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Archive for February, 2026

Wanna Nosh?

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on February 17, 2026| Leave a Comment »

What a weekend!

Bob and I went glamping; we drove for two hours to Fall Creek Falls State Park in the easternmost corner of TN to meet up with our Germantown friends. We filled two cabins with great food, laughter and two new puppies. The meals we would create were pre-planned – Yoko and I got Valentine’s Day! February may be a short month, but it’s chock full of meaning. The Rocker and Aunt Kiki celebrated their ninth wedding anniversary, and their Twins are about to turn ONE! So it seems fitting that a holiday about love should be nestled in the middle.

I told Yoko I wanted to recreate the Bride’s wedding dinner under a tent on Thomas Jefferson’s mountain. I’d found an interesting take on shrimp and grits in the NYTimes Cooking App. This was also Grandma’s Ada favorite meal to order once she moved South. Yoko volunteered to make a chocolate cake with strawberries and whipped cream for dessert. Perfect. She would bake bread, and I would do a cheese plate as an appetizer. Also known as a nosh in Yiddish circles.

“Did you eat?“

There are certain cultures where that question is moot, since food will be presented whether you are hungry or not. When Bob and I landed at our cousin Peggy’s house during the deep freeze, she laid out a beautiful loaf of banana bread, followed by a pot of tea complete with lemons. I never felt so completely cared for in my life. It wasn’t just that our house was encased in ice and the temperature was plummeting, it was an all encompassing feeling of sanctuary. We had landed in a safe place with loved ones who didn’t ask anything of us except our attention to the snack on the table. She was nourishing our souls.

So of course I had to tell my glamping girlfriends about an article I’d read in the NYTimes about snacks. They all pulled out their phones to follow Snaxshot on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/snaxshot/?hl=en. Andrea Hernandez is not a dietician, but she was into marketing and noticed something about food during the pandemic. She is akin to a cultural anthropologist, comparing the fascination with “Fiber” in the 50s and 60s to today’s fixation on Protein and prebiotic sodas like Olipop – designed with 9 grams of plant-based fiber to enhance digestive health! I was actually shocked when I was asked for my ID in order to buy cans of a non-alcoholic sparkling raspberry rose for our Valentine dinner. What’s up with that?

Hernandez has become “… a kind of snacking Nostradamus. ‘When Andrea covers a product or a shift, it tends to ripple within the industry,’ said Melanie Masarin, the founder of the nonalcoholic aperitif brand Ghia, in an email, noting that Ms. Hernández’s observations have a way of showing up in group chats, brand conversations and beyond.… According to data from the consumer research firm NIQ, the (snack) market was worth $213 billion in the latest 52-week period. “It used to be like, I would go to the grocery store, I could choose between Kraft or Annie’s or homemade macaroni and cheese,” said Oren John, a branding and marketing creator based in Orange County, Calif., and one of Snaxshot’s early fans. ‘Now I have 45 macaroni and cheese options.’” https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/dining/andrea-hernandez-snaxshot.html?searchResultPosition=5

If you’re lucky enough to live as long as I have, you’ve probably noticed this shift in snack food. Our mothers would put out nuts and maybe some Chex mix when company was coming. Today there’s an entire industry devoted to charcuterie boards. Dr Jim gifted us an incredible board for the holidays, complete with bowls and tiny forks and knives! Thanks big brother. Remember when a potato chip was simply a potato chip? Now they can be baked, flavored and shaped to hold a cupful of guacamole. In fact, chips can take up an entire aisle in the grocery store, and sold out faster than wings before the Benito Bowl.

In a world where MAHA has tipped the food triangle on its side, it’s up to us to decide what to put on our family’s table, and what kind of a nosh might be healthy and not just trendy. When we were in Mexico, the Twins were introduced to some of the last remaining food allergens for babies. It helps to have a few doctors nearby when they took their first bite of shellfish! Thankfully, they happen to love peanut butter, a uniquely American spread!

What do you snack on while watching the Winter Olympics? That’s Yoko on the left, and Bob is standing with the ladies. I’m third from the right with my hiking stick. I guess I really am shrinking!

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The Sound of Chainsaws

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , , , , , , , on February 9, 2026| Leave a Comment »

I wake to the sound of chainsaws in the morning. FEMA drives along our streets, picking up piles of trees with a gigantic claw, like the roadside children’s arcade full of stuffed toys. One day we saw the National Guard cutting up limbs in our neighborhood; I felt conflicted, happy to see them but still wary of their motives because our government can no longer be trusted. We have become a nation where people disappear. We have become a nation with an ICE body count.

The ice storm clean up continues as robins reappear in our yard and the temperature climbs toward 70 degrees today. Finches vie for position at the BirdBuddy feeder, sparrows become aggressive. My phone lights up, seems there’s a party going on – a downy woodpecker is clinging to the side and pecking through the seeds, scattering many below for the squirrels! Then a brilliant red cardinal swoops in, all captured by the tiny camera linked to our WiFi. These are the moments of joy that sustain me. Birds and bunnies…

“THE ONLY THING MORE POWERFUL THAN HATE IS LOVE”

We watched the Super Bowl aka ‘Benito Bowl’ last night with our Nashville family. I made a NYTimes recipe for chicken teriyaki that is loosely associated with Seattle: “In Seattle, teriyaki is omnipresent, the closest this city comes to a Chicago dog.” https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/06/dining/06unit.html You might be asking why a former Pittsfield, MA resident was rooting for the West Coast. My brother Dr Jim told me the Seahawks quarterback was traded from the Vikings, after winning 14 games; it was a stupid move. So this ex-NewEnglandFan reveled in the Washington victory via Minnesota, if you get my drift.

The Bride served Mexican with ALL the fixins; and some of us actually watched the football game. The Pumpkin, a fledgling rock guitarist himself, was impressed with Green Day while I felt tugged back to the 90s with a heavy metal band in my garage. Did you know that Green Day’s front man Billie Joe Armstrong had urged ICE agents to quit their jobs at one of the pre-bowl-super-parties? He said Mr T would drop them like rocks when the MAGA gig was up, and that they should, “Come on this side of the line.”

But Bad Bunny’s Halftime Show brought Latina music and culture home. HOLA! He was brilliant, and his message of inclusivity was apparent to everyone. In between letting dogs in and out and guacamole with tacos, I found myself moving to the beat. I didn’t quite understand how Lady Gaga fit into the scene, but Ricky Martin was a sight for sore eyes. I loved him before and after he came out as a gay man, and I adore seeing him on Apple’s “Palm Royale.” I bet Carol Burnett enjoys working with his sexy pool boy character. Season 2 is a blast people.

Meanwhile, silence is filling the House as Ghislaine Maxwell pleads the Fifth this morning. I’m shocked! She appeared virtually from her clubhouse prison with her emotional support dog where she is serving time on sex-trafficking charges. Her lawyer wrote on X, “Ms. Maxwell is prepared to speak fully and honestly if granted clemency by President Trump.” Which sounds like a Catch 22 if I ever heard one – the guy who wants to shield himself and his friends, the billionaires who frequented Epstein’s parties, is supposed to pardon her so she can tell the truth? Good luck with that.

Tonight the sound of Mahjongg tiles will also bring me joy. I’m starting to get the hang of it and I’m feeling proud of myself, learning something new. Stretching my mind a bit. And I’ve got a little whistle in my purse now, in case I need to put my lips together, and blow.

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Sun Melts ICE

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on February 3, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Our little Nashville cottage has warmed up. The Pumpkin helped me make vegetable soup. My friend Les delivered a loaf of bread, and we walked across the street to see her majestic ash tree covering her pool; it just missed her porch by a few feet. Another neighbor helped Bob chop up an evergreen that fell on our HVAC. Guess we’ll see if the air conditioning works in a couple of months. We cleaned out the refrigerator/freezer, and replaced whatever food survived their exile to the garage – the free-standing garage we finally got permitted to turn into a DADU (detached, auxiliary, dwelling, unit).

It will have its own address, but we had to sign and swear we would never AirBnB it – those are the new Metro rules. Only for family, friends and climate refugees, we said.

Yesterday with the ice melting, I dug out my trusty hiking sticks and set off for a walk in the neighborhood. It was a beautiful, 45 degree, sunny day. We talked to a new friend with a 10 week old rescue puppy named Harrington. An adorable black lab mix with white socks, he’s named after a Stranger Things character. Since the Pumpkin (who knows all things about Stranger Things) is back in school, I had to look up Steve Harrington. It seems the pup’s avatar plays the stereotypical, lovable jock who was supposed to be killed off in the first season, but won the hearts of his audience. So the writers had to give him a “redemption arc.” And it struck me that with the release of more Epstein files, some very powerful men are seeking the same sort of salvation. 

Let’s not forget that Marjorie Taylor Green warned us about Mr T’s furor over releasing the Epstein files. He didn’t want all his buddies getting into trouble. But the “Epstein Class,” composed of high-ranking government, academic, legal, corporate and even royal people, is just beginning to feel the consequences of their association with a known pedophile and sex trafficker. Like Andrew formerly known as Prince, tomorrow Lord Mandelson will step down from the House of Lords. Some are even calling for his removal from peerage, whatever that means. The British have no appetite for a redemption story. We, OTOH, are always willing to buy into salvation.

After all, Epstein reinvented himself after his conviction in 2008, pleading guilty to prostitution charges. Remember there was a major recession at the time the FL pimp to billionaires got his sweetheart deal. What will happen to Bill Gates, Steve Bannon, Bill Clinton, Peter Thiel, Deepak Chopra and Noam Chomsky? The ex-President of Harvard, Larry Summers, married father of six, emails Epstein for romantic advice about a young woman he was ‘mentoring.’ At least he stepped down from his many Board postions. But it wasn’t until they were caught, it wasn’t until the evidence of their fawning association with Epstein became apparent, that we are hearing their excuses. And as every child learns in school, ignorance of the law (if we believe they were ignorant) is NO defense!

Dr Peter Attia, a billionaire longevity guru, is now ashamed of his old friend Epstein. Sorry he joked with him about female body parts. Let’s stop calling Epstein a financier, he was a pimp. The language we use helps to shape our understanding of the world, so I’m re-naming things, like ICE is really our very own secret police. Detention camps are concentration camps where we ship brown people without due process – where we hold five year old children without their mothers. Remember Mr T coming down the gold escalator calling undocumented people rapists and murderers? If we allow the Republican party to call Mr Pretti a terrorist, well then it becomes easier to kidnap and murder people in American cities.

I’m not looking for a redemption arc. I’m looking for sunshine laws to reveal this corrupt class for who they really are. Only the sun can melt the historic ice storm we experienced in Nashville, only the sun can break us out of this chrysalis of apathy. And if you want to help fight our country’s slide into authoritarianism, you can start by attending a virtual meet-up on Thursday of like-minded souls, “Eyes on ICE” https://www.mobilize.us/nokings/event/892452/

 

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