1. Every once in a while, I decide to relive memories of disappointing my father. One year, oh, about 25-30 years ago, our family gathered at the Adobe Inn, north of Yachats, OR, for some time together on the Oregon Coast. We rented a kitchenette and had decided we would eat some of our meals in. I was a vegetarian at that time and made some food ahead of time, including what I thought was a delicious cream of celery soup.
Let's just say Dad disagreed.
He wasn't that impressed with my contribution.
It's possible that I never made this soup again after disappointing (disgusting?) Dad, but, today, I decided to make a pot of cream of celery soup again, accept the the heat of embarrassment I would feel again, and see if I enjoyed the soup.
I chopped up an onion and several celery stalks and, instead of potatoes, tore cauliflower florets off their stalk. I simmered most of the celery and all of the cauliflower until it was tender in a quart of my own turkey stock. On another burner, I sauteed the onion and a cup of finely chopped celery after I sauteed a half a pound of sliced mushrooms. I pureed the celery and cauliflower and stock, and, in the Dutch oven, combined it with the sauteed ingredients, added milk and yogurt and heated up my soup.
And guess what?
I loved it.
Not only was it simple to make, the soup is delicious and I see possibilities for variations on the recipe. Carrots. Ginger. If I'm feeling frisky with my potassium intake, sweet potatoes. I can imagine roasting the vegetables instead of boiling them.
Best of all, the embarrassment is gone.
2. Not long ago, I was listening to NPR and someone was discussing the popularity of documentary movies in relation to the upcoming Academy Awards and the increase in the production of documentaries, thanks, in part to HBO, PBS, Netflix, Amazon, and other creators of television and online content.
In the course of the discussion, the guest mentioned Pure Nonfiction, a podcast dedicated to documentary movies. While I did some cleaning and cooking in the kitchen, I listened to the latest episode and learned about three fascinating and recent docs and discovered I can access all of them on my smarty pants television.
Shirkers Sandi Tan made a 16mm film as a teenager with the help of some friends and someone stole her work. About twenty years later, someone mailed the movie back to her and this movie tells the story of the making this adolescent movie (called Shirkers), the friends who helped her, and the disappearance and return of the movie.
Three Identical Strangers In 1961, boy triplets were born, separated from each other, and adopted by three different families. This movie tells the story of their discovery as young men that this separation happened, explores the history of their separation, and looks at their lives since they discovered they were brothers.
Hale County This Morning, This Evening This is a poetic, impressionistic, intimate portrait of the African-American community in Hale County, Alabama.
I also learned about a film entitled The Imposter, the story of a boy who disappears in Texas and surfaces in Spain.
I listened to a second episode of Pure Nonfiction. It was devoted to the documentary United Skates, the story of roller skating rinks in African-American communities across the USA, how many have been closed and what a loss these closures represent. It sounds fascinating. It is available on demand at HBO and is part of their schedule of shows. I don't know, just yet, if I have access to this movie by rental or other means or if I would need to subscribe to the HBO app to watch it. We'll see.
3. I spent a fine social time for about an hour and a half at the Inland Lounge. Bird Legs witnessed Kellogg's dramatic and miraculous 51-50 win over Timberlake on Thursday night and gave me a blow by blow account of how the game ended with Gavin Luna hitting a three point shot upon picking up a loose ball, getting fouled, and making the free throw. Yes, you read that right: Kellogg won this game on a four point play with just under two seconds to play. Kellogg qualified for next week's state tournament. For the rest of my time at the Lounge, I yakked with Seth and Cas about baseball and some of the unusual news of the day.
I returned home to watch a Pac-12 women's basketball doubleheader featuring, first, Oregon State and USC and then the Oregon Ducks and UCLA.
Linda and Wayne watched tonight's games from home and Linda and I had a blast exchanging texts throughout the evening.
It was a night of dramatic comebacks. In the first quarter, the Beavers fell behind 16-0 to USC and began a game-long climb to not only get back into the game, eventually tie it, but thanks to some stubborn defense and timely shots in the fourth quarter, got over the hump and defeated the Trojans, 68-61.
In Eugene, the Ducks looked unbeatable for most of the first half and charged to a twenty-two point lead. At the end of the second quarter, though, UCLA scored seven straight points, cut the Ducks' lead to 15 points and were an ignited team in the second half. UCLA dominated play after the intermission and stunned the Ducks with a 74-69 win.
I have watched the Ducks play three straight games. A week ago they defeated Oregon State and I was impressed with how valuable a player Ruthy Hebard is for them in the paint. In Monday's tilt against the Beavers, Hebard suffered a knee bruise in the second quarter and the Ducks were a different team. They missed Hebard badly and lost the game. Tonight, for about the first 15-17 minutes against UCLA, it looked like Oregon had figured out how to run their offense effectively without Hebard, but in the second half, they sorely missed her inside strength on both offense and defense -- maybe especially defense. UCLA exploited her absence, defended more effectively in the second half, sharpened their outside shooting, and came back to defeat Oregon.
After last Monday's loss to the Beavers I wrote that I didn't think the Ducks were a very deep team. Tonight, while I thought Hebard's replacement, Gonzaga Prep graduate Odi Gildon played hard, the Bruins succeeded in the long run to wear her down and she just couldn't do much to stop UCLA's inside play, especially Kennedy Burke and, late in the game, Michaela Onyenwere.
Tonight's loss to UCLA reinforced my impression that the Ducks have a superb starting five, but don't have very strong players in reserve.
The Ducks host USC on Sunday. I don't know if Ruthy Hebard will return. I hope she does, but, if not, the Ducks will need to keep working on figuring out ways to make up for her loss.
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