Category Archives: Food for Thought

Food for Thought

Three Brave Republicans Save the ACA—At Least for Now

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In yesterday’s post, I had indicated that today I would wrap up the movie reviews from last week’s Maine International Film Festival. However, last night’s vote in the U.S. Senate regarding the Affordable Care Act (ACA)  made me change my mind. I just have to write, at least a little, about an issue that is important not only to me but also to millions of people in this country.

For those of us who depend upon the Affordable Care Act, what a weird, scary ride it has been since last November and especially this week. A headline from a recent article in the New York Times captures the way so many of us feel: “The war in Congress over repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act has brought anxiety to the people whose health insurance is at risk.”

Oh, that is to put it mildly. I have been in turmoil about this because  if the Republicans succeed in repealing the ACA, there is no Plan B for me. My husband is retired, and I would not be able to afford health insurance without the ACA. This means I would go without health insurance for a few years until I qualify for Medicare. As a cancer survivor, that is one terrifying thought.

This past week saw the issue brought to a fever-pitch in the U.S. Senate as Republicans did their best to repeal and replace the ACA. (Need I add that the replacement still would have deprived millions of health insurance?) The Republicans hold the Senate by the slimmest majority, and it would take the defection of three Republican senators to stymie their repeal plans. There were two stalwarts—Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and our own Susan Collins of Maine. (Bless her!) One more Republican was needed, and truthfully, I was not optimistic as the Senate voted last night on what was called “skinny repeal.”

But wonder of wonder, John McCain, from Arizona, returned to his maverick roots and  joined Collins and Murkowski in voting no. This was especially poignant as McCain has been recently diagnosed with an aggressive brain cancer and had surgery about a week ago.

Who knows where the ACA will go next? But, for now, anyway, those three Republicans have ensured that millions of people will get affordable health insurance and thus affordable health care. Collins, Murkowksi, and McCain must have been under tremendous pressure. Hats off to them for not bending under that pressure.

In honor of those three Republicans as well as the forty-eight Democrats who held strong, here are some pictures of flowers from my gardens.

A day to give thanks, that’s for sure.

 

Art, Food, Food for Thought, Movies

An Illuminating Week

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Last week was a week of illumination, where I learned so much and also had so much fun. I guess you could call it a nearly perfect week of good movies, good food, a wonderful play, a fine lecture, and time spent with my nephew and daughter. Who could ask for anything more?

Once again, I am grateful that we live in a rural area with lakes, rolling hills, and forests yet also have access to plays, art, lectures, and independent movies. This definitely falls under the category of having the best of both worlds. We are also three hours away from Boston and seven hours away from New York City. In short, central Maine rocks.

First, the food. When Dee comes for a visit, one of her favorite meals is a waffle breakfast. I know this is bragging, but Clif’s homemade waffles are pretty darned good. We bring the waffle maker and batter to the dining room table, and out the waffles come, hot and fresh. This time, for sides, we had fresh strawberries and veggie sausages. (Dee is a vegetarian.) We had this breakfast not once, but twice.

Dee is a pizza hound as well as a movie buff, and it seems this pairing is not unusual. Next to Railroad Square Cinema is Grand Central Cafe, which makes pizza in a wood-fired brick oven. I am not a pizza hound, but I have to admit that Grand Central’s pizzas are very tasty.  The pizza featured below, which Clif and I shared, had cheddar, chicken, mushrooms, and barbecue sauce and was served piping hot.

And as far as Clif is concerned, pizza and beer go together the way chocolate and peanut butter do. This particular beer came from Bar Harbor.

Now for the illumination. Colby College, a liberal arts college with an incredible art museum that has become a destination, is a major sponsor of the Maine International Film Festival (MIFF). This year, in conjunction with MIFF showing one of Disney’s most beautiful, films—Bambi—Colby hosted a lecture called “Bambi and the Art of Tyrus Wong” presented by the filmmaker and animation historian John Canemaker.

I had never heard of Tyrus Wong (1910-2016), a Chinese immigrant who suffered poverty, discrimination, lack of recognition, and at a young age, the loss of his mother. Despite the hardships, Wong became an animator extraordinaire who worked on Walt Disney’s Bambi. Wong’s luminous, Asian approach of soft, blended backgrounds enhanced the vivid, memorable characters in this movie.

During the lecture, I also learned that Bambi was based on Felix Salten’s 1923 Austrian novel, Bambi, a Life in the Woods. When I came home, I Googled Felix Salten and discovered that his book “was  one of the first environmental novels ever published.”

Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend MIFF’s presentation of the movie Bambi, a 35mm Academy Archive print shown on the huge screen at the Waterville Opera House. It meant leaving our dog buddy Liam unattended for too long.

Ah, well! I really can’t complain as I learned two things I didn’t know about—the animation of Tyrus Wong and the Austrian writer Felix Salten.

And I saw some first-rate movies, which I’ll write about tomorrow.

Celebrate, Food for Thought

A Sad Fourth of July

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Tomorrow—July Fourth—is a big day for our country,  a time to celebrate its birthday. Accordingly, there will be parades, picnics, barbecues, and fireworks.

We will be having friends over for an appetizers and salad party, where Clif will make his legendary grilled bread. I’ve made a homemade vanilla ice cream pie, and I’ll drizzle blueberry and strawberry preserves over the slices for a touch of red and blue to go with the white.

I wish I could write that I am approaching this holiday with excitement and joy, but I am not. Never, since I have been politically aware—a necessary qualifier—have I seen the U.S. in such a terrible state,  with a leader who feels perfectly comfortable tweeting about women and blood and a congress gleefully intent on stripping millions of people of health care while giving huge tax breaks to the rich. In short, it is heartbreaking to see what this country has become.

I know. We’ve been in dark places before, and we’ve somehow manage to work our way out of them.  So perhaps we will  be able to shake off the greed, hate, nastiness, and fear that has gripped this country and emerge better and wiser. But, of course, there are no guarantees.

Therefore in sadness and in hope, I am posting a picture of this lily, a lone survivor of lily beetles and marauding  skunks intent on finding grubs.

May this country survive its marauders and bloom, bloom, bloom.

 

Food for Thought

To Manchester and England, My Heart Goes Out to You

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Today’s post is dedicated to Manchester, England. The bombing of the arena was a horrible thing to do.  As someone who lives in the United States, I know all too well how such an attack can rattle the whole country. (On September 11, 2001, I had a daughter in New York City and in Washington, DC. It is a day I will never forget.)

As is the case with all such attacks, the Manchester bombing was just plain evil, bringing tragedy, pain, and death to what should have been a joyful event. I suppose that was the whole point. But what a vile, cowardly act to target children.

The one consoling note to this catastrophe was hearing on the radio about the kindness and generosity of the people who live in Manchester.  A cab company gave free rides to shaken survivors. People took strangers into their home. There is indeed a coming together when such a tragic event occurs.

What follows will be a time of grieving and sorrow.

Manchester, my heart goes out to you.

 

Environment, Food for Thought

What Can You Do Without?

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Earth Day was on Saturday, but as I mentioned in my previous post, I make every effort to “honor Earth Day in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.”

By American standards, Clif and I live modest lives. We eat little meat, we only have one car,  and we put a lot of thought into our purchases. We don’t buy willy-nilly. (I also realize that we are blessed with many things—running water, electricity, toilets—that other people don’t have, and I am very, very grateful for these conveniences.)

However, as I discovered when reading a current piece by Melissa Breyer in TreeHugger, there is plenty more we could be doing to lead a more Earth-friendly life. The title of Breyer’s piece is “10 Things Not to Replace Once They’re Used Up or Broken.”

Here is the list:

  1. Microwave Oven
  2. Ziploc Bags
  3. Liquid Soap
  4. Keurig Coffee Maker
  5. Plastic Food Storage Containers
  6. Wet Wipes
  7. Non-Stick Pans
  8. Scented Cleaning Products or Air Fresheners
  9. Toxic Personal Care Products
  10. Disposable Plates, Cups, and Utensils

For some of these items, Clif and I pass with flying colors (Numbers 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10). Others, not so much. But it is all food for thought, so to speak, and throughout the year I will be considering the other items on the list, one at a time, so that it is less daunting to make the change. Baby steps. And I’m going to be honest about Number 1—I really like my microwave, and I use it for all sorts of things. Therefore that suggestion has a big “maybe” beside it on my own personal list.

A note about Number 10—Disposable Plates, Cups, and Utensils. Clif and I rarely eat out, and when we do, we usually go to restaurants that have reusable cutlery and plates. We always say no thank-you to straws, and we seldom order more than what we can eat in a setting. However, we have friends who love taking home leftovers from restaurants, and they bring their own reusable containers to eliminate waste.  What a great idea!

That particular tip wasn’t mentioned on Breyer’s list, but no list will be complete.

Also missing was the suggestion to give up a clothes dryer. When ours broke, several years ago, we decided not to fix it, to see if we could do without. As it turned out, we could do without just fine. There are only two of us, and from spring through fall, I hang laundry on the line outside. In the winter, I have racks in the basement, where everything, including sheets, goes to dry. Clif teases me about my Rube Goldberg arrangement of racks, but I suspect that he’s secretly impressed with the set-up.

When the girls were little, I’m not sure we could have managed without a clothes dryer. However, as now there are only two of us, we don’t miss the clothes dryer at all and have no plans to buy a new one.

How about you, readers? What have you given up? What could you give up?

 

 

Books, Food for Thought, Nature

April Fools? Au Contraire!

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Here was the view from our front porch this morning.

Mother Nature’s quite the trickster, isn’t she? Now, if this had come in, say, February or even mid-March, no problem. But in April? Sigh.

All right. In the spirit of my blog friends who celebrate Three Things Thursday, where they share three things they are grateful for, I’m going to celebrate Six for Saturday.

  1.  We only got four or so inches of snow rather than the twelve predicted. This is something to be wildly grateful for because this April 1 snow is wet and very heavy. There’s a good chance that twelve inches would have knocked the power out in many central Maine homes, including ours.
  2. It’s pretty. The snow clinging to the trees makes our yard and road look like a winter wonderland. Even if it is technically spring and April 1 to boot. But wait. Here I am, sliding into ungratefulness. How easy is the slide.
  3. We are warm and snug in our home, and Clif and I will be making bean soup this afternoon in preparation for friends who are coming over tomorrow.
  4. The mud and grit outside are temporarily covered, which means we don’t track in much when we go in and out of the house.
  5. We have four more seasons to go of the television series The Walking Dead, my newest obsession.
  6. My blog friends from Fernwood Nursery sent me a book—many thanks!—and this will be the perfect afternoon to read it.

Despite the snow, there is much to be grateful for.

Celebrate, Food for Thought

A Good Night’s Sleep

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Last night, I went to bed at about 11:30 p.m., and I slept straight through until nearly 8:00 a.m. without waking up once. Now for younger folks, this might not sound like much of an achievement. It might even sound a little boring.

But as I have, ahem,  reached a certain age, a full night’s sleep often eludes me.

And why did I sleep so well last night? It wasn’t because of medication—I didn’t even take a Benadryl.

Could it be because the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was not repealed, and I still have affordable health insurance, at least for the moment? (With the Republican plan, it was estimated that we’d have to pay over 50 percent of our income for my health insurance. There was no way we could afford this, even if we cut out all our simple pleasures.)

Ever since Trump was elected president, I have been worrying about my health care. Simply put, I did not have a Plan B if health insurance jumped to over 50 percent of our income. And this past few weeks, when the drumbeat for repealing the ACA grew ever louder, I have been worrying even more.

But it seems the Republicans are a house divided—the proposed replacement bill was too drastic for the moderates and not draconian enough for the radicals. Hence, not enough votes to repeal the current ACA. President Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan pulled the bill, and as Ryan noted, the ACA is the law of the land for the foreseeable future.

No wonder I slept so well!

Now, if only the Republicans would work with the Democrats to fix what is wrong with the ACA. I know some people whose insurance premiums, while not technically unaffordable, are too expensive and will not cover certain tests. The ACA was a start, not the finish, and with proper amending, these problems could be fixed.

But at least the Affordable Care Act wasn’t ditched, and maybe, just maybe, it will someday be put to rights so that the ACA benefits all who need it.

I can hope.

 

 

 

Food for Thought, Franco-American

Abby Paige at the Franco-American Centre: Tous mes Cousins / All My Cousins

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Last night Clif and I went to the Franco-American Center at the University of Maine at Orono to see Abby Paige, a terrific performer and writer.  She presented her work-in-progress Tous mes cousins / All My Cousins, an  “intimate new bilingual play about what it means to be French, to be family, to be Franco-American in French Canada, and to be fed up with Jack Kerouac.”

The talented Abby Paige

A very brief history of Franco-Americans in the United States: From the post Civil War era to the 1930s, one-third of French Canada immigrated to the United States, mostly in New England.  Impoverished and hungry, they came to work in the factories the region was so famous for. In forty years, towns went from having no French speakers to having anywhere from 25 percent to 60 percent of the population speaking French. Having so many French-speaking Catholics settle in Yankee Protestant towns brought, shall we say, a certain amount of tension. And discrimination. For those of us who are of French Canadian descent—and I am both on my mother’s and father’s side—there is a distinct feeling of not belonging, of not being French Canadian and of not being fully American.

This is an ideal, albeit uncomfortable, place for an artist to be, the rough grain of sand that produces the pearl, as the saying goes. Abby Paige, who was born and raised in Vermont, is of French Canadian descent on her mother’s side. She now lives in New Brunswick, and Tous mes cousins / All My Cousins explores the notion of not being French enough in Canada and perhaps being too French in the United States.

Abby Paige does this brilliantly, with multiple characters and their monologues—herself, a breathless teenager, an uncle, and Jack Kerouac, who both irritates and fascinates her.  Abby Paige’s transition from one character to another was seamless, and when she went from being the teenage girl to being the uncle, she was almost unrecognizable. I especially loved the uncle’s monologue, where he told of how he occasionally went to an Italian friend’s home, where spaghetti was served—a real treat as the uncle didn’t get this at home—and where there was a picture of Mussolini in the basement.

We learned from the discussion after the presentation that to many French Canadians, Franco-Americans are failures who deserted their homeland. To my way of thinking, this is a mighty strange way of looking at the situation. After all one third of the population left French Canada because conditions were too miserable for families to thrive. Abby Paige explores this dichotomy in Tous mes cousins / All My Cousins in a scene where she speaks halting French at her son’s bilingual school in Canada and endures the patient but condescending attitude of the teacher.

Tous mes cousins / All My Cousins is an impressive beginning of an exploration of not only identity but also of the history of New England and French Canada. I’m really looking forward to seeing the finished show.

 

 

Celebrate, Food for Thought

Ta-Dah! Our Fortieth Anniversary Arriveth!

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Forty years ago today, two very impractical and disorganized people got married in a little chapel in Vassalboro, Maine. I’m sure many in attendance wondered if the marriage would last four years, never mind forty. I’m referring to Clif and me, of course, and wonder of wonders, the marriage has lasted.

Why have we stayed together so long when many marriages fail? If I had the answer to that, I’d write a bestseller and make tons of money. Alas, I don’t have a definitive answer.

There are some glimmers, though. Along with being impractical and disorganized—alas, we are still both that way—we are also creative and persistent. At first glance, those two traits might seem like a consolation prize, but in our marriage, at least, they count for a lot. We both value the creative life and the sizzle it brings to all that we do. Clif’s creativity falls more to the visual and graphics, where mine is words and story. It’s a great combination that we have employed many times over these forty years.

We both love opening up our home to friends and family, to gather around the table to eat and talk. In our younger days, we had large gatherings, and the little house in the big woods was often filled with people.

Now that we are, ahem, more mature, and have slowed down, our gatherings are smaller and much simpler. But as Clif noted today, it’s better to get together here rather than at a restaurant. There are no time pressures, and we can talk as long as we want. In the winter, we enjoy our good-sized dining room, and in the summer our patio.

Politically, we are in perfect accord. Again, this might not sound like much, but to us it’s of vital importance. We were left-leaning liberals when we met, and forty years later, we are still that way.

We both love movies, books, plays, lectures, and art. Biking. The outdoors. Our children and our friends. Going and out and having a good time. Staying in and having a good time.

And maybe those above-mentioned things are enough, that we have such a strong common core that it compensates for being impractical and disorganized.

All I know is this: The cherry on the marriage sundae is that after forty years of being together, Clif and I are still good friends. For that, we are oh so grateful.

Here’s a collage Clif put together of our forty years of marriage.

 

 

Food, Food for Thought

Of Chocolate Mousse and Cupcakes

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Yesterday, the weather turned frigid again—7° Fahrenheit with a brisk wind. Oh my, it was brisk. And yet some people were waiting in line at Fielder’s Choice for ice cream. They were either really brave, awfully numb, or a combination of the two.

Not Clif and me. We had a gift certificate to Barnes & Noble, and we went to the cafe for tea, chocolate mousse, and a cupcake. Very tasty and ever so much better than waiting outside for ice cream in such cold weather.

We also bought a copy of The Atlantic, and we have decided to subscribe to this excellent magazine in honor of our fortieth wedding anniversary.

Since the last presidential election, Clif and I are committed to supporting the various media who believe that facts do matter. Yes, subscriptions cost money, but we consider this money well spent.

In the land of alternative facts, never have publications such as the New York Times, The New Yorker, or The Atlantic seemed so important.