Baldur

Happy Birthday to Pablo Pallante, Big Daddy V, Drew Bledsoe, Simon Pegg, Jim Kelly, Renee Fleming, Rip Rogers, Odds Bodkin, JoJo Starbuck. Teller, Tim Buckley, Gregory Hines, Paul Tsongas, Magic Sam, Fanne Foxe the Tidal Basin Bombshell!!!, Florence Henderson, Phyllis McGuire, Vic Morrow, Murray the K, Hugh Downs, Jimmy Hoffa, Woody Hayes, Thelma Ritter, Jack Benny, George Washington Gale Ferris Jr., Anna Howard Shaw, Margaret E. Knight, Frederick Douglass and Babur.

Normal

Enjoyed seeing the Baldur namesakes!
Happy Birthday AND wedding anniversary to my friend Tadeusz!

And to cure any Valentine's blues among listeners of Radio Baldur, try this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=hN8CKwdosjE

lilalee

Normal, this was great, and filled my soul with hope that we could all connect in some way. I was out running errands earlier, and found everyone I encounterd were friendly and also giving a Valentine wish, so came home happy, and this video was the cherry on top!! Thanks!

Dragon

Baldur, I really must thank you for pointing out the different spoons available in the Dragon line. I had no idea they had several varieties. I suspect I will need to order online as whenever I'm in my local Ikea (which is a 90min drive away for me) I always search their flatware dept and have never seen anything but the ones I already had. I wouldn't have thought to check online, so I'm in your debt, if ever your in the Red Deer area stop in for some tea and you can stir in your sugar or honey with a properly sized spoon!

BTW, had a good chuckle at the story about Prunella's teaspoons. That's always what we run out of first too!

autumn

normal, that just made my heart so happy! I love hugs

Lizzi

Baldur's stories are always so amusing. He is a natural storyteller...I suspect in ancient days, that would have been his profession - a highly valued form of entertainment.
Normal's hug video was most enjoyable. Thanks for posting that!
This is my favourite spot in the Forum.

Baldur

You're quite welcome Dragon
and thank you Lizzi.

Baldur

Happy Birthday to Gina Lynn, Leland D. Melvin, Chris Farley, Darrell Green, Mikey Craig, Hugo Savinovich, Jane Seymour, Melissa Manchester, Rusty Hamer, Roger Chaffee, Geoff Edwards, Claire Bloom, James Schlesinger, Harvey Korman, Allan Arbus, Cesar Romero, Harold Arlen!, John Barrymore, Louis Renault, Sir Ernest Shackleton, Elihu Root, Susan B. Anthony, Charles Lewis Tiffany, Cyrus McCormick, Floride Calhoun, King Louis XV of France and Ivan the Young.

Baldur

One of the people who is celebrating her birthday is Floride Calhoun, one time 'Second Lady' of the United States.
Baldur had never heard the term 'Second Lady' before, it refers logically to the wife of the Vice President.
Normally I would not have included her on this list, but she was a real charmer. This is part of what Wikipedia (Baldur LOVES Wikipedia) has to say about her:

She was born Floride Bonneau Colhoun to U.S. Senator John E. Colhoun and Floride Bonneau. She was a niece of Rebecca Colhoun Pickens, wife of Andrew Pickens. On January 8, 1811, she married John C. Calhoun, her first-cousin-once-removed (her father's first cousin). Soon after their marriage, her husband was elected to Congress, leaving his wife in charge of his plantation, "Fort Hill," in present-day Clemson, South Carolina. Within the next eighteen years, she gave birth to ten children, including five sons and five daughters, although three daughters died in infancy.

In 1817, she accompanied her husband to Washington upon his appointment as Secretary of War.
Eight years later, she became Second Lady of the United States, with her husband's election as Vice President, serving in that role from 1825 to 1832.

During her tenure as Second Lady, she became embroiled in a social scandal involving Margaret O'Neill Eaton, the wife of Secretary of War John Eaton, in what became known as the Petticoat affair. Calhoun had organized a coalition among the wives of Jackson cabinet members against Peggy Eaton, whom Calhoun discovered had committed adultery with Eaton while still married to her first husband John B. Timberlake. The affair allegedly drove Timberlake to suicide after he discovered the affair. The coalition resulted in the resignation of Jackson's Cabinet, except Secretary of State Martin Van Buren, who was a widower. The social ostracism of Mrs. Eaton by Mrs. Calhoun further damaged already-strained relations between Vice President Calhoun and President Andrew Jackson.

Baldur

Baldur laments how boring history lessons in school often are.
I certainly was never told anything about this by the nuns.

Login

I have no idea what level of history is taught in UK schools today. I only know that when I was in what Americans would call 'grade school, we were taught what amounted to little more than propaganda, although we didn't know it at the time. I am still furthering my own education in that subject.

lilalee

Baldur, nuns never taught the good stuff, and if they had, maybe I would have been a better student!! I, too love Wiki, and often it forces further interest in history. They teach very little of American history in the schools now. Here, it's every other year, and the off year is called civilazation study!! Oh well.

Dragon

I remember getting world history but I don't remember getting very much in the way of Canadian history except as it pertained to the World Wars. It's entirely possible that we did get taught the history of our nation but that I simply forgot it but I'm sure there wasn't much in high school. The CBC would often have little Canadian history vignettes on which would tell the story of notable people or events in 30 seconds. So I know about 30 seconds worth of info about Laura Secord (which before that I thought was simply a really good chocolate store) and women getting the vote and so on and so forth.

I've learned a great deal more by simply going to visit historic sites which my sweetie and I both quite enjoy.

Dragon

Well, I did indeed go on the Ikea website only to find that they don't sell those spoons online. No problem, I thought, I'll just see which stores they sell them in and see if I can make some arrangements. It turns out they are also not available in store either (at least not at any of the Canadian stores). Rrrrr. I sent off an e-mail to Ikea wondering why they bother posting them on the site at all. I wonder if I'll get a response.

Lizzi

In the matter of Canadian history, Dragon, it varies greatly by location, it seems. In Saskatchewan we spent the entire 5th grade focusing on Cdn history, and in 6th it was US History. It is difficult to separate them completely, as we are all living on the same continent, but I suspect that they manage to do so in the USA. Our American cousins believed my brother's story about spending our winters in igloos. (We lived only about 550 miles north of the border, a climate not so different from ND! Same latitude as Edmonton AB.)

Lizzi

History was not always taught by teachers who loved it. Those who did put a lot of human interest content into it and it lived. Some teachers went by the textbook, and all we got was wars, dictators, more wars etc. Tedious. I enjoy reading historic novels, well-researched, to fill in the gaps in a subject that put me to sleep!

Normal

Those igloo cousins are probably the same folks who think New Mexico is a foreign country. Having moved to Montreal from Foggy Bottom on the Potomac, with a climate akin to Bangkok, I had one or two shocks. Very funny to get on the bus to go downtown on the first nice Spring day. I had on skirt & pantyhose, long-sleeved light shirt and summer blazer. The natives were ALL wearing sundresses with little straps and bare shoulders!
We used to joke that Canada had 9 months of winter and 3 months of really rotten skating.

Dragon

hehehe Normal, I always say Alberta has 3 seasons, Winter, Mud and Road Construction.

The other day my fiance was driving home from work and a check engine light came on so he called through to OnStar. The OnStar operator checked it and started in a his speel of what was happening including telling him how it may be because it was very cold. My sweetie responded that it only -2 C that day (about 28F for our American friends). The operator very solemnly informed him "Sir -2 Celcius is VERY cold." To which my sweetie laughed and said "Compared to last week when it was -32 C this is warm."
The operator was from Georgia, so his perspective is a little different from ours.

Baldur

Years ago, when young and married I had the most dreadful Mother-in-Law who styled herself 'Chickie'.
It aggravated her to no end that her arrogant Son-in-Law absolutely refused to call her by that name.
It also irked her that I thought her self-proclaimed 'World's Best Irish Soda Bread' was pretty nasty.
Her bread was completely tasteless and seemed to suck every last drop of moisture out of my mouth when I tried it.
She insisted that Irish Soda Bread must never contain even a trace of sugar.

"Everyone who has had it has said it is the most authentic they've eaten!", she shouted in my face.
'But not a soul has ever said they like it!' I responded.
Anyway Chickie and her recipe are long gone.

My recipe does indeed contain sugar and people have often said they like it.

Very Improper Irish Soda Bread
3/4 cup raisins
2 Tablespoons whiskey
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
1 egg, beaten
1 cup buttermilk, or 1 tablespoon vinegar combined enough milk to make 1 cup
3 tablespoons butter, melted
Combine the raisins with the whiskey in a small bowl. Allow the mixture to sit until the whiskey is absorbed.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a cast iron skillet or a 9" round cake pan.
In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, sugar and caraway seeds.
Toss the raisins with the flour mixture until coated.
Make a well in the center and add the egg, buttermilk, and melted butter. Stir until all of the dry ingredients are absorbed. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for a few quick turns just to even out the dough. Try not to handle the dough more than absolutely necessary. Pat into a flat circle, and place into the prepared pan.
Cut a shallow cross into the top of the loaf, this is traditionally done to let any demons out as it bakes.
Bake the bread for 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are golden.
Turn out from the pan and cool the bread on a wire rack.
Serve spread with softened butter, defy Chickie and spread on the marmalade too.

Baldur

This recipe is good for any gathering. The lemon flavor combines very well with the coconut. It is also much easier to prepare than your company would guess.

Lemon-Coconut Squares

1+1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
3/4 cup cold butter
4 eggs
1+1/2 cups sugar
the grated rind of 3 lemons
the juice of 3 lemons
1 teaspoon baking powder
1+1/2 cups of flaked coconut
3 drops of yellow food coloring (optional)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F
Grease a 9" by 13" pan
1. In your food processor or mixer combine the flour, confectioner's sugar and butter.
2. Pulse until the mixture resembles crumbs. Scatter the mixture in the bottom of the prepared pan and pat it down gently.
Place the pan in the preheated oven and bake this for 15 minutes while preparing the next step.
3. In the same food processor or mixing bowl that you just used combine the eggs, sugar, lemon rind, lemon juice, baking powder, coconut and food coloring.
Pulse these together until well combined.
4. Pour this over the hot crust and return the pan to the oven.
Bake for an additional 25 minutes until it just begins to turn golden brown.
Cool completely on a wire rack before cutting into bars.