Daily Entries for the week of
Sunday, April 25, 2021
through
Saturday, May 1, 2021
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It’s Saturday, May 1, 2021
Welcome to the 1086th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Michael Collins in 1969
NASA; restored by Coffeeandcrumbs - Description page (direct link)
Portrait of Michael Collins in a spacesuit taken on April 16, 1969, three months before the launch of Apollo 11
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2.0 Commentary
Biden looked great.
Sounded great.
His legislative packages will create a boom.
Will redistribute a good portion of America’s wealth.
He’s going to be hard to defeat.
If only he’d get our southern border fixed.
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3.0 Reading and Writing Events
3.2 Conflicted:
Working on a manuscript that I’m recasting in a new format.
Thanks to the scam I got suckered into, I’ve done little work on this.
3.3 Storyworth:
I’ve done no work on this.
It’s my lowest priority on a high-priority list.
3.4 Blog: I publish this blog every day. Have been doing it for more than 1078 days.
3.6 Trip to Tuscany
Not reporting on this until after my May trip to San Francisco.
3.8 San Francisco via San Jose:
Taking advantage of a reduced air fare for an early May trip.
Thinking now of packing.
I begin with my waist-bag which hangs by my belt.
In this goes my cell phone; my keys; credit cards; cash.
In words, everything I need handy when I walk around.
Next is my backpack, my larger one. In that goes all my electronics and everything I’ll need for the thirteen hours of travel, twice.
Finally, my under-the-seat luggage for clothes.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“It usually takes me two or three days to prepare an impromptu speech.”
~Mark Twain
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Thursday night my cousin and I enjoyed hamburgers.
I seasoned the meat with dill and parsley, fresh, both, bought a lovely Iggy’s square ciabatta sandwich role, and topped the 7oz hamburgers with cheese, relish, mustard, red onion, heirloom tomato, and romaine.
They were wonderful.
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Michael Collins (October 31, 1930 – April 28, 2021) was an American astronaut who flew the Apollo 11 command module Columbia around the Moon in 1969 while his crewmates, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, made the first crewed landing on the surface. He was also a test pilot and major general in the U.S. Air Force Reserves.
Collins graduated from the United States Military Academy with the Class of 1952. He joined the United States Air Force, and flew F-86 Sabre fighters at Chambley-Bussières Air Base, France. He was accepted into the U.S. Air Force Experimental Flight Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in 1960, also graduating from the Aerospace Research Pilot School (Class III).
Selected as part of NASA's third group of 14 astronauts in 1963, Collins flew in space twice. His first spaceflight was on Gemini 10 in 1966, in which he and Command Pilot John Young performed orbital rendezvous with two spacecraft and undertook two extravehicular activities (EVAs, also known as spacewalks). On the 1969 Apollo 11 mission he became one of 24 people to fly to the Moon, which he orbited thirty times. He was the fourth person (and third American) to perform a spacewalk, the first person to have performed more than one spacewalk, and, after Young, who flew the command module on Apollo 10, the second person to orbit the Moon alone.
After retiring from NASA in 1970, Collins took a job in the Department of State as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs. A year later, he became the director of the National Air and Space Museum, and held this position until 1978, when he stepped down to become undersecretary of the Smithsonian Institution. In 1980, he took a job as vice president of LTV Aerospace. He resigned in 1985 to start his own consulting firm. Along with his Apollo 11 crewmates, Collins was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2011.
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It’s Friday, April 30, 2021
Welcome to the 1085th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
The Dream of Ossian
Didier Descouens and one more author - Own work
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2.0 Commentary
The recent scam attempt directed against me did not net the scammers any money.
But, having to block my accounts and change all appurtenant connections, has wreaked havoc in my life, costing hours of time and scads of attention.
Let’s be careful out there.
I had a problem.
But I have a good friend of longstanding and I called him.
We spoke and he gave me great advice, as he always does.
He listened well, as he always does.
Hanging up, I felt much better.
We all need a friend like him.
We all need to be a friend like him.
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3.0 Reading and Writing Events
3.1 Sacco and Vanzetti:
Monday night we have a meeting with another group with the same intentions as our own: a memorial to Sacco and Vanzetti.
To make it a festive event, my crew is meeting at my apartment for a feast of Chinese food and drinks as a prelude to the event.
Fun.
3.2 Conflicted:
Have not worked on the manuscript for three days. A first.
I have not yet sat down to address the edits. And the scam I was subjected to has absorbed a lot of my time and attention.
3.4 Blog: I publish this blog every day. Have been doing it for more than 1078 days.
3.5 Reading Closer: francesca@readingcloser.com This is an online workshop teaching and discussing literature and writing classes for middle schoolers through adults. My granddaughter, Francesca Capossela, conceived the idea and teaches the classes. This term I signed on for Modernism and Existentialism.
As of Wednesday night past we have only two more classes in this session.
3.6 Trip to Tuscany
Not reporting on this until after my May trip to San Francisco.
But! The Europeans are discussing opening up to us.
Yayy!
3.8 San Francisco via San Jose:
Taking advantage of a reduced air fare for an early May trip.
On Wednesday my cousin drove me to my storage unit in Waltham where I picked up an under-the seat piece of luggage.
We will only take carryon.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“Don't say the old lady screamed.
Bring her on and let her scream.”
~Mark Twain
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
My cousin and I had dinner at Mariel’s,
a Cuban restaurant in Boston’s Post Office scale.
Dinner was terrific.
We had four small plates between us.
They were good and reasonably priced ($15.00 each, approximately) and provided enough food.
They were a pizza, a steak, a plate of gnocchi made with plantains, and a pork empanadas (in a pastry,)
Two Cuban restaurants.
Two hits.
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The Dream of Ossian (French: Le Songe d'Ossian) is an 1813 painting by the French artist Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.
The work depicts the legendary poet Ossian sleeping while he dreams of relatives, warriors, and maidens, which appear above him on the canvas. Ingres was likely influenced by his contemporaries' Ossianic works, such as François Gérard's 1801 painting Ossian Evoking Phantoms.
The painting was intended for Napoleon's bedroom in the Quirinal Palace in Rome, but was reacquired by Ingres in 1835. Unfinished compositional adjustments were made to the painting, and the work was bequeathed to the Musée Ingres at the artist's death in 1867. Subsequent criticism described the work as "grisaille" and "bizarre".
Ossian is seated in the center foreground, dreaming while leaning on his harp. The poet is accompanied in the rocky landscape by a hound. The figures above Ossian are ghosts of the past and are part of his titular dream. The vision is framed on the right by Ossian's son Oscar bearing a spear and shield and on the left by a seated woman who holds a bow with one hand and extends the other towards Ossian. This figure has been interpreted by some to be Ossian's wife Evirallina and by others to be Oscar's wife Malvina. Behind this female figure is Ossian's father, Fingal, who leads a group of warriors, some of whom are embraced by naked women. In the center of the dream, four maidens play harps in the clouds before a seated and long-haired Snow King Starno.
Ingres himself recorded the following about the scene's subject:
Ireland was the theater.
On the last of Fingal's exploits, he solemnly consigned to Ossian his lance which had served him for the defense of the weak and oppressed. Then, deprived of his father and of his son Oscar, [who was] slain treacherously, blind and sick, he [Ossian] charmed his unhappiness and his misery by chanting of the exploits of his friends. He often crawled along the tomb of his son and father and there plucked with his trembling fingertips. The wife of dear Oscar, Malvina, never abandoned him; it was to her that he addressed the majority of his poems about the valiant Oscar.
Beneath this, Ingres added some notes for the painting:
victory of Fingal over Caracalla / Noise of the torrential storm / ground, heather and deserted lands / Brilliant stars / the baying of hounds.
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It’s Thursday, April 29, 2021
Welcome to the 1084th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
chloe zhao à Deauville
Vegafi - Own work
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2.0 Commentary
I have joined those who do not feel it necessary to wear a mask outside on a typical walk about.
$15.00 per hour is better than any amount less than that.
But as a goal, it is somewhat pathetic.
Not so bad for a job for an inexperienced person that additionally receives training and experience and is so empowered for future advancement.
$25.00 per hour within the next five years is a goal well worth striving for.
How to accomplish this?
By legislating it into the millions of green jobs that we are creating with Biden’s infrastructure bill.
We’re not creating jobs to do nothing about carbon emissions.
Why create jobs that perpetuate an underclass?
Taxes should be placed on monies earned; not on the earning.
By taxing the earning of wealth we reduce the incentives for creativity.
By taxing and redistributing earned wealth we will provide opportunities to those at the bottom of the economic ladder to raise themselves up and earn even more money for our society.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“Familiarity breeds contempt and children.”
~Mark Twain
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Monday night a bought a Whole Foods Chicken Pot Pie and three chicken drumsticks.
While the pot pie was baking according to directions, I seared the drumsticks in a bit of butter and a good deal more of rendered porchetta and as soon as they acquired a ice color I turned to a braise by adding salt and freshly-ground pepper and a bit of chicken stock. I covered the pan and let it braise for 20 minutes.
I chopped an onion and added that and covered, adding a bit more stock, like 2 TB.
Then I took the small pie out of the oven and turned the oven off. I removed the crust and let it sit in the hot oven. I added the contents of the store bought pot pie into the braise, enhancing the pot with canned peas and corn. Finally, I added a bit of stock and a bit of heavy cream.
Got it hot and served it with the crust.
It was delicious.
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Chloé Zhao (Chinese: 赵婷; pinyin: Zhào Tíng, born March 31, 1982)[2] is a Chinese filmmaker, known primarily for her work in independent American films.
Her debut feature film, Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015), premiered at Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim and earned a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature. Her second feature film, The Rider (2017), was critically praised and received nominations for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Film and Best Director.
Zhao gained further success with Nomadland (2020), which attracted international recognition and won many awards, including the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, the People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, and numerous Best Picture awards. Zhao won awards for directing at the Academy Awards, Directors Guild of America Awards, Golden Globe Awards, and British Academy Film Awards. At each body, she was the second woman, becoming the second woman in history to win the Best Director Oscar after the American filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow who won for “The Hurt Locker” in 2010 and first Asian woman to win the category. Ms. Zhao's Oscar win was censored in China and blocked on Chinese social media platforms.
Zhao directed the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film Eternals,[1] slated for release in November 2021.
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It’s Wednesday, April 28, 2021
Welcome to the 1083rd consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Gina McCarthy
Official portrait of EPA Administrator
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2.0 Commentary
My weight continues to be my chief concern.
It continues to inch upwards.
In the last three years I have tried to pay a lot of attention to
my diet and to my exercise.
And during that time I have gained ten pounds without an end in sight.
So, question.
Jeans are supposed to be the ultimate determinant of weight.
Yet all of my jeans still fit, even those that had been tight several years ago.
My exercise is going well. I’m up to about 75% of my pre-pandemic strength
and am optimistic I can add to that.
My overall health is fine although I have had a very slight cold (beginning to wonder if it’s allergies) for well over a year now. I should alert my medical team.
President Biden must get our southern border under control.
He is getting clobbered at the polls on that single issue.
The issue could cost the progressive agenda mightily in the next elections.
And there is so much good he means to accomplish.
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3.0 Reading and Writing Events
3.1 Sacco and Vanzetti: I’m working on establishing a memorial to two victims of social injustice. We are working on an introduction of my group to another, the hope being we might enlist some individuals to join with us.
3.2 Conflicted:
Working on a manuscript that I’m recasting in a new format.
Target for completion is July 4th.
Am working on edits proposed by my editor.
Hoping to incorporate them within a week.
3.3 Storyworth: Every week this application sends me a question about my life. At the end of the year I get a hard cover book from it. My family gets to know me a little better.
This week’s question asks me:
How is your faith different from your parents?
3.4 Blog: I publish this blog every day. Have been doing it for more than 1080 days.
3.5 Reading Closer: francesca@readingcloser.com This is an online workshop teaching and discussing literature and writing classes for middle schoolers through adults. My granddaughter, Francesca Capossela, conceived the idea and teaches the classes. This term I signed on for Modernism and Existentialism.
The final book of this term is Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man.
I believe our last class is May 3. Then we’ll break for a time and Fran will announce a new set.
3.6 Trip to Tuscany
Yayy!!
Europe is opening up.
Will start planning for our trip to Tuscany immediately after return from San Francisco.
Tuscany and Asian Buddhist shrines (and sashimi) are on my very short bucket list.
3.8 San Francisco via San Jose:
Taking advantage of a reduced air fare for an early May trip.
Am almost done mapping my activities.
I’ve found a five-acre Japanese Tea Garden in the huge Golden Gate Park.
The Tea Garden looks like my cup of tea.
A must visit for me.
maybe two visits.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
There is nothing so annoying as
having two people talking
when you're busy interrupting.
~Mark Twain
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5.0 Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
Blog meister responds:
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Sunday night I enjoyed a dry-aged steak
with store-prepared vegetables.
Easy and delicious.
I opened a bottle of 2016 Marchese Antinori Chianti Classico Riserva: Tignanello
Spectacular. At the height of its development.
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Regina McCarthy (born May 3, 1954) is an American environmental health and air quality expert serving as the first White House National Climate Advisor under U.S. President Joe Biden. She served as the 13th Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from 2013 to 2017 under U.S. President Barack Obama.
Obama nominated McCarthy to replace Lisa Jackson as head of the EPA on March 4, 2013. Confirmation hearings started April 11, 2013. On July 18, 2013, she was confirmed after a record 136-day confirmation fight, becoming the face of Obama's global warming and climate change initiative.
In early 2020, McCarthy became president and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
On December 18, 2020, President-Elect Joe Biden announced that he would appoint McCarthy as the first National Climate Advisor where she will advise Biden on domestic climate change policy and lead the White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy.
McCarthy started her health and environment career in 1980, serving as the city of Canton's health agent.[6] In 1985, Governor Dukakis tapped her to serve on a state hazardous waste safety council.[6] She held several top positions in the civil service of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, including undersecretary for policy for Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs from 1999 to 2003 and Deputy Secretary of the Massachusetts Office of Commonwealth Development from 2003 to 2004.
McCarthy has worked on environmental issues at the state and local levels and has developed policies on economic growth, energy, transportation and the environment.[8] She has served as environmental adviser to five Massachusetts governors, including former Governor Mitt Romney.
From 2004 to 2009 she was commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. In that role she developed and implemented the first regional policy to trade carbon credits to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
She held the position of Assistant Administrator for EPA's Office of Air and Radiation from 2009 to 2013.
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It’s Tuesday, April 27, 2021
Welcome to the 1082nd consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Fugakyu dinner w glass of dry ice
by Dom Capossela
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2.0 Commentary
Saturday was a lovely day and I took the afternoon off.
In San Francisco I will be spending two of the five days there by myself
and wanted to see what it will feel like.
I walked slowly through the Common.
Took the T to Brookline.
Had a lovely dinner.
Walked home.
Quite lovely.
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3.0 Reading and Writing Events
3.1 Sacco and Vanzetti:
We’re working on a Monday, May 3rd meeting with another group interested in an installation of a Memorial to Sacco and Vanzetti. Can we join up is the issue.
3.2 Conflicted:
Working on a manuscript that I’m recasting in a new format.
Target for completion is July 4th.
Am working on edits proposed by my editor.
Hoping to incorporate them within a week.
3.8 San Francisco via San Jose:
Taking advantage of a reduced air fare for an early May trip.
Time for me to start thinking about packing.
First item: which luggage.
My backpack, my waist-bag, and my under-the-seat luggage.
Must take a trip to storage for my under-the-seat luggage.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“There are those who scoff at the schoolboy,
calling him frivolous and shallow:
Yet it was the schoolboy who said
'Faith is believing what you know ain't so'.”
~Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson
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5.0 Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
Lots of questions on my upcoming trip.
This last one, “You’re such a planner. Are you done yet?
Blog meister responds: Love planning. Yes, I’m done. The trip seems as organized as it should be: my six dinners at Michelin-starred restaurants planned and reserved; two trips to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, booked and paid for; two trips to nat'l parks; a visit to the Japanese Tea Garden; a visit to Planet Fitness (at least one;) a trip to a winery; and, of course, walks around San Fran.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
What a wonderful dinner at Fugakyu last night.
The plate pictured above was $55.00 and had seven varieties of fish imported from Japan.
Each was delicious, tender, and lovely to look at.
A glass of dry ice was on the plate emitting a lovely steam covering the plate.
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Sashimi (刺身, is a Japanese delicacy consisting of fresh raw fish or meat sliced into thin pieces and often eaten with soy sauce.
The word sashimi means "pierced body", i.e. "刺身" = sashimi, where 刺 し = sashi (pierced, stuck) and 身 = mi (body, meat). This word dates from the Muromachi period and was possibly coined when the word "切る" = kiru (cut), the culinary step, was considered too inauspicious to be used by anyone other than samurai. This word may derive from the culinary practice of sticking the fish's tail and fin to the slices for the purpose of identifying the fish being eaten.
Another possibility for the name is the traditional method of harvesting. "Sashimi-grade" fish is caught by individual handline. As soon as the fish is landed, its brain is pierced with a sharp spike, and it is placed in slurried ice. This spiking is called the ikejime process, and the instantaneous death means that the fish's flesh contains a minimal amount of lactic acid. This means that the fish will keep fresh on ice for about ten days, without turning white or otherwise degrading.
Many non-Japanese use the terms sashimi and sushi interchangeably, but the two dishes are distinct and separate. Sushi refers to any dish made with vinegared rice. While raw fish is one traditional sushi ingredient, many sushi dishes contain seafood that has been cooked, and others have no seafood at all. Sashimi by contrast is always served on its own.
Sashimi is often the first course in a formal Japanese meal, but it can also be the main course, presented with rice and miso soup in separate bowls.[dubious – discuss] Japanese chefs consider sashimi the finest dish in Japanese formal dining and recommend that it be eaten before other strong flavors affect the palate.
The sliced seafood that composes the main ingredient is typically draped over a garnish. The typical garnish is Asian white radish, daikon, shredded into long thin strands, or single leaves of the herb shiso (perilla)
Sashimi is popularly served with a dipping sauce (soy sauce) and condiments such as wasabi paste, grated fresh ginger,[3] grated fresh garlic, or ponzu for meat sashimi, and such garnishes as shiso and shredded daikon radish. Wasabi paste is sometimes mixed directly into soy sauce as a dipping sauce, which is generally not done when eating sushi (which itself normally includes wasabi). A reputed motivation for serving wasabi with sashimi (and also gari, pickled ginger,) besides its flavor, is killing harmful bacteria and parasites that could be present in raw seafood. Other garnishes, more common in Japan than overseas, include red water pepper sprouts beni-tade (紅蓼) and a small chrysanthemum kogiku (小菊). The chrysanthemum, unlike other garnishes, is not intended to be eaten but put as preservative, and in cheap service (such as at supermarkets) may be substituted with a plastic flower.
Preparation
To highlight the delicate flavor as well as for texture, the chef cuts fish into different thicknesses by variety of the fish, its age and by the season. The hira-zukuri cut (literally "flat slice"), is the standard cut for most sashimi. Typically this style of cut is the size of a domino and 10 mm (3⁄8 in) thick. Tuna, salmon, and kingfish are most commonly cut in this style. The usu-zukuri cut (literally "thin slice"), is an extremely thin, diagonally cut slice that is mostly used to cut firm fish, such as bream, whiting, and flounder. The dimensions of this fish is usually 50 mm (2 in) long and 2 mm (1⁄16 in) wide. The kaku-zukuri cut (literally "square slice"), is the style in which sashimi is cut into small cubes that are 20 mm (3⁄4 in) on each side. The ito-zukuri cut (literally "thread slice"), is the style in which the fish is cut into fine strips, less than 2 mm (1⁄16 in) in diameter. The fish typically cut with the ito-zukuri style include garfish and squid; squid dish prepared in ito-zukuri is also called ika sōmen and you dip them in dashi or men-tsuyu like eating sōmen noodle.
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It’s Monday, April 26, 2021
Welcome to the 1081st consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Tomb of Nebamun
anonymous - https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA37983
The Garden, fresco from Nebamun tomb, originally in Thebes, Egypt.
Painting credit: unknown; photographed by Yann Forget
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2.0 Commentary
Saturday was such a pleasant day I took the afternoon off.
I went to the club and lifted weights then I took the T to Coolidge Corner and walked around the shops there.
The small boutiques are terrific.
But I found a new one.
Maruichi Japanese Food & Deli
299 Harvard St
Brookline, MA 02446
(617) 487-8171
This is a large supermarket and gift shop combined.
The food looks spectacular, from the small restaurant to the fresh sushi grade fish in the refrigerators.
And the prices look reasonable.
Run there for your next dinner.
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3.0 Reading and Writing Events
3.2 Conflicted:
Working on a manuscript that I’m recasting in a new format. Target for completion is July 4th.
After receiving the recent communication from my editor, suggesting important changes in the early pages, I was stymied for a day. How to approach making the changes.
I called my son Dom and laid out the scene.
With hesitation, without a blink, he gave me the way in.
So perfect.
I could have screamed.
I didn’t.
Thank you, sweetheart.
3.4 Blog: I publish this blog every day. Have been doing it for more than 1078 days.
3.8 San Francisco via San Jose:
I’ll be leaving for San Fran in a few days.
My cousins and aunt and I are having fun planning.
It took a few days to do: many of San Fran’s most well-known restaurants are still closed. But after several days of perseverance, I finally was able to book Guide Michelin starred restaurants for each of the six dinners I will have in San Francisco, two or three of them will be with my cousins. The rest will be alone.
They are: Al’s place, Mr. Jiu’, La Toque, (in napa valley; cousin Alex booked that,) Angler 2, Sorrel, Rich Table
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English―it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don't let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them―then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice.”
~Mark Twain
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5.0 Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
This from a scam artist:
Dear domcapossela@hotmail.com,
Thank you for your purchase through GeekSquad. This email is to inform you that your annual subscription with GeekSquad is renewed. Here is an overview of your recent purchase:
Blog meister responds: Like a dope, I called the customer support number they provided. Oh! We will refund your money immediately. He guided me through the process and almost got sucked into giving them important information.
I pulled back in time.
What I should have done, and you to do, is not to call the number provided,(so easy to do) but to go to the website and reach out for customer service there.
Alternatively, or in addition to, call your back to see if any money was taken out. Then block your accounts.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Friday night the Revere Capossela clan descended.
We had a lot of laughs as we worked out the rest of our calendar.
We had two courses, the first being lentils with fried rice in chicken soup followed by a leg of lamb and stewed tomatoes.
The food and company were terrific.
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The Tomb of Nebamun is the burial place of a middle-ranking official from the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt who lived around 1350 BCE and worked at the vast temple complex near Thebes. The richly decorated tomb was discovered in 1820 by a young Greek, Giovanni d'Athanasi, an agent for the English Egyptologist Henry Salt. Portions of the plaster frescoes were hacked off the walls and sold to the British Museum the following year. This polychrome fragment depicts date palms, sycamore trees, and a pool teeming with life. D'Athanasi died in poverty without revealing the precise location of the tomb.
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It’s Sunday, April 25, 2021
Welcome to the 1080th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Herbert Kitchener
attempts to raise £100,000 for a college in Sudan by calling on the name of Charles George Gordon
Joseph Morewodd Staniforth - http://papuraunewyddcymru.llgc.org.uk/en/page/view/3281320 Evening Express (Wales)
Political Cartoon by JM Staniforth:
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2.0 Commentary
I was scammed on Thursday.
Cost me a lot of work.
No money.
I got a Geek Squad bill that I objected to by using the telephone number supplied.
I should have gone to their website and investigated first.
Why I caught on before giving away the store: they agreed to give me back the $299.00 they said they received in payment.
How are you going to give me back the money?
We’ll put it into your account.
How did you get my account information to take it out?
They stuttered.
I hung up.
They called again.
I told them to stop.
And they did.
I called my bank and they froze all my accounts.
I called Microsoft and their technical support did a scan of my files.
They found a bug: TeamViewer and purged it.
I’ll have to change all my passwords.
Open up all new accounts.
Contact Amazon and other companies who have links to the accounts and change them all.
Sucks.
This marks the third time SpaceX has launched people to space for NASA, helping the space agency end its reliance on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft and rocket for trips to the space station.
Isn’t it great? Elon Musk outthinking entire governments?
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3.0 Reading and Writing Events
3.1 Sacco and Vanzetti: I’m working on establishing a memorial to two victims of social injustice.
3.2 Conflicted: Working on a manuscript that I’m recasting in a new format. Target for completion is July 4th. I work on the book every day, averaging four pages per day.
Oh, oh.
My editor just dropped a bombshell of work on me.
Thinking it will set me back a week.
But I think I’ve gained a week.
Main point, the manuscript will be stronger with her ideas.
3.8 San Francisco via San Jose:
Four flights to go to and come from San Jose.
I upgraded my three of the four airline seats.
Got early access to overhead; a bit more room.
Cost 150.00 more.
worth it to me.
Four of the six dinners there are confirmed starred Michelin restaurants.
The other two are pending.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“what is joy without sorrow?
what is success without failure?
what is a win without a loss?
what is health without illness?
you have to experience each if you are to appreciate the other.
there is always going to be suffering.
it’s how you look at your suffering,
how you deal with it, that will define you.”
~mark twain
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5.0 Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
This from my son Chris.
Dad,
I thought you would get a kick out of this one. Some really nice comments below the article and a couple of nice comments about you and the role you’ve played in my success!
How Microsoft CMO Chris Capossela became a storyteller | LinkedIn
Blog meister responds: thanks, my dear. thank you for your kind memories. i did scroll through the comments but didn't see anything beyond what you posted in the main article.
but it warms me to know there are some nice feelings in the company towards me.
i really enjoyed my visit with you and leigh and grace.
and kat reports she had a great time when you visited her at Swarthmore.
love
dad
And Chris responded:
Thanks for your wonderful comment… so fantastic.
There are 29 comments (at least right now) so you might have to go to the bottom of the article and click the “load more comments” link to see all of them. How Microsoft CMO Chris Capossela became a storyteller | LinkedIn
Love you
Chris
Oh… and the visit with Kat (at Swarthmore) was awesome. She was a rock star! Grace got to attend a couple of virtual classes with her as well as walking through the campus and even sneaking into a couple of buildings despite campus being closed. We even ran into a professor who previously ran the dance department. When she heard Grace’s name she said “Oh, I was the one who reviewed your dance application and you did a wonderful job… here’s why you belong at Swarthmore!” and that was just so great!
Thanks again for walking with us in the morning… that was a really nice start to our day… and so great to see you!
Father responds:
The walk was kind of perfect.
Love you, my dear.
dad
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Thursday night I enjoyed a leftover crabcake.
To supplement the dinner, I made myself a bit of white clam sauce and ate t over spaghetti.
Delicous
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11.0 Thumbnail
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, irresponsibility, and greed.
Researchers have defined confidence tricks as "a distinctive species of fraudulent conduct ... intending to further voluntary exchanges that are not mutually beneficial", as they "benefit con operators ('con men') at the expense of their victims (the 'marks')".
Synonyms include con, confidence game, confidence scheme, ripoff, scam, and stratagem. The perpetrator of a confidence trick (or "con trick") is often referred to as a confidence (or "con") man, con-artist, or a "grifter". The shell game dates back at least to Ancient Greece. Samuel Thompson (1821–1856) was the original "confidence man". Thompson was a clumsy swindler who asked his victims to express confidence in him by giving him money or their watch rather than gaining their confidence in a more nuanced way. A few people trusted Thompson with their money and watches. Thompson was arrested in July 1849.
Reporting about this arrest, James Houston, a reporter for the New York Herald, publicized Thompson by naming him the "Confidence Man". Although Thompson was an unsuccessful scammer, he gained the reputation as a genius operator mostly because Houston's satirical tone was not understood as such. The National Police Gazette coined the term "confidence game" a few weeks after Houston first used the name "confidence man".
A confidence trick is also known as a con game, a con, a scam, a grift, a hustle, a bunko (or bunco), a swindle, a flimflam, a gaffle, or a bamboozle. The intended victims are known as marks, suckers, stooges, mugs, rubes, or gulls (from the word gullible). When accomplices are employed, they are known as shills.
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