Five Frugal Dinner Recipes, #1

Yes, you can make dinner--for two!--for less than $10. This ten-part series provides actual recipes for the main dish. For side dishes you can...

* heat up a can of vegetables 

* cook or reheat some brown rice

* bake or fry some cornbread

* eat some fruit for dessert

...while staying inside our $10 limit. The best way to have good, cheap, clean fruit and vegetables is to use the ones that grow on your property. You may be able to raise and freeze corn and beans; you may need to learn to use wild plants that tolerate less sun or less rain than corn and beans require. It's good to learn the nutrient properties of your local wild plants. Some are similar to supermarket produce; some are much richer in certain nutrients, and some may contain a different balance of nutrients. When you know what is safe to eat and where it fits into your overall diet plan, you can save a lot of money by eating the "weeds" as well as the "crops" from your garden.

However, wild plants are usually seasonal, so this series will not rely on them in main dish recipes. This series will imagine that you eat wild plants as side dishes when they're available.

For maximum accessibility, these recipes use foods sold at Wal-Mart because that's the biggest US chain where most people will be able to get the same things for the same prices. Substituting alternatives you can get from locally owned stores, including convenience stores, is recommended but will probably raise the cost of the main dish. 

These are the quicker and easier recipes that came to mind. Some frugal recipes take time and labor; not these. At most you have to keep things simmering for an hour or less.

Main Dish #1: Chili Bean Stew 

* Heat 1 can Southgate chili beef (usually under $2) in a saucepan. 

* Stir in 1 can Great Value Spicy Chili Beans (under $1).

* Stir in 1 can Great Value tomatoes (also about $1).

* Let it boil for about 1 minute, stirring to prevent scorching, and serve on about 1/3 of a bag of Great Value corn chips (the bag costs about $2).

* Top with sliced green onion (or wild garlic) and/or chopped fresh herb leaves to taste. 

Main Dish #2: Basic Chicken and Rice 

* Drain liquid from 1 can Great Value chicken chunks (about $2.50) and add water to make 2 cups. Bring this liquid to the boil. You can add salt, pepper, or spices as available.

* Add 1 cup Great Value brown rice. (under $1.50). Cook as directed. "Instant" rice is more expensive but, once boiled and cooled, it's done. "Unconverted" rice needs to come to a full boil and then simmer for most of an hour, so it's a good deal if you have steady heat and want to heat the kitchen. 

* Optional: Chop in 1/2 to 1 mature onion now, or wait and add sliced green onion, wild garlic, and/or herbs later. A mature onion costs about 50 cents, in season, alone or in a bag. 

* During the last five or ten minutes of cooking time, pick over and add the chicken meat. You can also add raw, or drained thawed, or drained canned vegetables if you can get clean ones. 

* When clean, raw green vegetables like lettuce are available, line plates with them and top with rice and chicken. 

* Top with sliced green onion and/or herbs, or other raw vegetables like tomato, cucumber, or celery as available. 

Main Dish #3: Fish Cakes 

* Pick out inner skin, if any, and flake 1 can fish (tuna, mackerel, salmon) ($2-3) in its liquid.

* Add 1-2 eggs (under $0.50) and mix in with a fork. 

* If you can squeeze in the juice of a lemon and sprinkle in some tarragon, the house won't smell like fish the next day. 

* You can also mince in 1/2 to 1 onion (about 50 cents) if you like.

* Add self-rising corn meal (about 50 cents worth out of a $4-5 bag) and/or corn chip crumbs ($1-2 worth out of a $2 bag) to make a thick stiff dough.

* Oil a skillet, heat until it sizzles, shape the dough into patties, and fry until both sides are brown and crisp. This usually takes ten or fifteen minutes.

* These go well with warmed-up green beans, or with just about any raw vegetables, or both.

Main Dish #4: Turkeyburgers 

* Oil a skillet and heat until it sizzles.

* Shape a 1-pound package ground turkey (less than $5) into patties the size of hamburgers. You can season them at this point if you like, or wait and add seasonings later.

* Pan-fry the burgers slowly on medium heat until they are done all the way through. This usually takes about fifteen minutes, depending on how thick you made your burgers. Be sure they're done; some people like rare beef but I never heard of anyone liking rare turkey.

* Slice a supermarket tomato or cut up a home-grown one (less than $1), mince an onion (about $0.50 but most people use less than half an onion on a burger), and mince some other herbs if you like.

* Serve the burgers in burger buns if you really like that tradition, or go gluten-free and eat them between a couple of green leaves on either side. 

Main Dish #5: Vegan Lentil Pottage 

* Cook 2 cups lentils as directed. They usually need to be simmered in an equal volume of water for 20 to 40 minutes after they boil. Cost of lentils is below $2.

* Cook  1 cup brown rice as directed. They usually need to be simmered in the same way the lentils do, and you can usually cook them together in one pot if you don't want to bother cooking them separately. Cost of rice is also below $2.

* While they hold their shape, but have become tender, combine rice and lentils. Taste. Most people add salt, which is adequate (I think) to bring out the flavor of the main ingredients, but you can add other spices if you have them. Oregano and rosemary are traditional.

* You can cook a chopped onion with rice and lentils, or mince in green onions or wild garlic shoots after cooking. Many people also like to cook a chopped carrot and/or celery stick with lentils, which will add flavor and nutrition if you can get clean carrots and celery. You can also add a tomato before or after cooking lentils, and top them with any fresh minced herbs available.

Web Log for 1.28.26

Didn't do much link hunting but I did find one link:

Child Neglect 

Apparently this is a real live demonstration of what children's car seats are for. Mercifully, the child survived.

https://theviewfromladylake.blogspot.com/2026/01/not-exactly-model-mom.html 

Book Review: Korean Patterns

Book Review: Korean Patterns

Author: Paul S. Crane

Date: 1967, 1978

Publisher: Kwangjin Publishing Company

ISBN: none

Length: 177 pages text, plus index

Illustrations: some black-and-white cartoons

Quote: “In this discussion of attitudes and behavior patterns, it must be understood as one of the rules of the game that one is speaking in the composite...there are many exceptions.”

First, the warning: Don’t make the mistake I made when I bought Korean Patterns. Looking at the cover, I thought it would have to be at least partly about Korean art patterns, like the lovely mandala on the cover. It was one of those stuff-a-bag or dime-a-dozen library sales so I didn't lose much, but I was disappointed. The text contains not another word about the kind of patterns I was looking for. It’s more fun to read than most books classified as sociology, but sociology is what it is. And it’s old.

How useful is the text? Consider the date. This is now a history book—interesting background reading. There’s a list of official holidays, a table of the traditional year-naming system, a chart explaining the hangul alphabet, a list of proverbs, and other interesting tidbits. The sort of cultural patterns Paul Crane observed have been broken up, in Korea and elsewhere, by technological progress and global communication. Comparing Crane’s observations with more recent ones might be good for some interesting conversations, though.

Recommended to those interested in the history of Korea. 

Book Review: Mr Mysterious & Co

Book Review: Mr. Mysterious & Company

Author: Sid Fleischman

Date: 1962

Publisher: Little Brown & Company

ISBN: none

Length: 151 pages

Illustrations: line drawings by Eric von Schmidt

Quote: “Have you ever seen a cow lay eggs?”

Sid Fleischman was a stage magician before he was a writer. His first book explained tricks he did on stage. Later he wrote several comic novels about magicians, entertainers, and storytellers.

Mr. Mysterious & Company is vintage Fleishman. A fictional family travel around the partly settled but still wild Western States, offering “wholesome family entertainment” featuring Pa’s magic tricks. Using a combination of tricks, showmanship, and basic niceness, they rescue a dog, make friends, and strike a balance between a settled-down lifestyle and their love of performing.

Even third grade students will see the happy ending coming, but the comedy is funny enough that people tend to read (or listen to) the whole story once. 

"Books I Wish I Could Read Again for the First Time"

This week's Long & Short Reviews prompt is "Books I Wish I Could Read Again for the First Time." 

That's not an emotional experience I've actually had. One can always read a book again, and again, each time focussing on a different aspect of what the author had to say. As a child whose access to books in general used to be limited to a narrow selection of mostly unappealing books, I read some favorites literally dozens of times. As an adult I have more opportunities to read new books for the first time, but there are still books I can enjoy revisiting. 

In some other L&SR-prompted posts I've focussed on the first books I can remember in the category, which has meant children's books. This time, for variation's sake, I'd like to focus on books I read for the first time within the past twenty years, which means skipping over the children's books I don't actually need a child's help to enjoy revisiting and the reading list classics...

1. Dakota by Kathleen Norris

While she was only getting acquainted with the monastic people she would write about in her mega-sellers, Norris wrote this slimmer book of essays--long, short, and short-short--about her life with her husband in a small town. The topophilia is delightful. I wouldn't like to live in South Dakota but Norris makes it clear why she did.

2. Juniper Gentian and Rosemary by Pamela Dean

Given a contract to write a novel based on an old ballad, Dean strayed a bit from the topic. The oldest versions of the English riddle songs seem to date back to a time when people were seriously afraid of "devils" and relished legends of how someone might have outwitted one. By the time the ballad picked up the refrain, whether sung as "juniper, gentian, and rosemary" or "gentle fair Jennifer, Rose, and Marie," interest in "devils" had declined and the plot became that the young man chose, of three young women, the one who gave the best answers to riddles. In this novel Dean mixed both motifs. The three sisters are named after magical herbs because their parents anticipated that they'd need to defend themselves against malevolent magic. All three are attracted to a mysterious young man who moves into their neighborhood. The attraction is not primarily sexual; something murkier is going on. "Devils" wanted to corrupt souls. The malevolent power in this novel wants to derail one of the sisters' career by separating her from her own life, education, family, friends...drawing on another old song that warned "girls that flourish in their prime" to "let no man steal your time." I love that this novel finally calls out "boyfriends" as a harmful, corrosive factor in young women's lives. Dean's ability to portray a healthy family life and vibrant friendships has no equal.

3. Peace Talk 101 by Suzette Haden Elgin

After the success of her Native Tongue trilogy, the writer known as Suzette Haden Elgin had an interesting late career. She was also a linguist and language teacher known for the slow steady bestseller series that began with The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense. Those books continued to sell. Elgin continued to learn and write more about communication with verbal self-defense books for every market demographic that suggested itself. Each one seemed to do better than the last, while critics, feminists, and English teachers raved over Native Tongue. But...but...Native Tongue hadn't sold a lot of copies in its first run. Worse, because it had been not only recommended for many contemporary literature courses but actually used in a university research project, instead of forcing sales of lots of expensively produced copies it had been photocopied and distributed to students by teachers. Publishers didn't want to risk a novel like that and didn't want to publish the next science fiction series Elgin wanted to write. 

Meanwhile, she was privately counselling a young person in distress. She published no details about the person but she did self-publish, as a free e-book, a short novel about a depressed young man who gets some good advice that may or may not make his life less depressing, but it seems to start working in his favor. She called it Peace Talk 101. It 's a sort of summary of what she'd learned in a richly varied career, and it's a good read.

4. The Straight Dope (series) by Cecil Adams

Selected from a weekly newspaper column, this was a delightfully random collection of fun facts. People sent in questions and Adams researched and wrote up the answers to the ones with the highest snarky adult comedy potential. Teenagers love this series. My inner teenager is one of them.

5. The Dilbert Principle by Scott Adams

Common sense advice about work and communication, presented by cartoon characters.

6. The Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges

If you want a book of manageable size that can be opened anywhere for goofy fun and memorable insights, this one is worth looking for. It used to be available in both English and Spanish. 

7. Eat the Rich by P.J. O'Rourke

The title is, of course, a joke, not a serious recommendation. O'Rourke visits places he considers examples of "good socialism," "bad socialism,"  "good capitalism" and "bad capitalism."

8. Clueless (series) by H.B. Gilmour, Randi Reisfeld, et al.

Remakes and reviews of the classics of English literature as reenacted by rich high school kids. 

9. Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg

Thoroughly researched historical classic, with a snarky sense of humor.

10. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

Actually, any book by Anne Lamott. I don't always agree with her but I love the way she writes.

Web Log for 1.26.26

Blog Post, Delayed Notice 

Sometimes posts on blogs that aren't hosted by Blogger or Blogspot don't show up on time in the blog feed. They get stuck in the works for months or years and then all pop up at once. Here's a long overdue blog post from the artist known as SARK:

https://planetsark.com/april_birth_month_blessings/

Good News 

Someone really was stupid enough to raise financial questions about banning paraquat. Yes, there are people who deserve Parkinson's Disease. Anyway, yes, Virginia, we can afford to ban paraquat altogether and forever. (We can't afford not to ban all the "pesticide" sprays used outdoors, actually, but some of us aren't intelligent enough to realize that yet.) Everyone can afford a total ban on paraquat, actually. And on glyphosate. And on glufosinate. And on every other herbicide that's ever been marketed. Insect and fungus population explosions can be a real problem, but if you don't want a plant to grow where it's growing, hello, you can always use a trowel...and if you're saying "Agriculture isn't gardening, I don't have time to use a trowel," you should get your lazy carcass into an inner-city apartment and stay there, banned by law from ever owning land again. People who have any business owning land will make the time to use a trowel rather than poison the food they sell to other people.

https://lis.blob.core.windows.net/files/1096471.PDF

Poetry 

Why indeed?

https://lifeafter50forwomen.com/2024/10/24/when-i-pretend/

Sasquatch Hunting 

If you come to Wise County, Virginia, you WILL see Bigfoot. Guaranteed. The sculpture on the High Knob is there 24/7/365 and makes great Canon fodder, or GoPro or Sony or whatever. Whether we've ever had another Sasquatch besides the sculpture, I doubt. I think, if the hairy giants exist, they'd live on the Pacific Coast where a lot of things are super-size. 

Nevertheless...

What he said.

Book Review: The Pearl

Title: The Pearl

Author: John Steinbeck

Date: 1945, 1964 (et al.)

Publisher: Woman’s Home Comapnion magazine, Viking, Bantam (et al.)

ISBN: none

Length: 118 pages

Quote: “All manner of people grew interested in Kino—people with things to sell and people with favors to ask.”

For those who’ve not already read it, The Pearl is the story of what happens when poor people in a poor village find a treasure. When they had no money to pay, the doctor refused to give the baby medicine. After they have the giant pearl, the doctor offers the baby medicine whether the baby needs the medicine or not. People who shared their pleasure in their good fortune, during the day, try to steal the pearl at night. People attack the young man Kino in the dark. Stabbing out wildly with his knife, he kills a neighbor. And so on.

Although Steinbeck described this pearl of a novel as “a parable,” a story boiled down to black-and-white contrast, it has enough complexity to support any beliefs you might have about wealth. How much of the trouble comes from the fact that Kino has a pearl, and how much from the fact that he (naïvely) boasted about it? Should he have thrown it away, sold it fast for an unfairly low price, or kept it a secret? If the neighbors had more ways to make money honestly, would they feel the same desperate greed that motivates them to try to steal the pearl?

Kino and Juana are indigenous Mexicans. They talk about having money to pay the wealthier Spanish people in town, to whom they owe money, who are not and have never been part of their community: the doctor, a priest, a school. They don’t mention plans to spread the wealth around the village, although the news of their treasure makes shopkeepers remember things they haven’t sold and the beggars remember that “there is no almsgiver like a poor man who is suddenly lucky.” Is that why the neighbors turn against them?

There are a few people who don’t like The Pearl. Some object to the violence (the couple quarrel, and the baby is lost, before the end of the book). I think most of the objection to the use of this book in high school dates back to a time when it might have been turned into a discussion of Communism and Capitalism. I hope the discussions are more sensible by now. It could be turned into a discussion of the issues immediately facing teenagers. Is an expensive jacket worth the money if you can’t safely leave it on the coat rack with other people’s jackets? Do you know anyone who’s been mugged for a necklace or a video game?

It’s Steinbeck, so you know it has some literary merit as well. Part of the pearly luminescence of this book comes from Steinbeck’s acute perceptions and precise language. No blur of brownish green in the sea for him: “The brown algae waved its gentle currents and the green eel grass swayed and little sea horses clung to its stems.” Steinbeck characters, even (disturbingly) in his nonfiction, always seem to have been belittled—as if Steinbeck had a need to remind us that their I.Q. scores are lower than his or, presumably, ours—but they are treated with empathy; even the doctor’s money-grubbing callousness stems from a longing to return to Paris where “he remembered the hard-faced woman who had lived with him as a beautiful and kind girl, although she was none of these three.”

The Pearl is recommended to anyone who hasn’t already read it. 

Petfinder Post: Big Red, Old Yeller, & Company

Today's Petfinder post features animals with reddish coats. Whether we call them red, yellow, orange, sienna, russet, ginger, even (borrowing from horse lovers' vocabulary) sorrel, these dogs and cats show a healthy mutation that puts them in a minority of their species. Reddish coloring is more common in dog breeds than others. In cats, the gene for a reddish coat is dominant in males and recessive in females; so, although normal healthy females can be just as ginger-colored as males, we expect reddish cats to be "Ginger Toms." 

Do they bring bad luck? Some people might consider tomcat odor to be bad luck. Other than that I've not noticed that years when the resident cats included a ginger were less lucky than other years. 

Here are this week's photo contest winners, the most photogenic reddish-colored cats and dogs in the Eastern States. As always, the most adorable animals at the shelters and rescue organizations aren't necessarily the best photographed. 

In addition to sharing the animals' photos with anyone you know who needs a pet, Petfinder wants everyone to know, you can also sponsor an animal so that someone else can adopt it for a reduced fee. This is negotiated with the organization; you'll want to do some research and use money to reward good and punish evil. 

Zipcode 10101: Stefan from NYC

His web page: https://www.petfinder.com/cat/stefan-45c6c568-3793-4e85-9170-e54a40118eb1/ny/new-york/animal-haven-ny17/details/

Not many details of Stefan's story are available. I think the other cat in the photo may be a sister, Elena, who was my second choice for the photo contest. They are summer kittens, healthy weight still under 6 pounds. 

Bahar from Kuwait via NYC 

Her web page: https://www.petfinder.com/dog/bahar-5f5deae4-970f-4905-8dac-81fe730b0cd0/ny/new-york/good-world-animal-rescue-and-protection-inc-ny1521/details/

Bahar is special because she's a Saluki mix. Purebred Salukis have long been considered special; like Arab horses and like camels, worthy to be kept as pets by Arabs.  Like the horses, they can be on the sensitive side. Bahar is described as a shy dog who seems most comfortable having an older, bolder dog to follow around. One year old, she weighs 34 pounds and is not expected to grow bigger. She likes long walks and lively games. 

Zipcode 20202: Kara (and Clark) from DC 

Her web age: https://www.petfinder.com/cat/super-siblings-kara-16705-13e359b1-bc81-4179-bd33-45eed4e07fb4/dc/washington/city-dogs-city-kitties-rescue-dc22/details/

Currently about six months old, these bouncy-pouncy kittens should be more fun than a barrel of monkeys. Usually the orange kitten in a litter is male and the gray one is female; in this case they say it's the other way round. Kara is cautious until she gets to know people, they say, then becomes cuddly and chatty. 

Rob from Texas by way of Springfield (Virginia) 

His web page: https://www.petfinder.com/dog/rob-e321c67b-f870-48ad-883e-570bb6fa5a6c/dc/washington/gracies-project-tx2503/details/

In the 26-60-pound range, Rob is described as "funny" and "a big goofball" who likes to play and lie on the couch beside his human. He's a mixed breed but has that lethal gene for the "merle" coat that's typical of Australian Shepherds, a lively breed who tend to want brisk walks at regular intervals including one in the middle of the night. He likes attention and feels rewarded when people laugh.

Zipcode 30303: Bean from Houston by way of Atlanta 

His web page: https://www.petfinder.com/cat/bean-fb63fdc4-40ef-4efb-8c68-0c7e68af7261/ga/atlanta/kind-in-the-making-tx2762/details/

Bean has a gray and white brother, Beau. They might do best when adopted together. They are young, just five months old at the time of original posting. The adoption fee for either kitten is steep because it includes a full package of veterinary care plus transportation from Houston to Atlanta. If you're going to Houston it might be more reasonable. 

Pinecone from Texas by way of Atlanta 

Her web page: https://www.petfinder.com/dog/pinecone-b5196d6a-7c35-4787-99e1-8cf584a273c6/ga/atlanta/bee-pawsitive-husky-rescue-tx2616/details/

This five-pound Pomeranian was put up for adoption so that her human could move into an apartment. Don't we need to stop warehousing human beings in apartments?! Pinecone is young relative to her life expectancy, thought to be two or three years old, but this is as big as she's supposed to get. She likes other dogs, cats, and children, but she's not been properly trained, still needs puppy pads and basic leash training, and is recommended for a patient, experienced adopter.

Web Log for 1.25.26

Animals 

Far-flying British butterflies...some of these species fly so far they're found in the Eastern States as well as in Britain and Western Europe. Others have close relatives in the Eastern States.

http://eastsussexwanderer.blogspot.com/2026/01/vanessids-in-sussex.html

Books 

One doesn't review Jane Eyre, one announces it. This review quotes the love scenes as favorites. Forgive me, Gentle Readers, if I think the love scenes are the weakest part of the classic novel. Any two people can be mutually attracted and long nineteenth-century speeches about it can only be rated more or less cringe-inducing. Jane's appeal, like that of Shirley, is that they think about other things besides their hormonal feelings.

https://blbooks.blogspot.com/2026/01/10-jane-eyre.html 

Cartoons 

Dowdypants didn't say this, but she ought to have done.

To whom are we indebted for the photo? Google can't say. The fancy-schmancy new version of Lens is too cluttered with bells and whistles to do any actual searching.

Glyphosate Awareness 

Old news story, with some evergreen facts that may be useful to people who find themselves sensitive to corn.

https://thefern.org/2024/05/the-u-s-mexico-tortilla-war/

Another old news story with some facts that are still relevant, about other ways Bayer may be playing with food you eat:

https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/gmo-product-bayer-gene-edited-salad-greens-us-stores/

Weather 

It's being theorized that the cold weather this winter, such as it's been, is due to global warming. Well, that is a joke, but it's like an Ohio joke--ludicrous, but actually happening.

Some fun facts: 

The University of Virginia claims the coldest temperature recorded in Virginia was ten degrees below Fahrenheit. Hoot! Silly flatlanders. That's the coldest temperature on their Swamp campus. Up here in the Point, my family remember 23 degrees below in 1985 (I was in Washington at the time and it was well below zero there too); the coldest temperature recorded during that freeze was either 30 or 34 below, depending on whose thermometer you accept, in Mountain Lake.

https://learn.weatherstem.com/modules/learn/lessons/148/13.html

The biggest snowstorm recorded in Virginia was recorded by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Both of them independently recorded that they got three feet in one snowstorm in 1772. Loudoun County matched the record in 1996. In 2010 Dulles Airport measured almost four feet, but that was from two separate storms.

That's snowfall, considered all by itself. Old snowdrifts and wind have done much more than that. In 1857 Norfolk logged snowdrifts 20 feet deep, during a deep freeze that lasted long enough that people walked a hundred feet on the ice over the Atlantic Ocean.

The most unlikely snowstorm occurred on the fourth of July in 1920. The snow didn't actually stick to the ground, but all across North America people told their grandchildren they'd seen snow in July!

https://www.novec.com/About_NOVEC/Virginias-Historic-Snowstorms.cfm#:~:text=Jan.%2028%2C%201772%3A%20Both,Virginia's%20biggest%20snowfall%20ever%20recorded.

Nobody is expecting the current storm to approach those records. 

Weather records are usually reported as "the hottest, coldest, most rain/snow," etc., "on this date," which means they're broken almost every year. Any day we might see the coldest thirtieth of January or the most rainfall on the ninth of February. That doesn't mean the coldest temperature, or even the coldest January; the twenty-ninth and thirty-first of January in other years might have been colder than the coldest thirtieth of January, or whatever. So in summer it's easy to get the impression that things are getting hotter--and, in winter, that they're getting colder. Actually, the only big change supported by evidence is that things humans do are making our cities hotter. In winter some people like that.

Book Review: Silver on the Tree

Title: Silver on the Tree

Author: Susan Cooper

Date: 1977

Publisher: Atheneum

ISBN: 0-689-50088-2

Length: 269 pages

Quote: “The responsibility and the hope and the promise are in...the hands of the children of all men on this earth.”

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. If you're reading for suspense, the takeaway is that although the last chapter ought to feel like a climax to which the first twenty chapters have led up, and it doesn't, each chapter is a good, nonviolent story meant to pique young readers' interest in British folklore (which is rarely nonviolent). Go and read the book now.

In 1977 I looked for books with landscapes. I did a lot of reading in the backs of boring classrooms that looked alike, and if a book could give me a mental picture of something more interesting, I was pleased.

Silver on the Tree was my kind of book—in 1977. It has beautiful Welsh landscapes, interwoven with shimmering fragments of ancient poetry, legends, and mythology. Modern poetry is here too. Symbolism is thick. In 1977 I enjoyed reading a novel that would keep me tracking down clues to its symbolism for a few weeks.

Still, I thought I must have missed something in the actual plot. So I read Silver on the Tree again in college. And again, as a foster mother. And again, as a teacher. And again, as an aunt. And again, as a bookseller checking for mold inside the pages. And after thirty years I have to say that I still think Silver on the Tree fails to meet the standard it’s set for itself.

It’s about a conflict between the Light and the Dark. In a general way these cosmic forces are identified with good and evil, but it’s explained that they’re not meant to be good and evil, or literal light and darkness. They are alien forces that, in this book, withdraw from the earth.

Things identified with the Dark are usually unpleasant, but not always: the list includes bullies, bigots, weasels, a lake monster, a careless shipbuilder, a woman who seems bland and friendly, and the chief antagonist, who (you’ll have to remind yourself), in spite of the jacket picture and his character, was invented before Darth Vader. 

Things identified with the Light are most of the other human characters in the book. They’re said to include a vast assembly of people around the world, but the ones in the book are a fairly narrow sampling of British types. Some of them, though inhabiting human bodies, have superhuman memories and abilities; the careless reader might classify them as “gods,” but that would be a misinterpretation of British mythology: they are longaevi, the more ancient kind of faeries, superheroes and supervillains, members of a mortal and fallible alien species who live longer than humans and can do things humans can’t. Their English name is “Old Ones,” although some of them have been reborn in young bodies; the one on whom the book, and its previous volumes, focus is only about twelve years old (in his current human shape).

His companions include King Arthur, seen only in glimpses, and Merlin, seen close up in a human shape that might be only seventy years old, and the legitimate son of Arthur and Guinevere who has been sent forward in time and is also in his early teens, and the demigoddess Jana who seems to be in between human shapes, and Taliesin and Gwyddno Garanhir and Owen Glendower and various other legendary characters, and three ordinary, contemporary middle school kids (siblings), and various valuable objects they carry...they all seem meant to be pleasant.

At a certain magical time, the Old Ones know in their mysterious way, a magical silver flower will bloom on a magical tree, and if they do everything right they’ll be able to cut the blossom, banish the Dark from our world, and go somewhere else. In order to make it happen the children have to meet various tests, presumably of character and intelligence; the Dark is allowed to scare them and distract them but not directly do them physical harm. This nonviolence is unusual in British mythology. For adults who’ve waded through all the gory battles first it might have been a refreshing change. Silver on the Tree is the climactic volume of a five-volume series in an established twentieth century sub-genre of fantastic fiction, in which, despite the shadowy presence of the legendary heroes, the story is really about the personal growth processes of teenagers.

That’s the trouble with this book. The three human children are old enough to have real coming-of-age adventure stories, like Alan Garner’s characters, but their adventures are more of a guided tour than a real test or quest. They remind me of those old, insipid “Sister and Brother Go to [European country]” pseudo-novels of my childhood, where the characters see sights, learn words, listen to stories, and come home feeling that they’ve really learned something. Because the author is Susan Cooper rather than a committee of word-counting teachers, the sights Jane, Simon, and Barney see really come alive...but at the end of the book we’re told that the children won’t even remember their adventures, except as dreams.

Real Celtic folklore had a few active heroines, but not enough to satisfy most modern readers. In many old stories, as in this new series, the heroines only barely have roles. Jane does have to resist a psychic attack, but this turns out to consist of not being grossed out by a lake monster who can't touch her. Jana has spent the whole series being "the Old Lady," and that's about all, though she did seem to inspire an old human lady to throw a party in The Dark Is Rising. But it's not as if even the male characters in this series had to be terribly brave, or even athletic. 

The two “Old Ones” in child form, Bran and Will, have more powers and more active adventures. Still, although they move around more than the other kids, their challenges are easy: Bran has to look at himself in a mirror, and as a team they have to talk to a depressed adult...their success ought to be leading up to a serious challenge, but it's not. Because they're so young they get the choice of floating off into mystical space with their own elders, or staying on Earth and growing up to be ordinary men. The choice doesn't take a lot of time or thought.

In the end, the story Silver on the Tree tells us is a story-behind-the-story: Cooper had a contract to write five novels about five children whose fantastic adventures would echo and build on British mythology—Will in England (first), Bran in Wales, and the other three (who are siblings) in Cornwall. Each volume contained a different mix of fantasy and reality. Each set up a real challenge for its child character(s); The Grey King, in which Bran loses his dog and forgives his human foster father for not being his real father, won a Newbery Medal. Cooper had promised to tie all the stories together in the fifth book, and, for whatever reason, hadn’t thought of an adequate plot within the time allotted. So she wrote a superbly detailed dream sequence and told readers that the game was over, and if we weren’t convinced that a conflict between human good and evil had been won with the help of the alien Light, tough. As in more recent series like Harry Potter and A Series of Unfortunate Events, it can be hard to write a final volume that's as good as the first volume.

Cooper has since written other books, but none of them sold as well as this series.

Anyway, even if it's only a dream sequence, even if they seem to be leading up to a climax that never comes, the individual scenes are beautifully written. Each one works as a short story. The book is worth reading, if only for sharing the pleasure of the characters' dreams.

Butterfly of the Week: Common Swordtail

Graphium policenes is a very popular African butterfly called the Common Swordtail. It is also called the Small Striped Swordtail, as distinct from G. antheus, the Large Striped Swordtail. Sometimes it's also called the Marbled Swordtail, and sometimes the Turquoise-Spotted Swordtail.

At least it does have long sword-shaped tails on its hind wings, unlike some butterflies whose English names include "swordtail."

Photo by Danyparis, Cote d'Ivoire, March 2024.

Well...it always starts with long sword-shaped tails. It can survive if the tails are lost by misadventure.

Photo by Josephizang, May 2022.

Not believed to be endangered, this species is well represented at commercial sites. It can be bought (dead or alive, but usually dead) as a collection starter; its wings, preserved in clear plastic, are for sale as jewelry, and of course pictures of it can be found on just about anything. It's been featured on several postage stamps, some available for sale.

List of a dozen postage stamps featuring Graphium policenes at https://www.stampdata.com/thing.php?id=25094&offset=0 .

In Equatorial Guinea these butterflies, along with native bird and other species, have even been portrayed--in color!--on coins:

https://en.numista.com/134024

Some people who claim to be selling Graphium policenes, or images thereof, are actually selling different species.

Regular readers already know how several butterfly species originally called Papilio were split off into the genus Graphium, and how some now want to split Graphium into separate genera in which policenes would be classified in the genus Arisbe, but why policenes? Whatever the name may suggest to English-speaking readers, it's Greek. In English, as an ordinary man's name it's spelled Polyxenes, and as the name of a literary character it's found only in the feminine form, Polyxene or Polyxena, a daughter of Priam and Hecuba. Not mentioned in Homer's Iliad, she appears in other stories of the Trojan War, with some disagreement on the details--one author mentions her long black hair, another says it was blonde, and so on. She was betrothed to Achilles, apparently against her will; calling her "most pure" and saying that she "remained chaste" in spite of everything probably means she foiled attempts at rape. Euripides accuses her of complicity in Achilles' death and says Achilles' ghost demanded that she be sacrificed. Other sources say she asked to be sacrificed, or committed suicide, after her brothers killed Achilles. In any case she lived and died a virgin princess. Butterflies show no interest in the concepts of virginity or monarchy, but people have to call them something.

Next week's butterfly, Graphium policenoides, was not named after a character but after this species. Policenoides means "shaped like policenes."

Widely distributed in central Africa, often found in descriptions of other butterflies that look similar but aren't it, G. policenes has a wingspan of about 6cm, up to 2.5 inches. Females are slightly bigger than males, most females between 6 and 6.5cm and most males between 5.5 and 6cm. As with other bluish-winged Swallowtails, most if not all the blue color comes from the way light strikes the wings, so the same individual may look bright blue or green, white, or grayish depending on the light. They are said to fly very high and fast.

Two subspecies are generally recognized: Graphium policenes policenes and G.p. telloi. Some sources list Graphium policenes biokoensis. Others count biokoensis as a separate species or list it as a subspecies of some other similar-looking species. Graphium biokoensis and Graphium liponesco are sometimes described as two distinct species that happen to look alike but aren't found in the same places. They seem to be different from Graphium policenes but look the same. A few older sources also list a subspecies sudanicus, now considered just an older name for telloi. One source lists a subspecies laurentia, which looks as if it's usually classified as a different kind of butterfly.

Other names under which this species has been discussed, according to Funet.fi, include agapenor, coussementi, polixenus, pompilius, and scipio.

For butterfly collectors the rule is that antheus, which is not always all that much bigger, has S-shaped pale bars across the front edge of the fore wings, rather than relatively straight ones, and liponesco and biokoensis have narrower wings with relatively more black and less white. A fuller discussion by Torben B. Larsen is available: 

http://abdb-africa.org/library/bibliography/2190.pdf

However, specialist sites indicate that some individuals puzzle even experts. 

Graphium policenes policenes photographed by Jakob, December 2013.

Graphium policenes telloi (Tello's Swordtail) photographed by Joan Outside, June 2023. Much less information is available about telloi, possibly because the subspecies look so much alike and their ranges overlap. Telloi's range is, however, smaller. INaturalist, which has so many photos of Graphium policenes generally and of G.p. policenes that it's set up pages for photos from specific nature parks, shows only four photos positively identified as telloi. 

Maps of where to find these butterflies are available at ABDB-Africa, which counts biokoensis as a subspecies of policenes. 

https://abdb-africa.org/species/Graphium_policenes_policenes

https://abdb-africa.org/species/Graphium_policenes_telloi

This species flies and breeds continuously when weather permits, which in most of its range is continually. It can live on several host plants; Wikipedia lists

"

 Uvaria caffra, Artabotrys monteiroae, Uvaria bukobensis, Uvara chamae, Landolphia buchannani, Landolphia ugandensis, Polyalthia species, Annona reticulata, Annona senegalensis, Annona squamosa, and Monanthotaxis caffra.

"

Photo by Mortenchristensen, Tanzania, November 2024. The underwings are consistently browner than the upper wings, and usually show some yellow-green; their color, too, depends on their angle to the light. 

Photo by Cherisea, November 2021, South Africa.

Photo by Hippolytep38, 2019, Cote d'Ivoire. Some of the Graphiums seem attracted to anything of that sky-blue or turquoise color that shows on some species' upper wings. INaturalist shows a disproportionate number of photos of Graphium policenes fluttering around bright blue objects as distinct from other colors.

Of course, some of those objects are shoes. Graphium policenes are one of the Swallowtail species that are attracted to the mineral salts in human sweat...

Photo by Botalex, 2013. These "Common" Swallowtails can, like some other Swallowtail species, be a little too friendly with humans. Especially on a hot day.

The life cycle of Graphium policenes seems typical for the Graphiums. Male butterflies eclose a few days short of sexual maturity and complete their physical development by drinking mineral-rich liquids, composting brackish or polluted water. The species is most easily observed when male butterflies are drinking in groups with other male butterflies, often including several different species. 

Photo by Craigpeter, November 2022, showing a typical mixed group.

(A delightful description of some butterflies that might join one of these groups, or not, in Uganda, is at https://www.semulikibutterflies.com/family-papilionidae . Not much information is given about any species but nice clear pictures are given for most species discussed.)

Smaller white and yellow butterflies are often observed around the edges of groups of Swallowtails. Some of these butterflies seem unintimidated by Graphium policenes' greater size, but often, as in this video, they keep to themselves, out of the bigger butterflies' way:

https://www.facebook.com/Ghanabutterflytours/videos/ghana-butterfly-tours-with-ashanti-african-tours/194412184426686/

Females eclose full of eggs they are eager to start unloading, and sometimes flutter around the edges of groups of male butterflies, checking out prospective mates. Each individual may, if lucky, have about to weeks to fly. 

After mating males have nothing to do but go back to their drinking buddies and continue sipping polluted water, though they get most of their food from flower nectar. 

Photo by Charleyhesse, 2000, Ghana. White and light-colored flowers may be preferred. An important consideration for Swallowtails is relatively shallow flowers. For their size they have smaller probosces  than most butterflies; they can't get at the nectar inside a deep flower.

Photo by Magdastlucia, February 2018.

After mating the males are biologically disposable, though they may try to mate again if they see a chance. Sometimes their preferred puddles, or leks, attract enough spent male butterflies to attract the red-headed agamid lizard, which eats them. Like the other Graphiums they eat leaves that are mildly toxic and discourage most predators...not all.

Females spend most of their lives placing their eggs on suitable host leaves. Caterpillars are relatively small and may spend most or all their caterpillar lives on one big, fast-growing tropical leaf. 

Photo by Magdastlucia, 2018, South Africa. Graphium caterpillars start out in life with harmless bristles that probably make them harder or at least less pleasant for predators to swallow. 

Photo by Wolfachim, January 2011. As the caterpillars grow and molt, the bristles are smaller in each instar. 

They typically molt through five skins in less than two weeks. Pupae hang by threads from leaves; depending on the weather the adult butterfly may emerge in a week or stay in the pupal shell for several months. 

Web Log for 1.23-24.26

Snow is falling as I type. For myself, I don't care how much it snows, as long as the electricity and Internet stay connected. Concerns about my well-being may be coming from the cosmic principle of Good--it may be trying to prod you to do something about the well-being of someone who does not enjoy walking in snow.

Cooking 

Athena Scalzi is very new to housekeeping. She visits Internet recipe sites--most of which are sponsored by people who encourage the site hosts to post recipes that use expensive ingredients--and then says you can't make dinner for less than $50. 

Hello? I cook. I certainly encourage people to talk to me over meals at buffet restaurants, but that doesn't happen every month. I encourage people who are going to supermarkets to take me along and pay for odd jobs before we go into the store, which works out in practice to $100 for anywhere from one to four weeks. I don't buy the full package of every ingredient every time I shop, because boxes of seasonings last months or years, but I wouldn't get enough meals to survive if I spent $50 on dinner. I do survive. I actually have, at the time of writing, some surplus pounds to work off--all this Internet time is starting to show. I even share meals from time to time. 

Frugal meals do not have to rely on oatmeal or will-even-your-possum-eat-Kraft-macaroni-and-cheese (mine won't); they are good ways to use up dry beans if you have a place to simmer things for hours, but they don't require dry beans. I usually buy canned beans. 

Local lurkers, if you want to start a series of ten posts called "Five Frugal Dinner Recipes (#1-10)," please fund them now. Each post costs $5 and may include your business name, a short blurb, a link to your web site if it behaves well for me, and/or a plain JPG photo of your business or logo or anything you fancy (if you're not in business you could ask for a picture of a flower, vintage car, public figure, etc.). No post here will ever contain videos, GIF, or any spyware or "cookies" other than what Google embeds without consulting me.

Athena Scalzi's post, with her $51.24 recipe, is here:

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/01/22/a-very-mid-attempt-to-incorporate-more-protein-into-my-dinner/

Poetry 

We know why traditional songs and poems didn't celebrate rain at the winter solstice: Though the Northern Hemisphere usually sees a thaw just after the solstice, when the December thaw lasts too long our ancestors observed correlations with poor crops and more contagious disease and said that "a green Christmas makes a white graveyard." The thaw was thought to have arrived too soon, and be likely to last too long, if Christmas Day wasn't frosty and cold. Pathogens and their vectors would multiply if they weren't frozen; perennial plants wouldn't be stimulated to produce seeds and fruit. A long December thaw seems less of a problem in a world that ships food around the world and zaps contagious diseases with antibiotics, but farmers still note that some crops, like wheat and apples, thrive in summers that follow cold winters.

https://www.classicalpoets.org/rain-and-snow-on-christmas-day-a-poem-by-lauren-v-leon/

But there are lots of good poems and songs about rain...

https://www.djmikebills.com/blog/30-songs-for-the-best-playlist-for-rain-on-your-wedding-day

https://readalittlepoetry.com/2023/07/28/in-praise-of-rain-10-poems-about-rain-to-stir-the-heart/

poetryinnature.com/poems/nature/rain/

Politics, Strategic 

Florida is crowded, Republicans. Virginia has some towns that are losing population. If you're leaving a solid "blue" state, consider whether Virginia may want you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-njK2kc-qEA&t=87s

Psychology 

Jamie Wilson may be reading too much into one simple study that found that, when an experiment was set up so that lying had only a very small emotional payoff and no consequences, an all-male group of research subjects felt bold enough to tell the truth (reporting lower game scores) when they had higher levels of testosterone, nervous enough to lie (reporting higher scores) when they had higher levels of cortisol in their blood. 

1. Humankind don't learn much from studies of all-male groups. What we know about testosterone in women's blood, which is what "human blood" should presuppose, is that any significant amount of it produces a state of discomfort. We still don't know how testosterone would affect women's reporting of their scores to people who wouldn't know which ones were telling the truth, but we can guess that it would lower their scores.

2. We don't know how testosterone affects males' ability to report the perhaps-uncomfortable truth about things more consequential than game scores. It would be hard to set up a large-scale study of how well men report the truth about who really did most of the work on a "team" project, or how much they put into and took out of a petty cash box set up for about a dozen employees to use.

3. We don't know how testosterone affects either males' performance on a simple game, or their reporting of their performance on a simple game, when sex is even remotely involved (when the researchers are male or female, or wear A, B, or C cup bras, e.g.). We do know that testosterone tends to blow the male mind; men score lower, on average, on IQ tests supervised by researchers who wear bras, and increasingly lower according to bra size, then they do on IQ tests supervised by other males.

https://pjmedia.com/jamie-wilson/2026/01/22/testosterone-is-not-toxic-fear-not-strength-produces-lies-n4948607

Virginia Legislature 

Excellent bill proposed by young Delegate Clark of Isle of Wight. Regrettably it seems to be just sitting on the table in committee. If your Delegate is on the Committee on Agriculture, perhaps you can persuade person that this bill needs to become a law.

https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20261/HB1375/text/HB1375 

World Economic Forum 

This web site does not do foreign policy, so we'll not be discussing Trump's remarks at Davos last week. They are recommended reading. Here's the transcript:

https://www.rev.com/transcripts/trump-at-wef

If you find that white-on-black format hard to read, you can always copy it into your word processing program. If anyone out there really finds it easier to watch a video than to read the words, Brian Zinchuk posted the live video:

https://pipelineonline.ca/donald-trumps-speech-to-the-wef-at-davos/