One added benefit of my trip to New York has been that I had the pleasure of dining last night at Café Forant, the restaurant owned by Lea Forant and Carolyn Montgomery, the lesbian moms of Campbell Soup ad fame. Julien Sharp, whose writing some of you may know from Pam’s House Blend, was kind enough to join me.
The restaurant is a great example of the type of friendly neighborhood restaurant that I miss since leaving the city. Chef Forant knows how to make good food from fresh ingredients—as well as sinfully decadent brownies. Their four-year-old son is just as cute as in the ad.
It turns out, too, that Montgomery is a professional singer. While she does mostly cabaret and jazz, she has also sung on the children’s CD that accompanies Jennifer Griffin’s book Humpty Who?: Crib Sheets for the Nursery for Clueless Moms and Dads.
Sure, you could Google “Mother Goose,” but this collection goes beyond just the Goose rhymes and includes a variety of poems, chants, and other kiddie songs. It offers insight into the origin (real or hypothetical) of the verses as well as ideas for games to play with your little ones as you sing. The singers on the CD are all moms (plus a chorus of kids), and if the vocal excellence of Montgomery and her companions puts most of us to shame, Griffin urges us to sing anyway, because our kids don’t care. Humpty Who? would make a great gift for new parents of any orientation.
