TobyWollin

I’ve been live-blogging the storm from my blog all weekend and I have to say that Irene has been behaving pretty much the way I thought it would go for us here in Upstate New York: lots of rain and wind starting last night once the eye of the storm got to the Delmarva Peninsula.

On how my father affected my food choices, cooking, and my relationship with eating. I think dads are largely ignored when it comes to the role that they have in terms of food. — And cheesecake.

Time was, when we thought our biggest garden menace were the groundhogs, though we have always found that if we ‘encouraged’ outdoor kitties in the area, the amount of détente that could be achieved in the tooth and claw area was enough to establish a certain balance in our garden.

Once Upon A Time, there was this organization in Los Angeles which wanted to promote kids’ growing organic gardens at their schools. Let us call this Organization A and it has people such as Rosario Dawson and Ed Begley Jr. working with it to promote this worthy cause. And because there is Organization A, there must, per force, be an Organization B, which is a company which produces fertilizers and compost products which are labeled as organic and which are described as “products you can trust.” A high level manager (and it would seem family member) of Organization B is on the Board of Directors of Organization A (you’re hearing the scary “Jaws” music too, right? Me, too.).

The sun is shining; the sky is blue, the snow is filthy and I think it might just be moving toward spring. Aunt Toby is in Upstate New York. Do I wait for the sun to do all of its work, melt the snow, warm up the ground and then maybe I can plant some cool weather stuff?

NO.

OK, everyone, take out your lab aprons and silicone gloves – today, it’s food chemistry city Arizona! (ok, you two in the back – either cut that out or you’re going down to the principal. Got it?

Find all those little bits and pieces of paper, the lists, etc. Throw those all in the recycling. And think of one thing, one simple thing, that you can do – heck, you can start it right NOW! And continue it.

Aunt Toby declares tonight to be ‘Cheese Night’!! Take yer pick: Mozzarella, Cheddar, Brick, Bleu. Completely and totally cheesy movies. Nostalgia so thick, you can spread it on bread and grill it.

I give you: Holiday Movies!!! (cue sfx of wild applause)

Rand Paul’s grasp of economic theory leans toward the fantastic these days.

Yep, in New York State, everyone’s so pissed, their eyes have turned yellow, but when you can’t even get your hometown newspaper’s endorsement, it’s time to pack up the shopping bags and go back to Buffalo. We may be mad, Carl, but we’re not insane.