1926

'26ers present at the New York Alumni . Fund dinner were Frank Healy, Lloyd Sanford, Les Talbot, Fred Hurd, and yours truly. Coincident with it we all received Tubber and Al's "Challenging" kickoff letter. The need is urgent, the cause great. Let's get our pledges in early and make them adequate to the needs of the College and the honor of '26.

"Oh. I am a cook and a captain bold, and the mate of the Nancy brig, and a bo-sun tight and a mid-ship mite, and the crew of the captain's gig" seems to fit the plaint of the founder, owner, president, engineer, bookkeeper and general handyman of Dutch Treats, Inc., of Philipsburg, St. Martins, N. A., one Ed Chaffin. If you think you have personnel problems in your business, talk to Ed. Nevertheless, or because of it, as I discovered on a Caribbean jaunt Kay and I took this winter, his cold storage locker and purveyor of meats and ice cream business are flourishing, as are he and Charlotte in their new home looking over the town and the harbor on to the sunny and moonswept waters of the Caribbean. Speaking of the Caribbean - Herb Redman reports from St. Lucia, "Frances and I are down here escaping the rigors of N. E. winter. Saw Tom Floyd-Jones at Caneel Bay last week." Also on a sun chase, Charlie McKenna writes, "Helen and I traversed the length and breadth of Florida during Feb. We visited with Hugh Morrison and wife one afternoon. We stopped by BobStopford's beautiful home with more than a thousand different plants and shrubs. We missed Bob and found out later that he and his wife stepped out for an hour or so to get warmed up. His heating system went on the blink - the coldest day of the Florida winter." We also visited with Hank Merry; and speaking of sun and Stopford from Fort Lauderdale's Bill Farnsworth comes this, "If Bob hasn't been answering his mail lately the enclosed picture of the 'Garden of the Month' may explain it." The Fort Lauderdale News and Sun Sentinel shot of the Stopford Garden, in which "formal planning is perfectly blended with the informality of nature to achieve effect," is certainly beautiful.

Now a sample run down on early Escoffier Contest returns: Nate Parker's favorite (1) indoor sport is bridge, outdoor (2) golf and of classmates whose (1) and (2) he knows of (4). I quote (for what follows remember the order of the questions): "George Champion has a great time golfing with all his top broker and corporate office friends. Carleton Blunt - golf resulted in his forming a whole new community in Delray Beach, Florida, based on the country club of Florida in that area." Nate's recipe is for "Chilaly." Dick Mandel's recipe is for "Bunny's Fish Dish" and his favorite indoor sport (1) is tennis, favorite outdoor sport (2) tennis. He adds (Kier Boyd, please note how we hackers feel), "If I can make a few good shots, I forget all about the many poor ones. My partners never seem to cover enough of the court." John Arenovski's favorite indoor and outdoor sport are the same, "drinking and eating," so you can bet he takes his "Baked Stuffed Lobster" seriously. In fact he prescribes the drink you must have while preparing it. Now there is a whole new aspect of gastronomy no one ever thought of before and the possibilities are something to tease the mind and tickle the imagination. Can't you see the new breed of gourmets calling one another out over the proper beverage for preparing the morning breakfast - Orange Blossoms or Sherry? Anyhow, John is adamant that the drink to go with his Baked Stuffed Lobster, whilepreparing it is "Bloody Mary Soup" and if you read the instructions for preparing said soup (he ends up, "Boy are they good"), I think you would conclude with me that after a couple of cups of that soup you would neither be able to tell the lobster from prairie chicken nor give a continental for your lost taste buds.

King Diekason weighs in with pheasant, wild rice, and chili recipes which, despite polite disclaimers to the contrary, sound professional as well as delicious. He says in general, "There is no claim to fame for any of my recipes, they are just good plain eating as far as I am concerned and some of my friends seem to enjoy it, although they may not tell the truth and perhaps when they get home, they rush for the Alka-Seltzer, but they seem to come back. Perhaps they bought the large economy size and don't want to see it go to waste. You might guess I like to cook and that goes for barbecue ribs or a 20-1b. standing rib roast. In fact several years ago the paper was desperate for a picture in a magazine section and, as a result of my winning the Gentleman Chef cooking contest on TV, mine was used. Being the only one who cooked a roast the judges were biased because one of them was head of the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association. I like cook books and probably have about 75 but I only practice this art on a weekend. I don't do much hunting, but once a year a friend of mine and I go visit his sister in Ulvade where we hunt dove, wild turkey, deer, and quail. Even a lousy shot with a shotgun, and I do qualify in this category, can kill all the quail he wants to any day, both blues and bobwhites. I hope you get some good recipes and if you edit a book put me down for the first three copies."

Ed Dooley went pixieish on me so I close with his comments: "As for the cooking contest, I pride myself in being an outdoor chef. I too turn out a good steak on the grill but my favorite recipe is as follows: Catch a carp from the dirty Potomac River in Washington, scrape the garage floor for shavings, etc., roll the fish in the shavings, bake for two hours and throw the fish away and eat the shavings." On reflection I can think of some Congressmen, Pugilists, to whom I would like to serve Eddie's favorite recipe, so maybe you better have reservations about accepting an invitation to Dooley's house for dinner. Never on Friday, for me, Eddie.

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