“My Struggle: Book 2”
At the age of forty the life you have lived so far, always pro tem, has for the first time become life itself, and this reappraisal swept away all dreams, destroyed all your notions that real life, the one that was meant to be, the great deeds you would perform, was somewhere else. When you were forty you realized it was all here, banal everyday life, fully formed, and it always would be unless you did something. Unless you took one last gamble.
Karl Ove Knausgaard – a Norwegian living in Sweden, nearing 40, on his second marriage with three children under the age of 4 – finds himself joyless, overwhelmed with the demands of marriage and fatherhood. A lifelong reader and writer, Knausgaard has also lost faith in literature and turns to his personal diaries and essays for inspiration. From those writings, two elements that shaped his life – his father and a lifelong feeling of not belonging – lead him to write My Struggle: a 6-volume autobiography published between 2009-2012 in Norway. Read more 
Why Health Insurance Should Not Be Tied to Employment
On our nation’s birthday, we have much to celebrate in the 238 years since our country was founded: we’ve come a long way with regards to religious freedom and equal rights but we still have a long way to go. This past week the US Supreme Court voted 5-4 that the government cannot require for-profit, closely held companies to provide certain birth control drugs and devices because the provision goes against the owner’s religious beliefs. Whether you agree or disagree with the Supreme Court ruling, this case never should have been entertained by the high court because health insurance should not be tied to employment, and here are the three reasons why: Read more
Coop’s MicroCreamery Hot Fudge
Always serve too much hot fudge on hot fudge sundaes. It makes people overjoyed, and puts them in your debt.
Judith Olney
2009 is not a year that most people thought about opening a business but after 30 years in the ice cream industry, Marc Cooper who frequently answers to “Coop” decided to strike out on his own making super premium ice cream and dessert toppings. His company – Coops MicroCreamery based in Watertown, Massachusetts – makes ice cream (both dairy based and coconut milk based) sold throughout Massachusetts in premium ice cream shops and grocery stores while Coop’s Handmade Hot Fudge (Original and the Vegan version) are available nationwide at fine grocery and gourmet stores. Read more
Schermer Pecans
Some of the best tasting pecans in the world are grown in the south central orchards of North America where the hot and humid climate allows pecan trees to grow and bear the rich, buttery nut meats year after year. At Schermer Pecans in Glennville, Georgia (60 miles west of Savannah), the pecans have been grown and harvested by five generations of the Schermer and Wetherbee families since 1946.
Schermer Pecans are what some people would call a fully vertically integrated company: they plant, tend, harvest, shell, package, and distribute their own pecan products, which allows the customer to receive a fresh, high quality product directly from a Georgian orchard. Read more
PowerBlend Omega 3 Seed Blends
When a well-educated professional pilot needed food with serious nutritional density to carry her through the fatigue of flying cross country and didn’t find it in the airports, food courts, or restaurants, Anne-elise Stern decided to create her own. Learning about the abundant nutrients in seeds, Stern started experimenting and came up with the Original PowerBlend Omega 3 Seed Blend: a combination of hemp, chia, pumpkin and flax combined with spices. Read more
“My Struggle: Book 1”
My father was an idiot, I wanted nothing to do with him, and it cost me nothing to keep well away from him. It wasn’t a question of keeping away from something, it was a question of the something not existing; nothing about him touched me. That was how it had been, but then I had sat down to write, and the tears poured forth.
In Norway, revealing personal information and family secrets is considered shameful so when Karl Ove Knausgaard, the award-winning, best-selling author wrote a 6 volume autobiographical account of his life, the public took notice, read the critics’ reviews but ultimately decided to buy the books. Read more
Napa Cakes Panforte
The original power bar dates back to the Romans when the Italians combined fruits and nuts to make a moist, dense round cake called Panforte which literally means “strong cake” owing to the slightly spicy flavor. Some people would call Panforte a fruitcake but with the negative connotation that fruitcake conjures up – especially among young people – classifying this Italian creation with the often ridiculed candied fruit concoction does not do this cake justice. A slice of Panforte is truly heavenly owing to the concentration of dried fruit, nuts, honey, and spices. Read more
Gina and May Umbrellas
Gina & May makes an eye-catching collection of durable, striking, and stylish umbrellas that have been known to cause people to croon “I’m Singin’ in the Rain” while splashing through puddles. Graphic shapes of vibrant color – red, blue, green, fuchsia, tangerine, black, white and charcoal – are displayed on a nylon, non-fade fabric with UPF (Ultraviolet Protection Factor) protection of 25.
Spanning nearly 40 inches across, the fabric is fitted with a high quality windproof mechanism to minimize pressure on the frame, allowing the umbrella to easily flip back into place should the wind turn it out. The frame is made of fiberglass and aluminum with plastic fittings which make a Gina & May umbrella one sturdy and durable parasol. The simple yet bold look of these umbrellas can make the most miserable day a bit brighter…and drier. Read more
Bobbysue’s Nuts
Bobbysue Kobren has been making her family’s fantastic, generations-old recipe for spiced nuts – crunchy almonds, cashews, and pecans coated with a delicate meringue, and lightly roasted with a bit of sugar, and a special blend of spices – for years but waited until 2008 to follow her entrepreneurial spirit by opening Bobbysue’s Nuts in Chappaqua, New York. Savory, slightly sweet (but not too sweet), Bobbysue’s Nuts are addicting: it’s impossible to open a jar and eat just a few nuts because one taste of these scrumptious nuts leaves you wanting more…and more….and more. Read more
“The Little Friend”
…it was Christmas, there was a new baby in the house, everybody was happy and thought they would be happy forever.
Harriet Cleve Dufresnes had just entered the world as the third child of Charlotte and Dixon Cleve. Four months later, while baby Harriett was strapped in her swing on the front porch with her 4-year old sister, Allison playing nearby, 9-year old Robin was found hung from the tupelo tree in the front yard while the rest of the family was in the house setting up the table for a Mother’s Day celebration. No one saw or heard a thing. Read more
Paddock Post 