In homage to WCW

This is Just to Say


I have [baked a cake with]
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast.

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold.

Apple Pie (Cake)

So yesterday was Johnny Appleseed's birthday, as mentioned before. And starting off an apple a day has really turned into many more than that. My friend Evan and I split two in the afternoon yesterday, and then I came home to eat home made applesauce (from Jess, my roommate's father -- best applesauce i've ever had).

(apple evan and i split, a mac)

(cortlands, for apple sauce)

(shamrock)

Today, stuck in the house in the rain, I found an "Apple Cake Recipe (from my favorite food blog) to use a few of the ones I have knocking about in the icebox. I'll let you know how it turns out.



I've been eating Macintosh, Cortland, Shamrock, and Swiss** this week, and though the cake is made with Shamrock (a more complex grannysmith-esque apple), the Swiss is my favorite and the Macs really taste like apples used to from the store.

**I never thought of apples as being particularly Swiss, but William Tell (of shooting an apple off his son's head with a crossbow) was Swiss. Apple fables galore!

Apples

We're coming up on a very important date for the American Public Consciousness: the birthday of John Chapman, A.K.A. Johnny Appleseed. On the 26th, the big guy turns 234 years old, older than our nation, as American as Apple Pie.

I've gotten pretty into Johnny Appleseed, I have to say. Sure I've had a thing for apples for a long while (they're a great, compact, amazing fruit), but this is getting out of hand. Beyond the interesting cultural relevance for Johnny Appleseed (as he has received the same face lifts that the American popular imagination has), he also embodies by interest, connection, and desire for the midwest (then called the Northwest Territory).

Born in Leominster, MA, John Chapman spent much time in Eastern PA before slowly winding his way through, back and forth, to end in the midwest, not far from where I call home. And today, I have made the opposite trip (a bit further east, just like he ended a bit further east).

So starting on Friday, I am (with Amber) going to be eating an apple a day. I've been making connections with markets near his home town, and i'll be getting back to his (and my) roots.

Happy Birthday

p.s. happy birthday charlie, too! 21, big day!

there is a very different sound in these two places.

And I'm not sure which I like better.

Anthems

Between yesterday, September 13th and September 17th, 1814, Francis Scott Key wrote the national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner. It was officially made the national anthem in 1931.

Sing it loud? Sing it proud?

i promise...

my poetry phase is over. school is back in session, and it is time to get serious again. enough poetry about place and memory already!