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mermaidcamp

Keeping current in wellness, in and out of the water

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Easter Gourmet

April 1, 2013 — 3 Comments

We had the best time at brunch yesterday with our neighbor Mindy.  We arrived as service began and enjoyed wonderful attentive wait staff, a great ambiance, and most of all, delicious food.  The Lodge on the Dessert is our new total favorite place to celebrate holiday meals.  Christmas was good, and Easter perfect.  I do not enjoy all you can eat buffet, or anything that resembles it.  I don’t even want to see other people eating like that.   Tucson’s Iron Chef, Ryan Clark, rocked the a la carte cuisine for the omnivores and also for me, a nice lacto-ov0 vegetarian girl.  We were too full to finish our desserts, so we packed it to take home.  As we headed out many families were arriving with eggs, baskets, kids and some darling fashion.  We will be back..hungry.

Sister Kelly and Ishtar

March 31, 2013 — 2 Comments

True religion is a concept hard to grasp. The idea seems to be that divine providence has finally brought all wisdom and knowledge into the possession of one exclusive (chosen) group. This group, who thinks it is all that, persecutes other groups because they are not in possession of true religion. In some places one needs to handle snakes or fall down on the floor speaking in tongues to satisfy the veracity of one’s religion.  In other places one only has to donate funds, and then is totally off the hook. True religions distinguish themselves by claiming not to be connected or influenced by religions in history.  They often have dead or living prophets that rule the roost.  In the south they also have radio shows.  Sister Kelly uses her pulpit to explain how the Babylonian fertility and war goddess, Ishtar, got mixed up into Easter. Kelly McGinley of Mobile, Alabama  wants to get to the bottom of all this history and evil.

Yes, Sister Kelly, there is an Ishtar, and her fertility symbols are used in a mixed metaphor called Easter.  It is fine if you want to stay home while the rest of us go out to brunch and eat chocolate bunnies.  We have no need to cast aspersions on your beliefs.

Charlton Heston meets Dame Edith

March 23, 2013

The relatively dead Charlton Heston is resurrected to play Ben Hur and Moses this time of the year.  His public image at his death with his cold fingers wrapped around his gun have somehow surpassed that of the young buff actor who played these religious roles.  He came to stand for the NRA, and the NRA has come to stand for a whole lot.  Some old angry dude lent his celebrity to the NRA like Clint Eastwood did for the Republican party.  Somehow an untarnished reputation as a pure actor seems more valuable to me than these actor endorsements of political positions. Their mothers told them that if they die in a political public outrage their face will freeze like that ( in the public memory).  If Charlton is believable in Planet of the Apes, then he is not believable as a political voice of the people.  We never should have allowed Ronnie and Nancy to ride out of Hollywood and into the White House, blurring the lines between politics and showbiz.  At least Dame Edna shows the proper amount of respect.

The Spa in Bedford Springs, Pennsylvania

March 4, 2013 — 3 Comments

I stand corrected about the spa culture in Pennsylvania. It is alive and well in Bedford Springs. The indoor  and outdoor pools are heated with mineral spring water. The hotel, now operated by Omni, is an historic building as well as a health resort from another era. The historic Bedford Springs Hotel was a favorite of many presidents of the US.  The healing waters were taken internally as well as used in bathing. The existence of 8 different sources makes this a very special location. The revival of the hotel to a glorious state of the art facility warms my heart, and will warm my body in September.  I love to visit places that have been in continuous use as health resorts for centuries.  They acquire a certain culture that is always interesting and usually healthy too.

As an historic landmark the hotel building has very specific restoration standards.  They are exacting. A source of water was discovered during the renovation that is known as Spring Eternal.  The new deluxe spa is named after this spring. The large property was purchased by Dr Anderson in 1796 for development as a health center. His approach included diet and exercise as well as use of the healing waters.  The inclusion of local botanicals as well as the spring water is still part of the treatments at the fancy new facility.  I look forward to taking a dip, wishing the live musicians were still playing at the indoor pool. There is even an herbal steam room..be still my heart.

Plant Strong

March 3, 2013 — 2 Comments

The newest food craze is not called vegetarian, but plant-based diet.  I listened to the interview on Marketplace with the CEO of Veggie Grill who is capitalizing on the trend. I noticed also in the news is the very trendy Engine 2 Diet in which real firemen show you how to quit eating meat.  Firefighters are known to enjoy good food and being fit, so this image gets the attention of guys.  I love all the new recipes and products one can try on the market.  I even love the boot camps the Engine 2 peeps do at farms. The mother of them all will take place in New York in August.  It will be called…you will not believe it…Plant stock.  It will be followed be the Woodstock Fruit Festival.

Drugs are not the alternative now, since everyone is on prescriptions for virtually any small annoyance.  Everyone is on drugs, so the alternative culture to take the stage for the youth today is raw vegan health food.  Who would ever have thought this would happen?  We should have known something was up when Bill Clinton became a vegan.  I have been mostly vegetarian since 1969, with a few fishes eaten in the late 1970s.  Frequently when fads catch up to me I  drop them because it is dull by the time everyone does it.    This time I am crazy about the fad, and embrace the young hippies with all their kale and juicers.  They have a good idea, and it is catchy.  I wish them luck as they try to make food last for the next set of eaters.

Food as Metaphor

February 22, 2013 — 1 Comment

I have a sourdough start that has been living for about 5 years.  I feed it potato water, sugar and potatoes to keep the yeast alive.  The yeast lives in the air and will be different in each geographic location.  Technically beer yeast and bread yeast are different strains, but they are both alive.  The sourdough is a domesticated life form growing in my kitchen.  Each time I make bread I take out half of the starter and add potatoes and sugar to the bowl.  After it grows for a day or so I refrigerate it because I have no need to make bread every 24 hours.  The ritual of making the bread and keeping the levain alive is important. Mine is unusual because I use no flour in the starter liquid.

Making and sharing food has deep significance.  Not everyone has time or interest in bread baking or cooking as a sport, but everyone gets hungry.  The way we deal with our appetites tells us something about our relationship to divine providence.  To be too strict or picky results in loss of joy, whereas to be undiscriminating will have the exact same result.  Culinary taste can and does vary greatly, but the full pleasure of dining is in the execution.  The delightful MFK Fisher wrote before the advent of Food Network and the crush of celebrity chefs as entertainers.  I have purchased tickets to see Anthony Bordain live on stage in Providence because he does the same schtick.  His travel and dining adventures are metaphor fairy tale food stories.  Once I saw that he and I will have traveled to the same city at the same time I knew I had to see his show Good and Evil, an obvious referral to food as life.  He and I do not eat the same things, but we dine with the same attitude.  I look forward to the evening with delight.  It will be tasty.

Do Not Mess with Cupid

February 13, 2013 — 6 Comments

Apollo and Daphne

Apollo and Daphne

The myth of Daphne is an illustration of fate and revenge of the gods. She was part of cruel power play between two archers, Apollo and Eros. The proud Apollo bullied Eros who shot two arrows, one tipped in gold and the other in lead to find revenge. Eros, the son of Aphrodite enchanted his arrows to cause total lust and desire in the golden arrow victim, and total hatred in the recipient of the lead tipped arrow. Apollo was hit with the golden arrow, and the object of his desire, Daphne, was struck by the lead one.  The struggle between lust and chastity is ended when Daphne turns into a laurel tree. She begged her father to transform her body forever in order to escape Apollo’s desire for her.

Eros is the god of sexual desire. He marries Psyche, a goddess/human representing the human soul.  They have one daughter Hedone. Hedone is the quest for pleasure with only good consequences.  The English word hedonism is derived from this word, but has a meaning far from the original.  Eros is also known in Rome as Cupid.  We know this god as a logo for Valentine’s Day, a time when we honor a Christian martyr by consuming mass quantities of cheap chocolate.  Neither Valentine nor Cupid will be impressed nor honored with a mindless mandatory purchase of tacky gifts. That is neither pleasurable nor sexy.  Eros, Apollo, Daphne, and Aphrodite are archetypes that exist in the human pantheon of possibility. Which one will you play on Valentine’s Day?

Aphrodite, Cupid’s Mother

February 10, 2013 — 17 Comments

Aphrodite

Aphrodite

The Greek goddess Aphrodite was born from the sea near Cyprus.  Some claim she had parents (Zeus and Dione), others say she sprouted up in the vicinity of  the severed genitals of the Titan sky god Uranus. She walked ashore where she encountered the seasons who were beautiful, but had nothing to compare with the loveliness of Aphrodite. She was taken to meet Zeus at Mt Olympus who recognized her striking beauty and the power she wielded with it.  He insisted that she marry immediately, and arranged a marriage to his son Hephaestus, blacksmith of the gods. He made her jewelry and even a fabulous girdle that made her even more desirable.  She was pure attraction and her husband was busy making all the weapons for the gods, so she had several affairs with gods and mortals.

The Olympian gods took power from the Titan gods. Kronos, the son of Gaia and Uranus (Titans) removed his father’s genitals at his mother’s request and threw them into the sea. The ambiguity about the birth circumstances ( Did she spring up on the scallop shell as an (un?)intended consequence of the disposal of Uranus’ genitals ?) cloud her relationship to the gods of Mt. Olympus. Her full-time job is love, desire, and the attraction that draws people together.  This naturally lead her to attract Ares, the god of war, to her bed.  She had many children, but none with Hephaestus.  Her most well-known child is Eros, also known as Cupid. He too has parentage issues, but some say he is the son of Ares. It reminds me of all those WWII movies in which they are at war, so they fall in love.

Get your red dress out for Valentine’s Day , but give a nod to the mother of all desire.  Consider wearing  some very sexy sea foam green panties as your foundation.

Lunar New Year in China

February 9, 2013 — 2 Comments

The official political message this year of the Communist leaders of China is curb waste and conserve air quality this lunar new year. Banquets and fireworks are under fire for waste and pollution.  The ancestors are featured heavily in celebrations of this holiday in China.  The festival begins on the new moon, this year 10 Feb, 2013, and lasts for 15 days. Many Chinese people travel great distances to be at home for this time of year. Fireworks are central to the family party.  I am a huge fan of pyrotechnics.  I am not attracted to witness displays in China because frequent fires and accidents are the result of unregulated manufacture and distribution.

The practice of making noise to scare away evil spirits is ancient.  China produces 90% of the fireworks in the world after inventing them.  The original firecrackers were chunks of wet bamboo thrown into a fire.  The invention of gunpowder in China around 600-900 AD changed everything. The public and private parties to welcome the Year of the Snake will last for a month.  If you want to party with the Snake, clean your house, wrap even numbered  dollar amounts in red paper and give them to your family, and do not wash your hair or sweep your house on the first day.  You may be able  follow up with Lion dancers in your community, and if you are lucky, some fireworks to scare away the evil forces in your life.  Good to go.

Moon Dance

February 8, 2013 — 3 Comments

The moon, the way we view it ,and the power it holds have been studied for all of history. The phases of the moon are significant in agriculture as well as business. Lunar calendars were used to measure time until the Catholics went Gregorian on the Euros. Since the Julian calendar , created by Julius Caesar in 46 BC was inaccurate in terms of the planets, the Pope became concerned that Easter was sliding into summer. Catholic calendar year is key to the liturgy practice and costuming. The whole system supporting the Easter Bonnet was slowly slipping away with each new year. Astronomers were hired to deal with the issue. The Greek Orthodox religion uses the Julian calendar now, as do the Berbers, the Ethiopians, and others concerned with historical continuity.

The Pope as a symbol was resisted by the Protestants. The idea that Pope Gregory would now change the way they counted time was not going to go over with the new religions that sprung up precisely to combat Popery. At his death the Vatican treasury was empty, but Gregory XIII had left his mark on time. For this reason the Gregorian style was not adopted at the same time. The Swiss used both calendars simultaneously for more than 100 years. The Catholic cantons adopted it when they got the bull from the Pope in 1582. The Protestants kept the Julian style rather than agree with a Catholic concept. The Protestant cantons gave in to the new calendar in 1700. The canton of St Gallen was the last hold out, continuing on the lunar side of life until 1724. The Chinese succumbed in 1949, but they still use their own lunar calendar.

News from Pope Gregory XIII

News from Pope Gregory XIII

Gregory XIII in elaborate Easter Bonnet

Gregory XIII in elaborate Easter Bonnet