勝美2

Friday5 for April 3rd: AKA March 73rd. Questions courtesy of Scrivener. Thank you!

1. What did you have too much of this week?

Shopping.


To my credit, I did not spend my entire projected stimulus check.

Should have bought the white tie 'n' tails. Now, instead of $150, it is back up to $900. Think about it. Next year when it is time for me to go on vacation, I could wear my top hat, wing collar shirt, bowtie and velvet smoking slippers on the plane, at the hotel and every day on the ship. Even on the shore excursions. Just roll up my trousers on the beach. Wouldn't have to bring any luggage. Put my toothbrush and a little travel-size tube of toothpaste in my pocket. Maybe a scrunchie and an extra pair of underpants...

2. What did you have not enough of this week?

It's Lent. The whole idea of Lent is sacrifice. As in not getting enough of anything. And prayer. Sacrifice and prayer.

The two things I look forward to about Lent that aren't happening because of the quarantine are praying The Stations Of The Cross (St Veronica — my patroness saint and the sixth station and fond memories of being an altar girl and clunking the priest in the head with the censer one year and the processional crucifix the next — ouchie wow wow!) and Friday night fish fries.

When I was a little girl, the parish served fish fries on Fridays (except Good Friday) during Lent and Advent, times of religious fasting.

Fish fries used to be a big deal around here. A really big deal. Nowadays every tavern and restaurant seems to have a Friday fish fry.

School lunch on Friday during Advent and Lent would be peanut butter on Wonder Bread sandwiches cut into rectangles (I prefer triangles) and a bowl of vegetarian pea soup. No meat — it's Lent. A time of religious fasting and prayer. You’d carry your tray to one of the long rows of tables and climb up and sit on those dark beige metal folding chairs and wonder how you were going to slip past the nuns without actually eating any of that slop.

Paul Muni in I Was A Fugitive From A Chain Gang had it easy.

“Children in Africa are starving!” They are welcome to my lunch, Sister. That is the kind of attitude that got me sent to the principal’s office. And that really does go on your permanent record. Try explaining that during a job interview. Like I can’t read upside-down.

How the lunch ladies managed to screw up a peanut butter sandwich is beyond me. I don’t know. So sorry, I mean like that material is probably the first lesson covered at Le Ecole Cordon Bleu.

At suppertime, you’d return with your parents to the church’s school’s cafeteria. That’s a misnomer. Cafeteria implies choices. At school we were forced to eat whatever they dished out. My parents would never sit in the right area that I was accustomed to from lunchtime despite my coaching. Everyone passed around huge platters of fried whitefish which you can’t even get anymore because invasive species have wiped out commercial fishing in Lake Michigan. And crisp potato pancakes. Bowls of chunky cinnamon applesauce to put on your pancakes (but I always ate mine separately. I don’t like my food to touch). And coleslaw with green and purple cabbage with a vinegar dressing.. Nearby adults would comment to my father, “Well, you’re certainly getting your money’s worth out of her!” meaning that I was all ravenous and eating an awful lot as usual and it was an all-you-can-eat affair. My mother would respond with one of her classics: “I don’t know what our daughter is talking about. The food here is really delicious.”

That is the same trick they did at POW and internment camps in WWII. The minute the Red Cross inspectors show up to make sure everyone is having a good time, the prisoners would get the Michelin three star treatment. And the minute the Red Cross would leave – back to gruel / hard labor.

Then there would be huge pans of cherry cobbler. It might have been an all-you-can-eat but for some reason you were limited to one dessert. Or maybe it was one of those unwritten etiquette things. After polishing off my dessert, I would excuse myself from the table saying that I needed another half-pint of milk and track down classmates sitting at a different row of tables that hadn’t been served dessert yet and score an extra two or three cherry cobblers.

Dessert time at the fish fry. That is the only time in my life when it stunk to be a ‘minority’ because of the blending in / anonymity factor.

In northern Wisconsin there is the fish boil. Big chunks of whitefish are put in a cauldron over a blazing fire with potatoes. At the very end, kerosene is thrown on the fire in a dramatic finish. Something to do with oils burning off or something.

Served in a pool of melted butter. Very delicious.

3. What did you have in just the right amount or number?

Reading. For the cruise that I never took, I'd purchased a memory card, a protective case thingy that origamis into an easel and downloaded a bunch of books, The Rolling Stones and SCANDAL and silent films to my tablet. I was worried about only taking a few issues of unread New Yorkers. What if I didn't like the tablet? It's pretty okay. Would have worked out really great at a windy outdoor table on the Lido deck while eating cheeseburgers and drinking martinis. And wearing my white tie and tails.

The only advantage of a magazine is that it makes a better placeholder for my chair and table 'cause I don't care if it gets ripped off.

4. What’s better today than it was a week ago?

People are finally getting it through their thick heads to stay home. A COVID-19 map:

I live within the orange circle. I believe the blue spots nearest me represent the county medical grounds. Things seem to be leveling off a little.

5. When they make a movie about last month, what would be a good song for the soundtrack?

The guy on bass looks an awful lot like Doug from New Zoo Revue.

Whoa. Check out Emmy Jo. Rockin' the miniskirt. This is children's programming, missy!

♫ ♪ If I was a lesbian
And you were my lady ♪
♪ Would you dance with me anyway?
Would you be my baby? ♪ ♫

♫ ♪ Save my love through loneliness
Save my love through sorrow ♪
♫ I give you my onliness (onliness?)
Give me your tomorrow ♪ ♫

My middle name is Art. Do I like to make things? Yeah, baby. I'd like to make you...

♫ ♪ Take out your watches
Unstrap your Glocks  ♪
♪ Tell everyone
On the block ♫
♪ That it's time
For time ♪
♫ Rise 'n' shine
Come, come look ♫
♫ Look what we got
We got ti - i - ime  ♪
♪ We got ti - i - ime
We got ti - i - ime  ♪
♫ We got ti - i - ime
Time ♫ 
♪ Time
Time ♫
♫ Time
Time time time  ♪
♪ Time time time
Time time time ♫
♪ Time time time
♫ ♪ Time time time time time time time time time time time time time time time time time time time time time time time time time time time ♪♫

Time. Yeah, time. Hard time in quarantine changes a woman.