Saturday, November 29, 2008: The other day, I was surprised to learn that there are people who don’t know what polenta is.Simply explained, polenta is like the Italian version of grits, a down home dish. It is cornmeal and has long been a staple of Italian/Argentine cooking. Polenta can be eaten by itself, with a little bit of butter (not margarine), with just salt and with tomato sauce, meatless or with thick chunks of meat and/or ground beef. The tomato sauce can also have bits of chicken. You can add grated cheese or soft Brie and stir while it’s still hot.
Archive for November, 2008
Polenta
November 29, 2008Bad Loans
November 24, 2008Monday, November 24, 2008: I have heard a lot about bad loans. I have learned that predatory oan officers like the one I had the misfortune to encounter in AtlantA, Georgia over 6 years ago are still doing business. They are getting people into trouble just like in the old days. Will there ever be a regulatory committee, a regulatory something, to stop these scam artists from doing what they should not and must not do?
Brief Encounter
November 21, 2008Friday, November 21, 2008: Brief Encounter, the 1940s movie starring Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson, is one of my favorite all time films. The story about two middle class married strangers meeting and falling in love is a universal story that could happen anywhere. The fact that these two people are adulterers (technically) doesn’t really make much difference. Their love is real and they give it up for the sake of the families they have. It is a heartbreaking story and one of the best romantic movies of all time. David Lean did a superb job directing it.
Celibacy Thoughts
November 19, 2008Wednesday, November 19, 2008: When a woman falls in love with a priest, it is a never-to-be-forgotten experience. There is a before and after it happened and nothing can ever be quite the same. It is not something that can be erased. It is often denied, often put under the carpet because the trauma can be tremendous.
Jean Harlow
November 19, 2008Wednesday, November 19, 2008: I have always liked Jean Harlow enormously. The other day, I watched Dinner at Eight and Hold Your Man. She was not only very pretty and sexy, but a good actress as well. In Hold Your Man, the second part was not as good (or real) as the first, but the chemistry between Jean and Clarck Gable is unmistakable. Both these films are from 1933, right in the midst of the Great Depression. I loved the photography, and I loved the feel of the times, in spite of the fact that things were quite, quite rough in the country.
Threatened
November 19, 2008Wednesday, November 19, 2008: I feel that the space where I sleep with my little cat is being threatened.
More?
November 19, 2008Wednesday, November 19, 2008: More storage? Another storage space somewhere in the NY area? It just keeps adding and adding and it’s costing me a lot! Too much the way things are.
Stanhope Hotel
November 17, 2008Monday, November 17, 2008: Yes, it really did exist. My time at the Stanhope Hotel in Manhattan happened and it is part of a magical time in Manhattan that I will never forget. There were Sayeed and Helga, the waiter and waitress, Jimmy, the manager and Aldo, the Italian-born restaurant manager. They were like family to me. The Stanhope Hotel was the place I went to for comfort and a cup of coffee.
Dead End
November 17, 2008Monday, November 17, 2008: My life seems to be at a dead end. I am deeply discouraged about my future and I think about what is to become of me and Lauchita all the time, all the time. Where will we be a month from now, two months from now? Why do I know what I want, but don’t know how to get it?
Falls
November 12, 2008The article by John Leland was very good. I have had elderly friends and they fell and broke their hips. Those were true signs of aging. But, I have also known people in their 30s and 40s who have had accidents in the street. In these other cases, I believe that they fell because something was going wrong in their lives and their falls were a way for their bodies to say: Help me! I can’t take it anymore. My younger friends were depressed and didn’t know how to handle the situations they were going through. I have also had falls and I am nowhere near the ages of the people in the article. Eugenia Renskoff
