Ms. CRANKY On --- Do People Actually Buy Clacky Shoes On Purpose?

Sometimes when Ms. Cranky is walking down the street, it sounds like half the Bolshevik army is walking behind her and it often it feels they’re going to walk right up her back.  The noise is intense and the clacky shoes people tend to be ‘close walkers.’

Ms. Cranky tries to be understanding as she pulls aside and lets the pounding pass ahead of her.  She thinks that maybe these women, usually women in these cases, tried the shoes on in a store where there were rugs and they didn’t know how horrible they’d sound out on the street.  That’s what Cranky wants to think when she’s being kind, that the person doesn’t really want to announce their every foot step to the world.

But, sadly, she thinks she’s wrong to give the benefit of the doubt.  She thinks that maybe these people actually want to clack themselves loudly through life but Cranky still wonders --- why?

Ms. Cranky thanks you, as always, for stopping by and hopes you have a lovely sunny day.  It’s sunny where Ms. Cranky lives among the clackers.  And, she’d love to hear your opinion on the subject of very loud shoes and wonders if you have any ideas on why they would be a choice?  She knows in summer we have the various flip flop noises which can be slightly annoying and many men wear the kind that shuffle along but flip flops have mostly been put away for the winter but the big guns, the loud clackers, seem to be growing in numbers.

It’s a scary thought.

Ms. Cranky, Monday, November 28, 2011

Ms. CRANKY ON ‘TENTING;’ COOKING SHOWS PART II --- on overused, though often helpful, terms

In time for THANKSGIVING DAY --- talk of cooking, basters and such
Ms. Cranky always thought tents were things you went into the woods with and set up while swearing up a storm. Then, you slept in them, praying it wouldn’t rain and the water wouldn’t come flooding under your sleeping bag.  Ms. Cranky considers herself an outdoors person, even an Adirondack woods woman at times but she stops at camping.  It holds no romance for her and it holds lots of things she’d rather not know about.

But, ‘tents’ are now another hot item term being somewhat overused on her favorite cooking shows.  But, Cranky admits that tents are helpful and wonders what she ever did without them.

Cranky thinks that she may have used ‘basters’ in place of tents, at least she assumes them similar in theory.  You know you always had a baster especially at Thanksgiving time and you’d use it to pull up the liquid around the turkey, then squirt it back on the top and sides.  Cranky thinks this was done to keep the poor turkey from drying out and also to make it a wonderful inviting-looking golden color.  Cranky’s father was the major cook in their house and every time he basted the turkey (which seemed to be every two minutes), we all had to get up and go into the kitchen and make appropriate ‘ohh’ and ‘ahh’ noises to show our appreciation.   Cranky’s dad was a great showman when it came to food and she misses him even more around this time of year.

Cranky had a baster for years, it was real old and might have been handed down to her from her grandmother for all she remembers but as she became more aware of the dangers of plastic and plastic mixed with heat, Cranky wasn’t crazy about the baster anymore.  She really wanted one of those glass basters but they were more expensive and Cranky is always on some budget or other.

But, forget all that --- the use of glass as opposed to a plastic baster because Katie the kitty came to live with Ms. Cranky four Christmases ago.  And, Ms. C. has found that the older you get and the more you live with pets, the more protective you become or that’s how it’s been for her.  Cranky’s seen too many instances of the fragility of life and has gotten more nervous over the years, but not obsessive (ehh --- well, hmm?!).

The second Christmas that Cranky had Katie the kitty (the first one the terrified animal hid the whole season so they never even got a tree), she bought a beautiful tree from Vermont, put it up, well, Cranky finds her trees almost always ‘list’ a little and she ends up balancing the lovely fir against a nearby wall.  Cranky dutifully filled the Christmas tree stand with good clean water and a bit of sugar as recommended.  But, then, Ms. Cranky remembered reading somewhere that pine was poisonous for cats though she had had three other cats that had lived with Christmas trees for years and with the aforesaid water at the bottom of the tree.

But, being older and wiser now, Ms. Cranky decided, all these years of cats and trees later that she couldn’t risk Katie getting into the pine water for a little sip.

So, Cranky devised a masterful, she thought, scheme to protect her still pretty new companion from toxins.  She pulled out her very old turkey baster and every time she left the apartment, which was a lot, she’d siphon the water up and out from the Christmas tree stand so Katie couldn’t drink from it while Cranky was out.  Of course, this meant that, after the holidays, the turkey baster was pretty sticky with tree resin and impossible to clean so it had to be thrown out.  And, cheap as Cranky can be, err, ‘frugal,’ she never bought a new baster as she thought the plastic models not healthy and the glass too expensive. So, now Cranky just spoons liquid over things cooking in the oven and with new information garnered from cooking shows, she is also ‘TENTING.’

Cranky thinks the tent theory a good one.  You put liquid on with a spoon but, then, when you tent the dish, i. e. put a foil wrap over it and close it on the sides, the liquid (this is C.’s theory, she hopes she’s right), goes up to the top and then the moisture descends on the dish so that it’s almost like a baster.  Ms. Cranky hopes not to be criticized by the cooking fanatics of which there are many but that’s how she sees it.  And, mostly, no more plastic coupled with heat which is good. 

And, as for the Christmas tree water --- the last few year’s Cranky’s covered the stand with its own little tent of foil and, so far, Katie the beautiful and funny cat, has not thought to dig below it.  Katie is well taken care of in the food and drink department and has plenty of real cold filtered water in her own bowl.

So those are Cranky’s theories on tenting, basting and not poisoning your pets.  And, maybe some time, on the subject of cooking etc., Cranky may talk about funnels for she truly loves funnels but fears she lost a long-term friend over talking about funnels, perhaps a little too enthusiastically --- well, let’s just say that Cranky never saw this guy again, so, she’s a bit reluctant to get into the funnel subject.  But, she also knows she’ll probably not be able to control herself forever.  She may even get a new funnel or even two for Christmas.

Thanks for stopping by. The very best to everybody from our house.  Thanksgiving is a neat holiday, Cranky thinks, it’s calmer than some.  She hopes you have a whole wonderful Thanksgiving week and that people are smiling and kind to you everywhere you go.  She hopes that ‘help’ in shops is helpful and that people don’t walk into your chest while reading their mechanical devices --- that would be something to be grateful for!

Cranky hopes you cook joyfully with or without a baster, a tent, whatever and that you might begin imagining the smell of pine that will soon fill our streets and our homes, if we are so lucky.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Thanksgiving week

Ms. CRANKY --- on why don’t people take out their wallets before their purchases are added up or do they think it’s ‘on the house?’

Once again, Ms. Cranky stood in a long line of  people, waiting with all their things to check out and duly noted that the guy in front of her, a big guy, with a seemingly big attitude, stood and waited while all was checked out, didn’t help the cashier with the bags --- those guys never do, and, only at the very end of the transaction, did he seem to remember that he had to pay and, then, he took an inordinate amount of time looking for his wallet --- was in this pocket or that? Was it in his briefcase --- or, maybe behind his ear? He looked everywhere while the cashier stood mute with her eyes down and slowly, very slowly, the guy peeled out money, one bill at a time --- they love doing that.

And, Ms. Cranky just stood there watching with her charge card all ready ahead of time and her little key chain if they needed the store card thingamabob.  She was READY TO GO, READY TO MOVE AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE so as not to bother her fellow shoppers or hold anyone up behind her, once again wondered --- did this guy think they were giving the groceries away, was there a sign that said “Customer Appreciation Day --- come on in, everything’s free today?”

Ms. Cranky was, once again, baffled.  Why would a grown man, probably one with a good job    (at least his groceries looked like he probably didn’t have to worry about cost), not think to pull out his form of payment before he got up to the cash register, then stand around watching the cashier tally it up, then watch as she bagged for him.

With buses, it’s pretty much the same.  We all stand waiting for the bus in the rain complaining amongst ourselves that it’s late, then the bus finally comes, we’ve been there maybe 20 minutes and I put my umbrella down assuming I’m getting on the bus right away and that’s when the woman in front of me gets on and then and ONLY THEN decides to look for her Metrocard and I’m left out on the street with the rain pouring on me, aghast and wondering --- didn’t she  have the past 20 minutes to get her Metrocard out before boarding the bus?  Is she surprised she has to pay?  Is this her first time on public transportation?

Sorry, if Cranky seems grouchier than usual today but did no one ever educate these people that there are others of us in the world and that they should be like thoughtful, dare I even use the word considerate?  Cranky’s probably still upset about the huge group of us trying to come up the subway stairs on another pouring rain day and the young woman who had draped herself over half of the steps so the many of us trying to exit had to go up single file.  She was there, of course, because she got good phone reception and the rest of us be damned --- forget it if they’re late to work --- let them eat cake!

Hey, people in line for a cashier, remember you have to PAY when you get up there, maybe you could prepare for that shocking situation ahead of time because we’re all stuck behind you and, maybe, you could stop talking on your cell phone at the ATM machine and push the buttons you need, so you can FINISH your transaction and those behind you in line can then have access to the machine.

That’s all for today.   Ms. Cranky is upset all over again just writing this.  But, thanks for stopping by.  The sun’s out in out area and some say it may be out a few more days.  Maybe the sun will help everybody snap into place for a bit.  Cranky prays today and the days ahead go well and mostly kindly and thoughtfully for you.

Ms. CRANKY, November 8, 2011

Just another person in line with groceries, a rider of buses and subways, a user of ATM machines, a fellow stander-in-line.