A Drain Drama With A Happy Ending

We’ve all had some drain dramas, haven’t we? I remember one in Boston years ago, and our landlord was acting just like the charming fellow in this comic strip. The house (and the sink – AND the drain) was about as old as this ad from 1934, so it didn’t take much to cause a little melodrama in the plumbing.

There was a plumber involved. And a metal snake. And a fair amount of money. Ah, if only I had been as clever as Ann Snickers, with her disproportionately large head. But I was a hapless grad student – pretty good at Victorian novels, absolutely hopeless at household management (and drain management).

Mind you, Ann is talking to the drain in the second panel…that is a bit off. And what’s with the “here goes down your neck, and you’ll wake up in a hurry!” So the head is the sink? And the drain is asleep? Ann has clearly been driven mad by living with Grumpy with the shaving brush.

However, Ms. Snickers has the last laugh (so to speak) as she gets $3 (and a considerable profit margin) after fixing the sink problem. Mr. Snickers is now so happy he doesn’t care. If she keeps the sink running, he’ll keep handing over dollars - and he won’t ever be angry again either! (Oh yeah? If you believe that, I have a nice bridge over in Brooklyn for sale…)

But it’s cheaper than therapy, I suppose. And at least we’re spared the inevitable drain drama with an unhappy ending – because I think I’d rather skip that, thank you.

You can see some more of F.G. Cooper’s comics over at David King’s blog, here and over here too at Filboid Studge. Oh, and also here at toaster.org. He was quite a well-known cartoonist in the 1920s and 1930s.

Mrs. Wiggs Entertains

This lovely lady is the actress Bessie Barsicale, who starred in a production of Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch in New York in 1905. She is even wearing a cabbage leaf sort of thing on her hat. I don’t know if this is on purpose or not.

Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1902) was a novel by Alice Hegan Rice in which the titular lady, who is about to be evicted from her home (and cabbage patch, I suppose), has many children and a husband who has absconded (which is what they do in this sort of novel, they don’t just go away, they abscond). She is very noble and brave and clever and so on. The novel was turned into a play and several movies, the most famous of which features W.C. Fields and came out in 1934. I believe that he plays the absconder.

Anyway, this is what the redoubtable Mrs. Wiggs would have served at her At Home, had she had access to the fabulousness of canned Essex Cabbage Rolls. This is from the Essex Meat Packers magnum opus, Visit the World at Your Table (ca 1968).

CABBAGE ROLL HORS D’OEUVRES

1 14-oz. can Essex Cabbage Rolls
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup shortening
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tb water

Prepare pastry as follows: Sift together flour and salt, then cut in shortening with a pastry blender. Add water to mix. Roll out dough very thin and cut in 3 inch squares.

Open one 14-oz can Essex Cabbage Rolls and drain off sauce. Cut each roll into 4 pieces. Place each piece of Cabbage Roll on one square of pastry. Fold edges up like petals leaving small opening on top. Place maraschino cherries or olives in the openings. Bake in 350 degree oven until pastry is lightly browned.

What a versatile recipe - you can substitute an olive for a maraschino cherry. Hmmm.

Serve these on cabbage ware plates, of course, what else?  Nonnie has a gorgeous cabbageware jug/gravy boat that I love, it looks just like a cabbage. We used to rent a summer cottage from people who had a cabbageware tea set that I longed for. Lovely stuff.

Images are from the wonderful New York Public Library Digital Gallery.

And for more astonishing recipes from the Essex Meat Packers of Hamilton, Ontario:

Wham Salad

Hawaiian Beef Salad

Jambalaya Salad

Glamour Hash Salad

Melonhash

I think this is it for Visit the World at Your Table, looking at all those links. That is just too many weird salads altogether.