Moxie, Maine, and Moxie Flavored Cupcakes

Today I'm attending a birthday party for my friend Dave. I've known Dave for well over twenty years, and we both went to college in Maine. Dave also used to spend a lot of time in Maine when he was a kid and is a big fan of our northern neighbor.

To honor Dave, and the great state of Maine, I'm writing about Moxie this week. Moxie, to those of you who don't know, is a carbonated beverage (soda, tonic, cola, whatever!) that is associated with Maine and other parts of northern New England. When I was a kid you could really only find it up north, but now you can find it down here in southern New England as well.

Moxie is Maine's official state beverage, and was created in 1884 by Augustin Thompson, a Maine native who was a Civil War vet, a homeopath, and a surgeon. Although Moxie is now consumed as a soft drink, Thompson originally created it as a form of "nerve food" designed to strengthen the human nervous system. Thompson stated in his patent application that Moxie Nerve Food was "charged with soda for the cure of paralysis, softening of the brain, and mental imbecility."

Thompson began bottling Moxie in Lowell, Massachusetts, and he promoted it with a variety of clever schemes. For instance, he claimed that gentian root, Moxie's special flavoring ingredient, had been discovered in South America by someone named Lieutenant Moxie. After receiving a sample of the root from Lieutenant Moxie, Thompson found out it could cure insanity, blindness, headaches, and "loss of manhood from excesses." Moxie Nerve Food became a huge hit and soon Thompson was bottling 27,000 bottles each week. It went on to become popular across the country.

The story about Lieutenant Moxie was just created for marketing purposed. There never was anyone named Lieutenant Moxie. Historians aren't sure where Thompson got the name for his product, but they suspect he was inspired by one of Maine's geographic features that are named Moxie, like Moxie Mountain.

Now, about that gentian root. It doesn't really cure anything. It also tastes a little bitter, so when people first drink Moxie they're often like "That's pretty good.. wait, what the hell is that aftertaste?!" When I was a kid I don't think I was ever able to drink a full can. However, now that my palate has matured I appreciate it much more. The distinctive taste is what makes Moxie special, and why the word "moxie" is now used to mean spunk or energy.

During the Depression sales of Moxie declined, and they fell even farther during World War II. At its peak popularity Moxie was sold across the entire country, but slowly it became just a regional beverage found in Pennsylvania and New England. (We New Englanders always appreciate the finer things, like Moxie, Indian pudding, and chow mein sandwiches.) For much of the 20th century ownership of the brand shuffled between huge beverage corporations, all but ignored in a sea of sugary mergers and acquisitions, until Moxie finally found a home back in New England in 2007 at Coca Cola of New England in Bedford, New Hampshire. Apparently this happened none too soon - someone in Maine was so desperate that he had been making and selling Moxie out of his garage using gentian syrup he purchased from a previous bottling company.

As you can see, people in Maine are very attached to Moxie. In fact, there is annual Moxie festival in Lisbon Maine. If you attend you'll see lots of people wearing orange and black!

Moxie cupcakes, unfrosted.

You can just drink Moxie straight, or you can use it for mixed drinks. I was feeling adventurous and decided to bake with it. Here is my recipe for Moxie flavored cupcakes. I am not a cupcake expert, so I tweaked this root beer cupcake recipe from the Cupcake Project blog. (They are cupcake experts.) As a special bonus, these are vegan.

MOXIE CUPCAKE RECIPE

Ingredients:

1 cup Moxie
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
Frosting (I used cream cheese, but vanilla would work too.)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Add vinegar to Moxie and let it sit. Line cupcake tin with liners. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. 

3. Whisk the sugar, canola oil and vanilla into the Moxie/vinegar mixture until well combined.

4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and mix. Don't overmix, but you don't want any big lumps either.

5. Fill your cupcake liners about three quarters of the way full.

6. Bake for 18 - 22 minutes. I baked mine for 20 minutes and thirty seconds - they came out great!

7. Take cupcakes out of the pan to cool, otherwise they'll get soggy. Once they are fully cooled frost.

8. Eat!

I think these came out pretty good. They tasted a little bit like gingerbread and were very light and fluffy. I wish the Moxie flavor was stronger, but I didn't have any gentian root extract and used vanilla instead. Some health food stores do sell gentian root extract but I don't think it is intended for baking. It would probably taste pretty scary!

So, to sum up: even if you can't go to Maine this summer,  you can still drink some Moxie or make Moxie cupcakes and dream about visiting the sylvan wilds of Maine. And enjoy that aftertaste!

(I found the information about Moxie's history in Jim Baumer's 2011 book Moxie: Maine in a Bottle, which my colleague Heather loaned to me. Thanks Heather!)

Spiders, Toads, and Common Plantain: Folklore Right Under Your Feet

Writing this blog encourages me to see the world in a different way. New England is full of interesting places and stories. Almost every town has its ghost or witches, its haunted cemetery, or its anomalous rock formation. There's something unusual lurking everywhere.

Sometimes it's hiding right under our feet. Last week I went for a walk in the Arnold Arboretum. I was hoping to find a mountain ash tree, but the Arboretum has over 15,000 (!) plantings and I never located one. However, I did find this plant.

It's the common plantain, also known as greater plantain, snakeweed, Englishman's foot, and a host of other things. If you speak Latin, you'll call it plantago major. The ancient Roman's called it planta, which means "the sole of man's foot," because it supposedly followed the Roman legions wherever they marched. You probably have some in your yard or growing out of the cracks in your sidewalk.

Here's a story about the plantain from a the 1798 edition of The Farmer's Almanack:

A toad was seen fighting with a spider in Rhode-Island; and when the former was bit, it hopped to a plantain leaf, bit off a piece, and then engaged with the spider again. After this had been repeated sundry times, a spectator pulled up the plantain, and put it out of the way. The toad, on being bit again, jumped to where the plantain had stood; and as it was not to be found, she hopped round several times, turned over on her back, swelled up, and died immediately. This is an evident demonstration that the juice of the plantain is an antidote against the bites of those venomous insects.

Now, I'm not saying this battle between a Rhode Island toad and spider never happened, but the famous Dutch writer Erasmus included a very similar story in his Colloquies, which were written in the 1500s:

I have heard it told by those that have seen it, that there is the like Enmity between a Toad and a Spider; but that the Toad cures himself, when he is wounded, by biting of a Plantane Leaf.

Perhaps toads across the world all know the efficacy of plantain against spider venom, or perhaps this is a very old folk story that made its way from Europe to New England. Either way, its inclusion in The Farmer's Almanack indicates the high regard English settlers had for common plantain.

In addition to spider bites, over the centuries plantain has been used to treat dysentery, earaches, kidney disorders, and open wounds. Although originally native to southern Europe, plantain has spread across the world. Just as the Roman legionnaires carried it out from Italy, the English settlers carried it to North America.

Because of this the Native Americans gave it the names Englishman's foot and white man's foot, an invasive species brought by an invading nation. However, stories also say that the plant's ability to cure rattlesnake bites was first discovered by a South Carolina Indian. This discovery added another name, snakeweed, to plantain's long list of pseudonyms and spurred that state's legislature to reward the Indian (from Matthew Robinson's Family Herbal, 1863).

I don't know anything about the dangers or benefits of using plantain to treat illnesses or injuries, so I'm not going to recommend it for anything, particularly not rattlesnake bites. If you're bitten by a rattlesnake call 911! But I will recommend looking down when you walk around, because you never know what interesting piece of folklore you're stepping over.

Legends and Lore of the North Shore now available, plus a Fiddle-Playing Witch's Curse!

Before I get to this week's official post, I want to announce that my book Legends and Lore of the North Shore is now available. You can buy it from Amazon in both print or Kindle format, or you can buy it from Powell's if you want to support a more independent retailer.

The book was a lot of fun to write. The one review currently up on Amazon calls it a romp, and I suppose that's how it felt to write it. In 35,000 words I cover everything you ever wanted to know about Massachusetts's North Shore: Native American shamanism, amorous merpeople, spirit-haunted pirate treasure, Bigfoot sightings, and the creation of a mechanical Messiah. And of course witches, witches, and more witches.

I will be traveling around the area doing some readings, so please stay tuned. If you enjoy the book, please post a review on Amazon! Now, onto this week's post...

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For some reason, the fiddle is often associated with the Devil. The Charlie Daniels Band sang about the Devil fiddling, Stephen Vincent Benet wrote a poem about it, and it shows up in different folk stories. I'm not quite sure why, but this essay over at ExoterX.com suggests a few reasons, including the following:

• Angels are said to play harps, so it makes sense that fallen angels would also play music.
• The horned and hoofed image of the Devil is derived from images of the ancient god Pan and his satyrs, who are often shown playing musical instruments.
• People like to dance to the fiddle. Christian reformers (like our own Puritans) were opposed to dancing. Therefore, the fiddle must belong to Satan. Like rock music, the fiddle enflames animal passions. 

In one story from Plymouth County, a young boy kidnapped by witches sees them dancing in an abandoned house. The fiddle player is a mysterious dark man, and when the boy sees him he flees in terror. Clearly, it is the Evil One himself. Sometimes, though, the Devil's servants are the one playing the fiddle, as this story from Hopkinton, Rhode Island shows.

Many years ago an elderly African American man named James McDaniel lived in Hopkinton. James had a "cocked hat, glaring eyes and daring manner," so he naturally acquired a reputation for being a witch. He also played the fiddle.

One day Amos Longworthy, Jr. brought home a beautiful bride to Hopkinton. James McDaniel came to the Longworthy house and asked to play his fiddle at the wedding but the family patriarch, Amos Longworthy Sr., refused. Theirs was a pious family, and he would have no dancing at his son's wedding.

James McDaniel was not happy. He glared at Amos Sr. and said, "You will be obliged to have fiddling in your house, whether you want it or not." Then he stormed off.

The Longworthy wedding went as planned, but shortly afterward Amos Sr.'s daughter Amy began to suffer fits. She contorted, she twitched, she made odd guttural noises. A physician was brought in but none of his medicines helped the young woman. After trying various treatments he suggested that perhaps some music might calm her agitated state.

Despite his religious misgivings Amos Sr. hired a fiddler. As soon as he played just a few bars Amy's fits stopped. The Longworthy family rejoiced, but there was one side effect: Amy began to dance. She danced for hours on end, spinning wildly and ecstatically through the Longworthy house and out into the yard. Amos Sr. was deeply opposed to dancing, but it was better than seeing his daughter convulsed with fits. He hired the fiddler to come the next day, and then the next. He finally contracted him as a permanent servant.

Word spread across Hopkinton about Amy's dancing, and soon the neighbors began to visit the Longworthy house every day just to watch the formerly demure young woman dance wildly. They also whispered disapprovingly that Amos Sr. had not cured his daughter, but just traded one type of witchcraft for another.

Tired of the gossip, Amos Sr. fired the fiddler. Instead, he brought in a traveling preacher from Connecticut named Mr. Mason. When Mr. Mason laid his hands on Amy her fits stopped, and she no longer had the need to dance. But even though her fits disappeared Amy never quite seemed like her former self again, and the spirits that had been possessing her moved into other parts of the house. Dishes moved on their own, foul material appeared in the fresh milk, and the horses' reins would be tangled in the morning...

And that's where the story ends. It appears in S.S. Griswold's 1877 book A Historical Sketch of the Town of Hopkinton, From 1757 to 1876, Comprising a Period of One Hundred and Nineteen Years. I find it a little unsettling that James McDaniel's curse is not ever fully lifted, but only lessened. And really what's worse, dancing every night or finding nasty stuff in your milk?

Movie Review: The Bridgewater Triangle

If you read this blog you're probably familiar with the Bridgewater Triangle, a large area in southeastern Massachusetts that's famous for a wide variety of strange phenomena. There's now a documentary about the Triangle, and I think its worth seeing.

I have three criteria for for judging non-fiction movies and TV shows about paranormal phenomena:

1. Did I learn something new?

2. Is it skillfully made?

3. Did it creep me out?

I'm usually satisfied if just one criterion is met. For example, I might enjoy watching a poorly made and laughably unscary show just because it teaches me about some new monster. "Oh, hey, I never knew there was a humanoid lizard monster in East Podunk. Cool!"


But happily, The Bridgewater Triangle meets all three. First, I did learn quite a few new things. I already knew that the Triangle's 200 square miles have been home to Bigfoot, giant black dogs, UFOs, monster snakes, and strange birds. But after watching I did learn that...

• The first UFOs in the area was seen by two undertakers on Halloween night in 1908!
• The red-headed hitchhiker of Route 44 has a rival, the mad trucker of Copicut Road, a phantom pickup truck that forces people off the road in the Freetown State Forest.
• In addition to Bigfoot, small orange ape-like creatures have been seen in the area.
• In 1993, a rare African cat called a serval was found dead on the Easton/Raynham border. Where did it come from?

The Bridgewater Triangle is also well-made and easily could air on any TV station. The film conveys its information through dramatic re-enactments, still photos, drawings, and a lot of interviews. The talking heads include paranormal investigators and cryptozoologists like Loren Coleman, Jeff Belanger, Tim Weisberg, Christopher Balzano, and Joseph DeAndrade, as well as former police officers, TV newscasters, and plenty of area residents. There's also lots of footage from notorious locations like the Hockomock Swamp, Anawan Rock, and the Freetown State Forest, giving the viewer a good feel for the area. Even suburban streets acquire a creepy vibe as the camera glides slowly past well-trimmed yards surrounded by deep, dark, woods...

I did find portions of The Bridgewater Triangle quite spooky. An account of some children seeing Bigfoot in 1970 creeped me out, as did Joseph DeAndrade's story about hearing a voice telling him to turn around while exploring a swamp. I won't tell you what he saw, but it was large and hairy!

For me, the creepiest part of the movie was the interview with Bill Russo, which is either a great report of a paranormal encounter or a fantastic campfire story.

In 1990 Russo lived in Raynham and worked the late shift. One night after midnight he took his dog for a walk near some high-tension power lines. As he walked through the deserted area he heard a high-pitched voice wailing the following words:

"Ee wah chu. Ee wah chu. Keer. Keer."

A strange creature stepped into the light cast by a streetlight. It was about three feet high, covered in brown hair, potbellied, and seemed to be old. It continued to cry out "Ee wah chu. Ee wah chu. Keer. Keer" and beckoned to Russo with one hand. It wanted him to join it.

"Ee wah chu..." Image from The Bridgewater Triangle documentary.

Russo didn't. He and his dog were both frightened and walked away as fast as they could. When Russo looked back the being was gone. Only after he got safely home did he realize it had been trying to say, "We want you. We want you. Come here. Come here." Creepy!

Even though it conjures a spooky atmosphere the movie includes multiple perspectives, and some of them are skeptical. Was the mysterious Dighton Rock carved by ancient Phoenicians or the medieval Portuguese? Well, maybe it was just carved by the local Indians. After all, one expert points out, it has the same carvings as documented Indian petroglyphs in Maine.

This inclusive viewpoint extends to explanations about the Bridgewater Triangle itself. Perhaps all the strange phenomena are the psychic residue of atrocities committee against Wampanoag Indians in the 1600s, or perhaps there's just something inherent in the land itself. Or maybe when we walk out into the dark woods or the gloomy swamp, something inside us that our modern society represses wakes up. The Bridgewater Triangle gives us an opportunity to fully experience something that is always with us but normally unseen.

If you like the paranormal and local folklore, or just like some scary stories, I would recommend watching The Bridgewater Triangle. It would also make a good Christmas or Halloween gift for that special person in your life. You can watch it online through Vimeo or buy the DVD. It's definitely worth 90 minutes of your time!

Special thank to Aaron Cadieux, one of the film's directors, for giving me free access to the movie online.