Day 2 Day radishes

August 30/ Shake my head

This summer I went to a few movies. I took my granddaughter to see Kit Kittridge, which I have already said that I loved. Equalimente Mama Mia. Had a great time, saw it twice, and I recommend it for a feel good movie. Then there was Tropical Thunder. Holey Moley. By quantum leaps it was the raunchiest movie I have ever seen. Usually my girls give me a heads up and say, “you wouldn’t like it, Mother.” Then sometimes I see the movie anyway, and I get through it, and think it was funny. An example would be Something about Mary, actually I did not really like that, but there were amusing moments. But Will Ferrell in the Talledega Nights movie, I actually liked, as I can enjoy some crass, lowbrow humor.

When NoName was here, and she was recovering from her operation, we went to see the movie Tropical Thunder. Her kids had heard about it and wanted to see this movie. So we went to check it out. Ben Stiller is usually funny, Right? I had no clue as to what the movie was going to be like. It is a spoof on other war movies, such as Platoon, or ApocalypseNow. Napalm was the fireworks of choice. There was not a single six letter word. And Dick was everywhere. Blood and guts were decorations. Even to the point that when they were fake filming, sausages came out as intestines. To my ever lasting contempt, I laughed and at the same time I kept saying, “I can not believe I am here”.

Well we have established here this is not a film for kids. My grandson was furious when he found out that we had gone, and we told him he could not go. But now that he is back in Shanghai, there are pirated copies everywhere. Masses of boys his age have now moved into his neighborhood. In reality, good luck on keeping 12 year old boys from seeing the movie. And if he can’t get a shanghai pirated copy (it does not even have to be good), there are other ways. Two days ago there was an advertisement on my computer to download Tropical Thunder directly off the Internet on to my home computer. Today the possibilities are endless. This blog is being published for two days, and then it is histoire. He never reads this blog, but on occasion his sister does. But it will take her a while to get around here.

August 28/ Incredible edible egg

I could not resist these pictures. The other day I decided that I would try to flip my fried egg. This is the result.

Yesterday I borrowed a book from the Library. Our library is a new idea in libraries for smaller areas. The deal is they get new and popular books and display only them. There are no indepth sections. This works out for me as I love new cookbooks. Half the time I later go out to buy the same book, but at least I know what I am getting. My book this week is The Splendid Tables’s *HOW TO EAT SUPPER, by Lynn Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift. These women have a show on Public Radio named the Splendid Table. I like the book because I like the side comments and quotes, and their further reading notes.

In this book they write: “A Confession: When life is dull, some people turn on the TV, others try hang-gliding and we go to the American Egg Board website (www.aeb.org)”. I can recommend this site. It is beautiful and it even has games for kids plus anything you would ever need or want to know regarding eggs.. Here is some information: “ Of course, everyone knows that the egg color is dictated by earlobes and feathers. Breeds with white earlobes and white feathers lay white eggs, and breeds with red feathers and red earlobes lay brown ones.“ Or how about this, “Just as women are born with a set number of eggs, hens are born with a set amount of shell material. As they age, the shells get thinner.”

I love this.  "I don't know how long I like my egg boiled, but it is exactly right by the time I finish my hair."  by Betty Furness

August 26/ Latest case snobbery

I am the proud owner of a new panini press. My daughter bought Ina Garten’s latest cookbook, Barefoot Contessa at Home. Her friends had cooked her several good meals from it when she was in the East. I had never bought a cookbook of Ina’s because everyone else cooked out of hers, not withstanding few people invite me to dinner, nor do I invite all that many to dinner. Hum. Well Ina says, you can not live without a panini press. Good enough for me. Besides I needed a new toy after my family returned to China.

In my heart of hearts, I know a panini press has limited applications. Of course there is always panini, but what else? Well you can grill a hamburger, a piece of fish, sliced vegetables (excellent), or peaches. Still it is a hunk on my counter for such silliness. Sandwiches are best with cheese, and I even forgot I am giving up cheese. I bought this Cuisinart panini press partly because it says you can put the grill plates in the dishwasher.

A long time back I think, I once had a George Forman grill, which is pretty much the same thing, much cheaper, at a slightly different tilt, but no stainless, only white plastic, not sexy and I threw the thing away. So not only am I now a snob, maybe I am also a racist.

Last night’s salmon was incinerated. Worst of all, I think the real reason I bought the cookbook is that Ina told me how to put a pretty stack of books with a little chic chic lamp on the dinning room table to make it cozy.

August 25/ Books for summer

I want to suggest the following books to finish up your summer reading. They are The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. This is a delightful epistolary novel and it is a novel about the citizens of Guernsey and their occupation during WWII. Very fast read.

The second book is A Short History of Tractors in the Ukrainian, by Marina Lewycka. If you choose books by their title, you have to wonder. And the cover doesn’t look much better. The subject is immigration from the Ukraine to England. This is what the LOS ANGELES TIMES has to say. “The last thing one expected in a work of fiction about Ukrainian exiles was a charming comedy of eros. . . A ride that, despite the bumps and curves in the road, never feels anything less than jaunty.”

August 24 Back from camp

A week last Saturday was PICK THE KIDS UP FROM CAMP DAY plus a birthday thrown in. There were a total of five children from two of our families getting off the boat that brought them from their Puget Sound Camp Fire camp. We waited in the hot sun for an extra 45 minutes while the boat made its way back through the Seattle boat locks. The two and four year old grandsons entertained us and the adults caught up on the news. We were anxious because there was one letter from camp from the most unlikely of the group saying how sad she was at camp. One grandson is shy, and we worried if he would find friends. Everyone got off the boat happy, having had a great time, and the shy grandson says next year he wants to go for 10 days. It was a grandparent day seeing everyone arrive home happy.

Parents and grandparents started along with the first kids who attended camp being snowed by how easy and well organized the camp was. We thought all that singing and clapping was very cleaver to divert the children from home sickness. But the oldest two grandchildren have now gone to camp for six years. Each year they come home with a little more information, and each year we become a little more savvy. This year however, we received phone calls about lice infestation, would Thing3 take the boat home, where was she to stay between sessions, counselors being fired, and the mental health of the children because of the firings.

The older campers had been building structures to fit 15 campers, and one leader brought his car into the meadow and allowed all of his 15 charges to get inside the car. This councelor did not get fired as he had asked his superior. But his immediate superior was fired on the spot. All of the counselors wanted to quit. Two left then and there, but most quit in advance but would wait until after the camp session was over, and this was the last session. The adults here at home are not totally understanding this. But we all now know more than we cared to know. All organizations seem to have their problems starting with the government and the church down to the “who is eligible to pass through the gate to the beach, down to why my husband will not tidy the chest that is always supposed be tidy.

Yet all seems to have worked out. There seemed to be something for everyone to talk about back at the dinner table at home. Most want to go back to camp.

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I confess that no one but moi has proof-read this article going against my pledge to have someone do it. But the proofreader left, and Mr. Radish is working hard at getting his new fishing boots ready; I really do not like to ask him.

August 22/ Self duped

I do not know how I could have been this self duped. A friend sent me an email, and it was about a meeting that she had heard Cindy McCain was going to come to our very own island. If I went to certain web site, I could sign up. My friend said something to the effect that she was sure they do not want a lot of publicity about her exact whereabouts. But we decided we would attend the event even though the whole deal seemed far fetched. We were tired being in the closet Republicans and maybe we would meet some one new.

Cindy McCain showing up was not totally bizarre because as a child I had gone to see Harry Truman whistle stop as he trained down the San Francisco peninsula. Then in 1969 we lived near the National Redwood National Park, and in 1969 it was dedicated to Lady Bird Johnson, the following  people attended: Lyndon and Lady Bird, daughters, and sons in law, Pat and Richard Nixon and their daughters and husbands. Billie Graham was there and I have yet to see as beautifully tailored suit as Rev. Graham wore that day. The kids were having a great time and the Nixon and Johnson girls were far more attractive than the press ever showed them.  Especially the Johnson girls had porcelain time skin.

I was in Berkeley stadium when JFK gave his famous speech about not asking what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country In addition, my husband rode in an elevator with Ronald Regan. Also while Mr. Radish was working in Austin, friends of the Johnsons drove him out to the LBJ ranch just as Lyndon and Lady Bird helicoptered away. And I have seen George W. about 20 feet away.

In our small California town of 7,000, in the campaign for the election of Bill Clinton, Elizabeth Dole came to tea. So it was not totally out of reason that Cindy McCain would show up in an area of about 15,000. It is still early in the campaign. But when I thought about it, this would have been better publicized, as this is definitely a blue state.

No the meeting was about 25 people, some regular people, more otherwise. I was one disappointed political groupie. 

August 20/ LA apartment

In 1960 I was married, and it was also the year of my first Presidential election. Then the voting age was 21. I lived in a housing development in Los Angeles where it was built by a large insurance company. The development must have been nice in their fresh beginnings. When we lived there the apartments were just above seedy, but for newlyweds the apartments were open and spacious and had grass. One of the reasons that I am thinking about our first apartment is that it is currently very hot here, and it was very hot in that apartment. When we opened the windows, what we heard was Yiddish. There was a wash house, but no driers, and we hung the laundry out to dry. Someone stole all of my new trousseau underwear. They were regular panties as no self respecting girl at that time would own a thong.

The other reason I am thinking about that apartment is that last night I went to a political gathering, and about that more later. But in that time in Los Angeles, when I went to vote, I was the only Republican in my precinct. My husband at the time was registered as an Independent. Election day you can imagine my shock when outside the voting establishment I read the list, there were pages of Democrat names, and I was the only name on the Republican list. Even my husband was not the only Independent. The woman handed me my ballot in such a way that I felt she was saying, “so you’re the freak.”

The election was Kennedy and Nixon, and I had voted for Nixon. Our friends, another newly married couple, and we laid on Mr. Radish’s and my double bed, four abreast, (we were thin in those days) watching election returns, drinking beer, disgusted.

August 18/ Will not be back in business until Thursday

While I have several posts to go, I have no proof readers.  Proof reading maybe become short lived.  I mean I always proof read, if you only knew, but there is not a good connection between the fingers, eyes, and brain.  My family is getting ready for China and there are lots of last minute chores.  See you Wednesday or Thursday. 

August 15/ Chefs and money

Forbes magazine recently listed the earnings of famous chefs. Although pooh-poohed by critics, the winner was, you guessed it, Rachael Ray at $18 million a year. She publishes books, sells cookware, has a magazine, runs television shows all day long. Even my 87 year old aunt watches Rachael. It is amusing to me all the fuss the critics give her for her over-the-top, rah rah enthusiasm when in a real way she got America cooking in the kitchen. Critics feel she is not even a chef.

Wolfgang Puck makes $16 million a year. This is a very high figure, it seems to me. He must have multiple restaurants other than in the US. I have eaten at one in Mexico City which has since closed. Maybe he sells a lot of soup. NoName reports that he also hawks food at airports and museum food courts; the pizza served in these establishments, she tells me, tastes as cardboardy as the frozen slop that comes out of a box. Who’s the chef now?

Here are the other earnings:

Gordon Ramsay:$7.5 million

Nobu Matsuhisa:$5 million

Alain Ducasse:$5 million. (And I do not even know him.)

Mario Batali: $3 million

Paula Deen : $4.5 million

Tom Coliccho: $2 million. (In addition to Tom’s restaurants and TV show, he is currently, or has been the executive chef to Appleby’s in the hopes of salvaging the chain.)

Bobby Flay: $1.5 million

Anthony Bourdain: $1.5 million

Missing from this list are Emeril and Martha S. So you have to wonder. Mario has a lot of fingers in many pots and I thought he would make more, but this is yearly earnings. If he could keep his earnings up for a10 year period, that would be $30 million

Now that I know the price of chefs, I want Forbes to publish the annual income of American prostitutes.

August 12 Olympic Harumph

My husband has been grumbling for years about all the Olympic events that should be eliminated. A strict Constitutionalist, he wants the Games to be like the days of old Greece, no professional athletes, no team sports, no equipment like boats, tennis racquets, or bicycles. Mr. Radish says soccer has already has the World Cup. Olympic soccer is chump change. In effect, the Olympic Games really mean track and field to him.

I have not asked him if he would eliminate women but in the meantime NoName and I are baiting him. Does that mean the athletes must wear togas to participate? Would he allow swimming, and if so, how would togas work in that situation? Would chariots be substituted for bicycles? Would burkhas be allowed?

I cannot stand track and field, especially the running events. To make running interesting, you have to put effort into knowing records and possibilities. A man trying to pole over a bar is one thing, but just going around, and round the stadium is entirely another. Although I will say, I can watch horses go round and round in a circle. Give me this other stuff: the beach blanket bingo volley ball girls, the men huffing and puffing up the hills on bicycles, the soccer games, the swimmers and divers.