My father died many, many years ago just as he and I were beginning to develop an adult relationship. It’s a loss I’ve never really recovered from and I miss him still. My wife’s father died more than ten years ago. I’m not a father and it looks pretty unlikely that I’ll become one. So Father’s Day is not a big deal in our household and I don’t have much in the way of wisdom to offer about it.
Instead I’ll send you to three very different bloggers who each have three very different ways of being a good dad: James Lileks, Roger L. Simon, and Kim du Toit.
I’m still stewing over an exchange I had in the comments section of a thread over at Obsidian Wings in which the blogger wrote how much better he felt after Clinton’s expression of contrition. I responded by commenting that Clinton’s statement does not meet the standard for contrition since it was neither followed by penance nor a sincere commitment to change.
I was then taken to task by other commenters for daring to comment on something that was a purely private matter.
I’m sorry, but what takes place in the People’s house instead of conducting the People’s business by someone sworn to conduct the People’s business is absolutely open for criticism. And I wouldn’t have been commenting on it anyway if Mr. Clinton weren’t parading it in front of us to promote his autobiography. If it’s so gosh-durned private why didn’t he respond to Mr. Rather’s question (drawing himself up to his full height): “Mr. Rather, that is none of your business and I’ll kindly ask you to restrict your questions to public matters of how I conducted my Presidency”?
Other than that it wouldn’t sell books, of course. Really. Harrumph.
6 large red, yellow, or green bell peppers
1 large onion, peeled and sliced
1 garlic clove, minced
Juice of 1 lemon
Olive oil
Optional: hot peppers
Optional: eggplant
Salt
Pepper
Roast the peppers, onion, and optional eggplant at 350 degrees until the vegetables are soft when pierced with a fork. Peel the peppers and optional eggplant. Chop or mince the vegetables. Add lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper to taste. Additional olive oil may also be added to taste.
Using all red bell peppers gives the sweetest result, all green bell peppers the least sweet. I always use at least one hot pepper. Watch out for the seeds!
Use as a spread on bread or sliced vegetables. Ayvar also makes an excellent relish for roast meats.
Mix everything well. Refrigerate and let it “season” at least one hour. Serve as a spread for bread or sliced vegetables. Other possible ingredients include a tablespoon of sour cream (depending on the flavor of your farmer’s cheese), anchovy paste, capers. It can also be made with Romanian Brindza cheese or even Gorgonzola (substituting for the farmer’s cheese) and Mascarpone (substituting for the butter).
Use Hungarian sweet paprika with this recipe or a mixture of Hungarian sweet paprika and Hungarian hot paprika. Spanish paprika will not work properly. And if you use all Hungarian hot paprika you’ll get a big surprise!
My Internet connection has been down all day. I’m doing this through a dial-up. Argghhh! Posting may be light until my connection is back up.
Yesterday was my wife’s birthday. Here’s the menu for her birthday dinner:
Appetizer of ayvar and lipto with pumpernickel and celery sticks
Beef tenderloin
Pommes duchesse
Salad of mixed field greens, vinaigrette with tomato
Bogle Petite Syrah 2000
Birthday cake
Ayvar is a sort of relish of sweet and hot peppers with onions, garlic, and other seasonings. Lipto is a mixture of farmer cheese, paprika, and other seasonings. Both are Hungarian.
The addition of a teaspoon of tomato paste to a freshly made vinaigrette makes a nice change in the salad dressing. Add a little good blue cheese and it’s pretty near perfect.
The birthday cake was from Swedish Bakery. Chicagoans take note! You simply can’t go wrong with Swedish Bakery.
Steven Den Beste finds it hard to relate an op-ed from the Times with the past that he remembers:
“And that’s how I found this article. John Coumarianos dismisses it as revisionist fantasy, and damned straight, too. Its author, one John Patrick Diggins, tries to portray Reagan so as to present a sharp contrast to President Bush, and in the end he puts Reagan inside a bunny-rabbit costume and presents him as an accommodating cooperative multilateralist who was only interested in getting along with everyone and who didn’t have a confrontational bone in his body.”
Den Beste continues:
“I found myself increasingly awed as I read the Diggins piece, as his version of the 1980’s diverged further and further from the way I remember it.”
I was reminded of the movie Memento in which, due to a head injury, the protagonist is unable to retain new short-term memories. He can’t remember what happened yesterday. [continue reading…]
We spent most of Saturday working on the Samoyed specialty show conducted by our club, the Chicagoland Samoyed Club, and much of Sunday recovering from it. Up at 4:00am, washed and dressed, pile four dogs and ourselves into the car, drive to the Lake County fairgrounds in Grayslake, pile out, feed the dogs, set up the show, conduct the show, pack up after the show, tidy up the area, pile back in the car, drive home. We were back home at 3:00pm so it was eleven hours from rising to collapse.
For those of you not in the dog fancy a specialty show is a dog show restricted to a single breed—in this case Samoyeds—in which the competitors are judged on how closely they conform to the written standard for their breed. Our club hosts this show every year.
There’s something new to contend with every year: poor weather, unfriendly and uncooperative owners of other breeds sharing the tent with us, high winds, excessive heat (a particular problem for a coated breed like ours). This year we had a double whammy. The dog show was scheduled at the same time as an antique show/flea market further complicating an already-tricky parking situation and a week of rain had reduced the field to a sea of mud. Mud is no joke for a show dog with a long white coat. We had handlers carrying their dogs a quarter mile through mud from the limited parking, owners slipping in the mud, and dogs arriving at the tent covered in mud fifteen minutes before going in the ring.
Above an ingenious handler equips the Best in Specialty Show winner, Ch. Rexann’s Casino Magic, with improvised waders for a triumphant walk back to the car after the show.
I just heard something I never thought I’d hear on This Week on ABC TV. I don’t know whether to attribute it to Realpolitik or flight of fancy, to conviction or desparation but Donna Brazile, member at-large of the Democratic National Committee, just referred to Richard Gephardt as “an exciting candidate” (for Kerry’s running mate).
I don’t know whether Dick Gephardt’s own mother would have referred to him as exciting. He certainly didn’t generate much excitement when he was running to be the Democratic Party’s candidate for President earlier this year.
I spent a great deal of yesterday watching President Reagan’s memorial and interment ceremonies. Very impressive. Very moving. As one Brit put it “Americans can do pomp and circumstance as well as anyone”. I also paid a lot of attention to the music. We don’t hear a lot of great choral music these days and there was no lack of it yesterday.
One thing that really struck me was something I’ve actually been thinking about for some time. The United States really has three national anthems. Yes, I know the official national anthem is The Star Spangled Banner but for most of my life the real national anthem has been America the Beautiful. It has a lovely melody, more beautiful words, and I truly believe that it represents my country’s real aspirations. It’s the anthem of America at peace. I’ve always loved it. [continue reading…]
As a salute to the late President Reagan, Turner Classic Movies has been playing a selection of his old movies. I’ve just finished watching one of his best: Kings Row. As the movie ends a chorus soars singing Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s processional theme we’ve heard throughout the movie. I never noticed it before but the words they’re singing are from the same poem quoted by Robert Cummings in the climactic scene of the movie.
INVICTUS
OUT of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
WILLIAM E. HENLEY
Henley was a remarkable character. Contracted tuberculosis at age 12; left leg amputated at age 16. Ill very nearly all his life. His only child died of meningitis. A friend of Robert Louis Stevenson’s, Henley was one of the most influential English poets and editors of the late 19th century. The final stanza of the poem encapsulates Henley’s personal philosophy. Now that’s courage.
There’s something new to contend with every year: poor weather, unfriendly and uncooperative owners of other breeds sharing the tent with us, high winds, excessive heat (a particular problem for a coated breed like ours). This year we had a double whammy. The dog show was scheduled at the same time as an antique show/flea market further complicating an already-tricky parking situation and a week of rain had reduced the field to a sea of mud. Mud is no joke for a show dog with a long white coat. We had handlers carrying their dogs a quarter mile through mud from the limited parking, owners slipping in the mud, and dogs arriving at the tent covered in mud fifteen minutes before going in the ring.
