Our Daily Dead

Certainly today’s title Suitable For Framing Or Wrapping Fish fits the Our Daily Dead mood. We are Wordpressing as you can see, but we’re still missing a few favorites from the ODDcloset: ODD On Deck and ODD Exists for example. But never fear our Horde of Geeks will triumph in the end…we hope.

Sanora Babb is an ODDguest today and you must, if nothing else, admire her perseverence. She wrote a magnificent novel about a Depression-era farm family only to see her manuscript shelved by Random House because of the publishing of another novel with a similar story line. That other novel? John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath.

“What rotten luck,” wrote Bennett Cerf, Random House founder and cheif editor, in an August 1939 letter to Babb cited by Kansas State University professor Lawrence R. Rodgers in the introduction to “Whose Names Are Unknown.”

Rotten luck indeed. It did not keep her from writing, but it did delay the publishing of her book by some 65 years! All things in good time Grasshopper. Do read the rest of Ms. Babb’s obituary - she had quite a life.

We’ve another author as an ODDguest today too - Heinrich Harrer. We’d have to say that Mr. Harrer makes us two for two in the Quite The Life category - an Austrian mountaineer, a former Nazi, a friend of the Dalai Lama, a published author, and (no doubt the pinnacle) portrayed by actor Brad Pitt in the film “Seven Years In Tibet”. Wowser!

Just to counter these two magnificent lives we’ll give you a couple from the ODDside: a very troubled (did that need to be said??) man and his wife committed suicide in the Denver area recently and supposedly their parrot may inherit their assets. Definitely Koyaanisqatsi .

Go climb a mountain, tavel to Spain or start that book of yours. Celebrate the moment. And leave your parrot out it.

~~The ODDones for OurDailyDead.com

Technorati tags: Suitable For Framing Or Wrapping Fish, Our Daily Dead, ODDcloset, On Deck, Horde of Geeks, Sanora Babb, ODDguest, Bennett Cerf, Heinrich Harrer, Dalai Lama, Brad Pitt

Friday hath arrived and none to soon for these ODDfellows. Scraggy, still slightly askew and desperately in need of a decent meal we have rolled downhill this week to crash land thankfully on Muslim holiday called Break The Fast Day - Eid ul-Fitr. Certainly today is the day for a decent meal if ever there was such a day.

But what exactly does this day signify? You know of course of the Muslim month long celebration called Ramadhan. Ramadhan was the month in which the first verses of the holy Qur’an were revealed to Prophet Mohammad. This month is a time for inner reflection, devotion to God and self-control. It is the sighting of the new moon at the end of Ramadhan that heralds the celebration of Eid ul-Fitr - Breaking the Fast of Ramadhan. Eid is a time to come together as a community and to renew friendship and family ties. This is a time for peace for all Muslims in the world to devote to prayers and mutual well-being.

But no doubt by now you are asking yourself “What do I serve for this Break The Fast day?”. Because North American Muslims come from all parts of the world, not any one particular food is served on Eid. Muslims believe that all blessings come from God, but each family typically has a feast with foods of their particular heritage. For example, an Pakistani-American-Muslim family would have traditional South Asian food, whereas an African-American-Muslim family would have a roast with the sides and a Arab-American-Muslim family would have Arab cuisine.

An intermarried, bicultural family might have food from both cultures on that day. Often a Muslim North American family will visit the homes of friends of many heritages on that day. A typical Muslim family might have an Asian breakfast, an Indian lunch and an Irish dinner all in one day.

So set your worries aside and try a breakfast of Kartoffelpfannkuchen, some grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch and then for dinner some excellent Lebanese Spiced Lamb Chops:

12 to 16 lamb chops (depending on size)

2 tablespoon salt

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 lemons, juiced

2 tablespoons black pepper

2 tablespoons paprika

2 tablespoons Lebanese “7 spices”

1 1/2 cups water

Preheat oven to 550 degrees F.

Place lamb chops in a 9 by 12-inch glass baking dish. Combine 1 tablespoon of salt, garlic and lemon juice. Pour over lamb chops. Combine 1 tablespoon of salt, pepper, paprika and “7 spices” to form a rub. Rub both sides of the lamb chops with this mixture.
Place chops back into the baking dish and add 1 1/2 cups of water gently on the side of the dish so as to keep the spices on the lamb chops.

Cover the dish with foil and seal well. This will ensure the chops stay juicy. Place in the oven at 550 degrees for 30 minutes. Then lower temperature to 400 degrees and bake for 1 1/2 hours.

And if you find all this intolerable mayhaps try something out of the traditional Navajo recipes.

~~The ODDones for OurDailyDead.com

Technorati tags: Eid ul-Fitr, Ramadhan

Ok, test time.

Flying machines are to rock musicians as large animals are to ???

Now we realize that not everyone is as self-effacing as the ODDfellows so we thought you’d want to mosey over and get your name in an upcoming book by your pick of famous authors. Be the first one on your block.

In the Someone Has A Lot of Spare Time department we found this nifty Hillbilly Tribute. You’ll need some patience on the load and you’d best turn up the gain on your eyes. And no this is not Vassar related.

But speaking of Vassar you will note that in Vassar we lost another one to lung cancer.

We know that summer is almost over so here is one last travel tip: head on over (out? up? away to? whatever) Philly and take in the Mutter Museum. Take the kids as the Museum is said to be quite educational. We’re sure you’ll find no end of help for that “What I Did On My Summer Vacation” paper. No doubt you’ll be walking given the current price of gas.

And finally…the answer to today’s relation quiz is this: flying machines and rock musicians go together like large animals and actors/actresses. The latest bouncy-bouncy is of course Madonna. Since she reportedly broke a hand do you think she’ll give up writing finally? Maybe she can reinvent herself as Martha Stewart?