April 5 to April 11

Daily Entries for the week of
Sunday, April 5
through
Saturday, April 1 

It’s Saturday, April 11
Welcome to the 735th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com

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1.0   Lead Picture14th century Haggadah
 Israel b. Meir of Heidelberg (ישראל בן מאיר מהיידלברג)

An early 15th century manuscript copied around 1430 in square Ashkenazic script.
Its decorations contain initial word panels, a few fully framed borders, and two full-page miniatures.
The full-page miniature is the adaptation of medieval Christian iconography for the purposes of illustrating the importance of study and discussion in the celebration of the Passover Seder. Every figure (men and women) is holding a book, presumably a Haggadah, and is involved in discussing the Exodus from Egypt.
The text on this page begins Psalm 79 verse 6.
Original: Darmstadt, Hessische Landes-und Hochschulbibliotek

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2.0   Commentary
As unwelcome as is
the expected surge in Coronavirus cases,
what is welcome is its arrival, from which we may
glean the hope that
we can begin the countdown:
the countdown which segues into
a steady reduction in corona virus cases.

This countdown proves our efforts successful;
our sacrifices justified.
Proves that we can put this behind us and
return to the lives that we had.

Certainly with adjustments.
We are not going to live in the same my-germ, your-germ style to which we’ve grown accustomed.
The specifics that become universal are not resolved yet, although
many of them are already in place and
these should stay in place, must not be rescinded:
shields for all those who go face to face with customers;
hand sanitizing stations at all public entrances and exits;
a code sequencing public toilet hand-washing stations resulting in
touch-free soaping, washing, rinsing, drying, and exiting the toilet.

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4.0   Chuckles/Thoughts
Whoever gives nothing, has nothing.
The greatest misfortune is not to be unloved, but not to love.
~Albert Camus

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5.0 Mail
I have received some mail so pessimistic re: the pandemic as to not bear publishing in these pages.

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6.0   Dinner/Food/Recipes

Thursday night I had a turkey dinner: just the drumstick.
With it I made a risotto that I enriched with silken tofu instead of cream and butter.
Using chicken stock as the wet ingredient and grated Romano cheese as the flavor enhancer, the risotto was delicious and perhaps half the calories and fat as traditional risotto.

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It’s Friday, April 10
Welcome to the 734th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com

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1.0   Lead Picture
The Plague by Albert Camus in the Library Walk (New York City).

Lesekreis - Own work

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2.0   Commentary
The news is sprinkled with a taste of good news.
Here and there the virus may be peaking.
With bated breath we wait for the next reports.

Please, dear God, allow this the beginning of the end of this plague.
I need an evening out.
Sit.
The first of a series of waitstaff arrives.
Order any drink I want.
Read a menu.
Order any foods I want.
Sip.
Cut.
Chew.
Talk with companion.
Stay seated.
Someone clears our table.
No dishes to wash.
Pay.
Leave.
With a smile.

Reprint:
This mail first appeared on Thursday, April 10.
The information herein so timely as to bear a repost so it appears higher up in the blog.
This reprint includes some changes to keep pace with the fast-moving events.

At Childrens Hospital, outpatient clinics are closed except for emergencies and our residents have been sent to cover adult COVID wards. Children's will now take charge of ALL the pediatric patients (COVID or not) from the surrounding hospitals in the greater Boston area to free up those much needed beds for COVID.  We're holding off working other ERs as the massive influx of pediatric transfers come in to ensure we can take care of all these kids.

At adult hospitals like MGH, the COVID admits (some of them doctors and nurses) have escalated. Having seen the crisis in NYC, everyone is going above and beyond: Departmental Chiefs are taking Emergency Room shifts, medical students and residents have been graduated early to join the front line, retired doctors are voluntarily coming out of retirement. Every hospital room is being rebuilt to be a negative pressure room (4 days of construction per floor: they are busting their asses as well).  Thanks to the Kraft family, doctors and nurses now have N95 masks.

Always at the forefront, Boston has launched the US trials of favipiravir (a promising Japanese anti-viral) as well as nitric oxide and we're currently assessing the true efficacy of chloroquine and azithromycin. 

All of this and more is happening at a lightning pace.

Contrast that with the eerily quiet, empty streets of Boston where it's easy to think nothing is happening.

It's happening.

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4.0   Chuckles/Thoughts
The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.
~Albert Camus
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5.0   Mail
We love getting mail.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com

This from Kali L:

Dom,

I love the community you've built here.

You give us an abundance of joy -

Love,
Kali

Blog Meister responds: Sweet! Thank you, my dear. The lovely part of that is the inclusivity: everyone is a part of it; adds her own piece to it.

And this from Tucker J:

Season one down!
Thank you so much for turning me on to this show, Dom.
It's wonderfully done (as I've expanded on below) and a great use of my downtime while trapped at home.
I can't really even be too upset about quarantine because even though the situation is far from ideal I've been able to spend some serious time with this series and a number of other films and shows I love or wanted to try out.
Silver linings right?

I hope you and yours are doing well. Still have a crowded house?

Blog Meister responds: Yes. Kat and Will have been visiting with Kat’s mom but are returning this weekend
for the next six weeks. Never a dull moment.

Tucker J’s final thoughts on the first season of My Brilliant Friend are in 10.0 Movie Reviews below, this date.

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6.0   Dinner/Food/Recipes
Last night I tried making a risotto using tofu instead of cream.
I made a couple of mistakes but believe that the next time I try I can correct those and
produce the dish that I have in my head.

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10.0 Movie Reviews
Tucker Johnson
My Brilliant Friend, final episode, Season 1:
La Promessa

There’s a great deal to recommend My Brilliant Friend beyond the direction of Constanzo and series cinematographer Fabio Cianchetti.
There’s the production design, set decoration, and costume design.
There’s the absolutely bewitching score, better than ever in this episode.
There’s the casting, frankly staggering, and of course, there is the cast.
It wouldn’t work, none of it, without the cast, and they would have nothing to do without the words.

Costanzo and Cianchetti’s work gives this adaptation of My Brilliant Friend much of its ache, because they capture it all, beautiful and heartbreaking elements alike, with such delicacy.
Take the scene where Lenu picks out a wedding dress for Lila.
She turns to the racks, and the dresses seem to glow slightly—not in a supernatural way, but the way someone with beautiful skin and a happy heart can seem to glow.
It’s as though it comes from within.
They are all beautiful, but when Lenu sees the perfect dress for Lila, you notice that it’s glowing differently.
It looks to be a brighter white, a special white, and that Lenu's clothes put her at odds with the soft beauty that surrounds her.
That kind of thoughtfulness runs through nearly every frame of My Brilliant Friend, and one could be forgiven for being either entranced or driven away by it.

The themes of the episode are set up in the opening scene, as Lila, somewhat disappointed by the way her shoes look when brought to life off the page, is forced to talk Stefano down off a ledge of sorts, reminding him that compromises are necessary to achieving what you want. That idea floats back to the center of the story here and elsewhere.
It’s shot accordingly.
People seem connected until they are sharply divided—Lila stands up in the bath, Antonio peers over from his table, Nino turns away, Lila asks to mark an essay and Lenu accepts.
To be reunited, they offer compromises or make overtures or promises.
Sometimes they fail.

But sometimes they don’t.
Constanzo shows us those moments, too.
Until the episode’s closing moments, the wedding comes off nearly without a hitch, though in terms of successful connection, it doesn’t hold a candle to the one in which Lila calls Lenu, an intelligent woman who (at minimum) does not believe she shares Lila’s gifts, her “brilliant friend.”
It’s not merely striking because it’s the title.
It’s striking—perfect, really—because it is honest but also packed with meaning.
Lila seems to be setting a new bargain, a new compromise:
We can still love each other, provided you will keep your education (and your former teacher) from me.
You are permitted to have things I will never have, provided you work hard enough for both of us.

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11.0 Thumbnails
The Plague (French: La Peste) is a novel by Albert Camus, published in 1947, that tells the story of a plague sweeping the French Algerian city of Oran.
It asks a number of questions relating to the nature of destiny and the human condition.
The characters in the book, ranging from doctors to vacationers to fugitives, all help to show the effects the plague has on a populace.

The novel is believed to be based on the cholera epidemic that killed a large percentage of Oran's population in 1849 following French colonization, but the novel is placed in the 1940s.
Oran and its surroundings were struck by disease multiple times before Camus published this novel.
According to a research report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Oran was decimated by the plague in 1556 and 1678, but all later outbreaks, in 1921 (185 cases), 1931 (76 cases), and 1944 (95 cases), were very far from the scale of the epidemic described in the novel.

The Plague is considered an existentialist classic despite Camus' objection to the label.
The narrative tone is similar to Kafka's, especially in The Trial whose individual sentences potentially have multiple meanings, the material often pointedly resonating as stark allegory of phenomenal consciousness and the human condition.

Camus included a dim-witted character misreading The Trial as a mystery novel as an oblique homage.
The novel has been read as an allegorical treatment of the French resistance to Nazi occupation during World War II.

Additionally, he further illustrates the human reaction towards the "absurd".
The Plague represents how the world deals with the philosophical notion of the Absurd, a theory that Camus himself helped to define.

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It’s Thursday, April 9
Welcome to the 733rd consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com

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1.0   Lead Picture
John Prine at MerleFest (2006).

Photo by Ron Baker.

Ron Baker (https://www.flickr.com/photos/kingsnake) - https://www.flickr.com/photos/kingsnake/225426648/

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2.0   Commentary
I wasn’t familiar with John Prine’s music until four years ago when I logged onto Spotify and
started to compile a country music playlist.
I heard his songs and became a believer,
my all-time favorite, his duet with Iris DeMent, In Spite of Ourselves, and
a solo, Crazy as a Loon, with these lines:

That town will make you crazy
Just give it a little time
You'll be walking 'round in circles
Lookin' for that country rhyme
You'll be waitin' on a phone call
At the wrong end of a broom
Yea, that town'll make you crazy
Crazy as a loon

Now our pandemic has claimed him.
But he bequeaths his music.

I’ve been overdosing on melatonin.
Starting with the escalator accident.
A couple of months ago cutting my knee,
the pain keeping me awake for literally weeks.
Finally the pain subsided and 16mg of melatonin brought me sleep.
And severe drowsiness that lasted throughout the next morning.
I accepted that as part of the package that returned me to regular sleep.
With trepidation, I reduced to 13mg, still a big jump from the 9mg I had taken for the last two years.
I slept.
Well.
And woke without that drowsiness.
I hope it lasts.

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4.0   Chuckles/Thoughts
Writing is about a blank piece of paper and
leaving out what’s not supposed to be there.
~John Prine

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5.0   Mail
We love getting mail.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com

From one of my favorite people, Dr. Kay Kane:

Dom,

Happy 2nd Anniversary to the blog & it will be enlightening to re-read it from the post-coronavirus perspective years from now.  

I hope it will be helpful to your readers to get a peek at things from the Boston medical care perspective. 

I've been home now doing telemedicine for 3 weeks &
feel fortunate that I can still help my patients from afar:

Blog Meister responds: How timely is this!

Dr. Kane continues:

At Childrens Hospital, outpatient clinics are closed except for emergencies and our residents have been sent to cover adult COVID wards. Children's will now take charge of ALL the pediatric patients (COVID or not) from the surrounding hospitals in the greater Boston area to free up those much needed beds for COVID.  We're holding off working other ERs as the massive influx of pediatric transfers come in to ensure we can take care of all these kids.

At adult hospitals like MGH, the COVID admits (some of them doctors and nurses) have escalated. Having seen the crisis in NYC, everyone is going above and beyond: Departmental Chiefs are taking Emergency Room shifts, medical students and residents have been graduated early to join the front line, retired doctors are voluntarily coming out of retirement. Every hospital room is being rebuilt to be a negative pressure room (4 days of construction per floor: they are busting their asses as well).  Thanks to the Kraft family, doctors and nurses now have N95 masks.

Always at the forefront, Boston has launched the US trials of favipiravir (a promising Japanese anti-viral) as well as nitric oxide and we're currently assessing the true efficacy of chloroquine and azithromycin. 

All of this and more is happening at a lightning pace.

Contrast that with the eerily quiet, empty streets of Boston where it's easy to think nothing is happening.

It's happening.

XOX, Kay

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 It’s Wednesday, April 8
Welcome to the 733rd consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com

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1.0   Lead Picture
Edmund Burke
Studio of Joshua Reynolds - National Portrait Gallery: NPG 655

Edmund Burke (12 January [NS] 1729[2] – 9 July 1797) was an Irish statesman and philosopher. Born in Dublin, Burke served as a member of parliament (MP) between 1766 and 1794 in the House of Commons of Great Britain with the Whig Party after moving to London in 1750.

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2.0   Commentary

Disruption:
not always a bad thing.
Often the result of progress.

Two people fitting into a space previously designed for one of them.
Boxes, litter for the while, slowly absorbed into the apartment’s fabric.

What is extraneous?
Of that, what to scuttle; or
stored elsewhere.
Discussion,
civil at least;
understanding hoped for.

Meanwhile, the living space is
uncomfortable;
rough.

But it organizes;
smooths.
Gets comfortable.
More, gets lovely,
warm,
cozy,
human.

Disruption:
not always a bad thing.
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4.0   Chuckles/Thoughts

It is horrible! It is not the suffering and the death of the animals that is horrible, but the fact that the man without any need for so doing crushes his lofty feeling of sympathy and mercy for living creatures and does violence to himself that he may be cruel. The first element of moral life is abstinence.
~Leo Tolstoy

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5.0   Mail
We love getting mail.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com

This from Jim P:

Hi Dom,

I just want to add my voice to the many who send appreciation for your blog. It was made to order for these times. Also, it occurred to me that it began with an auto trip and bears the title existentialautotrip.com, which is ironic/interesting/intriguing in light of your absent auto and the existentialist joy that the absence is giving you.  You may be at the center of a cosmic plan, and you brought us along with you 😊

Jim

Blog Meister responds: Wow! I love it. I accept.

This from Colleen G:

Hi Dom,

I think it's always nice to think you're being thought of in good ways--and what's even more important than that is to share it:)

So--we thought of you last night as we enjoyed a dinner of pasketti and meatballs (and sausage:) that George made last night for Sunday dinner--taking a page from your book he skipped the quick pour of sugar and subbed in some chopped carrots. It was delicious and a bit of extra Vit C that cannot do us harm these days--especially.

We thought you would be proud of him. I usually make the skets--and I taught him, but last night I declared his sauce better than my own. I only do something like that sparingly:)

So, thanks for the culinary tips!

Hope you are well!

I can't believe it's just Monday--I'm already completely exhausted.:)

Cheers,

Colleen

Blog Meister responds: So great! Not only for George’s accomplishment but for the joy it will bring to your family. Exhaustion, thy name is motherhood.

And this from Anne K:

Dom

-Congratulations on the 2nd Anniversary of your Blog.

I have really enjoyed it and learned a lot!!!

Miss you!! Hope everyone is well in your family.

Anne xoxo

Blog Meister responds: Thanks to all who have sent in congratulations.

This from Tucker J, his movie review in 10.0 Movie Review below.

Hey Dom,
I sure hope things are still going ok at your home. We're all existing here haha! Trying to keep our minds active so they won't turn to mush. My Brilliant Friend is certainly helping my own personal survival.

Blog Meister responds: At least you have a gang around you. Others around us are isolated. God Bless!

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6.0   Dinner/Food/Recipes
Sauteed a couple of duck legs for dinner.
Easy and delicious.

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10.0 Movie Reviews
My Brilliant Friend
I Fidanzati

There's much to admire about this episode (The Fiances); frankly, at this stage, it's hard to imagine an episode of this series that doesn't have at least moderate panache. The only real disjointed moment of the episode is it's ending. It just stops. A decision I can only imagine came in the adaptation process.

That ending is mostly okay because much of what leads up to that abrupt conclusion packs a punch. This series does a lovely job of using the camera to change how the neighborhood looks and feels depending on Lenu or Lila's perspective. When Lenu arrives back in the square to meet Lila the camera shows us what she sees and thanks to her time and experience outside of this tiny universe things look a little different. The building don't loom overhead as they one did. The buildings seem very gray almost anemic compared to the colors of the island in the last episode. 

Then Lenu sees her friend, who looks different, she senses a change in energy, and she can tell Lila’s making something happen, and then suddenly she’s a part of whatever’s going on, riding shotgun and being asked for her opinion—a cover story, a defender, a deciding vote. Her friend is using what she knows about the neighborhood, the people who live in it, her parents, and human nature in general to forge an exit our of a bad situation, and Lenu is yet another piece to be moved.

This episode is full of such schemes, though many are on a much smaller scale (save the last one). Lenu’s mother uses her daughter’s insecurity about her looks to attempt to turn her against education. Lila’s mother uses her domestic duties to avoid the wrath of Marcello Solara. Some of the girls of the neighborhood pounce on the rumors the Solaras are spreading about Lila to get in good with them and to feel superior. Mrs. Carracci, sensing she might have another future daughter-in-law on her hands, uses Lila to make clear her idea of a good daughter in law. The list goes on.

But the most obvious is the last. Watching Lenu adopt Lila's petulant stance and defiant gaze is thrilling and a little upsetting, knowing that she’s learned lessons that might help her survive but likely won’t help her be happy. When Sarratore won’t back off after she hits him with Lila’s snarl, she does another scan around the neighborhood, makes some quick calculations, and uses that knowledge to her advantage. Soon they’re in the tunnel, and a convenient relationship becomes even more so.

Like the fifth episode I Fidanzati mostly feels like set-up for what's to come. What makes it valuable isn’t just that it’s getting us where we’re going. It’s that it illustrates how often women are forced to use even that which hurts them to get to where they’re going.

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11.0 Thumbnails

Edmund Burke and the American War of Independence

Burke expressed his support for the grievances of the American Thirteen Colonies under the government of King George III and his appointed representatives.
On 19 April 1774, Burke made a speech, "On American Taxation" (published in January 1775), on a motion to repeal the tea duty:

Again and again, revert to your old principles—seek peace and ensue it; leave America, if she has taxable matter in her, to tax herself. I am not here going into the distinctions of rights, nor attempting to mark their boundaries. I do not enter into these metaphysical distinctions; I hate the very sound of them. Leave the Americans as they anciently stood, and these distinctions, born of our unhappy contest, will die along with it. [...] Be content to bind America by laws of trade; you have always done it... Do not burthen them with taxes... But if intemperately, unwisely, fatally, you sophisticate and poison the very source of government by urging subtle deductions, and consequences odious to those you govern, from the unlimited and illimitable nature of supreme sovereignty, you will teach them by these means to call that sovereignty itself in question. [...] If that sovereignty and their freedom cannot be reconciled, which will they take? They will cast your sovereignty in your face. No body of men will be argued into slavery.

On 22 March 1775, Burke delivered in the House of Common a speech (published during May 1775) on reconciliation with America. Burke appealed for peace as preferable to civil war and reminded the House of Commons of America's growing population, its industry and its wealth. He warned against the notion that the Americans would back down in the face of force since most Americans were of British descent:

[T]he people of the colonies are descendants of Englishmen. [...] They are therefore not only devoted to liberty, but to liberty according to English ideas and on English principles. The people are Protestants, [...] a persuasion not only favourable to liberty, but built upon it. [...] My hold of the colonies is in the close affection which grows from common names, from kindred blood, from similar privileges, and equal protection. These are ties which, though light as air, are as strong as links of iron. Let the colonies always keep the idea of their civil rights associated with your government—they will cling and grapple to you, and no force under heaven will be of power to tear them from their allegiance. But let it be once understood that your government may be one thing and their privileges another, that these two things may exist without any mutual relation—the cement is gone, the cohesion is loosened, and everything hastens to decay and dissolution. As long as you have the wisdom to keep the sovereign authority of this country as the sanctuary of liberty, the sacred temple consecrated to our common faith, wherever the chosen race and sons of England worship freedom, they will turn their faces towards you. The more they multiply, the more friends you will have; the more ardently they love liberty, the more perfect will be their obedience. Slavery they can have anywhere. It is a weed that grows in every soil. They may have it from Spain, they may have it from Prussia. But, until you become lost to all feeling of your true interest and your natural dignity, freedom they can have from none but you.

Burke prized peace with America above all else, pleading with the House of Commons to remember that the interest by way of money received from the American colonies was far more attractive than any sense of putting the colonists in their place:

The proposition is peace. Not peace through the medium of war, not peace to be hunted through the labyrinth of intricate and endless negotiations, not peace to arise out of universal discord. [...] [I]t is simple peace, sought in its natural course and in its ordinary haunts. It is peace sought in the spirit of peace, and laid in principles purely pacific.

Burke was not merely presenting a peace agreement to Parliament, but rather he stepped forward with four reasons against using force, carefully reasoned. He laid out his objections in an orderly manner, focusing on one before moving to the next.
His first concern was that the use of force would have to be temporary and that the uprisings and objections to British governance in Colonial America would not be.
Second, Burke worried about the uncertainty surrounding whether Britain would win a conflict in America. "An armament", Burke said, "is not a victory".
Third, Burke brought up the issue of impairment, stating that it would do the British government no good to engage in a scorched earth war and have the object they desired (America) become damaged or even useless. The American colonists could always retreat into the mountains, but the land they left behind would most likely be unusable, whether by accident or design.
The fourth and final reason to avoid the use of force was experience as the British had never attempted to rein in an unruly colony by force and they did not know if it could be done, let alone accomplished thousands of miles away from home.
Not only were all of these concerns reasonable, but some turned out to be prophetic—the American colonists did not surrender, even when things looked extremely bleak and the British were ultimately unsuccessful in their attempts to win a war fought on American soil.

It was not temporary force, uncertainty, impairment, or even experience that Burke cited as the number one reason for avoiding war with the American colonies. Rather, it was the character of the American people themselves:
"In this character of Americans, a love of freedom is the predominating feature which marks and distinguishes the whole. [...] [T]his fierce spirit of liberty is stronger in the English colonies, probably, than in any other people of the earth. [...] [The] men [are] acute, inquisitive, dextrous, prompt in attack, ready in defence, full of resources".[60] Burke concludes with another plea for peace and a prayer that Britain might avoid actions which in Burke's words "may bring on the destruction of this Empire".

Burke proposed six resolutions to settle the American conflict peacefully:

Allow the American colonists to elect their own representatives, settling the dispute about taxation without representation.

Acknowledge this wrongdoing and apologise for grievances caused.

Procure an efficient manner of choosing and sending these delegates.

Set up a General Assembly in America itself, with powers to regulate taxes.

Stop gathering taxes by imposition (or law) and start gathering them only when they are needed.

Grant needed aid to the colonies.

Had they been passed, the effect of these resolutions can never be known. Unfortunately, Burke delivered this speech just less than a month before the explosive conflict at Concord and Lexington.
As these resolutions were not enacted, little was done that would help to dissuade conflict.

Among the reasons this speech was so greatly admired was its passage on Lord Bathurst (1684–1775) in which Burke describes an angel in 1704 prophesying to Bathurst the future greatness of England and also of America: "Young man, There is America—which at this day serves little more than to amuse you with stories of savage men, and uncouth manners; yet shall, before you taste of death, shew itself equal to the whole of that commerce which now attracts the envy of the world".
Samuel Johnson was so irritated at hearing it continually praised that he made a parody of it, where the devil appears to a young Whig and predicts that in short time Whiggism will poison even the paradise of America.

The administration of Lord North (1770–1782) tried to defeat the colonist rebellion by military force.
British and American forces clashed in 1775 and in 1776 came the American Declaration of Independence.
Burke was appalled by celebrations in Britain of the defeat of the Americans at New York and Pennsylvania.
He claimed the English national character was being changed by this authoritarianism.
Burke wrote: "As to the good people of England, they seem to partake every day more and more of the Character of that administration which they have been induced to tolerate. I am satisfied, that within a few years there has been a great Change in the National Character. We seem no longer that eager, inquisitive, jealous, fiery people, which we have been formerly".

In Burke's view, the British government was fighting "the American English" ("our English Brethren in the Colonies"), with a Germanic king employing "the hireling sword of German boors and vassals" to destroy the English liberties of the colonists.

On American independence, Burke wrote: "I do not know how to wish success to those whose Victory is to separate from us a large and noble part of our Empire. Still less do I wish success to injustice, oppression and absurdity".

During the Gordon Riots in 1780, Burke became a target of hostility and his home was placed under armed guard by the military.

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It’s Tuesday, April 7
Welcome to the 732nd consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com

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1.0   Lead Picture
Henry Lee, former Governor of Virginia and father of Robert E. Lee

William Edward West (1788-1857)[1] - Transferred from de.wikipedia to Commons.

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2.0   Commentary
Talk now of reaching the apex of the pandemic.
What a wonderful moment if
that be true.
Ten days ago I had ventured a guess we would need till the end of April to
fix on an end date.
if there ever is to be an end date.
While it seemed a long way off then, it doesn’t now.
We all hope that April’s end will conjoin with the death date of the cursed virus.

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4.0   Chuckles/Thoughts
Have you ever been in love?
Horrible isn't it?
It makes you so vulnerable.
It opens your chest and

it opens up your heart and
it means that someone can get inside you and

mess you up.
~Neil Gaiman
____________________
5.0   Mail
We love getting mail.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com

Many congratulations received on our second anniversary.
Beyond my individual comments, I thank all of you who have supported my these years.
These years.
Years.
Tick tock.

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6.0   Dinner/Food/Recipes
Last night we had a takeout from an Indian restaurant.
It was very good although I’d have preferred
to pay more to get a larger portion of the goat curry, too small to serve as a meal.

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11.0 Thumbnails
Major-General Henry Lee III (January 29, 1756 – March 25, 1818) was an early American Patriot and politician, and an excellent horseman.
He served as the ninth Governor of Virginia and as the Virginia Representative to the United States Congress.
Lee's service during the American Revolution as a cavalry officer in the Continental Army earned him the nickname by which he is best known, "Light-Horse Harry".

He was the father of Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate armies in the American Civil War.

Lee was in the war against England very early on in the campaign, when the revolutionary army was composed mostly of farmers and traders who often ran from the British even when they had the upper hand.
Lee came to Washington’s attention early on and the General came to rely heavily on him.

Lee was promoted to lieutenant colonel and was assigned with his Legion to the southern theater of war.
Lee's Legion raided the British outpost of Georgetown, South Carolina, with General Francis Marion in January, 1781, and helped screen the American army in their Race to the Dan River the following month.
Lee united with General Francis Marion and General Andrew Pickens in the spring of 1781 to capture numerous British outposts in South Carolina and Georgia including Fort Watson, Fort Motte, Fort Granby, Fort Galphin, Fort Grierson, and Fort Cornwallis, Augusta, Georgia.

They conducted a campaign of terror and intimidation against Loyalists in the region, highlighted in Pyle's Massacre.

Lee and his legion also served at the Battle of Guilford Court House, the Siege of Ninety-Six, and the Battle of Eutaw Springs.

He was present at Charles Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown, but left the Army shortly after, claiming fatigue and disappointment with his treatment from fellow officers.

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It’s Monday, April 6
Welcome to the 731st consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
It’s our second anniversary!

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1.0   Lead Picture
A head and shoulders profile engraving of Benedict Arnold.

Hall, H. B., Artist (NARA record: 3123749) - U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

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2.0   Commentary
After two years of daily writing, I am enjoying the blog more than ever.
Most exhilarating, the constant contact among my friends.
Thank you for your role in making the experience worthwhile.
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4.0   Chuckles/Thoughts
And as long as people have problems,
the blues can never die.
~B. B. King
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5.0   Mail
We love getting mail.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com

This from Tucker J, our personal movie critic.

Hey Dom,

I hope all is still well at home.
Things are good on our end.
LD and the girls are doing ok.
A tad stir crazy but I suppose that comes with the territory haha. 

Blog Meister responds: Tucker included another review of an episode of My Brilliant Friend.
Check it out: #10.0 Movie Review, below.

And this from Sally C:
 

Dear Dom,

As always, it’s nice to see what you are up to, on a daily basis.  Related to this (I think) is that I email my mother quite regularly and keep her posted on my doings.  She does the same for me, ensconced as she is in her home in NH.  These days, she has less to report, as do we all.  Normally, even at age 95, she would be attending all of her town’s meetings of boards and committees and reporting them for the paper (she’s been the town correspondent for over 55 years), and for a small town (about 2000 population), there is a surprising number of boards and committees and of business of import to the town and its neighboring communities.

So I sent her quite a lengthy email early this week, and at the end, it occurred to me that I had found an awful lot to say despite having nothing to say, given the “un-busyness” of the times, the empty calendar.  I find a small joy in that.  There’s a lot going on, really, if we only take time to scratch a bit under the surface. 

With most fond regards,

Sally

Blog Meister responds: Such great stories that come from Sally. Bless you girl.

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6.0   Dinner/Food/Recipes
Last night I ate alone: Gnocchi with The Gravy, the classic Italo red pasta sauce made with lots of and varied meats.

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10.0 Movie Review
My Brilliant Friend: L’Isola

What an episode!

I really cannot get over how acutely this episode communicates the almost unbearable teenage pang of loving someone who doesn't love you back. The scene with Lenu on the beach rings so true that it makes my heart (much older than 15) wring with the same kind of longing. That is only one scene though. The others in this episode are every bit as honest as Lenu crying on the beach.

This episode doesn't pull its punches. The episode which at first seems like it's going to revolve entirely around Lenu is a slower burn than any episode that precedes it. Another first for this episode really made me jealous of the locale. The episode takes place in Ischia and all throughout i felt like i was being dared to by plane tickets. It was rough during quarantine for sure but also reminded me of all the beauty I still can see once all of this mess is over. If the novel is anything like these island sequences then it is must be a brilliant read. Lenu's kitchen bed. The British children. Even the period swimwear. It's all feels like you're reading a beautifully written novel without an external care in the world to distract from the words on the page. It's lovely to see Lenu come out of her shell too. She feels ugly and out of place at first but over the course of the episode she embraces her environment, people and all. 

Lenu opening up also allows her to feel real affection for Nino who doesn't reciprocate. Even at this remove from her friend, Lila still casts a long shadow. Nino's far away stare when he contemplates Lila's mind makes pretty clear that while he may have been enamored of both girls, there's one that dazzled him in particular. This is only one of the punches the episode refuses to pull. Nino doesn't have a far away stare when it comes to Lenu even though she certainly harbors something like that for him. We're heading for heartache.
Lila finally responding to Lenu's letters is another gut punch. Lenu learns of Lila's situation and now the neighborhood she only wants to escape has found a way to call her back. So this series positions more potential tragedy at our feet. Lenu gets to live with the idea of love while Lila only gets offers, ultimately, to be owned possessed and controlled. 

Lenu's sexual assault is tragic. The sight of her, frozen as a tear runs down her cheek is the most haunting image of the series by far. The narration tells us that the adult Lenu never escaped that moment. It makes you yearn for the fifteen year old pain I started this piece with. Liking someone who likes your friend better. Not feeling attractive or smart or special. That's the right kind of pain to feel. This episode gives us the chance to remember that pain before showing us another. 

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11.0 Thumbnails
Benedict Arnold (January 14, 1741 – June 14, 1801) was an American military officer who served as a general during the American Revolutionary War, fighting for the American Continental Army before defecting to the British in 1780. George Washington had given him his fullest trust and placed him in command of the fortifications at West Point, New York.
Arnold planned to surrender the fort to British forces, but the plot was discovered in September 1780 and he fled to the British.
His name quickly became a byword in the United States for treason and betrayal because he led the British army in battle against the very men whom he had once commanded.

Arnold was born in the Connecticut Colony and was a merchant operating ships on the Atlantic Ocean when the war began in 1775.
He joined the growing army outside Boston and distinguished himself through acts of intelligence and bravery.
His actions included the Capture of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775, defensive and delaying tactics at the Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain in 1776 which allowed American forces time to prepare New York's defenses, the Battle of Ridgefield, Connecticut (after which he was promoted to major general), operations in relief of the Siege of Fort Stanwix, and key actions during the pivotal Battles of Saratoga in 1777, in which he suffered leg injuries that halted his combat career for several years.

Arnold repeatedly claimed that he was passed over for promotion by the Continental Congress, while other officers obtained credit for some of his accomplishments.
Others in his military and political circles brought charges against him of corruption or other malfeasance, but most often he was acquitted in formal inquiries.
Congress investigated his accounts, however, and concluded that he was indebted to Congress, and he borrowed heavily to maintain a lavish lifestyle.

Arnold mingled with Loyalist sympathizers in Philadelphia and married into one such family by marrying Peggy Shippen.
She was a close friend of British Major John André and kept in contact with him when he became head of the British espionage system in New York.
Many historians point to her as facilitating Arnold's plans to switch sides; he opened secret negotiations with André, and Peggy relayed the messages.
The British promised £20,000 for the capture of West Point, a major American stronghold; Washington greatly admired Arnold and gave him command of that fort in July 1780.
His scheme was to surrender the fort to the British, but it was exposed in September 1780 when Patriot militia captured André carrying papers which revealed the plot. Arnold escaped and André was hanged.

Arnold received a commission as a brigadier general in the British Army, an annual pension of £360, and a lump sum of over £6,000.
He led British forces in the Raid of Richmond and nearby areas, and they burned much of New London, Connecticut, to the ground and slaughtered surrendering forces after the Battle of Groton Heights—just a few miles downriver from the town where he had grown up.
In the winter of 1782, he and Peggy moved to London, England.
He was well received by King George III and the Tories but frowned upon by the Whigs and most Army officers.
In 1787, he moved to Canada to a merchant business with his sons Richard and Henry. He was extremely unpopular there and returned to London permanently in 1791.

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It’s Sunday, April 5
Welcome to the  730th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com

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1.0   Lead Picture
Nathanael Greene (May 27, 1742 – June 19, 1786)

Original portrait painted from life in 1783 by Charles Wilson Peale.
The original portrait was copied by C.W. Peale, as well as his son, Rembrandt, multiple times. (via w:en:Image:Greene portrait.jpg)

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2.0   Commentary
Working from home.
Having a car of less importance then when driving into work everyday.
When we conquer this virus, as we most definitely shall in the next three months,
many of us will stay working at home, at least part-time.
Leading to rethinking the importance of a car or a second car (third?).

Perhaps oblique, but doing the same job without the automotive expense, a tangible salary hike.
Substantial.
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4.0   Chuckles/Thoughts
At that point in life where your talent meets the needs of the world,
that is where God wants you to be.
~Albert Schweitzer

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5.0   Mail
We love getting mail.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com

This from Kali L: 

I hope you are well on this dreary day!
This poem came to me in a dream and I enjoyed creating it-

It currently has no title-

(Find the poem below, 9.0 Poetry)

Blog Meister responds: I’m sure you were a source of joy for him, my dear. It’s lovely.

And this from Tucker J:

Hey Dom,

I hope you're doing well. Your posts are a constant reminder that despite the lockdown life is going on quite well despite me being trapped inside four walls. It's comforting so thank you!
Microsoft has actually begun a lot of emergency operations for us retail employees so many of us are working from home and we're actually pretty busy! 

Blog Meister responds: We applaud anyone together enough to organize a creative routine in the face of the assault of Covid-19.
And thank you for the great reviews of the My Brilliant Friends episodes.
Your talents give them the respect they deserve.

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6.0   Dinner/Food/Recipes
Friday night I enjoyed a hash using bell peppers, onions, and habanero, with leftover meats: sausage, beef, and turkey, bound together by pouring beaten, seasoned eggs into the fry pan and finish the cook under the broiler.

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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 25 which finds the family with Laini as she nears death. The demon dragging civilization down challenges Dee to battle him one on one at midnight.

The podcasts are also available on Sound Cloud, iTunes, Twitter, and Facebook.
Search: dom capossela or conflicted or both

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9.0 Poetry
I hope you are well on this dreary day!

This poem came to me in a dream and I enjoyed creating it-

It currently has no title-

Hey.
A year ago Nono took his last breath.
Do you remember how loud it was?
The doctor was stunned so many people
walked him into heaven.
I know, I checked his Instagram for an entire year.
I couldn’t forget the way he stood watch with us.
I couldn’t forget the curve of his fingers and the way
his voice announced time of death the way a school
principal tells you the time of a homecoming dance.
I wanted to borrow his tongue. I didn’t turn back to look at the body.
Other people’s tears were acid rain on my skin.
His breath so loud I jump at winds raging in the dark.
It’s too late- that breath is shrapnel in my ears.
My phone lights
I offer, it’s been a year.
He’ll say, I knew you’d remember. Thank you for being there that night.
Being real has already cost too much.
I say, I’d do it again.
After that, I delete his number. I have closed the door.
A week later, I open the window and October bites my skin raw.
The music empties my new life from the restaurant.

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10.0 Movie Reviews 

Subject: Le Scarpe

In the course of telling any story through small, sequential segments, there will come a time when one has to simply get things done - that's what this episode felt like to me. That’s not to say that “Le Scarpe (The Shoes)” is joyless, or lacks a story to tell. It’s not, and it has story. But while there have been abrupt moments, this is the first episode in this young series that feels like a means to an end.

The series continues to focus on Lenu and Lila's possible paths out of Naples: For Lenu the path is educational though her insecurities constantly weigh her down. For Lila the goal has always been financial independence. Her path started with writing a book but now it has shifted to designing and making shoes.

One of My Brilliant Friend’s most persistent aches radiates from the reality of Lenu and Lila’s respective home lives, and how their families directly affect their futures. It takes a lot for Lenu's mother to finally be supportive of her even leaving the neighborhood for a short time. 

Lila never gets the same support even begrudgingly.  Her father demands to maintain the mantle of being the shoemaker in the family. The episode even begins with what seems a moment of love and tenderness, until it’s revealed to be a literal stocking full of coal. Neither girl has a storybook home life but when a door opens for Lenu her parents help her through it. At the very least they don't stand in her way. Lila? No. Lila asks for an education and gets tossed out a window. 

Lila seems to stir up madness wherever she goes. She has men's love declared at her left and right though none of them ever really considers her feelings in the matter. Only one, Pasquale's, is in any way sensible but it stands in stark contrast to everyone else who act irrationally, and often violently, with the beautifully, counter-intuitively scored fight outside a shopping center as the most obvious example of the eruptions of misdirected rage that seem to follow Lila throughout her life.

Most of the action surrounding Lila feels like it means to feed the next episode. She defies her father's intentions for her to marry a man she despises. It's a straw breaking the camel's back situation though too. Her precious shoes are her ticket out of Naples but her father is only interested in them when they catch someone else's eye and Lila isn't fooled for a second.

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11.0 Thumbnails
Nathanael Greene (August 7, 1742 – June 19, 1786,) sometimes misspelled Nathaniel) was a major general of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War.
He emerged from the war with a reputation as General George Washington's most gifted and dependable officer, and is known for his successful command in the southern theater of the war.

Born into a prosperous Quaker family in Warwick, Rhode Island, Greene became active in the resistance to British revenue policies in the early 1770s and helped establish the Kentish Guards, a state militia.
After the April 1775 Battles of Lexington and Concord, the legislature of Rhode Island established an army and appointed Greene to command it.
Later in the year, Greene became a general in the newly-established Continental Army. Greene served under Washington in the Boston campaign, the New York and New Jersey campaign, and the Philadelphia campaign before being appointed quartermaster general of the Continental Army in 1778.

In October 1780, General Washington appointed Greene as the commander of the Continental Army in the southern theater.
After taking command, Greene engaged in a successful campaign of guerrilla warfare against the numerically superior force of General Charles Cornwallis.
He inflicted heavy losses on British forces at Battle of Guilford Court House, the Battle of Hobkirk's Hill, and the Battle of Eutaw Springs, eroding British control of the Southern United States.
Major fighting on land came to an end following the surrender of Cornwallis at the Battle of Yorktown in October 1781, but Greene continued to serve in the Continental Army until late 1783.

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12.0 Diary of the Surrender of a Private Car
Still not missing having a car.
At all.
Three months without.
Ninety days.
Four thousand and five hundred dollars richer.