Alexander's Bath Water

I had run out of tea last week and purchased a box of Spanish tea off the display highlighting The World of Spain flavors.

It was a saffron tea, different huh!  Not one to pass up an adventure I brewed a pot and reflected on my recent escapade to Spain. It is good tea, tastes brilliant with cream and sugar. There is a shimmer almost out of reach that is exotic in the aroma and taste. I became a bit more curious about this saffron. I use it when I make rice, adding a few strands to add color and that shimmer of exotic. What is saffron? How and why has it been used for centuries? It is expensive to buy and there are only a few strands in the package. I was given a box of delicate saffron threads for a gift once. I loved it. It was a perfect exotic gift for me. I felt adored.

Saffron, those threads of reddish orange that are highly prized are the stigmas, the long thin thread that generates the pollen, on a flower. Specifically the Saffron Crocus. There are usually four blossom per plant and three stigmas per blossom.  This is why it is one of the worlds most costly spices.

It was first cultivated in Greece and first found growing on Crete and the Persians were the first to write about it in recipes. It grows well in the chaparral environment of California, Greece and Spain.

The Assyrians used saffron as part of the ingredients to treat about 90 ailments including melancholy, asthma, insomnia, heartburn, and baldness. Saffron was well known for its use as an aphrodisiac. Having drank this saffron tea for a week now I can assure you that I am NOT bald but neither am I a raging nymphomaniac. Alexander the Great bathed in saffron after battles because it was known to have healing properties.  It has been used medically for thousands of years. Egyptians used it in perfumes. The aroma is honey, slightly metallic and sweet hay. Cleopatra bathed in it regularly and Greek courtesans used it in their perfumes,  scented waters and mascaras.

Robes of Buddhist monks were originally dyed with saffron but as it was so expensive turmeric became a better option.

 With all this bathing going on does this mean I am drinking the bathwater ingredients of Royalty? Disturbing.....

Saffron was used medicinally during the 14th century Black Plague (I have not come down with the plague either) and was in such demand and so precious it quickly became the most sought after prize by Pirates. In Nuremberg a law, Safranschou code made the theft of saffron punishable by fine, imprisonment and even execution. The value of a shipment from Rhodes in today's dollars would be valued at over $500,000.00.

By 1730, thanks to the Pennsylvania Dutch colonists American saffron's list price on the Philadelphia commodities exchange was equal to gold where it remained until after 1812.

Maybe I should stock up on this treasure. You will soon know me as the Saffron Baroness. Tamara de Saffron. I like it!!!

General Elevator Party

It was 10:30 at night on Tuesday and Mother and I were walking to the elevator after a nice dinner at her home. She was wearing a house dress and no shoes. She was comfortable.  The elevator approached and came to a stop. The doors opened and what should have been, and usually is an empty space stood a man carrying a bag. He was pleased to see to Ladies and very pleased to see one his own age. My mother! “Well, HELLO!” he says. Oh dear!! “Come in, Come in!!” I get in and he looks a bit disappointed. “Come on dear get in” he says to Mother. She explains she is not wearing shoes. “Well none of you Tennessee girls wear shoes. Come on!” West Virginia. Mother corrects him. “Ahhhh… grumble grumble… You are no West Virginia Hill Billy!! You are a Tennessee Gal and none of you wear shoes. Come on hun’ get in the elevator!” Mother again declined and he stepped into the doorway. It was then I smelled the alcohol. The ol’ General was completely sauced and obviously had been up at the Sky Lounge.  Mother again stated she was from West Virginia not a silly girl from Tennessee and stepped away. I said Good night Mother and pushed the door close button. The General looked at me and said “Mother? Well I have a full bottle of tequila and all the fixings and no one to drink with”. He showed me his bag and there was a bottle of Patron, several limes some salt and margarita mix. 

He looked so dejected and sad. I agreed he had the makings of a very fine party and that perhaps he should take it home and start his prowling again tomorrow. He grinned at me and concluded that I did indeed have a good plan and that he was pleased that he had shared the elevator with me. 

 Good night General you are drunk go home.

Did you know that in 1969 it costs $2.00 to have your brand new baby boy circumcised at the hospital before taking him home? In 2014 it cost $343.00.  For an adult male over the age of 17 with anesthesia is $2,500.00.  So I am thinking that in 1932 they must have been “no charge”.  This is the kind of tidbit of info I am exposed to that cause me to explore.

A friend asked me why it is that over-sized men jog, do yard work and are otherwise shirtless but the well-built, good, looking men always wear shirts. 

Several theories occurred to me. One being that men that are heavier get hotter, or that they sweat more and feel the need to cool off so they remove their shirts. Or, the thought based on an article I read years ago in a Health and Fitness magazine suggested that men tend to see themselves as bring about 30 pounds thinner than they are where as a woman sees herself as 30 pounds heavier so, that big man thinks he is a svelte sexy beast.  While this is an interesting question and could provide some very interesting answers not to mention reactions and maybe a date or two from the various men I am just NOT going to go out there and ask.

………maybe……

 then I  found   these photos...

I am not sure where she is running but my friend  should   change locations. 

The String of Penny Deadfuls

I learned about Penny Dreadful after viewing a ghost story. They were not originally 8 page stories about Highway men and Pirates. They were a one page story sold at executions. An interview would be held with the prisoner and he or she could tell their story; about their life, their crime and how they were to be hung with any last words. The interview was then woven into a story, a dreadful portrayal of the hanging or the crime drawn and then it was printed on cheap paper. These were sold to everyone who attended the public executions for a penny. Hence, a penny for a dreadful tale.

Penny Dreadfuls were so popular at Public executions that they became a form of reading entertainment and so were born the 8 page versions. These were printed weekly and sold for a penny. Stories could continue form issue to issue sometimes ending in the middle of a sentence. The targeted audience for these stories were young working males. They came from real life stories that were dramatized, sensationalized and made more gruesome than they actually were. They also came from existing Gothic fiction novels that were popular and too expensive for the working man.

The fictional Sweeney Todd got his start as an 8 page Penny Dreadful titled The String of Pearls: A Romance. 

The series lasted 18 weeks. No one knows for sure who the original author was of this tale. 

Whispers circulated that the tale was created based on an actual incident found on an older one page Penny Dreadful at Newgate Prison in London. However, there are no public records in London of a Barbor-Surgeon named Sweeney Todd or one that was located on Fleet Street.  There are also no records of a trial or execution ever having taken place for a man named Sweeney Todd.

….but maybe the name was changed to protect the family of the real Sweeney Todd or Todd Sweeney.

I have a great grandmother who married a James Letcher Sweeney. I wonder….. 

Blast you to Smithereens!

I was in a conversation with a friend and we were speaking about Demolition Derbies 

and slamming into an open car door at 110 mph when he used the word smithereens. A word I have used or heard all my life. “I’m going to crash it into smithereens.” Is smithereens a place? A noun? A verb? Just what it was is a mystery or was.

Other than an American rock band from New Jersey that formed in 1980 and busted out "A Girl Like You" the word is a noun. 

It is an Irish word that started out as smidiríní changing into smiddereens, in about 1810 and ending up in 1829 being smithereens. It means fragments or splintered pieces, numerous tiny disconnected bits. It is always plural.

Which brings me to another phrase, “We’re golden”. What is that about?  It is an adjective - of good quality, something to be proud of, ready, well prepared, in a good position. It is American slang. It can be substituted for the term ‘peachy” which is one I use. Golden is used mostly in the Northeast.

Just for fun I took an online quiz that told me what the number 1 song was the day I was born. But I thought it would more interesting to find out what the number 1 song was the day I may have been conceived. So I entered a date exactly 9 months to the day backwards and it told me WITCH DOCTOR by David Seville 

was at the top of the charts. Not very romantic but it became interesting and here is why. David Seville was not his real name it is Rostom Sipan Bagdasarian or Ross as his friends knew him.  

His parents were immigrants from Turkey. He was born in America. He was a WWII veteran. On the track in Witch Doctor, David sang normal and then re-recorded parts with his voice in double speed. Guess what happened next?

The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late) 

came out and won two Grammy Awards. 

Where did the Chipmunks come from? The voice speed of David. He was all three chipmunks and Dave. How did the Chipmunks get their names? Simon Waronker, Ted (Theodore) Keep, and Alvin Bennett all three were Executives at Record Companies.

I think it is a good thing I was not born  9 months earlier. I could have been named Theodora, Simonessa or Alvina or Chip after a Chipmunk.

I will keep my name which translates to Graceful Palm Tree.  

Extinctly Turnspit

I stepped out my door, hit the sidewalk and there in the middle of it was a train engine.  Yep parked on the sidewalk and not a person in sight. It was not there the night before nor did I see at any time yesterday. There were no children playing outside. The toddler above me moved out and the children of the man next door have not visited in a few weeks. Very mysterious.

As I was walking down the final stretch of road to my home I passed a dumpster and positioned like a couple of centuries in front of it were 2 upright vacuum cleaners. There were about 6 feet in front of the dumpster and 4 feet apart. Both facing forward. Also very mysterious. Now I admit I have walked a vacuum cleaner, that failed to function up to that dumpster and later I  it being  walked off by a woman. I assume she took it to be repaired. I do not have the patience for that sort of thing. Either work properly or move on! I have a complete function fail when my car has an issue.

I had another mystery presented to me the other day. It was the term dog-spit and involved a kitchen hearth. I had to explore this as I had never heard of it but the hostess of the ghost show and the pub owner both knew what it was. Do you?

Let me describe the spit part. It comes from the word turn-spit which most of you know as a rotisserie.

 It is a style of roasting meat. The meat is skewered with a rod to secure it and is then placed over a fire in a hearth or BBQ pit and turned regularly to ensure even cooking. It is generally used for large cuts or joints of meat. The regular turning allows the meant to baste in its own juice. In medieval days a young boy sat near the fire and turned the spit. He was referred to as a spit-boy or a spit-jack.

                                                   Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki 

Later mechanical turnspits were invented and powered by a dog on a treadmill in a wheel. 

These wheels were mounted on the wall up near the top of the hearth.  Dog-spit. Here is where it got a wee bit interesting.  The dogs, called Turnspit Dog were bred to do this. 

They had short crooked legs, a long body, were charcoal grey with spots, black or chestnut in color with some white occasionally on their faces and bellies and were very sturdy. 

The breed is mentioned in a book titled Of English Dogs that was published in 1576 and were known as "Turnespete". Because of the strenuous nature of their job two dogs were kept and they alternated them to keep them from exhaustion. They are now extinct.

Even Shakespeare knew of them based off this reference form his work The Comedy of Errors when he describes somebody as being a "curtailed dog fit only to run in a wheel." William Penn’s wife wrote back to England requesting a dog wheel for her turnspit. There were advertisements in the Pennsylvania Gazette the paper run by Benjamin Franklin for wheels and turnspit dogs.

Thanks to the mistreatment of the dogs by a hotel in Manhattan the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was born.

It is said that Queen Victoria kept a couple of retired Turnspit dogs as pets. The closest relative to these dogs seems to be the Corgi a favored pet of the Queen.

From over-worked kitchen dogs to the pampered pets of Royalty. Not a bad tale.  

Crawdad Assist

I have had several adventures the past couple of days. During one adventure we ended up at our local grocery store where they happen to have a tub of live craw daddies. It is a bit sad to me and if I had the money I would buy them all and turn them loose in the local creeks where I know some of their kin live. On this day I ran into a bit of luck. There were two crawdads on the floor upside down. Obvious suicide attempts. I noticed one was still moving so I grabbed him by the less dangerous end and flipped him over. He took a few steps and then the bloody beast turned toward me, raised his claws over his head like a fighter from the W.W.F and went into attack mode. Really?!!?

 At that moment his buddy, the one I thought was dead started flailing about. Remember that scene from Boondock Saints part 1 when Murphy and Connor, the McManus brothers are attacked in their home by the Russians and one is taken outside and the other jumps with the toilet.

 This was the Crawdad version. I flipped the other one over and he promptly ran for cover under the tub while the larger one was still claws in the air and hissing. I don’t think laughing at him helped. Satisfied that we had given them a fighting chance we strolled on off.

We were waiting our turn in line at the Theater when we noticed several movies that were not even on my “maybe” watch list were all on two and even three screens. No wonder there was not much choice in movies. The one that struck me as the oddest was The Avengers. 

Two screens. It needed two? Why I asked out into the void. How many people are really into the Avengers? My daughter informed me it was not the Avengers that people were interested in but individual characters. Like Iron Man. At that moment a woman who had been listening to us, smiling, and giggling at our banter turned and said “and Thor. What woman does not want to see Thor?” She winked at me. “I am his girlfriend.” Our mouths dropped. She giggled again. “Just ask my daughter. She tells everyone her mom is in love with Thor and so I must be his girlfriend.” Well, there it was. You just never know who you may meet on an adventure.

Saw Horatio twice yesterday. Once he was driving and the other time he was parked outside of a Tiger Mart we had just come from. Nothing going on in there except some shady looking people buying some fountain sodas and another couple of people paying for gas. The clerks were all giggles and smiles so he must have been there for purposes other than a dead body. Drug deal? Informant? Money drop? He was just sitting in his vehicle with the motor running. Never got out while we were there. Perhaps it was that murder/suicide that had occurred a few hours earlier.

Because we need a good adventure after the tragedy of the murder and attempt at suicide from yesterday here. I will tell a feel good tale. My daughter was 12 and flying alone to California. She had a stuffy and a back pack. She boarded, sat down and got comfy. A very large man sat next to her. Large as in extremely tall and muscled. He said hello and was friendly; she was a bit shy but friendly back and talked briefly before she fell asleep. She woke up later in the flight to change positions but had missed beverage service during her nap so he called a flight attendant and ordered her orange juice. He woke her when it arrived. As he handed it to her she noticed the very large Sports Championship ring on his finger. She looked up at him, he smiled at her and took her cup as she drifted back to sleep. She cannot recall his name or what team he played for but she does recall he had a nice smile, got her juice and she felt protected and safe while she slept.

Champion man, whoever you are. Thank you! 

To your Mom, Thank you!

Pee on the Mountain

Today’s devotional reading was about mountains we should not climb. Or at least that is what it was supposed to be about. What I got out of it was “Pee when you can.” Read and decide for yourself.

I came across an article about a sixty-year-old woman who went up a mountain that any novice skier should have avoided. No one would have blamed her had she stayed behind. At twelve below zero, even Frosty the Snowman would have opted for the warm fire. Hardly a day for snow skiing, but her husband insisted. So she went.

While waiting in the lift line, she realized she was in need of a restroom, dire need of a restroom. Assured there would be one at the top of the lift, she and her bladder endured the bouncy ride, only to find there was no facility. She began to panic.  Her husband had an idea: Why not go into the woods? Since she was wearing an all-white outfit, she'd blend in with the snow. And what better powder room than a piney grove?

What choice did she have? She skied past the tree line and arranged her ski suit at half-mast. Fortunately, no one could see her. Unfortunately, her husband hadn't told her to remove her skis. Before you could say, "Shine on harvest moon," she was streaking backwards across the slope, revealing more of herself than she ever intended. (After all, hindsight is 20/20.) With arms flailing and skis sailing, she sped under the very lift she'd just ridden and collided with a pylon.

As she scrambled to cover the essentials, she discovered her arm was broken. Fortunately her husband raced to her rescue. He summoned the ski patrol, who transported her to the hospital.

While being treated in the emergency room, a man with a broken leg was carried in and placed next to her. By now she'd regained her composure enough to make small talk. "So, how'd you break your leg?" she asked.

"It was the darndest thing you ever saw," he explained. "I was riding up the ski lift and suddenly there was this crazy woman skiing backwards, at top speed, with her ski suit down around her knees. I couldn't believe my eyes, so I leaned over to get a better look. I guess I didn't realize how far I'd moved. I fell out of the lift."

Then he turned to her and asked, "So, how'd you break your arm?"

Retold by: Max Lucado

You decide the message for you.

On another note I found this intriguing little morsel of information. I can hardly wait to tell Mother tomorrow….LOL.

                             Manifold Valley from above Thors Cave, Staffordshire | England

In 1620 in Staffordshire, England a woman named Cassandra gave birth to a son she named John. 7 generations later in Roane County, West Virginia in 1932 Anna Paulina Matics was born.

                                             Path to the barn, Roane County, West Virginia.

In 1635 in Salem Massachusetts a beautiful baby girl was born and her Quaker mother, Cassandra named her Provided. But when she was 5 she died. In 1640 Cassandra gave birth to another daughter and this one she named Provided because GOD had indeed Provided her with another daughter. This daughter married a man named Samuel Gaskill and 8 generations later in Orange County, California in 1913 Richard Milhous Nixon was born. 

The attempted sale into slavery of the children of Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick by Gov. Endicott and his minions for being Quakers. 

In the lithograph above the woman on the right with her hands bound is Provided. But that is another story. 

How do all these people relate you might ask? I am about to tell you. Cassandra was born in Warwickshire, England in 1601 and she married a man named Lawrence Southwick in about 1620. This Cassandra is the mother of both John and Provided meaning President Richard Milhous Nixon and my mother Anna Paulina Matics are cousins. How do I fit in? 

President Nixon is my 9^th cousin once removed. That means we share a great grandparent 9 generations back. And he is one generation older.

So my other cousins out there aren’t you happy I do this research?

Have a very Presidential Day!!