July 27, 2011 by suzannesmom
To recap, I started this project in May, having been asked by Suzanne and Erik to write a blog affiliated with Suzanne’s birthstone jewelry company, Luna & Stella. This first post explains.
Folks who have been reading know that Erik is from Sweden. He and Suzanne often go sailing when they vacation there in summer. Erik’s mother recently sent along this photo, writing, “Suzanne, Erik and Jimmy leaving Veddö hamn [harbor]. Sailing along the Västkusten shore in beautiful weather.”
Soon they will be sailing for the honor of Sweden.
OK. Maybe not right away. I like Jimmy’s boat better anyway.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged birthstone jewelry, Luna & Stella, sailboat, sailing, sweden, swedish, vastkusten, veddo | Leave a Comment »
July 26, 2011 by suzannesmom
I have been reading about Michelle Obama’s latest efforts to encourage good nutrition in childhood.
“Executives from Wal-Mart, Walgreens, SuperValu and other stores joined Michelle Obama at the White House on [July 21] to announce a pledge to open or expand a combined 1,500 stores in communities that have limited access to nutritious food and are designated as ‘food deserts.’
“With the pledges, secured by the Partnership for a Healthier America, which is part of Mrs. Obama’s campaign to reduce childhood obesity, the stores aim to reach 9.5 million of the 23.5 million Americans who live in areas where finding affordable healthy foods can be difficult. In those areas, many people turn to fast food restaurants or convenience stores.” Read the New York Times article here.
On a related note, John sent me a really interesting link from photographer Mark Menjivar, who documents the insides of people’s refrigerators. He includes a one-line insight into the person whose food he is photographing. Unsurprisingly, the fridge with the least food in it belongs to a “street advertiser” who lives on a $432 fixed monthly income.
See the fascinating photo essay here.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged childhood, food desert, fridge, fruits, mark menjivar, menjivar, michelle obama, nourishing, nutrition, obesity, photo essay, photographer, photography, refrigerator, rural, supervalu, urban, vegetables, wal-mart, walgreens | 1 Comment »
July 25, 2011 by suzannesmom
I was reading about the latest enthusiastic group of LEAF interns in the Block Island Times tonight and decided to look up more information on the program.
The Leaders in Environmental Action for the Future (LEAF) program is an initiative started by the Nature Conservancy (TNC) 17 years ago. According to the TNC website, it “provides paid summer internships for high school students and helps educators from environmental high schools share best practices and scientific resources. The long-term goal of LEAF is to support more than 30 environmental high schools across the country, ultimately serving over 20,000 students.”
The Block Island Times notes that this is the third year of the island’s participation. The three girls who are currently interning have come with their mentor come from Atlanta. Intern Niniola Mark tells the newspaper, “This is my first time in New England, and I also saw the ocean for the very first time.” The article doesn’t say what high school the girls attend, but the only one in Georgia that I see on the TNC site is the Arabia Mountain High School.
What fun to go to an environmental high school!
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged block island, environment, experience, green, independence, intern, Leaders in Environmental Action for the Future, LEAF, nature, nature conservancy, tnc | Leave a Comment »
July 24, 2011 by suzannesmom
The next assignment is to listen in on a conversation somewhere and try to write it down word for word without adding any of your own details or dramatizing it.
In the age of Murdoch telephone hacking, is that kosher?
I do sometimes hear conversations I want to write down. Yesterday, for example, I was in a small grocery store, and a woman dripping with perspiration blew in and accosted the butcher. “I’m Christine! I’m from Burnin’ Love. I’m so sorry. I got all turned around.”
Pretty good, huh?
Another time I was out walking on a breathtakingly beautiful summer morning — clear blue sky, goldfinches flying everywhere — and two men on bicycles passed by discussing credit default swaps.
And one day last fall, I overheard a conversation as I dashed from my office building to the subway. A young woman was saying to a friend, “What I’d like to be doing is studying. But I’ll be grocery shopping and doing laundry, and he’ll be watching football and playing video games.”
This morning, I ventured some timid eavesdropping. I thought I better buy something in my chosen venues. In the first coffee shop, where I hovered near a biking couple, I bought coffee and the Sunday Globe. But the air conditioning was loud and drowned out their words. In the second coffee shop, I bought a decaf cappuccino and wandered around testing conversations, but the music was too loud. In the third coffee shop, I bought waffles with toppings (blueberries, strawberries, granola), but that place had both loud air conditioning and loud music.
In the afternoon, I tried the book shop without luck and ended up back at the first coffee shop, which had opened its screened porch for lunch. I bought lemonade. I can probably use a few snatches of the conversation among three fed-up-looking tourists. Pretty bland, I must say.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged cambrige center for adult education, ccae, hacking, murdoch, peter littlefield, playwriting | 3 Comments »
July 23, 2011 by suzannesmom
Not sure if, as a fan of detective mysteries, I should be disppointed or delighted about a new police database in Florida.
I learned about the database from an e-mail listserv I receive at the office. It’s called Innovators Insights. Sign up here to tell the Ash Center at Harvard’s Kennedy School what sorts of public policy topics interested you, and they will e-mail Innovators Insights to you weekly with short descriptions of relevant articles from around the nation — and links to the full story.
Here’s the Florida gumshoe story (to coin a phrase).
“In Cape Coral, Florida, the police department is employing a sophisticated shoe-print database that helps investigators quickly identify what type of shoe a suspect was wearing. While shoeprints are often important in identifying a perpetrator, the traditional process of manually casting a shoeprint and searching the Internet and catalogs for the matching type of shoe can be time-consuming when expedience is of the essence. By contrast, the software houses over 24,000 shoe types and allows information like side-shots of the shoes, their manufacturer, and their color schemes to be immediately forwarded to detectives. If investigators have a suspect’s shoe, they can also compare a digital image of its sole with a shoeprint from other crime scenes and look for a match. Cape Coral police have already used the technology to arrest one offender.”
Read all about it. And no matter how many exotic and unfamiliar shoes you buy in places around the world, you better behave yourself in Coral Gables.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged ash center, coral gables, database, detective, digital, florida, gumshoe, harvard, innovators insights, kennedy school, murder mystery, shoe, shoeprint, shoes | Leave a Comment »
July 23, 2011 by suzannesmom
The Hip Harpist I wrote about before has a lot of interests, about which she both tweets and blogs extensively. An especially kooky interest is her Burnt Food Museum.
She explains: “The museum was founded in the late 1980’s one night when Deborah put on a small pot of Hot Apple Cider to heat, then received an unexpected . . . fascinating . . . and very long phone call. By the time Deborah returned to the kitchen, the Cider had become a Cinder and thus the first, and perhaps still the most impressive, exhibit: Free Standing Hot Apple Cider was born.
“Since then, countless other works have entered the museum, such as Thrice Baked Potato, ‘Why Sure, You Can Bake Quiche in the Microwave,’ the indestructible ‘Mmmm……Soy Pups,’ and the lovely matching set of Pizza Toast.”
Like the Museum of Bad Art (MOBA, the world’s only museum dedicated to the collection, preservation, exhibition, and celebration of bad art in all its forms), the Burnt Food Museum gets a lot of press in the mainstream media for sheer kookiness. These cultural institutions are both in the Greater Boston area.
Don’t let anyone tell you Boston is staid.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged boston, burnt food museum, deborah henson-conant, harp, hip harpist, jazz, moba, museum of bad art | 2 Comments »
July 22, 2011 by suzannesmom
Community-supported agriculture has been working well for some years now. A person who likes local produce and wants to support local agriculture will buy a “share” that can help support a farmer (recently, even a fisherman) while giving the “investor” a guaranteed amount of food. The “dividend” could be a dozen eggs a week, a basket of produce, a partial catch of fish. Often a group of friends will band together on a share, especially if they don’t think they can use all the zucchini they expect come midsummer.
Now some artists are trying this approach. A $300 share in “Community Supported Art will get [a person] three monthly assortments of locally created artworks — nine pieces in all. … CSArt, a new project of the Cambridge [MA] Center for Adult Education, is modeled on a wildly popular Minnesota art CSA, which has inspired groups in Chicago and Frederick, Maryland, to create their versions. And some glassmakers in Burlington, Vermont., independently adopted the CSA form last year.
” ‘The success of the Minnesota program is due in part to the fact that it’s based on something people understand,’ said Laura Zabel, executive director. … CSArt aims to nurture artists as small business owners and to tap into the burgeoning enthusiasm for the local and the handmade.” Read the Boston Globe article.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged agriculture, cambridge center for adult education, ccae, community supported art, csa, minnesota | Leave a Comment »
July 20, 2011 by suzannesmom
My son mentioned this Jane Scott obit the other day. He knows how much I like stories about older people who stay in the fray because they love their work. Writes the NY Times:
“In four happy decades as a rock writer for The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ms. Scott, who died on Monday at 92, braved mud and mosh pits, foul weather and fouler language, ‘a drop of bleached blond and pink polyester in a roiling sea of blue denim and black leather,’ as The Philadelphia Inquirer once described her. …
“Ms. Scott, who took up her beat in 1964 at 45 and retired nine years ago at nearly 83, was often called the world’s oldest teenager, a description she hastened to correct. ‘Second-oldest,’ she would say. ‘After Dick Clark.’ …
“But what troubled Ms. Scott … was her inability to share her passion with her peers.
“ ‘I finally convinced a friend to come see Deep Purple with me,’ she told The Washington Post …. ‘I called her before the show to confirm, and she said, “Oh, Jane, I can still remember dancing with Ben at Beta Theta Pi fraternity, and we danced ‘When the deep purple falls over sleepy garden walls.’ ” ’
“ ‘I thought: “Oh dear. I hate to tell you …” ‘ Ms. Scott continued. ‘I ended up taking her grandson.’ ”
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged cleveland, cleveland plain dealer, critic, dick clark, jane scott, review, reviewer, rock band, rock critic | 1 Comment »
July 20, 2011 by suzannesmom
When I told my husband that playwriting teacher Peter Littlefield wanted class members to base a scene on an early moment when we first looked objectively at the adult world, he volunteered memories of his own.
Last weekend, Suzanne, John, and their spouses got to hear about a Philadelphia childhood and the horse that delivered milk, going reliably to the next house while the deliveryman placed bottles at the last one. They learned about an elementary school visit to a dairy company, and how it hit my husband so young that some men spend their whole lives lifting bottles into crates. He also remembered catching the tail end of the street lamplighter age. He has since mentioned ice delivery at the Jersey Shore and how you would put a special sign in the window indicating how many pounds of ice you wanted for that week.
There was also coal delivery in large canvas bags. Believe it or not, my husband is not that old.
Even Suzanne and John should remember that coal was delivered next door for several years after we moved to town. And clearly coal is still being delivered somewhere, as in this video a guy put on YouTube. I especially like the speech balloons he added.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged cambridge center for adult education, ccae, coal, gas lamp, horse, ice delivery, jersey shore, lamplighter, milk, milk delivery, peter littlefield | Leave a Comment »
July 19, 2011 by suzannesmom
Today I was at a conference in Hartford, and I just want to say that I had the best box lunch I have ever had at a conference, maybe the best box lunch ever. The story that goes with it makes it seem even more delightful.
The lunches were catered by The Kitchen, an urban workforce-training effort by Billings Forge Community Works. We had four lunch choices, and I chose the curried chicken-and-grape salad on fruit-and-nut bread, with sides of potato salad, orzo and olive salad, and a just-baked cookie. (There were also local beverages like birch beer and Dangerous Ginger Beer, “hot mon!”)
The story begins with the Melville Charitable Trust, dedicated to “finding and fighting the causes of homelessness.” After its success renovating a building to house nonprofit offices in Frog Hollow, an impoverished section of Hartford, the city asked the Trust to take on a big housing project nearby. The initiative grew into an inspiring example of holistic community development, involving gardens, youth activities, a gourmet restaurant that attracted suburbanites from Day One, and a successful catering facility that has the added benefit of training neighborhood residents in professional food service. We got to see much of this on a tour we took after our meeting and after the box lunch.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged billings forge, community, community development, firebox, hartford, kitchen, melville charitable trust | 2 Comments »
July 17, 2011 by suzannesmom
I make an annual carrot cake. I have an old, tattered newsprint recipe living in a Ziploc bag, but this year the recipe was on a shelf several hours away from where I needed to buy the ingredients (long story), so I’m putting them here for future Internet access.
2 cp flour, 1 tsp baking soda, ½ tsp salt, 1-1/2 cp sugar, 2 tsps cinnamon, 3 eggs, ¾ cp buttermilk, ½ cp oil, 2 tsps vanilla, 1 8-1/2 oz can crushed pineapple, 2 cps grated raw carrots (no liquid), 1 cp chopped nuts, 1 cp flaked coconut
I will print the recipe, too, if you ask.
The question is always what to do with the extra buttermilk. I have used it for cornbread in the past. You can also put it in your blueberry pancakes the next morning. I don’t know anyone who likes to drink it.
Except Amelia Earhart.
I’ve been reading a 2010 self-published book called by Allene G. “Squeaky” Hatch, Real Pearls and Darned Stockings: Tales of the Hudson Valley, which includes a memorable visit that Amelia Earhart paid to Squeaky’s family when Squeaky was little.
Squeaky’s Uncle Clint was stowing away his biplane at the Hudson Airport one night when he saw storm clouds threatening. A woman approached him from her own plane, and he recognized the famous aviatrix. Writes Squeaky:
“ ‘Could you recommend a good hotel nearby for my co-pilot and me?’ Earhart asked.
“Clint’s answer was that the best place to stay was his farm.” He phoned the house, and Squeaky’s mother rushed madly around to get ready. Having heard that Earhart liked buttermilk, and having none in the house, Squeaky’s mom improvised, mixing viengar with fresh milk! At dinner Amelia Earhart took a polite sip of the “buttermilk.” She didn’t take a second, says Squeaky.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged airplane, airport, Allene G. Hatch, amelia earheart, biplane, buttermilk, carrot cake, cooking, hudson river, recipes, squeaky | 2 Comments »
July 16, 2011 by suzannesmom
In Worcester attending a conference last Wednesday, I worried. Maybe I shouldn’t park my car in the shady part of the lot where there are no lines for parking. I took a chance. When I put the key in the lock at the end of the day, a voice started shouting over and over, “Hey!” I hoped the voice wasn’t addressing me.
“Hey! Hey! Open the window. You parked in front of my gate. I live here. That’s my house. I drive my car in that gate. See that gate? I had to park my car in the street because you’re in front of my gate. All my things were stolen. I had a thousand dollars of stuff. It was all stolen.”
Me: Oh, that’s terrible. I’m so sorry. I saw the fence in front. I’m so sorry. I didn’t see your gate.
“I had a thousand dollars of stuff. They broke in. They took everything. Electronic equipment. Everything. I have the police report. You want to see the police report? I didn’t have you towed. I had to park in the street. I live here. See that house. That’s my house. I swing my wife in the hammock. Look. Back up a little. Back up a little more. See that? That’s my hammock. I swing my wife in the hammock.”
Me: It’s very nice. Very colorful. Where’s it from?
“It’s from El Salvador. My wife and I are from Puerto Rico. It’s from the guy who had the house. I live here. I pay all my bills on time. I’m an alcoholic. But I’m responsible. I pay all my bills on time. Look, I have this dollar. I just want to buy a beer, but I don’t have any money. You can give me anything.”
Me: Here’s a dollar. But it’s not good to be an alcoholic. You should go to AA.
“That’s a good idea! Where is it?”
Me: I don’t live in Worcester. You should ask someone in Worcester where there’s an AA.
“Where do you live? I’ll write it down. I’m gonna call you.”
Me: Oh, I live east. Near Boston.
“In Salem? In Salem where the witches are?
Me: Yes. With the witches.
“You should come back. You can park your car any time. I’ll watch it for you.”
Me: You really should have me towed.
“No, no, no. I’ll watch it for you!”
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged aa, smaller industiral cities conference, worcester | Leave a Comment »
July 16, 2011 by suzannesmom
The young lady mechanical doll on the soap box stands like a statue.
If someone offers a bill, she flutters her eyelashes, blows a kiss, waves her fan, bows, and turns back into a statue. She is usually in the same spot when I walk to the playwriting class on Thursdays.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged doll, harvard square, marionette, performer, puppet | 1 Comment »
July 15, 2011 by suzannesmom
I am a huge fan of Tyne Daly, the actress. I enjoyed her on the TV series “Cagney and Lacy,” was blown away by her Mama Rose in the musical “Gypsy,” and am not at all surprised by Ben Brantley’s July 8, 2011, glowing review of her portrayal of Maria Callas in “Master Class.”
He writes, “Ms. Daly transforms that script into one of the most haunting portraits I’ve seen of life after stardom.”
But I was not always a fan. No way. Not when Tyne was taking all the ingenue roles at the Jr. Antrim Players in Suffern and a cute guy I knew was always drooling about “Time for Tyne.”
Nope. Starting with Gilbert & Sullivan’s “HMS Pinafore,” in which I was crummy ol’ Cousin Hebe, Tyne snared all the lead roles. We girls in wallflower parts would hiss to one another with resentful envy, “Of course, she comes from a theater family,” and “Her father is James Daly,” and “The whole family does summer stock.” We didn’t like to admit that Tyne was also very comfortable and capable on the stage, had a sweet voice, and was pretty.
Fortunately we grew up and learned to give credit where credit is due.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged antrim players, ben brantley, cagney and lacy, gypsy, James Daly, mama rose, maria callas, master class, suffern, summer stock, tyne daly | 4 Comments »
July 13, 2011 by suzannesmom
I went to school with the daughter of the consul general from Taiwan. One time she told me that the people of mainland China looked physically different because of communism.
I thought I already knew a bit about China. After all, my mother had traveled there in the 1930s as an assistant to Owen Lattimore (cowering later under the dark cloud manufactured by Joe McCarthy and his ilk, who saw Reds under every teacup). She was always talking about China. so although I realized my high school friend probably knew more about China than I did, I had doubts about her statement. How could living under communism make a Chinese person look different from family members on Taiwan?
Nowadays, a rapprochement between the two Chinas is in the air. At first I was surprised that so many people living in Taiwan — and accustomed to views like my friend’s — seemed to have no trouble talking about reunification with the mainland. But family does reach out to family.
Now I see that two sections of an ancient scroll are also being reunited. An article in the NY Times last week describes a new Taipei exhibit and the reunification of “Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains.” Writes the Times:
“Wu Hongyu, a wealthy Ming Dynasty art collector, was evidently not fond of sharing, given his deathbed command to burn his most beloved painting, ‘Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains.’ Fortunately, a nephew snatched the scroll from the funeral pyre that day in 1650, but not before flames split the work in two.
“During the three and a half centuries since then, the two sections were kept apart by greed, civil war and the vicissitudes of geopolitical gamesmanship. The smaller piece, just 20 inches across, found its way to a provincial museum in Communist-ruled China. The more imposing 21-foot-long section ended up on Taiwan, the island where the retreating Chinese Nationalists — and boatloads of treasures from Beijing’s imperial palace — ended up after they lost the civil war in 1949.
“If the story of ‘Fuchun Mountains’ is richly symbolic of China’s tumultuous history and its six-decade estrangement from Taiwan, then the painting’s reunification last month at the National Palace Museum here in the Taiwanese capital is a made-to-order metaphor for the reconciliation that Communist Party leaders have long imagined for what they deem a breakaway province.”
Who would have thought?
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged china, dwelling in the fuchun mountains, owen lattimore, reunification, taipei, taiwan | Leave a Comment »
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