Today’s word in Word.A.Day in my inbox, referencing a Sicilian uprising in 1282 led me to a recipe for one of my favorite easy pastas, pasta con ceci [aka chickpeas/garbanzos]. It happened this way. The word was shibboleth, which as…
Blog Archives
Okra and the Belgians
After World War II, my mother moved north from a truck farm then outside of Houston, Texas with a taste for kidney and lima beans, okra and Fritos, a Texas cash crop since 1933. My father was from Brooklyn and…
Blueberry Octopus Pie
Who would have imagined such a thing/beast? One more evidence of the irresistible force of human creativity. Or octo-obsession. This masterpiece was posted by my friend Antigone Pantanizopoulos, a master baker who might have made it but didn’t. There’s an…
When enemies sing together
Driving home last night, I heard a local historian on WDVX radio telling a story of the Civil War Battle of Stones River, near Murfeesboro, TN, not far from Knoxville where I live. This story for me seems metaphoric of…
Ancient Egyptians in Metuchen, NJ
The first house my parents bought was in Metuchen, NJ., and after a 50s style cocktail party w/ Old Fashioneds and Martinis, they determined that the house needed an ancient Egyptian mural featuring all of us. My father had built…
Editing & Gardening
There is an astonishing similarity between editing and spring gardening. In both, you can work happily for a couple hours and a disinterested observer, one’s partner for instance, may not see much difference. But you do. For instance: The weeds…
Philly weirdness, take 2
Apparently WordPress has a limit to picture inclusions. These are the ones that didn’t make it: a window on South Street and a religious statement in an antique store.
Essential weirdness of Philly
I went to graduate schools in Philadelphia (U of Penn in English literature and Temple U for radio-TV-film) and since my sister lives there, I return often. It’s a wonderful city, beautiful, wildly diverse neighborhoods, plenty of that history and…
Smoke makes prosperity
My next book begins in Pittsburgh in 1914, the beginning of World War I, so I’ve been researching that world and came upon a remarkable documentary from the 1930s called “Smoke Makes Prosperity.” You can see it here. Not a…
Posted in WWWS
Faces of Gypsies
I had my thoughts about Gypsies or Rom peoples. This haunting simple video puts faces from a huge family spanning decades to captivating vocals and music. Watch a little and dream of a very different culture.
Posted in WWWS
pamelaschoenewaldt.com 