Another Random Linda Photo

I was going through Sarah and Mohamed's old computer with the intention of formatting it and installing a new OS and software on it, when I came upon a group of photographs from spring 2007, apparently taken at the North Carolina Zoo. Here's one of them:

Clockwise from top left: Sarah's mother-in-law, Nadia; Sarah; mom; and Youssef, mom's second grandson. There will be more about the grandkids soon.

Another Random Photo

This is mom in a kitchen in the early 1970s.

Who Knows?

Here is a nice little quote from mom that I extracted out of an email Carol Redmount forwarded to me:

"Look particularly at the bit on Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Then go and bang your head on the wall."

This quote is the entire email, and we have no specific context for the thing. It is weird, wacky, witty, hard to understand, to-the-point, and interesting in a mysterious it-keeps-you-guessing kind of way.

Kinda like mom was.

Saving for Tomatoes

Mom tells me that she was so poor as a student in Chicago that she could not afford to buy tomatoes all the time, especially in the winter. She would save up her money until she could and, because she had waited to get them, she would settle only for the very best--beefsteak tomatoes.

She would take those tomatoes (or maybe just one) back home and sandwiches made with good bread, thick slices of plump, juicy tomato, and LOTS of mayonnaise. To her, that must have been like manna from heaven.*

* I have actually eaten manna of the earthly variety on several occasions. Far from heavenly, the stuff I am talking about is made in Iraq and Iran from the resin of the tamarisk tree which is powdered, boiled in water, and turned into a paste into which are embedded pistachios, almonds, and other nuts. In Arabic the name of this confection is من السما "Heavenly Manna." I purchased the first batch from Baghdad International Airport in 2006.

Random Linda Picture

This blog has a new tradition that has been a while coming: Random Linda Picture!

This will happen whenever I am extremely tired (like now), at a loss for a story, because I found a nice photograph that has no known story, because I hope you will tell me something about a photo, because I am testing to see if anybody is paying attention, or because I just feel like it. I have done this before, but I am now making it official and giving it a name.

Delirious ramblings of the extremely exhausted aside, the above is an honest-to-God, real, official, government ID issued to mom by the Egyptian Ministry of Housing.

Translation:

Cairo Governorate
Civic Development Project #1

Name: Linda Oldham
ID#: Passport #Z4492604

(Illegible signature)

(Official seal of the Egyptian Ministry of Housing)

Good night, Readers, and may all your ID photos come out as good as mom's in this one.

All-Nighter

I have something that is work-related that must be finished by morning so, although I will be in front of this computer all night, I have precious little time to write anything for mom. I think this is something that mom would have understood--she was often in this situation, mostly because she, like me, worked best under pressure (read: I had three months to do it, so I left it to day 89.5).

Back to the salt mines with me.

More from Sylvia

Here's some more from Sylvia's latest email:

When [Linda] visited me in Seattle, she made an Egyptian versions of stuffed grape leaves which were wonderful. I initially called them by their Greek name, “dolmades,” and she called them “dolmas,” She pointed out that “dolmas” is much more pleasing to the ear and thus much better suited to the delicious dish. I didn’t write down the recipe as she prepared it, but I tried to duplicate the dish later, with some success. She sautéed ground lamb in an enormous amount of butter, with onions and garlic. To this, she added chopped tomatoes, coriander (or possibly Italian parsley), raisins, cinnamon, and salt. She stuffed the grape leaves, and then layered them over a steamer lined with grape leaves. She served them covered with yogurt. She told me that they freeze well, so that it is a good idea to make a quantity since they’re labor intensive. If you have the actual recipe, I would love to have it."

Sarah, Aziza, Anybody: Who has the recipe?