Monday, February 11 was a great day because it was the first time that BC celebrated our new stat holiday called Family Day.  I actually did spend it with our daughter helping to plan her friends wedding and making centerpieces but when she went home I decided to search for something to watch on TV.  I was in the mood for being educated and wanted something that was going to make me think, challenge me and help me learn something.  All this is quite shocking because it was 10pm at night and usually I’m nothing but a couch potato with heavy drooping eyelids by that time.

It’s funny how synapses work.  I had perused the TV channels and all of the shows I’ve recorded but nothing felt intriguing. My next thought was about heading over to the computer to write a posting for Thrift Stories Thursday about the time I purchased a number of copies of “The Philistine”, Elbert Hubbard’s periodical chapbooks.  And then I remembered one of my first postings on this blog was a story about a free PBS documentary DVD that was offered and which subsequently I never got because I lived in Canada and wasn’t eligible.  So for about half a second I indulged in a moment of self-pity and sighed heavily and then reminded myself that I live in one of the best countries and cities in the world and that not getting a free video is a pretty lame thing to be upset about.  But PBS stuck in my mind and then I remembered a friend telling me that she’d watched a documentary on the PBS website a while ago and that got the wheels turning further and faster.  It took me about two seconds to get to the PBS website and find their entire website devoted to the 55 minute Elbert Hubbard: An American Original video.

The home page explains:  ”Elbert Hubbard was one of the most influential forces in American business as the new century opened and the Roycroft artisan community that he founded in East Aurora, New York was the first and most successful purveyor of Arts and Crafts in the nation.”  It spoke about how he was a brilliant business man, but was also a controversial and divisive figure; “He was hailed as a prophet by those who believed he espoused the ideals of Arts and Crafts, and he was reviled as a charlatan by those who saw him simply using Roycroft for his own advancement and search for immortality…Today, the name Elbert Hubbard still incites passion among those who either love him or hate him…”

Now if that doesn’t sound juicy, interesting, and enough to pique anybody’s interest I don’t know what would.  Drama, love, hate, passion and the Arts and Crafts movement.  The website had tons of great written information about Hubbard, some of the other early artisans such as Dard Hunter, Carl Ahrens (who was Canadian by the way), WW Denslow, and the Roycroft campus.

I poured myself a glass of wine, made some rosemary popcorn, set up my laptop, put my feet up and watched the show and the additional bonus footage. Click here or on the photo below to be taken to the website.  If you have already seen the video I think it’s worth a second look and for those of you who have never seen it I hope you will enjoy it just as much as I did!

Ah…and here’s the recipe for the popcorn…it’s fabulous…

Rosemary Popcorn

8 tablespoons butter
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
10-12 cups hot plain popcorn (I prefer air-popped)
Medium Course Sea Salt
Strip the rosemary leaves from the stem and chop very, very finely.
Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add rosemary and stem. When butter is completely melted and just before drizzling on the popcorn, remove stem.  Drizzle rosemary butter mixture over hot popcorn in a large bowl and mix with two large spoons or those big bear claw salad paws. Season with salt.