My Favorite Flea Market Find (Hint: it's Furry)

The French flea market (in the heart of the Berry) went on for many kilometers, featuring everything from appliances and La-Z-Boy chairs to a Soviet era sailor's hat perched atop a smiling bust: 

 

Also items that might be filed under objectifying, colonizing, exotic, racist or just plain bizarre--a lamp in the shape of a beautiful black woman slung with pearls: 

plus piles of cartoon books featuring stereotype after stereotype. But mostly one found the usual: plates, cutlery, books, dolls, clothes, shoes, boots, fireman hats, lamps, furniture, pots, pans, cotton tablecloths and napkins, and two other gems before I get to my favorite, namely a French press coffee pot for two euros and a rice cooker, complete with rice paddle, for five. (Both fully functional)

There came the moment of revelation. I clapped eyes on a wonder: Hanging from a rack in the breeze, surrounded by chipped furniture and scratched-up children's toys, a rich brown in the warm morning sun, swung a mouton fur jacket. Here she is after I got her back home: 

Her vintage (I surmise from the label inside) c. 1942. In the pocket I found a gum wrapper I deemed to be of the same era. Naturally, she reeked not of Chanel no. 5 or Emeraude Coty but of somebody's basement.

But a fifth-and-a-half of Vodka later, she smells almost normal. Like fur. No, I didn't drink the stuff. I sprayed it on--in this photo the neck area hasn't quite dried. Sprayed the lining too, including the arms. Will follow up with one more treatment, but believe me--she's cured!

 

Terrifically Tasty Chicken (so easy, too)

You will need:

(1) One whole chicken. I like the French cornfed ones, but any bird that looks good will do.

(2) Salt and pepper or the herbal salt of your choice. I used Silk Route brand Seasoned Sea Salt (which has paprika, coriander seeds, mustard seeds, other nice things) but have occasionally used another filled with parsley, oregano, rosemary, thyme, celery.

(3) Olive oil

(4) Some veggies--I used zucchini and red bell pepper. 

(5) Garlic--used the elephant garlic cloves. Easier to peel and slice.

(6) a lemon.

Salt the chicken and put it in a dish in the fridge for a couple of hours or overnight. An hour before you'd like to start cooking, take it out and set it aside. Pop the lemon in (after rinsing, cutting off the end with the stem, and poking a few holes so the juice will flow into the chicken). Slice the zucchini, pepper, and garlic. Heat olive oil in a frying pan and toss in the veggies. When they're nicely sautéed (just a few minutes) put them in a medium-sized pyrex baking dish (one a little bigger than the chicken). Put the chicken on top. (At this point, I spotted a few cherry tomatoes and threw them in).

Slide into a preheated 200º celsius oven (400º or slightly less Fahrenheit) for about an hour--or a little more. If the chicken starts to look brown, flip it over and let the underside cook for half an hour. Flip it back around fifteen minutes before you want to eat. If the veggies look like they're drying out or the chicken looks too brown, put a little aluminum foil over it. 

You can always make rice in the rice cooker--jasmine or basmati are good. 

Serve with a glass of cold, dry white wine.

Of Maskless Men and Train Cars

Yesterday, I took four trains to come home to Germany from a wonderful vacation in France. On each train announcements were made in up to four languages to the tune of: "Masks are required! They should cover your mouth and nose!"  On two trains (between major cities) a fine of 95 euro was announced--to be levied on those who declined to wear masks. 

Why do so many guys roll their eyes and rip off their masks? Right after the announcement? Or wear them as chin guards? Or grudgingly cover their mouths only? Or everything's asymmetrical? Half the mouth covered, one nostril protected, everything else hanging out to infect?

There sat I in my FFP3 (an N95) watching the contemptuous dudes blibber into their cell phones. Chomp their chocolates. Sit grinning.

On my final train, a young man removed his shoes, placing his feet (with socks) on the seat in front of him, but occasionally scratching said feet as if they itched intensely. His mask slid slowly down his nose until only his mouth was covered. As he, too, pushed the mask to his chin and began to gobble chocolate, I noted that my journey would only last another twenty minutes. 

I think my mask fended off COVID. But I'll continue to be tested. I wish all those dumb dudes out there knew how unsexy they are when they pull off their masks.