Does everybody know what time it is? It's tea time!

I was reminiscing with S. over the weekend about T.V. shows we watched growing up, and Home Improvement (you know, with Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor) was high on my list of favorites. Tim Allen played a family man who had his own home improvement T.V. show called "Tool Time," and at the start of every program, Pamela Andersen (his assistant) would shout to the audience, "Does everybody know what time it is?" to which the audience would shout back, "It's Tool Time!" The French call this literary device mise en abyme, which means story within a story, but I'm just telling you this to sound cultured and smart, and hopefully to make you forget that I'm rambling on about Home Improvement. Anyway . . .

Something else I did this weekend was go to Housing Works in Brooklyn Heights. For those of you who don't know, Housing Works operates thrift stores around NYC and is, in their own words, "committed to ending the twin crises of AIDS and homelessness." Even if you didn't know that, you could feel good about shopping at Housing Works because they have great stuff!

My find of the day was a fine bone china tea service (for 4) from England. The Internet tells me that the maker, Royal Grafton, went out of business in 1972. The pattern, "Majestic," is in the style of the 1960's, but a person I exchanged emails with at replacements.com informs me that the "Majestic" pattern in green was made until the early 1990's under the Royal Grafton name but by a different manufacturer. My set is blue, so I just don't know what to think. At any rate, I love it! S. has graciously offered to give it a home in his china hutch since space is at a premium in my studio apartment.



Now, does anyone have a good recipe for cucumer or watercress sandwiches?

-Marie