Friday Tip

Dear Constant Reader,

These tips are always for you, but sometimes they are for me too.

Keep your eye on deadlines.

Sometimes you think you have so much time to get something done and before you know it, it’s almost the end of August and you need to rush to get your autumn classes on the schedule…

That said, the September and October classes at BABE are open for registration! As always, we’re offering Introduction to Burlesque, but we also have intermediate classes — fan dance technique in September and a Halloween fan dance in October — and our act creation course for advanced students, which culminates in a student showcase.

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my 18 Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.

Published in: on 22 August 2025 at 2:27 pm  Leave a Comment  
Tags:

Friday Tip

Dear Constant Reader,

Happy Friday! After several miserably hot and humid days, I’m enjoying today’s very pleasant summer weather. I hope it’s nice where you are too.

Here’s your tip:

Use beading thread for beadwork.

I know that sounds obvious, but you would be surprised. 

No matter how smooth beads look, they’re still made of glass and a tiny nick or chip can cut right through regular sewing thread. Beading thread is made to resist that. In a pinch you can use dental floss. However, if you’re going to go through all the painstaking work of hand beading, I recommend using the right equipment.

My Patrons can learn more about beadwork by watching this tutorial.

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my 18 Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.

Published in: on 15 August 2025 at 4:49 pm  Leave a Comment  
Tags: ,

Friday Tip

Dear Constant Reader,

Happy Friday! I had a different tip for you and then I read an editorial in the NY Times, by David French and this part of it really resonated with me.

Stand up for good people under fire. Private messages are important, but even the simple act of posting public support (or offering other forms of public aid) can help mitigate the damage. It tells a person that he or she is not alone and that decency is not dead.

Now, he was specifically talking about judges who were being personally threatened because of their rulings, but I think it applies more widely. People can be vicious and loud and leave others who disagree feeling like they need to keep their heads down lest the mob turn on them as well.

Don’t let the bullies win.

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my 18 Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.

Published in: on 8 August 2025 at 6:10 pm  Leave a Comment  
Tags:

Friday Tip

Dear Constant Reader,

Happy Friday! It’s neither beastly hot nor raining right now and I am so grateful!

Today’s travel tip comes from Scratch:

Fill a zippered pillowcase with squishy clothing, like socks, underwear, and t-shirts.

You get a comfy pillow for your trip and you have more room in your suitcase.

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my 18 Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.

Published in: on 1 August 2025 at 3:30 pm  Leave a Comment  
Tags: ,

Tea Party

Dear Constant Reader,

Every once in a while I get the itch to bake a lot, pull out the good china, silver, and linens, and invite a bunch of my friends over. Thus I throw a tea party.

Tea table

The most important part of preparations is the menu. I like to serve a traditional spread with sandwiches, scones, and sweets. I want to make sure there is a variety of flavors and that they’re somewhat seasonal. Also, I have guests with dietary restrictions, so I want to accommodate them. I always make sure everything is vegetarian and if I have a vegan guest, that there’s at least one plant-based option per food category. And I want to limit the number of things that have to be prepared at the last minute.

I had a dozen guests coming for this party, so I decided on three items in each category. 

Sandwiches
I always make cucumber sandwiches on white bread, so I needed two more types. I decided on tomato sandwiches with parsley from my garden on wheat bread. As long as I was picking herbs, the cucumbers got minced chives and I sprinkled the plate with chive blossoms. We had some lovely dates in the pantry, a gift from Scratch’s sister, and I turned them into date-nut bread, which became sandwiches, filled with cream cheese. And I love the chance to use the silver sandwich server.

Sandwiches

Scones
One of the constants on my tea table is scones from Marian Walke’s excellent recipe. Sometimes I change up the fruit, but this time I went with classic currant. I wanted something savory as well. In the past I’ve made sun-dried tomato and parmesan scones or goat cheese and basil. I decided on Cheesy Biscuits from Breaking Cat News. Lastly, this was a great opportunity to try Insani-Tea Biscuits from The NecroMunchicon. I even got some of their Earl in Grey tea. One of the neat things about these three recipes is that one calls for cold butter, one for softened butter, and one for melted butter. I was going to ask my guests to compare, but completely forgot.

Currant scones          Cheesy biscuits          Insani-Tea Biscuits         

Sweets
I knew I was going to make madeleines, since I have the pans and I have a great recipe for chocolate mini-cupcakes, but I was stumped for the third. Christine McConnell had a recipe for plant-based strawberry-lemonade bars, which sounded good, but one of my guests has a strawberry allergy. As I tried to figure out how to make them just lemon, I realized that none of my guests were vegan and I could just find another lemon bar recipe. The one I used, from the NY Times, was a keeper. Dr. Becky brought baked old-fashioned donut cakes and Devastasia brought two kinds of biscotti.

Madeleines          Chocolate cupcakes          Lemon bars         

Preserves
I always serve homemade preserves. This time there was peach jam and blood orange marmalade that I made in season and I also made raspberry conserve, which was an alternative to sugar for the tea. The recipe is from Mamushka, a Ukrainian cookbook. Of course there was also butter for the scones.

Raspberry convserve

Tea
The kinds of tea I serve is limited by the number of teapots I own (four, but alas, only two tea cozies). This party had a classic English Breakfast, The Earl in Grey, a green blooming tea (in a glass tea pot so you can see how pretty), and a saffron chai that Betty brought back from India.

The party was lovely, bringing together friends from various circles. I was mostly circulating and keeping an eye on the platters and tea pots, but I did get a chance to relax and enjoy too.

KathrynPhoto by Devastasia, Mrs. Maisel dress by me, necklace by Laurel Witting Designs, Kathryn slingbacks by Christine McConnell for American Duchess

I’ll probably host another one in the fall, so I can use all my Halloween cake pans and the like.

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my 18 Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.

Published in: on 30 July 2025 at 10:01 am  Leave a Comment  
Tags:

Review: Girl Show

Dear Constant Reader,

In May (on Toni Elling’s birthday, in fact) I took “The History of Cooch Tent Sideshows”, an on-line class from the Chocolate City Burlesque Academy, taught by founder (and dear friend) Bebe Bardeaux. The class was excellent, as were the others I took, and it reminded me that I never reviewed this book in my collection.

Girl Show: Into the Canvas World of Bump and Grind by A. W.  Stencell, 1999.

As long as there have been carnivals, there have been girl shows. This history covers the early days, starting with the 1893 Columbia Exposition through the decline in the 1980s. The many photographs illustrate all aspects of the carnival: girls in action and backstage, advertisements, posters, show fronts, and more. In the back there’s a glossary for some of the carney terms used throughout book, like single-O (a show with only one attraction), blow off (a final act for an additional fee), and bally (a free taste of the show inside).

Some of the biggest names in burlesque worked carnival girl shows: Gypsy Rose Lee, Sally Rand, and Lili St. Cyr, to name a few. Many of the shows were big production revues with relatively elaborate sets and lavish costumes. But there was a lot of grit behind the glitz. There were plenty of cooch shows where the girls worked nude and allowed the patrons to grope them… and more*. And this went on for 10, 12, 14 shows a day.

The book spotlights some of the great names in the carnival biz, some of whom are well known to burlesque fans and some who are more obscure. There’s a fabulous section all about Tirza the Wine Bath Girl and the evolution of her act, with photos. And there’s a mention of that girl who set her tits on fire. Sound like anyone you know?

Besides the girls, the book covers other people who worked these shows. There were talkers, who were not, as you might suppose, hosts or MCs. They stood out front with some of the girls from the show to entice the audience in. A good talker was an entertainer in his** own right as well as persuasive. The best needed only a few girls around him to advertise the show — his patter did most of the work. There’s a brief mention of Leon Claxton’s Harlem in Havana show in this chapter. You can learn more about it in Leslie Cunningham’s book, Brown Skin Showgirls. There were the candy butchers technically sold boxes of candy, but also worked a con to get people to buy by promising fabulous or risqué prizes. They were found in burlesque theatres as well and could have very entertaining pitches. There are also sections on producers, show families, and general carnival life.

It’s a good overview of the traveling show — a fine companion to Carnival Strippers and Brown Skin Showgirls.

*There are photos of this. Just a friendly warning.
**There were female talkers but they were in the minority

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my 18 Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.

Published in: on 24 July 2025 at 4:46 pm  Leave a Comment  
Tags: , ,

Friday Tip

Dear Constant Reader,

Your faithful corespondent has been laid up in bed this week, unable to do much more than cough delicately into a handkerchief and look wanly fetching in a lacy nightgown. Despite that, I am still able to send out a tip, suggested by Scratch, who has been making sure I am well supplied with soothing cups of tea.

Get some rest. If you haven’t got your health, then you haven’t got anything.
–Count Rugen

Excellent advice. I think I’ll take it now.

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my 18 Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.

Published in: on 18 July 2025 at 3:15 pm  Leave a Comment  
Tags:

Friday Tip

Dear Constant Reader,

Happy Friday!

This week’s tip is a continuation of the one about working with food — about a very specific category of food: milk.

Avoid using actual dairy on stage.

Just stay away from milk. It spoils easily and then it smells bad. It’s really hard to get that odor out of your costume and off your skin. And you don’t want the lingering aroma of spoiled milk to be the reason the venue remembers you.

If you want whipped cream, substitute shaving cream. This works really well for pie fights as well as sexier stuff.

If you’re doing a milk pour, diluted white tempera paint makes a decent substitute.

Both wash off well, but they’re absolutely not edible, so don’t let anyone lick you until after your shower!

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my 18 Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.

Published in: on 11 July 2025 at 3:12 pm  Leave a Comment  
Tags:

In the Kitchen: Murphy’s Herbed Cream Cheese Dip (1971)

Dear Constant Reader,

My mother recently sent me some of the family cookbooks. I’ve really enjoyed flipping through them, seeing the stained pages of frequently-used recipes and my mom’s notes. One of them was Playhouse Cookery, a community cookbook from the nursery school my sister and I went to. I have a fondness for community cookbooks and cuisine from the 1970s, that, plus the personal connection (not to mention my surprise that it still existed), delighted me immensely.

Last weekend, Ava had a barbecue and I wanted to bring this dip, which my mother used to make for parties. It was contributed by my sister’s teacher (personal connection again) and uses herbs that I have in abundance in my garden. 

To make Murphy’s Herbed Cream Cheese Dip, you will need

Untitled

garlic, onion, salt, dry mustard, cream cheese, mayonnaise, lemon juice, olives, thyme, Tabasco, parsley, chives
You may notice that there are no olives in the picture. My mom never used them and I don’t either. If you want to use olives, I suggest the classic pimento-stuffed green. (Also, that’s not Tabasco — I have no idea where our bottle went — so I subbed a similar hot sauce, label turned away in shame)

Mince the onion and garlic, chop the olives, and mix everything together. That’s it! It’s a bit easier to mix if you let the cheese cheese come up to room temperature.

I recommend making the dip in advance. A night in the fridge improves the flavor, but it’s also the sort of thing you could throw together pretty quickly.

I like to serve it with crudités, but it’s also thick enough to use as a spread on crackers.

The book Fashionable Food: Seven Decades of Food Fads by Silvia Lovegren sums up cuisine in the 1970s as “gooshy” — soft, creamy, rich, and goopy. While I disagree with some of her snarky takes, this dip does kind of fall into that category.

Here’s the original recipe. I always double the amounts.  

Untitled

Murphy’s Herbed Cream Cheese Dip
2 clove garlic, minced
1-2 tsp minced onion
1/4 tsp salt
pinch dry mustard
1 (3 oz)cream cheese
1/4 c mayonnaise
1 T lemon juice
2 T chopped olives
1/4 tsp thyme
dash tabasco
parsley
chives

Mix ingredients together. Good with cold vegetables.
–Ronnie Stern

The tiny amount of thyme suggests that it’s supposed to be dried. I like to use fresh because I have a very thriving thyme plant. If you also use fresh thyme, add three times as much and give the leaves a little chop after you pull them off the a stem. The parsley and chives are up to your whim. I never measure and just sorta add enough.

So, who was Murphy? No idea, but I’m happy his? her? recipe lives on.

Enjoy!

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my 18 Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.

Published in: on 9 July 2025 at 4:26 pm  Leave a Comment  
Tags: , , ,

Friday Tip

Dear Constant Reader,

It’s Independence Day here in the US and I’m probably not alone in not feeling very celebratory.

This is tip is from a t-shirt I have with a sentiment that I believe the Founders would have agreed with.

Get angry. Stay hopeful.

Get Angry Stay Hopeful

Design by The Morbid Curiosity Podcast. (If you want your own, their merch is on sale today!)

Some days it’s easier to do the former than the latter, but we need both actions for change.

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my 18 Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.

Published in: on 4 July 2025 at 10:45 am  Leave a Comment  
Tags:
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »