A PREVIEW—

Good friend and former Richland County Sheriff Dick Petty (right) sings a duet with Larry Hammond, rhythm guitarist with a group that Jams monthly in a Bellville garage. We feature that activity tomorrow in a blog piece entitled;

Grand Ole Opry, Bellville Style! Please tune in.

FOGEYISMS IS TAKING A VACATION—

After 11 months, 313 consecutive days and 380 posts I am taking some time off. I expect to return Saturday, December 1, 2007 and hope to publish weekly thereafter; on Saturdays, sometime between 6 a.m. and noon--

--occasionally, maybe even more often.

Please stay tuned.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING—

Malabar Farm Naturalist Lisa Durham of Bellville, in colonial costume (above), tends to the turkey roasting in a reflector oven at their recent Hearthside Cooking Workshop. Twenty six folks were enrolled in this recent day-long event where an entire Thanksgiving dinner is prepared in this traditional manner.

Another ½ dozen Dutch Ovens were cooking in a second fireplace where other “colonial” folks (staff and volunteers) tended the wood fire and kept a fresh supply of hot coals supplied to the cast iron pots.

The cooking times were carefully scheduled so the entire dinner would be finished by the day’s end.

Preparations included roast turkey and ham, cornbread dressing, a cranberry medley, maple baked carrots, Harvard beets, mashed potatoes with turkey gravy, baked squash, corn pudding, cranberry maple sauce, Irish soda bread, pumpkin pie, German apple cake, whipped cream and hot mulled cider.

Participants, in small squads, were kept busy throughout the day peeling and slicing and dicing and mixing and mashing ingredients for these various culinary delights.

All went home with five printed pages of recipes on how to prepare this holiday feast.

Here’s how the pioneers dealt with the absence of canned pumpkin on the grocery store shelf:

“Pie pumpkins are usually small and have a darker color than decorative pumpkins. Select firm pumpkins, wash thoroughly, cut into chunks. Place in a Dutch oven, add at least 2 inches of water and cook until soft.

Drain water, scoop pumpkin from skin and mash. Put mashed pumpkin in a colander lined with cheesecloth and let drain for 10-15 minutes to remove excess liquid. Use the mashed pumpkin as you would canned pumpkin.”

I asked Naturalist Lisa, “What happens to all this food at day’s end?”

She smiled, “Why, we eat it, of course...” ...with gratitude, naturally, for the traditional bounty of our country as celebrated in this holiday season.

MACHINE EATS HOUSE—

It took a track-hoe about three hours of leisurely munching to level a house on Bellville’s Main St., Monday. Brad Smith, owner of True Value Hardware, smiles as the last corner of the building falls just north of his store. The lot will be paved for much needed parking.

BOOK REPORTS—

28 By Stephanie Nolen

Literally 28 compelling vignettes of people in Africa who have battled HIV/AIDS. The author uses these stories to focus attention on the estimated 28 million people infected there; 5,500 of whom die every single day.

HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is literally a virus that weakens the immune system, ultimately leading to AIDS (A = aquired. ID = immunodeficiency. S = syndrome). AIDS is not one disease but rather presents itself as a number of diseases that attack as the immune system fails.

Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

A captivating first-novel takes a first-person look at two young boys growing up in Afganistan in the 1970s; one rich, the other the son of their servant. Then, a horiffic betrayal. Then, Russia invades Afganistan and the author and his father escape to impoverished asylum in the US. A stunningly personal autobiography posing as a novel. It likely makes my top 10 list of books, ever. Today, the author is a west coast physican.

Our American King by David Lozell Martin

The US government has collapsed and the coutry is in chaos. Millions die in the anarchy and of starvation. The White House has been abandoned and overrun; the corpses of dead politicians hanging upside down on the surrounding fence. A charismatic “King” Tazza rises to power and traverses the US assembling an army to restore order while the book drifts to the compelling conclusion “Governments (regardless of their form) never have the people’s best interest at heart.”

Playing for Pizza by John Grisham

This yarn is about a professional football player whose lackluster career bottoms out with playing in an Italian league. Actually, it is a lackluster 258 pages of guaranteed cure for insomnia. What’s next from this otherwise talented author, fairy tales?

MY BURNING BUSHES--

I was struggling with the precise identification of this wild plant when a fortuitious lunch conversation with friend Tom Wade quickly solved that problem.

After my very brief description of the plant he directly said, “That’s a Euonymus Alatus” commonly known as a Buning Bush, also known as a Fire Bush.

Their leaves naturally are green with cholorphyll in the summertime but now give the appearance of burning jewels in the gloomy yet softly pleasing earth-toned woods. It is not hard to understand the origin of its common name.

“Plants with abundant exposure to sunshine turn the brilliant red” Tom said. “Those in partial shade will have leaves of a pink-yellow hue this time of year.”

Another distinguishing characteristic of the plant is its practice of throwing lengths of corky bark on its branches, vertically inclined to the lateral axis as shown in the picture to the right.

“They are hardy to Climate Zone 4 north of us and tolerate a wide variety of soil and moisture conditions,” Tom added.

Formerly of Wade and Gatton Nurseries in the Bellville area, Tom is now successfully self-employed in the landscape business.

Curious; check here: http://www.wadegardens.com/ This page is currently under revision so click on the “contact us” link at the top of the page for further information.

JUSTICE CLOSES IN—

Three times this year we have commented on prominent, alleged violations of law around the nation.

On June 27th in a piece entitled “Some Justice” we reported on a Washington, DC judge who sued a local dry cleaning establishment for over 50 million bucks because they lost his pants.

It was August 9th when we ran a “Commenterry” dealing with allegations Barry Bonds had used steroids illegally to achieve success in his assault on some of major league baseball’s most revered records.

Then, on September 11th we ran the piece on US Senator Larry Craig (R) Idaho who was caught with his pants down in a Minneapolis Airport. He resigned and we applauded that decision—which he later withdrew.

In the first instance we called for (at the very least) this character’s removal from the bench. That happened recently.

In the second instance we called for uniform application of law regardless of Bond’s status in professional sports. That also happened recently. This character has been indicted by a federal grand jury and faces severe penalties if convicted.

In the third instance Craig was stripped of all his committee appointments and a Senate Ethics Panel was convened to investigate the matter.

Then silence.

This case is not about this person’s sexual orientation. It is about a member of our country’s senior legislative body violating the country’s laws then trying to use his privileged status to worm out of the consequences.

It smells and that odor will permeate the US Senate until its source is removed.