Shana Tova

Today is Rosh Hashanah, which marks the beginning of the Days of Awe, the High Holidays, the Jewish New Year. So, I wish you all shana tova or good new year.

I spent the morning in synagogue, at Shir Tikvah in Minneapolis, with a new friend and coworker of Gabi's. The service was very good, although before I move into reflections on the theology and meaning of the service, let me make the most secular of admissions: I love going to High Holiday services because it means I am sitting in the midst of not just hundreds of fellow Jews, but also dozens and dozens of women who have the same curly, willful, frizzy, uncontrollable hair. I love it. In a world where I'm usually around the straight-haired (even if not always immaculately coifed) I love being around a bunch of women who, like me, spent their childhoods hating their curly locks because no amount of blow-drying, curlers, or chemical straighteners would ever enable them to pull off a Farah Faucett 'do. It's brilliant.

But, I would remiss if I let you think that I spent three hours this morning contemplating hair. No, I spent that time (and several hours over the last few days, reading and studying so that I would be "ready" for my precious time in synagogue) thinking about the three things that, during the High Holidays, we are reminded that we must always do: tefilah, tzedekah, teshuva.

I always wince before translating these words, because they are mistranslated so often. Still, bear with me as I fumble through...

Tefilah, the easiest to translate, basically means "prayer." In this context, it means to study Torah, pray, and lead a spiritual, prayerful life.

Tzedikah is most commonly translated in English as "charity," partly because of the "Tzedekah boxes" that are kept in many Jewish homes so that families can gather money that will be given to the needy or otherwise used to do good. However, tzedekah is more accurately translated as "righteousness," or the using of money or other tangible effects to help those who are oppressed, assist those in need, and fight social injustice. In the Talmudic tradition, the money that goes into that little box is not so much "pennies for the poor" as it is "pennies to end poverty." The difference is significant because it means that we are called not just to give, but to give a damn.

Finally, teshuvah is commonly translated as "repentance." In this sense, the Days of Awe are all about trembling before G-d, fearing G-d's judgement, and confessing our sins. This insistence on sin and judgement was always a barrier for me in my desire to reach any kind of deeper spiritual understanding of either myself or my heritage. Then, last year as I was studying during the High Holidays, I learned that the more literal translation of teshuvah is "return," as in returning to your intention to lead a moral, hopeful, positive life; returning to Torah if you haven't read your parashahs every week as you had intended; returning to the goal of being the person you want yourself to be. Returning to the person G-d intended you to be.

I was so moved and joyful to learn of this more literal translation, because it is much more positive and affirming, and makes so much more sense in terms of other things I've learned over the last several years about Torah and Jewish ethics and spirituality. Repentance doesn't work so well for me, and I suppose, a lot of other people too. Repentance feels too often like spiritual self-flaggelation. To be completely mundane: I've been trying really hard to lose weight. Counting calories and all that. Some days I'm just out of control, however, and I binge. These days, it's not even so much that I eat things that I don't want to be eating. I might have wanted the first bite, but not the tenth. It gets to a point where I'm eating on auto-pilot or, even worse, in some form of punishment: I'm such a pig that I might as well eat these cookies (crackers, whatever) and be fat and ugly and unhealthy.

When I'm in a state like that, repentance is the worst thing for getting me back in balance. If guilt worked, if bashing myself with all the should-haves worked, I never would have gotten fat in the first place. When I'm in that state, repentance just adds to my sense of failure and that overwhelming feeling that I'm not even worthy of being healthy and happy.

Return, on the other hand, can lift me out of my hole. It's positive and affirming. Look, I can say to myself, I've already been able to follow my goals well enough to lose almost 50 pounds since my highest weight. That's right. Fifty pounds. I can do this. I have been doing this. Return is possible, because it's taking me back to a place where I've already been before. I've been balanced and positive and I've done really well. Return is accomplishing, again and a little better, what I've already done in the past.

Repentance, at least for me, is more about looking at some "place" or state that I've thought I ought to be able to attain, because of course I think I should be able to meet the overwrought, underweight, uber-successful standards I see on t.v. and magazine, and then castigating myself for not attaining that model of perfection.

I don't mean to suggest that all moral and ethical decisions are on the same level as the decision of whether to eat a small piece of chocolate or the whole bar plus several crackers with peanut butter plus whatever else is even moderately edible.

Rather, my point is that we all falter and fumble, and whether it's about eating or how we treat our beloveds, whether we help strangers or pocket the twenty dollar bill we find in the public restroom, ethical questions big and small have the same kinds of aspects. We have an image in our head of who we want to be and a sane, soft-spoken voice that tells us when we are about to stray. We make decisions, big and small, that impact our ability to uphold our image of ourselves. And the more stress and chaos that fills our minds, the more difficult it is to hear that soft voice that knows what we're really about. And finally, no matter what we choose to do ~ and how many excuses we could muster about our bad decisions ~ we are the only ones ultimately responsible and accountable for our actions.

And what is so profoundly beautiful to me in the Jewish tradition is that our spiritual year is set up not just to remind us of the importance of tefilah, tzedekah and teshuvah, but also to allow us a fair amount of time so that we can contemplate deeply and begin the process of being accountable. We aren't expected to acknowledge our failings, apologize, make amends, and make a plan to move forward in just one day or two. The entire month of Elul, leading up to Rosh Hashanah, is spent preparing (for example to do as I did and evaluate my relationships and choices during the previous year as well as study Torah commentaries before going to synagogue so that I could be more fully present when I got there). Rosh Hashanah brings in the Days of Awe, ten days to reflect, make amends, and prepare ourselves to do that which we are called to do: have a moral, spiritually positive life, to work to end oppression, injustice and poverty, and to return, regardless of our faults and failings, to that vision of ourselves and our communities that are worth working for.

Rabbi Steifel said today, "The greatest heresy in Judaism is to believe that the world must be as the world is." We are called to be change agents, for ourselves, our communities, our world. The ethic of co-creation is key: our role on this earth is to work in partnership with G-d, to unleash the godsparks in each other and all living things and bring about the constant renewal and re-creation of the world.

I'll close with one of the meditations from the Rosh Hashanah service (from Gates of Repentance: the New Union Prayerbook for the Days of Awe, 1978):

Be among those who cherish truth above ease and whose prayers are shafts of light in the darkness that, otherwise, would envelop us. Be the same within and without. Aspire to be loving, compassionate, humane and hopeful. Become the prayer for goodness your lips have uttered.

*****

Photo credits: the pic up top is from the website MyJewishLearning.com, one of my favorite sites. They have just about everything you could hope to find on a site devoted to learning about Torah and Judaism, and they bring in commentary from many perspectives, traditional, conservative, reform and progressive.

Orphan goats, scorpions in bed and the best tomato soup ever

I've been thoroughly enjoying Cowgirl Cuisine: Rustic Recipes and Cowgirl Adventures from a Texas Ranch, by Paula Disbrowe (William Morrow, 2007), a lovely cookbook/memoir about her transition from New York food writer to Texas ranch chef. On the food side, she's taken Texas ranch staples like creamy pinto beans laden with lard and reworked them into healthier concoctions full of herbs, spices and vegetables. She also provides the recipe for the best tomato soup I've ever made or tasted (see below).

Just as entertaining, however, are the essays where Disbrowe recalls the animals, places, and insects she encountered after moving to Whistle Berry Ranch in the Nueces Canyon ~ and the learning curve inherent in the transition from New Yorker to Texan. Her essay about adopting orphan goats left me not only laughing but also wistful with the memories of kid goats and gentle nannies that we had when I grew up on a hobby farm in California. I used to love those silly creatures. Their antics, their affectionate natures (sometimes), and their energy. I still sometimes walk outside on a spring morning and think, "I wish we had a couple of goats."

There are several recipes in the collection that look wonderful, including many for game birds, venison, and antelope along with the expected beef and fish. The photography is both lush and personal: along with the requisite pics of sliced limes and plates of cheese-drenched chilis there are lots of portraits of Disbrowe, her husband, friends and their animal menagerie. But, aside from that astonishingly good tomato soup, it's the essays that are most memorable.

What I like about Disbrowe's writing is that she manages to be both self-deprecating and smart. Her tone is funny, warm and sincere, and reading her essays you can easily understand why she looks back with warmth and humor on the first calving at their little ranch ~ when she and her husband struggled to weigh 90-pound calves by holding them and standing on a bathroom scale (they didn't want to ask the local ranchers how to do everything). Of course they got wiser and learned to get a livestock scale, but she writes,

"part of me missed the earnest chaos of our earlier attempts. There was something pure and poignant in how little we knew and the logic we thought we could apply. And we got the job done after all."

My only complaint about the book is that Disbrowe should have found a better copy editor. It's always a shame to find typos in such a lovely book. That said, I still recommend Cowgirl Cuisine.

*****

Paula Disbrowe's Roasted Tomato Soup

For Roasted Tomatoes
3 pounds (about 20) plum tomatoes, halved
Olive oil
Kosher salt
Herbs de Provence, dried thyme, or basil

Soup
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 large leek, thinly sliced (about 1 cup)
1 large onion, chopped
1 large or 2 medium carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
Kosher salt
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 bay leaves, preferably fresh
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried thyme, basil or herbes de Provence)
Pinch of crushed red pepper (optional)
1/4 cup white wine (optional)
6 cups chicken stock or water
One 28-ounce can plum tomatoes in juice (preferably San Marzano)
1 dried chili (such as ancho, pasilla or New Mexico)
Freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 200 Degrees F.

2. The morning (or night) before serving, place the halved tomatoes, seed pockets facing up, on a baking sheet. You do not need to skin or seed the tomatoes. Squeeze the tomatoes lengthwise to open up the seed pockets. Drizzle the tomatoes with a small amount of olive oil (a few drops per tomato), then sprinkle with salt and the dried herb of your choice. Use your fingers to rub the seasonings evenly over the tomatoes.

3. Roast the tomatoes for 8 hours (or about 6 hours at 250 Degrees). The tomatoes will shrivel and concentrate but they should remain meaty and moist ~ not completely dry. They can be roasted up to 2 days in advance and stored in the refrigerator until you're ready to make the soup.

4. Heat the oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the leek, onion, carrots, celery and a pinch of salt and cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, bay leaves, thyme and red pepper and cook for 2 to 3 more minutes, until fragrant. Add the wine and scrape up any vegetables sticking to the bottom of the pot (they should not brown). Add the broth. Add the canned tomatoes with their juice, breaking them apart with your fingers or a wooden spoon. Add the dried chili and bring the soup to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

5. Add the roasted tomatoes (be sure to include any rich red tomato oil that has accumulated on the baking sheet) and simmer, partially covered, for 30 to 40 minutes. Remove the chili and bay leaves and cool the soup briefly. Transfer the soup to a blender, in batches if necessary, and puree until smooth.

6. Return te soup to the pot and season to taste with additional salt and freshly ground pepper. If the soup seems too thick, thin it with a little water or stock. Garnish as desired and serve.

*Note: As I wrote above, this is a wonderful soup. The flavor is rich and robust, while at the same time the freshness of tomatoes and vegetables shine through. However, as a general rule I am not a fan of pureed soup. I adjusted the recipe by chopping all the vegetables finely (including the canned tomatoes) and then using an immersion blender instead of pureeing. I left the soup just a little left of smooth, the result being a lively combination where each ingredient gets a bit of a chance to shine on its own. I garnished with a little freshly grated parmesan cheese and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Fresh croutons would be lovely as well. B

A week late but still funny

Sending out a little hope

I wrote a while ago about receiving a letter from Kodjo, the son of my best Togolese friend while I was in the Peace Corps. We've been e-mailing Kodjo regularly, and it's been great to re-form that connection after years of quiet. It has been heartbreaking as well, so much so that I hope you will forgive me as I step onto my soapbox.

Some of you may know, but most probably do not, that Togo has had a rough year. The economy is poor here, but it is devastatingly weak there. Prices for staples like rice and flour have soared as the US has redirected corn toward ethanol instead of food for people or animals. As if that weren't enough, Togo was hit with devastating floods in July, washing out bridges on the main highway, destroying homes and villages, and killing many people. This natural disaster has compounded the economic one because it has made travel and trade between the cities and outlying areas much more difficult.

The floods have brought a lot of misery to the region, but we've played our part as well. Just in case you are not clear on why we, US citizens, share at least some of the responsibility for the dire circumstances in places like Togo, here is a brief and basic synopsis.

The US has enormous power to force "Free Trade Agreements" on developing nations like Togo (the US / World Bank forgives and/or reconfigures national debt in return for signing on the dotted line). These trade agreements push developing nations away from growing enough of their staple food crops to be self-sustaining. Instead, Free Trade has meant that farmers in developing countries are encouraged to grow cash crops like coffee, cocoa and cotton, and to do so in such a way that many of the villagers are able to move to cities where they can make shoes, clothing and many of the things that allow Walmart to maintain its famously low prices. In return, developing countries import food crops such as corn and wheat that we grow in surplus. In the lovely land of theory, the benefit to this is that the local farmers will make money from the cash crops, more than enough to purchase the food they need, our corporate agri-business will have foreign markets for the food crops they grow across the midwest. Oh, and we'll be able to drive to the local mega-mart and buy "cheap plastic crap."

And we ~ you, me, our families and neighbors ~ are culpable because we elect people and then pay little attention to what they agree to in international trade agreements or the farm bill. And too many of us never wonder whether there are consequences beyond our own bank accounts and immediate self-interest.

Now, throw corn-based ethanol into the mix, and the fields that were full of food-grade corn or wheat or barley are being used for ethanol-grade corn. Corn that was going to feed cattle is also redirected, the prices pushed up prohibitively high, and so the feed lots and ranchers purchase barley and other grains. The domino effect ensues, and the prices for these other grains skyrockets right along with corn.

However, the income for the farmers growing cotton in Togo has not risen, and they are using all their means to cultivate cotton so that they don't have enough food crops to feed their families. Look further east, and it's the same, as the rice paddies in Vietnam have been turned into coffee plantations to bring us our cheap cup of Folgers, and so the developing nations find themselves in the horrific place of having too few people on too few acres of arable land growing food crops. Food prices soar and people go hungry.

I saw this happening first-hand when I was a Peace Corps volunteer. I was sent to Togo to educate and encourage farmers ~ who had been hand-tilling small family plots of yams, corn, tomatoes, other food crops ~ to begin using oxen to till larger parcels of land. And to grow cotton. What I discovered was a situation that often resulted in the farmers becoming something like indentured servants. The Togolese government provided the loans for the cattle and accompanying training, as well as the loans for the cotton seed. Then, the government also set the price for cotton. The end result was that the absolute only way that a farmer could dig himself out of the debt incurred from purchasing oxen was to grow virtually no food, use all available land for cotton, and to dump loads of chemicals into the soil to produce the largest yields possible.

Oh, and I must point out that, while DDT and similar pesticides are banned in the US, there is still a thriving market for them in places like Togo. And, contrary to their manufacturer's evident hypothesis, the side-effects aren't lessened just because it's a developing nation.

So, back to our friends, Kodjo and Adjo, and their mother Afoua...

Kodjo is a student at Lome University, Adjo is in high school (and high school in Togo costs almost as much as the university). The rising prices have left them without funds for school, and Afoua is without enough for food. She is also chronically ill. So we are helping them.

I don't know if it makes it better or only more sad that for a little over $400 we can send Kodjo and Adjo to school for a year and provide Afoua with enough money for food and medicine. The money is not insignificant to us, but it's brutally significant to them. We will have to make adjustments, but they get education and some health care.

I am glad that our current presidential candidates are talking a lot about the economy. However, while they argue about tax cuts and job cuts and the banking and mortgage crisis for us, it is my very dear wish that they'd also think and talk a little about our influence in far-off, tiny countries like Togo.

Homage to Brash Kate

I've been putting my book reviews on the side panel, and was happy with that until the other day when I couldn't remember the name of a book I'd read, and I knew that I'd written about it on my blog but ... oh... the shame... there are no tags and no record. What to do?

Umm. Put the reviews here and just links to the side, perhaps? Yes, that should do nicely.

How to Hepburn: Lessons on Living from Kate the Great by Karen Karbo. (c) 2007, Bloomsbury USA, Biography

This little book came across my desk a couple of months ago and I was immediately smitten. Yes, Bringing Up Baby is one of my top five favorite movies of all time, and I spent a lot of time in college watching and ruminating on films by those iconic divas Hepburn, Garbo and Dietrich.

This book is not written with a particularly deferential air, and I'd like to think that Kate would have liked that. It's also not a filmography, nor a tell-all about the great actress' private life. Instead, it is a lively recitation of those characteristics of Hepburn that made her a remarkable character, both off-screen and on.

Chapters include: The importance of being brash, How to stick to your knitting, and Making the most of a dysfunctional relationship. I think even those who don't know much about Kate or haven't seen many of her movies would still enjoy this light read.

The anecdotes are brilliant. My favorite so far: One day Kate wore jeans onto the movie set, a move so outrageous that the powers-that-be sent a production assistant to take Hepburn's jeans while she was in the dressing room so that she would be "shamed" into wearing a skirt. Instead, Kate "traipsed around in her underwear until the jeans were returned."

Her brashness was not always appreciated. No, not even often. She was at times hated because her strong, androgynous, opinionated attitude went completely against what was expected of women, and women's film roles, of the time. Critics attacked her because she never looked convincing when the script called for her character to swoon into love. Karbo writes,

Long before Gloria Steinem observed that on some level all women are female impersonators, Hepburn was unwittingly showing it to be true. Hepburn did have a limited range, and the limit was acting insipid and submissive opposite a leading man who couldn't hold a candle to her. To make matters worse, Hepburn also managed to convey that she had other fish to fry, and there's nothing more dangerous than a woman who can't be brought to her knees by love.

The allusion to Steinem notwithstanding, Hepburn was no feminist. Karbo refers to her as intransigently "nonanalytical," refusing to think deeply, or perhaps at all, about her impact on women's roles. She was prudish about sexuality on film and fiercely hostile to the notion of mothers working outside the home.

Karbo also points out an irony that I had learned years ago but forgotten: while women's roles in society have expanded, the roles on film have withered. Karbo lists the female roles for the top ten grossing films from the fall of 2006, a list that includes Bond girl, mothers, girlfriends, wives and ex-wives, assistants and a nanny. Not one is a leading role. However, in 1938 some of the greatest actresses of the time were starring in films, leading the plot as night-club dancer (Joan Crawford), office worker (Ginger Rogers) and more. The point is that, while expectations of gender-roles were limited (marriage is the ultimate role for a woman, love is the primary destination), the women were the headliners, not the pretty/pathetic/passive secondaries.

In spite of her brilliance, Katharine Hepburn nearly fell into obscurity. Karbo points out that the only reason Hepburn became famous was that she simply refused to give up. She kept breaking the mold until society caught up with her.

That's why I like Kate.

Love, Tacos and Universal Serendipity

Ah, what a blissful weekend we had. Saturday was our big Whoo-hoo We Did It fete, and we spent the day hanging out with lots of friends and family. Our first guests (not counting Donna and Mary, who came early to help out) arrived around 3:30 in the afternoon. The last guest left after midnight. (And Donna & Mary stayed for breakfast on Sunday.) What a blast. I can't say enough how much it means to me to be surrounded by these friends and family who bring their love, joy and blessings. When I feel bruised and alone, these people make my world right.

As I said, our wonderful friends Donna and Mary came early, bearing cake. A few weeks ago we were talking with them and Mary said she wanted to make our wedding cake. We said, "Whoo-hoo!" Mary makes great and gorgeous cakes. She asked us what kinds of cake we liked and so we answered that she couldn't go wrong with chocolate, carrot or spice cakes. And we said, "Surprise us." My goodness, but did she ever take us up on the challenge! We were gifted with the most gorgeous three-tiered cake, the bottom layer was carrot, the middle layer chocolate, and, of course, the topper was spice. Cream-cheese frosting on the top and bottom, sour cream/chocolate in the middle, and roses all around. It gave a whole new meaning to "yummy."

With so much love and congratulations flowing, the day passed in bliss. People came in shifts, with no planning on our part, so we were able to spend good time with everyone and really enjoy the company. Some people brought appetizers, so the table was spread with great food. We also had a big gallon-sized donation jar out for the No On Proposition 8 Campaign, and our friends filled it up with bills. We didn't quite meet Brad Pitt's $100,000 contribution, but we did alright.

We served a taco bar, and I picked tacos because it seemed like something that would be easy to prepare ahead, could be set out and reheated in shifts, and would appeal to lots of people. It was only when I started cooking the almost 7 pounds of roast on Friday that I realized that I'd also stumbled upon the most beautiful serendipity. The recipe, Spicy Oven-Stewed Beef, came from a cookbook of my mother's (perhaps the Chevy's restaurant cookbook ~ I'm not sure because I added it to my binder collection before I became disciplined about noting the source on my copies). I'd prepared it before and really enjoyed it. However, on Friday as I was re-reading the recipe before starting, I also read the anecdote on the sidebar. It describes how the authors developed the recipe for their beef tacos after a great day skiing with the family at Sugar Pine Point State Park in Lake Tahoe: the exact place where Gabi and I got married on July 19th.

Now, if that isn't the universe saying "Hurrah!," then I don't know what is!

Spicy Oven-Stewed Beef

2 1/2 pounds boneless beef chuck roast
2 tablespoons olive or peanut oil
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander seed
3 whole allspice berries
1/4 teaspoon whole peppercorns
1 pound tomatoes, preferably plum, coarsely chopped
2 medium onions, coarsely chopped
2 large garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano or 1/2 teaspoon dried
1 tablespoon achiote paste or 2 teaspoons pure chili powder plus 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup dry red wine
2 cups water
18 corn or 12 flour tortillas, warmed or crisped just before serving

TOPPINGS
1 large onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh oregano leaves or 1 tablespoon dried
2 limes cut into 6 to 9 wedges each

1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Cut the chuck roast into pieces, about 3/4 inch thick by 1/2 inch long, trimming away any excess fat as you go.

3. Heat the oil in a large nonreactive stew pot over medium-high heat. Add as much meat as will fit in one uncrowded layer and cook until browned, about 4 minutes. Transfer to a bowl. Continue with another round until all the meat is browned.

4. While the meat browns, place the coriander, allspice, and peppercorns on a paper towel. Fold the towel over the spices and crush them with a mallet or hammer.

5. Return all the meat to the pot and add the crushed spices, tomatoes, chopped onions, garlic, oregano, achiote paste, salt, wine and water. Bring to a boil. Cover and place in oven. Cook until meat is tender, 1 1/4 hours. (This stew can also be cooked on top of the stove, covered, over medium heat. The timing is the same.)

6. To assemble, place about 1/3 cup of the stew filling in the center of a tortilla. Top with some finely chopped onion and a sprinkle of oregano. Squeeze a lime wedge over all. Fold and serve.

* When I made this for our fete I left the beef in somewhat larger chunks, cooked it a little longer than the recipe called for, and then shredded the beef after. The flavor is marvelous, and the filling makes great enchiladas as well. B.

Silly, pretty things

According to the weather forecasters, the Seattle-like drizzle that's settled in with a chilly fwump is actually the weakened remnant of Hurricane Ike. Go figure. I'll take the drizzle.

I welcomed the change in weather with a bit of beading creativity, playing with colors and thread last night until I was nearly too tired to brush my teeth before bed. But oh, what fun. Now, the even more entertaining part: wear these new pretty things a few times to test the design and make sure it will wear well for whomever I decide to gift it to.

Anyway, it was entertaining enough for me that I thought I'd share.




This pretty one is made with five strands of stone chips strung on cotton thread. It's easy but fairly putzy when you add up all the knots between stones.



My first foray into memory wire: a cute little choker with glass beads and silver charms.



I had some memory wire left over so made a simple bracelet with glass and stone beads and a magnetic clasp. This one is a true experiment since it's made with leftover necklace-sized wire instead of bracelet-sized wire.

Update: this little experiment ran badly awry. I'll have to break it apart and reuse the beads, and just throw out the left-over wire. Unless someone knows of a way to reuse this little slip of memory wire?

This last one uses a single circle stone that I found at one of my favorite bead stores in Duluth, plus two stones, on leather cord. I've made a few with a similar bead design, but I'm experimenting on this one with an adjustable cord length. Two slip knots should allow the wearer to adjust the length to suit different styles of clothing.

More Fact Checking

I love those folks at FactCheck.org. They've recently offered some analysis of the e-mails and such regarding Sarah Palin. I'm happy to hear that, according to FactCheck, Palin did not attempt to ban books at the Wasilla Library:

One accusation claims then-Mayor Palin threatened to fire Wasilla’s librarian for refusing to ban books from the town library. Some versions of the rumor come complete with a list of the books that Palin allegedly attempted to ban. Actually, Palin never asked that books be banned; no books were actually banned; and many of the books on the list that Palin supposedly wanted to censor weren't even in print at the time, proving that the list is a fabrication. The librarian was fired, but was told only that Palin felt she didn’t support her. She was re-hired the next day. The librarian never claimed that Palin threatened outright to fire her for refusing to ban books.

See the full article, with info on Special Needs funding, Creationism, and the Alaska secessionist movement here.

Royalton Library Centennial

The Royalton Library held its centennial celebration today. The ladies from the Royalton Woman's Study Club, the group that founded the library, held an open house with a historical display and refreshments. It was great fun to hang out and chat with everyone. I spent some time looking through the old ledgers and such. There were a couple of ledgers that listed all the books owned by the library and who had donated them.

I also discovered the notebook kept by the secretary of the Royalton Library Association, begun in April 1912. I found the Rules and Regulations passed for the library, and had to share.

Rules and Regulations of the Royalton Library Association

I. Adults living in the city or village of Royalton... are entitled to draw books by filling out application blanks. Children under the age of sixteen (16) must obtain the signature of parent or guardian.

II. Each person entitled to draw books from the library will be given a card, which must be presented whenever a book is taken, returned or renewed. If the card is lost, a new one will be given, after seven (7) days notice or upon payment of five cents.

III. One book at a time may be drawn on a card. Two volumes of the same work are considered as one book.

IV. Books may be kept for two weeks, and once renewed for the same time. Books marked "Seven Day Book" may be kept for that time only, but may be renewed once only for the same time.

V. A fine of one cent a day will be imposed for the books kept over time.

VI. A temporary resident may obtain a borrower's card by filling out an application blank and obtaining the signature of a resident-free holder, or by a temporary deposit, equal to the value of the book.

I found an inflation adjuster online and figured out that the five cents it cost in 1912 to replace a card would be $1.06. And we charge $1. Similarly, that 1 cent fine for overdues would be 21 cents today... and we charge 20 cents for adult items (10 cents for juvenile, and $1 for all videos). I think it is pretty amazing that these charges have remained relatively the same for a hundred years!

One more bit from the same document of 1912:

A motion was made and seconded that... all books, manuscripts and papers detrimental to the good morals and public order shall be barried from the library. Carried.

Personally, I much prefer the sentiment of Jo Godwin: A truly great library contains something in it to offend everyone.

Summer and Sauce

My favorite things about this recipe:

The satisfied feeling that summer is drawing to a close and we’re heading into another glorious Minnesota fall. It means we’ve moved past the lovely, hot-weather standards of fresh tomato, mozzarella and basil salads, and that it’s cool enough outside that I look forward to using the stove and the oven and filling the house with both warmth and the deep, rich smells of slow-cooked sauce.

The fragrance of garden-ripe tomatoes blanched in boiling water.

Standing across the butcher block from Gabi, both of us skinning and seeding tomatoes, and instead of talking we each focus on the ripe, fragrant fruits in our hands and softly sing along to love songs playing on the stereo.

The buzz of a dozen bees plundering the garlic chives while I harvest basil, oregano and Italian parsley from the herb bed.

The way it evolves, over the better part of a day, from a light, fresh-smelling mixture into a sauce that is dense, rich and glistening, the flavor intensifying until it feels like a soul-warming indulgence. Then, with the final addition of the basil puree, the feeling of summer comes back full force: light, bright and fresh.

My most favorite thing: the look of satisfied bliss on the faces of my guests and my lovely Gabi when they tuck into a plate of pasta graced with this fabulous sauce.

My recipe is based on “Nach Waxman’s Simple Fresh Tomato Sauce,” from the New York Cookbook by Molly O’Neill, © 1992. My mom gave me the cookbook in 1994, and it’s still one of my favorites.

The Last Summer Fling Tomato Sauce

Red Sauce

5 pounds Brandywine or other beefsteak-type tomatoes, as ripe as possible
1 ½ pounds fresh, ripe plum tomatoes
¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup grated carrot
2 large onions, coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 teaspoons dry red wine
½ teaspoon brown sugar
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Salt, to taste

Herb Bundle

1 sprig fresh oregano
2-3 stems fresh basil
2 sprigs fresh Italian parsley
2-3 celery leaf sprigs
1 dried red chili

Basil Puree

2 cups loosely packed fresh basil leaves
¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup water
⅓ cup pine nuts
¼ tsp. kosher salt

1. Make the Red sauce. Bring a large pot of water to boil and dip the tomatoes for a few seconds. Remove the tomatoes and place in a colander to cool slightly. Peel and discard their skins and remove the seeds, saving as much juice as possible. Coarsely chop the tomatoes and add to the juice.

2. In a large Dutch oven, warm ¼ cup of the olive oil over medium heat. Add the carrots, onion and garlic and sauté until the onions are translucent, 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes with their juice and the tomato paste and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, partially cover the pot, and simmer for 2 hours, stirring every 15 minutes. At each stirring, drizzle in 1 tablespoon olive oil.

3. Preheat the oven to 350 Degrees F.

4. Make the herb bundle: Place the ingredients for the herb bundle toward the center of a large piece of cheesecloth (approx 18”x24”). Roll short-ways, securely but not too tightly. Twist the ends of the tube and bring them together to tie in the center, securing the herbs and pepper inside the cloth.

5. After the sauce has cooked for 2 hours, stir in the brown sugar, red wine and pepper. Add the herb bundle in the center of the pot, making sure it is covered with sauce. Transfer the pot to the oven. Cover and cook until the sauce is dense and thick, 1 to 1 ½ hours.

6. Make the basil puree: Bring some water to a boil (you can use the left-over tomato water, if you’d like). Place basil in a colander and rinse with boiling water. Drain well. In a blender, combine all basil puree ingredients. Purée at medium speed until smooth. Set aside.

7. Once the sauce has finished cooking in the oven, remove the herb bundle to a small bowl and let cool. Check the sauce for salt and add as needed. When the herb bundle is cool enough to handle, squeeze out any excess liquid back into the sauce. Throw herb bundle away.

8. Serve sauce with whole grain pasta or polenta. Top each serving with some of the basil purée and freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Fact check please

Last night I tuned into the Republican National Convention in order to listen to Sarah Palin's speech. I have to say that I was underwhelmed. I tuned in because I wanted to learn more about this relatively unknown woman, and after almost an hour of brilliantly staged speechifying I came away thinking that I still knew precious little about her.

However, before Palin took the stage Rudy Giuliani spent a good amount of rhetorical energy whipping up the crowd, and he left me stunned when he railed against liberals who would dare to challenge whether Palin would be able to uphold her VP duties while being a good mother to her children. I thought, "Wow, he's right, that's a stupid thing for someone to say."

So today, I put on my reference-librarian hat and decided to find out which bloody idiot said this. Problem is, I can't find where it happened. At least, I can't find where any liberal said it.

I did, however, find the following quote, thanks to Commondreams.org and an article from Salon.com by Glenn Greenwald.

I’m stunned - couldn’t the Republican Party find one competent female with adult children to run for Vice President with McCain? ... But really, what kind of role model is a woman whose fifth child was recently born with a serious issue, Down Syndrome, and then goes back to the job of Governor within days of the birth?

I am haunted by the family pictures of the Palins during political photo-ops, showing the eldest daughter, now pregnant with her own child, cuddling the family’s newborn. When Mom and Dad both work full-time (no matter how many folks get involved with the children), it becomes a somewhat chaotic situation. Certainly, if a child becomes ill and is rushed to the hospital, and you’re on the hotline with both Israel and Iran as nuclear tempers are flaring, where’s your attention going to be? Where should your attention be? Well, once you put your hand on the Bible and make that oath, your attention has to be with the government of the United States of America.

And, guess who wrote this? Some liberal pundit? Some university-funded uber-feminist? Nope, this comes directly from the blog of Dr. Laura, that icon of right-wing radio and the "family values" set.

Mr Giuliani: Shame on you.

*****

And, for more fun, read the full article by Greenwald for a report on Palin's attempted firing of the Wasilla library director after the librarian refused to remove books that Palin found objectionable. Palin did fire the Wasilla police chief and possibly others as part of a "loyalty test" for her newly elected mayoral administration.

I lost count of how many times Palin, in her speech last night, referred to a McCain administration as one that would bring about positive change in Washington (so much so that she sounded like an opposition candidate -- isn't that wierd?). But when I read this article, my initial thought was that we've had enough Justice Department firings for this decade. I'm sick of having politicians abuse their power once in office by firing people over questions of "loyalty" instead of competency.