María Paz Moreno's 'Madrid: A Culinary History' (2018)

María Paz Moreno, Madrid: A Culinary History (Big City Food Biography Series). Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2018.

"Matrice, Mayrit, Magerit, Madrid. The city's many names over the centuries bear witness to its long history and rich cultural heritage. Madrid has seen a fascinating succession of peoples come and go, from prehistoric inhabitants to Iberians, Celts, Greeks, Romans, Visigoths, Moors, and Christians." (page 7).

"'[M]uch of what we think of today as being typically Spanish were, in fact, the staples of the Roman diet. Bread, cheese, olives, and olive oil, wine, and roasted meat . . . were the standard fare of the Roman soldiers in Hispania.'" (page 13).

Jewish and Islamic cuisine has survived, also, despite the expulsions from 1492 onward. "[T]he use of mint and spices such as saffron - an essential ingredient to paella, the iconic Spanish dish -- cinnamon, cumin, coriander, and caraway is common in many Spanish recipes and reflects a distinctly Arab touch." (page 22).

Moreno's progression through Madrid's food history is fascinating and hunger-inducing. She discusses cookbooks written over the centuries, tabernas, fondas, tapas, the impact of war, mercados, recipes and various eateries and marketplaces that are still operating after one or two hundred years - astonishing. 

The Big City Food Biography Series looks to be rewarding in the spirit of Anthony Bourdain. There's already a baker's dozen of these either already available or soon to be published, ranging from food biographies of New Orleans, San Francisco, New York City and Paris to upcoming tomes on Tapei and Seattle. 

P.S. "María Paz Moreno es poeta, ensayista y crítica literaria." See her website here.

Today's Rune: Strength. 

'Wild Wild Country" (2018): One Wild Nutty Ride

Wild Wild Country (2018): "A Netflix Original Documentary Series" in six parts (so far). Set mostly in the 1980s and the nearer past, it's a dazzling, freaky kaleidoscope swirling with the cult of personality, tipped elections, conspiracy, challenges to the separation of church and state, surveillance, immigration themes, homeless people, cuisine, religion, G-men and semi-automatic weapons. What a show -- and how pertinent to our current Trump show!  Imagine the Branch Davidians and Jonestown on a large, international scale, making it successfully. Are you ready? Think Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, the 700 Club and the PTL -- Praise the Lord aka "Pass the Loot" -- Club, armed to the teeth and ready to rumble.     

Wild Wild Country: the Eyes of Texas are Upon You. Or more accurately, the Eyes of Oregon and India are Upon Each Other. "You can't make this shite up."

For all these years I've had this snapshot of a restaurant sign in Copenhagen, Denmark, loving its name: "Zorba the Buddha."  Not until I saw Wild Wild Country did I realize that this was part of the Rajneesh movement -- even though it clearly reads just below the name: "RAJNEESH RESTAURANT." Location in 1983: Strøget, Frederiksberggade 15, København 1459. Suggesting once again that everything is connected to everything else in the grand scheme of things.

Today's Rune: Breakthrough. 

Roberto Rossellini: 'The Flowers of St. Francis' / 'Francesco, giullare di Dio' (1950)

Roberto Rossellini's The Flowers of St. Francis / Francesco, giullare di Dio (1950). Vignettes of the original Franciscans, played by real Franciscan monks, with a medieval feel, beyond normal time, in black and white. This is the kind of little gem of a movie that distinguishes cinema from books as an art form.

Federico Fellini co-wrote the minimalist script, which is more evident in some of the chapters than others. 

San Francesco d'Assisi / Saint Francis of Assisi lived from about 1181 to 1226 A.D. 

The main cook for the early Franciscans was Fra Ginepro / Brother Juniper, who died in 1258 A.D. He was a bit of a "jester." 

Here, Franciscans spread a feeling of peace in the village, near the end of the film. They also redistribute food to the hungry. 

St. Francis and St. Clare at St. Mary of the Angels. Santa Chiara d'Assisi / Saint Clare of Assisi lived from 1194 to 1253 A.D. 

This memorable film provides an alternative to the many human-directed miseries already wrought in the 21st century. The Criterion Collection package includes extra interviews. Isabella Rossellini (born 1952), daughter of Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini, provides impressive insight in one of them.  

Today's Rune: Partnership. 

Jim Robbins, 'The Wonder of Birds' (2017)

Jim Robbins, The Wonder of Birds: What They Tell Us About Ourselves, the World, and a Better Future. New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2017.

This is a fun, interesting and thought-provoking read. You can catch bits and pieces of similar thoughts and developments related to birds in news outlets and specialized journals, but it's helpful to have a bunch of them concentrated and reviewed in one place. 

I knew from previous reading that crows are smart, but there's always more to ponder. For instance: "It depends on how you define it, but the most intelligent corvid could be the New Caledonian crow, which is also in the running for the smartest animal on the planet." (page 155). It's funny, because a few days after reading the section on crows, while I was at a red traffic light, I looked over and saw a crow in the median, holding with one foot half a muffin, still partially wrapped in paper; while with the other foot, said crow pushed the paper off, so as to get at the delectable morsel inside. Groovy, man! All before the next green light. 

In any case, Robbins gets into migrations (what do they mean? How do they work? How is human activity disrupting patterns and habitat?); ideas like "emergence" and "murmurations" (mass avian spiral patterns) and neurogenesis (regeneration of thinking bits), theory of mind (being able to suss out other creatures' desires, &c.), chronesthesia (mental projection through space and time) and panpsychism; and sudden species collapse (such as of the passenger pigeon). 

The Wonder of Birds contains a lot of big ideas, and many specific examples of bird types and behavior, plus much about the positive impact of birds biologically and culturally.

Only in his consideration of cities / urban areas does Robbins step into weirdville: Tesla and pigeons, social work with eagles and other bizarro tales. 

I think that if Robbins has a blind spot, it's in "pigeonholing" cities, reducing them to one imagined uniform place where people are so "hyper-focused" that they barely realize the presence of birds, &c.  

Because there are many varieties of urban spaces, depending on geography, population size and density, planning, presence of nature preserves, cultural attitudes, historical factors and everything in between. One thing I can assure him: I've never been to a single city anywhere in the world that only contains pigeons.

Other than this urban quibble, I'm good with The Wonder of Birds; certainly I'm an advocate for the book and for birds and sustainable ecosystems. Essential to the future, given the outlook: "Temperatures and ocean levels, already on the rise, will increase further as the climate changes . . . more, and more immense, hurricanes and other storms, withering drought, punishing floods, and destructive winds." (page [297]).

And don't forget the hummingbirds! From what I've seen, they're very competitive, and I can often  pick one out in a tree, placed for optimum interception of other hummingbirds, sometimes chirping out a sort of tiny, fast Morse Code. 

Today's Rune: Movement. 

Banana Yoshimoto: 'Kitchen' (1988, 1993)

Going though books discarded by the library, I've been sampling a variety of works that I otherwise may not have discovered anytime soon. One of them is Banana Yoshimoto's Kitchen, translated from the Japanese by Megan Backus (New York: Grove Press, 1993; originally published in 1988), which includes "Moonlight Shadow."  These are quick reads that update, in a way, the superb social films of Yasujirō Ozu (1903-1963) and Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998). 

Yoshimoto (born in 1964), like Ozu and Kurosawa, takes a close look at the fabric of a society under pressure. Though they are all three of them observing people through the scrim of Japanese culture, their tales have universal relevance. Changes -- whether brought about by the devastation of atomic disaster (Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Fukushima), earthquake, flood, fire, occupation, technology, demographics, or Westernized economic systems -- have led to the disintegration of traditional structures. Family systems crumble or evolve, as does civil society. 

More recently, the United States has moved into similar territory, and so all of these Japanese artists can communicate to distraught Americans.

In Kitchen, Mikage, the lead character, has lost her parents and, most recently, her grandmother, and she has no siblings. She is taken in by Yuichi, a fellow who knew her grandmother, and by Yuichi's transgender mother, Eriko. Though Mikage never entirely shakes off her depression, she does take some satisfaction in cooking. However, this is played out in a low-key, non-Hollywood manner. There have been Asian, but not American, movie adaptations.

"Moonlight Shadow" is a very streamlined tale of loss and survival, also, revolving around dead and living characters. The latter are Satsuki (the main protagonist), Hiraji, and Urara. In this one, there are surreal elements (think Twin Peaks) involving a bell, a bridge, a dress and the "Weaver Festival Phenomenon."  

Banana Yoshimoto is now on my radar. Her artistic approach can be reflected back to the corresponding concerns of master filmmakers Ozu and Kurosawa, and forward into the unknown. 

Today's Rune: Signals. 

Monique Truong's 'The Book of Salt:' Take Two

Monique Truong's The Book of Salt (2003, 2004): a few pinches more.

“’I left Vietnam when I was twenty-two,’” said the man whose eyes were again back on the Seine. ‘I haven’t been back since.’ His voice trailed off, his words taking a quiet leap into the water below" (pages 91-92).  

Exile. Hasn't been back since. Because he can't, because of the danger or expense, or because he chooses not to? Questions for all exiles, expatriates, refugees and immigrants. In this case, the scene is from a bridge over the River Seine in Paris. 

“'He will always cook from all the places where he has been. It is his way of remembering the world'” (page 99). Sounds like a good idea to me.

“Men, believe me, are fragile in unexpected ways. Weak is another way of putting it” (page 125). 

“She is French, after all. Madame is a snob but not a prude” (page 132). 

“They promised her the words to an opera and the history of everyone who has ever lived” (page 181). 

“. . . the first thing Miss Toklas asked me was whether I had a recipe for gazpacho.

‘Yes.’

‘Did you learn it in Spain?’

‘No.’

‘Then it is best to forget it.’

‘Oh'" (page 211). 

Today's Rune: Signals.

Monique Truong's 'The Book of Salt:' Take One

Monique Truong's The Book of Salt (2003, 2004) takes her readers into the 1920s and 1930s milieu of French Indochina (Indochine française) and France through the eyes of a gay Vietnamese cook working in three spheres: the Governor-General's house, on board ocean-crossing ships, and in the service of two Americans-in-France -- Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. A novel that is both absorbing and consciousness-raising, The Book of Salt delivers.

Truong writes in vivid detail of both food and social relationships. We see Binh's family system (particularly his place in relation to his father, mother, and brother Minh), Binh's friendships with fellow travelers, and his arc of time working for the intense and fussy Stein and Toklas.  

Several characters tell stories, usually short ones, throughout the novel, with Binh commenting upon their style and manner. "That, for Bão, was of course the whole point of telling the basket weaver’s story. No matter who else may be present, Bão was the hero in all of his stories" (page 56). Don't we all know storytellers who put themselves in the starring role as hero?

Binh enjoyed, as a kid, his mother's creativity in storytelling; her tales rarely remained the same over time:  “While my mother’s hands followed a set routine, her stories never did. They were free to roam, to consider alternative routes, to invent their own ways home, especially in the retelling" (page 81). And: "For my mother and me, the story of Father Augustine was like any other, a thing to be repeated and retold. A story, after all, is best when shared, a gift in the truest sense of the word" (page 165). The Book of Salt is such a gift. 

Today's Rune: Signals. 

Raoul Ruiz: 'Le temps retrouvé, d'après l'oeuvre de Marcel Proust' (1999) - Take II

In this second post inspired by Raoul Ruiz's beautiful film Le temps retrouvé, d'après l'oeuvre de Marcel Proust / Marcel Proust's Time Regained (1999), I want only to make three points.

First, Marcel's biggest epiphany comes in the library of the Guermantes (la bibliothèque du prince de Guermantes). Thus, the key in understanding Proust is The Library! 

(Indeed, any good library contains a multitude of magical powers, and its contents sure to startle you with intense memories from time to time. You may recall that in Andrei Tarkovsky's Солярис / Solaris (1972), the space station library plays a similarly important role in triggering both alien and human epiphanies -- and for even experiencing zero gravity.) 

Second, in addition to Raoul Ruiz's work, there are two other very good films based on Proust that I have seen: Percy Adlon's Céleste (1982) and Volker Schlöndorff's Un amour de Swann / Swann in Love (1984). These films, combined with Proust the actual person and the writings (texts) of Proust, all serve to illuminate each other from different angles. 

Third, while in the past, upon my early reading of it, I surely caught many of the poignant elements in Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu / Remembrance of Things Past / In Search of Lost Time, but over time, and more and more in time -- thanks in part to Raoul Ruiz's Time Regained -- I am really digging the many subtly comic elements in Proust. . . those even beyond the already observed satirical mockery of socio-economic class distinctions and the foibles of social interaction. 

In the Ruiz movie, Marcello Mazzarella plays Marcel in a way that reminds me a lot of Peter Sellers -- a masterful blend of the Peter Sellers we see in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), the Pink Panther movies, and, as Chance the Gardner (aka Chauncey Gardiner), in Being There (1979). 

Look for the comical and you will see it, for surely it's better to laugh than to cry -- more fun, at any rate.    

Today's Rune: Partnership.

In Praise of Limes and Lemons

If you were to compare lemons and limes, limes and lemons, what would you say?

Limes are lime green, lemons are lemon yellow.

Lemons have seeds, limes don't (with exceptions like the Key lime variety).

Lemons and limes can be mixed, combined together to juice up a gin and tonic, for example.

The lime (lima in Spanish, like the capital of Peru) originates from Persia (Iran) and Iraq, but is now grown in various places around the world, including Mexico and the USA.

The lemon (limone in Spanish) originates from China, India and in between, and is also now grown in various other places, including North America.

Lemons tend to be larger than limes -- though such is not the case in the ones I recently purchased (pictured above), thanks in part to drought.

If something is a dud, it's sometimes called a lemon, but not a lime. Why? I don't know and am too lazy to look it up at this juncture. Do you know?

Personally, I like lemons and limes, with a tilt to the lime for its zestier pop to the taste buds.

Sometimes on a hot night, I love to squeeze lime juice into a tall mug or glass filled with Cerveza Modelo Especial, the rather sharp, thirst-quenching Mexican lager. (A bottle's worth delivers about 145 calories, by the way).

If the limes run out, lemon juice alone or even a little lemonade can be mixed with just about any lager to make a shandy or panache, though for me, a little added lemon juice goes a long way. Limes are better. 

Today's Rune: Wholeness. 

In Praise of Olive Oil

Olive oil is one of the great joys in life, never to be taken for granted. I purchased these 500 millilitre glass bottles of Terra Delyssa Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Tunisia for $6.99 apiece.

Why Terra Delyssa? It's got everything I want in a bottle of olive oil:

It's USDA-certified organic.

It's date stamped (the olive oil in these bottles was cold-pressed on January 2, 2014, with a suggested expiry date of January 1, 2016. Lot 024).

Glass bottles and excellent design.

Tasty -- slightly peppery, spicy and fresh.      

Reasonable price (compare with one "meal" at a "fast food" joint).

Web site with lots of information and ideas <here.>

This one's a winner. Please feel free to add additional suggestions - always welcomed. Calories in olive oil - about forty per teaspoon, so consume reasonably. Can also be used as a skin and hair product. Long live olive oil!

Today's Rune: The Mystery Rune. 

Madrid: Day and Night

Energetic chef at Cafetería-Restaurante ~ Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, June 2014.


















Pensive woman drinking coffee.

Cafetería ~ Dixie Bar ~ Restaurante.

Zumos 100% NATURAL. Something seems askew with this image, like a Dutch angle ~ in Spain.

Today's Rune: Wholeness. 

Madrid: La Oreja de Jaime

La Oreja de Jaime, Calle de la Cruz 15 (very near its V intersection with Calle de la Victoria), Madrid, España. Here: a basket of Galician green peppers ~ pimientos de Padrón.

La Oreja de Jaime in the mirror. I love this place. It's got a cool energy, it's small, the food is real tasty and the wine's easy to like, too. What's not to love? 

La Oreja de Jaime is so groovy a place we ate here again, a few days after the first sampling of tapas. The skewers of spiced meats are excellent; I also liked these oiled mushroom tops adorned with what appear to be scampi; additionally, there are enough types of ham and pigs' ear type things for any taste so suited, as well as other choices of tapas.

I love the Pimientos de Padrón almost beyond belief, given the nature of green peppers. I mean, peppers? Hell, yeah ~ !

We first tried La Oreja de Jaime because of a nifty take on it by Rick Steves (in his Spain 2014 travel book), and because of its name association with two of my siblings (Victoria aka Vickie and Jamie, here spelled Jaime). Plus, it's an easy walk from Puerta del Sol by way of a short scenic (several additional eateries and bars to see) route. 

God willing, I'll be back. In the meantime, where can I find some more of those good peppers?

Today's Rune: Partnership.

Long Has Paled That Sunny Sky

When I was a kid, there were eateries that are now gone, or long gone from the way they were. On AMC's Mad Men this season, Burger Chef is big -- it's 1969, okay? All across the USA . . .

From the 1970s, I recall going with friends and family upon occasion to Howard Johnson's (which had places strategically dotting the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and just off I-85 in Durham, North Carolina, near my Dad's office). And also we went once in a while out to Lum's, Pappy's or Shakey's. 

In the interest of heading off cultural amnesia, there's a start. (Click on any of these images to see the full menu).

The Lum's menu included this: large frosted schooners of dark Ballentine beer  -- fifty cents. 

In 1978 in the USA, the minimum wage was set at $2.65 per hour, which is equivalent as of this post to about $7.60 per hour in 2014. That's the weirdness that is inflation through time's looking glass. 

Lum's famous hot dog steamed in beer with sherry flavored sauerkraut -- thirty-five cents. Yum, yum.

"It's A-Delish!" Pappy's bill of fare features its own T-bone steak platter for $3.75! And lots of "fresh dough pizza." A small "Woiks" pizza, "Your Heart's Desire -- the Kitchen Sink" -- $2.30.

Let's not forget Shakey's, either. A pitcher of generic beer for $1.50. A bottle of Carta Blanca for fifty cents. "Louisiana Shrimp," "Portuguese Linguica" or "Mexican Sausage" (Chorizo) -- single ten inch pizzas for $1.80. Woohoo! "No extra charge for take-out orders." Mad merriment, indeed.

What else you gots out there in the memory noodle? 

"Long has paled that sunny sky." -- Lewis Carroll.

Today's Rune: Protection.   

The Mystery of the Fortune Cookie

This has got to be one of the greatest fortune cookie readings ever: "Love because it is the only true adventure." Excellent!

A little research reveals the most probable source for this particular fortune: Nikki Giovanni (b. 1943). I found a reference to the original one-word longer sentence, from which this is derived, dating back to at least 1981.  

As for the design of the modern fortune cookie, it seems to date back about a hundred years, and to within the USA -- probably in California, but Brooklyn has a traceable history of fortune cookie production going back quite a little ways, too. 

Do you have a fortune cookie ritual? Must you eat the whole thing to "make it so?"  And, what else about fortune cookies, if anything, inspires your imagination?

Today's Rune: Signals.   

Wong Kar-wai: In the Mood for Love (2000)

With Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love / 花樣年華 (2000), one is bestowed a vision of a way of life in 1962-1963 Hong Kong -- sort of like a miniature Hong Kong Mad Men. Luxuriate in excellent attire, slow-moving scenes, morsels of food, smoking and social mores played out in mostly tight spaces. It's a gorgeous film.  And it's a sort of homage in the use of color and camera to a Jean-Luc Godard film of the actual 1962-1963 time frame -- such as Godard's Le Mépris (1963). The marriage of music, camera movement and scene approaches perfection.   

In the Mood for Love focuses on the strange friendship and understated romance of Mr. Chow (Tony Leung) and Mrs. Chan (Maggie Cheung). We hear but never see in full Mrs. Chow or Mr. Chan -- they in turn are too busy "seeing" each other offscreen. We do see, partly for comic relief, co-workers and fellow apartment dwellers ranging from Mrs. Suen (Rebecca Pan) and Mr. Koo (Chan Man-Lei), who is often drunk, to Mr. Ho (Lai Chen), who has a wife and a girlfriend competing for his time away from work.  

Today's Rune: Journey. 

Row Your Boat

This is the "La Chalupa" Lotería card. Rema rema va Lupita, sentada en su chalupita. 

El juego de la lotería is hundreds of years old. How cool is that? 

La chalupa rema y rema se va para Xochimilco.

"Row, Row, Row Your Boat" seems to date back to around the time of the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). It was certainly in printed circulation by the 1850s. Sung or read aloud or in silence, this little ditty sounds like pure existential philosophy. It can be taken as sweet, eerie, surreal or as a blend.   

Consider variations. Take, for instance, Lewis Carroll's lines from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ("A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky"), published in 1865: 

Still she haunts me, phantomwise,
Alice moving under skies
Never seen by waking eyes.

Or take the chalupa as a vessel for delivering food. 

Fry up some tortilla masa; fold in little goodies like minced onions and shredded meat of some kind; add a touch of salsa de tomate verde (green sauce). Let it cool just enough to make the journey from desire to fulfillment. Yum, yum, yum, yum!

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream.

Today's Rune: Wholeness.  

Mike Leigh: Life Is Sweet

Mike Leigh is an odd one. I go back to his films from time to time for more hidden gems. Fortunately, the Criterion Collection recently re-released Leigh's Life Is Sweet / Life is Sweet, which I hadn't before seen again since it came out in 1990 (UK) / 1991 (USA). 

Leigh's style is an unforgettable combination of totally low-key and seemingly over-the-top. People are like real people in real situations, some of them slightly odd, most of them microcosms of entire lifetimes. 

Hard to believe that no one else thought to call a movie Life is Sweet, eh? Somebody had to do it . . . 

The soundtrack and Édith Piaf tend to stick in the head over the years as much as the characters.  

Which reminds me, the US Post Office is selling combo sheets of Édith Piaf and Miles Davis stamps. Get 'em while they last! Life is sweet!

Today's Rune: Fertility.       

Near Southside Cityscapes

I'm impressed with all the good things happening in many areas of Fort Worth. For this post, let's consider the vantage point from one small area of the Near Southside right around the Magnolia and Lipscomb intersection. This shot is from the open terrace (if that's what it's called) deck atop the Live Oak Music Hall & Lounge at 1311 Lipscomb Street. Fantastic -- and the venue is open until 2 a.m. most nights, with a lively variety of eclectic food (including vegetarian) and drink choices. Upcoming acts include Joe Ely and Ramblin' Jack Elliott. To the immediate front is the recently opened Ryan's Fine Grocer and Delicatessen at 815 West Magnolia Avenue. Nice, sharp design from every angle.

Here's the "runner" along Ryan's Lipscomb Street side, aiming toward Magnolia. Ryan's, like the Live Oak, is open seven days a week at the time of this posting. I love it and will return shortly!

     
Here's the corner of Ryan's as it comes up to Magnolia. Look at the eclectic details -- a nifty combo of historical and contemporary touches.

That's Ryan's off to the right. Here, behind one of many benches along Magnolia Avenue, is a bike rental stand. How cool is that?  Note solar panel facing skyward. These kinds of upgrades are coming at a fast pace in Fort Worth and I applaud them heartily.

Today's Rune: Wholeness.  

A Man Called Horse

Last time I saw Elliot Silverstein's A Man Called Horse (1970), I was a little kid -- and I loved it. This time, turns out I still love it!  This movie does well in bringing its audience into the reconstructed world of the Sioux before the "Plains Wars."  By observing the representatives of three worlds (Anglo-American, Sioux and French or First Nation/French Canadian) in action together, we can see cross-culturally, like anthropologists. A Man Called Horse is a sort of hybrid cultural achievement in its own right, in that the Sioux are the main players, but two characters, John Morgan (Richard Harris) and Batise (Jean Gascon) open up a "dialogue" for non-Sioux viewers. I love in particular that the oft-spoken Sioux is not translated, so Morgan must try to figure out what is meant (with the help of Batise, usually). Some of the later plot points in the film are skewed and unfortunate, but overall, this is a cool flick, released within days of the very first Earth Day.

Rosebud Sioux were employed in the film. Shoshone parties are introduced as "natural enemies" of the Sioux, and there is no US military presence in the area during the events depicted.

Clyde D. Dollar served as history liaison. His papers are in the Archives of the University of Central Arkansas, 201 Donaghey Ave., Conway, AR  72035.  I'd love to peruse them. One file is called '“Hollywood and Its Indians: The Story of the Making of the Film A Man Called Horse,” by Clyde D. Dollar, 1971.'  Looks like he did a lot of historical and archaeological surveys and oral histories in Arkansas and elsewhere. For more about what's in his papers, here's a link: http://uca.edu/archives/m91-17-clyde-d-dollar-collection/ 

Today's Rune: Gateway.