Happy Birthday! The Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence (also known as The Adoration) is a painting traditionally believed to have been created in 1609 by the Italian Baroque master Caravaggio. Recent discoveries link the painting to that …

Happy Birthday!

The Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence (also known as The Adoration) is a painting traditionally believed to have been created in 1609 by the Italian Baroque master Caravaggio.

Recent discoveries link the painting to that commissioned by Fabio Nuti in April 1600, and thus sent from Rome to Palermo.
268 cm × 197 cm (106 in × 78 in)

It was stolen on October 18, 1969 from the Oratorio di San Lorenzo in Palermo, Sicily

257 posts to date. The 5.14% mark of my commitment. A different way of looking at the passage of time: a 13.69-year calendar 5,000 days and 13 years so far away. So far away. And yet I clearly hear: Tick Tock. Translation: Enjoy today.

257 posts to date.
The 5.14% mark of my commitment.
A different way of looking at the passage of time: a 13.69-year calendar
5,000 days and 13 years so far away.
So far away.

And yet I clearly hear:
Tick Tock.
Translation: Enjoy today.

__________________________
Tagging Today
Tuesday, December 25, 2018
My 257th consecutive posting, committed to 5,000.
Time is 12.01am.
On Tuesday, Boston’s temperature will reach a high of 38* under sunny skies.

Dinner is Chinese food from a commercial restaurant while I binge on four movies, 3 by David Lean and 1 starring Alistair Sim.









__________________________
Question of the Day:
Did Mary have a choice?
Answer following the short take on “A Christmas Story.”


Feet to the fire, I’d pick this.

Feet to the fire, I’d pick this.

_________________________
Short Takes: What’s the question?
The answer to this short take question for many people is “A Christmas Story.” What’s the question?

A Christmas Story is a 1983 American Christmas comedy film directed by Bob Clark and based on Jean Shepherd's semi-fictional anecdotes in his 1966 book In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash, with some elements from his 1971 book Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories.

It stars Melinda Dillon, Darren McGavin, and Peter Billingsley.

A seasonal classic in North America, it is shown numerous times on television, usually on the networks owned by the Turner Broadcasting System.
Since 1997, a marathon of the film titled "24 Hours of A Christmas Story" has aired annually on TNT or TBS, comprising twelve consecutive airings of the film on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day each year.

The film was released on November 18, 1983. It earned two Canadian Genie Awards in 1984 and in 2012 was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

For many people, it’s “A Christmas Story.”
The question: What is your favorite Christmas movie?

  

Annunciation, work by unknown artist, c. 1420, Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona Mary is honored. Accepting.

Annunciation, work by unknown artist, c. 1420,
Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona

Mary is honored.
Accepting.

___________________________
Answer to Question of the day:
Did Mary have a choice?

This is the story?
An angel appears to a very young teenager, virgin from a small gossipy village and tells her she’d better get married instantly.
She will soon bear a child who is going to be scourged and crucified.
While she watches.
Really?
You’re sticking to it?


The Annunciation by El Greco, c. 1590–1603, Ohara Museum of Art, Kurashiki, Japan ”Wait a moment. Let me get a bookmark here. Wait a moment. ”You said I’m going to have a baby? That’s going to be scourged and crucified in front of me?”

The Annunciation by El Greco, c. 1590–1603,
Ohara Museum of Art, Kurashiki, Japan

”Wait a moment.
Let me get a bookmark here.
Wait a moment.

”You said I’m going to have a baby?
That’s going to be scourged and crucified in front of me?”

Not buying it.
Mary with no time to think it over?

Let’s slow down.
I’m to carry the shame of an unmarried pregnant woman?
Give birth in a stable?
A stable?
|I got that right?
No midwife.
But you’ll send me gold and other riches?
But then I’ll have to run for my life and to save my infant?
Go to live for a few years, where?
Oh sure, they love Jews there.






The Annunciation by Salomon Koninck, 1655, Hallwyl Museum, Stockholm ”Wait. I need a moment to decide. I want to talk with my BFF.”

The Annunciation by Salomon Koninck, 1655,
Hallwyl Museum, Stockholm

”Wait.
I need a moment to decide.
I want to talk with my BFF.”

The Annunciation by Johann Christian Schröder, c. 1690 “Hit me with that again and you can forget about it.”

The Annunciation by Johann Christian Schröder, c. 1690

“Hit me with that again and you can forget about it.”

You always have a choice.

You always have a choice.

Good morning on this Tuesday, December 25, Christmas Day.
Santa gone.

Through Caravaggio’s great work we wished the baby Jesus happy birthday. BTW: Note that Caravaggio shows Mary as tired. That was a no-no then and for many years the places that the painting could be hung were limited.
We clicked off another .02 of 1% of the posting calendar.
We selected a favorite Christmas movie and we asked if and mused on whether Mary had a choice.

Che vuoi? Le pocketbook?

See you soon.

Love

Dom