I love vintage textile art! More fab quilt tops.

I am simply wild about these vintage masterpieces. I don't know if I will add backing and batting or just savor them in their current conditions. I fear lowering their value (but I did not pay alot) or just spoiling them with my meager talents.

Nice, huh?

Even more than smacking now!

I wonder how some people do not die of inhalation pneumonia?

Why do they need a big gulp of air with every damnable bite or slurp, and yes I do mean slurp, of soup. Are they clogging up our ERs? Monopolizing the Cipro supply?
Creating a need for ventilators?

Why can't they eat quietly?

Please God, let them stop snarfing....please

My new quilt!

I thought this was fabulously colorful and almost Picasso-esque. How could I NOT get it being a Maximalist and all?

I'm thinking of getting earplugs

...to drown out the smack smack smack at the kitchen table

Demanding "mediation" ended problem.

Apparently, the googlettes doing the mediation (not at all up to paypal standards) are able to correct an easy error. Hoorah.

This would never have happened with paypal anyway.

As soon as my bank tells me the nightmare is over, I will cancel my wallet account and be free of this scourge forever.

Googlw Wallet...the misery continues

EIGHTEEN days latter they cannot grasp the concept of "double charge". They are telling the seller the buyer needs to confirm the double charge and there is no option on their menu to do just that. They say "contact the seller".

I hate Google Wallet.

More crap from Google Wallet!

My credit card bill arrives and I was charged TWICE for the same items. This never happens with paypal.

Jackasses!

Worst Anniversary Gift...evah!

Toe nail clippers.

Yes, you read that right.

Was I supposed to be thrilled? Amused?

Just mildly disgusted. Wish I could turn the clock back to 1978 and get it right.

Sigh

Google Wallet Sucks

I will never use this service again and will stick to sellers who offer Paypal. Google's notification of payment is slow and clumsy. There is no ability to dispute the charge and you must rely on your bank. They are hands off when it comes to sloppy sellers.

Nothing but trouble, just a rotten experience.

Paypal forever!

More on teachers

Someone was arguing with me the other day and made the silly statement that people happily agree to give the teachers their high salaries, lavish benefits and cakey schedules.

I called BS.

If the teachers' union did not have its muddy jackboots on the throats of parents who have to take time off when the union maids (male and female) went on strike, the parents and communities would be willing to take a tougher stand on these blackmailers. But as most of us get only a few weeks off per year and companies who actually accomplish something can't afford employees who are off all the time, parents fall victim to these cruel unions every damn year!

Down with the NEA and the AFT!

So half of schools failed federal standards?

Does anyone believe that handing more money to the FAILED TEACHERS and their union will make this better?

Time to terminate teachers.

Time to fail students who refuse to achieve

Time to focus the time in the classroom on math, science, reading and writing and NOT on social engineering and indoctrination.

And yes, we need lots of homework and more effort on the part of the students themselves.

But, in all honesty, does anyone believe that the precious teachers, those of the summers off, every imaginable holiday off and winter and spring breaks off, can really be so darned wonderful in the classrooms if schools are failing? If any other profession produced such poor results there would be a national uproar.

But, it you complain about the princes and princesses of education you KNOW that they will take it out on your kid, so you shut up and smile.

They're so very professional and all.

Shall I confront "stooopid dad"?

Of course this is a rhetorical question as I talk to myself here, but it seems for his son's sake that someone needs to do an intervention. The vain, foolish narcissism of this man will destroy the boy.

Stoopid dad also spells poorly

Wating for my ex-wife to agree on something reasonable is like waiting for the next full solar eclipse

Naturally this attracts his son to visit? Does he think his son finds his mother the hostile parent?

Stoooopid dad is Very Sad

Always sad when my son does not show up on my parenting days

Well bunbun, why do think that might be?

Is it because of your stupid tweets about sex-toys?

Maybe because you love to bash his mom on HuffPo?

Or maybe you are just generally an online jerk?

You spend days humiliating your son with your preoccupations on Twitter and you can barely post on Huffi's site without trashing the marriage that produced him.

Do you think that spells L-O-V-E to a 16 year old boy?

And on the topic of your divorce and how damn happy you are, if you are so pleased why do you you focus on so little else?

Holding Edumacators Accountable for results

How often do you read about high school graduates who can barely read? How often do you read about US students who know little about geography, history and who are deplorably deficient in mathematics and sciences? Weekly? Daily?

Max says much too often.

And how often do you hear that if only we paid (the same underperforming) teachers more that our problems would be solved? Constantly!

Time to abolish tenure and pay for results.
Time to abolish "education" degrees for people who should know about history, science, literature and mathematics!
Time to hold schools at all levels accountable for results, not just for meeting for a required number of days per year.

But back to the pay question. Why would increasing the salaries of mediocre teachers improve education? It wouldn't unless the lazy edumacators are arguing that the allegedly poor pay is damaging their precious egos to such a degree that they are unwilling or unable to impart all this divine knowledge to the children of the communities who foot the bill for these silly part-timers.

Educators and education administrators at all levels NEED to be held responsible for poor results including the hideous practice of encouraging kids to take out loans to remain unemployable.

OCCUPY EDUCATION!

Stooopid dad again!

This is like watching a train wreck about to happen.

Stupid dad is not only tweeting sexual obscenities and spouting embarassing crap under his real name (sure to attract his son to spend more time), but now he has mentioned the possible reason for some of this severe behavioral discontrol.

It seems our attorney in his mid-50s not only boozes on a near daily basis, but he takes an amphetamine to kick start his day. Vyvance is a prescription amphetamine for ADHD. Alcohol potentiates this drug, stoopid dad, it won't bring your sorry butt down. It can also lead to a big MI in old guys like you.

So the sloppy boundaries demonstrated by this guy are a result of self-inflicted pharmaceutical usage.

Do I believe that he is ADD? Well since I am writing this from a comfortable distance from or Detroit lawyer, I cannot say for sure. But it seems pretty odd that you can get through law school and THEN become ADHD. Does he take it for weight control like some silly woman? Or is it just to stay wide awake after drinking?

Nothing good can come of this.

On some level the evil-ex must be delighted that he divorced her. This man should not be around teenagers.

Max plays Max Manners

Well smacking the food certainly is offensive, but I think loudly blowing your nose at the table might just trump the smacksmacks. If it doesn't a new pet peeve is the tendency toward soup inhalation. Just exactly why do some people have to take a deep LOUD mouth breath with every spoonful of soup? Shouldn't soup be sipped quietly?

Guess not. To properly experience soup it is important to take a super breath and to clank the spoon against your teeth.

Table manners are absolutely dead.

Read this: http://www.etiquettescholar.com/dining_etiquette/table_manners/dinner_etiquette/appetizers_and_soup/soup.html

Should be obvious, no?

The "safety net" is really a hammock, "folks"

What is wrong with this country?

When I was growing up we were proud that we lived in an industrialized nation. We made things we wanted and that others wanted. We recognized that the labor was labor and that we depended on one another for our various needs. Our dads,and yes moms, for women stayed in the work force after WWII no matter what bs you read, worked eight hour days and sought overtime. They picked up other jobs when they were saving and they were proud of it. Plenty of smart Americans were "shoprats". People actually went to college and then went to work at the factories because the money was good and the hours let them use their education for their own self interests. Growing up I knew plenty of people who were well read, artistic and cultured who also worked at the Goodyear plant. They were not ashamed of this nor were they ashamed that they worked for a multinational corporation.

We used to be proud of this, Zuccotti brats! We should go back to being thrilled by our manufacturing and our industry. The alternative is bleak. Subsistence farming without all the goodies made by the corporations leads to a short cruel life. And if you get rid of the evil big industries, including big food, what you have left is really a life that these same brats would find unacceptable.

I do understand the people who would like to see things made here...and classics majors are just the people to make these things. What things? Textiles, glassware, dishes (Bring back PFALTZGRAFF!..the American made one, not the imposter)electronics, etc. And this time let's not forget how great it is to be a manufacturing society.

And my title was largely to be provocative, but I do think that our safety net encourages sloth

LUSH accusing USA of Torture

Boycott Lush this holiday season

And Lush is anti-Israel, anti-zionist
They also champion illegal immigration.

Isn't it time we hate the Lushies?

A Prayer for Big Oil!

Thank you for the gift of heat
Thank you for the food we eat
Thank you for the fuel in my car
Thank you as I can drive quite far
to visit my family
to go to my work
that pays for my living
and that of each jerk
who lives off my taxes
and contributes naught
but list of demands
for which he pays squat!

Thanks for the goods that fill up each store
As they travel from Iowa or Singapore
Thanks for the ambulances, busses and planes
Thanks for the ships, the trucks and the trains
For each mode of travel we thank you Big Oil
for your sharp exploration and hours of toil.

You contribute to my life in so many ways
That I must sing your praises all of my days.
I must defend you from protestors in Zuccotti Park
Who should really just sit there and freeze in the dark
as they blame you and banking that finances our joys
to provide all the good things , like their I-phones and toys.

For oil does more than transport what we want, need and like
It's part of plastics, the chemicals and the fabrics of life
Just google "what is made from oil"
To appreciate the people who draw it from below the soil!

Thanks Big Oil!

And thanks to all the wonderful bankers who help finance what you do!

God Bless Capitalism and Industry!

Sadly someone like Dr. Seuss is not here to champion industries like oil and banking, so Max must sort of step in.

I was delighted to see that oil is part of so much of what we take for granted and how necessary it is. We really can't thank the oil companies enough when we consider that oil makes everything plastic possible (think bottle, artificial limbs, surgical supplies like heart valves, medications, fertilizers, bandages, perfumes, motorccle helmets and SO MUCH MORE!

Where is the sense in not feeling grateful for all this bounty and insisting that oil companies research and drill and prosper. We prosper with them NOT inspite of them. We profit from their successes and yes their profits.

And who helps arrange the financing for all this exploration research and industry that gives us so much and provides us with life sustaining work? Um, could it be banks? Why yes, I think it could be!

Our capitalist system has lengthened not only our days by providing light via electricity, but our very lives through technology. God bless Banks, Big Oil, Big Pharma, big Food and the big beautiful abundance we enjoy!

Shut up leftist loons, instead of watching idiots like Michael Moore, try doing a little research into why you have what you have. And help keep it going!

What's wrong with the Oil Companies?

Nothing that being able to drill here wouldn't cure.

But we subsidize Brazil (Soros has a stake in this)and we subsidize Solyndra (Obama bundlers)....yet, oil is evil.

Flapadoodle

Oil is good.

I thank Big Oil everytime I drive my car to work to make a living (to help subsidize parasites, so pray to big oil, parasites)or run errands or visit friends
I thank Big Oil that food can get to the grocery store and that I can have lettuce and tomatoes all year round
I thank Big Oil that my doctor can get to his office, that my kids can visit me, that products get to the stores, that garbage can go to the landfill.

I thank big oil that my house is warm and my lights are on.

Thanks Big Oil for everything you do.

Amen

Begging babies of Zuccotti

Now asking for sleeping bags, cots, etc, etc, etc while they have 500K in the (evil) bank. They shut down the (evil produced by oil companies) gas generators, so now they expect other employed people to pay for them.

I don't see why Michael Moore won't fund all the bills. He doesn't want to be perceived as rich, so he should do the honorable thing and give it all away. Same for the rest of the celeb supporters. Surely Susan Sarandon imagines herself parting with the cash and living on the street with the OWS kids? How about the Obama's themselves. Cash in the bling Michelle! Give up the taxpayer lush vacations to Marbella and The Vineyard?

Nah, it's everyone else's money they want. The rich but ideologically pure should never have to sacrifice (see Al Gore mansions and Yachts)

Perhaps Stoopid Dad's ex is collecting info in order to keep the kid away from the Porn-dog?

LOL

Would it be a good deed to get a Twitter account and chastise Stoopid Dad?

Phaedra Backwards at the McCarter.

Phaedra Backwards drags Greek Mythology into the 21st century complete with old greek names and the Minotaur.I found it well acted and pretty well thought out but The Maximalist was in the minority about the well scripted part. As I was leaving the theater the general consensus was that it was a "well-acted something", but most people were not sure of what that something was.

Luckily, Max loves Greek mythology and is aware of why Phaedra's mom gave birth to the Minotaur...this rationale was left out. McCarter sadly assumed people were very familiar with the story and would "get it". They didn't.

I have always been partial to this story.

Keep Poseidon in Phaedra, please.

OWS...the snowstorm is coming.

Bloomberg shut down their generators as hazards.

When the snow, wind, cold and "wintry mix" appear the grasshoppers known as the OWS bums will be shivering and cold. YAY, may they have their true boheme moments in the cold.

With any luck, Bloomberg will have the guts NOT to open the armories and schools to shelter this human dreck. Do not pull their acorns out of the fire Your Honor!

This is NYC's big chance to rid itself of this infestation of parasitic lazy fools, TAKE IT!

Some of my problems with Psychiatry.

First and foremost I despise the idea that every behavior or abuse of "substances" is a disease. Addicts and explosive types LOVE this disease model. If it is a disease, like diabetes or hypothyroidism, then it is out of their control and they are poor widdle victims. It's "in the DNA dude, I need suboxone...it's not my fault if I rob a little old lady for drug money". I do not believe anyone is born craving illegal substances. There is choice and I would like to see the disgrace put back into these behaviors. BUT, treating facilities would find it hard to bill for "disgraceful behavior NOS", so they must run around championing this pack of lies. Even if withdrawal is tough, people would do it if they were subject to the contempt they deserve. Watch for this to become a new entitled disabled group...dirty lawyers will insist. Dirty lawyers will also insist we don't discriminate against druggies. This blows.


My next pet peeve is "conduct disorder" and "antisocial personality disorder". In common parlance "criminal behavior". These violent types belong in prison not with sad depressed people or irritating manics. They also get aggressive with staff when they don't get their way. And how do you prosecute the "ill?" Pathetic Bar Association types will use these "diagnoses" to try to get grandma's killer or the person who beat up and raped your daughter out of the consequences they deserve.
NOt everyone had a happy childhood, legal beagles, but we don't go around breaking the law to suit our malicious wants!

Occupy your state BAR Associations!

Lawyers rake in a huge percentage of the damages awarded to victims.

They victimize both parties of a divorce and use the kids as pawns to wring concessions from parents. They make a pretty penny at it, too

They raise our prices for just about everything with frivoulous lawsuits designed to enrich themselves. And many of them make plenty while leaving the victims with a few cents.

They are responsible for the vast majority of job destroying regulations.

They rake in the bucks negotiating deals for unions

They rake in bucks lobbying for byzantine laws to force people to use their crooked services.

They make stupid laws to protect themselves when they get to be legislators.

OCCUPY your state Bar Associations and crap on their beemers and mercedes.

More from Stoopid dad!

Today he is tweeting about breast enlargement,penis enhancement and Lolita (pedophilia). His son must be so proud!

Stoopid dad also loves to bash his wife on Huffington Puffington Post. Also very attractive behavior sure to draw in lotsa babelicious hotties and humiliate his son.
What child wants to read that the only time mom was interested in sex was when she was trying to get pregnant?

Is there no end to his self-glorifying crap? YOu'd think a 53 year old man would know better...way better.

Maybe his own daddle was a similiar loser?

Here's a typical but less profane entry:"Cold witches tits come with already erect nipples!"

Yep this is definite fodder for humiliation therapy. WTG Stoopid Dad!

YOu might wonder, Max why on earth don't you publish the name of Stoopid Dad and do his kid and much maligned ex-wife a huge favor. Put an end to their suffering, Max!
Stoopid Dad, alas, is a lawyer, and while he uses his own name to embarass his kid and ex, he would probably sue me for revealing his identity.

The sins of the father and all that jazz.

The end of the harvest

Rounded up the last of the peppers today. Lots of greenish jalapenos, habaneros, cayennes and whatever those little yellow hotties were. Many will ripen in the house as the snow and cold comes tonight.

I will definitely go ALL peppers next spring as they thrived and the little rabbits left them completely alone. I had months of delish hot peppers and have a few months of enjoyment ahead before I turn to store bought. So the garden was an excellent idea and will be expanded and repeated next spring.

Is this student aid sham entirely new?

No.

There have always been cheats and what I call cheating is quite sadly legal.

It is easier to get aid if you have no savings.
It is easier to get aid if you plow the cash that would be your savings (and expected contribution)into a bigger primary residence, a BMW and nice vacations.

I am not making it up. I knew people who traded up to a huge house to avoid handing the cash over to the colleges. I knew people who bought a flurry of cars and who had a swimming pool put in to drain (pun intended) the money that they would have to pay for their kids education.

The Maximalist family paid every last bill without a hand-out or a loan.

We need to tighten the rules.

No hide the cash in the beemer and no money for useless studies.

Why should people who do save or people with no kiddies subsidize parents who want to skip out on their obligations?

Occupy Wall Streeters

Should try occupying a barber shop and a showerstall. It might help with getting that job they desire. Of course they are a bunch of ACORN anarchists and would sooner die than work 12-14-16 hour days like those dreadful Wall Street types.

Not that everything that happens on Wall Steet is honest or great, but you can make the same statement about most other professions. Law, Accounting, Medicine and Industry all have their millionaires and their bad apples. So does music, motion pictures, professional athletics. Let's take Michael Moore's money. Let's take Lady Gaga's stash and spread the wealth. And while we're at it how about people who inherited it like say...the Kennedy's, The Rockefellers?

Hmm.

Well I bet that money isn't hidden in a mattress it's busy creating employment and being invested. If we were to "demand" it in the name of some sort of MArxist justice, we would have to nationalize entire industries.

AND THAT IS THE POINT!

Stooopid Dad is still at it

Lots of remarks about "boffing the ex", breast size and general stupidity. Slams the mom who cares for the son, wishes he had never married (and by extention never was father to that boy) and wonders why of why kiddo is disinterested.

Naturally the red zinfandel porn-dog is a "progressive". He's probably not much of a professional either.

Sick of freeloaders?

Me too.

If we are to reform the student loan programs, we should insist that the education to be funded will lead to employability.

No more money for:

Drama
Art
Photography
Dance
Comparative Literature
Philosophy
Anthropology
Psychology
Art History
Ceramics
Creative Writing

And there are sure to be many many others.

Sure you might be the next Picasso or the next Rudolf Nureyev....but chances are you won't be employable and will scream for and demand money from people who had better sense than you, those who did not make stupid choices.

Yes, when all is said and done, it was YOUR choice to borrow the money and dream of being Tolstoy or DeNiro.

Sorry you screwed yourself.
Now put on your adult panties and deal with the mess you made of your life!

Tuition and fees go UP again.

Massive bureaucracies.
Professors who really work part-time
Useless research
Useless majors (oh come on do we really need people majoring in half that crap)
No time for Western Civilization, Math, Science. "Found Object Art", photography and Marx and FRances Fox Piven prevail.

Unemployment can be yours for up to 50K a year.
You too can beg for a bailout because your edumacation is not adequately valued.


No one forced you to major in stupidity, children. Don't come bitchin' to me!

If we want to tear down big industries...big education?

Yes?

Let's tear down "Big Education".
It's worthless and gobbles up billions and billions. Colleges lure your kids to take classes in topics that have no interest for employers. How many jobs are really available for art historians, comparative literature and dance majors? Sculptors?
BAs in psychology, sociology, women's studies? Yet, universities will be delighted to encourage these interests for upwards of 45K per year and even help you to take out loans to pay for this useless drivel. Then you get to join occupy Wall Street and blame the wrong institution!

If you'd have studied engineering or even nursing a job would be yours...you could even get the nursing degree at the local community college and have very little debt, but NO "Big Education" says you will be better off and have more cache with a degree in Medieval Studies or Sculpture.

Isn't that a lot of crap? You can sculpt in your free time and if you have talent maybe you can be an artist and a chemical engineer.

Universities have huge endowments but charge huge tuitions for the crap they sell. They have gigantic bureaucracies and minimal schedules. Plenty of profs teach two days a week for 30 weeks per year. Let's see that makes 60 days a year for nice salaries, generous benefits and prestige. They get every imaginable holiday off and all summer. The profs will argue that they do all this deep thinking and advance civilization with their research. Maybe the scientist and engineering professors do...the ones who teach philosophy, French and sociology, not so much. The sociology types probably kick civilization in the shins more than they help it to grow.

Down with Big Education!
Make them work 40 hour weeks and make them work 48-50 weeks per year. And most of all, pay them based on their results. That should cut tuition by 90% in plenty of areas of study.

Medicare is NOT just for seniors

Contrary to what you may believe MANY on medicare are not senior citizens who have contributed all their lives. This is what the media would like you to believe but it's far from true.

If someone goes out of the country and adopts a disabled child, the disabled child, who will never contribute, gets medicare. Disabled children who are born here get medicare. Young adults get plenty of medicare and the disability can be "mental" and they can be addicts into the bargain. This begs the question, are they "ill" because of the drugs and should we be paying for their every need? Multiple trips for detox? Is it bipolar or is it cocaine? This disabled population includes very young people and plenty of middle aged ones. If someone is truly disabled due to injury, they need our help and I don't think anyone would argue, but if their "disability" is self-inflicted with bad substance abuse choices should we be on the hook? Should we have to listen to them shout about their "right" to OUR money?
I say no.

But back to adopting disabled kids from abroad. If you need to make the rest of the nation pick up the tab for your "noble impulses", you are not so damn noble. Sorry.
We used to have laws preventing people who need to be cared for by the government from coming here for free care. That needs to come back in style. We just can't afford to care for everyone. No one is stopping you from making donations, donating ALL your discretionary income if you like, to such causes, but we should be able to keep the bills from being foisted on those who don't want this burden.

The World's most STOOOPID dad?

This past weekend someone alerted me to a twitter account of a divorced "Progressive" attorney. In this series of tweets the twit in question publicly criticized his ex-wife for "poisoning" his son and turning him against the twit. He also criticised the son for a lack of interest.

The man took care not to criticise himself for his son's behavior and choice of not visiting. Was there no behavior to criticise? Hardly. The tweeting twit made many mistakes.

He used his real name which the son and the son's friends could easily google to find this account, after all the Maximalist and laughing friend found it. But the son's "friends" and classmates are probably using this account to torment the 16 year old boy as it is not a series of tweets about current events or professional doings, although a few of these are interspersed with the rest. Nope, it is largely devoted to his interest in pornography, "shaved down there" women and red zinfandel. It is full of racy remarks and snide comments.

It's enough to make any mother leary of this man, let alone his ex-wife. It is enough to make any 16 year old miserably ashamed and it provides the stuff of torment. It could also get this legal beagle fired. If female clients see this porn-dog garbage they will vote with their feet.

Max will not reveal the name of the tweeting twit, because there may be lots of them out there. Perhaps they will ALL adopt appropriate privacy settings, apologize to their kids for the damage done, and publicly sin no more!

Post Script: This idiot also uses his real name to chat on HuffPo about how very dreadful his ex-wife is. Um, guess what, your kid doesn't want you to do this. Ever hear of a pseudonym or nom de plume?

Pfaltzgraff...how I used to love it!

I still use it, but I won't replace it with more Pfaltzgraff products. The set I have is no longer made and is not replaceable. When I bought it it was called a "Perennial" pattern. Well nothing is permanent. They upped and moved all manufacturing to China and I no longer trust the quality of the dishes and I'm angry that they moved their factories.

If I want cheap china from China I can go to Walmart or TJMaxx.

I wonder how much they make by importing all their products?

And honestly the new splashy painted plates are garish when compared to the old classics. And we know that "perennial" means "until we can make it cheaper and make more money".

Williams Sonoma has some pretty French plates when the need arises or Pfaltzgraff comes to its senses. They are kidding no one when they imply that they are the same company they were. They're a cheapie importer.

Obama is more like Chavez

Chavez nationalized everything in sight. Yet the poor are still poor and grocery stores lack staples (um, why produce for governmment looters?). So now he is expropriating hotels and private homes, also "for the poor".

Just as I said below. The government lion steals first from the "rich", although corporations, the evil things who make computers, clothing, cell phones and all the goodies we love, are made up of people. A CEO to be sure, financial people of course, but plenty of clerical, technical and blue collar people too. But after the rich are destroyed or even imprisoned or killed for their success, the government must find new villains and seize more loot in order to stay in power.

That's where the middle class comes in. And it will be a smaller group as the demons like banks, hoteliers, airlines and so on lay off millions.

Do we really want to be like Venezuela? DO they really want to be like North Korea?

A perfect example of a freebie seeking "youth"

The Maximalist has a young 20-something acquaintance who bitterly resents paying copays for MD visits and prescriptions. She also believes that deductions being made from her salary for healthcare benefits is excessive and unfair. Clearly our employer should make all this "free", in other words, somebody else should pay for what I think are "necessities".

Can this person afford these copays and premiums? In a word, yes, but she does not see it that way. Our young woman spends plenty of money on travel (she recently got back from a lovely jaunt to Barbados), she dresses well, has a great cell phone and hits the restaurants and clubs every weekend. Somehow, it is the healthcare premiums that are the "unaffordable" bit. Apparently all her income should be spent on "wants" while the "needs" are provided by some nebulous group of others.

I have had similar complaints about the horrid struggles of life with other people too. They resent spending their money on needs, but have no trouble with wants at all. There are retirees who feel the same way. Despite winter homes in Florida and the ability to maintain the four bedroom family home here in the north, they resent like hell having to pay for any part of medical care.

THis is all very tiresome to me. Years ago people recognised that their first and larger home would be sold to help finance their needs as old people. Young people recognised that vacations and fancy electronics were luxuries that were saved for and obtained after necessities were secured. When the Maximalist was young, a cruise or European trip was seen as a very special thing NOT as something you were able to do three times a year.

Our priorities are very wrong.

ALso I'd love to know why people see the services provided by healthcare people as their "right". I think we need to get away from the idea that we should be spending our money ONLY on desires while the shadowy "others" pay our real bills.

Always remember that to someone on the economic food chain, you are the prey. THey want you to provide. As we destroy one group of payers with our wants, we will need to hunt down another economic meal.

Start taking care of yourselves and start realizing that you must take care of your "needs" as well as your laundry list of desires.

And about those "demands"...

Lotsa freebies being demanded by these "economic justice" goons. Free college, free healthcare, free houses. Free houses? Yes and free vacations, free consumer goods of every imaginable type are being demanded under the guise of "wipe out all the debt".
For what do people accumulate debt for anyway? Usually not to make payments on a gift to charity, that's for sure.

Now let's pretend someone is silly enough to grant this "wipe out the debt" wish. Let's call this magician the magical fairy Hussein. Hussein waves his magic wand and you no longer have to pay for anthing you "bought" on credit. The bank, that granted you the loan (and the loans of millions of others) GO OUT OF BUSINESS as they are now stuck with worthless paper. You get to keep your car, your condo and your edumacation, but you will never see another loan again. And neither will anyone else as the fairy has proclaimed your contracts (nobody put a gun to your head, you freely charged that cruise to nowhere, champ)null and void.

So with nobody lending cash (as it's now a gift not a loan) nobody is building cars, nobody is building houses and nobody is making any of the things usually paid for by credit cards or loans. Wh would they? As a present to you, your maj?

And if that doesn't convince you, this is how I convinced a colleague. I asked her if she would continue to work all those extra shifts if she knew it was to pay for my kid's college or her neighbor's mortgage. Hell NO! was the resounding reply. And the MAximalist would not work to hand over her earnings to someone who decided that he should get a "living wage" even if he doesn't work.

Multiply that "Hell NO!" by the millions of people who work and pay taxes.

We can learn to sit on our tails and ask for things too. When the day comes that we have to work to give to others and have nothing to enjoy or show for our efforts, we will stop supporting all of us.

Is this what you have in mind?

Children of the protest. There are no freebies, someone always has to pay the bill.

Now man up and pick up your own check.

And don't say "well it's easy for you to say, Max, you never had to struggle with a bad economy" BS. I graduated college in 1979. The only jobs in my local paper (there was no internet in 1979) were for exotic dancers and arc welders. I kept my little part time library job, lived in a room in a truly dilapidated student co-op, and ate boiled rice until I managed to find a hamberger helper quality job.

Eventually the economy improved and I moved up and onward.

I never once threatened to guillotine the evil rich. And I was glad the banks saw me loan worthy. I paid back ever dime.

I learned that I could live through bad times when plenty of people still had it good. Hating them wouldn't have helped me.

But I still hate rice.

Bank of America and debit cards

or "why should I have to pay a fee to access MY money?"

You are paying the fee so that BofA can process the transaction, compile a record of transactions to which you can refer and to keep you safe against unauthorized use of your account. Soebody enters all this data for you. You are also spared the trouble of carrying cash which is later pickpocketed at the mall by the person who sees you and your great big smile looking at the electronics, the jewelry or the sirloin steaks.

If the merchants, thanks to the dems, no longer have to foot the bill for these services, someone has to. Why would any bank eat the cost and still provide the service? I wouldn't work for free and neither would these whiny babies who are complaining.

So little debit card holders who want freebies, stuff your money in your socks or your mattress, mkay? Or you can run around with cash and deal with the consequences.
I think it's worth the fee to not run that risk.

And shut up about how everyone need to subsidize you, it's boring and pathetic!

McCarter's Ten Cents a Dance

While the music of Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart is a always a pleasure, imposing a psycho-drama on top of this music is not a foolproof idea. Ten Cents a Dance tells the story, if you can call it that, of a man reminiscing about his relationship with a single woman over a long span of time. The reminiscing man is played by a single individual and the woman is played by five different actresses. Sounds fair enough. It's hard to make a single person appear 20 years old and then 60 years old, especially if the character shifts back and forth in time. A motion picture could accomplish this, but not a play.

This production, however, puts all five of the women on the stage at once to sing and dance about with the male lead. This in and of itself might work if you could be sure which woman is which. In Ten Cents a Dance you can't. You know who is youngest and who is oldest, but the remaining three are hard to differentiate. The time periods involved are hard to tease out also. All five women wear the same print on very similar gowns all of which would look right at home in 2011. Their hairstyles (all are redheads) bear no obvious marks of any particular era. This is a big fault as it would be so simple to fix. Pick a decade and research women's gowns and hairstyles and you could find plenty of differences over presumably a 50 year period. A twentyish woman from the 1920s should be easily distinguinguished from a fortyish woman from the WWII era, no? YES! And lose the print, it was inappropriate and made dating the characters more difficult than it was before. A black and white theme would have worked well....Think Zelda Fitzgerald for the 20s and go from there.

The five actresses did as much as they possibly could with the situation, we could have used a stronger male lead with a stronger voice. And why the heck did he keep taking off clothes? Perhaps to peel away layers of memory? Whatever.

A psycho-musical like this is an interesting concept, but it would need marvelous costuming and be truly representative of the time frames. The current costuming/hair is sloppy and distracting.

LOVE Rogers and Hart.

Of Ponzi schemes and working recipients

Why is it that someone can make a significant income, in many cases well over 100k, and still collect their Social Security retirement check at the expense of us working people who do not get a check?

Is it because the gov't should be in the business of financing cruises, BMW convertibles or vacation homes? Is it fair to let people take their retirement income before they decide to retire? And if you think someone will give up a 100K job to hunker down with about 25K or less, you are sadly mistaken.

Also about medicare, why has it been rewarded to the under 65 "disabled" crowd? Fine if you are truly and permanently disabled by an accident or a real medical condition like schiizophrenia, NOT fine if you brought it on yourself with drugs and alcohol.

I get sick to death of freeloaders

Shabby Chic

How I hate this term. Shabby is worn, threadbare, delapidated and there is nothing chic about that. I refuse to buy anything advertised as "shabby chic" because I find the terminology so revolting. Even if you are selling a great vintage item, I will ignore it because YOU have listed it as "shabby".

If you must indulge in crappy descriptions why not use "cottage chic" instead? Or just "vintage"?

Shabby garments are something I would not even donate to Goodwill, so please don't assume I want a shabby decor!

Update: I noticed a quilt fabric company called "Shabby Fabrics"...please. Aren't you just dying to feather your nest with shabby crap?

Me neither

Teachers, why the special discounts?

Yes I could see if these discounts were related to classroom use only, but I have not seen that stipulation. And I suspect school districts are footing the bill for most if not all classroom supplies.

I noticed today that JoAnn Fabrics gives teachers 15% off every day because they appreciate their hard work. The Maximalist is a nurse and nurses work hard too! PLUS we don't get all summer off, Christmas and Spring breaks and every holiday known to mankind. In fact we work holidays. Hospitals do not close for Christmas, Easter or for the summer. We work around the clock, too. And yes, while schools are closed for bad weather (and yes it's fine and dandy so our kids should not be at risk)nurses are expected to remain in the building and sleep at the hospital so that there will be adequate staffing. The Maximalist just spent Hurricane Irene at her place of employment and has spent snowstorms at work as well.

So please JoAnn and others, try recognizing other hard working professions for a change! Hmmm?

Things I hate today

Haven't done this in a while so here it goes:

Smacking noises when eating. Why oh why can't some people stop this habit. It's nearly as bad, and can be accompanied by chewing with the mouth open. I would love getting through a whole day without smack smack smack.

Inhaling one's food. Again, just inexplicable to me. I just can't abide the habit of breathing in deeply and loudly with every bite or SLURP of food and fluid. Those mouth-breathers, ugh! If you have to breathe through your mouth try gently exhaling as you load up with soup or hot food.

Dog names for humans. Brandy, Cheyenne, Corky, Prince...why not Spot, Lady and Tramp?

Obama isms like "bone-headed and folks". Are these usages really necessary?

Why Wimmyn hate Sarah Palin

Is it because she's "stupid"? Hardly. She's obviously not stupid at all. You cannot be Governor of a State or be chosen as a VP running mate and be "stupid".So let's have a funeral for that right now. And not reading Alinsky doesn't make you a lesser being, au contraire.

Is it because she's "pretty", as some have suggested? Nope. There are plenty of pretty politicians who are not roundly despised although they are entirely on the left. But, not even Michelle Bachmann has not received the scorn Palin has.

Here's my take. Sarah Palin makes all the women who went to public colleges and feel sorry for themselves because of their "lack of a priveleged pedigree" feel bad about themselves. If Sarah Palin could graduate from University of Idaho and could jump around from several other schools before graduating and then accomplish quite a bit while juggling a family of 4-5, then where is our excuse? We can't say our lack of Ivy League credentials is a barrier anymore, can we? We can't say that our kids prevent our achievement, hmm? We have to try to knock her down and belittle her to save our self-esteem?

Yepper. If Sarah Palin can work that hard while taking care of all those kids and staying married, why haven't we done more with our lives? She sorta, kinda makes people feel like slackers. And that includes the "priveleged" women who have the letters after their names but not the letters Gov. or Mrs.

So here is Palin standing up for the principles of hard work and accomplishment in a field of females who are screaming about "glass ceilings" and equal pay for "pink collar" jobs. And women choose to smash down someone who has lived their dream as much because she has an average pedigree as because she is conservative.

Makes the Maximalist want to puke.

Ronald Reagan went to Eureka College.

He was "stupid" too.

Bush and Obama both went to Ivy League schools, maybe it's not such an absolute qualification?

Bring back the Girl Scouts!

Circa 1963.

I recently bought a used Junior Girl Scout Handbook at a local seller and was blown away by it. Yes, I was a scout during the 60s but I guess I had forgotten just how logically the whole thing was presented and the ideals that were cherished.

Scouting was more than just an afterschool activity, it was a course on manners, friendship and even the arts. And yes, outdoor living was prominent as well, but that was presented in a way that made it look both fun and practical.

Back to the manners. Where do kids learn to set a table or eat in a mannerly style? Their classmates? Their parents? Well shouldn't it be codified and written down somewhere? The Junior handbook wrote it down on pages 151-152. We need this back! When I was on my cruise (see below)I was astonished by how far we have devolved in this area. People blithely and revoltingly chewed with their mouths open, ate soup in a splashy fashion and generally used utensils as primitive spears. Volume control is another place where we fall short.

No, I am not suggesting we drag our entire nation back to the times of limited rights for women and minorities or any such nonsense, so don't go there with me! But I do think that learning basic skills at the table would be beneficial.

Bring back the scouts of 63! More later...

Brief update: I have been informed that this trend toward piggish smacking and gobbling is called "relishing one's meal" or "eating with zest". I beg to differ. Just plain piggish and RUDE!

Cruise to Canada, part deux

Well the cruise ship botched Halifax by not providing a city itinerary or allowing enough time to see "the sights", but they made St. John look like there were no "sights" to be seen. The only tours were "pub crawls" and tours of the pier area.
As I mentioned before the Bay of Fundy is a "sight" all on its own, but we pulled in under the cover of darkness with only me and a handful of other possible Maximalists awake to see the view. We also departed at dinnertime, sigh. Another missed adventure was what appeared to be a fort at the top of a distant hill. It was, in fact the Carleton Martello Tower which played a part in the War of 1812 and is now a museum. With a little homework our cruise company and our cruise director (no Julie McCoy that's for sure) could have made this visit a thrilling historical adventure. Instead people came back to the boat and wondered why we stopped there. Sad but true.

I wonder why cruise ships don't bother creating truly interesting tours or providing a serious reference booklet about the ports of call. If they left the gambling tables open while we were docked I could understand the fear of lost revenue, but they were closed. And a heck of a lot of gambling accompanied the serious drinking took place.

The Maximalist did find one unlisted beauty of a place; the Scheherazade Books and Music store! Just a great place to browse and a grand collection in French and English. I found some wonderful LPs and some paperbacks I've been hunting for locally. I could have spent a few more hours just there.

Alas. I would love to go back to these two serious cities and get to know the area and the sights. Maybe in time for the Halifax Jazz Festival in 2012?

As for cruising, the Maximalist is not the casino type and I just did not find the glimpses of the two ports of call to be fulfilling. Perhaps a Caribbean cruise would be more like it. Beach hopping without the need to unpack.

As for cruises in general, I would have to try a different line or a different time of year perhaps. Maybe this particular cruise was something of an aberration, but I found the drinking to be astonishing. Every time you turned around you saw someone holding a gigantic drink, a bottle of beer, or wine. And the started with the bloody marys and mimosas at breakfast! There were AA/NA meetings twice a day on the ship, but there appeared to be plenty of people who should have become friends of Bill W.
Alcohol consumption is nothing I favor maximalizing in terms of quantity, but I bet that drove people to gamble more liberally. Anyway I got an idea of the true scope of the drinking when the cruise director announced a raffle. The prize was $500.00 off your bar bill! It was a five day cruise.

Cruisin' to Canada, my first cruise vacation.

If you judge Nova Scotia and New Brunswick Canada by the activities featured from the cruise ship you will think "My God in heaven, there is nothing here" and go back to the ship to eat (for free) and buy drinks. I suspect that is precisely what the company has in mind and that is precisely what many people did. And that's a damn shame.

I was in Halifax on the 14th of July. I managed to get to the Maritime museum and to the area around the pier. Yes there was a bus trip to Peggy's Cove, but a three hour trip does not do justice to that lovely area any more than a quick trolley ride does justice to St. John, New Brunswick or the Bay of Fundy. Any of these areas is worthy of days of activities and appreciation of the history and physical beauty.

The pier area in Halifax is pretty dull looking, grain elevators on one side and industrial on the other. BUt when you walk around it is quite interesting and includes a view of Georges Island which was one of the sites from which the Acadians were imprisoned and deported. Old grey stone wall attest to the grimness of the place and the current appears strong. The restaurant pickings are great and varied in the area and on a sunny day (we had rainy weather) I'm sure the scene becomes much more appealing.

We also landed in Halifax during the Jazz Festival which would have been a great opportunity to see some fabulous performances and enjoy the port area. The cruise company did absolutely NOTHING to get the word out about the festival and the boat was scheduled to depart at 6PM anyway. This, I think, was the saddest of all. I missed great jazz and saw some silly song and dance show put on by the cruise ship instead! BAH! Here's what I missed by being on the ship instead: http://halifaxjazzfestival.ca/

More later...

Why I am boycotting LUSH

It's "ethics" are not consistent with ethical conduct.

First it supports illegal immigration into the US and a flagrant disregard of the laws of my nation. They prattle about how nobody is "illegal", well people do plenty of illegal things. Lush actually helped organize a protest against Arizona's immigration law.

Next they support Hamas and despise Israel. They are bleating on their UK site about human rights abuses by Israel while they say nothing about the Palestinian terror activities that made the "wall" a necessity for jews. They say nothing about the Hamas charter which calls the end of Israel, or about Hamas' peaceful leaders who think it's okay to kill jews anywhere including children. Bathing with Lush products is washing yourself in jewish blood.

I have ideas for a few new Lush products, btw.

First we have the "Mrs. Braun you've got a lovely daughter" bath melt in honor of Hitler's Hottie, Eva Braun.

Next the Jihadi Bath Bomb which is shaped like a mass of cinders with little arms and legs (made of soap, naturally) sticking out all over...add red glitter for special cache.

And what Lush catalog could be complete without a little bit of citrus. We can call it "Death to all Juice!" after the charming fella above! Spelling is not his forte, but the aid money goes to bombs not books, I'm afraid.

Torch Song, Part II

Well I read a bunch of online reviews that panned the film, but I hold firm. The story is good if you can get past Crawford's song and dance routines. Maybe 1950's audiences loved musical anything, I don't know. Or maybe they just could not envision doing a straight drama about a Broadway musical actress. They should have. The should have concentrated on the psychology behind these two needy people and they'd have had a better show. Maybe the Maximalist is just a psych nurse? OK.

But if you had a young beautiful broadway starlet, the story would have failed. She would not have been so hard boiled on the surface. The woman would not be trying so hard to hold on to stardom, the future would still look bright. The "boyfriend", played by Gig Young would not have been so shallow and you'd have needed a younger man in the Wilding role as well.

I would have liked to see the character development highlighted and explored, OK?

Crawford's character had a lot going on mentally. She made it to the top and was finding it harder to stay there. She was taken advantage of by theatrer types, by the men in her life and even by her family. Despite the success she was pretty personally isolated and friendless. This feeling should have been built up and the stagey stuff played down, but there's nothing to do about that now, huh? Wilding's losses are also acute as a man who has not fully adjusted to his blindless despite the smiles and the music and his demeanor. His rejection of "Martha" brought tears to my eyes. The movie needed scenes like that one.

Anyway, other nice things were the costumes worn by Crawford, very early-50's chic, and her jewelry which was fab. Some reviewers quarreled with her eyebrow pencil, but that was part of the period. Look at Kim Novak in Bell, Book and Candle and you still see major pencilling, so I see this as a false issue. The furnishings in Crawford's apartment were also post-war modern and when you look at them you will see where Ikea found its inspiration. They are cheap modernist, while this was the real deal. Check out the blue bedroom and the lighting.

When all is said and done, I liked it. I may have liked it better with a 35 year old actress, but I still liked it.

Michael Wilding in Torch Song.

Wikipedia defines "torch song" this way: a sentimental love song, typically one in which the singer laments an unrequited or lost love, either where one party is oblivious to the existence of the other, where one party has moved on, or where a romantic affair has affected the relationship.

The trick to this being the title of a movie about a hardened broadway singer and her new and blind pianist, is that the "torch" isn't being carried by the singer at all and the one who carries it is longing not for a lost love as much as a lost life, at least a lost piece of it.

If you can get past the distraction of Joan Crawford's performance as a singer and look at the two pricipal characters as people, you will find a diamond. Yes, Joan pulls of the role of a broadway star with ease, and wow is that "finale" with Joan and company in "black face" hard on the eyes and pretty stunning especially given the presence of minority actors, but the romance here feels real and compelling. Wilding is of course sensational as Tye Grahame and the reasons behind his actions are bittersweet yet gut wrenchingly honest.

I wish I'd have seen it years ago, but as a older Maximalist I bet I can appreciate it better.

The Billy Joel song is dumb really. The past always gets in the way. Always

My official earrings for summer 2011

As I've mentioned many times, I just love silver. I've also been longing for come cool vintage peacock earrings. The last pair I saw were long dangly brass ones which were snapped up while I was "thinking about it". She who hesitates...

Anyway I love these, They're huge 1.5 inches in diameter and heavy, so they swing like crazy. The silver is bright and shiny and they're perfect.

And since I was on a roll, I purchased a pair of sterling Steven Dweck earringa and a pair by a Polish artist named Bytomski. These are a shade more formal and are, sadly, clips. I'm always afraid of losing clips

Weiner-gate, I find this depressing

In a ridiculous sort of way.

Yet another politician caught in a web of lies, a hell of their own making. An unnecessary business altogether, but amusing reading nonetheless.

What makes this news is that this happened to a powerful politician married to another politico, NOT that the behavior itself is unusual, especially among the adolescent set (haven't we heard way too much about kids "sexting" for this to be shocking?)But this is a 45 year old man, you say, who should have been more sensible.
Absolutely, no argument there, but people in power or who have power because of fame and/or money tend to believe they are entitled to behavior that they reproach in the rest of us. That's what this is, a power corrupts story. Or a fame makes you feel that rules do not apply to you story. Or a "the ideologically pure" are exempt from their own rules story. Take your pick.

Mr. Weiner was a sponsor of a bill to keep sexual predators away from the underaged users, and now he "assumes" that none of the females he was sexting with fall into that category. We can assume he would be brutal toward any other adult who made such an assumption.

This is like the tax-loving John Kerry docking his boat in another state to avoid taxes, Al Gore having a massive energy consuming new home (or two) and Prince Charles lecturing the rest of us about energy consumption. OK, or Governor Christie using state helicopters for personal use while telling the rest of the state to economize. Rules do not apply to the ideologically pure.

The Maximalist's husband tells the story of accidentally attending a sermon by someone championing fuel conservation who encouraged buying local. He flew 3000 miles to make these demands of the rest of us, then ate out of season vegetables trucked up from Mexico to New York. Following this advice is for us, not for him, just as making sacrifices and having "skin in the game" is not for the Obamas...just for the rest of us and particularly if we are not unionized public employees.

Anthony Weiner got caught and was humiliated. The rest of the political class gets away with it every day.

They shouldn't.

One standard for everyone, please. And the pols should never be allowed to exempt themselves from the rules they set on our backs!

Yes this is rambling, but I'm depressed and disgusted that he stays in power. Mere mortals would not be so lucky.

How does my garden grow?

With cayennes, habaneros and jalapenos all in a row.

Plus, the tomato plants are filling up with little green tomatoes. Such fun to watch and I am happy to report many blossoms that promise more fruits. The grape vine has tiny grape clusters as well. All is good as I harvest a few peppers here and there.

Question remains. Should I cook some of the squash blossoms? Or should I wait for all the squash?

As for sprouts, peas are the word for the week.

My Nepenthe, cooking with Romney Steele

Well, instead of waiting for this book to end up on some remainder table, I used my 40% off Borders coupon and bought it. I'm not sure what I was looking for. Was it dazzling bohemian recipes or Cucina California? Was it a gripping story of a never ending supply of celebs mingling with the local arist crowd? Or was I still a bit nostalgic for the past? All these things?

Well. Instead of any of the above I got a family saga blended with the history of a Big Sur restaurant. Sure there are references to celebs and artists and yes there are some recipes I am sure to try, like the rice in the oven (I never heard of that and am intrigued)but mostly I got a family/restaurant history that largely focused on the writer's grandmother.

Now the Maximalist was her grandma's girl, so I completely understand Ms. Steele's focus and I applaud it. Cooks and visiting celebs come and go but the influence of your family, for better or worse, is forever. Ms. Steele is still at Nepenthe and her uncle is an artist there so something went very right eventhough a few things went wrong. Grandma Lolly was no celebrity cook and the word "bohemian" seems misunderstood by a generation who thinks it means decadent and exotic, so it seems Nepenthe was much more about family, love and community as it was about art, celebs and notoriety. It was a real place, with joys, struggles, successes and yes, some creativity. It changed with "the times" and survived and adapted, it seems to have kept the family values of its founders but as families grow and learn so has Nepenthe.

The pictures are part family album part cookbook and so are the recipes. Romney Steele has let us into the circle and has shown us the evolution of her family and the Big Sur area. This is a good thing in a day when celeb chefs come and go and restaurants are based on ephemeral trends or gorging yourself or just the cache that an expensive price tag brings.

Whether she says so or not Romney Steele and Lolly are saying "make your own history with food and love and nurturing". Brava.

I'll get back to you on the recipes!

Pressure cookers

I remember as a child watching in something akin to horror as a pressure cooker rocked away on the stovetop. Pressure cookers were often used for beans and pot roasts back then as a way to cut cooking time. Enegy use was a non-issue in the early 60s. The whole thing seemed very frightening and the stuff of Three Stooges cooking comedy...as I recall a cooker exploded in at least one episode, but unlike in real life the stooge or stooges involved were unscathed and unscalded. I grew up in fear of these beasts and have never used one. I didn't even own one until today.

It was a gift of sorts. There is an estate liquidator I visit regularly and from whom I purchased a lovely marble-topped coffee table today. There was a pressure cooker sitting among some pots and pans and general kitchen goods. I asked about it and he said "I'll make it easy, just take it" So I did.

As I said, I've never used one, I find them a bit scary, and had no idea where to start. So I started on the internet and found a Mirro-matic manual online: http://www.redhillgeneralstore.com/pdf/mirromanual.pdf I was delighted to see that the directions still existed and that my free cooker had all the needed pieces. I was also shocked to see that people used these silly things for quick cooking vegetables such as asparagus and broccoli! I suppose they liked that cool olive drab tone "back in the day", but I will stick with stir-frying. The Pressure cooker shall be reserved for unsprouted beans, pot-roasts, and quick cooking chiken fricasee!

Will report back after I have tried it. I suppose I will read the manual a dozen times before I work up the courage!

Things I love today

Hot peppers!

Just reading about them makes me happy. I am thinking of ordering ghost pepper seeds to plant in my garden. While reading about ghost peppers I came across references to viper peppers and scorpion peppers which are allegedly hotter but are unstable hybrids of the ghosts.

Capsaicin. That warm all over feeling you get after some delicious ghost pepper sauce. If you can't feel that warmth in your shoulders, it just isn't hot!

Reading about the healing anti-inflamatory properties of foods. Why would anyone eat sugar or wheat flour when the may cause inflammation? Beats me.

When the Maximalist broke her foot last year she was well into a regimen of peppers, cruciferous vegetables, garlic/onions and fish oils. I did not swell up and never needed as much as a tylenol.

Time to stay on that diet forever!

mmmm.....sprouts for dinner

Delicious pilaf of beluga lentil sprouts with kalonji seeds, chopped garlic and ghost pepper salsa worked well with broiled salmon for supper this evening. The sprouts were just tinged with that first hint of chlorophyll. So crisp and tasty and the ghost pepper sauce made the concoction heavenly hot!

Etsy, Ebay and jewelry "belief" descriptions.

There are few things more annoying on these sites than the "small print" mixed in with so many descriptions of silver jewelry items.

I cannot count how many times I have been lured by a pretty picture and a Beautiful Sterling Such and Such heading only to scroll down, down and down to see buried among the descriptors "and this is not marked or tested but I believe that this item is sterling"

Sterling is not a matter of "belief". Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny are matters of belief. If you cannot test an item and it has no markings, DO NOT LIST IT AS STERLING! This should be common sense, but the deceptive (?) practice goes on.

The Maximalist was fooled once and returned the silver plated piece of copper to the reluctant seller and got a full refund. Even with copper showing through, she insisted upon her "honest belief" that the item was sterling!

What a crocka.

This is one are that should be subject to rules, but instead it's caveat emptor deluxe.

So the Maximalist is warning you. Read the entire listing and don't fall for sterling Easter Bunnies.

The Maximalist proposes a new tax!

In the interest of decreasing obesity and improving the longevity of us all I hereby propose a tax on sedentary entertainment. If we can tax sugar and fatty high caloric foods (or propose the taxes) surely their complementary behavior should be considered taxable.

Hmmm. Let's start with the movies. What could be more sedentary than sitting in front of a screen (large and small but especially large) watching a bunch of overpaid people and special effects? I suppose $20.00 per ticket should help offset the cost that society will have to pay for the privelege of paying for the healthcare for these people. No use saying I usually exercise, because this excuse is not being considered for soda and hamburgers. Movie going is the empty calorie of human activity. You do nothing worthwhile when your eyes are glued to the screen. You could be out walking, out working or planting yams in your backyard. PLUS theatres consume a lot of A/C in the summer and electricity in genereral. It's high time we tax this. And think of the money saved and not going to Steven Spielberg (who doesn't need that 120 million dollar yacht, the money can all go to education) or funding the egos of the likes of Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks or Jennifer Aniston.

Next up, television. Harder to do you say as the set can be on entertaining one person or ten. Force all manufacturers to make the wearing of earbuds mandatory, one set per person and exact a fee each time the buds are activated. Voila! lots of money for the federal coffers...which can be spent on the infrastructure.

Fashion magazines, hair salons, nail salons and spectator sports including concerts all come to mind as other sources of sedentary taxes.

But let's not exclude the music industry! Most people do not listen exclusively while running, biking or walking the pooch, so a hefty tax is in order here too.

Yes, Americans will have less entertainment, but perhaps they will make healthier choices like yoga, running, swimming of Kempo karate...ALL healthier than drivel like Pirates of the Carribean part XIV, rap music or Dancing with the Stars.

Is this an intrusion on our freedom of choice? Damn right it is, but so are SO many things these days that it seems only right to tax entertainment...as entertainment is all optional.

Sprout fail!

Do not use old beans or old seeds of any sort. I have noticed that planting seeds are usually marked with something like "Packaged for 2011" or something like that.
This caveat applies to sprouting to as what is sprouting but coaxing growth from a seed.

I made the error of using old orange lentils this evening. After a brief soak the did not have the crispy alive texture that I would have expected to find. Instead the water was discolored and the lentils were for the want of better descriptors, mushy and dead!

Epic fail.

And what about salsa?

I do love salsa and the hotter the better. What makes a hot salsa great is the addition of habanero peppers or sauce. Even a medium salsa can be great if you add a swig of 100% Pain to the mix.

But for grocery storejarred brands the Maximalist has three current favorites.

My absolute favorite choice for heat, whether added to stir fries or jusr spread on crackers is Pain is Good's Habanero Garlic Batch 37 variety. This is simply superb. It has enough tomato and garlic to be savory and enough habanero for a delish burn that you can feel in your fingertips.

Next up is Desert Pepper XXX Fire Roasted Habanero salsa. This is a chunkier more traditional looking salsa with nice chunks of jalapenos and a spinking of habanero heat. Mild next to the Pain is Good mentioned above it is still nice snacking salsa.

Mrs Renfro's Ghost Pepper Salsa. The newest product in the Mrs. Renfro line it is made with the Bhut Jalokia Chile peppers. Alledgedly these are the hottest pepper there is, but this is not the hottest readily availale sauce. It is a bit hotter than the XXX salsa but not as hot as batch 37 so it could use a bit more fire to be number one. Still it is available in local stores whose managers are reticent to carry the 100% Pain line or the more boutique fiery offerings.

Any of the three will do nicely when you crave a nice hot salsa, ut I would "work up" to Batch 37 if you are not alread used to the heat.

New Sprouts of life

Well not intended for life intended for consumption. This week I am trying quinoa and beluga black lentils. Both are fast sprouting and require minimal soaking. Quinoa is a pseudo-grain high in nutrients and the only "grain" that contains all amino acids, or so they say. It has indeed started sprouting overnight and by tomorrow they should be full fledged sprouts! Quinoa is impossible to chew on dry (ok, I suppose you could if you were determined) and delicious cooked. Sprouted quinoa should make an excellent salad material or good stir fry material.

Beluga lentils sprout about the same time as last weeks pardinas, but are much darker...a very dark green if not a blue black. I had a better term on the tip of my fingers but it was a crayola color and probably not clear unless you too were a crayola addict as a child. They'll be converted into a protein rich side dish with peppers, turmeric and ginger.

Great feasting ahead!

And speaking of feasting at the Maximalist house, there are peppers on the plants! Looks like the little cayennes will be the first crop as there are green fruits up to 1.5 inches long on my first plants. These will be tasty cooked and the excess dried and stored for the winter. Mmmmmm.

Michael Wilding as Cinderella's Prince!

Yes, I'm a fan and yes, I was hoping that the movie would be good. And it was good!

Leslie Caron was a very different Cinderella, dirty and enslaved, but this time not hurt but still good-natured. This Ella is angry about her status and dreams of living in the Palace. Michael Wilding was a Prince who felt a bit hemmed in by his status and remembered a moment in his childhood when he saw a teary young girl with rebellious eyes. He's a man who knows how good he's had it but can recognize sorrow and beauty when he sees it.

Unlike previous Cinderella stories, our handsome Prince knows exactly who his "mysterious princess" is before she gets to the ball. It's him that masquerades as the son of the palace cook and it's the son of the cook that Ella loves and goes to see. Most, if not all, other adaptations have made the Prince a brainless sort of fellow who fell in love with the prettiest girl at the ball. The writers here fleshed out the character and made Prince Charles the driving force behind the romance.

It was fun to see Leslie Caron's dream sequences, her dances with Michael Wilding (who looks hot in his tights), and it was great to see stepsisters who were not caricatures. But while we expect that Caron can dance, I had no idea that Wilding could or that he could sing. I think it was fortunate indeed that the movie wasn't spoiled by a dancer like Gene Kelly who could not act to save his life and that the director had the sense to cast Wilding who could blend seamlessly into just about any role. Estelle Winwood plays a fairy godmother with a difference. There is no magic in her creation of Ella's gown and coach....actually she's a bit of a kleptomaniac and a lot of an eccentric.

If you want to see an honest interpretation of the Cinderella story with a thinking Prince and a justifiably hostile Cinder-Ella, go for this one! MGM in the 1950s always made beautiful pictures and this is no exception. And feel free to let the kiddies watch it, little girls will eat it up and adults will take another look at a classic story and see something very fresh and honest.

Lancome triplets

Passed through Lord and Taylor today and noted these three at the Lancome counter. I admired Claude Montana's metallic triplets years ago so I thought I would give the new Ô flankers a whirl.

First up is Ô itself. The site says:
Top Notes: Bergamot, Lemon, Mandarin
Heart Notes: Basil, Rosemary, Coriander, Jasmine, Honeysuckle
Base Notes: Oak Moss, Sandalwood, Vetiver, Patchouli
The Maximalist has always like this one well enough. Nothing earth shattering. Nice appropriate for work, almost soap and water clean without the in your face quality of D&G Sicily which is clean with a big attitude. Sadly a slight aquatic note spoils the current formulation of this Ô for me.

Next I tried Ô de L'Orangerie. Site says:
Top Notes: Orange zest, Orange Blossom essential oil
Heart Notes: Orange Blossom absolute, Jasmine
Base Notes: Cedar, Benzoin

Strong and blossomy but eventually the jasmine starts to predominate on me and spoils the whole thing. I liked the cedar, kept it springlike, but something not quite necessary about the jasmine.

Last I tried Ô D'Azur. The site lists:


Top Notes: Sicilian Bergamot, Calabria Lemon essence
Heart Notes: Rose, Peony
Base Notes: Modern woody notes, Musk


Ô-boy, Ô-boy! This one is my favorite. Not as long lasting as the orange blossom version, this one starts citrusy and bright. Then the roses kick in with a fleeting peony note. Summer in a bottle. The woody notes feature a nice dollop of patchouli, though this is unlisted, and the musk is tame not sultry or overtly animalic. Not a lot of sillage, but very pretty, very wearable and overtly feminine. And no indolic jasmine, which I just don't like for daytime use.

Where the Azur comes from is anybody's guess. Lancome says "sparkling blue ocean" but I blessedly detect no aquatics here.

Dig it once, dig it twice

Dig it chicken soup with no rice.

I decided to forego the starch and add a half cup of lentil sprouts instead.

Goya puts out a great tiny lentil called a Pardina lentil. It'a a superfast sprouter and a quick cooking natural for homemade chicken soup (the only kind the Maximalist eats)With chicken purchased cheaply it makes no sense to not indulge in it. Homemade soup gets that nice gelatin quality when you cool it to scrape the fat away. The lentils were a nice addition and looked pretty. The sprouts are much healthier too!

If I were to use a bigger sprout or add rice, both would have to be precooked, not so Pardina Lentils.

Other sprouts underway are more kidney beans, green peas as always, and I am trying navy beans too. I heartily recommend lentil sprouts of any color. Fast and good tasting, they cook quickly and maintain their nutrients.

The kidney beans were fabulous sauteed with garlic and onions. Then I added a thick hot salsa. Chili sans carne.

Yama!

Started this book last night and have already decided to recommend it.

The characters are well developed, the settings painstakingly described, you can practically smell the place and its denizens. It feels real, painfully real. It is certainly "ahead of its time" and treats its subject, prostitution, without glitz and glory and without a lot of moral lecturing.

I wonder why we hear so little of Kuprin?

Those little black seeds

Kalonji.

Readily available at the Indian grocers, they are a godsend for me. The Maximalist has been a migraine sufferer for many years and so is my younger child. When said younger child was working abroad she had a dreadful migraine and sought help. Contrary to what you here about every country but the US having fabulous healthcare and easy access, she was essentially told to gut it out. On her way home she stopped at a grocery and spice stall where the old merchant handed her a small scoop of black seeds and said "use these, a pinch everyday, they will cure anything but death"

They did cure the migraine and kept the headaches at bay. I use them too now. Is it the nigellone? The thymoquinone? The beta-sitosterol? Is it just a marvelous placebo?
It has worked for me and is the subject of numerous studies with some holding out the prospect that it will be deleoped into an anti-tumor medication.

The trick is to use it sparingly. A pinch in the morning yogurt or a pinch on your salmon at dinnertime.

The Maximalist is a firm believer in the power of nature to provide superb medications, we just have to find them.

Things I love today

Chainsaws. Really cuts down on time wasted on cutting weed trees and allows me to maximalize peony planting and adding perennials to my garden. Fewer weed trees means more light and a neater garden

Safety glasses. While the Maximalist believes in letting people make their own mistakes and thrash their way through the jungles and forests of life, she is adamantly opposed to letting them injure their eyes in the process. Vines especially are tricky things and prone to lash about when torn. I love tearing vines, it rids me of so much hostility, but I always protect my eyes. Trips to the opthalmic surgeon are not to me maximalized.

Purposive exercise, you know, like gardening. Running on the treadmill is rather dull and you have only limited pleasure on accomplishing a few miles. Gardening and clean up offers you a better feeling of gratification and wins you the admiration of your neighbors. Women walking by were very impressed by the Maximalist and her skills, especially with that chainsaw!

Weed tree chainsaw massacre! The Maximalist yells TIM-BERRRR!!!

The Maximalist had every intention of tackling the foul mulberries that clutter up parts of the yard with power tools today. I woke up bright and early expecting that Mr. Maximalist would be ready to teach me this skill and that I would be well on my way!

Sadly, I must report that after breakfast he went back to bed.

Perhaps it's my age and exposure to chainsaw horror movies but I have always found the buzzing things to be terrifying. I imagined accidentally maiming myself as it seemed that these things have minds of their own, a la Stephen King. Anyway, I found some old blue saw in the garage and decided to try my luck the old fashioned athletic way. Luck was on my side and I quickly felled several large weed trees and dragged their carcasses out to the road. Lumberjack to the max.

If I had know sawing down things was so easy I'd have started before. The only thing I have trusted myself to use is lopping tools and sharp pruners. This is a revelation of sorts and rather empowering.

The ultimate goal is to spare the ancient pussy willow and rehabilitate it as best I can, while destroying the opportunistic mulberries and whatever those sour smelling things were that are now gracing the curb side waiting for collection. I cannot realize my dream of the cottage garden "look" without removing these nasty intruders and if I cannot successfully enlist male support I must take things into my own hands.

These hands are more capable and stronger that I had guessed.

Coffee break over. Back to work!

Maximalist goes to the used book store

Actually it's a favorite place. A bookstore devoid of calendars, coffee, music and crowds. In fact I think it bans beverages and ou must hold the kiddies by the hand.
It's cheaper and has an interesting selection.

I bought a 1929 copy of Alexander Kuprin's Yama, the Russian realist's work on prostitution.

A 1959 copy of Alice B Toklas Aromas and Flavours. The Maximalist loves to cook and I am eager to try her Perfumed Goose.

A 1941 copy of Robert Nathan's The Darkening Meadows as I did not have one.

What's the point?

Of writing a blog with few views?

Just to keep a record

To practice blathering about myself and my interests until I find a way of writing that I like

Do I really need one?

I used to keep a written journal, but I would get bored or my penmanship would deteriorate to the point that I had trouble reading it! So I am trying this...for the past two years. Just as with paper and a pen I keep putting it down and picking it up and reviewing my thoughts and views.

Harmless and actually I have a better average with the computer as it is rarely misplaced and I am frequently using it for something else

Chainsaw lesson

Well cutting down a 20ft tree is one thing and dragging it to the street is another, but making the lieces small enough to please the township is crazy...and required the dreaded chainsaw.

Reluctantly the Maximalist donned her safethy glasses and fired up the beast. The tricks it seems are to hold saw with BOTH hands there by keeping them away from blade, AND holding legs apart so that when the saw cuts through and goes forward that you miss your legs entirely. Seemed very sensible and the MAximalist was able to cut up the boughs in no time flat.

Another empowering experience.

This apparently was a "small" chainsaw. Seems the person who makes a truly petite versions woud have a hit on his/her hands. I could see using this more frequently if it were lighter and if the blade/chain were about a foot long instead of closer to two. Nevertheless, chainsaws aren't just for men anymore.

Things I hate today...just words!

Some words and usages have gotten on my nerves for years.

As a child I took an irrational dislike to the word "bangs". Why bangs? Is it really a slangy word for the "bang off" hairstyle? Just a useless word.

"Shabby-chic". If I am browsing the internet for a nice piece of old jewelry or a household item and the seller uses this abomination, they have lost my sale. What is wrong with "vintage" or the etsy word "upcycled". Why would I buy something shabby? I won't.

"Picky" as in "I am really picky about the perfume I use". This is a self-administered pat on the back, a back-handed brag that says "I have such discriminating taste". If that's how you feel, say so!

And there's always "invite" or "gifted" for gave. Those always grate at my nerves.

Henna. The Maximalist has never used commercial chemical hair dye

Henna. Mehendi. Lawsonia Inermis. That plant you grind up to make orangey red dye. The stuff of India's body decoration and a great way to brighten your hair or cover your gray.

The Maximalist swears by it and sometimes swears at it, but either way is probably stuck with it. It is said that once you start with henna, you can't reliably over-dye with chemicals like L'Oreal or Clairol. You risk all sorts of frizz, damage and mayhem. I am risk averse.

When did I start with henna?

As a teenager. Some girls were bleaching and streaking their hair for summer and the Maximalist decided to highlight her highlights instead. I always had red highlights, now there is more. An aunt of mine was a henna enthusiast, she told me where she bought it and I did it. At first and for many years it looked subtle as my hair was already a deep brown. As I aged and became grayer the white hairs have become red ones and each ear there are more.

Why henna?

The 60s and 70s called out for natural beauty despite the heavy sales of dyes and "rinses". The Maximalist was impressionable enough to believe the hype. And I liked that aunt a great deal.

Where do you buy it?

At first, I bought a little yellow tin with Cleopatra's image on it. Later it came in boxes and more colors (mixed with chamomile or indigo). More recently I turned to healthfood stores and bought various shades in plastic jars. The greyer I get the more I appreciate the indigo. Now, I buy from the Indian groceries and add amla or indigo to get a darker shade. My current favorite brand is Godrej's Nupur mehendi. It is henna mixed with a few other herbals:

Brahmi promotes hair growth
Skikakai leaves hair clean and shining
Aloe Vera moisturizes hair and makes it silky
Methi conditions, nourishes and revitalises hair
Bhringraj makes hair luxuriant
Amla darkens hair colour and adds shine
Neem fights scalp infection and prevents dandruff
Hibiscus rejuvenates hair making it shiny & silky
Jatamansi prevents graying of hair

Or so the package claims. I like it because it looks nice and costs $1.99 a packet. I can control my gray better if I color weekly and that also keeps the color darker. This henna is not the slightest bit grainy and it smells better than the healthfood store variety.

To keep it looking soft I moisturize with coconut oil. This happens two days after I color with Nupur Mehendi.

I am satisfied with the result and I do not have brittle dyed hair. I also do not have to contend with peroxides or ammonias or worry about what all those chemicals are doing to my scalp and brain function. I save money and I get a lot for the little I spend. And isn't that what maximalism is all about?

Sleeping Beauty Wakes at McCarter...mad musings of the Maximalist

What the writer might have been driving at:

CPR as a wake-up kiss. No brainer there, but in the days of the Ambu bag and facial guards for those times that you do mouth-to-mouth, few people would do it in a hospital setting. You'd have to be really sure of who you're dealing with. So the rescue breaths in this case are significant.

The slighted fairy takes revenge. Yep. Another obvious thing. When we slight others especially in a showy way it is not unreasonable that they will take it out on us when the chance presents itself. This applies to all sorts of people. Plenty of those we overlook muster the strength to become powerful in little ways that we may eventually need. Don't be mean to people. You never know.

A totally sheltered child refuses to mature. In this case she stays sleeping for 900 years, but how many middle aged babies do you know who have never had to deal with the spindles and thorns of life (in this adaptation, the daddy-king pays people to remove the thorns from the roses).The Maximalist knows many. Sometimes they just stay immature and others do terribly destructive things to either "break free" or push the limits of their protection, for if there are no consequences nothing is truly forbidden. Our sleeping beauty was spared from all decisions and dangers, she decided not to participate. Eventually she teamed up with a man who was weaker and sicker than herself. I suppose this falls within the "destructive" category. Beauty makes the Sebastian Flyte choice and falls for someone she must care for.

Protecting a child from responsibility will cost you. In this case it took 900 years, but daddy-king ended up with a condo instead of a kingdom as he kept his child safe from responsibility and danger.

No one can live 900 years, 900 days or 900 hours sleeping without food or water. Apart from a fairy tale princess it can't be done, so let's not accept it as more than a metaphor for sheltered life away from "the real world", shall we? Good. As this is the stuff of fairy tales anyway. The Beast in "Beauty and the Beast" was merely a nasty self-centered fellow who people avoided.He acted like a wild animal, he wasn't one. The "real princess" in the "Princess and the Pea" was outrageously spoiled. Why a mom would want someone that "sensitive" for her son is another matter and "happily ever after" is open to interpretation. In that case, the Queen and the new Princess probably whined to their hearts' content over every intolerable trifle. Sad. But I think in the pea story the author was aiming for satire, don't you?

SPOILER: Daddy-king dies as the child grows up. Or does the child grow up when the protection passes into history? I am not convinced that the author really believes that dad's job/life is done when Beauty awakens. Seems the opposite is the more likely case. Her life was asleep, on hold, until daddy's care was gone and she had to wake up or die. No, I take that back...in the story "the handsome prince" was a planned successor protector. This princess said "no way". Had she been allowed life's little deprivations perhaps a handsome prince would have been more appealing as it was for Cinderella. This one just wanted to be "free". In Sleeping Beauty Wakes it is clear that the consequences of freedom were never considered. This is pretty realistic, actually. A protected child is free of protection and makes a crazy decision to team up with a young man with poor prospects and issues of his own. This one collapses when faced with strong emotion. Love, hate, frustration and responsibility all elicit strong emotions. A nice boy but not a strong one.

Anyway, the whole point is that we must allow our children to experience, loss, pain and failures along the road to maturity and adulthood. Frustrations are what makes people capable of handling frustrations and the crises which pepper our lives. They are also what makes us choose wisely and not impulsively as we begin to see the consequences of our actions.

It was a nice story even if you don't think about it too much. Good music and strong voices and a touch of humor. But if you look, there is more to this Beauty than meets the eye.

The refusal to wake up is the mother of all sleep disorders.Or is the Maximalist delusional?

Addendum: and please, dear author, no orderly or nursing assistant would ever have keys to the narc closet or legal access to that oversized syringe!

Things I love today

Gardening and contemplating the joys of the harvest. My little pepper flowers appear to be giving way to little green fruits.

My new gardening catalogs. After ordering over 800 daffodils last fall it seems the Maximalist is a desirable customer. I received a catalog devoted entirely to bulk bulbs and another with natural solutions to everything.

Accidental successes! When I went to a local garden store I noticed a plant labeled "red currant". It wasn't. It was a gooseberry plant and quite a nice one. Of course it is in my yard now.

Marigolds

The wild array of peppers and tomatoes you can plant. The vast variety of the pricey specialty market is available for your garden and table at $1.49 a pack!

Lentil sprouts. Just a bit of the lentilly taste and lots of extra nutrients. I let mine get a bit green and leafy in the sun before the saute. They were excellent with some pepper and ginger.

Feeling a wee bit tired after a lot of digging and planting. It's a good sort of tired and I recommend it to everyone.

Cultivate your own garden!

So the Maximalist likes marigolds...sue me

Marigolds have a bitter smell, are annuals, and have little to recommend them overall...or so it seems.

Nope not cut flowers, good guess though. They're a bit too short-stemmed for that.

And the Maximalist does like yellow and orange, but that's not it either.

The Maximalist hates aphids! Aphids hate marigolds! It's a "my enemy's enemy is my friend" sort of thing. AND there s nothing poisonous about marigolds, the Maximalist can use them as safe pest control!

Did you know that some plants like to be neighbors and others don't? Seems plants, like people, have their little preferences.

Check out this website for more cool plant combos to fight pests and for harmony in your garden. http://toadstoolponds.wordpress.com/2007/12/07/why-plant-marigolds-in-your-vegetable-garden/

Now I will sit down to a luscious bowl of lentil sprouts a small piece of salmon (wild caught, natch) and contemplate my gardening!

Next up kidney and lima bean sprouts!

Sounds good to me.

Remember that the sprout is more nutritious than either the seed or the mature plant. Checkout nutritiondata.com for the goods on the amino acid content of these things, then envision them lightly sauteed with a pinch of garlic and a handful of fresh cilantro! The color combination of the red kidney sprouts and cilantro should look as good as it tastes.

Maybe I'll do black eyes peas...hmm

Maximal scent for spring in your garden and on the cheap!

The Maximalist loves scented garden flowers! And she especially loves the ones that come up every year and can be had for peanuts. Today I am reveling in the aroma of scented daffodils, lilacs, wisteria and broom plants!

All of these can be had very reasonably. Daffodil bulbs are always a bargain online and not all are the scentless yellow trumpets. Daffodils = narcissus and are the stuff of glorious parfums like Caron's classic Narcisse Noir. Lilacs come in blue, red, white and many shades of lilac of course. They perfume the air like nothing else, look spectacular massed in vases and are reliable bloomers. The wisteria is hanging in long grapey clusters now and the fragrance is from a distance fabulous and a bit too much close up. Wisteria is rarely an addition in parfum for this reason I would surmise, but I do own an old bottle of Houbigant's Wisteria soliflore that retains its beauty to today.

My most recent scented shrubs are the broom plants with their fluttery yellow blossoms and incongruently heady fragrance. Butterflies love them as do the honeybees...and the Maximalist. They are largish plants and that bloom from top to bottom and survive the harsh winter weather. My shoveling service dumped piles of snow on them and they returned as marvelous as ever.

I should aslo give a shout out to crab apple trees. Many colors, deep apple blossom scent and a long season as different varieties blossom at different times. They brighten the ladder of our day to day life and ask for a little water.Mine also get a little neem oil spray to harmlessly combat the pests!