Little Glass (Sauce) Dishes
Put
off and a little bit irritated Alex could be when around what he called
“stupid”. Pressure to sell art
that long ago had become stress to sell art snapped like razor arcs of
electrical lighting fresh from his hands of God. His hands were connected to his mind. The mind was the source of the snapped razor
arcs. His mind was the God. Of the art. He sold.
Slowly
the lethargic wake up on their tombs?
It is not ghoulish. It is
the simple reality of simple minds and their confusion about the simple art
that surrounds them. Alex knows
this from the absolute minute by minute action of selling art. He knows too that it is not
confusion. That is too much work
for the lethargic. It is not even
lethargic. “It is so stupid that
they cannot even accomplish lethargic.” He commented.
To
me
One
morning.
Beside
the failure to sell art, the follow-up stress of that and the begin again
criteria (razor arc) of the next minute.... (Alex IS right back that next
minute with the ‘sell art’ for he has no choice)... his astute and near
prodigal prophesy crackles from his finger as he
Begins
to demonstrate
A
previously denoted “care” he’s found within art that I was not, myself,
surprised by and here pass on to the reader.
Six
little glass dishes; a ‘set of six’.
“These are Good Luck” (pattern) he verbally flicked
Does
that stick?
It
(“Good Luck”) should... but probably does not. Right?
Or
is it “Be careful.”? Right?
Anyway. He’d put the little dishes out and
squared the six to a rectangle and then spooned...: Well one had spicy slightly pickled “old fat yellow” garden
cucumber flesh with only touches of its yellow skin left on. “Everyone has one of those old girls in
their garden at this time of year (early fall)” Alex commented. The second little dish received spooned
“nips” (Alex’s title) of, again, spicy and slightly pickled after blanching...
broccoli. In the garden these
“nips” are the little ‘grow backs’ that appear after the ‘head’ of the broccoli
plant has been cut off. They are a
treat source from both summer and fall.
After a frost they are ‘sweeter’?
Or ‘bitter’? That doesn’t
matter for the deer love them and will... “nip” ...all of them... before one
can if one is the “too much work for the lethargic”. That is two dishes filled... of the “three for each of us”.
“Oh
number THREE!
What
could THAT be?”
Well
Alex didn’t do anything that one could just ‘think of’ unless, of course, you’d
“been to one” (a Korean Restaurant).
“I never understood and didn’t really like it. I always ate it all FIRST and then went on to the
pickles. The sauce was always a
little syrupy. Not sweet at all
but its consistency implied it was some sort of sweet yuck. I don’t trust them (pre-made “canned”
and “jarred” Asian sauces). I
never know what it is. Just start
with ‘they use canned milk and Spam’ and honor one’s horror from there. The pickles, of course, are just
vinegar and sugar with ‘this & dash’ so... that’s ALL.”
What
he’d done was... put out... into the third dish pair... a cold leftover boiled
parsley potato sliced... with the fresh parley flecks and its hint-haze of
‘real butter’. Then with his
artist hand he brought over two smaller little glass dishes to ‘set
beside’. He spooned an “I made
this” of his own syrup. “It’s soy
and WHAT? A little steak
sauce. Just a spat.
Of
that.”
What
Alex was serving... is Korean Banchan.
If it is a ‘don’t know what that is’? Well your safe for I... and Alex... are not doing that;
making Banchan. No. Alex and I both ate up his... ‘made
Banchan’ and then.
And
then.
What
are we getting at?
Well...
Alex denoted and became concerned and then became interested in and then
corralled and then coordinated and then... waited
And
now has
Instigated...
A
single observation endeavor where he is “going after” the “stupid” who are the
“too much work for the lethargic”... with
Little
glass (sauce) dishes.
Alex
discovered them? Yes... and isn’t
that... breakable. While everyone
is “so stupid” about them; the little Asian Cuisine perchance of ‘little
(sauce) dishes, they are... “everywhere always”: “They are made of horrible. Plastic. And
worse. And throw out. And sometimes some crummy
porcelain. And no one cares. They LIKE the little take out plastic
tub with its snapped-on plastic lid.
Gooey dipping sauces so ugly and messy. Oh please. So I
said
To
my little glass (sauce) dishes.”
I,
writing this out, know I have to be specific or I loose the ‘try to follow
this’. The back edge is the need
of the following to be understanding that the creative process of observation
of decorative arts... carrying back to the understanding of the design and
history of ‘old’ (antique) decorative arts... moves in the creative mind as a
rather bouncy carriage ride that, too, ‘goes a little too fast’. That is okay if one just... holds on to
something?
I
doubt it.
But
the rich women’s magazine (s) do this “IT” all the time and ...dumb it (the
creative process) down so one never ‘feels that’. It is done behind the curtain and the color “spread” in the
magazines (s) are “only that” (Alex); “color spread”. “I think of it as name branded mayonnaise: Either make it yourself or don’t USE
it, Fatso”.
So
Alex is not a ‘spread’ in a magazine and not a ‘screw top jar person’
either. And, today, he’s clinking
little glass (sauce) dishes. “They
(the magazine[s]) MISSED them. But
even the best antiquaries have too.
So I suppose that makes it alright? Its just so stupid.”
What
is ‘stupid’ are the... little... glass... (sauce)... dishes... that be
wonderfully and exceptionally ‘fine’ old New England Glassware that everyone’s
grandmother’s grandmother ‘put out’ ‘at table’ all the time with ‘nips’ of all
sorts of pickles and relish and sauces and stewed fruits and salty &
sweet. Some “canned” (at home). Some fresh from the garden. Some “just made”. Some “just fresh brewed”. Some... “an old and special recipe
known only to our family”. Even
some, Alex swears... “came over on the Mayflower”. “One day I little dished at each place a spoonful of apple
pie filling as a relish. Everyone
still wants my recipe to this DAY.
Think of the little glass (sauce) dishes I say and you’ll discover the
secret of my recipe. Isn’t that
just stupid of me to do that?”
What
he just said it that it is the DISHES that FOOL. ANYTHING may ‘go in’ a little glass (sauce) dish... once one
has the DISHES. So be that way;
“little plastic cups of yuck”.
Or... ‘finders keepers’ the old (antique) New England’s little glass
(sauce) dishes. “OH THAT’S WHERE THEY COME FROM. I’ve seen them for YEARS. And there are SO MANY of them around.” WELL... they USED to be AROUND. What has happened to them? “You really want to know?”
Once
a long time ago they were stacked in the cupboard and used. But soon the “Jar of” appeared and
flourished “at table (an open commercial product served ‘at table’ from its
‘jar’) (“Like a bottle of ketchup”) (Ketchup used to be homemade and served in
a little glass sauce dish) . The
dishes stayed ‘stacked’ ever after.
Then... and then... they were ‘cleaned out’. And no one ‘wanted them’ or ‘have any use for them’. So they ‘floated’ toward the... trash
(‘recycle’) and ‘old boxes’ of ‘old glassware’ at “Nickel Tables” at church
fairs and “Ten Cents” of thrift shop tables and... “broken” too. They have ...slipped away... so have
become harder to locate than ‘one would think’. This whole essay is about this ‘one would think’. Of what Alex calls ‘just stupid”. “Just stupid” for the finding of these
little glass (sauce) dishes, is, currently a ...rescue mission... for the
knowing... who care.
Early
American Pressed Glass... sauce dishes... from old New England homes where they
were long preserved by closed dining room cupboard doors... after falling out
of favor to the likes of ‘Mr. & Mrs. Screw Top Jar’... may now be
...rescued... by the knowing ‘I care’ and
Delightfully
discovered to ‘may be USED’ in so many ways by our modern cuisine (“Foodiee”)
‘I care’ who
“I
care
About
my food”.
And
the little glass dish it is served in
Too?
“Very
much I do
Thank
you”.
