Standing the Test of Time: the Universally Popular Cheesecake

Grab a fork—National Cheesecake Day is on Sunday, July 30th!

The familiar sweet treat is generally a mixture of soft cheese, eggs, and sugar poured into a crust of graham crackers, shortbread, or sponge cake. Today’s varieties range from the pristine New York Style to flavored cheesecakes (like chocolate, lemon, or pumpkin) and added fruits (like berries, cherries, or pineapple,) decorated with nuts and whipped cream, baked or unbaked.

It isn’t actually a cake at all but more of a cheese tart or flan or custard pie. The Basque-style cheesecake is much like a custard and baked to the edge of burnt. In 1996, a savory salmon cheesecake took top prize in a Better Homes & Gardens’ recipe contest.

Cheesecake, like many things, started with the Greeks. Cheese molds discovered on the island of Samos are approximately 4000 years old, and experts speculate that humans ate cheese products well before this. A form of cheesecake gave energy to the first Olympic athletes in 776 BC. These first cheesecakes consisted of cheese pounded into a paste and formed into a loaf with honey and wheat flour, then baked.

When the Romans conquered Greece, they made cheesecake their own, called it “libum,” and published a recipe for it during the first century AD in a comprehensive food work by Marcus Porcius Cato, a politician. This version is very similar to the Greek’s but added eggs to the mixture. It, too, was formed into a loaf, then baked in a fire, on leaves under “a brick.”

By the end of the first millennium, countries all over Europe were making their individual styles of cheesecakes thanks to the Romans expanding their empire. In the 16th century the French developed Neufchatel cheese, soft, creamy and a favorite of Napoleon’s used often in cheesecake recipes.

Meanwhile in 1872 America, a dairy farmer named William Lawrence, of Chester, NY, was trying to recreate Neufchatel for this side of the pond. He didn’t, but he did discover an American classic: cream cheese, called so because it WAS creamier and richer than Neufchatel.

In the 1920’s restaurateur Arnold Reuben experimented with cheese pies as desserts for his menu. He tweaked and perfected until he unveiled the New York style cheesecake, made with cream cheese, egg yolks, heavy cream or sour cream, with a little sugar, lemon, and a graham cracker crust. The authentic New York cheesecake stands on its own without fruits, nuts, flavors, or whipped cream.

Simple and unadorned or loaded with layers of flavors, cheesecake’s creamy goodness is universally popular. Today is a great day to treat yourself to a slice of this ancient and historical classic.

Cheesecake from Savoia Pastry Shoppe, Rochester, NY

The Buzz about a Neighborhood Pollinator Project--#GiveBeesAChance

This article was written for and appears in the June/July 2023 issue of The WEDGE newspaper. Click here to see the full issue.

Did you know that 87 percent of 115 global food crops depend on pollinators? That’s 100 crops that include tomatoes, apples, alfalfa (fed to dairy cattle,) bananas, coffee, tea, grapes, and chocolate. The United States daily diet would look much different without them. In fact, according to Pollinator Partnership (www.pollinator.org,) one out of three bites of food is produced from pollinated plants.

What are pollinators? They are insects or other wildlife that visit flowering plants to eat or gather nectar, brushing against dusty pollen that adheres to their legs or bodies. As the pollinator moves from flower to flower, the pollen flakes off onto the next flower. Fertilization occurs, resulting in fruit, and, in many cases, food.

Here in New York state, the 400 species of native bees are the most identified pollinators, but, according to Cornell Cooperative Extension, there are many other NY pollinators that keep the ecosystem going: 1,000 species of wasps (many eat other bugs,) 50 species of butterflies, 300 species of moths, and some species of flies. Beetles, the first pollinators, have been pollinating for 95 million years, and the Ruby-Throated Hummingbird is the only bird that pollinates, eating half its weight in nectar at up to 2,000 flowers per day.

Many pollinators have been declining in population over the past two decades, the largest threats being pesticides and loss of habitat from either development or invasive species killing native plants. There are steps, however, that can reverse some of the damage and promote a healthy ecosystem to support growth.

Hickory Street resident Peter Siegrist is from Appleton, Wisconsin. A few years ago, Appleton decided to address the dwindling pollinator issue with a city-wide research study on bees through Lawrence University and a subsequent program called “No Mow May,” where residents allow their yards to grow naturally with dandelions and other flowering weeds for the month of May. This gives pollinators early food to get the season started before other plants begin flowering. He looked at the possibility of a Hickory St. “No Mow May,” but it wasn’t feasible because of multi-resident housing and city-owned Marie Daley Park. However, the block club, Hickory NUTS (Neighbors United Together in Service,) had already installed planter boxes at several sites years ago that residents still maintained.

Siegrist and neighbors discussed planting pollinator-friendly plants in the boxes this spring to encourage local pollinators and decided to add two new boxes in tree lawns as well. Cornell Cooperative Extension provided a presentation for all the neighbors on pollinators, stressing the importance of staging plantings to ensure blooms from early spring until the end of fall and using native plants for local pollinators. The residents constructed the new planters and picked up plants like Echinacea, brown-eyed Susan, sedum, phlox, and sunflowers to fill them. For Rochester Clean-Sweep Day, Hickory St. volunteers shoveled fresh compost full of nutrients into all the planters.

While the gardeners face some urban garden challenges, for example lots of shade from the spreads of old trees, the Hickory NUTS are excited and optimistic about the pollinator project on community and personal levels. This group is a mix of seasoned gardeners and those who have other skills coming together for the bees, the environment, and to contribute to the neighborhood.  

“It’s a connection to the street,” says JD Dennis, a Hickory St. resident for 40 years who built the original planters. “This is a community.”

Others, too, cite “camaraderie” and social aspects of the gardens as beneficial, including Siegrist who has lived there just since September 2022.

Jayne Morgan, a resident since 2006, adds that a challenge and benefit of the project is teaching people about the importance of pollinators and the harmful effects of pesticides and climate change on the food chain. Her husband, Gary Loitsch, says that it makes the street beautiful and shows that people care about where they live.

“If everyone could do one little thing [to create a better environment for pollinators,]” Morgan notes, “it would have a positive effect. This is one thing that people can do.”   

The Hickory NUTS say the goal is to get other blocks and neighborhoods in the South Wedge—or the city---to follow suit.

“You can feel so small on this Earth,” resident Mary Ellen Dennis adds. “But then you think about the bees:  they come together to save the hive.”

13 Days of Halloween: #1 Happy Halloween

It’s here…party time. Trick or treating and gatherings. Halloween’s history and practice give this holiday a surreal quality unlike other holidays. Jack o’lanterns lighting the night designed to scare evil spirits away, the veil between worlds dissipating, tricks, masks, swirling leaves, witches, monsters, Batman, clowns---nothing is as it appears. When I think of Halloween I think of movement. There is a chaotic energy about with children running, parents frantically trying to keep them in sight. I’ve seen snow flying on Halloween, but most of the time dying leaves are dropping from trees or kicking up in mini cyclones along the road. Flashlights and headlights catch capes of superheroes and vampires fluttering and whipping.  

Ten years ago, when I was a reporter for a daily paper in the Ohio Valley, I was invited to cover two town Halloween parties on the same evening. These were small rural towns, and these parties were traditions for them, put on by volunteers at the town community halls. The celebrations brought out all of the townspeople, many in costumes. I have to say I didn’t expect the creepy feelings that the parties brought on, but it was certainly spooky. Maybe it was the darkness and the scary makeup or maybe the way Dorothy was eyeing the mummy’s meat cleaver.  

Be safe out there, and Happy Halloween!

13 Days of Halloween: #2 To Put to Sleep

An actual graveyard, since the structure is a former church.

The word “cemetery” originated with the Greek word koiman, meaning “to put to sleep.” The first actual cemetery is believed to be a Moroccan cave called Taforalt that dates to 15,100 to 14,000 years ago.  Civilizations and cultures have dealt with death in many evolutions: grave fields, family plots, consecrated church property (graveyards,) catacombs, rural cemeteries, memorial parks, and most currently, green burials.

Around 600 CE, the Church took over burial arrangements. Most people were buried in mass graves. When the bodies decomposed, the bones were removed to other places such as trenches along the graveyard perimeters or put underneath the church itself. In 1000 years this became a problem. Not only was space running short, the populations of cities and towns were growing, and caskets were stacked as many as six deep in plots. People began dying in record numbers from the plague, cholera, and other diseases. Graveyards were no longer considered safe for the living with their concentrations of diseased bodies decomposing into the surrounding air. Runoff and floods leached into creeks and rivers, carrying the bacteria to the general population.

Revolutionary War soldiers lay at rest here. This area of Ohio was a battle ground and the new frontier, and many received land on the West side of the Ohio River in payment for their service.

By the 16th century Paris addressed the problems by exhuming skeletons from all of the church graveyards and depositing them in underground tunnels, now catacombs. Estimates speculate that the bones of six million people reside there. Other European cities followed suit.

A longer-term solution was in order and led to the development of “rural” landscaped cemetery parks. Usually located just outside of the city or town, the sprawling land was designed to be park-like with trees and plantings promoting peace, communing with loved ones, and contemplation, since many people thought of death as a type of sleep. They were operated by municipalities or private entities, and people felt so comfortable there that they spent time picnicking with their departed loved ones regularly and used the cemeteries as recreational spaces. The first in Europe was built in 1785, and the first in the United States was built in 1831 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Beautiful historic Mount Hope Cemetery was also an early example, built in 1839, and still operating today. Both Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass rest there, along with many other of Rochester’s most prominent names.

The photos in today’s post were taken in Belmont County, Ohio.

Here are a few facts about other cemeteries. Happy Halloween:

• Washington Square Park in New York City was once a graveyard. There may be as many as 20,000 bodies still buried there.

• Arlington National Cemetery used to be Robert E. Lee’s estate, where he lived. During the Civil War the Union occupied the land and turned it into a cemetery to keep Lee from trying to return there.

• In Liverpool, England, there is a headstone in the graveyard of St. Peter’s Church with the name “Eleanor Rigby.”

• Ants and bees designate “undertakers” in their colonies to take their dead to their own type of cemetery: a trash pile away from the nest or a special chamber in the hive. Some will even bury their dead.

• Jewish cemetery visitors leave stones at the graves of loved ones rather than flowers. The symbolism is that flowers are impermanent, and stones represent the love, memories, and soul as eternal.    

cemeteries are not just places to put bodies. They are history, giving us glimpses of the past and making it real. In a morristown, OH cemetery I found a large stone with the name “gaston” and a brief family story noting that part of the family moved to portland, oregon. There is a town outside of portland called gaston. I’ve been there.

13 Days of Halloween: #3 Park with a Past

North of the city of Rochester, NY, on the shore of Lake Ontario, lie 977 acres of parkland. At the beginning of the 20th century a man named Dr. Henry S. Durand owned a portion of the acreage using it as a Boy Scout summer camp. He and his friend George Eastman (as in Eastman Kodak) decided to purchase surrounding farm land to make the entire parcel into a lakeside public park. In 1907 they turned it over the the City of Rochester, and it was officially dedicated in 1909.

The park is home to one of Rochester’s most-told ghost stories, The Lady in White. People still report seeing her along Lakeshore Boulevard, which runs through the north end of the park, along the beach. Details of the story have gotten convoluted since her death in the 1800s, but most involve her search for her missing daughter who 1. went down to the lake and never came back; 2. went on a date with a local farmer’s son and never returned home; or 3. was attacked and killed by a group of men wandering the area. This farm wife went out to search for her and either 1. died during the search or 2. threw herself into Lake Ontario out of grief. Her apparition has been spotted by park goers for decades. A filmmaker from Rochester, Frank LaLoggia, based his 1988 movie, “Lady in White,” on this story.

On Lakeshore Blvd. near Durand Lake, there are visible remains of a stone foundation and steps leading up the hill to the top. Legend says that this was the White Lady’s Castle, where she lived, and it is called that today. However, the ruin is actually part of a dining hall for the Boy Scout camp and early park goers, but it was torn down by park services after the park opened.

While I haven’t seen the White Lady, I mentioned in an earlier post that I’ve had a couple of unusual experiences at the park. I’m fairly familiar with Durand Eastman. For years I’ve walked there on weekends, weather permitting, usually taking the Lakeshore beach trail or a paved trail through the woods.

Most of the time other walkers are reasonably friendly, and I feel safe. I have seen people who appear to be homeless disappearing into the woods—just once in a great while, since the park is surrounded by residential streets. One morning last year a young man was waking up on a bench. He was disheveled; his long hair was scraggly. It looked like he had been in a fight because his eye was swollen and he had blood on his face and clothes. I slowed down to gauge the situation: did he need help? was he seriously injured? was he homeless, or did he find his way here after a rough night? He sat up and looked at me, and I thought he would be okay because he was moving all of his limbs. If he was still there on my return, I would see if he needed help. But he had gone by that time.

My most unsettling experience happened about a year and a half ago. Olive and I were walking toward the bridge over the wetlands as we had 100 times before. When you’re walking not everyone warns you that they’re coming up behind you. The woods was quiet—no birds, squirrels, leaves rustling—but I heard footsteps behind me, not close but coming. I assumed it was a runner. I moved over to the right, still hearing the steps just a few feet away. Olive stopped to sniff a fallen tree, and I turned to smile at the person behind me. There was no person there. I DID hear the footsteps.

Finally, just recently, I took Olive for our Saturday walk. It was quiet at the park—only one other car, no people in sight. We got about halfway down the hill, and Olive stopped. Not to sniff, just stopped on the trail and looked at me. I pulled on her leash, and she didn’t move. I tried to coax her on, but she wouldn’t go. This was highly irregular since she loves going to the park and practically scampers the entire time we’re there. I pulled again, but she stayed still and started to pant. Since she has never done that before, I heeded the warning, and we turned around and went back to the car. I assume she sensed some sort of predator, maybe a coyote. There’s nothing any bigger in the park (except deer) that I’m aware of. Or maybe it was some other energy that was hovering near or ahead of us. I’ll never know. Sometimes you just have to trust natural instincts.

13 Days of Halloween: #4 The Future is in Your Food

The word “divination” comes from the Latin word divinare meaning to predict. Humans have always been curious about the future. Ancient Etruscans, Romans and Babylonians read the organs and entrails of sacrificed animals to discern future events. The Greeks sought out oracles with direct lines to the gods. The Italians developed tarot cards in the 14th century to channel what was coming. But common folk were interested, too, and didn’t have access to oracles and other tools for foretelling.

What they did have was food. Maybe it started as a game, or maybe it started with an eccentric old woman living in the woods mixing herbs and frog toes, but the Celts and other civilizations began using fruits and vegetables to predict love and fortune. This was especially poignant this time of year for the Celts, as it was the end of their calendar year, the end of the harvest, and the time when the spirit world and physical world were the closest.   

Here are three foods, probably in your kitchen right now, that hold the powers of prognostication.

Apples

Always kind of a gross game that has most likely met its permanent end after COVID, bobbing for apples began at the ancient Roman festival for the goddess Pomona and continued at Samhain and Halloween celebrations ever after into at least the 20th century.

There are several versions, the most familiar being putting apples into a tub of water and trying to grab one with your teeth. Girls have been known to carve boys’ names into the fruit prior to dunking, and whoever’s name was pulled was, supposedly, who she would marry. More dangerous variations of this game include “snap apple” where participants spring for spinning apples---with candles inside of them—dangling from tree limbs. Or guests can try their luck at snagging one from a tray of burning brandy. Good times.

The seemingly safest way to use this fruit for fortune telling is to peel the skin from the apple all in one strip and throw the strip over your shoulder. Scrutinize the peel for a legible letter of the alphabet, and it will be the initial of your future beloved.

Eggs

The ancient Greeks and Romans also practiced oomancy (oo-man-see) or predicting with eggs. A common practice in the early 18th century, the “Venus glass” was called out and forbidden specifically by Rev. John Hale as he tracked down candidates for the Salem Witch Trials.

The method is simple. Concentrate on your question. Add hot water to a clear glass or bowl. Either crack an egg and separate the yolk from the white and pour the white into the water or pierce a hole in the egg’s shell and allow the white to drip into the water. Shapes and images may appear that should help answer the question.  

Onions

This vegetable has been used for hundreds of years for cleansing the home, attracting abundance, finding true love, and making decisions. There are many YouTube videos on the onion and making it work for you, but you can try the following easy customs to begin.

This centuries-old ritual needs a little patience. If you are having trouble making a “this or that” decision, you’ll need two onions. Think about your question. Carve “this” answer in one and “that” answer in the other onion. Put the onions away in a cool dark place. Now we wait. The first onion to show a green sprout will be your answer.

An Ayurvedic cleansing practice splits one onion into quarters. Place one quarter in each corner of the room to clear old energy that may have collected there from negative events, stress, worry, or just stale energy.

Another ritual uses only the skin of the onion to welcome abundance. Hold a piece of onion skin in your hand and focus your intention for abundance (new car, bigger house, money, job, etc.)  Hold the onion skin with tongs, and light the skin on fire, letting the ashes drop onto a plate or bowl. Take the ashes outside, and think about your intention again as you empty the bowl into the wind.

Best wishes for finding love, health, and abundance with or without produce.

13 Days of Halloween: #5 Creepy Poems

Poetic language gives us images encapsulated. It does not waste words. Yet there is still room for imagination and fear to creep in. Books wind pages of details and backstories and characters around plots. A poem can give you a story, a feeling, an inspiration, and even a plot in far fewer words, but it leaves enough room to make you think and fill in the details and backstories with your mind.  

Robert Frost gives us a sense of time passing in “Ghost House.” William Shakespeare gives us a sinister recipe from the Witches in Macbeth.

But one of my favorite seasonal books is composed of the poems of the ghosts of Spoon River, Illinois. The former inhabitants of this small town share their secrets and lessons learned after death. Some are confused; some are at peace; some are bitter. Together, all of these confessions unravel the town’s dark undercurrents: theft, murder, rape, regrets, corruption. It’s disturbing and creepy.  Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology is available in a free downloadable version online.

Light a candle, pour some cider, snuggle under a blanket. Enjoy these macabre verses.

Ghost House

by Robert Frost

I dwell in a lonely house I know
That vanished many a summer ago,
   And left no trace but the cellar walls,
   And a cellar in which the daylight falls
And the purple-stemmed wild raspberries grow.

O'er ruined fences the grape-vines shield
The woods come back to the mowing field;
   The orchard tree has grown one copse
   Of new wood and old where the woodpecker chops;
The footpath down to the well is healed.

I dwell with a strangely aching heart
In that vanished abode there far apart
   On that disused and forgotten road
   That has no dust-bath now for the toad.
Night comes; the black bats tumble and dart;

The whippoorwill is coming to shout
And hush and cluck and flutter about:
   I hear him begin far enough away
   Full many a time to say his say
Before he arrives to say it out.

It is under the small, dim, summer star.
I know not who these mute folk are
   Who share the unlit place with me—
   Those stones out under the low-limbed tree
Doubtless bear names that the mosses mar.

They are tireless folk, but slow and sad—
Though two, close-keeping, are lass and lad,—
With none among them that ever sings,
And yet, in view of how many things,
As sweet companions as might be had.

Song of the Witches: “Double, double toil and trouble”

by William Shakespeare (from Macbeth)

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and caldron bubble.

Fillet of a fenny snake,

In the caldron boil and bake;

Eye of newt and toe of frog,

Wool of bat and tongue of dog,

Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,

Lizard's leg and howlet's wing,

For a charm of powerful trouble,

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and caldron bubble.

Cool it with a baboon's blood,

Then the charm is firm and good.

Spoon River Anthology

by Edgar Lee Masters

Ollie McGee

Have you seen walking through the village
A man with downcast eyes and haggard face?
That is my husband who, by secret cruelty
Never to be told, robbed me of my youth and my beauty;
Till at last, wrinkled and with yellow teeth,
And with broken pride and shameful humility,
I sank into the grave.
But what think you gnaws at my husband’s heart?
The face of what I was, the face of what he made me!
These are driving him to the place where I lie.
In death, therefore, I am avenged.

John M. Church

I was attorney for the “Q”
And the Indemnity Company which insured
The owners of the mine.
I pulled the wires with judge and jury,
And the upper courts, to beat the claims
Of the crippled, the widow and orphan,
And made a fortune thereat.
The bar association sang my praises
In a high-flown resolution.
And the floral tributes were many—
But the rats devoured my heart
And a snake made a nest in my skull

Mrs. Sibley

The secret of the stars—gravitation.
The secret of the earth—layers of rock.
The secret of the soil—to receive seed.
The secret of the seed—the germ.
The secret of man—the sower.
The secret of woman—the soil.
My secret: Under a mound that you shall never find.

13 Days of Halloween: #6 Haunted Places and Spaces

While a relatively “young” country by worldly standards, the United States has no shortage of haunted places. If you’re a history lover, ghost hunter, or just looking for a spooky Halloween outing, here are a few places to visit in New York, Ohio, and Oregon—and I tossed Pennsylvania in to round it out. Click on the individual links for more haunted excursions in all of those states. Note: these are excerpts from the linked articles—credit goes to the authors of those articles. Happy (ghost) hunting!

Historic Palmyra William Phelps General Store & Historic Palmyra Historical Museum – Finger Lakes Region, New York

About 35 kilometers [22 miles] southeast of Rochester, Palmyra is the birthplace of the Latter-day Saints movement. The town was founded in 1789 – predating the construction of the Erie Canal by nearly 40 years – and retains significant sites, including the Smith Family Farm and Sacred Grove, where Joseph Smith reported his first visions. Where are the ghosts? Pretty much everywhere. Palmyra is known as the most-haunted place in the Finger Lakes Region. Daily ghost hunts and regular paranormal special events are available at the Palmyra History Museum, brimming with antiques in its 23 rooms, and the William Phelps General Store, a retail time capsule built in 1826.

https://www.visittheusa.com/experience/9-spooky-stops-along-haunted-history-trail-new-york-state

Moonville Tunnel in McArthur —-Ohio

This abandoned stretch of railway leading to an old coal mining town attracts paranormal enthusiasts hoping to glimpse unfortunate souls killed by trains over the years. You might also see train lights or find images of Frank Lawhead* on your camera. Those hoping for these ghostly encounters can trek nearby trails, some of which are along portions of the old railroad line. 

*According to legend, in 1880 Frank Lawhead was in his train when another train coming caused a head-on collision.

https://ohio.org/travel-inspiration/articles/haunted-ohio-9-must-visit-places

Heceta Head Lighthouse—Oregon Coast

If you’re in a coastal state, there’s always going to be lighthouses. And as long as there are lighthouses, there’s one that’s bound to be haunted. Such is the case with the Heceta Head Lighthouse. It is said that the ghost who goes by the name of “Rue” is not fond of anyone making any alterations to the place she called home. She’s known for mysteriously setting off fire alarms and moving around various objects. The spirit famously known as the “Gray Lady” may be frightening to the staff of the lighthouse (to the point where some of them have refused to visit some parts of the house due to their encounters with her,) but she is mostly harmless to those who visit the place that is now a converted bed-and-breakfast. Come for the peace and quiet, stay for the ghostly welcome.

https://portlandghosts.com/top-10-most-haunted-places-in-oregon/

13 Bends—-Allegheny County, Pennsylvania 

The exact location of 13 Bends can’t quite be pinpointed. Variations on the legend put this haunted place in Elizabeth, Harmarville and even Burgettstown. The most popular version, however, maintains that the road harboring 13 Bends is Campbells Run Road in Harmarville, near the long-since-abandoned Harmar Mine. Supposedly, an orphanage burned down on the site, killing 13 children. Now, if you drive up and down the road, you’ll find that you drive around 13 bends going up – but only 12 going down. If the disappearing bend trick isn’t enough for you, you can always dust the hood of your car with flour, where it will collect the tiny handprints of the ghost children.

https://madeinpgh.com/pittsburgh-arts-culture/top-haunted-places-pittsburgh/

13 Days of Halloween: #7 Gluten-Free Candy

Many families have gone gluten-free, so if you want to increase the chances of your treats being enjoyed instead of rejected, check out these links for updated lists of gluten-free candy. Also, check the bags for either the phrase or seal for “gluten free.” (see photo) Have a happy and SAFE Halloween!

From Celiac.org: This page includes lists for many holidays and a downloadable PDF for Halloween. https://celiac.org/gluten-free-living/gluten-free-foods/gluten-free-candy-list/

From Celiac.com: This list is a comprehensive A to Z list with lots of candies in general https://www.celiac.com/articles.html/safe-gluten-free-halloween-candy-chocolate-list-r4930/

13 Days of Halloween: #8 Ghosts

Do you believe in ghosts? If so, have you ever seen or heard one? Or had an unusual interaction that you can’t explain? A 2019 poll of Americans found that 46% believe in ghosts. In 2009, that number was 32%, and in 1990 it was 25%. As an aside, only 7% of Americans in 2019 said they believed in vampires.

Ghost hunting has become a popular—and lucrative—topic over the past decade. TV shows, books, YouTube channels, phone apps, and special equipment that “detects” spirit energy or allows entities to “communicate” with the team are prevalent and give viewers an inside seat to any paranormal action. How much is real; how much is staged? Probably more is staged than eager believers realize.

Here are a few facts about “ghosts” and a couple of my personal experiences that confirmed my own belief in their existence.

• The word “ghost” in its earliest root form comes from a Proto-Indo European word gheys, (4000 to 2500 BC) which translates into “fear,” “terrify,” and “trembling.”  

• Portrayals of ghosts as white translucent mists may come from an ancient belief that they were the dead person’s spirit that you could see, much like breath in cold air. The Latin word for breath is spiritus, which evolved to also mean “soul.”

• ·All cultures in the world have ghost-related beliefs and stories.

• ·One of the original “ghost hunters” was a female investigator named Eleanor Sidgwick. She became president of a prestigious Victorian “ghost club” called the Society for Psychical Research established 140 years ago, in 1882. These British ghost clubs at the time were associated with universities like Oxford and Cambridge.  

• People report seeing many types of ghosts—apparitions, mists, poltergeists, shadow people, intelligent (relevant responding or reacting to a stimulus such as a question,) and residual (unaware of the current physical world and playing like a video loop, over and over.)

• In spite of the many purported sightings and testimonials throughout the ages, scientists point out that there is no concrete evidence to support the existence of ghosts. However, Albert Einstein is said to have pondered this question from the “Law of Thermodynamics:” if energy cannot be created or destroyed but can only change form, where does the body’s energy go upon death?

Regarding my own experiences and interactions, I’ve had several, as some of my friends can attest.

One common experience that many people have is finding random coins that appear seemingly out of nowhere. It’s a widespread belief that these are, literally, pennies from Heaven that loved ones send to say hello from the other side. After my parents passed away, I was clearing out their house. I had emptied a bedroom of furniture and boxes and swept and mopped the hardwood floor. A few minutes later when I passed by in the hall, I saw something on the floor: a quarter, the only object in the room.

I also inherited my grandmother’s dishes, which I decided to use and got rid of my own. I moved from Ohio to New York and packed the dishes carefully into a box with paper toweling between each dish. I unpacked them, rinsed, dried, and stacked them on the counter. I was thinking about how I would use them for dinners with friends as I placed them in the cupboard. Something fell out of one of the stacks of plates as I lifted it up. It was a dime that was obviously not there when I stacked the plates. Hello, Grandma.

In Oregon, I was driving south on 101 through a resort town. Traffic was bumper to bumper but slowly creeping forward. I noticed a young couple in their 20s hiking north on the right side of the road. He was clean cut, blondish hair, stocky build, wearing a brown bomber jacket and cargo pants and a backpack, using a walking stick. She was slightly taller than he, with dark hair a little longer than shoulder length, wearing a flowy, mid-calf flower-print dress, hiking or Timberlake boots, and an open zippered parka with a hood. She looked at me with stunning blue eyes, and I noticed her hair was wet and sort of stringy. I knew in an instant that she was dead, that she had drowned by slipping off of a pier, and that these two loved each other very much and had made plans together. She was still with him. I was unnerved because this was completely unexpected. A few seconds later we had passed each other. I looked in my rearview mirror, and he was the only one there, continuing on.

13 Days of Halloween: #9 Victorian Spiritualism

The Spiritualism movement , while plagued with fraud, also had authentic practitioners who brought accurate comforting messages to grieving loved ones, which spurred scientific investigations into these abilities and the afterlife that continue today.

While researching Victorian Spiritualism for a feature article, I met several mediums and members of the Way Memorial Spiritualist Temple in Wheeling, WV. All were welcoming, kind, and dedicated to healing and Light. My experiences with them and on my own have given me comfort, not fear, about death and the spirits around us.

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Days are shorter; a seasonal damp chill chases people into cozy chairs next to the glow of fireplaces. What is that tapping, tapping at the door? “‘Tis the wind and nothing more.” Or is it?

Edgar Allen Poe is not considered a Victorian author, but his poem “The Raven” has qualities of the Victorian spiritualistic culture: a mysterious tapping at the door, the death of his beloved, and a dark, seemingly supernatural visitor. Spiritualism’s official beginnings in 1848 are attributed to the two young Fox sisters near Rochester, New York, Katherine (12) and Margaret (13,) who convinced family members and the public that they heard tapping on the walls of their house. At some point, history says, they realized that the tapping was created by the spirit of a man who had died at the house and was trying to communicate with them.

 The complicated Victorian culture was based in morality and the strict religious beliefs of reward, punishment, and the hereafter. The family unit was important as cities grew and the pace of life changed. In America, loved ones were lost during a tuberculosis outbreak and the Civil War. Children died in infancy. Death hovered close by.

After the Fox sisters’ claims others began touting similar occurrences and abilities: rapping on walls or tables, hearing voices of those who have passed on, healing with energy, moving furniture and finally manifesting spirits and objects. Spiritualism, the practice of contacting and communicating with the dead, was born. 

 The Victorian era moved from Romanticism to an age of scientific discovery and logic, named for and generally encompassing the reign of Britain’s Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901. Gothic literature became popular with its castles, ghosts, stormy nights and scientific experiments gone wrong, like Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man. Spiritualism provided a thrill connected with the mystery of death and the creepiness of the dark. On the other hand, it also provided proof, as it was, that loved ones were still around, proof that there was a place to go after death.

The idea of proof appealed to the Victorians and made séances a normal evening pastime for the upper classes and stage shows of mediums (someone who channels spiritual energy) and fortune tellers popular for the masses. Even Thomas Edison tried to create a phonograph apparatus designed to speak to the dead. In Britain, Henry Sedgwick, a Cambridge professor of moral philosophy, founded the Society of Psychical Research to collect and scientifically analyze physical data brought forth in spiritualistic encounters.

Spiritualism had a part in another historical movement, women’s rights. Early Victorian women were submissive and considered good conduits between this and the spirit world because of their passivity and credibility as mothers and wives. Giving women the training and responsibility to become mediums and placing them in the spotlight, literally, increased their confidence, experience, and worldliness as the second Industrial Revolution and World War I arrived. Spiritualism declined as more women found interests outside of the home.

Spiritualism is still alive and well—so to speak—today, but the Victorian creepiness and side show aspects are not part of the real thing. Though modern-day mediums may work in entertainment atmospheres like parties or fairs, their purpose is to pass along messages that will comfort or help the seeker.

Such is the case with Dr. Carol Borkoski, a medium, angel reader and healer (CarolBorkoski.com)  She begins with meditation to clear her mind and “get out of the ego” then prays to be of service and help those seeking guidance. “I always go to the Greater Light. It’s up to us to be discerning about the energy we allow in.”

She and her sister, Dolly Grady, often work together on readings. Both have developed their psychic gifts through training and say everyone has the ability to channel energy in varying degrees. Dolly is able to read a seeker’s soul energy and paints the results in a “psychic portrait.”

Borkoski explains that some mediums have specific contacts with whom they work in the spirit realm. These “guardians,” “guides” or “gatekeepers” filter through the energy to bring forth the relevant spirits and facilitate the conversation. Her mission is “to help people heal, whether they’ve passed on or are still here.”

“It’s like a dance where we go back and forth, or like talking on the phone.” She adds that spirits generally want to “help and uplift” and bring good news or comfort to those on earth. “The fear and negativity being promoted now [regarding the spirit world] is so harmful. They want us to see a larger, brighter, bolder picture and focus on love and light.”

Dr. Carol Borkoski, seated, and Dolly Grady, practicing mediums

13 Days of Halloween: #12 The Beginnings

The commercialized, creepy, zombies-lurking Halloween is a product of American capitalism that evolved with a boost from Victorian spiritualism in the mid-1800s. Its popularity has skyrocketed during the past four decades thanks to Hollywood and America’s penchant for all things ghoulish and bloody.

Thousands of years before this, however, Halloween was, at its simplest, a harvest festival in ancient Ireland. The Celtic calendar—even today—begins on November 1 with Samhain (sow-en,) meaning “end of summer.” Technically, though, it begins at nightfall on October 31 because in Celtic tradition everything moves from dark to light.

Though little is known of the original rituals, research and speculation point to bringing animals in from the pasture for winter, killing the weakest of them for winter food and harvesting fruits and vegetables for consumption and winter storage. There were also several days of feasting surrounding Samhain, and truces were called among enemy factions for determining the coming year’s direction and for peaceful games and competitions.

On October 31, “oiche shamhna” or “evening of samhain,” families extinguished the hearth fires that had burned all year and attended a community bonfire where Druids asked for protection, told fortunes, and welcomed the new year. The Celts believed that this night between the years was a supernatural time when beings from beyond could come through the thinner veils and walk the earth to communicate with the living.

To ensure protection and appease other-worldly spirits, sacrifices were made--true sacrifices, as in animals and prisoners of war, some of them live, thrown into the celebration bonfire or drowned in a nearby body of water.

 As the Romans expanded their empire, cultural traditions, beliefs, and rituals deemed pagan were reconfigured or extinguished. Samhain was thus “reconfigured” and renamed to meet the Catholic Church’s standards.

All Saints Day arose out of recognizing all saints and martyrs. Originally each saint had a day of his or her own, but the numbers became so great that “All Hallows Day,” or Allhallowmas, was designated in the middle of the fourth century to honor all saints. It was celebrated in the spring until Pope Gregory III, in the mid-8th century, changed the date to November 1.

He did this, first, because there was more food available for the feasts since it was the end of harvest. Second, the Pope wanted a competitive celebration to Ireland’s Samhain. Therefore, the Irish feast of reflection and honoring the dead now had a church-sanctioned alternative—on the same day.

This is how the holiday’s name, Samhain, became All Hallow’s E’en, a.k.a.  All Saint’s Evening, a.k.a. Halloween.

13 Days of Halloween: #13 October

This piece was originally written for and published in The Times-Leader newspaper in 2012

“These are days you’ll remember,” sings Natalie Merchant in the 10,000 Maniacs song. Though the lyrics mention May, I think of fall memories when I hear it. There’s something beautiful and yet surreal about this time of year. I’m comforted and at the same time a bit anxious.

When I was a little girl, before $4 gallons of gas, my family would take Sunday afternoon drives. In the fall this meant going to look at the leaves. Sometimes we’d head out to Geauga County, other times toward Madison or Geneva and Ashtabula. We would often stop at the cider mill in Perry, and this is where it got good. The mill had pressed apples for decades—maybe even a century--on a big, stone wheel. The air was tart and crisp with just a hint of vinegar. Families like ours watched, oohed and ahhhed and filled up gallon jugs of cold, biting cider. Note to the FDA: to this day I’ve never gotten sick once from drinking real cider.

My ex-husband and I had a similar annual ritual. On a crisp October Saturday, we would take a drive south from Rochester into the Finger Lakes region. We picked up a picnic lunch and took it to a hilltop park near Bristol then meandered our way back to a Webster farm market where we bought homemade fried cakes for Sunday breakfast, a gallon of fresh-pressed apple cider and a pumpkin or two for carving.

Maybe it’s the immediacy of October that brings on that anxious feeling. The harvest has to be in before the frost. It’s Mother Nature’s last dress up party of the year, and it comes and goes quickly. Sometimes the landscape changes within a couple of days, trees bare after the first cold front wrestles its way in. Darkness drops earlier, without the lingering tendrils of twilight in July.

Halloween is like a warm-up to the holiday season next month. It’s festive but in a dark way, with candles lighting spooky jack-o-lanterns rather than family dinners.

I went to a great Halloween party when I was a senior in high school. Two friends who were artists hosted, and the decorations were amazing—the stuff you can do with Jello! But what really stands out for me that night was the drive over to Sheila’s house: a twisting road through woods and beside a creek; flashes of kids in Darth Vader costumes holding light sticks and glimpses of other trick-or-treaters (I hope) darting along the sides of the road; a brisk breeze swirling leaves across my windshield and the path of my headlights. I was in the Twilight Zone.

Years later, at another Halloween party, a friend and I discussed the holiday. The costumes, we decided, were what really made it fun, albeit kind of creepy. If done right, no one knows who you are. Curious adventurers that we were, he and I speculated about and plotted a very cool Halloween trick using a gorilla costume. It’s on my bucket list, so be warned.

It doesn’t get any better than scaring the beejeebies out of people for a good cause. When I worked for a community development agency in Rochester, my boss owned an old fashioned brick firehouse down the street from our building. Part of the first floor was leased out for office space and part for a warehouse, but John thought the dusty maze of storage rooms and loft space upstairs would be perfect for a haunted house, and it became a favorite fundraiser.

Volunteers planned, configured and built for 12 weeks before the one big weekend where everything was put into motion. Blasts of air came out of walls; a chain saw dude in a goalie mask ran around the warehouse; large rubber rats popped out of garbage cans; a crazy granny brewed a stew of body parts (ugh.) People lined up around the block to get in.

My tasks at my final haunted house were to hang out in the loft swinging a large ghost through the air on a pulley. When the group of people below relaxed because the ghost was kind of lame, I buzzed a giant fuzzy spider spanning six feet across right over their heads. Screaming, scrambling and shrieking ensued without fail. Ah, good times, good times.

Why is it that fall days are those I most remember?  Maybe the winters are too long, the summers are too hot, and spring is a fleeting transition between them. This Goldilocks thinks fall, with all its intensity of color and last hurrah, is just right. Bundled in my favorite sweater, it’s the time to enjoy the beauty, celebrate the bounty and take a drive down Memory Lane.

Feel Good Friday: Earth Day Buzzzz

It’s Earth Day, and one of THE most important components of our food chain is the bee. According to USDA statistics, one in three bites of food we take is the result of bees and pollination. However, over the last decade bee populations have suffered continued and astounding losses with everything from bitter long winters to cell towers taking the blame. One of the most serious conditions is Colony Collapse Disorder, and scientists are busy investigating possible links to parasites, a virus and pesticides. For humans, the survival of bees means our own survival.

Today we’re celebrating these industrious workers with a few fun facts. In addition to their vital role in insuring our food grows, bees are the only insect to produce a food for man—honey, of which, per capita, we consume more than one pound each per year.

• Honey bees have been making honey in the same way for more than 100 million years, and honey seems to last indefinitely. Explorers found a 2000 year old jar intact in an Egyptian tomb.
• Bright colors of flowers attract bees, and researchers believe that dark lines, called “honey guides,” on some blooms help insects to the centers for pollination and nectar.
• Though research is still being done on proposed and traditional health benefits, honey is a valuable source for minerals, vitamins and anti-oxidants. The darker the honey, the more anti-oxidants properties.
• A honey bee on a collection trip will visit between 50 and 100 flowers.
• If it takes two million flowers to make one pound of honey, one bee would need to fly an estimated 90,000 miles to gather what it needs.
• Mead, a honey wine, may be the oldest alcoholic beverage, per evidence of a Chinese vessel dated from 9000 years ago. Drambuie is a Scottish liqueur made with heather honey, whiskey, spices and herbs.   

Feeling Good? Here's one last nod to the bees--and an idea on how to recycle those Happy Hour bottles. Have a great weekend!

Feel Good Friday: Man's Best Friend

A few years ago I wrote a feature on pet therapy in care facilities and saw first-hand how dogs improved the moods and outlooks of the residents. While Zsa Zsa and I still work things out day by day, she does make me laugh and gives me a bit of a purpose. On her end, I keep her out of harm’s way and make sure she has snacks.

This week I saw a video on dogs that are still working through their own issues: abuse, abandonment, stress, fear. But they are becoming less anxious because of a therapy program--for them. Children are reading books to dogs in a shelter, and it is helping the dogs socialize and overcome some of their fears and anxieties. The reading calms them, and the children are non-threatening. Watching this made me Feel so Good I wanted to share it here.

It's a good reminder that kindness and encouragement between any creatures benefits us all.