Daily Entries for the week of
Sunday, January 10, 2021
through
Saturday, January 16, 2021
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It’s Saturday, January 16, 2021
Welcome to the 1000th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
ONE THOUSANDth!
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1.0 Lead Picture
Crucifixion of the rebel leaders
Victor Armand Poirson - http://www.mediterranees.net/romans/salammbo/poirson/poirson10.html
Salammbô, Gustave Flaubert: De grandes ailes balançaient leurs ombres autour d'eux
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2.0 Commentary
Who’d-a-thunk it!
Nearly three years, every day posting.
So many mistakes.
So many good pieces.
Thank you all for reading the blog.
Providing the energy.
Providing the satisfaction.
My personal quarantine, stemming from extended contact with a person not within my normal contact group, and started two weeks ago, is ended. I’m in the clear.
From the November 2021 election, we here have predicted that Donald Trump had hit his high-water mark.
From then on, he would slowly recede.
But OMG!
He’s exploded – an amazing feat of self-destruction so complete as to draw enemies, neutrals, and allies alike to swarm to pick over his remains.
I’m sorry to say that he and his family deserve every loss, every insult they will have to endure for the rest of their lives.
Oblivion will be heaven for them.
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3.1 Sacco and Vanzetti
Today we filed for incorporation.
And we worked with TJ, one of our directors, and our only Tech-in-Charge to set up a calendar for our meetings.
Take a few days but he’ll get it done.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
The greatest sign of success for a teacher...is to be able to say,
"The children are now working as if I did not exist."
~Maria Montessori
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5.0 Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
This from Rich C, Meat manager, Roche Bros.
I emailed Rich if his staff could bone a chicken for me, leaving the meat in one piece so I could stuff, roll, tie, and cook it as a roll. Rich’s response:
Not a problem. Stop by tomorrow.
Rich Case
Meat Manager
Roche Bros.
Downtown Crossing - 121
617-456-5111
rcase@rochebros.com
Blog meister responds: Like a neighborhood butcher.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Wednesday night I had a piece of Chilean Sea Bass.
Simple roast @ 375 for half-hour.
That fish is so expensive.
So good.
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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.
https://soundcloud.com/user-449713331/sets/conflicted-dom-capossela
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 Thumbnail
The Mercenary War, also known as the Truceless War, was a mutiny by troops employed by Carthage at the end of the First Punic War (264 to 241 BC), backed by an uprising of African settlements against Carthaginian control.
The war began in 241 BC as a dispute over wages owed to 20,000 foreign soldiers.
It erupted into a full-scale mutiny that included 70,000 Africans from Carthage's oppressed dependent territories, bringing supplies and finance.
The Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca initially demonstrated leniency to woo the rebels over, but pursued the war with great brutality after they tortured 700 Carthaginian prisoners to death.
It ended in late 238 or early 237 BC with a Carthaginian victory.
An expedition was then prepared to reoccupy Sardinia, where all Carthaginians had been killed.
However, Rome declared that this would be an act of war and occupied both Sardinia and Corsica, in contravention of the recent peace treaty
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It’s Friday, January 15, 2021
Welcome to the 999th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
The Artemision Bronze
460-450 BC;
bronze; height:
6.89 feet
National Archaeological Museum (Athens)
I, Sailko
God of Cape Artemision
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2.0 Commentary
My personal quarantine, stemming from extended contact with a person not within my normal contact group, continues. Sunday, the 2nd, was the date of contact, so Friday, the 15th, is day 13. I’ll be in the clear from that contact by the end of Saturday, the 15th.
Sorry that Massachusetts is not adopting the new CDC directive enabling those over 65 to get vaccinated now.
Mid-February a likely date for my own accessibility.
Mid-February.
Isn’t that Valentine’s Day?
Isn’t that my long-predicted watershed in America society?
You know it is.
Weather continues mild.
Looking ahead a few days and weather will continue mild.
For winter.
Not saying balmy.
But not freezing with harsh wind or dangerous storms.
Acceptable.
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3.0 Tuscany, extracting an essence
3.1 Sacco and Vanzetti
Lots of conversations and nibbles on time.
Studied the Greenway park relative to a possible site.
Received an optimistic emal-promise from BPL that we will talk next week after she’s had the opportunity to study the issues.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
The essence of independence is to be able to do something for one’s self. Adults work to finish a task, but the child works in order to grow, and
is working to create the adult, the person that is to be.
Such experience is not just play... it is work he must do in order to grow up.
~Maria Montessori
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Been a while since I ate alone.
A welcomed change.
I made St. Louis Ribs, with an Italian spicy pork sausage.
After slow-roasting the rack and broiling it for color, I brushed it with a marinade of gochujang sauce, kimchi vinegar, and maple syrup.
Delicious.
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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.
https://soundcloud.com/user-449713331/sets/conflicted-dom-capossela
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 Thumbnail
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (such as aluminium, manganese, nickel or zinc) and sometimes non-metals or metalloids such as arsenic, phosphorus or silicon.
These additions produce a range of alloys that may be harder than copper alone, or have other useful properties, such as strength, ductility, or machinability.
The archeological period in which bronze was the hardest metal in widespread use is known as the Bronze Age.
The beginning of the Bronze Age in India and western Eurasia is conventionally dated to the mid-4th millennium BC, and to the early 2nd millennium BC in China; elsewhere it gradually spread across regions. The Bronze Age was followed by the Iron Age starting from about 1300 BC and reaching most of Eurasia by about 500 BC, although bronze continued to be much more widely used than it is in modern times.
Because historical pieces were often made of brasses (copper and zinc) and bronzes with different compositions, modern museum and scholarly descriptions of older objects increasingly use the generalized term "copper alloy" instead.
Bronze is widely used for casting bronze sculptures. Common bronze alloys have the unusual and desirable property of expanding slightly just before they set, thus filling the finest details of a mold. Then, as the bronze cools, it shrinks a little, making it easier to separate from the mold.
The Assyrian king Sennacherib (704–681 BC) claims to have been the first to cast monumental bronze statues (of up to 30 tonnes) using two-part molds instead of the lost-wax method.
Bronze statues were regarded as the highest form of sculpture in Ancient Greek art, though survivals are few, as bronze was a valuable material in short supply in the Late Antique and medieval periods. Many of the most famous Greek bronze sculptures are known through Roman copies in marble, which were more likely to survive.
In India, bronze sculptures from the Kushana (Chausa hoard) and Gupta periods (Brahma from Mirpur-Khas, Akota Hoard, Sultanganj Buddha) and later periods (Hansi Hoard) have been found.[26] Indian Hindu artisans from the period of the Chola empire in Tamil Nadu used bronze to create intricate statues via the lost-wax casting method with ornate detailing depicting the deities of Hinduism. The art form survives to this day, with many silpis, craftsmen, working in the areas of Swamimalai and Chennai.
In antiquity other cultures also produced works of high art using bronze. For example: in Africa, the bronze heads of the Kingdom of Benin; in Europe, Grecian bronzes typically of figures from Greek mythology; in east Asia, Chinese ritual bronzes of the Shang and Zhou dynasty—more often ceremonial vessels but including some figurine examples. Bronze sculptures, although known for their longevity, still undergo microbial degradation; such as from certain species of yeasts.
Bronze continues into modern times as one of the materials of choice for monumental statuary.
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It’s Thursday, January 14, 2021
Welcome to the 998th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Aloo gobi
An Indian dish prepared with cauliflower and potato
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2.0 Commentary
Washington DC: a political whirligig.
Impeach.
Art 25.
Censure.
Inauguration.
First 100 days.
Vote your conscience.
No award, thank you.
Vaccinations.
Infections.
Revolts.
Complicit.
Resignations.
Shipping vaccine.
Over 65 eligible.
Washington DC: a political whirligig.
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3.0 Tuscany, extracting an essence
3.1 Sacco and Vanzetti
I read through several links that describe processes we must sift through to advance the project.
Met with architect to design space.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
There is a great sense of community within the Montessori classroom, where children of differing ages work together in an atmosphere of cooperation rather than competitiveness.
There is respect for the environment and for the individuals within it, which comes through experience of freedom within the community.
~Maria Montessori
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5.0 Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
This from a friend of longstanding, Victor P:
Dom,
I thought you would be interested in this story I found on MSN:
11 Ways to Tell If a Wine Is Actually Really Good
http://a.msn.com/06/en-us/BBTg3CH?ocid=se
I consider you an oenophile and that is why I thought of you when this popped up on my computer this evening.
My earliest introduction to wine was in the Blue Front.
My father and uncle served rivers full of Tavola Red jug wine to their customers over the 50 years the “store” was in operation.
As I grew older I realized that wine came in smaller bottles, it was a revelation!
Then on to BC where I was introduced to Lake Niagra by the “Americani.” Che peccato!
Now I enjoy red wine with dinner almost every night and #s 10 and 11 from above made me feel good about my choices.
Saluti,
Victor
Blog meister responds: The link made for excellent reading. Thanks for sharing, my friend.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Monday night Lauren joined Kat, Will, and myself for dinner: a potpourri of quail: soup, roasted, and Braciolettine.
The company was animated and the food was very good.
After dinner I made a Cauliflower Soup from a NY Times recipe.
It was delicious.
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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.
https://soundcloud.com/user-449713331/sets/conflicted-dom-capossela
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 Thumbnail
Cauliflower is one of several vegetables in the Brassicaceae (or Mustard) family.
It is an annual plant that reproduces by seed.
Typically, only the head is eaten – the edible white flesh sometimes called "curd" (with a similar appearance to cheese curd).
The cauliflower head is composed of a white inflorescence meristem.
Cauliflower heads resemble those in broccoli, which differs in having flower buds as the edible portion. Brassica oleracea also includes broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, collard greens, and kale, collectively called "cole" crops, though they are of different cultivar groups.
Here is a NY Times recipe for Cauliflower Soup that I’ve adjusted for clarity and taste.
Also find this recipe in the Recipe pages of this blog.
CAULIFLOWER SOUP
2 tablespoons rosemary-olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
2 garlic cloves, minced (about 1 tablespoon)
1 quart low-sodium vegetable or chicken stock, plus more as needed for reheating
1 medium head cauliflower, cored and broken into 1 1/2-inch florets (about 2 1/2 pounds)
2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more to taste
1 teaspoon black pepper, plus more to taste
Freshly grated zest of 1 lemon, for serving
In a Dutch oven, heat 2 tablespoons rosemary-olive oil over medium-low.
Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender and translucent, 6 to 8 minutes.
Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. (Be careful not to let the garlic scorch!)
Add the stock, cauliflower, salt and pepper, and bring to a boil over high.
Lower the heat,
cover, and simmer until the cauliflower is tender when pierced with a fork, about 10 minutes.
Carefully transfer the vegetables, stock and 1/4 cup rosemary oil to a blender and blend on high until creamy.
Add more rosemary oil to taste, and blend to combine.
Return the soup to the pot and bring to a simmer.
If the soup seems thin, let it simmer for 5 to 10 minutes to reduce slightly. (Remember: The soup will continue to thicken as it cools.)
Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Serve hot.
Garnish each serving with a swirl of rosemary oil, a few croutons, and a sprinkle of lemon zest.
The soup will thicken as it sits; add more stock as necessary when reheating.
Leftover rosemary oil will keep in a sealed container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
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It’s Wednesday, January 13, 2021
Welcome to the 997th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
bill don’t! An award from a disgraced president is an anti-award –
a pallored-lens through which henceforth
we will always see you:
a great coach but a sucky citizen.
don’t! bill. don’t!
President Trump is presented a New England Patriots football helmet by Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, left, and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, right, during a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington in 2017 honoring the team's victory in Super Bowl LI victory.
ANDREW HARNIK
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2.0 Commentary
My personal quarantine, stemming from extended contact with a person not within my normal contact group, continues. Sunday, the 2nd, was the date of contact, so Wednesday, the 13th, is day 11. I’ll be in the clear from that contact by Saturday, the 15th.
Oldering.
Sometimes the simplest actions become chores.
Like having arthritis in your thumb.
Then, anytime you put on a glove and pull it down over your fingers and thumb,
you are jamming your thumb and it’s painful.
But you don’t mention it.
Boring.
Older? Pain is part of the tour.
Menstruation for women.
Shaving for men.
Pain for geezers.
Why haven’t our opinion makers clamored against belichick’s receiving an award from our disgraced President?
Ooops!
A pertinent article just hit my computer.
I’ve reprinted in 11.0 Thumbnail, just below.
I take credit for last week’s prediction that trump had reached his popularity high-water mark.
Several days ago the social media banned trump and then banned Parler.
On Monday we heard that a bevy of large corporations are withdrawing support not only of trump but the idiot lawmakers who voted to reject Biden’s certified election victory.
Will he resign? Or 25th-Amendment restrained and removed? Or Impeached?
He is already disgraced.
He is Benedict Arnold reincarnate.
And several hours later, Bill B turned down the award. This article is also reprinted below in 11.0 Thumbnail.
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3.0 Tuscany, extracting an essence
3.1 Sacco and Vanzetti
A series of telephone calls on Sunday were instrumental in expanding the scope of the Sacco and Vanzetti effort.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
Let the children be free; encourage them;
let them run outside when it is raining;
let them remove their shoes when they find a puddle of water; and
when the grass of the meadows is wet with dew,
let them run on it and trample it with their bare feet;
let them rest peacefully when a tree invites them to sleep beneath its shade;
let them shout and laugh when the sun wakes them in the morning.
~Maria Montessori
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5.0 Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
This from a friend from college, Joyce G:
I love your optimism.
I believe we are living through the Civil War II. Some whites are scared to be in the minority. It's inevitable. Maybe they should try kindness instead of killing.
Blog meister responds: May not be a novel thought, but one that won’t die.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Sunday night Kat, Will, and I ate a rib roast.
Kat and Will collaborated: slow-roasting it for 42 minutes per pound.
Then they seared it for 4 minutes a side and then
brushed a gochujang sauce over the steak.
It was delicious.
Recipe for sauce: 1TB gochujang; 1TB Asian Oil (or Sesame) 1t Kimchi vinegar or equivalent; 1t maple syrup; fresh thyme or parsley finely chopped; ½ t salt
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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.
https://soundcloud.com/user-449713331/sets/conflicted-dom-capossela
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 Thumbnail
This is a Boston Globe reprint:
President Trump plans to award New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick the Presidential Medal of Freedom in one of the final acts of his term, according to a White House official, cementing a long-held admiration of the coach but drawing him into the controversy over Wednesday’s violence at the capitol.
The ceremony will take place Thursday, the official said. Belichick will be the latest in an all-star lineup of sports legends to receive the medal from Trump. Just last week, Trump awarded it to golfers Annika Sorenstam, Gary Player and the late Babe Zaharias in a private ceremony the day after the deadly Capitol riot that the president incited.
Since I started to write a piece against his acceptance, this article came across my desk:
To Bill Belichick: Don’t go to Washington and accept the Presidential Medal of Freedom
By Tara Sullivan Globe Columnist
Bill Belichick doesn’t take advice from the sports pages. But here it is anyway.
Don’t do it.
Don’t go to Washington, D.C., this week and accept the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Say “thank you” to the White House and to President Donald Trump for the honor, and then politely decline.
Yes, it’s an enormously difficult decision, one requiring an undeniable act of personal sacrifice. This is the nation’s highest civilian honor, one established by President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and given “to individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the security or national interests of America, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”
That’s a very hard thing to give up. But doing the right thing can be hard. Hasn’t Belichick himself been telling us as much for the entirety of his coaching life?
A 47-year NFL run and 20-year tenure with the Patriots (a nickname that has never felt more ironic, or more important) have been built on the simple tenet: Team comes above self. That’s how Belichick built a résumé worthy of consideration as the greatest of all time, the way he convinced generation after generation of players to buy into his winning ways.
This single act of personal pride could cost him his locker room.
As risky as it would have been under any circumstance for Belichick to stand for a photo op with the same president who has drawn so many verbal battle lines with the NFL we’ve lost count, but whose most infamous line called those who dared kneel during the national anthem “sons of bitches” who should be “fired,” he probably could have gotten away with it.
But to do so in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol would be a complete slap in the face to his team, to his players, to his league, to his franchise, to everyone horrified by the insurrection and the role Trump played in inciting it. Those riots were emboldened and endorsed by a president still unwilling to accept the results of the election, a president who is facing a second impeachment, who has been banned from every social media platform for inciting violence, who on Sunday lost the support of the PGA America, which terminated its agreement to host the 2022 PGA Championship at Trump Bedminster in New Jersey.
Those riots included acts of disrespect to our flag that make the NFL anthem protests pale in comparison — the Confederate flag being carried through the halls of the building (an act that didn’t even happen during the Civil War) while Congress attempted to certify the Electoral College votes. An American flag being pulled down, tossed to the ground and replaced with a Trump flag, reflecting the mob’s true loyalty.
Those riots change everything. So even if Belichick accepted the honor prior to them, which logic suggests might have happened, he’s had four-plus days to change his mind. But with Politico first to report Sunday that Belichick will receive his honor on Thursday, and with no statement given by the Patriots despite requests from all media corners.
It’s a mistake he might not come back from.
The NFL spent the bulk of this bizarre, pandemic-altered season touting its advances in social justice movements. Commissioner Roger Goodell completely reversed course on Colin Kaepernick, expressing regret for not hearing what Kaepernick was saying about those initial acts of kneeling defiance, apologizing for Kaepernick’s ultimate exclusion from the league. Belichick himself reflected on those initiatives in his season-ending press conference.
“I learned a lot about our players,” he said. “This was a very educational year from all the social justice meetings and things that we had in the spring which carried over into the season. I think our team did a great job of that. We had great leadership from Jason [McCourty], Devin [McCourty], Matt [Slater] and many others — Brandon King, guys that are involved in just many, many different aspects of that.
“But, most importantly, just bringing the awareness within the team for each other and us getting to know each other and appreciate each other’s background, story, and thoughts. And that was very, again, educational for me, as well as everybody else. I think we all benefited from it, and again, things that we’ve done this year that will help us going forward.”
Going forward, the Patriots need a roster overhaul and they have plenty of cap room to do it. But would potential free agents be swayed by Belichick standing side by side with Trump?
That’s the risk he is taking. But it’s one he could easily mitigate by just saying “no.” This is not a Patriots issue — the decision is Belichick’s alone, an award given to him as a private citizen, not as an invitation for being the coach of a championship team. Many Patriots, Devin McCourty the loudest among them, made it clear they wouldn’t visit the Trump White House after the team’s last Super Bowl win, and when the Patriots ended up not going anyway, the point was moot.
But now it’s back. In the dying, defiant days of his term in office, Trump is determined to move the goalposts, to change the narrative any way he can. This time, he’s using his old friend Belichick, who would be wise to decline. It’s a mistake.
The Patriots are already the most hated franchise in the world. If this happens, even the locals will abandon them too.
Don’t do it.
Just before this went to print, the NY Times published this:
“New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick said in a statement Monday that he had turned down the opportunity to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Trump because of the “tragic events of last week,” a reference to the insurrection at the Capitol.
In a statement, Belichick said he was flattered to be nominated for the award, the highest civilian honor in the country, because of its past recipients. But he said he has great reverence for “our nation’s values,” represents his family and the Patriots, and has worked with his players to combat social injustice.
“Continuing those efforts while remaining true to the people, team and country that I love outweigh the benefits of any individual award,” he wrote in a statement.”
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It’s Tuesday, January 12, 2021
Welcome to the 996th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Impeachment of Donald Trump
The first
On December 18, 2019, United States House of Representatives votes to adopt the articles of impeachment, accusing Donald Trump of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
United States House of Representatives - House Floorcast – Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives
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2.0 Commentary
My daughter asked me: “Are you still friends with any of your friends from high school?”
Just a few, and these can also be listed among my childhood friends.
Why so few?
Many of us have passed on. At least half of us never reached my age (I will be 79 in March 2021)
My high school days were split between Christopher Columbus High School and Saint Francis Seminary in North Andover so I only spent two school years with each group, denying myself the formative four-years of a single-school experience.
Exacerbating the lack of strong bonds, I spent my first year of high school at Columbus, transferred to the seminary where I spent the next two years, and then returned to Columbus for my last year. No continuity.
Most of my fellow seminarians followed their callings and scattered all over the country without much freedom to visit and so passed out of sight and mind.
Many of my childhood friends also attended the local Christopher Columbus High School.
Sharing strong childhood bonds with so many North Enders discouraged new close relationships.
Which leaves only my childhood friends who attended Christopher Columbus.
With some them I am still close, several of us still working together on A Visible Bronze Memorial to Sacco and Vanzetti, named after Italian immigrant victims of social injustice.
We occasionally have dinner together although every year seems to take someone from our gang, rendering us a diminishing breed.
How have they changed since then?”
None are working the full-time jobs that they spent their lives doing although some are still active within professional groups. Most, however, have been retired for many years.
Many are active in their extended families, a great boon to their later years.
Some of us are busy with social organizations or causes.
The few least successful in dealing with age wake slowly, pad around their living spaces without direction, and find busy work to occupy themselves.
These seem to be simply waiting their turn.
Universally, we have put aside the negative feelings of growing up and have nothing but praise and support for each other.
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3.0 Tuscany, extracting an essence
3.1 Sacco and Vanzetti
Conversations with artist who successfully worked with the Boston Arts Commission to install sculptures on city property took a lot of energy.
Finished the by-laws for the corporation and started the Articles of Incorporation.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
The goal of early childhood education should be to activate the child's own natural desire to learn.
~Maria Montessori
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5.0 Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
We commented to Colleen that her poem, published here yesterday, (find it by scrolling down) her poem sounded spontaneous and free-flowing. I loved her response since it shows the doubts and hesitations and exuberances that is the fate of a poet. Got to love Colleen. Note she is a very young mother of four. Colleen’s reply:
Hi Dom,
They did . . . or more like trickled.:) I hope it's not too depressing for your audience.
I just wanted to capture the mood and my--usually optimistic--view of how this can just continue if we don't get wise and stop allowing ourselves to be so distracted and apathetic to all that goes on. It makes me think deeper too. Like the stone soup part--which might be a little random--is a story that is fresh in my mind only because I've read it so many times to my kids and I was seeing that in its literal sense where people who are traveling (perhaps immigrants, but also just poor wandering souls) and looking for food figure out a way to solve their problem--albeit a little deceptively at first, but in the end they have encouraged a community. But, also--the stone soup can be seen as a metaphor for healthy political debate. It's hard to debate vigorously when nobody else is participating--either because they have forgotten how, feel it's futile, aren't educated on the subject matter or because they are afraid of being publicly chastised (something all too common with social media frothing at the mouth for its next victim these days). Anyway, I just saw it as a metaphor for that too--for the isolation we are creating in society that doesn't serve any of us--let along the least fortunate--either practically through meeting basic needs (hunger, shelter) or intellectually (communication, cooperation, opening up our perspectives).
That is something I love about poetry--even my own. There are so many levels to dig into--whether they were originally intended or not.
Enjoy the weekend.
Cheers,
Colleen:)
Blog meister responds: Thank you my dear. For sharing the anguish that precedes the genius; the self-doubt that follows. Now come the cheers.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Saturday night Kat, Will, and I ate chicken soup, made with quail and our own chicken stock.
With diced carrots, leeks, celery, and zucchini, with fresh thyme and parsley, the soup was outrageous.
We couldn’t stop eating.
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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.
https://soundcloud.com/user-449713331/sets/conflicted-dom-capossela
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 Thumbnail
Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States, was impeached by the House of Representatives on December 18, 2019.
The House adopted two articles of impeachment against Trump: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The Senate acquitted Trump of these charges on February 5, 2020.
Trump's impeachment came after a formal House inquiry alleged that he had solicited foreign interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election to help his re-election bid, and then obstructed the inquiry itself by telling his administration officials to ignore subpoenas for documents and testimony.
The inquiry reported that Trump withheld military aid[a] and an invitation to the White House to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in order to influence Ukraine to announce an investigation into Trump's political opponent Joe Biden and to promote a discredited conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, was behind interference in the 2016 presidential election.
A phone call between Trump and Zelensky on July 25, 2019 was particularly important—whistleblower Alexander Vindman was a participant in the call, and later informed Congress.
The inquiry stage of Trump's impeachment lasted from September to November 2019 in the wake of Vindman's August whistleblower complaint alleging Trump's abuse of power.
In October, three congressional committees (Intelligence, Oversight, and Foreign Affairs) deposed witnesses. In November, the House Intelligence Committee held a number of public hearings in which witnesses testified publicly; on December 3, the committee voted 13–9 along party lines to adopt a final report. A set of impeachment hearings before the House Judiciary Committee began on December 4; on December 13, it voted 23–17 along party lines to recommend two articles of impeachment, for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
The committee released a lengthy report on the impeachment articles on December 16. Two days later, the full House approved both articles in a mostly party-line vote, with all Republicans opposing along with three Democrats.
This made Trump the third U.S. president in history to be impeached and marked the first fully partisan impeachment where a U.S. president was impeached without support for the impeachment from the President's own party.
The articles were submitted to the Senate on January 16, 2020, initiating the trial.
The trial saw no witnesses or documents being subpoenaed, as Republican senators rejected attempts to introduce subpoenas on January 21 while arranging for trial procedures, and then on January 31 after a debate.
On February 5, Trump was acquitted on both counts by the Senate as neither count received 67 votes to convict.
On Article I, abuse of power, 48 senators voted for conviction, while 52 senators voted for acquittal.
On Article II, obstruction of Congress, 47 senators voted for conviction, while 53 senators voted to acquit.
Republican Mitt Romney, the only senator to break party lines, became the first U.S. senator to vote to convict a president of his own party in an impeachment trial, as he voted for conviction on abuse of power.
Two days after the acquittal, Trump fired two witnesses who had testified about his conduct in the impeachment inquiry: Ambassador Gordon Sondland and Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman.[5] Vindman's twin brother Yevgeny Vindman was also fired.
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It’s Monday, January 11, 2021
Welcome to the 995th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Giacomo Leopardi
Mentioned by the University of Birmingham as "one of the most radical and challenging of nineteenth-century thinkers".
Unknown source
Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837) nel celebre ritratto di S.. Ferrazzi
Selected by staff as having the ‘look of a poet’.
Colleen, today’s featured poet, is prettier.
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2.0 Commentary
My personal quarantine, stemming from extended contact with a person not within my normal contact group, continues. Sunday, the 2nd, was the date of contact, so Sunday, the 9th, is day 8. I’ll be in the clear from that contact by Saturday, the 15th.
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3.0 Tuscany, extracting an essence
3.1 Sacco and Vanzetti
Worked on Bylaws for corporation.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
Do not tell them how to do it.
Show them how to do it and do not say a word.
If you tell them, they will watch your lips move.
If you show them, they will want to do it themselves.
~Maria Montessori
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5.0 Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
This from Colleen G:
Hey Dom,
I used to write poems as often as breathing air. Reading your poems (whether they are intended as poems or not:) inspired me to revisit the form.
Lately, I guess I'm not miserable enough to do it--but also I don't sit with pen and paper as much. Usually on my computer. Today, the kids were home schooling remotely and needed my laptop most of the day, so I sat and wrote a poem. I felt I needed to--to distill the last five years into one piece. I thought I would share it with you. I will copy it below, but have also attached it as a word document (not sure the "foot note" comes through in a cut and past, but it's in the word doc). I have to say it felt cathartic to write a poem--to really express this period in history, though (as I say in my poem) it is surely something we have lived through in the past and will revisit again in the future with a different set of actors.
Cheers,
Colleen:)
Blog meister responds: My dear, the poem is genius: spontaneous, rich, and delivered in a whoosh! I am delighted to feature it alone in the 11.0 Thumbnail section,
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Three of us will be eating from my refrigerator for the next three days, at least.
A good thing.
That appliance is bulging.
It’s tempting to offer a potpourri, a taste of everything.
Then we’ll be eating the same thing every night.
I think we’ll start with what we have the most of.
If there are leftovers I’ll push them to the last meal and decide then how to serve remnants.
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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.
https://soundcloud.com/user-449713331/sets/conflicted-dom-capossela
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 Thumbnail
A poet is a person who creates poetry.
Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others.
A poet may simply be a writer of poetry, or may perform their art to an audience.
The work of a poet is essentially one of communication, either expressing ideas in a literal sense, such as writing about a specific event or place, or metaphorically. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary greatly in different cultures and periods.[1] Throughout each civilization and language, poets have used various styles that have changed through the course of literary history, resulting in a history of poets as diverse as the literature they have produced.
Character Sketch: Confusion [1]
Confusion: Dark, orange cloud of chaos.
Self-interested ignorance.
Juxtaposed to—
Confusion: Invisible, deadly cloud of coronavirus.
Generously shared.
One powerful man, plus one powerful virus, equals
two-fold tragedy.
Much-coveted cooperation—wasted
on Death.
Life, liberty, love—
Quarantined.
Destruction, disease, depression—
Wandering.
Only tears to make stone soup,
The stone sits and sinks—stews
waiting . . .
but nothing is added
doors remain locked, neighbors silent.
The bell’s toll proclaims profound need.
Ingredients hoarded, people hide behind the invisible cape of their keyboards,
flying and fighting.
Heroes of the ether—online, in their own minds.
Alone (in disguise) in reality.
But—reality is a memory,
Folklore, near-forgotten fable.
Confusion has replaced community.
Confusion has erased common sense.
Confusion is a blinding light
—intentional tactic
—manifestation of evil allowed to slither up and around—engulfing.
While we
—too distracted
—too stressed
—too much
—too tired
—too lazy
to speak or act or care—out loud and in person.
Surrendering to be swallowed, spit out . . . swallowed again.
Shuffling from one display of drama
To the next,
fearing the silence more than anything.
Resisting the feeling we ignore
denying reality at all costs—at every opportunity, after each tragedy.
We let the mind work its magic:
Memories disappear.
Hard edges soften.
Lessons dissolve unlearned, unintentional, unimportant.
Leaving the cycle to start again: same bed prepared, toxic seeds sown, take root and grow—
into more monsters, more mayhem, more of—
The Same.
Cue: Confusion.
That menacing character continues to reinvent and take control,
while we revert to our time-honored history of hypocrisy and
our beloved bevy of distractions (they salivate and wait patiently).
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(1) Not to be confused with Confucius.
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It’s Sunday, January 10, 2021
Welcome to the 994th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Burnt marks allegedly left on the ground by a UFO
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2.0 Commentary
My watershed date of February 14 looking better to me than when I first predicted that the USA will recognize, will believe, will endorse that we have turned the corner.
The new President will be everything that we hoped he would be.
The economy will be ramping up.
The pandemic will be in retreat.
Vaccinations will be in the ascendancy.
The Trump coup attempt will be seen to strengthen who we are as a democracy.
Winter’s grip will begin to loosen in several short weeks.
Normalcy will return.
No.
Ramping up my prediction.
The normalcy bar will be raised.
We will be streaming to new heights as a country of hope.
Of dreams fulfilled.
My personal quarantine stems from an unfamiliar dinner contact on Sun, the 2nd.
Today, Saturday, the 9th is day 7 of the vigil.
So far I have escaped.
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3.0 Tuscany, extracting its essence
3.1 Sacco and Vanzetti
Am putting my legal training to work: drafting Articles of Incorporation for the establishment of a non-profit corporation to serve as the center of the organization of the memorial effort.
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4.0 Chuckles/Thoughts
"The first idea the child must acquire is that of the difference between good and evil."
~Maria Montessori
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5.0 Mail
We love getting mail.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
This from my sister Josephine A:
Oh my God Dom, I can cry, I loved my family so so much. I remember the
potatoes in the stove, not in the oven, on the top, mommy would take the
cover off the top of the stove where I believe she lit the stove, and cut
potatoes in half and put them inside the top of the stove, and when we were
hungry there was also potatoes cooking. That was our snack. Daddy could have
been somebody Dom, but like me, mommy would not let me go to college, she said
I had to help you go to college, that girls do not go to college. I might say that my
greatest desire in my life and even now is to be where educated people are
to learn learn learn. I am even doing that now, I am spending my life learning
learning,
Love love
Jo
Blog Meister responds: I love my sister.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
On Friday night I had dinner with Lauren, my cousin.
We chose the Braciolettine.
It was delicious.
The weekend will see the return home of my daughter and our Will..
The extra mouths just in time.
My refrigerator has multiple dinners of Roast Quail, Quail Cacciatore, Braciolettine, and Chicken Soup and a single dinner of a roasted chicken (the leg.)
Hoping on Wednesday morning little of it all remains.
Just in time to read the new week’s sales at Whole Foods.
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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.
https://soundcloud.com/user-449713331/sets/conflicted-dom-capossela
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
The Trans-en-Provence case was an event in which an unidentified flying object is claimed to have left physical evidence, in the form of burnt residue on a field. The event took place on 8 January 1981, outside the town of Trans-en-Provence in the French department of Var.
It was described in Popular Mechanics as "perhaps the most completely and carefully documented sighting of all time."
The case began on 8 January 1981, at 5 pm. Renato Nicolaï, a 55-year-old farmer, heard a strange whistling sound while performing agricultural work on his property. He then saw a saucer-shaped object about 2.5m (8 ft 2 in) in diameter land about 50 m (160 ft) away at a lower elevation.
According to the witness, "The device had the shape of two saucers, one inverted on top of the other. It must have measured about 1.5 metres in height. It was the color of lead. This device had a ridge all the way around its circumference. Under the machine I saw two kinds of pieces as it was lifting off. They could be reactors or feet. There were also two other circles which looked like trapdoors. The two reactors, or feet, extended about 20 cm (8 in) below the body of the machine."
Nicolaï claimed the object took off almost immediately, rising above the treeline and departing to the north east. It left burn marks on the ground where it had supposedly sat.
The local gendarmerie were notified of the event the following day by Nicolaï directly on the advice of his neighbor's wife, Mrs. Morin. The gendarmerie proceeded to interview Nicolaï, take photos of the scene, and collect soil and plant samples from the field. The case was later sent to GEIPAN—or GEPAN (Groupe d'Étude des Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non-identifiés) as it was known at that time—for review.
GEPAN analysis noted that the ground had been compressed by a mechanical pressure of about 4 or 5 tons, and heated to between 300 and 600 °C (572 and 1,112 °F). Trace amounts of phosphate and zinc were found in the sample material, and analysis of resident alfalfa near the landing site showed chlorophyll levels between 30% and 50% lower than expected.
Nicolaï had initially believed the object to be an experimental military device. The close proximity of the site to the Canjuers military base makes such a theory generally plausible. However, GEPAN's investigation focused on conventional explanations, such as atmospheric or terrain causes of a terrestrial nature. Despite a joint investigation by GEPAN and the gendarmerie, which lasted for two years, no plausible explanation was found.
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