Walk in coolers for the holidays

When family comes for the holidays, they come in bulk. Driving east from Minnesota and Wisconsin, West from Pennsylvania, they swarm our home for the week.
Cooking for the crowd isn't a problem because everyone helps. So the animals and I just try to stay out of the way, making foraging runs between rounds of cooking bouts.
My particular expertise is being a packing whiz. I can stuff anything into anywhere. Growing up with four sisters in a five room apartment in New York City is a great training ground. Getting my stuff, and theirs, and the family for summer and holiday trips into the Ford Galaxy or Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser required cranny-filling sophistication.

After one more of the holiday week belly-busting meals, I was volunteered to pack up the dining room and make the mess go away.

Having a new dishwasher helps. We replaced one that pumped 300 gallons of hot water under our new floor a few weeks ago. The bumps in the flooring are slowly subsiding and are almost imperceptible. Yet we needed a new washer. My wife tried for a week to convince me that a return to our dishwasher-challenged childhoods would be a warm and welcome reminiscent retrospective. She was wrong. So armed with the latest from Consumers' Reports and the slicks found in this newspaper, off we went. It had been almost a decade since we went major appliance shopping. Things have certainly changed.

This season, the appliance makers were on a tear; convincing us that the latest and greatest stainless steel, ever-lasting, never-stalling, auto-everything, led-light-profusive, color-display-equipped, extended warranted, myriad-adjustable, hoop-de-bobs were exactly what we needed.

The barely-an-adult sales-person seemingly strangled with his tie was eagerly explaining the benefits of self-cleaning, self-storing, self-monitoring, super-fast, super-sized, super-quiet, super-efficient, and super duper thingamajigs with built-in dispensers, night lights, racks, clasps, shelves, hangers, drawers, fluffers, buffers, tumblers, and softeners were just what we dreamed of if only we had dreams of white goods instead of sugar plum fairies.

We opted for the scratched and dented super-discount model; which does a great job gulping down a 12 place setting, burbling and swishing quietly as it chops, grinds, sudses, scrubs, blasts, shudders, swirls, sprays, drains, heats, steams and dries. Voila. Dishes ready for more calories!

However, the fridge is too small. But ever since we installed a walk-in-cooler for the holiday crowd, the limitation seems trivial. Having a large, glass fronted walk-in cooler is one of the best investments we ever made. With large flat shelf space, it is easy to have hundreds of pounds of turkey leftovers, dozens of pans and bowls of dressing, starches, greens, and gravies; scores of pies, cakes, puddings and relishes. All neatly arrayed for ease of grazing, re-use and re-work into the intricate world of leftover renovations.

The cooler does double duty holding grosses of jam, jelly, candied peaches and brandied cherries. It is so spacious they almost vanish in the back of the cooler.
Although it's not necessary to keep some things cold, the ornament boxes and tree storage case slides neatly under the work table in the cooler; far more conveniently out of the way for a few weeks than extra trips back to the attic.

Being banished from the heated rooms, the smoking relative uses the walk-in cooler as a reasonable alternative to being caught between a snow-bank and the ice-covered driveway. The leftovers don't complain.

Discussing the holidays with friends in Florida and California makes me realize that having a walk-in cooler is a luxury few of them have. People complain about the cost of housing and amenities elsewhere, and often get enviously green when they recognize the value we have in our homes, especially with a walk-in cooler at holiday time that keeps our leftovers from turning green themselves.

Of course, it is challenging to balance the temperature needs of different foods with the primitive controls we have in our less-than-fully-automatic cooler. Plunging temperatures frustrate our goal of maintaining the ideal 40 degree cooler level. But that's OK. At least we have one.

By the time the family comes round for the July picnic, I'll probably have the ornaments cleaned out and the winter storm windows removed. We will have ample space to relax on our breezy summer porch, but where will we put the leftovers then?

Leib Lurie

Leib Lurie is a Troy resident, Optimist Club & Troy Civic Theatre member and CEO of software company Onecallnow.com. You can reach him at Leib@Lurie.net

PS. Don't forget to bring the family to First Night- Troy's celebration of the new year Friday night downtown. 10 indoor venues with 12 musical groups featuring styles for everyone, plus artists and theatre and more. Re-commit to your partner, and bring in a great 2005! Tickets are just $10 for adults, $5.00 for kids and are available on line at www.troycivictheatre.com or by calling 339-5455.

Merry Solstice

Solstice party
Yesterday was the winter solstice. The shortest day of the year, when the sun, at its zenith, drops as low in the sky as it will ever get for the year. Ancient peoples around the world built temples, monuments, pillars and markers to measure the year and set up a celebration for solstice day.
Because after all, if the sun were to continue dropping and did not reverse course, the world would be coming to an end, and all would die. Kinda scary, which explains the powerful incantations put forth to save the sun from death below the horizon.
Yesterday was just 9 ½ hours long, today is a minute longer, tomorrow will have even more daylight. By June, we will have almost 14 ½ hours of daylight as we watch the sun set at 10:30 not 5:30. It’s an amazing transformation, and one that friends who live near the equator with their ploddingly predictable 12 hour days miss out on.
How did you celebrate the return of the sun? Who or what did you thank that spring is on its way today?
Some solstice parties center around mulled wine, (simmer 3 cups of water with 1 cup of sugar, 2 cinnamon sticks, 12 cloves and 1 lemon peel in a stainless steel pot for 10 minutes. Add 750Ml bottle of red wine and heat to coffee temperature. Add ¼ cup of brandy. Serve in clear glass mugs.
Other solstice revelers (and me) swear by Glogg, which adds almonds, orange slices and raisins to mulled wine.
Get a log fire burning and hug your honey. Winter’s depth has passed. The upcoming cold temperatures are just our earth lagging behind the reality of the sun’s position.
Ancient people watched the movement of the sun and they celebrated it -- with fertility rites, with fire festivals, with offerings and prayers to their gods and goddesses.
Perhaps our more modern celebration of Christmas reflects our impulse to hold onto certain traditions today -- candles, evergreens, feasting and generosity, as echoes of a past that extends to today.
An astounding array of ancient cultures built their greatest architectures -- tombs, temples, cairns and sacred observatories -- so that they aligned with the solstices and equinoxes. Many of us know that Stonehenge is a perfect marker of both solstices.
But not so many people are familiar with Newgrange, a beautiful megalithic site in Ireland. This huge circular stone structure is estimated to be 5,000 years old, older by centuries than Stonehenge, older than the Egyptian pyramids! It was built to receive a shaft of sunlight deep into its central chamber at dawn on winter solstice. The waiting list to see the spectacle is ten years; and last summer, from inside the 3 acre stone structure we saw a shaft of sunlight and could just imagine the power these peoples felt to build such an immense structure from stone hand carried almost 50 miles to the current sacred location.
Next week, Troy party goers will have another chance to celebrate not only the coming of spring but the end of 2004 and the arrival of aught 5’ in a party of arts, family and music. In a modern day celebration of the winter solstice (moved to December 31st by the manipulations of our roman calendar by Pope Gregory)
The First Night party in downtown Troy will allow us to mark new beginnings, and new hope for the next year. It will be a time to celebrate both individually and collectively. First Night incorporates many of the rituals and cultural themes culled from Ancient druids.
A marriage vow renewal is an offshoot of the fertility rights of Newgrange. The 12 different bands and musical artists will represent the harmony and inspiration from music that drove ancient rituals for spring. Dancers and actors will cheer us up in the cold. The Troy Civic Theatre Repertory company brings a touch or romance and comedy to the mix.
Brass, piano and percussion will be heard throughout downtown. The massive Ceremonial Strawberry will Fall at midnight- as we watch this year fall away and pray and sing for a terrific new year to come.
Book your tickets now- tickets are just $10.00 for adults, and $5.00 for kids ($10.000 surcharge to see Tom Daugherty piano and orchestra) the price gets you into 10 different venues, 8 stages, 12 groups, and much much more. Unlike Stonehenge, you need not hand carry stone blocks to participate; simple go to www.troycivictheatre.com and buy tickets on-line. Give them as last minute Christmas Gifts.
Get ready to party- Spring is coming!

Leib Lurie
Leib Lurie is a Troy resident, Optimist Club & Troy Civic Theatre member, CEO of OneCallNow. You can reach him at Leib@Lurie.net

Why recount? It's irrelevant and irreverent

Leib Lurie's Column for TDN: To run WEDNESDAY, December 15th

Why recount? It's irrelevant and irreverent.

Miami County will conduct a partial recount of the Presidential election starting Thursday. All eighty eight counties across the state will do likewise over the next two weeks. The recount will check a small percentage of each county's ballots. A small audience of Democrats, Republicans, Green and Libertarian's will observe and verify the veracity of the various virtual chads and bungled blobs of pencil bubbles possibly proclaiming to be peculiarly partial to Presidential Electors of a Particular party.
Coincidentally, the Ohio Electoral College will meet Monday to cast their votes for President and Vice President Bush and Cheney. The college will use the results certified by Ken Blackwell 37 days after the election; and 23 days later than any prior State certification, ever.
Conspiracy theorists are crying "collusion", while conservative heads are coolly and calmly calling for casting a collegiate, collaborative, clean vote.
Few expect any change in the presidential outcome. The 96,000 ballots uncounted by machines won't change things. I'm sure the 1,245 precincts with more than 15% swings in votes between the original vote and the certified one was just coincidental. The 35,000 rejected provisional ballots certainly will have no deleterious effect. The 2,300 machines used without a paper trail will not reveal anything new. The dozens of counties still using punch card ballots, some with butterfly designs, others with missing questions, duplicated referendums, and vanished candidates are just par for the course.
I feel confident that the thousands of machines supplied by Diebold CEO and $200,000 Republican donor with their secret unverified software, are, like the software from Bill Gate's denizens, virus free, firewall safe, and practically perfect in every way.
Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell made headlines when he ruled voters could not cast provisional ballots despite not receiving their absentee ballots in time. A judge overruled him, calling his statement a "failure to do his duty".
Blackwell also made news when he demanded new voter applications submitted on anything but card stock be rejected. Even though he lent his name to a campaign printing applications in Cleveland newspapers. Many call Blackwell Visionary.
Some people might mistake visionary for myopia, but that is only their psychotic viewpoint.
But here are just a few of the documented state problems: Thousands of punch-card ballots were not tallied because officials in the 68 counties that use them could not determine a vote for president. Votes for other offices on the cards were counted.
Cuyahoga County. 8, 099 provisional ballots (about 1/3 of those cast) have been ruled invalid because the voter wasn't registered or was registered in the wrong precinct. Historically, less than 17% were ruled invalid.
Mahoning County. 30 ES&S iVotronic machines needed to be recalibrated during the voting process because some votes for a candidate were being counted for that candidate's opponent. Sandusky County elections officials discovered some ballots in nine precincts were counted twice. [ES&S optical scan].
Knox County. Hundreds of residents waited for up to 10 hours to cast their votes. There were only two voting machines for 1,300 voters. Each machine is designed to handle 20 voters per hour.
Montgomery County. Two precincts had 25% presidential undervotes. This means no presidential vote was recorded on 1/4 of the ballots. The overall undervote rate for the county was 2%. The undercount amounted to 2. 8 percent of the ballots in the 231 precincts that supported Kerry, but only 1. 6 percent of those cast in the 354 precincts that supported President Bush.
The results may not change, but it is critical that the election process be understood, respected, secure, and trusted. That every election be one where every vote counts, and every vote is counted accurately. In an era where Wal-Mart expects 99.99% of 50 ¢ Christmas ornaments scanned at the check-out to be accurate, and where Motorola and HP work on a six sigma (99.9999%) quality rating for cell-phone batteries and ink jet cartridges, it bothers me that our state standards for voting accuracy are 98%. Undervoting (failure to capture votes), overvoting (where machines record more than one vote for an office), and mis-voting (where obscure candidates receive more votes than major parties in a precinct) were all reported in the Buckeye state in larger numbers than the 2,000 Florida election.
It bothers me that we accept a 2% error rate in races where the margin of victory just over 1%. People claim that a recount is superfluous and irrelevant, even, given Blackwell's stature as Bush-Chaney Ohio Chairman, irreverent.
I want to feel confident and comfortable with our elections and our processes. Every Buckeye deserves to feel just as enthusiastic and secure with the results. We deserve better than third world results even if it means triple checking the outcome.
Leib Lurie
Leib Lurie is a Troy resident, Optimist Club member and Serial Software Entrepreneur. You can reach him at Leib@Lurie.net

Leib 

Did Alexander bring us both Chanukah and Insurgents

Did Alexander bring us both Chanukah and Iraqi Insurgents?

Tonight is the second night of Chanukah, the eight day Jewish celebration of lights and freedom. The new Movie Alexander opened last week, disappointingly, it ignores his part in creating both Chanukah and very possibly the insurgent attacks we are seeing every day in what was once his Persia. According to Jewish history, when Alexander the Great and his conquering legions advanced upon Jerusalem, they were met by a delegation of elders, led by the high Priest Shimon.

When Alexander saw Shimon approaching, he dismounted and prostrated himself before the Jewish Sage.

To his astonished men, Alexander explained that each time he went into battle, he would see a vision in the likeness of this High Priest leading his troops to victory.

In gratitude, and out of profound respect for the spiritual power of the Jews, Alexander was a kind and generous ruler. He canceled the Jewish taxes during Sabbatical years, and even offered animals to be sacrificed on his behalf in the Temple.

Unfortunately, history would show that Alexander's heirs failed to sustain his benevolence. Upon the death of Alexander, his vast kingdom was divided among his generals. There soon arose a new king, Antiochus IV, who was to wage a bloody war upon the Jews, a war which would threaten not just their physical lives, but also their very spiritual existence.

The Holy Temple was invaded, desecrated, and looted of all its treasures. Pagan Greek Idols were erected in the temple. Vast numbers of innocent people were massacred, and the survivors were heavily taxed.

It was in the small village of Modin, a few miles east of Jerusalem, thata single act of heroism turned the tide of Israel's struggle, and altered her destiny for all time. A peasant father, stepped forward to challenge the Greek soldiers and those who acquiesced to their demands.

Backed by his five sons, he attacked the troops, slew the idolaters, and destroyed the idols. With a cry of "All who are with G-d, follow me!" heand a courageous circle of partisans retreated to the hills, where theygathered forces to overthrow the oppression of Greek King Antiochus and his collaborators.The army now under the command of his son Yehuda Maccabee,grew daily in numbers and in strength.With the Biblical slogan, "Who is like You among the mighty ones, O G-d?" emblazoned on their shields, they would swoop down upon the Syrian troops under cover of darkness and scatter the oppressors, then return to their encampments in the hills. Only six thousand strong, they defeated a heavily armed battalion of forty-seven thousand Syrians.

Enraged, Antiochus sent an even larger army against them, and in the miraculous, decisive battle at Bet Tzur, the Jewish forces emerged victorious. From there, they proceeded on to Jerusalem, where theyliberated the city and reclaimed the Holy Temple. They cleared theSanctuary of the idols, rebuilt the altar, and prepared to resumethe Divine Service.A central part of the daily service in the Temple was the kindling of the brilliant lights of the menorah.

Now, with the Temple about to bere-dedicated, only one small cruse of the pure, sacred olive oil was found.It was only one day's supply, and they knew it would take more than a weekfor the special process required to prepare more oil.Undaunted, in joy and thanksgiving, the Maccabees lit the lamps of themenorah with the small amount of oil, and dedicated the Holy Temple anew.And miraculously, as if in confirmation of the power of their faith, theoil did not burn out, and the flames shone brightly for eight full days.

The following year, Jewish Sages officially proclaimed the festival of Chanukahas a celebration lasting eight days, in perpetual commemoration of this victory over religious persecution.

Chanukah is the celebration of victory by guerilla insurgents over a large invading force intent on changing the attitudes and government of Persia to one with a more western bent. It appears that lessons of history are not easily learned.

Alexanders' successors were unable to keep his lands intact because they failed to appreciate Alexanders' most powerful leadership strength; to embrace and incorporate the rituals and beliefs of defeated lands into his own, and build up, not belittle defeated generals.

Time will tell whether today's guerilla war in Iraq will have a different outcome.

Leib Lurie is a Troy resident, Optimist Club member and CEO of OneCall Now, the new name for the MyTeam1 phone tree service. You can reach him at Leib@Lurie.net

what will santa bring

What should Santa bring this year?
The ads are blaring, the catalogues overflowing. The aisles are piled higher than the Budweiser Clydesdale at our local Meijer's.

The little tykes we will depend on to save Social Security and support us in decades to come are busy writing letters to Santa. Some will ask for high tech toys, others for old-faithful ones.

In many cases, they won't know what to ask for, so here's the Toy Wishes Magazine top toy list…

The most popular game this year is from Cranium, a version of the egalitarian adult game I like; because what other adult game let's you play with clay and sing a song to win? The new tyke edition, Cranium's Balloon Lagoon brings home all the fun of a day at the carnival, with colorful illustrations and festive games requiring kids to perform more tricks than a Carnival pony. Watching kids play was more fun than a ride on the Tilt-A-Whirl.

Barbie's back. Actually she never left. Last years' break up with Ken led Barbie to pursue some other, much stranger playmates, such as Princess Anneliese and Erika who each sing songs from the movie "Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper". The gift set comes with a CD so the syrupy songs can drive you mad for weeks on end.

Cabbage Patch Dolls are old enough to drink, but they look younger when bought at the store. Each one has a birth date, adoption certificate and name, so the only thing to imagine is whether your child should have matching blue overalls and orange hair.

ELMO is a teenager. The new one sings and dances. One Mom said "Since my 1-year-old is an Elmo freak, we bought this for her for Christmas. She loved it from the first beat!" How can a one year old be an Elmo freak? Guess the toy manufacturers hope they all are.

Moving up from battery operated gyrations, is an InteracTV Dvd System. The perfect gift to bring kids and parents together again. One dad said "We bought this for our 4 yr old's birthday. Every time you start up the device, it acts as if you have to reprogram it all over again." Ah, togetherness. A toy that requires parents to be more technically astute than their young 'uns. An experience to savor, because next year, the five year old will re-wire, re-construct, and re-jigger the underlying assembler code in the toy, making Dad superfluous.

Celebrating her 30th birthday, Ms Pac Man has been re-released.one of our most beloved 80's arcade games can be on your T.V. Christmas week. For us forty and fifty-somethings, we will drool when we hear the all-in-one system has four other games besides Ms. Pac-Man; including Galaga, Pole Position, Xevious and Mappy. Kids, those games were white dots on a black background. We paid 25 ¢ to play for 5 minutes (less at first), more with practice and a long gap between classes in the Student Union.

Nitro Battlerz : A concentric plastic playing field let's you balance centrifugal force with kinetic energy. Kids are urged to Race and crash opponents in the Nitro Battlerz Dome. Personally I distrust gleaming plastic play surfaces on spindly legs. I give it till December 28th.

Almost a teenager, Tamagotchi virtual pets now have Kids. A tiny extra sociable new electronic pal. Children must feed, play with, discipline, or clean up after the character for which the player is responsible. These little electronic monsters can now communicate with up to 50 other friends. The pets can visit, play games, and even leave presents (I think they mean electronic doggy doo) for each other. Sounds a bit strange, but does a good job teaching kids how to care for pets before they get a real one that becomes Daddy's chore or worse, a drop-off at the shelter.

Moving up the techie ladder, Video Now is a Personal Video Player, smaller thaqn a portable DVD player, with a tiny screen- sounds like just the thing to keep kids quiet. But some genius decided to create a new special disc for them, so you can buy lots of media or let it gather dust quickly.

The pre-school crowd may like TV learning Spiderman & Friends: Which teaches a variety of pre-school basics. But, like dozens of predecessor games the challenge can run out quickly. The Spidey logo will give it added appeal, but will it be enough?

On the other hand, you can just give little ones a few large cardboard boxes, the middle ones some active skill or outdoor games, and join the older ones in a game of Cranium or Chess. They'll all last longer, teach better skills, use fewer batteries and provide better memories than anything else under the tree.

25 shopping days till the 25th.

Leib Lurie is a Troy resident, Optimist Club member and CEO of OneCallNow, the new name for MyTeam1. You can reach him at Leib@Lurie.net