Full and happy

Los Angeleno by birth, Northwesterner by choice, Second-hander by nature. Librarian, housebound chef, father, and lowly subject ruled over by the needs and whims of a very old house.
Partial to Mexican, Italian and Vietnamese cookery but will eat damn near anything. Collector of many strange things..the result is chaos and anarchy and a very pleasant place to live.
There is pleasure in accumulation, not just "collecting": music, books and film, in all their multi-formated glory. Outsider artists and those kinds of prints you would recognize if you took liberal studies classes in college. Cooking implements and gadgets for recipes still untried or those ventured. Glasses for most types of libations. Flowers in the garden, herbs in the pot.
It's a life of the senses and a good home life reflects that. Walking helps take in all the rest. Requires no special equipment, opens up the pores, brightens the taste buds, clears the decks for further adventures, puts on the miles, widens the eyes and helps fuel the imagination.

Live boldly, play graciously and love with all your heart knowing that true love comes only once or twice in this lifetime. Speaking of which..donde estas, Empress of my Heart?

Salud!

"Lack imagination and miss the better story" Yann Martel

"Life is a great adventure and I want to say to you, accept it in such spirit. I want to see you face it ready to do the best that lies in you to win out. To go down without complaining and abiding by the result....the worst of all fears is the fear of living." Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.

"Not I - not anyone else, can travel that road for you
You must travel it for yourself" Walt Whitman


And above all, friends should possess the rare gift of sitting. They should be able, no, eager, to sit for hours-three, four, six-over a meal of soup and wine and cheese, as well as one of twenty fabulous courses.

Then, with good friends of such attributes, and good food on the board, and good wine in the pitcher, we may well ask,

When shall we live if not now?

-From Serve it Forth,
M.F.K. Fisher


Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Christmas in Vietnam and other interesting holiday blog pieces


Just a few interesting holiday posts and blogs I stumbled upon looking up images of Old Saint Nick:
Operation Santa, including a great link to NORAD's Christmas Eve Santa tracking device:
http://www.operationlettertosanta.com/index.htm

The Tropic Lightning newspaper, circa 1969:

http://www.25thida.org/TLN/tln4-51.htm


An overview of the real St Nicholas:

http://www.stnicholassociety.com/Office/


Santa "primitives" from Kentucky and then some:

http://www.kentuckyprimitives.com/


Old St Nick and Old Nick in cahoots:
The story of Coca-Cola's take on Santa Claus:
http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/heritage/cokelore_santa.html

Lastly, a strange and wacky little blog, this post featuring an old Mexican lobby card:
http://thoughtviper.com/inexob/arch67.html

1 comment:

dulcigal said...

We have a Coca-Cola Santa from Ken's family, although the Coke bottle that Santa once held is long gone; we think one of the brothers must have "borrowed" it years ago. It's actually kind of creepy looking without the soda bottle. Both of our kids have been clear: neither one wants to inherit it. Poor unloved Santa.

Those were interesting links!