The Fab Five

Harry, Mom, Mark, Mariel, Dad

This was our Thanksgiving family photo, the first since 2011. Harry lives 1.5 hours away; Mark lives in Austin, TX, and one never knows where Mariel will be on any given holiday or family event. For the past two Thanksgivings, she's been in Peru.

I love having my children with me, and watching their grown-up interactions. I made the traditional Thanksgiving feast, with a couple of changes (baked sweet potatoes and a butternut squash/red onion recipe Mark found in the NYTimes, minus mashed white potatoes, which seem to have fallen on hard times). The turkey was huge (19 lbs.) which meant I couldn't lift it. I bought it on an organic poultry farm in the area. I took the minimalist approach to cooking the turkey, brining it for 24 hours, brushing it with olive oil and sprinkling it with salt, pepper, sage and thyme. It was delicious. I won't bore you with the other yummy dishes and superlative desserts.

Eleven of us shared this meal, including my mother-, sister-, and brother in-laws. My friend Doug came from his place in the Poconos with friends Alex and Andrew who also joined us last year.

Tonight we'll have Thanksgiving redux, and since it's Hanukah, we'll have latkes. If I get the urge, I'll make sufgoniyot, donuts filled with jam.

Tom's Tech Travels

There are three reasons to read Thomas Pynchon's newest novel Bleeding Edge:  You think Pynchon's a genius and have read his entire oeuvre; You're a techie geek hanging out on the cutting edge and want to poke holes in his theories; You wish to torture yourself with headache-causing travels through a world you'd rather believe doesn't exist, plus you want to wipe out any self-esteem you have left because the book is so difficult to read.

Pynchon does parody extremely well. He takes you to a Loehman's women's changing room in the Bronx. He walks you through an IKEA store with its maze-like set-up that makes leaving seem like a pipe-dream. Speaking of opiates, the book wallows in illegal drugs and money-laundering. Conspiracy theories abound. His main character brings out a lot of Jewish commentary, provoking my husband to ask, "Is Pnychon Jewish?"

Over 500 pages of dark, dense and droll, which is usually right up my alley. I always learn some interesting arcana when I read Pynchon.Not this time.  

See Harry Run!

We drove to Letchworth State Park on Saturday, about 4 hours away. Marty, Mariel, mascot Buck and I cheered the Vassar Brewers, who did fairly well. It was sunny and warm, not so good for running but great for watching. As a surprise for Marty, our friends from Buffalo, Ken and Kathy, joined us and we had lunch afterwards in Geneseo.

 Harry is airborne

Harry placed third for his team and was happy with his run. He may have been happier that his parents and sister came to watch. The chocolate mini muffins didn't hurt either.

Happy family

I must give credit for the family photo taken by Kathy. She made us laugh. And finally, we have to include this shot of the unofficial (but very cute) Vassar mascot, Buck. We did see another bouvier named Atticus, but of course Buck is more beautiful.

Me and my shadow

 As you see, Buck is a member of the "brew crew." The founder of Vassar owned a brewery. What can I say?

Too Much Happiness

I'm not a short-story reader but when Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize for Literature, I was curious. My library had one book by her so I grabbed it, just in time apparently because a patron came in and asked the librarian if she had anything by the newsworthy Canadian writer.

Each of Munro's stories is set in a different time and place, most in Canada. But the important thing for Munro is her characters, who are quirky and damaged in some way. There's not much happiness in Too Much Happiness but that's not what I look for in a book. It would be a relief though to read a cheerful book, but I might have to look to romance novels or self-help books.

In the meantime, I'm slowing digesting Thomas Pynchon's new book, which is at times hilariously funny.