Massachusetts - February 6, 1788

The very first time I came to Massachusetts was to move here from Texas in August 1997. James had been offered a job as a Geography professor at Bridgewater State College, where we now both work. We arrived here two days after then-President Bill Clinton named Massachusetts Governor William Weld as Ambassador to Mexico. I was a bit surprised when we crossed the State line to find that all of the " Welcome to Massachusetts" signs along the highway already had the name of the new Governor, Argeo Paul Cellucci, on them. He must have had them ready to go just in case. I was seven and a half months pregnant when we arrived, and it was only two weeks later that I delivered my very own bouncing baby Bay Stater. Paloma is 12 years old now and at 5'3" officially taller than both of her grandmothers! By the way, did you know that the official moniker for a person from Massachusetts is Bay Stater?

On my list of not-to-be missed places in Massachusetts:

Walden pond - Once when we were taking a walk around the pond a young man with a slimy, wet fish in his hands asked us if we had a bag. We looked at him quizzically and he explained that he really hadn't expected to catch anything that day, so did not have a container to put his prize in. I reached in my pocket and pulled out the plastic bag that our Boston Globe  had come in and told him he was awfully lucky that our dog hadn't taken a crap that morning! As a rule of thumb - a Boston Globe wrapper will hold one 8 -12 inch trout.

The Mapparium - A three story glass globe you can walk inside! Must be seen to be believed. Mary Baker Eddy is my hero. See also James' EarthView

Brant Point light in Nantucket - My favorite place to be, especially on a clear day. I love waving to the folks on the ferries as they enter or leave the dock.

The Bayside Restaurant - Westport, MA: The first "Green" certified restaurant in Massachusetts

Westport Winery - A great place to be at sunset. In the summer be sure to check our their free summer sunset concert music series on Friday nights.

Cape Cod - Just as with Michigan, you probably have your Cape Cod map with you right now. Bend your left arm up as if making a muscle, and point your fingers back toward your shoulder. Falmouth is at your armpit, Chatham is your elbow and Provincetown is right at your fingertips. There are art galleries, great beaches, fun shops, and good restaurants.

To find out more about the Cape look for James' cover article Cape Cod Beckons in the Spring 2000 issue of the American Geographical Society's Focus magazine. The excerpt linked here does not include the great pictures (including one of yours truly with Paloma). Look for a copy at your local library.

The "T" - I must say that there is a lot of well deserved criticism about the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, but I feel so cosmopolitan when I "ride the rails". And I just love that I can pack a bag, walk to the Bridgewater Commuter rail line, take it to Boston, get on the Silver line to Logan airport, and from there, anywhere in the world! I  am also glad that the MBTA simplified its price structure a few years ago to prevent us from having to pay to get off of a train, so we wouldn't end up like poor ol' Charlie. They also showed their own sense of humor when they called the new passes "Charlie cards".

Charlie on the MBTA on you tube
"Charlie" Lyrics

I watched the movie Knowing recently without "knowing" that it was a Massachusetts movie when I selected it. So it worked out perfectly for me to blog about it. Nicholas Cage plays John Koestler, a physics professor from MIT, who comes learns about the upcoming Armageddon by way of a cryptic message found inside of a 50-year time capsule opened at his son's school. His son also receives strange messages, from a group of creepy beings he calls the "whisper people".

There are actually a lot of movies about Massachusetts - a bunch are included in this Boston Globe story which is really about movies shot "in the hub". A lot of people seem to think that Massachusetts is synonymous with Boston. When I told people I was moving to Massachusetts the first thing they would ask is "what part of Boston?" Therefore, it does not surprise me that most movies made in Massachusetts are really Boston movies. So, when I saw in the opening scene of Knowing labeled "Lexington, Massachusetts" I was optimistic that it looked like horizons were expanding. Of course Lexington turned out to be only part of where the movie took place. The story moves to a classroom at MIT, located in Cambridge, which is really just an extension Boston. I wasn't surprised either that the college they chose was MIT. Although Massachusetts has at least 140 institutions of higher education, the only ones that are ever worthy of being mentioned on film are Harvard and MIT. On the rare occasions that others are mentioned there is clear disdain. The scene from Bunker Hill Community College in Good Will Hunting shows a bunch of bored-looking, bubble-gum-blowing students, who are sharply contrasted with the excited and eager-to-learn students in the film, who, of course, attend MIT. In the movie The Departed one character mentions that he is studying law. The response is something like: "night school at Suffolk, right?" in a tone that clearly says "couldn't get into Harvard Law, huh". I've met Ivy league professors and they seem to agonize as much as the rest of us about the best ways to engage their students. Anyway, back to Knowing - what could have been a good supernatural thriller went just a bit too far. I can only suspend my disbelief so much, the spaceships at the end did me in. And, it really doesn't take a Ph.D. from MIT to teach us the same thing about the sun that we can learn from listening to "They Might be Giants" lyrics.  And clearly it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that you need more than just the hours and minutes of latitude longitude coordinates to pinpoint a place down to an intersection. It takes a geographer to realize that you need the seconds, too. Thanks, James for pointing this out!

Coming Soon! More Massachusetts movies to watch for :

Shutter Island - based on the book by Dennis Lehane opening February 19. The book is good, and has a surprise ending.

Knight and Day - part of this was filmed in Bridgewater, but it is really about - you guessed it - Boston! opening July 2

Frozen - I just learned about this film that recently opened. Although it was shot in Utah, Utah apparently is cleverly disguised as Massachusetts. I read two reviews of this film yesterday. It looks like something I can skip.

The movie A Small Circle of Friends has one scene (a riot) filmed at Bridgewater State College. However, BSC doesn't play itself in this film. It plays the part of some other college. What could it be...? Right again - Harvard!

There is one movie filmed entirely in Bridgewater, and about Bridgewater, a hard-to-find documentary called the Titicut Follies - a documentary filmed inside the State Mental Hospital. I was so disturbed by this one I couldn't even finish watching it.

I tried to find the movie Virtuous Wives to watch for Massachusetts day. I found out about Louis B. Mayer's first movie from Massachusetts e-moments. This Boston movie from 1918 proved to be too difficult to find.

James and I read Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 by Stephen Puleo together for our Massachusetts book. Puleo's book is an in-depth view of a relatively unknown tragedy in the city's history. As Puleo points out in his introduction, the "very essence [of the flood]... molasses gives the entire event an unusual, whimsical quality" which has left is as little more than a "footnote" in history. Puleo demonstrates how lax business regulations, US involvement in World War I, prohibition, anarchy, and the anti-immigrant sentiments of the day are all tied to the flood. James and I discovered a Bridgewater connection to the notorious anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti through this story. The book is divided into three parts: "A Monster in Our Midst" which focuses on the poor construction and design of the mammoth tank, built in haste, in Boston's North End in December of 1915, which was supposed to have been designed to hold 2.3 million gallons of molasses. The second part, "Waves of Terror", describes the collapse of the tank on January 15, 1919 and the tragic deaths, injuries, and property loss that resulted. The final section, "David vs. Goliath" is about the three-year legal battle that ensued against United States Industrial Alcohol. The paperback edition contains a moving Afterword by the author in which he recounts connections he made with relatives of witnesses to and victims of the flood following the first publication of the book. Puleo's work is well researched and fascinating. More information about the Great Boston Molasses flood can be found at: http://www.massmoments.org/moment.cfm?mid=19
and http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/molasses.asp

Addendum February 11 - James suggested I read the Acknowlegements of this book before I returned it to the Library. I am glad he did. Puleo gives much appreciation to the librarians who helped him with the research on this book.

We ate a very local meal for our Massachusetts fest, using food from our bountiful CSA farm box from Colchester Neighborhood Farm in Plympton, Massachusetts, and the last farm in Bridgewater, Hanson's Farm. We have been enjoying the summer and fall vegetables that I froze from our farm box all winter long. Today we had a skillet casserole of yellow squash, zuccini, onion, tomato, egg, and cheese; and pumpkin pie. The pie recipe I used called for maple syrup instead of sugar so I used locally sourced syrup from Hanson's. The onions and pumpkin came from Hanson's as well. The rest of the veggies, and the egg, came from Colchester. We also opened up a celebratory bottle of Massachusetts sparkling wine from the aforementioned Westport Winery. A fine meal indeed!

Maine - March 15, 1820

Kezar Lake - Lovell, Maine

When I was growing up in Catonsville, Maryland Maine seemed like a very exotic place to me. It was pretty far away and nestled way up in the northeast there on its own. It was a place I knew my family would never go on vacation. I was well into my thirties before I finally got "down east". James and I drove up there the summer after we moved to Massachusetts and dropped in on one of James' former professors from UMBC, John Starr, who now runs The Bayview Gallery in Brunswick along with his wife Susan Robertson-Starr. I believe he is the professor I mentioned in my Ohio post who encouraged James to pursue graduate studies. Our next foray into The Pine Tree State was about two years later when a friend invited us to spend a weekend at his sister's cabin on the New Hampshire/Maine border. This was particularly exciting for us because we got to see Kezar lake, named for the late, great Ebenezar Kezar (really!), an ancestor of James (whose middle name is also Kezar). Maine is also where the first Bohanan landed when he arrived in America from Scotland in the 18th century. You can read a bit more about the family roots on James' county map page of Maine.

I don't remember when James and I first watched The Spitfire Grill, but much of the movie stayed with me, not just the story, but the beautiful images of New England as well, which is why I decided to watch it again for this project.

Percy Talbott (played by Alison Elliot) is a young, recently-released inmate from a Maine Correctional Facility. While in jail she worked for the Maine tourism bureau and decides that Gilead, Maine is the place  to make a fresh start. She takes a job at the Spitfire Grill, owned and operated by a rather gruff Hannah Ferguson (Ellen Burstyn) and soon discovers that newcomers, especially ex-cons are not welcome in this small town. Ferguson has been trying to sell the diner for 10 years and with the help of her niece, Shelby; and Percy decides to run an essay contest and give the diner to the best entrant. Watching the movie I assumed that Gilead was not a real town, given the not-especially-positive way most of the characters are portayed, so I was surprised to find out that it is. Ultimately, though, this is a movie about redemption. I do notice that the Gilead Historical Society does not mention this movie at all on its blog. For my Unitarian Universalist readers this is the perfect movie for discussion the First Principle - the inherent worth and dignity of every person.

Although the story takes place in Gilead, Maine, the movie was actually filmed in Vermont.

Last year I wrote a blog called My Year of Reading Year of Books, in which I wrote about memoirs that took place over a one-year period. There were many that I did not get to include last year, and one I didn't even know about then was Bernd Heinrich's A Year in the Maine Woods. Heinrich is a zoologist, runner, and artist who appreciates each season as it comes. Heinrich's descriptions of snowstorms are as awe inspiring as his description of burying beetles covering a dead mouse. Scattered throughout the book are some of Heinrich's sketches of plants and animals.  A not-so-secret desire of mine is to someday become a hermit, Heinrich makes this idea ever more appealing to me through this narrative. He does mention on several occasions wishing to have someone to share his cabin with though, and missing his children (one of whom is away at college, and the other lives with his mother). I must admit that I would need to have a co-hermit if I were ever to undertake such a lifestyle. I have suggested to James and Paloma that we sell everything and go live in a cabin in upstate New York, but so far they have not taken me up on it.  I think my favorite part of this book came very near the last page when Heinrich describes a taste-test he performed on white perch, yellow perch and sunfish after hearing from the locals that the yellow fish and sunfish were "trash". He discovers that they all taste the same. I think a lot about peoples' desire to have "only the best" and wonder how often what is considered "the best" is simply a matter of lore. It is certainly easier to just go along with what everyone else says, than to actually research something yourself.

It seemed we had no choice but to have lobster this evening. I was not in a mood to prepare them myself though. We took the easy way out and had lobster bisque from Costco. I have no idea if the lobster even came from Maine, but the soup was quite rich and creamy. Beyond heating it up, my only contribution was a bit of sherry. It is the perfect day for hot soup, though. The rain is falling heavily here in Massachusetts and the wind is whipping. It felt cozy to be inside with a nice warm bisque.

Rhode Island - May 29, 1790

 When we moved to Massachusetts, we could see about 5 fuzzy channels on our television with the rabbit ears. One of them was channel 10 out of Providence. (We can't watch any, now). We actually watched a lot of television back then. Our newborn daughter almost never slept, and we could not afford to go out in any case. TV was cheap entertainment. One night when we were watching the late news on channel 10 we saw a story about Barnaby Evans, the artist who created Waterfire. We immediately made plans to see this fabulous display. Seeing Waterfire is worth a trip to Providence in and of itself. It is set up about a dozen times a year. Pyres are set in metal holders in the river and the fire reflects on the water, this is combined with beautiful music and a festival atmosphere to create a magical feeling.The wood is regularly replenished by some lucky folks who get to ride in boats throughout the evening. (I want that job). There are also gondola rides to be had for a price. I have not yet taken one, though. From Bridgewater, Providence is easier to get to than Boston, and in some ways more interesting. I love the Cable Car movie theater to see independent films; and Paloma and I got to see Wicked at the Providence Performing Arts Center last Christmas. I also enjoy going to Newport, Rhode Island for its  fabulous Cliff Walk past some elaborate mansions and Salve Regina College. T.F. Green airport is generally easier to fly in and out of than Logan. Green airport, is actually located in Warwick, Rhode Island

although it is called the Providence airport - go figure.

One night when we were at Waterfire James saw Providence's ex-mayor, Vincent "Buddy" Cianci through a restaurant window and pointed him out to me. He had actually net Cianci a few years earlier when NESTVAL (The New England and St. Lawrence Valley regional conference of the Association of American Geographers) met in Providence. After reading Mike Stanton's The Prince of Providence I am not at all surprised that the mayor made an appearance at this rather small meeting. The running joke about Cianci at City Hall was that he would "go to the opening of an envelope". His ego was both fragile and gigantic, a dangerous combination, which lead to his demise as mayor on two different occasions. The book was over 400 pages long and seemingly covered every underhanded manuver that Cianci pulled. Minor stunts, even those that were ethical or illegal, were just filler on the way to reading about the big stories, including beating up a romantic rival, which caused his first departure from office of the mayor, and bribe-taking, which caused the second. Although Ciani had plenty of money, and created a charity spaghetti sauce business (a la Newman's Own) in order to provide college scholarships, he was always on the take otherwise. No one could get a City contract without slipping something his way, and even a job at City Hall would cost the prospective employee several thousands of dollars. What was so fascinating about this book was that for many citizens of Providence, none of this mattered. They still loved "Buddy". He was affable in public, could talk as easily to the art students at RISD as he could to the ladies from the historical society, and he pulled off a Renaissance of downtown Providence that is akin to what I remember William Donald Shaeffer doing for Baltimore's Inner Harbor once upon a time. Quite a feat. Providence has become a destination.

 

James and colleague with "Buddy" c 2000

"All families suck" says the bartender to Italian-American brothers Anthony and Frankie in the romantic comedy A Wake in Providence. Anthony is humiliated in front of Alissa, his African-American girlfriend, whom he has brought to to meet his family for the first time to his grandfather's funeral, and Frankie reveals that he enjoys wearing women's undergarments to his extended family during dinner. This movie really could have just been a goofball comedy, and it did include the requisite "mob" jokes and some of the usual family jabs, but the story is more complex than that. I don't take complete stock in the bartender's philosophy, but I think his point, that if you don't expect anything from your family, you won't be disappointed is something to keep in mind.  Although Anthony gets the girl in the end, this is not your typical "boy loses girl movie". It is filmed in Providence, so those familiar with the city will get a charge out of seeing familiar landmarks.

Several weeks ago one of our colleagues told James about the Pawtucket, Rhode Island Winter Farmer's Market which takes place every Saturday from November to May. Since today was the last day of the market, and Rhode Island day, it seemed like a perfect day to visit. We arrived in Pawtucket an hour before the market opened so that we could have breakfast at the Classic Cafe, which James found online. At the market we picked up some local rhubarb, strawberries, cheese, herbs, and greens. I also learned, from Stanton's book, that Del's Frozen lemonade got its start in Cranston, Rhode Island, so a stop at a Del's stand was also in order while we were in town. I know I've bought Del's for my daughter before, but I don't actually think I had tried one before myself. I had a bit of a sore throat and the cirtrus-y coolness felt really good. Stanton also mentions that autocrat coffee syrup is a Rhode Island original. One of James' students told him about it when we first moved here, and we did try it then. Coffee syrup in milk is a treat enjoyed by many, but as much as the Hayes-Bohanan's are a coffee drinking people, we are not crazy about coffee milk ourselves. 

Table of dates

January
2 Georgia
3 Alaska
4 Utah
6 New Mexico
9 Connecticut
26 Michigan
29 Kansas
February
6 Massachusetts
14 Arizona & Oregon
March
1 Ohio & Nebraska
2 Puerto Rico
3 Florida
4 Vermont
15 Maine
April
28 Maryland
30 Louisiana
May
11 Minnesota
23 South Carolina
29 Wisconsin & Rhode Island
June
1 Kentucky & Tennessee
15 Arkansas
20 West Virginia
21 New Hampshire
25 Virginia
July
3 Idaho
6 Washington, D.C.
10 Wyoming
26 New York
August
1 Colorado
10 Missouri
21 Hawaii
September
9 California
October
21 Nevada
November
2 North & South Dakota
8 Montana
11 Washington
16 Oklahoma
21 North Carolina
December
3 Illinois
7 Delaware
10 Mississippi
11 Indiana
12 Pennsylvania
14 Alabama
18 New Jersey
28 Iowa
29 Texas

Tennessee - June 1, 1796

Most of  trips to Tennessee have been brief - driving through it on the way to somewhere else. We spent a night in Memphis when we were moving from Texas to Massachusetts, and I remember it as the place that I have encountered the scariest driving ever. I did get to spend a few days in Nashville in 2008 at a Library workshop - Immersion Assessement Track - at the Scarritt Bennett Center. Unfortuately I did not get a chance to visit the Grand Ole Opry or attend any concerts. I do enjoy country music, so it is on my to do list for the next time I visit Nashville. I did enjoy walking around the Vanderbilt University (where James is an affiliated scholar at the Institute for Coffee Studies!) neighborhood and eating at a lovely family-owned Greek restaurant next to the Center. I wish I could remember what it was called. I also remember reading a great women's newspaper called Her Nashville, which made me wish that I lived there.

In 1980 Woodlawn Sr. High School produced the play Inherit the Wind, based on the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial. It featured my sister in a bit part in which she had the unforgettable line "Don't have no opinions. It's bad for business". It was fun to hear that line in the classic film version starring Spencer Tracy, Gene Kelly (in a non-dancing role), Fredric March, Harry Morgan, and Dick York (yeah, the one from Bewitched). I thought it was odd, though, that the names of the major players were all changed into something ficticious. It is not as if I couldn't figure out who they were supposed to be. It was easy to see why it was called the "Monkey Trial" though. Aside from the obvious allusion to Darwin's theory of evolution, the courtroom was really a zoo. Both the prosecuting and defense attorneys had to be addressed as Colonel, although neither held that military title. And the prosecuting attorney gleefully took the stand as a witness for the defense. I remember that after I saw my high school production of the play my father remarked that the reason the defense lost the case was that Clarence Darrow was defending the theory of evolution, rather than his client, who had, as a matter of fact, broken a law that prohibited the teaching of the theory of evolution in Tennessee schools. It is quite interesting that now, 85 years later, the same battles are still being fought. See this article from the New York Times about Kansas fighting Darwinism. There is a documentary about this trial (Kansas vs. Darwin) that I look forward to seeing.

One more thing I cannot resist adding: the players and stage crew of the aforementioned Woodlawn Sr. High production called the play Inherit the Lesbian Zombies amongst themselves. I never did find out why.
Peter Taylor's novel In the Tennessee County tells the story of Nathan Longfort whose first memory is of riding a funeral train carrying the body of his grandfather, a senator, from Washington, D.C. back to his home state of Tennessee. In addition to Nathan, his parents, aunts, and uncles and other extended family, on the train is a mysterious cousin named Aubrey Tucker Bradshaw, who also worked as an aide to the senator. Aubrey's dubious parentage and strange relationship with Nathan's mother and aunts seem to be the cause of his disappearance following the funeral. Nathan never stops wondering what happened to his long lost cousin, and in the meantime seems to just have life happen to, around, and for him. He doesn't seem to live his own life. He marries, has a family, and becomes a college professor, but one gets the idea that he does these things because that's what one is expected to do. Although he has some passion for painting, he teaches art history because that is where he can make his mark as a scholar. As a reader, and defender of academic freedom, I lost most of the sympathy I had for his character when he manipulates a faculty vote to disallow the invitation of a liberal speaker to campus. Because the story spanned many decades, it was somethimes hard to tell when things were supposed be taking place, but I can assume from the use of the word "Communists" in this section of the book that it was the 1950s. Longfort seems to have no compunction about his role in this. He does eventually learn about his cousin, but the resolution at the end of the book was only mildly satisfying.

For dinner this evening we had a favorite fish recipe, which we discovered is also a Tennessee favorite. Fish fillets dipped in egg, milk and tabasco and dragged in a mix of cornmeal, and flour before frying. James also added a bit of Old Bay this time. This recipe calls for catfish, but we used talapia, because we already had some in the freezer. I really like talapia. It doesn't taste fishy, and has no bones.

Arkansas - June 15, 1836

The only time I was in Arkansas was in the summer of 1997 when I drove through it on the way from Texas to Massachusetts. I don't think we even stopped there for any length of time. I do know that we drove through Hope, Arkansas, hometown of then-president Bill Clinton. My Godmother moved to Arkansas from Indiana a few years ago, but I have not been to visit her there.

I am going to go out on a limb and declare Inbred, Redneck Alien Abduction to be the worst movie reviewed for this blog, even though I am less than halfway through the year's celebrations. I didn't really expect it to be an especially sophisticated film, but I guess I did expect some kind of entertaining romp. Instead it is simply a very bad, low-budget movie that perpetuates backwards stereotypes  of sex-crazed hillbillies. James told my father that the best thing about this movie was that although the envelope said that the movie was 2 hours long, it was really only 90 minutes. We were very glad to see the credits roll.

The Power of One: Daisy Bates and the Little Rock Nine by Dennis and Judith Fradin is a well-researched book about the integration of Central High in Little Rock in 1957. Nine black students under the mentorship of NAACP President Daisy Bates entered the school in late September, escorted by federal troops after previously being denied entrance by the Arkansas National Guard, under the direction of Governor Faubus. Once they enrolled in the school and started classes the students were constantly harassed and victimized, often while members of the National Guard looked on. Primary documents including photographs, newspaper clippings, and letters enhance this work which was intended for middle school students.

We are deferring our Arkansas dining experience until we return from our vacation next week. Look for a supplemental post.

Pennsylvania - Dec. 12, 1817, no, I mean 1787

Today's post is dedicated to my friend Anna, who grew up in Scranton.

Fantasyland map

My first memories of Pennsylvania are of going outlet shopping in York and Reading. Only about an hour from our home in Catonsville, Maryland, we could drive up there after school and be home before bedtime. We also occasionally visited nearby Gettsysburg, especially after some of  our Maryland neighbors moved there. When I was very young my family loved going to Fantasyland, a now defunct theme park near Gettysburg. I went one time as a teenager and I very much wish I hadn't. I don't know if I had just become jaded, that the park wasn't being maintained properly anymore, or that I had simply outgrown it, or perhaps all three, but it seemed run down, and not nearly as fun as I remembered. My family also enjoyed HersheyPark, and my father and I stopped at the Leonard Harrison State Park a.k.a. the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania on a trip up to Niagara Falls. Although Philadelphia is not far from where I grew up, I actually didn't make it there until after I moved to New England. James and I spent a night at a lovely B & B in Amish Country a few years ago. Our most recent visit was a stop in Pittsburgh on our way to visit family in Maryland, to see one of Paloma's camp friends.

So, I really think I was the wrong reader for Speaking of Miracles: The Faith Experience at the Basilica of the National Shrine of St. Ann in Scranton, Pennsylvania by Fr. Cassian J. Yuhaus. I chose it for two reasons, the first was that it was about Scranton, and the other was that it was short. The target audience of this one though is clearly failthful Catholics. In two instances it mentions abortion as the same level of disaster as Katrina, war, and AIDS. There is also a passage on marriage which states that "marriage takes place between one man and one woman as God intended. Not one man and eight women, not between one woman and five men. And today, one must note with emphasis, marriage is not between two men or between two women."  Yuhaus is clearly concerned about we here is liberal, and I might add, very Catholic, Massachusetts ruining the institution of marriage.

I did learn a bit about the history of Scranton from the book, and about the Catholic Church. It tells the history of the shrine, as well as relating stories from those who have experienced healing miracles after visiting the shrine and praying to St. Ann. Although I am not a follower of Catholism, I don't doubt the stories, and I do believe that prayer can help with healing. I have a very hard time believing, though, that there is any devine entity (God or Saint) who has the capacity to heal people, but will only do so when the faithful intervene through prayer, or that there is any one religion with a lock on it. This book was published in 2006, after the church's sex scandal broke. Since the book is a celebration I was surprised to see two references to the scandal. In one case it was in a letter which euphemistically mentioned the "priests who...[broke] their vows so long ago...a cross for all of us." Huh? Is the fact that priests broke their vows really what the problem is?

Anna suggested The Molly Maguires for today's cinematic fare, as the only movie she knew of that takes place in Scranton. She came over with her husband and daughter, and along with me, my husband and daughter we sat down to watch the film. I counted three people snoring before it was over (Anna was the first one out!). I don't think the movie was especially bad, just very slow moving. The first line of dialogue took place 15 minutes into the film. Prior to that there was a lot of mood-setting. We all agreed it was a bit hard to keep all the characters straight. It is about coal miners in the late 1800s and often we saw them with very sooty faces, and weren't quite sure which one was which. This movie was based on the true story of the Molly Maguires, coal miners who used terrorist tactics as a means of protesting their extremely poor working conditions. The Molly Maguires are infiltrated by a detective who seems to begin to understand their motivation, but ultimately rats them out.

I met Anna about 10 years ago. Ever since I've known her she has talked about making periogies whenever she visits her family in Pennsylvania. The only time I remember having periogies myself they came frozen from the grocery store, and were essentially tasteless. Anna and I made some from scratch - the Scranton way, and then both our families sat down to nosh. We also had keilbasa, another of Anna's PA favorites. The fresh periogies were delicious. We filled them with potatoes and cheese. I also recently learned from this article that periogies are one a favorite in Pittsburgh, too. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/17/dining/17region.html

Dancing Pittsburgh Periogies

Puerto Rico - March 2, 1917 (Jones Act)

Life is what happens while you are making other plans. Death happens, too. My post today is "Reflections on a Puerto Rican Street Dog". I have not been to Puerto Rico, but 9 1/2 years ago I adopted a plain brown dog through the Northeast Animal Shelter in Salem, Massachusetts. She was a rescue dog from the streets of San Juan - a "sato" as they are called there. Save-A-Sato is a group in Puerto Rico that rescues street dogs and ships them to the states for adoption. Our loyal dog, Clover, died last week.

Clover was a feisty little dog. For the most part she did not like men, except James, and my cousin Chris, whom she met only two weeks ago. She must have bitten at least a dozen of our friends (all men). She also was pretty aggressive toward other dogs, even those who were bigger and stronger than she was. We called her "one-woman dog" because she followed me around the house - couldn't stand to be on a different floor than I was. She was afraid of our basement for some reason, so when I went down there she would just stand at the top of the steps and whine until I came up. I thought of her more of a familiar than a pet. (If you are not sure what I mean by "familiar", well, muggles have pets.)

I have not yet seen the movie I selected for Puerto Rico (Manuela Y Manuel) or read the book I checked out from the library (When I was Puerto Rican). Part of this is due to the fact that too many celebrations came up at the same time, but it was also because we can't plan death. Tending to Clover and mourning her passing took much of my time the last week. I will write supplemental posts within the next few weeks as I catch up with my reading and viewing.

For dinner last night we ate on old favorite from The Well Filled Tortilla Cookbook by Victoria Wise and Susanna Hoffman. Made with chicken, walnuts, bananas, and with an orange-onion salsa these have a nice sweetness, and so many textures. Quite delicious. We hadn't had them for a while. Thanks, James for preparing them.

Some readers will correctly point out that Puerto Rico is not a state. And, by the way if I'm going to do Puerto Rico, why not Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the other U.S. territories. I guess I only have this to say - I never had a dog from those places.

Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory in the Caribbean Sea. The Jones Act signed by President Woodrow Wilson on March 2, 1917 gave Puerto Ricans U.S. citizenship. This effectively created another population of men to draft as the U.S. prepared to enter World War I.

Barack Obama is their president, although the citizens of Puerto Rico were not given the opportunity to vote for him in the 2008 election, nor do they do not have a voting representative in Congress, nor do they not pay federal taxes. It would be unconsititutional to require them to do such:  it would be taxation without representation. This status is in fact, not what the majority of Puerto Rican citizens want. Some would like to become a state, others would like to become an independent country. This question comes for a vote before the Puerto Rican citizens occasionally, but since there are three choices (status quo, statehood, independence) there is never majority for any one of the three choices, effectively leaving the status quo. Citizens of Puerto Rico are free to move to any of the 50 States and set up residency, where they can register to vote, (and would then would be required to pay taxes).

Clover 1999-2010

Other Puerto Rico Posts
Puerto Rico Movie March 17, 2010
Puerto Rico Book April 20. 2010

Louisiana April 30, 1812

My very first trip to Lousiana was driving through it on my way from Texas to Massachusetts. I remember stopping for some Cajun food, but other than that, it was a blur. I was just beginning my third trimester of pregnancy and was mostly uncomfortable on the long car trip. My condition also allowed me to see a lot of Louisiana rest rooms along the way!

More recently, though, I presented a poster session on Information Literacy to the 2009 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association conference in New Orleans, and got a better chance to learn about this fantastic city. New Orleans is considered to be the most haunted city in America. I missed a chance to visit a haunted library while I was there, but I did take one of the Vampire Tours of the French Quarter. It was a nighttime tour, which wasn't just for the spookiness effect. There are some things that need to be shown at night to be fully appreciated. My tour guide, Jonathan, knew all about vampire lore, and could tell us where any story we might have heard about vampires originated. Many of course came from Hollywood, but others came right from the Catholic church and the Crescent City.

As a final wrap up to the Convention, I went to a party at Mardi Gras World. Conventioneers were able to walk through the factory where the floats are made, and then into the Grand Oaks Mansion for food and drinks. I felt like I was in the Hogwarts when I realized that the stars I was looking at were actually inside.

Food and drink are a big part of the New Orlean's culture. I enjoyed a walk throught the Southern Food and Beverage Museum, which gave a half price discount to convention goers. I learned about why red beans and rice were a traditional Monday meal - it was also laundry day and women could leave it to cook while they tended to the clothes, plus, they were able to use up the left over meat (usually pig parts) from Sunday's meal. There was also a display about chicory which is often added to coffee in New Orleans, and I remembered that a few years ago a fellow librarian from the area gave me a pound of Chicory blend Community Coffee when I told her that my husband studied coffee. It did taste good - made my pee smell funny, though. The museum is located in the Riverwalk Marketplace, which I correctly guessed was designed by James Rouse, the same person who created Harborplace in Baltimore and Faneuil Hall in Boston. For a great read about New Orleans food I recommend Chapter 16 in Simon Majumdar's book Eat My Globe.

I've mentioned before that I really like memoir as a genre of books. For my Louisiana selection I read In the Sanctuary of Outcasts by Neil White. A journalist, and publisher, White was sentenced to a 18 months at Carville, a minimum security prison, in New Orleans in 1993 for a white-collar crime. Upon his arrival there, he discovered that Carville was not only a prison, it was also the last "leper colony" in the country, and home to over 100 patients who had suffered from what is now known as Hansen's disease. Reading this seemed a bit surreal to me. I can only image what it was like for White. I never really thought of leprosy as a disease of the 21st century. Who knew? Understandably, White is wary of mingling with the patients, and wonders how it can be that the Bureau of Prisons can put inmates in this kind of harm's way. A few weeks into his sentence he experiences a "Sisyphysian" moment and decides to do an investigative expose - no longer an imate, he is once again a journalist and has chosen to be in Carville. Through his work though, he befriends some of the patients and begins to reflect on his own life and how he can change, and starts to see things from others' points of view. Ultimately the table is turned on the question of who is safe within the confines of Carville - the patients had been there before it was opened to prisoners, what must they feel having to share the space with convicts?

This was a good read. I especially liked how often libraries were mentioned! I laughed when I read the description of the prison library which was "organized by book size" to keep things "orderly". As a librarian, I have had any number of patrons request a book that they know neither the title or author of, but could tell me the size of the book and color of the cover. Perhaps the warden was on to something.

By the way, did you know that the nine-banded armadillo is the only species besides humans to contract Hansen's disease?

Interview with the Vampire was fun to watch after having been on the New Orleans vampire tour. I had seen it many years ago, but only vaguely remembered it. I didn't recall Tom Cruise, or a very young Kirsten Dunst being in it at all. James has pointed out that each vampire movie we see has its own set of legends it follows. In this one, vampires are not afraid of crucifixes, but can be killed by sunlight. The sunlight legend was actually invented in the original vampire movie Nosferatu. The director had to finish it up quickly and came up with that ending because it was convenient. Not too gory, and a bit sexy (especially with that Antonio Banderas), this one had everything I like in a vampire movie.

Although there were so many uniquely Louisiana dishes I could have made for our Lousiana meal, I opted for simple red beans and rice. In deference to my vegetarian daughter I made the meatless version, who informed me after a few bites that she doesn't like kidney beans anyway.

Other dishes on my list of things to try later are:

The famous Hurricane cocktail
http://www.gumbopages.com/food/beverages/hurricane.html

And Whipped Sweet Potatoes with Pears
http://www.gumbopages.com/food/veg/sweet-pot.html

Virginia - June 25, 1788

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Back when my family used to drive to our piece of land in West Virginia from our home in Catonsville, Maryland we would pass a sign that said "Welcome to Virginia" and see a small picnic area, then we'd see another sign that said "Welcome to West Virginia." "My, what a small state", I would think, "it hardly seems worth the bother." (The map above shows where we must have driven). What I didn't know, was that in the "Mother of Presidents", which is really 39,594 square miles, (bigger than Maryland and West Virginia combined) on a street called Owl's Nest road, in a town called Manassas, a little boy named James was playing with his brother, riding bikes, and catching frogs and that someday we would meet, fall in love, marry, and honeymoon in historic Williamsburg. We recently visited Williamsburg again, and our friends Bill & Karen who live there. Bill took us to the Botanical Gardens in Norfolk,Virginia where we got to take both the boat and tram tours, and see some juvenile bald eagles. We also saw our first camelia sinensis plant (where tea comes from). We would see many more a few days later in South Carolina when we visited the Charleston tea plantation. See James' update to South Carolina for more about that.

Virginia is also the only place I have ever caught a fish. I actually caught two there, in Lake Montresor, when I was at summer camp in Leesburg during the summers of 1976 & 1977 I used a stick, some nylon thread, and a paper clip for my rod, and a beetle for bait to lure the sunfish. I threw one of the fish back, the other I gave to the camp cats to eat. The camp is now defunct, but recently I discovered this nostalgia page for it. Below are some photographs and certificates from my time there.

James' grandmother still lives in Fairfax, Virginia, and we go out there once or twice a year to see her. We can always count on her having a bowlful of peanut M&Ms on her kitchen counter. There is a lot more to say about "Grandma's house", but I will let James tell that story.

Portraits of America: Virginia by John Bowen is a coffee table book with stunning photographs, and rather bland text. I suppose I wasn't expecting anything different. Coffee table books are really meant to be browsed. I pulled this off of our own book shelf, where it has been for probably two decades. There are seven broad geographic sections of the book, each with subdivisions touting the regions' treasures, history, and culture. It is sorely lacking in maps, though. I counted exactly zero of them. Geographer James found these useful links for those, like me, who need a map:
General regions: http://chalk.richmond.edu/education/projects/webunits/vahistory/images/regionsmap.jpg
Descriptions of phsyiographic provinces: http://csmres.jmu.edu/geollab/vageol/vahist/PhysProv.html
Detail of Tidewater region: http://www.chesapeake-bay.com/

 The narratives in this work show a clear love for the state and gloss over less appealing aspects of the state's history. Slavery is mentioned a few times, but is not explored. I also noted that where this book mentions that William Henry Harrison (ninth president of the United States) was born at Berkely Plantation "despite [his] association with the frontier", I learned more about this from Tony Horowitz's essay in State by State. His passage makes it clear that Harrison "became...president after campaigning as a humble 'log cabin' candidate." The book celebrates many Virginia heroes including the nine presidents born there, and Civil War Generals Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson and Robert E. Lee. My Maryland schooling has made it very difficult for me to understand the southern predilection for celebrating a war it lost. There is more about this on my Maryland post. Virtually all of the heroes mentioned in this book are white males. Since it was published 25 years ago, I guess this shouldn't surprise me either. I was interested to see that both Bowen and Horowitz mentioned Edgar Allan Poe as a favorite Virginia son, although he was neither born nor died there. It is funny to me how many places claim him: both Massachusetts (where he was born) and Maryland (where he died) do, too. I noticed this even as I noted that Virginia seemed afraid to claim General Douglas MacArthur who was raised in Virginia from infancy, lived there most of his life and died there, but because his mother was traveling when she delivered young Doug prematurely, he was actually an Arkansan.

Bonus book:
The Virginia Night Before Christmas by E.J. Sullivan (another one that was on my own bookshelf) is a fun spoof on the Clement C. Moore's classic poem "A Visit from St. Nick" incorporating Virgina landmarks and historical figures. For instance the reindeer are named for presidents born in Virginia. This does seem like it a bit redneck-y, but when I read that Sullivan also wrote a book called The Redneck Night Before Christmas  I figured he probably had some practice.

Bedford: The Town they Left Behind tells the story of the 116th unit of the National Guard in Bedford, Virginia during World War II. The reservists earned one dollar each time they completed their drills - a lot of money in those days. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941 their unit was called up and sent to England, where they received additional training. The first fighting they saw was on the beach at Normandy on June 6, 1944 - D- day. Within the first 15 minutes half of the 39 men in the unit were killed. This documentary is based on interviews with soldiers who were there, widows, and other family members. Photographs, archival footage, and letters help to complete the story. The 116th is still active today, and the film includes interviews with soldiers recently returned from Iraq.   Listening to family members talk about husbands, brothers and sons who never came back, after they spoke about how hopeful they had been, created a moving tribute, however tough to watch. Bedford, Virginia is home to the D-Day Memorial. I had not heard of it before watching this film.

Surry County Peanut Raisin pie was something I learned about in the Virginia book. I modified it a bit from the linked recipe, and used almond extract in the crust rather than going on a quest to find Frangelico liquer, and I also noticed that although the instructions mention flour (a necessary ingredient for crust) it is not actually listed with the other ingredients. So based on other recipes I found, I used 2.5 cups, which turned out to be enough for a top and bottom crust. I also substituted honey for sugar, as I am trying to use more of my own local ingredients in my cooking. This pie has a lot of texture, and is quite sweet. James and I shared it with our friend Anna. We all liked it, and agreed that one piece is all a person can eat at a time. It is quite heavy. I froze the rest of it to eat at a later time. James and I also had a bottle of Blue Crab Blanc wine with our dinner from the Ingleside Plantation Vineyards which we picked up on our recent trip to Virginia, along with several other Virginia wines that we plant to enjoy later. The Blue Crab was a bit sweeter than we usually like. We prefer dry white wines.

Where is Our Town?

Blogger "Coolspark" shared my curiosity about the geographic challenge in the opening line of Our Town, the play that Pam chose as our New Hampshire film. Like me, he wondered where exactly it might be, and included the answer in the opening paragraphs of his review of the ART production of the play.


Knowing that my own coordinates are in the same ballpark, it seemed plausible that Wilder placed the fictional town somewhere in New Hampshire. In reality, he did something a bit more clever: he placed it just about as close to New Hampshire as he could, without being on land. It may never be known whether he realized that in doing so, he placed it at the very tiny "Dodge Rock" in Rockport, Massachusetts.

The play gives the coordinates of Our Town as 42.40°N 70.37°W. Dodge Rock is the nearest feature, with an elevation of 0 meters (watch that boat hull!) and coordinates, according to the USGS, of 42.6668°N 70.6162°W. Because it is submerged, the rock does not actually show up on the satellite image below or on most maps.

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Arizona - February 14, 1912

I started making Valentine's for James in 1987, the year we were married, because I couldn't afford to buy one. I made him one every year until 1997. I was pregant that Valentine's day, and was too exhausted to even do that. This image is from the Valentine I made for him in 1994, right after I learned Arizona's nickname and anniversary. Wasn't I just too clever.

Here we are as svelte, tanned Arizonans in 1992. Note James' Arizona map t-shirt. Our little dog, Pablo, poses here with us. One of the first things we learned about desert living was to always wear a cap (and to always have water with you).

Like my first trip to Massachusetts, my first trip to Arizona was to move there. It was the summer of 1990 and the national news of the day was of a heat wave in the southwest - temperatures in Tucson and Phoenix were as high as 120 degrees for days. Whenever I told someone we were moving to Tucson the first thing they would say is "Oh, it's hot there." James and I lived there for four years. It is indeed hot in the summer. People there learn to live inside, or in the shade. Unlike the northeast, it really is cooler in the shade there. We would see people lined up at bus stops waiting in the shadow of a telephone pole. When we first got there I was a bit heartsick for green trees and grass, but after spending several years there I learned to appreciate the unique beauty of the desert. In the next month or so those who live there will enjoy the desert in its full glory with cactus blooms and bottle brushes.

We attended the University of Arizona where I earned my Master's degree in Library Science and James earned his Ph.D. Since this blog is about "celebrating" I will follow the "if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all" rule and refrain from discussion of our experiences the University. Tucson, though, I loved. It was a great place to live. The public transportation system took us to work and school. There were great places to hike for free and we had great friends, many of whom we met through the Unitarian Universalist church there. Of the places I have lived, Tucson was my favorite.

Other great places to visit in Arizona

Bisbee - an old copper mining town. Even in the 1990s the town was still small enough that within the town limits you only had to dial 5 digits to make a phone call. Be sure to take the Queen mine tour when you go.

Sedona -A magical, spiritual place. James and I went here for our fourth anniversary. Don't miss the Chapel of the Holy Cross
Grand Canyon - There is nothing like it. Ignore the tourist advice to see the sunset from the "best spot". It will be crowded, and all you will see is a bunch of camera flashes going off. Go anywhere else. You cannot be disappointed.

The north rim is harder to get to than the south rim, and therefore attracts many fewer visitors. It also has a statue of Brighty (of Marguite Henry's novel: Brighty of the Grand Canyon) If you can manage see the canyon from both sides it will definitely be worth your while.

Arizona Sonora Desert museum - We used to be members here.
I first learned about the book I married Wyatt Earp a few years ago when I was contracted to write an article about the University of Arizona press for a volume of the Dictionary of Literary Biography. I wrote the essay, but the project was killed and so my work was not published. Herewith, is the section from my article about the book -

Controversy Over I Married Wyatt Earp

The [University of Arizona] Press first published I Married Wyatt Earp: The Recollections of Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp in 1976. The best-selling book became a made-for-television movie in 1983 starring Marie Osmond and Bruce Boxleitner. Written by Glenn Boyer, the book was based on a variety of historical documents, but largely on two which were allegedly written by Josephine Earp, the third wife of the legendary Wyatt Earp. One of these is called the Cason Memoir, and Earp historians agree on its validity. It is now housed in the Special Collections room of the University of Arizona Library. The controversy surrounds the Clum manuscript, allegedly written by Josephine Earp with help from Tombstone, Arizona journalist, John Clum. Since the book was first published, Earp historians have questioned the validity of the Clum manuscript. No other researchers had seen such a document, and Boyer himself neither owned it, nor could tell where it was. Moreover, Boyer admitted that two other books he had written, An Illustrated Life of Doc Holliday published by the Reminder Press in 1966, and Wyatt Earp’s Tombstone Vendetta (Talie, 1993) were not based on the documents he claimed to have used.

When the book was scheduled for republication in the late 1990s, The Press conducted a review of the title. Newly appointed Director Christine Szuter conceded that there was a “problem with the book”.  She agreed that the cover would be redesigned; the author would be changed from Josephine Earp to Glen Boyer; and that a publisher’s note would be added regarding the sources in the book. Correspondence between the University of Arizona press and Boyer indicated that the Press published the book knowing that sources were suspect. Boyer also stated that the Press knew of the questionable integrity of his sources and in fact, encouraged him to “embellish”. Correspondence between Townsend and Boyer in 1973 did indicate that Townsend told Boyer to “…project yourself into Mrs. Earp’s shoes in the matter of expression...” Meanwhile the book was adopted as required reading in history classes. In 2000 the Press took I Married Wyatt Earp out of print after it had gone through a dozen printing and sold more than 36,000 copies.
(end)

My research on this book at the time indicated that Boyer said that the Clum manuscript was found in the U of A archives. I remember sending an e-mail the the Special Collections librarian, and I received an non-commital response. I do know from working in a library that materials in archives and special collections can sit in storage for a long time before someone is able to catalog them properly. I do not know what the truth is here, though.


This book demystified Earp, and although in Josie Earp's mind she was creating a positive portrait I was unimpressed. The reviews I read on Amazon.com all praise it, but perhaps they were written by people who already knew a lot more about Earp than I do. The book is well annotated, indicating that the author did quite a bit of additional research for this work, and I will admit to not having read the notes - I frankly just wanted to be done with the book. I think Boyer would have done better to take the manuscripts and write a biography, rather than attempting to keep the story in the first person. He clearly did a lot of research and I think could have probably done an elegant job of weaving the first person accounts with the other sources he found. Interestingly the gunfight at O.K. Corral is only a small part of the work, which is the intention. It was only a small part of Earp's life (less than one minute). The book tells the story of a man with wanderlust: a prospector, gambler, husband, and friend. Earp came to Tombstone from Dodge City, (a theme in the Cowboy poetry book I read for my Kansas post) and from there traveled around the west for many years. He prospected for gold in Alaska. For more about this book see the Amazon reviews
http://www.amazon.com/review/R17F1V7X7ADUHQ/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
and the following sources:
Albanese, Richard. “Bogus Bride.” Tombstone History Archives, http://home.earthlink.net/~knuthco1/IMWEfiles2/bogusbride.htm.

Gabrielson, Ryan. “New Review may stop publication of controversial Earp memoir.” Arizona Daily Wildcat. December 3, 1999.

Gabrielson, Ryan. “U. Arizona Press may force Earp biographer to reveal source.” Arizona Daily Wildcat, December 7, 1999.

Sharlet, Jeff. “Author’s Methods Lead to Showdown Over Much-Admired Book on Old West.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 11, 1999.

Something I learned that Josie Earp and I have in common: a love of the desert after a rain. she said "...my spirits were lifted by my favorite desert odor-the pungent smell of wet creosote bushes. This is a pleasant spicy aroma that I never get enough of. To me it's the most typical desert fragrance. I love it." No justice can be done to this smell through words. One must experience it .

I tried watching Raising Arizona many years ago, and didn't even finish watching it because I thought the characters were too dumb to live, and the whole thing was nonsense. Nicholas Cage and Holly Hunter play an ex-con and police officer husband and wife who discover that they are infertile, so they kidnap a baby, one of a set of quints born to furniture tycoon Nathan Arizona and his wife, Florence. I watched the entire movie this time and still hold that the characters were too dumb to live and the whole thing was nonsense, but I can now appreciate that that was what the Coen brothers were trying to do. It was just a goofy movie. They were not trying to send any kind of  message. I laughed quite a bit watching it this time around. I also caught some subtle Arizona humor that I would not have noticed the first time, as I have since lived in Arizona. I thought it was brilliant to name one of the character's Florence Arizona, which is also the name of a town http://www.town.florence.az.us/ with nine "correctional facilities". Florence is the county seat of the aptly named Pinal County. I actually applied for a job as a prison librarian there once. I believe they called me for an interview, but by that time I had already accepted a job in Texas and was getting ready to move.

Other Arizona movies:

Revenge of the Nerds - Filmed at the University of Arizona

Tombstone

Thelma and Louise

Pump of the Volume - A "must miss"!

Coming Soon!

Touching Home
This independent film based on the lives of Noah and Logan Miller is being released this spring. Part of this was filmed on location at the Colorado Rockies spring training in Tucson. After having read the book Either You're In Or You're In the Way about the Miller's amazing journey toward getting this movie made I am very much looking forward to seeing it.

Since today is both Arizona and Oregon's anniversary's we had an Arizona breakfast and an Oregon dinner. I made chocolate monkey bread from a recipe in my Southwestern Cooking Cookbook and huevos rancheros from a recipe I found in the local paper several years ago. I cheated a bit on the monkey bread and used frozen dinner rolls instead of making the bread from scratch. I learned this trick from another cookbook a few years ago. I rolled the frozen rolls in melted butter, and then in a mixture of sugar, cocoa, and cinnamon. The balls then went into a bundt pan in two layers and sat overnight. In the morning I put them in the oven for 25 minutes at 350. The huevos rancheros I made by layering corn tortillas with refried beans, fried eggs, and shredded monterrey jack cheese and placing them under the broiler for a minute. I served them with avocados, salsa, and plain yogurt (a low-fat substitute for sour cream).

Ohio - March 1, 1803

Q: What state is high in the middle, and round on both ends? A: O-HI-O.

My first memory of Ohio is the summer of 1978. I was 14 years old and my mother, brother, were driving to Wisconsin to pick up my sister, who had spent the summer working at my aunt's store in Appleton. We stopped in Youngstown, Ohio the first night. After spending quite a bit of time looking for something to eat in this rust belt city we finally found a pizza place called Gina's pizza. I remember they sold t-shirts that said "Gina's pizza makes me passionate." I did not buy one though. We also searched in vain for some entertainment, but when we found the town's movie theatre, we were disappointed to see that it was boarded up. I immediately put Ohio in the number one spot of places I never wanted to live. So, imagine my reaction, when eight years later, when my husband (then-fiance), James came home one evening to announce that he had big news. His advisor had assured him that he could get him into graduate school at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio! If you say the word Ohio and draw out each syllable, and speak with a slight whine, you will have a pretty good approximation of what James heard. We intended to stay for two years while James did a Master's degree, and then move on, but the true irony is that after the first year there I decided to enroll in graduate school, too, and so we had to stay on an extra year in order for me to complete my studies! Being in graduate school sure beat working at K-Mart all to hell, which is what I did for the first few months we lived there. I whince everytime I remember getting on the intercom to speak the ubiquitous "Attention K-Mart Shoppers" and then announce a blue-light special in housewares. After a few months of that I found work as a nanny before deciding to enroll in a Master's program in Spanish Literature

Ohio had its charm and we have some good memories of it. The last year we were there we got to live in a great old farm house on 15 acres while the professors who owned it were abroad for the semester. The house was on top of a hill overlooking a creek and some more farmland. I remember once our little dog, Pablo, came home from a run smelling awful of something I never smelled before or since. He also had something sticky on his back. My theory is that he stood under a cow while it was peeing. Only in Ohio. We also have good memories of our two foster pets, Barbara (the dog) and Donna (the cat) who were the pets of the professors who owned the house. It somehow felt right to live in a big farmhouse and have two dogs and a cat. Donna used to kill field mice and bring them home. She would sit in the middle of the dining room and eat them, except for the teeny tiny liver. No worries, when she was done with her snack, Pablo would lap up what was left. The cat would never catch the mice in the house though, no challenge, I guess.We also started our first aquarium while living in Ohio, with a fish James won for me at a carnival. We had the fish for about 2 years and had to leave them behind when we moved to Arizona. We left them with the two professors, and their children, and they (all the fish) all died shortly thereafter when bleach was mistaken for bottled water.


While we were living in Oxford the movie Little Man Tate was filmed in Cincinnati, with a portion filmed on the campus of Miami University. I had not seen the movie since it first came out in 1991 (after we had left Ohio) so it was a treat to watch it again and recognize the campus landmarks. The movie is Jodi Foster's directorial debut and tells the story of Fred Tate, a-seven-year old boy genius who is the son of a working- class single parent (Foster). The conflict between Fred's emotional and intellectual needs are played out by his mother, and his teacher (Dianne Wiest). Although each tries to give him what he needs, it takes a lot of work and heartache before a balance between the two is found.


I don't remember what keywords I used in searching to come up with the book Good Roots: Writer's Reflect on Growing Up in Ohio, but what a gem of a book it turned out to be! Exactly as the title suggests it is a collection of poems and essays by writers who are from Ohio. Authors include P.J.O'Rourke, a fellow Miami University alum; and Goosebumps creator R.L. Stine, who swears he really did have a normal childhood. I read this one out loud to James and we were both taken in by it. As editor Lisa Watts points out the stories are about a time as much as a place, but Ohio just seems to be the right place to have as a backdrop for the time when children did a lot more exploring, and a lot less soccer. James used two of the essays in his Frameworks class for would-be geography teachers in Massachusetts. (Don't get him started on that, by the way). Anthony Doerr's contribution "We are Mapmakers" about the mental maps of the places we grew up and how we create them was a particular favorite, and especially useful for James' class. We didn't know there was a place called Novelty in Ohio until we read this essay. It was just the right place name for such a reflection.

One thing I never had the nerve to try when we lived near Cincinnati was Skyline chili (served 5-ways!). So what could I do, but attempt to make it myself today. It is usually served over spaghetti, which seemed a bit gross to us, but was surprisingly good and filling. I found a recipe for it in the Boston Globe magazine, of all places, in an article about Super Bowl recipes. It calls for a lot of spices and a bit of unsweetened cocoa. James did try Skyline chili once, and said that mine was better. He recalls that there was no flavor to the bowl he ate.

Wisconsin - May 29, 1848

Ahh, Wisconsin. How I love Wisconsin. James and I began our day drinking coffee from our Lawrence University mugs. Lawrence is located in Appleton, Wisconsin where my favorite cousins live. You will find it on the map below right at the northern tip of Lake Winnebago

My first visit to Wisconsin was in 1978. My mother, brother and I drove to Appleton, from our home in Maryland, to pick up my sister who had spent the summer staying with my cousins and working in their store, Laurerman's Corner Grocery (the little store with more). Two years later I took my turn doing the same thing. I was 16 years old then and I remember that as it was the first time I flew unaccompanied. I was so nervous, and when I didn't see my cousins right away at the Milwaukee airport I panicked.

I don't get to Wisconsin as often as I would like, but often enough that in the 32 years since that first visit I have lost count of how many times I have been there. I have two sets of Wisconsin cousins, my mother's late brother Larry's six children; and her brother Dave's two son's. It was Larry's clan who owned the store. Dave was still a childless bachelor back then. I don't think he had even moved to Wisconsin yet. James, Paloma and I all love to visit the relations in Wisconsin. We have deemed them our "COWS" (Cousins of Wisconsin). My cousin Tami has a daughter the same age as Paloma and I am thrilled to see a second generation of cousinly love blooming. Tami and her sister Lori stood up for me and James at our wedding 23 years ago. Lori, along with her friend and fellow Wisconsinite, Sharon, met up with me in Spain in 1986 and we traveled on the trains to Belgium and France together. I think my cousins are golden.

When I remember my time in Wisconsin I recall hiding "True Confessions" magazine under the counter of the store so no one would know I was reading it off the racks. I can't even believe I used to read that crap. I also remember my cousins wanting me to experience everything about Wisconsin. We went canoeing, to a drive-in movie, and ate out all the time. We spent one evening at a church fair and I won about a dozen free coupons for root beer at the A&W drive-in, which I believe is still in business, even after giving away so much of its product!

We also went to a Brewers-Orioles game in Milwaukee, with me the lone Orioles fan in the stadium. I bet some kid that the Os would shut out the Brewers and won a dollar when Baltimore won (one to nothing!) Wisconsin is also where I learned the word "bubbler" meant water fountain, which would serve me well when I moved to New England - except here, of course, we pronounce it BUB-la. Other visits to Wisconsin have included trips Door County, (which members of the Extra Miler Club will tell you is one of the trickier counties to pick up) for winery tours and skinny dipping; and visiting my cousin Lori in Crivitz, Wisconsin the year she taught there. I will never forget spending the day with her class of learning disabled students, and the protests that ensued when she suggested they write haikus for the school's literary magazine. For many years I kept this one on my refrigerator, which was written by an elementary student named Russell:

Cows have big babies (5 syllables)
Cows eat grass and grain and wheat (7 syllables)
Cows eat flowers, too (5 syllables).

The poem was accompanied by a drawing of a very skinny cows with long legs and no ears. I sent it back to Lori many years ago. I don't know if she still has it or not.

Important Update - A Treasure Found! 

I discovered the famed haiku and drawing while cleaning out some drawers in my dining room in July 2012.

Last summer when we were visiting Appleton I noticed that Lori was reading Coop by Mike Perry. It was a book that was on my list of "Year of Books" as a possibility for last year's blog "My Year of Reading Year of Books". (The subtitle of Perry's book is "A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting"). I asked if I could borrow it, but she wasn't done with it, and she gave me another of Perry's books instead: Population 485, about returning to his hometown of  Auburn, Wisconsin and working as a volunteer firefighter and EMT. James and I both read it, and loved it, so I was glad to be able to get a copy of Coop from interlibrary loan to read for this project. Perry hasn't lost his touch. I read this 350 page book in two days, laughing out loud as much at the parenting foibles (that I could relate to) as to the farming fiascos (that I couldn't). I chuckled at Perry's description of taking his daughter with him to take two slaughtered pigs to butcher.

"I delight as usual in having Amy as my copilot. Bombing down a country road in a pickup truck with my daughter has become one of the signal joys of fatherhood. Throw a couple of dead pigs in the back and you've got yourself a Hallmark card on wheels."

This image is reminscent for me of the only time I was in Wisconsin for Thanksgiving. I think it must have been 1988. James and I were returning to Ohio after the long weekend and at one point found ourselves driving behind a pickup with two Christmas trees and two dead deer in the bed! Talk about a magical Wisconsin holiday image! This blog post really wouldn't be complete without some mention of deer hunting, for which kids in the northern part of the state get an entire week off of school. I thought this was strange until I moved to Massachusetts and discovered that every school in the state closes during the third week in April  in order to commemorate the midnight ride of Paul Revere.

Anyway, I suspect that Perry probably tries to put on a much harder persona to his fellow Wisconsinites than his heart-felt writing reveals. Now that I have read two of his books I will call him my favorite Wisconsin author. It looks like I have a few more of his books to look forward to, including Truck: A Love Story. Find out more about Mike Perry at http://www.sneezingcow.com/

American Movie looked like a "mockumentary", but it wasn't. I called it a meta-documentary as it was produced by an independent filmmaker who was making a movie about an independent film maker, Mark Borchardt. The film follows Borchardt as he attempts to finish a short horror film, Coven. Borchardt does not even pronounce the name of his own film properly, saying it with a long O, even after one of his actors tries to correct him. His friend Mike Schank, who provides music for the film, seems to be some kind of idiot-savant. He is rather inarticulate, one can assume this is thanks to the drug overdose he talks about, and always has a blank smile on his face when talking to the camera. He barely blinks or moves his head, which is quite eerie. In contrast he appears to be a quite a good musician. I had a hard time believing that the music I was hearing came from him. If this had been fiction I would have thought his character was overdone.  But apparently, it was all real. Borchardt's Uncle Bill (aka his Executive Producer) was another study in extremes. The elder Borchardt lived a simple life in a trailer and yet had tens of thousands of dollars to loan to his nephew to produce the film. Upon Uncle Bill's death Mark is bequeathed an additional 50 thousand dollars in order to complete his movie. Classic Wisconsin.

Cheesehead!

I sent James out on a quest to get us some Wisconsin cheese to have with dinner. I was sure I saw some, clearly labeled as such, in the dairy section of our local grocery store. Perhaps I did, but James ended up going to the specialty cheese section and examining quite a few packages before he found two that came from Wisconin: one was an herb havarti, and the other a smoked cheddar swiss (the cheddar swiss combination is apparently what the official "cheesehead" hat is supposed to be, by the way.) In addition, we had one of our favorite dishes, potato pancakes. I didn't even realize that that was a Wisconsin favorite, too, until I saw it on this website: http://www.bratwurstpages.com/wisrecipe.html


I will close with a link to sweet Wisconsin library story. I love library stories. On November 18, 2009 librarians in Wisconsin documented their work through photography, which resulted in the Wisconsin Librarians say "Cheese" webpage.
http://www.wisconsinlibraries.org/saycheese/default.htm