Ode To Things

I love things with a wild passion,
extravagantly.
I cherish tongs,
and scissors;
I adore
cups,
hoops,
soup tureens,
not to mention
of course-the hat.
I love
all things,
not only the
grand,
but also the infinite-
ly
small:
the thimble,
spurs,
dishes,
vases.

Oh my soul,
the planet is radiant,
teeming with
pipes
in hand,
conductors
of smoke;
with keys,
saltshakers, and
well,
things crafted
by the human hand, everything -
the curves of a shoe,
fabric,
the new bloodless birth
of gold,
the eyeglasses,
nails,
brooms,watches,compasses, coins, the silken
plushness of chairs

Oh
humans
have constructed
a multitude of pure things:
objects of wood,
crystal,
cord,
wondrous
tables,
ships, staircases

I love
all things,
not because they
might be warm
or fragrant,
but rather because-
I don't know why,
because
the ocean is yours,
and mine:
the buttons,
the wheels,
the little
forgotten
treasures,
the fans
of feathery
love spreading
orange blossoms,
the cups, the knives,
the shears,
everything rests
in the handle, the contour,
the traces
of fingers,
of a remote hand
lost
in the most forgotten of regions of the ordinary obscured.

I pass through houses,
streets,
elevators, touching things;
I glimpse objects
and secretly desire
something because it chimes,
and something else because
because it is as yielding
as gentle hips,
something else I adore for its deepwater hue,
something else for its velvety depths.

Oh irrevocable
river
of things.
People will not
say that I only
loved
fish
or plants of the rain forest or meadow,
that I only
loved
things that leap, rise, sigh, and survive.
It is not true:
many things gave me completeness.
They did not only touch me .
My hand did not merely touch them,
but rather,
they befriended
my existence
in such a way
that with me, they indeed existed
and they were for me so full of life,
that they lived with me half-alive,
and they will die with me half-dead.

by Pablo Neruda
translated by Maria Jacketti and Dennis Maloney

DILL-icious Dressing

Makes enough for 4 immense salads

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of first cold pressed extra virgin olive oil
1/8 cup honey (I prefer mesquite honey)
1/4 cup dijon mustard
1/8 cup (2 Tbsp) freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 Tbsp dried dill (2 Tbsp fresh)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper

Directions:
Thoroughly mix all ingredients. The dressing will be very viscous and should keep in the refrigerator for four days.
*This dressing is best on a simple salad of baby greens with slivered almonds.

Recipe by Cristina Paul

Blah-Blah-Blahg: Food For Nought

Irony of ironies
Today we turned our clocks forward in a national effort to conserve energy. Ostensibly, it makes sense. If we gain an hour of natural daylight, then we pay for and use one less hour of electrical light. NOT SO! Actually, many studies have found that this energy saving measure causes many to use more energy. Air conditioners in the warmer southern states and heaters in colder northern states are the primary culprits for this counter-intuitive use of extra energy. Since most of the extra energy we use is generated by coal-fired power plants, things aren't looking, well, "green". Moreover, the time change has always been pushed by big business. When people have more light after work, they go to the mall or shop. And they don't usually walk there... So the carbon footprint only gets deeper. This daylight "savings" reeks havoc on our circadian rhythms, robbing us of an hour of sleep in spring and cash for the extra use of electricity.

***Fun facts:
Daylight savings was first introduced, temporarily, in the United States during World War I, and then again during World War II. In 1966, it was reintroduced across most of the United States and Canada.