Daily Entries for the week of
Sunday, December 22
through
Saturday, December 28
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It’s Saturday, December 28, 2019
Welcome to the 631st consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
This is the front cover art for the book There There written by Tommy Orange.
The book cover art copyright is believed to belong to the publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, or the cover artist.
Here are useful links:
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If using a computer:
For the “Hello, my friends” video series, use this:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOCcrbbzsbguN0k4zs-OEyurcVd-kl56b
For the podcast series of Conflicted, use this:
https://soundcloud.com/user-449713331
If using a smartphone, use this:
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2.0 Commentary
So I spent the entire day in the pursuit of a motor vehicle title transfer.
I sold my car to my cousin.
Loved my car.
But the attendant expenses (525/month for parking; 3700/month for insurance; etc etc) are too great for me to afford private ownership.
We began at the insurance agent’s office where she filled out the registration transfer.
Then we headed to the Registry where we filed the title transfer and paid the fees.
We had a celebratory hamburger lunch at Abe and Louie’s.
Went to the garage to cancel the parking space.
Went to the bank to deposit the check.
What’s left is to file for reimbursement of Excise Taxes and insurance premiums.
Then?
Then to acquire a stronger familiarity with the plethora of alternative transportation.
Wish me luck.
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4.0 Chuckles/Thoughts
“We want to do a lot of stuff; we’re not in great shape.
We didn’t get a good night’s sleep.
We’re a little depressed.
Coffee solves all of these problems in one delightful little cup.”
— Jerry Seinfeld
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5.0 Mail
We love getting mail.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
This from Sally C:
Dear Dom,
After spending Christmas Eve at my #3 Brother's house, I can't say that all of my engagements with young people are educational or enlightening. This year's four-generation family gathering was the silliest yet. While the youngest generation (ages 2-8) flaunted my brother's remote-control fart machine around the table, we so-called adults could barely eat for laughing so much. And then my oldest nephew, in his 50th year, reneged on his cousinly duties by telling this horde of roaring children crawling all over him that I was a much better wrestler than he was, so they all jumped on me. How did I end up on the floor under such a pile of squirming arms and legs? The seven-week-old infant was the best behaved of all of us, I swear.
I guess it's time to face reality - I'm a sucker for playing with little children.
Bring it on!
Sally
Web Meister responds: Sweet memories of sweet holidays. Why we celebrate. Important vignette to remind those, whose holidays not so cheerful, that out there are moments for you to relish.
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12.0 Thumbnail
There There is the first novel by Cheyenne and Arapaho author Tommy Orange.
Published in 2018, it opens with an essay by Orange as a prologue, and then proceeds to follow a large cast of Native Americans living in the area of Oakland, California, as they struggle with a wide array of challenges ranging from depression and alcoholism, to unemployment, fetal alcohol syndrome, and the challenges of living with an ethnic identity of being "ambiguously nonwhite."
All coalesce at a community pow wow and its attempted robbery.
The book explores the themes of Native peoples living in urban spaces (Urban Indians), and issues of ambivalence and complexity related to Natives' struggles with identity and authenticity.
There There was favorably received, and was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize.[4] The book was also awarded a Gold Medal for First Fiction by the California Book Awards.
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It’s Friday, December 27, 2019
Welcome to the 630th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture: Battle of Trenton, a painting
Published by U.S. Government Printing Office; painting by Hugh Charles McBarron, Jr. (1902-1992) - U.S. Army Center of Military History
For more details, see 12.0 Thumbnails just below.
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2.0 Commentary
Christmas is past.
This one proved eminently forgettable for me.
Which means I’m happy it’s in my rear view mirror.
Thursday morning I will focus on selling my car.
A person to person sale.
The most fearful step for me is this.
The car is owned by writers direct.com
Any agreement that must be signed by it must be affixed with the President’s signature, mine.
The problem: there is only space for half the required signature.
And if there is any cross-out the title is void and seller must acquire a new title: a laborious event.
Solution: Take it to our insurance agent for her opinion.
And sign it at the Registry Office at the direction of the agent of the Department of Motor Vehicles.
Will keep you up to date.
Beside my own less-than-wonderful event, people that I know well suffered: the underserved-Court-takeaway-of-a-child, a broken arm, a serious financial loss, and a firing, no details of which I reprint here.
Here comes New Year’s Eve.
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12.0 Thumbnails
The Battle of Trenton was a small but pivotal battle during the American Revolutionary War which took place on the morning of December 26, 1776, in Trenton, New Jersey.
After General George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River north of Trenton the previous night, Washington led the main body of the Continental Army against Hessian auxiliaries garrisoned at Trenton.
After a brief battle, almost two-thirds of the Hessian force was captured, with negligible losses to the Americans.
The battle significantly boosted the Continental Army's flagging morale, and inspired re-enlistments.
The Continental Army had previously suffered several defeats in New York and had been forced to retreat through New Jersey to Pennsylvania.
Morale in the army was low; to end the year on a positive note, George Washington—Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army—devised a plan to cross the Delaware River on the night of December 25–26 and surround the Hessians' garrison.
Because the river was icy and the weather severe, the crossing proved dangerous.
Two detachments were unable to cross the river, leaving Washington with only 2,400 men under his command in the assault, 3,000 less than planned.
The army marched 9 miles (14.5 km) south to Trenton.
The Hessians had lowered their guard, thinking they were safe from the Americans' army, and had no long-distance outposts or patrols.
ashington's forces caught them off guard and, after a short but fierce resistance, most of the Hessians surrendered and were captured, with just over a third escaping across Assunpink Creek.
Despite the battle's small numbers, the U.S. victory inspired rebels in the colonies.
With the success of the ongoing revolution in doubt a week earlier, the army had seemed on the verge of collapse.
The dramatic victory inspired soldiers to serve longer and attracted new recruits to the ranks.
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It’s Thursday, December 26, 2019
Welcome to the 629th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture (Christ The Adoration of he Shepherds)
The Adoration of the Shepherds is an oil-on-panel painting by Italian Renaissance artist Giorgione, completed around 1505 to 1510.
For details of the painting see 2.0 Commentary of this section.
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2.0 Commentary
It depicts a common subject in the nativity of Jesus in art.
The scene, based on the Biblical account in Luke 2, depicts shepherds visiting the stable to celebrate the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.
Giorgione portrayed the main characters on the right, with Saint Joseph, the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child shown in front of a dark grotto, while on the left is a bright landscape with trees, buildings and distant hills.
At one time, the work was owned by the department-store magnate Samuel Henry Kress, who displayed it in the window of his Fifth Avenue store in New York City over the Christmas period in 1938.
The picture was part of a donation made by the Kress Foundation to the newly established National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in 1941, where it remains to this day.
Besides our lead picture, nothing left to say on Christmas morning, when I’m writing this, except:
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
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It’s Wednesday, December 25, 2019
Welcome to the 629th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead PictureChristus Pantocrator - Artistic representation of Jesus Christ God, the second divine Person of the Most Holy Trinity (Cathedral of Cefalù, c. 1130.)
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2.0 Commentary
Selling my car.
Going to try to do without.
Will Uber/Lyft satisfy?
Commuter Rail?
In-town subway?
Rentals?
Zip Car?
Friends?
Walk?
Or does ownership provide the thrill of driving on a clear highway, the comfort of a living room away from home, and a swagger, a rush that mere transportation deprives us of?
What I know for sure is that my bank account will thrive.
Will report.
So far, I got a base price from the dealership.
Relatively fair: the car is pristine and only has 35,000 miles.
At the moment, three close friends are considering the purchase at $2000 above the dealer’s offer.
We’ll see.
And happy holidays all around!
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4.0 Chuckles/Thoughts
“I’m not that involved in their school stuff. I’m not involved in their social stuff. I am just always around them and I’m very good at drawing them out, you know? I think some fathers struggle with, ‘My kid doesn’t want to talk to me,’ or, ‘I can’t get them to engage with me in conversations,’ especially as they get into the teen years. I’m always able to get that conversation going. If you start asking them: ‘What’s going on? What’d you do today?’ Nothing – they’re not going to give you anything from that. You need to get in there and I’m good at that. You know, ‘Did you laugh today? What did you laugh at today?’ I’ll ask them a better question than, ‘What happened at school today?’”
Jerry Seinfeld
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5.0 Mail
We love getting mail.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
Dear Dom,
A number of your "Chuckles" recently haven't been the least bit funny, but I'm glad you've posted them, for they are profoundly important.
Today's, for example, encourages parents to resist jumping in to solve their children's problems, rather than letting them suffer the consequences of their errors and thereby learn from them, should be read and understood by everyone alive.
I think the "helicopter" syndrome of too many parents has led to the immature illogic exhibited by too many young adults today.
As a result, I find it refreshing when I meet a child or young adult who has not been subjected to this dangerous foolishness, and engage in a marvelous conversation from which we both learn.
I wish, however, that this "refreshment" was so common that perhaps I wouldn't notice!
Meanwhile, I shall continue to revel in such engagement! I wish you and yours a most marvelous Christmas season, and the best in health, happiness, and prosperity in the New Year!
Sally
Web Meister responds: Balls on accurate, my dear, as you so often are.
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It’s Tuesday, December 24, 2019
Welcome to the 628th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
"General George Washington Resigning His Commission" (1824) by John Trumbull
John Trumbull - Architect of the Capitol
See 12.0 Thumbnails in this date.
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2.0 Commentary
I struggled to complete my recording session.
I wasn’t as prepared as I needed to be.
Am at the last hurdle, finish today’s post, of my happy but crowded Christmas run.
Finish this and breathe out: enjoy eve and day of Christmas, few demands on my time except to be a guest at a Seven Fish dinner on Tuesday night and a dinner guest at the White Barn Inn on Christmas Day.
Happy Holidays, my friends.
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4.0 Chuckles
“We refuse to let our children have problems. Problem-solving is the most important skill to develop for success in life, and we for some reason can’t stand it if our kids have a situation that they need to ‘fix.’ Let them struggle—it’s a gift.”
Jerry Seinfeld
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11.0 Movie Reviews
Tucker J
In 1972 this movie dominated conversations.
“I believe in America.” Those are the first words spoken in The Godfather. We hear them before we even see the face of the character speaking them, the undertaker Amerigo Bonasera. Bonasera came to America from Italy, and he found a place in this land by doing everything he thought he was supposed to do and keeping away from unsavory people. But then Bonasera learned, painfully, all the reasons why he should not believe in America—his daughter was assaulted here, and the country’s justice system was set up to protect the boys who assaulted her.
Bonasera tries to maintain his position as an upright member of the American community; he doesn’t even drink the whiskey that the criminals put in front of him. But an upright citizen is not what Bonasera wants to be. He wants revenge. He wants blood. And so, he comes to seek it from the mobster that he’s been avoiding, the one he’d always thought he should stay away from because he “didn’t want to get into trouble.” Don Vito Corleone understands. “You found paradise in America,” he says. And then Corleone orders violence done.
The story of Amerigo Bonasera barely has any effect on the greater narrative of The Godfather, the biggest movie blockbuster of 1972 and, for a few years, the highest-grossing film of all time. In that opening scene, Don Vito ominously foretells a time when Bonasera will have to do him a favor. When that moment arrives—the only other time Bonasera shows up in the film—all he must do is his job. He’s not roped into a criminal conspiracy; he merely must make the body of the Don’s dead son Sonny into something presentable..
And yet with that masterful slow zoom, the uninterrupted shot of a man talking as the camera slowly pulls out from his face, director Francis Ford Coppola introduces his themes and brings us into the world of the film. He’s showing us America as a rotten place, and he’s showing us vulnerable people who need to do rotten things to survive in it. It’s a bleak image, and yet it’s endlessly compelling. Coppola wanted The Godfather to be an indictment of American capitalism, of the way it turns human interactions into cold-blooded calculations. But funny things happen when movies enter the larger culture and become part of mass consciousness. Authorial intent never ends up mattering.
But those ideas are there in the movie, if you’re looking for them. In that opening scene, Vito Corleone’s face emerges slowly from the darkness, a manifestation of evil. The Corleones are a family, and yet they end up killing each other, or causing each other’s deaths, in the name of business. There’s corruption and depravity everywhere in the film—the square-jawed cop in the mob’s pocket, the predatory film executive, the abusive husband, the turncoat mob soldiers. Greed and lust for power turn all the characters into monsters. At the meeting of the Five Families, Barzini cracks a joke about how “we are not Communists,” and everyone laughs.
Michael Corleone’s transformation is the real story of the movie. He starts out vaguely amused, but also repulsed, by his background. Soon enough, though, he’s lecturing Kay, his future wife, about how naive she is to think that “senators and presidents don’t have men killed.” Throughout, Michael is so competent and cool and steely—so easy to root for—that we almost miss the moment when he becomes something truly demonic. By the time of the stunning baptism/murder montage, a scene that’s tonally closer to The Exorcist or The Omen than it is to any other gangster film, Michael is a satanic force. In effect, the movie tells in three hours the same kind of corrupting-the-innocent story as Breaking Bad did over its five season run.
And yet almost nobody thinks of The Godfather as a denouncement of the mafia, mostly because it’s too good for that. In its grand, operatic sweep, The Godfather also presents its characters as eternal human archetypes in a mythic American saga. Actual mobsters loved the movie, and a conservative viewer could take ideas from the film—the importance of family and tradition, for instance, or the admirable success of master businessmen—and draw entirely different conclusions. In the book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, Robert Towne, Coppola’s buddy who did some uncredited script work on The Godfather, calls the picture “kind of reactionary… a perverse expression of a desirable and lost cultural tradition.”
The whole arc of Fredo Corleone, the ineffectual middle brother, has become a sort of cultural shorthand; if you’re the Fredo in a family, you’re the useless one, the one who screws things up for everyone else. But Fredo isn’t the evilest Corleone; he’s just the least competent one. It’s pretty telling that we’ve all agreed the worst Godfather character is the one who’s just not that good at committing crimes.
But that’s how cultural myth-making works. Images go out into the world and take on lives of their own, and there’s no better example of cultural mythmaking in American cinema than The Godfather. Every moment in the film feels iconic. Consider the brief story of Luca Brasi, the hulking Corleone hit man played by the former pro wrestler and mob enforcer Lenny Montana. Luca Brasi only actually does two things in The Godfather: He nervously gives Vito Corleone an awkward speech, and he gets killed. That’s it. But because of the chilly and reverent way the other characters talk about Luca Brasi—almost always his full name, like it would be disrespectful to shorten it—Luca Brasi became a touchstone reference anyway. The rap artist Kevin Gates named a whole mixtape series after him, an honor that has not been extended (at least to my knowledge) to any other dead two-scene bit-part movie characters.
There are so many brilliant touches within The Godfather. There’s the casting: Marlon Brando, the king of method acting, plays a figure that commands the same type of reverence that the film’s younger actors would naturally pay to Brando himself. The opening wedding scene allows anyone watching to see the way the family members interact and understand how the film’s world works in the process. The scenes in Sicily seem to take place in another century where people follow conventions that are almost feudal and where the young men are “all dead from vendettas.”
It’s such a confident, beautifully told story that it’s hard to believe how many times it almost went wrong. Robert Evans, the young head of Paramount, had to fight his corporate bosses for The Godfather to be made, even though it was based on a runaway bestseller that the studio had bought the rights for cheap when it was still a manuscript. A few years earlier, Paramount had flopped with the Kirk Douglas mob movie The Brotherhood, so execs were skittish. But Evans knew that The Godfather could be something special.
In his memoir, The Kid Stays In The Picture, Evans says that he went back and looked at a ton of old gangster movies that hadn’t worked, realizing they’d been made by Jewish directors and stars. Evans, who is Jewish himself, decided that he wanted an Italian-American director, one whose touch could make audiences “smell the spaghetti.” (Evans really writes like that.) But Paramount still offered The Godfather to a dozen directors before settling on Coppola, whose previous works hadn’t exactly inspired a lot of confidence. For his part, Coppola didn’t love the idea of directing the movie. He thought the novel was trashy, and he had his own visions that he wanted to realize. But his budding production house American Zoetrope owed hundreds of thousands to Warner Bros., and his friend George Lucas convinced him that he needed to do it.
Initially, Warner Bros. had envisioned The Godfather as a low-budget movie. They wanted to move it to a contemporary setting, adding references to hippie culture; Coppola had to fight them on that. He also spent months trying to get Marlon Brando and Al Pacino cast in the film. Brando was a legend, but he was viewed as a difficult weirdo who hadn’t made a good movie in years. Pacino, meanwhile, was a no-name who Evans thought was too short. (Evans reportedly called Pacino “that little dwarf.”) In Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, Coppola says, “If I hadn’t’ve fought, I would have made a movie with Ernest Borgnine and Ryan O’Neal set in the ’70s.”
By pretty much every account, the production of The Godfather was an absolute nightmare. Coppola feuded bitterly with Evans and with cinematographer Gordon Willis. As a result, Coppola was reportedly almost fired multiple times; Evans apparently had Elia Kazan lined up and ready to take over. Only Brando’s loyalty, the book’s enduring popularity, and the Oscar that Coppola won for writing Patton saved him. In The Kid Stays In The Picture, Robert Evans insists that Coppola handed in a beautifully shot but cold and empty movie, and that he had to spend months in the editing room to fix it by making it longer and more atmospheric. Coppola and Evans feuded over credit for the movie for years, even when they worked together again on the 1984 flop The Cotton Club.
And yet you can’t see any of that discord on the screen, so maybe that’s just the movie business acting the way the movie business is supposed to act. And none of that rancor hurt the movie financially: When it came to theaters, The Godfather outperformed everyone’s expectations to a massive degree. Studio executive Frank Yablans booked the film into multiple theaters per town, breaking with Hollywood convention and allowing more people to see it than would’ve otherwise been possible. (In the coming blockbuster era, Yablans’ strategy would become common practice.) Coppola, who’d taken a small fee to direct the film, had a share in the profits, and he got rich.
The Godfather touched a cultural nerve in ways that few films before it had, and a lot of that comes down simply to how good it is. It really is a miracle of moviemaking, and it remains almost compulsively re-watchable today. But The Godfather also spoke to its cultural moment. As a period piece, it was a sort of tour through recent American history. (The Godfather’s story starts in 1945, but that’s only 27 years before it came out. A story set in 1992 might not seem so exotic to us now.) And it spoke to a growing cynicism, a sense that the American dream that the public had been sold was not all it was cracked up to be.
Shortly before his death, Don Vito Corleone looks at the life he’s built for himself and his family. One of his sons has been horribly murdered. Another is pampered and useless. Another has been forced to take up the violent life that he was supposed to transcend. “I refused to be a fool, dancing on the string held by all those big shots,” the Don says. But in that refusal, he’s simply become a big shot himself. That’s an American tragedy.
Tucker J
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12.0 Thumbnails
General George Washington Resigning His Commission depicts George Washington's resignation as commander-in-chief of the Army to the Congress, which was then meeting at the Maryland State House in Annapolis, on December 23, 1783.
This action was of great significance in establishing civilian, rather than military rule, leading to a republic, rather than a dictatorship.
Washington stands with two aides-de-camp addressing the president of the Congress, Thomas Mifflin, and others, such as Elbridge Gerry, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and James Madison.
Mrs. Washington and her three grandchildren are shown watching from the gallery, although they were not in fact present at the event.
John Trumbull (1756–1843) was born in Connecticut, the son of the governor.
After graduating from Harvard University, he served in the Continental Army under General Washington.
He studied painting with Benjamin West in London and focused on history painting.
This oil painting on canvas is now located in the United States Capitol rotunda in Washington D.C. Its dimensions are 365.76 cm × 548.64 cm (144.00 in × 216.00 in).
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It’s Monday, December 23, 2019
Welcome to the 627th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Statue of Fibonacci (1863) by Giovanni Paganucci in the Camposanto di Pisa
There are many mathematical concepts named after Fibonacci because of a connection to the Fibonacci numbers.
Examples include the Brahmagupta–Fibonacci identity, the Fibonacci search technique, and the Pisano period.
Beyond mathematics, namesakes of Fibonacci include the asteroid 6765 Fibonacci and the art rock band The Fibonaccis.
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Computer users:
For the “Hello, my friends” video series, use this:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOCcrbbzsbguN0k4zs-OEyurcVd-kl56b
For the podcast series of Conflicted, use this:
https://soundcloud.com/user-449713331
Smartphone users:The QR Codes immediately below are activated.
The text links are not activated.
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2.0 Commentary
I’m wondering how many of us have a drowning feeling?
Brought on by the confluence of the need to meet every person we’re close to in the seven days preceding and on Christmas day itself, mingling those seasonal demands with our normal schedules which often do not admit of being short-cut.
Right now, at this moment, I’m feeling just that.
Sunday a dinner party with children and close friends, write the blog, prepare for a double recording session on Monday.
On Monday a double recording session, three hours instead of ninety minutes.
A haircut.
And, in the evening, a Dinner Party based around a viewing of His Dark Materials.
On Tuesday, a working guest of cousins’ Dinner of the Seven fishes.
Finally, a reprieve on Christmas Day: a seven-hour trip alone with daughter to Kennebunk, Me for a walk and a dinner.
Will any of us make it through?
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4.0 Chuckles
"A two-year-old is kind of like having a blender, but you don't have a top for it."
Jerry Seinfeld
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8. “Hello! my friends,” Video
This week includes Number 5 in the series asking where we should put our eyes while we drink intro by the poodle on safari who gets lost in the jungle
The video series “Hello, my friends” are also available on You Tube, iTunes, Stitcher, Pinterest, Pocket Cast, and Facebook.
Dom’s website: existentialautotrip.com
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10.0 Poetry
Keeping this for myself
by Kali Lamporelli
The sun paints the sky awake
I watch the snow ice the trees and roads.
I draw your name into the earth;
The wind carries you upward.
My dog grumbles at what his joints tell
him the day will become.
Tears freeze on my face as I remember
all the therapists I sat across while I tried
to grow up.
Where have you been? They’ll ask
(my eyes are dimly lit)
What took you so long to arrive? (I’m on time; I promise)
A phone rings. My mother will say,
I give you a lot of credit for working so hard.(my ancestors are at peace now)
I look at the moon setting in the Western sky
It is magic; it’s for keeps.
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11.0 Thumbnails
Fibonacci was born around 1170 to Guglielmo, an Italian merchant and customs official.
Guglielmo directed a trading post in Bugia, Algeria.
Fibonacci travelled with him as a young boy, and it was in Bugia that he learned about the Hindu–Arabic numeral system.
Fibonacci travelled around the Mediterranean coast, meeting with many merchants and learning about their systems of doing arithmetic.
He soon realized the many advantages of the Hindu-Arabic system, which, unlike the Roman numerals used at the time, allowed easy calculation using a place-value system.
In 1202, he completed the Liber Abaci (Book of Abacus or The Book of Calculation), which popularized Hindu–Arabic numerals in Europe.
Fibonacci became a guest of Emperor Frederick II, who enjoyed mathematics and science.
In 1240, the Republic of Pisa honored Fibonacci (referred to as Leonardo Bigollo) by granting him a salary in a decree that recognized him for the services that he had given to the city as an advisor on matters of accounting and instruction to citizens.
In the Liber Abaci (1202), Fibonacci introduced the so-called modus Indorum (method of the Indians), today known as the Hindu–Arabic numeral system.
The book advocated numeration with the digits 0–9 and place value.
The book showed the practical use and value of the new Hindu-Arabic numeral system by applying the numerals to commercial bookkeeping, converting weights and measures, calculation of interest, money-changing, and other applications.
The book was well-received throughout educated Europe and had a profound impact on European thought.
No copies of the 1202 edition are known to exist.
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It’s Sunday, December 22, 2019
Welcome to the 626th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
A black hole is a region of space-time exhibiting gravitational acceleration so strong that nothing – no particles or even electromagnetic radiation such as light – can escape from it.
Photograph credit: Event Horizon Telescope
For more details, see 11.0 Thumbnail section in this date.
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2. Commentary:
Tick tock.
Moving so fast, time, that the holidays whiz past.
At this moment we see their headlights in the distance.
Don’t blink because in the next moment we will be standing watching their taillights disappear into the past, and we will be left to face months of fierce cold without respite until February 14, when the days are
noticeably longer, winter’s end may be measured in weeks, not months, and we are warm and fuzzy as we recognize the importance of the one closest to us.
Today, Saturday, 12/21, as I write this, I have two potluck lunches which I will attend but not partake, taking a Chicken Cacciatore to each; and cousin Lauren’s graduation dinner tonight at which I will eat.
Tomorrow my son Dom and I will meet with dear family friend, Cindy, and children, and spouse, for our 21st annual-local-Capossela-family Christmas dinner.
There is an ominous note to the celebrations: in the near-distance, very soon after we celebrate New Year’s, I’m going in for my third (in ten years) colonoscopy.
Will try to keep that unpleasantness temporarily submerged in the sea of love and joy.
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3.0 Table of Contents and Contact Information
Today’s entries in bold.
For entries posted earlier this week, keep scrolling.
1.0 Lead Picture with single line comment
2.0 Commentary
3.0 Table of Contents and Contact Information
4.0 Chuckles
5.0 Mail
6.0 Dinner/Food
7.0 Podcast
8.0 Video
9.0 Poetry
10.0 Movie Reviews
11.0 Thumbnails
12.0 Recipes
13.0 Tweets
20.0 Acknowledgements
21.0 Good Morning
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4.0 Chuckles
“The bedtime routine for my kids is like this Royal Coronation Jubilee Centennial of rinsing and plaque and dental appliances and the stuffed animal semi-circle of emotional support. And I’ve gotta read eight different moron books. You know what my bedtime story was when I was a kid? Darkness!”
Jerry Seinfeld
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7. “Conflicted” podcast
Conflicted, by Dom Capossela, is a spiritual/fantasy story about a sixteen-year-old mystic-warrior conflicted internally by her self-imposed alienation from God, her spiritual wellspring, and, externally, by the forces of darkness seeking her death or ruination.
In Chapter Eleven the girls committed a felony: burning down the cottage in which Dee had been held captive.
In this chapter, Twelve, the police seek to secure Dee’s cooperation in their investigations, using Sam and Jesse as go-betweens to offer an alliance.
The girls are accepted into their new high school, BB&N, and Dee and company solve a kidnapping.
Here’s the link:
https://soundcloud.com/user-449713331
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Search: dom capossela or conflicted or both
Dom’s website: existentialautotrip.com
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The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can deform spacetime to form a black hole.
The boundary of the region from which no escape is possible is called the event horizon. Although the event horizon has an enormous effect on the fate and circumstances of an object crossing it, no locally detectable features appear to be observed.
This picture is a photograph of the shadow of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Messier 87 (M87) elliptical galaxy in the constellation Virgo, as captured on 11 April 2017 by the Event Horizon Telescope, a planet-scale array of eight ground-based radio telescopes, a collaborative effort by scientists from over 20 countries; the photograph itself was released on 10 April 2019.
As a black hole is a completely dark object from which no light escapes, its shadow is the next best alternative to an image of the black hole itself.
The event horizon, from which the telescope takes its name, is around 2.5 times smaller than the shadow it casts and measures just under 40 billion kilometers (25 billion miles) across.