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In honor of New Year’s Eve I thought we should excerpt about some NYE food and drink traditions. The piece below is from The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America which I found through Oxford Reference Online. I hope you all have a fabulous time tonight (but not too fabulous) and I wish you a healthy and happy 2009!

Although champagne has become de rigueur as midnight strikes, no single food epitomizes the contemporary New Year’s holiday. The menu may be luxurious caviar at a New Year’s Eve bacchanalia or sobering hoppin’ John on New Year’s Day. Celebrations marking the inexorable march of Father Time often involve foods imbued with symbolism, such as in the Pennsylvania Dutch New Year’s tradition of sauerkraut (for wealth) and pork—the pig roots forward into the future, unlike the Christmas turkey, which buries the past by scratching backward in the dirt.

Seventeenth-century Dutch immigrants in the Hudson River valley welcomed the New Year by “opening the house” to family and friends. The custom was adapted by English colonists, who used brief, strictly choreographed, January 1 social calls for gentlemen to renew bonds or repair frayed relationships. Ladies remained at home, offering elegantly arrayed collations laden with cherry bounce, wine, hot punch, and cakes and cookies, often flavored with the Dutch signatures of caraway, coriander, cardamom, and honey. Embossed New Year’s “cakes,” from the Dutch nieuwjaarskoeken—made by pressing a cookie-like dough into carved wooden boards decorated with flora and fauna—were a New York specialty throughout the nineteenth century.

Politicians embraced—or were embraced by—the New Year’s open house. George Washington inaugurated a custom of presidential New Year’s levees in 1791. The levees, which continued until the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, were a powerful statement in the fledgling democracy: Any properly dressed person with a letter of introduction, could—without an invitation—drink punch and nibble cake with the president. The diarist Philip Hone reported in 1837 that “scamps” with muddy boots stormed the home of the New York mayor, shouting “huzzas” for the mayor and demanding refreshment. The police restored order only after the celebrants had drained the mayor’s bottles, devoured his beef and turkey, and wiped their greasy fingers on his curtains.

Heavy drinking, especially among the young and the disadvantaged, was widely reported from the late eighteenth century on, when servants and slaves pounded on doors in the middle of the night demanding New Year’s drinks. Alcohol continues to assume a prominent place in New Year’s parties, notwithstanding the efforts of nineteenth-century temperance advocates, who pointedly poured effervescent sarsaparilla, coffee, and tea.

The New York custom of open house spread westward in the nineteenth century. Although the Dutch palimpsest continued in the “cold-slaw” found in Eliza Leslie’s menus for New Year’s dinner in New Receipts for Cooking (1854), other influences shaped the holiday, particularly in the South. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries those of French and English backgrounds celebrated the twelve days of Christmas with gifts of food and festive dinners on January 1 . Antebellum plantation owners sometimes gave slaves oxen to slaughter on New Year’s Day as well as liquor for the slaves’ parties. African Americans in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries made one of the most enduring contributions to the modern holiday. Starting in the Carolinas but extending throughout the South, hoppin’ John and greens became traditional New Year’s fare, black-eyed peas bringing luck and the rice (which swelled in the cooking) and greens (like money) bringing prosperity. In the early twentieth century Japanese Americans adopted the open house tradition, serving glutinous rice dishes, soups, boiled lobsters (signifying health and happiness), and fish specially prepared to appear alive and swimming.

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No Elif Shafak for me.

There's some nasty weather going on. My way from work to Politics and Prose overlaps with my commute home. I left work at 5:45. I got to the splitting point in the where I had to decide: reading? or home? at 7. I knew by the time I got to the bookstore, I would have missed the event.

I got home at 7:50. I live 10 miles from work.

Ergh.

But, for once in my life, I voted for a winner!

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Fun new developments in my world: STREP THROAT! Ergh.

So, because I'm all contagious until I've been on my meds for 24 hours, I'm at home today. La la la la bored. Dan suggested curling up on the couch this afternoon with the dog and some cocoa and watching a movie while the world falls apart outside (we're supposed to get some weather today) but... the main symptom of me being sick is me feeling very contrary and nothing we own or on TV sounds good to watch. Y'all are lucky I'm home alone today. CRANKY CRANKY CRANKY PANTS.

I just got mad at the refrigerator for failing to magically provide cranberry juice even though I know full well that I drank it all last night. WHAT DO YOU MEAN MY FRIDGE DOESN'T MAGICALLY MAKE THE FOOD I WANT? SINCE WHEN?

See, even in blog land, I'm all shouty. Maybe because I have strep, so I can't shout in real life.

Anyway, let's talk about some books, shall we? Today we feature a book written for grownups.

Olive Kitteridge: Fiction Elizabeth Strout

Interestingly, my copy is not subtitled fiction, but rather "a novel in stories" which is more descriptive. For Olive Kitteridge is indeed a collection of short stories, all revolving around the small town of Crosby, Maine or its dominating title character, Olive.

I don't think I've ever read a book before with the elderly as main characters.

Olive is loud and outspoken, moody and unexpectedly and quietly kind. We first meet her in a story largely about her husband and his relationship with an employee as juxtaposed with the his relationship with his wife. We then see her as she talks to one of her former students, a young man who has returned to main to kill himself. We see Olive briefly in a story about a troubled piano player. There are two stories that focus on her son and how Olive effects his relationships with women. There are two stories (one strongly featuring Olive, the other one only having her make a brief appearance) with two different takes on how a marriage changes in the empty nest years.

Throughout the book, Strout offers us a glimpse into the tangled and troubled lives of people in a small town, where everyone knows everyone else. She compassionately tells the stories of people caught in a changing world they don't always understand. She tackles grief and pain and the emotions of aging with a steady and clear hand.

Overall, she tells a wonderful story about a complicated woman--a week after reading the book, I still can't decide if I like Olive Kitteridge or not. Overall, a compelling and strong read.

Publication Date: April 2008

Full Disclosure: ARC provided by Random House through Library Thing's Early Reviewer Program.

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I am not happy this October. October should be about sweaters and the smell of neighbors with fireplaces enjoying them. October is crunching leaves and pumpkin pie and early bathches of mulled wine.

October is not in the high 70s. (Really DC? High 70s? In October? Why do you hate me so?)

le sigh

I am a northern girl at heart.

But, in books, things are different. My picks for October are up at the Biblio File Store. Be sure to check those out and support my book habit.

Here is today's poem. It's really a song. Lots of people have sung and I'm not sure who wrote it. It contains my favorite lines about fall When you knew that it was over/ Were you suddenly aware/ That the autumn leaves were turning/ To the color of her hair


Round, like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel.
Never ending or beginning,
On an ever spinning wheel
Like a snowball down a mountain
Or a carnaval balloon
Like a carousell that's turning
Running rings around the moon

Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Past the minutes on it's face
And the world is like an apple
Whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind

Like a tunnel that you follow
To a tunnel of it's own
Down a hollow to a cavern
Where the sun has never shone
Like a door that keeps revolving
In a half forgotten dream
Or the ripples from a pebble
Someone tosses in a stream.

Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Past the minutes on it's face
And the world is like an apple
Whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind

Keys that jingle in your pocket
Words that jangle your head
Why did summer go so quickly
Was it something that I said
Lovers walking allong the shore,
Leave their footprints in the sand
Was the sound of distant drumming
Just the fingers of your hand

Pictures hanging in a hallway
And a fragment of this song
Half remembered names and faces
But to whom do they belong
When you knew that it was over
Were you suddenly aware
That the autumn leaves were turning
To the color of her hair

Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning,
On an ever spinning wheel
As the images unwind
Like the circle that you find
In the windmills of your mind

Pictures hanging in a hallway
And the fragment of this song
Half remembered names and faces
But to whom do they belong
When you knew that it was over
Were you suddenly aware
That the autumn leaves were turning
To the color of her hair

Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning,
On an ever spinning wheel
As the images unwind
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind


You can listen to a great version here: Les Moulins De Mon Coeur (The Windmills Of Your Mind) by Toots Thielemans but, it looks like Napster changed the way they do things? So maybe you can't just listen for free all nice and easy anymore? Or is it just because I'm blogging this from the computer I have Napster downloaded onto? Anyway, it's a good song.

It will be sweater weather soon, right? Please?

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Holy Cow, all I want to do is read some books about a British ballet dancer. Why is this so hard? When last we chatted, I had purchased Drina books 1-6, and ILLed 7-11. I recieved emails letting me know that all but the last one, Drina Ballerina, were in. So, before class I went to the library to pick them up...

They've all come from Trinity College in Dublin (?!) which has a "library use only" restriction on all of them!!!!! ARGH!!!!

Anyway, here's a poem. According to My Classical Chinese Book, it's a Tibetan Folk Song. The translation is by yours truly.

Qile River,
Flowing under Yin mountain,
Heaven seems like a yurt,
A basket canopy over the wild prarie.
The sky is azure.
The land is vast and vague.
The wind blows through the grass, bending down to show our cows and sheep.

I hadn't thought about this in years until I read the following passage in The Long March: The True History of Communist China's Founding Myth by Sun Shuyun, which I reviewed here.

The book is quoting Sangluo, a foot soldier on the Long March who stayed in Tibet when the army crossed it...

On the plateau it was like another world. At first, it seemed peaceful, no planes pounding us, no Nationalists chasing us. But then it was just peculiar. No people, no houses, no roads--just grass, grass, grass up to the horizon, empty of everything except the occasional river snaking through the plain. Event he sky was different, so close, if you shot a bullet it would pierce it. Bright blue like porcelain...

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I've come to the very sad realization that I will have to weed my personal library. The books are eating the house.

But, does anyone else remember the Drina Books?

Drina is directly responsible for my loathing of weeding my personal library. When we did the great book collection integration after we got married and moved to Michigan, I got rid of a lot of books from my childhood. My thinking was along the lines of (1)I can get it from the library on the off chance I actually want to read this again (2) When I have kids, I'll buy them new, shiny copies.

Who knew that 2 years down the road I'd be flung into the carnival that is Children's Librarianship. And my library has most of the books I threw out.

It does NOT have Drina. Drina, who is the star of the BEST series of ballet books ever. Drina, who is long out of print. Drina, who sells for obscene amounts of money on Ebay, Drina, who is barely even available on my Maryland-wide ILL network. Drina, whom I'm ILLing through SCHOOL.

Well, I'm ILLing the last 6 books of the series that I didn't even know existed when I was a child. I found the first 5 rather cheaply so I bought them. Weeding be damned. I will buy the next 6 too, when (1) I have more $$$ or (2) I can find them for under $20-$50 a copy.

For most of my childhood (and a large portion of my non-childhood) I wanted to name my firstborn daughter Andriana after her and she's so out of print. :( But, the recently republished Ballet Shoes so maybe Drina will come soon? Hopefully?

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So... as I mentioned yesterday, I have today's post all written up, but it's contingent on when the new issue of Edge of the Forest goes up. So... here's some blathering on about random stuff.

Lemony Snicket is finally out in paperback! I wonder why they waited so long. Anyway, it's in paperback, with some additions. I haven't had a chance to look too closely at it, but in the back there is definitely some new material.

It looks like there's a serialized story going on! (Please, if you've looked more closely than I have, correct me.) Also, Mr. Snicket seems to have turned Agony Aunt on us, to my immense pleasure.

In other news, Megan McCafferty's new Jessica Darling adventure, Fourth Comings, comes out next Tuesday. Very excited. I can't explain what draws me into it, but I couldn't put Sloppy Firsts down and stayed up way past my bedtime reading it.

Anyway, here's my dilemma (yes, I know I lead an exceedingly difficult existence). It comes out Tuesday. I want to read it NOW. My library hasn't even ordered it yet! What am I to do? Oh! The Agony! I want to preorder it, but I don't, because I've been spending way too much $$$ on books lately. Plus, I don't own any of the others, so... whatever. It looks like my local library (the one near my house, not the one I work in) has it on order, so I can place a hold on it there BUT, I'm not around this month during library hours. I'm always at my library, school, or out of town. Argh.

whinge whinge whinge

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You wanna know how difficult my life is right now?

Well, I have a final exam due tomorrow at 11:55pm. I am not very far along on it because I've been slaving over my final project (which is going to be awesome, but still needs a lot of work.)

So, tomorrow=no fireworks, and I live in DC which has the greatest fireworks of all, and I LOVE fireworks. Poo. Plus, Dan comes home tomorrow. I'm hoping he'll be horribly jetlagged and will need to sleep all afternoon so I don't feel badly about blowing him off to work on my final. (Hi Honey! I hope you had a good time in Argentina! You can tell me all about it tomorrow, because I need to work on my test now! Go away!)

And, just this very minute, the very nice UPS man came to my door and gave me this, 2 days early.

How am I supposed to concentrate on usability testing and software implementation plans when a bright pink copy of Love Is a Many Trousered Thing is waiting for me?

Plus, Reptile World is coming to the library tonight and I'm introducing the program and such. I'm not such a big fan of reptiles. Oh well. I hoping there will be lots of kids who will be excited about such things... Read the rest of this post

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