weekend update
by bam
i know. i know. i’m not supposed to be here. supposed to be off spooning lucky charms into my lazy little saturday morning mouth. well, rules, as they say, are to be broken.
so here i am. in my jammies. and my big fluffy slippers. seemed like it was time to not meander in the monday through friday way, but rather get us all here at the table, chat about just a few little things.
first off, chair people, i cannot tell you deeply enough how much i love that you are pulling up chairs. wish i could prance around in my big whites (aka slippers of many yarns), tap on your window panes, leave big pucker marks on the glass. yes, it’s true. i would kiss each one of you who is out there regularly pulling up a chair. or even just once in a while.
and i must tell you that when you step out of the shadows, boldly hit that “add a comment” button, well, then you make this the very place that i dream of it to be. it is soooooooo fine if you just like to drop in, read, scamper away. but when you add your fine thoughts, your perspective, your queries, your ponders, well, then this broth gets really rich here.
it almost gives me goosebumps the notion that chairs from maine to california are pulling up here. that dots are being connected. like souls are sniffing each other out. when that happens i just stand back, like the proudest mama that ever there was, and watch magic unfold.
now about that “add a comment” button. do not be afraid. just add. someone asked me just this week, a couple someones i think, if there were rules. heck no! i am not a rule girl, despite my many years of good catholic nuns. (my nuns, by the way, were behind the convent, smoking cigarettes, wearing shorts, stripping off their veils. so that tells you something about my formative catholic years.)
back to rules: no, there are no commenting rules. well, yes, there is one. be polite. please. but that’s not something i need to tell chair people. sing your heart out, like blessed brilliant wm ulysses (wow, can that man write). charm us with tales from your front (see just about any jcv or pv-az post). take us to a new height (all of the above, plus jan the moon lady). delight us with your word play (check out thelonius; and, by the way, how’s that for a name?) unspool your wisdom (mbw on children’s books comes droolingly to mind, but there are so many others). drop in like the old friend you once were and are once again (kd-nj, hullo). pop up here and there, melting us every time (susan, nancy, becc, blessed becc. or even vpk). you might even insert a question, a question to think of all day (carol z, aka bread-delivery queen).
write like you are writing to friends, which i hope we will all become, if we aren’t already. say whatever strikes your fancy. and please please, talk among yourselves. you don’t have to talk to me. i just get the yarn rolling each morn. i am only the beginning.
oh, and one more thing: if there is a spool of conversation that you still want to meander, don’t feel compelled to stick only to the meander of the latest day. (we’re still thinking about what’s called a forum page, so you can easily talk among yourselves, following a particular thread ‘til the spool runs dry.)
but, truly, if you care to sit in silence, you are just as welcome as us wordy ones.
one other thing before me and my slippers shuffle away: seems not all of you are seeing this the way i do, and i don’t mean in a metaphysical or philosophical sense. i mean graphics. plain, old, what you see with your eyeballs.
i see the words that i type in a font that looks, well, just like an old typewriter. some of you do not. i am learning these things. occasionally, i’m told, that mucks things up. words slide behind pictures. pictures eclipse thoughts. not a good thing.
so the committee on graphic construction is considering a little reconstruction (though it pains me to give up the typewriter, although not so much if you can’t see it anyway). so, let’s all pull in our chairs, and give me your vote.
i could start writing in this, which is called georgia, and which my technical wizards think is cool, think is different, think is the closest approximation to typewriter that almost all computers can read.
or i could go for my old stand-by, times new roman, the type i have used for years and years, the type that i first loved. now that i see them cheek-to-cheek, i think i can see why the wizards want door no. 1. but that doesn’t mean i could ditch my first love….
anyway, it’s out on the table. i’ll sure hate to let go of this baby, american typewriter. it’s the font that birthed pull up a chair.
so that’s about it, people. back to your cheerios. back to your froot loops. i’m off to rustle up bagels, lox, the works, for my boy who did not get the part of his dreams, but who is weathering it well. we invited over the boy who did get the big part. and my boy, the fiddler’s butcher, the man who wants to marry daughter no. 1, is taking in wisdom that will last his life long.
see you monday. when i’ll be back to meander. in the meantime, i’ll put some fresh morsels onto the lazy susan. not now, but by the time the weekend is done.
here’s the big kiss i’m smearing on your windowpane. mwah. and here’s me, shuffling away….
Okay, first of all, getting a Saturday morning surprise made my day (although you are under no obligation to make it a weekly ritual), and the fuzzy slippers are the snuggly best. Yep, I’m also a fan of the typewriter font, but … paired up side by side, ‘Georgia’ does appear clearer on my screen. Still, I love the distinctive look of the older style type.I have to say that the talent that appears daily, both in the meandering and the commenting, is truly amazing. As they say, birds of a feather …bam … what a wonder you are. Words woven so skillfully, so whimsically, so delightfully … ahhhhhhh. My daily dose of wonderful. Thelonius (and you know who you are), your words are lyrical, a symphony … wm ulysses, well, just ‘wow’. And to others who enjoy an occasional snack or the daily feast of this site … join in! You don’t have to be an award-winning writer to post your thoughts. I have found that after cozying up to such brilliance, I can be a grown-up in my peanut-butter’n’jelly world.Finally, hey jcv … still waitin’ on that apricot walnut muffin recipe. If it’s a secret, don’t worry … it’s safe with me.
Oops, almost forgot …wk … break a leg (just not your neck again, please)
PJV-AZ, the recipe’s no secret–I already gave it up. It’s from The New Basics (you know, Sheila Lukins and Julee Rosso), and it’s their cherry-buttermilk muffin recipe. I’m sure it’s just right as written, just don’t futz with it (see my emendations, after-school snack entry) and it will reward you no doubt. By the way I completely and totally don’t believe in secret recipes–they are always a thing to be shared.Thank you everyone for a fun table!
in taking a chair i found a voice. many many thanks for the venue and for the feedback. a door has opened for this journeyman.as for typefaces, if nuns wearing spandex could smoke filterless cigarettes out back of the convent, then perhaps “pull up…” could use not one but many typefaces. different faces for different moods. i’ve no idea of the technology required but it seems you have a mighty fine techno-geek committee there on maple avenue.now, specific to your question: georgia is clear, large and easily read on my samsung flat screen monitor. roman new york times also works but is commonplace, small “c” catholic, you could say. let’s think in other directions, other dimensions. perhaps on a certain day a handwritten style fits the bill, then your committee could program something like Bradley ITC. or the grand day may arrive when a continental script does the trick and you zap to us with Blackadder, Edwardian or French Script MT. we love “pull up” in the present form; Courier – new or old – always works.sometimes photos overlap text, but we weave it all together nonetheless, and WE LOVE, repeat WE LOVE THE PHOTOS!!ps: while writing this message the cat climbed upon my lap, and then – as he is wont to do – hopped upon the olive burl parsons table that serves as desk, walked across the keyboard and poof the note vanished. well, he’s gone on his way to find a warmer lap and i had two turns at this response. enjoy!pps: while trying to submit the response i seemed to misenter the image verification. having learned from my errors, before trying to resend i copied and pasted the comment into a word document to have a back-up. and to my great surprise the text as pasted appears in “French Script MT.” I am feeling like that tonight, feeling quite fine, bolstered by the feedback. thank you.
jcv – I failed to check back on the appropriate page for the muffin recipe then went back and posted a comment after I saw your response. Thanks for replying! Still gonna try something with the apricot/walnut combo … sounds nummy to me.I agree with you … recipes are meant to be shared, like family favorites passed down. My grandma never followed a written recipe in her life so my mother followed suit and to this day doesn’t even own a recipe book, measuring cup or measuring spoon. My recipe box is filled with notes scrawled on backs of envelopes, brown paper sacks, you name it. I learned by watching them toss in this ‘n that, and my mother always said she went by ‘feel and taste’ so all of her measurements are approximations. Purists may scoff at that, but the truth of the matter is everything she made turned out amazing and I wouldn’t trade it for all the world. I remember once getting a scornful look from the teacher in my 7th Grade Home Economics Class when the daily instruction was preparing pie crust. I reported that my mother didn’t measure ingredients and her pie crust was much better than those we made in class. (I don’t think I was the teacher’s pet after that remark). Anyway, those scraps of paper are precious to me, especially the ones written down by my grandma. I still get teary just looking at her handwriting.As for me … I admit to being a bit of a perfectionist, so I do follow a strict recipe from time to time, especially when baking because formulas come into play. But, apples don’t fall far from the tree so I consider myself a ‘toss in this ‘n that’ girl when I cook and some of my kid’s favs are things I make up on the fly.
ladies, gents, muffin makers, vis a vis the above chit chat about dried cherry muffins, ala the new basics cookbook, and not being sure if that chubby text rested on everyone’s bookshelf, i took my mother hen role seriously here and posted it for all to see on this week’s lazy susan page. there are a few other new morsels there, too, so please do give the page a spin. mostly, i couldn’t stand the thought of pjv-az out there without a roadmap to the apricot-walnut muffins of her dreams. jcv, as mentioned, has her tweaks of the original, posted as a comment on the “after-school cookie therapy” meander…(see 1.25.07). and, thus, sweet pjv, you should be nibbling at your muffin dream by week’s end. love, chair mama
bam – Many thanks for taking time out of your Sunday to post the muffin recipe on The Lazy Susan … I must be the only person on earth without this cookbook. Better make a run to the nearest B&N …
Sorry to hear that your boy didn’t get the part of his dreams. My sweet Sarah didn’t get the part of her dreams either. She too is weathering it well and learning Life’s lessons. I am a big fan of the Georgia font. For some reason, I just love the way numbers look in that font. And I’m also a big fan of your photos.
I vote for the Georgia font ,much easier to read on the black background for meand the photos are more and more beautiful, please tell the graphics dept.
Oh, PJV-AZ, don’t bother with the B & N run till you check it out of the library…. The book’s a little on the fussy side, pretty much at the complete opposite end of the spectrum from grandma’s paper scrap notes…