Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Pies With Grandma


My mom freely admits that she never really learned to cook till after she was married, from her mother in law.  This has resulted in my Irish/Manx mother cooking like a Hungarian, for the most part.  My grandmother was an excellent baker, famous for her poppy seed rolls. Even when she was older and could no longer go easily up and down stairs, my mom would bring the dough up to her room so she could assemble the pastries for the holidays.
this is my grandma, unfortunately I don't have a
picture of her cooking
My mom is also admired for her baking, especially her pies. She makes a low sugar apple pie for all the family events that is so popular she makes it on a deep cookie sheet so there is more to go around. She is also the only person I know who still makes chocolate pudding from scratch. Everyone admires her never soggy pie crusts.

My husband is the family chef, but except for bread, which he is quite good at, he isn't fond of baking.  The problem is that he likes to cook by taste, which isn't possible when baking, where one has to follow directions and hope for the best.  He has never been able to make pie crusts turn out.  Last summer he advised the Girl, who likes to bake, that she needed to have her grandmother teach her how to make pie crusts.  So this fall and winter we spent several days at Grandma's house, learning the art of pie crusts.

First Grandma used some already prepared crusts to show her how to roll the crusts out and bake them.



 Also she showed her how to make chocolate pudding to go in it.

Next time they made the crusts up from scratch and froze them for future use. Then Grandma went to Florida with her sisters for a month.  The next week Dad wanted to make pot pies so she rolled out the crusts she and Grandma had made and helped Dad put them together. The pot pies were a big success.  But the real test came last week when her father wanted to make pot pies again, and she had to make them from the beginning, all by herself because Grandma was still out of town.

I was at work and didn't witness the actual creative process, but everything turned out just great.
I would show you what the filling looked like
but I got to the fork before I got to the camera.

The Girl is happy because she now knows how to do something no one else knows how to do and can brag about the superiority of her pie crusts.  My husband is happy to finally have a decent supply of pie crusts. Grandma is happy to finally have at least one child in the next generation learn this essential skill.  And I am happy that the Girl has this one special connection between her and her grandmother, this thing that the two of them alone know how to do. 
She doesn't understand its true value yet, but she will someday.









 

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Express Yourself--Favorite Book Quotes






When I saw that this week's Express Yourself Meme was favorite book quotes, I was totally up for it.  Not only do I have books all over the house I also have books full of quotes from books I like.
 
Here are a few favorites. I have focused on works of fiction, using some of the shorter quotes, and trying to avoid the ones everybody knows:
 



O, there is lovely to feel a book, a good book, firm in the hand, for its fatness holds rich promise, and you are hot inside to think of good hours to come."
Richard Llewellyn
How Green Was My Valley

And now Scrooge looked on more attentively than ever, when the master of the house, having his daughter leaning fondly on him, sat down with her and her mother at his own fireside; and when he thought that
such another creature, quite as graceful and as full of promise, might have called him father, and been a spring-time in the haggard winter of his life, his sight grew very dim indeed.
Charles Dickens
A Christmas Carol

You think the dead we love ever truly leave us?  You think that we don't recall them more clearly than ever in times of great trouble?
J K Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Love each other well and always. There is nothing else but that in the world: love for each other
Victor Hugo
Les Miserables
 
Until I feared that I would lose it, I never loved reading,
One does not love breathing.
Harper Lee
To Kill a Mockingbird
 
And Frith called after him: "El-hrairah, your people cannot rule the world, for I will not have it so.  All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you they will kill you. But first they must catch you, Digger, Runner, Prince with the swift warning.  Be cunning and full of tricks, and your people shall never be destroyed."
And El-hrairah knew that though he would not be mocked, yet Frith was his friend.  And every evening when Frith has done his days work and lies calm and easy in the red sky, El-hrairah and his children and his children's children come out of their holes and play in his sight, for they are his friends and he has promised them that they can never be destroyed.
Richard Adams
Watership Down


I will say this: the rule of no realm is mine, neither of Gondor, nor any other great or small.  But all worthy things that are in peril as the world now stands, those are in my care.  And for my part I shall not wholly fail of my task, though Gondor should perish, if anything passes through this night that can still grow fair or bear fruit and flower again in days to come. For I also am a steward. Did you not know?
J R R Tolkien
The Return of the King
 
The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof.
Richard Bach
Illusions:the Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

"I used to think I couldn't let
you go, but I'm learning to feel that I don't lose you, that you'll be
more to me than ever, and death can't part us, though it seems to."
"I know it cannot, and I don't fear it any longer, for I'm sure I shall
be your Beth still, to love and help you more than ever. You must take
my place, Jo, and be everything to Father and Mother when I'm gone.
They will turn to you, don't fail them, and if it's hard to work alone,
remember that I don't forget you, and that you'll be happier in doing
that than writing splendid books or seeing all the world, for love is
the only thing that we can carry with us when we go, and it makes the end so easy."
Louisa May Alcott
Little Women 



In one of the stars, I shall be living. In one of them, I shall be laughing.
And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing when you look at the sky at night.

  Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The Little Prince



I could go on forever, but this seems like a good place to stop by now.  Do you have some favorite quotes from books?

This Post is part of  Express Yourself Meme. To see what other bloggers are saying on this same topic please click on the link.

Everyone Knew



“Everyone knew.”
First line provided by speakeasy #97 winner
Erica Mullenix
 
 
Everyone knew
the statue of the lady
and the babe.
No one knew anymore
whom they were
or whom they once were.
Books were long forgotten,
tales were long untold,
and the people were long years gone
from the one who chiseled the marble.
 
Yet people still came to look,
sometimes to leave flowers,
or say what passed for prayer in those times.
Somehow sensing in some wordless way
that sacredness surrounded
the Lady and the Child.
 
 
 
This piece is part of the speakeasy at "Yeah Write".  Each writer posts a piece of fiction or poetry with a given first line and a photograph to reference. To see what other folks created from the same inspiration click the button below.
 
 



Monday, February 25, 2013

Cellphones are Not Chew Toys and Other 911 Complaints


In the 23  years I have worked as a 911 operator the biggest change has been the huge increase in cellphone usage.  In 1990 when I started there were around 5 million cell phone users in the United States. Today over 203 million Americans have one. Many of them only have a cell phone.

As you can imagine this has made huge differences, both positive and negative, in the nature of my job,  Crimes and accidents are reported much more promptly, because the reporter doesn't have to find a land line phone to make the call.  The downside of this is that everyone who sees the accident or crime take place calls.  A car accident on the interstate can easily result in dozens of calls.  On the other end of the dozens of calls are typically 4-6 people answering the calls.  Some smaller departments have only one or two people call taking.  (So if you do call 911 and get a "Thanks, We have it" click, don't be offended.)

But at least these people are trying to report actual police, fire, or paramedic emergencies. A bigger factor, and bigger addition to our workload are accidental 911 calls.  The two biggest menaces are pocket dials and little kids.

Pocket dialers (also known among over tasked dispatchers as "Butt Dialers" ) generally of course have no clue what they are doing. This can frequently be seen by the nature of the calls we overhear.  I cannot tell you how many domestic fights and drug deals I have eavesdropped on.  My favorite though are the pedestrian dialers--people who are walking with their cell phones in their pocket.  As I have said before, the sound is frequently similar to that of people walking through crunchy fall leaves, if you had a microphone right in the middle of the leaves, and are listening on highly sensitive headphones to the resulting noises.

But perhaps the most time consuming unintentional  calls are the ones from small children. We often take calls from young children in the middle of emergency situations.  Frequently they are actually far calmer and more accurate than their adult counterparts.  But these children have learned about calling 911 and have learned when and how to do it.  Its their younger (sometimes much younger) brothers and sisters who drive us crazy some days.

Not a day goes by at work that I don't take at least one, and usually more, calls from a child that is too young to talk, let alone use a phone.  Sometimes the baby babbles in my ear. Other times they say hi over and over. Often we try to get them to take the phone to an adult, which often results in a conversation like this.

Me: Take the phone to Mommy.
Baby: Mommy phone.
Mom: Oh isn't that cute, he thinks he making phone calls.

Understand it's not the child who annoys us, its the clueless adult.

Sometimes we get an adult when we call back, who usually laughs and says "That was my baby, playing with the phone."  There is usually a note of pride in the parental voice at their child's "accomplishment".

Sometimes we are told that the phone was an old one, or one that didn't have any minutes on it, so it had been given to the child to play with.  Actually, however, the FCC requires all working cell phones (and landlines with a dial tone)to be able to call 911, regardless of available service.

Frequently things are made even easier for the pre-verbal caller because someone has programmed 911 into speed dial.  This never makes sense to  me. Is punching 9-1-1 into the phone such an arduous task that people must save yourself two extra button punches?  Are they afraid they will forget the number  in an emergency?

But there is an even bigger question that I muse upon frequently, while listening to the prattle of  these small ones.  Why the heck does this kid have access to a cell phone in the first place?

When my kids were little we didn't have a cell phone, but I kept the dialer phones high out of reach.  This was partly because I didn't want the embarrassment at work of a child of mine calling 911. I never would have heard the end of it at work. But it was also because I didn't think it was a safe thing to play with.  It wasn't a toy.  The kids did have toy phones, just as they had toy keys and toy remote controls. This was true when I was young also.  We weren't allowed to play with the house's phone, radio, stereo,TV dials and so forth. They were too valuable to let small kids handle.  Has technology become so inexpensive a disposable that nothing is to be kept out of reach of children? I don't understand why people would allow a child to play with an often expensive cellphone when a toy version can be picked up at any store for less than ten dollars.  It isn't just the accidental dialing issue.  Some phones are small enough to be choking hazards. Even if the phone isn't small enough the battery often is. Battery swallowing is frequent cause of both choking and poisoning in small children.



This is not a chew toy
keep out of reach of children 

No Cell Phones Allowed clipart

from Clker.com













By the way, the  9-1-1 operator's life is not about to get any easier either.  The next phase of 9-1-1 will allow texting of messages and photos.  I can't wait to see what kind of pictures will be coming our way.


Thank you for reading this public service announcement.  We now would like to return you to your regularly scheduled blog reading. We  particularly recommend the "I Don't Like Mondays" Blog hop at Mod Mom Beyond IndieDom. Check it out.




Saturday, February 23, 2013

Roll Out the Red Carpet

PBS



It's here at last, one of my favorite nights of the year.  Sunday night the Academy Awards will be passed out in Hollywood, and I will be perched in front of my TV sets for the entire spectacle.

One of my friends likes to refer to Oscar Night as "My Superbowl".  I feel the same way, even though I take at least a passing interest in the football bowl as well.  For performing arts people like us, things just don't get any more exciting, moving, cheesy and charming, often all at the same time.

I'm not sure when I first watched the Oscars, we didn't have a TV when I was young so I was probably about 9 or so.  But the first Oscars I remember watching was the legendary "streaker" show of 1973.  For those who don't remember, running naked into camera range at public events was quite the fad back then, so naturally the Oscars got it as well.  The streaker himself would be barely remembered however,  if it weren't for what came next: David Niven's brilliant ad lib.


In later years it has been suggested the line was prepared for Mr Niven.  I maintain it doesn't matter. What mattered is that he kept his composure and got the line out.  I judge all future ad libs by comparison with this.

When I got to college I met a number of other people who were equally crazy about the Oscars.  Some of my fondest college memories revolve around our Oscar Night parties, complete with Oscar pool--I even won one year. 

In those days it was easy to handicap the pool, because I went to a lot of movies. An on campus movie theatre showing cheap movies was most helpful here.  After college I usually waited for the movies to get to cable, which was usually long after the awards were passed out.  In 1993 I saw Schindler's List before the awards ceremony.  It was the last time I saw the winner in a theatre until 2011 when my daughter and I saw The King's Speech at the cinema.  (It was also the last R rated film I saw in a theatre till the King's speech, the interim was filled with a lot of Disney films and Harry Potter)

In a way though, its even more fun if you don't have a particular film you are rooting for. That way you are free to focus on what really matters: politics, personalities, and dresses.

Oh the dresses. Who can forget (without therapy anyway) Bjork's swan dress:
Or the year Cher came out in this, then announced she had read the memo on dressing like a serious actress.
Or how about some of these?

Like people who only watch the Super Bowl for the halftime show, for some folks this is what the Oscars are all about.

It will come as no surprise to those who know me that I get my hanky out for the In Memoriam segment.  Moreover I pride myself on only occasionally saying "I didn't realize _________died" or worse yet, "I thought _________died years ago"

My favorite awards are the upsets, and what I like to call "High Effing Time" awards, as in "It's High Effing Time_________________won an Oscar.

For the last 15 years or so, as all those college friends moved away, I usually watched the awards alone. (My composer husband was only interested in the music awards), unless there was a film up the kids were interested in.  (This year the Boy is pulling for Zero Dark Thirty, the Girl for Les Miserables).  But modern technology is a wonderful thing, and now I am able to text and chat all through the big show.  Nothing closes the miles between us like watching the same train wreck  extravaganza at the same time.

In all its overblown glory there is nothing quite like it. Roll out the red carpet and let the Awards begin!


Before I watch the awards I am hanging out at Yeah Write Moonshine Grid. You should go check these awesome bloggers out too.


Thursday, February 21, 2013

Feeling the "Like"


Last week for theme Thursday we talked about Pet Peeves, and I think some bloggers, including myself, felt downright peevish by the time we were done.  This week we are thinking happy thoughts about things we like, and I hope it will improve the mood around the blog, Here are some things that I really like:















I like baseball. I have followed it since childhood, and have followed my son's baseball through his childhood. Baseball is the only sport that I can watch without having a sporting interest in any of the players.  It is also one of the two branched continuum (along with scouting) that connects my children to the grandfather they never knew.




I like genealogy and scrap booking. Its always exciting to find something new about our family, and its even more exciting to put it into a format others can look at.  Several times now the kids have had to do genealogy projects for school, and they have been grateful for mom's groundwork.


I also like my kids.

 
I don't just mean in the every mom loves her kids sense. I mean I enjoy their company. I enjoy planning things to to with them.  I am interested in their interests and hope they are interested in mine.  They are turning out to be very interesting people and its a privilege to know them.
 
 
I also like to read And I like to underline and write notes in the margins (but only when the book belongs to me!) I see reading as a two way dialogue. Both reader and writer are active participants. One of the coolest things about blogging is getting that conversation going in real time.
 
 
I like blimps.  Living in Akron I have been watching them my whole life. There are simply cool. I would love to get to ride on one someday.
 
I  also like photography, movies, The Beatles, turtles, Nero Wolfe, Sherlock Holmes, and Ellery Queen, Shakespeare, theatre, history, coffee, my husband's cooking, my husband's music, my friends, and the way I feel when I think about all these things I like.
 
 
 
 
This post is part of Theme Thursday.  to see what other bloggers like, please click on the link

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Express Yourself--love at the movies

I have to admit that I am not that big on love scenes in movies.  Even in Romance films, the love scenes aren't necessarily my favorite parts.  Just to give one example, I love Ghost, but the pottery wheel scene is not my favorite part of the movie. There are a few like the airport scene in Casablanca, that are so much a part of the film that I do like them. On  the other hand, the first time I saw Titanic I was throwing things at the TV and yelling "Get to the iceberg already!"

But the topic this week is favorite love scenes in movies, and I do have a favorite--the graveyard scene from The Quiet Man. Its a movie I have loved since I was young. (my Irish Grandma was born on St Patrick's Day, even before DVD;s we watched it whenever it was on.) Let me tell you a little about this film and my favorite scene.

I am sometimes yes, sometimes no on John Wayne, it depends on the movie. But I think it  can be said that more than any other actor of the golden age of Hollywood he worked well with strong female leads.  He didn't mind sharing the screen time with them, actually upped his game when he had one to work against. This is true all the way to his last movie, The Shootist, where he worked across from Lauren Bacall.  Of all those strong willed females costars, the very best was Maureen O'Hara. I have always loved Maureen O'Hara.  I think she was one of the most beautiful actresses ever to appear on film, and one of the few who was equally lovely in both black and white or color.  (Most actresses look better in one or the other. Bette Davis, or Greta Garbo, looked better in black and white.  Elizabeth Taylor looked better in color.) She was great in alot of movies, (I particularly like her in How Green was my Valley, one of my favorite films) but she was at her very best when working with John Wayne and being directed by John Ford.

Which brings me to The Quiet Man.  This romance about a  boxer who kills a man in the ring, retires to his native Ireland to find peace and quiet, only to find he has to fight to keep the woman he loves almost didnt get made.  The studio didnt think there was any money in it.   But Ford,Wayne, and O'Hara all wanted to make the film, and the studio wanted to keep them happy so after a number of trade-offs they were all allowed to trek off to Ireland with some technicolor cameras and make this movie.

The story is surprisingly mature for a 50's romance.  When Mary-Kate's brother refuses to pay her dowry to her husband, she refuses to sleep with him, saying that without the money that belongs to her, she is just chattel changing hands from brother to husband.  Sean,who has plenty of money for both of them from his boxing career doesnt understand why she cares about the money. At one point, to evade the censors, Mary Kate tells the whole story to her parish priest-in Gaelic.  In one of the funniest lines in the film, the priest tells her "Ireland may be a poor country but here a man sleeps in a bed with his wife and not in a bag on the floor..."

Eventually everything works itself out, of course and all live happily ever after.

If havent seen this movie you should. TCM almost always runs it around St Patrick's Day, or if you can get the DVD with the commentary by Maureen O'Hara you will learn all about the making of the film and the history of the locations as well.

Now to my favorite scene.  When Sean goes courting Mary Kate, he learns that there is an elaborate local custom in which courting couples are escorted to various activities, by the local marriage broker.  On ther first date, the walking out together, they evade their chaperone and go wandering across the countryside, and end up in an old cemetary, where this happens.

 
 
For my money, this is the sexiest love scene ever. No one takes their clothes off. No one has too. These two people realize in an instant that they love each other and belong together, and literally seal it with a kiss. WE should all be this lucky. This Post is part of  Express Yourself Meme. To see what other bloggers are saying on this same topic please click on the link.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

At the altar of Caffeina


As I have previously mentioned,I have a reputation when it comes to cooking, specifically that I'm not good at it. I am not going to be featured on "Worst Chefs in America" or anything like that, but I do have a limited repertoire of dishes, that mostly serve to cover the nights my husband, who is a superb chef, doesn't feel like cooking.

I do have one great culinary skill, however: I make an incredible pot of coffee. I take my coffee seriously. To me it represents comfort and hospitality, and maybe a little indulgence. After all, you don't need to live, but I wouldn't want to live without it. In fact I consider myself to be a priestess of the Goddess Caffeina. I used to have a little plaster office goddess figurine of her, holding forth a cup of coffee to the world. I no longer have it, but a friend recently drew this for me:
Caffeina by Tanglewood




I joined the cult of the Goddess Caffeina at an early age. My gateway was the cups of instant Sanka I used to make for my grandmother, who lived with us. In that age before microwaves, i used to run water till it got hot, stir in the Sanka then we would drop the little fizzy saccharine tablets in and drink our coffee. When I was 12 my grandmother moved to California to live with an aunt and I started drinking coffee with my parents, who were not drinking decaf. In those heedless days I could go into my high school cafeteria in the am and buy a Reese's cup and a cup of coffee every morning (it cost a grand total of 30¢). By the time I got to college I was a confirmed consumer of coffee and, when it wasn't available, Diet Coke.
When I got my first apartment a full size coffee pot was my first appliance purchase.

I also became a connoisseur of the coffee bean itself. When I was a kid my mom and dad had a wonderful coffee grinder that held a full pound of coffee bins. We would grind directly into the coffee scoop. The coffee was amazingly delicious and I acquired an abiding affection for Eight O'clock coffee. When I was first married I owned several coffee grinders, all of which were eventually hijacked by my household chef to serve as a spice grinder. So these days I bring it home in a ready to use format.

I am not the only devote of Caffeina. The amazing Mod Mom Beyond Indiedom created this video in her honor. Recently I took a great step forward in coffee decadence. I bought a Keurig.
I have wanted one for several years ever since I sampled the coffee at a friend's house, but couldn't justify the expense. Recently though they have become far more reasonable. There is no at coffee experience to compare, and I have a cappuccino maker. We have a nice Mr Coffee, which a timer (much appreciated at 4am on work days) but sometimes I want just one cup. And I want that cup to be awesome. Sometimes its about the quality more than the sheer effort of getting caffeinated to face the day. Also, once in awhile I deserve a treat. I believe Caffeina would approve.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Monday Holiday

McKinley Memorial Canton,Ohio

President's Day is an odd sort of holiday. Really no one gets it off except Government workers and schoolkids. We don't get mail either, but the email box is stuffed
full of Presidents' Day sales ads. Other than a marathon of documentaries about Presidents on the history channel, just how does one celebrate Presidents' Day?

Well our Girl Scout troop decided to spend the day calling on a president.

As it happens Ohio, where I live, competes with Virginia for the title "Mother of Presidents"
(The Fairness Doctrine requires me to note that Virginia produced better ones) and one of them, William McKinley was from Canton, about half an hour from our home.

McKinley is a largely overlooked president today, largely because after he was assassinated at the beginning of his second term, he was succeeded by a guy named Teddy Roosevelt who totally changed the way the presidency is conducted.

Still they built him an amazing memorial tomb, with a nearby museum that includes exhibits on the McKinley's and local history. There is also a planetarium and a small natural history museum.

All told, the girls had a good time. It was kind of nice, on Presidents' Day, to think about one of the people who held the job, and about the times he lived in. Because when you think about it that's what holidays are supposed to be about.



Friday, February 15, 2013

Pet Peeves--Theme Thursday on Friday

It is pet peeves week at Theme Thursday, unfortunately due to one of my pet peeves, lousy Internet, this isn't going out till Friday. I hope no one's pet peeve is unpunctual bloggers. I could write a novel instead of a blog on this topic, but will try to restrain myself and stick with just a few favorites.

First a few that are from the workplace (a 911 call-center, for those who are unacquainted with some of my work posts):

People who call 911 for anonymous tips (If you call 911 you aren't going to be anonymous, that's the whole point of 911, think about it for a minute.)

People who think its adorable that their preverbal child just tied up a 911 line for 10 minutes.

People who think that its perfectly safe to leave their wallets, laptops, and cds in their car overnight. (On the other hand, your stupidity is my job security)


And for a few more general pet peeves:

Schools sending home materials requests, fee requests, picture envelopes, and anything else requiring the outlay of money, after one paycheck and due before the next
one. If its not in the budget on payday, it isn't happening. And I get paid weekly, but I know a lot of parents at your school get paid weekly or even monthly. What the heck are they supposed to do. Twice I have missed high school picture days because the notice was sent home on Monday for pictures to be taken on Thursday.

This goes for school events as well. Calling on Tuesday to tell us about a family game night on Wednesday is a good way to make sure we won't be there. I want to add how much I appreciated the followup reminder call we got on Wednesday, just about the time the event was ending.

People who assume that everyone has weekends and holidays off, and works 9-5 hours.

Family members who know I schedule my vacations in December for the following year, yet advise a month in advance of the date of their kids wedding/graduation party/shower/other special event; and are unhappy with me if I can't make it.

The relative who keeps forwarding certain emails to me. It's not the mean spirited other end of the spectrum tone I mind, as much as the fact that he is endlessly rerouting glurge that Snopes.com debunked months or even years ago. (And I would like to thank the fine folks at Snopes for the term "glurge")

And I can't go without invoking my favorite grammatical pet peeve, persons who use the word decimate when they mean devastate. Decimate means to eliminate 1/10th of a group and it goes back to the Romans who used to discipline (and sometimes execute) every 10th soldier in a group. After all if you flog everyone there's no one left for guard duty. This has actually become a joke around our house. As soon as we hear a commentator say "The cyclone has decimated this island nation" someone always says "Hey only 10% damages? Not bad."

OK, I've been peevish long enough. I'm going to stop complaining and start thinking happy thoughts about things I like for next week's Theme Thursday. In the meantime, if you want to hear about other people's pet peeves, click on the link below.


Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Spring Training

I have always thought one of the saddest sights I know is a baseball diamond covered with snow. Here in the section of Ohio known as the Snow Belt, its a sight I see alot of. Both the complex the Boy plays at and the minor league stadium downtown are still mostly white between the base paths. Puxatawny Phil and Buckeye Chuck to the contrary, it is definitely still winter here. Even a warm day, like yesterday, is accompanied by howling winds that rattle this old house and lower the temps 20 degrees.

But there is light at the end of the tunnel...even if the tunnel runs through Arizona. Yesterday pitchers and catchers reported to spring training,which for the Cleveland Indians is in that sunny state. The rest of the players will check in by the end of the week. And tonight the Boy has his first baseball practice of his senior year. It will be in the evening, in the gym, but he will be throwing a baseball, something that has had him pacing the house in anticipation the last few weeks.

Spring training is all about starting over with a clean slate. Last year's losses are last year's, and last year's wins are of use only as a happy memory. You get to try again.

And even though the daffodils won't get up the nerve to make an appearance for weeks yet, and even though we may have a blizzard on St Patrick's day, the promise is there.

Baseball has begun, and spring will surely follow.

Monday, February 11, 2013

i Don't Like Mondays or Valentine's Day


I took most of last week off, at least in terms of actually posting anything to the blog. One of the reasons I took a sabbatical was that it seemed all the blog hops wanted to talk about nothing but Valentine's Day.

Frankly I was at a total loss for anything to say about the fourteenth of February.

Valentine's Day is not an occasion I have fond memories of from childhood.To say I wasn't one of the popular kids is to barely scratch the surface. I dutifully brought Valentines for all my classmates as instructed by my teachers and never seemed to go home with as many as I came with. When we got to high school I was never one to left little notes or stuffed animals by anyone. And frankly I never much cared either.


Moreover, my husband and I never have been into that sort of contrived (as we saw it) "holiday". We thought even less of Sweetest Day. Year after year it seems to get more blown out of proportion,as diamonds and pearls takes the place of boxes of chocolate and longstemmed roses as recomended gifts.

Valentine's Day, like so many other events on our calender, was origanally designed to clean up after those dreadful heathens, in this case the Romans who celebrated a no holds barred fertility festival this time of year. About 1500 years ago the Pope decided to plop down on that date a feast honoring a bishop named Valentine who was supposedly imprisioned in Rome for performing weddings for soldiers who weren't allowed to marry.
The tradition developed of sending messages to loved ones on that date.

In the last century the greeting card, candy and floral industries got into the act, formalizing what was supposed to be a spontaneous gesture of affection. Among young kids, small valentines featuring favorite pop culture figures and candy conversation hearts have become traditional. But in more recent times the jewelry stores and other high end marketers have gotten into the act. Its this last last bit of commercialism I find most annoying. Showing your love with a heartfelt note (or even Hallmark's idea of a heartfelt note) is one thing, insisting that one must give diamonds and furs as a love token is absurd. I find all this to be ridiculous among grown adults, especially when families are so often digging themselves out from Christmas.

In short...remember my birthday,remember our anniversary, but leave Valentine's Day to the kids.

There is one consolation though--there will be half price chocolate at the grocery store on Friday. That I can celebrate.



This post is part of the I Don't Like Mondays blog hop at Mod Mom Beyond Indiedom. To hear more about what people don't like, click on the button.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Poor Richard



It was a tight race between Meg the history buff (and medival recreationist)  and Meg the theatre major to determine who was more excited to learn of the finding of the body of Richard III.
The pictures of the amazingly intact skeleton, showing clearly the spinal deformities, indicating that at least one aspect of Richard's myth was in fact accurate are impressive and moving to look at,

 
Photo from Reuters
 
For me the story resonates on a number of fronts. Richard has come down to us as one of the most villianous men in history, in a large part due to two of the greatest figures of England's literary Renaissance: Sir Thomas More and William Shakespeare.  Both of them lived and wrote in the Tudor Era, for the successors of Henry VII, the man who deposed Richard.  To me the Plantagenet soap opera beats anything dreamed up on television, or anything the tabloids put out today about their descendents who are currently on the British Throne either.  I  find them totally fascinating.  They have also bene subjects of some amazing theatre, not only Shakespeare's history plays, but  modern works like Murder in the Cathedral, Beckett, and The Lion in Winter.  And Richard III was the last one to sit on the throne of England.
 
And Richard sits at the center of one of history's greatest mysteries, namely what happened to his young nephews, whom he confined to the Tower of London, after setting aside their claims to be next in line to the throne.  It's true Richard may well have been justified in doing so.  England had barely survived the reign of Henry VI, who came to the throne before he was a year old.  It was not a good time for another child king.  There was even, by the nitpicking standards of the era (see Tudor, Henry, legality of marriages), some question of the legitimacy of the little princes, whose father had wed their mother is extreme secret.  But then they disappeared.
 
Whodunit? Did Richard have them killed? Did they die of natural causes (youth mortality being what it was in those days) but Richard hushed it up, knowing no one would believe natural causes?  Ornry  did they die later at the hands of Henry VII, whose claim to the throne was less than theirs, and who would actually marry the princes' sister Elizabeth, to better secure his children's right to succeed.
 
And then there is that grand charecter created by Shakespeare, that villian of villians, one of the great parts of the English speaking theatre, one of the great roles that generation after generation of actors test themselves in.  Shakespeare's chief source was Sir Thomas More, who saintly scholar though he may have been, was also an ambitious Tudor courtier who was not above writing propaganda for the folks in power.  He painted Richard as blackly as possible, and then Shakespeare, writing in the reign of Elizabeth cranked it up even more, even acusing Richard  of murdering his own wife.  It is a magnificent piece of melodrama, and was one of Will's first big hits.  To this day it remains one of the most popular of his plays. Shakespeare's view of the last Plantagenet king has far superseded history's. To put it in modern parlance, Richard Plantagenet was Swift Boated by England's greatest playwright.
 
None of these matters will be settled by the discovery of Richard's remains (though it does add to our  understanding of both his possible disabilities, and his death on the battlefield.) But there is something moving about seeing one of history's alleged monsters reduced to a skeleton. And I am all in favor of those moments that cause us to stop and take a look at history, which is so often neglected both in and out of school. 500 years after his death, Richard III is being remembered again.  And that's great.
 
 
 
 


Monday, February 4, 2013

I'll tell you why I don't like Mondays


Yes,of course I am a member of the great collective that hates Mondays, particularly Mondays that I have to go work. So naturally when I learned that Mod Mom Beyond Indiedom was starting a blog hop specifically for complaining about the dreaded Monday I had to hook up.

Mondays are almost always hard at the police station. If you had the weekend off you are surly about coming back to work. If you have been working all weekend you really hate it that its Monday and you are still here. This particular Monday is the morning after the Super Bowl so most folks stayed up later than usual and are sleep deprived on top of everything else.

Mondays are always busy too. Courts and offices are closed on the weekend so everyone calls in Monday morning to get their business done. Juvenile delinquents, don't like Mondays either so we get lots of calls from their parents. Fights increase on weekends so on Monday we have a bumper crop of domestic protection orders to process. Although the urban legend that Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day of the year for domestic violence has been disproved the fact remains that the the combination of sports and booze does create a lot of business for police officers.

Yet another problem that increases on Mondays is car accidents. Somehow over the weekends people forget to drive over the weekend. Naturally Mother Nature co operated this morning by dropping a fresh blanket of snow. This allows the commuter to add a game of Dodge-ems to the morning trip.

In short the biggest problem with Mondays is that the universe has given us plenty of signs that we should just stay in bed.

And we don't listen.


Saturday, February 2, 2013

The Family Football Role Reversal

As a kid, I always loved baseball. I used to sit up with my grandmother, who.lived with us, and listen to the games on the radio. I wasn't so keen on basketball and football. My dad however felt it was important I learn about both sports. If nothing else, he said, a girl should always know enough about sports to carry on a conversation with her boyfriend or husband. He was a very patient man, and watched game after game with me, answering all my questions, however silly.

It worked. I learned to converse intelligently on most sports, and learned to love football, though not as much as baseball.  In fact over the years I learned to at least the basics of most sports.

Naturally I married a musician who had no interest in sports whatsoever. (You saw this coming, right?)

My husband's opinion of football is that it was invented so marching bands had something to do in the fall.  Ditto for basketball and pep bands in winter.  Since other sports have no use for bands he sees no reason for them.

Naturally the irony machine being fully functional, our first born was a boy who loved baseball from and early age and football when he got a little older.  And even our second born, the dancer girl, has begun to take an interest in football, if only, you got it, to talk to the boys at school. Leaving my poor husband alone on Sundays in the fall and whenever the Indians are playing.

When it comes to baseball, because the boy actually plays the sport, he has tried to pick up the  basics over the years. He knows balls from strikes and where the position players are.  But his interest is totally confined to the games his son is participating in. The rest is  of no use to him at all.

So now Super Bowl Sunday is rolling around again and he is one of those few who aren't interested even casually in the game, the half time show, or the commercials.  And because he is a guy who feels that way he is even more of a minority. He will endure hours of mostly incomprehensible (to him) monologues from the boy about the various aspects of the game. The  daughter might or might not  watch the whole game depending on the excitement level. Poor man isn't even that excited about the pizza we will have delivered before the game, so he will mostly hide in his den all day, until the madness is over.

And then he will have a whole week of peaceful bliss before pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training.




Friday, February 1, 2013

Guilty Pleasure TV--Finish the Sentence Friday

When it comes to TV reality shows I...

Love some and hate others, like most folks.  I do find I prefer ones that involve some sort of competition or knowledge, (Pawn Stars, Project Runway, Top Chef) versus ones that simply follow odd people around (Honey Boo-Boo or anything to do with anyone named Kardashian)
Even there I find exceptions though.

For example the kids and I love to watch America's Supernanny.  We laugh at the clueless parents, and the obnoxious kids, my progeny being well aware that they would have been in time out for life before things got to this point. 

The Boy is totally into the many reality shows around Doomsday preparations.  Part of the reason is that after being in Scouts since he was 6 he figures he can survive on the contents of a backpack if  needed. 

The Girl's favorite train wreck show, on the other hand, is of course Dance Moms.  The fact that we have never seen a dance teacher remotely like Abby Lee Miller is only part of the fascination.  The endless backstabbing and sniping between the moms is fun too. When we really want to pick on the Girl we threaten to send her to Canton to study with Cathy at Candy Apples.

And there's something we find really entertaining about Storage Wars and Shipping Wars too. The best part is when the other characters snipe on camera about their fellow "stars".

We really like Pawn Stars and Auction Kings too.  Both shows revolve around people with specialized knowledge of certain subjects, and with the values of obscure objects.  We find this fascinating.  We especially like it when we know more than the experts about  something. 

Then there are the food shows.  When you get down to it, all food shows are reality shows to some extent.  We used to watch every season of Top Chef but have kind of gotten away from it lately.  Our favorite competition show now is America's Worst Chef.  Picking on my cooking skills is a popular sport around our house (dad does most of the cooking, and with good reason), but the kids concede that I am too good for this show. One contestant last year made "vanilla chicken" which has become a byword in our house for the stupidest thing that can be done with 2 perfectly good ingredients.  Our other favorite food show right now is Restaurant Impossible.  No kitchen is so lost that Chef Robert can't fix it.

 But my absolute favorite reality show (unless you want to count the Oscars, but that's a different post) is Project Runway.  I have watched every season (though I take a pass on the All Star version because Project Runway without  Tim and Heidi isn't Project Runway at all.)  There are several reasons it stands out for me.  There are several reasons for this.  One is that it involves an actual creative act, the designing and construction of fashions.  Over the course of the season a lot of really cool clothes get made. Second, as a theatre major I knew a lot of people like these contestants, and find myself nostalgic for that sort of flamboyant prima donna display.  As everyone races about each week trying to finish up I am also reminded of those jam packed hours before performances, when we chased about in much the same way.

But in the end, I watch the show for Tim Gunn.  He is such a rock bottom, practical, eye at the center of the hurricane.  He gives such good advice to all the contestants, and woe betide the designer who
decides to follow their muse instead of his common sense.  I would love to have Tim do an overhaul of my closet and dresser.  He would be so kind, even as he cast his critical eye on my sense of fashion.

As a matter of fact, there is a brand new Runway waiting for me on the DVR when I get home tonight.  Because making it work is where their reality and mine meet up.


This post is part of Finish the Sentence Friday.  For more information, or to see how other people finished the sentance in italics above, click on the picture below:


Finish the Sentence Friday