Vibrant color

Friday
This morning I went to check out the new Jungle Jim's store, recently opened at Eastgate, about 15 minutes drive from us. Previously, the only location was in Fairfield on the west side of town. Jungle Jim's is a huge international food market, sometimes referred to as a theme park for food, due to the unusual displays throughout the store. For example, at the entrance to the Fairfield store, animal replicas are accompanied by occasional roars and the splashing of a miniature waterfall in the background. Inside are several animatronic displays and the miniature storefronts in the European section represent the architectural styles of the various countries. Many of the specialty foods in the store's Asian and European departments are difficult to find elsewhere in the Greater Cincinnati area, and customers have been known to drive from other cities for the store's wide variety of ethnic food.The "Jim" in Jungle Jim's is Jim Bonaminio, who first started out selling fresh produce from a stall on the side of the road during his college days to bring in some extra money. The Fairfield store first opened in 1971, again selling fresh produce. It grew over the years, notably doubling in size in the 1990s, to 6 1/2 acres of floor space. I didn't go very often, and I always found it a very confusing place to find your way around. The new store is supposedly even slightly larger, but seemed easier to navigate. It's an impressive store, though maybe not quite as quirky as the original! They have regular grocery produce as well, though their prices didn't seem particularly competitive in that area.
Today's blip was taken during a late afternoon walk in the neighborhood, in the apartment and town house complex of Olde Montgomery. In the evening Roger and I watched a movie, The Gathering Storm, a 2002 BBC-HBO co-produced television biographical film about Winston Churchill in the years just prior to World War II. The movie focuses both on his private life with his wife Clemmie, and his political life as a backbencher in the House of Commons, trying to get a hearing for his concerns about German re-armament under Hitler. It was a great movie - entertaining as well as informative. It's also interesting to hear the comments on the making of the film in the extra features on the DVD.

One year ago: Shawl