Posted in A&I

Turkey, Anyone?

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By Tom Conger and Connie Kent

The wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) is a magnificent fowl—so much so that ol’ Ben Franklin favored it over the eagle as the US National Bird. But he didn’t prevail. Nevertheless, there are few Americans who do not recognize the turkey—if nothing else as the national entree come late November . . . And a tip of the hat to Swanson for introducing it as the main course of the original TV Dinner in 1954…!

Thus, since shortly after the Pilgrims suffered through their early years in the Plymouth colony, the turkey has been a reliable food staple, especially at holiday time, and seems to thrive in just about any type of climate across this favored land.

In southern Oregon it seems to flourish particularly well—to the point of becoming a nuisance to residents of RVM, who must acknowledge, evade, and/or sidestep rafts of our local birds, plus watch where they step once the feathered crowd has moved on. So, back in August a program was announced wherein many birds would be trapped and relocated somewhere far enough away that they would be unlikely to return to the Barneburg acreage.

This met with huzzahs in certain quarters and laments from others. But there really were/are a lotta turkeys amongst us this year. So the ol’ bait & box method commenced. Didn’t work. A new technique was adopted: in essence, the plan was to spread corn in selected areas, the birds would converge to eat the chow, and a net would be cast over them—all same the iconic Hawaiian throw-net fishermen of yore.

Didn’t hear much for a while, other than scuttlebutt that trapping had not met with crashing success. We sure didn’t notice any reduction in wandering gobblers. Then this report appeared on the RVMlist on 10/18: “Bugs Northwest, the trapping company, initially tried trap boxes which were unsuccessful. They now are using a net gun and have caught twelve so far. The golf course is allowing them to use the net gun at specific times as the turkeys like to congregate there and netting them is easier.”

One resident snidely suggested the herd might be thinned by Chef Eric serving wild turkey for holiday fare. So I checked out wild turkey recipes on the ‘net. Gameandfishmag.com has “Ten most popular wild turkey recipes.” Several suggest marinating the bird ahead of time. One suggests brining the turkey for an extra 12 hours for best results, the brine consisting of water, salt and brown sugar. But it didn’t specify ‘extra’ on top of what.

Basspro.com’s Steve Brodio enthuses, ““How about real turkey, the wild kind? It actually tastes like bird, not cardboard, and has juice that doesn’t come from chemical butter. Eat one, and you’ll never go back.”

However, in my experience w/the wild turkeys of Upcountry Maui and Lanai, I found that a culinary delicacy wild turkey is not—those suckers are tough as tires, and even the cleverest cooks haven’t really hit on a suitable way to tenderize the meat enough to render it palatable. Perhaps marinating for a fortnight in the eponymous 101-proof distillate might help, but ‘twould seem the simplest way to ingest Wild Turkey might be simply on the rocks . .

Book Review –  The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World

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  by Bonnie Tollefson

Book Review –  The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World, Laura Imai Messina, The Overlook Press, 2021

A few months ago a fellow resident said to me with a subtle curl of the lip and a wrinkle to the nose, “Eww, you read series fiction.”  Yes I do.  I enjoy the continuing story of the characters and reading books that feel comfortable.  Sometimes the characters develop and occasionally the author does.  Series can be found in almost every genre of fiction, so it is not as tho I read only mysteries.  However, in recognition of her tastes, this quarter I went to the RVM library to find a book to review that was not part of a series or by an author known for series work, and I found a gem.  The Phone Booth at the Edge of the World by Laura Imai Messina is a novel set in Japan, written in Italian, translated into English.  The author is Italian, born and raised in Rome, who went to Japan to improve her Japanese.  Fifteen years later she still lives in Japan with a husband, two children and a job teaching Italian.

Yuri, a main character in the book, became the host of a call-in radio show in Tokyo after losing her mother and young daughter in the March 11, 2011 tsunami.  She hears one evening about a garden with a phone booth where one can talk to the dead.  The Wind Phone helps many people deal with the loss of loved ones.  This is a book about grief, a book about hope, and a book about love.  It can be a quick read or savored, but it contains something for everyone.  The author includes the information on research conducted on how many hugs are required in a day for survival, as well as acknowledging that the truth is “that love is a miracle.  Even the second time around, even when it comes to you by mistake.”  I won’t include a spoiler about what happens to Yuri, but since hope and love are components of the story you might guess. Near the end of the book “Yuri came to understand that there was always joy somewhere within unhappiness.”

The March 11 tsunami was an actual event just as the Bell Gradia garden and the Wind Phone are real.  In the author’s note Laura Imai Messina says “For me the Wind Phone is mainly this: a metaphor that suggests how precious it is to hold on tight to joy as well as pain. That even when we are confronted by the subtractions, the things that life takes from us, we have to open ourselves up to the many additions it can offer too.”  An important lesson for us all.

The book can be found at both the RVM library and the Jackson County Public Library.

October Library Display

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by Anne Newins

This month’s display will feature fiction and non-fiction books about actors.  Why are people interested in actors’ lives?  It seems to me that when young, one reason many people are curious about actors is because it gives them vicarious pleasure.  Most of us are not simultaneously rich, good-looking, and famous.

However, by the time actors have been in the business long enough to have biographies written about them, our interest in them may have changed because we have aged ourselves.  It is hard to believe that a seasoned actors  like Audrey Hepburn, Michael Caine, Robin Williams, or Ingrid Bergman would not have had challenges, some sort of artistic insight, or viewpoints different from our own as well as unusual life experiences.

Fictional work about actors gives an author tremendous leeway in terms of character development, usually skewing towards their flaws.  After all, who wants to read a novel about a boring, nine to five sort of person?  Suspense writers are drawn to actors, including popular authors like Jonathan Kellerman and Michael Connelly.

This month’s display also will include biographies about Michael J. Fox, John Wayne, Ronald Reagan, novels by Nora Roberts, Danielle Steel, Kristin Hannah, Stuart Woods, and many others.

The display table is located near the main entrance of the library.

 

NIT WIT NEWZ

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(Nit WIt Newz is an unauthorized, often unreliable, on-line news service designed to keep Manor residents abreast of the inconsequential, sometimes fanciful, and most always superficial events that dramatically shape and inform our everyday lives here at Rogue Valley Manor.)

Campus-Wide Newz Briefs

                             

 CUTTING GARDEN (FINAL) SOLUTION AT HAND

Last summer’s devastation of dahlias in Manor’s cutting garden by area squirrels flummox RVM Sub-Committee for Rodent Control.

As reported in July minutes of Resident’s Council meeting: traps, sprays, baits, and fencing prove ineffective. Wily, bushy-tailed rodents prove impervious to deterrents.

Future bleak for dahlia loving residents—until now!

Resolution of squirrel menace reportedly at hand,

Sub-Committee narrows options to two:

-Introduce smoking to squirrels. (Tobacco industry embraces this option. Offers to underwrite feasibility tests).

-Deny squirrels third booster shot. (Non-vaxxers favor this option).

Newly minted Squirrel World wisdom:

Acorns, yes.  Dahlias, no.

 

——————

  

MANOR MART MOVE QUELLS RESIDENT DISAPPOINTMENT

Small set of peevish residents express displeasure at new Manor retail outlet not offering maxi-sized Big Gulp or Slurpee drinks.

Nor, group learns, will Mart be stocking other popular convenience store staples—beef jerky and foot-long, red licorice ropes.

Longing for a time past, another Manor group anticipated Mart would include soda fountain, racks of movie magazines and comic books; health aids like hot water bottles, mustard plasters; and beauty supplies including snoods, face powder, and henna rinse products.

In seemingly unrelated matter, Manor Mart announces the addition of beer, wine, and small bottles of liquor to its shelves.

Discontent of fretting groups fades.

Marked increase in Mart foot-traffic expected.

 

——————

                                                          Is this safe?

THE BRIDGES OF ROGUE VALLEY MANOR

 

Anticipating passage of an infrastructure bill, federal government dispatches members of Army Corps of Engineers to inspect prospective in-need sites throughout country.

Rogue Valley Manor infrastructure included in questionable sites.

Both Manor bridges tabbed for safety inspection.

In day-long examination, engineers put bridge over eastside lake and bridge spanning small lagoon at Village Center Drive and Malama Way through series of rigorous stress tests.

Inspections reveal structural integrity of Manor bridges not compromised.

Report assures residents safe bridge crossings to “…high degree of certainty.”

In addition to walking, residents may cross bridges confidently when using their popular small vehicles—skateboards, e-scooters, motorcycles, et al.

Concluding their work here at RVM, the Corps of Engineers move south for inspections of the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges.   Before leaving, the safety-cautious engineers suggest to Manor management the posting of “NO DIVING” signs at both Manor bridge sites.

 

 

—A. Looney

RVM DVDs on Aging and Dying

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by Dave Guzzetta

Following the lead of the Book Library, the DVD Library has only a few documentaries about Aging and Dying, but a large collection of movies about Death, Dying & Grief.  

These movies range from several irreverent comedies to some very serious and touching movies.  

 

Documentaries About Aging & Dying

3530 How to Die in Oregon (NR, IMDb 8.3) In 1994 Oregon became the first state to legalize physician-assisted suicide.  How to Die in Oregon tell the stories of those most intimately involved with the practice today — terminally ill Oregonians, their families, doctors, and friends — as well as the passage of an assisted suicide law in Washington State. (HBO Documentary)

1401 Dying Wish (NR) Karen van Vuuren is a former television and radio news producer.  With the documentary Dying Wish, she has found a natural fusion of her journalistic talents and her knowledge of end-of-life issues. Karen has also worked in the field of elder care and for hospice. (29 minute Documentary)

1384 Alive Inside (NR, 8.2) Five million Americans suffer from Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. A man discovers that songs embedded deep in memory can ease pain and awaken these fading minds. Joy and life are resuscitated, and our cultural fears over aging are confronted.  (Documentary)

Movies About Aging, Dying & Grief

3156 The Sixth Sense (PG-13, IMDb 8.1) A boy who communicates with the dead seeks the help of a disheartened child psychologist.

4557 Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (PG-13, IMDb 7.7) Greg is coasting through senior year of high school as anonymously as possible, avoiding social interactions like the plague while secretly making spirited, bizarre films with Earl, his only friend. But both his anonymity and friendship threaten to unravel when his mother forces him to befriend a classmate with leukemia.

 

2103 Coco (PG, IMDb 8.4) Despite his family’s baffling generations-old ban on music, Miguel dreams of becoming a musician.  Desperate to prove his talent, Miguel finds himself in the stunning and colorful Land of the Dead following a mysterious chain of events. Along the way, he meets charming trickster Hector, and together, they set off on an extraordinary journey to unlock the real story behind Miguel’s family history. (Animated)

 

706   Young at Heart (PG, IMDb 7.9) Documents the true story of the final weeks of rehearsal for the Young at Heart Chorus in Northampton, MA, whose average age is 81, and many of whom must overcome health adversities to participate.  Their music goes against the stereotype of their age group. Although they have toured Europe and sang for royalty, this account focuses on preparing new songs for a concert in their home town.  (One of our favorite movies.  Watch the preview then the movie.)

 

3463 The Bucket List (PG-13, IMDb 7.4) Billionaire Edward Cole and working class mechanic Carter Chambers are worlds apart. At a crossroads in their lives, they share a hospital room and discover they have two things in common: a desire to spend the time they have left doing everything they ever wanted to do and an unrealized need to come to terms with who they are. Together they embark on the road trip of a lifetime, becoming friends along the way and learning to live life to the fullest, with insight and humor.

 

3070 The Fault in our Stars (PG-13, IMDb 7.7) Hazel and Augustus are two teenagers who share an acerbic wit, a disdain for the conventional, and a love that sweeps them on a journey. Their relationship is all the more miraculous, given that Hazel’s other constant companion is an oxygen tank, Gus jokes about his prosthetic leg, and they meet and fall in love at a cancer support group.  (Based on a wonderful book by John Green)

4375 Beetlejuice (PG, IMDb 7.5) Thanks to an untimely demise via drowning, a young couple ends up as poltergeists in their New England farmhouse, where they fail to meet the challenge of scaring away the insufferable new owners. In desperation, the recently dead newlyweds turn to an expert frightmeister, but he’s got a diabolical agenda of his own.

3737 Manchester by the Sea (R, IMDb 7.8) After his older brother passes away; Lee Chandler is forced to return home to care for his 16-year-old nephew. There he is compelled to deal with a tragic past that separated him from his family and the community where he was born and raised.

1059 P.S. I Love You (PG-13, IMDb 7.0) A young widow discovers that her late husband has left her 10 messages intended to help ease her pain and start a new life.

3838 Steel Magnolias (IMDb 7.3) This heart wrenching drama is about a beauty shop, in Louisiana owned by Truvy, and the tragedies of all of her clients.

4535 My Sister’s Keeper (PG-13, IMDb 7.4) Eleven your old Anna Fitzgerald seeks an attorney to earn medical emancipation from her mother who wants Anna to donate a kidney to her sister.  When her older sister had leukemia Anna was conceived to become a bone marrow donor.  She now realizes if her sister had not been sick, she would never have been born.

3686 The Things We Lost in the Fire (R, IMDb 7.2) A recent widow invites her husband’s troubled best friend to live with her and her two children. As he gradually turns his life around, he helps the family cope and confront their loss.

2731 Death at a Funeral (R, IMDb 7.4) A myriad of outrageous calamities befall an eccentric English clan with more than a few skeletons in its closets, when its patriarch dies an unexpected death. Soon, every complication imaginable befalls the grief-stricken mourners.

2  What Dreams May Come (PG-13, IMDb 7.1) Chris Neilson dies to find himself in a heaven more amazing than he could have ever dreamed of. There is one thing missing: his wife. After he dies, his wife, Annie killed herself and went to hell. Chris decides to risk eternity in hades for the small chance that he will be able to bring her back to heaven.

 

September Library Display

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Lately, there have been activities in the Manor that have spurred a strong response to issues about aging and long-term planning. These have included the popular presentation by Beth Knorr, a Foundation Board member and well-regarded estate planner. In turn, a follow up class will be facilitated by Linda Bellinson, LCSW, and Debi Watts to help residents address topics in a handout provided by RVM. The class has filled up quickly and will start shortly, but additional ones will be offered if there is a demand.

Readers may want to review a large resource binder created by residents Jan Rowe and the late Daphne Fautin titled Death and Preparing for It.  It includes extensive information about Death With Dignity regulations.  The binder cannot be checked out.

Please see Anne Newins’ article about this display, with short reviews of some of the books.

Some South American Crafts

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by Reina Lopez, ed. Connie Kent

 

 

 

 

RVM Play Reading Group

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text by Tina Vasavada, photo collage by Reina Lopez

The RVM Play Reading Group was revived in 2013 by then new resident Tina Vasavada. Some fifteen readers joined, and the membership remains around eighteen. The group meets on the third Tuesday of each month, except December, from 1-3 pm in the Terrace Room. The group reads one full length play or several short ones. For additional information, contact Tina Vasavada, x6904.

There are no rehearsals, and no memorizing lines is required. Readers receive a copy of the script to practice. Sitting at tables, the readers act their character using their voice and facial expressions.

Having a small audience of spouses and friends makes the experience even more enjoyable! The group has performed on the stage in the Auditorium three times, rehearsed, but with script in hand. 

WHEN RETAILERS COLLIDE!    

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NIT WIT NEWZ

 (Nit Wit Newz is an unauthorized, often unreliable, on-line news service designed to keep Manor residents abreast of the inconsequential, sometimes fanciful, and most always superficial events that dramatically shape and inform our everyday lives here at Rogue Valley Manor.) 

                                                   

 WHEN RETAILERS COLLIDE!

(Pitched Battle on Local Site)

Retailing behemoth, Amazon, discovers alarming lag in sales in southern Oregon area.  Close inspection of data cites Medford as problem.  Company investigators uncover cause—inconspicuous retail competitor at large senior community.

Once-a-week Friday sale brings in throngs of eager buyers to “Annex” outlet at Rogue Valley Manor.  Customers find variety of gently-used household goods sold at impossible-to-compete low prices.

Annex items for sale closely match many popular items Amazon sells: books, small appliances, kitchen ware, music, art, furniture, electronics, and decorative home pieces.

To remedy flagging sales in south Oregon area, Amazon attempts to quash Annex competition by doing what they do best— purchase upstart retailer.

Order from top management goes out: “Annex the Annex.”

“Offer they can’t refuse” made to outlet owner, Rogue Valley Manor.

Offer refused.  RVM claims customers having too much fun.  Prefer shopping the old fashioned way:  Can pick-up merchandise in own hands, feel it, even smell it. Can take home bags of goods same day as purchase. No waiting for delivery. No waiting for thud on front door step.  No paying for shipping. Credit cards nixed. Cash and carry only.  Bargains abound.

Nickels, dimes and quarters no longer need be worthlessly tucked away unused in kitchen jars.  Honored at Annex as coins of the realm.

But wait, there’s more: Penny-pinching pricing tames nation’s inflation. Sale proceeds go to charity foundation (not to funding billionaire owner’s space odyssey).

What’s not to like?

It’s a near-perfect (sorry, no S&H Green Stamps) retail experience.

Amazon seethes. Not used to taking “no” for an answer. Fear possible “Annex-type” operations popping-up in other key U.S. locations. Threaten to purchase adjacent vacant lot north of Annex to build competitive retail space and force Annex to its knees. At same time, open negotiations with Oregon Department of Transportation to build and finance additional off-ramp on South Medford #5 freeway that would fortuitously dead-end into parking lot of proposed, new Amazon store site.

Efforts to smother upstart retailer go awry. Find desired vacant lot non-purchasable— it’s owned by Rogue Valley Manor. Moreover, ODOT says “no” to off-ramp.  “Have too many already at that location.”

News Shocker:

WORLD’S LARGEST RETAILER STYMIED BY WORLD’S SMALLEST!

 

 

—A. Looney

 

 

August Library Display

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by Anne Newins
Readers and writers are fond of books that include animals as a subject, and Manor residents are no exception.  This month the RVM library book display features a wide variety of fiction, large print, non-fiction, and audio books that portray animals from a myriad of species, as well as our beloved cats and dogs.  Below are just a few examples.
Classics:
The Wind in the Willows
Animal Farm
Best Sellers:
Black Hills
Escape Clause
Non-Fiction:
The Soul of an Octopus
Among Penguins
The Language of Butterflies
Special thanks to Annie Mo, the terrier, for helping create this month’s display.
And double thanks to her agents, Jordan Mo and Jan Hines.