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The Seaforth News, 1962-04-19, Page 6AlMghanistan — The Roof Of The World There is a strange land on the Roof of the World which is guar- anteed riot to bore those unfor- tunate enough to see it, It is the crossroads over which, since longer than can be remem bered,,many a conqueror and his horde have swept from the north into southern Asia through the most famous ,mounttlin funnel in history. The country is Afghani- stan and the funnel is the ICby- ber Pass, Man does not find there the necessities as we know themto- day in our large cities, the flow- er shops, the French restaurants, the latest movie, but he will find luxuries that New York with all its skyscrapers cannot buy. Twenty -thousand -foot mountain peaks swarthed in whipped ' cream, dawns of pistachio and lemonade, sunsets of orange crush and raspberry jam; authen- t: .rs ta.t, t..:• p e •:'s' flutes, homemadeguitars; and — What few other nations can boast in such richness the most abundant and luscious fruit, cul- minating in over 40 kinds of melon, Still one of the smallest, still one of the most remote, stili one of the last to emerge from.ob- scurity, still among the poorest, still heretofore one of the 'least accessible, Afghantistan up to 15 years ago is described as never having seen more than 50 Ameri- cans, yet today it finds itself on the direct route of Pan Ameri- rr is raund-toe-warle jet flight, 511/2 hours from New York, Once a crossroads, always a crossroads. It is a land of extremes, con- trasts, and paradoxes, Towering mountain ranges; low and Val- leys; blizzards and sandstorms; winter temperatures of 15 de- grees below and summer thermo- meters of 120 and above. Women still in purdah (the veil) and women in shirt waists and skirts on the streets; young girls whose eyes have never been beheld by a man outside of her immediate family; and young girls with the latest hairdo working in offices. It is a country of scant rain- fall and no navigable streams but where the vales are as lovely as those of Kashmir, It has a ter- rain as uneven as a piece of TIERS OF JOY — Dori Roberts looks as though he is about to taste this eight -foot Space Needle coke, on display in o bank in Watsonville, Calif. It was creoted to honor the forth- coming World's Fair. t Unipled paper but plains where migratory nomads numbering in the tens of thousands find gran- ing grouuda for their millions of camels, sheep, and goats, Although Kabul, the capital, has no water supply, no sewage system, no garbage collection, no rubbish disposal, no railroad, no kr;f• r_o pork, no rso;l streets outside of the eapital, the people are already making s1r .'. eyes at the tourist trade. What Mt. Fuji is to Japan, what the Victoria 1'..t .; are to Rhodesia, what to Pyramids are to Egypt, the Khyber Pass is to Afghanistan although it is not actually rn Afghan soil. Many tourists drive the 180 miles from Kabul to see this narrow eut thrcueh the Hindu Ku••'i (oun• tains on the border of Ai':;heni sten and what used, to be India's northwest frontier, the Punjab, new Pakistan. Read your Kip- ling, Whether one approaches from the plains of Peshawar or the lowlands of Landi Khena on the Afghan side, there is no grass,. there are no flowers, no shrubs, no trees, only coarse dirt,'stones, rocks, boulders, and glowering escarpments, But in its bleak, desolate, "windswept way it has an austere charm that is hard to describe, and its 1,000 -foot .shale and limestone cliffs, a magnifi- cznee of sinister and foreboding beauty, . There are three routes leading through its dangerous. defiles, a railroad, 'an asphalt motor high- way, and a caravan trail, writes Helen Freeman in The Christian Science Monitor, Another of the great sights for the 'tourist is the migration of the Kochis in their annual trek up the Hindu Kush with their hundreds of camels and thous- and; cf•secep as they have done, un•'.oneed, in 1,000 years, Frequently they halt to rest and pitch their black -wool tents. Contrary to most reports they are a friendly people and are as curious about Americans as Ame- ricans are about them, The red skirts of the women with liter- ally pounds of bizarre jewelry including nose plugs,, and the colorful turbans of the bare-foot- ed men hovering over flickering, smoky camp fires dotting the hillsides, make a weird and ae- tonishingly beautiful picture, It is also amazing to see how self-sufficient they are. Their camels, fat -tailed sheep, and goats provide most of their needs, meat, wool tents, winter clothing, milk, cheese, butter, and transportation. It is said that their number is diminishing; that some of them are yielding to the lure of newly irrigated farm lands, schools for their children (05 per cent of the Afghans are illiter- ate), new houses, to say nothing of dacron shirts. Maybe someday an adventuresome young,tribes- man will go so far as to swap a couple of camels for a pkane trip to New York. Perhaps the lights of Broad- way will dazzle him for a bit but not for long. He will return prob- ably with some impossible elec. trical gadget, he who had never seen electricity, and whose only home is his tent under the stars. It will take many generations to thin the wild blood of these no- madic gypsies in their annual trek into the Hindu Kush on the Roof of the World. A GREAT GAME FISH Ring salmon is largest of all the salmon. Off the Columbia River, in Puget Sound, and among the inland seas of British Columbia and southeastern Ales lea, the icing salmon has earned a reprit:ation as a great game fish. IL strikes savagely at trolled spoons, plugs, and hooks baited with natural food. The nuts are long and of such . power so to amaze the newcomer, the heavy fish slanting deep into the sea, generally. rising a hundred yards or more distant to thrash at the • surface. The' fighting continues king after it would seem that the fish would he tiring. RUN AGROUND — Italian luxury liner "Venezuela" cants So one aide after she was deliberately run aground by her exipfain, Michele Petro. SPEAKING OF BILLS — Tropical toucan bird with a bill as long as his body gazes back at visitors to zoo in Chessington, England. Fruit -eating toucan's bill is very light, however. T T diene t r d sews. The fallowing article on pie - making may seem revolutionary to some of you, but it contains so many good and — as 1 know myself — practical ideas that I 'am going toquote it in full, It was written •for the Christian Science Monitor by Virginia M, Bailey; and I am sure you will be delighted with' the results lin your own kitchen. *' * * I have found that the easiest and •quickest way to. make pie crust Is to use a pastry cloth to roll the dough on and a rolling pin covered with a' cloth pastry sleeve, Use of these aids insures minimum .handling of the .pie. dough and a minimum of excess hour rolled into the dough: ':two secrets of good pie ctrust• results. Hands, pastry 'eloth,'and roll- ing pin sleeve should all be well floured The philosopher from the farm, John, Gould of Lisbon Falls, Maine, is right. Leaf lard does make the best crusts flaky, tender, succulent—nurwnml . . Here's a good recipe for quick hot-water pie orust, It makes four large, 9-ineh crusts, plus a few scraps: QUICK HOT-WATER PIE CRUST 1 cup leaf lard (r/s pound) 3$ eup boiling water 1 teaspoon salt 3 cups flour (loosen Hour with spoon, then '.spoon into cup but don't sift) • Pour boiling water over lard and cream it, Adel salt and flour to form a soft dough. Divide Slough into four parts. Sprinkle flour lightly over pastry cloth, sleeve, and hands. Shape one part dough into a round ball; flatten on top. Roll out on pastry' cloth with rolling pin, line pie pan, trim excess edges with knife, and fill with your favorite filling. Dip fingers in cold water and wet around edge of pastry in pan. Roll out top crust, fold over once, slit several times in meddle to allow for escape of steam, place over' filling, and press down edges on moistened' lower edge to seal. Trim edges. ' To hold juices in pie (and keep oven clean), run knife around edge of pie and stand crust up to form a "wall." Another trick to keep juices in the pie is to insert a piece of brown paper, cut 2 inches wide, around pie between dough and pan. Bake 10 minutes at 400° F. and 50 min- utes at 300° F. * * * If 1 whole pie and 2 pie shells are planned, line 2 other pie pans with remaining rolled -out dough, prick bottoms six or seven tines with fork, and bake along with the other pie: Remove the baked shells from oven after 15 or 20 minutes when nicely browned. Baked pie shells can be set aside and served several days later with packaged chocolate or vanil- la pudding filling, or lemon cream filling. Top 'cooled pud- ding pies with whipped cream or meringue and watch the family's delight. To make the meringue, beat 2 egg whites until stiff but not dry, add 4 tablespoons sugar, one at a titne, until blended in. Pile on Lop of cooled pie filling and bake In '300° F. oven until lightly browned, about 10 minutes, When making meringue, Ther' are always the egg yolks left over. What to do with them? Before making the packaged pud- ding mix, separate the eggs, sav- ing -the whites for the meringue, and plunk the yolks into the milk when making the pudding mix. Adel 1 tablespoon sugar and to teaspoon vanilla, and the result- ing added richness and smooth- ness hi the pudding will bring praise from your family, * * * Hot Sugar-Cintlanton Crust After finishing the four crusts, there are always a few rolled -out dough scraps left over. Our fam- ily enjoys these as much as the pies themselves! I lay these strips +o a cake pan, sprinkle them with ',agar and cinnamon, dot with butter, and bake along with the Pies until lightly browned - (15 or 30 minutes), Serve hot. Happy Oversight! How long to bake a fruit pie? About one hour, I had always heard. Until, that is, my, husband forgot to take one out of the oven one Saturday afternoon. The pie had: baked '10 minutes at 400°"F, and 35 minutes at 300° .F„ but still had 15 minutes to go when I was to leave for a meeting, ].V 1y husband said hed'd take the pie out when the time was up, but I forgot to set the timer, Two hours later, pie still baking mer- rily away in the oven! Result? Best. pie we ever ate! It baked nearly three fours at 300° F. Slow baking is the secret, we concluded. From Boston comes a recipe :for ald.fashioned rice pudding. "it seems that so many people have expressed a desire for a good oldfashioned rice pudding recipe that I decided to send you any mother's," writes Mrs, Mari- an A. Littlefield. "It Is very simple to make and it always turns out creamy and delicious for me. I hope others will enjoy it as much as I do." RICE PUDDING 34. cyp uncooked rice 1 13 -oz. can evaporated milk plus 2 cans plus Ws cups of water (or, you map use 8 pints milk) y cup sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 pat butter nutmeg Preheat over to 450° F. Mix all ingredients except nutmeg thoroughly las a casserole and place .in heated oven. In about . 20-25 minutes, when mixture starts to bubble turn oven to 350° F. During the first hour of cook- ing,' stir pudding every 15 or 20 minutes. At end of an hour, stir pudding and sprinkle with nut- meg. Cook 15 'minutes longer. Turn over heat off and leave oven door closed for 20 minutes, then remove pudding .from oven and allow it to cool at room tem- perature. Barrel Organs In The Netherlands No matter how overcast the day, which is more often the case than not in the water -locked Netherlands, there is always mu- sic in the streets. For •these morale -boosting melodies, al- most every Dutchman is willing to dig down into his pocket to find a dubbeltje (three cents) for the copper cup being shaken under his nose. Such financial support keeps about 60 barrel organs, the last of Holland's monstrous 'rolling music boxes that stretch on for 8 to 15 feet, churning out their cheerful melodies as they are pushed between . big cities and tiny villages by well -muscled and dedicated grinders, Behind the scenes, in a crowd- ed • Amsterdam workshop un- known to most Hollanders, is the man who, more than any other individual,' has kept this tradi- tional street fare alive in spite Of the destructive sweep of time, war, and mechanization, His name is Gijsbert Perlee, With, his two sons, he rulesa dynasty of 4Q ornately carved gloom chasers which have been saved from extinction, The Perlees, themselves, rarely have time to enjoy grinding out a tune in the streets these days. They must keep their musical emissaries in top performing 'condition by carving pipes, puttying angelic wings, scoring new music, restoring mechanical figures to arm -swinging, bell- ringing condition, repainting faded scenes in their dated style, lettering romantic Victorian navies, • grinding gears, plus a dozen other specialized tasks re- quired in this peculiar species of show business, writes John B. Farber In. The Christian Science Monitor. When the barrel organs are relied out for the lessees who earn their living by them, these period musical pieces look as if they have been sheltered intact and undisturbed for at least seven decades,. Once the music goes down and around, ,this illusion is broken by a jolting succession of incongru- ous songs like "Wonderful, Won- derful Copenhagen," "Ave Ma- ria," "Rock Around the Clock," and "Lang Zal Zij Leven," the traditional Dutch birthday song, But the mood is so gay that no one ever objects to the program- ming which is the specialty of the elder Perlee, Recognition of the family's unique role in this field has brought them trips out of Hol- land, including musical voyages through Great Britain, Belgium, Germany, and Denmark, This past fall, the Holland -America Line brought over the Perlees and the "Arabier," their most garish showpiece, for a first-time visit to the Tinted States, After a charity performance at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, they sent music resounding through Man- hattan's canyons. Everything went well, The Dutch family and their prize barrel organ were graciously re- ceived and much photographed, but something w a s missing. Something important, like the streets of Holland, Why Folks Litter Streets And Roads Once upon a time those who did things society disapproved were regarded as wicked, orn- ery or slovenly. Now it's the fashion to blame the faults of the individual on his childhood,. his environment — on anything except himself, A good example is a new theory offered by a sociologist to explain why people disfigure city streets, highways and the countryside with litter. As the sociologist explains it, it's all because of the increasing com- plexity of modern society, in which the individual "often feels lost and powerless" and loses his sense of social responsibility. This theory is questionable. It may explain -why some are un- tidy, but not why others are neat. It overlooks the•fact that long before society got so com- plex people were careless about how they got rid of trash .. . The primitive village of to- day, untouched by civilization's complexities, is no model of tidi- ness, . and the caves of the cave- men must have been worse San Mateo (Calif.) Times. Pork .Trouble In Israel.! "And the swine , . of their flesh ye shall not eat , , , they are unclean to you," That was the law laid down in the Book of Leviticus 2,500 years ago, and. Orthodox Jews have devoutly shunned pork ever since. Over the same long epoch, tyrants from Antiochus Epiphanes to the Russian czars have used pigs to degrade Hebrew temples and pork to tempt starving Jews. Last week, Fortner Irgun tinder - ground leader Menahem Begin bitterly told the Knesset (Par- liament) how he had been per- secuted as a boy In Poland by Christian children trying . to smear pork fat on his, lips,. The occasion for Begin's speech was a controversial bill, before the Knesset, designed to impose severe limitations on the raising of pigs in Israel (now banned by local authorities in one-third of the country), For the fact is that many Israelis ignore ancient dietary laws, and some 200 Israeli pig farms are currently raising 60,000 pigs. Much of last year's production of 5,000 tons of pork was sold openly in Israeli butchershops. Last week, the Knesset ap- proved a first reading of a bill. which met some of the demands of an important Orthodox politi- cal group. It forbade all pig farming in a small group of vil- lages in Galilee (Nazareth is one) inhabited mainly by Chris- tians, All other pig farmers were given six months to abolish their piggeries or move then! to the Galilee area. Violators could be fined $3,000. The bill will prob- ably pass its final reading and become law, bringing deep satis- faction to Orthodox leaders. But many Israelis, hostile to increased clerical influence in their modern nation, could sym- pathize with the estimated 10,- 000 Israelis who make their liv- ing by pork. And the pig farmers and butchers were furious, "This is a no-good political deal." said Yigael . Giants, owner of one of the largest butchershops in the Tel Aviv area, "We aren't a- gainst the Torah or religion," added one of his assistants, "but we know that those laws were written when there was no re- frigeration. We are living in the modern world," "People like pork," declared one angry pig breeder. "We'll see that they get it," It's the early birds who get the back seats in church and the front seatsat the ball game. What Do You Know About CENTRAL AMERICA? BELIZE • CATO BRI`CiS HONDURAS' MONKEY RIVER MILES 0 25 CENTRAL AMERICA ISSUE 14 — 1962 a:n[ THE PICTURE OF HEALTH Mrs, Joseph P. Kennedy, 7'I,• the mother of the Presidents shares a laugh with her son, Edward, in Boston, Mrs, Kennedy had just been discharge$ from St. Elizabeth's Hospital, where she was operated on for a pelvic hernia.