Well, it’s raining here, anyway. And muggy! Breathing the air is like huffing steamed cotton balls. I’m staying inside as much as possible, like any sensible person would in such a climate.
Here’s a picture of an osprey saying, “Skreeeee! Skreeeeee, I tell you!”
Isn’t it gorgeous? It was perched in a bald cypress tree across the river, where it often hangs out and fishes. But that day (a few days ago), it was focused on communication rather than food.
For those who saw my panicky comment yesterday morning about a cake I’d ordered for a family birthday party, I’m pleased to report that it was delivered as promised and was fabulous! Whew! For a while there, I thought I’d have to bake a giant cake for 40 people.
Hope you’re having a peaceful Sunday, rainy or otherwise. Open thread!
schrodingers_cat
After seeing your butter lambs we know you are up to the task.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I was just going to ask about the cake! I’m glad it turned out all right.
I’m compulsively early, so it always surprises me when people wait until the last minute, but lots of them do.
Another Scott
Screechy Osprey is pretty.
I didn’t realize bald cypress made fruit as round balls. The things one learns here!
Glad the cake worked out, also too.
Cheers,
Scott.
Elizabelle
Gonna need a photo of the cake. Glad that all turned out well.
Betty Cracker
@schrodingers_cat: My daughter and I originally planned to bake a tiered cake ourselves, but she was in an accident last month and injured her hand. She’ll be okay but is still on the mend, so we chickened out and ordered a cake instead.
MattF
Farmer’s market this morning and it was berry paradise. Blue, black, rasp, and straw. One stall had a few unhappy peaches, but the real peach tsunami comes later.
schrodingers_cat
Speaking of Twitter, my ironic tweet has garnered likes from Indian RWNJs because they thought I was approving of their bigotry. I could follow the august example of DougJ trolling Indian bhakts, but I don’t think I have the stomach for it.
Mike in NC
Local rag has George Will’s syndicated column. Today he is raving about Rick Atkinson’s new book “The British Are Coming”, first of a new trilogy on the American Revolution. I ordered a copy since his WW2 liberation trilogy was so great and the first book won the Pulitzer Prize.
laura
I’m almost through episode 2 of When They See Us – pausing long enough to dry my tears. Its gutting, and I’m feeling as low and shamed and bound to bear witness to the crushing weight of our national pastime of institutional racism.
If, after seeing this, you can’t feel empathy for these children, their families, their communities, your moral compass is either broke or missing.
Sab
Step son got engaged to an amazing girl yesterday. I sincerely hope cake baking for that event is not in my future as that would doom that marriage.
I am going to try to bake a cake for spouse’s 68 birthday. I have this cool set of pans that do a checkerboard cake. Only problem is the baker has to be able to bake a cake.
The pans have a thing that allows concentric rings of chocolate/not chocolate. I am mildly excited (enthusism tempered by my sad cake baking history.)
vtr
Trackside here in Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix – sunny and 85 F. Rooting for Hamilton. Wife is for Raikonnen.
Barbara
@schrodingers_cat: Irony is hard to convey in writing, and some people are completely incapable of discerning irony. I definitely would cease engaging too.
TaMara (HFG)
Whew! I was going to ask first time I saw you today. Glad it worked out!
germy
@laura:
Linda Fairstein has been dumped by her publisher.
https://www.theroot.com/blacklisted-publisher-kicks-central-park-5-prosecutor-1835339917
raven
@Mike in NC: I love Rick’s work. The WW2 Trilogy and The Long Grey Line are great.
TaMara (HFG)
It is cold and rainy here today. I’m under a blanket, with the dogs snuggled nearby. A good day to watch movies, or I should be writing, since I’m a good month behind my original deadline.
geg6
I believe you would have pulled it off, Betty. You are multi-talented.
Myself, it’s a nice day here in the ‘Burgh (or just outside of it). Getting laundry done while John cuts the grass. Later, I’m trying a new recipe for grilled shrimp, a marinade made of Fresno chile, garlic and lime juice. Also grilling yellow squash, zucchini and red peppers with a garlic marinade and tossing with feta and banana pepper rings. Lastly, grilling pineapple and scallions to mix into some jasmine rice. Going nuts on the grill today here in beautiful Beaver County!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@vtr: How exciting! We once went to the Detroit Grand Prix when Mr DAW worked for Roger Penske
Barbara
@laura: We have a local primary election for what we call DA. It has become quite contentious. Yesterday at another local election for schoolboard, I had the chance to tell current DA’s supporter and friend that the fact she signed onto a letter opposing restoration of voting rights to felons who have served their sentence was a complete non-starter and I would never vote for her again. I mean, this lady was telling how well she knew her, how their kids are friends, blah blah, as if that cancels out all the institutional bias. Not sure there are enough voters like me to make a difference. The candidate was there and the friend told me I could ask her myself and I told her it didn’t matter why because there could be no good reason.
Sab
Went to the grocery yesterday. Wore my E Warren t-shirt with the Mitch McConnell quote: ” she was warned…nevertheless she persisted”
A fellow shopper came up and complimented me on my t-shirt.
I should send bucks to her campaign, since I didn’t get the shirt from her since she wasn’t running yet.
I wear it to Curves. Those gals love it but have no idea of the political context. They just love shes persisting, even though it never happens in their lives.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Iowa Poll — Des Moines/Ann Selzer & Co. (Gold Standard) — June 5 (link)
Handsome Joe…. 24%
Wilmer………………. 16%
Warren……………… 15%
Pete……………………14%
Kamala………………. 7%
Klobuchar………….. 2%
Beto…………………… 2%
Warren up 6 points and Pete rose a whopping 13 points since the last Des Moines Register poll in early March. Meanwhile, Willmer plummeted – dropping 9 points during the same poll. He’s now in danger of falling into 4th place and below the key 15% viability threshold needed to earn delegates.
Baud
Good news on the cake.
Baud
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Glad to see him moving in the right direction.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Sab: I wear that shirt to the gym too. I have no idea if anyone else gets the joke.
rikyrah
Glad that the cake situation resolved itself?
donnah
I’ve just put a made-from-scratch chocolate cake into the oven to bake. My eldest son turns 32 tomorrow, so we’re celebrating with family at a local pizza place. They allow bring-in desserts.
I’d really liked to have used one of my specialty cake pans from Nordic Ware. I have one shaped like a ring of pine trees, a cottage, two smaller cottages, and one that has autumn leaves. But they’re meant to have drizzled frosting and I think this group would prefer a nice thick buttercream.
debbie
Betty, you’d have pulled it off with ease, but I’m glad the baker kept her word and came through.
@Sab:
Those checkerboard cakes are very cool. You’ll pull it off!
laura
@germy: Fairstein has not bothered to offer an apology. She, her sex crime porn and the real estate developer who was the wind beneath her wings can fuck of and die in a fire, alone or in prison as befits them both.
vtr
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
debbie
@laura:
It’s been too long to remember the specifics, but she was a great prosecutor on some other cases. This, however, wipes everything out.
vtr
Meant to mention it’s my 75th birthday. Born three days and three hours after the invasion began.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@vtr: Congrats!
Barbara
@laura: She not only has not apologized she continues to maintain that they were culpable. I think that, more than anything, is why she has become so radioactive.
Sab
@vtr: Happy Birthday!
Kathleen
@vtr: Happy Birthday!
Aleta
Last night SectionH linked this new Maru video. (Thanks, you made my night.)
After that I watched these two on Maru and Hana’s instagram.
Sab
@Betty Cracker: Somebody mentionned a tiered donut cake (if I spell it doughnut do I have to pronounce it “duff”.) I mght use that as a backup for husbands birthday. Try to bake it the night before. Rush to grocery store at dawn if cake crashes.
germy
@laura:
Well said.
MattF
@Sab: My nephew had a cupcake wedding cake. Premium cupcakes, so no one was offended.
geg6
@MattF:
Lots of people do that now. To me, it’s preferable to a cake. I’m very picky about cake and I have never had wedding cake that I liked.
If I had ever or would ever get married, I’d skip cake altogether. I’d just have the traditional Pittsburgh cookie table and be done with it. I much prefer cookies and people talk about how good your cookie table is and it’s the highlight of every wedding around here. Nobody ever talks about the cake. It’s all about the cookies.
debbie
@MattF:
Many of the graduation parties I’ve attended have had cupcake cakes. I think that’s a great idea.
debbie
@geg6:
Also a good idea!
I think I’m hungry again.
opiejeanne
@Sab: I may get crucified here for even suggesting this, but if you struggle to bake a cake, I’d suggest you use boxed cake mixes for this project. They’re nearly fool-proof (I said “nearly”) and they can be very good. Duncan HInes, Betty Crocker, Pillsbury. I was baking cakes with them when I was 9 when it was my turn to bring something to a Brownies/Girl Scout meeting. .
OTOH, I am rarely impressed with my own from-scratch cakes. No idea what I’m doing wrong, or if maybe the recipes I chose in the past were just not that great. I do have a handful of recipes that always perform well, but they’re not what I consider a standard cake recipe. I’ve made angelfood cake from scratch but the difference between it and a mix were undetectable. I can’t remember why I did.
I remember my sister calling me in a panic while she was trying to make an angelfood cake for her husband’s birthday while her two little girls were fighting and screaming in the background. Her recipe didn’t mention the “tricks” to make the egg whites behave and I told her, then I asked why on earth she was making it from scratch. “I want it to be special”.
Yeah, working yourself into a lather because you don’t know how to beat egg whites while your kids drive you nuts is really special. Mr Special got his ass arrested not long after for soliciting a prostitute who turned out to be a cop, and while the marriage had been on the rocks from the beginning, this tipped it over the edge.
Ahem. tl;dr: Don’t make yourself nuts.
TaMara (HFG)
@Aleta: Loved that. Maru has such a face.
TaMara (HFG)
@opiejeanne: I’m with you! There are many ways to spruce up a boxed cake, but the best part is, the original mixture of flour and leavening rarely fails.
geg6
@debbie:
It’s truly a thing, totally unique to Pittsburgh (and Youngstown). Enough that it got a write up in the FTFNYT.
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/dining/16cookies.html
MagdaInBlack
I saw A lightning bug last night. Just one lonesome little twinkle in the night.
I also watched a fun little movie > “CBGB” with Alan Rickman. I’m not a movie critic and I did not check for authenticity….I just enjoyed it because it was exactly what I needed after the week that was.
Very handsome osprey, Betty, thank you ?
Happy to hear the cake lady came through.
schrodingers_cat
Has anyone read David Reich’s book, Who we are and how we got here, and what did you think of it?
Barbara
@geg6: Except, as my mother told me, it’s a “tradition” that seemed to spring up out of nowhere in the 80s. Must have gone to more than a dozen weddings in Pittsburgh before encountering a cookie table. And my aunt was a professsional baker! Not that I am complaining because I love cookies too.
Another Scott
@Barbara: Howdy neighbor.
We only have 2 choices for the primary on Tuesday – Fairfax County Board Chair and Commonwealth’s Attorney. One of the guys running for Chair donated $15,000 to Ken Cuccinelli. Um, sorry, nobody who can do that will ever get my vote.
Alicia Plerhoples and Steve Descano will get my votes on Tuesday.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
So funny. I did the same thing for my daughter’s wedding. I was in charge of the cake and the cake lady was in Pittsburgh. I felt she wasn’t reassuring me that she would be there. She arrived in plenty of time with the cake and serenely spent 20 minutes plating it attractively. She was practically humming as she worked- just as calm as could be.
Maybe they ignore us so they can get the cake done :)
JoyceH
Yesterday I went to the pool and the grocery store and got three compliments from strangers on my hair. Pink and teal streaks are a real crowd pleaser.
Raining now and I’m having the rainy Sunday of the series writer – promote book 1 while editing book 2 and writing book 3.
Spanky
@Barbara: Exactly! I read the FTNYT article all the while thinking “I’ve NEVER seen a cookie table at a wedding”. Born and raised in Pittsburgh with 29 cousins and innumerable friends, and I went to almost all of their weddings and I remember no cookie tables. Last wedding was in 1982 though.
geg6
@Barbara:
Hmmm, I’ve lived here all my life (I’m 60) and never been to a wedding without a cookie table. We’re talking back to the 60s. My mom and dad got married in the late 40s and we have pictures of their cookie table. Professional bakers were almost never involved. The family and close friends made and still make the cookies, starting months ahead of time and you can’t find freezer space for blocks because the whole neighborhood helps store them.
ETA:Maybe it’s an ethnic thing, though with my ethnicities, seems unlikely.
MagdaInBlack
@JoyceH:
Isn’t it grand? My hair magician recently did a glaze that left my grey a smokey lavender. I have lost track of the compliments ?
A friend tells me one can go three days on a good compliment, so I’m well stocked ?
debbie
@geg6:
From your link:
I can’t think of her name, but I watched an Italian/Sicilian cooking show (she’s from Providence, RI) where there was a cookie table at a wedding. She implied it was an old Sicilian tradition.
Barbara
@geg6: Seriously, my mother told me that no one in her family ever included cookies as part of their wedding, and she never went to a wedding with cookies until the 80s. I have 30 first cousins, and I assume that even if we didn’t do cookies someone whose family one of them married into might have, but nope. All I can conclude is that it must not be a German thing.
rikyrah
@vtr:
Happy Birthday ???????
J R in WV
@MagdaInBlack:
We have the standard forest level of fireflys right now — not like a whole meadow lighting up with the field types of fireflys, but nice twinkling in the woods.
We have a huge beech tree right by the house, have decided it’s time to take it out before it falls on us. Sad. 4 feet thick, big big tree, will cost a lot, but needs to be done. Will have a wake for the big guy. There’s lots of beech trees on the place, so not a final event, but still sad. I love my trees!
geg6
@Barbara:
Interestingly enough, my dad’s parents were immigrants from England and my mom was Irish and German. Not a drop of Eastern Europe or the Mediterranean region in my blood. But every wedding (and everyone I ever knew from here who got married) had a cookie table.