language classes

Weekend language courses by SUNY – New Paltz in Manhattan or Hudson River Valley in 20 languages.

http://www.newpaltz.edu/lii/

I can’t believe I didn’t know about this.

lots of interesting links about sustainable food systems and other good things here: http://www.michaelpollan.com/link.htm

crab boil

Tell me if you want to go.  I’m making reservations for August 20.

Back 40  Traditional Crab Boil

Every Wednesday through the end of August

(July 23 & 30, August 6, 13, 20 & 27)

Never smacked a crab with a mallet? Here is your chance. Spiced Blue Crabs, Corn on the Cob, Old Bay Spiced Potatoes, sides of slaw and dessert to finish.  We’ll also provide the newspaper covered table, mallets and plenty of towels for clean-up.

$35

(exclusive of beverage, tax, grat)

$15 special on pitchers of local beer

reservations accepted one week in advance

212 388 1990

prediction

After nursing a beer for 45 minutes, with the Pope’s words about consumerism in the very back of my mind, I just have to go ahead and say it.

1. I love blue jeans

2. I think mid-calf socks are going to be huge this year.

two sweaters that i like on two girls leaning left

Hottest day of the year (? probably not, actually.)  Great time to bake cookies, steam clean the carpets, document my sweater wish list.

breathe inn

As discussed on the way to Storm King, the bed and breakfast that Triple Five Soul built.

Simple rooms in a Victorian house in the Catskills. I like it, in theory. It has a pool. One question remains, though, and it is kind of vital to my enjoyment of the great outdoors: can you have a weenie roast on those 19 acres?

permanent vacation

Holy Smokes.

about PV:
Tired of all impractical pretensions in fashion today, PERMANENT VACATION are inspired by the classic gentleman’s way of dressing; dapper, shapely, comfortable and useful, garments aimed to love, wear out and repair.

 

 

dress

Coley Claire dress in nylon last month. I don’t know where to buy it or how much it costs. Sold out online.

Best Picnic from A Girl of the Limberlost

Excerpt from A Girl of the Limberlost
Chapter 9
WHEREIN ELNORA DISCOVERS A VIOLIN, AND BILLY
DISCIPLINES MARGARET

She led the way through the city to the grocery they patronized when they had a small spread, and entering came out with a basket, which she carried to the bridge on her home road. There she arranged the girls in two rows on the cement abutments and opening her basket she gravely offered each girl an exquisite little basket of bark, lined with red leaves, in one end of which nestled a juicy big red apple and in the other a spicy doughnut not an hour from Margaret Sinton’s frying basket.

Another time she offered big balls of popped corn stuck together with maple sugar, and liberally sprinkled with beechnut kernels. Again it was hickory nut kernels glazed with sugar, another time maple candy, and once a basket of warm pumpkin pies. She never made any apology, or offered any excuse. She simply gave what she could afford, and the change was as welcome to those city girls accustomed to sodas and French candy, as were these same things to Elnora surfeited on popcorn and pie. In her room was a little slip containing a record of the number of weeks in the school year, the times it would be her turn to treat and the dates on which such occasions would fall, with a number of suggestions beside each. Once the girls almost fought over a basket lined with yellow leaves, and filled with fat, very ripe red haws. In late October there was a riot over one which was lined with red leaves and contained big fragrant pawpaws frost-bitten to a perfect degree. Then hazel nuts were ripe, and once they served. One day Elnora at her wits’ end, explained to her mother that the girls had given her things and she wanted to treat them. Mrs. Comstock, with characteristic stubbornness, had said she would leave a basket at the grocery for her, but firmly declined to say what would be in it. All day Elnora struggled to keep her mind on her books. For hours she wavered in tense uncertainty. What would her mother do? Should she take the girls to the confectioner’s that night or risk the basket? Mrs. Comstock could make delicious things to eat, but would she?

As they left the building Elnora made a final rapid mental calculation. She could not see her way clear to a decent treat for ten people for less than two dollars and if the basket proved to be nice, then the money would be wasted. She decided to risk it. As they went to the bridge the girls were betting on what the treat would be, and crowding near Elnora like spoiled small children. Elnora set down the basket.

“Girls,” she said, “I don’t know what this is myself, so all of us are going to be surprised. Here goes!”

She lifted the cover and perfumes from the land of spices rolled up. In one end of the basket lay ten enormous sugar cakes the tops of which had been liberally dotted with circles cut from stick candy. The candy had melted in baking and made small transparent wells of waxy sweetness and in the centre of each cake was a fat turtle made from a raisin with cloves for head and feet. The remainder of the basket was filled with big spiced pears that could be held by their stems while they were eaten. The girls shrieked and attacked the cookies, and of all the treats Elnora offered perhaps none was quite so long remembered as that.

surprise 2 of 2 (ever vigilant, ever true)

Surprise #2: A study hall behind a bookcase.  South Brooklyn.

I knew about the tutoring center at the Superhero Supply store but I didn’t realize it was accessed via a sliding bookcase. Or maybe I did and I forgot.