Jet Setting SD Style

So I was sleeping in Thursday morning, and I got a call from my mother. This was a pleasant surprise. In our conversation, my mother intimated that she wanted me to join the rest of the family as they camp starting this weekend at West Bend on the Missouri River.

So with a bit of filial piety, and a lot of hunger for fleishkuechle and playing bean bags, I depart for the week end.

Some names for you. There seems to be a bit of a spiritual slant to them this time.

Ted Christakes

Mylorde Cherenfant

Donnieval Walker

Sleed Dornelus

Lalfela Chhakchhuak

"Wherever you are, it is your own friends who make your world." -- William James

We Few, We Happy Few

I had a red letter day yesterday.

It technically started with Wendy and Karen playing Go Fish at midnight. After they left I was able to assemble and bake a rhubarb custard pie. I was really happy with how it turned out. I think what helped the crust be "so light" was that I didn't over blend it when I mixed the liquid with the flour/shortening; plus, I didn't refrigerate it as long as normal. Then I went to bed.

I intended to leave at 9:30 to be able to casually (read legally) drive to Glenwood, IA to hear Amy's husband, Tim, preach. I was off by 23 minutes, but still arrived on time (the ol' time/distance value of speed). After church we had a delicious meal (of note was a marinated carrot dish that Amy made) at Tim and Amy's. Then we played bean bags, whilst Ben discussed his dream of a creator coffee collective house.

After some laying about, I went to Shakespeare on the Green to "mark territory" for the group while they gathered the picnic fixings (again Amy came through with a really great peanut sauce). This gave me an hour to read In Praise of Shadows and take an actual nap. Everyone arrived (A pleasant surprise was the arrival of Scott, Tanya, Jessica, and Katie.) and the play soon started.

I really enjoyed the performance of Henry V and was surprisingly touched by two things: first the tragedy of the boys who watched the luggage being killed by the fleeing French and second, that Henry had to ask the French herald whether he had won the day or not.

Because I had no timeline to get back home, I was able to drive the speed limit while thinking about the fine time had by all.

[UPDATE: The peanut sauce is now linked to the recipe.]

Has Been and Jerry Rigged

Tonight, as I'm wont, I had a pint of ice cream on my way back from SuperSaver. The bill of fare for tonight was Chocolate Almond Nougat by Ben and Jerry. It is a chocolate ice cream with fudge covered almonds and a swirl of nougat. It wasn't that great. The chocolate ice cream was above par in golf terms; the nougat was more of a burnt marshmallow swirl. The only redeeming bite I had was when there were a bunch of the fudge covered almonds. To give them some benefit of faith, I noticed some crystals on the top of the ice cream that belied some thawing and refreezing; plus it was on sale, so maybe SuperSaver didn't preserve the iced cream integrity as B&J had hoped. Still, I didn't notice any more crystals in the rest of the pint, so that excuse is superficial at best. I've used this space before to rail against B&J, and I probably will again.

While I'm dogging them, I suppose I'll commend them for the fine work they've done with Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream, a vanilla ice cream with chocolate covered waffle cone pieces and a caramel swirl. This is a much better celebrity ice cream than Willy Nelson's Country Peach Cobbler, a peach ice cream with cinnamon shortbread pieces. That Colbert's eponymous pints are better is demonstrated by the fact that the stores I frequent are often out of his flavor, while Willy is still hanging around.

Iago

The pouring out of my heart and soul in my favorites post yielded only one comment, which is fine, but makes that comment to not go unheeded.

Katie commented "Why is Iago your favorite 'Speare character? I am simultaneously piqued and repulsed."

I wanted to choose a character I could relate to, and sadly I couldn't really do so with any of the people in the Comedies I'm familiar with, maybe Bernard? in Much Ado About Nothing. So this left me with the Tragedies, the Histories, and the others. My life isn't that historical, and if I'm ever on an Island with only my daughter and a monster for a companion, maybe I'll think about choosing Prospero. This leaves me with the Tragedies, of which I'm more familiar with Hamlet and Othello. I like Laertes and Horatio from the former, but they didn't really come to mind when I was doing my post, nor would they have topped Iago if they were in my mind with him.

So that brings us to Iago. Part of my affection for him comes from a misunderstanding I had of "ancient." In his case, it doesn't mean old, but something more like veteran. While quite devious, he needs a great deal of intelligence and wisdom to pull off all the finagling that he does. His animus seems to come not just of jealousy but merely inborn, like Billy Budd's (another character I had misconceptions about for a while; not black) nemesis Claggart. Iago's ability to manipulate so powerful a man as Othello is also admirable. According to Wikipedia, he also has the most lines of any non-lead, notwithstanding Falstaff's multiple appearances. That doesn't make me like him more, but does provide a lot of material with which to acquaint myself. Plus I like the name. I've always thought it would be nice to have a Great Dane with the name of Iago. I hope this satisfies that prick and unpulses you Katie.

Gary Wright

Back in time my dreams did take me.

The first part of my dream I was staying in a spare bed in someone else's rental cottage and had to ask each day if they space for me to stay in the spare bed in the cottage they were renting out to someone else. The cottage had cats in it. This part of the dream also had Paul McCartney and John Lennon and John Lennon's young son, but not actually Sean or Julian. The son and I were from the future in the dream so we both new about John being shot and there was a moment in the dream when the four of us were in a car and the son and I were deliberating how to tell John, but I think the son had already told him or something.

There was a part in my dream where I felt like I was in Central Park in New York and at the Strawberry Fields Forever thing, because a lot of people were standing in circles around stuff taking pictures, but I didn't actually see the "Imagine" mosiac, or whatever.


The last part of my dream I was going to space for some reason and at the end of my dream but the beginning of my arrival at my space destination I met Joe Montana. This dream I was also going to the past with my present knowledge. Joe was moonlighting as a worker on the space shuttle/ship and was standing by the door with another worker like a flight attendant, during the flight. At the end of the flight, during which I was standing closest to the door, I noticed who he was and gave him a knowing pat on the shoulder. Then I asked which year it was, 1983, and feeling I had acquired some kind of visual assent from Joe that it was okay I reveal who he was, I said loudly enough for everyone to hear, "Hey, you're Joe Montana; I'm Daniel Murauskas." and shook his hand. He then said, "It's nice to meet you Dan Morerewski." I then spent the next three attempts at my name working with him on the pronounciation of it, ensuring he called me Daniel too.

After Joe and I got my name down pat, I let him and the other worker on the ship know that one of my uncles was an alternate on the Olympic team in Greco-Roman wrestling (which was true, as my Uncle Dennis was an alternate for the 1984 team). Worker number 2 asked how much he weighed and what weight class he wrestled in. I said he wrestled in the 220 pound class and weighed about 220 or 221. He said, "He'd better lose that weight so that he doesn't get disqualified." I then proceeded to parse out that it really wasn't that bad and calculated out to him having to lose like an ounce each month, which he could do as easily as shaving different parts of his body. After a space trip to our destination that lasted about as long as these two conversations, we arrived and I saw both of my twin uncles in their teen years, but closer to Freshmen than Senior age. This was an anomaly because they would have been older in '83, but I guess that is how dreams go. Then the dream ended.

Commentary:

So I'm pretty much a dick, first for giving a man who had won the Super Bowl two seasons previously and would win another a year later a hard time about pronouncing my name correctly. Maybe his timid role on Saturday Night Live made me think I could be such a tough with him. Secondly, I'm a dick for jerking around with John Lennon about whether to tell him how to he would die. Finally, I wasn't too nice to worker number 2 either about my uncle cutting weight. These celebrities in my dream are pretty fun though. I could get used to it.

Beanbag-a-rhubarb a bop bam boo!

So after three attempts, Bean bag and Rhubarb Night has been the best yet, as far as I'm concerned. Mainly because I made the rhubarb crisp last night instead of the night of or not at all as previous times went.

Kyle and Cassie, Nate and Wanda, Angela, Wendy, and my sister were all in attendance. There was some good bean bagging with Angela and Kyle beating Marcy and me twice, and I was very pleased with the crisp tonight, though I'm probably not the most impartial judge.

After, Wendy and I went to Yia Yia's. I had a Saint-Sylvestre Gavroche French Red Ale (apparently Saint-Sylvestre is near Belgium so their beer is a bit in the Belgian style), which I enjoyed very much, and Wendy a Breckenridge Avalanche amber ale, which both of us liked. She got started on Breckenridge with their Proper Ale and still likes their offerings.

Jones Coffee Shop finally opened this week sometime just half a block south of my place, so I might be frequenting them in the future. Their espressos are just 1.75. I hope that the delay tonight is just the just-opened-and-working-out-the-kinks kind and not indicative of things to come.

I'm Gonna Getcha, Succor!

Tonight after leaving work as early as possible to get a good spot at Jazz in June for Hot Club of San Francisco, a nod to Django Reinhardt's group Hot Club of France, I watched Julia! America's Favorite Chef.

I really enjoyed the Hot Club of San Fran (note the bass player and the violinist tonight were different from those on the website. The violinist tonight was actually an original member that is now back; the bassist was named Clint). They were everything I'd hoped they would be from reading about them in the promo material. They have a solo guitarist, violinist, upright bass player, and two rhythm guitar players. I enjoyed the virtuosity of the first three, but what intrigued me most was the role of the last two. The lead of the group, the solo guitarist, frequently referred to them as the Gasoline Brothers, who fuel the "Hot" in Hot Club, or the engine; and he's right, without a percussion section (drums or piano), the rhythm guitarists were the engine and fuel that kept the songs together and hopping.

It might be in We Are Still Married that Garrison Keillor has an essay about which part in an orchestra is best suited for a Lutheran. My memory fails me as to which part he settled on, but I think that second violin was in the running. The point is that it isn't a flashy role that they needed but one of support and steadiness.

The hour long documentary on Julia Child was nice, not because it revealed any particularly new information (I'm reading The United States of Arugula now, which has more than enough to say about Child, James Beard, and the rest of the Food Establishment of the first part of the 20th century.), or had rare archival footage, but for how it brought to light Paul Child, the man 10 years Julia's elder, who met her in Kandy, Ceylon while each was working with OSS (precursor to the CIA).

They fell in love, and eventually married, a day after they were in a serious car accident (him with a cane and her full of glass). Julia was a socialite whose exuberance was unchanneled. Paul was a world-wise man who not only inspired a love from her that fueled her desire to become the woman he would love, but also loved her in a way that made his moulding a gift she gratefully received.

After the publishing of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, she did a book talk show on Boston's public channel which grew into 200 episodes of The French Chef. All the while, Paul was there 'happily serving as her pot-scrubber, factotum, bodyguard [he had a black belt in judo], and de facto manager, schlepping her all-important "sacred bag."'-- from The United States of Arugula by David Kamp

This brings me to my title (if you've made it this far, thank you for hanging in there.)

Succor comes from the Latin for "run underneath," as precursor means "to run before." Succor has come to mean to provide assistance or relief, not to far from its origin.

I think it is a great thing to serve the world like Jason Vanderford, Jeff Magidson, and Paul Child. I wish that I had as much talent, humility, and integrity as they.

Wonderful Time for a Wonderful Reason Part 2

Dramatis Personae

My Mother,

Denny - my step-father,

Janet - my mother's friend from PA and formerly of Southern IL where we last spent time with her twenty years ago,

Ed - Janet's husband, who drives truck

Eian and Evan - Janet's sons who are a couple years apart going into Third and First or Second grades respectively

Jim/James - my mother's oldest brother from Northern California

Jimmy/JJ/Jim Jr. - Jim's son from Fargo, ND

Dennis - the oldest of my twin uncles, now the head chiropractor for the Minnesota Vikings

Duane - the youngest of my twin uncles, and host of the previous family get together last September at his home in VA

Marlys - the youngest of the five Koslowski siblings and close friends with one of the daughters of Korczak Ziolkowski

Eric - Marlys' son

Ron - Marlys' boyfriend and restorer of pianos

Shane - Eric's roommate and friend

Marcy - my sister

Stephanie - my sister's friend

A Wonderful Time for a Wonderful Reason Part 1

I made it back safely from my travels to 21200 Last Chance Trail Lead, SD for the DMTM (Deadwood Mickelson Trail Marathon) on Sunday.

I got my PR [(personal record in runner lingo) you have to switch the event to half marathon and then you can search by my name and city to see my time], which has happened each time I've run a half marathon.

In the coming days, I'll break down the wonderful time I had this past weekend.

I will be having Rhubarb and Bean Bags again this Thursday night starting shortly after 6:30 PM. I got a bunch of fresh rhubarb from home so that should be very tasty.