We were all washing up after the Christmas Eve meal. (Have the ham on Christmas Eve, cook the turkey on Christmas Day and serve it with the leftover ham. Works every time.) Enough booze had flowed and enough Annie Lennox had been played that the atmosphere was convivial and the discussion loose. This year...
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Two planes fly across the night sky, their contrails form glistening parallel lines -like a pair of skis in wine dark snow. I stand in my yard below, breath billowing, watching them fly. It’s Christmas Eve. I’m taking some air after ten hours in the kitchen. As the planes fly past Orion’s Belt I...
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Let’s say you sneeze in China. If you are around polite Cantonese speakers, they will say “great fortunate occurrence.” The Catalans of Barcelona will say “Jesus” or “salut”. In Irish it’s “Dia linn” which means “God be with us.” Jerry Seinfeld says something else altogether. But the majority of post-sneeze expressions around the world...
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Having written a bit of a rant about the appalling culinary state of the modern Pagan tradition, I thought it best to focus on one of the incidental positives of becoming a more proficient home chef. Namely, you have a much better supply of impromptu magical ingredients. Take today, for instance. A few things...
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