CHRISTMAS ART, SNOW PUDDING RECIPE, TRIVIA AND YES, VIRGINIA THERE IS A SANTA CLAUS CLASSIC EDITORIAL COLUMN
Wednesday Greetings Awesome Readers!
Cool line up today — beginning with …
QUICK QUESTION
My favorite childhood tradition memory is putting up lights on the outside of our home for all to enjoy. Kinda like driving around and looking at people’s outside decorating. Happy and cheer! You?
YES, VIRGINIA
a column piece most of us kinda sorta know — but have you ever read all the words? Magic, for sure.
The link to the song Snoopy’s Christmas vs the Red Baron is one you’ll probably remember hearing from somewhere in your memory bank. A Merry listen indeed.
SNOW PUDDING RECIPE
involves a little time — but the results are outstanding!
TRACY BECKERMAN’S
column “Magnetic Personality” — is a fun, fast read!
LESLIE ELMAN’S
Trivia bits always intrigues me.
As always, friends, so grateful for your time + sharing + commenting. Elf hat-tip!
Enjoy your week. See ya Friday!
Ho! Ho! Ho!
POP QUIZ
- PETRICHOR IS THE NAME FOR WHAT PLEASANT AROMA?
a) The smell of air before a rain shower
b) The smell of cinnamon
c) The smell of freshly washed clothing
d) The smell of a wood-burning fireplace - A MUSEUM IN URBANA, OHIO, IS DEVOTED TO JOHN CHAPMAN, WHO WAS KNOWN FOR DOING WHAT?
a) Compiling an encyclopedia
b) Designing automobiles
c) Mapping the Ohio River
d) Planting orchards - EZRA JACK KEATS IS BEST KNOWN AS THE AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR OF WHAT CHILDREN’S CLASSIC?
a) “The Cricket in Times Square”
b) “The Snowy Day”
c) “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”
d) “A Wrinkle in Time”
QUICK QUESTION
WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE CHRISTMAS TRADITION AS A CHILD?
POP QUIZ ANSWERS
- Petrichor refers to the smell of air before a rainstorm.
- John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed, planted orchards in the early 19th century.
- Ezra Jack Keats is best known as the author and illustrator of the children’s classic “The Snowy Day”
~ COPYRIGHT 2023 LESLIE ELMAN,
DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM
YES VIRGINIA …
This heartfelt query was first printed in the New York Sun in 1897, along with a response from editor, Francis P. Church. It was so popular that it was reprinted every year until the Sun went out of business in 1949.
Dear Editor: I am 8 years old. Some of my friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth. Is there a Santa Claus?
~ Virginia O’Hanlon
Virginia,
Your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by skepticism of a skeptical age.
They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds.
All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy.
Alas, how dreary would be the world if there was no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias.
There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills this world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your Papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they didn’t see Santa Claus coming down — what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus.
The most real things in this world are those that neither men nor children can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not. But that’s no proof that they aren’t there.
Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders that are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart.
Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside a curtain and view and picture supernal beauty and glory beyond.
Is it all real?
Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God! He lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
YOU’LL NEVER KNOW HOW MUCH LIGHT YOU HAVE UNTIL YOU TRY TO SHINE IT FOR OTHERS.
CHECK THIS CHRISTMAS SONG OUT.
so much fun!
**SNOOPY’S CHRISTMAS VS THE RED BARON **
RIDDLE ME THIS
TAKE OFF MY SKIN – I WON’T CRY, BUT YOU WILL.
WHAT AM I?
SNOW PUDDING WITH CHRISTMAS CUSTARD AND RASPBERRY PRESERVES
A recipe from my great-Aunt Suzy outta San Francisco. She was an amazing cook and wrote for one of the newspapers in San Fran.
Wow your dinner guests and family with this grand finale! This lovely desert is not only amazingly light and delicious, but elegant in presentation. Serves about 4
HERE’S HOW WE MAKE IT:
- 2 envelopes Knox unflavored gelatin
- 1/2 cup cold water
- 2 cups boiling water
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup lemon juice
- 3 stiffly beaten egg whites
IN A MEDIUM BOWL:
- Soften gelatin in cold water
- Add boiling water and stir until gelatin is dissolved
- Stir in sugar until dissolved
- Add lemon juice and stir until well incorporated
PLACE BOWL IN FRIDGE AND CHILL UNTIL SET – ABOUT AN HOUR
WHILE THAT’S GOING ON IN THE FRIDGE:
- Beat egg whites with a hand mixer until peaks form
- Remove gelatin mix from fridge and beat with hand mixer until frothy
- Gently fold egg whites into gelatin mixture with a rubber spatula
- Pour into a mold (if desired) or leave in a glass bowl and refrigerate until set – about 2 hours
NOW WE MAKE THE CHRISTMAS CUSTARD
In the top part of a double boiler, whisk together:
- 3 beaten egg yolks
- 2 cups scalded milk
- 1/2 cup sugar
(( PRO TIP ))
If you don’t have a double boiler, improvise by floating a small pot – as on top – in a larger pot that’s half full of water.
Cook egg yolks, sugar and scalded milk in floating small pot over medium high heat, stirring frequently, watching closely that mixture just barely bubbles. Cook, stirring, until custard coats a wooden spoon. Remove from heat and whisk in 1 tsp good quality vanilla extract.
POUR CUSTARD IN A BOWL AND COVER WITH SARAN WRAP OR ALUMINIUM FOIL AND REFRIGERATE UNTIL COLD – A COUPLE OF HOURS.
WHEN READY TO SERVE, SCOOP SMALL PORTIONS OF THE GELATIN MIXTURE IN SMALL, PRETTY DESSERT BOWLS, PARFAIT GLASSES OR LARGE WINE GLASSES.
SPOON CUSTARD OVER GELATIN MIX AND PUT A LITTLE SPOONFUL OF RASPBERRY PRESERVES ON TOP FOR A TA-DAH SORT OF THING
RIDDLE ANSWER
AN ONION
LOST IN SUBURBIA
MY MAGNETIC PERSONALITY
BY TRACY BECKERMAN
Apparently magnetic eyelashes are a “thing.”
I realized this when I started getting a suspicious number of Facebook ads for magnetic false eyelashes. I thought that maybe it was just me, and Facebook had determined somehow that I was eyelash-challenged and in desperate need of a solution. But then I found out that my friends were also getting the same ads, so it seemed we were a nation of eyelash-deficient women who could only be saved from this crisis by fake magnetic eyelashes.
In the ads, women applied a magnetic eyeliner on their eyelids, which created a magnetic field that attracted a pair of polar-opposite eyelashes. This is actually more science than anyone who buys their makeup out of a sale bin at the drugstore needs to know. Supposedly, though, this is a much easier system for applying eyelashes than the old “glue on and hope you don’t glue your eyelids shut” method. I tried the old glue-on method once and the eyelashes came unglued, fell on my cheek, and then someone slapped me because it looked like a hairy caterpillar on my face.
After a while, the eyelash ads began to taper off. But then, suddenly, I started getting ads for a fortifying eyelash serum so I could grow out my own pathetic eyelashes and not have the need for magnetic ones. Not wanting anything potentially dangerous near my eyes (um, like magnets), I found out that the secret ingredient in this serum was … wait for this … kelp.
Now my husband had a choice between living with me 24/7 with either hairy caterpillars on my face or smelling like a fresh fish market all the time.
Wanting to make sure that I wasn’t missing the boat here, I thought maybe I should check with my husband, the one person who might actually care what my eyelashes looked like and how my face smelled.
“Hey, honey,” I said. “Do you think I need better eyelashes?”
“Is that a trick question?” he asked. “Like ‘Do these pants make me look fat?'”
“No, I just want to make sure you don’t feel let down by my skimpy lashes.”
“You have beautiful eyelashes, and those pants don’t make you look fat,” he said. “Am I safe now?”
Clearly, this is not the most important issue on the planet right now, which led me to wonder why someone would think it was so essential for me to have eyelashes of any length at this moment. I’m not going to be batting them at anybody other than my husband. Who else am I going to impress? My dog? He has no opinion whatsoever. He just wants to know when he’s going to be fed, and he doesn’t care if I have fabulous eyelashes when I serve him his kibble.
With all this attention being paid to my eyelashes, I wondered if this was indicative of a larger beauty problem that had escaped my attention. Honestly, I didn’t think I was letting myself go. I still shaved my legs and did my nails and even occasionally put on some makeup when I planned to Facetime with someone and didn’t want to scare their children if they happened to glance at the screen. So, overall, I didn’t think I needed magnetic eyelashes or eyelash seaweed serum. What I did need to do was have a talk with customer service at Facebook and tell them they should focus on what’s really important.
My eyebrows.
~ Tracy Beckerman is the author of the Amazon Bestseller, “Barking at the Moon: A Story of Life, Love and Kibble.
COPYRIGHT 2023 CREATORS.COM
Fascinating Stuff
FASCINATING STUFF
- A Chapman Stick is a musical instrument that looks like the neck of a 10-string guitar. It’s named for Emmett Chapman, the guitarist and instrument builder who devised it in the 1960s and refined the design in the 1970s. Rather than fingering the notes with one hand and picking or strumming with the other, a Chapman Stick player uses both hands to “tap” the notes, producing a complex, unique guitar sound.
- “Silent Night” was performed for the first time on Christmas Eve in 1818, appropriately enough at the St. Nicholas church in Oberndorf, Austria. A priest named Josephus Mohr wrote the words, and church organist Franz Xaver Gruber wrote the melody.
- From the “everything has a name” department: A bobeche is the ring-shaped collar — usually glass or metal but sometimes ceramic or other flame-resistant material — that catches wax drips at the point where a taper candle meets a candlestick. The word is French, but how it came to mean what it means is unclear. Also unclear is its relation to Bobeche, a dapper, irreverent clown character in 18th century French comic theater.
- Charles Dickens started work on “A Christmas Carol,” his story about Ebenezer Scrooge, in October 1843, wrote it in six weeks and had it published in time for Christmas. The only original copy of his handwritten manuscript is in the collection of the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City, which displays it every year at Christmastime. It shows his changes and edits, where he crossed out text with curly-cue lines and replaced it with shorter, more vivid description.
~ COPYRIGHT 2023 LESLIE ELMAN
DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM
???? Great as always!
Thanks Stacy!
Appreciate ya giving time to comment.
HOLLY JOLLY
I know the Snow Pudding Daymaker is talking about and I can only say IT’S TERRIFIC. It’s especially good following a heavy meal or taking it to a friend who isn’t finding food very interesting. I’m telling you it’s Bingo, your friend will eat this and shout TERRIFIC.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.
That’s a fact, Marty –
Thanks for personally affirming Snow Pudding recipe’s greatness as a light decadent dessert!
Grateful for your time and thoughts reading and commenting.
JINGLE BELLS
Loved the entire issue, as usual!!! My favorite childhood Christmas tradition was baking cookies. My mom had a wonderful sugar cookie recipe that we would prepare, chill, roll out, cut out and frost and decorate. Oh, how I loved the frosting and sprinkles! We got more artistic as we got older but the basic recipe didn’t change. I can almost taste those wonderful just-iced cookies!
Hi Carol –
Thank you – so glad you enjoyed.
I totally love your childhood Christmas tradition memory. I can almost taste those wonderful just-iced cookies, too!
Thank you so much for reading + sharing + commenting. Absolutely adds a lot of joy and love to the episodes.
TIS THE SEASON