HOOK

HOOK 45 the ar4st. You'd love to take it home with you. And can. And will. Next morning. Why are you s4ll here? It's not over. We s4ll have the B-side to play. In the late eigh4es I was making it to estate sales mostly in Westchester. Rather than neatly stashed on a hard drive, these physical items were carefully stacked in a big house. museum if you would. It was there I plowed through a trove of ancient vinyl records. I found a long playing LP by Jackie Gleason who was in addi4on to being a "Honey mooner" was a big band leader. This album had a cover by Salvador Dali. It was dinner music for the swinging dater. Like montevani. Or Herb Alpert. The album itself was more than replicated music but a history of its crea4on and an ar4fact from another 4me. Liner notes o%en told you how it all happened and the partners in the crea4on might be noted. Those were some days... now as it all goes to the cloud. It is no surprise that the vinyl record is surging back. And the num- ber one buyer is the US. Europe next. Last year worldwide over 2 billion in sales. Last winter I went to several vinyl par4es in the East Village. In one the room was filled with smoke and people were moving to Brubeck's Take Five, sharing vinyl treasures they had found. Some snapped their fingers between cuts. Holding the room on a stage riser was the glorious Thorne Turntable glowing like a Stone- hendge relic. The DJ or shall I say shaman moved in blue light as he opened the night's audio presenta4on to the pulsing crowd. Cheers as the black vinyl appeared from its sleeve and was seated on the stone thorn. The needle came slowly down. Full blast. It was a virgin vinyl freshly cut copy of Taylor Swi%'s new vinyl offering. This music was in the room coming at you from that magical place. Chambers Stove with Thermowell No vintage stove captures people's a5en- 4on quite like a Chambers. It was first sold in 1912 a%er 2 years' development to find a way to make a stove that is so efficient, you could "cook with the gas off". The oven Digital sound is everywhere but ana- logue sound from old style records is richer—con2nuous, without micro-spaces between each bit of sound you hear. is so well insulated you can turn the oven on in the morning, get it to the right temperature and then turn off the gas and cook on retained heat all day long. When you open up the oven in the evening, your food is warm, moist and ready to eat. At the same 4me, you can use the built-in slow cooker, called a Thermowell, using the same retained heat approach. Any recipe you use in a crockpot can be used in the Thermowell – without burning fuel the whole 4me. As if that weren't enough, the griddle you see on the le% of the pic- tured 1952 model 90C li%s up to reveal the broiler underneath. So you can scramble eggs for breakfast, enjoy a grilled cheese off the griddle with a cup of tea in the a%ernoon, and bake cookies in the evening all while your dinner slow-cooks in the Thermowell. All these decades later, its style is as unmatched as its effi- ciency. You'll find them in the homes of foodies, profes- sional chefs and lovers of fine, old things throughout the Hudson Valley – and all over the country. Chambers stoves like this one can cook for genera2ons a#er being me2culously (and lovingly) restored by Chambers Rescue, located in Cli#on, NJ.

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