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It’s Saturday, June 19, 2021
Welcome to the 1,133rd consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Darwin, Charles
on the ship's deck at Bahía Blanca in Argentina, with fossils;
caricature by Augustus Earle.
Augustus Earle - Sotheby's info Sotheby's image uploaded without further processing.
Detail from "Augustus Earle (presumed) - Quarter Deck of a Man of War on Diskivery (sic) or interesting Scenes on an Interesting Voyage". Charles Darwin on the Beagle voyage, at Bahía Blanca around 24 September 1832. He tells a crewman "Observe its legs are long, and the palpi are strongly toothed on the inner side. I think the whole insect appears of a dark chestnut brown colour with a yellowish cast on the abdomen. Its history is but little known but there can be no doubt of its being of a predacious nature. What do you think Mr –?". Presumed painted by the shipboard artist Augustus Earle. Offered for sale by Sotheby's London 15 December 2015, and described by them as "one of the earliest depictions of Darwin, the only image of him on the Beagle, and an exceptionally rare image of him at work as a naturalist".
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2.0 Commentary
Thursday was remarkable day for me: so many good things happened.
It began at 7.00am with a “Team” call, Microsoft’s own version of Zoom.
After presenting the problem with my Microsoft Duo, Kofi, the techie helping me, asked for an hour to research the problem. He returned within that hour. A simple solution: I had unwittingly logged on to ‘settings’ and in that mode directed the Duo (my cell) to enlist the aid of a program for the visually impaired. Just a click ‘off’ and I was back.
It ended with the most successful shopping trip I have ever had at the Somerville Market Basket. This store I generally a depressing experience for me with its unmanageable crowds. This Thursday night the store was practically empty. I strolled the aisles slowly, without vying for space. Most welcomed tonight because I was exhausted.
Prior to the M Basket, I had two great experiences in bang-bang succession. The first of the two, about 3.50pm, was at Roche Bobois where I effortlessly bought a Mistral armchair. The purchase effortless due to my good friend, Jack Hagan, a builder-architect who helped me decide on the chair and the color and who used his good offices to get me a discount and to discuss the details of the purchase.
The chair will be delivered in two or three weeks. I’m excited.
Virtually next door to that I went into the Santander branch on Winter St. I had a fairly complicated problem and the manager of the bank, Peter, took it in hand. He immediately knew it was beyond his ken and picked up the phone and reached his tech support. They spent seven minutes in discussion and then took the steps necessary to solve the problem.
I spent from 11.00am to 2.30pm with my dear friend, Colleen G who brought me a present: an early version of her new Young Adult book. I am honored to read it so early in the publishing process. We walked to Figs, the fine pizza place only to find out their new oven was just being hooked up: no pizza. So we ordered mussels. No shellfish. We shared an Eggplant Parmesan over rigatoni with a glass of pinot grigio. The meal couldn’t compare to the fun I had talking w Colleen: two writers, different generations, talking about writing. And children. Marriage (not ours). Boston. And on. Then we walked through the Public Garden to the Thinking Cup on Newbury St and spent the rest of our time together at the sidewalk café. Lovely.
Finally, I was able to order a vegan pizza from W Foods for Katherine, she lactose intolerant. She was delighted when I brought it home.
This was a good day.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“What needs my Shakespeare for his honored bones,
The labor of an age in pilèd stones,
Or that his hallowed relics should be hid
Under a star-y-pointing pyramid?
Dear son of memory, great heir of fame,
What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name?”
~John Milton
The Complete Poetry
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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 WSJ article features my son Chris.
Perhaps not as head-turning as the one in Forbes naming Chris the 8th most influential CMO in the world, but we’ll take it.
Chris is really a great guy.
WSJ CMO Network: A Perspective Spotlight With Chris Capossela, Microsoft
Blog meister responds: Yes, I’m proud.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
The Prime Rib at the Hungry Traveler that I so looked forward to having turned out to be the worst Prime Rib dinner ever.
Why spend any more time on it.
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11.0 Thumbnail
Charles Robert Darwin FRS FRGS FLS FZS[2] (/ˈdɑːrwɪn/;[5] 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist and biologist,[6] best known for his contributions to the science of evolution.
His proposition that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors is now widely accepted, and considered a foundational concept in science.
In a joint publication with Alfred Russel Wallace, he introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection, in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding.
Darwin has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history, and he was honored by burial in Westminster Abbey.
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It’s Friday, June 18, 2021
Welcome to the 1,132nd consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk
Staff Sgt. Aaron Allmon II - http://www.defenselink.mil/
A US Air Force (USAF) F-117A Nighthawk Stealth Fighter aircraft flies over Nellis Air Force Base (AFB), Nevada (NV), during the joint service experimentation process dubbed Millennium Challenge 2002 (MC02). Sponsored by the US Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM), the MC02 experiment explores how Effects Based Operations (EBO) can provide an integrated joint context for conducting rapid, decisive operations (RDO).
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2.0 Commentary
So I drove to Newburyport, arriving at 6.10am.
I dropped off my passenger and set about spending six hours wisely.
I know the area pretty well.
First stop, a new bakery, Olives.
Thought I’d drink and write the blog.
Bought a honey-dip and a medium coffee.
Unfortunately, no seating.
‘Yet,’ I’m told.
Drove to Starbuck’s.
They have yet to open their seating.
Finished my coffee (only drank half because of the caffeine) and
drove onto the Parker River National Refuge.
Hellcat Swamp’s new boardwalk, two years in the construction, is now open.
I headed directly there.
The boardwalk is spectacular, especially comparing it to what it replaced.
The boards are flat and tight and totally wheelchair accessible. The old walk was not.
The old walk had a very steep ascent. In the new, that sharp ascent has been reduced to something moderate, and even that, only for a short while. Most of the walk is an easy grade.
Much of the brush that closed in on the walk has been removed so that visitors have a much more expansive view of the refuge.
And finally, the overlook at the end of the walk with its view of the ocean and the rolling dunes is as good as ever.
Bravo to our national parks.
I took an hour in my car to work on the blog and then made another tour of the boardwalk.
At 11.00am I went to the Hungry Traveler Restaurant in Salisbury for a Prime Rib lunch. It was the worst roast in memory.
I strolled around Newburyport and indulged in half of a sundae and then a cortado at an outdoor café.
I collected my passenger and drove home.
A nice day.
I hit a strange combination of keys on my cell and sent it into an Accessibility mode that is a real nuisance.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“I have always derived great comfort from William Shakespeare.
After a depressing visit to the mirror or an unkind word from a girlfriend or an incredulous stare in the street,
I say to myself: 'Well. Shakespeare looked like shit.'
It works wonders.”
~Martin Amis, Mone
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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 dear friend, Colleen G:
Hi Dom and Sally,
After reading your blog and Sally's comments about Shakespeare today I thought I'd forward along a program both and perhaps your audiences would be interested in.
Coincidentally I have become involved through my involvement with WCAT . . . and they have asked me to take part in the Q&A session to follow the movie.
So, feel free to register for the event below. See the library's description and email below this one.
Ironically The Tempest was one of the first Shakespeare plays I really learned about in depth as part of my master's program . . . but that was a bit ago, so I have some brushing up to do:)
Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow.
Cheers,
Colleen:)
Blog meister responds: Here’s the link to the event Colleen referenced: Trouble Seeing Our Images? Click here to view as a webpage.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Lauren, Kat, and I had dinner at the Mariel in Boston.
Second visit.
Second excellent meal.
The restaurant is chic, the staff is wonderfully professional, friendly, and customer-oriented.
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11.0 Thumbnail
The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk is a semi-retired American single-seat, twin-engine stealth attack aircraft that was developed by Lockheed's secretive Skunk Works division and operated by the United States Air Force (USAF). It was the first operational aircraft to be designed around stealth technology.
The F-117 was based on the Have Blue technology demonstrator. The Nighthawk's maiden flight took place in 1981 at Groom Lake, Nevada, and the aircraft achieved initial operating capability status in 1983. The aircraft was shrouded in secrecy until it was revealed to the public in 1988. Of the 64 F-117s built, 59 were production versions, with the other five being prototypes.
The F-117 was widely publicized for its role in the Persian Gulf War of 1991. Although it was commonly referred to as the "Stealth Fighter", it was strictly a ground-attack aircraft. F-117s took part in the conflict in Yugoslavia, where one was shot down and another damaged by surface-to-air missiles (SAM) in 1999. The U.S. Air Force retired the F-117 in April 2008, primarily due to the fielding of the F-22 Raptor. Despite the type's retirement, a portion of the fleet has been kept in airworthy condition, and Nighthawks have been observed flying in 2020.
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It’s Thursday, June 17, 2021
Welcome to the 1,131st consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Bessie Coleman
Unknown - Immediate source:
"The first black woman aviator had to leave the U.S. in order to achieve her dreams".
Timeline.com. March 19, 2018. Original source: George Rinhart/Corbis via Getty Images
Bessie Coleman in 1923
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2.0 Commentary
Tuesday morning was busy and successful.
Some deskwork.
Trip out for some banking.
And Planet Fitness.
And more banking. At a different branch to clear up some misinformation given me at the earlier stop.
And a stop at a garage to clarify prices for parking: I’ll have the use of a car for the next three days.
Then home to consolidate the morning errands and prepare for an afternoon outing.
Masks off.
A relief.
We in America are lucky, thanks to ex-President Trump for his support for the expedient development of the vaccines to combat covid, and to President Biden for his methodical, analytical, all-in approach to the pandemic and the dissemination of the vaccines.
Masks off.
So great in time for the summer.
Meanwhile, to assist in the raging covid wars beyond our boundaries.
Not only to help nations ill-equipped to fight the war but, in the wake of the victories that we Americans are always so sure of, to leave needy nations with improved health care systems.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no, it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand'ring barque,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.”
~William Shakespeare, Great Sonnets
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5.0 Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
This from dear friend Sally C:
Dear Dom,
In the past few months, I’ve seen quite a few references questioning the authorship of Shakespeare’s works. Such disputes and arguments come up now and then, and have for centuries, I suppose, but there’s a downright rash of them these days. Do those posing these theories have too little to occupy themselves gainfully? Anyway, in light of all this discussion, I wonder if it has occurred to anyone that if all these other folks were capable of creating the works attributed to Shakespeare, why will they not believe that he himself was perfectly capable of doing so? How can it be so impossible to accept that one person – Shakespeare – wrote these works, in favor of all these other fellows, at least one of whom they posit did the actual writing?
I have read that some believe that Shakespeare didn’t really exist, that he was made up. Where does this notion come from? Many of his contemporaries – short biographical notes I’ve read with equal frequency lately – wrote in their journals about meeting with him regularly at local taverns to raise a glass and engage in literary discourse, like Boston’s Saturday Club in the mid-1850s. Were they meeting with a phantom? I don’t know about the rest of the world, but I find it difficult to share a pint with someone who doesn’t exist.
Can anyone explain this obsession to me? Before I lose sleep over it and start to hallucinate about Charles Dickens being the actual author of “Macbeth?” Or that Shakespeare invented Dickens?
What the Dickens? What the Shakespeare?
Sally
Blog meister responds: Cute, Sally. Real cute.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Sunday night my daughter and I had Chicken Soup for dinner.
There are few meals in the world as satisfying as a plate of chunks of chicken, assorted vegetables, and a soup pasta or rice in a deep, rich chicken broth.
It’s an easy meal to eat too quickly.
I have three idiosyncrasies when it comes to soup. The first two are to all soups. One is that I love unchopped parsley leaves in my soups. From bouillabaisse to beef soup, the presence of parsley leaves reassures the flavors to me. The second is that I love my soup very hot, like put the hot soup in my bowl and then put the bowl into the microwave. Hot.
The third is shared among many Italian-Americans and is specific to beef and chicken soups: I love to sprinkle Parmigiano cheese over my soup.
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11.0 Thumbnail
Bessie Coleman (January 26, 1892 – April 30, 1926) was an early American civil aviator.
She was the first African-American woman and first Native-American to hold a pilot license.
She earned her pilot license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale on June 15, 1921, and was the first Black person to earn an international pilot's license.
Born to a family of sharecroppers in Texas, Coleman worked in the cotton fields at a young age while also studying in a small segregated school. She attended one term of college at Langston University. Coleman developed an early interest in flying, but African Americans, Native Americans, and women had no flight training opportunities in the United States, so she saved and obtained sponsorships to go to France for flight school.
She then became a high-profile pilot in notoriously dangerous air shows in the United States. She was popularly known as Queen Bess and Brave Bessie, and hoped to start a school for African-American fliers. Coleman died in a plane crash in 1926. Her pioneering role was an inspiration to early pilots and to the African-American and Native-American communities.
Elizabeth Coleman (sometimes, Bessie) was born on January 26, 1892, in Atlanta, Texas, the tenth of thirteen children of George Coleman, a mixed African American who had Cherokee grandparents, and Susan Coleman, who was African American. Nine of the children survived childhood, which was typical for the time. When Coleman was two years old, her family moved to Waxahachie, Texas, where they lived as sharecroppers. Coleman began attending school in Waxahachie at the age of six. She walked four miles each day to her segregated, one-room school, where she loved to read and established herself as an outstanding math student. She completed her elementary education in that school.
Every year, Coleman's routine of school, chores, and church was interrupted by the cotton harvest. In 1901, George Coleman left his family. He returned to Oklahoma, or Indian Territory, as it was then called, to find better opportunities, but his wife and children did not follow. At the age of 12, Bessie was accepted into the Missionary Baptist Church School on scholarship. When she turned eighteen, she took her savings and enrolled in the Oklahoma Colored Agricultural and Normal University in Langston, Oklahoma (now called Langston University). She completed one term before her money ran out and she returned home.
At the age of 23, Coleman moved to Chicago, Illinois, where she lived with her brothers. In Chicago, she worked as a manicurist at the White Sox Barber Shop. There she heard stories of flying during wartime from pilots returning home from World War I. She took a second job as a restaurant manager of a chili parlor to save money in hopes of becoming a pilot. American flight schools of the time admitted neither women nor black people, so Robert S. Abbott, founder and publisher of the Chicago Defender, encouraged her to study abroad.[3] Abbot publicized Coleman's quest in his newspaper and she received financial sponsorship from banker Jesse Binga and the Defender.
Bessie Coleman took a French-language class at the Berlitz Language Schools in Chicago and then traveled to Paris on November 20, 1920, so she could earn her pilot license. She learned to fly in a Nieuport 564 biplane with "a steering system that consisted of a vertical stick the thickness of a baseball bat in front of the pilot and a rudder bar under the pilot's feet."
On June 15, 1921, Coleman became the first black woman[8] and first Native American to earn an aviation pilot's license and the first black person[8] and first Native American to earn an international aviation license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. Determined to polish her skills, Coleman spent the next two months taking lessons from a French ace pilot near Paris and, in September 1921, she sailed for America. She became a media sensation when she returned to the U.S.
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It’s Wednesday, June 16, 2021
Welcome to the 1,130th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Gallagh Man
470–120 BC.
National Museum of Ireland
NearEMPTiness - Own work
Artefact in the National Museum of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin, Ireland
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2.0 Commentary
So you thought the $34.00 Bristol Lounge Burger excessive?
Really?
You got French fries with that burger.
And it was a mix of beef and lamb.
Now comes the Newbury, the Café at.
The room is gorgeous.
The quintessence of taste.
Should be for their $28.00 burger.
But wait! You say.
A bargain vs the Bristol’s $34.00.
Ooops! Did I not mention that the Newbury is the bare, naked burger.
French fries? Add $12.00 please.
How much is 28 plus 12?
Sounds like a forty-dollar burger folks.
Better stick to their two eggs any style.
$27.00.
Two eggs, not three. Eggs are .25 cents each these days.
$27.00 for two eggs. No extra charge if you want them fried or sunny up.
But I exaggerate.
You are offered your choice of meats.
No extra charge.
Two eggs with bacon: $27.00.
Makes a big difference.
I tremble when I think of what a cup of coffee might cost.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“And there was never a better time to delve for pleasure in language than the sixteenth century, when novelty blew through English like a spring breeze.
Some twelve thousand words, a phenomenal number, entered the language between 1500 and 1650, about half of them still in use today, and old words were employed in ways not tried before.
Nouns became verbs and adverbs; adverbs became adjectives.
Expressions that could not have grammatically existed before - such as 'breathing one's last' and 'backing a horse', both coined by Shakespeare - were suddenly popping up everywhere.”
~Bill Bryson,
Shakespeare: The World as Stage
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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
A question came in: Is coffee the culprit of the various ills I’ve been experiencing?
Blog meister responds: The answer is No!. The problem with my crossing the caffeine line was the near caffeine attack: the loss of strength to raise or lower my limbs and the vertigo. In the case of the writer who drinks scads of coffee, she’s been around long enough so that she would know if she could handle her intake. When I had my only serious caffeine attack fifteen years ago, I wasn’t paying enough attention to my body signals, specifically, I wasn’t enjoying the coffee. That was my body telling me I was hurting it. I kept drinking the coffee as something to do while I worked. Love coffee but learned to be aware of it.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Saturday night I ate alone.
I spent a bunch of time making a large Dutch Oven full of a new recipe for curry which I am calling a Jamaican Festival Curry, festival because it has chicken, beef, lamb, and pork. And festival because I used stock, white wine, and coconut milk instead of water.
I’m serving the curry to a dinner party on Monday evening.
I made plenty and when it was done I skimmed a dinner plate full to test it.
It was delicious.
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Gallagh Man is the name given to a preserved Iron Age bog body found in County Galway, Ireland, in 1821. The remains date to c. 470–120 BC, and are of a six-foot (1.8 m) tall, healthy male with dark and reddish hair, who is estimated to have been around 25 years old at the time of death. The presence of a withy hoop – a rope made from twisted willow twigs – found wrapped around his throat indicates that he was strangled during either a ritual killing or during execution as a criminal.
Gallagh Man was found buried in a ten-foot (3.0 m) deep grave in a peat bog, dressed in a long leather mantle, and pinned down by two long wooden stakes. His teeth and hair were almost fully preserved, and although the body is severely dehydrated and thus shriveled, it has suffered from little shrinkage and it is described overall as exceptionally well-preserved.
The body was bought by the Royal Irish Academy in 1829 and is now held by the archaeology department of the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin, where it is one of four such bodies in their collection.
The withy hoop found around his neck may originally have been the part of a spancel used for restraining animals. It was probably used as a garrotte to strangle him, probably during a ritual involving human sacrifice, given that most of such bodies from this period are young males aged 25 to 40 years old, and like many of these victims, his hair had been closely cropped.
It is also possible that he was murdered outside of a ritual context, or was a criminal who was put to death. However, the willow rope strongly suggest ritual sacrifice; they often appear for this purpose in early Irish mythological stories such as that of the Táin Bó Cúailnge.
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It’s Tuesday, June 15, 2021
Welcome to the 1,129th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Game of Thrones
Season 1, Region 1 DVD box artwork, depicting Eddard Stark on the Iron Throne
Source:
Image of the Region 1 artwork For Game of Thrones Season 1
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2.0 Commentary
It’s all in the head.
One night in mid-May I stepped on the scale and reached for the white flag. Further struggle to control my weight is futile. I will graciously surrender to the implacable attack of calories.
After years of ‘trying’ to control my overweight I give up the struggle. Let it happen. I’ll buy new jeans.
I wake at 3.30am
Plane for San Fran leaves in three hours.
An eating trip.
Thinking of my last eating trip: Paris.
Thinking how determined I was then to not gain weight. (I lost two pounds on that trip.)
What happened to me?
You know, I thought, if I did it in Paris I can do it in San Fran.
And I did.
That simple early morning moment girding me despite my three years of constant defeats to stay true to my diet.
We workers in the hotel industry used to say: Never surrender.
I returned from the trip no heavier than when I left.
And that determination stayed with me.
For the last four weeks I’ve eaten a small breakfast (one-third of a muffin, well-buttered, and a soft-boiled egg.)
I’ve had a snack for lunch.
A miniature chocolate with my afternoon espresso.
And then a legitimate dinner.
No cheating.
And the weight has melted from me.
I’m back in control of my diet.
No new jeans necessary.
I also had to tweak my diet to combat constipation.
After a week of testing alternatives, I settled on adding two prunes to my snacks and two stool softeners to my fiber pills.
After three successful weeks, I can safely say these changes appear to be permanent.
3.0 Writing
Between my editor Victoria and my good friend Howard, I have excellent direction to restart my writing project.
There’s a bit of reading that they have provided me with which I hope to finish in the next week, preparatory to reconstructing the novel.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“Raphael paints wisdom,
Handel sings it,
Phidias carves it,
Shakespeare writes it,
Wren builds it,
Columbus sails it,
Luther preaches it,
Washington arms it,
Watt mechanizes it.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
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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 the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles
RE: Upgrade to REAL ID Appointment
Sat 6/12/2021 4:48 PM
Reservation number spdpfk
Thank you for making a reservation using Mass.Gov/RMV. Your reservation information is below.
Name: DOMENIC CAPOSSELA.
Location: Haymarket RMV.
Date/Time: 06/25/2021 11:00:00 AM.
By booking this appointment you are confirming that from now until the conclusion of said appointment, you will have abided by all currently existing COVID-19 public health guidelines, including, but not limited to, guidance on travel, face coverings, and quarantining. You agree that you will forgo your appointment if you are feeling unwell or test positive to COVID-19.
Please arrive on time and prepared for your visit. Only you will be allowed in the Service Center. Friends and/or family will be not allowed unless assistance is needed for mobility or translation services. Also, for your safety and ours, we ask all RMV customers to wear face coverings when you visit the Service Center for your scheduled reservation.
Visit Mass.Gov/RMV and search your transaction type to ensure you are prepared for your visit.
If you need to cancel or reschedule this reservation, visit the RMV’s Online Service Center. You will need your reservation number.
Blog meister responds: A Real ID To make it easier to travel.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Now under new ownership/management.
Legal Seafood is as good as ever.
I had a terrific lightly dressed small Caesar salad followed by an appetizer of perfectly Fried Clams.
The meal my main dinner of the day.
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Game of Thrones (season 1)
Country of origin United States
No. of episodes 10
Release
Original network HBO
Original release April 17 –June 19, 2011
The first season of the fantasy drama television series Game of Thrones premiered on HBO on April 17, 2011, in the U.S. and concluded on June 19, 2011. It consists of ten episodes, each of approximately 55 minutes. The series is based on A Game of Thrones, the first novel in the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin, adapted for television by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss.
HBO had ordered a television pilot in November 2008; filming began the following year. However, it was deemed unsatisfactory and later reshot with some roles recast. In March 2010, HBO ordered the first season, which began filming in July 2010, primarily in Belfast, Northern Ireland, with additional filming in Malta.
The story takes place in a fantasy world, primarily upon the continent Westeros, with one storyline occurring on another continent to the east, Essos. Like the novel, the season initially focuses on the family of nobleman Eddard "Ned" Stark, the Warden of the North, who is asked to become the King's Hand (chief advisor) to his longtime friend, King Robert Baratheon. Ned seeks to find out who murdered his predecessor, Jon Arryn. He uncovers dark secrets about the powerful Lannister family, which includes Robert's queen, Cersei, that his predecessor died trying to expose. This leads, after Robert's death, to Ned's arrest for treason. Ned's eldest son, Robb, begins a rebellion against the Lannisters. Ned is killed at the order of Cersei's tyrannical teenage son, King Joffrey Baratheon. Meanwhile, in Essos, the exiled Viserys Targaryen, son of the former king, forces his sister Daenerys to marry a Dothraki warlord in exchange for an army to pursue his claim to the Iron Throne. The season ends with Viserys dead and Daenerys becoming the Mother of Dragons.
Game of Thrones features a large ensemble cast, including established actors such as Sean Bean, Mark Addy, Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Michelle Fairley, and Iain Glen. Newer actors were cast as the younger generation of characters, such as Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington, Sophie Turner, and Maisie Williams.
Critics praised the show's production values and cast; Dinklage's portrayal of Tyrion Lannister received specific accolades, as did Bean and Clarke, as well as Ramin Djawadi for music.
The first season won two of the thirteen Emmy Awards for which it was nominated: Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (Dinklage) and Outstanding Main Title Design. It was also nominated for Outstanding Drama Series. U.S. viewership rose by approximately 33% over the course of the season, from 2.2 million to over 3 million by the finale.
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It’s Monday, June 14, 2021
Welcome to the 1,128th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Callaloo
prepared and displayed by Petra Lapiste of carifrique.com
at her Trinidadian cooking event in Yokisuka, Japan, 29 January 2012.
Photographed by Shivonne Du Barry.
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2.0 Commentary
I worked with the Jamaican Chicken Curry recipe I followed recently and from my experience developed a recipe I call Jamaican Festival.
Instead of just chicken, I added beef and lamb stew meats as well as pork butt.
Instead of water, I added white wine, chicken stock, and coconut milk.
I cooked the meats first instead of the vegetables first.
The result worthy of a holiday meal.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“A third...candidate for Shakespearean authorship was Christopher Marlowe.
He was the right age (just two months older than Shakespeare),
had the requisite talent, and
would certainly have had ample leisure after 1593,
assuming he wasn't too dead to work.”
~Bill Bryson
Shakespeare: The World as Stage
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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 Soutrh Carolina and my dear friend Tommie T:
Dom, your walking is reminiscent of my father's walking.
Before leaving the Navy, when home on leave, we would walk everywhere from where his parents lived (he supported them) to the grocery, drugstore, the park and just around the small city of Bessemer, AL. After he retired from the Navy, we lived with my maternal grandmother until she died and then we stayed at that residence.
Every night after dinner, he would walk for an hour in the neighborhood.
He was a role model for walking and working out.
Not many people I know have parents that perform that model.
My father was one and you are the other.
I want to thank you.
Being and staying in good physical shape is so important not only for us who are getting into our elder years, but for others who will be taking care of us.
I see so many overweight people and I am thinking, "Get some help - your knees and hips are going to give out on you, and you are going to develop Type II Diabetes."
And meds are not the answer.
I walk about 30 -45 minutes twice daily. . . dog walking - which doesn't really count, but my precious young internist says, "Tommie, you are moving."
I appreciate that support. I do yoga twice weekly and PT once a week. And I clean my house. . . which is physically demanding.
I am so inspired that we are of this age and you are walking so many miles a day!
I love the song by Willie Nelson, "If I Had Known I Was Going to Live this Long, I Would Have Taken Better Care of Myself"
- Go forth, my man!
Blog meister responds: Thank you, Tommie. Love that Willie! He’s Always on my Mind.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
On Thursday afternoon LouLou and I copped a great table outdoors at Abe and Louie’s.
It was cool but we were wind protected and the sun warmed us perfectly.
Abe knows how to serve a martini. The petite carafe holding the drink comes out in a bowl of ice and the waiter pours a third of it into your glass. The rest stays in the ice getting colder. They know.
For dinner we had a salad and burgers.
Food and service are always good at Abe and Louie’s.
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11.0 Thumbnail
Callaloo (sometimes kallaloo, calaloo, calalloo, or callalloo) is a popular Caribbean vegetable dish.
There are many variants across the Caribbean, depending on the availability of local vegetables.
The main ingredient is an indigenous leaf vegetable, traditionally either amaranth (known by many local names including callaloo), taro leaves (known by many local names, including dasheeen bush, callaloo bush, callaloo, or bush) or Xanthosoma leaves (known by many names, including cocoyam & tannia).
Since the leaf vegetable used in some regions may be locally called "callaloo" or "callaloo bush" "dasheen Leaves", some confusion can arise among the vegetables and with the dish itself. This, as is the case with many other Caribbean dishes, is a remnant of West African cuisine.
Callaloo recipes
Callaloo in Trinidad & Tobago and other eastern Caribbean countries is generally made with okra and dasheen or water spinach Ipomoea aquatica. There are many variations of callaloo which may include coconut milk, crab, conch, Caribbean lobster, meats, pumpkin, chili peppers, and other seasonings such as chopped onions and garlic. The ingredients are added and simmered down to a somewhat stew-like consistency. When done, callaloo is dark green in colour and is served as a side dish which may be used as a gravy for other food.
Callaloo is widely known throughout the Caribbean and has a distinctively Caribbean origin, utilising indigenous (Xanthosoma) plants and modified with African influences, such as okra. (See Palaver sauce for the West African dish.). Trinidadians have embraced this dish from their ancestors and over time have added ingredients such as coconut milk to modify its flavour. Callaloo is mostly served as a side dish, for Trinidadians, Bajans, and Grenadians it usually accompanies rice, macaroni pie, and a meat of choice. In Guyana it is made in various ways without okra.
In Jamaica, callaloo is often combined with saltfish and is usually seasoned with tomatoes, onion, escallion, scotch bonnet peppers and margarine/cooking oil and steamed. It is often eaten with roasted breadfruit, boiled green bananas and dumplings and it is a popular breakfast dish.
In Grenada, callaloo is steamed with garlic, onion and coconut milk and often eaten as a side dish. Grenadians also stir or blend the mixture until it has a smooth consistent texture. Callaloo soup comprising callaloo, okra (optional), dumplings, ground provision like yam, potato (sweet and "Irish") chicken and beef is traditionally eaten on Saturdays. It is also one of the most important ingredient in Oil Down, the Island's National Dish comprising steamed breadfruit, callaloo, dumplings, ground provision, carrot and several varieties of meat--salt fish, chicken, pork. All of this is steamed in coconut milk and saffron powder. Salt and pepper is added. Due to the high iron content of callaloo, Grenadians douse it down with a fruit drink high in Vitamin C especially as Iron could only be absorbed in the presence of Vitamin C.
In the Virgin Islands, callaloo is served with a dish of fungee on the side.
In Guadeloupe, "calalou au crabe" (crab callaloo) is a traditional Easter dish.
A similar variation is the recipe called "Laing" which is popular in the Philippines, mainly the Bicol region.
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It’s Sunday, June 13, 2021
Welcome to the 1,127th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Emma Louise Turner
Monochrome photograph of a young woman, wearing a lace trimmed top, and seated, facing right. She has a small dog on her lap, which is facing in the same direction.
unknown, image taken in the 1890s
- Scan of photo in the Turner archive
English ornithologist and photographer Emma Louise Turner
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2.0 Commentary
Dizziness.
heavy eyelids.
fatigue, growing difficulty in moving body parts.
I am having a caffeine attack, a mild one so far.
It’s Friday morning, June 11, 2021 @ 6.45am and I’m still in my pajamas, setting down my coffee cup.
I go to my bed and lie down for six minutes feeling my eyelids close tightly.
As soon as my lids relax a little I get up thinking movement and activity is better than wasting time waiting for something more severe to happen.
Fifteen years ago I suffered my first and only such attack.
I was a single dad and my daughter was eight. I had already returned from taking her to school.
At that time I was drinking coffee without limits, all morning long, even after I wasn’t enjoying it anymore. Not enjoying it was my body’s signal: stop the caffeine. I didn’t realize it was telling me that.
At about 10.00am the full effect of the caffeine attack hit and immobilized me in my rocker for 18 hours. Katherine’s mother had to pick her up from school and keep her for two days. During that stretch only with great exertion and fighting off vertigo could I get up to go the bed or to the bathroom.
The day after the attack, my health care providers put me through two full days of testing and could find nothing wrong.
But I knew what caused that attack.
I adulterated my morning coffee to 50% decaffeinated and reduced my intake from 32 to 16oz, and then, still feeling a bit of lightness, reducing it further to 14oz and then to 12oz, stopping there, feeling no effects.
And there I stayed for this past decade: 9 milligrams of caffeinated and 9 milligrams of decaf to 12 oz of water. The taste was acceptable.
Lately, three weeks ago, I started to change the proportions, finally reaching today’s: 14 ml caffeinated and only 4 ml decaf beans. The taste was great and no side effects.
Until this morning when I find myself under attack.
At 7.45am my condition has not worsened. Obviously, since I continue to type away.
I am feeling limp, I want to rest, but I am not going to. I am feeling that once I stop it will take me hours to get back up.
But I will sit on my window ledge for a moment and read. For just a few minutes. Be right back.
Five minute later: I’m fine. I think I dodged a bullet.
I will return to 50% caffeinated coffee.
The next question is: should I lift weights this morning? I am not under siege from the mild caffeine attack but
it has left me tired.
But routine is important.
Excuses are plentiful.
I will go but be content with going through the motions without exerting myself.
If I stay home I will languish the morning away and fell depressed about it.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye
Than twenty of their swords: look thou but sweet,
And I am proof against their enmity.”
~William Shakespeare,
Romeo and Juliet
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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 one of the group that had a particularly bad experience at Arya’s in Boston:
Thanks dom
Read your blog and the responses
Now im even more annoyed
After my discussion with him in which he didn’t off any sort of apology but I insisted that he do “do something for us “ he credited me for 120 only off the bill
To me that’s not near enough !
Blog meister responds: Perhaps you’re right, my friend. As a businessman, I would have given you a gift card for the full amount that you spent. Why? That $600.00 is only going to cost me $200 cash to buy the food and alcohol for you, only $80.00 more than the $120.00 offered. The $120.00 is the settlement of an adversarial relationship. He’s never going to see you again. Nor your friends. Nor their friends.
The $600.00 gift card retains you as a customer. It’s going to give the restaurant three or four more chances to treat you royally and retain you as a customer. In the long run, the restaurant is better off.
But if he chooses to end the relationship, so be it. Take the money and run. Don’t waste any more of your life over a nasty moment.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Wednesday night I made a Jamaican curry following a recipe that sounded good to me.
It was good.
Very good.
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11.0 Thumbnail
Emma Louisa Turner or E L Turner FLS, FZS, HMBOU (9 June 1867 – 13 August 1940) was an English ornithologist and pioneering bird photographer. Turner took up photography at age 34, after meeting the wildlife photographer Richard Kearton. She joined the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) in 1901, and by 1904 she had started to give talks illustrated with her own photographic slides; by 1908, when aged 41, she was established as a professional lecturer.
Turner spent part of each year in Norfolk, and her 1911 image of a nestling bittern in Norfolk was the first evidence of the species' return to the United Kingdom as a breeding bird after its local extinction in the late 19th century. She also travelled widely in the United Kingdom and abroad photographing birds.
Turner wrote eight books and many journal and magazine articles, and her picture of a great crested grebe led to her being awarded the Gold Medal of the RPS. She was one of the first women to be elected to fellowship of the Linnaean Society and the first female honorary member of the British Ornithologists' Union. Though not a graduate, she was also an honorary member of the British Federation of University Women. She lost her sight two years before her death.
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