Matthew:

Apparently before the days of cheap thermometers, cooks using a range would
toss flour at the inner wall and count how long it took to turn brown as a
way of checking the temperature.

I've read your poem a few more times, and have grown extremely fond of it.
Am changing my mind over the "dial" metaphor as it picks out the uniformed
obsession with time and Candice's points make sense. (I like the gong at the
start echoing the slang for a medal, also the idea of a dinner gong)

While I understand your frustration at how much your poem must leave out,
I'm attracted by incompleteness in poetry. Something's making those muscles
ripple. The reader does get a sense that there's more.

On the other hand, maybe you might write a series exploring the gaps. Would
you be interested in reflecting the cause of your irritation formally?

Thanks for the lion info. I'd have thought it would be gamier.

best

Randolph Healy
----- Original Message -----
From: Matthew Francis <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, July 17, 2000 7:33 PM
Subject: Re: HO and OO


> Thanks for this, Randolph. The pastrycook is my father. When giving
evening
> classes, he would always insist that students use their fingers rather
than
> a sugar thermometer. (Wonder what his dropout rate was.) And the stuff
about
> the Polaris submarine is true. It was shown in an exhibition and a
question
> was asked in the House of Commons about where he got the supposedly
> classified information about its design. (In fact he copied a Navy
> recruiting poster.) Part of my irritation with the poem comes from the
> feeling that I'm thinning down a subject that was much more complex and
> interesting than it appears here - as so often with writing from real
life.
>
> You're right about the dial - a bit of cake decoration of my own, I think,
> to compensate for the fact that the poem has so little forward momentum.
>
> Robert Olen Butler's story A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain in his
book
> of the same name is about Ho Chi Minh's days as a pastrycook in the
Carlton
> Hotel, London, working under Escoffier! (I take it this is true, but I
> haven't checked.) Some day I hope to write something good about cooking, a
> subject which fascinates me. Matthew Sweeney, by the way, is a fan of the
> Larousse Gastronomique (as I am, having inherited my father's copy) and
has
> written at least one poem based on it. My favourite quote from the LR:
>
> Lion meat, though edible, is seldom used in cookery. It is rather
tasteless
> and must be steeped in an aromatic marinade before cooking. All recipes
for
> beef are suitable for lion.
>
> Best wishes
>
> Matthew
> -----Original Message-----
> From: T. R. Healy and L. MacMahon <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 16 July 2000 23:45
> Subject: Re: HO and OO
>
>
> 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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