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Dichotomy

Posted on September 6, 2013 | Leave a comment

This post is named Woody Guthrie’s This Land is Your Land. Also A Home-Cooked Meal.

I asked around and sought comments for what a man, my gentleman husband, would like after being on the road for two weeks. There were several suggestions of steak or meat loaf. I’ve gone veggie for two weeks and feel great!

In the end I chose homemade meatballs with spaghetti and sauce. He’ll walk into our front door any moment now and be home for a quiet weekend but it will start out with my meatballs with parmigiano reggiano and my sauce. you don’t really think I’m going to give the sauce recipe (I don’t have one)  to you with like 25 posts before I retire! Good because I make it differently every time.

He got in 12 minutes early so I’ll take the dog out and am already prepped to make dinner as airlines don’t even bother to toss peanuts to passengers anymore. Enjoy the weekend! Dee

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Privacy

Posted on July 25, 2013 | Leave a comment

My bill was A.B. 1984, yes, in that year. We engineered an entire privacy package that included banking, insurance, medical, and my piece was cable tv.

I just “got it” in that banks and other entities have instituted severe privacy mechanisms, including not allowing joint account holders access to policy or billing information with out a husband’s consent.

What we do have is Congress saying to the NSA “Go free! Spy on US citizens for no reason!” The Patriot Act is much worse than Newt Gingrich’s Contract on America. Banks et al are being too strict and the people we elect to represent us are too lenient except for TSA which is ridiculous. I can’t even wear a bra and still get scanned for bomb residue and I’m grandma-age.

The patriot act will affect your children and grandchildren. Already there are police cameras tailing you every day by license plate, so they know where you are any time of day. They’re tailing your cell phone with GPS. They’re reading this right now, even before I send it.

Think of the dichotomy and how we can make things change for the better. I grew up in a place where we never locked our cars or doors. Now the last thing I do is to check everything so someone can’t break in.

Taking away our privacy is not the way to assure a safe neighborhood, city, county or state. Please write your representative and say this is not the way to go. You need to live your life without government intrusion. Thank you, Dee

 

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NYC

Posted on July 10, 2013 | Leave a comment

Tweeter, cheater vie

for major positions that

may kill nyc

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Theories

Posted on July 5, 2013 | 2 comments

The sun gets me up really early in the morning. I just took the dog out and have been up four hours. Epiphany! It comes, courtesy of an idea from Slate.

It comes from two songs that differentiated our nation. It’s Irving Berlin’s God Bless America vs Woody Guthrie’s This Land Is Your Land.

God Bless America is a wonderful song, and I love Irving Berlin for his many contributions to the American scene, but the republican party has commandeered it to show that only God can rule America and we have to stick to the Old Testament in its most heinous ways. I believe the composer would be shocked and disturbed at this use of his song as he was a Jew and immigrant and as such did not live a charmed life.

Woody, on the other hand, when it came down to brass tacks composed This Land Is Your Land about our nation, its natural wonders and asks whether this land is really made for you and me. Written post-war, WWII, I believe he foresaw what was to come in the late 60’s. He already knew about alienation from society.

This past week we’re given a blow on Voting Rights and a win for allowing people who love each other to marry. This is not the old Hollywood studios making Rock Hudson marry because he was gay and had to be a hunk to be in the movies. This is real life.

On our national anniversary, July 4th I do like to hear a recording of Kate Smith singing Berlin’s song. My heart, however, goes out to Woody and Arlo and what their music has brought to this nation of ours.

I did take up the guitar a few years ago (beginner) and am going to teach myself This Land Is Your Land today. To you, Irving, Woody and Arlo. Dee

ps Pete Seeger, PPM, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Johnny Cash and many others – thanks!

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Blackbird, Bye Bye

Posted on March 18, 2013 | 4 comments

Pack up all your cares and woes,

Here I go, singing low, bye bye blackbird

…… blackbird, bye bye.

Last post, they’re selling my posts. I never wanted or got a nickel from them, I will be removing them from WordPress.

I don’t know how to do this as I’m a writer and not a techie, that’s probably why they allow people to steal my words and sell them.

To my readers, I salute you and will be back on other than WordPress. Thank you for being with me and inspiring me these few years. The grandmother who died before I was a year old sang that song to me, to get me to go to sleep. It’s that time. Dee

 

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Posted in Cook Books, Cooking Utensils, Editorial, Education, Friend Alert, Greece, haiku, Home Improvement, Italy, Music, Pet, Recipe Ideas, Recipes, Recommended Pantry Contents, Scotland, The Ranch, Travel, Uncategorized, Utah

The New Napster

Posted on November 8, 2012 | 2 comments

Nanny calls us “the Grands” as over Thanksgiving she also has a lot of baby grands running around. Mostly in the 40’s middle age range, last year we carved out an hour for ourselves.

Dinner was done as were dishes. It was mid-afternoon in a darkened room where my husband went to lay on the floor to help his back. I joined him, then his cousins and brother and we all told stories.

They were poignant ones as one uncle had died that summer. We also told funny ones.

For ten years I’ve tried to carve a niche without stepping on any toes. You wouldn’t believe the lengths these ladies go to make the best dessert! I’ve primarily done it by making nuts and boursin and spinach balls (I gave that one up to a new wife because they were always a hit) that just sit on the kitchen table all afternoon. All the women gather there while the guys watch The Game.

Now the cousins are asking me about nap time. I told them the Grands are all invited and anyone else has to promise to tell a good family story to get in. I told them if they call me the Napster I’ll make it happen! I’ve found my niche!

In a 16-hour day (12 of it at Nanny’s, the rest prepping and packing up) one hour of down time is key to survival. The sweetest moment last year was one of the younger kids running through and saying that his cousin, twice his size, “disobeyed” him. His mother and aunt said “they’ll work it out” and laid there, blissfully aware of their spouses and offspring but craving down time.

Napping is a good thing. The New Napster, a napping maven. Dee

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Kids, Thinking and Parenting

Posted on August 28, 2012 | 1 comment

I was a girl in the early 1960’s that wasn’t supposed to show that I was smart. Mostly, I hid it because I had geek written all over me. I wanted to be, and could have been smart in math but had to take home economics. The feminist in me asked for shop class but that didn’t allow girls.

My husband was the opposite, he grew up on a dairy farm and became a physicist and software engineer. He got the biggest glasses because for the first time, it allowed his poor eyes to see the world for the first time as a child. And he was proud to wear those glasses even though it made him a geek.

We never would have met except for fate but have been matched for over a decade because we did meet.

Parents, please don’t push French classes or others at your toddlers, but allow them room to grow and don’t diminish them in any way. If they choose math and science with some liberal arts so to smooth the edges they’ll be able to choose their way in the world. Dee

ps When I was 16 I won a ping pong game against a local boy and he said I should have let him win. The other day I played my first game of table shuffleboard and beat a guy by one point and he stormed out of the room. What has changed?

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Centennial for Julia Child

Posted on August 15, 2012 | Leave a comment

Julia Child would be 100 years old today. I think I might make her French Onion Soup and raise a glass this evening in her memory.

Bon appetit! Dee

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Welcome to Wisconsin

Posted on July 23, 2012 | Leave a comment

We’re new here, and it is nearly impossible to get a form or find a place to register my car. A labyrinth of possibilities awaits the new resident with only license plate choices and not registration forms.

I know it’s a rust belt state, and that it does little to promote itself in regard to business and tourism. But it needs to welcome new workers, new consumers, new residents.

Years ago I wrote legislation that affected 34 million people. In this new State, I can’t even negotiate the DMV. Go figure. Fix this mess or you won’t have new taxpayers here. Dee

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Great Storm!

Posted on June 16, 2012 | 3 comments

What happens when you wash your car? It rains. What happens when your 15th floor windows have just been cleaned on the outside on a 1X per year plan? Bingo.

We have 12 floor-to-ceiling windows and a view of Lake Michigan. Now I can’t see anything and it’s the 2nd or 3rd round of lightning and thunder. Dog and husband are asleep and safe, I just love watching storms.

Yes, they both went to sleep at nine and awoke at 7 a.m. while I braved Hurricane Ike alone. The Mayor told us to stay put and all the skyscrapers 1/4 mile away had their windows blown out. Ours was the only loft of 140 that was not damaged.

We were across from City Hall so must have had some special powers in the electrical department as our power was only off for several hours. We had no water for five days, and no food or water to drink.

I wanted to stay in the bedroom but as long as we had power, I wrote, I blogged, and watched the hurricane’s force. Know that as we took in the haggard refugees of Katrina (New Orleans), that city didn’t offer a finger, much less a hand in friendship over those dark days.

Many years ago I underwent a month-long culinary apprenticeship in Mendocino CA and one of the waiters wanted to sublet his cabin. No heat, a wood stove, broken windows, privy lock on the front door. He left a mattress, sheets and a blanket next to the wood stove.

I had windows all around and no coverings so when a big storm came up I sat up on the kitchen counter and watched it. Nothing like a good storm. Cheers, Dee

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