Okay, it's been a while since our last episode, but don't worry--we were not fighting. There were no fisticuffs. Most importantly, Mom's okay! But it was a grueling couple of months for all of us as Mom fought her way back from a significant health setback. Who knew that you could get a burst fracture in two vertebrae from violent coughing? Put this in the category of things we would rather not learn through experience. And when life gives you burst vertebrae, we recommend a good drink and talking about a great book, in this case Roz Chast's graphic memoir, Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?

Simply put, everyone needs to read this book. Whether you are a child caring for an aging parent, or a middle-aged parent contemplating the fate of your child wading through decades of your accumulated "treasures," or a child who thinks his parents are bad now (just wait!), this book is for you. It is poignant, funny and profound, and says out loud many of the things you might have been thinking but could not find the words for, or perhaps did not feel you could say out loud. As Chast describes her realization so aptly,

"The piles of newspapers, magazines, and junk mail had grown larger . . . and they themselves had grown frailer. I could see that they were slowly leaving the sphere of TV commercial old age--Spry! Totally Independent! Just like a normal adult, but with silver hair!--and moving into the part of old age that was scarier, harder to talk about, and not a part of this culture. Something was coming down the pike (p. 20).

Chast's book gives us a way to starting talking about the thing we can't name that's coming down the pike. While we would love to include the fantastic drawings she has created to accompany the profound truth that she distills into a caption, we suspect her work is copyrighted. So instead here's a pic of the drinks we got at Skein & Tipple, our favorite speakeasy/yarn store in Clinton, on Whidbey Island in Washington (note the crocheted coasters--simply divine). Inspired by their Hornet Murder libation, we offer up this drink recipe with deep gratitude for all the people who helped us through this, and most of all for Mom, for being okay. We love you, Mom.

We are back for our second installment on knitting and espionage with Pippa Latour's memoir, The Last Secret Agent: My Life as a Spy Behind Nazi Lines. First a disclaimer: knitting stands out only as the most normal, ordinary thing in the extraordinary life of Pippa Latour, and it plays a critical, albeit small, part in her life as an Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent. Pippa Latour is above all a survivor--when she died in 2023 at the age of 102, she literally was the last surviving secret agent who served during World War II.

What's perhaps most surprising is how her life before the war perfectly prepared her for being a spy. With a French father and English mother, she grew up in Africa speaking many languages (Swahili, French and English). She was also used to hardship, loss and violence--her father died when she was four months old, killed in an uprising against Western doctors lead by local healers. Her mother died when she was four. Raised by various relatives and friends of her parents, she was shuttled from one home to another, so she constantly had to adapt to new situations. She was used to living in the bush and sleeping outside in a hammock. She knew how to shoot a gun and pilot a plane before her spy training. Those years playing with monkeys in the trees meant she killed it on the ropes courses too. All this prepared her to parachute behind enemy lines, adopt the cover of a 14-year-old French girl selling goat-milk soap for her "grandparents," while she gathered intelligence and transmitted it by Morse code through radios hidden in 27 locations across her territory in France. Yeah. She did that. Most radio transmitters survived six weeks behind enemy lines. Not Pippa Latour.

Major Selwyn Jepson was the British commander who advocated for recruiting women as spies because

"Women have a greater capacity for cool and lonely courage than men, who usually want a mate with them. Men don't work alone; their lives tend to be always in company with other men. Women are mostly on their own" (p. 66).

We decided a World War II era cocktail would be a great accompaniment to discussing Pippa's story, so try the delicious "Three Dots and a Dash," which is "V" in Morse code for Victory. It is because of the sacrifices of so many and the "cool and lonely courage" of women like Pippa Latour that we enjoy the lives we have today, and we are profoundly inspired and deeply grateful.

“Great catering adventure” or act of insanity? It was probably closer to the latter when Bossy offered to cater her son’s film shoot for his senior project on a freezing weekend in February in Philadelphia. Thank God for the help and support of so many people, including sisters-in-law Leslie and Gail and great friends, like Betsy Grenier, who survived the adventure and was willing to talk with us about it in this episode. Talking about trauma always helps.

So what was the scope of this catering caper? Five meals for 30 starving college students spread out over two days at the Chamounix Mansion in Fairmont Park. Yep. We did that. And here's the thing about agreeing to do crazy big things: there is a weird sense of triumph that comes at the end because being part of a big creative project is truly amazing. When it was over, it felt like a dream--Betsy said "a bad dream"--but a dream nonetheless. All parents want their kids to find their passion and purpose, and living on the edge and bearing witness to that was, well, every parent's dream. But it definitely takes a village to make dreams happen, and this was more proof of that (as if we needed it). Our village was all the cast and crew members to what Betsy dubbed our "Just Hired Craft Services Company" toiling away in the basement kitchen.

The menu featured many Bootie and Bossy recipes from the Pumpkin bread and Granola to homemade marshmallows and garlic aioli, all available on our website and easily found using the oh-so-convenient search bar (ah-hem). Try out the delicious Spinach Mushroom Brunch Bake, which was a big hit for breakfast on the second day—thank you, Gail, for supplying Chris Brez's recipe from The Hawkin School's Best Recipes (2002).

Here's what we learned: next time you have the chance to do something big and crazy, do it! You will be glad that you did.