Well, roll me in dough and call me a knish...

While I've spent the last few days entertaining lacto-ovo-vegetarian city folk and whirling around the corporate maelstrom like a fat pixie in a Hoover, some very exciting things have happened here in this little corner of the blogosphere.

Update: This started as a much longer, multi -topic blog, but I've decided to take pity on you and post the "I should have been a stripper" award later. I keep fighting with myself over how to describe my personality traits.

I'm delighted to discover that we've had some new faces join us here in the gene pool. I've been very lax in recognizing newcomers - the two most recent being Fresh and Tisha. Both have very interesting blogs and I hope you'll check them out for yourself.

Fresh - I have to personally thank you for reviving a treasured childhood memory in your recent entry on prayer. I come from a very active and devout protestant family - bouncing from Lutheran to Methodist to Presbyterian to UCC over the years.

The print you used in your post of the elderly man praying over his bread and bowl hung in our dining room, my aunt's dining room and in my grandparents' dining room.

I suspect there were extra copies in their attic - just in case anyone married or remodeled.

Anyway - at one holiday family gathering - I think it was Thanksgiving - my somewhat "special" older cousin Ray (okay - he wasn't mentally retarded, but he was really dumb. Once when he couldn't find his shoes, my exasperated mother suggested he try calling them. He did. "Here shoes....here shoes.." He was 10. We're talking STUPID.) was asked to say the blessing.

Ray didn't know what to say so my grandfather suggested he try to reflect on what the man in the picture might be saying to God before having his dinner.

Ray thought and thought - and finally lifted his head - a huge, self-satisfied grin crossing his face.

"Gimme peanut butter!," he exclaimed.

There wasn't a dry undergarment at the table.

For years after, anytime we entered a family member's room where that print hung, you exclaimed "Gimme peanut butter!." My partner who never even saw the originals, knows the story so well, I've been in antique stores and heard "gimme peanut butter!" and twisted laughter coming from some remote corner of the shop.

Okay. Maybe you had to be there...

Anyway - welcome to you and to all our recent followers here. Please always feel free to jump in, comment and just go nuts with the rest of us!!