The Good, the Bad, and the Puzzling

The Good.


I attended two shows last week.

On Wednesday it was "Private Lives" by Noël Coward. It's a 1930's comedy of manners in which a divorced couple, who have each remarried, meet on their second honeymoons. It was well performed, I thought, and quite entertaining. It's probably best not to think too seriously about how this would all be in real life and what it would mean for the characters — just relax and enjoy the ride. James Waterston (Sam W.'s son) had the male lead and played the piano very well in the second act.

Then on Thursday I attended one of what is billed as the final performances anywhere of Hershey Felder's one man show "George Gershwin Alone." It was a fascinating look at the musical life of the composer. To me, the most poignant bit was when he told of an incident a couple of weeks before Gershwin's death. He was working in Hollywood had gone late at night to a dark soundstage and was playing a piano when heard a noise. It was a fifteen year old janitor, to whom the name Gershwin meant nothing — didn't even know what a composer is — but got permission to take a picture of him. After the show finished, Felder came back out for a brief singalong of things requested by the audience. After it was all over it occurred to me that it would have been fun to call out a request for "God Bless America" since both Gershwin's mother and Sam Goldwyn had suggested that he should write music that was more like Irving Berlin's. But Felder and the audience might have thought it was a mistake, rather than a joke.



The Bad.

For St. Boniface's Day I decided to celebrate with a veal chop for dinner. I would brown the chop and some slices of leek in a little oil, then add water and simmer it for about twenty minutes. Meanwhile I'd make a nice white sauce (butter, flour, milk) with shiitake mushrooms. I added chervil and mild paprika, then wavered for a minute between "Beau Monde Seasoning" (an onion and celery flavored salt) and plain salt, finally deciding on the latter, and as I went to sprinkle some in, the top fell off the shaker and a tablespoon or more of salt fell into the sauce. I removed what I could, but it was still terribly salty and ruined the meal. It later occurred to me that I should have rinsed the mushrooms and started over.

Then on Friday I decided to try something I'd been thinking about from time to time: tuna salad with tomato paste. I put a bit of mayonnaise on slices of bread and on a leaf of swiss chard. I took half a can of tuna, a tablespoon of tomato paste, and a tablespoon of mayo and mixed them well with a fork and assembled the sandwich. The tomato paste was too much. The sandwich wasn't as bad as the sauce on the veal. In fact I may try it again, but with considerably less tomato past. In the right proportion, I think it could add an interesting bit of flavor.


The Puzzling.


As some of you may have noticed, Martin has been unable to reach me by e-mail recently. (See comments on that post.) I've sent e-mails to him with three possible addresses to use for me. I sent one to the address in his blogger profile (which is the one that shows when I get e-mail notification of his comments), and I sent one to the address he put in his recent comment on the previous post. He doesn't seem to have gotten either. If you're still reading I'd like request a favor from you:
please send an e-mail titled "Test" to me at the address given in my profile, another to me at naturgesetz@gmail.com, one to Martin at the address from his profile, and finally one to martin-klaus.wisser@web.de, and when you've done so, please let us know by posting a comment here. That way, maybe we can begin to figure out where the problem is. Thanks.

Merry Christmas

     Warmest best wishes for a very Merry Christmas to all who read this post. Even if you aren't a Christian I hope you will have a great day. And for Christians, we have the added joy of remembering the birth of the one who came to bring us eternal life by uniting humanity with God in his own person and redeeming us from our sinfulness.

     I've already helped out at my parish's 4:00 Mass, and I plan to be at the Midnight Mass and at the 11:00 a.m. one. My brother who is visiting from Boston and I will exchange presents, and open a few from outside the house, around 7:30 a.m. At 2:00 p.m. we'll join our aunt and three of her friends for dinner. Since I won't have any leftover turkey, I'll cook a rib roast for dinner for my brother and me on the second day of Christmas, aka Boxing Day, aka St. Stephen's Day.

     Here are a few views of the decorations at the Naturgesetz place.

Wreath beside side door.

Wreath on front door.

My Christmas tree on the mantel. Including the base, it's about 21 inches tall. You can see a portrait of my dad reflected in the mirror. It was painted when he was about 45 for my grandfather. We got it when Gramps died. If the place looks a bit cluttered, that's because it is.

Quilt on the side door.

Japanese picture from brother and sister-in-law, hung on wall scroll in entry hall.

This one's in the living room. You can see that it is thirty years old. It's homemade. I like thistles. If I were entitled to a floral badge, I think I'd choose the thistle. You can see the straps at the corners that hold the picture on the scroll.

Creche on top of TV.  Photo is one of my great grandmothers. She's working on a piece of embroidery which is framed on the wall above and to the right of this scene. The photo is in a frame made by my grandfather (her son-in-law). The vase is from Prince Edward Island, and I cut the roses a couple of months ago. (This great grandmother was not one of my PEI ancestors.)

Poinsettia from church.

Painting by fellow blogger Dean Grey , titled "Christmas Apple." Strictly speaking, it's not a Christmas decoration, since I'll have it visible all year. But I decided to include it because of the title and because it arrived in the mail today, December 24. In the picture, it is in a small wall niche. To the right is a bronze piece depicting St. Boniface which I probably got in Fulda in 2005. Since I took this picture, I have put the painting in a frame and moved it to my bedroom.

     Again, Merry Christmas to all.

June 5 — St Boniface, Apostle of Germany

Here's the Wiki article. More is available at Google.

I've been to Fulda twice and both times visited his tomb in the cathedral and prayed for Germany. It's a pleasant enough city.