Spoon

Doll House Update

2012-02-01T18:36:00.000-08:00

I started this project with the idea of putting legs onto G's dollhouse. When it sat on the floor it was hard to play in the bottom level, and tables were generally too tall or too big (space is a precious commodity in our house). Home Depot has fantastic wooden legs with the screw bolt already in them. They are sanded and ready for paint, stain, etc. and come in a variety of styles and lengths. They also have these incredibly handy plates that you just screw into the bottom of whatever you want to put legs on, and then screw the bolted legs into the plate. It's a cynch.

I also stumbled upon this great water based stain, that you can have mixed to a number of different colors. I LOVED working with it. It is so quick to apply, it's not fussy--there are no streaky lines to contend with, it dries super fast, and you still get the wood grain showing through a bit. I also love the matte/natural finish. I also used the stain to also paint the chevron on the front of the table.

You could do this same project for about $35 if you just wanted to put the legs onto the house (depending on the length and style legs you choose).

While we were at HD though the creative juices got flowing and I thought that, though it would be nice to have the house up off the floor a couple of inches… where would G put her vegetable garden and picnic table?

We wandered around and found everything we needed. The base of the table is made of 3/4" MDF with trim nailed around the edges--so that things wouldn't fall off the edges. We used sample tiles of astro-turf like carpet for the "grass", and the tile guy gave us a remnant bit of the glass tile that we used for the "pond". We decided on some travertine tile for the stone walkway and patio. The "grass" was great, and easy to cut to make our modern landscaping come to life.

Now G just needs to organize her house. :)

2011: Books Completed

2012-01-05T07:08:00.000-08:00

The Mind Readers, Margery Allingham
Dancers in Mourning, Margery Allingham
The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, Nicholas Carr
More Work for the Undertaker, Margery Allingham
Every Eye, Isobel English
With Bold Fork and Knife, MFK Fisher
The Sea, The Sea, Iris Murdoch
Pearls Before Swine, Margery Allingham
Fashion in the Shrouds, Margery Allingham
Questions of Travel, Elizabeth Bishop
The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje
Gorky Park, Martin Cruz Smith
Traitor's Purse, Margery Allingham
The Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Discovered the Hidden Gospels, Janet Soskice
The Italian Slow Cooker, Michele Scicolone
Nigella Express: 130 Recipes for Good Food Fast, Nigella Lawson
The Italian Vegetable Garden, Phaidon Press
When We Were Orphans, Kazuo Ishiguro
Tether's End, Margery Allingham
Who's Body, Dorothy Sayers
Howard's End, E.M. Forester
The Tiger in the Smoke, Margery Allingham
Dimanche, and Other Stories, Irene Nemirovsky
Journal of Katherine Mansfield, Katherine Mansfield
The Beckoning Lady, Margery Allingham
A Passage to India, E.M. Forester
Cheerful Weather for the Wedding, Julia Strachey

(Also, several Nancy Drews! with G. Fun to revisit these).

... select reviews and goals for 2012 to come.

Year in Review (not mine)

2012-01-05T06:48:00.000-08:00

Two entraining reviews worth a read.

ABE Books' Literary Year in Review.

and

Dave Barry's Year in Review (hysterical as usual).

Persephone Secret Santa 2011

2011-12-18T12:11:00.000-08:00

I just had to participate in the Persephone Secret Santa again this year--as it was such a treat last year. I have so much fun being introduced to another person out there that loves to read these interesting books as well. This time I was Santa to S out in Washington State. Her blog is here at luxe hours (great name!). I specially like this aspect of the Secret Santa because inevitably I gain many more book titles to add to my "To Read" list through getting to know these other Persephone fans.

From my Secret Santa (who still remains a secret!), I received Bricks and Mortar. I am very excited about this, and truly grateful for the effort my Santa put in to procuring this particular volume for me. I had no idea when I wished for this title that is is currently out of print! Thankfully my santa was able to find one and sent it along to happy me.

I haven't been blogging very much this year... I think I wrote a grand total of 22 (not including this one). Anyhow, after such grand ambitions for the year, it seems a little disappointing to have not been writing very much this year--however, the lack of posting has not been due to any waning of interest or lack of activity. Much to the contrary. Our life has been very full this year, and for that I am grateful. I am going to try and come up with a more manageable, and yet still active posting schedule--perhaps a little more focussed topically. We'll see.

Back to Persephone... I have been reading a lot of the books that J gave me for my birthday last year recently (all Persephones). Every Eye, Dimanche and Other Stories, The Journal of Katherine Mansfield, Cheerful Weather for a Wedding, and now Greenery Street. By far my favorite so far has been Every Eye. It is such a tight story, interesting narrative structure, and fabulous Modernist imagery. Greenery Street is already promising to be my number two, but I haven't finished it yet, so it's hardly fair to the others to say yet!

Dimanche has a couple fantastic stories, and many that made me kind of hate French social culture and were loathsome to finish. It is not fun to read story after story about self-absorbed misanthropes who do very little. Many of the later stories in the book showed the cutting brilliance of Suite Francaise, so I was happy over all.

I described The Journal of Katherine Mansfield to J as a book that I really want to have read, but was not happy reading. The Journal is interesting because each of the sentences or paragraphs jotted down in it were these dense images--intense but utterly disconnected from one another or any narrative arch. So it was tough going. I had not finished it by the time our book club rolled around to meeting on it, but have since. Since finishing it I have a much better idea of why it's considered so brilliant. It's a very intimate glimpse into how a writer jots down and begins to form or re-form characters, situations, or fleeting moments. I sat down and tried to write down a common scene of my every day life to see if it was really so hard--since KM makes it seem so natural and effortless. It was nearly impossible for me. That exercise made me appreciate what she was doing with The Journal a lot more--but don't expect this to be an enjoyable read, or indeed really like a journal in the more prosaic sense--it's more like a writer's sketchbook. This "journal" contains almost no personal information ("I am going to X and with Y."), only intimate, detailed vignettes. The only real glimpses into KM's state of mind was her preoccupation with suffering. The reader does not get any progression of events or life changes really--so reading it is slow going.

Cheerful Weather for a Wedding was a surprise to me. From the title I thought it would be somewhat saccharine and light. It was not. It is really a long short story or novella about one day in a household that happens to be a wedding day. The fact that we know it is a wedding day provides all of the unity of plot and tension of character for the reader. As. V. Woolf said of it, "It is astonishingly good."

I will just touch on Greenery Street here, and hopefully do a complete posting on it when I finish reading it. I would love to just post quotation after quotation of it up--but I will just say that as the book opens with the Grandmother giving the young couple an enormous rocking horse for the nursery, which displaces the linen cupboard, which then has to join the sewing machine and the cook's trunk in the young husband's closet--which of course he does not mind--I could hardly stifle my laughter quaking body so as to not wake up my own dear young husband. I put the book down and turned out the light smiling.

Together

2011-11-28T10:12:00.001-08:00

Prague Cemetery

2011-11-22T16:00:00.000-08:00

Here is a fantastically interesting interview with Umberto Eco about his latest novel, Prague Cemetery. I am dying to read it--though it sounds pretty grim.

Bresaola

2011-11-09T18:40:00.000-08:00

I walked up to the deli counter at Wegmans this evening--always an exciting activity--I eagerly looked over the case to see what was new. As I looked at the delectable freshly sliced bacon my eye fell on an odd looking few slices arranged on a nearby platter.

I asked the man, "What is that?!" I was afraid that they were highlighting blood sausage for the holidays, or something similar. The man behind the counter said, "That's bresaola. It's like prosciutto, but it's beef." At $19.99 a pound I wasn't about to pounce, but then he offered me a slice... and my world will not be the same. It is heaven for meat eaters! I am hooked. It is one of the best things I have ever had in my mouth.

Note that, of course, Jamie Oliver has a wonderful looking peach bresaola salad and here's a brief description.

I love this quotation, Italian Bresaola "is moist and delicate, and completely unlike the salty and slightly leathery domestic versions, or the dryish Swiss bundnerfliesch that Americans have had to make do with for so long... It has an intriguing, musty bouquet. And unlike prosciutto, bresaola is utterly lean, with no discernible striations of fat. When sliced paper-thin, it is almost translucent."

I think that is what really is so amazingly compelling about bresaola. Besides the wonderful taste--it is so gorgeous. It is like eating beef stained glass. It makes me want to create art project meals. And that's all I will say about it.

Don't forget!

2011-10-31T06:48:00.000-07:00

Spirituality of the Church

2011-10-11T12:32:00.000-07:00

A provocative little interview with Pastor David Coffin:

"The Rev. Dr. David Coffin is pastor of New Hope Presbyterian church, a 20-year-old congregation that meets in Fairfax City's Fire Station No. 3. Coffin, a student of early American theologians Jonathan Edwards and Robert Dabney, is said to be one of the most learned men of his denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America. Coffin will speak in Washington at Christ Reformed Church's "Christianity and Politics" lecture series later this month alongside other well-known Reformed intellectuals. Coffin sat down with The Washington Examiner to talk about his lecture, "The Spirituality of the Church," and his own faith in God.

"Examiner: Do you consider yourself to be of a specific faith?

Coffin: I'm certainly a Christian. The problem is that's a pretty generic term these days. I would say that I'm a Catholic Christian in that I hold to the fundamentals of the faith as set forth in the historic creeds of the church. I'm a Protestant Christian in that I believe the Reformation was a return of the church to its original scriptural foundations. I'm a Reformed Christian, meaning that the way of salvation understood in historic Reformed or Calvinistic Christianity seems to me most faithful to the Scriptures."

Read the whole thing here.

H Mart

2011-10-03T16:33:00.000-07:00

"It's so great! It's so they can live before they die!" -- G, on the fish tank at H Mart

I am really proud of G for this! I have worked really hard to instill in her that food comes from animals, and that it's a very good thing that God has made the world this way--that there is nothing gross about it, and that it's good to be humane about your food before it comes to your plate. Every time I roast a chicken she asks if it can wave goodbye to her, and we do a little naked chicken dance...

The Colorizer

2011-09-16T11:05:00.001-07:00

Religious Architecture

2011-04-26T10:25:00.000-07:00

It seems to me that the best examples of religious architecture are among humankind's proudest accomplishments. When working in the service of some higher entity, we humans seem capable of surpassing our reach and perhaps even our expectations. Motivated by faith, but guided ultimately by common sense, these builders created constructions that reveal a level of ingenuity, ambition, and craftsmanship rarely found in secular architecture.

-- David Macaulay, Mosques

Is Social Network an Oxymoron?

2011-03-07T08:00:00.000-08:00

This is why I will always love Lawler--there is no one better on flat souls than him:

So I've been thinking some about the fact that "The Social Network" portrays people--even techno-meritocrats--as worse than they really are. I've been criticized, of course, for not recognizing the artistry in that approach as a revelation of the emptiness of our time.

One reason I wasn't so impressed by that approach is that it's nothing new. It was present in the controversial best-seller of the last generation--Allan Bloom'sThe Closing of the American Mind (1987). Bloom described the smart and sophisticated students he taught at the University of Chicago as having flat souls, by which he meant souls without longing. And souls without longing, of course, aren't really souls at all.

Bloom described his students as unmoved by loved and death, fit to be competent technical specialists and nothing more. They were social solitaries, locked up in themselves, the most erotically lame people ever. They weren't open to God, didn't think of themselves of citizens, didn't have real heroes, and even found it about impossible even to think of themselves as family men and women. Bloom even said that their music was nothing more than the rhythm of mechanical rutting. Their eros had become that one-dimensional!

And so, of course, they even turned friendship into networking. The social network, from this view, isn't about real friendship or real social life. It's about people casually exploiting each other to meet their pedestrian personal needs. The film seems to confirm Bloom's description by not giving us an example of enduring, trustworthy friendship or enduring love between a man and a woman or of a fairly functional and loving family.

For the complete article visit Big Think here.

Sola Scriptura

2011-03-06T06:13:00.000-08:00

DG Hart writes a fascinating piece on an element, often taken for granted, of one of the tenets of Protestantism: Sola Scriptura. He argues that rather than emphasizing the personal devotion of churchgoers, as is largely assumed today upon discussion of Sola Scriptura, "Anyone who reads the early sermons or commentaries of the reformers" would see that the "chief element of the Reformation was not individual or subjective but corporate and objective."

Hart goes on in "The Nature of Reform" to state that

"Obviously, conditions are not today what they were in sixteenth-century Europe and Protestant concerns about personal holiness may be a welcome addition to character of being Protestant. At the same time, churches today give every sign of needing the kind of reform for which Calvin and others called in the sixteenth century. In fact, a plausible case could be made that a turn toward personal godliness has come at the expense of zeal for the faithfulness in the forms and ministry of the institutional church. Protestants today may want to reconnect with those original objections to Roman Catholicism to understand that the institutional church was not inconsequential to the recovery of the gospel or the cultivation of holy living. It was actually the reverse."

On Reformation Italy find also an interesting discussion of early American anti-Catholocism ("The Good, The Bad, The Un-Christian") with gems such as this:

"If Rome was an opponent of republican forms of government and liberalization of thought and economic life during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, American Protestants were equally wedded to modern political arrangements in their condemnation of Roman Catholicism. Rome stood for ignorance, bigotry, and superstition while Protestants conceived of the Reformation as a harbinger of the Enlightenment, like General Electric, bringing the good things of knowledge, tolerance, free markets, and political liberty to light."

I love reading DG Hart.

Read further for Hart's very concise argument for remaining Protestant today (a series which he promises to continue for us here).

ps. I don't know what happened to my links, but they are there, you just have to hover over the words to find them!

February Photo Round-Up

2011-03-05T06:31:00.000-08:00

Fish: Without a Doubt

2011-02-23T18:29:00.000-08:00

Thanks to my thoughtful brother-in-law, I am the proud owner of Fish Without a Doubt: The Cook's Essential Companion by Rick Moonen and Roy Finamore. I started reading it at Christmas time, but had to shelve it for the past month and a half due to unflagging business. Tonight though, I had three fillets of Orange Roughy waiting for me, and I pulled out Fish Without a Doubt for some inspiration. I can't say much more than 1. I think it is the best fish (maybe dish) I have ever cooked, 2. The sauce was worth waiting for, 3. This is one of the best cookbooks that I have on my shelf--if you like fish or even wish you did--buy this book!. By the way, m y husband agreed. I made some quick alterations based on the ingredients in my cupboards, and the result was still fantastic (I used 1/2 a bag of frozen leeks from Trader Joes, and Vermouth instead of red wine, and I substituted Orange Roughy for the Turbot). I'm going to include the Red Wine Butter Sauce recipe below, but go to the source for the best way to cook the fillets!

Red Wine Butter Sauce

1 cup sliced shallots

3 Sprigs of Thyme

1 1/2 cups dry red wine

1/2 cup ruby port

2 stick butter, cut into pieces

s&p

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Put the shallots, thyme, and red wine in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat and simmer until the wine has reduced to about 2 tablespoons and the shallots are very tender.

Add the port and reduce to about 1/3 cup.

Remove the thyme. Turn the heat to very low. Use an emersion blender to start pureeing the shallots. Start adding butter a piece or two at a time, tilting the pan and using the blender to emulsify the butter and liquid. Continue adding butter bit by bit, incorporating what you have in the pan before adding more.

[I did not do this part] Strain the sauce through a sieve... etc, etc.

Add the vinegar.

January 2011 Photo Round Up

2011-02-23T08:39:00.000-08:00

2010 Recap Books: Pt. 2

2011-02-03T10:02:00.000-08:00

I'm not going to comment on every book on my list, but there are a few that I would have loved to devote an entire post to, but didn't so will try to briefly deal with a couple of them.

The Medici Conspiracy was written by a journalist, is a true story of illegal art smuggling, and was about as boring as watching ticker-tape run. It ended up being a somewhat fascinating, appalling list of items stolen by the same 5 people. Although it easily could have dealt with fascinating questions such as 1. Who does this art belong to? 2. Does it matter that it was illegally excavated if museums end up with it anyhow? 3. Should museums be the cultural guardians of all antiquities? What would the value of having these items be more widely collectable be? 4. Questions of provenance and repatriation. Unfortunately, the book neither asked nor answered any of these. On the other hand Museums and American Intellectual Life was written by a historian, is about the development of museum theory in the late 19th C. early 20th C. and was fascinating and well written: the scope of understanding and implication is breathtaking and stimulating. I have quoted from it extensively in my Victorians post. I could go on and on, but won't. It's on my top 10 list of books that have brought about a sea-change in my mind.

The Glass Room. It's hard to know where to start with this one. This is one of the most well written, literary books I have read recently. The images are visceral, and the story odd and sad. I think what I loved most about this book is that the text itself was so violent and harsh, and the story was all clean lines, glass panels, and black marble. It's hard to recommend though because of one specific incident in the story that still brings bile to the back of my throat.

After I was introduced to British murder mysteries through Agatha Christie, I quickly moved on to Margery Allingham's hero Albert Campion. When these were made into BBC mini-series, I will admit here to all of The Internet that Campion was my first crush. It was so fun to re-watch these recently with BarkSavage and thought I would re-read them as well. Last year I made it through the first half of the Campion books--all set in the late 30s, and written about then as well. The stories are light, humorous, stylish, and a nice foil to the farcical PG Wodehouse Bertie and Wooster stories. What I did not realize in my earlier reading of the series was that Allingham continued the series after an almost 30 year hiatus. I have started in on these and was so interested to read them--they are really different in tone, still with the characteristic humor, but not the same light subject matter. They take place 20 years after the first books, so Campion has married and aged; he was in the intelligence service during the war. I love that she gave him a history, as she had as well. The tone is drastically different that the first set. It's fascinating to see her set the same society type dramas, but in the early post-war period. Her observations about the changes in society and how that affects the story really are so interesting. I love too that they were written close to that same time, so that the verisimilitude is exacting.

I'll include a quick example:
"She was neither drunk nor drugged, and indeed looked remarkably healthy and most unlikely to be the victim of some toxic condition, but everybody in the room recognized her typical symptoms with the same sense of dismay.
The breaking middle-class wife, driven by one of twenty possible shortcomings of her own or her husband's, strained by a speed of living for which she was not designed, and
permitted by the absence of any cast-iron code of manners to destroy them both by public attack, was a figure of the second postwar period. Melisande Mayo was a casualty as familiar and distinctive ti the group in the rectory as any gang of Mods and Rockers out for a bash, and the fact did not make her any easier to have about the house."

The Mysterious Benedict Society. A fun book, employing many of the now recognizable forms of a good adventure series: an odd assortment of outcasts or loners work together to solve the impossible threat to the whole world. Interestingly it crosses over to some of the themes in both The Mind Readers (Allingham) and The Shallows (Carr) in discussing the talents of children's brains, and the affects of radio waves (or other media) on them. I liked it enough to move on to the rest of the series sometime in the future.

I'll deal with Penelope Fitzgerald in another post...

2010 Recap: Books, pt. 1

2011-01-31T09:43:00.000-08:00

Here is my catalogue of books completed in 2010. As you can see I had a healthy dose of British mysteries mixed in with everything else. I have a tendency to try and read everything an author has written, in chronological order (as far as I can), if I really like the author. Last year I was making my way through Margery Allingham, Martha Grimes (both of which I have already done once before), and Penelope Fitzgerald. I'll post again on a couple of the highlights.

The Medici Conspiracy, Peter Watson
Museums and American Intellectual Life 1876-1926, Steve Conn
Alice and Wonderland, Lewis Carol
Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carol
The Glass Room, Simon Mawer
The Crime at the Black Dudley, Margery Allingham
Mystery Mile, Margery Allingham
At Freddie's, Penelope Fitzgerald
So I have Thought of You: The Letters of Penelope Fitzgerald
Offshore, Penelope Fitzgerald
The Golden Child, Penelope Fitzgerald
Jamie's Dinners, Jamie Oliver
Morning & Evening, Charles Spurgeon
Babywise, Ezzo
Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Twins, Weisbluth
Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, Weisbluth
Baby Sleep Solution, Suzy Glordand
Mothering Multiples, Le Leche League
Rainbow's End, Martha Grimes
The Horse You Came in On, Martha Grimes
The Defector, Daniel Silva
Look to the Lady, Margery Allingham
Police at the Funeral, Margery Allingham
The Mysterious Benedict Society, Trenton Lee Stewart
Super Baby Food, Ruth Yaron
Super Foods for Children, Michael Van Straton & Barbara Griggs
Sweet Danger, Margery Allingham
Death of a Ghost, Margery Allingham
The Black Cat, Martha Grimes
The Blue Flower, Penelope Fitzgerald
The Rembrandt Affair, Daniel Silva
Flowers for the Judge, Margery Allingham
The Means of Escape, Penelope Fitzgerald

Bucket List

2011-01-30T16:49:00.000-08:00

This is not a joke. I really want to go to the British Homing Show of the Year at the Winter Gardens at Blackpool. And I want to wear tweed while I am there.

Condo Living

2011-01-24T11:23:00.000-08:00

I'm not a huge fan of pets. And there are plenty of reasons that I won't go into here, but I do like fish. I like them because they are cool to watch swim, you can't get super attached to them (they pretty much have one awesome dazed expression), they don't shed, and they won't beg for food while you are sitting at the table.

So if we end up getting a pet ever, it'll definitely be a fish. And that fish will live here: The Fish Condo. The benefits of living small are touted in all sorts of places these days: The Not So Big House, New Urbanism, the housing crisis--all making people rethink their attachment to football field size family rooms. Our philosophical fish will take this to heart, and dream big dreams in his tiny pond.

Victorians, Pt. 2

2011-01-21T18:38:00.000-08:00

"Chaos was the law of nature; Order was the dream of man."

-- Henry Adams

On collection and museums:

A contemporary view of the Victorian is mainly derived from Lytton Strachey's morally anachronistic condemnation of the Victorians as well as from publications such as Victoria Magazine. Such hideous recreations via antiqued envelope potpourri sachets really do an injustice to the delightful clutter of the Victorians. Not only that, these sorts of associations really do an injustice to the intellectually engaged notion of collection (and clutter) of the Victorians.

In Steven Conn's fascinating Museums and American Intellectual Life, 1876-1926, he records "cousin"of the rise of museums in the 19th century as the "bourgeois acquisitiveness" of the middle class. "As members of the American middle class expanded in tandem with the industrial economy, they had increasing mounts of disposable income that they disposed of by buying the newly available products of that industrial economy--furniture, photographs, ceramics, an almost endless array of gewgaws. The objects that filled middle-class parlors gave physical and visual manifestation to the aspirations of this class. According to Miles Orvell, 'individuals sought an elevation of status through the purchase and display of goods whose appearance counted more than their substance.'" (This, of course has implications for us, as true inheritors of a material culture.)

Conn goes on to expand on the collection of objects not necessarily or inherently valuable in themselves ("objects whose value lay in some transcendent aesthetic"), but rather in "objects invested with knowledge". The challenge for a new crop of museums lay in distinguishing their collections from a mere assortment of curiosities (see the Mutter Museum versus the Wagner Free Institute--both amazing Retronaut experiences), but rather a collection that would provide a perfectly comprehensible argument for a positivist understanding of the natural world. They assumed "that careful examination of specimens would produce useful educational results" to anyone who looked at them. (The Victoria and Albert Museum was, indeed, created for craftsmen to be able to access and study the applied decorative arts of earlier cultures--thus the organization by object type, rather than geographical specificity or timeline).

Museums were not in fact merely mausoleums of ancient cultures and natural history. Nor were they primarily for the education of children or "popular inspection". Rather they were supposed to be "suitably furnished to answer the requirements of the original investigator." The Victorians believed that "[k]nowledge derived from the direct inspection of objects was gained without mediation and therefore was more genuine." Furthermore Conn states, "If the pursuit of science was predicated on the careful examination and study of objects, then anyone with access to the specimens could be trained to the task. Museums would provide democratic access to that knowledge and thus they would be places where new knowledge was created within the context of American democratic aspirations."

"Having collected, described, and classified the constituent parts of the natural world, what remained finally for natural scientists was to create orderly, systematic displays of representative specimens. As a final flourish to the work of natural history, museums dazzled with public with science's ability to control and order the world, to put it under glass, to put it literally on the end of a pin."

Museums were to be the place of cutting edge scientific investigation. Since this time (and more fully described by Conn) the museum has evolved into a repository of knowledge, an interpretation of the experience of objects, and now into a reinterpretation of historical understanding in view of contemporary values (see the National Museum of the American Indian). Blake Gopnik even recently claimed that the museum was now the cathedral of cultural artifacts, reminiscent of the sacramentalization of the everyday object by collector Peter H. Schweitzer. Phillip Kennicott writes about the changing perspective of the museum's role in his article on the proposed Latino museum. And all this because of the enthusiastic engagement and expectation of the common man by the Victorians, and subsequent embrace of these institutions by those same people. Thank the Victorians for providing the basis for this piece of our cultural fabric.

So when I look at my shelves full of books and carefully curated curious I smile and think of the Victorians.

For more on museum theory read Steven Conn's book, AS Byatt's The Children's Book, any of Byron Farwell's excellent books, and visit the Mutter Museum and the Wagner Free Institute in Philadelphia.

Litte Gray...

2011-01-21T17:16:00.000-08:00

...books.

For my birthday J gave me a six month subscription to Persephone Books. I have been reading through the paper catalogue of their books for the past several days marking books that seem interesting, ones that I just can't live without, and ones that I can wait for.

In reading the various descriptions, I came across this description of Persephone, and thought it delightfully fit--both with my new-found obsession with these little gray tomes, and also with my recent confession on the Victorians.

"'Some of the smartest lessons in how we live now are to be found not in government speeches or fashionable film releases, but in small grey-covered books published by Pershepone Books' wrote Andrew O'Hagan in the Daily Telegraph. 'The volumes are usually lost classics of female writing; they promote the notion that understanding the past is a reasonable way to go about identifying the present and the I have been looking at their newest release as a way of getting a handle on the idea of British domestic bliss.'"

The book to which O'Hagan was referring is How to Run Your Home Without Help (1949).

My selections for the 6 month subscription are:

+ Little Lost Boy
+ Every Eye
+ The Mystery of Mrs. Blencarrow
+ A House in the Country
+ Greenery Street
+ House-Bound

Not only are these lovelies published with gorgeous reproductions of early 20th C. textiles as their endpapers, each is given a preface or afterward by a famous contemporary author.

I will endeavor to write a brief review of each.

My secondary list includes:

+ The Far Cry
+ High Wages
+ Making Conversation
+ William--An Englishman
+ Mariana
+ Bricks and Mortar

Pre-Raphealite Photography

2011-01-20T06:31:00.000-08:00

For my review of the Pre-Raphealite Photography exhibit at the National Gallery, please visit 12. Here's a taste!

Thanks to Martin Luther King Jr. and J. I was able to finally get down to the National Gallery of Art to see the Pre-Raphealite Photography exhibit with MP and JQC.

A brief explanation of my interest in the exhibit is, I think, appropriate here. I am fascinated by Victorian culture, specially in England, mostly because of what follows it. I was asked by a dear friend recently, in a completely bewildered way, and after over 10 years of friendship--"What do you like about the Victorians?!" So here's a round about way of answering her!

Restaurant Week 2011

2011-01-20T06:26:00.000-08:00

For the past three years MP and I have been going out to lunch during Restaurant Week in DC. Neither of us can remember the first place that we went to, but since then we have enjoyed sampling the three course prix fixe menus that would otherwise not be included in our budgets!

This year we went to La Taberna Del Alabardero with JQC as well. The Taberna is an authentic Spanish restaurant. Feeling adventurous, we decided this was the place, if there ever was a place, to try the exotic dishes on their menu--so we each chose a different item from each of the three courses available, and then passed them around so that we could all try them.

Starters
Crema Tibia de Lentejas Mollejas Y Curry
Warm Cream of Lentils with a Curry Emulsion topped with Sweetbread

Lasagna de Rabo de Toro, Bechamel de Comino y Queso Mahon
Braised Oxtail Lasagna with Cumin Bechamel Sauce and Mahon Cheese

Huevos Rellenos de Bacalao y Gambas, Hortalizas Tiernas y Cebolla Morada
Egg stuffed with Codfish Brandade and Shrimp served with Fresh Vegetables and Sweet Onion

Main Course
Pargo a la Bilbaina con dos Texturas de Setas al Ajillo y Pan Crujiente
Red Snapper served Bilbania style with Wild Mushrooms and Bread Crust

Manitas de Cerdo Estofadas sobre Cremoso de Cebollino y Ropa Vieja de Garbanzos
Braised Pig's Trotters with Vegetables over a Creamy Scallions topped with "Ropa Vieja"

Osobuco Asado en salsa se Pedro Ximenez, Chips de Patata y Alcachofas Estofadas
Braised Veal Shank in a PX Sauce, Homemade Potato Chips and Artichokes

Dessert
Tarta de Queso Cremoso con Helado De Passas y Anis
Cheesecake with Raisins and Anise Ice Cream

Estofado de Frutos Rojos, Togue de Modena, Helado de Yogurt y Chocolate
Mixed Berries in a Light Syrup soup topped with Yogurt Ice cream and a Chocolate Cookie

Arroz con Leche Emperatriz con Helado de Mandarina
Homemade Rice Pudding with Clementine Ice Cream

A brief review. Trying sweetbreads and pig's trotters was an adventure--surely made nicer by trying it together with friends--but then again even war is better if you are not alone. The sweetbreads tasted great and the texture was fine, but just the thought of it, finally got the best of all of us. The trotters on the other hand were seriously foul from start to finish. All of the other dishes were delightful. Of particular note were the stuffed eggs--so light, and subtle and lovely, and the veal. The veal was amazing--if you took one bite with just the meat it tasted one way, and then a combination of veal and artichoke--it was altogether transformed, like wine changes with food. It was a real treat.

I will also mention that the service was impeccable. I did not even notice the water being filled, plates and silver being set down or replaced, and we were not pressured to leave as soon as we were finished eating. We were able to eat in the room which has windows into the kitchen, so that was an additional treat.

Backlog

2011-01-14T07:27:00.000-08:00

We are well into the new year, and I still haven't posted anything since early December 2010. I have not given this blog up! I have an ever increasing list of things that I would like to post about, but have not yet had the chance.

My husband and I are posting at 12 together, about our new year resolutions, so check there if you like for some daily tid-bits... but don't abandon Spoon! I'll be back.

Meanwhile, I'll leave you with this. Yesterday was my birthday, and my husband wrote me this poem and presented it during our delicious dinner at Trummers on Main.

(J and I have been married for almost six years, this was my fifth birthday married that we have celebrated together, and the 10th! that we have celebrated together as friends).

Some silly couplets for my friend of ten years
I don't know what people mean when, like my brother,
they paint a fictional wife as a suitable mother,
extolling in her a catalogue of fertile virtue,
I've never seen in woman and hope that doesn't hurt you.
She is quiet, and demure, and gazes with evident reverence
while contemplating nothing and advocating temperence.
I'll grant you that you're all I know of women,
and brother's fantasies might quickly be forgiven.
But we find ourselves at war now both against and for
our beautiful children who crawl and paw at the door,
while every morning when I see the spoons I know you prefer,
silver beside my stainless steel in our drawer
I'm reminded that we'd rather be reading and writing,
or you'd drag me to a lecture where an author is opining,
while, and I realize I've never ever told you this,
I still sit scheming how and where we can kiss.
Thing is, I think I married myself to your mind long before the rings,
and the list of what I want to do is just a catalogue of things,
of places we'd go with or without pet pink racoons,
(never part of a plan, still they're evident boons).
Anyway, maybe, it's terribly dull to say what I mean when I think, "she's my wife".
Still I think nothing more, less or more glamorous, then whatever we're doing we have the same life.

Persephone Secret Santa 2010

2010-12-16T07:50:00.000-08:00

Thank you to my Persephone Secret Santa! What a treat to receive a beautiful copy of The Winds of Heaven by Monica Dickens, and an afterward by AS Byatt. Stacy from http://www.bookpsmith.blogspot.com was my Secret Santa and she was so thoughtful to include a cute little tape measure for all of my crafty projects :)

I had so much fun on the giving end too (getting to know my S.S. through her blog, choosing a book, thinking of the little additional gift, wrapping, and even delivering it right to her door!). I will definitely be participating again next year.

A BIG thank you to Paperback Reader for hosting the Secret Santa, and organizing everything. Here is a list of all the Secret Santa swaps--it's really fun to see what books were given, and all of the surrounding creativity! I am sorry for the delay in the post--I was stuck in Minneapolis for three days during the huge snow storm, and have been running around trying to get caught up.

Merry Christmas!!

November 2010 Photo Round-up

2010-11-30T10:21:00.001-08:00

5 Photos November: Pt. 4

2010-11-30T07:50:00.000-08:00

Here's my November 29:

Here's MP's November 29: (I love the evocative atmosphere of these!)

And I have a surprise guest blogger this week! G (4 yrs) has gotten very interested in me taking pictures and asked if she could do it this week. Here's what she came up with! I was very impressed.

G's November 29:

5 Photos November: Pt. 3

2010-11-23T10:31:00.000-08:00

My November 20:

As you can see I am preparing for Christmas already! S woke up at 5 am on Saturday, so I made Herttaisetrinkilät (cardamom rings) a Scandinavian holiday treat. I also put up our advent calendar drawers (the reindeer).

MP's November 20:

5 Photos November: Pt. 2

2010-11-17T07:12:00.000-08:00

So, echoing MP's post... I have not a lot to add, except for apologies for the delay. I have been under the weather, and I am posting 6 photos, not five. I just like the look of an even number better than an odd!

So here is my November 16th (and 17th):

These were all taken with my iPhone. I have been experimenting with three different photo apps: Cross Process (center), Color Splash (upper right), and InstaClassic (remaining four).

And I don't know that I have actually posted anything of the two babies I had last December on here yet! They are the best pals, as you can see.

Here is MP's November 16th (and 17th):

I particularly like the jams one in the lower right. Makes me think of that stick candy that we used to pick out when ever our family would go on road trips. I'm not sure why :)

5 Photos November: Pt. 1

2010-11-09T09:59:00.000-08:00

My friend MP at Ten Thousand Places and I were inspired by 10.10.10 and decided to do a take on it. We are going to be taking photos every Saturday in November, and will be posting 5 of them on the following Tuesdays at noon.

My November 6, 2010:

M's November 6, 2010:

October: Photo Round-up

2010-11-01T10:51:00.001-07:00

Song for a Lark

2010-10-29T07:12:00.000-07:00

Next up on my reading list is Willa Cather's Song for a Lark. I have been doing a little background research and found a couple of great sources of info on Cather. The Willa Cather Archive has many (if not all) of her works available online, with textual analysis on many of them.

HL Mencken reviewed, and loved, Willa Cather--though I am still trying to find where his review of Song of the Lark is located.

Evidently, this piece appeared first in the Chicago News and was reprinted in the Baltimore Sun on June 29, 1921 (a month or so after Sinclair Lewis's praise of Cather).

Blithe Mencken he sat on his Baltimore stoop,
Singing "Willa, git Willa! git Willa!"
The red-headed Lewis joined in with a whoop,
Singing, "Willa, read Willa! read Willa!"
They woke every bird from the Bronx to the Loop
Singing "Willa, git Willa! git Willa!"
So we, willy nilly, got Willa and read
And Willa proved all that the booster birds said.

Penguin Books published this list of Reading Guide Questions for Song of the Lark:

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

What is Cather's message about beginnings and separations? How do these facets shape the life of an individual? Is Thea's separation from her family and primary environment necessary for promoting her growth as an individual or was she simply destined to be different? Does Cather imply by the later lives of the Moonstone people that severing ties is a positive or negative experience?
Some critics have characterized Thea as indulgent and self-centered. Is this a fair assessment of the character?
Compare the marriages of Dr. Archie and Fred Ottenburg. Is there a common thread between these two men? In what way are they both strivers?
What is the significance of Aunt Tillie in the novel? Why did Cather include this character?
Why is romance so difficult for Thea? Is Cather at all critical about the artist's renouncing of romantic love? What price is paid for Thea's success? Does Thea nurse any regrets?
Does the town's treatment of the "tramp" reflect on their morality or their fear? What does the tramp's spiteful act say about the inherent nature of man?
When Thea refuses Fred's monetary assistance with her trip to Germany, she is obviously hurt by his revelation. She elects to borrow money from Dr. Archie because taking money from Fred would make her feel like she was being "kept." Is this her true motivation or is it an act of retribution against Fred for misleading her?
Discuss the complexities of Dr. Archie's love for Thea. Why does it never blossom to romance when she is old enough and Dr. Archie is free? Does Thea perceive him as too much of a father figure for this ever to occur?
Towards the end of the novel Spanish Johnny reappears, moved to tears by Thea's success. As she leaves the theater he sees her but does not step forward or call to her. He seems to keep his "place." What does this convey about the climate of the country at that time and the characters' own feelings on race, class and propriety?

Textual Note:
Incidentally, there are two very different versions of "Song of the Lark" available. Most editions reprint the 1915 text, since it is in the public domain. This earlier version is far more detailed and, some have argued, overwritten; her British publisher complained that she "told everything about everyone." For the 1932 Autograph Edition, Cather revised the book substantially, cutting it by seven thousand words and streamlining the overall text. Descriptive passages were pared; Thea's and Fred Ottenburg's roles were altered; and style, opinion, and matters of taste were polished and modernized. This version is still under copyright restriction, and I believe it is available only in the Mariner Books (Houghton Mifflin) edition. The original version is regarded by many readers and scholars as better (and certainly truer to Cather's original intent); this is the book that Mencken praised for its "sharp bits of observation, sly touches of humor, [and] gestures of that gentle pity which is the fruit of understanding."

84 Charring Cross Road Secret Santa!

2010-10-29T06:03:00.000-07:00

I am really excited to be participating in this year's Persephone Books Secret Santa, as hosted by Paperback Reader. It's not too late to sign up! For those of you who might be unfamiliar with Persephone Books, they reprint neglected 20th C. books, mostly by women. Top on my list to read are Few Eggs and No Oranges, House-Bound (preface by Penelope Fitzgerald), The Winds of Heaven (preface by AS Byatt), A London Child of the 1870s, (preface by Adam Gopnik) & Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day.

Book pairings, Pt. 3

2010-10-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

As a follow-up: I read a biography and autobiography, both of literary merit. I chose The Skeptic: A Life of H.L. Mencken, by Terry Teachout and a choice of one of H.L. Mencken's Days books: Happy Days, Newspaper Days, or Heathen Days. I chose Happy Days.

It was a good exercise, and both were good reads. Teachout's biography was very nicely limited in scope, and thoughtfully written. He makes the point that Mencken was actually a Victorian, and as such could not survive Modernism. The biography also helped place Mencken in history for me (cultural literacy is always a plus!), specially with regard to the evolution debate that is so polarized to this day.

The Days books were a great read, giving a full sense of Mencken's style and wit. Happy Days was light, nicely anecdotal, and really an interesting history of the city of Baltimore.

Ancient Industries

2010-10-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

...looking through their shop makes me want just about everything in it! I love the enamel ware and the scrubby brushes. They have an excellent blog too.

Cox Farms

2010-10-22T06:13:00.001-07:00

Cox Farms is so much fun! I went with G for the first time 3 years ago, and have gone each fall ever since. I love how much there is to do, and how low-tech it all is. Good old fashioned fun. Their fall festival is still open for those of you who have not gotten a chance to go yet--do!

Window shopping on my Mac

2010-10-22T06:13:00.000-07:00

There are so many fun buyer clubs these days... One Kings Lane, Zulily, Guilt, The Mini Social, etc. etc. I have fun looking at all of the crazy things available these days. I rarely succumb to temptation. Yesterday I did however--and got this Elephantito (my absolute favorite in little girl clothes right now) suit for G's Christmas outfit. She's going to rock it with her gold sequin shoes.

ps. If you want to join any of those sites, email me and I'll invite you!

Blog Updated

2010-10-22T06:00:00.001-07:00

Spoon has recently been updated a little bit.

I am trying to make some sort of sense of the randomness that is found here... So I have begun to put labels on the posts. All the past posts have been updated to fit into the following categories:

- home and local
- art
- books and comments
- kids
- food
- things
- places
- pop-culture

All of the blogs fit into those categories to some degree. So I hope that will make it easier to find things that you may be looking for, or to browse past posts that you may have missed, but are in a category of interest.

Starting with October I am going to post a photo collage round-up of what we've been up to at the end of each month.

J and I are also starting a new blog called 12. It's about our 12 one month long resolutions for 2011. Check back in January for the start of our challenges.

I hope this makes Spoon more enjoyable for you!

Top Cookbooks Part 2

2010-10-22T06:00:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick link to the Observer's follow up to the top 50 Cookbooks, the top 10 list.

Here's the top ten most used cookbooks in my kitchen (in no particular order):

1. Donna Hay, Off the Shelf
2. Jamie Oliver, Jamie's Dinners
3. Jenni Fleetwood and Catherine Atkinson, Best-Ever Slow Cooker One-Pot & Casserole Cookbook (the updated version of the One-Pot, Slow-Pot Cooking)
4. Julia Child, The Way to Cook
5. Julia Child, Baking with Julia
6. Julee Russo and Sheila Lukins, Silver Palate Cookbook
7. Beatrice Ojakangas, The Great Scandinavian Baking Book
8. Gretchen Quie, The Governor's Table
9. Epicurious.com (Does this count?!)
10. The Wegmans monthly magazine

What is on your most used/favorite/best cookbook list?

Favorite (new to me) blogs

2010-10-21T07:24:00.000-07:00

The New Victorian Ruralist

Helen James Design

Ancient Industries: Living and Extinct

check them out! I love each one so much. They really capture my aesthetic...

Swarm bags

2010-10-21T07:15:00.001-07:00

I would love one of these!

Loretta Lux

2010-10-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

I would love to get portraits done like this!

10.10

2010-10-20T11:42:00.000-07:00

Hilda Grahnat, a wonderful photographer and blogger living in Sweeden, was invited to participate in a project called 10.10. They asked 10 photographers in 10 places around the world to take 10 photographs on 10/10/10. Here's the link.

Thrift Finds...

2010-10-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

Sweet new/vintage desk and chair for G.

Fairfax Fall Festival--fun and a find

2010-10-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

This year G enjoyed the rides (including her first ferris wheel!) and I found this great handmade, felted brooch to wear on the awesome coat that J gave me for Christmas last year--I was too hugely pregnant to wear it though, so I am looking forward to sporting this as it gets colder.

Stribbling 2010

2010-10-15T07:08:00.000-07:00

To Autumn

John Keats (1820)

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;

To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease,

For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?

Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find

Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,

Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;

Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,

Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook

Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:

And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep

Steady thy laden head across a brook;

Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,

Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?

Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—

While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,

And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;

Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn

Among the river sallows, borne aloft

Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;

And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;

Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft

The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;

And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Sweet Paul

2010-10-06T16:24:00.000-07:00

I just discovered this gorgeous new(ish) online magazine: Sweet Paul.

"Gene Weingarten: I hate Facebook sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much..."

2010-09-24T06:48:00.000-07:00

An excellent piece by Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post on Facebook:

"Critics contend I am unfair to Facebook merely because I have described it as an ocean of banalities shared among persons with lives so empty they echo. I defend my thesis but admit my evidence has been unscientific -- entirely anecdotal -- based on my occasional dips into this tepid, lifeless lagoon of dishwater-dull discourse."

By the way, GW does not extend his point on how bored Facebook users are, but I will. The medium is the message (as dear old Marshall MacLuhan said), and perhaps one should think about picking up a book, or pen and paper, or even go for a walk... rather than sit and type, "I'm bored."

Walkable

2010-09-23T06:54:00.000-07:00

Here's a fun site: WalkScore.com They rank an area's walkability (including how many various types of amenities are within walking distance). They also rank cities around the US, and have a walk score "heat"map for some major cities.

Fairfax gets a great 83% score :)

Baby Name Map

2010-09-07T07:21:00.000-07:00

Here's a time waster... It turns out that in 2008 there were only 552 Simone's named in the USA.

Speaking of iPhone/iPad Apps...

2010-09-07T07:10:00.000-07:00

...Here are two really cool ones for kids:

My cousin designed this interactive alphabet for kids (and it's been #2 on kids iPad apps!).

I just read about Paper Town Friends (created by a former Martha Stewart Magazine designer)--paper dress ups--that looks adorable.

The Man Booker Prize

2010-09-07T06:54:00.000-07:00

So, along with the exciting announcement of this year's Booker Shortlist (I think C looks like the most interesting by far--can't wait to read it), the Booker also has a new iPhone App. So cool.

NHPCA Fall Bible Study

2010-09-03T16:47:00.001-07:00

I am really looking forward to this fall's selection!

The Modern Child

2010-09-03T06:28:00.000-07:00

"Is Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle a dry cleaner?"

Baby Food

2010-09-02T14:06:00.000-07:00

So I posted four years ago on my two favorite books on introducing solids & child nutrition. I also posted this great article on making baby food more taste-ful (or why do we start them off bland?!).

I love the new baby things that are finally coming out it being popular to have babies right now. People are using great materials and design that is more aesthetically pleasing. Silicon is my new favorite thing--it's BPA free, freezer, dishwasher and oven safe. I got these Green Sprouts trays to make baby foods. They are perfect for making huge batches of baby food and freezing perfect 1 ounce portions.

I also got these Kinderville bowls, cups, and lidded jars. They are great for transporting food, as well as storing food. They also have popsicle molds which will be fun to try some day.

The babies are 8 months old, and here's what I have introduced so far (in the approximate order of introduction):

avacado

banana

rice cereal

pumpkin

sweet potato

carrot

pear

peach

dill

chicken (dark meat pureed)

cottage cheese (this was not a success--the curds were too big, and i did not have the patience to mash them, so it's off the menu for now, and will be reintroduced later)

peas

spinach

herbs de provence

cumin

apricot

prune

egg yolk (hard boiled then dissolved in breast milk or water)

yogurt (both soy yogurt and whole milk yogurt)

oatmeal

cinnamon

cardamom

potato

turnips and parsnips

blue berry

purple carrot

tahini

apple sauce

curry powder

fish (halibut)

mango

sunflower seed butter ("sunbutter" like peanut butter)

Kirkland brand No Salt Seasoning

rice seasoning like this: http://spoonizzle.blogspot.com/2010/05/fish-food.html (you can get them at the asian markets--I look for the ones that are mainly vegetables)

green beans

aspargus

2010-08-24T12:04:00.001-07:00

50 Best Cookbooks, Pt. 1 (courtesy The Guardian)

2010-08-19T09:18:00.000-07:00

Here's a great list of the top 50 cookbooks of all time. On Sunday The Guardian will release the top 10.

On [university] Students

2010-08-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

'I have to work very seriously now,' he told her. 'If we are ever to get married, I must apply myself. I sit up late at night, reading.'

'But why do you do all this reading? You are not a student anymore.'

'He would not read if he was,' said the Mandelsloh. 'Students do not read, they drink.'

'Why do they drink?' Sophie asked.

'Because they desire to know the whole truth,' said Fritz, 'and that makes them desperate.'

Gunther, who had been half asleep, came to, and protested.

'What would it cost them,' Sophie asked, 'to know the whole truth?'

'They can't reckon that,' said Fritz, 'but they know they can get drunk for three groschen.'

-- The Blue Flower, Penelope Fitzgerald

Art Time

2010-08-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

G and I went to Toy R Us yesterday--they are having a huge sale on Crayola products. She and I picked out a bunch of fun crayons, etc. But our favorite by far is the no-drip watercolor set that she picked out. We used it today, and she LOVED it. And I did too... no mess... and she got to paint! So much fun...

Book Pairings, Pt. 2

2010-08-06T06:00:00.000-07:00

Recently, I have been plowing through a lot of fiction and history about World War Two. I recently started reading C.S. Lewis' collection of essays, The Weight of Glory. As I was reading W of G I thought how interesting it would be to read more books, essays, novels, etc. written during the war to get more of a sense of the kinds of things that folks were grappling with in the moment.

Any suggestions for WWII?

On my list is:
Few Eggs and No Oranges: Vere Hodgson's Diary, 1940-45, Vere Hodgson
David Golder, The Ball, Snow in Autumn, The Courilof Affair, by Irene Nemirovsky

Any other suggestions, specially on essays (kind of reflections, op-ed types, arguments, etc.) written during the war, would be most appreciated.

Book Pairings Pt. 1

2010-08-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

I have had this idea to read a biography and an autobiography of the same person. My requirement was, however, that they both be of literary merit. So I wrote to Jonathan Yardley of the Washington Post for his advice. He graciously responded with the following suggestion:

Happy Days, Newspaper Days, or Heathen Days, by H.L. Mencken & The Skeptic: A Life of H.L. Mencken, by Terry Teachout

J also came up with a good pairing in Douglas MacArthur's Reminiscences & American Caesar, by William Manchester.

And here's another: Curiculum Vitae, by Muriel Spark & Muriel Spark: The Biography, by Martin Stannard (though I have heard some mixed reviews of this biography).

Do you have any suggestions?

Cravings

2010-08-04T16:18:00.000-07:00

Here's an interesting article from the Smithsonian's Food and Think blog on food and cravings... something I've always wondered about. Sadly, there still isn't much information that we have on the phenomena.

Two excerpts:

--a wacky story: One exception may be iron-deficient anemia, which is sometimes linked to an eating disorder called pica, in which a person has a craving for ice, dirt or other non-food items. Pelchat related the story of a woman who was in the hospital with both iron-deficient anemia and mercury poisoning; she was eating a box of facial tissues a day. The anemia was brought under control, and the mercury poisoning also resolved. It turned out that, at home, the woman had been buying used paperback books to eat because they were less expensive than tissues—and until a couple of decades ago, mercury was used in the processing of paper.

....ummm... wouldn't you call your doctor before you started putting "cheap paperbacks at Used Bookstore" on your grocery list?

--more to food than nutrition: If much about cravings is still a mystery, one thing has been clear in Pelchat’s research: a monotonous diet is likely to trigger them. In studies in which participants were fed only an Ensure-like liquid that provided all their nutritional and caloric needs for three weeks (and were required to finish it so they were full), she says, it took only two days for young adults to report huge increases in cravings. They all craved non-sweet foods. “We don’t know if it’s boredom, or the idea of restriction,” she says, “but clearly it isn’t nutritional need.”

Captured: America in Color from 1939-1943

2010-08-04T16:09:00.000-07:00

Captured: America in Color from 1939-1943 – Plog Photo Blog

Another great selection of old slides that have been digitized.

These images, by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information, are some of the only color photographs taken of the effects of the Depression on America’s rural and small town populations. The photographs are the property of the Library of Congress and were included in a 2006 exhibit Bound for Glory: America in Color.

Retrographs

2010-08-04T16:05:00.000-07:00

...these are from a great site called 'How to Be a Retronaut'. They have superimposed old WWII photographs taken at the exact same place as ones from present day. For some reason they are incredibly moving.

G's first sewing project

2010-06-11T10:29:00.000-07:00

Janelle Monae

2010-06-08T06:43:00.000-07:00

...combining my love for asylums, tuxedos, and saddle shoes....

Paper Craft Projects

2010-06-04T17:37:00.000-07:00

I just ran across these paper craft project downloads (free!):

-- Puppet theatre: So cute! G and I made this this week.

-- Canon Cards
   -- Father's Day cards & origami father's day cards
   -- Envelopes (and they have tons more fun ones)
   -- Animal puzzles and other crazy things that you can download, print and create--for all ages.

-- Amy Butler paper crafts: flowers, cards, etc.

Haba

2010-06-04T16:54:00.000-07:00

...always has great toys--but these blocks are awesome. They have all sorts of other architectural styles too.

Novel Knocker

2010-06-04T16:51:00.000-07:00

...and other great decals.

ImagiPLAY

2010-06-04T16:49:00.000-07:00

These are really cool puzzles.

Alphabotz

2010-06-04T16:45:00.001-07:00

...combining two of my current favorite things... alphabets and robots!

Real Nappies

2010-06-04T16:40:00.000-07:00

I found these for the babies this year. I used "real diapers" for G when she was an infant too, but they were elastic all the way around. I like that these are adjustable, and removable in the same way a diaper is (not pull down).

Lists

2010-06-04T16:37:00.000-07:00

I began making a list of books completed last year. It's been the first thing of this nature (journal, etc.) that I have actually kept up with. It gives a nice sense of accomplishment when I ink in another title. It's also an interesting record. I have already read almost as many books to date this year, as I did in all of last year -- a year when I had one kid, and was pregnant and largely sedentary. Interesting.

Anyhow, I love lists in general, and I found this interesting book about lists too...

AS Byatt also loves lists: "I love lists--lists as mnemonics, lists as science, lists as poetry. George Elliot, at the seaside in the 1850's with George Henry Lewes and his microscope, wrote, "I never before longed so much to know the names of things as during this visit to Ilfracombe. The desire is part of the tendency that is now growing in me to escape from all the vagueness and inaccuracy into the daylight of distinct vivid ideas."

Patterns

2010-06-04T16:24:00.000-07:00

I found these great patterns for kids clothes on Etsy, from Heidi & Finn. They are so cute, and I will be able to use the patterns for both my girls. It looks like there are some boy patterns coming too. Woot.

I also picked up one of these doll patterns from Hop Skip to make with G. out of fabric scraps. So cute and modern.

Free Downloads

2010-05-14T08:09:00.000-07:00

...and fun blog: How About Orange. I just downloaded this great screensaver from RealSimple.

Clarification or Mystification

2010-05-13T17:39:00.000-07:00

An interesting interview with Iris Murdoch speaking about the ontological and stylistic differences of philosophical and literary writing.

...with the complete interview in segments at this YouTube channel.

We Think the World of Birds

2010-05-05T07:46:00.001-07:00

J and I came across the Cornell Ornithology Lab poster designed by Charlie Harper. What great design.

WPA Guides

2010-05-05T07:46:00.000-07:00

I read an article in the Post recently about Zora Neal Hurston as a WPA writer for the travel guides that were produced in association with the Federal Writers Project. She wrote a travel guide to Florida. The article mentioned several other now famous writers who participated in the program as well. I was able to find a copy of John Cheever's WPA Guide to Washington DC. I can't wait to read through it.

Virginia Dirt Shirt

2010-05-05T07:43:00.001-07:00

Local, local, local...

2010-05-05T07:43:00.000-07:00

I picked up a bunch of great local publications while in Culpeper.

In the Kitchen is a 10 year old magazine devoted to the Virginia food scene for the home cook. They feature a monthly meal planner each month, as well as fascinating articles on local farms, restaurants, and markets.

The Old Town Crier is a publication devoted to announcing interesting events, festivals, lectures, restaurants, etc. in old town centers from the Bay to the Blue Ridge.

Buy Local Virginia is a great website devoted to making available information on how to find local produce resources near you. They also have a good page of other resources including a chart of produce availability by season.

I was also happy to speak with a teacher, Marla England, from the Eastern View High School in Culpeper. She has won a grant from the State of Virginia to start a several weeklong program teaching kids about nutrition. She introduces the ideas of eating colorfully, and identifies whole ingredients--all using the concept of Eric Carl's Very Hungry Caterpillar--laying foundations to become a butterfly! Amazingly, she had never seen the Jamie Oliver Food Revolution. It was great to see someone taking initiative to begin changes in the local schools.

Virginia Food

2010-05-04T07:13:00.000-07:00

J and I grabbed some fantastic food while in Culpeper. Friday night we stopped in to the Thyme Market and grabbed some fresh rosemary sun-dried tomato bread and unfiltered olive oil to go with our Barefoot bubbly. I looked forward to the next morning when I could more fully take in the stock of the market.

I was remarkably restrained, I thought, for the amount of fun and delicious looking items they carried (including the day's special of suckling pig). I picked up some Parmigianno Reggiano butter, Dave's Gourmet salts (since they had about 25 different salts to choose from, I went with a sampler of 6), Roasted Fava Beans (salted), and a Nu Go Organic Dark Chocolate Pomegranate bar.

The butter is a revelation. We made Jamie Oliver's omelette last night with it. It was subtle and a pure delight. I haven't had a chance to try all of the salts yet. The fava beans are great nutritionally (with 23g of protein a serving), but not altogether a pleasant after texture. I think they could use some more salt. I haven't tried the Nu Go Organic bar.

We ate breakfast at a nice diner on the corner of East and Main, and had a typical two eggs, sausage and home fries. For lunch we ate at Foti's. Foti's was started by two chefs who were trained at The Inn at Little Washington. Check out my pictures on my TwitPics site. Needless to say, it was delightful.

Fish Food?

2010-05-04T05:29:00.000-07:00

I just got two varieties of Yasai Fumi Furikake Rice Seasoning at HMart, and I love it!

Ingredients:
Sesame seed, carrot, spinach, pumpkin, celery, japanese mustard plant, potato starch, sugar, salt, and seaweed.

Virginia is for Lovers

2010-05-03T07:11:00.000-07:00

J and I went to Culpeper for our fifth anniversary. What a great town. We just loved our time there. I am going to devote several blog postings to the great things of Culpeper!

I'll start with the location, etc. It's only about an hour away from Fairfax, and an easy and beautiful drive. We stayed in the Thyme Inn Apartments. It was really fun to stay in the town itself, and with the Culpeper Day festival setting up outside our window in the morning, reminded us a lot of our place in Florence, over the leather market. The Thyme Inn is associated with the Thyme Market and the Thyme Cafe. More on the market later. Our room was quiet and beautiful. If you don't want to stay there, there are several other B&Bs and a local campground.

There are three Civil War driving tours of battlefields nearby, as there were over 100 battles near Culpeper during the Civil War. Many local vineyards and even a distillery are open for tours as well. Thomas Jefferson's Monticello is also located in Culpeper. There are also outfitters for kayaking and canoeing on the Rappahannock River. The town itself has three walking tours of Italianate Victorian architecture, and other great historic buildings. Downtown there are more restaurants that you will want to eat at than you will be able to (more on this later), as well as some really fun boutiques and shops.

You can request driving tour maps and brochures for free here.

The Glass Room, Pt. 2

2010-04-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

"In the past houses have grown organically, like plants, from the ground upwards. But this house is different: it grows from the frame outwards, like an idea developing into a work of art from the central core of inspiration out in the material fact of realization. Cement mixers churn and vomit."

- Simon Mawer, p. 46

Speaking of normal artists...

2010-04-18T07:00:00.000-07:00

I am not sure whether or not I have posted here about Penelope Fitzgerald before, but I need to do so again regardless.

She has won the Booker Prize and has been nominated for it four times in total. I discovered her entirely haphazardly. I was browsing a used bookstore and picked up a paperback by the same publisher that publishes Byatt's fiction. I looked down and there was a laudatory quote by Byatt for this author. I bought the book. I tried reading it several times over the next four or five years, but could never get into it. Later on I found more mentions of this Penelope Fitzgerald, so I tried to give her another chance with another book of hers (The Bookstore). I LOVED it. Since then I have become a fan of her fiction, without knowing much about her as a person.

Recently I picked up her published letters, So I Have Thought of You. I have so far read the two introductions and just begun the letters themselves, but am already dying to read the rest.

Her son-in-law is the compiler and editor of the volume. He writes:

No woman is a hero to her son-in-law, and yet, when I first came across this book [The Bookshop, Pf's first novel] (till then unaware of its very existence) lying in bound-proof form on her kitchen table, where it had been written, and tool advantage of Penelope's temporary absence to read it in one sitting, I did have a sense of 'What? And in out house?' I had no doubt that this was the real thing, and still feel grateful for the stole privilege of being one of the first people to read it. Ever after that Penelope had an extra dimension of mystery to me. I immediately wrote her a note to express my amazed and delighted appreciation; it would have been too embarrassing to confess in person. I was touched, much later, to come across the never-referred-to note among her papers in Texas.

I thought this was a particularly English (and hysterical) note. But he goes on to describe PF as predominately concerned with her family, and her struggles as an artist of integrity.

She wrote this beautiful poem for her daughters when they both left for university:

'Autumn: Departure of Daughters'

Oh my dark & light brown daughters

When you go to find new faces

Our place & me are put in our places

Our place my take what name it please --

It stares & stares, and all it sees is

That it is not a home.

Oh my dark & light brown daughters

When you go to find new places

Our place must face that it has no faces --

Tidiness, emptiness and peace is

All it has, and all it sees is

That it is not a home

PF is delightful, terse, witty, and unflinching.

Portraying the Gilded Age

2010-04-17T07:00:00.000-07:00

My mom and I recently attended the Smithsonian Resident Associate program entitled, "Portraying the Gilded Age." It was hosted at the Willard Hotel in DC, and featured a themed luncheon as well. The hotel was the perfect place to host the lectures, as it was built at the height of the Gilded Age, and is still a gorgeous example of that sort of architecture. (Btw, it would also be an awesome place to attend a high tea). It was quite interesting. The artists featured were William Merritt Chase, James McNeill Whistler, John Singer Sargent, and Cecilia Beaux. I realized, after speaking with the others at our table, that everyone's favorite is Sargent! Most fascinating to me was actually William Merritt Chase. I don't know much about him, but what was of particular interest (besides his beautiful paintings), was the fact that he was happily married with children! I always like to find examples of normal artists! haha.

[Props to my rockin' husband, btw, for taking all three kids for the entire day, and to the wonderful people at the Willard for providing me a private place to pump!!]

English Home Magazine

2010-04-16T04:56:00.000-07:00

After the demise of Domino, I have been in search of a new decor magazine that inspired me. I finally found it. It is The English Home, American edition. I picked up a bunch of magazines for my recent time in the hospital, and this was one of them.

I thought it would just be a pastoral look-through, but I began reading the articles, and found myself reading every single one. Unlike most American design mags, the pictures are actually supplemental to the very interesting and articulate articles (instead of being almost entirely the point). Even articles that would have been consumerist filler in other home magazines, were actually fascinating little pieces--it took me quite off guard. For example, an article on the development of 1950s design and colors was not just an fluffy homage to trendy mid-century pieces, but an actual discussion of the place, & technical and economic development of design after the war.

Currently they are publishing a series on the use of specific colors and their design history (including the development of pigments, dyes, and other mechanical reproduction of colors for cloth and paper). The feature historic houses and current uses of the color, as well as their affect on other colors. They have done green and yellow so far.

(I will say however, it still does not replace Domino really! for new ideas, and inspiration. I am learning a lot though).

Byatt Reviews my favorites!

2010-04-15T09:00:00.000-07:00

On Irene Nemirovsky: "The Lady Vanishes"
On Margery Allingham: "Why I Love Margery Allingham"

Snack Time

2010-04-14T10:58:00.000-07:00

So G loves listening to books and stories on cd in her room (it's a great break for me as well!), but we have gone over and over the ones that we already have--so I went searching for some of the stories that I remember from when I was growing up.

Susan Hammond has recorded some great stories featuring classical music composers in stories (called "Classical Kids"). They are really fun stories, with kids as the main character, and get at the time period and play the composers music. It may seem uber-educational, but they are not--they are really just fun dramatized stories. My favorite is Vivaldi's Ring of Mystery. Also great is the Classical Kids Christmas (It retells the Christmas story, as well as many other classic folk tales related to Christmas-time, including the World War I story of Joyeux Noel). For some reason Amazon only has the cd format. However, iTunes has all of the titles available for download in MP3 format for $9.99.

I am still looking for the Scheherazad that I grew up on!

Bare Naked Ladies' Snacktime is really a fun find. It's classic BNL--with their hysterically witty lyrics and same BNL sound. My favorite song so far is Ninjas. ELRJ reviews a kids' jazz cd here, that I have not yet picked up.

Patrick Dougherty

2010-02-22T11:37:00.000-08:00

Patrick Dougherty works with sticks to make fantastic woodland architectural objects. Check out his website here. He uses no nails or glue to make these amazing things! There may be an installation near you! There is one at the Morris Arboretum in Philladelphia (just down the road from my old stomping grounds). I've got to take G there this spring! She will love exploring it. At MA there are also many other cool features, such as the Garden Railway (opening May 29, 2010)and Out on a Limb: a bird's eye view of the place.

For more pictures of PD's work check out Babyology's post.

Modernism is Lonely

2010-02-16T18:40:00.000-08:00

I love this blog: Unhappy Hipsters.

"You can come out when you can properly explain the differences between Modernist architecture and postmodern ornamentation."

Typhoo Tea Cards

2010-02-10T19:36:00.000-08:00

I was at the Shakespeare theater recently and picked up a couple of vintage Typhoo tea cards that they had in the gift shop. They are so cool! I love that the tea boxes used to come with these in them to collect. Here's a brief history of tea cards.

You can find sets on ebay and other sites.

2010-02-10T19:31:00.000-08:00

SJC drew my attention to this online journal. There are many different topics addressed, all with the aim at encouraging, promoting, and uncovering the artifacts of culture that inspire and embody truth, goodness, and beauty. (The articles vary in quality).

National Civic Art Society

2010-02-10T19:26:00.000-08:00

The National Civic Arts Society is a local organization "dedicated to institutional architecture and decoration, memorial design, and community planning in the great tradition." It's an interesting group--I can't say that I whole heartedly agree with them, but they are an interesting group of folks with a lot of opinions. (For example, what does "in the great tradition" even mean? Is this just another ArtRenewal type group (stuck in some "classical" tradition, and not creating anything timely? bleh.) I haven't been able to figure that out yet.

"Since 2002, THE NATIONAL CIVIC ART SOCIETY has nurtured this new counterculture, while challenging fashionable dogmas that have merely served the cause of ugliness. It has sponsored important lectures and symposia as well as exhibitions of painting, sculpture, and architectural drawing. It also has endeavored to bring the new counterculture to policy makers’ attention. The Society will continue to seek the restoration of the classical tradition to its rightful primacy in our nation’s capital, while promoting design that dignifies, rather than degrades, the various realms of human endeavor in city and suburb."

Clocky

2010-02-10T16:29:00.000-08:00

This is such a funny concept! (from Spoon Sisters)

"If you’re favorite song is "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning," then make room on your night table for Clocky. Clocky gives you ONE chance to get up. If you choose to snooze, believe it or not, Clocky will jump right off your night table (up to 3 feet) and wheel around your bedroom looking for a place -- far away from your bed -- to hide, beeping all the while, before sounding his alarm again. And, yes, you WILL have to get out of bed to silence his alarm. The snooze time can be set from 0-9 minutes, so if you set it at "0" Clocky immediately "runs" away. If you want Clocky to be just like every other alarm clock on the block, and stay put on your night table, simply disable his wheels. Moves on wood or carpet. Comes in Almond, Aqua, and Coco - a rich chocolate brown (no longer available). Takes four AAA batteries; batteries not included. Measures 5 1/2 inches L x 3 1/2 inches W x 3 1/2 inches D."

2010-02-06T13:31:00.001-08:00

Detail

2010-02-03T06:50:00.000-08:00

This quote is featured on the author Susan Wise Bauer's website. Bauer is writing a several volume history of the world, that has been getting good reviews. She also has written a book called The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education That You Never Had, which looks really interesting as well.

I love Tuchman, and this quote articulates the reason why. Reading her Guns of August changed my opinion of reading history books altogether.

Speak with Authority

2010-02-03T06:24:00.000-08:00

Typography from Ronnie Bruce on Vimeo.

I absolutely LOVE this! My favorite lines is:

"I have nothing personally invested in my own opinions, okay?
I'm just inviting you to join me in my uncertainty?"

- Taylor Mali