Happy Valentine's Day!

If you're spent any time reading this blog, you'll know I and a cat guy. So, a cat Valentine only seemed appropriate! Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

As always I'm up for a little aircraft-related history. This one is simply a card from the 20's (I guess). Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Loved this card from the early days of electricity, happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Cultivating what, I wonder? Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Once this card probably raised eyebrows, now I just think of Granny from the Sylvester and Tweety cartoons. Happy Valentine's Day!

Thirsty Thursday - A Drink for Dear Old General Washington

Benjamin Franklin once said, "By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail". The sage was onto something, a bit of wisdom that applies equally to the boardroom and the barroom. If you really want to make a standout cocktail, the ingredients you use must be carefully considered, of the best quality, and painstakingly prepared. Today's Thirsty Thursday segment will give you a chance to prepare something your friends have probably never heard of and celebrate the birthday of one of Mr. Franklin's cohorts, General George Washington.

In September of 1784, after vanquishing the British and winning independence for the colonies, Washington and his nephew crossed the Allegheny Mountains in the process of planning and surveying the best route for a new road. In preparation Washington was said to have packed a canteen of Madeira, port, and Cherry Bounce for the trip. Preparing to succeed indeed!

Cherry Bounce is a spiced fruit cordial that requires a couple of weeks of preparation, so if you want to celebrate the first president's birthday in style get cracking! Here's the recipe (according to Epicurious):

10 - 11lbs fresh sour cherries or 1lb 9oz of preserved cherries (preferably Morello)

4C brandy

3C sugar (more if you want a sweeter cordial)

2 cinnamon sticks broken into pieces

2-3 whole cloves

1 (1/4in) piece of fresh, whole nutmeg

1. Pit  and half the cherries and put them in a large bowl. Using a potato masher to slightly crush the fruit, extracting as much juice as possible. Strain through a large, fine-mesh strainer, using a spoon to press the fruit and extract all the juice (you should end up with about 8 cups). Put the mashed cherries in the freezer or refrigerator for later use. If you're using preserved cherries, drain the fruit and set the juice aside before halving and mashing the cherries. Add any pressed juice to the reserved jarred juice. 
2. In a lidded 1-gallon glass jar, combine the juice with the brandy and sugar and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Put the lid on the jar and put it in the refrigerator for 24 hours (stir or shake occasionally). 
3. Bring 2 cups of the cherry juice to a simmer over medium heat. Here's where you'll guage the sweetness of your cordial. Give the juice a taste and add more sugar, if desired. Drop the cinnamon sticks, cloves, and nutmeg into the pot and stir. Cover and let simmer for about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, and set aside to cool to room temperature. Strain, and discard the spices. 
4. Return the spiced juice to the 1-gallon glass jar. Cover loosely with the lid, and let set in the fridge for at least 2 weeks, occasionally shaking the jar. 
5. Cherry Bounce should be served at room temperature in small cordial or wine glasses. Store the remainder in the refrigerator. 

Nice and sweet, but if you want to spike the celebration with a little irony, you can use your Cherry Bounce to make a cocktail known as a Communist:

2 parts Orange Juice

2 parts Gin

1 part Cherry Bounce

Juice of 1/2 Lemon

Combine all the above with ice in a cocktail shaker, give it a good rattling, and pour into a martini glass.

The history of this little lost gem? Hard to say, it appears in the 1933 Canapé Parade booklet Cocktail Parade. Canapé Parade published a series of recipe booklets during the early 1930's, giving the home cook ideas for everything from cheese boards to pate. The cocktail edition is a list of period drinks coupled with strange, delirium tremens inspired illustrations that make you wonder if you've somehow become inebriated just by touching the pages. It's an interesting peruse for anyone whose interested in period food and drink, definitely worth a look. 

Have Love Will Travel - The Sharps (1958)

Usually I only do music for the Yuletide season, but I figured I'd break this one out for all the young lovers out there. Here are the Sharps with Have Love Will Travel from 1958, happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day

Being a sci-fi writer, I couldn't resist this one!

The Funnies - Two Hearts That Beat as One (1910)

The Century Illustrated Magazine, September 1910

Quote for February

February days are a marketing gimmick; love happens every day.

- Randeep Hooda

Poem for February

White as an Indian Pipe

by Emily Dickinson

White as an Indian Pipe

Red as a Cardinal Flower

Fabulous as a Moon at Noon

February Hour --

Quote for March

What's good about March? Well for one thing it keeps February and April Apart.

- Walt Kelly

The Funnies - Claim to Fame (1927)

For those who are sick and tired of love - Life magazine, December 1927

Happy Birthday George Washington

What men do is oft exaggerated for questionable purposes. Comic from the February 1901 issue of Life magazine.

February Full Moon - Moon Winks (1908)

With February the time for lovers and, therefore, much winking I thought I'd select an appropriately flirty tune. Moon Winks is billed as a three-step, what those of us who have a passing familiarity with more modern dance terminology would call it a waltz.

As always when writing one of these little missives, I started combing the web for information on George Stevens. I came across a lot of Moon Winks sheet music covers and even came up with a good YouTube video with commentary by a vintage platter collector who goes by the handle of Ifmudge. There's some nice information about the disc and the bandleader featured on the recording and I recommend taking a listen.


Sadly, though, even after enjoying the tune I still didn't know anything more about the illusive Mr. Stevens. I spent some time exploring the bottoms of various internet rabbit holes, chasing copyright information for different interpretations of the song Moon Winks until I eventually checked the Catalog of Copyright Entries - Musical Composers, Part 3 from 1932.

Yes, the problem was that George Stevens was actually the pseudonym for Frederic J. A. Forster, the author of Moon Winks. A breakthrough worthy of eureka? Well, not really. Though I now knew that Mr. Stevens was actually Mr. Forster, the mystery more-or-less remained. I managed to discover he was born in 1878 and died in 1956 and even found his short death notice as seen on the obituary page in the May 11, 1956 issue of the Indiana Gazette:

Frederic J. A. Forster, 80, founder and president of a music publishing firm, publisher of such songs as “The Missouri Waltz,” “It Ain’t Gonna Rain No More,” and “Down by the Old Millstream,” died Wednesday. SAN DIEGO. Calif

It seems a sad thing, a man who filled more than one couple's evening with the lovely music that sparked romance and set hearts pattering should find his end as a side note on the obituary page. Still, every waltz must have its end and so many times love is a bittersweet thing. Take your loved one out under the February moon tonight, bundle up warm, and stare up at the winking moon and be thankful for this moment, because when it comes right down to it that's all you really have.

Happy Valentine's Day

Poem for February

Quote for February

The most serious charge which can be brought against New England is not Puritanism but February.

- Joseph Wood Krutch

The Full Snow Moon

Tonight the Full Snow Moon fills the night sky.  It gets its name from the heavy snows that often blanket the landscape in February. The native peoples of America also called February’s full moon the Hunger Moon due to the fact that the deep snow and inclement weather made hunting and foraging more difficult.

 

For me a February full moon speaks of longing. It’s a ghost of the moons of spring and summer, wan riding in the deep sky of winter. It can hear spring’s approach but foretells only cold suffering for another month. Only lovers can keep one another warm in desolate February.

February

by Margret Atwood

 

Winter. Time to eat fat

And watch hockey. In the pewter mornings, the cat,

A black fur sausage with yellow

Houdini eyes, jumps up on the bed and tries

To get onto my head. It’s his

Way of telling whether or not I’m dead.

He’ll think of something. He settles

On my chest, breathing his breath

Of burped-up meat and musty sofas,

purring like a washboard. Some other tomcat,

not yet a capon, has been spraying our front door,

declaring war. It’s all about sex and territory,

which are what will finish us off

in the long run. Some cat owners around here

should snip a few testicles. If we wise

hominids were sensible, we’d do that too,

or eat our young, like sharks.

But it’s love that does us in. Over and over

again, he shoots, he scores! and famine

crouches in the bedsheets, ambushing the pulsing

eiderdown, and the windchill factor hits

thirty below, and pollution pours

out of our chimneys to keep us warm.

February, month of despair,

With a skewered heart in the center.

I think dire thoughts, and lust for French fries

with a splash of vinegar.

Cat, enough of your greedy whining

and your small pink bumhole.

Off my face! You’re the life principle,

more or less, so get going

on a little optimism around here.

Get rid of death. Celebrate increase. Make it be spring.