And now, for the annual Great Gilroy Garlic Festival review - thoughts, comments and meanderings …

That nice quality, rather floppy wide-brimmed hat they sell in the mercantile should be stitched and trimmed and named after the Gilroyan who has not only worn that exact style for umpteen years but has embodied the festival's volunteer spirit working with youth athletic teams and manning the garbage-collection vehicles. A stitched silhouette of Coach Chuck Ogle with a few choice tribute words would translate into a nifty sales boost ... hey, if Gerry Foisy can boost bobblehead sales, well ...

Speaking of bobble, it's Bob-O Filice, son of Val, not Booboo or

Bo-bo and, in the same vein, it's

Sha-Boom, not Sh-boom or Shaboom ...

And sis-boom-ba, we will sorely miss (and I mean that literally)

Sha-Boom at the festival, and my

20-something-year dancing streak on Saturday afternoon will have to go by the wayside. Thanks again to the gracious Don Christopher for paying the freight to get all the old time rock 'n' roll band guys here from their scattered retirement dwellings across the country for one last go. Don has become a wonderful Gilroy patriarch who continues to set a standard for generosity and, more importantly, class.

Not so classy, but a good media idea is to get one of those TV fashion makeover shows like "What Not to Wear" with Stacy London to come to the festival looking for "volunteers." It would be a riot. There's a ton of bad fashion. Perhaps ExecDirect Bowe, indisputably a fashion maven himself, could get PR man Peter Ciccarelli to team up with a true fashionista like Karen LaCorte to nudge this shamelessly shady PR ploy toward fruition …

Shameless shade is what's needed at the Vineyard Stage where some of the best bands play each year. There's shade now in a grandstands area about four miles from the stage. Mr. Michael Bonfante could come to the rescue, however, if he would loan a few of those huge trees in boxes to the festival for the weekend to place them around the Vineyard Stage. Now that would be cool …

Cool cat with a cool hat award goes to Gilroyan Rudy Perez (see accompanying picture), who exudes the festival spirit in the best Beach Blanket Babylon style with his 50-clove, bulb-festooned headdress that, thrown in a pot, would make a fine sauce …

And that saucy thought gets me all steamed because somebody this year ruined the best, the most consistent, the unquestionably premiere dish at Gourmet Alley. Val Filice's sauce, God rest his soul, tasted delizioso as usual, but who thought slicing up thick calamari steaks in hunks could replace the thin strips of squid that curled up perfectly in the pan during the sizzling flame-up and emerged tender with just the right texture? C'mon guys, if it's perfect don't fix it - there are those of us who wait all year for the taste of flaming festival calamari …

That's the best erupting-fire meal at the fest, but the top slow-flame feast - and we're talking Roman gladiator type meal here - is the turkey leg from Smokehouse Specialties. Note to Gilroy Economic Development Director Larry Cope: How about we get the folks from Smokehouse Specialties in Dos Palos to open up a restaurant downtown? Station 55 Smokehouse perhaps … doesn't that have a nice ring to it? Ring 'em up at 209-392-1995 and beg 'em to come on downtown and bring the ribs, the turkey legs and the BBQ sauce …

Bet we could get Saka-Bozzo to clown around and show up for a little BBQ at a new restaurant downtown … Loved the picture on our front page Tuesday when the dynamic duo donned their clown masks in the true "Any Bozzo Can Cook" fashion at the end of their Cook-off Stage shift. And I also loved the tender group hug photo at Gourmet Alley after the picture of Val Filice was raised in tribute to the now-gone Godfather of the Garlic Festival. That's a keeper, for Bob-O, son of Val, especially …

Keep that, but this joke from a famous Gilroy walker, you can toss (with a salad and a glass of champagne please) ... who mused after a fine Sister Cities dinner meal at Eagle Ridge that she was thinking not of her carbon footprint but of her carb footprint … yes, I did say and mean a fine meal at Eagle Ridge thanks to new Head Chef Louis and now pass the pasta con pesto ....

And bring back the spaghetti noodles please, and the old sauce, too. Stabbing at those Gourmet Alley penne noodles surely isn't easier than wrapping spaghetti around a fork, nor is it as much fun - and that's what the Great Gilroy Garlic Festival is all about - fun. We like it, we love it, we want 30 more years of it …

Mark Derry Mark Derry is the executive editor of the Gilroy Dispatch. Reach him at (408)847-7010 or editor@garlic.com.