All Over the Place

We watched the original "Fame" movie the other night, and all I could think was, damn people in the 70s were skinny.  It was a different kind of skinny than even the willowiest movie stars now, too; they were all ribcage and gangly legs, nothing but bone without muscularity and a hollowed-out area where a stomach should go.  You didn't have a sense that any of these people exercised for 8 hours a day or followed the Zone diet.  Instead, they probably smoked their asses off and ate nothing but grapefruit and an occasional lump of cottage cheese.  Then in the 80s everyone started jazzercising like crazy, which produced those Jane Fonda leotard butts and, somehow, bigger boobs.  Maybe that's when they started pumping hormones into our meat?  I really have no idea, but seriously -- the 70s.  SKINNY PEOPLE.  Even the men -- those white bell-bottom trousers were narrow.  Odd.

This weekend, amid the usual errands and the lately-usual work obligations, we squeezed in a jaunt downtown to check out the New York International Pickle Festival, which involved much sampling of delicious brined goods and several pickles-on-sticks.  I was also surprised and somewhat thrilled to see that there was a booth offering peanut butter and pickle sandwiches, as my mom used to make those for us and I have always believed that we were the only family in the world to eat such a concoction.  I swear, though, they are delicious -- white bread, creamy peanut butter, and crunchy bread-and-butter pickles?  Mmm. 

Sometimes we also had peanut butter and mayonnaise sandwiches, which I can't recommend in good conscience.  On the other hand, several years ago I had a peanut butter and bacon sandwich, which was one of the greatest things I've ever eaten -- recoil  in horror if you will, it was tremendous. 

(At Allison's house, they would have peanut butter and cheddar cheese or cream cheese and jelly sandwiches, which I used to think was also unusual, but I'm guessing they were more widely consumed than PB and MAYO.  So now I have to ask, what kind of unique things did your parents make for you?  Was anyone else out there in the PB & Pickle club?)

Anyway, after having a spicy pickle that almost seared the inside of my mouth off, we headed over to Il Laboratorio di Gelato and inhaled several scoops to cool the burn.  Which means that I have now fulfilled the Number One Cliche of Pregnancy. 

On an entirely unrelated note, if you've been watching the new season of "So You Think You Can Dance", did anyone else think Mary looked a little...I don't know...rough last week, especially on Wednesday's show?  I'm not sure if they'd been bar-crawling on Bourbon Street and slamming hurricanes until 4am or what, but her face was all puffed up, nearly to the point of obscuring her eyes, and there was sort of this thickness to her voice and a generally subdued air about her and...well, it wasn't pretty.  I wanted to hand her some Advil and a Gatorade and tell her to go sleep it off. 

Also, the guy in Atlanta who had been a crack baby and was raised by his toothless, convalescent aunt?  He got to me, man.  I'm rooting for him. 

Finally, to close, another belly shot.  And dudes, I think it's the angle of the camera or the way I twist a bit to get the shot, but it looks SO MUCH BIGGER than this in real life.  Like, there's almost a SHELF demarcating the belly at this point, but try as I might, I could not capture it in a photo.  You'll have to take my word for it.  (Also on Flickr, some pics of our Georgia visit, including several where I look like I am about to abscond with my niece.)

Comments

[Natasha]

HI,

Did not have anything too weird growing up, but a guy in my DHS adoption class this week (our topic was childhood comfort food) said he always eats chocolate cake covered in pinto beans. Hummmm.

BUT OMW- I SO agree about Mary. Adam and I just didn't get it. We seriously thought she was drunk. She's usually lively- but that was just something else!

Cute belly- we all enjoy the pics : )

Natasha

[Allison]

Nay, it was not cheddar cheese but VELVEETA. MMMMM.

Also, my belly is bigger than yours but there is no baby in mine. Heh.

[Swistle]

Detective Swistle here.

1. I think in the '80s, breast implants got more common.

2. I think it's because you're holding your arms up to hold the camera, and that's pulling things up so you look flatter/smaller in the tum area.

[terri]

Okay, the key here to cut the MAYO was that the sandwich had lettuce as well ; PB, mayo and lettuce. YUM! Almost as good as grilled peanut butter sandwiches.

[daysgoby]

Peanut butter, rye bread, and a few thin sprigs of red onion. It was so good.

Oh, and Elvis had it right - grilled peanut butter and banana sandwiches were GOOD.

[Suebob]

Peanut butter, sweet pickle and crisp bacon. Word.

[amandam]

I can remember peanut butter and (dairy) butter, as well as butter and sugar sandwiches. These were specialties of a neighbor, though. My mother rocked the cream cheese circuit hard - with jelly (including mint on occasion - gag!), with olives, sometimes even with capers since she always had lots of those on hand so her martini making supplies never ran low.

Also, re "Fame" - I saw the new one last weekend. Pale imitation doesn't even begin to cover it. Very boring and what dance there was included was not notable!

[Lippy]

Delurking again to say, I made my mom pack me pickle and mustard sandwiches for lunch. She was disturbed and embarassed.

[beyond]

i can't wait to see a photo where your pregnant belly is bigger than my food belly. sigh. seriously, this almost makes me feel bad.
buttered toast, sugar and cinnamon.
cheese and honey. even without bread.
more common: mayo cheese, tomato, pepper.
i would really like to try peanut butter and bacon!

[Becky]

We had peanut butter and pickle sandwiches growing up - but we used dill pickles. Yum! And peanut butter and banana - also good, as long as the bananas aren't too mushy.

One thing people in MN eat that I will never understand is cinnamon bread (like the rolled kind) with cheese whiz and olives. The bread and cheese whiz is great. Adding olives ruins it.

[lawmommy]

Never ate peanut butter with anything other than jelly as a child (I'm partial to apricot, I think it has a tangy quality that adds to the peanut butter experience) - but one of the partners in my firm ate a peanut butter and salami sandwich for lunch, daily, until his cardiologist told him to lay off the salami.

He insists it's delcious...I don't believe him.

[JudithinNYC]

I was a very thin, picky eater. To fatten me up my mother would make me hot milk with gobs of peanut butter stirred in and lots of sugar. To this day it's my favorite winter drink.

PS I can't get over the excitement of you being pregnant.

[Sharon Jorgenson]

But you are forgetting the chocolate frosting on saltines! I had always thought that our family was the only to imbibe in this delicous treat until one of my fb friends called it a cracker cookie! I now have to go buy some frosting!

[H]

We ate peanut butter, mayo and lettuce! It is good. Also, ketchup on bread, saltines crunbled in milk, Velveeta on bread with butter (sounds healthy, huh?), and white sugar on buttered white bread. My husband's family ate hot pasta with jelly.

Also, my dad was cheap and made our denvers with dill pickles instead of green pepper and bologna instead of ham. I had no idea what went into a real denver until I was 24 and got married.

A pickle festival sounds divine.

[Gaby]

I used to eat peanut butter and honey sandwiches, as well as peanut butter and marshmallow Fluff sandwiches. It makes my teeth hurt just to think about that level of sugar in sandwich form!

Of course, I will still mow down a peanut butter and banana sandwich on toast! Toasting the bread is key, because it helps the peanut butter get a little melty....Mmmmmm!

[Sarah]

My mom used to make tuna salad (with miracle whip -- I didn't know it wasn't real mayo until adulthood) and dice up apples in it and serve it in a pita pocket. I've gotten lots of strange looks when I tell other people but tuna and apple go very well together. Were we the only ones who ate that?

I love that you're so proud of your tiny little baby pooch.

[Lawyerish]

I am FASCINATED by all of these unique culinary creations. Most of them actually sound pretty delicious.

Except: cinnamon bread with Cheez Whiz and...olives?? Whoa.

[Alyce]

There was a thread on chowhound that was chronicling people's family oddities/edibles and the overarching theme was that we all ate weird food, and things we thought were unusual were eaten in countless other homes. It came as quite a shock to me.

Toasted white bread, creamy peanut butter, and sliced dill pickle made the sandwich my stepmom and stepsister rocked until I went away to college.

For me it was pringles in a sandwich (bologna, tukey, ham, tuna salad!, whatever).

[jive turkey]

I just have to add that I didn't see Fame until I was in college, and since then I have found it most enjoyable to apply "I Sing The Body Electric" to various situations. Actually, pregnancy was a good one. Copious amounts of gas? I SING THE BODY ELECTRIC! Hemorrhoids? I SING THE BODY ELECTRIC!