Stanley Lee Brittingham
My grandfather, Stanley Brittingham, passed away today at the age of 84. His death came less than one month after my grandmother’s.
Papa, as I called him, was a larger-than-life figure. He loved boxing and lifting weights. He served part of the Second World War in the Navy and witnessed the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. In the early 1960s he was chief of police in Nevada, Missouri, a job he loved.
I’m certain that my appetite is a direct inheritance from him. The amount he could eat was legendary — whole plates of pork tenderloins, giant bowls of Chef-Boyardee pasta with meat sauce, mounds of ice cream and candy bars. He loved everything sweet. Visiting my grandparents there were never any rules on when or what or even where you could eat. He liked to set up shop in the living room with a toaster oven to make sandwiches and watch Johnny Carson.
If he thought something was inadequate he would call it “Mickey Mouse” and if he thought something was of high quality it was “tremendous.” He always had rolls of quarters and crisp one dollar or five dollar bills for my cousin and me. Money held a magical quality for him and he transferred that to his grandkids by sending us letters with dollars inside or Eisenhower dollar coins taped to our birthday cards. At Easter the plastic eggs hidden in the yard rattled with change and sent us into a competition to get the most coins for our pockets. He loved to draw pictures for his kids and grandkids too. His favorite figures were a duck smoking a pipe and a butterfly.
He worked hard for his family and, though he never had a lot, did everything possible to make his children happy and never want for a thing. He was one of a kind and I’ll miss him dearly.
Bertha Louise Brittingham
My maternal grandmother, Bertha Brittingham, passed away today at the age of 86. She was a mother of six children who lived a modest life.
My favorite memories of her include waking up early as a child and coming downstairs to find her folding a pile of warm laundry, something she did every morning out of habit. “Wheel of Fortune” would be on the television with the sound turned low. I would take the washcloths and fold them in quarters for her. Grandma could guess the word puzzles with only a few letters filled in.
She was born 1921 in Butler, Missouri, a small mining and farming community in the southwestern part of the state. Growing up before the age of mass communications, Grandma’s way of speaking was filled with local flavor. Butter she called oleo. Things didn’t go bad, they were “no count.” She would say “stout” instead of “strong.”
View Bertha’s Life Slideshow at Smilebox.
US Sentaor as President
Trivia Question: Who was the last sitting United States President to have been a US Senator? Picture by vgm8383
My Thanksgiving Dinner
This is plate number one of two. I weighed myself before and after the meal. The end result was a gain of 3.6 pounds. On the plate you will see savory mushroom dressing, spinach casserole, roasted butternut squash, mashed potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce, turkey gravy, and mushroom gravy. Yum. I added two slices of pumpkin pie to top it off and didn’t eat again until Friday afternoon.
Black Diamonds
Destroying mountains for coal is also destroying lives and communities in Appalachia. “Black Diamonds” documents the battle to end a practice that removes coal and leaves scorched and barren landscapes behind:
“Black Diamonds charts the escalating drama in Appalachia over the alarming increase in large mountaintop coal mines. These mammoth operations have covered 1200 miles of headwater streams with mining waste; demolished thousands of acres of hardwood forest; and flattened hundred of Appalachian mountain peaks. Citizen testimony and visual documentation interwoven with the perspectives of government officials, activists, and scientists create a riveting portrait of an American region fighting for its life–caught between the grinding wheels of the national appetite for cheap energy and an enduring sense of Appalachian culture, pride, and natural beauty.”
Hopefully the movie will be shown outside of the Appalachian states to build awareness and end large-scale surface mining of coal before more of America is blown away.
Dowtown Crossing Loses Landmarks
The Chacarero restaurant in Downtown Crossing Boston will be evicted from the Filene’s building on July 31, as will the other small businesses in the building and on the sidewalk (the push cart vendors whose lease ends August 31). This is to make way for a 38-story office tower with condos, office space, a hotel, and retail shopping. The project is called One Franklin Street. This is all being done in the name of progress because the perception is that Downtown Crossing is grimy, run-down, and filled with low-quality shops and fast food restaurants.
Characero serves a sandwich from Chile that has fresh baked bread, avocado spread, meat (chicken or beef or both), green beans, and tomato. It’s famous for the line outside of their counter that is typically fifty people long at lunchtime. Like the Littlest Bar, Chacarero added a flair to Downtown Crossing that set it apart from other parts of the city and the suburbs. In my opinion, the appeal and vibrancy of the city is at risk when the little guys are muscled out. Chacarero will live on though in a different, indoor location at 26 Province Street, but for a restaurant that pioneered unique sidewalk food in the heart of the city it seems like a defeat to lose their location.
See “Boston Shops for New Look Around Filene’s Building” from the Wall Street Journal which details the One Franklin Street development.
New Jazz Echo
My co-worker, Randy Kravette (far left in the photo), plays trumpet in a jazz quintet known as New Jazz Echo. We went to see them perform at the Java Room in Chelmsford last night and were blown away by the caliber and intensity of their music. The quintet performs Jazz standards focused on bebop, cool jazz, hard bop, and works from the American song book. I was excited to hear some of my favorites such as Coltrane’s “Cousin Mary” and “Syeeda’s Song Flute” and Clifford Brown’s “Sandu” and “Joy Spring” and tunes from Hank Mobley, Charles Mingus, and Ahmad Jamal. You can experience New Jazz Echo’s music yourself via their web site’s “Listen” page or by catching a live performance.
All the Presidents in 10
Inspired by “50 States in 10 Minutes” game on the Ironic Sans blog, I mentioned to our tech-savy interns that someone should write a similar game for US Presidents. Tony took the dare on and came up with the much harder (in my opinion) “43 US Presidents in 10 minutes” quiz. How many can you get? Let me know in the comments section below.