my
preference. About 28 percent favor thick crust or pan pizza.
The number one topping is pepperoni which adorns 36 percent
of pizza orders. Anchovies rank last (have you ever tried to
order pizza with anchovies in West Texas?).

The magazine goes on to note that pizza has certainly
changed since its humble beginnings.

Chicken pizza, seafood gumbo pizza, and even pecan pie pizza
were competitors recently when pizza makers gathered in Las
Vegas for the Festiva International Pizza Recipe Contest.

The winner was grilled "Gamberian pizza, a thin-crust pie
made by Craig and Karla Priebe of CK's grilled Pizza of
Norcross Ga. The Gamberian features Gulf jumpo shrimp,
sun-dried tomatoes soaked in port wine and two fresh pesto
sauces.

Remember the fact the pepperoni is number one topping in the
country? It wasn't even in the running at the contest. The
Priebes combined two pizza trends: grilling and the use of
nontraditional toppings.

"The judges loved the smoky flavor, said a contest
spokesperson and the innovative use of local Georgia pecans,
instead of the pine nuts usually found in pesto sauce.

Now who would have thought of Georgia as a place to get a
different kind of pizza?

The article left a number of questions unasnwered such as
how popular is pizza in Italy now and were there any
Italians entered in the "International" contest?

Personally, I prefer old fashioned sausage (pork not
Italian) on my thin crust pizza. But occassionally I do like
to get anchovies. We've been known to take our own anchovies
to pizza places because they usually aren't stocked in this
part of the world.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Mac McKinnon is the Editor and Publisher of
the Pecos Enterprise. He can be e-mailed at:
bigmac@bitstreet.com

Your View

Former Pecosites enjoy Enterprise web page


I just wanted to let you all know that it's great to see
that the Pecos Enterprise is on the net. My husband and I
are originally from Pecos, but we are currently living in
California due to the military. We love the fact that we
can keep in tune with what is going on in Pecos just by
pulling up your web page. Thanks a bunch!!!

Cynthia Flores Villescas

Your View

Higher standards needed to improve the community

To The Editor and people of Pecos:

Many in our community have pondered our state of affairs in
the last few years, asking questions such as "Why don't we
have more businesses?"; "What is wrong with our town?"; "Why
doesn't somebody do something?" In my opinion, the questions
and problems facing our community and in the larger picture,
our nation, are of a spiritual nature.

In the 50's we lost our innocence, in the 60's we threw away
authority, in the 70's we gave up on love, in the 80's we
lost our direction, and in the 90's we seem to have lost all
wisdom. Integrity means nothing. We murder innocents by the
tens of thousands. We have misplaced our value and, it
seems, we as a people no longer have any standards.

I grew up in a town 30 years ago where people loved God and
went to Church, and for the most part, tried to uphold a
standard of hard work, decency and righteousness. Today, our
church are almost empty, and people have become much too
busy for anything that doesn't make a dollar or feel good.
Many don't seem to be able to divide right from wrong, and
most don't even care. We must have forgotten that, without
God, there is nothing else.

Some don't remember that unless we apply God's Word and His
commandments to our lives, we no longer have any standards,
and confusion reigns. We can whitewash the tomb all we want,
but unless we clean out the deadness on the inside, we are
no better off. We must awaken to the fact that integrity is
more important than the bottom line, or we will continue in
a downward spiral, slouching toward Gomorrah, and sure
judgment. (Just a note for Mr. Clinton; IT'S INTEGRITY,
STUPID!)

Allow me to close with a few suggestions for community
improvement. Citizens, especially Leaders - make a
commitment to a local church and get your spiritual life in
order.

Whatever racial or social class boundaries you have
constructed around your heart and life, get rid of them. We
have no room for them here in Pecos....after all, aren't we
all in this together?

Matt Williamson

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