The Royal Treatment at Tea & Sympathy

I wonder if she'll be in the crowd today at Will and Kate's nuptials? Patricia Routledge, who played Mrs. Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced Bouquet), one of my favorite sitcom characters ever, from Britain's Keeping Up Appearances. Surely this will top luxury cruising on the QE2 and put that Lydia Hawksworth in her place once and for all.

If not, she should be. After all, as she says, it was only an accident of birth she wasn't born someone more important.

Perhaps she and Emmet could do a duet to entertain the crowd. I'm sure he'd love that. It always brings the over seventies to their feet.

The royal fever is sweeping America. Even the library has caught it.

Shall we go to New York City's Tea & Sympathy in spirit to toast Will and Kate? Any excuse to revisit memories there and meals eaten by myself and dear mates, including Kristin who pens the poetry blog Wordfall, and Jennifer who authors Heart Laundry and has a writer site.

How does a pot of fragrant blackberry tea sound? $4.50.

Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie (lentils, onions, carrots, celery, eggplant and parsnips), $14.95.

Cheese and onion pasty with a salad, $13.95.

Off of the dinner specials: mushrooms (shiitake, portabella and button) in a vegetarian gravy on grilled white toast, $8.50.

Cream tea anyone? Rosie Lee (half English Breakfast, half Earl Grey)...

with scones and clotted cream and strawberry jam, $10.

Rhubarb crumble in warm golden custard, $8.

Pineapple upside down cake, $5.

Sticky toffee pudding, $8. After ingesting such heavenly comfort food, I wondered, as Daisy asked Onlsow, "Do you think we'll be slimmer in the afterlife?"

Pop by Carry On Tea & Sympathy next door for cups that will be almost as nice as Hyacinth's Royal Doulton.

Congratulations! And as a poster I read reassured us, "Keep calm, Harry is still single."

Save Our Family Farms

A "Thanks for the Memories" photo collage at Demarest Farm, Hillsdale, New Jersey

Flashback: a crisp autumn day, childhood. Age, too young to remember. I am watching apple cider being pressed. The aroma of donuts is sugary perfuming the air. I stare in awe at a scarecrow watching over a pumpkin-dotted patch.

I couldn't relive those memories, since the two farms, Van Riper's and Tice's in Montvale, New Jersey are no longer there. Van Riper's, which had been around since the 1700s, became an A&P supermarket, and Tice's is now a strip mall with a Victoria's Secret, Gap, and other chain retailers. Depressing.

Do you have fond memories of visiting a farm as a child, and do you enjoy visiting them now?

Earth Day weekend marked the re-opening of Demarest Farm, which has been family owned since 1886 and operates from April through November. I'm already dreaming about their juicy summertime peaches, but my taste buds will have to be patient.

On a rainy day, I couldn't sit yet on their inviting picnic benches.

So I sat with my mom next to a cheerful geranium plant. My feast: corn chowder soup, an onion roll and blueberry iced tea.

Go lightly: we bring our own silverware to avoid the plastic.

A bunch of this asparagus came home with me for homemade asparagus soup (I add a potato, onions or shallots, some vegan stock and salt and pepper - that's it).

Cider donuts! Wash it down with a cup of their complimentary coffee. Real coffee from a pot - not those wasteful plastic single serve pods that will linger in our landfills generations after we drank the coffee.

Farmers' hats overhead seem to be bowing to the wagon wheel and an era of family farms gone by.

Visit Local Harvest to find family farms, farmers markets, CSAs and more near you.

Very little that we shop for can truly be called a "need." Food is. Support family farms, and give thanks for the nourishment they bring to body and soul. Let's cast our vote with our dollars for farms.

Mad Men Mondays: Keeping Up With the Joneses, Younger and Younger

"Keeping Up With The Joneses," according to Wikipedia,

"The phrase was popularized when a comic strip of the same name was created by cartoonist Arthur R. "Pop" Momand. The strip debuted in 1913…and ran in American newspapers for 26 years, and was eventually adapted into books, films, and musical comedies. The "Joneses" of the title were neighbors of the strip's main characters, and were unseen characters spoken of but never actually seen in person. In the 1936 book, "The Next 100 Years", C.C. Furnas notes: "Keeping with the Joneses" descended from the spreading of the peacock's tail. An alternative explanation is that the Joneses of the saying refer to Edith Wharton's father's wealthy family."

Whatever the origin, even amidst our shaky recovery from the great recession, possessions remain bragging points among Americans. How many social situations do I find everyone whipping out their latest gadgets and talking about which ones they were going to acquire next. I don't think anyone's impressed by my flip phone (which the Verizon guy actually told me I was in the 90s for wanting). Perhaps they would be impressed by how much credit card debt I have: none.

More from Wikipedia.

"Social status once depended on one's family name; however, the rise of consumerism in the United States gave rise to social mobility. With the increasing availability of goods, people became more inclined to define themselves by what they possessed and the subtle quest for higher status accelerated. Conspicuous consumption and materialism have been an insatiable juggernaut ever since."

Beyond the fun romp of the fashion, music, films and food of the 1960s featured in Mad Men, what intrigues me the most about the show is the idea of a marketed lifestyle that you should be coveting (regardless of if you can afford it), imprinting loyalty to brands, and how much our happiness is tied to possession and status (so we are made to believe).

What does Trudy desire? A posh apartment Pete, who is just starting out in his career, cannot afford. Don gets a raise: time to start shopping for a flashy new car. The living room in Betty and Don's house? In need of a modern redo.

What's disturbing is the idea of high-end products as status and even entitlements and that ordinary Americans should be living the life of "celebrities" (no talent required) and that concept is being sold on the extremely impressionable youth of America.

Consider passages from this New York Post article on excessive prom spending:

"This year, kids are spending wedding prices for proms," said Rashi Pinckney, manager of Oz Boutique in Forest Hills, Queens. "Everyone wants to be Kim Kardashian or Lady Gaga. It's increased by $500 since last year."

"These kids have taken it to a new level. Everything is taken into consideration, from dress to tanning to hair to after-prom. They don't skimp on anything," says Jon Liney, founder of dressgoddess.com.

"The traditional white limo is a thing of the past, too. Now, it's a $9,000-a-night double-decker Hummer equipped with stripper poles."

Ever watch MTV's My Sweet Sixteen? Kids cheer at the end of some over-the-top lavish party when the gift arrives: usually a Hummer or sports car.

At a movie night out not long ago in the suburban town of Westwood, New Jersey, practically every teen had UGG boots ($150+ a pair), a designer bag, and an expensive smart phone. Are they paying for this themselves? I can't imagine. Should the parents of America be overindulging their teens because that's what everyone else is doing? A question that comes up frequently: Can people really afford this, or is it living beyond their means? It seems to me we're raising a generation of spoiled, entitled brand-obsessed teenagers. If they don't have to work for anything, how will they appreciate it?

Please feel free to share your thoughts.

Share Art (Earth Day Edition): Jerry Hannan's Society

"Why would I want a new car? The Datsun runs great. I don't need a new car. I don't want a new car. I don't want any thing. These things, things, things, things," Christopher McCandless tells his parents who have offered him a gift of a new car upon college graduation.

Chris' story was told in Jon Krakauer's book Into the Wild that was made into a film directed by Sean Penn. He was a young man who saw the life ahead of him after graduation, one of Keeping up with the Joneses, a corporate job, and happiness so tied to materialism, and decided it wasn't the least bit for him. He headed off into the wilds of Alaska, and tragically never returned. Far from the world where he didn't feel he fit in, he found solace in nature. "All my destinations would except the one that's me, so I can breathe," signs Eddie Vedder on Guaranteed in the film's soundtrack. Nature accepts you for who you are. She isn't impressed by your latest promotion or possessions. Nature awes and inspires you.

Today is Earth Day, which is being forgotten falling on Good Friday amidst the Easter festivities. But our poor treatment of the Earth is easily forgotten. Only when it directly impacts a person - the water supply is polluted, say, or a cell phone tower is planned, does it seem to draw attention and cries of "not in my backyard."

Werner Herzog's "Encounters at the End of the World," is a haunting and dreamy look at the personalities who live in Antarctica, including its scientists. Many of these scientists, Herzog observes, doubt man's long-term existence on the Earth. Nature, they believe, will regulate us. I can't help think they are right. Why are we drowning out the warning calls?

On this Earth Day, I share the art of Jerry Hannan's Society, a cautionary tale pondering our modern day society's take and take attitude, "We have a greed, with which we have agreed." It was performed by Eddie Vedder on the Into the Wild soundtrack. Try and quiet the wants, focus on the needs.

It's a mystery to me
We have a greed
With which we have agreed

And you think you have to
Want more than you need
Until you have it all
You won't be free

Society
You're a crazy breed
I hope you're not lonely
Without me

When you want more than you have
You think you need
And when you think more than you want
Your thoughts begin to bleed

I think I need to find a bigger place
Cause when you have
More than you think
You need more space

Society
Crazy indeed
Hope you're not lonely
Without me

There's those thinking more less
Less is more
But if less is more
How you keepin' score?

Means for every point you make
Your level drops
Kinda like you're starting from the top
And you can't do that

Society
You're a crazy breed
Hope you're not lonely
Without me

Society
Crazy indeed
Hope you're not lonely
Without me

Society
Have mercy on me
Hope you're not angry
If I disagree

Society
You're a crazy breed
Hope you're not lonely
Without me

Watching Jamie Oliver, Channeling Owen Meany

I can't stop thinking about Owen Meany.

Owen Meany isn't real. He is a fictitious character. His story was told in John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany, which was recommended by Cate at Liberal Simplicity. In a little league game in the summer of 1953 in Gravesend, New Hampshire, he hit a ball that strikes and kills his best friend's mother. The story that followed still haunts me long after I've read it.

Owen Meany was extremely small in stature and voice, virtually childlike into his adult years. He was not small in opinions. He was THE VOICE! of his school newspaper. Each time he appeared, his voice was written as ALL CAPS. He was not just a witness of the injustices he saw in society around him, he was an activist.

Jamie Oliver introduced the word activist to some students on episode two of his Food Revolution show. Activist, are you one for what you believe in? We need more activists.

Owen Meany faced bullies in school, so did I (though not to the extent he did). Jamie is facing bullies on the school board. No matter how old you are, and what situation you are in, bullies are everywhere. We must not be afraid to take them on.

Like Owen and Jamie, we must not fear change. The owner of Patra's fast food restaurant in Los Angeles resisted any efforts to improve the nutrition on his menu, even though it was later revealed his father died of heart disease due to a poor diet, and that all he had in the end was his food. Excuse me as I invoke the spirit of Owen Meany for the following editorial:

JUST BECAUSE YOUR PARENTS DID IT ONE WAY DOESN'T MAKE IT THE BEST WAY! WE MUST NOT BE NOSTALGIC AND IGNORANT ABOUT EATING FOOD ON A DAILY BASIS THAT IS SENDING US TO AN EARLY GRAVE! PAYING HOMAGE TO HIS FATHER WOULD BE TO MAKE SURE OTHER PEOPLE'S LOVED ONES DON'T HAVE THE SAME FATE INSTEAD OF HIDING BEHIND THE EXCUSE OF THAT'S WHAT THE CUSTOMERS WANT.

EVERYONE KEEPS TALKING ABOUT MONEY. WELL, HERE'S A QUESTION: WHO WOULD YOU RATHER GIVE YOUR MONEY TO, ENDOCRINOLOGISTS, ONCOLOGISTS, CARDIOLOGISTS - OR FARMERS? FARMERS – PEOPLE WHO CULTIVATE AND NURTURE FRUITS AND VEGETABLES AND ANIMALS IN THEIR NATURAL STATE AND RESPECT THE SOIL, WATER AND AIR. NOT PEOPLE WHO CRAM 6 CHICKENS IN A WIRE CAGE IN WAREHOUSES WITH THOUSANDS OF OTHER CHICKENS, OR DON'T LET PREGNANT PIGS TURN AROUND, OR SPRAY SO MANY PESTICIDES ON THEIR CROPS THEIR WORKERS GET CANCER. THAT IS NOT FARMING! I DON'T THINK THOSE PEOPLE SHOULD EVEN BE CALLED FARMERS. SINCE I WAS BULLIED, I DON'T LIKE PEOPLE WHO BULLY OTHER PEOPLE, ANIMALS OR THE EARTH. BULLYING IS AN ABUSE OF POWER! AND WE AS A NATION SUPPORT IT EVEN IF WE DON'T DO THE BULLYING OURSELVES!

ARE YOU READY TO SUPPORT REAL APPLES AS MUCH AS WE SUPPORT APPLE (THE COMPANY?) BETTER PRODUCE AND LIVING CONDITIONS FOR ANIMALS AS MUCH AS WE DO BEST BUY? ASK YOURSELVES WHAT YOU VALUE MOST: THINGS, OR LIFE?

JAMIE HANDED OUT T-SHIRTS FOR THE CHILDREN THAT READ, "FEED ME BETTER." LET'S FEED OUR BODY, MIND AND SOUL BETTER! REMEMBER, NO CHANGE OR VICTORY IS TOO SMALL. ONE PERSON IS NOT A REVOLUTION. WE MUST ALL MAKE BETTER CHOICES, AND LEAD BY EXAMPLE! AMERICA, I HOPE YOU ARE WITH ME!

Find a family farm near you through LocalHarvest.

Watch Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution online.

Better than a mall: Old Hook Farm, Emerson, New Jersey.

Mad Men Mondays: On Nostalgia

"Nostalgia, it's delicate, but potent...in Greek, nostalgia literally means the pain from an old wound. It's a twinge in your heart, far more powerful than memory alone. This device isn't a spaceship, it's a time machine. Goes backwards, forwards, and takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It's not called "The Wheel," it's called "The Carousel." It lets us travel the way a child travels, round and around and back home again, to a place where we know we are loved." - Don Draper, Mad Men Season 1, talking about a Kodak Carousel that displays images invoking nostalgia.

Maybe because the news seems so dour lately, or perhaps it's part of aging, but I've been feeling nostalgic for more simpler times. In this CBS News story on nostalgia, Lemoyne College psychology professor Krystine Batcho observed that when something brings back memories, people are more likely to focus on people than items. "The things that people are most nostalgic for in their growing up years were simple things like having dinner with Grandma...or going camping -- as a family... Even if it's just getting together to have a simple meal, getting together to pray or whatever those experiences are that bring a family closer to one another." Something to remember during these trying economic times. People, not possessions, the soul remembers.

Looking back on my childhood, I recall simple "things": scratch and sniff stickers, my pink Smurfette lunch box, or earning prized Looney Toons eraser heads for getting enough gold stars in the third grade. But so much of what I remember are experiences, like...

Eating cherries and raspberries in an old farmhouse in Switzerland. We spent a lot of summers there as a child.
Making mashed potatoes with my grandfather, and eating them off of my grandparents' pretty blue plates in their home in Switzerland.
Sitting in a garden with my grandmother in Switzerland.
Dancing around the living room with my big sister to records.
Going swimming in the summertime.
Playing with our two cats.
Going sledding with my mom and dad in Van Saun park in winter, and making a snow man outside.

A new crop of enthusiastic sledders in Van Saun, on the same hill I went down as a child.


I think about smells too. One of my favorites, still is, is honeysuckle in the summer. Freshly mown grass transports me to a warm, sunny day in late June sitting in class longing for the lazy summer ahead. I think as adults, we should all get one summer off. Wouldn't that be nice?

The CBS article mentioned, "Nostalgia can be a lot about geography. So, if you grew up on the east coast, the smell of flowers made people nostalgic for their childhood. In the south, it was the smell of fresh air. In the Midwest, it was the smell of farm animals. And on the west coast, it was the smell of meat cooking or meat barbequing." Since I'm a vegetarian, good thing I grew up on the east coast.

What are you most nostalgic for? Don't life's seemingly simple pleasures and experiences sometimes seem the ones the memory most longs for? Isn't the memory trying to remind us what is most important in life?

This Time, In Praise of Records

Maybe because everything is so fast moving and disposable in our modern age, many people are looking to the classics for comfort. Typewriters to defy our upgrading-obsessed world. Letters to record our thoughts in ink that cannot be erased by "delete." Vintage clothes that have lasted decades, while many cheaply made clothes of today fade after a few washes.

There's something about spending an evening at home listening to vinyl records that is so inviting. Unlike with an iPod which you can take anywhere, a vinyl forces you to be in the moment. Savor it while you can. Sit, lie, or dance to the music. You can be transported back in time. In a Golden Girls episode, Dorothy asks Blanche if she's donated to charity and Blanche says, yes, she bought a copy of the We Are the World album in 1985. Who didn't? I try not to romanticize any era too much (each time has its positives and negatives), but wouldn't it be nice to be in more innocent times? Before words like "sexting" was in teens' regular dialogue? When sweethearts grabbed for each other's hands and not a gadget on a date? No matter how fast and convenient a download can be, it cannot compete with flipping through the liner notes on a record and admiring the art.

Today, April 16, is National Record Store Day. I stopped in at my favorite shop, Music Merchant in Westwood, New Jersey, which I've been patronizing since I was a teenager. Do you patronize any record shops, or have in the past and miss doing so? As of late, I've be browsing thrift shops as well for steals on records.

These timeless albums, Carpenters and The Sound of Music, were part of two crates of records found disposed of by the curbside many months ago. Countless gems were in the collection, from the Gigi soundtrack to Elvis Presley.
Aren't we forgetting about and throwing away so much that is great about American culture? When it was less about gimmicks and shock value (ahem, Lady GaGa). When it was just about the music, and an entire album was worth listening to, not just a download? When we didn't hear "tweets" from our favorite singers except their actual singing, and didn't take out our music to drown out other sounds of technology (like people's distracting cell phone conversations)?

I also love the community feel of record shops, book stores, the library and the like, with their more personal, human connection which we all need, over the online alternatives (Amazon, Netflix, etc.) The shop owners and librarians know me by name. That cannot be said of a computer.

The song was so right, the times they are a-changing. Change is constant. But we can tailor the times to a world we want for ourselves. I'm so glad records are part of mine.

Now, a night with Simon & Garfunkel awaits.