Farewell to Summer's Joys

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: This weekend marks the official end of summer here in the US. Grade schools and high schools have already started, although many, like Youngest, had an easy first week, with classes only on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The college students who haven't already arrived on campus are moving in this weekend, and everyone whose office had summer flexible Friday hours will have to go back to the regular schedule next week.


Here in Maine, the temperature is already starting to lower, with more days only getting to a high in the seventies, and more nights in the fifties. It often feels as if a celestial switch gets turned on around the Forth of July and turned off right after Labor Day. What was left undone - a float down the Saco River, building a firepit - must stay undone until next summer.


I was having these somewhat melancholy thoughts because I was making my favorite late-summer treat, an open-faced tomato sandwich with Miracle Whip. What epitomizes the transient joys of summer like a home grown tomato? Our neighboring farm is bursting with them, and they let me take the ones that aren't pretty enough to sell at market, so I am gorging on panzanella, insalata caprese, crostini and good old American tomato sammiches. Of all the pleasures of summer, I will miss these tomatoes most of all.

How about you, Reds? What do you hate to say good-bye to this weekend?


RHYS BOWEN: Wearing white! Officially it is socially unacceptable to wear white after Labor Day, so I'm told. But it's my favorite color and it looks good on me, and it will stay hot in California for at least another two months, so I'm going to defy convention and keep wearing it.


Foodwise I adore cherries and this year has been a really long season for them. And local peaches and plums. And sitting outside on my balcony as the wind comes in from the ocean and cools things down and the lights go on in the valley below. But of course I cheat: when it gets cold and wet in California, I fly south with the birds and spend the winter in Arizona. A wimp, I know.


HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  There's something slower about summer, even though my life and responsibilities are exactly the same. I love to take walks during the day, see how beautiful the world is..it's also great in the fall, thought, and spring.  Sitting outside in our backyard by the pool, and floating on the air mattress things, and cooking out. Love that.  That the daylight lasts longer.  And in Boston, there's much less traffic (unless you are driving to the Cape between Thursday afternoon and Friday night, or returning on Sunday. NIGHTMARE.  And gosh, I love tomatoes.


LUCY BURDETTE: Cherries, peaches and blueberries at their peak--I will sure miss them. And once John beat back the onslaught of woodchucks, our garden has been amazing. We've been giving away gorgeous tomatoes left and right, and our neighbors run when we bear down on them with zucchini... But fall is nice too--no humidity, and the dog is willing to walk much further. And like Rhys, we flee when it gets too chilly! Already thinking about my friends in Key West:).



SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: Will miss tomatoes, corn, peaches, all of the daylight, fireflies, cookouts, roasted marshmallows, walking around without a jacket.... But I'm not going to miss the heat. Also, as everyone with a kid still in school knows — it's time for the little darlings to go back.


JULIA: Oh, yes, Susan. As the advert says, "It's the most wonderful time of the year..."


HALLIE EPHRON: I won't miss the ants, but I will so miss the flicker (a great big woodpecker) who visits our stone patio to drill between the stones for them. I'll miss the huge pot of fresh basil on my back steps that I can squeeze-and-sniff for a shot of summer. Also the peaches a plums. They've been amazing this year.


DEBORAH CROMBIE: Don't talk to me about ants. I stepped in huge fire ant mound a couple of weeks ago. Ack. So I won't miss them, or the mosquitoes. It was so hot here into mid-August, and I was so busy with the book that I really feel like I missed summer this year. I am enjoying the last of the tomatoes. And basil!! I know we can buy fresh in the supermarket all year these days, but it's not the same as walking out on my deck and picking handfuls. And I will really miss the blueberries. Otherwise I'm looking forward to fall and being able to enjoy being outside again.

HANK: ANTS! Argh. we had the TEENY, almost invisible ones (I looked them up, pharaoh ants) all over our counter for one day. Just one day! Apparently the ants are freaking out with the drought,and  looking for water. I felt bad for them.

JULIA: Debs, you and I are climate opposites - I love fall, but I know it means my time outdoors is limited because... No, I won't say it. Not yet. Dear readers, what are you going to miss about summer? And are you doing anything to say farewell this weekend?

On hot flashes

JAN: Most women don't think hot flashes are very funny, but Paula Munier does.

An acquisitions editor at Adams Media by day and writer by night, Paula coauthored a new humor book, Hot Flash Haiku, with Jennifer Basye Sander. And she's here with us today to share some of her wit and wisdom in perfect haiku form: (five, seven, five syllables).

Age Inappropriate

Is Just another way to

Keep This Old Broad Down

JAN: (laughing) How did you come up with the idea for this book?

PAULA: Jennifer came up to me at BEA (Book Expo America) and said, I have this idea. I want you to write it with me. It was such a funny idea, hot flash humor in seventeen syllables. I knew we'd have a great time writing it, we just needed to come up with an organizing principle.

JAN: Which was......???

PAULA: In some ways, as you age you are grieving your loss of some things. So we organized it according to the stages of grief. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. In the denial category...

If I could turn back

Time, I'd look just like Cher

Before surgery.

JAN: How did you go about writing these and how long did it take?

PAULA: We split them up. There are about 250 poems in the book. I tried to write the more funny ones, Jennifer wrote the more profound ones and we had some contributors. A lot of red wine and chocolate was consumed to put us in the mood. It took about six months

In the anger category,

A cruel magic act

Gravity Tugs, I go from

Woman to Shar Pei.

and

Whenever someone

my age gets a face lift

It pisses me off.

JAN: Was it hard to master the haiku form?

PAULA. Once you get into the groove, the trick becomes how to make them all different. To write 250 of anything without repeating yourself is a challenge. Jennifer and I brought different perspectives. I'm older than Jennifer and a grandmother. She was married once and is still married. I've been married and now I'm dating.

In the bargaining category:

If Men Think about Sex

Every seven seconds

Why can't we get laid?

JAN: So are you thinking haiku now on every date?

PAULA: Not really, but it's a little like writing a country western song, you are always thinking in a narrative. And how to make so few words tell a story.

In the depression category:

Once I was hot

But now hotter than ever

Many times a day.

JAN: Right off the top of my head, I can think of three or four women I want to buy this book for. What has the reception been like?

PAULA: People everywhere love this book. The copy editor loved the book. The people at Penn Station Borders couldn't wait to tell us how much they loved this book. It resonates with people. You've heard that women over a certain age become invisible? Well, women of my generation are not going to settle for invisible. This book celebrates that. We're not doing that. We didn't anything the way our parents did and this either.

In the acceptance category....

Men Over 50

May need viagra

So drug him.

Paula Munier is also the author of Yes, We Can, 365 Ways to Make America a Better Place, On Being Blonde and the young adult novel, Emerald's Desire. She is the co-author of 101 Things You (and John McCain) Didn't Know about Sarah Palin.

Jennifer Basye Sander is the author of The Sacramento Women's Pages, as well as the author, coauthor and ghostwriter of more than thirty books including the recent gift book hits Wear More Cashmere and The Martini Diet.

Summer Gold

ROBERTA: It's been such a weird summer in New England, cool and wet. Doesn't it seem like we haven't hit the summer food season with the same gusto as usual, even here on the blog? I did make a killer blueberry pie and we've had a terrific lettuce and asparagus season, but everything else in the garden is slow, slow, and slow. And then today, I read a horrible article in the New York Times food section about a late tomato blight that's expected to wipe out a large percentage of the tomato crop in the northeast. Yikes! I ran right out to inspect my crop: no sign of fissures and sores so far!
So let's hear it from you Jungle Reds: what's your favorite summer treat so far or what are you looking forward to for the rest of the season?

And p.s., one of the food-related treats I'm anticipating is the new movie directed by Hallie's sister Nora, based on the book Julie and Julia, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Cannot wait to see Meryl Streep as Julia Child!

HALLIE: As I look out my window, it's raining again. Sigh.

Cherries. Have they been incredible this season or what? And last week we had some amazing peaches. Barbecued chicken! We never drag out the charcoal grill until summer. And my friend Maggie just brought me three vine ripened tomatoes and I remembered what they're supposed to taste like...essence of summer. The tomato blight is very scary and, I gather, widespread.

RO: Are we talking food or something else? Summer means white wine sangria and bbqs with friends, big kitchen sink salads and lots of grilled chicken. A good friend just turned me on to something called Sekt. Never heard of it before but it's a German sparkling wine like cava or asti spumante(in these tough economic times, I save the bubbly for special occasions.) Nice and summer-y.

Non-food treat? I can't wait for my month in Wellfleet. No phone, no cable, no obsessive checking of emails.

HANK: Oh, summer. Are we having that this year? It's so rainy around here, people are just--defeated. Walking around in the rain, no umbrellas. Just--getting wet. Forget about it. Fuzzy hair and damp clothes and flip flops. And usually during the summer we have dinner outside on the patio every night--not this year. But we are saving a LOT on irrigation.

Anyway--food. Peaches! I found some wonderful ones, and when they're good, they're so terrific. And blueberries. And oh, we've had lobster, and I do love it. And proseco with elderflower liqueur. Like a kir. And rose wine from Provence...cold cold cold.

And how about iced coffee? And iced lattes? Got to love them. And right his very minute--we're grilling fish and asparagus outside. Not raining! Yay! Gotta go..

RHYS: I've experienced enough heat to share with everyone who has had a rotten summer. Book tour in Houston, Scottsdale, LA and now over a week in Florida. My biggest treat so far--swimming in the ocean twice this week as we drove around Florida and abandoned drive by signings for an hour or two on the beach. The water was incredible--warm, gentle waves, just right. We did pay for it a little with sunburn as we stayed in for an hour and the sunscreen was gradually washed away.

We've also had some amazing food on this tour--cold seafood platter on a dock, and dinner in a very trendy South Florida restaurant with decor right out of a movie (speaking of which I also can't wait to see Julia and Julie. I love movies about food, and I love everything Nora has done.
Incidentally, cherries have also been fantastic in California this summer. One of my favorite fruits, along with peaches, mangoes, papaya.

ROBERTA: Tomatoes, peaches, blueberries, lobster, cherries...what summer treats are you enjoying?