Sybil Bruncheon's "Christmases That Mostly WEREN'T!"... Food! Glorious FOOD!...

When the Recession hit, many families had to go without Christmas presents... and even dinner. Daddies explained to their children (often while the Daddies cried or banged their hands on the table!) what a Recession was, and how it wasn't as bad as a Depression, but still...!!

That's when a grocery store nearby would ask a local wax-dummy maker to design a fake turkey to be driven from house to house at Holiday time. It only cost $5.00 to rent the wax-dummy turkey for ten minutes, and then off it would go to the Fergusons, the Baxters, or the nice old lady with all the cats on the corner of Elco and Fairfield...

And that's when Mother would come in and say that even though we didn't have turkey, good little children should eat 20 or so rolls... with lard... and not complain...

[Want to read other stories here on SybilSez.com? Just enter any topic that pops into your head in the "search" window on the upper right! Who knows what might come up?...and feel free to share them with your friends!]

*Tour-ette in Suburbia!... a patio grill is definitely "drinking the Kool-aid!". (part 1) 7/14/2022

[Want to see other videos or read other fun and funny stories here on SybilSez.com? Just enter any topic that pops into your head in the "search" window on the upper right! Who knows what might come up?...and feel free to share them with your friends!]

*Tour-ette in Suburbia! A patio grill is definitely "drinking the Kool-aid!" (part 2) 7/14/2022

[Want to see other videos or read other fun and funny stories here on SybilSez.com? Just enter any topic that pops into your head in the "search" window on the upper right! Who knows what might come up?...and feel free to share them with your friends!]

*Tour-ette from Wegmans in the fresh produce department with... um... God knows what!!!

[Want to see other videos or read other fun and funny stories here on SybilSez.com? Just enter any topic that pops into your head in the "search" window on the upper right! Who knows what might come up?...and feel free to share them with your friends!]

Sybil Bruncheon's "True Crime Confidential!"... Cruel & Inedible Punishment...

It has just been revealed through recently discovered files that America's justice system may have been involved in brutal, even barbaric experimentation in its prisons. Death penalty controversies have been a hot topic ever since the first implementation of the electric chair back in 1890. The arguments both for and against hanging, the gas chamber, the electric chair, and the firing squad have gone on and on... and people have argued as to why the method of execution should be humane at all. After all, weren't the victims of murder killed horribly, perhaps after an extended time of fear and torture. Why should a murderer be treated with any respect or consideration at all?

But now, it was revealed that the more blood-thirsty of the legal authorities and death penalty proponents actually proposed another more terrifying method... the use of Spam and Jello. Instead of a "final request meal" of the prisoner's choice being given to the condemned, they would be force-fed a hideous recipe from the Ladies' Luncheon chapter of the Pillsbury Happy Homemakers Cook Book, or a Perky Picnic Party Treat from Betty Crocker. Additional ingredients in various recipes included, carrot shavings, celery bits, mini-marshmallows, assorted seeds and nuts, slivers of cabbage slaw, and bits of cold cuts, olives, pineapple, cantaloupe, peppers, onions, gherkins both sweet or sour, and of various cheeses both imported and domestic. Layering with mayonnaise was an additional option... along with garnishes of ice berg lettuce.

On the day of execution, the convicted man (or woman!) would be escorted to the death chamber. He would be surrounded by witnesses and reporters seated at small café tables, perhaps with little bud-vases or votive candles. But he might be filled with terror at the first sight of the hideous dish even as it was wheeled into the death cell by the prison chef and the wait-staff. Often the prisoners would beg, bargain, or plead, shrieking in terror and praying as they were dragged over to the small enamel table on its squeaky iron wheels. Then the bent prison-issue fork would be wedged into the condemned's trembling hands and the death-napkin tucked under his gibbering chin. It might take four or five burly guards to subdue him and force him to take the first mouthful... oh, horrible! HORRIBLE!... the drooled chewing, the reluctant swallowing, the mumbled gagging, or the gagging mumbles... whatever... only to be followed again and again... and again... until finally... the struggling and the whimpering... stopped. Silence. And the death chamber looking like a sweet little restaurant, perhaps in Greenwich Village or in a charming little back-alley in Poka-Ma-Hola, Idaho.... except with a gurney, a medical examiner, and a body slumped over at table 13... with a heart-shaped and quivering, nearly finished Be-My-Valentine Egg & Spam Surprise.

[Want to read other fun and funny stories here on SybilSez.com? Just enter any topic that pops into your head in the "search" window on the upper right! Who knows what might come up?...and feel free to share them with your friends!]

Sybil Bruncheon's "Didja Know???"...

Tragically, it was discovered that these were also used by a do-it-yourself mohel at bris ceremonies in Poka-Ma-Hola, Idaho. He had been watching episodes of THIS OLD HOUSE, and was bored with his carpentry hobby...

[Want to read other stories here on SybilSez.com? Just enter any topic that pops into your head in the "search" window on the upper right! Who knows what might come up?...and feel free to share them with your friends!]

From “Sybil Bruncheon Plays With Her Food!”…. Chapter 14...

… apropos of Christmas, my cook, Hilda, and I learned from Escoffier that if there's ever an… um, “accident”... in the kitchen, one should quickly "incorporate" it into the meal and serve the results confidently... to the... uh, survivors. And remember!... a good sauce covers a multitude of sins!!... well, and maybe a festive little sprig of holly!

[Want to read other stories here on SybilSez.com? Just enter any topic that pops into your head in the "search" window on the upper right! Who knows what might come up?...and feel free to share them with your friends!]

Sybil Bruncheon's "Thanksgivings Past"... Eating on the run in 1968...

We have here an actual photo of Mrs. Helen Fobisher, a secretarial assistant at the General Motors showroom on West 57th Street in Manhattan during Thanksgiving week. Mrs. Fobisher had been with the company for just seven years (right out of college!), and in addition to her meticulous work habits, she also exhibited an extraordinary talent for innovation and, dare we say it, INVENTION!

Seen here is Helen in her "Disco-Desk", a one-piece piece of office furniture that allowed people to sit at their desks in perfect comfort without the trouble of pulling up a chair. And concealed in the space-age polymer-structure of the desk-top was a hot-plate food-prep unit which made it possible to simply press a few buttons, and have your lunch appear right in front of you... without interrupting your work-day! Talk about modern convenience and efficiency!! No more wasted time standing in line in the cafeteria or waiting at the corner deli for a hot corned beef sandwich that would be totally cold by the time you got back to the office. The Disco-Desk offered a fairly comprehensive menu of standard American work-day lunch-fare; the sort of food and refreshments that one would expect on an average weekday, Monday through Friday, nine to five! Certainly nothing too exotic, and definitely nothing French!

And wasn’t Helen lucky? Her bosses at GM were so impressed with her Disco-Desk, they bought her designs and patent as a surprise to her right before Thanksgiving! What a way to celebrate the Holiday season, huh? Interestingly, the New Products Division decided that instead of using Helen’s Disco-Desk for the office, they would install a small motor and four swivel casters and sell the desk as a futuristic bumper car at Coney Island. It was called the George Jetson Jalopy… it was a tremendous failure.

[Want to read other stories here on SybilSez.com? Just enter any topic that pops into your head in the "search" window on the upper right! Who knows what might come up?...and feel free to share them with your friends!]

Sybil Bruncheon's "Thanksgivings Past"... It's In The Mail!

This particular card is part of the Harburton Holiday Greeting Card Collections... This Thanksgiving card was painted by Siglitz Bünter using his own children Kåaren and Biff as models. This is the third in the series showing scenes from a typical Thanksgiving in 1905 America; In card #1 the children welcome their parents and relatives to the barnyard to select a turkey. 2) The unchaperoned children play tricks on the turkey and try to engage it in mischief before it's killed for Mother. 3) The turkey realizes what is about to happen and turns on the children who are out of earshot of the adults. ...and 4) The enraged turkey pecks out the eyes of Kåaren and pushes her down a well. It then tears Biff to pieces and eats some of them while other barnyard animals gather to clap and laugh...

Needless to say, although they were wildly popular at the time, a complete set of the Siglitz Bünter cards is extremely rare to find today. Sotheby's auctioned a complete set in 1998 for $36,000 even though cards 3 and 4 were strangely stained... and stuck together.

(with thanks to Bob Gutowski for the image)

[Want to read other stories here on SybilSez.com? Just enter any topic that pops into your head in the "search" window on the upper right! Who knows what might come up?...and feel free to share them with your friends!]

From “Sybil Bruncheon Plays With Her Food!”… Chapter 14...

… apropos of Thanksgiving, my cook, Hilda, and I learned from Escoffier that if there's ever an… um, “accident”... in the kitchen, one should quickly "incorporate" it into the meal and serve the results confidently... to the... uh, survivors. And remember!... a good sauce covers a multitude of sins!!

[Want to read other stories here on SybilSez.com? Just enter any topic that pops into your head in the "search" window on the upper right! Who knows what might come up?...and feel free to share them with your friends!]