resist! resist!
One of the biggest problems I have with listening to “Resident Bush” speak is – his speechwriters do not write in a manner that reflects how he speaks. He ALWAYS sounds like he’s reading a speech, and not very well at that.
Think back – when Bill Clinton spoke, he probably had a speechwriter putting words in his mouth, but you never heard a disconnect between his words and his delivery. You never wondered as he spoke, ‘is this news to him? would he say something like this if he had to speak without a script?’ He was a persuasive speaker, leading you with his words to understand and agree with him, compared with Bush, who just repeats his speech over and over again, as though if we hear it a million times, we will start to believe it.
Squash on the brain today …
S sent me the email that her coach sent to her, saying that her practices would alternate weekly, 6:30-7:15 pm one week, then 3:30-4:15 pm the next. A new challenge in creative scheduling! Practice started yesterday, and not surprisingly, S really likes it: while she was working on her geometry homework, she sighed and looked at me and said, “I’d rather be playing squash.” Of course, there are probably lots of things she would rather be doing than geometry.
To be helpful, I googled “squash rules” (not “Squash Rules!”) and uncovered yet another
whole new world. I downloaded a segment on squash for idiots (S is not easily insulted), a brief overview of the “new rules,” and a somewhat lengthy history of the sport itself. With her love of things British, I expect S will read it enthusiastically. Once her geometry is done.
Bob posted a comment on my “Useless Tidbits” entry (thanks, Bob! You’re #2!) and wished me a happy Thanksgiving, provoking my recurring feeling that I should have written, either before or after, about my Thanksgiving. Since I’m, well, not too busy right now, I will try to write something interesting about my Thanksgiving holiday. Let me know if you find anything:
A few weeks ago, I thought Thanksgiving was going to be a little different this year: last year, J, S and I rented a minivan and drove from CT to MN to visit my sister and her family, stayed for the weekend, then drove from MN to west TX, to visit J’s family for the actual meal. Then, back to CT via Roswell, Little Rock and Memphis. (It was pretty awesome. I sometimes can’t believe we did that, but I have pictures!) See
here for some impressions of that trip.
This year, my ex-co-worker Sid (a whole post, no, a whole blog in himself!), who has gone to graduate school to become an money-grubbing, capitalist-pig, bad-Buddhist investment banker on Wall Street (his description, not mine) was supposed to be coming to dinner at my sister’s, mostly so that he could run in the
Manchester Road Race (held on Thanksgiving, of course), which is right around the corner from where I live. Many people also walk the race, which I had intended to do as well, along with S – although she would run ahead of me and meet me much later at the finish line. However, Sid has made lots of new friends at his new school, being the AJ Soprano of Rochester, and so decided to give thanks with them, and skip the race. It’s just as well – it was about 30 degrees and snowing on Thursday, which he wouldn’t have liked, and so I didn’t go either. New this year – the police put up temporary no parking signs all along our street and the ones around us. In years past, since the race starts at 10 AM, around 9, as I would sit in the living room, drinking coffee and reading the paper, I would notice sprightly figures pulling up in front of my house, and all down the street, locking valuables in their trunks, securing their car keys somewhere about their person, and then running off in the direction of Main Street. The normally quiet sidewalks would populate with cheerful, energetic people, dressed for the weather in bright jackets, talking and laughing and blowing steam out of their mouths, an optimistic and happy parade of runners, joggers and walkers. It made me feel like brewing lots of coffee and maybe hot chocolate and setting up a stand in my front yard, or maybe just posting a big sign that said, “Happy Thanksgiving – Welcome to Manchester!” But this year – red and white signs that said “NO PARKING TEMPORARY POLICE ORDER.” We wondered if some people hadn’t got the message, if they would pull into the driveway and make the universal hand motions for “OK if I park here for a few hours?” but no one did.
I was pretty tired Thanksgiving morning because M was home from college, and we had been up until 2:30 AM cooking and baking. Dinner was at my sister’s, a wonderful and accomplished hostess, and a gourmet cook, too, like the rest of my family. In keeping with my gray sheep status (the more I see of the rest of the world, the more I realize I am a lot like my family), I am not a gourmet cook, but I do make the big effort when it comes to holidays. Since Li’l Sis would not be joining us from MN this year, the dinner crowd was somewhat smaller, but I was asked to make an appetizer, a vegetable and a dessert. I decided to embrace these tasks and give them my own special flair (!).
I spent a few hours online looking up recipes, and decided on
“piggy pies” - spicy pork empanadas for appetizers,
butternut polpettone (like a squash quiche/casserole, kind of) for the vegetable, and
torta di ciocolatto (flourless chocolate cake) for dessert, all courtesy of
foodtv.com.After I got out of work on Wednesday (after getting The Call from my soon-to-be new boss, offering me The Job – yay), I baked the squash and started cooking the pork with many spices! and making the dough for the empanadas. The kitchen smelled very good. (I have started making Mexican things for holidays, to give my husband a taste of “home” and to prove that I can, and because it’s interesting to make different things every once in awhile.) I realized that I did not have any rum in the house – shame on me! – and so I mentioned that to J and he donned his coat and went out for the fifth time that week, to the store. What a guy. No wonder I make empanadas for him. M and S ran around, giggling and shrieking and getting in the way like children will (they’re 21 and 14), until I set them to work: M separated eggs while S greased and floured the pans; S chopped the almonds while M stirred the sugar and yolks. J wandered in, apparently thinking that we were having too much fun, so he was made to scrape the squash from the outer skin and stir the pork filling. All in a galley kitchen, my friends! We are a close family, literally and figuratively.
We must have eaten dinner that night, but I don’t remember. If we did, it was standing up in the kitchen, working on our dishes, or collapsed in the living room. Maybe we got Chinese. I just don’t know.
I enjoyed making the empanadas – you roll out the dough, cut 3 inch circles out of it (with a tea cup), paint a little egg on the outside edge, put a spoonful of spicy pork in the middle, fold it over, then crimp the edge with a fork. For some reason, I got 27 out the recipe, and by the time I got to the 27th one, I was quite good at it, if I say so myself. Since the back porch is unheated, it was like a refrigerator out there, and that’s where I left the empanadas for the night, right on top of the piano. (Yes. I have an orange piano on my back porch. I loved that piano. It’s a sore subject.)
I decided that that squash thing was going to be very easy – just dump everything into a bowl, mix and bake – and I would do that Thursday morning, so it was on to the
torta di cioccolatto.
That was another chemistry experiment: cook egg yolks and sugar over steaming water, add cocoa and ground almonds and rum. Whip egg whites, fold them into the chocolate mixture. Bake. Yum.
In the meantime, M had discovered the second breadmaker J had been given by a co-worker of his, who was so grateful that he came and got the ficus tree that she no longer wanted, that she insisted he take the breadmaker that she no longer wanted either. Should we have called the suicide hotline? Who doesn’t want a ficus tree and a breadmaker? I had a boxed mix of bread-making stuff called “Cinnamon Sunrise,” so we decided, what the heck? We’re in the kitchen anyway, and wouldn’t it be nice to have cinnamon bread for breakfast on Thanksgiving? M plugged it in and set it all up and realized that it would be done around 2:30 AM … and that, friends, is why I was up until then.
A LOOOONNNG way to go to find out why I was tired on Thanksgiving. Thanks for coming along.
And we haven’t even gotten to the dinner yet!
And the squash! Thursday morning, while the street was unusually quiet for a Thanksgiving morning, I baked the squash thing – polpettone – I like to say it “pol-pi-to-nee” (rhymes with “baloney”), but I don’t know if I’m saying that correctly. I have no Italian blood in me at all, but I do enjoy some of their recipes. I made this same recipe a few years ago, again for Thanksgiving dinner, and “everyone” (Mom and Dad and Big Sis) loved it, so I made it again, but this time instead of store-bought bread crumbs from a cardboard cylinder, I MADE the bread crumbs after I had a flashback to my childhood when my mom would make meatloaf, and would make bread crumbs by putting slices of bread into the blender. I was amazed that the blender does an excellent job of turning regular bread slices into crumbs in seconds! I also used some bread crumbs on the side of the springform pan to keep the polpettone from sticking to the sides. Instead of store-bought parmesan cheese, again from a cardboard cylinder, I used freshly-grated parmesan in the recipe, and it made a big difference, so keep that in mind, you squash-hounds, when you make your polpettone.
The piggy pies needed baking, but first a coat of egg wash. I wish I had taken a picture – they were golden brown and lovely and smelled wonderful. J and I split one before we left – quality control, you know. Not as spicy as I thought they would be, but still
muy bueno.
I was hoping that the roads wouldn’t be too slippery by the time we had to leave for my sister’s house, and the gods smiled on us and the 20-minute trip went fine. It was the first time the whole family rode in my new car. I was happy, and I didn’t make J listen Dylan or Clapton; in fact, I left the radio off. We saw an accident on the Bulkeley Bridge, and I remember remarking to my family, “That’s got to be the worst – getting in an accident on Thanksgiving. You probably end up missing dinner.”
We had a very nice time at my sister’s. Her husband, BIL, also loves Mexican food and was very happy to see the empanadas. Big Sis served a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, with one nice addition – we had a first course of some quite delicious squash soup. I know it must have had a poetic name as well, but it didn’t matter. The kids turned their noses up at it, while J loved it and ate BIL’s, too.
After dinner, my mom urged us all to get up and go for a walk – that’s my mom for ya – so we did, in the cold rain. The Girls and I cut it short and went back to dry off.
Later, friends came over and we had five different kinds of pie, plus my flourless chocolate cake, and coffee, and then we were through. The kids played Scattergories and BIL and his friend looked up tickets to Broadway shows for a December trip they are planning, and others watched some football, and the women-folk sat in the dining room with our pie and coffee and solved the world’s problems.
For the record, I am not a Black-Fridayist. I get the creeps after being in the mall for more than an hour on a regular day, and there is nothing that I want or want to buy that I am willing to go through that kind of agony for.
Instead, on Friday, we went to an artists’ center in Avon and walked through many studios, admiring their paintings and sculptures and jewelry and pottery. I was hoping to see some fabric or textile artists, but there were only a few scarfs and some felted wool objects. S and I bought two lovely handmade pottery teacups. It was a nice day.
I could probably recount each breath I took on Saturday and Sunday, but what would be the point of that? I think a blog needs a little mystery, don’t you?
I suppose, looking back, that my Thanksgiving was one of excesses, politically incorrect in this day and age, but there it is. We meant no harm by it. I neglected to mention, speaking of excesses, that we are drawing names this year for Christmas gifts, so a lot of excess money and time and shopping just got wiped away. Thank you, Jesus. Li’l Sis - the original Material Girl - was the last holdout on the switch to this procedure, but she took it quite well. On Thanksgiving, Big Sis dialed her up on the speakerphone to wish her a happy day, and we all drew names out of a large bowl . . . actually, a funny thing happened then: one of my crazy aunts had come over for dessert, and she secretly took all of the scraps of paper with our names on it out of the large bowl and made a bunch of scraps of paper with her name on them, and put those in instead. It was quite hilarious. I didn’t have my glasses on, and when I picked my scrap of paper, I was sure that it was my name, but it wasn’t quite . . . oh man. Good times.
"Useless Tidbits"
I stole this from
Sue. She says: "Please feel free to steal it from me for your blog!" so I did. I felt like writing something but didn't know where to start.
1. First Name? Tricia
2. Were you named after anyone? There are lots of Patricks and Patricias in my family, and my godmother was named Patricia, so: yes. I'm the only "Tricia," though. Please don't call me Patty.
3. Do you wish on stars? Every chance I get.
4. When did you last cry? I think it was a few weeks ago, when I was listening to NPR, and there was a story about the mothers of soliders who had died. I just don't know how they carry on.
5. Do you like your handwriting? Sometimes, when I try.
6. Any bad habits? Oh my goodness. My cop-out: too many to mention here! Or: I like to focus on what I do right, not what I do wrong. ( :
7. What is your most embarrassing CD on the shelf? Rod Stewart - but that doesn't really count because I didn't buy it and I never listen to it. Barbra Streisand - "My Name is Barbra." It's a tad self-conscious or self-involved or something - I don't know. I bought it last year, to play a particular song for my husband on our anniversary - "Why Did I Choose You?" I wrote the words to the song in a card, and when he opened it, the music starting playing, and Barbra and I starting singing! It was very romantic.
8. If you were another person, would YOU be friends with you? Mostly. I am an interesting friend, but not very reliable. If I could get past that, then yes.
9. Are you a daredevil? In a way, but not in a way that anyone else would recognize.
10. Do looks matter? No. I mean, sometimes they do, but they shouldn't.
11. Where is your second home? When we were driving through west Texas last year, I got the strangest sensation that I belonged there. Maybe I lived there in a previous life. I had not really ever thought about having a previous life until I saw Texas.
12. Do you trust others easily? I used to trust everyone blithely; now I TRUST NO ONE.
13. What was your favorite toy as a child? I had a second-hand bike that was blue and had a button like a doorbell that rang out kind of like a doorbell, too. Even though it was kind of shabby and dented, I loved that bike, and I felt so free when I rode it.
14. What class in school do you think is totally useless? I took Shorthand, and the only time I ever saw any one use it was in old movies, and I'm pretty sure that was fake.
15. Do you have a journal? Does a blog count?
16. Do you use sarcasm a lot? No, and speaking the blunt truth is a very effective comedic tool - try it sometime.
17. Have you ever been in a mosh pit? No, but there are worse places that I have been in!
18. What are your nicknames? Trish, Novia, Trish-the-Dish, Momula, Mothra, Trixie
19. Would you bungee jump? No.
20. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? No, and I always regret it the next day.
21. Do you think that you are strong willed? "The Iron Fist in the Velvet Glove."
22. What's your favorite ice cream flavor? Chocolate with chocolate chips and nuts.
23. Shoe Size? 9
24. What are your favorite colors? I like all colors equally, except orange! and lime green! I dislike them equally!
25. What is your least favorite thing? Stupidity (not ignorance)
26. How many wisdom teeth do you have? None
27. How many people have a crush on you right now? oh, ten or twelve, I'm sure.
28. What do you miss most right now? Melanie, who's coming home for Thanksgiving! Yay!
29. What color pants are you wearing? Black
30. What are you listening to right now? The sounds of an office - people talking on phones, laughter, somebody wheeling something by.
31. Last thing you ate? A bowl of Corn Pops and a cup of hazelnut coffee (breakfast of champions).
32. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Purple
33. What is the weather like right now? 43 degrees - cold, windy, rainy.
34. Last person you talked to on the phone? Husband. He called me to tell me that he took a nap and had a nice dream about me.
35. The first thing you notice about the opposite sex? His aura.
36. How are you today? Medium
37. Favorite drink? diet vanilla Coke
38. Favorite alcoholic drink? white zinfandel
39. Favorite Sport? Boston Red Sox baseball
40. Hair color? reddish brown
41. Eye color? greenish brown
42. Do you wear contacts? No, I buy reading glasses at Stop & Shop. I think I'm on 2X right now.
43. Siblings? Twisted Sisters! - 2 of them - one older, one younger. I used to be the crazy one, but now I think it's a toss up between the two of them.
44. Favorite month? October. May is nice, too.
45. Favorite food? Medium rare filet mignon
46. Last movie you watched? "It Happened One Night" Clark Gable & Claudette Colbert
47. Summer or winter? Neither
48. Hugs or kisses? Both
49. Living Arrangements? Husband, me, S, M when she's not at college, and Rudy, an ancient dog. Plus the ghosts of Bev & Bud, who lived in the house first.
50. What book/magazine are you reading? American Patchwork & Quilting, Nov. 2005
51. What's on your mouse pad? "Kingswood-Oxford School / Vincit qui se vincit"
52. Last thing you watched on TV? "Medium" in 3D, except I forgot to buy TV Guide so that I could watch it in 3D. I was bumming, and when I asked J to go to the store and buy 3 copies so that we could all watch, he said no. Go figure. It was still pretty good. Intriguing that it's supposedly based on a real person who has these strange powers! I like to pretend that I do, too. I think pretending is half the battle!
I must be answering these questions incorrectly ...
| The Movie Of Your Life Is A Black Comedy |
In your life, things are so twisted that you just have to laugh.
You may end up insane, but you'll have fun on the way to the asylum.
Your best movie matches: Being John Malkovich, The Royal Tenenbaums, American Psycho |
Things are not
that twisted, are they?!
I saw "Being John Malkovich" just a few months ago and loved it; it was really a very unusual and cleverly written movie.
I actually rented "The Royal Tenenbaums" because Luke Wilson (right? It was Luke, wasn't it? What's the other one's name?) was in it - we were first introduced to Mr. Wilson when he guest-starred in an old favorite episode of "X-Files" - the one about a whole town of vampires (ha! weren't they all? -- if that was your reaction, you didn't watch enough!). "Tenenbaums" was a similarly unusual, OK, it was a downright odd, movie, more flawed than "Malkovich" but really gripping in its strangeness.
I have not seen "American Psycho." It sounds a little too obvious.
When I win Powerball, the first thing I'm going to do is buy the entire nine seasons of X-Files, and watch one episode every Sunday night, in order. Yeah. Uh, does that qualify my life for "black comedy" status?
I don't know about this:
Handholder
You go out of your way to build bridges with people of different views and beliefs and have quite a few religious friends. You believe in the essential goodness of people , which means you’re always looking for common ground even if that entails compromises. You would defend Salman Rushdie’s right to criticise Islam but you’re sorry he attacked it so viciously, just as you feel uncomfortable with some of the more outspoken and unkind views of religion in the pages of this magazine.
You prefer the inclusive approach of writers like Zadie Smith or the radical Christian values of Edward Said. Don’t fall into the same trap as super–naïve Lib Dem MP Jenny Tonge who declared it was okay for clerics like Yusuf al–Qaradawi to justify their monstrous prejudices as a legitimate interpretation of the Koran: a perfect example of how the will to understand can mean the sacrifice of fundamental principles. Sometimes, you just have to hold out for what you know is right even if it hurts someone’s feelings.
What kind of humanist are you? Click here to find out.
Maybe I'm not a humanist at all, didja ever think of that?? That would throw off this diagnosis a bit, wouldn't it?
Once a month, whether I need to or not ...
I survived the full moon Wednesday night unscathed. What with Mercury in retrograde and the general insistent pressure of time's passage, the uncertainty of my job and the unknown outcome of the job interview last week, I sense I am waiting, but not in a way that is restful or calming. There is much waiting, and yet time rushes past, with still more waiting. My focus remains on experiencing the present.
My husband's sister (my sister-in-law, a title which does not spring to mind when I think of her, because I have never met her, due to the vast geographical distance between us) was diagnosed with breast cancer this week. Contrary to her previously cantankerous and impatient persona, she delivered this news in a calm, brave, upbeat-as-possible way. My esteem of her grew a great deal. Her surgery will be on December 1. I am going to try to reach out to her.
I have read many blogs over the last several weeks, and I am constantly impressed with how honest and interesting so many people are! It is my little way of traveling and meeting people - from a safe distance, of course.
Reading
Jen's daily blog about food and life is like checking in with a friend;
Bob's heroic effort to get healthy, physically and emotionally, is an inspiration. I care about
Sally and her return to normal life after Hurricane Rita, and her developing plans to move to a retirement home. Their sharing with me is teaching me things that I will keep for a long time.
Neddie Jingo is a fascinating character and storyteller whose observations are like excerpting the most interesting passages from a vast library. I want to know more. I especially liked the post about urinating in the backyard of the president of Brazil, or something like that. (Yeah, really made an impression.)
Kyrie MeMo is, despite her sometimes glib remarks, an enigma. What must her life be like? So many times I think about her and say, why? Why?
Colin McEnroe - what can I say about Colin? He is a shapeshifter, yet a rock; a goofball, yet a genius; a truth-seeker who sometimes wades in the shallowest waters; an individual who aspires to reach the "common ruck." I follow his progress.
Lance Mannion's site is intelligent, thoughtful, wide-ranging, personable, and very readable. I keep looking for a flaw! The world needs more people like Lance; or at least more sites like his.
The latest goofy site that I use one of my daily clicks on is
You Knit What? I'm sure it helps to be a knitter to appreciate the ambience, but it is very funny and the people that comment on the daily posts - many times 30, 40 or 50 comments! - all agree on what is "fugly." A beleagured man once asked, why can't we all just get along? Maybe if we all knitted, we could.
Off to read more blogs! Please confirm that you have not read this, so that I may once again find my nerve and write what I'm
really thinking.
