Brenda Coates

The heart symbol is an ideograph used to express the idea of the “heart” in a metaphorical or symbolic sense. It is an anatomically inaccurate shape as we all know & represents emotion, affection and love, especially romantic love. Depictions of this symbol were found in South Asia in the Indus Valley Civilization (3300 BCE to 1300 BCE) and a heart shaped pendant from the area is on exhibit in the Delphi Museum. The shape is thought to represent the heart shaped peepal fruit of the plant silphium. Ironically the plant was used as an herbal contraceptive. Silver coins from Cyrene of the 5-6^th Century BC bear a similar design, sometimes accompanied by a silphium plant but the heart shape with its use as a heart metaphor was not developed until the end of the Middle Ages (1200 AD – 1300 AD). The first known depiction of a heart as a symbol of romantic love dates to the 1250s in a miniature decorating a capital ‘S’ in a manuscript of the French Roman de la poire.

    Our familiar symbol of the heart representing love developed in the 15^th century and became popular in Europe during the 16^th century. The modern indented red heart has been used on playing cards since the late 15th century.

 The growth of Valentine’s Day, established in 496 to honor the martyred saint who aided lovers and performed secret marriages, helped promote the heart-shape even further. Valentine’s Day gained popularity in the seventeenth century, when it involved simple love notes, often adorned with hearts. Since the 19^th century the symbol has often been used on Valentine’s Day cards, candy boxes, and similar popular culture artifacts as a symbol of romantic love. In 1977 the heart-shape became a verb on the now-ubiquitous t-shirt proclaiming “I ♥ NY.” 

     Since the 1990s the heart symbol has also been used as an ideogram indicating health in its use by restaurants to indicate heart healthy nutrient content (low in cholesterol) and a copyrighted heart-check symbol to indicate heart healthy food was introduced by the American Heart Association in 1995. 

    Here’s a toast to whatever is in your heart in 2023!!!!

Wed – 2/15 – left-over Valentine candies & left-over cocktails paired with the following single pours:  Kvint  – Moldova XO brandy aged in French oak barrel – smokey full flavor;  Clear Creek Blue Plum- Viewed as the gold standard for slivovitz in the world. This lively kosher spirit shimmers and has an aroma and taste of its small yellow Mirabelle plum and unripe peach; Bols Ginger- Ginger and floral with a hint of brandy – a smooth sensation with floral notes and a strong after taste of ginger.

Thurs – 2/16 – Let’s continue with Valentine love – we may still have some left over chocolate and our Belated but nonetheless fantastic Valentine special cocktails:   Stupid Cupid – Pineapple Brandy, Cointreau, Sour mix, Pineapple juice, Lemon juice;  I ♥ U – Courvoisier, crème de cocoa, heavy cream; Be Nice – Martel, Cointreau, sour mix; True Love- cherry brandy, rum, lime juice; First Kiss  – (French 75) with Champagne topper to celebrate with bubbles – Courvoisier, lemon juice, simple syrup (This was the French at-end-of-day during WWII named after a French artillery gun.); Fruit/infused flight ½ price                                                 

 

Remember reminder that we will be re-opening next Wed 2/15 at our usual hours of 4-9 PM. We will be sending out our Post-Valentine Day specials in the next 4 days. It will be great to catch-up with our members/friends. Since we have a few spare minutes, we thought we would share with you, one of our favorite local stories about a very special girl. Maybe some of you will remember her.

     How many of you remember the Hendersonville Dog?  Well, she was a survivor. As we later learned, we all had our pet names for her – Tiger, Baby Girl, Boo….   Mary Cervini  (what a remarkable person) started one of the first rescue programs in the county and later realized that the solution may not be rescue  but spay/neuter. So she set about setting up a program to catch, neuter, and release as many stray dogs and cats as she possibly could. Thank you, Mary!! She hired someone to catch and bring to her the 35+ feral cats hiding out back at Home Depot. The cat crowd had grown into a life of their own in the thick grass and debris – thanks and no thanks to the compassionate employees aiding the growing numbers. But Mary took a particular interest in “Hendersonville’s Dog” as did I. Mary contacted all animal shelters and possible collection points for strays and asked them to be on the look outlook for “Hendersonville’s Dog.” If sited or caught Mary was to be notified and would take possession.

     The Dog roamed freely from Hardees on South Main (now TD Bank) to the small mall on 25 North (Salvation Army drop-off) about 3 miles. She would venture off the main drag into the adjoining streets – anywhere she could pick up some crumbs. Our story started with feeding the stray we named Boo in the summer of 2014 and although sporadic she caught on quickly and was a regular at our feeding station and so it would come to pass at many of her admirers’ stations. Bottom line we all loved her!

     Well Mary noted a very large growth on Hendersonville Dog’s chest that was scary and needed attention so the search and capture for her became more intense. Mary heard of a sighting of the dog that had crawled beneath an abandoned shed belonging to the American Red Cross (across the street from the HC Courthouse.)  So she sprang into action, taking a leash and husband (in that order) to the sighting of “H’ville Dog” she proceeded to crawl underneath the broken down shed with leash in hand. The H’ville dog cowered underneath the floor and Mary (says she intuitively knew the dog was not a biter) hooked the leash and dragged the poor animal out. Out The Dog began to hysterically jump in circles, yanking and pulling desperately to become free again.  But Mary held on and took the hysterical animal to the local vet to be sedated and diagnosed. The growth on the chest was much larger than anticipated and needed immediate medical attention. So how to raise enough monies in a short amount of time to get the surgery? We agreed to spend 4 hours asking for monies. This quest to raise monies introduced us to our real community – those pockets of humanity lying there waiting to be touched and Boo, the innocent, grabbed those souls. Setting out on 7^th to raise salvation funds, we approached Underground Bakery who gave money, Kilpatrick Upholstery who had followed the dog for years, gave; as we strolled down King Street we encountered more of Boo’s devotees – AAA Bonds had established a special feeding station at the southeast corner of their building, filling the bowls daily, and across the street at Roper Insurance and Apple Country Realty, same MO. Then heading back north to Seventh we passed Youngblood Oil Company who placed food dishes under the back of the building, and across the street at Auto Werx – yes they too put out food for “Tiger.”  The underground Bakery told the story that one day they saw “the dog” dragging the leg of a deer down the middle of the street and assumed she had caught a deer (It was later revealed that the bones had been given to “Boo” from M & M Freezer Locker. They had been dressing deer that day so she received a taste of wild venison – sorry to burst their bubble but we could not let anyone think that Boo was a deer killer.)

     Well, the community rallied and a sufficient amount was collected to make a dent in the surgery that “Boo” would be needing. Marvelous Mary took “Boo” to the vet where she received the surgery and a 5- pound cancerous tumor was removed from her chest on July 23, 2015. Although her time would be limited there was hope for some quality time left. In fact, she went to live with Mary who had 4 other dogs and a very large back yard. Boo fit nicely in the family and passed away peacefully on Friday, March 18, 2016 at 1:30 PM in the compassionate arms of Mary. For the dog re-named “Baby Girl” Mary had an open visitation sent to all those who had known her and given monies. Several went and were able to touch the friend they had cared for from afar.  Baby Girl, Tiger, Boo – will be remembered with love.

 

The Brandy Bar + Cocktails will be on vacation from January 16 until February 14, 2023. Again we offer the bar for special events and parties of 12 or more during our vacation, just give us a call at 828-845-0546. We will open with a belated Valentine’s day specials, so grab up that 1/2 price Valentine candy and join us for some sweet matches with brandy! The NC writers Network will resume March 15 and we will send info as to guest author and details. Also March 22 we will resume with the Songwriter’s sessions with more info to be sent. Looking forward to a relaxing cold weather vacation and hope you can do so. Please return to us February 15th for some very special “after Valentine” Specials and welcome an early Spring!  

 

But we wanted to share a “bar story” that is fun and unique: A Funny Story Late one evening at The Brandy Bar, a mysterious visitor arrived on his Ducati motorcycle. A nuclear physicist who had been hired to help set up the new hydro electric plant at Long Shoals. He showed up with fun and fascinating tales of his childhood and life.  Several of us were recounting the out-of-the- ordinary events in our lives.  K.A. told us this hilarious event that happened to him.  KA was a very bright and enterprising young fellow and could be depended upon to take a job and complete it.  Hired by a local mortuary company to park cars at the age of 16, his ambitions became apparent, and he soon advanced in the ranks to delivering bodies from the morgue to the funeral home. One afternoon he was asked to pick up a body from a morgue about 20 miles away in the hilly mountains of Pennsylvania and deliver it to his home office funeral home.  He set out and without incidence picked up the body (still in its body bag) at the morgue in the hospital and proceeded to deliver it to the local funeral home.  Traveling over the first hill, KA heard some odd sounds coming from the back of the hearse which were out of the ordinary and kind of scary.  The sounds seemed more pronounced when he was climbing the hills and when he descended the sound quietened. KA became increasingly alarmed about the possibility that the body he was carrying was in fact still alive. Finally arriving at the funeral home, he charges into the funeral home, frightened and asking for help. He screams that the body he is carrying is in fact alive! He has been hearing sounds coming from the body that indicated there was still life there. The funeral home staff at first seemed alarmed but then amused. They took the body in and sure enough their intuitions were right, the body was dead; but they knew the dead body held gases that expelled during uphill pressure and released during downhill.  In any event funeral home staff got a good laugh at the young driver’s inexperience and our new customer was indeed a one of a kind gem.  Thanks for entertaining us KA!