Grandfather Tried

Assimilated By David Jacobi

With energy derived from forbidden impulse

The converts overthrow their inhibitions

Therapeutic intervention delays the madness

Until after the revolution of political consciousness

Face to face in the spiritual supermarket

The fear of aging haunts private experience

In the brief period of dangerous flowering

No effort to conceal the development of illusion

When the fort went to decay we were watchful

Not wanting to stir the silence of death

While under the influence of fear and removal

It contained 3,000 mongrel souls readily sold

Extraordinarily wild and unaccountable

The sadness of the ages and the taste of death

Makes a metallic syncopation of melody

There is some thing dead under the foundation

From the thorny sanctuary of my mothers voice

Streamlined models laced with razor blades

Tail spinning around through a secondhand halo

A tongue hidden while you grandfather tried

2011 By David Jacobi

Dean Gets A Rabbit

Flowering Crabapple on our acreage

It has been a dry spring so far this year and that seems to have slowed down the blooming period for the flowers on the ground and flowering trees. We finally got almost two inches of rain during a 24 hour period a few days ago, which seemed to help. At the beginning of the month I noticed several turkey vultures soaring past our place, not circling but flying in a straight line north. I mentioned that to my dad and he said they were probably migrating. That was my lesson of the day because I had never seen them migrate and did not even know that they migrated. On Mothers Day our kids and their kids came out to the acreage to celebrate. The ladies went into town before lunch to do some shopping and have coffee, which left us boys sitting around outside talking and enjoying the warm morning. A couple of times the dogs took off chasing rabbits and Dean, our oldest grandson at 10, asked if he could shoot a rabbit. I said sure, and his dad Jesse told him if he got one he had to eat it. Dean said okay, grabbed his BB gun and was off. We were thinking nothing would come of it when not five minutes passed before he returned with a dead rabbit, a clean kill through the neck. Jesse proceeded to clean it in the grass, describing to the boys what he was doing and why and answering their questions. About an hour later there was rabbit on the grill next to the steaks and chicken, and true to his word Dean ate some. Later on he and I did some practice shooting at cans and sure enough he is a pretty good shot. Maybe this could become a family tradition, at least until we run out of rabbits.

Obscure America: Slang Words

Snirt

Here are nine obscure slang words from American history.

Lally-cooler – Very Successful

Applesauce – Use in place of “nonsense”

Splifficated – Very drunk

Whoopensocker – Very, very good

Berries – Fun (my grandpa used this, as in “Well isn’t that the berries.”

Snirt – Windblown snow and dirt

Sneetered – Scammed

Larruping – Very delicious

Roscoe – Handgun

Baked Chicken Variations

French Fried Onion Baked Chicken

Baked chicken is one of the easiest and quickest meals to make. The coating is what gives the meal such a wide variety of flavors. We started with the standard flour, egg and salt and pepper combination. After awhile we began adding garlic and onion powder, then paprika. Then instead of flour we would use seasoned bread crumbs. For a period we would coat with a dressing, such as ranch or Italian, instead of egg, then add the flour or crumbs. Next we substituted crushed french fried onions instead of flour. We experimented with pre-mixed seasoned flour and my favorite is Kentucky Kernel. Lately we have been enjoying the chicken seasoning from Tastefully Simple. Our prep for any of the above is to dip the chicken into the beaten egg or dressing, then drop the pieces into a sack containing the dry coating and shake it well. We bake in a preheated oven on a sheet at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, then flip and continue for another 20 minutes. Serve with baked potatoes or rice and green beans or fried zucchini.

Image of the Month

Evelyn McHale

Evelyn McHale (1923-1947) jumped from the 86th floor observatory of the Empire State Building, landing on a parked car below. A few minutes later this photo was taken, which has been called “the most beautiful suicide”.

The note she left behind read: “I don’t want anyone in or out of my family to see any part of me. Could you destroy my body by cremation? I beg of you and my family – don’t have any service for me or remembrance for me. My fiance asked me to marry him in June. I don’t think I would make a good wife for anybody. He is much better off without me. Tell my father, I have too many of my mother’s tendencies”.

A Place In The Sun

I watched this 1951 movie for the first time on Kanopy recently and I have to say it was hard for me to finish because it’s so dark and depressing (and a little melodramatic). Montgomery Clift is unhappy and brooding for most of the film, as is Shelly Winters, who plays one of his girlfriends, and who is also his coworker at a factory. Elizabeth Taylor plays his other girlfriend, a happy go lucky socialite. The love triangle is bound to collapse and ultimately it does, leaving one character dead, one on the way to the electric chair and the third heartbroken. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, with both Marlon Brando and Charlie Chaplin giving it high praise. As for me I was glad to see the main actors again as it had been years since I had seen any of them perform, while at the same time it made me want to re-watch other movies they had been in that I liked better than A Place In The Sun. I could start with The Misfits (Clift), The Taming of the Shrew (Taylor) and The Poseidon Adventure (Winters).