Friday 55 & Da Count- Andrew Wyeth's Winter Corn

Winter Corn
Andrew Wyeth
1948

Sprouts poke through earth,
children eager to heed the sun's instruction.
Lanky summer youths in fine array
beckon in the breeze,
"Come dance, come play,"
before yielding a golden harvest
in the softening autumn light.
Battered, chapped,
winter sentries
wearily hold formation,
waiting to be felled,
their remains shrouded
beneath a chenille blanket of snow.

DA COUNT

I was thinking last night of what to post for either a 55 or a count today and though there is always much to be thankful for I was feeling kind of bereft of inspiration. What few ideas I had felt forced. I got up this morning and perused the headlines. I was sad to see that American painter, Andrew Wyeth, has died. I am by no means well educated in art but I have always liked his works. I enjoy realism and portraiture so his style and subjects appeal to me in that way. He's also a son of Pennsylvania and spent his life outside of Philadelphia not terribly far from where I grew up so even when he turned his eye to landscapes and still life work it was often a vision that was familiar, just seen through an artist's eye.

I decided to flip through an online gallery of his paintings to see which one spoke to me for a 55 since it's been a long time since I wrote one inspired by a work of art. I got a little lost in the gallery, hence the lateness of this post. So many were utterly captivating but the corn whispered to me. Corn fields very much give me a feeling of being home. I love the way they change the landscape over the course of the year. Now you may really laugh at this but, I love that corn is a New World crop. It just plain belongs here (not to say it can't go anywhere else).

This all seems kind of stream of conscious I suppose but I guess it boils down to this: corn is home, Andrew Wyeth is home. The beauty of the natural world and the art of man are home for me. Home is where your soul finds rest.

While I Was Gone...

Rose Michelle tagged me with the ubiquitous Random/Weird/Bizarre Things About Myself Meme. We share a name, a passion for chocolate, and she said really nice things about me, plus I like the girl so I can't refuse her. But I am warning anyone else who thinks I can be swayed by flattery in the attempt to get me to do this particular meme one more time after this...It ain't gonna happen unless the flattery involves a significant deposit into my bank account and being slowly and thoroughly oiled up by the masseur of my choice while simultaneously being fed the finest chocolates.

I think her version requires 7 factoids so, starting with something chocolate, here goes...

*image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/azbeachbum/20413660/

1. When I was 6 I went to Hershey Park with my mom, my brother, and my grandparents. I got separated from everyone and became quite hysterical because I was convinced I'd never see anyone in my family for the rest of my life.

2. In spite of that traumatic experience, sometime during 2008 I am hoping to go the the Spa at Hotel Hershey with my best friend, Gwennie so we can celebrate our 40th birthdays being pampered in chocolate together. It's kinda pricey and we are both rather broke so it may or may not happen.

3. Mr. Lime's grandfather worked in the Hershey Factory most of his life. I am considered a heretic for preferring the flavor of Nestle's chocolate syrup to Herhsey's.

4. I pronounce the word syrup as SEARup. Mr. Lime and his family say SIRup. I consider them heretics.

5. Since I grew up near Philadelphia I used to pronounce the word water as WOODer. It's a local inflection I have been cured of though years of browbeating. Yes, I realize it sounds ridiculous to anyone outside southeast Pennsylvania but if you've ever seen or tasted the Schuylkill River you might understand why we don't call it WAHter. By the way, the correct pronunciation for the name of the river is Skookle.

6. There is also a road in the vicinity of Philadelphia called the Schuylkill Expressway. I have memories of my mother driving there with a white knuckled grip on the steering wheel trying to figure out how to get us to the Jersey Shore when I was a kid. Both the river and the road are sometimes referred to as "The Surekill."

7. While I am on my Philly kick....I believe sandwiches consisting of lettuce, tomato, onion, cold cuts, cheese and some sort of dressing on a long, hard roll should always be referred to as HOAGIES. They are not subs. A sub is a ocean going vessel that spends long periods of time completely submerged. They are not heroes. Heroes are people who engage in brave and selfless acts for the well being of others. Heroes can even be found on subs. The sandwich is called a H-O-A-G-I-E! That is, unless it is a cheesesteak, in which case I believe if you have to qualify the thing as a PHILLY cheesesteak it is obviously a poor imitation not worth even considering.

*image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/wmliu/521276026/

What American accent do you have? Your Result: Philadelphia Your accent is as Philadelphian as a cheesesteak! If you're not from Philadelphia, then you're from someplace near there like south Jersey, Baltimore, or Wilmington. if you've ever journeyed to some far off place where people don't know that Philly has an accent, someone may have thought you talked a little weird even though they didn't have a clue what accent it was they heard.
The Northeast
The Midland
The South
The Inland North
Boston
The West
North Central
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

As a point of clarification for the folks born and bred on the West coast of the USA....all Easterners do not sound like they come from New York or Boston.

Trinidad to Pennsylvania: Chocolate!

"When I die," I said to my friend, "I'm not going to be embalmed. I'm going to be dipped." Milk chocolate or bittersweet was [the] immediate concern. ~Adrianne Marcus~

How much do you know about chocolate?

Apparently I am a chocolate genius since I got 8 out of 10 questions correct. Anyone out there actually surprised by that?

*image from www.digitalarthawaii.org

Chocolate Trivia: (taken from hersheypa.com and corsinet.com)

-The botanical name of the chocolate plant is Theobramba cacao, which means "Food of the Gods."
-One plain milk chocolate candy bar has more protein than a banana.
-Ten percent of U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance of iron is found in one ounce of baking chocolate or cocoa. Chocolate also contains Vitamins A1, B1, B2, C, D and E as well as calcium, potassium, sodium and iron.
-Cultivation of cacao trees can occur only in tropical climates, 20 degrees north or south of the equator. Principal growing areas include West Africa, Brazil, Ecuador and the Indies. Generally, it takes five years before trees begin bearing fruit in the form of pods that grow from the tree trunk. Each pod contains an average of 20 to 40 cream-colored cocoa beans. Nearly 400 beans are required to make a pound of chocolate liquor, the semi-liquid mass produced by grinding the beans. A non-alcoholic substance, chocolate liquor is the basis of all chocolate and cocoa products.
-The earliest cocoa plantations were established in 600 AD, in the Yucatan, by the Mayans.
-Drinking cocoa became popular in the USA after the Boston Tea Party, partly as a means of protest because it was not taxed in the way tea was.

*image from hersheypa.com

Chocolate in Pennsylvania:

-Pennsylvania is second only to California in its number of chocolate and cocoa processing establishments.
-Hershey, PA is named for Milton Hershey who was the first American to experiment with creating milk chocolate. He came up with his own formula after visiting Swiss chocolatiers who would not share the process they had invented.
-He founded the town as a company town for his employees but felt strongly it should not be a faceless company town with merely utilitarian rows of identical structures. He envisioned and created a family friendly town with parks, recreational opportunities, and good public transportation. The quality of his product and the well-being of his workers were always placed above mere profit.
-Unable to have children, he and his wife established a school for orphan boys which continues today to serve over 1100 financially needy boys and girls today. Three years after his wife's death Hershey endowed the school with is entire fortune. He himself only completed the 4th grade. His philanthropy was motivated by a deep sense of obligation to use his wealth for the good of others.

*image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/sgmccook/57608910/

Chocolate in Trinidad:

-Trinidad is 11 degrees north of the equator so it falls within the 20 degree north/south range where cacao can be grown.
-Hershey uses cacao from Trinidad.
-As strong as the smell of chocolate in Hershey, PA is, the smell of driving through a cacao plantation is 100 times more. It was the most intoxicating aroma I have ever encountered. I wanted to get out of the car and re-enact the poppy field scene from The Wizard of Oz.