550. Foodie

 Yes, I am at times a foodie, but aren't we all?  Right now I crave

• prune juice
• English muffins
• raisins in plain yogurt

The first is a new craving, the secønd a memory, and the third a new discovery.  But these replace foods I have long consumed but now reject ss boring:

• kale and collards
• triple-washed baby spinach salad greens
• apples
• bananas

But in my travels I have encountered marvels:

• French goat cheese (chèvre)
• French babas au rhum (sponge cake topped with whipped cream and a cherry)
• Italian pasta (almost any kind)
• Mexican pineapple (piña)         .            
• Mexican flan

Yes, they can be found here, but it's not the same.

In eating, I am a child of the Midwest, where corn is plentiful. In late summer I love to eat corn on the cob, with butter and salt dripping down my chin. Elegant?  No.  But earthy and fun.

Finally, a foodie quiz:

1. What is the largest nut?
2. What food from the New World was at first thought to be an aphrodisiac in England and called a "love apple"?
3. What common fruit, when introduced in the US in the 1930s. brought complaints from housewives that, no matter how long they cooked it, the skin or rind remained tough?
4.  What language do "potato"and "tomato" come from?

I'll give the answers in the next post.  Meanwhile, fellow foodies, enjoy your meals.

549. Surviving in New York City

 Forgive another personal anecdote.  My leg seemed to have a problem -- little bumps. No pain or itching, just little bumps.  But this was the leg whose infection sent me to the hospital recently, so a council of war ws called.  To make sure no new infection was involved, I and a select group of friends called 911 to have my vital signs checked.  And 911 came -- four husky guys with all kinds of equipment.  They checked those signs: normal.  With nothing for them to do, they left.  But a nurse was also summoned to check that suspect leg, and he repeated the vital signs check-up: normal.  

Boring, isn't it?  No crisis!  Bu there's a complication: at times I find myself beahing fast, slowing down only gradually to what is, for me, normal.  So there's lots for a doctor who makes house calls to consider.  But it will take a lot -- maybe four officers with a strait jacket -- to get me out of my beloved top-floor apartment, high above the Magnolia Bakery of "Sex and the City" fame.  I'm not ready for another hospital stay, and nobody will convince me that rehab centers are quieter and more restful than hospitals, when recent experience has taught me better.  So here I am, home again, entrenched, and hoping for better.  I love my apartment, my building, my neighbors, and the West Village, and will cling to the end.

The next post, I promise, will have no mention of me.

, for me, normal.  

548. Breaking Away

 

BREAKING AWAY.  A complete break, or a partial break.  

You do it because you are tired tired tired of what you are doing.  I did it after getting my Ph.D. in French.  I left New York for San Francisco and the tail end of the Beat scene, before the Hippie madness took over.  I was tired of Academia.

How about you?  Did you ever break away?  Do you want to now?  Tell us.  We will listen.