May, 2016 - Bettina Network's Blog

Archive for May, 2016

English Biscuits for Tea

Sunday, May 22nd, 2016

copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2016 for Marceline Donaldson

Tea time is one of my favorite times of the day.  And what helps it to be favorite is what is served.

Not all tea times are equal.  Some are fantastic and some are so bad you just want to forget they happened.

One of my favorite foods, to go along with Organic Tulsi Tea, or organic peppermint tea, or organic hibiscus tea are these English Biscuits.  They take about five minutes to put together and about 15 minutes in the oven.  Hot and fresh – there is nothing like them.  Pastries are great, but home baked is far better, especially when you know what went into those pretty pastries and so called ‘tea cakes’.  I keep trying to eat them because folks keep bringing, sending, having them for tea when I join them, but I’ve just given up.  I enjoy looking at them because they are beautiful and that has to suffice.  I’ve had to make some ridiculous excuses for not eating those lovely confections when I have been invited for tea, but today I just look, don’t touch and don’t try to justify not eating them.  They are works of art, not food for the stomach.  Those who serve them should know better so I will not justify their bad taste anymore – neither the bad taste of those serving them nor the equally bad taste of the pastries.  They taste sweet and little else.

English Biscuits*

*Please remember:  American-style biscuits are savory.  English Biscuits are sweet – what we would call cookies in America.  Although this is not a cookie recipe that looks anything like chocolate chip cookies.  It is a sweet made especially for tea time.

One cup organic whole wheat flour

One cup organic pastry flour

1 teaspoon himalayan salt

1 tablespoon baking powder (no aluminum, please)

1 stick organic butter

1/2 cup or to your taste of organic raisins

One cup (or to your taste) organic turbinado sugar

One cup organic heavy cream (or if you are squeamish – one cup organic whole milk)

One or two tablespoons Organic Hazelnut Oil or whatever taste you want to add – Organic Vanilla Oil – Organic chocolate, etc.

The Process

Put the two kinds of flour, salt, baking powder in the food processor and process for a few seconds

Add the organic butter to the mixture in a food processor and process until they are one.  The mixture will look basically the same, except a little as though it is wet

add the raisins and sugar and process again for a few seconds

add the milk and process until this mixture seems to hold together.  The longer you process the more gluten develops – so judge your time as to how you like your biscuits.  More bread like and rubbery or more crispy and flaky.

Smear a cookie sheet with butter wherever you are going to put one of these biscuits.  This recipe makes about 12 English biscuits

Take lumps of the mixture, roll it around in the palms of your hands until you have a nice ball

Each ball makes a biscuit and put the balls on the cookie sheet (no aluminum cookie sheets, please)

Bake at 350 degrees until done – about 15 minutes.

If you like ‘stuff’ on top of your biscuits – use 3/4 cup organic turbinado sugar in the biscuit mixture and sprinkle the rest on top of these biscuits before baking.

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

Women, Get Back into those Constraints!!!

Tuesday, May 17th, 2016

Women, girls, ladies, transgenders,  your life is about to change.  The fashionistas amongst you are going to really suffer for the next decade.  For those of you old enough who were fashionable in the 1950’s and 1960’s this will be a historical return to a very unhappy and uncomfortable time.  For those of you young enough to look at this as an adventure, you are in for a rude awakening.

The young Hadid followers are looking at getting you back into those horrible girdles.  There are comments and rumors that the girdles and corsets and other things that push your innards together making them scream for air and relief are making a return.  All during the time you were so constrained and constricted and felt this breath of fresh air when that all went away, that relief is going away and those straight jackets, stomach pinchers, breast-shape changers are returning.  Some of the neglige’s and other night wear is also coming with constraints so look at this as a possible 24/7 phenomena.

It was nice being able to go out and about without all of those underpinnings.  Look at the work women have been able to do without waistlines pinched in and stomach almost touching one’s back.  Well, that scared a lot of menfolk and after a little conference – the higher up machismos decided it was time to bring back one of the little mores that led to inequality and men performing their jobs better than women – men didn’t have those corseted constraints.

There have been periods in history of constraint and freedom.  Look at the flowing robes of the Greeks and the tightly laced up underclothes of the Victorians.  The freedom side of fashion only lasted a fraction of the time the constraints were in place.  Freedom had to come or all women would have the diseases and struggles and depressions and staying home all the time attitudes that used to exist when they had to stay in those body reshaping undergarments for such long periods of time.

I was one of those and know how painful and full of stress it was to walk around smiling with your kidneys, lungs, stomach and other assorted organs in the body being pushed into one another.  How I survived is nothing short of a miracle.  I think it was the feminist revolution that was my salvation and is the reason for any achievements I have been able to make since then.  Burning the bra – with some of us burning the girdles at the same time was no cutesy thing, it was crucial to the success of the movement.  I remember being at work wondering how I was going to get to the end of the day without keeling over and feeling a great sympathy and simpatico with Japanese women who had heavy constraints and the Chinese women who had their feet bound.  My feet weren’t bound, but they were as constricted as they were when I used to dance in toe shoes.  Toe shoes are those dance shoes that make a ballerina, when she walks around with no shoes on,  look great from her ankles up and like a candidate for surgery from her ankles to the tips of her toes.

Panti-hose were a god send.  But even those began to be made as girdle tops and stocking legs.  I even complained about those because my freedom made those feel like a constraining garment.  Some women – but not me – ran around with a beautifully made shift and nothing else.  They were free of bras, girdles, pantyhose and it was an enslaved persons dream.  Well, women made great strides under those circumstances.  You looked great – and men drooled – but now, those who regulate such things have been constantly appalled that the strides women made were too great and it is time to move you back into the dark age of girdleship.

I remember feeling so sorry for those Victorian women who needed help to get dressed because first they had to be laced up in that girdle to give them an owl glass shape.  I don’t know what these new girdles will produce because the fashionistas don’t have any meat on their bones to push in and their organs are crying out for food.  Maybe constraining them through these new girdles will make them so pushed together their organs will start yelling for more space; for some freedom; and will forget about food.  That will help those of us who couldn’t pull off the starvation diets to wear those size o clothes.  Girdles certainly do control weight, but they demand a heavy price.

Maybe its time for women to demand constant ongoing freedom.  Don’t spend your money on your own oppression.  Opt for freedom of body, mind and spirit.  It is the only way to go and those underpinnings coming down the road deliver slavery, not freedom.

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

 

One more Trump Answer to your blog!

Wednesday, May 11th, 2016

I know you don’t like to print lots of blogs about the same thing.  I am surprised you put as many blogs about “The Don” as you have.  (I love that name.)  The media calls him “The Donald”.  Wonder if they have disguised the same thing you are highlighting?

Once more about “The Don” – you absolutely have to put this in the Blog.  I use Bettina Network a lot, so I am pushing my weight around here.  Please!

I was flabbergasted to see ‘The Don’s” comments about Hillary.  He has had many affairs – not his spouse, but him.  Those affairs have been while he was married and from the gossip I’ve heard he treated the women abominably.  I could list what I’ve heard, but I think this one example suffices.  I will save the rest to publish as I see what ‘The Don’ continues to say:

When “the Don” was married to his first wife and they were on vacation skiing, his girl friend was in the same place.  Some folks say he brought her and installed her close by.  She confronted ‘the Don’s’ wife on the ski slopes in a very embarrassing confrontation with ‘the Don’ standing with them and, so I heard, he did nothing to lessen the embarrassment for his wife and just seemed to enjoy the entire scene as his girl friend let his wife know of her relationship with ‘the Don’ and apparently wanted to know why she hadn’t left him yet.  As time passed it became clear that this girl friend was pregnant so “the Don’s” marriage broke up – he had a child out of wedlock – etc. etc.

Wonder if he is having affairs now married to Melania.  A leopard does not change his spots.  I will certainly let you know what I hear.

I mention the child born substantially before they married because many of ‘the Don’s backers are evangelical Christians to whom that kind of behavior is considered amoral, Yet none have said anything about all of this and they are still supporting him.  That says to me they may claim the title “Evangelical Christian”, but they do not claim the moral nor are they trying to walk on the path which goes with that appellation.   It is all for show with them – and it is all for show with ‘the Don’.

But we should stop calling him ‘the Don’.  From the little I know about the mafia, it is said they have a code of ethics which would not allow their “Don’s” to carry on and disrespect their families the way Donald Trump has disrespected his.  A lesson from the Mafia rule book which the Evangelical Christians should take to heart.

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

Love the “Kiss the Ring” – Don (ald) Trump

Sunday, May 8th, 2016

Loved that blog!.  More!  Especially loved the “Kiss the Ring”.  We now have a new appellation for Trump – the “Don”.

Bow down and kiss “The Don’s” ring.  Where do you get this stuff?

I notice your numbers are now over 1,000 daily.  I guess you have quite a following.

That blog confused a few of my friends who I forwarded your blog to.  Knowing you guys I got it right away, but the confusion must have thrown the Trump folks into a ‘kingly’ state.

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

It Is Time To Line Up and Kiss the Ring!

Thursday, May 5th, 2016

by Marceline Donaldson May 5, 2016

Lots of people will be lining up today and in the days to come to kneel before the presumptive Republican Candidate for President of the United States – Donald Trump.  They will be lining up and kneeling to kiss his ring.  A traditional, historical, act that has been around and practiced for eons of time.

As for me, this Republican will be at the Voter Registration office changing her political designation from Republican to Independent.

It is going to be an emotionally difficult day, because I will also be at the passport office making sure my papers are in order, in case we have to leave the country quickly and abruptly.  Remembering what it was like in Hitlers’ Germany, only the Jews who left early got out.  I suspect it will be the same in the United States for minorities.  We probably will have to be out – if Trump is elected president – before the borders are closed.  And according to Mr. Trump that would be within his first 100 days as president.

As a young person, in the deep south, I registered to vote as a Republican.  The bad, racist, violent KKK folks were Democrats and were supported by the Democratic Party.  The Democratic Party is a Party which supports and goes after ‘movements’ for members.  The ‘movement’ that the Democratic Party chased in those days was the White Supremacist Movement with its many parts.  Blacks, trying to vote became “Strange Fruit”.

As the years passed, there began to be fewer “Strange Fruit” – hanging from the trees, but to be a part of the Democratic Party and to participate in the Democratic Conventions anyplace in the country, you could not be Black.  If elected to any position in the Democratic Party you were not allowed to be seated or to serve – so why would anyone register to vote as a Democrat.

As many, especially Black Women, started the fight to open the Democratic Party it was brutal and violent.  And on my side, one of my relatives had been head of the Republican Party in Louisiana – an African American.  There was no contest as to which Party I would choose.

But like everything else in my family, we were split.  There were Democrats and Republicans just as there were Blacks, English, Irish, Italian, Scottish, Chocktaw, Black Foot, Swedes, Swiss, French and on and on. My grandfather was an honorary Senator from Louisiana.  Honorary because Blacks could not serve in the Louisiana Senate, even if elected and needless to say Mixed folks especially could not serve.  He could be a part of the meetings, etc., but he could not vote (Sort of the precursor for what is true in D. C. of its Senators and Representatives today – who knew that bit of political structure came directly out of the racist playbook).

As the decades passed, it became harder and harder to be Republican.  The two parties were in the process of changing sides.  The Democrats were moving into the territory of where the Republicans had been and the Republicans were moving into the territory of the Democrats.  Today that switch is complete with the election of Donald Trump as the presumptive Republican nominee to run for President of these United States.  The KKK and other sundry and assorted White Supremacist groups are now Republicans and the others are now in the Democratic Party.

Mr. Trump – a former Democrat, with all of his minions and followers – are mostly formerly Democrats.   Strom Thurmond was one of the first to lead his followers out of the Democratic Party into the Republican Party.  It was an easy takeover.  Why?  Because of the way we did business.  As precinct chair in Wayzata, Minnesota so many years ago, one talked to many people before the caucus to feel out where everyone was and when the caucus happened only a few people needed to show up.  You knew what the majority wanted and it was all very quiet, circumspect and quick – that is until the advent of Reagan.  Somehow, money was available to those from the deep south – Texas particularly – who showed up in the caucus supporting Reagan.  And there was a regime change.  I was booted out as precinct chair and the four pillars of  what became the enduring issues of the Republican Party were put in place. The first time around Reagan’s people lost because they started too late.  But the next caucus round. four years later,  he won the nomination and then the presidency.  It was all done in such a ‘civilized’ way.  Palms greased; people helped to move and get jobs; people supported even though they had no jobs – all to buy the Presidency.  And it was a success.  Most of the ‘Republicans’ I’ ve talked to since were Democrats and switched for reasons that boiled down to racism, sexism, etc.  Classism was strangely missing in those isms because the Republican Party was moving down the class ladder.

Maybe if we had a third party this would not have happened, but it does not look as though a strong Third Party will emerge ever.

And people like Bernie – keep me totally away from the Democratic Party.  Still running in spite of the fact that he clearly could not win – either the nomination nor the Presidency, but he has become too drunk with the power he sees just across the horizon that he can’t and won’t stop even if it means strengthening Trump’s campaign.  His only thought is weakening Hillary’s because of what he might get therefrom.

How have we survived our own human nature all of these thousands of years.  It certainly doesn’t seem to be getting better.

No one should be surprised at Trump’s win.  It is what we deserve.  All one has to do is look at the pictures from meetings of those at the top in many places and they are all White and Male.  Maybe an occasional woman makes it into some of the high powered circles, but when you read their stories years later it is heart breaking to read about how they were treated and the stress they were under just being present.  They couldn’t talk in meetings because others talked over them; were ridiculed, etc. etc.,  had to expend enormous energy and live under incredible stress just to keep a female presence and more important and even more stressful they had to smile and say positive things about the position they were in.  And that would be White, Black, Yellow, Orange, Pink, Purple women – doesn’t matter.  If Trump is elected you won’t have to worry about that anymore.  As he has been quoted as saying “political correctness” will be out the window.  To be anyplace one will have to be White, male, with Northern European ancestors to function on any level even in the middle to lower part of his world.  If Trump is not elected, I suspect the influence his ‘movement’ has had on the U. S. will have moved us into a racist, sexist place that was on its way out in today’s world.

But enough of this.  I have to get dressed and get out of here to get all of this done today.  It is going to take eons of time to do it because making these kind of major changes slows time and  drags one down.

Wish me Godspeed!  And may God bless the United States of America.  We certainly are at a time when we need those blessings to reign down to keep us from a conflagration that will swamp all of us before we take seriously the fact that the tsunami is on its way and will arrive before many of us even realize it is coming.

Hmmmm! Now lets see, before I go is there a lottery number I can play today reflecting all of this?

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

 


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