Lögberg-Heimskringla - 15.05.2007, Blaðsíða 12

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12 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • 15 May 2007
One hundred years ago
this week, Heimskringla re-
ported that during the strike
among road workers in San
Francisco, a battle between
striking workers on one side
and representatives of the
company and police on the
other resulted in the deaths of
eight men. Minneota, MN had
been uncommonly cold this
spring, with frost nearly every
night. In a letter to the editor,
Sv. Simonarson asked, “Who
are the true Christians?”
Lögberg reported that in
various European countries
there had been a great tumult
on May 1, the International
Workers’ Day. In Paris, many
had been hurt and as many as
1,000 people were arrested.
Over $5 million worth of gold
was transported from South
Africa to England, the high-
est value of gold that had ever
been transported at once. Es-
tella M. Thomson, Guttormur
Guttormsson, Arni Stephans-
son and Hjörtur J. Leo gradu-
ated from Wesley College in
Winnipeg.
Fifty years ago this week,
Heimskringla reported that US
Senator Joseph McCarthy had
died recently in Washington
at the age of 74. The South
African Parliament banned
blacks from attending white
churches. Helgi K. Thomp-
son of Hecla Island was made
the first representative for
fisheries for Manitoba. Rag-
nar Stefánsson’s translation
of Rebecca, “a moving story
of an unforgettable wife,” ap-
peared. Grímur H. Gottskalks-
son, oldest man in Minnestoa,
celebrated his 90th birthday on
May 6.
Lögberg reported that Dr.
Richard Beck had been chosen
as President of the Society for
the Advancement of Scandi-
navian Study at its meeting in
Chicago. Hjálmar Josephson,
one of the oldest Icelandic
men in Vatnabyggð, passed
away April 4. Akureyri High
School principal Þórarinn
Björnsson said “the night life
of young people is one of the
most serious problems in rais-
ing children.”
Twenty-five years ago
this week, Lögberg-Heims-
kringla reported that the For-
eign Minister of China, Huang
Hua, had accepted an invita-
tion from Iceland’s Foreign
Minister Ólafur Jóhannesson
to visit Iceland. In Iceland’s
upcoming town and county
elections on May 22 there
would be for the first time two
candidates from the Women’s
Party. American angler and
author Art Lee and his wife
Kris were to lead fishing tours
in Iceland, concentrating on
trout. Valdimar Bjornson
wrote a tribute to Terry An-
gantýr Arnason, who passed
away in North Vancouver on
March 31. Jónas Þór wrote
in his editorial that Winnipeg
was the “capital” for North
Americans of Icelandic de-
scent. Haraldur Bessasson
gave a wide-ranging interview
to L-H.
Compiled and translated
by David Jón Fuller. For com-
plete back issues, visit www.
timarit.is.
My Mother’s Kitchen
W. L. (Bill) Guðnason
To this day, the sights and smells of my moth-er’s prairie kitchen are
always with me.
I can see her before the
stove tending the tall cof-
fee pot with its old Icelandic
“sock” full of strong ground
coffee that sweetened the
morning air throughout the
house and filled me with hun-
ger for the breakfast feast.
I can see her in the veg-
etable garden surrounded by
black, cool earth with clouds
of lilac blossoms floating
around her while she bent to
weed the strawberries.
I can see her on the back
step, on the first frost-free day
of spring, frying rich cake
batter doughnuts in an old tin
fryer. I remember their dark,
crisp crusts dredged in sugar
and still hot as we greedily bit
into them.
I can smell the sweet
berry scent of her saskatoon
pies, the little blue berries
preserved over the long win-
ter, then embalmed again in
her sugary light pastry and
served up in early summer.
I can smell the light gold-
en nuggets of her Yorkshire
pudding, risen to smoking hot
perfection beneath a dripping
roast of beef.
I can smell the crackling
of a pork roast, most recently
part of a milk-fed pig on my
uncle’s farm, as she carries it
carefully to the Sunday table.
I can see her standing in
the light of a brownish au-
tumn sun, cutting pumpkins
from their chilly beds to make
a custard to fill the Thanks-
giving pie shells.
I can see her in the root
cellar piling up earth-encrust-
ed potatoes and giant turnips
which formed the backbone
of many winter meals.
I can see rows of fresh
baked dark brown bread
lined up on the kitchen coun-
ter, their crusts buttered and
their molasses scent gently
released as she cuts the first
slice into my hands.
I can smell her plum jam
and her ripe chokecherry jelly
boiling in the old blue preserv-
ing pan. I can see the wooden
baskets of store-bought Con-
cord grapes waiting their turn
by the jelly pan.
I can smell her “oh-so-
good” raisin pies cooling on a
shelf on the back porch, while
beside them, piles of sugar
cookies sparkle and cool.
I can see the large, gold-
en rounds of shortbread-like
pastry resting on wax paper
while she mixes the prune
filling with spicy cardamom
to create vínarterta.
I can smell the fresh,
sweet lake pickerel she baked
in butter and lemon juice. I
can see her opening the stout
wooden boxes, neatly packed
with my father’s favourite
salted herrings.
I can smell her bittersweet
chocolate sauce simmering
on the back burner, burst-
ing with fresh cream, butter
and brown sugar. I can see
the sauce slowly hardening
to small peaks as it’s poured
over “Blue Boy” French va-
nilla ice cream.
I can see her Icelandic
pancakes with their cream
and gold lacework edges
rolled up with brown sugar
and cinnamon.
I saw and smelled these
things in my mother’s kitchen
long ago, before I knew what
miracles they were.
W. L. Guðanason, origi-
nally from Glenboro, MB, now
lives in London, England.
ACROSS
1 Parent of Thor
5 Spring flower
10 Wave
14 Off-Broadway award
15 Drive away
16 Coffee
17 Small particle
18 Warm
19 Kitchen appliance
20 Wanting
22 Bank workers
24 Flat bread
25 Long time
26 Herbal drink
29 Mutilated
33 Keeper of apples
34 ___-Lay, chip brand
35 Drink
36 Her
37 Not here
40 Brother of love goddess
42 Roman satirist
44 Sea jewels
45 Central Thai
47 Alcoholic beverage from
honey
48 Capturers
51 Doings
55 Cure
56 Banter
58 Realm
59 Canal
60 National capital
61 Compass point
62 Part of a sentence
63 Hate
64 Nudged a soccer ball, say
DOWN
1 Merge
2 Double-reed instrument
3 Ritual
4 Blank expression
5 Canny
6 Inscribed stone
7 Type of dance
8 1997 Madonna movie
9 Cash in
10 One of the All-Father’s
aliases
11 Wash
12 Allege
13 Pots
21 Finland denizen
23 Linger
26 The condition of
cultivated soil
27 American state
28 Superb
30 Tightwad
31 Type of alcohol
32 People who get things done
38 Stunned
39 Reverberate
40 Deed
41 Glossy
43 Worlds
44 Jam need
46 Abraham’s son
47 Mansion
48 Gnaw
49 Air (prefix)
50 Two
52 Brand of sandwich cookie
53 Northeast by east
54 Beach stuff
57 Popular card game
ANSWERS ON PAGE 15
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16
17 18 19
20 21 22 23
24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31 32
33 34
35 36
37 38 39 40 41
42 43 44
45 46 47
48 49 50 51 52 53 54
55 56 57 58
59 60 61
62 63 64
The Lögberg-Heimskringla Crossword Puzzle
by David Jón Fuller
“Norse
fertility”