In Gian-Carlo Menotti's magical madrigal/ballet, The Unicorn, the
Gorgon, and the Manticore, the Countess is depressed
because she
covets the poet's unicorn. The Count is
unaware of the cause of his wife's depression, and asks:
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Why are you sad, my darling?
What shall I buy
To make you smile again?
Velvets from Venice,
Furs from Tartary,
Or dwarfs from Spain? |
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Truman was in many ways the upper class's
talented dwarf who believed that one of his goals in life was to
amuse the bored, glamorous wives of the rich and famous.
When his royal patrons turned against him, his once stiletto wit became
severely
eroded
by
alcoholism
and narcissism. |
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Truman's
popular literary talent, his venomous wit, and social-climbing
ambitions made him the darling of New York society
in the 1960's. Like the
generous count in the Menotti madrigal, Capote was bought
by
rich and famous
husbands as
amusements for their wives, including: the Bouvier sisters,
Princess Lee
Radziwill
and Jackie Kennedy.
Capote's
prominence as New York's social lion peaked in November of 1966 in
which he invited 500 of his celebrity friends to
an extravagant masked ball
at the Plaza Hotel in honor of Kay Graham, the publisher of Newsweek
and the Washington
Post. Life magazine described the
fête
as the social event of the
century. Not a bad achievement for the First Lady's
royal
dwarf.
The dwarf lost his royal patronage by trashing some of his former
idols when he published excerpts from Unanswered
Prayers
in Esquire
in which he abused the confidences of many of
his celebrity friends with scathing comments about
their personal lives.
When Truman and his friend Ann Woodward quarreled at a debutante ball and
Ann, a little drunk, called
him a "little faggot," Truman got portrayed her
in the
Esquire
article as a slut known as "Madame Marmalade" by the boys
of the
French Riviera for a "trick she did using her tongue and jam." Ann
subsequently committed suicide with cyanide
over the notoriety of her
portrayal/betrayal. Truman became a social pariah and his declining
celebrity was kept alive by
talk show appearances in which he was almost a
parody of himself.
For Truman's birthday, we suggest a watching his brilliant Academy Award
portrayal by Phillip Seymour Hoffman in
Capote (2005) and
making some faggots,
or as
they are sometimes called "Poor Man' s Goose." Faggots are a popular European
breakfast sausage that goes back to at least the 16th century The
sausages used to be stuffed into a pig's
caul (the fatty veil around the
pig's intestines), but any sausage casing will suffice. In America faggots
are becoming more commonly served without casings, like pork sausage
patties.
In Britain and Ireland, there is a
commercial frozen food form of faggots called Mr Brain's Faggots that were once hawked
in a now banned TV commercial that
featured a husband who wanted lasagna for dinner. When his wife
replied that,
since it was Friday, he was to have faggots. He
responded: "I've nothing against faggots, I just don't fancy them."
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Ingredients
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1/2 lb pork liver
12 slices of bacon
6 medium onions
1 cup water
3 cups of breadcrumbs soaked in 1 cup of dark beer
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1/4 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp dried sage
1 TB
salt
freshly ground pepper, to taste
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Instructions
- Mince onions in food processor
fitted with a metal chopping blade. Remove and set aside.
Chop pork liver in food processor. Remove and set aside.
- Cut bacon in 1/4" pieces and
fry in a heavy skillet. Add onions after bacon begins to
render fat and cook for about 8 minutes over medium heat. Add
liver and water, reduce heat to a simmer, and cook for 15
minutes.
- Add soaked breadcrumbs and
spices. Mix well. If you want to use mixture to stuff
sausages, allow mixture to cool before stuffing casings.
- Preheat oven to 300º F.
- Either lay sausages in a
well-greased baking pan or form sausage patties about 2" in
diameter and place in greased pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes and
serve either hot or cold
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© 2011 Gordon Nary and Tyler Stokes
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