CURIOSITIES

I have some curious books in my library. Well, a lot of them are curious. (Some people say that's because I am curious, or is that peculiar? I forget.) In any case, I think the strangest one is a small copy of Martin Luther's German New Testament written in shorthand. It is beyond me why anyone would publish a book in shorthand. Anyone who could read the shorthand could also read the actual German. Maybe somebody thought anything, even shorthand, would be easier to read than the Fraktur type used to print German books before 1941. Maybe it's just a German thing. Ve know how to read und write in shorthand, zo ve vill publish zis book in shorthand. People vill like it or else. I know my cousin routinely wrote notes to herself in shorthand, and her ancestry was 100% German. In any case, the book remains a mystery to me.

Not really curious, but special to me is a book titled simply Chicago by Studs Terkel. Studs is a fixture in the Chicago literary world. He took his nickname from the character Studs Lonigan in the books by James Farrel. He's probably best known for his oral histories like Division Street America, Hard Times, Working, and The Good War. Last year the ninety-five-year-old published his latest book, Touch and Go. I used to listen to his radio program where he interviewed anybody who was anybody and a lot of people who seemed to be nobody. And he always signed off, "Take it easy, but take it." One of my fond memories is of eating at Chicago's Berghoff Restaurant and seeing Studs a few tables away obviously enjoying himself. I finally met Studs when he spoke at a book fair in Miami in the late 80s. It was his first time in that city since WWII. I asked him to autograph my copy of Chicago. As soon as I told him I was from Chicago, he asked me where, I told him, just west of Wrigley Field, near Damen and Addison. Of course he knew exactly where that was. So I have this book inscribed, "To Father Wayne, Peace! Studs Terkel." Priceless.

One author I wish I could have met was Robert Benchley, noted humorist, theater critic, actor, and member of the Algonquin Round Table. I have a few of his books in reprints, but my prizes are three original editions. Well not quite original. Two of the books, Benchley or Else and Chips off the Old Benchley. are posthumous collections of his works. The only one that I own published during his lifetime is My Ten Years in a Quandry and How they Grew. Unfortunately it is a 1940 reprint and not the 1936 first edition, but the stories are just as good. Two of the books have Dewey Decimal System call numbers carefully written on their spines in white ink. On one of the books the librarian had to paint a patch of back across the spine so the white numbers could be placed on it. And inside on the full title page, a librarian has pedantically corrected the author's name by inserting his middle name "Charles." As far as I know, he never published using his middle name. Amusingly, his long-time friend and colleague Dorothy Parker always called him Mr. Benchley and he called her Mrs. Parker. Lest you think I swiped this book from the Harris County Public Library in Huston, I assure you that it is properly stamped "discard." I evidently bought it somewhere for 96 cents (marked down from $1.25). I don't know where I found it since I've never been in Huston. I do know the provenance of the other volume. It once belonged to the West Baden College Library which passed it on to the Bellarmine Library (which later changed its name to the Jesuit School of Theology) which moved into the same facility as the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago which then combined the libraries and later added McCormick Theological Seminary's library as well, and then kept all the books when the Jesuit School faculty moved to Berkeley. Well, there wasn't room for such ephemeral books such as the writings of Robert Benchley in the new combined library, so it was sold to me, probably for fifty cents. Their loss, my gain. The last article in this collection is "Why Does Nobody Collect Me?" in which Mr. Benchley bemoans the fact that no one collects his writings. He's had even found autographed presentation copies he had given out in second hand book stores. Oh, how I would like to come by one of those to add to my curiosities.

I have a number of crumbling books from the mid to late 19th century. Most are old hymnals, but I do have a set of the collected works of Charles Dickens printed in 1896. While the pages are in good shape, the covers are falling off. I have been hauling them around with me for the past 30 years. I can't bring myself to part with them even though they aren't in any condition to read. Hmm, I wonder if I could call my apartment, The Old Curiosity Shop in recognition of the Dickens set. Well, it's better than Bleak House.

For my final selection, a really old book. Actually, its only one page of a book. It is a hand written on vellum from an Italian Antiphonale made in 1423. It is a beautiful piece of Gregorian chant with two decorative capitals in red and blue ink. (That's it in the picture.) The central text is the Alleluia for the common of a confessor not a bishop. Alleluia, Beatus vir,Blessed is the man who fears the Lord. I bought it for $25, 38 years ago when I was a poor student. It must have taken all the money I had. I have since then purchased a page from another much nicer manuscript, but nothing gives me as much pleasure as my first find.

Well, that's all for today. I'm not sure how often I'll be able to update the blog until after Easter as my schedule gets pretty pressing this time of year.

May the Lord God bless you on your way and greet you on your arrival.

Wayne

IT'S CHIHULY

Hi folks!

Sorry I didn't get anything written this week. I have ideas for two blogs, but there hasn't been any time to write them out. Instead, I am posting some pictures this week. In 2001 the artist Dale Chihuly exhibited some of his amazing glass works at the Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago. My sister took me to see them. Many of them looked like alien plants sprung up in the green houses. I took pictures, and here are some of them.

May the Lord God bless you on your way and greet you on your arrival.

Wayne












(And yes, Curtis, these are my own pictures. The last one shows my sister at the conservatory.)

JULIA CHILD CHANGED MY LIFE

In seventh and eighth-grade we had Home Mechanics and Home Economics. Boys and girls (in separate classes of course) learned about plumbing, electrical work, woodworking and metal working, sewing, and cooking. I never finished the apron we were supposed to make in sewing, but I always finished cooking everything we were supposed to cook. Unfortunately, after cooking whatever, we had to eat it. Believe me, I NEVER ate creamed chipped beef on toast again.

Fortunately, it was soon after this–1963–that Julia Child appeared on television as the French Chef. Several friends and I watched this extraordinary lady whipping egg whites, lining pans with the skins of eggplants, and occasionally pounding things with a mallet while shouting, "Whammy!" Now that was my kind of cooking. I have to thank Julia of blessed memory from saving me from being one of those hopeless bachelors who lives on frozen dinners and Chinese takeaway.

I am thumbing through the cookbook she wrote based on her first shows, noting how many of her recipes I still use. Harricotts Verts au Maitre d'Hotel. Actually that's only green beans with butter and parsley, but it sounds much more impressive in French. Canard a l'Orange, duck with orange sauce–my Thanksgiving meal. Ratatouille,no there are no rats in it; only eggplant, zucchini, onion, tomatoes, peppers and herbs. The famous Buche de Noel, Yule Log Cake. Daube de Boeuf a la Provencale, beef casserole, which I once had explode in the oven. (Well it does have 1 1/2 cups vermouth and a quarter cup gin in it.) Soupe a l'Oignon, but of course. Cotelettes a la Nivernaise, pork chop casserole, only I don't put any nasty artichokes in it. I am adverse to eating things with the word "choke" in their name. And finally the great show stopper of all Cherries Jubilee. (It's supposed to catch fire.)

Now I have come to experiment a bit with cooking, usually starting with some recipe and reworking and improving it. One of my successes was for turkey-bean soup. It got included in a cookbook, mind you. Also, over a number of years, I developed my own recipe for Christmas Stollen. I much prefer my stollen to any store-bought variety, even stuff from the famous Dinkel's bakery in Chicago. People used to ask me to bake them a loaf, but I stopped taking orders when I had to make nine loaves one Christmas. Recently, however, someone asked for the recipe even though they had never tried my version. So, in the interest of spreading holiday cheer the rest of the year (and because you can buy candied fruit at half-price right now), here is my recipe for stollen.

CHRISTMAS STOLLEN
Wayne Kofink's Version

Fruit mixture

1/2 cup currants
3/4 cup golden raisins
8 oz. mixed candied fruit and peel
2 tablespoons grated orange peel
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
1/3 cup dark rum, brandy, or Triple Sec
8 oz candied cherries

Dough

5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 packages active dry yeast
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamon seed*
1 1/4 cups milk
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 slightly beaten egg

Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons hot water
½ teaspoon butter

1. Combine together currants, raisins, mixed fruit, orange peel, lemon peel, and dark rum in a bowl. (Do not add the cherries.) Cover with plastic wrap and keep refrigerated for several days, stirring occasionally. Remove from refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature before you start making dough.

2. In a large mixing bowl combine 2 cups flour, yeast, cinnamon and cardamon seed.
*Whole cardamon is often sold still in the pods. Open the pods and remove the small seeds. Then grind the seeds.

3. Combine milk, salt, sugar, and butter in a small sauce pan and heat until warm (115 to 120 degrees) and the butter is melted. Add to flour mixture. Add egg to flour mixture.

4. Beat with an electric mixer at low speed for 1/2 minute, scraping sides of bowl constantly. Then beat at high speed for 3 minutes.

5. Add fruit mixture. (Not cherries.) Stir in remaining flour either by hand or with an electric mixer with a dough hook at a low speed.

6. Either turn out onto a floured surface and knead for 5 minutes or use an electric mixer with a dough hook. When the kneading is finished, the dough should be moderately soft, smooth and elastic. If using a mixer, the dough should "clean the bowl."

7. Shape the dough into a ball and place in a large, greased bowl. Turn the dough over once, then cover the bowl with a cloth, and let it rise in a warm place for 1 3/4 hours.

8. Punch down the dough, turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide into thirds. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes

9. Roll one-third of the dough into 9 X 12 rectangle. Place 1/3 of the cherries (about 15 of them) in a row the length of the dough about 3 inches from the long edge. You may have to stagger the row to fit all the cherries on. (Doing the cherries this way will allow you to have whole slices of cherries when you serve the stollen. If you add them during the kneading process, they will be broken to bits.) Without stretching the dough, fold one long edge over the cherries to within one inch of the opposite side. You should have a loaf about 5 inches wide and 12 inches long with the cherries hidden inside. Place on a greased baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough.

10. Cover the loaves and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour. Then bake at 375 degrees for 20 to 22 minutes. The loaves should be golden brown and have a hollow sound when tapped. Let them cool on wire racks.

11. Combine powdered sugar, butter, and hot water. Brush glaze over loaves with a pastry brush.

Loaves can be frozen for future use. Wrap them in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil and place in a freezer bag.

CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEARS: TRADITIONS AND SUPERSTITIONS

It's Friday, January 4. I am sure my neighbors are wondering why there is still a wreath on my door. If they could peak in, they'd see my Christmas tree is still standing, fully decorated. I am one of those persons who follows the tradition of twelve days of Christmas. The twelve days are not the twelve days BEFORE Christmas. Christmas doesn't even start until December 25. Of course by the Christian liturgical calendar, Christmas begins with first vespers of Christmas on December 24, any time after 3 p.m. I notice that the new Lutheran calendar concludes Christmas with the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6 and the days after are counted as being after Epiphany not days in the season of Epiphany. That makes sense to me, so my tree doesn't come down until January 6. I don't usually put it up until at least the first week in December, or more frequently the second week. There was a time when I followed the practice of waiting until Christmas eve, but that just proved too hectic. Besides, if you wait too long. All the good trees are gone and the tree places are already selling New Years fire works.

It came as something of a surprise to me then that there are a good many people who believe it is bad luck to have the tree up on New Years day. It's something about bringing the old year into the new year. I've also hear a weird explanation about the celebration of Christ's birth being completed in one year and no dragged into the next year, but that comes from somebody who doesn't understand the New Year in Christian calendar begins with the first Sunday in Advent, four Sundays before Christmas. January 1 as New Years is a civil Holiday. In my church's calendar it is the Festival of Jesus' Name.

It's not just the tree that keeps Christmas going for me until January 6. I am still drinking my very special Spirit de Noel tea which I never have the rest of the year, despite how wonderful it tastes. (Actually at $14 for a quarter pound plus shipping, I can't afford to drink it any other time.) I have just finished the last slice of Christmas stollen. I make my own. It's much better than any store bought stollen. Mine is moister and only has fruit in it, no nuts. It's flavored with cinnamon and cardamom. Actually there are two more stollen in the freezer for later in the year. I used to bake for other people (nine loaves one year), but it is just too time consuming. I usually bake on the morning of Christmas Eve while I'm listening to the Festival of Lessons and Carols from Kings College Cambridge.

When it's possible, (this year it wasn't) I like to take a more relaxed approach to work during the Christmas season. The month leading up to it is often exhausting. Fortunately, most people "front-load" Christmas celebrations. Everything is planned between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. Thus I have more time to myself. For years I had a custom of reading Dickens Christmas Carol in the days before Christmas. Some years back I changed to Masefield's Box of Delights, and watched the Alistair Sim version of Scrooge on DVD when I returned from church services. Only problem was that I would fall asleep and miss most of it. This year I started reading Midnight for Charlie Bone, one of the series by Jenny Nimmo. I bought a like-new copy on line. The book ends about Christmas time, so it fits. I just needed something easier to read for awhile.

For New Years eve I usually read Dorothy L. Sayers The Nine Tailorswhich, of course, starts on New Years Eve. Lately I have been watching a video based on the story. This year I'm ushering at the Civic Theatre for the performance of "I love you, You're Perfect, Now Change." I figure I don't have anything better to do that evening. I am slightly apprehensive about being out on New Years Eve. When I lived in Wisconsin I celebrated the occasions at someone's house. On the way home that night my car slid off the road and into a snow filled ditch. I spent the next morning having it towed out. So generally I spend the evening at home. This year I went out, sort of. I ushered at the Civic Theatre and stayed to watch "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change." I was home by 10:30 however.

My family had certain superstitions connected with this holiday. On my father's side there was the belief that the first food eaten in the new year must be pickled herring. That's something I always try to follow. Once I left a party because they ran out of herring before midnight and I didn't want to start by eating the wring food. On my mother's side there was a belief that you should never eat chicken on New Years Day. The idea is that a chicken scratches the ground, and if you eat chicken, you'll scratch for a living the whole year.

How much do I believe in superstitions and how much do I just carry on what has been a tradition? I don't know. I'm just very conscious of my roots.

By the way, the picture at the head is of my Grandma Kofink, taken at Midnight. January 1, 1969. It was grandma's last New Year and the last picture I ever took of her.

May your New Year be filled with delights. And may the Lord God bless you on your way and greet you on your arrival.

Wayne