Sarasota Soundings

Sumi-e, oriental brush painting, is a contemplative discipline. Traditional landscapes and compositions of bamboo and birds as well as works highlighting Florida flora and fauna are among the new offerings in the current exhibit at Selby Gardens. The paintings, all by accomplished artists in the Sarasota chapter of the Sumi-e Society of America, are for sale.

Where: Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, at the cafe inside “Selby House”—near the giant banyan trees.

When: Through Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Selby House and the café are open daily: 10 AM to 4 PM

Garden hours: Open every day from 10 AM to 5 PM

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens
811 South Palm Avenue
Sarasota, Florida 34236
941-366-5731

www.selby.org

Today, we bought this delightful accordion-pleated souvenir postcard album at a flea market in Sarasota.

Printed in the first decades of the 20th century, it includes twenty-four color views of the architecture, public parks, and activities that snowbirds in the Roaring Twenties might have enjoyed in Orlando, Florida.

Some of the Orlando postcards in our 1920’s souvenir album

Pondering the impending loss of Saturday postal service in 2013, we find it hard to imagine that anyone today would entrust such a lovely bundle to the United State Postal Service without first packing the album into a small box—or at least protecting it with a padded or water-resistant envelope, especially during the winter season.

Front of album

But in February 1921, someone did exactly that—turned these lovely images over to a carrier for the U.S. Postal Service. The writer mailed them, naked, save for a stamp and good wishes, to the intended recipient, a Mrs. Wilber in Belleville, New Jersey. Presumably they arrived in good enough shape to be treasured for decades before they returned to Florida in the inventory of a flea market vendor, where we found them.

Here in Sarasota, where it’s been sunny and in the high 70’s for most of the past week, we think of our readers, colleagues, and family in the Northeast as Blizzard Nemo blows and blankets the region in white.

And we remember an ironic inscription “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds,” which graces the facade of the James McFarley Post Office in Manhattan.

We’re nostalgia junkies who would like to continue to believe in that unofficial motto, even if our fragile Floridian ephemera and collectible sheets of U.S. 39-cent snowflake stamps endure longer than the sentiment a young Austrian immigrant and master engraver, Ira Schnapp, carved into stone.

Snowflake Stamps
(Based on original snow crystal photos by Dr. Kenneth G. Libbrecht)

I discovered today that I don’t know how to retweet. I suppose I should also point out that I’m not exactly a power-user when it comes to social media in general and Twitter in particular. I should also point out that, yes, I’m aware of the link beneath Twitter messages that says, “Retweet.” But that’s not what I’m talking about here. What I don’t know how to do is to post a retweet with some kind of pithy comment before the original message that somehow elevates the message in social standing and suggests that I’m not just some guy in off the street.

You’ve seen them before: someone posts a tweet with a link to a recipe, for example, and twelve people promptly retweet, “Oooh, delish RT…” or, “Must try RT…,” or, “This one’s a keeper RT.” Better still are the various political pundits we all seem to follow on Twitter. The retweeting during the news cycle for the “fiscal cliff” issue was breathtaking. Here was a case—given the constraint of 140 characters—where retweets were themselves retweeted. “Not in Boehner’s lifetime,” or “Not while Obama is President” were a couple of popular retweets as the whole fiasco played itself out. Of course, that was also a time when I couldn’t have retweeted if I had wanted to. But I didn’t know it yet.

So today, I saw a post that I felt was worthy of a retweet, and I found myself coming up short of the mark. I dutifully clicked the link that said, “Retweet,” but all I saw was a text box containing the original message and a button that said “Retweet.” Where was the space before the message for me to add my little bit of wisdom, of social media validation?

I went with my first impulse and clicked “Retweet” hoping I’d get another text box where I could add my benediction. Wrong. And suddenly, there it was. It was just out there; a naked retweet. I was mortified.

I had put a lot of thought into my retweet. Knowing that the original tweeter—a friend from Chicago—had already used most of the 140 characters allowed, and remembering from my English Lit courses that “Brevity is the soul of wit,” I had prepared a retweet that I felt was worthy of any street corner in Hoboken. It was, I felt, pithy, on-topic, and above all, brief. This would have been appropriate because the original tweet was an announcement that today is International Day of Italian Cuisines 2013.

My response to this tweet, had I known how to post it, would have been, “Beh…Who knew?”

Our favorite winter breakfast has long been avocado on toast. Years ago, each December, our Floridian grandparents would send us (via Railroad Express!) avocados from their back yard. It became a family tradition to enjoy some on Christmas morning.

This year the Florida avocado crop is especially bountiful, so we’ve been playing around with variations on guacamole.

So far, this is our favorite. But because we have a lot more prep work to do for tonight’s Italian feasting, we’ll spare you our usual lessons in botany and Mediterranean mythology and just give you our very quick and simple recipe for holiday guacamole. We think one picture is worth a thousand words.

Avocado & Pomegranate Seeds on Toast
Copyright © 2012, Skip Lombardi

Our recipe may be scaled up, but keeps its color best when made in quantities that will be consumed within 48 hours. The measures below are for one large Florida avocado.Choose one that weighs (with pit and peel)anywhere from 12 to 18 ounces.

Ingredients:
1 large, ripe Florida avocado

For EACH Avocado…

1 teaspoon freshly grated orange rind
Juice from 1/2 a small tart orange
1 Tablespoon ordinary white vinegar

1 very small FRESH garlic clove, minced (@ 1/4 teaspoon)
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated ginger-root
A little minced fresh green chili (@ 1/4 teaspoon)
A few sprigs of snipped FRESH dill (@ 1 teaspoon)

Salt & freshly ground black pepper
Dill sprigs and fresh pomegranate seeds, for garnish

Preparation:

Grate the orange rind, then juice the orange half into a non-reactive 1-quart bowl. Add the grated rind.

Add the vinegar and all the seasonings except the salt, pepper, and garnishes.

Peel the avocado and add all the pulp to the bowl. Mash it with a fork, leaving a few chunks. Stir to combine with the seasonings. Add a little salt & pepper to taste. The flavors will continue to develop so it’s better to under-salt and taste again just before serving.

It’s ready to enjoy now, but will keep, covered, in the refrigerator for 4 days. We like to serve ours on lightly toasted semolina-sesame bread from the Bavarian Bakery, but the avocado mixture is delicious on crackers,tortillas, or chips.

Garnish with fresh dill and pomegranate seeds, whose slight acidity is a lovely complement to the unctuous avocado.

Happy Holidays!