CAROL HINZ REVEALS WHAT'S ON HER FRIDGE!

Today, Carol Hinz, who not only is a fabulous editor I've been privileged to work with for many years, but also a great biscuit baker, answers the burning question, "WHAT'S ON YOUR FRIDGE?"

Carol is editorial director of Millbrook Press, a division of Lerner Publishing Group. She oversees the Millbrook imprint and edits titles in a range of subject areas for grades K-5.  She blogs about Millbrook nearly every Monday and recently joined Twitter.

Carol shares with us:

“The thing I most enjoy about my job as an editor is the variety. I edit middle-grade nonfiction as well as picture books in rhyming verse; I work with authors, illustrators, and photographers; and there's always a new and exciting project on the horizon.”

Drum roll!  Are you ready?

Here’s what’s on Carol’s 7-year-old GE Profile refrigerator.

Carol says: “The items on my fridge all have either sentimental value (e.g. photos, Keep Libraries Open pin) or practical value (e.g. city hall phone #, poison control).”

We go one step further!  Here’s what Carol likes most on her fridge and why.

“The close-up photo shows my Eat/Die magnets. They're from the Walker Art Center, and they're based on the work "The Green Diamond Eat The Red Diamond Die" by Robert Indiana (1962). Here's a link.  I've had the magnets for many years. As I remember, the idea behind this work of art is that Indiana wanted to portray life in the most fundamental way possible, and he reduced it to eating and death. It might seem a little morbid, but I thought the idea of turning the work of art into a set of refrigerator magnets was hilarious.”

Wonderful, Carol!  Please share with us your philosophy of life as demonstrated by WHAT’S ON YOUR FRIDGE.

“Hmmm . . . as demonstrated by my fridge, my philosophy of life is to balance the sentimental with the practical. You need both elements to be happy!”

Many thanks to you and your refrigerator, Carol Hinz!

A WONDERFUL "COUSIN"—EVERYTHING'S UP-TO-DATE IN KANSAS CITY

One of the many benefits of marriage is acquiring “new cousins.”  Especially if they are as fabulous as Theresa Van Goethem.  For the first time in many years, she and her delightful husband Danny visited us last weekend. 

Marty and Theresa

Theresa is an educator extraordinaire.  Although she looks too young for this statistic, she has spent 37 years of her life working for the Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools. She is the Elementary Special Education Coordinator for the Wyandotte Comprehensive Special Education Cooperative, and works with educators in over 30 buildings who provide services to children with special needs.

Wyandotte County is home to 157,000 people and includes Kansas City, Kansas, Bonner Springs and Edwardsville, Kansas. There is a fascinating website on its history of the Wyandotte Public Schools which spans 167 years.  In 1844, the county’s first free public school opened in what was then "Indian Territory."  It served both American Indian and white children.

Several years ago, every school building in this historic district was renovated.  Wyandotte High School (built in 1937 under Franklin D. Roosevelt’s WPA plan after the original building burned down) is an architectural beauty with dual fireplaces in the main lobby.  Its renovation presented special challenges since it was on the Historical Registry.  The drafty windows (985 of them) were replaced in a “painstaking manner” (pun intended).  Theresa said that the job was so well done that a few people called in asking why the old windows were still there.

Theresa (known as "Van" in her school district) is most proud of working with parents and educators to provide the best services possible for the students.  She firmly believes the urban youth of her district deserve the highest quality educators available.  Their goal is to be one of the top ten districts in the United States.

A few words of wisdom from Theresa:

“When parents and educators work together – making decisions based on the needs of the child (not the adult) then the child will be successful.”

Check this out:  A video featuring students selected from the music departments of four schools in Theresa's district.   (A "thank you" from the Black Eye Peas Tour when they used the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus.)

QUAKERS ON BOXES AND A DELICIOUS OATMEAL COOKIE RECIPE

Last fall, in preparation for a children’s book I’m writing, I spent a lot of time researching America’s most famous Quaker, William Penn. I also mentioned the same W. Penn in a piece I wrote for my friend, novelist Leslie Pietrzyk’s blog. I described the founder of Pennsylvania as the “chubby, paternal looking Quaker on the oatmeal box.”

This week I decided to bake oatmeal cookies for some favorite cousins, even though I’m currently trying to lose weight (that’s another story). When I reached for that familiar cylindrical container, this question wormed its way into my cookie-obsessed brain. “Is that really supposed to be a picture of William Penn on the box?”

 I checked the Quaker Oats website. A “most commonly asked question” was: "Who is the man on the Quaker Oats box? Is it William Penn?"  Answer:  "The Quaker man is not an actual person. His image is that of a man dressed in the Quaker garb, chosen because the Quaker faith projected the values of honesty, integrity, purity, and strength."

Well! Guess I’ve got oats on my face—although the assumption is obviously made quite often. But, why do many of us think it is William Penn on the box rather than George Fox, generally considered the founder of the Society of Friends (a.k.a Quakers)? You can’t tell me that in 1877, when Quaker Oats former owners (Henry Seymour and William Heston) registered their trademark with the U.S. Patent office they weren’t thinking of a famous Quaker.

William Penn as a dashing teenager dressed in armor—yes, armor. Nice, but doesn’t make me want to eat hot cereal.

 Here we may have Penn as an older, more substantial patriarch.

 George Fox as a young man, looking quite overtaken by religious fervor. Doesn’t make me want to eat cereal either.

Here we may have a portrait of Fox—done quite a few years later.
(Note: Historians question the authenticity of the later portraits of both men. But they would have been out there when the Quaker Oats people were deciding on their trademark.)

The mature portraits of both men look more like the guy on the oatmeal box. Of course, don’t many of us gain girth and wisdom as we age? You can almost hear a sagacious voice emanating from the older men’s images saying, “Eat your oatmeal. It’s good for you.”

The bottom line: Oats are a delicious whole grain. William Penn and George Fox were important Quakers. The grandfatherly, apparently anonymous Quaker man on the box looks cheerful, comforting, and familiar. Now, here’s my favorite recipe for oatmeal cookies.
Aunt Helen’s Oatmeal Cookies
1 cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ¾ cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soda
3 cups oatmeal (I use Quakers Old Fashioned)
1 cup raisins
Cream the shortening and sugars. Add eggs and beat well. Blend spices, soda, and salt with flour. Add flour mixture to shortening mixture, then add oats and raisins. Mix well. Drop generous tablepoons of dough on greased cookie sheet. I flatten each cookie slightly. Bake at 350 degrees for at least 12 minutes or until lightly brown. Let rest on cookie sheet 2 minutes before removing.