Daily Entries for the week of
Sunday, December 6, 2020
through
Saturday, December 12, 2020
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It’s Saturday, December 12, 2020
Welcome to the 965th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
A town hall meeting in West Hartford, Connecticut
Sage Ross - Own work
Attendees of a full town hall meeting on the subject of health care reform in West Hartford, Connecticut, waiting for the meeting with U.S. Representative John B. Larson to begin on 2 September 2009
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2.0 Commentary
Trump has steered a sizeable, lunatic, vocal fringe of American society into control of the Republican Party.
And although this group will not relinquish power easily, we are well on our way to wresting control from this group, and then we’ll watch them disintegrate into dust to be blown back into their comfortable lunatic fringe.
What will become of Donald Trump?
Nothing to what he deserves.
For actually betraying our country, he ranks lower than Benedict Arnold.
He was the sitting US President!
Who worse in world history?
Who more devious? Sinister? Despicable?
Brutus? Judas?
Brutus a star by comparison.
Judas at least showed remorse.
Dante would have to write a lower level of hell to find a punishment fit the crime.
America is the longest running democracy the world has ever seen.
And as the years, decades, and centuries roll by, America continuously improves itself.
This creativity has taken the efforts of hundreds of millions.
Has needed the sacrifice of hundreds of millions.
Encompasses the suffering of hundreds of millions.
And for their own enrichment and quest for power, the Trump family would flush these efforts.
Disgusting.
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3.0 Tuscany, extracting an essence
See the picture above and the text below, both of this date.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“There was a long hard time
when I kept far from me
the remembrance of what I had thrown away
when I was quite ignorant of its worth.”
~ Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
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5.0 Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
In our quest to memorialize the social injustice suffered by Sacco and Vanzetti, adding to the efforts of many other groups seeking to improve America, several days ago I asked for help from our local elected officials.
Within a couple of days, both Mike Bonetti, the North End liaison for City Councilor Alyssa Edwards and John Romano, the North End liaison for Boston Mayor Marty Walsh responded with personally drafted notes promising to arrange the telephone appointments that I had requested.
Blog meister responds: When our elected officials respond to average citizens we have democracy at its most fundamental. Most elemental. Most critical. Most uplifting.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Thursday night I enjoyed a plate of roasted duck with fresh boiled squash and peas.
So easy and so good.
I also fried the duck liver. I ate part of it.
Didn’t do a very good job. It was poor.
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7. “Conflicted” podcast
Conflicted, by Dom Capossela, is a spiritual/fantasy story about a sixteen-year-old mystic-warrior conflicted internally by her self-imposed alienation from God, her spiritual wellspring, and, externally, by the forces of darkness seeking her death or ruination.
https://soundcloud.com/user-449713331/sets/conflicted-dom-capossela
The podcasts are also available on Sound Cloud, iTunes, Stitcher, Pinterest, Pocket Cast, and Facebook.
Search: dom capossela or conflicted or both
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11.0 Thumbnail
Town hall meetings, also referred to as town halls or town hall forums, an expression that originates mainly from North America, are a way for local and national politicians to meet with their constituents either to hear from them on topics of interest or to discuss specific upcoming legislation or regulation. During periods of active political debate, town halls can be a locus for protest and more active debate. The term is unfamiliar in British English where the equivalent is a (political) surgery.
Despite their name, town hall meetings need not take place in a town hall. They are commonly held in a range of venues, including schools, libraries, municipal buildings, and churches. A number of officials have also experimented with digital formats for town halls. Town hall meetings organized by national politicians are often held in a variety of locations distributed across a voting district so that elected representatives can receive feedback from a larger proportion of constituents.
Historically, no specific rules or guidelines have defined a town hall meeting.
Any event that allows constituent participation with a politician may be called a town hall, including gatherings in person, group phone calls, or events on Internet platforms such as Facebook or Twitter. Attendees use town halls to voice their opinions and question elected officials, political candidates, and public figures.
In contrast to town meetings, a type of direct democratic rule that originated in colonial New England, attendees do not vote on issues during town hall meetings.
In the United States, town halls are a common way for national politicians to connect or reconnect with their constituents during recesses, when they are in their home districts away from Washington, D.C.
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It’s Friday, December 11, 2020
Welcome to the 964th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Perseus freeing Andromeda
Piero di Cosimo - Liberazione di Andromeda - Google Art Project
Piero di Cosimo - 0gGaSvnZqCaHrA at Google Cultural Institute, zoom level maximum
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2.0 Commentary
Loaded with Trump appointees, the Supreme Court dismissed his application for an election overturn with a curt single-sentence dismissal.
And now Texas?
The whole appeal process now become one of the great bogus fund-raisers in political history.
The Courts have more than thirty times had to convene to listen to crap.
When the President becomes another ex-President, even with a self-pardon on his person he will find himself the defendant in three hundred lawsuits throughout our country, none of them covered by the pardon.
Soon-to-be-very-rich lawyers will ended up siphoning up all the bogus funds raised during the President’s appeals, all of the foreign monies due the Trumps, and all free and loose cash hanging around wherever the family visits.
We’ll see then just how stalwart are Mitch McConnell, Lindsay Graham, and the others of their ilk. Hopefully the Republican Party will see the value of true hearts such as Chris Christie and even more, Mitch Romney who had the audacity to point out that the Emperor-Clown had no clothes.
Hopefully, the lunatic right, at this very brief moment in control of the White House and the ReTrumplican Party will be relegated to the extreme fringe of society where they have lurked since our republic was founded.
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3.0 Tuscany, extracting an essence
Worked on Perseus freeing Andromeda
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“It was one of those March days
when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold:
when it is summer in the light, and
winter in the shade.”
~ Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
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5.0 Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
Much time is being spent discussing whether richer, more powerful nations should see to vaccinating their entire populations before helping out poorer nations.
Blog meister responds: Do health care workers around the world warrant getting the vaccine on the basis of at least providing those populations with a modicum of health care?
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
I had a perfect duck for dinner.
Here’s how I cooked it:
IDIOM FOR Slow Roasting Duck
Off-Stage:
What can be done before the cook?
Nothing needs doing.
Roasting Pan
A poultry rack in a roasting pan.
½ cup red wine; ½ cup chicken stock
Prepare the roast
Remove the innards and then weigh duck.
Cut off the two huge flaps of skin and fat
Should the cavity be stuffed or seasoned?
Can use Oils/aromatics/spices, but I do nothing
Should the exterior be seasoned?
I don’t.
The cook
The bird goes directly from the refrigerator into the cold oven.
Roast @ 200* for 42 min per pound
Basting? I don’t.
After the slow roast, I turn the oven into the broiler and broil the duck for about 4 minutes, until the skin is nicely colored.
Then I turn the duck to broil another patch of it, also about 4 minutes, and turn the duck a complete revolution to color it all over.
The whole process should take close to 15 minutes.
Meat to Rest
Let duck rest for 30 minutes before carving
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7. “Conflicted” podcast
Conflicted, by Dom Capossela, is a spiritual/fantasy story about a sixteen-year-old mystic-warrior conflicted internally by her self-imposed alienation from God, her spiritual wellspring, and, externally, by the forces of darkness seeking her death or ruination.
https://soundcloud.com/user-449713331/sets/conflicted-dom-capossela
The podcasts are also available on Sound Cloud, iTunes, Stitcher, Pinterest, Pocket Cast, and Facebook.
Search: dom capossela or conflicted or both
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Perseus Freeing Andromeda or Liberation of Andromeda is a painting created by Piero di Cosimo, during the Italian Renaissance.
The painting was praised by critics and art historians for its aesthetic, cosmological and political implications.
It’s a recreation of the myth of Perseus, the demi-god, slays the sea monster and saves the beautiful Andromeda, a myth based on a story created by the ancient Roman writer Ovid, in the Metamorphoses.
The themes of the painting include platonic love, ideal beauty, marriage, and natural beauty.
The painting includes portraits of the Medici family and many of Florentine's elite upper ruling class as characters in the story of Perseus Freeing Andromeda.
The painting also represents a paragone between painting and sculpture.
The painting resides in the Uffizi in Florence.
The story behind this painting is that of the demi-god, Perseus, and Andromeda. Perseus was prophesied to kill Acrisus, King of Argos. Because of this prediction, Acrisus sends Danae, mother of Perseus, to be imprisoned, to keep her a virgin.
However, Jupiter appears before her, in prison and impregnates her with Perseus, who is born a demi-god, with his mother being human and father being, a God, Jupiter.
Since Acrisus could not prevent the birth of Perseus, he sends him on a mission to kill the Gorgon Medusa.
After Perseus kills Medusa, on his way back home he spots Andromeda and her mother tied to a rock, and he flies down and slays the sea monster, rescuing Andromeda. Perseus eventually marries Andromeda.
The painting is based on a story in the Metamorphoses, written by the ancient Roman writer, Ovid.
Andromeda is seen as the ideal sculptural beauty.
She is sometimes rendered as statue-like in paintings representing this myth.
The painting of Andromeda on the side of the mountain about to be consumed by the sea monster, represents ideal beauty.
Andromeda seems so still and beautiful that she appeared to be a sculpture, until her hair moves from the wind.
Then Perseus realizes she is actually a real person.
The symbolism of Perseus freeing Andromeda is also a representation of platonic love in contrast to Phineus who is turned to stone because of his lust for Andromeda.
Medusa additionally represents voluptuousness and temptations.
One of the themes of the painting relates to marriage.
The painting of Perseus Freeing Andromeda demonstrates that love triumphs over all things; because of Perseus's love for Andromeda. it even triumphs over monsters and human rivals. Perseus Freeing Andromeda also alludes to marriage, because the demi-god asks for Andromeda's hand in marriage.
The scene of when Perseus lends his hands to be held by Andromeda, represents tactile sensuality and naturalistic beauty. The story of Perseus freeing Andromeda is a story of nature and the ideal beauty of sculpture since artists later compared the relationship between natural beauty and the ideal beauty of sculpture.
The sculptures of Perseus Freeing Andromeda shows the perfection of the sculptural medium and the life likeness of paintings.
The paragone of sculpture and painting during the Renaissance is evident in the painting, Perseus Freeing Andromeda.
There are two sides to the paragone argument; painters say painting is more powerful because it uses lots of color and is able to show the lucid quality of drapery, something that a sculpture cannot.
The other side to the argument is that of the sculptors. Sculptors say that paintings can not show the subject from all 360 degrees like a sculpture can be.
This comparison, between painting and sculpture, was a step towards the modern system of fine arts. It was an argument of what was the better system for arriving at the goal of all art, which is imitation of the natural world, of which God was the greatest creator.
When Perseus first sees Andromeda, bound by ropes and about to be eaten by the sea monster, destined to be her destroyer, Perseus thought she was a statue. Only the fact that her hair was moved by the breeze of the wind, did he realize she was not just a sculpture but a real person, and he immediately fell in love with her.
This shows how sculpture can be considered the perfect art form.
The painting has been praised by art historians and art critics because it possesses aesthetics, cosmological and political implications.
It also accurately depicts the classical stories by focusing on the theme of beauty.
In terms of political characteristics, the painting contains many contemporary dignitaries such as Filippo Strozzi the Younger and Lorenzo de' Medici, future Duke of Urbino. Strozzi is depicted as the man with a white turban on the right-hand corner of the painting.
He is supposed to be Ceppheus. Lorenzo de' Medici's portrait is supposed to be Perseus.
Piero di Cosimo signs the painting by putting himself in it as the elderly man facing the viewer.
The depiction of the sea monster, in the painting, is an allusion to the return of the Medici household to power in Florence.
Giorgio Vasari praised the painting for its beautiful use of color and for the depiction of an original sea monster in a way that no one in the past has done.
In the Uffizi gallery, The painting is placed in an area that recounts the Renaissance time of debate about the strengths of painting verses sculpture.
In this Gallery there are many sculptures and the placement of Perseus Freeing Andromeda adds to the argument of weather painting is a more powerful art form than sculpture.
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It’s Thursday, December 10, 2020
Welcome to the 963rd consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Sacagawea with Lewis and Clark
Detail of "Lewis & Clark at Three Forks", mural in lobby of Montana House of Representatives
Edgar Samuel Paxson - Personal photograph taken at Montana State Capitol
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2.0 Commentary
Why has Trump chosen to ignore the pandemic?
He blames the loss of the election on it.
He can’t stand it.
God sent it down specifically to undo him.
He’ll show God.
Everyone quiet.
Talk election steal.
Not the pand…Ooops!
Quiet.
Weeks before her family turns the White House over to President-elect Joe Biden, Melania Trump announced that a new tennis pavilion on the south grounds is ready for action.
Is this a sick joke?
No.
It’s the Trump family’s response to the Trump-Enhanced-Pandemic.
Time has long since passed when I can remain silent.
Trump golfs while Americans die daily by the thousands.
Tennis. Golf. Big meals.
While millions of us unsuccessfully try to get tested.
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3.0 Tuscany, extracting an essence
Did some preliminary work on Perseus Freeing Andromeda by Piero di Cosimo. An oil based on the myth.
The painting was praised by critics and art historians for its aesthetic, cosmological and political implications.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“To conceal anything from those to whom I am attached, is not in my nature.
I can never close my lips where I have opened my heart.”
~charles dickens
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5.0 Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
This response goes out to a group I have been involved with for decades:
Richard Cory
Poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson
Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.
And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
'Good-morning,' and he glittered when he walked.
And he was rich - yes, richer than a king -
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.
So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.
God bless you all.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Clam chowder.
I wanted it so I made it.
The recipe in this blog filed under ‘recipes’ is the best recipe there is.
The chowder I made surpasses any I’ve ever had till now.
Lauren and I also shared a piece of salmon with crunchy skin.
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7. “Conflicted” podcast
Conflicted, by Dom Capossela, is a spiritual/fantasy story about a sixteen-year-old mystic-warrior conflicted internally by her self-imposed alienation from God, her spiritual wellspring, and, externally, by the forces of darkness seeking her death or ruination.
https://soundcloud.com/user-449713331/sets/conflicted-dom-capossela
The podcasts are also available on Sound Cloud, iTunes, Stitcher, Pinterest, Pocket Cast, and Facebook.
Search: dom capossela or conflicted or both
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11.0 Thumbnail
Sacagawea or Sacajawea; May c. 1788 – December 20, 1812 or April 9, 1884) was a Lemhi Shoshone woman who, at age 16, met and helped the Lewis and Clark Expedition in achieving their chartered mission objectives by exploring the Louisiana Territory.
Sacagawea traveled with the expedition thousands of miles from North Dakota to the Pacific Ocean, helping to establish cultural contacts with Native American populations in addition to her contributions to natural history.
Sacagawea was an important member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
The National American Woman Suffrage Association of the early 20th century adopted her as a symbol of women's worth and independence, erecting several statues and plaques in her memory, and doing much to spread the story of her accomplishments.
Pre-expedition
Reliable historical information about Sacagawea is very limited. She was born c. 1788 into the Agaidika ('Salmon Eater'; aka Lemhi Shoshone) tribe near Salmon, Lemhi County, which sits by the continental divide at the present-day Idaho-Montana border.
In 1800, when she was about 12 years old, she and several other girls were kidnapped by a group of Hidatsa in a battle that resulted in the deaths of several Shoshone: four men, four women, and several boys. She was held captive at a Hidatsa village near present-day Washburn, North Dakota.
At about age 13, she was sold into a non-consensual marriage to Toussaint Charbonneau, a Quebecois trapper living in the village who had also bought another young Shoshone, known as Otter Woman, as his wife. Charbonneau was variously reported to have purchased both girls to be his wives from the Hidatsa or to have won Sacagawea while gambling.
The Lewis & Clark Expedition
The Corps of Discovery arrived near the Hidatsa villages, where Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark built Fort Mandan, to spend the winter of 1804–05. They interviewed several trappers who might be able to interpret or guide the expedition up the Missouri River in the springtime. Knowing they would need the help of Shoshone tribes at the headwaters of the Missouri, they agreed to hire Toussaint Charbonneau after discovering that his wife, Sacagawea, who was pregnant with her first child at the time, spoke Shoshone.
On November 4, 1804, Clark recorded in his journal:[7][a]
[A] french man by Name Chabonah, who Speaks the Big Belley language visit us, he wished to hire & informed us his 2 Squars (squaws) were Snake Indians, we engau (engaged) him to go on with us and take one of his wives to interpret the Snake language.…
Charbonneau and Sacagawea moved into the expedition's fort a week later. Clark nicknamed her "Janey."[b] Lewis recorded the birth of Jean Baptiste Charbonneau on February 11, 1805, noting that another of the party's interpreters administered crushed rattlesnake rattles in water to speed the delivery. Clark and other European-Americans nicknamed the boy "Little Pomp" or "Pompy."
In April, the expedition left Fort Mandan and headed up the Missouri River in pirogues. They had to be poled against the current and sometimes pulled from the riverbanks. On May 14, 1805, Sacagawea rescued items that had fallen out of a capsized boat, including the journals and records of Lewis and Clark. The corps commanders, who praised her quick action, named the Sacagawea River in her honor on May 20, 1805. By August 1805, the corps had located a Shoshone tribe and was attempting to trade for horses to cross the Rocky Mountains. They used Sacagawea to interpret and discovered that the tribe's chief, Cameahwait, was her brother.
Lewis recorded their reunion in his journal:
Shortly after Capt. Clark arrived with the Interpreter Charbono, and the Indian woman, who proved to be a sister of the Chief Cameahwait. The meeting of those people was really affecting, particularly between Sah cah-gar-we-ah and an Indian woman, who had been taken prisoner at the same time with her, and who had afterwards escaped from the Minnetares and rejoined her nation.
And Clark in his:
…The Intertrepeter [sic] & Squar who were before me at Some distance danced for the joyful Sight, and She made signs to me that they were her nation…
The Shoshone agreed to barter horses to the group and to provide guides to lead them over the cold and barren Rocky Mountains. The trip was so hard that they were reduced to eating tallow candles to survive. When they descended into the more temperate regions on the other side, Sacagawea helped to find and cook camas roots to help them regain their strength.
As the expedition approached the mouth of the Columbia River on the Pacific Coast, Sacagawea gave up her beaded belt to enable the captains to trade for a fur robe they wished to give to President Thomas Jefferson.
Clark's journal entry for November 20, 1805, reads:
one of the Indians had on a roab made of 2 Sea Otter Skins the fur of them were more butifull than any fur I had ever Seen both Capt. Lewis & my Self endeavored to purchase the roab with different articles at length we precured it for a belt of blue beeds which the Squar—wife of our interpreter Shabono wore around her waste.… [sic]
Lewis and Clark on the Lower Columbia by Charles Marion Russell. A painting of the Expedition depicting Sacagawea with arms outstretched.
When the corps reached the Pacific Ocean, all members of the expedition—including Sacagawea and Clark's black manservant York—voted on November 24 on the location for building their winter fort. In January, when a whale's carcass washed up onto the beach south of Fort Clatsop, Sacagawea insisted on her right to go see this "monstrous fish."
On the return trip, they approached the Rocky Mountains in July 1806. On July 6, Clark recorded:
The Indian woman informed me that she had been in this plain frequently and knew it well.… She said we would discover a gap in the mountains in our direction [i.e., present-day Gibbons Pass].
A week later, on July 13, Sacagawea advised Clark to cross into the Yellowstone River basin at what is now known as Bozeman Pass. Later, this was chosen as the optimal route for the Northern Pacific Railway to cross the continental divide.
While Sacagawea has been depicted as a guide for the expedition, she is recorded as providing direction in only a few instances. Her work as an interpreter certainly helped the party to negotiate with the Shoshone; however, her greatest value to the mission may have been simply her presence during the arduous journey, which demonstrated the peaceful intent of the expedition.
While traveling through what is now Franklin County, Washington, in October 1805, Clark noted that "the wife of Shabono [Charbonneau] our interpetr we find reconsiles all the Indians, as to our friendly intentions a woman with a party of men is a token of peace,"] and that she "confirmed those people of our friendly intentions, as no woman ever accompanies a war party of Indians in this quarter" [sic].
As he traveled downriver from Fort Mandan at the end of the journey, on board the pirogue near the Ricara Village, Clark wrote to Charbonneau:
You have been a long time with me and conducted your Self in Such a manner as to gain my friendship, your woman who accompanied you that long dangerous and fatigueing rout to the Pacific Ocian and back diserved a greater reward for her attention and services on that rout than we had in our power to give her at the Mandans. As to your little Son (my boy Pomp) you well know my fondness of him and my anxiety to take him and raise him as my own child.… If you are desposed to accept either of my offers to you and will bring down you Son your famn [femme, woman] Janey had best come along with you to take care of the boy untill I get him.… Wishing you and your family great success & with anxious expectations of seeing my little danceing boy Baptiest I shall remain your Friend, William Clark.
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It’s Wednesday, December 9, 2020
Welcome to the 962nd consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Statue of Francis Vigo
Statue was sculpted by John Angel.
Resides at the waterfront of Vincennes, Indiana.
Image taken by uploader:
Danieljackson at the English Wikipedia
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2.0 Commentary
Cold is on us.
Bringing constant suffering to many millions in this rich country of ours.
The vaccine gives us some joy and hope this Christmas season.
By midsummer our deadly enemy will be routed.
Meanwhile, we must nerve ourselves,
inconvenience ourselves,
be more careful than ever, to maintain social distancing.
Watched the most terrifying first episode of a TV series I have ever seen.
Perhaps unique to me.
Idiosyncratic.
The destruction of the life as they knew it of a kind father and loving son.
Your Honor, on Showtime, on Sunday night.
Bryan Cranston again.
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3.0 Tuscany, Florence, the art of the Uffizi
If I feel up to it tonight I’ll do some research.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears,
for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth,
overlying our hard hearts.
I was better after I had cried, than before--
more sorry,
more aware of my own ingratitude,
more gentle.”
~Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
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5.0 Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
This from Colleen G, an illustration of one of the hundreds of steps an author takes to bring her work to fruition:
Hi Dom,
I hope you are well. Sounds like the universe is telling you to stay put for a bit:)
I thought of you yesterday as I reflected on a revision to a Chapter I made--a chapter I thought I had already revised and was kicking off from as I continued on my latest close read through my Lucy manuscript to the end.
The chapter had a lot of problems--some I was astounded to find when I looked with clear eyes and not through those of wishful thinking and wanting to get through the full 61,000 words to the end to say I was finished. So many lines just didn't work, didn't fit or were in no logical order and needed to be put in a later spot.
I was amazed at how faulty wishful thinking could make my eyes. This was not the first time I had gone through this chapter and it surprised me to think I'd never really read it in any of the previous revisions. I wanted it to be fine, and so I assumed it was.
As I was kicking myself yesterday thinking of how I didn't make progress on my revision and instead only revised a chapter I thought I had JUST revised the day before--I remembered your quote by C.S. Lewis. You must have known I would need it--haha. It made me feel better.
I could have carried on and ignored that chapter and allowed an agent I was hoping to land, read it and realize my manuscript wasn't ready. That would have been far worse than reworking that same chapter myself.
Thanks for that quote! So often we thinking plowing ahead means moving forward--but I hadn't thought of the detail your quote pointed out about plowing ahead in the wrong direction. That makes all the difference (with echoes of Robert Frost whispering in my ear:)
Thanks Dom!
Hope you're on the mend soon.
Cheers,
Colleen:)
Blog meister responds:
On Mon, Dec 7, 2020 at 10:37 AM dom capossela <domcapossela@hotmail.com> wrote:
thanks, my dear.
headache still lingering.
this is a nice illustration of the steps a writer must take on her way to a work of art.
may i reprint it for the edification of our readers?
if you'd like someone to take a peek, always happy to help.
keep at it, my dear.
you are a terrific writer.
love
dom
To which Colleen responded:
Thanks Dom,
And--I may take you up on that offer if you're up for it. I know you went through much of it as part of the Critique group, but I changed from 3rd person to 1st (again, as I had started in 1st) and have taken some of the feedback that some editors and agents have offered so graciously to me as part of my latest revisions to help with its readability.
Once I get through this latest pass, perhaps you'd be a "beta reader" for me?:)
Cheers,
Colleen
To which the Blog Meister responded:
i would.
happily my memory is so shot i have 0 remembrance of anything.
a good thing.
and the reprint?
Dom
And Colleen:
Nice--and certainly:)
Yes, my memory is horrible for movies to the point where I have to ask my husband if we've seen something and will still argue to the contrary if I have a doubt (either way--thought I saw or can't remember seeing) until at last I am usually proven wrong by actual evidence (the movie:). Knowing that there are two sides to every coin, he envies this "gift" to be able to see a really great movie again for the first time! Yes, I suppose that is a nice byproduct.
Cheerio,
Colleen
And finally, Blog Meister:
Your memory of movies parallels mine.
It’s a gift.
We can understand people who watch a movie or TV show 10 or 20 times.
We can.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Monday night I needed a change of pace so I made a Tuna Fish Salad Sandwich (Find the recipe in the Recipe section of this blog) with a baguette from Tatte.
Perfect.
Also ate a small bag of potato chips.
I’ve been thinking about Clam Chowder so on my way home I stopped at Hook’s Lobster and bought a dozen cherrystones. Will make it tomorrow.
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7. “Conflicted” podcast
Conflicted, by Dom Capossela, is a spiritual/fantasy story about a sixteen-year-old mystic-warrior conflicted internally by her self-imposed alienation from God, her spiritual wellspring, and, externally, by the forces of darkness seeking her death or ruination.
https://soundcloud.com/user-449713331/sets/conflicted-dom-capossela
The podcasts are also available on Sound Cloud, iTunes, Stitcher, Pinterest, Pocket Cast, and Facebook.
Search: dom capossela or conflicted or both
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Francis Vigo, born Giuseppe Maria Francesco Vigo, (December 13, 1747 – March 22, 1836) was an Italian-American who aided the American forces during the Revolutionary War and helped found a public university in Vincennes, Indiana, USA.
Born in Mondovì, Italy, he served with the Spanish Army in New Orleans. In 1772 he established a fur trading business in St. Louis. In 1783 Vigo moved to Vincennes and operated a fur trading business there.
American Revolution
Vigo often aided American forces during the Revolutionary War, most famously as an informant to George Rogers Clark. Vigo was sent by Clark to Post Vincennes to inspect and report on the conditions there, but was captured by American Indians and turned over to Lt-Gov Henry Hamilton, who had recaptured Vincennes for the Crown. Vigo was a Spanish citizen and thus, in 1778, considered a non-combatant, but Hamilton was suspicious of Vigo and held him on parole until the French citizens of Vincennes, led by Father Gibault, demanded that he be released at the threat of cutting off local supplies to Fort Sackville.
Hamilton released Vigo on the condition that he would not "do any thing injurious to the British interests on his way to St. Louis." True to his word, Vigo travelled down the Wabash, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers to St. Louis before returning to Kaskaskia to inform Col. Clark of the British presence in Vincennes, which prompted Clark to recapture the town in 1779.
In addition to his services as a patriot and spy, Vigo was the foremost financier of the American Revolution in the Northwest. When Clark arrived with Continental promissary notes of paper, Vigo exchanged them evenly for hard coin. The American dollar traded poorly among the French citizens, and soon became worthless. Vigo was never repaid during his lifetime, and would recollect that the term douleur to the French signifies grief or pain.
Post-War years
In the 1790s Vigo traded with American merchants on the East Coast of the U.S.
In 1801, Vigo petitioned the U.S. Congress for a donation of land to establish the Jefferson Academy in Vincennes. In 1806, Vigo was named one of the original trustees of the now renamed Vincennes University.
From 1790 to 1810 he was a colonel in the Knox County Militia before resigning, citing age and infirmity.
In 1818 Vigo County, Indiana, was established and named for him.
After he was royally feted during a visit to Terre Haute, the Vigo County seat, on July 4, 1834, Vigo revised his will to provide money to purchase a large bell for the Vigo County Courthouse, should he ever be compensated by the United States for services rendered during the Revolution.
As an Italian surname, Vigo's name is pronounced "VEE-goh"; therefore, all streets, buildings, schools, towns, townships, or cities named after him should have their names pronounced "VEE-goh" (not "VY-goh")."
Death
Francis Vigo died March 22, 1836, while living in the home of Jean Baptiste and Elizabeth (Martin) LaPlante, in Vincennes. It was not until 1875, that his estate was allowed payment for $8,016.00, the amount he had used to fund Clark's aborted campaign to take Fort Detroit. This was the only expense the government would officially recognize, but it came with $41,282.60 in interest. As Vigo had no blood-related descendants, however, the government only had to pay for the expenses requested in Vigo's will (which included a bell for the courthouse in Vigo County).
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It’s Tuesday, December 8, 2020
Welcome to the 961st consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Reuven Fahn Galicia (Poland) 1908
Unknown author - https://library.osu.edu/projects/hebrew-lexicon/02699-files/02699200.pdf
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2.0 Commentary
Saturday evening.
Headachy
Tired
Sore throat/dry cough
Low grade fever, I think.
All on a low-rating, a three on a scale of 10.
But for someone acutely attuned to the slightest variances in his body,
symptoms worrisome.
Made some ginger lemon tea w honey
Took three aspirins
Rarely feel lonely, feeling lonely
Uncharacteristically lying on couch and
watching “Green Book” and Donald Trump in Georgia
Staying three hours without noticeable movement
w/o nodding off
Bedtime
Feeling much better
Knowing I’d had a short bout with some illness, a simple cold I think
My knowing buttressed when I weighed myself
Down 2lbs despite overeating tonight by a wide margin
That should have shown as 2lbs up.
Slept very well
Woke up feeling fine, esp no sore throat; no coughing; no fever; no headache.
Weight still 2lbs below expectation
Thinking a return to normal by tomorrow
So much for a threat of covid-19
But I ordered a thermometer
To help with my next event
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
A mother brings her son two new ties as a birthday gift for her adult son.
Later, in the evening the two meet for dinner and the son is wearing one of the ties.
His mother takes one look at him and says,
“You didn’t like the other tie?”
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5.0 Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
Several emails came in privately discussing covid-19 infected selves or family.
Blog meister responds: A lot of sadness the statistics do not convey no matter how many millions of cases are reported.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Sunday night I slow-roasted some pork spare ribs,
finishing them, as usual, with a broil.
Served them with rabe and potato in oil, garlic, and pepperoncini
Here’s the recipe:
SLOW-ROASTED/BROILED SPARERIBS
Off-Stage:
What can be done before the cook?
Make the glaze
In a bowl, mix the following:
Note: The quantity is per pound of ribs
1 TB of favorite oil (I use a type of sesame that I season myself and call Asian Oil. For the recipe, look in the Recipe section of this blog.)
1 TB balsamic vinegar
1 TB gochujang sauce
1 t honey
Roasting Pan
Fit with a rack that holds the entire set of ribs
Prepare the ribs:
do nothing
The cook
Roast @ 200* for 1 hour
The finish
Move the rack up to the flame and broil each side for 4 minutes on until it gets a nice color
Remove ribs and turn the oven to 500* bake
The exterior
Brush the glaze over the ribs
Return the ribs to the oven, now 500*, and roast for 8 minutes
MmmmM good!
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7. “Conflicted” podcast
Conflicted, by Dom Capossela, is a spiritual/fantasy story about a sixteen-year-old mystic-warrior conflicted internally by her self-imposed alienation from God, her spiritual wellspring, and, externally, by the forces of darkness seeking her death or ruination.
https://soundcloud.com/user-449713331/sets/conflicted-dom-capossela
The podcasts are also available on Sound Cloud, iTunes, Stitcher, Pinterest, Pocket Cast, and Facebook.
Search: dom capossela or conflicted or both
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11.0 Thumbnail
Reuven Fahn was born on 21 February 1878 in the village of Starunia located near the small town of Sołotwina in the southeastern part of Austrian Galicia.
Fahn's father, Avraham ha-Levi, was a manager in a mine, while his mother, Zissel, was a descendant of Rabbi David ha-Levi Segal, who had served as a Rav in both Kraków and Lwow.
Due to his parents' standing, Fahn received a good childhood education and was mainly influenced during this time by the Tanakh, modern and classical Hebrew literature, and various works that were translated into German from other languages. Fahn was able to speak and write Hebrew, German, Yiddish, Polish, and Ukrainian by the age of 15. In 1897, at age 19, Fahn married Rachel Keren and moved to his wife's hometown, the Polish city of Halicz.
In Halicz, Fahn was influenced by the Karaite Jewish community and their unique culture, which became apparent in many of Fahn's subsequent writings and literary works.
In Halicz, either Fahn or his wife's family owned a successful little shop, which allowed Fahn to devote his spare time to scholarly pursuits. He often traveled to Lwow, the capital of Galicia, and met important Jewish intellectuals such as Yosef Haim Brenner, Moses Kleinmann, and Gershom Bader there.
In addition, Fahn's little shop in Halicz, where he collected any Jewish newspapers and periodicals that he could find, became a meeting place for local intellectuals. In 1911, he joined the Mizrachi Religious Zionist organization and was one of the founders of the Galician branch of this organization. Later that same year, he was elected as a Mizrachi delegate to the Tenth World Zionist Congress in Berlin.
Later life
As the Imperial Russian Army was advancing into eastern Galicia after the start of World War I in 1914, Fahn, along with many other Galician Jews, fled to Vienna, the capital of Austria-Hungary.
Fahn enjoyed the libraries and scholarly life in Vienna during his time there, with him working as a librarian at the Adat Yisrael Jewish library until he was drafted for service into the Austro-Hungarian army on 1 December 1914. His military service ended on 2 November 1918, with Austria-Hungary's monarchy soon being overthrown and Austria-Hungary soon ceasing to exist. Due to his house and property in Halicz being destroyed as a result of World War I, Fahn decided to move to Stanisławów (present-day Ivano-Frankivsk), a Galician regional center that was larger than Halicz but smaller than Vienna. In Stanisławów, he was appointed secretary to the National Council of Galician Jewry during the short existence of the West Ukrainian National Republic and remained in this position until the Polish government abolished the council in either May or June 1919 Afterwards, Fahn continued his commercial, scholarly, literary, and political work, but as a Polish citizen.
During a 1924 trip to the Mandatory Palestine, Fahn founded a colony for Galician Zionist emigrants there. Fahn himself considered immigrating to Palestine the following year, but ultimately decided not to due to his fear that Palestine would soon have an economic crisis. Ultimately, the decision of Fahn and many other Galician Zionists to stay in Poland ended up being a fatal one, due to the subsequent Holocaust decimating most of Poland's Jewish population. In 1930, Fahn maintained a correspondence with Hayim Nahman Bialik.
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It’s Monday, December 7, 2020
Welcome to the 960th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Title screen from Hee Haw
(TV series from the United States)
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2.0 Commentary
Delightful.
The conversation now on relief; the cavalry’s bugle sounding.
In the war against covid, a second front is opening.
Soon.
Very soon.
Not victory, that still perhaps nearly a year away.
That for next Thanksgiving.
Meanwhile, stay safe.
Follow the guidelines.
To that end, for the inveterate café dweller that I am, take precautions.
Ask the café for paper towels and sanitizing spray to wipe down the table and chairs you will be occupying.
And, as of Tuesday, when it arrives, I will be adding a small, portable, battery-powered fan to my repertoire.
My plan is to set it on my table during my visits.
Will report.
My right leg has recovered from the cramping.
My left leg, however, is still feeling an occasional sharp jab.
It’s got me wondering if I’ve aggravated the healing torn tendon behind my left knee.
I’ll watch it.
My cold is waning but a dry cough is lingering.
A small dose, ½ teaspoon, is all I need to overcome the cough.
But it’s lingering so I will watch it.
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3.0 Tuscany, extracting an essence
Have started work on Perseus Freeing Andromeda by Piero di Cosimo.
Will report.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
Gloom, despair, and agony on me
Deep, dark depression, excessive misery
If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all
Gloom, despair, and agony on me
~ From the TV Show "Hee-Haw" (1969 -1992)
Buck Owens & Roy Clark
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5.0 Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
The conversation is all on vaccinations. And Biden’s 100 days of masking.
Blog meister responds: It’s so positive it’s exciting.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Another night of dinner alone.
Another culinary opportunity: W Foods had dry-aged, boneless rib-eye sirloin steaks.
At $19.95 it remains the best meat value in Boston.
Simple preparation: Slow-roast then Broiled/Seared. (Recipe in Recipe Pages in this Blog.)
A winner every time.
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7. “Conflicted” podcast
Conflicted, by Dom Capossela, is a spiritual/fantasy story about a sixteen-year-old mystic-warrior conflicted internally by her self-imposed alienation from God, her spiritual wellspring, and, externally, by the forces of darkness seeking her death or ruination.
https://soundcloud.com/user-449713331/sets/conflicted-dom-capossela
The podcasts are also available on Sound Cloud, iTunes, Stitcher, Pinterest, Pocket Cast, and Facebook.
Search: dom capossela or conflicted or both
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11.0 Thumbnail
Hee Haw is an American television variety show featuring country music and humor with the fictional rural "Kornfield Kounty" as the backdrop. It aired first-run on CBS from 1969 to 1971, in syndication from 1971 to 1993, and on TNN from 1996 to 1997. Reruns of the series ran on RFD-TV (from September 2008 through April 2020) and currently on Circle (beginning January 2020).
The show was inspired by Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, with the major differences being that Hee Haw was centered on country music and rural rather than pop culture, and was far less topical. Hosted by country music artists Buck Owens and Roy Clark for most of its run, the show was equally well known for its corn pone humor as for its voluptuous, scantily clad women (called the Hee Haw Honeys) in stereotypical farmer's daughter outfits.
Hee Haw's appeal, however, was not limited to a rural audience. It was successful in all of the major markets, including network-based Los Angeles and New York City, as well as other large cities like Boston and Chicago. Other niche programs such as The Lawrence Welk Show (which targeted older audiences) and Soul Train (which targeted black audiences) also rose to prominence in syndication during the era. Like Laugh-In, the show minimized production costs by taping all of the recurring sketches for a season in batches, setting up for the Cornfield one day, the Joke Fence on another day, etc. At the height of its popularity, an entire season's worth of shows were taped in two separate week-long sessions, then individual shows were assembled from edited sections. Only musical performances were taped with a live audience, while a laugh track was added to all other segments.
The series was taped for the CBS Television Network at its station affiliate WLAC-TV (now WTVF)[4] in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, and later at Opryland USA in the city's Donelson area.[5] The show was produced by Yongestreet Productions through the mid-1980s; it was later produced by Gaylord Entertainment, which distributed the show in syndication. The show's name, derived from a common English onomatopoeia used to describe a donkey's braying, was coined by show business talent manager and producer Bernie Brillstein.
After 25 seasons, the series initially ended its run in June 1993, where it was soon picked up by TNN for reruns. TNN eventually ordered an additional season of first-run episodes, beginning November 23, 1996. The show ultimately ended on December 27, 1997.
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It’s Sunday, December 6, 2020
Welcome to the 959th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Spaghetti with garlic oil and chili
Retouched version of File:
by matsuyuki.jpg, which has the following description: Spaghetti, I cooked. Spaghetti with garlic, oil and chilli.
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2.0 Commentary
I go to workout on Thursday morning.
My arm exercises go so well and I am exuberant re: other activities,
that, for no intelligent or logical reason I decide to up the weights on my legs.
I do and I do them.
Everything fine.
This morning I get to work sitting at my desktop.
After half an hour, the hamstring on my right leg suddenly seizes and grips me in a painful charley horse.
I have a hard time sliding off the chair to the floor to stretch out the muscle (the seat of the chair is small and high) and when I do the cramp is long-lived and causes me great pain.
When the cramp relaxes I try slowly rising to my feet but twist my left leg and pull the hamstring there.
Pain.
Pain.
When you ask an old gal/guy how she/he feels she/he often says, “Great, thanks.”
And he/she usually means it, he/she assuming it is common knowledge that no old guy/gal ever feels great in the sense of a thirty-year-old, waking totally devoid of aches and pains and full of energy.
Every old person wakes to pain of one sort or another.
And endures it.
Talking about it is the number one ranked ‘most-boring’ topic of all time.
Mine is usually in my legs or knees or feet or it’s a bad night of sleep.
But as Gilda used to say, “It’s allus something.”
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3.0 Tuscany, extracting its essence
Did some research on Caravaggio’s Medusa.
Mixed results.
Can be frustrating.
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4.0 Chuckles/Thoughts
“Progress means getting nearer to the place you want to be.
And if you have taken a wrong turn, then to go forward does not get you any nearer.
If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case,
the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man.”
~C S Lewis
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5.0 Mail
We love getting mail.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
This from our storyteller, Sally C:
Dear Dom,
Your comments today about the mild December weather remind me of a cold winter in Portland, Maine, back in the early 1990s. The civil engineering and survey company I worked for was located in the old Grand Trunk Railway office building on the waterfront at the east end of the Old Port district, while we rented an apartment at the west end, a few blocks from Maine Medical Center. The walk was about a mile and a half. When it was rainy or snowy, I took the bus, but otherwise went on foot.
That January we endured a severe cold snap. Every morning at dawn, I traveled through the downtown to the office, always checking the big time-temperature clock on top of one of the downtown high-rises. Every morning it read seventeen degrees below zero. That kind of cold discouraged dawdling, but I became accustomed to it, bundled up in a calf-length Harris tweed coat, a woolen scarf up to my eyes, and a woolen toque down to my eyes.
Several years before, living in eastern Maine, I had developed a theory that once the temperature drops below zero, it was too cold for one to notice anything colder. I was wrong. On one particular morning about two weeks into the cold snap, as I walked briskly down the streets, I thought, “Gee, it’s chilly this morning.” Sure enough, when I looked up at the clock, it read minus-27 degrees. I heard later on the radio that it was the same temperature in Kentucky that morning, which had killed a number of the homeless. Kentucky! How often does Kentucky suffer temperatures like that!? I was prepared for the cold. How many Kentuckians were?
At another time, I’ll tell you about another sub-zero adventure in Down East Maine extolling the virtues of a good car battery. In the meantime, I’ll bask in the warmth of our house, the oil heat all paid for in advance, supplemented in the home office by three computers going at the same time. (It’s surprising how much heat they put out!)
Stay warm, my friend, even if you have to do calisthenics!
Sally
Blog Meister responds: That story is cold.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Friday night, dinner with cousin with Lauren, less frequent now as Lauren is occupied with work and a boyfriend, he not new anymore.
They’ve had a good summer together.
We’re eating swordfish which I’ll simultaneously Broil and Sear.
Simple.
I’ll make a butter/lemon sauce with thinly-sliced leeks, chili, garlic, and celery.
I did and dinner was great.
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7. “Conflicted” podcast
Conflicted, by Dom Capossela, is a spiritual/fantasy story about a sixteen-year-old mystic-warrior conflicted internally by her self-imposed alienation from God, her spiritual wellspring, and, externally, by the forces of darkness seeking her death or ruination.
https://soundcloud.com/user-449713331/sets/conflicted-dom-capossela
The podcasts are also available on Sound Cloud, iTunes, Stitcher, Pinterest, Pocket Cast, and Facebook.
Search: dom capossela or conflicted or both
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11.0 Thumbnails
Spaghetti garlic and oil is a traditional Italian pasta dish from Naples.
The dish is made by lightly sauteeing sliced, minced, or pressed garlic in olive oil, sometimes with the addition of dried red chili flakes (in which case its name is spaghetti garlic, oil and chilli),
and tossing with spaghetti.
Finely chopped parsley can also be added as a garnish,
along with grated parmesan or pecorino cheese, although according to some recipes, cheese should not be added.
As a more complex variation, Dom adds thinly sliced celery and leeks and replaces some pf the olive oil with rendered porchetta.
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