Thomas Cave's Tattoo: Park Avenue Brisket

"Thomas Cave's Tattoo"

I've started a blog that discusses what I call the New Great Depression - the idea that the next few years will constitute a Depression era, and not simple recession. I believe that to understand it in that way will enrich it, and encourage everyone in this country to make this era a creative period, a positive time, an act of construction, and not a cause for panic, chaos and fear. This is a chance for renaissance.

If the New Great Depression produces art, literature, theater, film, community, and a discovery of human value, as the first one did, who wouldn't want to be a part of it.

I am here to barter, trade, share, talk, listen, discuss, argue, understand, make fun, and make peace with the lack of the old prosperity. It was corrupt, and corroded, and it's gone. The dead weight of spoils has been lifted.

Thank you for listening, ma'am.

"About Thomas Cave"

Mr. Cave is the gentleman in the photograph that graces this home page. The photograph was taken by the American photographer Dorothea Lange, who so powerfully documented the country and its citizens during the Great Depression. I found this photograph at www.shorpy.com, a website with a specialty in Depression images. According to Shorpy's site, the Lange photograph, titled "535-07-5248 and Wife," was taken in Oregon in August of 1939. The gentleman is described as an unemployed lumber worker. His tattoo is his Social Security number, by which he is referred to in the title of the photograph. A public records search conducted by Shorpy's revealed that the number belonged to Thomas Cave, who was born in 1912 and died in 1980 in Portland. His wife's name, Ann Kathryn, who died in 2000, appears on their tombstone, a photograph of which is appended under Shorpy's readers' comments.

Mr. Cave is 27 years old in Lange's picture.

Friday, February 27, 2009

Park Avenue Brisket

As promised, "Park Avenue Brisket," from "Mrs. Smith." (See Wed., Jan. 28, for the circumstances by which I came to be served it.)

1 first cut brisket aprox 4 lb , trimmed
5 carrots, each peeled and cut in 3
1 large potatoe, unpeeled and cut in 8

sauce
14 oz can organic diced tomatoes
1/2 c red wine (on the sweeter side)
18 oz heintz ketchup
18 oz water
1 packet lipton recipe secrets onion soup mix (put through a sieve and discard solid onions pieces)

~preheat oven to 350F
~in large bowl combine sauce ingredients
~place flameproof casserole pan oven over high heat, and lightly brown brisket on both sides
~add carrots and potatoes to pan around meat and then pour sauce over
~cover and bring sauce to a boil
~move covered pan into oven and leave for 3 hours, or until meat is very tender
~remove pan and let cool
~slice meet against the grain and put back into pan
~if cooking liquids have become too thick add with water before putting meat back in
~place covered pan in oven for another 20 minutes
~at the last minute, remove lid and broil to crisp fat on top

My gut feeling - some pun intended - is that you should only serve this to close friends, because you will make a pig of yourself - as I did - eating it.

Thank you for listening, ma'am.

Thomas Cave's Tattoo