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.”

Time to Twist & Dunk: Happy National Oreo Cookie Day!

Happy National Oreo Day! Yes, it’s a thing, and lots of people are celebrating the “World’s Best-Selling Cookie” (true) by buying and eating more of them.

But the beginnings of the cookie that makes so many people happy are rooted in drama. It started with two brothers, Jacob and Joseph Loose, who owned the American Biscuit & Manufacturing Company in the late 1800s. They were having disagreements on the next chapter for their company when Jacob became ill in 1897 and had to step away to recover.

Joseph took advantage of his absence and found new business partners in their competitors, New York Biscuit Company and United States Baking Company, thus creating National Biscuit Company (Nabisco.) When Jacob returned to the workforce, he found his own new partner, John Wiles and formed the Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company, but they were never able to compete with Nabisco.

Speaking of competition, Sunshine Biscuits’ Hydrox sandwich cookie is the original chocolate cookie outside, creamy filling inside treat, which was introduced in 1908. Four years later, Joseph and friends from Nabisco unveiled their copy of the popular Sunshine sandwich, the “Oreo,” origin of the name unknown. The filling was sweeter, the chocolate cookie not as crunchy, and the marketing a step up. The companies went back and forth for 50 years, but eventually the Oreo left Hydrox in the dust for good.

Here are a few more facts about today’s icon, so grab a handful of them with a glass of milk:

• The chocolate cookie design used today has been around since 1952. Today’s filling was developed by Sam Porcello, a food scientist who retired from Nabisco in 1993 and who holds five Oreo-related patents.

• Since 1912, more than 450 billion Oreos have been produced in 18 countries worldwide; annual production since 2017 is up to 40 billion. Sales in the United States and China account for 70 percent of the total.

• The first special flavor offered was lemon, but it was discontinued soon after. Other more unusual Oreo flavors include Swedish fish, watermelon, root beer float, waffle & syrup, pina colada, hot chicken wing (China only,) wasabi (China only,) and green tea (China and Japan.) Some of these are still available, and some can only be seen at the Museum of Failure in Los Angeles.  

• The cookies are kosher and, technically, vegan. The ingredients are vegan, but there is a possibility of cross-contamination with milk at the factory. Oreo also offers a gluten-free version.

• A 2022 study reported in the Physics of Fluids journal proved that the Oreo creamy filling cannot be split in the middle but always stays on one of the chocolate cookies or the other. According to Nabisco, around 50 percent of customers twist the cookies open and 50 percent take a bite of the whole cookie, and women are more likely to twist.

• A high school math class analyzed Oreos and found that 21 percent of the cookie is filling and 79 percent is cookie; a Double-Stuf Oreo actually has about 1.86 times the amount of filling of a regular Oreo—not quite double;  the Mega-Stuf contains about 2.68 times the amount of a regular.

• A study at Connecticut College showed that the same “pleasure center” in the brains of lab rats that is activated by cocaine and morphine is also activated by the world’s most popular cookie. Coincidence? I think not. And the rats like to eat the creamy filling first.

Enjoy your day!

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: #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.

National Dessert Day with a Classic: the Napoleon

It’s National DESSERT Day! Yay! So, I thought I would feature a classic: the Napoleon. While many people have an idea of what the dessert looks like, it seems that nearly every culture has adopted its own version, and all of them sound delicious. Here are a few facts about this perennial favorite.

The pastry’s original name is mille-feuille, pronounced “mil foy,” meaning “a thousand leaves” for the many layers of puff pastry. Traditionally, that is six folds of three layers of pastry, resulting in 729 total layers. There are modern versions, however, that call for over 2,000 layers in the end product.

In early recipes, puff pastry was layered with two layers of crème-patisserie. The top layer of pastry was sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar or cocoa powder, or, in later recipes, covered with white icing and brown icing stripes, often “combed” to create the design in the photos.  

Why is it called “Napoleon?” Ummm…no one knows for sure. The first recipe using “mille-feuille” appears in a 16th century French cookbook written by Francois Pierre de la Varenne.  Two-hundred years later, several countries began claiming the popular dessert as their own. One story describes an Italian baker naming it Napolitano for his beloved city, Naples, which, in English, later evolved to “Napoleon.” Another story notes that a Danish baker came up with the pastry and served it to Napoleon for a state visit. Some believe that the dessert actually has roots in Hungary.  

Regardless of where it began, the pastry is still popular today. Variations include layering with sliced almonds, fruits (usually strawberries and raspberries,) jams, chocolate, whipped cream, almond paste and savory ingredients like cheeses, tomatoes, pesto, spinach, and herbs. Italian versions include a layer of sponge cake. Latin American versions use dulce de leche.

If you’re inspired to celebrate National Dessert Day, here is a simple recipe with only seven ingredients from Mr.Food. For baking enthusiasts, here is a classic recipe from King Arthur Baking. The Napoleon in the photos came from Savoia Pastry Shoppe, a 93-year old family bakery.  

Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

Eggs, Unscrambled

Traditional Pysanka egg decorating is rich in symbolism. The deer on this ostrich egg can stand for wealth, prosperity or leadership.

(This article, written by Glynis Valenti, was originally published in The Times-Leader newspaper.)

Over the past seven millenniums bird eggs have nested in the human dietary pyramid as a substantial component of meals in virtually every culture. Long before the Greeks got chickens from the Egyptians, hunters and gatherers and early Asian and Indian populations had already discovered this compact food source.

Now it’s a breakfast staple in America and appears throughout the rest of the day in quiche for lunch, pasta at dinner and those cookies baked for an evening snack. This little spheroid is also feared by many as the root of high cholesterol and heart disease. Separating the fact from the myth is almost, literally, like separating the yolk from the egg white.

Eggs come in all shapes and sizes. One of the largest eggs is the ostrich egg, left, and here, clockwise, are an emu egg, two types of chicken eggs, a quail egg and duck egg.

Regarding cholesterol, the American Egg Board is broadcasting the fact that cholesterol levels in eggs have dropped over the past few years from 215 mg to 185 mg. While this is good news, it isn’t necessarily the natural cholesterol level in the egg that is a problem. In actuality, the body absorbs very little cholesterol directly from foods. The calories from fat (50 percent) in the yolk, however, are the levels to watch. Egg whites are 87 percent water and 13 percent protein with no cholesterol or fat.

It has been determined that eggs do not cause heart disease. Harvard Medical School says that there is no correlation between heart disease and eggs—except in diabetics, where studies show an increased risk. Eating egg whites, egg substitutes or limiting the number of eggs eaten per week will lower that risk.

The chicken egg is a high quality, natural source of protein and all the amino acids humans need. It contains vitamins A and E, the B vitamins and is one of the few foods with natural vitamin D. At about 70 calories per large egg, it is a good choice for weight loss programs. The choline in egg yolks contributes to infant memory functions when taken during pregnancy, and improves memory in adults. The yolk also contains natural substances called lutein and zeaxanthin that reduce the risks of cataracts and age-related macular degeneration.

The bottom line is that the average person (not diabetic) can probably eat one egg per day, while cutting back on saturated fats in other foods, without adverse affects and, in fact, will probably benefit. Incidentally, most bird eggs taste nearly the same and are relatively bland. What would most likely change the flavor of the egg itself is the individual bird’s diet, for instance fish as opposed to seeds.

Emilie Freeman, egg artist, demonstrates one of the last procedures in the decorating process: removing the wax and unveiling the finished egg.

The largest egg from a living bird is that of a North African ostrich with an average length of six to eight inches and a diameter of four to six inches. The smallest bird egg comes from a Jamaican hummingbird, the vervain, and is between one-third and one-half inch long.

Many cultures have used the egg in traditional rituals, even long before Christianity. Pagans used the egg as a symbol of springtime and rebirth. The egg is part of the Jewish Passover celebration as a symbol of life and hope of salvation. The Chinese give family and friends dyed red eggs to announce a birth, and Japanese parents decorate eggs with likenesses of their children. Easter is generally the time that Christians dye eggs, originally representing the resurrection, for baskets and decoration.

Artist Emilie Freeman has been creating one-of-a-kind Pysanka eggs for 38 years. This Ukrainian tradition began before 988 AD and involves intricate designs in melted beeswax layered with a series of colored dyes. The designs and colors are symbolic, so the artist can give them as messages or tokens of goodwill. Yellow represents light, youth and hospitality; blue represents the sky, air or good health. One of Freeman’s favorite symbols is small dots, representing the Virgin Mary’s tears, but a recurring pattern in her work is the “star” or “rose.” Symbolically it represents “God’s love for man,” but she says she likes the pattern’s style.

From a how-to brochure on Pysanka Freeman reads, “’Pysanka is the release of earth from the shackles of winter. As long as the Pysanka are decorated, goodness will triumph over evil in the world.’” She laughs, “That’s why I do it—to keep goodness in the world.” She also says that it’s a constant experiment and those trying the art should just have fun with it.

Deviled, fried or painted, no need to be wary of the “incredible, edible” egg. It’s been part of human meals and rituals for thousands of years, a symbol of spring and new life.     

Pysanka is a Ukrainian tradition dating back to before the year 988 AD.