Home  >> Stories  >> The Tale Spinner #2017-25

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IN THIS ISSUE

• In this Heroic Story, "Bill" exemplifies the spirit of the west
• Jean Sterling comments on an item in last week´s Spinner
• Carol Hansen forwards an article about lawn farming
• Shirley Conlon sends a surprising piece called "If"
• Barbara Wear forwards the protocol for barbecuing
• Tom Telfer sends a helpful hint about your freezer
• Catherine Nesbitt shares some senior adult thoughts
• Sites are suggested by Catherine Nesbitt, Shirley Conlon, and Tom Telfer

Shawnee Cavnar-Brown of California wrote in Heroic Stories:

SPIRIT OF THE WEST

The summer of 2000 found me in Wyoming to see the Oregon Trail, married but travelling solo. I had two weeks worth of food and camping supplies aboard my truck, driving very slowly along the ruts in the vast and barren areas of central Wyoming.

About two miles after crossing a small highway, I came upon a gully that crossed the trail. The ditch got hold of one tire and jerked the steering wheel so both front tires were stuck. The bumper jammed into the dusty ground. There was not a house for miles and miles - just an endless expanse of sagebrush.

I tried gearing from forward to reverse to get the truck moving, but the back tires spat dirt. I stuffed my canvas tarp and sagebrush under the tires for traction, but when I spun the tires the tarp flew out. I heard what sounded like a gunshot - the back tire had blown out. No point changing the tire since I was stuck anyway, so I took a water canteen and hiked the trail two miles back to the highway.

When I got to the turnout I found a couple parked there, adjusting something on their truck. They drove an older truck, with a tired-looking camper hitched to its bumper. The husband and his wife appeared to be from a rural area. They were simple-looking folk, with three dogs on leashes panting beside them, and Wyoming license plates. I approached and told them my dilemma.

Their truck had a winch on the front, and without a second thought, "Bill" unhooked his trailer and left it in the turnout. I hopped into their truck bed, and we drove back along the trail to my truck.

Bill managed to free my truck, and insisted on helping me change the tire. Good thing, because I didn´t know how to get the spare down. When he finally lowered the spare, it was flat! Bill insisted on taking me and the spare to the nearest town, 40 miles away. There, he aired up the tire, produced a valve wrench and tightened it, and drove me back to my truck. There he changed the tire for me, and followed me all the way out to the pavement to assure my safety.

My rescuers had been heading for the Sweetwater River to fish. I offered them money, propane fuel, food, water, whiskey, etc. Seeing my tired and defeated face, he offered ME a beer. This humble fellow, a simple guy in soiled clothes, spent hours of his own time helping me, and expected nothing in return. Bill told me a "thank you" was good enough. As I drove south, I saw him pull his trailer from the turnout and head north.

The amount of kindness Bill showed me that day warmed my heart. I learned a good lesson: the finest books sometimes have the dustiest jackets.

ED. NOTE: As always, to comment on this story, or to get your free subscription to this site, click on

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CORRESPONDENCE

Jean Sterling comments on Betty Audet´s puns in last week´s issue:

GROAN!

Carol Hansom forwards this article by Sarah Armaghan in Newsday:

FRONT LAWN GARDENS

A Long Island couple is aiming to grow the local food movement while bringing it even closer to home - straight to homeowners´ front lawns

Rosette Basiima Adams, 34, developed a green thumb in her native Uganda, where she began farming on her family´s plot around age four. The idea of growing her own food was familiar, as she didn´t encounter grocery stores until immigrating to Long Island nearly a decade ago.

After working at a Community Supported Agriculture farm in Amityville, she decided she and her husband, James Adams, could do it themselves. Adams, 42, who quit his job at a swimming pool company last year, said he was looking for a way to "do something meaningful" and started researching urban farming.

That´s when Lawn Island Farms was born.

To bypass the high cost of farmland, the Adamses searched for residents willing to forego traditional clean-cut landscaping in favor of edible vegetation. They put up flyers in local shops advertising the unusual exchange. They are currently farming on two properties. The Adamses plant and tend the crops and the residents get a portion of the output.

"I believe the whole agricultural system is whacked out and people are really starting to become aware of it with all the pesticides and everything," Adams said. "The solution to it is just to do more things like small farmers do."

Cassandra Trimarco, 34, a physician assistant, who recently purchased a home on Hyman Avenue in Bay Shore, jumped at the chance to have her entire front lawn transformed. Last month, the Adamses planted a crop of non-genetically modified produce, such as lettuce, arugula, spinach, mustard greens, bok choy, and sunflowers, without the use of pesticides. The first bounty is expected this month.

Trimarco said while some neighbors have complained about her use of the space, she sees an incredible value and lesson in sustainable agriculture.

"I´ve always been into nutrition and seen food as medicine. And it´s less landscaping for me. Why waste the space?" Trimarco said. "I want to make people aware and show people that you can grow your own food and make the land useful."

In return, the Adamses will give Trimarco $30 worth of produce each week. Their second plot is on church land in Bay Shore that had once been used as a community garden.

The food not shared with landowners will be sold at farmers markets, the Adamses, of West Babylon, said. They are also in talks with area restaurateurs interested in serving the locally-grown greens.

"It all comes from a community focus," Basiima Adams said. "People knowing where their food is coming from is key." She likes the added flexibility of being able to be around more for the couple´s nine-year-old twins, Curtis and Daisy.

While the Adamses say the farming is very hard work and time-consuming, they are not looking to expand their business much beyond the two current farms, but rather, inspire other Long Islanders to consider using their own yards to be self-sustaining.

"Everybody needs food, so why would you have a lawn instead of having food?" Basiima Adams said. "We want people to start thinking about different ways to feed their families and take care of the planet and the community at the same time."

Shirley Conlon forwards this thoughtful piece:

IF

If you can start the day without caffeine,
If you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,
If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,

If you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it,
If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time,
If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,

If you can conquer tension without medical help,
If you can relax without alcohol,
If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,

Then You Are Probably The Family Dog!

And you thought I was going to get all spiritual....

Barbara Wear forwards the following study:

STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE

We are about to enter the BBQ season, therefore it is important to refresh your memory on the etiquette of this sublime outdoor cooking activity.

When a man volunteers to do the BBQ, the following chain of events is put into motion:

Routine...

(1) The woman buys the food.

(2) The woman makes the salad, prepares the vegetables, and makes the dessert.

(3) The woman prepares the meat for cooking, places it on a tray along with the necessary cooking utensils and sauces, and takes it to the man, who is lounging beside the grill, beer in hand.

(4) The woman remains outside the compulsory three-meter exclusion zone where the exuberance of testosterone and other manly bonding activities can take place without the interference of the woman.

Here comes the important part:

(5) THE MAN PLACES THE MEAT ON THE GRILL

More routine....

(6) The woman goes inside to organize the plates and cutlery.

(7) The woman comes out to tell the man that the meat is looking great. He thanks her and asks if she will bring another beer while he flips the meat.

Important again:

(8) THE MAN TAKES THE MEAT OFF THE GRILL AND HANDS IT TO THE WOMAN.

More routine...

(9) The woman prepares the plates, salad, bread, utensils, napkins, sauces, and takes them to the table.

(10) After eating, the woman clears the table and washes the dishes.

And most important of all:

(11) EVERYONE PRAISES THE MAN AND THANKS HIM FOR HIS COOKING EFFORTS.

(12) The man asks the woman how she enjoyed "her night off," and upon seeing her annoyed reaction, concludes that there´s just no pleasing some women.

Tom Telfer sends a

HELPFUL HINT

Have you ever come from work or some long trip and noticed that your digital clocks are showing the wrong time? You might think: "Certainly there was no power outage!" Even if there was, you simply cannot know how long there was no electricity, right?

There is possibility that it was for several days, leading to defrosted food and its deterioration. Once the electricity comes back, foods freeze again, and you almost do not notice that they were thawed. It is a fact that this can be really dangerous as certain types of foods are at risk of spreading salmonella and other bacteria!

Below we are going to present you a way to find out if and how long your freezer was without electricity! Now you can find out if you can consume the food, or if it was thawed too long.

For this you need: a cup, a coin, and water.

First pour water into a cup and place it in the freezer. When the water in the cup is frozen, put a coin on top of the frozen water and then return it to the freezer.

After returning home from holiday, before taking out food from the freezer, look at where the coin is. If it is still at the top or in the middle of the cup, there was no power failure or power outage for a short time, so the water was only partly melted.

If the coin is at the bottom of the cup, it means that electricity failure was for a long time, so the water completely dissolved, and the coin sank all the way to the bottom of the cup. At that point, it is advisable not to consume the foods from the freezer.

This is a brilliant trick which is super easy to use. This is particularly useful when you go on longer trips!

Catherine Nesbitt forwards these

OLD ADULT TRUTHS

1. Sometimes I´ll look down at my watch three consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you´re wrong.

3. I totally take back all those times I didn´t want to nap when I was younger.

4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.

5. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

6. Was learning cursive really necessary?

7. Map Quest or Google Maps really need to start their directions on # 5. I´m pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighbourhood.

8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

9. I can´t remember the last time I wasn´t at least kind of tired.

10. Bad decisions make good stories.

11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment when you know that you just aren´t going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blu-Ray? I don´t want to have to restart my collection ... again.

13. I´m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to.

14. I keep some people´s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

15. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

16. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night, more kisses begin with Miller Light than Kay.

17. I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

18. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

19. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn´t hear or understand a word they said?

20. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!

21. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

22. Even under ideal conditions, people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I´d bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from three feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time.

23. The first testicular guard, the "Cup," was used in hockey in 1874, and the first helmet was used in 1974. That means it only took 100 years for men to realize that their brains are also important.

SUGGESTED SITES

Catherine Nesbitt shares this link to a video of an anti-Trump protest song, Number 45, sung at Gil´s Hootenanny in Ottawa:

Shirley Conlon forwards this link to a video of Celine Tam singing "My Heart Will Go On" on America´s Got Talent:

Tom Telfer sends the URL for a video of magician Kosta Kimiat fooling Penn and Teller with a magic trick:

Tom also forwards the URL for the story of an engineer who manufactured a glacier in a desert to provide water for a village which has been left without water by climate change:

From The Huffpost, UK, here is the story of some of the many acts of kindness emerging from the Grenfell Tower tragedy:

In this TED talk, Richard Dawkins makes a case for "thinking the improbable" by looking at how the human frame of reference limits our understanding of the universe:

This story from The Washington Post tells how some traumatized veterans are being helped by interaction with horses:

From the GoodNewsNetwork, here is the story of the employees of an auto shop rushing to remove racist graffiti from a truck in Buffalo: