Author Archives: Eleanor Kuhns

About Eleanor Kuhns

Librarian and Writer Published A Simple Murder, May 2012

A new kitchen

Posted on by

I have heard it said that a kitchen is the heart of a house. I believe it. My kitchen is not only the heart metaphorically but also by location. Man, is it hard to live. The pantry where all our canned food is now stuffed and the slop sink (yes, the same slop sink I use for washing out dyes and other crafty things) is on the other side. The first day I did not realize I wouldn’t be able to get there. I had thought ahead somewhat; I had food, milk, juice etc for the babies. But I couldn’t get to my coffee pot Now we are talking a sacrifice. And there was no way to get a can of soup. So, after I fed the babies, I ate two handfuls of cocoa puffs. I hate cocoa puffs. To me they taste like chocolate flavored vitamins. I now have only a stove and a refrigerator.

kitchen floor

Plus, we of course hit a surprise. We’d hoped to reuse the floor. Do you see? They went around the cabinets. So now we have to choose and pay for flooring and it sets the project back a week.

. kitchen

Milk paint

Posted on by

Before we humans made paint with oil (or our modern latex), paint was made with a variety of ingredients. Paint has to have something that provides color like ochre or, during colonial times in the USA, brick dust, and a medium for the color that provides stability and hopefully durability. Egg yolks was at one time used for paint. Anyone who has tried to scrub hardened egg yolks off a plate knows that egg hardens to something like cement. But it does wash off in water.

Another substance used in paint was milk. Since most people lived on farms up until the present, milk was something readily obtainable. We know that milk paint was used. Occasionally antique furniture and old houses in this country are discovered to have been painted with milk paint.

However, the recipe for milk paint is very important. In 1801 a French artist described painting with a milk paint and wrote that it was not durable. Among other things, it came off with the slightest friction (Don’t ever brush against it or it would come off on one’s clothing, and would dissolve in wet weather.) And milk paint must be used right away. It has a short shelf life.

The important ingredient is the protein casein. Sometimes borax is used to the lime to help dissolve the casein. Different recipes have been tried to make milk paint durable. We know that at least some of them were successful; surfaces painted with milk have been discovered in some old houses. It has a hard very smooth finish and was usually in pale pastel colors. It is impervious to paint strippers and is difficult to paint over. It is totally non-toxic, though, and can be used to give furniture an antique look.

Oh, and one final fun fact. House painters in the past did not ‘paint’; they distempered the walls.

What about paint

Posted on by

My husband and I moved into a new house over a year ago. But it took us until now to begin painting. Of course we used Latex paint. It comes in about a million colors and cleans up with water. As I was washing brushes, I began reflecting upon paint. We take it so completely for granted. But its history is a lot more layered (pardon the pun) than one might think.

One of my earliest memories as a child was cleaning my father’s brushes. First, all the paint had to be removed with liberal applications of turpentine. Then the brush had to be soaked in linseed oil to keep the bristles soft. (Fun fact: Linseed oil is made from the flax seeds. The seeds are edible and was fed to livestock. Now, those of us into healthy living eat the flax seed.)

My father was a painter but not a picture painter or a house painter. He was what would be called now a Graphics Artist. He painted signs (and called himself a sign painter). When I was very little I remember him painting cartoons on the signs: little drawings of smoking horses and smiling pigs and so on. Even when I was in high school and learning what was then called computer science, he had a steady clientele who wanted painted paper signs to advertise sales and Christmas specials. But fashions change; even for signs. He went to school to learn to make neon signs and form plastic letters for plastic signs. If he couldn’t find help, all of us kids manned the block and tackle to help him raise the heavy signs to their places on the buildings. I was lucky in that I never had to go up the ladder and help my father. I was terrified of heights.

But I digress.

Oil paint was discovered during the middle ages, as anyone who knows anything about painting is aware of. But oil paint takes a long time to dry. And it is expensive so it was used in the houses only of the rich. Since white lead was a primary ingredient, lead poisoning was epidemic among painters. (Fun Fact #2: The first company to make paint that could be used directly from a tin can without preparation – previously powered paint ground with a mortar and pestle was mixed with water to make the paint – was Sherwin Williams in 1866.)

Poorer folk, and people in early America, had to use an alternative and that alternative, which is seeing something of a resurgence, was milk paint.

More about American music

Posted on by

When my husband and I were in Greece this past summer and went down to breakfast that first morning, a woman at a nearby table suddenly burst into a James Brown song. No lyrics, just the hook, bookended by a flood of Greek.

Although we haven’t had members of the native populations bursting into song in other countries, we have heard American music everywhere. Perhaps I should say American/British since the Stones and Led Zeppelin are well represented. As tourists, we hear plenty of the native Greek or Peruvian or other local music but the pop music is all the music we grew up with. And even the Stones and other British Bands we hear have been heavily influenced by the Blues, R and B and so on.

American music is one of our greatest exports, along with our movies.

And the interesting thing is that the ‘melting pot’ of the United States is really obvious in the music. From the Chansons Profanes of the French trappers, to the work songs (the sea shanties and field hollers), the drums of the Native Americans and of course the rhythmic music of the black slaves, American music is a combination that has really gone everywhere. (Think the popularity of Metallica in Japan!)

The history of rock from its beginnings in Blues is well documented but of course there have been other important influences, all ending up in James Brown sung by a Greek.

Sea Shanties and American Music

Posted on by

For the latest Will Rees, I researched sea shanties (or chanties) thoroughly. I’d expected to use that information more than I did. I actually only mention the sea shanties in passing. That’s what happens when one researches something for a work of historical fiction. Either some of the information isn’t used at all or you need more and more of it.

Although I knew of the shanty only as a subset of folk music, it was important for the loading and unloading of cargo from merchant ships.  It is thought that one leg of the shanty’s back ground comes from British ‘chants’. That makes sense to me. Even the language implies a connection.But although other countries had work songs, sea shanties were primarily an American phenomenon.

Shanties were created here. Well, if one strand is the British ‘chant’, where does the rest of it come from?  Where else in our history do rhythmic work songs play such a big role? Answer: the slaves. Contemporary accounts frequently describe the slaves and their songs. The slaves, to the eyes of the white who observed them, were so happy they sang’. The casual condescending racism of the descriptions make a modern sensibility shudder.

However, like the work songs sung by the slaves, the shanties include the same kind of rhythmic repeats necessary to keep everyone on the same beat Keeping everyone together as they pull lines or shift bales is efficient. Since there were so many black sailors at that time (with a name of their own: the Black Tars) it makes sense the rhythmic underpinning of the shanties probably sprang from the same source as the rounds sung by the slaves: i.e. African music.

Back ups and upgrades

Posted on by

Every time I log onto my WordPress Account I am greeted with a frantic message that I should update. But when I click on the link, I get to a page with about a million warnings, telling me to back up first or else I will lose all of the customization.

Really?

Then the ‘quick and easy’ directions begin. On your main control panel fo cPanel, look for the MySQL databases.  I don’t even know where to go. And I started my library career as a computer tech so I am not without any skills.

Who writes this stuff? Not regular users, that is for sure.

I guess I will not be upgrading any time soon.

Backing up and Upgrading

Posted on by

Every time I log onto my WordPress Account I am greeted with a frantic message that I should update. But when I click on the link, I get to a page with about a million warnings, telling me to back up first or else I will lose all of the customization.

Really?

Then the ‘quick and easy’ directions begin. On your main control panel fo cPanel, look for the MySQL databases.  I don’t even know where to go. And I started my library career as a computer tech so I am not without any skills.

Who writes this stuff? Not regular users, that is for sure.

I guess I will not be upgrading any time soon.

The Question of Titles

Posted on by

I am not good at creating titles; I’ll admit that first thing. Some authors seem to choose the perfect title. snappy and appropriate. I struggle.

I think of this now since I am struggling to title the fourth book. Right now it is titled “Death in Salem”. Bland, right? I started with “Salem Slay Ride” which I think is snappier but one of my readers said it sounded like winter. Since the story takes place in June, not a good thing.

Maybe I should have a vote.

The original title for my first book was “Hands to Murder”. I took it from the Shaker saying “Hearts to God, Hands to work”. The publisher felt that too many people wouldn’t get the allusion so it became “A Simple Murder.”

I was lucky with the second book. Since the mystery concerns a dyer – as in one who dyes – the title seemed perfect. But the third book, now titled “Cradle to Grave”, I called  The Book until my daughter suggested the title.

So now I’m struggling with the title for the fourth Will Rees.  “Death at Sea”? “”Blow the Man down”? I’m still partial to “Salem Slay Ride” because I like puns. Like I said, still struggling.

More about Salem’s sailors

Posted on by

In an earlier post, I blogged about the cosmopolitan nature of Salem in the 1790’s, primarily due to merchant men who traveled to the far corners of the globe.

I did not really discuss the multi-ethnicity of Salem itself. Some of that is due to the merchantmen. Salem is home to a large East Indian population, an immigrant colony that began hundreds of years ago.

But some is due to the whaling ships.

The crews of the whaling ships included men (and yes, a few women, disguised as men) from every background. Some came from seafaring families, the profession passed down from father to son. The best harpooners were drawn from the local Native American tribes and were commonly reputed to be the best. (And probably were. The colonists learned the trade from the Indians who had been practicing it for generations from the coast or from small boats). Black sailors were so common they had a special name: the Black Tars. And as immigrants arrived, not only from Europe but also from some of the ports of call, the French, Irish, Portuguese and other men joined the whaling crews.

We always talk about how small the world is now. I doubt we fully realize how much travel and cross-fertilization went on hundreds of years ago.

Thoughts on Thanksgiving

Posted on by

I recently read an article that claimed that people who worked at home were more efficient.  Apparently studies suggest workers waste a lot of time socializing with co-workers.

Well, maybe. As someone who works at home (a writer !) I am not so sure that article is correct. When I write early in the morning, I am uninterrupted. Later in the day, interruptions come fast and furious – anything from phone calls to mail to my husband. And I have found the interruptions even more constant with the beginning of the holidays.

We had 16 guests for a total of 18 people; 9 adults and 9 kids. (I won’t describe the ruin of my basement.) Prep and purchasing Christmas presents for family members who won’t be with us for that occasion, have absorbed at least a month.

Some of the dinner conversation concerned shopping on Thanksgiving itself, whether the store should open or not. Pretty much everyone agreed that it was terrible and no one planned to shop. They couldn’t anyway, since they were at my house, and the final guest left at 9:30 pm.

That sparked my interest in Thanksgiving. I mean, everyone knows the story about the Pilgrims and the Indians who came to the first Thanksgiving. I always believed this holiday continued on in an unbroken line since 1621. Well, not so much.  Until the time of Lincoln, Thanksgiving’s date varied depending upon the state. And some states did not observe it at all. The final Thursday in November did not become the usual date until the 1800’s. President Lincoln declared by proclamation that all states should observe Thanksgiving on the same date in 1863.  Since this was during the Civil War, I would guess many of the Southern states elected not to comply.

Anyway, during the later third of the 19th century, the final Thursday in November became Thanksgiving. Ah, but we celebrate it the fourth Thursday. Yes, we do. Franklin Roosevelt changed the date in 1941 in an effort to give the economy a boost. He thought the extra time before Christmas might give people more time to shop.

I wonder what he would think of this most recent change.