Saturday, November 29, 2003
UNEXECTED ELIMINATIONS
The moment I first heard of President George W. Bush's quick trip to Baghdad to have Thanksgiving Day dinner with troops stationed there, I wondered what the reaction would be from Democrats running for that office.
And on the day after the visit, just fifty days or so before the first winnowing promised in Iowa's primary election, the comments on the trip by the nine aspirants for the office should have sealed the fate of several them.
The final tabulations, of course, are not in, as yet, but it appears that at least two of the vying candidates took the path of common sense and agreed with the President tat such a trip was a good and proper good and proper action for this time. They saw it as a booster shot for troop morale and a reminder to folks at home that the war continues. There may have been other in the group who joined in this sentiment. As I said, I have not yet seen a finished tabulation of their expressed views
.
Others, and I shall leave them nameless for various reasons, held fast to their critical stance and took the occasion to reiterate their prattle about “Bush's“completely failed foreign policy”. They are apparently unaware of the possibility that some previously firm adherents may not see eye-to-eye on such an unsportsmanlike, ungentlemanly attitude. They spoke harshly of the presidential visit and went through their tiresome litany of “stop the war and bring our boys and girls home.” Certainly there must be some voters in Iowa and other areas, who will have some second thoughts concerning such self-centered statements by individuals they may have supported previously thinking them to be decent, fair-minded individual worthy of our highest office.
It would seem logical that anyone aspiring to take over the Oval Office would want people to respect his judgment in matters which affect al of us beyond party limitations. It has been a firm tradition that all segments of our society that we bind together, in times of adversity, as a unified, strong and dedicated unit to protect our common holdings and to better our place among the nations of Earth.
A.L.M November 29 ,2003 [c378wds]
Friday, November 28, 2003
THE BIG FLY BY
When summer ends and the first hints of Fall become evident in sudden chills and cooler night, the birds seem to get the message and we can see them gathering in small flocks. The congregate along the fringe of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the east of our home here in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia
If you watch carefully, especially in the evening hours, you can see sudden flickering of gray-black, crackled-paint patches against contrasting background or the sky; small flocks of birds gathering as local covens and and preparing for a massive movement south before the cold winds.
You see the small patches enlarging daily to become pulsing clouds after a few evenings. They fly about nervously in the evening seeking new adherents for the planned trip across the mountains to the east and south. They find a place, it seems, to settle in for the night and wait for the exact moment of departure.
I have often wondered how it is that the smaller groups become aware of a large flocks of bird which appear a few moments later from the western skies along the Appalachian Range. The local flocks are selective, it seems. They seem to know which southbound flocks they are to join. You will see them in the air circling meaninglessly before the long string of thousands of birds darkens a strip in the sky as a steadily moving caravan will be as much as a mile wide as it passes over us, irregularly shaped like a huge drifting cloud churning ahead. The parade seems endless. It may falter and become narrow somewhat at times, but it doesn't seem to have an end and it may continue for many miles. Thousands of fluttering creatures will be digging at the sky ahead of them and local groups will fly in an join them.
Just where so many birds come from has been a mystery with us for many year. We wonder, too, where they are going and if there will be food sufficient to feed them all – bugs, flyings insects, weed seeds, and other bird rations when they get wherever it is they are going. When we think it through we realize that they must reverse the process by which small group joined the larger one. Small groups will drop out of the large formations from time to time as they reach the spot they think is right for them, maybe the extant spot they had wintered the previous year. There is method in their meanderings, you can be sure even though we do not comprehend the exact nature of such subtle steps of survival.
We do not always realize that some will not make it. Some will die on the way. Other will meet with forces of destruction while in their southern home, and some will not be in shape to enough face the rigor oft the trip back to the north lands. The flock is changing constantly. The beat; the basic rhythm of it all, the fundamental meaning of banding together at times goes on.
Observe the birds and reflect on what tell us.
A.L.M. November 27, 2003 [c535wds]
Thursday, November 27, 2003
NO WAY
It seems a great many people find comfort and encouragement in reading about several method being considered which might be used to bring about a measure of containment pf some of the excess traffic which now complicates travel and the movement of commerce on Interstate 81.
Two such plans have been set forth repeatedly bit neither plan seems to have gathered enough support to outshine the other. Both are temporary “Band Aid” treatments to be applied to some deep-rooted evils which will continue to fester and which will become dominant again in short order.
Both plans suggested rest on the concept of simply widening the road by additional lane which, it is thought will be limited to truck use. I traveled section up the Valley to Roanoke last Monday, and it is obvious that even average truck traffic can be profitably moved on a single lane even if it is all their own. Monday is considered to be a "light" traffic day in I-81 but , even then it is obvious a single truck lane would be a joke. Another point is that of making I-81 a toll highway. Truckers dislike that feature as do the rest of us. The higher rates charged for truck use will prove to be a book-a-rang the builders will regret having suggested. Before too long, if present disagreement is allowed to fester, I think we will see a day on which trucker will unite in a massive demonstration to protest toll charges. One such day do it, too. The argument has been set forth that they don't want to pay the suggested toll they can travel by other routes. If, on one day, truckers would schedule all north and south runs for that one day only for Route 11, the resulting congestion for that highway and the towns all along the way. Let's hope it does not come to such a ";day of demonstration" because, even as just a one time thing, it could prove to be dangerous and costly for many.
I still maintain that solution to the I-81 overuse problem can best be solved, for a decade or two, just as was done before. The construction of I-81 helped lower volume of traffic on I-95 and a new north-south interstate highway from the Raleigh-Durham area through the Lynchburg and Charlottesville areas staying on the east side of the Blue Ridge into Maryland, would be a far more, efficient and sensible way of north-south access routes which are so essential.
Such a plan was suggested a year or more ago, and ignored.
Isn't it time to take another look at it?
A.L.M., November 26, 2003 [c488wds]
Wednesday, November 26, 2003
NUTTY NOTIONS
If you have any idea of trying to make use of the common acorn as a food item, the first thing you had best do is to learn the differences between and Red Oak and a White Oak tree. You have to know that because the nuts grown on a Red Oak are bitter and those grown on the White Oak are, well, not quite so bitter.
That bitterness is native to both because of the tannins contained therein, and, in order to prepare them as food for humans, that bitterness can be removed. There are several ways of doing that, The American Indians devised a system whereby the nuts were gathered and held for an extended under the waters of a rapidly flowing stream. That leeched the tannins out and carried them downstream. Dried, either at the fireside or in the sunlight and air, the nuts were ready for use as a food.
As non-Indians, we have our own way of doing the job.
Gather up many more nuts than you think you might need or want because, regardless of when you start gathering om the fall, you will find that infesting insects and the nibbling creatures of various kinds have beat you to it. Select the firm, sound, solid ones and get busy shelling them.
You have now arrived at "Crisis Area Uno" - the first point at which potential acorn acolytes so often decide to seek other forms of amusement. Shelling acorns and capping them calls for gloves, a sharp knife which is used to slit the side before the shell is peel back and off. The “cap” is also removed a this time.
Once removed from their shells and skins peeled away as best one can, the process of leeching begins by a series of boilings. You have, no doubt, head the cook's maxim about cleaning greens properly “putting them through seven waters”. That's what you will be doing with the acorns, putting them through seven or more boiling water baths until the tannic acid is gone and bitterness quelled. Depending on the source of heat you have, of course, each boiling takes about fifteen minutes. You keep doing it as long as the water turns brown. You do it until the water stays clear for a good, long, final boiling.
The boiled acorn can be split in two and then roasted in a 200-degree oven with the door open just a bit to allow moisture to escape. Or, I am told, you can dry them in sunlight.
You are now ready to try them. They can be eaten as roasted nuts, cut up in greens or finely chopped to be added to breads and muffins. To make flour, which is the usual use for them, either pounded them in a cloth bag or use a blender. Add a touch of salt and sweetener to enhance the taste. Use acorn flour as an additive to regular flour or conn meal, in the ratio which you find meets your taste preferences.
We have now arrived at "Quit Point Dos"- where I stand a the moment myself. We still have to learn how to tell a White Oak from a Red one.
Hit that tree book.
A..L.M. November 26, 2003. [c552wds]
Tuesday, November 25, 2003
GRAPEFRUIT, ANYONE?
Why do we call it “grapefruit” when it does not, in the least, resemble a grape?
That's where we are technically in error because the young fruit, appears on the twig of the tree, in clusters and new fruit does look very much like a small bunch of grapes. It was well into the 19th century when the name grapefruit was first applied. Previusly it had been called "shaddock", and for a time we find references to "little shaddocks" because, large as they are compared topother citrus fruits, the shaddock - thought to have been a native of Malaysia – was even larger than today's grapefruit.
It was grown primarily as an ornamental tree. Although it was edible, the shaddock had a thicker rind and less pulp than today's version of the fruit. It was actually "dicovered" in the Barbados area in the 1750's by Europeans who decided it had proably developed from a crossing of the pommelo and a sweet orange found in the area. The new fruit resembled the pommelo morso than t did the orange. In 1830, in an attempt to separate the two, the new fruit was named "citrus paradisi". Their true origin was not discovered until the 1950's when the official name was modified to include a qualifying "X" designation as well – "citrus X paradisi".
Several varities were developed in both white and red pulp types. The U.S. Ruby Red, of the Redblush variety, was patented in 1929. Cultivaion proved to be good in many sites world-wide and in varied soil conditions and Texas and Florida quickly b ezcame major production areas, and, to some extent, due to the populaity of a "grapefruit diet" to assure weigh reduction, grapefruit became a major item at food markets. In New York City, grapefruit sales were exceeded only by potatoes, lettuce, oranges and apples.
We think of grapefruit as a breakfast food, as a rule, when one is sliced in half and eaten from "the half-shell". Sweeter varities don't need it, but others urge a sprinkle of brown sugar, white suger, cinnamon and other spices. Pulp section are usually cut away from the fibers diciding them but other breakfasters prefer to do it themslves. The grapefruit halves can be served chilled or mildly broiled as a hot meal item.
There are scores of other ways in which grapefruit is used. The Aussies, down under, make jams an maralades with them; the makers of your favorite sofa drinks often use seed-oil to tune up flavor; and it is used in reconstituted jiuices to enchance the flavor as well. Grapefruit is also converted into molasses and added to livestock feeds.
If you have ever worked on a farm you know of least two places where grapefruit is not welcomed. One, I found out many years ago, is any poultry feeding area and the other is the pig sty. Chickens will peck once or twice in an investigative fashion, and pigs will toss any grapefruit rinds aside uneaten as containing a toxic substance.
No one said grapefruit was perfect.
A.L.M. November 24, 2003 [c522wds]
Monday, November 24, 2003
AW, COME ON, SMILE!
Think about it. The best part of your day is when you see someone smile.
A simple thing to do, it would seem. It happens more or less naturally but the human mind can forbid it to evolve. It's never seemed important enough for anyone to write books about it but but the mechanism if a smile -pert, sassy, insistent, and glowing – might be something worth such a study.
A smile can be a momentary thing of little immediate consequence or it can be a continuing affirmation good will, understanding and confidence . It is seen in lines of the face, in alignment of certain muscles and in the eyes even more so, perhaps. It is not associated simply with parting of the lips to show white teeth. That's the artificial smile you see so often when people try to smile for the camera. It is usually solicited by having the subjects say the words “cheese” or “money”. It doesn't work well because that is a smile achieved with the lips and without the support of the eyes.
Some people tend to have natural, face-forward show of dentures while others will have a crooked smile with one side down a bit than the the other. Both are acceptable, of course, since no one seems to have defined exactly what a smile should, or might, be. There are “wry” smiles telling the speaker that you know better than to believe what you are saying is true. Smiles can transmit all sorts of subtle messages, both cheerful and encouraging as well as damaging, curt and meant to hurt.
In a way, we might conclude that a smile is a secret the soul seeks to retain. That revealing spark of changes to be occurs first in the eye as an initial hint of what is about to take place in the face. A tiny uplift of the corners of the lips is start of the action.
To smile is to relax. Think of that when you become tired or simply frustrated with haste and complexities of your daily work schedule. Someone, long ago, decided that it took far more muscles of the face to execute a frown that it did to smile, so relax by taking the easy way out of being spent, useless and overburdened.
C'mon – smile!
A.L.M. November 23, 2003 [c379wds]
Sunday, November 23, 2003
QUIZ TIME
We should, from time to time, ask ourselves some questions.
Many such inquiries, honestly asked and honestly answered, can help us find out what might be causing troublesome family relationships, social affairs and even our good health and well-being.
Right now, perhaps, we should be be doing just that as a nation. No nation made up of such varied groups as ours is, can ever be totally at one in most things. There are sure to be differences. Some may seem to be serious and some will appear to be silly, but they do, and will, exist. Questions put to the right people at the right time can be calming as oil can be on troubled waters.
We watch TV shows which present a host of questions which lead to what we might call a worthy goal - such as prizes up to, and including a million dollars or more.
Among the many questions we might well be asking ourselves, would be one which asks if we truly understand and appreciate the form of government under which we live. So many – far too many – people, it seems, are unaware of the values of our form of government. Unfortunately they often openly deride it . We need to remind ourselves, through questions about our national history concerning how it all came to be what it is ... a fantastic mechanism which has brought together, sustained and caused to prosper and to unify in many way one of the most polyglot collections of varied peoples the world has ever known.
We should remind ourselves of the need for personal and corporate integrity. We must question the standards by which live and realize that some our larger problems may not be as dangerous as some other, smaller evils; of ways and means to show how compassion and understanding might best be expressed. We might ask some questions about the proper ways an means of earning a good living in the real world. We might ask about how we can help resolve social, health and economic problems - not only ours, but of others as well.
Often, when you are with someone watching contestants answer Alex Trebec's reversed questions and answers on “Jeopardy” you may feel inadequate; you may judge your abilities too severely. You may be smarter than you think. You judge yourself on all of the proper replies, but , in order to win, you would need to know only one-third of the answers.
It can be the a quiz about our nation. You don't have to know all the answers, just one-third of them. The worth of it all depends on which ones you know rather than on how many.
A.L.M. November 21, 2003 [c457wds]
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