Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, February 22, 2020

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Mountain Views-News Saturday, February 22, 2020 

WALKING SIERRA MADRE - The Social Side 

 by Deanne Davis

REMEMBRANCE

MARGERY WOODS 
BOURGEOIS

Margery Bourgeois passed on February 
17, 2020 in Pasadena following a brief 
illness. She was born in 1926 in Chicago, 
Illinois, the daughter of William 
Horace Moulton and Mildred Simpson. 
Margery was educated at the Francis W. 
Parker School in Chicago, earned her 
bachelor's degree at The University of 
Minnesota, and received her master’s 
degree in history and a teaching credential 
at Stanford Universi-ty.

Margery was thrilled to move to California 
to attend Stanford after enduring 
four winters at the Uni-versity of Minnesota- 
she said she felt like she’d come 
to paradise. Margery married a fellow 
Stanford grad, Enock Bourgeois in 
1954. They moved to Sierra Madre in 
1963 Margery and Enock were parents 
to four children, Janet, William, Marie, 
and Alice.

Margery was an athlete and enjoyed 
skiing, swimming in tropical waters, 
dancing, and walking her dog in the Sierra 
Madre Canyon.Margery climbed Mt.Whitney as a senior citizen and enjoyed skiing on a 
free pass at age 70. She swam in the AAU Nationals as a 13 year-old and was an enthusiastic 
swimmer for the rest of her life.

Margery is survived and loved by her four children, as well as 12 grandchildren: Mary Stason, 
Kenneth Anderson, Sarah Starcevich, Juliana Starcevich, Katherine Starcevich, Paul Starcevich, 
Anne Starcevich, Wesley Graham, Adam Shoop, Jack Graham, Jessica Ryder, and Piper 
Henrich. Margery also is survived by 10 great grandchildren.


“Self-care is giving the world the best of you, 
instead of what’s left of you.” Katie Reed

“Talk to yourself like you would to someone you 
love.” Brene Brown

“Self-care means giving yourself permission to 
pause.” Cecilia Tran

I had to go to the doctor a week or so ago. 
Nothing serious, turns out the reason my hip 
was killing me with every step I took and no 
sitting position was comfortable was because the 
poor thing has bursitis. 

“Trochanteric bursitis is inflammation (swelling) 
of the bursa (fluid-filled sac near a joint) at the 
outside (lateral) point of the hip known as the 
greater trochanter. When this bursa becomes 
irritated or inflamed, it causes pain in the hip. 
This is a common cause of hip pain.”

No kidding! I see there are over 200,000 cases 
of this per year…Symptoms include pain on 
the outside of the hip that’s worse with activities 
such as standing, walking, or running and I can 
add sitting or lying down. Treatments include 
ice, anti-inflammatory medications, steroid 
injections, and physical therapy. 

My doctor prescribed an anti-inflammatory 
called Meloxicam and I think my hip is getting 
better. Not better enough yet, but better. A few 
days after my office visit, I got an email from the 
medical center inviting me to fill out a survey 
about how happy/unhappy I was with my 
visit and the way everyone there treated me…
excellent all the way around…and a nice essay 
about self-care by a Dr. Yazhini Srivathsal. He 
starts right off by talking about Valentine’s Day 
and how we select this day to appreciate and 
recognize the people in our lives we love, he goes 
on to say it’s equally, if not more important, to 
focus on self-love as love of ourselves is what 
allows us to empathize and really connect with 
others on a deeper level, i.e., an empty tank will 
take you exactly nowhere. Take time to refuel.

This is hard to do. We feel guilty if we’re not 
always occupied doing something productive, 
useful, or for somebody else. The very idea of 
sitting down somewhere pleasant, reading and 
having a cup of tea makes us feel guilty. You 
know, that old Puritan work ethic.

Here are a few of the points that Dr. Srivathsal 
listed:

Know you are worthy – no matter what! Our 
worthiness does not depend on anything we 
do or don’t do. It doesn’t have anything to do 
with how we look. We deserve to treat ourselves 
with respect, compassion and genuinely love 
ourselves for who we are in this moment, flaws 
and all. Kind of like the way God views us: with 
love, flaws and all!

Treat yourself like you would treat your best 
friend – If our best friend is upset or feeling just 
plain crummy, we don’t go out of our way to make 
them feel worse, do we? I hope not! So we need 
to treat ourselves with love and compassion…
especially in one of those moments when things 
didn’t go as planned.

Don’t compare yourself to anyone else – That’s 
hard. We want to have this person’s body, that 
person’s hair, this person’s ability to play the 
piano, that person’s singing voice, and on and on. 
We are who we are and that’s a lot to be grateful 
for.

Try to live intentionally every day – Little steps 
that will help us get where we want to be…you 
saw this coming, right? Eat good food that will 
help your body. More veggies, less cheesecake. 
More fresh fruit, and put down those Girl Scout 
cookies that are everywhere currently. If you got 
a huge heart box full of chocolate caramels, just 
eat a couple, not the whole box. It’s probably too 
late for that, but if somebody gives you a huge 
box of candy any time soon, give it to somebody 
else! Do things that make you happy like walking 
and looking at everybody’s flowers. Notice all the 
tiny green leaves that are beginning to appear 
signaling the coming of Spring!

Be your own cheerleader – There’s nothing like the 
feeling of accomplishing something new, maybe 
something you never thought you could do. My 
friend, Marilyn Williams, started taking piano 
lessons when she was well into her 50’s and it has 
given her more pleasure and enjoyment as she 
practices and improves than she ever imagined. 
She’s always wanted to play the piano, and now 
she does. I’ve started doing jigsaw puzzles. These 
are somewhat addictive as you sit down for a 
minute and discover two hours have evaporated 
while you fit a piece here and a piece there.

Make sure you have at least a few minutes of “me 
time” every day – Another tough one for us guilt 
embracers. This can be part of that walk you’re 
taking. Thanking the Creator for the beauty of 
His creation is a nice way to spend some of that 
“me time.”

Surround yourself with people who support you 
and lift you up – Learn about the grace of saying, 
“No.” There are people in all our lives who are 
negative, needy, whiny, and who we wish we could 
avoid. So let’s avoid them! We can’t fix everybody 
and some people just need to be in someone else’s 
life. So let’s let them be with someone else. Also, 
just because someone tells us we’d be perfect for 
this committee or job doesn’t mean we have to say 
yes.

Love yourself as you are right now – Not when 
you’ve lost ten pounds, learned to speak French, 
gotten a promotion or bought a Lexus. Loving 
ourselves as we are this minute, even if the dishes 
are still in the sink, the laundry isn’t done, the 
lawn isn’t mowed and there’s nothing for dinner, 
means we are still splendid people, worthy of love.

Dr. Srivathsal winds up by saying that self-love 
and self-care are important parts of being a happy 
and healthy individual. I loved this whole idea of 
self-care and wanted to pass it along to you, dear 
friends and neighbors. Hence, in the interest of 
self-care, I saw these chairs at Target on sale for 
$17.60 each and brought them home thinking 
how nice it would be to sit in the sun in the late 
afternoon when it’s warm, the sun’s not so hot, and 
enjoy a glass of an adult beverage. I’ve managed 
to do this very thing three times and enjoyed it 
immensely, in spite of the weeds that need to be 
pulled and the dishes that are sitting in my sink.

Do something loving for yourself this week. It will 
be good for your health. Honest! Trust me.

My book page: Amazon.com: Deanne Davis – 
check out

“Noah & The Unicorns” or maybe “The Vuillaume 
Violin”

“Sunrises and Sunflowers Speak Hope” 

Is available on Amazon.com as is

“A Treasure Map, A Drunken Owl and 47 Rattlers 
in a Bag.”

“Emma’s Etouffee Café” is a new Kindle story by 
me!

Also available on Amazon.com and here’s the link:

https://fave.co/2PItO4d


TABLE FOR TWO by Peter Dills

thechefknows@yahoo.com

MY PASTRAMI 

DREAMS

When my friend and superstar Personal Trainer 
Darrian Dalangini challenged me to find the best 
Pastrami in the area, I thought “easy enough, I’ll 
check out a few places, post a few notes on my 
facebook site www.facebook/peterdills.com, and the 
answer will appear”. I found out quickly don’t argue 
sex, politics or who has the best pastrami sandwich in 
town. Before we start this argument, let’s take a look 
at the origins of pastrami.

Like corned beef, pastrami was originally created as 
a way to preserve meat before modern refrigeration. 
For pastrami, the raw meat is brined, partly 
dried, seasoned with various herbs and spices, 
then smoked and steamed. In the United States, 
although beef plates are the traditional cut of 
meat for making pastrami, it is now common to 
see pastrami made from beef brisket, beef round, 
and turkey. 

The Romanian specialty was introduced to the 
United States in a wave of Romanian Jewish 
immigration from Bessarabia and Romania in the 
second half of the 19th century, via the Yiddish. 
Early references in English used the spelling 
“pastrama”, closer to the Romanian original. The 
modified “pastrami” spelling likely was introduced to 
sound related to the Italian salami.

Although New York’s Sussman Volk is generally 
credited with producing the first pastrami sandwich 
in 1887, that claim is disputed by the founders of 
Katz’s Deli in New York, which was founded in 1888. 
Volk, a kosher butcher, claimed he got the recipe 
from a Romanian friend in exchange for storing 
the friend’s luggage while the friend returned to 
Romania. According to his descendant, Patricia Volk, 
Volk prepared pastrami according to the recipe and 
served it on sandwiches out of his butcher shop. 
The sandwich was so popular that Volk converted 
the butcher shop into a restaurant to sell pastrami 
sandwiches.

Romanian Jews immigrated to New York as early as 
1872. Among Jewish Romanians, goose breasts were 
commonly made into pastrami because they were 
inexpensive. Beef navels were cheaper than goose 
meat in America, so the Romanian Jews in America 
adapted their recipe and began to make the cheaper 
beef pastrami.

Making foods to sell out of push carts in the Lower 
East Side of New York was one of the most popular 
occupations for immigrant Jews in the latter half of 
the 19th century. Because sandwiches were a hugely 
popular foodstuff in New York, it is possible Romanian 
Jewish immigrants were making and selling pastrami 
sandwiches from push carts on the streets of New 
York at least a decade before Sussman Volk converted 
his butcher shop into a restaurant.

With a little help from my friends, here are the 
top three choices for a pastrami sandwich in the 
Pasadena/Los Angeles areas. In no particular order:

The Hat With a number of locations throughout the 
San Gabriel Valley, I visited the one on the corner of 
N. Lake and Villa in Pasadena. I ordered mine dry, 
and loaded up on the horseradish and spicy mustard

Johnnie Pastrami 4017 Sepulveda Blvd. Culver City. 
The names says it all. Although Johnnie recently 
passed on to the sandwich shop in the sky, visitors 
flock to this spot for pastrami on a buttery French 
roll, and ask for extra pickles.

Tied: Langers and Canters. These two veterans 
probably received the most passionate support with 
such postings as “no need to go anywhere else”.

Canter’s Deli 419 N/ Fairfax Los Angeles (323) 651-
2030

Langers 704 S. Alvarado St. Los Angeles (213) 483-
8050

Do you like your Pastrami thick or thin? I’ll have to 
chicken out on this one and say they were all good !!

Email your favorite at thechefknows@yahoo.com

Join me on Go Country 105 at 8 AM for some real 
Food Talk Sundays


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com