Masterpiece Theater.....Masterful!

I love the music that begins Masterpiece Theater.  It seems to announce the arrival of something regal....and it often does just that. Recently I started watching it on Sunday evenings. It is starting to become a weekly ritual. The good news is that if I miss an episode, I can later watch it online, so no break in the mini-series that may only have 3 or 4 episodes.  The writing is superb, the storylines captivating....they almost each seem to be worthy of an Oscar type award.   When I consider a lot junk that's on tv, it's nice to know there is something like Masterpiece Theater....PBS have been threatened with elimination of federal funding....what a loss that would be. With all them money people spend on hundreds of garbage  cable and dish channels, it's amazing more donors don't give to Public Television and Radio...shouldn't we aspire to greater quality in all things including tv. Not if we rely on sponsors like beer companies and soft drink companies, or sugary cereal companies.  I guess if you think about what those companies are peddling, it may explain the shows they sponsor.

Meyer Lemons and Greek Yogurt

One of the beauties of living in the 21st Century is the availability of  foods.  I don't mean the types conconcted at some food lab in New Jersey, but foods from other areas of the country and the world....If a recipe calls for Meyers Lemon...no problem if you live in a fairly populated area and have literally dozens of grocery stores available within a ten mile radius. No more having to go to Greece for Greek Yogurt....it's now prolific on store shelves. I remember having a new student arriving from Russia many years ago to find that there were literally dozens of types of ice cream.  She had only heard of vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. (No Bubblegum flavor there!) In the United States we have the luxury of being able to find endless quantities  and varieties of food from both near and far.  There was a time years ago when many food were only available during a very short season. Now with advanced transportation, freezers and such, those days have gone by. Do you know I can actually remember the first time I ever tasted pizza ? I was about 7 years old and it was offered to me at a friend's house.  It seemed like an exotic offering...I am sure most kids taste pizza shortly after their teeth start coming in.  Oh the varieties of restaurants we now have...Thai, Indian, Somalian, Vietnamese...the list goes on...no doubt influenced by the influx of immigrants..We get bored with foods and want endless variety...pages of offerings on menus. Cookbooks galore, right down to highly specific ones such as 25 Tasty Turnip Recipes. (just kidding). Now with online recipe sources, one could cook chicken in a ne way 365 days a year and never repeat...I remeber as a child being taken to a bakery in Chelsea to watch real bagels being made. They were not widely available outside of Jewish neighborhoods.Now they are as mainstream as apple pie. Maybe with all the foods we now have at our fingertips, we should go back to saying Grace for this bounty...whether to your God, or Goddess, or Mother Earth, or Human Enterprise...but just stop and give it a thought now and then...especially in a world where malnutrition and starvation still exist...out of our view.

How To Create a Consumer....from Birth!!!!

I am not talking about the parents of the said child (see blog title).  I am not talking about the sway tv ads have over impressionable minds. I am not talking about observing what  all your  little friends have. I am talking about a Gift Registry for Children...for Christmas and Birthdays, and whatever other occasions a child might be given a gift...Easter, Losing a Tooth, a Visiting Relative, Bribery for a passable Report Card.....etc.  I went to a get-together yesterday, part of which was to celebrate the Birthdays of a 7 year old and a 5 year old. I learned there that Toy R Us have to Registry for Children. I must say when it comes to being stunned in my life, this was added to that list of experience immediately.  At first I had trouble believing it....but soon realized it was no joke. Very clever of them (the toy store) to come up with such a marketing device.  Bring your child to the toys store, and let them point left, right, up, down, back and forth to all the things they want, regardless of cost, age appropriateness, safety, violence quota, or availability....Put it together, and what have you got....a mini-consumer right from the cradle. Now we as gift givers no longer have to think, to be creative, to expand the child's horizons with anything that is not on the shelf of ToysRUs!  This certainly leaves no surprises...just request exactly what you want. Voila...it appears. No more handknit sweaters from Grandma...heaven forbid she not get the Super Duper Exploding Whatever....As I think back to some of the gifts I have given my daughter, some of her favorites were things she had no ideas she was getting, and in some cases things she did not know existed (and they certainly were not exclusively from Toys R Us). Maybe my gut reaction will temper with time and I will see the value of this method....Why not just tell a host exactly what to serve for dinner when we are invited? I will have roast pork with garlic mashed potatoes, candied carrots, and a lemon souffle for dessert....should we always get exactly what we want?  What about poor kids? What if a parent is unemployed? What if you just don't think it healty to inundate your child with plastic gizmos from China. What about the gift of a special experience...A Children's Museum, a Science Museum..... Well, one thing is sure, that  practice of Re-gifting will go the way of the Dinosaur. I wonder what Seinfeld would have to say about that.

Life Plans

When my husband and I were first married many, many years ago, we sat down and wrote out some "Life Plans".  We wanted to think ahead to things we wanted to learn, to do, to experience, and places we'd like to go in our lifetime. It was quite an ambitious list. Over the years the list ended up buried in a drawer with life's detritus, but was stumbled upon one day by me not too long ago. To my surprise, we really had done quite a bit on the list. Also to my surprise, I found things on the list that in my early 20's seemed like pursuing, but now I have no inclination toward.  One that comes to mind was "becoming an expert seamstress". That likely wouldn't make my list of the top 10,000 things I'd like to do now.  Having done that list was, in retrospect, a great idea. Perhaps we all should do one of these lists at the beginning of each decade of our lives, sort of a plan for the decade rather than our ambitious " Plan for Life".  I am sure some things would remain on our lists  time after time, and others would drop away.  That would  usually be a good thing.  It shows we are dual in our nature, wishing for a lifetime for some things, yet realizing that time changes us too. Parts of that 20 something person still lingers in me.  The trip to Hawaii on the original list is staying there until it can be checked off...and it will be....very soon.

Everything's Relative......

From one who is sometimes guilty of catastrophizing events, it's worth reminding ourselves that it's all relative, and must be put into perspective after our initial meltdown (even silent ones in our heads).  The cliches once again come to mind....Tomorrow things will look better....It will all work itself out...and such words.  But aside from personal experiences and events, we really to tend to exaggerate things in what we say. For example, yesterday the temperature was above freezing for the first time in weeks. It felt absolutely"tropical" yet if I were on a beach in Florida and it was twice that temperature, I'd be so disappointed.  We say we're "freezing" when what we really mean is we are cold.  We say we are "Starving" when the hunger pangs have just kicked in.  We said we were "old"when we turned 30, when we had no idea what old really means unless we really are old, of course.Then there's the old favorite of saying you are"fat"...well some of us are a bit chubby, but I am talking about those size 0-6 people who say it.  Another favorite, saying how broke we are when we own  3 tv's, 2 computers, a summer vacation home, and some $ in the old bank account.  What we often mean is that we are short on cash at the moment (until we get to the ATM) because we have overspent on some things that really poor people couln't imagine having. Fortunately, we all know these rules, but if you aren't really old, or aren't really fat, or aren't really broke, or aren't really starving, don't make the mistake of saying you are to someone who truly is one or more of those things.

Something Has Been Bothering Me....

Well, I guess with that teaser title I have awakened the snoop in you (and me)  that likes to get into someone else's head and know what they are REALLY THINKING. Well, here you go.  With the arrival of the So-Called Social Network (among other things)...humankind has been asked...or should I say allowed to give their opinion on anything and everything no matter how ignorant or uninformed they are about something, and then somehow all these responses get treated equally.  For example, a local television station now asks during its newscast, "Let us know what you think about THUS AND SUCH." At the end of the broadcast they say, 62 percent of you believe this and 38 percent of you believe that. What nonsense! Let's look at one I have been hearing people venture opinion on....Should we cut US Aid to Egypt?  Go ahead and ask a bunch of people. You'll get some percentage saying yes, another percentage saying no, hopefully you will get some who say, "I am not in a position to really venture an opinion on that.  I really need to hear from people who are experts in US Foreign Aid Policy and History, as well as Egyptian History, Politics, Sociology, Economics (to just list a few)...and hear detailed discussions from informed people, then perhaps draw I might be in any way qualified to venture an opinion. In many things no one can be sure (even those with years of learning and experience....but to ask any  man/woman on the street is unforgivable.  It tells that man/woman on the street that what they have to say is equally valid to people who have watched and studied such matters for decade.  What if we did this with medical treatment? (Well, actually, now that I think of it, some people do.) You get stupid, uninformed answers like "Oh my Great Aunt Mabel had that done and she died during the procedure....tranlation YOU WILL DIE IF YOU DO THIS. Or My Great Aunt Mabel had this done and she lived to be 110.....translation YOU WILL LIVE TO BE 110 IF YOU DO THIS. We need to stop venturing opinions and drawing conclusions on things we know almost nothing about. We can try give the odds like ITS LIKELY, OR  PERHAPS HIGHLY UNLIKELY CHANCE THIS OR THAT WILL HAPPEN. But things that are nearly impossible happen all the time in life, and things that seem like sure bets, can be eradicated  in their tracks without warning. Life is a crap shoot in all matters to a greater or lesser degree.  You will win some and you will lose some. I can say it will be HIGHLY LIKELY THAT YOU WILL LOSE SOME THAT SEEMED INEVITABLE, AND YOU WILL WIN SOME THAT YOU NEVER ON EARTH CONSIDERED POSSIBLE. Remember the inverse is true too. So I say, look at the odds, consider the possible outcomes, and then place your bet if you are the Betting Kind.