As previously posted, PBS is re-mixing clips from its various programs. Older clips include both Mr. Rogers as well as Bob Ross, and now music vids from Julia Child and Reading Rainbow. i'll admit that despite my great fondness for Reading Rainbow, the re-mix sounds a ton like the Mr. Rogers and Bob Ross re-mixes.
The Chazen Gallery here recently hosted a collection from Florence's Uffizi Gallery called An Offering of Angels. Because it's nearly Christmas, and because the collection includes works by guys like Botticelli and Titian, i took myself to see it (of course, in the last 2 hours, of the last day of the exhibit - ain't no minute like the last minute). One or two of the works featured St. Catherine of Alexandria. St. Catherine is dear to me (as is St. Catherine of Siena). Because she died in 305 AD, there are a few variations of her story. However, the gist of it is that she was a noble (princess) and noted scholar, converted a lot of folks, (possibly refused the Emperor Maxentius) and was sentenced to death by spiked wheel. The spiked wheel broke when she touched it, so she was beheaded instead and her feast day is Nov. 25th. Among other things, she's the patron of philosophers and unmarried women.
There's a firework called the Catherine wheel.
She's an early saint, and so there are a lot of traditions associated with her. In France, young unmarried women (woo, spinsters!) fashion a crown and place it on statues of her on her feast day. Women older than 25 who remain unmarried are apparently called Catherinettes, and are said to be taking St. Catherine's bonnet. They are made to wear hats in green and yellow for the feast day (those usually made by friends). In Quebec, the day is celebrated by young women making taffy for guys-of-interest, a tradition stemming from a teacher-nun (also now a saint) who would make taffy to entice her students to show up to class.
A few words on taffy. i've been meaning to make pulled taffy for a few years now, and finally did a week or two ago (slightly late for St. Catherine's Day, and included a guy). There are a whole bunch of recipes out there, but we tested one with glycerin and one without. The batch without glycerin got cooked to hard ball stage, around 280 degrees and was much stickier. The glycerin seemed to add pliability, and increase the temperature range to which you could cook the taffy without it turning into basically hard candy.
Regarding glycerin; i some from a local grocery store (Woodmans, full disclosure). It was in the skin care section, but the back said 99.5% anhydrous and was labeled USP, so we went with it. Follow up included a quick google, and it is safe for human consumption.
Note on the word 'spinster'. Older, unmarried women are historically known as such because spinning wool was a livelihood lucrative enough to allow women not to have to rely on a male. Contained within the wikipedia article is the note that, " Unpopped popcorn kernels have been dubbed "old maids" in popular slang, since just as unmarried women that don't have children, they do not "pop"" Golly.
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