Make Mine Mike

"It's too ornate!"

That became a catchphrase in my family, after my dad yelled it out in the middle of the dream one night, waking everyone up. I was a kid at the time and didn't know that word so I asked what it meant.

"Ostentatious," he said. "Gaudy, flamboyant, garrish..."

Then I asked what he was dreaming about that was too ornate. He had no idea.

I just thought of this story yesterday while visiting Hearst Castle in San Simeon. Wonder why.