A very white Christmas for some . . . but snowless in Seattle

My friend Nick went home for Christmas to Liberty, Indianna . . . and has ended up in the eye of the storm - 32 inches total (four feet high in some places because of the drifts). It started snowing Tuesday night and ended late Wednesday night . . . 24 hours!

His dad is on the roof right now pushing 4 plus feet off the roof to prevent cave-in. Temperature this a.m. was minus 9. It's crystal clear, blue and beautiful today.

He says, "We've been stuck inside for two days - thank gawd my parents know how to stock a liquer cabinet and a refrigerator." From his reports, the menu appears to be "all beef, all the time" in the heartland.

Just checked the weather forecast for us in Seattle . . . I'm thinking I'll have to live vicariously thru Nick's White Christmas. High in the mid-40s for the next few days - while it might get to a low of 31 on Sunday night, probably not enough moisture to give us even a dusting. Ahhh, well . . .

Holiday Menus and Baking

Baking - My cutting board will is now permanently stained red with cranberries - I've made 8 loaves of cranberry-orange bread so far and have that many more to go.

Hosie's party - one appetizer & one dessert. (1) asparagus spears & prosciutto wrapped in buttered filo- great finger food; and (2) cheesecake lollipops dipped in chocolate and nuts (but I couldn't find lollipop sticks, so am using popsicle sticks - get over it). (grin) This is inspired by one of those "almost homemade" shows - so I bought the cheesecake and my melon baller will get a workout.

Christmas Eve - I bring the paper goods. whew!

Christmas morn - Sausage, potato and corn frittata (making it up as I go along - it's inspired by Jesse's favorite breakfast of scrambled eggs with corn). Probably sourdough toast to go with . . . and fresh coffee.

Christmas Dinner - Salmon, roasted veggies (brussel sprouts, onions, carrots and fennel, tossed with dill-flavored olive oil, balsamic vinegar, kosher salt and pepper) . . . still pondering the other elements.

Spend your dollars via Choose the Blue (okay, it works the other way, too)

If you want to point your spending towards companies based on their political contributions, this site provides the stats (both Red/Republican and Blue/Democrat): http://www.choosetheblue.com/main.php

Interesting to see how certain industries skew in a particular direction . . . who knew grocery stores were so solidly Red in their contributions? Except for Costco and Whole Foods (and the latter opens a whole different debate given the owner's strict anti-union stance), it's tough to be blue. (wry smile)

Shood we chanje English spelling?

As I was researching the pronunciation rules of the Irish language (which still utterly stymies me) , I stumbled across a site which makes a certain amount of sense (even as I blanch at their word re-spelling proposals because they seem "wrong" . . . we are, indeed, prisoners of our upbringing).

The Simplified Spelling Society includes these interesting stats:

• Even after 11 years at school barely half of all English speakers become confident spellers.
• Italian children can spell accurately after just 2 years at school.
• Italy has only half as many identified dyslexics as England.

. . . . . . . . .

• The EE-sound, for example, can be spelt as in: seem, team, convene; sardine, protein, fiend; people,he, key, ski; debris, quay

. . . . . . . . .

• English spells many identical sounds differently when they occur in different positions in a word.
• For example, the Sh-sound is spelt as in shop, station, vicious and session; the long A-sound as in plate and play; the long I-sound as in mine and dry.
• For this reason English has 90 basic, dominant spelling patterns for its 43 speech sounds.
• 84 of the 90 basic English spelling patterns have exceptions.

. . . . and much more in a well-written argument at the site. If you suck at spelling, here's a site you'll want to bookmark 'cause IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT! (grin) Now challenge yourself - take a look at one of their pages done with the re-spelling proposals - can you read it?

Haunting song on "Huff" last night

. . . and once again, Google is my friend. No listing in the closing credits, but I was quick to the computer with a snippet and found it:

Damien Rice - the album is called "O" and the song . . . spare and haunting: Delicate

(snip from end of song)

We might make love
In some sacred place
The look on your face
Is delicate

So why'd you feel my sorrow
With the words you borrowed
From the only place that you've known

And why d'you sing Hallelujah
If it means nothing to you
Why'd you sing with me at all?

(/snip)

So lovely . . . and so mine - I love iTunes. I listened to snips of his other stuff and it was worth buying the whole album. Just in case someone's looking for new tunes . . .

The Magdalen Laundries and interesting art installation

Well, I finally saw "The Magdalene Sisters" today with Jesse and it was really powerful. If you're not familiar with this shameful chapter in world/Irish history vis-a-vis women, here's a brief snip of a well-considered review (and the answer to each of the questions posed in the snip is "yes"):

(snip)

• Did the Magdalene asylums, originally established inthe nineteenth century by the Sisters of Mercy as spiritual refuges for prostitutes and other women penitents, go on to hold girls and even grown women against their will, for disgraces ranging from extramarital pregnancy to mere flirting or even having been raped?
• Did some women grow old and die working in the infamous Magdalene laundries, not necessarily out of personal conviction or desire for a vocation to lifelong penance, but more or less because the doors were locked?
• Were girls brutally beaten for inadvertent or minor offenses, stripped naked and mocked by sadistic nuns over the sizes of their various body parts, abused in other ways?

(end snip - read the whole article here - granted, the site has an agenda but the article makes valid points, nonetheless: )

In the course of re-reading up on the topic, I stumbled across a touching site in memory of the women- created by a Magdalen daughter who herself had a daughter while in her senior year and gave her up for adoption. The page includes a song Joni Mitchell wrote to memorialize the Magdalenes - interesting in that she gave up a daughter at the start of her career that she only reunited with in recent years.

The woman's specific acccount of finding first her daughter and then her mother is here. Those who know my family background with 2 full siblings, 2 half-siblings I've met, one "lost"half-sibling, and 8 step-siblings understand some of what engages me in these types of stories . . . but I'm always captured by folks' family histories.

A link on that site took me to artist Diane Fenster's recent installation in San Francisco. Quite interesting - images on sheets that trail into washtubs (the accompanying music for the installation is available in other links on the website).

Anyhow, that's how I've spent a good part of my evening . . . that, and knitting (yes! I've finally learned how to knit - a different post to come - and thanks, Sarah!) and holiday decorating. I suppose I should go to sleep now . . . work in the morning.