Daily Entries for the week of
Sunday, March 20, 2022
through
Saturday, March 26, 2022
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It’s Saturday, March 26, 2022
Welcome to the 1,393rd consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Adventure
Adventure novels and short stories were popular subjects for American pulp magazines.
Metropolitan Magazines - http://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=59128
Cover to Thilling Adventures, volume 2, number 3 (Metropolitan Magazines, July 1932).
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Commentary
The Boston Celtics continue to entertain and impress.
They looked other-worldly in their game against the Utah Jazz.
They had lost four games in a row against the Jazz, the last one earlier this year.
Wednesday night the new Celtics destroyed the Jazz.
What fun!
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Reading and Writing
My most current editing of Conflicted, Volume 1, Filling Hell is taking me 6 minutes per page.
That’s half the time my last set of edits took.
I still have two weeks left to finish this round of edits but
I have determined that when done, I must start a new set of edits with the hope and expectation that the editing will take barely a moment longer than the reading, meaning I will have very little left to edit and I may go forward with submissions.
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Wellness
I can’t believe the change in my sleep.
Just as I was throwing in the towel and accepting that limited sleep was my fate,
my body changed (a positive of aging?) and for the last month
I have been sleeping better than I ever have in my life.
And without melatonin or any other chemical assistance.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
I broke a mirror in my house and
I’m supposed to get seven years bad luck, but
my lawyer thinks he can get me five.
~Stephen Wright
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
I asked Sally C for her ideas for my family’s June trip to Washington, DC.
This is what that kind soul sent:
Hi, Mino and Dom,
I have reached out to two of my former tour-guide friends and colleagues for some specifics about the current status of popular sites in DC, but I have not yet heard back from them.
Here are the links to the websites for the White House, the Capitol, the National Museum of African American History, and the National Museum of Art. They have up-to-date info about hours of operation, public access, in-person vs. virtual tours, scheduling visits, and so forth.
U.S. Capitol Visitor Center
https://www.visitthecapitol.gov/plan-visit/book-tour-capitol
It doesn’t look like the Capitol is open for in-house tours at this point, but my friend Steve Livengood, Chief Guide at US Capitol Historical Society, has conducted a marvelous tour from the outside of the building, which lasts about two hours. I’ve asked if he’s still conducting this tour. Not as good as going inside, but if he’s still doing it, it’s an option that is well worth the time. Again, if the Capitol is open to the public, contact your senator and/or representative immediately to schedule a tour. It does take three or four months to arrange.
The White House
This site states that President Biden announced recently that plans are in the works to open the White House to public tours again on April 15th, so we’ll see if that actually happens, everything being in flux these days. And as with the Capitol building, contact your senator and/or representative immediately to schedule a tour. It does take three or four months to arrange.
National Museum of African American History & Culture
National Gallery of Art
Let me know if you have other specific interests that you and the family might like to see. For example, most people aren’t aware of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, about three blocks northeast of the White House on New York Avenue. Right now they offer only virtual tours of the exhibits and other online events, because the building is closed for renovations. But there are multitudes of really interesting things to see and do, including the newer monuments and memorials on and around the Mall. The WWII memorial is extremely powerful, as is the FDR one, and the Korean War memorial is downright haunting. The George Mason memorial sits quietly in an obscure spot between the Tidal Basin and the Potomac River, I might say appropriately forgotten, as is Mason’s contribution to our Constitution: He developed and insisted on the inclusion of the Bill of Rights.
I’ll be in touch with more information when I hear back from these folks. Until then, enjoy what spring weather we are getting – being spring, of course, it’s erratic, but our spring bulbs have already sent up shoots eight inches tall!
Sally
BRASS CASTLE ARTS
Literary Services to Polish Your Gem
Freelance Copywriter | Copyeditor | Author
Sally M. Chetwynd
PO Box 1916, Wakefield, MA 01880
781-548-9519 c
https://www.brasscastlearts.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sally-m-chetwynd-6118741b/
https://www.alignable.com/wakefield-ma/brass-castle-arts
AUTHOR OF: Bead of Sand and The Sturgeon’s Dance
Sign up for my tri-weekly newsletter – “Natterings & Noodlings.” (A politics-free zone!) Come, join the fun!
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but
only what is helpful for building others up. – Ephesians 4:29
Blog meister responds: Above and beyond. Thank you, Sally
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
I am continuing work with balls of Ancient Grain dough available at W Foods.
I made a flatbread with maple syrup and butter.
Good.
Next time I’ll use much more of both.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
High Street Place
The new Boston Food Court seems to have hit it big.
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Short Essay*
Adventure fiction is a type of romance that usually presents danger, or gives the reader a sense of excitement.
In the Introduction to the Encyclopedia of Adventure Fiction, Critic Don D'Ammassa defines the genre as follows:
An adventure is an event or series of events that happens outside the course of the protagonist's ordinary life, usually accompanied by danger, often by physical action. Adventure stories almost always move quickly, and the pace of the plot is at least as important as characterization, setting and other elements of a creative work.
D'Ammassa argues that adventure stories make the element of danger the focus; hence he argues that Charles Dickens's novel A Tale of Two Cities is an adventure novel because the protagonists are in constant danger of being imprisoned or killed, whereas Dickens's Great Expectations is not because "Pip's encounter with the convict is an adventure, but that scene is only a device to advance the main plot, which is not truly an adventure."
Adventure has been a common theme since the earliest days of written fiction. Indeed, the standard plot of Medieval romances was a series of adventures. Following a plot framework as old as Heliodorus, and so durable as to be still alive in Hollywood movies, a hero would undergo a first set of adventures before he met his lady. A separation would follow, with a second set of adventures leading to a final reunion.
Variations kept the genre alive. From the mid-19th century onwards, when mass literacy grew, adventure became a popular subgenre of fiction. Although not exploited to its fullest, adventure has seen many changes over the years – from being constrained to stories of knights in armor to stories of high-tech espionages.
Examples of that period include Sir Walter Scott, Alexandre Dumas, père, Jules Verne, Brontë Sisters, H. Rider Haggard, Victor Hugo, Emilio Salgari, Karl May, Louis Henri Boussenard, Thomas Mayne Reid, Sax Rohmer, Edgar Wallace, and Robert Louis Stevenson.
Adventure novels and short stories were popular subjects for American pulp magazines, which dominated American popular fiction between the Progressive Era and the 1950s. Several pulp magazines such as Adventure, Argosy, ayanansari, Top-Notch, and Short Stories specialized in this genre. Notable pulp adventure writers included Edgar Rice Burroughs, Talbot Mundy, Theodore Roscoe, Johnston McCulley, Arthur O. Friel, Harold Lamb, Carl Jacobi, George F. Worts, Georges Surdez, H. Bedford-Jones, and J. Allan Dunn.
Adventure fiction often overlaps with other genres, notably war novels, crime novels, sea stories, Robinsonades, spy stories (as in the works of John Buchan, Eric Ambler and Ian Fleming), science fiction, fantasy, (Robert E. Howard and J. R. R. Tolkien both combined the secondary world story with the adventure novel) and Westerns. Not all books within these genres are adventures. Adventure fiction takes the setting and premise of these other genres, but the fast-paced plot of an adventure focuses on the actions of the hero within the setting. With a few notable exceptions (such as Baroness Orczy, Leigh Brackett and Marion Zimmer Bradley) adventure fiction as a genre has been largely dominated by male writers, though female writers are now becoming common.
For children
Adventure stories written specifically for children began in the 19th century. Early examples include Johann David Wyss's The Swiss Family Robinson (1812), Frederick Marryat's The Children of the New Forest (1847), and Harriet Martineau's The Peasant and the Prince (1856). The Victorian era saw the development of the genre, with W. H. G. Kingston, R. M. Ballantyne, and G. A. Henty specializing in the production of adventure fiction for boys. This inspired writers who normally catered to adult audiences to essay such works, such as Robert Louis Stevenson writing Treasure Island for a child readership. In the years after the First World War, writers such as Arthur Ransome developed the adventure genre by setting the adventure in Britain rather than distant countries, while Geoffrey Trease, Rosemary Sutcliff[10] and Esther Forbes brought a new sophistication to the historical adventure novel. Modern writers such as Mildred D. Taylor (Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry) and Philip Pullman (the Sally Lockhart novels) have continued the tradition of the historical adventure. The modern children's adventure novel sometimes deals with controversial issues like terrorism (Robert Cormier, After the First Death, (1979)) and warfare in the Third World (Peter Dickinson, AK, (1000)).
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Friday, March 25, 2022
Welcome to the 1,392nd consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Douglas Fairbanks as Robin Hood
Douglas Fairbanks in the 1922 film Robin Hood
Unknown author - J. Willis Sayre Collection of Theatrical Photographs
Still from the American film Robin Hood (1922). Subjects: motion pictures, actors
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Commentary
Congratulations to daughter Katherine.
The offices of State Senator Brad Hoylman contacted Kat and asked her to interview for the position of Press Secretary to the Senator. She did and got the job: a significant career advance. She starts on April 12. Mr. Hoylman is a progressive, leading member of the legislature. He also happens to represent Kat’s district in NYC’s Upper West Side.
How wonderful to watch our children to progress in their careers.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
Why is it a penny for your thoughts but you have to put your two cents in? Somebody’s making a penny.
~Stephen Wright
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
Blog meister responds:
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Volunteers at Pru
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
I had dinner as a Takeout from Fuji in High St Place.
I paid 25.00 for a Fuji bowl.
It was well done.
I did add an additional $4.00 for Fish Roe. Worth it.
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Short Essay*
Action fiction is the literary genre that includes spy novels, adventure stories, tales of terror and intrigue ("cloak and dagger") and mysteries. This kind of story utilizes suspense, the tension that is built up when the reader wishes to know how the conflict between the protagonist and antagonist is going to be resolved or what the solution to the puzzle of a thriller is.
Action fiction is a form of genre fiction whose subject matter is characterized by emphasis on exciting action sequences. This does not always mean they exclude character development or story-telling.
Action fiction is related to other forms of fiction, including action films, action games and analogous media in other formats such as manga and anime. It includes martial arts action, extreme sports action, car chases and vehicles, suspense action, and action comedy, with each focusing in more detail on its own type and flavor of action.
It is usually possible to tell from the creative style of an action sequence, the emphasis of an entire work, so that, for example, the style of a combat sequence will indicate whether the entire work can be classified as action adventure, or a martial work. Action is mainly defined by a central focus on any kind of exciting movement.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Thursday, March 24, 2022
Welcome to the 1,391st consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Dystopia
Life in Kowloon Walled City has often inspired the dystopian identity in modern media works.[1]
Author: Jidanni - Edit of Image:19890327hk.jpg by Stevage
Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong, photographed from an airplane
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Commentary
Mitch McConnell calls Republicans who support Trump-Putin ‘lonely voices in the party.” This is such an optimistic take it made my day.
I ordered fresh food (osso bucco) from Whole Foods. Everything about the experience was positive. It was easy to find (it’s not sold in their stores, at least not in Boston), it was delivered on time, and it was excellent quality. Despite the price, $43.00 including delivery charge of 9.95, I would do it again.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
I’ve been getting into astronomy so I installed a skylight.
The people who live above me are furious.
~StephenWright
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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 Sally C commenting on gas prices.
I’m glad I’m now working from home permanently (I had been anyway, while under the lockdown, but my contract ended before the company began opening up again.
Now I’m home for good and am quite happy with the prospect!).
I think I put less than 5,000 miles on my car in 2021.
Driving just enough to keep the tires limber.
Sally
Blog meister responds: And not owning a car, I drive even less.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
I had Osso Bucco for dinner.
It came out well.
But I’m beginning to back away from such rich and high calorie meals.
I think I’ll see fewer of these in my menu planning.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Gas prices per Sally Chetwynd
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Short Essay*
A dystopia is a speculated community or society that is undesirable or frightening. It is often treated as an antonym of utopia, a term that was coined by Sir Thomas More and figures as the title of his best known work, published in 1516, which created a blueprint for an ideal society with minimal crime, violence and poverty. The relationship between utopia and dystopia is in actuality not one simple opposition, as many utopian elements and components are found in dystopias as well, and vice versa.
Dystopias are often characterized by rampant fear or distress, tyrannical governments, environmental disaster, or other characteristics associated with a cataclysmic decline in society. Distinct themes typical of a Dystopian Society include: complete control over the people in a society through the usage of propaganda, heavy censoring of information or denial of free thought, worshiping an unattainable goal, the complete loss of individuality, and heavy enforcement of conformity. Despite certain overlaps, dystopian fiction is distinct from post-apocalyptic fiction, and an undesirable society is not necessarily dystopian. Dystopian societies appear in many fictional works and artistic representations, particularly in stories set in the future. The best known by far is George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). Other famous examples are Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932), and Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (1953). Dystopian societies appear in many sub-genres of fiction and are often used to draw attention to society, environment, politics, economics, religion, psychology, ethics, science, or technology. Some authors use the term to refer to existing societies, many of which are, or have been, totalitarian states or societies in an advanced state of collapse. Dystopias, through an exaggerated worst-case scenario, often make a criticism about a current trend, societal norm, or political system.
The entire substantial sub-genre of alternative history works depicting a world in which Nazi Germany won the Second World War can be considered as dystopias. So can other works of Alternative History, in which a historical turning point led to a manifestly repressive world. For example, the 2004 mockumentary C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America,and Ben Winters' Underground Airlines, in which slavery in the United States continues to the present, with "electronic slave auctions" carried out via the Internet and slaves controlled by electronic devices implanted in their spines, or Keith Roberts Pavane in which 20th Century Britain is ruled by a Catholic theocracy and the Inquisition is actively torturing and burning "heretics".
Some scholars, such as Gregory Claeys and Lyman Tower Sargent, make certain distinctions between typical synonyms of dystopias. For example, Claeys and Sargent define literary dystopias as societies imagined as substantially worse than the society in which the author writes. Some of these are anti-utopias, which criticise attempts to implement various concepts of utopia. In the most comprehensive treatment of the literary and real expressions of the concept, Dystopia: A Natural History, Claeys offers a historical approach to these definitions. Here the tradition is traced from early reactions to the French Revolution. Its commonly anti-collectivist character is stressed, and the addition of other themes—the dangers of science and technology, of social inequality, of corporate dictatorship, of nuclear war—are also traced. A psychological approach is also favored here, with the principle of fear being identified with despotic forms of rule, carried forward from the history of political thought, and group psychology introduced as a means of understanding the relationship between utopia and dystopia. Andrew Norton-Schwartzbard noted that "written many centuries before the concept "dystopia" existed, Dante's Inferno in fact includes most of the typical characteristics associated with this genre – even if placed in a religious framework rather than in the future of the mundane world, as modern dystopias tend to be". In the same vein, Vicente Angeloti remarked that "George Orwell's emblematic phrase, a boot stamping on a human face — forever, would aptly describe the situation of the denizens in Dante's Hell. Conversely, Dante's famous inscription Abandon all hope, ye who enter here would have been equally appropriate if placed at the entrance to Orwell's "Ministry of Love" and its notorious "Room 101".
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Wednesday, March 23, 2022
Welcome to the 1,390th consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
War of the Worlds
The alien invasion featured in H. G. Wells' 1897 novel The War of the Worlds,
as illustrated by Henrique Alvim Corrêa
Henrique Alvim Corrêa - http://monsterbrains.blogspot.com/2015/04/henrique-alvim-correa-war-of-worlds.html , see also: https://fineart.ha.com/itm/paintings/henrique-alvim-correa-brazilian-1876-1910-livre-premier-l-arrivee-des-martiens-from-the-war-of-the-worlds-belgium-edition-/a/5213-71264.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Archive-ThisAuction-120115
Martian Fighting Machine in the Thames Valley, from The War of the Worlds, Belgium edition, 1906 Pencil and ink on paper 12.875 x 10.25 in. (sheet)
Not signed Various study sketches verso
The War of the Worlds Archive
This illustration is featured in Book I: The Coming of the Martians, Chapter XIV: "In London," 1906.
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Commentary
Winter is gone.
Ever notice how few friends winter makes?
Few will say, “I miss winter.”
“I miss those blustery days of 0*.”
“I miss putting on seven layers of sweaters and coats.”
“Love those cold feet.”
“Love saying, ‘It’s just a cold.”
Or “I miss looking in a mirror and seeing a pale face looking back at me.”
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Reading and Writing
Had a Zoom class on “The Lincoln Highway.”
Class led by my granddaughter with my oldest and closest niece in attendance for the first time.
Class was great.
Made me proud.
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Screen time
The season finale of “The Gilded Age’ was heartwarming.
Nice.
But the latest episode of “My Brilliant Friend” was again spectacular,
this episode illustrating the bondage of women in Western society.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
I went to a tourist information booth and said
“Tell me about some people who were here last year.”
~Stephen Wright
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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 a lovely letter from a college friend.
She’s going through some changes.
The ‘hello’ led to an flurry of replies and counter-replies.
Hopefully, we will meet up after Easter.
Blog meister responds: A lovely moment.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Using the Calendar that comes with Windows, I’ve been developing a Calendar of Menus both for breakfast and dinner.
One use I’m making of it is a better balance.
For example, I added Chicken Pot Pie and Osso Bucco recently.
Originally had them back to back.
But seeing them beside each other led me to insert a dinner of Tuna Salad between them.
This gives my body some extra time to absorb the richness of the pot pie and the stew.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
T station at rush hour during the pandemic
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Short Essay*
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to sci-fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life.
It has been called the "literature of ideas", and it often explores the potential consequences of scientific, social, and technological innovations.
Science fiction can trace its roots back to ancient mythology, and is related to fantasy, horror, and superhero fiction, and contains many subgenres. Its exact definition has long been disputed among authors, critics, scholars, and readers.
Science fiction, in literature, film, television, and other media, has become popular and influential over much of the world, and it is also often said to inspire a "sense of wonder". Besides providing entertainment, it can also criticize present-day society and explore
alternatives.
Some scholars assert that science fiction had its beginnings in ancient times, when the line between myth and fact was blurred. Written in the 2nd century CE by the satirist Lucian, A True Story contains many themes and tropes characteristic of modern science fiction, including travel to other worlds, extraterrestrial lifeforms, interplanetary warfare, and artificial life. Some consider it the first science-fiction novel. Some of the stories from The Arabian Nights, along with the 10th-century The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter and Ibn al-Nafis's 13th-century Theologus Autodidactus, also contain elements of science fiction.
Written during the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment, Johannes Kepler's Somnium (1634), Francis Bacon's New Atlantis (1627), Athanasius Kircher's Itinerarium extaticum (1656), Cyrano de Bergerac's Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon (1657) and The States and Empires of the Sun (1662), Margaret Cavendish's "The Blazing World" (1666), Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726), Ludvig Holberg's Nicolai Klimii Iter Subterraneum (1741) and Voltaire's Micromégas (1752) are regarded as some of the first true science-fantasy works. Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan considered Somnium the first science-fiction story; it depicts a journey to the Moon and how the Earth's motion is seen from there.
Following the 17th-century development of the novel as a literary form, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) and The Last Man (1826) helped define the form of the science-fiction novel. Brian Aldiss has argued that Frankenstein was the first work of science fiction. Edgar Allan Poe wrote several stories considered to be science fiction, including "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall" (1835) which featured a trip to the Moon. Jules Verne was noted for his attention to detail and scientific accuracy, especially in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870). In 1887, the novel El anacronópete by Spanish author Enrique Gaspar y Rimbau introduced the first time machine.
H. G. Wells
Many critics consider H. G. Wells one of science fiction's most important authors, or even "the Shakespeare of science fiction." His notable science-fiction works include The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of the Worlds (1898). His science fiction imagined alien invasion, biological engineering, invisibility, and time travel. In his non-fiction futurologist works he predicted the advent of airplanes, military tanks, nuclear weapons, satellite television, space travel, and something resembling the World Wide Web.
Edgar Rice Burroughs' A Princess of Mars, published in 1912, was the first of his three-decade-long planetary romance series of Barsoom novels which were set on Mars and featured John Carter as the hero. In 1926, Hugo Gernsback published the first American science-fiction magazine, Amazing Stories. In its first issue he wrote:
By 'scientifiction' I mean the Jules Verne, H. G. Wells and Edgar Allan Poe type of story—a charming romance intermingled with scientific fact and prophetic vision... Not only do these amazing tales make tremendously interesting reading—they are always instructive. They supply knowledge... in a very palatable form... New adventures pictured for us in the scientifiction of today are not at all impossible of realization tomorrow.
The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Tuesday, March 22, 2022
Welcome to the 1,389th consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
XFiles
title screen
This is the title screen from the FOX series The X-Files.
Fair use
File:Thexfiles.jpg
Uploaded: 18 July 2014
About Media Viewer
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Commentary
I did it.
My first food order online and delivered.
I couldn’t find veal osso bucco in a meat market.
I wanted veal osso bucco.
I went on Amazon and looked it up.
While Whole Foods Market doesn’t carry it, Whole Foods on line does.
Pricey.
43.00 for a generous dinner for one.
But it includes delivery.
But you have to cook it.
Easy enough.
I’ll cook it Sunday night and eat it Monday.
Will report.
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Screen time
Sunday night saw the return of Sanditon on PBS.
Looking forward to it.
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Understanding aging
I’m eighty years old and two days.
Feeling well.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
I’m going to get a tattoo over my whole body of me but taller.
~Stephen Wright
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
If you’ve cooked one stew you’ve cooked them all.
Sear the meat.
Soften and season the aromatic vegetables that you’ve put in the food chopper.
Return the meat and add liquids, stock, wine, and another or not.
Simmer and reduce.
Done.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Club Sandwich
Now that’s a sandwich
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Short Essay*
Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding.
Notable paranormal beliefs include those that pertain to extrasensory perception (for example, telepathy), spiritualism and the pseudosciences of ghost hunting, cryptozoology, and ufology.
Proposals regarding the paranormal are different from scientific hypotheses or speculations extrapolated from scientific evidence because scientific ideas are grounded in empirical observations and experimental data gained through the scientific method. In contrast, those who argue for the existence of the paranormal explicitly do not base their arguments on empirical evidence but rather on anecdote, testimony, and suspicion. The standard scientific models give the explanation that what appears to be paranormal phenomena is usually a misinterpretation, misunderstanding, or anomalous variation of natural phenomena.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Monday, March 21, 2022
Welcome to the 1,388th consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Eastern Market
Interior of Eastern Market in 2010
Agnostic Preachers Kid - Own work
The interior of Eastern Market, located at the intersection of 7th and C Streets, S.E., in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Built 1871–1873 to the designs of noted architect Adolf Cluss, Eastern Market is an example of Italianate architecture. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1971, and is designated as a contributing property to the Capitol Hill Historic District, listed on the NRHP in 1976.
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Commentary
Am loving the Celtics.
It’s been a while since they’ve fielded a good team.
Remember that terrible post-Bird era when the Celtics lost two superstars in their early 20s?
Reggie Lewis and Len Bias.
We thought we would ride their genius and youth to another era of brilliance.
They died.
Stunning.
Now we have two more superstars, very young.
Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
And around them the Celtics have assembled an excellent cast of players through nine positions.
Enough stars to get us deep into the ost-season.
It’s fun to watch them play, defense and offense.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
Woke up this morning and folded my bed back into a couch.
Almost broke both my arms cause it’s not that kind of bed.
~Stephen Wright
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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, Sally C:
Dear Dom,
It’s exciting that you’re going to DC for a family get-together! If you want a White House tour, be sure to get in touch NOW with your US senator or representative to arrange that. And you might want one of The Capitol as well – that one is really great. Our representatives have the means to arrange these more private tours, which are superior to the general public tours. Unless your group is large, you’ll likely have other tourists mingled in your group, but it will still be a smaller group than the sheep-herd experience that is open to the public. And you won’t have to wait in long lines to get in. Actually, since the days of 9-11, you probably have to arrange these appointments, anyway. Lots of public venues have changed greatly and/or been limited since then. Even before then, a three- or four-month period was necessary between asking for a tour and getting one scheduled for your desired time of visiting the city.
If you want more information on The Capitol, I can put you in touch with my friend Steven Livengood, who is (or used to be) the head historian for The Capitol. I think he is still giving tours throughout the city on various sites, and right after 9-11 he quickly developed one for The Capitol all done during an hour’s walk around the outside of the building. Pretty talented guy!
I was once a licensed DC tour guide, so I know some people down that way who could recommend working guides who know their stuff.
Cheers!
Sally
Blog meister responds: Definitely would be interested. I get back to you in a couple of days.
Thank you, my dear.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
With my Roasted Game Hen I made a healthy substitute for Mashed Potatoes: Mashed Cauliflower. It is just as delicious as the potatoes and good for you as well. Besides subbing the cauliflower for the potatoes, use Oat milk or your favorite plant-based milk. Calories are about 30% of mashed potatoes. And the Mashed Cauliflower is 3xs better for you.Or more.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Red Clam Sauce
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Short Essay*
The Eastern Market is a public market in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, D.C., housed in a 19th-century brick building.
It is located on 7th Street, S.E., a few blocks east of the U.S. Capitol between North Carolina Avenue SE and C Street SE. Eastern Market was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. Badly damaged by an early-morning fire in 2007, the market building reopened in the summer of 2009 following an extensive renovation.
Eastern Market also marks a smaller community within the Capitol Hill neighborhood by serving as an anchor point for other nearby stores and restaurants. It is served by a nearby eponymous stop on the Washington Metro Blue, Orange, and Silver Lines.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Sunday, March 20, 2022
Welcome to the 1,387th consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Film Noir: The Big Combo
Low-resolution reproduction of screenshot from trailer for the movie Wikipedia:en:The Big Combo (1955).
Allied Artists - Wikipedia in English
Permission details
Source is movie trailer originally distributed without copyright notice, as then required for copyright protection.
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Commentary
Meanwhile, with the Synopsis fully edited, I will return to the Query,
incorporating the ideas my beta readers passed on to me.
My plan is to complete the query and the manuscript editing by a target date of March 31.
How’s this for prescience.
In early November I set April 1 as my target date for finishing.
Who’d a thunk that a wild guess that long ago would turn out to be the date.
To the day.
Wow.
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Reading and Writing
Conflicted, Volume 1, Filling Hell
I made so many edits to the manuscript these last three weeks that
I need to make another pass at it.
If my edits on this next reading are diminished to a single word or two per page, then I will pronounce the manuscript ready for submission to an agent or publisher.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
Every morning I get up and make instant coffee and
I drink it so I have the energy to make real coffee.
~Stephen Wright
Wellness
I love my shoulder brace.
When I have it on it virtually eliminates my dramatic shoulder slump.
I can handle the impact on my body.
It’s wonderful.
I sound like an ad.
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Understanding Ageing
Some physical deterioration due to age cannot be avoided.
But much can.
Avoid inactivity. Get a job. Volunteer for cause. Adopt a creative activity.
Watch what you eat. Balance calories, fiber, vitamins, as well as taste.
Stay physically active. Walk. Stretch. Bike. Lift weights.
Stay proud.
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
A lot of discussion about a distant family get together, starting
June 20 in Washington DC.
My four children and all my grandchildren are aboard.
We’re talking about which activities we should plan, among them, a bird walk, a White House Tour, the History of African Americans Museum, the National Gallery.
Blog meister responds: I’m excited to be with my family. Don’t care much what we do or where we eat. It will all be wonderful. We had a gathering in Philly in September, one in NYC in December, and now another, a birthday present to me, in June. What did I do to deserve this?
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Saturday dinner was a light tomato sauce with shrimp and crabs on linguini.
It was delicious.
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Community Photos**
Clam Sauce
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Short Essay*
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American film noir. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key, black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography. Many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Great Depression.
The term film noir, French for 'black film' (literal) or 'dark film' (closer meaning), was first applied to Hollywood films by French critic Nino Frank in 1946, but was unrecognized by most American film industry professionals of that era. Cinema historians and critics defined the category retrospectively. Before the notion was widely adopted in the 1970s, many of the classic films noir were referred to as "melodramas". Whether film noir qualifies as a distinct genre or whether it is more of a filmmaking style is a matter of ongoing debate among scholars.
Film noir encompasses a range of plots: the central figure may be a private investigator (The Big Sleep), a plainclothes policeman (The Big Heat), an aging boxer (The Set-Up), a hapless grifter (Night and the City), a law-abiding citizen lured into a life of crime (Gun Crazy), or simply a victim of circumstance (D.O.A.). Although film noir was originally associated with American productions, the term has been used to describe films from around the world. Many films released from the 1960s onward share attributes with films noir of the classical period, and often treat its conventions self-referentially. Some refer to such latter-day works as neo-noir. The clichés of film noir have inspired parody since the mid-1940s.
*The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Community Pictures with Captions are sent in by our followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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