Farmer’s Cabinet, Amherst NH: 10 April 1877–
The curious custom of joking on the first of April, sending the ignorant or the unwary on fruitless errands, for the sake of making them feel foolish and having a laugh at them, prevails very widely in the world. And whether you can call the victim a “Fourth month dunce,” an “April fool,” an “April fish” (as in France), or an “April gowk” (as in Scotland), the object to deceive him and to laugh at him, is everywhere the same. Continue reading
Brooke Astor turns 105 today.
Brooke has had an exciting year. She has survived an “elder abuse controversy.” She was released from Lenox Hill Hospital on July 29, 2006 moved to Holly Hill (which is where she had earlier stated she wanted to die), her 75-acre estate in the village of Briarcliff Manor, New York. She is being looked after by Annette de la Renta her friend and court appointed guardian.
-Read her biography and about her family tree- (First)
[Rest in Peace- Mrs. Astor died 13 August 2007]
Also see the latest news [at least at the time of this original post it was new]:
–A High 105 for Brooke–
-Brooke Staff's 'Bonus'-
-Astor-Nomical Spending-
–So Maybe Actually Brooke Astor's Son Didn't Leave Her Destitute–
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FOR THE LADIES. To Obtain and Preserve the Perfume of Flowers.–Did it ever occur to the reader to inquire whence and how are obtained the vast amount of odors or perfumery of flowers that is used?
A large part of that used in this country and Great Britain is obtained from the Southern part of France, where seeds and flowers are raised by scores of tons for this purpose. The odors are first absorbed by purified lard, and the odor extracted afterwards by the use of spirits of wine, (alcohol.) A very few kinds of plants are used for this purpose, the great variety of perfumes being skillful combinations of a few. But every lady who has in the garden the Lily of the Valley, the Honeysuckle, the Myrtle, the Clover Pink, Rose, or other odorous flowers, may be her own perfumer. All she needs is a little pure lard. Common lard may be purified by melting and pouring it into water a few times. Dr. Piesse gives the following directions:
At the season when the flowers are in bloom, obtain one pound of fine lard, melt and strain it through a hair sieve or cloth, into cold spring water, repeating the process several times, using a pinch of salt and a pinch of alum in each water–then wash in plain water, and finally remelt and cast in a pan. Put this clarified fat into a glue-pot, and place it where sufficiently warm to keep it liquid.
Into this fat throw as many flowers as you can, and there let them remain 24 hours, then strain the fat from the spent flowers, and add fresh ones; repeating this operation for a week, when the fat will have become very highly perfumed.
To turn this pomade into an extract suitable for the handkerchief, cut the perfumed fat into small pieces, drop them into a wide-mouthed bottle and cover with best alcohol a week, and then strain it off.–[Amer. Agriculturist].
–Farmer's Cabinet, Amherst NH, 10 April 1862
Janice
Ye insects all, that fly or creep,
Assist my doleful ditty,
The fat of Bee defunct to weep,
Of Bee so humming witty!
It was a pretty little thief,
Most innocent of any,
And eke it plunder’d ev’ry leaf,
To turn an honest penny.
For news and learning, great and small,
It buzz’d about to seek ’em;
And honey laid at top of all
To cover Album Graecum:
Squeez’d at a press this humble bee.
Can now no longer sing;
Thus pointless ends my elegy,
My wasp has lost her sting.
—An Elegy on the Death of the Bee, Boston Post-Boy newspaper, published 19 January 1736. Continue reading
Pronounced “Sell-LAH” in New Hampshire, the cellar is becoming a rare find. Oh, it was different in the earliest days of our state. Then a cellar was essential to any household. It was built to hold the barrels of beef and pork, salted shad, and even apple cider. Before the days of refrigeration, it was a necessity, not a luxury. The art of building these storage places, sometimes called “root cellars,” may be coming back in vogue. The term cellar today frequently brings to mind temperature-controlled projects containing fine bottles of wine.
Growing up in southern New Hampshire in the 1950s, the term “cellar” was used to describe a lower level storage area that had either earthen or stone walls. A “basement,” on the other hand, was the location of your school’s public toilets. (You’d ask the teacher if you could “go to the basement,” if you needed to use the facilities).
It’s truly a shame that the naming protocol has changed. There is nothing poetic, or lovely about the word basement (it is “base,” after all). The word cellar, on the other hand, actually “cellar door” reportedly is the favorite word in the English language. Or is it?
So, what do you call the whachamacallit–cellar or basement? And will my cellar become a basement, when it grows up?
Janice
