Saturday, November 21, 2009

Mary Karr's menopause moment

Mary Karr, author of "The Liar's Club", has a new book out called "Lit". She was here in Denver on a book tour. A warm and witty speaker, Ms. Karr especially engaged my interest when she had the perfect menopause moment during her talk.

An audience member had asked her if she checked the details of the life events in "Lit" with others who were there at the time. She began explaining that memoirs were most importantly about the way the author remembers events, that there is no need for objective input on details. Midway through her discourse on the role of memory in memoirs, she forgot what the question was.

I just finished this book (lucky enough to get an advance uncorrected proof from Amazon!) and I highly recommend it to you. If Mary Karr comes to your city on her promotional rounds, go see her; she's a pleasure to hear.

Monday, November 9, 2009

The icing on the cake!


My family's favorite dessert, reserved for special occasions such as birthdays, was the delicious Hungarian delight Dobosh torte. A bakery here in Denver called Vollmer's--long defunct-- was the one and only source of this cake so rich the hairs would stand on the back of one's neck. The end pieces were completely encrusted with chocolate sprinkles and were reserved solely for the birthday celebrant.

My niece Miranda texted me recently "OMG i just found vollmer's dobosh tort at king soopers!" A perfect treat for all of us during a most difficult week as her mom/my sister-in-law was coming to the end of her life with ovarian cancer.

Elaine had been refusing much more than a few mouthfuls of broth or a few swallows of diluted juice for weeks. When the dobosh torte arrived, she had a sliver, and then another. As the end drew near, Elaine said "It may be gilding the lily, but I think I'll have a piece of dobosh torte."

We gave her the end piece and she ate the whole thing--her last request, her final meal!