Daily Entries for the week of
Sunday, January 17, 2021
through
Saturday, January 23, 2021
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It’s Saturday, January 23, 2021
Welcome to the 1007th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Vaccinations
Immunization against diseases is a key preventive healthcare measure.
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2.0 Commentary
I only heard of my Negative testing three hours ago (5am on Thursday morning) but the elation is gone and life under covid continues,
I am acutely aware (lots of thanks to my daughter Kat and my friend Howard) that the test does negate the reality that I exposed myself and I must be more careful.
And I will be.
My basic routine is reasonably good; it does need tweaking.
Separation from most people I love is a tweak I can make.
I must admit to shedding tears at Lady Gaga’s rendition of our national anthem.
The entire Inauguration was emotional.
Like “The illness has passed. Our democracy is going to live.”
Everyone involved in the January 6, 2021 show of the ugliness that exists in small pockets of the United States should be brought to trial and subjected to the harshest of penalties available under the law.
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3.1 Sacco and Vanzetti
Organizing a non-profit corporation involves a lot of steps.
Many of these steps require preceding steps.
Many of this flock of steps require gaining familiarity.
It’s frustrating when there are other things to do each day and you can only work on the organization bit by bit.
Oh well.
Today I’m at the bank trying to open a checking account for my non-profit.
I’ve been here for one hour and it’s not done yet.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
Children have an anxious concern for living beings, and the satisfaction of this instinct fills them with delight.
It is therefore easy to interest them in taking care of plants and especially of animals.
Nothing awakens foresight in a small child such as this.
When he knows that animals have need of him, that little plants will dry up if he does not water them, he binds together with a new thread of love today's passing moments with those of the morrow.
~Maria Montessori
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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
I received a nice email from Howard D but it is longer so I published it in the 11.0 Thumbnail Section below.
This from my long-time friend, Victor P, is one of several positive responses I received regarding the post on the happiest time and times of my life:
11.0 Thumbnail, a heartwarming narrative. Thanks for sharing it.
Victor P.
Blog meister responds: Thanks to all. God bless any of us who have had such a relationship.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Last night Kat and I shared a platter of small pieces of meats leftover from the last several dinners: steak, pork chop, chicken, and sausage.
We also made a small bowl of scallops in oil and garlic with spaghetti so the meal wouldn’t be boring.
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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
From Wikipedia:
Preventive healthcare, or prophylaxis, consists of measures taken for disease prevention.
Disease and disability are affected by environmental factors, genetic predisposition, disease agents, and lifestyle choices and are dynamic processes which begin before individuals realize they are affected. Disease prevention relies on anticipatory actions.
Each year, millions of people die of preventable deaths.
From Howard:
Here is Howard D’s email-caution to me when I told him of my exposure:
I’m not, I like to think, a ‘told-you-so’ person…
In this context, to me, this would mean I had warned (admonished, finger-waggled, righteously adjured… that is performatively made it about me and my moral superiority).
What I remember is that I pointed the extent to which I wasn’t sure you were aware, though I assumed you were, because you’re an intelligent adult, the higher degree of risk the behavior you described on your blog exposed you to in terms of potentially being infects.
I am sorry you definitively have to be tested (I remain astonished that Massachusetts has proven so backward in a number of ways… and I monitor this with a subscription to the Globe), and it’s such a difficult path to a test when it should be easy (but that’s another story, isn’t it, and we know at whose feet the shortcomings of the national response can be laid).
I am glad you are getting tested.
There is such a thing as too much faith in statistics, and the guidelines about length of time of possible exposure, ambient conditions, never mind the extent to which all likely individuals around you were masked, kept their distance (and, NEWS, it’s been known for decades that droplets carry more than six feet… especially aerosolized; that six foot figure is a good benchmark and has been the “gold standard” for over a century, when it was first clinically determined by a person with some claim to scientific method (though according to hundred year-old protocols for experimentation) are all only guidelines…
In my opinion, old buddy, you didn’t so much flout them, as you tempted them.
I’m a hypochondriacal neurotic anxiety-ridden old jew, so of course I’m extra cautious, and I haven’t done not only not half the things you’ve done all along, I haven’t done one one-hundredth of them: not been on public transportation for over a year (and then it was only suburban rail lines into downtown; they’ve been running all along, with essentially no passengers), not gone out to eat in nearly a year, not ordered take-out either for delivery or pickup in a year… Only allowed workmen, masked and gloved and at a distance, into the house for emergencies (we’ve had a plumbing repair, that required ripping out a wall in our dining room, had a water heater fail and need replacement, had the refrigerator fail and need repair), countable on one hand… All our groceries are delivered, without contact. I unpack and put things away, and touch nothing during the operation, and wash my hands when I’m done. Innumerable tests show that there’s very very little transmission by way of things like grocery deliveries, especially if you dispose of all transport containers (bags, cartons, etc.) and wash your hands before touching anything after putting groceries in the pantry.
So, from afar, to me you’ve been lucky, but not the object of an “I-told-you-so,” ‘cause in fact what do I know? What do any of us know? I’m glad you’re being tested, under the circumstances.
You’re doing a solid to your readers by telling them about your experience.
I haven’t read much about the association between vaccination and subsequent positive test results, so I don’t know what Lauren’s history here means, but apparently there are some other intimates in your larger circle who also test positive (anyone she is close to is part of your circle too, even if you don’t see them… this is a fact I’ve tried to gently make clear to you several times). Best to get tested.
Let us all know how it turns out.
Xoxo
H
Blog meister responds: Thank you for your caring. And your good advice. And you have had a lot to do with my being more careful than I might have been.
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It’s Friday, January 22, 2021
Welcome to the 1006th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Lady Gaga
as she is looking away from the camera.
SMP Entertainment - Vimeo: SB50 Lady GaGa Interview (view archived source)
Lady Gaga interviewed for NFL Network about her Super Bowl performance in 2016
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2.0 Commentary
As I write this it’s Wednesday afternoon.
It’s two full days into my quarantine: Monday afternoon @ 1.30pm was point of last contact with infected person.
While I wait for test results, I’m happy to report that starting my quarantine’s third day I’m showing no symptoms and a temperature holding at 97.6.
Meanwhile, Will has returned to his prents in New York, leaving Kat and I alone.
Kat has led the charge to separate us during this current quarantine.
Wide open windows, fans, masks, the dining room table set up on the cap ends.
At the inauguration, Lady Gaga’s rendition of our national anthem was inspiring.
A fitting beginning to what will be an inspiring presidency.
I am waiting to hear the President’s ideas for a jobs creation program that will rebuild our infrastructure on a massive scale: one million $20.00-minimum-pay new jobs by its second year.
Much prefer a massive jobs creation to bailouts or rescues.
BREAKING NEWS: NEGATIVE.
My test results are back: negative.
Thank goodness.
Not conclusive but strong evidence.
It will not affect my behavior which remains on high alert, especially for the next few days of self-quarantine, but ever more careful.
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3.1 Sacco and Vanzetti
We applied for and received an EIN number, which every new corporation needs.
Next: a bank account and more work on the 501(c)(3), the tax exempt application.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
Education should no longer be most imparting of knowledge, but must take a new path, seeking the release of human potentialities.
~Maria Montessori
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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
Love illustrations of the efforts of artists.
Here’s one of my favorite writers, Colleen Getty, who has just finished her book and is looking for young adult readers to read it and give her feedback.
This from Colleen G:
Hey Dom,
Congrats on plowing toward your incorporation and nonprofit status. Having done the same about four years ago now--wow the time flies--I will warn you, as you may have already been warned, it is not for the faint of heart. Ugh! Anyway, I did put together a (hopefully) entertaining blog entry about my experience applying for nonprofit status and some of the pitfalls that I may save you from if you are doing it yourself. If you have a lawyer, well--good for you! A much easier route. For those truly without profit, and without lawyers, the blog entry is my gift to them. The book I mention within it by Nolo was very helpful--necessary--to the process for me. Here's my trip down the Yellow Brick Road of Nonprofit application: http://www.theroomtowrite.org/blog/writingidprefernottodothenonprofitpaperworkblues
Perhaps you'll find it an entertaining read even if an unnecessary one--to laugh at my rambling attempts.
Also, I have finished my read-aloud final revision of my YA Lucy Bound in Lyrics. I wonder if any of the young adults in your life would have time and motivation to serve as a BETA Reader for me? Let me know as I organize my manuscripts to get to Beta readers and feedback forms, etc.
Happy to see you are keeping yourself busy and off the streets:)
Stay well!
Cheers,
Colleen
Blog meister responds: A wonderful way for someone to participate in the creative process at an early age.
This from dear friend, terrific blogger, Sally C:
Dear Dom,
Regarding your daughter Kat's lactose intolerance: If it is only lactose intolerance (as opposed to intolerance of any or all of the other components of dairy products - casein, etc. - my oldest nephew suffers from severe effects of any part of any dairy product, including pure butter), she should check out (if she hasn't already) the Cabot cheese products. Most of them - the harder cheeses like cheddars - are lactose-free. I've used them for several years without ill effects. I have read that aged cheeses in general become lactose-free during aging, but Cabot is the only one that specifies their cheeses as lactose-free on the package. Soft cheeses, like mozzarella and cottage cheese, are not lactose-free.
I tend to be suspicious of a number of the non-dairy cheese options - they tend to behave weirdly when cooked, often taste equally weird, and have a strange texture and "mouth-feel." Some have ingredients that I'm reluctant to ingest. So I prefer to go with real cheese that gives me no ill effects.
Happy eating, no matter which cheese you and Kat choose!
Sally
Blog meister responds: Thank you, my dear, for showing such loving interest.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Tuesday night Kat and I had pork chops for dinner.
We slow-roasted the chops for 30 minutes and then fried them in garlic oil with rosemary.
A splash of white wine vinegar completed the pan sauce.
They were delicious.
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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
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga,
is an American singer, dancer, songwriter, actress, and businesswoman.
She is known for her consistent image reinventions and versatility in both music and entertainment.
Gaga began performing as a teenager, singing at open mic nights and acting in school plays. She studied at Collaborative Arts Project 21, through New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, before dropping out to pursue a career in music.
When Def Jam Recordings canceled her contract, she worked as a songwriter for Sony/ATV Music Publishing, where she signed a joint deal with Interscope Records and Akon's label, KonLive Distribution, in 2007.
Gaga rose to prominence the following year with her debut studio album, The Fame, and its chart-topping singles "Just Dance" and "Poker Face".
The album was later reissued to include the EP, The Fame Monster (2009), which yielded the successful singles "Bad Romance", "Telephone", and "Alejandro".
Lady Gaga has been described as a global cultural icon.
Gaga's five succeeding studio albums have all debuted atop the US Billboard 200.
Her second full-length album, Born This Way (2011), explored electronic rock and techno-pop and sold more than one million copies in its first week.
Its title track became the fastest-selling song on the iTunes Store, with over one million downloads in less than a week. Following her EDM-influenced third album, Artpop (2013), which yielded the single "Applause", Gaga released a jazz album with Tony Bennett, Cheek to Cheek (2014), and the country pop and soft rock-influenced album Joanne (2016). She also ventured into acting, playing leading roles in the miniseries American Horror Story: Hotel (2015–2016), for which she received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, and the critically acclaimed musical drama film A Star Is Born (2018). Her contributions to the latter's soundtrack, which spawned the chart-topping single "Shallow", made her the first woman to win an Academy, Grammy, BAFTA, and Golden Globe Award in one year. Gaga returned to her dance-pop roots with her sixth studio album, Chromatica (2020), which spawned the number-one single "Rain on Me".
Having sold 124 million records as of 2014, Gaga is one of the world's best-selling music artists and the fourth highest-earning female musician of the 2010s. Her achievements include various Guinness World Records, 11 Grammy Awards, and awards from the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Council of Fashion Designers of America. She has been declared Billboard's Artist of the Year and Woman of the Year and included among Forbes' power and earnings rankings. Gaga was ranked number four on VH1's Greatest Women in Music in 2012 and second on Time's 2011 readers' poll of the most influential people of the past ten years. Her extensive philanthropy and social activism includes work related to mental health awareness and LGBT rights. Gaga founded the Born This Way Foundation in 2012, a non-profit organization that focuses on empowering youth, improving mental health, and preventing bullying. In 2019, she launched Haus Laboratories, a vegan cosmetics brand.
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It’s Thursday, January 21, 2021
Welcome to the 1005th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
The tax collector's office
1640 Pieter Breughel the Younger - Artdaily.org
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2.0 Commentary
What time does my PCP’s office open?
“…patients who are asymptomatic but have had a definitive and clear exposure to a person with COVID-19”
Finally I qualify for a testing.
Using the above guideline.
My cousin Lauren and I have been best friends and have hung out for years.
She, a health care worker, got the vaccine on Friday.
She suffered moderate reactions to it: headache and fatigue.
We, my daughter, Kat, and her boyfriend Will, had dinner on Sunday night with Lauren and her boyfriend, Dr. Rob.
Lauren got tired and she and Rob left early.
She woke fine on Monday and felt herself.
She picked me up and we drove around for ninety minutes on a shopping expedition.
The first time since the onset of the pandemic we were together in a car for an extended time.
Of course, not only in the car.
Perhaps fifteen minutes maximum per car trip; three car trips.
The rest of the time in the markets.
Very crowded markets.
All patrons masked.
Errands done, we separated.
Later in the day, out of habit, she got tested.
Tuesday morning at 5.00am, she texted me: “Positive.”
Someone else in her family, also positive.
The third: symptomatic, to be tested.
I called my provider at 6.30am and got a nurse who, on listening to my exposure, made a 10.30am testing appointment for me.
I was on time, taken on time.
Unpleasant test.
While test results won’t be known until a day or two later, I feel comfortable now, knowing I’m taking the right steps.
Tuesday night Lauren’s symptoms intensify.
Will gets his result: negative.
Will returns to New York as per plan.
Kat gets her result: negative.
Nonetheless, due to her close contact, her Friday-scheduled extraction of wisdom teeth must be postponed.
The negative results may not definitive but are certainly much better than the alternatives.
No results yet for me.
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3.1 Sacco and Vanzetti
Started to examine how to apply to the IRS for Tax-Exempt status under 501(c)(3).
It’s daunting.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
The first duty of the educator,
whether he is involved with the newborn infant or the older child,
is to recognize the human personality of the young being and
respect it.
~Maria Montessori
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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 college friend Joyce G who knew us when:
I remember Toni Lee vividly and the pilgrimage to St. Joseph's Abbey. Your memories of 27 years with her is so warm, so moving, so rare.
1,000 blogs. Quite a feat.
I must remember not to read your blogs when I am hungry. Your recipes make my meals seem so inadequate.
Blog meister responds: Thank you for your kind words, my dear. I was blessed.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
On Monday night, Kat, Will, and I took dinner at Douzo, an excellent Japanese restaurant in Boston.
The dinner and conversation were excellent.
We ate sishito peppers, several sashimi entries, and two rolls.
Plus a pair of lamb chops.
Yum.
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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
A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures.
A failure to pay, along with evasion of or resistance to taxation, is punishable by law.
Taxes consist of direct or indirect taxes and may be paid in money or as its labor equivalent.
The first known taxation took place in Ancient Egypt around 3000–2800 BC.
Most countries have a tax system in place to pay for public, common, or agreed national needs and government functions.
Some levy a flat percentage rate of taxation on personal annual income, but most scale taxes based on annual income amounts.
Most countries charge a tax on an individual's income as well as on corporate income.
Countries or subunits often also impose wealth taxes, inheritance taxes, estate taxes, gift taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, payroll taxes or tariffs.
In economic terms, taxation transfers wealth from households or businesses to the government. This has effects which can both increase and reduce economic growth and economic welfare. Consequently, taxation is a highly debated topic.
A 501(c)(3) organization is a corporation, trust, unincorporated association, or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code.
It is one of the 29 types of 501(c) nonprofit organizations in the US.
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It’s Wednesday, January 20, 2021
Welcome to the 1004th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Portrait of Martin Luther King
Nobel Foundation - Description page (direct link)
Martin Luther King, 1964
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2.0 Commentary
First rays of sunshine: hospitalizations and deaths over last week have declined.
The happiest news in months.
Pedal to the metal.
Masks.
Distancing.
Isolation.
In spades.
And the vaccines.
New team in place on Thursday.
With a plan to put in place.
First order: smooth out delivery.
Hopefully we won’t run out of product.
But right now the issue is delivery.
Two thoughts: expand the eligible pool in all states to make sure no appointments go begging.
And the second, find a way to ensure that unkept appointments are filled with a pool of recipients willing to wait on spec, hoping that someone does not show.
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3.1 Sacco and Vanzetti
MLK Day. A holiday.
Happily for me, someone was attentive and caring enough to respond.
I filed our Articles of Organization online.
I got an acknowledgement of payment but not of receipt of filing.
I emailed the Sec of State not anticipating an answer.
At least not the next day.
A holiday.
But I got a response:
You’re filed but give them some time to process the filing and they will respond with a Corporate Id # and a PIN.
I pushed my luck returning his response asking if he had an idea of the timeline involved in this.
In scant minutes he responded: Enclosed find your ID and your PIN numbers, followed by a detail of how I may, from now on, access our records.
What a relief!
Now I can apply for Non Profit status from the IRS which will permit donors to the movement to deduct their donations from their taxes.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
If we really want children to grow into independent and resourceful adults,
we should stop pouring their milk
as soon as they have learned to pour it themselves and
stop fastening their buttons
as soon as they can fasten them without help.
~Maria Montessori
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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 my granddaughter, Francesca, who runs online book discussions. This is the set I’m subscribing to:
Explore the movements of Literary Modernism and Existentialism, which occurred between the late 18th century and early 19th century.
We talked about Modernism as a movement a little bit in the fall, and we could dive into it deeper this spring.
For this class, we'd read
Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky,
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, and
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (not technically Modernism, but very much in conversation with it).
Blog meister responds: Love it.
And I include a response from one of my online classmates, Tom M:
Frankly, I am just excited to start another class because the last one was so rewarding! So, I will be happy with either idea.
Best, Tom
Blog meister responds: I will post the link to Francesca’s classroom within a week when she publishes it.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Last night we had a dinner party, the three of us (Dom, Kat, Will) plus two newly-vaccinateds, cousin Lauren and her boyfriend, Rob, both medical care professionals.
We had a well-received Cauliflower Soup followed by a London Broil with store-bought prepared vegetables.
And a small cheeseboard.
Lovely evening.
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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
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. King is best known for advancing civil rights through nonviolence and civil disobedience, inspired by his Christian beliefs and the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi. He was the son of early civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Sr..
King participated in and led marches for blacks' right to vote, desegregation, labor rights, and other basic civil rights. King led the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and later became the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). As president of the SCLC, he led the unsuccessful Albany Movement in Albany, Georgia, and helped organize some of the nonviolent 1963 protests in Birmingham, Alabama. King helped organize the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
The SCLC put into practice the tactics of nonviolent protest with some success by strategically choosing the methods and places in which protests were carried out. There were several dramatic stand-offs with segregationist authorities, who sometimes turned violent. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover considered King a radical and made him an object of the FBI's COINTELPRO from 1963, forward. FBI agents investigated him for possible communist ties, recorded his extramarital liaisons and reported on them to government officials, and, in 1964, mailed King a threatening anonymous letter, which he interpreted as an attempt to make him commit suicide.
On October 14, 1964, King won the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolent resistance. In 1965, he helped organize two of the three Selma to Montgomery marches. In his final years, he expanded his focus to include opposition towards poverty, capitalism, and the Vietnam War.
In 1968, King was planning a national occupation of Washington, D.C., to be called the Poor People's Campaign, when he was assassinated on April 4 in Memphis, Tennessee. His death was followed by riots in many U.S. cities. Allegations that James Earl Ray, the man convicted of killing King, had been framed or acted in concert with government agents persisted for decades after the shooting. King was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. Martin Luther King Jr. Day was established as a holiday in cities and states throughout the United States beginning in 1971; the holiday was enacted at the federal level by legislation signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1986. Hundreds of streets in the U.S. have been renamed in his honor, and the most populous county in Washington State was rededicated for him. The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was dedicated in 2011.
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It’s Tuesday, January 19, 2021
Welcome to the 1003rd consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Toni Lee at our home on Squaw Island
The happiest times of my life.
Photo by Howard Dinin
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2.0 Commentary
As part of my Christmas gift from daughter Kat, I must answer one question a week sent from the hist application..
This week:
What we the happiest times of my life.?
The long answer is found in 11.0 Thumbnail.
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3.1 Sacco and Vanzetti
I finished up the history of the Sacco and Vanzetti plaster casting hanging in the BPL.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
”....we discovered that education is not something which the teacher does, but that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being. It is not acquired by listening to words, but in virtue of experiences in which the child acts on his environment. The teacher's task is not to talk, but to prepare and arrange a series of motives for cultural activity in a special environment made for the child.
~Maria Montessori
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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 one of my most literate friends, Victor P, regarding the North End branch of the Boston Public Library, one of our haunts growing up in the inner city.
Dom,
I read your comment about Mrs. Herrick and I too recall her service to us kids. Into adulthood I remember getting invitations from her to library events.
Do you remember Ms. Dennison, the librarian who contended with the nonsense and mischief we were wont to offer in the library?
As I sometimes reflect on those younger days I am embarrassed by that behavior but take solace in having lived long enough to make amends in my heart.
Stay well,
Victor
Blog meister responds:
OMG!
Who could forget Ms Dennison?
White hair in a bun.
A perpetual smile.
So sweet.
In retrospect, I think the librarians didn’t mind our rowdiness and rough edges.
We weren’t violent.
Annoying, maybe. Yah!
But as pre-teens, that was our job.
Their job was to help us polish ourselves.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Saturday night was an exciting and delicious meal for Kat, Will, and I.
Roche Bros. boned a chicken for us, removing the breast bones and the leg bones, leaving the whole bird intact for a Chicken Ballotine dinner.
At home, we pounded out the chicken to flatten it and then stuffed it: mortadella, non-dairy cheese (Kat lactose intolerant) garlic oil, rosemary-oil, fresh mint, fresh parsley, panko bread crumbs, fresh spinach and watercress.
Then we tied the chicken, sort of reconstituting it to look like a regular chicken. We slow-roasted it for an hour per pound and then broiled each of the two sides for 5 minutes each to get it attractively brown.
We let it set for half an hour and then sliced it like a loaf of bread.
It was delicious, unusual, and loads of fun to eat.
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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
At what times in your life were you the happiest, and why?
I was married to Toni Lee for twenty-seven years.
The time and times I spent with her was and were the happiest of my life.
We met on a pilgrimage from Boston to Spencer Ma, our destination: St. Joseph’s Abbey, a community of Trappist Monks known as a center of prayer and monastic work. The monastery was also known as one of the origins of the centering prayer movement in the 1970s.
In the evening of our arrival, we had dinner in their dining hall and then repaired to a large gym where we sat on the floor and listened to speakers.
I entered the gym a bit late, looked for the nearest available seat on the floor, and sat beside Toni-Lee whom, up to then, I didn’t know.
From that night on, for twenty-seven years, we were together every day.
The most impactful moment of those years together was morning coffee.
From when we were married, we never missed.
Twenty-seven years times 365 days, 9,855 morning coffees.
I’ve been publishing my blog for an eternity. More than 1,000 days without missing.
Ten times that I shared coffee with Toni-Lee.
Whoever got out of bed first made the Chemex pour-over and served.
(Fifty years later I’m still making my coffee that way.)
We sat facing and spent an hour telling and listening.
Each totally interested in every detail.
The dreams of newly-married; the events of long-time married.
Meals for dinner, meals for the restaurant, for the kids.
Financial concerns – never without them.
Our campaign for State Representative.
The kids to and from school; at school.
Building and opening the restaurant.
Remodeling the entire building.
The kids, each of them, fully.
Never nothing to talk about.
The kids extracurricular.
Our Food magazine.
Her cooking school.
Her studies.
Good times.
My studies.
Bad times.
Until the first rascal woke and quietly demanded attention.
From our first days of marriage, dinners were splendid, formal events: all present.
Frequent visitors, often unannounced.
Creative people, artists and architects; musicians; foodies.
And the children.
Whomever, they never changing our rhythm.
Dinners as formal events.
Discussing the wine; the food; our days.
Toni Lee and I shepherding the group.
We took splendid vacations.
Most frequent were half or full days away from our normal routines.
To take in local artistic performances or art exhibits.
Johnny Cash at Symphony Hall.
The Mikado. HMS Pinafore at the Boston Common or at Harvard.
King Lear in a theatre.
The boys learning.
Toni and I sharing, she beaming with happiness.
Half or full days off.
Opportunities to take trips to Maine and New Hampshire, sometimes overnights.
To Portland, Me., for its museum and restaurants.
To Ogunquit, for the Marginal Way and especially to Arrows, a special restaurant while it lasted.
To Bar harbor and Mt. Desert. Cadillac Mountain.
As a family.
Toni Lee and I in perfect partnership, in the planning, execution, and enjoyment.
Most welcomed and most frequent of the overnight vacations were visits to North Caldwell, New Jersey.
Her family lived on Mountain Avenue.
(For fans of The Sopranos, note the intro to each episode. Tony Soprano took a left on Mountain Avenue. He lived on the top of that hill. Had we only known.)
Toni loved her mother so much that whenever there was a hiatus in our schedules she would inevitably plug in a trip to visit.
Once, a blizzard was predicted for the day we planned on leaving.
Toni was so distraught at a suggestion that we wait a day, we left Boston in the teeth of the blizzard.
Halfway to New Jersey the car hydroplaned, precipitating a twelve car collision in which, magically, no one was hurt.
Our new car was totaled.
The five of us, three sons, spent overnight in a motel.
What fun!
Fast food and non-stop TV. (Those days we did not watch TV so it really was an event.)
Toni’s mother came for us the next day.
One couldn’t help noticing their closeness and similarities.
Two amazing women.
Toni in her childhood environment, beaming.
The most brilliant of our trips was an eleven-week summer in France.
She loved, loved, loved the research, the planning.
She was a scholar.
Before we left, Toni generated a detailed list of the most famous of French dishes that we had to track and taste while I consulted with our wine wholesaler to coordinate the wineries we would visit and the Guide Michelin restaurants.
In the event, we all stayed in a resort area in the south of France, Sanary, we being our three sons, and our helpers: my aunt Marie, my mother, and my teen-aged niece whose job it was to babysit the boys (ages 4, 6, and 8.)
While in Sanary, Toni and I left everyone for two ten-day car trips to visit France’s major wine-growing regions to study food and wine
Idyllic.
Letters of Introduction to the wineries always precipitated detailed tours in which the owner or vintner personally walked us through the winery, outlining each step of the wine-making.
Several times they also took us to the closest three-star restaurant for dinner.
I loved Toni.
Throughout the trip she assiduously updated her food checklist.
Sometimes we ate takeout from the town’s traiteur because they offered one of the items we needed to checkoff.
Sometimes we chose a restaurant for that same reason.
As we reached the end of our stay, we had checked off all of Toni’s extended list.
Only Clafoutis, the French Plum Tart, remained elusive.
We chose, one night, to have dinner at the faded, legendary, super-elegant Maxim’s in Paris.
For no reason other than its historic place in Paris’ gastronomic history.
We were not anticipating I but when they wheeled out the dessert cart, there it was!
Clafoutis!
We ordered it.
Our terrific waiter touched his serving utensil to it.
Looked at us and smacked it with his serving spoon.
It bounced.
He said, “C’est ne pas merveilleuse.”
We laughed.
We ordered it anyway.
Despite the warning, it was pretty good.
Perhaps not marvelous.
And the story lingered: we repeated it time and time again.
Through the restaurant, Toni got to know several other literary types (Toni had a PhD in English and taught at Boston University for several years) and, under her auspices, we put together a magazine, calling it Food, not original, perhaps, but to the point. She the Editor, our friend Howard, the Creative, and I the Publisher.
It fulfilled her need to research and write and combined those talents with her love of food.
Every month we waited anxiously for the magazines to be printed and delivered.
Exciting.
She opened a cooking class at the restaurant.
We integrated the work counter, with its large ceiling mirrors so students could see her handiwork without getting up, with the design of one of the dining rooms.
Class nights were exciting.
Not really a vacation – our home on Squaw Island, Hyannis port, Cape Cod.
We bought the house for summer and long weekend holidays.
Eventually, it became our residence.
Toni Lee was in heaven.
We were alone, alone and she loved it.
With the children, too, of course.
With only us; and her mother.
And, occasionally, her siblings.
She loved, loved the isolation.
We had dinners.
We regularly took 6.00am birding walks. We were blessed with a number of nearby wildlife sanctuaries and took advantage of them..
We took long walks, daily to the Post Office, a mile away along the beaches.
Always together.
Hand in hand, always.
Our Cape Cod home was the setting for all calendar holiday events when we vacationed in place.
We were set up for the group.
These events were always only with Toni Lee’s family.
Our dining room table on Cape Cod held twenty-four chairs without moving anything.
And our holiday events saw each of those chairs filled.
We had plenty of bedrooms.
Although neither of us grew up with happy holiday traditions, Toni and I set a lovely tone for our own family.
We were regarded as the head of the family and all visitors, including Toni Lee’s father, were on their best behavior.
The holiday rhythm started at noon with a Gravy that my mother made for us.
Not only the Gravy and a wide variety of meats, but some wonderful hand-made pasta, like Ravioli or Gnocchi.
My mother always made a Gravy for us although she never joined us.
Pasta was followed by Godiva chocolates.
The youngest took one and passed the box on, everyone taking one and passing on the box.
Appetites for chocolates usually ran out before the box. Or two.
Then we all went outdoors to the field we had plowed level for outdoor games and we played family football, wherein even the youngest among us managed a touchdown.
Then we broke to regather at six pm to enjoy the roast, usually provided by Toni Lee’s hunting-brother, Mark. Wild goose or squirrel or turkey, whatever came into his sight, in season, of course.
Toni and I both loved sharing artistic performances
We were active members of the Museum of Fine Arts. Every special exhibit meant we bought and read the catalogue. So much fun.
We had season tickets to the Boston Opera and to the Celebrity Series which we paid for by giving the impresarios dinners at Dom’s.
The exchange brought tens of world-renown artists from the opera and the theater into the restaurant.
We loved our weekly wine dinners with the Eks, Fred and Kimi.
Toni cooked multi-course meals.
Fred brought appropriate, pretty spectaclar wines.
The next day’s morning coffee was filled with a rehash of the event.
And pervading all this activity, filling the interstices, we oversaw the growth of three handsome, healthy boys.
Infants, toddlers, boys, adolescents, young men.
At home, at school, extracurricular.
Two important areas that Toni rarely participated in were the boys’ tennis experiences (Mino and Chris were New England-ranked players) and the many after-hour visits to the restaurant by the most famous rock artists of the day.
But even here, she was tremendously interested and wanted to hear every word of what went on.
As I transcribe these events I’m coming to a better understanding as to why Toni and I had so much to talk about during our morning coffees.
We loved each other.
Our marriage was an ongoing opportunity to share and show our love in thousands of ways.
And we did.
The happiest years of my life.
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It’s Monday, January 18, 2021
Welcome to the 1002nd consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Obverse of the Great Seal of the United States.
U.S. Government -
Extracted from PDF version of Our Flag, available here (direct PDF URL here.)
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2.0 Commentary
And so the winter is on the run.
Egged on by so much excitement in our country’s leadership.
But I think more, it’s the effect of climate change: the warming of New England is temporarily making winters more habitable.
Not talking for skiers or other winter sports people, they disappointed, but simple living, putting on a coat and going out for errands or just a walk.
A single storm so far, and not a bad one for Boston, and, with a seven day forecast, January will be three weeks gone without any major inconvenience.
Then we’ll be a scant three weeks from our watershed, Valentine’s Day, when days are noticeably longer, vaccinations are humming, corona starts saying ‘Goodbye’, winter has only three more weeks to rule, the economy will begin its comeback, and restaurants will be more than 25% full with extended hours.
It' true that for most of us, a date with the needle is still a distance off.
But what is optimistic is that more and more of the talk is on the vaccine.
Rather asking how many first doses and second doses are being administered?
What are our goals?
Our priorities?
What is the Defense Production Act? (See 11.0 Thumbnail immediately below)
And we take heart that every day we iron out 100 wrinkles in the production and delivery of that gamer-hanger; that life-saver that squirts out of the point of a needle.
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3.1 Sacco and Vanzetti
Spent a good deal of fun time reorganizing files.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
A child is an eager observer and is particularly attracted by the actions of the adults and wants to imitate them. In this regard an adult can have a kind of mission. He can be an inspiration for the child's actions, a kind of open book wherein a child can learn how to direct his own movements. But an adult, if he is to afford proper guidance, must always be calm and act slowly so that the child who is watching him can clearly see his actions in all their particulars.
~Maria Montessori
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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
Got several congratulations for surviving my self-imposed quarantine.
And several congratulations on the publication of 1000 consecutive posts.
Blog meister responds: Thank you. I wasn’t really worried about covid. Liar. I was. And thank you. It’s been a lot of fun with more to come. A lot more.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Friday I broke from routine of dinner at 5.00pm.
I went for a big lunch at Legal Seafood, a block from my apartment near the Aquarium.
They ran a special on Clam Chowder: $1.00 per cup, and the dollar goes to charity.
I ordered the chowder.
Delicious, of course, but too much for me to finish.
I ate half and left the rest.
I had a small Caesar salad, lightly dressed, and an appetizer of fried clams.
I sent the clams back for a touch more frying.
They were delicious.
In the evening I had a slice of Whole Foods cheese pizza.
Very nice.
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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
The Defense Production Act of 1950 (Pub.L. 81–774) is a United States federal law enacted on September 8, 1950 in response to the start of the Korean War.
It was part of a broad civil defense and war mobilization effort in the context of the Cold War.
Its implementing regulations, the Defense Priorities and Allocation System (DPAS), are located at 15 CFR §§700 to 700.93.
Since 1950, the Act has been reauthorized over 50 times.
It has been periodically amended and remains in force.
The Act contains three major sections.
The first authorizes the president to require businesses to accept and prioritize contracts for materials deemed necessary for national defense, regardless of a loss incurred on business. The law also allows the president to designate materials to be prohibited from hoarding or price gouging.
The law does not state what would occur if a business refuses or is unable to complete a request on time. However, any person who performs any act prohibited or willfully fails to perform any act required by the Defense Production Act may be charged with a felony that results in a fine up to $10,000 or imprisonment for up to one year or both.
The second section authorizes the president to establish mechanisms (such as regulations, orders or agencies) to allocate materials, services and facilities to promote national defense.
The third section authorizes the president to control the civilian economy so that scarce and critical materials necessary to the national defense effort are available for defense needs.
The Act also authorizes the President to requisition property, force industry to expand production and the supply of basic resources, settle labor disputes, control consumer and real estate credit, establish contractual priorities, and allocate raw materials towards national defense.
The president's designation of products under the jurisdiction of the DPA is the authority of the Act most often used by the Department of Defense (DOD) since the 1970s. Most of the other functions of the Act are administered by the Office of Strategic Industries and Economic Security (SIES) in the Bureau of Industry and Security in the Department of Commerce.
The Defense Priorities and Allocations System institutes a rating system for contracts and purchase orders.[9] The highest priority is DX, which must be approved by the Secretary of Defense. The next level down is DO, and below that are unrated contracts.
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It’s Sunday, January 17, 2021
Welcome to the 1001st consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Terry Gross host of American National Public Radio program Fresh Air
at the Georgia Tech FERST Center for the Arts, in Atlanta.
Scott Finsthwait, https://www.flickr.com/photos/finsthwait - Terry Gross 2
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2.0 Commentary
Food probably occupies too much of my life.
Thursday I decided on dinner for Saturday and called Roche Brothers, Rich Case, the meat manager there, and asked him if he could debone a chicken for me. Tomorrow pickup.
He could.
On Friday I picked up (an hour’s walk to and from the market) the boned chicken, the meat all in one piece.
On Friday I browned the bones and wings and then made a stock which I reduced (from two quarts of water to begin) to a single cup.
On Saturday came the preparation and the cook.
That’s a lot of time for one meal.
But I do enjoy it.
From shopping to developing the recipes.
And, of course, eating.
Alone but preferably with a guest or two.
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3.1 Sacco and Vanzetti
Have begun to research the plaster casting of the Sacco and Vanzetti sculpt that hangs little-seen in the BPL.
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4.0 Chuckles/Thoughts
Our aim is not merely to make the child understand, and still less to force him to memorize, but so to touch his imagination as to enthuse him to his innermost core.
~Maria Montessori
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5.0 Mail
We love getting mail.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
So the airwaves drifted to opinionators, hovering on two, one being Fran Liebowitz, author and occasional actor. Fran is known for her sardonic social commentary on American life as filtered through her New York City sensibilities and is now appearing in Scorsese’s TV series, Pretend it’s a City. And the second being Terry Gross, which prompted our lead picture and 11.0 Thumbnail today.
Blog Meister responds: Remarkable women.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Thursday night I enjoyed a lobster.
I softened thinly-sliced leeks, celery, and garlic and then added the cut up lobster, a cup of white wine, and fresh parsley, chopped.
I covered the pan and braised the whole for twenty minutes, serving it with Angel Hair pasa which I finished in the lobster pan where it absorbed the juices.
Very, very tasty.
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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
Terry Gross (born February 14, 1951) is the host and co-executive producer of Fresh Air, an interview-based radio show produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia and distributed nationally by NPR. Since joining NPR in 1975, Gross has interviewed thousands of guests.
Gross has won praise over the years for her low-key and friendly yet often probing interview style and for the diversity of her guests. She has a reputation for researching her guests' work largely the night before an interview, often asking them unexpected questions about their early careers.
The San Francisco Chronicle wrote that Gross's interviews are "a remarkable blend of empathy, warmth, genuine curiosity, and sharp intelligence."
Gross prides herself on preparation; prior to interviewing guests, she reads their books, watches their movies, or listens to their CDs. The Boston Phoenix opined that "Terry Gross... is almost certainly the best cultural interviewer in America, and one of the best all-around interviewers, period. Her smart, thoughtful questioning pushes her guests in unlikely directions. Her interviews are revelatory in a way other people's seldom are."
Gross said that when she first started working in radio, her voice was much higher with anxiety. She said she has worked to relax her voice and to a more natural, deeper tone.
Much has been written about Gross's voice, and the precision of her use of language has been the subject of much analysis.
There have been some occasions when interviews have not gone smoothly. Several guests, including Lou Reed, Jann Wenner, Faye Dunaway, Monica Lewinsky, and Adam Driver, have stopped their interviews prematurely.
Many questions were not well-received.
Gross asked Nancy Reagan about the lack of funding and mishandling of HIV/AIDS by her husband, President Ronald Reagan: did not go over.
Nor did the one on February 9, 2005, with Lynne Cheney, conservative author and the wife of then-Vice President Dick Cheney. The initial focus of the interview was on Cheney's latest history book, but Gross moved on to questions about Cheney's lesbian daughter Mary and her opinion of the Bush administration's opposition to same-sex marriage. Cheney declined to comment on her daughter's sexuality, but repeatedly stated her opposition to a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, which was being endorsed by President George W. Bush. Cheney declined to discuss the matter further. When Gross brought the interview back to issues of gay rights, Cheney again refused to comment. According to producers, Cheney had been warned that Gross would ask about politics and current events.
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