Se Hace Camino Al Andar

Bill O’Reilly Flips Out

I realize I’m behind with this video, but I thought I’d share anyway because I’m easily amused.

Meme-licious., originally uploaded by NCavillones.

A flickr meme.

Check out this article from BusinessWeek, about the impact of the Locavore movement on corporations.

The Rise of the ‘Locavore’

Technorati Tags: food, localism, locavore, politics

nyc and cape cod in may 2008 009, originally uploaded by audiogrrl2.

Is this not the cutest thing ever? This totally made my day!

(My nephew, who will be a year old on June 9th.)

When Memorial Day Weekend comes around, I always feel the urge to be outside, grilling or doing something “summer-y.” This year was no different and we spent Monday in Ossining with friends of ours and their new baby. But the thought and stress that went into making this decision was ridiculous. One of my many, many faults is to want to do everything. My lesson of the day yesterday was that sometimes, it’s just better to stick to the original plan and say “Sorry, I have other plans!”

Here’s how it all happened:

• We decided last week to go to NYBG to see the Darwin and Henry Moore exhibits. I order our free tickets online, for Monday.
• I get a text message from my friend, Kim–”Are you going to Ossining this weekend?” This was not part of my plans at all but I text my friend, Sue, in Ossining to see what her plans are. She’s free Monday and invites us up to join her by the pool.
• I make arrangements with Kim to pick her up at the train station in Riverdale, so she can drive up to Ossining with my husband and I.
• The plan is to go to the Garden in the morning and then head up to Ossining.
• Something comes up and Kim has to back out at the last minute. In the meantime, we’re debating whether we should still go to the Garden. It’s all starting to feel like too much–going to the Garden and going to Ossining in the same day. I start to feel tired just thinking about it.
• We go back and forth for awhile, debating whether we’ll go to the Garden or go to Ossining. It has to be one or the other.
• We decide to skip Ossining and have a picnic at the Garden. Then, we get an invitation to Rockaway. Tempting! We think about it for a bit, I start to have a little bit of a meltdown and finally, my husband says “What do YOU want to do? Forget about everyone else!”
• I conclude that I just want to lay out by a pool and be lazy, so Ossining it is.

See what I mean? As soon as Kim sent me that text, I should’ve said “Sorry, I have other plans!” I’m not sorry we went to Ossining. I had a good time and it was good to see our friends. I’m just sorry that I put myself through all this stress for nothing, and over nothing. Lesson learned. Let’s just hope I remember it for next time.

Technorati Tags: slice of life story challenge

Here’s my first shot at Memoir Mondays. Thankfully, I was able to use Stacey’s idea for this entry, writing about a place, then and now. I suffer from the same condition many students suffer from–”I-don’t-know-what-to-write-about-itis”. (By the way, I recommend two great books for memoir writing in the classroom: Writing a Life, by Katherine Bomer and What You Know by Heart, by Katie Ray)

Because I’ve got summer on the brain, thanks to this awesome Memorial Day Weekend weather we’re having, the first place that comes to mind is my grandparents’ summer rental in the Catskills. From May or June to the High Holy Days, usually, my grandparents rented a little yellow house in Kerhonkson from Cousin Sadie and Nate, who owned consecutive properties on a winding country road that included the former Brookside Resort.

You’ve heard of the Borscht Belt? This is it… The Brookside Resort was one of those old-school resorts, albeit smaller than the nearby Nevele Grande or The Granit. When I was a kid, The Brookside was on it’s way out. My most vivid memory is the seedy basement with the dark red and gold carpet, littered with cigarette butts where we played video games and the pool outside that Sadie still kept full. Years later, I would meet people my age whose parents also had memories of The Brookside, weirdly enough. It became a point of pride for me–”Oh yeah, my cousin Sadie owned that!”

Days in Kerhonkson were filled with adventures at Cousin Sadie’s, who had a huge pond behind her house, bordered by fuzzy, brown cattails–one of which I ate when I was 2, convinced it was a hot dog. We peeked into Cousin Nate’s pottery studio in the old chicken coop. I would go with my mother to bring a jar of chicken soup to old Uncle Sam, who lived somewhere on the property or nearby. We’d trek up the country road to visit Lilian Moore, the famous author. To this day, I remain awestruck at the floor to ceiling bookcases in her living room, every shelf full. Sometimes, we took a special trip to Stewart’s for ice cream sundaes. I still think Stewart’s ice cream sundaes are the best. Little memories pop up here and there–Grandma washing clothes with a washboard in the sink, helping her hang those clothes on the line, investigating various tins in the kitchen until we found the mandel bread that my grandmother always made from scratch, the screen door constantly banging shut from all the traffic going in and out of the house.

The little yellow house seemed huge to me as a kid but as an adult, I was struck by how low the ceilings were, how tiny the bedrooms were. I don’t know how we all fit in there–my sisters and I in one bedroom, my grandparents in the other bedroom, and I guess my parents slept on the sofabed in the living room? Out back was a long gazebo, where my grandmother played canasta with her friends and other people sat around eating chopped liver on ritz crackers and drinking beer (the things we remember!). We left those old people behind to follow my dad through the woods to Flat Rocks, a swimming hole nestled deep in the trees, where minnows and catfish nibbled our toes. We slid down big, smooth rocks that formed a slide that dumped into a deep pool, hence the name Flat Rocks. My own father and his brother had spent their summers in this swimming hole. It was nature at it’s best. As adults, or semi-adults, we took another trip back to Flat Rocks where I saw tangible evidence of environmental neglect and decay. The floating catfish, bloated and dead. The water seemed lower– was I older and bigger, or was Flat Rocks really running dry? And was that garbage floating in the water? It was an early environmental awakening for me. We took a last look, turned and walked back out of the woods.

Technorati Tags: Memoir Mondays

As a follow up to my post yesterday, here is a blog to accompany What To Eat. Check it out.

http://www.whattoeatbook.com/

Technorati Tags: food, marion nestle, nutrition, Policy

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that last year, I joined a CSA and enjoyed a bounty of organic, locally-grown fruits and vegetables last summer through this winter. As a result of my CSA participation, I’ve become increasingly interested in issues around food and the environment. I’m not alone in this emerging consciousness, for sure. I’m at a stage in my personal development where I’ve recognized that the actions I take and the choices I make become part of a larger impact on the environment and the food industry. I started buying organic a couple of years ago, whenever possible. Back then, anything organic was better than conventional. Then, localism entered the picture. Suddenly, it became a choice between organic and local, because they didn’t always go hand in hand. Soon after, Big Brother started infringing on the organic label and that complicated matters further, requiring a little research into what was behind any given “organic” label. I didn’t mind–it was all interesting to me, and for mostly selfish reasons, of course. Selfishness is as good as any starting point when making changes that will eventually impact society, if everyone gets on the bandwagon.

When I was at NYBG last week, I hit up the gift shop and browsed their extensive book collection. Lots of cookbooks about cooking with vegetables, gardening books, and so on. One book caught my eye and my interest.

Marion Nestle, everyone’s favorite nutritionist, wrote this book about the choices we make when we buy the food we eat. Rather than tell us what to eat and when to eat, Nestle tells us the information we need to be informed consumers, especially when faced with all these “good and good for you” claims on food packaging. I was hooked from the introduction, especially her message is basically one of moderation–eat your fruits and veggies, get exercise and keep junk food to a minimum. I appreciate her whole “forest for the trees” approach to things, in which she talks about our diet as a whole, not broken down into the individual items that make up our daily food intake. Basically, if you do right by yourself most of the time, you’ll be fine and healthy in the end. All this I got from the introduction! I haven’t even read the first chapter yet.

So, I’ll be back with updates as I make my way through the book. In the meantime, have you seen King Corn yet? Add it to your Netflix queue or check your local PBS listings.

Here are some other resources to check out:

Grist.org’s Victual Reality column about organic milk

The Cornucopia Institute’s study on the integrity of organic milk

Wikipedia’s entry on Locavores

Technorati Tags: food, marion nestle, what to eat

Remember the story about the 8th graders in the Bronx who boycotted their exams? Here’s another article from the Daily News about the teacher, Douglas Avella. Apparently, he’s been sent to the rubber room. Take a look at the comments beneath the article. Avella himself weighs in, and someone compares Klein to a slavemaster!

On a related note, this story is noticeably absent from The New York Times. I wonder why… maybe it’s buried deep in there and I just can’t find it.

Speaking of the rubber room, have you heard about this documentary? No word on when the film is coming out but I can’t wait to see it.

Technorati Tags: boycott, exams, testing

I don’t care whether this teacher initiated the boycott or not; these 8th graders rock for taking a stand! I can’t wait to see how this story unfolds. 

Bronx 8th Graders Boycott Practice Exam

Technorati Tags: boycott, exams, testing