August 22 to August 28, 2021

Daily Entries for the week of
Sunday, August 22, 2021
through
Saturday, August 28, 2021



___________________________________________________­­­­­_______
It’s Saturday, August 28, 2021
Welcome to the 1,203rd consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com

______________________________________
1.0 Lead Picture
The Battle of Long Island

Domenick D'Andrea for the state of Delaware and Maryland, 1776. Note: The Delaware Regiment at the Battle of Long Island.

Domenick D'Andrea - https://www.flickr.com/photos/thenationalguard/4101110766; [1]

______________________________________
2.0 Commentary
The two-day spontaneous meetup of my family was terrific.
Of the places we saw and things we did, the Four Seasons Hotel wins for most exciting and rewarding.

Take the full-windowed elevator to the 60th Floor and while ascending, watch thirty-story buildings fall to below you. Wonderful.
The top floor is the JG Skywalk, a restaurant whose ceiling soars six stories above the tables.
It’s wonderful.

I spent two days, from 7.00am to 9.30am sipping free coffee and eating free muffins, free since I was waiting for the family breakfast at 9.30am. What a space. What a view. What a pleasure.

_____________________________________
3.0 Reading and Writing
I finished reading Pride and Prejudice. Still loved it.
I’ve started rereading the Goldfinch for Fran’s class.
Amazing quality of writing to which the Pulitzer attests.

______________________________________
4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“Mother, I will look to like.
If looking liking moves.”
~Shakespeare, William

_____________________________________
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

Much of the last two days was the conversation that emotionally close families share who have all been creatively busy and who haven’t seen each other for a while.

Blog meister responds: Children to make a parent proud.

_____________________________________
6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
On Wednesday night my children, grandchildren, and daughters’ in law had dinner in an Asian fusion restaurant called Sampan. The choice of small plates was so terrific that I didn’t bother to sort out my preferences, leaving the heavy work to the others. It was terrific.

____________________________________
7.0 Blog Meister’s Pictures with Captions
Family in Philadelphia.

__________________________________
11.0 Thumbnail
The Battle of Long Island, also known as the Battle of Brooklyn and the Battle of Brooklyn Heights, was an action of the American Revolutionary War fought on August 27, 1776, at the western edge of Long Island in the present-day Brooklyn, New York. The British defeated the Americans and gained access to the strategically important Port of New York, which they held for the rest of the war. It was the first major battle to take place after the United States declared its independence on July 4, and in troop deployment and combat, it was the biggest battle of the war.

After defeating the British in the siege of Boston on March 17, commander-in-chief George Washington relocated the Continental Army to defend the port city of New York, located at the southern end of Manhattan Island. Washington understood that the city's harbor would provide an excellent base for the Royal Navy, so he established defenses there and waited for the British to attack. In July, the British, under the command of General William Howe, landed a few miles across the harbor on the sparsely populated Staten Island, where they were reinforced by a fleet of ships in Lower New York Bay over the next month and a half, bringing their total force to 32,000 troops. Washington knew the difficulty in holding the city with the British fleet in control of the entrance to the harbor at the Narrows, and accordingly moved the bulk of his forces to Manhattan, believing that it would be the first target.

On August 21, the British landed on the shores of Gravesend Bay in southwest Kings County, across the Narrows from Staten Island and more than a dozen miles south of the established East River crossings to Manhattan. After five days of waiting, the British attacked the American defenses on the Guan Heights. Unknown to the Americans, however, Howe had brought his main army around their rear and attacked their flank soon after. The Americans panicked, resulting in twenty percent losses through casualties and capture, although a stand by 400 Maryland and Delaware troops prevented greater losses. The remainder of the army retreated to the main defenses on Brooklyn Heights. The British dug in for a siege, but on the night of August 29–30, Washington evacuated the entire army to Manhattan without the loss of supplies or a single life. The Continental Army was driven out of New York entirely after several more defeats and was forced to retreat through New Jersey to Pennsylvania.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

___________________________________________________­­­­­_______
It’s Friday, August 27, 2021
Welcome to the 1,202nd consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com

______________________________________
1.0 Lead Picture
Tomorrow

The best screen rendition of a Faulkner work.

______________________________________
2.0 Commentary
It’s Thursday morning @ 7.00am and I am working 60 stories up in the Four Seasons restaurant aptly called JG Sky High. It’s a fine life.

My presence in Philadelphia is due to a last minute family gathering occasioned by my granddaughter Grace’s being dropped off at Swarthmore College to continue daughter Katherine’s legacy. My four children and spouses, most of them, and my Granddaughter Laura were constant companions for 36 hours, two dinners, a breakfast and several small-event happenings.

On this morning, everyone is exiting the city. I’m able to plan a quick trip to the Philly Museum of Art to view the Eakins holdings. Will return to Four Seasons for a 1pm lunch and thence to airport and home to Boston.

Friday night, tomorrow, Katherine and I will have of last meal together before she starts her adult life in NYC on Saturday.

And then, aloneness.
 

_____________________________________
3.0 Reading and Writing
I got a little bit of time to read and write but not much. After I pack Katherine off on Saturday, I’ll have all the time I need to satisfy my drive.

_____________________________________
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 Gary Bartos of Echobatix:

Echobatix are a finalist for Equity Champion. In short, this award is awarded to the startup who has committed the most to diversity. 

Here’s the website for voting, which I hope is accessible:

https://www.startupbos.org/community-awards

Blog meister responds: If you recall, Gary’s company is dedicated to making life easier for people with low or no vision to navigate, a worthy endeavor. You can actually vote once a day! There are several categories. Link in, find the category, Equity Champion, and select our friend’s startup assistive technology company, Echobatix.

____________________________________
7.0 Blog Meister’s Pictures with Captions
Rev Assembly Room
The Assembly Room of the Continental Congress where our nation was forged; where our government was formed.

I loved the short talk the Park Service delivered at this address.

__________________________________
11.0 Thumbnail
Tomorrow is a 1972 American drama film directed by Joseph Anthony. The screenplay was written by Horton Foote, adapted from a play he wrote for Playhouse 90 that was based on a 1940 short story by William Faulkner in the short story collection Knight's Gambit. The PG-rated film was filmed in the Mississippi counties of Alcorn and Itawamba. Although released in 1972, it saw limited runs in the U.S. until re-released about ten years later.

The opening courthouse scenes of Tomorrow were shot at the historic Jacinto Courthouse in Alcorn County, Mississippi. The courthouse, built in 1854, has been refurbished and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The majority of the film was shot in the Bounds Crossroads community of Itawamba County, at the sawmill on the farm of Chester Russell, the grandfather of singer Tammy Wynette (Virginia Wynette Pugh), who lived most of her young years there with her grandparents until she married in 1960. The sawmill building, where much of the film was shot, was built just for the film. Chester Russell played one of the jurors and can be seen when the jury is deliberating in the opening courthouse scenes. Some of the film props were also leased from James Franks Antique Museum of Tupelo, Mississippi. Lead Robert Duvall, the only known surviving actor from the film, has called Tomorrow one of his personal favorites.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

___________________________________________________­­­­­_______
It’s Friday, August 27, 2021
Welcome to the 1,202nd consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com


______________________________________
1.0 Lead Picture
Tomorrow
______________________________________
2.0 Commentary
It’s Thursday morning @ 7.00am and I am working 60 stories up in the Four Seasons restaurant aptly called JG Sky High. It’s a fine life.

My presence in Philadelphia is due to a last minute family gathering occasioned by my granddaughter Grace’s being dropped off at Swarthmore College to continue daughter Katherine’s legacy. My four children and spouses, most of them, and my Granddaughter Laura were constant companions for 36 hours, two dinners, a breakfast and several small-event happenings.

On this morning, everyone is exiting the city. I’m able to plan a quick trip to the Philly Museum of Art to view the Eakins holdings. Will return to Four Seasons for a 1pm lunch and thence to airport and home to Boston.

Friday night, tomorrow, Katherine and I will have of last meal together before she starts her adult life in NYC on Saturday.

And then, aloneness.
 

______________________________________
3.0 Reading and Writing
I got a little bit of time to read and write but not much. After I pack Katherine off on Saturday, I’ll have all the time I need to satisfy my drive.

_____________________________________
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 Gary Bartos of Echobatix:

Echobatix are a finalist for Equity Champion. In short, this award is awarded to the startup who has committed the most to diversity. 

Here’s the website for voting, which I hope is accessible:

https://www.startupbos.org/community-awards

Blog meister responds: If you recall, Gary’s company is dedicated to making life easier for people with low or no vision to navigate, a worthy endeavor. You can actually vote once a day! There are several categories. Link in, find the category, Equity Champion, and select our friend’s startup assistive technology company, Echobatix.

____________________________________
7.0 Blog Meister’s Pictures with Captions
Rev Assembly Room
The Assembly Room of the Continental Congress where our nation was forged; where our government was formed.

__________________________________
11.0 Thumbnail
Tomorrow is a 1972 American drama film directed by Joseph Anthony. The screenplay was written by Horton Foote, adapted from a play he wrote for Playhouse 90 that was based on a 1940 short story by William Faulkner in the short story collection Knight's Gambit. The PG-rated film was filmed in the Mississippi counties of Alcorn and Itawamba. Although released in 1972, it saw limited runs in the U.S. until re-released about ten years later.

The opening courthouse scenes of Tomorrow were shot at the historic Jacinto Courthouse in Alcorn County, Mississippi. The courthouse, built in 1854, has been refurbished and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The majority of the film was shot in the Bounds Crossroads community of Itawamba County, at the sawmill on the farm of Chester Russell, the grandfather of singer Tammy Wynette (Virginia Wynette Pugh), who lived most of her young years there with her grandparents until she married in 1960. The sawmill building, where much of the film was shot, was built just for the film. Chester Russell played one of the jurors and can be seen when the jury is deliberating in the opening courthouse scenes. Some of the film props were also leased from James Franks Antique Museum of Tupelo, Mississippi. Lead Robert Duvall, the only known surviving actor from the film, has called Tomorrow one of his personal favorites.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

___________________________________________________­­­­­_______
It’s Thursday, August 25, 2021
Welcome to the 1,201th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com

______________________________________
1.0 Lead Picture
Lochry’s Defeat

Illustration of w:Lochry's Defeat
Will Vawter (1871–1941) - Conquest of the Country Northwest of the River Ohio by William English, vol. 2

______________________________________
2.0 Commentary
I’ve just arrived at Gate 33, Jet Blue to Phildelphia.
So smooth.
Fill out form online for Boarding Pass.
Arrive at airport via Uber and get dropped off at Ride App location, away from main entrance to terinal. Take elevator, moving sidewalk, and escalator to get to main terminal C.
Ignore the Jet Blue ticketing desk.
Find line to board and have pass checked.
Next stop: identification.
Next stop: present all stuff for a search of person, shoes, electronics, and loose stuff.
Recompose yourself and walk to proper gate.
Find a seat and start today’s post. Have about an hour before boarding.
Plane delayed for half an hour otherwise all went well.

_____________________________________
3.0 Reading and Writing
Loving reading Pride and Prejudice.

Loving the direction of the introduction to my manuscript.
______________________________________
4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“William Shakespeare...was baptized on April 26, 1564.
When he was born is disputed, but anyone who argues that it was after this date is just being difficult.”
~Richard Armour, The Classics Reclassified

_____________________________________
5.0 Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.

Most of the communications today have come from Jet Blue re: my flight and from my family whom I am flying to meet in Philly.

Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192

Blog meister responds: I don’t travel much so this simple Boston to Philly flight is exciting to me. I think my technology skills are just about up to it.

_____________________________________
6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Sunday night I made a well-received Escarole and Polpettini. A delicious turkey-chicken soup with escarole and small meatballs, pork meatballs made without cheese for my daughter who doesn’t do well with beef or lactose, and beef meatballs with Romano cheese meatballs for me.
A welcomed break from all meat dishes.

___________________________________
7.0 Blog Meister’s Pictures with Captions
Rev Assembly Room
The Assembly Room of the Continental Congress where our nation was forged; where our government was formed.

__________________________________
11.0 Thumbnail
Lochry's Defeat, also known as the Lochry massacre, was a battle fought on August 24, 1781, near present-day Aurora, Indiana, in the United States. The battle was part of the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), which began as a conflict between Great Britain and the Thirteen Colonies before spreading to the western frontier, where American Indians entered the war as British allies. The battle was short and decisive: about one hundred Indians of local tribes led by Joseph Brant, a Mohawk military leader who was temporarily in the west, ambushed a similar number of Pennsylvania militiamen led by Archibald Lochry. Brant and his men killed or captured all of the Pennsylvanians without suffering any casualties.

Lochry's force was part of an army being raised by George Rogers Clark for a campaign against Detroit, the British regional headquarters. Clark, the preeminent American military leader on the northwestern frontier, worked with Governor Thomas Jefferson of Virginia in planning an expedition to capture Detroit, by which they hoped to bring an end to British support of the Indian war effort. In early August 1781, Clark and about 400 men left Fort Pitt in Pennsylvania by boat, floating down the Ohio River a few days ahead of Lochry and his men, who were trying to catch up.

Joseph Brant's force was part of a combined British and Indian army being raised to counter Clark's offensive. Brant had too few men to challenge Clark, but when he intercepted messengers traveling between Clark and Lochry, he learned about Lochry's smaller group bringing up the rear. When Lochry landed to feed his men and horses, Brant launched his overwhelmingly successful ambush. Because Clark had been able to recruit only a fraction of the men he needed for his campaign, the loss of Lochry's men resulted in the cancellation of Clark's expedition.

Lochry's Defeat, as the battle generally came to be called in American history, was a devastating blow to the people of Westmoreland County. Nearly every home was affected. Residents of the county were alarmed at having lost so many of their most experienced soldiers at a time when they were needed to defend the frontier. On December 3, General William Irvine, the new commander at Fort Pitt, wrote to Joseph Reed:

I am sorry to inform your Excellency that this Country has got a severe stroke by the loss of Colonel Lochry and about one hundred (tis said) of the best men of Westmoreland County, including Captain Stockely & his Company of Rangers. They were going down the Ohio on General Clarke's Expedition, many accounts agree that they were all killed or taken at the mouth of the Miame [sic] River. I believe [they were] chiefly killed. This misfortune, added to the failure of General Clarke's Expedition, has filled the people with great dismay. Many talk of retiring to the East side of the Mountain early in the Spring. Indeed there is great reason to apprehend that the Savages, & perhaps the British from Detroit will push us hard in the Spring, and I believe there never were Posts—nor a Country—in a worse state of defence.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

___________________________________________________­­­­­_______
It’s Wednesday, August 24, 2021
Welcome to the 1,200th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com

_____________________________________
1.0 Lead Picture
Zadie Smith

Smith announcing the 2010 National Book Critics Circle award finalists in fiction
David Shankbone - Own work
Zadie Smith announcing the five 2010 National Book Critics Circle finalists in fiction.

______________________________________
2.0 Commentary
1200 consecutive posts. Pretty good.

I have today and Friday with Katherine at our apartment. She leaves on Saturday to take up abode
elsewhere.

_____________________________________
4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“But these people _announced_ their madness . . .
they flaunted their insanity,
they weren't half mad and half not,
curled around a door frame.
They were properly mad in the Shakespearean sense,
talking sense when you least expected it.”
~Zadie Smith

_____________________________________
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

Several messages regarding Tuesday’s two-day trip to Philly.

Blog meister responds: I’m looking forward to the trip. The flight is just an hour and three-quarters. I could have written that as ‘fifteen minutes short of two hours.’
I didn’t. Oh. Well.
We’re planning two great dinners and one great lunch; one trip to Philly Museum; a meetup with good friend, Howard, and three café visits.
Despite the deviation from my routine, I should be able to maintain the consecutive post-to-the-blog streak, near 1200 days. Pretty good.

_____________________________________
6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
I had been desiring knockwurst.
Tried several visits to W Foods. They had a dozen different bratwurst but, no. I wanted knockwurst.
Roche Bros. Eureka.

I fried the sausages in butter to near burn on one side and I stuffed them into a Tatte’s baguette.
Spicy mustard, sweet relish. And chili beans with crushed meatball.
Delicious.
Definitely not a candidate for a Guide Michelin star.
Definitely delicious.

Looked good and it was delicious

____________________________________
7.0 Blog Meister’s Pictures with Captions
Cookie for the Chef

__________________________________
11.0 Thumbnail
Smith's début novel White Teeth was introduced to the publishing world in 1997 before it was completed. On the basis of a partial manuscript, an auction for the rights was begun, which was won by Hamish Hamilton. Smith completed White Teeth during her final year at the University of Cambridge. Published in 2000, the novel immediately became a best-seller and received much acclaim. It was praised internationally and won a number of awards, among them the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and the Betty Trask Award. The novel was adapted for television in 2002. In July 2000, Smith's debut was also the subject for discussion in a controversial essay of literary criticism by James Wood entitled "Human, All Too Inhuman", where Wood critiques the novel as part of a contemporary genre of hysterical realism where "‘[i]nformation has become the new character" and human feeling is absent from contemporary fiction. In an article for The Guardian in October 2001, Smith responded to the criticism by agreeing with the accuracy of the term and that she agreed with Wood's underlying argument that "any novel that aims at hysteria will now be effortlessly outstripped". However, she rejected her debut being categorised alongside major authors such as David Foster Wallace, Salman Rushdie, and Don DeLillo and the dismissal of their own innovations on the basis of being hysterical realism.[14] Responding earnestly to Wood's concerns about contemporary literature and culture, Smith describes her own anxieties as a writer and argued that fiction should be "not a division of head and heart, but the useful employment of both".

Smith served as writer-in-residence at the ICA in London and subsequently published, as editor, an anthology of sex writing, Piece of Flesh, as the culmination of this role.

Smith's second novel, The Autograph Man, was published in 2002 and was a commercial success, although it was not as well received by critics as White Teeth.

After the publication of The Autograph Man, Smith visited the United States as a Fellow of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. She started work on a still-unreleased book of essays, The Morality of the Novel (a.k.a. Fail Better), in which she considers a selection of 20th-century writers through the lens of moral philosophy. Some portions of this book presumably appear in the essay collection Changing My Mind, published in November 2009.

Smith's third novel, On Beauty, was published in September 2005. It is set largely in and around Greater Boston. It attracted more acclaim than The Autograph Man: it was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and won the 2006 Orange Prize for Fiction and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award.

Later in the same year, Smith published Martha and Hanwell, a book that pairs two short stories about two troubled characters, originally published in Granta and The New Yorker respectively. Penguin published Martha and Hanwell with a new introduction by the author as part of their pocket series to celebrate their 70th birthday. The first story, "Martha, Martha", deals with Smith's familiar themes of race and postcolonial identity, while "Hanwell in Hell" is about a man struggling to cope with the death of his wife. In December 2008 she guest-edited the BBC Radio 4 Today program.

After teaching fiction at Columbia University School of the Arts, Smith joined New York University as a tenured professor of fiction in 2010.

Smith's novel NW was published in 2012. It is set in the Kilburn area of north-west London, the title being a reference to the local postcode, NW6. NW was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature's Ondaatje Prize and the Women's Prize for Fiction. NW was made into a BBC television film directed by Saul Dibb and adapted by Rachel Bennette. Starring Nikki Amuka-Bird and Phoebe Fox, it was broadcast on BBC Two on 14 November 2016.

In 2015 it was announced that Smith, along with her husband Nick Laird, was writing the screenplay for a science fiction movie to be directed by French filmmaker Claire Denis. Smith later said that her involvement had been overstated and that she had simply helped to polish the English dialogue for the film.

Smith's fifth novel, Swing Time, was published in November 2016. It drew inspiration from Smith's childhood love of tap dancing. It was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize 2017.

Between March and October 2011, Smith was the monthly New Books reviewer for Harper's Magazine. She is also a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books. In 2010, The Guardian newspaper asked Smith for her "10 rules for writing fiction". Among them she declared: "Tell the truth through whichever veil comes to hand – but tell it. Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never being satisfied."

Smith's first collection of short stories, Grand Union, was published on 8 October 2019. In 2020 she published six essays in a collection entitled Intimations, the royalties from which she said she would be donating to the Equal Justice Initiative and New York’s COVID-19 emergency relief fund.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

___________________________________________________­­­­­_______
It’s Tuesday, August 24, 2021
Welcome to the 1,199th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com

______________________________________
1.0 Lead Picture
Plucking the Red and White Roses

Framed print in the Old Temple Gardens" after the original 1910 fresco painting by Henry Albert Payne (British, 1868-1940) based upon a scene in Shakespeare's Henry VI, the original in the Palace of Westminster and a later similar painting by Payne in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, this print marked "copyright 1912 in London & Washington by "The Fine Art Publishing Co., Ltd. London", sight: 20.25"h, 21"w, overall: 27"h, 27.5"w, 9.25lbs.

Henry Payne - Live Auctioneers

______________________________________
2.0 Commentary
Am writing this on Sunday afternoon from the Blue Bottle café, having come out despite the hurricane, Tropical Storm.
It's Sunday, mostly gone, and Tuesday through Thursday Kat and I will be joining my three sons for a Philadelphia get together. Philly because Chris’ daughter, Grace, the dancer, is entering Swarthmore College, the fifth consecutive year a Capossela has been enrolled there. Returning from Philly late Thursday leaves Katherine and I a single night, a lone last supper together, ending the dozen years we’ve been single father and daughter roommates. On Saturday, she goes to NYC leaving me behind to reconstruct my life. Fortunately, I am in an explosive moment with my manuscript and spend any free minutes I can spare to its construction. Manuscript or not, I’ll be alone.

______________________________________
3.0 Reading and Writing
I love reading Pride and Prejudice.

I love writing my manuscript. The addition of a new introductory section is working wonderfully.

______________________________________
4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who,
in times of great moral crisis,
maintain their neutrality.”
~Dante Alighieri

_____________________________________
5.0 Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.

A lot of conversation on Kabul.

Blog meister responds: I must acknowledge that I don’t understand the chaos of our withdrawal. Combined with the seeming chaos on our southern border, has Biden’s administration breathed new life into a failing Trump?

_____________________________________
6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Friday night I enjoyed leftover turkey with my cousin Lauren.
After the tasty dinner we watched an episode of Ozark and then took a long walk.
A lovely evening.

____________________________________
7.0 Blog Meister’s Pictures with Captions
Flood Barricades at Aquarium Station in Boston

This is a partial response to climate change.

__________________________________
11.0 Thumbnail
The Wars of the Roses were a series of civil wars fought over control of the English throne in the mid-to-late fifteenth century, fought between supporters of two rival cadet branches of the royal House of Plantagenet: Lancaster and York. The wars extinguished the male lines of the two dynasties, leading to the Tudor family inheriting the Lancastrian claim. Following the war, the Houses of Tudor and York were united, creating a new royal dynasty, thereby resolving the rival claims.

The conflict had its roots in the wake of the Hundred Years' War and its emergent socio-economic troubles, which weakened the prestige of the English monarchy,[i] unfolding structural problems of bastard feudalism and the powerful duchies created by Edward III and the mental infirmity and weak rule of Henry VI, which revived interest in the Yorkist claim to the throne by Richard of York. Historians disagree over which of these factors were the main catalyst for the wars.

The wars began in 1455 when Richard of York captured King Henry VI in battle and was appointed Lord Protector by Parliament, leading to an uneasy peace. Fighting resumed four years later. Yorkists, led by Warwick the Kingmaker, recaptured Henry, but Richard was killed in 1460, leading to the claim by his son, Edward. The Yorkists lost custody of Henry the following year but destroyed the Lancaster army, and Edward was crowned three months later in June 1461. Resistance to Edward's rule continued but was defeated in 1464, leading to a period of relative peace.

In 1469, Warwick withdrew his support for Edward due to opposition against the king's foreign policy and choice of bride, and changed to the Lancastrian claim, leading to a renewal in fighting. Edward was briefly deposed and fled to Flanders the following year, and Henry was reinstalled as king. Henry's renewal in reign was short-lived however, as the Lancastrians suffered decisive defeats in battle in which Warwick and Henry's heir were killed, Henry was reimprisoned, and much of the Lancastrian nobility were either killed, executed, or exiled. Shortly afterwards, Edward reassumed the throne, after which Henry either died or was assassinated on Edward's order. Edward ruled unopposed and England enjoyed a period of relative peace until his death twelve years later in 1483.

Edward's twelve-year-old son reigned for 78 days as Edward V until he was deposed by his uncle, Richard III. Richard assumed the throne under a cloud of controversy, particularly the disappearance of Edward IV's two sons, sparking a short-lived but major revolt and triggering a wave of desertions of prominent Yorkists to the Lancastrian cause. In the midst of the chaos, Henry Tudor, son of Henry VI's half-brother, returned from exile with an army of English, French, and Breton troops. Henry defeated and killed Richard at Bosworth Field in 1485, assumed the throne as Henry VII, and married Elizabeth of York, the eldest daughter and sole heir of Edward IV, thereby uniting the rival claims.

The Earl of Lincoln then put forward Lambert Simnel as an impostor Edward Plantagenet, a potential claimant to the throne. Lincoln's army was defeated and Lincoln himself killed at Stoke Field in 1487, ending the wars. Henry never faced any further serious internal military threats to his reign. In 1490, Perkin Warbeck claimed to be Richard of Shrewsbury, Edward IV's second son and rival claimant to the throne, but was executed before any rebellion could be launched.

The House of Tudor ruled England through 1603. The reign of the Tudor dynasty saw the strengthening of the prestige and power of the English monarchy, particularly under Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, and the end of the medieval period in England which subsequently saw the dawn of the English Renaissance. Historian John Guy argued that "England was economically healthier, more expansive, and more optimistic under the Tudors" than at any time since the Roman occupation.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

___________________________________________________­­­­­_______
It’s Monday, August 23, 2021
Welcome to the 1,1198th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com

______________________________________
1.0 Lead Picture
Habitat destruction.

Many arctic animals rely on sea ice, which has been disappearing in a warming Arctic.[165]
Andreas Weith - File:Endangered_arctic_-_starving_polar_bear.jpg

From original: In summer, some polar bears do not make the transition from their winter residence on the Svalbard islands to the dense drift ice and pack ice of the high arctic where they would find a plethora of prey. This is due to global climate change which causes the ice around the islands to melt much earlier than previously. The bears need to adapt from their proper food to a diet of detritus, small animals, bird eggs and carcasses of marine animals. Very often they suffer starvation and are doomed to die. The number of these starving animals is sadly increasing.

______________________________________
2.0 Commentary
Am writing this on Saturday morning, realizing that daughter Katherine leaves for NYC and her adult life next Saturday, leaving Boston to compensate for my aloneliness. After Katherine, I don’t think it can.

______________________________________
3.0 Reading and Writing
When you love to write and you love what you’re writing, it’s a wonderful life.

______________________________________
4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“[...] - What are these,

So withered, and so wild in their attire,

That look not like th'inhabitants o'th' earth

And yet are on't? - Live you, or are you aught

That man may question? You seem to understand me,

By each at once her choppy finger laying

Upon her skinny lips. You should be women,

And yet your beards forbid me to interpret

That you are so.”

~William Shakespeare, Macbeth

_____________________________________
6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Thursday night I had a North End Gravy with Ravioli I bought from Eataly.
Very nice.

___________________________________
7.0 Blog Meister’s Pictures with Captions
Turkey from Post Office Square Park to the Greenway to Franklin St
Hey, that’s my route.

_________________________________
11.0 Thumbnail
Climate change includes both global warming driven by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases and the resulting large-scale shifts in weather patterns. Though there have been previous periods of climatic change, since the mid-20th century humans have had an unprecedented impact on Earth's climate system and caused change on a global scale.

The largest driver of warming is the emission of gases that create a greenhouse effect, of which more than 90% are carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane. Fossil fuel burning (coal, oil, and natural gas) for energy consumption is the main source of these emissions, with additional contributions from agriculture, deforestation, and manufacturing. The human cause of climate change is not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing. Temperature rise is accelerated or tempered by climate feedbacks, such as loss of sunlight-reflecting snow and ice cover, increased water vapour (a greenhouse gas itself), and changes to land and ocean carbon sinks.

Temperature rise on land is about twice the global average increase, leading to desert expansion and more common heat waves and wildfires. Temperature rise is also amplified in the Arctic, where it has contributed to melting permafrost, glacial retreat and sea ice loss. Warmer temperatures are increasing rates of evaporation, causing more intense storms and weather extremes. Impacts on ecosystems include the relocation or extinction of many species as their environment changes, most immediately in coral reefs, mountains, and the Arctic. Climate change threatens people with food insecurity, water scarcity, flooding, infectious diseases, extreme heat, economic losses, and displacement. These human impacts have led the World Health Organization to call climate change the greatest threat to global health in the 21st century. Even if efforts to minimize future warming are successful, some effects will continue for centuries, including rising sea levels, rising ocean temperatures, and ocean acidification.

Energy flows between space, the atmosphere, and Earth's surface. Rising greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere are causing a net warming effect to act on Earth's climate system.

Many of these impacts are already felt at the current level of warming, which is about 1.2 °C (2.2 °F). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has issued a series of reports that project significant increases in these impacts as warming continues to 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) and beyond. Additional warming also increases the risk of triggering critical thresholds called tipping points. Responding to these impacts involves both mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation – limiting climate change – consists of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and removing them from the atmosphere. Methods to achieve this include the development and deployment of low-carbon energy sources such as wind and solar, a phase-out of coal, enhanced energy efficiency, and forest preservation. Adaptation consists of adjusting to actual or expected climate,[16] such as through improved coastline protection, better disaster management, assisted colonization, and the development of more resistant crops. Adaptation alone cannot avert the risk of "severe, widespread and irreversible" impacts.

Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, nations collectively agreed to keep warming "well under 2.0 °C (3.6 °F)" through mitigation efforts. However, with pledges made under the Agreement, global warming would still reach about 2.8 °C (5.0 °F) by the end of the century.[18] Limiting warming to 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) would require halving emissions by 2030 and achieving near-zero emissions by 2050.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

___________________________________________________­­­­­_______
It’s Sunday, August 22, 2021
Welcome to the 1,1197th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com

______________________________________
1.0 Lead Picture
Extended Colored

(Afrikaans: Kleurlinge or Bruinmense) family from South Africa showing some spectrum of human skin coloration

Henry M. Trotter at English Wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons.

This is a photo of an extended Coloured family with roots in Cape Town, Kimberley, and Pretoria (South Africa). The photo was taken in Thornton, Cape Town at Christmas 2000. The picture was taken by Henry Trotter, to whom these family members are in-laws. They comprise the Binghams, the Abrahams, the Bayards, and the Fortunes. The author releases the picture to the public domain.

______________________________________
2.0 Commentary
Covid keeps battling; keeps winning.
So, call up reinforcements: mandate masks in the Blog-Meister’s building.
So, the BM dresses to go out, mask on for the elevator ride down.
He steps out of the building. We’re in Boston. Mask off.
At the T station: mask on.
Arrive at MFA stop. Mask off for the short walk to the MFA.
Arrive at MFA: mask on.
Find way to the Cafeteria Garden and an empty table: mask off.
Reminds me of Ralph Macchio: Wax on; wax off.

Writing this line on Friday, eight days before Katherine leaves for her adult life in NYC.
Leaves, leaving me to face aloneness.
Not afraid but it is an unknown to me.

______________________________________
3.0 Reading and Writing
I am reading both Pride and Prejudice and the Goldfinch. I will be reading these for a while so I won’t be mentioning my reading every day.

I am rewriting the opening section of Part One of my manuscript.
A Shout Out to my beta readers: it feels right.

______________________________________
4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“The Weird Sisters, hand in hand,
Posters of the sea and land,
Thus do go, about, about,
Thrice to thine, thrice to mine,
And thrice again to make up nine.
Peace, the charm's wound up.”

~William Shakespeare
Macbeth

_____________________________________
5.0 Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.

What happens when the project you are working on proves to be impractical?

Blog meister responds: The question came up several times this season, including once yesterday and remember my own efforts at a Memorial for Sacco and Vanzetti. A lot of money and effort and emotion often goes into projects that at some point we realize: this is not going to happen. What to do?
There must be fifty ways to leave your lover.

_____________________________________
6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Wednesday night we had Roast Turkey. Katherine’s boyfriend William was catching the bus back to NYC so I prepared three nice freshly-slow-roasted turkey sandwiches for him. Included among the fixings were bacon, heirloom tomatoes, red onion, dill pickle spears, and baby arugula. Provolone cheese slices on each. Mustard, mayonnaise, and olive oil for the spreads for the bread.
We loved our hot turkey with Pea Puree.
Hope William loved the sandwiches.

Beer Garden on Greenway.
Not a busy evening but the small crowd had fun.

____________________________________
7.0 Blog Meister’s Pictures with Captions
Beer Garden on Greenway.
Not a busy evening but the small crowd had fun.

_________________________________
11.0 Thumbnail
Human skin color ranges from the darkest brown to the lightest hues. Differences in skin color among individuals is caused by variation in pigmentation, which is the result of genetics (inherited from one's biological parents), the exposure to the sun, or both. Differences across populations evolved through natural selection, because of differences in environment, and regulate the biochemical effects of ultraviolet radiation penetrating the skin.

The actual skin color of different humans is affected by many substances, although the single most important substance is the pigment melanin. Melanin is produced within the skin in cells called melanocytes and it is the main determinant of the skin color of darker-skin humans. The skin color of people with light skin is determined mainly by the bluish-white connective tissue under the dermis and by the hemoglobin circulating in the veins of the dermis. The red color underlying the skin becomes more visible, especially in the face, when, as consequence of physical exercise or the stimulation of the nervous system (anger, fear), arterioles dilate. Color is not entirely uniform across an individual's skin; for example, the skin of the palm and the sole is lighter than most other skin, and this is especially noticeable in darker-skinned people.

There is a direct correlation between the geographic distribution of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) and the distribution of indigenous skin pigmentation around the word. Areas that receive higher amounts of UVR, generally located closer to the equator, tend to have darker-skinned populations. Areas that are far from the tropics and closer to the poles have lower intensity of UVR, which is reflected in lighter-skinned populations. Some researchers suggest that human populations over the past 50,000 years have changed from dark-skinned to light-skinned and vice versa as they migrated to different UV zones, and that such major changes in pigmentation may have happened in as little as 100 generations (≈2,500 years) through selective sweeps.[5][6][7] Natural skin color can also darken as a result of tanning due to exposure to sunlight. The leading theory is that skin color adapts to intense sunlight irradiation to provide partial protection against the ultraviolet fraction that produces damage and thus mutations in the DNA of the skin cells. In addition, it has been observed that females on average are significantly lighter in skin pigmentation than males. Females need more calcium during pregnancy and lactation. The body synthesizes vitamin D from sunlight, which helps it absorb calcium. Females evolved to have lighter skin so their bodies absorb more calcium.

The social significance of differences in skin color has varied across cultures and over time, as demonstrated with regard to social status and discrimination.

 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!