Nobel Love Rat

I wish the title was mine because it is great and the best line in Solar, so the credit goes to the author Ian McEwan.  The book has created a lot of review smoke but it did not warm me.  Michael Beard, the central character, is a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and rodent.

Your first hope of escaping this mass of low-life comes around page 60 when it appears that he has frozen off his penis and it has dropped down his snowsuit.  Alas, it was not to be so he continues his insatiable pursuit of alcohol, food, and women.

That so many women allow him sexual access is the part that strains credulity.  It is good I am not a judge because they would find little sympathy in my court unless they justifiably defended themselves by castrating the offending male.

The reader will soon sense Michael Beard is going to add not lose weight and he will still be standing when the book has exhausted you.  There I have covered it all.

Now, in praise of the author, a lot of people like his books.  They sell.  For a person with an ordinary face, he is outstandingly photogenic.  He could be a French movie star.  Charles Marlin

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Meet and Eat Clarion County #5

Beaver Creek at Burnt Mill Road Clarion County

Captain Loomis — Clarion   My first night in town I didn’t have money for groceries but I needed to know if I had made a mistake coming to Clarion State College so I walked downtown and into the Loomis to find the pulse of the town.  Always popular.

Joe’s — Rimersburg   My friend who speaks a little Italian and loves Rome says Joe’s has it.

This is a photographic trip around Clarion County for the places we love to meet friends and enjoy a meal where we do not have the dishes to take care of. These are the best known places in every community and without them our sense of community would be tested.

I began the series by taking a couple of river shots because those views belong collectively to all our communities. If you think I may have missed your favorite Meet And Eat place, send a comment. I picked 16 to show three at a time, but there is nothing special about the number 16. We can add more.  Charles Marlin

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Guilt Free Kentucky Derby

The 136th running of the Kentucky Derby is upon us and you want in on the fun.  Of course you do.  You have set aside a lot of money because you already know from what you have paid out for reservations and tickets that the money will roll out in $1,000′s not $100′s, your $20′s will be good for tips only.

The good time will make it all worth while, plus if it builds your confidence so you take the leap and buy a small partnership in a horse it will open a new chapter in your life.  You will have arrived.

There remains the constant issue of the haves and have nots, excessive spending on pleasure while others suffer.  Not to worry.  I have your absolution from all Kentucky Derby guilt.  Keep in mind, however, that cheap absolution is worthless.  Plus if you don’t handle your KD guilt properly you will never step up to a part ownership of a horse.

No, you will not need to match dollar for dollar what you spend in Kentucky with what you give to the Clarion County Community Foundation.  That would be unseemly and awkward.  It will be late June before you have all your bills in, so I offer something very simple.

Before you leave for Kentucky, send a contribution to the Rare Gift Fund of the CCCF that matches dollar for dollar what you anticipate betting on the race.  There you see, clear and simple and done before you even get to the KD.

What if you should bet more than you anticipated?  A late supplemental payment will take care of that.  So now, my friend send your payment in with absolute confidence that you need feel no guilt about having a great time at a most wonderful event.  Charles Marlin

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Rare Gifts #1 Armed Robbery

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Faux Not Black

Romain Gary, French literary light,  wrote four books under the name Emile Ajar.  One of them Hocus Bogus: Romain Gary Writing As Emile Ajar has been translated into English by David Bellos.  It is a faux-schizophrenic, delusional narrative of Emile fighting with Romain that may be skimmed but not read, so this is not a review.

Schizophrenia is the black hole of human existence.  If you want to compare the fake with the real you may need some new experience.  If you work near an open square where people and pigeons go to lunch, bag it a couple of days.  Keep your superficial kindness and chit-chat to yourself.  Eat your lunch and stay out of others’ lives, this will give you what the book can not.

For those who have family who suffer and who have remained constructively and humanely involved, I salute you.  It is not an easy thing to do.  It is a relationship burdened with so many heavy “ifs”.  If they did not look so normal.  If they would stay on their meds.  If they were not physically threatening.  If they would stay at home.  If.  If.  If.

Despite calling it a black hole, we must with deep affection say to those friends who have overpowered their “ifs” it is great to be with you as fellow pilgrims.  Each day is fresh, each mile is new, so how glum would we feel without old friends by our side?  Charles Marlin

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North To Despair And Death

Understanding the history of a totalitarian regime is not difficult, but what is difficult is grasping why there is not something in our collective immune system that kills those regimes before they metastasize.  What is missing in our evolutionary development that leaves us vulnerable?  No answer, but there is one element always present in the early stage.  You may have noticed.  Men in uniforms with weapons.

Barbara Demick has written a devastating account of life, Nothing To Envy: Ordinary Lives In North Korea, that demonstrates without advocating that we must continue to be diplomatically and humanely assertive.  No aggression, no nation-building, no dominance, no name-calling.  A little trade.  A friendly hand.

The author is an experienced international journalist who interviewed six North Korean citizens who fled to South Korea.  The stories follow them under first Kim Il-sung, then Kim Jong-il, and finally their new lives in South Korea.  The stories are grim and the sacrifices immense but all very believable.

The book is saved from its dark subject by a grace and directness that allows no heroes and no villains.  Six ordinary people made interesting because we are allowed to observe and respond on our own.  Charles Marlin

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Meet and Eat Clarion County #4

Clarion River at Canoe Ripple Road  Clarion County

 

Eat’n Park — Clarion     Their breakfast buffet is the best in town.

Fryburg Sportsman’s Club      Very popular but to join you need a member to vouch for you.  If you misbehave you and your sponsor are out, so that may explain why after living in Clarion County for 44 years I am still trying to get in.

This is a photographic trip around Clarion County for the places we love to meet friends and enjoy a meal where we do not have the dishes to take care of.  These are the best known places in every community and without them our sense of community would be tested.

I began the series by taking a couple of river shots because those views belong collectively to all our communities.  If you think I may have missed your favorite Meet And Eat place, send a comment.  I picked 16 to show three at a time, but there is nothing special about the number 16.  We can add more.  Charles Marlin

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Harvey Cole Slaw

I just reviewed Stephen Fried, Appetite For America: How Visionary Businessman Fred Harvey Built A Railroad Hospitality Empire That Civilized The Wild West in my post Fred, Ford, Freddy, And The Gang so I decided to try the easiest recipe in his Appendix II Meals By Fred Harvey.  I thought no chef can make a star out of cole slaw, but I followed the recipe as closely as I would have if old Fred had been on the premises.

Since I praised the book more than the author’s mother would have, I feel I can quote the recipe as I found it.

In a large bowl, combine one medium head cabbage, shredded, and one small onion, finely minced.  Spread one-third cup granulated sugar over it, toss with fork.  Next, bring to boil one teaspoon sugar, one and one-half teaspoon salt, one-half teaspoon dry mustard, one-half teaspoon celery seed, one-half cup salad oil, one-half cup apple cider vinegar.  Pour over cabbage, toss thoroughly and refrigerate for at least four hours.  Serves five to six, lasts beautifully.

The cole slaw had a crisp, crunchy quality, with the cabbage, sweet and sour, and celery coming through as distinct flavors.  It makes a strong standup companion to rare burgers  and sausages.

Your family and friends may have often told you they love your cole slaw, but I doubt they have ever said  you should never change your recipe.  So try this one on them.  They may love you even more.  Charles Marlin

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Eccentric Book Exceptional River

A river book is a thing of the heart; however, even for a river book, Helen Humphreys, The Frozen Thames is eccentric.  In 2010 it’s not nice to publicly mention stereotypes but I mean it as a complement when I say the English have over the centuries elevated eccentricity to a fine art.  And in that fine art I include this little book.

It is composed of forty tiny chapters, one for each of the times the Thames froze over from 1142 to 1895.  The first chapter you will call strange, the second peculiar, and by that moment you will have decided you really should finish reading the book since it won’t take much time at all.  Then your task will be to select someone sensitive to eccentricity to gift the book when the winter storms chill the Thames.  Charles Marlin

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Fred, Ford, Freddy, And The Gang

To fight through the haze of book reviews and find a good book means a bright day.  To then discover this good book is on a topic you know little to nothing about but should is a wonderful weekend.  If you live out West you’re bound to know something about Fred Harvey, but you are still lucky because this book is a jackpot of revelations you don’t know.  Find a bookstore or get on line and buy Stephen Fried, Appetite For America: How Visionary Businessman Fred Harvey Built A Railroad Hospitality Empire That Civilized The Wild West.

The author could have written a half-page title and still needed to trim to stay within the half-page.  If you love the Midwest and the Southwest, if you love to travel cross country and visit the National Parks, if you enjoy fine dinning and regional cooking, if you admire Native American culture and art, if you thrill at famous resorts and theme parks, then you owe Fred Harvey a thank you.  The founder Fred, his son Ford, his grandson Freddy, their in-house architect and designer Mary Colter, art and merchandise maven Herman Schweizer, book merchant Frank Clough, daughter Minnie, and granddaughter Kitty, plus great chefs, business executives, and thousands of Harvey Girls make this a great American saga.  Every twist, unexpected corner, train delay, devastating fire, and grand opening adds to the story.  There are no bogged down sections in this book.

Southwest collectors will appreciate the research and dates the author brings to the book.  I found very quickly that the internet plays loosely with the Fred Harvey name so serious collectors must scream for solid research.

After writing the family biography and business history, the author gives you three appendices he could have packaged as a separate book.  Appendix I is The Grand Tour Of Fred Harvey’s America taken on the Southwest Chief by the author and his wife.  There is still a lot of Fred Harvey out there to see but you need to know where to look.  Appendix II is Meals By Fred Harvey selected for the fun of reading as well as trying out.  This appendix begins with the perfect note on How To Make Coffee because the spiritual father of our morning coffee is none other than the founder himself Fred Harvey.  These few pages make this a cookbook to keep.

The final appendix will for the Western train enthusiast and historian appear as gold on vellum.  It is Fred Was  Here: A Master List Of Fred Harvey Locations.  The branding and quality control put in place by the founder and carried on by the family and associates continues to give unmeasured pleasure to travelers, collectors, historians, and more than a few just plain Americans.

The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe would have left the station without Fred Harvey, but it could not have made the impact it did without him on board, and waiting at the next stop as well.  What fun it must have been, riding and eating and looking and buying and singing on . . . .  Charles Marlin

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