August 7th, 2007:

A friend of mine from THE WELL, used to be Son of Sam’s paperboy.

No, really!

(And for those of you who don’t know who Son of Sam, let’s just say he was a resident of Yonkers that the Chamber of Commerce rarely discusses…)

You can read about his exploits on his blog:

MEMOIRS OF AN UNMOLESTED CATHOLIC SCHOOL BOY

Here’s a taste:

The Son of Sam’s paperboy, part I

Did I ever tell you that David
Berkowitz, the .44 Caliber Killer,
the Son of Sam, who killed five
women and one man in New York
City between July 1976 and his
capture on August 10, 1977, lived
around the corner from my house
in Yonkers?  And that for one week
in the summer of 1977, I was his
paperboy?

In those days my family lived in a huge haunted Victorian
house in the middle of Hudson Terrace.  Go down Warburton
Avenue with the Hudson River on your right until you come to
the planetarium, where Shonnard Place intersects Warburton. 
Make a left, take that windy, twisty road uphill, and you're
on Hudson Terrace.  It is, or it was in those days, a tree
lined little world of old fashioned slate sidewalks, stone
fences, and set back Victorian houses.

READ MORE...

So far, I’m very happy with our CSA. It’s a little bit of a pain in the ass to go all the way up to Tarrytown on a Saturday morning, but truthfully, it’s not THAT bad.

Oh we get other things from them too– greens and cucumbers and radishes and eggplant and eggs and zuchini and a few more things. Weirdly, we haven’t received tomatoes yet.

(I remember now what the other thing was. Beets. Icko!)

Which reminds me– last Saturday we had an impromptu barbecue. We cooked up all of our hamburger, Stephanie made a delicious fried eggplant casserole and a cucumber salad, and I shucked and made a whole mess of corn (roasted on the grill– well actually, the first batch was roasted corn husk on, in the grill. The second batch was done in aluminum foil ON the grill. Both were pretty good, if I do say so myself.. My friend Marvin came over , as well as our truck-parking neighbors Maria and Jose. Although we have a fairly large language barrier, we had an excellent time. Marie and Jose are charismatic Christians, and are going to be married in October (and they invited us to their wedding!) We sat out on the front porch and had a very good time.

Among the many things that we cooked, Stephanie roasted some beets. Well she left them in the oven, and went upstairs to take a nap. I was downstairs reading and noticed a burning smell. She had forgotten about them and overcooked the beets. Badly.

This past Sunday, Stephanie and I did some tag team cooking. Stephanie prepared the eggplant (salting, breading, and toasting) and made a delicious tomato sauce– I finished the toasting and prepared and cooked the eggplant– layering eggplant, tomato sauce, and two kinds of cheese, and then baking it for 25 minutes or so while she went to a synagogue meeting. We now have eggplant casserole coming out of our ears! I froze a bunch, and am eating a bunch while she is in DC.

(This eggplant casserole is tasty, but not as tasty as last weeks edition) Of course, it’s not fried, so its not swimming in oil either. I’d like to figure out how to make it without the breading too!

It was good fun to cook together, and really feel like part of a team. We don’t often get a chance to cook together. Hopefully we’ll make more chances.
(I’d say take more chances, but I wouldn’t want to take any chances).