Daily Entries for the week of
Sunday, June 7, 2020
through
Saturday, June 13, 2020
It’s Saturday, June 13, 2020
Welcome to the 795th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Domenic Savio
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2.0 Commentary
A new space in town.
An alley off North Street in the North End,
between the restaurants Limoncello (been there for years) 190 North Street, and
Forcella, newly-opened, 33 North Square.
The alley leads from North Street to a
large fully-enclosed, open-aired space shared by the two for outdoor dining.
Being quite familiar with Limoncello,
I shall dine at Forcella’s with my friend Grace on Friday night.
Will report of course.
Note that these restaurants are operating in that space on a temporary license which may well be rescinded at any time.
Make hay…
In a similar vein, it’s wonderful to see tables in front of restaurants on Hanover Street where cars used to park.
Maybe this temporary solution will demonstrate the impact of sidewalk cafes as a permanent improvement to life in the North End.
Thinking here of widening the sidewalks to accommodate the tables against the building facades,
with the flow of pedestrians separating the vehicular traffic flow from the restaurant/cafe guests.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
Love isn't soft, like the poets say.
Love has teeth which bite and
the wounds never close.
~Stephen King
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Thursday night I enjoyed a pork tenderloin which I first slow-roasted and
then
covered with a honey-mustard-breadcrumb coating and
cooked at a high heat for an additional 15-minutes.
Juicy, tasty, perfect.
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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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Dominic Savio (Italian: Domenico Savio; 2 April 1842 – 9 March 1857) was an Italian adolescent student of Saint John Bosco.
He was studying to be a priest when he became ill and died at the age of 14, possibly from pleurisy.
He is the only person of his age group who was declared a saint not on the basis of his having been a martyr, but on the basis of having lived what was seen as a holy life.
He was noted for his piety and devotion to the Catholic faith, and
was eventually canonized.
Bosco regarded Savio very highly, and wrote a biography of his young student, The Life of Dominic Savio. This volume, along with other accounts of him, were critical factors in his cause for sainthood.
Despite the fact that many people considered him to have died at too young an age – fourteen – to be considered for sainthood, he was considered eligible for such singular honor on the basis of his having displayed "heroic virtue" in his everyday life.
Savio was canonized a saint on 12 June 1954, by Pope Pius XII, making him the youngest non-martyr to be canonized in the Catholic Church until the canonizations of Francisco and Jacinta Marto, the pious visionaries of Fatima, in 2017.
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It’s Friday, June 12, 2020
Welcome to the 794th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Corner view of the Equitable Building in downtown Manhattan at Broadway and Cedar.
Fletcher6 - Own work
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2.0 Commentary
The new good neighbor,
walking,
on approaching a neighbor from the opposite direction,
raises her mask to fully cover her face.
Recently on Newbury Street,
walking towards another walker,
I so raised my mask.
As we passed, she nodded in approbation and appreciation.
Society getting on a new page.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
The thing under my bed waiting to grab my ankle isn't real.
I know that, and
I also know that if I'm careful to keep my foot under the covers,
it will never be able to grab my ankle.
~Stephen King
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Ate last night at La Voile on Newbury St.
A tasting of foie gras and pate de foie gras,
sea bass and
Blanquettes de veau
with ample appropriate wines,
perfect.
A perfect re-entry into the world of dining out.
Ninety dollars per person, including tax and tip.
Kind of standard in Boston for a quality meal.
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The Equitable Building is an office skyscraper located at 120 Broadway between Pine and Cedar Streets in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City.
The building is 555 feet tall, with 38 stories, and was the largest office building in the world by floor area upon its completion, with 1.2 million square feet of floor space.
It replaced the Equitable Life Building, the previous headquarters of the Equitable Life Insurance Company, which burned down in 1912.
The skyscraper was designed by Ernest R. Graham in the neoclassical style, with Peirce Anderson as the architect-in-charge.
The building's articulation consists of three horizontal sections similar to the components of a column, namely a base, shaft, and capital.
Upon its completion, the Equitable Building was controversial because of its lack of setbacks, which in turn does not allow sunlight to reach the surrounding ground.
This contributed to the adoption of the first modern building and zoning restrictions on vertical structures in Manhattan, the 1916 Zoning Resolution.
The Equitable Building was developed by a group led by T. Coleman du Pont; work on the Equitable Building started in 1913 and was completed in 1915.
Upon opening, it hosted a variety of tenants, and by the 1920s, was the most valuable building in New York City.
Though the edifice was named after the Equitable Life Insurance Company, the company occupied a small portion of the building until it moved out during 1960.
The owner as of 2020, Silverstein Properties, purchased the Equitable Building in 1980 and renovated it multiple times.
The building was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1978 and a New York City landmark in 1996.
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It’s Thursday,
Welcome to the 794th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Kipling in 1895
Elliott & Fry -
Portrait of Rudyard Kipling from the biography Rudyard Kipling by John Palmer
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2.0 Commentary
A poem introduced to me as a Law School Freshman,
in my book on Torts.
Loved it.
Some years later I wanted to read it again.
Couldn’t remember it’s name or even its author.
Drove me crazy.
Have been searching for it for years.
Until publication of a compilation of Rudyard Kipling poems called Barrack Room Ballads.
Seeing it listed,
on Amazon,
for sale through a third party,
I had a nagging suspicion.
Had examined so many Kipling volumes in search for the poem, but
not finding that one.
So I paid a premium for a copy of the book and
paged through it.
Eureka!
Here it is, Kipling’s ode to the time-honored literary tradition,
plagiarism.
Prelude
When ’Omer smote ‘is bloomin’ lyre,
He’d ‘eard men sing by land an’ sea,
An’ what he thought ‘e might require,
‘E went and took – the same as me.
The market girls an’ fishermen,
The shepherds an’ the sailors, too,
They’d ‘eard old songs turn up again,
But kep’ it quiet—same as you!
They knew ‘e stole; ‘e knew they knowed.
They didn’t tell, nor make a fuss.
But winked at ‘Omer down the road,
And ‘e winked back – the same as us.
First published in the Seven Seas
London and New York, 1896
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
Books are the perfect entertainment: no commercials, no batteries,
hours of enjoyment for each dollar spent.
What I wonder is why everybody doesn't carry a book around
for those inevitable dead spots in life.
~Stephen King
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Tuesday night I made another hamburger.
Getting to like them.
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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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Joseph Rudyard Kipling (30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936) was an English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist.
He was born in India, which inspired much of his work.
Kipling's works of fiction include The Jungle Book (1894), Kim (1901), and many short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888).
His poems include "Mandalay" (1890), "Gunga Din" (1890), "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" (1919), "The White Man's Burden" (1899), and "If—" (1910).
He is seen as an innovator in the art of the short story.
His children's books are classics; one critic noted "a versatile and luminous narrative gift."
Kipling in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was among the United Kingdom's most popular writers. Henry James said, "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius, as distinct from fine intelligence, that I have ever known."
In 1907, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, as the first English-language writer to receive the prize, and at 41, its youngest recipient to date.
He was also sounded for the British Poet Laureateship and several times for a knighthood, but declined both.
Following his death in 1936, his ashes were interred at Poets' Corner, part of the South Transept of Westminster Abbey.
Kipling's subsequent reputation has changed with the political and social climate of the age.
The contrasting views of him continued for much of the 20th century.
George Orwell saw Kipling as "a jingo imperialist," who was "morally insensitive and aesthetically disgusting."
Literary critic Douglas Kerr wrote: "[Kipling] is still an author who can inspire passionate disagreement and his place in literary and cultural history is far from settled.
But as the age of the European empires recedes, he is recognized as an incomparable, if controversial, interpreter of how empire was experienced.
That, and an increasing recognition of his extraordinary narrative gifts, make him a force to be reckoned with."
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It’s Wednesday,
Welcome to the 793rd consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Dedicated Fitbit retail stand stocked with different Fitbit Flex trackers
Raysonho @ Open Grid Scheduler / Grid Engine - Own work
Fitbit stand for Fitbit Flex
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2.0 Commentary
The white population of America has spent
so much time. money, and effort
to make our black population feel inferior,
feel like things will never change for them,
feel like this is as good as it gets,
and punishing them when they get uppity,
when they deviate from the role we’ve assigned them.
We have so undermined their confidence,
that a black person cannot face white society,
white authority,
with equanimity.
Black individuals, like Helene Wright in Toni Morrison’s Sula,
when faced by a white train conductor,
quail and succumb or
like an extremist,
lash out angrily,
sometimes violently,
in manners that white people find incomprehensible.
The solution?
Dramatic personal changes within each of us white people
embracing our black brethren; that,
combined with love and understanding; and
a true penitence that includes, for their centering,
the time, money, and effort
required to smooth their ways forward.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
When his life was ruined,
his family killed,
his farm destroyed,
Job knelt down on the ground and
yelled up to the heavens,
'Why god? Why me?' and
the thundering voice of God answered,
'There's just something about you that pisses me off.'
~Stephen King
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Monday night I had a plate pf pasta with my Gravy.
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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Fitbit, Inc. is an American company headquartered in San Francisco, California.
Its products are activity trackers, smartwatches, wireless-enabled wearable technology devices that measure data such as the number of steps walked, heart rate, quality of sleep, steps climbed, and other personal metrics involved in fitness.
Alongside the activity trackers, Fitbit began offering a website and mobile app for iOS, Android and Windows 10 Mobile in 2014.
This allowed the trackers to sync to devices such as mobile phones via Bluetooth, or to a Bluetooth-equipped computer running Windows or MacOS.
Users now had the ability to log their food, activities, and weight, to track over time and set daily and weekly goals for themselves for steps, calories burned and consumed, and distance walked.
The app also offered a community page where users could challenge themselves and compete against other users.
The social element anticipated an increase in motivation, and found that users took an average of 700 more steps per day when they had friends on the app.
Users could also choose to share their progress pictures and achievement badges.
The first product released was the Fitbit Tracker.
The company released its Fitbit Ionic smartwatch in October 2017 and a redesigned, lower-priced version in 2018 called the Versa.
The Fitbit Charge 3, a wristband health and fitness tracker introduced in October 2018, was the first device to feature an oxygen saturation (SPO2) sensor; however, as of January 2019, it was non-functional and Fitbit had not provided an implementation timeline.
The Fitbit Charge 3 comes with two different-sized bands: small and large.
The small is around between 5.5 - 7.1 inches and the large is 7.1- 8.7-inches.
Additionally, the screen is larger than the Charge 2 by approximately 40%.
Fitbit Charge 3 comes in two color combos: a Rose-Gold case with a Blue Grey band and a “Graphite luminum” screen case with a Black band.
On December 17, 2018, Fitbit released the Fitbit OS 3.0, which included an extended dashboard, quick logging for weight and water intake, and goal-based exercise mode.
The new extended on-device dashboard (Fitbit Today) would include more data regarding sleep, water intake and weight.
There are three versions of the Fitbit Versa, standard, Special, and Lite.
On December 19, 2018, Emirates NBD announced its support of Fitbit Pay, providing services to the app. Emirates NBD is the first bank in the Middle East to offer this service.
On December 20, 2018, Fitbit announced a running detection feature, enabling auto-pause and auto-stop. Additionally, Fitbit added a birdie goal celebration and new clock faces.
That same month, Fitbit added an API and open source tools to allow developers to better build apps for its smartwatch products.
On January 2, 2019, the company announced the release of the Fitbit Charge 3 in India.
Before October 2007, the company was previously named Healthy Metrics Research, Inc.
While these devices appear to increase physical activities,
there is little evidence that they improve health outcomes.
According to an IDC report published on March 10, 2020, Fitbit is considered the fifth largest wearable company in shipments as of 2019 with an 14.8% over year growth, behind Xiaomi and Apple.
Fitbit reports to have sold more than 100 million devices and have 28 million users.
In February 2018, Fitbit announced that it would be partnering with Adidas to release an Adidas-branded Fitbit Ionic.
The special edition Ionic was released on March 19, 2018.
In August 2018, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association announced a partnership with Fitbit in which BCBS will include Fitbit's wearables and fitness trackers in its Blue365 program.
In 2019, Google announced its intention to buy Fitbit for $2.1 billion.
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It’s Tuesday,
Welcome to the 792nd consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
George Perry Floyd Jr.
(October 14, 1973 – May 25, 2020) was an African American man who died during a police arrest in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020.
Protests in response to both Floyd's death, and more broadly to police violence against other black people, quickly spread across the United States and internationally.
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2.0 Commentary
Had thought , “Monday night, first night, I must eat out.”
Booked my table.
Looked for a partner.
Waited impatiently for it to arrive.
Then someone reminded me I have class At 4.00pm.
Female relationships.
Am well-prepared.
Ooops!
No dinner out.
Don’t want a later reservation since it’s outdoor dining and
as warm as it may seem when you first sit,
temperatures drop quickly as the sun sets and
sitting still,
raising a glass does not qualify as activity, nor does
cutting a piece of meat,
sitting still also cools one down and
the combination often makes one uncomfortably cool outdoors.
And of course indoors is not an option right now.
So I cancelled.
Maybe tomorrow.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
The main mark of modern governments is that
we do not know who governs,
de facto any more than de jure.
We see the politician and not his backer;
still less the backer of the backer; or,
what is most important of all,
the banker of the backer.
~J. R. R. Tolkien
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Sunday night I made a chicken salad with the remains of my last roasted chicken.
I used a roll of ciabatta bread from Iggy’s.
Dressed the chicken with good mayonnaise and a touch of red wine vinegar.
Celery, red onion…all the good stuff.
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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Floyd was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and raised in Cuney Homes in the Third Ward of Houston, Texas.
Friends and family called him Perry and characterized him as a "gentle giant".
He was 6 ft 4 in tall and weighed 223 pounds at autopsy.
At Yates High School, Floyd played on the basketball team and helped lead the football team to the Texas state championships; he graduated in 1993.
He attended South Florida Community College for two years and played on its basketball team.
He transferred to Texas A&M University–Kingsville, where he also played basketball, before dropping out.
Floyd returned to Houston where he became an automotive customizer and played club basketball.
Beginning in 1994 he also performed as a rapper using the stage name "Big Floyd" in the hip hop group Screwed Up Click.
Floyd has been called an early contributor to the development of Houston's hip-hop scene.
He also was an informal community leader and mentor to young men.
After several arrests for theft and drug possession, Floyd was charged in 2007 with armed robbery in a home invasion; he agreed to a plea deal in 2009 and was sentenced to five years in prison.
He was paroled in 2013 after spending four years at the Diboll Unit.
After his release, he became involved with Resurrection Houston, a local ministry.
In 2014, he moved to the Minneapolis, Minnesota area to find work, like some close friends had done.
He worked as a truck driver and a bouncer and lived in St. Louis Park.
In 2017, he filmed an anti–gun violence video.
In 2020, he lost his security job because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He had five children, including two daughters who reside in Houston, ages 6 and 22, and an adult son in Bryan, Texas.
On May 25, 2020, Floyd was arrested on a charge of passing a counterfeit $20 bill at a grocery store in the Powderhorn Park neighborhood of Minneapolis.
According to the store clerk, the bill was an obvious fake and Floyd had refused to return the purchased cigarettes when challenged.
He died after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, pressed his knee to Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes during the arrest.
Floyd was handcuffed face down in the street, while two other officers further restrained Floyd and a fourth prevented onlookers from intervening.
For the last three of those minutes Floyd was motionless and had no pulse, but officers made no attempt to revive him.
Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd's neck as arriving emergency medical technicians attempted to treat him.
The official autopsy found Floyd died of cardiopulmonary arrest caused by subdual and restraint.
The toxicologist found several psychoactive substances or metabolites in his system, and the medical examiner noted fentanyl intoxication and recent methamphetamine use as significantly contributory to his death, though not the cause.
A second autopsy, commissioned by Floyd's family and performed by Michael Baden, without access to various tissue and fluid samples, found that the "evidence is consistent with mechanical asphyxia as the cause" of death, with neck compression restricting blood flow to the brain, and back compression restricting breathing.
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It’s Monday,
Welcome to the 791st consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Colin Kaepernick
Mike Morbeck - Flickr: Colin Kaepernick
San Francisco 49ers vs. Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field on September 9, 2012. Photo by Mike Morbeck.
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2.0 Commentary
First week of phase two bodes well for reopening businesses.
Restaurants with the outside capacity for seating will enjoy
sunny weather and warm temperatures.
I am planning to have dinner at La Voile on Newbury St.
Hoping to entice someone to join me but
if I have to eat alone I will.
Am determined to be in first wave of dining out fandom.
What a thrill to listen to the apology of
that formerly arrogant, smug successful Commissioner of the NFL.
In divorcing himself from his former position he touched all bases; or rather
he employed all three phases of the game.
His should be the template for all future apologies.
We forgive you, Roger.
You did so well you left us no choice.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo.
The ones that really mattered.
Full of darkness and danger, they were.
And sometimes you didn't want to know the end.
Because how could the end be happy?
How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened?
But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow.
Even darkness must pass.
~J. R. R. Tolkien
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5.0 Mail
We love getting mail.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
This from our dear friend from So Carolina, Tommie Toner.
Dom,
Normandy is the most mystical place I have visited.
The first time was during a freezing day in December.
There was a mist above the crosses which gave an eerie, ghostly ambiance to the place.
The wind was chilling but more chilling were the crosses - thousands in all directions.
The second time I was there was in summer - hot, sunny, windy.
A sacred place - the crosses glistened in the sun.
I will never forget looking out over the cliffs and wondering how those brave souls gave their precious lives on that beach and on the cliffs.
We should be forever grateful and mindful of the tremendous sacrifice they made and for those who survived.
Blog Meister responds: Never been myself but would like to participate once.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Had a rib eye steak on Saturday night.
Last steak I ate, several nights ago, was a dry-aged rib eye.
For those who can afford it, the price differential is well worth t.
Buy the dry-aged 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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Colin Rand Kaepernick (born November 3, 1987) is an American civil rights activist and American football quarterback who is a free agent.
He played six seasons for the San Francisco 49ers in the National Football League (NFL).
He is also a political activist, best known for kneeling during the national anthem in protest of police brutality and racial inequality in the United States.
Kaepernick played college football for the University of Nevada where he was named the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Offensive Player of the Year twice and became the only player in NCAA Division I FBS history to amass 10,000 passing yards and 4,000 rushing yards in a career.
After graduating, he was selected by the 49ers in the second round of the 2011 NFL Draft. Kaepernick began his professional football career as a backup quarterback to Alex Smith, and became the 49ers' starter in the middle of the 2012 season after Smith suffered a concussion.
He then remained the team's starting quarterback for the rest of the season, leading the team to their first Super Bowl appearance since 1994.
During the 2013 season, his first full season as a starter, Kaepernick helped the 49ers reach the NFC Championship Game.
Over the next three seasons, Kaepernick lost and won back his starting job, with the 49ers missing the playoffs for three years consecutively.
In the 49ers' third preseason game in 2016, Kaepernick sat during the playing of the U.S. national anthem prior to the game, rather than stand as is customary, as a protest against racial injustice, police brutality and systematic oppression in the country.
The following week, and throughout the regular season, Kaepernick kneeled during the anthem.
The protests received highly polarized reactions, with some praising him and his stand against racism and others denouncing the protests.
The actions resulted in a wider protest movement, which intensified in September 2017 after President Donald Trump said that NFL owners should "fire" players who protest during the national anthem.
Kaepernick became a free agent after the season, but went unsigned.
The statistics website FiveThirtyEight concluded that "it’s obvious Kaepernick is being frozen out for his political opinions", calling it "extraordinary ... that a player like him can’t find a team", based on the observation that "no above-average quarterback [measured by the total quarterback rating] has been unemployed nearly as long as Kaepernick this offseason."
In November 2017, he filed a grievance against the NFL and its owners, accusing them of colluding to keep him out of the league. Kaepernick withdrew the grievance in February 2019 after reaching a confidential settlement with the NFL.
Kaepernick's protests received renewed attention in 2020 amid the George Floyd protests against police brutality and racism.
These nationwide protests mimicked Kaepernick's kneeling.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell put out a statement where he apologized for not listening to the concerns of African-American players.
The Times wrote that Goodell's "words were panned as hypocritical because of the league owners’ rejection of Kaepernick."
Michael Rosenberg of Sports Illustrated wrote at the time, "Mainstream white America is going to reconsider Kaepernick at some point — the way it reconsidered Muhammad Ali years after he refused to go to Vietnam, the way it reconsidered Jackie Robinson and Jack Johnson.
Progress comes in fits and starts, and this country tends to punish those who urge it to move faster.
The reconsideration of Kaepernick has begun."
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It’s Sunday,
Welcome to the 790th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
A LCVP (Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel)
from the U.S. Coast Guard-manned USS Samuel Chase disembarks troops of Company E, 16th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division (the Big Red One) wading onto the Fox Green section of Omaha Beach (Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France) on the morning of June 6, 1944.
American soldiers encountered the newly formed German 352nd Division when landing. During the initial landing two-thirds of Company E became casualties.
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2.0 Commentary
Saturday: so exciting.
Gov. Baker due to speak this afternoon.
Phase Two: can we start it?
Looks likely, therein the excitement.
Of course, the devil is in…
So he will detail the restrictions and protocols of the reopenings.
Regardless of the list, the key word for Monday is “Go!”
Hopefully the excitement of life returning will
prompt us to behave wisely so that
in the following weeks we can draw a wider circle, for example,
restaurants serving only outdoor seating allowed to
open their interior dining space, at least partially.
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4.0 Chuckles/Thoughts
It simply isn't an adventure worth telling if
there aren't any dragons.
~J. R. R. Tolkien
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5.0 Mail
We love getting mail.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
This from college-days friend, Joyce C:
Read your recent blogs and I am happy your son is okay.
I will check out Conflicted. It sounds rather deep.
I have used my early mornings to write a novel. Just finished it this week. Both a relief and an emptiness.
Stay well.
Joyce Consolino Gatta
Blog Meister responds: I know the feeling.. Congratulations.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Friday night I made a decent creamy mushroom sauce.
It was a first for me who shies from cream in my diet.
But
I had leftover roasted La Belle Patrimoine chicken breasts leftover and
I wanted a different approach and
Eataly has a 30% off sale on mushrooms and
I came across a decent-sounding creamy mushroom sauce recipe.
It came out well.
I have some changes to make; some proportions to tweak and then
I’ll share it.
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7. “Conflicted” podcast
Conflicted, by Dom Capossela, is a spiritual/fantasy/political 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.
Today we post Chapter 22 in which Dee presents to the world her personal take on Christian mysticism.
The podcasts are also available on Sound Cloud, iTunes, Twitter, and Facebook.
Search: dom capossela or conflicted or both
Here’s the link:
https://soundcloud.com/user-449713331/sets/conflicted-dom-capossela
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11.0 Thumbnails
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II.
Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D-Day, it was the largest seaborne invasion in history.
The operation began the liberation of German-occupied France (and later western Europe) and laid the foundations of the Allied victory on the Western Front.
Planning for the operation began in 1943.
In the months leading up to the invasion, the Allies conducted a substantial military deception, codenamed Operation Bodyguard, to mislead the Germans as to the date and location of the main Allied landings.
The weather on D-Day was far from ideal, and the operation had to be delayed 24 hours; a further postponement would have meant a delay of at least two weeks, as the invasion planners had requirements for the phase of the moon, the tides, and the time of day that meant only a few days each month were deemed suitable.
Adolf Hitler placed Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in command of German forces and of developing fortifications along the Atlantic Wall in anticipation of an Allied invasion.
The amphibious landings were preceded by extensive aerial and naval bombardment and an airborne assault—the landing of 24,000 American, British, and Canadian airborne troops shortly after midnight. Allied infantry and armored divisions began landing on the coast of France at 06:30.
The target 50-mile stretch of the Normandy coast was divided into five sectors: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword.
Strong winds blew the landing craft east of their intended positions, particularly at Utah and Omaha. The men landed under heavy fire from gun emplacements overlooking the beaches, and the shore was mined and covered with obstacles such as wooden stakes, metal tripods, and barbed wire, making the work of the beach-clearing teams difficult and dangerous.
Casualties were heaviest at Omaha, with its high cliffs.
At Gold, Juno, and Sword, several fortified towns were cleared in house-to-house fighting, and two major gun emplacements at Gold were disabled using specialized tanks.
The Allies failed to achieve any of their goals on the first day.
Carentan, St. Lô, and Bayeux remained in German hands, and Caen, a major objective, was not captured until 21 July.
Only two of the beaches (Juno and Gold) were linked on the first day, and all five beachheads were not connected until 12 June; however, the operation gained a foothold that the Allies gradually expanded over the coming months.
German casualties on D-Day have been estimated at 4,000 to 9,000 men. Allied casualties were documented for at least 10,000, with 4,414 confirmed dead.
Museums, memorials, and war cemeteries in the area now host many visitors each year.
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12.0 Diary of the Surrender of a Private Car
It’s been five months since I sold my car.
In that time I have not once bemoaned being carless.
I have never had occasion to rent a car.
Have not used Uber/Lyft/taxi any more than I had in the past.
I have contributed to others’ vehicles, not more than $200.00.
Against that, I have saved $53.00 a day for 150 days.
Near $8,000.00.
And that has had an important impact on the availability of mad money.
Some for restaurants when they reopen.
20.0 Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Wikipedia for providing the blog with stories on a daily basis.
And to all those who write to us.
And to all those who follow us.
Thank you.