A Hanukkah recipe for potato latkes

When Jill Silander was growing up, she and her mother would always make latkes together for the first night of Hanukkah. That’s also the night the family would get gifts. “We didn’t get a gift every night,” Jill told me, “only on the first night. With three kids, you can imagine my parents didn’t need to buy 24 presents for Hanukkah when Christmas was around the corner. Yes, I was one of those lucky Jewish kids who got to celebrate both!”

Today, Jill still makes latkes for her family, including her husband who is not Jewish and happens to be a chef and their young son. “My husband likes them with sour cream and sometimes with ketchup,” she said. “Ever since I can remember I have always eaten them with applesauce and wouldn’t eat them any other way!” Click here to continue reading.

Want good luck in 2017? Eat your black eyed peas.

I think many can agree that 2016 was a doozy. It was a tough one for our family in many ways, and we’re not the only ones. I’ve even seen songs written about how crappy 2016 was. But we made it and are looking forward to a happy and healthy 2017!

I’m not one for superstitions, well, sometimes I am. I do like cultural traditions, and I knock on wood a lot. So I’m sharing a little bit of my superstitious southern background in this week’s blog post. If you want to have good luck in 2017, you just need to eat your black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day.

I’ve been eating black eyed peas on New Year’s most years since I was a little girl. When I was 16, we didn’t have black eyed peas on New Year’s Day, and later that year, in August, I overslept on the first day of school. Coincidence? I think not.

I knew it must have been because I missed my peas, and when you’re 16, being late for the first day of school is completely traumatic.

My husband is from Montana and had never heard of this lucky tradition, so when I first explained it to him, I’m pretty sure he thought I was crazy. And, I’m sure, if you’re reading this and are not from the south, you might think I’m crazy as well, but hear me out.

In addition to making your New Year’s resolutions, why not add a little of this lucky and highly nutritious bean to your menu? It’s worth a shot, right?

I did a little research, and it turns out that the black-eyed pea tradition goes back even further than I thought. Apparently, there is some disagreement about how this tradition began in the south. Some say the tradition started after the Civil War when there was nothing left to eat anyway. Black eyed peas were considered more for animals, and when times were tough, well, black eyed peas really were lucky. Click here to continue reading.

Movie Review—Nocturnal Animals

by Peter J. O’Connell                                                                                                                                

Nocturnal Animals. Released: Dec. 2016. Runtime: 116 mins. MPAA Rating: R for violence, menace, graphic nudity and language.

Nocturnal Animals, directed by Tom Ford, is a film based on a book (by Austen Wright) that has a “book within this book” structure. Ford’s movie makes the book within the book into a film within the film. Ford begins his framing film with a sequence that is shocking, yet magnetic. It is an “edgy” exhibit at a trendy L.A. art gallery run by Susan Morrow (Amy Adams). This chic world is one that Ford, a noted fashion designer, knows well.

 After the exhibit, Susan, who seems somewhat burned-out, goes to her cold, minimalist-modern home and says good-bye to her husband, her second husband (Armie Hammer), who is about to leave on a business (supposedly) trip to New York. Before he leaves, they discuss a manuscript that has just been delivered to the house for Susan. The manuscript is of a novel entitled “Nocturnal Animals,” and it is by Edward Sheffield, who will be played by Jake Glyllenhaal. Edward was Susan’s first husband, whom she has not had contact with in 19 years.

After her husband leaves, Susan begins to read “Nocturnal Animals” and finds it riveting. It presents a world that seems very different from her artsy-fartsy one. The story appears to be of the same order as Cormac McCarthy’s highly regarded novels set in Texas, such as No Country for Old Men, a violent thriller made into a film by the Coen brothers in 2007. Susan’s reading takes us into the film within the film, one which is reminiscent not only of the Coen brothers’ work but also of John Boorman’s Deliverance (1972), David Lynch’s Wild at Heart (1990) and Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon (1950).  

Edward’s manuscript is about Tony Hastings (Jake Glyllenhaal), his wife (Isla Fisher) and their daughter (Ellie Bamber). One pitch-black night this middle-class family on vacation is driving through a desolate area of west Texas when they have an encounter on the highway with a brutal trio of rednecks. The encounter spins out of control, and tragedy results. Tony has to come to grips with the nature of his response to these events and, aided by a local lawman (Michael Shannon) marinated in menace, undertake surprising action.

As Susan reads the manuscript—and we watch the film of the manuscript—she (and we) begin to see parallels of a sort between what happened to the Hastings family and what occurred in the relationship of Susan and Edward. Flashbacks to that relationship start alternating with the unfolding of the west Texas events. We find ourselves traveling on both “tracks” of Ford’s movie and appreciating, though in different ways, where each takes us. When she finishes the manuscript, Susan undertakes an important action. We wait in suspense for Edward’s response.

Ford’s directorial touch is subtle when required, as in some of his satire of Susan’s world, and of searing intensity when required, as in Tony’s story. Jake Glyllenhaal’s acting skills as Tony also reach searing intensity, but this terrific actor plays the subdued role of Edward with equal skill. Amy Adams as Susan continues her string of fine performances. (She is currently also on local screens in Arrival.) Michael Shannon turns in another stellar supporting performance. Also excellent is Aaron Taylor-Johnson—mostly known for goofy comedies—as the lead redneck. Abel Korzeniowski’s score is exactly right for the film, having both throbbing neo-romanticism and Glassian-type minimalism.

“Footnotes” to the film: Tom Ford’s only previous film, A Single Man (2009), was critically acclaimed and believed by some to have, like Nocturnal Animals, a “literary dimension.” Some saw it as a contemporary version of the Book of Job. Colin Firth received an Oscar nomination for his role in the film.       

Americans can get a snowman shipped to their house for $79.

After pausing on his other seasonal business of shipping fall leaves from New England to the less autumnally endowed states, entrepreneur Kyle Waring has been busy shipping boxes of snow across the country, just in time for the holidays.

So far, he has sold over 2,500 pounds—more than a metric ton—for this side business, succinctly named “Ship Snow, Yo.”

After the powerful nor’easter blizzard Juno ravaged Boston in 2015, Waring, who is 28 and works for a videogame company, realized there was enough snow to share. According to Waring, the first flakes, sent in water bottles were intended to be joke gifts, “something you’d send to your friend in Florida who can’t keep from bragging about the sunshine.” Click here to continue reading.

9 IRS Audit Red Flags for Retirees

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In 2015, the Internal Revenue Service audited only 0.84% of all individual tax returns. So the odds are generally pretty low that your return will be picked for review.

That said, your chances of being audited or otherwise hearing from the IRS escalate depending on various factors. Math errors may draw an IRS inquiry, but they’ll rarely lead to a full-blown exam. Whether you're filing your 2015 return in October after getting an extension or looking ahead to filing your 2016 return early next year, check out these red flags that could increase the chances that the IRS will give the return of a retired taxpayer special, and probably unwelcome, attention.Click here to continue reading.

Movie Review—Rules Don’t Apply

by Peter J. O’Connell                                        

Rules Don’t Apply. Released: Nov. 2016. Runtime: 126 mins. MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual material, including brief strong language, thematic elements, and drug references.

Rules Don’t Apply, directed and co-written by and co-starring Warren Beatty, is a quirky mix of romcom and biopic. In 1958 Hollywood, tycoon Howard Hughes (Warren Beatty) maintains some 30 young aspiring actresses in homes across the area, awaiting promised screen tests and acting assignments. One such aspirant is Marla Mabrey (Lily Collins), a Baptist beauty queen from Virginia. Marla is chauffeured around the area by Frank Forbes (Alden Ehrenreich).

Though Frank has been told that drivers are strictly forbidden by Howard Hughes to have any personal relationship with the contract actresses, the inevitable happens, and Frank and Marla fall in love. Hughes does not realize that Frank and Marla have a budding relationship. He elevates Frank to an important position in his organization and becomes entranced by and sexually attracted to Lily.

At this point the movie increasingly focuses on Hughes’ increasingly bizarre behavior. Eccentric for years, he is rapidly descending into deep dementia. Charismatically performed by Beatty, some of the behavior is hilarious, some very sad. Although the portrayal of Hughes’ personality apparently is accurate, the movie wildly scrambles the actual chronology of events in his life. Also, a host of noted actors and actresses play small parts in the film, perhaps as favors to Beatty. One such is Alec Baldwin, who also appeared (as another character) in Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator (2004), about Hughes’ life before the 1950s, with Hughes played by Leonardo DiCaprio.

The focus of the middle part of Rules Don’t Apply on Hughes, who has disrupted the relationship of Marla and Frank, makes the movie’s return to the attractive young couple choppy going in terms of both plot twists and cinematic editing. Audience members will have to decide whether or not the appeal of Ehrenreich and Collins and the charisma of Beatty make the film’s bumpy ride worthwhile.

“Footnotes” to the film: (1) Alden Ehrenreich first attracted attention in another film about Hollywood in the 1950s, the Coen brothers’ Hail, Caesar! (2016). (2) Howard Hughes was memorably portrayed by Jason Robards in Melvin and Howard (1980), for which Robards received an Oscar nomination, and by Tommy Lee Jones in the two-part made-for-TV movie The Amazing Howard Hughes (1977). 

Original Gift Ideas for Seniors Who Don’t Want Anything

Coming up with gift ideas for grandparents or elderly parents can be a real headache for many people. Most grandparents have more stuff than they could possibly ever use.

There is nothing they need and very little they want. So, what do you give someone who has almost everything, and their house is already full of family photos, albums, personalized mugs, slippers and bath oils?

Here are some gift giving suggestions to get you started. Those gift ideas are perfect for any occasion. Click here to continue reading.

Flaky Spinach Garlic Pinwheels

I could see the twinkle of the white lights on our Christmas tree as I pulled out of our driveway yesterday. There they were, the bright sight that reminds me that the holiday season is here. It’s time to be merry and be joyful.

All over, houses are lit up with light displays — from bushes in the yard to the snowman at the front door. And as I look at them, driving from home to wherever, I think about how I’ll decorate our house next year — when I hope to have a house to decorate.

In the meantime, our little tree is adorned with decorations collected over the last 15 years. Ones my kids made in preschool hang alongside that one special ornament I bought at a fancy department store when I was in college. In the doorway, a kissing ball that I bought as a joke years ago hangs as it does every year. And around our living room, nutcrackers and tabletop decorations make the room feel even more festive.

Perhaps this week, I’ll even string lights creatively across a wall.

This holiday season seems to be flying by at breakneck speed. In the meantime, while it’s still here, the glimpse of our tree in the window makes me smile. It’s a good time of year to be happy, and we are. Click here to continue reading.

Movie Review—Allied

                                                                                                                                

by Peter J. O'Connell

Allied. Released: Nov. 2016. Runtime: 124 mins. MPAA Rating: R for violence, some sexuality/nudity, language and brief drug use.

Casablanca,1942. A man and a woman, played by glamorous stars, are caught up in intrigue and romance during World War II. You’ve seen this movie before, right? Casablanca (1942), starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. Wrong; it’s Allied, released in November of this year and starring Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard. 

Pitt is Max Vatan, a Canadian serving with Britain’s Royal Air Force as an intelligence officer. Posing as a businessman from Paris, Max has been assigned to Casablanca to meet with Marianne Beausejour (Marion Cotillard), sent by the French Resistance. Their task: assassinate a German official. This they do in a spectacular scene, but not before they fall in love and have some steamy scenes together, including a particularly notable one in a car during a sandstorm in the desert.

Max returns to London with Marianne, and the two find refuge from the storms of war raging around them by marrying and having a baby. The comfort of family life is shattered, however, when questions are raised about Marianne’s true allegiances. Max has to undertake a dangerous mission to answer these questions. The answers, in their turn, pose further life and death questions for the two lovers.

In Allied director Robert Zemeckis has sought to merge the kind of appeal that a classic film from the “Golden Age” of Hollywood has with a contemporary sensibility. His attempt is admirable, though not completely successful. As for the acting, Cotillard is quite good (though no Bergman), and Pitt is OK (though definitely no Bogart). So, here’s looking at you Allied, but we’ll always have Casablanca!