tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7790309775851107202024-03-12T17:59:24.212-07:00If The Cosmos Wears A BeardTredegar Trafalgarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13848922755244316969noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-779030977585110720.post-78547207159971452132024-01-17T13:13:00.000-08:002024-01-17T18:23:49.995-08:00The Mysterious Christmas Shell (1961) by Eleanor Cameron<p>The author of this is better known (if known at all these days) as the author of the Mushroom Planet books. This is not anywhere as interesting: it's a realistic children's book (well, mostly realistic - there is a faint and feeble attempt to suggest some magic has occurred at the end); exactly the kind of thing a mid-century American librarian would approve of.
<P>
A young brother and sister are visiting their aunts at their Northern California mansion for Christmas. There they find the household in despair - Grandfather had died early in the year and to settle the estate, they had sold part of their land with redwoods - only to discover the purchaser is a sneaky evil developer who is going to chop down some of the redwoods on his new property to build housing and ruin the whole town! Oh no! There is one faint sliver of hope - the grandfather had written a new will before he died which left the redwoods to the state to create a park. If they could find that will before the end of the year, it would supersede the sale and save the land! (The family company is now doing better so they don't need the money after all.)<p>There are some nice descriptions of climbing along some cliffs on the California coastland, but otherwise, not much happens. The plot is ultimately resolved not by finding the will (turns out the grandfather tore that up) but by prompting a change of heart in the evil developer. Cameron tries to buttress this very unlikely resolution with some psychology (turns out he grew up in the area, played with the aunts as a child and the brother and sister give him a letter written by the developer's parents where they talk about how wonderful the trees are), but it's all very deus ex machina, and I think she realizes it, since in the last pages she adds the aforementioned suggestion of magic.</p>
<P>I read this as a child back in the early eighties, and the only thing I remembered about it was the fact they didn't find the will, which detail I quite liked. Other that that, very slight and forgettable.
Tredegar Trafalgarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13848922755244316969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-779030977585110720.post-15485523248106845362019-11-01T04:08:00.001-07:002019-11-02T13:02:27.530-07:00Mad Monster Party? (1967)<P>I wasn't in really the most receptive frame of mind or mood for this (plus a brief tornado warning interrupted my viewing early on), but I've been meaning to watch this for some time, and it was Halloween.
<P>An early Rankin/Bass holiday special, though post-Rudolph, and this time it's not Christmas. Appearances by all the favorite monsters of sixties kids. Lots of bad, instantly forgettable songs.
<P>A few points of interest:
<UL>
<LI>Phyllis Diller plays the Bride of Frankenstein, and calls her monster hubby "Fang," which IIRC was the name Diller used in her stand up for the ol' ball and chain.
<LI>Franesca, the "girl," falls in love with the hero after he smacks her hard. Twice. He apparently also smacked the bad out of her too. Amazing multitaskers, those smacks.
<LI>The protagonist, Felix, is very passive. Aside from the aforementioned smacks and reflexively saving Francesca's life (admittedly heroic), his only real decisions are to travel to the Isle of Evil and to turn down his uncle's offer to succeed him (that plotline just trails off and never gets resolved). The defeat of the bad guys is accomplished by Francesca and the Baron.
<LI>The "twist" at the end doesn't make a lot of sense, but I think if I'd seen this as a child I'd be more concerned about all those wonderful monsters being wiped out. Bummer.
</UL>
<P>This checks off an item on my "Shown on TNT's Monstervision In The Nineties" list.
Tredegar Trafalgarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13848922755244316969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-779030977585110720.post-15559626983546127802019-10-31T06:55:00.001-07:002019-10-31T06:56:58.644-07:00The Bustle in a HouseThe Bustle in a House<br>
The Morning after Death<br>
Is solemnest of industries<br>
Enacted upon Earth –<br>
<br>
The Sweeping up the Heart<br>
And putting Love away<br>
We shall not want to use again<br>
Until Eternity –<br>
Tredegar Trafalgarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13848922755244316969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-779030977585110720.post-14645598417778256392019-10-30T17:31:00.002-07:002019-10-31T13:17:29.090-07:00Bitsy (February 15, 2004 - October 30, 2019)<P>My dog Bit (also known as Bit-Bit) passed away about 7:30 this evening. He had suffered for a long time from a long list of ailments (congestive heart failure, Cushing's Disease, and most recently, the beginnings of renal failure) and it caught up with him today. His final descent was very rapid - he became short of breath about five. I had loaded him up in the pet taxi in the back of the car and was fiddling with the GPS to get directions for the pet emergency clinic, when I realized I couldn't hear him breathing anymore.
<P>
He was my mother's last dog, though he was my dog more than twice the time he was hers (she had him four years; eleven for me). R.I.P. Big Boy.Tredegar Trafalgarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13848922755244316969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-779030977585110720.post-84003024430392545962016-04-17T09:03:00.000-07:002016-04-29T11:17:52.894-07:00Recent Acquisitions<b>Durham County Library Book Sale</b>
<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><em>Imaginary Lands</em> edited by Robin McKinley.
</li>
<li><em>The 1981 Annual World's Best SF</em> edited by Donald A. Wollheim. (Wollheim always had such odd taste, and this volume is no exception. About half his selections are quality; the rest are just completely mediocre and instantly forgettable.)
</li>
<li><em>Moonsinger's Friends: Stories In Honor of Andre Norton</em> edited by Susan Shwartz. (A <em>festschrift</em>. The editorial material is fannily fawning and overly gushy.)
</li>
<li><em>Plutarch's Lives</em> translated by John Dryden. (Modern Library; good condition hardcover.)
</li>
<li><em>World of Our Fathers: The Journey Of The East European Jews To America And The Life They Found And Made</em> by Irving Howe. (This big paperback looked in good condition until I got it home and was looking through it; then the spine cracked. Never trust a paperback. I ordered a used hardback online this morning.)
</li>
<li><em>Mysterious New England</em> by the editors of Yankee Magazine.
</li>
<li><em>Arrowsmith</em> by Sinclair Lewis. (Modern Library. Do I ever plan to actually read any Lewis? Doubtful.)
</li>
<li><em>The Decameron</em> by Boccaccio. (Modern Library.)
</li>
<li><em>War And Peace</em> by Leo Tolstoy. (Modern Library. The Constance Garnett translation.)
</li>
<li><em>The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends & Their Meanings</em> by Jan Harold Brunvand.
</li>
<li><em>Gabriele d'Annunzio: Poet, Seducer, And Preacher of War</em> by Lucy Hughes-Hallett.
</li>
<li><em>Isaac Asimov Presents the Best Science Fiction of the 19th Century</em> edited by Isaac Asimov, Charles G. Waugh & Martin Greenberg. (As far as I can tell, Asimov only contributed the introduction, which cannibalizes other of his essays. The individual story intros seem to all be Waugh and/or Greenberg, since they are actually informative.)
</li>
<li><em>The Skeptic: A Life of H.L. Mencken</em> by Terry Teachout.
</li>
<li><em>The Portable Renaissance Reader</em> edited by James Bruce Ross and Mary Martin McLaughlin. (Despite what I said above about paperbacks, this one seems to be in good condition for its age.)
</li>
<li><em>Medieval Russia's Epics, Chronicles And Tales</em> edited by Sege A. Zenkovsky.
</li>
<li><em>Conan Doyle: A Biographical Solution</em> by Ronald Pearsall. (I think this is my third Doyle biography. Probably have that area covered now.)
</li>
<li><em>Dreamtigers</em> translated by Mildred Boyer and Harold Morland.
</li>
<li><em>A Universal History of Infamy</em> by Jorge Luis Borges.
</li>
<li><em>As They Were</em> by M.F.K. Fisher. (Essays.)
</li>
<li><em>The Eye Of The Queen</em> by Phillip Mann. (Have never heard anything about this one way or another; just got it because I used to see it listed in those Science Fiction Book Club ads in the SF mags. Who says advertising doesn't work - eventually?)
</li>
<li><em>Skyscraper: The Making Of A Building</em> by Karl Sabbach.
</li>
<li><em>Talleyrand: A Biography</em> by J.F. Bernard. (My second Talleyrand bio.)
</li>
<li><em>Charles Dickens</em> by Claire Tomalin.
</li>
<li><em>Alexis de Tocqueville: A Life</em> by Hugh Brogan.
</li>
<li><em>The Swords of The Spirits Trilogy</em> by John Christopher. (Found all three volumes scattered around on the table.)
</li>
<li><em>Alastor</em> by Jack Vance. (Omnibus of <em>Trullion</em>, <em>Marune</em>, and <em>Wyst</em>. Already had all three in individual pbs.)
</li>
<li><em>Starfish</em> by Peter Watts. (Brrrr!)
</li>
<li><em>The Lost World of Thomas Jefferson</em> by Daniel J. Boorstin.
</li>
<li><em>A Diary From Dixie</em> by Mary Boykin Chesnut.
</li>
<li><em>The Fall of Paris: The Siege and the Commune 1870-71</em> by Alistair Horne.
</li>
<li><em>Quag Keep</em> by Andre Norton.
</li>
<li><em>Star Guard</em> by Andre Norton.
</li>
<li><em>"Our Crowd": The Great Jewish Families of New York</em> by Stephen Birmingham. (The great German-Jewish families of New York, that is. Read this as a teen.)
</li>
<li><em>Wilson</em> by A. Scott Berg. (Woodrow Wilson, that is.)
</li>
<li><em>Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence</em> by Garry Wills.
</li>
<li><em>1948: Harry Truman's Improbable Victory and the Year That Transformed America</em> by David Pietrusza. (Really tired of these hyperbolic subtitles. The worst one, I think, was one about the Garfield assassination: <em> The Destiny of the Republic</em>. Really? Really? Can't they just admit not every historical event is necessarily utterly transformative; maybe they can just be interesting? Isn't that enough?)
</li>
<li><em>Alexander of Macedon</em> by Harold Lamb. (Thought this was going to be pulpy historical fiction, which would be fun, but actually it's a biography. Oh, groan. Looks utter crap.)
</li>
<li><em>The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born</em> by Ayi Kwei Armah. (Ghanaian novel.)
</li>
<li><em>Thaddeus Stevens: Scourge of the South</em> by Fawn M. Brodie.
</li>
<li><em> Another Life: A Memoir of Other People</em> by Michael Korda. (Memoir by the famous publisher. Inexplicably, stuck inside there's a postcard with the famous pic of Oscar Wilde in velvet breeches. Weird!)
</li>
<li><em> Among The Believers</em> by V.S. Naipaul. (Islamophobia avant la lettre.)
</li>
<li><em> The Decline of Imperial Russia 1855-1914</em> by Hugh Seton-Watson.
</li>
<li><em> The Works of Haggard</em> by H. Rider Haggard. (<em>King Solomon's Mines</em>, <em>She</em>, <em>Allan Quaterman</em>, and <em>Cleopatra</em> in one omnibus volume.)
</li>
<li><em> Drums Along The Mohawk</em> by Walter D. Edmonds.
</li>
</ul>
<br />Tredegar Trafalgarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13848922755244316969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-779030977585110720.post-63205964299307537222016-01-10T11:27:00.001-08:002016-04-17T13:42:25.277-07:00Salmon Poached In Salsa Verde<b>Salmon Poached In Salsa Verde</b>
<br />
<br />
<b>Ingredients</b>
<br />
<br />
7 tomatillos, husked, washed & quartered<br />
1/2 cup coarsely chopped green onions (white & light green parts)<br />
1/3 cup fresh cilantro<br />
1 tablespoon lime juice <br />
2 cloves garlic<br />
1/2 jalapeno, deseeded & deribbed<br />
2 tablespoons vegetable oil <br />
1/2 cup finely chopped red onions<br />
1 & 1/2 lb salmon fillet, cut into 4 pieces <br />
<br />
<b>Procedure</b>
<br />
<br />
Put the tomatillos, green onions, cilantro, lime juice, chili and garlic into a food processor; pulse until it's only slightly chunky.
<br />
<br />
Heat the oil up in a lidded skillet over medium heat. Add the red onions & cook uncovered until softened (about five minutes). <br />
<br />
Add the salsa mixture and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes. Taste & season. <br />
<br />
Add the salmon fillets skin side up and cook for five minutes covered. Uncover, flip the salmon, recover and cook for another five minutes. Kill the heat and let the salmon stand, covered, cooking with the residual heat for an additional three minutes. Uncover and plate the salmon, topping with the salsa verde. Serve with tortilla chips.<br />
<br />Tredegar Trafalgarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13848922755244316969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-779030977585110720.post-8880511231920277072016-01-10T11:01:00.000-08:002016-01-10T11:01:28.727-08:00Thai-Style Cucumber Salad<b>Ingredients</b>
<br><br>
2 Cucumbers<br>
1 minced jalapeno pepper<br>
1/2 minced shallot<br>
2 tablespoons soy sauce<br>
2 tablespoons lime juice (fresh)<br>
1 teaspoon sugar or honey<br>
2 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro<br>
1/4 cup crushed cocktail peanuts
<br>
<br>
<b>Procedure</b>
<br><br>
Peel the cucumbers, then slice them lengthwise. Scrape out the seeds from the center of each cuke, using a teaspoon.
Thinly slice them.
<br>
Combine the pepper, shallots, soy sauce, lime juice and cilantro in a large container & mix. Add the cukes and toss gently. Finally, top with the cilantro and the peanuts.
<br>
<br>Tredegar Trafalgarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13848922755244316969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-779030977585110720.post-43284137937571410522015-05-19T11:15:00.002-07:002015-05-19T11:19:06.743-07:00Starting AgainI had another blog here and also a livejournal, but haven't posted much to either in years. I thought with a fresh start I'd see if I could manage at least a few posts a year. No promises, though.<br />
<br />
<br />Tredegar Trafalgarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13848922755244316969noreply@blogger.com0