Words Like Locusts Flew From Her Fingers

Recipe: Pumpkin Apple Spice Cake

I made this cake today! And I took the picture of it too! Yay me! This is not only lovely to look at, it’s delicious. AND — hold onto your hats! — it’s low fat. And it’s totally vegan. Do I rule or what?

I’m calling it:

Pumpkin Apple Spice Cake

1 medium butternut squash *
1/2 cup dried sweetened cranberries
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
2 apples peeled and chopped into 1/2 inch dice
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup apple butter
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut the squash in half and remove the stringy stuff and the seeds. Lightly oil the cut sides of the squash and bake for an hour, cut side down, on a baking sheet that’s been lined with foil . When it’s done. Take it out of the oven and let it cool completely. After it’s cooled, peel the skin off it and toss the flesh into a food processor. Push the button until it’s smooth and creamy.

Put the creamy squash stuff in a big bowl and add all the other wet ingredients, including the cranberries and the nuts — which really aren’t “wet” but they’re close enough. Stir that all up really well.

In another bowl, sift all the dry ingredients. Why bother with a sifter? Use a big wire mesh strainer if you’ve got one. Just put all the dry stuff in there and tap it until it all goes through into your bowl.

Mix the wet stuff into the dry stuff. Stir it all up. Lightly oil a bundt pan. I use this little sprayer deal I bought that you can just pour oil into. Doesn’t that sound a whole lot more appetizing than using that product you buy at the grocery store that comes in a can and that, I’ve heard, has silicone in it? Who wants to EAT silicone? Not me. Anyway. Spray the pan. Put your mixture in there. Bake it at 350 for about 50 minutes.

Let it cool in the pan for 10 or 20 minutes on a rack. Then turn it out onto the rack and let it finish cooling. Make this cake and people will think you’re a genius. It happens to me all the time.

* Yes, I know butternut squash isn’t the same as pumpkin. It’s better than pumpkin. Just call it pumpkin and we’ll all be happier, okay?

The Voices Of The Angels

Lately I’ve been listening a lot to the Tallis Scholars, acknowledged masters of Renaissance sacred vocal music. The music of Josquin, Palestrina, and of course, the group’s namesake Thomas Tallis has an ethereal beauty that is rarely found in contemporary music.

Go here for a taste of it.

How could a person listen to something so beautiful and not be transported to a better kind of existence? And I use the word “transported” intentionally. Music like this was written for just that purpose — it’s meant to lift you out of your everyday existence and give you a glimpse, if only for a moment, of something bigger. Something pure and holy. Even now, 500 years after this music was written, it still has the power to deeply move a person. I doubt that will ever be said of “praise music”.

I believe it was a mistake for the Roman Catholic church to quit using Latin as the exclusive language of the rites. When the purpose is to put people in touch with something beyond the ordinary, then you need a special language to do that. When religions move towards the literal — and away from the metaphorical — it’s a mistake.

Blogging “The Iliad” – 10

Did I mention earlier that we entered “Book II” of the Iliad? Yes? Okay, then.

Ulysses is successful in calming the crowd down and getting everyone to go back to their tents. But one guy, Thersites (who’s known to be a complainer), starts bitching about what a jerk Agamemnon is.

Not a very good idea.

Ulysses smacks him down and then stands before the gathered crowd to speak. He tells Agamemnon that it’s only natural that after nine years the men are starting to get fed up. But they did promise to help defeat Troy so, they will be patient long enough to find out whether Agamemnon’s dream about defeating the Trojans is true or not.

Not too bright, that Ulysses, but he looks great in a toga.

Mental Illness at Work

Amy Joyce – Should You Tell? – washingtonpost.com
Legislation was introduced in the Senate last week by Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) that would allow anyone with health insurance to have equitable coverage for both mental and physical illness. A bill is expected to be introduced in the House soon. So far, 40 states have passed similar laws, including Maryland and Virginia. The District does not have one, according to Andrew Sperling, director of legislative advocacy with the National Alliance on Mental Illness. The organization is lobbying for the Senate bill, he said. “Placing arbitrary limits on treatment for mental illness is just wrong,” he said.

Yes, it is just wrong. Unfortunately, unless things have changed dramatically since I was a medical claims examiner — and I don’t think they have — these laws only apply to fully insured plans. That is, insurance coverage where the money paid for claims comes from an actual insurance company. These days, most larger companies are self-insured. They may hire an insurance company to administer their plans but the money for paying the claims comes from their own accounts. Self-insured plans aren’t subject to the same stringent laws that fully-insured plans must follow.

So — if you get a job with a big company (perhaps with the idea that the insurance coverage will be better), you may still find yourself with very limited benefits for mental illness.

Yes. It does suck.

Fashionable

Simply Pretty & Pretty Ugly (washingtonpost.com)

I guess it shouldn’t surprise me but, for the most part, the clothing the Washington Post’s writer found pretty was pretty consistently the stuff I thought was ugly. And vice versa. The two outfits shown above, for example. Post writer Maria Valentino thinks the shaggy green coat on the left is ugly but I really like it. In fact it’s one of the few things in the Post’s slide show I’d actually wear! (But only if someone gave it to me. I suspect it would be much too expensive to buy.) I like it! It’s…fun! The goofy outfit on the right, though, I wouldn’t be caught dead in.

The other things I always wonder about: Why are the models so frigging pale? It’s creepy looking. And how come they never smile? They always look angry or bored. That’s not the sort of thing that would get me interested in someone’s designs.

Blogging “The Iliad” – 9

Oh, that Agamemnon! He’s a sly one, for sure.

He knows that he needs to really get the Achaeans psyched up for battle against the Trojans, but he knows he can’t just say, “Okay! Let’s get out there and fight!” No, what he does is much subtler than that. Agamemnon says, Look — it’s been a good fight but we’re outnumber by the Trojans and their allies. I know each of us wanted his own Trojan house-slaves but it’s just not going to happen. Your wives and kids are waiting for you back home. Let’s just pack up and go.”

Now here’s the weird part. It was looking like everyone was, in fact, going to head back home — which you’d think would have pleased the goddess Juno since she’s so keen on protecting the Achaeans. BUT, when she sees that they’re giving up, she sends Minerva down to Agamemnon’s man, Ulysses, and has him talk everyone out of leaving. Ulysses goes from chieftain to chieftain telling them that Agamemnon was just testing them and that OF COURSE they should all stay and fight!

I’m presuming Agamemnon knew all along that this was what would happen.

Blogging “The Iliad” – 8

While all the lesser gods are asleep, Jove sends a dream to Agamemnon — a crazy dream where Agamemnon wakes with the idea that he should immediately attack the Trojans because he’ll surely be victorious because (and this is the “lying” part of the dream) all the gods are behind him!

Not!

Alas, the rest of the Achaeans believe that Agamemnon must have some kind of direct line to the gods because, after all, he’s chief among them.

As this episode — the beginning of Book II of “The Iliad” — draws to a close, huge crowds have formed around Agamemnon to hear his plan for defeating the Trojans.

Blogging “The Iliad” – 7

“Dread son of Saturn,” answered Juno, “what are you talking about? I? Pry and ask questions? Never. I let you have your own way in everything. Still, I have a strong misgiving that the old merman’s daughter Thetis has been talking you over, for she was with you and had hold of your knees this self-same morning. I believe, therefore, that you have been promising her to give glory to Achilles, and to kill much people at the ships of the Achaeans.”

Now, you’ve got to admit. That’s pretty swell writing!

What on earth could you be talking about, Jove? Pry and ask questions?? Me???

I love how Homer portrays the gods. They’re petty and bickering and, really, some of the worst sorts of beings. I suppose, though, believing in gods who behave thus would help an ancient people accept the odd twists that life sometimes gives us. Good deeds punished, love met with hatred, that sort of thing. How else to explain it, if you’re a person who believes in gods? The gods themselves must be capricious.

In this installment of our story, Jove threatens Juno that if she doesn’t just shut her mouth about this whole thing with Thetis and Achilles, he’ll basically smack her upside the head but good. Their son, Vulcan, encourages his mother to play nice with Jove so they can all just relax and enjoy themselves up in Olympus. Juno, no fool she, takes Vulcan’s advice and everyone has a nice time.

Voci di Vento

My friend Linn was kind enough to provide the name of the woodwind quintet I was raving about in a recent post.

They are Voci di Vento and the members are:

Katrina Smith, flute
Yeong-Su Kim, oboe
Jihoon Chang, clarinet
Erich Heckscher, bassoon
Heidi Littman, horn

They performed “Summer Music” by Samuel Barber and “Scherzo from A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by Felix Mendelssohn, arranged by Friedrich Gabler. Both pieces are challenging and they were beautifully performed.

All five of the musicians performed magnificently but I especially noticed Mr. Heckscher on bassoon and Mr. Chang on clarinet. From my own limited woodwind quintet experience, I know that these kinds of compositions are especially difficult for those two instruments and both gentlemen were truly virtuostic in their playing. Wow! It was so inspiring.

If you ever get the chance to hear these folks perform, you absolutely MUST take advantage of it.

Take This Quiz

Gene Weingarten – If You Love the President . . . – washingtonpost.com
7. What is your primary source of news?

a) Cow behavior, caterpillar activity, tree-moss changes, etc.

b) What my common-law spouse heard at bingo

c) Homeland Security color-alert changes

d) The Bible

Be sure you read the entire article. Just click on the link up above.