Advice From A Friend

Michael at Rakestraw Books in Danville has the best sayings.  I made him write this one down.  

Words to live by.  Words to remember.  And speaking of words, get a copy of The Day The Crayons Quit, and of This Book Has No Pictures.  From Michael, please - if you don't shop at the local stores, pretty soon there won't be any local stores.   

Poetry

At a most warm and wonderful garden wedding this weekend (yes it rained Saturday - but not on this wedding!) the bride read a poem to her mother.  Funny, touching, grab-you-in-the-gut wonderful.  Here it is. By Billy Collins.  Now go dig out some old poetry and read it.  With our short attention spans, video games and digital bombardment, we don't read enough poetry.  Think of it as printed yoga.

Or better yet, go to a poetry slam!  I've only ever heard them on the radio, but it's not your grandmother's poetry, and it's on my bucket list.  And mommy, I'm sorry I never made you a lanyard.  But I did make you a lot of weirdly colored ash trays...

The Lanyard - Billy Collins

The other day I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room,
moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.

No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one into the past more suddenly—
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid long thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.

I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.

She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sick room,
lifted spoons of medicine to my lips,
laid cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy light

and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.

Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift—not the worn truth

that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-tone lanyard from my hand,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.

Included in  The Trouble with Poetry. Purchase from your local bookstore.  Like Rakestraw in Danville

Friday

Have you ever felt this way?

It's Friday.  In your life.  No one's going to do it for you, you're in charge.  Enough with the emails, get yourself down to your local independent bookstore (like Rakestraw) and buy yourself something.

And a final thought for those of you who are saying "I don't have time, I don't read fiction, I don't have time to read anything"...

Wish I'd said that...

He’s deeply shallow, Michael said as he steered me past the fiction table toward the back of the store.  I had to laugh - words are his business (he owns Rakestraw Books) and my passion and delight (I am a published author and noted big mouth), and that phrase is especially delicious.  And it got me thinking about other clever turns of phrase.  

How many times have you thought of just the right comeback...the day after the event?  Or thought of the perfect comeback and held your tongue, only to wish later you’d let it rip?  Of course there is always the famous “She needs a speed-bump installed between her mouth and her brain.” We all know people like that. You need to say the serious stuff with care and respect.  But for those other moments, and there are so many of those other moments, here are some inspirations:

Groucho Marx said "I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it." Go Groucho.

Forrest Tucker: "He loves nature in spite of what it did to him." I bet you've dated this guy.

Oscar Wilde: "Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go." And yet somehow they linger and linger...

And for that argumentative yet clueless person: "He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts... for support rather than illumination." Andrew Lang 

When Eric was visiting a few weeks ago he read us our horoscopes in the morning, and we decided to do horror-scopes and mis-fortune cookies.  Now remember this is all in fun, and try not to get your panties in a bunch. 

1. You are the conversational equivalent of spam. 

2. Work on your social skills - or is it is possible to work on something you don’t have?

3. Your cat is cheating on you.

4. That shirt? with those pants? Is your taste really all in your mouth? 

5. They lied. It is you.

6. I love what you’re trying to do with your hair.

7. Focus your energies on becoming a more positive person - even your therapist is sick of listening to you whine.

8. Your search for old friends and long lost loves isn’t going to work out - they’re all busy changing their email and Facebook accounts to avoid you.

9. If you’ve changed your Facebook status more than three times, your real status is unstable.

And just in case we still need a reminder:

10. Being on Facebook is not a real life.  

Truffles!

Patricia Wells came to Rakestraw Books for a truffle lunch with her latest cookbook and it was wonderful.

It's a great read. I have it by my bedside, and I keep sneaking out to the kitchen for a snack.

Patricia Wells is elegant, adorable, unflappable, and full of funny stories, and we had the most incredible truffle lunch - truffled scrambled eggs, truffled proscioto-wrapped scallops, chocolate truffles - but everyone's favorite, hands-down was the truffled grilled cheese sandwich. With Epoisses cheese and truffle butter. Recipe below.

Truffled Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

About 8 ounces of fresh specialty mushrooms (Michael used brown crimini and chanterelles; you may use what ever you like)

1 white onion, diced

about 2 to 3 tablespoons neutral oil - grapeseed or a mild olive oil

1 round of Epoisses cheese (it comes in a cute little wooden box)

black truffle butter - my local grocery sells this in 3 ounce packages

2 slices brioche for each sandwich (and you will want more than one)

truffle salt - make your own from Patricia Wells' recipe

Sautee the onion and mushrooms in a large skillet over medium-low heat until the mushrooms are soft - first they will give off a lot of water, then as you continue to cook them the water will evaporate and the mushrooms and onion will become soft. Do not brown.

Remove mushrooms from heat and stir in about 2 tablespoons truffle butter.

For each sandwich you will need two slices of brioche. Spread some truffle butter on one side of one slice of brioche.  Spread a layer of Epoisses on one side of the other slice of brioche. Put about a 1/4 inch layer of mushrooms on top of the Epoisses, sprinkle with a little truffle salt, then close the sandwich by putting the buttered slice of brioche on top of the mushroom-topped slice, butter side down.

Place in a panini grill (or a non-stick skillet) and grill or toast until the bread is golden - flip the sandwiches (carefully!) and toast the other side. When golden on both sides remove to a bread board, slice in half, and dig in. 

I think these would be fabulous cocktail-party fare with the best champagne you can afford. Altho I bet they're great with beer too...

Note: I love arugula in my sandwiches, even grilled, so I'm gonna try adding arugula. I'm also thinking of trying this with shallots instead of onion...I'm on a shallot kick. And any leftover mushroom mixture can be used in an omelette, or used to stuff a pork roast, or I'm sure a million other things.

Get the book - all the recipes can be made with mushrooms instead of truffles, and she has resources for where to get truffles (in case you live in a truffle-deprived zone). 

Now if you will excuse me, I'm off to the  kitchen for a snack. Maybe a little truffle butter on some toast?

Green Knowe, or a gloomy day

Have you read the Treasure of Green Knowe? It's a children's book, surreal and weird and of its time (that's a nice way to say it's dated) and today my garden looks like the picture of Green Knowe I have in my head from my long-ago childhood. 

I have great respect for this hoary old oak. A town arborist says it's one of the oldest trees he's seen, and it is so huge three of us clasping hands cannot span it. But it is stern, foreboding, not friendly. I've spent a lot more time near it at night (new dog). It's a bit creepy. Just like Green Knowe.

I have been re-reading some of the books I loved as a child. And some I have discovered as an adult. 

Have you read The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy? I first read it when I was at Green Valley Elementary a hundred years ago, and it's one of the reasons I love the wild birds. 

Have you read Al Capone Does My Shirts? Al Capone Shines My Shoes? Is there a web site called Have You Read? Should be...what have you read recently?

Oh oh oh. My mom just gave me back my old hardback copy of Five Quarters of the Orange. One of the  best books I've ever read. Get it! Go to Rakestraw Books and ask Michael for a copy.

What are you reading? What do you remember fondly from childhood? (books, you silly person, not sleeping in and Christmas morning. Everyone loved that.)