I'm reading The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, a "historical novel" written by Ron Hansen. I'm enjoying it a great deal – a great deal more than I did the movie of the same name featuring Brad Pitt as Jesse.
The book is "historical" because it works in a lot of the facts and reports about Jesse James, because so much was written about him, both in his day and in the years since. And it's "novel" where the writer puts in information – particularly dialog and what people are thinking – that he has to make up based on his research. He has Jesse as quite an interesting fellow.
I've recently passed the part of the day all of us St. Joseph natives know to be so famous: April 3, 1882. The author starts this part with a real quote by Oscar Wilde, from a letter he posted from St. Joseph April 19, 1882:
"Outside my window about a quarter mile to the west stands a little yellow house and a crowd of people are pulling it all down. It is the house of the great train robber and murderer, Jesse James, who was shot by his pal last week, and the people are relic hunters. … The Americans are certainly great hero worshippers, and always take their heroes from the criminal classes."
I think Oscar's got us pegged there.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
The Perfect Weight Watchers Dessert
Let's just get to it: Hostess Chocolate Cake with Creamy Filling/100 Calorie Pack. One Weight Watchers (WW) Point for three mini cakes - six 3-cake packs to a box. And they are SO good!
How can you eat three cupcakes - even mini cupcakes - and only use one WW point, you ask? Fiber, my friend - man-made fiber.
As we all know, there's no fiber in the two main components of two of the great human inventions of all time, chocolate and cake. However, somebody at the Hostess bakeries have done some hocus pocus and come up with a way to pack FIVE grams of dietary fiber in three little cakes.
So, it's 100 calories, 3 grams fat, and 5 grams fiber. That equals ONE!
And oh, are they good! They have moist cake, WITH creamy center, and icing on top. Only thing they lack is the white curly line. But you will not miss it!
What's the downside? Only two, and I wrote Hostess about this one: because they are so moist - that's what Hostess said in reply - they kind of stick to the wrapping, which is about as strong as those anti-theft things they put around CDs in some stores.
And the other problem is Wal-mart can't keep them on the shelves! (Note to Hostess: Mrs. Freshley's is almost as good, easier to unwrap, and cheaper. Either you keep the shelves stocked or the Fresh' chick is going to take over.
Try 'em! You'll like 'em!
How can you eat three cupcakes - even mini cupcakes - and only use one WW point, you ask? Fiber, my friend - man-made fiber.
As we all know, there's no fiber in the two main components of two of the great human inventions of all time, chocolate and cake. However, somebody at the Hostess bakeries have done some hocus pocus and come up with a way to pack FIVE grams of dietary fiber in three little cakes.
So, it's 100 calories, 3 grams fat, and 5 grams fiber. That equals ONE!
And oh, are they good! They have moist cake, WITH creamy center, and icing on top. Only thing they lack is the white curly line. But you will not miss it!
What's the downside? Only two, and I wrote Hostess about this one: because they are so moist - that's what Hostess said in reply - they kind of stick to the wrapping, which is about as strong as those anti-theft things they put around CDs in some stores.
And the other problem is Wal-mart can't keep them on the shelves! (Note to Hostess: Mrs. Freshley's is almost as good, easier to unwrap, and cheaper. Either you keep the shelves stocked or the Fresh' chick is going to take over.
Try 'em! You'll like 'em!
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