Lunch Report - Monday Nov. 28, 2011

[guitar_ed]

Hi All,

My name is Ed Gordon and I am a G&L-aholic. (As I wait for a response from you.) At last count, I think I have 16 or so G&L guitars & basses.

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For lunch today, I will be eating cold left over pizza. Combo with no olives. It's not great, but it's not bad either. The place I got it from was on the way home from an 8 hour day of selling computers & related stuff.

What is your house/family policy/tradition regarding left overs? I grew up eating leftovers, and still do. My wife detests the idea. Our daughter has no choice for lunch, as I make her lunches. Some times she gets leftovers, like today, some times she does not. But one thing that I can not stand is Thanksgiving turkey a week after the event. Turkey sandwiches, fricassee, soup, etc. It gets to be too much for me.

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In the USofA, the Thanksgiving holiday is over, with various other winter holidays approaching. And I know that Canadian Thanksgiving was a few weeks ago.

We have various winter holidays to celebrate this time of year. Christmas, Chanukah, Diwali (back in October of this year), Kwanzaa, and Festivus. There are likely others which I am not familiar with. And within our religious celebrations, there are unique family & community traditions.

So todays discussion, mirroring above, is traditions. What are yours?

My family is mixed (secular) Jewish, (observant) Jewish (gone secular), and (observant) Catholic (gone secular). It's not the nightmare it sounds like.

I grew up (secular) Jewish, my wife (observant) Jewish. Our daughter goes to a Jewish school. My brother is married to a (secular) Catholic girl, my nephews are being raised secular, but exposed to both faiths. My father was an (observant) Jew, now married to a (secular) Catholic. My mother is (secular) Jewish. So.......

We have Christmas with my father & that part of the family. We have Chanukah with my mother and that part of the family. And there is plenty of overlap between the two events.

And a part of every tradition that I am familiar with there is a FOOD component. There is always a feast of some sort.

With my dad and Christmas, there is usually a turkey and a ham. My pumpkin bread usually shows up, too. If I am lucky, my dad will make his sweet potato's with marshmallows. If my Step-mother gets her way, he won't. 15-20 people is the norm, some times more. Often a "stray" or two show up, which usually helps the proceedings.

With my mom and Chanukah, things are a bit more constrained. 8 or 9 people is the norm. Smoked salmon (lox) usually makes a brief appearance, before being devoured. Maybe a small turkey or turkey breast. Otherwise, not much tradition here.

The kids make out like bandits, getting gifts at every event they go to. It's crazy.

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Last thing, then you can go party, or work, and sleep, or what ever.

If you are in an open-to-the-public show over the holidays, free or $$, secular or religious, please post it here.

Enjoy the holidays,

edg

[CGT]

No idea what lunch will be today. I'm lobbying for fishcakes.

Leftovers are a part of our lives. We find that food often tastes better the second day, especially stuff with sauce. It's as if the extra time in the fridge allows everything to soak in and the chemical reactions continue, leading to added deliciousness the next day.

I absolutely hate the December Holidays. We drive to my mom's but that's about it. We have usually have a fake Christmas for friends on U.S. Thanksgiving weekend (which is not a holiday in Canada) but this year, there were too many complications.

As for gifts, we give ourselves a museum membership and that's about it. Neither of us is particularly into the gift-giving thing at this time of year. It's become ridiculous. We would rather do nice things for each other and for our friends rather than engage in mall madness.

[sam]

Hi Ed,

Lunch on this end today is a cup of hot tea and an orange. Caught a little bug and ate too much during turkey day travel, so trying to nip both in the bud.

Leftovers have always been regular part of my diet. i hate to throw good food away and
as CGT said, I do believe the flavors continue to build overnight(s). My wife however is reluctant to go beyond 1 day. Her loss

For the Christmas holidays we always put the tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving and slowly put presents under the tree until both sides of the family fall into the house on Chrismas eve, 10 -12 count. With that many people there is a lot of cooking and a wide variety to choose from.

As for gifts, I DO NOT participate in the black Friday madness. I will consider cyber Monday shopping but only for the right deal. A few years back my wife and I did all of our Christmas gift purchases on-line and even had them wrap and ship it, talk about easy. I am in route to doing the same thing this year.

Nice start to the week Ed and now I am getting hungry.

[darwinohm]

Ed, Ginny and I are both Scandihoovian heritage and we celebrate holidays as a family. Easter and Thanksgiving is always a mid morning brunch at our house. Then everyone else moves on to their extended family's mid afternoon and evening. This has been a tradition forever. At our age we were hoping that some of the younger ones would pick up the ball and we could go somewhere to them, but, that hasn't happened. It is tradition that the grand daughters stay over the evening before and they help us prepare. I like leftovers and am going to have a ham sandwich in a bit that is leftover ham from Thanksgiving. We get tired after these events but I wouldn't change it!

Sounds like you have a nice collection of G&L's Ed, and I hope you show some of them to us this week!

For the granddaughters at Christmas, we take them shopping in mid January for their gifts. We give them a $$ limit and they figure it out. With sales that time the the year theyt are very budget conscious and do very well. They want to do that every year and never seem to tire of it. Great start Ed. -- Darwin

[astutzmann]

Hi Ed:

lunch today was some coldcuts (home made smoked sausage) and veggies, plus a little bit of green tomato soup (an experiment that was so so).

We had regular traditions for decades but my parents and my wife's parents are all gone now, so we are attempting to make some new ones.

My parents celebrated Xmas on Xmas eve with dinner, and then the presents, worked out great because we could hit my wife's family the next day.

Now that they are gone and it seems my wife has to do all the cooking at Xmas time, I treat her and her brother to dinner at a nice steak house on Xmas eve, that way she's not cooking for three days.

I dont mind leftovers but not the same 2 days in a row, mix it up!

I have 3 G&Ls and dont have enough time to play them, how does one play 16 guitars, or do you just play your favourites most of the time?

Alf

[louis cyfer]

i am an agnostic anti-theist and have no traditions that i observe. i also don't really care about family, in my view family is people that you would never choose as friends. so i chose friends and don't worry about the family part. i have a few distant relatives in the us, but haven't had contact in a very long time. all my immediate family is in hungary. so i only have friends. i spend thanksgiving at a friends house who have only friends there, no family at all. the whole christmas thing bothers me. most people have no idea what it is about, or what the origin is. why the buying of presents? why the tree? what does santa have to do with christmas? it got so commercialized, it really has lost all meaning today. i celebrate the winter solstice. i usually take a homeless guy, i pick one out on skid row, one who is not begging for money and does not appear drunk or high, for dinner either on christmas eve or christmas day for a nice steak dinner. other than that, only my animals get presents.

leftovers are fine with me. what i don't eat, the cats and dogs do. nothing goes to waste. every dish gets licked clean.

[meowmix]

Hi Ed

Thanks for taking over the LR duties.

Leftovers for lunch today.

Sweet 16! I'm not there yet, only at # 4.

Leftovers are the way of life and I accept it, but the bone dry white Turkey meat, meh, I'll pass.
I don't celebrate any traditions that I know of. They are all over the place, and I just follow along.
For example Halloween; you have to buy candy. The last thing you want is some kid trashing your place because you had no candy.
How about, watching football every Sunday. That can be considered a Tradition.

Peter

[louis cyfer]

Hi Ed

Thanks for taking over the LR duties.

Leftovers for lunch today.

Sweet 16! I'm not there yet, only at # 4.

Leftovers are the way of life and I accept it, but the bone dry white Turkey meat, meh, I'll pass.
I don't celebrate any traditions that I know of. They are all over the place, and I just follow along.
For example Halloween; you have to buy candy. The last thing you want is some kid trashing your place because you had no candy.
How about, watching football every Sunday. That can be considered a Tradition.

Peter

i like halloween. they say trick or treat. i trick. so i hose them with some water, or scare the crap out of them, no candy though. never had problem with the place getting trashed. i am with you watching football. saturday as well.

[blargfromouterspace]

Hey Ed.

I have no religious beliefs and was raised secular. We went to church once on Xmas but my siblings and I sang the songs we didn't know like spazzers and my mother was too sensible not to take us again. The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or Pastafarianism, has come to my attention this year. Every Friday is a holiday. Sounds good to me.

Leftovers are fine by me. Pizza is one of the only non-sauce leftovers that is really good.

[louis cyfer]

Hey Ed.

I have no religious beliefs and was raised secular. We went to church once on Xmas but my siblings and I sang the songs we didn't know like spazzers and my mother was too sensible not to take us again. The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or Pastafarianism, has come to my attention this year. Every Friday is a holiday. Sounds good to me.

Leftovers are fine by me. Pizza is one of the only non-sauce leftovers that is really good.

your pizza doesn't have sauce?

[blargfromouterspace]

your pizza doesn't have sauce?

Smart-ass

[louis cyfer]

your pizza doesn't have sauce?

Smart-ass

can't help it, it was too much for all to fit in my head, that was the only other available space

that's one story. the other is that i had a lot of smartness, but i was careless and in the confusion i lost an "n" and got it misspelled

[zapcosongs]

Nice start Ed. Good to see you doing LR again. It's been a while, no?

Now where do I start? Hmmm....

Well, for starters, you have about twice as many G&L guitars as I do, so you win there.

Regarding family lunacy, it may be a draw. We've got lights, trees, menorahs, stockings, latkes, everything. Which is ironic because we don't really believe in anything (except trying to get through each and every challenging day). If there is a G-d, I hope she is merciful and understanding. Otherwise, I am truly screwed.

Leftovers: My wife made a turkey/vegetable soup (with noodles!) today from the left over leftovers we've been, uh, enjoying for the past couple of days. We'll freeze a bunch and give to my parents who are really slowing down and will believe the soup to be manna from heaven. Oy!

Anyway, back to the holidays, as with you, my kids will make out like bandits - which they really do not deserve given their recent behavioral, uh, challenges. I agree very much with louis in that the whole thing has gotten out of hand and has lost any real meaning (other than increasing credit card debt). My oldest boy and I did go the day after Thanksgiving to help feed homeless people at a Catholic church. Felt great, then I felt bad for feeling good about it. Oy! (Interestingly, this was an activity in connection with my boy's swim team, which is more of a fraternity that teaches far more about life than the skills required to swim fast). Coach is one great dude...

What was I saying? - ed

[Michael-GnL-Michael]

Religion is belief in a story and I do not believe any of the stories I have heard yet this does not mean I think one way or another about a god or no god...........I am pro Santa Claus, decorations, music and food of the holiday season though.

Speaking of leftovers, my father was not a very good cook and burned everything. He used to make a big pot of taco filling with linguica, beans and hamburger. It was more of a thick chili and tortillas were just something to hold the filling. We would have these tacos maybe 4 out of 7 days that week. This was before microwaves became a household staple. After the first meal he would stick the pot of taco filling in the refrigerator. Rather than scoop out a meal's worth each night he would reheat the whole pot so by the 3rd night this slop had been overcooked 3 times and was just awful.

[Ledergeist]

Ed,
Nice to see you at the controls this week.
We are kind of starting new traditions here since the majority of the immediate family has moved or passed away. My Bro stopped in last Thurs. with his family and we did the trash-can turkey again, and watched some NFL games. We''l be going by their place for Christmas. Before our kids, for a number of years we hosted a fab Epiphany party in late Jan.
One tradition I started is that we keep the Christmas tree up until the Packers are eliminated from the playoffs. Those runs to the Super Bowl make for a mighty brittle tree by the time it comes down, but it's all good....

Leftovers - Oh yeah.

Go Packers
BW

[louis cyfer]

Ed,
Nice to see you at the controls this week.
We are kind of starting new traditions here since the majority of the immediate family has moved or passed away. My Bro stopped in last Thurs. with his family and we did the trash-can turkey again, and watched some NFL games. We''l be going by their place for Christmas. Before our kids, for a number of years we hosted a fab Epiphany party in late Jan.
One tradition I started is that we keep the Christmas tree up until the Packers are eliminated from the playoffs. Those runs to the Super Bowl make for a mighty brittle tree by the time it comes down, but it's all good....

Leftovers - Oh yeah.

Go Packers
BW

hopefully you can take the tree down in early january

[yowhatsshakin]

Howdy Ed,

Since we aren't born States side, my wife and I have assimilated Thanksgiving. We still don't like the whole turkey thing but have discovered there are plenty of alternatives, many of them highly appreciated by our American friends. But it will lead to the practical absence of left-overs . Don't know whether that is for better or for worse; I just don't know any better. BTW, I learned from Calvin Trillin over the weekend that the original Thanksgiving dinner involved pasta carbonara as left behind by a certain C. Columbus Of course we all know Calvin is decidedly wrong. Mr. Columbus being from Genoa would have left nothing else but pasta con pesto ...

I gave up on all of these confusing religious complications up the wahzoo in my teens and have been a happy condoning and respecting atheist ever since. Still have fond memories of X-mas eves though because that was always the big night for the choir band I played in. Playing in the band was the only way my parent could get me to go to church and I have never regretted that experience. Lots of fun. And when you play guitar, your perceprion of a holy mass is not the same as when sitting in the pews!

Enjoy the holidays too Ed. No matter what ones opinion may be on religion, it is still a special time. At least for me. And it helps you getting through the dark winter, although that will be quite oposite to someone like Jamie and the other Aussies!

- Jos

[louis cyfer]

Howdy Ed,

Since we aren't born States side, my wife and I have assimilated Thanksgiving. We still don't like the whole turkey thing but have discovered there are plenty of alternatives, many of them highly appreciated by our American friends. But it will lead to the practical absence of left-overs . Don't know whether that is for better or for worse; I just don't know any better. BTW, I learned from Calvin Trillin over the weekend that the original Thanksgiving dinner involved pasta carbonara as left behind by a certain C. Columbus Of course we all know Calvin is decidedly wrong. Mr. Columbus being from Genoa would have left nothing else but pasta con pesto ...

I gave up on all of these confusing religious complications up the wahzoo in my teens and have been a happy condoning and respecting atheist ever since. Still have fond memories of X-mas eves though because that was always the big night for the choir band I played in. Playing in the band was the only way my parent could get me to go to church and I have never regretted that experience. Lots of fun. And when you play guitar, your perceprion of a holy mass is not the same as when sitting in the pews!

Enjoy the holidays too Ed. No matter what ones opinion may be on religion, it is still a special time. At least for me. And it helps you getting through the dark winter, although that will be quite oposite to someone like Jamie and the other Aussies!

- Jos

i was an altar bot growing up. i had a lot of fun shaking the bell at random times to drop the congregation to their knees. also had fun interrupting the priest with the bell. he could only send evil looks my way at the time.