That's What Jenni Said

When I hear the phrase "Pennsylvania Dutch", I think of the Amish. I think most people do. So when I received a review copy of William Woys Weaver's latest book on the culinary history of Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine, As American as Shoofly Pie, I have to admit I wasn't too excited. What's there to learn about pickled beans and shoofly pie really? Well, as it turns out, the Amish are only a subgroup of the Pennsylvania Dutch (PD). Weaver explains that the PD include all German speaking (Dutch in the context of PD is a bastardization of Deutsch, the name for German language) peoples that immigrated to Pennsylvania during the 17th and 18th centuries. From Wikipedia: "The majority of these immigrants originated in what is today southwestern Germany, i.e., Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg; other prominent groups were Alsatians, Swiss, and Huguenots (French Protestants)". Weaver goes on to explain that about a third were the Palatinates, a third we...

My paternal grandparents were French and they traveled throughout the world. As they did so, they casually collected postcards from every hotel or restaurant that offered them. These cards collected dust in Mama and Papa’s (as we called them) possession as they were moved from apartment to apartment and home to home but never used. I get a lot of pleasure now from pulling out these old cards and researching the locations depicted to see if they’re still around. Sadly, most of them of have been demolished or have undergone major renovations. One of my favorite cards from the collection was a postcard from LaGuardia airport in the 1950s. The caption on the back wrote that soon LaGuardia might surpass 1 million passengers a year. In comparison, last year 23 million people flew out of the airport. I’m working on my penpal postcards this week and so I’m browsing through the cards to select one for sending. I’ve just come across another great card in their collection: The Virginia House Re...

Why I chose this book  With the escalations in terrorism and violence directed at Americans over the past decade that have originated in the Middle East, it has been an item on my to-do list for some time to dive into the history of the region. Toward this end, I picked up three distinct volumes concerning the Middle East- the first focused on its comprehensive history from the perspective of the Persian, Turkish, and Arab Muslims starting from the time of Mohammad; the second centered on American involvement in the region as seen from the American point of view from the time of our nation’s founding; the third revealing Middle Eastern history through the eyes of the Eastern Christians (Byzantines) who resided there after the fall of the Roman Empire. Perhaps in time I will also pick up a volume that channels the thoughts of the European powers who were heavily involved in shaping Middle East history. That will just about round out the story from every perspective.  Book reco...