Bettina Network's Blog - Table Talk at a Bettina Network Home

Politics at Breakfast? I’m Shocked

September 23rd, 2012

You know there would be talk about the coming election over a Bettina Network breakfast table with the media talking Romney and Obama 24/7.

You have something to say? Come to breakfast after a stay in one of the homes in the Bettina Network, inc. We don’t put your name in the blog when we take the ideas you discussed over breakfast so you can feel free to say whatever. Not every conversation winds up in a Bettina Network Blog, only those we feel are ‘hot’ or ‘interesting’ or ‘unusual’ or bring another fact to life which we feel you should know about.

The question asked over this breakfast table was WHY the media is missing the real story in this election and not printing what the public should know! And what did they think the public should know?

In the interest of full disclosure, only one person at the table was a Romney supporter and he came to pick up his friend to show him around the area. He was invited to stay for breakfast and he stayed until almost noon! It was quite a conversation.

First discussed was the major reason for voting for Obama – what was that? RYAN! What happens, if God forbid, something happens to a President Romney. RYAN BECOMES PRESIDENT RYAN! Isn’t that the major role the Vice President plays? – President in waiting? He or she does other things in the process of waiting, — in case, — but that is the Vice President’s major role – and several have played that role over their tenure in the White House!

Second thing discussed was religion! It was not an anti-Mormon discussion, but one the discussers felt was rooted in fact and their considerable concern about electing Romney president. He is, apparently, a high official in the Mormon Church, at least equivalent to the Bishops in the Catholic Church.

No one around the table would have had a problem in the 1960’s voting for John F. Kennedy – a Catholic – for president. They would not have voted for and would have actively worked against the election of Cardinal Cushing for President. Kennedy, according to the person speaking, was an ordinary citizen who happened to be a Catholic and was not beholden to the Pope. His views were his views and he had not taken any kind of oath to defer to the wishes of the Pope on any issue. Before making any decision Kennedy was not beholden nor would anyone expect him to call to consult the Pope, if the issue were one which collided with the beliefs of the Catholic Church. Cardinal Cushing, on the other hand, had taken such an oath and his first fealty was to his Pope because of his position as Cardinal. He would not have been confirmed or ordained a Cardinal if he had refused to take such an oath.

Romney is a Mormon. He is not a Mormon the way John F. Kennedy was a Catholic. He is a Mormon the way Cardinal Cushing was a Catholic – his first fealty is to his Mormon religion, which means the people at the top of the Mormon Church are the ones he listens to and the ones whose decisions and beliefs he could not violate or go against. The United States comes second. He is not free to make decisions contrary to his Church’s religious beliefs and tenets because he is the equivalent to a Bishop or above in the Mormon Church and he has taken such an oath to abide by all the beliefs and issues of faith which his religion dictates.

We have all danced around this issue. We have all been trying to exercise this country’s promise of religious freedom. It is not practicing religious freedom to elect someone as President or to any other office in this country who does not practice the religious freedom this country preaches. He cannot claim religious freedom when he is in a Church which does not carry that belief as one of its tenets, but believes that Mormonism is the true religion and everyone else is going to hell 0r is amongst the damned.

If Romney is in the pew, maybe he believes that and maybe he doesn’t, maybe he follows his church’s teachings and maybe he doesn’t. Romney is not in the pew as an ordinary member of his Church. He is an official of the Church at the level of Bishop – he has pledged an oath to his Church and its leaders that he does indeed believe that Mormonism is the true religion and it is his duty to proselytize and do whatever he can to bring others out of ‘darkness’ into the ‘light’. It is his calling to move to help save John and Jane Q Public from eternal damnation. Who are John and Jane Q. Public? Those who are not current practicing members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints.

Third discussion was about Romney’s claimed business experience and how he will use it to bring all of us into a fantastic, beautifully functioning economy. The discussion was basically along the lines of – if he can’t do that for his own campaign, which is small compared to the United States of America, how can he do that for this country? According to one person around the table, Romney’s campaign was a mess and has been for weeks with Romney not able to pull off or manage a well functioning campaign.

Others commented that his money is not what he is earning through his management skills, but what his money is earning on investments. One person claimed Romney earned the money and that gives him credibility as a manager. Others claimed Romney has not been engaged in management for at least six years – and probably longer. And – to our shock – what came out was that his family money – on which he is now earning money – did not come from Romney’s earnings nor his father’s earnings, but from the Mexican Government. Without that start the Romney’s would not have made it as high as they did financially. Apparently, the Romney family sued the Mexican Government and received a substantial settlement before moving back to the United States with their multiple wives.

What an amazing bit of learning! I would like to know more about that because I thought the Romney fortune came from the Father’s work in Detroit with the automobile industry and I assumed his father had worked hard to pull himself up by his bootstraps, as had most immigrants coming to this country. Apparently, Romney – the father, had a head start, which some claimed was how he rose to the top. – He was not a destitute person coming from Mexico with no money and turning that into another Horatio Alger story. He and his family came well heeled from their encounter with the Mexican Government.

Wow! I must refill my organic coffee cup and ponder these things!

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Tags: 2012 Presidential Election, Barack Obama, bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, Mitt Romney, Politics at Breakfast
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Historical Support, Making Connections | Comments Off on Politics at Breakfast? I’m Shocked

A Fantastic Diet for Good Health!

September 21st, 2012

We have discovered, through many conversations with guests, an incredible diet to end all diets. We have put this together as we gleaned information a little at a time and experimented to make sure this is workable.

It does work for a couple of us, but we aren’t guaranteeing, advising, or anything else, just reporting on what we’ve observed and experienced.

We started to hear about limes when a guest from India talked about her need to have limes in the afternoon because it was advised by her nutritionist who she absolutely trusted. So we found a source for organic limes for her and every afternoon she would squeeze four limes into a cup and drink the juice.

We knew about having an organic lemon squeezed into a cup of warm water and drinking that first thing in the morning to get your day started on the right foot and your body regulated – through a regular morning trip to the bathroom. We didn’t know anything about limes except for the jokes about the English ‘Limeys’.

Later came others who looked for lemons and limes – never organic – but we added that to what they were doing and suggested that might be a better way than just ordinary limes and lemons that you didn’t know what was sprayed, dug into the dirt, washed into the fruit and that would show up in later years affecting your health in bad ways. And they would thank us, take their lemons and limes in various ways and on different time tables to be able to travel and live without a sluggishness which brought them to their regimen with the lemons and limes in the first place.

We began to notice something amazing as we tried to do the same thing – varying it with every guests’ different usage to test for ourselves.

As we tried all these different regimens and combinations of ways to use lemons and limes, we found our weight dropping even when nothing else in our diet or lifestyle changed. We even had one guest use a lemon to rub on his face in the mornings after shaving. He was cute! We noticed it when he came to breakfast with a couple lemon bits still on his skin. When we asked what he’d been doing with the lemons – after an initial embarrassment he admitted to using one lemon each morning to smooth over his face to deal with any cuts or etc. that he might accumulate. Another guest used cut lemons to rub on her elbows and knees. And there were more! It has been a great learning for us!!!

What we have taken from all of these possibilities:

First thing in the morning, we have a lemon or lime with the juice squeezed and put into a half-cup of warm water.

Throughout the day we also have lemon or lime juice – organic, of course, – and at very particular times, which we feel is the secret to this ‘diet’.

When we come in from meetings, shopping, working in the garden, doing whatever that has made us ravenously hungry and pushes us to reach for any and everything we can to satisfy that hunger .- Instead of reaching for those 5 cookies, ice cream, instant whatever that can quench the thirst and hunger, we stop, have one lemon or lime squeezed into a half-glass of warm water and our hunger and thirst is satiated enough that we can think before we reach for those diet disasters and health saboteurs. We have the time and space to work through putting together a substantial, organic meal or snack before we move on to the next thing.

What we’ve found – not only is our hunger satisfied with that half-cup of freshly squeezed organic juice with warm water – but our energy is revived and we are ready to continue our day.

I’ve found that two or three such lemon/lime pick-me-ups during the day satisfies my needs, but it also has me losing weight. Not because I am dieting, but because when I have gone longer than I should have without eating, my hunger and thirst don’t lead me to poor choices. It gives me space to think through what it is I need to eat and time to prepare whatever my choice. I also look better. Somehow, there is a shining through from this regimen that is fantastic. No make-up could do for me what is done to me by those half-cups of juice and warm water. I use half-cups because it is so sour that is all I can get down at one time. And no, I don’t want to use those ‘helpers’ that make lemons taste like sugary confections. Over time, I am becoming more accustomed to the sour taste and my sugar tastes are becoming intolerable of that really sweet stuff. Before this, nothing was too sweet for me and I could never pass a cookie without picking one or two or three up and carrying them away with me.

A couple other friends, who have tried the same thing, have come back looking better, feeling better and are proselytizing their friends in this new way of taking care of their body’s nutritional needs and staying off the bad stuff.

One organic lemon or lime squeezed using a glass juicer – you know the kind, – non-electric, manual labor needed – with 1/2 cup warm water added and off you go to a new life.

If you have a difficult time finding a glass lemon juicer – we found this one and many more at www.laurelleaffarm.com/pages/kitchen&table/antique-glass-reamer-1909-patent.htm

Photo of old antique glass reamer, orange or lemon juicer w/ 1909 patent date

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Tags: bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, health, health and beauty, lemons, limes, prevent obesity, Recipe, weight problems
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Food Shopping, Health, Health and Beauty, Kitchen Equipment Review, Making Connections, Shopping | Comments Off on A Fantastic Diet for Good Health!

Lifted from Vogue Magazine

September 9th, 2012

We hope Vogue Magazine doesn’t object, but the end of an article in the August 2012 magazine about Bel(le) Kaufman was too good not to share with you. It puts so succinctly what its like to grow oldl The entire article is worth reading, but the ending is really special. It follows:

“I’ve lived a long time, a very long time, 101 years and I’m, still here. I’ve done with the doubts and struggles and insecurities of youth. I’m finished with loss and guilt and regret. I’m very old, and nothing is expected of me. Now, provided good health continues, I can do what I want. I can write my memoirs. I can edit my works for future eBooks. I can even do nothing – what a luxury that is! I have new priorities and a new appreciation of time. I enjoy my family more than ever, and also a sunny day and a comfortable bed. I keep up my interest in books and theater and people, and when I’m tired, I rest. My former students write to me and visit me. i had many problems and disasters in my life, fortunately at my age, I don’t remember what they were. I’m glad I am 101.”

I think everyone over 70 years could write a variation of that paragraph. The older you are the freer you become – and that crosses race, sex, finances, education, and all the other things which separate, motivate and define us as younger people. All of that drops away and we move closer to the diverse universe promised and worked for, but not achieved, when we were young. Humanity becomes more humane as year adds to year.

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Belle Kaufman, growing old, Lifestyle Choices, Making Connections, Vogue Magazine
Posted in Growing Old, Making Connections | Comments Off on Lifted from Vogue Magazine

Upholstering Walls – 1st Installment!

September 7th, 2012

This is an ongoing project – one of several we hope will end with a video which you can access showing the entire process.

The process will be blogged in installments since it is difficult to write for a long time on such a topic!

We talked to many guests, host families, friends, to decide what we could do to get ready for the fall season which would result in our utility bills being reduced over the winter of 2012-2013.

We came up with the upholstering of walls. We’ve started small with one bedroom and the results are beginning to look spectacular. Not only will our utility bills be reduced but the upscaling of the room has been substantial. We have only put up padding on two walls and already our air conditioning is practically non-essential. In spite of very warm weather – over 80 degrees – we turn the air conditioners on in the mornings for about two hours and the room stays cool all day and into the evening. Hopefully, that presages a wonderful savings on the heating bills this winter – AND we haven’t even added the material yet. So lets see what change that makes!!

I was raised in a house where the walls were covered ceiling to floor with draperies – brocade, double lined – to keep out the heat and the cold. I didn’t think much of what that meant until recently when I came across an entry in one of my diaries which described our living room.

Floating the possibility around to everyone who would listen – it started out as weird and ‘historical’, but not for todays home. Since all the conversations started, those we talked to first are coming back to say – ‘hey, that might not be such a bad idea – try it and let us know what happens.’

Well, like everything in this world, it started out as a simple project and now has become all encompassing, consuming and we are looking everywhere to find out ‘how to’.

Lots of people have ideas and some have actually upholstered walls, but that isn’t the way we want it done. Our original purpose was to save on utility bills and secondarily to add to the elegance of our lifestyle. So looking around for the original purpose we found a padding which we have stapled to the walls. No, we didn’t use furring strips. We stapled the padding directly to the walls, stapling around the windows, right below the moulding and right above the floor moulding. Seems there was enough wood or something to hold the padding – dacron.

Our biggest problem was which stapler to use. Almost no one knew anything about an upholstery stapler that we could use for this project.

We searched the internet, old magazines, saved articles, and we drove friends crazy for ‘how to’ possibilities. Stay tuned for what we used!

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Tags: bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, Making Connections, reduce utility bills, Saving heat, Upholstering Walls, Whitney Houston
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Bettina’s Tapioca Pudding

August 29th, 2012

A long-known comfort food. We have hearkened back to memories of childhood when desserts were homemade and not full of so many of the non-food ‘stuff’ they now contain.

Organic Tapioca is the basis for this pudding. I searched through many recipe books and came to the conclusion that organic tapioca is a necessary – well maybe I also started out with a bias. However, I came to the conclusion that the tapioca should be organic because of the overwhelming number of recipes which call for cornstarch as the thickening agent in this dish.

At first, I couldn’t understand why one would need a thickening agent in a dish whose core ingredient is itself a thickening agent. Tapicoa is used in many sweet and savory dishes as a thickening agent and it works very well without changing the taste of the dish. I realized why all of these recipe’s contained corn starch when we bought several kinds of Tapioca from Organic to overly processed with a coating of talc to make it look whiter and more matte. The corn starch was necessary because in the processing of tapioca, which is not organic, it loses its thickening properties.

The white matte-looking tapioca was incredible. It was so overly processed that using it made no sense ! – Why was it coated with talc, especially since much of the talc was seen floating in the water or milk that we used to test the tapioca. It was floating in the liquid but it was incorporating itself into the tapioca pudding so we would be eating tapioca and talc. That meant to us its use was purely aesthetic. An aesthetic that gave us a stomach ache since talc is rumored, and in some experiments has shown itself to be a carcinogen. At least that is what we have read. Why especially would you use this kind of overprocessed and staged tapioca in a dish you feed mostly to young children and those longing for their many-years past childhood?

For those of you who don’t know its genesis, tapioca is extracted from the cassava. It is a staple in many areas of the world and is used as a thickening agent in foods. It is gluten-free.

If you have a difficult time finding organic tapioca we suggest you try www.frontiercoop.com and have it mailed to you. It is worth the trouble.

We started with:

——— a small light under 3 cups organic milk in a glass pot.

——— as bubbles formed around the edges of the milk we added 1/2 cup organic tapioca

——— and stirred and stirred making sure nothing was sticking to the pan.

——————-We also added a small amount of himalayan salt to the pan and continued to stir.

———when the milk mixture looked as though it was about to boil we added 1/2 cup sugar

——————-and stirred and stirred and stirred , especially since we did not want the mixture to boil over!!!!!!!

==================We broke two eggs into a mixing bowl and whipped the eggs until they became lighter in color and texture.

==================We added a little of the milk mixture to the eggs very gradually so as to bring the temperature of the eggs up to the

==================temperature of the milk mixture and then added the eggs to the milk mixture

———and stirred and stirred and stirred somemore!!

We continued stirring until the mixture looked like a very good and thick pudding!

We added liquid organic vanilla to the mixture, took it off the heat and stirred until the vanilla was incorporated.

We then poured the mixture into four beautiful stem glasses for serving and put the pudding into the refrigerator.

———If you want more than servings for four – simply double or triple the ingredients!

We let the pudding sit in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes because we like warm, but neither hot nor cold pudding!

When we served this organic tapioca pudding it was excellent and fulfilled every one of our childhood memories.

And when we went to bed that night we stirred and stirred and then stirred the already eaten pudding some more!!

Once you’ve satisfied your longings for tapioca and your childhood you can then add all kind of extra ingredients to create memories for your children unique to their upbringing, but turning back a little to your own:

—————–raisins – coconut – soft nuts or nuts you have crushed – chocolate chips – grated ginger – cinnamon – nutmeg – orange juice –

and the list goes on…………………………

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Tags: bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, Comfort Food, food shopping, Frontier Co-op, Making Connections, Organic Tapioca, Recipe, Tapioca Pudding
Posted in Bettina's Cookbook, Breakfast Table Talk, Food Shopping, Making Connections | Comments Off on Bettina’s Tapioca Pudding

In Memory of Roger Fisher

August 28th, 2012

by: Marceline Donaldson

Sprinkled through Bettina Network’s Blog you will find memories of people we knew and with whom we have interacted over the years. This time, it is someone who was one of those – along with Larry Susskind of MIT – who were majorly responsible for the growth and survival of Bettina Network, inc.

Roger Fisher was on my mind over the past week – because I wanted to thank him for helping us begin and move forward with the bed & breakfast part of this business. I didn’t know where to find him and didn’t push to discover his whereabouts so the newspaper informed me this morning of Roger Fisher’s death.

A long time ago, in 1984, Roger Fisher and Larry Susskind turned up at our front door to talk about the possibility of using Bettina’s for their guests coming from around the world. I remember Roger Fisher sitting in our living room when one of those working with him took me aside to ask if I knew we were entertaining “God”. That was my introduction to Roger Fisher. My response was – then “God” has come to the right place because we are building heaven’s annex. Clearly, we understood there were at least two major ego’s in that room that day!

We were just starting this business and unlike those who claim to have started on a shoe string of maybe $10,000 in debt, we started this business with some $1,000,000 in debt. I had no idea what I was doing – I knew why – I thought I really knew all there was to know about business – we had some experience with bed & breakfast in another house, but not much – so here we were not sure where we would land, how we would pull this off or where to turn and “God” walked into our living room.

Roger Fisher and Larry Susskind sent us lots of guests and set the tone for what we would become. Larry and Leslie would come to stay when the weather was bad and they couldn’t make it to Southborough. Unfortunately for us, they now live in Cambridge.

Over that time period, there were White and Black South Africans in the house at the same time just across the hall from one another before Nelson Mandela and the dismantling of apartheid. They had never been together before and it was exhilarating for them and for us as they giggled together; went to dinner together; worked together and with Roger and Larry tried to bring about something that hadn’t been seen in South Africa for generations. We became a bit worried when the last two days of their stay the house became as quiet as a tomb. The White South Africans and the Black South Africans had separated; went to dinner in their separate groups; stopped going back and forth from one room to another and generally pulled apart, leaving for the airport in two vans – one with the White South Africans, one with the Black South Africans. We called Larry because we were concerned something had happened and learned about “re-entry”. Something the soul does for you when you are going back into the separatist situation from which you’ve come.

We had Hindu’s in the house the day Gandhi was shot and we were expecting another couple the next day who were Sikh’s. We had Greek Cypriots and Turks’ sharing the house at the same time during some difficult days for them and before all of them we had Russians before Perestroika.

At one point with the Russians we knew we were going to be picked up by the CIA and hauled off to federal prison because we knew nothing about what was coming, we only knew the Russians were the enemy and here they were exchanging research across our breakfast table with their American counterparts and who were their hosts? – Roger Fisher and Larry Susskind.

Our breakfasts were nothing short of sensational and we were heady being able to talk and listen and understand what was happening in the world outside of the very narrow vision of what was normal for Boston and Cambridge. We were spared guests who talked about the weather, their aches and pains and their miscreant children.

We thought this was what bed & breakfast was all about and we shaped a business following the path laid out for us by Roger Fisher and Larry Susskind. Without them we would have taken a different turn and probably would be sitting on the street corner wrapped in a sleeping bag – although a very elegant one!

You go through life and never really know what or how you have touched someone else’s life. My procrastination in reaching out to Roger Fisher to say thank you is kind of typical of the way most of us live with the assumption that life is forever. It is not and those words of gratitude and appreciation need to be said long before the end comes.

This is very late Roger Fisher, but thank you!! Thank you for helping us understand how we could carry that $1 million in debt, survive and grow a business which contributes goodness to life. We don’t pretend to know much about Negotiation the way you and Larry Susskind developed it, but we do know how human and equal we all become around a table sharing food and good conversation – that alone gives hope that one day we will stop the intense violence, pretending that it will solve our conflicts and bring about peace.

Those first few years when we entertained bed & breakfast guests from the Negotiation Project sent to us by Roger Fisher and Larry Susskind were days we shall never forget and days we always keep uppermost in our minds as a paradigm for this Bettina Network business.

We reached the point, in those days, of not wanting to have guests if they did not have great wisdom to contribute over the breakfast table. Today, we have some remembrances of that and we strive to bring everyone who visits our homes and our host families into an understanding of what that was like and how fantastic a business this is when we keep those standards, that conversation, those dreams of a world full of diversity where we can come together, disagree, work through those disagreements and walk into a very bright light after breakfast.

Roger, may you walk into a great light and enjoy the fruits of your life’s work as you enter another sphere of growing in wisdom, knowledge and understanding in a way we will not understand until we reach that end point where we join you in your endeavors.

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This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Bed and Breakfast in Cambridge MA, Bed and Breakfast in Harvard Square, Bettina Network History, Bettina Network Information, breakfast table talk, Gandhi, Greek Cypriots, Hindus, Historical Home, Larry susskind, Making Connections, Memorial, Negotiation Project, Roger Fisher, Russia, Sikhs, South Africa, Turks
Posted in An editorial just because, Bettina Network Info, Breakfast Table Talk, Growing Old, Historical Support, Making Connections, Memorials, Preserving Family History and Stories | Comments Off on In Memory of Roger Fisher

“I Tried The Food in Your Blog Post”

August 13th, 2012

“I tried some of the suggestions in your blog posts and have had great results in the health department.

I was worried about my high blood pressure – I clocked in at 159 and in spite of exercise and eating less, my blood pressure didn’t move down. So I figured, what the heck, I’ll try to couple things I read about in your blog.

Stocked up on hibiscus tea – but not the tea you buy in the store which says hibiscus tea and is really a little hibiscus mixed with a lot of regular tea – I bought dried hibiscus flower petals, poured hot water over them and let them sit awhile. I drank that tea all day. I also bought huge amounts of Ceylon Cinnamon – organic, of course – and at night had a warm cup of organic milk mixed with a heaping teaspoon of the cinnamon and a spoon full of sugar. I mixed that well and it was a great drink.

I love rice and switched to organic brown rice, which was great, but it really didn’t hit my family in its sweet spot until I put organic turmeric in the rice when I started it cooking. One cup of rice to 2 1/2 cups water, a little himalayan salt – a teaspoon, actually, – and two heaping teaspoons of turmeric. At first I wondered what on earth am I doing because I served this to guests and they looked at the rice as though it was going to jump up and bite them. It was very yellow and to me it looked fantastic. We all enjoyed the rice immensely because it had a taste, which the white rice I had been cooking was totally tasteless and probably destroying my health in the process. I served the rice with organic green peas on the side. I wanted to serve a side dish everybody likes so the meal wouldn’t be too strange.

I have added those three things to my diet and my blood pressure is now 125. A tip for those who want to know their blood pressure on a constant basis and you don’t want to buy a blood pressure thing you wrap around your arm – everytime you go to a store like CVS or one like a CVS they usually have a blood pressure machine next to the pharmacy and you can take your blood pressure for free. You can also stand on their foot machine and see what’s going on with your feet.

I can’t tell you how grateful I am to you folks for this blog. Never would I have thought of dried hibiscus petals as a tea to deal with my high blood pressure. And the rice and turmeric is really sensational. I don’t know what it does, but it looks like its doing something very important inside my body and I will never have white rice again nor white wheat nor white pasta and all three of those things will have their share of turmeric put in during the cooking process. Great information!”

Ed. Note: You can buy organic ceylon cinnamon, the dried hibiscus flower petals and organic turmeric at Frontier Coop via mail – www.frontiercoop.com

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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.

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

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Tags: bed & breakfast, ceylon cinnamon, health, health and beauty, hibiscus, hibiscus flower petals, hibiscus tea, organic brown rice, Recipe, rice, turmeric
Posted in Guest comments, Health | Comments Off on “I Tried The Food in Your Blog Post”

Who Won the Prize at the Bettina Sale?

August 12th, 2012

The Bettina Scattering Sale for Dr. Alice Amsden has come to an end. It was a great experience. Many lessons learned to carry forward to the next sale and many, many people to thank.

First, we want to thank all of you who came, looked, bought and those who clicked into the ‘on-line’ part of the sale and put in bids.

As you know, everytime you put in a bid your name was put into the computer box which keeps such and today we had the computer tell us who it picked to win the night at a bed & breakfast in a Bettina Network home in Concord, Massachusetts.

That person was Christine Gilbert. Congratulations! We will be in touch with you to tell you how to collect your prize. The family of Dr. Alice Amsden and the Bettina Network, inc. thank you for bidding. We appreciate your participation and we appreciate everyone who helped to make this a success.

We look for you at the next sale. Make sure you are registered on the Bettina Network’s web site so you can be the first to be notified when the next sale takes place. Lots of changes coming with the next sale. This was our first sale using the new software and it worked beautifully. We had a couple glitches in the beginning, but it took only a few minutes to get it fixed. Susan Buck and Nicole Noll of Web Start Women did an outstanding job with the software. They are off putting their heads together to make the program we use that they wrote – better, easier, and of course, elegant. You must come to the next sale to see their changes.

We also want to thank Louise Botero and Alexandre Hawley for playing wonderful duets on the viola da gamba on Sunday afternoon at the Amsden house. We have security cameras that we set up all over the house during our sales. Maybe we will try to figure out how to use one to make a video that we can post to the blog to share with all of you. A small buffet followed the recital and in the process we learned how to make the next event, at the end of a Bettina Sale, a really special time.

Thanks also to all of you who inundated us with suggestions for the next sale. I had no idea we had so many friends who want us to succeed and who have taken a special interest in what we are doing and how we are doing it. It will take time to sort through all of the suggestions, but I know you will see some of them implemented soon.

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This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Tags: Alice Amsden, antiques, bed & breakfast, Bed and Breakfast in Concord MA, Bettina Sale, estate sale, Scattering Sale
Posted in A Scattering Sale, Estate Sale Analysis and Info | Comments Off on Who Won the Prize at the Bettina Sale?

An Estate Sale Buying Tip!

August 7th, 2012

A QUESTION FROM AN ESTATE SALE SHOPPER:

“I wanted to buy a pocket book, which I loved and it looked in very good condition, even on the inside. I was a little troubled, however, because we have been so programmed by those marketing to make us afraid of one another, that I found I had succumbed to that marketing and wondered what kind of unseen germs were on the inside of the pocketbook, which afterall had been used by someone I didn’t know. Do you have any help for me?”

OUR ANSWER:

We have been shopping estate sales for decades and have found a wonderful way to handle this! Don’t know if it will work for you because you are facing, basically, a psychological issue – which we believe, as apparently you do too – that this fear of another human being and their ‘things’ has been caused by the marketing people looking for ways to sell their products.

We put crumpled-up newspaper in the pocket book to help it either keep or to restore its shape and then we hang the pocket book wherever we want it to live. We do that even for brand new pocket books, which you also have to worry about because some of the material being used today to make and line pocket books have off gases – think of that getting all over the items you put in the bags. The older bags were lined with real silk or other organic materials, not the mixes and creations of today, which are basically some form of a petroleum derivative.

After we have crumpled the newspaper and before we put it in the pocket book we put a few drops of organic essential oil of lavender on the newspaper and then stuff it into the pocket book, taking care to make sure the shape is what we want the pocket book to take. Essential oil of Lavender is an anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory and stress reducer oil.

Once you’ve done that – when you use the bag, the smell of the oil of lavender remains, so when you are having a frantic moment just stop, open your pocket book, pretend to look around in it for something and smell the lavender. It works like a charm for us and we become calmer and less stressed in just a few moments. Then, when you can’t find what you were looking for because you really weren’t looking for anything, and you feel a lot calmer, close your bag and continue with whatever you were doing.

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This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

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1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Tags: bed & breakfast, clothes-keeping, estate sale shopping
Posted in Estate Sale Analysis and Info, Housekeeping, Making Connections, Shopping | Comments Off on An Estate Sale Buying Tip!

A Bettina Network, inc. Scattering Sale

August 3rd, 2012

A BETTINA NETWORK, INC SCATTERING SALE

Available “on location’

In Two Parts: (See Press Release at bettina-network.com/blog/ to understand how Bettina Scattering Sales work.)

First Part – On-Line. from July 31, 20112 through August 4, 2012

Available thru On-Line Auction

Second Part – On Location. From August 3, 2012 2pm thru 7pm Thru August 4, 2012 10am thru 5pm

Front View of Desk

The location is: 36 Irving Street, Cambridge, MA. 02138 Harvard Square off Kirkland Street (Irving is a one way street)

When you place a bid in this Silent Auction, your name is entered into the “Gift” pot along with others who bid at this sale. The Gift given to the person whose name is chosen is a one night stay in a bed & breakfast in Concord, MA.

We know you will be respectful of the neighbors, especially since parking can be a problem in this neighborhood.

The worldly goods of Dr. Alice Amsden, Professor of Political Economics at MIT in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning and Researcher at MIT Center for International Studies are being offered to you. The things with which she surrounded herself to make her life more comfortable. Dr. Amsden’s collection includes Japanese, Korean, Chinese and English furniture which she inherited from her family. Other items in this sale include: books, posters, cut glass, porcelain, jewelry, wall hangings, Korean platform bed, American futon bed beautiful wood, REF INF1200 – boxes unopened, Jevity 1.5 cal cans – six unopened boxes, dozens of VHS tapes from Japan and U.S. – still in the shrink wrap, dozens of VHS tapes custom taped of sports events-historical events-unusual stories dating from 1986, interesting objet d’art, stainless steel pots, iron pots, lots of porcelain bowls-plates-other forms, leather jackets, suede jackets, Japanese smoking jacket, new tennis shoes, other clothes, books, CD’s, paintings, lots of Japanese Lustreware and more.

English Regency-style Drop Leaf Table

On-line at www.bettina-network.com, you will find a silent auction part to this sale which ends August 4th at 5pm. The items offered in the silent auction are different from the items for sale on location. They are all in the same location and can be viewed online now or starting August 3rd at the Amsden Scattering Sale location. Both sales end at the same time.

The items in the silent auction will be sold to the highest bidder. All bids for the silent auction must be made on line.

Exquisite Rug

For more information see Bettina Sales on our web site at bettina-network.com

The second part of the sale is on-location at 36 Irving Street, Cambridge, MA. 02138. That sale starts August 3rd from 2pm – 7pm and August 4th 10am through 5pm.

The on-line and on-location items are both located at the same place in Dr. Amsden’s Cambridge – Harvard Square home.

English, Spanish and French spoken to help you get as much information as possible in a language you know best.

Purchase an item at this sale and you are invited back to the house for a small Sunday afternoon musical. Bring your receipt – which is your invitation – look around the house and take with you whatever you would like which has not been sold as a gift to you at no charge and help us leave the house in a ‘broom clean’ condition. At the same time, enjoy a bit of wine – tea – coffee – pastries and the flute music of Orlando Cela, well known, accomplished, classical flutist.

=======================================================================================================

Bettina Network, inc. is looking for people interested in working with us on estate sales. You must speak at least two languages – one English – and have a love and understanding of elegant, different and unusual lifestyles. A knowledge of art, antiques and history is a definite plus. The work includes cleaning, researching, styling, greeting people at the sale and selling. You must have a strong need to grow and learn and can add to our vision of a Bettina Network Community. The pay is low, the opportunities high and possibility for advancement has no cap. ===================================================================================

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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.

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

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

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IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Tags: antiques, Art, bed & breakfast, Bettina Network, Bettina Scattering Sale, estate sale, furniture, glass, history, Japanese Lustreware, Japanese Pottery, oriental rugs, Silent auction, silver
Posted in A Scattering Sale, Bettina Network Info, Estate Sale Analysis and Info, Job Opportunities, Preserving Family History and Stories, Shopping, Shopping Cambridge MA | Comments Off on A Bettina Network, inc. Scattering Sale

A Bettina Network, inc. Scattering Sale

July 31st, 2012

PRESS RELEASE:

From Bettina Network, inc.

for release after July 30, 2012

Bettina Network, inc. announces the beginning of A Bettina Scattering Sale July 30, 2012 at 2pm through August 4, 2012 at 5pm. We chose this sale to roll out this new concept because it is small, but still has lovely items.; This sale gives us a chance to test the concept, structure and software. We can make adjustments as the sale progresses, if necessary, with a small sale to keep a close watch to make sure Bettina Network inc.s’ new and original way of handling estate liquidations works smoothly.

Bettina Scattering Sales are sales of the household and lifetime items accumulated by someone deceased who we memorialize by scattering back into the world, the worldly goods the individual left behind.

We ‘scatter’ items that she surrounded herself with to make life more comfortable, memorable, and meaningful, items which the family decided not to keep, but to offer to you.

Included in this sale will be Japanese, Korean and Modern furniture, jewelry (some handmade), furs, kitchen items, miscellaneous porcelain, glass, crystal and yards and yards of bookcases. It is the sale of an academic’s furnishings and the house was filled with hundreds of books. The bookcases range from very inexpensive to go in a basement, to the very modern, exceptionally good wood and some extremely well made. Many of the books were given to MIT, but there is a nice selection left for those who want to increase their library and/or find an unusual book as a gift.

If you would like to know more details about this sale, they can be found at bettina-network.com where you click on “Bettina Sales” and you will come to the section of the website which has more particular information about the sale. Bettina Network, inc. also conducts Moving Sales, Art and Antique Sales and Estate Sales in addition to the Scattering Sale.

Bettina Scattering Sales take place in two parts. One part – the first part – takes place online. This is the virtual part of the sale which happens on the internet as a Silent Auction. The second part is on location and this part happens where the items are located. All items are located in the same place for both parts of the sale. The items offered ‘online’ can be seen at the same location as the items offered ‘on location.’

The online part of the sale usually starts one week before the on location part of the sale, but both parts end at the exact same time. In this case both end August 4th at 5pm.

Items that may be hard to price because of a fast moving market or whose value can only be determined at an auction are put into the virtual “online’ sale and sold via Silent Auction to gain the best possible price, especially since many of the items in the ‘online’ sale will be those that are not readily available and pointed to the collector.

You do not have to visit the location to participate in the ‘online’ part of a Bettina Scattering Sale. If you are not in the same city or in the same country where the items are located, you may visit the items for sale via your computer or other web machine to see the items, read about them and register with Bettina Network, inc. to place a bid.

At the moment both sales end, the ‘online’ items are sold to the highest bidder.

A biography or other write-up of the person whose items you are purchasing is usually on the back of your sales slip so you will always have the provenance of your particular purchase no matter how large or how small the item.

One lovely part of what you purchase at these sales to carry home and share, is the story of the life of the person who owned the items you now own.

Some of the items in the sale were bought new, some were inherited from her mother, others were given to her by friends and family.

Information about the items in the ‘online’ sale will move to Bettina Network’s Research Library for your use after the sale. We hope, when membership in the Library opens to the general public you will consider taking out a membership and contributing information to the Library.

We also hope others who research these items, in the years to come, will contribute to the breadth and depth of the Bettina Network’s Research Library’s information. It is our way of democratizing the things with which we live and the art and antiques which we all so enjoy.

The story going down the generations will be the story of all of us – those who could afford to buy art in the millions of dollars – which we will sell – and those who bought much smaller items for which we will also create and carry forward its provenance in just as serious a vein, so this Library will reflect the story of us all.

Bettina Network, inc. is still the Network of bed & breakfast homes which has been in business for some 20 years. It still maintains Bettina’s Menu of Events – which is sent to those making reservations to stay in one of the homes in Bettina Network, inc. giving them events happening over the dates and in the city of their stay. And Bettina Network, inc. still maintains Bettina Network’s Blog which currently has a number of visitors to its blog ranging from apx 300 to apx. 1200 on a daily basis.

Press Contact: Marceline Donaldson 617 497 9166

Photographer: Orlando Cela

Web Developer: Susan Buck

Web Consultant: Nicole Noll

Realtor: Century 21 Avon – Edward Beaudet

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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.

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This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

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Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on A Bettina Network, inc. Scattering Sale

Chick-fill-A – couldn’t resist commenting!

July 31st, 2012

It is interesting that even bed & breakfast is getting involved in this conversation where Chick-fil-A takes a stand against marriage equality.

A Bed & Breakfast in Edgewater Park, N. J., has a sign posted outside indicating the Inn’s support of a planned, nationwide “Chick-fill-A” day by anti-marriage equality patrons, followed by the message, “Marriage, One Man, One Woman, One God.”

Wonder if any of you have thought about how this corporation puts the campaigners squarely in the anti-feminist camp? Bring back the woman as sex object and let us degrade her with signs, comments, corporations which take sexist titles as their name – remember Hooters? Where are they now – a traditional company having survived their slam against women?

Advertise your company and your sexist, anti-female, anti-equality sentiments at the same time! “Chick-fil-A” can mean many things and in this society it generally does not mean Chicken. Chick is a derogatory diminutive for women as sex objects in a very negative sense. They don’t have to say anything about gay marriage – their bias is right out front in their name, why would anyone expect anything any different from a corporation which takes such a name, advertises it and expects to be taken seriously!

They have already made a statement as to where they stand by their corporate name – it spells blatant, in your face SEXISM – it has staked out its territory and is marketing to the group it has defined as its potential customers. Right there in the camp which is dedicated to keeping us all unequal, inferior and feuding with each other over civil rights. They are doing everything possible to turn a woman into a thing (not too thinly veiled, of course) – an object for a man’s use and then discarded because it/she has an expiration date – generally after 28 years of age.

And after “Chick” comes the diminutive of filly – another name which reduces a woman to her sex object status. “What a fine filly” – ever hear that applied to women – oops, excuse me – applied to girls?

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Tags: bed & breakfast
Posted in An editorial just because, Guest comments, Making Connections | Comments Off on Chick-fill-A – couldn’t resist commenting!

Aloe Vera and Coconut Oil

July 29th, 2012

“Thanks for your blog. I ‘ve found this great combination and want to share it with your readers!

I’ve been using Coconut Oil as a massage oil for quite some time. I started when the research started to come out that Coconut Oil had been given a bad rap. It would be interesting to know who sabotaged the reputation of a really great health-giving oil. You can use it as a cosmetic, to cook with (great for those who can’t have dairy), and for many other uses.

There are claims that coconut oil helps Alzheimer’s. I don’t know if that is true or not, but I always rub coconut oil vigorously into my scalp after I shower and wash my hair. It makes my hair look fantastic. But then I have naturally curly hair. For those of you with naturally straight hair – you unfortunate few – I would think if you massaged it into your scalp before you washed your hair (at night before you go to bed) and then wash it out when you bathe or shower in the mornings before going out it should work wonders for you too.

Being sold on the benefits of coconut oil, you can imaging how excited I was to discover the good benefits I found from combining aloe vera gel and coconut oil.

I give myself a massage with aloe vera gel – you could do the same with the juice or the whole plant, both are available in organic food stores. And, make sure you get the organic kind. You don’t want to massage anything into your skin, showing up in your blood stream, which has ingredients in it you can’t pronounce.

After the aloe vera gel massage I give myself another massage with coconut oil. I don’t know what it does, but the results make me look quite stunning and well rested. I know it isn’t harming me or giving me a temporary fix so I heartily recommend the combination. You can especially see what this combination does when you use it on your face. Your face needs much more attention because it is exposed constantly – this has helped me tremendously – it also helps me in the energy department.

P. S. I haven’t used the Bettina Network for bed and breakfast yet, but I am going to call you for my next trip. Thanks again for this blog I like the way you will present many different views. You must have all kinds of people staying in your homes – it is so rare to find a place which gives exposure to all instead of one small point of view. You would never succeed running for Congress.”

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This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

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Tags: Aloe Vera, bed & breakfast, coconut oil, health, health and beauty
Posted in Hair Health, Health, Health and Beauty | Comments Off on Aloe Vera and Coconut Oil

Ginger/Maple Syrup/Popcorn

July 27th, 2012

We discovered a great way to make popcorn – almost by accident. And isn’t that the way all great things happen? Does that mean all of us – human beings – are accidental creations?

Organic ginger is what started us on the road to this fantastic snack. Healthy, quick to make and great tasting.

Start with a pound or two of organic ginger.

Wash the ginger in cold running water with a vegetable brush

because you don’t want to take the skin off the ginger. Many of the nutrients you want for your body are in the skin.

Somewhere in this blog – try clicking on “Health” or “Bettina Cookbook” – is a recipe for Ginger Tea. Follow that recipe or what follows from my memory.

Put the organic ginger in a large pot and fill the pot with water

Add a bit of Organic Turbinado Sugar to your taste

Put a cover on the pot and let it boil, then simmer for a couple hours.

At the end of this process pour the hot water – now Ginger Tea – into the glass containers you use to store tea in the refrigerator.

If you don’t have such glass pitchers, containers, whatever – now is a good time to get some so you can constantly keep one kind or another of your homemade tea in your refrigerator to use whenever you want a little break with a great drink. That is as close to ‘fast food’ as we come – pre-make it for the future to be able to just open the refrigerator and eat or drink.

Now you have Southern Sweet Tea and you can serve it to friends, relatives, – those you want to have good health going forward. This tea is fantastic. It stimulates the body; cools you down in summer; helps your digestion – at least that is what it does for me.

If you don’t like “Sweet Tea”, then just boil the organic ginger root by itself without adding the Organic Turbinado Sugar.

Once you have poured out and saved the water in which you boiled the organic ginger root you are ready to begin the process of making the popcorn.

Take the ginger root left in the pot.

Add one cup organic turbinado sugar, two cups water, one cup maple syrup and let that simmer covered on the stove until you get a heavy syrup (somewhere over 240 degrees on a candy thermometer)

Once you get syrup of the right consistency – pour the mixture onto a cooling plate or into a medium-sized Corning pot

If you want to make the ginger root into candied ginger, take the ginger root out of the syrup – roll it in organic turbinado sugar and put it aside.

Now comes the fun:

With your AIR POPCORN POPPER –

no, not the same one you use to roast coffee in the mornings, unless you want to add a coffee taste to your popcorn (which might not be so bad)

Pour the amount of unpopped corn you want to use into the measuring cup, which comes with the Air Popcorn Popper

plug in the Popcorn Popper

and let the smells permeate the house and your nostrils so you are ready for goodies to come.

Don’t forget to put a large bowl next to the Popcorn Popper to catch the corn as it comes out beautifully popped, hot with gorgeous smells!

While the corn is popping, melt 1/2 cup organic butter

(what do you expect, I am from New Orleans with French ancestors. Two facts which put butter into my DNA)

Mix the ginger syrup with the butter and let it simmer until the two are nicely mixed.

Carefully and very slowly drizzle this mixture over the popped corn

stopping intermittently to mix the popped corn and the syrup together.

Be very gentle with the freshly popped corn. You need to watch to make sure you don’t pour the hot syrup too fast or mix the two together too vigorously because you could turn your popped corn into a sludgy mess.

Don’t use too much syrup – just a light drizzle because

– less is more in this case. If you like thickly coated popped corn because you were raised on that heavily coated caramel corn then have a ball and use as much syrup as you want to create that affect. I was raised on that heavily coated caramel corn and stopped eating it when I became an adult.

This popped corn brings back those memories – gives a fantastic adult taste – and is especially good when you use the syrup lightly and sparingly.

If you want to go a step further and cut the now candied, ginger into really tiny pieces you can mix those tiny pieces into your Ginger/Maple Syrup/Popcorn for an additional unidentifiable, except to the most sophisticated palates, taste. Makes a nice substitute for those candied peanuts that sometimes still appears on the grocery store shelves. Nice, the ginger is quite lovely and brings this snack to new heights!

enjoy!

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Ginger Root, Maple Syrp, New Orleans, New Orleans Creole, Popcornn, Recipe
Posted in Bettina's Cookbook, Making Connections | Comments Off on Ginger/Maple Syrup/Popcorn

More on Apple Cider Vinegar

July 23rd, 2012

“Thanks for your information on Apple Cider Vinegar. I remember it being around a lot when I was growing up and then it disappeared. In fact, white vinegar, which I believe is a petroleum derivative, has replaced a few of the uses for vinegar which are still around – mainly as an ingredient in salad dressings.

I remember being afraid to have anything with white vinegar in it because of the stories which circulated in my community about of how it was made.

I was so happy to read about Apple Cider Vinegar in your blog that I decided to go back to it, do some research and see if I couldn’t bring it back as one of the staples in my eating and cosmetic life. I remember a weight-loss diet that was popular several years ago which was Vinegar, Vitamin B6 and something else – or maybe it was B12. It was hugely popular, but I didn’t lose weight on it because I couldn’t keep it up. Friends of mine lost quite a bit of weight on this diet and one developed the habit of having a tablespoon or two of Apple Cider Vinegar in water when she woke up instead of coffee. I don’t know what its done for her because we haven’t talked in years.

Taking your suggestion about putting a bottle of Apple Cider Vinegar in the bathroom for those who think the tub isn’t clean enough led to my putting two bottles in the bathroom. One with a rag on a small plate to be used to clean the bathtub and/or other places in the bathroom. – if its good for the bathtub, what about the toilet? I put the second bottle in the bathroom after I found a pump which fit the top and which made my Apple Cider Vinegar bottle ‘pumpable’ for cosmetic purposes.

I use this second bottle to rinse my hair; after I’ve used vitamin A, dried milk and vitamin E on my face and before going out I put a little Apple Cider Vinegar in my cupped hands and wipe my face with it being careful to avoid my eyes. My skin has a glow which makes me look years younger. On the days I don’t want that shiny look, I use dried milk as a powder to tone down the oily look left from the vitamins and it looks great. I got all of that from your blog under the ‘health and beauty section.’

You were right about being able to keep my face looking fantastic all during the day by simply splashing on cool water periodically when I wanted to refresh and that looks better than any foundation because you can’t refresh it – foundations just begin to make you look tired and old after a few hours, and if you try to refresh the foundation with more powder, you begin to get that ‘caked’ look, which isn’t healthy because your pores are very clogged by that time and your looks take a direct hit.

I wish more places would keep that cosmetic bottle of Apple Cider Vinegar in their bathrooms – food quality Apple Cider Vinegar. When I travel, I can’t carry it because the airlines would take it away from me. – Probably to take home and use it themselves.

I found when I first started to use it I would get this little burning sensation in places on my face. When I checked in my magnifying mirror, it was in places where I had ‘sitz’ or had been picking my face. Now, that’s all gone because whatever sensation made me scratch or pick my face is gone.

Thanks for the information. It led me to another place, with which I am delighted. I especially love it when I have guests and they come downstairs to breakfast asking about the Apple Cider Vinegar in the bathroom and I am able to spout my new found knowledge. What is great about that – they usually have a few things from their youthful remembrances or current readings to add so I am pulling myself up out of a great pit – and the money saved is amazing. I used to spend $300 plus per month on cosmetics, which weren’t doing anything for me except I felt as though I was doing something when I bought them. The ambiance of the cosmetic areas, the way the sales people treated me when I went in to buy my cosmetics – all made me feel great, but when I got my big purchases home, they made no difference whatsoever in how I looked nor did they stop aging nor my penchant to pick my face.

So once again, thanks. Keep up the good work and seek out all of these things so I can benefit.”

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Tags: Apple cider vinegar, bed & breakfast, Bed and Breakfast in Cambridge MA, Bed and Breakfast in Concord MA, Bed and Breakfast in Harvard Square, Bed and Breakfast in Washington, prevent obesity, weight problems
Posted in Guest comments, Health, Health and Beauty, Housekeeping, Making Connections | Comments Off on More on Apple Cider Vinegar

The Brotherhood – a response

June 28th, 2012

“Hi guys,

Thank you for the blog entitled “The Brotherhood”. You should be the major media – I love the way your blogs make me think and challenge what I believe. But even more, I love the way you talk about things no one else is saying in the media.

With ‘The Brotherhood’ blog I think you didn’t go far enough. What is missing and a pet peeve of mine is the fact that every day on every news report they end with a large coverage of sports, sports events, what sports figures are doing, and sports media. The largest acculturizing tool in the world. The propaganda they spread is appalling – especially at how we sit and watch and let that crap seep into our brains, our personality and our lives.

How to get everyone into things that are ‘traditional values’. The right food, clothes, way of thinking, adversarial way to live, etc. It is amazing that sports would be so overwhelming every place you turn. I click off the news when the sports section starts. Nothing else in this society gets such coverage 24/7 – how come this? It makes sure you and your children are exposed to what this society wants us to mimic and we do follow and pattern ourselves after what the media promotes.

Why on earth would I want to mimic grown men running around and acting like little boys? Why do I want to see two sweaty men pretending to be big, bad and throwing each other around a small enclosed square ring? It is time for the news to give equal coverage to other activities that happen with great frequency and that more people enjoy – and enjoy without the constant exposure to and constant putting forth the image that this is what we want to see and hear.

Get real folks – find a life and get out of this sports trap!

And thanks again for this forum – keep up the good work. You are the only place I call for bed & breakfast.”

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Sports Events, Sports Figures, Sports Media, Sports Media Coverage
Posted in Guest comments, Making Connections, Reader Feedback | Comments Off on The Brotherhood – a response

The Brotherhood

June 25th, 2012

Today, the American Brotherhood is pulling in its antenna and licking its wounds.

It will be interesting and very educational to see how they come back from the Sandusky Affair.

Normally, the oppressed lose – especially in areas which re-enforce one or more of society’s isms. In this case sexism and pedofilia in sports was rampant and on view for all who didn’t put their heads in the sand. The areas which have our rituals and symbols; which we use to pull in the unsuspecting fans and followers who are just along for the ride – these were the areas under a very high, hot microscope all during the Sandusky revelations. What the fans and followers perceive as the excitement of ‘their team’ winning and losing has been totally exposed for what it is and we see it, for one brief moment, stripped naked.

I was not raised in a sport, nor watching sports games, nor close to anything that had to do with sports. When I became an adult, I was missing the language, history and excitement which sports and sport figures could invoke in most people around me – and for this blessing I am grateful.

To talk about Chopin was not very exciting – especially when one had the option of talking about the local ball game. I didn’t even know which sport the different named ball clubs played. I did know it was all male, all the time and the testosterone which exuded from this area was more than a little overwhelming. Women were included and had a very important place in this Court as cheer leaders, team followers, extras for those times when team members needed more sex. When you think how women and girls were pushed into cheering and accepting all of this if they wanted to exist even on the periphery of society, it is heartbreaking.

Sandusky’s trial has thrown all of that in high relief. This was not simply a case of one man, all by himself, corrupting and destroying the life and future of many mother’s sons. It is a case of one man, because of his position in the sports field, bringing the men in the sport together to support and draw the wagons around him so he could continue his ‘sport’ unafraid and unstoppable. In fact, at one point didn’t he brag to one of his young victims that he was ‘unstoppable?’

I can just hear the furor of those reading this and being quite upset about my painting all sports and participants in sports with the same brush. Well, why not. We have had more scandal in the sports arena than anyplace else. The only area of society which tops politics in its sleeze. The difference between the two comes from the fact that we readily talk about how low one has to stoop to participate in politics. Sports is still a sacred cow. We protect and hunker down to make sure we take out those who would dare to talk out loud about the corrupting influence of sports on everyone.

What is at stake? Have you ever tried to buy a ticket to a game? The cost is prohibitive. Have you noticed how much the players are paid? For doing what? For not growing up past their adolescence and being able to play with each other the way they did at 13, 14, 15, and on? For being ‘real’ men in the locker room for men only where men’s jokes were told, and men bonded in a male way. Women could never come close to this sacred space. In the religion of sports, the sports locker room is its sacristy for its clergy.

Where your money is there also is your value system. Our value system is in the ‘top dogs’ – the sportsmen, the political men, the business men. But the sports area far exceeds the power and prestige of any of the others. What do they have in common? They share a bond around elevating sports to the very highest level and taking their manhood from their ability to participate in, talk about, go to sports events.

What was given to you as a business person for your clients? Tickets to the ballgames because this was a big deal gift. What did you talk about sitting around having coffee? Sports! Who did you want to be around to prove you were really one of the ‘in’ guys? Sports figures – the bigger the sports figure, the more important you looked to those with whom you were trying to do business. And what does our biggest politicans and businessmen want to own? A sports team!

And then comes Sandusky! Opening closed doors – showing us what happens in those ‘male only’ places – initiating young boys into a life which makes them vulnerable to those who come after him. And then comes the Sandusky supporters – sports figures all! Many years of covering-up, hiding, coming together to make sure he was free of and not encumbered by any ‘justice’ issues. Males all! Sports males all!

So what now? Do we eliminate sports? Do we clean it up? Do we go on as if nothing happened? Do we blame Sandusky and try to clean up everyone else? How can we when Sandusky followed the pattern set out by many unrecognized sleeze-its who came before. He became big in his field – too big to fail. He lived his life so the conscience of others could be eased – he set up a foundation to help others (although there are claims that he set it up to corral young boys so he wouldn’t have to go out looking and risking) – he kept the façade of a family man with a loving family – he was almost the beat your chest Tarzan guy from whom one would expect to hear the jungle call at any moment.

When all of this broke, I went back to look at some old film of Sandusky at work – sometimes surrounded by those who ‘protected’ him from the potetial charges of his young victims. The film shows him being held up by those around him – held in high esteem by those who knew the truth of his activities with young boys. In some films he looks invincible! Given what I watched, I don’t see how any of his victims had the courage to come forward. He looked like an awesome, respectable, very much in control of his sport kind of guy.

To try to modernize sports – with the success of the Women’s Movement – we have allowed in a very small percentage of women as players. Not women making the kind of money the men make, but enough to have kept the civil righters from marching against the sports establishment.

With sports came men’s clubs – closed to women and non-whites. At one time they were only open to Northern Europeans, but over time some non-Northern Europeans were allowed in. In many private men’s clubs, they kept the curious and more aggressive women out by putting their locker room at the entrance to the club. To enter one had to go through the locker rooms and the locker rooms were a reflection of the sports arena’s locker rooms.

Suffice it to say, it is time to take down and dismantle this bastion of male superiority which is one of the ground floor structures of sexism – racism and pedofilia. It used to be the ground floor structure of all the -isms before teams were forced to accept African American and other minority males. And what happened when those doors were open? You can’t tell the difference. Those minorities taken in totally reflect what went before – to a color blind person, there has been very little change. With the exception that minority sports figures are hung out to dry if they are not squeaky clean. That should speak to them loud and clean.

Now What!

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Tags: bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, Sandusky
Posted in Bettina's Hall of Shame, Breakfast Table Talk, Making Connections | Comments Off on The Brotherhood

Apple Cider Vinegar Uses

June 6th, 2012

In response to a guest request for uses for Apple Cider Vinegar:

There are thousands of ways to use Apple Cider Vinegar – both for health and cleaning purposes. We have zeroed in on only a few because we need to test everything before we put it out on the blog. Needless to say, we use Organic Apple Cider Vinegar

If you search Bettina Network’s Blog under the category ‘Apple Cider Vinegar’ you will find uses we have previously published in this blog. You can also find other uses for Apple Cider Vinegar if you search the internet. There are several really good books – some out of print, but discoverable in estate sales – written decades ago, which are fantastic.

The huge use, – the one we find that has infinite health benefits is the use of Organic Apple Cider Vinegar as a deodorant/anti perspirant. (No, you can’t substitute White Vinegar – not even Organic White Vinegar).

I believe we have a blog on this and we have had ongoing trials with different people using it. Now that the weather has turned really warm, we have found that using a little Apple Cider Vinegar splashed under your arms after a shower will keep you feeling cool and odor free. We have also found that when your energy starts to flatten, another splash of apple cider vinegar under the arms and a little rubbed on the face will bring your energy up in dramatic ways.

It is amazing how something so cheap and so totally effective would not be used by millions. Are we so detached from the ways of our grandparents that instead of following their lead, which they acquired from following their parents and grandparents, we are the generation which follows those whose job it has been to market the latest to us. The latest things to pad the pockets of the few at the expense of the health, well-being and financial resources of the many?

We all are using one of the many Deodorants and Anti-Perspirants on the market. That says a lot for the success of the marketing campaigns which have been aimed at making us think if we didn’t use the products they are currently marketing we would smell bad, be considered amoral and the ‘good’ people of the world would not want us around.

In fact, if we use the products being promoted for our use with beautiful women, flowery scenes, romantic music, comedy and/or cutesiness there are serious possible health problems involved. We worked hardest in trying to discover some way to live in public around other people and not smell nor cause ourselves health problems into the future. When we heard the way anti-perspirants work is to clog your pores with aluminum, we threw out the anti-perspirants and deodorants – no matter how good the marketing and advertising. Apparently, you don’t smell because the perspiration and bacteria which eats the perspiration causing the odor can’t get started because you can’t perspire. We always thought that perspiration was a natural bodily function with a reason to preserve your health and well being.

That freaked us out. Especially since we have heard the stories about Aluminum being one of the contributors to starting Alzheimer’s, plus a long line of other health problem possibilities.

We have had feed back from a few people in the Bettina Network about using Apple Cider Vinegar first thing in the morning – a little in a glass of water and drink it down – but we haved no way to know if and how this is effective, so we will stick with the use of Apple Cider Vinegar as a very effective deodorant.

We also find it good to use cleaning house. We use it with Olive Oil. The Olive Oil poured on OOOO steel wool will clean and wax the furniture and Apple Cider Vinegar does an excellent job at washing walls and etc.

In a Bettina Network home you will find a bottle of Apple Cider Vinegar in the bathrooms with a rag for you to use to clean the bathtub. The homes have clean bathrooms, but many guests, when they travel, don’t take a bath, in spite of wanting to take a bath and being accustomed to baths instead of showers. They are afraid of the tub and assume the hotel and/or the bed & breakfast and/or the inn, etc. could possibly not have cleaned the tub the way they would like it clean. Since the Apple Cider Vinegar is a disinfectant, we came upon the idea of putting a bottle in the bathrooms so guests can use it anyway they see fit.

Another use we have for Apple Cider Vinegar is in the clothes washer. We put in the detergent and fill the softener container with Apple Cider Vinegar to help clean and disinfect the wash – the sheets, towels, etc.

Doing just those few things will dramatically reduce your cleaning budget and increase the cleanliness and germ-freeness of your home. It will be pleasant smelling – no off-gases – nothing to hurt your hands or get into your blood stream and wreck havoc producing illnesses you become baffled by because you can’t figure out their genesis.

We have heard about using it to rinse your hair and do all kind of other things, but the above is what we are trying and getting feed back from so it is all we can talk about at the moment.

Hope this helps. Let us know if you find other uses, we love the feeback and try all suggestions (within reason). It helps us and others and will probably wind up in a blog. If it does, we will give you credit or post it anonymously, if you don’t want your name used.

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Tags: Anti-Perspirants, Apple cider vinegar, bed & breakfast, Deodorant, health, health and beauty
Posted in Guest comments, Health, Health and Beauty, Housekeeping, Making Connections | Comments Off on Apple Cider Vinegar Uses

Stay Cool on a Hot Day!

May 24th, 2012

Summer is coming and so are the hot days of Summer.

I have found a way to stay cool most of the day and add to my general health and beauty at the same time.

I take a shower and follow it with a massage of organic Aloe Vera Gel. It is fantastic.

I read in your blog where you talked about this massage, but I couldn’t handle it then because it was cold weather when I read it and when I tried to massage with the Aloe Vera I almost froze it was so cold when I tried to put it on my body.

It dawned on me that this might be a great treat for myself when there is hot weather so I waited and just tried it on a fairly hot day. I was very cool after the shower – which is generally not the case for me in hot weather – I will start to perspire almost immediately out of the shower. I was left with a really coolness around me all morning.

I also got many comments from people who told me how great I looked. Since I had on jeans and an old shirt I wasn’t sure where the compliments were coming from – the only thing I did different was the organic Aloe Vera Gel massage. You also talked about Lakewood – so that is what I bought and used. I liked that it was not made from a concentrate, but from the actual juice of the plant and not preserved with a chemical whose name I couldn’t pronounce. So, for what its worth —- and thanks for the blog. I liked being able to send this to you to share. I have my own blog, but no one reads it – except for a few family members and I wanted to share this with a lot of people. It is impressive the number of people who read your blog.

Hope all of you readers try this – it is a great experience. One I will use all summer.

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Tags: Aloe Vera, Beauty, bed & breakfast, health, Massage
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Marriage Talk at a Bettina Network Home

May 22nd, 2012

Must tell you about this breakfast. We had a priest and a lawyer at the table and thought this would be kind of boring. However, it turned out to be unbelievable.

I will give you, dear reader, highlights – you dear editor, write too many words when you blog:)

I don’t know how we got onto the subject of marriage because I was in the kitchen – got to cook breakfast, you know. No lounging around talking at the table. I have to catch snippets of conversations.

What was most striking was, it turned around my traditional view of marriage. I thought marriage was a ceremony performed by the Church, Synagogue, Temple, etc. and I don’t know where I put the marriage license which I know is issued by a governmental entity, but I just didn’t think about all of the details until this conversation.

Turns out, marriage is a civil contract dictated by the State. To officiate at someone’s wedding you must be licensed by the State. If a priest is ordained that doesn’t mean he can marry anyone. He/she can only do that if the priest got a license from the State in addition to his/her ordination. Anyone can get a license to marry anyone. You can get a license to perform one marriage ceremony or you can get a continuing license to perform the marriage ceremony for lots of people as an ongoing thing and you don’t have to be ordained to apply for and obtain such a license. Oh – all of my sacred cows are being toppled!!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe I should just stay in the kitchen and cook and stay out of the dining room.

Actually, according to the priest, the two people marry themselves. The person officiating is only there as a witness and doesn’t really do the marrying – it is all between the two people and their community of friends.

The lawyer pointed out that if we had problems believing that then we should recognize that once married, to get divorced that is a State process. If you get ‘divorced’ by your religious institution and re-marry you will be called a bigamist and be subject to the penalties which can generally mean jail time. So, if it were a religious institutions thing to marry you, it would be the religious institutions thing to grant or deny you a divorce.

The priest said his job was to ‘bless’ the marriage. When you go to a wedding and the couple goes off to the sacristy or the small room next to the altar where they are supposedly being ‘married’, that is the point at which they are really married. They sign all the documents and it becomes official. The signing doesn’t have to be done in a side room, but it generally is to take the congregations mind off the fact that this is a State ceremony not a religious ceremony.

Isn’t that something!!! And all the time I thought the religious people were the ones doing the marrying of people. Then why are the religious institutions so upset about this new thing of men marrying men and women marrying women? And – more than that, I now undertand why it was so important for the future of marriage and the shape it will take when Obama came out to give same sex marrying his ‘blessing.’ He can’t marry anyone unless he is licensed by the State in which they are being married, but its nice to have the President of all the States ‘blessing’ marriage. Now I get it!

So what does all this mean? Now that my eyes are open they are taking in all kind of questions. If ‘marriage’ is a state institution, why was marriage as a civil contract so upsetting to the homosexual and lesbian communities? They could have entered into a civil contract just like any businesses or individuals enter into.

When the Church says “what God has joined together let no one put asunder” – does that mean we are equating God to the State? What does a religious institutions ‘divorce’ or ‘annulment’ mean? Since they bless the marriage does that mean their ‘divorce’ means they are taking back that blessing – especially since that is all they do? They can’t break a civil contract so where do we go from here?

How does a civil contract become a sacrement of the Church? Doesn’t this violate the separation of Church and State? Oh my! I could go on and on and on. Would the Homosexual/Lesbian community been better off fighting to redefine the benefits of this State Institution so the rest of us could also benefit? – like – should the benefits of today’s marriage be automatically given to one’s ‘spouse’ – as defined under our current mess of a marriage structure or should the person be able to decide who gets these benfits? – like Who can visit them in the hospital when it is closed to all except close family?, – who gets their Social Security benefits, etc. etc.

The marriage laws in the U. S. were based on the slavery laws which existed before Emancipation of the African slaves – what does that mean for the institution of marriage. All of this fighting for same sex marriage hasn’t addressed any of that. Are the homosexual and lesbian communities fighting for one of their marriage partners to be the ‘slave’ and the other to be the ‘free and superior person’? What for! Or – Is this fight for same sex marriage really a tool being used to change the conversation – from reform of the institution to granting a new group the right to marry and to participate in the same old institution which saw an unbelievably huge number of divorces take place with children, property, etc. all destroyed – and the State Marriage Laws being used as a tool for the redistribution of property to others outside the marriage – like lawyers and their associated helpers in this divorce process? (The lawyer didn’t bring up that one – that’s my question and observation.)

All of these years and I thought the priest was marrying all those people whose weddings I attended and all along that was just not true. He/she was there as a representative of the State – not even there as a representative of their particular religious institution – and the couple were the real ‘ministers’ at their wedding.

What one learns in bed & breakfast is astounding! Wouldn’t give it up for the world.

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This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

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Tags: bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, who performs the marriage ceremony
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Historical Support, Making Connections | Comments Off on Marriage Talk at a Bettina Network Home

Politics at Breakfast? I’m Shocked

A Fantastic Diet for Good Health!

Lifted from Vogue Magazine

Upholstering Walls – 1st Installment!

Bettina’s Tapioca Pudding

In Memory of Roger Fisher

“I Tried The Food in Your Blog Post”

Who Won the Prize at the Bettina Sale?

An Estate Sale Buying Tip!

A Bettina Network, inc. Scattering Sale

A Bettina Network, inc. Scattering Sale

Chick-fill-A – couldn’t resist commenting!

Aloe Vera and Coconut Oil

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