Starch?

Yes, Niagara spray starch.

Among the clearance rack shirts I have purchased lately is a white linen shirt, the kind with tabs and buttons to hold your rolled up sleeves in place. I decided I the initial wearing will be Friday when we go to Santa Fe after work for dinner and opera (Madama Butterfly). The noted cool factor of linen (temperature, not with-it-ness) appeals. Alas, it looked a bit rumpled off the rack. So tonight I tackled it with starch and ironed it into submission.

Yes, I know that linen wrinkles as soon as you put it on. That's OK. I just feel as though I am putting on the Ritz and that's all that matters.

I also touched up two other new shirts (spraying only with water) so they are ready to be worn to work.

How many of you remember when your mothers had starch, bluing, and Fels naphtha soap? And your fathers had Lava and Boraxo soaps?

--the BB

It isn't Christmas without them

Mrs. Londquist's Peppar Kakar
(Swedish Pepper Cookies)

1 Cup melted butter
1-1/4 Cup sugar (white or brown)
Cream butter and sugar together.

1/2 Cup sour cream
1-1/2 Cups light molasses
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
Mix together in a very large bowl and add the butter & sugar mixture.

1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
8 Cups flour
Mix dry ingredients together then add to wet ingredients. Mix thoroughly.

Roll to 1/8 inch thickness on floured board. Cut.

Bake at 350 degrees F. for 15 minutes.

This recipe makes a lot of cookies. You may keep the dough in the refrigerator and roll out and bake some at a time. It takes a bit of work to make the cold dough malleable but if it gets too warm it does not handle well either. Practice, and lots of sprinkling with flour.

They are best made around Thanksgiving, stored in an airtight container, and served at Christmas. We love making holes in some of them and hanging them on the Christmas tree. Those hanging on the tree will be perfectly edible when Epiphany arrives.

[Photos of my Christmas tree with said cookies to follow.]

--the BB

This evening's drive home

On the drive home after work I deviated from my usual route by about half a mile so I could get different views (and capture some of the distant rain). Stopped again at my usual photo spot. All in all 76 photos. I was having fun. Here are five of them. You may click on them for detail.

It appears we have an early monsoon season this year. I hope it holds off for my brother-in-law's 60th birthday party this weekend.






Soon it's gonna rain, I can see it.
Soon it's gonna rain, I can tell.
Soon it's gonna rain,
What're we gonna do?
--The Fantasticks




UWSP Musical Theatre Final Forum Spring '08.
Creg Sclavi and Sadie Langemo perform Soon It's Gonna Rain from The Fantasticks.

This is not a polished professional version but I think these two capture so much of the spirit of the Fantasticks - I never saw the musical performed but had the album way back when and used to be able to recite or sing the entire thing. (Oh all right, in spite of my protests that I don't like musical theatre.... I have had lapses.)

--the BB

I remember "I Like Ike"

I grew up in a central California Republican household. I remember the slogan "I Like Ike" during that post-war era. Eisenhower was the first president I really remember (Truman was something in the recent past to my young consciousness).

Atrios posted Ike's farewell speech in two YouTube segments if you're interested.

--the BB

What has this man done to "our song"?

My very first evening with the person who turned out to be the love of my life (now ex and still beloved) included listening to an album of baroque music. It was my exposure to Pachelbel's Canon in D, one of the most famous pieces of baroque music in our time. I always thought of it as "our song." OK, not your usual romantic ballad with lyrics and all. Still, it brings a smile to my face whenever I hear it. (And in stereo with headphones after smoking a little pot--wow! Hey, I am a child of my time, and that was long ago.)

I was thinking of it this morning with the Hallelujah (or Alleluia) theme in the post below. The high school choir in the movie Ordinary People (1980) sings "Alleluia" over and over set to Pachelbel's Canon. That movie (with Timothy Hutton, Mary Tyler Moore, Donald Sutherland, and Judd Hirsch et al.) spoke powerfully to us and images of it still haunt us, so that is part of "our" shared mythology as well.

Which is background to my searching YouTube for Pachelbel's Canon to see if I could add it to Rufus Wainwright singing Cohen's "Hallelujah." I didn't find the choir in the movie but I did find a very funny comedic routine: Rob Paravonian's Pachelbel Rant at Penn State. Enjoy.



--the BB