Washing Linens, Towels and everything else

March 11th, 2012

We have been trying for several years to come up with the best way to wash bed linens and bathroom towels – because that is important in bed & breakfast.

We were especially concerned about having soft towels and the smell which we sometimes could not get out of the sheets without several washings.

We tried every fabric softener on the market. They all do the same thing and none really great. -They give the towels, particularly, a slimy feel rather than a clean fluffy feel. The towels, after they have been through the wash with fabric softener, are too soft and too greasy to think that is a good solution. Having done a bit of research on this, I find that is because the fibers are coated with chemicals – that can’t be good! Especially when the results we were trying to achieve were not happening. And, what happens to the chemicals which coat the towel fabric? Do they go on your face when you wipe with the towels? Or on other parts of the body?

Trying to wash towels and bed linens without a fabric softener left the towels really scratchy and uncomfortable to use. You wouldn’t want to wrap up in the very large bath towels because that would not meet the ‘feel good warm and cozy’ test.

We received many suggestions about putting White Vinegar into the rinse water. However, after having worked with White Vinegar and knowing from whence it has come, we discarded that idea.

We put organic apple cider vinegar with the ‘mother’, in the washing machine in the small box which asks for fabric softener.

We fully expected to ruin all of the clothes in the machine because we expected there would be residue from the organic apple cider vinegar, especially since we were using the ‘mother’ so we couldn’t think beyond = ‘there goes the wash’.

We couldn’t use a lot of the apple cider vinegar because the container of our LG Washing machine would only hold what seemed to be less than 1/4 cup, so while we tried it anyway, our hopes were not high for success.

The results, however, were spectacular.

With bed & breakfast guests, some are exceptionally clean and their bedding doesn’t have an odor when they leave. Some people, even though they wash, leave behind an odor in the sheets which doesn’t always leave after the sheets have been through the wash, so we have been super concerned to get the odors out. Basically, we assumed if there was an odor there was bacteria still in the sheets and towels.

Putting organic apple cider vinegar in the fabric softener container of the washing machine solved the problem. And weren’t we surprised!! We found organic apple cider vinegar worked wonders as an anti-perspirant, but we couldn’t make the leap to the washing machine.

When the clothes came out of the washer, there was no odor left in any of the sheets, towels or clothes. The towels were softened to perfection. They had no slimy feel, which happened when we used commercial fabric softeners. We don’t have to worry about people being allergic to the linens or towels because of how and with what they were washed and the towels were neither too soft nor too hard and scratchy. The towels were sturdy enough to allow one to dry one’s face when you wanted a little roughness to get the blood circulating, but not much. And they were soft and nice enough to please those who wanted soft towels. The same thing happened to the bathrobes. They are perfect after coming out of the organic apple cider vinegar rinse.

My great-grandmother used to put her clothes through a vinegar rinse – I should have had more respect and given her the credit she deserved for the things she knew and did. Is this how sexism works? – hand and glove with the marketing and advertising machine? If young people don’t learn the lessons from their families, but from what used to be called “Madison Avenue” we are all doomed to destruction- a slow excruciatingly painful destruction via cancer, and all the other degenerative diseases.

How fantastic is it to find something your great-grandmother used on a daily basis with no bells and whistles. That was just how she did things. It can make you feel kind of foolish to know what you have looked all over creation for was right under your nose from the time you were a child. I have the marketing and advertising people to thank for that, along with the forces in society which made me turn to my peers rather than my family to learn these kinds of lessons. Now I understand why Martha Stewart became such a phenom. All the lessons we didn’t learn and when we turned around to try to back track to learn them we could not break through the veil. The silence from our families could not be bridged.

I used to think my grandmother and great-grandmother were really out of touch with today’s society and here I find if I turn back to try to remember what they did, it is safer, purer and better for all of us. Now, not everything they did is so relevant, but I will be going over their lifestyle as I remember it to see what else I can salvage. I am sure many of you have or are experiencing the same thing. Give your mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers credit, gratitude and thanks.

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Tags: Apple cider vinegar, bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, fluffy towels, health, Housekeeping, washing clothes
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Health, Health and Beauty, Housekeeping | Comments Off on Washing Linens, Towels and everything else

A Readers Comment

February 19th, 2012

On 2012-02-14 11:41 PM, lani stacks wrote:

> It’s is for sure such a major tragedy for Whitney Houston’s life to
> be cut so short. She was such a magnificent woman and
> out-of-this-world voice and singer. The evolution of a relationship
> with Mr.Brown just illustrates how much a man that is not beneficial
> to a woman can cause harmful affects on them (us). I have cut off
> relationships when I see these kind of signs in someone, therefore, I
> am living a single life – with my cats. Well, one thing that I can
> feel relief for her is that she is now in a safer and more peaceful
> realm forever with the Lord. I loved the interview with Diane Sawyer
> when she said, “Jesus loves me”. That is courage in this day and age
> to speak one’s heart and soul. To say that is affirmation where her
> heart really is and for sure, she is living this eternal reward now. I
> think of her daughter having to live without her now. That will be
> tough, but she will be surrounded by many loving relatives. Lani

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Whitney Houston
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A Final Tribute

February 16th, 2012

Ed. Note: Because we had so much response to the Bettina Network Blog on Whitney Houston and because we had questions we couldn’t properly answer and comments we didn’t want to put in the blog – there would have been many by now – mostly repetitive – we decided to reprint (with permission) – this article written by Marc Morial, who has written a fantastic column which covers it all and we commend this to you without reservations or further comments.

“The Incomparable Whitney Houston
To Be Equal #7

Syndicated Weekly Column by National Urban League President & CEO Marc H. Morial
“To me Whitney was THE VOICE. We got to hear a part of God every time she sang.” – Oprah Winfrey on the death of Whitney Houston

FEBRUARY 15, 2012 – Billie Holiday was 44. Judy Garland was 47. Dinah Washington was 39. Michael Jackson was 51. Jimi Hendrix was 28. Janis Joplin was 27. Amy Winehouse was 28. And Whitney Houston lived only 48 years on this earth. I was one of millions of people around the world who were stunned to learn of the untimely death of pop-music queen, Whitney Houston last Saturday. Like so many other entertainers who died too young, Whitney was blessed with a divine talent but also haunted by a heavy load of troubles.

Throughout much of the 1980’s and 90’s, Whitney Houston reigned as the undisputed queen of pop. With songs like “The Greatest Love of All,” and “I Will Always Love You,” she set a standard as an octave-shattering virtuoso who brought both elegance and a gospel-tinged intensity to her work in studio and on stage. That was surely a natural outgrowth of her church choir roots and being the daughter of classy gospel legend, Cissy Houston.

Whitney got her start singing in the junior choir of Newark, New Jersey’s New Hope Baptist Church, where her mother has served as Minister of Music for decades. Whitney also undoubtedly benefited from the influences of other great musical talents in her family. Dionne Warwick was her cousin. And Aretha Franklin was her Godmother. But, Whitney was a pure original.

In addition to setting the music world on fire and influencing such performers as Mariah Carey, Beyoncé and Jennifer Hudson, Whitney also excelled as an actress, and had starring roles in such movies as “The Bodyguard,” “Waiting to Exhale” and “The Preacher’s Wife.” Her final film, “Sparkle,” a remake of the 1976 movie about three sisters from Harlem who form a singing group, is set to be released in August.

It is a sad irony that Whitney Houston died on the eve of this year’s Grammy Awards. The winner of six Grammys herself, Whitney was preparing to attend a pre-Grammy party given by her mentor, the legendary music producer, Clive Davis. Her body was found Saturday afternoon in the bath tub of her room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. As of this writing, the exact cause of her death is still unknown.

In her 2009 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Whitney revealed for the first time, some of the most intimate details about her troubled marriage to Bobby Brown, the deep feelings she had for her mother and her daughter, Bobbie Kristina, and her struggles with drugs. She candidly admitted to Oprah that at times “It was too much. So much to try to live up to, to try to be, and I wanted out.” Through it all, Whitney said she was constantly reading her bible and trying to get back to God. While we are all shocked and saddened by her death, I am hopeful that Whitney Houston’s life and incomparable musical gifts will inspire others to let nothing stand in the way of the full and healthy expression of their God-given talents. Our thoughts and prayers are with Cissy, Bobbie Kristina and the entire Houston family.”

And from the Bettina Network:
May the Lord Bless and Keep you Whitney,
May God’s face shine upon you and be gracious unto you;
May God lift up that exquisite, peaceful and loving countenance upon you and give you peace
Now and forever….Amen and Amen!

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Tags: African American history, bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, Whitney Houston
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Good Words around the Breakfast Table

February 16th, 2012

“No one can make you feel inferior without your permission.”
Eleanor Roosevelt

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Thanks for the Whitney Houston Blog!

February 13th, 2012

I read the blog and was homesick for my Bettina fix – to use the current language being thrown around about Whitney Houston! I love staying in your homes. You didn’t say which home had this breakfast conversation. It doesn’t matter. I’ve stayed in two different homes, loved every minute and went home excited about life.

I appreciated the blog because I expect every media will be rushing to get out a story of how Whitney Houston died from drugs – whether its true or not – they have to create that impression. The same thing happened with Michael Jackson. It is so sad that we don’t have a media doing great investigative reporting and giving us the results, which are facts and not this mythological creation.

My concern is for Whitney’s daughter. With her mother gone, Bobbi Brown will probably be a larger influence on her and that is so sad. After helping to destroy her mother, the other women in Whitney’s family – who are clearly very strong and very independent, need to take hold of this young woman and keep Bobbi Brown away. That sounds cruel, but she needs a chance to get to adulthood and into a secure life without him taking advantage of a very vulnerable moment in her life and working his ugliness.

I am sure he loves his daughter, but from everything I’ve seen he will not take care of her in a way that is beneficial to her, but to him and we have seen what that meant in Whitney Houston’s life. The sorry thing about that is I don’t think Bobbi Brown is aware of just how negative an influence he is on the women in his life. That is the tragedy of all of this – he will continue and probably live a long life destroying women along the way.

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Tags: bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, Whitney Houston
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Whitney Houston Around the Breakfast Table!

February 12th, 2012

One never knows in which direction breakfast table talk will go! Talking around a table with people you don’t know and probably won’t meet again, but there you are, breaking bread with strangers who feel like old friends. It is an incredibly freeing experience.

Ed Note: That is one of the things which makes bed & breakfast such a great way to travel.

This morning, of course, the topic was Whitney Houston all the time. It was an amazing conversation.

To share some of the highlights:

1. There was a comparison made with Whitney Houston and Michael Jacksons death.

Both deaths happened at the point where both people were in the process of organizing and rolling out a comeback!

Michael Jackson was preparing a large tour which – the conjecture was – probably made more money because of his death because people were more focused on him with the thought that this would be the last time they would see something from Michael Jackson, except for older performances.

Whitney Houston filmed Sparkle and it is to open in August. The conjectures continued that attention will be far more focused and many more people will see it than if she were still alive and moving to do other things. As they will to her other products. Now someone other than Whitney Houston will organize and put out for public consumption her ‘come back’ – as happened with Michael Jackson. And, they will probably make more money for themselves or for their investors especially with the timing of this death.

2. There was talk of her life:
She was a fantastic woman – full of light and ‘sparkle’ until she married Bobbi Brown. Then the realities of ‘choice’ entered her life. The reality of living in a society full of sexism, especially against an African American woman; the reality of being a huge celebrity with so many people around and about trying to control another human being for their own benefit. Much talk about the arrogance and very negative influences on her from Bobbi Brown. How different her life could have been had she made another choice. No one doubted that Brown loved her, he was just so self absorbed and living on the negative side of life dragging her with him, he was a horrible choice for her to overcome.

There was talk about her having overcome that part of her life, which was awesome.

There was talk about the drugs coming into her life with Bobbi Brown.

Breakfast table talk about Houston’s death became very intense with lots of questions about why now? and much talk that one could call conspiracies developing around the table. Mostly, questions about who – among those who managed her and/or benefitted from her professional life – stood to gain the most and who could have done this, if it was not an accident. By this time, it was all around the internet and commented on by a few tv people that she drowned in her bathtub – and that, I think, is what generated the conspiracy theories which were in full swing around the table.

There was laughter and a few good jokes about the LA Police being the ones to investigate this – as they did Michael Jacksons death – so nothing was expected except cover-up if there was something wrong here, or a not very thorough investigation if not.

It could have been the coffee, but it was an amazing conversation.

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A Reflection at Life’s End!

February 9th, 2012

You have chosen to sing
someone else’s song.
You have chosen to dream
someone else’s dream

You have chosen to live
someone else’s life
– and –

so you have chosen to die alone,
grieved intensely,
by those who watched your pain grow and consume your life.

While your life lies fallow – your dreams die before they were born!

Your art and music find no fulfillment, for they have no support!

Your ancestors died of broken hearts

Their stories go untold or distorted

Their sacrifices fall like dead seed on frozen ground!

Their dreams for you now float with your dreams,
unattached in the Universe.

Your ancestors grieve for you
as you grow old
and alone
and grieve for them!!!!!!

You understand – in that old age – their pain and suffering
You break the Veil calling to them your sorrow and regret!

They can hear you,
but you can neither hear nor see them!

As light dims, you feel the pull and confusion of departing

Love given and not returned
Promises broken – talents undeveloped – understanding sharpening – wisdom overgrown

Are they waiting?
Do they hear?
Do they still care?
Will they be there at the end?

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Tags: Bettina Community Poetry
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Trinity Church Organ Concert

February 2nd, 2012

THE PLACE TO BE on Fridays at noon is Trinity Episcopal Church in Copley Square, Boston, MA.

This past Friday there was an astounding organ concert played by Richard Webster (Trinity’s Music Director and Organist) and Colin Lynch (Trinity’s Assistant Organist).

To walk into the Church and see the organ taking its place in front of the altar just glowing from the way the light hit it, was stunning. I wanted to just sit in a quiet place to contemplate the scene in front of me for awhile, but since I arrived just before the concert started, that didn’t happen. When you go to Trinity’s Friday organ concerts, I suggest you arrive at least 15 minutes early to absorb what you see there. When the organ moves to the front and center of the altar in such a breathtaking way, with the drama it creates in its new place does that make it a sacred icon?

The sanctuary itself is beautiful, even when the organ is on the side out of view, with those incredible stained glass windows adding depth to the light flowing into the Church. The first time I walked into Trinity it was 1980, I felt as though I had come home. I went kicking and screaming all the way because I had other places I would rather have been, however, that all left when I walked into the Church. I thought it was a spiritual experience of homecoing until I learned the architect – H. H. Richardson – was from New Orleans and had incorporated much of the ambiance, culture and New Orleans Creole style into his architectural designs. After that bit of knowledge surfaced, I realized that while there may have been something spiritual about that first experience of the Church, it was an actual feeling of homecoming from someone who was homesick.

Richard Webster opened the concert with Nicholaus Bruhns’ Preludium in E Minor. A Northern German Baroque piece which has a virtuosity and richness which held its own in this environment. A student of Dieterich Buxtehude, Nicholaus came from a family of organists, composers, violinists, etc.

I used to wonder why many of the great organ composers and performers came from family groups – parents who played and composed, siblngs who followed their parents, those who married the children of organists becoming great organists themselves – until I realized how difficult it is to find an organ on which one can practice without this familial support. It is a rare instrument, which encompasses and can imitate all others.

Richard Webster’s opening of the concert with the Bruhns’ piece was beautiful. It was very rich and Richard’s playing brought out the virtuosity of the piece.

The composition which reached me where I was living that day was Trois Movements for Organ and Flute by Jehan Alain. Colin Lynch played the organ, Richard Webster played the flute. I’ve heard both of them play before, but when Trois Movements started I was not prepared. My favorite combination is organ and flute; my favorite composer in the organ world – Marcel Dupré – one of Jehan Alain’s teachers. I had totally fogotten about Jehan Alain. One can hear the romantic influences in this piece and its Andante movement gives you the meditation and contemplation needed in the space in which it was played. After that, it lightens and was a great middle of the concert.

When one thinks of Alain it is with thoughts full of tragedy. What could he have produced, but for the war which caused his death at a very early age? Maybe that future knowing is what hangs over his music. The ridiculousness and horror of war is showcased in this composer and performers’ life along with a clear showing, in microcosm, of what the world lost. One of the most moving pieces is to hear his Sarabande for Organ, Strings, and Timpani, which he dedicated to the memory of his sister Odile Alain. For a very moving moment, if you can find a recording of it with Marie-Claire Alain on the organ it is a profound experience.

And of course, the ending of the concert. What can I say – a perfect end to continue the rest of your day in a great place. Colin Lynch played Marcel Dupré’s Prelude and Fugue in B Major. Not expected in the middle of the day, but a huge treat and it was incredibly well played – you knew that the presene you felt was Dupré showing up after the first few measures to hear this performance. Brilliantly, technically showing off the virtuosity in Dupré’s composition and played the way it was meant to be played.

I can’t vouch for the rest of the organ concerts because I am not familiar with all of the organists to follow, but these two, Richard Webster and Colin Lynch, made you want to return for more.

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Episcopal Church, Jehan Alain, Marcel Dupre, New Orleans, New Orleans Creole, Nicholaus Bruhns, Organ and Flute Concert, Organ Concert
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Finally! No Anti-Perspirants Needed!!!!

January 29th, 2012

We have been working on this problem for a couple years. How to live in polite society without using either deodorant or anti-perspirants. We are convinced that the way many anti-perspirants work, using aluminum to stop your pores to prevent you sweating and therefore to keep you smell- free is bad for your health.

From what we’ve read, there seems to be a growing body of research connecting aluminum as one of the culprits in Alzheimers. It certainly would explain the incredible rise in this disease – looking at the time period from the mid-1950’s when it became fashionable to give a bride and groom a set of aluminum pots as a wedding present. I can remember those shiny pots displayed prominently on the gift table and everyone just ooohing and ahhing over them – and then came the vicious rise of Alzheimer’s. There is some admission of that – although through the back door – by the companies which manufacture these pots because they are now marketing pots as having an aluminum “center” fully enclosed rather than being all aluminum.

Trying to get rid of body odor without using either deodorant or anti-perspirants has been a tough experiment. We have tried everything we heard from everyone who wrote to or called us and nothing worked over the long haul – (read: playing games, hiking, walking fast, high stress situations, etc.).

We tried bathing two and three times a day. That worked, sort of, but only if you engaged in no strenuous activity, kept yourself stress free, etc. If you didn’t, in a couple hours you began to smell as though you hadn’t bathed for days.

We also tried massaging Olive Oil under the arm pits. Then we tried Avocado oil under the arm pits. And then we added different essential oils after rubbing in the Olive Oil and we tried essential oils without rubbing in the different oils putting the essential oils directly on the skin. All of our trials broke down after a short period of time and your friends had to be very forgiving to stay around you for even five minutes.

While watching one of the Dr. Oz television show segments, we discovered the answer AND IT WORKS!!! Organic Apple Cider Vinegar splashed under your arms after you come out of the shower or the tub. It works totally. Several of us have been using it for a while now, including a few of you who contacted us after our blogs on going deodorant or anti-perspirant free. We have all had good results. In addition, I also splashed the organic apple cider vinegar on my face after putting on Avocado Oil and the finish was spectacular. If you try this, be super careful of your eyes. I missed my face and my eyes burned something fierce. That didn’t stop me from continuing to try this because the results were spectacular.

I remember a book that I used to swear by when in my 20’s and 30’s and for reasons I don’t remember just lost track of it. I had a hard time keeping a copy of the book in my library because every time someone saw it they had to have it so I kept buying and re-buying the book just to keep it around. Today, I don’t even remember the books title. It was written by a man (I think) who was an apple cider fanatic. He talked about the old way of doing things and much of his life centered around this product which he claimed was the secret to good health and long life.

During that time frame, I would alternate between squeezing a lemon into a little warm water in the mornings as my first drink of the day with a little organic apple cider vinegar in water as my first drink of the day. With the organic apple cider vinegar I always felt super clean. With the lemons I felt as though I was burning every germ out of my digestive tract.

I also remember, when douching was popular among women. Many women used apple cider vinegar in their douch bags instead of the commercial preparations. So that has been around for many uses for generations. You could tell the women who used the commercial preparations because they smelled like a hospital for hours.

My great-grandmother used it to clean her house along with Olive Oil and that was all she used. She also used it on herself in her bath and all over. She did the same thing with Olive Oil. She didn’t smell of apple cider vinegar, but her house had a very distinctive odor – however, she also didn’t have mold, mildew, bugs, etc. Those insects couldn’t live in her house after that constant onslaught of natural germ killer. That has to be why organic apple cider vinegar works so well to keep you body odor free. No germs left to eat the sweat and let out those horrible odors for others to smell.

Try it and let us know your resuts! Also let me know if you think of the name of the book I’ve lost.

We had more response from our blogs on trying to use something other than deodorants and anti-perspirants than anything else so we know how most of you are trying to live and hope we contribute a little bit to a healthier lifestyle.

I am deligthed with the result. Not only because I don’t smell anymore, but especially because I feel so clean after I’ve splashed my underarms with organic apple cider vinegar. That loud sigh of relief you hear is coming from my friends who have been most tolerant and I thank them for their patience and perseverance. Now, I know my really true friends! The rest of you were fair-weather friends for not being able to tolerate a little discomfort. Look at the results! Our health improvement and greater longevity will be the stuff of legend:)

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Tags: Anti-Perspirants, Apple cider vinegar, bed & breakfast, Deodorant
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, cancer, Health, Health and Beauty, Making Connections | Comments Off on Finally! No Anti-Perspirants Needed!!!!

The New Hampshire Primary, etc.

January 10th, 2012

I know there are discussions going on around the Bettina Network about the Republican Primary. That is all you can get when you turn on the news, but I see almost no one has sent in their breakfast discussion as a blog, probably because they have a strong religious component and none of us wants to be thought of as bigots -religious or otherwise, true or false. Well, I guess I will just have to risk folks knowing we take in all views from wherever and give the freedom of discussion to all our guests without judgment. So my breakfast table talk has to be about the breakfast we just had from which I am still trying to recover. The house is super clean after one of these discussions because cleaning helps me think and sort out – maybe this writing will substitute, it is certainly easier on the body.

We had an unusual assortment of people because one guest invited a couple friends from the area. A bonus when you stay in a Bettina home.

The breakfast was all about the Republican primary. After the laughter at what is going on stopped, we turned to the more serious side of the race.

It started with a guests’ comment on race, actually – the heavy racist overtones to Mitt Romney’s latest television ad about the race being about the soul of America and he goes downhill from there. The interesting thing about racism – those engaged in that emotion generally can’t see their own failings, but that ad was pretty specific. No media got it. I guess you had to have been involved in politics when race was the prevailing issue which made or broke politicians to get the really extreme racism and almost Nazi-like threat Romney is making in that advertisement, if Obama continues in office. I must admit, I had to watch television to take another look at the ad and with that background, the racism jumped right out of the ad in my face. I have much to learn.

From race we turned to religion. I am sure no one at the table would have that conversation anyplace else except in a Bettina Network home.

One guest started it with a story about a friend of hers who was interested in the Mormon Church and started to attend. The guest was Caucasian, her friend was African American and single – no, not gay single, but single-by-life-circumstances.

After a few weeks of going to the particular Mormon Church she was attending, they apparently saw she was seriously interested. They talked to her about her interest and about becoming a member of the Church. Their suggestion – strong suggestion was that she not return to their Church – a white, young professional, couples gathering with lots of small children – and told her to go to another Church – still Mormon, but in a different part of town with a different congregational make-up. More diverse with lots more single people. When she checked it out, there were lots of African-Americans. She got the message and turned her attention elsewhere. Amazingly, what she took away from that encounter was not the Mormon’s racism, but their social engineering. They were telling her what to do in no uncertain terms and she had no choice. It was clearly, from her encounter, not racism, but it was based on their belief that a single African American woman would be more comfortable in a Church with single African Americans along with other minority members – some young professionals with young children, but minorities just the same.

The breakfast conversation moved from there to the autobiographies of Romney, his father and others in which they were clearly told what to do by their Elders and they saw it as their duty to do just that. Someone suggested the reason Romney was born in Mexico was because his father had been sent there by the Mormon Church with much push back on his part, but he went nevertheless because he saw it as his duty to do what his Church told him to do with minimum push back.

Given that background up came the name of Huntsman with the conjecture as to why he decided to run. He clearly was not going to run and then all of a sudden, fresh from an appointment by the Obama administration to China, he announces his intention to join the race. Looking at his strategy since he entered it looked as though he had been ordered into the race by his Elders in the Church rather than joining the race totally of his own volition. For one thing – it really looks like a gross ethical violation, unusual for Huntsman – and the strategies of both Romney and Huntsman say some greater power was moving them towards the goal of a Mormon president of the U. S. A. and that greater power was not God, but gods – I loved that comment and just had to include it.

To say that almost wiped me out as I sat quietly listening to this is an understatement.

The discussion went on to really outline the difference in what would happen in such a circumstance if Romney were the only Mormon in the race as opposed to two Mormons running for the Republican nomination. There was a lot of discussion as to why a minority or woman running for an office for the first time would have a much easier time if there were two running instead of just one.

There was also a lot of discussion about what happened in Massachusetts when Romney ran for the Senate and almost beat Kennedy and then ran successfully for the Governorship. The discussion was about Romney allegedly using the Church records to push his campaign instead of keeping a distance considering that a conflict of Church and State. Some of that conflict apparently made the papers in Massachusetts.

This discussion was not about Romney or Huntsman using the Church records with the computerized colleciton of information about everyone in the world who the Mormons visit on a regular basis and update their computer records as their young missionaries call on you – but about the Mormon Church overseeing the Romney campaign and introducing Huntsman either with his agreement or with some pullback on his part – to insure the victory of one of their own.

I know the computer part is true – about the Mormons collecting information from their missionaries and keeping those recods computerized for future proselytizing – I had not thought before of the efficacy of such a collection being used to further the political ambitions of the Mormon Church.

Someone at the table remembered the Senate Campaign of Romney against Kennedy and what happened when Kennedy tried to raise the issue of religion against Romney. There was an immediate media ourcry about how the Kennedy’s were in the same position when Jack Kennedy ran for president so Kennedy should just keep quiet. The person raising that bit of history was still upset about that, but not because the media quieted the religious issue, but because they would not report on what Kennedy was saying – which was that there is a difference between a person who is a member of a religion – sitting in the pews – running for a public office and someone who is a Bishop in his denomination running for office without making that distinction clear with the public backing him not knowing of his official Church position – sort of like an Archbisop of the Catholic Church running for office and hiding his official position with the Church. The issues then being raised take on a very different look.

The Bishop in a denomination has declared his belief in everything for which the Church stands. A person in the pew can have theological differences with his denomination and is free to make his own decisions even when they conflict, theologically and otherwise with his Church’s teachings and beliefs.

Ed.Note: This part of the conversation came up because Romney is/was a Bishop in the Mormon Church. We had a couple questions after the blog published about this which is why this note is being added.

If that person in the pews is running for public office, he can make decisions which differ from the theological beliefs of his denomination – he might get push back and heavy push back sometimes from his denomination, but the Bishop would not be able to make decisions which differed from his denominations theological belief system, he has taken an oath, vow, whatever to uphold and follow all of his Church’s beliefs.

That was a discussion that needed to be held when Romney ran for the Senate and that did not happen. That is still a discussion that needs to be held and could be aired without religions bigotry if we had the right kind of media – which we do not. A media beholden to advertisers who can give and take away would be hard put to report on such issues without their bias showing in their reporting – which is the disgrace of one of our most powerful institutions.

WOW! I don’t believe I got through all of that and I hope you publish this blog without my name attached. You take the heat and I will still send you breakfast table talk.

Ed Note: A guest at a Bettina home, who stayed a couple years ago, called us about the blog and said that Mitt Romney’s father was born in Mexico, not Mitt Romney. We would like to correct that mis-statement. She went on to say that about 130 years ago Romney’s great grandfather – Miles Parker Romney and others – fled to Mexico from Utah. Miles had four wives and they were running from the anti-polygamy laws passed earlier making multiple marriages a felony. Miles’ fathers had 12 wives.. The Romney family returned to the U. S. and lived in Michigan where Mitt Romney was born.

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Mitt Romney, politics
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Making Connections | Comments Off on The New Hampshire Primary, etc.

A Wonderful Concord Christmas Story

December 31st, 2011

A few days before Christmas I was giving a friend’s out of town visitor a tour of the house. My friends six year old son David was with us and did he get excited when I showed him a secret place to store treasures. It was in our main bed and breakfast bedroom above the fireplace mantelpiece. Our “restoration” carpenter from New Hampshire created that little cavern when he tore down the wall above the mantelpiece and put shelves in the recess. David was less impressed by my description of what we found when the wall was torn. The major items were a ladies button boot, a breast pump, and some letters, each offering consolation for the death of a child. Losing a child was apparently a common event for families from the time our house was built in the early 1700s through even later times.

One of the letters, three pages long, and now in the Concord library, showed beautiful handwriting similar to our forefathers’ writing of our Constitution. It was a letter from Cyrus Barrett to his sister Sally, who had married into the Wood family living in our house. The Barrett family house is now being restored as part of Concord’s historical park. The Minutemen had ammunition hidden in the Barrett’s cornfield the day of the shot heard round the world. Written in New Orleans in 1819, Cyrus first offered condolences over a son’s death and continued by describing a familiar theme, an economic downturn. I have not corrected the spelling in the following quotes:

“I was much affected by the maloncholly intelligence contained in your letter of the sudden death of your affectionate and much loved little John. I recollect him perfectly and have often been amused by his innocent playfulness. I am not surprised that his death should occasion the deepest sorrow in you, yet at the same time you are left with the comfortable assurance that he is happier than your fondest wishes and care could have made him.”

“New Orleans has for some time past been suffering under a heavy weight of commercial embarrasement. Many of her most enterprising Merchants have failed and those who continue in business are constantly complaining of heavy taxes. The Produce of the country is extremely low. Cotton which formerly sold for 30 cents now sells for 16 cts and other articles have suffered the same depression in values, but notwithstanding the times look so gloomy we are looking forward for a change.”

Thinking about the letters makes me glad to be alive today. In spite of all the economic and political problems, we are saved the grief of losing so many children.

And of course so many of our tasks are much easier, for instance baking these Russian tea cakes I gave my friend to take home. They make excellent cookies for any occasion.

INGREDIENTS AND DIRECTIONS FOR BAKING RUSSIAN TEACAKES:

1 cup butter 1 teaspoon vanilla (or brandy)

½ cup confectioners sugar ¾ cup chopped pecans

2and ¼ cup sifted flour 1 cup confectioners sugar

Cream shortening and sugar. Stir in vanilla. Add flour and then nuts. Form 1” balls and bake 14 to 17 minutes in 325 oven. While still hot roll carefully in confectioners sugar.

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Tags: 1700's house, Barrett family, Bed and Breakfast in Concord MA, Cyrus Barrett, economic downturn, Fireplace, Historical Home, Minutemen, New Orleans, Recipe, Russian tea cakes
Posted in Bettina Network Info, Bettina's Cookbook, Historical Support, Making Connections, Preserving Family History and Stories, Who are the Bettina Families | Comments Off on A Wonderful Concord Christmas Story

Alabama’s first licensed black female pilot dies at 90

December 30th, 2011

Published: Wednesday, October 26, 2011, 12:16 PM Updated: Wednesday, October 26, 2011, 12:35 PM

By The Associated Press

Mildred Carter, pictured here in 2003, shows her pilot’s

license from 1941. (The Birmingham News/ file photo)

TUSKEGEE, Alabama — Mildred Carter, who was Alabama’s first licensed black female pilot, has died. She was 90.

Funeral services for Carter will be held at 1 p.m. Friday at Tuskegee’s St. Andrews Episcopal Church with The Rev. Liston Garfield officiating. Burial will be at Greenwood Cemetery.

Her husband Herbert was a Tuskegee Airman.

In an interview with The Montgomery Advertiser he recalled how they had flown in a two-plane formation high over Alabama. He remembers how they laughed and exchanged silent “I love you” signals over their engine noise 3,000 feet above Lake Martin.

“We didn’t have radio contact, so we made up for it with hand signals and blew kisses at each other,” the retired Air Force lieutenant colonel said Tuesday. “It was a lot of fun.”

Herbert Carter, who compiled a distinguished flying record during World War II and, later, in peacetime, recalled those unauthorized rendezvous flights over the lake.

“I was a maintenance officer as well as a combat pilot and one of my jobs was to take planes up for a test flight after we worked on them,” he said. “That’s when we came up with the idea of flying over the lake. Nobody ever said anything to me about what we did.”

Both had to overcome racial prejudices and discriminatory practices when they learned to fly, but they persevered. As the years passed, they became the “first family” of the Tuskegee Airmen organization and represented the group at functions around the world.

She is survived by her husband, three children, a sister, five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

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Tags: African American history, airline pilot, bed & breakfast, Episcopal Church, Mildred Carter, Rev. Liston Garfield, Tuskegee Airman
Posted in Making Connections, Memorials, Preserving Family History and Stories | Comments Off on Alabama’s first licensed black female pilot dies at 90

White House to Become a Bed & Breakfast!

December 24th, 2011

What follows is a spoof! We found this on the web site www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s2i102940 and thought you might enjoy the thought! Wouldn’t that be a great addition to the Bettina Network! – well, maybe not – we would probably get too much written about us with such controversy and vitriol we might not be able to survive! Although, it would give Congress something to add to their complaints about the Obama’s – we are certain they would not find anything about which to compliment. They could check in to check on the sheets, breakfast, the courtesy and welcoming nature of the host family, and for some Congressmen – the rear end of the women who run the enterprise!

The spoof says the President hired the Marriott Corporation to manage the White House Bed & Breakfast! We knew it was a spoof when we read that because the Marriott’s connections to the Mormon Church pointing to – you know who – would never be something the President would do with a presidential election looming and ‘you know who’ seeming to pull ahead of the Republican presidential hopefuls pact. Who knows what would be transacted in this new bed & breakfast. We rather think he would have hired Bettina Network, inc. with its y’all come elegant lifestyle to keep a neutral business image.

Saturday, 24 December 2011

image for White House to Become a Bed and Breakfast

New Conveniently Located 5 Star B&B

Washington DC: White House Press Secretary Carney announced that President Obama and the First Lady will be converting the White House to a Bed and Breakfast (B&B) formillionaires in 2012.

President Obama had hoped to tax US millionaires to raise $70 billion per year in revenue to offset some of his proposed $3.7 trillion budget spending for 2012. Since the Republicans in Congress will never pass such a tax increase the president said “We can’t wait!” The First Lady indicated that she and the president are never home, always on vacation or campaigning and we can live aboard Air Force One.

The White House B&B could become a travel destination for astute millionaires. Both Democrats and Republicans would be welcome to come and stay and enjoy presidential cuisine. The White House residence has 16 rooms consisting of various sitting, living, dining,conference rooms and five bedrooms plus six bathrooms. Assuming full occupancy of each bedroom at $100,000 per night, with the Lincoln bedroom going for $250,000 per night US taxpayers would save $240 million per year. (Secret Service guided limousine tours of Washington DC historic sites are extra.)

Vice President Biden had been designated to manage the B&B, but after his failed attempt at administering the $850 billion stimulus the president agreed to hire Marriott Corporation. Each week a new concierge, such as former Presidents George W Bush, or William Jefferson Clinton will be available 24 hours per day.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!

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Happy Holidays to One and All!!!

December 18th, 2011

We wish for everyone celebrating this winter holiday season a joyous; memory filled; warm celebration, surrounded by friends-family-extended family; and those added to the family for the holidays who would otherwise be alone.

We wish for you gratitude, humility, a fulfillment of at least one dream during the holidays along with the re-appearance in your life of one dear to you who has been missing when you-your friends-and-family gathered for holidays and other celebrations.

We wish you ENOUGH! Enough light, laughter, understanding, knowledge, growth, and the supreme feeling of a life which has enough of everything.

We wish you the knowledge of who you are, from whence you have come and where you are going.

We wish for you to know that of which you are made. I am made of STARDUST! Because of many, many bed & breakfast guests, I have finally come to realize the meaning of “from dust you are to dust you shall return” . I always thought that meant “dirt”. The kind we dig up in the spring to plant new flowers. But today I know that I am made of the dust from the Universe – the Galaxy and I am proud. I am one whose core and middle and outside is composed of STARDUST! I am a particular person, but I am also one with the Universe. My oneness with the Universe is in my being – that of which I am composed. The very core of my being comes from the Universe and when I die that is where it shall return. What an incredible knowing!

We wish you the knowledge of your being and that of which you are made!

We wish you the drive to become a greater person – one who re-discovers their passion and uses it to successfully re-create their life.

We wish for you the strength to jettison that which is mundane in your life to take that turn deeper into that about which you are passionate.

We wish for you the life force to be active, beautiful, creative until the moment of your death.

We wish for you internal fortitude to withstand and endure whatever life brings, which initially seems difficult and sometimes overwhelming, but becomes the means by which wisdom, love and understanding grow in you.

We wish for you the time and circumstances to be able to share that wisdom with your friends and family.

We wish for you the ability to deal with your children and your parents, no matter, how difficult that seems to be – to share with them that difficulty and to help to bring them into a more fulfilled life because you are their parents or their child.

We wish for you the internalization of the graciousness of God!

We wish for you the faith and prayers and good works to bring you into God’s Kingdom.

We wish for you eternal life.

Amen! and Amen!

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Tags: astrophysics, bed & breakfast, holiday greeting
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A CALL TO ACTION

December 15th, 2011

There are larger and larger pockets of people, organizations, families who are interested in their health – outside the so-called healthcare industry – and who are very disenchanted with the way the health of the average world citizen is being negatively affected by the joining forces of the technology industry, the food processing industry and big Pharma along with other medical research groups working together in their research labs looking for ‘greater’ discoveries for their mutual benefit while being blind, deaf and dumb to the health and well being of the rest of the world (including themselves and their progeny). There is no attention within these groups as to what affect their developments and research will have on the rest of us. We are interconnected in this world and it is time for these research groups to develop a model which acknowledges that and moves away from the model which allows their research scientists to wear blinders when developing their products and new breakthroughs.

There are drugs, protoccols, research going on to “treat” diseases which were non-existent just a generation ago.

I have talked with many people around the breakfast table about these issues – different serendipitously convened people with much the same conversation. This breakfast was special because it ended with a call to action. Hopefully, you will begin to hear from those who were around that table, their friends, relatives and all who they can enlist in this small attempt by one breakfast group to bring about change.

The breakfast ended – after much discussion about “organics,” “drug”, “genetic research”, “medical marijuana”, “acetominophen” and on and on – with a challenge to the few of us around that table to spread the word. We would like to see at least 25% of the monies spent on medical research – drug research, genetic research, new product research of any kind, all of it – spent on prevention and an understanding of how the results of all research will affect human beings – humanity – the animals, plants and humans who live on this planet.

Research to go into what is causing this huge disease epidemic in the world today. One which is spreading and will soon affect everyone in every country. Research on what is the best way to live avoiding the degeneration happening in our society from the processed foods, the poor environment, the new technologies which have serious health implications for all of us without our knowledge and more.

How are we going to put this into affect? We don’t know! We didn’t leave the breakfast table with a plan other than we would use our lives, work, friends, family, acquaintances, to spread that word and for each of us to do what we could where we were. My first action is to send you this blog from breakfast, hope you publish it and hope it strikes a nerve worldwide to start this movement.

NO COMPANY SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO DO ANY HEALTH or MEDICAL or DISEASE or NEW PRODUCT RESEARCH UNLESS TWENTY-FIVE PERCENT OF THE MONIES AND RESOURCES THEY SPEND ON THAT RESEARCH GOES INTO RESEARCH WHICH WILL KNOW HOW WHATEVER THEY ARE DOING WILL HELP TO PREVENT WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THE HUMAN RACE AS WE MOVE FASTER INTO A DISEASE RIDDEN SOCIETY.

Our conclusion was that we don’t need more drugs developed or more protoccols or more supposed responses to a ‘genetic’ deficiency causing bad health, new technology or other new products until we know their affect on the planet and it is positive with no side-affect. We need much more prevention research. Prevention, which will reach into all parts of the world to stop whatever is causing this incredible epidemic from which we all suffer.

Soon, the older people who lived and grew up in a society where the diseases and degenerative health we suffer from today as a general society was rare. People lived longer and healthier lives – goodness, scientific heresy – we were also tired of statistics being taken out of context to attempt to smooth over and cast in a different more acceptable light the reality of where we are all headed and that is not into a gloruous world of longer lived people who are happy and disease free. We are moving into a world where people live shorter lives, are miserable most of the time and don’t know why there are such growing numbers of people who can’t sleep, etc.

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Tags: bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, prevent obesity
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, cancer, Growing Old, Health, Making Connections | Comments Off on A CALL TO ACTION

How is Your Muffin Top?

December 8th, 2011

“Muffin top” is a fairly new word in the lexicon of things wrong with a woman’s body and a fairly new concept in what needs to be worked on and “fixed”. A new word/phrase coined by those who are in the business of making money by increasing women’s consciousness of some part of the anatomy which is declared defective, ugly and which needs to be made perfect. We should hate our muffin tops – they are caused by fat and they and/or their company has the way to make it go away for a substantial amount of money.

One never knows what the conversation will be at breakfast in any of our homes. This morning’s choice of “muffin tops” at first seemed frivolous to me, but as it went on I realized this was something becoming very important to many women and men. I would be on the verge of uncovering a bit of knowledge new to me that I could add to my health and beauty routine. The conversation started in that direction because the youngest woman at the table was fretting over her ‘muffin top’.

The response to her fretting was the information that muffin tops come as you age and your frame shrinks. The extra skin goes someplace and neither exercise nor cosmetics is going to get rid of it. Dieting may make it thinner with less fat under the skin, but it will not make it go away and neither will exercise – unless someone out there knows how to eat and/or exercise to shrink skin.

Women of past generations wore girdles – even thin women. Because this current generation has mostly lost touch with their mothers and grandmother’s, who they consider not as wise nor knowledgeable as their peers, they have lost touch with why women of past generations wore girdles. Those older generations had to do something to make their garments look smooth and to hide that skin flap – which we now call muffin tops. The old becomes new again. If only we could go back to having conversations with our relatives who are of an older generation we would be so wise! You either know history or you are doomed to repeat it – someone actually said that in some history book!!

It became urgent in the discussion to explore muffin tops, because women and girls are now wearing jeans which sit on the hip – right under and emphasizing the muffin top. Is it because emphasizing such a “problem” area can increase the money spent by women to hide it – eliminate it -mutilate it? Not even plastic surgeons can rid you of your muffin tops. You can get a scar around your body to cut out the extra skin, but it won’t last because as your frame continues to shrink your muffin top will return.

What to do? No one had an answer. One woman wore control top panty hose because that was the least intrusive way to keep her outer garments smooth. Another wore a girdle because she wanted to make sure she had everything hidden. The young woman, who started the conversation with an almost passing comment about feeling uncomfortable with her ‘muffin top’ showing, was the youngest woman around the table. She was also the only woman around the table who wore those hip hugging jeans. Aren’t they what started the movement in ghetto’s across the U. S. among African American young boys wearing pants which bag and hang down almost and sometimes definitely below the crack in …………? Is that where designers’ got their inspiration for those hip hugging jeans? Is that the direction in which those hip huggers for women are going?

She wore those instead of the jeans which went to her natural waistline – which is what she used to wear – because the advertisements are all equating those who wear those waist-high jeans as wearing ‘grandmother’ jeans and she didn’t want to look old. (She was probably about 30 years old). No one had any sympathy for her. Everyone told her to get rid of those hip huggers and wear normal clothes for normal body shapes and she wouldn’t have to worry about a muffin top since ‘normal’ or ‘grandmother’ jeans hide your muffin top and give you a much nicer, softer shape. Somehow, I don’t think she was listening – she was looking, instead at the picture of Jane Fonda in pants which are tightly fitted around the legs. Since she looked as though she had short legs I wonder where trying to wear those tight-legged jeans will lead her? Sleeping in a leg stretcher?

The woman at the table who impressed was the one who picked up our blog about liquid vitamin C. She was using every kind of lotion on her thighs and her body from the waist down to get rid of the rapidly increasing look of fat breaking up under the skin – not wrinkles exactly, but a not so great look which only promised to worsen as time went on. She waxed eloquent about liquid vitamin C. It took a little while of constant use, which for her was every other day with a liquid Vitamin C overall massage after her shower, but the results were startling.

She did tell us the first two times she used the liquid C she had a bit of a problem with ‘peeing” – her word, not ours – but she just adjusted her water intake – drank a lot more water during the day – and by the third liquid Vitamin C massage she was fine. She did not offer to show us the results, we had to take her word for the fact that the skin from her waistline down to her knees had dramatically improved – smoothed out and she was now happy about wearing shorts. She could even look good wearing a swim suit without parts of her body being reminiscent of having cottage cheese under the skin. That was important to her because she spent the winters in resort areas where looking good in a swim suit was important.

She put a little of her liquid Vitamin C in our saucers and we all tried it. I must say the results of just one trial were impressive. The liquid Vitamin C became sticky after a while so we had to rinse it off – one woman asked for olive oil and put the olive oil on her face after she had the liquid C on for several minutes. She had a grand facial massage tapping all around her face for quite some time – until someone else got a bit irritated at having to watch and she left the table. When she came back, her face looked fabulous. She had rinsed off the liquid Vitamin C and olive oil with cold water and just patted her skin dry. So very quietly I resolved to make that a bi-weekly regimen.

We went on to note that Dr Oz has finally caught up to Bettina Network’s blog. One of his recent shows talked about not using soap – ever. I went back and searched the blog and found we had talked about that months and months ago.

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Tags: girdles, growing old, Muffin Top, physical fitness, skeleton shrinkage, weight problems
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Growing Old, Health and Beauty, Uncategorized | Comments Off on How is Your Muffin Top?

Herman Cain follow-up

December 5th, 2011

We saw the article about Herman Cain with Marceline’s comments and a quote from the Bettina Network’s blog and it provided our little breakfast table group with a hilarious morning. I thought I needed to write a blog about this notice taken of our little blog. If you are interested in reading Marceline’s publicity go to The Daily Beast – an online publication – and look for their December 2nd article entitled: “Herman Cain Used the Affirmative Action He Decries to Advance.” See http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/12/02/herman-cain-used-the-affirmative-action-he-decries-to-advance.html

We loved seeing ‘Our Leader ‘in print – although I don’t think she is happy about the publicity or about my calling her “Our Leader”, but then we do have free speech and I hope that doesn’t get this blog thrown into the garbage rather than on the blog page.

What we conjectured, which started a very civilized, quiet conversation among people who barely knew one another, into an unbelievably loud and raucous breakfast, was the question asked by one of our table mates – who will Herman Cain endorse.

We had several, different answers to that question until someone said he will endorse New Gingrich and gave their reasons for saying so! That disrupted breakfast and the quiet conversation took a really hysterically funny turn.

It was about Herman Cain looking around for someone who could carry his banner into the election and possibly into the White House. What was the banner – how was it shaped – what were the priorities Herman was looking for in someone he endorsed? Answering those questions was what caused the hysteria. Why Newt Gingrich? Because Newt and Cain share sexual ‘greatness’ together. Who else among the candidates has so strayed away from their marriages – and who else has so disrespected their wives? Newt and Herman – unlikely bed partners, however take another look – they really do share a lot. Neither one have moved beyond 15 years of age in their emotional development. Do you think they share early morning conversations when everyone else is asleep about their possible new conquests? Their techniques? Which women at which political stops were easy prey? Who fell across the desk in their campaign headquarters for them?

Newt, however, has taken his philandering a step further than Herman. Newt left his wife dying of cancer for his girl friend – who he then divorced for another younger girl friend, etc. Herman hasn’t yet reached that level, but he is well on his way. His wife has not died from a terminal illness, but she is clearly supporting and a co-dependent in his sexual sickness as we saw by her standing by her man.

When are women going to realize they can live alone and that half of that wealth belongs to you? You can enjoy it – do whatever you would like to with your life and eliminate having to endure the public humiliation that we saw Herman Cain’s wife just go through! It will happen again!

Herman’s denial of what several unrelated women have said about him gives us a picture of Herman’s ethics even clearer than does the picture of Herman sexually pressuring women. If elected president those are the ethics he would bring into the White House. We suspect he would have made Clinton and Monica look like kindergarden kids who were tentatively exploring the great world of illicit sexuality. At least Clinton didn’t give out a bald-faced lie – he was better at half-truths. So the Universe sends Clinton to purgatory and Cain to hell! Wonder where all those people are going who are supporting Herman Cain? They are making clear statements about their ethics – and aren’t many of them making strong claims to being Conservative Christians? Is this the ethics coming out of that CC commitment? Hmmm – that provided our group with lots of talk!

Who else shares those ethics in the Republican political presidential hopeful lineup? Hey, Newt – Herman is looking your way as a proper replacement for himself! You contain all of what he respects in a man – your history assures him that you will carry his banner with great aplomb into the White House and you give Herman hope of a comeback after a few years when the rest of the world has either forgotten or their ethics have plunged lower to make them want to and able to support a man like you! We came to the conclusion that endorsing you would provide hope for the future to Herman Cain!

Newt’s current ‘wife’ looks like a bad reincarnation of Jackie Kennedy, right down to the hair and the way she carries herself. What continued the hilarity was a description of how Newt is getting his comeuppance. His dead wife – out where people who’ve died are ‘living’ – must be having the time of her life as she sees Newt having to give up early morning campaign appearances because this wife can’t be ready until later in the morning because it takes that long to get curly hair straight. Wait until they start campaigning in earnest in the deep south. They must be hoping for a very cold and dry winter all over their geographical campaign area.

No one could write a novel casting those two characters – Herman and Newt – in the same political campaign season – describing them and their common characteristics and then have one endorse the other after he has to drop out of his campaign for the womanizing ways they both share. It is an unbelievable scenario and says about the United States Republican Party (Sorry Marceline) – how the mighty have fallen!

I am not a great writer so I can’t really summarize the breakfast we just had conveying the incredible fun time with all of the unbelievably sharp comments which sent us into hysterical laughter – including the Conservative at the table, but I hope this gives you a little oft the drift of our morning.

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Another Secret Exposed!

December 2nd, 2011

The request for my Thanksgiving stuffing recipe is a difficult one to fill. It is really my grandmother’s and to sit down and even just think about it brings tears to my eyes and many memories of my early youth.

Thanksgiving was a fun day at our house. My grandmother didn’t invite anyone to dinner – but somehow lots of people came. I think of where I live now and it would be sacrilege to just show up at someone’s door on any holiday without being invited and expect to be well treated and invited to stay for dinner without a lot of tension in the air and in the person’s voice who opened the door. How sad for them!

Our Thanksgiving turkey was raised in our back yard – as was our Christmas goose. My grandmother didn’t like eating meat she didn’t know what it had been fed or who raised it – so we raised our own – in the middle of New Orleans, LA. It was almost as much fun as watching my grandmother prepare the turtle she used as the center of her courtbouillion – which we pronounced (euphemistically written) ‘coo bi yon’.

We always had corn bread with breakfast on Thanksgiving morning because we needed the corn bread later for the stuffing. So make enough corn bread to serve for breakfast with enough left over to stuff the turkey. PLEASE DO NOT put sugar, maple syrup or any kind of sweetener in your corn bread, it will ruin the dressing.

The turkey dressing recipe follows:

Chop – one onion, one green pepper, two or three stalks celery. If you want a stronger taste in the stuffing from your vegetables you can use however many onions, etc. that are more to your liking.

Sauté them in a large deep skillet in which you put half olive oil and half butter.

Add seasonings – the same seasonings you are putting on your turkey – thyme, oregano, sage, salt and cayenne pepper.

Stir the vegetables until they are well mixed and the onions begin to soften and you are satisfied that the pot of ingredients are now lightly cooked.

Add about 1/2 pound ground beef (or sometimes sausage), one pound shrimp – cut into small pieces, oysters to taste with their liquor, the insides from the turkey – the liver, gizzard, etc., and mix with the vegetables in the cooking pot until the shrimp turn pink.

Once you feel your dressing is nice and lightly cooked add four to six organic eggs – which have been whipped as though you were going to scramble them, about 1/2 to one cup whole milk or even heavy cream, and mix all of this together.

Turn your corn bread into crumbs along with using your whole wheat bread that you normally use for meals, etc. into crumbs and add these to the stuffing – about half and half, but if you have more of one than the other – no problem. Add enough to absorb any liquid from the dressing. You want a nice, almost, but not quite dry stuffing to put in the turkey. Take into consideration that the juices from the turkey will run through the stuffing as the turkey cooks.

No, Virginia, we don’t cook the dressing outside the turkey. Never have for several generations and every one is alive, well and lived into their nineties or at least well past their middle eighties. And no one died nor got sick from my grandmother’s turkey stuffing.

Wait until the turkey cooks and make sure you get a small plate of dressing to taste before you serve the turkey. You want to act nice and proper and not shock your guests with just how much turkey stuffing you eat over Thanksgiving. Once you eat your fill in the kitchen, you can eat a small amount at the table and all will be fine.

Hope that is what you wanted! From your note I can tell you changed my grandmother’s turkey dressing. How could you? What have you done to it and is it still memorable?

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Posted in Bettina's Cookbook, Making Connections, Preserving Family History and Stories | Comments Off on Another Secret Exposed!

Thanksgiving at a Bettina Bed & Breakfast Home

December 1st, 2011

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I would like to write a blog about it. Hope you find this up to your standards, kiddo!

We decided to do the “Bettina” thing and invite the guests staying with us to join us for Thanksgiving Dinner. It happens all over the Bettina Network,but we have not done this before. Somehow, we were hanging onto our – Thanksgiving is for family – routine.

Truthfully, when my grown daughter comes for Thanksgiving, it is not always a happy time, but we force it and do it again the next year. Please don’t publish my name – she will never come again. This year , thanks to the combination of family and Bettina Network guests, we had a super holiday.

We only had two guests – we normally only have two guests so that is nothing strange.

What made this Thanksgiving so special were the guests and your turkey stuffing. A “New Orleans Creole” turkey stuffing!

I had it at your house a couple years ago and have tasted it in my mouth every since. I added a bit of a Yankee touch and it was still very good. I am tempted to include my recipe, but I would prefer your sharing the recipe as you gave it to me.

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Posted in Bettina's Cookbook, Who are the Bettina Families | Comments Off on Thanksgiving at a Bettina Bed & Breakfast Home

Bettina Having Fun!

November 26th, 2011

Our technology knowledge is moving fast. You will find grapics, videos, music and more on Bettina Network’s Blog.

You will also find information about companiess and reviews of events. For the company – these are not paid advertisements – we do not take paid advertisements. These are comments and information from a member of the Bettina Network Community who has used the company’s services and/or products, thinks they are special and wants to share that information with the rest of the Bettina Network Community.

For events – someone from the Bettina Network decides which events we will attend and review. If we attend an event, that does not mean that attendance will result in a review. All of that depends upon what we think about what we have seen, heard and experienced.

Hope you enjoy the results – especially now that we have entered the picture age.

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Washing Linens, Towels and everything else

A Readers Comment

A Final Tribute

Good Words around the Breakfast Table

Thanks for the Whitney Houston Blog!

Whitney Houston Around the Breakfast Table!

A Reflection at Life’s End!

Trinity Church Organ Concert

Finally! No Anti-Perspirants Needed!!!!

The New Hampshire Primary, etc.

A Wonderful Concord Christmas Story

Alabama’s first licensed black female pilot dies at 90

Published: Wednesday, October 26, 2011, 12:16 PM Updated: Wednesday, October 26, 2011, 12:35 PM

White House to Become a Bed & Breakfast!

Happy Holidays to One and All!!!

A CALL TO ACTION

How is Your Muffin Top?

Herman Cain follow-up

Another Secret Exposed!

Thanksgiving at a Bettina Bed & Breakfast Home

Bettina Having Fun!

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