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Susanpaladino@comcast.net.net's avatar

My mother too would put out half a grapefruit before dinner. Not really a bad idea. 🙂 I recently read that electricity for outdoor lighting was new for the world in early 20th century and that the painting you posted reflects the light in that way.

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Ann Landi's avatar

I forgot to include the Metrocal (sp?) diet. I can still remember how awful those tasted!

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Wendy Goldberg's avatar

First, you always post great paintings in your blogs, secondly, the writing is always engaging and thirdly, you reminded me of the occasional special lunch with my mom at the Birdcage so very many years ago! We lived near Hartford then😘

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Ann Landi's avatar

Thanks, Wendy!

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bgrad131@gmail.com's avatar

OMG, I made those pears, but they were halved and not in syrup, but lovely pink. This brought back memories of shopping in Marshall Fields in Chicago, trying on hats together with mom and her teaching me about rugs, which she couldn't afford but loved, and buying chocolate covered raisins, her favorite, and Frango mints, a store specialty. Thank you for helping me remember. I loved your memories.

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Jemison Faust's avatar

I am loving this trip you are on and the recipes are perfect!

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Peyton Evans's avatar

Brings back a cascade of memories. Best & Co…. Didn’t I buy a little pair of black patent leather Mary Jane’s there? B. Altman: my mother’s favorite store. She lived on 37th and Park and this was her go to, right up until her passing in her 90s. But for me the pinnacle was the Birdcage at Lord and Taylor. Both as a child with my mother, and then later as a mother with my little girl I loved that place. Enchantment!

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Ann Landi's avatar

I think the Bird Cage morphed into the American Cafe when I worked at ARTnews, whose offices were right across the street from L&T. I went there often for lunch to get away from my colleagues. But the best was the L&T Christmas windows....It is almost criminal that those stores disappeared. They should have been landmarked.

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Peyton Evans's avatar

I agree. Those Lord and Taylor Christmas windows were really a highlight. I used to go with my mother and after she died I would go every year as a kind of remembrance. I wanted to linger and appreciate. Especially because I was doing a memorial for my mother. But the guard came along and said moving on moving on! No lingering allowed. Everything changes doesn’t it?

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Ann Landi's avatar

And not for the better, IMO. I even find using the abbreviation "IMO" objectionable, but then I suspect I am turning into an old fuddy duddy.

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Hester's avatar

Love this one -- and looks like a winning recipe!!! xo

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Ann Landi's avatar

As I told another reader, a recipe from Roland is probably foolproof. Give it a try!

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ldevuono's avatar

I love the stories--and this recipe sounds delicious .

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Ann Landi's avatar

If it comes from Roland, I can guarantee it's delicious. I have not yet tried it, but I remember a dinner years ago when he served them.

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Bascha Mon's avatar

Nice Mothers Day writing. Thanks Ann. My mom and I also shipped those NY Department stores So many happy memories

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Laurie Fendrich's avatar

"Sad stewed pears, floating like jaundiced buttocks in a bath of syrup." Whoa! What a thought!

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Ann Landi's avatar

This is why I don't attempt poetry....ever!

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Hester's avatar

I most certainly will!! I also forwarded the piece to a friend in Boston who, like me, would remember Charleston Gardens. From the current vantage point its very existence is downright stupefying!

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Ann Landi's avatar

Get your friend to sign on as a subscriber! Thanks, Hester

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