Grillo Center Labyrinth

Grillo Center Labyrinth
Meander and Meet....designed by George Peters and Melanie Walker of Airworks For more information contact Susan at susan@well.com

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Saturday Morning Walkers - October 14, 2007

Hi everyone!

We had a great walk yesterday, starting at the Grillo Center Labyrinth and heading east on the Boulder Creek Path. After heading back for coffee at Vic's, we did our tour of the Farmers Market. I'm getting pretty excited about our upcoming dedication for the labyrinth on Sunday, October 21 from 4 - 6 PM. I hope that many of you are able to join us for the celebration. I'm happy to report that Randy is recovering well from his shoulder surgery.

Book Report:
Christie is reading 102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers by Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn. I read this and may have reported on it a while ago but it is worth mentioning again. It is a fascinating account of 9/11 at the World Trade Center by two journalists who really conducted a thorough investigation of that horrific event.

From Publishers Weekly
Drawn from thousands of radio transcripts, phone messages, e-mails and interviews with eyewitnesses, this 9/11 account comes from the perspective of those inside the World Trade Center from the moment the first plane hit at 8:46 a.m. to the collapse of the north tower at 10:28 a.m. The stories are intensely intimate, and they often stir gut-wrenching emotions. A law firm receptionist quietly eats yogurt at her desk seconds before impact. Injured survivors, sidestepping debris and bodies, struggle down a stairwell. A man trapped on the 88th floor leaves a phone message for his fiancée: "Kris, there's been an explosion.... I want you to know my life has been so much better and richer because you were in it." Dwyer and Flynn, New York Times writers, take rescue agencies to task for rampant communications glitches and argue that the towers' faulty design helped doom those above the affected floors ("Their fate had been sealed nearly four decades earlier, when... fire stairs were eliminated as a wasteful use of valuable space"). In doing so, the authors frequently draw parallels to similar safety oversights aboard the ill-fated Titanic nearly 90 years before. Their reporting skills are exceptional; readers experience the chaos and confusion that unfolded inside, in grim, painstaking detail. B&w photos.

Terri recently read Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs. I can't actually report that she recommends it - she was pretty turned off by this amazing dysfunctional family.

From Publishers Weekly
"Bookman gave me attention. We would go for long walks and talk about all sorts of things. Like how awful the nuns were in his Catholic school when he was a kid and how you have to roll your lips over your teeth when you give a blowjob," writes Burroughs (Sellevision) about his affair, at age 13, with the 33-year-old son of his mother's psychiatrist. That his mother sent him to live with her shrink (who felt that the affair was good therapy for Burroughs) shows that this is not just another 1980s coming-of-age story. The son of a poet with a "wild mental imbalance" and a professor with a "pitch-black dark side," Burroughs is sent to live with Dr. Finch when his parents separate and his mother comes out as a lesbian. While life in the Finch household is often overwhelming (the doctor talks about masturbating to photos of Golda Meir while his wife rages about his adulterous behavior), Burroughs learns "your life [is] your own and no adult should be allowed to shape it for you." There are wonderful moments of paradoxical humor Burroughs, who accepts his homosexuality as a teen, rejects the squeaky-clean pop icon Anita Bryant because she was "tacky and classless" as well as some horrifying moments, as when one of Finch's daughters has a semi-breakdown and thinks that her cat has come back from the dead. Beautifully written with a finely tuned sense of style and wit the occasional clich‚ ("Life would be fabric-softener, tuna-salad-on-white, PTA-meeting normal") stands out anomalously this memoir of a nightmarish youth is both compulsively entertaining and tremendously provocative.

Website of the Week - www.paperbackswap.com - Chris discovered this stie which enables you to swap books with other members, paying only postage for the books you send out. With each book that you send out, you receive a credit towards a book that you may request.. A great way to pass along books that the used book stores reject!

Podcast of the Week - http://agatha.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=261985 - Agatha Christie Radio Murder Mysteries

Vocabulary Word of the Week - sojourn:
sojourn \SOH-juhrn; so-JURN\, intransitive verb:
1. To stay as a temporary resident; to dwell for a time.

noun:
1. A temporary stay.

Though he has sojourned in Southwold, wandered in Walberswick, dabbled in Dunwich, ambled through Aldeburgh and blundered through Blythburgh, Smallweed has never set foot in Orford.
-- Smallweed, "The trouble with hope", The Guardian, April 14, 2001

Yet he is now an accomplished student and speaker of English, a literary editor and television producer, someone who has sojourned in Paris and attended the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.
-- William H. Gass, "Family and Fable in Galilee", New York Times, April 17, 1988

As chance would have it, Degas's five-month sojourn in New Orleans coincided with an extraordinarily contentious period in the stormy political history of the city.
-- Christopher Benfey, Degas in New Orleans

During that long sojourn in Sligo, from 1870 to 1874, he had lessons from a much loved nursemaid, Ellie Connolly; later he received coaching in spelling and dictation from Esther Merrick, a neighbour who lived in the Sexton's house by St John's, and who read him quantities of verse.
-- R. F. Foster, W.B. Yeats: A Life, Vol. 1

Sojourn comes from Old French sojorner, from (assumed) Vulgar Latin subdiurnare, from Latin sub-, "under, a little over" + Late Latin diurnus, "lasting for a day," from Latin dies, "day."

Cooking and Dining Report:

Jack and I had a great dinner last night with Mae at an Italian restaurant in Littleton - Michael's Italian Bistro and Brewery - they had a great menu and we all enjoyed our dinners. Mae and Jack had Chicken Marsala and I had a wonderful steak. Mae had spumoni and Jack and I shared chocolate espresso cake for dessert. Check out this review on the Gabby Gourmet's website - http://www.gabbygourmet.com/index.cfm?fuseAction=restaurantGuide

We had a discussion yesterday about gnocchi and Jack pointed out to me that there are two places in town that serve wonderful gnocchi recipes:

Radda makes Gnocchi Bolognese which is a favorite of Jack's and Bacaro makes Gnocchi di ricotta with choice of Colorado lamb ragu, tomato and basil or porcini mushroom creme.
Some recipes to share this week:

Roasted Fennel with Parmesan - http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_30476,00.html

Seared Diver Scallops with Bacon and Whole Grain Mustard Rub - http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_20959,00.html

Gnocchi with Zucchini Ribbons & Parsley Brown Butter from Eating Well Magazine - http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/gnocchi_zucchini_butter.html

That's all for now - have a great week ahead. Once again, I hope to see you at the Grillo Center Labyrinth Dedication on Sunday, October 21 from 4 - 6 PM - there will be light refreshments and music to enjoy. I'm not sure if I'll get this weekly email out next Sunday but I'll get it out as soon as I can.

Love,

Susan

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