First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
First they came for the Socialist
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
First they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
First they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

Gay Pride Events Around Western New York & Southern Ontario:

Saturday, June 7, 2008
Seventh Annual Dyke March and Rally
Rally at 7:00 pm, Lineup at 7:30 pm
Eckerd Drugs, 202 West Utica Street

The post march rally will include singer/songwriters Bitch and Ferron

The Buffalo Gay Pride Parade will step off at Kleinhans Music Hall and venture up Elmwood Avenue to Bidwell Parkway. Post parade entertainment will include musican Gregory Douglass, singer/songwriters Bitch and Ferron and Toronto Comedian Richard Ryder who last appeared in Buffalo during last fall’s Buffalo Bear Trap.
Pride Buffalo will be raising money to help offset the cost of the Pride events on Saturday, May 10th at Mohawk Place. Comedian Sabrina Matthews who has appearred on Comedy Central and LOGO will perform along with Special Guest: Kristen Becker

Doors open at 8 pm show starts at 9:30 pm
Tickets can be purchased at Ticketweb.com in advance
Tickets at the door will cost $22

Hamilton Pride Week June 13-21
http://www.hamiltonpride.com/

Toronto Dyke March, Saturday, June 27

Toronto Pride March, Sunday June 28

Toronto Pride Festival

This favorite dish of Italian-Americans here in Niagara Falls is winning the hearts of more and more and more Americans each day. Now found in many trendy cafes around the country- and increasing in popularity- I have found an old-fashioned, homemade recipe from an Italian Mama here in the Falls.

This dish is enormously nutritious, high in fiber, potassium, iron, folate and magnesium. It’s also very thrifty on the budget, and is truly a simple yet traditional Italian American meal. Use beans & greens as a main course or as a soup course. It’s also terrific comfort food!



Ingredients:
4 heads escarole, (may also use spinach, endive)
4 cloves of chopped garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp each of salt and pepper
24 ounces of chicken broth
2 cans of white beans (great northern), drained
shredded or grated Romano cheese (optional)

Directions:
Chop and blanch greens quickly in boiling water and drain.
In soup pot, heat olive oil, add chopped garlic and red pepper flakes.
Add greens and then drained beans. Add chicken broth, salt and pepper.
Simmer for 30 minutes, covered on low-med heat.
Pour into bowls, garnishing top of soup with Romano cheese if desired.
Offer fresh italian bread to serve with soup. Especially good dunked in soup!!!

Mangia!

If the energy revolution were a saga, this would be the “prequel” story. Solar and Wind Energy 1.0 .

Before we were so masterful that we created an electric machine to simulate heat and wind motion, people actually hung their laundry out on the line! It was virtual real reality. I know because I was there! I’m not that old. It was the early 70s and I hung out with my Grandma Vicky when my mom was working.

I loved the warm sunshine days when we would do the laundry. She still had a wringer washer and she’d roll the laundry out the dangerous looking cylinders, and then into a basket. We’d take them up the basement stairs and right out onto the backyard.

We hung the clothes, sheets, towels, linens in the bright sunshine. She had a burlap satchel of wooden clothespins that hung off the line on a metal frame. I’d help her. She’d tell me how life worked during those laundry sessions. She told me one day I’d be grown up and come to her house to do her chores for her and drive her places. I laughed at that- how silly! I couldn’t imagine me being grown up and more skillful at something than she was. “Nyeh? You will do it… you’ll see kiddo!”, Grandma would say in her sing-song Polish American voice.

So, thirty-five years later, I can’t stand it when my family has the dryer running on a warm summer afternoon! The wash needs to go out on the line! I yell at them. They think I am crazy. Must be hormonal. They think it’s my fire phobia. It’s really not.

It’s not even that I am such an energy-conscious person, or obsessed with “green” housekeeping, it’s that I was brought up with a few conservation lessons:
1.) No lights should be on when you are not in a room or if it’s daylight.
2.) The TV should not be on unless you are purposely watching a show you planned for and it is night.
3.) Running a dryer when the wash could dry for free is a waste of money.
4.) Filling up the bathtub too much is a waste of water.
5.) Letting the water run while I wash dishes or brush my teeth is also a waste of water.
6.) There were children in Poland who had none of these conveniences at all!

I come home and hear the dryer running, blowing hot air out into the hotter outside, and I just can’t bear it! Somewhere in Poland, someone is wishing for a dryer on a rainy day. Bosia is looking down in disapproval of my wasted energy. Ed Begly, Junior may be hiding in my bushes with a camera crew.

So, here’s the deal people: it’s summer! If it’s nice weather, hang out your laundry! If you can, wait to do the laundry until it’s a nice day! It’s so easy.

Here are some laundry line tips:

1.) To combat stiffness in line dried laundry, snap the clothes out before hanging, and after dried, you can put them in the dryer for 10 minutes with a fabric softener sheet. (Also try hanging on a windy day.)

2.) Did you know that the UV Rays from the sun are antiseptic and kill germs?

3.) To prevent wrinkling fabric, add 1/2 cup vinegar to the last cycle of your washing machine. The odor of vinegar leaves the fabric as it dries, so you will not smell it.

4.) You can see all sorts of tips and buy line drying products at: http://www.linedryit.com

5.) You can also buy a bag of clothespins for a dollar at Dollar Tree!

6.) You can use electrical wire instead of rope as clothesline. You may want to remember to wipe if off between uses so you don’t get any dust on your laundry.

7.) The clothespin bags on a hanger are really fun!

8.) Let your kids run through the laundry as it dries- they’ll remember it always!

If you think you need some directions, do a google search, or go to this simple step by step guide from eHow.

We Americans have long been in a love affair with Campbell’s Soup. We grew up eating Chicken & Stars or Alphabet Vegetable Soup. Many of us grew up before it could be microwaved! Today it comes in curvy, streamlined microwavable hand held jar that we can drink it from!

Talk about drinking soup, have you ever heard of a SOUP MILKSHAKES! Yah, America’s not so secret Dirty Secret is that most of our recipes contain a can of Campbell’s soup.

This REALLY BAD recipe should win an award for HORRIBLE! Sent in by our friend, David, (who is a connoisseur of bad recipes), this is a real vintage ad from Campbell’s Soup. “Eat One Every Day!”???

Basically, you take one can of Cream of Something Condensed Soup. (Even Cream of Chicken!), mix it with a can of cold milk, shake it up, pour it into a lovely milkshake glass and stick a vegetable garnish on it.

I know, I know! You just can’t believe it. It’s true. Oh, so sorry, but it is true. Just the thing to serve your friends this summer. I’m so glad you found this recipe. Just one question remains: Do you serve this with a spoon so that guests can pick out chunks from the bottom?

“Where the Pony Express began and Jesse James ended”, is the first paragraph of St. Jo’s travel & tourism site. A lot of great people and things have come from St. Joseph! Walter Cronkite, Jany Wyman, Ruth Warrick, and Eminem were all born there.

It is known for it’s tourism related to the Wild West, and hosts a multitude of museums, tours, hotels and events!

During the 1800’s California Gold Rush, the city promoted itself as the gateway to the West which worked- over 150,000 people passed through the streets of St. Joseph to set off in search of gold. Gold hunting supplies were widely traded in the city.

Yes- St. Joseph’s Aspirin was manufactured in St. Joseph. Today the city is home to Western Missouri State University, and more than 5,000 students. At St. Joseph, you can attend a variety of arts and cultural events, take part in excellent shopping and dining and if you still have energy- an historic walking tour of the architecture.

Situated about 30 miles northwest of the Kansas City metropolitan area, it is referred to as “St. Joe’s” for short. There are about 74,000 people living there- and their radio stations, (mostly Christian), begin with a K. (Where does that line exist?)

If I went to St. Joseph, I would make sure to visit the Glore Psychiatric Museum! It is amazing what things have been done to try to help the insane. I mean- there is a human size hamster wheel there!!!!

Thanks for stopping by, St. Joe!

There was a time when our moms and grandmas would sew our clothing in order to save money. It was “Home Economics”. I probably grew up at the end of that era.

When I was eight years old and making my First Communion, my mother took me to Mrs. Joyce’s house and I was fitted for the perfect First Communion dress. I felt like a princess as Mrs. Joyce elaborately sewed layers of crinoline and lace and a long, beautiful veil.

Then in elementary school, my grandma sewed a bunch of underpants for me! In one afternoon, grandma sat at her machine, cotton and elastic already on hand, and just sewed me up some underwear!

I vaguely remember my mom sewing me dresses and pantsuits in the 70’s. And as I approached adolescence, my grandma taught me how to make a duvet cover. No pattern- just fabric and a strip of snaps or velcro. Of course, it was called something different. A beautiful Polish word I cannot spell in the English alphabet but it sounds like “pyeh-jinna” cover.

(Pyeh-jinna)s are beautiful homemade Polish feather beds. My grandma made them homemade. We all had one. Filled with feathers that at one time my grandma could get at the butcher, they were a luxury of the past. Warm in winter and cool in summer, falling into your pyeh-jinna made everything okay. I was sleeping on a cloud of love.

I took Home Ec in junior high and we sewed vests. Yah, it was cool to design your own vest and wear it. But I think it was slightly expensive even then. I remember my mom bitching about the cost of corduroy by the yard, the polyester lining and all the notions. Of course- those were lean years for our family.

My aunt being a Home Ec teacher extraordinaire, my Polish genes, my “Grandma Vicky” heredity, I was determined to sew. In the late 80’s my husband bought me my first sewing machine for Christmas. I cried out of happiness! My in-laws clucked at me as I opened it and made sarcastic remarks about why I’d need a sewing machine. (They didn’t believe in my domesticity). But my husband knew what it meant to me. He knew I was a closet-housewife-wanna-be. He understood my roots.

I proceeded to sew stuff. I was not that good. I could not “read” a pattern. I could cut out the pieces and assemble them like a jigsaw puzzle. Well, that’s mostly still true. But I had a great time! Then when my children came along, I sewed baby clothing for them. I loved it- soft cotton “onesies”, little pajamas and jumpers- even hooded bath towels. However, I started realizing it was expensive.

So- have things changed since then? They must have because I know my foremothers were sewing clothing to SAVE money. They sewed because it was cheaper. They sewed to get more for their buck.

I have continued sewing. In fact, this past year I’ve experienced a resurgence of my sewing. I’ve been making three-eyed stuffed monsters, and owls, and purses, etc, etc. But I’m using fabrics that I can get very inexpensively. When JoAnn’s has clearance fabrics you can sometimes get them for an additional 50% off. I’ve purchased fabric for $1/yard or $2/yard! But it’s really fabric that I get because it’s cheap and THEN I figure out what I can do with it.

This summer I was invited to a bridal shower. Yippee! A ladies’ brunch at a pretty banquet center. A reason to play dress up! I wanted to wear a dress. I knew exactly what I wanted. One of those pretty wrap dresses that would hide my weight gain a little. Something in a modern geometric pattern. I’ve seen these dresses in long-sleeve form at Target and JCPenney. They were about $30.

I went to a $1 pattern sale at JoAnne’s. I found a great pattern. It was exactly what I had in mind! The pattern was normally $16.95. Yay pattern sale! What’s more- it looked like almost every fabric in the store was on sale for Memorial Weekend. I saw plenty of the new geometric patterns in draping fabric that would fall and move just right. And- I could have a dress that FIT me. (I’m short and chubby both!) All of those factors aside- I was going to be able to wear a dress to a family function that I had made myself. I would be so proud! This shower is for the daughter of Aunt Home Ec Teacher Extraordinaire and she is always so supportive of me! She’d be so happy for me!

That was the end of the Homemade Dress Romance.

I would need 5 1/4 yards of fabric for the dress. A 14 inch zipper, a couple yards of interfacing and some thread. I quickly scanned the clearance fabric. But I really wanted to go up front and see that perfect fabric I had in mind. I found it! The colors were beautiful- the prints were amazing! Which to choose from? Uh-oh. The price. They were half off alright. But they were still $5-$8 a yard. That’s about $30-$40. Then add the notions- maybe $12.

Now we were talking about $45-$55 for a homemade dress- not to mention my time and trouble of making it! If I had paid full price for the pattern it would have been $62-$72! For a dress that I could have purchased at Target for $30.

I searched the clearance fabric. The $2 fabric was really unsuitable. Out of season- too heavy or completely sheer- just not workable. I moved up through $3, $4 and $5 fabric- all the same. I found a beautiful perfect fabric for $8/yard. The sign said “Half off all clearance fabric”… but I didn’t see the small print that said “Home decor fabric only”.

I think I have given up on it. The shower is only 3 weeks away. I went to TJ MAXX, which is right next door. Large geometric print summer dresses are $19.99-$23.99. I don’t have to spend any time cutting it, or pinning it, or sewing it.

No, they aren’t a wrap dress. Nope- I didn’t “design it myself”. Nope- I’m not really “in love” with them.

Some other people may argue that homemade is better because I would not be supporting poor working conditions overseas, because I would last longer, because I would be proud of it. But these are people that do not understand. For every dollar I spend on fashion, that is one dollar less I can spend on groceries. If I spend an extra $10 on fashion, my kids maybe can’t have Popsicles, or kiwis, or brand name cereals. They don’t get to order a pizza on Friday night.

It’s not that I “choose” to buy cheap big box stuff- it’s that I have to.

Anybody want to buy a cool pattern cheap?

Yesterday I went to the Niagara County SPCA to investigate conditions myself after reading some disturbing news stories about the agency and it’s director.

But what happened is that I fell in love. With a large gentle giant named Moose. He is so hopeful, yet so sad. He is so gentle and, well, I think broken hearted.

Moose is an Old English Sheepdog who was found as a stray. Who could throw away such a loving creature? When you look into his big round eyes he’s asking you if you’ll love him.

Believe it or not, Moose costs only $150 to adopt and that includes his shots, neuter, exam, grooming, (he was severely matted).

If there was any way I could have brought Moose home, I would have but my pack is too large and I am so extended as far as how many babies I am caring for.

Please, if you think you can love Moose forever, make the visit to his petfinder ad, and maybe make the visit to the Niagara Falls SPCA. I get the feeling this one really needs you.

More About Moose
#2158: 6 Years 5/16/09 Found as a stray. He came in severely matted and he had dermatitis on the skin beneath the mats. Thanks to a complimentary grooming by Kris at Pretty Baby on Porter Road his skin will heal just fine. These dogs need regular grooming, exercise and protection from the heat. Moose is a little on the thin side and could stand to gain a few more pounds. He has a moderate amount of tartar on his teeth which is normal for his age. He will probably need a professional dental cleaning within the next few years. Your vet will let you know when it is time. In the meantime, regular brushing with “doggie” toothpaste, good nutrition and bones to chew will help improve his dental health. He is an extremely nice boy and he’s looking for a family to love.

* Niagara SPCA
* Niagara Falls, NY
* 716-731-4368

UPDATE: It has been reported by a rescue organization who called this SPCA that Moose has numerous applications for adoption pending! I was also evidently incorrect- his adoption fee was $250 and they do require a home visit.
At any rate, this is GREAT NEWS, it looks like Moose is going to get a HOME and LOVE.

I took this picture in the Summer of 2008 in the Allentown district of Buffalo, New York. I love to walk the blocks there and see all the creative and interesting ways people have restored and revitalized homes in the city.

These porch curtains have been on my mind since I’ve seen them. I have seen them on a few other homes, mostly homes circa the 1920’s & 30’s. I think they are elegant, whimsical and cottage like.

I have a very low budget for my home decorating, so I have been thinking of ways I can do this “on the cheap”. Fabric, even at a discount store, adds up in price very quickly- especially considering the yardage that would be required.

So, I have thought about a couple of alternatives to expensive fabrics. Bed sheets, when purchased separately are way cheaper than fabric by the yard. They are also an excellent width for use as curtains on a large scale. I’d try a print or color that will not be very prone to fading. Perhaps a color that compliments your house paint or the secondary color- like the color of your trim or shutters.

For a real weather-resistant fabric that you could probably reuse the next year, how about shower curtains? I would recommend the type that looks like traditional fabric because it is smooth flowing, but not the kind with an attached valance as that would catch leaves, bugs and cobwebs.

I love front porch living in the summer- and it’s great to really “pimp” out a porch with cushiony furniture, a glider, a fountain, potted plants, windchimes, etc. What else could you possibly ask for after the soft, billowy curtains that will sway in the evening breeze?

In continuation of my Bad Recipes series, this week I bring you a video for proof! It is called “Sardines Snacks” and is from a 1956 publication.

If you’d like the recipe in print, please email me.

I need some advice on this. When I viewed the video on my computer, the picture and audio were absolutely perfect. It only appears this terrible after being uploaded to YouTube. If someone has a suggestion for me, I’d appreciate it!

View Larger Map

This past weekend fuzziebutter.com was visited by someone in Bay Minette, Alabama who found their way here thanks to twitter! I don’t know who you are but I took the liberty of finding out about your town!

In the process, I made friends with city librarian, Joanna Bailey, who was a most entertaining, friendly and fun person! She took a few minutes to speak to me on the phone after a busy afternoon of the Bay Minette Browsers club meeting. It’s a book club that meets at the library and today they discussed Water for Elephants. (I heard it was good!).

Bay Minette, population roughly 7750, is situated about 26 miles northeast of Mobile, Alabama. It lies on a river delta, very close to the Gulf of Mexico.

First of all, let me compliment you, Bay Minetters, on your lovely accent. It’s not an Appalachian twang- it’s a rolling southern drawl that is mesmerizing and contagious!

Bay Minette is the county seat of Baldwin County, Alabama. The story of how this town became the county seat endeared it to me forever! You see, the Bay Minette became the county seat in 1900 with a little bit of middle of the night trickery, and has remained the county seat ever since.

Librarian Joanna Bailey remembered affectionately adventures of her past on the delta, taking photos in her father’s boat and how easy it can be to get lost on the tributaries. All alone, (and without a cellphone), I would have been an hysterical mess but Joanna pulled it together and found her way back to civilization- probably with some amazing photos!
We joked about the weather- Joanna proclaimed that “Joo-Lie” and August are humid and HOT! But guess what? She’s never had a White Christmas! After some reflection, I think I convinced Joanna she really doesn’t want a White Christmas since that would mean three months before and after completely snow filled! She couldn’t imagine the perma-snow we deal with here in New York! Laughingly, Joanna told me about wearing shorts on Christmas Day and watching the SnowBirds come from the north. That would be we northerners who escape to the south for six months a year! I told her one day that would be me!!!

For fun, people spend a lot of time on the river or beach, as they are blessed with some of the most beautiful beaches in America in Baldwin County.

Snooping around the internet, I see that people are concerned with activities for youth and drug use. Some do feel there is a gang problem in this community. Unfortunately, I can’t find a place in America that doesn’t have the same problems.

Baldwin County has been putting together an Oral History Project, and you can click here to view a short interview with a life long resident.

Bay Minette was first settled by the French and was named after a French woman. It was located at the mouth of Bay Minette Creek. The city was actually relocated with the construction of the railroad in 1861. History of Bay Minette includes a Yellow Fever outbreak in 1878. A book printed in 1921 calls Bay Minette’s principal industry turpentine, with 10 plants located in the eight square mile city.

It looks like there are some cool parks in the city.
And as one resident put it in an online forum:
“Hey- at least we have a Wal-Mart

Joanna told me about her experiences with hurricanes, (something I could not fathom!). I found this photo online of some very scary clouds snapped by a local resident and submitted to the news station.

In closing, I’d like to thank my Bay Minette visitor and welcome all my NEW Bay Minette visitors who stopped by to say HOWDY and see what I had to say about their town! Please leave a comment if you’d like!