I’m going home, sort of, for Thanksgiving – not to my childhood home, but to my sister’s house which is not too far away from where I grew up. This time of year is very evocative for me. We would pile into the station wagon (all seven of us) and drive 6 hours to visit my grandmothers in Milwaukee every year.

At one grandmother’s house, we played bocce. Inside. I can still hear those balls banging against the hall doors. We drank a seemingly unlimited supply of soda, got to eat those little boxes of cereal, played games and built towering structures with blocks all weekend long with our rowdy cousins.

At my other grandmother’s house, we sat quietly and ate Thanksgiving dinner. After I finished eating, I would read back issues of Reader’s Digest or admire the delicate items in my grandmother’s china cabinet.

And the day after Thanksgiving? Bowling. Bowling for dollars.

So, today’s handmade picks are inspired both by my childhood home (a farm, with several big red barns, a corn field and lots of pets running around), and by memories of my grandmothers’ homes and many years of fun-filled Thanksgivings.

Old Barn, 8 x 12″ photograph ($30) by Jude McConkey
Long Sleeve Chicken Baby Tee  ($17) by Silk Oak
Chevy Station Wagon, letterpress set of 5 cards ($12) by Pistachio Press
Upcycled Cereal Box Tote Bag ($38) by It’s Our Earth
Soda Pop, Series of 3 Prints, Limited Edition ($50) by Color Box Design
Box with Secret Compartment from Readers Digest Book ($35) by Hooligan Sisters
Organic Building Blocks ($22) by Little Sapling Toys
Red Bowling Set ($34) by Green Bee Goods

For all of you in the US, I hope you have a great holiday. See you back here on Monday!

Have you ever gone through a day where you moan and begroan the pitfalls of your life?   Where you just don’t think there is another thing you can deal with.  Or, why does this bad thing have to happen to me?   Or asked why things can’t be easier.  Or why can’t I have this thing I really need, or okay, maybe I only really want it.   But I really really want it.  I do it almost daily.  If not daily, a lot more than I should.  I read something about praying the other day that really got to me.  I can not remember where I read it.  But it was a comment about how people pray for things to be taken care of, healed, made better, or given to them.  Instead of the grace to deal with what is going on in one’s life.   I paraphrase, maybe it was something Molly wrote?

I sometimes find myself talking about an ache or a pain.  Not with any intention of whining.  But just talk about it because it is there.  I’m dealing with it, or trying to find a way to deal with it.  But it occurs to me, usually too late, that my talking about a pain may sound like a plea for pity or sympathy.  I need to consider that more when I talk about ‘me’.  And then I start thinking, maybe I shouldn’t think so much about ‘me’.  I found myself thinking after I read the comment about prayer.  I thought to myself, God, thank you for not giving me the same kind of pain Jesus had to bare, because I could not have done it.  I could not have carried the weight of his pain for a second, let alone for all that he did.  Thank you, in every respect, for minimizing my pain.

Then I think about the suffering that this world sees on a daily, every second of every day basis.  I have nothing to complain about when I open my eyes to the suffering and loss of others.  I get reminders every where in life, that this world is full of pain that I know I would be crushed under.

And then, I see the lights of love that just seem to flutter around everywhere.  In every place I have seen suffering, I have seen some level of grace.  Of beauty.  How do we become aware of travesties and injustices half way around the world?  It starts with one person seeing it, recognizing it and acting on it.  Even if the only act one person can do is make two more people aware.  For every point of pain, there is a point of sympathy, compassion, and often help.  Sometimes the only help that is available, is compassion and love.  There are some moments, and some situations, that when I become aware of them it leaves a huge sucking hole in my chest.  And sometimes all I can do is hurt for the person, the situation, the tragedy.  But I do hurt.  And if I can do nothing else, I will be aware enough to hurt.

I’ve been thinking about this because of recent tragedies in the news.  Another mother, daughter and wife is taken by cancer.  Another child dies a terrible death.  Another officer has to choose to act or suffer unknown consequences.  Another group of children wait helplessly while their father has surgery with a slim chance of any good prognosis.  A friend grieves the loss of his best friend.

Then I think of prayer.  And I pray that the family who lost their mother, wife, and daughter are surrounded by love of family, friends and community who are grateful for her advocating and selfless search to make life better for women after her.  I pray that the child who died so needlessly is remembered by a community who likely wasn’t even aware of him, but the loss of him will motivate others to protect their neighbor’s child, or at least support those who try to protect other’s children.  I pray that the officer knows his community is safe because he puts himself in the position of having to make a decision many of us could not make.  I pray that the children of the father pull strength from one another and find comfort in not being alone.  I pray that the friend who lost one friend keeps his heart open to the support of all of his friends to help him with his grief.

I hope that the next time I bemoan a problem of my own, I learn to pray for the grace to deal with what is.  Instead of hoping for what it is not, or can not be.  And if I can not pray this for myself, that someone else will pray for me.

I eat hollandaise exactly one time each year. Thanksgiving. With broccoli (though judging by all the pictures on Flickr, most people seem to eat it with asparagus).

Hollandaise is pretty easy to make, if you’re paying attention, but it can curdle if either the heat is too high or if you’re trying to rewarm it.

My dad used to make this every year. This is his recipe (which came from his mother):

Ingredients:
2 egg yolks, beaten with a fork
2 T cream
1 T lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 stick of softened butter, cut into pieces

Directions:
Place a thick pan over low heat, or in a double boiler over hot water barely boiling. Stir in all the ingredients except the butter until it begins to thicken. Add butter a piece at a time, stirring constantly as the sauce thickens. If you want to make more sauce, simply add more butter.  [I love that part of the recipe - you'd never know my family is from Wisconsin].

If your sauce happens to curdle, return it to heat and whisk in an egg yolk, stirring constantly until the sauce thickens again.

You should make the hollandaise when you’re almost done cooking your Thanksgiving meal, so that you can serve it warm (without having to reheat it).

Spoon it over steamed broccoli or asparagus and enjoy!

Photo courtesy fotocuisine

* * *

Tomorrow: My picks for Handmade Wednesday and then I’m taking Thursday and Friday off to spend the Thanksgiving holiday at my sister’s house.

This story was updated today on CBS-2 News.  This couple is still fighting this nightmare of paperwork and conflicting laws between the city and state.  Legislation will finally be introduced in January to hopefully stop the insanity…

CHINO–Under state law, dog-owning residents are required to get their dogs vaccinated for rabies in order to prevent the spread of the disease, but one Chino Hills couple is refusing to do so for fear it might cost their dog’s life.

“I’m not a person trying to buck the system,” said Sam Gadd. “I’m just trying to save my dog. This is a legitimate fight and it has become a passion of mine.”

Sam and his wife Cecilia are the proud owners of five-year-old Molly, a brown English Springer Spaniel, who suffers from auto-immune disease, which enables her immune system to kill her red blood cells. The Gadd’s say they believe Molly received auto-immune disease after receiving her first rabies shot about three years ago. They say another shot may kill her.

“It is my medical opinion that any vaccination of Molly could potentially be detrimental to her health, and may incite another recurrence of her Immune-mediated disease,” wrote the Gadd’s veterinarian, Heather Mineo.

The Gadd’s have received a citation from the Inland Valley Humane Society, which contracts with Chino Hills for animal control services. Gadd says he won’t get the shot and will do whatever it takes to save his dog, even if it means putting Molly into hiding.

“The shot is lethal to my dog,” he said.

Gadd said he would have liked the city to approve a contract amendment or an ordinance that would allow an exemption, but city officials say their legal counsel has advised them to comply with state law.

“Really our legal staff says no they say state law prohibits any type of exemption,” said Councilman Ed Graham. “The county has said that Chino Hills would provide an exemption (for sick dogs) because they allow it in the county, however the humane society and our legal council says that that is incorrect. Our people and the Inland Valley Humane Society has said this correction would have to be done by state law.”

Although it does not offer lifetime exemptions, the Inland Valley Humane Society offers 30 to 90 days extensions to owner’s who are told to fulfill a rabies shot requirement, and those are based on medical review by the humane society’s staff. Bill Harford, executive director of the Inland Valley Humane Society, said his staff has reviewed Molly’s case and he did not agree that Molly would die if she were to be given a rabies shot.

Harford said allowing an exemption would open up his agency and the city to litigation.

“What if that one dog that lives in Chino Hills came in contact with a rabid bat or a rabid skunk and contracted rabies and then bit a baby at a local playground,” Harford said. “Who is liable? The rabies shot is a buffer between the wild community and the human community. We’re safeguarding our responsibility to safeguard the public to make sure we fulfill the local rules and regulations pertaining to rabies control.”

The Gadds say they will do all they can to lobby state lawmakers to change the law. The Gadd’s are encouraging residents statewide to write their legislators to allow an exemption on rabies shots for special cases involving rabies vaccinations that may prove lethal to a dog.

“This is not our fight anymore,” Gadd said.

neil.nisperos@inlandnewspapers.com

(909) 483-9356

By Neil Nisperos – Staff Writer

1 Comments

Councilman Graham received incorrect information from his legal staff because state law DOES include an exemption. This is to be found in the “Compendium of Rabies Control and Prevention, 2004″ (available on the California Department of Public Health’s rabies page, click on CA Rabies Compendium, 2004 to download the document):
http://www.cdph.ca.gov/HEALTHINFO/DISCOND/Pages/rabies.aspx

From Part I on page 6 of the Compendium is to be found this language:

“6. Rabies Immunization Exemptions:

A rabies immunization exemption may be issued by the local health officer upon the written recommendation of a California-licensed veterinarian where illness or a veterinary medical condition in a dog warrants. The exempted animal shall be maintained in strict rabies isolation, under conditions that are at the discretion of the local health officer, until such time as the medical condition has resolved, and the animal can be rabies immunized.”

Also someone might want to check into the Rabies Challenge Fund for additional information:  http://www.rabieschallengefund.org/

October 8, 2009 1:08 AM

Posted:  Just One More Pet

I have seen so many advent calendars lately – I’ll share links to them at the end of this post. But I stumbled across the one above on ikat bag (you may remember she made this amazing princess pavilion and more recently, she made this unbelievably cute little blue playhouse). I decided that the girls and I could have fun making these trees together. Here are ours:

The trees are each made from a quarter of a dinner plat- sized circle, plus a little seam allowance where you glue it together. Here’s the pic from ikat bag of what your trees should look like:

Sometimes I am a little slow to figure things out, so it took a few tries at a template before I got it right. Here are the steps I took:
1). Trace a dinner plate on a piece of paper.
2). Draw a vertical line down the middle of the circle, then draw another line about a quarter inch over for the seam allowance.
3). Cut out the semi-circle by cutting on the line of the seam allowance – see the pencil markings below (the blue paper is just for contrast).

4). Use the semi-circle pattern to trace 11 more semi-circles (12 semi-circles = 24 quadrants/24 trees)
5). Measure and draw a horizontal line across the middle of the semi-circles, to make two quadrants. Each quadrant is a tree. Cut all of your semi-circles into quadrants.

6). And finally, you’ll want to snip a piece of the seam allowance where the top of the cone forms, like in the picture above, so that the tree comes to a nice point.

I hope those directions aren’t too confusing.

I did all of the cutting ahead of time, so that I could let the girls jump right in with the fun part: decorating the trees with stickers, glitter, sequins and stamps. When they were done decorating, I glued each of the trees together.

Instead of making 24 trees, we made 21 trees and then added 3 small presents to the landscape.

I splurged this weekend on some Martha Stewart glitter from Michael’s. In hindsight, I wish we’d used white paper for the trees and made all of them glitter trees, because the colors are awesome. Next year.

I thought about hanging tags from the top of the tree with numbers on them, but I think I’m just going to play this by ear – let them choose a tree or present every night, without having to go in any order.

Now I just have to go out and find some treasures to hide under these trees!

As promised at the start of this post, here are some of my favorite advent calendars I’ve seen lately:

Adorable advent calendar by Pickle (via @zakkalife)

Advent calendar by Jodii

An amazing handmade advent calendar by Gingerbread Snowflakes.

Also, you can see a great advent calendar round up by Design Crush, and another by Oh So Beautiful Paper.

Es una modelo Marthasgirls fotografiada en diferentes posturas y con diferentes atrezos retro.

Last Friday we got the chance to babysit Henry, Abbey’s son, for the morning.  He is such a sweet little guy and very smiley…much like our Molly.  Here’s a picture of 2 month old Henry:

Molly was fascinated by little Henry.  She couldn’t keep her eyes off him, and whenever I’d let her get close enough she’d try to grab his hair.  I think she was just a little confused seeing a baby like her with so much hair!  I think this picture is hilarious…it just shows how bald Molly really is!

And one more pic of the little cuties.  As you can see, Molly was pumped up that she got to have a friend over to play.  We wish we got to see little Henry more often!

I fredags var der galla på SG.

Det var smadder hyggeligt!

Først pyntede vi klasselokalet, som vi skulle spise i, op, og Ida havde bagt smadder gode cookies:)

Så tog jeg hjem til Katrine Sofie hvor også Tenna, Molly og Birgitte kom.. smadder hyggeligt

Så med taxa op til gym., hvor vi så de andres oppyntning og spiste og drak og festede løs til .. kl. 1.

Så tog jeg hjem i seng efter en lang og dejlig dag.

Billeder fra galla ‘09:

Molly og Elisabeth venter på at kunne komme ind og pynte op..

Ida deler lækre cookies ud..

Sådan havde vi pyntet op: jalla-tema. Vi vandt 2. pladsen!! 100 kr. til kage fra kantinen!

Alladins hule..

Karmarockn’roll: Molly og Kat.Sof. bad om et karmabillede, og så hoppede Ann Sofie ind foran og råbte “Wuhuuu! Part tonight!!” ..

Smukke Birgitte hjemme hos Katrine Sofie..

DJ Molly..

Smukke festtøser<3

..

Frække gallafyre!

Sidsel og jeg..

..

Princess Fernanda from Brazil:

Foxy Lady, miss X.

Iben og jeg:

Sidsel og Ida:

Birgitte og jeg:

<3

Kudos to all the filmmakers who made the Academy’s short list of 15 documentaries, and condolences to those that did not make the list. It has been a great year for small and independent films, and those by women filmmakers. The most important thing is that in this year of Oprah Winfrey announcing her retirement date, Gertrude Berg is no longer the best known woman you’ve never heard of. Happy Thanksgiving!

Holy Moly! Where has November gone?! (Or as Buddy the Elf would say, “Son of a Nutcracker! Peanut Brittle! Snow Flickers!”)

Is it really almost Thanksgiving? We’re piling into the car next week and heading west to my sister’s house in Indiana. How many Cracker Barrels do you think we’ll pass on the way? Whatever you guess, add 10 and multiply by 3.

I’ve been keeping track of a few Thanksgiving related projects and family ideas. First, here’s a nice idea from Paper Source – decorate keepsake boxes for each of your guests, then encourage everyone to write some nice things to put in each others’ boxes. Sweet.

That would be a nice gift for anytime, not just Thanksgiving.

Also, I love these notecards by Fugu Fugu Press which you can use to let people know what you’re thankful for. Sarah of The Small Object pointed these out via Twitter. Aren’t they great? I love Fugu Fugu Press. (I love the Small Object too).

Since Thanksgiving and family tend to go hand-in-hand, I spotted this link on the Junior Society blog (by Robert Mahar of Mahar Drygoods) for modern family trees by My Tree & Me. I especially love the “Ripples in a Pond” design.

But this Super Mod Tree is pretty cool, too:

And I would give thanks to anyone who makes me these reverse appliqué Thanksgiving placemats and matching napkins from the Purl Bee. I love them, especially the colors.

I hope you all have a happy weekend, and I hope to see you back here on Monday!

My father, aka “Pops,” came to visit last week. We thoroughly enjoyed our time with him. He loved on the children, sent Molly and me out on several dates, and treated us all to a trip to the Minnesota Children’s Museum in downtown St. Paul. What an amazing museum! I think I enjoyed it as much as the children did. The photos below were all taken there.

Thanks for everything, Pops.  We love you!   

The crossing guard

Isabelle

Turtleman!

Mommy's little masterpiece

Olivia, Joshua, and Isabelle

My beautiful wife with St. Paul in the background

I have been meaning to share these photos for awhile now. Here are a few I have taken over the past month or so:

This is usually where you will find Molly & Cassie around 6 PM every night. Waiting for Daddy at the window!! So cute!

Gig 'em Aggies!!

Cassie begging for Molly's cracker!

Wearing Daddy's shoes

Saying "up"! Her favorite word right now!

Daddy's girl!! Click on this one for more on Picasa.

And last night Molly thought it was hysterically funny that Cassie wanted her cookie! She was laughing uncontrollably when Cassie would sit pretty or move her head up for the cookie! It was so cute, I just had to get my camera!! Enjoy the giggles!!

The Ithaca Police Department had their hands full this weekend with all of the Cortaca parties happening around Ithaca. The log from this past weekend lists 11 complaints of loud parties. In two separate occasions nine people were arrested, four at one location, five at another.

I discovered Linzie Hunter on Share Some Candy and went straight to her website. What a treat to click through all the images of her work. Here are just a few examples. Don’t you love them?

“Coney Island”

Pages from “Lettering Sketchbook“

Illustrations for Baltimore Magazine’s “101 Things to eat, see, and do before you die” feature

Junior Magazine City Guides, Map of Glasgow

Illustration for Gardening Which? Magazine

You can find more of her illustrations on Flickr.

I was excused from jury duty today (thank the gods of justice, also the Thanksgiving holiday next week) and took advantage of my few hours of lovely afternoon weather.

The sun was warm and there was a slight nip in the air, the geese were flying overhead and the fall colors were glowing.  (Are you gagging yet on my sappy ode to fall? Just wait till I break out on song…)

I can’t help it, it was just such a beautiful afternoon after a frosty, gray morning that looked like it could snow at any moment.  Plus I’m in love with my new zoom lens.

Also somebody got a haircut today with a professional skunk wash to try to get rid of the stink once and for all, so there’s something else to be happy about.

Heute war hier Sturm und Regen. Und irgendwann war Sturm ohne Regen, das war das Signal für Monster und Flachlandhutze, sich an den Strand zu begeben. Das Meer kam fast bis an die Dünen ran. Hier zwei Fotos, wobei das auf den Bildern leider nicht halb so imposant aussieht wie es in Wirklichkeit war:

Fotografieren war ziemlich schwierig, weil das Objektiv andauernd beschlug. Jedenfalls waren die Monsterhaare vom Sturm ordentlich zerzaust:

Nun noch ein bisschen Puscheligkeit, wenn ich schon mal dabei bin, Fotos hochzuladen. Zwei Freunde knabbern einträchtig nebeneinander Schweineohren weg:

Hier ein Pony mit puscheliger “Frisur”. Besonders interessant fand ich, dass es nicht nur verschiedenfarbiges Fell hatte, sondern auch die Haare unterschiedlich sind. Kann mich nicht erinnern, so was schon mal gesehen zu haben, allerdings sehe ich auch nicht so oft Ponys oder Pferde:

Ein puscheliger Hund:

Und noch mehr Ponycontent, man beachte hier die leicht lockig-puschelige “Frisur” dieses Fohlens:

Zur Abwechslung General Rasputin auf dem Feldherrenhügel, der das bereits eroberte Gelände überblickt:

…where Tara and Friends make food and play appropriate music! 

This is a proto version of what should, sometime soon, become a live radio show and a series of videos.  As soon as we find a camera.  And fix the phone-in thing at the radio station. But for now, you can see a few shots, cook the recipes, and enjoy the playlist (see footnote 1)
Our first Cooking with Playlists began like this: after work, I went to Molly’s house (remember her from the baked alaska dinner party?) and we made my very favorite chicken marsala, with purple mashed potatoes.

Look how purple!

Then, because our friend had left his Nutella in Molly’s fridge, we made crepes.  The music began when I began telling Molly we had to whip our crepe batter a lot so the resulting crepes would be light and lovely.  Molly asked, Isn’t there a song that goes “whip it?”  And after we whipped it, we wondered if there wasn’t a song called “Flip It” and then things got French and we ended up at creepy Serge and Charlotte Gainsbourg on a bed together….

…Thus Cooking with Playlists! was born!

Recipes:

Chicken Marsala

This is based somewhat off this Real Simple recipe.  What’s really special (and non-traditional.  and delicious.) about this recipe is the use of capers.  When it comes to capers, I’m not sure you can have too many, and my version reflects this.  I’ve used the proscuitto once and it is really delicious, but never felt the need to run out and get fresh sage (who has fresh sage?) and can say that the fresh parsley made little difference.  Additionally, I think the mushrooms and cream I add are just extra happiness.  Who does not need extra happiness?

What to do:

Whole Wheat Crepes

We used this recipe and trust me, despite all the bad-talking you’ve heard about whole wheat flour, these are really, really delicious.  And don’t worry– making crepes really isn’t hard.  Once you get the hang of how hot the pan should be and how and when to flip them, it’s nothing.  You want a hint?  Flip them when there are bubbles.

Playlist:

Whip It by Devo
Flip It Like a JD by Joey Moe
Tout les Garcons et les Filles by Francoise Hardy
Je T’aime Moi Non Plus by Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg
Lemon Incest by Serge Gainsbourg with Charlotte Gainsbourg

Footnote 1- The playlist totally does not play for full cooking time. …But it’s not called “Playlists and Cooking,” is it?

Footnote 2- You know, season your flour however you want.  Salt and pepper are good.  I usually add a little cayanne (to everything.)  Lawry’s is awesome.  Garlic powder, onion powder, paprika are all good, too.  The main point is to season your flour.

Footnote 3- Cooking lesson time!  Using a combination of olive oil and butter is the very best way to panfry things.  It has a scientific explanation.  I may look it up later, but for now, just believe me.

Footnote 4-Sometimes the cream looks curdle-y.  I think if you stir quickly, you can avoid this, but the truth is that it tastes good anyways and when spooned on the chicken isn’t so noticeable.  I imagine the obscene amount of capers I use has something to do with it.

Chevron Table Runner ($40) by Home Sweet
Sugar and Creamer ($88) by Whitney Smith

Linen Apron ($70) by Jewelweeds
Blue Berries Letterpress Recipe Cards, Set of 10 ($15) by Dingbat Press

Branches Letterpress Coasters, Set of Four ($13.50) by marquandeditions
Fall Leaves Felt Garland ($15) by miesmama

Custom Napkin Rings (with words or names), Set of Eight ($96) by raedunn
Letterpress Placecards, in Apple, Set of Ten ($8) by Sycamore Street Press

Homestead, Limited Edition Print, 22″ x 30″  ($75) by beauchamping

“If you could drive from here and go all the way around the world…taking ferries and ships where there are no roads and stopping every day to look around…this is what you would see.”

A fortnight ago, to celebrate Guy Fawkes Night (& just for fun really!), we built a big bonfire in our back garden. When I say ‘we’ I guess I mostly mean Martin as he was the one who built the fire pit in our garden earlier this summer & he was the one who gathered & prepared all the wood! I was mostly in charge of buying the marshmallows

Martin’s Dad & sister & their partners travelled up from England to join us for the weekend. With 6 people & 3 greyhounds, it was a rather crowded house, so any excuse to get outside was welcome!

It was a cracking good fire & kept us all nice & warm for hours as we huddled round it toasting marshmallows on sticks. Even the dogs were tempted off the sofas to come join us round the fire (although no marshmallows for them!).

Inspired by our bonfire (& Guy Fawkes Night in general), I curated this treasury of fiery finds on Etsy. Mmmmnn… these chocolate marshmallows look deelish!

The treasury is no longer ‘live’ (as I was somewhat behind in updating my blog!) but please do visit the shops of these talented artists, many of who are members of street teams McEtsy & Etsy For Animals.

Indeed, the climax of my obsession in Ulysses occurs in Penelope when Molly says “lick my shit” (642).  This is the point of no return, where the fine line that may or may not have existed between ingestion and excretion is completely obliterated.  I must admit I’ve shied away from the economic nature of this moment (brought up briefly in class discussion) but I will also admit that this passage is the one that I simply cannot ignore any longer.  The fierce intertwining of sex, transaction, and consumption culminate in Molly’s imagining Bloom worshipping her ass and also paying her (£1) for the experience, as she commands him to consume everything that comes out of her.  Bloom obviously prefers this kind of sensual interaction, and Molly’s voice in Penelope shows her revulsion toward it but also her acceptance of it, as she says that she will “let out a few smutty words” that she knows will arouse him.

Looking back at the bread and butter theme, the two are almost always associated with Molly, but she never actually gets around to consuming bread with butter throughout the novel, at least not to my knowledge. In Calypso, Bloom remembers: “thin bread and butter she likes in the morning,” and in Penelope, Molly recalls the day she realized Boylan’s foot fetish, as she was “waggling [her] foot we both ordered a teas and plain bread and butter” (613).  On the next page as she remembers her series of affairs she recalls the “main with the curly hair” she noticed when she was “tasting the butter” (614).  Here, we have butter but no bread, and Molly is actually consuming it.  I’m not sure if this is even remotely relevant, I was just fascinated by the association of Bloom with kidneys/organs and Molly with bread/butter.

This in no way consolidates my thoughts on the subject but in my defense: hey, it’s Ulysses.

And thus we reach the end of Ulysses. In my last post, I discussed the function of gifts as representing the various offerings (lifestyle, future) Boylan and Bloom both exhibit for/give to Molly and what she ultimately decides, represented by her acquiescence to make breakfast for Bloom (a gift in it’s own right, with a cherry on top) and the gradual phasing out of Boylan despite his propensity to give many, many gifts. This structuring of gifts in the last episode brings up a continuous theme of opposition and elaboration used by Joyce throughout Ulysses – namely, a structuring of several extreme (in my case, gifts) at the beginning and end of each chapter that the main character must navigate through. Molly does this in Penelope, when she slowly shifts from Boylan, the material-giver, to Bloom, the family/love-giver (commercial/surface pleasure vs emotional). The other times gifts reprise as a structuring device is in Lestrygonians (the birds and the meal), Cyclops (the not-giving) and Nausicaa (the giving respite), and elements of Episodes 1, 2, and 4 (probably more than that).

The structuring aspects of gifts often relate to their ability to characterize, as with Boylan and Bloom in Penelope. Certain exchanges are surface-gifts and reflect negatively on the giver, while some are heart-felt and reflect positively, and some are social, reflecting neither here nor there, but highlighting important expectations the characters of Ulysses’ Dublin operate with. Bad transactions are commercial, with little thought for coming out ahead or being respected in any manner. Characters that adhere to this lifestyle are Mulligan, Boylan, Simon Dedalus, while others engage in this “giving” simply because they have to. Good giving, without thought for the repercussions on oneself or means, is exhibited by Bloom and Stephen (who are both capable of the other giving, as well), though Stephen’s dispensing of money for his “friends” shows how he is casting pearls before swine. Bloom mainly indulges in giving to animals, though Stephen and Molly both feature in his thoughts. Social giving, where it isn’t quite commercial but there is an expectation that the favor given will be repaid at a later date, is utilized by every character encountered in Dublin, with some being more reliable than others in keeping their word.

Aside from this, there are several anomaly gifts. There are “bad” gifts such as diseases and bribes, that come with pain and/or strings attached. An example of these would be the narrator of “Cyclops” suffering from disease and Boylan buying Molly a basket of potted meats while lying about his intentions. There is one example of a consciously ungiven gift that I can think of (there may be others, wasn’t looking for this, it just leaped out since we talked about it): Molly’s gift coat for Rudy. Undelivered to Rudy (while alive), Molly makes a conscious decision (or thinks about it afterwards) to not give the coat to some other child who might need it, but rather uses it to wrap her son’s body up. This tinges of selfishness at first scant scant glance, yet Molly’s dedication to her son heralds ideas of making gifts to the dead – something Stephen is incapable of doing for his mother. Unpack that!

A séta kezdetén Pipacsnak még minden lába és a farka is megvolt.

Miután Molly halára rémisztette az Idegent (lásd itt),  Pipacsnak először a lába tűnt el…

…majd a lába meglett ugyan, de ekkor meg a farka hiányzott…

… és a fülét sem tudom értelmezni.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that each cat is in possession of a unique personality. If you have n cats, you will observe n different personalities.

Last evening, for example, I was reflecting that Molly is a much more demanding master than Megs. Megs is pretty much an easy-come-easy-go, what-goes-around-comes-around, you-scratch-my-back-and-I’ll-not-scratch-yours kind of master—lots of give and take.

But Molly wants things just so, and if they’re not, she’s in a snit. Or sometimes she’s in a snit for no reason at all—or, alternatively, demanding to be hugged right this minute. And if the phone or the laptop is why attention is not being paid—well, it’s pretty easy to bite those things into submission.