Endless Knots

Thanksgiving 2009 leftovers

I've made a practice of posting our Thanksgiving menu each year but somehow I didn't quite manage to get this up in advance. So regard this post as a memento similar to the crumpled aluminum foil covering the turkey carcass in the fridge - a reminder of something delicious that perhaps you've lost most interest in.

Our Thanksgiving had the added pleasure of Dutch guests, fitting as this is the 400th anniversary of the Dutch coming to New York, where our meal took place.

One thing of note this year. Discovered that Fine Cooking had a wonderful feature allowing you to choose a dish, get the menu, AND create a shopping list with all your chosen items on it, amounts calculated to include everything. So instead of your sitting around thinking, gee, this calls for 3 carrots and that calls for 5 carrots, the Fine Cooking site automatically adds everything up for you. Great service. Thanks. Suggestion, Fine Cooking: create a little script that allows users to export the list to their favorite online grocery site, Fresh Direct, for instance, thus saving a lot of time picking the list again.

Thanksgiving Menu 2009:

Brined Turkey with ParsleySageRosemary&Thyme Butter
--Excellent but Empire Turkeys come with many pin feathers requiring too much prep time
--also molded some of the butter to serve with rolls

Mushroom Stuffing
--cooked in muffin tins so each person had a little stuffing muffin (my recipe)

Roasted Cauliflower with Lemon Brown Butter and Sage Salt
--superb recipe from NY Times

Sweet Potato and Grits Spoon Bread
--this was the hit of the meal - many steps but worth the trouble

Smashed Potatoes with Sour Cream and Chives
--excellent and just like it sounds, very easy, finished in the KitchenAid

Cranberry Sauce with Orange and Rosemary
--really good, even if you don't like cranberry sauce

Roasted Kale
--similar to this recipe; can't beat it for nutritional value and taste, plus someone in our family is addicted to kale, which, as addictions go...

Assorted rolls

Apple Pie with Vanilla Ice Cream

Pumpkin Pie with Whipped Cream

Engaging with Grace - encore performance

Last Thanksgiving weekend, many of us bloggers participated in the first documented “blog rally” to promote Engage With Grace – a movement aimed at having all of us understand and communicate our end-of-life wishes. It was a great success, with over 100 bloggers in the healthcare space and beyond participating and spreading the word. Plus, it was timed to coincide with a weekend when most of us are with the very people with whom we should be having these tough conversations – our closest friends and family.

Our original mission – to get more and more people talking about their end of life wishes – hasn’t changed. But it’s been quite a year – so we thought this holiday, we’d try something different. 

A bit of levity.

At the heart of Engage With Grace are five questions designed to get the conversation started. We’ve included them at the end of this post.  They’re not easy questions, but they are important.

To help ease us into these tough questions, and in the spirit of the season, we thought we’d start with five parallel questions that ARE pretty easy to answer:

 

Silly? Maybe. But it underscores how having a template like this – just five questions in plain, simple language – can deflate some of the complexity, formality, and even misnomers that have sometimes surrounded the end-of-life discussion. 

So with that, we’ve included the five questions from Engage With Grace below. Think about them, document them, share them.

Over the past year there’s been a lot of discussion around end of life. And we’ve been fortunate to hear a lot of the more uplifting stories, as folks have used these five questions to initiate the conversation.

One man shared how surprised he was to learn that his wife’s preferences were not what he expected. Befitting this holiday, The One Slide now stands sentry on their fridge.

Wishing you and yours a holiday that’s fulfilling in all the right ways.

(To learn more please go to www.engagewithgrace.org. This post was written by Alexandra Drane and the Engage With Grace team. )

 

 

What to ask your doc about MS

A few weeks ago, I had the chance to meet Jen Laskey, who writes for Everyday Health (among other places), part of a network of health-related sites with good, practical information. Jen referred me on to this excellent post of hers with questions MS patients can bring to their doctors. Comprehensive, well-organized, nicely written - the whole shebang. Really helpful, Jen.

Another list for virtual teams

Good post on virtual team communication here.

Apple: "Do right" company, at least for this devoted fan, er, customer

I've never been good at hiding my enthusiasms. Thus more than one post here about Apple and the geniuses behind the bar. I've been addicted since the first Apple machine made its way into our house when our kids were little and, save a few years when incompatibility with client systems made its use secondary (those days are long in the past), I've been a happy collector of a long stream of machines.

Almost problem free until that dreaded night in September when my hard drive crashed. Crashed is not sufficiently descriptive. Obliterated three years of work, email, addresses, articles, essays, books, photos...shall I continue?

Did I panic? No, not exactly. I had Time Machine, the "infallible" backup utility that works with Apple's newest operating system, Snow Leopard. It had been running for over a year, the little clock spinning counterclockwise (not sure this makes sense, ultimately, but never mind that). All I had to do was reunite with my backup drive (which I was separated from due to wonderful circumstances).

My drive and I got back together shortly thereafter...and then the horrible reality emerged. Time Machine had not worked, not recorded anything, zippo, zero. I explained the glitch in detail in this post. Briefly, and horrifyingly, Time Machine doesn't** work when one's machine name has non-ASCII characters in it. Huh? Every machine has a name; in my case, the Apple salesperson assigned it when I bought this machine, calling it, brilliantly, "Jessica Lipnack's MacBook Pro 15-inch." That would have two such offending characters in it - the ' and the -. Unfortunately, and contrary to what one would think about Apple's good user support, Time Machine does not issue a warning for this situation; in fact, it appears that the backup system is working, clock spinning and all.

I won't review the many hassles since - except to say that two months and counting, I'm still trying to obtain fully usable files from the disk recovery company, Kroll OnTrack. They're trying, which I appreciate, but we're not there yet.

Apple, meanwhile, has done something quite remarkable. After many calls, escalations, hours on the help line, conversations with very senior technical people and people in customer service, I received a reimbursement from the company a couple of weeks ago. They've asked me not to reveal the precise amount, which I, as a business person, am honoring. Every customer situation is different and I have to agree with them. From my perspective, mine is particularly awful: A 25-year customer and unpaid evangelist for the company experiences horrendous consequences from a malfunctioning product, incalculable, really, in terms of what has slipped away.

Where does this leave me? Convinced that Apple listens, that it, in this case, has honestly owned up to a mistake, and heard that there ultimately is no way to completely fix what happened to me and my files.

What to do going forward? Time Machine is up and running now that I've changed my machine name; the little clock is spinning; I've checked that the files are there (my bad, Apple, for not double checking instead of taking it for granted that spinning meant working); and I'm waiting for the release of a Snow Leopard-compatible version of Carbonite, redundancy being the only remedy in the digital world.

Thanks, Apple. You done right by this woman.

**According to this note on the Apple site, the problem was fixed in the 10.5.2 OSX update.

Apple: "Do right" company, at least for this devoted fan, er, customer

I've never been good at hiding my enthusiasms. Thus more than one post here about Apple and the geniuses behind the bar. I've been addicted since the first Apple machine made its way into our house when our kids were little and, save a few years when incompatibility with client systems made its use secondary (those days are long in the past), I've been a happy collector of a long stream of machines.

Almost problem free until that dreaded night in September when my hard drive crashed. Crashed is not sufficiently descriptive. Obliterated three years of work, email, addresses, articles, essays, books, photos...shall I continue?

Did I panic? No, not exactly. I had Time Machine, the "infallible" backup utility that works with Apple's newest operating system, Snow Leopard. It had been running for over a year, the little clock spinning counterclockwise (not sure this makes sense, ultimately, but never mind that). All I had to do was reunite with my backup drive (which I was separated from due to wonderful circumstances).

My drive and I got back together shortly thereafter...and then the horrible reality emerged. Time Machine had not worked, not recorded anything, zippo, zero. I explained the glitch in detail in this post. Briefly, and horrifyingly, Time Machine doesn't** work when one's machine name has non-ASCII characters in it. Huh? Every machine has a name; in my case, the Apple salesperson assigned it when I bought this machine, calling it, brilliantly, "Jessica Lipnack's MacBook Pro 15-inch." That would have two such offending characters in it - the ' and the -. Unfortunately, and contrary to what one would think about Apple's good user support, Time Machine does not issue a warning for this situation; in fact, it appears that the backup system is working, clock spinning and all.

I won't review the many hassles since - except to say that two months and counting, I'm still trying to obtain fully usable files from the disk recovery company, Kroll OnTrack. They're trying, which I appreciate, but we're not there yet.

Apple, meanwhile, has done something quite remarkable. After many calls, escalations, hours on the help line, conversations with very senior technical people and people in customer service, I received a reimbursement from the company a couple of weeks ago. They've asked me not to reveal the precise amount, which I, as a business person, am honoring. Every customer situation is different and I have to agree with them. From my perspective, mine is particularly awful: A 25-year customer and unpaid evangelist for the company experiences horrendous consequences from a malfunctioning product, incalculable, really, in terms of what has slipped away.

Where does this leave me? Convinced that Apple listens, that it, in this case, has honestly owned up to a mistake, and heard that there ultimately is no way to completely fix what happened to me and my files.

What to do going forward? Time Machine is up and running now that I've changed my machine name; the little clock is spinning; I've checked that the files are there (my bad, Apple, for not double checking instead of taking it for granted that spinning meant working); and I'm waiting for the release of a Snow Leopard-compatible version of Carbonite, redundancy being the only remedy in the digital world.

Thanks, Apple. You done right by this woman.

**According to this note on the Apple site, the problem was fixed in the 10.5.2 OSX update.

Listening to their words

The talented writers who read--and teach--in the Solstice MFA program will warm up the winter nights of January. Plan ahead. I always publish the press release from the program (the only program for which this is so) because I love this series and have been going since it started.

THE SOLSTICE MFA IN CREATIVE WRITING PROGRAM OF PINE MANOR COLLEGE
ANNOUNCES ITS JANUARY READING SERIES

[Chestnut Hill, MA, November, 2009]  The Solstice MFA Program announces its Winter Reading Series, taking place January 1–8 in the Founder’s Room of Pine Manor College, located at 400 Heath Street in Chestnut Hill. *All readings are at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Authors’ books will be available after all readings; cash-bar receptions will follow the readings on January 3 & 7. Plenty of free parking!
 
Friday, January 1 

Tanya Whiton & Dzvinia Orlowsky
MFA Assistant Director and fiction writer Tanya Whiton & Dzvinia Orlowsky (author of four poetry collections, most recently Convertible Night, Flurry of Stones).
 
*Saturday, January 2 at 8:00

Venise Berry, Meg Kearney, & Laban Carrick Hill
Venise Berry (author of four novels, including the forthcoming Pockets of Sanity);
MFA Director and poet Meg Kearney (author of An Unkindness of Ravens & Home By Now); & Laban Carrick Hill (author of America Dreaming: How Youth Changed America in the 60s).
 
Sunday, January 3

Anne-Marie Oomen & Special Guest M.L. Liebler
Memoirist and poet Anne-Marie Oomen (author of the forthcoming An American Map) & special guest poet (with musical accompaniment by Anthony Kaczynski) M.L. Liebler (author of 13 books, including Wide Awake in Someone Else’s Dream).
 

Tuesday, January 5

Special Guest Melissa Stewart & Steven Huff
Melissa Stewart (author of numerous children’s books, including Under the Snow) & Steven Huff (author of two poetry collections and the short fiction collection A Pig in Paris).
 
Wednesday, January 6

Laura W. McCaffrey, Ray Gonzalez, & Sandra Scofield
Speculative fiction writer Laura Williams McCaffrey (author of the forthcoming Lyla’s Flight); Ray Gonzalez (author of Faith Run and Cool Auditor: Prose Poems); and Sandra Scofield (National Book Award Finalist for Beyond Deserving; author of seven novels, a memoir, and a craft book).
 
Thursday, January 7

Randall Kenan & Special Guest Dorothy Allison
Multi-genre writer Randall Kenan (author of several books of fiction and nonfiction, including Let the Dead Bury Their Dead and The Fire This Time) & special guest Dorothy Allison (author of National Book Award finalist Bastard Out of Carolina; Cavedweller; and the forthcoming She Who.
 
Friday, January 8

An Na, Amy Hoffman, & Special Guest Ira Sadoff
An Na (author of The Fold; Wait For Me; and A Step From Heaven); Amy Hoffman (author of the memoirs Hospital Time and An Army of Ex-Lovers); & special guest Ira Sadoff (author of seven collections of poetry, including the recent Barter and Grazing).
 
Directions to Pine Manor College, complete bios of authors, and more information about the Solstice MFA in Creative Writing Program can be found here.

Wild Feasties: Where food IS art

Heading to Miami for Art Basel and its associated fairs in early December? There, at Verge Art Fair, you can enjoy the aesthetic of consumption (and say hello to one of its creators, Daughter #2):

Wild Feasties is a loose collective of artists and naturalists who all engage with food within their creative endeavors. These endeavors may take place in the studio, in the kitchen, or out in the world. Through our events, we aim for our guests to have an artful food experience; one that stirs the senses, both literally and figuratively. Our cuisine is typically simple, with an emphasis on celebrating the incredible taste of farm fresh vegetables. Wild Feasties events emerge from the location upon which they are set. The menu is determined entirely by what the harvest brings.

At Verge, Miami the Wild Feasties presents a dining experience in an unusual location, using whole food ingredients, where participants are asked to engage and follow a series of instructions and ritual to share a delectable vegetarian meal. Wild Feasties uses the routine of eating as a way of inserting instruction, interactivity, natural foods education, wild food concocting, tasting, experimenting with taste, seasoning with potions, and bringing a sense of true nourishment in a moment of chaotic artistic social affairs.

 

"Talk" about riveting prose

Don't know if you can view this article if you're not a New Yorker subscriber but do whatever you need to in order to read it. "Talk This Way," Alec Wilkinson's portrait of a man who clearly stumbled upon his natural talent then found a way to pick himself up and run is an original. I, for one, knew nothing about how actors learn accents, even as I've marveled at the flawlessness of many. Tim Monich, profiled in depth here, may be the answer. Matt Damon, Hilary Swank, Brad Pitt, Shia LeBeouff and no doubt a much longer list have Monich to thank for sounding variously South African, Amelia Earhartian, German, and as if they're from LungEyeland. One of those couldn't-put-it-down pieces.

Is it really "a great question?"

Another one of those common parlance things that's fun to keep track of - maybe for one meeting's worth... How many times in one day do you hear this? "That's a great question." Is it? Really?