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SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: “The garden center delivered flowers to my mother. And more: ‘We were worried you had no food, so we brought some.'”
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Published: Apr 30, 2020
Category:
Pandemic: Dispatches and Essentials
USING EVERY LITTLE THING… AGAIN AND AGAIN
I try to be generous with others. I’m tight about spending for myself. Like that little glass in the photo. I have a collection of those. I drink wine in them. The little crest on the side… regal, I think. (It’s not my family shield — my brother designed that: a boiled chicken.) These glasses once held candles. I bought them, one at a time, for $6 at Target.
When my daughter and I play cards at night, she likes a glass of white wine. These glasses did not thrill her — she saw them as a metaphor for my pathological cheapness. She asked: Have you nothing better?
In fact, I do. In 1982, or thereabouts, I went to a wine tasting. There was a glass in the swag: the “Impitoyable.” That’s French for “ruthless” — the shape of the glass reveals all of the wine’s qualities. I put it away… for 40 years. It was… too good to use. (In fact, it’s $40 on Amazon.) I dug it out. As you see, Helen prefers it.
On Twitter, I saw a question: “Did any of your parents’ or grandparents’ scrappy habits stick with you?” From the torrent of responses:
– I’m remembering how my dad opened all of our mail really, really carefully, then cut the used envelopes up to use as note paper
– I keep empty yogurt containers and wash them to store other things in, usually more yogurt containers.
– Reusing jars and plastic food containers to store leftovers. The first time I bought real Tupperware (glass, even!) felt like SUCH a luxury.
– Wrapping presents in newspaper
– My mom and her sister my godmother used the fronts of greeting cards as “postcards” and mailed them out with notes to family and friends.
– Mom used to drive to the bakery outlet because it was cheaper than the supermarket (we called it the “day old bread store”).
KORNOFFTHECOB.COM: A NEW INTERVIEW
Helen’s interview on kornoffthecob this week is with John Taylor Tucker, an influencer whose Tucker Zone: A 3D Sound Experience has 12 million views on YouTube. Helen writes: “His 3D audio experiences are not like anything you’ve ever heard — the sound travels from ear to ear and all the way around your head. In the interview, John explains why he believes no art form is more powerful than an experience and why no one should take all credit for something but instead share the resources with other creators.” Watch here.
LIKE ROCKY BALBOA SAID, “LIFE’S NOT ABOUT HOW HARD OF A HIT YOU CAN GIVE… IT’S ABOUT HOW MANY YOU CAN TAKE, AND STILL KEEP MOVING FORWARD.”
Michael Gross is one of the good guys. He’s fearless, he’s a great reporter, a stylish writer. I love to read and write about his books: 740 Park. Focus: The Secret, Sexy, Sometimes Sordid World of Fashion Photographers. Rogues’ Gallery: The Secret Story of the Lust, Lies, Greed, and Betrayals That Made the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The snootballs at the Met bit back. Stupid — as Norman Mailer wrote, “To humiliate a good writer is to give him an ax.” Michael kicked back harder. I told that story here. Enough history… here’s Michael:
Here’s something I never thought I’d say in the age of pandemic, isolation, amazon, death-rattle retail, and post-reading: I’m lucky I’m a writer. So I’m used to being home all the time, forcing myself to my desk, working alone, giving myself props because no one else will until I’m done, and even then, sometimes not so much.
I entered Covidia with a book contract and the reporting for that book 75% concluded. So I’m writing. Just like this. I have fifty pages of the book done. That’s one-ninth. A reason to be cheerful.
But other things have changed, and a few for the better. My routine, f’rinstance. My gym is closed, of course, so I have no more forty minute elliptical sessions. And my wife is an extraordinary cook. So, in a word, trouble.
I used Jet.com to buy a yoga mat (sorry Jeff, but loving the Washington Post), and started doing something I hadn’t done in decades: sit-ups and pushups. I could barely eke out ten and five respectively the first day, where once it was a hundred and twenty-five. Now I’m up to thirty and fifteen. And I’ve started climbing the steep fire stairs of my nice, tall apartment house. I did a cocky five stories at a run the first day. I took the next week off due to flaming thighs. Now, I walk, and it’s still hard, but after a month, I can do thirty stories with only two breaks for panting.
I give myself a reward when I reach the roof. If you live in the United Nations Plaza tower with that man’s name on it, perhaps you’ve seen me do it. I flip the bird at you with both hands held high, like Rocky at the Philadelphia Museum of Art—but really, at he who must be defeated. And then I skip down the stairs and go back to work, refreshed. Another reason to be cheerful. Like Rocky Balboa said, “Life’s not about how hard of a hit you can give… it’s about how many you can take, and still keep moving forward.”
TODAY’S HERO: CASTLE’S GARDEN CENTER
From Maureen Johnson, a YA Novelist
My mother just called me. She had ordered some flowers from a small local store, to be delivered and dropped on the porch. When they brought the flowers, they said, “Hang on, we have something for you.”
The driver went back to the truck and proceeded to bring out a bag of hot meals, and then MULTIPLE bags of groceries. My mom was speechless and asked why. They said, “When you called, you mentioned you had promised your daughter not to go out, so we were worried you had no food and brought some.”
My parents have plenty of food. I’ve set up weekly deliveries. But this small business wanted to make sure. And they refused — REFUSED –payment for it. So I would like to shout out this business to the rooftops…
If you have gardening needs in Lower Bucks County, PA, here you go. This is a small local business and they are AMAZING PEOPLE: They brought hot meals from one source and then went to the grocery store and bought food with their own money. They possibly spent more on the food than my mom did on the plants.
For information about Castle’s Garden Center, in Lower Southampton Township, click here.
CHRISTOPHER WALKEN READS “WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE”
MARK KNOPFLER & EMMYLOU HARRIS: OUR SHANGRI-LA
We may never love again
To the music of guitars
In our Shangri-la
Tonight your beauty burns
Into my memory
The wheel of heaven turns
Above us endlessly
This is all the heaven we’ve got
Right here where we are
ESSENTIALS AND DISPATCHES
Everything, all in one place.
UPDATE: EO Hand Soap is available again.
UPDATE: I spoke with a NYC lung specialist. He endorses Vitamin D, but warns you not to double/triple dose. In large doses, Vitamin D becomes toxic.
