Thursday, October 17, 2013

Walking a Cat



This was on Facebook thanks to The Crazy Cat Lady Community. It reminds me of this book that my grandmother had in her library:



"The cat from France likes to sing and dance, but my cat likes to hide in boxes." So true! It is kitty law.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Shades of "This is Spinal Tap"

This is great.

I used to listen to WLIR back in the 80's. I also would get alternative music magazines from Europe from the local candy store, and I had a few pen pals through them, two of whom were from Yugoslavia, Jelena and Jasenka. I don't know what happened to them after the unrest in that part of the world in the 90's. One of my pen pals was local and she came to my sweet sixteen party at the Moose Lodge. I don't remember her name because it was probably American.

I miss candy stores. If you needed school supplies, you could go there and get a notebook, loose leaf paper, or some brads. Oh, and poster board for projects you forgot to tell your mom about that were due the next day. Does anyone remember the large rubber band book straps for school? I think I was part of the last generation to use those before luggage-sized backpacks became popular for texts. We also had to cover our books for the school year, and my mom was an expert at turning a Key Food brown paper bag into a perfectly fitting book cover in a matter of minutes. It is amazing to think of the things we made on our own and didn't spend money on, but that suited us just fine because homemade tended to be better.

Friday, October 11, 2013

Salmon Cakes and a wonderful blog

The Aspiring Homemaker no longer posts, but I love her blog

She is from a self-sufficient, homeschooling family in rural Georgia, and they participate in reenactments at several locations.
I make the salmon cake recipe in the above link on a regular basis but substitute dried potato flakes for the cornmeal. It reminds me of the fish cakes my mom would buy from Joe's Seafood Market in Woodside, Queens. We are talking Depression era food here - inexpensive and yummy. My mom would serve the fish cakes with Franco-American canned spaghetti. My husband got to enjoy this canned spaghetti once when he was my fiance. I promised I would never make canned pasta when we got married. LOL. I grew up with it and never questioned it.
Anyway, the Aspiring Homemaker is a lovely young lady with some great recipes and pictures, and I am sad that she has discontinued posting, but you might enjoy perusing her blog too.

By the way, before The King's Speech which I own and is a wonderful movie, we had Bertie and Elizabeth - a BBC production that I own and enjoy very much. Fish cakes come into play in this clip,  about a minute in.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Earliest Fist Bump

Just realized this. Superfriends was the best.

Gregorian Slant

Yes, I have read Kafka. Metamorphosis, of course. It is the only book the average person has read by him because it was forced upon us in school as being worthy of reading. I can only think of a handful of people who would pick up that story willfully and even fewer who would slog through it to the end. It's really all about the opening line, anyway, which can have two translations:

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin."

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect."

Personally, I think it would be a better story if he awoke and found himself transformed in his bed into a gummy bear. But, then his dreams probably were not uneasy in that case. Or were they? Really, I believe he just reverted back to being an angsty teenager.
So, what other items might he have awoken as with these uneasy dreams. Any thoughts?

Rather than Gregor Samsa, I prefer Gregor Mendel who happened to be an Augustinian friar. I think it is amazing that he happened to study Mendelian genetics. What are the odds?!

This brought me to considering Punnett squares and how they could be applied in everyday life in our modern world. I'm thinking that some of the online dating services could make use of these when setting people up.
"You do realize that you have a 75% chance of one of your offspring being a curly-haired brunette with a wicked widow's peak. Is that what you really want?" It's enough to put a wrinkle in Mendel's green and yellow peas.


Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Wilkommen! Bienvenue! Welcome!

Welcome to my blog. Autumnal blessings to you all from sunny Florida.
There will be much experimenting in the early days since I have no idea what I am doing.

Topics on Which to Muse
Faith
Homemaking
Homeschooling/Autodidactism 
Food
Nostalgia
Eclectic Fun
Movies and TV
Music
What's Going on in the World

There. I did it. This first post has been the most difficult so far. 
The title of this blog, by the way, comes from this book, and a shout out to my dad who loved Hagar:


 Hagar the Horrible's Very Nearly Complet...
 
"Say something famous, and your name will go down in history." - Anonymous


I crack up every time I think of it.