Today, another sleeping-cat Sunday from the archives of Arlo & Janis. And more about wine. Prohibition understandably was hard on vintners. Many vineyards ripped out vines of grapes more suitable for wine and replaced them with grapes good for eating or for juices and jams, such as Concord grapes. This practically destroyed a long-established wine industry in the Ozarks and in New York. These regions relied heavily upon “my” grape, the Norton, said to be the only native North American grape that will produce a decent dry wine. Just now are the Norton wines really coming back in Missouri and Arkansas. My favorite prohibition story, true or not, is about desperate grape growers who would ship their produce to consumers with instructions such as, “Do not mash these grapes into juice, add yeast and store for several months in a cool dark place. It will turn into wine!”
245 responses to “More Cat in the Sack”
Jackie, I had feared something had happened to you (I am such a worrywart!) Relieved that all is well, and indeed, we all knew you had been extremely busy with your many tasks. Please don’t overdo!
What a pain, to have posts disappear after all the time spent writing! I HOPE it doesn’t happen any more.
Lilyblack, I like your sensible attitude toward spiders. I respect most of them, find them interesting but stop short of actually touching them. My mother showed me when I was little that daddy-long-legs are nice and kind of cute; we saw lots of them around our summer cabin in the woods. I’ll admit that here in the North we have fewer and smaller bugs than you Southerners do __ I don’t know how you stand it!
Heh, Charlotte, I’ll start worrying about bugs when I stop worrying about violent men
The one disease I would worry about is Chagas Disease, and isn’t it ironic that it is spread by Triatominae or kissing bugs? West Nile and all those are scary, but I avoid the back yard around sunset except for the deck which has bug zappers
Martine got naked again? I’m shocked! Shocked I tell you!
Perhaps I need to revise my read-once-a-week policy for 9CL. Especially if he keeps working this apparent if-I-can’t-figure-out-any-other-way-to-the-advance-the-story-I’ll-have-a-female-character-get-semi-or-completely-naked approach.
Leg joke, Lady Mindy? I’ll get right to work on it.
OK, I googled the roach family! Apparently, we had been blessed with some of those large 1.5+ inch periplaneta jobs, as well as the smaller 1.2 inch critters and the small German ones (blattella). It was almost funny watching the larger ones attempt to fly while being pursued – that’s when we knew we would catch it. At full steam, I think they flew maybe one foot per second.
Thanks for the information, y’all.
Charlotte, creepie-crawlies just go with the territory (literally) here in the South. You get used to them. And it makes for job security for employees of the pest control businesses. They treat my place once a month and, other than the occasional deceased “tree roach” that must zip in when a door is opened, I never see any of the critters inside.
Here’s a song for you Mindy; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vgx7abJH6uI
Ghost: I know. If I have heard, “Susie get your in the house or out of it. You are letting all the flies in.” And candle bugs, etc. Wonder why they are so desperate to get into the house? All that happens is they die on the window sill
Moving away from creepy-crawlies, how quickly has anyone fallen for a piece of music? My favorite TV music channel is called Soundscapes; it plays peaceful “new age” and world music. This song came on the other night and I fell hard in the first few measures: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OPSyQWpSpA For the link-clicking adverse, it is called “For Andromeda” by Sean Christopher. I am going to have to download the rest of the album.
And speaking of outer space, where is Symply Fargone? (And I mean that with the utmost respect. )
IMindy, I fell for Eine Kleine Nactmusik the quickest I have fallen for a piece of music. Just a year and a half. Promise! 😛
Thanks Lilyblack, because I NEEDED another earworm. 😛 Oh, and rest easy, Daddy Long Legs aren’t poisonous (but yes, they can bite you). Mythbusters did that one years ago. Some people might have a mild allergic reaction at the bite site though.
Mindy/Indy:
“. . . how quickly has anyone fallen for a piece of music?”
On the spot, often. But my genres often run long, and I may be grabbed in the 3rd or 4th movement [e.g., in Brahms’s 4th symphony, 4th mvmt.]. Haydn’s ‘Lark’ quartet, on the other hand, about 30″ into the 1st movement. Beethoven’s qt. op. 18:5, 3rd mvmt.
And some things grow on one: I appreciate some G&S songs and particular operettas > I did when I first heard them. PIT’s Cappricio Italien brightens my day every time I hear it, but not for reasons PIT might like. Tom Lehrer? Stanley Holloway?
. . . bedtime. Peace, emb.
Lilyblack, you sure made me giggle with your ” why are bugs so desperate to get into house … they just die on the windowsill.” Also I am SO impressed at your knowing to use “back yard” as two words … many people, alas, don’t know the difference and don’t care.
Yes, where the heck is Symply Fargone? I really miss him.
Oh, a big Thank You to Mark from TTown for reminding us that lightening strikes in storms can ruin our expensive computer equipment. Sorry you had to learn the hard way! Sometimes I unplug everything, sometimes I’m lazy and take a chance on it. (Mark said both the modem and his router got fried. Not sure if I even disconnected those two things — I’d better check this with my computer guru, my very smart son in law.)
Charlotte in NH, you are welcome for the reminder. I have all the electrical power cords attached to surge protectors, but the coax cable which feeds the internet signal does not run through one. Coax cable was attached to wall, then to modem, then by ethernet cable to router. Nothing else in my office was affected, so I believe the surge came through the coax cable by process of elimination.
Mindy, here is a new version of some New Age music that originally came out before there was such a category. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMrhRqK4iig
Mindy from Indy and emb, interesting to speculate. I like your music selections, emb. It’s hard for me to say; I’ve been listening for so many years, mostly on the radio, and so often with my late husband, who loved music and could follow it and analyse it, which I can’t; but we loved to listen together and he would say,”here is where the second theme comes in … now it’s repeated … this is really the end, anything after this is the coda.” And much more of the same. I loved it! And I miss it so much now; but I still love to listen, only without my trusty guide.
We used to go to concerts in Boston when we could (and no whispering during the performances!) When we would leave the hall and discover that a blizzard had whipped up while we were inside, it got really exciting! But we did make it home all right or I wouldn’t be telling you this.
Mark in TTown, thank you for the helpful information. I have one “power stick” with a surge protector; most of the stuff is plugged in there, including the stereo FM radio, which must be 25 years old; I unplug that in storms also as I don’t want to lose something I listen to all day, every day; it would be a hassle to replace it. And I unplug everything in spite of having the surge protector, think it’s best.
Lily: Not a dumb band link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df-eLzao63I
Fastest I’ve fallen for certain tunes would be a few lines in. Those tunes would be some often used for church hymns (in no special order):
anything sung to what is commonly called (Beethoven’s) “Ode to Joy”;
ditto, to Ar Hyd y Nos (if my Welsh is correct) often called “All Through the Night”;
ditto, to “The Ash Grove” (“Let All Things Now Living”);
ditto, to “Cwm Rhondda” (“Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah”)
Most, if not all, other favorites took longer, mainly because they were longer works.
Ghost: I am not taking the chance. They might be dumb! And, as I have said, I really don’t like music but some classical and the hymns we are working on. I like to sing but I really don’t like to listen
Night, night, peoples. Don’t let the bed bugs, or especially the kissing bugs bite!
Lily, that particular dumb band was playing Mozart’s Concerto No. 21 in C Major for Piano and Orchestra. Preconceptions are not always useful.
C-ep, I, too, love all the selections you mentioned. Another favorite which I immediately loved is “Simple Gifts.”https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fYi9Vr8bHJY
Okay, I guess I didn’t do that right because you can’t click on the link, but it is the YouTube link to Simple Gifts with Yo-Yo Ma and Alison Krauss.
Today’s ‘Broom Hilda’ comic is true.
Good morning, Villagers. I have to rush off for my church’s food ministry and I am late!
Ghost, you can’t be that careful, especially at that tie of night!
Perhaps my favorite piece of music is the first movement of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. The haunting quality of it gets to me every time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQVeaIHWWck
From the sublime to the ridiculous- when I was a little girl, maybe 4 years old, we lived in a neighborhood where the Orkin truck was always in someone’s driveway, and no matter how clean the house was, there were always roaches or Palmetto bugs, or whatever you want to call them. I knew full well how to get up and go to the bathroom by myself, but I would sit on my bed and call for my Mom to come turn the light on because I was positive there were hundreds of bugs on the floor just waiting for my little feet to touch the floor. I still hate roaches, and am on very good terms with the exterminator who comes to the house every month. 🙂
Of course, there’s always Ravel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-4J5j74VPw