It’s that foot-tall wall of compressed flakes at the end of the driveway that concerns me. The stuff the city’s snowplows leave us in clearing our streets.
Not that I don’t appreciate having cleared pavement once I get out.
It’s my story and I’m sticking to them
Looking back, I am surprised to realize how much of my fiction remains, at heart, reporting. Yes, despite elements of surrealism, fantasy, even absurdity.
Do I regret all the time and effort that have seemingly gone nowhere?
Sometimes, yes, but there’s also a sense of pride and a better sense of identity because I have these in hand. The sense of loss would have been greater otherwise.
Along the way, family and friends were slighted, along with public service or political activism. Even outings to the mountains or beach became less frequent. From what I’ve seen, writers make lousy spouses or partners. Consider yourself warned.
I am surprised by the amount of labor that took place in my odd free hours after my sabbatical. Also, by what a bold and risky move taking that year off had been. It did nothing to enhance my resume, for one thing. And I’ll return to the lack of health insurance but spare you the rant about how the current system, even with Obamacare, inhibits entrepreneurial advances. It’s something I couldn’t have done if I weren’t single, not unless I had a very supportive partner. (And then I would have felt guilty. Go figure.)
Let me confess my obsessive (Pollyannish?) looking for natural beauty, wherever; my need to have a connection to soil and water while overlooking the obvious ugliness. Applicable to the hippie thing, too.
And then there was the emotional pain buried in my psyche, a deep well to tap.
I’ve said nothing of the years of therapy since leaving Baltimore or the ways they’ve enriched the writing. Here I had thought such “healing” would impair my writing, but it’s not so. Both long rounds instead opened emotions to me, not just the intellect.
I’m still baffled by the lack of novels by others closely reflecting the places and experiences I encountered.
Jeffrey Eugenides has come closest, though he was still off in the future. Not just his Greek-American perspective, but his Midwest roots not that much different from mine.
Richard Farina’s Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me and Norman Gurney’s Divine Right’s Trip catch other corners. Tom Wolfe’s Electric Acid Kool Aid Test misses altogether, and, besides, it wasn’t even fiction. Or was it?
Well, I can go back to Richard Brautigan, at the outset of the ‘60s, including his Pacific Northwest flavor.
Beyond that, though, I turn to the poets.
Also, what if I had recast my novels more as a genre? Or even taken the big books apart for shorter series?
Well, it’s still one writer’s life. Make of it what you will.
You don’t have to stand on your head for this bliss
Some folks actually came to the ashram for their holiday breaks, and now through these pages, you can, too – for free. If you think this means getting away from it all, though, you’re in for a surprise. The real intent is to pare away to essential truths of life and the universe.
The answers, surprisingly, are often more down-to-earth than any mystical platitudes you were expecting.
In my novel Yoga Bootcamp, chaos and humor are essential components of their spiritual quests. The guru is better known as Elvis or Big Pumpkin than by the long Sanskrit formal name he officially goes by. As for tradition? Theirs is essentially American maverick, centered in the hills not far from Gotham.
This may even come as a refreshing turn after all of the frantic ho-ho-ho rushing this time of year.
The ebook is one of five novels I’m making available to you for free during Smashword’s annual end-of-the-year sale. Think of it as my Christmas present to you. It’s available in the digital platform of your choosing.
You may even want a stick of incense when you sit down to read it.
Hari Om Tat Sat and all of that, then. Namaste!
For details, go to the book at Smashwords.com.
Santa fisherman
The hat makes all the difference.
Keeping leaders on a leash
The genius of Republican liberty, seems to demand on one side, not only that all power should derive from the people; but, that those entrusted with it should be kept in dependence on the people, by a short duration of their appointments; and, that, even during this short period, the trust should be placed not in a few, but in a number of hands.
James Madison in Federalist No. 37
My necessary extravagance
A fine old house
where I fit
finally!
Scallops by the gallon
It’s how we buy them in season down at the dock.
They freeze perfectly, too, with none of the added liquid you get at the store.
How do you feel about family?
Cassia would have to say she’s in a big happy extended family, but she would disagree with
Tolstoy on his other point. Hers is not the same as any other. As for the unhappy part, she carries a world of grief after the disappearance of her father in a mountain avalanche.
My novel What’s Left follows the bereft daughter in her quest for identity and meaning over the decades that follow. Bit by bit, she discovers that he’s left her far more than she ever would have imagined, in effect guiding her to some pivotal choices.
The ebook is one of five novels I’m making available for FREE during Smashword’s annual end-of-the-year sale. Pick up yours in the digital platform of preference.
Think of this as my Christmas present to you. How can you not be interested in insights about family, especially at this time of year? Even if this one does have some Goth twists, probably unlike yours.
For details, go to the book at Smashwords.com.
Popcorn? It’s why the microwave was invented, seriously
In 1945, when American electronics expert, Perry Spencer paused in front of a power tube called a magnetron, he felt a “weird” feeling and noticed a chocolate candy bar in his pocket had melted. He decided to see the waves would pop popcorn, which they did.
The microwave bags had to wait until 1981 to take shape and head for market.
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But back to popcorn. So much good stuff popped up in my digging that today I’m doing a first at the Red Barn, a double Tendrils. The first ten will deal with the grain’s popularity, and the second on just what we’re eating as a snack food.
Here goes:
- By volume, popcorn is America’s favorite snack food
- Approximately 70 percent of popcorn sold in America is eaten in the home. The other 30 percent is eaten in theaters, stadiums, school, etc.
- Americans eat more popcorn than any other country – about 70 quarts of popcorn per person each year.
- Most of the popcorn eaten around the world is grown in the United States. Indiana recently overtook Nebraska as the leading producer, followed by Illinois, Ohio, and Iowa.
- Autumn is the peak time for consumption, followed by winter. Sales taper off in spring and summer.
- It’s cheap. Two tablespoons of kernels produce a quart of popcorn for about 25 cents. By the way, in case you’re counting or bored and looking for something to do, there are about 1,600 popcorn kernels in a single cup. Not that I’ve confirmed that.
- Its popularity as a concession-stand staple originates with Charles Cretors, an Ohio-born candy store owner who was so upset with a peanut roaster he had purchased in Iowa that he redesigned it, and moved to Chicago to manufacture more, leading him to create the original large-scale commercial popcorn machine in 1885, a line of products his family is still producing. His steam-powered machine was the first that could pop popcorn in its own seasonings uniformly. Fame and fortune followed its appearance at the 1893 World’s Fair (Columbian Exposition) in Chicago.
- In movie theaters, where popcorn’s been sold since 1912, about 90 cents of every dollar spent on the snack is profit. Its role as a moneymaker is enhanced by making people thirsty, leading to the sales of overpriced colas or water as well.
- Orville Redenbacher is the best-selling popcorn in the world. The brand’s founder, Orville, first grew popping corn in 1919, when he was just 12. He then went on to become an agricultural scientist who, according to the New York Times, became “the agricultural visionary who all but single-handedly revolutionized the American popcorn industry.” That was even became a household face with horned-rimmed glasses and a bow tie through his appearances in television commercials in the 1970s. As some of us still remember.
- It’s been a human food and ceremonial element for more than 5,000 years – basically, the full scope of recorded history.
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Personally, I’m most likely to eat it during the Eastern Orthodox fast periods of Advent and Lent, after tackling the dietary restrictions one year and discovering how it filled in for snack foods I was missing.
And now I’m delighted to find out there’s no need to feel guilty about indulging. It’s actually healthy in addition to being vegan and gluten-free. Here’s more:
- It has more protein than any other cereal grain. More iron than eggs or roast beef. More fiber than pretzels or potato chips. Vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, too. Most of the nutrients are in the hull or shell rather than the fluffy, white part.
- A cup of plain popcorn comes in at a mere 31 calories.
- Beware, though, of countering the health benefits with too much butter, salt, oil, white cheese, or caramel.
- The popped comes in two shapes: “mushroom” or the bigger “snowflake,” typically sold in movie theaters.
- Its one of six major maize types and come in three shapes: rice, pearl, and South American. Most commercial popcorn is the pearl type.
- The distinguishing trait shared by all types of popcorn kernels is their ability to create a flake when exposed to heat. Unlike many other grains, popcorn’s shell is not water permeable, preventing the small amount of water inside from escaping until the pressure to the point we hear the “pop.”
- Cooked popcorn expands up to 30 times its original size.
- Many other corns also pop, but their flakes are smaller. Additionally, some varieties of rice, milo, millet, and sorghum also pop. Some varieties of quinoa, a sacred Incan food, also pops like popcorn, as does amaranth.
- Unpopped kernels are called “spinsters” or “old maids.” As a guideline for quality popcorn, no more than two percent should remain spinsters.
- The ideal popping temperature for popcorn is 400-460 degrees Fahrenheit. A kernel will pop, on average, when it reaches 347.
This time of year, let’s not overlook strings of popcorn as garland for the Christmas tree and windows.
Side windows, too
The White Birch goes all out for the holidays, as you can see approaching the store when you’re walking into downtown.
Jnana's Red Barn 