It’s a good doctor who can explain things. I’ve been trying to do that with Mr. Corona for almost 2 years. But Dr. Ted Noel, a retired anesthesiologist/intensivist knocked it out of the park today (1). I’ve been emphasizing the high rate of errors coronavirus makes in replicating its RNA genome as source of all the mutations we’re seeing. But I totally forgot about recombination, which is almost certainly what gave us the friendly monster we call Omicron. Let’s welcome him, and catch him if we get a chance. It’s a way more effective vaxx than those science fair experiments they’re still trying to foist upon us, which not only don’t work, but greatly increase the risk for catching Omicron. And there’s that VAERS thing (2). Booster schmooster!
I’ve called on Bobby McFerrin several times in the course of this thing. But his message to us applies now more than ever (3). Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Happy Boxing Day, my friends. In the U.S., only Massachusetts takes it as an official holiday, and the employees don’t even get to take it off. But those in the Queen’s realm are busy seeing that those who have served them over the year, and some of the poor, are getting their boxes of thanks. Long before that, today marked the feast of St. Stephan, you know, where good King Wenceslas looked out. All reminders that Christmastide is far from over, with 11 days remaining to celebrate. I wrote about this a year and a day ago. As I went back to consult that post to help plan my next week and a half, I thought it would be worth sharing https://theviewfromharbal.com/2020/12/25/dandy-dozen/
Twisted how our Christmas traditions develop. Perhaps because they are so varied shows how rich and wonderful our traditions really are.
Following a tradition we made years ago – nothing to do with Christmas – got us into a situation that tangled up our traditions and introduced us to some new possibilities. All of it has made for a most enjoyable Little Christmas Eve.
This latest recipe that got us there grew out of our weekly search for something for Thursday dinner. For many years, I had a weekly posting at East Ann Arbor Health center, taking me home after clinic past Plum Market, which had great seafood and Zingerman’s bread and of course wine. We enjoyed the simple meals I took home and at one point realized, who else eats like this? Thus was the concept of “Jesus Dinner” born. Some of our entrées even simmered over a charcoal grill, although I don’t think we ever achieved the exquisite offerings of John 21:15-17. We did stray to the non Kosher at times. As long as it came from the sea. It was toward this sin we would go for our next dinner, set to occur on Little Christmas Eve. That white clam sauce with linguine looked mighty tasty, so there we were headed.
It was also important to eat fish on Little Christmas Eve, a holiday important to Norwegians such as our 25% selves. Usually the fish is more substantial, like a big slab of gravlax. For purists, there’s the noxious slab of buried cod, lutefisk. Peppering the celebration with scallops and other shellfish is allowed.
Little did we know that our clam recipe would drop us into a whole other tradition. My food.com recipe told me this dish is often the centerpiece of the Feast of the Seven Fishes, a southern Italian tradition where to celebrate the end of the proscription against meat set to occur on Christmas, a feast of seafood gets thrown the night before. Nothing special about 7, as that was appended in a piece in the Philadelphia Enquirer in 1983. Looking over expected recipes, I said “not tonight hon”. We had some scallops in addition and that was that. But pretty dandy nonetheless. Now we’re eager to see the 2019 movie of the same name (1). The plot involves a working class Pennsylvania family near Pittsburgh welcoming WASP-y girlfriend for Christmas. Kathy and I would probably identify with the WASP-y girlfriend, tho’ we both have Pittsburgh roots. Kathy’s dad was born and raised there and I lived near there for a couple years as I was growing up.
As Jesus said (Mark 7:18-19): “There is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him, but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man.” So it doesn’t matter much what we eat. Come these Holidays food takes special significance for the memories it triggers. But maybe we should just make stuff that tastes good. America is still the grand melting pot, so why not take advantage of all the wonderful things that have come before? Kathy and I still haven’t decided whether 2 consecutive seafood nights will be the norm at our forthcoming Christmases. I have no Italian blood, but my dear dad enjoyed his WWII duty in Rome and my birth mom married an Italian electrician, happily carrying the DeLuca name ever since. Why not add a little “when the moon hits your eye with a big pizza pie”. Can’t go wrong when Dino is singin’ ya to it (2).
We did find some Norwegian/Scandinavian music for our Little Christmas eve (3, 4)
But check out what you’re missing
First, the requisite pot ( a wok here) with the wonderful slop
Probably looks better in a bowl over the linguine. That’s a chunk of a Zingerman’s baguette in the foreground. Sop duty
Finally, if you should wish to reproduce this masterpiece (it’s a very simple recipe that I only changed a little from Food.com)
The sleet and ice falling on us Saturday morning sure didn’t get us dreaming of a white Christmas, but it did that magical Michigan thing of helping us enjoy the great indoors all the more. With the fireplace roaring and the lights on our 11’ tree twinkling, the hygge was like a scented oil engulfing us with a sense of comfort and contentment. Such a setting requires a proper meal, and the kind of food that satisfies on days like this doesn’t come fast. I knew what we needed, and got started early at the farmers’ market. Not much left, and most of the vendors will be shutting down till the market reopens second weekend in January. But a few of the hardy farmers had their wonderful root vegetables laid out. Who can resist those pretty parsnips, hardy turnips, glorious plump carrots, and tightly packed sprouts? It was a bad year for rutabegas, so that’ll be missing this year. But later that afternoon, those hardy veggies would be joining some generous chunks of beef in my biggest iron pot to emerge with Sunday’s stew.
Now every stew is a unique exercise, as each season always presents its own variety, although the basics remain the same. I don’t know if it’s my accounting background (1), or just all those years of rheumatology trying to keep complex things organized, but I approach each new or revised recipe with a spreadsheet in which I lay out features of what I’ve got and probably tried already (see below). For our stew, that means 3 from the recipe box and 5 from the binder.
Spread out, commonalities become apparent: like stuff to never leave out. Couched in some recipes are little tricks that don’t translate to the spreadsheet, like my late Aunt Dorie’s admonition in her excellent recipe for “Perfect Brown Stew” (how do you argue with that? I’ve made it and it is) for a teaspoon of lemon juice to tenderize the meat and add a little zip. Notes for a little sweetener creep up all over, and I recall how nice that “Mahogany Beef Stew” turned out with that good dollop of hoisin sauce. And what about the horseradish kick from “Fine Cooking”? Also not getting into the spreadsheets are the “end of recipe” instructions on how to make a nice brown gravy to finish. Who likes runny stew? I had good luck using chickpea flour last run through my “beef & brussels sprouts stew”. What do you call runny stew? Soup!
So I will inscribe the new recipe in my lab book then get to chopping and browning. The stew will cook slow in the oven while we’re at the basketball game, sit to cool in the garage over night, then be at the ready for whatever meal we choose on Sunday. Maybe we’ll have it for breakfast, with a nice bold red. Well, eggs and bacon on muffins with Hatch’s green chili sauce washed down by Vampire Marys (2) beat that out, but dinner is coming.
Here’s what it looks like in the pot. Shame the internet can’t do aromas yet.
And here’s the recipe if you care to try. Hurry up while your farmers still have their parsnips, turnips, carrots, and sprouts! (I never put the sprouts in this one as there wasn’t enough room in the pot).
Remember, recipe cards don’t tell the whole story. This one misses that I forgot to put the potatoes in till late (they still cooked), I never used the wine I had set aside, I had to put some dry thyme in as I only had a couple sprigs left, and there really wasn’t 2 T of horseradish in that last jar in the house. Plus there are pauses that are key to making a good stew. For this one, there was the overnight in the garage (Michigan’s high capacity refrigerator), another warm up this afternoon for the thickening, then the several hours in a slow (1750) oven awaiting my sweetheart’s return from Winter Commencement ceremonies (any excuse to get into those doctoral robes). All that time for the marrying and mingling of flavors. But it’ll be ready for sure, and hygge will be served along with stew and wine.
And then, remember back in school when they told you to “show your work”. Here’s the stew spreadsheet I created to get to this recipe. Everything old is new again.
Here’s a look at our beautiful fireplace in all its glory, centerpiece of our living room and greatest source of the hygge we seek in these winter months.
Whenever either of us is home, it’s burning. Both of us have always loved a fireplace, and I think the only times we didn’t live in homes with such a resource we were in apartments pursuing our fortunes. But those fortunes have brought us here and we are so very happy with our surroundings. Not everyone in our neighborhood is as happy as we are. Realize we live in an enclave of libs, and concerns about global warming , including fireplaces, persist. As we approached our second wood buy of the season, I thought I’d check things out. Turns out a cord of wood, as it burns, releases 2.5 tons of CO2 (1). Oooh, scary! I feel warmer already! But for perspective, it’s been estimated that John Kerry’s private plane travels released 116 million tons in a year. (2) If you make a 30 mile commute each year in a car that gets 22 miles a gallon, you’re releasing 4.3 metric tons. If you want to take to the friendly skies to visit grandma, that 5000 mile round trip will cost ya 2.23 tons (3) Given that the whole USA accounted for 6,558 million metric tons of CO2 in 2019 (4). I’m not sure we need to worry about our tiny piddle in a very big pond. As an average household, we pump 49 tons in every year so our fireplace habit exceeds that a little. But as the whole CO2 global warming thing is basically a dead, discredited, BS issue, we on 1611 Harbal are going to fire it up and enjoy our hearth and hygge.
One of the joys of blogging is connecting with like minded folks. Some bloke from the U.K. caught one of my blogs on Omicron and offered up a bit of his work. He describes himself as a retired Chartered Building Surveyor with no medical background other than dealing with his own ailments. He blogs under the impressive name of Baldmichael Theresoluteprotector’sson. He’s composed a guide to all the “variants” that’s informative and hilarious. Did you know that “Omicron” is an acronym for “moronic”?. I’ve never tried to make a link like this. Let’s see if it works https://alphaandomegacloud.wordpress.com/2021/12/02/various-variants-covid-19/.
We diehard Michigan fans are stuck waiting the weeks till New Year’s Eve and the Orange Bowl. This is uncharted territory for us, who haven’t tasted a Rose Bowl since 2004 (back when it mattered). Now we wait and see if Aidan Hutchinson can win an improbable Heisman and cower in anticipation of our SEC opponents. Fortunately, there’s Pete the Plumber with his heartening predictions. Yes, we are pissed off. https://fb.watch/9O2URs4tAM/
I’ve always enjoyed those newsletters some send for Christmas. This year, I decided to create my own.
2021
I’ve always enjoyed receiving these Christmas letters from those who bother to write them. So this year I’m trying my hand at it, seeing if I can bore you silly with recountings of some of the antics Kathy and I pursued over this past year. While it may seem we’re nuts for travel and sports (we are), home is what we love best, and from the hearth of Harbal we toast you this greeting.
So that’s Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. That’s Fritz, our stuffed. wolverine, in the foreground. He says “Go Blue”.
January
No bowl for the COVID-afflicted Wolverines, so the year started quietly. A planned trip to LaJolla fell victim to COVID, heralded by a call from the AirBnB saying we couldn’t come because of the lockdown. COVID would screw up a couple more California attempts, Spring Break, a trip to London to see Eric Clapton at Royal Albert Hall, and one to Edinburgh after Christmas ’21 to take in Hogmanay. But we still managed to have some fun.
February
No fans could get into Crisler, but Juwan’s boys gave us joy nonetheless, dominating play en route to winning the Big 10 championship and missing the final 4 by a bucket.
Dr. Schlissel cancelled spring break, so Kathy took her “well being” day and added a few more for a long weekend in Clearwater Beach. My brother John, his wife Karen and son Ian live in Clearwater. The highlight was our assault on the breweries of nearby Dunedin; what a fine way to pass a sunny Florida afternoon https://theviewfromharbal.com/2021/03/03/drink-down-dunedin/
March
Kathy takes joy from the non-revenue sports. Girl’s basketball makes sweet sixteen and woman’s gymnastics wins the national championship, their first ever. Kathy has players on both teams. A student of hers from 2 years ago was last performer at the gymnastics meet and her score nailed down the championship, as Kathy watched real time from the big screen on our dining room table – same one she teaches over – this time crying her eyes out.
Last weekend in March it was off to Santa Fe, which Kathy’s brother Bob would be vacating after 20 years. We met Bob’s lawyer friend Ana who’s moved from medical liability to “medical freedom”, aiding those finding themselves on the wrong end of COVID restrictions. So even with Bob gone, we’ll have friends when we go back.
April
It was a year for golden anniversaries, and April 17 marked 50 years since I broke into Hill Auditorium to see Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen for the first time. Since I have all their records, all it took was the suitable intoxicants and two triple cheese side order of fries from Krazy Jims to make a proper celebration. Too much fun https://theviewfromharbal.com/2021/04/17/two-triple-cheese/
.
May
Once commencement was finished, it was time to push west. We would meet up with June Rodgers, my late friend Sam’s https://theviewfromharbal.com/2020/01/12/goodbye-sam/, https://theviewfromharbal.com/2020/01/14/see-sam/ widow, for a few days at Garden of the Gods Resort. I got to know Colorado Springs as a kid visiting my Uncle Bob, but am only starting to appreciate the place as an adult. The year before, we’d spent a couple days in Broadmoor’s Cloud Camp, high on Mt. Manitou. We’d looked down at Garden of the Gods and several campers were going there next. Glorious red rock, Pike’s Peak views, mountain air, great food and excursions into the city for a Skirted Heifer https://skirtedheifer.com/, a walk around Manitou Springs with drinks from all, and a dinner train through the Royal Gorge stoked that Rocky Mountain high.
Back 2 weeks with Memorial Day a week away, we took the train to Chicago to stay in the South Loop for jazz, food, and good times
June
Deb and Jeff from St. Louis weren’t with us in Chicago this time, but we’d been planning an escape to Lake Michigan for a while. We found Tony, a 747 pilot who rents out his luxury beach house when he’s away flying, giving us a beautiful week on the beach at South Haven. When Deb and Jeff went South, we continued north on a leisurely voyage home with friends and family through Macatawa, Muskegon, Grand Rapids, and Stanwood.
July
All Kathy was expecting was a little birthday party. I wasn’t able to keep the entire cat completely in the bag as I planned a much bigger event, so she knew it was going to be at our favorite spot, Dominick’s. The retirement party a year clearly exceeded expectations https://theviewfromharbal.com/2021/07/17/wasnt-that-a-party/.
Fewer than two weeks would pass before it was time for my big event, another “golden”, the 50 plus one reunion of Vicksburg High’s class of ‘70, preceded by a few days seeing some obscure Kalamazoo sites, like the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Parkwyn Village and “Kalamazoo’s Stonehenge” out by the ballpark. I’d helped with the planning, finding “lost” classmates, and in the process assembled a mighty database. I’d been running monthly Zooms since the reunion had been postponed a year ago. Old friends are the best friends, and it sure felt good to be among a whole bunch of them.
August
Another week and it was time for the Big California trip, finally happening. NoCal for family and friends, drive down the coast through Carmel and Santa Monica to La Jolla, with a week on Windnsea Beach.
September
September marked some welcome returns: students to campus and classes, and 110,000 of our closest friends to Michigan Stadium to watch our Wolverines start what was going to become a very special season. Harbaugh’s team was running the ball like a young Bo’s would.
I managed a quick day trip to the ‘burg to see friends and classmates Forrest and Sandy take their places at the winner’s table at the Tournament of Writers.
October
Executing this year’s road trip, we headed to Muskegon for a couple nights on the beach before boarding the ferry to Milwaukee, tarrying there a night, then onto Madison where the Badgers awaited, although I don’t think they expected what hit them. We hadn’t won there in 20 years, another way this season is different.
On a trip that had been in the works since February, it was back to California, this time to Novato, in Marin County, home of rich old hippies, to see what’s left of the Lost Planet Airmen. Enough to approach Too Much Fun. One of my good ol’ Barnes’ buddies Dave practices in nearby Petaluma, so we met up, even for the weekly “safety meeting” he holds with some of his misfit friends in the back room of the hardware store one of them owns. Made it to Pescadaro to be with the fam https://theviewfromharbal.com/2021/10/21/nocal/
November
We hadn’t been to Chicago for a while and with Penn State away, that second weekend looked good. We landed in a different neighborhood – Lakeview, between Lincoln Park and Uptown – plenty of eateries and watering holes, but nicely residential. We found a new jazz spot – Le Piano – and were both made to lay under the piano while being played to. When we walked up to the bar Saturday that the Alumni Association said hosted game viewing parties and found it closed, a nice young man in an Oklahoma sweatshirt directed us a mile down Clark to Duffy’s, which was wall-to-wall maize and blue, all several decades our juniors. After a half of standing, we headed back to our loft to enjoy the dominant second half. Two train rides the next morning and we were in Hyde Park for breakfast and services at the magnificent Rockefeller Chapel, thankful for yesterday’s victory and grateful for God’s blessings.
From today’s perspective it’s easier to say we felt something would be different about this year’s version of The Game. Naah, we were expecting to get creamed, like usual. But that’s not what happened! The best highlight video was put together by some kids https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ak9Uxtntfk&t=3s. The song playing in the background is the one they play ever 3rd quarter, to which the kids go nuts. It’s “Mr. Brightside” by the Killers, which features a gloriously decadent video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGdGFtwCNBE, first released in 2003 and judged by UK radio stations Absolute Radio and XFM as “song of the decade”. It certainly has staying power with the young folks nearly 20 years on. Maybe it’s the reason they don’t play “Sweet Caroline” in the 3rd quarter any more. Hassan Haskins runs o.k. to it. Indianapolis brings us closer to to what could be very special. In Bo’s days ,the Big 10 championship was the pinnacle, and now we are there. Those 6 touchdowns finally convinced the annoying boring Hawkeyes they couldn’t beat us. Now comes the heady exercise of ratings and rankings as we ascend into the college football playoffs. I’ll be happy if Aidan Hutchinson gets the Heismann. Our TV viewing is locked into New Year’s eve and Orange Bowl, so our New Year’s date may be abrogated. My butt will be in the couch and not on LIVE’s dance floor.
December is quiet time in Ann Arbor. We have 20 events slated for the month, only half sports related. We even have a New Years Eve date, headed to LIVE on First to hear “Invasion”, a bunch of boomers who play (well) the songs of the British Invasion. Kathy might even get me out on the dance floor as we usher in 2022.
The grind goes on for Kathy, with one half-time term left as she satisfies her 20 years at the U, waiting the time she can return to her children’s books, sewing, gardening, and time as an adjunct research scientist in the Department of Aerospace Engineering. Bob happily has not answered the 8AM Monday clinic call for 3 years, amusing himself this year by cranking out 11 peer-reviewed publications (with 2 additional under review), 6 books (& a chapter), 7 YouTube uploads, and 112 posts to his blog (so far this year).
Merry Christmas to all and wishes for a Big Blue New Year
Still shameless. I’ve just sent Jeff Bezos Musing through a Pandemic. On the Sidelines. Volume IV. Then play on. This grew out of a discovery that all the posts on sports I’d intended to include in Volume III. Indulgences didn’t make it in. I added the few more I’d written since June and presto, a 139 page book with 23 essays/stories touching on sports, which may be our greatest distraction from Mr. Corona. The cover will look familiar to those who have seen any of the previous 3 books
That’s the Kindle cover. And the Kindle version is till being processed, having trouble uploading my files.
So it’ll be about 3 days till it’s up on Amazon. Just search for “Robert Ike”, and use the quotes unless you want a lot of stuff on Eisenhower.
Available now! (12/9/21, 5 PM EST). Maybe not on Amazon just yet, but Jeff let me buy some paperbacks!
Bob Ike's blog 