The thing about being snowed in, especially when you live in DC, is that you get to sleep a beautifully quiet sleep and a nice dark one where there are no cars or dump trucks, and just that feint lovely gray skied light coming in through the windows. The kind of light that lets your brain say, ‘no, it’s not sunny and I’m not leaving any time soon,’ and then you turn over and sleep another hour.
An additional bonus of being snowed in? Unabashedly spending the day cleaning, doing laundry and listening to NPR for a solid 12 hours— minus the time my family, calling from Phoenix to rub it in, made me turn it down. You see, I have an NPR problem. I love it, especially on weekends and I can pretty much tell you the best things to listen to, when to pay attention and what programs are best to have on to nap to. This isn’t a joke. Here are my recommendations:
On Saturdays, if you wake at 7am you can turn on the radio and listen to the pet talk program, which I’m not a huge fan of, but if you want to get breakfast and read the paper to it, it’s a great bit of background noise. Following that is the 8-10am Weekend Edition which you can catch all or parts of but it’s good especially in the last 20 minutes to each end of the hour (so, tune in around 8:40 and 9:40) when they have writers and musicians on. That’s their little formula and so I know if I’m reading, that I may want to perk my ears up for those minutes.
Car talk is next at 10 and I love these guys. This is not a “live listen” must because their podcast posts faithfully after the broadcast, but hey, if I’m working out or snowed in…why not. The true gem of the day is “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me,” the greatest show on earth. Okay, not the greatest but it’s funny and is something I can't live without.
At noon, around the time I was scrubbing the sink today, comes “This American Life,” hosted by the now very famous Ira Glass. This radio show has been made into an HBO series now and I’m told you can get dvd’s of the seasons. I prefer it only on radio but I love this one. This is another must listen but since they have such a great podcast, eh, if I miss it during the air time, I know I can get it later. Today it was a must listen.
Studio 360 with Kurt Anderson is good at 1pm but sometimes he goes all Japanese Anime on us and that just goes over my head. It’s not a must but it’s doable. Perfect for the snow and he even had an interesting battle between Super Bowl rivalry Art Museum Directors today. Two words: seriously and awesome. Rather than Governors of two state gambling silly state products over the outcome of the game, these guys are betting one famous painting from each of their respective Indianapolis and New Orleans museums: IMA vs. NoMA. The Indianapolis Museum of Art will have to surrender their coveted Joseph Turner oil “The Fifth Plague of Egypt,” if their Colts don’t win, while the New Orleans Museum of Art cedes Claud Lorrain’s 1644 “Ideal View of Tivoli” if the Saints come up short. After much back and forth and needless tweeting, here’s how they sealed the deal:
From IMA's Anderson via Twitter: "Deal -- Claude for Turner. Two masters in spirited competition across the channel, and between our fair cities. Go Colts!"
Like I said, seriously, and awesome, and what the hell else do I have to do when we’re snowed in?
But here’s where the new NPR nerdom shines through: At 3pm Lynne Rossetto Kasper’s “Splendid Table” show now has me hooked. The fact that I now listen to this show willingly, sometimes gleefully, has me questioning my own mental health. It’s like my brain can’t get enough of NPR that it’s expanding bandwidth to put in more shows, but at the same time, I’m trying to learn more about cooking and I think that’s a good thing.
There was a gap this afternoon in which programs came on and I wasn’t listening, enjoyed hearing the crunch of my sturdy shoes against the snow. But doing laundry with Garrison? Now that’s my favorite house-keeping companion. I was sorry to hear this morning they cancelled the live feed of Prarie Home Companion’s LIVE broadcast at movie theaters here, simply because the movie theater wasn’t open, but hey, maybe I’ll see them live again at Wolftrap.
With great radio, cleaning, reading, a walk and puzzle-solving—being snowed in is a breeze. I know I will not like all of the ensuing clean-up, and I could use the gym, but this is life. This is how you deal and doing it with a good attitude is the only way I operate these days. And don’t even get into tomorrow. Hello, Will Shortz…Hear ya in the morning!
Today’s offering will be in homage of my WETA station which gave us this today on The Splendid Table. It was a repeat episode but one guest was a poet, which endears this show to me even further, a poet who just happened to be the inaugural poet for Obama last year. Thinking back on that too cold day, this was a perfect repeat and I was happy to hear it for the first time.
"Butter"
By Elizabeth Alexander
My mother loves butter more than I do,
more than anyone. She pulls chunks off
the stick and eats it plain, explaining
cream spun around into butter! Growing up
we ate turkey cutlets sauteed in lemon
and butter, butter and cheese on green noodles,
butter meting in small pools in the hearts
of Yorkshire puddings, butter better
than gravy staining white rice yellow,
butter glazing corn in slipping squares,
butter the lava in white volcanoes
of hominy grits, butter softening
in a white bowl to be creamed with white
sugar, butter disappearing into
whipped sweet potatoes, with pineapple,
butter melted and curdy to pour
over pancakes, butter licked off the plate
with warm Alaga syrup. When I picture
the good old days I am grinning greasy
with my brother, having watched the tiger
chase his tail and turn to butter. We are
Mumbo and Jumbo's children despite
historical revision, despite
our parent's efforts, glowing from the inside
out, one hundred megawatts of butter.
"Butter" by Elizabeth Alexander, published 1996 in Body of Life by Tia Chucha Press, San Fernando, CA.
No comments:
Post a Comment