Daily Entries for the week of
Sunday, August 29, 2021
through
Saturday, September 4, 2021
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It’s Saturday, September 4, 2021
Welcome to the 1,210th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Carnegie Hall Tower
Martin Dürrschnabel - Sony DSC-F717
Looking east at Carnegie Hall Tower; Metropolitan Tower in background.
Permission details
Own work, share alike, attribution required (Creative Commons CC-BY-SA-2.5)
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Commentary
Am tinkering with my schedule to gain more time for my writing projects.
Swapping out work time at the museum for more work time at the Pru, using both Blue Bottle Café and the Barnes and Noble Bookstore.
Taking lunch with me to these five hour jaunts is a time-consuming affair, sometimes taking as much as twenty-five minutes. I’ve got to simplify my expectations and cut my appetite and so reduce my prep time. For example, taking a single slice of pizza.
Doesn’t carbon pricing, making the highest emitters pay more, make perfect sense? That holds true for imported goods as well.
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Reading and Writing
The first 60 pages of my manuscript just seemed to flow out at a much faster rate than I expected. However, when I’ve finished Part One I expect progress to slow considerably since this first section has been well vetted already. We'll see.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
“The reason why Shakespeare and Pushkin were great writers was because
from the time when they were boys they stood like policemen over their thoughts
and didn't allow one small insincerity to creep in.”
~Michael D. O'Brien, The Island of the World
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
This from friend Gary B. Remember that we published a link to vote for Echobatix? They won a spot in the final round for a grant application. Here’s Gary:
Along with the honor of being finalists for the Equity Champion community award of Startup Boston, advancing to the second stage of Snap’s fellowship is already a win. It’s an affirmation from outside that we’re on the right path. Thanks to all of you for that!
Gary Bartos
Founder
Echobatix, LLC
Empowerment and Beyond
Assistive technology for the blind, the Deaf-Blind, and those with low vision.
Blog meister responds: Congrats, Gary. Hope you get the funding. You have great ideas.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Wednesday night was a repeat of Tuesday: Roast Duck.
Also delicious.
I got a refill of duck fat for my freezer tub of it and there’s enough meat on the carcass to make a third meal or turn it into stock and then condense the stock into a gravy to add to my Duck Gravy tub in the freezer.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Four Seasons Philly
What a great view.
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Short Essay*
Carnegie Hall Tower is a skyscraper at 152 West 57th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Completed in 1990 and designed by César Pelli, the building measures 757 feet (231 m) tall with 60 stories. Due to the presence of Carnegie Hall and the Russian Tea Room on adjacent sites, the tower is only 50 feet (15 m) wide on 57th Street, making it among the world's most slender buildings at its completion.
Carnegie Hall Tower is designed with a red-and-orange brick facade and cast-concrete decorations, both inspired by the older structure. The tower rises above a six-story base, which contains a setback from 57th Street. The structure has an "L"-shaped plan through the 42nd floor and a rectangular plan above that story. The superstructure is made of concrete, with a core made of two connected concrete tubes. The building was designed with 485,000 square feet (45,100 m2) for offices and 25,000 square feet (2,300 m2) for Carnegie Hall's offstage facilities. Each of the upper floors contains between 8,000 and 14,000 square feet (740 and 1,300 m2). The design was largely praised by architectural critics upon its completion.
The site of Carnegie Hall Tower was occupied by the Rembrandt Apartments until 1963, after which it served as a parking lot. In late 1980, the corporation and the New York City government signed a memorandum of understanding, which allowed the potential development of a skyscraper on the lot. Following a failed proposal to combine the lot with another site to the east, Rockrose Development Corporation was selected as the developer in May 1985. Construction began in late 1987 after approvals from various city agencies. After the building opened, the upper floors were marketed to small tenants, and the tower had some of New York City's most expensive office space by the 21st century.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Friday, September 3, 2021
Welcome to the 1,209th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Tornado
F5 tornado (upgraded from initial estimate of F4) viewed from the southeast as it approached Elie, Manitoba on Friday, June 22nd, 2007.
Justin1569 at English Wikipedia
CC BY-SA 3.0
File:F5 tornado Elie Manitoba 2007.jpg
Created: 22 June 2007
Location: 49° 54′ 43.49″ N, 97° 45′ 27.55″ W
About this interface | Discussion | Help
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2.0 Commentary
While I am in good health, I age, a process that reduces one’s physical capabilities.
And this summer I believe that I am walking noticeably less than I have in summers past.
It’s difficult to tell with certainty, by I’ll hazard a guess and say I am experiencing a 15% reduction in my distance. Noticeable. Perhaps it’s temporary.
Like aging.
Perhaps it will slow down. Reverse.
And in lifting weights, I have more often made compromises necessary to get me through my routine, whether it’s lifting lighter weights or doing fewer reps, there are fewer visits in which I do 100% of my chart.
Look for some changes to the blog.
Improvements, I hope.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“LXXV
So are you to my thoughts as food to life,
Or as sweet-season'd showers are to the ground;
And for the peace of you I hold such strife
As 'twixt a miser and his wealth is found.
Now proud as an enjoyer, and anon
Doubting the filching age will steal his treasure;
Now counting best to be with you alone,
Then better'd that the world may see my pleasure:
Sometime all full with feasting on your sight,
And by and by clean starved for a look;
Possessing or pursuing no delight
Save what is had, or must from you be took.
Thus do I pine and surfeit day by day,
Or gluttoning on all, or all away.”
~William Shakespeare, Shakespeare's Sonnets
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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
Got emails from two painters pointing out that painting, like writing, are lonely undertakings. Both emails applauded my appreciation of kind words.
Blog meister responds: It is very true, the loneliness. I think that’s one of the reasons I appreciate cafes so much: I can write and still be among people. Although occasionally people talk so loudly on a cell phone or carry-on business dealings in a manner sure to interfere with your personal airwaves.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Tuesday night I perfectly roasted a duck, using 32 min per pound in a 200* oven.
When the slow roast was done I turned on the broiler and broiled the duck for about 2 minutes per side (I’m counting 4 sides, breast and backbone, as sides.) or until each side got the beautiful golden brown sheen that we admire so well.
Then I let the duck sit for 45 minutes before serving.
Wow!
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Pictures with captions from our community**
From Katherine Capossela
A photo of Kat and Laura Capossela, daughter and granddaughter to Dom, at Four Seasons, on the occasion of a family meetup to send granddaughter Grace off to Swarthmore College.
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Short Essay*
A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. The windstorm is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology to name a weather system with a low-pressure area in the center around which, from an observer looking down toward the surface of the earth, winds blow counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern. Tornadoes come in many shapes and sizes, and they are often visible in the form of a condensation funnel originating from the base of a cumulonimbus cloud, with a cloud of rotating debris and dust beneath it. Most tornadoes have wind speeds less than 110 miles per hour (180 km/h), are about 250 feet (80 m) across, and travel a few miles (several kilometers) before dissipating. The most extreme tornadoes can attain wind speeds of more than 300 miles per hour (480 km/h), are more than two miles (3 km) in diameter, and stay on the ground for dozens of miles (more than 100 km).
Various types of tornadoes include the multiple vortex tornado, landspout, and waterspout. Waterspouts are characterized by a spiraling funnel-shaped wind current, connecting to a large cumulus or cumulonimbus cloud. They are generally classified as non-supercellular tornadoes that develop over bodies of water, but there is disagreement over whether to classify them as true tornadoes. These spiraling columns of air frequently develop in tropical areas close to the equator and are less common at high latitudes. Other tornado-like phenomena that exist in nature include the gustnado, dust devil, fire whirl, and steam devil.
Tornadoes occur most frequently in North America (particularly in central and southeastern regions of the United States colloquially known as tornado alley), Southern Africa, northwestern and southeast Europe, western and southeastern Australia, New Zealand, Bangladesh and adjacent eastern India, and southeastern South America. Tornadoes can be detected before or as they occur through the use of Pulse-Doppler radar by recognizing patterns in velocity and reflectivity data, such as hook echoes or debris balls, as well as through the efforts of storm spotters.
*The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Thursday, September 2, 2021
Welcome to the 1,208th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Wolf
Lobo en el zoo de Kolmården (Suecia).
Wolf_Kolmården.jpg: Daniel Mott from Stockholm, Sweden derivative work: Mariomassone - Wolf_Kolmården.jpg
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2.0 Commentary
With Katherine gone for these several days, I’m settling into my new aloneness and rather enjoying it.
Not necessarily preferring it to company, but yet rather enjoying it.
I’m enjoying catching up on small items that I’ve procrastinated doing.
And having time to work on my writing, including today’s post.
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3.0 Reading and Writing
I’ve finished the first 20 pages of the manuscript. These were new and fresh. Now I’m on the next chunk, already written pages that must now be reconfigured to conform to the radically different style that has emerged in my writing. Hopefully I can get this piece done in a week.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“But there stands the sword of my ancestor Sir Richard Vernon,
slain at Shrewsbury, and
sorely slandered by a sad fellow called Will Shakspeare,
whose Lancastrian partialities, and
a certain knack at embodying them,
has turned history upside down, or
rather inside out.”
~Sir Walter Scott
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Monday night I had a three-small-course dinner.
Corn, escarole soup, and a single chicken thigh al mattone.
A nice meal while cleaning up the refrigerator.
For Tuesday night I am roasting a duck. I’ve cut off the big pieces of fat and am rendering them to replenish the tub of duck fat in my freezer.
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7.0 Blog Meister’s Pictures with Captions
Katherine sent some gorgeous pix to me that I’d like to share. So, paragraph #7 will expand from pictures that I took personally, to pix that our greater community took and would like to share. Please send them along.
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The wolf (Canis lupus[a]), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus have been recognized, and gray wolves, as colloquially understood, comprise non-domestic/feral subspecies. The wolf is the largest extant member of the family Canidae, males averaging 88 lb and females 82 lb. Wolves measure 105–160 cm (41–63 in) in length and 80–85 cm (31–33 in) at shoulder height. The wolf is also distinguished from other Canis species by its less pointed ears and muzzle, as well as a shorter torso and a longer tail. The wolf is nonetheless related closely enough to smaller Canis species, such as the coyote and the golden jackal, to produce fertile hybrids with them. The banded fur of a wolf is usually mottled white, brown, gray, and black, although subspecies in the arctic region may be nearly all white.
Of all members of the genus Canis, the wolf is most specialized for cooperative game hunting as demonstrated by its physical adaptations to tackling large prey, its more social nature, and its highly advanced expressive behavior. It travels in nuclear families consisting of a mated pair accompanied by their offspring. Offspring may leave to form their own packs on the onset of sexual maturity and in response to competition for food within the pack. Wolves are also territorial and fights over territory are among the principal causes of wolf mortality. The wolf is mainly a carnivore and feeds on large wild hooved mammals as well as smaller animals, livestock, carrion, and garbage. Single wolves or mated pairs typically have higher success rates in hunting than do large packs. Pathogens and parasites, notably rabies virus, may infect wolves.
The global wild wolf population was estimated to be 300,000 in 2003 and is considered to be of Least Concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Wolves have a long history of interactions with humans, having been despised and hunted in most pastoral communities because of their attacks on livestock, while conversely being respected in some agrarian and hunter-gatherer societies. The wolf is also considered the ancestor of most domestic dog breeds. Although the fear of wolves exists in many human societies, the majority of recorded attacks on people have been attributed to animals suffering from rabies. Wolf attacks on humans are rare because wolves are relatively few, live away from people, and have developed a fear of humans because of their experiences with hunters, ranchers, and shepherds.
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It’s Wednesday, September 1, 2021
Welcome to the 1,207th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Mary Shelley
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2.0 Commentary
It is a pity that Bush, Obama, and for a time, Trump, were responsible for getting us into the moral mess that is Afghanistan.
A pity that Biden is having to take the blame for the fallout surrounding our exit.
An especial pity that Biden has us on the path to an astounding American social redo from which the Afghan situation is distracting us.
Richard Rothwell - Scan of a print
Portrait of Mary Shelley (1797-1851)
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3.0 Manuscript Writing
My most knowledgeable reader, merciless critic, and best friend of long standing read the new pages of my manuscript and termed them…brilliant. And in a follow-up phone call said I was touched by the gods.
I should be more modest.
Not.
I have worked too hard, suffered too many pejoratives to be shy.
I plan to bask in the praises for a long time to come.
But I will use them as incentives to stay the course and fight for manuscript time.
Six months to complete the work.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“Give me my Romeo. And when I shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun.”
~William Shakespeare
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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
Still abuzz with happy reactions to the recent family gathering in Philadelphia, including photographs and question, when next?
Blog meister responds: I must learn how to copy photos from Outlook to my Picture Roll.
Will send an inquiry immediately.
Got direction almost immediately.
Will I remember how?
We’ll see in a few minutes.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Sunday night I made chicken thighs, bone-in that proved the efficacy of the slow roast.
1 pound or three pieces of chicken rubbed over with olive oil, rosemary, salt and pepper and set on a rack in the 200* oven for 30 minutes.
Then set into an oiled, very hot cast iron pan for three minutes on the meat side.
Turn the chicken to skin side down and weigh it down with a foil-covered brick or a weighted pan and cook for ten minutes more. Italians call this method al mattone.
I served it with bell peppers and chili peppers sliced very thinly and sauteed at a low heat with thinly sliced onions. I used half olive oil and half duck fat and I seasoned the pan with salt and freshly ground pepper and oregano. When softened, but still al dente, I splashed the pan with a modest amount of a quality red wine vinegar and lots of fresh parsley. I turned the heat off and waited for the main course.
So I’m the old guy.
The three men are my three sons, from my left, Mino, Chris and Dom.
Immediately beside Mino is my daughter Katherine and then my granddaughter Laura.
Next to Laura comes my daughter in law, Leigh and a second daughter in law, Amanda.
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7.0 Blog Meister’s Pictures with Captions
Family in Philly
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Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (née Godwin; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818), which is considered an early example of science fiction. She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her father was the political philosopher William Godwin and her mother was the philosopher and feminist activist Mary Wollstonecraft.
Shelley's mother died less than a month after giving birth to her. She was raised by her father, who provided her with a rich if informal education, encouraging her to adhere to his own anarchist political theories. When she was four, her father married a neighbor, Mary Jane Clairmont, with whom Shelley came to have a troubled relationship.
In 1814, Shelley began a romance with one of her father's political followers, Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was already married. Together with her stepsister, Claire Clairmont, she and Percy left for France and travelled through Europe. Upon their return to England, Shelley was pregnant with Percy's child. Over the next two years, she and Percy faced ostracism, constant debt and the death of their prematurely born daughter.
They married in late 1816, after the suicide of Percy Shelley's first wife, Harriet.
In 1816, the couple and Mary's stepsister famously spent a summer with Lord Byron and John William Polidori near Geneva, Switzerland, where Shelley conceived the idea for her novel Frankenstein. The Shelleys left Britain in 1818 for Italy, where their second and third children died before Shelley gave birth to her last and only surviving child, Percy Florence Shelley. In 1822, her husband drowned when his sailing boat sank during a storm near Viareggio. A year later, Shelley returned to England and from then on devoted herself to the upbringing of her son and a career as a professional author. The last decade of her life was dogged by illness, most likely caused by the brain tumor which killed her at age 53.
Until the 1970s, Shelley was known mainly for her efforts to publish her husband's works and for her novel Frankenstein, which remains widely read and has inspired many theatrical and film adaptations. Recent scholarship has yielded a more comprehensive view of Shelley's achievements. Scholars have shown increasing interest in her literary output, particularly in her novels, which include the historical novels Valperga (1823) and Perkin Warbeck (1830), the apocalyptic novel The Last Man (1826) and her final two novels, Lodore (1835) and Falkner (1837). Studies of her lesser-known works, such as the travel book Rambles in Germany and Italy (1844) and the biographical articles for Dionysius Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia (1829–1846), support the growing view that Shelley remained a political radical throughout her life. Shelley's works often argue that cooperation and sympathy, particularly as practiced by women in the family, were the ways to reform civil society. This view was a direct challenge to the individualistic Romantic ethos promoted by Percy Shelley and the Enlightenment political theories articulated by her father, William Godwin.
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It’s Tuesday, August 31, 2021
Welcome to the 1,206th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Paul McCartney
smiling
Raph_PH - ACL18051018-169
ACL18051018-169
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2.0 Commentary
Am delighted to be nearing a place in my writing from which I may send out the new opening of my manuscript.
Daughter Katherine has gone to NYC for the duration. She’ll start work at SKDKnickerbocker on September 13. SKDK is a progressive political consulting firm, among the top in the United States. She’s delighted to be working there.
Leaving me alone. Not lonely. Yet.
Sunday, my first day alone, I found time to organize and found that I had a lot more time to write my blog and work on my manuscript. So far I have been working assiduously.
We are killing more people. It’s a matter of national honor. They say.
I say, stay home. We cannot continue to support mindless efforts to do good.
A trillion dollars spent, wasted in Afghanistan? My God.
And what good did that buy us?
Today we bemoan the loss of a dozen very beautiful, promising Americans.
And yet for 20 years we have continued to ask our youth to go that country to put themselves in harm’s way.
And kill Afghans.
Like they don’t know how to kill each other.
And many of the youth we sent there were harmed. Killed.
What a surprise.
Let’s focus on Covid around the world.
Let’s get tough on climate control, both with ourselves and those with whom we do business.
Let’s not have to ask where all the flowers have gone.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“Very few of us relate to what it's like to be a hero.
But everyone understands what it's like to fail.”
~Kathleen Tessaro, Innocence
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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
Received a couple of positive comments on the relevance of MLK today.
Blog meister responds: I agree that ‘fellow Americans’ includes all Americans, and all Americans must be encouraged to vote. The ways of casting ballots should be constantly examined to expand accessibility, not restrict it.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Saturday night I made a Lobster Diavolo.
It came out well but I used too many aromatic vegetables and the sauce came out a little coarse.
Tasted delicious.
I had two 1/5oz portions of linguini left over so I portioned them into lunch boxes for me to enjoy for lunch.
So they wouldn’t be boring, I set three anchovy filets on each of the portions.
With no way to heat them, I’ll eat the meals at room temperature.
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7.0 Blog Meister’s Pictures with Captions
Cole: Arch of Nero Placard
Cole: Arch of Nero Picture
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Sir James Paul McCartney CH MBE (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and record and film producer who gained worldwide fame as co-lead vocalist, co-songwriter, and bassist for the Beatles. His songwriting partnership with John Lennon remains the most successful in history. After the group disbanded in 1970, he pursued a solo career and formed the band Wings with his first wife, Linda, and Denny Laine.
A self-taught musician, McCartney is proficient on bass, guitar, keyboards, and drums. He is known for his melodic approach to bass-playing (mainly playing with a plectrum), his versatile and wide tenor vocal range (spanning over four octaves), and his eclecticism (exploring styles ranging from pre-rock and roll pop to classical and electronica). McCartney began his career as a member of the Quarrymen in 1957, which evolved into the Beatles in 1960. Starting with the 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, he gradually became the Beatles' de facto leader, providing the creative impetus for most of their music and film projects. His Beatles songs "And I Love Her" (1964), "Yesterday" (1965), "Eleanor Rigby" (1966) and "Blackbird" (1968) rank among the most covered songs in history.
In 1970, McCartney debuted as a solo artist with the album McCartney. Throughout the 1970s, he led Wings, one of the most successful bands of the decade, with more than a dozen international top 10 singles and albums. McCartney resumed his solo career in 1980. Since 1989, he has toured consistently as a solo artist. In 1993, he formed the music duo the Fireman with Youth. Beyond music, he has taken part in projects to promote international charities related to such subjects as animal rights, seal hunting, land mines, vegetarianism, poverty, and music education.
McCartney is one of the most successful composers and performers of all time. He has written or co-written 32 songs that have topped the Billboard Hot 100, and as of 2009, had sales of 25.5 million RIAA-certified units in the United States. His honors include two inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (as a member of the Beatles in 1988 and as a solo artist in 1999), 18 Grammy Awards, an appointment as a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1965, and a knighthood in 1997 for services to music. As of May 2020, he was one of the wealthiest musicians in the world, with an estimated fortune of £800 million.
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It’s Monday, August 30, 2021
Welcome to the 1,205th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
The Gross Clinic
Thomas Eakins, American - Portrait of Dr. Samuel D. Gross (The Gross Clinic) - Google Art Project
Thomas Eakins, American, 1844 - 1916 (1844 - 1916) – Artist/Maker (American)
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Dead in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Details of artist on Google Art Project - tQFcdDEg20osqg at Google Cultural Institute maximum zoom level
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2.0 Commentary
Difficult to believe that Katherine won’t be coming back except for occasional brief overnights.
I guess nine years is not forever.
She spent the night before packing, a prodigious job that she made look easy.
I woke to find Santa Claus piles of bags and boxes ready to go.
She rented a large car and left.
She’s leaving home, bye, bye.
I’ll spend the day catching up on some things that really needed attention and tomorrow adjust my routine to reflect the extra time I’ll have now that I’m alone.
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3.0 Reading and Writing
Loving the Goldfinch.
I should have my new beginning to my manuscript completed and out to my readers on Friday.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“We needed no Shakespeare to feel -- though, perhaps,
like the rest of the world, we needed him to express it.”
~Inazo Nitobe
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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
Got a text from Chris asking me to block out the last weekend in September. He’ll be visiting with a tennis buddy whom I know and like well.
Also have note for a September mushroom hunting event with my niece Lisa, which I look forward to.
Blog meister responds: While I appreciate a time of quiet and catch-up, it is lovely to have events on the horizon.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Friday night Kat and I had dinner together at Fugakyu. They have introduced six and eight course omakase menus for 40.00 and 56.00 dollars, respectively. The fish on these menus is entirely from Japan and is quite good.
We found the eight course meal so delicate as to need a supplement.
We chose a Spider Roll, a tempura soft-shell crab wrapped in rice and seaweed.
Thomas Eakins, American - Portrait of Dr. Samuel D. Gross (The Gross Clinic) - Google Art Project
Thomas Eakins, American, 1844 - 1916 (1844 - 1916) – Artist/Maker (American)
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Dead in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Details of artist on Google Art Project - tQFcdDEg20osqg at Google Cultural Institute maximum zoom level
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7.0 Blog Meister’s Pictures with Captions
Eakins “Agnew clinic.”
Taken on a recent visit to Philadelphia Art Museum.
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The Gross Clinic or The Clinic of Dr. Gross is an 1875 painting by American artist Thomas Eakins. It is oil on canvas and measures 8 feet by 6.5 feet.
The painting depicts Dr. Samuel D. Gross, a seventy-year-old professor dressed in a black frock coat, lecturing a group of Jefferson Medical College students. Included among the group is a self-portrait of Eakins, who is seen at the right-hand side of the painting, next to the tunnel railing, with a white cuffed sleeve sketching or writing. Seen over Dr. Gross's right shoulder is the clinic clerk, Dr. Franklin West, taking notes on the operation.
Eakins's signature is painted on the front of the surgical table.
Admired for its uncompromising realism, The Gross Clinic has an important place documenting the history of medicine—both because it honors the emergence of surgery as a healing profession (in previous years surgery was associated primarily with amputation, which caused severe medical complications, later killing the person) , and because it shows what an surgical theater looked like in the nineteenth century.
The painting is based on a surgery witnessed by Eakins, in which Gross treated a young man for osteomyelitis of the femur. Gross is pictured here performing a conservative operation, as opposed to the amputation normally carried out.
Here, surgeons crowd around the anesthetized patient in their frock coats—this is just prior to the adoption of a hygienic surgical environment (see asepsis). The Gross Clinic is thus often contrasted with Eakins's later painting The Agnew Clinic (1889), which depicts a cleaner, brighter, surgical theater, with the participants in "white coats". In comparing the two, the advance in understanding of the prevention of infection is seen. Another noteworthy difference in the later painting is the presence of a professional nurse, Mary Clymer, in the operating theater.
It is assumed that the patient depicted in The Gross Clinic was a teenage boy, although the exposed body is not entirely discernible as male or female; the painting is shocking for both the odd presentation of this figure and the matter-of-fact goriness of the procedure.
Adding to the drama is the lone woman in the painting seen in the middle ground, possibly the patient's mother, cringing in distress. Her dramatic figure functions as a strong contrast to the calm, professional demeanor of the men who surround the patient. This bloody and very blunt depiction of surgery was shocking at the time it was first exhibited.
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It’s Sunday, August 29, 2021
Welcome to the 1,204th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Martin Luther King Jr.
giving his "I Have a Dream" speech
Rowland Scherman - This media is available in the holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration, cataloged under the National Archives Identifier (NAID) 542069.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. giving his "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on Washington
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2.0 Commentary
I’m writing this on Saturday morning.
Katherine’s possessions are stacked near the door.
She’ll go out to pick up the rental, we’ll load it up, and off she’ll go like some distaff Santa Claus carrying her sacks of gifts.
Sometime Saturday afternoon she’ll arrive in uptown Manhattan and, with the help of her boyfriend William and others, she’ll carry the stuff up four flights.
God bless.
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3.0 Reading and Writing
Am enjoying the Goldfinch. Great writing. Great story.
Am closing in on the finish of the first 20 pages of my manuscript.
Am very anxious to send it out to see if the reactions are as strong as I feel the piece deserves.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“The ultimate paradox, of course, is that even though we're all going to die,
we've all got to live in the meantime…”
~Brian Cox
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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
The family Philadelphia visit is over, but not the scuttlebutt. Many texts and emails exulting in the love and excitement we shared, one to all.
Blog meister responds: Two weeks ago this was not even in the works and now it’s a fime memory. A blessing to myself as the senior of the group.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Thursday afternoon I took my main meal at the Four Seasons restaurant called the JG Skywalk, or the Jean Georges Skywalk to his friends.
My friend Howard broke his covid-induced isolation and drove to meet me there.
Son Chris made a surprise appearance, well appreciated by all.
We shared heirloom tomatoes and burrata, then a pasta in a light tomato sauce (I have completely forgot this dish although it was fine, and then a beef tenderloin which came out well done instead of the rare we ordered.
The restaurant took the steak off the bill and treated us to dessert, a chocolate cake and a scoop of ice cream.
I loved Howard’s company. Then he returned to his home and I ubered by way of a reserved car, to the airport.
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7.0 Personal Photo of the Day
Rocky Philly Art Museum
I mean, what’s a visit to the Philly Art Museum without a stop at the statue and a slow climb of the stairs.
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11.0 Thumbnail
"I Have a Dream" is a public speech that was delivered by American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963, in which he called for civil and economic rights and an end to racism in the United States. Delivered to over 250,000 civil rights supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., the speech was a defining moment of the civil rights movement and among the most iconic speeches in American history.
Beginning with a reference to the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared millions of slaves free in 1863, King said "one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free". Toward the end of the speech, King departed from his prepared text for a partly improvised peroration on the theme "I have a dream", prompted by Mahalia Jackson's cry: "Tell them about the dream, Martin!" In this part of the speech, which most excited the listeners and has now become its most famous, King described his dreams of freedom and equality arising from a land of slavery and hatred. Jon Meacham writes that, "With a single phrase, Martin Luther King Jr. joined Jefferson and Lincoln in the ranks of men who've shaped modern America". The speech was ranked the top American speech of the 20th century in a 1999 poll of scholars of public address. The speech has also been described as having "a strong claim to be the greatest in the English language of all time".
Widely hailed as a masterpiece of rhetoric, King's speech invokes pivotal documents in American history, including the Declaration of Independence, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the United States Constitution. Early in his speech, King alludes to Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address by saying "Five score years ago ..." In reference to the abolition of slavery articulated in the Emancipation Proclamation, King says: "It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity." Anaphora (i.e., the repetition of a phrase at the beginning of sentences) is employed throughout the speech. Early in his speech, King urges his audience to seize the moment; "Now is the time" is repeated three times in the sixth paragraph. The most widely cited example of anaphora is found in the often quoted phrase "I have a dream", which is repeated eight times as King paints a picture of an integrated and unified America for his audience. Other occasions include "One hundred years later", "We can never be satisfied", "With this faith", "Let freedom ring", and "free at last". King was the sixteenth out of eighteen people to speak that day, according to the official program.
I still have a dream, a dream deeply rooted in the American dream – one day this nation will rise up and live up to its creed, "We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream…
—Martin Luther King Jr. (1963)
Among the most quoted lines of the speech are "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!"
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