Holiday Tidings

Part of the joy of the holiday is giving and getting Christmas cards.

On Christmas Eve, I look forward to pulling the stack out of the ancestral guy family card-holder (a painted sleigh driven by Christmas mice), and reading them all at once.

Part of the ritual of discussing the cards after we've read them includes lamenting the more notable cards that used to come every year that we no longer get. The two that got away, so to speak were the card from a friend who owned a beauty school (it always contained a hairdo of the month calendar), and the one from Harry's Jewelers, in Hong Kong (bearing a holiday greeting, their business address, and the famous quote "Come directly to the second floor. Pay no attention to the Pakistanis down the hall.") Can you imagine?

In my dotage I have come to love the holiday letter. I used to disparage them, but now I get it. And they are as different as people are.

My first friend to send one was the scientist. He would send four pages, single-spaced, front and back, directly pasted from his diary. Thought it was really a bit much until I got a mention one year. We know people who always manage to pass the overshare barrier (salary issues, horrors of/wonders of childbirth), and then there are the people who have done it so long that they just get it right. We aim to be one of those people. And when you get that Christmas card next year, you'll know which style I'm referring to.

In the meantime, Happy New Year to all. Grandmammoo guy is on her way over to see the new kitchen, teach me a family recipe and ring in the new year with us :)

Finally! A Mash-up for Me!

There is now a Google Maps mash-up for people who like manhole covers.

My people!

When I was in library school we were asked to create a database that could adequately describe a visual collection. I had suggested that our test collection be a collection of manhole covers. 

Snuggles, my partner on the project, insisted that we use a selection of Walker Evans' Farm Services Administration photographs. This was a more complicated choice and we ultimately learned more for that reason.

But I like manhole covers.

Here are a few from Japan:

No, this is not the same manhole cover. Please look closely :)

To see everybody else's photos, visit the mash-up here.

Some 1954 Pillsbury Bakeoff Winners

Santa brought me a vintage Bakeoff cookbook.
Interesting how tastes change over the years:

• Licorice Lemon Cake
• Watermelon Tea-Ettes*
• Pineapple Sparklers
• Date Cheese Charmers
• Crisp Chocolate Tweedies
• Cheese Round Abouts
• Lemon Larks
• Blueberry Boy-Bait
• Lima Cheese Pie**
• Thifty Giblet Meal
• Perky Pear Cobbler

* The secret ingredient in these cupcakes is diced watermelon pickle.
** I would update this recipe with edamame and serve it to my people. No offense to the lima.

White Elephant Goodness

Objects seen at a white elephant exchange:

The second autobiography of Leonard Nimoy (mrguy's dept. party)
A package of Pocari Sweat mix (H.U. party)
A Billy Bass (Forklift Development dept. party)
A handkerchief set, containing note of well-wishes "from Grandma" (mrguy's dept. party)
A stack of old baseball cards (H.U. party)
A glasses holder, in the shape of a nose, painted as if Peter Max had a bad day (H.U. party)