In this issue

• Soups!

• Lenin’s last words?

• Hitler’s foot trouble?

• Santa’s banjo soundtrack?

• Glittery granola and hockey sticks?

Your feedback, a discussion group opportunity

First: What do you want to read in this newsletter in 2024? More of the same? More of something different? Less of everything? Let me know on this survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/JMLZX93 

Second: I invited a few friends to join me in an online group discussing some of the issues of God, belief, faith, doubt, knowledge, religious practice, and meaning that I have been mulling over for some years. Since mentioning these topics in the newsletter, I’ve sometimes been surprised at who has replied with their experience of similar struggle, bewilderment, or curiosity. I thought I would open the invitation to anyone who might be interested.

The goal is to have a forum of people who may be from very different places, religiously-speaking, but who would come with questions, curiosity and and open mind to others. This is a place for discussion, but not for arguing for a particular agenda. If you’re interested, send me an email!

Soups: just follow the formula

College completed, I moved in with a rotating cast of a few friends in a dilapidating, flood-prone house near Highway 1 in Langley, BC. We started a garden (or, I should say, my diminutive, bearded housemate Aaron started a garden). The first fall’s harvest of butternut squash exceeded our wildest dreams.

After giving away a dozen or so squashes, we were left with dozens more. It was time to make some soup.

I tracked down and experimented with a recipe I found in one of those giant generic Betty Crocker or Reader’s Digest or Martha Stewart or other big name recipe books that my mom gifted me. I sauteed onions and celery in oil, added broth, squash and potatoes, seasoned it (either a sweet ginger/cinnamon-type mix or a savoury coriander/turmeric/cumin), boiled it, blended it, and added milk, and possibly some sugar. (I think the recipe called for cream and sherry, but, you know, I had milk).

Twenty iterations of the same soup later, I was getting good at it and also pretty tired of butternut squash.

So I cooked a lot of my other soup, a poor man’s minestrone. It went something like this: Sauté onions, garlic and celery in oil. Sauté sausage or ground beef, sometimes. Add broth, carrots, broccoli and sometime spinach, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and and Italian style spices (any combination of oregano, basil and marjoram), When the vegetables were mostly done cooking, add dry pasta, canned chickpeas and canned kidney beans. Cook a little longer and it’s ready.

Eventually, all my soup-making followed the same simple steps. With the exception of some weird soups with bell peppers or watery green lentil/cabbage combinations, the results work! I tried making an eye-catching flowchart, but it proved too complicated for a newsletter for my friends. So here is my soup formula longhand.

1. (If applicable) Roast vegetables in the oven (great for cauliflower, garlic or red peppers).

2. Sauté onions, garlic, and/or celery in oil or butter. Take your time until things are soft. Carrots can be added here too, if preferred.

3. (If applicable) Sauté meat, especially necessary for ground beef.

4. Add water or broth, spices and all long-cooking ingredients. These include vegetables, most kinds of meat, dried rice, barley or lentils. Potatoes should be a added little later than other ingredients.
   (Note 4a: lentils will not soften well with any salt in the water. In this case, adding broth cubes/mix later or cooking lentils separately may be necessary).
   (Note 4b: thick soups, especially with rice, need frequent stirring so as not to scorch).

5. When veggies are sufficiently soft, add short-cooking things: pasta, canned beans, spinach, fish, already-cooked rice, etc. If you are using broth cubes and cooking lentils, add the broth now, once the lentils have softened.

6. Stop cooking.

7. (If applicable) Blend the soup. This is good for squash, roasted pepper or creamy veggie soups.

8. (If applicable) Add milk, cream, or sugar and stir.

9. Do a final flavour test.

10. Cool and serve.

There you have it. Soup!

Some reliable combinations (assume onions, garlic and your choice of broth for all of these):

• Ground beef, celery, cauliflower (roasted), potatoes, carrots, beef broth, parsley, black pepper, milk or cream.

• Black beans (dried and pre-soaked), carrots, cumin.¹  

• Brown lentils, celery, veggie broth, carrots, paprika, coriander, cumin.

• Cauliflower (roasted), garlic (roasted), red lentils, curry spices (heavy on turmeric and garlic), coconut cream.

• Butternut squash or pumpkin, potatoes, carrots, cinnamon, a little turmeric, ginger (no garlic!), milk/cream/coconut cream, sugar (blend this one).

• Sausage (optional), celery, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, carrots, broccoli, kidney beans, chickpeas, basil, oregano, marjoram.

• Chicken, bell peppers, diced tomatoes, corn, olives, cumin, chili powder.

• Roasted red peppers, potatoes and carrots (optional), rosemary, sriracha (blend this one).²  

• Fish, clams or seafood, celery, clam juice, potatoes, carrots, paprika, thyme.

  _{1. Thanks Mom}

  _{2. Thanks Jeff}

Vladimir Lenin, twentieth-century Jesuit anti-communist intrigue, and what was or wasn’t said about St. Francis

How my favourite footnote led to a spy story

I thought I’d take advantage of the colder temperatures and shorter days to write about the dark days of interwar Europe.

While researching my thesis on evangelical appropriations of Saint Francis of Assisi, I came across a startling, too-good-to-be-true quotation attributed to Vladimir Lenin in a 1981 edition of the evangelical left publication Sojourners:

This statement of the Soviet Russia’s revolutionary godfather was a perfect fit for the ideological ground that the evangelical left was trying to stake out between the secular left and the religious right, one they saw as soulless, the other as heartless. What better illustration than a repentant atheist revolutionary admiring their favourite saint?

I had to know if this was real. A search pulled up a syndicated newspaper column from 1958 by Fr. James Keller, a Catholic priest and inspirational TV show host. The article printed the quotation (with slightly better but not-quite-there punctuation compared to the Sojourners article) and cited “Letters on Modern Atheism” as the source.

The article mentions that Lenin divulged this deathbed confession to a confidant, “a former fellow student and intimate friend” of the comrade. Lenin died in 1924.

I couldn’t find any book by the name cited, but some searching brought up a 1930s French-language periodical called Lettres de Rome sur L’Atheisme Moderne (Rome Letters on a New Atheism). It was edited by one Father Joseph Ledit, who worked in the Vatican’s Secretariat on Modern Atheism.

For context, the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) had taken a decidedly anti-communist turn during the tenure of Polish Jesuit superior general Fr. Wlodzimierz Ledochowski.¹ Troubled by the Bolshevik revolution (he had connections in Tsarist Russia), and influenced by the notorious 19th-century forged antisemitic document Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Ledochowski made it his mission to oppose the threat of atheistic “Jewish” communism. With the French-American Fr. Joseph Ledit’s help, Ledochowski founded the Secretariat on Modern Atheism in 1933 to counter Bolshevik propaganda and gather information. The new secretariat recruited priests in provinces around Europe to gather information, but this was to be done covertly, with information going only to the superior general. These priest-spies kept an eye on international communist movements and propaganda. Some findings were published in Ledit’s periodical starting in 1935 (and published in English under the name The World's Problem). Ledochowski also pushed (successfully) for the inclusion of anti-communist declarations, and (unsuccessfully) for an anti-Jewish passage, in a 1937 encyclical by Pope Pius XI.

So, was one of Ledochowski’s spies privy to Lenin’s deathbed confession? Or was this a forged mirror of communist propaganda?

Well, after some failed attempts to find online archives of the Lettres de Rome sur L’Atheisme Moderne or its English counterpart, I had to call it a day on the footnote for my thesis. I concluded my footnote with some conjecture:

I did later discover that some internet sleuths had been asking the same question about the provenance of Lenin’s alleged statement. Some of them have found more details published in The Catholic Boy from October 1938:

Fr. Michel D'Herbigny was a Jesuit priest during Ledochowski’s tenure, and was involved in a covert papal mission in Soviet Russia to secretly consecrate Catholic Priests between 1926 and 1932. He was eventually relieved of duties under unknown circumstances. He seems an ideal candidate to be one of Ledochowski’s spies. Sadly, without access to the Vatican’s archives (or at least a well-stocked Catholic college library), I may never be able to shed more light on D’Herbigny’s claims about a Hungarian friend of Lenin. But I can correct my footnote by changing one name:

^{1. Information in this paragraph is from Philippe Chenaux, “Father Wlodximierz Ledochowski (1866-1942): Driving Force behind Papal Anti-Communism during the Interwar Period,” Journal of Jesuit Studies 5 (2018) 54-70.}

A Kootenay Christmas disaster averted

And a recipe for reindeer food

by Carolyn Amantea

Warfield is about 8 km downhill along a treacherous-when-icy highway from Rossland. This stretch of highway, with its 10% grade in spots, is regularly littered with spun-out semi trucks and is the subject of many early morning posts on local highway conditions Facebook groups. 

Christmas Eve sees our family in Rossland at my brother-in-law's home for the annual Amantea / McDonald family supper. Mario cooks for days, preparing cannelloni, cutlets, and sundry other Italian delicacies. Zia Rose brings the baking and the rest of us contribute buns, salad, wine and antipasti.

Nonna would start fussing the day before about how much work it was, how dangerous the driving is and insist everyone stay home. She volunteered Nonno to shuttle some arancini (rice balls) up the hill for Mario's family as though he was somehow more likely at 86, driving his Toyota Camry, to survive the trip up and down the hill. Of course, we all ignored the weather and convened every year, packing the kids and Nonno and Nonna up and hoping for sand trucks. 

When the dozen or so cousins were little, Grandpa Les (from the McDonald side of the family) read "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," the younger cousins kept an eye on NORAD's Santa Tracker, and Auntie Mary made reindeer food to be sent home in little packets to sprinkle on the lawn before tucking in for the night. The adults? Well... we watched the snow coming down, chose designated drivers, and guessed anxiously about the condition of the road home. Only one brother lives in Rossland—the rest scattered through Warfield and Trail. Tradition, though, meant that this gorgeous evening was never hosted anywhere else. 

One particularly snowy Christmas Eve, just as we were thinking we'd better head for home, a phone call came from another Rosslander who had just come up from Trail. "Your crew had better get on the road! It's looking like they're going to close the highway." As we began to hustle the kids into snow clothes, give hugs and kisses and gather our gifts and dishes, Uncle Al piped up, "Don't worry! Santa will find you kids here!" The room stopped. We all stared in disbelief at Uncle Al, as he stood beaming in the middle of the kitchen. Uncle Al and Zia Rose were never fortunate enough to have children, you see. We could almost hear his mind working as he realized the critical error he'd made. Six little people were thrilled at the prospect of a sleepover ON CHRISTMAS EVE!!!! Eight adults were in a state of panic. The grandparents just sat back and watched this unfold. 

I don't think we've ever left that house in such a hurry. Jordan scampered back to get the reindeer food we'd nearly forgotten while Mike shoveled almost 20 cm of snow off of the car as I jammed Maya into her car seat. 

We made it home, white-knuckles and all, about 30 minutes before the hill was closed for hours. The girls sprinkled reindeer food in the yard, put on their new Christmas jammies, laid milk, cookies and carrots out and hopped in bed. We finished a nightcap by the tree (well-earned) and had just gotten into bed when I reminded Mike that he needed to go out and "eat" the reindeer food and make sleigh tracks in the snow. We started that tradition the first year we were sent home with the dreaded baggie and this couldn't be the year it all came to an end. Out he went, muttering that it would all be snowed in by morning at the rate it was coming down, and got the job done. He did have to redo it at about 6 am, but it was all worth it to see those happy little girls checking to see if they'd come.

We still tell this story when the weather looks questionable on the 24th. This year will be our first without Uncle Al, so we will focus on how happy he was having his nieces and nephews around and not so much on the "childless uncle nearly spoils Santa" aspect. Nonna, too, will be remembered as my now 22 year old daughter prepares arancini 3 ways - vegan, gluten- & dairy-free, and traditional. This year will be our 15th Christmas Eve in Rossland (2 missed for COVID) and I'll still have my eye on the weather.

Reindeer Food 'Recipe' Mix 

• a good helping of oats 

• 2 Tbsp or so of glitter (helps the reindeer find it in the snow)

• 2 Tbsp or so of brown sugar (sweetens it for them and, if your snow is quite wet, melts to look like reindeer urine)

• Sprinkle liberally about the yard.

• Tuck your kids in then go and collect most of the oats - bonus points if you use a mitten to leave snout prints.

• Use a hockey stick or shovel to make sleigh tracks while standing well off to the side in giant boots pointed AWAY from the tracks. 

• Use the other end of the hockey stick to make a good number of reindeer hoof holes in the snow.

• Sleep with one eye open if you're the spouse who instructed the other to go and make the sleigh tracks ;)

Every Christmas is a Sufjan Christmas

For me and a broad spectrum of 2000s indie kids, Pitchfork readers, NPR listeners, music nerds, and cool Christian kids, Christmas music has a name: Sufjan Stevens (pronounced “soof-yawn”). With multiple sprawling collections of songs with haunting choirs and springy banjos and baroque oboes and chaotic electronic beats and string arrangements and sloppy electric guitars, Sufjan is my Bing Crosby and Mariah Carey and Vince Guaraldi Trio and Alvin and the Chipmunks.

According to my count, the guy has released at least 108 Christmas songs (counting the unavailable original Songs for Christmas Vol. VIII: Astral Inter Planet Space Captain Christmas Infinity Voyage released as a free online download, which had original versions of seven songs that appear much altered on Silver and Gold). For an artist who has shapeshifted from atonal noise rock to background-vocal heavy symphonic indie folk to chaotic electronica to tragic bare acoustic ballads to polished synth pop, his Christmas music reflects an even broader range.

His two main collections of five EPs (and sometimes full-length albums) apiece are available on Bandcamp here and here. Don’t know where to begin? Here are my top 11 Sufjan Stevens Christmas songs. I left out instrumental-only tracks, of which there are many. And nearly all the rest of his songs are honourable mentions.

11. Get Behind Me, Santa! (Peace! Songs for Christmas Vol. V)

    A Christmas naysayer’s complaints are interrupted when Santa comes to town with a blast of trumpets. Also, there’s a “C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S!” chant.

10. It’s Christmas Let’s Be Glad (Noel! Songs for Christmas Vol. I)
    At the transition from Sufjan’s early noisy avante garde music to his popular folk, comes a slightly squeaky, happy celebration of all things yuletide with lots of la la la-ing.

9. Christmas in the Room (Christmas Infinity Voyage: Songs for Christmas, Vol. VIII)
   An endearing, crescendoing love song about two people alone together on Christmas: “I’ll dance with you / I’ll laugh with you / ‘Til it’s Christmas in the room.”

8. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (Hark! Songs for Christmas Vol. II)
   A beautiful, classic Sufjan take on the traditional hymn.

7. Come On! Let’s Boogie to the Elf Dance! (Ding! Dong! Songs for Christmas Vol. III)
   “Santa Claus is coming / Hear the Banjo Strumming” is the Christmas anthem we didn’t know we needed. This is quintessential Sufjan Christmas.

6. Idumea (Sacred Harp) (I Am Santa's Helper: Songs for Christmas, Vol. VII)
   A sombre choral interpretation of “Am I Born to Die,” perhaps the darkest hymn in English: “A land of deepest shade / Unpierced by human thought / The dreary region of the dead / Where all things are forgot.”

5. What Child is This Anyway? (Hark! Songs for Christmas Vol. II)
   Meandering electric guitar and droning organ layers over Sufjan’s subdued but mournful vocals in a slow, unpolished crescendo.

4. Mr. Frosty Man (I Am Santa's Helper: Songs for Christmas, Vol. VII)
   From a section of songs where Sufjan alternates beautiful choral hymns with noodling jam rock, this song is a uproarious gem about an ultra-cool snowman: “He's got a friend called Coolio, Vanilla Ice and Ice Cube / Banana split and frozen pie and Mr. Frosty Pants”

3. Christmas Unicorn (Christmas Unicorn: Songs for Christmas, Vol. X)
   Maybe one of his best—and longest—songs. A unicorn, who is also Christmas, hilariously but perceptively deconstructs himself and the holiday for a couple of minutes, before a slow build to heavy electronic beats and a choir singing Joy Division’s “Love will Tear us Apart.” Keep aiming high, Sufjan.

2. Sister Winter (Peace! Songs for Christmas Vol. V)
   Sufjan sings his way out of seasonal depression with his gorgeous falsetto and quiet piano. The anthemic climax is a heart-rending winner.

1. Joy To the World (Astral Inter Planet Space Captain Christmas Infinity Voyage: Songs for Christmas Vol. VIII original online version—email me if you want a copy)
   Layers of mournful synth lead lines and bubbling arpeggios accompany this airy interpretation of the Christmas classic. A much-edited glitchy and creative interpretation of the same recording (interesting in its own right) appears on the Silver and Gold collection, but the earlier, simpler soundscape version is a song of beauty.

Stuff of the issue

• Onomatopoeia: Hum

• Bird insult: Pygmy Nuthatch

• Book: Marilynne Robinson - Home

• Highbrow takedown: “The novelist Anthony Trollope suffered a stroke while laughing at a comic novel, a misfortune by which few of his own readers are likely to be afflicted.” - Terry Eagleton, 2017

• Misleadingly-named river: Rio Grande (es muy pequeño)

• Song: The Darkness - “Christmas Time (Don’t let the Bells End)”
  [thanks teenage Chris Overland]

• Birding hotspot: Mission Road, 150 Mile House, BC.

-Paul