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Local author Maggie Hall
takes the lid off Britain’s
favorite toast topper. |
Ode to ‘Tar in a Jar’
Got Marmite? Maggie Hall does. A self-avowed fan of the spreadable yeast extract, the Hill writer falls squarely in the former camp of the company’s “Love It or Hate It” advertising campaign. Of course, it helps that she’s British by birth. “The thought of it, the smell of it, the taste of it, strike physical and mental chords that delve deep back into childhood,” she writes. Her rapture over England’s favorite comfort food is now contained (barely) in a delightfully eccentric new book called “The Mish-Mash Dictionary of Marmite: An Anecdotal A-Z of ‘Tar in a Jar’.”
Hall, who divides her time between Capitol Hill and Yorkshire, began chewing on the idea of a book back in 1997. Nobody else at the time, however, shared her passion for “the black goo.” “One leading publisher turned down my proposal because there was no sex in it,” she writes. But a dozen years later, she finds that her idea is now “all the rage” — to such a degree that she “was barely able to get a glimpse into the official Marmite world.” So Hall decided to go the unofficial route and “as a result … I uncovered the most amazing, zany, interesting, erudite, amusing, stupid gems of information.” She even found a little bit of sex.
A former Fleet Street reporter, Hall brings all her investigative skills to bear on the little jar with the yellow lid. Woven through “The Mish-Mash Dictionary” is an engaging history of how this “beer sludge” came to fruition as a toast spread in the early 20th century and how it has evolved in the decades since.
Not content with desk research, she trudges to the Marmite factory in Burton-on-Trent and is dismayed to find that this national treasure receives “scant attention” in the town. “No, love,” the nonplussed guard at the security gate tells her. “You’re the first I’ve known to be interested in that way.”
She interviews numerous sources, including British cricketer Dickie Bird, whose printed endorsement appears on a Marmite jar. “I never have it,” he confesses, before realizing on which side his bread is buttered. “Well … now and then …,” he amends.
And from the British culinary tradition that brought you toad in the hole and spotted dick, she unearths a variety of Marmite-inspired dishes. How about a yeasty birthday cake, mock crab sandwiches or Marmite truffles? Not tempted? Then consider the health benefits. According to Hall, Marmite has been touted as a treatment for boils and acne, as a hair restorer, and as a boon to those with gout and dysentery. Claims have also been made for its properties as a hangover cure and mosquito repellant. Prince Charles is said to love it. And ferrets are so fond of the stuff that it’s a staple at English ferret-racing venues.
Hall’s exuberance for her subject is downright contagious. Meaning, yes, I went out and bought a jar. However, having once ruined a perfectly good piece of toast by smearing it with Vegemite (Marmite’s Australian cousin), I’m wary of the direct approach. So I was encouraged to read that a top London chef cites Marmite as one of his favorite seasonings for stews and ragouts. He claims that it lends food that mysterious “wow” factor that the Japanese call umami. I’m game. But if I still end up on the “hate it” side, well, two members of our household will be very happy. Hall reports that cats are crazy for Marmite.
Maggie Hall will be at the Kenneth Nash Post of the American Legion, Third and D streets SE, Nov. 21, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Copies of the “The Mish-Mash Dictionary” – as well as Marmite on toast or bagels – will be available. The book may also be purchased through online booksellers and at Marvelous Market (303 Seventh St. SE), which has laid in a stock of Marmite as well. Hall can be reached at mishmashmarmite@aol.com.
The Essential Herblock
Like Bono and Madonna, he needed only one name. The iconic political cartoonist known as Herblock chronicled much of the 20th century in the inimitable style that won him three Pulitzer Prizes and countless fans. A new book, “Herblock: The Life and Work of the Great Political Cartoonist” by Haynes Johnson and Harry Katz, published to commemorate what would have been his 100th birthday, celebrates the talent and the humanity of the artist whom the Library of Congress named a “Living Legend.” The book includes essays and commentary that provide biographical information and historical context, as well as more than 250 cartoons plus a DVD with some 18,000 more; it is published in conjunction with a Library of Congress exhibition of more than 80 original drawings titled “Herblock!”
Herbert Block’s prodigious career spanned presidencies from Herbert Hoover to George W. Bush and covered some of the most definitive eras in US history. From 1929 until his death in 2001, he was the conscience of America, skewering Nazis, racists, crooked politicians and philistines of every stripe. A special place in Herblock hell was reserved for Senator Joseph McCarthy, for whom he coined the term that still symbolizes baseless fear-mongering couched in patriotism. A 1950 cartoon shows a group of conservative senators trying to force a recalcitrant Republican elephant atop a teetering pile of tar buckets with the oozing bucket at the top labeled “McCarthyism.”
Nor did Richard Nixon escape his pointed pen. Even before Watergate, a 1968 cartoon gave rise to the sentiment: “Would you buy a used car from this man?”
From the Great Depression and World War II, through the Cold War, Viet Nam and the Civil Rights era, right up to terrorism and corporate excess, Herblock zeroed in on “the political outrages and scandals that make us want to shout, ‘They can’t DO that!’ But here’s the non-rub,” he wrote, “I have my own reserved soapbox. I get to say it in published cartoons.” Thank goodness for us all that he did.
Haynes Johnson, co-author of “Herblock: The Life and Work of the Great Political Cartoonist,” appears at Politics & Prose, Nov. 12, 7 p.m. The “Herblock!” exhibition at the Library of Congress runs through May 1.
‘Angels in Fur’
Scotch was “a throwaway dog left to fend for himself on the mean streets of Phoenix.” Gina got dumped in the desert by an abusive owner. Bailey was flea-ridden and starving, the victim of an unscrupulous breeder. And local lawyer Diane Shust found Fred wandering around Garfield Park, “painfully thin and ragged, with large patches of exposed skin.” Who could resist? Clearly not Shust, who “immediately fell in love with the scruffy little dog.”
The dogs (and one cat) profiled in “To the Rescue: Found Dogs with a Mission” have overcome neglect, crippling injuries and close brushes with euthanasia. But their survival is only part of the story. Rescued from the brink, they have gone on to lead productive new lives as service animals. Scotch is now a member of Gabriel’s Angels, providing pet therapy for abused and at-risk children. Gina gives comfort to people in hospitals and assisted living homes. Bailey helped find victims of the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon. They are, as the owner of a dog who visits hospices attests, “angels in fur.”
Author Elise Lufkin interviewed more than four dozen pet owners for “To the Rescue,” with Diana Walker’s compelling photographs supplying the visuals. That’s Fred on the cover, surrounded by the students he visits as part of the Humane Society’s education program. “He loves being with the kids,” says Shust.
Fred’s story echoes that of many others, as summed up by one owner: “He is living proof that great animals are out there waiting to be rescued and given a second chance.”
Proceeds from the book will be donated to animal welfare organizations. For more information, visit www.founddogs.com. |
