Jumble Sale

A few random thoughts© up for purchase.

Corrections, 25¢:

A week or so ago, I answered the Flipsy meme about cookbooks (when is another of those going to make the rounds?). I shamefully said I owned about 3 or 4 cookbooks, and I realized tonight that that is, my fine friends, a blatant lie.

I'd forgotten all about my box of Ebay cookbooks. See, since I'm in constant worry about my recipe du jour cards running out, and rightly so because they're going fast, I occasionally look around on Ebay for more recipes. And I found a boxed lot of old books for about $5. And I bought them. They're all slim paperbacks from the 60s; however, most of the recipes were in black and white photos, and the color ones weren't generally of the great horrible quality of what we have now, so I just packed them back up and stuck them in the closet.

But tonight I got to thinking about them because I'm looking for some kitschy kitchen art to hang up in The Egg. And I got them out and started looking at them, and they're actually quite fun. There's "The Leftovers Cookbook," "Cooking the French Way" (ooh la la), "Lunch Box Specials," "The Ground Meat Cookbook" (Mitchie and Flipsy should love that one), and my own personal favorite, and believe me folks, it's a slight book, about 10 pages, "The South Jersey Asparagus Cookbook." That's about the most specialized book I can imagine ever being written.

But I've lied. I don't own 3 or 4 cookbooks, because there are 18, count them, I know you won't, in that box alone. I have cookbooks out the ying-yang!

Celebrity Quotes, 75¢:

Every once in a while a member of The Famous will come out with something so good it makes you glad to be alive. This happened a few years ago when Aretha Franklin was praising a certain mentor in her life and gushed, "He turned my career around 160 degrees."

Today Mark "Marky Mark" Wahlberg was taking time from his busy pants-dropping schedule (thanks, "Clueless") to do an interview re his new movie on the Today program. He'd talked about how some film experiences had a good director, but not a good script, or a great cast but not a good director, then said, "This time I got both - a great script, director, and cast."

You gotta love moments like that.

Apologies Demanded, 60¢:

I had a wonderful dog named Bill who loved to bite people. He liked to bite people more than anything else, and was quite good at it. He bit me, everyone in my family, and several friends, or at least they were right up until the time his teeth sank into their flesh.

When my nephew was about 4, Bill bit him. Taytie was playing with him and Bill reached right up and bit him squarely on the nose. Taytie cried, the nose bled, and we all ended up in the hospital to witness a tetanus shot and I had to produce vaccination papers on my doggie.

I don't think anyone (except me of course, because in some ways I think Bill and I were woven from the same cloth) in my family ever forgave poor Bill for this act. We'd tolerate his teeth from time to time, but he'd bitten the Golden Boy. In fact when Bill died a year or so later and Taytie was told this, the first words out of his mouth were, "He bit me once."

Today in Dear Abby there was a very nice little description of doggies and why children shouldn't be left alone with them. The column contains the following, and I quote, probably illegally:

"Dogs are pack animals. Their family is their 'pack.' In the pack, the dominant animal will offer a corrective bite on the nose of a younger dog to correct unacceptable behavior."

And now, over 10 years after his death, my Bill has been exonerated. I want a posthumous public apology for my dog, family, and I want it now!

And that's all I have for sale.

Betland's Olympic Update:
* We have acrowinners. What did you think of when you were saying, "Man, that's a cool thing?"
-Honorable Mention goes to Mike, with "Sleeping in, evading nuisances." (Mike and I have this thing about sleeping in. On completely opposite coasts, of course.)
-Runner-up goes to Michelle, with "Seeing Eddie in Nordstroms." (That would be cool - I'll bet he'd be buying bustiers.)
-And this week's winner goes to LilyG, with "Singing In Egypt. Naked." (She thought it was cool; now she has to do it for us!)

Thanks to all who played!