Michael Hinko Jr

 A delicious Cuban sandwich served on the patio of 90 Miles Cuban Cafe in Logan Square. One of the best Cuban sandwiches I've enjoyed. And so much fun to dine outside at the end of October in Chicago.

  Students standing at the end of the Memorial Union Pier prepare to jump into Lake Mendota. One student concluded this empirical research by exclaiming, "It's cold."

  A sandhill crane at Cherokee Marsh Conservation Park in Madison, Wisconsin.

  A menacing shadow quietly approaches a tragically unaware shadow. This won't end well.

  A sidewalk chalk drawing said, "Dance Here." So they did.

‘Don’t say anything unless you have to; and if you have to say something, don’t say nothing.’   --- Parky Cullerton   P.J. “Parky” Cullerton was the County Assessor for Cook County, Illinois from 1958 to 1974. Before being elected as County Assessor, Cullerton served on the Chicago City Council, to which he was elected in 1935. He was chairman of the council’s Finance Committee, where it was rumored that he would bring his committee to Florida every winter to relax and enjoy refreshments while they worked on the city’s budget. A member of the Cullerton family had been on the Chicago City Council since the Great Chicago Fire in 1871 until Alderman Tim Cullerton retired in 2015.   -- https://www.buttonmuseum.org/

 

  There's a building across the street from my apartment that has mirrored glass windows. It offers ever changing reflections of the surrounding buildings and sky. I thought I would get tired of looking at this glass and steel structure, but it always shows me something new.

This terminology essentially means 'speaking while breathing in.' People in some parts of Scandinavia will punctuate their speech with an inhaled 'ya.' Here is a quick example of the inhaled 'ya.'  That's a preface to a story of Donna's I want to share. Donna would sometimes visit a seamstress who was an immigrant from Scandinavia. While the seamstress was marking the hem of a garment, she'd hold straight pins between her lips. She continued to talk while doing so, and would also use the inhaled 'ya' as she spoke. Donna wondered how the seamstress could do this without swallowing the pins.  

  UW Madison Memorial Union Terrace "Mopery is a vague, informal name for minor offenses. The word is based on the verb to mope, which originally meant "to wander aimlessly"." -- from Wikipedia Mopery appears in William Shakespeare's works. I first read it in a Mike Royko column from the 1980s. In a subsequent column, Royko gave it more of a criminal spin by referring to a Chicagoan's actions as "aggravated mopery." Enjoy these summer months, via mopery or any of your favorite pastimes.   

 

 An April dip in Lake Mendota is only for the brave. The lake temperature was 40 degrees on the day these photos were taken.  

 Easter - Velykden - is coming, and there's a lot of cooking to be done before company arrives. Here are some of the traditional dishes served in Ukraine for the holiday. Paska - a sweet bread that is traditionally baked in a round shape and decorated with symbols or designs that represent the holiday. Babka - a rich, sweet cake that is often flavored with vanilla, raisins, or other fruits. Kovbasa - a type of sausage that is commonly made with pork and flavored with garlic, salt, and pepper. Ham - a roasted or boiled ham is often served as a main course during Ukrainian Easter. Holubtsi - cabbage rolls that are filled with a mixture of ground meat, rice, and spices. Varenyky - boiled dumplings that can be filled with potatoes, cheese, or meat. Deruny - potato pancakes that are typically served as a side dish. Beetroot soup - a hearty soup made with beets, potatoes, carrots, and meat. Easter eggs - hard-boiled eggs that are traditionally decorated with intricate designs using wax a...

 Recently I received an urgent request for the potato salad recipe of Donna Michels. The requestor said she had searched the PDFs of the recipe books, but couldn't find it. I was able to provide a quick link to the recipe on the Hinko Family Recipes blog . I added that I was certain the recipe also could be found in the PDF of one of the recipe books. It was there. It was just attributed to the person who originally shared the recipe with Donna. The recipe is titled Glenda Unger Potato Salad. It can be found on Page 58 of the PDF titled The Orange Binder . Comparing the two recipes establishes the provenance. But it's the differences that bring forth the evolution. Both recipes call for the addition of a bay leaf to the potato boiling water. But in Donna's later edition, the one from Hinko Family Recipes, she doesn't boil the potatoes, she steams them. This yielded a more favorable texture. From there, we find an assortment of tweaks made over the years.  There's a ...

 When it was time for a haircut my dad would walk me from our south side home to 103rd Street. This was the commercial block closest to our home. It had most of our day to day necessities; A&P grocery store, Rexall drug store (there was even a television tube tester in the store), Ben Franklin dime store. And there was Atillio's barber shop. I'm pictured here getting my hair cut by Atillio in 1958.

 

 Every ten years Sight and Sound polls critics, programmers, curators, archivists and academics, asking them to submit their top ten films ballot. From these ballots a Top 100 Films Of All Time list is assembled. Here is Sight and Sound's 2022 list. https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/greatest-films-all-time. As I browsed the Sight and Sound list I saved some titles to my Criterion account and Kanopy (that's the streaming service available through my library). Some I haven't seen, some I watched long ago and felt it was time for another viewing. - Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles - Persona - Cléo from 5 to 7 - Daisies - Bicycle Thieves - Stalker - Wanda - Ali: Fear Eats the Soul - The Gleaners and I - The Red Shoes - Portrait of a Lady on Fire - Killer of Sheep - Sherlock Jr.  

  Find the secrets to our family's home cooking on the Hinko Family Recipes blog.       Hombre Secreto

      Downtown Madison Wisconsin, Friday, January 6 2023  

  Lake Mendota, Madison Wisconsin, December 29, 2022