COME TREASURE HUNTING WITH US!
Tastebud Tango, 5-1-06
COME TREASURE HUNTING WITH US!
'Twas the merry month of May
when Internet viewers said "Hey!
nonny no" and so . . .
on.
"What are we doing indoors?"
What indeed? People desert the Internet in droves when the weather gets nice, and my sympathies are with them. So I'll make the summer newsletters a bit lighter, and I'll try to cluster the more important items near the top, so you can hit the high points in a hurry. (Okay, "Doody Calls" isn't important, but I thought you might enjoy it all the same.)
In the fall, life will again become
Real . . .
and Earnest
and so . . .
on . . .
etc.
----Table of Contents----
1. Doody Calls
2. Travel with Pets
3. The Da Vinci Code
4. Tributes to Our Mothers
5. Cooley's Gardens
6. Looking at Summer Stars
7. Froogle Does It Again!
8. Astronomy
9. The Stars for Kids and Grownups
10. Webby Awards
11. Big Fat Institute
12. Picnicking Across the U.S.
13. Recipe: Golden Egg Salad Sandwich Filling
1. DOODY CALLS
We passed a "Doodycalls.com" pickup that said, "When nature calls, we answer." We had a good laugh and wondered if it was what it sounded like. Answer: yep. They say, "Let us clean up after your dog and make your lawn a fun, clean and safe place to be. We offer weekly, every-other week, once-a-month and one-time cleanings. We also clean, disinfect, and deodorize decks, patios, dog runs and kennels. . . ." If they're not in your area, and they probably are not, you can start a Doody Calls franchise.
And let me add that this is the perfect opportunity for the new college graduate who is idealistic, who wants work that is close to nature, work that is natural and organic, work that will MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
Nothing, NOTHING is closer to nature than doody, as you will recall from the last time you got close to its nature. Nothing is more natural and organic than doody. And does removing it ever make a difference!
2. TRAVEL WITH PETS
You'll find on the website below 41,000 places where your pet can stay with you, plus many other resources for people traveling with pets. You do have to join to get the benefits. When I went to the site membership cost all of $1.95.
A hint: about 50 million websites want you to "join," with user name and password. My system is always to give the same user name and password for sites that don't matter, like this one. Once in awhile a site throws a curve ball, wanting to assign me a password, but usually I know my password, because it's always the same one. On sites that MATTER, like bank sites, I of course use an entirely different and secret password, not the one that's all over the Internet.
3. THE DA VINCI CODE
On May 19, Hollywood is opening its new blockbuster film, based on the book by the same name, "The da Vinci Code," by Dan Brown. As is the custom with blockbusters, studio publicists are "da Vinci-ing" us in many subtle ways. The book and film are highly controversial - if you can call something "controversial" when it is based on no evidence at all. Brown claims, for example, that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married. If you're interested in the Christian -- which also happens to be the scholarly -- point of view, you can check out the following three websites.
First is Westminster Seminary's excellent website:
http://www.thetruthaboutdavinci.com/
Second is Focus on the Family's da Vinci page. (Focus on the Family has a regular movie review section, incidentally.)
http://www.family.org/topics/a0039854.cfm
And third is a scholarly website that pulls together a number of authorities from different areas:
http://www.thedavincichallenge.com/
4. TRIBUTES TO OUR MOTHERS
You may recall that I invited subscribers to write special tributes to their mothers, so that I could publish them in a special edition of the newsletter. I got a number of really lovely tributes before the April 20 deadline, and sometime between now and Mother's Day I'll be sending everyone the special Tastebud Tango Mother's Day issue with the tributes. I also plan to post the tributes on my Foodandfiction.com Nostalgia page. You'll be able to see them there AFTER MAY 8 by going to
http://foodandfiction.com/Nostalgia/index.html
5. COOLEY'S GARDENS
Mail order catalogs offer a greater variety of plants, usually for lower prices, than local nurseries. It's too late to mail order most things, but a few delights remain, one of them being iris. The iris plant blooms gorgeously in May and June, then goes dormant in midsummer. Midsummer is the time to divide yours and move them. And May and June are the months in which to buy iris online or from a catalog.
I have happy childhood memories of my parents leafing through the Cooley's Gardens iris catalogs, tempted here, there, and everywhere. Every Montana winter my mother lost roses, but the iris came through unscathed. And in my book Cooley's Gardens are the absolute best for tall bearded iris. They don't go in for Louisiana, Siberian, or Japanese iris. Just the one kind, but the ones they offer are simply superb!
And here's a thought: if your mother loves flowers, you could make her a Mother's Day gift of iris from Cooley's Gardens - either ones she picks out or, if you know her tastes, ones you pick out. She'll plant them this July, they'll bloom in her garden next year, and I can guarantee that they will be the most beautiful iris you or your mother have ever seen - so much more beautiful than the other iris you see around town that there's simply no comparison.
6. LOOKING AT SUMMER STARS
One of my happiest memories is of the night our family returned to our Montana farm, got out of the car, and looked up to see a sky of such clarity that we gazed at layer upon layer of stars, beyond and beyond to what seemed to be the end of the cosmos. My mother went in the house, brought out a blanket, and we spent the next hour on our backs on the blanket on the grass, stargazing. "There's the northern lights!" "Look! There's a falling star! And another!"
It's increasingly difficult to do that now, due to light pollution from populated areas. But, if you don't live out in the country, perhaps you'll be going to the shore or to a national park during your vacation. Which means that you can still enjoy a good star show, especially on a moonless night. (And, since light pollution gets worse every year, maybe you'd better not postpone the show.)
A fellow named John Dobson has changed what we non-astronomers can see at night by bringing telescopes within the average person's budget. The Sidewalk Astronomers website explains, "Initially, Dobson made telescopes by grinding the mirrors from discarded ship's windows and the bottoms of gallon jugs. Most of them were twelve inchers, six or seven feet long, mounted on what are now known as Dobsonian mounts. They were wheeled from house to house on old rusty wheels from a child's discarded wagon." To find out how you can make your own relatively inexpensive Dobson telescope, come here:
http://members.aol.com/sfsidewalk/cdobplans.htm
7. FROOGLE DOES IT AGAIN!
I've had a good time lately quoting Froogle's prices on this and that and watching people gape. Froogle is part of Google, of course, and Google offers so many things that people's eyes glaze over, and they don't notice Froogle. HOWEVER, many times a new item bought through Froogle is cheaper than a used one bought through eBay. That's because the merchants selling an item are competing with one another, and competition lowers prices. So, just for fun, I put "telescopes" in the search box for Froogle. The cheapest one, a beginner's telescope, was $55. You could hardly make your own for that. Oops! I take that back. When I looked again, the cheapest one, a 50-power, 50 mm. Smithsonian telescope, was $19 from Target. If you use Froogle, you will not have to go to Target to get the telescope. Target will mail it to you. And, though you won't find a new galaxy with it, you can have a lovely evening with your $19 telescope, the moon, and the stars.
8. ASTRONOMY
You'd expect a site called "Astronomy.com" to be good, and it is. The lefthand steering column has a section, "Intro to Astronomy" which is just the thing for us amateurs. The site is absolutely packed with fascinating information -- though some of the most fascinating is for their magazine subscribers only. Can't blame them for that.
http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx
9. THE STARS FOR KIDS AND GROWNUPS
Below is a simply WONDERFUL site for kids, which leads you to many other sites, for kids and grownups too, about the stars and constellations, including the NASA Solar System Simulator:
http://www.athropolis.com/links/const.htm
Anthropolis is part of a larger story for kids that begins at
http://www.athropolis.com/story.htm
10. WEBBY AWARDS
The Webby Awards have been around for ten years. Never heard of them before? Me either . . . but they're like the Oscars and the Emmies, only the Webbies are awarded to the best websites and online newsletters. It costs $245 to nominate a website or newsletter for one of these awards, which immediately cooled my enthusiasm for nominating Tastebud Tango. But, if you are willing to go through a fr*ee registration process, you can look over the sites people have so expensively nominated, and you can vote for the ones you like best.
http://webbyawards.com/webbys/
And of course, after the winners are announced on May 9, I'll be writing up the websites I think will be most interesting to you.
11. BIG FAT INSTITUTE
Here's a gem among the Webby Award nominees. The Big Fat Institute (motto: "We're proud to be held responsible for almost everything we do") is sorta fifties. And DEFINITELY a takeoff on the business writing and advertising we've endured for years. Note: when you're on the site but nothing seems to be happening on the screen, click on stuff until something does happen. It just needs a little encouragement.
http://www.bigfatinstitute.org/index_flash.html
12. PICNICKING ACROSS THE U.S.
Alan Eastep has been picnicking his way across the U.S. for some summers now, taking a different route each year. When I visited his site, it had logged 4,054,067 visitors who were checking out where Alan has been and is going and what he's eating on the way.
http://www.alanskitchen.com/PICNICKING/default.html
13. RECIPE: GOLDEN EGG SALAD SANDWICH FILLING
A simple and tasty picnic choice from my cookbook, "Steamin' Down the Tracks with Viola Hockenberry." It makes filling for one or two sandwiches, depending on your definition of sandwich and how thick you make them.
1 large hard-boiled egg
1/4 cup grated raw carrot
mayonnaise or Miracle Whip
optional prepared mustard or curry powder
optional lettuce
Mash together all ingredients except lettuce, using enough mayonnaise to moisten the mix. You may also enjoy a teaspoon of mustard or 1/2 teaspoon of curry powder in this sandwich mixture. Some do. I do.
You will not taste the grated carrot in the above filling; you will simply feel that this is an unusually fresh-tasting and delicious egg salad sandwich. It's probably best not to tell the kids that it's good for them, but it is.
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Janette Blackwell