Dewey Webster's Djenne
Feeling a bit peeky today and spending some time in my rooms in front of the fan with relatively good internet connection. I found something splendid at http://www.deweywebster.net/djenne.html
If you have never been to Djenne, or even if you have, take a look at these excellent pictures which takes you right into the heart and soul of Djenne- including Hotel Djenne Djenno. Webster had been given the same information that all guides give: ie. the number of crenelations on the rooftop of a Djenne house indicates the number of children of the house owners. He had therefore assumed that the owners of this house were particularly fecund. But of course it is the Djenne Manuscript Library!
And on a less joyous note, the suicide car bomb attack on Timbuktu a couple of days ago made it necessary for my new friends from the Swedish TV 4 crew to be evacuated by UN plane from Timbuktu- they are now in Sevare waiting for their vehicle to arrive from Timbuktu. This does not bode well for the future. Timbuktu had been safe everyone thought. It was Gao that bore the brunt of the terrorists' new tactic: suicide bombings. The military presence in Timbuktu had been relatively low, but is now bound to increase again...
posted by toubab at 11:34 AM
5 Comments:
Such a sublime, magical place, to which we all join in hoping peace comes soon. (I loved your Disney-in-Sweden story, too!) Thought of you last night at a concert by the current generation of composers/musicians, who at points were clearly channeling their inner Jimi Hendrix. They had a phenomenal light show, too. The only thing missing was the Toklas Brownies.
The Toklas Brownies? Please explain. I should know, I am sure but there are gaps...
I'm afraid that was a little obscure! Here's an explanation from wikipedia, although I see the correct reference is to fudge:
The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book, first published in 1954, is one of the bestselling cookbooks of all time. Written by Alice B. Toklas, writer Gertrude Stein's life partner, Toklas wrote this book as a favor to Random House to make up for her unwillingness at the time to write her memoirs, in deference to Stein's 1933 book about her, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas.
This work is as much of an autobiography as it is a cookbook, in that it contains as many personal recollections as it does recipes. The most famous culinary experiment contained therein is a concoction called Hashish Fudge. Made from spices, nuts, fruit, and Cannabis, Hashish Fudge quickly became a sensation in its own right. In the recipe, Alice described how it is called "the food of paradise" . . . . She stated that this was something that can liven up any gathering and is "easy to whip up on a rainy day." She cautions two pieces of it are quite enough and that one should be prepared for hysterical fits of laughter and wild floods of thoughts on "many simultaneous planes."
Aha, I now see! Groovy, as one used to say...thanks for explanation Susan. My own experiences with such cookies etc were not always that much fun however, and that side of my generation is perhaps its downside I think.
Hotel Frankfurt What happen ? what is the reason behind of gap ?
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