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It’s Saturday, June 12, 2021
Welcome to the 1,127th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Hank Williams
The photo has no copyright markings on it.
It was created for publicity purposes-distribution to the media. The image was meant to bring attention and publicity the singer, the same as the publicity photos for actors and actresses in the film industry were intended to do.
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2.0 Commentary
LouLou and I went to the Gardner today.
They’ve set it up well although several changes at once are a lot to adapt to.
The timed tickets
The parking (actually, this always an issue)
The free audios piped in over your cell phone.
The missing art.
The Rape of Europa not available until its return in late August.
The room under construction.
The loveliness of it all.
Instead of buying two single entry tickets for 40.00,
I bought a year’s household ticket for 2 for $110.00.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“I also became a poet, and for one year lived in a Paradise of my own creation;
I imagined that I also might obtain a niche in the temple where the names of Homer and Shakespeare are consecrated.”
~Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley,
Frankenstein
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5.0 Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
This from a North Ender whom I choose to keep anonymous. The comments are a response to the email published yesterday (find below). A party of six arrived at Arya and the owner convinced them to leave their ordering to him. What followed was a blatant piling on of food courses that the party of four women and two men could never finish. The comment:
That was an outrageous and disgusting tale of restaurant thievery from trusting customers. I wish one of our two local newspapers would have the courage to broadcast a warning about Arya to the neighborhood.
The owner, Massimo Tiberi, must be desperate. Maybe the performance you described means that the restaurant is on its way to closing. In my opinion, that is what it deserves.
Blog meister responds: The shock expressed was shared by a lot of people. Too bad.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Tuesday night I again had Lamb Loin Chops for dinner.
They were again delicious.
The big sale on them at Whole Foods is now over so I’ll give the chops a rest.
I haven’t eaten out for a while.
Next time I find myself alone I will.
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Hiram "Hank" Williams (September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. Regarded as one of the most significant and influential American singers and songwriters of the 20th century, he recorded 35 singles (five released posthumously) that reached the top 10 of the Billboard Country & Western Best Sellers chart, including 11 that reached No. 1 (three posthumously).
Born and raised in Alabama, Williams was given guitar lessons by African-American blues musician Rufus Payne in exchange for meals or money. Payne, along with Roy Acuff and Ernest Tubb, had a major influence on Williams's later musical style. Williams began his music career in Montgomery in 1937, when producers at local radio station WSFA hired him to perform and host a 15-minute program. He formed the Drifting Cowboys backup band, which was managed by his mother, and dropped out of school to devote his time to his career. When several of his band members were drafted during World War II, he had trouble with their replacements, and WSFA terminated his contract because of his alcoholism.
Williams married singer Audrey Sheppard, who was his manager for nearly a decade. After recording "Never Again" and "Honky Tonkin'" with Sterling Records, he signed a contract with MGM Records. In 1947, he released "Move It on Over", which became a hit, and also joined the Louisiana Hayride radio program. One year later, he released a cover of "Lovesick Blues", which carried him into the mainstream. After an initial rejection, Williams joined the Grand Ole Opry. He was unable to read or notate music to any significant degree. Among the hits he wrote were "Your Cheatin' Heart", "Hey, Good Lookin'", and "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry".
Years of back pain, alcoholism, and prescription drug abuse severely compromised Williams's health. In 1952, he divorced Sheppard and married singer Billie Jean Horton. He was dismissed by the Grand Ole Opry because of his unreliability and alcoholism. On New Year's Day 1953, he suffered from heart failure and died suddenly at the age of 29 in Oak Hill, West Virginia. Despite his relatively brief career, he is one of the most celebrated and influential musicians of the 20th century, especially in country music. Many artists have covered his songs and he has influenced Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, George Jones, George Strait, Charley Pride, and The Rolling Stones, among others. Williams was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1961, the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. The Pulitzer Prize jury awarded him a posthumous special citation in 2010 for his "craftsmanship as a songwriter who expressed universal feelings with poignant simplicity and played a pivotal role in transforming country music into a major musical and cultural force in American life".
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It’s Friday, June 11, 2021
Welcome to the 1,126th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Isabella Stewart Gardner
Isabella Stewart Gardner
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2.0 Commentary
I’m enjoying the lovely weather.
Maximizing it by spending the writing part of the morning at the Thinking Cup on Newbury St, one of the best outdoor cafes in Boston.
Early morning: the heat is not intense and the café features umbrellas.
I stay until I finish my next post for the blog.
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3.11 Gardner Museum
Just read up on the Rape of Europa and the reading made me realize I did not have time to prepare for my planned visit to the Gardner on Thursday.
So I made the decision to rent one of the museum’s audio tours.
I’m rarely disappointed when I use a museum’s audio tours.
Two of us are going on Thursday, at a cost of 20.00 per ticket.
I decided to buy a Dual Membership for $110.00, an extra 70.00 over the cost of two single tickets but a year’s free entrance.
And we are planning to visit the Café, save 10% as members. Probably another $10.00.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“If one good deed in all my life I did,
I do repent it from my very soul.”
~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 friend Joyce G:
I loved the quote about love and kindness are never wasted.
As I age, I find that is so important to live as well as to share with youth who may not understand the ripple effect.
Thanks.
Joyce
Blog meister responds: A simple expression of a deep thought. Thank you, Joyce.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Monday night Lauren joined me for a dinner of Roasted Chicken Salad.
A box of triple-washed romaine lettuce, niçoise olives, a sliced and dressed heirloom tomato, thinly-sliced red onions, and of course the remains of a roasted chicken cooked earlier in the week. I tossed the chicken with mayo and red wine vinegar.
Light and lovely.
Welcomed.
We had an appetizer of penne pasta and tuna fish.
Not splendid but I know how to improve it for next time.
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Isabella Stewart Gardner (April 14, 1840 – July 17, 1924) was a leading American art collector, philanthropist, and patron of the arts. She founded the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.
Gardner possessed an energetic intellectual curiosity and a love of travel. She was a friend of noted artists and writers of the day, including John Singer Sargent, James McNeill Whistler, Dennis Miller Bunker, Anders Zorn, Henry James, Okakura Kakuzo and Francis Marion Crawford.
Gardner created much fodder for the gossip columns of the day with her reputation for stylish tastes and unconventional behavior. The Boston society pages called her by many names, including "Belle," "Donna Isabella," "Isabella of Boston," and "Mrs. Jack". Her surprising appearance at a 1912 concert (at what was then a very formal Boston Symphony Orchestra) wearing a white headband emblazoned with "Oh, you Red Sox" was reported at the time to have "almost caused a panic", and still remains in Boston one of the most talked about of her eccentricities.
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It’s Thursday, June 10, 2021
Welcome to the 1,125th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Hildegard Binder Johnson
A photo of German-American geographer Hildegard Binder Johnson (August 20, 1908 - January 18, 1993)
Unknown - Original publication: Annals of the Association of American Geographers obituary Immediate source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-8306.1995.tb01823.x
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2.0 Commentary
Yesterday I asked if walking with some pain was worth the effort.
On a personal level I said clearly, it is.
For me because I love to walk.
But medical science has proven the benefits of regular and extended walking every which way but loose.
Like minimizing cardiac risk factors such as cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, vascular stiffness and inflammation, and mental stress.
Or helping with physical health issues surrounding memory loss, weight control, longevity, and vision.
And lowering the risk of depression.
Preserve mobility and so possibly independence.
And, with a little mental effort, encouraging joy, love, and peace because, walking can help us regain or maintain our center.
Summer is a great time to renew our love of walking. The long days and the warm weather are encouraging.
So do it.
Start walking.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“Oh, Blimey O'Riley's pantyhose....
What is the point of Shakespeare?
I know he is a genius and so on, but he does rave on.
'What light doth through yonder window break?'
It's the bloody moon, for God sake, Will, get a grip!”
~Louise Rennison
Dancing in My Nuddy-Pants
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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
I got this unsettling message yesterday concerning the North End restaurant Arya, on Hanover St.
A group of six got seated and a person identifying himself as the owner encouraged the group to permit him to order “The Italian Experience” for them. “Trust me,” he enjoined.
They did.
600.00 dollars and a preposterous amount of food later they walked out of the restaurant with their six main courses intact, packaged, and untasted.
Blog meister responds: A flagrant violation of trust.
A terrible pall cast over the North End restaurant industry.
Owner served them six full appetizers when three would have done it.
Owner served them six huge half-plates of pasta when three would have done it.
And served them six large main courses when three would have done it.
The group called a halt to the assault of food, paid and left.
Not a question of why they didn’t specify portions from the beginning.
Reduced portions in a tasting menu is the order of the day.
Just as 2 ½ oz, not 5oz, glasses of wine, are the standard in a wine pairing.
This was a blatant abuse of trust.
A quantity of food far too excessive to be a misunderstanding.
This was a premeditated screwing.
Gross negligence not applicable here.
Owner owes an apology without explanation.
“I’m sorry. I won’t do that again.”
And a $600.00 gift certificate without limitations [applicable to tax and tip as well as food and alcohol] to he restaurant.
Shame on you, Arya.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Tuesday night I decided I am not a sablefish aficionado.
Something about the texture of my perfectly fried filet of that fish that turns me off.
Slimy.
Not flagrant, but enough to say, “I’ll finish dinner but will not have it again.
Dinner was saved by a small plate of pasta with a bit of sauce and a meatball with which I enjoyed a glass of a Chianti Riserva.
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Hildegard Binder Johnson (August 20, 1908 – January 18, 1993) was a German-American geographer known for her research into the German diaspora and for her work in historical geography on the midwestern United States. She founded the geography department at Macalester College and was heavily involved in geographical research in the state of Minnesota. Serving on multiple state government committees and positions in various academic societies, she was given a number of awards for her geography research, teaching activities, and environmentalism.
Early life and education
Hildegard Binder Johnson was born in Berlin on August 20, 1908. She was the only child of a middle-class government official.[1] She attended Chamisso Realgymnasium, a small selective private school for young women.[1] Following the German academic tradition, Johnson studied at several universities. In 1929, she first studied at the University of Rostock. She then went to study at the University of Marburg and finished her undergraduate work at the University of Innsbruck. In 1933, she received her PhD from the University of Berlin. Her completed majors included Geography and History, with dual minors in English and Philosophy. The thesis she defended was on the subject of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein and what constituted its geographical boundary, along with letters from Queen Victoria and King Wilhelm that had never been studied previously.
Career
In what would have a longstanding impact on the rest of her life, Johnson published a study in 1930 while still working on her doctorate that discussed the history of European colonies in Africa and concluded that they were not appropriate for permanent settlement colonies. The publication would prove negative to her career due to the highly inflammatory and threatening response from the Nazi Party to her work, who condemned and banned her study from further publication and forced existing copies to be destroyed. The only part of her study that has been recovered since is a figure that showed a map distribution of Europeans in Africa, which was the earliest such map to ever be made on the topic. This map only survived thanks to an anonymous benefactor that had it published separately in an edition of the journal Koloniale Rundschau.
After threats against her person and what she saw beginning to happen to her Jewish friends in the country, she fled to England in 1934 to become a school teacher at the Bromley Public High School for Girls. She only retained this position for a year, however, before leaving for the United States in 1935 and a better position at Mills College thanks to the help of the Friends Society. Several years later at the onset of WWII, Johnson became the editor for the geography tests given as a part of the special training program conducted by the US Army.[3] She received her US citizenship in 1945. Afterwards, she began teaching at Macalester College in 1947 at the beginning of the G.I. Bill boom at the request of the university president Charles Turck and stayed at her position there until she retired in 1975.
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Daily Entries for the week of
Sunday, June 6, 2021
through
Saturday, June 12, 2021
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It’s Wednesday, June 9, 2021
Welcome to the 1,124th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Jeff Bezos
at Amazon Spheres Grand Opening in Seattle.
Seattle City Council from Seattle
- https://www.flickr.com/photos/seattlecitycouncil/39074799225/
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2.0 Commentary
With the warm weather and extended walking, eight miles a day, sometime ten, my aging body speaks up. I hurt, it says, and demonstrates the hurt through all my waking hours.
Nothing to be done unless I wish to fall into a depressing and deadly lethargy from which recovery is very difficult. So I accept the pain.
What does help is that I truly love walking.
I walk at a normal rate. Used to be faster but I’m fine with my speed although sometimes I do walk slowly. I get tired.
Also, our feet have so many bones in them that, as you get older, it’s inevitable that, on a daily basis, one or more of them is calling attention to itself which makes walking a little more painful.
So why?
Is the enjoyment of walking so great as to overcome the pain?
The easy answer: it is.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“I also became a poet,
and for one year lived in a Paradise of my own creation;
I imagined that I also might obtain a niche in the temple
where the names of Homer and Shakespeare are consecrated.”
~Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
I walked into Whole Foods not knowing what I wanted for tomorrow’s dinner. I looked in the meat case and saw one of my favorites: Dry-aged New York Steak. I bought a piece. It weighed one pound.
My dinner portions tend to the large but my diet seems to permit it.
Using a rack to raise the steak above the baker, I slow-roasted the meat @200* for 30 min.
I removed the rack and reserved the steak.
I turned to\he oven to Broil, brushed oil on the baker and set it on the top oven rack for 4 minutes to get the baker seriously hot.
Then I set the steak on the baker, slid the rack back into the oven, and Broiled/Seared the steak for 3.45 minutes.
A perfect medium-rare, a perfect piece of meat. Sauce it any way that appeals.
I used salt and freshly-ground pepper.
With the steak I ate a simple green salad with red onions.
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Jeffrey Preston Bezos born January 12, 1964) is an American business magnate, media proprietor, and investor. Bezos is the founder and CEO of the multi-national technology company Amazon. With a net worth of more than $200 billion as of April 2021, he is the richest person in the world according to both Forbes and Bloomberg's Billionaires Index.
Born in Albuquerque and raised in Houston and later Miami, Bezos graduated from Princeton University in 1986. He holds a degree in electrical engineering and computer science. He worked on Wall Street in a variety of related fields from 1986 to early 1994. Bezos founded Amazon in late 1994, on a cross-country road trip from New York City to Seattle. The company began as an online bookstore and has since expanded to a wide variety of other e-commerce products and services, including video and audio streaming, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence. It is currently the world's largest online sales company, the largest Internet company by revenue, and the world's largest provider of virtual assistants[6] and cloud infrastructure services through its Amazon Web Services branch.
Bezos founded the aerospace manufacturer and sub-orbital spaceflight services company Blue Origin in 2000. Blue Origin's New Shepard vehicle reached space in 2015, and afterwards successfully landed back on Earth. The company has upcoming plans to begin commercial suborbital human spaceflight.[7] He also purchased the major American newspaper The Washington Post in 2013 for $250 million, and manages many other investments through his Bezos Expeditions venture capital firm.
The first centibillionaire on the Forbes wealth index, Bezos was named the "richest man in modern history" after his net worth increased to $150 billion in July 2018. In August 2020, according to Forbes, he had a net worth exceeding $200 billion. In 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bezos's wealth grew by approximately $24 billion.
On February 2, 2021, Bezos announced that he would step down as the CEO of Amazon sometime in the third quarter of 2021, and transition into the role of executive chairman. He is due to be replaced as CEO by Andy Jassy, the chief of Amazon's cloud computing division.
On June 4, 2021, Bezos announced that he would officially step down on July 5, 2021, and three days later that he would fly to space alongside his brother Marc Bezos on July 20, 2021.
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It’s Tuesday, June 8, 2021
Welcome to the 1,123rd consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Social Contract
The original cover of Thomas Hobbes's work Leviathan (1651), in which he discusses the concept of the social contract theory
Unknown author - https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/world/world-object.html http://www.securityfocus.com/images/columnists/leviathan-large.jpg
The frontispiece of the book Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes; engraving by Abraham Bosse
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2.0 Commentary
I normally work at home from 5.30am to 10.00am every morning and then go on a four-hour errand run that includes my stop at a café.
Given that we are engulfed in a heart wave, I decided to head out at 8.00sm when the weather would be enjoyable. It was. I left the café (after I enjoyed a cold, cold grapefruit juice instead of coffee – too early for my second cup) did some food shopping, and then went home.
I freshened up, sucked down a half-dozen ice cold little neck clams with a half glass of Chablis, ate a bit of a chocolate cupcake, and took a short nap.
I went out again at 1.00pm for just a short (15minute) walk and my afternoon cortado. Taken in such a small dose, the heat didn’t bother me. I did some work and walked home. I went out a third time at 5.30pm to lift weights and after that I took a long walk in the evening not-so-hot. Despite being out three times, I avoided the most brutal of the heat.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“Not like Homer would I write,
Not like Dante if I might,
Not like Shakespeare at his best,
Not like Goethe or the rest,
Like myself, however small,
Like myself, or not at all.”
~William Allingham, Blackberries
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Stir fry for 2
Had never made it before but recently found a recipe [Nagi, RecipeTinEats] that I thought I could rework well.
The Small Steps
1 ½ lb large shrimp fried quickly until lightly brown and then reserved.
Snow peas and broccolini, steamed until al dente, and then reserved.
Cook ¼ cup rice per person, steamed [plain white or brown, basmati, Chinese fried]
The stir fry: 1 ½ TB light soy, 1TB Chinese cooking wine, 1 TB oyster sauce, ½ t sesame oil, 1TB corn starch, pinch of white pepper in a bowl and stir until corn starch dissolves. Add in ¾ cup water and mix.
The Climactic Very Speedy Ensemble:
Aromatics: thin strips of ginger, scallions, and garlic fried until lightly browned.
Snow peas and broccolini tossed in the oil.
Add in stir fry.
Add in shrimp.
Serve on rice.
! loved it.
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In moral and political philosophy, the social contract is a theory or model that originated during the Age of Enlightenment and usually concerns the legitimacy of the authority of the state over the individual.
Social contract arguments typically posit that individuals have consented, either explicitly or tacitly, to surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority (of the ruler, or to the decision of a majority) in exchange for protection of their remaining rights or maintenance of the social order.
The relation between natural and legal rights is often a topic of social contract theory. The term takes its name from The Social Contract (French: Du contrat social ou Principes du droit politique), a 1762 book by Jean-Jacques Rousseau that discussed this concept. Although the antecedents of social contract theory are found in antiquity, in Greek and Stoic philosophy and Roman and Canon Law, the heyday of the social contract was the mid-17th to early 19th centuries, when it emerged as the leading doctrine of political legitimacy.
The starting point for most social contract theories is an examination of the human condition absent of any political order (termed the "state of nature" by Thomas Hobbes). In this condition, individuals' actions are bound only by their personal power and conscience. From this shared starting point, social contract theorists seek to demonstrate why rational individuals would voluntarily consent to give up their natural freedom to obtain the benefits of political order. Prominent 17th- and 18th-century theorists of social contract and natural rights include Hugo Grotius (1625), Thomas Hobbes (1651), Samuel von Pufendorf (1673), John Locke (1689), Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1762) and Immanuel Kant (1797), each approaching the concept of political authority differently. Grotius posited that individual humans had natural rights. Thomas Hobbes famously said that in a "state of nature", human life would be "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short". In the absence of political order and law, everyone would have unlimited natural freedoms, including the "right to all things" and thus the freedom to plunder, rape and murder; there would be an endless "war of all against all" (bellum omnium contra omnes). To avoid this, free men contract with each other to establish political community (civil society) through a social contract in which they all gain security in return for subjecting themselves to an absolute sovereign, one man or an assembly of men. Though the sovereign's edicts may well be arbitrary and tyrannical, Hobbes saw absolute government as the only alternative to the terrifying anarchy of a state of nature. Hobbes asserted that humans consent to abdicate their rights in favor of the absolute authority of government (whether monarchical or parliamentary). Alternatively, Locke and Rousseau argued that we gain civil rights in return for accepting the obligation to respect and defend the rights of others, giving up some freedoms to do so.
The central assertion that social contract theory approaches is that law and political order are not natural, but human creations. The social contract and the political order it creates are simply the means towards an end—the benefit of the individuals involved—and legitimate only to the extent that they fulfill their part of the agreement. Hobbes argued that government is not a party to the original contract and citizens are not obligated to submit to the government when it is too weak to act effectively to suppress factionalism and civil unrest. According to other social contract theorists, when the government fails to secure their natural rights (Locke) or satisfy the best interests of society (called the "general will" by Rousseau), citizens can withdraw their obligation to obey, or change the leadership through elections or other means including, when necessary, violence. Locke believed that natural rights were inalienable, and therefore the rule of God superseded government authority, while Rousseau believed that democracy (self-rule) was the best way to ensure welfare while maintaining individual freedom under the rule of law. The Lockean concept of the social contract was invoked in the United States Declaration of Independence. Social contract theories were eclipsed in the 19th century in favor of utilitarianism, Hegelianism and Marxism; they were revived in the 20th century, notably in the form of a thought experiment by John Rawls.
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It’s Monday, June 7, 2021
Welcome to the 1,122nd consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Ben-Gurion's Hut
Ben Gurion
Hanan epstein - Own work
This is a photo of a place that is recognized as a heritage site by the Council for Conservation of Heritage Sites in Israel. The site's ID in Wiki Loves Monuments photographic competition is
CC BY-SA 3.0
File:44444 חדרו של דוד בן גוריון בצריף בשדה בוקר.jpg
Created: 20 October 2014
Location: 30° 52′ 26.78″ N, 34° 47′ 20.72″ E
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2.0 Commentary
I bought a small case of coconut water. With the warming temperatures I like to keep the refrigerator stuffed with drinks. I’ve always liked coconut water but haven’t had any for quite a while.
Several days later, I was reminded why I stopped drinking it: it gives me stomach cramps. If I continue drinking it I’m sure it will lead to worse things.
I’m not going to find out.
My daughter is off to spend a week in Florida with her mother and stepdad. I’m going to miss her.
One consolation, we will be enjoying Florida weather. And one more consolation, I just returned from two rips myself and have no desire to take another so soon.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“Love and kindness are never wasted.
They always make a difference.
They bless the one who receives them, and they bless you, the giver.”
~Barbara De Angelis
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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 friend Jim Pasto:
I also was going to write in response to your blog. I’m glad I have the time now to read and I forgot how much I enjoy it. It was nice to read about your trip to Swarthmore. I loved the tuna and sardine, garlic and EVOI mini-masterpiece you described. We are so lucky to be Italian.
So I came up with a rejoinder to the old joke about what color is a newspaper – black and white and read all over. Mine is this: what color is an Italian blog. Every color in the universe and food all over. I know it is bad one, but it describes your blog’s essence I think. We are so lucky to have it and you.
Blog meister responds: Thank you for your kind words, my friend. But even those sweet thoughts will not induce me to laugh at that joke.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Roast Chicken Dinner.
A three-pound chicken is my favorite size and I cooked one on Thursday.
Roasts are the easiest foods: just set it in the oven, wait a while, take it out of the oven and serve it.
Very little hovering.
The slow-roast method that I have been touting for years produces the juiciest bird of all.
Usually I don’t do anything to the chicken but I think a brushing with butter, salt and pepper before the oven is easy and produces a tastier bird, no need for a gravy.
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David Ben-Gurion (/bɛn ˈɡʊəriən/ ben GOOR-ee-ən; Hebrew: דָּוִד בֶּן-גּוּרִיּוֹן [daˈvid ben ɡuʁˈjon] (About this soundlisten); born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary national founder of the State of Israel and the first Prime Minister of Israel. Adopting the name of Ben-Gurion in 1909, he rose to become the preeminent leader of the Jewish community in British-ruled Mandatory Palestine from 1935 until the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, which he led until 1963 with a short break in 1954–55.
Ben-Gurion's passion for Zionism, which began early in life, led him to become a major Zionist leader and executive head of the World Zionist Organization in 1946. As head of the Jewish Agency from 1935, and later president of the Jewish Agency Executive, he was the de facto leader of the Jewish community in Palestine, and largely led its struggle for an independent Jewish state in Mandatory Palestine. On 14 May 1948, he formally proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel, and was the first to sign the Israeli Declaration of Independence, which he had helped to write. Ben-Gurion led Israel during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and united the various Jewish militias into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Subsequently, he became known as "Israel's founding father".
Following the war, Ben-Gurion served as Israel's first prime minister and minister of defense. As prime minister, he helped build the state institutions, presiding over national projects aimed at the development of the country. He also oversaw the absorption of vast numbers of Jews from all over the world. A centerpiece of his foreign policy was improving relationships with the West Germans. He worked with Konrad Adenauer's government in Bonn, and West Germany provided large sums (in the Reparations Agreement between Israel and West Germany) in compensation for Nazi Germany's confiscation of Jewish property during the Holocaust.
In 1954 he resigned as prime minister and minister of defense but remained a member of the Knesset. He returned as minister of defense in 1955 after the Lavon Affair and the resignation of Pinhas Lavon. Later that year he became prime minister again, following the 1955 elections. Under his leadership, Israel responded aggressively to Arab guerrilla attacks, and in 1956, invaded Egypt along with British and French forces after Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal during what became known as the Suez Crisis.
He stepped down from office in 1963, and retired from political life in 1970. He then moved to Sde Boker, a kibbutz in the Negev desert, where he lived until his death. Posthumously, Ben-Gurion was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Important People of the 20th century.
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It’s Sunday, June 6, 2021
Welcome to the 1,121st consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Emperor Shrimp
Cleaning under the carpet. Girdled Glossodoris / Glossodoris cincta - Imperial Shrimp / Zenopontonia rex
Christian Gloor from Wakatobi Dive Resort, Indonesia - Cleaning under the carpet
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2.0 Commentary
While I gather my legs under me from my trips to San Francisco and Swarthmore, I find myself faced with four social outings coming up in the next ten days.
I love the activity and yet I‘m a bit frustrated in not having the time to work on my manuscript.
I will need a couple of uninterrupted hours with the work in front of me.
Doesn’t sound like much but life commitments recur daily, for me, especially three: weight-lifting (three times a week), long walks, (three miles, every day, sometimes twice), and preparing dinner, including reading recipes, deciding on dinner, shopping, prep, and then sitting down to leisurely eat.
And I mustn’t forget fatigue, that all important fourth distraction. Although my sleep has been under control for the last several years, I still wake early (4.30-5.00am) and by the time I finish dinner I don’t have a lot of productive energy left. In this lovely mild weather, the streets call me and I’m off for another long walk (an hour) with perhaps a bit of shopping. And when I return I have no creative juices left.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“My Crown is in my heart, not on my head:
Not deck'd with Diamonds, and Indian stones:
Nor to be seen: my Crown is call'd Content,
A Crown it is, that seldom Kings enjoy.”
~William Shakespeare
King Henry VI, Part 3
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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
Several emails back and forth from a dear friend arranging a meetup.
Blog meister responds: So much fun!
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Wednesday night was a simple prep of lamb loin chops: they were on sale, an irresistible price.
Just slow-roasted them for 30 minutes (200* oven) and then Broiled/Seared the for 3 ½ minutes.
They were perfect.
I made a bit of broccoli rabe and potato with garlic oil, red pepper flakes, and salt.
A nice dinner.
Stir-fry has been out of my bailiwick but on Friday I’m going to give it a try.
I found a recipe I like and can use as a base.
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11.0 Thumbnail
Zenopontonia rex, the emperor shrimp or imperial shrimp, is a species of shrimp in the family Palaemonidae. It is found in shallow water in the tropical Indo-Pacific region. It lives in association with a sea cucumber, a nudibranch or other large mollusc, often changing its color to match that of its host.
Description
Zenopontonia rex is a robust shrimp growing to a length of about 3 cm (1.2 in), with females being rather larger and slightly less colorful. The antennae are modified into a series of plates that extend forwards from the head, and the rostrum has a crest-like extension. The cephalothorax bears a small spine on either side. The first two pairs of legs bear pincers with short sensory hairs. The basic colour of this shrimp is orange-yellow to orange-red, with purple antennal plates, claws and walking legs. However, during the day, white chromatophores in the skin expand and may cover much of the dorsal surface and tail fan; in other instances, the white colour appears as a median band, and the basic orange colour is revealed elsewhere. The colouring also varies depending on the shrimp's host; the classic colouring usually occurs when it is associated with a sea cucumber, but it sometimes matches the colour of its host, particularly when associated with an opisthobranch.
Distribution and habitat
Zenopontonia rex is native to the tropical Indo-Pacific region. Its range extends from the Red Sea, Réunion and Mayotte to Hawaii and French Polynesia, and from southern Japan to New Caledonia and northern Australia. It is found at depths down to about 40 m (130 ft), always living in association with a large sea cucumber, a nudibranch or other large mollusc,[2] perching on its back as its host moves around.
Ecology
Zenopontonia rex lives as a commensal on sea cucumbers such as Bohadschia, Opheodesoma, Stichopus, Synapta maculata or Thelenota, or on nudibranchs and other large molluscs including Asteronotus, Ceratosoma, Chromodoris, Cypraea, Dendrodoris, Hexabranchus, Hypselodoris and Pleurobranchus; occasionally it has been observed living in association with a starfish such as Echinaster or Gomophia. There is often a pair of shrimps, or even three, on a singe host, and then they usually have identical colouring. They keep to the dorsal surface or flanks, moving to the far side of the host if danger threatens. The shrimp feeds on detritus on the seabed, as well as cleaning the surface of its host and feeding on mucus and faeces. This species is gonochoric; the male uses his first two pairs of walking legs to deposit sperm on the underside of the female's thorax, where the eggs are incubated until they hatch. The larvae are planktonic.
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