In This Issue.....
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8/7/02
Articles and Links
Announcements, Notices, Odds-N-Ends
Weekly Poll
Recipe(s)
Wild Kingdom Part 2
Auntie 'G'
Omens and Superstitions
Weekly Paul Picture
LOOK! BACK ISSUES!!
No Phillip the Fireman again. Could it be that fire season is over? I’ve probably jinxed it by saying that.
I’m having a dumb joke contest. Who ever wins first place will get a prize. I can’t tell you what that prize is because it’s a secret. I just know that you’ll love it though!! So please enter the contest!!
Rules:
1. No dirty jokes
2. You can submit stories, one-liners, knock-knock jokes, etc.
3. Enter as many times as you wish
4. All entries must be submitted by August 14th (please email the jokes to me)
The winner and their joke and the prize won will be annouced in the August 21st issue of ODDS-N-ENDS
Modern ginger ale has two ancestors. One is ginger beer. The other is ginger water or switchel as New Englanders called it, a non alcholic drink prepared for farmers during long hot days of scything in the hayfields. Modern commercial refreshers for athletes have the same thirst-quenching tartness.
For six servings you will need:
Brown sugar, ½ to ¾ cup, packed
Powdered ginger, 1 teaspoon
Cider vinegar, ½ cup (the book says to use the homemade recipe listed on page 131, but I don’t see why you can’t use store bought)
Jug, 2 quart with funnel or other half gallon container
Dissolve brown sugar and ginger in vinegar by shaking or stirring. Add 1 quart cold water, mix, and serve.
For six to eight servings you will need:
Crust for a 9-inch pie
Homogenized milk, 2 cups
Lemon rind, a quarter
Nutmeg, a few gratings>br>
Eggs, 3
Granulated sugar, 1/3 cup
Salt, a pinch
Flour, 1 tablespoon
Prepare pie crust and line buttered pie pan. Prick the crust all over with a fork to prevent bubbling, and bake it in a preheated oven at 425 degrees for 10 minutes. If the crust rises up despite pricking, press it down with another pie pan before it cools.
In the saucepan heat the milk just to boiling. Score and shave the lemon rind into the milk; add numeg.
IN the bowl beat the eggs; then beat the sugar, salt, and flour. Gradually stir in the hot milk and lemon rind mixture. Pour the custard into the pie shell and bake in the oven at 425 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and continue to bake until the filling is browned and knife inserted coem out clean. This will take an additional 25-30 minutes. Serve at room temperature.
1. Born: May 6, 1960, in Austin, Texas (that's the day after Phililp's birthday)
2. As a Kid: It was nearly 5 years before her next sibling (Stephen) was born, so in Gayle's early years she was an "only child." She traveled with her parents to the mountains of Colorado, New Mexico, and Big Bend National Park in Texas, and on the back roads of Central Texas. She always served as her father's photo model, sitting or standing in the pictures, for color and scale. Often the places where she was sitting or standing were just inches from precipitous drop-offs, of a hundred feet or more. Gayle had two "best friends" in elementary school - LaDonna and Suzy. LaDonna lived next door to us in East Austin, and was a couple of years older than Gayle. Suzy lived nearby in the neighborhood, but they met in school.
When Stephen came along, Gayle accepted him and protected him. I don't recall them ever having any serious arguments as children. They traveled all over the western states with their parents, and eventually to Europe. When Gayle was 12, the family moved to Munich, Bavaria, in Germany. Because of Gayle's excellent record (grades) in elementary school, she was placed in the "college-bound" middle schools in Munich. While in Munich she traveled all over Central Europe, both with her parents, and with others, including school field trips to ski and such. She has lived in Germany, and visited Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, France, Spain, England, Wales, Holland, Yugoslavia, Liechtenstein, and Monaco. She was able to travel all around Munich and the countryside on the buses and underground trains they have there.
3. As a Teenager: Gayle became a teenager while in Munich. She developed another "best friend" in Heidi, a girl with an American father and a German mother, who went to the local American Forces high school. They did everything together, including teasing boys, shopping, traveling, and illegally driving automobiles around the Bavarian countryside and small villages (See Family History from February of 2002!). They helped chop Gayle's brother Stephen out of the apartment once when he fell asleep with the only apartment key in his possession.
4. Funny Memories: Two of the best were the illegal driving and the chopping out of her brother, both of which happened in Bavaria. Back in Texas, during high school, Gayle stayed out all night with one of her girlfriends (a church-going type). When the two of them came home at 6:30 the next morning, a police car was parked out front, and an officer was on the couch inside, taking a statement from Gayle's parents. There were other funny things, such as the time a snapping turtle took a bite out of Gayle's bare midriff, and when she jumped 20 feet down into a pool of water where there were water moccasin snakes seen later. Gayle used to love to go swimming in Barton Springs Pool, Deep Eddy Pool, and Bee Creek, where the limestone bottom of the creek was so hollowed-out that she could let the water carry her downstream like a log in a sluice.
She Worked: Gayle has worked in the Intensive Care Units and the Emergency Rooms at four of the biggest hospitals in Austin - Brackenridge, St. David's, Seton, and South Austin. She also worked in a similar job at the Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz, CA. A few years ago, she started working for Med-Data, a firm which codes the medical procedures for use by insurance companies. She began in Santa Cruz, and continues to work for Med-Data in Seattle today.
6. Other Interesting Information: Gayle returned from Germany with a thirst for knowledge about language. She took Latin in high school, and continued classes in French and German. When she entered the University of Texas at Austin, they awarded her 30 hours - a whole freshman year - of credit in advance, due to her extensive knowledge of French and German. She took about 9 years to complete the remaining 90 college hours she actually had to attend classes, working part-time in hospitals to help pay her way.
Asthma- an old 16th century cure for asthma was to eat raw cat meat with the foam from a mules mouth. Yuck!
Bacon- Bacon is supposed to cure constipation and fever but only when it has been stolen.
Cholera- To detect whether the disease was around, people would throw a piece of raw meat in the air if cholera was around the meat would turn black instantly.
Doubt- If you are in doubt about something, count the number of buttons on the shirt you are wearing, if the total of buttons is an even number then you are right. If they add up to an odd number then you are wrong.
Eyebrows- If you have a unibrow (both eye brows connecting) you are lucky. In Europe you would have been considered a werewolf or vampire. (Mom says my great-grandfather should be the luckiest man in Sanger)
Furniture- If your furniture creaks, then it is a sign that the weather will change. If your furniture falls over it is an omen of death.
Glass- Don't look at anybody through a piece of broken glass or you and that person will soon have a fight.
Horn- It is unlucky to bring a (animal's) horn into the house but an ox horn is supposed to bring protection from the devil, while a stags horn brings protection from the evil eye.
Invisibility- To become invisible you are supposed to wear agate or carry a bat's right eye.
J- none for this letter
Kettle- If a girl turns a boiling kettle to the wall she will never marry.
Ladybug- If a ladybug lands on your palm say this verse and it will go away, "Lady, ladybird fly away, your house is on fire and your children are gone". It flies away but only because your palm is hot.
Makeup- If you spill face powder it means you will have a quarrel with a friend.
Neck- If your neck is stiff it means you will be hanged soon.
Oil- It is a bad omen to spill oil.
Peach- a Chinese superstition says that if you place peach blossoms over your door it will keep out evil spirits
Q- Sorry! nothing here
Rake- If a garden rake falls prongs up there will be heavy rains.
Sandals- A Japanese superstition says that it is bad luck to wear a new pair of sandals after 5 PM
Thorn- If a thorn catches on your dress it means you will marry a widower
Ulcer- An ulcer cure is to eat a dog's tongue
V- Don't read this, there is nothing here
Wave- the 9th wave (in an ocean) in a sequence of waves is always the biggest.
XYZ- If an author uses the letters X,Y, and Z in the last sentence of a book, he will never write another book.
