You are here: Home / 2020 I am ringing in the New Year as I hope to end the Old Year a year from now. Year after year it goes on. I am full. The crepes and blackeyes were delicious. I have money in my pocket– silver coins and a few quarters. My loved ones are just a reach or a
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This is a little side trip I’ve been meaning to take for weeks. We begin with commonplaces, or commonplace books as they came to be known. A commonplace originally was an extract of thought used as the basis or starting place of a line of argument or debate. Cicero encouraged students to record these commonplaces
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Originally published on December 31, 2011– Big Food etc.’s first year. I love family traditions. My mother, who is not especially superstitious but who has no problem passing along superstitious traditions, taught me that the way in which one ends an old year and rings in a new year will be way in which one will
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“A dinner invitation is the highest form of courtesy. That is why it requires prompt and very courteous acknowledgment. “Ordinarily dinner invitations are issued ten days ahead, unless it is a very large formal affair, when two full weeks are allowed. It is not good form to send an invitation just about a day or
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We are in 1600s England, learning how children learned to read. Mrs. E.M. Fields has this to say: arrière-pensée n. A mental reservation, as about the validity of something. And there you have it. Commentary on what was wrong in 1891. The Child and His Book: Some Account of the History and Progress of Children’s
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“When a young man has been asked to call by a young lady, he does not ask to see her alone but requests of the servant at the door that he be announced to the ladies. This is especially important, for it infers that he expects to be presented to the young lady’s mother or her
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You’re wondering what’s become of Missy Missy’s School, aren’t you? Me too. I think I’ve mentioned that I’ve rejected the self-publishing idea. Bebe deserves better, and so does the book. So I have to craft a query letter. Of 5000 characters. You read that correctly. 30,000 words (+/-) reduced to 5000 characters and including something
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Just finished up the table with books about books, including books about children’s books. Got sidetracked yesterday. Would up ordering six more in the general category. That’s what happens when you follow crumbs. Got sidetracked again this morning. The Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (1941) is a treasure chest of information. The Table of Contents
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“This is one of the most delectable of all cheese concoctions, and not difficult to make. It needs only a green salad and hot rolls or hot garlic bread to make a meal.” —Lousene Rousseau Brunner, Casserole Magic (1953) QUICHE LORRAINE X Serves 6 Unbaked 10-inch pie shell 6 slices bacon, crisp-cooked, crumbled5 eggs, beaten
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I’ll be along with something cheery and lighthearted shortly. Meanwhile, a (para-)phrase from crappy old SNL came to mind when I read this: Heather, you ignorant slut. On the other hand, the value and worth of my little home library of crappy old books is skyrocketing. More on this idiocy here.
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Yesterday was Day Two of the annual book cleaning project. Day One was the foyer. The foyer does not have the most exciting selection of books, and nothing much changes.1 But I did discover that the back of the Bible that’s on the foyer table, open to something seasonal, has a selection of verses corresponding
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Just beautiful out there today. Sixty-six degrees, wind about 7mph with a few gusts, clear sky. Couldn’t ask for a better day to take the dogs to the peninsula and snap a few photos. Hope your day is going well! And now, back to book cleaning. Maybe. We’ll see.
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I could spend some time there. From Ace of Spades Headquarters Sunday Morning Book Thread where the word of the day is
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What you are about to read, Dear Readers, is the best thing you will read ever.
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Cooked to perfection in a bag with many things including three cups of white wine, onion, and garlic. The roaster of fat and drippings is the star of the show today. It sat overnight in the fridge in the garage. This morning we skimmed the fat off into a bowl, making certain no gelled drippings
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