hannah coulter

ok, so i came to the part in this novel by wendell berry where caleb comes home from college and his father nathan starts to make plans for him to take over his share of the farm, and caleb has to tell his father that he is home for a visit but that he will not be staying....he has plans beyond the farm......this conversation is part of the vocal heritage of my father's side of the family......of my own grandfather sitting down with my father on a visit home after graduation but before my parents wedding to discuss the future......and my father having to tell my grandfather than had he purchased the adjoining farm when it came up for sale as my father had suggested, there would have been enough acreage to support two families but as things stood, there simply was not an adequate living for two families on the existing farm....and my father had made other working arrangements......i write this with great regret, now that a child of mine has voiced an interest in the livelihood that used to be a given for both sides of my family....my mother's father gave up all hope of passing on his farm when he fathered two daughters.....he sold off the farm for a housing development......i treasure the copper stencil that my great-grandfather used to paint 'stephan' on each of his crates of produce....the stephan family grew fruits and vegetables on a farm above the canal just south of cleveland, ohio since the civil war days......the family place i visited in germany actually includes several fields now worked by a tenant....which means that as far back as the 1500's our ancestors have worked close to the land..... and so i admit freely that there were tears in my eyes as i listened to this part of the novel....because i knew that this conversation is not singular to the coulters, nor to the crowns, but to far too many dwindling farm families.....

latkes

ok, so......i view the making of latkes as a sign of a leisurely Saturday or long-weekend off....the variations depend on the available potatoes: white, red, yellow, sweet.....or a combination of those tubers....this morning we enjoyed sweet potato latkes with a sprinkling of parsley and sour cream........i get out the copper pan often enough that the latkes have become simply a sign that mamma feels like making them.....and i am therefore caught off-guard for a moment or two when i see articles in culinary magazines or the nytimes about the association of these wonderful fried potato confections with religious observances.....like Hanukkah.....i am not remotely Jewish according to my next-of-kin......but I suspect that I have Jewish roots that go deeper than the living memory of loved ones.....the connection between me and fried shredded potatoes is essential.....and too intense to be coincidental...

1/2 bottle of riesling

ok, so.....yesterday at my in-law's home we gathered for a Thanksgiving feast......i arrived with our car-full around 1:00-ish to find the questionably-done turkey already on the counter covered in tinfoil.....and to witness another extended family member empty half a bottle of riesling into a large tumbler, drop in a few ice cubes, and move on......gentle readers......if i had married into such a household i would have drank the other half of her bottle, despite my loathing for sweet wines.....i did go out of my way to avoid the turkey, having suffered a severe case of food poisoning in that very place over a decade ago.....and i when i happened to see second half of the bottle go the way of the first, i smiled and went on about my business.......

In Mass....on our way to supper....have not been in New England since Stephan looked at colleges

In Chicago halfway to Albany and our weekend with Stephan

wine and cheese

ok, so i started my round of errands with a visit to v the market.....i went in looking to buy goat cheese and ended up not only with Mont St. Francis from Indiana, but also Heinrich Red to go with it....and then several others bottles for upcoming occasions...and a jug of a pilsner from the tap....i like the notion of buying a jug and refilling it from a tap.....i will admit that i spent more per bottle than i spend per week on a boxed white.....i was determined to select my bottles based on their attributes rather than price....isn't that why i work that second job?......not only to fund my addiction to travel but also to add to the local economy by supporting home-grown entrepreneurs.....the red wine is delightful.....which i suppose proves that you get what you pay for when it comes to wine.....

ok, so.....the day has come when Peggy Noonan and I have something in common....this piece is excerpted from Ms. Noonan's column in which she rips into the half-term governor for comparing her career to that of Ronald Reagan.

"Excuse me, but this was ignorant even for Mrs. Palin. Reagan people quietly flipped their lids, but I'll voice their consternation to make a larger point. Ronald Reagan was an artist who willed himself into leadership as president of a major American labor union (Screen Actors Guild, seven terms, 1947-59.) He led that union successfully through major upheavals (the Hollywood communist wars, labor-management struggles); discovered and honed his ability to speak persuasively by talking to workers on the line at General Electric for eight years; was elected to and completed two full terms as governor of California; challenged and almost unseated an incumbent president of his own party; and went on to popularize modern conservative political philosophy without the help of a conservative infrastructure. Then he was elected president."

"The point is not 'He was a great man and you are a nincompoop,' though that is true," Noonan continues. "The point is that Reagan's career is a guide, not only for the tea party but for all in politics. He brought his fully mature, fully seasoned self into politics with him. He wasn't in search of a life when he ran for office, and he wasn't in search of fame; he'd already lived a life, he was already well known, he'd accomplished things in the world."

WWGCD?

ok, so i enjoyed the daylights out of watching the rally for sanity livestreamed on comedy central....while i was supposed to be outside helping my spouse build the faux rock wall that will add yet another terrace to our slope and give us a far deeper vegetable planting area.....i was moved to tears watching yusaf (AKA cat stevens) sing peace train.....that song really takes me back....and i so enjoyed the signs....especially the one pictured here.....WWGCD?.....ky's own george clooney would be a voice for sanity in the politcal debate....and i so grateful for patirots like jon stewart, whose poignant closing words summed up the rally quite nicely...really wish i had been there.....