An Offer/JMIT Babble

[debka_notion]

(Because I'm a Jewish Mother In Training) I'm noticing a distinct lack of household skills in a number of folks I know, of late- in things that I always thought of as really basic: cleaning, cooking, basic mending (sewing buttons). I feel like I should offer some sort of basic hosuekeeping lessons for a number of my friends. Today I gave a basic demonstration of resewing buttons. As far as I know, this is something I learned from my mother before I started high school, possibly before middle school. Certainly she started me sewing "straight" lines around age 6- it was a real treat too, because we could only sew with her supervision, so when she made the time to do so, it was very exciting. I've been cleaning for longer than that: it isn't hard, you just keep scrubbing, unless you're doing walls or something like that.

If anyone is interested in lessons or the like- aka, chances to get help mending or making pleasing food, let me know.


Outside of that, I had a quiet day- slept in, called home, did work, editted Hebrew: all the usual Sunday stuff. Life continues.

Comments

[jessebeller.livejournal.com]

i think people start doing many of those things when they decide its useful to them.

its not that folks cant sew on buttons so much as they havent convinced themselves its worth the effort to try. in some cases, the consequences themselves change (other people stop cooking your food as you leave home and college and learning to cook will be what keeps you fed) and in others, simply the import of the consequences in question are felt more strongly.

regardless, i salute your effort. encouragement can be a strong motivator, and nothing helps like a little help.

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

But these things do go much easier if someone else shows you how. ANd they are more fun in company, anyways. Sure, they can be, to some extent, learned on one's own: but why mess things up that many times? Not that I'm a wonderful cook, or an expert seamstress: but I can do pretty decent food, and I can sew a straight seam and replace buttons and mend small holes. So...

[jessebeller.livejournal.com]

yeesh
for all the flack im catching, youd think i denounced your efforts rather than lauded them.

agreed on all counts. particularly cooking is a great group activity with very tangible and immediate (not to mention gratifying) results, and one where there is so much to learn that sharing knowlege can be incredibly fruitful. i think its good, what youre doing.

im just saying that untill people decide its worth their effort to make their own food rather than order takeout or live off mac&cheese they wont change their habits. especially in the case of maintaining a clean living environment, but in all such things. the fact that its obvious to you doesnt obviate it for everybody, and no ammount of showing on your part will, in itself, change habits.

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

Oh, I agree with you. And sorry if you perceived this as giving you flack, I'm just responding however strikes me- and I tend not to bother responding to bits I agree with: I mean, what's the point of saying "yes, I agree with you" constantly?

I don't think that people will so much necessarily change their habits, so much as I want my friends to have the skills to do so when they're ready to do so/when they need to do so. Also not to discard perfectly good clothes just because they loose a button, or tear part of a seam/hem.

[tirerim.livejournal.com]

Interesting -- I learned all of these things in Home Ec. in middle school, which has always been my indication that home ec. is a useful thing. I suspect that part of the problem is that there's just no way to learn things like that unless someone teaches it to you.

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

I learned them all from my mom, and then we did them again in life skills, which was my middle school's version of Home Ec. Except for buttons, which I would think would be one of the more obvious sewing skills- instead they had us make oddly shaped pillows- mine was a watermelon. Ahh, well: it was good practice for me, at least.

[jessebeller.livejournal.com]

once the cognitive leap as been made that says that buttons, if loose, can be resewn, most people i know can figure out how to get some thread on a needle and poke the thing through a shirt in the right place. they'd most of them probably do it even better the second time.

same thing with cooking, although with a steeper learning curve. once youve got the whole making things hot cooks them bit, its just a matter of making enough things hot to figure it out.

i wonder if there is such a thing that is unlearnable unless someone teaches you. certainly there are things that cannot be taught, but i would strongly doubt that anything relies exclusively on teaching for the learning.

[nuqotw.livejournal.com]

I want lessons. How do I clean? Bleach and ammonia didn't work out as well as I hoped. Sewing and cooking would be good too. Eating raw pigeon naked is a cold and disgusting experience. And the feathers are difficult to chew.

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

As my mother would say, elbow grease: scrub a lot, and usually you get results. THe chemicals are secondary. Very secondary, in many cases.

Pigeon I've never done before... But it can't be So different from chicken, can it? Oh, I need my own old copy of Joy of COoking (that doesn't just have pigeon, it has things like racoon and squirrel. Thank goodness I can't/won't eat them.)

[belu.livejournal.com]

Squirrel?

Squirrel?

That sounds a lot more like cute than food to me. Like cat. Or child.

(Except I think that some cultures do eat cat. But still, who eats squirrel?)

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

Also opossum, including the suggestion that one trap them alive and feed them cereal for 10-14 days before slaughtering them to clean out their digestive systems of roadkill and hte like.

But yeah- even if I Didn't keep kosher, I Wouldn't want to eat squirrel. I do have a running set of jokes about them, but not to eat.

THey can be nasty though, and if you've already killed something for destroying your flowers/digging up your bulbs/eating your strawberries, I guess you might as well eat it?

[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

"I see that you spent ten dollars a day in meals on your trip. Your budget guidlines were to catch a pigeon and cook it on your travel iron."
"I tried...but it was taking so long."
"Try the 'wool' setting."

- Dilbert, via my partial memory. The strip moved Scott Adams to comment on how much he loves writing dialogue for two characters who are equally bizarre in different ways

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

But who brings a travel iron with them on trips where they'll be catching pigeons? If you're going to be catching pigeons, you'll be entirely too dirty, and/or wearing clothes that just don't need ironing, to bother bringing an iron. No?

[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

I guess not if you're on a business trip for a really, really cheap company.

Alternative Sources of Cooking Heat

[agru.livejournal.com]

OK -- the opening is here and I just can't resist:

Go to amazon.com and look up Manifold Destiny: The One! The Only! Guide to Cooking on Your Car Engine! by CHRIS MAYNARD, BILL SCHELLER

Of course, this assumes you have a rental car on which to cook your pigeon!

Re: Alternative Sources of Cooking Heat

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

I've seen it. It is marvelously funny. The question is though, wouldn't the gas be more expensive that buying a powerbar instead, what with gas prices these days?

Re: Alternative Sources of Cooking Heat

[jessebeller.livejournal.com]

its a question of redundancy.
if youre already driving someplace, youre producing energy that can be used to slaughter and cook animals on the way. the only way a power bar becomes efficient is if you give up driving altogether.

i knew a guy once who described his dietary habits as 'roadkill vegan.' the only animals he would eat were those killed accidentally (by automobiles most specifically, although i assume it extends to all accidental killings).

thinking about it, though, high impact killings (i.e. bludgeoning with blunt instruments, such as cars) tend to rupture organs like the stomach and bladder and the subsequent flooding of the body with digestive acid or urine or bile or any of a host of undesirable fluids can change the very edibility of an animal, if not just its palatability. (oh, the things youll learn in a food science class...)

Re: Alternative Sources of Cooking Heat

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

I knew that. But presuming that one is otherwise supposed to be eating pigeon, it would be cheaper not to drive anywhere while on this otherwise either rural or very urban adventure (the best places for pigeons- they don't seem to be suburban birds so much: as far as I can tell, they're extremists). So driving in either environment doesn't seem so productive, especially since you'd have to walk aorund to hunt the pigeon first.

I also have a friend who will eat animal products if they will otherwise be thrown out, but who is otherwise vegan. Makes sense, for many of the reasons that people are vegan...

Interesting- didn't think of that. Thanks for the info.