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It’s Saturday, May 29th, 2021
Welcome to the 1,113th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Very Hungry Caterpillar
Fair use
File:HungryCaterpillar.JPG
Uploaded: 12 January 2019
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2.0 Commentary
I had my semi-monthly telephone conference with a friend who is organizing a start-up to create, manufacture, and sell devices that will help sight-impaired people to better navigate about.
He’s had a bit of experience with interns and is now contemplating hiring one or two more.
Part of our conversation had to do with fair compensation.
Interns are paid in various ways, several of the most obvious are cash, experience, and school credit.
If an intern is receiving course credit for the work she is doing, she need not be paid any cash at all.
The needs of those seeking internships puts them in a terribly one-sided bargaining situation.
Gary and I had a terrific discussion about the role of even start-up companies in the lives of their interns, segueing, of course, into the post-2021 Great American Social Contract. This is the type of relationship that we will be discussing every Tuesday.
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3.3 Storyworth: For Blog Dated
Every week this application sends me a question about my life. At the end of the year I get a hard cover ook from it. My family gets to know me a little better.
This week’s question asks me:
Tell me about one of the most important people in my life.
I’ve recently submitted Part One. Part Two will be published on Thursday.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“Then hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now;
Now, while the world is bent my deeds to cross,
Join with the spite of fortune, make me bow,
And do not drop in for an after-loss:
Ah! do not, when my heart hath ‘scaped this sorrow,
Come in the rearward of a conquered woe;
Give not a windy night a rainy morrow,
To linger out a purposed overthrow.
If thou wilt leave me, do not leave me last,
When other petty griefs have done their spite,
But in the onset come: so shall I taste
At first the very worst of fortune’s might;
And other strains of woe, which now seem woe,
Compared with loss of thee, will not seem so.”
~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 Howard D on dinner at his home on Saturday:
I’ve been spending far too much time thinking about what to make this Saturday, mainly because of the variable weather (temps will apparently fluctuate between the 90s and 60s during the days and the 70s and 40s at night).
Anyway, for all that pondering, it may sound like a pedestrian menu, but I remembered this is sort of what we’d be eating in the house in the village in Fox-Amphoux about now, if we were there, if we could be there.
Anyway, I decided on seafood again, and will leave it up to the market as to which fish exactly, but it will either be, say, a nice piece of wild-caught cod or halibut, oven roasted with wine, EVOO, garlic, fresh herbs, etc. and served with a confit of shallots plus a confit of cherry tomatoes. Probably on a bed of arugula. And black rice again, as a side, but not cooked as a risotto.
Salad of some kind… whatever looks good at the produce stand. Whatever would go good with a lime tahini dressing, say…
Let’s say a somewhat more vernacular meal.
Not to influence you, but also, in France, we’d be drinking a local rosé probably, maybe a Côte de Provence, or a Bandol. There’s a few domains near St. Tropez that are really good. And the one we usually ended up with, Minuty, actually makes it all the way here (or did at least through last year) at the state liquor stores. Some kind of white Côte de Rhône or a Chardonnay from the Bourgogne would also stand up to such a savory country dish.
See you soon.
xo
h
Blog meister responds: Sounds wonderful to me. And perhaps a bottle of Condrieu, my favorite Rhone white.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Baked Stuffed Lobster
From my distant past, I had a vision of a Baked Stuffed Shrimp dish that the Italian chefs at the Harvard Club would make from time to time. Among many other ingredients, the stuffing contained blue cheese and was baked to a crust.
I wondered if I could use my experience and recreate that taste and overall experience.
After working with the ingredients I realize my own recipe cannot happen that way.
In today’s diet I cannot afford such a large amount of stuffing. And yet you need a lot if you want to heap it into the lobster in the traditional way. My suggestion is to add scallop or shrimp to the stuffing to increase its bulk without using too much bread and the butter that goes with it.
In a vague sort of limited way for an off-night, I learned a good deal about a recipe for the lobster.
But I still have a long way to go.
Some highlights:
I’ll keep the base of the stuffing: panko bread crumbs with 10% parmigiano cheese.
I’ll develop the idea of aromatics added to the base, a butter-saute of red bell peppers, olives, fresh parsley, and some to be named later.
I’ll develop the idea of moisturizers to be added to the base: intense lobster stock (I made it by simmering the lobster knuckles and legs in a tiny bit of water) blue cheese, the lobster tomalley, and bits of butter and mayonnaise.
And with the idea of adding a beaten egg to bind the stuffing.
Then I must work with the cooking times, thinking 20 minutes per pound, including the stuffing, and finished the lobster under the broiler until the stuffing is browned.
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11.0 Thumbnail
The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a children's picture book designed, illustrated, and written by Eric Carle, first published by the World Publishing Company in 1969, later published by Penguin Putnam.
The book features a very hungry caterpillar who eats his way through a wide variety of foodstuffs before pupating and emerging as a butterfly.
The winner of many children's literature awards and a major graphic design award, it has sold almost 50 million copies worldwide.
It has been described as having sold the equivalent of a copy per minute since its publication, and as "one of the greatest childhood classics of all time".
It was voted the number two children's picture book in a 2012 survey of School Library Journal readers.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar is Carle's third book, and uses distinctive collage illustrations which were innovative at the time of publication, 'eaten' holes in the pages and simple text with educational themes – counting, the days of the week, foods, and a butterfly's life stages. It teaches children how to count and to make one-to-one correspondences between numbers and the items the Very Hungry Caterpillar has eaten. There have been many related books and other products, including educational tools, created in connection to the book. The Very Hungry Caterpillar's diet is fictional rather than scientifically accurate, but the book introduces concepts of Lepidoptera life stages where transformations take place including the ultimate metamorphosis from 'hungry caterpillar' to 'beautiful butterfly', and it has been endorsed by the Royal Entomological Society.
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It’s Friday, May 28th, 2021
Welcome to the 1,112th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
Lead Story
Salade Nicoise
A version in a restaurant at the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in France
Wusel007 - Own work
Dom’s version
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2.0 Commentary
So many thoughts swirling in my head.
Thinking about grouping them and publishing on set days every week.
Some thoughts might be on a new American Social Contract, health issues, Memoirs, and travel.
I’ll think about that.
I hear lifeguards are in short supply.
Offer them $25.00/hour, a fair compensation for their achievement and knowledge, and see if the shortage persists.
Oh! Sorry. You mean you don’t want to pay what the services are worth.
May you never be given that chance.
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3.0 Trip to Swarthmore
Visited the parking garage where my rental will be waiting for me on Friday night to familiarize myself with the pickup routine.
The man behind the desk was cooperative.
It’s easy. I’m reassured.
Am waiting for Howard to send a description of the dinner we will be eating on Saturday night
so I may select the appropriate wine.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“We've all heard that a million monkeys
banging on a million typewriters
will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare.
Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.”
~ Robert Wilensky
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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
My friend south of the border heartily endorsed my call for a remake of the great American social experiment. Several others joined her approbation.
Blog meister responds: With this encouragement and some conversations on the subject I will develop some ideas related to a redo of the American Social Contract and publish them on a weekly basis in the posting dated Tuesday.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Here is my version of Salade Nicoise which I ate on Wednesday night.
SALADE NICOISE
Base
Lettuce, tomato, sliced red onion bed, several very small lengths of celery with leaves, thinly sliced red bell pepper, dressed with olive oil, s/freshly ground pepper, and a bit of white wine vinegar.
Dressing for Base only
4 TB extra virgin olive oil
3 TB lemon juice
3 TB mayonnaise
1 t dried mustard
s/ and copious amount of fgp
½ t fines herbes
1 t capers
Components to place on top:
Potato slices, salted, brushed with olive oil and grilled
Tuna in oil
Sardines in oil
Hard-boiled egg, runny, w dab of mayo/mustard
Asparagus, very lightly seasoned and dressed
Small piece of cheese
Crusty bread
Wine
I had bought this wine for a dinner with a friend.
That dinner didn’t work out so I drank half the bottle with this:
2017 Anjou Blanc by Thibaud Boudignon
Choosing this after conferring with the knowledgeable wine store owner
An impressive grip but still releasing fruity aromas.
A vaguest touch of sweetness.
Good minerals and some salt.
Pricey but the wine delivered.
This wine store inevitably delivers.
They know their product.
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Salade niçoise (French pronunciation: [niˈswaz]), is a salad that originated in the French city of Nice.
It is traditionally made of tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs, Niçoise olives and anchovies or tuna, dressed with olive oil. It has been popular worldwide since the early 20th century, and has been prepared and discussed by many chefs.
Delia Smith called it "one of the best combinations of salad ingredients ever invented" and Gordon Ramsay said that "it must be the finest summer salad of all".
It can be served either as a composed salad or as a tossed salad. Freshly cooked or canned tuna may be added.
For decades, traditionalists and innovators have disagreed over which ingredients should be included; traditionalists exclude cooked vegetables.
The salad may include raw red peppers, shallots, artichoke hearts and other seasonal raw vegetables. Raw green beans harvested in the spring, when they are still young and crisp, may be included. However, cooked green beans and potatoes are commonly served in variations of salade niçoise that are popular around the world.
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It’s Thursday, May 27th, 2021
Welcome to the 1,111th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
A Boy with a Flying Squirrel
John Singleton Copley
- 0wEjGGuy92ad7w at
Google Cultural Institute maximum zoom level
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2.0 Commentary
I looked closely at Amazon’s pitch for new hires.
Their starting wage is $15.00/hour.
But happily, they call it a ‘starting wage:” a phase to pass through.
When you’ve learned their system, proven your aptitude and attitude, you’ll get more.
But even better, they pay additional for work experience.
Your starting pay can be more than$15.00
This is an understanding of our Social Contract.
Love it.
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This week’s question is: Who was one of the most important person’s in your life.
Tell us about her.
That was easy.
Toni-Lee Capossela, my wife and mother of my three sons.
This is Part One of my response.
Toni-Lee and Jimmy (her mother) loved and connected with each other in an inspiring mother-daughter relationship.
For the first few years we were together, that connection led us to take many trips to New Jersey, (once every other month) to the town of North Caldwell – on Mountain Avenue, specifically. (And for followers, Tony Soprano’s last credits before each episode were of him making a left turn onto that same Mountain Ave.)
It was a four-hour car trip from Boston to Mountain Avenue, a trip that got more and more difficult to make as our family grew to three sons, and those sons got larger and more needy. But for the duration, (after several years Toni’s family began to make those car trips in reverse, visiting us in Boston) Toni welcomed the effort needed to load our sons and their trappings into the car and tripping to New Jersey.
Her enthusiasm for these jaunts led us to the most serious car accident in any of our lives.
The snowstorm had already started when we woke up to start the planned trip to New Jersey. The night before, we agreed that when we woke we would use the weather forecast to decide whether to leave that morning or wait a day.
That was a Toni-Lee ruse. She never considered that anything could stop her from achieving her goal. That’s what achievers are all about. I know this from observation.
To look at Toni you might confuse her with a meekish sort of person – she never needed, never sought center stage. Her life experience had taught her there was no goal she couldn’t achieve, and that knowledge and confidence were the only approbations she ever needed. If you took her quiet demeanor with docility you were ripe for a wake up call. Nor was she shy. She knew what she wanted, went for it, and got it, usually.
She responded to my caution, “Let’s wait a day,” with a facial expression and body posture that countered my suggestion with “Let’s pack.”
Three hours later we found ourselves in the middle of a major snow, on a Connecticut highway, driving at a cautious 35 miles per hour. Hands gripping the wheel, I felt the loss of control as the car virtually lifted off the tarmac, the tires no longer gripping the road, no longer responding to the steering wheel or the brakes. “Jesus Christ!” I uttered under my breath.
I had the best seat in the house and, after turning the front wheels in the direction of the skid, watched as the car glided into the guard rail on our left. The impact spun us back into the center of the highway where another car struck us and sent us into the right-hand guard rail which we also struck. That impact returned us to the center of the highway where, in rapid order, two other cars hit us, front and rear.
Then all auto movement stopped. Everyone in our car was fine. Everyone in the other cars was fine – we were all driving slowly, thank goodness. We exchanged papers and a trooper arrived. After asking after our health, he told us to get off the road and, without further ado, then left to tend more serious situations.
Our new car was totaled. I virtually forced one of the other automobiles to drive the five of us to the closest exit where we fortunately found a motel with a room available. And an attached restaurant.
We rarely argued. Nor, elated to escape with our health, did we this night. Having been handed a bushel of lemons, we turned that motel stay into one of our great family lemonades. The momentary fright faded and a family celebration began that lasted until midnight. It began with the three boys laughing giddily while jumping up and down on the beds while watching bad television. We immensely enjoyed our dinner which we took in an objectively poor restaurant. But we had drinks and food and an opportunity for each of us to recount personal and shared details of the crash. The crashes.
One of my clearest memories of that joyous evening was watching Toni’s face change expression when her mom answered the phone. Ostensibly the call to make arrangements for Jimmy to pick us up tomorrow when the storm will have abated, became a wonderful and prolonged visit for Toni and Jimmy.
When she hung up and looked at me, her face glowed.
“What?” she said.
“It’s beautiful,” I said.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“I am haunted by the ghost of my father,
I think that should allow me to quote Hamlet as much as I please.”
~Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus
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5.0 Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
A tip of the hat to my friend Ann H who was first among others to sound the alarm: my post was without a link!
I was able to respond in minutes.
Thank you, Ann.
And another tip of the hat to my friend south of the border who strongly agreed with a remake of the great American workforce. Several others joined her approbation.
Blog meister responds: So I think I will try to develop some ideas related to a redo of our Social Contract and publish them on a weekly basis in the posting dated Tuesday.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Monday night I made a duck wrap with leftover duck. I combined it with a curried mayonnaise.
It sounds better than it tasted.
Not complaining.
It was good enough.
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A Boy with a Flying Squirrel (Henry Pelham), or simply Boy with a Squirrel, is a 1765 painting by the American-born painter John Singleton Copley. The painting depicts Copley's half-brother Henry Pelham with a pet flying squirrel on a table. It is held by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
By 1765, Copley established himself as the foremost portrait painter of Boston's mercantile elite. Though he was familiar with European art, Copley had not yet ventured outside New England and was largely self-taught. He was at the time primarily a portraitist, but he desired to become a European-style history painter. To test whether his art met English standards, Copley completed A Boy with a Flying Squirrel by early fall 1765, which was to be viewed by a London audience.
Chained squirrels held by women and children were common motifs in colonial American portraits. Besides A Boy with a Flying Squirrel, Copley also made two other squirrel paintings in 1765: Boy with a Squirrel, John Bee Holmes and Mrs. Theodore Atkinson. According to the American critic Henry Theodore Tuckerman, Copley was "said to have been intimately acquainted with the natural history of this animal, and made pets of several of the species".
A Boy with a Flying Squirrel's subject, Henry Pelham, was Copley's half-brother. Pelham was born in 1749, the son of Copley's widowed mother, who married Peter Pelham in 1748. Under Copley's tutelage, Pelham became a painter and engraver, as well as Copley's official business manager and assistant. Copley and Pelham held a close and affectionate relationship, as evidenced by a volume of correspondence between the two published in 1914.
The painting is a portrait of Pelham seated at a table. The boy wears a dark blue coat with a red collar, a yellow waistcoat, and a white collar. His right hand holds onto a gold chain attached to his pet flying squirrel.[5] The squirrel is on the table cracking a nut and sits near a glass of water. Copley rendered a variety of colors and textures, including the red drapery in the background, the highly polished mahogany table, the boy's skin, the squirrel's fur, and the reflections in the glass. Special attention was given to the squirrel, as seen in the meticulous portrayal of its eyes and gliding membrane. In colonial American art, a squirrel eating from a nut was a symbol for patience and perseverance.
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It’s Wednesday, May 26th, 2021
Welcome to the 1,110th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Final Fantasy Nine
North American cover art for the PlayStation game Final Fantasy IX
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2.0 Commentary
We must reconstruct our economics.
We must unfetter the Gates, Jobs, and Musks of the world to investigate and discover and earn vast sums, as we do.
They are good at that. They are.
What they are not very good at is distributing those vast sums in the first instance.
When they are created.
Our country makes it possible for creative geniuses to thrive.
We must continue to do that.
But our country fails to take its fair share of the profits.
Since our markets and statutes and tax codes make the ventures possible in the first instance,
we must be in for a fair share of all ventures.
When the profits are made, our society must pocket its fair share, say, 75%.
Not so much when we look at what venture capitalists earn on their investments.
As majority partners we, America, won’t have to worry about a tax code.
We won’t have to listen to people complain about how much they have to pay in taxes.
Our legitimate and fair share of the ventures will cover our expenses.
We won’t need taxes.
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3.0 Health
After giving up hope of ever controlling my weight, the day I was to leave for San Francisco for a week I woke at 3.30am and realized I’d return severely overweight.
At that moment, I made another commitment to watch my diet.
On the trip I fasted through the day but enjoyed myself greatly at dinner.
I’m back a week and have maintained that rhythm.
I now hope I am back in control of my weight.
The morals are two.
1. It’s difficult.
2. Don’t ever lose hope.
As for my exercises, I am doing remarkably well.
I have returned to my pre-pandemic levels and am optimistic I can exceed them.
A far cry from wondering if I could ever get back.
My general health is good.
I reported severe constipation to my health care providers and
came away from my conference with the nurse practitioner with this conclusion:
add four prunes, blueberries, an extra glass of water, and two stool softening pills to my daily diet.
It took several days but the cocktail worked.
I’ll leave the details to your imagination.
Since then, I’ve cut out the blueberries and reduced the prunes from four to two.
All systems go.
Finally, my walking.
Like my weight-lifting, the ease of walking has improved greatly for me.
I am walking faster and for longer distances.
Don’t know why.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“Actors are so fortunate.
They can choose whether they will appear in tragedy or in comedy, whether they will suffer or make merry, laugh or shed tears.
But in real life it is different.
Most men and women are forced to perform parts for which they have no qualifications.
Our Guildensterns play Hamlet for us, and our Hamlets have to jest like Prince Hal.
The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.”
~Oscar Wilde, Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories
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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 dear friend Howard D, at whose home I am to dine on Saturday, May 29, 2021.
There had been confusion as to the date, Howard thought I was arriving on Saturday, the 22nd. His food is always special and he sent me a description of the dinner I missed. I share it with you.
Howard:
So that was amusing…
The good news is, the risotto was absolutely delicious. For the full picture (I’d have taken a photo, but frankly, I was just too worn out by the time I served it to want to shlep out the phone…) here’s what it was:
Imported Venere Black Rice from Italy (I think there’s a DOC involved, but I can check [later note: I checked and there isn’t, but the specific Venere Black Rice cultivar is understood to be grown mainly in the Piemonte region) prepared the risotto with a stock from reconstituted Umbrian porcini mushrooms and home made fish stock from the freezer. Cooked the risotto with the mushrooms (of course) and shallots and garlic, and finished it with some Parmigiana Romano and fresh basil chiffonade.
I served it, plated, with one gigantic fresh caught wild Diver Scallop, one fresh caught wild Jumbo Shrimp, and a medley of sautéed nuggets of fresh caught wild Striped Bass, and fresh caught wild swordfish (MSC).
The bad news is, I’m not making it again next weekend. You’ll have to settle for whatever strikes me. Let me know the wines you selected and I’ll try to find an alternative appropriate dish.
The mezzo-mezz’ part (or as I am thinking about it, maybe it’s meh meh) is that I have learned, I hope, with this episode, to talk dates, actual calendar dates, in addition to days of the week, and never just days of the week. It’s hard enough keeping track of what day it is as it is. Never mind somehow divining when something will happen when only the days of the week are discussed. My mistake. My lesson.
I’m just sorry I missed seeing you.
I assume we’ll try again. Are we trying again?
xoxo
hd
Blog meister responds: Knowing the meal I missed rubs salt in the wounds. On the other hand, I do have a Howard D dinner to look forward to. I did have a perfect wine for the risotto but I want you to choose a menu without constriction. Permit me to bring appropriate wines.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
For Wednesday night’s dinner I cut my leftover roast lamb into pieces, brushed it with lamb gravy, and reheated it at 450* for seven minutes.
With the help of a vinaigrette dressing on greens and red onion, a piece of a cheese with volcanic ash, and mustard, mayo, and relish and a small loaf of delicious crusty bread I made a lovely sandwich.
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Final Fantasy IX[b] is a 2000 role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the PlayStation video game console. It is the ninth game in the main Final Fantasy series. The plot focuses on a war between nations in a medieval fantasy world called Gaia. Players follow a thief named Zidane Tribal, who kidnaps the Alexandrian Princess Garnet Til Alexandros XVII as part of a ploy by the neighboring nation of Lindblum. He joins Garnet and a growing cast of characters on a quest to take down her mother, Queen Brahne of Alexandria, who started the war.
Game development occurred in parallel with Final Fantasy VIII. Envisioned by developers as a retrospective for the series, it departed from the futuristic settings of Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy VII, and Final Fantasy VIII by returning to the medieval style of the earlier games. Consequently, it draws heavy influence from the original Final Fantasy and features allusions to the rest of the series. The game introduced new features to the series despite this approach, such as "Active Time Event" cutscenes, "Mognet", and skill systems. Final Fantasy IX was the last game in the main series whose music was composed solely by Nobuo Uematsu.
Final Fantasy IX was released to critical acclaim and is considered one of the greatest video games of all time. Often cited by critics and fans as one of the best Final Fantasy games, it also holds the highest Metacritic score of the series. Final Fantasy IX was commercially successful, selling more than 5.5 million copies on PlayStation by March 2016. It was re-released in 2010 as a PS1 Classic on the PlayStation Store—this version was compatible with PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable; PlayStation Vita support arrived in 2012. Square Enix released ports featuring minor gameplay and graphical enhancements for various other platforms in the late 2010s.
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It’s Tuesday, May 25th, 2021
Welcome to the 1,109th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Måneskin
2019 Måneskin - Own work
Band Måneskin
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2.0 Commentary
Is it crazy to accept the principle that employment is more than assigning tasks and paying a minimum wage?
Is it crazy to accept the idea that each employee has hopes and dreams of improving their lot?
And is it crazy to accept that we will thrive as a nation if every workplace is considered a classroom where employee-students, in addition to producing for their employers, improve their academic and trade skills and so can look forward to more rewarding assignments and higher wages? Or a job switch that advances their careers?
For our capitalistic society to thrive, we must view employees holistically, not as inventory.
We must huddle and develop a game plan utilizing the team concept. Work together. As workers, work hard at our jobs, earn our money and do more than the minimum needed to get by. As employers, work hard on our attitudes, including improving the lives of our staff.
Let’s remember that we are Americans.
And that must mean something.
Profits.
Jobs.
Advancement.
Satisfaction.
Our time at work, like our time at home, must be an expression of a joie de vivre. a joy of living.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.”
~William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
I had dinner at Ma Maison early on Saturday.
The tomato and cucumber gazpacho was excellent.
As was the seared duck liver.
The Salade Nicoise left something to be desired.
Instead of a large platter which would have given the components ample space for display
and ease of eating, the ingredients were stuffed into a smallish bowl
making it difficult to dress or stab them.
And the only dressing, a mayonnaise too thick to pour,
was served in a tiny, constricting bowl.
One could only dip.
Not a well-thought out service.
The components were, however, excellent.
A hot, crispy potato, seared tuna, and a nicely-cooked near-hard-boiled egg were the highlights.
The service was efficient but impersonal and with a kindergarten cheeriness.
Not my best visit.
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11.0 Thumbnail
Måneskin is an Italian rock band from Rome, consisting of lead vocalist Damiano David, bassist Victoria De Angelis, guitarist Thomas Raggi, and drummer Ethan Torchio.
The band rose to fame after ending up second in the eleventh season of the Italian talent show X Factor in 2017.
The band won the Sanremo Music Festival 2021 and the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 – as the Italian representative in the latter – with the song "Zitti e buoni".
Before X Factor
The band members first met each other as students of the same high school in Monteverde, Rome. They decided to start a band in 2016.
The band's name was chosen when they had to register for Pulse, a local music contest for emerging bands.
While brainstorming, De Angelis, who is half Danish, was asked by her bandmates to toss out some Danish words, and they agreed on Måneskin ("moonlight"), although its meaning is not related to the band itself.
The Pulse Contest also marked a turning point in their career, since they had to start writing their own songs. The competition led them to perform at the Felt Music Club & School, and they later went on to win first prize.
They later performed as buskers in the streets of the Colli Portuensi district of Rome, as well as in the historical center of Rome, including in Via del Corso.
One of their first live concerts outside their native city took place in Faenza, at the 2016 Meeting of Independent Record Labels. Approximately 30 people attended the show.
After a trip in Denmark, during which the band also performed some live shows, Måneskin strengthened their cohesiveness, and started to play together for several hours a day.
Debut album and breakthrough
Their debut single, "Chosen", was released on 24 November 2017 by Sony Music and charted at number 2 on the Italian FIMI Singles Chart.
It was included in the extended play of the same title, released in mid December 2017 and mainly consisting of covers previously performed during the X Factor live shows.
The EP was certified platinum by the Federation of the Italian Music Industry.
On 23 March 2018, the band released their first Italian-language single, "Morirò da re", which continued their commercial success.[18][19] Måneskin's first full-length studio audio, featuring "Morirò da re" and preceded by the ballad single "Torna a casa", was released on 26 October 2018.
Both the album, titled Il ballo della vita, and the single "Torna a casa" topped the charts in Italy.
To promote the album, the band theatrically released a documentary film, titled This Is Måneskin. The film premiered on 26 October 2018 in Italy.
Sanremo Music Festival 2021 and Teatro d'ira
Måneskin won the Sanremo Music Festival 2021 with the song "Zitti e buoni".
The band announced its new project entitled Teatro d'ira, with the Vol. 1 released on 19 March 2021. They were announced as the winners of the Eurovision Song Contest 2021, representing Italy, in Rotterdam on 22 May 2021.
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Daily Entries for the week of
Sunday, May 23, 2021
through
Saturday, May 29, 2021
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It’s Monday, May 24th, 2021
Welcome to the 1,108TH consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Pago Pago Harbor
Pago Pago today and inter-island dock area
Eric Guinther at the English-language Wikipedia
Portion of the dock area at Fagatogo, Pago Pago Harbor, American Samoa
with Rainmaker Mt. (Pioa Mtn.) in the background.
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2.0 Commentary
Strange how well I’ve been feeling.
Walking so much faster than I’ve been.
Working longer hours than I’ve been.
Lifting heavier weights than I have for the last ten years.
Strange but wonderful.
The reorganization of my apartment continues at a slow but steady pace.
Nice to see immediate results from our efforts.
An octogenarian moment.
Searching for my sunglasses.
I had them when I sat down at Thinking Cup for coffee.
All packed and ready to return to apartment.
Can’t find my sunglasses.
Looked all over benches and under chairs.
Looked again into my backpack.
No.
I left café.
Frustrating.
Of course, I still have my cache of four pairs bought for $1.50 each at Daiso, the Japanese dollar store.
But I don’t want to lose things.
Frustrating.
Got home and went straightaway to wash my face.
Oooops!
Better take my sunglasses off.
3.2 Conflicted:
Working on a manuscript that I’m recasting in a new format.
Target for completion is July 4th.
Am working on edits proposed by my editor.
Hoping to incorporate them within a week.
3.3 Storyworth: Every week this application sends me a question about my life. At the end of the year I get a hard cover book from it. My family gets to know me a little better.
This week’s question asks me:
Tell me about one of the most important people in my life.
I’ll publish Part One on Wednesday.
3.4 Blog: I publish this blog every day. Have been doing it for more than 1100 days.
3.6 Trip to Swarthmore/Tuscany
So have been invited to my friend Howard’s for dinner.
You know Howard from his many erudite contributions to the blog.
He’s a fine cook.
Now my two dinners to Swart are covered: Howard on Saturday night and Kat on Sunday night.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“I have good reason to be content,
for thank God I can read and
perhaps understand Shakespeare to his depths.”
~John Keats
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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
In response to my request for menu details [so I could pair some wine] Howard sent this:
I’ll be making the Italian Black Rice Risotto with seafood and mushrooms.
And there’ll be a salad of shaved fennel, lettuce, cucumber, and blood orange with pomegranate dressing.
We usually serve hummus and crackers and tapenade, things like that (olives, etc.) as hors d’oeuvres while we sit and chat. Chat is optional.
See you between 6 and 6:30pm
If you need directions, let me know.
xoxo
h
Blog meister responds: Sounds like a white Bordeaux to me. A trip to the excellent wine store a block away from me will produce one that is perfect. To start: a bottle of one of the best Prosecco’s in Italy.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
I had been drawing down my supply of duck fat so, with an eye to refurbishing my supply, I bought a fresh Long Island duck from Savenor’s meat counter.
I slow-roasted it and Friday night enjoyed it.
With leftover broccoli rabe with gnocchi.
So delicious, so easy.
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11.0 Thumbnail
American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of (the independent nation of) Samoa.
Its location is centered on 14.3°S 170.7°W.
It is east of the International Date Line, while Samoa is west of the Line.
The total land area is 199 square kilometers (76.8 sq mi), slightly more than Washington, D.C. American Samoa is the southernmost territory of the United States and one of two U.S. territories south of the Equator, along with the uninhabited Jarvis Island.
Tuna products are the main exports, and the main trading partner is the rest of the United States.
American Samoa consists of five main islands and two coral atolls.
The largest and most populous island is Tutuila, with the Manuʻa Islands, Rose Atoll and Swains Island also included in the territory. All islands except for Swains Island are part of the Samoan Islands, west of the Cook Islands, north of Tonga, and some 300 miles (500 km) south of Tokelau.
To the west are the islands of the Wallis and Futuna group.
As of 2021, the population of American Samoa is approximately 46,366 people.
Most American Samoans are bilingual and can speak English and Samoan fluently.
American Samoa has been a member of the Pacific Community since 1983. American Samoa is noted for having the highest rate of military enlistment of any U.S. state or territory.
As of September 9, 2014, the local U.S. Army recruiting station in Pago Pago was ranked first in production out of the 885 Army recruiting stations and centers under the United States Army Recruiting Command.
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It’s Sunday, May 23th, 2021
Welcome to the 1,107TH consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Louis Pasteur
Studio portrait of Louis Pasteur, restored (removed dust, scratches, and what looked to be a water stain)
Paul Nadar - File:Louis Pasteur, foto av Paul Nadar.jpg
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2.0 Commentary
As proof of my Covid vaccinations CVS gave me this bit of a card with abbreviations in tiny script indicating when and where I had been vaccinated.
Hardly a reassuring piece for a third party to accept as proof of.
I called my health care provider and asked if I could send them this card and
would they update my record of immunizations to include this.
They would.
I mailed the card to them and they entered the details into their database.
When I asked for a copy, I received a professional printout of my past inoculations, including my Covid-19 vaccinations.
I’m hoping to visit Tuscany in late summer if Europe opens to the US.
If the EU requires it, I am comfortable that I will have acceptable proof of Covid vaccination.
Think carefully about this.
And get yourself some good proof of vaccinations.
Wonder that the proof hasn’t been the subject of more discussion.
I returned from San Francisco with negative energy I had to purge.
Reordering my apartment was an excellent outlet.
In the space of a week I examined shelf after shelf,
considering, disposing, reordering.
I’ve finished.
It looks good.
And I am composed; and back to my center.
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3.0 Reading and Writing Events
3.2 Conflicted: Working on a manuscript that I’m recasting in a new format. Target for completion is July 4th. I work on the book every day, averaging four pages per day.
3.3 Storyworth: Every week this application sends me a question about my life. At the end of the year I get a hard cover book from it. My family gets to know me a little better.
This week’s question asks me to say something about one of the most important people in my life.
3.4 Blog: I publish this blog every day. Have been doing it for more than 1078 days.
3.6 Trip to Tuscany
The EU made the trip a little more real this week, making noises inferring that Americans may be allowed in soon.
When I get back from Swarthmore, at the end of the Memorial Day weekend, I will take regular looks at the museums on my list to see how their protocols are changing.
I’m sure if the museums open fully the fine restaurants will be stride for stride.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
“Et tu, Brute?”
~William Shakespeare
Julius Caesar
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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
Have gotten some mail re: my You Tube efforts.
Mentioning the chihuahua story, the poodle story, and my young son and dinner with Faye Dunaway.
Blog meister responds: Sorry to say I do not have photographs of Faye D.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Thursday night I made Eggplant Parmesan.
It was delicious and easy enough if you have a good Italian Gravy on hand.
I sliced the eggplant, brushed the slice with olive oil, and roasted the slices until they were lightly browned.
Then, in a bake dish that I coated with the Gravy, I fabricated a three-layered casserole, each layer consisting of eggplant, Gravy, and parmigiana cheese.
I baked it until it bubbled.
Lovely.
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11.0 Thumbnail
Louis Pasteur (27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895) was a French chemist and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation, and pasteurization. His research in chemistry led to remarkable breakthroughs in the understanding of the causes and preventions of diseases, which laid down the foundations of hygiene, public health and much of modern medicine. His works are credited to saving millions of lives through the developments of vaccines for rabies and anthrax. He is regarded as one of the founders of modern bacteriology and has been honoured as the "father of bacteriology" and as the "father of microbiology" (together with Robert Koch, and the latter epithet also attributed to Antonie van Leeuwenhoek.
Pasteur was responsible for disproving the doctrine of spontaneous generation. Under the auspices of the French Academy of Sciences, his experiment demonstrated that in sterilized and sealed flasks, nothing ever developed; and, conversely, in sterilized but open flasks, microorganisms could grow. For this experiment, the academy awarded him the Alhumbert Prize carrying 2,500 francs in 1862.
Pasteur is also regarded as one of the fathers of germ theory of diseases, which was a minor medical concept at the time. His many experiments showed that diseases could be prevented by killing or stopping germs, thereby directly supporting the germ theory and its application in clinical medicine. He is best known to the general public for his invention of the technique of treating milk and wine to stop bacterial contamination, a process now called pasteurization. Pasteur also made significant discoveries in chemistry, most notably on the molecular basis for the asymmetry of certain crystals and racemization. Early in his career, his investigation of tartaric acid resulted in the first resolution of what is now called optical isomers. His work led the way to the current understanding of a fundamental principle in the structure of organic compounds.
He was the director of the Pasteur Institute, established in 1887, until his death, and his body was interred in a vault beneath the institute. Although Pasteur made groundbreaking experiments, his reputation became associated with various controversies. Historical reassessment of his notebook revealed that he practiced deception to overcome his rivals.