Today’s Café is open, newly stocked with scrumptious pastries, farm-fresh eggs, the most aromatic of French roasts, and we’ve a mortar-and-pestle engineer grinding up some tea leaves. And for those of you commemorating this flag day in Sweden, we’ve a platter of Gustav Adolph pastries straight from the Baltic shores.
Take a seat, crack open the paper, and relax. Newcomers, please take this opportunity to intriduce yourselves: we’d love to hear from you!
What’s your pleasure today?
BFFOC??
Brother Feldspar Fell Off the Ceiling?
Big Fall Festival Of Colors?
It’s a clumsy homage to ol’ C&J; otherwise I probably would have put “asdf” or something. But I like your second idea better, now that the leaves are actually changing around here — finally, and more brilliantly than I had thought, given the weather this fall.
Brother Feldspar is Full Of Cheer…
Brother Feldspar, Free Of Car…
BroF, Free of Car, lol!!
Let no one ever say that CabinGirl doesn’t pay attention.
(I was a diner waitress once…the only way to make good money at that is to know all the regulars, and well.)
I think we should do an FBC trivia contest at the end of the year, full of little trivia tidbits like that.
I also was a waitress once. Hardest damn work I ever did and I was lousy at it. I could schmooz the customers okay, but my organizational skills left everything to be desired, my uniform always looked as if I’d slept in a garbage truck, and then there was the time I came around a corner and spilled a whole bowl of hot soup on a customer.
It took me quite a while to learn to hold a large verbal order from the manager of 5-6 different kinds of sandwiches to feed into the various apparatus during rushes. I never tried waiting even though I knew a number of women and some men who did very well in it financially (late 60’s/early 70’s, when a decent restaurant job could put a roof and a state college degree over your head).
Here’s my favorite waitress story.
I’d been hired to play folk music at a New Year’s Eve party in the mid 70’s. I was a young, healthy energetic little single guy at the time and fit in so well with the company that I was invited to stay after the paying gig. I did and played on & off till well after dawn.
Then, of course, it was time for breakfast.
I sat down in a waffle restaurant and a cute, bright waitress came and took my order. It was a little slow coming because she was the only waitress who’d shown up, and I could hear her male manager, John Bolton I believe was his name, bitching her out in that charming way managers have that seriously impedes your ability to follow their stream of superfluous instructions.
When the waffle breakfast came I told her I understood her situation, that I was incapable of being in a hurry, so go ahead and placate the pushy ones & I’d tip her well.
After a while I decided I was getting hungry again, so when she came with the check I declined, and ordered lunch. Still soloing for an increasingly busy house, she eventually brought it, I reminded her not to worry, so it was another half hour after I finished before she could get around to bringing the check.
Well I think we all remember what youth was like for young men, at least from observing it, so it’s no surprise that by now, a little after noon, I was still hungry.
So I ordered supper and her jaw absolutely dropped. Meanwhile this asshole manager had continued to dump on her the whole time.
It was well after 1 before I finally left, and I’d had such a good experience at the party & been generously tipped on top if it all, that I tipped her 100%. That’s 100% of 3 meals of course. Never saw her there again, no surprise. I had a feeling that it was going to end up being her last day and I thought, since I could afford it, I’d do my small part to make that easier for her.
In college I worked at a snack bar where I had to take the order, make it, serve it, and bus the tables. I still have the little burn scars to prove just how bad I was with the fryer and the grill. My “best” mistake was the time I made a banana split without the banana.
I just hated it and it didn’t help that college kids were complete slobs and didn’t tip for shit. One of the happiest days of my life was when I got a job in the English department and could quit.
guys privates one time and he asked me out on a date.
got promoted to the frozen yogurt section, dated two of the guys in the dishwashing room…ahhh, those were the days… 🙂
Applied Thursday, got approved Friday, received the membership card yesterday. So I’m all set, but I find I have this strange reluctance to get behind the wheel again….
I don’t blame you, after having your truck totaled. Plus, the weather this weekend is perfect!
Too bad I have to study my hematology for Tuesday night’s class, but at least I can do it outside.
We finally have the yellows and golds and oranges this weekend. A bit late, as usually the trees look like this for our pumpkin carving the third week of OCtober.
G’morning to you, Brother. My pleasure this day is being deep into our new BooBooks selection, Oh Pure and Radiant Heart by Lydia Millet. It’s brilliant and wonderful. There are parts that pierce me. It started slow for me, but now I can’t put it down.
Imagine if at the moment of the detonation of the first atom bomb, Oppenheimer, Fermi, and Szilard were somehow catapulted out of time, arched over their historical lives, and landed in 2003.
I am now at the part where they have come to Japan to see Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Oppenheimer is smoking himself to death, Fermi is depressed, Szilard is boundlessly curious and determined to save the world.
See you later <dives back into book>.
Sounds like a good read — too bad my queue is already a couple shelves long. I’ll be interested to follow the discussion in the next thread.
I think a Science Guy like you would really like it. Whatcha reading now?
Heh, I usually juggle 2 or 3 books simultaneously, primarily history & popular science (e.g. Brian Greene), with a leavening of tech books for professional development. Not too much fiction, tho — I feel I’ve got too much else to learn about!
Not too much detail, please. I just got my copy from the library yesterday and I have to finish On Beauty before I start Oh Pure.
Very glad to know that you like it — both you and katiebird liking it is a big vote of confidence.
No spoilers, I promise. What I said above is all you’re going to get out of me, except probably some more superlatives. Man, can she effin’ write! And think. And imagine.
Speaking of literary science fiction. . .have you read The Sparrow and its sequel?
No. I have to admit that nothing I ever read about it (and I’ve read a good deal) ever made me want to read it. Among other reasons for not reading it is that I generally avoid books with religious overtones, regardless of how well written they are — just another one in my very long list of character flaws.
(mr katiebird just brought up the canvas patio rocking chair in the hopes that it will be more comfortable for my poor mysteriously and terribly painful back)
Meanwhile, although I haven’t read past the first chapter of Oh Pure myself, I did – just minutes ago finish PopCo.
Andi, this is an amazing book. Thank you so much for bringing it to my attention. I had a weird experience when reading it. I was telling my co-worker (who told me about Oh Pure) about it and what I liked. And he asked if I liked Neal Stephenson? Which was weird, because it was in the context of a conversation you were having with someone about Stephenson that I picked out the PopCo Book. Between what was said in that conversation & and his enthusiasm, it seems I’m going to be adding something from Stephenson to my list.
Who knew that this wonderful BoomanTribune would also lead to a reading list that would keep me (at this rate) months away from another reading emergency?
Now, on to Oh, Pure & Radiant Heart! (and I don’t think Nancy referred to anything that wasn’t in the reviews or the flyleaf).
(cough) I mean kansas. oops
about ‘plaming’ her — I think all the discussions about her books have pretty taken care of that.
I’m glad you liked PopCo; I’m always a bit nervous about recommending books. If you can find her book, “Going Out”, I think you would like it as well — although it is a much more contained story, it is also very imaginative — in this case, a sort of re-telling of the the Wizard of Oz.
Wasn’t one of the books we considered for the next BooBooks the story of the Wicked Witch?
Maybe for the next fiction month we should consider doing a pair of books — Going Out & that one? It might be interesting to see how different authors handle a retelling of a well-known story.
One of the things I liked about PopCo was her lifelong work on a “project” with her grandfather. My father & I have been working on “Dad’s Project” for 22 years now, and it was nice to see that such a long-term endeavor isn’t unheard of.
Wicked is actually (well, mostly) the story of the Wizard of Oz but it’s told from the witch’s point of view. Going Out is a novel that takes the idea of the wizard of oz — people setting off on a journey together, the end result of which they believe will result in solving some specific problems — and works it into a modern, real-world setting.
which is not to say that reading both of them wouldn’t be interesting — I just wanted to make it clear how different the two books were and that they might not appeal to the same types of reader — OTOH and FWIW, I liked both of them.
I’m waiting for Oh Pure and Radiant Heart to wend its way eastward from Powell’s. In the meantime, I gobbled up the Marie Lightfoot trilogy. Great stuff! I hope we can arrange a Marie-centric discussion session sometime.
Well Brother, seeing I am a Swede and my maiden name is Gustavson I will have some of those wonderful pastries with my decaf please.
I searched high & low for a picture, or at least a good description, of these pastries. They’re chocolate-covered, which is all I need to know, but it would have been nice to have the visual to kick-start the salivating. 😉
Good morning BF and all.
Been up since 4.30 am. You see, the youngest asklet plays hockey – which means matches every Sunday morning at 6 am – which means we are up 4.30 to catch the 5 am train. But it’s worth it and today our guys were up 3-0!
I warms my heart to see American youth playing hockey! But 6AM on a Sunday?! That’s diabolical! I hope there’s a practical reason for that, and it’s not simply a “character-building” exercise. Congrats on the spotless record — here’s to preserving it!
Hockey rinks are a limited good, certainly in New York. Chelsea Piers open at 6, the youngest ones have the honors to start the day (he’ll graduate to a team starting at 7.30 in the new year – yay).
It seems the ideal morning wind comes along almost exactly the same time as church.
But Irish traditional music is even more practical than that. At a festival or contest, they hold a mass right after Saturday supper.
At 4:30 AM Sunday nobody’s getting out of bed to go play–they’re still up playing, kids and all.
Sounds like a nice way to spend Sunday morning, but wow, that’s early!
Congrats to young asklet on the win.
I’m already sending an email to the Sharks…would love to have a BooKid in San Jose! 🙂
Here, here. Welcome to Hockeytown asklet.
Well, I don’t even know where the interest for hockey came from – my thing wintertime as a kid was speed skating or skiing.
Redwing? Just looked it up – they’re in Detroit..
The young ask seems to have a thing for the Rangers, which I guess is only to be expected.
What a sight to wake up to. A little inspirational view as you enjoy your late morning brunch. I’m still bleary-eyed, Puget4 has just begun stirring, while the Twa Totos are itching to find some more rats to chase today. Our one-eye found some making a nest on the porch and nearly caught himself a free lunch yesterday.
I’ll have a cuppa Earl Grey.
Grey-Grey-Grey, Earl of Grey-Grey-Grey….
of you when you post your mountain pictures that I could almost (but not quite) trade my woods for them.
Beautiful image.
Come on out here!! You can have it all! When we first came to Puget Sound we lived in a doublel-wide that was in the middle of 70 Acres. Our lane/driveway looks much like yours, trees, filtered sun (remember the photo Gooserock posted -Easter sunrise- with a deer at the end). We had old growth stumps in the woods that were 5-6 feet in diameter, just about every sort of critter you can imagine plus coyotes and bald eagles on the property which was new for Ohioans.
Then we moved about 35 miles so I was closer to my job and now we have mountains and sea views.
There are many places where you can have both at once. Come on out. We’ll give you a tour.
and I do love the northwest (been hiking at Rainier, the Olympics and the Cascades plus Oregon and far northern California) but I love living in a hardwoods forest much more and I couldn’t duplicate what I have here (40 acres for which we paid $600/ac. and a house we — mostly — built ourselves).
But if we get back out that way again, we’ll definitely take you up on the tour offer.
Thanks for taking this picture. I have now “stirred” and am up but the mountains are not. Clouds have settled down. Things change fast. Good to see the snow. Hope it stays through winter this time.
Just coffee, please, black and medium strong.
Thanks.
Just beautiful.
I do love my woods, I do, I do.
I love your woods too!
Lazy Sunday morning here, a bit breezy and temps in the 40’s…a precursor to colder weather yet to come.
Here’s a fall-like image from the work of Andy Goldsworthy for you enjoyment:
Later
Peace
I think I’ll spend the day organizing fallen leaves. Life is so peaceful since exposing evil doers has become as challenging as shooting fish in a barrel.
here in S. Ontario. All the yellow and red leaves are blowing away. Lightening and thunder in the early hours, too. Just some tea. I’ve got a monster tooth ache and I can barely open my mouth for any goodies.
We had thunderstorms last night and tornadoes to the south of us. Fortunately, all we are having are big winds that are stripping the trees bare.
Sorry about the toothache.
Let’s take your mind off of it — any new pictures of Andrew to post?
I heard about the twisters. It sounds like they were pretty deadly. I am glad that you and your family are safe.
My husband just got back with some meds for the toothache. It’s a liquid that tastes terrible, but I can’t get wide enough for a pill. Uhg….
Pictures of Andrew, let me see, you mean like
OMG! He is soooooooo cute! Look at that happy little face!
And did he grow enough for the frog suit to fit in the short time he’s been here?
He’s such a fummy little guy. He has one of those smiles with just 6 teeth, but he moves too quickly for me to catch it.
He wasn’t swimming in the costume. He is up to a little over 19 lbs!! As my husband says, “The buffet is always open.”
is all the way in the red danger zone — I don’t think it can take anything cuter so you’ll have to be very careful with future pictures.
Sounds like a challenge.
I’ll just have to upgrade to the more powerful model.
Tea to me means Barry’s. Have a cuppa on the house, wrap warmly, and feel better, please?
Thanks for the tea tip. I’ll have to see if that’s in my local store.
It’s not easy to find – it’s from Ireland – but you might find it in the same places they sell Taytos and Rose’s chocolates. I managed to score a big box of the stuff from an Irish friend of mine who decided to give up caffeine. Mmmm, I think I’ll put on the kettle now, in fact ….
Oh, I’m sorry about the toothache.
We’re supposed to get your blustery and thhunderstormy weather here later today, but right now it is glorious: windows open, sun shining, boys smiling…
Just back in.
curly lives just a half block from Central Park and Fifth Avenue. So we took the asklets out for a stroll.
There is a marathon on – here’s the leading quartet a few minutes ago, just about 2.5 miles from the finish.
I’m moving at the end of this week, so in case you don’t see me around much you’ll all know why. No idea when the internet will be connected at the new place yet (hopefully, I won’t have to go through much withdrawal).
Packed spouse off to church; I was just too dang tired this morning. 🙁 Hoping to get some work done while he’s gone; bed is made, but now I need to finish putting away clothes I dug out of storage this past week, and move the summer clothes back out to the storage room. When spouse gets home, we have to at least get the cardboard and other packaging crap up to the recycling center; if we have to, we can wait to go to Goodwill till tomorrow morning.
Okay, time to move…
We’ve been doing quite a bit of purging around the cabin this week too. Finally parting with many outgrown toys, clothes, extra household stuff.
The Goodwill donations door has been closed by 1 pm on Saturday for the past 2 weeks because they get so much stuff. We’re taking another try at dropping off this afternoon.
It’s criminal how much crap we collect over the years…
Farmers’ Edition. We were walking the Twa Totos; I got 4 photos off in the 40 seconds that this scene opened and closed.