Today is Sunday, August 27 and there are only 57 days until National Boston Crème Pie Day so don’t wait too long to place your order.  Today we remember the birthdays of Samuel Goldwyn, Mother Teresa and Ira Levin.  On this day in 1667 Jamestown, VA experienced the earliest recorded hurricane in the US (actually the New World as it had not become the US yet), in 1859 the first successful oil well was drilled, near Titusville, PA and in 1961 Francis the Talking Mule was the mystery guest on “What’s My Line.”  In Gibraltar it is Late Summer Bank Holiday and in the US it is National Pots de Crème Day and National Just Because Day.

I know many of you are wondering what Pots de Crème is (are?).  First let me start out with the way to pronounce this dessert – Poh – deh – Krem.  It is a loose French dessert custard dating back to the 17^th century.  The name means “pot of custard” which also refers to the porcelain cups in which the dessert is served.  It is made with eggs, egg yolks, cream, milk and a flavor, usually vanilla or chocolate.

In researching this, I found that most recipes are for chocolate.  Some recipes require the cream to be heated, left to cool, and then baked for 30 minutes.  One recipe used a blender to mix everything and then added coffee to the chocolate.  Yet another baked the dishes for 55 minutes and then chilled them for a minimum of three hours.  There was one that I saw that did not bake them at all, but used heated liquid in a blender and then chilled the dishes for six to eight hours.  So, basically, if you were planning on making these to celebrate the day, you should have started them first thing this morning.  Now you can file this info in your Useless Dessert Information file.  By the way, have you noticed that stressed backwards is desserts?  

This past week, Barbara and I went down the shore.  It was a beautiful day and we figured why not?  The place we go to is a state park.  Since I am a senior citizen, I have a pass that gets me in without having to pay.  I also wanted to work on evening my tan out a little.  When we were in Myrtle Beach, I made several mistakes.  One was I tried spraying sun block on against the wind.  Another was that I didn’t recline enough and my man boobs and belly rolls covered parts of my chest and stomach and, as a result, I have some interesting white stripes across my body.  The final mistake I made was that I didn’t roll over, so the front of me is tanned with stripes and the back is white.  I imagine I could be the subject of someone else’s blog after they’ve seen me on the beach.

Anyway, we were sitting on the beach and I noticed something that I had seen before and never really thought about.  I saw a woman sitting in the surf.  The water was not real deep, but when a wave came in it washed up over her lap.  I am not quite sure what the correlation is, but every time I have seen this, it has involved a rather large woman.  This particular one was sitting, facing the ocean and letting the waves wash over her.  After a while she rolled over, facing up the beach and let the waves continue to hit her.  

She changed position several times and seemed quite content.  All I could think about was how much sand she had accumulated and where she had accumulated it.  Making the sand collection even more possible was the fact that she was wearing a rather skimpy bikini.  Skimpy for her size, that is.  That same bathing suit would have looked pretty good on a person half her size.  I am sure that she had sand in places where it simply does not belong.  With all the sand she was going to be taking with her, I can better understand the constant need for beach replenishment.  I am also reasonably sure that it was going to take her a couple days to get it out of all the crevices that were available to sand invasion.  Some of the things people do is a mystery to me.

For example, as we walked the boardwalk later in the evening, I saw a woman with bright red hair that turned to purple toward the ends of the hair.  The hair was not exactly neatly combed.  In fact she looked like she had been standing in front of a strong fan for some time.  She was slightly overweight and wore a dress that highlighted that condition.  She was covered with tattoos and piercings.  I thought that maybe she did it because she liked the attention, but I heard her complain a couple times when people stared at her.  If she didn’t want people staring at her like she was some kind of side show character, she shouldn’t have gone out in public looking like one.

Don’t get me wrong.  I think people have the right to look whatever way they want to.  There are a number of looks that are not for me, but that doesn’t mean someone else can’t look that way.  I don’t think that everyone should look like I do.  If they did we would have a bunch of slightly overweight, slightly big bellied, balding, aging guys wearing Hawaiian shirts walking around.  What I am saying is that if you decide on how you want to look, go with it.  You cannot expect everyone to think it is good, but that should not matter.  If you like it, that’s all that counts.  Just be ready for people’s reactions.  By the way, if you are interested, I can help you find some great Hawaiian shirts.

This week our fact tells us that only 52% of Americans drink coffee.  That means that all those other people in line in front of me are buying those drinks in plastic cups with their names written on them that aren’t really coffee.  There should be a separate line for people for people who just want coffee.  After all, only 52% of us would use it.