Daily Entries for the week of
Sunday, September 19, 2021
through
Saturday, September 26, 2021
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It’s Saturday, September 25, 2021
Welcome to the 1,231st consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
John Andre
Unknown author - picture in the London Tower
Permission details:
This is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain
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Commentary
My social calendar for early October just took on three early tics, a Sunday night dinner, a shopping trip, and an overnighter: leaf peeping and foraging. Details to follow.
Biden’s infrastructure ideas seek to redress many inequities created by a purely capitalist society. Similar changes made in the past, from Social Security to Unemployment Compensation to the Affordable Health Care plan have changed our economy for the better. I’m for it.
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Reading and Writing
So manuscript beta readers have led me to conclude that I should change the tense of my manuscript from the present to the past. I’m going to rewrite my latest chapter to test the impact.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
“The ability for anyone in our generation to self-amuse
has sadly been bred out of our species.”
~Kim Askew
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
Had dinner at the Palm with long-time friend, Lou-Lou B. She still is gorgeous. We hadn’t spoken all summer and catching up was great fun.
Blog meister responds: Long-time friendships are comfortable and comforting.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Wednesday night I fried some cod in olive oil and butter and reserved the fish on a plate. Then I softened mushroom and shallots in the same fat. I added wine and stock and reduced the single cup of liquids to half that, finishing off the pan sauce with 2 TB of crème fraiche and ½ cup of chopped parsley. After returning the fish to the pan, I simmer all for two minutes and served. Excellent.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Kheper Re
Kheper Re Placard
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Short Essay*
John André (2 May 1750/1751 – 2 October 1780) was a major in the British Army and head of its Secret Service in America during the American Revolutionary War. He was hanged as a spy by the Continental Army for assisting Benedict Arnold's attempted surrender of the fort at West Point, New York, to the British.
André is typically remembered favorably by historians as a man of honor, and several prominent American leaders of the time including Alexander Hamilton and Marquis de Lafayette did not agree with his fate.
In 1779, André became Adjutant General of the British Army in America with the rank of Major. In April of that year, he took charge of British Secret Service in America. By the next year (1780), he had briefly taken part in Clinton's invasion of the South, starting with the siege of Charleston, South Carolina.
Around this time, André had been negotiating with disillusioned American General Benedict Arnold. Arnold's Loyalist wife Peggy Shippen was one of the go-betweens in the correspondence. Arnold commanded West Point and had agreed to surrender it to the British for £20,000 (approximately $3.65 million in 2018)—a move that would have enabled the British to cut off New England from the rest of the colonies.
American General Arnold and British Major John André plotted the surrender of West Point at this spot on the shore pathway south of Haverstraw, New York, in the historic Dutchtown area. Today this is part of Hook Mountain State Park.
André went up the Hudson River on the British sloop-of-war Vulture on Wednesday, 20 September 1780 to visit Arnold. The presence of the warship was discovered by two American privates, John Peterson and Moses Sherwood, the following morning on September 21. From their position at Teller's Point they began to assail the Vulture and a longboat associated with it with rifle and musket fire. Pausing to secure more aid, Peterson and Sherwood headed to Fort Lafayette at Verplanck's Point to request cannons and ammunition from their commander, Col. James Livingston. While they were gone, a small boat furnished by Arnold was steered to the Vulture by Joshua Hett Smith. At the oars were two brothers, tenants of Smith's who reluctantly rowed the boat six miles on the river to the sloop. Despite Arnold's assurances, the two oarsmen sensed that something was wrong. None of these men knew Arnold's purpose or suspected his treason; all were told that the purpose was to do good for the patriot cause. Only Smith was told anything specific, and that was the lie that it was to secure vital intelligence for the American cause. The brothers finally agreed to row after threats by Arnold to arrest them. They picked up André and placed him on shore. The others left and Arnold came to André on horseback, leading an extra horse for André's use.
The two men conferred in the woods below Stony Point on the river's west bank until nearly dawn, after which André accompanied Arnold several miles to the Joshua Hett Smith House (Treason House) in West Haverstraw, New York, owned by Thomas Smith and occupied by his brother Joshua. On the morning of 22 September, the two American patriots, Peterson and Sherwood, launched a two-hour cannonade on the Vulture, which sustained many hits and was forced to retire down river. Their repulsion of the British sloop effectively stranded André on shore.
To aid André's escape through U.S. lines, Arnold provided him with civilian clothes and a passport which allowed him to travel under the name John Anderson. He bore six papers hidden in his stocking, written in Arnold's hand, that showed the British how to take the fort. Joshua Hett Smith, who was accompanying him, left him just before he was captured.[citation needed]
André rode on in safety until 9 a.m. on 23 September, when he came near Tarrytown, New York, where armed militiamen John Paulding, Isaac Van Wart, and David Williams stopped him.
André thought that they were Tories because one was wearing a Hessian soldier's overcoat. "Gentlemen," he said, "I hope you belong to our party." "What party?" asked one of the men. "The lower party," replied André, meaning the British. "We do," was the answer. André then told them that he was a British officer who must not be detained, when, to his surprise, they said that they were Continentals, and that he was their prisoner. He then told them that he was a U.S. officer and showed them his passport, but the suspicions of his captors were now aroused. They searched him and found Arnold's papers in his stocking. Only Paulding could read and Arnold was not initially suspected. André offered them his horse and watch, if they would let him go, but they declined. André testified at his trial that the men searched his boots for the purpose of robbing him. Paulding realized that he was a spy and took him to Continental Army headquarters in Sand's Hill (in today's Armonk, New York, a hamlet within North Castle situated on the Connecticut border of Westchester County).
The prisoner was at first detained at Wright's Mill in North Castle, before being taken back across the Hudson to the headquarters of the American army at Tappan, where he was held at a tavern today known as the '76 House. There he admitted who he really was.
At first, all went well for André since post commandant Lieutenant Colonel John Jameson decided to send him to Arnold, never suspecting that a high-ranking hero of the Revolution could be a turncoat. But Major Benjamin Tallmadge, head of Continental Army Intelligence, arrived, and persuaded Jameson to bring the prisoner back. He offered intelligence showing that a high-ranking officer was planning to defect to the British but was unaware of who it was.
Jameson sent General George Washington the six sheets of paper carried by André, but he was unwilling to believe that Benedict Arnold could be guilty of treason. He therefore insisted on sending a note to Arnold informing him of the entire situation. Jameson did not want his army career to be wrecked later for having wrongly believed that his general was a traitor. Arnold received Jameson's note while at breakfast with his officers, made an excuse to leave the room, and was not seen again. The note gave Arnold time to escape to the British. An hour or so later, Washington arrived at West Point with his party and was disturbed to see the stronghold's fortifications in such neglect, part of the plan to weaken West Point's defenses. Washington was further irritated to find that Arnold had breached protocol by not being about to greet him. Some hours later, Washington received the explanatory information from Maj. Tallmadge and immediately sent men to arrest Arnold, but it was too late.
According to Tallmadge's account of the events, he and André conversed during the latter's captivity and transport. André wanted to know how he would be treated by Washington. Tallmadge had been a classmate of Nathan Hale while both were at Yale, and he described the capture of Hale. André asked whether Tallmadge thought the situations similar; he replied, "Yes, precisely similar, and similar shall be your fate," referring to Hale having been hanged by the British as a spy.
General Washington convened a board of senior officers to investigate the matter. The trial contrasted with Sir William Howe's treatment of Hale some four years earlier. The board consisted of major generals Nathanael Greene (presiding officer), Lord Stirling, Arthur St. Clair, Lafayette (who cried at André's execution), Robert Howe, Steuben, brigadier generals Samuel H. Parsons, James Clinton, Henry Knox, John Glover, John Paterson, Edward Hand, Jedediah Huntington, John Stark, and Judge Advocate General John Laurance.
André's defense was that he was suborning an enemy officer, "an advantage taken in war" (his words). However, he did not attempt to pass the blame onto Arnold. André told the court that he had neither desired nor planned to be behind American lines. He also asserted that, as a prisoner of war, he had the right to escape in civilian clothes. On 29 September 1780, the board found André guilty of being behind American lines "under a feigned name and in a disguised habit" and ordered that "Major André, Adjutant-General to the British Army, ought to be considered as a Spy from the enemy, and that agreeable to the law and usage of nations, it is their opinion, he ought to suffer death."
Glover was officer of the day at André's execution. Sir Henry Clinton, the British commander in New York, did all that he could to save André, his favorite aide, but refused to surrender Arnold in exchange for him, even though he personally despised Arnold. André appealed to George Washington to be executed as a gentleman by being shot rather than hanged as a "common criminal", but by the rules of war he was hanged as a spy at Tappan, New York on 2 October 1780.
A religious poem was found in his pocket after his execution, written two days beforehand.
While a prisoner, he endeared himself to American officers who lamented his death as much as the British. Alexander Hamilton wrote of him: "Never perhaps did any man suffer death with more justice, or deserve it less." The day before his hanging, André drew a likeness of himself with pen and ink, which is now owned by Yale College. André, according to witnesses, placed the noose around his own neck.
The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Friday, September 24, 2021
Welcome to the 1,230th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Over the Garden Wall
This is a poster for the 2014 animated miniseries Over the Garden Wall. The poster art copyright is believed to belong to Turner Broadcasting System.
May be found at the following website: Tumblr
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Commentary
Vaccine for children will be available this fall. Widespread inoculations of this age group will be a significant step forward in this battle against covid, especially in the face of the large segment of the US population of recalcitrant allies who refuse to follow the science.
I can’t tell you how many times I determined to lose three pounds, starting so many days with that fervor, and failing. The sell out is for immediate pleasure at the expense of pride of person. I hope I never stop trying.
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Reading and Writing
Had a terrific discussion yesterday with my good friend and amazing guide in my writing. Yhe discussion was worth the writing effort. I will review the new submission and get it off today.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
“...imagine anybody having lived forty-five or fifty years without knowing Hamlet!
One might as well spend one's life in a coal mine.”
~Hector Berlioz
Life and Letters of Berlioz
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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 Tucker J:
Hey Dom,
I’ve attached a piece I think you might enjoy.
Thanks for always reading!
Blog meister responds: The piece is Tucker’s review of Over the Garden Wall. What a great read and will inevitably lead the reader to a viewing of the film.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Tuesday night I enjoyed the second of the two Bouillabaisse dinners I prepared earlier in the week.
If you remember, when I made the Bouillabaisse I had prepared the broth for four dinners. I separated the broth equally into two containers of two meals each and froze one of the tubs. That second tub I’ll pull out in a week or two and make it again. All I’ll need to do is buy the fish for two meals and simmer all of it in the broth. I may have company or I may have Bouillabaisse for a second time that week.
It took an hour to make the broth but I’m getting four delicious meals out of it. Well worth the 15 minutes per meal.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Grand Piano @ the MFA and
Grand Piano Placard
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Short Essay*
written by Tucker Johnson
There’s finally a chill in the air. Fall is here, bringing with it the memories of walking home from a new grade of school, the crunch of leaves underfoot, the smell of distant chimney smoke. Fall has plenty to offer particularly here in New England. Strangely though other than Halloween it’s hard to engage with films or television series that really make you feel like autumn has arrived.
Well, if you’re in search of something like that then you’re in luck! HBO Max is streaming all ten episodes of Over the Garden Wallan animated masterpiece and maybe the most autumn feeling piece of visual media ever created.
I’ll tell you all about the miniseries but allow its opening theme to set the mood:
Led through the mist,
By the milk-light of moon,
All that was lost, is revealed.
Our long bygone burdens, mere echoes of the spring,
But where have we come, and where shall we end?
If dreams can't come true, then why not pretend?
How the gentle wind,
Beckons through the leaves,
As autumn colors fall.
Dancing in a swirl,
Of golden memories,
The loveliest lies of all
So begins Over the Garden Wall a 10 chapter story based on a premise as familiar and old as folklore itself: Two brothers are lost in the woods, and as they try to find their way home, they come across strangers — some helpful, some malicious, each odder than the last. Big brother Wirt (Elijah Wood) is a worrywart in a conical hat and cape, while Greg (Collin Dean) is an openhearted little adventurer in short pants. They are joined by a talking bluebird with a secret (Melanie Lynskey) and continuously cross paths with a woodsman (Christopher Lloyd) who warns them of an evil sentient darkness called the Beast.
This is all the stuff of classic fairy tales, but the plot of Over the Garden Wall doesn’t matter as much as the aesthetic. The series’ creators have cited New England’s fall foliage as a major influence on the look and environment of the show. Episodes begin with lingering shots of a burnt-umber leaf trembling on a branch, or plump orange and red trees along a riverbank as a paddle-wheel steamer drifts by. There is such a deep focus and intentionality to the way that the natural setting is animated, and its child’s-eye view is so enchanting, that it evokes the Disney classic The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad if that film had been animated by Studio Ghibli.
And all that beautiful fall flora is met by enchanted fauna: oversize turkeys that pull carts like oxen, frogs dressed in their holiday finest on their way to hibernate for the winter in the muddy riverbed, a raccoon in a newsboy cap who carries a bindle because he ran away from the schoolhouse full of Rosemary Wells inspired critters.
That autumnal feeling stems from creator Patrick McHale’s use of Americana that has slipped out of common usage. Many of the series’ images are taken from vintage postcards from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which were exchanged by friends and family on occasions such as Halloween and Christmas. The animation is done with muted earthy colors unlike the vibrant shades normally used for animated shows geared towards children. Thus, the series looks like a dream you maybe had once because it captures not images you’ve seen a million times before, but the much older images that inspired the more familiar ones.
The series’ storytelling accomplishes the same. It has the feeling of a fairy tale or folktale, with
numerous nods to stories you’ve maybe heard before. People are turned into animals or trees, Brothers Grimm-style, and the Beast, who is only seen in shadow, is a man with antlers sprouting from his head, similar to mythological figures like Herne the Hunter.
Becoming lost in the woods is a primeval story in almost all cultures but particularly in the United States, where the earliest European colonizers who landed on these shores saw enormous, deep, dark woods and were intimidated by their shadows.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s famous short story “Young Goodman Brown,” in which a young man enters the woods to perhaps meet Satan himself captures that creeping terror well. There is something more unsettling about emptiness than a more overtly scary creature. While Over the Garden Wall only rarely offers scary creatures, its core story is unnerving in a way that
will hang with you.
Over the Garden Wall frequently nods to some of the most influential works of animation history in dreamlike sequences, like the menacing Highwayman and his Cab Calloway–style rotoscoped blues, or scenes where Greg and Wirt try to escape the Beast by running at night through the woods, echoing the early horror-animation of Snow White running through a forest of grimacing trees. A less obvious reference point but still a essential influence on display is The Old Mill a Disney short from 1937. Patrick McHale has also said the series was inspired by Gustave Dore illustrations, a color-printing technique called chromolithography, and an antique board game called Game of Frog Pond.
In the show’s second chapter, “Hard Times at the Huskin’ Bee,” Greg and Wirt come across an eerie town of pumpkin people preparing for some sort of harvest festival. The creepy beats are sometimes left mysterious, but are often followed with surreal, modern humor.
The show also includes musical numbers in every episode, which are best described as Appalachian folk songs by way of Tom Waits. A schoolmarm sings an alphabet song to her students about her missing fiancé, Greg composes a bouncy earworm about eating mashed potatoes with molasses, and atmospheric narration is provided by folksy numbers like "Patient Is the Night," "The Old North Wind," and "Send Me a Peach."
Over the Garden Wall has become something of an Autumn tradition in my home for my wife and my daughters. At only ten episodes that average around 10–12 minutes, it can be savored over a week or watched all in one night. As soon as the trees begin to lose their green, the weather turns gray, and the chill breezes start wending their way down our streets and in through our windows, Over the Garden Wall offers coziness and comfort during the dreary, dark months
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Thursday, September 23, 2021
Welcome to the 1,229th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
The Goldfinch (1654)
showing Fabritius' use of cool colour harmonies, delicate lighting effects, and a light background
Carel Fabritius - www.mauritshuis.nl : Pic : Info nl.Info en.
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Commentary
Bank of America’s Environmental Business Initiative is accelerating the transition to a low-carbon, sustainable economy. “The private sector is well-positioned to ensure that the capital needed – at the scale it is needed – can drive the transition to a low-carbon, sustainable economy,” said Bank of America vice chairman Anne Finucane.
We’re talking investments in the trillions. Low carbon is the really future.
Peeve: What about the klutzes on the T who occupy the doorway and only reluctantly move and then only a little so others must squeeze past them.
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Reading and Writing
I’m not writing as much as I like, but I do make sure I get several 15-minute segments several times a day to make at least some progess.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
“Imitations produce pain or pleasure,
not because they are mistaken for realities,
but because they bring realities to mind.”
~Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson on Shakespeare
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
A lot of technical conversation. 1. My loaner device, brand-new, has suddenly slipped, losing important connections. 2. I’ve toggled something I can’t locate that has turned off the ringer on my cell phone. 3. I want to activate the Find My Device feature of the laptop but don’t understand the instructions. 4. My cell is asking for an update every four days.
Blog meister responds: Keeping our devices humming can be such a nuisance. So vital to our daily lives. We, here, are fortunate to have such good friends.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Monday night I enjoyed take out from Douzo.
This restaurant gives value. The food was delicious.
New to me was an Eggplant Skewer. Terrific.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Kat testing exercise bike 2020
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Short Essay*
Carel Pietersz. Fabritius (27 February 1622 –12 October 1654) was a Dutch painter. He was a pupil of Rembrandt and worked in his studio in Amsterdam. Fabritius, who was a member of the Delft School, developed his own artistic style and experimented with perspective and lighting. Among his works are A View of Delft (1652; National Gallery, London), The Goldfinch (1654), and The Sentry (1654).
Why do parents love indulging their children?
If this smile doesn’t answer that nothing will.
Of all Rembrandt's pupils, Fabritius was the only one to develop his own artistic style. A typical Rembrandt portrait would have a plain dark background with the subject defined by spotlighting. In contrast, Fabritius' portraits feature delicately lit subjects against light-colored, textured backgrounds. Moving away from the Renaissance focus on iconography, Fabritius became interested in the technical aspects of painting. He used cool color harmonies to create shape in a luminous style of painting.
Fabritius was also interested in complex spatial effects, as can be seen in the exaggerated perspective of A View of Delft, with a Musical Instrument Seller's Stall (1652). He also showed excellent control of a heavily loaded brush, as in The Goldfinch (1654). All these qualities appear in the work of Delft's most famous painters, Vermeer and de Hooch; it is likely that Fabritius was a strong influence on them.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Wednesday, September 22, 2021
Welcome to the 1,228th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Guernica
by Pablo Picasso. 1937. Oil on canvas. 349 cm × 776 cm.
PICASSO, la exposición del Reina-Prado. Guernica is in the collection of Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid. Source page: http://www.picassotradicionyvanguardia.com/08R.php (archive.org)
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Commentary
Aging is a long process. It starts when we reach our peak of physical strength and goes steadily downhill. Athletes know this. And people raising children. Five-year-olds are stronger than four-year-olds, but their caregivers are likely a little bit less robust.
Diets are important at any age but older people are perhaps less motivated than they were when younger. No need to look good in front of other parents your age when picking up your children. Aloneness lacks the social pressures that add to a dieter’s motivation.
And speaking of aging, perhaps no one has told Tom Brady that it’s inevitable.
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Reading and Writing
Doing good work on my manuscript. These early pages taking longer than later pages will take as I develop a rhythm and style suitable to me and appreciated by my editor and readers.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
“Books are Lighthouses erected in the sea of time."
Prospero in Shakespeare's The Tempest”
~Alex St. Clair
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Sunday night made myself a Roast Beef Sandwich on a Tatte baguette.
Simple and tasty.
It was my main meal.
I bought the roast beef from W Foods’ deli.
My mistake was only buying ¼ pound.
Should have doubled that.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Kat at 19 years, a waitress
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Short Essay*
Guernica (Spanish: [ɡeɾˈnika]; Basque: [ɡernika]) is a large 1937 oil painting on canvas by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. It is one of his best-known works, regarded by many art critics as the most moving and powerful anti-war painting in history. It is exhibited in the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid.
The grey, black, and white painting, which is 3.49 meters (11 ft 5 in) tall and 7.76 meters (25 ft 6 in) across, portrays the suffering wrought by violence and chaos. Prominent in the composition are a gored horse, a bull, screaming women, a dead baby, a dismembered soldier, and flames.
Picasso painted Guernica at his home in Paris in response to the 26 April 1937, bombing of Guernica, a Basque Country town in northern Spain which was bombed by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy at the request of the Spanish Nationalists. Upon completion, Guernica was exhibited at the Spanish display at the 1937 Paris International Exposition, and then at other venues around the world. The touring exhibition was used to raise funds for Spanish war relief. The painting soon became famous and widely acclaimed, and it helped bring worldwide attention to the Spanish Civil War.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Tuesday, September 21, 2021
Welcome to the 1,227th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Highway M-1 approaching Interstate 696
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Commentary
American business continues to outstrip NASA, China, and Russia in gaining publicity and support for the exploration of space.
Get vaccinated. A third booster shot gains its first approval. I’m age-eligible. Hopefully, the third booster will be made available to more people quickly. The time when 12-year-olds will be vaccine-eligible is fast approaching. And that will have a significant impact on the percentage of Americans vaccinated, a blow to covid-19.
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Reading and Writing
After important feedback, I revisited my latest entry to my manuscript and am reorienting my approach.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
“I think he'll be to Rome as is the osprey to the fish,
who takes it by sovereignty of nature.”
~William Shakespeare
Coriolanus
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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 Howard D:
I’m sure the New York Times would love if you posted a link to their site… You should include a caveat though, as their “Cooking” site is actually a separate site which has a paywall. They allow only a certain number of visits per month if you’re not a subscriber.
It’s well worth whatever they charge, which is nominal (I don’t know, because I’m a full newspaper digital subscriber, and that includes the Cooking section). They have a database of thousands of recipes. I’ve saved hundreds of them in my “recipe box”… In general, it’s my opinion that the percentage of really good recipes is very much higher than almost all other sites.
The only sites that are as good are Christopher Kimball’s 171 Milk Street magazine site (which is paywall), and the Saveur magazine site, which is now free, and mainly a recipe database portal.
Anyway…
If you’re asking if it’s all right to post the photo I sent, that’s fine with me. Surely posting that with the link to the recipe page doesn’t need anyone else’s permission.
Wasn’t sure if you wanted my photo. If so, it might be easier to lift it from this message than from my text message on your phone.
h
Blog meister responds: Howard’s meals always look so lovely. See the photo below.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Saturday night I made my version of Bouillabaisse. It might have been the best fish soup I’ve ever made. Maybe I was just hungry for it.
For broth I used cherrystone clams, a full bottle of white wine, water, and the juice of a large orange. The broth was enough for four meals so I froze half of it for a later date. For the half that I used, I used a crab, little neck clams, swordfish, salmon, and mackerel. This was enough for two meals. I’ll save one for Tuesday night.
Photo copyright by H Dinin.
Howard’s photo rally sells the meal.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Howard’s rendition of Halloumi, Corn, Tomatoes, and Basil from NYTimes Cooking
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Short Essay*
M-1, commonly known as Woodward Avenue, is a north–south state trunkline highway in metropolitan Detroit of the US state of Michigan. The highway, called "Detroit's Main Street", runs from Detroit north-northwesterly to Pontiac. It is one of the five principal avenues of Detroit, along with Michigan, Grand River, Gratiot, and Jefferson avenues. These streets were platted in 1805 by Judge Augustus B. Woodward, namesake to Woodward Avenue. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has listed the highway as the Automotive Heritage Trail, an All-American Road in the National Scenic Byways Program. It has also been designated a Pure Michigan Byway by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), and was also included in the MotorCities National Heritage Area designated by the US Congress in 1998.
The trunkline is the dividing line between Detroit's East and West sides and connects to some of the city's major freeways like Interstate 94 (I-94, Edsel Ford Freeway) and M-8 (Davison Freeway). Woodward Avenue exits Detroit at M-102 (8 Mile Road) and runs through the city's northern suburbs in Oakland County on its way to Pontiac. In between, Woodward Avenue passes through several historic districts in Detroit and provides access to many businesses in the area. The name Woodward Avenue has become synonymous with Detroit, cruising culture and the automotive industry.
Woodward Avenue was created after the Detroit Fire of 1805. The thoroughfare followed the route of the Saginaw Trail, an Indian trail that linked Detroit with Pontiac, Flint, and Saginaw. The Saginaw Trail connected to the Mackinaw Trail, which ran north to the Straits of Mackinac at the tip of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. In the age of the auto trails, Woodward Avenue was part of the Theodore Roosevelt International Highway that connected Portland, Maine, with Portland, Oregon, through Ontario in Canada. It was also part of the Dixie Highway, which connected Michigan with Florida. Woodward Avenue was the location of the first mile (1.6 km) of concrete-paved roadway in the country. When Michigan created the State Trunkline Highway System in 1913, the roadway was included, numbered as part of M-10 in 1919. Later, it was part of US Highway 10 (US 10) following the creation of the United States Numbered Highway System. Since 1970, it has borne the M-1 designation. The roadway carried streetcar lines from the 1860s until the 1950s; a new streetcar line known as the QLine opened along part of M-1 in 2017.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Monday, September 20, 2021
Welcome to the 1,226th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
Lead Picture
Buddha statue
(c. 5th century CE), Sarnath, India
พระมหาเทวประภาส วชิรญาณเมธี (ผู้ถ่าย-ปล่อยสัญญาอนุญาตภาพให้นำไปใช้ได้เพื่อการศึกษาโดยอยู่ภา่ยใต้ cc-by-sa-3.0) ผู้สร้างสรรค์ผลงาน/ส่งข้อมูลเก็บในคลังข้อมูลเสรีวิกิมีเดียคอมมอนส์ - เทวประภาส มากคล้าย - Tevaprapas Makklay (พระมหาเทวประภาส วชิรญาณเมธี)
The statue in 1905 at the time of its discovery (to the right of the photograph). Seated Buddha; circa 475; sandstone; height: 1.6 m (5 ft. 3 in.); Sarnath Museum (India). This figure, his hands in the dharmachakra mudra gesture of teaching, refers to the Buddha's first sermon at Sarnath, where the figure was found.
This work was created by Tevaprapas.
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Commentary
American prejudice against Italians continues. It’s depressing. So many television shows in which the bad guy is Italian. Watching and enjoying the Defeated. No Italian characters in it, save one for a small part in one episode. Time enough for him to rape a woman and then get beaten to death.
Come on, folks.
Tuesday, Sept 14 until Sunday, the 25th is/was a period of increased social activity for me: my daughter in NYC for a lecture and dinner; a new friend, Wanyi, for a Saturday viewing at the MFA and a coffee, my son Dom, on Monday on a couple of errands and coffee with me, and lunch on Thursday, where TBD, with my long-time friend LouLou, dinner on Saturday night at Waypoint, with my son Mino, and breakfast on Sunday morning with my son Chris.
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Reading and Writing
My granddaughter sent out the list of questions that we will be addressing in our meetings on the Goldfinch. She’s good.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
“They died together; they'll always be remembered together.
It's decided, once and for all.
He was hers.
The rumors don't matter; they'll fade...
People may remember it was suicide, but my name won't be attached.
It will just be two lovers, fused together forever.”
~Rebecca Serle
When You Were Mine
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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 friend Gary B:
On snow being a blind person’s fog, here’s a quote from a sighted blogger provides comments from two blind friends:
“we do really struggle when there is snow on the ground. All reflected sounds are muffled & we lose sense of where we are relative to walls, pavements, obstructions. I guess you could call snow our Blind Man’s Fog!”
https://waywood.wordpress.com/2014/01/09/snow-blind-mans-fog/
Blog meister responds: So many adjustments that well-seeing folk never have to make.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Friday night I made a tuba salad, jarred tuna.
Drained the oil from the tuna: good but my EVOO is better.
So my oil, mayonnaise, lemon juice, and mustard for spreading.
Pickle, celery, lettuce, as the crunch.
Salt and freshly ground black pepper for spices.
And Tatte baguette [which I toasted for 90 seconds to revive the crunch] spread with mayonnaise.
Simple but good.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Greenway yellow flowers
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Short Essay*
Buddharūpa (literally, "Form of the Awakened One") is the Sanskrit and Pali term used in Buddhism for statues or models of beings who have obtained Buddhahood, including the historical Buddha, Gautama Buddha.
Despite cultural and regional differences in the interpretations of texts about the life of Gautama Buddha, there are some general guidelines to the attributes of a Buddharupa:
Late summer on the Greenway
Fingers and toes are elongated proportionately
Long, aquiline nose
Elongated earlobes
Head protuberance
Broad shoulders
The elongated earlobes are vestiges of his life as a prince, when he wore extravagant jewelry. The bump at the top of the head is the ushnisha and represents spirituality, wisdom, and awakening.
The image of Buddhas started to emerge from the first century CE in North India, developed in Gandhara and Mathura. The art of Gandhara was influenced by Ancient Greek art, leading to the development of Greco-Buddhist art with anatomically well-proportioned and realistic figure of the Buddha. One of the most influential Buddhist art was Gupta art and the later Amaravati style. From India the depiction of Buddha spread to the rest of Asia. The Buddharupas of India, Sri Lanka, Javanese Sailendra and Cambodian art usually depict a well-proportioned figure, but sometimes he is shown emaciated, in recollection of the Buddha's years of ascetic practices. Japanese buddharupas are often very square and stolid while Indian and Southeast Asian ones often have thinner figures.[citation needed]
Many people may be familiar with the "Happy" or "Laughing" Buddha, a different historical figure, who should not be confused with the images of Gautama Buddha. Budai, a Chinese Buddhist monk also known as Hotei, is depicted as fat and happy, almost always shown smiling or laughing, and is associated with Maitreya, the future Buddha.
Postures, gestures and artifacts
A statue or a painting of Buddha always illustrates a mudra or gesture. Among hundreds of mudras, the five transcendental Buddhas, also called “Dhyani Buddhas” or “Pancha Buddhas,” bear the most important mudras. These mudras are as follows.
Dharmachakra Buddha Mudra – Vairochana:
Dharmachakra mudra has two hands held against the chest with the tips of the thumbs and forefingers of each hand united. This mudra represents a gesture of teaching.
Bhumisparsa Buddha Mudra – Akshobhya:
This gesture, “touching the earth” (Bhumisparsa) mudra, became Buddha Akshobhya’s mudra. The Buddha called upon mother earth to bear witness to his attainment of Enlightenment. To indicate this, he touched the earth with his right hand as witness to his perfection. Thus, this mudra is formed.
Varada Buddha Mudra – Ratna Sambhava:
In this mudra right hand lies open near his right knee. His left hand is seen holding an alms bowl. In Sanskrit, Varada means ‘granting a boon’. The gesture shows the right palm turned towards the receiver of boons, with the fingers pointed downwards.
Dhyana Buddha Mudra – Amitabha Buddha:
This mudra has palms joined together with the right on the left, two thumb fingers touching each other. As bowl is placed in between his two palms. Here the meditating hand gesture represents a state of deep meditation and the unity of wisdom and compassion.
Abhaya Buddha Mudra – Amoghsiddhi :
Abhaya mudra represents the hand gesture of fearlessness and protection. The gesture of fearlessness and protection, usually shown as the left hand with palm turned outward and all fingers extended upwards. The symbolic meaning of the dispelling fear pose is an interpretation of the action of preaching. It is said that one gains fearlessness by following the Bodhisattva path.
Images of Buddha sometimes show him reclining, recalling the Buddha Shakyamuni's departure into final nirvana.
Other times he is holding various symbolic objects, or making symbolic mudras (gestures).
The clothing also varies; in China and Japan, where it is considered socially improper for monks and nuns to expose the upper arm, the Buddharupa has a tunic and long sleeves, much like the traditional monks and nuns, while in India they are often topless.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Sunday, September 19, 2021
Welcome to the 1,225th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Scarlet and white tanager
In a mixed flock in the humid lowland of Anchicaya Valley, in the west of Colombia. A "near endemic." Robert Lewis - https://www.flickr.com/photos/boblewis/36617160743/
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Commentary
“The bottom line: Pandemics are devastating, but the economic response has surpassed expectations. So the U.S. economy has grown from its pre-pandemic level, in contrast to Europe and most of the world.”
This, from a newsfeed quoting the WSJ, is sweet. And it points to Biden’s infrastructure rebuild as necessary to this country’s well-being. The pandemic is a gateway to a vast improvement in the lifestyle of hard-working Americans who deserve no-tuition community colleges, earlier no-cost Pre-K for children, vastly higher minimum wages, and expanded medical coverage. These for a start.
A Black Baptist minister is pushing Black communities to engage with police groups on criminal justice reform — a counter to progressives urging radical changes, Axios' Russell Contreras writes.
This strikes me as well-intentioned and well-thought through. All solutions are incomplete if sizeable segments of our society are shut off from having an input.
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Reading and Writing
I’ve completed the rewrite of a few more pages of my manuscript. Waiting for a response. I think I’m learning.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
“There is a stillness between us, a period of restlessness that ties my stomach in a hangman’s noose.
It is this same lack in noise that lives, there! in the darkness of the grave, how it frightens me beyond all things.”
~Nathan Reese Maher
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
Got a letter from a friend of ours pointing out that a lot of us deliberately do things opposite to our parents because we didn’t like their way of parenting. And she carries it further, surmising that perhaps New Yorkers feel guilty that some of their fellow NYers are responsible for a lot of the badness floating around like a virus and are willing to work harder to counter such disease, ergo the return of my notebook lost in Central Park.
Blog meister responds: I failed to convey the humorous nature of the email but I hope I related the point. The parent/state analogy may well be accurate. It’s novel, at any rate.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
I fried a plate of very small eggs my niece and husband bought for me from a farm in New Hampshire. Fried some peppers and onions to go with them. And ate the last of my frozen baguette from Iggy’s. A different but satisfying meal.
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Community Photos**
Greenway weeds
As we head into fall, so much is yet beautiful.
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Short Essay*
The scarlet-and-white tanager (Chrysothlypis salmoni) is a species of bird in the family Thraupidae. It is found in Colombia and northern Ecuador. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and heavily degraded former forest. The male is highly distinctive and has bright scarlet upperparts, darker red wings and undertail coverts, and white underparts with a scarlet median stripe. Females are patterned like the males, but are olive-brown instead of scarlet.
It is found in secondary growth and disturbed vegetation, mostly between elevations of 25–1,200 m (82–3,937 ft), but sometimes up to elevations of 1,700 m (5,600 ft). It feed mainly on fruit and arthropods. It forages singly, in pairs, or in groups of up to six, and can be found in mixed-species flocks with other tanagers, especially those in the genus Tangara.
It is listed as least concern by the IUCN on the IUCN Red List, due to its large range and relative commonness. It is threatened by increasing deforestation throughout its range, especially in foothills, but is unlikely to be in immediate danger due to its affinity for disturbed habitats.
*The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Community Pictures with Captions are sent in by our followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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