Homemade cake, knives and sports free
Jim and Pat Cowles emailed in regard to the column about dropping a birthday cake and how nothing beats a homemade cake.
“We appreciated your column about homemade cakes today, because our daughter, Kathy, celebrated her 50th birthday yesterday and she and her daughters made a Black Forest cake to celebrate and they said it was delicious!” (Luckily, it didn’t fall on the floor) *** Has anyone else had this experience? After missing baseball, basketball, tennis and golf for the first few weeks of the shutdown, I grew used to it being gone. Life became simpler and its absence may have lowered our national blood pressure.
Funny how you live and die with your team and when there are no games, you just live and learn to live without it.
Baseball started Thursday and I have mixed feelings. I’ve wanted shorter seasons — baseball and basketball are long — but a 60-game season without fans in the seats will be different because there are at least five chapters in every season. The NBA in August will also be strange because we’re used to sports being rooted in certain times of year.
Easy for me to say because millions of people are dependent on sports for their livelihoods, but I wish they’d take this season off until we sort out the pandemic. There are plenty of people who disagree with me and two weeks from now, I may disagree with me. *** After quitting for good and then quitting again for real good, two weeks ago our ice maker started making ice again fresh out of the watery blue sky. I’d bought a 20-pound bag of store ice, which overnight went from cubed to clumped and required stabbing with a butter knife in order to unclump it without stabbing your leg or splintering the ice bin.
Maybe the ice maker thought, “You call this ice? I can do better than that.” *** The column on buying Cutco from the charming daughter of a friend kindled memories, the first from Carol Westover.
“Your column touched my memory of our neighbor’s son wanting to do his spiel for us. We’re talking 25 years ago since that fateful night when I spent over $800 on a set of Cutco knives. I’ve since purchased the ice cream scoop (NEVER put it in the dishwasher — it will pit the finish!)
“I’m in need of knife sharpening service and somehow lost one of my 4 steak knives. Would you be so kind as to pass my name and phone number along to your 18-year-old Cutco dealer/friend? I can make her happy!” *** Chuck Doremus goes way back with Cutco too: “This is my set of Cutco knives that I sold while attending Baylor University. My Cutco knives shown here are over 50 years old, and still sharply cutting.
“Oh, by the way, a chef salad knife was used in the movie ‘Psycho.’” *** Ray Hedrick responding to the column about what is your favorite drive. “Two come to mind: “1) Rent-a-wreck from Skagway AK to Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. Serene untouched beauty.
“2) I’ve driven the Overseas Highway a few times from Key Largo to Key West, FL. Always amazing.
“I’ve been to all 50 states and ten Canada Provinces, plus the Yukon Territory. There are plenty of beautiful drives here in our state. One partially unpaved road (CA 270) goes to Bodie State Historic Park from Highway 395.”