As the liner notes suggest: Amaze your friends, baffle your enemies, and write to end all discussion.
A perfect book for word nerds, it isn’t one you pick up and read cover to cover, but one to flip through the pages to find something better than what you had in mind for your next missive.
Confuse them with flapdoodle; create a jape; craft a rejectamenta; be accused of decollation.
The Superior Person’s Book of Words, Peter Bowler, 0-440-20407-0-595
In North America, Verdejo is hard to come by, but this Spanish grape is well suited for the Mediterranean climate in the Dunnigan Hills (East of Napa and left of Centre).
The grapes were handpicked in the early morning. A portion of the grapes were whole cluster pressed, then the wine was fermented in neutral oak barrels and stainless-steel tanks. Barrel fermented lots were aged 5 months in neutral oak to increase complexity and mouth feel, resulting in a wine that is crisp and refreshing.
A blend of 89% Verdejo and 11% Chardonnay.
Perfect as an aperitif, this white pairs well with creamy cheeses, spicy shrimp or a salmon salad. Our vein was similar – Cornish game he with a maple syrup orange glaze. You’ll stop in the middle of something (a mouthful of food or a sip) or mid sentence in a conversation) and realize how engaging this glass of wine is.
The finish is crisp and refreshing with a little pop of minerality.
Well priced. and enjoyed well. I’m going to look for some of their other 19 different varietals.
VERDEJO – MATCHBOOK TINTO REY DUNNIGAN HILLS 2018
$15.97 regularly $16.97
13% alcohol
UPC: 00859551001444
Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons – Who Loves You (Official Music Video)
The Tokens – The Lion Sleeps Tonight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGl5ReYunoY
Seals and Crofts Summer Breeze
I Just Called To Say I Love You
Chris De Burgh – Lady In Red (Official Video)
Roy Orbison – “Only the Lonely” from Black and White Night
Maamoul is made at the end of both Lent and Ramadan, leading up to Easter and Eid al Fitr. But this year, the biscuit is extra sweet as both religions enjoy it at the same time.T
This spring, along the ancient streets of the holy cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, a sweet smell wafts through the air. Inside, people’s homes are hives of activity as extended family members and neighbours come together to make a biscuit-like treat that’s very special to both Muslims and Christians.
“You can’t have Easter without maamoul because it brings the happiness,” said Rawan Ghattas, a Christian from Bethlehem, who works with famed local chef Fadi Kattan.
Like Ghattas, Rawan Bazbazat, a Muslim art teacher and jewellery maker from Jerusalem, has been baking the sweet since she was a child with her mother. “On Eid al Fitr, we always have to make maamoul. We can’t celebrate this holiday without it,” Bazbazat said.
Maamoul is made from a dough of semolina and ghee (though butter can be used as a substitute) and flavoured with mahlab (crushed cherry seeds, which are found inside the pits) and mastic (also known as Arabic Gum), which is the resin from the acacia tree.
While the delicate shortcrust-style sweet melts in your mouth, its design adds even more decadence. Before baking, the dough is either stuffed with pistachios drizzled with rosewater, walnuts mixed with sugar and cinnamon, or dates that have been ground to a paste with a little oil or butter. As Anissa Helou, author of Feast Food of the Islamic World described it to me, “The date maamoul is like having a cream-filled biscuit, but less fluffy.”Each of the three flavours is then placed into its own specific wooden mould called a qalab, or formed by hand using a spiked tong called a malqat. The date maamoul traditionally has a circular shape with a flat top; the pistachio version is more like a pointy ellipse; while the walnut-flavoured biscuit is a smaller circle with a domed top.
Each year, Christian and Muslim families across the Palestinian territories and the greater Middle East make maamoul, as well as its simpler cousin ka’ak – a flat, round biscuit made from the same dough – in the days leading up to Easter and Eid al Fitr. The Christian holiday of Easter, observed this year on 17 April, follows Lent – an observance recognising the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert fasting – when believers traditionally abstain from animal products and alcohol for the same number of days. Eid al Fitr, meaning “the feast of breaking the fast”, which starts on 2 May this year, is an Islamic celebration signifying the end of Ramadan, a month of fasting from dawn to sunset.
“This year, both Ramadan and Lent are together which is nice; you go to the Old City [of Jerusalem] and you find both the Christians and Muslims fasting – it’s special,” said Bazbazat.
With extended family all together in one house, the jobs for making the maamoul are divided between groups. Some make the dough (which is left for one day in the refrigerator before being formed), some make the designs, and some are experts at knowing the right time to pull the sweet out of the oven.
For many who celebrate Easter or Eid al Fitr, maamoul creates beautiful memories.
“We are three families plus all the neighbours; each day, we make the maamoul in one of the houses,” Ghattas said, expressing what she views as a time of happiness and communal celebration.In Bazbazat’s family home, she and her five sisters, aunt, cousin, mother and grandmother make maamoul in the lead up to Eid al Fitr. “Sometimes you feel very hungry when you’re making it – you want to taste everything – but no one can touch it until the first day of Eid, then you can eat anything you want,” she said.
Ghattas remembers trying to shape the dough into flowers when she was young, inspired by her mum who makes perfect decorations. At midnight, marking the end of 40 days of fasting, she and her family raise coloured hard-boiled eggs and knock them together (with the goal of being the last person left with an unbroken egg), and then rejoice in eating them as well as the long-awaited maamoul.
Muslim families generally spend the first day of Eid together, and as is custom, send plates of ka’ak and maamoul dusted with powdered sugar to their neighbours – including Christians, who also send the biscuits to their neighbours at Easter. The next day, they welcome guests into their homes and offer coffee along with the delicious sweet.
“The Christians and Muslims in Jerusalem have a lot to share. They live in the same houses, they’re in the same city. We are like one,” Bazbazat said.
In the Palestinian territories, some of the main ingredients of maamoul, namely dates and walnuts, are grown locally. The dates, the best type being Mejdool, come from Jericho and the farms in the Jordan Valley, in the east of the West Bank. While most people have walnut trees In their gardens, they also grow abundantly on the region’s hilltops – from Al-Khalil (also known as Hebron) in the south to Jenin in the north.Fadi Kattan, an internationally known chef and founder of Fawda Restaurant & Café in Bethlehem – which showcases traditional recipes and local ingredients with a modern twist – links the smell of maamoul to the memory of his grandmother making it when he was young.
“Every attempt I made to try and decorate ka’ak and maamoul would ruin whatever she and her neighbours were doing, so I was nicely told to sit away and enjoy the smell,” Kattan remembered, adding he was allowed to crush the walnuts.
He says the smell, which occurs as the ghee cooks with the mastic and mahlab, is “like something being caramelised, but there’s nothing being caramelised”. There’s really no replacement for mastic’s flavour in baking, and as Kattan said, it’s “an uncompromising one”. “You can use orange blossom or rose petal water, but it’s not the same thing. Mastic has a sweet, earthy flavour – I cannot describe it,” he said. “If you played with pine trees when you were younger, that little sap that would seep out when it’s cut, that’s what it tastes like.”
Nevertheless, Helou, who grew up in Lebanon, flavours her dough with orange blossom and rose waters (instead of mastic), and only puts mahlab in ka’ak, showing how the recipes can vary by baker and regions. “[Mahlab] has a very strong taste. If you use it in the dough for maamoul, it interferes with the flavour of the cinnamon, fragrant waters and the walnut stuffing,” she said.According to Charles Perry, food writer and expert on medieval Arabic cuisine, “maamoul is descended from a Persian stuffed cookie called kulachag, which appears in medieval Arabic cookbooks as kulayja.” They were made from a dough with added butter or another fat like lard then rolled out to be moulded into elaborate designs of fish, birds, gazelles and geometrical patterns.
As culinary influences spread due to trade at the time, it’s possible that maamoul has other relatives or ancestors. For example, when Egypt was ruled by the Mamluks, an army of slave soldiers, from 1250-1517, a book titled Zahr al-hadiqa fi ‘ l-at’ima al-aniqa’ (flowers in the garden of elegant foods) – written by Ibn Mubarak Shah, which was later translated into English by Professor Daniel Newman and published as The Sultan’s Feast in 2020 – details a recipe of a medieval Egyptian date-filled biscuit flavoured with aromatics like rose water, saffron and spices.
According to historian Charles al Hayek, who runs a YouTube channel and Instagram account dedicated to Middle Eastern culture, the tradition of handing out sweets for Eid al Fitr began during the Fatimid Caliphate in the 10th to 12th Centuries, when the Caliph, or state, would gift them to everyone including servants following Eid morning prayers. As Sawsan (no surname) from the Chef in Disguise website wrote, the sweets were decorated with phrases like kol o oshkor (eat and be thankful) and bel shukr tadoom al neam (with gratitude blessings are preserved). However, when the Ottoman Empire ended in 1922 and there was no longer an Islamic caliph, the tradition shifted from being a royal custom to one among private households
Many, including Kattan, say that the patterns on the different maamoul moulds – such as the date mould’s burning sun, or star, depending on your interpretation – were originally affiliated with ancient religions that worshipped nature. However, in Christian tradition, the date-stuffed maamoul (which has a circular shape) came to represent the crown of thorns placed on Jesus’ head, while the pistachio maamoul is said to resemble the temple where Jesus was laid to rest.There isn’t any particular symbolism in Islam relating to the design but the shape of the maamoul is still very special to those like Bazbazat. “When I finish one of the pieces of maamoul and I look at it, I think ‘wow, I’m an artist’,” she said.
While many families make maamoul at home, the biscuit is also available in most Arabic sweet shops during Easter or Eid al Fitr, often sold by the kilo.
In the Palestinian city of Ramallah, Eiffel Sweets is one of the oldest sweet shops making maamoul and is highly recommend by many residents. Aker Sweets, another well-known shop in town, has multiple locations. In Jerusalem, the oldest shop, Zalatimo, was established in 1860 and now has shops in Jordan (and also delivers to the United States via Amazon). Those living outside the region, however, can head to their local Middle Eastern bakery or try making the holiday biscuits themselves.
In fact, many professional bakers such as Ahmad Shaqier from Eiffel Sweets believes that homemade maamoul has an intangible quality unmatched by those made at the shops. “It’s a tradition found within the Palestinian families,” he said.As a kid, Shaqier used to carry the trays of maamoul made by his mum on top of his head to the nearby Furn al Arabi, a traditional bakery that uses wood ovens, for them to be baked. “I always ate a couple of fresh ones before I took it all home. The memories related to maamoul are imprinted in a person’s mind.”
Maamoul recipe (yields 20 walnut and 20 date biscuits)
By Fadi Kattan of Fawda Restaurant & Café (adapted for BBC Travel)
Time required: overnight plus three hours of making
Ingredients
For the dough:
1.5 cups coarse semolina
1.5 cups fine semolina
2 tbsp sugar
¼ tbsp ground Arabic gum (mastic)
½ ground mahlab (cherry seeds)
1 cup melted ghee
1½ tsp yeast
½ tsp sugar
½ cup warm water
For the walnut stuffing:
3oz chopped walnuts
1 tsp sugar
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
For the date stuffing:
4oz date paste
1 tbsp olive oil
Instructions
For the dough:
For the date filling:
For the walnut filling:
Baking and serving:
Easter bunny may be linked to fertility, Camosun College instructor says
While many who celebrate Easter may decorate chicken eggs and wait for bunnies to deliver them chocolate without question, a Greater Victoria anthropologist decided she needed answers to the seemingly strange traditions.
After a deep dive into the symbols, Camosun College instructor Nicole Kilburn found both sense and mystery.
Eggs, it turns out, have a long history of use for springtime celebrations. The earliest example Kilburn could find was from more than 3,000 years ago when Persian-speaking people began decorating them for their new year’s celebration feast tables, which fall at the start of spring. Kilburn thinks the Phoenicians were then inspired to do something similar, using ostrich eggs.
Some eastern European people also have a history of gifting naturally died chicken eggs to mark the Jewish holiday of Passover.
Kilburn said all the traditions likely use eggs to represent a time of birth and renewal. She suspects this is also the reason early Christian writers chose to tie Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection to springtime.
“Tying Easter celebrations to familiar, long-standing expressions of rebirth and renewal may have been a shrewd PR move on the part of early Christian writers, who thought it would be easier to believe the resurrection of Christ if it was tied to the tangible proof of rebirth offered by the natural world,” she said in a video explainer.
The Easter bunny is far greater of an enigma, though.
Kilburn said early depictions of rabbits in medieval manuscripts show them violently hurting people with swords or tree branches. The only answer she could find for how they turned from a menace into a children’s candy delivery system, is that rabbits are often linked to fertility.
Again, Kilburn believes, they may have served as a visual reminder of the renewal and birth springtime brings.
She also noted that bunnies are not synonymous with Easter everywhere. In Switzerland, they have the Easter cuckoo, while in Germany it is the Easter fox.
One thing that was clear to her is the recent history of commercialization. Perhaps surprisingly, Easter beats out Halloween as the No. 1 candy-selling holiday in North America.
Kilburn just hopes when people enjoy their chocolate eggs this year, they do so armed with a little more knowledge.
No Chocolate was harmed during this exercise
H.W. (Bert) Herridge, dubbed The Squire of Kootenay West by Ottawa newsmen, was perhaps the best-liked politician from British Columbia to serve in Parliament. He is remembered equally as a politician who tried to work for the individual and as a man with an inimitable sense of humour. His stories were legion and the book preserves many of the anecdotes for which Herridge was famous. As much as a history of Kootenay West as Herridge’s biography, the book also outlines the development of the Arrow Lakes area commencing in mining boom days, continuing through fruit-ranching and forestry to its near destruction by the Columbia River Treaty’s High Arrow Dam.”
The forward is by John Diefenbaker, and my copy is autographed.
Excellent pictures of Nakusp in the early teens – that’s 1913-19
The Squire of Kootenay West, A biography of Bert Herridge, by Maurice Hodgson, 0-919654-45-2
Music is a powerful tool to access information about ourselves. Two recent studies are offering new insight into how our favorite tunes are linked to memories and our personalities — and how those connections can make lives better.Hearing a favorite, familiar or “throwback” song can instantly transport you to another moment of your life, bringing back details in startling clarity. And it’s not just a fanciful feeling — there’s science behind how our minds connect music with memory.There has long been a beneficial association between music and patients with Alzheimer’s or dementia.
Repeatedly listening to music that is personally meaningful has been found to improve the brain’s adaptability in patients with early Alzheimer’s disease or mild cognitive impairment.
Listening to music with a special meaning stimulated neural pathways in the brain that helped them maintain higher levels of functioning, according to Michael Thaut, who was senior author of a study conducted by researchers at the University of Toronto. It was published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease in November.These songs held unique significance, like music the people danced to at their wedding, and led to increased memory performance on tests. The findings could support the inclusion of music-based therapy in the treatment of cognitively impaired patients in the future.Changes were most notable in the prefrontal cortex, known as the control center of the brain, where decision-making, social behavior moderation, personality expression and the planning of complex mental behavior occurs.
When the patients heard music that was personal to them, it powered up a musical neural network connecting different regions of the brain, based on MRIs taken of the patients before and after listening to the music. This differed from when they heard new, unfamiliar music, which only triggered a specific part of the brain tuned into listening.There were only 14 participants in the study, including six musicians, and they listened to specially curated playlists for an hour a day over three weeks. But these participants are the same ones from an earlier study that identified the neural mechanisms for preserving music-related memories in those experiencing early cognitive decline.
“Whether you’re a lifelong musician or have never even played an instrument, music is an access key to your memory, your pre-frontal cortex,” said Thaut, who is the director of University of Toronto’s Music and Health Science Research Collaboratory and a professor at the Faculty of Music and Temerty Faculty of Medicine, in a statement. He also holds the Tier One Canada Research Chair in Music, Neuroscience and Health. “It’s simple — keep listening to the music that you’ve loved all your life. Your all-time favourite songs, those pieces that are especially meaningful to you — make that your brain gym.
“The research is a promising beginning that could lead to music therapy applications with a broader purpose.
It also highlights another connection: music and our personalities.
Music is related to our desire to communicate, tell stories and share values with one another, and it has deep roots in early human cultures. So perhaps it’s no surprise that as humans, we’ve forged connections and bonds with certain genres or musical styles as a way to express ourselves and broadcast our personalities.A recent study spanning six continents with more than 350,000 participants showed that personality types are linked with certain musical preferences.
During the study, people from more than 50 countries self-reported their enjoyment of 23different music genres while also completing a personality questionnaire. A second assessment also had the participants listen to brief clips of music from 16 different genres and subgenres of Western music and rank them. The study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in February.
The music fell under five main style categories. “Mellow” is associated with soft rock, R&B and adult contemporary music, including romantic lyrics and slow beats, while “intense” is louder, more aggressive music like punk, classic rock, heavy metal and power pop. The other categories included “contemporary” (upbeat electronica, rap, Latin and Euro-pop), “sophisticated” (classical, opera, jazz) and “unpretentious” (relaxing or country music genres).
The findings revealed direct links between extroverts and contemporary music, conscientiousness and unpretentious music, agreeableness and mellow or unpretentious music. Openness was connected with mellow, intense, sophisticated and contemporary music.
This means that songs like Ed Sheeran’s “Shivers” appeal to extroverts, while agreeable people would be happy listening to “What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye. Meanwhile, open people tend to enjoy Nina Simone or David Bowie’s classic “Space Oddity.” And all of these types of songs have appeal that cross national borders, according to the study.
“We were surprised at just how much these patterns between music and personality replicated across the globe,” said study author David Greenberg, honorary research associate at the University of Cambridge and a postdoctoral scholar at Bar-Ilan University, in a statement.
“People may be divided by geography, language and culture, but if an introvert in one part of the world likes the same music as introverts elsewhere, that suggests that music could be a very powerful bridge. Music helps people to understand one another and find common ground.”These were all positive associations, but they also found a negative connection between conscientiousness and intense music.
“We thought that neuroticism would have likely gone one of two ways, either preferring sad music to express their loneliness or preferring upbeat music to shift their mood. Actually, on average, they seem to prefer more intense musical styles, which perhaps reflects inner angst and frustration,” Greenberg said.
“That was surprising but people use music in different ways — some might use it for catharsis, others to change their mood. We’ll be looking into that in more detail.”The researchers acknowledge that musical taste isn’t set in stone and can change. But the study provides a foundation for understanding how music can cross other social divisions and bring people together, Greenberg said.
