Leonard Cohen's Rocking Chair, What to Buy at a Pharmacy in Portugal, My Mother Before Anything

and other things from my Notes App

Find me the enthusiasts,

out of my head,

and into yours.

x Con

Thonet Rocking Chair

Michael Thonet.

This German-Austrian guy who was bending wood in 1819, in rural Austria, where he opened his workshop.

He got his patent in 1856, for that curly-wurly wood, and turned furniture-making into a venture with his five sons. 

Picasso, Cannes, 1957, photograph by Andre Villers.

The rocking chair, beloved by Picasso, and my boy Leonard Cohen, is a masterpiece.

Marianne Ihlen, in the apartment she shared with Leonard Cohen, Hydra, Greece, c. 1965, photographed by Leonard Cohen.

They come up on TradeMe surprisingly often.

I rocked in one, at an old convent in Sardinia. 

'Indoor Rocking Chair' by Jean-Édouard Vuillard, 1896.

Toothpaste

Couto toothpaste from Porto has been around since 1932, and it is still in the Couto family. 

So chic, so Euro pharmacy. 

In Portugal, don’t pay more than 2 euros for this.

Salt + Fruit

Muối Ớt: salt, chili, garlic, sugar, dried shrimp. Sprinkle it in a pile, dip mango in it.

Perfect set up.

Balsam

Latvian elixir of 24 botanicals, including birch buds, ginger root, and Valerian root, aged in oak barrels for 30 days. 

Created in 1752 by an apothecary. 

If any liquid deserves the perfect word ‘elixir’, it is this. 

If you are feeling hardy get the original, but I usually get it’s sweeter sister, currant.

It is a pretty punchy alcoholic beverage (at 43%), and can be enjoyed sipped straight, or over ice. 

Morocco’s Fig Spirit: Mahia 

I was told this fig spirit translates to “my mother before anything.”* 

(*I cannot confirm this with any other sources.)

Salt, Eggs, Bread: Gifts for a New Baby

British folklore-adjacent tradition of salt (for health), eggs (for life), and bread (for sustenance) for a newborn’s family.