Matthew,

dipping his fingers in boiling toffee???

Welcome to the club.
In a chapbook of mine, 1997, _Flame_, section two is devoted to Le Cuisson
du Sucre
quote
Le Petit Lissé.

Dip the forefinger into iced water, and then into the boiling sugar, and
instantly again into the iced water to prevent burning the finger.  Then
pinch between the index finger and thumb.  If a small thread forms, which
breaks when the attempt is made to pull apart through the fingers, the
proper degree is reached.
unquote
and it goes on to higher and higher temperatures.
Philip Casey, in his novel, _The Water Star_, independently explores the
same material, using it as pillow talk.

Forget the age of Aquarius, this is the age of Sugar.

(May I ask your source? Mine was the "picayune cookbook".)

but to get back to your poem.
Lovely.
but maybe drop the "the blank / dial of " and just inscribe a cake? esp
since the last stanza is so hot, and with such straight diction (with the
poss exception of perfect, not a term I'd associate with the armed forces),
that one might go for plainer diction in the penult.

best

Randolph Healy


----- Original Message -----
From: Matthew Francis <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, July 16, 2000 11:18 PM
Subject: Re: HO and OO


> OK, Candice since you're kind enough to ask, I'll post the poem. I should
> say that it's not the kind of thing I usually write, and I'm not sure a)
> whether I like it and b) if I do whether it belongs with my others or is
> just a one-off that leads nowhere. I'm trying to be more of a lyric poet
at
> the moment, writing poems that are shorter, less narrative-driven and
> formally freer than my previous ones. But I don't think I've cracked it
yet.
> Any comments gratefully received.
>
> Anyway, the subject should be of some interest to you, given what you say
> about miniaturization.
>
> Pastrycook
>
> Pans gonged on the hotplate
> in the great kitchen
> where he dipped his fingers
> in boiling toffee -
> a quick peck of the hand
> in water before and after -
> to feel thread, soft ball,
> hard ball and crack,
>
> coated grapes
> and segments of satsuma
> to make brittle
> explosive sweetmeats,
>
> rolled marzipan
> into cleft peaches,
> bananas freckled
> with brown colouring,
>
> twisted a cone of greaseproof
> and snipped the point
> to inscribe the blank
> dial of a cake
> with cursive icing,
>
> and once assembled
> the cutaway hull
> of a Polaris submarine,
> the screw, reactor,
> engines, torpedo tubes
> and OO scale figures
> of ratings frozen in action
> in their beehive compartments,
> perfect, in sugar.
>
>
> Matthew Francis
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 16 July 2000 21:49
> Subject: Re: HO and OO
>
>
> >Hmm, wonder what you're up to here, Matthew, and hope you'll share
> >it with us when you're done. Does your miniaturizing have anything
> >to do with the typography thread? I ask because I'd been wondering
> >if anyone else who confessed to being fascinated by dingbats and
> >such is also drawn to miniatures, as I am myself, with a pretty
> >extensive collection of all sorts (from exquisitely crafted silver,
> >pewter, and pottery to--at the folkart end of the spectrum--Mexican
> >matchbox shrines). I'm also a longtime subscriber to _Nutshell News_,
> >the U.S. "little mag" (literally!) of craftspeople, hobbyists (the
> >"filo" crowd and the dollhouse makers), and collectors, which lists
> >all the annual miniaturist fairs--most of them in the UK (alas)--
> >along with articles on renowned craftspeople, retrospectives on
> >the tradition, columns giving tips to hobbyists (on making miniature
> >drapes, mirrors that actually reflect, working lamps--including tiny
> >Christmas tree lights that do--and various household utensils, etc.)
> >and to craftspeople on hard-to-find items like brass hinges of the
> >gauge Peter Howard mentioned (and the fine screwdrivers needed to
> >install them!).
> >
> >I also recently read an academic (cultural studies) article by a
> >lecturer in the U. of Tasmania English dept., Elizabeth McMahon,
> >on the fad there of miniature theme parks (the best-known of which
> >is a "tudor village") designed and executed by amateurs (i.e.,
> >hobbyists) on exclusively English-nostalgic themes by Australians
> >descended from English emigres who in some cases have never seen "the
> >old country" they're mini-memorializing. They open their little theme
> >parks to the public, and there's now a fairly thriving tourist industry
> >in such attractions, which is all the more interesting if you know or
> >have visited Tasmania because _everything_ there seems scaled down,
> >including the local mountain, which you can drive to the top of in 15
> >minutes but on which ill-prepared hikers still come to grief (or so I
> >heard when I was there last year). What may be of most interest or
> >curiosity, though (and which Liz capitalizes on so well in her article),
> >is that Tasmania is reputed to have been Swift's source for Lilliput.
> >
> >Candice
> >
> >
> >At 12:10 PM 7/15/00 +0100, you wrote:
> >>Could someone help me with a detail for a poem I'm writing, please?
Would
> >>human figures about half an inch high be HO or OO scale or something
else?
> I
> >>vaguely remember the terms on packets of Airfix miniature soldiers I
used
> to
> >>buy as a kid.
> >>
> >>Best wishes,
> >>
> >>
> >>Matthew Francis
> >>[log in to unmask]
> >>
> >>Visit my website at http://www.7greenhill.freeserve.co.uk
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
>
>



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