Arsenic and Old Lace

Video posted to YouTube by davinci5152
This is a Halloween tale of Brooklyn, where anything can happen and usually does.”among the opening titles to the Frank Capra movie, Arsenic and Old Lace.
Set in Brooklyn, New York (the center of the universe) in 1941, this Halloween movie is the funniest of all time.  The [...]

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Once Upon a Time in Brooklyn

Video posted to YouTube by videomix22.

Photograph courtesy of Wikipedia under GNU Free Documentation License.

It requires more strength to be gentle, so it’s the everyday encounter of  life that I think we’ve prepared children for and prepared them to be good to other people and to consider other people.” Bob Keeshan aka “Captain [...]

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On the Move Again

Photograph source unknown.
In the process of moving, packing, arranging for a moving company, all that good stuff.  Should be back to a regular writing schedule by the middle of next week.

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Atlantic Avenue and Stuffed Grape Leaves

Photograph courtesy of PD Photo.org

Among the brick pots, buckets, and rakes
A row of inverted grape leaves climbs to a pale green
“The Sea-Garden, “ Fanny Howe,  Selected Poems
My grandmother and my Lebanese aunts did lots of traditional cooking, but my mom didn’t.  So we made periodic trips to Atlantic Avenue to eat at Julia W’s Lebanese restaurant where we’d [...]

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Lasagna, Best Brooklyn Food Memory

Photograph by PD Photo.org

Lasagna is both a noodle and a dish and is derived from the Greek word lasanon. Popular all over the world, lasagna is made in many different ways. From meats and vegetables, to different kinds of sauces and cheeses, lasagna is a favorite dish for many people.” Jace Shoemaker-Galloway, in the July 17, 2009 issue [...]

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Subsidiary Dieties I Have Known

THE BROOKLYN CANINE  COMPANIONS:

Photograph of Brutus from our family album.
“A kind of additional or subsidiary Deity designed to catch the overflow and surplus of the world’s worship . . .  The Dog is a survival — an anachronism.  He toils not, neither does he spin, yet Solomon in all his glory never lay upon a door-mat [...]

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Heads-up: September is Hunger Action Month

My haul from Tuesday’s farmers’ market two weeks ago.

Dear Jamie,
September is just around the corner.  At Feeding America, we’re gearing up for Hunger Action Month!
Hunger Action Month is a nationwide effort to inspire the public to get involved in the fight against hunger.  Throughout September, Feeding America and our 200 member food banks will raise [...]

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Roman Egg Drop Soup, Gluten Free

Photograph of chickens from PD Photo.org

Photograph by M. Chambers via Wikipedia under GNU free documentation license.

Yet another luxurious farmers’ market haul with a few veggies from a friend’s garden.

The finished product, La Stracciatella (Roman Egg Drop Soup), wheat-and-gluten free and chock full of vegetables. 

From time immemorial, soups and broths have been the worldwide medium for utilizing what we call [...]

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Hi, Honey! I’m home . . .

Photograph by Jamie Dedes.
“It just makes me feel sooooo connected with the Universe.” Overheard in a little French bistro in the Monterey area of California.
When I overheard the above quoted comment I thought, “She must have a refined spiritual practice!”  Further eavesdropping revealed that the lady – well into her 80s – was talking about [...]

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On Hiatus . . .

  
Photograph from New York Public Library collection.

You, who stood alone in the tall bay window
of a Brooklyn brownstone, conjuring morning
with free-flying words, knew the power, terror
in words, in flying;”
Elegy for a Soldier by Marilyn Hacker in Desesperanto: Poems 1999-2002

I am on hiatus for approximately six weeks.  Meanwhile, I leave you with an old-time Brooklyn picture [...]

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