generic

This week's generic item:
Product: Harris Teeter Brand coffee-flavored ice cream
Rating: Decent. Definitely more mellow/less flavorful than some brand-name coffee ice creams I've tried, but still creamy and incredibly edible. A little less flavor for a little less money. Right now I'm good with that.

Lockdown!

That's right! It's Financial Lockdown time again! Some friends told me once they actually looked forward to my budget tips, so I thought I'd let you know that this week, we took the last of our pumpkins and turned them into
a. soup
b. roasted seeds
c. compost!

The soup recipe was in the back of a book called Pumpkin Soup that my son checked out of the library.
The seeds we roast every year, with a little olive oil, salt, and Emeril's original essence seasoning. I put the oven on too high (I always forget the best temp) and they started popping like popcorn so I had to pull them out early. They were still good though.
The compost is looking lovely. (Note: Our jack-o-lanterns from Halloween stayed on the porch until the squirrels were done with them. Obviously they rotted early and were not used in the soup.)

Injuries:
My thumb. Small cut, big blood. I HATE PEELING PUMPKINS. But when you're on lockdown it seems like such a waste to throw a perfectly good pumpkin away.

In other budget news, tis the season to start buying GENERIC PRODUCTS.
When I try them, I'll try to remember to rate them. If you have any products to share, please do.
Today's products:
Item: Harris Teeter Black Olives
Rating: Absolutely as good as brand name
Item: Safeway's Lucerne Mozzarella Cheese
Rating: Ugh.

The Amazing Cece Bell

Hi, and welcome to my (sporadic) blog. I have come out of hibernation to talk with Cece Bell, author, illustrator, and friend, and to help her launch her new book, Bee-Wigged (Candlewick Press.) Some of you may know Cece from her other picturebooks, which include Sock Monkey Goes to Hollywood, Sock Monkey Boogie-Woogie, and Sock Monkey Rides Again. Or from her board books, Busy Buddies and Food Friends. If, based on some of these titles alone, you detect a theme of friendship in Cece's work than you're one smart cupcake. Bee-Wigged is no exception. The story is about a giant bee who is feared by everyone. One bright day he finds a wig resting on the sidewalk. He puts it on and voila! Everyone thinks he's a boy. He makes friends everywhere he goes, until one day the wig blows off and Jerry's true self is revealed. When the wig begins to speak (!) Jerry realizes he has made the best friend of all. Plenty of other bloggers will focus on Jerry. Me? I'm going to focus on Wiglet, who has a moral authority I haven't seen since Linus. It's pretty clear he needs a book of his own.

Mad: If I didn't know you and your personal habits before I read this book, I would have said: Cece, WHAT EXACTLY WAS IN THAT ICED TEA? But since I do know you, I'll ask you to tell us about Jerry's wig instead. What can you tell us about the name: Wiglet?

Cece: Believe it or not (and the first time I heard it, I didn’t believe it), “wiglet” is a word in the dictionary. It may be the funniest word in the dictionary, ever, and Webster’s says it means “a small wig used esp. to enhance a hairstyle.” (So we can call the hair extensions favored by Britney and her ilk wiglets, too.) The first time I ever heard the word wiglet was when my friend Kelli Huffman (to whom Bee-Wigged is dedicated) told me that her beloved Nana used a wiglet to, you guessed it, enhance her hairstyle. We were walking at the time that she gave me this information, and I think I came darn well close to wetting my pants from laughing so hard. I was sure she had made up the word. When we returned from our walk, I looked it up in the dictionary, and there it was. So anyway, I knew I had to have a wig character in a book, just so I could use the word wiglet.

Mad: Is it true that you have the original wiglet?
Cece: Kelli did give me Nana’s original wiglet. Kelli had taken the wiglet and sewed it to the top of a bill-less baseball cap, so that her pre-school students could wear it when they played dress-up. The wiglet looks horrible, but Kelli tells me that back in its glory days, she got to comb and style it for Nana before Nana wore it to various glamorous events in DC.

Mad: (Spoiler alert! Spoiler alert!): In your book, Wiglet talks and turns out to be ...a guinea pig! Why a guinea pig?

Cece: Guinea pigs are good and hairy, and also kind of blobby, which was just right for the shape I had in mind for Jerry Bee to wear on his head. Also, a guinea pig’s hands and feet and ears are tiny and could presumably be hidden under all that fur.

Mad: What other animals did you consider?

Cece: I think I considered a dog for a long time, but decided that it would be too hard to hide a dog’s dogginess, especially its longer legs and distinctive ears.

Mad: Have you ever worn a wig?

Cece: Yes.

Mad: What was the occasion?

Cece: I am compelled to put a on a wig anytime I am close to one.

Mad: Did you/do you feel like a different person?

Cece: I feel like an absolute fool!

Mad: When I think of Big Wigs, I tend to think of Jan Brady, although she used her wig to be DIFFERENT from everyone else. Jerry uses his to help him conform. Can you think of other Big Wigs in literature? And since I thought of Jan Brady first, I'll extend that question to include film or TV.

Cece: That big wig of Jan’s may be one of the all-time great moments in television. I’m having trouble visualizing anything right now other than that beautiful big black wig, so I think I’ll have to pass on this question. Let’s just say I’m pretty unschooled in the Big Wig Motifs of Great Literature.

Mad: So, wigs: Conformity or distinction?

Cece: I’d say distinction, no matter what. You just can’t miss a wig.

Mad: You've mentioned before that when you were growing up and The Only Kid in the Class With a Hearing Aid, you were worried about fitting in. That's on top of the normal fitting-in worry that you already had just by virtue of being a kid. What's the craziest thing you ever did to try to fit in when you were young?

Cece: Do you remember those purses that were popular in the early 80’s? They had these curved wooden handles and were kind of clam-shaped. They had all these different covers that you could get to match your outfit. The finest girls in school all carried them, and if you were super-fine, you got yours monogrammed. Well, I convinced myself that a purse of this nature would open up a whole new world of popularity and pizazz. The problem was that carrying anything not 100% essential was, and still is, totally anathema to the Cece Bell way of life. Not only did I feel ridiculous carrying extra stuff that I didn’t need, I am sure I looked ridiculous with a tiny purse that didn’t ever match my ill-fitting clothes. I think that purse lasted all of one week. Total garbage! Thank goodness I didn’t get into the whole add-a-bead disaster.

Note from your hostess, who did get into the whole add-a-bead disaster, though she never got past one bead: Bermuda Bags!


Mad: You once told me that you thought people were nicer than they were because -- being hard of hearing -- you couldn't overhear any nasty asides they might have made. How do you think that transfers into your work? And I have to add: I find it interesting when you draw/paint, especially in the Sock Monkey books, you have everyone saying something at once in a crowded room! Could you take that sorry approximation of a question and just run with it?

Cece: Well, “missing out” on things that are said has probably affected my life and work in two ways. The first is that I do tend to see the world through rose-colored glasses, and think that people are essentially good -- I never hear them say anything bad, so why not? This is, I know, not always true, but heck, whatever works. It probably keeps my writing and my illustrating very positive, which usually works well in the children’s lit field. The second is that “missing out” probably made me more creative. For example, I watched a LOT of television as a kid -- and that would’ve been before there was closed-captioning. Why I would do something so idiotic is beyond me, but what I ended up doing was kind of fun: I would make up stories in my head to go with the pictures I was seeing. I had lots of crazy stories about Horseshack and Mr Kotter, Bugs and Daffy. Seriously weird stuff. Closed-captioning came along when I was 12 or so, and my creative skills probably plummeted.


Mad: When I read the first draft of Bee-Wigged, I thought: I love this! But I didn't think that Candlewick would publish it because a talking wig might be outside of their comfort level. (I tend to think cozy when I think Candlewick's picture books. Not that this isn't a cozy story, but you know what I'm saying.) Did you have any trouble convincing them or did they snag it right away?

Cece: They snagged it right away. I’ve never seen anything like it. I sent in a dummy version; two weeks later to the day, they bought it. Nuts! Would that they were all that easy.

Mad: Cher or Dolly Parton? (Both proud wig wearers.)


Cece: Are you kidding? Dolly Parton by about a mile. They have both had plastic surgery, which is not a good look for anyone, but Dolly has better songs and, I think, a really good attitude. Maybe Cher has a good attitude, too, but that robot voice stuff in “Do You Believe in Life After Love” makes me queasy.

Mad: Burt Reynolds or Ted Danson? (Both toupee wearers. Not sure about the proud part.)



Cece: Burt Reynolds, but before his relationship with Loni (and with his plastic surgeon). I love him in Deliverance and the Smokey and the Bandit stuff.

Mad: And one last question: Knowing that SM can be more than a little vain at times, I was wondering what he thinks about all of this?

Cece: He is beyond furious.

Mad: That wraps us up. Thanks, Cece, for taking the time to answer my questions. I hope everyone else will tune in for the rest of Cece's blog tour. Locations and links follow.

Monday, Dec. 1, Sam Riddleburger's Blog
Tuesday, Dec. 2, That was me. You were here.
Wednesday, Dec. 3, Plastic Pumpkins. Over the top. You will thank yourself for checking it out.
Thursday, Dec. 4, Through Internet magic, Cece and Jerry Bee are in TWO PLACES AT ONCE
Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
and Bookstogether, where a crack panel of 4 to 8 year olds will ask Cece probing questions.
Friday, Dec. 5: 100 Scope Notes
Saturday, Dec. 6: Stop back at Cece's web site for chance to win something bee-wonderful!

playlist!

Because I was (and still sometimes am) a music writer, I feel compelled to provide a playlist inspired by Cece's Bee-Wigged tour.
If you're a kid, this one's a no brainer: Go listen to Laurie Berkner's "Bumblebee"
And if you're not a kid and you're seeking something with more of an edge,* might I suggest:
Husker Du's "Flip Your Wig" From the year I graduated high school. Bob Mould. Lovely, angry guitar playing. It's a great album and if you missed it 23 years ago (ouch) here's your second chance.
The B-52's Bouncing off the Satellites album includes a track called "Wig." Much bouncier (duh) and friendlier than Husker Du. This one's kid friendly, too!
Southern Culture on the Skids: SCOTS is one of the wiggiest (and hardest working) bands out there, and their 1994 album Ditch Diggin' features a playful guitar track called "Wig-Out." Plus, Southern Culture is largely from Roanoke, Va., which is just a few miles up the road from Cece Bell. Kismet!
The Soft Boys: Can of Bees. Early Soft Boys, but here there's nothing soft about 'em (though "Sandra's Having Her Brain Out" is quite melodic). No wig songs. No bee songs. But lots of weirdness and a promise of the good things to come.

*Please note, I am a strong advocate for letting kids listen to edgy stuff, too! I just haven't done my usual swear scan on any of these lyrics. I will say that SCOTS is in heavy rotation on our kid playlist, and The B-52s could be, if everything we owned weren't on vinyl.

coming up

Yes, it's a preview. I usually don't do those, but it's been so long since I've posted anything I figured I should get people geared up by announcing that I will host an interview with Cece Bell, here, at this very blog, on Tuesday. I don't usually interview friends -- in the journalism world that would be a conflict of interest. But this is BLOG WORLD, very different, and I can do whatever I want. In fact, maybe I should interview ONLY FRIENDS. Which means that Mary Hill will have to talk to me when her new book of poetry comes out in January. But for now: Cece! This week! Talking about Bee-Wigged! Stay Tuned!
And if you can't wait until Tuesday, the Blog Tour starts tomorrow at Sam Riddleburger's Blog.

It's Complicated

My son checked a new picture book out of his school library last week, "The Cats in Kraskinski Square." He'd chosen it, he said, because it was sitting on top of the shelf and it was opened to a page with a picture of a giant steam engine. My son is a sucker for giant steam engines. He took the book back to his classroom and started reading. When he came home, he handed it to me and asked me to read the story. Because the book wasn't about trains at all, it turns out. It was about the Holocaust.

Until last week, my son knew nothing about World War II, and I would have waited even longer before trying to explain that particular chapter in world history. There are many chapters I haven't tried explaining yet. I'm fortunate. Because throughout the world we have 6-year-olds LIVING THROUGH the things we'd like to protect them from.

As books on this subject go, I'd easily recommend the one my son picked, which is written by Karen Hesse with illustrations by Wendy Watson. I just would have picked it three years from now.

The story is about a little girl who has escaped from the Warsaw ghetto and is trying to get food to the people inside. She keeps playing with these cats that roam around the town -- cats who no one owns anymore. When the Gestapo finds out that the people are trying to smuggle food into the ghetto, the girl and her sister round up the cats and put them in their baskets. The cats are released, the Gestapo's dogs chase the cats, and the food makes it to the hands of the starving people. My son got the nuances -- no one owns the cats because the owners are dead. The girl and her sister are all that's left of their own little family because their parents and brother are dead. There's no escaping that. But people are fighting back, and in this one instance, at least, they win at their task -- appreciated for this age group because I think one of the hardest things for a kid is the idea that he can't do anything about the horrible things that are happening in the world. (That's one of the hardest things for me, too!)

My son asked to read it again and again -- his way, I think, of trying to understand. Had he not already tried reading it in school by himself, I absolutely would have steered him away until he was older. I still haven't said anything to the librarian. I haven't quite figured out how to approach it, I guess. Just like I haven't quite figured out how to approach this post, so I'm ending it here...

September