Stefan Beck writes, “If you’re the type who likes to slink away from the holiday table with a tumbler of eggnog, hide in the attic among the Hummels and Good Housekeeping back issues, and bury your nose in a book, this list is a good place to start.” He is speaking of the NY Times Book Review list of 2008 books, asks where on the list Marilynne Robinson’s book is, and recommends Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland.
All posts by Phil
Eggnog
In a journal on his three months in the States, printed in 1867, Henry Latham wrote about celebrating Christmas in the Baltimore countryside:
Christmas festivities had begun ; every ten minutes or oftener a gun or a squib was fired off, giving one the idea that the war had not ended yet at Ellicott’s Mills. Christmas is not properly observed unless you brew “egg-nog” for all comers; everybody calls upon everybody else; and each call is celebrated by a solemn egg-nogging. Egg-nog is made in this wise: our egg-nog was made so, and was decided after a good deal of nogging around, to be the brew in Ellicott’s Mills: “Beat up the yolks of twelve eggs with powdered sugar, then beat up with them a pint of brandy, a quart of cream, and a quart of milk; lastly beat up the whites of your twelve eggs, and add them as a head and crown to your syllabub.” It is made cold, and is drunk cold, and is to be commended. We had brought a store of sugar-plums, as the children all expect presents at this time. They hang up their stockings on Christmas Eve, and in the morning find them filled with goodies. At New York this is done by Criskindle (Christ kinde) and at Baltimore by Santa Claus (San Nicolas).
I always enjoyed eggnog this time of year, but of course, I never make my own, and I doubt it could be called “nogging” even if I drank a whole quart myself. I prefer to buy the Southern Comfort brand. The flavor and thickness of this brand appeals to me most. Mayfield, which I believe is a great diary brand primarily in my region, has good flavor but it’s too thin. Borden tastes bad, and I don’t remember the others we rejected. Hood has some flavored eggnogs in my area, and they taste good, just not as good as Southern Comfort (which is non-alcoholic if you need to ask–do they sell alcoholic eggnog in grocery stores?).
I haven’t tasted the benefits of mixing my nog with brandy, though I’ve done that a few times. I see that George Washington had his own recipe which used rye whiskey, rum and sherry–a stout drink of the stout-hearted. I couldn’t handle it.
Do you like eggnog? Do you prefer one brand over another, or do you have a homemade recipe?
‘He Doesn’t Hide Things’
U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins doesn’t hide things like lesser poets do, according to poet Stephen Dunn. “He allows us to overhear, clearly, what he himself has discovered.” Read some of his work on this author’s blog, and note this poem on Poets.org called, “Introduction to Poetry.”
“. . . But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.”
Do people care about poetry anymore? Do they want only to know what a poet is trying to say and care nothing about beautiful words? [HT to SB]
Love Others As You Would Yourself
Line-Cutting Dispute Led to Wal-Mart Trampling Death (between those who stood in line and those who stayed in their cars during the hours before the doors opened)
Remembering Widows
Listen to ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God’
Billed as “the most powerful sermon ever preached on American soil,” a presentation of Jonathan Edwards’ message, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” can be downloaded for free. This sermon shaped my understanding of salvation with its glorious imagery and biblical sense.
Missing the Key To It All
Gene Edward Veith writes on Stephen King’s The Stand, due to the 30th anniversary of its publication (subscription req.) King said the novel was a “long tale of dark Christianity.” Veith notes a few positives amid the horror and ugliness, but there is no Christ figure in The Stand, which makes it difficult to call it “Christian.”
Alternative Advertising
Some California people are offering a new online classified site with visibility requirements in an effort to stop criminals hiding behind anonymity. Echoing Apple’s marketing, they call it iList.
What Comes After “It Was a Knight and Stormy Dork”?
Hack your way out of writer’s block with tips like freewrite a while, take a walk, change your cloths, talk to a monkey, or vacuum your lungs.
Blogger Shot While Reading
Of course, it’s a posed shot, but I like Wayne’s style in the first photo he posts from Disney World. The shots of Pooh count as reading material too. Pooh is the man.