It began in the Roaring Twenties and went on for decades, at least into the Forties. The world’s best cookie had boys lined up every Christmas season. The location: 96 Clay Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York. The fact that there were four – count ‘em – pretty girls of different ages inside the modest wooden-framed house where the baking was
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Toads Whew! Thankfully – as it turns out – they may have never left. Last night at our brief nine o’clock walk Ernie just off the carport slab bumped his nose into something. I flicked on my flashlight and there it was: a new small toad. He is different because his color and pattern on the back are a tad
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Having moved from Houston I’ve been in my Texas country homestead for two and one-half years. Respecting the environment I’ve tried very hard never to intentionally kill any animal, bug or insect. Even when inside I trap navigationally-challenged flies, bees and spiders into an empty veggie can. Using a thin piece of cardboard as a cover I then give them
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Well, the laws of celestial bodies have finally kicked in and summer is a thing of the past. Although here in south central Texas you still have to look over your shoulder because you never really know when heat will return like a tenant – with good riddance – you evicted. The point was well made last night listening to
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Recently back from our respective vacations Ernie and I resume our early morning walks. Before I open the door I shine the flashlight through the glass and check its bottom outside: is our little toad ensconced in the corner? He isn’t. So with full enthusiasm we go into the darkness; Ern’s leash is on because I never know if we
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The pictured cork bottle-stoppers remain shrouded in mystery. Of course I know who owned them and where the hand-carved and painted collection originated: brought from France by my grandfather. He emigrated to the U.S. shortly before WWI. There isn’t a lot of detail about his growing up before that. What is a fact is that he spent his new life
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In the classic 1939 movie Hunchback of Notre Dame hump-backed bell-ringer Quasimodo [played by Charles Laughton] from a deaf judge receives a sentence of fifty lashes.[*] From the pillory after the last one he begs for a drink of “ Water. Water.” The masses guffaw derisively. Only the beautiful gypsy girl Esmeralda dares to walk through the hushed throng and
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This afternoon my memory was jogged as I wandered inside the local Walmart. There they were stacked up in an aisle so that you couldn’t avoid them: Twinkies. I tried to just walk-on-by but the smile on my face forced a U-turn to pick up a box. The fact that they are both Limited Edition and Key Lime Slimed only added to the
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It could be a guy thing: appreciating all kinds of tools. And I am not talking about ubiquitous, electronic gizmos. The subject is tactile instruments that you hold in your two hands to accomplish a task: forged steel, careful twists of aluminum or sculpted wood. It might even be a combination of all three and more. For example, I have
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Comfort food. We all have at least one. What’s yours? One of mine is Dunkin Donuts, but not just any of their assorted shapes and tastes. I fall victim to The French Cruller. Oo la la, sooooo good it is enough to make Marie Antoinette say, “Let them eat French Crullers”. Until a few years ago there weren’t any Dunkin’s
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