see more pictures

Well, yesterday and the day before it was in the 70's and as I am writing this today, the prevailing temp. is 31! This morning, Trooper's water dish was frozen, the wind was "brisk", and there were no flocks of geese flying overhead. Plus my nose ran as Trooper and I took our 8a.m. daily walk! Most annoying to say nothing of undignified!  

My beautiful Belgian Sheepdog doesn't understand my having to put on shoes and socks, to say nothing of a coat, hat, and gloves --- HE just goes out the door!

This column is books based upon a truthful events or places or people --- as was the news of the shuttle "Columbia" and its disintegration over Texas and Louisiana last week.

In remembering our latest national tragedy I thought, "Let's lighten our mood a little by thinking about well-known personalities and what kind of people they are and are they anything like our fantasies about them?"

The book, "Intimate Strangers", by Bill Zehme, is one of profiles and interviews with Sharon Stone, Tom Hanks, Madonna, Liberace, Jay Leno, Barry Manilow, and David Copperfield, among others, and it really DOES have fascinating tid-bits about their personalities, careers, goals (both personal and professional) and the secrets doubts and hurts they all harbor.

The money is important, sure, but, like everybody else, the sincerity and passion that they put in their work----their belief that they are the BEST at what they do----is balanced by wanting to be recognized for and assured that they ARE great performers. The constant feeling of uncertainty and the pressure of always being "UP" for their fans is a tightrope all of them walk and yet, out of this comes the laughter, the drama, the artistry that their fans love.

They aren't gods----they are ordinary people who are driven and never feel really understood or appreciated. They watch, out a hotel or studio window, at people lining up to get into their shows and know the feeling of having to be "a good act" in every show. Interesting book---come check it out.

A little boy, aged 10, gets an atlas for Christmas and traces a way, if one had a boat, to use waterways to travel up the Hudson River, west across the barge canals and the Great Lakes, down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico and back up the Eastern seaboard----if one had a boat and were a little older.

Years later, he reads an account by a 19th century Gloucester fisherman who had sailed this very route one hundred years before. So, in April, 1999, a Nat Stone launched a 17ft. scull beneath the Brooklyn Bridge to see how far he could get on HIS journey. After ten months and some six thousand miles he arrived back the Brooklyn Bridge and continued rowing on to Eastport, Maine.

The recounting of this story is Nathaniel Stone's book, "On The Water; Discovering America in a Rowboat" and it is delightful, from the excerpts I read. He listens to stories of the old-timers, down the river, plays guitar with others, talks to tugboat operators and listens to the live music of Dwight Yoakum performing on the banks of the Ohio River.

A man called "Scoober" reminds him that the happiest people "are those who've got nothin'" and he briefly has a kitten riding with him, as ballast for his boat. This adventurer's journey and observance of the "natural life and rhythm of Nature on the river" reminds you of Thoreau and any of the great naturalist-writers.

Anyone who likes the outdoors, being on your own schedule and not someone else's, and anyone who would like to escape into the "big, wide wilderness without people or telephones" should read this book. I will. Tell me what you think about it, after you've read it.

Or perhaps the subject of gourmet cooking interests you? Particularly tiny---literally!---bites of interesting combinations of good veggies, meats, sauces, seafood? Well, open up "Amuse-Bouche"----let's practice our French here ("Ah-myuz boosh")---and another way to remember how to say it is say it the way it looks.....so, this book informs you that an amuse bouche is " a bite-sized treat that excites the tongue and delights the eye, before the main meal is served."

No, it is not the same as a Cheez-it and peanut butter----keep up here! There are recipes in this cookbook, "Amuse-Bouche; Little Bites of Delight Before the Meal Begins", by Rick Tramonto, the chef and partner at the Chicago restaurant, Tru which range from a curried 3-bean salad, to Polenta stuffed Portobello mushrooms, from Blue Cheese Foam with Port Wine to Dungeness Crab with Roasted Peppers and Olives. (Put down that Triscuit covered with squeeze cheese and concentrate on Higher Culinary Arts!)

Where was I? Oh, yes, well--- Chef Tramonto says, "An amuse should explode in the mouth with flavor and texture and after meeting this criteria, it can be elegant or casual, made with expensive or everyday ingredients." The recipes are arranged according to seasons and from soups and dessert-like and if you are inclined to try any, the staff here is always willing to help you by eating any left-overs.

I, myself, dear readers, am, even as I write, debating what I can do with a piece of Aspen bark and dried beef topped with crushed prune pit and eye of newt! Perhaps you have a recipe you'd share with me? Do call the library and leave it. The book really is beautifully illustrated, so come on in and look it over and perhaps it will "amuse" you.

Black History month is this month and we have to discuss a really amazing book that has been mentioned by all of the "better" reviewers (and, in your case, dear readers, and with your dearth of reviewers out in Western Kansas, this includes me!).

"Jubilee", by Dodson, is a beautiful picture book AND text spanning the 300 years, since their arrival in chains as "cargo", to be used as slaves, and it is in inspiring story how African-Americans came to forge their own unique place in our history.

The book tells about the realities of living on strange soil and what experiences awaited them and how they reacted to their fate, whether they were slaves, runaways, or freedmen. This hard-to-put-down book shows how the adaptability and courage of the black people was formed and this was a society of men and women with NO---ZERO----civil rights or even common courtesy, for the most part, given.

Isn't the term "common courtesy" interesting"? Many times, with the people talked about, in here, it wasn't "common" at all, nor was it expected! They formed strong, caring, Christian communities, upheld family values, and blended traditional African values with the values they saw around them, in this country.

Looking at a "Wanted" poster of an escaped slave, meeting Sojourner Truth's unwavering gaze, looking at the scars on a slave's back and the whip that put them there, seeing drawings of Civil War battles that had blacks on the Union side---all of these images are important to understanding some of the country's troubled history. This is a book well worth looking at and it will provoke many emotions in its readers.

So, another column is finished, cold weather is temporarily here, so fix a pot of chili and a plate of crackers and relishes, start the fire, bring the pets in to lie on a blanket, and read a good book. When it's below 30 degrees out, at night, give the pets a place to sleep inside, out of the cold, please. See ya!