Susan's Scribblings the Blog

Monthly Archives: August 2011

• Scrapple, Scrapple, Scrapple

  Posted at 8:35 pm by kayewer, on August 27, 2011

  Lovely scrapple, wonderful scrapple. . .sorry, I was revising a classic Monty Python song about Spam and made it into a scrapple anthem.  I had scrapple this week, but a coworker wasn’t too happy about it when I told her.

  After I mentioned it, she read about this traditional local food in Wikipedia, and the information there didn’t make it seem so appetizing.  The article mentions that processors use the pig parts that aren’t sold as other things, such as the head, heart and liver, and cook them in a broth to which they add flour and “mush” it together into a loaf.  Images of stewing pig heads in rows of pots must have turned her stomach.  I’m sure it’s not quite that gross.

  Habbersett, the maker of a popular scrapple, says the ingredients include “Pork stock, pork, pork skins, corn meal, wheat flour, pork hearts, pork livers, pork tongues, salt and spices.”  So there is lots of pork, pork, pork, pork. . .sorry, Monty Python again.

  Rapa, another scrapple maker, uses stock, liver and snouts.  Really, when you think about all the chemicals that go into some of the products we’re expected to digest (carrageenan, anybody?), I don’t think it’s gross to use any edible part of anything natural.  The native Americans (Indians) didn’t waste anything on a buffalo, and I’m sure that clean snouts and organs are just as edible as those on a chicken (oh my mouth is watering for chicken livers) or cattle.  (Vegans and vegetarians, I love you and respect your choice not to eat these things.  I also appreciate your reading this blog and thank you for sending any non-vitriolic replies on the subject).

  Considering other regional foods such as pepperpot soup made with beef tripe (look it up, folks), or lutefisk, or things prepared with ghee–which, unfortunately, I can’t get past my nose–I find the idea of scrapple not quite so distasteful. In fact, it’s spicy and delicious in a sandwich or by itself.  That and pork roll are special treats in this region, and I’ve grown up with them.

  On the other hand, the other day I finally broke down and tried a clam.  It was a tiny one, smaller than a dime, with black bean sauce.  I found it rather chewy and bland, but I was glad to see them in a buffet where I could try one without feeling I wasted my money on a whole entrée which I might not have eaten.  The idea of mollusk flesh resembling loogies has never suited me, but after seeing the reaction to my enjoyment of scrapple, I figured I should put my sense of adventure where my mouth is and try something new.  They’re edible, but I wouldn’t shell out (bad pun) money for a plate of them.  Sorry.

  Some folks won’t be convinced to try scrapple.  Fine with me.  But know that it exists and some folks like it, and that doesn’t hurt anybody.  Pass me some white bread and ketchup for my scrapple sandwich, please, and here’s to whatever is on your plate today.

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  Posted in Commentary, Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged scrapple

• In the Cell-ar

  Posted at 2:18 am by kayewer, on August 21, 2011

  Some folks over-use their cell phone plans; I under-use mine, and it’s still going to cost me.  My plan might well be an ongoing no-win scenario.

  Sure, some of the folks we all hear about who are cellular addicts practically have their thumbs surgically attached to their devices and a Bluetooth(R) glued to their ears.  Plans costing $50 a month or more get eaten up in text messages and minutes and burn holes in people’s wallets all the time.  For folks like me, who are on a budget and only use the phone for calls we really need to make (not to tell a friend the new hairdo looks great or the dog likes his new diet food), it’s hard to get a plan that works for us.

  Monthly plans are not budget friendly if they are the equivalent of a tank of gas (or two) every month and you either don’t use it enough, or talk and text through them before 30 days run out and have to add more.  Whether you use the phone that often or not, it’s money out like so much water down the drain.

  Pre-paid plans give you a phone and a monthly, quarterly or yearly payment option that gets deducted only as you use the device, and normally the best option is to pay for a year.

  Unfortunately the phones aren’t always the most inviting to use.  I’ve been through three phones; one was a step above ancient when I was politely told in a letter from my carrier that I had no choice but to upgrade.  You know your phone is older than dirt when your cellular carrier makes you give it up.  I kept the second phone until even its logo was ancient.  The third was recommended to me by a nice salesperson who introduced me to getting the Internet on my phone.  It loads sometimes, on a good day, but the screen is too small for a true webpage experience.  Still, it was within my budget, and it still enables me to make calls and check my email.

  The problem is my habit of not using the phone for everything except personal hygiene.  I can’t play “Angry Birds.”  I can’t speed text because the keyboard is not QWERTY (oh my).  After so much hitting a number button six times to get the character needed, texting gets to be bothersome.

  Oh, and did I mention the screen is tiny (like an oversized postage stamp)?

  So I’ve paid loyally and annually for a year of usage, but after awhile you can’t pay for another year because too much money is sitting in your prepaid account.  Ouch!

  I recently went to the phone store to discuss my problem with the helpful representatives there.  A nice salesperson (or should I say associate) called the big bosses at the main headquarters for help.  There really was none.  The funds on account can’t be refunded or applied to something else like a better phone so I can text on a full QWERTY keyboard.  The only solution is for me to try to find a way to use the phone more, and quickly, so I can lower my balance enough to continue with my current plan.

  Use it or lose it.

  Public phones are going away, and more people are on budgets than ever before, and we mean wallets so tight the presidents’ faces on the bills look like they’ve gotten a facelift.  You’d think the cellular carriers would be more accommodating.  I’m going to try to talk and text gaily for a while to see how much of my own money I can whittle away to satisfy my carrier’s rules and policies, but I can’t help feeling oppressed and helpless with something I had hoped would be a help rather than a hinderance.

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  Posted in Commentary | 0 Comments | Tagged AT&T Cellular, cell phone plan

• What a Sellout Really Means

  Posted at 2:42 am by kayewer, on August 14, 2011

  I have been a member of the Metropolitan Opera for years, but it doesn’t mean I always get preferential treatment.  Joining something usually means a level of expectation amounting to service, support or reward.  In tough times, though, even a membership can result in no reward.

  Over the years I have established myself as a regular participant in Richard Wagner’s classic four-part “Ring” cycle, having seen at least one performance a year (or all four) yearly until the popular 20-plus-year-old cycle imagined by Otto Schenk was retired.  The newest interpretation of the fantasy epic is in the hands of Robert Lepage and the infamous “Machine” mentioned in worldwide newscasts and in previous entries in this blog.

  Last week single ticket sales began for the Met’s new 2011-2012 season.  I went out of my way to be ready when the online sales opened up at noon so I could purchase the ticket I wanted.  However, pickings were slim this year, particularly for those of us Wagnerites anxious to see the second half of the “Ring” cycle for the first time.  Deborah Voigt is scheduled to sing Brunnhilde for the love of the wild and heroic “Siegfried” and die for that same love at the climax of “Gotterdammerung” (“Twilight of the Gods”).

  This year the Met has elected to offer only select performances for sale as individual pieces, and hold the spring series of all four (two cycles) for subscribers only.  This ultimately meant that the fall performances sold out before the online sales even got off the ground.  It also meant I was out of luck.

  I’ve never had the experience of seeing the entire opera house sold out before I could even click a mouse, and it feels depressing to be shut out after so many years of feeling the great glass doors were open to me all season.  Sure it’s nice to see that the season is a sell-out, and lots of people will fill the opera house daily for an experience that is best had live.  The Met’s sales tactics have done that, and they are to be commended for original thinking.  It will surely lose them the respect of some patrons and the disappointment of others like me, but they are, after all, in the business to boost executive profits and still have a few cents left to pay the rent at Lincoln Center and buy the cast and crew some coffee.

  If I see any productions at all, it will be from one of the many movie theatres which will broadcast select performances live (and in encores) through the season.  Not like being in the Met, but an incredible simulation.

  I will be in New York City this fall for a Broadway show instead, far away from the familiar trappings at the Met, and I suppose I will likely think of them at least once before curtain time.

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• Less Comics Relief

  Posted at 1:59 am by kayewer, on August 14, 2011

  To the Philadelphia Inquirer and its Readers:

  The comics page changed this week, and it shrunk.  What’s up with that?

  The idea of increasing the cost of a newspaper has always been to also offer an incentive to readers.  In this case, unfortunately, more means less.

  Some popular strips, including “Prince Valiant,” are gone.  The paper is offering a chance for readers to vote for a new comic to be added to the roster, but not without losing “Rex Morgan, MD” and “Lio.”

  There is nothing more relaxing than to come home from a day at the office, sit with the newspaper and enjoy the laughs and nostalgia provided by comics.  In the old days, strips like “Dondi” and “Dick Tracy” were popular.  They were around long enough for me to enjoy them.  They’re gone now.  Classics like “Peanuts” couldn’t possibly be pulled from circulation without risking mass subscription cancellations.

  Just because the cost of living has gone up, the cost of laughing doesn’t have to.

  Also, one full-page which used to carry comics is now filled with the evening television listings and puzzles.  Some of the puzzles have been enlarged and others shrunken, to add to the further alienation of readers.  Now nearly all of the paper requires the use of my reading glasses.

  If newspapers want to continue to thrive, they must evolve into better harbingers of news.  This doesn’t mean shrinkage but growth, in the form of better articles, classier photography and more entertainment value.  By removing comics, nobody benefits; readers lose interest, artists lose jobs and the paper loses customers.

  At least bring back “Prince Valiant.”  It’s one of the best drawn strips.  Also, it was remiss of the Inquirer to leave whole story lines unresolved without giving readers advance notice.

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  Posted in Commentary, Theatre/Movies/Entertainment | 0 Comments | Tagged comics, Philadelphia Inquirer, Prince Valiant

• About a Theme

  Posted at 2:13 am by kayewer, on August 7, 2011

  I am still working on the writers group anthology project.  We’re trying to come up with a theme, and I think I have one.

  Which also means I’m ready to face the idea firing squad when I share it with the rest of the group.

  When posing an idea to a group, the outcome is as unpredictable as using eight-sided dice with one side damaged.  That, naturally, is the side that always comes up.

  Sometimes your idea results in a blank stare, as if you’ve just magically spoken Lithuanian.  That silence is then broken by one person who says “Hmmmm” contemplatively.  The group pessimist may respond that it’s too much of something or too little of another.  The person who is the designated opinion to end all opinions may decide either way depending on which side of the hammock they fell out of that morning.  Just because you meet to exchange ideas doesn’t mean everybody is ready for them.  If your coffee hasn’t kicked in, the best ideas on the table might as well have been unsaid.

  In other words, just like in our government, nobody seems to agree on anything anymore.

  I don’t know what is so darned inconvenient about making concessions in life, so we can set a standard that might work well for the most people.  Sure, in a population as large as ours, for every 100 people given an idea on which to vote, 45 may totally agree, 15 may be on the fence, 10 will hate it and 30 will vote with their alliance, which could be anybody among the other 70.

  The ten who hate the idea won’t want to change their lives one iota to accommodate something new.  The allies don’t like to go against their gang.  It’s the other 15 who make or break an idea, because with the changes come suggestions from all sides, and some of them will alienate 1/2 to 1/3 of those 15 on the fence.  So as those swing votes go, there goes your majority.

  We have five people to vote on a theme for our anthology.  The first round of voting went about as well as the last two weeks in Washington as our supposedly elected representatives of the vox populi tried to iron out a deal that would cover our debts after we apparently (when and how, I don’t know) went to Chinese lenders for money we couldn’t pay (or something like that).

  But I digress.  Sometimes an anthology doesn’t have a unifying theme (unless you’re writing for a certain spiritual soup series of books), but other ideas have been panned curtly as not being suitable, and we can’t move forward without one.  Theme means the title, and the title makes or breaks sales.

  Mine will be simple.  I’ll put it to the group.  I don’t know how they will vote, but I’m ready to be rejected.  I’m a writer, so I should be prepared for that.  Maybe it will be a good idea that gets panned, or a bad one that gets the okay because everybody voted with their alliance.  Who knows.  I’ll suggest it anyway.

  It’s not as if I’m agreeing to a loan from China.

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  Posted in Commentary | 0 Comments | Tagged anthology, book title, theme, writers group, writing

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  	Eden on The Poison Field
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