This and That

• The editor suggested I tell people the best way to get news items into the paper. Call 537-1551 and ask for Karin is one way. Another way is to e-mail me, kelton@marshallindependent.com You can also go to our Web site and click on virtual newsroom and go from there.

If you call me, don’t tell me you want to place an ad. I’ll transfer you over to the classified or display ad department. Not really, but an ad is something you pay for. News items or “blurbs,” if you will, are free and are usually a non-profit affair. You can suggest how often and when it will go in the paper, but it might not get in the paper the day you want it. (But we do make an effort to do so.) If it doesn’t get in one day because of space or time limitations, it will get in the next. That’s why ads are good — if you give the sales associates at least two days notice, they can put it in the paper using your exact verbiage, where you want it and how many times. Plus, you can see and approve the copy beforehand — something you can’t do with news.

• A caller wanted me to let people know that when giving a sympathy card, to be sure and put your full name and address on it so that a thank you card can be sent out. The caller said he and his family received cards after a recent death in the family with just the first names on them and ones without addresses and they didn’t know who they were.

• A woman for whom I took a photo this week of her volunteer organization mentioned to her fellow volunteers that she made egg coffee for everyone to enjoy. A younger woman asked what on earth “egg coffee” was. The woman had to explain a couple of times that an egg is mixed in with the coffee grounds before hot water is poured in. The person said that I should write a column about egg coffee.

My dad, a 100 percent Norwegian, made egg coffee every day of his adult life except for his years in the Army.

He would crack an egg with a decisive gesture and mix it in with the Folger’s, the brown coffee grounds showing flecks of white. It gives the coffee a mellower flavor, I think.

Here’s a recipe I got off the Web:

That Bizarre Norwegian Egg Coffee

The traditional Norwegian method for making coffee includes an egg. Simply break up a single egg and mix it with half a cup of water in a warmed saucepan. Add one cup of medium-grind coffee, and six cups of boiling water, and boil slowly for exactly three minutes, covered. Then add another half a cup of cold water, and let it steep for 10 minutes, then serve. What you get is slightly rich, mysteriously clear coffee. Why? Not only does the egg add a little richness, but the egg proteins bind with and settle the grounds. This happens when you add that last half a cup of cold water.
Some people use the whole egg broken up — that includes the shell. Some use the egg without the shell, others use only the egg whites. In all cases, the result is the same — mysteriously rich, and miraculously clear coffee.