Wherein combatants in the American Civil War know nothing keeps a soldier in fighting trim like a wad of compressed vegetables. “Avast, ye scurvy dogs” kids playing pirate will shriek before making their friends walk the plank. While we might chuckle at a little bit of elementary school keelhauling, scurvy itself was a serious concern … Read More
United States
Red Red Wine
Wherein Americans know nothing is more refreshing than a bathtub claret. A classic scene in I Love Lucy depicts Lucille Ball stomping grapes for wine while touring Italy and getting into a grape-slinging, body-smooshing brawl in the wine vat (I love almost as much the complaint of Uncle Junior in The Sopranos that homemade Italian … Read More
Who Put the Pomp (In the Pomp, Pomp and Circumstance)
Wherein I’d like to thank the guy who wrote the song that made my baby graduate with me. Graduation season: when Edward Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance Marches (specifically March No. 1 in D Major) rings out across the United States amidst squealing feedback from tinny football and basketball stadium speakers. How did this particular march—as … Read More
Handprint Beans on the Refrigerator
Wherein boring old Thanksgiving turkey is replaced with even more traditional stale biscuits and garbanzo beans. Here in the United States we recently celebrated Thanksgiving, traditionally viewed as rooted in a 1621 harvest festival celebrated by English Pilgrims and members of the Wampanoag tribe but more specifically established by Abraham Lincoln to celebrate the Union … Read More
