Daily Entries for the week of
Sunday, February 27, 2022
through
Saturday, March 5, 2022
__________________________________________________________
It’s Saturday, March 5, 2022
Welcome to the 1,374th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
_____________________________________
Lead Picture*
Gustave Courbet
Portrait of Gustave Courbet
Nadar - This file comes from Gallica Digital Library and is available under the digital ID btv1b53050548w
______________________________________
Commentary
Haven’t things gotten complicated.
I wanted to close an account at my bank.
But over the years I appended one bill after another to be paid automatically from this account.
Before I could close the account, I had to change the payment of every one of these bills.
One by one.
But to change the payment method of, say, Nordstrom’s, you must access your account.
You must log in.
But to do that, you must recall your password and user name.
Or had the foresight to store them someplace safe.
And I do have a hundred pieces of data like that.
But, it seems, not for one of the accounts I had to switch payments.
I had to reset my user name.
Reset my password.
For each of a dozen accounts.
It was a pain.
______________________________________
Reading and Writing
Working on edits. I’m on Volume I, p.91 of 180pp.
Will finish this round of editing in ten days.
Meanwhile, am working on my pitch and the book’s synopsis.
______________________________________
Chuckles and Thoughts
I have the world's largest collection of seashells.
I keep it on all the beaches of the world...
perhaps you've seen it.
~Stephen Wright
____________________________________
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 Sally C:
Dear Dom,
I was thinking about you last evening as I prepared a sauce for the chicken thighs I baked. I got to hankering for chicken done this way, a sauce which won my mother a prize at the Belfast [Maine] Broiler Festival back in the early 1960s. Ridiculously simple. You might like to try it.
Lorraine Morong’s Prize-Winning Chicken Sauce
¼ lb. of butter (1 stick)
¼ cup of Worcestershire sauce
¼ cup of apple cider vinegar
¼ cup of flour
Salt & pepper to suit
Melt the butter. Add the Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, and salt and pepper. Whisk in the flour to prevent lumps.
Dip the chicken pieces into the sauce and place in a casserole dish or on a broiler pan. Bake for one hour at 350 F degrees.
I used my so-called Fire Cider (a/k/a Four Thieves Tonic) (vinegar infused with garlic, horseradish, juniper berries, rosemary, chilies, and other such spicy things), so I didn’t add salt and pepper. According to the legend, four thieves were caught plundering goods from corpses during the black plague. When asked why they didn’t get sick and why they weren’t afraid of contracting the disease, they revealed this potion, which inured them to contagion.
Cheers!
Sally
Blog meister responds: I am definitely going to try this with my own permutations of course.
_____________________________________
Dinner/Food/Recipes
Today I tried a new food court in Boston, High St Place.
I got takeout from Fuji.
I ordered he most esoteric dishes (most expensive).
With tax and tip my dinner was $80.00.
Okay for once.
For the opening.
But next time I’ll be more economical.
The food was delicious.
____________________________________
Pictures with Captions from our community**
Lauren and Dom at Les Deux Magots
_________________________________
Short Essay*
Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet (10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and the Romanticism of the previous generation of visual artists. His independence set an example that was important to later artists, such as the Impressionists and the Cubists. Courbet occupies an important place in 19th-century French painting as an innovator and as an artist willing to make bold social statements through his work.
Courbet's paintings of the late 1840s and early 1850s brought him his first recognition. They challenged convention by depicting unidealized peasants and workers, often on a grand scale traditionally reserved for paintings of religious or historical subjects. Courbet's subsequent paintings were mostly of a less overtly political character: landscapes, seascapes, hunting scenes, nudes, and still lifes. Courbet, a socialist, was active in the political developments of France. He was imprisoned for six months in 1871 for his involvement with the Paris Commune, and lived in exile in Switzerland from 1873 until his death.
Courbet's work belonged neither to the predominant Romantic nor Neoclassical schools. History painting, which the Paris Salon esteemed as a painter's highest calling, did not interest him, for he believed that "the artists of one century [are] basically incapable of reproducing the aspect of a past or future century ..." Instead, he maintained that the only possible source for living art is the artist's own experience. He and Jean-François Millet would find inspiration painting the life of peasants and workers.
Courbet painted figurative compositions, landscapes, seascapes, and still lifes. He courted controversy by addressing social issues in his work, and by painting subjects that were considered vulgar, such as the rural bourgeoisie, peasants, and working conditions of the poor. His work, along with that of Honoré Daumier and Jean-François Millet, became known as Realism. For Courbet realism dealt not with the perfection of line and form, but entailed spontaneous and rough handling of paint, suggesting direct observation by the artist while portraying the irregularities in nature. He depicted the harshness in life, and in doing so challenged contemporary academic ideas of art.
* 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
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
__________________________________________________________
It’s Friday, March 4, 2022
Welcome to the 1,373rd consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
_____________________________________
Lead Picture*
Major Samuel Nicholas
Portrait of First Leader of Marines, Maj. Samuel Nicholas. This portrait hangs in the Commandant’s house and was originally created by Maj. Donna J. Neary, USMCR, in 1989; the likeness was produced with reference to antique miniatures and other sources. (https://www.imef.marines.mil/News/News-Article-Display/Article/554000/first-marine-corps-leader-all-about-institution-not-self/) (https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/marines-battle-princeton)
I Marine Expeditionary Force - https://www.battlefields.org/sites/default/files/styles/scale_crop_third_3_4/public/thumbnails/image/Samuel%20Nicholas.jpg?itok=_VthTXVR
______________________________________
Commentary
War’s over.
He lost.
That’s Putin.
He was blindsided by his intelligence services.
By his lack of intelligence.
The cost/balance analysis of his actions was poorly weighed.
The world has coalesced against him.
This will prove to be a disastrous campaign.
His only retreat lies in talks with Ukraine wherein he can be given a bone and sent packing.
______________________________________
Reading and Writing
I am editing my manuscript in a timely fashion and am very pleased at the way it is shaping up.
My son Dom sent me a critique of a café scene and his analysis was brilliant. His insights are often nothing short of uncanny.
On his say so and in conjunction with the half dozen other opinions I’ve gotten, I will happily make changes to the scene.
______________________________________
Understanding Aging
At the eve of my 80th birthday,
I am in a very good place.
Without melatonin, I am sleeping better and longer than ever.
I can only ascribe this happy circumstance to aging.
______________________________________
Chuckles and Thoughts
A clear conscience is usually
the sign of a bad memory.
~Stephen Wright
____________________________________
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 Ann H:
I was invited to the pre-opening of the new High Street Point. I had a few other invites that night so could not attend so I sent my helper and he said the sushi was delicious so I hope you ennoy it.
Xooxo
Blog meister responds: Am looking forward to a visit.
_____________________________________
Dinner/Food/Recipes
Wednesday Lauren and I enjoyed chicken cutlets and a squeeze of lemon served with beans and greens flavored with smoked turkey and pig’s and chicken feet.
___________________________________
Pictures with Captions from our community**
sunrise at harbor towers 11 17 18
__________________________________
Short Essay*
Samuel Nicholas (1744 – 27 August 1790) was the first officer commissioned in the United States Continental Marines (predecessor to the United States Marine Corps) and by tradition is considered to be the first Commandant of the Marine Corps.
Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, had collected a store of arms and provisions at New Providence, in the Bahamas. Dunmore's forces had done a great deal of injury along the Colonial coast, especially the shore of Virginia. Commodore Hopkins had been ordered to proceed to Abaco in the Bahamas, and from there to operate against the forces of Lord Dunmore. Commodore Hopkins decided to make an attack on New Providence, capture the enemy's stores, and destroy his supplies. Capt Nicholas was placed in command of the landing party of 234 Marines. This attack, the first successful landing engaged in by Continental Marines, saw the capture of Nassau on 3 March 1776 without a fight.
On 6 April 1776, the Marines participated in the first naval battle between an American squadron and a British warship, when HMS Glasgow came upon the squadron.
Promoted to Major
On 25 June 1776, Congress placed Nicholas "at the head of the Marines with the rank of Major". Accordingly, Commodore Hopkins was advised to send Major Nicholas to Philadelphia, with dispatches for the Continental Congress. With notification of his promotion he was ordered to report to the Marine Committee. The Committee detached him from the Alfred and ordered him to remain in the city, "to discipline four companies of Marines and prepare them for service as Marine guards for the frigates on the stocks". Having recruited and thoroughly organised the companies, he requested arms and equipment for them.
1776–1779
In December 1776, Major Nicholas wrote to Congress: "The enemy having overrun the Jerseys, and our army being greatly reduced, I was ordered to march with three of the companies to be under the command of His Excellency, the Commander-in-Chief." This was the first example of a battalion of Marines about to serve as an actual fighting unit under the direct command of Army authority. The Marines did not, however, engage in the attack on Trenton, on 26 December 1776, which followed General George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River. They were attached to General John Cadwalader's division, which was ordered to cross the Delaware to Burlington, New Jersey, south of Trenton, in concert with Washington's crossing to the north on the night of 25 December 1776, but was turned back due to ice floes on the river.
After the first Battle of Trenton, the battalion of Marines under the command of Maj. Nicholas participated in a battle with a detachment of Cornwallis's main army at Princeton, New Jersey. During the ensuing months, Nicholas's battalion served both as infantry and artillery, participating in several skirmishes.
Following the British evacuation of Philadelphia in June 1778, the Marine Barracks were reestablished and recruiting resumed. From then until the close of the war, Nicholas's duties at Philadelphia were similar to those of later Commandants. Moreover, he was actively in charge of recruiting, and at times acted as Muster Master of the Navy.
On 20 November 1779, Nicholas wrote Congress to request he be put in charge of the Marine Detachment aboard the 74-gun ship of the line America, then being constructed in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. However, Congress was firm in its intention that Nicholas remain in Philadelphia. Upon her completion, the America was presented to France as a gift.
After that, despite his requests to lead the Marine detachment on another ship, he mostly oversaw recruiting and training efforts. “I consequently had the mortification to become … a useless officer,” he wrote, “at least in sense of danger.”
* 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
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
_________________________________________________________
It’s Thursday, March 3, 2022
Welcome to the 1,372nd consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
______________________________________
Lead Picture*
The French Dispatch
"Theatrical release poster": A group of about 50 people.
IMP Awards / 2021 Movie Poster Gallery / The French Dispatch Poster (#2 of 2)
This is a poster for The French Dispatch. The poster art copyright is believed to belong to the distributor of the film, Searchlight Pictures, the publisher of the film or the graphic artist.
______________________________________
Commentary
Biden was in control.
His speech was predictable but nonetheless well delivered.
His Ukrainian policy is astute and cogent.
His domestic policy is kind of overwhelming.
I’m wondering if he really had to promulgate so many programs?
I felt like I was drowning.
Like no programs had a higher priority than others.
Wondering if he should have focused on a half-dozen or so?
______________________________________
Screen
Hi Dom,
One of the year’s best films, The French Dispatch, hit HBO over the weekend. I’d see it in theaters but watched again to solidify my thoughts on it. I’ve written about it below!
This message is from, of course, our dear friend and excellent writer, Tucker J.
See the Short Essay below.
______________________________________
Chuckles and Thoughts
Experience is something you don't get
until just after you need it.
~Stephen Wright
____________________________________
Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
This may be the most exciting email we’ve gotten in the four years of publication.
It's from my son Mino to my son Chris, the others in the family copied.
Most of you know that my youngest son, Chris, is the CMO of Microsoft.
The letter, from son Mino:
Chris, this is F-ing awesome!!!
As Tanks Rolled Into Ukraine, So Did Malware. Then Microsoft Entered the War.
https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2022%2F02%2F28%2Fus%2Fpolitics%2Fukraine-russia-microsoft.html%3FreferringSource%3DarticleShare&data=04%7C01%7C%7C90b698e19c4149ba6fe808d9fbe2a800%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637817773166437347%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=0Vliq3VHiMpw9jbxB2UIJO7x%2FxsAcVm6zAfwKkipVbI%3D&reserved=0
Blog meister responds: Makes you proud.
And Chris says,
Thanks…
brad smith is a one-in-a-million person…
so sad that this is happening!
Blog meister responds: Sad is right.
_____________________________________
Dinner/Food/Recipes
I made an extraordinary Cheese sauce on Tuesday.
I think I understand it.
I’ll share the recipe soon.
Kat as a high school senior at her Junior Prom
____________________________________
Pictures with Captions from our community**
kat and the prom
__________________________________
Short Essay*
Wes Anderson already had two features under his belt when The Royal Tenenbaums was released in 2001. There was his debut, Bottle Rocket, a lo-fi comedy about inept would-be criminals played by Luke and Owen Wilson that looks downright naturalistic compared with what would come after. Then there was Rushmore, about the friendship between a teenage oddball played by Jason Schwartzman and a wealthy depressive played by Bill Murray, the Anderson film that even the Anderson averse admit to tolerating. But it was Tenenbaums — a star-laden dramedy about a dysfunctional family of former child prodigies living in a fanciful Manhattan that stretches up to 375th Street — that would separate the fans from the overly critical. In this film, the intricate, airless visual style and tone of wistful melancholy for which Anderson has become famous would really cohere. If you had a taste for his style, Tenenbaums marked the point at which you would know.
It is with his latest film that a major influence on Anderson’s style takes center stage. It should come as no great surprise that Wes Anderson is a longtime, avid reader of The New Yorker. They share a sensibility, don’t they? Call it an appreciation of the finer things, coupled with a neat and pleasing organizational sense. Anderson’s live-action movies unfold with the visual imagination of cartoons and his stop motion cartoons are hung on the soul-deep neurosis of live action. He has a style so singular it can be identified from a single frame plucked from the celluloid reels he still shoots on. Yet there is an antecedent for his beloved approach, and one big influence has to be the storied periodical he’s said to have consumed religiously in college, from whose pages he might have drawn a sense of humor at once refined and playful, an affinity for symmetries and pastels, and a voracious appetite for literary pleasures. Were Wes Anderson an airline, The New Yorker would be its in-flight magazine.
The French Dispatch Of The Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun, henceforth referred to by the first three words of its title, is Anderson’s love letter to that 96-year-old highlight of mailboxes and waiting rooms—and by extension, to the nearly century of art, writing, and reporting contained within. The publication has been lightly fictionalized as the overseas satellite outpost of an American newspaper—a staff of correspondents based in the made-up French town of Ennui-sur-Blasé. Their fearless leader, guiding and coddling their peculiarities, is Arthur Howitzer Jr. (Bill Murray), a benevolent crank plainly modeled on The New Yorker’s first editor.
The Royal Tenenbaums, still Anderson’s tragicomic masterpiece, presented itself as a novel unfolding chapter by chapter. The French Dispatch likewise adopts the structure of an issue of its eponymous magazine, recounting three nonfiction reports from its final edition.
In “The Concrete Masterpiece,” Benicio Del Toro plays an imprisoned artist, enthralled by a guard (Léa Seydoux) he abstractly paints in the nude, whose record proves no impediment to the buying frenzy initiated by his cutthroat dealer (Adrien Brody).
“Revisions To A Manifesto” is Anderson’s tribute to the French student protests of May 1968, with Timothée Chalamet and Lyna Khoudri as idealistic teens who fall in love, even as they drift into different factions of the movement.
“The Private Dining Room Of The Police Commissioner” follows a quirky human interest story about the culinary preoccupations of a law enforcement commander (Mathieu Amalric) as it explodes into a hostage situation.
The anthology format fits Anderson like an Agnelle. Working with a giant ensemble cast of old and new collaborators, he dabbles in puckishly exaggerated art-world satire, pivots to an extended homage to the French New Wave, and finally indulges in one of his signature madcap chases (situated, as is often the case, in the closing stretch). The storytelling is as paramount–and often as dizzyingly entertaining—as the stories themselves. Building on the nesting-doll approach of The Grand Budapest Hotel, Anderson cuts back and forth from the tales to their authors recounting them, on stage during a lecture or on a Dick Cavett-like talk show. He nestles frames within frames.
This sophisticated structure centers on the perspective of the intrepid reporters, raising questions about how to contain the uncontainable, to condense all the nuances of real life into a digestible form. One might even call it Anderson’s meditation on his own career-long attempts to impose meticulous order on life without totally denying its inherent messiness. Budding journalists were once taught, in an age before narcissistic memoir hijacked the media landscape, that they are not the story. But Anderson reckons in The French Dispatch with how great reporters imprint themselves on their work without explicitly placing themselves within it.
That each of the writers—respectively played by Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, and Jeffrey Wright—are based on an alum of the New Yorker’s historic contributor pool reflects the sheer, specific depth of Anderson’s homage. (Wright has been cast as the proxy for the most famous of these real-life wordsmiths; his character, amusingly blessed with a “typographic memory,” is a dead ringer for James Baldwin.) To unpack The French Dispatch’s library of touchstones would require multiple viewings and maybe a bibliography; he’s always nodding to a luminary of this field or that, every person on screen a boardwalk caricature of a famous figure. Footnotes would pop with the names of the art dealer Joseph Duveen, the filmmaker Jean Renoir, one-time student leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit, mononymous French singer Christophe, the Belgian cartoonist Hergé, and many more.
At this point in his career, Anderson is operating on a level of dioramic detail, density of set design, and compositional precision that his pretenders and bush-league YouTube parodists could never hope to match. Every shot here is an event, a peerless punchline, a work of art, or all three. In addition to the trifecta of vignettes, the film includes a travelogue segment from the magazine’s “cyclist reporter” (Owen Wilson) that functions as an overview of the magazine’s town of operations, and it’s a miniature masterpiece of montage that clarifies Anderson as a kindred spirit to the late, unrivaled French expert of comic framing, Jacques Tati. More than just a head-spinning joke machine, this cinematic “Goings On About Town” runs all of French culture through an alternate-universe filter, adding a french everyburg to Anderson’s filmography’s growing atlas of storybook locales.
Remarkably, he’s still adding new tricks to his bottomless bag of them, including an intentional alternating between color and black-and-white. Many of his most extravagant flourishes here seem catered to the project’s feature-length expression of New Yorker fandom. Scenes of the cast freezing in place and sometimes visibly struggling to hold their position, parallel seven decades of still photography, while also operating as another microcosm of Anderson’s whole modus operandi: the way imperfect humanity crucially creeps into his perfect arrangements. A late animated interlude is created in a style that recalls both French comic books and a history of cartooning on and between the covers of The New Yorker. Subtitles, which populate bottom to top, contain parentheticals—a textual salute to the digressive asides instrumental to both a vintage Wes effort and a classic page-turner from the pages of this once-weekly mag. Even the editing feels simpatico with The New Yorker’s famously precise comma usage.
The challenge of the anthology format is to get an audience invested in characters that, by necessity, must be painted in quick brushstrokes. The French Dispatch unfolds at montage speed; there is little room for the full character fleshing out that a feature length but still brisk 90 minutes can facilitate. Yet Anderson generously seasons each story with disarming moments. One sneaks up on you with an unexpected casualty, a bright future cut short. Another slaps a startlingly profound encounter at the end; there’s a delight in the way that even the storyteller isn’t convinced that it belongs, while the editor believes it’s the whole emotional fulcrum of the piece.
The key to The French Dispatch’s sneaky resonance, tucked into the spaces between its moving parts, is Anderson’s balancing act of reverence and irreverence. He sees the humor in artistic pretension—in the self-seriousness of tortured artists and rebellious youth. But he also believes in their belief systems, or at least their capacity to believe so passionately in something. If he’s lampooning the subjects of each imaginary profile, it’s a fundamentally affectionate lampooning.
Melancholy has always nipped at the edge of his comedies, thwarting detractors’ attempts to reduce his work to some empty, ever-expanding dollhouse of strictly cosmetic concerns. That we’re seeing the final issue of this titular publication is no accident. It speaks to the inherently eulogistic nature of this film in particular, and of Anderson’s recent work in general. Here, he’s bidding farewell to a bygone era of arts appreciation, and penning a valentine to not just the specific New Yorker contributors that sparked his imagination but also to a profession under recent, persistent attack.
The French Dispatch will, of course, speak to any contemporary cog of that debased system—any writer who’s watched their beats or word counts shrink, or their employers diminish the appeal of subjects more esoteric than the lowest common denominator. But speaking of demographics, the one for this movie goes much deeper than just the film critics laboring to wrap its collective head around a typical litany of visual and conceptual intricacies. It should be noted here that the real Liberty, Kansas, has a population just north of three digits. Relocating a bastion of cosmopolitan sophistication to a speck on the map is a joke with reservoirs of deeper meaning. The New Yorker, as founder Harold Ross once quipped, may not be “edited for the old lady in Dubuque.” But it may speak to her anyway, as an American publication relevant to thinkers and aficionados residing far beyond the metropolis for which it was named. Maybe the same could be said of Anderson’s output.
* 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
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
__________________________________________________________
It’s Wednesday, March 2, 2022
Welcome to the 1,371st consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
_____________________________________
Lead Picture*
Marijuana
The Devils Harvest - The Truth About Marijuana...The Smoke of Hell (1942)
Cannabis Culture - https://www.flickr.com/photos/cannabisculture/15765119461/
Marijuana The Smoke of Hell!
______________________________________
Commentary
Loving the covid testing positivity rate at 1.89%.
High Street Place is opening on Wednesday. I am planning to visit on Thursday for sushi from Fuji’s, one of 20 vendors opening on Wed. Hope it’s good.
_____________________________________
Screen time
I’m in my glory.
Two TV series that belong in the top tier are of the genre
are streaming at the same time: My Brilliant Friend on Mondays, HBO, and the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Prime, on Fridays.
______________________________________
Wellness
As my 80th birthday closes in, I seem to be in a good place.
No physical issues. No stress or anxiety.
I’ve got to be watchful for my safety, from contracting a disease to
being hit when I cross the street. (I tend to daydream.)
______________________________________
Chuckles and Thoughts
I put instant coffee in a microwave oven and
almost went back in time.
~Stephen Wright
_____________________________________
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 Sally C:
Dear Dom,
D’Oyly Carte and Gilbert & Sullivan – they go together like peanut butter and jelly! Like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers! Like Abbott and Costello! Like … well, I could go on and on.
I grew up on G&S, and every few years, when the D’Oyly Carte Company came to Boston, my parents would get tickets and take the family to see one of their shows. Love the patter songs. Love the Pirates when they steal (quietly – ahem) into Penzance shouting, “WITH CAT-LIKE TREAD … !” (tarantara, tarantara)
My boyfriend Jon in high school was Japanese (sumo-wrestler built – but without the extensive rolls of fat - and he held a black belt in judo). He dressed as the Mikado for one of the high school’s Halloween dances. Then, at senior prom time, we went instead with another couple to Philips Exeter Academy to see “The Mikado” in the academy’s brand-new theater. What a treat! And far more fun than the senior prom! When we arrived back at the school after the play, just as the prom ended, the prom attendees were all well frazzled with boredom.
As a baby, Jon was adopted by a mid-West couple of German ancestry. He and I served as assistant chaperones to a middle-school field trip to a concert at Boston Garden. At the opening of the show, we all stood and proceeded to sing the National Anthem. It had been a while since I had sung it, and was struggling to remember the words. Jon, however, bellowed with great confidence. I couldn’t quite make out the words he was singing, what with all the other voices all around me. It sounded sort of right, but not quite. When we were done and sat down, I asked him, “What were you singing?” “The National Anthem,” he replied. “In what language?” I joked sarcastically. “German,” he replied with a quiet, wicked grin. That was when I learned that he spoke German as fluently as English. It didn’t surprise me: Jon was always full of fun and jokes. We had a lot of great times. He and a partner now operate a motor-home campground in Iowa.
Cheers!
Sally
Blog meister responds: I adore Sally’s stories.
_____________________________________
Dinner/Food/Recipes
Monday dinner was a big bowl of my plant-based beans and greens
and two rock crabs steamed then finished in a wine and light tomato sauce.
Different and lovely.
____________________________________
Pictures with Captions from our community**
lauren in front of tree in public garden
_________________________________
Short Essay*
Marijuana, or marihuana, is a name for the cannabis plant and more specifically a drug preparation from it. "Marijuana" as a term varies in usage, definition and legal application around the world. Some jurisdictions define "marijuana" as the whole cannabis plant or any part of it, while others refer to "marijuana" as a portion of the cannabis plant that contains high levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Some jurisdictions recognize "marijuana" as a distinctive strain of cannabis, the other being hemp. The form "marihuana" is first attested in Mexican Spanish; it then spread to other varieties of Spanish and to English, French, and other languages.
* 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
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
__________________________________________________________
It’s Tuesday, March 1, 2022
Welcome to the 1,370th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
_____________________________________
Lead Picture*
A Wrinkle in Time
This is the front cover art for the book A Wrinkle in Time written by Madeleine L'Engle. The book cover art copyright is believed to belong to the publisher, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, or the cover artist.
It is believed that the cover art can or could be obtained from Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
______________________________________
Commentary
“I’ve got morons on my team,” former governor, Mitt Romney said. He was referencing the Republican representatives who attended the recent America First Political Action Conference,
A White Nationalist, anti-black, anti-semitic event. But he also included Republicans who support Putin.
Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger had already criticized them.
Point is, this is a terrific opportunity for other Republicans to step forward to join the chorus and to oalesce around decent principles.
Do it!
______________________________________
Reading and Writing
On Sunday I continued to edit my text and work on my Query letter to prospective agents.
______________________________________
Wellness
My right hand lower eyelid has been experiencing spasms going on a week.
My eye does not appear to be closing but muscles are quivering and tightening.
Spoke to the nurse in my PCP’s office.
Symptoms are nothing to worry about.
_____________________________________
Understanding aging
For the last couple of days I have been well on all cylinders.
My recent bout with vertigo has passed.
My left eye will be fine, although it needs watching. (There’s a joke in there somewhere.)
______________________________________
Chuckles and Thoughts
I busted a mirror and got seven years bad luck,
but my lawyer thinks he can get me five.
~Stephen Wright
_____________________________________
Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
My daughter Kat finally got around to watching Mrs. Maisell.
I’m delighted.
She loves it.
I’m delighted.
Blog meister responds: I’m delighted.
____________________________________
Pictures with Captions from our community**
Tree pruned in anticipation of the spring.
_____________________________________
Dinner/Food/Recipes
Why am I stuck in a breakfast rut?
I gave it some thought and added three breakfasts to my Calendar.
Mondays, a salad w tomato and red onion. A score for plant-based food.
Tuesdays, oatmeal. A score for plant-based food.
Saturdays, at the Thinking Cup, their Chia Seed Pudding. A score for plant-based food.
__________________________________
Short Essay*
One night, thirteen-year-old Meg Murry meets an eccentric new neighbor, Mrs Whatsit, who refers to something called a tesseract. She later finds out it is a scientific concept her father was working on before his mysterious disappearance. The following day, Meg, her child genius brother Charles, and fellow schoolmate Calvin visit Mrs Whatsit's home, where the equally strange Mrs Who and the unseen voice of Mrs Which promise to help Meg find and rescue her father.
Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who, and Mrs Which turn out to be supernatural beings who transport Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O'Keefe through the universe by means of a tesseract, a fifth-dimensional phenomenon explained as folding the fabric of space and time; this form of travel is called tessering. Their first stop is the planet Uriel, a Utopian world filled with Centaur-like beings who live in a state of light and love. The Mrs Ws reveal to the children that the universe is under attack from an evil being who appears as a large dark cloud called The Black Thing, which is essentially the personification of evil. The children are taken to Orion's Belt to visit the Happy Medium, a woman with a crystal ball through which they see that Earth is partially covered by the darkness, although great religious figures, philosophers, scientists, and artists have been fighting against it. Mrs Whatsit is revealed to be a former star who exploded in an act of self-sacrifice to fight the darkness.
The children travel to the dark planet of Camazotz, which has succumbed to the Black Thing and where Meg's father is trapped because he would not succumb to the group mind that causes inhabitants to behave in a mechanical way. In order to find their father, Charles Wallace deliberately allows himself to be hypnotized. He takes Meg and Calvin to the place where Meg's father, Alexander, is being held prisoner. Charles Wallace then takes them to IT, the evil disembodied brain with powerful abilities that controls the planet. Using special powers from Mrs Who's glasses, Alexander tessers Calvin, Meg, and himself to the planet Ixchel before IT can control them all. Charles Wallace is left behind, still under the influence of IT and Meg is paralyzed from injuries sustained during the trip. An inhabitant of the planet with featureless faces, tentacles and four arms proves to be both wise and gentle and cures Meg's paralysis, prompting her to nickname it “Aunt Beast”.
The trio of Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who, and Mrs Which arrive and charge Meg with rescuing Charles Wallace from IT. Arriving at the building where IT resides, they find Charles Wallace under IT's influence. Inspired by hints from the Mrs Ws, Meg focuses all her love at Charles Wallace and is able to free him from IT's control. They all then tesser back to Earth and the Mrs Ws leave.
* 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
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
__________________________________________________________
It’s Monday, February 28, 2022
Welcome to the 1,369th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
_____________________________________
Lead Picture*
Gnocchi with ricotta
Paoletta S.
- originally posted to Flickr as Gnocchi di ricotta burro e salvia
______________________________________
Commentary
For these next few days winter has us in its grip.
But soon we’ll be running into temperatures of 40 degrees and higher.
Meanwhile, days are getting longer and the sun warmer.
It's optimistic, perhaps, but I’m feeling that winter’s assault will abate in the next several days,
not to return for a year.
______________________________________
Reading and Writing
To maintain a rhythm on my manuscript editing, ten pages a day, I spent ninety minutes editing.
But when I was done, I had an uneasy feeling that I left a lot.
So last night I returned to those pages and spent another hour making additional edits.
Some nice lines came out of it.
______________________________________
Wellness
For several days I’ve wakened with no physical complaints.
A nice run.
And my sleep continues wholesome.
Extraordinary.
How many days of good sleep will it take for me to accept that I no longer have sleep issues?
After a lifetime of issues?
______________________________________
Chuckles and Thoughts
It's a small world, but
I wouldn't want to have to paint it.
~Steven Wright
_____________________________________
Dinner/Food/Recipes
I’m thinking that, like everyone else, I like fried foods.
I came across a recipe for chicken cutlets and put it in my dinner schedule.
Wondering why I don’t have cutlets more frequently.
So quick.
So easy.
A squeeze of lemon is all the saucing you need.
___________________________________
Pictures with Captions from our community**
Outdoor café on Newbury St in Feb 2022
________________________________
Short Essay*
Gnocchi are a varied family of dumpling in Italian cuisine. They are made of small lumps of dough composed of semolina, ordinary wheat flour, egg, cheese, potato, breadcrumbs, cornmeal or similar ingredients, and possibly including herbs, vegetables, and other ingredients. The dough for gnocchi is most often rolled out before it is cut into small pieces about the size of a wine cork. The dumplings may be pressed with a fork or a cheese grater to make ridges or cut into little lumps. Gnocchi are usually eaten as a first course, but they can also be served as a contorno (side dish) to some main courses.
Gnocchi vary in recipe and name across different regions. For example, Lombard and Tuscan malfatti (literally poorly made) are made with ricotta, flour and spinach, as well as the addition of various other herbs if required. Tuscan gnudi distinctively contains less flour; but some varieties are flour-based, like the Campanian strangulaprievete, the Apulian cavatelli, the Sardinian malloreddus, and so on. Gnocchi are commonly cooked on their own in salted boiling water and then dressed with various sauces. But certain kinds are made of cooked polenta or semolina, which is spread out to dry, layered with cheese and butter, and baked.
Gnocchi are eaten as a first course (primo piatto) as an alternative to soups (minestre) or pasta. Common accompaniments of gnocchi include melted butter with sage, pesto, as well as various sauces. Gnocchi may be home-made, made by specialty stores, or produced industrially and distributed refrigerated, dried, or frozen. Most gnocchi are boiled in water and then served with a sauce. Small soup gnocchi are sometimes made by pressing the dough through a coarse sieve or a perforated spoon.
* 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
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
_________________________________________________________
It’s Sunday, February 27, 2022
Welcome to the 1,368th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
Theatre poster for The Mikado
John Hassall - Scanned by uploader from Wilson, Robin, and Frederic Lloyd, Gilbert & Sullivan – The Official D'Oyly Carte Picture History. London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1984, ISBN 0-297-78505-2
1919 D'Oyly Carte Opera Company publicity poster for The Mikado. Illustration by J. Hassal.
______________________________________
Lead Picture*
D'Oyly Carte
_____________________________________
Commentary
Am preparing now for submitting my manuscript to an agent.
I have no idea how many thousands of hours have gone into writing this manuscript.
The preparation might take me two weeks.
I have great and knowledgeable friends to help me with this.
After so many hours in the writing, the submission is something I want to get just right.
____________________________________
Reading and Writing
I spend about an hour and a half a day editing ten pages of the manuscript.
I imagine I will continue to edit through the entire publishing process.
_____________________________________
Chuckles and Thoughts
There's a fine line between fishing and
just standing on the shore like an idiot.
~Steven Wright
_____________________________________
Understanding Ageing
Contrary to the gradual deterioration of our muscles, I am adding five pounds to every machine I use. I think I’m ready. But being conservative. I am only doing 25% of the repetitions I normally do.
If I don’t get muscle spasms or Charlie Horses I’ll gradually increase my reps.
____________________________________
Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
Name withheld but a knowledgeable reader takes me up on my post re: dry skin.
She delivers two jars, one a body wash and the other a cream, to help me in my tales of woe.
Didn’t send me an email.
But I thought actions speak louder than words.
Blog meister responds: Thank you, my dear. And I do hope we get together soon.
____________________________________
Dinner/Food/Recipes
I bought a humongous smoked turkey leg.
First time.
Had I thought about its sodium content, likely I would not have bought it.
BUT
I sliced neat slices; separated the slices with small wax sheets, and froze them.
on Saturday I heated two large tubs of greens and beans that I have frozen and simmered a bunch of the turkey with the grees.
Had it for dinner.
The turkey was an excellent addition.
Theatre poster for The Mikado
John Hassall - Scanned by uploader from Wilson, Robin, and Frederic Lloyd, Gilbert & Sullivan – The Official D'Oyly Carte Picture History. London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1984, ISBN 0-297-78505-2
1919 D'Oyly Carte Opera Company publicity poster for The Mikado. Illustration by J. Hassal.
____________________________________
Community Photos**
One great thing about living in the city.
This is the day of the snowfall on the 25th Feb.
In downtown Boston, sidewalks are often cleared as fast as snow covers them
__________________________________
Short Essay*
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company is a professional British light opera company that, from the 1870s until 1982, staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere. The company was revived for short seasons and tours from 1988 to 2003, and since 2013 it has co-produced four of the operas with Scottish Opera.
In 1875 Richard D'Oyly Carte asked the dramatist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan to collaborate on a short comic opera to round out an evening's entertainment. When that work, Trial by Jury, became a success, Carte put together a syndicate to produce a full-length Gilbert and Sullivan work, The Sorcerer (1877), followed by H.M.S. Pinafore (1878). After Pinafore became an international sensation, Carte jettisoned his difficult investors and formed a new partnership with Gilbert and Sullivan that became the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. The company produced the succeeding ten Gilbert and Sullivan operas and many other operas and companion pieces, mostly at the Savoy Theatre in London, which Carte built in 1881 for that purpose. The company also mounted tours in Britain, New York and elsewhere, usually running several companies simultaneously. Carte's able assistant, Helen Lenoir, became his wife in 1888 and, after his death in 1901, she ran the company until her own death in 1913. By this time, it had become a year-round Gilbert and Sullivan touring repertory company.
Carte's son Rupert inherited the company. Beginning in 1919, he mounted new seasons in London with new set and costume designs, while continuing the year-round tours in Britain and abroad. With the help of the director J. M. Gordon and the conductor Isidore Godfrey, Carte ran the company for 35 years. He redesigned the Savoy Theatre in 1928 and sponsored a series of recordings over the years that helped to keep the operas popular. After Rupert's death in 1948, his daughter Bridget inherited the company and hired Frederic Lloyd as general manager. The company continued to tour for 35 weeks each year, issue new recordings and play London seasons of Gilbert and Sullivan. In 1961 the last copyright on the Gilbert and Sullivan operas expired, and Bridget set up and endowed a charitable trust that presented the operas until mounting costs and a lack of public funding forced the closure of the company in 1982. It re-formed in 1988 with a legacy left by Bridget D'Oyly Carte, played short tours and London seasons, and issued some popular recordings. Denied significant funding from the English Arts Council, it suspended productions in 2003. With Scottish Opera, it co-produced The Pirates of Penzance in 2013, The Mikado in 2016 and The Gondoliers and Utopia, Limited in 2021–22.
Some of the company's performers, over the decades, became stars of their day and often moved on to careers in musical theatre or grand opera. The company licensed the operas for performance in Australasia and to numerous amateur troupes in Britain and elsewhere, providing orchestra parts and prompt books for hire. The company kept the Savoy operas in the public eye for over a century and left an enduring legacy of production styles and stage business that continue to be emulated in new productions, as well as recordings.
*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.
**Community Pictures with Captions are sent in by our followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!