it's in the past

In English, to express something that took place in the past, there are several options. For example: I walked, I was walking, I did walk, I had walked. Or if I had planned on it, but it didn't work out: I was going to walk.
In French there are more. The passe compose, the imparfait, the plus-que parfait, the conditionel passe, the subjonctif passe. Aside from these, there are four more that are only used in literature. Encoced in the meaning of these tenses is duration of time, relation in time to other past events, and mood.
Hebrew on the other hand, has one past tense- only one! That makes it nice for a beginning student. Also the endings are regular. One still has the variations of the seven different benyanim (and we've really only learned pa'al) But still, this should be less challanging than french... More to come on Hebrew past tense- I still haven't figured out how to post in Hebrew characters...

May Belle 1989-2005

this poem is written in honor of Maybelle Mary Anne Murry Fleece Marie, a cat with enough spunk and personality to fit her name.

She was born in May,
blythe, bonny and gay,
with spunk, purrs, and play,
her fur: soft and gray

she played with a dart
how funny and smart!
in all the cat's arts
she knew her part

in a move left behind
her clever little mind
worked a path to find
in the nick of time

handsome she did grow,
she played in the snow,
but home was her show,
she'd stay and not go

call her and she'd come
and though there were some
cat-folk thought it dumb
she just said, "ho, hum"

after years of good play,
how now to turn gray?
but youth crept away,
it would go and not stay

she soars now with wings
in heaven she sings
before our good king
who gives us good things

There's a mess on the loading dock

They said it was vomit, but upon closer inspection (did I have to inspect it? Of course, professional curiosity!) it appeared to be spilled spaghetti sauce.
It was yesterday that I started cleaning something I thought to be bubble tea. It was pink, a deceptively cute color. The chunks of this, that, and the other aroused my suspicions- confirmed by my coworker- it was actually vomit!
And for some strange reason or other, I then felt compelled to relate this discovery (alas, in some detail) directly after lunch. Oops! Well, we all have strong stomachs here. I just hope that this doesn't turn into the theme of the week. Last week's themes were broken glass and broken (raw) eggs. Thursday morning Luis and I spent a whole hour de-egging the elevator- oh, la la, quelle horreure! They did such a complete job of it! Of course, it could be a lot worse. I am just glad that we don't clean the way cats clean...

Hebrew Verbs

Hebrew verbs differ from verbs in languages like English and French. Both in their formation and in the number of tenses.

In French, there is the infinitive form, to eat for example: manger. You can tell an infinitive when you see it because it ends in er, ir, or re. Then there is the present tense, two future ones, the conditional, and the subjonctive. Adding the past tenses brings the total to fourteen, and that does not count the imperitive, the present participle, or the construct 'am going to' As in: Je vais aller a la banque. I am going to go to the bank.

In Hebrew, on the other hand, there are only three tenses: the past, the present, and the future. There is also the imperitive, but as in French, I do not think that it is counted as a verb tense.

Hebrew verbs are formed from a root, usually three letters, but sometimes two and sometimes four. The terribly interesting thing about these roots is their forming different meanings through the benyanim. Benyan is building, and there are seven benyanim in Hebrew. (there being two weddings in my family this summer, I will use to kiss as example) nun-shin-kuf In pa'al: kiss, come together, touch. In pi'el: kiss, kiss repeatedly. In pu'al: be kissed. In hitpa'el: kiss each other. In hif'il: touch, couse to touch, be a tangent (geometry), launch (ship). And in huf'al: be touched, be launced (ship).

Notice that I only list six benyanim and not seven. According to my verb book, there are no roots that are commonly formed in all benyanim. If there was such a verb, then there would be 21 possibilities for that root: past, present, and future in each of the seven benyanim.

my colorful world

The sky is blue just overhead,
as blue as the bells in the flowery bed,
with just one small cloud, round and well fed,
with all the sky to tread.

The grass is green beneath my toes,
pushing toward heaven how quickly it grows.
Why does grass smell so sweet? Nobody knows!
That's just the way it goes...

The yellow sun beams from on high.
It sparkles the dew and lights up the sky.
For squirrels gathering nuts and birds learning to fly,
it makes the day go by.

The flowers are red, orange, yellow too,
there even are ones that are purple or blue,
there's a rainbow of color, blooms of every hue
inconceivable but true.

That puupy's black and also white.
He's covered in spots, what a curious plight.
He's a curious puppy. Will he eat that? He might!
But that'll be alright.

It's nice today the breeze is light,
the flowers are blooming- a beautiful sight.
It's the perfect day to go flying a kite,
so, so warm and bright.

by Emilia Squyres

a plan for flan

California Flan
3/4 cup sugar
4 eggs
14 oz sweetened condensed milk
1 cup water
2 teaspoons vanilla
Place the sugar in a skillet and cook, stirring over moderate heat until melted and golden brown. Pour into a 1 quart casserole and swirl to coat the sides and bottom evenly with caramel. Beat the eggs. Add the milk and beat until blended. Beat in the water and vanilla. Turn into the prepared baking dish and place into a pan containing 1 inch of hot water. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour 40 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely, then turn out onto a serving plate. serves 6 to 8.
This is an excellent recipe, simple to prepare, inexpensive, and lighter than many deserts. I highly reccomend it.

ET

No not the movie, the particle that signifies the presence of a definite direct object in Hebrew, and once I figure out how to post in Hebrew I will post some examples!
It is very different than English because we have no such word. I am trying to sort through it by comparing similar sentences. If I were to say something like, I like classical music: ani ohevet moosica clasit, no et is required because it is an indefinite object. But if I said, I like this music, that is definite. The transliteration would be something like: ani ohevet et hamoosica hazot. But I could also say, I like Bethoven: ani ohevet et betoven. Bethoven is already definite because it is a name, that is why it is not: et habetoven. In that way it is like English, because we don't tack a 'the' onto a proper name or place name either. It is inherantly definite.
So there it is in a nutshell, the most adventuresome particle, ET.

chicken and artichoke stew

This recepe comes from Everyday Food, and it is delicious! Try it served over rice.
a rotisserie chicken
2 tablespoons butter
2 large onions, finely chopped
1/2 cup all purpose flour
3 1/2 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
6 medium carrots, cut into 1/2 inch rounds
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 14 oz cans quartered artichoke hearts, drained and rinsed

Cook the onions in the butter till golden, about five minutes. Stir in the flour and cook one more minute. Add the broth slowly, along with 1/2 cup water. Add the carrots, thyme, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Simmer till carrots are almost tender, about five minutes. Strip the chicken meat off of the rotissery chicken in bits, and add it to the pot and simmer about 10 minutes. Add the artichokes and cook just until warmed, about 1 minute. Serve over rice or noodles.
Note: if you forget to rinse the artichokes, like I did the first time I made this recipe, there is a strong vinegary taste. Also, you can buy 3 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs, and cook the chicken for the recipe, which makes it a little cheaper, but also more time consuming and messier.

another work poem

This poem was written after editing the last. This poem is not about a particular kitchen, but rather kitchens in general. I put it together with a lot of rhyming, but no end rhyme, which was kind of fun.
in the fray- kitchen day
This poor room needs a broom and a mop
for to sop all the mess. My best guess?
Mister sly did not try once to clean,
that's soon seen (sooner smelt, even felt)
What a guy- me, oh my. Not too nice,
he spilled rice. He left grit, is that spit?
With cookie crumbs, jam of plum, sticky goo,
kitty poo, slime of lime, so much grime!
Now to zoom round the room. Once we clean,
it will gleam. No more stye, by and by.

WH 407 Kit

Here is a fun poem about a kitchen that I cleaned this last summer. It was the dirtiest that I had ever come across, and I felt that it merited a poem. WH stands for west hall, 407 the appartment number and Kit is short for kitchen- it is the way our assignments appear on the board in the morning.
WH 407 Kit
the ice is an inch thick
in the freezer,
not frosty white
but berry blue, cherry red,
and a smear of I don't know what
artistically placed on the back panel.
Spatters of greese
recklessly fly to the walls
from the ferocious oven beast
devouring its prey fried
while crumbs crumble in the cupboards
and hairs hang loose on the floor
but they all tremble at the approach
of the cleaning crew
who comes to wipe out
those gritty crumbs
those smelly spills
and gooey gobs
those left-overs
left-unders
left-ins

why felines prove that God created animals

Felines prove that God created animals because their many different parts are put together with such purrrfection that chance could in no way account for it. Take first their skeletal structure- flexible, light, and with a tail for ballance in jumping and climbing. Their claws are excellently suited for catching prey (and playing). Their muscles are formed for daring leaps to many times their own height. There is also their keen sense of eyesight and their rotating ears- the better to hear, of course. Not to mention their whiskers- which tell them where they can fit and where not, and their fur, which protects them from the cold. All of these things and more have to work together in harmony for the cat to derive benefit from them. If the cat had fur but didn't keep it clean it wouldn't insulate properly. Or if the cat had good eyesight but didn't hear well, it would not be protected from danger. Therefore, it must have arrived on the scene with all these features already in place, and that means that the cat (along with all other wonderfully complex living things) was created by God.