June 27 to July 3, 2021

Daily Entries for the week of
Sunday, June 27, 2021
through
Saturday, July 3, 2021

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It’s Saturday, July 2, 2021
Welcome to the 1,147th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com

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1.0 Lead Picture
Declaration of Independence

an 1819 painting by John Trumbull, depicts the Committee of Five (John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston) presenting their draft to the Second Continental Congress on June 28, 1776[1]

John Trumbull - US Capitol

John Trumbull's painting, Declaration of Independence, depicting the five-man drafting committee of the Declaration of Independence presenting their work to the Congress. The painting can be found on the back of the U.S. $2 bill. The original hangs in the US Capitol rotunda.

Trumbull
Declaration of Independence
About 50 men, most of them seated, are in a large meeting room. Most are focused on the five men standing in the center of the room. The tallest of the five is laying a document on a table.
Year commissioned: 1817;
purchased 1819;
date of creation 1818;
placed in the Rotunda 1826
Oill-on-canvas
Dimensions  3.7 m × 5.5 m (12 ft × 18 ft)
Location  U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C., U.S.

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2.0 Commentary
For some the July 4th weekend began on Thursday morning.
It did for us in years past when my three sons were small and we owned a lovely home on Squaw Island which contained nine homes spread throughout thirty acres of beachfront, land-connected to Hyannisport, Ma.
I loved everything about the long weekend, including the ninety-minute drive down, always picking a departure time that avoided traffic.

We always ate well but menus for summer vacations are always titled to locally-grown and seasonal.
We built a large brick barbecue to accommodate the two dozen overnight guests and had plenty of dry-aged steaks to offer.
The local supermarket, Angelo’s, made great cider donuts and great buns perfect for our char-flavored hamburgers, even when overstuffed with tomatoes, lettuce, and onions from our own garden.
The Hyannisport Yacht Club [Golf Club as well] had a property that dominated the large hill overlooking the neighborhood. We were lucky to be members and three times per season had one of our important family summer meals at the club. Demand was such one booked tables as soon as the Club opened for the season.
We trawled for crabs, spearfished, dug clams, and harvested mussels.
We went out late night to the Four Seas for spectacular ice cream.

And plenty to do, almost all of it child-oriented.
We had a fishing boat that we often took out, and just as frequently moored at our beach to provide and jumping and diving platform. Great fun.
We sailed with friends who owned sail boats.
We entertained. Prodigiously.
We walked.
We hiked.
We biked.
Went swimming.
Went birding.
Harvested mushrooms.
Jumped the waves at Nauset Beach.
Visited nature museums.
Played ‘scatter’ after dinner.
The boys went to weekly neighborhood dances.
Told communal scary stories in a dark room.
That was quite a few years ago.
This July 4th weekend will be bookended on the early end [Friday] by the pleasantly surprising early delivery of my much-anticipated Mistral chair and on the late end [Tuesday] by the all-day visit of my son, Mino.
In between the bookends will be time for me to spend on my manuscript.

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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“I sit with Shakespeare and he winces not.
Across the color-line I move arm in arm with Balzac and Dumas, where smiling men and welcoming women glide in gilded halls.
From out the caves of the evening that swing between the strong-limbed earth and the tracery of the stars, I summon Aristotle and Aurelius... and they come all graciously with no scorn nor condescension. So, wed with Truth, I dwell above the Veil.”
~W.E.B. Du Bois,
The Souls of Black Folk

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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 variety of followers are traveling to a variety of places: Colleen to Cape Cod; Katherine to NYC; Jim to Sandwich; Ron to Provincetown; Anthony to Rhode Island.

Blog meister responds: Have fun, guys! I’m waiting until October when I’ll be traveling to Tuscany.

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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
On Tuesday night I made a meatball sandwich.
I did a pretty good job of reconstructing a childhood memory of the meatball sandwiches sold in DiPrizio’s Lunch on Endicott St. in Boston’s North End about seventy years ago: the meatballs crushed in abundant gravy, and stuffed into crunchy Italian bread.
It was an easy prep since the meatballs and the Gravy were leftovers.

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11.0 Thumbnail
Declaration of Independence

Declaration of Independence is a 12-by-18-foot (3.7 by 5.5 m) oil-on-canvas painting by the American artist John Trumbull depicting the presentation of the draft of the Declaration of Independence to Congress. It was based on a much smaller version of the same scene, presently held by the Yale University Art Gallery. Trumbull painted many of the figures in the picture from life, and visited Independence Hall to depict the chamber where the Second Continental Congress met. The oil-on-canvas work was commissioned in 1817, purchased in 1819, and placed in the United States Capitol rotunda in 1826.

The painting is sometimes incorrectly described as depicting the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The painting shows the five-man drafting committee presenting their draft of the Declaration to the Congress, an event that took place on June 28, 1776, and not its signing, which took place mainly on August 2nd.

The painting shows 42 of the 56 signers of the Declaration; Trumbull originally intended to include all 56 signers but was unable to obtain likenesses for all of them. He also depicted several participants in the debate who did not sign the document, including John Dickinson, who declined to sign. Trumbull had no portrait of Benjamin Harrison V to work with, but his son Benjamin Harrison VI was said to resemble his father, so Trumbull painted him instead. Similarly, Trumbull painted Rufus Hopkins, who resembled his father Stephen Hopkins, for whom no portrait was available. As the Declaration was debated and signed over a period of time when membership in Congress changed, the men featured in the painting never were in the same room at the same time.

In the painting, Thomas Jefferson appears to be stepping on John Adams' foot, which many thought was supposed to symbolize their relationship as friendly rivals. However, upon closer examination of the painting, it can be seen that their feet are merely close together. This part of the image was correctly depicted on the two-dollar bill version.

Three British ensigns and a single English ensign can be seen hanging on the farthest wall in the painting, though this is not depicted in all versions, most notably the one seen on the two-dollar bill.

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It’s Friday, July 1, 2021
Welcome to the 1,146th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com

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1.0 Lead Picture
John Adams

Stout elderly man in his 60s with long white hair, facing partway leftward

Gilbert Stuart -
This file was donated to Wikimedia Commons as part of a project by the National Gallery of Art. Please see the Gallery's Open Access Policy

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2.0 Commentary
Independence Day is closing in on us.
Not in my long lifetime has our nation more sorely needed to celebrate our democracy.
What shame Trump Republicans bear for their continuing efforts to subvert the will of the majority.

My daughter Katherine has developed an interest in Buddhism and will likely attend a retreat in early fall.
Whether it’s an appreciation of Shakespeare or wine or food, walking, or birdwatching, every interest we develop brings richness into our lives.

Regarding a new social compact, how about the concept of abolishing taxes?
The government take a percentage of every company in America and, as a shareholder, participates in the profits of those companies, just as venture capitalists do.
The government earns its share by providing the social and business climate and the infrastructure and social services that make it possible for companies to operate. Foreign companies doing business in the US will do so through US subsidiaries of which the American government will own shares to allow the government the right to share in the profits.
Taxes?
Retire that word.
Who needs them?

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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“Think of Shakespeare and Melville and you think of thunder, lightning, wind.
They all knew the joy of creating in large or small forms, on unlimited or restricted canvases.
These are the children of the gods.”
~Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing

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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Monday night I served leftovers: Chicken Salad and Chicken Soup.
Katherine mostly chose salad.
Soup was my preference.

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John Adams Jr. (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before his presidency, he was a leader of the American Revolution that achieved independence from Great Britain, and he served as the first vice president of the United States. Adams was a dedicated diarist and regularly corresponded with many important figures in early American history, including his wife and adviser Abigail Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

A lawyer and political activist prior to the revolution, Adams was devoted to the right to counsel and presumption of innocence. He defied anti-British sentiment and successfully defended British soldiers against murder charges arising from the Boston Massacre. Adams was a Massachusetts delegate to the Continental Congress and became a leader of the revolution. He assisted in drafting the Declaration of Independence in 1776. As a diplomat in Europe, he helped negotiate a peace treaty with Great Britain and secured vital governmental loans. Adams was the primary author of the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780, which influenced the United States constitution, as did his essay Thoughts on Government.

Adams was elected to two terms as vice president under President George Washington and was elected as the United States' second president in 1796. He was the only president elected under the banner of the Federalist Party. During his single term, Adams encountered fierce criticism from the Jeffersonian Republicans and from some in his own Federalist Party, led by his rival Alexander Hamilton. Adams signed the controversial Alien and Sedition Acts and built up the Army and Navy in the Quasi-War with France. During his term, he became the first president to reside in the executive mansion now known as the White House.

In his bid for reelection, opposition from Federalists and accusations of despotism led to Adams losing to Thomas Jefferson. Adams retired to Quincy, Massachusetts. He eventually resumed his friendship with Jefferson by initiating a correspondence that lasted 14 years. Adams and his wife, Abigail, began a family that has made contributions to America's political and intellectual life for more than 150 years, a family that included their son, John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States. Adams and Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Of the first 12 U.S. presidents, Adams and his son are the only presidents who never owned slaves.

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It’s Thursday, June 30, 2021
Welcome to the 1,145th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com

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1.0 Lead Picture
Kiss of Judas

Kiss of Judas (1304–06), fresco by Giotto, Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Italy

Giotto di Bondone - http://geoffwren.blogs.com/photos/museum/kiss_of_judas.html ] [dead link]
No. 31 Scenes from the Life of Christ: 15.
The disciple on the left, who wounds a soldier with his knife, is Saint Peter.                

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2.0 Commentary
We’re gaining traction on the vacation front: Tuscany in early October.
Getting a general view of the restaurant scene in Florence where we’ll be eating six meals.
There are seven restaurants in Florence that have a Guide Michelin star.
I looked up the most prestigious [the only 3-star restaurant in the city], the Enoteca Pinchiorri, and discovered they open their bookings 35 days in advance. So I cannot book that table until very late August. The wait will drive me crazy.
There is one redeeming grace. Assuming other restaurants are not time-restricted re: their reservations, I can book for Sunday and Monday night since the Enoteca is closed those two days.
I won’t book the museums till September hoping that most covid restrictions will be lifted by then.

That’s for five and a half days in Florence with daughter Katherine.
Florence follows four full days of touring the Tuscan countryside, sleeping at Arezzo, Siena, Siena, and Padua, museum and restaurant destinations in each, strung together with leisurely drives through the gorgeous countryside which will feature lots of barren fields, browns, and yellows. I don’t think the summer lush will dominate.
I don’t feel the pressure to reserve since location will not be important, we’re talking small towns,  nor will price, as I expect I will be paying on the light side of $100.00 a night.
I arrive Florence Wednesday, October 6, meeting Katherine at our hotel.

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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“Hamlet's Cat's Soliloquy”

"To go outside, and there perchance to stay

Or to remain within: that is the question:

Whether 'tis better for a cat to suffer

The cuffs and buffets of inclement weather

That Nature rains on those who roam abroad,

Or take a nap upon a scrap of carpet,

And so by dozing melt the solid hours

That clog the clock's bright gears with sullen time

And stall the dinner bell. To sit, to stare

Outdoors, and by a stare to seem to state

A wish to venture forth without delay,

Then when the portal's opened up, to stand

As if transfixed by doubt. To prowl; to sleep;

To choose not knowing when we may once more

Our readmittance gain: aye, there's the hairball;

For if a paw were shaped to turn a knob,

Or work a lock or slip a window-catch,

And going out and coming in were made

As simple as the breaking of a bowl,

What cat would bear the houselhold's petty plagues,

The cook's well-practiced kicks, the butler's broom,

The infant's careless pokes, the tickled ears,

The trampled tail, and all the daily shocks

That fur is heir to, when, of his own will,

He might his exodus or entrance make

With a mere mitten? Who would spaniels fear,

Or strays trespassing from a neighbor's yard,

But that the dread of our unheeded cries

And scraches at a barricaded door

No claw can open up, dispels our nerve

And makes us rather bear our humans' faults

Than run away to unguessed miseries?

Thus caution doth make house cats of us all;

And thus the bristling hair of resolution

Is softened up with the pale brush of thought,

And since our choices hinge on weighty things,

We pause upon the threshold of decision.”

― Henry N. Beard, Poetry for Cats: The Definitive Anthology of Distinguished Feline Verse

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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Sunday Katherine and I had the traditional North End Gravy with the exception that I used no beef except in the meatballs [and only 50% at that].
Delicious.
Katherine had penne and I mixed my penne with a seasoned ricotta cheese.

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The Scrovegni Chapel, also known as the Arena Chapel, is a small church, adjacent to the Augustinian monastery, the Monastero degli Eremitani in Padua, region of Veneto, Italy. The chapel and monastery are now part of the complex of the Museo Civico of Padua.

The chapel contains a fresco cycle by Giotto, completed about 1305 and considered to be an important masterpiece of Western art.

Giotto and his team covered all the internal surfaces of the chapel with frescoes, including the walls and the ceiling. The nave is 20.88 metres long, 8.41 metres wide, and 12.65 metres high. The apse area is composed of a square area (4.49 meters deep and 4.31 meters wide) and a pentagonal area (2.57 meters deep). The largest element is extensive cycles showing the Life of Christ and the Life of the Virgin. The wall at the rear of the church, through which the chapel is entered, has a large Last Judgement. There are also panels in grisaille (monochrome) showing the Vices and Virtues.

The church was dedicated to Santa Maria della Carità at the Feast of the Annunciation, 1303, and consecrated in 1305. Much of Giotto's fresco cycle focuses on the life of the Virgin Mary and celebrates her role in human salvation. A motet by Marchetto da Padova appears to have been composed for the dedication on 25 March 1305. The chapel is also known as the Arena Chapel because it was built on land purchased by Enrico Scrovegni that abutted the site of a Roman arena. The space was where an open-air procession and sacred representation of the Annunciation to the Virgin had been played out for a generation before the chapel was built.

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It’s Wednesday, June 30, 2021
Welcome to the 1,144th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com

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1.0 Lead Picture
Basilica of Santa Maria Novella

Santa Maria Novella, a church in Florence, Italy
Own photo - photo made by Georges Jansoone on 12 October 2005

No machine-readable author provided. JoJan assumed (based on copyright claims). - No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims).

CC BY-SA 3.0
File:Santa Maria Novella.jpg
Created: 12 October 2005
About this interface | Discussion | Help

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2.0 Commentary
We’re rocking.
On Saturday we booked my flight and on Sunday we booked the Florence hotel.
Despite the threat of covid, we did not get trip insurance.
We chose a big room that has a king-sized bed and a foldaway queen, two beds that sleep four, in case we add another traveler.
The hotel is only a six-minute walk to center-Florence and the Giotto Campanile and the Basilica della Santa Maria Novella.
It’s Guide Michelin recommended but on the low end of the cost-spectrum of Florence hotels.

And here it is on Monday and I booked the car: from Oct 2 to Oct 12, with all the fees, less than $500.00.
Just before I signed off I called the hotel and asked about parking [not provided by hotel]. A gentleman who spoke excellent English explained the fees of a garage across the street from the hotel. Thirty dollars a day. Not a bad deal.
So six nights in Florence, $180.00 to park, and twelve days rental, $500.00, plus, of course, gas and tolls, brings our transportation bill to just under $1000.00.
That is a deal.
I pulled the trigger.
The trip is taking shape.
Needed: the six restaurants in Florence, all Guide Michelin restaurants, and the six restaurants on my uscany countryside jaunt, all Guide Michelin rated, if not all starred.
Plus the six hotels along the way.
And then all the museums.
Planning is a lot of fun.
An education.
But it’s not easy.
It’s never easy.

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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“O serpent heart hid with a flowering face!
Did ever a dragon keep so fair a cave?
Beautiful tyrant, feind angelical, dove feather raven, wolvish-ravening lamb!
Despised substance of devinest show, just opposite to what thou justly seemest
- A dammed saint, an honorable villain!”
~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

A call from a young couple bemoaning the demands of landlords in renting apartments: great credit score, great job, first and sometimes last month’s rent as well, a month’s security deposit, and a month’s rent as broker’s fee.

Blog meister responds:  As part of the reconstituting of our social compact, we need to even off the tax and savings advantages of home ownership versus rental. Renters, our lowest class, get totally reamed.

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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
After eating roast chicken one night, I made a double- rich soup with the rest of the bird.
Except for one breast which I turned into a chicken salad for Katherine.
Small amounts of cucumber, lettuce, celery, tomatoes, zucchini, broccoli, and red onion got thrown into a mixing bowl with a chopped pickle spear, mayo, olive oil, and fresh lemon juice, salt and freshly-ground pepper.
Katherine loved it.
When I made the chickens soup with the rest of the chicken I used my own chicken stock instead of water.
The resulting double-rich soup was fabulous.
I ate the soup.
I loved that.

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Santa Maria Novella is a church in Florence, Italy, situated opposite, and lending its name to, the city's main railway station. Chronologically, it is the first great basilica in Florence, and is the city's principal Dominican church.

The church, the adjoining cloister, and chapter house contain a multiplicity of art treasures and funerary monuments. Especially famous are frescoes by masters of Gothic and early Renaissance. They were financed by the most important Florentine families, who ensured themselves funerary chapels on consecrated ground.

The vast interior is based on a basilica plan, designed as an Egyptian cross (T-shaped) and is divided into a nave, two aisles set with windows and a short transept. The large nave is 100 metres long and gives an impression of austerity. The piers are of compound form and have Corinthian columns supporting pointed Gothic arches above which is a clerestory of ocular windows above which rises a ribbed, pointed quadrupartite vault. The ribs and arches are all black and white polychrome.

There is a trompe-l'œil effect by which towards the apse the nave seems longer than its actual length because the piers between the nave and the aisles are progressively closer, nearer to the chancel.

Many of the windows have stained glass dating from the 14th and 15th century, such as 15th century Madonna and Child and St. John and St. Philip (designed by Filippino Lippi), both in the Filippo Strozzi Chapel. Some stained glass windows have been damaged in the course of centuries and have been replaced. The one at the west end, a depiction of the Coronation of Mary, dates from the 14th century, and is based on a design of Andrea di Bonaiuto da Firenze.

The pulpit, commissioned by the Rucellai family in 1443, was designed by Filippo Brunelleschi and executed by his adopted son Andrea Calvalcanti. This pulpit has a particular historical significance, since it was from this pulpit that the first verbal attack was made on Galileo Galilei, leading eventually to his indictment.

The Holy Trinity by Masaccio.
The Holy Trinity, situated almost halfway along the left aisle, is a pioneering early Renaissance work of Masaccio, showing his new ideas about perspective and mathematical proportions. Its meaning for the art of painting can easily be compared to the importance of Brunelleschi for architecture and Donatello for sculpture. The patrons were the judge and his wife, members of the Lenzi family, here depicted kneeling. The cadaver tomb below carries in Latin the epigram: "I was once what you are, and what I am you will become".

Of particular note in the right aisle is the Tomba della Beata Villana, a monument by Bernardo Rossellino executed in 1451. In the same aisle, are located tombs of bishops of Fiesole, one by Tino di Camaino and another by Nino Pisano.

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It’s Tuesday, June 29, 2021
Welcome to the 1,143rd consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com

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1.0 Lead Picture
Benjamin Tallmadge

Portrait of Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge, an influential member of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, with his son William Tallmadge. This is a 1790 portrait by American painter Ralph Earl.

 Ralph Earl (Life time: 1751-1801) - Original publication: portrait Immediate source: http://www.the-athenaeum.org/art/detail.php?ID=22665

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2.0 Commentary
The die is cast.
The trigger is pulled.
Departure: October 1, p/u car at airport; drive to Arezzo
Spend the next five days touring the Tuscan countryside, viewing famous art, enjoying a dozen cafes, enjoying five dinners, and then arriving in Florence to spend five full days there, returning the 12th of October.
My daughter will join me in Flroence.
Flying Alitalia.
Next step: picking the hotel in Florence, for location and price and a single Michelin star.

I am into my friend Colleen’s young adult manuscript.
How does she write 16-years-old so well?
Perhaps she is one disguised as a mother of four.

Will today be the day I can spend an hour or two on my manuscript?

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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“Shakespeare 'never owned a book,' a writer for the New York Times gravely informed readers in one doubting article in 2002.
The statement cannot actually be refuted, for we know nothing about his incidental possessions.
But the writer might just as well have suggested that Shakespeare never owned a pair of shoes or pants.
For all the evidence tells us, he spent his life naked from the waist down, as well as bookless, but it is probably that what is lacking is the evidence, not the apparel or the books.”
~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 friend believes that the bi-party infrastructure agreement will prove to be the most important achievement of the first Biden admin. for providing the moderate conservatives with a smokescreen behind which to build opposition to Trump Republicans.

Blog meister responds:  You may well be right, my friend.

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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
On Friday night Kat and I ate a roasted chicken in front of the television.
So much fun carving one small piece at a time from the roast to place on one’s plate with the spinach and garlic.
Pour a teaspoon of gravy, take a sip of an excellent reserve Carmenere, and enjoy life.
Roast chicken is so easy, so unfailing, so adaptable as leftover.
I suggested a soup; Kat desired a salad.
So tomorrow we will have both.

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Benjamin Tallmadge (February 25, 1754 – March 7, 1835) was an American military officer, spymaster, and politician. He is best known for his service as an officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.
He acted as leader of the Culper Ring during the war, a celebrated network of spies in New York where major British forces were based.

The Culper Ring was a network of spies active during the American Revolutionary War, organized by Major Benjamin Tallmadge and General George Washington in 1778 during the British occupation of New York City. The name "Culper" was suggested by George Washington and taken from Culpeper County, Virginia. The leaders of the spy ring were Abraham Woodhull and Robert Townsend, using the aliases of "Samuel Culper Sr." and "Samuel Culper Jr.", respectively; Tallmadge was referred to as "John Bolton."

While Tallmadge was the spies' direct contact, Washington often directed their operations. The ring was tasked to provide Washington information on British Army operations in New York City, the British headquarters. Its members operated mostly in New York City, Long Island, and Connecticut between late October 1778 and the British evacuation of New York in 1783.

The information supplied by the spy ring included details of a surprise attack on the newly arrived French forces under Lieutenant General Rochambeau at Newport, Rhode Island, before they had recovered from their arduous sea voyage, as well as a British plan to counterfeit American currency on the actual paper used for Continental dollars, which prompted the Continental Congress to retire the bills.

The ring also informed Washington that Tryon's raid of July 1779 was intended to divide his forces and allow Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton to attack them piecemeal. In 1780, the Culper Ring discovered a high-ranking American officer, subsequently identified as Benedict Arnold, was plotting with British Major John André to turn over the vitally important American fort at West Point, New York on the Hudson River and surrender its garrison to the British forces.

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It’s Monday, June 28, 2021
Welcome to the 1,142nd consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com

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1.0 Lead Picture
Ring-tailed lemur

Charles J. Sharp - Own work, from Sharp Photography,
sharpphotography.co.uk

Ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta),
Andasibe, Madagascar

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2.0 Commentary
It’s Saturday afternoon and the heat wave has arrived in Boston sitting on its little cat feet.
It’ll stay with us for about a week.
I’ll align my walking to an early morning stretch from the Waterfront to Newbury St, arriving at the Thinking Cup’s sidewalk café at about 9.00am, leaving at about 11.00am, walking the shady sides of the streets.
It’ll be hot but tolerable.
I’ll cool off, rest, do some work, then go back out for my afternoon Italian coffee, either at Seaport or the North End, each a twelve minute walk.
After 7.00pm I’ll likely take an evening walk in the cool of the evening.

On Friday morning, armed with an appointment made online,  I went to the Registry of Motor Vehicles with a filled in application for a Read ID and with the required documentation.
It took longer than I had hoped but in the end the Real ID was approved.
So now, armed with a Real Id, with my passport, and with ‘TSA’ stamped prominently on my airline tickets, I will be met with less resistance at international borders friendly to the USA.

I am frustrated in my attempts to find a clear hour to devote to my manuscript.
Hopefully, this week will afford me that time.

I have an overriding commitment to the Blog and my granddaughter’s new set of shared-reading books is about to begin. And I will spend a little time on my Tuscany trip.
But Sacco and Vanzetti appears over. My daughter’s summer schedule is kicking in so she will need see less of me.  

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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts

“Thou whoreson zed! Thou unnecessary letter! My lord, if you will give me leave, I will tread this unbolted villain into mortar, and daub the wall of a jakes with him.
*all cheer for Shakespearean insults*”

~William Shakespeare

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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes

Wednesday night Kat and I took our rental car to Fugakyu in Brookline.
After a raggedy start, the dinner went as swimmingly as it has for a long time now.
They are an excellent restaurant and from the presentation to the taste it’s a fine dining experience.
We had a perfectly sized sushi/sashimi dinner.

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The ring-tailed lemur is a large strepsirrhine primate and the most recognized lemur due to its long, black and white ringed tail. It belongs to Lemuridae, one of five lemur families, and is the only member of the Lemur genus. Like all lemurs it is endemic to the island of Madagascar. Known locally in Malagasy as maky (About this soundlisten), spelled maki in French) or hira, it inhabits gallery forests to spiny scrub in the southern regions of the island. It is omnivorous and the most terrestrial of extant lemurs. The animal is diurnal, being active exclusively in daylight hours.

The ring-tailed lemur is highly social, living in groups of up to 30 individuals. It is also female dominant, a trait common among lemurs. To keep warm and reaffirm social bonds, groups will huddle together. The ring-tailed lemur will also sunbathe, sitting upright facing its underside, with its thinner white fur towards the sun. Like other lemurs, this species relies strongly on its sense of smell and marks its territory with scent glands. The males perform a unique scent marking behavior called spur marking and will participate in stink fights by marking their tail with their scent and wafting it at opponents.

As one of the most vocal primates, the ring-tailed lemur uses numerous vocalizations including group cohesion and alarm calls. Experiments have shown that the ring-tailed lemur, despite the lack of a large brain (relative to simiiform primates), can organize sequences, understand basic arithmetic operations and preferentially select tools based on functional qualities.

Despite reproducing readily in captivity and being the most populous lemur in zoos worldwide, numbering more than 2,000 individuals, the ring-tailed lemur is listed as endangered by the IUCN Red List due to habitat destruction and hunting for bushmeat and the exotic pet trade. As of early 2017, the population in the wild is believed to have crashed as low as 2,000 individuals due to habitat loss, poaching and hunting, making them far more critically endangered.

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It’s Sunday, June 27, 2021
Welcome to the 1,141st consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com

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1.0 Lead Picture
Ethan Allen

1875 engraving depicting the capture of Fort Ticonderoga by Ethan Allen on May 10, 1775

Heppenheimer & Maurer - The New York Public Library digital library.
Image ID: 808517

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2.0 Commentary
Cheers to Mike Pence for continuing his assertions that our Constitution is more important than the fate of an individual or a political party.
And to Ron DeSantis for beating Trump in a straw poll.
And to the coalition of Republican and Democratic Senators hammering out an infrastructure deal.
And to former Governor now Senator Romney for maintaining his distance from the Trump Republican wing.
Can it be that the non-Trumpian moderate Republican conservatives, the Republican constitutional conservatives, are beginning to step forward in a group? Beginning to coalesce?

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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“Everybody needs a career manager."- Lady Macbeth”
~Robert Lynn Asprin,
Myth-ing Persons

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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

And several postings from our Sacco and Vanzetti group: Things are not at all optimistic.
Next week may see the end of our effort.

Blog meister responds: This project has taken center stage in my creative life. I am sorry it is not ending as we hoped but I will put the time spent on that project to good use.

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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Wednesday night Kat and I had a wonderful dry-aged steak.
Unfortunately, Kat discovered she should from now on avoid all red meat, beef, duck, and lamb.
Except for the 50% beef in our meatballs, meatballs being one of her great culinary treats.

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Ethan Allen (January 21, 1738 – February 12, 1789) was a farmer, businessman, land speculator, philosopher, writer, lay theologian, American Revolutionary War patriot, and politician.
He is best known as one of the founders of Vermont and for the capture of Fort Ticonderoga early in the Revolutionary War.
He was the brother of Ira Allen and the father of Frances Allen.

Allen was born in rural Connecticut and had a frontier upbringing, but he also received an education that included some philosophical teachings.
In the late 1760s, he became interested in the New Hampshire Grants, buying land there and becoming embroiled in the legal disputes surrounding the territory.
Legal setbacks led to the formation of the Green Mountain Boys, whom Allen led in a campaign of intimidation and property destruction to drive New York settlers from the Grants.
He and the Green Mountain Boys seized the initiative early in the Revolutionary War and captured Fort Ticonderoga in May 1775.
In September 1775, Allen led a failed attempt on Montreal which resulted in his capture by British authorities. He was imprisoned aboard Royal Navy ships, then paroled in New York City, and finally released in a prisoner exchange in 1778.

Upon his release, Allen returned to the New Hampshire Grants which had declared independence in 1777, and he resumed political activity in the territory, continuing resistance to New York's attempts to assert control over the territory.
Allen lobbied Congress for Vermont's official state recognition, and he participated in controversial negotiations with the British over the possibility of Vermont becoming a separate British province.

Allen wrote accounts of his exploits in the war that were widely read in the 19th century, as well as philosophical treatises and documents relating to the politics of Vermont's formation. His business dealings included successful farming operations, one of Connecticut's early iron works, and land speculation in the Vermont territory. Allen and his brothers purchased tracts of land that became Burlington, Vermont. He was married twice, fathering eight children.

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