Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

The revolution will be supervised.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

In my day, never was longer.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

This fight is for everything.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Second rate reporter says what?

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Come on, man.

I was promised a recession.

The willow is too close to the house.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

You are here: Home / Food & Recipes / Food / Butter Lamb / Silence of the Butter Lambs

Silence of the Butter Lambs

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Lamb carved out of butter

The mister and I aren’t doing Easter this year since it’s just the two of us quarantined in the swamp compound. It’s not an important holiday to us since we aren’t Christians except in the cultural sense. The family gatherings were the point of the holiday to us, and that’s off for obvious reasons this year.

Neither of us is enthusiastic enough about the foods from our respective family of origins’ traditional Easter feasts to recreate them on a two-person scale. (“Eternity is two people and a ham,” according to Dorothy Parker. Smart lady!) So, we’ll have spaghetti and meatballs instead.

That said, not even a plague can interrupt the Easter butter lamb tradition!* My adorable mother-in-law lives fairly close by, but I haven’t seen her in weeks because I love her and do not want to inadvertently expose her to the virus. She’s having Easter dinner tomorrow with a few friends in her neighborhood who’ve also been carefully locked down.

I don’t approve of that, but it’s not my call. However, I figure since she’s going to have Easter dinner regardless, she should have a butter lamb. So, my mission today is to deliver the above-pictured safely handled butter lamb in a sanitized container.

Open thread!

*If you’re asking yourself WTF is a butter lamb, please see last year’s post on the topic for a link to the backstory, plus a step-by-step tutorial on how to make your own. It’s fun!

Reader Interactions

162Comments

  2. 2.

    Immanentize

    that lamb has an enormous head!  Smart lambs are the next new thing.  We are having lamb kababs tomorrow.  Yum.

    My son pointed out that eating the lamb(s) of God on Easter is sorta creepy.

  4. 4.

    germy

    https://www.shorpy.com/node/25524

    I saw this 1941 photo, and one of the reader comments had this to say:

    “The craftsmanship of the windows, the perfectly spaced balusters, the well made and attractive handrail, the tongue and grove wood for the porch floor and the column built with individual curved pieces of wood to form the perfect taper. And then at the bottom edge of the photo we see the perfectly spaced trim to cover the crawl space under the porch. “Craftsmen” of today have difficult time in drilling well spaced holes to make a crude baluster row and would never even think that the handrail needs to be smooth and have some architectural beauty to it.”

    As some here know, I’ve had problems with contractors.  My latest experience was with a handyman who remodeled our kitchen, and even my easygoing wife agrees with me that the work is substandard.

    So was there really a “golden age” of contractors, or is that just survivor’s bias?

  8. 8.

    evodevo

    @germy: Yeah, I always liked that  analogy…one of many reasons rational people in the 1st and 2nd century AD world thought Xtians were off their rockers – though, to be fair, the crucifix wasn’t actually a symbol of Xtianity until way later, like after 4th century.  Xtians tend not to be very aware of their own history lol

  9. 9.

    evodevo

    @germy: Yes….carpenters in the “old days” could actually carpent lol – building skills nowadays consist mainly of putting together preformed studwalls and trusses …

  10. 10.

    Pete Mack

    Mexican-style pork shoulder pot roast, for me.

    Ingredients include: Tomatillo, poblano, pasilla, lime juice, coriander seed, cinnamon…

    And 7 hours in the crock pot.

  11. 11.

    germy

    @evodevo:  There’s the Bill Hicks comedy routine where he has Jesus refusing to come back because he’s creeped out by all the crosses.  “Dad, they don’t get it!”   Hicks then compares it to going up to Jackie Kennedy after  JFK and saying “We love you, we’re with you!” while mimicking holding and aiming a rifle.

  12. 12.

    Miss Bianca

    Betty, can you believe I woke up the other morning thinking, “I wonder if Betty Cracker is doing a butter lamb this year,” and feeling rather disturbed at the prospect that you might not be, so YAY, butter lamb!

    Also, I can’t believe that the first thing I thought when I looked at this year’s model was, “hey, I’ve got a plate like that!” : )

     

    ETA: Here at the Mountain Hacienda, no gathering of friends or neighbors this year…so pal D and I (and the dogs) will be polishing off a nice cut of Easter salmon, maybe some peas, maybe some potatoes…and a nice dry, white-wine-like mead from the local winery (ok, the dogs aren’t getting any of *that*!)

  15. 15.

    Immanentize

    @germy: survivor’s bias meaning only the well crafted things survive?  My house is a 1910 Dutch colonial center entrance job.  It is beautiful inside and out, although more change/cheapening has happened outside.  Still, a well built home is truly a blessing.  I doubt I will ever live in new construction.  In fact, when I sell this place I intend to tell prospective buyers that if they want a house in like-new condition, sod off.  I don’t need the useless hassle of explaining the advantages of olde homes to young people.

  16. 16.

    raven

    My wife wanted to do a zoom with her sis and kids who are spread out all over. They sort of blew her off and she’s so sad. I bought her some tulips and I’ll whip up something special for easter dinner for her.

  20. 20.

    geg6

    We’re having either filet mignon or scallops.  Can’t decide which yet. Scored both on sale yesterday when I ventured across the river to the only grocery store locally that sells wine in-store.  With the state stores closed and the PA LCB website having crashed a couple weeks ago and never seeming to have come back up, it was a needed trip.  Can’t have a holiday dinner without wine regardless of the circumstances!

  21. 21.

    germy

    @Immanentize:

    survivor’s bias meaning only the well crafted things survive?

    Yes.  I have to assume there was plenty of bad workmanship 100 years ago.  Perhaps the great grandfathers of the people I’ve hired over the years.

    Our house was built in 1865.  I’d give anything to see photos of what it looked like in 1900, 1920, 1940.

    Generations of homeowners modernized it.  The guy we bought it from was a proud “do it yourselfer” who painted the brick exterior and all interior wood trim white.

    House down the street from us (it’s roughly the same age) went up for sale last year.  I looked online, and they had a photo of it from 1890.  Two women standing in the side yard looking like Lizzie Borden.  Many architectural details, like railings and millwork over the windows were beautifully intact in the photo.  Now long gone.

    The side stair railings are now minimalist industrial metal things.  The gorgeous side porch is now covered and looks like a small bunker.

    I really envy them, that they had photographic history of their old house.

  22. 22.

    ziggy

    Eternity is two people and a ham

    I’m sending that to my sister! I hear you on the not being motivated for an elaborate Easter Dinner. She wanted everyone to cook an elaborate 8-course meal (we’re foodies), and then compare them at a virtual dinner. I’m like, umm, nah….Maybe I’ll make a pie.

  24. 24.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    The lamb has reminded me of another thing I’m not going to have again until the After Times: goat, which like lambs are cute and adorable and, alas, delicious.

    We don’t have anything elaborate planned for an Easter Dinner, except that I am thawing one of the frozen duck legs I’ve been hoarding. Come to think of it, ducks are another beast that’s cute and yummy. Am I a baddie?

  25. 25.

    JPL

    @Immanentize: I was raised in central MA and houses built in the 1800’s were sought after.   Even then new construction was frowned upon.

    The underground railroad went through there.

  27. 27.

    bjacques

    Yum! The big wholesale food market here in Amsterdam had a few of those last week, next to the meat section. They looked kinda lonely since the whole store has scaled back its stocks to reflect reduced restaurant demand. Normally there would have been a lot; I reckon it’s a thing here.

  29. 29.

    Olivia

    Thank you so much for posting that. With all the crap going on, I forgot about your butter lamb. I think that is the best one yet.

  31. 31.

    kindness

    I hadn’t thought of it but maybe I’ll cook some lamb.  It’s easy to do and I didn’t want to cook a ham.

  32. 32.

    JPL

    Roswell, GA has several pre-civil war homes, because the north used it as a base in preparation for the march into Atlanta.    Mimosa Hall was the cities latest acquisition.   It  has been completely modernized inside but the grounds  are beautiful.

  33. 33.

    Gvg

    @germy: in every age there were some best some worst. Over time, one of the factors that made some architectural feature worth not ripping out, was if it was done well. Crap tended to be replaced. It’s a kind of survival of the fittest. What remains is not typical.

    that said, if there are a lot more carpenters in a certain time and place, they teach each other and you can actually seek out skilled carpenters. If there is not much handcraftsmanship done, you’ll have a hard time finding anyone, let alone someone good.

    That said, mass produced is not a dirty word, and can produce better quality than handmade, if the sellers care and choose the right design and the economics work, etc.

  35. 35.

    A Ghost to Most

    @Immanentize:  It depends on where the house is. My brother lives in a beautiful house, built by my great-grandfather entirely of American Chestnut, creekside. He can’t get 90k for it, where it is.

  36. 36.

    Professor Bigfoot

    I have a question.

    Last fall I bought myself a nifty little convertible— VERY used (it’s a ‘97).  I’ve been wrenching on it a bit here and there over the winter, bringing it up to proper driveability and waiting for the weather to break.

    So… AITA if I just go out and drive, while studiously avoiding other people?

    With the top down?

    Or should I absolutely “plant my ass on the couch?”

  37. 37.

    dr. bloor

    @Professor Bigfoot: You should probably just plant your ass.

    OTOH, if you go out and drive really fast with the top down and your mouth wide open, you might hoover up all the Coronas and save humanity.

    Your call.

  38. 38.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Immanentize:

    My son pointed out that eating the lamb(s) of God on Easter is sorta creepy. 

    Would a compound butter lamb be better?

    Mmmmmm…… compound butter.

  40. 40.

    Amir Khalid

    @Professor Bigfoot:

    I concur with dr. bloor. Yes, you spent all that time fixing her up, and all those months looking forward to your first drive. But right now, tooling around in a convertible with the top down doesn’t sound like the best idea.

  41. 41.

    trollhattan

    @dr. bloor:

    I wonder how Toyota is feeling about having retained Corolla and dropping the Corona line? (Both are flower parts, you could look it up. But WTF is a “Camry”?)

  45. 45.

    debbie

    @germy:

    You ought to see if your town’s/city’s/state’s historical association has archives or can direct you to same.

  47. 47.

    Elizabelle

    Always a good day to look at a butter lamb.

    And I do love trollhattan’s suggestion that the lamb get a mask.  Would not be hard to make one, and stick it on the lamb or in the box.

    Maybe this will be the only Easter/Passover season we have to go about masked.

  50. 50.

    Amir Khalid

    @trollhattan:

    I’ve been meaning to raise this question: Will Fender Musical Instruments Corp move its US production out of Corona, CA? Or at least quit engraving the town’s name on guitar neckplates?

  51. 51.

    mrmoshpotato

    I should start defrosting my other chuck roast for a slow cooker pot roast tomorrow.

  55. 55.

    Jo Jo las Orejas

    @Immanentize: Quiero morder esa cabeza de ese cordero de mantequilla. Luego lo tiraba como un juguete chirriante. Mi cola se moverá y bailaré. Feliz Pascua de San Luis de parte de mi mamá y yo.

  56. 56.

    Brachiator

    @trollhattan: 

    I wonder how Toyota is feeling about having retained Corolla and dropping the Corona line? (Both are flower parts, you could look it up.

    I used to own a Corona. Not very elegant, but a reliable workhorse of a vehicle.

    ETA: More coronas. The Sun’s corona is the outermost part of the Sun’s atmosphere.

  58. 58.

    Tazj

    Much better looking than the butter lambs available at the stores, cuter with more realistic wool.

  59. 59.

    laura

    I masked and gloved up to dart into the store feeling all Chernobyl-y and scored a ham yesterday. I’m sad about not being able to do the whole holiday throw down with a crowd. Me and spouse sharing a ham -call it hell if you must, but cheesy scalloped potatoes and the Nigella Lawson coca cola ham will get ate.

  60. 60.

    opiejeanne

    @Immanentize:
    In 1992, when we had to sell our 1912 Arts and Crafts bungalow in Riverside, CA, there was a retired minister and his wife who kept looking at it and another house a block away, but couldn’t bring themselves to make an offer on either. They had never owned a house before, a flaw of some denominations back then including mine that they had always lived in the parsonages and most weren’t paid enough to buy a house, especially after the price of houses in SoCal soared in the mid-70s.
    They were on their second realtor when my house went on the market, and we’d get comments back through our respective realtors, complaints about a dab of paint on the screen-wire, from sometime in the long ago past when the wooden frames were painted, or the dusty cobwebs under the eaves on the east side of my house, on the second floor. It was summertime, the spiders were busily replacing the webs within a day of my power-washing them away, so my realtor always gave me a heads-up that they were coming so I could run out and wash the under-eaves yet again. I think they looked at my place more than 10 times. The other house, which was an absolute gem of the same period and in beautiful condition also had some paint on the screen-wire. It also lacked a garage and was on a very small lot, but the sellers had built a sort of car-port that could double as a covered patio. It was about half the size of our house, which was a big old lovely monster of a place, and in good condition after correcting some of the sins against the original as we could manage. Both houses had attractive newish kitchens that honored the style of the houses.

    I don’t know if that couple ever bought a house. Their realtor called me and apologized; he had fired them after telling them to just buy a new house because that was essentially what they were demanding.
    I still miss that house and neighborhood.

  61. 61.

    L85NJGT

    @germy:

    Joinery is the high end craft wood working – that has always relied on benefactors willing to pay for quality vs. saving a few bucks with factory produced wood work.

    Most old timey houses were built with mass produced wood product, it’s just somebody took care of survivors, rather than paint over it, or rip and replace with formica.

  62. 62.

    Calouste

    @germy: Yep, the symbol of Christianity is an instrument that was used to torture people to death. Other religions have symbols that are a bit more positive in general.

  63. 63.

    L85NJGT

    @trollhattan:

     

    I thought they already made their mid tier price product in Mexico, and the low end stuff in China?

    In any event, paying for quality in a solid body product is… ahhh…. the difference between you and Eric Clapton is definitely not in the hardware.

  64. 64.

    Cowboy Diva

    @germy: I think Sturgeon’s Law applies.

    And time. I’d like to think that what remains over time is the worthy 10%

  67. 67.

    germy

    @Cowboy Diva:  I agree that 90% of everything is crap.

    Unfortunately, sometimes the worthy gets torn down or destroyed.  “That’s old-fashioned!” somebody yells.  And away it goes.

    I personally like dark, natural wood trim interiors and brick outside.  It bugs me that the previous owner painted over my brick house.  (Of course, the paint is worn in spots and the natural brick is peeking through.)  And he covered all our interior wood trim with white paint.  He missed one side of one door, and the wood grain there is gorgeous.

    One of my old hobbies was reading old magazines from the 1930s (bound copies in our library).  I noticed a trend in the advertisements from that decade:  homeowners wanting to “brighten things up” by painting over the old wood.  Maybe they had bad memories of grandma’s dark old house, I don’t know.

    It seems each new generation wants to hate what the previous generation designed.  I know this is an overstatement.

  69. 69.

    geg6

    @Immanentize:

    I knew someone would say that!  But I’m going to use them separately.  I have a garlic cream sauce I make to put over seared scallops and pasta and I’d like to get 2 dinners from these expensive ingredients.  After checking the weather, it should be nice enough to grill the steaks, so I’ll go for that, I think.  I can pick up mushrooms at the local produce market and make those, the steaks, roasted potatoes and the asparagus I got yesterday all on the grill!

  70. 70.

    opiejeanne

    @Cowboy Diva: I know that law, and sometimes change the “crap” to “carp” because I am a silly person.

    I’m going to roast a chicken tomorrow, make potato salad, and a couple of little apple tarts.  Thought we could have a Social Distancing picnic with the kids and their SOs, 4 tables in a square with a reasonable distance between them and have everyone bring their own cutlery, plates, and dinner, but older daughter and her fiancé are sick so we will wait a week or two to try this out. We have a large yard, so this will work. Younger daughter is an essential worker, keeping southwestern Alaska from starving, so she has contact with idiot truck drivers daily; her husband is working from home. Niece is working from home in Tacoma, but her husband is dealing in person with various company sites, and they just found out two of the warehouse workers tested positive so they will have to do another deep cleaning at that site.

    It is supposed to be sunny tomorrow, and in the low 60s, which is very nice as long as you’re in the sun, there’s no wind,  and you’ve acclimated to western Washington. We may set up a table and eat outside by ourselves.

  71. 71.

    J R in WV

    OK…

    Regarding

    @Jo Jo las Orejas:

    @Immanentize: Quiero morder esa cabeza de ese cordero de mantequilla. Luego lo tiraba como un juguete chirriante. Mi cola se moverá y bailaré. Feliz Pascua de San Luis de parte de mi mamá y yo.

    Perhaps we need a new button to invoke Google Translate, pass Spanish text into Google Translate, pass English back to display to monolingual to read. What about that, Watergirl?

  72. 72.

    catclub

    @Immanentize: My son pointed out that eating the lamb(s) of God on Easter is sorta creepy.

     

    In contrast to eating God every sunday at communion. definitely not creepy. Also, don’t think about vampires. and drinking blood.

  78. 78.

    catclub

    @laura: Me and spouse sharing a ham -call it hell if you must,

     

    OTOH – according to others,  hell is other people.

    potayto, potahto

     

    I think it was eternity.

  79. 79.

    NotMax

    @trollhattan

    Trivia: At one time, Studebaker covered as many bases as they could by simultaneously producing models named Dictator and President.

  83. 83.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I just saw the second ambulance of the day pull onto my building’s property. They’re around reasonably often even in normal times, but I still find it alarming.

  84. 84.

    NotMax

    @catclub

    Corny old joke mental file illuminated.

    Three vampires walk into a bar. The first one says, “I’ll have a pint of blood.”
    The second one says, “Same for me.”
    The third one says, “I’ll have a pint of plasma.”
    The bartender says, “So, that’ll be two Bloods and a Blood Lite?”
    .

  85. 85.

    Betty

    @germy: It seems the more tools  some of these guys have, the more careless they are. My cousin is an exception as he was trained by his Dad, who was notably fotrd by a big company for taking to much time on the cabinetry. Sadly he lives nowhere near us.

  86. 86.

    Mohagan

    @Calouste: I remember seeing a Steven Wright bit where he asked: “if Jesus had been electrocuted, would Christians wear little electric chairs around their necks?”.  First time I had ever thought how weird wearing crosses were.

  90. 90.

    Mohagan

    @germy: I sold my mother’s house (built-in 1951) in 2015 after she died, and the real estate guy wanted to paint the regular brick fireplace white.  I initially resisted, since I knew it was a one-way transition, but he was the professional, so I gave in to that and his other suggestions I never would have thought of, and the house sold for over listing price.  Apparently white fireplaces are the thing now?!?

  92. 92.

    germy

    @Betty:

     It seems the more tools  some of these guys have, the more careless they are.

    The last guy (the one who used our kitchen stove as a saw horse and filled it with sawdust) destroyed one antique bathroom light fixture.  Took the other one so he could fine a replacement.  Now he’s ghosted us.  He also broke a shower faucet.  I told my wife “for every thing he fixed, he’d break two more things.”

  93. 93.

    germy

    @Mohagan:  It’s be funny if the new owners are telling themselves “We love this house, but I wish the fireplace was natural brick!”

  94. 94.

    Ruckus

    @raven:

    A couple of good places who are building or restoring wooden boats.

    Acorns to Arabella

    Two guys building a wooden boat with YTube videos on the process.

    Something different to watch than TV shows.

    Ocean Institute

    An amazing place in Dana Point, CA

    They have a couple of tall ships and a show every year where several tall ships go out with people on board, it’s not the same as the current US navy, that’s for sure. Although I’ve been on board the USS Constitution and that would not have been fun to have served on when it was newish. One of the two ships they own has broached in it’s slip just 2 or 3 weeks ago and the are going to have to haul it out and find out why and fix it if they can. I got a couple of emails and then nothing.

  97. 97.

    Ruckus

    @Mohagan:

    It’s to give them something to feel superior to – people without crosses, because they aren’t celebrating the death, and therefore of course the resurrection of jesus. IOW, superior to non believers.

  98. 98.

    A Ghost to Most

    @Mohagan: Superior to all us non-xians, in their minds. There’s a fair few here who consider themselves above us heathens.

    Eta that’s ok. Some people stop living long before they die.

  99. 99.

    Mohagan

    @germy: Unfortunately, the best bid we got was from a guy who bought it to use as a rental, so I doubt he cares.  One of the other suggestions the realtor made was to remove the (added but sort-of built-in) bookshelf unit in the living room.  I had thought it was a selling point (who doesn’t need more bookshelves?), but he said removing it would make the room bigger.  That was when I realized I wouldn’t be selling to anyone like me (bookish, over 65) so my preferences were irrelevant.  I took all of his advice and of course it turned out he knew what he was talking about.  I sent the listing photos to family after the house was staged and no one could believe it was the same house.

  100. 100.

    germy

    @Mohagan:  I must really be out of step.  I love built-in bookshelves and natural brick fireplaces.

    One reason I love watching old movies, even if the movie stinks I can still enjoy the old interiors.  Sometimes I lose track of bad dialog because I’m focused on the living room the characters are chatting in.

  103. 103.

    Mohagan

    @Ruckus: Sad that the point for some people is to feel superior to others.  My mother and grandmother were Southern Baptists from Virginia, and I heard all about “being washed in the blood of the lamb”, but after I hit the age of reason (13 y.o.) I basically became an atheist because the whole story was so unbelievable.  But, my husband and I are having a leg of lamb with asparagus for Easter, and I’ve ordered Easter eggs from See’s, so I guess we’re still culturally Christians (and love lamb),

  105. 105.

    Jeffery

    @germy:

    Craftsmanship is pretty much dead unless you get someone who did an apprenticeship and takes pride in their work. That doesn’t come cheap.

  106. 106.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @trollhattan: that was my thought as well— how prevalent could the virus be out on two-lane roads out in the boonies?

    The question remains on hold, though, because I’m still working on getting the convertible top mechanism to operate correctly (It works just fine manually if I disconnect all the power bits, but… ;) )

  107. 107.

    steppy

    I have done Easter for the family since Mom died some 15 years ago. But not this year. Instead of ham and kielbasa, I am smoking a brisket as I type. I do have a butter lamb, though (pre-molded — apologies to Betty).

  110. 110.

    Mohagan

    @germy: I know what you mean.  Old movies are such a resource (like pictures in old magazines) of what houses used to be like. A little different, but the same: I was constantly pausing the TV during the first season of Downton Abbey (circa 1912) to closely inspect the clothes Lady Mary wore.  The lace in the blouses! I’m particularly taken with old craftsman houses since I grew up in a N CA subdivision of ranch houses.

  111. 111.

    FlyingToaster (Tablet)

    I don’t approve of that, but it’s not my call.

    We kinda do the same thing; after 15 days in, we went over to [redacted], because she’s a lawyer and he’s a biologist and we’ve worked together in various combinations for 30 years.  We have sufficient mutual trust in our respective ability to quarantine.  We’re also spacing these gettogethers to every 14-21 days, in case something goes wrong.  Neither of our families are seeing anyone else outside of masking up for supplies, or going into the deserted office to deal with office stuff once a week.

    For similar reasoning, we decided against getting together with my SIL & fam, because they’ve got two serious autoimmune conditions going.

  112. 112.

    tfitz

    @germy: During FDR’s first and/or second term one New Deal project was funding photographers to take pictures of every property for county assessors’ records. So your county, or maybe state historical archives or something may have a photo from at least the 1930s.

    PS: long-time lurker, first-ever comment

  114. 114.

    Mohagan

    @Martin: I know! Unfortunately, I was selling an old house and needed to get as much money from the sale as possible so I listened to the pros.  The house did look much more “modern” when they were done, which was apparently a good thing to the buying public. I ran into the same thing during the estate sale.  I ended up keeping all of my mother’s silver since the sale lady said no one cared about stuff like that anymore.  She was right – hardly any of the crystal glasses I didn’t want sold.

  115. 115.

    opiejeanne

    @Ruckus: Just, no.

    The cross with Jesus on it is worn by Catholics to honor his suffering for our sins.

    The empty cross is worn by Protestants to honor Christ’s triumph over Death and the grave.

    They are declarations of faith, just as some Jews wear the Star of  David and some Muslims wear the word for Allah on a little disc.

    And some people live up to their faith better than others.

  117. 117.

    germy

    @Mohagan:  At the same time I admire the old movie sets, I also have to remind myself against romanticizing the past.

    This photo:

    https://www.shorpy.com/node/25529

    A house interior, 1940.  I wonder if the wallpaper hanging was a do-it-yourself project.  It’s less than perfect (left side of photo) and not something I’d usually see in a movie.

  119. 119.

    germy

    @tfitz:  Wow!  When things are back to normal, I’d like to investigate.  There’s a historical society in my town, but they insist on personal visits (or used to, anyway).  Maybe they can point me in the right direction.

    100 years from now, will people have access to old “google street view” archives to satisfy their curiosity?

  120. 120.

    opiejeanne

    @A Ghost to Most: Oh, shush that silliness. I they feel superior it ain’t because they’re believers in any particular faith, unless they’re Fundies.

    Are you a fan of a sports team? Do you wear a cap or t-shirt to declare your fandom?

  121. 121.

    opiejeanne

    @Mohagan: Did you ever see the mid-century Eichlers in the SF Bay Area? There’s a whole nest of them in Castro Valley, next to Hayward. Very interesting houses, but if you buy one you need to install a heating system of some sort because the original ones were heated with water pipes under the floor, and they tend to leak if used.

  122. 122.

    germy

    @AliceBlue:  I entered the city I live in  into their search field, and saw some streets my wife and I walk on, how they looked 100 years ago.  Lots of giant elm trees that are now long gone.

  124. 124.

    opiejeanne

    @germy: I wonder what that long thing is that is sticking up behind the right side of the pump organ.

    The house has a painted floor and a slatted ceiling ( I can’t think what that’s called) like a porch ceiling. The baseboard quarter-round molding (moulding?)  is missing to the right of the organ, and the walls feature wood headboard wainscoting.

    There’s a tiny little picture hanging high up on the wall, next to the door.

  126. 126.

    germy

    @opiejeanne:
    Here’s what the commenters say:

    Looks like a dried palm frond between the organ and the back wall.

    …often will display a palm frond received at mass on Palm Sunday. They are collected and burned the following year for Ash Wednesday to mark the faithful.

  127. 127.

    Origuy

    I’m on a Facebook group that discusses the history of my hometown, Bloomington, Indiana. A lot of the posts are of old photos of houses, schools, etc. One recent one had a one-room school with the students and teacher standing in front by the water pump handle.

    Not the same as Google Street View, but you can view old USGS maps at https://livingatlas.arcgis.com/topoexplorer/index.html. I was looking at a 1942 topo of where I live now. Most of the streets were missing because it was all orchard back then.

  128. 128.

    Ruckus

    @opiejeanne: 
    I was being a bit snarky. But just a bit.
    Yes you are right about what the cross is supposed to signify.
    In my travels I’ve run across a few for whom my snarky comment was the reason, a couple of them catholic priests, at least that’s the way they treated the concept. So if I offended you I apologize, but my experience with religions is not a positive one. Some are for sure better than others but in this day and age many are not even close to being on the better side. It seems there are a not insignificant percentage of humans who can screw up anything they are involved in.

  129. 129.

    opiejeanne

    @germy: Thank you.

    My best friend, RC, brought small fronds home on one Easter Sunday after church. She said they wove them with the kids into something, a basket? That was in the late 80s.

    That is a wonderful site. Thank you so much for posting it.

  130. 130.

    Mohagan

    @opiejeanne: Oh, yeah.  I grew up in Palo Alto, and there were a lot of Eichlers in my neighborhood. A couple of my best friends lived in them.  The main problem I remember was the flat roofs leaked.  Plus they weren’t very well insulated.  I remain suspicious of architectural style for its own sake, when not concerned in livability. I remember my disgust at learning that Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Waters house leaks like crazy.  I am much more inclined to “A Pattern Language” for house design and the belief that a house is a machine for living in and must be practical.   That said, I love Craftsman and Arts and Crafts houses with window seats and built-in bookcases. Probably a reaction to growing up in a ranch style house. And those houses were a reaction to Victorians.  So it goes.

  131. 131.

    opiejeanne

    @Ruckus: I thought you were. I just get a bit tired of the superior attitude exhibited by some of the atheists, not necessarily here and certainly not you.

    I’m a Methodist, we don’t go in for feeling superior, nor are we to proselytize. It’s not among the tenets, which are something of a pain in the behind. We’re still not supposed to drink, alas, and that’s the tenet I have broken without much of a twinge of conscience.

  133. 133.

    opiejeanne

    @Mohagan: We have owned two Arts and Crafts bungalows in our 50 years together. One was cheaply built in the 1920s, but it was still a pretty good house. The other was a wonderful house.

    I thought the Eichlers were intended to be a stylish home that the average family could afford.

  134. 134.

    Another Scott

    ObOpenThread.

    Me: Bill Maher trending
    Brain: he said something douchey for attention again
    Me: Maybe an industrial accident
    Brain: douchey
    Me: blender mishap
    Brain: douchey
    Me: snapped his spine trying to Bannon
    Brain: why do I bother
    Me: [checks] shit
    Brain: well who would have predicted that

    — HappyGoodFridayHat (@Popehat) April 11, 2020

    Yeah, nobody could have predicted… :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  136. 136.

    WaterGirl

    @J R in WV:

    Perhaps we need a new button to invoke Google Translate, pass Spanish text into Google Translate, pass English back to display to monolingual to read. What about that, WaterGirl?

    Ha!  I’m thinking it might be easier to teach Jo Jo English?

  141. 141.

    JeanneT

    Re craftsmanship and domestic architecture…

    When we bought our little bungalow (built in 1916) it was covered in wide aluminum siding.  For years I dreamed of getting the siding stripped off….  Finally, we had the money in hand to get the aluminum removed and the old siding repaired, including restoring the original windows and making new window trim (to replace the trim removed in order to put on the aluminum).  I was getting quotes from contractors for the work and the repainting.  It was very easy to turn down a lot of the businesses I contacted – if their estimator started telling me how just replacing the windows and repainting the aluminum would be the best plan, I scratched them off my list.  The company I hired was the highest quote, but they LOVED restoring old houses, and I’ve never regretted having them do the work.

    Their website still features a photo of my front porch after the job was completed.  Just lovely!

  142. 142.

    different-church-lady

    I see from Twitter that the hardcore BernieBugs have decided “Biden’s just as much a rapist as Trump” is the the right tool for the moment.

  143. 143.

    Bill Arnold

    @different-church-lady:

    I see from Twitter that the hardcore BernieBugs have decided “Biden’s just as much a rapist as Trump” is the the right tool for the moment.

    Inform them that you suspect projection on their part?

  144. 144.

    Ruckus

    @opiejeanne:

    To me a religion is supposed to be a guideline to being a better person. Many of them don’t seem to accomplish that task in any way. Many are about subservience in a way that doesn’t make better people. A small, probably insignificant sample would be that for freshman yr HS I rode a bus several miles to a catholic technical school, and while I pride myself on my swearing, carefully learned working with machinists, teenagers, car guys and most everyone in the navy, my fellow bus passengers were a different breed. No swearing that a parent might hear at the bus stop. No swearing on school grounds. (OK, the one time that a kid got kicked in a sensitive male area playing soccer and a priest asked him if he was OK and was told “FUCK NO, I’m not OK.” The priest was a decent guy who said OK and didn’t turn him in to the vice principle, who’s major vice was being a major asshole.) But when that bus door was closed by the woman driver, there were more swear words spoken on that 20 min bus ride than in a month on an underway navy destroyer with 10 times the guys on it.

    I was baptized Presbyterian. Wasn’t of course with my consent or concept of what the hell was going on and over the decades I’ve studied a lot of the world’s religions, trying to figure out what people saw in them. I get that it’s a place to feel comfort and comfortable. To have a bit of familiarity and peace in a hostile world. Religion just doesn’t give me that in any way, although I can see that some do that for many. Knowledge does that to an extent for me. Of course some always get doom and gloom from knowledge because of the course of life.

  145. 145.

    Suzanne

    @germy: There have always been good contractors and crappy contractors. They are mostly incentivized to build quickly and inexpensively. That leads to shitty work, of course. The ones who are good cost more and often have a waitlist. It was ever thus.

  148. 148.

    James E Powell

    @Ruckus: 
    @opiejeanne: 

    I came up Roman Catholic and, though I never found out why, we disregarded the graven image ban from the Ten Commandments. Almost every guy I knew had a chain with a St. Christopher’s medal on it, sometimes a cross or crucifix, sometimes a Jesus medal. Girls often had the Virgin Mary either on a chain or a pin. I don’t think we thought much about it or felt that it made us better than anyone else.

    I don’t necessarily get that vibe from people who wear religious symbols now, but there are some people who wear crosses like others wear flag pins. Like, where’s yours? Don’t you love America?

  149. 149.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @different-church-lady: and Michael Moore is trending– and getting roasted– after publishing an open letter to Joe Biden on how to win the youth vote. People helpfully pointing out that MM is 65 years old, immensely rich, and unlike what is suggested by his twitter handle, lives Manhattan, not Flint. Though I believe I’ve seen pictures of a really beautiful lake house somewhere in Michigan. (I will confess to real estate envy.)

  150. 150.

    A Ghost to Most

    @opiejeanne: Standing up for oneself, and reality, is not acting superior. It’s just that most non-believers don’t have the guts to stand up for themselves or reality, so when one does, it shocks tender fee fees. You can see examples of this in this very thread.

    Some people stop living long before they die.

  151. 151.

    opiejeanne

    @different-church-lady: Some of my friends are now pushing that narrative; surprisingly they were all in for Hillary in 2016.

    I don’t know what is wrong with people but that is a truly stupid narrative.

  152. 152.

    Pete Mack

    @JPL @Forkbeard @Immanentize–

    Will post recipe tomorrown after I determine whether it is a success. But I am on a roll right now, with highly successful vegetarian chili 2 days ago (using rutabaga instead of winter squash, plus very nonstandard spices) and sourdough focaccia this morning.

  153. 153.

    opiejeanne

    @Ruckus: I agree with your assessment of what a religion should provide and encourage, and unfortunately I also recognize everything and every type of person you mentioned. We had them in our Methodist church. As an adult I’ve been pitied because I was “only a Methodist and not a Real Christian”, so when they tell me they’ll pray for me I tell them I’ll pray for them. It seems to silence them pretty well. I’m mostly lying when I do say that though; I figure God already knows all about them.

    My Catholic friends swore like mad, which shocked me when I was a kid because the worst word I ever heard my dad utter was Damn! when he hit his thumb with a hammer, or maybe it was Hell. I learned to swear when I went off to college and lived in the dorms.

    We had that classic childhood moment when I was about 5 and the ice cream truck drove off before I could get to him with money, so Dad piled us all into the car and we chased after him, but lost sight of him momentarily. In the back seat I muttered “Hell!” and my parents both turned and demanded to know where I had heard that. I looked at Dad and I lied. I didn’t have the guts to tell him I learned it from him. I told him it was Grandpa, his dad. We caught the ice cream truck and I wasn’t in hot water.

  155. 155.

    opiejeanne

    @James E Powell: I know those people. I can’t remember wearing a cross as an adult. I think I have one that I was given as a child, probably languishing in an old jewelry box next to the dancing rabbits, cats, and bug pins from the same period. I have one that belonged to my husband’s grandmother but no one wears it. Our three kids are atheists or agnostic but they will probably want those things to remember us by. My family gave us lockets instead of crosses, and we gave our three kids lockets or rings when they were baptized.

    One of the best books about religion that I’ve ever read was “Small Gods” by Terry Pratchett. The very end, the very last paragraph, models what Christianity and other religions should offer, what they should be.

  156. 156.

    opiejeanne

    @A Ghost to Most: You know, I generally  like your posts, but you’re being silly now. My tender fee fees are not shocked, and I have no issue with people believing what they want or not at all, as long as they don’t abuse children or animals. I agree with an old friend who said the only difference is that atheists believe in one fewer god than the rest of the world (he purposely omitted the multi-theistic religions).

    I don’t feel superior to you based on your beliefs, and I’ve been impressed by your willingness to disappear off of the grid if need be, because of Republicans creating a living hell on this planet. If you’re getting a superiority vibe from what I’ve posted to you, I apologize because I did not mean to do that at all.

  157. 157.

    Dan B

    @germy: The wallpaper in the photo may be a result of house settling since all the creases are parallel to each other.  It looks like the door may have torqued as well but there’s not enough of it visible.

  160. 160.

    MoxieM

    @Immanentize: Sounds lovely. I had a house–my dream house, really; it was a house of many ages. The oldest part was ca. 1780, and clearly was a smallish building that had been moved from another location (so common in pre-plumbing & electrical New England that it’s referred to as a farmer’s hobby.) But mine was never a farm house, pace the Historical Committee (who really should have known better.)  It had been added on to well into the 1920s, at which point it had its second “Auto-House” appended to the back. (I recommend the Sandborn Maps for all with old houses who want to know the when & what of renovations.)  I learned that a whole wing–a good 35 ft x 20 ft had been torn down when the first “Auto House” was put on in about 1910. So, originally the house was kind of a modified “Z”, now it’s an L. Also learned why it was so hard to plant things in that spot!

    Anyway another thing I learned is that the more recent in time you came with the construction, the worse it was–by far.  The older sections of the house, say from 1780 – 1840 (It had a major stylin’ Federal shading to Greek Revival front put on in 1833) were timber frame, aka post & beam. Solid as rock, except in the middle of some floors, which had pillars under (not pillocks!). The 1920 era construction was mostly 2×3″ lumber–the wasps loved it, between the garage and the (unheated) pantry–super creepy when we took that plaster down…  But, yeah. Nothing like a 8 x 12 in good shape, lots of ’em chestnut. Wowza.  Golly I miss that house.  Every window sash was different–they must all have been salvaged.

    Oh, and the Historic District suggested Big House, Little House, Back House Barn. It’s a great book, but we were not in Northern New England. And I liked my indoor plumbing. I remember thinking to myself, “Do they really want me to build a backhouse?”  In the Aroostook parlance I knew, that was slang for an outhouse…

  161. 161.

    mayim

    Grew up in Buffalo ~ gorgeous old house built on the sands of the Pan American exposition, around the corner from where McKinley was shot. My mother spent much of my childhood removing the paint a previous owner had put on all the gorgeous oak woodwork/finishing.

    Neither Polish nor Catholic (or even Christian); in fact, we went to Boston every year at Easter to avoid my father’s fundamentalist relatives ~ and because where Dad worked gave him Dyngus Day (Easter Monday) off.
    But the previous weekend always featured a trip to the Broadway Market and it’s abundance of butter lambs.

  162. 162.

    J R in WV

    @Mohagan:

    I remember my disgust at learning that Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Waters house leaks like crazy.

    While you are connect that Falling Waters had many problems early in its life, the foundation than now owns and manages it as a park has spent a ton of money reinforcing the concrete and fixing the roof, etc, etc.

    Frank’s gift was in design, not the fine details of construction. Plus back then many of the newer construction techniques he used on many of the ground-breaking buildings were newly invented, and the charts for number and size of rebar ( for one example ) were not yet verified by experience.

    I suspect lots of refitting happened at the Guggenheim museum in Manhattan as well.

    Off Topic detail, a neighbor of ours moved to NYC and eventually became lead carpenter of the group that built out display material for new art exhibits at the Guggenheim … now he’s retired and moved back to rural WV. One son builds custom cabinet work at a Brooklyn shop, the other does genetic database work down in RTC. Interesting folks.

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