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

Organic Peanut Butter Pie

January 1st, 2014

for crust:

organic graham crackers (14 crackers)

One stick organic butter

for filling:

One 8-ounce package organic cream cheese

Four tablespoons organic butter

Two cups organic turbinado sugar

12 ounces organic peanut butter – freshly ground, if possible

16 ounces organic heavy cream

Organic Hazelnut syrup to taste

Prepare crust:

1. Put the graham crackers in a food processor and spin under turned into crumbs

2. Melt butter, turn on processor and gradually pour butter into the graham cracker crumbs

3. Pulse until the entire contents of the processor look well mixed.

4. Butter a deep pie plate, pour in crumbs and push them around until the crumbs are generally covering the

bottom and sides of the pie plate. Press them down all around, packing them tightly in the pie plate to create the pie crust.

5. Bake at 325 degrees for 8 minutes. Let cool before pouring in filling.

prepare filling:

1. Whip Cream Cheese for at least 5 minutes in an electric stand mixer

2. Add 4 tablespoons butter and continue whipping for another 5 minutes.

3. Add sugar and continue to whip for another five minutes.

4. Add organic Hazelnut syrup and peanut butter and whip until mixed.

Be careful at this stage

Do not over mix as the peanut butter will separate from its oil

If that happens, it is not a disaster – just continue and ignore the oil, it will reincorporate into the pie filling when you add heavy cream.

5. Slowly add heavy cream and continue to mix until the filling is light and fluffy and all the ingredients seem to be one. A good filling resembles light brown whipped cream.

Pour the filling into the pie shell and freeze for at least two hours.

MY NOTES:

There is no such thing as a free lunch

To make good food it takes an investment of time, thought, energy and the very best organic ingredients one can find.

You can tell the level of a persons ability to care and take responsibility by how well or how ill they cook. Beware the one who burns lots of things and whose food comes out tasting pretty awful. Stay far – far away from them.

Some Random Thoughts

If you have to buy peanut butter in a jar, it will be separated into oil (on top) and butter (on bottom of jar). Don’t let the health nuts get to you – resist the temptation to discard the oil. That action will ruin your pie and it will be far less nourishing.

Did you know the combination of peanut butter and milk makes for a complete meal?

You can use organic peanuts and grind them into peanut butter. I am dedicated, but not to that extent. The taste, I conjecture, would be far superior.

Try smooth or crunchy peanut butter. Either makes a great pie – it depends upon your taste.

Or use smooth and grind a few peanuts saving a few to sprinkle on top of the pie before serving. That might satisfy the need to grind your own. And it says to whoever sees the pie what kind of pie it is.

While mixing this pie, make yourself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Since the pie has to be refrigerated and/or frozen for several hours before you can cut and eat it, this should satisfy the craving to instantly cut and taste.

Have a cup or organic tea with your sandwich while you make notes about the pie that you don’t want to forget or that you want to incorporate into your next pie. I like half Earl Grey and half peppermint leaf. It is a nice accompaniment and also helps you to digest the pie, especially if you are over 60.

If there is no one around to take away your mixing bowl to get the leavings – instead of the sandwich, scrape the bowl yourself onto graham crackers and have that with your tea. It makes just as nice a treat as the peanut butter sandwich. You can’t do this when others are in the kitchen because you will only have enough left in the mixing bowl for one.

While eating the pie and drinking the tea, write a few notes leaving your thoughts to posterity. Your notes could be about the process, an improved technique, your changing the ingredients or totally unrelated thoughts which you had while making and eating the pie. All are relevant to the creative cooking process. A book could be created just with such notes.

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Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

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, Bettina Homes
Posted in Bettina's Cookbook | Comments Off on Organic Peanut Butter Pie

UBUNTU – I Am Because You Are

December 10th, 2013

“I am not a saint – unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.” – Mandela.

…………………………………….If only that described all of us!

The world is pouring out its grief, celebration, joy, gratitude, love for the life of Nelson Mandela.

………………………………………………………..Which has to make you think and ask – why?

What makes a human being rise to such a level that we are all grateful for his life on earth and come out to celebrate such an exceptional human being. Is it because so few such people have lived on this earth, especially when put in the context of the totality of those who have lived?

While most are celebrating such a great man – in Bettina homes we are asking why so few have risen to this height? Why so many human beings have been so absorbed with the mundanities of life that keep us busy and distracted so we can keep ourselves unaware of our irrevocable march towards death? Is it the self-absorption which some of our huge egos demand for their self-gratification? Is it the inconsistencies in values which we carry that keep us from living out our beliefs because we might get hurt – might miss a meal – might not accumulate as much wealth as possible? Or is it our contradictory ways of thinking and acting which we develop in our striving to create the structures which we think protect us and keep us secure, but which really oppress us?

How long, O Lord, do we have to wait for the many to live life the way Mandela lived his? Why does he have to be special? Why in our own small parts of the world we insist on living anti-ubuntu lives? Haven’t we experienced enough of the misery, poverty, pain, horrors that this causes? How long will we surround ourselves with “our own kind”? How long will we live blinded by the fact that we are all included in “our own kind.”

Whatever hurts me hurts thee! Whatever joys I experience grow exponentially when I share them with thee! My freedom totally depends upon your freedom.

One can hear why Mandela was great by just listening to the speeches honoring him. Some were clear, unobstructed by play acting, playing to the audience, playing to their own egos, unable to give a great speech honestly honoring Mandela’s life because they have allowed their minds to be clouded by their refusal to accept and act on their own values and take responsibility for their lives. Some were almost unintelligible and said more negatives about the person giving the speech than positives about the man the speech was supposed to be honoring. True Freedom eliminates that and you could tell whose lives were on track and whose were confused and muddled from listening to those speeches!

Mandela’s memorial services today gave us a stark opportunity to see and hear the differences as men and women gave their speeches of remembrance and the crowd reacted. Some people don’t have images, reflections, pretenses, – they have a rock solid faith, clear and authentic lives they are living and it is reflected in their very being, the words they use, their demeanor around others – especially their ability to be themselves when greeting strangers. Some people first promote their image and then everything else – lets not even begin to be who we really are, that must not show until we know the person better.

Why do so many of us want, protect and pass on to our children, as great gifts, the bondage in which we live? Why do we give up a beautiful life well lived for an existence that others have told us we must sacrifice ourselves to maintain? Why are we enslaved to sexual stereotypes – racial stereotypes – national stereotypes – religious stereotypes? We live out of them. We live for them and to promote them hoping that in exchange we will be able to live physically comfortable although seriously compromised lives.

FREEDOM will come to this earth when we celebrate lives like Mandela’s many times each day instead of once in a lifetime.

We set up ‘sins’ that we must stay away from and/or avoid the perception of our being involved with because that might handicap our future. We don’t set up, teach, preach, live authentic lives. The sins we set up and announce from our own mountain seem meant to deflect us and allow a few to claim perfection in their life’s story. Those are very far from the real sins of our lives – the inability to live authentically, the refusal to feel empathy for those on the street with no shelter from the cold, hunger, dangers of the street. Our refusal to stand on our own professed faith and most especially to give no room to others to stand on theirs – this seems to be the biggest sin of our creation. These are the commandments by which we live and demand that others of “our kind” also live. Our need to act to keep from feeling threatened by those we don’t understand; those in whom we see what we don’t like in ourselves – those we scape goat, and see reflected in our own mirror – we act against and break our own mirror.

As we look around at others it hurts the soul to see in them the rejection, mean spirit, and refusal to live truly free lives. After all, what does it matter in the end? We all die – and what a horrible death to leave this earth with unrequited dreams, longing, loves because you were trying for things that die with you for which there is no resurrection or redemption and which did nothing to make your life great. Worse, to die without ever having had dreams, great loves and without having left behind a legacy which helped change this earth for the better.

Isn’t it sad that we choose the fleeting fame and what we call ‘security’ instead of choosing to be about the business of living fully and making sure we are there to help others do the same?

There is no such thing in life as ‘security’, but we are willing to sacrifice much to attain the mirage.

Ecclesiastes comes to mind often – ‘vanity of vanities………’

Oh for a world full of people like Nelson Mandel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

Not only was Nelson Mandela clear as to who he was and whose he was, but he was a man who never met a stranger. He could reduce you to your real self in front of him in seconds or make it extremely difficult for you to maintain the pretense and image built up over years of living someone else’s imaginary life projected onto your own.

We pray that we all can move away from and cast out the garbage that collects as we live our lives striving for security; putting forth an image of someone we would like to be and who we would like those meeting us to think we are; cast out the values we collect to cover our insecurities and fears; cast out the mean spirit we take on because we need to feel better than other human beings who we describe and see clearly as those less than us helping us to be better than they are.

We pray that we have no more such outpourings as are happening this week for Nelson Mandela. Not because we don’t appreciate and value his life and work, but because we will be living in a world where there are so many like him that his life and how he lived it becomes normal and is common all around us. What a world that would be and what a wonderful place to live, love, work, and just be!

UBUNTU! A future and a word taken into the world’s vocabulary as one of its own no matter what the language. A word that describes – how we live – who we are!

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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

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

Tags: African American history, Barack Obama, bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, Making Connections, Nelson Mandela, politics, Ubuntu
Posted in African American history, Bettina's Hall of Fame, Breakfast Table Talk, Historical Support, Making Connections, Memorials, Nelson Mandela, politics, Ubuntu | Comments Off on UBUNTU – I Am Because You Are

A Thanksgiving Gift

November 27th, 2013

We thought carefully over all the breakfast conversations lately and the one that seemed to be ideal for Thanksgiving was the one about how important it was to sterilize your forks, knives, etc. – especially since we all cook and eat with great gusto on this Thursday –

That has been a growing conversation and it is becoming louder when we all assume the utensils which we use to eat -most, -if not all of our meals, must be sterilized if we are not to come down with diseases from the germs, bacteria, viruses they carry from one person to another.

This particular breakfast conversation had a different twist. Lacking interest at several breakfasts about the great issues of the day and our opinions of them we asked why is the din growing so loud about sterilizing eating utensils? Could it have something to do with the metal, alloys, other materials, being used to make these utensils? Is something being covered up which is important for us to know? After all, our ancestors used utensils for eating and cooking for generations without sterilizing them so why the fuss now?

What was pointed out to all of us was the anti-bacterial properties of some utensils and the lack of such with others; the mythology of the marketing and advertising being pushed out to us with its half-truths, hidden information, unpublished research which could damage what is being advertised, etc.; and the changes that have taken place and foisted on a very ignorant public for the benefit of the manufacturers, inventors, retailers and more.

For many generations silver was used for pots for cooking and for knives, forks, spoons, etc. There was no need to sterilize because silver has anti-bacterial properties.

Today, we use stainless steel, aluminum and other metal, other alloys and plastics for eating utensils and for cooking. That has totally changed how we have to clean and store these utensils after use.

Since we were not paying attention to our grandparents wisdom, most of that good and simple home keeping information has been lost. Add to that this past generation which has been so busy with other things they succumbed to the marketing and advertising mythology being spread around for the benefit of the processors and inventors of these new and different things Those simpler tried and true methods of the past are being lost at a fiercely aggressive rate.

This little bit of wisdom is given to you this Thanksgiving in the hope that you will cherish it, use it and pass it down to your children. Please move away from the technology for a minute. Please step away from all the ads and marketing thrown at you for your use to incorporate in your and your family’s lifestyle and please, please pay attention!!!!! Just a few seconds of your time!!!!!

After all, isn’t that how Martha Stewart became so famous so quickly? She was passing on to us things we were never taught. She was passing along the basics of living in a reasonably cultured society and we were all eyes and ears. Our parents were too busy trying to cope with a very fast changing society. They raised their children as best they could in places where historical role models were taken down and new ones put up to benefit the manufacturers of really questionable items. Our eating utensils are just one group that has suffered from this newness of information. Information – sometimes really questionable in what it says and purposely leaves out – with ads created in song, dance and sex – to get you to buy. Reject that and look for information which passes along truthful nuggets of how to best live a long and healthy life making choices to promote that lifestyle. How do you develop an antenna to tell the difference? Cultivate discernment – a powerful ally throughout your life as it changes and you grow in knowledge with expanding wisdom.

Check out your kitchen. Are the knives, forks and spoons therein silver or some other strange material, previously unknown and which should be banned for eating utensils because they can be dangerous to your health? If so, replace them immediately with silver plate or sterling silver place settings – serving utensils – and more.

Are your pots aluminum? Or perhaps an unknown and untested alloy – and we mean untested over generations of family use? If they are, step away from the stove and seriously consider replacing them. Aluminum became popular as quickly as it did because we were accustomed to silver pots and aluminum looked like silver, but cost much less. Now there are rumors it may play a part in the Alzheimers epidemic and we discover it is used in everything from pots to deodorant and no one really knows its longterm affect on your body. You put aside money for other things – think of your health and start putting aside money for silver pots, forks, knives, spoons, and more.

Estate sales have wonderful forks, knives, spoons and other service pieces at prices much less than the prices for new stainless and other fancy looking eating utensils – at very reasonable prices. Sometimes you can even get a set of sterling in a silver box or in a piece of furniture designed to hold such lined with silver felt to keep them tarnish free for a very long time. They are worth the investment.

You don’t have to sterilize silver because it has anti-bacterial properties which are much better at killing the germs and bacteria and other such things which get on our utensils. Other materials might still have problems even after sterilization.

Go the way which has been tried and true for our ancestors, we feel you won’t regret the extra effort. In fact, your health will improve and you will certainly then send blessings our way.

Have a very Happy Thanksgiving and keep tuned in to breakfast at Bettina Homes to continue the conversation.

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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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Tags: anti-bacterial kitchen utensils, breakfast table talk, estate sale, health, silver utensils, Thanksgiving gift, Thanksgiving Greeting
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Estate Sale Analysis and Info, Health, Historical Support, Holiday Greeting, Housekeeping, Preserving Family History and Stories, Shopping | Comments Off on A Thanksgiving Gift

How to Live Elegantly Spending Less

November 2nd, 2013

Estate Sales – Yard Sales – Home Liquidations – and many more names which describe a family or individual or group of people selling what they can’t use, don’t want, need money so they sell the things they own, etc.

These sales provide you with an opportunity to really buy what you need and what you can’t find elsewhere because it is probably not sold anymore. It is also your opportunity to buy something “real” instead of the pressed paper furniture, plastic made to look like glass, really expensive clothes which don’t last the season, etc. Try the book sections in estate sales instead of the library. For $1 or $2 you can snag really great books and sometimes first editions. Although the first editions may cost as much as $5. And then pass them along for others to read.

How do you live like this?

Instead of shopping at the mall – make a list during the week of what you need and would shop for- at the mall, the big box stores, the discount houses, the really upscale designer original shops, the one of a kind furniture stores – to continue to live well and comfortably.

Look up the sales – usually over the weekend – map them out so you can easily go from one to the other without doubling back – and off you go to this new lifestyle.

Many sales by professional estate sale people take credit cards and some even take checks. When you hit one by owner you probably will need to have cash, although some private sales also take checks.

A real find is the liquidation of an estate which includes all the things the person used in life and now must be ‘scattered’ to others. All the basics you need for your home you will probably find at these sales. It is like shopping all the different departments at the stores you may now frequent and which max out your credit card and ruin your credit. The estate sales will let you live in the same or better style and you will find your credit card bill much reduced and very manageable at the end of the month.

I wanted a bread baking machine, but didn’t want to spend the $100 plus dollars it cost to buy one – and I tend to have very high end taste. I will sniff and look down my nose at anything not well made with less than top quality materials. Especially those items copied from their beautiful, elegant forebears. But I also have a very low end budget so I shopped for three week-ends until I found my bread baking machine. It was brand new, still in the box, still sold at the Bloomingdale’s of the world and I paid $20.

My neighbor was going to a very elegant birthday party and wanted something with lots of bling to wear. She found a beautiful Valentino dress – in her size and with the sales slip and price tag still hanging on the dress. It was beautiful. Not as much bling as she wanted, but it screamed luxury and fit her perfectly. Because she found this at the end of that particular estate sale she paid $18 for a dress with a price tag over $500. She bought shoes to match, at the same sale, which didn’t fit her 9 1/2 feet, but fit my 7 1/2 feet very comfortably. She bought them for me for $5 as a ‘thank you’ for turning her on to the estate sales. She went off to her birthday party beautifully dressed with her old shoes, which still looked great with her new dress.

That goes for every part of your life. You have to be patient, but in the end patience is rewarded as you find that what you want always turns up at one or another sale.

My kitchen is total testimony to this lifestyle. It is fully stocked with every gadget around, none of which cost me over $1 or $2. I profited from our American penchant to buy what we think is really great and will make our lives easier, put it in the drawer or closet and never use it – content with the fact that we have it ‘just in case.’ I imagine what the person who owned the gadgets I bought was thinking when they went to the store to buy these items – which at the time they couldn’t live without.

I just foolishly bought two shelving units for my attic – to store an ever increasing stash of clothes (my weakness – probably coming from my modiste grandmother). I bought them brand new from a very upscale hardware store. They cost $120 each for the component parts I needed to put together the kind of shelving that would help me store these clothes carefully so I could reach whatever I needed in seconds. At the very next estate sale I went to, there were several shelving units just like the ones I had just bought. I bought two more at this sale – took them apart – washed them because they were in the basement of the home where I was shopping – put them together the way I wanted them to be and WOW – I had two more units for which I paid $10 each. What a difference. My impatience cost me $220 which would have been much better spent on something else, or given to someone who needed a little lift in life. Having to wash the units didn’t bother me. I took them apart so I could re-assemble them into my storage needs and carefully washed each piece. Since they were very good quality stainless steel and beautifully made – not the flimsy kind one finds in the stores these days – they looked like new when I re-assembled them into closets for the attic.

Now I am looking for glass containers for flour, sugar, rice – all the things that need storage in the kitchen, but elegant storage. I am looking for antique glass or porcelain or any other kind of container which is easily cleaned and looks very elegant to add to what I already have in the kitchen. I don’t expect to pay more than $2 or $3 per container – for a really great one I will go up to $5 so when I get home from the grocery store I can ‘decant’ my primary cooking ingredients into them and have them within reach. Because they are going to be very beautiful they will look just fine on the counters in the kitchen. They will also be home to the organic teas and spices that I love – and it will keep them fresh and constantly used because I won’t have to reach around and behind other stuff only to find them moth infested because they are still in their paper and other kind of containers.

That goes for every part of your life. You have to be patient, but in the end patience is rewarded as you find that what you want always turns up at one or another estate sale.

I think you get the message. Happy hunting – maybe one of our blogs will suggest a way for you to use all of the money you are going to save with this new way of life. It certainly brings ‘recycle’ to new heights.

Ed Note: For the purposes of full disclosure, Bettina Network, inc. manages estate sales across the country. The sales will soon be a benefit to those who belong to Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community.

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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

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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, Bettina Scattering Sale, budget stretching ideas, estate sale, furniture, Home Liquidations, home management, Making Connections, Scattering Sale
Posted in An Estate Sale, Estate Sale Analysis and Info, Housekeeping, Moving Sale, Shopping | Comments Off on How to Live Elegantly Spending Less

Remembering Niko

October 22nd, 2013

…”There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you”…

—————————————Maya Angelou

photography by Dorothea Guild

A quote passed on to us by Dorothea Guild as she introduced the exhibit of Nicholas Michael Marinos’s art. Marinos was Dorothea’s family priest, long-term friend and soul-mate from years past. He was jazz artist, Greek Orthodox priest, one of the directors at Maliotis Center of Hellenic College in Brookline and at the end – visual artist working in oil, watercolors and more.

His art is on exhibit at the The Gallery of the Piano Craft Building at 791 Tremont Street, Boston, MA. 02118 through November 3, 2013.

The opening reception for the exhibit took place this past Saturday, October 19th. It was a beautiful success with good food, exceptional music and the introduction by Dorothea Gerros Guild of the art works of one of the two soulmates – one of the two people she cherishes in her life. The reception -intentionally or not – was about all the things needed to serve as an example for life, love, work, passion to all of us.

The first connection I found astounding was Jackie Cox-Crite’s presence as the guest curator. Jackie is the widow of Alan Rohan Crite.

The similarity of what Niko did to what Alan Crite did strikes you as you look at the art works. Crite worked from an African-American cultural aesthetic; Niko worked from a Greek Orthodox cultural aesthetic and you can see it in Niko’s works as strongly as you can see the Afro connection in Crite’s.

Jackie was not only the guest curator, but she was the caterer, promoter and all-around-into-every-part of this exhibit and its opening.

I remember Jackie as a very young person who was Alan Crite’s companion and caretaker. At the time, she was an artist in her own right. Her medium was soft sculpture. Her images and her work showed her innocence and intensity as she took a “woman’s medium” – a kind of quilting and used the medium to turn out beautiful works of art. She is not the first person to have done that, but at the time, I was particularly struck by the combination of her background, her images, her relationship with Alan Crite and how all of that showed in her art.

Mitch Weiss, photographer

The music at the reception was provided by Arni Cheatham, saxophonist, tenor, flutist, vocalist and very well known in the Boston jazz scene – who is also the soul-mate of Dorothea Guild. Arni is helping her in her quest for recognition for the works of Nicholas Marinos. That is most unusual in this society. Normally, we lock iron doors and gates against past close personal relationships when a new relationship starts and we strive to pretend that first, past relationship was somehow defective, not great and here is a list of all his/her faults.

Arni Cheatham provided a reason to attend for those who knew his music, but didn’t know Niko nor his art – and he and his group did not disappoint. Honored in Boston as a “Jazz Hero” by the Jazz Journalists Association and JazzBoston at – where else – but the South End jazz mecca Wally’s, Cheatham has a long line of acolades, performances, recordings and more. He currently can be heard at “Top of the Hub” with the Brian McCree Band during November, 2013.

…….and on to the artist.

Niko was born in 1928 and was a priest in the Greek Orthodox Church most of his adult life. He called himself an “Urban/Ethnic Neighborhood artist.” Born in Tarpon Springs, Florida, Marinos went through tragic losses as a child – starting with the loss of his father in a divers’ accident. He moved with his family to the Bronx; to the Greek Orthodox Seminary in Connecticut and on to serve a parish in Haverhill, MA. where he met Dorothea and her family and then on to Boston.

What went before in his life as jazz performer, priest, college professor, social activist and more all show up in his body of art works.

According to his own words, written in June, 1988, which reach us from 25 plus years ago——–

“Urban and ethnic neighborhoods hold a very special excitement for me. This ongoing fascination began when, as a child of the Depression of the 1930’s living in the tenements and growing up on the streets of the Bronx, Queens and mid-town Manhattan, I assimilated the cultural, racial and ethnic diversity of my environment. These became an indelible part of the fabric of my perception as a painter.

I was then, and am now, fascinated by the constantly evolving images which spread out before me as I chronicle, through color, the urban environment and its inhabitants in the various ethnic neighborhoods of this city, Boston. There is an ongoing dialogue between the indigenous environment and the changing demographics of the urban dwellers. It is this dialogue which always reaffirms the existence of the other that I attempt to record in a variety of perspectives through my art.

I am attempting to capture a moment in time and make it timeless. And if my art can convey to the viewer that which is familiar, very private, very personal, and, for each, a special remembrance of that place in another time, then I will have succeeded.

Thus far I have works of the North End, South End, Chinatown, Roxbury, Dorchester and downtown Boston including parts of the Back Bay. These paintings are, for me, a quiet celebration of life found in the urban and ethnic neighborhoods of Boston.”

The evening was an amalgam of Greek Orthodoxy – African American music – and a coming together of the two groups as if they were one because of the art of Nicholas Martinos and the spirits of Dorothea Guild and Arni Cheatham.

Dorothea was stunning in a black embroidered Greek silk blouse, skirt and shoes, all of which were her mothers. Clothes with a beauty almost unknown today. The image and the symbolism she portrayed in her look was that of a Greek Orthodox priest – it was difficult not to stare because of the richness of her appearance against the backdrop of the Greek Orthodoxy which comes through strongly in Niko’s art.

The community which Dorothea and Arni have gathered around them and who were there to see this exhibit and support their friend was a rare coming together on a very basic level of two communities which normally don’t seem to have many commonalities nor many comings together for any reason.

Maybe in all of this is hope for the rest of us. If we can imitate what is in their lives and values and incorporate a little of the processes which they used to cross many lines without providing the bridge. (That bridge which is usually a construct used for continued separation of the races.) Maybe we can all come together and begin to break down those barriers we have built to maintain unreal, unnatural and stilted separations even while we acknowledge and celebrate our original cultural identities.

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Tags: African American history, Arni Cheatham, art exhibit, bed & breakfast, Dorothea Guild, Greek Orthodox history, jazz, jazz heroes, Making Connections, Nicholas Michael Martinos, Piano Factory
Posted in African American history, Arni Cheatham, Art Exhibit, Dorothea Guild, Event Review, Greek Orthodox history, Historical Support, jazz heroes, Making Connections, Nicholas Michael Martinos, Piano Factory, Preserving Family History and Stories | Comments Off on Remembering Niko

Republicanism BC and AD – oops, AT*

October 16th, 2013

*BC = Boehner Cruz; AT = After Tea Party

The singing reported in the Tea Party’s caucus reminded me of the Titanic – remember? As they went down, those who could not or did not leave the ship went down singing Amazing Grace. Isn’t that what happened last night? It was a suicidal atmosphere with everyone being made to drink the Kool Aid with the pseudo religious environment to encourage those who were losing faith. I guess from the songs being sung there must have been only Conservative Evengelical Christians in the room. Somehow, we couldn’t see Jews, Muslims, Atheists or Episcopalians grooving and responding to what was described.

Many things about this have caused some really great breakfast conversations. If you can call anything in the immediate time before your own financial demise ‘great.’

So much is so hokey: (Kind of the theme of one of our breakfast conversations)

1) The Speaker of the House – Boehner – could have avoided all of this by putting the issue on the floor of the House and it would have passed – but it would have passed with bipartisan support and they refused to even consider that possibility. Is all of this really about keeping Republicans Republican and refusing to allow any kind of bipartisan action, discussion, votes, etc.?

They seem to be looking in the mirror and calling Obama out on what they see there. And someone accused them of racism. How can that be when the reflection they see in the mirror is that of a Black man?

Some sub-topics “My grandfather told me to look away when people start talking the way the Tea Party folks are talking” – such as the comments about their trying to ‘save’ the United States from fiscal ruin because we soon won’t be able to pay our debts. And what do they do about this? Put the United States in a position of a credit default which would raise interest rates on everything and make the cost of carrying the debt we have unbelievably heavy – and a burden shared by every citizen of these United States. How exactly does their stance help?

They bash Obama for not being “bipartisan’, but not being bipartisan is not allowing a vote to come to the floor of the House because it might be passed with a bipartisan vote and that can’t be allowed.

2) Cruz – the now leading contender from the Tea Party for President of these United States in the next election. Talk about disasters and a man either on an unusually high dose of testosterone or whose body produces way too much testosterone for him to be allowed to do anything except knit, crochet, sew, sit quietly listening to lovely soothing music, etc.. If he gets elected, the folks around the breakfast table – including one Republican – decided they would pack their bags, update their Visas and leave until the U. S. comes to its senses.

3) What was ominous was the comparison of what the U. S. is going through with parallels to what Germany went through with the rise of the Nazi Party. It sent chills down your spine to even know there was someone who saw this as a parallel.

4) What was really upsetting was the comment that one person made about his interpretation of what he was seeing being played out. He didn’t agree with the woman who saw the beginnings of Nazi American in all of this, he assumed that Boehner has a huge problem with alcohol and Cruz looks as though he was using that knowledge and pushing Boehner to the wall – go along with us or your alcoholism is exposed to the world. And the media was only talking about how Boehner was acting the way he was because he was concerned about losing his Speakership- have they missed something big or is this like JFK’s womanizing – lets not talk about the obvious it isn’t nice.

And here in our corner of the world was one small group wrestling with the fact that our Congress is acting like Alcoholics, their enablers or have we missed something important!

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Tags: Barack Obama, bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, economic downturn, Economics, Financial Disaster, Government Shutdown, John Boehner, politics, Senator Cruz
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Guest comments, Historical Support, Making Connections, politics | Comments Off on Republicanism BC and AD – oops, AT*

Going to the Toilet

October 6th, 2013

What a horrible title for a blog! We have postponed writing this blog for a couple weeks, but it has been such a great find and the topic of several breakfasts so with fear and trepidation – here goes!!!!!!

We discovered – would you believe across the breakfast table – one of the reasons we think our ‘cultured’ cousins have such a problem with things like colon cancer, bladder problems, etc. It was an off-hand remark by a guest which, of course, we could not let go of and kept her talking about for quite some time (after everyone had finished eating, of course).

The off-handed comment was about how difficult it is to travel in America and in some European countries because of the problems it generates with the simplest things like going to the bathroom. We asked why – especially since we felt we had a really up to date bathroom complete with a toilet seat which could also act like a bidet, close by itself, work via remote control and provide heat or no-heat as the user desired. That comment was totally deflating and one of the few times I became defensive. All the money we spend in those bathrooms and someone has a problem, not just a problem -a complaint?

As it turns out, all that money spent was spent in vain. I had a problem that those of us growing older have and it can be embarrassing – and that is, not being able to control the escape of air from the body at the most horrible times. Nothing like letting people know you are gross without even trying, especially if that escaping air comes with a bit of noise.

That conversation has changed all of that. It took about a week, but after that time frame I have no more problems with air escaping.

We, in the ‘cultured’ part of the world, go to the toilet in a very comfortable way which helps to disintegrate our bodies instead of shaping them up and its getting worse. You can now sit on the heated toilet seat and have a spray of water wash your bottom when you finish. I thought that was the ultimate luxury, but wow have I ever changed my mind.

Have you ever thought of squatting instead of sitting on a toilet seat? It is cleaner, quicker and strengthens the muscles which need strengthening to keep your colon, bladder, legs, stomach and balance in good shape. I used to feel sorry for those third world people who had to squat to go to the bathroom. I didn’t know how they survived such a throw back to primitive times. Well, I feel sorry no more! I can go anyplace, do anything and not be embarrassed by that escaping air – it just doesn’t happen anymore. My legs are firmer, my stomach tighter and even my balance is better. It took a couple weeks to make this a habit and to stop complaining because of how difficult it was to form this new habit at my age, but form it I have and a few others have come along for the journey. We had to form a small support group – a telephone call when we were about to quit for a pep talk.

Today, there are no complaints, we are all healthier for this new way of using the toilet and a bonus – we can use any toilet anyplace and not worry about catching anything the former user of the toilet may have left behind.

Try it! But you have to give it a good try of at least 14 days before you decide. It takes that long for the good results to show up and you will be surprised at how many good results there will be.

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Tags: bed & breakfast, bladder information, breakfast table talk, colon upkeep, going to the toilet, growing old, health, Making Connections, no bladder infections, preventing colon cancer
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Growing Old, Guest comments, Guest comments and talents, Health | Comments Off on Going to the Toilet

Giordano Bruno – A Talk by Alan Powers

October 3rd, 2013

Alan explores the life, writings and legacies of Giordano Bruno. Powers has an addendum to his book on early efforts to map the moon. He calls Bruno “The Man Galileo Plagiarized and having written 26 books Bruno lost a University post to a man who had written a small pamphlet – you have to see the video to know who was this person who had the influence to get such a job on such a small academic amount of publishings.

Bruno is also the man who claimed there were billions of stars in the inhabitable part of the universe. He didn’t fare too well with the inquisition, but is still important today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCaC-VexYoY&feature=youtu.be

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Tags: Alan Powers, breakfast table talk, Giordano Bruno, Making Connections
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WOW! What an article!

October 2nd, 2013

Thanks for your article on the Government shutdown.

I am a Democrat who is constantly mystified by the workings of this political campaign business.

As a regular traveller to Cambridge, I stay fairly often in your home. It is quite the place for good conversation. What I appreciate about this article is that I haven’t missed what is being discussed at your breakfast table about the shutdown.

It seems to me that the Republicans chose to shutdown the government on the day Obamacare went into affect to mute the peoples response and knowledge about Obamacare.

That isn’t possible because every person in this country who benefits from Obamacare will be at the polls voting for whoever Barack Obama designates as the person he wants to succeed him.

I hope that will be Hillary Clinton. I was very young when Hillary was trying to get a health care bill passed as the wife of the President. All I remember about that was my parents being upset because after her effort failed, our health care insurance bill went from $250/month to way up there – I don’t know exactly, but I remember the conversations about how we were paying two to three times what we used to pay before her efforts. What my parents didn’t realize was she had the cat bird seat and could see what was coming down the road and she tried to prevent it by getting health insurance passed which would keep middle-class America from having such a huge increase in their health insurance. If they had realized that, I am sure they would have been more active in supporting her efforts. Nothing was done about that until Obama was elected.

My wish is that politicians would be honest – clear – and not only believe in something, but run on their beliefs and attempt to implement those beliefs if they are elected. How many of us wish our politicians were of good character.

I also hope that those politicians who want to act find either Broadway Theatre, the Movies or Television in which to exercise their talents and stop using the American public as their audience when what they really want is to be a part of the fictional dramas we all watch in the evenings on television or weekends in the theatre. I am so tired of bad actors and actresses running for office and sometimes actually being elected. Worse than the bad actors and actresses are those with few ethics, morals and bad character – who seem to proliferate with too many such people concentrated in our group of politicians and political wannabes.

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Tags: Barack Obama, bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, Government Shutdown, Hillary Clinton, Obamacare, Political, Politicians
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Guest comments, Making Connections, politics | Comments Off on WOW! What an article!

The Next Republican Presidential Campaign has started and it ain’t pretty!

October 1st, 2013

What is this government shut-down about?

Don’t even mention Obamacare because that has nothing to do with all of this hullabaloo. Obamacare is really only a distraction and something on which to hang the proverbial hat of those who have done this. They are really into red herring when they throw in Obamacare and how big business will be reduced and controlled by this shut down and how members of Congress should be treated like everyone else. That will never happen and that is clearly not their goal. They are not interested in any of the above, they are moving themselves into the public eye to be in a position – they hope – to be elected for higher office.

This is the new way to get your MAN into the presidential office if he is a Republican. After all, didn’t such a shutdown and impeachment of a president result in the election of a Republican – one George Bush?

The way to fight for power and control is to close down the government of the Democratic President and then impeach him. It was new with Clinton, but today it is clearly the way the Republicans are running their campaigns. Any issue around which they could drape emotional appeals connected to this new political campaign would do. And a secondary result – scare away all the good candidates, who are not Republican candidates. To become President of these United States you have to be ready and willing to give up a hard-earned reputation; be ready to accept crap thrown at you without cause; and have mud slung at you on a daily basis. Who would want to risk that?

Will an attempt to impeach Obama follow?

“Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me”

The government was shut down in the Clinton era by Republicans. It is now shut down in the Obama era by Republicans. You can quote Obamacare as the reason or any other reason you want to pull up. That is totally irrelevant. Obamacare has nothing to do with this government shut-down. It is just convenient. What is really going on is the Republican swarm of those who want to be president or important to who they think will be the next Republican president.

If you believed in conspiracies you could see the meetings during which this strategy was discussed and the decision taken for all to act in concert to bring down the government, the economy and middle-class America. Any discussion in those meetings about the possible harm this would do to the American people? Don’t be foolish – those vying for power never consider such. They consider only what they think they have to do to satisfy their hungering after power.

The guy who read from “Green Eggs and Ham” was showing the American public how competent he would be as president. He could read to them each evening so they could go to bed hearing his voice reading one of the childrens’ classics. A child reading to children while trying to manipulate the American Public into thinking he would be the next really great president. Look at what he has accomplished – hours in front of a microphone during which time he either had on a diaper or he paraded his bladder for all to see how long he could hold his need to go to the bathroom. Truly a requirement of a good potential presidential candidate. He clearly cares – not at all – about the people being hurt through this process. His care is about setting himself up to run for President and using this opportunity to do so. Sort of an application process during which he put forth his credentials.

The woman talking head in Congress is probably setting herself up for a ministerial position or the head of a major non-profit when she leaves Congress, if she can’t be a part of what she believes will be the new Republican Administration. I had to give her a really good look because the way she was dragging out her responses were right up there with the best African American preachers. She diverged from the ringing tones and singing quality of the Black preacher with her message.

Joe – from MSNBC is just being Joe – obnoxious, opinionated, totally biased and an anointed follower of Trump. He just wants to be who he is with the show he now has. I don’t think he realizes how horrible he comes across to thinking people- those trying to understand the news of the day and the market of the day in ways other than through such a bigoted and intransigent lens.

If all of you let this happen – shame on you!

In an elected government you get who you deserve as a leader. In this case, several areas of the country have gotten what they deserve in their representatives. The rest of the country – the majority – have shown they want something different. Is this going to continue to be a case where the minority destroys the majority for very mean spirited reasons and because their imagination and ability to run a winning political campaign is limited?

I am a Republican. I have been a Republican since I registered to vote. I have cousins – long dead – and other relatives who lived in Louisiana and who were head of the Louisiana Republican party and/or were pretty high up in the firmament – African Americans all. If you were African American and you wanted to vote back then you had to be Republican because the Democrats were off chasing and trying to keep the Ku Klux Klan in their fold, doing whatever they had to do to let them know the Democrats were just one of the KKK guys.

Times have changed and the Democrats, seeing the handwriting on the wall, started chasing after the NAACP, NOW, etc. The Republicans – who have shown their new constituents don’t get it – have been chasing the KKK guys and their successors. It was clear in the 1970’s when Reagan was nominated and the four years prior to his nomination when he lost the Republican nomination that a movement had started which was very well funded to do exactly what is happening today. Make a home for the Neo-cons in the Republican Party and change its image and what it is about. It is amazing what lots of money and very few people can accomplish in these United Sates.

Well today, things have changed mightily. I understand why so many have left the Republican party. If you are active, just about any place in the country, and you are not one of those Germany would classify as one of the Neo-cons, but who we call the Tea Partry, you are treated pretty shoddily by all of these recent converts from the Democratic Party claiming to be Republicans. Is the racism in this country so great that you will allow such to happen to bring down the country because you want Honorary Oppressors to deal with and maintain the racism that has been so traditionally practiced in the United States? Are you, White America, so hard up to be ‘better than’ by virtue of your Whiteness that you will let such a small group shut down the entire government and threaten the economic recovery which the Obama administration has worked so hard to bring about? Why aren’t you in the streets in protest? Why are you so quiet? Quiet acknowledges acquiescence and that is the message I am receiving. This closing down of the government is not just a Tea Party action – it is being led by the Tea Party and tacitly agreed to by the majority. What is there to lead me to believe otherwise?

If you folks don’t take hold of your party and bring it back from this incredible precipice we will read about Republicans in the history books and no one will be able to say we know or knew one. And me? Everytime I venture out to any Republican event I am so beat up and wounded it takes a while of staying away and licking my wounds before I have the courage to venture out again. Maybe if I were not so aware of history it might be different. After all, even the Klan had its favorite Blacks – included in their activities. If I could just smile and acquiesce in what I don’t believe maybe I too could be financially substantial with a brighter economic future because I allowed myself to be used.

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Tags: Barack Obama, bed & breakfast, bed & breakfast table talk, Democrats, Government Shut Down, Making Connections, Political Campaigns, politics, Racism, Republican Presidential Campaign, Republicans, Sexism
Posted in Bettina's Hall of Shame, Breakfast Table Talk, Historical Support, Making Connections, politics | Comments Off on The Next Republican Presidential Campaign has started and it ain’t pretty!

A Stock Market Conversation – about PRHB

September 3rd, 2013

Every once in a while we have conversation about the stock market – stocks people are buying – all the things of interest to those who invest, trade, gamble stocks listed in the New York Stock Exchange, but sometimes we even have conversations about foreign exchanges and stocks traded around the world.

The most interesting are generally those connected with natural resources – gold, silver, oil and the like.

This one is about a small stock we traded before and so were interested to hear it come up for consideration once again.

It is PRHB – which stands for Pure H2o BioTechnologies. They are currently selling for $.0001 – so $100 will buy one million shares. Our ears picked up immediately. What a conversation piece. We could buy this stock and talk to our friends dropping our million share purchase of a stock we expected to soar. Well, to at least .01/share, but we will leave out that part.

The cost of one million shares is the cost of a lovely meal for two – so we will forego the meal and buy the stock. Much more fun and with some lasting memories. Maybe we will even send for the stock certificate and frame it for future generations.

The company has a good technology, we think. It produces and distributes high purity water for industrial and institutional applications. What could be more environmentally friendly. They say their water treatment is trouble-free for their clients and they say “they manufacture the highest quality, totally integrated systems that exceed customer expectations and reduce customer operating costs.”

If you want to read more about them, their web site is www.ipureh2o.com or you can Yahoo, Google or Bing PRHB or their name!

We didn’t do a lot of research – instead we just bought the stock because we were looking for a bit of fun in the stock market, which has been great for some lately and a disaster for others. We thought we would take the fun part and have a great story – follow a stock that could produce millions for us – or could lose us our $100 investment.

Maybe next month we may even buy another one million shares! Our ears are open for those conversations at breakfast which just might bring us that windfall that the lottery has not produced.

Isn’t it amazing how bed and breakfast can add to the quality of your life!

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Bed & Breakfast: Lessons in Etiquette

August 30th, 2013

LESSON ONE:

Etiquette – “the forms required by good breeding or prescribed by authority to be observed in social or official life.” syn. Decorum.

This etiquette monologue is for host families in the Bettina Network as well as guests. We will tell our stories through true anecdotes, but don’t worry, we won’t use your names or even your initials. If you pretend it was someone else, so will we. If you have stories from your guests or if you are a guest and have stories from your stay in a bed and breakfast home, please don’t hesitate to share your wealth of experience.

Assorted Bed & Breakfasts

Today bed and breakfast – as a stay in a private home -has spread around the world and people of many different cultures are opening their homes to bed and breakfast guests. Cultures, which once would have been appalled at the thought of strangers staying in their homes, are fast adapting and enjoying turning their home into the house by the side of the road which welcomes strangers.

An even more common phenomenon is that of people from different countries, cultures, religions etc. staying together in the same house, living in a style close to that of an extended family.

However brief or lengthy the stay might be,
one needs an awareness of social dos and don’ts
during those two, three or more days
under a stranger’s roof,
interacting with other strangers.

A Boor

Who after all, wants to be thought of as a boor and find there are no availabilities when one calls for another reservation – even though it is February and the home in Antarctica in which one wants to stay is totally empty with no guest reservations until July?

—-Even more to the point—-

who wants to remember

and be remembered

as someone who caused another pain that could have been avoided?

to be continued………………

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The March on Washington

August 21st, 2013

This coming week we will remember one of the highlights of the Civil Rights Movement which changed so much in this country. It is such an emotional time that I have barely started to write this and the grief, tears and overwhelming feelings take over.

I was very young during the Civil Rights Movement – it took my life from the early 1950’s until today.

As I go back to remember all of those years – from my teenaged years on – several of Dr. King’s words come flooding back. The strongest in my memory is the quote “You will be judged not by the color of your skin but by the content of your character.” During my darkest days that will pop up in my mind as I experience the racism, sexism and now ageism of even my closest friends and sometimes, my family.

On Wednesday, August 28 at 3pm, the time and date of Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, houses of worship across the country will ring their bells in honor of the anniversary and will play hymns and spirituals. It should be an awesome moment! I want to be standing outside where I can hear all of them!

To contrast that to what was happening in the 1950’s and 1960’s is a stretch very few of us can make. People were being beaten, killed, maimed and the young were being denied freedom and equality. What young people had equal access to were the dogs, the hoses, the hostile and vicious law enforcement people who then worked hand and glove with the Ku Klux Klan.

Opportunities which these United States gave in its written documents were taken away at birth in the actual living out of life if you were the wrong race and sex. There has been no giving back. In fact, we still practice and allow others to practice the denial of the experiences of racism and sexism and we still strongly support the right of those engaging in such denial to be able to continue it. The denial that was so prevalent at the time is still hanging on with much tenacity and with no sign of the structure which accepts and promotes that denial being taken down. It is one thing to suffer the indignities and pain of racism and sexism; it is quite another to suffer those indignities and have those perpetrating them stand in front of you and deny their actions. —it has to do with the content of their character.

So many groups will be leading marches in Washington, D. C. from the Lincoln Memorial to the Martin Luther King Memorial. Around the country other groups will be leading marches to other places in their cities, towns, villages which have meaning in the context of this Movement.

Where will you be? What will you be doing? How will you contribute to the possibility that on August 29th you have helped to bring about some change which will make this a country more receptive to seeing everyone as equal?

The Bettina Network, inc. does its part – as a corporation – small though we may be – to help bring about moving us from a world of individuals, maybe even families, tribes, neighborhoods who see ourselves as better than those others out there – to a group of people who have an ethical commitment to dismantling the racism even further; to eliminating the sexism; to addressing the ageism and to reducing our thoughts about the culture within which we were raised away from a culture that is greater than, better than, more important than, to a culture which is different from but equal to all others. From that stance we are about giving, sharing, taking care of others as well as ourselves, and treating even the lowest and most tread upon of our brothers and sisters as equals and with respect.

The other quote from Dr. King which I hear often is “We must all learn to live together as brothers (and sisters) or we will all perish together as fools.”

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Tags: African American history, bed & breakfast, Bettina Network Information, Civil Rights Movement, Jr., Making Connections, March on Washington, Martin Luther King, Memorial, New Orleans Creole, Racism, Sexism
Posted in An editorial just because, Bettina Network Info, Historical Support, Making Connections, Memorials, Preserving Family History and Stories | Comments Off on The March on Washington

Bettina Network is Expanding

August 17th, 2013

and we need your help.

We are looking across the United States for

Artists – Curators, – Art Historians, –Musicians, –Interesting Venues – Appraisers

Are you a part of a performance group with performances which can take place in a small ‘French Salon’ type environment ? –

Do you have a Great Imagination which is not limited by what has been done

AND

who feels constrained by the present structure of things? ——————

Call us – email us – write us and let us know who you are and your interest in being a part of Bettina Network’s future developments !!!!!!!!

And no – you don’t have to pack up and move, you can be a part of Bettina Network’s new expansion right where you are.

Do you want to use all of your talents and can’t stand the thought of being put into the straight jacket of what you see around you as career possibilities?

If you are a destination and feel your destination fits Bettina Network’s lifestyle – email, call or write us and lets see if we have commonalities.

Are you a museum curator and want to look at additional possibilities?

Are you a Professor of Art History and need additional income – while staying in your field of study or exploring one you have always wanted to investigate?

Are you an appraiser who wants exposure to what’s happening today in your area of expertise and who wants to share your knowledge with small groups?

Bettina folks are out and about looking to make this expansion one you will want to investigate further and be a part of when visiting any city whether you are staying in a Bettina Network home or not.

This new expansion has been in the works for several months and is ready to be introduced beyond our small circle of planners, strategists, and friends who helped.

And you know we are looking for talent not limited to one race, one sex, one age group, one economic status, one country of origin, one sexual orientation? Your talent is what counts – not even where you are from in the world matters. Our development group ranges in age from 32 through 83 and growing!

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Network Information, Job Opportunities
Posted in Bettina Network Info, Job Opportunities, Press Release from Bettina Network | Comments Off on Bettina Network is Expanding

I Tried Your Liquid Vitamin C….

August 9th, 2013

It was terrific. I started using it when I heard about it at a Bettina home. Liquid C is a little difficult to find, but I discovered it in a Vitamin Shop. It comes in a bottle – like a milk bottle – and the bottle is covered with an orange plastic wrap. That was great for me because it says you have to keep the liquid C in a dark place. I keep mine in the refrigerator and the orange wrap keeps out the light.

I started by pouring a little into a saucer and after a few days I added a Vitamin E capsule to the liquid C. The combination has been fantastic. I was beginning to look my age and now I look as young as my daughter – and that is no exaggeration.

I only used the liquid C on my face because that is the only part of me I take care of – you will not bump into me in a gym nor will you find me exercising at home nor walking. My neighbor, however, goes the entire route. She watches what she eats, exercises, does all the good things. She didn’t know about your blog so I introduced her to the blog and to what I learned at a Bettina Home about Liquid C. My host talked about giving herself an all-over massage with the liquid C – well that is what my neighbor has been doing and she says her energy level is not to be believed. Her tendency to catch every cold within a mile of her house has also stopped. She hasn’t had a cold since she started this regimen.

I wanted her to write about her experience herself, but that won’t happen so I will try. She gives herself an all-over massage with the vitamin C when she gets up in the mornings. Only recently has she started mixing the C with clipping a capsule of Vitamin E and mixing it with her vitamin C.

She then puts her cotton pajamas back on and goes back to bed – with the C and E all over her body. I hope she sleeps alone because that could be a small mess.

When she is ready to get up for the day, she rinses herself off in the shower, dresses and is on her way. No lotion, no make-up, nothing added after the shower.

I wondered about that because I spend lots of money on lotions, but not for my face – I am committed to the Vitamin C with the Vitamin E capsule in the mix.

She looked fine when she started this, but now – after some weeks of this, she looks fantastic. It is almost enough to make me try the same thing, but my energy level is not up to the daily task and I am not nearly as disciplined as she is – but then I don’t look as put together as she does every single day.

I look forward to your blogs on what you are discovering in the health and beauty section. I think I have tried everything, but the liquid C was the most outstanding and gave me unbelievable results – so I had to write and tell you about my experience.

Ed. Note: Thank you for the note. You might also want to read or re-read the blog on “My Feet and Liquid C” dated Sept. 28, 2011

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Tags: A Great Massage, bed & breakfast, Caring for your Feet, health, health and beauty, Liquid C and Vitamin E, Liquid Vitamin C
Posted in Guest comments, Health, Health and Beauty, Liquid Vitamin C, Making Connections, Reader Feedback | Comments Off on I Tried Your Liquid Vitamin C….

Live by the Rule of Law – OR –

July 31st, 2013

Live by the Rule of Love!

As a host family in the Bettina Network I’ve met all kinds of people, had thousands of conversations around the breakfast table and sometimes have great evenings with complete strangers in front of my wood burning fireplace. Conversations which changed my life and have often made me reflect on the condition of my soul. That is one of the hazards of having a Bettina Lifestyle House – or whatever we are called these days.

None of these breakfast conversations have made me reflect so much as the conversation about the “Rule of Law” to which we hold as a country.

What is amazing about that is we also claim to be a “Christian” country. – not to ignore my non-Christrian brothers and sisters, but it is who we claim to be and the reason today for the great political divide in this country. We have almost become the country of the ‘saved’ and the ‘damned’.

The Rule of Law has never struck me as hard as it did listening to all the comments on the various cases which have caught the media’s attention of late – Zimmerman, Martin, Bradley Manning, and on and on.

In this country where the Rule of Law is supreme – Martin was killed, Zimmerman was exonerated and freed, Bradley Manning was tortured, tried and convicted and on and on we go, closer and closer to the depths of hell.

When the decision goes against the just and is clearly not justice, we revert to much talk about how we are a nation under the “Rule of Law” . We tell ourselves to remember that and continue to live under this Rule of Law- even though it is not always perfect – and we must accept that or our entire system will be destroyed and undermined. We threaten those who weaken with talk about the unwashed many who will run amuck and rob, kill, rape, and commit general mayhem if we don’t respect our Rule of Law. Without it, we claim, we will all be at risk of being harmed. We are told it is not perfect, but it has created a great nation – the greatest nation on earth and without this Rule of Law, we are told, we will be overrun with mad people running around doing all kinds of unspeakable things with no controls and nothing to stop them.

But Martin was killed and his killer was exonerated under our Rule of Law —— wasn’t that mayhem out of control? Maybe we deserve to be a nation under the “Rule of Law’ because we can abdicate responsibility, reason, sanity, but mostly we can abdicate love – that which demands the most of us.

Christianity claims to be ruled by a God of Love. Christianity claims that the God we worship is Love, but Christians don’t want that concept to enter into their considerations when making and changing the institutional structures under which they will live. As a country, we refuse to live under the “Rule of Love”. It is a great mythical and theoretical concept to talk about, but not to live under. It has nothing to do with our reality. But still Christianity claims that Jesus came to bring in a regime which eliminates the “Rule of Law” and takes it to its next step. As a nation and as Christians, we hold up the “New” Testament which is all about moving away from the law into the gospel and the gospel is about love not law. In fact, one could almost say Christianity denigrates the Rule of Law. It is not an eye for an eye…………….it is better than that! By your fruit………….

I called a friend of mine, also a host family in the Bettina Network, who has these breakfast conversations with strangers about the most intimate things – to try to talk through what has been and is troubling me. She talked about how the Zimmerman/Martin case exposed the hypocrisy of the “Rule of Law”, but that just didn’t do it for me. It didn’t go far enough.

Since religion is at the core of all politics I would like to ask our editor to throw open the blog to writings about religion. Why are you who you are spiritually? Why do you need to convert others? Why do you refuse to convert others because you are one of the chosen few and don’t want those others to join? Why do you live under a rule of law when your religion dictates that you live under a rule of love? How can you claim to believe one thing and live another? How can you define God to be who you need God to be and ignore the reality of God and God’s kingdom breaking in all over this world of ours? Why are you running around trying to patch up those holes where God’s kingdom is breaking in so the structure you, your friends and your family helped create won’t fall apart and will remain in tact in this process?

I heard a young person constantly bragging about her family. They had a Radcliff degree – she had a degree from a college just as prestigious – and went to a private grammar schools considered to be one of the New England Establishment’s schools that the ‘elite’ attend – and her mother supposedly came from a prestigious, wealthy community in New York. It was very painful to listen to her put up this smoke screen because she and they have done nothing with all that background except live in pain and want and tragedy. This young person has the God-given talent of a beautiful voice, which she trashes on a regular basis and when given the opportunity to use and develop that talent trashes the opportunity as well as the voice. What is that about? Raise those issues to her and she will trash you! How does that happen?

Sin, in Christianity, is defined as the absence of God. God is defined as Love! Sin is the absence of Love! Isn’t that how all of this happens? It is such a huge responsibility and such a huge burden to live under the rule of law. Yet not only do we live under this rule, but we raise our children to do just that.

It is such a treasure and joy to live under the rule of love. What a place this country would be if we could move on – out of the shadow of the laws which have enslaved us for so many years into the light of love which has freed us. That kind of freedom seems to be what we are most afraid to embrace – and so we live our lives in such a small, carefully defined place with those better than we are and those less than we are carefully defined and kept in their places by this Rule of Law. We give up everything we have, including our lives to maintain those carefully crafted laws of oppression.

We set forth a body of laws which maintained Jim Crow as legal and the law of the land and we forced our citizens to live under that law – preserved and reinforced by the Supreme Court of these United States and today we glorify that same Court without calling it into question and demanding acknowledgment for its wrongs.

We maintain that Rule of Law because it maintains the status quo – the oppression, the poverty, the homelessness, the suffering of all the people who live under those laws. That Rule of Law maintains the status quo of the wealthy, the powerful, the dictators of high-brow culture, whether right or wrong – and we consider ourselves the greatest nation on earth because we live under this Rule of Law. We call it the greatest ever created.

The loneliest place to be in this society – all over the world – is in that place of a child without a group; a half-breed who does not belong to one group or the other. We ostracize such a person – trash them – try to hide them – scapegoat them for the sins of the rest of society. We elected one as President of these United States and the anger, hostility, horribleness thrown at him is beyond and beneath all of us, yet some of the seemingly nicest people do it and hide behind their political designation as their claimed reason. This half-breed president strikes terror in the hearts of those who most cherish the rule of law. Is that what is wrong with that young person with the beautiful voice? She lives with a mother who holds up her “Yankee” history as great, while her children look on as half-breeds and incorporate into their souls their brokenness and inadequacy because they are not such a great and glorious part of this New England Establishment?

If you live, even partially under the Law of Love it shows – in how you look; in how you take care of yourself; in how you relate to others; in how you take on the responsibilities of being a part of a whole, in how you are not afraid to speak truth. Every minute of every day it shows and those around you see it. God is Love – not Law. Law cannot be fair and just. It was created by all of us and it embodies all of our sins, our flaws, our weaknesses, our biases and then those who most benefit from this Rule of Law throw in the demand that we all live by it or be negatively judged by it.

We expect and demand that Rule of Law to maintain a society in which we are judged and agree to be judged by a Rule of Law set in place to maintain the privileges of those in control and maintain the oppression of those who are under the heavy foot of the privileged.

God forgive us!

I nominate this Rule of Law for Bettina’s Hall of Shame!

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Tags: bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, politics
Posted in Bettina's Hall of Shame, Breakfast Table Talk, Historical Support, Making Connections, Thought for the Day | Comments Off on Live by the Rule of Law – OR –

A Guest Responds – Popcorn and Mosquitos

July 28th, 2013

Thank you for the recipe for an exceptional snack. I tried it and it was sensational.

I had to make two tries before I got it right. The main problem was keeping the popcorn crisp while adding the simple syrup and the chocolate. I messed up the first try and had soggy popcorn. The second try it was perfect. I let the syrup cool a bit before pouring it over the popcorn. Hot simple syrup right off the stove is guaranteed to give you a mess. The same thing with the chocolate. I added heavy cream to the chocolate chips while melting them, stirred the pot until it was all blended and when cooled a bit, added it on top of the simple syrup and the popcorn. I think the experience of doing this is actually what made it work the second time. I was too anxious with my first try and thought I knew it all the first time I made this snack. The blog read like it would be a snap. Once you figured out how to keep the popcorn crisp through the entire process and into the eating of this snack, it was a snap. But until then it was a worry.

When I melted the chocolate chips and poured them over the popcorn, it was a bit stiffer then when I added heavy cream to the chocolate while it was melting. The chocolate, with heavy cream added did not harden on top of the popcorn, which added to the texture and taste of this fantastic snack. I suspect whichever way you use the chocolate it will be a matter of personal taste.

The snack lasted about two minutes and I made lots for just three people.

My second comment is about mosquitos. I’ve read lots this season about what to do to fend off mosquito attacks – from staying inside when its dawn and dusk to all kind of remedies.

One I got from a stay in a Bettina home, which I haven’t found on your blog, worked. It has been tremendous for me and my children. Vitamin B1. We take one Vitamin B1 capsule before going out – about 15 minutes to 1/2 hour before going outside and whether its high sun or dawn or dusk we have had no mosquito bites. According to the breakfast where I picked up this tip, your skin would smell like mosquito repellant even though the only thing you did was to take this one Vitamin B1 tablet. Sure enough, my skin smells like mosquito repellant. When I get that odor I know I am good to go outside for several hours.

Hope this helps someone!

Ed. Note: The blog recipe the guest is referring to is: An Incredible Snack – Bettina Style, published May 28, 2013 and can be found categorized in Bettina’s Blog under Bettina’s Cookbook

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Networks Cookbook, breakfast table talk, Caramel Popcorn with Chocolate Topping, Mosquito Repellant, Mosquitos, Popcorn, Vitamin B1
Posted in Bettina's Cookbook, Breakfast Table Talk, Guest comments, Reader Feedback, Uncategorized | Comments Off on A Guest Responds – Popcorn and Mosquitos

Jose Mateo Ballet School – A Review

July 20th, 2013

by: Luisa Kay Reyes

Luisa at the Ballet Barre

Ed Note: While not being a reviewer/critic by profession, Ms. Reyes has a love of music, art and dance. Musically, she specializes in opera and is passionate about ballet. She is a trained vocalist and pianist, having studied, among other places, at Oberlin Conservatory. She has a Masters Degree in Library Science and is a licensed attorney. You will see her reviews and other articles in the blog from time to time. Ms. Reyes is currently a Project Manager with Bettina Network, inc.

“When my colleague, knowing my passion for ballet, sent me an e-mail she received announcing the Adult Ballet Classes offered at the Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre School, needless to say I jumped (or did a jete!) at the chance to experience what they offered.

Looking closely at the summer schedule, I noticed that for the most part the Adult Ballet Classes were held Monday through Friday from six o’clock in the evening until seven-thirty in their main studio, which is located right in Cambridge. In fact, the studio is merely a block past the main Harvard University campus. Being preoccupied most of the week with other activities I decided to pull out my black ballet leotard and pink tights on Friday. And walk right on down to the ballet school ( when the temperature was over 90 degrees).

With my hair up in a bun, I walked past the Harvard campus. Past all of the street musicians that line the sidewalks in front of the campus and, yes, I’m ashamed to admit, I walked right past all of the beggars sitting along the way holding up cardboard signs with their various pleas for money written on them with a black marker of some sort. I also walked past a group of old-fashioned Mennonite ladies dressed in their pastel calico dresses with their hair pulled up nice and neat underneath a white cap on their heads. They were joined by some of their men folk who were dressed in long pants and white shirts. It looked as though the Mennonite group was busy setting up an evening evangelism outreach, complete with Gospel Tracts and a choir that was warming up to sing.

When I reached the corner of Bow Street I wasn’t sure whether I should proceed straight ahead, so I stopped and asked a young fellow for directions. He was gracious enough to look it up in Google on his phone, but the map it pulled up confused us both more. I continued walking and encountered the same fellow just a block away, who apologized profusely for not being able to be of more help. I assured him I was directionally challenged and quite used to getting lost and that I was also certain I would eventually find my way. Which when I turned around, I did.

The signs in front of the Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre were rather inconspicuous. What stood out first was actually the sign for the Old Cambridge Baptist Church. The ballet theatre school is housed in the old Church building, although the theatre has no religious affiliation. The Church is a grey stone building, reminiscent of the grey stone Church buildings one sees in the British Isles.

As a transplanted Southerner who is accustomed to running from the air conditioned house to the air conditioned car to the next heavily air conditioned building, what I immediately noticed upon entering the old Church building was that it felt very warm. And when I went to pay my thirteen dollars for the class, the lady at the desk informed me that true to Boston form there was no air conditioning, but the dance studio had lots of fans that would keep us cool. She then directed me to the room where the adult class would be held. It was a spacious room that was once the sanctuary of the Church. All of the people who walked into the room commented on how they loved that particular studio because the room felt so serene. And I have to concur. The feeling was lovely.

I set my dance bag down on what looked to be an old pew bench on the side of the room and began my warm-up stretches along with the six other ballet aficionados who came to class. While the teachers vary depending on which day of the week one takes class, our teacher this Friday was Molly Wheat. Who proceeded to give us the pattern for our plies and commented on how impressed she was with us as we were the “true diehards” of ballet to be taking class in this “101 degree heat!” (It wasn’t actually 101 as far as we know, but it certainly felt like it!) We were accompanied in our dances on a grand piano by a very skilled pianist who adeptly transitioned from folk songs to the Brahms Waltz in A flat Major right on tempo. Once we were in the center, Molly choreographed some lovely Romantic (as in Romantic Era) adagios and waltz routines that really brought out the ultra feminine ballerina in us all. So in spite of dripping with perspiration, we executed pirouettes and pique turns beautifully.

After class was over, we all thanked Molly and the pianist for a very nice class with our ballet curtsies. And rushed either for bottles of water that we brought with us or we ran to the water fountain and drank as much cool water as we possibly could, all the while promising to come back next week. As we exited the building, we encountered an elegant statue of a ballerina in honor of the Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre, reminding us just why we all love ballet so much.”

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Tags: ballet, bed & breakfast, Bed and Breakfast in Cambridge MA, Bed and Breakfast in Harvard Square, Luisa Kay Reyes
Posted in Event Review | Comments Off on Jose Mateo Ballet School – A Review

A Bettina Guest Comments on Zimmerman-Martin

July 17th, 2013

You don’t have to copyright my comment! It is free to whoever wants to use it.

I’ve been a guest at Bettina homes for many years. My regret is that I was not at the home in Harvard Square to be a part of the discussions that I know took place over this trial and its verdict. They have some really unbelievable conversations – especially on race. So, I have to join the conversation via email. I understand,as a former guest in the network, my comments are accepted for Bettina Network’s Blog? If not, let me know. If yes, I will see it published – except, like most people, please don’t publish my name. I am not afraid of backing up my comments, I just don’t want anyone to pick up my name and start to harrass me.

My contribution to the conversation comes from listening to the juror. It was clear racism was deeply embedded in the jury deliberations. In the USA denial is the way racism continues and the way folks are able to go to Church on Sundays and feel good about themselves even when they have participated in some really low-down racism. They neither own up to nor are they even conscious of their sin. In this case, I think they were – the tears show some unconscious understanding of what they were doing. The juror saw Zimmerman very positively and could relate to him. Martin, however, in her comments, deserved what he got. How dare a Black man think he could question being stalked and treated in a demeaning way by someone like a Zimmerman. Afterall, Zimmerman was the neighborhood watch person – Martin was the hoodie wearing ‘punk’ – according to Zimmermans description. She said, she felt he was fully repentant and would be careful with his gun in the future. I wonder if that is true – or if he got the taste of celebrity from killing a Black man and will want more? So he becomes even more reckless and irresponsible with his gun. There are always two sides and her and the jury’s racism only allowed them to see the side which cast Zimmerman in a positive light and Martin as a stereotype. Her comments about Martin, as she quoted Zimmerman, were of a man looking in windows and clearly as someone who did not belong in the neighborhood because he was Black. Has anyone explained to her and the rest of the jury the definition of profiling? By the way, how could she quote Zimmerman who he did not testify at trial?

If you had any doubts that the Martin-Zimmerman decision was racist,or that the make-up of the jury was crucial to getting Zimmerman exonerated by the State of Florida, her comments erase those doubts.

I think this was a done deal before the trial – and I am not alone in that opinion. The Department of Justice was considering filing charges against Zimmerman because the State of Florida was refusing to do so (by dragging its feet). I think when they discovered the DOJ was coming, the State of Florida got its act together and started this trial, but did not intend for it to be a fair trial. A public show so DOJ didn’t come in to get a conviction after they covered for this neighborhood watch person for almost two months. To go forth with the kind of jury they picked – and to look at the history of convictions of Blacks in Florida and the refusal of the Florida prosecutors to charge some Blacks under the ‘Stand your Ground’ law – I don’t see how Trayvon Martin could get any kind of justice. It was a clear stacked deck before the case even started to be tried.

Thanks for the platform!

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Tags: African American history, bed & breakfast, Bettina guest comments, breakfast table talk, Making Connections
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Guest comments, Making Connections | Comments Off on A Bettina Guest Comments on Zimmerman-Martin

Please ask your readers to sign the petition

July 15th, 2013

Thank you for your writings about the Trayvon Martin – George Zimmerman encounter. It was special and I learned a lot. You said everything I wanted to say.

The NAACP has a petition on its web site which you can sign asking that the Department of Justice file a case against George Zimmerman, who violated Trayvon Martin’s right to life.

You can sign this petition at

www.naacp.org/page/s/doj-civil-rights-petition

you may have to go back to the site several times because it has been overloaded with people trying to sign the petition. Be persistent – don’t give up – keep going back to the site until you are able to sign the petition.

All of Us At Bettina’s

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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: African American history, bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, George Zimmerman, Making Connections, NAACP's DOJ Petition, Trayvon Martin
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Guest comments | Comments Off on Please ask your readers to sign the petition

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Please ask your readers to sign the petition

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