WEDNESDAY READER | JUNE 21
Howdy All –
Well, it’s calendar official – June 21 – SUMMER’S ON!
It’s already felt like summer has arrived – but now we know it’s official.
I’m still trying to figure out my best answer for Quick Question – “What’s the weirdest thing about modern life people accept as normal?” Do you have one that zooms at you?
I adore the Pencil Maker story – just so true to life.
Quote – “You can tell a lot about a person by the way he walks.” Seriously true. Watch and observe. My grandpa used to say, “I can tell you what kind of a worker a person is by the way he walks.” Yessir.
Fried Green Tomato recipe is tried and true to an entire town. It’s a grand recipe. Hope you give it a try. One time will win you over.
So delighted that you gave us a piece of your day to read + comment + reflect + share. You are all Daymakers to us.
Have a wonderful Wednesday. See ya on Friday.
POP QUIZ
-
- WILLIAM TELL, FOLK HERO OF SWITZERLAND, WAS FAMOUS FOR DOING WHAT?
a) Cutting a trail through the Alps
b) Inventing the Swiss Army knife
c) Shooting an apple off his son’s head with a crossbow
d) Taming wild bears in Bern - WHAT DOES THE 19TH AMENDMENT TO THE U.S. CONSTITUTION ADDRESS?
a) Creation of federal income tax
b) Repeal of Prohibition
c) Right to trial by jury
d) Women’s right to vote
- WHICH CHARACTER IN SHAKESPEARE’S “A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM” IS THE QUEEN OF THE FAIRIES?
a) Hermia
b) Thisbe
c) Titania
d) Viola
- WILLIAM TELL, FOLK HERO OF SWITZERLAND, WAS FAMOUS FOR DOING WHAT?
QUICK QUESTION
WHAT’S THE WEIRDEST THING ABOUT MODERN LIFE THAT PEOPLE JUST ACCEPT AS NORMAL?
POP QUIZ ANSWERS
- William Tell, folk hero of Switzerland, was famous for shooting an apple off his son’s head with a crossbow.
- The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted women the right to vote.
- Titania is the queen of the fairies in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
~ copyright 2023 Leslie Elman
contact her at triviabitsleslie@gmail.com
DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM
THE PENCIL MAKER
Just before putting the pencils in a box, the pencil maker gave them 5 important lessons:
- Everything you do will always leave a mark.
- You can always correct the mistakes you make.
- What is important is what’s inside of you.
- In life you will undergo painful sharpenings, which will only make you better.
- To be the best pencil, you must allow yourself to be guided by the hand that holds you.
~ via an email thread by a brilliant un-credited writer
YOU CAN TELL A LOT ABOUT A PERSON BY THE WAY HE WALKS
(( Starve the landfills. Recycle. ))
RIDDLE ME THIS
WHAT QUESTION CAN YOU NEVER ANSWER “YES” TO?
FRIED GREEN TOMATOES
If you’ve never had fried green tomatoes – let me just say – jump in! They are sooooo good. And they have Summertime Love all over them!
When we decided to include Fried Green Tomatoes on the menu at Hippie Cowboy, customers didn’t know what to think. At first – these tomatoes were considered an oddity and then they were embraced – love at first bite thing – and every other ticket that hung on the kitchen’s order wheel included at least one order of Fried Green Tomatoes! People were WILD about them. We served them with Ranchacado dressing – (think homemade ranch dressing with a couple spoonfuls of prepared guacamole whisked in). ENJOY!
- 5 – 6 large green tomatoes, rinsed and patted dry, sliced into 1/2″ thick discs
- 2 cups buttermilk
- 2 cups yellow cornmeal
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 TBSP black pepper
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- Vegetable Oil for frying
Pour buttermilk in a bowl and slide in 1/2″ slices of green tomatoes. Let soak for a bit. Ideally, an hour prior to cooking.
In a separate bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, salt, pepper, garlic powder and cayenne pepper.
Prepare a heavy skillet with enough oil for frying purposes — 1/2″ – 3/4″ deep.
Turn up the burner heat to medium high.
While the oil is heating, remove the tomato slices from the buttermilk and dredge in the dry mixture.
Make sure the tomato slices are evenly coated.
Gently place in hot oil and fry until golden brown.
About 2-3 minutes per side – depending on your oil temperature and watching the frying thing like a hawk so they don’t burn.
Remove from oil. Drain on a paper towel lined cookie sheet until ready to serve.
~Hippie Cowboy recipe box
RIDDLE ANSWER
ARE YOU ASLEEP YET?
LOST IN SUBURBIA
CONFESSIONS OF A TOILET PAPER HOARDER
BY TRACY BECKERMAN
“Mom, why do you have 36 rolls of toilet paper, 12 bars of soap, eight tubes of toothpaste and six jars of hair gel?” asked my son, surveying the contents of my bathroom linen closet.
I followed his gaze to the interior of my closet. Admittedly, it looked less like a suburban linen closet and more like an aisle at Costco.
“I just want to make sure I don’t run out,” I explained.
“In case of what?” he wondered. “A zombie apocalypse? Do you think the zombies will take over the drug store and you won’t have access to any hair gel? I’m pretty sure they won’t care what your hair looks like when they try to eat you.”
I shrugged helplessly. My son discovered my secret: I was a toiletry hoarder. I had more moisturizer than you could shake a Q-tip at. More conditioner than a Kardashian. Enough shaving cream to shear a Yeti.
I had no idea why I felt the need to have an abundance of personal care supplies on hand. I suspected I might have suffered a traumatic toilet paper shortage as a child or possibly found myself at one time in my formative years critically deprived of hair mousse. Regardless of the cause, I was not happy unless I had enough products on hand to floss, brush and wipe a small, unkempt army.
My stockpiling was a relatively new thing. Back when we lived in the city, we didn’t have room to indulge my obsession. But out in the ‘burbs, I could warehouse as much mouthwash as I wanted. I didn’t care if that meant I had less room for stuff like food and water. At least I knew my last breath would always be minty fresh.
Still, I didn’t want my son to think I was a total weirdo. It’s one thing to have a mom who is meticulous about her personal hygiene. It’s quite another to have a mother who is so neurotic she could have her on show on TLC.
“They were having a special on the soap,” I assured him. “And it was Toothpaste Triple Coupon Day … and Buy-12-Razors-Get-12-Free Day.”
He looked at me dubiously.
“Plus, I was the 500th customer, so I won enough mouthwash for a year.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“Also, I had signed up to be part of the Great Toilet Paper Challenge. Anyone who knew how to change a roll of toilet paper got 50% off 10 rolls.”
I could see a trace of uncertainty start to appear on his face. He looked at the contents of my linen closet and then back at me. I knew I had one last chance to convince him that I was just thrifty, not crazy.
“And did I mention that I guessed the correct number of cotton swabs in a jar and won a lifetime supply of Q-tips?” I proclaimed.
“Really?” He wondered. “And what about the hair gel?”
I nodded.
“That’s for the zombies.”
~ Tracy Beckerman 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
- Ullortuneq, a Greendlandic word meaning “longest day,” is celebrated as a national holiday in Greenland on June 21. Throughout history, the summer solstice has been a traditional day of celebration, especially in northern locations. June 21 gained official status as Greenland’s National Day in 1983.
- Vincent Van Gogh painted “The Starry Night” in June 1889 while residing in a mental asylum in the south of France. Astronomers and art historians have found that it replicates the position of stars and planets in the night sky at the time it was painted, including the bright planet Venus, “the Morning Star.” In his depiction of the moon, however, Van Gogh took artistic license. He made it a waning crescent when history shows it would have been in the waning gibbous phase.
- What do you say about a person who has an inflated sense of self-importance? “He thinks he’s God’s gift to creation”? or “She thinks she’s all that”? If you want to be creative, try the French expression “Se croire le premier moutardier du pape.” (He thinks he’s the first mustard-maker to the Pope.”) The expression refers to the 14th-century French Pope Jon XXII, who (legend has it) employed his ne’er-do-well nephew as the papal mustard-maker to keep him out of trouble.
- There’s a little p0iece of the heavens in the stained glass “Space Window” at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. The centerpiece of the design by St. Louis artist Rodney M. Winfield is a small moon rock brought to earth by the crew of Apollo 11 and presented to the cathedral in 1974. To prevent its deterioration, the rock is encased in a nitrogen-filled capsule.
- In the 1860s, the French wine industry nearly collapsed when an agricultural pest threatened to wipe out all the wine grapes in France. Help arrived unexpectedly from Missouri entomologist Charles V. Riley, who diagnosed the problem as phylloxera. He’d seen that pest before on U.S. grapes. Working with French scientists, he conceived a way to foil the bugs by grafting French vines onto pest-resistant American rootstocks. Crisis averted! And the chardonnay flowed freely once more.
COPYRIGHT 2023 LESLIE ELMAN
DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM
Answer to the Quick Question – for me, it’s how people have private phone conversations on their cell phones IN PUBLIC!
I have fond memories of Cowboy’s Fried Green Tomatoes. Thank you for the recipe!
Great answer, Carol! I totally agree – people having private conversations on their cell phones in PUBLIC!
I love that you remember with fondness Cowboy’s Fried Green Tomatoes. It is a great recipe. Good times and memories for sure.
Thank you so much for your thoughts + comments + engaging. So grateful!
See ya Friday.
I couldn’t agree with you more regarding (loud, might I add) conversations on the phone in public, and nowadays, everyone has earbuds; I always say “pardon,” and they point to their phone. Hahaha