Question of the Day | 03/10/2009 11:00 pm

Rise 'n' Shine: What is the first thing you think of when you wake up in the morning?

Joan Ganz Cooney | 03/10/2009 11:00 pm

Joan Ganz Cooney Stops Herself From Hitting 'Snooze'

The first thing I think of when I wake up in the morning is how much I wish I could sleep for another hour and how much I dread getting up and doing my exercise routine.

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Liz Smith | 03/10/2009 11:00 pm

The Man Who Greets Liz Smith in the Morning

First thing I think when I wake up is to put the expensive eyedrops in my right eye so pressure won’t build up and so I won’t lose my sight from what is a congenital defect. After that, I think of a cup of coffee. My wonderful aide Denis Ferrara is usually right there with the latter.

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Cynthia McFadden | 03/11/2009 6:55 am

Cynthia McFadden's Morning Priorities

My first thoughts every morning are: Is my son OK and do I have to wash my hair?

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Judith Martin | 03/11/2009 7:05 am

Judith Martin: Is It Worth Remembering?

Whether my dream is worth memorizing, because if I don’t do that immediately, it evaporates. What I then keep forgetting is how blankly my family stares at me, waiting for the point, if I repeat even the best of them.

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Julia Reed | 03/11/2009 7:45 am

Julia Reed Is Still Dreamin' in the AM

Well, first, like Joan, I think of how much I wish I weren’t awake, and how much I’d really, really like to roll over and go back to sleep, which has been pretty much a morning constant since I was first made to get up and go off to nursery school. And then, like Candice, I think of the dog, since I, too, have been smooshed over to the side in the night while he lolls comfortably pretty much wherever he likes. I also think of him because he is generally moaning to be taken out, fed, etcetera, and my up-and-at-‘em husband is usually long gone, having left both of us among the sheets. I still, rather pathetically at this late stage, aim to happily hop up, take the dog for a bracing walk, have tea and yogurt and fruit, and read all the papers — all by, say, seven o’clock, in preparation for a private yoga instructor whom I have never actually gotten around to hiring. On the occasions when I actually manage to do this (sans the yoga teacher), I feel so virtuous and energized, I am scary, but apparently that payoff ain’t enough to get me going. But there’s always tomorrow …

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Joan Juliet Buck | 03/11/2009 9:45 am

Joan Juliet Buck Reflects on Life After a Friend's Death

Well, this morning the first thing I thought of was my friend Hercules Bellville, who died in London two weeks ago at 69. I didn’t go to London for his funeral at the Brompton Oratory, and now I thought that I felt really bad about that. Peter Eyre had organized a High Catholic Mass and high beautiful music. There were 600 people at Hercules’s funeral, and as befits one of the great bachelors, many of them were, apparently, weeping blondes. And I thought of Hercules’s life as a producer, a friend and a pillar of so many of the rest of us, and how he never married until just 48 hours before he died, and how he had no children, and how Peter has no children either, and I have no children, and Clare has no children, and Valerie has no children, and then I thought of the lives of all my friends in London, and of how much they have given and done and cared for others, and then I thought of how little I have given, and then I thought that it was time to give, and then I began to have regrets about everything I had never done, and by then I was so exhausted from all this thinking that I had to get up just to get it to stop.

14 Comments

Candice Bergen | 03/11/2009 6:50 am

Candice Bergen's 'Wake Up' Call

OK. The first thing I think of is my dog, Phyllis, who has usually shoved me to the edge of the bed where I am hanging, bat-like, trying not to fall off. Then I think of peeing because I’m getting up there — not as old as our Liz, but then, few are.

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I stretch, and then say "thank you" for me waking up on earth and not in heaven.

By Rainbow Power on 03/11/2009 4:32 am

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Me too Rainbow! LOL…then I stumble out of bed, and with my eyes still half closed put on a coat, call the dog, sleep walk to the elevator, walk him so he can do his morning constitution, back upstairs and head straight to the coffee pot. That’s every morning, and I’m glad I can to do it. After my coffee, I let other thoughts enter my mind.

By Cheryl Mitchell on 03/11/2009 8:07 am

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Feed the dog! She’s up like a shot when my alarm goes off at 5:45am and prances and races around until food is set before her(never guess she’s 12) - actually I don’t even need an alarm clock with her around. After feeding the dog, starting coffee, I’m on my computer while eating breakfast- checking out wOw of course!

By Dee T on 03/11/2009 5:07 am

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The first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning is do I have time to write before work!!

By Laurie Deer on 03/11/2009 5:50 am

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Having found that - if you get up for something really wonderful - it can be the most favorite part of your day, early on I wrote a letter to the head of the newest university near my home, asking if they would make an exception and let me use their pool for laps from 7-8 am every weekday morning. I was told I could, I actually could - totally unbelievable as it was large, gorgeous, with skylight overhead - and new. I told NO ONE - but felt like Esther Williams (for those of you who can remember that far back), swimming back and forth quickly for that hour, guarded by one of a numbers of professors that assumed lifeguard role and graded their papers. Unbelievable years of feeling like a queen and keeping "arms and shoulders like Michelle" long after that seemed possible. This was my heaven.

When administration changed, I quickly shifted to 6:30 am early morning, hour or more, 7-day-a-week walks of a wonderful mall close to me. At first I knew no one, but quickly found that having company made the time speed by. Six men(!!) - who also met walking - took pity on me, seeing I was fast enough to keep up with their group who also walked before going to work. Fantastic situation — with such depth and breadth of conversation that I began to know them better than friends, and our laughter — well, it echoed in the cavernous interior more often than not. What a "high" this was to start the day - and we truly cared deeply for each other - but to be "the woman" among that many neat men? I still smile thinking of it. Life was sooooooo good.

We didn’t leave. The mall changed policy about two years ago, and we dispersed. . each with a sense of loss . . which our still occasional early breakfasts out together haven’t make up for. It has seemed "a death" of sorts. But . .

"UP with the birds" still has meaning in my village of 26 parks and 2 forest preserves where the occasional deer are seen and whose wetlands draw birds otherwise rarely seen in these parts. Have you seen a woodchuck lately? I do often, standing on one of the wooden bridges that straddle the streams on the footpaths. . and so many other wonders of nature that time passes with me often in awe in such nature.

But now - today in winter - I find that "going out to breakfast at one of the yummy places" that abound has become my favorite time with friends who are always happy to get out early before the real day begins. I guess my theory is that IF nothing else as much fun - and it has to be fun - happens during the day, I already am living on my quota already.

Is early morning my favorite part of the day? Absolutely.

By joan larsen on 03/11/2009 5:52 am

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P.S. Omigosh, I just read our Liz - who can one-up about anyone - tell us that she has a male "aide" that brings her her early morning coffee. You know, that woman really really knows how to live. Now we truly know why she has that wonderful smile in every photo we see — and WHY!!! Too too good I would say.

By joan larsen on 03/11/2009 6:13 am

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Joan, I’m with you…a male "aide"…now that’s living…hm hm hm

By Cheryl Mitchell on 03/11/2009 8:11 am

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For me it’s coffee!

By beverly linens on 03/11/2009 6:10 am

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Dear Beverly, Since i’m semi-retired, i was a buyer for the Rykoff-Sexton Food Compay, I work to maintain my health benefits. I’m now just an hourly worker for Peet’s Coffee + Tea. (Anyone close to Berkley? (Calif) I dropped out of management after my cancer surgery. My first? A two-shot machiatto. However, I’ll have green tea at home. At 4:00 A.M. I’m making poached catfish, Italian style braised broccoli, Grilled Aspargus, and braised spinach. (Vit -C; I’m allergic to most fruits). I have my oats for dessert. It keeps my cholesterol down. i don’t eat dinner. Nothing past 8:00 P.M. Along with my Monday - Friday job, I also cook 3 nights a week for my, In -Home Cooking Business. If you’re in Manhattan, Whole Foods (on 7th Avenue) carries a few selections of Peet’s Coffee. However, in my Boston Store, I mix 50% Ethiopian Fancy and 50% Sulawesi-Kalosi. I don’t, "do," supermarket coffee. I use a french press at home. It’s the ONLY way to make great coffee.

Right now, I am having some Dragonwell Green Tea, though.

Sisterly yours,

Missy Susan

By Missy-Susan Bauer on 03/11/2009 4:12 pm

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Susan, For twenty five years it was a locally roasted French Roast from Hawthorn Coffee and now it is Stumptown which is also locally roasted. I have an Gaggia expresso machine that I purchased here in Portland Oregon in 1983. It is still working. it still produces the best la creme on top. I learned to drink espresso’s with a cube of sugar and a twist of lemon in New Orleans in the sixties. I’ve never found anything better.

Are you in New York. My daughter is an artist in the city. Lovely place. Bev.

By beverly linens on 03/11/2009 6:31 pm

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Dear Ms. Beverly, Gaggia makes some very good machines for home Espresso. Whlie French Roasted coffee is my company’s fourth best selling coffee, I’m not one of the, "followers." you would never use a great coffee for the French Roast process. You would normally use a Latin American Coffee for it. When you, "French Roast," coffee beans, you roast them at a higher temperature than you should and for a longer period of time than you should. Then the coffee oil within the coffee cherry. (Yes, the coffee bean is actually a cherry.) rised to the surface and burns off to created that smoky flavor that many people enjoy. I’m not one of them. I still like a mixture of African and Indonesian. Once I got an excellent coffe from the Island of Java. It was, "to die for." I’ll match my Crema on the espresso I make to anyone’s. I like my coffee, "as is." I don’t add anything to it. Bear in mind, down in New Orleans, people mix their coffee with Chickory. (It’s in the dandelion family.

I use to live in Manhattan. Our daughter was born in Brooklyn. For the past few years, we live in the, "South Shore," of Massachusetts. I miss New York. Lorraine Gordon, Max’s widow (Founder of the Village Vanguard) remembers my name as soon as I come down those, "Magical Stairs." My friend, Alanna took a picture of she and i some four years ago. She once wrote to me to tell me that it’s on her mantle at home. I like my Jazz and my Ballet as well as GOOD chocolate and GOOD coffee.

Sisterly yours,

Missy Susan.

By Missy-Susan Bauer on 03/11/2009 9:28 pm

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Missy -

May I impose on you to "Spill it" …please, about the french press. Any special one? And grinder, too?

I’m going to buy one. I have been in coffee hell lately. Seriously, I would appreciate your feedback.

Thank you!

By N P on 03/11/2009 7:19 pm

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Dear Ms. N.P., I use the French Press products from Bodum. They’re very good. Although it’s been several years since I’ve checked their Website, they have a good one. They even have or had a Teardrop Tea carafe that was, "to die for." however it was several hundred dollars. A good French Press should be ab out $35.00 to $40.45 dollars. Even Target has some. My Coffee Store also sells them. If you do get one, please e-mail me directly as I have made a small change from the printed instructions and it works beautifully. I do not have a grinder at home. The grind to use is our grind #12. I’s one grind smaller than that for a percolator, which is the worst way to make coffee!. When you dshop for a grinder, nmake sure it is a, "burr," grinder with metal burrs rather than plastic. There’s a really cheap, I mean, less costly grinder, which isn’t a grinder at all. It’s a chopper. That’s about $20.00 I good grinder, with metal burrs shpould be from $150.00 to $250.00. I have two rules for coffee. I never get more than I’m going to use in a week, even if I get two different grinds. #12 for the French Press; #6 for my Chemex. My e-mail is Jazz_Scouter@msn.com (an, underscore between the z and the S.) I’m addicted to Peet’s Coffee. Check out their website. I would rather go without, than drink poor coffee. When I travel, I take my travel-press. I do not drink the, "crappe," in the hotels. Please keep me posted. Good Luck., I hope I’ve been of some assistance to you.

Missy Susan

By Missy-Susan Bauer on 03/11/2009 9:13 pm