Hello all:
After quite sometime of back and forthing with WordPress I may be back in business. I’d greatly appreciate knowing you received this especially those who may have been blocked by scary ‘dangerous to proceed’ warnings.
Thanks very much.
My best.
Hello out there.
After a very long, frustrating back and forth, my blog issues MAY be resolved. If you receive this post I’d greatly appreciate knowing, especially from those who used to get scary returns saying that the post was potentially dangerous.
Look forward to hearing back as that’s the only way I can even attempt to figure out if the issues are behind me.
My best.
Geneva, NY, sits at the northern end of Seneca Lake, one of the Finger Lakes. It’s home to the Hobart William and Smith Colleges, many vineyards and some beautiful nineteenth century buildings.
I was there because my granddaughter, a HWS alumnae, has spent her summer running the Geneva Theater Guild Youth program. She produced Mary Poppins with a large cast of kids aged ten to eighteen. The play, which ran for three packed performances, was staged in the Smith Opera House which opened October 29, 1894. The building was restored in the 1990s returning the original 1894 façade and the interior to its 1931 eclectic art deco opulence. The theater’s ceiling was also restored featuring twinkling stars in blue sky.
Mary Poppins had a live orchestra, lovely sets with some rented painted backdrops and well-done choreography. The performers were terrific especially the kids playing Mary P. and Bert, the chimney sweep,
(Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyck in the original movie.)
Just Us, a bunch of good old boys who play various gigs in Geneva
Getting from New York City to Geneva takes a little work. I flew to Rochester, NY and took an incredibly pricey Uber from the airport to Geneva’s Hilton Inn. Arriving Friday evening I walked next door to an adorable bar that had once been a gas station where a terrific country and western ban, Just Us, was playing. Much whooping, hollering and dancing.
Saturday I walked all over downtown first stopping at Stomping Grounds which sounds more like a coffee place than the old bookstore it is. Working Class Coffee provided a blueberry scone the size of my head. Sitting at the lake was lovely as was the Saturday Farmer’s Market where I bought flowers from a Menonite 
family to give to my granddaughter post-show. My always-painful neck enjoyed a massage at a local spa before another night at the Hilton where my bed had all the stability of a bouncy castle.
The Saturday evening performance was a rousing success. Very early Sunday morning we managed to fit in breakfast with the producer whose plans included helping strike the set returning props and other production duties. (When not involved with theater she teaches elementary school.)
The whole weekend was great: the musical, the cute town (population 12,500) and the family time.
In keeping with the Mary Poppins theme, the recipe builds on Just a Spoonful of Sugar Makes the Medicine Go Down. Here’s a recipe for easy sugar cookies:
Sugar Cookies recipe from Amber Brady at Dessert Now, Dinner Later
Optional
If you feel like putting in extra effort sprinkle the sugar over the cookies. If you don’t just pass them. Points added if you know the Mary Poppins score and sing it while passing and eating. Points deleted if your audience asks that you stop singing. Spit spot and toast P.L. Travers who wrote the original book.
Toronto has a population of three million but compared to New York City feels far less crowded and noisy. I’m basing this far from scientific observation on a recent six-day visit.
My friend C lives in a spacious condo in an almost parklike setting. It feels distant from “downtown” but it’s only a few minutes away. Many of her family members live close by enabling lots of time together.
While there we watched Ted Lasso which I’d somehow let slip by. It’s charming but can’t say I became a huge fan. We ate well, enjoyed lots of wine, caught up on the past and cooked together.
The Gardiner Museum is devoted to ceramics. The physical space is light and airy; the exhibits are terrific. So is the gift shop but buying ceramics that would require shipping seemed silly do I didn’t.
Tilting moves the liquid.
Among the current exhibits was the International Ceramic Art Fair full of contemporary work. There are also areas devoted to the kind of porcelain (Chinese export and related) I have far too much of but, as it largely belonged to my family, can’t jettison. After lots of viewing we had a delightful lunch at Clay, the museum restaurant.
Also loved the Bata Shoe Museum showcasing, hardly surprisingly, footwear. The exhibit devoted to artifacts from Vindolanda, a Roman auxiliary fort just south of Hadrian’s Wall in England. So many variants on sandals! Also on view are items capitulating the history of footwear including “shoes” from all over the world—these Indian paduka from Jaipur were likely for a very formal occasion. If you’re into the American Wild West you can see a display of cowboy boots.
Indian Paduca –tread carefully
One night we went to Sorrel, an excellent restaurant in a hot area of the city where prices seemed high to me because the American dollar is high compared to the Canadian. The grilled artichokes and my bouillabaisse were great. Another night we whipped up quite a good pasta with shrimp, beans, fennel and crushed tomatoes courtesy of the New York Times cooking site.
Compared to New Yorkers, Torontonions, (how they style themselves), are incredibly polite. Even airport personnel are polite! I saw fewer dogs than at home but perhaps wasn’t in a particularly dog-enhanced area. The city feels less foreign than London, Paris or Palermo, probably because it’s part of North America. After all, we speak the same language although Canadians have certain advantages like a different government and universal health care which my friend says works well although certain situations require a long wait.
Although C mentioned butter tarts we didn’t eat them. However, I can see why they would be delicious.
Canadian Butter Tarts
Preheat oven to 375F. In the bowl of a stand-up mixer, combine corn syrup, melted butter and brown sugar. Add eggs and mix well. Add lemon juice and vanilla and mix well. Stir in the pecans and raisins.
Place the tarts on a rimmed cookie sheet. Fill the tarts with the mixture and bake for 12-15 min., until golden. They will puff up and then fall back down. Cool and serve.
Sing Oh Canada while you pass them around. I don’t know the words as I focus on this anthem only during televised Olympics, nor do I plan to make the tarts which my friend described as similar to pecan pie. I love pecan pie but it’s a dessert for cooler weather than we are currently experiencing. Even though I’m a hot weather person this has gotten out of control. I don’t long for winter (far from it) but a little moderation would be welcome.
Perhaps because I staged-managed Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit at college, I find certain forms of spiritualism interesting. When I saw that the Morgan Library was offering tarot card readings I jumped. I almost didn’t make it because there was space for only twelve people and I was the twelfth in line.
Before my reading I checked out the exhibit, Tarot! Renaissance Symbols, Modern Visions. I know very little about tarot but many of the designs are beautiful and the attendees, many in highly original outfits, made for great people- watching.
Tarot originated in Renaissance Italy but wasn’t associated with the occult for many centuries.. On display in the exhibit’s first gallery are the Visconti-Sforza Tarot cards, the most famous surviving Renaissance deck. (J.P. Morgan was a tarot fan who acquired thirty-five rare cards from this deck.)
The second gallery deals with twentieth century mystics and works by artists including Niki de Saint Phalle, Betye Saar, and Chris Ofili.
I got my ticket at five PM but my reading wasn’t until seven thirty (which turned into eight pm as sessions were running late.) In between I had a very late lunch of a delicious turkey salad at the café; read and went to the exhibit.
The reader, Rhonda Alin, (www.rhondaalin.com) was a
Rhonda Alin, Tarot reader
charming woman who gets booked for parties and events. She began by asking me if I wanted a ‘general’ reading or preferred to focus on a specific. I chose a specific which I won’t go into.
Rhonda began by shuffling the cards many times, cutting them and shuffling some more. She cut the deck into three equal parts and began her reading.
The outcome was sort of positive but left many avenues open which I suspect is true of other quasi-occult practices like horoscope reading or plain old fortune telling. Years ago I had my palm read by a fortune teller in India; I told him absolutely nothing about myself and was amazed when he told me many specifics about my life.
The Morgan reading was fun. Will what I learned influence any behaviors? Will the outcomes suggested really happen? I haven’t the faintest idea. I do know that this turkey salad is quite different than the Morgan’s which included paper-thin watermelon radishes, goat cheese and a sprinkle of some ingredient I couldn’t identify. This also assumes you have leftover turkey which might be true right after Thanksgiving.
Turkey Salad (Go right ahead and use chicken)
Turkey Salad a la Morgan
4 cups chopped leftover turkey
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons sugar (personally I’d omit this)
1/2 cup finely diced celery
1/4 cup sliced scallions
2 teaspoons chopped fresh dill
Combine all in a bowl. Mix together well. Taste and add salt and pepper if needed.
Read your horoscope if you like. Read Blithe Spirit or find it on YouTube—it’s dated but charming. Unhappy with your home décor? Engage a feng shui expert. If you want to get truly entangled with tarot, look it up in Wikipedia.
Oh, and the Nine of Cups is known as the “Wish Card” in tarot. It represents emotional fulfillment, satisfaction, and abundance. It didn’t turn up in my reading.
The huge DuPont family is descended from Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours, (1739–1817), a minor French aristocrat. The family has been staggeringly wealthy since the mid-19th century when they founded their fortune in gunpowder.
Among the pleasures of the family were gardens and collecting. Happily for their communities, largely in southern PA and Delaware, they were also into philanthropy.
I recently visited Longwood Gardens and Winthurtur, both developed by DuPonts though different branches of the family, some of whom spell their name with variations.
Longwood was originally home to the Lenape people. In 1700 a large piece of property was bought by the Peirce family who began developing a huge arboretum that ultimately deteriorated; when the trees were about to be cut down by a lumber company it was bought by Pierre S. Du Pont. Today 1,100 acres include huge gardens, some formal and others wilder; acres of flowers under glass roofs in conservatories and fountains with displays accompanied by music. 
There are walks, conservation programs, holiday events, special programs for kids and more. There is a large organ and a behind-the-scenes- look at its inner workings.
The gardens are gorgeous with different blooms depending on the season. You can walk miles or sit and enjoy sights in front of you. (I walked.) Lucky for me while far from empty the place was relatively uncrowded, perhaps due to my visiting on a weekday and some not wanting to fork over thirty to thirty-eight dollars for a ticket.
Pierre DuPont was president of DuPont from 1915 to 1919 and on the Board until 1940. He became president of General Motors and was on its Board. Married at age forty-five to his first cousin, Alice Belin, the couple had no children. Interested in education, Du Pont built many schools in the Brandywine area.
If Longwood is outstanding for its estate, trees and plants, Winthurtur, in nearby Delaware, is noted for collections. Owned by Henry Francis du Pont , a cousin of Pierre’s, it has incredible, enormous old-growth trees and a gigantic collection of well, everything: china, pottery, books, silver, furniture and more. The house, now a museum, contains 175 period-room displays and approximately 90,000 objects. To make space for his burgeoning collections, HF removed bathrooms and closets from the (large, not particularly beautiful) house. In 1951 The Galleries, a separate, purpose-built space that houses more objects and displays, was built. At a certain point I got furnitured-out.
There is a shuttle from the Visitors Center that winds through gardens and deposits you where you wish including at the house. Mike, my shuttle driver, described what we were seeing as “outstanding” or ‘amazing’ at least twenty times.
Both properties have cafes offering typical caffe food. Each also has a fine dining restaurant – if this interests you make a reservation well in advance.
It’s easy to see each property in a day. I’m still unsure of which I preferred as Longwood is more grand open spaces and Winthurtur more about the accumulation of beautiful ‘things.’ If you visit the area see both.
Recipes from the Du Ponts include macaroons which I’m skipping as my macaroon experience took hours and wasn’t very good. I may also not serve this drink which was called the Hotel Du Pont and served at the Wilmington, Del. hotel it is named for.
Hotel Du Pont Cocktail
Combine Cognac, sherry and bitters in a mixing glass half-filled with ice. Stir until chilled, about 15 seconds. Strain into a chilled coupe (assuming you have one. If you substitute a regular glass the Du Pont ghosts won’t be bothered.) Squeeze orange twist over drink and drop in.
A votre santé as the Du Ponts may have said.
After six weeks in Mexico City, it was time for me and my cat, Sake, to come home.
To make the trip less burdensome, I decided to ship one bag via DHL. When I arrived at the office bag in tow I was the only customer. The young man at the desk appeared to think my request for shipping was peculiar, as though I’d asked him to cut my hair. A large group of locals, i.e., native Spanish-speakers, turned up and he took care of each of them 
which took about an hour. Afterwards, the guy seemed so unable to fulfill my request I called another DHL office and hustled there as they were closing for lunch at one and it was already 12:20.
At DHL #2 a young woman efficiently managed the process assuring me that “they only shipped express” so my bag would arrive the following day. (It didn’t but as all it contained was dirty laundry it wasn’t a problem.)
A friend staying with me at that point had arranged to be on my flight but, late in the game, American Airlines changed my flight time so that couldn’t happen. Off I went to the airport where at check-in the woman at the desk said she had to see my cat “to make sure
Sake at home
she wasn’t tranquilized.” (Of course she was with gabapentin, the Valium of the feline world.) I took Sake out wondering if the agent planned to shake her paw; the woman briefly glanced at her and said OK. Then to security.
So that only the carrier and not the animal goes through the x-ray screening, I removed the cat from the carrier and was told to carry her in outstretched arms through the people scanner. Then the screener motioned us to a platform and told me to hold the cat’s head firmly. She ran her hands all over the animal’s body, presumably checking that no drugs had been secreted anywhere in or on her.
The actual flight was routine and on time which I should be grateful for—it’s an airplane, not a spa or a restaurant. Because I had a large credit I flew business class which was beyond spartan: no pillow, no blanket, no entertainment unless you wanted to use your own earphones and phone or tablet and a meager, cold coffee breakfast.
We landed at JFK, deplaned, went through Global Entry and into a regular yellow cab relatively fast. The cab made loud grinding sounds until, on the Long Island Expressway with cars whizzing past,
Anyone else long for this model?
it died completely. Somehow the driver made it to the right-side railing so the traffic could pass. After a few minutes, I called Uber and explained. The Uber guy said he would come but it would take a while. It did. Finally he pulled up and I transferred luggage, self and cat to the new car.
Finally, both of us reeking of cat pee, (Sake’s a good traveler but by now been in her carrier well over twelve hours) we made it to our apartment. The ‘express’ bag I shipped turned up four days later.
Nuts are almost all that’s served on airlines and come in little bags that can be hard to open. These spiced nuts are delicious and come in the serving bowl you select.
Mexican Chili-Lime Nuts courtesy Patrick Calhoun
1 cup roasted cashews or peanuts
1 teaspoon chipotle powder (substitute smoked paprika unless you happen to have this around )
1/8 teaspoon cayenne powder
1/2 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lime juice
1 teaspoon lime zest
1 teaspoon salt
Directions:
Preheat oven to 300F
Add all ingredients for the chili-lime mixture to a bowl and mix well
Add the nuts and stir to coat
Put nuts on a lined baking sheet (meaning lined with parchment paper or use a Silpat) and put into oven
Turn off oven heat and let residual heat dry out the nuts for 10-15 minutes
Serve immediately or store in an airtight container
In Spanish these nuts are Cacahuates Enchilados. They could be offered with margaritas, mezcalitas, beer or cold water. Or you could serve cat kibble but I suspect you would enjoy the nuts more.
I thought I had a reasonably large vocabulary but this stumped me. It means “unshod” or “barefoot,” referring to Catholic religious orders whose members wear sandals instead of shoes as a sign of poverty, penance, and reform.
You could call Johnny Appleseed or Mahatma Gandhi discalceled. 
In search of another well-known unshod figure, in Mexico City I visited the Museo de El Carmen in the neighborhood of San Angel.
Built between 1615 and 1626, the convent was founded in June 1615 by the Discalced Carmelites. The Colonial Baroque building opened as a museum in 1938 and houses numerous pieces of religious art and a collection of twelve naturally mummified bodies of former benefactors, priests, 
and wealthy parishioners interred in the crypt. The crypt floor is raised and the space dimly lit but you can walk among the mummies, some wrapped in now-darkened white fabric.
El Carmen has a lovely cloister with rose bushes at the sides and a blue-and-white tiled fountain in the center. Inside is a series of four lavabos, used for hand-washing usually before meals and/or worship, also made of tiles.
Carmelite nuns lived a cloistered, contemplative life dedicated to prayer, silence, and solitude, designed to foster a deep, intimate relationship with God. These followers of St. Teresa of Avila worked the large garden around the building providing members of the order with most of what they ate. On the second floor are former cells; number one was open but instead of a bed it now holds a desk with a skull and a few other ornaments on it. There are several chapels including one which has been gilded into blinding gold.
In the convent is a painting of St. Teresa in which she wears sandals, accepted by many as equal to no shoes.
Carmelites ate austere meals and no meat with exceptions for those who were sick. This recipe for fava bean soup comes from a contemporary Carmelite newsletter.
Carmelite Fava Bean Soup
Note: If you are using dried shelled fava beans, reduce the amount of beans to 2 cups, add 4 cups of boiling water, and cook on medium-low until beans are tender, about 40 minutes, before adding baking soda.
I might skip this delight and 
simply have a Margarita, Mezcalita, (Margarita’s cousin made with mezcal instead of tequila), or pulque, which is the fermented sap of the maguey or agave plant. The drink looks milky, has a low alcohol content and a slightly sweet taste. Or I might reflect on the friendly kindness of the many people I met in Mexico who cheerfully helped with directions and, with one exception, dealt patiently with my miserable Spanish.
and to the Jamaica Market that sells everything under the sun but specializes in flowers. I 
lugged home a huge bunch of sunflowers.
Spanish class group one
Olmec head
A very small selection of what’s available
Jane Austen
Pre-pandemic, a friend and I took a day trip from London to Chawton, Jane Austen’s house. We traveled by train from London to Winchester and then boarded a bus but failed to hop off at the correct stop. Instead, we disembarked at the Chawton Roundabout and had to cross a terrifyingly busy two-way road. Yelling “Jane, here we come,” and moving at top speed we made it.
I remember Jane’s writing desk, a small oval tilt-top table. (Very small. A reproduction of the desk was in the Jane exhibit at the Morgan Library.) Chawton also displayed some modest family jewelry, letters, copies of Austin’s books and a charming kitchen. This house is where Jane Austen wrote, revised and published Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. For a virtual tour of Chawton click here: https://janeaustens.house/online-exhibition/virtual-tour-of-jane-austens-house/
Later that day we went to Winchester Cathedral where Jane is buried. She was forty-one when she died, possibly from Addison’s Disease, but no one is entirely sure of the cause of her death.
After Shakespeare Jane Austin is arguably the best-known author in the English language. As 2025 was the 250th anniversary of Austin’s birth, exhibitions abound. The Grolier Club in NYC has a delightful one, Paper Jane: 250 Years of Austen. (It runs through February 14, 2026.)
The first section of the exhibit explores Austen’s early reputation that began when her first novel, Sense and Sensibility, was printed anonymously and at her own expense. (There are very few Austin first editions as readers in Jane’s era bound new books to match the rest of their libraries, probably the height of chic.)
Another part of the exhibition showcases literary works by Austen family members that include family histories and fan fiction. There are also Austen-related works such as Goodnight Mr. Darcy, a parody of the children’s classic, Goodnight Moon, and a book titled Pride and Prejudice in Space.
One section of the exhibit, “Pinking Austen,” recalls the 1960s when publishers appealed to women with budget paperbacks of literary classics, Austen’s among them.
From 1925 to 1975, many Austen works were featured on stage and screen. The 1940 film of Pride and Prejudice with Greer Garson and Lawrence Olivier was shown at the time when Americans were deciding whether to join Britain and its allies fighting against Hitler. Adrian, (aka Adrian Adolph Greenberg), who designed the women’s costumes, must have skipped his research as in the film the women wear hoopskirts reminiscent of the antebellum American South. Oops.
More Southern than Regency
Here is a Jane era recipe:
White Soup from Pride and Prejudice (attributed to Martha Lloyd who lived with the Austen ladies at Jane Austen’s House; in the novel Mr. Bingley mentions serving it at the Netherfield Ball.)
2½ quarts water (about 10½ cups)
2 chicken thighs
½ pound bacon (about 8–9 oz)
¾ cup white rice
1 anchovy or about ½ teaspoon anchovy paste
2-3 whole peppercorns
Thyme, bay leaf, and parsley (maybe ½ tsp thyme, one bay leaf, small bunch of chopped parsley)
2 small to medium onions, roughly chopped
2 celery ribs, roughly chopped
¼ pound ground sugared almonds (about 4 oz )
1 cup heavy cream
1 egg yolk
Directions:
In a large saucepan, simmer together the soup bones, water, chicken, bacon, rice, anchovies, peppercorns, herbs, onions, and celery, for two hours over a low flame.
Strain through a sieve into another large clean pot.
Let sit overnight in the fridge.
Next day skim the top of the broth to remove any scummy bits.
Add the ground sugared almonds and bring to a boil.
Strain through a sieve so it catches the almond pieces. (Lots of workouts for you and your sieve here.)
Mix together egg yolk and cream, stir into the soup, and serve.
Mr. Bingley notwithstanding, I rather doubt anyone plans to attempt this soup but it gives you an idea of Regency-style tastes. Better to offer a glass of Champagne, a cup of tea or 
any other drink and toast Jane. Enhance the experience with music popular in the Regency era –anything by Beethoven, Rossini, Liszt, or Mendelssohn will do beautifully.
