This is kind of where my brain’s at right now. God help the poor wrinkled thing.

Can I tell you I was ridiculously excited to see the Pickle Lady post this?? I want to try making one so badly. It’s one of my fave dishes.

One of my favorite things in the world to do is actually dig through random facts and crazy stories. I have no idea why it is a thing but there is something satisfying to me about odd notes in history or science and I fall down quite a few rabbit holes in my daily life. I don’t know where this curiosity comes from but it feeds my soul so I thought I would share a few of the things that I have stumbled across in the past couple of days just to share some of the nonsense.

Ten Twisted and Sinister Fates of Presidents’ Remains.
why does this interest me? I have absolutely no idea but it does. I guess it’s because even in that there is no permanence. it’s kind of crazy the things that to the dead. I could go into the sacredness of someone’s remains but that special connotation is only true to the beholder and not to the average other person. Still, I feel that we should honor the sacred bond someone has with the remains of their dead. But it is crazy what some people do.

https://listverse.com/2022/09/28/ten-twisted-sinister-fates-of-presidents-remains-after-death

Three Ingredient Coconut Donuts
I always find these recipes and think how I should try that but I know that I never will. Mostly because if it involves baking, I never have self rising flour. But these seem so easy to do and I almost wonder if you use raspberry yogurt instead of coconut yogurt they would taste like raspberry zingers which I really like. so I might actually try to making these.

https://kirbiecravings.com/3-ingredient-coconut-donuts/

Spicy Nonna and Stuffed Artichokes
I love artichokes. Like adore and love and mmmmm artichokes. I wish I could find the small artichokes people use to cook whole but all we have around here are the large ones. Still, one day I shall have a supply of small artichokes and I shall be in heaven. I really want to try this recipe. It looks so very tasty. One day!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubM4-UCOcwY

And lastly…. Checkers and Pogo
This show was a staple in so many of Hawai’i’s kids. I was a participant from the audience once and it was a highlight. I’m sure both men were probably sick of it all but it paid the bills and well, they were loved and adored. It’s been forever since I’ve thought about it but here is a retrospective of the show. There’s three parts and well, it definitely is very much a local thing.

I haven’t watched this yet but I wanted to share it without any bias. Imagine recreating a centuries-old recipe? For some reason, this is exciting to me. I mean sure, I make lau lau but this is different. I wonder how it’ll turn out.

I got caught up in this video. No idea why. Could be the drugs. There are a few dishes being prepared here that I wouldn’t eat but yet, I am fascinated by the process. I do so admire their dedication to presenting this kind of meal.

Update….

I am home and I am alive.

Definitely my insides have been chopped up a lot and oddly enough I can feel how. The surgery went better than they thought it would and they also spent a considerable amount of time removing tons of scar tissue from my interior. That part was also easier than they expected so while the surgery went very long, everyone involved is quite optimistic about the outcome.

Now I have to concentrate on doing nothing and healing up. The pain medication doesn’t really take care of all of it but it’s enough to deal with the major parts. I will not be able to lift anything for quite some time and I have been forbidden to drive. I also have to be better about taking mid-day naps because I have been avoiding doing that.

I do have a lot of tubes coming out of me and they are not very comfortable. But thank God for coffee.

I actually want to talk about a book that I consider one of my favorites of all time… Courtship Rite by Donald Kingsbury.

It is both fantasy with a dash of science fiction but more importantly it is a spartanly written yet lush book about interesting characters, family dynamics, dynastic ambitions, and a little bit of intrigue. Some of it very violent.

For some people it is a hard read because of the content about a society struggling to survive but the reader actually joins this society when it is fairly far along on its course and along the way there is a subtle understory that eventually unfolds in bits and pieces for the reader to knit together. It doesn’t really very vital for key to the main stories but it does lend a rich undercurrent to a back story that is left untold and it is almost like a treasure hunt for the reader to figure out how these people ended up where they are and how they came to be in the society that they’ve built.

Obviously I won’t go into it much further because if somebody does want to read this I don’t want to spoil them.

Read its Wikipedia for more information (without spoilers): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtship_Rite

It was written back in the 19 eighties and I can tell you that the brilliance of Kingsbury’s writing still holds up today. There is really so much I’d like to talk about but I have to pick through bits and pieces to figure out what I could say and what I can’t. The book follows the social evolution of a family consisting of three brothers and their two wives with the catalyst of the story being the leader of their clan ordering them to marry a religious heretic when they have already promised to marry someone else. The members of the family act in their own specific ways… Some are trying to figure out a way to make it work while others are against the whole thing.

Their society is based on the political weight of how many people you speak for and this heretic has a huge following that the leader wants to bring into the fold. It is a complicated story but told simply and I how several copies of the book because if I have a friend I think will enjoy it, I gifted to them. I’m sure every single person that I’ve given it to so far has been — what the fuck is wrong with this person that I know?

I can accept that.

I wish I could write as well as Kingsbury and I wish I could craft world is tightly knit as his. Probably a lot of my fondness for this book has to do with my admiration for his skill and how he approaches the viewpoint of his writing. He writes with brash intelligence and never assumes the reader can’t keep up. He respects the readers’ intelligence and crafts the story in such a way that every time it is read, the reader discover something new or see something in a different light.

But when it is all said and done — it’s just an enjoyable book.

Some books are available on Amazon. If you do plunge in, let me know how you do! https://www.amazon.com/Courtship-Rite-Donald-Kingsbury/dp/067145224X/