Well, we all love words, don't we? More than food? I was thinking as I swam this morning (so good to be back in the pool) of all the words we know that didn't even exist 10 or 15 years ago. Cyberspace, for example, first coined by William Gibson (Necromancer, 1984), and defined by him as follows;

"A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts. … A graphic representation of data abstracted from banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding. (Gibson 69)
Well, here's one from the nonspace of my mind, conjured up daily: blog. I guess everyone knows it's short for weblog, and became blog for short. That's why I first called my blog 'cobweb log', only stuck together. There are so many words, ideas, concepts and tools that simply didn't exist before because today's technical world didn't exist. On the other hand, there are words that have fallen into disuse and out of memory, concepts that I grew up with - and I still miss them and try to preserve them. It's a losing battle. What kind of words?
Well, words like responsibility, gratitude, grace, courtesy, honour, loyalty, fidelity, ideals and - yes- shame. I meet very few people, children of the Boomers, especially, who have never heard of them, or if they have, do not pay them the respect they deserve. That's another one: respect.
I have great respect for the skills of this latter generation, not to say AWE. But they seem to have thrown the baby out with the bathwater. That expression is supposed to have come from the Saturday night bath ritual when everyone in the family washed, beginning with the father. Depending on the size of the family, by the time they got down to the baby, the water was so murky it was hard to see through it, hence the danger of throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
Quality of life. That's another phrase not used in my time, much prized today, and rising frequently from discussions about the end of life, the argument being if there is no quality why settle for quantity? Define quality.
Oh, my, I have gone far astray from my swimming meditation. Don't tell me I'm all wet.

I've spent some time cooking lately so I suppose I must include food as one of my preoccupations this week. You should know that I am a leftover cook: I refuse to throw away food. The first cookbook I published was about leftovers and one reviewer said you could save $1000 a year following my recipes and advice. My second cookbook (about cheese) had pen and ink illustrations and the illustrator made a special page of drawings for me - of rotting food with fumes coming off it, or cobwebs, or covered with mould. Just so you know.

A few weeks ago a dear friend went to New Orleans and brought me a present of a Gumbo Mix. I used it and made a gumbo with peas and okra and chicken (meant to add shrimp but forgot). She was not free to come and share it so I put it in the freezer. This past week I thawed it when I had my talented grandson and his wife for dinner and I baked a double cornbread to go with it, double because in addition to cornmeal I mixed in corn niblets in maple syrup to cover (and used less sugar). The next day I had a Devonshire cream tea birthday party for a friend. I made the scones and another friend looked after the Melton Mowbray pie, the cucumber sandwiches, and devilled eggs - with a dollop of caviar (lumpfish). I added sherry, three cheeses (Brie, Manchego, and Danish blue), green grapes, and of course - tea. Oh, and individual chocolate cream cheese cakes purchased for the birthday occasion.

So the next day a friend who had intended to drive to the U.S. was turned back by a blizzard and invited himself for dinner. I served gravlax (with red onion, gravelaxsass ((honey mustard with dill)), and buttered brown bread, with akvavit and beer. (He brought the akvavit.) Dinner was baked pork tenderloin in a garlic and honey marinade with roasted Honey Crisp apple slices on the side, mini-potatoes in butter and chives, brussel sprouts, a baby spinach and avocado salad and vinar terta for dessert. (My Icelandic tastes are showing.) Today I made soup with enough chicken broth to thin a leftover casserole of cooked chicken, peas, carrots and couscous. Tomorrow I will serve lunch to my daughterin-law and son when they come to help me with some non-functioning machines (TV and Bose). I'll make crab wraps and you already know the recipe for that because I published it a few weeks ago.

This isn't really about leftovers and cooking, it's about trying not to gain weight, trying, in fact, to lose.