More On Scrapple

  This post is about scrapple, not scrabble if you were reading quickly and are now disappointed. About scrapple, all you need to know is found in "On Scrapple", where you will be able to also find a recipe for porcupine. 
   It was National Scrapple Day on Nov. 9 and I missed it, probably because it was not a "national day" here. It is a big deal in Delaware near where I grew up on the Delmarva Peninsula. RAPA, named after Ralph and Paul Adams, is the biggest producer of scrapple. Like sausage it is typically eaten at breakfast. Like sausage, you do not need to know how it is made.
  In my earlier post I tried to find out if I could get some scrapple in Canada, but could not.  This is not necessarily a Canadian failure or a tariff problem. I searched again and used the scrapple locator on the RAPA webpage, but could not find any, even in nearby Detroit, Cleveland, Erie or Buffalo. Perhaps the city slickers there, like Canadians here, just don't know what they are missing and are mainly eating wings. 
  I will likely have breakfast at a pub on Saturday with a bunch of guys who play hockey and most will order bacon or ham because we don't have any scrapple. We do have hogs, however, and need to produce our own food because of the tariffs. If you know any pig farmers, tell them that they can get another product out of the pig and it tastes pretty darn good. As they say, you can use everything but the oink. 

London's Bicentennial (Snippet 52)

 Drinking in London - 1837
   “Besides the seven taverns there is a number of little grocery stores which are, in fact, drinking houses. And though a law exists, which forbids the sale of spiritous liquors in small quantities by any but licensed publicans, they easily contrive to elude the law; as thus:- a customer enters the shop, and asks for two or three penny-worth of nuts, or cakes, and he receives a few nuts, and a large glass of whiskey. The whiskey, you observe, is given, not sold, and no one can swear to the contrary.”

Source:
  I found this in an older post I did about General Stores in Canada. The quotation is found in Carol Priamo's book, The General Store, pp.21-22. I have not re-checked, but you can find a copy of the book in the LPL. 
Bonus: There are fewer variety stores now and the owners are likely fairly desperate. One could try this idea again. For example, one could sell a bag of Doritos at an inflated price and then 'treat' the customer to a Margarita.

Biking About (6)

     

   Back in 2020 I bought an e-bike, partially, I suppose, to pedal around during the time of Covid. I have kept riding during the last six years, but only on warm days during our very short summer.
   The purpose of this post is strictly personal. I am just jotting this down, as I have over the past few years, simply because I don't keep a diary about such things, or generally record activities or items that are much more important.
   I have ridden just over 10,000 km during the last six years. In 2026, I only rode 1337 km since my bike was in the shop for a while and the spring was slow to start. Today it is dreary and I doubt I will hop on again. If you wish to follow my cycling saga, here is "Biking About 5", where the others are linked. It is interesting only in that the Bonus includes information about a French guy who did a wheelie for over six hours and covered 93 miles. As I mentioned, mine is an e-bike and I have done no wheelies. But, if you do go back far enough in this cycling series you might find a photo of the elderly cyclist, who will not be mistaken for Lance Armstrong. If you are more interested in exciting cycling see: "Heli-Biking.

Olde Posts Addenda (10)

   Updating the Outdated in MM.

36 Hours in .....
  The New York Times frequently offers travel advice for those spending a few days in a city. The paper recently provided some about Vancouver (Oct.1). Sometimes an area is profiled. There was one on Oct. 8, about spending 36 hours in the fall around the Finger Lakes.
   Back in the spring of 2024, the Time's travellers spent 36 hours in Toronto and I provided all of their suggestions in "Visiting Toronto." With the thoroughness to which you have become accustomed, I then pointed to the earlier Toronto explorations done in 2016 and 2005.
   AND THEN, I gathered all of the 36 hours articles done in this century for cities and places in Canada - there is one in 2002 about spending 36 hours on P.E.I. My thinking was, I suppose, that someone might find it interesting to learn what was worth seeing in Victoria in 2004 and if those things were still there and recommended in 2018.
   Well, I have learned that the folks at the Times also had the same idea. They have gathered into book form, all of the 36 hours pieces for various places and provided all of the descriptions, recommendations and photos. For about $70, you can order it from Amazon and have it delivered in a few days. It has much more than I offered for free and their edition also includes the U.S., but, it  will not have all of the negative comments I made about Toronto. 

From Reading While Flying to Watching While Flying
   I have produced a series called "Periodical Ramblings" and I plan to produce more posts about magazines, many of which have disappeared. The last one (#18) was about Wired, the editor of which is Katie Drummond from Queen's. 

  I did one about "Periodicals on Planes"  back when Pan Am, British Air and even WestJet, published their own magazines, which were often about exciting destinations, along with cuisine commentaries. I lamented their loss and see that in the post I mention that someone else had written an "Ode to Airline Magazines." 
  Another ode to periodicals on planes, and reading, has arrived and portions are presented here. It is from an Atlantic Magazine, newsletter, c. June 12, 2026. The author of "Leave Your Airplane-Window Shades Open: Only Watching Movies on the Plane Takes Away From Whatever Magic Is Left in Air Travel," is David A. Graham.
   "Photos of air travel in decades past can cause almost visceral pain for a modern flier. Faded or sepia images show sharply dressed people eating real food in spacious seats. Sometimes the pictures are juxtaposed with the sardine-tin discomforts and unappetizing food of contemporary air travel, and they’re usually accompanied by well-deserved swipes at air carriers. But passengers deserve some blame too. One thing I notice in those photos is that the window shades are always up.
   Nothing can make a lengthy flight packed in an aluminum tube feel good, exactly, but having the shades closed is a reliable way to make it worse. On a recent long-haul trip, I was struck that as soon as passengers boarded the plane—well before sunset—nearly everyone in a window seat within my line of sight closed their shades....
   As the screens have become standard, airlines have phased out their in-flight magazines, which often included delightful and quirky prose by good writers. At the very least, they had a crossword and a sudoku....
   The tyranny of the entertainment system doesn’t just produce an unnaturally gloomy cabin. It also makes anyone who tries to resist it into a bad guy. I like to read on flights, especially if I am deprived of a view out the window; it’s some of the best uninterrupted time I can get with a book. But I still wince before turning on the reading light above my seat. No passenger has asked me to turn it off—yet—but they do recoil and stare when I turn it on. I can blame them only so much; it feels weird to be the only or one of the only people using it, and given how tightly packed the seats are, others are going to get some of the glow. (The final episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm closes with an argument over whether a passenger has the right to open her window shade in order to read.)...
  When I whined about this to my Atlantic Daily co-pilot, Will Gottsegen, he told me that he’d experienced the same thing. “People are now so unused to seeing people read a book on airplanes that they’re mystified when someone tries it,” he said. He also pointed out that passengers on many flights can turn the light on only if they find the button in the entertainment system: “You can’t even perform the one non-screen activity without engaging with the giant, greasy screen inches from your face.”

The Old General Store
   You are excused for missing my treatment of the General Store situation in Canada, since it was hidden under the German word Dorfläden. Apparently they are also  undergoing a bit of a revival in Germany.
   Here is a recent article about a really old general store that has been around in Massachusetts since 1793. 
   "A General Store Almost as Old as America: Ben Shattuck, the Proprietor of Davoll’s in Coastal Massachusetts, Yearns for a Retail World Before Chain Stores and Online Shopping," Steven Kurutz, NYT - Aug. 27, 2026. Davoll's sells just about everything and has a bookstore and cafe. According to this piece, 'In recent years, general stores, long a lifeline in rural America, have undergone a revival — along with an upscaling."

  This reminded me of the Muskokas which were mentioned in my post:

  "Modern iterations, stocked with organic produce and artisanal goods, are doing brisk business in places like the Catskills, coastal Maine and Nashville. Last year, Mindy Gray, who is married to Jonathan Gray, the billionaire president of the investment firm Blackstone, took over the Sagaponack General Store in the Hamptons, stocking it with Charleston Chews, free-range chicken, $159 hoodies and a $300 cocktail kit."
   The appeal is simple: General stores offer nostalgia for a bygone era and an attractive backdrop for social media."

   If you have a look at my post, you will see that I mention a couple of books about the Canadian general store and some links to ones located in Ontario, as well as the oldest one.
  I also did one about a Trading Post, which is a type of general store. Unfortunately Robertson Trading in Saskatchewan, shut down a couple of years ago. Mentioned also is Kingsmill's, the London department store which is now gone. See: A Year-End Bundle of Nostalgia. 
The Bonus: 
  If a subject like this is of interest, you will like the books produced by Boston Mills Press. 

London's Bicentennial (Snippet 51 )

Soldier - Fate Unknown - 1924 
   I was unable to determine if John Miller ever made it  back to Piccadilly Street.

Source:  Globe and Mail, Jan. 24, 1924

Oddments (4)

 A First Sentence
    The first sentence can be difficult to write. That one was not, because this is an oddment, which means that what follows is not much dependent upon a good first sentence. The subject is, however, first sentences and I at least broached the subject in that first sentence.
   I just ran across two, which explains what follows. The first one is very long. Apparently many new university students are unable to read even short books, so I doubt it if they could even get through this opening sentence:

      "Considering how common illness is, how tremendous the spiritual change that it brings, how astonishing, when the lights of health go down, the undiscovered countries that are then disclosed, what wastes and deserts of the soul a slight attack of influenza brings to light, what precipices and lawns sprinkled with bright flowers a little rise of temperature reveals, what ancient and obdurate oaks are uprooted in us in the act of sickness, how we go down into the pit of death and feel the waters of annihilation close above our heads and wake thinking to find ourselves in the presence of the angels and the harpers when we have a tooth out and come to the surface in the dentist’s arm chair and confuse his “Rinse the mouth—rinse the mouth” with the greeting of the Deity stooping from the floor of Heaven to welcome us—when we think of this and infinitely more, as we are so frequently forced to think of it, it becomes strange indeed that illness has not taken its place with love, battle, and jealousy among the prime themes of literature."
 
   The sentence is the first one in "On Being Ill", by Virginia Woolf which was published twice in journal form and then by Hogarth Press. You can find a pdf of the entire essay at Columbia University. It is 36pp. so it may be too long for readers today.

The second sentence is very short. About it, I will say no more.

"Seldom does the theatre adequately address the topic of enemas."

Famous First Sentences: Bad Ones
   Since you are likely not satisfied, I will quiz you about the first sentences of books you should have read. Or not. One of the most famous ones is: "IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT...." by Bulwer-Lytton, which is found in a novel with a much less enticing title - simply, Paul Clifford. It is regarded as an example of a very, very bad first sentence and for many years, until 2025, the folks who taught fiction in San Jose, had a contest to recognize the most horrible sentence. You will be pleased to know that Canadians have won twice and you will be even more pleased that the bad examples are provided:
  In 2001, the Canadian winner (or loser, if you wish) was:

"A small assortment of astonishingly loud brass instruments raced each other lustily to the respective ends of their distinct musical choices as the gates flew open to release a torrent of tawny fur comprised of angry yapping bullets that nipped at Desdemona’s ankles, causing her to reflect once again (as blood filled her sneakers and she fought her way through the panicking crowd) that the annual Running of the Pomeranians in Liechtenstein was a stupid idea."
 In 2019, this was the clunker:

"Space Fleet Commander Brad Brad sat in silence, surrounded by a slowly dissipating cloud of smoke, maintaining the same forlorn frown that had been fixed upon his face since he’d accidentally destroyed the phenomenon known as time, thirteen inches ago." 

Famous First Sentences: The Other Kind
  These are easy to find and, as astute readers of MM, you should recognize some from this baker's half-dozen:

1. "Call me Ishmael."

2. "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."
3. "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

4. "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."

5. "This is the saddest story I have ever heard."

6. "The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there."

7. "I have never begun a novel with more misgiving."

Sources: 
   The Woolf sentence is found in her essay and here:

"A Century After Virginia Woolf Asked Why Sickness Had Failed to Become One of Literature’s Great Subjects, Writers are Still Struggling to Put Physical Suffering Into Words,"By Hermione Hoby, The New Yorker, October 5, 2026.
   The short one is also found in The New Yorker in a short notice about Molière's, "The Imaginary Invalid," Oct. 26, 2026.
   I will not provide links or sources about the "stormy night", but a search will provide you with good reading for the rest of the month. There is a Wiki entry for the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.

   There are many sources for first sentences, but this is one of the best and it contains the ones above and 93 others, ranked: The American Book Review - The 100 Best First Lines From Novels. 

London's Bicentennial (Snippet 50)

 What Is London's Sister City?
   Questions are easily answered these days, by just asking your phone. If the question is, “What is London’s sister city?”, you quickly learn that the answer is Nanjing. Often the answer is really found on Wikipedia and simply supplied by A.I.
   The question is worth asking at this time because Canada is seeking new relationships with other places since the former bonds with relatives to the south of us have unravelled. Perhaps Canadian cities should add more sister cities or expand by adding the category -  SIBLING CITIES -  with whom cultural and economic ties could be established.
   Given that this is London’s Bicentennial I thought it worth providing more background than A.I. offers. If our newly elected civic officials seek new urban partnerships, this brief bibliography may be useful. If you make it to the end, you will learn that London actually has other Sister Cities, although some of them may be illegitimate. 

Searching for London's Sister City
     If you begin with the concept of the “Sister City”, A.I. informs you that, "A sister city (also known as a twin town in Europe) is a formal legal or social agreement between two distinct cities, towns, or local governments in different countries (or sometimes the same country) to build close cultural, economic, and educational ties.”
  As noted, A.I. says: "London, Ontario's official sister city is Nanjing, China, which established its twinning agreement with London on May 7, 1997. London, Ontario is officially twinned with Nanjing, China. This sister city relationship was formally established in 1997 to build cultural, educational, and economic exchanges between the two regions.The partnership stems from a broader provincial alliance between Ontario and its sister province of Jiangsu (where Nanjing is the capital)."
  If you proceed to Wikipedia (as Mr. A.I. did) you will find a “List of Twin Towns and Sister Cities in Canada” and Nanjing is named as London’s sister. The reference provided (#90) is this one and the link is broken and I could not locate it on the website of the London Chamber of Commerce: "London and Nanjing Celebrate 20 Year Anniversary of Sister City Relationship". London Chamber of Commerce. 25 September 2017. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
  Apart from providing a link to Wikipedia, A.I. does refer to the Foreign Affairs Office of Nanjing. Here is what is found:

Diving deeper, a few more references were uncovered over the years.

2013
1. News Release - Ontario - Office of the Premier - Jan. 16, 2013

"Trade Mission Delegates Sign Agreements Worth Over $200 million in Nanjing,"

January 16, 2013

Quick Facts

Nanjing is the capital of Jiangsu — Ontario’s sister province in China since 1985.

The city of London, Ontario is twinned with Nanjing.

The port of Nanjing is the largest inland port in China, shipping 70 million tons of goods in 2011.
2. There is then a long report from Media Relations from Western and here is an excerpt from: "Ontario Trade Mission to China in 2013" Jan. 17, 2013:

  "Although short, the trip to China was a great success. First, President Chakma was able to see the Soochow-Western Centre for Radiation Research at Soochow University and meet with the president there. This visit helped to show Soochow how important this partnership is to Western by reciprocating a visit that Soochow’s President made to Western in November of 2011. Second, signing the faculty exchange agreement with Nanjing University will help us to foster ties with this top Chinese institution located in London’s sister city, Nanjing. Finally, we were able to showcase Western to Premier McGuinty, Minister Duguid, and Minister Chan both through our significant activities in China and through personal interactions."

2015
 This is from a Government of Ontario News Release:

"30 Year Partnership Between Ontario and Jiangsu Remains Strong

Ontario Celebrating Signing of Friendship Accord,"

April 21, 2015

Quick Facts

The provinces of Ontario and Jiangsu were “twinned” in 1985 when the Ontario-Jiangsu Friendship Accord was signed.

Since 1985 several Ontario cities have twinned with Jiangsu cities including: Scarborough and Wuxi in 1996, London and Nanjing in 1997, and Barrie and Taizhou in 2006.

Jiangsu is one of China’s leading economic performers consistently ranking among the top Chinese provinces in terms of per capital annual GDP growth of 8.7%.

2018
  The local paper reported on a discussion about drafting a policy regarding sister cities and perhaps adding additional ones.

"London City Hall: City Staff to Draft Sister City Policy," Megan Stacey, London Free Press, Feb 20, 2018.

   "London is in demand.

At least according to politicians who want to see the city craft rules for relationships with communities across the globe.

London already has one sister city — Nanjing, China — and there could be potential to create similar connections in the United States and even Haiti, politicians said at a Tuesday committee meeting. But not everyone is convinced.

Coun. Harold Usher is leading the charge, advocating for a city policy around adopting sister cities.

“We speak 95 different languages just in London alone. There’s a lot of people from different parts of the world (here). We entertain international students by the droves,” Usher said, adding that people “from all over the world” look to ­London.

“It’s time we had some kind of policy.”

Sister city relationships often are developed to enhance cultural, social and economic connections or drive exchanges between cities.

The committee recommended staff bring back a draft policy. City manager Martin Hayward cautioned that sister city partnerships can fall flat if the communities aren’t engaged.

“One of the worst things that can happen with sister cities is that nothing gets done with them,” he said.

Coun. Jared Zaifman said he has little information about how the city’s current relationship benefits residents in ­Nanjing or London.

Mayor Matt Brown told his colleagues the idea of creating more sister city partnerships was floated during a recent trip to Washington, D.C.

Brown met mayors from across the United States and Canada, including leaders from cities that share some of London’s big employers, such as 3M and General Dynamics.

“There is very good interest in communities south of our border that have trade relationships with us in partnering in this way,” he said of linking up with additional sister cities.

The Rotary Club of London also is joining the push for a sister city policy.

Steve Knox, president of the Rotary Club of London, was part of a team that travelled to Haiti in January to do volunteer work. The mayor of Aquin, Haiti, has written to Brown to ask about forming a sister city link with London.

Knox told city politicians the benefits of city sisters go far beyond economics.

“It’s being driven by friendships and partnerships and capacity-building between non-governmental agencies,” Knox said.

He added that service clubs, churches and schools can play a big role in facilitating cultural and other exchanges as part of sister city relationships."

The Bonus: 
   After more searching I did find that London had (or has) other sisters. They were located on Grokipedia which is mainly the creation of A.I. and Elon Musk. They are listed in this essay, which contains additional information: List of Twin Towns and Sister Cities in Canada. 

"London has multiple sister cities: Gifu, Japan (1969); Huế, Vietnam (1995); Morioka, Japan (1989); Sahagún, Mexico (1994); and Weinan, China (2012), all emphasizing diverse cultural, educational, and economic partnerships."

As winter approaches, it would be nice to have a sister city - or more, located someplace warm. And perhaps we could re-visit the idea of adopting the Turks and Caicos Islands.