SANE Winter Solstice Potluck, Conversation and Nothing Else

SANEsters,

Yes, the Winter Solstice Party is on schedule, on Tuesday, Dec 13,
from 7:00 to whenever (remember, it's a school night).

So far, on the menu we have ( [_] indicates a food item awaiting a
bringer, so sign up soon!):

Yummy shrimp and cocktail sauce
Convivial wine & beer
[_] Savory Salad
Tasty Lasagna
[_] Wholesome bread
[_] Delightful fruit or veg
Sweet, sweet cake
Delightful other dessert

The other big news is that we'll have to come up with our own sparkle-
like entertainment and smallish talk, as due to an underwhelming
response, the gift swap, Yankee or udderwise, is on hiatus. I suspect
we'll be able to keep ourselves entertained. The nervous should
consider writing up and rehearsing anecdotes. If you've already
invested in some tasty/tastless objects, consider putting them in
your SignifOth's stocking and/or non-Claus gift receptacle (just a
thought).

But do plan to be festive and jovial, and most of all, plan to be
there! Break out the Cosby sweaters, leave the arts & crafts
materials at home, and we'll see you soon!

Sandy Claws

P.S. Someone who shall rename maneless made this suggestion for a
January project. Be thinking of January dates, Tuesdays are: 3, 7,
17, 24, 31 and 38 (I never tire of that one, golly wally). I'm
thinking 1/10/2012, or 1/17 if we've recovered sufficiently from MLK
Day (1/16 obsvd).

SANE Winter Solstice Celebration

You'd better watch out;

better conserve your natural eye water;

better maintain a positive mental attitude;

I'm telling you why:

Mother Earth is bringing the Winter Solstice to town. Etc.

This year we're going to celebrate all that SANE means to us in the coming cyclical planetary revolution by doing what we have proven we can do very well: prepare and consume food. The evening will be hosted by St. Mary and Father Phil of the Alphabet Streets, and the date/time is:

Tuesday, December 13, 7:00ish to wheneverish (noting that it is a school night)

Please write back to me to tell me what you wanna bring to the event, foodwise. And how many will attend. If we have too many similar items, I might push back with "Hey, we needa"s.

A question of gifting & entertainment has come up: have we run the gamut of Yankee (etc.) Swappage? Are we merely circulating the old same unwantables? If we dare opt to NOT swap this year, do we need some organized entertainment to otherwise amuse ourselves with, and if we do, what form might that take? I leave these questions open, and do not offer my usual list of semi-related drivel, for fear it will be mistaken for real suggestions!

Please feel free to wade in on this issue, and soon, so we can alert the troops should any preparations be required. I don't want to spark a flood of "Reply All" emails, either - if folks want to email me with your thoughts (be sure to fuzz out the naughty bits), and I could condense them (say, by Wednesday) and send out a short-form for final reviewment.

Redactio ad absurdam

Yes, Virginia, there is a Meeting Claus!
The where: for a radical change in venue, Pam A's dining room. We've met there more this year than they've had family dinners, I suspect!
The when: 7:00-ish
The why: Because we wuv you!
The project: Redactio ad absurdam - No, it's not a Harry Potter curse, it's taking a page from some guy artist "someguy" who takes a page from a book and redacts (crosses out, X's out, obliterates, hashmarks through) the text, leaving words, phrases, etc., creating his own subtext. Below is a lot of theft from this blog: AnimalNY

San Francisco artist someguy remixes books, crossing out all text in the King James Holy Bible except for “love” and “evil” and all of The Catcher in the Rye, save the “goddam.” How cute. Most recently, he highlighted nine pages of the Bible mentioning “unicorns.” Most notoriously, he reverse-censored Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn down to 212 instances of the word “*i**e*.”

The controversial piece is entitled 212 Slaves, in reference to a new version of the novel where the inflammatory slur is changed to “**a*e,” because statistically less-educated and louder Bible-thumping Americans would rather whitewash our abominable history than address racism or freshen up that archaic classics curriculum.
Some 'nother examples.

Check out the different ways to redact: black tape, crosshatching, black marker, white-out, plaid or madras markers (okay, they don't make those but they would be cool), paint, gouache, guacamole, gouachemole, overtyping, sliced out with an X-Acto knife, sliced out with a matte knife, sliced out with a butter knife, etc.) The slicing out might be difficult if we're removing most of the text, unless you had something to attach the lacy leftovers to (and even then...).
The supplies: Bring some way(s) to redact, and a source for verbiage to use and/or share. It's gonna get destroyed, so don't bring a family Bible or your current mortgage contract -- always copy, copy, copy. "And remember please to be calling it research," notes Nickolai Ivanovitch Lobachevsky. Ai!
The alternate: Redacting not your cup of ink? Remember that great 3D cutout site: http://www.goscoutcreative.com/calendarofthemonth/ - you could print out one of their exciting calendar entries and cut-and-paste it together - but only November will be current, so you might want to find another printout of some future month - or maybe all of 2012, and make replaceable months for a more permanent display.
The future: we're holding out the possibility of making inkblots (a tad messful), and creating our own thermonuclear can openers (keep a window open in the kitchen to counteract the pressure increase!). And there's also the up-and-coming SANE Winter Solstice Dinner & Gift Slam (13 Dec), for which we must plan. Stay tuned!

There's Always Room for Jellied Trotters

Pam A is honored to host the first meeting of SANE's Season 19 home opener, pitting SANE against a tough, new opponent, the Gelatin Tinsters. I hope everyone has kept up their summer training regimen, 'cause it'll take a coordinated effort and a lot of conditioning to beat these guys. Betsey has sent out the poop sheet, and I hope we've all reviewed the films from their last three pre-season appearances. Don't get the impression that they're just going to lie there and let us paint 'em around, willy-nilly, I've got a feeling there'll be several surprises in store. We gotta give it our A game if we're going to tough it out for an entire season.

Things to bring and/or add to jellied trotters:

acrylic paints

paint brushes

pig's feet, cleaned and split in half

a brayer

a brayer rug

2 carrots, 1 onion

paintbrushes, makeup foam spears, smudgers, squeegees, bludgers, and other assorted shapes and props (shells, buttons, leaves, etc.) to redistribute the ink on the gelatin before brayering

packets of red Jell-O

paper - thick and/or thin,

plastic and/or marble surface to get ink onto the brayer

peppercorns, salt, sweet Hungarian paprika

Wear play clothes, or a smock. Think about where to put your masterpieces while they are drying.

Serve with pumpernickel, cold beer, salted cucumber slices and Cool Whip ambrosia. Serves 4-6.

SANE,

Slightly out of whack since 1993

Oh yeah, that's Tuesday, 11 October 7-ish at Pam A's place.