Mighty Maus

When the graphic novel Maus first came out, I bought it without knowing anything about it because “Maus” was my German grandmother’s maiden name.  Of course I knew it wasn’t about my family, but upon reading it I was delighted.  No, not with the sad story (which is about a Polish, Jewish Holocaust survivor and his son), but with the art work.  Maus was a graphic novel for adults, not kids, thus changing the genre into an adult art form.

The Ur-Maus was a three-page strip that was printed in 1972 in Funny Animals, an underground comix published by Apex Novelties.  Art Spiegelman went on to lengthen the piece and published it serially in RAW magazine, a magazine he co-edited with Françoise Mouly, his wife.  Its final form was a two-volume graphic novel.  Volume I:  My Father Bleeds History was published in 1986, and Volume II:  And Here My Troubles Began was published in 1991.  Eventually Maus was published in a single volume, and also came out on CD-ROM.

Translated into 18 languages, Maus has been the subject of numerous essays, and one can find online college course syllabi that either focus on or include the work.  Spiegelman won a Pulitzer Prize for Maus in 1992, as well as many other prizes and nominations worldwide.

He studied art and philosophy at Harpur College in New York, and then went on to join the underground comix movement. Using various pseudonyms (Joe Cutrate, Al Flooglebuckle, and Skeeter Grant) he created the comix “Nervous Rex”, “Ace Hole, Midget Detective”, and others.  In 1975 he founded Arcade with Bill Griffith, a comix revue which featured artists such as Robert Crumb.

He was a creative consultant for Topps Candy from 1965-1986, famously designing “Garbage Pail Kids”.    He taught the history and aesthetics of comics from 1979-1986 at the School for Visual Arts in New York, before founding the acclaimed avant-garde comics magazine RAW in 1980.  He was a staff artist and writer for The New Yorker from 1993-2003, and published an anthology of his work there entitled Kisses from New York.  He and his wife created an exceptional cover for the magazine after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.  He later used the image in a graphic novel about his experience of the attack, called In the Shadow of No Towers.  He later wrote a children’s book, Open Me…I’m a Dog.  Currently he is editor of a series of comics anthologies for children called Little Lit.

But he will always be remembered, honored, and respected for his audacious and (at the time) controversial use of the comics form to expand Holocaust literature.  This juxtaposition of a genre of humor with one of the most tragic stories of our time was inspired and daring.  Additionally it weaves two stories together – Holocaust survivor and a second generation survivor whom the Holocaust affected significantly even though he was not born during its occurrence – which distinguishes it greatly from other Holocaust narratives.

Some say that great art comes from great tragedy.  In the case of Maus, Spiegelman not only became the world’s most famous graphic artist, influencing generations to come, but retold one of the most horrendous stories of human suffering and devastation in a new way,  causing readers to look upon it differently.

*******************************

Some hashish, a bouzouki, and the blues...

By 1922, approximately two millions Greeks had come to Greece - Greeks who had never lived in Greece.  They came from Anatolia, where most had comfortable, if not rich, lives.  Many arrived in refugee settlements in Athens and Thessaloniki, with only what they could carry.  One of them was my grandmother.

Outcast, in a strange country where they were not particularly welcomed, they played music with lyrics that reflected their pain, poverty, political oppression, violence, drug abuse, and betrayal, along with the usual unrequited love and sorrows of everyday life.  This music was the music of the Greek underground, originating in the hashish dens of Athens and Thessaloniki, and eventually it merged with other strains of folk music.  It is rembetiko – the Greek blues.

Along with them these refugees brought Turkish traditions – hashish dens and tekedes, which were underground cafes.  The earliest rembetiko musicians were often itinerants, criminals, and ex-prisoners.  They would smoke from hookahs and improvise on their bouzoukia, a type of lute.  Eventually rembetiko moved from the slums into mainstream nightclubs and tavernas and became very popular. 

Because of the lyrics, rembetiko was repressed by the Metaxas dictatorship in 1936, and hashish dens and bouzoukia were outlawed.  During the German occupation and the Greek Civil War all songs with references to disreputable or criminal activities, including drug use, were not recorded, but most likely still played.  The suppression seemed good for it, and when rembetiko came out of the closet afterward it was much stronger.  New innovations were added, notably by musician Manolis Chiotis.  He added foreign influences, and most importantly began using the new four-string bouzouki, instead of the traditional three-stringed instrument.

The bouzouki was perhaps the most universally important contribution to the music world.  Once introduced into Irish music, it became very popular.  It also indirectly influenced American guitar playing.  Dick Dale, arguably the father of surf music, played a staccato style on his electric guitar that he learned from his uncle, a bouzouki player.  Dale’s friend, Leo Fender, built an amplifier for Dale to augment the sound of his playing.  The rest, as they say, is electric guitar history.

In the 50s, rembetiko gave way to the laika style of music, a broader style of popular music that included songs with the bouzouki.  Around 1960, a rembetiko revival began as musicians sought to record some of the early songs.  Then, in the 70s, 78 rpm LPs were reissued and many are still available on CDs.  There was interest in recapturing the original stylings.  The songs’ associations with political conflict added to the public interest, as people were protesting and resisting the military dictatorship of the Junta years (1967-1974).  Rembetiko lyrics, though often not openly political, still smacked of subversion and rebellion.

Popular now internationally, rembetiko is currently the subject of research, and scholars and music historians are just beginning to publish works on it.  Below are words to one of the popular songs in English.  (Note:  a baglama is an instrument.):

O Kyr Thanos (Mr. Thanos) by Gigoris Bithikotsis

Mr. Thanos died grumbling,

At two o’clock at Hatzithomas’ tavern.

Lately he knew poverty, the poor man,

He even pawned his baglama.

His brother, the baglama,

Who used to cheer him up.

He pawned him, and died.

If anyone would’ve paid a few of his debts,

He would have his instrument,

He would be living.

But no one ever asked why he cries.

Nobody cares about another person’s pain.

His brother, the baglama,

Who used to cheer him up,

He pawned him, and died.

*******************************

Vegan? Vegetarian? What's the dif?

It has become easier than ever to not eat meat.  There are more options at restaurants, grocery stores stock more selections, and there are a zillion cookbooks on the vegan/vegetarian diet.  As more and more news is published on the treatment of farm animals and the quality of animal products there is no better time to reconsider what you eat.  A diet without meat is not only greener, but healthier for you and definitely the animals you would otherwise consume.  

A confusion seems to exist about the differences in vegan and vegetarian diets. Either term refers to someone who chooses a plant-based diet, for the most part. There are several categories:

A vegan (pronounced "vee-gun") will not eat any products that come from fowl, seafood, fish or animals, including dairy, eggs, or honey. This diet subsists of fruits, vegetables, legumes, grains, nuts, and seeds.

A lacto-vegetarian will eat dairy products.

An ovo-vegetarian will not eat dairy products but will eat eggs.

A lacto-ovo vegetarian will eat dairy products and eggs.

Any of the three above may eat honey.  Any cheese consumed would have to be made with vegetable rennet (as opposed to animal rennet which is extracted from the stomachs of unweaned calves during the production of veal.)>

A fruitarian will only eat produce from plants, the harvesting of which will not kill the plant. Hence an orange or a banana would be eaten, but not a radish, which would destroy the plant.

A pescetarian will additionally eat seafood and/or fish. Those on a macrobiotic diet are included in this category.

A semi-vegetarian will not eat red meat, but will eat fowl, seafood, fish, dairy, eggs, and honey.

A flexitarian eats mostly a plant-based diet but will occasionally eat red meat, fowl, seafood, or fish.

The last three categories are often considered "pseudo-vegetarians".

Additionally, most vegetarians will eschew wearing or using products from animals, such as leather, fur, wool, silk, lanolin, feathers, bone, ivory, shell, etc., or any products tested on animals. 

The important thing to understand is that vegans/vegetarians do not eat the flesh of any critter including broths - beef, chicken, pork, or fish. Just because the meat isn't visible, don't assume that it is okay to serve such a dish to a vegetarian. The same goes for lard or other animal-based cooking fats.

There seems to be an ugly, IMHO, trend among some vegans who are starting to rail against vegetarians for eating any animal products, as the harvesting of these products harm the animals they come from.  Their righteous anger surprises as “do no harm”, to my mind at least, means acting kindly to all creatures, including humans.  This angry posturing also goes against the "peace and love" vibes that not eating meat are supposed to induce.  First of all, a major change in one’s eating lifestyle will be more successfully accomplished in baby steps.  It’s hard for anyone to make any change cold turkey and sustain it.  So rather than informing vegetarians that their commitment isn’t enough, vegetarians should be encouraged for taking that step.  

Secondly these vegans assume that it is impossible to consume any animal products without harming the animals.  I, myself, have bees.  In exchange for some of their honey, I offer them a sheltered hive, fresh water, plants they particularly like planted specifically for them, and protection.  There is a certain beauty to this relationship, which I think the bees agree with, or else they would fly off.  Likewise I get eggs from a friend who keeps chickens who are loose in her yard, produce infertile eggs since there are no roosters, and who are pets which climb in her lap and follow her around.  They lead a life far superior to being kept in a filthy and too small a cage with their beaks cut.

Whatever your dietary choices are, a blessing for the meal you are about to consume, and the entities that provided it, is a nice touch.

********************************

...thank you for not making me a woman...

I have had several female friends who are Jewish, devout in their faith, keep kosher, and their lives are imbued with a contented purpose.  I am jealous of that, because no organized religion seems to do it for me.  Although I love the Jewish culture, and would convert if I could just take on the culture part, I have some problems with the religious part.  Actually, I have problems with the concept of  “God”, but I’m uncomfortable with the term “atheist”.  For “atheist” is literally NOT a “theist”, which means you have to acknowledge God before you can be anti-God.  And I firmly don’t believe in a personified holy guy, or woman for that matter.

To each their own, but the one thing I don’t understand is that these Jewish girlfriends of mine are strong, independent, smart, and assertive women, yet there is a morning prayer that Jewish men say that thanks God for not being made a woman.   What the….?

"Blessed are you, Lord, our God, ruler of the universe, who has not created me a woman." 

So goes one blessing found in the Talmud that is performed in the course of awakening in the morning.  Actually that line is one of a sequence of three recited, the others giving thanks for not being made a gentile or a slave.  This so puzzles me – not that the blessing exists, but that my friends think nothing of it, nor can explain it – that I had to do some research.

Apparently that trinity of blessings has an ancient pedigree.  Hermippus in his Lives gives attribute to the Greek philosopher Thales a story often attributed to Socrates.  Thales was grateful to Fortune that first he was born a human and not a brute, next that he was born a man and not a woman, and last that he was born a Greek and not a barbarian.  Later as the Christian church branched out from Judaism, the apostle Paul stated (Galatians 3:28, KJV), “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female:  for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”  This concept seems to both allude to the Jewish blessing, and divorce itself from it.

Conservative Judaism reworded the Jewish blessing by giving thanks that one is free, Jewish, and created in God’s image, which skirts the issue nicely.  One has to view any stated ideas in the context of their time and place.  Women did not have equality with men, so why would someone want to be one?  Despite the rewording by some groups within Judaism, why would others still choose to use it?  So what exactly is the status of women in Judaism?  Are they lesser than men?

I came across a number of writers (scholars and rabbis - some of both were women) who offered a rather apologetic explanation.  Simply stated, they say first of all that Judaism maintains that God is both masculine and feminine.  Since he has no corporal body, how could he be either?  God is referred to as a “he” as a convention.

Secondly, women have a greater degree of intelligence and understanding, and since they are spiritually superior they don’t have the obligations of men.  An example is that women did not worship the golden calf, thus were never idolaters.  This is seen as proof of their superiority in religious matters, hence they don’t have to work so hard at it.  So does that mean that men are glad to have the opportunity to engage in more rituals than women?  Sounds to me like women have the better deal, so one should be glad to be a woman!

Their third point is that women are exempt from some of the “thou shalt” (as opposed to the “thou shalt not”) commandments because their roles are related to housekeeping and childcare, and these important tasks cannot be interrupted to observe certain rituals.  Not that they cannot observe them, but they have more important tasks to do.  Thus they are not exempted from participating, but more value is placed on the home than the synagogue.

I offer my thoughts as a very cursory and surface treatment of the subject, as I have not had exposure to Torah learning.

When I shared this post with a couple of my Jewish girlfriends before publishing it, their reaction was along the lines of, “Hmmm, interesting.  I didn’t know that.”  It didn’t affect their faith one way or another.

I guess that’s the thing about true faith – the details don’t matter.  And I admit to being a bit jealous.

********************************

Beans Gone Bad

Curious about those packets of brown fluid that come with your Chinese takeout? For over two thousand years the Chinese have been fermenting soybeans. Two foods are derived from this fermentation: miso, which is a paste used in soups and sauces, and soy sauce. From China soy sauce spread all over Asia, and is known as "shoju" in Japan. There are many, many types of soy sauce today, and it has increased in popularity in the West. Despite the differences, true soy sauce has an earthy, salty taste, akin to what the Japanese call "umami."

Traditionally, soy sauce was fermented in huge urns in the sun, often for up to three years. It is then processed much like wine: filtered, blended, and aged. Now it is commercially prepared in machines. Cheaper brands of soy sauce use hydrolyzed soy protein instead of the brewing process, and are popular because of the price. In the West these brands are sometimes called liquid aminos (Bragg makes and sells bottles of this.) Some artificial soy sauces can be carcinogenic, so they should be avoided in general. Besides soybeans, the fermenting process includes yeast and sometimes a grain, most often wheat, barley, or rice.

Chinese soy sauce comes in basically two versions: light and dark. The light is from the first pressing of the soybeans, and is more expensive, just like the first pressing of olive oil, because of its superior taste. There are further delineations, but most soy sauces in this category are used to season dishes, because it is saltier but doesn't affect the color of the dish, or in dipping sauces. Dark soy sauce is aged and less salty but sweeter. It is used in cooking for its ability to color a dish as well as for taste.

Japanese soy sauce is thought to have been brought to Japan by Buddhist monks. Shoju is made of soybeans, wheat, brine, and a yeast, known as koji, which is also used to ferment sake. Shoju is found in five traditional categories and two newer ones, based on how they were made and the ingredients used. They cannot be used in place of each other because of their differences. The Japanese use wheat as a grain, which gives a sweeter taste, and sometimes they add alcohol. Koikuchi is a dark sauce made of half wheat and half soy. It is the most common Japanese soy sauce, and counts for most of their production. Tamari is darker and more flavorful and contains little or no wheat, so it is perfect for those with wheat intolerance. This is the closest to the original Chinese soy sauce. Shiro uses mostly wheat, which gives it a light taste and color. Saishikomi is twice brewed, which means koikuchi sauce is used instead of the normal brine. Finally, usukuchi is very salty and light in color, due to the use of a liquid made of fermented rice, called amazake, which also makes it taste sweet. Two newer types are amakuchi, a variant of koikuchi, which is also called Hawaiian soy sauce for its sweet flavor; and genen, which is lower in salt content.

The Japanese are very serious about soy sauce, and have special terms for both the quality of a sauce, and the method of production. There are three categories of quality: hyojun, or pasteurized; tokkyu or unpasteurized; and tokusen, the highest quality and limited quantity. There are two other terms used to describe soy sauce: chotokusen, which indicates the best; and hatsuakana refers to industrial grade sauce, mostly used for powders and flavoring.

Korean soy sauce is called joseon ganjang. Used very little by the Koreans, who seem to prefer Japanese soy sauces, it is thin and dark, made of soy and brine. The Taiwanese are renown for their black bean soy sauce, which takes longer to produce. They also produce a soybean and wheat sauce.

Other Asian countries produce soy sauces, but none are well known except for Malaysia, which makes kecap manis, a thick sauce sweetened with palm sugar, garlic, and anise.  Because of Malaysia's ties with Indonesia, they use the same name for their soy sauces - kecap, which is the basis for our word ketchup.   Kecap asin, kecap manis, and kecap manis sedang are all Indonesian soy sauces.  Kecap inggri, or "English sauce" is their name for Worcestershire sauce, and kecap ikan is fish sauce, although both of these are usually placed under the soy sauce category.

If you find a good Asian market with a knowledgeable proprietor or staff person, you can learn a lot, as I did.  But beware - you may end up with a collection of different sauces, as I did!

*******************************

The poster child for extinction...

Mauritius is a small island off the coast of Africa, east of Madagascar.  In 1598, Dutch explorers found a large flightless bird there.  The birds were not tasty, prompting them to call them “walghvogel”, or “loathsome bird”.  Extant writings state the meat of the bird tasted bad, but early journals claim the meat was good but tough.  Apparently the local pigeons were tastier.  (Pigeons and doves were relatives of the dodo.) 

Eighty-some years later the dodos were extinct.  This was not so much due to consumption by people and the dogs and pigs they brought, but more so by the destruction of their forest habitat and the cats and rats introduced that destroyed their nests.  Because dodos had no predators before the arrival of the explorers, they likely had no real fear of them.

Judging by the bones that were left (and in 2005 a new cache of bones, determined to be of dodos killed in a flash flood, were found) the dodo was about three feet tall and weighted forty-five pounds.  Because it had stubby wings and a small breastbone this bird was flightless.  Scientists believe that the dodo may have originally been capable of flight, but flight was unnecessary on an island with no predators and readily available food.  Eventually the dodo evolved to its flightless state.

The etymology of the name “dodo” is arguable.  It has been suggested that name is onomatopoeic, however that is impossible to prove.  Yet pigeons and doves make a cooing sound, so it does makes sense.  It has also been ascribed to the Dutch word dodoor meaning “sluggard”, but may also be derivative of the Dutch word dodaars, meaning “knot arse” as it had a cluster or knot of feathers on its hind end.  Apparently dodaerse can be found in the 1602 journal of Dutch Captain Willem van Westsanen.  Others claim that the word comes from the Portuguese doido, meaning crazy or foolish.

All these names show a certain lack of respect for these birds.  Possibly from being somewhat trusting and large, they were thought to be lazy and stupid.  We currently say, “dumb as a dodo”, or “dead as a dodo”.  But humans are the dumb ones.  The demise of of the dodos was over three hundred years ago, yet we continue to destroy habitats and unthinkingly harm other species.  I wonder what other creatures were destroyed at the same time as the dodos, perhaps some insects or bugs, which seem to warrant the least consideration from us. 

Dodos are funny.  They are the arse of many jokes.  What’s not funny is the attitude we take toward them.  We will never know what they were like.  They may have proved to be like parrots, who can have the intelligence of a five-year-old.  In the meantime, we dispatch other species to join them.  I ask you, who are the dumb ones?

*******************************

Cruciverbalists Unite!

For a couple millenia, people have been playing with words.  Acrostics have been used since the time of the ancient Greeks.  The Romans played with word squares, the most famous one being:

ROTAS

OPERA

TENET

AREPO

SATOR

This roughly translates to "The sower Arepo holds the wheels at work."  Arepo is a concocted name, and it's not a particularly meaningful sentence.  But the beauty of the piece is that the words can be read in all four ways:  across, down, up, and backwards.

On September 4, 1890, the first crossword puzzle appeared in the magazine Il Secolo Illustrato della Domenica constructed by Giuseppe Airoldi.  It was called "Per passare il tempo" - "to pass the time".  It was a four-by-four grid with both horizontal and vertical clues with none of the cells shaded.  In 1913, Arthur Wynne published a puzzle he called a "word cross" which later gave way to the term "crossword".   Crossword puzzles are currently popular internationally, although they are constructed differently in various countries.

American crosswords feature grids of white squares, of which usually one-sixth are shaded ones.  The pattern also appears the same when viewed upside down.  The weekday puzzles published in newspapers are 15x15 squares, and the weekend ones are 21x21, 23x23, or 25x25.  The weekday ones are easier.  The New York Times crossword, the most famous of crossword puzzles, is considered the hardest in English.  The Sunday puzzle is the most difficult, prompting actor and puzzle solver Paul Sorvino to call it, "The bitch mother of all crosswords."  The smallest words have no fewer then three letters.  Clues are given, usually separated into "Across" and "Down" columns, all numbered with their corresponding numbers in the cells.  British crosswords are similar, although in both Britain and Australia the grid design resembles a lattice, with a higher number of shaded squares.

Japanese crosswords feature a white cell in all four corners, and no shaded cells can touch.  To make things more difficult, a puzzle can use all three Japanese writing system:  hiragana, kanji, and katakana, all mixed together.  Hebrew puzzles are particularly perplexing since modern Hebrew is written without consonants, which can lead to ambiguities, but more so because Hebrew is written right to left, but Arabic numerals are written left to right.

Italian puzzles are usually oblong and large, 13x21 is typical.  They often use two-letter words, as well. The French also use two-letter words, and theirs can be square or rectangle.  Swedish puzzles don't have separate lists of clues.  Since they don't use shaded cells, the clues are placed in those spots, with vertical and horizontal arrows pointing which direction clues are to be applied.  Other countries use the same template, sometimes taking up an entire page, with photos replacing a shaded cell block.  

There are various tips for solving crosswords.  Being familiar with the author of the puzzle helps.  Young people tend to use more trendy, hip words, while older authors tend to use more classical or common knowledge words.  Sometimes there is a theme to the puzzle, which helps determine what kind of words are used.  Clues with question marks are usually tricks, the answers not being direct.  Answers do correspond grammatically, i.e., a clue in the plural means the answer will be plural.

Lately crosswords have been touted as one way to exercise your brain, even marketed as a deterrent to Alzheimer's or senile forgetfulness.  Personally, I have doubts about this, since my one Sunday ritual has been doing the L.A Times Sunday crossword for decades, and I find myself getting increasingly forgetful!

If you consider yourself a cruciverbalist (from the Latin "cross" and "word"), you may want to join the Crossword Community Center and find kindred souls!

*******************************

You say tea mold, I say kelp tea

Kombucha is a fermented drink with a tea base that has been claimed for centuries in many cultures to have health benefits, mainly as a digestive aid and a way to detox.  Because it is acidic and mildly alcoholic (no, you won’t get drunk on it), it is thought to be antimicrobial.  It’s been proven effective in animal studies, although there are not yet any known human studies.

It is also sometimes called "mushroom" tea, though it doesn’t contain mushrooms.  This name comes from the starter, which is a mass of beneficial yeasts and bacteria forming a cluster.  There are many names for this starter, SCOBY (Symbiotic colony of Bacteria and Yeast) being the more scientific one, and “the mother” being the more common one.  In Russia, where the first recorded history of kombucha exists, it is called “mushroom” or “tea mushroom”.  It is popular in Asia, where the Japanese make it with dried kelp, or kombu, and who gave it the name kombucha, which in Japanese means “kelp tea.”  The Chinese use three words for it, “red tea fungus/mushroom”, “red tea mushroom”, and “tea mold”.  Red tea is simply their interpretation of what we call black tea.

Kombucha tea is not too difficult to make, and much cheaper than buying it if you are a kombucha drinker.  Here’s what you need to make your own:

Tea

Sugar

Starter (store-bought, or from another tea)

Large food-grade glass container with wide mouth

Small glass bottles for pouring the finished product into

pH test strips

Cheesecloth or coffee filters with string or rubber band

Funnel for pouring finished product into bottles

Any type of tea may be used: black, green, oolong, whatever your preference. (Note: "herb" teas are not considered teas for this purpose.) Teas containing oils may require more fermenting and should probably be avoided until you are a "kombucha master." You can use organic cane sugar or refined white sugar. I have not tried honey myself, but a friend who uses it says it takes much longer to brew it using honey.

Like brewing anything, special care must be taken to ensure that you are working in a clean environment with clean utensils (and hands!), using the proper temperature. Care must also be taken to use a low pH factor (between 2.5 and 4.6), as a higher factor could lead to contamination and a lower one will make the tea too acidic. You can use distilled vinegar to control the pH factor. Start with an eighth of a cup. You should test at the beginning and end of the brewing cycle.

Start with about three quarts of boiling water. Add 4-8 tea bags (I prefer strong tea myself, but the choice is yours.) Remove from heat and add one-cup sugar. Once the tea has cooled to room temperature, pour into a food-grade glass container, add the starter, and cover with cheesecloth secured with a rubber band (you can use a coffee filter in a pinch.) Let the tea ferment for one to two weeks - the longer you let it ferment, the sourer it will taste. Make sure it is in a warm place, but not in direct sunlight. You will see a culture develop. Sample by taking a small amount out of the container - do not drink from the container itself! Once it has reached the taste you prefer, remove the culture with very clean hands or preferably clean rubber gloves and place into a clean bowl with enough liquid to keep it moist. Strain the liquid and bottle it. At this point you may add flavorings or fruit (rosehips is tasty!) Let it sit at room temperature for a week to allow the yeast to carbonate the liquid. Capping the bottles tightly will aid the carbonation. Once it is ready you can refrigerate the bottles.

You may want to start a new batch with a small amount of liquid from this batch, which will aid in keeping the pH factor low. Thoroughly clean the food-grade glass container and start the process again, using freshly brewed, sweetened tea and the culture you removed.

As its popularity increases, one can find commercial kombucha more easily, and with a variety of flavorings.  I hesitantly bought a bottle recently that was ginger-flavored.  It had a pleasant taste, and I’m hoping the ginger added to its health value.  Chocolate kombucha?  Nah, I’ll pass.

*******************************

Homely, but forgetful...

When I was in India I liked to read the matrimonials.  “Homely girl with PhD in Sanskrit.”  “Homely” does not mean ugly, as it does here, but rather a woman who can keep a nice home, which includes the cooking arts.  This seems to be and has been a standard for women worldwide, and at one time in the U.S. a woman’s reputation was made or broken by her abilities in the kitchen.  To aid a woman’s memory, recipes were written in rhymes, common in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth.

Rhyming Recipes could be written in any verse form, but couplets seem to have been the most popular.  A classic one for salad dressing is by Sydney Smith, an English writer and Anglican clergyman who was also a member of the Bluestockings:


Two boiled potatoes strained through a kitchen sieve,

Softness and smoothness to the salad give;

Of mordant mustard take a single spoon,
Distrust the condiment that bites too soon!

Yet deem it not, thou man of taste, a fault

To add a double quantity of salt.

Four times the spoon with oil of Lucca crown,

And twice wine vinegar procured from town;

True taste it requires it and your poet begs

The pounded yellow of two well-boiled eggs.

Let onion’s atoms lurk within the bowl

And, scarce suspected, animate the whole.

And lastly in the flavoured compound toss

A magic spoonful of anchovy sauce.

Oh, great and glorious!

Oh herbaceous met!

‘Twould tempt the dying Anchorite to eat.

Back to the world he’d turn his weary soul

And plunge his fingertips in the salad bowl.

The Nebraska State Historical Society offers one from 1903 for bread. 

A book was published in Boston by Hattie A. Burr around 1886, The Woman Suffrage Cook Book (a second edition – 1890 - copy is available online for $750).  It included recipes from many famous suffragettes, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton who offered this breakfast dish :

Cut smoothly from a wheaten loaf

Ten slices, good and true,

And brown them nicely, o'er the coals,

As you for toast would do.

Prepare a pint of thickened milk,

Some cod-fish shredded small;

And have on hand six hard-boiled eggs,

Just right to slice withal.

Moisten two pieces of the bread,

And lay them in a dish,

Upon them slice a hard-boiled egg,

Then scatter o'er with fish.

And for a seasoning you will need

Of pepper just one shake,

Then spread above the milky juice,

And this one layer make.

And thus, five times, bread, fish and egg,

Or bread and egg and fish,

Then place one egg upon the top,

To crown this breakfast dish.

Here is a modern one that I made up for soup.  It was my favorite recipe when I was working full-time, going to school, and had a busy life:

Choose a flavor and open the can.
Then carefully pour it into a pan.

Place on stove and turn on the heat.

Warm until it’s ready to eat.

Ladle into bowls, serve with crackers.
Share it with some other slackers.

*******************************

"I like it on..."

Don’t get excited.  Despite the sexual innuendo, this refers to where a woman likes to keep her purse …the floor …the couch …the kitchen counter …wherever.  This is Facebook’s attempt to create breast cancer awareness.  Also on Facebook is SC Johnson’s “Pink my Profile” app where one can tint their profile photo to show support.  Many, many groups and companies have campaigns for the annual October Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  But from all reports, while these might create some awareness, they are not creating an increase in donations for breast cancer research.

According to the National Institutes of Health, from figures compiled by the CDC and the American Cancer Society in 2006, the leading causes of death for American women are heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, COPD, and finally breast cancer, with heart disease far and away the greatest killer.  Thus said, this is not to belittle the efforts toward breast cancer awareness, but to examine the tactics of the businesses who pander to it.  For instance, Astra Zeneca, the seventh largest pharmaceutical company in the world, sponsors the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which began in 1985.  NBCAM is a partnership of government agencies, medical associations, and national public service organizations whose aim is to promote awareness.  Their website is impressive, but is copyrighted by the Astra Zenica Healthcare Foundation, which to my mind makes its data questionable (though not necessarily wrong), especially since they are the manufacturers of the breast cancer drugs Arimidex and Tamoxifen.

Of course, it is sadly not unusual for groups to create a lot of hoopla that in the end adds to their bank accounts.  I just wish they hadn't done it with this issue, which is near and dear to my heart.  The symbol for breast cancer awareness is a pink ribbon.  A history and explanation of the pink ribbon, "pinkwashing", and "slacktivism", along with an interesting description of medical sociologist Gayle Sulik's book Pink Ribbon Blues:  How Breast Cancer Culture Undermines Women's Health, can be seen here.  

Breast cancer has a history that is long and slow in advancement.  It is one of the oldest types of cancers written about, presumably because it is more readily observable compared to internal cancers.  The Edwin Smith papyrus, written in Egyptian hieratic script in the sixteenth century, is based on material from an ancient Egyptian text on trauma surgery.  It covers eight cases of breast tumors that were treated by cauterization.  It also stated that the disease was untreatable.

In the seventeenth century there was enough understanding about the circulatory system that doctors were able to connect breast cancer with lymph nodes.  Successful surgeries removing breast tissue, lymph nodes, and the chest muscle beneath during that century enabled the work of William Stewart Halsted, who began performing mastectomies in 1882.  The "Halsted radical mastectomy" usually involved the removal of both breasts, associated lymph nodes and chest muscle.  This form of surgery became the standard, and is still implemented today.  In the 1970s, because medicine could now recognize systemic illness due to a new understanding of metastasis, effective but less radical procedures were developed.

In the 1920s mammograms were invented, which enabled detection of a breast tumor before it had a chance to greatly develop.  With an 85% efficacy rate, it remains a very valid preventative measure.  In 1994  and 1995, the discovery was made of two genetic mutations that could cause breast cancer - BRCA1 and BRCA2.  In 2002 a third mutation was discovered - BRCA3.  These mutations explain that some families share a propensity toward breast cancer.  Someone whose mother, grandmother, aunt, or sister had or has breast cancer is advised to get a mammogram at the same age their relative was first diagnosed, or by the age of 35, whichever is sooner.

Breast cancer is not just a woman's disease.  It happens to men, too, but at a much lower rate, usually occurring between the ages of sixty and seventy.  Family history is an important indication for men to be concerned with as well.  In 2009, the third week of October was designated "Male Breast Cancer Awareness Week" by the advocacy groups Out of the Shadow of Pink, The Brandon Greening Foundation for Breast Cancer in Men, and A Man's Pink.

While I am dismayed at the way this disease has been taken advantage of by some businesses and groups  for their own interests, I have nothing but love and respect for breast cancer patients and survivors.  To the people I know and love, and to all the rest who have dealt with it or must deal with it currently, my best thoughts and wishes go out to you.  This month and every month.

*******************************