News Flash! Julia is Number 1!

Almost 50 years after its publication, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, the weighty compendium of French recipes with its recommendation of butter, butter, more butter! will be Number 1 on the New York Times bestseller list. Have Americans just discovered Julia Child? No, in fact, Americans of my generation have had a love affair with Julia ever since her first cooking show (in black and white) on public television. A new generation, however, have discovered Julia, thanks to the new film "Julie and Julia." It seems that people leaving the theater make a detour to the bookstore to get a copy of the book for themselves so they can have their own experiment with Julia's recipes.

The question is--do they know what they are getting into? This is the age of 20 minute meals and wacko diets--with everyone weighing in on the harmful effects of butter. Julia Childs never met a pound of butter that she could not find some use for. Take for example this direction in the recipe for Navets à la Champenoise: "sauté the bacon in the butter for several minutes...." Bacon sautéed in butter--now that is a dish from another age.

Regardless, it is very satisfying to see Julia Childs get the recognition she deserves. And it is further testimony to the abilities of Meryl Streep--she can not only fit into any role that she performs, but she can sell cookbooks as well!

Hello! And who are you?

This is a real-time post. It is Wednesday, 26 August 2009. Currently it is 102 degrees Fahrenheit at 4:00 pm. This is the kind of heat that makes it rather difficult to breathe as the sizzling air comes into you lungs.

For some time now we have been able to water our lawns only once each week, and that for only a short amount of time. One watering a week is not enough to keep the grass green, so the brown spots on the lawn increase daily.

I just returned from taking Sammie the dog outside (at his request--I had no interest in going outdoors in this heat. ) And what do I see bravely standing erect in the grass? This tiny white flower. I placed the Marks-a-lot in the picture so you would have some idea of the size of the plant and its blossom. What is it? Where did it come from? Why are there not more of them? How could it have the courage to bloom now on this miserable day? But since it did, the day is no longer so miserable!

Last night while watching television I was going through the catalogs of spring bulbs, wondering what I could order that would bloom in this zone (zone 8) and not be consumed by deer. This little flower looks like so many of the spring bulbs I was looking at! One thing I know for sure: it is not a spring bulb, blooming out of season. Not in this heat!

Inglourious Basterds

Ever since World War II began to slip from current events to history, there have been films about every aspect of that war--the European front, the Pacific front, the convoluted politics about the Allies (and the Axis), the morality of this war, and, of course, the death camps. Some of the films were immediate classics--"Judgment at Nürenberg," "Schindler's List," for example. Some were immediately controversial--"La Vida è Bella" (a humorous treatment of concentration camps?) And now comes Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds," and the critics don't know what to do with it.

"Inglourious Basterds" is vintage Tarantino--campy, comic, and full of violence. This is not Spielberg! The film defies easy pigeonholing. Is Tarantino saying the Americans were no better than the Nazis? Is he saying that Jews were not always victims but as sadistic as their National Socialist tormenters? Is he serious? Or is this all a big spoof?

It may be that the critics do not want to admit the truth before their faces. We live in a post-Vietnam age. This is a post My Lai film. We have experienced Abu Graib. Blackwater is still in business; it still has contracts with the CIA. Extraordinary rendition? Waterboarding? These are a reality. So now we should be shocked at a film showing Brad Pitt demanding the scalps of Nazi soldiers?

"Inglourious Basterds" breaks the 2 hour rule, and some critics complain it is too long. It has a leisurely pace in scenes that are then followed by shocking violence. I don't know that I remember a film that built suspense so artfully. Did this film drag? Never for a moment. The opening scene (in a French farmhouse) was one of the best scenes of its type I have ever seen.

Will everyone like this film? Not by a long shot? Will Hollywood like it? Will it make tons of money for Universal? I can't predict, so I will wait and see. I know one thing: it is a film I will not forget.

Butterflies Again

I am still thinking about butterflies--probably because we associate butterflies with new life, and we have these wonderful new babies in our lives.

I have heard a lot of homilies in my life, and I must confess that I do not remember most of them. One I do vividly remember I heard when I was in graduate school, and I even remember the title of the homily: "Something Happens to a Butterfly When it Struggles." The sermon included the story of a child who watched with great impatience a butterfly emerging from a cocoon. As he watched the frail-looking insect with its wet wings struggle to emerge into its new life, he decided to give the butterfly some help, and he peeled back part of the cocoon to allow the butterfly to escape. The butterfly did emerge from its cocoon, but it was limp and listless, and it died soon after. The child was crushed that the beautiful insect did not live.

But, you see, something happens to a butterfly when it struggles. The struggle to break free from the cocoon allows the butterfly to gain strength and endurance as it uses new muscles. It is a battle the insect must do on its own. Helping the butterfly emerge prematurely in fact guarantees that the butterfly will not survive.

So the question we face as parents watching our children emerge from their cocoons is when do we need to allow them to struggle on their own, knowing that in that struggle strength will be gained that will equip them for struggles all through life.

Yes, even the frail-looking ethereal butterflies have much to teach us about life.

New Life

All I can think about at present is the addition of two new members of our family. Our son in California and his partner just adopted twin infant girls, who are now the ripe old age of 4 days. Everything happened very fast--from the call asking them if they wanted these precious babies to their trip to Tracy, California during the night, to their return to Los Angeles. Thanks to Facebook, cell phones, and text messaging we were able to keep abreast of events as they unfolded. We had already scheduled a dinner party for 9 people from our church for Saturday evening. We were so preoccupied with unfolding events on the west coast that it is amazing the dinner went off without a hitch. No--not amazing. The amazing part is my super-organized wife--always on top of things! These are our 17th and 18th grandchildren!

The Rest of the Story

That's the way the late Paul Harvey used to announce the news: he would tell "the rest of the story." Well, here is the rest of the story of the caterpillars who obliterated my rue plant earlier in the summer.

I looked out of our bedroom to the berm and spotted several very active butterflies--enjoying the big, blue spikey plant (whose name I do not know). I grabbed the camera and snapped away--confident that the helpful Audubon guide would in fact "guide" me to an identification (The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Butterflies). Sure enough, these were giant swallowtails--the "rest of the story" of the caterpillars. The Audubon guide offers explicit (though at times unscientific) identification hints. This caterpillar is described as "brown or olive, resembling large bird dropping, with dirty buff patches and saddles and usually red scent horns." Oh yes, and it feeds on rue. What is most amazing is the camouflage that nature has given the caterpillar so that it looks as unappetizing to potential predators (bird dropping?) as possible.

I guess I don't mind sacrificing my rue to have these magnificent butterflies in my garden. Note for next year's garden: buy some rue pants.

They Said it Couldn't be Done

When these "master gardeners" moved from Connecticut to Central Texas, some of our friends lamented that gardening would be impossible in the new, harsh environment. Well, here is our berm--installed in January after we had been here a little over a month. It is now August, and I think it is going to last.

The berm was designed to give us a little privacy. Our neighbors are great, but the houses are somewhat closer together than we were accustomed to in Canton. As you can see, it has filled in well, and there are still lots of spots to tuck in other plants in the months to come that tolerate drought conditions and that are not delectable to deer.

Weeds

No, not the landscape type--the television show. We never had "Showtime" (and never had the time to watch the channels we did have) so we never watched "Weeds" until this summer. Thanks to Netflix, we are now halfway through the second season with, what, three more to go? Oh, my! I am very glad we do not have little children around when this show is on. What dialogue! The writing for this series is simply superb--but I would hate to have to try to explain some of what the characters are talking about to a younger viewer. I loved Mary Louise Parker in "Fried Green Tomatoes," so I was curious to see what she would do with this rôle. I think she is terrific--and the rest of the cast very good as well. This is the first time I have ever watched a television series without waiting a week in between. Especially fun on these warm summer nights when we have no desire to sit outside.

After Tubing, What?

Two great activities--music and petanque!

All of our houseguests for the weekend were musicians, and the house was full of music all weekend long--when we were not playing petanque. When this group gets together, there is music! Guitars, fiddles, mandolins, drums, whistles, cellos, and lots of singing. Best of all, our guests gifted us with copies of their CDs when they left, so we are still enjoying the music from the weekend.

And they have even promised to return!

Tubing Down the River

My brother and sister-in-law and six of their friends visited over the weekend and we all went tubing (aka toobing)! The favorite activity on the Comal River (shortest river in the US if not in the world) is floating down the river in an oversized innertube. The water gushes forth from a spring in Landa Park at 72 degrees the year round and meanders througha limestone canyon for 3 miles until it empties into the Guadalupe River. The constant flow of water plus the freshness of spring water plus the cleanliness of a limestone riverbed all ensure that the experience is refreshing and delightful. And people come from far and wide to tube the river. One of the major tourist industries of our town is tube rental. Luckily, we have enough tubes to accommodate a crowd.

To avoid crowds, we got to the river early, inflated the tubes, and were floating by 9:00 am. The drought has slowed the spring's flow somewhat, so the 3 mile float lasted a leisurely 3 hours. We returned to the put in spot for a picnic after the float, and saw that the river was really getting crowded. These pictures show how busy the traffic can be--tubes from one shore to the other!