SPEAKING of books... SPEAKING of books...
July 13th, 2004
| The Book Elves, who have been waxing their lawn chairs and re-lining their hammocks since just after Valentine's Day, have now officially declared it Summertime, the sign being the appearance of the first real tomatoes and corn at the farmer's market. They got a little over-excited at yesterday's market and came staggering back with about twenty-five pounds of tomatoes. Some of these are not your average tomatoes either- they include heirloom varieties in yellow and pink and with green-stripes -all sorts of weird shapes and colors. They may look a little odd, but boy are they good! Now all we have to do is come up with a way to use twenty-five pounds of them before they go bad. Fortunately the Book Elves also came back with two bushels of fresh basil... |  |
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The outlook wasn't brilliant
for the Mudville nine that day; A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest |
Well, the porch is decked out in red-white-and-blue bunting and an engraving of the Boston Beaneaters hangs on the door- yes, baseball's All-Star game is tonight, and we are celebrating with a new web page devoted to America's greatest sports poem. "Casey at the Bat" was written by 24-year old Ernest Lawrence Thayer in 1888 and it might have been completely forgotten had not a man named Archibald Clavering Gunter thought enough of it to clip it out of the "San Francisco Examiner" that day and stick it in his wallet... READ MORE
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There are a lot of things I am not going to get around to doing this decade, and (The Food Channel's Alton Brown's explanation that it's really easy notwithstanding) it appears that making sausage is one of them. Eating sausage is great -but making them will have to wait for another decade. So, I have a copy of "The Sausage Book" by Richard Gehman (1969) available to anyone who wants it. It's more than just recipes- it also contains "ways of making and eating sausage, accompanying dishes, and strong waters to be served". Sounds great, but I have too little shelf space and can manage to eat sausage without instructions. It's a hardcover, with a somewhat tattered jacket. It's also got some notes inside from a prior sausage eater but hey, it's free. If you'd like it send us an email specifying "Sausages" in the subject line. We only have one copy, so we will randomly draw the name of one of you on Thursday and send it out to the lucky winner!
GOOD TASTES IN COLLECTING CAN EVIDENTLY EXCUSE A *LOT*...
"Francis Seymour-Conway, Earl of Yarmouth and later 3rd Marquess of Hertford, was not a likeable man. He was a wayward son, a wretched husband, a feckless Irish landlord, a Tory autocrat abusive of reform, and an example, according to the self-righteous Grenville, of undisguised debauchery. His redeeming characteristic was the sensibility which he exercised in the (art) sale-rooms of London and Paris in the first thirty years of the 19th century".
-John Ingamells, "The 3rd Marquess of Hertford (1777-1842) as a Collector" (1983).
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Wednesday is Bastille Day, the anniversary of perhaps the most dramatic and sudden urban renewal project ever undertaken since the Greeks made Troy into a parking lot. We're hoping to avoid a repeat of last year's little Brie Brouhaha (ever seen a bunch of Book Elves covered with brie?) and are serving nothing stronger than chilled Chardonnay this year. But we were thinking... -was the threat of having to eat Marie Antoinette's left-over pastry every day *really* enough to touch off the French Revolution? And, since we're also still mesmerized by the memory of Hilary Swank decked out in full period silks in the movie "The Affair of the Necklace" (2001), it seemed appropriate to pour a glass of something cold and revisit the story of the necklace that began the French Revolution... READ MORE |
| OUR CURRENT PRINTED CATALOG- "SUMMERTIME Recent Acquisitions and other interesting books for Summer, 2004" features 263 books and is now available. Send us your mailing address if you would like a free copy. |
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UPCOMING CATALOG Coming later this summer, the latest edition of "A GRAVE AFFAIR". This is a selection of books and related materials illustrating how Society and individuals have dealt with and memorialized Mortality and Death through the Ages. Send us your mailing address if you would like a free copy. |
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"The Crime of the Century" by Kingsley Amis. (Mysterious Press1989). A serial killer is loose in London in this murder-mystery "in the best British tradition". Hardcover, very nice copy. If you'd like it send us an email specifying "Crime" in the subject line. We only have one copy, so we will randomly draw the name of one of you on Thursday and send it out to the lucky winner!
SUMMERTIME
Here’s one thing the Book Elves like to do with tomatoes- stuff them! You need a good, meaty tomato for it to work. Cut the top off to make a "cap", and cut just enough off the base so that the tomato will stay upright. Use a spoon to take the seeds out, just as if it were a pumpkin (you may have to use a small knife to cut the interior ribs). We stuff them with a combination of canned tuna and salmon, mixed with a little mayo, lemon juice, chopped black olives and topped with fresh dill. An easy, cool, 1950s retro snack to eat while you enjoy a good book on a hot Summer afternoon! Serve with a chilled white wine sangria (another easy, lazy recipe mix white wine 50/50 with sparkling apple cider).
That’s about it for now. Next week we will be reloading the "Just Catalogued" pages with some interesting new books; just watch for our "Newsletter" email to get the details before anyone else on the internet!
-Forrest
