WINTER Rx's Today being the Winter Solstice, I had intended to resume 'blogging by offering some consolatory words re fortifying ourselves against the coming difficult winter months. (But, oh! I've seen THE TWO TOWERS twice in the past four days....Can I possibly focus my attention fully on any other meaningful topic at this time? More on the most wonderful all-time movie experience later today....) Last evening, I read -- as I do annually on this date -- Leigh Hunt's (1820) brief essay, "Getting Up On Cold Mornings," the text of which is comprised in my copy of The Oxford Book of Essays. He asks, in an effort to avoid confronting such frigid A.M.s, whether it is best to lie in bed until noon. He sums up his counter-argument with the answer "No." He writes that there are "better and warmer things than pillows and blankets." How true! I think it is preferable, and much more beneficial, to haul yourself out of bed, do some light calisthenics to limber up, take an invigorating shower, then prepare & eat a nurishing full-range breakfast....And Cornflakes Be Damned! I don't expect that I could ever develop a purposeful rapport with anyone who doesn't appreciate a wholesome & relaxing breakfast. (I mean the type of breakfast every sane person used to enjoy...not a mere cigarette & coffee, or this foolish thing called brunch.) I love a full hot breakfast and refuse to understand why so many other people skip such a glorious meal. When I read what our most important political leaders wolf down upon rising each day, I wonder why the nation hasn't split apart at the seams. When I encounter an acquaintance who doesn't take nourishment before noon who's miserably choked up with sinus congestion or the flu, I can hardly express much sympathy. And show me the unthinking fool who finds something sensible and dignified about offering zarf-handled plastic cups of cheap instant coffee and pathetic slice of factory-baked, toasted bread as a grown-up alternative for a business breakfast, and I can only hope he collapses from lack of adrenaline & brain-power before the meeting is finished. Sure, you may call me intolerant, arrogant, or eccentric -- but when it comes to the gastronomic, aesthetic, and nutritional advantages of breakfast, my oriflamme flies high! Exactly when the demise of the nutritious hot breakfast began in this country, is anybody's safe surmise. But there can be no doubt that today many of us would disagree totally with the sagacious Mrs. Beeton, who wrote in her 19th-century Book of Houshold Management that "the moral and physical welfate of mankind depends largely on its breakfasts." I would venture to remark that until about 20 years ago, we valued this important meal as much as the English & Scandinavians do to this day. Some of the almost orgiastic matinal repasts consumed by our ancestors were, I agree, a bit excessive; but they made a good deal more sense that packaged, over-processed cereals, instant liquid breakfasts, frozen waffles, "drive-thru" fast-food handouts, or this anemic modern-day absurdity know to travelers as the continental breakfast. The continental is a gastronomic outrage that somehow fascinates people who stay in cheap all-inclusive hotels -- and those morons with certain social pretentions and placates others with an absurdly misinformed mania about cholesterol levels. As far as I'm concerned, it should be banned by the food inspection agencies as a public health hazard! Those of us who do savour a full morning meal day after day, NOT only on weekends, enjoy reminiscing about certain breakfasts the way others like to talk about rare ceremonial dinners. The most important point I wish to establish here is that you get into the healthful rountine of eating good, solidly nutritious breakfasts in order to warm up your system and to relearn what a gustatory superlative this meal can be when it's approached intelligently. Trust me, you will find it virtually impossible to begin a day without this meal -- and who knows, eventually you might even find yourself indulging in my own never-ending quest for the quintessential centerpiece: a double-yolk egg laid by free-run pullets. Incidentally, I am very gratified that my 15-year-old, bodybuilding neophyte, bright-as- a-torch, nephew is now a dedicated eater of great breakfasts. He tells me that he wouldn't dream of living any other way....Now that's true zeal & zest for Life: Bravo, Jamieson!!
