Daily Entries for the week of
Sunday, October 3, 2021
through
Saturday, October 9, 2021
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It’s Saturday, October 9, 2021
Welcome to the 1,245th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Eggplant
Solanum melongena fruit in plant.
Joydeep
Permission details
Joydeep, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publishes it under the following license
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Commentary
I love eggplant.
I don’t like that the spongy eggplant absorbs so much oil when you cook it so I almost never fry it.
I slice off stripes of the skin, I find it more palatable with less skin, and then I cut the eggplant into 1½ inch slices.
I brush the slices with olive oil and sprinkle salt.
Then I roast them @ 375 for about 30 minutes: keep their shape but make them tender.
From that point, you can make traditional dishes like Eggplant Parmigiana or more unusual dishes like the one in the Dinner/Recipe section below.
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Reading and Writing
I should finish the first draft of Part One of my manuscript today.
Then comes a week of tight editing for dates and times, characteristics, storylines, etc.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
“Reading without reflecting is like eating without digesting.”
― Edmund Burke
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
Four calls and texts today related to ‘hanging out.’
Blog meister responds: We sometimes simply do not have the time today that we will have tomorrow. So, patience and understanding are the orders of the day.
Love.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
I made a delicious eggplant mélange that worked very well with a mound of pasta and a plop [real word] of burrata cheese. Here’s the recipe I worked out.
Eggplant with Pasta and Burrata Cheese
INGREDIENTS
Chunky pasta of choice
The eggplant part of the recipe can accompany a full pound of pasta tossed with olive oil, salt, freshly ground black pepper, and coarsely chopped fresh basil or parsley.
⅓ packed cup thinly sliced fresh basil leaves,
plus more torn leaves for garnish
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 cup fresh ricotta or burrata (about 8 ounces)
Step 1
2 small Italian eggplants, about 2 lbs total
Peel skin and slice eggplant to 1.5” thick
Brush olive oil and generously salt each eggplant side
Roast for 30 minutes (or more if needed) until done
Heavily salt and oil one side of the eggplants slices and
broil to a nice brown color
Cut eggplant into 1 ½ “ cubes and put into a large bowl
Step 2
Kosher salt
½ cup raisins, preferably yellow
1 cup water
In a saucepan add the water, raisins, and salt.
Bring pan to boil, simmer for 2 minutes, cover and let sit.
Step 3
Two TB olive oil
Drain half the raisins and add them here
⅓ cup shallot (1 small shallot)
¼ cup pine nuts
3 tablespoons drained brined capers
3 garlic cloves
¼ teaspoon red-pepper flakes
Put all in a food chopper and puree.
Step 4
Add 2 TB olive oil to a medium hot skillet and cook the paste for five minutes.
Add fresh basil to the paste and stir in
Step 5
Add the paste to the eggplant and add the remaining drained raisins and toss
Add 2 TB red wine vinegar
Step 6
Cook pasta and toss with eggplant
Top casserole with 1 cup fresh ricotta or burrata (about 8 ounces)
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Public Garden from Inside Facing the Four Seasons Hotel.
On one of my nightly walks I got an urge to share this moment.
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Short Essay*
Eggplant (US, Australia, New Zealand, anglophone Canada), aubergine (UK, Ireland, Quebec, and most of mainland Western Europe) or brinjal (South Asia, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa) is a plant species in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Solanum melongena is grown worldwide for its edible fruit.
Most commonly purple, the spongy, absorbent fruit is used in several cuisines. Typically used as a vegetable in cooking, it is a berry by botanical definition. As a member of the genus Solanum, it is related to the tomato, chili pepper, and potato, although those are of the New World while the eggplant is of the Old World. Like the tomato, its skin and seeds can be eaten, but, like the potato, it is usually eaten cooked. Eggplant is nutritionally low in macronutrient and micronutrient content, but the capability of the fruit to absorb oils and flavors into its flesh through cooking expands its use in the culinary arts.
It was originally domesticated from the wild nightshade species thorn or bitter apple, S. incanum, probably with two independent domestications: one in South Asia, and one in East Asia. In 2018, China and India combined accounted for 87% of the world production of eggplants.
The eggplant is a delicate, tropical perennial plant often cultivated as a tender or half-hardy annual in temperate climates. The stem is often spiny. The flowers are white to purple in color, with a five-lobed corolla and yellow stamens. Some common cultivars have fruit that is egg-shaped, glossy, and purple with white flesh and a spongy, "meaty" texture. Some other cultivars are white and longer in shape. The cut surface of the flesh rapidly turns brown when the fruit is cut open (oxidation).
Eggplant grows 40 to 150 cm (1 ft 4 in to 4 ft 11 in) tall, with large, coarsely lobed leaves that are 10 to 20 cm (4 to 8 in) long and 5 to 10 cm (2 to 4 in) broad. Semiwild types can grow much larger, to 225 cm (7 ft 5 in), with large leaves over 30 cm (12 in) long and 15 cm (6 in) broad. On wild plants, the fruit is less than 3 cm (1+1⁄4 in) in diameter; in cultivated forms: 30 cm (12 in) or more in length are possible for long, narrow types or the large fat purple ones common to the West.
Botanically classified as a berry, the fruit contains numerous small, soft, edible seeds that taste bitter because they contain or are covered in nicotinoid alkaloids, like the related tobacco.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Friday, October 8, 2021
Welcome to the 1,244th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Nathan Evoldi
Pitched almost six masterful innings in the do or die game against the NY Yankees.
Picture is from Red Sox at Orioles 8/10/18
Keith Allison from Hanover, MD, USA - Nathan Eovaldi
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Commentary
Tuesday was a proud evening for Red Sox fans. They outplayed the Yankees in every category, offense, defense, and pitching and won the American League wild card playoff spot. Thye face a best of five game series and then a best of seven game series after which, if successful, will enter the World Series. Wouldn’t that be a hoot?
I can’t say enough about my recently-acquired Mistral chair. The firm contours bring me comfort and rest that I have never experienced before. Best investment ever.
The vaccination rate keeps growing, in line with the expansion of employment and recreational mandates.
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Reading and Writing
I finished another section of Part One and am closing in on the finish of that part of the manuscript. My plan is to then edit the section for grammar, accuracy of dates, characteristics of the players, and speech patterns, including vocabulary appropriate to the character.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
― Edmund Burke
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
This from friend Jim p:
Dom,
I’m curious about where Kat went to do her meditation. I have been the Vipassana center in Mass (Vipassana Meditation (dhamma.org)) on three occasions – twice for 10 meditations and once for a 3-day. They changed my life for the better.
What is also good is that the courses are free because it is run by volunteers. All they ask you to do is to come back and volunteer to serve on another course.
This program has also been used in prisons across the world. Here is a famous film about Vipassana in India: https://youtu.be/WkxSyv5R1sg
(A must see if I must say 😊).
Please let me know when you get the report from Katherine.
Your friend,
Jim
Blog meister responds: This response from Katherine:
will compose more detailed account soon.
Blog meister responds: See Katherine’s attached daily meditation schedule for the week she was there in the Community Photos below.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
I had chicken soup for dinner on Tuesday night, along with a mini-roast beef sandwich. The soup was from my freezer, leftover a week ago. The roast beef was leftover from the Chart House on Sunday afternoon. It was a small piece until I sliced it thinly and it seemed to grow. It was plenty. And plenty good.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Katherine’s meditation schedule when she was on the retreat.
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Short Essay*
The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in 1901 as one of the American League's eight charter franchises, the Red Sox' home ballpark has been Fenway Park since 1912. The "Red Sox" name was chosen by the team owner, John I. Taylor, circa 1908, following the lead of previous teams that had been known as the "Boston Red Stockings", including the forerunner of the Atlanta Braves.[3] The team has won nine World Series championships, tied for the third-most of any MLB team, and they have played in 13. Their most recent World Series appearance and win was in 2018. In addition, they won the 1904 American League pennant, but were not able to defend their 1903 World Series championship when the New York Giants refused to participate in the 1904 World Series.
The Red Sox were a dominant team in the new league, defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first World Series in 1903 and winning four more championships by 1918. However, they then went into one of the longest championship droughts in baseball history, dubbed the "Curse of the Bambino" after its alleged inception due to the Red Sox' sale of Babe Ruth to the rival New York Yankees two years after their world championship in 1918, an 86-year wait before the team's sixth World Championship in 2004. The team's history during that period was punctuated with some of the most memorable moments in World Series history, including Enos Slaughter's "mad dash" in 1946, the "Impossible Dream" of 1967, Carlton Fisk's home run in 1975, and Bill Buckner's error in 1986. Following their victory in the 2018 World Series, they became the first team to win four World Series trophies in the 21st century, with championships in 2004, 2007, 2013 and 2018. The team's history has also been marked by the team's intense rivalry with the New York Yankees, arguably the fiercest and most historic in North American professional sports.
The Boston Red Sox are owned by Fenway Sports Group, which also owns Liverpool F.C. of the Premier League in England. They are consistently one of the top MLB teams in average road attendance, while the small capacity of Fenway Park prevents them from leading in overall attendance. From May 15, 2003, to April 10, 2013, the Red Sox sold out every home game—a total of 820 games (794 regular season) for a major professional sports record.[8][9] Both Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" and The Standells's "Dirty Water" have become anthems for the Red Sox.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Thursday, October 7, 2021
Welcome to the 1,243rd consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Tecumseh
A painting of Shawnee chief Tecumseh, in water colors on platinum print, based on Lossing's 1868 engraving.
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Commentary
Good news, maybe.
Pres. Biden seems to have come up with a number that may unite the progressive and moderate wings of the Democratic Party, with a number of two trillion dollars. Not everything, but really more money than I have.
Good news, maybe.
Have we turned a corner on Covid?
Good times, maybe.
My daughter has just returned from a week’s retreat at a Buddhist monastery. I’m dying to hear what it was about. She will call me later this week after she’s caught up the important people.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
“If there really had been a Mercutio, and
if there really were a Paradise,
Mercutio might be hanging out with teenage Vietnam draftee casualties now,
talking about what it felt like to die for other people's vanity and foolishness.”
~Kurt Vonnegut
Hocus Pocus
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
This from good friend Colleen G re: my missing a festival.
Hi Dom,
We wish you were there too:) at the Festival.
I just saw Sally's note and thought I'd send along a photo to show you just how exciting those typewriters are -- even guinea pigs passing by had to try their "hand" . . . or paw:) Oreo, the guinea pig, did quite well for his first time.
Enjoy the photo and hopefully a good chuckle.
Cheers,
Colleen
Blog meister responds: See the great photo of Dom on the typewriter…Ooops! Not Dom but a guinea pig.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Monday night I had a bowl of Bouillabaisse that was utterly delicious. Ten days ago I made a pot of fish broth that was the base of the Bouillabaisse and split the broth into two food storage boxes, one of which I froze. Having consumed the first half last week, I pulled the second half on Monday night. I added little neck clams, mussels, a rock crab, haddock, cod, swordfish, and sea bass and made another three large portions of the soup. I ate one and froze two. I’ll take one to my niece’s home in NH next week and we’ll enjoy it as an appetizer.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Colleen displayed her typewriters at the festival, including typing lessons given by her guinea pig.
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Short Essay*
Tecumseh (c. 1768 – October 5, 1813) was a Shawnee chief and warrior who promoted resistance to the expansion of the United States onto Native American lands. A persuasive orator, Tecumseh traveled widely, forming a Native American confederacy and promoting inter-tribal unity. Although his efforts to unite Native Americans ended with his death in the War of 1812, he became an iconic folk hero in American, Indigenous, and Canadian popular history.
Tecumseh was born in what is now Ohio, at a time when the far-flung Shawnees were reuniting in their Ohio Country homeland. During his childhood, the Shawnees lost territory to the expanding American colonies in a series of border conflicts. Tecumseh's father was killed in battle against American colonists in 1774. Tecumseh was thereafter mentored by his older brother Cheeseekau, a noted war chief who died fighting Americans in 1792. As a young war leader, Tecumseh joined Shawnee Chief Blue Jacket's armed struggle against further American encroachment, which ended in defeat at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, and the loss of most of Ohio in the 1795 Treaty of Greenville.
In 1805, Tecumseh's younger brother Tenskwatawa, who came to be known as the Shawnee Prophet, founded a religious movement, calling upon Native Americans to reject European influences and return to a more traditional lifestyle. In 1808, Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa established Prophetstown, a village in present-day Indiana, that grew into a large, multi-tribal community. Tecumseh traveled constantly, spreading the Prophet's message and eclipsing his brother in prominence. He proclaimed that Native Americans owned their lands in common, and urged tribes not to cede more territory unless all agreed. His message alarmed American leaders as well as Native leaders who sought accommodation with the United States. In 1811, when Tecumseh was in the south recruiting allies, Americans under William Henry Harrison defeated Tenskwatawa at the Battle of Tippecanoe and destroyed Prophetstown.
In the War of 1812, Tecumseh joined his cause with the British, recruiting warriors and helping to capture Detroit in August 1812. The following year he led an unsuccessful campaign against the United States in Ohio and Indiana. When U.S. naval forces took control of Lake Erie in 1813, Tecumseh reluctantly retreated with the British into Upper Canada, where American forces engaged them at the Battle of the Thames on October 5, 1813, in which Tecumseh was killed. His death caused his confederacy to collapse; the lands he had fought to defend were eventually ceded to the U.S. government. His legacy as one of the most celebrated Native Americans in history grew in the years after his death, although details of his life have often been obscured by mythology
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Wednesday, October 6, 2021
Welcome to the 1,242nd consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
James Wilson
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Commentary
It appears to me that in our fight against covid, we are not going to see a day which we will point to as the moment of victory. We should accept that even when we get covid in retreat mode, the war against will continue as a protracted experience. Covid will slip from first page and no one will notice. As there are refuseniks for flu and other vaccinations, a core of covid skeptics will continue to exist, although it will continue to shrink as more and more businesses will make covid vaccinations a term of engagement.
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Reading and Writing
Did good work on my manuscript on Sunday.
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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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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
Lots of comments on the terrific play of Mac Jones.
Blog meister responds: His performance gave Patriot nation something to b proud of, even in its loss.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Sunday night I had a most amiable dinner with niece Lisa and David.
We enjoyed a plate of Eataly’s ravioli and duck. With the duck I served broccoli flowerets and a crème fraiche sauce I made by adding lemon juice, tarragon, and dill. We shared most of a bottle of prosecco, an Italian red, an Oregon Pinot Noir and a half bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape. We finished with a couple of cheeses followed by Italian cookies and peanut butter cups. They stayed more than three hours and the conversation just kept on coming.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Guggenheim Windows
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Short Essay*
James Wilson (September 14, 1742 – August 21, 1798) was an American statesman, politician, legal scholar, and Founding Father who served as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1789 to 1798. He was elected twice to the Continental Congress, was a signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence, and was a major force in drafting the United States Constitution. A leading legal theorist, he was one of the six original justices appointed by George Washington to the Supreme Court of the United States. In his capacity as first Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania, he taught the first course on the new Constitution to President Washington and his cabinet in 1789 and 1790.
Born near Leven, Fife, Scotland, Wilson immigrated to Philadelphia in 1766 and became a teacher at the College of Philadelphia. After studying law under John Dickinson, he was admitted to the bar and set up a legal practice in Reading, Pennsylvania. He wrote a well-received pamphlet arguing that Parliament's taxation of the Thirteen Colonies was illegitimate due to the colonies' lack of representation in Parliament. He was elected to the Continental Congress and served as president of the Illinois-Wabash Company, a land speculation venture.
Wilson was a delegate to the 1787 Philadelphia Convention, where he served on the Committee of Detail, which produced the first draft of the United States Constitution. He was the principal architect of the executive branch[1] and an outspoken supporter of greater popular control of governance, a strong national government, and legislative representation proportional to population. Along with Roger Sherman, he proposed the Three-Fifths Compromise, which counted slaves as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of representation in the United States House of Representatives. While preferring the direct election of the president through a national popular vote, he proposed the use of an electoral college, which formed the basis of the Electoral College ultimately adopted by the Convention. After the convention, he campaigned for the ratification of the Constitution, with his "speech in the statehouse yard" reprinted in newspapers throughout the country, and opposed the Bill of Rights. Wilson also played a major role in drafting the 1790 Pennsylvania Constitution.
In 1789, Wilson became one of the first Associate Justices of the Supreme Court. He also became a professor of law at the College of Philadelphia (which later became the University of Pennsylvania). Wilson suffered financial ruin from the Panic of 1796–1797 and was briefly imprisoned in a debtors' prison on two occasions. He suffered a stroke and died in August 1798, becoming the first U.S. Supreme Court justice to die.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Tuesday, October 5, 2021
Welcome to the 1,241st consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Tom Brady
Brady in a game against the Washington Redskins
All-Pro Reels - https://www.flickr.com/photos/joeglo/48856949637/
In 2019
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Commentary
Covid optimism. I’m buying in.
The much anticipated Sopranos prequel is called Many Saints of Newark. It’s playing now on HBO MAX.
It’s really a poor movie. Embarrassingly poor.
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Reading and Writing
I got positive feedback on my new pages and I’m hoping that my writing now will pick up a little speed.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
“These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder
Which, as they kiss, consume”
~William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
Dear Dom,
Gelato! My first thought upon seeing your photograph of the gelato varieties was, “Who’d want to eat those? They’re too pretty!)
I just got home from three hours on the common in Wakefield, the town’s Festival by the Lake, with artisans and vendors of all kinds. Colleen Getty was set up there with The Room to Write, along with her ubiquitous typewriters that are all the rage with everyone who happens by. At trade shows, most exhibitors put out candy in a bowl to attract visitors. Colleen puts out typewriters with half a ream of paper, and that attracts visitors. Ingenious! I took her a manual typewriter that has been sitting in my attic for 8 years or so – I don’t need it, so I donated it to her cause. Just as well: one of hers needs work on the mechanics of the platen and the ribbon wind, which was frustrating to youngsters who had never seen such a contraption before. Linda Malcolm was there earlier with her book, “Cornfields to Codfish,” and we all met and talked at length with quite a few people. Good stuff! Good networking! An excellent day!
Now I’ll go make rhubarb pie with the last of the rhubarb I snaffled from the neighbors’ yards when I was at my family’s summer place two weeks ago. Mmmmm! Yep, it usually expires in early July, but if you keep picking it and removing the flower stalk before it gets big, the rhubarb keeps sending out leaves (and their edible stalks). I got quite a good mess of the stuff, enough for two pies, so I’ll likely freeze half for later.
Sally
Blog meister responds: Sounds like so much fun. Wish I were there.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Saturday I ate dinner at the Chart House. Selected that place because they serve Prime Rib of Beef. I drank a decent Old Fashioned and ate the beef. It was excellent and reasonably priced. Service was great.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Great cafes in Paris (2)
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Short Essay*
Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. (born August 3, 1977) is an American football player who is a quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL). He spent his first 20 seasons with the New England Patriots, where he was a central contributor to the franchise's dynasty from 2001 to 2019. Brady is widely considered to be the greatest quarterback of all time.
After playing college football at Michigan, Brady was selected 199th overall by the Patriots in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft, later earning him a reputation as the NFL's biggest draft steal. He became the starting quarterback during his second season, which saw the Patriots win their first Super Bowl title in Super Bowl XXXVI. As the team's primary starter for 18 seasons,[a] Brady led the Patriots to 17 division titles (including 11 consecutive from 2009 to 2019), 13 AFC Championship Games (including eight consecutive from 2011 to 2018), nine Super Bowl appearances, and six Super Bowl titles, all NFL records for a player and franchise.[b] He joined the Buccaneers in 2020 and led them to win Super Bowl LV, extending his individual records to 10 Super Bowl appearances and seven victories.
Brady holds many career quarterback records, including passing yards (91,653), completions (8,542), touchdown passes (664), and games started (344), in addition to the most Pro Bowl selections (14).[c] Never having a losing season, he is the NFL leader in career quarterback wins (264), quarterback regular-season wins (230), quarterback playoff wins (34), and Super Bowl MVP awards (5), as well as the only Super Bowl MVP for two different teams. Brady's success has also been noted for longevity, with him being the only quarterback to win a Super Bowl in three different decades. At age 43 in Super Bowl LV, he is the oldest player to be named Super Bowl MVP and win a Super Bowl as the starting quarterback, along with being the oldest NFL MVP at age 40 in 2017.[8] Brady is the only NFL quarterback named to two all-decade teams (2000s and 2010s) and was unanimously named to the 100th Anniversary All-Time Team in 2019.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Monday, October 4, 2021
Welcome to the 1,240th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Kyrsten Sinema
official photo 2018
US House office of photography - https://sinema.house.gov/uploads/KyrstenSinema.jpg
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Commentary
I applaud Sens Manchin and Sinema. They are walking reelection tightropes. For me, it’s more important that they hold onto their seats and force a more moderate infrastructure bill than go for broke and lose their seats.
The Build Back Better Act is crucial for America’s future. I hope the progressives see that even half of Biden’s proposal is a positive step forward.
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Reading and Writing
I’m on my final rewriting of the first pages of the manuscript.
A milestone when I finish these. Maybe on Tuesday.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
“I believe...that to be very poor and very beautiful is most probably a moral failure more than an artistic success. Shakespeare would have done well in any generation because he would have refused to die in a corner; he would have taken the false gods and made them over; he would have taken the current formulae and forced them into something lesser men thought them incapable of. Alive today he would undoubtedly have written and directed motion pictures, plays, and God knows what. Instead of saying, "This medium is not good," he would have used it and made it good. If some people called some his work cheap (which some of it was), he wouldn't have cared a rap, because he would know that without some vulgarity there is no complete man. He would have hated refinement, as such, because it is always a withdrawal, and he was too tough to shrink from anything.”
~Raymond Chandler
Raymond Chandler Speaking
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
On Friday I made and ate clam chowder and a lobster roll.
For the roll, I bought Iggy’s ciabatta square, a perfect size for a dinner portion.
I steamed the chicken lobster and when it cooled, I prepared it.
The body, legs, and fins I set aside for worrying [slow sucking when no one else is around to be annoyed].
The tomalley, the green stuff, I mixed with excellent mayonnaise.
I cut the lobster meat from the tail, claws, and knuckles into enjoyable pieces and I added celery, scallions, and a little bit only of chopped lettuce. Salt and pepper and mixed all into a great sandwich.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
doms salade nicoise
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Short Essay*
Kyrsten Lea Sinema (born July 12, 1976) is an American politician, former social worker, and lawyer serving as the senior United States Senator from Arizona since January 2019. A Democrat from Arizona, she served three terms as a state representative for the 15th legislative district from 2005 to 2011, one term as the state senator for the 15th legislative district from 2011 to 2012, and three terms as the United States Representative for the 9th district from 2013 to 2019.
Sinema began her political career in the Arizona Green Party and rose to prominence for her progressive advocacy, supporting causes such as LGBT rights and opposing the war on terror. She left the Green Party to join the Arizona Democratic Party in 2004 and was elected to a seat in the United States House of Representatives in 2012. After her election, she joined the New Democrat Coalition, the Blue Dog Coalition and the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, amassing one of the most conservative voting records in the Democratic caucus. She won the 2018 Senate election to replace the retiring Jeff Flake, defeating Republican nominee Martha McSally. Sinema is the first openly bisexual and the second openly LGBT woman (after Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin) to be elected to the House of Representatives and to the Senate in 2012 and 2018, respectively. She also was the first woman elected to the Senate from Arizona.
Sinema is considered a moderate Democrat and was identified as the 47th most conservative member of the Senate in a 2019 analysis by the nonpartisan organization GovTrack.us. During the 116th Congress, she voted with President Donald Trump's position roughly 25% of the time, the second-most of any Democratic senator to serve during the full term.
*The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Sunday, October 3, 2021
Welcome to the 1,239th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Dino de Laurentiis
Producer Dino De Laurentiis
Justin Sewell - Wine Food Travel, cropped version of File:Dino de laurentiis 3925839800.jpg
IIC Tribute to Dino DeLaurentiis
Permission details
This image, originally posted to Flickr, was reviewed on 14 October 2009 by the administrator or reviewer Leoboudv, who confirmed that it was available on Flickr under the stated license on that date.
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Commentary
Friday was my annual checkup. Everything looking good. And I got my flu shot.
I had more negative side effects from the flu shot than I did with my third covid booster shot,
namely, it made me very tired.
I’m in no hurry but I have been looking at different modes of private transportation including electric bicycles and scooters. Thinking of the day, fifteen years from now, when I may not have the energy to walk as far as I need to go.
Of course, in fifteen years we’ll all be flying around in drone buses.
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Reading and Writing
I reached a milestone in my manuscript: completing the storyline of the first pages.
Next step is to edit the pages before submitting them for review.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
“Death and burial were a public spectacle.
Shakespeare may have seen for himself
the gravediggers at St Ann's, Soho,
playing skittles with skulls and bones.”
~Catharine Arnold
Necropolis: London and Its Dead
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
So a friend of mine writes that he has finished his novella and would I read it. This man is a terrific writer and I am honored to add my thoughts to his collection.
Blog meister responds: Right now, I am reding the Goldfinch for my online class with my granddaughter and I am only 75% done with the 800 page book. I hope he has a bit of patience. But I am looking forward to it.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
I made a version of Clam Chowder that came out very well.
I rendered bacon and fried the potatoes together,
I softened scallions, red bell pepper, and celery in the fat.
I steamed 4 cherrystones and a dozen little necks and, after cutting them,
added them to the saute.
When done, I added a cup of the clam broth and a cup of half and half
and a ½ handful of chopper Italian parsley.
It was delicious.
I also made a Lobster Roll from scratch. Will talk about it tomorrow.
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Community Photos**
Vivoli gelato tasting
The closest I’ll be getting to Tuscany this year.
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Short Essay*
Agostino "Dino" De Laurentiis (8 August 1919 – 10 November 2010) was an Italian (later naturalized American) film producer. Along with Carlo Ponti, he was one of the producers who brought Italian cinema to the international scene at the end of World War II. He produced or co-produced more than 500 films, of which 38 were nominated for Academy Awards. He also had a brief acting career in the late 1930s and early 1940s.
Following his first film, L'ultimo Combattimento (1940), De Laurentiis produced nearly 150 films during the next seven decades. In 1946 his company, the Dino de Laurentiis Cinematografica, moved into production. In the early years, De Laurentiis produced Italian neorealist films such as Bitter Rice (1949) and the early Fellini works La Strada (1954) and Nights of Cabiria (1956), often in collaboration with producer Carlo Ponti. In the 1960s, Laurentiis built his own studio facilities, although these financially collapsed during the 1970s. During this period, though, De Laurentiis produced such films as Barabbas (1961), a Christian religious epic; The Bible: In the Beginning... (1966), Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die, an imitation James Bond film; Navajo Joe (1966), a Spaghetti Western; Anzio (1968), a World War II film; Barbarella (1968) and Danger: Diabolik (1968), both successful comic book adaptations; and The Valachi Papers (1972), made to coincide with the popularity of The Godfather.[citation needed]
De Laurentiis relocated to the US in 1976,[2] and became an American citizen in 1986.[3] In the 1980s he had his own studio, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (DEG), based in Wilmington, North Carolina. The building of the studio made Wilmington a center of film and television production. In 1990, De Laurentiis obtained backing from an Italian friend and formed another company, Dino De Laurentiis Communications in Beverly Hills.
De Laurentiis made a number of successful and/or acclaimed films, including The Scientific Cardplayer (1972), Serpico (1973), Death Wish (1974), Mandingo (1975), Three Days of the Condor (1975), The Shootist (1976), Drum (1976), Ingmar Bergman's The Serpent's Egg (1977), Ragtime (1981), Conan the Barbarian (1982), Blue Velvet (1986) and Breakdown (1997). De Laurentiis' name became well known through the 1976 King Kong remake, which was a commercial hit; Lipstick (1976), a rape and revenge drama; Orca (1977), a killer whale film; The White Buffalo (1977), a western; the disaster movie Hurricane (1979); the remake of Flash Gordon (1980); David Lynch's Dune (1984); and King Kong Lives (1986). De Laurentiis also produced several adaptations of Stephen King works, including The Dead Zone (1983), Cat's Eye (1985), Silver Bullet (1985), and Maximum Overdrive (1986). De Laurentiis's company was involved with the horror sequels Halloween II (1981), Evil Dead II (1987) and Army of Darkness (1992).
De Laurentiis also produced the first Hannibal Lecter film, Manhunter (1986), an adaptation of the Thomas Harris novel Red Dragon. He passed on adapting the novels' sequel, The Silence of the Lambs (1991),[citation needed] but produced the two follow-ups, Hannibal (2001) and Red Dragon (2002), a re-adaptation of the novel. He also produced the prequel Hannibal Rising (2007), which tells the story of how Hannibal becomes a serial killer.
*The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Community Pictures with Captions are sent in by our followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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