Wordless: Bounty

Jazz Love: Lena Horne

I clearly don't know enough jazz lovers (how is that possible), because the death of Lena Horne was barely a blip on my facebook news feed, which, I am sorry to say, is usually how I get my news these days.  But, guy, Lena Horne passed away on Friday, and the world is a slightly less classy place because of it. She was truly a lady: gracious, elegant, with a voice like liquid, a fine sense of humor (I mean she appeared on Sanford and Son!). So I went YouTube digging, and here are a few jewels I found, including an absolutely adorable duet with Judy Garland.

I've had "Stormy Weather" stuck in my head since Friday. Rest in peace, Lena Horne.

Clippings: Wes Anderson, Anchovies, God-Spray, and the Rust Belt

If you read nothing else this week, read this. Brilliant and brave. I want to talk a bit more about depression soon, but let's start with this. (Hyperbole and a Half)

Papal catch-phrases, including the brilliant "God Spray," from Matthew Schmitz in First Things

I love that my favorite cheese blogger (who has a new book!) went on a cheese retreat! This is not actually all that interesting a post, it's just adorable, and gives me a chance to reintroduce you to her. (I've talked about her before. You may recall the Cheese Nun? I was obsessed for a while.) (Madame Fromage)

Anchovies are the new salt - and actually really really good for you, people, so if you're not allergic, try them! (Food 52)

Cristina Grace has a nice roundup of full swingy skirts for summer. And I, predictably, want them all. (The Evangelista)

Merida, from Brave, gets a sexy makeover, which is not at all surprising given Disney's habits. What really fascinated me was the slideshow of other tarted up toys. Like, how do you make a cartoon horse (My Little Pony) sexier? This is how. (To say nothing of "Why would you want to make a cartoon horse sexier?")

Loved this piece about the Library by my friend Ben Hatke (author of Zita the Space Girl, pictured, above). Best thing is, his library is super small, but look at the treasures he finds, and clearly they inspire him because he's a great and creative thinker/author. So, lesson of ALWAYS is: go to the library, people!

I want to go to here. (Miss Moss)

The Met Ball is usually all kinds of crazy, so I was looking forward to the theme this year (punk!) but apparently we aren't really far enough away from punk to do it with any fun. Only a few noteworthy looks. Also Coco Rocha is awesomesauce. (Go Fug Yourself)

The awesomest thing on the internet this week is: Wes Anderson Bible! (via Hepburn)

A network of chefs is forming in the Rust Belt, hoping to revive civic agriculture and (necessarily) great food. And its home base is in Pittsburgh. (New York Times via The Courtier)

Ascension Thursday

Ohmygoodness! It's a Clipping!

SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED in the last few weeks, I hardly know where to begin. Myrna and Sidecar got married (so clearly, Myrna is moving out, hence the super not-great photo of the super great light in our marvelous apartment, because all photos of Cranford are making me a bit nostalgic) and there have been job changes and new favorite bar discoveries, and a lot of hard work, and several new babies, and all that means I crawl into bed exhausted every evening and a bit overwhelmed. As Miss Kate always says: God is Good. Sometimes He's too good, if you know what I mean. But there are things I need and want to share with you. I promise you at least four blog posts next week. I won't promise that they're amazing. But I promise they'll be there. Ok? In the meantime:

Don't forget to support my friend Pete in his hike up Everest!

This collection of portraits of four sisters every year for 36 years is just so lovely, and rather haunting. (22 Words)

You didn't think croissants could get any better, did you? (Food 52)

Miss Hale Speaks the Truth

I know several men who've starred in this excellent intramural soccer team. (WSJ)

She and Him Vol. 3 is streaming on NPR.

"On the first date, they just tell each other lies and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date." - Martin, age 10, from: Marriage and Dating in the eyes of Kids (Daily News Digest)

Speaking of marriage, this letter from C. S. Lewis to his former student, Mary Neylan, about the Christian understanding of marriage is thought provoking and marvelous. (From The American Reader, which ps is a super cool site.)

"This sounds very odd. But is it? After all, if there is an eternal world and if our world is its manifestation, then you would expect bits of it to ‘stick through’ into ours. We are like children pulling the levers of a vast machine of which most is concealed. We see a few little wheels that buzz round on this side when we start it up—but what glorious or frightful processes we are initiating in there, we don’t know. That’s why it is so important to do what we’re told (cf.—what does the Holy Communion imply about the real significance of eating?)"

The other day this elderly gentleman came in with a lovely talk walking stick, which he let me hold for a bit, and told me that it was his grandfathers, and guys: we should bring back the walking stick, because they are lovely and awesome and cheaper than cars but just as tricked out. (The Smart Set)

Elise Italiano in The Public Discourse, again:

Beyond Obama’s characterization of quality health care, one should also question his suggestion that to support any type of restriction on abortion access is a sign of moral ignorance. If there has been an evolution or awakening of people’s consciences about abortion, as he indicated in his reference to “checking the calendar,” it is in the opposite direction.

PS: SIGN THE PETITION.

"A Passion Joined to Courtesy and Art"

Happy Anniversary, R + J! Even though I knew R before your wedding, I sort of mark your wedding as also the beginning of our friendship, or at least the beginning of it's richness! Do you remember how, defying all convention, I stopped by your apartment three days after you returned from your honeymoon? Such cheek!

It was the first of countless delightful evenings, where I was (where I am, always,) loath to leave you two -- now five! I'm not a poet, like J, so I'll have steal the words of another which, when I first read them, reminded me of the two of you. Happy Anniversary!


FOR C.
by Richard WIlbur

After the clash of elevator gates
And the long sinking, she emerges where,
A slight thing in the morning’s crosstown glare,
She looks up toward the window where he waits,
Then in a fleeting taxi joins the rest
Of the huge traffic bound forever west.

On such grand scale do lovers say good-bye—
Even this other pair whose high romance
Had only the duration of a dance,
And who, now taking leave with stricken eye,
See each in each a whole new life forgone.
For them, above the darkling clubhouse lawn,

Bright Perseids flash and crumble; while for these
Who part now on the dock, weighed down by grief
And baggage, yet with something like relief,
It takes three thousand miles of knitting seas
To cancel out their crossing, and unmake
The amorous rough and tumble of their wake.

We are denied, my love, their fine tristesse
And bittersweet regrets, and cannot share
The frequent vistas of their large despair,
Where love and all are swept to nothingness;
Still, there’s a certain scope in that long love
Which constant spirits are the keepers of,

And which, though taken to be tame and staid,
Is a wild sostenuto of the heart,
A passion joined to courtesy and art
Which has the quality of something made,
Like a good fiddle, like the rose’s scent,
Like a rose window or the firmament.

Support: Everest Base Camp

My friend Peter Hurley is one of the awesomest guys I know. An eternal surfer dude, he and his friends founded Surf for the Cause, which uses their love of surfing to help foster communities and build up the impoverished societies around the world. These communities, largely in the Caribbean, are always hosting surfers, but the surfers often just come and surf and leave without ever paying much attention to their surroundings.

It's pretty awesome stuff, and I just love what they do, and highly recommend you check them out. But Peter's newest escapade is why I'm writing today: he's hiking Mt. Everest, and raising money for Flying Kites Global, a non-profit whose exemplary work is changing the lives of orphaned children in Kenya. With the profits incurred by this "Adventure Challenge Trip," Flying Kites Global is currently building a home and leadership academy for orphaned children in Kenya.

Help support Peter by sponsoring him here: Everest Base Camp Trek. He's $2,000 away from his $5,000 goal, and has only a few weeks left till the trip!

Video: My City by the Bay

I'm probably just tired, but I am feeling mighty homesick for California these days. I'm not sure if this video of an aerial shots of San Francisco -- but it sure is a beauty. (Warning, the music is super cheesy.)  (The Atlantic via Emily Hale)

Roast Pork Shoulder in Champagne

The thing about having your roommate get married is that there's a lot of champagne in the house. (Also that she's getting married, of course!) But every now and then someone brings a bottle that you cannot bear to drink, no matter how late in the evening or how much good orange juice you have. (Call me snobby, but I can't possibly imagine anyone drinking sparkling wine from a screw top bottle. Wine yes, all the time, even from a box sometimes, but not sparkling wine.)

What to do? What to do? Cook with it!

ROAST PORK SHOULDER IN CHAMPAGNE
Serves 6

One 3 1/2-pound fresh picnic pork shoulder with skin
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 red onion finely diced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon powdered mustard
1/2 teaspoon chili powder optional
1/4 teaspoon cayenne optional
3/4 cup tarragon vinegar, or good white wine vinegar
2 cups sparkling wine
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
2 large sage sprigs
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons snipped chives
1-2 tablespoons flour for gravy

Preheat the oven to 300°. Using a sharp knife, score the pork skin in a crosshatch pattern. Make deep slits all over the pork and insert a slice of garlic into each slit. Season the pork with salt and pepper.

In a large enameled cast-iron dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium. Add the pork, turning, until browned all over, 8-12 minutes. Transfer the pork back to the cutting board.

Add the onions to the casserole and cook over low heat, stirring, until lightly browned, 5 minutes. Stir in the cumin, coriander, mustard chili powder, and cayenne. Add the vinegar and scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the casserole. Return the pork and any accumulated juices to the casserole. Add the wine, stock, and sage. Cover and braise in the oven for 3 hours, or until the pork is very tender.

Carefully transfer the pork to a platter and cover with foil. Set the casserole over high heat and boil the braising liquid until it is slightly reduced and thickened, about 10 minutes, sprinkling flour over it and whisking to incorporate. Slice the pork and serve with the gravy.

Notes: This can be adapted for a smaller shoulder, if you desire. I used a 1 1/2 pound shoulder, and simply eliminated the extra stock, reducing the cooking time to about 70 minutes. (Internal temperature should be 165°.) The gravy is mmmmm-delicious, and should be saved in a jar for spreading on sandwiches of leftovers. This is a great roast to make on a Sunday afternoon, and then use the leftovers for the week. Adapted from Food & Wine

Easter Clippings

Christ is Risen! Alleluia! (I don't think I ever get tired of saying that.)

Time waster of the day: the world's largest collection of vintage travel posters. I'm glad Oakland gets a shout out, though I would like to note that this particular depiction of the Golden Gate is completely geographically impossible. (Simmon's Collection)

Simcha Fisher gets on the spurious quotations bandwagon, woot! woot! And if the Lewis one wasn't so damned irritating, it would be hilarious. (National Catholic Register)

Dr. Seuss, Hat Lover. (Collector's Weekly)

"I made up my mind that this Easter I am going to live and act like it really is Easter and not just a season called “Not Lent.” The question is how to do this. “Not fasting” can’t be the entirety of the answer and “not praying” and “not giving alms” don’t seem like good Easter fare either. The answer must be “joy.” But the next question is how to live this joy."

- The Ethos of Easter, by Br. Leo Chekai, O.P. (Dominicana)

"There are two kinds of cooks in this country, the reductionist in me argues: the parsley pushers and the parsley-ambivalent." I am a parsley pusher. (Washington Post)

This week in "English is Awesome" 14 words that are their own opposites. My favorite is "Fast" -- Fast can mean "moving rapidly," as in "running fast," or ‘fixed, unmoving,’ as in "holding fast." If colors are fast they will not run. The meaning ‘firm, steadfast’ came first. The adverb took on the sense ‘strongly, vigorously,’ which evolved into ‘quickly,’ a meaning that spread to the adjective.

A great twist on the limerick from the man who taught me everything I know about limericks, my high school English teacher, Tom Riley.

And, my new favorite tumblr, New York Times Haiku, has this little gem:

For reasons he is
not sure of, he also adds
scallions at the end.

In DC food news you can use, Mayor Vincent Gray is once again up to no good, and trying to essentially kill the thriving DC Food Truck scene. Sign up for updates, to find out what you can do to help these entrepreneurs and keep our creative food culture growing!

In other DC food news you can use (woot! woot!): I thought you all would want to know that FatShorty's in Clarendon is finally open. Sausage, Belgian beer, and (maybe?) doughnuts. I am giving up my lease, and just moving in here.

My favorite of the Roger Ebert things being passed around (rest in peace, Roger!) is this letter he wrote to Kermit the frog, which, it seems to me, perfectly captures his love of movies, his understanding of the universal appeal of movies, and his rich and imaginative approach to reviewing movies. And this is an incredibly moving last testament. (RogerEbert.com and Salon)

Finally, please pray for Fr. Greg Schaffer, and the Newman Center at George Washington University. Two students are trying to get Fr. Schaffer removed from his post and banned from campus due to his expressing (in private counseling) the Catholic teaching on homosexuality. This is patently absurd on so many levels. But it is most distressing because Fr. Schaffer is in fact a very good man, a kind pastor, and a vibrant advocate for the life of Faith. Students have spoken out in support of Fr. Schaffer. Deacon Greg has the details, as does Dawn Eden who knows him (as I do) from the parish where he lives, St. Stephen Martyr. 

Quotable: John Paul II

It is Jesus in fact that you seek when you dream of happiness, he is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; he is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is he who provokes you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is he who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is he who reads in your hearts your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle. It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be grounded down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.

- Blessed Pope John Paul II

Address to the Youth

World Youth Day Vigil, 2000

I felt like he was speaking directly to me that night, that cold cold, vigil. Thirteen years later, and eight more after his death, I still think he is speaking to me. Looking through photos of that day, he was already so old, so weak. And yet, I think of his as young, and full of vigor; handsome. His heart was with the youth, and as one of those youths, I am grateful everyday for his influence on our generation.

Blessed John Paul II, pray for us!

Good Friday, 1613, Riding Westward by John Donne

GOOD-FRIDAY, 1613, RIDING WESTWARD.
by John Donne

LET man's soul be a sphere, and then, in this,
Th' intelligence that moves, devotion is;
And as the other spheres, by being grown
Subject to foreign motion, lose their own,
And being by others hurried every day,
Scarce in a year their natural form obey;
Pleasure or business, so, our souls admit
For their first mover, and are whirl'd by it.
Hence is't, that I am carried towards the west,
This day, when my soul's form bends to the East.
There I should see a Sun by rising set,
And by that setting endless day beget.
But that Christ on His cross did rise and fall,
Sin had eternally benighted all.
Yet dare I almost be glad, I do not see
That spectacle of too much weight for me.
Who sees Gods face, that is self-life, must die;
What a death were it then to see God die?
It made His own lieutenant, Nature, shrink,
It made His footstool crack, and the sun wink.
Could I behold those hands, which span the poles
And tune all spheres at once, pierced with those holes?
Could I behold that endless height, which is
Zenith to us and our antipodes,
Humbled below us? or that blood, which is
The seat of all our soul's, if not of His,
Made dirt of dust, or that flesh which was worn
By God for His apparel, ragg'd and torn ?
If on these things I durst not look, durst I
On His distressed Mother cast mine eye,
Who was God's partner here, and furnish'd thus
Half of that sacrifice which ransom'd us?
Though these things as I ride be from mine eye,
They're present yet unto my memory,
For that looks towards them; and Thou look'st towards me,
O Saviour, as Thou hang'st upon the tree.
I turn my back to thee but to receive
Corrections till Thy mercies bid Thee leave.
O think me worth Thine anger, punish me,
Burn off my rust, and my deformity;
Restore Thine image, so much, by Thy grace,
That Thou mayst know me, and I'll turn my face.

Pieces of Silver

Today is "Spy Wednesday" -- called so, because every year the reading is indeed about Judas' arrangements with the Chief Priests to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. As I was reading today's Gospel passage, I was reminded of one of my favorite Simon and Garfunkel songs, "Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M."

For twenty-five dollars and pieces of silver
I held up and robbed a hard liquor store.

In "Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M." (my favorite on the album), a man sings to his sleeping love, knowing full well that when she wakes he'll be gone -- he needs to run away because he is a criminal. The "pieces of silver" is, of course, an allusion to Judas' price for betraying Christ. (And I assume the title, "Wednesday Morning" is deliberate, as well.) I love the connection between petty theft and Judas' grave, world-changing betrayal. The lover in this song betrays a person (the beloved) for what? $25 and pieces of silver. Isn't every sin a betrayal of Christ. Every sin is Judas's kiss. And, if we take a moment to consider the cost, we've betrayed ourselves and those we love as well: and for what?



(For two Jewish boys from New York, Simon and Garfunkel have an awful lot of Christian imagery in their music - their first album, Wednesday Morning, 3AM, especially.)

The Lenten Rose

Hellebores - the "Lenten rose" - are one of my favorite flower discoveries of these recent years. (They don't really grow in CA.) Hardy perennials, Hellebores bloom in february and march, and are often the first flowers of spring (you can hardly even call it spring, really), and are therefore known as Lenten Roses.

I was discussing gardening with one of our regulars at G+B, and he told me about this incredible farm in West Virginia that has over 10,000 hellebores. Let me tell you: when I finally have a house/garden, I am driving straight out there and getting a truck bed full of them.

There are all from Dumbarton Oaks.