Daily Entries for the week of
Sunday, October 18, 2020
through
Saturday, October 24, 2020
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It’s Friday, October 23, 2020
Welcome to the 916th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Dan Bongino
speaking with attendees at the Conservative Review Convention at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina. Copyright © Conservative Review/Gage Skidmore.Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America
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2.0 Commentary
Not talking about covid.
Too depressing.
Election fever is ramping up.
Twelve days away.
People talking about how long it’s going to take to count the votes.
But doesn’t the volume of early voting take some of the pressure off the vote count?
Thirty million already voted, heading for forty million,
in any case, some huge portion of what the final tally will be.
Let’s hope that early voting results in a pleasant discovery of the ease of a final tally.
Having started on a stringent diet,
which simply turns out to be a rededication to the diet I put in place five months ago,
the only advantage after five days of following it is that
my weight has stabilized on the low end of the hoped for parameters I had set out for myself those months ago when I adopted the diet.
But that’s a pretty good result.
Certainly enough of an encouragement for me to adhere to the diet for some days to come.
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3.0 Tuscany, extracting an essence
What fun!
Have been working on a template useful to compare museums,
important to the decisions as to which museums to visit and for how long.
Also, took notes on a top-ten list of art in the Uffizi, with some cursory comments on the pieces.
Will end up comparing lists, then deciding on our own list.
Once list is drawn up, must write analyses of each work over which we will linger so that
we don’t run through the huge museum mindlessly checking off every great work,
seeing them all but never being uplifted,
never gaining in knowledge.
Goodness.
The fun planning it is worth the cost of the actual trip.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
"The gem cannot be polished without friction
nor man without trials."
~Confucius
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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, on aging, from Tommie T, a most beautiful woman:
Dom,
We are being the best we can be at our age.
We are not letting any dust fly under our feet (as we say in the South).
We continue to move on at our young age of 78, keeping as fit as possible, and keeping those synapses functioning.
Hopefully, we will be dancing together somewhere when we are 100. That is a goal!
Blog meister responds: i'm all in.
and i like your attitude of facing our ages.
you'll like this:
I intend to call my 79th birthday party my "Round it up" party.
When people ask me my age, I intend to round it up and say 80.
Proudly.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Wednesday afternoon I had a very small slice of Lasagna bought from Eataly.
The Lasagna is on sale.
It was alright.
A lot of layers of pasta; a negligible amount of layering of meat and cheese and gravy.
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7. “Conflicted” podcast
Conflicted, by Dom Capossela, is a spiritual/fantasy 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.
https://soundcloud.com/user-449713331/sets/conflicted-dom-capossela
The podcasts are also available on Sound Cloud, iTunes, Stitcher, Pinterest, Pocket Cast, and Facebook.
Search: dom capossela or conflicted or both
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Bongino is an avid Trump supported.
His name came our way as posting the most successful tweets in the last 24 hours.
Keeping people close.
Especially of Italian descent.
Daniel John Bongino (born December 4, 1974) is an American political commentator, radio show host, author, politician, former NYPD officer and former Secret Service agent.
Bongino ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a Republican in 2012, 2014, and 2016.
Bongino was born in Queens, New York City.[5] Bongino graduated from Archbishop Molloy High School.[37] He attended Queens College in the city, where he earned both a bachelor's and master's degree in psychology, and Pennsylvania State University, where he earned a Master of Business Administration.
Bongino is married to Paula Andrea, née Martinez, who was born in Colombia. They have two daughters. In 2012, Bongino and his wife operated three businesses from their home, selling martial arts apparel, designing websites, and consulting on security and risk management.[39] While running for office in 2016, Bongino resisted talking about his business interests and said he and his wife had shut them down.
Having lived in Severna Park, Maryland, since 2002, Bongino moved to Palm City, Florida, in 2015.
On September 23, 2020, Bongino announced that a seven-centimeter tumor had been found in his throat. Bongino added that he was unsure if the tumor was cancerous or benign, but would fly to New York on September 25 for further screening.
On October 2, Bongino said that he received a "bad phone call" from doctors, and announced that he would be undergoing surgery on October 7.
Following his surgery, Bongino tweeted that the "entire tumor" was removed from his neck, but that he very likely had lymphoma. He said that he would be receiving treatment in the future.
On October 16, Bongino confirmed that he received an official diagnosis of Hodgkin's lymphoma, adding that he would be continuing treatment in consultation with his doctors.
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It’s Thursday, October 22, 2020
Welcome to the 915th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Confucius
Philosopher of the Chinese, published by Jesuit missionaries at Paris in 1687.
Prospero Intorcetta, Philippe Couplet, et al. - Confucius Sinarum Philosophus
Pages from Confucius Sinarum Philosophus ("Confucius, the Philosopher of the Chinese"), an annotated Latin translation of three of the "Four Books" of Qing Confucianism by Prospero Intorcetta, Philip Couplet, Rougemont, and Herdtrich (Paris, 1687).
On the left is a portrait of Confucius in a Confucian temple, surrounded by the spirit tablets of the Four Assessors and the Twelve Wise Ones.
Many of the characters on the tablets are gibberish—the unidentifiable remaining four disciples are Ziruo (子若), Boniu (伯牛), Ziyou (子有), and Zhuzi (朱子)—and there are an unexplained further two tablets as well.
The image of Confucius was later used as the model of the engraving in Du Halde's Description of China.
The right page reads "The Life of Confucius, Prince/First of the Chinese Philosophers". Mungello (Curious Land, 1989) opined that the translation represented the collective efforts of several generations of Jesuits from Ruggieri and Ricci onward, all of whom studied and continuously improved the translation and commentary.
For his part, Du Halde preferred the later translation of François Noël.
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2.0 Commentary
We recently ate at an extraordinary French restaurant in Brooklyn, Oxalis.
One of the tangential benefits to me is that my daughter, Kat, and her boyfriend, Will, now understand the significance of Michelin Guide stars: each of them having declared that the best meal they ever had.
Now when we talk about Tuscany and my searching out the Guide Michelin-starred restaurants, they will understand my enthusiasm.
Cousin Lauren tested negative and ostensibly will be permitted to reenter her home.
I will be alone in my apartment for a couple of days.
My apartment will be professionally cleaned on Thursday morning.
After that, I will be asking all guests to leave their shoes at the door, walking into and around the apartment in stocking feet.
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3.0 Tuscany, extracting an essence
Finally back to my perhaps futile (the pandemic) planning of a trip to Tuscany.
I’d completed the first outline of the segment of the trip dealing with the flight to Italy and the several day deliberate drive through Tuscany.
Now for Florence, the second part of the trip.
First step is to detail the outline to each museum with enough information to compare with each other, to assign a visitation time, and then to fit the outlines in our Florence calendar.
So much must be left out.
We do not want to succumb to a frenzied pace that will create tension rather than the non-hallucinogenic euphoria we are seeking.
Randomly I opted to begin with the Galleria dell'Accademia and Michelangelo ‘s David. I’ll create a template for the museum which I can repeat for the others.
We’re looking at about eighteen museums.
I should be able to finish one a day.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
"Before you embark on a journey of revenge,
dig two graves."
~Confucius
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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
With two weeks to go, people are talking about voting.
Mail-in ballots that didn’t arrive; or just arrived.
Lines at early voting polling sites.
What did we do ten years ago? Why won’t that same way work now?
Biden has an 11point lead in CNN’s Poll of Polls, a summary of five respected polls.
Blog meister responds: I couldn’t wait for my ballot. I stood in line for 20 minutes and voted. Feels good.
Two weeks to go.
Can’t go by fast enough.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Being alone, I had chicken soup, leftover.
Had I not been on a more rigid diet, I’d have bought a slice of lasagna that Eataly is offering to eat as an appetizer.
But I am, so I didn’t.
But I will one day this week.
A desire for Lasagna is building.
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Confucius was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period.
The philosophy of Confucius, also known as Confucianism, emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice, kindness, and sincerity.
His followers competed successfully with many other schools during the Hundred Schools of Thought era only to be suppressed in favor of the Legalists during the Qin dynasty.
Following the victory of Han over Chu after the collapse of Qin, Confucius's thoughts received official sanction in the new government and were further developed into a system known in the West as Neo-Confucianism, and later New Confucianism (Modern Neo-Confucianism).
Confucius is traditionally credited with having authored or edited many of the Chinese classic texts including all of the Five Classics, but modern scholars are cautious of attributing specific assertions to Confucius himself.
Aphorisms concerning his teachings were compiled in the Analects, but only many years after his death.
Confucius's principles have commonality with Chinese tradition and belief.
He championed strong family loyalty, ancestor veneration, and respect of elders by their children and of husbands by their wives, recommending family as a basis for ideal government.
He espoused the well-known principle "Do not do unto others what you do not want done to yourself", the Golden Rule.
He is also a traditional deity in Daoism.
Confucius is widely considered as one of the most important and influential individuals in human history.
His teaching and philosophy greatly impacted people around the world and remain influential today.
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It’s Wednesday, October 21, 2020
Welcome to the 914th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Gloria Swanson and Henry de la Falaise, 1925
Pacific and Atlantic Photos - https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gloria-Swanson-Historic-1925-Original-Stamped-Press-Photo-Agency-Los-Angeles/383497034410?hash=item594a345aaa:g:z4oAAOSwbWpehS4W ebay
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2.0 Commentary
Here’s un update on my health.
My weight is at the low end of the parameters that I reluctantly accepted six months ago.
That diet having mostly worked, I decided on my trip to NYC that I was psychologically prepared to ramp up.
I intend to reduce my half-muffin and fried/soft-boiled egg breakfast to a simple morsel of a sweet roll to sweeten my coffee.
Mid-day I will have a reduced-size dessert, half my current portion.
Then a robust dinner at 5.00pm.
It worked in NYC.
My goal: to lose four pounds in the next six weeks.
My lifting continues. Not brilliant, but certainly acceptable.
My long-walking continues, sometimes with aching feet.
Sometimes waking the next morning with a slight leg cramp.
My legs and feet continue problematical, frequent cramps and pain from overuse.
Occasionally wear compression socks.
My torn knee tendon continues to heal.
Perhaps 75% to normal.
Thinking of my age: 78.
Thinking next March, my birthday party will be called the “Round it up” party: calling age 79 ‘age 80’ more quickly conveys the eight decades I’ve seen.
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3.0 Tuscany, extracting an essence
Hopefully will have time for planning tomorrow.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
"Silence is the true friend that never betrays."
~Confucius
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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 lot of comments on the barring of daughter from home until she produces a negative test for covid-19.
“I thought I was extreme.”
“That’s funny.”
“You know, I wouldn’t that but I can understand why she did.”
Blog meister responds: If she’s got it, chances are I will, too. I will try to get tested today.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Last night my cousin and I enjoyed a dry-aged rib-eye.
At $20.00/pound at Whole Foods it’s a bargain.
Compare to Wagyu beef for $90.00/pound at Eataly and $170.00 per pound at Savenor’s.
Note that the ‘regular’ beef tastes much more like meat than the overwhelmingly fatty Wagyu.
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7. “Conflicted” podcast
Conflicted, by Dom Capossela, is a spiritual/fantasy 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.
https://soundcloud.com/user-449713331/sets/conflicted-dom-capossela
The podcasts are also available on Sound Cloud, iTunes, Stitcher, Pinterest, Pocket Cast, and Facebook.
Search: dom capossela or conflicted or both
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Gloria Josephine May Swanson (March 27, 1899 – April 4, 1983) was an American actress, producer and business woman. She starred in dozens of silent films and was nominated three times for an Academy Award as Best Actress. She was born in Chicago and raised in a military family that moved from base to base.
Her schoolgirl crush on Essanay Studios actor Francis X. Bushman led to her aunt taking her to tour the actor's Chicago studio. The 15-year-old Swanson was offered a brief walk-on for one film as an extra, beginning her life's career in front of the cameras. Swanson was soon hired to work in California for Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios comedy shorts opposite Bobby Vernon. She was eventually recruited by Famous Players-Lasky/Paramount Pictures, where she was put under contract for seven years.
In 1925, Swanson joined United Artists as one of the film industry's pioneering women filmmakers. She produced and starred in the 1928 film Sadie Thompson, earning her a nomination for Best Actress at the first annual Academy Awards. Her sound film debut performance in the 1929 The Trespasser, earned her a second Academy Award nomination. After almost two decades in front of the cameras, her film success waned during the 1930s. Swanson's comeback role in the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard earned her a Golden Globe Award and a third nomination for an Academy Award. She only made three more films, but guest starred on several television shows, and acted in road productions of stage plays.
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It’s Tuesday, October 20, 2020
Welcome to the 913th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Lower Manhattan skyline
as seen from Governors Island in June 2017
MusikAnimal - Own work
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2.0 Commentary
So, two full days and nights in NYC.
As I left apartment, my weight was on the uptick with me facing two full days away from home
and two large dinners planned and anticipated.
Made a spontaneous decision to enter on a stringent diet.
I did and stayed with it and came home having lost two pounds instead of gaining two.
Driving down and back was lovely.
Parking an issue but we lucked out: someone waiting for us to get in place to take his spot.
The car stayed put for the duration.
Early Mornings were with Kat’s boyfriend Will at the Velvette Café in Brooklyn.
I produced the blog; Will studied for exams.
One day we were restricted by a steady rain, heavy at times.
But the other was splendid: we walked Prospect Park in the morning and spent the afternoon in Soho and reenwich Village.
Both dinners were excellent, and my diet revolved around my fully enjoying the multi-course measl.
And, throughout, the conversation was engrossing.
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3.0 Tuscany, extracting an essence
No work on Sunday, a travel day.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
I do not ask the wounded person how he feels,
I myself become the wounded person.
~Walt Whitman
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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
Within my family, tension erupts as my aunt reads in this blog that her daughter and I had eaten in an indoor restaurant and prohibited my cousin from returning home until she tests positive.
Blog meister responds: Cousin Lauren will stay with me.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Sunday night I had a surprise guest.
My cousin Lauren suddenly had no place to stay: her mother read in my blog that we had eaten in a restaurant that had indoor seating and the doors of Lauren’s home were locked against her until she got tested. 7.00pm on a Sunday night.
Despite looking forward to a bit of solitude after two and a half days of intense socializing, I invited Lauren to stay with me for the night.
To celebrate our being home, we shopped at Whole Foods, came home and made Chicken Soup.
While it simmered, we watched an episode of Mad Men.
Terrific.
As was the soup.
Then we watched the first episode of a Masterpiece Theatre production, The Trouble with Maggie Cole. It was quite good.
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7. “Conflicted” podcast
Conflicted, by Dom Capossela, is a spiritual/fantasy 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.
https://soundcloud.com/user-449713331/sets/conflicted-dom-capossela
The podcasts are also available on Sound Cloud, iTunes, Stitcher, Pinterest, Pocket Cast, and Facebook.
Search: dom capossela or conflicted or both
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New York City (NYC), often called simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2019 population of 8,336,817 distributed over about 302.6 square miles, New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the United States.
Located at the southern tip of the U.S. state of New York, the city is the center of the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass.
With almost 20 million people in its metropolitan statistical area and approximately 23 million in its combined statistical area, it is one of the world's most populous megacities. New York City has been described as the cultural, financial, and media capital of the world, significantly influencing commerce, entertainment, research, technology, education, politics, tourism, art, fashion, and sports. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy
Situated on one of the world's largest natural harbors, New York City is composed of five boroughs, each of which is a county of the State of New York. The five boroughs—Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island—were consolidated into a single city in 1898.
The city and its metropolitan area constitute the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States. As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. New York is home to more than 3.2 million residents born outside the United States, the largest foreign-born population of any city in the world as of 2016.
As of 2019, the New York metropolitan area is estimated to produce a gross metropolitan product (GMP) of $2.0 trillion. If the New York metropolitan area were a sovereign state, it would have the eighth-largest economy in the world. New York is home to the highest number of billionaires of any city in the world.
New York City traces its origins to a trading post founded by colonists from the Dutch Republic in 1624 on Lower Manhattan; the post was named New Amsterdam in 1626.
The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, the Duke of York.
The city was regained by the Dutch in July 1673 and was subsequently renamed New Orange for one year and three months; the city has been continuously named New York since November 1674.
New York City was the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790, and has been the largest U.S. city since 1790.
The Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the U.S. by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and is a symbol of the U.S. and its ideals of liberty and peace.
In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a global node of creativity, entrepreneurship, and environmental sustainability, and as a symbol of freedom and cultural diversity.
In 2019, New York was voted the greatest city in the world per a survey of over 30,000 people from 48 cities worldwide, citing its cultural diversity.
Many districts and landmarks in New York City are well known, including three of the world's ten most visited tourist attractions in 2013.
A record 62.8 million tourists visited New York City in 2017. Times Square is the brightly illuminated hub of the Broadway Theater District, one of the world's busiest pedestrian intersections, and a major center of the world's entertainment industry. Many of the city's landmarks, skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattan's real estate market is among the most expensive in the world.
Providing continuous 24/7 service and contributing to the nickname The City that Never Sleeps, the New York City Subway is the largest single-operator rapid transit system worldwide, with 472 rail stations. The city has over 120 colleges and universities, including Columbia University, New York University, Rockefeller University, and the City University of New York system, which is the largest urban public university system in the United States.
Anchored by Wall Street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City has been called both the world's leading financial center and the most financially powerful city in the world, and is home to the world's two largest stock exchanges by total market capitalization, the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ.
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It’s Monday, October 19, 2020
Welcome to the 912th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
The Lake, Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York City
King of Hearts - Own work
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2.0 Commentary
Am in NYC.
We ate indoors in a very nice restaurant on Friday night.
The tables were well-separated and additionally separated by barriers.
The food was delicious.
Cost about $85.00 per person, same as Boston for an equivalent meal.
A good evening.
Saturday morning we spent in a café called Velvette in Brooklyn.
Excellent.
Then we spent two hours walking around beautiful Prospect Park in Brooklyn.
The weather was perfect.
We uberred to Soho and had coffee and delicious macaroons at Laduree which we had visited in Paris.
We had an outside table in full sun and relished the time.
Then we walked into shops and galleries, a perfect afternoon.
In the course of the day we discussed Thanksgiving celebration, cousin Lauren insisting that she and her boyfriend eat with her mom, but promising to arrive at my celebration by 4.30pm.
Wanted her at noon but what the Hades.
Without Lauren, we will be three.
Daughter Katherine (21 years old) and her boyfriend Will, also 21, agreed to do the cooking this year.
A relief for me to be relegated to coach.
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3.0 Tuscany, extracting an essence
Don’t expect to do too much work on the Tuscany experience in the next couple of days.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
Now, Voyager, sail thou forth, to seek and find.
~Walt Whitman
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5.0 Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Positive comments re: Walt Whitman.
From the distance of a café table we watched New Yorkers file past.
We were properly impressed with the attractiveness of strutting and striding New Yorkers dressed for magazine covers.
Blog meister responds: One of those duly impressed.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Permit me to take this space in praise of a restaurant in Brooklyn called Oxalis.
Four of us ate there on Saturday night and had the best meal any of us had in the United States.
I am not going to try to recreate the exquisitiveness of the courses except to say that the restaurant well-deserved its Guide Michelin star.
Cost was double per person of the night before: $165.00 per person.
Do make a detour to eat there.
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7. “Conflicted” podcast
Conflicted, by Dom Capossela, is a spiritual/fantasy 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.
https://soundcloud.com/user-449713331/sets/conflicted-dom-capossela
The podcasts are also available on Sound Cloud, iTunes, Stitcher, Pinterest, Pocket Cast, and Facebook.
Search: dom capossela or conflicted or both
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Prospect Park is an urban park in Brooklyn, New York City. The park is situated between the neighborhoods of Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Flatbush, and Windsor Terrace, and is adjacent to the Brooklyn Museum, Grand Army Plaza, and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
With an area of 526 acres (213 ha),[5] Prospect Park is the second largest public park in Brooklyn, behind Marine Park.
First proposed in legislation passed in 1859, Prospect Park was laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, who also helped design Manhattan's Central Park, following various changes to its design. Prospect Park opened in 1867, though it was not substantially complete until 1873. The park subsequently underwent numerous modifications and expansions to its facilities. Several additions to the park were completed in the 1890s, in the City Beautiful architectural movement. In the early 20th century, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (NYC Parks) commissioner Robert Moses started a program to clean up Prospect Park. A period of decline in the late 20th century spurred the creation of the Prospect Park Alliance, which refurbished many parts of the park starting in the late 1980s.
Main attractions of the park include the 90-acre (36 ha) Long Meadow; the Picnic House; Litchfield Villa; Prospect Park Zoo; the Boathouse; Concert Grove; Brooklyn's only lake, covering 60 acres (24 ha); and the Prospect Park Bandshell that hosts free outdoor concerts in the summertime. The park also has sports facilities, including the Prospect Park Tennis Center, basketball courts, baseball fields, soccer fields, and the New York Pétanque Club in the Parade Ground. There is also a private Society of Friends (Quaker) cemetery on Quaker Hill near the ball fields. In addition, Prospect Park is part of the Brooklyn-Queens Greenway, a network of green spaces that stretch across western Long Island.
Prospect Park was designated a New York City scenic landmark on November 25, 1975, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 17, 1980. The park is operated by the Prospect Park Alliance and NYC Parks.
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It’s Sunday, October 18, 20, 2020
Welcome to the 911th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Lucy Lang
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2.0 Commentary
The second of three debates is over.
I’m finding them revealing and in that sense they have been successful.
On Friday, my cousin and I drove to NYC.
We took our time and enjoyed the drive.
In Park Slope, Brooklyn, we met up with my daughter Kat and her boyfriend Will..
We sliced the remnants of a turkey roast made earlier in the week and talked for two hours.
We walked out to a café and had bubble tea or latte and talked for two hours.
We went out to Sushi Katsuei for dinner and talked for two hours.
Kat has a part-time job working on Lucy Lang’s campaign in a bid to win the job of Manhattan District Attorney. Kat is Ms Lang’s schedule coordinator as well as Administrative Assistant.
She’s loving it.
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3.0 Tuscany, extracting its essence
Having completed the broad-stroking of the Tuscan countryside event that continues through the first five nights of the trip, I’ve started to research Florence.
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4.0 Chuckles/Thoughts
O captain! My Captain! Our fearful trip is done.
The ship has weather'd every wrack. The prize we sought is won.
The port is near, the bells I hear. The people all exulting
While follow eyes, the steady keel The vessel grim and daring
But Heart! Heart! Heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my captain lies Fallen cold and dead.
~Walt Whitman
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5.0 Mail
We love getting mail.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
The talk this day was on mothers’ helpers, and the stories abounded.
My story was that my helper, in her zest to clean the apartment well and quickly,
is a little rough with anything in her way.
On this occasion, in cleaning the front of the oven, she turned off the oven with a roast obviously cooking.
Question posed: will I respond/react to such destruction?
Blog Meister responds:
I will not.
Twenty years ago my helper’s sister came to work for me.
Eight years later, she passed the job onto her sister, my current helper, current for the last twelve years.
These are the two hardest working people I have ever run across.
In twenty years, nothing has gone missing.
There has never been an unexcused absence.
We have respected each other for the duration.
Whatever damage done, more and greater damage will be done by any griping of mine will cause.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
We enjoyed an excellent dinner at Sushi Katsuei in Brooklyn:
a series of courses that were very well done.
Total cost, including wine and tip was 320.00 dollars.
A fair price for the four of us.
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7. “Conflicted” podcast
Conflicted, by Dom Capossela, is a spiritual/fantasy story about a sixteen-year-old mystic-warrior onflicted internally by her self-imposed alienation from God, her spiritual wellspring, and, externally, by the forces of darkness seeking her death or ruination.
https://soundcloud.com/user-449713331/sets/conflicted-dom-capossela
The podcasts are also available on Sound Cloud, iTunes, Stitcher, Pinterest, Pocket Cast, and Facebook.
Search: dom capossela or conflicted or both
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11.0 Thumbnails
More than a decade into my career as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan, I investigated a murder in upper Broadway, in which two masked men opened fire in a busy street, shooting four people nonfatally and point-blank murdering a fifth. Over the course of an 18-month investigation and a six-week jury trial, I spent countless hours with the heartbroken mother of the murdered young man to ensure that the killers—two men in their 20s—were held accountable. Jurors had tears in their eyes when they delivered guilty verdicts against both defendants. For the murdered young man and his bereaved mother, a measure of justice had been achieved.
I called the victim’s mother the morning after the verdict, and when I asked her how she was, she replied, “I slept all night for the first time since my son was killed. But when I woke up, all I could think about were the mothers of those two young men.”
My years of prosecuting violent street crime and working with crime survivors and their families had deeply sensitized me to the devastating impact of violent crime on individuals and communities. In fact, not so long ago, it was crime victims who were the forgotten ones in the criminal-justice system. But this mother’s astounding display of empathy made me question whether I had given adequate thought to the impact of incarceration on individuals and, in turn, affected communities. I had focused on crime, but had I thought enough about punishment? I was myself the mother of two young children. If a mother could find compassion for the men who killed her son, then surely I could, too.
This desire to understand the experiences of people I had prosecuted led me to create a college class that would allow prosecutors to study alongside incarcerated students. The class, created in partnership with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, the New York State Department of Corrections, and the Columbia University Center for Justice, centered on the lived experiences of the students and readings about justice, violence, punishment, and race. For the final assignment, students presented jointly crafted policy proposals to local lawmakers. Now in its third year, this class is being replicated in other jurisdictions, and significantly changing the relationship between prosecutors and the communities we are sworn to serve. My students have persuaded me that criminal-justice reform must prioritize prison reform, and that prosecutors have a critical role to play in that project.
Lucy Lang, 39, once a top homicide and domestic violence prosecutor in DA Cy Vance’s office, is now running to replace her former boss — who hasn’t indicated whether he will be running for reelection in 2021.
“I spent my career focused on actually prosecuting the crimes most New Yorkers care about, like murder, gun violence and domestic abuse,” the former ADA told the Daily News. “I think that I’m the person in the race who’s proven I can deliver.”
The erstwhile Manhattan ADA — who rose through the ranks to serve as special counsel for policy and projects in the office — left in 2018 to head the Institute for Innovation in Prosecution at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
“I'm running for Manhattan DA because I believe that the District Attorney's office can be an institution of government that helps all communities thrive and moves our city closer to a dignified and humane criminal justice system.”
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