Time, Crime & Tomatoes: Screen & Kitchen

ON SCREEN

Time and Mortality

On Golden Pond  (Amazon Prime $)

Jennifer Finney Boylan is an occasional opinion writer for the New York Times and an English professor at Bard.  Years ago, I read her groundbreaking memoir, She’s Not There:  A Life in Two Genders, about her transition from male to female.  I find her columns thoughtful and insightful.  

In her most recent piece, she reflected on age and time.  Boylan is now 63 and not as physically flexible as she would like.  Watching the film, On Golden Pond, with Fonda and Hepburn as Norman and Ethel, a retired couple of 80 and almost 70, prompted thoughts on life and what comes after.  Here’s a quote from this July 9 column, Katherine Hepburn, Henry Fonda, and Me.

It is not just the thought of my now-grown children that causes me to come unstuck in time. My wife and I first came to Maine in our 20s; now, as Ethel says in the film, we are a couple of old poops.

We have changed so much and have been blessed — and battered — by time. But we are still in love. I am not ready to leave this pond or Maine or her. Still, I know that, in time, all of us leave the things that we have known and turn our eyes toward whatever it is that comes next.

At the end of “On Golden Pond,” Norman asks Ethel if she wants to say farewell to the pond. This time, as they stand by the water, he hears the sound that eluded him before. “Ethel, listen,” he says. “The loons. They’ve come around to say goodbye.”

Like Boylan, the Chief Penguin and I first saw On Golden Pond in 1981, the year it was released.  Then it was an engaging film about an older couple enjoying their cottage on the lake while working hard to entertain a 13-year-old soon to become their daughter’s stepson.  In 2021, it’s a poignant film that hits hard at the challenges and cruelties of getting old while simultaneously demonstrating the strength of a long marriage. 

 I have to say that these characters, Norman and Ethel, act older than many 70- and 80-year-olds do today.  Many of us are more active and in better health than folks were then. It’s noteworthy that this was Henry Fonda’s last film and Jane Fonda played his daughter Chelsea.  Their father-daughter relationship was better after the film. Although a bit dated, I still recommend On Golden Pond.

Complex Lives

Mare of Easttown (HBO via Apple TV $)

This seven-part crime series stars Kate Winslet as a small-town detective on hard times.  It’s set in a fictitious working-class town near Philadelphia.  Anyone who knows that area will recognize place names (Darby, Bryn Mawr) and a certain gritty quality in the streets of houses set cheek by jowl.  Detective Mare has a difficult home life.  Her aggrieved mother and her high school daughter live with her along with her young grandson Drew.  Drew’s father was Mare’s son Kevin, who committed suicide several years ago.  Several young women have gone missing or disappeared and another’s body is found in the woods.  Mare knows everyone in town and is alternately compassionate, brusque, and her own worst enemy.  

Initially, I was put off by the depressing quality of these townspeople’s lives.   I kept on and began to appreciate the depth and complexity of Mare, superbly played by Winslet.  In some ways, more than a crime series, this is a study of a community relationships and travails.  Recommended!

CULINARY CORNER

In the Bowl—Summer Soup

As part of reviewing our cookbook collection for recipes to scan, I came across a recipe for a tomato and berry gazpacho in Dorie Greenspan’s book, Everyday Dorie:  The Way I Cook.  I marked the page for scanning and then decided to serve it to friends.  I went online the next day to print out the recipe and it was not there!  Seems the Chief Penguin either missed it or made an executive decision.  In any case, I went ahead and made it and served it in small cups as a teaser with pre-dinner drinks.  I loved it, the guests liked it, and even the skeptic enjoyed it!

Greenspan uses cherry tomatoes and fresh strawberries and includes scallions, mint and basil leaves, chopped fresh ginger, lime juice, sherry vinegar, some olive oil, and either harissa powder or hot sauce to your taste.  I used some Tabasco in it and had it available for anyone who wanted more heat.  It was a luscious variation on traditional gazpacho with a hint of sweetness.

Dorie Greenspan’s recipe is not available online, but here’s a link to another strawberry-tomato version which has cucumber, jalapenos and honey.  Happy summertime!

Note: Header photo from On Golden Pond is from top100project.com