Scott Hanley's Blog

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 16:28:47 -0500

The Krumkake Chronicles

This is a revisitation to a blog I wrote in 2011. Since then, I am back in Public Radio, but now in a very "foodie" town of Birmingham Alabama.

In the holiday season of 2012, I have new friends and colleagues who've never heard of Danish rolled cookies..so, begin, again. Traditions can help you rekindle good things that deserve to be repeated. Publix and Piggly Wiggly have supplied me with many eggs, much, butter and other needed supplies.

When I first came to Pittsburgh in 1995, I found the city filled with kind people, civil driving, and a staff at WDUQ that tended to be the generous, gift-exchanging kind of folk.

Early on, when we were fewer in number, as I was the General Manager, I would try to find special gifts like books and things. But, over time, as the years passed and the station grew, I ran out of book ideas unique enough for a burgeoning staff. There were only so many editions of “Life’s Little Instruction Book.”

Food became the next thing to share. Cub Scout Popcorn, given my association as Pack and then Troop Committee Chair. Later, as my sons moved on to adulthood, what next?

Little did I realize that a longstanding Hanley family tradition was in need of extending.

For decades, my mother made Krumkake. A not-widely known Norwegian rolled cookie. Owing to my mother’s Danish heritage, she had taken up making this cookie as her primary holiday baking activity back in the 70’s. It uses a lot of eggs and butter, and has some special features.

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Krumkake

A Scandinavian Christmas cookie from the Danish side of the family

3 well beaten eggs

1/2 c sugar

1/2 c butter

1/2 c flour

1 teaspoon extract of choice (I use vanilla and almond)

You melt the butter, blend it all together and bake it on a special iron (from Norway, of course!). Roll and let cool.

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For years, my mother had used a single iron that was placed over a stovetop burner. While the cookie you make and then roll was perfectly round in this iron, the process was very time consuming and less than perfect at keeping precise heat.

Later, my mother bought an “electric” two-sided iron. Instead of one cookie every 90 seconds, you could make two (In a PIttsburgh Christmas Miracle, I found one of my own in Pittsburgh at Wholey’s in the strip)!

As cookies go, this recipe uses a LOT of eggs and butter. The batch I show here was using 9 eggs and three sticks of butter.

The “roll and let it cool” part is what gets you. Despite what you may see online (and in the box of my electric krumkake iron), the wooden roller is not something we’ve ever used.

You take the hot baked cookie off the iron, put it down on a counter and quickly and with some danger, roll the cookie by hand. Or should I say, by fingertips! Hot. Hot. Hot. Burn. Careful!

They can be served with whipped cream, sprinkled powdered sugar or just plain as is. I have seen variations, like the mix of flour doubled up, which makes for a doughier cookie. More sugar makes the cookie crisper (which seems to help in my new, more humid, Alabama environs). What I've listed is the basic recipe I’ve settled on, with maybe a dash more sugar.

One trial effort last year, from Laura’s suggestion, was to take an unrolled cookie and use those tiny SOLBRÄND plastic bowls from Ikea to make a tasty pastry bowl out of the new shape. But those are in Ohiopyle, and this year most of the baking has been back in Birmingham.

More testing to be done…but whipped cream, ice cream, fruit – it is all good. One of the best features of making Krumkake is the mistakes and left over extra cooked bits can all become tasty snacks…

I started baking these cookies on my own a few years ago, also around the same time that my mother was no longer able to make these cookies. It has been good to keep the tradition going. And share them with my mother, father and their neighbors, too. I even taught my youngest son, Jon, how to make them.

Krumkake is what I started to share with my “family” at WDUQ. Hundreds of cookies, a dozen or two at a time. Many plastic containers, carefully packed with festive paper towel wrapping.

Like my mother before me, December is now a month where eggs and butter fill the fridge, the smells of melting butter and vaporizing almond and vanilla extract fills the air.

I’ve managed to go through several dozen eggs, share Krumkake with friends and family in Pittsburgh, Washington, DC, California and Michigan. And, now, Birmingham, Alabama and my new colleagues at WBHM.

I don’t plan on letting the tradition fade anytime soon.

All the best of great food, friends, family and the holidays to you now and every day.

Dec 22, 2012 1:35 AM

Disney, Lucasfilm, Anticipointment, and Snow White. It will be fine. Really.

This week's announcement about Disney buying Lucasfilm has led to a lot of speculation.

To me, it is simple: The Lucasfilm deal is about copyright and trademarks.

Disney built its empire on a mouse and a few other characters of note from the mind of Walt Disney and his crew. They do entertainment superbly and own what they do. Everything else has been built from that.

A substantial amount of Disney content came from the realm of public domain. Folk tales or stories so old that no author had to be paid to use them. Snow White was the first "full length" Disney cartoon. This was in 1937. It was a great risk to the studio when it was launched.

Snow White was produced, well over budget at a cost much higher than expected. It was called "Disney's Folly" by some. But on its release, it became a sensational hit.

NOTE: 1937. 40 years later, George Lucas would release Star Wars

In 1944, Snow White was re-released. It became a new film for new viewers. With subsequent reissues every 7 to 10 years, Snow Whilte now ranks among the top selling movies, ever.

Over the 70-plus years of release, Snow White has had gross sales of more than $400 million (probably much more, depending on how you count the money with inflation).

Snow White led to a building catalog of Disney versions of public domain stories over many decades which are now a fixture in popular culture; Pinnochio, Sleeping Beauty, Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Jungle Book, Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast.

COPYRIGHT AND TRADEMARK

Back before the dawn of Disney, copyright law in the United States protected the ownership of creative works, but it was limited to 28 years after creation. Through changes and revisions starting in 1831, the protection of copyright expanded, now all the way to the life of the author plus 70 years.

Content OWNERS are king. By purchasing LucasFilms, Disney has taken ownership of iconic content that they will be able to extend, exclusively, for generations to come. Disney is getting control of the story and the characters.

Here's a video and blog that was produced about a year ago that talks about much of this - and about the creative works of George Lucas.

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The blog and video are a breezy run through of the reason for copyright and complaints about the current law. There's also a snappy discussion of the "Anticipointment" of the three newer Star Wars films that Lucas released starting in 1997. While those newer movies may not be as beloved by some fans, the story and characters were created and owned by Mr. Lucas. He could do with them as he wished.

Under current copyright law, those characters and stories will be owned by the Disney Corporation for 70 years after Mr. Lucas leaves this mortal coil. The trademarking of characters is a different issue - characters are trademark protected as long as they continue to be used commercially by their owner.

Comcast, Apple, AT&T, Verizon - they all sell us things that we may want or need, for now. But if you want Star Wars in your future, you will have to turn to Disney.

Oct 31, 2012 4:34 PM

Big Bird, the Peacock and the Kangaroo vs NASA and Honey Boo Boo

The unexpected attention to Sesame Street and Big Bird this past week has caused a lot of discussion in various places. It is not like we haven't been here before.

But having public broadcasting become a prominent part of the current political season before an election is a bit more unusual. And it is also coming when a lot of public radio is in the midst of pledge week.

To put this into perspective, Brian Palmer at Slate.com has written a very good "Explainer" column on why Big Bird and Sesame Street are on PBS to begin with. There is even more background on this story, but the Captain Kangaroo connection is worth mentioning. CBS had the Captain back when NBC was busy with the Today Show

Palmer writes,"PBS desperately needed a winner in the late 1960s and was willing to take a chance. Some PBS programming was so poor that the New York Times television critic noted, “congressmen could scarcely be blamed for wondering if a huge permanent investment in noncommercial video is warranted.” Sesame Street was exactly the kind of innovative show that could change the narrative about public broadcasting."

Around the same time that PBS was taking shape and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was coming into being, the Appalachian Community Service Network was also created (1972) in partnership between NASA and the Department of Health Education and Welfare. This channel became The Learning Channel in 1980. By 1991, TLC was bought by what is now Discovery Networks.

A current Internet meme is floating around that this network, TLC, founded by HEW and NASA, is now bringing us "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo." This is true. The network and the programs it carries are paid for, largely, by your cable or satellite fees.

Another cable channel from the 1970's started as a non profit (like TLC) and is still non-profit, today. CSPAN was created as a service to be paid for by cable fees, with a 2011 budget of around $60 million. The board of directors features many representatives of the largest cable television companies.

So, the free market gave us CSPAN and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. And the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS brought us Sesame Street and a lot more. If things had gone differently with NBC in the late 1960's, who knows what might have happened?

This is the kind of remarkable mix that we have in media in the United States. I share all of this not to say what is right or wrong, but just what is.

Oct 9, 2012 9:37 PM

Changing Planes, Changing Plans

Changes in my life mean I'm back to flying more often. The couple of years away from frequent air travel has reminded me how much it has changed.

This week marks the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Midfield terminal at Pittsburgh International Airport.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a very good retrospective on the "new" airport - and how the world changed in less than a decade to make for a decidedly less ambitious current state.

The "new" Pittsburgh International was unique in its time - I liked to call it the most secure shopping mall in America, since, before "9/11," anyone could come in and peruse the scores of shopping mall-type stores at the AirMall. I recall buying my first sound card for a computer at PIT while on a visit with my sons.

The walk to make connections was far easier than most airports. The baggage claim system was "state of the art," though that art had a way of not always living up the promise...

I remember flying into the old Pittsburgh airport long before I ever thought I might live in Pittsburgh. It was a grand old place in its own way.

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NPR VISITS

In January 2001, NPR's All Things Considered sent an entire production team to Pittsburgh International to follow what went on in the course of the 24 hour workdays at what was still, then, a very busy airport.

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Airplanes at Pittsburgh International Airport
(Photo: Ellen Weiss)

This NPR project was more than a dozen years ago. It is interesting to hear how much like every other airport operation PIT was back then. It is a transit hub, so there are things that have to be done. People working at 3 in the morning face many common issues, so this was a good, generalized set of stories.

Still active but not so busy

Pittsburgh still has a fairly busy airport for a community of its size. It just isn't as busy as what planners had expected. PIT appears to now be serving fewer travelers than Cleveland-Hopkins International.

The evolution over time of Detroit Metro Airport is a good indication of what a difference the travel needs of 4 to 5 million people can do for business as opposed to a market of 1 or 2 million. With more international travel and a larger base population to originate flights from, Detroit Metro continues on a pattern of increased passenger visits.

I remember coming to the "new" Pittsburgh International not just to make a connection but for business. But it took very sad turn with the crash of USAir flight 427 taking 132 lives in September 1994. This was less than two years after the opening of the new terminal. This was also not long after the Pittsburgh newspaper strike of 1992-93, which changed the landscape of media in that city.

The media coverage of crash of flight 427 was a bellwether event for a city ready to head into yet another era of change. The much investigated accident led to changes in how all Boeing 737's would be maintained, too.

The downturn in USAirways activity, the reduced air travel from several recessions and the very nature of being in a smaller city meant that whatever USAir would or would not do in Pittsburgh would have stronger impacts on the airport than one would see in a much larger market.

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I now live in Birmingham, AL, where the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport is the largest in the state with about half the traffic of PIT.

Which brings me to a topic I hadn't thought of at all when I first contemplated writing this post, As of this week, the Birmingham News is changing, too, cutting back print editions from 7 days a week to three, and renaming the enterprise the Alabama Media group.

My station, WBHM, and our Junior Advisors Board is holding an "Issues and Ales" event this week, bringing together media experts of different backgrounds to discuss what is next in the realm of information and journalism in transition.

Thursday, Oct. 4 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Cantina at Pepper Place in Birmingham, AL.

Hope to see you there - as we get started on the future.

John Lennon wrote, "Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans," and I tend to agree. But if you are paying attention and choose to act, perhaps you can have a role in whatever comes next.

But fasten your seat belts, put your tray in the appropriate position, and be mindful of the exits!

Sep 30, 2012 2:01 PM

…they pull me back in!

I'm back. Back to public radio.

At first, the clip from "The Godfather, Part III" came to mind:

As apt as that Al Pacino moment may seem in the context of going back to the realm of coffee mugs and pledge drives, my "return" is pretty exciting.

I have accepted the position of General Manager for WBHM in Birmingham, Alabama. The people and the community impress me. It reminds me a bit of Pittsburgh - and WDUQ - in 1995. A city with a legacy in steel, evolving into a center for medicine, commerce, and education. The changing media world is offering up the potential for public media to take an even larger role in convening and informing the public. It is a great opportunity with a dedicated, talented staff in a special city with a great university, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and a strong community of listeners and supporters. I am eager to contribute to the success of what is next.

My radio career (or, should I say, my first paid radio job) started in September 1978. The same month and year as a TV show about the business, sort of. WKRP.

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When I started, I was still a teen. From that media job to others, like Gary Sandy's character from WKRP, I moved around the country. When I first moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, a colleague's family emergency pulled me into on-air TV pledge drives just a couple of weeks after my arrival. Over the years, one radio and TV job to another, there wasn't a week when I wasn't on the air somewhere, somehow, either live or "transcribed."

And so it went for more than three decades. About a year and a half ago, I left not just public radio, but broadcasting as my full-time gig. Things had changed and moving on made sense. Things do end. Even good things.

The past year and a half has been a fascinating experience, working with new groups of great and diverse people doing interesting and valuable work.

Now, another hand has been dealt in the realm of radio. WBHM in Birmingham.

I regret leaving the State Theatre in Uniontown before their hopes and ambitions for the 90th Anniversary Season are fully realized. It is a great organization on the rise, with a dedicated board, staff and volunteers, serving a remarkable community with a fascinating history. I will continue to support them - and encourage you to, too! (Season opens with the musical, Titanic - September 29, 2012 - call (724) 439-1360 to order tickets for that and many other great performances).

To my friends in Pittsburgh, Uniontown, Michigan, Iowa, Texas and more, up and down the dial, I leave a bit of my heart with you. It has been a privilege to have had so many people and places welcome me home.

See you on the radio in Birmingham!

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Aug 10, 2012 4:28 PM

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Scott Hanley | Scott E. Hanley | Scott Hanley

Scott Hanley's Blog

The Krumkake Chronicles

Disney, Lucasfilm, Anticipointment, and Snow White. It will be fine. Really.

Big Bird, the Peacock and the Kangaroo vs NASA and Honey Boo Boo

Changing Planes, Changing Plans

…they pull me back in!

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