Atlantic Ave.

Cyber Monday greetings

Plastic nativity

It's Cyber Monday, ye olde traditional kick-off to holiday shopping online. According to the National Retail Federation, 85 million Americans will shop from home or work today.

The official NRF portal for the shopliday, with deals of the hour and special savings, is cybermonday.com. In case you care.

You know those bad dreams where you can't remember your high school locker combination, or you forgot to take one class and can't graduate from college, or you're running in slow motion through marshmallows and your destination is receding into the distance?

My bad dream is that it's 11 p.m. on Christmas Eve and I forgot to go shopping.

Diagnosis: acute Santa anxiety.

I want to put the Christ back in Christmas. See, isn't he cute there in his little plastic manger, with his bendable arms? Those are some fine looking wise men, with detachable frankincense and myrrh. Looks like the camel's head can go up and down. And what a cute little angel next to the hobo shepherd!

I want it. I want it all.

Christmas is a time when you get homesick - even when you're home. - Carol Nelson

From a commercial point of view, if Christmas did not exist it would be necessary to invent it. - Katharine Whitehorn

Once again we find ourselves enmeshed in the Holiday Season, that very special time of year when we join with our loved ones in sharing centuries-old traditions such as trying to find a parking space at the mall. We traditionally do this in my family by driving around the parking lot until we see a shopper emerge from the mall, then we follow her, in very much the same spirit as the Three Wise Men, who 2,000 years ago followed a star, week after week, until it led them to a parking space. - Dave Barry

To perceive Christmas through its wrapping becomes more difficult with every year. - E.B. White

Christmas is for children. But it is for grown-ups too. Even if it is a headache, a chore, and nightmare, it is a period of necessary defrosting of chill and hide-bound hearts. - Lenora Mattingly Weber

I can understand people simply fleeing the mountainous effort Christmas has become... but there are always a few saving graces and finally they make up for all the bother and distress. - May Sarton 

The Christmas season has come to mean the period when the public plays Santa Claus to the merchants. - John Andrew Holmes

Oh look, yet another Christmas TV special! How touching to have the meaning of Christmas brought to us by cola, fast food, and beer.... Who'd have ever guessed that product consumption, popular entertainment, and spirituality would mix so harmoniously? - Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes

For the spirit of Christmas fulfills the greatest hunger of mankind. - Loring A. Schuler

I do like Christmas on the whole.... In its clumsy way, it does approach Peace and Goodwill. But it is clumsier every year. - E.M. Forster

Storm makes waves

Thou swell

New Hampshire coast on Wednesday. Gorgeous grays. Dynamic surf.

Photo courtesy of Hampton freelance photographer extraordinaire John Carden.

John Carden Photo Gallery, SURF: Thanksgiving Swell New Hampshire, taken on 26 Nov. 2008

Gift of Warmth #5

In today's Seacoast Sunday newspaper...

Those on fixed income need heat
By Amy Kane

Like the majority of people who receive fuel assistance, Theresa is a senior citizen. Her children live in three different states. She lives alone on a small, fixed income. Staying warm is a winter priority, so she applied for a little help with her heating bill.

Theresa worked all her life, and raised the youngest of her three children alone after a divorce.

"Because I worked, I figured when I retired I'd be able to relax and do anything," she said.

Theresa saved and was able to purchase her own small home in a mobile home park in a Seacoast town. She heats it with natural gas. Theresa is thrifty but she barely squeaks by each month on a small Social Security check. Fuel assistance has relieved a bit of the burden.

"I am grateful for this. It's a little help that goes a long way," she said. "I'm comfortable now. I keep the temperature around 66 or 67 and wear a sweatshirt."

Her small dog is a beloved companion. She keeps in touch with her neighbors and worries about the ones who are struggling in a tough economy.

"Some of them are just a hair above being helped, and it gets harder for them every year," she said.

Theresa keeps busy with crafts, especially knitting and crocheting. She makes Christmas gifts for her children and grandchildren. She knits winter hats and donates them to the local social service center.

"I try to help if I can," she said.

She couldn't be with her family for Thanksgiving — two are serving in the military — so she invited a couple of brothers who live alone to share her turkey.

"Their mother asked me to keep an eye on them," she said.

Your tax-deductible donation to the Gift of Warmth will benefit Seacoast residents like Theresa who need help with heating costs this winter. Please make checks in any amount payable to "Gift of Warmth" and send them to Seacoast Media Group, 111 New Hampshire Ave., Portsmouth, NH 03801.

For information or to apply for fuel assistance, contact the Rockingham Community Action Fuel Assistance program at 1-800-639-3896.

RCA has an office in Portsmouth and outreach centers in Salem, Raymond and Derry. RCA also offers help with literacy, employment training, security deposit and rent loans, health and nutrition, Head Start, budget counseling, energy audits and counseling, weatherization, and referrals for other social service needs.

Editorial: Seacoast's generosity will warm area homes

Find your place at the table

I am a pie, possibly sweet potato

About a hundred years ago, my sister Lauren made place cards for Thanksgiving.

Every name is illustrated by a different character related (mostly) to the popular conception of the holiday. There are Indians and turkeys and pilgrims and pilgrim hats and muskets and Indian corn and a variety of anthropomorphic foodstuffs (see above).

New place cards are added every year as people get married, children are born, friends drop in for a Thanksgiving or two. Creation is supervised by Lauren but with design help from the most junior members of the clan, the children of our cousins.

Lauren is The Artistic One. She grew up to become a director of animation for Pixar. (Watch for Newt in 2012.)

When I got home from Thanksgiving, a fat Fed Ex was waiting for me with lots to read about my six-week job coming up in mid-winter. After I had unpacked suitcases, started a couple of loads of laundry and made sure the children knew what was expected of them, I read a couple of choice bits aloud to John while he cooked dinner.

In all situations, the data collector's clothes are clean, neat, and inconspicuous.

"That's you alright," said John.

Like a plain little moth, I am pinned to the velvet in the collector's box. I am a known quantity. I am clean, neat, and inconspicuous.

My shoes are brown. My sisters wear black cowboy boots.

When you come from a big family, you get your labels. I am The Responsible One. I didn't used to be responsible at all but then I had kids. And as the eldest of six I evolved more quickly towards (yawn) responsibility.

Sometimes I am The Writer, because I've always had writerly pretentions and I have churned out the most shared words over the years. Even if others write well, and are paid more to do it, I will still be The Writer because I got there first and planted the flag.

While she peeled 25 lbs of potatoes and I cut them up, my sister Ursula and I were discussing the labels, the current official popular conception of who we are. She is The Lawyer and also The One Who Got Through College in Four Years Directly Out of High School and Who Does What She's Supposed To.

A large family is like a small town: people are always going to know your business.

We talked about The Favorite, The Boy, The One Who Is the Most Trouble At the Moment, The Musical One(s). Or The One Who Was a Jaeger Girl, The One Who Picks Fights At Thanksgiving, The One Who Bakes the Bread and Brews the Beer.

And that is just among the six of us siblings. The aunts and uncles and cousins and cousins once removed and husbands and wives and children have their labels too. Some are based on talents, jobs or hobbies, others on personalities or things they did once. Some are quite specific to the holiday. The One Who Plays the Piano and Leads the 'Rocky Raccoon' Sing-Along at Thanksgiving After Dinner and Before Dessert. The One Who Nags Everyone to Play Trivial Pursuit.

The labels can be relative - that is, your label depends upon your place among the group, your talents or personality relative to others. For example, it would be easy to be The Graceful One if everyone else tripped over things constantly.

Sometimes you have a say over your own label. You can decide at a young age to devote all your energy and ambitions to, for example, making art. But mostly you don't have a say over your label. "Oh, she was born that way." It's like a nickname. You just get stuck with it.

There may be labels you have outgrown... everywhere but among your family. The collective family memory goes way back.

The labels can be limiting, we agreed, sometimes even irritating, and tell only a small part of the truth of that person.  Yet it is also comforting to be observed with care, to be known, and to have a place in a group of unique and varied individuals.

There were 35 of us this Thanksgiving, presided over by my grandmother, her three sons and the people connected to them by blood or marriage. Seated around the table, with an amazing feast spread before us, we joined hands to say grace.

For a short time, once a year, we are a sum greater than our parts, transcending our labels and limitations. We are one, whole, a pie with all its wedges... a family.

Photo album: Thanksgiving 2008

Get cookin'

Laura operates the apple corer

The kitchen is the center of the earth, on the day before Thanksgiving. Thirty-five people for dinner tomorrow.

Pies: two pumpkin and one pecan

Pie bakers are also working on a cranberry sour cream pie, apple pie, and pumpkin bourbon cheesecake. 

My uncle brought the wine late this morning. We cracked open a couple of bottles of this year's Beaujolais Nouveau and declared it good.

Thanksgiving is not just for humans

Ava is a semi-wild creature, possibly a fox or coyote pretending to be a dog. She can only be tamed with treats, a word she knows.

Peacockurkey

Laura started drawing a turkey during the 6 and a half hour ride yesterday but it turned into a peacock.

In the cellar, Ann arranges flowers

Everyone lends a hand to the best of their ability. I can sweep porches and peel potatoes.

My youngest sister, Fiona, gets a lesson from our dad

He was demonstrating an open G minor tuning. Music will be part of the day, as it is every year. It's a tradition.

Bouquet

Thanksgiving comes to us out of the prehistoric dimness, universal to all ages and all faiths. At whatever straws we must grasp, there is always a time for gratitude and new beginnings.  - J. Robert Moskin

Sou'easter

The wind woke me, prying its wind fingers into the cracks and crannies of the house, making wind sounds.

Storm today along our coast and up into southern Maine, with rain and southeast winds 30 to 40 mph, gusting to 60 this afternoon. A real hatch-battener.

My husband was called out on a trip to tropical climes. Twenty-one years with American Airlines and he stills misses holidays. He's scheduled to fly through Christmas and New Years too, but at least he's going to St. Thomas. How nice for him.

My daughters and I will load up our RAV4 Mayflower this morning and set sail into the teeth of the wind for the Land of Many Pies. Time to get out of bed.

A journey of 372 miles must begin with a single step.

Mermaid

Laura at the Blue Mermaid Island Grill, Portsmouth

Really good food, a little bit expensive. Good location at the edge of downtown. Eye-catching use of interior color.

I recommend the lobster and roasted corn chowder. The burgers are big.

Also savory: an appetizer called 'saddlebags' – crisy wontons filled with chicken, jack cheese, herbs and spices and served with ginger-soy dipping sauce. Crispy calamari rings with tomato-ancho chile mayo to dip, yum.

The drinks come with a little plastic mermaid perched on the rim of the glass.

The cocktails and the special small plates, finger foods, salads and 'fusion' cuisine are girly, according to my husband. But on Saturday it was just us girls, my sister and daughters. We were in town to return and borrow books and movies from the library, buy sweaters and socks, and find good yarn at the knitting store.

Blue Mermaid

Super savings

This coupon arrived in email from a friend. Laugh till ya cry.

Steyn: The Death of the American Idea

Rosett: It's Time to Restore Liberty

Cordially yours

Cranberry, blueberry and coffee liqueur

Nothing says "Thanksgiving hostess gift" like homemade liqueur. The blueberry liqueur started with about six or seven cups of wild blueberries picked from our bushes in early August.

Homemade Cranberry Liqueur – start now and it will be ready for Christmas.

Liqueur making principles and techniques, by Gunther Anderson. Recipes.

Gift of Warmth #4

In today's Seacoast Sunday newspaper...

Newlyweds give warmth to others
Guests encouraged to donate to fuel fund
By Amy Kane

Throw a wedding party, get lots of gifts. That's the traditional formula to begin the happily-ever-after.

But instead of receiving packages tied up with pretty ribbons, one New Castle couple asked their wedding guests to give to the Gift of Warmth instead.

Michele Grennon and Joff Barrnett were married on Sept. 5. Their guests donated a total of $700 in their honor. Their generosity will help local residents who are struggling to afford the high costs of heating their homes and apartment this winter.

It is the second marriage for both Michele and Joff. They wanted an alternative to traditional gifts, something in the spirit of giving rather than receiving.

"We didn't need anything," Michele said.

When invited guests asked Joff if the couple had a registry, he joked that they should come with their pickup trucks and take things away instead.

Michele had donated to the Gift of Warmth fund-raiser last year. At the time, they were planning their wedding, oil prices had skyrocketed, and winter was looking a little scary for the less fortunate. They decided fuel assistance would be a worthy cause.

"We wanted to help take a chunk off their plate. People should not have to choose between heating fuel and medicine," Michele said.

A big tent was set up for the wedding reception at the edge of the water behind the couple's New Castle home, where the flashing beacons of three lighthouses are visible at night. About 80 people attended, including Michele's daughter and her daughter's husband, as well as Joff's two daughters.

"It was a gathering of the clans," Michele said.

The suggestion to donate to Gift of Warmth was well received by their guests.

"It was wonderful. Our friends were pleased with the choice, with being able to give," Michele said.

Helping others is how they met, in fact. The two served as board members of the New Hampshire Children's Alliance. Joff is a child psychiatrist in Concord and an associate professor at Dartmouth Medical School. Michele is president of the Threshold Foundation, a philanthropic organization providing seed grant funds for environmental and social justice causes.

Both are pleased the Gift of Warmth addresses local needs, with all the money going to recipients rather than administrative overhead.

"There's precious little in New Hampshire that gives to New Hampshire," Joff said.

State government is going to be struggling in the next couple of years with a $200 million deficit and cuts may come to outreach organizations, Joff said.

Michele said she is supportive of fuel assistance because weatherization programs are available for recipients as well. Energy efficiency and conservation measures help reduce heating costs, providing a long-term solution for homeowners and renters as well as conserving energy resources.

"It's a systemic answer," Michele said.

"A lasting gift," Joff added.

Your tax-deductible donation to the Gift of Warmth will benefit Seacoast residents who need help with heating costs this winter. Please make tax-deductible checks in any amount payable to "Gift of Warmth" and send them to Seacoast Media Group, 111 New Hampshire Ave., Portsmouth, NH 03801.

November fruit

Winterberry in the woods

50 greatest books

As the turkey roasts, a toast

The must-have Thanksgiving accessory

When shrieked
The bleak November winds, and smote the woods,
And the brown fields were herbless, and the shades
That met above the merry rivulet
Were spoiled, I sought, I loved them still; they seemed
Like old companions in adversity.
- William Cullen Bryant, A Winter Piece

Knit one hat

Coming in from the cold

Anna models her new winter hat – a sort of soft, substantial, floppy beret. She knitted it herself while recovering from her knee infection.

She bought the wool last year in a local yarn shop that has since closed. She invented the pattern as she went along.

"I used 10 and a half needles, circular, and changed to double-pointed toward the end when I was decreasing at the top of hat," she says.

She keeps secrets in her hat

The colors?

"Autumnal. A pretty, almost metallic iridescent bronze, with purples and pinks, greens and blues, and mostly black."

Why that yarn?

"I wanted something that had color to it but was kind of subtle, and I think it looks good with my hair."

What did you learn making this hat?

"It's okay to try to do something without a pattern."

Chapeau

Where will you wear your new hat?

"Out and about, going to Portsmouth to drink coffee and look like a beatnik, or a scenester if you will."

What do you like about knitting?

"It's fun to start knitting something when you just have the yarn because it's like string, and then there's a point that it stops being just a ball of string and becomes wearable, a garment, or art."

"And it's soothing to knit."

A favorite site: Knitty

Weapon in germ war manufactured locally

Our knight in shining silver armor

A local company recently began making a fabric embedded with silver and copper to combat our least favorite superbug MRSA, we learned from friends last night.

Foss Manufacturing in Hampton engineers non-woven fabrics. Its Fosshield antimicrobial fabric has proven effective at slaying the deadly MRSA staph bacteria.

NEWS

Hampton, New Hampshire – October 30, 2007 – Foss Manufacturing Company, the first company to successfully embed a natural balance of silver and copper into fiber, has today announced that its Fosshield® patented technology is 99.99 percent effective in killing methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria to below the level of detection within one hour. 

The self-sanitizing fiber, soon to be used in a wide range of products found in schools, offices, homes, and communal environments, provides continuous antimicrobial protection against MRSA. 

MRSA is a type of Staphylococcus aureus (staph) resistant to certain antibiotics including methicillin and the more common antibiotics such as oxacillin, penicillin, cephalexin and amoxicillin.  MRSA incidence is on the rise in the U.S. and it has now become recognized as a major community-acquired pathogen and growing crisis. 

Apparently they are using this same technology in ventilator tubes too, to prevent pneumonia. Thank you, Foss!

Novem-brrr

Oak leaves are mittens blown and caught in the treetops

It's cold.

Cold feels wrong to me, like the absence of something. Even though it is the normal condition of our climate, particularly in November, and pretty much through April.

I need a mental climate adjustment. Love the cold; live the cold.

I'm typing this in a chair next to a gas fireplace.

Zeus in the woods

The days don't seem long enough. Life doesn't seem long enough.

Our dog turned 7 in October. He's older than I am now, in dog years.

Driving north along the coast yesterday, the sun was low in the sky behind me. The ocean, rocks, beaches, marshes, houses, little closed up shops, fishing boats in Rye Harbor, white behemoth Wentworth Hotel were bathed in the fiery last light of sunset and it was beautiful. And it was 3:45 p.m.

Carpe diem.

The white sun
like a moth
on a string
circles the southpole.
- A. R. Ammons, Late November