Daily Entries for the post of the week of
Sunday, May 24
through
Saturday, May 30
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It’s Saturday, May 30
Welcome to the 783rd consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Martini
Ralf Roletschek - Own work
The martini is a cocktail made with gin and vermouth and
garnished with an olive or a lemon twist.
Over the years, the martini has become
one of the best-known mixed alcoholic beverages.
H. L. Mencken called the martini "the only American invention as perfect as the sonnet", and
E. B. White called it "the elixir of quietude".
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2.0 Commentary
June 8.
Details today from governor’s office then to the local mayors.
The protocol of restaurants opening.
Thank goodness.
This week haircuts; in ten days, restaurants.
Reopening is proceeding and
no reported disasters anywhere.
So with more alternatives available, spending becomes the patriotic thing.
Get the wheels of our economy turning again.
A slow process.
Tortuous, perhaps.
But a start.
Am liking the addition of a few blocks to my morning routine.
Instead of going directly from the Prudential Center to Thinking Cup on Newbury Street,
I walk to Massachusetts Avenue and then several blocks to access the Charles River,
walking the river a few blocks then crossing back to Newbury Street,
to Thinking Cup for coffee.
Scenic.
Level.
Centering.
I am fortunate: blessed with so many friends.
Although I haven’t met up physically with many of them,
(five people in ten weeks?)
I’ve still been in communication with so many people
I feel like I’m at a party.
Just time to catch my breath when
someone else is sharing her time and attention.
In thinking about it I realize that I know a lot of Whole Foods employees and
when I arrive at the store in Charles River Plaza, daily, I’m socializing.
Thing is that I knew these people before the pandemic so
we have memories to share and
occasions to build new memories.
Same is true for Nev and Brenda at Thinking Cup on Newbury Street.
Have known them for several years as baristas.
Long before the corona.
So when I stop in for my late morning coffee
we exchange bits of news as well as greetings.
It’s an integral part of my socializing and
I like it.
Grace and LouLou, regular visitors, and Joanna, my socially distanced walking partner from Blue Bottle, are part of my quaranteam and
last night my cousin Lauren called: she’s returned to Boston.
She’ll soon be another part of the team.
Feeling lonely and isolated, I don’t; I’m not.
Restaurants and dinner parties.
Two activities that I do indeed miss.
And soon, these will return to my rhythm.
Wish everyone the same fortune.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
I have had prayers answered
- most strangely so sometimes - but
I think our Heavenly Father's loving-kindness has been even more evident
in what He has refused me.
~Lewis Carroll
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Thursday night I had leftover La Belle Patrimoine roast chicken.
True.
That chicken is special.
The problem I have with Martinis is how quickly they get drunk.
I limit my intake to three ounces of gin at dinner.
If I have a martini, it’s gone in the first ten minutes of the meal.
Leaves me without a drink for the rest of the dinner.
Adding ice, lime juice, and a tonic splash to the gin
results in a drink remains plentiful throughout the dinner.
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11.0 Thumbnail
Preparation of a Martini
By 1922 the martini reached its most recognizable form in which London dry gin and dry vermouth are combined at a ratio of 2:1, stirred in a mixing glass with ice cubes, with the optional addition of orange or aromatic bitters, then strained into a chilled cocktail glass.
Over time the generally expected garnish became the drinker's choice of a green olive or a twist of lemon peel.
A dry martini is made with dry, white vermouth.
By the Roaring Twenties, it became a common drink order.
Over the course of the 20th century, the amount of vermouth steadily dropped.
During the 1930s the ratio was 3:1 (gin to vermouth), and during the 1940s the ratio was 4:1.
During the latter part of the 20th century, 6:1, 8:1, 12:1, 15:1 (the "Montgomery", after British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery's supposed penchant for attacking only when in possession of great numerical superiority), or even 50:1 or 100:1 Martinis became considered the norm.
A dirty martini contains a splash of olive brine or olive juice and is typically garnished with an olive.
A perfect martini uses equal amounts of sweet and dry vermouth.
Some martinis were prepared by filling a cocktail glass with gin, then rubbing a finger of vermouth along the rim.
There are those who advocated the elimination of vermouth altogether.
According to Noël Coward, "A perfect martini should be made by filling a glass with gin, then
waving it in the general direction of Italy", Italy being a major producer of vermouth.
Luis Buñuel used the dry martini as part of his creative process, regularly using it to sustain "a reverie in a bar".
He offers his own recipe, involving Angostura bitters, in his memoir.
In 1966, the American Standards Association (ASA) released K100.1-1966, "Safety Code and Requirements for Dry Martinis", a tongue-in-cheek account of how to make a "standard" dry martini.
The latest revision of this document, K100.1-1974, was published by American National Standards Institute (ANSI), the successor to ASA, though it is no longer an active standard.
The traditional martini comes in a number of variations.
The fictional spy James Bond sometimes asked for his vodka martinis to be "shaken, not stirred",(although, in books by Ian Fleming, Bond asks for "stirred, not shaken"), following Harry Craddock's The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930), which prescribes shaking for all its martini recipes.
The proper name for a shaken martini is a Bradford; however,
Somerset Maugham is often quoted as saying that "a martini should always be stirred, not shaken, so that the molecules lie sensuously on top of one another."
A martini may also be served on the rocks; that is, with the ingredients poured over ice cubes and served in an old fashioned glass.
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It’s Friday, May 29
Welcome to the 782nd consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Miles Davis
photographed in his New York City home by Tom Palumbo, c. 1955–1956
derivative work: — Malik Shabazz (talk • contribs) - Miles Davis by Palumbo.jpg
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2.0 Commentary
I’m sure New England abounds in/with stories of how we spent warm Wednesday, the first 80* day in a long, long time.
I walked along the Charles River, adding distance to my regular walk.
Lovely.
Today, Thursday, will be another warm day.
I will walk along the Charles River, adding distance to my regular walk.
Lovely.
Some would say repetitive.
Boring.
Who was the tennis coach-guru who counseled his students not to seek variety but to keep hitting the same old boring winner?
I adopted that adage, repeating it to my sons ad nauseam as I remember.
When each repetition is as wonderful as the last, as the Charles River daily is, label me boring, please.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
You have to run as fast as you can just to stay where you are. If you want to get anywhere, you'll have to run much faster.
~Lewis Carroll
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5.0 Mail
We love getting mail.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
In an end to a prior conversation with Howard D, BlogMeister commented: “can't picture you working for Mr Sid's.”
And Howard D wrote back:
Assuredly not. And absolutely not Mr. Sid.
But back in the 80s, I was creative director of the ad agency for Miltons… Won a lot of awards for my work. Made a lot of money for Milton Katz.
The interesting, and to me funny, story behind this ad is that the campaign of which this is a part was scheduled to break in April, for his annual Spring sale. This was the lead-off ad.
Awful clothes.
Ditto Mr. Sid.
The, as usual, semi-brain dead media planners (I didn’t have much to do with that stuff… until I began to see the ways they fucked up) had the ad break on a Friday, which was usual, as the biggest sale shoppers showed up on the weekend, and were used to checking the papers on Friday and Saturday for sales.
Well and good. Except this particular Friday happened to be the one the world at large refers to, in the Western world, as Good Friday.
Sure enough, Saturday, bright and early, the main store in Quincy got a phone call for Mr. Katz from a woman who wanted to complain about the insensitive if not sacrilegious ad mocking our Saviour. I thought it was funny. Katz was ambivalent, but he got over it. That was in the days when he still thought I was a genius.
The really funny (and ironic) thing about the art direction I did for this ad – the photography for which was shot by a really good guy, named Phil Porcella – had nothing whatever to do, of course, with images of Jesus on the cross. Though I definitely had in mind the Tarot card image of the hanged man.
And, of course, The Hanged Man, iconographically speaking, is an image of the crucifixion and martyrdom, but raised to a more symbolic realm, and utterly pagan. I’m sure you have some Tarot experts among your posse. I bet they can give a much fuller exegesis.
But that’s enough culture for you my man, for today. And no, I mean, yes, I don’t really see you in a suit.
Xoxo
h
Blog Meister responds: Mentioning Mr. Sid brought to mind my friend re: Ira Segel, founder of the upscale clothing firm. For many years Ira was a good customer of Dom’s and a good friend.
One day I’ll tell a great story of Ira’s heart and generosity that dressed son Chris, when his father couldn’t, on his college graduation.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Had a wonderful slow-roasted sirloin last night.
With cole slaw and a beet salad, bought prepared.
Easy.
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11.0 Thumbnail
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926 – September 28, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer.
He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musical directions in a five-decade career that kept him at the forefront of many major stylistic developments in jazz.
Born in Alton, Illinois, and raised in East St. Louis, Davis left to study at the Juilliard School in New York City, before dropping out and making his professional debut as a member of saxophonist Charlie Parker's bebop quintet from 1944 to 1948.
Shortly after, he recorded the Birth of the Cool sessions for Capitol Records, which were instrumental to the development of cool jazz.
In the early 1950s, Miles Davis recorded some of the earliest hard bop music while on Prestige Records but did so haphazardly due to a heroin addiction.
After a widely acclaimed comeback performance at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1955, he signed a long-term contract with Columbia Records and recorded the 1957 album 'Round About Midnight.
It was his first work with saxophonist John Coltrane and bassist Paul Chambers, key members of the sextet he led into the early 1960s.
During this period, he alternated between orchestral jazz collaborations with arranger Gil Evans, such as the Spanish-influenced Sketches of Spain (1960), and band recordings, such as Milestones (1958) and Kind of Blue (1959).
The latter recording remains one of the most popular jazz albums of all time, having sold over five million copies in the U.S.
Davis made several lineup changes while recording Someday My Prince Will Come (1961), his 1961 Blackhawk concerts, and Seven Steps to Heaven (1963), another mainstream success that introduced bassist Ron Carter, pianist Herbie Hancock, and drummer Tony Williams.
After adding saxophonist Wayne Shorter to his new quintet in 1964, Davis led them on a series of more abstract recordings often composed by the band members, helping pioneer the post-bop genre with albums such as E.S.P (1965) and Miles Smiles (1967), before transitioning into his electric period.
During the 1970s, he experimented with rock, funk, African rhythms, emerging electronic music technology, and an ever-changing line-up of musicians, including keyboardist Joe Zawinul, drummer Al Foster, and guitarist John McLaughlin.
This period, beginning with Davis' 1969 studio album In a Silent Way and concluding with the 1975 concert recording Agharta, was the most controversial in his career, alienating and challenging many in jazz.
His million-selling 1970 record Bitches Brew helped spark a resurgence in the genre's commercial popularity with jazz fusion as the decade progressed.
After a five-year retirement due to poor health, Davis resumed his career in the 1980s, employing younger musicians and pop sounds on albums such as The Man with the Horn (1981) and Tutu (1986). Critics were generally unreceptive but the decade garnered the trumpeter his highest level of commercial recognition.
He performed sold-out concerts worldwide, while branching out into visual arts, film, and television work, before his death in 1991 from the combined effects of a stroke, pneumonia and respiratory failure.
In 2006, Davis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which recognized him as "one of the key figures in the history of jazz."
Rolling Stone described him as "the most revered jazz trumpeter of all time, not to mention one of the most important musicians of the 20th century," while Gerald Early called him inarguably one of the most influential and innovative musicians of that period.
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It’s Thursday, May 28
Welcome to the 781st consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Francesca Capossela
Passionate about literature
See “11.0 Thumbnail” in this post.
Passionate about literature
See 11.0 Thumbnail in this post
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2.0 Commentary
Time’s running out for this season’s pretty amazing reading-and-sharing class experience lead by my granddaughter, Francesca Capossela.
Check it out: https://www.readingcloser.com/about
I take great pleasure in the morning news these days:
specifically the heartening trend of the corona virus pandemic in Massachusetts.
Here’s my caution.
As we carefully reopen our economy we must expect limited retrogressions.
We can’t panic at the first negative event.
We find out the cause.
Correct it and move forward.
My caution is based on a feeling that the overcautious are grouped,
lying in wait for a skipped step.
For an excuse to point a finger.
“I told you so.”
Gov. Baker has done an admirable job in handling our health and
he deserves our support.
We will not escape missteps;
touches of retrogression;
blips.
But our leaders will respond rationally.
Our fellow citizens must encourage, not disparage.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
I'm not strange, weird, off, nor crazy,
my reality is just different from yours.
~Lewis Carroll
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5.0 Mail
We love getting mail.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
This from Howard D:
You said, to Sally:
“Points well made, Sally. I agree what you’re saying. Intellectually. However, I believe our visceral reaction to a “Stop there!” sign tends to the negative.”
Yes. Understood. But also, as you were early to point out (in the very beginning entries in your blog), unlike us, you grew up in the mean streets of the North End. And, to hear you tell it (I have no way of knowing) you accounted for yourself as a typical hostile young thug of a mean person, aggressive and, if need be, nasty.
We’re none of us accountable for how others react. And even less, as I’ve said at least four or five times to you, and now Sally has said it too, you cannot, simply cannot know what is going in other people’s heads.
You may think you know what the general “visceral reaction” of people is going to be. But, for one, at least, you have no idea what’s in my viscera. Except for what I tell you. And I told you.
Take care. Stay safe.
xoxo
h
Blog Meister responds: Agree, Howard. Can only use own best judgment to surmise. Each of us does that dozens of times daily.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
On Tuesday night I had a combination dinner using up the last of my veal cacciatore and spare ribs.
Both were delicious.
But nothing unusual to report.
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11.0 Thumbnail
Francesca Capossela
Teacher
See 1.0 Lead Story and 2.0 Commentary above in this day’s post entry.
I am currently completing my master’s at Trinity College Dublin, where I was awarded the Constantina Maxwell scholarship.
In 2018, I graduated cum laude from Pomona College, with an award for best English thesis.
Raised in Brooklyn, I’ve worked at Aevitas Creative Management and VICE.
I attended Saint Ann’s school for K-12.
My essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, The Point Magazine, and on VICE.com, and my poetry has appeared in Hanging Loose Magazine, Banshee (forthcoming), and The Cormorant Broadsheet.
I have tutored independently for seven years, teaching geometry, physics, French, ESL, SAT prep, creative writing, essay writing and English literature.
I have also tutored with Focus Educational Services.
I love to read, write, and talk about books, and I am passionate about helping others find joy in close, careful, and critical reading.
While I’m hoping to find a way to make a living through literature, I am also dedicated to making my classes as accessible as possible.
Every course operates on a sliding scale and no student will be turned away due to inability to pay.
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It’s Wednesday, May 27
Welcome to the 780th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
LaBelle Patrimoine Chickens
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2.0 Commentary
Oh, no!
Too much, too soon!
6.00am looking out from my 31st floor perch and seeing something I haven’t seen since mid-March:
a traffic jam.
Just the first day of this new phase and
a traffic jam?
What about my plans for a significant reduction in rush hour traffic?
The impact of adjusting to work from home?
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
To me it seems that to give happiness is a far nobler goal that to attain it: and
that what we exist for is much more a matter of relations to others than a matter of individual progress:
much more a matter of helping others to heaven than of getting there ourselves.
~Lewis Carroll
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5.0 Mail
We love getting mail.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
This from Howard D, continuing a discussion on bite-size.
And no doubt the source of the expression, never eat anything bigger than your head.
The bit about the guy who choked on a piece of meat the size of a pack of cancer sticks, I can believe it.
I don’t recall if it’s something I was told, or something I read, but a person who knows about this, presumably it was a doctor or maybe a nutritionist, though these aren’t mutually exclusive callings, said people just have the nasty habit of cutting off a portion bigger than is advisable to put in one’s mouth, because they enjoy (I guess) the task of chewing it down to bits that go down easier as to size, and doing it with their teeth and tongue is a lot less effort, requiring no use of utensils, than cutting off what we always (laughingly) call “bite-size” pieces.
Whenever I see that expression in a recipe, usually referring to the size to which whatever flesh the receipt calls for should be cut into before, say, searing it, I always wonder, bite-size according to whose mouth.
ciao
h
Blog Meister responds: Anyone who’s ever fed a toddler has still another perspective on bite-size.
And we should report here the receipt of several personal missives empathizing with my latest bout with a medical appointment and technology, recounting unpleasant incidents of their own.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Recently Whole Foods posted signs crowing that they were once again selling the amazing chicken.
I looked a the label and read the following:
LaBelle Patrimoine
heritage chicken
slow-growing breed
Fresh all natural
All vegetarian diet – no animal by-products
hatched, raised, and harvested in the USA
Raised with access to the outdoors
No antibiotics ever
4.00/pound
(Note that I don’t remember if they said ‘air-chilled’, an important part of the processing. I’ll check next time.)
I compared the price to the 2.99 per pound for Bell and Evans, a good product, air-chilled,
and to 4.00/pound for Giannone chickens, a superior product, for me, the top of the line available in Boston.
Had to give it a try.
Of course I slow-roasted it.
It was what I hoped it would be, a fitting competitor for Giannone.
The most noteworthy aspect of the bird? The way it’s skin dried out and crisped and colored during the roast, the skin the part of the bird least likely to succeed in using the slow-roast method.
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11.0 Thumbnail
Label Rouge is a 50 years old quality label that was created in the 60’s in France.
As French producers of poultry were getting more and more concerned about the emerging industrialization and therefore also the quality of the produce in the country.
They created a label that guaranteed the quality and also the taste of their produce.
Nowadays 62% of all the chickens consumed in France are Label Rouge chickens and they have also expanded to other things than poultry such as beef, veal, eggs, flowers and honey.
The chickens are traditional free-range chickens and can be compared to the Dutch Beter Leven three-star label.
The Label Rouge chickens are slow growing breeds that live at least 81 days. They have a varied healthy diet and live most of the time outside.
This results in a chicken that has a smoother texture, look better, loose less water during the preparation and have a superior flavor.
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It’s Tuesday, May 26
Welcome to the 779th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States
Howard Chandler Christy - The Indian Reporter
George Washington presiding the Philadelphia Convention
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2.0 Commentary
Haven’t seen Yan for five days.
I noticed a confrontation between a Prudential security guard and
a woman he was escorting out.
I also notice the total absence of any deshabilles, people in disrepair,
walking through the shopping halls of the Prudential Center.
Three coincidences?
I don’t think so.
With nothing else to do, I believe that Prudential security has become
unpleasantly efficient in filtering out society’s fringes.
Shouldn’t we be cheering?
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
You must close your eyes otherwise
you won't see anything.
~Lewis Carroll
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5.0 Mail
We love getting mail.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
This from Sally C:
Dear Dom,
Howard's comments on the difficulty of determining or anticipating another's reactions to his gestures of friendship and camaraderie are interesting. I tend to be in his camp, as far as 1) doing what you do, 2) accommodating social norms the best you can, and 3) not obsessing over whether or not the recipient of my gestures will be offended or feel threatened. No one can know what is inside another's head. When one's friendly overture is initially taken as a threat, the resulting lack of damage or injury teaches the recipient that there's nothing to be afraid of. If the recipient's reaction is extreme, the one making the overture learns that this one is overly sensitive, for reasons we have no need to judge, and is not to be approached that way. We all learn discernment this way.
I've learned a lot in the past several years from conversations with a friend who has serious mental health problems. It didn't take long before I discerned the difference between her request for me to pray "with" her and to pray "for" her. The difference meant either I got a gentle "thank you" or I got a violent, vocal upbraiding.
For now, at least, happy virtual hugs to all!
Sally
Blog Meister responds: Points well made, Sally. I agree what you’re saying. Intellectually. However, I believe our visceral reaction to a “Stop there!” sign tends to the negative.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
The problem with pan sauces for me is the added calories to a plate.
Virtually all pan sauces begin with a deglaze of the roasting or grilling pan and
the retention of at least some of that fat.
Plus add in 2TB butter per plate.
Plus a bit of wine or cognac and whatever else.
Two hundred calories per serving, at least.
A gravy presents the same calorie issue.
Am leaning now to the meat/fish with just a squeeze of lemon, a fresh herb garnish, and
salt and freshly-ground pepper.
Or limit my use of the sauce/gravy to a single tablespoon.
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11.0 Thumbnail
The Constitutional Convention (also known as the Philadelphia Convention the Federal Convention, or the Grand Convention at Philadelphia) took place from May 25 to September 17, 1787, in the old Pennsylvania State House (now known as Independence Hall) in Philadelphia.
Although the convention was intended to revise the league of states and first system of government under the Articles of Confederation, the intention from the outset of many of its proponents, chief among them James Madison of Virginia and Alexander Hamilton of New York, was to create a new government rather than fix the existing one.
The delegates elected George Washington of Virginia, former commanding general of the Continental Army in the late American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) and proponent of a stronger national government, to become President of the convention.
The result of the convention was the creation of the Constitution of the United States, placing the Convention among the most significant events in American history.
At the time, the convention was not referred to as a "Constitutional" convention, nor did most of the delegates arrive intending to draft a new constitution.
Many assumed that the purpose of the convention was to discuss and draft improvements to the existing Articles of Confederation, and would have not agreed to participate otherwise.
Once the convention began, however, most of the delegates – though not all – came to agree in general terms that the goal would be a new system of government, not simply a revised version of the Articles of Confederation.
Several broad outlines were proposed and debated, most notably James Madison's Virginia Plan and William Paterson's New Jersey Plan.
The Virginia Plan was selected as the basis for the new government.
While the concept of a federal government with three branches (legislative, executive, and judicial) and the general role of each branch was not heavily disputed, several issues delayed further progress and put the success of the convention in doubt.
The most contentious disputes revolved around the composition and election of the Senate as the upper legislative house of a bicameral Congress; whether "proportional representation" was to be defined by a state's geography or by its population, and whether slaves were to be counted; whether to divide the executive power among three people or vest the power in a single chief executive to be called the President; how a president would be elected, for what term, and whether to limit each president to a single term in office; what offenses should be impeachable; the nature of a fugitive slave clause, and whether to allow the abolition of the slave trade; and whether judges should be chosen by the legislature or the executive.
Most of the time during the convention was spent on deciding these issues.
Progress was slow until mid-July when the Connecticut Compromise resolved enough lingering arguments for a draft written by the Committee of Detail to gain acceptance.
Though more modifications and compromises were made over the following weeks, most of the rough draft remained in place and can be found in the finished version of the Constitution.
After several more issues were resolved, the Committee on Style produced the final version in early September.
It was voted on by the delegates, inscribed on parchment with engraving for printing, and signed by thirty-nine of fifty-five delegates on September 17, 1787.
The completed proposed Constitution was then released to the public to begin the debate and ratification process.
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It’s Monday, May 25
Welcome to the 778th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Howard’s Mixed Berry Croustade
And, as a bonus, because man (and woman) cannot live by bread alone (though they can try), here’s the latest Mixed Berry Croustade, fresh out of the oven… the only down note is the abysmal quality of strawberries available in the urban northeast, until, maybe July, when local crops begin to appear (and will be in the markets for about ten minutes)
1.1 Second Picture
Howard’s Quest for the Perfect Loaf: Third Batch
Never let it be said I don’t respond to a request.
The results of the ongoing Learning to Bake Bread Project:
Batch 3 of Pennsylvania Sourdough w/added Whole Grains
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2.0 Commentary
So I created a diet that worked for me: no lunch.
Between breakfast and dinner having only a cappuccino and my daily dessert.
It worked.
And then I started pushing the envelope, adding
a bite here, and
a taste there, and
an indulgence yon.
So frustrating the original purpose of the diet and
gaining back unwanted weight.
Now I feel slovenly.
Now I must get back to the original spirit of the diet.
Also, despite my torn meniscus,
I am going to retry the Royal Canadian Air Force exercises,
paying strict attention first, to their cautions against rushing things. and second,
to all the signals my body sends me.
Intend to be very careful.
Very, very careful.
Sssh!
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
Courtesy is a small act but
it packs a mighty wallop.
~Lewis Carroll
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5.0 Mail
We love getting mail.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
This from Francesca C, my oldest grandchild.
Francesca has a degree in English from Pomona College and is pursuing her Master’s at Trinity College Dublin.
Her essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, The Point Magazine, and on VICE.com, and her poetry has appeared in Hanging Loose Magazine, Banshee (forthcoming), and The Cormorant Broadsheet.
She has tutored independently for seven years, teaching geometry, physics, ESL, SAT prep, creative writing, essay writing and English literature.
She loves to read, write, and talk about books.
Here is the salient part of her email:
“Thank you for your support and encouragement in launching my online English classes this spring. I have absolutely loved teaching and I’m excited to be offering more courses for this summer––for adults, high schoolers and middle schoolers––as well as an all ages poetry workshop.
“I’ve made a few tweaks to the format (slightly shorter classes, offline activities) and will be offering five courses. We will read books together in a fun, dynamic learning environment, learn to ask critical questions, and come together through a shared love of books. If your child’s camp got cancelled, or you are yearning for more social connection during this time, these courses are a great solution.
“Courses run from June 1st through July (more info on the website). Since small group size allows for easy scheduling, day and time will be arranged to suit participants. Space is super limited.
Please check out my new website for the specific course information.”
Francesca Capossela
Blog Meister responds: I will definitely sign up except that the courses all sound so exciting I’m not sure which to choose.
Read her list of course offerings,
the descriptions reveal her genius.
BTW: Every course operates on a sliding scale and
no student will be turned away due to inability to pay.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Saturday night I had a prime, aged rib eye steak, slow-roasted, of course.
To finish off the cook, I seared/broiled the piece for 4 ½ minutes.
Different with this steak for me, I tried a pan-sauce.
Using a cup, I measured 1 TB each of lemon juice, cognac, and water and
seasoned the liquid with salt and freshly-ground pepper and 2 Tb of freshly-chopped basil.
After the slow-roast (200* for 30 min/lb) on a rack set on a baker’s tray, I set the steak aside, poured out half the juices gathered in the tray, set the tray on a stove-top burner at a simmer, and poured in the liquid.
Hear it sizzle.
If you’re doing this, burn out the alcohol (1 minute at the sizzle) and pour the reduced pan sauce over the steak, garnishing the meat with freshly-chopped basil.
It was easy.
It worked.
And note: no added fat.
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11.0 Thumbnail
Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour and water, usually by baking.
Throughout recorded history it has been a prominent food in large parts of the world;
it is one of the oldest man-made foods, having been of significant importance since the dawn of agriculture;
and plays an essential role in religious rituals and secular culture.
Bread may be leavened by naturally occurring microbes, chemicals, industrially produced yeast, or high-pressure aeration.
In many countries, commercial bread often contains additives to improve flavor, texture, color, shelf life, nutrition, and ease of production.
Bread can be served at many temperatures; once baked, it can subsequently be toasted. It is most commonly eaten with the hands, either by itself or as a carrier for other foods. Bread can be spread with butter, dipped into liquids such as gravy, olive oil, or soup;[28] it can be topped with various sweet and savory spreads, or used to make sandwiches containing meats, cheeses, vegetables, and condiments.
Bread is used as an ingredient in other culinary preparations, such as
the use of breadcrumbs to provide crunchy crusts or thicken sauces;
toasted cubes of bread, called croutons, as a salad topping;
seasoned bread as stuffing inside roasted turkey;
sweet or savory bread puddings are made with bread and various liquids;
egg and milk-soaked bread is fried as French toast; and
bread is used as a binding agent in sausages, meatballs and other ground meat products.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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It’s Sunday, May 24
Welcome to the 777th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Johan of Arc
Archives nationales (France) - AE-II-2490
between 15th century and 20th century Edit this at Wikidata
parchment and pigment Edit this at Wikidata
Height: 6.4 in, Width: 5.5 in
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2.0 Commentary
Thanks to the pandemic, the black holes of office-work,
twice-daily sucking workers onto our highways causing
traffic jams, pollution, and climate change, all costly in time and expense,
have been penetrated and a new light shining has debunked
the concept of office work as an inevitable result of our economy.
Work from home is the ‘in’ alternative.
A good thing.
Imagine if 10% of our work force worked from home.
Significantly fewer automobiles adding fumes into our choking globe.
Traffic flows smoother and so many cars no longer idling and belching pollution.
Stresses associated with rushing hither and yon dissipated.
Commute time returned to us for qualitative improvements in our life style.
Monies not spent on the commute used in more wholesome ways.
We’ll all be keeping eyes on this development.
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4.0 Chuckles/Thoughts
Sometimes,' said Pooh,
'the smallest things take up the most room in your heart.
~A. A. Milne
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5.0 Mail
We love getting mail.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
This from Sally C:
Dear Dom,
In the interest of trivia (these days being prime for such stuff), veal is the source of our word "vellum" in the drafting, map-making, and calligraphy world. For centuries (maybe millennia), the skin of young calves was prepared to use for making maps and other documents, in particular important documents. Later, the same word was applied to a treated, translucent paper (resembling the original, thin, translucent calves' skin) that was then used for printing copies of maps drawn on them.
I've never drawn on real calves' skin - real vellum - but I have done a lot of work on the modern, paper version. It's not ideal and gets brittle with age, and it was replaced in the mid-20th Century with plastic, a much more durable medium than either the skin or paper versions.
Another durable medium for maps was very thin, treated fabric, usually linen, translucent enough for reproduction of blue prints and blue lines; again, this medium was reserved for important documents. The nice thing about linen is that it could be washed and it would still retain the lines drawn upon it, because the ink sank into the fibers. Impossible to erase, however, so the drafter had to be very careful in applying ink. The Massachusetts Land Court used to require drawings on linen, and the Massachusetts Dept of Transportation used to require it for certain kinds of drawings.
In a reverse procedure, my mother remembers her father and uncles, who worked at an engineering firm, bringing home pieces of drafting linen too small for a plan or map. She and her sisters washed the treatment, a kind of gelatin, out of the fabric and hemmed it to make the finest handkerchiefs, often embroidered and laced. Pretty fancy for a dirt-poor family during the Depression.
So much for today's trivia. (What else do we have to do?) 😁 (I clutter my head with trivia, because if something's important, it's written down somewhere.)
Sally
Blog Meister responds: A nice blend of science and anecdote. Thanks Sally.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
I just posted it there.
The recipe for Veal Cacciatore.
Find it in this blog, see ‘Pages’ and find ‘Recipe Blog’.
Friday night I ate chicken drumsticks in a cream sauce with cognac and
fresh basil.
The chicken was great but the sauce needs tweaking.
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7. “Conflicted” podcast
Conflicted, by Dom Capossela, is a spiritual/fantasy/political story about a sixteen-year-old mystic-warrior conflicted internally by her self-imposed alienation from God, her spiritual wellspring, and, externally, by the forces of darkness seeking her death or ruination.
The podcasts are also available on Sound Cloud, iTunes, Twitter, and Facebook.
Search: dom capossela or conflicted or both
Here’s the link:
https://soundcloud.com/user-449713331/sets/conflicted-dom-capossela
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11.0 Thumbnails
Joan of Arc (French: Jeanne d'Arc) c. 1412 – 30 May 1431), nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" is considered a heroine of France for her role during the Lancastrian phase of the Hundred Years' War, and was canonized as a Roman Catholic saint.
She was born to Jacques d'Arc and Isabelle Romée, a peasant family, at Domrémy in northeast France. Joan claimed to have received visions of the archangel Michael, Saint Margaret, and Saint Catherine of Alexandria instructing her to support Charles VII and recover France from English domination late in the Hundred Years' War.
The unanointed King Charles VII sent Joan to the Siege of Orléans as part of a relief army.
She gained prominence after the siege was lifted only nine days later.
Several additional swift victories led to Charles VII's consecration at Reims.
This long-awaited event boosted French morale and paved the way for the final French victory.
On 23 May 1430, she was captured at Compiègne by the Burgundian faction, a group of French nobles allied with the English.
She was later handed over to the English and put on trial by the pro-English bishop Pierre Cauchon on a variety of charges.
After Cauchon declared her guilty, she was burned at the stake on 30 May 1431, dying at about nineteen years of age.
In 1456, an inquisitorial court authorized by Pope Callixtus III examined the trial, debunked the charges against her, pronounced her innocent, and declared her a martyr.
In the 16th century she became a symbol of the Catholic League, and in 1803 she was declared a national ymbol of France by the decision of Napoleon Bonaparte.
She was beatified in 1909 and canonized in 1920.
Joan of Arc is one of the nine secondary patron saints of France, along with Saint Denis, Saint Martin of Tours, Saint Louis, Saint Michael, Saint Rémi, Saint Petronilla, Saint Radegund and Saint Thérèse of Lisieux.
Joan of Arc has remained a popular figure in literature, painting, sculpture, and other cultural works since the time of her death, and many famous writers, playwrights, filmmakers, artists, and composers have created, and continue to create, cultural depictions of her.