A Pleasant Sunday

[intertext]

I slept until quite late (for me), that is, until the dogs started shuffling their feet and coughing to remind me that other bladders than mine required emptying... Then I had the Sunday paper in bed with a La Collina cinnamon bagel and some juice, then I took the dogs for a walk at Beaver Lake. I still can't go very far, but there was a hawk circling and the air smelt nice and woodsy and the boys enjoyed it, so a good time was had by all. Then I did a load of laundry and washed the bird feeders in bleach and filled in my drug claims so that I'll get some money back from the insurance company. Then I met kp downtown for lunch/brunch and had a nice eggs bennie (which reminds me: who was benedict, and what is a maven as in pop-culture maven? these questions came up at lunch and enquiring minds want to know). Afterwards we went to M.E.C and kp bought a couple of tops but I didn't, but I then went to Eddie Bauer and spent far too much money on three - no four - tops and a pair of very stylish cords which need turning up at the bottom but are otherwise a perfect fit despite being size 8 (!!!!). Then I came home and let the dogs run around in the garden while I dead-headed the cosmos, and now I'm here doing this. So there.

Comments

[lilyfriend.livejournal.com]

From Wikipedia.com (I'd never seen the first option before, but I've heard the Waldorf chef story from more than one source, I believe!)

There are two main possible origins of the dish.

One version is that it was created in the late 1880s for financier LeGrand Benedict or his wife, by Charles Ranhofer, the chef of Delmonico's restaurant in New York City after one of the Benedicts complained there was nothing new on the menu. The Epicurean, Ranhofer's comprehensive 1894 cookbook, covering thirty years' worth of Delmonico's fare, contains a recipe for an essentially identical dish under the name of "Eggs à la Benedick."

Other sources state it was the result of an order placed by stockbroker Lemuel Benedict one morning in 1894 at the Waldorf Hotel when he had a hangover. Benedict claimed in a New Yorker interview shortly before his death that his order of dry toast, crisp bacon, poached eggs and a side of hollandaise sauce had been noted, usurped and warped by Oscar Tschirky, maître d'hôtel there. Oscar substituted English muffins and Canadian bacon, and added truffles.

[intertext.livejournal.com]

Thank you! and I gather that it's not named after Benedict Arnold, even though he was English underneath :)

[lilyfriend.livejournal.com]

Nope, definitely not after Arnold. :) That's just co-incidence. hehe

[lilyfriend.livejournal.com]

From Dictionary.com

ma·ven also ma·vin (mvn)
n.

A person who has special knowledge or experience; an expert.

[Yiddish meyvn, from Hebrew mēbîn, active participle of hēbîn, to understand derived stem of bîn, to discern. See byn in Semitic Roots.]

[intertext.livejournal.com]

and again, thank you :) What my friend Kathy and I were talking about, though, was the fact that the word seems to be used only for sort of popular culture things, like "fashion maven" or "popular culture maven" - that is, one might not aspire to be a maven? But your definition doesn't seem to suggest any such connotation...

[lilyfriend.livejournal.com]

I imagine it's just the connotation associated with fashion or pop culture. In some circles, aspiring to obtain that sort of knowledge might seem frivolous ;) But a synonym given was connoisseur. And the same circles that might consider a fashion maven frivolous might approve of being a wine maven. :)

My guess is that maven just sounds a whole lot classier than calling themselves a fashion freak. ;)