In the 1970s Carl Wilt told me about using the dishwasher to prepare corn on the cob for eating and freezing. At that time Mother raised corn in the garden and we would freeze 26 packages of corn--enough for corn every other week for the remainder of the year.
When I have company for dinner, I don't like to have the kitchen sweltering and I try to plan meals during the summer without using the oven. One of my favorite meals for my birthday week includes corn on the cob. For one dinner I planned to have 16 ears of corn, but I didn't want to have the huge pot steaming on the stove. At that dinner, some of the guests were non-family--imagine the gasps when I opened the dishwasher to take out the corn!
Instructions for preparing corn in the dishwasher:
1. Remove husks and silk from ears of corn.
2. Place corn in dishwasher. Wash (without soap, of course!) on normal cycle and heated dry cycle.
3. Remove heated corn and if wanting to eat, it's ready to serve.
4. If preparing for freezer: remove heated corn from dishwasher and put in large pot filled with ice water to stop the cooking cycle.
5. Once corn is cooled, remove the corn and dry thoroughly.
6. I like to freeze both corn on the cob and corn removed from the cob. Package for freezer.
7. Place corn in freezer bags and place in freezer.
See the article for other non-traditional uses for the dishwasher.
Andy Griffith, dead at age 86. R.I.P., dear Andy.
Of course, I loved him as Andy of Mayberry and Matlock but my favorite character Andy Griffith played was Larry "Lonesome Rhodes" in the movie A Face in The Crowd.
I had seen Griffith on the Ed Sullivan and Steve Allen shows, where he performed stand-up comedy or skits. My brother Kenny had seen Griffith's skit What It Was Was Football in the earlier 1950s. Kenny loved that routine, bought the record and would perform the whole routine for us. I also saw Griffith in the teleplay No Time For Sergeants, which he later starred in on Broadway. He also starred on Broadway in the musical Destry Rides Again, which had been a famous movie starring James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich.
I have always said that if I hadn't seen Griffith in A Face In The Crowd, that I would probably never have watched The Andy Griffith Show, Matlock, and his specials. I wanted to see the movie because Patricia Neal was the star and I'd admired her since seeing The Fountainhead. Walter Matthau and Lee Remick also played in the movie.
In the film Griffith played Lonesome Rhodes, a slimy, con-man who was able to become a radio and television commentator with the help of the character Marcia, played by Patricia Neal. Neal played a producer who discovered Rhodes. She nicknamed him "Lonesome Rhodes" and because of his folksy charm he became an overnight star. Lonesome Rhodes eventually went to New York, became an advisor to a Senator wanting to be President. Lonesome Rhodes was brought down because of his lust and greed for money and power and his betrayal of all the people who had helped him in his rise to power. Patricia Neal's character left the microphone open and Lonesome Rhodes' vitriolic attack aimed at the "morons" who watched his show was revealed to all.
When the reprehensible Glenn Beck was still on the air, each time we would see his lies exposed on another network, either Les or I would say, "Lonesome Rhodes lives!"
CLICK HERE to see my favorite ad in the 2008 Presidential campaign which was done by Andy Griffith and Ron Howard.
Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain.
In conversation, a friend asked when I had been the most scared. I told about a time on the school bus when Johnny Hagler had his marbles in a cigar box and when the bus came to a stop the box rolled on the floor and the marbles began a RAT-A-TAT-TAT sound that sounded like what I imagined a machine gun would. Several people, including myself and the school bus driver, ducked for cover!
My brothers and I had marble bags with drawstrings made by Mother. Many kids envied these. Mine was denim, made from old Wranglers. Les just told me that his was made from parachute material. Our brother Neil was a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne and had brought home a bad parachute. Mother made a quilt and several marble bags from the material. We gave Johnny Hagler a marble bag the next day.
At a family reunion, one of Gerald's grand-nephews asked if anyone knew how to play marbles, because he had marbles. To my surprise, none of the men there said that they knew how to play. I said, "I know how to play." The grand nephew brought out his marbles.
I got a stick and drew a circle in the dirt.
I got down on my knees and started to show him how to play. Several kids came around and soon joined us.
My arthritic fingers and thumb do not work as well as when I was a kid, but I was able to shoot a pretty mean game! The kids asked me to write the "rules" for them. I'm sure my brothers will have some corrections, but the following is my recollection from the Dark Ages:
HOW TO PLAY MARBLES
1. Draw a circle at least 3 feet wide in the dirt. Make a mark in the middle of the ring.
2. Choose the first player by having each player stand behind the lag line and toss his marble into the ring; whichever player's marble lands the closest to the mark is the first player; the next closest, the second player, etc.
3. Select a marble to be a shooter. The shooter is usually larger and more distinctive than the other marbles.
4. All players place their marbles into the the ring (the "pot").
5. The first player shoots by kneeling on the ground and keeping his hand on the ground, flicking his shooter with his thumb from his curled index finger and aiming at a target marble in the ring. ("knuckling down")
6. If the player knocks any marbles out of the ring, he gathers them and has another turn. He continues shooting until he does not knock any more marbles out of the ring.
7. Players continue until all marbles are out of the ring.
The player with the most marbles, is, of course, the winner.
SOME MARBLE TERMS:
FAIRSIES: the rules of playing marbles
KEEPSIES: the player keeps all the marbles he wins
FRIENDLIES: the player returns all the marbles to the original owners
KIMMIES: (or "mibs") target marbles
SLIPPIE: when a marble slips accidentally out of a player's grip.
JUMPSIES: (also called "plunking" and "skipping") shooting in a manner that
makes the marble jump into the air and hit the target marble without
hitting the ground first.
STEELIES: marbles made of steel; very prized
BOMBIES: (or "dropsies") dropping the marble onto another marble
SNOOGER: marbles near the rim of the circle
POT: all of the marbles placed in the ring for competition
TAW LINE: (or "shooting line") line from which players shoot
LAG LINE: line from which players determine the playing order
SHOOTER: (also called "taw" and "boss") the marble used to knock other marbles
out of the ring.
DUBS: when two or more marbles are knocked out of the ring with one shot
FUDGING: moving hand forward while shooting
MIBSTER: a marble player
After the game of marbles, I asked the guys, "Any of you ever played mumblety-peg?" None had, but the boys wanted to play. I said, "You must ask your parents' permission as it's a dangerous game." One of the kids asked, "Is it more dangerous than football?"
I said, "It was Tom Sawyer's favorite game."
I yelled, "Gerald, I need your pocket-knife." Nobody else had a pocket-knife. One of the mothers said, "I can't believe your mother allowed you to play a game involving a knife!"
"Allowed?" I shouted, "ALLOWED? She's the one who taught us how to play!
See the attached: "HOW TO PLAY MUMBLETY-PEG"
CLICK HERE to read the rules.
At the Jewish Hospital in Cincinnati, I had a number of interesting encounters in the waiting room.
The waiting room volunteer said that there was coffee, tea and water available. I said, "Sweetheart, I think I'll have some tea." Luann, another person there waiting, jumped up and said, "I'll get it for you." Gerald said, "You have more than one sweetheart!" I thanked her for fetching the tea for me and we had a delightful conversation about the word "fetch".
I can get used to being served!. I did my best Blanche Dubois imitation, "I've always depended on the kindness of strangers."
Later, a woman named Pat and her daughters and nieces came in to the waiting room. Pat's daughter Tonya admired her cousin's hot-pink Coach purse. The cousin told Tonya she could get a very good deal for her and began making phone calls. Tonya began to fret that her husband would not like for her to spend that much money and I spoke up and said, "Just tell him that you're getting the Coach purse instead of a JUDITH LEIBER purse." None of that group had heard of Judith Leiber; I brought up Judith Leiber's designs on the internet. I said, "See, this sweet little minaudiere costs JUST $2,450.00. I said, "Even better, let's tell him that you're NOT getting a BIRKIN bag!" None of the gals had heard of Birkin either. Oh, I just had to show them a Birkin by Hermes. I said, "Shucks, the starting bid is just $69,000.00 compared to $114.00 for the Coach! Just tell him how lucky he is that you JUST want the Coach!"
However, I cannot behave myself for very long. The news about the Supreme Court decision about the Affordable Care Act was announced and several people were discussing it and one said, peevishly, "Well, there isn't anything we can do about it NOW!" I said, "THANK GOD!" It is always amusing to me when people are obviously NOT accustomed to being contradicted. The word HARRUMPHED is perfect for the reaction I received!
In the waiting room at the Jewish Hospital in Cincinnati, I remarked to the elderly volunteer in the waiting room that I had never seen BIG-BUTT CHAIRS like the ones in the cafeteria there. These are DOUBLE-WIDE chairs with one of the BIG BUTT chairs set at each of the dining area tables. The volunteer said, as she gestured toward the seats in the waiting room, "You can't believe the people who come in to the waiting room who cannot fit in these chairs; that's why we had to also put in these settees in the waiting room." [Yes, she used the term "settees". I would have said love seats. So, WHAT is the difference between a settee and a love seat? A love seat is designed to hold two people while a settee is designed for more than two!]
Gerald and I began discussing the WIDETTES from Saturday Night Live and decided to name the chairs THE WIDETTES in their honor. The volunteer had never heard of THE WIDETTES so I brought them up on the internet!
She said, "We're having entirely too much fun in the waiting room!" I said, "Yes, we definitely need decorum here!" as several more people came to join in the frivolity.
