John Lennon and George Harrison

Today is a bad day for Beatles fans, quite possibly the worst. As we know, John Lennon was murdered on this day in 1980 by Mark David Chapman (many Beatles fans won't mention his name, which I think is ridiculous, it's not going to change what happened and never will). This is just my thoughts about that day and also November 29, 2001, the day George Harrison died.

I wrote in one of my November blogs last year about my friend Steve coming over the morning after. We were in 5th grade at the time, and I think he knew more about them than I did, he certainly had more of their records than I. At one point during the school day we switched classrooms (there were 2 fifth grade classes, and they switched us a few times a day, to make us woefully unprepared for class switching in middle school). The other teacher (Mrs. Cooper) asked us if we knew what happened last night, and I clearly remember my shouted-out answer: "Some jerk shot John Lennon." I don't remember exactly what we talked about after that, but Mrs. Cooper seemed a little angry about it, like Steve did that morning.

The radio of course was filled with Lennon and Beatles music. I made a few tapes of some of that, I think mostly from WNEW-FM out of NYC, but they have been lost to time. I know I played them quite a bit after the murder. There were plenty of TV shows as well, and I remember taping a few of those too, but they met the same fate as the radio show.

That Sunday was the vigil in Central Park that Yoko asked for. People gathered there at 2 pm and had 10 minutes of silence. That morning I went with my dad to get wood for the stove that we had, but not because I wanted to. I brought a radio with me because the stations were still playing all Beatles and Lennon solo stuff. We went back to my dad's friend's house before 2, and my dad's friend put on his stereo so I could listen to WNEW. I sat alone in that room while everyone else was in the kitchen getting ready for lunch. The vigil started and WNEW was silent, but I didn't realize that the rest of the house was also silent. A few minutes later my dad came in and tapped me on the shoulder and gestured for me to come with him. There was a room in front of the house where they had a TV, and everyone was gathered around it, watching live coverage of the vigil. No one said a word until it was over.

I was sad about the murder, but I didn't cry, because I didn't really know what I had lost. After that, I jumped into the Paul sucks because he's still alive camp (which a LOT of people are still in, sadly) and read as much about the Beatles and John Lennon that I could, and I became more aware of the loss over time. A few years ago I was watching the Lennon Legend DVD (a collection of videos for his songs), and after a few songs I found tears streaming down my face. I think it was more for what could have been, which is a bit selfish.

George Harrison's death was a different story, although it was as much a surprise to me as John's death was. Despite my internet obsession in 2001, I really didn't know he was that sick, and when I saw his death mentioned on a news site, it was a shock. What was also a shock was the amount of coverage that his death received. It wasn't nearly as much as John had, even in the pre-internet days, but it was more than I expected. I remember watching various news channels on Saturday night (he passed away on Thursday) well into the night, and they all had extended coverage about George and broke away occasionally for other news. I also watched A Hard Day's Night and Help! that night too, I was home by myself and I was doing a cross-stitch project that I had to finish by the next day, so I was up very late.

I did cry a little that night for George. I was into the Beatles more than ever at that time, the mp3 was fairly new and I was finding a lot of Beatles bootlegs online that I had never heard before. George is definitely the unsung hero of the Beatles. I was also getting into George's solo stuff more too, my child- and early-adulthood being dominated by John and Paul, and even Ringo, since he was putting out albums where George wasn't. The year after George's death, the Concert for George happened, and that was hard to watch without crying. I still haven't watched the whole thing, despite being a celebration of his life, not a remembrance of his death.

And I guess that's the thing, we can be sad that these two men are gone, but we still have and will always have their music to listen to and enjoy, and that makes me happy.

My drunken exploits

You may surmise from my frequent writings of pouring bourbon and other liquors over things that I eat, that I like to drink a lot. That is not the case at all, I rarely drink. If I do, it is at home or at some one's house, where it is much cheaper than drinking at a restaurant or bar. I do that occasionally, however. For example, I went with my family to Trader Vic's, and I deemed it necessary to have a pina colada while I was there.

When I was in high school and drinking was prevalent amongst my friends, I didn't drink. I think the main reason was that I was afraid. Of what, I don't know, maybe getting in trouble for being underage, or perhaps getting into an accident (this was the heyday of MADD, I remember watching the TV movie made about it, I think Jamie Lee Curtis was in it). It wasn't until after high school that I began dabbling, mainly wine coolers, because I didn't like the taste of alcohol. I was introduced to the screwdriver and fuzzy navel soon enough, and I loved those. I think I had shots exactly once, I don't remember what kind of liquor it was, but I didn't like it.

My 21st birthday rolled around, and I decided (or my friends decided for me) that I would get drunk. If I remember right, I had a mudslide and a kamikaze, and maybe a screwdriver or two. But I was really sozzled, I threw up quite a few times (I had also eaten an entire pizza), and I still have a scar on my right middle finger from burning it with a cigarette I was smoking (I didn't smoke). I passed out around 3 am, and I had the worst case of cottonmouth the next morning. I felt truly awful, and I guess I got it out of my system, because I never did that again to that extent.

Because of this, I have an extremely low tolerance for alcohol. The aforementioned pina colada made me silly for the rest of the night. Sarah and I went to the LoneStar Steakhouse when we were still in NJ, and she drove so I could try the Pecos Peach, which was basically a Slurpee with alcohol in it. I liked the first one so much that I had another, and I was pretty well toasted after that. We ordered dessert, and I got a brownie a la mode, which contained the worst brownie I have ever eaten. Since I was drunk, I brought this to the server's attention, and he brought the manager out. I told the manager how bad the brownie was, and I offered to go into the kitchen and show them how to make brownies, to which he politely declined. Sarah laughs about this incident now, but she probably wasn't then.

Nowadays I don't drink at restaurants because as I mentioned, it's too expensive, but I also don't trust myself to drive, since such a small amount affects me so much. So I limit it to Christmas time, when I make fruitcakes and cookies loaded with alcohol. I also make an egg nog recipe that came from a cousin, we went to their house for New year's a long time ago, and they had this egg nog on their patio, so it was almost like ice cream, and it was delicious. It was also chock full of alcohol (rum, brandy, and bourbon), but I haven't been able to make mine taste the same as theirs, probably due to the fact that I usually buy the cheap stuff, since I use it for cooking. The bottles I buy usually last a few years, so maybe I should upgrade next time.

Cheers!

Yeah, I know (Christmas Sweet Edition).

Surprised to see me so soon? Me too.

If you know me you know I like to eat. This is one of my favorite times of the year for that activity, because there are lots of Christmas goodies that I really enjoy. One thing is cookies. I don't normally make or eat many cookies during the year, but all bets are off during December. I usually spend a few days and make a variety of 10-15 kinds of cookies, then I distribute them to our jobs and families. After a healthy distribution to myself, of course. One of my favorite specifically Christmas cookies is pfefferneusse, which I used to eat a lot as a kid, then lost touch with for many years. A few years back I discovered that Archway made them every year, and I also found their Fruit Cake cookies (now discontinued), Mexican Wedding Cake cookies, and Cashew Nougats. They are a little expensive, and they don't usually last too long in our house, but this year I thought that I should put a limit on how many of them I eat (Sarah bought me 12 boxes of pfefferneusse last year, because they can be hard to find). I have tried making the pfefferneusse myself on a few occasions, but they never come out right. The Archway cookies have raisin paste in them, which is probably why Mine don't taste right. I have to google raisin paste, maybe I can make it myself.

Another thing I like is stollen, which is a German Christmas bread that has nuts and fruit in it. It can just have raisins, but it can also have the yucky fruit that's in fruitcake that no one likes (I love fruitcake too, but I make my own in early September and pour bourbon on it every week until Christmas or until I break down). I made a stollen at home last year that was awesome, but it didn't translate well at work. I bought one at a German bakery last year as well, and it was good, but not worth the 16 bucks (mine is 5 bucks, albeit a bit smaller). I did find out recently that the German bakery uses a base for the stollen, which made me kind of sad.

Anyway, at one of our local supermarkets, they get the Archway cookies and 3 different kinds of stollen in every year at this time. I usually get the marzipan one, it has a almond paste core running through the bread. I went to this market yesterday, and they had the Archway cookies and the stollen, but this year they also had a competitor for Archway (I forget the brand), and the cookies were cheaper. I picked up a stollen and a box of the competitor's cashew nougats. The competitor didn't have pfefferneusse, but they did have bells and stars sugar cookies, which Archway doesn't make anymore.

I managed to wait until I got home to try the cookies. I ate two of them and that was it for me. There was an overpowering butter flavor taste to them that I didn't like, so I gave them to Sarah to take to work with her. I don't know if the Archway cashew nougats taste like that, it's been awhile since I've had theirs, but I won't try them now. Especially since I tried their two new flavors, Candy Cane and Snow Top. Candy Cane is a white sugar cookie with candy cane bits in it, which I did like, but I don't think I will buy them again (I made a test batch of a recipe from King Arthur Flour of a chocolate cookie with candy cane bits, and while I didn't really like them right after they were baked, they were awesome the next day). Sarah thought they tasted like medicine. The Snow Tops are chocolate cookies with nuts in them, very bland actually. Definitely won't be buying those again.

The same thing happened with the stollen, I even at two slices of it and I didn't really care for it. I'm not sure what this means. Perhaps my tastebuds are being slowly destroyed by my discovery of hot sauce this year? Am I growing out of eating sweets? That would be nice, but all other signs point to no. I think it might be karma. I really enjoy cooking and baking, but I only really bake at work and I don't do too much cooking that is very involved. When I do spend some serious time making a meal, it usually turns out really good. I found a stollen recipe in one of my cookbooks where the method is very similar to the one my dad made in his bakery, so I'm looking forward to trying that. And the weekend after next I have planned for my cookie baking, which Sarah is going to help me with. I'm going to start on Thursday doing prep, because Saturday night is Sarah's office Christmas party, which I am making something for, so I won't be doing cookies that night.

Fair reader, do you have a particular Christmas cookie that you enjoy making/eating? I'm always looking for more to add to my arsenal, so post 'em if you've got 'em.