Birthday Celebrations

St. Michael's, Maryland.
Near the Chesapeake Bay.

Until a friend posted the idea of celebrating the United States’ 250th by reading books from major historical eras, I intended to not recognize this civic ‘birthday’ at all.  What is there to celebrate?   Corruption of American-sized portions on our plates?  The nihilist advances of the Project 2025 bros?  Scunge in the Reflecting Pool? Never mind all that.  Learning and reflecting – that I can get into.

The local brick-and-mortar bookstore (yes, we have one!) also encourages reading as part of the nation’s celebration.  I have not read any of these.

I've read a book by Jill Lepore, but not that one.

The other side of the table had more suggestions (no photo).  I ordered a hardcover of Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan. Like Timothy Snyder’s book On Tyranny, I think this will be a book that I don’t ever want J. Bezos to snatch away from me.  It was sold out, so it’s on back order. 

My friend’s fiction suggestions for this celebration are at the end of this post.  I selected some nonfiction suggestions, in the next post.

Patriotic bunting and an admonition.
But I say:  
if you are pushing the moral arc of the universe
toward justice, lean away.

Two high-school friends and I try to get together once a year, ostensibly to celebrate our birthdays.  This year we are all reaching a birthday milestone.  We made June into our birthday month and had a marvelous time in Annapolis, Maryland.  Look for that in a future post, if I get around to it.

Cake AND pie.

Then we had a flurry of family birthday celebrations here, with the birthdays of two of the progeny coinciding with the homecoming of one of said progeny.  For her birthday she requested an apple pie homebaked jointly by her and me.  And for the Common Household Son’s birthday, she wanted to recreate “Linda’s Fudge Cake” (Cheesecake Factory).  This meant more home baking in three days than we’ve done in the first six months of the year.  

We go for flakiness, not beauty,
when making pie crusts.

The pie was delectable and is gone.  

The Fudge Cake recipe called for an obscene amount of melted chocolate chips for the ganache.  I counseled halving that part of the recipe but, as usual, my input was ignored.  There is now 1+ cup of chocolate ganache staring me in the face whenever I open the fridge.  The Common Household Son took most of the ganache-engulfed cake away to store in his freezer. Whew.

Younger Daughter made the cake, but guess
who had to do the dishes?

C.S.H. recommends the following books, for celebrating America 250:

The Traitor’s Wife, by Kathleen Kent (First Settlers). 352 p, 2010. StoryGraph rating 3.5 out of 5.

Rebellion 1776 by Laurie Halse Anderson (Revolutionary War) 416p. 2025.  Middle grade. SG rating 4.0.  

Sunflower Sisters, by Martha Hall Kelly (Civil War). 516p. 2021. SG rating 4.2.

These is my Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901, Arizona Territories… by Nancy E. Turner (Western Expansion).  384p. 1998.  SG rating 4.3.  Romance.

The Woman in the Photo by Mary Hogan (Gilded Age/Suffrage).  432 p.  2016.  SG rating 3.8.

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn (World War I). 503p. 2017.  SG rating 4.2.

Dead Dead Girls by Nekesa Afia (Roaring 20s).   317p. 2021.  A Harlem Renaissance Mystery #1. Storygraph 3.2.  

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah (Great Depression). 454p. 2021.  SG rating 4.3

The Martha’s Vineyard Beach and Book club by Martha Hall Kelly (World War II)  336p. 2025. SG rating 3.9.

The Briar Club  By Kate Quinn (Cold War) 432p. 2024.  Thriller. SG rating 4.3.  

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (Civil Rights). 211p. 2019.  I’ve read it.  It’s excellent.  SG rating 4.3.  

The Women by Kristin Hannah (Vietnam War) 471p. 2024.  I’ve read it.  It was eye opening. SG rating 4.5.  (Personally I thought The Nickel Boys was better written than The Women, but the ratings disagree with me.)    

 * * * * * * * 

The rubric for the historical eras in my friend's list ended with the Vietnam War. What books might you suggest for historical fiction for after the Vietnam War?

Does the way I’ve listed the number of pages make it look like the books are priced in pence?

A Party Game

My older daughter introduced this game to us recently.  It seems to be a game enjoyed by most ages and skill levels (although it would be difficult for those with vision impairment to play).  You have to be able to read and write to play this game.  I am calling it a party game, although it is not a boisterous or noisy game, because we of The Common Household are fairly quiet people.  Younger Daughter played this with her friends (teens) at her birthday party, and they seemed to enjoy it a lot.

Pictionary Telephone – for groups of 4 or more

As far as I can tell, it works best with 5 to 6 people.  I haven’t yet tried it with more than that.

Supplies needed:  One piece of plain white paper per person.  One pencil per person.

Instructions:

1.  Each person writes one sentence (not a run-on!) at the top of the paper, then draws a line under the sentence.  When everyone has written a sentence, each person passes the paper to the right (or the left; it doesn’t matter, but you should keep going in the same direction for each step of the game).

For instance, you might write:
              When the family of ducks moved to Mars, they started a strawberry farm.

2.  The second person reads the sentence, and under the line, draws a picture to depict that sentence.  Then he draws a line under the picture he drew.  He folds the paper back along the first line, so that the sentence can’t be seen, but the drawing can be seen.  When everyone is ready, pass the paper again.

For instance, given the sentence in #1, you might draw:

One person's illustration of
"When the family of ducks moved to Mars, they started a strawberry farm."

3.  The third person looks at the picture (and cannot see the original sentence) and writes the sentence that best describes that picture.  One sentence only.   She draws a line under the sentence.  Then she folds the paper back so that only the second sentence is visible.   Ready? Pass the paper.

For instance, seeing the above drawing, you might write:
              Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore!"

4.  The fourth person looks at the sentence which is visible, and draws a picture to best depict that sentence, and folds the paper back so only the picture is visible.  When ready, pass to the next person. 

A drawing of "Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore!'"

5. if you are playing with only 4 people, this means that the paper will now pass to the person who wrote the original sentence.  If you have a lot of people, you can go one or two more rounds if you like.   My kids liked to keep passing the paper, even though they knew they were looking at their original sentence.

6.  Now it is time to work backwards to reveal the original sentence, as follows.  One player shows the final picture to all, and guesses out loud what the original sentence might be.  (You could write it down, but usually by this point people don’t want to wait any longer for everyone to write things down.) Then the player unfolds to the previous sentence, then the previous picture, and finally the original sentence.

"When the family of ducks moved to Mars,
they started a strawberry farm."
turns into
"Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore!"

7.  Strictly speaking, no words, letters, or numbers are allowed, but we were a little lax on this point.

From this description, it may not seem like this is a hilarious game, but we all laughed hearttily.

Here is a reveal of one we did while we were in Canada:

The final drawing.

Which came from this sentence: "The crowd of zombies cheered and
waved their Jamaican flags as Ed Sheeran took the stage."

Which came from this drawing.

Which was a depiction of this, the original sentence:
"Do you hear the people sing, singing the song of angry men?"

When we played this, I noticed that some people liked to start with ridiculous sentences, such as:
                   A cucumber walks down the road delivering newspapers.
                   Grapes and flowers started sprouting leaves, which then grew out of the cornucopia and strangled John Williams.

Other people like to start with classic sentences or aphorisms, such as:
             A fly buzzed when I died.
             The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
             A penny saved is a penny earned.

Either way, I think the outcome is interesting.  Let me know if you try this game, especially if you have improvements to offer.

"Younger Daughter will be happy when
summer camp begins."
turns into
"Pocahontas' bright idea did not work, and John Smith, who had
 travelled across the Great Sea in two boats, was hung by her tribe."

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."
becomes
"More people = heavier = good."

Chocolate Activities

Lately I am way too busy to write anything.  It's not that we haven't been having any fun, though.  Some of our fun has involved chocolate, and there is just not anything wrong with that.

This chocolate cake was rich and delicious and had
NO CANDY on it, just the way the Common Household
 Husband likes it.  Usually I would bake the cake
myself, but this one is a hired cake.  

Chocolate percussion mallets, bought at the band concert.

Setting up to play Chocolate Monopoly.

The game does not involve any money.  Just spinning a spinner,
placing chocolates on the board, and taking them off the board.

Bases loaded!

The board looks like a regular monopoly board, except
it has the word "Chocolate" on it.

If you land on "Free Parking" you get to collect all
the pieces of chocolate in the middle of the board.

I have also been eating some celery.  Chocolate and celery make for a balanced diet.

Party for the Young at Heart

The very day after my nephew’s party, we had my aunt’s 80^th birthday party. 

The largest carrot cake known to humankind.
It was delicious.

It seemed as if the world put on its finest spring colors for this party.  This was appropriate, because not only was it a birthday party, but it was also a celebration of my aunt’s art show at the Old Folks’ Home.  My aunt was in high spirits, basking in the company of all her friends and relations and in the praise for her paintings. 

Partying With Art

Finest spring colors - red tulips

I took 500 photos of these flowers, trying to
get a bee in action.

God's art work

Unfortunately, I cannot show you photos of her paintings, lest the images be stolen by internet low-lifes.  But I will leave you with these party hints.

lŸŸ If you are turning 80, go ahead and invite everyone you like to your party.  My aunt invited 82 people.  She’s an extrovert and also knows how to have a good time.  Fifty people attended, many of them driving in from out of town.  More would have come but were not able to make the trip.  Some people were from right there at the Old Folks’ Home, friends she has made since moving there 2 years ago.  I understand that it is not easy to make friends when one is elderly and losing vision, but my aunt has done well despite her limitations.  It was glorious for her to be able to enjoy the presence of all these people from her life.

ŸlŸŸ If a party invitation says “No Gifts, Please” then you should believe it, and just bring yourself.  We had very good reasons for specifying ‘no gifts.’  If you feel you have to bring something, bring a nice card. A few people just had to bring a little something, and sure enough, one of the cards got separated from the gift, leaving my aunt in a quandary about where to send her thank you note.

lŸŸŸIf you have a party that requires announcements to be made, try to find someone comfortable with public speaking for that task.  Although I detest speaking to large groups of people, I was called on to:

- make all the announcements,

- say the prayer,

- keep one certain family member from being obnoxiously demanding to the wait staff,

- lead the singing of ‘Happy Birthday’, and

- generally move the party along.  

Fortunately, to aid me in these tasks there was wine.

lŸŸŸ  If you are having a party where the median age is 75 years old, try to have it in just one location.  Our party started out in the hallway where my aunt’s paintings were on display.  Lunch and the rest of the party were in a nearby building.  I announced it was time to move to the other building, said, “Follow me,” and marched off down the hallway and around the corner.  I looked over my shoulder, but found no one behind me.  A full five minutes later, a phalanx of walkers and canes came into view.  It took some of these people fifteen minutes to walk to the next building, and they were exhausted when they got there.   

Hurry, get out of the way!  Here they come!

lŸŸŸ Do not bring your dog to a party, unless you are a character in Go, Dog, Go, by P.D. Eastman, or it is your service dog which you yourself need in order to get around.   Don’t give me any excuses, such as “But my dog is a nice dog” or “my dog is certified to visit sick people so I can take him anywhere” or “everybody loves my dog.” Just don’t do it.   

lŸŸŸOther than that, everyone behaved themselves.   This was remarkable, and that is all I will say about that, in order to preserve good relations in the family.

ŸlŸŸ If I reach the age of 80, I will hope to have a birthday party with bright red tablecloths. 

Update:  I do not know why blogger is putting in those weird Y-hat things around my bullets.  Clearly I need some lessons from the Crislers on how to make a list on a blog.