June 20 to June 26 2021

Daily Entries for the week of
Sunday, June 20, 2021
through
Saturday, June 26, 2021

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It’s Saturday, June 26, 2021
Welcome to the 1,140th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com

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1.0 Lead Picture
Francoise Hardy

Franse zangeres-actrice Francoise Hardy in Amsterdam 16 december 1969
Joost Evers / Anefo - Nationaal Archief

                      
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2.0 Commentary
So I looked up the tickets to Florence.
Round trip, about $1200.00 per person.
Car rental for duration: $1500.00
Plus parking, money spent at airport, tolls, gas
Cost of transportation: $3000.00
For Katherine, who will be joining me in Florence after my several days touring the Tuscany countryside by myself, Arezzo, Pienza, Cortona, San Gimignano, Padua, add another round trip plane ticket: $1200.00.

We are ready to pull the trigger.
Perhaps Thursday or Friday night daughter Kat and I will commit ourselves to the dates and buy the tickets.
Once the tickets are bought and the car is set we’ll book the hotels. Some restaurants will not take reservations so far out, but I’ll make calendar notes and call as soon as permitted.
Exciting.

A shout out here to Howard Dinin whose support and direction have gotten me back into the Conflicted manuscript I am writing. I am excited to be writing again with fresh ideas on the presentation of the story.

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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“I can call spirits from the vasty deep."
Why so can I, or so can any man. But will they come when you do call for them?”
~ William Shakespeare

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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 Gary B who is developing navigation systems for the visually impaired, Gary motived by yesterday’s mention of the Elements of Style by Strunk and White.

Howdy, Dom,

For decades Strunk & White has been one of my half dozen desert island books. If I were stuck on a desert island (with paper and pen? a knife and bark to write on?), I’d want a mentor to ensure I wrote concisely and clearly. What better mentor than that slim volume?

I have two copies, and I’m waiting for the chance to give the second copy away. My original copy is a cheap, thin paperwork that cost me maybe a dollar—an unbeatable bargain.

Gary Bartos
Founder
Echobatix, LLC

Blog meister responds: Who’d a thunk it? Strunk wrote the first version for his university students to use. Look at what it’s grown into? Something akin to Facebook’s origination. Except for the speed of Facebook’s development and the reach.

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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
The progress of medicine in detecting allergies and intolerances has made food preparation that much more complex. In years past one just had to make sure guests had no religious prohibitions. But now we must ask after medical concerns. And often enough we do discover one guest who doesn’t eat red meat or can eat no dairy. Sometimes a guest offers that as a matter of preference she doesn’t eat this or that. Fortunately, although the menu for the night might require a little more thought, we do have plenty of recipes at our disposal to accommodate the more common issues.

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Françoise Madeleine Hardy, born 17 January 1944, is a French singer and songwriter. Mainly known for singing melancholic sentimental ballads, Hardy has been an important figure in French pop music since her debut, spanning a career of more than fifty years with over thirty studio albums released. She rose to prominence in the early 1960s as a leading figure of the yé-yé wave, a genre of pop music and associated youth culture phenomenon that adapted to French the pop and rock styles that came from the United States and the United Kingdom. The singer quickly differentiated herself from her peers by writing her own material, a rare feat in an industry dominated by older, male composers and producers. France's most exportable female singer of the era, Hardy rose to international fame and released music sung in English, Italian and German, in addition to her native French. She also landed roles as a supporting actress in the films Château en Suède, Une balle au cœur and the American big-budget production Grand Prix, although she never pursued a serious acting career. In the mid-1960s, she also established herself as a pop and fashion icon with the aid of photographer Jean-Marie Périer, becoming a muse for top designers such as André Courrèges, Yves Saint Laurent and Paco Rabanne. In the English-speaking world, her trendy public image and personal style made an even greater impact than her music, leading to her becoming an icon for the Swinging London scene, and attracting the admiration of several famous artists. She has been married to fellow French singer-songwriter Jacques Dutronc since 1981 and their only son, Thomas, is also a musician.

Born and raised in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, Hardy had a troubled childhood marked by the strict upbringing of her single mother and a largely absent father. As a teenager, she discovered English-language rock and roll performers including Elvis Presley and Brill Building pop acts such as Paul Anka through the radio, and decided to pursue a singing career. Hardy made her musical debut in 1962 on French label Disques Vogue and found immediate success through the hit song "Tous les garçons et les filles", which remains one of her most popular compositions. Disliking the production of her early releases, she began to record in London in 1964, which allowed her to broaden her sound with albums such as Mon amie la rose, L'amitié, La maison où j'ai grandi and Ma jeunesse fout le camp.... In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Hardy sought to assert herself as an artist, although this implied less commercial repercussion. The albums Comment te dire adieu, La question and Message personnel—released during this period—are among her most influential and critical acclaimed works. In them, Hardy began to work with more renowned songwriters such as Serge Gainsbourg, Patrick Modiano, Michel Berger and Catherine Lara. Between 1977 and 1988, she worked with producer Gabriel Yared in a string of successful albums, including Star, Musique saoûle, Gin Tonic and À suivre. Her 1988 record Décalages was widely publicized as Hardy's final album, although she returned eight years later with Le danger, which completely reinvented her sound to a harsher alternative rock. Nevertheless, her following albums of the 2000s—Clair-obscur, Tant de belles choses and (Parenthèses...)—saw her return to her usual mellow style.

As a public figure, Hardy is renowned for her shyness, disenchantment with celebrity life and self-deprecatory attitude—attributed to her lifelong struggles with anxiety and insecurity. In addition to music, Hardy has developed a renowned career as an astrologer, having written extensively on the subject since the 1970s as a proponent of the "conditionalist" school of thought—outlined by Jean-Pierre Nicola—which rejects the divinatory use of the discipline. Since the 2000s, she has also worked as a writer of both fiction and non-fiction books, including a bestselling autobiography and two essays. Through these works, Hardy has been noted for her frankness in discussing her family life and health problems related to MALT lymphoma and old age, as well as her sometimes controversial political ideas. In 2006, she was awarded the Grande médaille de la chanson française honorary award given by the Académie française, in recognition of her career in music. In the 2010s, Hardy released her last three albums: La pluie sans parapluie, L'amour fou—released alongside her eponymous first novel in celebration of the 50th anniversary of her music career—and Personne d'autre—which brought her out of a previously declared retirement. In 2021, an increasingly ill Hardy announced that she would not be able to sing again, owing to the effects of cancer therapy. Long after the height of her career in the 1960s, Hardy remains one of the best-selling singers in French history, and continues to be regarded as an iconic and influential figure in both music and fashion. Her work has appeared on several critics' lists.

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It’s Friday, June 25, 2021
Welcome to the 1,139th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com

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1.0 Lead Picture
The Elements of Style

William Strunk Jr. and E.B.White

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2.0 Commentary
Be kind to yourself.
You’ll keep coming back, and that, my friends, is the secret of life; it’s also the secret of consistent attendance at your weightlifting sessions.
If you’re training for some form of athletics, you must push to the limit of your endurance.
But if you’re a regular guy, like myself, and you expect the maximum effort on every of your regular visits to the gym, you are eventually going to dread the thought of exercise.
If you aren’t up to snuff on any particular night, cut the weight or the reps or both.
Make the exercise suit your energy level.
Keep coming back.

I had dinner Friday night with a dear friend from college, Jack Hagan.
Jack’s word of advice, when looking back on your life, don’t forget the good things you accomplished.

I’m back to work on my manuscript, first draft already written.
I’ve signed on to an online class (an 8-week course for $26.00. The three free lessons convinced me I would get my money’s worth plus from the course.

I’ve broken the novel into four parts and an epilogue.
I will gather the headlines for Part One in the next several days.
Then I’ll start my rewrite in Part One while I spend some time on gathering the headlines for Part Two.
Meanwhile I will take the online class.
When I rewrite Part One I will recheck the draft against the ideas that Howard D and Victoria passed by me.
Then I’ll send the rewrite to Victoria for another editing go-round.
How I’m thinking at this moment.

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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“Who are these people sharing the street with me?
What is going on in their worlds, inside their heads?
Are they in love?
If so, is it the kind that Mum and Dad have?
Based on having things in common, like raspberry picking and a love of dogs, and Shakespeare, and long country walks?
Or is it the knock-you-out, eat-you-up, set-you-on-fire kind of love that I have longed for-and avoided-all my life?”
~Alison Larkin, The English American

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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,

Your comment about not wanting to make leftovers in the same format as the first reminded me of what I feel is one of my superpowers, and so you should consider yours the same! I call it my Lunch Lady Specials because as a lunch lady or chef at any large venue often-times they have to use the same ingredients from a day before but find a new way to "disguise" it so the patrons don't think they're getting leftovers. Honestly, it can be great fun and a challenge to magically transform roast chicken into soup, roast beef into stew, steak into beef and broccoli, pork into a white chili. I'm sure as a previous restaurant owner you have many tricks up your sleeve in this arena.

Bon Apetit!

Cheers,

Colleen:)

Blog meister responds:  I think most cooks will agree with you, my dear. But one phenomenon that always made me laugh, just before I tossed the leftover leftover-solution, were the recipes for leftovers that produced a dinner larger than the original recipe. Your group didn’t finish the first result and they’re certainly not going to finish the second, larger offering. Any recipes for those leftovers?

Reminds me of a friend of mine who complained his mother treated him like a god: “She gave me burnt offerings.”

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The Elements of Style is an American English writing style guide in numerous editions.

The original was composed by William Strunk Jr. in 1918, and published by Harcourt in 1920, comprising eight "elementary rules of usage", ten "elementary principles of composition", "a few matters of form", a list of 49 "words and expressions commonly misused", and a list of 57 "words often misspelled".

E. B. White greatly enlarged and revised the book for publication by Macmillan in 1959. That was the first edition of the so-called Strunk & White, which Time named in 2011 as one of the 100 best and most influential books written in English since 1923, though it has also been criticized for misunderstanding basic grammatical concepts.

Strunk concentrated on the cultivation of good writing and composition; the original 1918 edition exhorted writers to "omit needless words", use the active voice, and employ parallelism appropriately.

The 1959 edition features White's expansions of preliminary sections, the "Introduction" essay (derived from his magazine feature story about Prof. Strunk), and the concluding chapter, "An Approach to Style", a broader, prescriptive guide to writing in English.
He also produced the second (1972) and third (1979) editions of The Elements of Style, by which time the book's length had extended to 85 pages.

The third edition of The Elements of Style (1979) features 54 points: a list of common word-usage errors; 11 rules of punctuation and grammar; 11 principles of writing; 11 matters of form; and, in Chapter V, 21 reminders for better style. The final reminder, the 21st, "Prefer the standard to the offbeat", is thematically integral to the subject of The Elements of Style, yet does stand as a discrete essay about writing lucid prose.
To write well, White advises writers to have the proper mind-set, that they write to please themselves, and that they aim for "one moment of felicity", a phrase by Robert Louis Stevenson. Thus Strunk's 1918 recommendation:

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that he make every word tell. — "Elementary Principles of Composition", The Elements of Style

Strunk Jr. no longer has a comma in his name in the 1979 and later editions, due to the modernized style recommendation about punctuating such names.

The fourth edition of The Elements of Style (2000), published 54 years after Strunk's death, omits his stylistic advice about masculine pronouns: "unless the antecedent is or must be feminine".
In its place, the following sentence has been added: "many writers find the use of the generic he or his to rename indefinite antecedents limiting or offensive." Further, the re-titled entry "They. He or She", in Chapter IV: Misused Words and Expressions, advises the writer to avoid an "unintentional emphasis on the masculine".

Components new to the fourth edition include a foreword by Roger Angell, stepson of E. B. White, an afterword by the American cultural commentator Charles Osgood, a glossary, and an index. Five years later, the fourth edition text was re-published as The Elements of Style Illustrated (2005), with illustrations by the designer Maira Kalman. This edition excludes the afterword by Osgood and restores the first edition chapter on spelling.

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It’s Thursday, June 24, 2021
Welcome to the 1,138th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com

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1.0 Lead Picture
Vernal crab

from the Belgian coastal waters on board of RV Belgica.
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Attribution: © Hans Hillewaert

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2.0 Commentary
I love the prices that M Basket charges for their product and on that basis really dislike saying anything negative about them.
But I believe you can taste a lower quality in their fish.
Just as I believe their fruit and vegetables are not the equal of the more expensive supermarkets.
Now their boxes, can, and bottles are most competitive and, Market Basket, we salute you for that.

I’ve been lifting using a chart long ago developed.
What a shock to learn on Tuesday that the chart does not include Abdominal Crunches, a classic; a mainstay; a lynchpin.
I will correct that flagrant error forthwith.

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3.0 Reading and Writing Events
I am into the organization of my manuscript.
Two days ago I completed a Character Sheet.
Today I finished outlining the storylines.
Both of these tools will aid in the reorganization and fleshing out of the story.

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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“One need not believe in Pallas Athena, the virgin goddess, to be overwhelmed by the Parthenon. Similarly, a man who rejects all dogmas, all theologies and all religious formulations of beliefs may still find Genesis the sublime book par excellence.
Experiences and aspirations of which intimations may be found in Plato, Nietzsche, and Spinoza have found their most evocative expression in some sacred books. Since the Renaissance, Shakespeare, Rembrandt, Mozart, and a host of others have shown that this religious dimension can be experienced and communicated apart from any religious context.
But that is no reason for closing my heart to Job's cry, or to Jeremiah's, or to the Second Isaiah.
I do not read them as mere literature; rather, I read Sophocles and Shakespeare with all my being, too.”
~Walter Kaufmann

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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 Tommie T:

I love the concept of job coaching.
We try to teach that to teachers as well. I have always had the belief that we need to "scaffold" others -- our colleagues as well as neophytes. Providing a lift for others to succeed and have joy makes for a better community and world writ-large.
The caveat is that feelings of inadequacy, fear, the need for power often get in the way of many people.
I shake my head is wonder as to why one would not want to have a legacy of helping others succeed with no loss to the scaffolder except time. 

I was in art class several years ago and an attorney in the class asked me why I as well as several others in the class were so supportive of new artists in the class.
My answer: "I want to be in a group where everyone is known as a good painter and knowledgeable about art. It is a selfish reason, I guess. I want you to be great and it makes me look good to hang out with you."
She became a good friend and a very good artist. Not to mention, she is a damn good lawyer. 

Blog meister responds: Very nice.

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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
I made a fish soup from fish bought at Market Basket.
Was not crazy for the flavor.
I had intended to cook a crab in it but instead I simply steamed the crab in salted water.
At least that had a lovely fresh seawater flavor. 

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Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" (abdomen) usually hidden entirely under the thorax.
They live in all the world's oceans, in fresh water, and on land, are generally covered with a thick exoskeleton, and have a single pair of pincers.
Many other animals with similar names – such as hermit crabs, king crabs, porcelain crabs, horseshoe crabs, stone crabs, and crab lice – are not true crabs, but many have evolved features similar to true crabs through a process known as carcinisation.

Crabs typically walk sideways (a behaviour which gives us the word crabwise), because of the articulation of the legs which makes a sidelong gait more efficient. However, some crabs walk forwards or backwards, including raninids, Libinia emarginata and Mictyris platycheles. Some crabs, notably the Portunidae and Matutidae, are also capable of swimming, the Portunidae especially so as their last pair of walking legs is flattened into swimming paddles.

Crabs are mostly active animals with complex behaviour patterns such as communicating by drumming or waving their pincers. Crabs tend to be aggressive towards one another, and males often fight to gain access to females. On rocky seashores, where nearly all caves and crevices are occupied, crabs may also fight over hiding holes. Fiddler crabs (genus Uca) dig burrows in sand or mud, which they use for resting, hiding, and mating, and to defend against intruders.

Crabs are omnivores, feeding primarily on algae, and taking any other food, including molluscs, worms, other crustaceans, fungi, bacteria, and detritus, depending on their availability and the crab species. For many crabs, a mixed diet of plant and animal matter results in the fastest growth and greatest fitness. However, some species are more specialised in their diets. Some eat plankton, some eat primarily shellfish such as clams, and some even catch fish.

Crabs are known to work together to provide food and protection for their family, and during mating season to find a comfortable spot for the female to release her eggs.

Crabs make up 20% of all marine crustaceans caught, farmed, and consumed worldwide, amounting to 1.5 million tonnes annually. One species, Portunus trituberculatus, accounts for one-fifth of that total. Other commercially important taxa include Portunus pelagicus, several species in the genus Chionoecetes, the blue crab (Callinectes sapidus), Charybdis spp., Cancer pagurus, the Dungeness crab (Metacarcinus magister), and Scylla serrata, each of which yields more than 20,000 tonnes annually.

In some crab species, meat is harvested by manually twisting and pulling off one or both claws and returning the live crab to the water in the belief the crab will survive and regenerate the claws.

Crabs are prepared and eaten as a dish in many different ways all over the world. Some species are eaten whole, including the shell, such as soft-shell crab; with other species, just the claws or legs are eaten. The latter is particularly common for larger crabs, such as the snow crab. In many cultures, the roe of the female crab is also eaten, which usually appears orange or yellow in fertile crabs. This is popular in Southeast Asian cultures, some Mediterranean and Northern European cultures, and on the East, Chesapeake, and Gulf Coasts of the United States.

In some regions, spices improve the culinary experience. In Southeast Asia and the Indosphere, masala crab and chilli crab are examples of heavily spiced dishes. In the Chesapeake Bay region, blue crab is often steamed with Old Bay Seasoning. Alaskan king crab or snow crab legs are usually simply boiled and served with garlic or lemon butter.

For the British dish dressed crab, the crab meat is extracted and placed inside the hard shell. One American way to prepare crab meat is by extracting it and adding varying amounts of binders, such as egg white, cracker meal, mayonnaise, or mustard, creating a crab cake. Crabs can also be made into a bisque, a global dish of French origin which in its authentic form includes in the broth the pulverized shells of the shellfish from which it is made.

Imitation crab, also called surimi, is made from minced fish meat that is crafted and colored to resemble crab meat. While it is sometimes disdained among some elements of the culinary industry as an unacceptably low-quality substitute for real crab, this does not hinder its popularity, especially as a sushi ingredient in Japan and South Korea, and in home cooking, where cost is often a chief concern.[29] Indeed, surimi is an important source of protein in most East and Southeast Asian cultures, appearing in staple ingredients such as fish balls and fish cake.

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It’s Wednesday, June 23, 2021
Welcome to the 1,137th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com

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1.0 Lead Picture
The Thankful Poor

Henry Ossawa Tanner - The Athenaeum: Home - info - pic
Public Domain
File: The Thankful Poor, 1894.
Henry Ossawa Tanner
.jpg
Created: 1894date QS:P571,+1894-00-00T00:00:00Z/9

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2.0 Commentary
Just as I was about to fall asleep, I was startled awake by what sounded like a small explosion on the street thirty-one floors down from my bedroom.
I don’t know what it was but I could not get back to sleep after that.
At 2.30am I had my morning coffee and half-muffin and I worked on my manuscript.

As it turns out, after consultations with my friend, Howard, and my editor, Victoria, I should take the preliminary steps that most authors take, starting with a character sheet. I spent the early morning copying from the Internet.

Here is a small sampling of what is on the sheet:

Immediate Family: (Who was your character raised by?)

Distant Family: (The ones they don't see every day)

Parenting: (Were their parents strict or fun-loving?)

Upbringing: (What morals and ideals was your characters raised with?)

Infancy: ([0-2] What was it like when your characters were babies? Were they nurtured or dropped at birth?)

Childhood: ([3-12] What was it like for your character growing as a kid ?)

Adolescence: ([13-17] Teen years)

Adulthood: ([18+] When your character has fully matured. If your character isn't yet an adult, plan what would happen to them in the future.)

Coming of Age: (When and how did your character "grow up"?)

Evolution: (How has your character changed since she was younger?)

Responding to these and other weighty questions will surely aid the manuscript.
But it looks like another year’s work.
I write it off as education.

The next question is: will I be able to make the day productive?
These early hours are easy enough.
At 6.00am I must finish cooking the turkey I bought several days ago.
At 8.00am I must take a call from Microsoft. They are teaching me about the alert dings on my Duo cell phone they are marketing.
All day I will tend to my daughter who needs my attention.
Naps.
Even naps that are merely drowsy and not fully sleeping naps will suffice.
In fact, I think I hear one calling me now.
Excuse me.
Gotta lie down.

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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“I have been right, Basil, haven’t I, to take my love out of poetry, and to find my wife in Shakespeare’s plays?
Lips that Shakespeare taught to speak have whispered their secret in my ear.
I have had the arms of Rosalind around me, and kissed Juliet on the mouth.”
~Oscar Wilde

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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 my son, Chris, relative to Grace, and her recent 3-minute ballet presentation.

“Here is the 2021 Choreography Showcase which is the one Grace choreographed herself and danced outside at our house. She is the first dancer in the showcase and starts at 3 minutes in.”

Blog meister responds: She’s pretty amazing. And if you have another three minutes, this is her again, an application for an Alvin Ailey summer intensive:

Ailey Intensive Application - YouTube

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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Sunday night I made a Roast Beef sandwich with a bit of roast leftover from a dinner out.
To the beef I added horseradish, mayonnaise, mustard, salt and freshly ground pepper, and chopped dill pickle. I topped the filling with slices of tomato, red onion, and lettuce, dressed with a simple Italian salad dressing.
I used a square Iggy’s ciabatta sandwich bread and added a slice of goat cheese.
Loved it.

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11.0 Thumbnail
The Thankful Poor is an 1894 painting by African-American painter Henry Ossawa Tanner. It is a genre painting of two African Americans praying at a table, and shares common themes with Tanner's other paintings from the 1890s including The Banjo Lesson (1893) and The Young Sabot Maker (1895). The work is based on photographs Tanner had taken, and is influenced by his views on education and race, which were in turn derived from those of his father and the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The painting is considered a milestone in African-American art, notably for its countering of racial stereotypes.

Following his return to the United States in 1893, Tanner became more racially aware and chose to use artwork including The Thankful Poor as a means of portraying African-American culture in a dignified manner. Despite its popularity with critics, it was Tanner's last African-American genre work before he began to focus on biblical scenes.

After remaining hidden for years, the painting was discovered in a storage closet of the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf in 1970, before being purchased by Camille and Bill Cosby in 1981 for their private collection. In 2020, the painting was sold by the Cosbys to Art Bridges, a foundation created by Alice Walton for loaning artwork. The Thankful Poor has been exhibited at the National Museum of African Art, and a preparatory study is held by the DuSable Museum of African American History.

The Thankful Poor depicts an old man and a young boy—perhaps a grandfather and his grandson—at a table, praying before their meal. To the left, the scene's only source of light comes from the window with sheer curtains behind the old man. The old man sits on a high-backed chair with his elbows on the table and his hands clasped before his face in prayer. Across from the old man, the boy sits on a low bench or crate, one hand held to his head in an effort to emulate the man's prayerful pose. The table is set with a tablecloth, two white plates and cups, a large white pitcher, cutlery, and small portions of food. The painting is signed, dated, and titled to the lower left: "H.O. TANNER / 1894 / The Thankful Poor". The reverse contains an early study for Tanner's 1895 painting The Young Sabot Maker.

The composition possibly draws inspiration from American artist Elizabeth Nourse's 1891 painting Le Repas en Famille (The Family Meal), which shares a similar setting. Nourse's painting depicts a French peasant family gathered around a table, a scene that would be familiar to Tanner since he spent his time in France painting in the Brittany countryside where local peasants were among his favorite subjects.[9] Since Le Repas en Famille was exhibited at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition where it won a gold medal, Tanner could have seen the painting when he visited Chicago that year to present a lecture at the World's Congress on Africa. There are also clear parallels in European art, such as Jan Steen's 1660 painting The Prayer Before the Meal.

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It’s Tuesday, June 22, 2021
Welcome to the 1,136th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com

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1.0 Lead Picture
Tuscan Hills around Radicofani

Fabrizio Lunardi - Imported from 500px (archived version) by the Archive Team. (detail page)
500px provided description: Not frar from Pienza: one of the not "so famous" location in val d'Orcia.

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2.0 Commentary
Two thoughts.
Related.

One is that I looked up articles on traveling alone.
I scanned three of them.
Not one of them mentioned what for me is the most unpleasant aspect.
That is, my sensitivity to being a single taking a table meant for two.
Both the house and the wait staff are losing their optimum seating arrangement.
I’m the cause.
Awkward.
They don’t know that they’re getting a terrific fan who will sing their praises.

The second is this: My efforts at a Sacco and Vanzetti memorial are drawing to a close.
That will free up more time for my research into a trip to Tuscany in early fall, near or just after Labor Day.
Not sure if I will be traveling alone or with others.
Rather not travel alone but so I may be relegated to do.
But the planning will give me thoughts to share.

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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
There are three rules for writing a novel.
Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.
~W. Somerset Maugham

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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 my oldest friends, Dr. Mike, a prominent psychiatrist for many years:

As a daily follower of your blog and having known you for over seventy years,

I feel license to the following observation (be it accurate or not). Seems you have recently become more forthright regarding healh issues, particularly weight and

bowel function.
That's OK I guess, but perhaps you might lead with "Chuckles & Thoughts".

If you choose to continue with the same format, you are hereby forbidden to mention the words: constipation, stool softener, prunes, fiber pills.
On the other hand we are all happy to hear that you shat,  (pluperfect). 
Best, Mike A.

Blog meister responds: A legitimate point.  However, my view is that as I get older and have more medical experiences, I want to use the blog to chronicle the injury/disease and the treatments. Many people that I talk with enjoy the sharing since they or others close to them go through these same experiences.

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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
I enjoyed a large plate of leftover Jamaican Festival Curry.
I’m not a big fan of leftover in the same format as the first time around.
This was that.
I enjoyed it but won’t be making it again anytime soon.

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Tuscany is a region in central Italy with an area of about 23,000 square kilometres (8,900 square miles) and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence (Firenze).

Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy, and its influence on high culture. It is regarded as the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance and has been home to many figures influential in the history of art and science, and contains well-known museums such as the Uffizi and the Palazzo Pitti. Tuscany is also known for its wines, including Chianti, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Morellino di Scansano, Brunello di Montalcino and white Vernaccia di San Gimignano. Having a strong linguistic and cultural identity, it is sometimes considered "a nation within a nation".
Tuscany is the second most popular Italian region for travellers in Italy. The main tourist spots are Florence, Pisa, Castiglione della Pescaia, Grosseto and Siena. The town of Castiglione della Pescaia is the most visited seaside destination in the region, with seaside tourism accounting for approximately 40% of tourist arrivals. The Maremma region, Siena, Lucca, the Chianti region, Versilia and Val d'Orcia are also internationally renowned and particularly popular spots among travellers.

Seven Tuscan localities have been designated World Heritage Sites: the historic Centre of Florence (1982); the Cathedral square of Pisa (1987); the historical centre of San Gimignano (1990); the historical centre of Siena (1995); the historical centre of Pienza (1996); the Val d'Orcia (2004), and the Medici Villas and Gardens (2013). Tuscany has over 120 protected nature reserves, making Tuscany and its capital Florence popular tourist destinations that attract millions of tourists every year. In 2018, the city of Florence was the world's 51st most visited city, with over 5 million arrivals.

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It’s Monday, June 21, 2021
Welcome to the 1,135th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com

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1.0 Lead Picture
The Gutenberg Bible, the first printed Bible (mid-15th century)

NYC Wanderer (Kevin Eng) - originally posted to Flickr as Gutenberg Bible

The Gutenberg Bible [Bible, Latin Vulgate. Ca. 1455]. Biblia Latina. [Mainz: Johann Gutenberg, ca. 1455]. Rare Books Division. From the Lenox Library The first substantial printed book is this royal-folio two-volume Bible, comprising nearly 1,300 pages, printed in Mainz on the central Rhine by Johann Gutenberg (ca. 1390s-1468) in the 1450s. It was probably completed between March 1455 and November of that year, when Gutenberg's bankruptcy deprived him of his printing establishment and the fruits of his achievements. The Bible epitomizes Gutenberg's triumph, arguably the greatest achievement of the second millennium. Forty-eight integral copies survive, including eleven on vellum. Perhaps some 180 copies were originally produced, including about 45 on vellum. The Lenox copy, on paper, is the first Gutenberg Bible to come to the United States, in 1847. Its arrival is the stuff of romantic national folklore. James Lenox's European agent issued Instructions for New York that the officers at the Customs House were to remove their hats on seeing it: the privilege of viewing a Gutenberg Bible is vouchsafed to few. (Shortened text copied from placard seen in the background)

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2.0 Commentary
Here’s a thought on the new social compact: the employer as jobs coach.
So your starting wage is $15.00/hour for a high-schooler with no prior work experience.
You teach him.
He learns the job and does good work for you.
It’s a year later and he hopes for a higher wage.
But you can replace him with someone happy with $15.00.
Someone with no prior work experience.
What is your obligation to your employee?
You, as more experienced in the labor market, must help this young man advance.
Must work with him to find his next job where he will learn new skills, more advanced skills, and earn more money.
He will move on feeling good about himself and you.
You will feel good about yourself and him.
Our society will benefit from your effort as job coach.

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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“Is it possible that the Pentateuch could not have been written by uninspired men? that the assistance of God was necessary to produce these books?
Is it possible that Galilei ascertained the mechanical principles of 'Virtual Velocity,' the laws of falling bodies and of all motion; that Copernicus ascertained the true position of the earth and accounted for all celestial phenomena; that Kepler discovered his three laws—discoveries of such importance that the 8th of May, 1618, may be called the birth-day of modern science; that Newton gave to the world the Method of Fluxions, the Theory of Universal Gravitation, and the Decomposition of Light; that Euclid, Cavalieri, Descartes, and Leibniz, almost completed the science of mathematics; that all the discoveries in optics, hydrostatics, pneumatics and chemistry, the experiments, discoveries, and inventions of Galvani, Volta, Franklin and Morse, of Trevithick, Watt and Fulton and of all the pioneers of progress—that all this was accomplished by uninspired men, while the writer of the Pentateuch was directed and inspired by an infinite God?
Is it possible that the codes of China, India, Egypt, Greece and Rome were made by man, and that the laws recorded in the Pentateuch were alone given by God? Is it possible that Æschylus and Shakespeare, Burns, and Beranger, Goethe and Schiller, and all the poets of the world, and all their wondrous tragedies and songs are but the work of men, while no intelligence except the infinite God could be the author of the Pentateuch?
Is it possible that of all the books that crowd the libraries of the world, the books of science, fiction, history and song, that all save only one, have been produced by man? Is it possible that of all these, the bible only is the work of God?”
~Robert G. Ingersoll
Some Mistakes of Moses

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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes

Friday night may have been the best of the twenty times I have eaten at Abe and Louie’s.
In the company of Jack Hagan, architect-builder, friend and collaborator from fifty years ago when three of us colluded to buy three Eames chairs until the present day when I asked Jack’s advice on the Mistral chair at Roche Bobois, we opted out of appetizers, sharing instead a terrific Lobster Savannah, following it up by sharing a 22oz aged rib-eye. We ended the meal by sharing a fudge sundae.
Everything was wonderful, especially the conversation which drifted easily from events fifty years ago when Jack sat alone with the members of the Grateful Dead and got them interested in his idea for a hot air balloon that would provide housing for them while they floated from venue to venue, to the present, when I told of my great day that culminated in the purchase of the Mistral chair.

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11.0 Thumbnail
The Bible (from Koine Greek τὰ βιβλία, tà biblía, "the books") is a collection of religious texts, writings, or scriptures sacred to Jews, Samaritans, Christians, Muslims, and others. It appears in the form of an anthology, a compilation of texts of a variety of forms that are all linked by the belief that they are collectively revelations of God. These texts include theologically-focused historical accounts, hymns, prayers, proverbs, parables, didactic letters, admonitions, essays, poetry, and prophecies. Believers also generally consider the Bible to be a product of divine inspiration.

Those books that are included in the Bible by a tradition or group are called canonical, indicating that the tradition/group views the collection as the true representation of God's word and will. A number of biblical canons have evolved, with overlapping and diverging contents from denomination to denomination.
The Hebrew Bible shares most of its content with its ancient Greek translation, the Septuagint, which in turn was the base for the Christian Old Testament. The Christian New Testament is a collection of writings by early Christians, believed to be Jewish disciples of Christ, written in first-century Koine Greek. Among Christian denominations there is some disagreement about what should be included in the canon, primarily about the biblical apocrypha, a list of works that are regarded with varying levels of respect or recognition.

Attitudes towards the Bible also differ among Christian groups. Roman Catholics, High Church Anglicans, Methodists and Eastern Orthodox Christians stress the harmony and importance of both the Bible and sacred tradition, while many Protestant churches focus on the idea of sola scriptura, or scripture alone. This concept rose to prominence during the Reformation, and many denominations today support the use of the Bible as the only infallible source of Christian teaching. Others, though, advance the concept of prima scriptura in contrast, meaning scripture primarily or scripture mainly.

The Bible has had a profound influence on literature and history, especially in the Western world, where the Gutenberg Bible was the first book printed using movable type. According to the March 2007 edition of Time, the Bible "has done more to shape literature, history, entertainment, and culture than any book ever written. Its influence on world history is unparalleled, and shows no signs of abating." With estimated total sales of over five billion copies, it is widely considered to be the best-selling book of all time. As of the 2000s, it sells approximately 100 million copies annually.

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It’s Sunday, June 20, 2021
Welcome to the 1,134th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com

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1.0 Lead Picture
Madonna of the Goldfinch

Raphael
oAFhnMjj7HippQ at Google Cultural Institute, zoom level maximum

Permission details

This is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason:

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2.0 Commentary
Since I took a week to vacation in San Francisco and half a week to Swarthmore, I’ve been playing catch-up.
I don’t enjoy the pressure.
Hopefully, with no plans for Saturday or Sunday, I will catch up.

So it appears as though our push to establish a memorial to Sacco and Vanzetti is drawing its last gasp. If we get no response from the group we hoped to interest in our progress, we simply lack the bodies to do the work that we’ve determined necessary to bring the effort to fruition.
If that be the case, and it appears more likely than not, it will free my time and focus to my manuscript.

I must admit I’m champing at the bit to dive into the manuscript.

My granddaughter’s adult reading group will be announcing a summer schedule next week and I will put time aside to read the books and engage in the discussion.

I added July 8 to my list of events I’m looking forward to: the last day of the three-week forecasted for me to receive my Mistral chair.

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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“He is Romeo, and he is heartbroken.
Every word is wistful.
When he says, 'O, teach me how I should forget to think!' I,
for the first time,
see what the big deal is about Shakespeare.”
~Nina LaCour
Hold Still

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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:

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:)

From: Lucius Beebe Memorial Library <email@wakefieldlibrary.org>

Date: Sun, Jun 13, 2021 at 5:00 PM

Subject: See Stormy Sea Story

Trouble Seeing Our Images? Click here to view as a webpage.

Blog meister responds:  I’m sure there’s a lot to learn by opening the link.
Thank you, Colleen.

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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
For dinner I made a simple pan-fried salmon, searing the skin to crisp it and make it that much more attractive to eat.
I added salt, freshly ground pepper, and dill using olive oil as the medium.
I served some leftover rice which I mixed with leftover ceci beans, to which I added a can of corn.
Very simple.
Very satisfying.

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11.0 Thumbnail
The Madonna del cardellino or Madonna of the Goldfinch is an oil on wood painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael, from c. 1505–1506.
A 10-year restoration process was completed in 2008, after which the painting was returned to its home at the Uffizi in Florence.
During the restoration, an antique copy replaced the painting in the gallery.

Raphael is considered to be a “master” of the High Renaissance, a title he shares with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.
He was born in 1483 and died in 1520, living a mere thirty-seven years.
Despite his relatively short lifespan, he was highly influential throughout his time on earth.
He produced a vast quantity of work in a variety of media.
He was active in architecture, printmaking, painting, and drawing.

During the first half of his career, he spent years traveling across Northern Italy and was influenced by the Florentine styles he saw there, causing this stage to be called his Florentine Period.
After which, in 1508, he moved to Rome where he continued to work.
Many of his commissions came from the Vatican, including the Apostolic Palace, which brought about one of his most famous works, School of Athens.
Due to his relationship with the church, he and Michelangelo were fierce rivals throughout both of their careers, and often competed for the same commissions.
During his Florentine period, this work, The Madonna Del Cardellino, was painted along with several other well-known Madonnas: The Madonna of the Meadow and La Belle Jardinière. All three share several characteristics: Madonna is clothed in red and blue, the same three subjects are painted, the pyramidal composition, the natural background, and the connection to the church through the representation of books, crosses, or, indeed, the goldfinch.

In this painting, as in most of the Madonnas of his Florentine period, Raphael arranged the three figures - Mary, Christ and the young John the Baptist - to fit into a geometrical design. Though the positions of the three bodies are natural, together they form an almost regular triangle. The Madonna is shown young and beautiful, as with Raphael's various other Madonnas.
She is also clothed in red and blue, also typical, for red signifies the passion of Christ and blue was used to signify the church.
Christ and John are still very young, only babies. John holds a goldfinch in his hand, and Christ is reaching out to touch it. The background is one typical of Raphael. The natural setting is diverse and yet all calmly frames the central subject taking place.

The Madonna was a wedding gift from Raphael to his friend Lorenzo Nasi. On November 17, 1548 Nasi's house was destroyed by an earthquake and the painting broke into seventeen pieces. It was immediately taken to be salvaged, and was hastily put back together, though the seams were quite visible. In 2002, George Bonsanti of the Precious Stones organization gave the task of restoration to Patrizia Riitano. During the six-year process that followed, her team worked to remove the years of grime that had degraded the painting's color, and to fix the damage done by the earthquake long ago. Before beginning the project, they studied the work as closely as possible, utilizing resources such as X-rays, CAT scans, reflective infra-red photography, and even lasers. Riitano closely studied the past quick fix layers that had been applied and removed them until the original by Raphael finally shone through. The restoration was completed in 2008, and the painting was put on display in Uffizi.

In Madonna Del Cardellino, the goldfinch represents Christ's crucifixion. The reason for its association comes from the legend that its red spot was born at the time of the crucifixion. It flew down over the head of Christ and was taking a thorn from His crown, when it was splashed with the drop of His blood. The book in Mary's hand reads Sedes Sapientiae or The Throne of Wisdom. This term usually is applied to images in which Mary is seated upon a throne, with Jesus on her lap, but in this case, the inscription implies the rock on which Mary sits is her natural throne.

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