Getting ready for Summer--Coz we're Cool like that

While New England doesnt stop giving us the cold shoulder, I continue to obsess over hot, hot summer afternoons with a book in my hand. Here are five treats I look forward to this summer!

Popsicles - My current fascination with homemade popsicles (that I just discovered) is a little scary, but they are so scrumptious. Combine your favorite fruit and yogurt in a blender, pour into a mold or paper cup, insert popsicle stick, freeze overnight and ta-da! If I do say so myself my weekly flavor, a blend of fresh mango and vanilla yogurt, is delicious!



Flavored Ice Cubes - Skip the umbrellas and replace them with these little gems as a great touch to any drink. Strawberry-lemon cubes are my favorite as they are a pretty as well as versatile. Want your fruit centered? Think thirds. Fill one third of the tray with water and freeze. Add fruit and freeze. Top off with water and freeze again. If you aren’t fussed on perfect cubes like me, just toss fruit in mold, add water and freeze.



Spiked Watermelon - Watermelon is not only tasty and refreshing, but super healthy for you. It contains Vitamin A, C, B6 and now your daily dose of vodka as well! After cutting a hole in the top, insert the vodka bottle upside down. Let the entire bottle seep into the melon and soak for half a day. Cut into the melon and enjoy responsibly!



Iced Coffee - Hot coffee and the smoldering summer is not a winning combination in my book. To avoid watery coffee from melting ice, try a combination of room temperature coffee, cold milk, sugar substitute (remember summertime means less clothing, yikes!) and coffee ice cubes. Flavored ice cubes don’t have to just be fruity! I prefer my coffee ice cubes without sugar and milk for an extra caffeine kick. Just pour cooled coffee into a mold and freeze. No need for water with these simply flavored cubes.



Fancy Water - Bring a bit of the spa home with fancy, flavored water. Lemon Mint Cucumber water is refreshing and healing. Try all three ingredients combined or on their own. Cut all ingredients into thin slices, toss in a pitcher.



Be cool guys...just be cool! :) Look forward to catching up on Monday!

Everyone worth knowing

My friend messaged me yesterday saying, I had to read Everyone Worth Knowing by Lauren Weisberger because it reminded her of our time together in New York City.

With an intriguing lead like that I couldn't wait to find out what this book is about and here's the excerpt:

Lauren Weisberger, whose bestselling debut The Devil Wears Prada outed the vicious antics of the magazine industry elite, is back at it with Everyone Worth Knowing, another cautionary tale of sex, power, and fame. This time around, the PR industry is her target, and Prada fans will recognize similar themes throughout this entertaining, if at times overly dramatic, exposé.



Bette Robinson is a twentysomething Emory graduate who shunned her parents' hippie ideals in favor of a high-paying yet excruciatingly boring job at a prestigious investment bank. One day, after a particularly condescending exchange with her boss (who sends her daily inspirational e-mails), Bette walks out on her job in a huff. After a few weeks of sleeping late, watching Dr. Phil and entertaining her dog Millington, Bette's uncle scores her a job at an up-and-coming public relations firm, where her entire job seems to revolve around staying out late partying and providing fodder for clandestine gossip columns. What follows is one episode after another of Bette climbing up the social ladder at the expense of her friends, family, and the one guy who actually seems worth pursuing.

I plan on reading this pronto and circling back with my thoughts and of course tackling my friend about how she sees ANY CORRELATION between Bette and me! Leave your comments if you guys have read this book. Can't wait to hear what you'll think.


Toodles!

Confederacy of Dunces--the next read for our group!

Lovely readers as you get your Dunce cap on, here's a smattering of quotes from the book that makes me wish I could've met the original Toole! (word play on calling a guy a Tool :):) get it?;))

"I am at this moment writing a lengthy indictment against our century. When my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional cheese dip."


"It smells terrible in here.' Well, what do you expect? The human body, when confined, produces certain odors which we tend to forget in this age of deodorants and other perversions. Actually, I find the atmosphere of this room rather comforting. Schiller needed the scent of apples rotting in his desk in order to write. I, too, have my needs. You may remember that Mark Twain preferred to lie supinely in bed while composing those rather dated and boring efforts which contemporary scholars try to prove meaningful. Veneration of Mark Twain is one of the roots of our current intellectual stalemate."

"...I doubt very seriously whether anyone will hire me.'

"When Fortuna spins you downward, go out to a movie and get more out of life."

"Canned food is a perversion,' Ignatius said. 'I suspect that it is ultimately very damaging to the soul."

"You could tell by the way he talked, though, that he had gone to school a long time. That was probably what was wrong with him."

"I suspect that I am the result of particularly weak conception on the part of my father. His sperm was probably emitted in a rather offhand manner."

"Had that poor Reilly kook really been proud of Levy Pants? He had always said that he was. That was one good sign of his insanity."

"… I avoid that bleak first hour of the working day during which my still sluggish senses and body make ever chore a penance. I find that in arriving later, the work which I do perform is of a much higher quality."

"you can always tell employees of the government by the total vacancy which occupies the space where most other people have faces."

"I refuse to "look up." Optimism nauseates me. It is perverse. Since man's fall, his proper position in the universe has been one of misery."

"Apparently I am pushing a jinx about the streets. I am certain that I can do better with some other wagon. A new cart, a new start. "

"Between notes, he had contemplated means of destroying Myrna Minkoff but had reached no satisfactory conclusion. His most promising scheme had involved getting a book on munitions from the library, constructing a bomb, and mailing it in plain paper to Myrna. Then he remembered that his library card had been revoked."

"with the breakdown of the medieval system, the gods of chaos, lunacy, and bad taste gained ascendancy."

"employers sense in me a denial of their values...they fear me. i suspect that they can see that i am forced to function in a century which i loathe."

"So we see that even when Fortuna spins us downward, the wheel sometimes halts for a moment and we find ourselves in a good, small cycle within a larger bad cycle. The universe, of course, is based upon the principle of the circle within the circle. At the moment, I am in an inner circle. Of course, smaller circles within this circle are also possible."

"Like a bitch in heat, I seem to attract a coterie of policemen and sanitation officials. "

"My mother is currently associating with some undesirables who are attempting to transform her into an athlete of sorts, deprave specimens of mankind who regularly bowl their way to oblivion."
"When my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional cheese dip."

"Once a person was asked to step into this brutal century, anything could happen"

"Mother went out again tonight, looking like a courtesan."

"Psycho? The woman's senile. We had to stop at about thirty gas stations on the way over here. Finally I got tired of getting out of the car and showing her which was the Men's and which was the Women's, so I let her pick them herself. I worked out a system. The law of averages. I laid money on her and she came out about fifty-fifty."

"Veneration of Mark Twain is one of the roots of our current intellectual stalemate."

"I want that Easter Ham. Where's my Thanksgiving Turkey?" Miss Trixie snarled"

"Leaving New Orleans also frightened me considerably. Outside of the city limits the heart of darkness, the true wasteland begins."

"This liberal doxy must be impaled on the member of a particularly large stallion!"

Little Known Facts about Literary Boston

Award winning journalist and regular contributor to OffbeatTravel, Karen Hamlin's insights on Boston by the Book...

For those who love literature, Boston abounds with famous authors. Many of these heroes, such as Emerson and Thoreau, are so close that you can hear their echo reverberate through modern times. Walk in their footsteps to see where they lived, wrote and finally rested.

Boston Public Library

Entering the Boston Public Library (known as the BPL) is like entering the temple of the literati, inspiring awe at the massive and stunning architecture of this antiquarian building. When walking up the grand staircase, it’s traditional to rub the tail of the colossal marble lion for good luck.

Established in 1852 with a donation of 50 books by the city of Paris, the BPL was the first public library in the United States. One hundred and fifty years has allowed it to accumulate millions of books, manuscripts, musical scores and valuable artwork including religious murals on the ceilings by John Singer Sargeant.

Boston Public Library holds more secrets than most commoners realize. In a dimly lit room, the rare book department posseses all but the Holy Grail and guards its treasures possessively and for good reason. BPL is the keeper of five inscribed Babylonian tablets known as Cuneiforms dating back to 2350 B.C. It's earliest bound book is a hand written lectionary titled Book of sermons: biblical writings and thoughts that was written in Latin from 925 A.D and published in France.

There are actually two newspapers that hold the honor of oldest newspaper in the collection: The Boston Newsletter(1704-1776) and Publick Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestick (1690). The latter was silenced after one edition. Since it is a public library, anyone with a library card can visit and see the works on display under glass. But, if you want to view a particular manuscript, say, a rare copy of Dante's Divine Comedy, you must make a written request and have a purpose for seeing it, such as research for a thesis. To hold or even view such manuscripts is a privilege that few people can claim.

A new addition to the library is Sebastian’s Novel Restaurant, overlooking the beautiful courtyard featuring the fountain of Bacchante, goddess of wine. Novel is quite novel because it offers fine, candlelight dining on white linen, bouquets of flowers and stacks of books at your table--in a library. Chef Martie Jaramillo enjoys changing the buffet menu daily and offers some standard dishes as well as her own creations. On select Saturdays, a sumptuous buffet including an entrée from the menu is offered from 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM. Novel also books a limited number of weddings, banquets and corporate functions. A Luncheon buffet is served from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and afternoon tea is served from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.


Mount Auburn Cemetery

Our last stop on this literary tour was many distinguished authors last stop as well. Known as the "first garden cemetery" in America (1831), Mount Auburn Cemetery provides visitors with a wealth of information including biographies of its more famous residents. Street maps are available to enable visitors to find their way through the loops and circles of this closed circuit cemetery. Tour guides and audio tours are available or just meander on your own and surprise yourself as you encounter such notables as Henry Wordsworth Longfellow, remembered for his narrative romantic poems including the “Song of Hiawatha” (1855) and “Tales of A Wayside Inn” (1863) which included “Paul Revere’s Ride”; Bernard Malamud, 1966 Pulitzer Prize winner for The Fixer; Oliver Wendall Holmes author of the poem “Old Ironsides” (1830) which protested against the demolition of the battleship Constitution and Julia Ward Howe, best known as author of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” (1861). This rural cemetery provides a quiet place for peace and reflection among a natural setting of ponds, gardens and trees, and gave birth to the movement for public parks such as the Boston Commons.

To continue the literary tour will take at least two days and several hours of walking. So, spend the night at a literary hotel such as the award winning, Charles Street Inn in Beacon Hill. Walking down Charles Street is a step back in time. Its cobblestone streets are softly lit by the glow of gas lamps and lined with fourteen exquisite antique shops, gift shops and wonderful restaurants and cafes. The unassuming façade of the inn belies its Victorian elegance. Nine rooms are named and decorated to pay homage to distinguished Boston residents including Louise May Alcott, Isabella Stewart Gardner, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edith Wharton, Julia Ward Howe, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Frederick Law Olmstead and John Singer Sargeant: its quite an acclaimed selection.

I had the honor of being ensconced in the Henry James room princely decorated in royal purple with a gilded mirror above the original marble fireplace. After a soak in the Ultra-Thermo Spa air jet whirlpool tub, I wrapped myself in a plush white terry robe, lit the fireplace and snuggled up with Henry James’ book The Bostonians. Drifting into a luxurious sleep, high off the floor in the vermilion and purple, hand-painted King canopy bed, I felt like a character of privilege.

These sites that I’ve described are not on the official Literary Trail of Boston. To continue on, join the tour which stops at more locations. Beginning at the Omni Parker Hotel founded in 1855, it is acclaimed as the longest continuous running hotel in American history and its signature creations, Parker House Rolls and the Boston Crème Pie. Its famed Saturday Club entertained regular patrons including philosopher and author Ralph Waldo Emerson, poet and Atlantic Monthly editor James Russell Lowell, novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, poets John Greenleaf Whittier and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and writer Oliver Wendell Holmes. Akin to our modern day think tank, this illustrious and boisterous group met monthly on Saturday afternoon to exchange intellectual ideas, debate, read aloud and in general drink and dine. Visitors such as Charles Dickens would drop by when in town and once gave a private performance of “A Christmas Carol” before its premiere onstage.

The Literary Trail of Boston can be a guided tour or a self-tour. Either way, it will cover twenty miles of scholarly domain traveling through Boston, Cambridge and Concord including seventeen points of erudite interest.

Need another night’s stay? Try the Harborside Inn just a few steps from Faneuil Hall. Fifty-four guest rooms featuring exposed original brick and granite walls exude the feel of the nineteenth century. Select a room on the eighth floor, then look over the atrium’s hall balcony down to the lobby for a real thrill. Off the lobby is Margo’s Bistro, a darling, intimate dining room. Ask for a Margo Root Beer Float or a Margo Martini made with real root beer from the barrels of the former Lenox Company of the 1940s.

After visiting the homes, inns and pubs where our most beloved authors lived, laughed and exchanged readings and witticisms, there remains an aura of intimacy. Now, reading their books feels like listening to an old friend.

Award winning journalist and regular contributor to OffbeatTravel, Karen Hamlin is a native New Englander who has just moved to the Sarasota area. She is the travel editor for City & Suburban Magazine and also published in the Springfield Union, The Sun, Travel World International, Experience Travel and Senior Travel. Among Karen’s professional interests are mature travel, cruises, beaches and cultural/historical destinations. Karen is a member of the North American Travel Journalists Association and the International Food and Travel Writers Association.

In Honor of the Writers we Critique

Given how we criticize the authors in our book club, thought we should spend some time thinking about the effort that goes into creating their stories...

The public is the only critic whose opinion is worth anything at all.


- Mark Twain


Rejection slips, or form letters, however tactfully phrased, are lacerations of the soul, if not quite inventions of the devil - but there is no way around them.

- Isaac Asimov



To write simply is as difficult as to be good.

- W. Somerset Maugham


The writer's way is rough and lonely and who would choose it while there are vacancies in more gracious professions, such as, say cleaning ferryboats?

- Dorothy Parker


Writing is the hardest way of earning a living with the possible exception of wrestling alligators.

- William Saroyan