Saturday, November 28, 2009

Thanksgiving Days!

Thanksgiving brought in relatives from out of town again this year. That always means lots of Scrabble and a movie at a theater before they leave. Our family hostess arranged for 2 Scrabble games to accommodate 8 players after the turkey. I felt that my overloaded stomach was draining all the energy from my brain, so I had to walk around the block in order to clear my head for the game - which would require all my skill to look respectable against the 5 most ruthless players.

Each game was interesting, and each ended within minutes of the other, thank goodness. A certain college junior had almost back-to-back bingos in his game, yet barely won it in the face of fierce competition.

In my game, I sacrificed 2 turns to unsuccessful word challenges. The competition had unfairly memorized weird 2-letter words that I just couldn't believe would stand up. I was wrong both times. The brother of the 2-bingo winner went out with a bingo of his own and collected enough points from the other players to win our game and had enough points to be crowned grand champeen. The out-of-town relatives now have supreme bragging rights. Rats!

The Music Box Theatre was having a Sing-Along Sound of Music the next night, and all the ladies voted for it. (The guys said it was too "wimminy" for them, so they went to bars.) The high school senior allowed as how she had never seen SOM before - incredible! And she loved it.

As we filed in, someone was playing the old theater's big pipe organ as a prelude to the show. I noticed a big and lively crowd of all ages and degrees of hipness. The MC began by having everyone go through their individual props bag to learn how to use the stuff: cards with question marks, pictures of Maria, the word "flibbertygibbet," a ghost (will-o'-the-wisp); a small square of fabric, a very small fake edelweiss flower, an invitation to a ball, a "popper" (as in New Year's Eve accessory).

Anyone who had come in costume as one of the characters in the movie then was asked to come up on the stage so the audience could vote with their applause for the top 3. A "Maria," a "Sixteen Going on Seventeen," and a "Baroness" were the winners, but I really wanted a guy who was wearing a red and black lumberjack shirt to win. He said that he came as the lumberjack who got cut from the final version of the movie, which I thought was a good enough reason to win - ha ha!

After we were instructed to boo for the Nazis, hiss for the Baroness, bark for Rolf (the love-interest of "Sixteen Going on Seventeen"), and aawwww for Gretel, the movie began. Everyone cheered loudly when Maria appeared on the Alpine plain and whenever she made another big entrance. Lots of boos and hisses for the bad guys and gals. It made me think that this is what it must have been like to go to the theater in the old days in England when the audience made no secret of their reactions to a play. Lots more fun!

The words to all the songs (including the Latin verses for the nuns' choir in the beginning) appeared on the screen so everyone could sing with the actors. It was funny to hear kids down in front singing loudly and a little off-key! The biggest songs, as far as audience volume level, were "Climb Every Mountain," where everyone screeched the last high note at the top of their lungs, and the Yodeling Song (whatever the real name of it is) where you can sing, "oh-de-lay-hee," many times!

When the Baroness requests a ball at the Captain's home, everyone waves their invitation in time to the first waltz. One couple got up and quickly danced up and down the aisle. And even though we were all told not to pop our poppers until Maria and the Captain have their first kiss, disobedient kids were continuously pre-popping any time it looked like it might happen. But finally, at long last, they did it, and the room was filled with pops, streamers, cheers and laughing - yayyy!!

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Roasted Beets - Perfect!

Last night we had a pre-Thanksgiving family dinner. For this I sacrificed the last of my home-grown beets, and they were beautifully rosy and delicious at room temp with splashes of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and with rosemary and thyme strewn around.

I learned how to roast beets something like baked potatoes to avoid diluting their flavor in water and to concentrate the sugars. At first I would trim the beet greens to 2 inches, scrub the beets, dry them, and encase them individually in sealed foil packets. This worked very well. After the beets cooled, I could put on a pair of rubber gloves and just slip the beet skins off to reveal shiny smooth beets to use as dinner vegetables, slice into salads, etc. Later I felt guilty wasting so much foil, so I decided instead to rub them liberally with cooking oil, and put them in a covered casserole to bake. Even better - and greener, so to speak! Wish I had a picture, but you'll just have to imagine it.

Monday, November 9, 2009


Last night I watched Dances with Wolves again. I forgot how long it is - over 3 hours - but it was so interesting that I didn't notice the time at all. I'm working my way through the American Film Institute's 100 Greatest Films. This is #75 on the first version of the list.

I remember when it first came out in 1990 (20 years ago - good heavens!). It must have been around Thanksgiving when the sister who is almost exactly 6 years younger came to town, as she has, off and on (mostly on) for T-Day all these years. A good movie has been part of our tradition, and that year we picked Dances with Wolves. I have a mental picture of her in the movie theater parking lot as we walked in the dark back to our car. We had run out of superlatives for what we had just seen and were continuing in silence when my sister let out a genuine blood-curdling war whoop! It was the perfect "review."

She's coming to town again this Thanksgiving and I'll be adding this memory to my list of things to be grateful for.

Friday, November 6, 2009

H1N1 Inches Closer

Last week I finally got a seasonal flu shot, but I've decided to forgo the H1N1 shot since I'm not in a high-risk category. But I found out on Tuesday that the young husband of one of my co-workers came home with H1N1. His wife has moved in with her parents and stops off at home once a day to leave food and check on him. She says he started with a "terrific" headache and then a high fever. Today he is cleaning things with Lysol and talking about going back to work.

I used to think that we public librarians were almost immune to communicable diseases - like teachers and young moms who get exposed to everything. But in library newsletters this week, there was the ominous news that a "healthy" manager of an Omaha public library died of this flu. There's nothing like taking a library card from a person who is hacking and sniffling at the reference desk. We now keep hand sanitizers and sanitizing wipes right on the desk, but I doubt they do any good against airborne viruses. I may decide to wear a mask!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Author Treats from the New York Public Library

I've heard that New York City has a wonderful library, so I guess their online version can't help but be good, too. I just found their link to Live from the NYPL with audio and/or video versions of important "conversations" - including one with Margaret Atwood, the author of a book I just started and am relishing! She spoke with another well-known author and historian, Thomas Cahill, there in December 2006.

Upcoming this week is a conversation with Barbara Kingsolver, another of my favorites. And past programs include ones with Queen Noor, Spike Lee, Salman Rushdie, Jeffrey Eugenides, and on and on!