Posts by sally jones
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Speaker: Dancing with Dingoes, Part II, in reply to Tamsin6,
But I could not find a decent tan square anywhere.
Tamsin: Thank you for bringing tan squares to the thread discussion. We don't have them in Aussie. When I first moved to NZ from OZ one of the hardest adjustments I had to make was to the inferior baked goods. Much has changed since then but in the late 80s it was all tan squares and iced buns, butter cream Neenish and a pink and jam slice of unknown identity. In Sydney the Italian influence practically means custard cannolis on every street corner. Though being crass Australians we also had spunk buns - for cultural balance.
As the tan slice name has always rather dampened my curiosity
Joe: Tan slice? I suppose the name lacks a certain je ne sais quoi. The French wouldn't be caught dead eating one, dare say. On the other hand, at least you know what you're getting (in terms of colour). With a Neenish it seems it could be lemon or butter cream filling. With cake - and related treats - it is very important to know what you're getting. With a tan square, what you see is what you get. No punches pulled.
Having said that, I've never eaten one. -
So I am talking to myself. Probably just as well.
In the spirit of returning the thread to talk of cake, I today succumbed to a neenish tart. It was delicious and light, the icing not too thick, the filling not too fatty. But it had a lemony flavour that I couldn't remember (from previous neenish). Some say lemon is the most soothing scent for women to smell and taste, perhaps that's why I liked it so much.
In other cake news, my daughter and I have baked a large batch of Christmas cake to last for the whole season. Some of it will even find its way down to the South Island, all being well. Three kilos of fruit and plenty nuts too. We took about a quarter of it up to Kaeo and it all went the first day. We gave half a loaf to the neighbour who looked after the cats while we were away. It's a very dense cake, half is okay, yes? I hope so.
Can't think of any more cake news for now. Think I might have to go grab a bit more fruit cake :) -
Busytown: She loves you, YA, YA, YA!, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
One theory is that we shouldn’t cotton wool children because what they read is a safe place to start emotionally reconciling yourself to some hard truths – the world can be hard and cruel, you will feel as if nobody understands you or cares, grown-ups will let you down. But, and here’s the big but, there is a way through the woods.
This. Thanks Craig for the philosophical insights. I tend to agree. I remember the small battle I had getting a children's book depicting a divorced couple and their young son into Playcentre. Some parents didn't want it read to their child. Much safer, books about animals and happily ever afters.
But speaking of letting your kids down, it's all too easy to do. My youngest hates the fact that I smoke (part-time). Fair enough, I hate it most of the time too. I don't smoke in front of him, and strictly outside, but he smells it on my clothing and comes over all quiet and broody.
But this is not confessional hour. I'm working towards a NY's quit-smoking, way through the woods, resolution. Apologies to all those die-hard anti-smokers meanwhile.. -
Busytown: She loves you, YA, YA, YA!, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
But in Gaiman’s defence, I don’t think he presents it in a torture porny or sexist/misogynistic kind of way.
Craig: Good. But probably not quite as much of this stuff in YA fiction anyway, ?
Clearly I need to read more of the genre to comment intelligently. But in other genres and fiction media much of the sexism is 'soft'. Not so much overt anti-women violence, as male characters speaking and saying more, doing more - and living longer. Glad to hear Gaimen doesn't buy into it. -
Busytown: She loves you, YA, YA, YA!, in reply to Islander,
“The Graveyard Book” is seriously good, and it doesnt pull some hard punches.
Islander: Yes, I'm beginning to form this opinion. Thank you David Hood for the blog link to Gaimen's reading of the first chapter, the chapter that begins with the killing of the young family. It's not easy getting that kind of thing right for a YA audience, but he does, or seems to. Mostly. I wish the young girl wasn't murdered. There seems to be a readiness to kill off the girl in many of these modern tales. I recently read Lionel Shriver's We Need to Talk About Kevin (2004). http://mostlyfiction.com/contemp/shriver.htm
A pretty sharp review of a brilliant book, but...the sister/daughter/child is once again killed off, and largely so that the brother/son/YA gets to kill and to live. He commits the mass murder of his class mates just days before his 16th birthday in order to escape the death penalty (for those who haven't read it). But the girl in this book gets to live for a short while. Not so in Graveyard. Shriver's text is consciously feminist. But it doesn't quite convince on that level, IMO. But definitely a thrilling - if also chilling - read.
Looks like two books on and around death are going to go into my kids' stockings this Christmas. Hmmm... Thank you Jolisa for your review of Guardians of the Dead, pretty sure my 15yo daughter will enjoy that. And thank you to those who recommended Graveyard and all the other titles. Much appreciated :) -
Speaker: Dancing with Dingoes, Part II, in reply to dyan campbell,
I love Katherine Mansfield for her slightly demented sense of humour. That story is so sad and so funny at the same time.
Yes indeed. But I fear that in our enthusiastic recollections of the blanc-mange last week we may have done a dreadful disservice to the meringue.
Having decided to take KM to Kaeo on our recent trip, upon rereading this story I found it was the meringue, and Cyril's excruciating cringe having to tell his grandfather - the take-no-prisoners (eat-no-meringue) Colonel - of his father's ongoing appetite for meringue, that brought on the wheeze that wouldn't leave. If only I were that demented.
But a recipe for soup? When I left we'd been having a perfectly decent discussion about cake that led quite seamlessly, I thought, into a promising recipe (for something) involving a bottle of vodka.
Don't get me wrong, I like soup. There's nothing to beat it when you're hungry and thirsty and haven't the time to satisfy both urges separately. But please, if it's not already too late, before I launch my next post on a subject (pubic grooming) that is somewhat less likely to spawn talk of cake than the present one on ballet in the Australian Outback, let's return the discussion to that most laudable of all subjects worthy of discussion: CAKE (acceptably stretched to accommodate hilarious meringues and vodka).
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Busytown: She loves you, YA, YA, YA!, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
you know your child, and his reading level and emotional maturity, infinitely better than I do.
Er...I wouldn't be too sure, though the mere suggestion of the possibility practically made me weep (seriously).
Sorry to be so slow in responding, it's taken me this long to check out the many reading recommendations given in answer to my modest query. Also my house blew up. Well, not really. But I kind of wish it would, then at least I'd have a proper excuse for not keeping up with you lot (It's also probably my only hope for a new kitchen, not to mention a solution to my cleaning burden, but they're separate matters entirely!).
Following a thorough online investigation of the various recommended titles and authors for my 12yo to read, I have narrowed the list of hopefuls down to the top 400, GOT (give or take). So a big thank you to all those exhaustively and exhaustingly erudite PA people who made a contribution to the list. Now all I have to do is convince my son that Christmas presents don't necessarily come with power cords, and specifically that a parcel in the shape of a book (or better still, very many books), does count as a proper present.
Perhaps a preview is in order. The Graveyard Book about a boy named Nobody whose entire family is murdered, looks particularly promising.
On it ;) -
Busytown: She loves you, YA, YA, YA!, in reply to Tui Head,
Young adults are picky readers. It doesn't mean they always have the best taste (*cough*Twilight*cough*) but by and large both children and young adults are extremely intolerant of wasteful writing or writing that's playing around just to play around.
Sorry to sully the highbrow discussion, but my 12yo boy reads Stephen King and is hanging out to read The Omen when he's '(much) older'. How worried should I be? I've tried gentle redirection (short of book burning), but haven't had much luck. He recently put down De Goldi's 10pm Question after a chapter or two, don't think he related much to fanatical Frankie.
Please advise. -
Speaker: Dancing with Dingoes, Part II, in reply to Jacqui Dunn,
My mother was hopeless at making pav
Mine was pretty good but largely because she had been given a pav plate with the recipe on it that you followed then cooked the pav on. Every pav we ever ate was cooked on that plate. Various toppings, of course, but somehow a dreary sameness to them. I once had dinner guests refuse my chocolate mousse pav because as a child one of them had been fed too much pav and of so many varieties that he swore never to eat another mouthful of pav for the rest of his life.
No harm done, of course. All the more chocolate mousse pav for me :)But now I gotta go get ready for Kaeo. Ciao
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Speaker: Dancing with Dingoes, Part II, in reply to Joe Wylie,
All was sanctified by cake
What a delightful piece by PW. Love "the pinker hymns". Very evocative. My mother tends to "see pink", a good colour to see.