As always, happy Monday. I look forward to every Monday, as they’re my 52 Chances a year, in which I get to share Memories of My Mom with you.
Thursday will be observing National Let’s Laugh Day, which encourages us to embrace and celebrate all types of humor with laughter – anything from a snicker to a roar counts. It’s another one of those things we should celebrate and practice EVERY day.
Honor the occasion by telling someone a funny joke or story, watching a comedy movie or sitcom TV show, attending a live stand-up performance, or reading a funny article or book. Erma Bombeck was one of Mom’s favorite comedic authors.
Life can get overly hectic and busy, from time to time – or repetitiously monotonous – but being serious all the time is not good for our mental or physical well-being. We need to take the time – especially this Thursday – to add a little comic relief to our lives, breaking up the chaos and tedium that negatively affect us.
Mom and Dad were big fans of comedy since they grew up in the 1930s, during the Great Depression era. Back then, relief from life’s stresses came from listening to comedy shows on the radio and then, later – when household television sets became commonplace in the 1940s – watching them on “the tube”.
For decades, my folks loved radio. They continuously listened to music and talk shows on the radio while they worked from home in their cottage enterprise. Radio was Mom’s favorite way to promote her unique, copycat cookery concept.
Radio talk show hosts across the country scheduled her regularly (either weekly or monthly – as her busy schedule allowed) for interviews because of her wonderful sense of humor and great “radio voice”, as she was told.
If you like to laugh while cooking or cook while laughing, any of Mom’s cookbooks are for you. All but one of her books, Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective [a revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition) available through Balboa Press], are out of print.
However, used copies of Mom’s old cookbooks can often be found on Amazon and eBay. You can discover more information about Mom’s self-published works within the Cookbooks & Other Publications tab, found on this website.
Like many standup comedians, Mom often stretched and twisted our family’s life-stories to generate a few laughs in her syndicated columns, like “No Laughing Matter”, and her corresponding cartoon panels, called “Full House – As Kept By Gloria Pitzer”.
Mom had a relatable and satirical style of humor that she infused into all of her work. She followed the “live-laugh-love” mantra long before it was even a thing. Mom’s books and newsletters were patchworked together like comforting, homemade quilts, combining bits of this and that, to be as fitting on the coffee table as they were on the kitchen counter.
There’s an old adage, based on truth, that says, “laughter is the best medicine.” Mom liked to add that, “you can’t smile on the outside, without feeling good on the inside.” Laughter can practically cure what ails you or, at the very least, it can better help you deal with whatever “ails” you.
Smiling and laughing activate certain networks in our brains that optimistically improve our feelings, attitudes, and mindsets; while reducing stress, anxiety, and tension. They also prompt the brain to reduce cortisol (the stress hormone) and produce more endorphins and serotonin, which simply makes you feel better, overall.
There are several scientific studies that show many health benefits, which come from genuine laughing. Incidentally, did you know that it’s nearly impossible to sincerely laugh without smiling? Laughing makes you feel good and feeling good generates a smile reflex. Smiling and laughing also burn calories, as it engages our abdominal and facial muscles.
This is not a Cook Book! It’s Gloria Pitzer’s Food for Thought (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Oct. 1986, p. 4)
[LAUGHTER IS] STILL THE BEST MEDICINE –
YOU CAN’T SMILE ON THE OUTSIDE WITHOUT FEELING GOOD ON THE INSIDE!
WHEN DOCTORS TOLD Norman Cousins that he had one chance in 500 to live, he remembered the old saying that “laughter [was] the best medicine”. Cousins then asked Allen Funt, producer of the TV show “Candid Camera”, to send him films of past “Candid Camera” classics and a motion picture projector.
Cousins soon made the joyous discovery that ten minutes of genuine laughter would give him at least two hours of pain-free sleep. Cousins and his doctors made the startling discovery that laughter not only eased his pain but also produced measurable changes in his body chemistry…
[They were] small but lasting drops in the dangerously high sedimentation rate of his red blood cells. [Cousins wrote:]
“The life force may be the least understood force on Earth. William James said that human beings tend to live too far within self-imposed limits. It is possible that these limits will recede when we respect more fully, the natural drive of the human mind and body toward perfectibility and regeneration. Protecting and cherishing that natural drive may well represent the finest exercise of human freedom.”
“Laugh and the world laughs with you…” is an old adage that is so true, in more ways than one. For instance, laughing – like smiling – is relatively contagious. But also, knowing that humans are a flawed lot, if you can laugh at yourself, others will laugh with you, rather than at you.
There are many positive health benefits to laughing, as well as to making others laugh. Telling jokes and making others happy has a feel-good side-effect.
There are so many different styles of humor or comedy – slapstick, like “The Three Stooges”; dark or black, like “Dr. Strangelove”; self-deprecating, like Rodney Dangerfield; absurdist, like Monte Python – and more. Mom and Dad liked many kinds of comedy but the satire style, like “Seinfeld”, was probably their favorite.
I remember watching a lot of family-friendly sitcoms and comedy style variety shows, on TV, with Mom and Dad when I was growing up. Their favorite comedians included the classics like Milton Berle, George Burns, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Betty White, Johnny Carson, Dick Van Dyke, Tim Conway, Don Knotts, and more.
[On a side note: My dad’s mom is a Knotts (from West Virginia) and possibly a cousin to the famous comedian!]
Here are some humorous quotes from some of Mom’s favorite comedic personalities, as seen at BrainyQuote.com:
- Author, Erma Bombeck said, “When humor goes, there goes civilization.”
- Celebrity, Bob Hope said, “I have seen what a laugh can do. It can transform almost unbearable tears into something bearable, even hopeful.”
- Comedian, Milton Berle said, “Laughter is an instant vacation.”
Throughout our known history, whenever times have been tough, people have, more often than not, instinctively gravitated towards entertainment – especially comedy, in all forms – seeking mental and emotional relief from whatever are/were their stresses.
Before radio or television, printed media and cartoons, as well as vaudeville, minstrel, and burlesque shows were the dominant forms of entertainment and sources for comic relief. Vaudeville began in the 1800s as a live, traveling variety show, featuring music, comedy, and an assortment of acts that were more family friendly than burlesque.
Things were tough in the 1960s, when Mom started writing and syndicating her satirical columns and cartoon panels. Comic relief is always received well because it breaks up the steady influx of chaos and stress, as well as monotony.
This is not a Cook Book! It’s Gloria Pitzer’s Food for Thought (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; Oct. 1986, pp. 54-55)
A PEP TALK IS WHAT YOU NEED
THE DOCTOR CAN’T find anything that is physically wrong with you – yet you wake up in the morning feeling so blue… so sad… you think you just can’t get through another day like this! And you shouldn’t HAVE to! You shouldn’t have to feel blue!
Maybe it’s because you’re lonely. Maybe you can’t get going because you don’t have anything really exciting or interesting to do with your day, which you can look forward to. You’re wrong! EVERY DAY SHOULD hold something for you to do that you can pour your whole self into and have a feeling of exhilaration about it.
Even if you’re simply cleaning out the cupboards and the closet, do it with enthusiasm! For Heaven’s sake, do some dumb little chore, if that’s all you see before you, but do it with a sense of importance. Age has a lot to do with how you feel. Not as the age you are, but as the age you FEEL you are!
There’s quite a difference! It can be a crutch or a pogo stick. Remember the pogo stick? It was a tall stick… but had a spring-action in the bottom of it – so that when you put both feet on the little ledge several inches from the bottom, you could bounce up and down and make the stick take you where you wanted to go – bouncing along.
On the other hand, the crutch is something you LEAN on for support, rather than bounce on for fun! I worry about my mother when she confesses to me that she woke up, feeling so blue that nothing mattered! Granted, she’s 77 years old, but she should have the mental outlook of a teenager – as she has always had!
Now, more often than not, she’s telling me how blue she gets and how lonely [she is], and I realized from talking with older people that the biggest part about feeling that way, is being bored. Well we certainly can’t change society overnight, for the dreadful way our older, senior citizens have been treated.
But those who have survived the rejection of the world that they have helped shape and build, will have to put forth a little more effort in overcoming the side effects of just plain idleness. They can’t do it alone but once in a while they have to.
We know the problem! We know that it DOES happen, and we know WHY it happens. There are books and books and books on the subject. There are TV reports on the matter, being discussed all the time. There are government agencies and pamphlets and folders and social workers even available upon request.
Well, in the words of Archie Bunker, “La-dee-da!” That is NOT enough! We have to have more help and a lot of it, like a simple pep talk, a self-education process and how to treat our own blues, the way we were schooled on how to apply a bandage to a small injury. Maybe it will start here – and now. So pay attention!
HELPS YOU FEEL LIKE A MILLION BUCKS!
YOU THINK YOU’RE BLUE? That’s right! You THINK you’re blue. You decide that yourself… Nobody called you on the phone and said, ‘Listen, today you’re going to be blue.’ YOU made that decision without anybody’s help. Now YOU can unmake it!
You can say to yourself, ‘Self… I don’t feel like doing anything – I feel so low down. I don’t feel happy. I don’t feel very darn good for much of anything – but THAT’S GOING TO CHANGE!’ And then you can look in the mirror and you can really get provoked with yourself.
You insist that today is going to be a GOOD day. Maybe you won’t go anywhere. Maybe you won’t see anybody. Who knows? But one way or another, you’re going to make it a GOOD day! NO – it’s going to be a GREAT day!
You haven’t written a letter to your favorite relatives and your far-away friends because you haven’t felt up to it and didn’t want to pour out all of your troubles on paper, anyway. Well, today you’re going to sit down and write every one of those wonderful, dear people just a few lines, just to keep in touch.
Next, you might want some company; but you can’t think of anyone to call at the moment, who would come over to be with you – so if you have a television set, turn it on. But stay away from the news! Forbid yourself to look at even one newscast all day long! Promise me you’ll do that, please!
The news is [almost] never good. It will only depress you all over again. You want to hear voices and maybe some nice music, so find a station that has something harmless on it – a travel log on the public television station will do, if nothing else!
Watch cartoons if you can find some. The Road Runner is so crazy, if you can find that you’ll soon be in tears of laughter and you’ll forget all about your blues.
THAT’S THE FIRST STEP!
LAST THOUGHTS…
Thanks for visiting! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my memories of my mom, her memories, and other related things. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me at therecipedetective@outlook.com. You can also find me on Facebook: @TheRecipeDetective.
IN CLOSING…
In honor of TODAY, being National Artichoke Hearts Day, and this month, being National Flour Month, here’s Mom’s copycat recipe for “Artichoke Bread”; as seen in her self-published cookbook, Secret Fast Bread Recipes (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; November 1985, p. 24). As always, I’m asking only for proper credit if you care to re-share it.
P.S. Food-for-thought until next Monday…
March celebrates… Irish-American Heritage Month, National Caffeine Awareness Month, National Celery Month, National Craft Month, National Sauce Month, National Women’s History Month, and more.
Unofficially, it’s also Maple Sugaring Month. It’s not a national or federal holiday but making maple syrup is a big event in Michigan, as well as in the rest of the northeastern U.S. and its Canadian neighbors. See Michigan State University’s Extension’s website, for March is Maple Syrup Season in Michigan.
Today is also… Everything You Do Is Right Day and National Freedom of Information Day.
Tomorrow is… National Corned Beef and Cabbage Day and St. Patrick’s Day. Plus, as the third day of the third full week of the third month (for 2026), it’s also… National 3-D Day.
Wednesday, March 18th, is… National Lacy Oatmeal Cookie Day and National Sloppy Joe Day.
Thursday, March 19th, is… National Chocolate Caramel Day and National Poultry Day. [NOTE: It’s also the 35th anniversary of Mom’s SECOND appearance on The Home Show (Los Angeles; ABC-TV), with Carol Duvall.]
Friday, March 20th, is… World Flour Day, National Ravioli Day, and Spring Begins.
March 21st is… National California Strawberry Day, National French Bread Day, and National Single Parent Day. Plus, as the third Saturday in March (for 2026), it’s also… National Quilting Day.
March 22nd is… National Bavarian Crepes Day and National West Virginia Day. Plus, as the fourth Sunday in March (for 2026), it’s also the start of… National Cleaning Week.
Have a great week!
…11 down, 41 to go!
