Potluck Posting from Virgil
I saw a poster this week for a church dinner, and it reminded me of the potluck dinners that churches in Arthur used to hold. In honour of those dinners, here is a motley collection of stories. As with the dishes at the church dinners---casseroles, potato salads, green Jell-O salads with marshmallows, cakes, pies, butter tarts and so on--- you will probably find that some are tastier than others.
I hope you will find something you can enjoy!
A New Niagara Winery
Last week we visited the Megalomaniac Winery, which is carved out of the rock at the crest of the Niagara Escarpment, above the town of Vineland.
Before we go on, we better deal with the name.
The highly successful but not not-at-all-bashful entrepreneur, John Howard, who made a bundle of money from the sale of Vineland Estates Winery, decided to create a new winery on the Escarpment. Here is how he explains the name:
“I originally wanted to christen these wines in my name, John Howard…and then my friends accused me of being yet another '[profanity withheld] megalomaniac'. Regrettably, the name stuck.
And so, I now produce wines called Megalomaniac. Meant to be shared with friends of equivalent or even greater egos. Pairs extremely well with delusional fantasies of wealth, power, and occasionally, omnipotence.
Enjoy.”
The entrance to the winery is through high, totally splendid oak doors.
On the left is a tiny office for placing orders, while straight ahead is the working part of the winery, with shiny stainless steel tanks, black hoses winding along the wet floor, and in the rear stacks of wooden barrels going back into the ‘cave’.
Along one wall is a tasting bar.
The man at the tasting bar had obviously picked up Howard’s penchant for extravagant overstatement. As he offered us a taste of a reserve Merlot, he intoned, “When you taste this, you will think you are an angel on the doorstep of paradise.”
The wine was actually pretty good, if not heavenly, but, at $40 a bottle, a little out of our price range.
We bought a couple of quite acceptable, and more reasonably priced, Rieslings.
As we paid for the wines, we admired a Megalomaniac Tee shirt, black with a message in large white letters, “Intimidate, don’t imitate”.
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| The bottle labels convey the aristocratic, wealthy image the Megalomaniac Winery wants to project with the elegant gentleman, bowler hat and all. |
And the view over Lake Ontario from the winery is not too shabby either.
The Revitalized Fort George
I’ve been embarrassed in the past to recommend that friends and relatives visit ‘our’ fort, Fort George. At first it was because it had a dilapidated air, and then it was because it was always under construction, as the Federal Government spent huge amounts of money to restore it.
No more!
The restoration process is complete and the result is outstanding. And---as planned---just in time for the Bicentennial of the War of 1812.
We took our family and a friend (13 of us---but who’s superstitious) to the Fort last weekend.
Our guide/interpreter, Sonya, seemed to draw energy and enthusiasm from the changes that have been made to the Fort. She bounded around the displays as she skillfully and objectively outlined the history of the Fort and of the War of 1812. We were convinced that her presentational skills must have come from a background with the Shaw, but, no, she had been a teacher. She is priceless!
The artifacts are authentic and not to be missed.
The tour was followed with a musket demonstration. Our two year old grandson, with his hands over his ears, grinned and jumped as the guns boomed.
We were then free to explore the Fort. The younger and more nimble members of the family, including the two year old, raced to the powder magazine, and then through a tunnel to a lookout tower. Later on, the two year old kept repeating ‘cave’ as he tried, with his eyes dancing and his hands flying, to describe the tunnel and the tower.
The Fort is now ‘two thumbs up---away up’.
It is not to be missed.
And the gift shop, just outside the Fort, is also worth a visit. It is run by a volunteer group, Friends of Fort George, and is full of high quality souvenirs (schlock not permitted), books on Canadian history, patterns for 1812 costumes, and on and on.
We will be back often.
Niagara-on-the-Lake Has a Potter’s Field
A recent article in the St. Catharines Standard shocked and angered citizens of Niagara-on-the-Lake (that includes those of us who live in Virgil---our village was incorporated into the municipality of NOTL in 1970).
We discovered that a field owned by the provincial Ministry of Transportation in the southern part of our municipality, just off the QEW, is being used as a disposal site for ‘road kill’---for animals killed on the QEW and nearby roads. Apparently, a company has a contract to collect the dead animals, take them to the field, and cover them with gravel.
Two aspects of the story troubled us. First, it seemed that some of the animals were not being properly covered. Coyotes had discovered the field and found it easy to dig through the thin layer of gravel, and feast on the dead deer, raccoons, cats and so on.
And then, a pet dog, Jeremiah (part lab), who had been missing for several months was discovered by a woman who recognized him from photos she had seen in the newspaper. Apparently, the ‘road kill’ contractors hadn’t made any effort to notify the family of the death of their pet even though the dog was wearing a tag.
We are told that the Ministry of Transportation is preparing a new protocol that will make it clear to the contractor that dead animals are to be properly covered, and that efforts must be made to notify owners of dead pets.
I am sure that it is the first time that the words ‘Niagara-on-the-Lake’ and ‘road kill’ have been used in the same story.
And we don’t like it.
It is not good for our brand!
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As a digression, after I used ‘Potter’s Field’ in the title, I decided to look up the origin of the expression. It seems to have Biblical roots.
In Matthew 27:7, the disciples discussed what to do with the thirty pieces of silver that Judas had left behind after he hung himself, out of remorse for having betrayed Jesus. The 2007 New Living Translation of the verse is:
“After some discussion they finally decided to buy the potter's field, and they made it into a cemetery for foreigners.”
The ‘potter’s field’ was a place where a potter would have collected the clay needed for pots, bowls, and so on. Because of the clay, the field would not have been suitable for agriculture, but would have been perfectly suitable for the burial of people.
In North American, and perhaps elsewhere, the term has, of course, been used for the places in which the indigent (and the executed) were buried.
‘The Tragically Hip’ Are Coming to Niagara-on-the-Lake!
The Kingston, Ontario band, ‘The Tragically Hip’ (or just ‘The Hip’ to aficionados) is performing on June 30 in a large park in The Old Town, near the Butler’s Barracks. Some 20,000-30,000 people are expected to listen to the band, which at last count has won 14 Juno awards.
A concert with so many people has required some compromises from our small and staid community. The organizers of the tour held a well-attended public meeting, which from all reports proceeded in a very civilized manner. As a result of the meeting and subsequent discussions in the Town Council some changes were agreed upon.
First, the Town’s noise bylaw has had to be amended so that for June 30th (and for June 30th only) it comes into effect at 11PM, instead of10 PM. One senior resident of the area said that while she really didn’t appreciate the ‘so-called music of rock groups’, she supposed she could put up with the noise for one additional hour.
Secondly, a number of streets will have to be blocked off, with most of the music lovers being bused in from parking lots outside the town. The Shaw Festival has shown commendable community spirit by cancelling one evening performance and by shifting another to an afternoon matinee.
Our War of 1812 Bicentennial Committee will have a booth at the concert, in order to give out information on the events we are planning. I can report that many of our younger volunteers have bravely offered to ‘man’ the booth, despite the ‘noise’.
A ‘Shout Out’ for a Mystery Novel
I picked up a mystery the other day at our library, ‘The Wild Beasts of Wuhan’. I saw that it was by a Canadian author, Ian Hamilton, and decided to borrow it.
The name seemed familiar, and then it came to me. He had been in Canadian Immigration when I was with the service and our paths had crossed on one or two occasions.
Now retired from the public service, Ian has been using his experience with Canadian Immigration in the Far East and elsewhere in the world to write mystery novels. He introduced his heroine, Torontonian Ava Lee, in ‘The Water Rat of Wanchai’. This novel was followed by another in the series, ‘The Disciple of Las Vegas’. ‘The Wild Beasts of Wuhan’ followed and I understand Ian has a new book about to appear.
I found ‘The Wild Beasts of Wuhan’ a really good read. Clever plot, well developed characters, and fascinating (but not excessive) descriptions of life in China today.
I am now going to read the earlier novels, starting with ‘The Water Rat of Wanchai’.
I enjoy mysteries but I have been getting a little bored lately with some popular authors who seem increasingly to be writing to a formula.
Ian Hamilton doesn’t.
If you like mysteries, you may want to give him a try.
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I hope you enjoyed this potluck posting, and that you found something as tasty as a piece of Mrs. Workman’s never-to-be-forgotten peach pie!
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See you on May 6, 2012 for Posting #145 with more stories from our family’s universe! If you have comments or suggestions, please leave a comment at the bottom of this posting, or email me at johnpathunter@gmail.com.
Note:
There is a new Posting (# 8) in The Icewine Guru blog. In it the Guru gives his prediction on the Supreme Court decision on the health care mandate. He and the Professor and their wives then discuss religion and politics. If you would like to read the Posting, please click on:
http://theicewineguru.blogspot.com/
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