Author: Nicole Carpenter
Ladies & Atomic Lessons: Reviews for April 29th
Greta Gerwig’s 2019 interpretation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women brings the 19th century novel into the modern age with a timely and expressive adaptation. Each March sister is highlighted, bringing her perspective to the foreground: The story of Amy, the spoiled, pretty youngest sister’s role in this version of the story is the most robust I have seen in any film adaptation. While the film is moving and a beautiful viewing experience, the call backs to the period are what I found to be lacking. The Civil War receives only a passing mention even though it was the overriding issue for each American of the day and the costumes, while appealing, do not give an accurate glimpse into the world of the 1860s. Bonnets, floor length skirts shaped into a bell shape with caged crinoline and curled hair worn up are all characteristic of the time. Despite the “creative liberty” with the wardrobe, this film offers a refreshing look into this classic tale of family, loss, and ultimate triumph.
It’s been over five weeks since we’ve been shut down in Westport and in that time a lot of us have turned to binging on Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime. I know I’ve been judged way too many times with the taunting, “Are you still watching?” As if it’s any of their business that I’ve spent six hours lost in the 18th century and now have an accent.
With the overindulging in TV comes the guilt. We know that it’s not normal to consume so much media at one time, but it can feel so good. However, I’ve decided that binging is perfectly fine as long as it’s on certain shows and forms of entertainment. While I’ve always been a fan of documentaries, this pandemic has afforded me more time to delve deeper into them through YouTube.
YouTube is free, has decades worth of films and shows to watch, and there’s something for everyone. During the start of our shutdown, I watched one particular show that has been a great way for me to frame what we are enduring. “1940s House” is a U.K. television show from 2001, that while dated is a glimpse into a time we can learn from.
The premise finds a family from the year 2000 auditioning to live for nine weeks as a typical family would have in WWII Britain. To some this may not be a stellar bit of entertainment, but I found myself lost in the episodes and wanting to learn as much as I could. Watching this show was something I needed to do. Watching it at the start of this pandemic helped me shift my perspective on what we are experiencing. While we stand in line to buy our groceries or struggle to find some of the items we like, taking a look at what life was like decades ago during a period of crisis helps me frame this time with a big old grain of reality salt.
While we are going through a time that is filled with so much uncertainty, looking into life as it was can give us a sense of perspective we may not otherwise have.
View episodes here.
With the overindulging in TV comes the guilt. We know that it’s not normal to consume so much media at one time, but it can feel so good. However, I’ve decided that binging is perfectly fine as long as it’s on certain shows and forms of entertainment. While I’ve always been a fan of documentaries, this pandemic has afforded me more time to delve deeper into them through YouTube.
YouTube is free, has decades worth of films and shows to watch, and there’s something for everyone. During the start of our shutdown, I watched one particular show that has been a great way for me to frame what we are enduring. “1940s House” is a U.K. television show from 2001, that while dated is a glimpse into a time we can learn from.
The premise finds a family from the year 2000 auditioning to live for nine weeks as a typical family would have in WWII Britain. To some this may not be a stellar bit of entertainment, but I found myself lost in the episodes and wanting to learn as much as I could. Watching this show was something I needed to do. Watching it at the start of this pandemic helped me shift my perspective on what we are experiencing. While we stand in line to buy our groceries or struggle to find some of the items we like, taking a look at what life was like decades ago during a period of crisis helps me frame this time with a big old grain of reality salt.
While we are going through a time that is filled with so much uncertainty, looking into life as it was can give us a sense of perspective we may not otherwise have.
View episodes here.
Community Review: Survival Under Atomic Attack
Nick Foster
Doughboy Memorial Statue
Dandelion Salad
In the past, the dandelion was well known as a folk medicine cure-all. Used in soups or tinctures or made into wine, dandelion was long thought to be a blood cleanser, good for the liver and the kidneys and rejuvenating as a spring tonic, This recipe is inspired by Clara’s Kitchen, a web site dedicated to Depression era cooking by Clara Cannucciari (1915-2013) based on her own experiences living through that era. It was tested and prepared by Charlotte D’Anna, a sophomore at Staples.
Salads from foraged greens have been popular for centuries before and after the 1930s and this particular one will change your mind about dandelions being a nuisance weed to a delicious and elegant salad green with a zesty bite.
Before foraging, dandelions please be sure you are picking from an area untreated with pesticides or commercial fertilizers. The best way to pick and clean dandelions are by digging them up from the root using a common weeding tool. In a pinch a flat head screwdriver or butter knife will do the trick too.
Ingredients
- 1 dozen dandelions, washed
- 1 ½ teaspoons sea salt
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons raw honey
- 6 grape or cherry tomatoes sliced in half
- 1/3 cup shaved parmesan cheese
Directions
1. Wash the dandelions: Hold each dandelion plant under cold running water, hold each dandelion by the root to wash off dirt and debris. Have a large bowl filled with cold water ready and place each dandelion into it. Swirl the dandelions around and pour off the water when cloudy. Rinse the bowl and repeat until water is clear.
2. Add 1 teaspoon of the sea salt and half of the lemon juice to the dandelions and fresh water in the bowl and set aside for 10 minutes. Pick off the flowers from the stem base and set aside on a doubled-up paper towel to dry.
3. Turn each dandelion upside-down, root facing up and softly collect the leaves in one hand then pinch and twist off the leaves 1/4 inch above the root base with the other hand. Place the leaves in a colander and discard the roots. Dry using paper towels or a salad spinner.
4. Place the dried dandelion leaves in a large salad bowl along with the cherry tomatoes
5. Whisk together the remaining salt and lemon juice along with the pepper, olive oil and honey. Pour over the dandelion salad and toss lightly. Garnish with shaved parmesan cheese and dandelion flowers.
Focus On: Sara Scully and Family
Sara Scully and her family have lived in Westport for four years. She is a high school family consumer science (Home Ec) teacher.
“I’m teaching my classes online, or at least trying to because I teach Home Ec, so it’s kind of difficult because I can’t teach them cooking right now. We’re creating cookbooks and we’re learning about different types of produce. And we’re talking about how the shutdown of everything is impacting the farms and how they’re having a lot of waste because people aren’t buying it. And then all the crops that they planned for like restaurants, so the farmers are having to change because people don’t want to buy like gooseberries and microgreens. They want like lettuce and green beans. I found it interesting! The children that I’m teaching… they answer my questions but I’m not sure they find it as interesting as I do, but I try to make it exciting. We watch videos too. I get videos from like Alton Brown and the Culinary Institute of America and I show them how to make things through video. But I don’t know what people have, so I can’t ask them to cook.
I make cakes so I’ve also been making a ton of birthday cakes for all the poor quarantine birthdays. And I’ve been sewing masks to give to friends, family—whomever asks.
Homeschooling my own children and trying to teach my class at the same time takes up a lot of time. My daughter, who is 12, FaceTimes or SnapChats with her friends, so she’s okay.
My 10-year-old really looks forward to his class Google Meets so that he can see his friends.
He is dyslexic so he needs a lot of help and he has a lot of energy, doesn’t want to sit at the computer all day. So, we go for walks and I’ll show them different plants outside. And they don’t know they’re learning. We talked about how the full moon made the tide really high and really low and stuff like that.
I used to go to work and that was my work time. I planned my day. I did my work. I planned tomorrow. And now I don’t have time to plan and do work because I’m homeschooling and the laundry is here, the dishes are here. It’s terrible. So, I find myself staying up until 11 o’clock at night because that’s when I need to plan or correct papers.
My kids have not left the house except for walks. They haven’t gone to a store since that Wednesday when school got canceled. The other day I was going to the grocery store and my son asked “Can I come with you?” I had to tell him “You know, actually you can’t.” He said “What do you mean?” and I had to say it’s only one person per family. He looked at me very strangely, I think it took him all that time to realize, oh something’s going on now.
“Can I come with you?” I had to tell him “You know, actually you can’t.”
Hopefully this is a once in a lifetime thing. I guess you can compare it kind of to the hurricanes that we had that trapped us at home. But that was only because we couldn’t get out because the trees were down and there was no power. But I don’t think that has prepared us for this.
Hopefully it won’t happen again and we all get through it safely and happily, because I know being trapped at home with your family can be very difficult and very hard on relationships.
For my students, I know some of them don’t come from a happy place, and they come to school to get away. And, I feel like telling them, “I’m sorry we had to send you back there.”
I’ll ask them how they were doing with some of them. Some of them say they are okay but are really bored. Some of them are say they’re going crazy. I tell them I’m always here to talk. I mean, I wish I could help them more. One of my very good students hadn’t turned in three assignments in a row. When I emailed her to check in and see if I could help, she said she and her mom both had COVID-19. Her mom worked and her mom worked for a hospice. So, it’s just really hard.
And then all my seniors, they’re so sad because you know, they’re missing out on internships and prom and graduation. Some of them haven’t even picked their colleges. On spring break, they were going to go and drive around and see where they wanted to go to college and make a decision.
Overall, I think we’re doing a really good job here in Westport. Whenever we go out everyone has masks on. All the stores are complying with how many people should be inside and I think it’s great. I’m really happy with what they’re doing. And I think because of the party we wrapped our heads around it real fast and went on lockdown. I feel like in a lot of other towns, it’s not like this. I go to Norwalk for the grocery store and I feel like they don’t even think anything’s wrong. Some people have masks on, some people have gloves on. But people are standing way too close and they don’t seem to be caring… so I think our town got it real fast.