Everything And Nothing

"There's no freezing time..."

When I wrote about Because I Said So a while back, I talked about how Beth Kephart's essay was the one that really resonated with me. And she emailed me recently about my comments:

Dear Shawn, And so today, quite by accident, I discover this beautiful note, posted on your blog. I wish to thank you. The boy of which I wrote several years ago is now a high school senior, and just flew out the door to take a drive. There's no freezing time, is there? Thank you for taking an interest, and for posting such kind words. Beth Kephart

It seemed fitting to add her comment on Quentin's 8th birthday - as you see every day that there really is no freezing time while you watch your kids grow up.

Thanks for taking the time to write, Beth! (And congratulations on your son getting into the school he wanted too.)

Doctoring gravy for an eight-year-old

Rich wrote in after reading about my mashed-potatoes-and-canned-gravy dilemma:

Hi there. Just read that you are looking for a way to satisfy your kid without slaving away at the stove and oven for hours to make a basic gravy. I can understand this as I was just told to make a 3/4 gallon of that stuff for our unit's Thanksgiving luncheon.

Canned or jarred gravy calls for you to boil water and mix the powder or paste in to it. That is exactly what our dear friends at Pope's and KFC do. And your mom has a lead when she says he will not know the difference since he seems to like the Pope's stuff already.

Try the following: Heat up ready made chicken broth, add a chicken bouillon cube or beef broth cube (depending what flavor direction you want to go) and then add the instant gravy mix. Don't like the consistency? Add some cornstarch diluted in cold water. Don't like the color? Add food coloring. Round it off by whisking in a piece of cold butter. Season to taste.

I was taught this by professionals who actually served this to the public. On the bright side they also taught me how to make gravy from scratch by roasting bones, scrap meat and veggies.

Greetings from Mannheim, Germany and lots of luck :)
Rich

Thanks, Rich. Now maybe others can benefit from your knowledge too!

No Sleep Redux

Hi,

I just wanted to let you know, as your blog was the only English language site I found that mentioned it, about last night...

Last night I was up until about 4:30 am chatting with a friend working the night shift at and airport on Yahoo Messi, who had been moving to a new flat all day and suddenly got called in to work as an emergency, then I slept until about 6 while she kept on working....

Little did we know how (very nearly) obedient we were being!

And it was amazing!!!

David

Plaster (not plastic)

One wee correction from yesterday's posting about Fabjectory. Michael Buckbee, the owner, wrote in:

Hi there, Mike from Fabjectory here. Thanks for writing about our service!

One small point of clarification: the figures are actually made of plaster (not plastic).

Thanks again

There you go... plaster, not plastic. (Thanks so much for letting me know, Mr. Buckbee.)

The Wind Done Gone

Alice Randall (or someone saying they were Alice anyways) commented yesterday:

You forgot to mention my book!

She's right. Her book was mentioned in the article too. And I didn't mention it. But not on purpose. Just because I didn't want to get in trouble with New York Times-types for reprinting too much of their articles.

Five years ago, Margaret Mitchell’s estate unsuccessfully tried to block publication of The Wind Done Gone, Alice Randall’s unauthorized parody told from the perspective of Cynara, a slave whose mother, Mammy, was Scarlett’s nanny.

I've never read the book, but I do remember all of the brouhaha when it came out. And I remember thinking the title was pure genius - unlike Rhett Butler's People. (So Ms. Randall, whether it was you who really commented on my blog or not, you have definitely won the Naming Contest in my book!) ;)

Mom Remembered (and Revisited)

Always Write commented on my "Remember Moms" entry:

I work for JWI and I cannot thank you enough for this post.

I do want to clear up one thing, though (I think Glamour misquoted us a little bit): Rather than each donation sending a bouquet to one Mom, all Flower Project donations collectively go toward all the bouquets we send to about 100 U.S. shelters - one bouquet per shelter, for all the Moms who are staying there at the time.

In addition, for each $25 donation, JWI sends a Mother's Day card to anyone the donor chooses.

So for each $25 you give, you help us send flowers all over the country, and your Mom (or your grandma/sister/friend) gets a lovely card in the mail.

Thanks again - we're proud and honored that you've helped us publicize this project!

Thanks for clearing it up. (I'm obviously not always right.) ;) This sounds like a great Mother's Day idea.

The Worst Charlie Brown Specials Ever Made

David Cassel wrote in, commenting on my muzak-free holiday music entry:

Amen to Muzak-free holidays! I never get tired of that Charlie Brown Christmas music... Here's something you might like. It's a roundup of the WORST Charlie Brown specials ever made. Did you know there was one special where they threw away all the Vince Guaraldi music, and used DISCO?!

I did remember the disco one. But I'm a Charlie Brown sucker...even the worst Charlie Brown is better than most of what they pass off as cartoons today. (Yes, I know, I am getting old.) ;)

(Thanks, David. I did enjoy watching them again - even the worst ones!)

The Dominoes After-Midnight Club

John  of the Dominoes After-Midnight Club writes:

Greetings,

I found lurking around your blog to be very entertaining and grew inclined to write you only after reading #6 on your list of a hundred, regarding how you "remain fascinated by some of the search requests people use to find" this site. Your substantial blog returned high on the Google list after I entered "white pillars"+"biloxi".

We were gathering information about the old restaurant for our own satirical "historical research" site. I've lived here in Ocean Springs (after growing up in Ft Lauderdale) for 16 years but haven't a clue in which year the White Pillars restaurant finally closed.

Thanks for the interesting glimpse and keep on enjoying.

I did a little research for John and cannot find a closing date for the White Pillars online. I know it was closed by the time I graduated from high school in 1987. I remember that it changed hands several times before closing for good. (If anyone knows the year it closed, e-mail me at shawn.lea<at>gmail.com.)

And, John, interestingly, I also get a lot of hits from visitors looking for this Eggplant Josephine recipe from the White Pillars Restaurant, so there must be many out there who still remember it fondly.  Thanks for the memories!

UnThirsty Needs You

Jason Glaspey of UnThirsty.com writes:

Hello.

My name is Jason Glaspey, and I'm one of the guys that started www.unthirsty.com, the happy hour finder. I noticed the other day that you wrote about our site on your everythingandnothing blog, and I wanted to say thank you very much. We're really excited about the site, and are so appreciative whenever other people find it cool or useful. It was literally started out of our own need to keep track of things, and saw other people needing the tool themselves.

So, thank you for writing about it on your blog.

I also wanted to solicit your help, if you are willing.

One thing we are trying to do with the site is get more content added, and spread the word to more people. I'm hoping to hold a few contests in the coming months as well as adding several new features hopefully by Thanksgiving. However, the hardest thing for us to do is find new happy hours to add to the site. I was wondering if you would be willing to spur your readers into action, and encourage them to go out and add the happy hours that they know of. A blog in Texas put out an all points bulletin to his readers, and by the end of the day, their city had 35 happy hours added... I thought that was rad, and now I'm trying to ask people who find our site helpful to do something similar. The greatest thing about the site is that once the information is added, it's in there for good. So everybody benefits immediately.

Also, as I mentioned, we're going to be holding contests in the future, and I'll be sure to let you know, as they'll be really easy to enter, and hopefully we'll have some great prizes to give away.

Thanks so much,

Jason Glaspey
jason <at> jasonglaspey.com
www.unthirsty.com

So...your mission, should you choose to accept it - seek out the happiest hours in your town and report them back to Jason. Come on, folks. It's all in the name of research! ;)

Me Talk Southern One Day

Areopagus wrote:

I have used one of your images from the "Mississippi" group to illustrate a website I just created (http://www.squidoo.com/talksouthern/). I have given proper credit, under the rules of Creative Commons licensing, so people can browse your other images.

I feel privileged to be helping Areopagus spread the gospel of Southernspeak to underprivileged ears all around the world! ;)

And to show you how truly Southern I am, here are the Southern expressions he lists that I didn't even know were Southern. I thought they were just cool expressions.

• Ugly as a mud fence
• He doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground.
• If you don't stop crying, I'm going to give you something to cry about.
• Busier than a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest (and my addition, "nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs")