WEDNESDAY READER | JULY 5
Greetings fellow fans of the printed word!
Today’s Wednesday Reader is packed full of fun and thoughts.
Beginning with Quick Question — What do I do when I get nervous? My inner circle people hear me do an – uhh..uhh..uhh.. sounding like a pressure cooker on a stove. Totally involuntary, but it’s what happens. You?
Life 101 Observations – my personal favorite is … Always leave loved ones with loving words. There are no “do-overs.”
Chicken & Cranberry Salad recipe is delish!
Tracy Beckerman’s column “Playing Fowl” is a chuckle.
Working in the Film Business – I’ve been to many practical locations = people’s homes with themes like:
Geese pictures and little geese statue things everywhere, Coca-Cola products/signage everywhere, Beanie Baby collection everywhere, Creepy (to me) framed black and white photos of ancestors from way back when everywhere.
To each their own for sure and high five for what personal preferences makes a house a HOME.
As always – we are so super happy you spent a piece of your day with us. And commenting your thoughts. Grateful.
See ya Friday!
POP QUIZ
- WHICH U.S. PRESIDENT HAD A SUMMER JOB AS A RANGER AT YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK?
a) Bill Clinton
b) Gerald Ford
c) Lyndon B. Johnson
d) Ronald Reagan - WHICH WAS THE FIRST TOY TO BE ADVERTISED ON TELEVISION?
a) Barbie
b) Matchbox cars
c) Mr. Potato Head
d) Tinkertoy - WHAT JAPANESE ART FORM INVOLVES GROWING MINIATURE TREES IN CONTAINERS?
a) Bonsai
b) Haiku
c) Kabuki
d) Origami
QUICK QUESTION
WHAT DO YOU TEND TO DO WHEN YOU GET NERVOUS?
POP QUIZ ANSWERS
- Gerald Ford worked as a ranger at Yellowstone National Park in the summer of 1936.
- In 1952 Mr. Potato Head became the first toy advertised on television.
- Bonsai is a Japanese art that involves growing miniature trees in containers.
~ COPYRIGHT 2023 LESLIE ELMAN
DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM
LIFE 101 OBSERVATIONS:
- We cannot make someone love us. All we can do is be someone who can be loved.
- No matter how much you care — some people just don’t care. Get on with you.
- It takes years to build up trust, and only seconds to destroy it.
- No matter how good a friend is, they’re going to hurt you every once in a while – and, you, them – forgive each other.
- It’s not what you have in your life — but WHO you have in your life.
- Never ruin an apology with an excuse.
- We should ALWAYS leave loved ones with loving words. It may be the last time we see or talk to one another.
- You can keep on going long after you think you can’t.
- Either you control your attitude – or your attitude controls you.
- Heroes are the people who do what needs to be done – when it needs to be done – regardless of the consequences.
- Maturity has more to do with what types of experiences we’ve had and what we’ve learned from them — and less to do with how many birthdays we’ve had.
- No matter how bad your heart is broken — the world doesn’t stop for your grief.
- We shouldn’t be so eager to find out a secret. It could change our lives forever.
- Sometimes 2 people look at the exact same thing and see something totally different.
- Often – the people we care about in life are taken from us too soon.
- It’s hard to determine where to draw the line between being nice and not hurting someone’s feelings – and standing up for what you believe.
- People will forget what you said, and people will forget what you did — but people will never forget how you made them feel.
ALWAYS PASS ON WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED
~ Yoda ~
(( Starve the landfills. Recycle. ))
RIDDLE ME THIS
WHAT’S ALWAYS FOUND ON THE GROUND BUT NEVER GETS DIRTY?
DELIGHTFUL CHICKEN & CRANBERRY SALAD
Dried cranberries are sweet and delish. They are the star in this fabulous version of classic Chicken Salad and are different enough to be mildly daring. Ha
I especially love this Chicken Salad recipe 2 ways – on a slightly toasted croissant or on a bed of greens.
Here’s how we make it:
- 4 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breasts
- 1 cup slivered almonds
- 2 cups dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup celery, thinly sliced
PREPARE CHICKEN THIS WAY:
Preheat oven to 375*
Pour 1 1/2 cups of water in the bottom of a large baking sheet and place chicken breasts in a single layer in the water.
Wrap tightly with foil.
Place in preheated oven and bake for 45 minutes.
WHILE CHICKEN IS BAKING – LET’S MAKE THE MAGIC DRESSING IN A SMALL BOWL:
- 2 1/4 cups of good quality mayonnaise
- 3 TBSP milk
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1 TBSP celery seed
WHISK UNTIL SMOOTH
When chicken is completely cooked through – after the 45 minute baking time – remove from oven and let it cool down – removing foil. About 30 minutes.
When cool enough to handle, cut into 1″ cubes.
Place chicken cubes in a medium size bowl.
NEXT:
Toss in slivered almond slices + dried cranberries + thinly sliced fresh celery.
NOW:
Pour in the dressing. Stir everything around until all is happily coated with the dressing.
REFRIGERATE UNTIL EVERYTHING IS NICE AND COLD. PROBABLY AN HOUR.
SERVE!
~ Hippie Cowboy recipe box
RIDDLE ANSWER
A SHADOW
LOST IN SUBURBIA
PLAYING FOWL
BY TRACY BECKERMAN
When you buy a new house, you’re not just getting the house; you are also getting someone else’s taste in tile, paint and wallpaper. In some cases, the previous owner may have had an unusual preference for a particular theme, which may not be exactly your taste, and may, in fact, be an overabundance of something like …
Ducks.
Lots of ducks. There were ducks everywhere. Duck tiles, duck wallpaper, duck faucets and duck toilet paper holders. There were mallards in the kitchen, Muscovies in the master bath and mandarins in the hallway. There were so many ducks of so many types in almost every room that I was actually nervous to open doors, in fear that an actual duck may be wandering around like he owned the place, which, after looking at the house, certainly could be the case.
“What the duck?” I said to my husband as we really looked around for the first time as the new homeowners. We’d done our inspections, of course, but most of our interactions had been online because the house was far away. We hadn’t really been aware of the excessive duckiness of the house until just now.
“Did you see all the ducks in the pictures of the house?” he asked.
“I don’t think they included the duckiest rooms,” I said.
“Which room doesn’t have ducks?”
“The front hall closet, I believe,” I replied.
I looked out the window to take a break from all the ducks and that’s when I saw … more ducks! There were ducks lolling on the lawn and ducks cavorting on the deck. Everywhere I looked, I saw ducks. And that’s when it hit me …
I had a duck curse.
I realized it probably started when I was a kid. One day I innocently quacked at a duck in a neighbor’s pool. I’m not sure what I said in duck language but apparently it wasn’t good because the duck literally chased me up a tree.
I wondered: Was quacking at a duck really so bad, or had I run afowl of a duck in a previous life? Either way, it was clear I needed a duck intervention before something more ducked up happened to me or the people I loved.
“I’m really sorry, honey,” I said. “It’s my fault we have duck issues. I have a duck curse.”
He rolled his eyes.
“No, it’s true,” I insisted. “I’m not sure how it happened, but it seems that I have been cursed with a lifetime of ducks.”
“Well, that’s just ducky,” he said. “What are we going to do?”
“First thing tomorrow, I’m going to find someone to remove the curse.”
The next day I looked online and found a woman who could remove my duck curse over Zoom for a hefty fee. She chanted at me, waved some sage at a rubber ducky, and then announced that I was curse-free.
The next morning, I got up and looked out the window.
The ducks were gone.
I woke my husband. “Great news honey, the ducks are gone! The curse has been lifted.”
“Well, mine hasn’t,” he said, sitting up.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
He rolled his eyes.
“You’re still here.”
~ Tracy Bedckerman is the author of the Amazon Bestseller, “Barking at the Moon: A Story of Life, Love, and Kibble”
You can visit her at www.tracybeckerman.com.
COPYRIGHT 2023 CREATORS
FASCINATING STUFF
FASCINATING STUFF
- Equus simplicidens is commonly known as the Hagerman horse, for Hagerman, Idaho, where its fossilized remains were discovered in 1928. Closely related to zebras — although possibly lacking a striped coat — Hagerman horses disappeared from North “America about 10,000 years ago, so finding their remains was big news for paleontologists. Idaho’s Hagerman Fossil Beds is now a national monument.
- Play-Doh, every kindergartner’s favorite modeling compound, wasn’t originally intended for kids. Produced by the Kutol Products Company of Cincinnati, the flour, water and salt-based mixture was made to clean wallpaper of grime and soot, especially from the residue from coal-burning heating systems. When sales dipped as households switched from coal to other heating fuels, Kutol Wall Cleaner was repositioned as Play-Doh, a soft, nontoxic alternative to modeling clay that was easy for little hands to shape and mold.
- Writing poetry isn’t necessarily a solitary occupation. In fact, Japanese renga “linked verse” requires collaboration. A poet begins by crafting a three-line poem of 17 syllables in a 5-7-5 pattern. A second poet continues the poem with two lines of seven syllables each. Another poet adds another three lines, and then another poet adds two, continuing the pattern until the poem totals 100 lines or more. Renga has been around since the 12th century, producing poetry that may be formal, funny or even bawdy.
- Laura Ingalls Wilder couldn’t have written the “Little House on the Prairie” books without the help of her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane. Rose edited and critiqued the manuscripts. In fact, some scholars speculate she ghostwrote the books for her mother. A journalist by profession, Rose traveled the world and at age 78 took on her last major international assignment, covering the war in Vietnam as a correspondent for Woman’s Day magazine.
~ COPYRIGHT 2023 LESLIE ELMAN
DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS. COM
I know that uhh..uhh..uhh, all to well! 😉 What I do when I get nervous is I get quiet, and self isolate. Great episode, as always!
Glad ya enjoyed the read!
Yes, I’ve heard the uhh..uhh..uhh..in conversation many times, I’m a neck blusher for sure; I can relate!
Hi Chris! Neck blusher – interesting – of course you’ve heard the uhh…uhh…uhh conversation many times, my friend.
Thank you so much for commenting + reading. Grateful. Hope you guys are staying cool as ya can. It’s hot out there!
Re: NEVER RUIN AN APOLOGY WITH AN EXCUSE. That’s very true. We all must learn to shut one’s mouth after saying I’m sorry, please forgive me, and then wait for the person to say, “I forgive you.” If that person can’t say I forgive you then obviously more conversation is needed before forgiveness can be granted. Let me say this, there’s something even worse to deal with. That’s a family member who cannot say, “I’m sorry.” This person could accidentally run over your foot and not come up with, “I’m sorry.” It took a long while to learn how to deal with a loved one like that but the answer finally came. Turn the other cheek. Freedom granted.
Marty – excellent observation about Life 101 Observations. Your writing about it is valuable to me and no doubt to others. Thank you so much for reading + commenting. Super grateful! Find some shade wherever you are – sounds like it’s full on summer everywhere!