Provence in the Current!

My friend Liza has been keeping a remarkable little food blog called Provence in Ann Arbor for the past year or so. If you're in the Ann Arbor or Ypsilanti area, pick up the current Current (the June issue) and you will note that she has won the runner-up position for "Best Food Blog" for 2012. Whoo hoo!

Sadly, they completely butchered the URL, so she is unlikely to see much traffic from the printed link as it stands. Luckily, you guys already know all about the blog, right? It's linked under My Friends' Blogs to the right there, and I'm sure you've checked it out!

However, just in case, here are the pertinent details for the runner-up Best Food Blog according to Current Magazine's Readers Choice Best of Washtenaw County 2012. It's called Provence in Ann Arbor, and the correct URL is provenceinannarbor.wordpress.com.

That said, here's the picture from the Current, wrong link and all, because it's just exciting to see it there! Click on the image to drop in on Liza's culinary domain.

Congratulations, Liza! You deserve it. Looking forward to visiting Provence (i.e., your patio) again soon!

Football, fashion, and vintage advertising

This vintage ad interests me.

For one thing, it's interesting to look upon: it's from 1969 and it's got that late-Sixties-psychedelic-take-on-Art-Deco thing going on.

For another, there's the bizarre text, which reads: "Is there a female NFL fan so unfeminine that she doesn't deserve to do her own thing? No, no."

What?!

Okay, so let's strip out all the negatives and see if it makes more sense that way. "Is there a female NFL fan so feminine that she deserves to do her own thing? Yes, yes."

Okay. Still doesn't make sense! What's femininity (or lack thereof) got to do with football?!

But it's still a cool piece of advertising, and I am hereby sharing it with you in honor of the upcoming Super Bowl weekend.

A long-ago tea party

Long ago in the mists of time - maybe right around the Y2K apocalypse that never happened - five ladies gathered for a traditional High Tea at the Morita home.

As I recall, we did the whole bit, from clotted cream to "lemon crud." We served various tarts and fruit-filled pastries, fresh strawberries, and a variety of preserves. And cucumber sandwiches. And, of course, scones.

It was a pleasing event, and I was really pleased when Patsy found these pictures in the Morita archives! They called out to be blogged, so here they are.

"Where diversity is an understatement"

Apparently, 20 years ago or so, I gave my sister my freshman dorm T-shirt from my stint at the University of Michigan. During our glorious visit to New York City a couple of weeks ago (from which I still plan to post pictures), she produced the tattered old thing from her suitcase and gave it back. I had forgotten all about it. I was thrilled.

Look at that! "East Quad: Where Diversity Is an Understatement." I wonder how many of my dorm mates from the third floor at that venerable dormitory in 1988 still have their T-shirt.

Those were exciting days. I'm glad Facebook has brought me back in touch with some of my old friends from that time, even if only in a Facebook kind of way. (Matt Diaz made paella! Maeve Sullivan likes this!) Everything was new and strange and American and exciting. I was in a certain degree of mental chaos and got in all kinds of trouble, but I don't regret it. I had good companions and exciting experiences. People and experience make us who we are, of course, and this shirt comes from an important Maeve-building era.

Thanks, Penny, for reuniting me with this old friend!

Penny!

Well, it's been a whirlwind since book club - my sister and I spent a long weekend in New York, and then she visited me in thrilling Ypsilanti for a week. I have more photos, of course, but here's my fave. Look at the happy expression on Nigel's face!

Anyway, I'll get more pictures up when time allows. For now, here's to Penny - I miss her, as do both Scott and Nigel. It was great to have her puttering about the house, preparing snacks, making model airplanes, chatting. Can't wait for her next visit!

Happy Book Club Day!

This past Sunday marked an occasion that comes but once a year: the day it's my turn to host book club.

So, of course, Saturday found Scott and me cleaning. Hoo boy. We were cleaning machines. By Saturday evening, the place looked fabulous. Too bad we can't keep it that way all the time. But clutter will eventually encroach. It always does.

Two unfortunate things happened, though. One: the glass in the back door shattered in the forceful weekend winds and had to be covered with a  piece of cardboard. That looks classy, I can tell you. And two - which was far worse than one: the furnace stopped working.

For a moment, I panicked. I envisioned the book club ladies huddled in their coats, blowing on numb fingers. Should I cancel?! As far as I know, no one has ever canceled book club at the last minute. And - all this cleaning, for nothing! No! Book club would jolly well proceed!

And I'm glad it did, because it was a great one. It wasn't too cold once we had everyone in there and bustling around in the kitchen. Sadly, two members were unavoidably missing, and I was too busy focusing on not forgetting anything that I forgot something really important: calling our New York member for her commentary! I am so sorry, Deryn! However, missing persons, forgotten phone calls, and broken furnaces notwithstanding, it was a success, and I am very pleased with how it all turned out.

We read Erik Larson's In the Garden of Beasts, which provoked much spirited discussion.

We had all manner of delicious German food (in keeping with the German setting of the book, of course), and I was particularly happy about the lack of anything green or leafy on the table. My kind of meal! ;-)

And - as ever - we enjoyed each other's company.

Thanks for taking these pictures, Liza! And thanks to everyone for bringing such great food and excellent conversation to the table.

Next up: Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast. I haven't read it in years, and it's one of the few books I still have from the dog-eared collection I brought with me from Denmark. If I can find it! If not, maybe it's time for a new copy anyway. It's worth it!

Accent sleuthing

The other night, I was watching a re-run of the best thing that was ever on TV: Law and Order. I mean the original Law and Order. The one that was on for 20 years.

And I was listening to Lieutenant Van Buren, one of my favorite characters, delivering a rather annoyed volley of irritated criticism at her detectives.

She's tough, she's sharp, she's New Yorky. Well, New Yorky except for one thing. I suddenly recognized, beyond any reasonable doubt, that she and I share something: a Michigan accent.

I was convinced of it. That flat "a" was suddenly unmistakable to me. "What is the prablem, detective?" "He's a cap-killer!"
 
People from Michigan famously say, "We have no accent." I don't understand that statement at all. Everyone has an accent of some kind. How can we not? Each place and population is different, and the people of that place and population sound different from those elsewhere - it's as simple as that. And in Michigan, we have an accent that's flat and nasal. "Top" sounds like "tap." "Dawn" sounds like "Dan." Come on, fellow Michiganians - there's no shame in this! I'm always amazed at how annoyed and defensive people get about this stuff. We're nasal! So what? That's not an insult. It's just a regional vocal tendency, for heaven's sake. And I am a student of accents. They interest me. And I have one. A Michigan one!

So - I looked up my girl S. Epatha. It's true. She's from Saginaw.

Oh, my Gad!

;-)

I love being right.