FACETS
December 2018 The magazine for women.
FACETS 2 | FACETS | DECEMBER 2018
The magazine for women. Contributors
MARLYS BARKER LYN KEREN RONNA LAWLESS Design
ALEX FELKER Publisher
SCOTT ANDERSON Tribune Editor
MICHAEL CRUMB
ADVERTISERS
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Facets is a monthly publication of GateHouse Media Iowa Holdings.
Hayden opens dream cafe in Story City When The Yellow Cup Cafe celebrated its soft opening earlier this fall, it was a dream come true for Shannon Hayden. See page 4
PHOTO BY RONNA LAWLESS
ON THE COVER:
This girl with spiders was created by Christina Wright three or four years ago. She is a 27-yearold cybog that Wright wanted to give a Halloween outfit. See page 17. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO (CROPPED TO FIT)
FACETS • Table of contents Features 4
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Hayden opens dream cafe in Story City
When The Yellow Cup Cafe celebrated its soft opening earlier this fall, it was a dream come true for Shannon Hayden.
Maxwell resident becomes newest member of Nevada’s Public Safety Dept.
A Maxwell native started work with the city of Nevada this month as the new full-time Community Service Officer.
Author Joan Becker speaks at Story County Mental Health Expo
Mother of man who killed popular Iowa high school football coach hopes her family’s experience can help others.
Saltlickers
Salts with funky names and incredible seasoning combinations are being made in Nevada.
14 Elizabeth Smart speaks in Ames
Kidnapping and sexual abuse survivor shares message of empowerment at Iowa State.
15 Nelson joins Statewide Youth Broadcast Advisory Council
Colo-NESCO junior, Sanora Nelson, 17, is one of 12 students in the state to be selected to serve on the Statewide Youth Broadcast Advisory Council this school year.
16 On the cover: The (W)right kind of creativity
Nevada student has a creative spirit and a gift for drawing.
Travel 20 World of Disney store reopens with new merchandise, nods to past
The flagship retail stop of Walt Disney World officially reopened recently with a wide-open floor plan and new lines of merchandise.
21 Tips for traveling solo with kids
Here are five ideas to ensure that good times are had by all.
Savor 22 What you need to know about ice wine, New York’s wintry nectar
From one of the country’s most-prolific wine-producing states comes one of the country’s rarest wine styles.
23 Recipe: Don’t call them meatballs Kefta carry a payload of garlic, mint and parsley.
FACETS
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Shannon and Lee Hayden and their daughter Ellie Fauteux pose behind the counter at their new family-run business, The Yellow Cup Cafe, at 601 Broad St., Story City. PHOTO BY RONNA LAWLESS
The Yellow Cup Cafe serves meats, bread and produce from Story City Locker, Great Harvest Co., Crescentia Farms and Red Granite Farm. Located at 601 Broad St., the cafe is open Monday through Friday, 6:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. It is closed on Sunday. 4 | FACETS | DECEMBER 2018
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Hayden opens dream cafe in Story City
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hen The Yellow Cup Cafe celebrated its soft opening earlier this fall, it was a dream come true for Shannon Hayden. “This has been my dream for about 12 years,” she said, standing in her new cafe, which still bustled with customers close to closing time. The Yellow Cup Cafe is a coffee shop in downtown Story City, which is open for breakfast and lunch and has a motto of “Grab and Go or Grab and Stay.” Hayden and her husband Lee, and their daughters Ellie and Julia Fauteux, want to offer the community more than just an eatery. They want to create a gathering place — a place you can even show up by yourself and find friends to sit with. When the family left San Diego four years ago to move to Story City, they were looking for more than a new location. They were looking for a new home where they felt like part of the community. Story City quickly showed itself to be that desired change. The Yellow Cup Cafe is a place you can grab a bite to eat and go — or you can grab a bite and stay. With quick order filling at the cash register, customers are welcome to find a table and are even encouraged to stay, visit, play board games or use the cafe’s Wi-Fi, which will be up and running soon.
By Ronna Lawless Gatehouse Media
The menu is a collection of sips and bites: Hot sips, like traditional drip coffee, coffee brewed in a pour-over system, hot chocolate and hot tea. Cold sips like water, soda, juice and iced tea. Breakfast bites include a breakfast burrito with eggs, sausage and cheese, wrapped in a flour tortilla or a breakfast bake, which is eggs, bacon, cheese, bell peppers and onions. Lunch bites offerings are egg salad on a croissant roll or cold sammies with a choice of turkey, ham, pastrami or roast beef. Also available is a turkey bacon avocado wrap, which is combined with cream cheese and cheddar in a flour tortilla. There are also a variety of salads and sides that come from Hayden’s own recipes. Shannon Hayden is the cook for the savory dishes, and Ellie Fauteux is the baker of the goodies — things like peanut butter cookies, banana muffins, scotcheroos and slices of cake. Ellie is a junior studying culinary arts at DMACC and is already putting those lessons to good use. Julia is creating a variety of art to decorate the restaurant. “My passion and my love language has always been to feed my family,” Shannon Hayden said. “Everything you see on the menu is something I make for my husband and kids. “I just wanted to offer a healthy alternative, using as many local foods as possible.” ·
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Feature Nancy Pritchard of Maxwell is the new Nevada Community Service Officer, which has the primary role of dealing with animal control. Pritchard said she’s an animal lover and looks forward to that aspect of the job. Her skillset is nicely matched to all the duties of the job. PHOTO BY MARLYS BARKER
By Marlys Barker Gatehouse Media
Maxwell resident becomes newest member of Nevada’s Public Safety Dept.
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Maxwell native started work with the city of Nevada this month as the new full-time Community Service Officer. Nancy Pritchard, 54, who graduated in 1982 from Maxwell High School — back when they were “the Rockets,” she said — was looking for a job she could enjoy, and with her background in EMS and love of animals, the CSO position in Nevada certainly fit the bill. “I look forward to it actually,” she said of the animal control aspect of the job, which will be her primary responsibility. She grew up in the city limits of Maxwell, where she always had dogs, and today she lives outside of the city limits on an acreage where she has dogs, cats, goats, sheep and horses. Being around animals is second nature to her. All of the skills Pritchard has fit nicely with the work she’ll do as a member of Nevada’s Public Safety Department. She’s a self-taught computer programmer, which means the office/computer work she’ll help with at the Nevada Police Department doesn’t bother her at all. “I’ve taken over the animal licensing program so far,” she said. Pritchard is also the chief and service director for Maxwell’s EMS agency. She will continue that community volunteer role in her hometown. However, with that expertise and as a member of the Nevada Police Department, she will now be called out for EMS calls when needed during weekdays in Nevada. Most recently, Pritchard had worked for a number of years for Grassroots Action, an online activist company with several offices in the United States, including one in Maxwell. The office was located downtown next to Logsden’s Grocery. “I was their web developer,” she said, and 6 | FACETS | DECEMBER 2018
noted that all the employees were her relatives, except for one. “We did a lot of fundraising for nonprofits. We did petitions and delivered petitions.” The work of Grassroots Action, which closed earlier this year, was very political, Pritchard said. “It was based on active news topics. I started when the war started in 2003, and we did a lot of ‘Support Our Troops’ signs. There are stickers right now that you see a lot that say, ‘I support the Thin Blue Line.’ That came from us,” she said. When that job ended recently, Pritchard wanted to try something new. When she saw that Nevada was hiring for a community service officer, “I thought this was perfect for me. I’m an animal lover.” In her first few day’s on the job, she’d been on three animal calls with police officers who are helping with her training. Those animal calls included a trapped possum that needed to be released in the rural area, a feral cat and a release of a dog to its owner. “Everybody has been super friendly and helpful. They have a great group here,” she said of the Nevada Public Safety Department. Pritchard’s family include her spouse, Dee Gamble; and her two children, Alex Golly of Maxwell, who works for the county; and Ashley Golly-Zrostlik, who lives in Mason City and works as a mental health counselor. She has no grandchildren yet but does have “grandpuppies,” which is kind of perfect for someone now in charge of Nevada’s animal control. Pritchard is looking forward to getting out and doing her job in Nevada. “I’m familiar with Nevada (having lived near it her whole life),” she said, “but I have a little studying to do to get all the streets down.” ·
Author Joan Becker speaks at Story County Mental Health Expo
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By Lyn Keren Gatehouse Media
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uthor and speaker Joan Becker spoke about her own experience with mental health and tragedy during Story County’s Annual Mental Health Expo, Sept. 25. Becker promoted the night’s theme of, “An Evening of Hope and Healing” throughout her lecture. Becker’s relevance to the expo comes from her experience with the mental health care system that resulted in a tragedy. That tragedy later turned into her book, “Sentenced to Life” where she wrote her about the incident and the events leading up to it. On June 24, 2009 Becker’s son, Mark Becker, fatally shot his former high school football coach Edward Thomas, in Parkersburg. Becker’s son was charged and found guilty of first degree murder after being rejected for an insanity plea. Her son was evaluated and diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia only three days before the tragic incident. She had noticed his mental illness years prior to the incident and struggled to find a diagnosis and the help he needed. She reflected on the early signs of his troubling behavior. She and her husband, Dave Becker, struggled to understand what these changes were. When she and her husband visited their her son, he told them that he had heard voices, connected to schizophrenia, since he was a child. She urged the audience to always open up and to always take notice when someone changes their behavior. “There are not many things that Dave (her husband) and I think back and say we should have done something different,” she said during the expo in the Great Hall at the Iowa State University Memorial Union. “We regret that we didn’t get Mark set up with individual counseling and with our family.” Exactly a year before the incident, Becker said she noticed her son showing more troubling behavior. Their other son, Brad Becker, became fearful due to his brother shifting between being his friend and seeing him as an enemy. More events displayed her son’s shift in behavior, seriously concerning her. “I started to notice that he was out in a different world and not focused,” she said to a standing room only crowd. ”I kept thinking are you depressed or what’s going on?” During his first psychotic episode in September 2008, her son mentioned Coach Thomas, coaching staff, she and her husband, and how they were all part of a conspiracy. A year of eight psychotic episodes, four county Sheriff contacts, 15 agency and counselors, and three times her son said he was better off dead, led up to his diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. Three days after that diagnosis, the events that led to Coach Thomas’ death unraveled. Becker’s son is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole because of his crime. She believes if he would have gotten a diagnosis and help before his disease grew worse, maybe that tragedy could have been avoided. Becker said she wants to use her family’s experiences to help other families and caregivers of those in similar situations. She hopes it can create the change that is needed to reduce the risk of similar tragedies in the future. “We can make something good out of this tragedy,” she said. ·
Joan Becker. PHOTO BY LYN KEREN
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Saltlickers makes herb and spice-infused seasoning salts and finishing sugars with no preservatives, MSG, dairy or other creepy shizznit. All are original recipes, homemade and gluten free except Herky Perky. This month, Saltlickers will also begin selling all of its flavors salt-free. 8 | FACETS | DECEMBER 2018
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Feature Jennifer Knox and her husband, Collin Switzer, are the dynamic duo behind the business, Saltlickers. PHOTO CONTRIBUTED
Saltlickers Salts with funky names and incredible seasoning combinations are being made in Nevada By Marlys Barker Gatehouse Media
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Nevada couple has taken salt to a whole new level. With catchy names like “Das Bigfoot,” “Gorilla, Gorilla” and — you may want to just whisper this one — “French Tickler,” Saltlickers has been catching the eye, and taste buds, of farmers’ market shoppers in both Des Moines and Ames this summer. Owners of the business, which is run out of their commercial home-based kitchen in Nevada, Jennifer Knox, 50, and her husband Collin Switzer, 54, come up with their own recipes and names for their products. So far, their collection includes 13 salts and three sugars. It was Knox, who teaches communications at Iowa State University, who actually started the business when she was single and living in Brooklyn, N.Y. “I started this out as Christmas gifts for friends. There was a big artisanal food craze (going on in Brooklyn at the time) and I got caught up in that.” SALTLICKERS, page 10 FACETS | DECEMBER 2018 | 9
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CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
SALTLICKERS, continued from page 9
A co-worker encouraged her to turn it into a business. “At my first farmers’ market in Brooklyn, I made a ton of money. I couldn’t believe it.” At a backyard barbecue with friends, all of whom had attended the University of Iowa, she met Switzer. “We had mutual friends that invited both of us.” That was the start of a long-distance relationship (Collin was from Iowa) that eventually led to their marriage and moving to Nevada five years ago. Collin works as a discharge planner at Mary Greeley Medical Center. During their courtship, Knox said, “Collin came to New York” and saw what she was doing with salts in her small apartment. “He said we could so do this in a house.” Bringing him into the business was a great thing, Knox said, because her husband is good at streamlining processes. With the two working in tandem, the business has grown. At the end of 2013, when they settled in Nevada, Knox saw that the Des Moines Farmers Market was taking applications. “I said to him, ‘Do you really want to do this?’ And he said, ‘Let’s do it.’” So, they applied (to the Des Moines market) and because their business is unique and their 10 | FACETS | DECEMBER 2018 PHOTOS BY RONNA LAWLESS/GATEHOUSE IOWA
products are all home-made, they were accepted and have been making that weekly trip to Des Moines on Saturdays from May through October. Recently, they’ve split up so they can cover both the Main Street Market in Ames and the market in Des Moines each week.
SALT, LOTS OF NAMES, FLAVORS, FUN Salt gets a bad reputation sometimes, where health is concerned, but Knox said a lot of that has to do with its use in pre-packaged foods and the overload of preservatives and sodium in them. “But if you’re cooking and using ingredients from scratch (like what they do with salt), you never get all that sodium … so our salts are good with a lot of diets.” Knox and Switzer get salt and grind whole spices in with it. For example, “we don’t use garlic powder, we use whole garlic.” She said their products also have no desiccants, which can dry out many products. It will come as no surprise to people in this area that the most popular selling salt for Saltlickers is “Cy Salt,” a name given to the blend by Switzer’s mom (his parents live in Nevada, too). For Cy Salt, they grind onions, garlic, peppercorns and leafy herbs like parsley, basil and dill. “We grind
Feature As cold weather comes, one of the most popular salts will be “Das Bigfoot,” a Bavarian-style flavor that uses whole fennel seeds, anise, caraway, coriander and mustard. “It’s not for everyone, but people who love it, really love it,” Colin said. them all together with our recipe that gives our ratios of herbs to salt,” she said. One of their friends came up with the name of the salt that is their “opponent” to the Iowa State-named salt. “Herky Perky” is inspired with Hawkeye fans in mind. “For it, we take leafy herbs like parsley, mixed with paprika, peppercorns, garlic and lemon. It also has soy sauce and vinegar (in their powder forms) added to give it a little ‘tang.’” Herky Perky is often the popular choice for people who love lemon pepper. And Knox breaks down both university-inspired blends in this way: “In this house, Cy Salt goes on just about anything. But when it’s egg and potato time, it’s Herky; and for wings on the grill, it’s Herky; and for Thanksgiving, you have to have Herky turkey…and with the leftovers, you have to make Herky turkey jerky.” On Cy-Hawk weekends for football and basketball, Saltlickers usually offers a special deal on what they call their “Iowa Nice Box.” This package includes Cy Salt, Herky Perky and one of their sugars, “Iowa Nice Spice,” which Knox describes as tasting like a snickerdoodle cookie in a jar. “I love it on grilled fruit. It’s also good in oatmeal, on French toast and pancakes.” Iowa Nice Spice is also featured in a new drink recipe that one of Cook’s Emporium’s bloggers just came out with, called the Ginger Lime Margarita. Knox said they will share that recipe on their website, salt-lickers.com, too. She laughs when sharing that she was doing a cooking class at Wheatsfield this past year when someone asked her if they had any new flavors coming out. They were working on what has now become French Tickler and she shared that with the class. “I said I wasn’t sure we could call it that, and someone said not only can you call it that, you must call it that.” French Tickler has lavender, vinegar, tarragon and parsley in it, and Knox said, “On sweet corn, it’s crazy good.” As cold weather comes, one of the most popular salts will be “Das Bigfoot,” a Bavarian-style flavor that uses whole fennel seeds, anise, caraway, coriander and mustard. “It’s great on chuck roast with red wine. Colin loves it on carrots and cabbage. It’s not for everyone, but people who love it, really love it,” she said. Working together to mix salts, especially when they make them fresh, takes a good amount of time each week, Knox said, but it’s an enjoyable way for the couple to spend time together. “We have so much fun…it’s like cooking for a thousand, and it’s fun knowing people get to make their food delicious (because of the salts). Our customers really love our product.” Many buy from them at farmers’ markets, but there are also
other ways to buy, especially during the months when there are no farmers’ markets. They sell from their website, www.salt-lickers.com, and they are also on shelves at a number of Central Iowa locations: Wheatfield Cooperative, Ames; Cook’s Emporium, Ames; Gateway Market in Des Moines; Dog Patch Urban Gardens in Des Moines; Dan and Debbie’s Creamery in Ely; and through Ames Farm to Folk CSA. “We are also about to go into the Stanhope Locker,” Knox said, and don’t be surprised if they make it into a nearby orchard this fall as well. Knox said when farmers’ markets end this fall, they usually have to prepare for a busy holiday season of sales online. In Story County, she said, they can make arrangements for people to pick up products from them at their home, too. ·
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Feature By Lyn Keren Gatehouse Media
Kidnapping and sexual abuse survivor shares message of empowerment at Iowa State
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lizabeth Smart spoke to the Ames community about her journey from victim to survivor, to empowered victor during a lecture Oct. 5 at Stephens Auditorium on the Iowa State University campus. Smart began her story of empowerment by telling the audience three things she wanted it to remember from the entire night. “Each one of us is born special, and each one of us is born unique,” she said. “There is, unfortunately, a lot of things that happen in life that aren’t fair,” Smart continued. “It’s not our fault, it may the consequences of someone’s actions, but that doesn’t change your worth.” Smart ended her first remarks with a genuine smile she spread to others in the audience. “At the end of the day, no matter what you’ve gone through, no matter what it seems the world knows you for, it doesn’t define you,” she said. “What you do next is what truly defines you.” On the night of June 5, 2002, Smart was 14-years-old when she was abducted from her home in Salt Lake City and spent nine months in captivity. Her abusers tortured her and raped her during her captivity. A couple was convicted of abducting Smart, with the husband serving a life sentence in prison, while the wife was recently released. Her kidnapping captured national attention, becoming one of the most-followed child abduction cases in national history. Smart said when she was raped for the first time, she felt a loss of hope. She felt physically hurt, but the event hurt her emotionally, mentally and especially spiritually. She said, at that time, she felt as if there was no hope left for her. “I should just give up now because I wasn’t worth saving,” she reflected. “Even if someone did save me, my life was over.” She said her thoughts spiraled into thinking about the amount of time she would be away from her home. She said she was afraid of never being found and even forgetting who she was. “They’ve taken away so much from me, they could take away my life,” she said. This led to her grasping the smallest piece of hope she could find, Smart said. “They will never take away that my parents love me,” Smart said. She continued to want an end to her misery, she said. After nine months, Smart was rescued in Sandy, Utah, and returned to her family on March 12, 2003. She said when she was questioned by the authorities after her rescue, she thought the questions they asked blamed her for not trying hard enough to scream, run away from her abusers or find help. 14 | FACETS | DECEMBER 2018
Elizabeth Smart speaks about empowerment for sexual abuse survivors and becoming a victor from abuse. Smart told her story of sexual abuse and kidnapping to the community at the Stephens Auditorium. PHOTO BY LYN KEREN
Smart, now 30, said the reason she would believe any victim, no matter how many years after their abuse, is because of the similar effect other victims have felt from their abusers, like she did. “My captors had been so abusive for so long, they seemed invincible,” she said. “If I tried to scream or run away, they would kill me, and if they didn’t kill me, they would kill my family.” Speaking to the media before Friday’s lecture, Smart said when she realized that her experience wasn’t making her a victim anymore, but a victor, she knew she had to help others become victors too. “I realized I had the opportunity to tell my story because of my support,” she said. “Some people are sexually abused by their families and do not have that support.” Being able to have her family’s support and love, she knew the opportunity would be beneficial for victims and herself, Smart said. “The best thing I can do is teach them that they are loved,” Smart said. She said that empowering others who were affected is her most important message. She said she wants to end rape culture, but during the circumstances of the world is her best effort. “I want women to take charge of their life without feeling scared,” Smart said. “What happened will never define you.” ·
Nelson joins Statewide Youth Broadcast Advisory Council
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By Marlys Barker Gatehouse Media
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olo-NESCO junior, Sanora Nelson, 17, is one of 12 students in the state to be selected to serve on the Statewide Youth Broadcast Advisory Council this school year. According to the Iowa Communications Network website, this council, often referred to as CYBAC, engages high school students on a variety of broadband-related topics, where they identify trends and strategies to improve broadband connectivity. “The council complements state efforts to gain input from various stakeholders that are passionate about broadband, technology and apps that require high-speed Internet. The advisory council provides Iowa’s youth a voice in broadband and technology. This initiative allows high school students to help steer broadband and technology conversations. Our goal is to hear from the next generation.” Nelson, who has attended Colo-NESCO schools for her entire educational career, said her TAG (Talented and Gifted) and technology teacher, Hazel Purtell, brought up this opportunity to her last school year. “She gave a reference for me, and I filled out a form and wrote an essay about why I think I would be a good candidate to be on the council,” Nelson said. Over the past summer, she found out she’d been accepted to the position, and she was excited about it. “I’ve been wanting to get more involved in technological opportunities,” she said. The council meets monthly, with each student taking part in the meetings from their computer. Purtell said she takes part from Colo-NESCO’s high school ICN room or another quiet place at the school. So far, she’s participated in two meetings. The first meeting was a lot of introductions, she said. “We talked about what [the council] is and talked about our experiences with broadband and Wi-Fi internet.” The most recent meeting, she said, featured the topic of automated vehicles. “We had a speaker from the DOT (Department of Transportation). She talked about how the infrastructure needs to change (for automated vehicles), like how to figure out how an automated vehicle could drive in snow. We (the council members) suggested things and asked questions.” Before taking part in the meeting, the students were sent several articles to read ahead of time. Nelson loved the learning experience. “Just learning about the future of automated vehicles really interested me … and seeing in advance how these things could be implemented in the future was kind of cool.” The meetings and Nelson’s participation on CYBAC will no doubt expand her understanding of things that she wants to know more about. “Most likely my future will be something with technology…like electrical or computer engineering, or computer science maybe,” she said. Her interest in technology isn’t surprising, given her family background. Her father, Mick Nelson, who lives in California, works with EPIC, a software company that provides systems to hospitals, she said. Her uncle works with servers for Amazon. Her older brother, Layton, studied computer engineering at Iowa State University. Nelson, who lives with her mother Julie Nelson and sister Madalyn in McCallsburg, isn’t sure quite where she will end up attending college. Iowa State is an outside possibility, but she’s also looking at schools outside the state. It all depends on where she gets accepted, she said. For the next year-and-a-half, her focus is on finishing high school. In addition to technology classes, she enjoys band, coding and calculus. At some point in the second part of the year, she’ll have an opportunity to meet the other 11 students on CYBAC, as they have an in-person meeting planned for Feb. 12. She looks forward to that and the rest of her experiences with CYBAC. “I like that I’m getting more connections with people my age who are also into technology.” ·
Sanora Nelson, 17, of McCallsburg, is a member of the Statewide Youth Broadcast Advisory Council during the present school year. PHOTO BY MARLYS BARKER
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Feature This black-and-white drawing is of a character Christina Wright made. She said it’s a symbol of many emotions mixed and ground down into a person. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO (CROPPED TO FIT)
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Feature Christina Wright, a junior at Nevada High School, is a talented art student who loves to create drawings, most of which feature people or mythical characters. PHOTO BY MARLYS BARKER
The (W)right kind of creativity Nevada student has a creative spirit and a gift for drawing By Marlys Barker Gatehouse Media
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eople. That is what an incredible student artist at Nevada High School enjoys drawing most. Whether it’s digital (on a computer) or traditional (with a pencil and paper), 16-year-old Christina Wright, a junior, loves drawing people — many of them mythical. Sometimes she enjoys working on scenery, too. “I would love to work on art all day if I could,” she admitted, noting that she takes her pens, pencils, Copic markers and drawing tablet with her “almost everywhere.” Her amazing self-taught artistic talent came center stage about five years ago, she said, when she was drawing, not one specific thing, but several things. Wright, the daughter of James and Sarah Wright of rural Collins, was told she comes by this drawing talent naturally. “My mother said that my great-grandfather drew a lot. He did a lot of 1930’s and 40’s cartoon-styled drawings, similar to Steamboat Willy,” she said. She’s never seen her grandfather’s work, but, if hers is truly a talent based on genetics, she can certainly understand his passion WRIGHT, page 19 FACETS | DECEMBER 2018 | 17
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This pen drawing of a female, is a character that was made by Christina Wright and a friend from Germany. We named her “Nanashi,” which literally translates to “nameless” in Japanese. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO (CROPPED TO FIT)
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Feature WRIGHT, continued from page 17
for it. Her catalog of drawings includes cartoonish characters, and she loves manga, a style of Japanese comic books and graphic novels. The artists who are most influential to her, she shared, include Akira Toriyama, a manga artist and creator of Dragon Ball Z; Mah, a Japanese animator and artist; Anett Osvath, animator and artist from Hungary; and Vincent Van Gogh, the famous impressionist painter. Currently, the most influential artist for her, she said, is manga artist Hirohiko Araki, creator of JoJo. “It’s the beautiful line art he has and how much he’s changed in his years of doing manga. He’s adding more details as he goes along.” Wright hopes that someday she and her work can inspire someone else the way the artists she has listed have inspired her. “They are all very successful storytellers and artists,” she said. It should be noted here, that Wright also enjoys writing. “Storytelling is a lot of fun; it would be fun to write a graphic novel someday.” Wright has enjoyed her membership in 4-H. “It has allowed me to show my art, and to gain interviewing experiences with a judge,” she said. Since 2016, she has won numerous fair awards at both the county and state levels. (See a list with this story.) When she talks about the art program at Nevada High School, she does so with great appreciation. “Nevada has been very generous to me about what they can offer me in art,” she said. She calls art instructor, Mark Beauchene, “fantastic. He is a wonderful teacher… I’m very grateful for what he’s offered me.” One thing she loves about art at Nevada High School she said, is canvasses. “It’s rare for a high school to have stretched canvasses that are ready to paint on. I can’t even count how many I’ve done. I used to bring one home every day,” she said. She likes painting on canvas and said one of them she did last year was as tall as her. When her artwork comes home, some of it is hung up in the house. But when you bring home as much as she has, “a lot of it goes into a spare room in our house.” When asked about her future, Wright said she knows art will be part of it. But she thinks she may possibly pursue a career in culinary and do her drawing work on the side. “I like to work with oriental, Asian food,” she said. “One of my favorites is Tokyo street-style Ramen noodles. It’s basically just a soup, but it’s so delicious.” Food and art really do go together, she said. “I love [the colors] in food. I make a sesame chicken and there’s lots of reddish-orange color in the sauce…just a beautiful palette.” As much as she loves colors in food, many of her traditional drawings, she said, are done in black-and-white. “I use pencils, just normal lead.” It’s when she works with paints or on the Adobe computer programs, creating 2D animation, that color is a bigger part of her work. “I use Adobe to create animations and digital art on a drawing tablet attached to my Windows desktop,” she said. She, in fact, used Adobe to edit Cub TV videos last year for the high school. Wright is definitely letting her artistic side lead her in
learning new things. Keep your eye on her in the future. Whether she’s drawing for a personal website, writing a graphic novel or stirring up great food, there’s no doubt she’s going to let her creative spirit lead the way. ·
ART AWARDS WON BY CHRISTINA WRIGHT
n July 2016, Story County Fair, awarded State Fair ribbon on visual art exhibit-digital drawing n August 2016, took 4-H visual art exhibit to Iowa State Fair, received red ribbon n August 2016, invited to and attended Artist Next Door at Iowa State Fair, spent time drawing with ISU graduate student n July 2017, attended ISU College of Design’s Design Camp n July 2017, Story County Fair, awarded alternate state fair ribbon n August 2017, invited by ISU College of Design to participate in Artist Next Door at Iowa State Fair, spent time drawing with ISU graduate student n March 2018, awarded Best of Show Ribbon at Heart of Iowa Conference Art Festival and five Blue Judges’ Ribbons (had eight pieces at the event) n July 2018, Story County Fair, awarded State Fair ribbon for visual art exhibit, digital drawing, and awarded alternate state fair ribbon for visual art exhibit, painting n August 2018, took 4-H visual art exhibit to Iowa State Fair, received red ribbon
FACETS | DECEMBER 2018 | 19
Travel
The new Mickey Mouse Club collection has traditional headgear with a twist and a related (and shiny) headband. The hat got its start with Disney's "Mickey Mouse Club" TV show in the 1950s. PHOTO BY DEWAYNE BEVIL/ORLANDO SENTINEL/TNS
World of Disney store reopens with new merchandise, nods to past By Dewayne Bevil Orlando Sentinel
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isney Springs’ World of Disney store, the flagship retail stop of Walt Disney World, officially reopened recently with a wide-open floor plan, new lines of merchandise and nods to technology and the company’s artistic past. The remodeling, completed in phases over several months, is another part of the dining and shopping complex’s long-running reimagining, dating from its Downtown Disney days to its retheming as a small, turn-of-the-century Florida town. The backstory of the World of Disney structure includes an origin based on a citrus produce market, followed by a stint as an office for animators before becoming a retail space, according to the new Disney lore. Elements of its fictional past are presented throughout the store, including animator-inspired sketches incorporated into check-out counters and artwork that temporarily — and magically, Disney says — springs to life. Its agricultural roots are seen in faded painted signage on walls. Shoppers may first notice the redesign’s open spaces and additional light. “We wanted to make this a really great shopping experience, period,” said Alysia Kelley, vice president of visual merchandising. The interior look features natural lighting, brick walls and carpet-free flooring. “We pared back all the heavy theming and the art so that the architecture could be really great visual cues as to where to walk, how to navigate the store,” Kelley said. Because World of Disney customers tend to move in groups, aisles were made wider, she said. “It’s very important that you can see where you’re going,
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who you’re with, where they are in the store,” she said. Shoppers should be able to see all the way across the store at any moment, she said. The previous design of the store was more boxy and segmented. Although the store has expanded over the years, the latest work is the first total re-imagining of the space, Kelley said. A similar renovation has just been completed at the World of Disney store at Downtown Disney in Anaheim, Calif. The Disney Springs store has hubs for some subjects, such as Star Wars or princesses. And there are flexible areas that will change with needs and trends. Right now, there’s a lot of holiday-related merchandise on the western end of the building. “Some people like to shop by their favorite character or story or franchise. Some people like to shop by category,” said Stefanie Whitmore, director of merchandise strategy and product development. “We have a little bit of both in this store.” An entire section is dedicated to headwear, including the famed mouse ears in caps and headband styles, but those products will also be shown in other areas of the store. With the re-opening of the store comes new merchandise collections, including a retro one based on the Mickey Mouse Club. “It will be here for a period of time as an exclusive, and then it will eventually roll out to other locations,” Whitmore said. More additions will be arriving at the complex before the end of the year, said Matt Simon, vice president of Disney Springs. Look for the Wolfgang Puck Bar and Grill to open in November, followed by restaurant called Jaleo, fronted by Chef Jose Andres, in December, he said. ·
Tips for traveling solo with kids By Lynn O’Rourke Hayes FamilyTravel.com
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ill you be traveling solo with kids or grandkids? Here are five ideas to ensure that good times are had by all. 1. BRING BACKUP. Of course you want to spend time with the kids. But, every grown-up deserves a little R&R on their own holiday. Bring along a favorite auntie, your college roommate or another bestie who will relish some vacation time with you and your children. That way, you’ll have a built-in pal for spa time while the youngsters are at the resort’s kids camp or for a late-night chat while the little ones are snoozing. You may also want to take turns as the “adult in charge” while the other heads to the gym, takes a nap or grabs an hour by the pool with a great book. 2. IT’S ALL INCLUDED. Board a cruise ship or check in to an all-inclusive resort for a stress-free getaway. You’ll have a clear idea of how your travel budget will break out while knowing there will be plenty of activities and dining choices for everyone in your clan. More companies such as Disney Cruise Lines and Beaches Resorts are putting extra energy toward making single parents feel welcome. Efforts include group dining, waiving single supplements and special social events. In no time, kids will converge through sports, on the beach, and during arts and crafts, thus finding age-appropriate friends with whom they can share new experiences. The bonus: solo parents discover a window for relaxation. 3. PLAN AN ADVENTURE. Board a “jack-of-all-trades” vessel, one comfortable and nice enough for grandparents and parents, yet hardy enough for energetic kids, and embark on a seafaring adventure. With an expedition-style tone as backdrop, choose from Safari Endeavor’s active itineraries in Baja California’s Sea of Cortez or Alaska’s Inside Passage. Guides are trained to engage with kids of various ages and abilities and will encourage exploration via kayaking, hiking, stand-up paddleboard and Zodiacs. Kids of all ages will thrill to the site of breaching whales in Alaska and the whale sharks and sea lions that thrive in the Sea of Cortez, the body of water Jacques Cousteau dubbed “the aquarium of the world.” 4. CREATE A CUSTOM TRIP. Design your own or work with an adventure outfitter or travel agent to manifest a family getaway that will be picture perfect. Choose your destination, the desired level of adventure and inquire about ways for each family member to have the proper mix of down time and active participation. Consider adrenaline-pumping hiking, biking or rafting trips or itineraries that include cultural exploration in urban areas or faraway points on the globe. Your imagination and expectations paired with the experience and knowledge of a travel pro will result in a dream family vacation. 5. BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY. As parent, grandparent or any adult traveling solo with kids, it’s best to carry the proper documents that will enable you to cross borders, access medical treatment in an emergency and deal with unexpected circumstances in a changing world. In most cases, a signed and notarized letter providing consent from the absent parent or parents should suffice. Different countries have different restrictions so inquire before you depart to avoid disappointments. ·
FACETS | DECEMBER 2018 | 21
Savor
What you need to know about ice wine, New York’s wintry nectar
True ice wine is left long after harvest season to freeze on the vine, then pressed while frozen. PHOTO BY E. JASON WAMBSGANS/CHICAGO TRIBUNE/TNS
By Michael Austin Chicago Tribune
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rom one of the country’s most-prolific wine-producing states comes one of the country’s rarest wine styles. The state is New York, and the style — ice wine — results in mere drops of liquid per year, relative to traditional table wines nationwide. The grapes used to make this pour rely on arctic weather to bring out their sweet, summery flavors, which means that California, the nation’s wine behemoth, has little chance of catching this East Coast contender in a race. Not that California is even trying — it can’t. The production of ice wine is more of a waiting game, and the winners come in last. These decadent nectars send forth heady aromas of apricots, peaches, pears, tropical fruits and honey so distinct that you sometimes don’t even need to stick your nose down into a glass to smell them. The flavors are just as expressive, with beautiful streaks of balancing acidity. New York ice wines pair well with fruit desserts and cheese, from hard and aged to tangy and blue. The wines can also be enjoyed with savory dishes, like seared foie gras, various pates, salty cured meats and foods with spicy heat. Serve these wines well chilled, as the name suggests. A small amount of New York ice wine is produced in the Niagara Escarpment AVA (American Viticultural Area) on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, west of Rochester and north of Buffalo. But most New York ice wine comes from the Finger Lakes region, southeast of Rochester, where the state’s first ice wine was made in 1981. The grapes — often riesling and the French-American hybrids vidal and vignoles — grow alongside other grapes meant for the state’s table wines, so it’s not as if ice wine grapes are cast off to a northerly, year-round tundra. These grapes need a full growing season of sunshine to properly ripen, just like any other wine grape. When those other grapes have been harvested, ice wine grapes are left to shiver
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and struggle through the harshest weather the year has to offer. All in the name of sensual pleasure. This is not late-harvest wine made from grapes affected by Botrytis cinerea (aka “noble rot”). Ice wine grapes are harvested and pressed when frozen. Allowing the grapes to freeze essentially traps water, concentrating the grape’s sugar and acidity, guaranteeing that the extracted syrupy juice will be extra sweet. In the vineyard, the colder the better. Lower temperatures translate to more-concentrated sugar and more-expressive wine. A mild winter can be disastrous for an ice wine producer — the grapes can rot and fall to the ground before freezing — so winemakers cross their fingers as the growing season comes to its natural end. In Canada and in Germany, the birthplace of this wine style (called “icewine” in Canada, “Eiswein” in Germany), laws dictate a required temperature for an ice wine harvest. There is no temperature law in the United States, but ice wines are protected and must be made from grapes that froze on the vine. An alternative version of this wine style can be made from grapes that are manually frozen after harvest, called “iced wines.” While they can be enjoyable, they are less-expressive than true ice wines. Less expensive too. Ice wines are not cheap, especially when you consider that the wines arrive in skinny little half-bottles (375 milliliters). Then again, when you consider how little juice winemakers are able to squeeze from their frozen grapes, in addition to how much extra effort is required to produce this kind of wine, the high prices start to seem reasonable. Think of ice wine as the rare and sublime treat that it is, and suddenly those prices start to make sense. If you have difficulty finding New York ice wines in retail stores, some are available via online retailers. Another option is to order them directly from the wineries. ·
Don’t call them meatballs: Kefta carry a payload of garlic, mint and parsley By Leah Eskin Chicago Tribune
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efta, rolled from ground beef or lamb, is not a meatball. Meat oval, meat lollipop, meat blob, perhaps. Not ball. Cooks often describe them as torpedoes, though the weapon is named after a cigar, and the cigar is named after an electric ray that’s flat below, humped above and topped with small, close-set, menacing eyes. Not something I’d like to find flopping on my carrot salad. The only commonality these shapes share is that they come to a point, as should I. So: Format kefta however you like, as long as it’s not a sphere, which is wrong. Charred outside, carrying a payload of garlic, mint and parsley, they’re the bomb.
KEFTA Prep: 30 minutes plus 1 hour to chill Cook: 6 minutes Serves: 4 as an appetizer, 2 as a main dish Garlic mash: 1 plump clove garlic 1 teaspoon kosher salt Carrot salad: 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 teaspoon honey 1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper 1 pound (about 8 large) carrots, peeled, trimmed 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley 2 tablespoons roasted, salted pistachios Kefta: Half a yellow onion 1/2 pound ground lamb 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh mint leaves 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh parsley Freshly ground black pepper Canola oil 1. Mash: For the garlic mash, drop garlic into a mortar. Sprinkle on salt. Using pestle, mash to a paste. 2. Whisk: For the salad, whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil, honey, cayenne and a scant 1/4 teaspoon of the garlic mash. 3. Shred: Using the second-largest holes on a box grater or the small shredding disk of a food processor, shred the carrots. Heap into a bowl. Sprinkle on parsley. Pour on lemon dressing. Toss. Chill 1 hour or more. 4. Mix: For the kefta, grate the onion on the largest holes of a box grater. Scoop up handfuls of onion and squeeze, discarding liquid. In a large bowl, mix together onion, lamb, mint, parsley and the remaining garlic mash. Season with about 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. 5. Shape: Divide lamb mixture into 8 portions and shape each into a torpedo. If working ahead, chill. 6. Char: Flick on the range exhaust. Lightly oil a ridged griddle pan, and set over high heat. Add kefta torpedoes, and cook, turning to cook all sides, until charred outside and still a bit pink inside, 6-8 minutes. 7. Serve: Scoop cold carrot salad onto each of 2 big or 4 small plates. Scatter on pistachios. Top with kefta. Enjoy. · FACETS | DECEMBER 2018 | 23