HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1953-01-29, Page 2Hangover Cure Takes Herring -Do;
air Sounds Wore Than The Rite
By WADE JONES
NEA Staff Correspondent
Paris - Visitors seeking balm
Saar too much over -celebration
might get a tip from a few of
the curious cures of Europe. On
the other hand, they might just
/eel worse,
Some of the remedies seem
worse than the ailment they're
supposed to cure. In fact, they
neem to be based on the theory
that if the cure is awful enough,
the patient will forget all about
his original indisposition.
Fish, for instance. In parts of
(Germany, where a hangover is
tidied a katzenjammer, and in
several other north European
mountries, it's the custom before
xetiring to gulp down a whole
Herring- dipped in chopped onion.
The technique is simple. You
;just take the herring—prefer-
ttbly raw --by the tail, lean your
head back and swallow it down.
St's supposed to absorb the al-
4'ohol in the system •and make
• ;you awake up in the morning
3teelirng like a million marks,
°
In Germany, fish thus eaten
acre called rollmops, but have
:more the effect of vneuum clean-
s:es.
Moat Europeans subscribe to
the theory that an ounce of pre-
vention is worth a quart of cure.
Bo they eat a lot before and
while they're drinking.
In countries like Belgium,
Mollancl, Norway, and Sweden
anany people eat a chunk of but-.
ter beforehand if they haven't
:tad time to eat anything more.
Sn southern Europe they often
eat several slices of bread dunked
in olive oil...
After a party in Holland it's
often customary for the host to
give you something ealIed "uits-
:myter," which literally means
something to get you out of the
blace with. It usually consists of
read and butter and fried ham
and eggs.
Li Franee, which boasts more
running feet of bar space per
Iverson than any other country
M the world, people also eat a
:Rot while they're drinking. And
that's despite the fact the cetm-
Ary has 580,000 bars and only
49,000 bakeries.
Parisians, young people par-
ticularly, like to go to Les Mlles,
lie great market place, after a
late party and eat onion soup.
When food fails, though, Euro-
peans are great believers in the
:hair -of -the -dog theory.
The French have two words
ler hangover which are good
ardsticks in the matter. One is
tai aux chevaux," which
,means aching hair, and the other
lf€eavy, Heavy, hangs the hang-
over of Frenchman Raoul Pres -
Tee, here trying an international
cure, to wit: a raw herring to be
followed by hair -of -the -dog (in
glass) while he wears American-
made hangover hat compart-
mented for ice, aspirin and
other panaceas.
"gueule de boil," which is mouth
of mooed. If you've got either of
these it probably means you're
grievously afflicted and can take
stern curative measures.
Louis, of the Millen Hotel bar,
recommends what he calls a
Smiling Joe --one part lemon
juice and three parts vodka, with
Me.
The French workingman will
probably step into the corner
bistro and call for rince co -
Oxon, which is white wine and
seltzer, and which picturesquely
means to wash the pig out of the
system.
Jacques, head barman at the
swank Relais-Plaza, unhesitat-
ingly recommends a mixture of
ice cold beer and tomato juice.
"But not if you've been drink-
ing scotch the night before," he
adds. Jacques is firm on the
point that the only morning -
after cure for too much scotch
the night before is a drop more
of the same,
But Jean, bar chief at the Tan -
gage Restaurant, doesn't entirely
approve of the hair -of -the -dog
bt:siness.
"It doesn't cure the hangover,"
he says. "It only postpones it,
We once had a client who came
in here, a genteel type. He drank
every morning to postpone a
hangover he had acquired 20
years before, One day he forgot
to drink and the hangover
caught up with him—a 20 -year-
old hangover, my friend—and he
just sort of exploded like this--
pfft. They could not even find
the little pieces of him,"
Some Strange Bets
People Have Made
It probably started when Eve
provokingly bet weak-willed Ad-
am that he daren't eat an apple
off the forbidden tree. He
couldn't resist the challenge, and
since that memorable day the
betting habit seems to have
caught on.
Sometimes a small amount of
money changes hands, sometimes
fortunes. And on record are the
wagers of those happy-go-lucky
betters who have had not only
to eat their words, but also their
stakes.
William Hendricks rashly said
of a certain baseball team: "if
it wins that next match 1'11 eat
my hat." The team won, Wil-
liam, being a man of integrity,
promptly made arrangements to
fulfil his promise.
Inviting witnesses home he
took his favorite straw hat, drop-
ped it into a saucepan with thin
macaroni, added onions and to-
mato sauce, and boiled the lot
for fifteen minutes. He ate all
except the hatband. To an
anxious audience he exclaimed:
"Boy, I feel simply fine!"
Far more painstaking and sci-
entific was the learned professor
who had to eat his shirt when he
lost a bet. He disolved the shirt
in acid with another chemical.
The poisonous part of the concoc-
tion was filtered with a specially
built apparatus. The diner spread
the result on a piece of bread
and ate it.
Some time ago for a bet, a
Dutchman, Takkenberg, travel-
led from Amsterdam to Mar-
seilles, roughly some 840 miles,
by somersaults. The man won
his bet and statisticians estimated
that 2,000,000 somesaults were
required for the whole distance.
Bottle carrying used to be a
popular sport in Deptford. This
branch of athletics entailed bal-
ancing a bottle, or stone jar, neck
downwards on the head.
Champion in this form of en-
tertainment was James Fowler
who once raced George Golding
to Brighton and back for a £50
wager. James won easily by the
decisive margin of twenty-five
miles.
The coming Presidential elec-
MISS NORMA IIOIIBS daughter or Mr, and Mrs, W. H. Robbs, am
MB. DONALD CORDON, (LIMO, LLD., whose engagement has beer
announced. Miss Robbs is a graduate in Arts of McGill tTtnversity aaa
nerved with the W.R,E.N.S. duringthe last war. Mr. Gordon is Chairmar
rod President of the Canadian ational Railways, and former Depute
Governor of the Bank of Canada and during the war Chairman of the War -
limo Prices and Tracie Board, The marriage will bike place in the spring
(A1tee 1%etta' photo 6y Mrpc» S6r,,Po,
Capital Calligrapher—If you received an invitation to the Inaugural
Ball, chances are it was written by this smiling Washington letter -
artist, Fay King. She wrote nearly 10,000 invitations in highly
ornamental script, For Harry Truman's inauguration, Miss King
turned out 30,000 in 39 days. Using a special type of pen, she
keeps spares, seen at left, always available.
tion in America will, for a cer-
tainty, add more unorthodox bets.
to the list; perhaps one that will
cap that of the Detroit woman in
past election.
This woman lost her bet and
had to walk across one of the
bridges clad in long woollen un-
derwear. Then there was the
girl from Boston. Her part of the
bargain was to walk through the
streets of her home town wear-
ing shoes and a barrel,
Oddly enough the modern
business man's short -tailed coat
came into popularity as the result
of a wager. Years ago, the then
Lord Spencer wagered that he
would cut off his long coat-tails
and walk about the city, thus
setting a new fashion. He won
his bet as can be seen.
Every once in a while, espe-
cially during the silly season,
one reads of a conscientious loser
pushing a peanut for miles with
his nose, wheeling a companion
from one point to another in a
wheelbarrow, nudging a small
pebble from here to there with
a matchstick;' but when a gam-
bler plays for real big money and
refuses to admit defeat special
mention must be made of Col-
onel Edgeworth, who served tin-
der William III.
One evening, having lost all
his money at a card table, he
took himself to an adjoining
school where his wife sat play-
ing. A whispered word in her
ear resulted in husband and wife
locking themselves in another
room.
The Colonel emerged a short
time later carrying all his wife's
clothes, including her diamond -
buckled shoes. Re-entering the
game, using his wife's clothing
as stake money, he ran into a
spell of good luck and managed
to win back all his losings and
return the good lady's wardrobe
to her.
Electronic Glow -Worm
Recharged in Pressure
.13y Richard Kleiner
NEA Staff Correspondent
New York --A souped -up Lam-
pyris Noctiluca (glow-worin) is
causing quite a stir along what's
left of Tin Pan Alley. This en-
tomological ditty is "The Glow -
Worm," the hit song of the
1910s that's now back with a set
of electronic lyrics and a new
lease on life.
It's a smash. But it typifies the
current bleakness of the musical
picture, when lyricists are hav-
ing to dip back 40 years or so
to find singable melodies.
"The Glow -Worm" has been
selling well for more than four
decades. It's long been classed
as a "standard"—the publishers,
Edward B. Marks Music Corp.,
sell some 60 different arrange-
ments of it, for everything from
a saxophone quartette to a flute-
piano duet.
But few modern songs stand a
chance of lasting so long. "The
Glow -Worm," and other melodies
of that era, were simple.
"Songs need to be written,"
says Herbert Marks, head of the
Marks song publishing firm, "for
pecple to sing around a piano.
Today, they're written for trick
effects on records. It's hard to sing
something like 'Jambalaya,' for
instance, even if you could re-
member the words."
Marks points out that there are
plenty of song -writers around,
His crowded waiting room is evi-
dence to that. But they write
melodies that sound goo., coming
out of an echo chamber, or being
howled by a weeping tenor, or
strummed by what sounds like
17 guitars.
Songs, today, are written for
mechanical reproduction. And
they're written under pressure.
It's gotten so one commentator
things they ought lo rename Tin
Pan A.11ey "Pressure Cooker
Lane."
To -day's song -writer has to
work fast. IIe makes tar less
money now than he did in the
good old gather.around-the-
pieno days, His chief source of
revenue—sheet music -as selling
just moderately well. And the
writer and publisher gel, at the
most, only two cents from each
record. Figuring a million rec-
ords, which is good, that moms
the publisher and writer (or
writers) cut up a $20,000 melon..
And it million record song isn't
too common.
So the song -writers grind them
out as fast as they can, and when
they become hits, it's generally
because of. a recording artist and
a recording arrangement, rather
than because of the qualify of the
song itself..
"The Glow -Worm" is the ex-
eeption. Marks poo-poos those
Shines Again,
Cooker Lane
Ac
DC
who talk about it as a "lucky
hit,"
"After all," he says, "it's the
work of top artists. Paul Lincke,
who wrote the music, was the
foremost composer of Berlin in
his day. And Johnny Mercer,
who wrote the new lyrics—well,
I don't have to tell you about
Johnny Mercer. It wasn't luck—
it was skill and talent and hard
work."
Lincke wrote it in 1902, and
called it "Gluhwurmchen," which
even the Mills Brothers couldn't
have done much with. It cane
over to this country in 1905, got
a new name and, new lyrics and
eventually found its way into a
Lew Fields show, "The Girl Be-
hind the Counter."
From then on, it's been a semi -
classic. Children learned to play
the piano front it. Little girls
danced to it in school plays. Big
girls took their clothes off to it
in burlesque houses. Little shav-
ers sang it, and so did big shav-
ers in barber shop quartettes.
Then Johnny Mercer gave h
a lyrical transfusion, and the
Milts Brothers record of it be-
came one of the top sellers of
1952. Marks, hopes in the new
version, 1111 keep glowing for
another' 40 years.
Or at Least as long, as the new
lyrics put it, as the little bug
with the neon tail. light contin-
ues to turn on the AC and the
DC.
Just Like Ottawa
"Here", says a Washington
paper, "are comparisons of the
wordage in some rather famous
pieces of writing:—
The Ten Com-
mandments 297 words.
The Lord's Prayer 56 words.
The Declaration of
Independence ., ... 300 worsts.
'T h e Gettysburg
Address 266 words.
OPS Ceiling Order
for Cabbages 26,011 words,
Too many of us, in these days
of gas and electric stoves, sacri-
fice a whole lot of good eating
by trying to do ou" cooking tnueli
` too speedily.
For instance, a browned, ten-
der pot roast seasoned just right
and served with plenty of brown
gravy is popular in almost every
Dustily. But, be sure to take time
to cook pot roasts; Swiss steaks,
short ribs and other less tender
cuts of beef slowly to assure
tenderness and to retain the
juices,
° ° M
Whatever cut of pot roast you
buy, roll it in seasoned flour and
brown it on all sides in a small
amount of fat in a deep, heavy
skillet as your first step in roast-
ing it. When it is well browned,
slip a low rack under the meat
and add 12 to 1 cup of water
before covering it for a long,
slow cooking, if you like a spe-
cial seasoning, add a few slices
of onion, a bay leaf and 2 or 3
whole cloves. Then, covered, put
it in a 350°F. oven to cook for
2 or 3 hours. For the last 30 or
40 minutes of this cooking, add
whatever vegetables you want to
serve with your roast—carrots,
onions, potatoes, turnips, 'etc.
° A V
There are several cuts of beef
that are especially desirable for
pot roasts. The round bone,
shoulder roast which has only
one small round bone is good.
The blade bone shoulder roast
usually called chuck is , ood, also,
but is difficult to carve across the
grain: The boned rump is one of
the best pieces for pot -roasting,
and a boneless sirloin tip is ten-
der and easy to serve, though it
often lacks the fat that adds so
much to the taste of these slow -
cooking pieces of beef.
° °
In the slow -cooking steak field,
round is the most popular cut in
almost all parts of the country.
It is from the round that Swiss
steaks are procured, for a Swiss
steak is a round that has been
cut from 1 to 2 inches thick and
then pounded or "benched" with
seasoning and flour. Brown a
Swiss steak well and cook it
slowly in tomato juice, beef broth
or any other savory liquid until
you can cut it with a fork—and
you'll gain a reputation as a spe-
cialized neat cooker!
° u
If you want r special touch to
your Swiss steak, add to the beef
broth liquid onions, mushrooms,
tomato sauce or a combination of
these. And be sure to cook it a
long time slowly and serve some
of the sauce you've cooked it
in with each portion.
a w °
POT ROAST WITH
VEGETABLES
3 pounds beef pot roast
Flour
54 cup fat
2 teaspoons salt
14 teaspoon pepper
1 cup water
6 potatoes, cut in half
6 medium carrots, pared
6 medium onions, peeled
6 small turnips, pared
lei cup flour
Coat beef on all sides in flour.
Brown in the fat in Dutch oven
or heavy skillet. Add salt, pepper
and water. Slip low rack under
neat. Cover and cools at 350° F.
2 hours. Add vegetables and cook
about ?rz hour longer of until
meat and vegetables are fork
tender, Arrange meat cat veget-
ables on hot platter. Add water
to kettle to make 2 cups broth.
Mix the 3/4 cup flour with a/x eup
cold water. Stir and add slowly
to broth. Boil 5 minutes. Season
more if necessary,
4k 7 V
If you'd like an entirely new
taste to your next pot roast, try
fixing it this way:
° .M
SWEET SOUR I'OT R fikA.S'f
3-5 Pound, pot roast
2 tablespoons fat --
its cup sliced onion
1 cup vinegar
% cup brown sugar, firmly
packed
14 teaspoon. nutmeg
8 medium turnips
2 cups cooked peas
Butter or margarine
Brown roast in hot fat in heavy
skillet. Add onions and coals until
onions are transparent. Add vine-
gar, sugar and nutmeg. Cover
tightly and simmer 3-317 hours
or until fork tender. Thicken
liquid for gravy. Serve with but-
tered peas and turnips.
Short ribs may be browned,
seasoned and covered, with as
small amount of water added,
and baked at 300° F. for 1 - 2
hours, or they may be 5xed with
spices for a special meal.
e *
SPICY BEEF SHORT RIIISS
2 lbs. beef short ribs
3 tblsp. lard or drippings
1 medium onion, sliced:
2 tblsp. butter or margarine
2 tblsp. vinegar
112 cup ketchup
1 tblsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tblsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. prepared mustard
its cup water
1,2 cup chopped celery
1 teaspoon salt
;h teaspoon pepper
Brown short ribs in lard; 'grown
onion in butter or margarine. ee:sep.
Combine onion with all ingredi-
ents except meat and simmer
until thickened (about 30 min-
utes). Pour off drippings from
ribs and pour over the ribs the
simmered sauce. Cover and sim-
mer or bake at 350° F. about
2 hours or until tender. Makes
4 - 6 servings.
m ° x
If you would like to serve a
flank steak for your next buffet
supper, try it with this special
blue cheese topping. Buy a top
quality flank steak and remove
membrane from both sides. Trim
off excess fat and uneven edges.
Place trinuned and scored steak
in a shallaw pan and pour over it
this mixture: 1 cup salaa oil, 2
tablespoons vinegar and 1 mashed
clove of garlic. Cover and keep
in refrigerator 8 to 24 hours,
turning steak several times so it
will absorb dressing. At broiling
time, remove steak and rub each
side with cut clove of garlic.
Broil one side in preheated
broiler about 3 inches from heat
for about 5 minutes. Turn and
spread other side with mashed
blue cheese (you'll need about
4 ounces). Continue broiling
until cheese is bubbly hot and
lightly browned. Carve very thin
slanting slices.
Ferried Over, He'll Walk Back—Dobbin, junk carthorse and cart
driver Abe Schaeffer pay their ferry fare for the last time and get
ready for the final ride across the river on the Bast Boston "Penny"
Ferry, Discontinued after 120 years, the "Penny" Ferry, running
in the red, went to sea for the last time. It made its first trip in
1832,