[304/365] happy treating!

[cosmolinguist]

I had a nice morning, despite having to wake up early thanks to Gary (who was sick a couple of times, poor baby) but it was nice. I didn't have the stomach to watch the ongoing World Series, so I found the first game of the 1991 one on YouTube. I was definitely in a mood to watch Atlanta's team a) lose and b) not be at home with their fans' horrible racist chanting.

I was cackling in delight at everything about the TV broadcast and the game hasn't even started yet. The overwrought poetic introduction! The Metrodome! The rudimentary graphics! The fancy brand-new pitch tracking technology! (Jim Kaat had to explain that specially.) The AIM (American Indian Movement, which had/has a big presence in Minneapolis) activists outside the stadium protesting Atlanta's fucking racist chants! Which of course the MLB commissioner said they were going to address real soon now. Thirty years later absolutely nothing has changed and it makes me so mad I don't want to watch any Atlanta games.

diffrentcolours came downstairs before the game started and seemed happy to have me explain things excitedly and just bask in a whole room full of Proustian madeleienes.

I ended up making tea and breakfast for mother_bones who hadn't slept well, the breakfast also being basically lunch for diffrentcolours (scrambled eggs and toast are good any time), and it was scrambled eggs largely because that's the usual food we make for Gary when his stomach has been bad. So he got some too, and it felt nice to make food for everybody.

The afternoon was low-energy miserable-weather, and also this is the closest thing I have to a costume, so I have lots of reasons to wear my Stitch onesie. I figured that if there's trick-or-treaters I'll hand out candy, if there aren't I'll just be cozy like this while I knit (I'm making a blanket for Gary). But it started raining hard late afternoon and didn't stop for hours. I did answer the door to one of the three little groups of intrepid trick-or-treaters. They don't say "trick or treat," though, they just say "hiya!" It's adorable. Most adorable though is the last thing a kid from the last little group said, "happy treating!" They've got the spirit of the thing if not the letter.

I forgot I said I'd make a cake today! We forgot we had these skull cake pans until they seemed to leap out of the cupboard the other day when I was going to get something else.

So I tried a gingery, sorta-parkin thing but with what we have in the house (because I was not going out in this weather), based on a recipe from one of those mid-century "all the women in the area contribute recipes" cookbooks of the kind I grew up on (this one's Canadian, so close enough). This recipe is attributed to "Edith's aunt, from Scotland"!

The recipe was not well-served by the substitutions, the fact that I'm without my measuring spoons, or the other fact that the skull pans had narrower and deeper bits so it was hard to not make the shallow bits too crunchy. Basically I've invented the parkin biscuit, but it tastes great with sliced apple, blueberries and cream. mother_bones said I should make it again, in a normal pan. That's perhaps more flattering than I deserve! (After it came out of the oven but before we'd tried it, she said "your cakes are always good" which I also wasn't sure was deserved!) I'm happy to make this again, but I'm not at all sure I can re-create the haphazard measurements and substitutions, heh.

Comments

[otter]

AIM is still active here. They were patrolling during the riots to protest the cops. Caught 4 white teens, who drove over from Wisconsin, in the act of trying to rob and loot a liquor store. Made them all call home and kept hold of them til their mothers drove over here to get them. I was highly amused.

[cosmolinguist]

Yes I remember reading about this. And just local groups of Native Americans who were protecting their streets and neighborhoods from arson when that was so bad. I'm really glad they were able to help so tangibly!

[otter]

Parkin cake sounds especially good for this time of year.

"happy treating" - so cute! Really, who needs tricks anyway?

[cosmolinguist]

Really, who needs tricks anyway?

Exactly! They were focusing on the important priority. :)

[silveradept]

Sounds like it was a good day, then. I'm sure the commissioner wanted to do something about the Atlanta Baseball Team for some time now, but we're just now seeing the Cleveland Guardians completing a name change away from another bad name, and the Washington Football Team finally got their name changed out, so it'll still probably be a bit before the owner finally gets pushed enough to change.

[cosmolinguist]

This was a few commissioners ago, of course; it was Fay Vincent. I don't even know if the current World Series attracted such attention or demanded comment from the current commissioner, but if it did I'm sure it was about the same. I think the consensus seems to be that it'll take corporate interests pulling their money out before it changes. Of course there's been a lot of attention on them now that Cleveland is changing its mascot, and Atlanta has steadfastly refused to budge. Ugh.

[silveradept]

Ugh. I think this series was summed up best by people pointing out how much the Astros were still dirty cheaters who didn't deserve to have a good baseball team, and they were still the better team to win this series than the racist team name with the racist chant.