The collection of A.C. Gilbert toys at A.C. Gilbert’s Discovery Village features a few items that would shock the modern parent, like a chemistry set that contained the poison sodium cyanide and an atomic energy kit that included a small sample of radioactive material. “He also had a glass blowing kit for boys,” says Vorachek,… Read More Liquid Crystals
A CARTOON in The New Yorker many years ago depicted a disgruntled little girl confronted with a mysterious substance on her dinner plate. Though assured by her mother that it was broccoli, she remained unconvinced. ”I say it’s spinach,” she insisted, ”and I say the hell with it.” – Marian Burros, NY Times, 12/22/82 Buenos… Read More Transforming Vegetables into Fish
In the greatest confusion there is still an open channel to the soul. It may be difficult to find because by midlife it is overgrown, and some of the wildest thickets that surround it grow out of what we describe as our education. But the channel is always there, and it is our business to… Read More The Supremes – Track 2
“Whoe’er has gone thro’ London street, Has seen a butcher gazing at his meat, And how he keeps Gloating upon a sheep’s Or bullock’s personals, as if his own; How he admires his halves And quarters–and his calves, As if in truth upon his own legs grown.” – Thomas Hood, 19th century poet and humorist… Read More Any Way You Slice It
Mrs. Adams: “Malena fell down the cellar stairs!” Virgil Adams: “Did she break any of our things?” – from Alice Adams, 1935 Buenos Aires – Though he appeared, and often starred, in more than one hundred films during his career, Fred MacMurray is probably best known as Stephen Douglas, the patriarch of the My Three… Read More Nice Guy Turns 100
He who has no bread has no authority. – Turkish proverb Buenos Aires – More recent bread experiments… Light rye bread direct from the NY Times Bread and Soup Cookbook – flavor great, a little denser than described or expected My own mix of wheatgerm, wheat bran, whole wheat and bread flour – came out… Read More Bread Porn
“Romania has the majestic castles, medieval towns, great hiking and wildlife, and cheap skiing of much of the ‘undiscovered’ former Eastern Bloc…. Horse-drawn carts jostle for space against fast cars whose drivers are talking money on mobile phones; farm workers watch The Apprentice on satellite in their medieval farmhouses. No longer the weird kid of… Read More Dracula Romanticism
“Traditional Swedish cooking cannot be compared with the sophistication of, say, French or Italian cuisine. Swedish food is usually simple and satisfying, and nowadays also healthy. In the last few decades immigrants from all over the world have enriched our food culture with a host of exciting dishes. Foreign fast food, for example, has become… Read More In The Swede Spot