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by Alicia Rudnicki, Library Mix

This issue’s (January 9, 2012) blue-plate special recreates the peanut butter and dill pickle sandwiches that are a staple of private investigator Kinsey Milhone in Sue Grafton’s bestselling alphabetically titled mystery series that currently stretches from A is for Alibi to V is for Vengeance.

Peanut butter and pickle sandwiches  “always make me swoon,” said mystery writer Sue Grafton In a 2004 interview with the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library (CML) of Charlotte, North Carolina.  Grafton means “swoon” in a positive way.

The sandwich topic arose when CML asked Grafton about characteristics the author shares with her central character. Kinsey’s prefers fast food, meals at the neighborhood dive — a Hungarian restaurant run by the culinary dominatrix Rosie — and being invited into the kitchen of her elderly yet dapper neighbor, Henry, for freshly baked bread. When she cooks at home, Kinsey's repertoire is limited to sandwiches filled either with pimento cheese spread or peanut butter and dill pickles.

I began reading Grafton when she wasn’t far into the alphabet. (She is the only author I have waited hours to meet, standing in line with hundreds of other readers at a bookstore.) Years later, during a pregnancy marked by a severe craving for pickles, I decided to test Kinsey’s PB&P special and discovered it was delectable.

What is that fancy word food writers use? Piquant? Yes, Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the sandwich was marked by “tang, zest, zing.” The sweet-tart combination sang to my taste buds! Here is a recipe I have contrived.

Kinsey Milhone's  PB and Pickle Special

2 slices white sandwich bread
2 heaping tablespoons of creamy peanut butter
6 dill pickle slices (hamburger-style slices that are round)

Spread peanut butter generously on each piece of bread. Place pickle slices in two rows of three each on one piece of the bread (not to imply that Kinsey is obsessive compulsive, but she likes order). Place other peanut-butter-slathered slice of bread on top. Never ever add marshmallow fluff or other sweet embellishments that would obscure the sweet-tart contrast of PB and dill pickle. For culinary flare, cut the sandwich in half diagonally.



 
 
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Gelato as poetry. Photo by Allison Rudnicki
by Alicia Rudnicki, Library Mix

Earning a dollar
Trumps good intentions daily
Where did the month go?

It has been much too long since I last published. Although my excuses are many and compelling,  let’s leave it at this:  here I am, better late than never.

Poetry of everyday life
This issue focuses on the poetry to be discovered all around us, at all ages and in everyday life, whether in the beauty of an Italian display of gelato or the sadness of this tough economy.

While researching this issue, I discovered there is even lots of poetry on YouTube, including many an urgent poetry slam performance by young people who aren’t afraid to expose feelings and thoughts that others might prefer to hide.

I frittered away many a valuable minute trying to find a poetry video that I would enjoy sharing. Eventually, I  discovered Billy Collins wonderful animated poem, Forgetfulness, which appears at the end of this article and makes me want to weep for many a lost brain cell.

Wandering lonely as a cloud
I also enjoyed squandering time at the library, wandering lonely as a cloud through the children’s and teen sections in search of titles that might fit within my vague notion of an issue about poetry. I am thankful for the librarians who aided this quest.

It was Jess Walter’s adult novel, Financial Lives of the Poets—which I discovered by chance in a library display—that set me on this chase. While the library certainly is not an unexpected place to find poetry, a novel about a failed businessman certainly is. Nor did I expect to find stories about a homeless dog or teenage terrorists set to poetry. All seemed so unlikely; but here is my final word:

Poetry pops up
In unexpected places
If you look for it.
 
 
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Love flowers bloom in Fairyland on Facebook. Photo from Play & Connect Ltd.
by Alicia Rudnicki, Library Mix

If you are a can-do kind of person, you may love how-to articles. Think of me the next time you read one online. I am among the masses of freelance writers going mental from spending way too many hours cruising the Internet to research articles for  “content” publishers.

Anyone who has done research online has probably clicked on a content publisher such as About, Do It Yourself, Ehow, How Stuff Works, Livestrong or WiseGeek.

When I began thinking about creating an issue on the idea of self-help, it occurred to me that the Internet has become a cyber sea of self-help literature.

Answering life’s little questions
If not the places to find answers to life’s big questions, online content publishers are the go-to guys when confounded by matters such as “How to plant bamboo on the island of Bali” or “How to read a fluke meter.”

Yes, these were article assignments I could have accepted if I were more intrepid. But it seemed to me that I wouldn’t help anyone, especially myself, if I accepted them.

Bali is familiar in a distant, dreamy way, because I’ve seen the musical South Pacific countless times. But I have no clue what a fluke meter does, although I do love its name.

Nor do I have any idea how to write reasonable responses to most of the thousands of assignment titles offered by my publisher, including “What does it mean when horse manure is yellow?” and “How long does it take the love flower to be harvested in fairyland?”

Mastering the 500-words-or-less classic
But speaking of self-help, I have managed to increase my bank account a bit by mastering the art of condensing topics such as the “History of American baseball” and the “Environmental effect of paper plates” into 500 words or less.

I have also managed to amuse myself countless times as I cruise the assignment lists for topics to accept. Just the other day, I discovered the following titles serendipitously listed one after the other: “How do I check into hotels anonymously and discreetly?” and “How to draft your own divorce order in Michigan.”

Be on the lookout for my upcoming classics on “What is the meaning of the slope on a number line” and “How to make dresser drawers slide more easily.” Unlike the vampire lit articles I wrote last year for another publisher, they  will never "go viral.” But maybe, just maybe, they will help some people.