Quote to ponder: What to teach...

Do not try to satisfy your vanity by teaching a great many things. Awaken people's curiosity. If there is some good flammable stuff, it will catch fire.
- Anatole France

Quote to ponder: Green people

"When I observe the fate of botanists, upon my word I doubt whether to call them sane or mad in their devotion to plants" 

Carl von Linnaeus, Critica Botanica, 1737

Conversation at our house

 "Oh, come kids, hurry up, look, look, you are going to miss it! It is nearly gone now! "
Thump, thump, thump, comes kids footsteps down stairs and dining room.
" Mom, what is it?", says one kid.
" Look, the last sunset of 2010!"
Kid's comment:  "Sigh, you are so silly!"

Happy New (and belated) New Year everybody!
Now it is MMXI.

Some amazing and cool Scandinavian style fabric designs can be found at this UK website, Fabric Rehab.  I love this owl print, and it reminds me of late 1960s early 1970s things I saw when I grew up (or maybe it was early 1960s and they were still in style in my part of Sweden?).

How about this dandelion fabric? OK the color is a bit mustardy, but otherwise?


Kristen Kimball, of The Dirty Life fame and hard work, has written an essay on the Oprah website - worth reading.  There is also a great interview with her here, which I don't think I have linked to before from this blog.  More about living off the land locally, on this blog.

And while you are reading all these great things, often building on shared resources and shared commitments and responsibilities, here is one woman who's research is famous for studying this, everyday life around the world and how we share things ethically and honestly: Elinor Ostrom. She got the Nobel prize in Economics for her research, which is pretty remarkable, when you realize that:

"Ostrom’s key idea is that neither the state nor the market is the best manager of our collective resources—it’s us, we the people. The commons concept is catching on in a big way as we look at how to lighten our impact on the earth, live within the means of our natural resources, and navigate the ownership issues of a new digital era."

Read more here, and there is an interview with Elinor here.  I met her last year through work, and the best quote from her that day was: "Shame can be a most useful feeling."  She was talking about shaming people into doing the right thing, like when they had mock trials along the Rhen River accusing big companies of destroying the water of the river with pollution.  It led to the clean-up of the river, quite voluntarily, by several companies who wanted to be known as the ones that do the right thing, not the wrong thing.  The same process can be used when a village manages a common forest, grazing land, etc., but it only works if you have democratic processes in place and if all people care about the outcome.  Her research is most fascinating, and have implications for how we don't manage common resources today like the air, oceans, water quality and quantity, and carbon dioxide pollution.

More clear messages

..we suddenly have an avid reader of Kurt Vonnegut in the house, after AREA got him as her school project author this year.  She is mesmerized and reads, and reads... 

For your thoughts and enjoyment, here are some of Kurt Vonnegut's most famous quotes:

"Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand."

"Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance."

"Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops."

Quote of the day: Hot dogs

"The noblest of all dogs is the hot dog: It feeds the hand that bites it."

Laurence J. Peter

Quote of the day

In an e-mail I was sent a few days ago:

"Let me know if I can be of further existence."

Hilarious or sad? - this person doesn't know the difference between existence or assistance.

Food quote of the day

"I will not eat oysters. I want my food dead. Not sick, not wounded... dead" - Woody Allen

Oh, if he knew what he was missing. Ask SK, my former student, who had her first living oyster in Vancouver and loved it. Here is the photo:

a life lesson?

Hello all,

The blog is going on low speed with people overheated by summer weather, on vacation, moving, traveling, working, and busy with other things. In the meantime, enjoy this quote, that I am sure some of us can relate to:

"Good judgement comes from experience,
and a lot of that comes from bad judgement."
- Will Rogers

In memoriam, kind of, and Quote of the Day

TV dinners, say no more! Wink wink, nudge nudge... No, Monthy Python never made a skit about TV dinners but they could have done that. Imagine a dead parrot filet inside a foil package. "This parrot is not dead, it is just stunned!"

OK, I admit I have bought and eaten TV dinners earlier when my life was rather despaired (PP will be horrified by these news). In Sweden I don't even know if you can buy them, but I guess so, even if I have no idea what they are called. "TV-middagar?" It is simply overcooked, overfrozen, divided dishes in minuscule portions in a plastic or foil tray so you can eat it while you are watching the latest show on TV, and it saved lots of times for housewifes and men alike. Originally they were heated in the oven, but these days it is all microwavable.

TV dinners started in the 50s and apparently are still going strong based on the meters and meters of freezer space in the store that are occupied by HungryMan's steak and gravy, Swanson's turkey meatloaf, etc. I am often filled by a mixture of amazement and sadness when I see what people have in their shopping carts at the store - TV dinners, soda, cheese sticks, chips, and maybe some ready cut carrots and fruits. And this is the regular, not the unusual.

I haven't eaten a TV dinner in probably 10 years, and I am not planning to eat any more ever. I remember them as being bland, salty, boring, and ugly. But when you are hungry, you eat. I remember that the kids hated them - good job kids, you knew better already then. More pasta with homemade pesto, beer butt chicken, and green chili stew for the people!

Woody Allen is the source for the quote of the day:
"Why bother to cook TV dinners? I suck them frozen." (Woody Allen)

Food quote of the day

"Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it French. Sour creme makes it Russian; lemon and cinnamon make it Greek. Soy sauce makes it Chinese; garlic makes it good."
Alice May Brock

After looking at this quote I realize that our food we make here at home is truly global. In the last week we have cooked General Tso's Tofu (Chinese, yummy!), "sill och potatis" (pickled herring and potatoes, Swedish, with sour creme), Pasta Primavera (Italian), smoked pork chops ("kassler", Amish/German), shrimp curry after great aunt Willis' recipe that she taught me as a college student (Indian), quesadillas (Mexican), grilled quail marinated in garlic, olive oil and herbs (Italian/French), and Greek yogurt for breakfast. This week we are having Vietnamese rice paper rolls (AREA decided on this and will make them).

Quote - beans

Ecuadorian pink beans. Aren't they pretty? My bush beans are growing like crazy here in New Jersey and started flowering today.

Quote of the day:
“Weather means more when you have a garden. There's nothing like listening to a shower and thinking how it is soaking in around your green beans.” Marcelene Cox

Food quote of the day

Chili is a lot like sex: when it is good it is great, and even when it is bad, it's not that bad. - Bill Boldenweck

English food

Another quote from my little book:

The English have the undeserved reputation of ruining all the vegetables they can lay their hands on. - Frank Oliver (an Englishman)

I still remember the first time I was in London, around 1991, and the two memorable meals I had there. The first was greasy fries and some beef pie at a pub for lunch - all I remember is the grease and the lack of anything vegetable-like except the fried potatoes. The second was an evening when I for the first time in my life went to an Indian restaurant and I had chicken tandoori, and it was great. I didn't understand anything the waiters said, and thought it was strange that you ordered bread and side dishes separately. But since then I have loved Indian food.

Food climate in relation to drinkables, another quote

Another thing, why do terrible cooks always have their houses so hot, their coffee so cold. - Betty MacDonald

I have always wondered that myself.

Fat quote

As for butter versus margarine, I trust cows more than chemists. - Joan Gussow

Ketchup quote

Another food quote, which I am sure some in this world will not like:

Americans will eat garbage provided you sprinkle it liberally with ketchup. - Henry Miller

There is a lot to be said about ketchup. That Reagan himself tried to classify it as a vegetable in the school lunches is not true, it was someone down in the administration that came up with that idea which never passed as a rule. But the rumor exist, and I bet there are people that think ketchup is really nutritious (but check the sugar and sodium in this table). After all, it is a mellowing agent (listen to Prairie Home Companion and you will find out more). In the stores right now they sell purple and green ketchup to the kid crowd and stressed out parents that give in to wishes from kids that have seen too many ketchup TV ads... "Heinz Ez Squirt Funky Purple Makes Kids want to eat their dinner!"

I used to eat a lot more ketchup than now. As a poor college student I often had cooked spaghetti with ketchup and grated cheese for dinner, that is all I could afford. Ketchup is a must on fried egg sandwiches and hot dogs, but on burgers I like BBQ sauce better. Not that BBQ sauce has better nutrients, it is just more tasty and not so sweet. Ketchup is among the most American and widespread food I can think of. Hot dogs and French fries were imported here, but ketchup was innovated in the USA.

Strong coffee

I bought a little book about food quotes:

The coffee was so strong is snarled as it lurched out of the pot. - Betty MacDonald

This quote make me think of my brother, O.K. I can imagine his espresso maker hissing and spurting really strong coffee drips....

A little book of quotes

Since I was 15 or so I have been keeping a little book of quotes, and I think I am on my third one now. The first one was feared in the family when I grew up, because you might end up in it! And many did. I still have that somewhere in a secure place, so one day I can tell you what silly things EH and O.K. said 25 years ago.

But now I have another one, started in 2000, and mostly with some really good kids' quotes. Here is just a few from kids and family and friends. All are overheard by myself, none are made up. I am not saying who said what, but you might be able to figure that out yourself. Of course some of the things only makes sense if you know both Swedish and English. Enjoy!

QUOTES by KIDS

Grandma has dot-com. She has a million websites. (Kid, 5 years old, after seeing the internet for the first time)

I am too tired to do nothing. (Kid, 5 years)

Kid 1 (5 years old): - I love to have stinky pants!
Mom: - Maybe I should write that in my quotation book and read it to you when you are 15?
Kid 2: - YEAH!
Kid 1: - No, no! I changed my mind, I hate stinky underwear.

See, we are making a nice clean mess! (Kid, 6 years old)

- How can I not listen to him? My ears are always on.

(looking at tracks in the snow)
- Look, it is a bird! It has three feet.

If you are not nice the ghost of President Bush will come after you.

I am so hungry I could eat a vegetarian.

If you are close to an electric eel you might get shocked.

Mom, I know why Jewish don't celebrate Christmas. They don't celebrate little Harry or whatever his name is. (Kid, 6 years old)

I need to read a little bit more to get a little more tired. (11-year old at bedtime)

How do you make this baby run? (10-year old girl standing inside the steam locomotive)

ENGLISH QUOTES

If there were no garbage men we would be in deep shit.

-What is a 10-cornered polygon called?
- Decandent.

Even when it rains in Sweden, the humidity is lower. [than in NJ, of course]

SWEDISH QUOTES

- Du är så fyndig!
- Ja, jag hittar alla mina skämt på rea!

Vad kallar man en bok som ramlade ner i youghurten?
- Bibliofil!

American Museum of Natural History är jättestort. Man kan bara gå in på en sektion åt gången.

hemiphoba:
Såna som inte vill vara ensamma hemma.

Jag är inte längre makalös! [said the newly married woman]