This a.m: My breakfast – because it is all I’ve got left in my kitchen cabinets:
😢
Tuna and Triskets. Bleh. But I am desperate, I am hungry, so I will wolf it all down.
🙏
Now I’v just got oatmeal and orange sauce. Am I eating alphabetically these days? No, phonetically! And I am hungry! So I park my tastebuds in the discarded Bumblee can and eat. I grew up poor in Green Island. I know what I have to do to survive.
God, help me. I would prefer to be eating the my Water Street’s Widoff Bakery bulkies, slathered with soft butter, and planning a fun day with my two dogs! But this is the new reality, how things roll these days … days of death, days of a global pandemic, with no cures in sight. … Yet. We humans – all over the globe – are thrown back hundreds and hundreds of years, and we are left with the remedies our Neandethal ancestors were left with during killer epidemics: STAY AWAY FROM ME, Freddo! GO DIE QUIETLY, ALONE, IN YOUR OWN CAVE, Rita! And the strong drink water! Eat! Pray to the clay gods and the cave paintings painted in bloodroot.
During these COVID-19 Days/Daze this atheist prays her Hail Mary’s, not because I’ve found Jesus, but because they remind me of my late mom, who prayed her Hail Mary’s three or four times a day – in our Lafayette Street kitchen, in the morning before we little kids were up for breakfast, before I headed out to my beloved Lamartine Street School. “Ma” prayed on one of our rickety wooden kitchen chairs that she had pulled out from the green wooden (so ugly) kitchen table and placed in the middle of our kitchen where she faces the open window, and sunlight, and a picture of Jesus, hammered into the kitchen wall, a few inches above our icebox. She kneels on the kitchen chair, blesses herself and hangs onto the back of the kitchen chair for balance. It is her mother’s beatup paintining of The Virgin Mary she is whispering to. An heirloom in our slummy tenement. My late mother, in all her strength and moral beauty … Rose’s mom, Cecelia, in downtown Worcester, circa 1961
… beams down her love and strength onto me these awful days of ventilators (not enough), old ladies sewing pretty, but useless, cloth face masks, youngish doctors dying in their hospitals as they save the HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS of moaning, begging, crying, sick patients – some of them waiting for help for 5 hours in their gurneys parked in the ER hallway – the docs leaving their little sons and daughters back home, waiting for them … orphans. Like me without Ma! But I was old when I lost her, and I enjoyed my childhood with her. Because of her.
Did I mention my mother was enchanting? So was my Polish immigrant grandmother, Bapy, … and my pretty aunties: WW II – on the roof of The Block, Bigelow Street
Today, before I go grocery shopping and pick up other necessities, I eat crap and miss EVERYBODY! Even a nemesis or two. Or three. Or four or five.😢 Today, I recite, whispering over my dogs and my cup of black coffee, …
🙏🙏🙏
… my Hail Mary’s. For my enemies!… Hatred. Such a waste of LOVE, the lifeforce!
I cannot WAIT TO GO OUT DOORS TODAY! Who, knew, as Michael Moore says during one of his Rumble Podcast, that we humans are hardwired to be around our fellow humans! That we CRAVE PHYSICAL CONNECTION, the surging, dirty-faced masses! That we want to rub shoulders against ALL PEOPLE, the beautiful COVID 19 asymptomatic and beautiful symptomatic COVID 19 hoi polloi! So good to see you, my Woo friends! I know – cuz it happens every time – that as I take my large McDonalds coffee and quibble over napkins with the takeout girl in the window – my heart will swell with JOY! I am JUST SO FREAKIN’ HAPPY TO SEE HER! And those golden arches! And that prosaic stretch of Greenwood Street! And that gas station with my pal at the cash register! And the sky above! And maybe a seagull or two diving outa the clouds to pick up a stray Wendy’s french frie! Hooray!!! … Last week I saw a woman standing in the Burlington parking lot feeding scores of swooping seagulls hunks of bread from a big plastic garbage bag. She was smiling! HAPPY TO BE OUTDOORS TOO! TO SEE PEOPLE AND SEAGULLS IN ALL THEIR BIG BELLIED BEAUTY. Amen.
Today, as I get my $1 special McDs coffee, I will be so slaphappy ecstatic!!! HELLO, WORCESTER! HELLO, BEAUTUFUL ROUTE 20 STRIP MALL! I ADORE YOU! Every brick that needs repointing! Every door that needs sanitizing! … On to CVS … Every pothole that sends me and Jett and Lilac flying in my jalopy! I love you, too! My car is such a piece of crap!!! GOD LOVE IT!
Yesterday I was cruising Youtube, picking out songs for this post. I wanted the tunes to reflect these COVID 19 days: societal collapse, pain, anxiety, darkness, death. So I looked for the dark, devil lovin’ Stones …
… another tune:
… But I ended up being attracted to:
…and then finally choosing this song to encapsulate my feelings these days. Choosing Armstrong, our earth, our animals, love OVER DEATH. AS WE ALL DO! Because we are human. Because, despite these temporary hard times, we human beings and our planet earth will endure. We are BRILLIANT. ♥️:
Welcome to COVID-19 lock-down. We have been experiencing this since March 13. The opportunity to walk away from duty is huge … we were running to accomplish the unnecessary … overindulging on items at Burlington because the prices were so good … buying bigger vehicles because gasoline was still reasonable. And then the Coronavirus comes around and sends the world into a screeching halt.
The good part is all countries are in the same camp, so no one must sweat this one out alone – we hope.
Being stuck at my mom’s home here in France has its advantages, and with a now 5-year-old little girl who thinks it is OK to watch television all day with the lack of school … So the Internet has turned into a learning tool for me. Our French school sends us lesson plans and a web page to follow and print outs assignments for Gigi to work on. I had to change the media format because tablets can be changed to cartoons when parents are not looking; and since I never had a tablet she has the one up!
So, I have reverted to old fashioned 1960’s early ’70’s style afternoons. The word I am using is “chores!” … so steps need sweeping, chair legs need wiping down and, since we cannot run off to the store, we have to make things.
What better way to make school like it was before? – Home Economics!!!
Gigi’s too young to iron or sew, but the concept of baking and mixing is a natural for kids who are not in a sand box.
So “High Tea” that was created for that afternoon snack before the dinner was the theme for snacks. Today we made cucumber sandwiches with butter, but yesterday’s scones with heavy clotted cream and home made strawberry jam were a hit … A scone
… and instead of “tea,” Miss Gigi indulges on hot cocoa.
This scone recipe is either gluten free or regular gluten – it is an easy recipe as it uses self-rising flour. If you just have regular flour, no big deal: just use a packet of yeast, mix with some sugar, warm water and a couple tablespoons of flour. It takes 10 minutes to set up and add it to the recipe. Soy flour works great and keeps them light!
Enjoy this snack! Take the 10 minutes to sit and enjoy these with anyone from a child to a partner to a neighbor – if you can still do that. Sconen go a long way and cost less than $3 a batch.
Quickie Scone Recipe♥️:
Made with gluten-free, self-rising flour. If you can’t get it, use gluten free flour and one packet yeast.
Add a tbsp sugar and some warm – not hot – water. Mix together. When it bubbles, add the flour.
Basic scone recipie:
2 cups self rising flour
1 stick soft butter
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
I two lemon juice
an egg and 1/4 cup warm milk and 1 tbsp baking powder
Mix all the dry ingredients.
Then swish the butter with you fingers.
Add the milk and other wet ingredients.
Flour your surface and add flour as needed to make a soft dough.
Roll into rolls and cut circles …
😊
… brush with another egg.
♥️
Bake at 350F 10 to 15 mins. If you add raisins to your dough, boil them first to make them plump.
Kids love to cook. Now may be a good time to teach them the basics …
I love what documentary filmmaker Michael Moore is doing during these uncertain, scary times. The American collapse, a new America being born … Moore is helping me understand it all, wrap my head around the madness …
Often, when Moore’s on cable TV news shows, he’s the young, sexy, smug news caster-hosts’s punch line. They smirk when they interview him because, unlike them, Moore is fat, frumpy, old, insecure and self-effacing – the nerdy kid at your junior high cafeteria lunch table looking for cool validation. Can I sit at your table, Mark? Great i phone, Tammy! Moore’s RUMBLE podcasts blow that bumbling persona outa the water!! You see the real Michael Moore♥️🗽🇺🇸!: Our brilliant and beautiful American Essayist/Artist. Audio only. Truth only. Moore’s TV “costume” – his goofy baseball caps and black sweatshirts and blue jeans gone, along with his blubbery mountain shaped physique. Just his wonderful words. Just his great reporting, interviews, opinions – always real, tough, well-spoken and compassionate. His age and body have been the impediment – what has been keeping him from getting his own cable news show! Reaching millions more … Shame on MSNBC!
🇺🇸People, LISTEN TO his Rumble podcasts, little works of art … little audio jewels that bring us his gorgeous word pictures, his soothing easy-listening voice, his deep knowledge and love of America – all 50 states, his comedy, his no bs advocacy for the average American. US.
Two days ago, in my opinion, Moore put out his masterwork (posted below): the story an artist holed up in his apartment building in NewYork City (for 20+ days), aware of the collapse of America as we know it, aware of death lapping at his door, all our doors, PIS*SED AT OUR MADMAN PRESIDENT – TRUMP AND EVEYTHING TRUMP HAS WROUGHT – bummed and questioning … …. yet LOVE WINS. THE human spirit in NYC – ground zero for the COVID 19 pandemic – soaring, singing, clanging, cussing WINS! AND THEN MOORE WINS! WE WIN!
FU*K YOU, COVID 19!
FU*K YOU, COVID 19!
I don’t want to give away too much. Listen:
🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷
IN FRANCE … Chef Joey … An American acts like an American
FRENCH COVID-19 DIARY
BY CHEF JOEY
Chef Joey recipe coming tomorrow …
Did you every think that one day you would be afraid for your own life on a daily basis? Just for going outside? It is surreal. We are all aware of car accidents, so we wear seatbelts … balconies, so we install railings … cold, so we wear jackets and hats … the list goes on and on. I recently came to France to bring my mother back to her home here. My Miss Gigi was enrolled in school and it was great. Daughter Gigi and I headed back to Massachusetts, and we stayed a few weeks … and I was headed back to France knowing about CORONAVirus and COVID-19.
Being a product of the 20’th century, I have seen many changes: from the first man on the moon to out current cell phone watches. We have seen Sars, Ebola, Equine encephalitis, Lyme disease and even as recently as Zika, which was rampant during the Olympics in Brazil. I personally was getting bitten when I was in Martinique a few years ago.
Well, we arrive in France on a Monday. Gigi went back to school on a Tuesday. Wednesday there was no school. Thursday rolls around, and mid-day Italy is in crisis and it’s “Heading our way.” The French president announces the closure of schools starting Monday the 16th. Incidentally, it is Gigi’s birthday – so now I will remember forever! Friday the 13th, ironically, is the last day of school. Posters go up in public parks and supermarkets became mayhem.
So this particular Friday, I walk Gigi to school, come home and get my mother. I said: “Let’s get what we need for a couple of weeks, provisions, as they just announced. Let’s be safe.”
We get to the first market she likes, and we cannot even pull in. We have handicapped cards for parking – all 8 spaces are filled. People are double parked, and there was no way my mother could wait in line to go in. So we left after being stuck in the parking lot for 10 minutes.
We head into the hills of Grasse, perfume country. Being springtime in France, there are flowers and trees budding, and it’s just a beautiful drive. I stop for gas, might as well fill, just up in case. We get to the market. IT IS MOBBED.
I have never seen this store so full of shoppers! We are in, my mother has her carriage, and so do I. We navigated around the store, which is a “Hyper Market” – they sell TV’s appliances plants, almost like a BJ’s, without having to buy bulk. The employees were stocking as fast as the aisles were being emptied. Ironically, pasta, rice and flour were the big-ticket items. We had bathroom paper a plenty on shelves. Things were on sale. My mom even picked up a new twin memory foam mattress for her bed! They come shrink-wrapped and squished like a sleeping bag and, when you cut the plastic wrap, it pops into full shape – 10 hors later it is good to go!
We stop for lunch at one of my mother’s favorite places and head home to unpack the heavily loaded car. Two refrigerators full of food and frozen items and lots of dried legumes, I feel confident that this was the last run. I pick Gigi up at school, talk briefly with the teachers, get the information for on-line class to commence Monday and we walk home.
Saturday, we do usual things. Sunday we went for a walk in a mountain top park for fresh air, only to be told that we were not supposed to be out. I was referred to a website.
Monday morning comes and so does my email from the school with a small video made by her teacher, and a few papers to print out and a list of “TO DO” letters, numbers and shapes. I start to clean. Tuesday is the same, except Tuesday is music day so I download the songs and play them. Gigi knows them all by heart! Even the Italian ones, what a great day! I keep cleaning.
Wednesday there is no school, but we do the letters, shapes and numbers, and then I clean some more.
Thursday, lessons come in, her home schoolteacher is frustrated because it’s math, easy math one plus one, two plus one etc.…. the teacher hands her a calculator and I continues to clean. The whole downstairs has been cleaned, furniture moved, rugs turned and shampooed, walls baseboards and floors cleaned, windows scrubbed, and the smell of cleaner wafts through the rooms. Success. Now the upstairs needs to be done – we will hit that tomorrow.
Thursday night gives us a nice television broadcast by the French president Emmanuel Macron who announces even more “Lockdown.” Schools and non-essential businesses were already closed, but now EVERYTHING is closed: hairdressers, banks (they have been automated for years without tellers so no big deal), garages, lawyers offices, insurance companies, even the government. So when you call an office the phone rings on someone’s cell – whoever is on call, takes the info and says “no worries everything is on hold.”
This is serious stuff. Now, if you leave the house, you have to download a form that is filled out with your civil information, name, address, birthdate, and a reason for leaving the domicile. There are 4 choices: Necessary food shopping, Visit and care for an elderly or handicapped person(s), Personal exercise and or walking a dog or Pharmacy/doctor visit. I don’t even remember Friday’s lesson plan; my head is spinning.
Our friends just over the border, in Italy, had already been on lockdown the week before. They are singing from the rooftops and balconies, and it’s making the news. Saturday the cleaning resumes, and Sunday I am out of cleaning solution and fresh veggies, so I download the form, fill it out and take Gigi and head out. One of my ticket items was planting soil to make a deck garden for a project. We pull out of the driveway, drive a ¼ mile, we round the corner and get stopped by a roadblock. It could have been anywhere like the Gaza Strip, World War II roads, Check-point Charlie; I panic. I actually panic and fumble looking for my “form”! The officer looks at me and Gigi in her car seat. He has me hold the form up, notes my departure time and the date on the form and records my plane number with a scan.Off I go.
Mind you, there are cameras everywhere, and the French Riviera started installing facial recognition cameras everywhere. I feel safe and go to the store. First stop, Carrefour, a lonely store that was short-staffed and did not have the plant soil I needed. Picked up a few items, mostly wine on sale, and continue down the street to Lidl Market – German owned, also part of Adli and Trader Joe’s owner! – no dirt, but a great bakery so we loaded up on croissants and pain au chocolates.
We head to LeClerc, not my favorite, only accessible by car and there was no one there SCORE! Open for biz!
The parking garage was empty, we sanitized a cart and headed up to the store. A small line had formed. It looked longer because each carriage was two meters apart. We walk in, and there is the 20-pound bag of dirt I wanted. We go in and shop for an hour. We get snacks, butter, eggs, flour and go through the cashiers stand, load out grocery bags that we brought, French law for 20 years, head to the car and go home.
We unload our items outside and head into the house to get cloths to wipe down each item before bringing them inside (recommendations that are just hitting stateside). Birds had noticed various items on display, so we had to work quickly! Shopping is now a chore. I must go out again maybe tomorrow and am not looking forward to it.
Things here in Europe are restricted. Nothing is open. Schools are closed and will be for a month. No one can go to work, except large food markets, pharmacies and hospitals. No construction, no stores. When we went to the market last week we passed a garden center with a whole parking lot full of dead plants that were eagerly waiting for people to buy and plant them, trees that were already a couple of years old wilting in their pots from lack of water. This is only one of many stores. There is no real “Take Out” here except for delivery shops that do not accommodate eat-in customers. Everyone must be off the streets by 6 p.m. – police vehicles cruise the streets making announcements to stay home. My new love for cleaning is diminishing, we are doing more dishes than laundry … the food consumption needs to go down. So we are definitely choosing lighter fare at night.
So, having shared what happened here in France and has yet to happen: Stay Home!! Nothing is that important. Take time to relax: we have everything accessible by Internet to keep our minds busy. This is a great time to reconnect with your kitchens. I know many people have them because they came with the house! But soak a bag of garbanzo beans overnight to make hummus or to use in a soup: cut 2 carrot in slices and place in a pie plate with water, place in the sun and watch them take root and plant them in the spring. There are many things to do to reconnect and drop expenses down to near nothing. This is the time to “stretch that dollar”! Here is to all of you staying safe and healthy!
Worcester – On Whipple Street (off Blackstone River Road in Quinsig Village) …
So what’s the rule for City of Worcester SUBCONTACTORS and their construction work in our city?
🚛
What are the protocols?? Are these guys keeping neighborhood people safe?
👮♀️👮🚓
Last Friday Whipple Street, off Blackstone River Road in Quinsigamond Village, was overflowing with workers …
👮♀️👮♀️🚛
They are at it again this morning.
These guys have been working on the same patch of street for ONE YEAR.
🚛🚛🚛
DOGGING IT FOR $$$$.
Even during a global pandemic. Even when Canal District construction has slowed down. Even when they are BLATANTLY NON-ESSENTIAL.
All for $$$$$$$.
Pathetic.
– pics/text by Rose T.
🚒🚒🚒🚒🚒🚒🚒
THE CRUCIBLE OF LIFE …
By Rose T.
Rose’s Polish immigrant grandmother – Bapy – and Auntie. circa 1940
My Bapy (granny) from Poland (pictured here) saw the light. So did my pretty auntie, seated left. They toughed out the Great Depression and World War II – Bapy and my grandfather, in the family tenement on Bigelow Street in Green Island. Small, basic, but clean – a corner pictured here. My auntie had painted the kitchen for her parents and bought my Bapy a wringer washer now that she had a good head housekeeper job in Springfield. Working, along with my mom and her other sister, for the Bishop of Springfield!
The Block, that big brick tenement building, on the corner of Lafayette and Bigelow streets, housed many Eastern European immigrants – Worcester’s factory or mill workers who spoke little English – “DPs” – “Dumb Polacks” to the rest of the city. A million stories, a few of which my late mom told me: the perv in the adjacent tenement who watched my mom, a little girl, enter her apartment – the perv motioning to her through the lowered shade over his door to “come here.” The landlord who told my Bapy, when her family was almost late with rent, after paying it on time for years: I’ll just throw you out, Rosie! … The doctor who made house calls to Bapy and other Polish immigrants in the neighborhood. He was called “the Horse Doctor.”
All the indignities, insults and deprivation hurt, but they gave Bapy, my aunts, my Jaju and my mother a quiet strength. Determination. Dignity. Even grace. Look how straight my auntie sits in her chair! Look how cute Bapy looks in her neat dress and hair pulled back in a tight bun … she is gently leaning into her oldest daughter whose arm is draped over her shoulder – now a grownup helping to support the family during the War. They are a picture of dignity.
It was never about stuff or money. It was always about family, kids, love, God, hugs, dogs, cats, plants, closeness, prayers, sunlight … pierogi!
They had seen the light through all their darkness! Maybe now, during our own dark days, we Americans will see the light.
🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶:
************
Think your lockdown is unpleasant? Imagine how your dog feels every day
By Ingrid Newkirk
Sheltering in Place with Jett and Lilac … pics: Rose T.
Today, we visit a park
…
People all around the world are bemoaning having to stay mostly at home for some weeks because of COVID-19. After just a day or two — even with the internet, Netflix, books, music, games, FaceTime and endless other ways to entertain themselves and stay connected, not to mention walks in the park and trips to the store — many people reported feeling lonely, bored, restless, or even depressed or angry.
Perhaps this will help them empathize with their dogs.
Many people say they “love” their dogs — they may feed them, take them to the veterinarian and buy them expensive collars and toys — but they deprive them of their most basic and vital needs day after day, by leaving them in total isolation for nine or more hours at a time.
The only social interaction many of these “family members” have is when their owners come home from work, dump some food in their bowl, give them a quick pat on the head and a zip around the block—impatiently pulling them along when they try to sniff—before rushing out again for the rest of the evening, leaving them to spend even more hours lonely.
This is cruelty. Yes, just like puppy mills or dogfighting. And it’s even worse when people crate dogs like prisoners inside their own homes. Their minds and muscles atrophy, and they must either endure the discomfort of “holding it” or lie in their own waste. If a fire or other disaster strikes, they have no chance of escape—some dogs have burned or drowned to death in these canine cages.
With more people at home now, many dogs are relishing a reprieve from the mind-numbing tedium and soul-crushing loneliness of spending their days staring at the wall, waiting for their owners to come home. Yet, when the pandemic is over and people return to their routines, will they also go back to warehousing these living, thinking, feeling beings like old shoes?
And while some dogs may be getting more walks lately, many must still keep their guardians’ pace, not go at their own, and are fitted with choke or prong collars that strangle them or stab them in the neck if they pause to investigate anything interesting. Recently, while stuck in traffic, I saw a woman tugging a reluctant dog, all four feet dragging along the ground, across the street—her schedule was too tight, her life too important, for her to allow the dog a moment to sniff a lamp post.
Dogs’ noses are so sensitive that one whiff can tell them who passed by a spot earlier and what kind of health they were in. Stopping to sniff is just as important to dogs as checking the news or Facebook is to us. Depriving them of this basic pleasure is simply cruel.
Many people feel that the pandemic has taken over many aspects of their lives, but humans control every aspect of dogs’ lives, from what and how often they can eat to when and where they can relieve themselves. Imagine how that would feel. So many dogs never get a chance just to behave like dogs—to sniff, run, dig and bark.
While humans talk a blue streak, the minute dogs utter a peep, they get shushed. Not only is it rude never to let dogs get a word in edgewise, it’s also their right to use their voices, and if we don’t pay attention, we’re missing what they’re saying to us. As I write in my new book, Animalkind, dogs modify the pitch, timing and amplitude of their barks to convey different messages. They have separate growls for tussling over food and to warn of approaching strangers, for example. Many dogs have warned their guardians of fires, intruders or other dangers, saving their lives—all the more reason to let them speak and to listen when they do!
So let’s take this opportunity to spend time with our dogs, make their lives interesting and give them some freedom. Let’s throw away the crates, never lock them up again, and arrange for a trusted person to give them exercise and companionship when our normal workdays resume. Let’s let them set the pace on walks, choose which way to go and linger over interesting scents as long as they’d like.
No one should have to spend their life on lockdown simply because they walk on four legs instead of two.
I just spoke with Worcester Mayor Joe Petty. I told him good things in bad times – what I believe to be true: THE CITY OF WORCESTER IS DOING A GREAT JOB battling COVID-19.
For every rogue construction project on Whipple Street/Blackstone River Rd
…
State of Massachusetts has temporarily halted all construction projects – to come up with guidelines for working these jobs during the global pandemic.
… there IS THE WONDERFUL JOB BEING DONE BY OUR CITY LEADERS to ensure we are all safe, to preserve lives, to battle the scariest, deadliest public health crisis in our American lives – this generation’s Spanish Flu. The tidal wave is still far from shore …
But we are girded for it…
We have, thanks to Petty and our city leaders:
♥️FREE MEALS FOR ALL CITY KIDS – HOT AND HEALTHY – distributed DAILY by the City of Worcester. No vulnerable child goes hungry during this pandemic.
♥️State of the art preparation and housing – 4 new shelters opened just this past week – for our homeless. To SAFEGUARD THE LIVES of our city’s most vulnerable, often least healthy people. Meals are given out for free, beautiful big rooms with cots spaced 6 feet apart are set aside for them … at St. Johns church, North High, Ascension Church and more. Places where our brothers and sisters get medical care, food, quiet, safety, peace. …police presence. LOVE.
♥️All our hospitals and the city’s DCU center expanded to accommodate more ICU cases … hundreds of new beds added …
♥️Our WPSchools NURSES leading PPE drives – then personally delivering the thousands of hospital masks, gloves, gowns and more to our hospitals.
♥️ Daily press briefings by City Manager Ed Augustus and Mayor Petty during which time THEY TELL THE TRUTH – the whole truth to us citizens. They TELL US HOW THE CITY IS READYING FOR THE DELUGE, what the City has accomplished so far. What the next challenge is … Programs in place. Phone numbers we can call. Websites we can visit. All to learn more. Questions taken – and answered – by Petty, Augustus and City Top Doc Dr. Hirsh!
Our PUBLIC AND ELECTED OFFICIALS are WORKING SO HARD! Unlike Prez Trump, they LEAD and INSPIRE us! We need to listen to their advice, follow the city’s advisories …
♥️City park and playground monitoring … Do kids need to be up close and personal playing basketball? Can WE ALL USE OUR PUBLIC LAND JUST FOR WALKS THESE DAYS? – social distancing the whole time? Otherwise, they will be closed. WE MUST SLOW THE SPREAD OF THIS HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS coronavirus!
♥️Our local businesses in snooze mode…parades and city celebrations postponed. As is throughout 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
♥️ WPSchools TEACHERS still doing lessons, engaging with their students – via computer, smart phone and old fashioned telephone calls. NO COVID 19 SLIDE for our Worcester Public School students!
So, I told Mayor Petty, this a.m: GREAT WORK, Joe! We are ahead of the virus!
… And like the modest, real guy he always is, Mayor Joe Petty, sounded a bit … afraid: “I hope so,” he said … very quietly. Without the bullsh”*t, self-aggrandizing fake assuredness of whacky President Donald Trump. Just that muted little “I hope so.”
After my acknowledging ALL THE GREAT WORK!
Classic Joe.
Now I know we are all going to be ok.
🕊️🕊️🕊️🕊️🕊️🕊️
FOR COVID 19 INFO, GO TO CITY WEBSITE:
http://www.worcesterma.gov/coronavirus
🕊️🕊️🕊️🕊️🕊️🕊️
Rose’s relatives, during WW II. Atop Bigelow Street tenement building roof, Green Island♥️
Rose’s Uncle Al led his own jazz band back when America had swing!👗👠🎶
Lots of music/art🎶🎶 on my late dad’s side of our family. One of my uncles – my dad’s brother – went to Hollywood during Hollywood’s Golden Years to paint the background scenery you saw in movies. My other uncle had his banjo, which he loved to play! His brother, my Uncle Al, was a professinal – led his own jazz band that played all over Worcester (pictured here, Uncle Al is on left holding conductor’s baton). They were not like the greats – Dizzie, Parker, Billie – they played white Dorsey, Harry James band stuff, but it was still wonderful! All the bands had their own girl singer. My Uncle Al once sidled up to me at a family reunion, and said, with a sly wink: “We called them ‘chirps,’ Rosalie.” At the dances, attended by hundreds, held in the Johnny Hines ballroom in Worcester – in dance halls all across America in the 1930s and ’40s – everyone wore beautiful gowns and tuxes. And the couples danced close!! It will happen again, America (our closeness)! Be patient!! The full band
– Rose
🎶🎶🎶
☕☕☕☕☕☕☕
CHEF JOEY’S STAY-AT-HOME, FLATTEN-THE-CURVE, EASY-PEASY RECIPES♥️
Chef Joey is staying safe in 🇫🇷
From Chef Joey! A quickie recipe!
French Tuna Salad for lunch!
😊Rice – tuna – parsley – tomatoes and red onion with a Dijon vinaigrette!
Tasty and healthy!
Joey’s daughter, Gigi, helping to make dessert – oatmeal cookies. Recipe below …
😊Ingredients:
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 gloves garlic (garlic butter perfect for this)
5 tbsp oil
1 to 2 tbsp cider vinegar
Mix the dressing together, add your other ingredients and serve!
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OATMEAL COOKIES
So, trapped at home!! We need healthy snacks! Here is a quick recipe that’s healthy, quick and can be made in batches.
All you need is:
1 egg
1 stick soft butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar ( I skip this part – I don’t like sweet)
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups instant oats
3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Optional: add raisins or chocolate chips.
Directions:
Mix the egg, sugar and butter until fluffy.
Add everything else – mix with your CLEAN hands for best results.
Get a sheet of parchment or Saran wrap and form a tube. Roll it and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
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Remove and …
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… cut the slices you want to cook at 350* – 12 to 15 mins, depending on your oven. …
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When the cookies’ edges are brown, you are all set for soft cookies!
Enjoy!
☕☕☕☕☕☕☕☕
Today, Rose made herself a farmer’s breakfast to stay healthy during the COVID-19 PANDEMIC.
Remember: COVID-19 IS HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS, THERE IS NO VACCINE FOR IT … AND IT CAN BE DEADLY. Already Worcester hospitals are low on PPE … Waiting for the deluge … Please! Be responsible and compassionate! Practice: SOCIAL DISTANCING (6 feet between two people), HAND WASHING, STAYING AT HOME EXCEPT FOR WALKS, TRIPS TO DRUGSTORES, SUPERMARKETS … The credit unions/banks are closed – their ATM and drive-thru windows open. – R.T.
Sheltering in place with my white chocolate😢☕and cups of java. … Today: Rose and white chocolate chips stash
Pathetic. On the other hand, Chef Joey is in France wisely sheltering. …
Chef Joey and Gigi
Just in from Joey☀️: QUICKIE HEALTHY RECIPE …
GARLIC is a great anti-infammatory food, maybe even nature’s antibiotic!
♥️♥️GARLIC BUTTER♥️♥️
text and garlic pics: Chef Joey👏👏👏😊:
Chef Joey file photo:R.T.
We all use a lot of garlic. Here’s a quick tip!
😊Make a little batch of garlic paste, put it in a jar, keep it in the refrigerator. Every time you need garlic to make a salad dressing special or for cooking, you’re ready! You have your fresh chopped garlic! You can use this to make bruschetta, or use as a base of your pizzas or use to add extra flavor – or even to add just a little zip to your a.m. toast. It’s simple, delicious, inexpensive and healthy!
Garlic cloves …
♥️
… – with the pressure of your BIG knife, crush them …
… move your wide knife in a back-and-forth direction until the garlic is completely flattened, add butter, pinch of salt if desired, and put your garlic paste in a little jar – for the fridge. Don’t forget the topper!
P.S. I’m making cookies tomorrow with Gigi! Will send recipe♥️
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Another recipe just in from Joey:
So while you are making your chard pie, make soup with the stalks!
– just chop …
… add onion …
… and 4 cloves of garlic.
Sauté in a little oil until tender.
Add the Swiss chard, washed and chopped, to the mix and 2 large potatoes peeled and chopped … two, please!
Add 6 cups of water and cook until until tender. Blend with an Emerson blender and add 1 cup mild or better yet Greek style plain yogurt
♥️
We all know the benefits of fresh veggies and Swiss chard is no exception. It’s so good and, being in lockdown here, we need easy to access snacks – especially with myvhungry 5-year-old daughter.
This pie can be made vegetarian, or you can add meat, such as crumbled bacon or sautéed diced salt pork for extra protein.
Here is the quick list of ingredients – it takes about 50 minutes to make, start to finish.
What you need is:
1 bunch of Swiss chard, washed and chopped
♥️
1 leek, washed and chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
6 eggs
1 cup sour cream
2 ready-made pie crusts
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
In a pan add the leeks and the garlic, with a little oil, and sauté. Add the Swiss chard, lower the heat and cover …
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In a large bowl, mix the eggs, then add the sour cream (you can use plain yogurt or even cottage cheese).
Get a pie plate and lay the first crust down – mix the ingredients quickly so the egg does not cook at to the shell. Add the top crust.
beautiful!
Brush with a little of the egg mixture from the bowl, and bake 35 minutes or so.
Your pie will puff up nicely – you want the interior to be cooked. Remove and let cool 10 minutes before serving.
This pie …
😊
… goes well with a salad!
A nice salad goes great with your slice of quiche or sandwich – for lunch! photo submitted
🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻
😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢
There’s Nothing Funny About Those Viral Animal Videos!
By Melanie Johnson
Rose’s Cece. … Respect animals! pic: R.T.
In an age of instant gratification, is it too much to ask that we collectively stop for just a moment and think before acting? A recent video of a terrified javelina running through a Tucson, Arizona, neighborhood sparked an online onslaught of jokes and memes. But all this wild animal was doing was frantically searching for safety. Making light of his fear and desperation is an ugly — and unthinking — response.
From dolphins dying at the hands of selfie-takers to cats being scared out of their wits, exploiting animals for laughs has been a regrettable trend in recent years, driven by the public’s insatiable desire to post online content.
But using animals as props or reveling in their misery does nothing to further what we need now more than ever: kindness and respect. Sharing or “liking” a mean-spirited video only perpetuates the cycle of cruelty and incivility.
Would the same mob that killed the baby dolphin still decide to pass her around as a selfie prop if they knew that, as with all dolphins, her skin was so sensitive that it could actually feel sound waves in the water?
According to marine mammologist Denise Herzing, who for many years has been studying the cognitive and language abilities of wild spotted dolphins, these keenly intelligent animals can even “buzz and tickle each other at a distance.”
As if it weren’t unjust enough that wild animals are crammed into cages at the zoo and forced to live their entire lives subjected to the will of a zookeeper, another recent fad is for parents to tease tigers and bears by dangling their toddlers in front of them and videotaping their frustrated attempts to “attack” the child through the glass. What kind of parent would put their children at risk and taunt wild animals just to get “likes” on social media?
Then there’s the calf tajen away from his mother to be used in a petting zoo who desperately suckles on the “udder” of a child’s Halloween costume — that’s not amusing. It’s gut-wrenching. But let’s assume these people are simply thoughtless, not cruel. There’s still no reason to encourage this kind of callous behavior by passing along the link or giving it a thumbs-up.
Animals already live in a world fraught with danger. Deer live in fear of being blasted to death in the woods, fish are caught on a hook and hauled out of their aquatic home to suffocate, live chickens are scalded to death in defeathering tanks … the list goes on and on. The ways in which we hurt animals is endless, and it’s time for everyone to take an honest look into their own hearts.
Every decision we make can be either benevolent or harmful. Choosing to extend kindness doesn’t just benefit the recipient. In the words of inspirational author Dr. Orison Swett, “The man who practises unselfishness, who is genuinely interested in the welfare of others, who feels it a privilege to have the power to do a fellow creature a kindness … will be an elevating influence wherever he goes.”
🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰
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Warmer weather means VEGAN ICECREAM!♥️ … LOTS OF GREAT BRANDS AND FLAVORS AT TRADER JOES, Rt 9 Shrewsbury! No cows kept pent up – milk-making machines😢😢! – in factory farms!
🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷
FROM THE WORCESTER HISTORICAL MUSEUM😊😊😊😊
30 Elm St., Worcester
Bathing beauties at White City, 1950. Photo courtesy of Worcester Historical Museum
WORCESTER TRIVIA!😊😊😊
Let’s have some fun!😊😊😊
As many of you may remember, Worcester Historical Museum developed a Worcester version of the very popular game TRIVIA. Years later, Worcester Historical Museum’s TRIVIA game is as popular as ever!
Let’s have some FUN…Now you can play Worcester Trivia…from home on FACEBOOK …
We have 1,200 fun and fascinating questions and answers about Worcester, MA! …past and present…that the entire family can enjoy.
There will be WEEKLY winners!🎁💐💝
PLAY NOW! (directions are on our Facebook page) and please STAY SAFE! We can’t wait to see you again soon!!
Wow. Here we all are – in our own science fiction novel. Dystopian with classic characters and situations:
THE EVIL PRESIDENT/KING who misleads the people to stay in power and maintain his cult of personality. The rush to supply stores to buy THAT LAST TINY BOTTLE OF HAND SANITIZER! IT COULD SAVE LIVES! There is NO VACCINE! WE MUST ALL USE COMMON SENSE … but, at the end, it will mean ruthlessly fending for ourselves and our families. Scientests are working hard to make a vaccine, BUT THE KING PRESIDENT HIDES AND DENIES THE SCIENCE. He doesn’t make (for every man, woman and child) – and we🇺🇸 can – THE CORONAVIRUS TEST. He continues to spend Billions$$$ on THE SPACE FORCE. AND BOMBS. So … it is survival of the fittest. The young and healthy will survive …the old – our moms, dads, grandparents – may die as the puny number of VENTILATORS AND RESPIRATORS are given – by the doctors – to the peeps with the most potential: young worker bees …
THIS IS AMERICA TODAY – FOR THE NEXT HALF YEAR OR SO. Some experts predict TWO YEARS.
And our mad/king president Trump is NOT UP TO THE CRISIS. He is no FDR during WW II or JFK during the Cuban Missile Crisis. HE IS A FU* *ING MORON. We, his people, all know this. There is talk of a soft coup … FBI just quietly asking him to step aside, self-quarantine for a while. … Then we get Pence – the VEEP who calls his wife Mama and let scores of AIDS patients die when he ruled Indiana…
My sci fi novel outline … Needs a hero. Maybe MICHAEL MOORE AND HIS PODCAST RUMBLE♥️. MAYBE SOME GENIUS KID AT WPI who makes the vaccine next week …
Yesterday, I know I looked silly, but I decided to eat my lunch in the old Green Street parking lot. Deep in the parking lot, in my car, yards away from shored-up banks of dirt, big gaping holes in the land, big trucks and the far-off hum of construction equipment, too many tools and trucks to count or tease out the specific sounds … of jack hammers, cranes, forklifts, hoses. TOO MANY TOO COUNT!!! And all in that gawd-awful safety color yellow. A Kelley Square STUFFED WITH URBAN RENEWAL MAYHEM!
Lunch time! pics: R.T.
Green Street – construction city
The Picket Parking lot is on the edge (near downtown/the Green Street Bridge) of my old stamping grounds – Green Street/Kelley Square, the shopping district of my childhood where there was so much fun – and pain. I let it all wash over my old face: memories of an immigrant neighborhood filled with great/crazy people, food, small businesses, big dreams. No one was trying to be unique back then – no one humble bragged on Facebook about their recent jaunt to Disneyland (we were all too poor to go anywhwre!), but we all were so kick a*s!♥️ DIFFERENT, UNIQUE, WEIRD, and wounded …
So yesterday I ate, seriously, quietly, inside my car, my mutts in the back seat, deep inside the Pickett Municipal parking lot, my Broadway lunch. A big bagel cheese and veggie sandwich with fresh homefries made by Broadway sweet short order cook “Iggly,” who chats with me while he makes my lunch. He calls me “talented” in a matter of fact way while dropping my bagel in the wide-slatted toaster. I smile widely and feel like a million bucks. The Old Worcester!
The Pickett parking lot, soon to be defunct. Soon to be a Woo Sox stadium entrance cum pocket park. In a city that is slow to physically transform itself, a city where it COMFORTS me to drive by the my old, 100-year-old elementary school and the 100-year-old three deckers of my Green Island girlhood, SO MANY BIG CHANGES HAPPENING. … Me and my ilk about to fall over the edge.
Changes
😢
Looking at all the construction trucks and big holes and shored-up banks of dirt, I think: THAT IS WHAT THE POWERS THAT BE WANT TO HAPPEN. Us to go away, quietly fade away …
I look out my car window as I drive outa the lot, having eaten my excellent lunch, and see all the well off – and the very poor and homeless!! – in the Canal District. They walk by each other but don’t mix. Or maybe we mix but definitely do not match! … Nothing for us underclassers…All the new construction and still NO FULL SERVICE BANK BUILT for poor locals who don’t own cars…still no Price Chopper or real supermarket that is affordable…THAT ACCEPTS EBT CARDS/FOOD STAMPS.
Blatantly two-tier…the way city big wigs want it to be. They want us out. I shed two tears …
… many more …
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