Before making any entries, save a new copy for next week
Daily Entries for the week of
Sunday, February 9
through
Saturday, February 15, 2020
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It’s Saturday, February 15, 2020.
Welcome to the 680th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
The Kiss
Francesco Hayez
Web Gallery of Art: Image Info about artwork
For more information see 11.0 Thumbnails in this section.
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2.0 Commentary
Thursday, 2pm, I went to the fridge to put the 2lb NY Sirloin in the oven for its slow roast, 30 minutes per pound for beef, then a 15 minute sear.
I’d ordered the meat the day before, and picked up the package, the weight telling me all I needed to know.
so I thought.
The inadvertent squeeze of the package as I pulled it from the refrigerator sent a ‘tilt’ message to me.
Not the first time so I wasn’t surprised.
But sorely disappointed.
The butcher had handed me, and I didn’t check, a 2lb package of ground beef.
fortunately, I had half of that rabbit braise waiting for another day.
sooner than expected, that other day arrived.
I decided to stay with the wine I had already selected, a 2015 Ch de Valois, a Bordeaux from the appellation Pomerol.
I’ve been developing a template for wine tasting and here it is in its infancy:
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4.0 Chuckles/Thoughts
The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
~George S. Patton
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5.0 Mail
We love getting mail.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
This from Colleen G:
Hey Dom,
I just read your blog and loved the quote about building strong kids vs repairing broken men and then I got stuck on this:
We had been discussing the problems endemic to making the perfect white clam sauce.
Eureka!
The perfect white clam sauce!
Call me and I’ll tell you.
The answer was right in front of us.
So simple.
So right.
I got stuck on it because it displays all that is right in the world! Pure joy over something so simple and shared and satisfying. Of course, then I digressed to the thought of how the clams that make it onto your table will have died as martyrs for something poetic and spiritual---the ritual of what is needed each day (sustenance to keep us alive) and can be won either drudgingly or with flare and spirit. How fortunate are we who have the ability to obtain, create and then luxuriate in something delicious. It is something a slower pace--only--allows and yet we humans go whizzing by the opportunity so often. I think it is why so many food shows are so addictive and well-watched. The luxury of food well prepared is a sight to behold even if not able to experience it first-hand.
Perhaps you've struck upon the all-too-obvious topic of your next podcast/video series: food. Simple. Eureka-worthy cooking. Dom-style.
Cheers,
Colleen:)
Blog Meister responds: I always don sunglasses when I deal with Colleen, even with just her writings: so full of sun.
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11.0 Thumbnail
The Kiss is an 1859 painting by the Italian artist Francesco Hayez, possibly his best known work.
The painting symbolizes the romantic, nationalist and patriotic ideals of the Risorgimento, the movement towards Italian unification.
Outwardly a passionate embrace between two anonymous individuals, the image has hidden meaning; shadowy figures at bottom left give an impression of conspiracy and danger.
The man's foot resting on the step and the tight grasp with which his beloved is holding him convey the imminence of his departure.
The dagger hidden in the mantle may refer to the imminent rebellion against the Habsburg invader, and the chromatic range of the picture symbolizes the political changes that involved Italy at the time, the blue of the woman's dress and the bright red of the young man's tights alluding to the colours of the French flag.
The picture is in the collection of the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan.
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It’s Friday, February 14, 2020.
Welcome to the 679th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Scan of a Valentine greeting card dated 1909.
Chordboard - Self, from material in my possession.
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2.0 Commentary
Rookies night out.
What we at Dom’s called Valentine’s Night.
Most popular restaurants are booked solid on this night.
Most tables are held by parties of two.
Most of the parties have little dating and little restaurant experience, matched by little confidence.
Always challenging, but we did our best to make them comfortable.
Tuesday night sleep erratic but two important positives: I didn’t take diphenhydramine (addictive) and I didn’t have to have my morning coffee at 2.30am.
I slept four hours, terrific for me.
And when I woke, I thoroughly enjoyed my morning brew and half jelly donut @ 6.30am, like normal people.
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4.0 Chuckles/Thoughts
Civilization is always in danger when those who have never learned to obey are given the right to command.
~Fulton J. Sheen
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5.0 Mail
We love getting mail.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail..com
This from our dear friend, Howard D:
What got me revved up was the sudden, not so infrequent really, eruption of your self-esteem. I mean as manifest in my impression of you since I met you as possessing one of the world’s healthiest egos.
Suddenly, amidst the litany of other matters of persistent preoccupation, you’ve become engaged once again in perfecting your culinary chops.
Suddenly, after a life of, what is it? 77 years, you make a startling, a “Eureka” discovery about pasta vongole. A dish you’ve made, if I had to venture a guess, even one I would be willing to bet on, thousands of times. Quite an openness of mind. Quite a willingness to continue to grow and learn.
But, as I say, the one thing that doesn’t change is your self-regard.
“So tricky, few, very few, perhaps only one, me,knows how to make it properly.”
First, let’s get something out of the way. I am aware that you are possibly being arch and coy and posing a bit, as you are wont to do, in your perpetual readiness to be in showman mood. You have, in the past, wriggled past my more acerbic ad hominem observations by saying, “Oh, just kidding… my bloggers know that…”
To which I’d say, maybe so. But in that case, may I advise, in an area where I have a bit more traction for advice, that your rhetorical skills at humor (and showing irony) need some further honing. I know you pride yourself on your writing skills, and they are, at times, considerable. You have an audience for sure. And I wouldn’t attempt in any way to take it away from you.
But, neither here nor there. Just wanted to get that out of the way.
Let me disabuse you that are not unique in your “discovery” (indeed, staring you in the face, and obvious) of the technique for infusing, if it may be called that, the pasta with the essential flavor foundation of the sauce.
It’s a technique I have used, and I am hardly unique (and I had to learn it somewhere along the line, and I read a shit load of recipes, and have cooked a semi-shit load of them) for a variety of pasta dishes, especially those with taste-thrilling savory sauces, if sometimes deceptively simple and basic in the ingredient palette, and nuanced in the entangled and complex flavors.
But if you do want to get even the pasta to taste that much more like the rest of the ingredients of the dish (instead of merely like pasta, which, even you will have to admit, at its best, has its own distinct flavors and identifying gustatory characteristics, one type from another, one wheat from another, one mill for the flour from another) you’ve pretty much outlined the method. I’m surprised in all the thousands of preps you’ve done, this never occurred to you for vongole.
Well, I’ll leave you with that, while you return to your quest for more sleep, and I very much hope you find it. In a way, your blog has been a chronicle about your erratic sleeping capabilities (with a motif of deep distrust of medical doctors, and the knowledge of homeopathic remedies), and it would be nice to have this facet of it segue to other matters with your reports of a full and satisfying night’s sleep. We all deserve that.
And I’ll go back to recuperating my strength for more challenges of the denial of others. It’s what keeps me fresh.
xoxo
h
Blog Meister responds: No one writes like Howard. Delighted to have any mail from him.
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11.0 Thumbnails
Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14.
Originating as a Western Christian feast day honoring one or two early saints named Valentinus, Valentine's Day is recognized as a significant cultural, religious, and commercial celebration of romance and romantic love in many regions around the world.
The day first became associated with romantic love within the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century, when the tradition of courtly love flourished.
In 18th-century England, it grew into an occasion in which couples expressed their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as "valentines").
Valentine's Day symbols that are used today include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid.
Since the 19th century, handwritten valentines have given way to mass-produced greeting cards.
In Europe, Saint Valentine's Keys are given to lovers "as a romantic symbol and an invitation to unlock the
giver's heart", as well as to children to ward off epilepsy (called Saint Valentine's Malady).
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It’s Thursday, February 13, 2020.
Welcome to the 678th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Oryctolagus cuniculus, rabbit
Would you eat this cutie?
J Ligero & I Barrios - Own work
For more, see 6.0 Dinner and 11.0 Thumbnail in this section.
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2.0 Commentary
Thank heaven.
For the little things.
Like a good night’s sleep.
Which, last night, I got.
Stayed up late (the Celtics playing in Houston)
and went to bed armed with only 12mg of melatonin.
I read,
got drowsy,
popped the pills,
turned out the light,
and got to sleep.
So what’s the fuss?
Woke up at 5.00am.
A very strong night’s sleep.
And what’s been on my mind is a small portion of braised rabbit which I had made last night.
So I had a small portion for breakfast.
The braise was delicious: the vegetables, the liquids, the herbs and spices all worked well together.
The rabbit was, well, rabbit.
If you’ve never had, it’s mild-flavored but a touch of the sweet-sour of balsamic vinegar in the sauce mitigates its undertone of game.
It has more chew than chicken, I like chew, but its lack of fat detracts from its overall tactile appeal.
I will enjoy my rabbit dinner later today but more importantly, I love the braise that I created out of a compilation of internet recipes and personal experience.
I’m looking forward to trying it with short ribs or other fatty meat.
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4.0 Chuckles/Thoughts
This is one verse about rabbits
That doesn’t mention their habits.
~Ogden Nash
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5.0 Mail
We love getting mail.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
More mail coming in talking of injury or illness.
Blog Meister responds: Let those who are healthy appreciate how our health is important.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Made the perfect rabbit dish Tuesday night.
Using a profusion of fresh and dried herbs and spices.
Rabbit is a lean, muscular animal and does well in a braise.
First I browned and then removed it.
Then I made a braise of carrots, celery, tomato paste, a hot vinegar cherry pepper from a jar, bell peppers, a chili pepper, and onions.
When they softened I put the rabbit back in and covered the Dutch oven.
At a low heat I braised the pot for 30 minutes using only the juices coming out of the vegetables.
The rabbit picked up such great flavors from the braise it took my breathe away.
Then I added the liquids: balsamic vinegar, red wine, chicken stock, and 14oz of hand-squeezed San Marzano tomatoes.
The pot was simmering when I put it in the 325* oven for 45 minutes.
The liquids had reduced perfectly.
The taste was wonderful.
The measured recipe is for another day.
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11.0 Thumbnails
Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha (along with the hare and the pika).
Oryctolagus cuniculus includes the European rabbit species and its descendants, the world's 305 breeds of domestic rabbit.
Sylvilagus includes 13 wild rabbit species, among them the seven types of cottontail.
The European rabbit, which has been introduced on every continent except Antarctica, is familiar throughout the world as a wild prey animal and as a domesticated form of livestock and pet.
With its widespread effect on ecologies and cultures, the rabbit (or bunny) is, in many areas of the world, a part of daily life—as food, clothing, a companion, and as a source of artistic inspiration.
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It’s Wednesday, February 12, 2020.
Welcome to the 677th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
White Clam Sauce
Clams and noodles in a clam sauce
Krista - https://www.flickr.com/photos/scaredykat/4811078196/
Clams and noodles in a clam sauce
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2.0 Commentary
Conferred with PCP on Monday evening regarding my sleep issues.
(For three weeks I’ve been functioning on three hours of sleep per night.)
We agreed that I would continue on the path I’m on: increase melatonin (up to 12 mg) and eliminate the diphenhydramine which is addictive.
I’m to tinker with my schedule for the next few days and if additional sleep aid is needed to get back to my sleep rhythm, he will write a script for trazodone, an anti-depressant medication that he says doesn’t work well as such, but works very well to make one drowsy.
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4.0 Chuckles/Thoughts
It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.
~Frederick Douglass
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5.0 Mail
We love getting mail.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
Instead, I’m printing my own letter to my son, sent Monday night.
We had been discussing the problems endemic to making the perfect white clam sauce.
Eureka!
The perfect white clam sauce!
Call me and I’ll tell you.
The answer was right in front of us.
So simple.
So right.
Love
Dad
Blog Meister responds: For details, see 6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes below.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
White clam sauce.
Such a tricky thing.
So tricky, few, very few, perhaps only one, me,
knows how to make it properly.
Two major problems as my son and I discussed the issues,
1. We want the dish to taste like clams.
The clams pass that test.
The clam broth passes.
But the pasta does not.
2. We want the sauce to be a true sauce, not what often amounts to a clam soup with pasta in it.
Yecck!
The solution?
Strain the pasta well before it’s finished boiling and return it to the pan.
Pour in the clam broth, about half a cup for four ounces of pasta, and heat the pan until the pasta absorbs the clam broth.
That’s it.
1. The pasta now tastes like clams.
2. The clams cooked in garlic oil provide an aesthetically-pleasing oil-based pasta sauce with amazing taste.
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11.0 Thumbnails
Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve mollusks.
The word is often applied only to those that are edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the seafloor or riverbeds.
Clams have two shells of equal size connected by two adductor muscles and have a powerful burrowing foot.
They live in both freshwater environments and marine ones as well; in the former environment they prefer to burrow down into the mud and the turbidity of the water required varies from species to species and nation to nation; the greatest diversity of these is in North America.
Clams in the culinary sense do not live attached to a substrate (whereas oysters and mussels do) and do not live near the bottom (whereas scallops do).
In culinary usage, clams are commonly eaten marine bivalves, as in clam digging and the resulting soup, clam chowder.
Many edible clams such as palourde clams are oval or triangular; however, razor clams have an elongated parallel-sided shell, suggesting an old-fashioned straight razor.
Some clams have life cycles of only one year, while at least one may be over 500 years old.
All clams have two calcareous shells or valves joined near a hinge with a flexible ligament, and all are filter feeders.
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It’s Tuesday, February 11, 2020.
Welcome to the 676th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Examples of all MBTA services except for MBTA Boat.
This has been designed primarily for the infobox at the top of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority page on Wikipedia, a topic of public interest.
Top row:
Left: Green Line Breda Type 8 LRV #3840 is stopped for a red light at Commonwealth Avenue and Carlton Street on the B.
Center: NABI 40LFW CNG #2176 departs the Ruggles Station on the 47 line.
Right: Orange Line Hawker Siddeley #12 Main Line train led by #01240 enters Ruggles Station.
Center row
Left: The first Blue Line #5 East Boston train in revenue service at Government Center Center: Neoplan AN440LF trackless trolley #4111 exits the Harvard Tunnel on the 71.
Right: EMD GP40MC #1136 pulls Train 465 into Porter Station.
Bottom row
Left: St. Louis Car PCC car 3087 on the Ashmont-Mattapan Line.
Center: Neoplan AN460LF CNG #1003 operates through Roxbury on the Washington Street line.
Right: #3 Red Line train leaves Charles/MGH over the Longfellow Bridge.
Original photos taken by Adam E. Moreira. Replacement images by various authors; see list under source - Own work by Adam Moreira (original collage); some replacement images from other Commons images: This file was derived from: ✦ Ashmont Mattapan streetcar in woods.jpg: ✦ First revenue 0700 train at Government Center.jpg: ✦ RedLineCharlesMGH.jpg:
For more, 2.0 and 11.0 below.
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2.0 Commentary
The incredible rudeness of riders of public transportation.
All riders.
From entering the station doors,
rushing to pass the toll taker,
positioning oneself behind the yellow line approximating the spot at which the door will open,
sneakily tweaking one’s place to block other as the train slows to a stop,
moving into and against the flow of the exiting passengers,
maliciously or at least negligently bumping anyone within the circle inscribed by one’s backpack,
leaping the four feet into a desired seat to obviate any competition,
at one’s stop, plowing through the remaining passengers congregated around the exit doors, and
filing doggedly to the escalator while vigorously protecting one’s place in the line, and
stepping out of the destination station
to breathe in
the fume-filled city air,
it is incumbent to leave behind the baggage of
any sense of humanity,
all teachings of politeness,
the do unto others, and
love,
in a place where they cannot be reached until we’re arrived at our place.
Where we play at polite, cheerful, understanding, kind, generous, human.
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4.0 Chuckles/Thoughts
Years of love have been forgot,
In the hatred of a minute.
~Edgar Allan Poe__________________
5.0 Mail
We love getting mail.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
This from Sally C and others like:
Dear Dom,
It seems everyone is getting afflicted with one thing or another this winter.
I managed to break both bones in my left forearm on Thursday night - evidently I have unrealized talent!
Surgery tomorrow morning to install supporting pins and plates, for optimal healing.
The main problem with this is that now I fly in circles, with only one functional wing.
Phooey!
Blog Meister responds: Happy you can still joke, my dear. Hope the surgery went well. God bless.
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11.0 Thumbnails
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts.
Earlier modes of public transportation in Boston were independently owned and operated; many were first folded into a single agency with the formation of the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) in 1947.
The MTA was replaced in 1964 with the present-day MBTA, which was established as an individual department within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts before becoming a division of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) in 2009.
The MBTA and Philadelphia's Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) are the only US transit agencies that operate all five major types of terrestrial mass transit vehicles: light rail vehicles (the Ashmont–Mattapan High Speed and Green Lines); heavy rail trains (the Blue, Orange, and Red Lines); regional rail trains (the Commuter Rail); electric trolleybuses (the Silver Line and several routes in the northern suburbs of Boston); and motor buses (MBTA Bus).
In 2016, the system averaged 1,277,200 passengers per weekday, of which heavy rail averaged 552,500 and the light-rail lines 226,500, making it the fourth-busiest subway system and the busiest light rail system in the United States.
The MBTA is the largest consumer of electricity in Massachusetts, and the second-largest land owner (after the Department of Conservation and Recreation).
In 2007, its CNG bus fleet was the largest consumer of alternative fuels in the state.
The MBTA operates an independent law enforcement agency, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Police.
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It’s Monday, February 10, 2020.
Welcome to the 675th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
The Knack and How to Get It
See 2.0 Commentary and 11.0 Thumbnails below in today’s section.
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2.0 Commentary
The knack.
Some people have it in spades:
a natural skill at making people feel better in your company.
My son Dom has it.
Probably the most sought-after person I’ve ever met.
Not that he’s namby-pamby.
He’s strong.
Has been through a lot and after each moment emerged stronger and finer.
And more desirable.
He listens.
Always non-judgmental.
Always supportive.
But always with wisdom.
He responds to what he hears.
Adds something of his own.
Instant empathy.
You want to take him home.
I can share deeply personal thoughts with Dom.
Whenever I find myself thinking or feeling in extremis
I must call him to regain my center.
When we talk,
I observe him.
I listen to him.
I listen to him responding to me.
I try to copy his ways.
Futile.
I can play at it.
Mimic it.
Occasionally hit it.
But with Dom it’s different.
Doesn’t need to think.
It just flows out of him.
Like breathing.
It’s a knack.
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4.0 Chuckles/Thoughts
Don't cry because it's over.
Smile because it happened.
~Dr. Seuss
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5.0 Mail
We love getting mail.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
Have been receiving lots of correspondence re: health.
Readers sharing issues although not publicly.
Blog Meister responds: I hope I’ve gained a greater appreciation of the trials that in our frailty afflict each of us.
Reminds me to be more gentle and sympathetic to friends and neighbors.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
I reported a temperature mistake that led to an overcooked roast chicken.
To cleanse myself, I needed to prepare another.
On Saturday, I did have that ‘make-up’ chicken dinner cooked at the proper temperature, and it was delicious.
The broccoli-mashed potato casserole Imade with it was okay.
Nothing to print about.
For the leftover chicken, I’m making an artichoke-shallot sauce.
Will report.
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11.0 Thumbnails
The Knack …and How to Get It is a 1965 British comedy film directed by Richard Lester and based on the play by Ann Jellicoe.
It won the Palme d'Or at the 1965 Cannes Film Festival and the Grand Prix of the Belgian Film Critics Association.
It was also in competition for the Golden Bear at the 15th Berlin International Film Festival.
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It’s Sunday, February 9, 2020.
Welcome to the 674th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Portrait of William Grant Still
Carl Van Vechten
This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID van.5a52662.
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2.0 Commentary
Seeing my PCP on Monday at 5pm so I’m keeping a sleep diary for him.
Here is my first entry:
Friday Night:
10.00p Took 1 aspirin, 1 diphenhydramine
11.00p Got into bed; read for 5 minutes. When my eyes closed I took 9mg melatonin and lay down.
11.15p Eyes closed but no sleep came.
Could not stand lying there doing nothing.
Got out of bed and had Saturday morning breakfast: 1 ½ cups of coffee; 1 egg w 1 breakfast sausage; ½ croissant; ½ jelly donut while I watched another episode of Bosch.
11.45p Got sleepy and returned to bed.
Got to sleep immediately and slept until 5.00am, a prodigious amount of sleep for me.
Used the toilet and slept for another hour.
Great.
Tonight, I am going to up my diphenhydramine to a full portion of two capsules, 50mg,
hoping that will get me to sleep without resort to the early morning breakfast.
Although the next few days will bring us Bostonians into an unsettled weather period, with temperatures hovering around forty degrees and no snowstorms in sight, who can complain?
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4.0 Chuckles/ThoughtsA man is great not because he hasn't failed;
a man is great because failure hasn't stopped him.
~Confucius
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5.0 Mail
We love getting mail.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
Many letters related to the sleep issue; most private.
But Ann H’s letter here summarizes all of them.
Oh no on sleep. I thought the watermelon treat was the culprit? Hope you resolve it soon.
Blog Meister responds: Thank you, my dear. I’m working on it.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/RecipesYesterday’s chicken was disappointing.
In my fatigue, I set the oven @ 300* instead of 200.
The result: a dry bird.
But I had in mind to enjoy that perfect chicken so this morning, Saturday, just as I left my apartment, I put another chicken in.
And I prepared a pureed broccoli and mashed potato casserole.
I’ll share the recipe if it works well.
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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 Nineteen Dee continues her first day of school with basketball practice on the boys’ team.
The podcasts are also available on Sound Cloud, iTunes, Stitcher, Pinterest, Pocket Cast, and Facebook.
Search: dom capossela or conflicted or both
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11.0 Thumbnails
William Grant Still (1895–1978) was an American composer of nearly 200 works, including five symphonies and nine operas.
Often referred to as the "Dean of Afro-American Composers", Still was the first American composer to have an opera produced by the New York City Opera.
His first symphony, entitled Afro-American Symphony, was until 1950 the most widely performed symphony composed by an American.
Born in Mississippi, he grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, attended Wilberforce University and Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and was a student of George Whitefield Chadwick and later Edgard Varèse.
Still was the first African American to conduct a major American symphony orchestra and the first to have an opera performed on national television.
Due to his close association and collaboration with prominent African-American literary and cultural figures, he is considered to be part of the Harlem Renaissance movement.