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Tuesday, July 21, 2020
The Observer & Baker City Herald
BOB’S
THOUGHTS
A Sampling Of Scrumptious Recipes
BOB BAUM
Olympic
nuggets
from an
aging brain
The Tokyo Olympics would just be
getting under way this week had CO-
VID-19 not struck. Now they’re delayed
for a year.
And it goes without saying that the
Olympics are monstrous undertakings.
The last ones to break even were the
1984 Los Angeles Games, coinciden-
tally also the fi rst of the 10 Olympics I
had the great pleasure to cover.
What follows are a few behind-the-
scenes nuggets from the seven Sum-
mer Olympics I attended. I’m gonna
remember them while I still can.
Los Angeles, 1984
Los Angeles was a wonder for a
small-town guy suddenly thrust into
the heart of sport’s biggest stage. But
before I moved on to the centerpiece
event of track and fi eld, I covered
weightlifting (yeah, really). I knew
nothing about it but labored on.
See Olympics/Page 3B
BETWEEN
THE ROWS
WENDY SCHMIDT
The value
of a daily
garden tour
It’s amazing how much better things
do when you water them! For years
now I have suspected that the secret
to having a green thumb is simply re-
membering to water a little before the
plant goes into stress from thirst.
My persimmon tree was doing fi ne
and looked healthy. Then I watered it
and it looked more vibrant and grew
a lot of new leaves. It is good to make
daily garden rounds and critically
examine your plants. It’s not easy to
practice what I preach, but I’m getting
better, gradually.
Garden chores
•Apply fi nal treatment for borers on
hardwood trees.
• Divide and reset oriental poppies
after fl owering as the foliage dies
• Blossom-end rot of tomatoes and
peppers occurs when soil moisture is
uneven.
See Garden/Page 3B
Huy Mach/St. Louis Post-Dispatch-TNS
Halloween candy bark.
C HOCOLATE : I T ’ S T HE
U LTIMATE C OMFORT
“It was the only time in my life that choco-
late didn’t help,” she said.
Many years ago, before we ever started
And that was the moment I fell in love
dating, the woman who became my wife told with her.
me the tragic story of a horrible weekend
“Comfort me with apples,” says the Song of
conference.
Solomon and Ruth Reichl. They have a point.
She was a reporter at the time, and she
Food has the power to comfort and console. It
was sent to a journalism conference a couple wraps us in its warmth, it swathes us like an
of hundred miles away. She went with an-
old blanket.
other reporter from the same paper, and that
There is a reason they call it comfort food.
was the problem.
It brings us to a better and happier state of
This man was odd. He was very odd. Even mind.
among journalists, a profession that tends to
The woman in the Song of Solomon is
attract weirdos, deviants and social misfi ts,
lovesick; she seeks consolation in pressed
he was an oddball. We would get together in raisin cakes and apples. I appreciate the
little groups (weirdos in one corner, deviants sentiment, but I’m not entirely on board with
in another, social misfi ts in a third) and talk her choices.
about how strange he was.
When I was lovesick in my youth, my com-
And it wasn’t an endearing sort of oddness, fort foods were ice cream and Doritos, though
either. A lot of journalists have that. His was not at the same time. When I was lovesick as
the sort of annoying oddness that you did not an adult, my comfort foods were ice cream
want to be around for very long.
and alcohol. Sometimes at the same time.
Which brings us back to the long-ago
Doughnuts too, of course. Doughnuts are a
weekend my future wife spent with him at
constant. That’s the problem with not being
the conference. They were in each other’s
lovesick: not enough excuses to eat dough-
company for far longer than she liked. He
nuts.
was making her crazy.
We all have foods that we turn to in times
Then, a heavy mountaintop snowstorm on of sorrow and need. It’s why we bring food
their drive back delayed their return for one to people who are mourning. It’s why we try
more night. It was more than she could take. to cheer up friends by taking them out to
The next day, before they set out for the fi nal dinner.
leg of their trip, she decided to treat herself to
When I am beset by sadness, doughnuts
a badly needed hot fudge sundae.
do not make me feel all better, but they
By Daniel Neman
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
make me feel a little better. Or at least they
don’t make me feel worse. Perhaps a second
doughnut would help.
Chocolate always works for my wife and
a lot of other people I know. If I had known
enough to give more chocolate to more wom-
en, I might not have been lovesick as often.
And then I would have needed less ice cream.
But now, my wife admits, she is moving
away from her beloved chocolate. Her new
comfort food is salted caramel.
STRAWBERRY CHOCOLATE
TART
Yield: 8 servings
2 tablespoons whole almonds
2 tablespoons confectioners sugar
1 pinch salt
½ stick plus 2 tablespoons (6 tablespoons
total) unsalted butter, at room
temperature, cut into pieces, divided
3 eggs, divided
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose fl our
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
3 pounds fresh strawberries, washed
and trimmed, divided
½ cup granulated sugar
7 ounces bittersweet chocolate
½ cup heavy cream
See Chocolate/Page 2B
A mystery of history: The building at 1501 Madison
By Ginny Mammen
The name of the person who con-
structed the building at 1501 Madi-
son is a mystery, but most likely it
was built by Charles E. Harris, born
in 1891. His parents were Franklin
and Maria Harris, who had come to
Illinois from Canada.
When Charles was a very small
child the family moved to La
Grande where his father, known as
Frank the Art Man, established the
“Gift Shop” in downtown. In 1920
Charles was clerking in a local retail
art store which was about the time
Frank had sold his business to re-
turning soldier Harley Richardson.
Photo by Ashley O’Toole
Shortly after his father sold the
store, Charles turned cabinet maker, The ghost sign at 1501 Madison St. in La Grande.
becoming the proprietor of his own
shop called La Grande Construction windows as well as custom cabinets woman with two teenage children.
& Supply Co. at 1501 Madison. The for La Grande homes.
In less than 15 years Charles
shop provided screens for doors and
At age 34 he married Marie, a
was divorced and living with his
parents.
Sometime in the 1940s he re-
married and he and his new wife,
Lucille, settled into the house at
1505 Madison. No records were
found for children of Charles.
Charles lived a quiet life in La
Grande, unlike his father and
other men about town we have
learned about in previous articles.
He was a carpenter and a hard
worker who remodeled numerous
houses and downtown buildings. In
addition to his shop at 1501 Madi-
son he owned the building at the
corner of Greenwood and Jefferson.
D.D. Miller purchased this building
and moved his cabinet shop into it
in 1942.
An untimely end came for
Charles, age 59, in September of
1950. He was visiting with a couple
of neighbors in their backyard
and enjoying a bit too much wine.
Apparently another neighbor,
named Avery Green, who lived
across the back fence, came out to
pick cucumbers in his garden and
started using profane language.
What started as a verbal fi ght with
name-calling erupted into a full-
blown fi st fi ght that moved to the
front of the house where Charles
was knocked down and his head
hit the sidewalk. He was taken to
the hospital, where he died as a
result of a cerebral hemorrhage.
We would probably never have
learned of Charles E. Harris or
his untimely end if not for the
need to know about the ghost sign
appearing above the door at 1501
Madison. The ghost sign on the
Greenwood side of the building is
still one of history’s mysteries.
Keep looking up. Enjoy!