Tea is a drink with jam and bread. I know that from the song “Do-Re-Me” from the wonderful play and film “The Sound of Music.” Maria uses the song to teach those unruly Von Trapp kids the musical scales. Talk about a successful lesson. Those kid’s great grandkids are still singing. That Maria was something special.

Pass the jam. Marmalade is a jam. It is a fruit preserve that uses pectin or quince as the gelling agent to set it up and make it all gooey and sticky so it spreads to and stays nicely on your bread and toast. From the Spanish to the English, marmalade was a special type of jam. That marmalade is a bittery orangey mixture with lemony-limey flavors, a concoction of British likability, perhaps because of its marginal attractiveness to wider audiences and an island preference for reservedness, even in their preservedness. The English bitter marmalade comes in special little jars that look somewhat weird with funny calligraphy and references to unknown ingredients that could cause you to wonder, “Should I really?”, which is why marmalade to the rest of the world is just plain sweet old jam. Still, that bitter marmalade of the Spanish coast and the British Isles is worth a visit. I especially like the more tangy stuff on the toasted almost-burnt half of an English muffin, spread with a generous portion of butter melting into little pools in the crisped bubbly-looking bread, with large dollops of marmalade liberally ladled and dripping onto the top of the warm muffin to complete the sight of the mouth-watering morning wake-up delight. Hmmmmm, good. Now, that goes very well indeed with tea and a glance through the Sunday comics.

Marmaduke is a Great Dane in one of those newspaper comic strips. He is a playful giant of a dog who towers over Mom Dottie and regales audiences with his slap-stick antics. Not fond of marmalade himself, he prefers large bones so he can dig up the backyard, producing a moon-like landscape and causing Dad Phil, who is looking out the window over his paper, to drop his muffin and marmalade and splash tea on his tie. Marmaduke is quite the character.

My Marmaluke is a young rancher in New Mexico, who joins the army and is sent to Japan, where he learns how to make sushi. Sushi is sort of like jam and bread, but more organized. Sushi is eaten with chop sticks, often with a drink of hot tea. Marmaluke the Rancher is tall and lanky like Marmaduke the Great Dane. They both have a fondness for fun and want to help, even if they may stub a few toes and break a few dishes. Marmaluke the Rancher is good at rolling that rice and building those little sushi tubes and miniature sushi and sashimi apartment buildings, so good that he opens “Marmaluke’s Country Sushi Bar and Coffee House” in Santa Fe, New Mexico with daily readings by local writers. Tonight’s reading is entitled “Marmalade.” Marmaluke’s friend Ezra wrote the story, and there are Laramie and Sally crossing the street, and look who’s with them, where’d they find that Great Dane, I wonder what his name is?

It is amazing where a drink with jam and bread can lead you,

Grandpa Jim