Classic Style

  "K ids, how was the clambake?" m y maternal grandfather always used to ask my sister and me, usually just before the family sat down to the dinner table in the evenings.  He was asking about our school day in his semi-humorous way of course.   You don't realize how significant those kinds of happy interactions were until many years later.   I often think back and chuckle about a near-idyllic life with our grandparents outside of Philadelphia in the 1970s, 80s, and into the very early 90s.  Especially when the fall semester starts up in late August each year for some reason.    Oddly, it has felt, without a doubt, like fall here in Mid-Michigan since mid-August, with temperatures in the 70s F. during the day and even the upper 60s (yesterday and today) with sunshine, occasional clouds, intermittent rain, and breezy spells.  Late September arrived about seven weeks early it seems.   And I actually observed, while on an evening ...

  B ack in the sartorial saddle today for classes at 8am and 9:10!   Items by J. Press, Mercer & Sons, and Allen Edmonds made the early hour a bit easier to stomach.  As did a cup of fresh dark roast before I headed to the first meeting with my students.  Seems like a couple of decent large groups of young minds although it's always difficult to tell based on just one meeting.  I'll have a better grasp on personalities and work habits after about six weeks. -- Heinz-Ulrich

  T he Grand Duchess fills the house with music late on a Saturday morning.  Ahhhh. . .  -- Heinz-Ulrich

  A ll suited up for the first day of his 10th Grade year.  Where does the time go? -- Heinz-Ulrich

U p and at 'em frightfully early today for an 8am dental cleaning before starting the rest of the day in earnest.  An interesting time while there in any case.   The hygienist, it turns out, is third generation Swedish-American (her grandmother came the the USA as a very young woman in 1941), and she spent quite a bit of time in Sweden as a girl and teenager.  Needless to say, we had lots to talk about as we compared notes.  When there were not cleaning tools or suction in my mouth that is.   We also laughed about the good natured rivalry between Norway, where I once lived and studied, and neighboring Sweden.  Not unlike our own Minnesota versus neighboring Wisconsin.   When possible, we even spoke a little Swedish during the procedure.  Always fun to stretch my language muscles when the opportunity presents itself. I have had more interesting linguistic and cultural experiences at this particular dental clinic than any other. ...

  M any associate summertime cooking and meals with backyard barbecues, hamburgers, hotdogs, potato salad, and the like.  And all of that is delicious.  But for me, the most typical (late) summer meal consists of things like tomato sandwiches and sliced cucumbers with a copious amount of mayonnaise, salt, and course ground black pepper.  To go with the previously showcased iced tea of course.  Dinner this evening was our second go-around with tomatoes from the local CSA and a few grown here at home on our back deck in big pots by the Grand Duchess.   Holy cow!  Nothing quite like August tomatoes.  And we'll have more of the same tomorrow (Monday) evening. Parenthetically, the pepper mill above is part of a set that I now have although these were on the dinner table at my grandparents' place all of my life until I asked my grandmother for them sometime in the mid- or late 1990s when I was living in Madison, Wisconsin.  Without a word, she...

I ced tea, like so may other things in life, means different things to different people I suppose.   A staple summertime drink in my formative years, there were always two pitchers in the refrigerator at my maternal grandparents' house outside Philadelphia where I grew up and spent the first half of my twenties.   Made with Lipton Tea, one contained heavily sugared tea with several sprigs of spearmint, which grew along the run from my grandparent's spring house down to the creek that ran in front of the main house.   My grandmother, mother, sister, and I enjoyed this particular pitcher.  Since he preferred unsweetened tea, there was always a second pitcher for my grandfather with sprigs of spearmint but NO sugar. In our own home, the Grand Duchess and I continue the tradition.  We make two pitchers of strong Lipton Tea.  One is heavily sugared for yours truly and the Young Master, which is labelled Episcopalian Iced Tea.  The second unsw...