pumpkinstrokemarrow

By way of balance, turned out the memoir by Chaim Weizmann, bought for my mother by my father from Bourne & Hollingsworth of all places, in 1964. Why would he go to a department store for such a book when he lived in a bookshop filled Cambridge? (Mr G. tells me that the once famous name has now been appropriated by some fashionable watering hole, the sort of place which would probably not let me in). Will Weizmann express any concern for the aborigines of his chosen land? From what I can remember of 1964, neither my parents nor lefty intellectuals in England in general had much at all. In fact, the only occasion I can remember their existing was when an Israeli communist - I forget who he was or why I was in contact with him - expressed regret at the splitting of the Israeli party into Jewish and Arab wings.

Leafing through the memoir, all I have lighted on so far is a lot of shennanighans at the time of the Balfour Declaration. Which despite the flak it attracts in some quarters, contains the nuetralising qualification '... nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine ...'. So while we may have failed, I read this to mean that we did at least hope to do the right thing by those communities.

Upbreaded yesterday in TB when prosing on about the importance of bread. My interlocutor innocently enquired whether I knew of pretzels, which he knew as a snack served with beer and without butter in Germany. Now while the word was perfectly familiar, I had not got a clue what one of these was. Bagel yes but pretzel no. Explanation left me none the wiser, but I now turn to Mr G. who succeeds in reminding me what these things are. I have only ever had the dry version, dark brown sugary sticks which come in sealed plastic bags and which are served as appetisers in suburban homes. I did not much care for them. I must try some of the larger ones pictured in Wikipedia and see if I like them better. Maybe I better hoof it down to Munich and try the things on their home ground?

Downbreaded last week in Cheam where I find that there previously excellent Friday rye with carraway seeds has got a lot darker and the texture has got softer; moved from bread towards cake. Touch of the molasses I should think. Still not bad, but not as good as the original. But there was compensation. I bought a large white bread knot, with poppy seeds. Truly wonderful loaf, done the same day. BH thinks that they are made from a folded loop of dough. Result has ample curves and cleavages, well worthy of presentation by Nigella L. Perhaps the baker will make another one one day: don't think that it is part of his regular repertoire; this loaf perhaps the result of his liking to fiddle around with new things.