....In my own case, for example, the past piles up Like ruins, like shattered frescoes and friezes where each Pictorial piece is numbered and catalogued, but no amount Of jigsaw juxtapositioning restores the original, with Too much missing, dissolved, irretrievable, whole Narratives lost in the seams of fracture, though my Sibling and I never discontinue our search for them, China-bristling what edges we find. Disappeared, What melody's more distant than childhood?
The most successful of my holiday dishes, and vegetarian!
Mix in a slow cooker:
1 medium eggplant, peeled and cubed at 1/2 " 1 14.5 oz can diced Italian plum tomatoes 1 med chopped onion 1 red bell pepper - chopped to 1/2 " 1/2 c. medium-hot salsa 1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil 2 T balsamic vinegar 1 t oregano leaves 3 cloves of minced garlic 1/2 t salt
You can add 2 T of capers, I prefer it without
Cook on low in a slow cooker for 7-8 hours until flavors meld.
To serve - put in a serving dish and add 1/3 cup of fresh basil strips Serve on toasted Italian bread, like bruschetta.
For protein lovers, you can toast thin slices of provolone and or prosciutto on the bread first, then spoon the caponata on the top. (Very low cal without the cheese or meat!)Note: the picture above shows it served on eggplant slices. Bread works better!
What a very relaxing Christmas. Oh, I admit I tore around for no reason on Christmas Day, but it was my only evidence of holiday idiocy.
Allen and I spent Christmas Eve together. I was supposed to pick him up after afternoon Mass and bring him over for dinner. We'd planned Christmas movies. He had a little health scare this week, and we did it in reverse, with me bringing the meal to his villa and us enjoying it, a little Christmas Eve TV and then home.
I did a big appetizer/dessert brunch for the kids for Christmas Day around 5... by this time they'd eaten at other places, so we all grazed, laughed and sat around for 5-6 hours. I had about 13 different dishes (and ran out of time to make one). Lesson learned. I need about 6. Everybody was decompressing, we had a great gift exchange, the evening did not revert into fast paced zingers between the kids like it has in prior years (not bad-hearted, just a show of their crazy one upsmanship). No, they were mellow. I may try to get them every year at that time. I used my concert DVD of Stevie Wonder in London and some iced Bailey's to round out the night.
Yesterday was devoted to reading, a couple of errands, drinks with friends, cleaning up what must have been every dish in my house. Today, football, phone calls... never did get to the movies, odd for me.
I enjoyed everyone's Christmas posts, from Debby's family figuring out how to combat airline terrorism, to the weather disturbances with my family in Minnesota, and the disastrous rain Kelly had in Arkansas. That was all saved by the fact that Pam got her snow on Christmas! Yay! Many friends had great grandchildren and grandpets experiences... I missed that; maybe sometime in future years. Gage has gone to a new home, and the dog issues in my house are probably over. Only one granddog left. Sigh.
Got to talk my friend B through his experience of working Christmas Eve at a firehouse...thinking about all of those who work to keep us going during the holidays; the police, the fire crews, hospitals, even those poor kids checking groceries and serving McDonalds coffee on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day, our main shopping drag, Dale Mabry Ave, was almost spooky, with everything shuttered up except the Starbucks. Go figure.
Can't believe the crisis again in Iran, and how little coverage it is getting here. Those brave people are dying.
The week of work stretches to the New Year, and I haven't any plans, a couple of invitations, but I'm in a lazy mood and gearing up for the Chick-Fil-A, Cap One, Gator, Rose,Sugar and Fiesta in the week thereafter.
"The King" was making his comeback when this was recorded (I think it was '68 instead of '69, but close enough!)
An amazing rendition by the incomparable Ray Charles in 1979, 30 years ago!
Takes you back to the sweet, sweet sounds of Luther Vandross in 1989... sigh, all three of them gone now.
I was a big fan of this Celtic group, the Corrs (3 sisters and a brother) in 1999, musical tastes changing for what they were. They tackle the John Lennon anthem where he calls for an end to war at Christmastime.
And last, my favorite video of the holiday season this year... the old and the new as Stevie Wonder and India.Arie take an old song and make it new again in LA earlier this month.
Andrea and her uncle Gary.... April 2009 in St. Pete Beach
Very moved today by some of Debby's writing, feels like she had a camera on my own life:
"It will be a different direction than I have traveled in my own life. I chose, and I chose poorly at times. I married who I shouldn't have. And then there were children who became the most important thing in my life, because that is what mothers do. My own needs became secondary to theirs. I know that some disagree with that, but I feel like my right to choose my path came secondary to what was best for my children. And so my life's decisions were based on them, not me. Don't get me wrong. Life has worked out for me."
Ah, children... my own daughter leaves to live in Louisville in February. Unlike the last time she left, she's not leaving to get away from her family, she's leaving despite the knowledge that not seeing each other in the most inauspicious way 3-4 times a week (I give her a ride to work), may just break both of our hearts a little. Unlike her flight to North Carolina at 19, this time I contrast the move to the same one I made, at the age of 24... for love to Rochester, NY. And I never went home to live again in Minnesota. My heart tells me this is what will happen for her. So it's good... it was a turning point for me, the largest and best in my life, and so it will probably be for her.
As the week wound its messy way on, I couldn't help but be struck by the absolute irony present in three of its biggest stories.
1. War and Peace:
Andrew Sullivan's quotes about the ironic trip Obama found himself taking to Oslo...
"Last week, Obama's address on Afghanistan both escalated and promised an end to the war there. This week, Obama opened his Nobel Peace Price acceptance speech with a long disquisition on the nature of war and its necessity--complete with a brief survey of "just war" theory."
"Why is hope audacious?
Because the world is inherently tragic. Because, in Camus' words, men die and they are not happy. Because in Obama's words, "We will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes. There will be times when nations -- acting individually or in concert -- will find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified... For make no mistake: Evil does exist in the world. " "
I fear what will come in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
~~~~~~~~
2. Tiger Tale (Tail??)
Then there was the irony of the world's best known and best paid athlete. A man so used to not getting caught, he literally must have been bewildered about just how OVER it is for him, given the way the story took flight. How does a man this used to winning, schooled by his father, with all of the money and fame in the world do this?
I'm glad he decided to leave his message last night and let the world know he wasn't going to golf for awhile. After all of this smarmy coverage since Thanksgiving, I'm sure we all feel like we could use a shower. Porn stars, escorts and blondes, oh my.
~~~~~~~
3. Pick Your Spots
And lastly, the irony of someone who could be a great and goofy entertainer, but fancies herself a world leader, courting scorn and embarrassment. Why? Pick your spots.
You're doing OK, Sarah. I can't stand you, but as a private citizen, you have the right to peddle your book all over the US of A. And it's going well for you. Stick with that. So, try to insure that you speak only of what you know something about. Trying to talk about stuff you don't know anything about got you in big trouble before (Russia, the powers of the Vice Presidency, what she will do about Wall St.). And if you take on anyone, try to make it someone that is of your stature on a topic you know something about. Here's what I mean:
Don't accuse this guy of stealing ideas from you for a speech on war and foreign policy. You know nothing about war or foreign policy :
"Following an interview with the former vice presidential candidate and fierce Obama critic on Thursday, USA Today reports that Palin "praised" him for his speech in Oslo, and "said the president's defense of war to combat evil could have been taken from the pages of her memoirs."
How could that be? He used words of more than one syllable!!!
AND
Don't start a war of words with this guy over the environment:
After spending the past few days slamming Gore and other proponents of climate change science, Palin back-pedaled when asked if she would debate the former vice president on the issue during a radio interview with conservative pundit Laura Ingraham.
"You know, it depends on what the venue would be, what the forum," Palin told Ingraham. "Because Laura, as you know, if it would be some kind of conventional, traditional debate with his friends setting it up or being the commentators, I'll get clobbered because, you know, they don't want to listen to the facts."
Ah, yes, the facts. The facts from a small town mayor who served for 6 years in a city the size of St. Cloud,Mn. Then as governor of the 49th state, she was determined to quit before her term was over, serving 2.5 years. A woman who has a bachelor's degree in journalism that she cobbled together from 5 different stints at western colleges. A failed Vice Presidential candidate who has co-written her autobiography.
Contrast that to a Harvard graduate, 16 year legislator, who served in the military for two years, went to Vietnam, and who served for 8 years as Vice President, won a Presidential election - but decided not to dispute that fact in our courts, due to the divisiveness it would cause. A man who has devoted the last 9 years to the environment, going back to his passion from the two energy and science committees he chaired in the Congress, winning an Academy award for a documentary he filmed with others and a Nobel Peace Prize for his environmental efforts. A man who is on the visiting faculty at 4 different universities in America.
And he routinely uses words with more than one syllable!!!
One of these two has a pretty good intersection with the facts on Climate Change. And one of them is on a book tour with a bus that has her face on it.
AND
But last night, Sarah Palin took on an opponent that she was a worthy adversary to. And she did a great job of it. It was entertaining. She has found her niche and it is television. Who was her opponent?
"Sarah Palin ruffled William Shatner's feathers a bit last night when she surprised the funnyman by showing up to The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. The Star Trek vet has been on the late show multiple times, and usually makes it a point to mock the politician's tweets and speeches, and he took on her new book Going Rogue last night, according to NY Daily News. But, Palin came out on stage and got him back by reading lines of Captain Kirk's original autobiography from 2008. Take that! It was all in good fun though, as the two apparently left the stage holding hands -- after the funny business was over."
C'mon, you know they are equally "mavericky" and funny.
Sarah Palin takes on Captain Kirk. Awesome. Enjoy.
Allen, who recently "celebrated" his 7 year anniversary from diagnosis; is currently. ......
IN REMISSION
It's hard for me to grasp this. The last time it happened was in 2005. The new cocktail he took this summer once he left the World Famous Cancer Center and decided to treat close to home, has done the trick for now. He has also had a complete cardio check based on some of what happened to him in this year's chemo rounds, and he is normal. A little worse for wear.
His clinical trial in 2007-2008 at the World Famous Cancer Center left him with an xxxed up adrenal system, and Addison's disease. Right now, that is the major physical problem. Near-poverty is the second. You know... without as many meds, and with the advantage gained from fighting and winning early Soc Security and early Medicare, even that is not so daunting.
We celebrated quietly on the phone today when he got the oncologist's report (the cardio report came last Wednesday). We shake our heads from side to side. We look back on every fearful moment; every moment of anger, every moment of tears, and that crazy, crazy cancer humor.
I know this could last 2 years, 20 years, or 2 weeks. But right now, it feels good. It feels worthwhile. It feels like I helped make a difference for him.
I sit here, typing and weeping. Stunned. How to top this? Not sure.
Allen, my friend, you don't usually read here, but your ears must be burning.
