This is a poem I wrote many years ago. It may or may not hold meaning for you. Somehow, I hope it does.

He Was...

He looked like a dream revived
and a hope forgotten
and a need fulfilled
and a heap of trouble.

He smelled like hard work
and soft promises
and strong soap
and an uncertain future.

He sounded like a mellow sax
and the turn of a phrase
and a hard day’s work
and the wisdom of the ages.

He felt like supple leather
and fine tuned machinery
and the work of a master
and the answer to a prayer.

He tasted like new mown grass
and chlorine from a swimming pool
and the effort it takes to win
and the grace it takes to lose

He was everything I ever wanted
and nothing I’d ever had
and I reached out to touch him...

and he slipped right through my fingers

©~Caj~ 12/02/02

Yes, there is always a *thing*. There is a forum (message board) to report your problems, glitches, what-have-you. And the idea is that they (someone in the know) will help you with whatever problem you are experiencing.

You can find that forum HERE

Sounds simple enough, right? And it should be. BUT...and yes, there is always a *but*, as well. In order to use this forum, you must sign a TOS (Terms of Service) agreement. No biggie...or it should be no biggie.

I had a glitch so I went to the forum and opened a new topic and posted my problem. In short order, someone came and told me how to fix my problem. COOL! In the interim, they set up a new restriction, saying that I must sign the TOS. No problem, I can do that. Except when I went to do that and added my information, the page informed me that someone was already using my name and information. Yeppers, and that someone would be...me! But there is no place to tell them that.

After trying several times to simply thank the person who helped me, I finally tracked him down to his own blog (which I felt was an invasion of his privacy) to simply say *Thank you*.

Now, weeks later, I have another glitch. I went to the forum, which immediately directed me to the TOS page. I filled out all of the information and Lo and Behold...that same person was using my information! You guessed it....ME.

So now, running in circles, I cannot post my problem because I cannot sign the TOS because someone is using my name and information and it all comes back to...ME. And there is no one I can tell. Help is only a short step away...IF I could get there from here!

Anyone have any suggestions as to how to get around this corner? (Interesting...I just discovered that you cannot use the emoticons if you use HTML at the same time. In light of everything else, I suppose that's status quo.) Color me perplexed!

Earlier, I mentioned that I have been a *message board* person for many years. There are many reasons why that is my favorite form of communication.

First, because words do not disappear as they do in a *chat room*. So you are at leisure to answer what has been written without fear of having the original post vanish into the ether (as they do in a chat room). It also allows you time to ruminate and make sure that you are able to answer with clarity and precision and especially, not in the heat of any given moment, if the original post was inflamatory.

In short, you are allowed the time to compose an intelligent response, without the need to rush your thought process. Usually, our first thought is our best thought but there are exceptions to this *rule* and a board gives you that chance to rethink your first answer and consider if it can be improved upon.

When you have spent a quality amount of time with the members of a board and you see that those ties are coming to an end it is not at all unlike a mourning process. When a board dies for whatever reason, it is always a loss. You will miss meeting up with the same people that you have counted on seeing every day and you will inevitably be saddened by that loss.

I am sure that the same must apply to a blog, although I have not personally witnessed it. I am still so new to blogging that I can't even imagine such a close knit society springing from one person's blog. Perhaps that is because a blog seems to be about the author and even though many people join in and comment, it still seems to be a personal journey for the one who begins the dialog. I certainly mean no offense to bloggers. In fact, I have found the blogs here to be intelligent, insightful, thought provoking and in some cases, quite funny. Indeed, I have yet to find a blog that was the least bit uninteresting. That, in itself, is amazing. I look forward to the day when I not only figure out blogging but feel comfortable doing it.

The following is a poem I wrote when I learned that a board I loved was closing. I am NOT a poet (by any means) but at times I am moved to try and write poetry, depending on the subject at hand. Noah Counte and I were on this board and we both felt great sadness at it's passing. The board was named *The Alley Way* and it's members were called *Catz*. This is a description of what caused this board to fall to it's untimely death. The *Queen* is not a real person but rather an imagined matriarch, who was privy to the entire event.


The Alley Queen

There she sits, up in that alley
cold as ice and hard as stone
and if you cared to take the tally
of all the years she’s been alone

You’d be surprised, to say the least
shocked no doubt, to know the truth
of how the fighting finally ceased
and how she suddenly lost her youth

She’s gray and old and bent and frail
her face is etched with every story
and if you asked, she’d tell the tale
of every cat, in all their glory

She’s seen them come and watched them go
all from high atop her throne
they’ve risen up and been brought low
she’s seen them flame, and heard them moan

The evolution has been astounding
from mighty battles to pissing matches
words that wounded by their sounding
heads lopped off in verbal snatches

Moving here and going there
the Catz hung in and then regrouped
they carried on without a care
nothing stopped them, as they recouped

and then the most amazing thing
as they stopped to rest one day
the sound of uneasiness began to ring
and surely, the Catz began to stray

It wasn’t as if they hadn’t known
for they’d been warned a time or two
but seeds of doubt had now been sown
and the ones remaining, seemed too few

the Queen, she roared with indignation
to see her Catz spread far and near
and yet in her own supplication
had no answer for what she held dear

So there she sits up in that Alley
a cardboard box her only home
and if her Catz, she could rally
they’d linger here, no more to roam

But give her a cigarette, and then a drink
and ask for details, don’t be shy
she’ll tell you exactly what she thinks
and should you wonder, ask her why.

She’s lived here long enough to know
and watched each one as they departed
she shed a tear as each Cat would go
leaving her alone and broken hearted.

It all happened in a dream, some say
she has a different view of history
it couldn’t have happened quite that way
and for most, it remains a mystery.

But there she sits up in that Alley
cold as ice and hard as stone
waiting, as ever, for the Catz to rally
and join her in her only home.

~Caj~ 12/23/02

I am not now, nor have I ever been, a Beatles fan but this song fits my current mood and that's good enough for now!

I think we'd all like to believe that we'll be needed long after our *business* here is finished...yes?

Many people assume that these two words are interchangeable. I'd like to dispell that nasty rumor and explain the differences. The history of these two peoples is vast and cumbersome so I'll try to make it as short as possible.

"Cajuns" are the descendants of a group of French people who were exiled from the Acadia region of Nova Scotia for political reasons, starting in 1755. The first Acadians were French-speaking Catholics who made a living by fishing, farming and trapping. They settled the Acadian Peninsula in Nova Scotia in the early 1600s. In 1713, Acadia was ceded to Great Britian by France. The Acadians would not swear alliegence to the King. The British tried to impose their Protestant religion on the Acadians, who refused to give up their beliefs.

In 1753, the notoriously cruel Charles Lawrence took over as governor of Acadia. In 1755, Lawrence rounded up the French Acadians at gun point and shipped them to ports along the Eastern Seaboard. In all, approximately 10,000 Acadians were arrested, imprisoned and deported over an eight-year period, starting in 1855.

The Protestant, English-speaking British colonists along the East Coast were not receptive to the French Acadians. Therefore, many of the Acadians headed for Louisiana, which was populated largely by French and Spanish people. Fifteen years after the Acadian exile began, approximately 1,500 to 1 ,600 exiles had settled in Louisiana. This group was later joined by another wave of exiles in 1785. I should point out that a contingency of these "Cajuns" found refuge in Canada and a smaller number still populate parts of Texas.

Once in Louisiana, the “Cajuns” found peace and an abundance of fish and wildlife to turn into the down-home cooking they are famous for. But they populated mainly the outlying areas of the state where they could live off of the land.

Being a sea-port, New Orleans attracted people from many lands. African slaves, Native Americans, and Caribbean seamen added their flavors to the cuisine of the melting pot that became New Orleans.

The first settlers were French, usually the second-born sons of aristocrats who left France to seek adventure in the New World. They brought their traditional style of cooking from the continent, and being rich aristocrats, they also brought along their chefs as well! These Frenchmen came to be called Creoles, and made up the upper crust of New Orleans. Their descendents can still be found in the French Quarter today.

When I was a child most people in these parishes spoke French. It was not the traditional language of France but a Patois...although without a formal definition in linguistics, it can be used to describe a language considered as nonstandard. Depending upon the instance, it can refer to pidgins, creoles, dialects, and other forms of native or local speech, but is not commonly applied to jargon or slang, which are vocabulary-based forms of cant.

Class distinctions are embedded in the term, drawn between those who speak patois and those who speak the standard or dominant language used in literature and newscasts—the "acrolect" in professional jargon. In the small town that my father was born in, Abbeville, LA, he had to start school to learn to speak english. My grandparents never did conquer english. And though I spoke it as a child, I am hard pressed to remember it now. This is a shame because the language is dying out and before long, it is thought that it will disappear.

Cajun vs. Creole Cooking

In general, Cajun dishes are the country cooking of Louisiana, highlighted by dirty rice, gumbos, jambalaya, andouille (pronounced ahnd-wee or ahn-do-wee), it’s a spicy smoked sausage and simple foods such as fried catfish. Cajun cooking traditionally uses pork fat and simpler ingredients.

Creole is the food of the city, a more refined cuisine represented by Oysters Rockefeller, Shrimp Remoulade and Bananas Foster. It traditionally used the butter available to the wealthy Creoles, and more expensive ingredients.

Some people will tell you that if a dish has tomatoes, it’s Creole, not Cajun. That isn’t always true. Tomatoes have been known to turn up in jambalaya or gumbo, which are both Cajun.

Both Cajun and Creole use the “Holy Trinity” of New Orleans cooking: green peppers, onions and celery. They both also rely on the roux (pronounced ‘Roo) as the base of the dish. A Roux is simply flour cooked in fat, either pork fat or butter, until it browns. This adds flavor and thickness to the dish.

Blackened What?

There has been a trend lately that started when some hapless cook burned a piece of meat, then to cover up his mistake, smothered it in pepper and tried to pass it off as “Cajun Blackened Moose” or whatever. If you serve this mess to a Cajun, he’ll laugh in your face, smack you upside the head, and tell you to get back into the kitchen and cook him some real food. There is no such thing as blackened anything in real Cajun cuisine. There are also people who believe that if you add cayene pepper to anything from steak to potato chips it automatically makes that dish "Cajun". Not so. Cajun and Creole foods are both spicy but not necessarily burning hot. If a Cajun wants his meal that way he will add Tabasco or some other hot sauce at the table.

If you'd like a taste of the south, try these...

PECAN PRALINES

(In New Orleans, they are pronounced PRAW-leens, NOT PRAY-leens)

3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup pecans

Combine the sugar and milk and cook slowly in a heavy pot over a low flame until it reaches the soft ball stage (238 degrees on a candy thermometer). Remove from heat and add the butter, vanilla and pecans.

Beat mixture with a wooden spoon until it is smooth and creamy. Drop by spoonsful onto waxed paper. If the candy does not harden within 10 minutes, it may be cooked some more.

Yield: Approximately one dozen


History source: http://www.chefrick.com/index.html