July 4th

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On this Fourth of July in 1826, fifty years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, two of our country’s former presidents died.  Thomas Jefferson died in the afternoon at home in Monticello.  John Adams died in the evening at home in Quincy. 

John Adams’ words to his grandchildren as quoted in John Adams by David McCullough:

The Lord deliver us from all family pride.
No pride, John, no pride.

You are not singular in your suspicions that you know but little. 
The longer I live,
the more I read,
the more patiently I think,
and the more anxiously I inquire,
the less I seem to know…
Do justly.
Love mercy.
Walk humbly.
This is enough….
So questions and so answers
your affectionate grandfather.

My Favorite Book

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You are my P.G.
Wodehouse.

You make me snort
with laughter.

 
You are my Conan
Doyle;

A mystery until the
end.

 
You are my C. S.
Lewis.

You see how beautiful
truth is.

 
You are my Hank the
Cowdog;

Silly fun with a
clever twist.

 
You are my Wendell
Berry.

You take pleasure in
provisioning.

 
You are my Martin
Luther,

Famous for good table
talk.

 
You are my David
McCullough;

Decent, insightful,
articulate.

 
You are my Anthony
Trollope,

Warm comfort on a
cold evening.

 
You are my Shakespeare,

Full of quotes worth
memorizing.

 
You are my Matthew
Henry.

“Look at this,” as
you point to a verse.

 
You are my Chilton.

You keep our cars
running.

 
You are my A.A. Milne,

A good citizen of the
100 Acre Wood.

 
You are my Dostoyevsky;

Complex, difficult,
but worth the read.

 
You are my Jeremy
Burroughs.

You model the rare
jewel.

 
You are my
Chesterton;

An original thinker
without the bulk.

 
You are my Fish and
Game Regs,

A calendar of high
holy days.

 
You are my Dickens.

You understand human
nature.

 
You are my Dante.

You write poems of
love.

 
You are my Cabela’s
catalog;

Treasures waiting in
the warehouse.

 
You are my favorite
book to read.

Word by word;

Page by page;

Chapter by chapter.


Best Local Restaurants

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Ruthie has tagged me to do the restaurant meme.  All photos in this post are from the restaurant websites.  This food quote is my little addition.

To have conversation at meals involves a special
kind of hunger.  The great French philosopher of
gastronomy Brillat-Savarin made a distinction
between the pleasures of eating
and the pleasures of the table,
the latter meaning convivial talk
about subjects worth talking about.
Shared food can contribute a sense of well-being
and friendliness, but also a great deal more…

Our meals are making us think about the
callousness of our habits.  Cooking has
become part of the visual arts. Shopping
for food is a game of hide-and-seek,
with packagers concealing their secrets
in small print. The time will come, I hope,
when those who influence our ideas
 about food, the writers of newspaper
articles about restaurants, and the
makers of TV cooking shows,will begin
to discuss the quality of conversation
which their delicious meals induce,
and not concentrate only on the decor
of restaurants, or the technicalities of recipes.
We need to invent a new poetry of food,
as our ancestors invented a language of flowers.

~ Theodore Zeldin in Conversation

1. Add a direct link to your post below the name of the person who tagged you. Include the city/state and country you’re in.

Nicole (Sydney, Australia)
velverse (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
LB (San Giovanni in Marignano, Italy)
Selba (Jakarta, Indonesia)
Olivia (London, England)
ML (Utah, USA)
Lotus (Toronto, Canada)
tanabata (Saitama, Japan)
Andi (Dallas [ish], Texas, United States)
Todd (Louisville, Kentucky, United States)
miss kendra (los angeles, california, u.s.a)
Jiggs Casey (Berkeley, CA, USA! USA! USA!)
Tits McGee (New England, USA)
Joe (NE Tennessee, USA)
10K Monkeys (Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA)
Big Stupid Tommy (Athens, Tennessee, USA)
Newscoma (Weakley County, Tennessee, USA)
Russ McBee (Knoxville, Tennessee, USA)
Atomictumor Mrs Eaves (Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA)
Oh Really? LissaKay (Oak Ridge, TN, USA)
Mark Steel blogitude.com (Knoxville, TN, USA)
Fracas (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada)
Jersey Chick (Atlanta, GA, USA)

Magistra Mater (NE Oregon, USA)

2. List out your top 5 favorite places to eat at your location.

Heavenly’s – Home of the Heavenly Hamburger, Enterprise, Oregon

If you want to take a wonderful vacation, plan on a trip to Wallowa Lake.  Go ahead, click on that link; I guarantee you’ll be wishing you were in Eastern Oregon!  When you come, you will drive by this little roadside eatery.  Best hamburger, made from fresh (not frozen) beef.  No, really! Best Philly Cheese Steak sandwich west of the Mississippi. 

RimRock Inn – Dining on the Edge

Oregon Bounty plate

After you’ve had the best hamburger in the USA for lunch, plan on dinner at this fine restaurant sitting on the edge of the Joseph Canyon.  The vista is stunning.  It would be worth the trip just to sit and sip tea and look at the changing light. However, the interior setting is comfortably elegant, the food is exquisite, the staff is friendly and congenial; it has all the elements for a fabulous dining experience. Go to their website and look at the photo collection. Save room for a delectable dessert made by their pastry chef. They also have tipis that you can sleep in overnight. 

Foley Station

As famous for their elegant breakfasts as for their lunches and dinners, this is the restaurant of choice for many friends.  It is a good place to celebrate, to enjoy a  relaxed evening, or to have a treat.  My absolute favorite item is the Ultimate Chicken Salad.  Grilled chicken, avocado, blue cheese, candied pecans, red onions on a bed of greens with a tangy house dressing. I’d rather forego four fast food meals in order to dine here once.

Yia Yia Nikki’s

Whenever my sister picks me up at O’Hare airport (Chicago) she drives me to the closest gyros stand for some messy lamb, tomato, onion and tzatziki sauce cradled in pita.  The problem is, I only get to Chicago every other year or so.  In our rural area, ethnic eating means a few good Mexican restaurants and a handful of American Chinese eateries. Thai? No. Indian? None.  Peruvian? Dream on. Southern? Y’all must be touched. Italian? Go to Italy! Polish? Not a chance. Alas, we offer Denny’s and McDonalds.  Sigh.

So you can imagine my delight when this little stand opened by a Greek relative of a local resident.  Gyros, Greek salads, keftedes, pastichio, baklava and kourabiedes always available?  Here’s the funny thing – right above the door to walk in is a small sign: God.   What does that mean?  I get as much delight from the Greek accent and honest open face of the proprietor as I do from the food.

West of Paris  restaurant français

Canard a l’Orange

I’m including this Moscow, Idaho restaurant because it served me the best meal of my life.  The. Best. Meal. of. My. Life.  Très Bien!  It’s hard to describe what was so wonderful because the flavors were subtle and no one taste jumped out, flashing and screaming. The chef, a native of France, was trained in Lyon. Bite by bite, course by course, it was the culinary experience of my lifetime.  The dessert, Crème brûlée with a berry topping, capped an extraordinary evening. If you love food quotes, check out the link.

3. Tag 5 Others

If you would like to do this meme,  please leave a comment saying so.  If you want to be part of the world wide effort of locals reviewing their own favorites, check out Chronicles of Nicole.

There is a fabulous response from all over the world and categorized by country by Nicole here.

   

Fishing, Octaves and Chesterton

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An Afternoon Fishing, 1917
Nikolai Bogdanoff-Bjelski
Art Renewal Center

Ah, the joys of boyhood!  I had been thinking of donning a docent’s cap and explaining some stuff I’ve learned about late medieval art; but when I saw this print it shouted “Summer!” “June!” “Boys!” and medieval art faded away.

☼     ☼     ☼

Words are simply delicious.  Yesterday I was reviewing intervals with one of my piano students.  When we came to eighths I said, “You rarely hear the term eighths; normally we say octaves.”  She sucked in her breath, eyes as big as stop signs, and repeated, “Eighths – octaves!  Like octagon!  I. never. knew. that. before.”   Cha-ching!!

☼     ☼     ☼

More from Thomas Cahill, a hat tip to GK Chesterton: 

The introduction of Chesterton’s Ballad of the White Horse
will no doubt strike some readers as irrelevant, since it is
an early twentieth-century, not a medieval work;
and the incident Chesterton gives us–
Alfred’s vision of the Virgin–
has no historical basis.
But for me, as in my earlier recommendation
of Kristin Lavransdatter,
there is here a genuine evocation of the feeling and fabric
of the High Middle Ages that is worthy of our attention.

☼     ☼     ☼

Off to clean my house today.  Those gooky corners of my windows.  The dusty bookshelves.   The scuzzy underneaths.  Nothing says “I love you” louder to my husband than walking into a fresh, clean house; that is, walking into his own house and finding it fresh and clean. 

O Holy Spirit, descend plentifully into my heart.
Enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling
and scatter there Thy cheerful beams.

~   Augustine

Unload

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   God will not guide us
   into an intolerable scramble
   of panting feverishness.

   ~    Thomas Kelly

   Some people can’t say no.
   They enroll in too many courses,
   volunteer for too many tasks,
   make too many appointments,
   serve on too many committees,
   have too many friends.
   They are trying to be all things
   to all people all at once
   all by themselves.

   ~   Dr. J. Grant Howard

   as quoted in Overload
   by Richard A. Swenson

Somebody Loves Me

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Two somebodies went together and replenished my favorite tea.
Thank you JAB and KGB!!
Did you see how many bags?  240! 
You know what that means, don’t you?
I’m prepared to offer you a proper spot of tea. 
My teapot and cozy are on standby status.
Party, anyone?

~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~  

The kitchen project is humming, about 1/3 done. 
If I had known I would get such a lift from clean cupboards,
I would have started finished them earlier.

~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~

Adeste Fideles (O Come All Ye Faithful) is a favorite carol.  It was the first carol we learned in Latin.  A few years later I discovered Athanasius, who fought valiantly for the deity of Christ.  Every time we sing “Ver—–ry God, Begotten, not created” I get choked up and say a prayer of thanks for Athanasius, God’s gift to the early church. 
 

In addition to Athanasius, I will think of translations when we sing that verse.  This, from Mysteries of the Middle Ages by Thomas Cahill:

This early exaltation of Mother and Child already demonstrates
the innovative Christian sense of grace, no longer something
reserved for the fortunate few–the emperors and their
retinues–but broadcast everywhere, bestowed on everyone,
“heaped up, pressed down, and overflowing,” even on
one as lowly and negligible as a nursing mother.
In the words of a famous Latin hymn,

“God…is born from the guts of a girl.”

The hymn is “Adeste Fideles,” composed in the eighteenth
centry (in a very medieval spirit) by John F. Wade.
The full text of the cited quotation is
“Deum de Deo, Lumen de Lumine
Gestant puellae viscera”
The second line was unfortunately translated
in the nineteenth century by Frederick Oakley as
“Lo! he abhors not the Virgin’s womb.”
p. 103

A Thousand Splendid Suns

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Literature tells over and over again
the story of fallenness and brokenness,
as well as of a longing for the Eden we lost.

~  Kathleen Nielson

Hosseini has done it again: he’s written a story that will shred your heart into a thousand splendid pieces.  There is no logical reason why these books should be bestsellers.  They are set in a foreign country, full of foreign words, unfamiliar names and an unfathomable culture utterly unlike ours. 

But.  When Hosseini writes about everyday life in Afghanistan the reader can imagine being in that life.  His themes apply universally to us all.  While we cannot relate to the abuse and the restrictions of life under a totalitarian regime, we can relate to this:

The truth was, Laila loved eating meals at Tariq’s house as much as she disliked eating them at hers. At Tariq’s, there was no eating alone; they always ate as a family. Laila liked the violet plastic drinking glasses they used and the quarter lemon that always floated in the water pitcher.  She liked how they started each meal with a bowl of fresh yogurt, how they squeezed sour oranges on everything, even the yogurt, and how they made small, harmless jokes at each other’s expense.  Over meals, conversations always flowed. […]
 
Her time with Tariq’s family always felt natural to Laila, effortless, uncomplicated by differences in tribe or language, or by the personal spites and grudges that infected the air at her own home. pp 116-17


While we haven’t had to live with the whistle of incoming rockets, who hasn’t been in this kind of situation?

At this, Tariq burst out cackling.  And, soon, they both were in the grips of a hopeless attack of laughter.  Just when one became fatigued, the other would snort, and off they would go on another round.  p.141

Like The Kiterunner, I was propelled through this book by the astonishing, achingly beautiful prose.

Let me tell you something.
A man’s heart is a wretched, wretched thing, Miriam.
It isn’t like a mother’s womb.
It won’t bleed, it won’t stretch to make room for you. p.26


One character marvels “at how every Afghan story is marked by death and loss and unimaginable grief.”  The story overflows with violence, abuse, and the daily, wretched acts of oppression and wickedness.  The outrageous rules of life under the Taliban (my favorite rule: women will wear no charming clothes) reflect their tired, dreary philosophy. This may not be a book for the tender of heart. Yet, restoration of hope and simple gratitude do make their appearances. 

The final sentence was superb.  It captured the essence of the book and unleashed more tears.  It undid me.

Fathers and Sons

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I keep a good supply of blank cards in the house.  My husband eschews sentimental Hallmark cards; he prefers to write his own sentiments.  And one of his fortés is note writing.  I’ve started to photocopy some of them before they are sealed and given to the recipient.  We celebrated Father’s Day yesterday; I secured Curt’s permission to share snippets of the cards he wrote to his father and to our son who is a father.  You would never find these expressions of masculinity in Hallmark.  He had a Boromir moment when he wrote his 70 year old father:

If I had to go to war, I would make you my captain.
If I had to survey the enemy, I’d make you the lead scout.
If we had to shed some blood, I’d give you first shot.
Whatever the challenge,
whatever the odds,
I would be optimistic with you
as either rear guard or leading the charge.
You have served me well already, fighting for me.
It would be my pleasure to fight next to you and for you.
Thank you for being a good soldier.
Continue to fight the good fight.
Your son always…

To our son he was Polonious, with several brief exhortations.  Stay the course. Pray often. Sweat hard. Live life heartily.  These nuggets of fatherly wisdom were sandwiched between these words:

From a father to his son who is now a father:
You are doing well.

Run your race well,
and you can be assured Gavin will run his race well.
Go before him.
I will always be behind you, cheering.
Always, Your Dad

[Addendum:  We gave our son, the father of Gavin the Great, this book.  The back cover says “Recapture Sunday afternoons and long summer days.  The perfect book for every boy from eight to eighty.” Check the video out at Amazon.]

  . 
Speaking of Gavin, he was my helper Saturday while I continued my kitchen project.  As I was organizing a drawer, here’s what he was doing:


 

    

100 Top Movies

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Just for fun over the weekend.  The American Film Institute reissued their top 100 films ten years after the original list.  If you’d like, copy the list on your blog and mark ones you’ve seen, ones you liked, disliked, would like to see, using any coding system you’d like. 

We must still have some medieval blood in us: the medieval people loved lists.  I have to admit that I do too.  The colored ones are ones I’ve seen.  I’m certain any one reading this will have seen more. 

Movies were taboo in my childhood and I won’t even tell you what my childish mind imagined took place in “evil theaters”.  I once remarked to my brother that “Mom and Dad must have gone to a lot of movies to have seven children.”

I’d love to know which ones from this list that you think we really need to watch.

AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies--10th Anniv. Edition:

1    Citizen Kane (1941)
2    The Godfather (1972)
3    Casablanca (1942)
4    Raging Bull (1980)
5    Singin' in the Rain (1952)
6    Gone With the Wind (1939)
7    Lawrence of Arabia (1962)  
	slowest movie I've ever seen
8    Schindler's List (1993) Q
9    Vertigo (1958)
10   The Wizard of Oz (1939) I saw this *after* 
	I humiliated my son
11   City Lights (1931)
12   The Searchers (1956)
13   Star Wars (1977)
14   Psycho (1960)
15   2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
16   Sunset Blvd. (1950)
17   The Graduate (1967)
18   The General (1927)
19   On the Waterfront (1954)
20   It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
21   Chinatown (1974)
22   Some Like It Hot (1959)
23   The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
24   E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
25   To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
26   Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
27   High Noon (1952)
28   All About Eve (1950)
29   Double Indemnity (1944)
30   Apocalypse Now (1979)
31   The Maltese Falcon (1941)
32   The Godfather Part II (1974)
33   One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) 
	this one disturbed me
34   Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
35   Annie Hall (1977)
36   The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)Q
37   The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
38   The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
39   Dr. Strangelove (1964)
40   The Sound of Music (1965)
41   King Kong (1933)
42   Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
43   Midnight Cowboy (1969)
44   The Philadelphia Story (1940)
45   Shane (1953)
46   It Happened One Night (1934)
47   A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
48   Rear Window (1954)
49   Intolerance (1916)
50   The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship 
	of the Ring (2001) five stars, we loved this
51   West Side Story (1961)
52   Taxi Driver (1976)
53   The Deer Hunter (1978)  
	I cried for days after seeing this
54   M*A*S*H (1970)
55   North by Northwest (1959)
56   Jaws (1975)
57   Rocky (1976)
58   The Gold Rush(1925)
59   Nashville (1975)
60   Duck Soup (1933)
61   Sullivan's Travels (1941)
62   American Graffiti (1973)
63   Cabaret (1972)
64   Network (1976)
65   The African Queen (1951) 
	you gotta love Katherine Hepburn
66   The Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
67   Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
68   Unforgiven (1992)
69   Tootsie (1982) We laughed so hard when 
	this came out. We started it again ten 
	years later with our boys and abruptly 
	turned it off; standards had changed.
70   A Clockwork Orange (1971)
71   Saving Private Ryan (1998) 
72   The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
73   Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
74   The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
75   In the Heat of the Night (1967)
76   Forrest Gump (1994)
77   All the President's Men (1976)
78   Modern Times (1936)
79   The Wild Bunch (1969)
80   The Apartment (1960)
81   Spartacus (1970)
82   Sunrise (1927)
83   Titanic (1997)
84   Easy Rider (1969)
85   A Night at the Opera (1935)
86   Platoon (1986)
87   12 Angry Men (1957)
88   Bringing Up Baby (1938)
89   The Sixth Sense (1999)
90   Swing Time (1936)
91   Sophie's Choice (1982)
92   Goodfellas (1990)
93   The French Connection (1971)
94   Pulp Fiction (1994)
95   The Last Picture Show (1971)
96   Do the Right Thing (1989)
97   Blade Runner (1982)
98   Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
99   Toy Story (1995)
100  Ben-Hur (1959)