In the Headlights

Fake Blood

It's Halloween. It might be the only time of the year you can use this concoction.

If you need some realistic-looking blood for a fancy food spread or a child's gory costume, here's how you make it:

1 1/2 cups Karo light corn syrup
1/2 cup Rose's Grenadine
Bottle of red food coloring
3 drops of blue food coloring
Clean, empty glass jar
Spoon

Mix together in a jar to produce a nice, deep blood red.

Factoids about fake blood:

Hershey's Chocolate Syrup was commonly used as fake blood in black-and-white Hollywood movies.

Lobsters have blue blood.

People who live in high altitudes have more blood than people who live at sea level.

For more facts, go here.

*     *     *     *

[Via Joey Green's Mad Scientist]

Pumpkin Pancakes

The perfect Halloween breakfast.

From Martha Steward Living.

Whisk together 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour; 2 tablespoons sugar; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 1/2 teaspoon each cinnamon, ground ginger and salt, 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg; and a pinch of ground cloves.

In a separate bowl, stir together 1 cup milk, 6 tablespoons canned pumpkin puree, 2 tablespoons melted butter and 1 egg;  fold mixture into dry ingredients.

Melt some butter in a skillet over medium heat;  pour in 1/4 cup batter for each pancake.  Cook pancakes about 3 minutes per side;  serve with butter and syrup.

Makes 8-10.

[Illustration of pumpkin (and pecan) pancakes from cookingvillage.com]

Kitty Litter Cake

Jan sent me this.  I think it would be perfect for a Halloween Party.  Or maybe any party.  Read the recipe, then look at the picture of it at the bottom.  Hmm.  I have a couple of these cakes in the house and didn't even know it.

The recipe came from KidsKuisine.com.

CAKE:
1 box of spice or German chocolate cake mix
1 box of white cake mix
1 package of white sandwich cookies
1 package of vanilla instant pudding mix
A few drops of green food coloring
Several Tootsie Rolls or the equivalent

Serve in:
1 New (i.e. unused) litter box
1 New litter box liner
1 New Pooper Scooper

1)  Prepare and bake the cake mixes according to directions in any sized pan.  Prepare the pudding according to directions and chill.  Crumble cookies in small batches in a blender or food processor.  Add a few drops of food coloring to one cup of cookies, and mix with a fork or shake in a jar, then set aside.

2)  When cakes are at room temperature, crumble them into a large bowl.  Toss with half the remaining cookie crumbs and enough pudding to make the mixture moist but not soggy.  Place liner in litter box and pour in mixture.

3)  Unwrap  three Tootsie Rolls and heat in microwave until soft and pliable.  Shape the blunt ends into slightly curved points.  Repeat with three more rolls.  Bury the rolls decoratively in the cake mixture.  Sprinkle the remaining white cookie crumbs over the mixture.  Scatter green crumbs lightly over the top.

4)  Heat five more Tootsie Rolls until almost melted.  Scrape them onto the top of the cake, and sprinkle them with crumbs from the litter box.  Place the box on a sheet of newspaper and serve it with the scooper.

KidsKuisine has a lot of other Halloween recipes and other recipes that are just plain fun for kids to make. 

Hot or Cold

Bodum has long been known for its coffee makers.  I had one of their coffee presses a long time ago, though truth be told, I prefer filtered coffee, and think coffee made in a coffee press is too silty.  I do know a lot of people who love it, though.

You can search their site for beautiful coffee and tea pots, but I am currently enamored of their double-walled glassware.  It keeps hot drinks hot, and cold drinks and desserts cold.  Furthermore, you can pick them up without your fingers feeling the temperature.  No burnt fingers from picking up a cup (or glass) of hot soup; no icy digits from eating a frozen dessert in one of their glasses.  And they look gorgeous.

Lightweight and durable, these borosilicate glasses won't cloud even after years of being washed in a dishwasher.

These glasses are available in many sizes and shapes.  There are even sake glasses for those who love this beverage hot.  I only had room to show a few of them.

The site also features other types of kitchenware, including pots and pans and cutlery, as well as a variety of tea and coffee products, and lots more glassware.

Scotland Bound

This afternoon, Judy and I will leave for Scotland.  We'll meet her sister, Susan and her friend Janet, in Atlanta and fly to Edinburgh, arriving Saturday morning.  We'll stay there until Monday, when we take the train to Aberdeen, then rent a car and drive to Balmoral, where we will stay in a cottage for a week.

Judy and Janet joined the National Trust for Scotland, and through them got us accommodations at the Royal Over-Seas League clubhouse in Edinburgh.  This is pricier than the B&B we stayed in last year, but it is in the heart of Edinburgh, on Princes Street, with "panoramic views of Edinburgh Castle" from most rooms.  Oh boy, can't wait.

I'm not taking my computer.  No access in Balmoral, so won't post while I'm there.  What you read while I'm gone has been preposted.  Which means  that if anything really important happens while I'm gone, well, I won't comment on it.

Also, I am only going to do one post a day, most days while I am gone.  It'll depend on how motivated I get in the next few days (this is preposted too).  But it looks like the schedule will be pretty busy as I approach the day.

By the time you read this, my butt will probably be numb from sitting on an airplane.  Taking baby aspirin to keep my platelets from getting sticky, and plan the old lots-of-fluids, lots-of-walks-in-the-aisles strategy.  Our friend Jeannie who works for the airlines as well as with us has given us some airline coupons.  I said I was going to drink lots of fluids.  I just didn't say which ones.

[Image via Tooner's Travelogue]

Yes! MAM!

The Milwaukee Art Museum has great collections, but the part I'll never forget is its architecture.

Designed by Santiago Calatrava as a 2001 addition to the existing museum (which was designed by Eero Saarinen in 1957, and added on to by David Kahler in 1975), the Quadracci Pavillion boasts the Burke Brise Soleil, a moveable winglike sunscreen built onto 72 steel fins.  The wings rest atop the glassed in reception hall, and open when the museum is open, and close when it is closed. They spread to 217 feet at their widest point.

The Reiman Bridge, a 250-foot pedestrian bridge links downtown Milwaukee with the art museum, which sits on the shore of Lake Michigan.

The interior is just as stunning, with a soaring ninety-foot reception hall, and a long, futuristic gallery.

TM

Andrea has long been a practitioner and teacher of Transcendental Meditation.  Her husband, John, told me he has been an uniterrupted practitioner of TM since 1969.

I've always been a skeptic, but when two intelligent people (and more of my acquaintance) go on about the benefits they have personally gleaned from something, I have to listen.

I personally tried TM twice in the past, and it never "stuck".  I'd try it, and by the time the meditation session was over, I'd be anxious to get back to whatever had been interrupted.

The basics of TM involve two twenty-minute meditation sessions each day, in which you take a comfortable position in a quiet, dimly lit room, close your eyes and relax.  It also involves a mantra that you can use to help clear your mind. 

I had always thought you were supposed to clear your mind of thought during the session, and I never could.  But Andy says anyone can do this, and the purpose is to relax, and let anything surface in your mind that wants to come up.  Stressful things will, and you can let them go.

One thing I do know is that my breathing slows considerably.  And I believe my heart rate does too, and I can feel an occasional PVC while I am doing my TM.  I think that knowing it's OK to have thoughts during the session has made a lot of difference for me.

I am on day five of my third attempt at TM.  Now the thoughts come and I let them go, and different thoughts come and go.  I don't dwell or fret about them.  The twenty minutes now pass in a flash.  They never did before.

One thing Andy pointed out is that there can be nothing bad about taking a few minutes twice a day to relax your body and mind, and there must be physical benefits from slowing down your heart rate and breathing.

In the past studies have shown changes in brain wave patterns during meditation.  One from this August shows changes in brain activity in response to pain in long time meditators.  Other studies have shown changes in brain wave patterns and brain activity with TM, as well as reduction in blood pressure and other stress aggravated health problems.  There is one NIH funded study to look at changes to carotid artery disease in people who begin meditation.

I have what I consider a stressful life, and am approaching a time in life where the known effects of stress are beginning to worry me (yet another stressor).  So I'm inclined to give this a good try and see if I feel subjectively less stressed.  I think I may try keeping a log for a while--monitoring my own blood pressure and heart rate before and after my sessions.  I'll keep you posted.

I have to admit, though, that I ran across a different take on TM from The Skeptic's Dictionary.  They have some stuff from James Randi, whom I greatly admire (he's a famous magician and debunker who was able to show Uri Geller for the charlatan that he was).

Nevertheless, I think I'll try it and see for myself.

Sidmouth Folk Festival

SIDMOUTH FOLK FESTIVAL

by Kenny Baez


You gave me a doubtful look
As if I’d drunk the rent money
Or brushed the wings
Of your fairy child,
So I left the family circle
In an instant, took the bus
To the folk festival at Sidmouth.

Nothing but disillusion
In this dark island?
I thought differently.

The music festival was in full swing:
Old Crusties in Robin Hood hats
Playing accordion and fiddle,
The English dance band, Wapweasel,
Ralph McTell singing about
Long-limbed girls,
Based on a Dylan Thomas poem –
I’ve drawn from that well!

All morning, I lay on a Prom bench
listening to the music
breathing the fresh salt air.

Always felt I was meant to be
A close bosom friend of the sea.

*     *     *     *

This post started out to be a word of the day:  wapweasel.  But when I searched it, I found this cool poem, and thought it needed to be included.

Wapweasel is not only an English dance band, it is an ancient deep-toned brass instrument used by the bands playing music for a ceilidh.  I learned about the wapweasel and the revival of the ceilidh in this story from npr.

(Searched dictionary.com for "wapweasel" and got the "did you mean 'war powers'?" query.  Endless internet entertainment.)

[Photo of Clachan Yell, a fabulous ceilidh band,  playing for enthusiastic dancers.]

UCLA Women's Study

A study by the UCLA Department of Psychiatry has revealed that the kind of man that a woman finds attractive can depend on where she is in her menstrual cycle.

For example, if she is ovulating, she tends to be more attracted to men who have rugged, masculine features.

If she is menstruating, she is more likely to be attracted to a man who has a spear lodged in his chest, and duct tape over his mouth, going up in flames.

No further studies are expected.

[Thanks, S.R.  I'm so surprised at you!]

Men should memorize this chart.

For more about women's behavior as it relates to menstrual cycles, check out The Straight Dope.

The Surprise

I mentioned yesterday that I had just spent the weekend in Milwaukee.

In many ways it was a perfect getaway.  I saw good friends, did interesting things, ate good food.  If only I didn't have to fly to get there.

Anyway, this was a trip I had to make.  Andrea and I had been roomates off-campus three or four times when we were at Michigan State, many moons ago, including in a small apartment above a place called Mac's Bar.  We also had a rat there named Ben or Willard, who used to get into the garbage and play kick the can in the middle of the night.

We also waited tables together at the Frank 'n' Stein, wearing mini dirndls.  That kind of stuff creates long-lasting bonds.

We got along like bandits, but somewhere along the way, she went her way and I went God knows where, and we lost touch.  The last time I saw her was over twenty years ago.

Earlier this year, through the magic of the internet, we spoke for the first time in over two decades.  We talked for about an hour, exchanged phone numbers and email addresses, and then returned to our busy lives.

So when her husband, John (whom I had never met), emailed me a few months ago saying he was going to throw a surprise 25th wedding anniversary for Andrea, I just had to go.  Wild wolverines couldn't have kept me away.

I quietly made my reservations, and of course couldn't write about it on the miniscule chance that she would read about it in my blog.

I flew up Friday night, after almost missing my flight from Orlando, where they had somehow managed to hide an international airport from me.

The next morning, my friend Jane came to fetch me, and after she checked out the Select Comfort bed, we went to the Milwaukee Art Museum for lunch, and spent the afternoon in the museum.  It was a great afternoon, and I'll have more (much) to say about it in another post.

When Jane dropped me off, I walked by a tall man who was wearing shades and a ball cap.  As I brushed by he said "Riannan" (actually, he called be by my real name, but this'll have to do).  I knew his voice immediately, and yelled "Stix!" and threw my arms around his neck.  He thought I should have recognized him before he had to say anything, but I was preopccupied.  He was another bridge-playing, class-cutting blot on the escutcheon from my MSU days. 

We chatted for a few minutes, then I went to my room to shower and change, and he went to change into a suit, and get his wife, Carolyn, whom I had not met before.

There were about 100 of us in the party room when Andrea and John arrived.  Relatives, friends, meditators, kids, adults, grandparents.  John had told her he was taking her to dinner, but they had to stop by a political fundraiser for a few minutes.  John has been in state politics for decades, so this was nothing noteworthy for Andrea.

When they got to the doors, John's brother Tom was standing outside.  John was horrified as Andrea said "Tom, what are you doing here?".  He immediately grabbed her and pushed her through the doors.  She was stunned and not wearing her glasses.  Everyone yelled "surprise!"  There was a lull and Andrea's voice was heard:  "Who are these people?"

She was most definitely surprised.  Drinks and dinner followed, then a montage of wedding pictures, nicely put together from snapshots with music from old cassettes, followed by renewal of their vows, and a barbershop quartet.  And, of course, we all sat around talking until late.

It was a wonderful evening.

Sunday morning, everyone staying at the hotel got together for breakfast, and people gradually left for their normal lives.  Andy, John, Andy's sister Nellie and I went to Lake Michigan and walked around the shoreline for a while.

Later, we took Nellie to the airport, then had dinner with my friends Lynn and Jim and their daughter Terry.

Monday morning, Andy was a good enough friend to take me to the airport at 0530 to catch a 0710 flight back to Florida.  What (once again) was I thinking?

Actually, what I was thinking was:  "What a great weekend!"