August 4

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It is amazing how a child absorbs so much but still ends up being herself.
Full commentary found on blog below lead picture:

W. E. B. Du Bois
Photo Credit: Cornelius Marion (C.M.) Battey (1873–1927)
This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints
This, the Lead Picture Today, Saturday, August 3, 2019, on the blog –
existentialautotrip.com

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The blog? A daily three to four-minute excursion into photos and short texts to regale the curious with an ever-changing and diverting view of a world rich in gastronomy, visual art, ideas, chuckles, stories, people, diversions, science, homespun, and enlightenment.
Observing with wit and wisdom, Dom Capossela, an experienced leader, guides his team of contributors and followers through that world, an amusing and edifying conversation to join.


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Commentary
Sunday, August 4, 2019

Sent by my daughter.
So embarrassingly accurate.

The result of twelve years of readings.
So sure they would result in a quiescent, mild-mannered child.
Not so much.
She a twenty-year-old junior at Swarthmore.
Summer job at the Atlantic.
President of the Student Government.
Student activist.
It is amazing how a child absorbs so much but still ends up being herself.

Never pushed her.
Never woke her.
Never limited her.
Read to her.
Fed her.
Stayed out of her way.

And wow! Did she.

Befuddled, me.
How she got so accomplished.
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Weather
Sunday, August 4, 2019

Today in Boston will be 81* and a feels-like of 82* with a risk of a shower.

Our perfect summer stretch continues for another six days at least, although some rain is expected later.
Yayy!

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We love getting mail.
Contact me at domcapossela@hotmail.com
Sunday, August 4, 2019

This sent by Colleen Getty of Room to Write fame:

Wow! Kali's poems are great examples of why I personally love poetry and why poetry is so alluring to the human soul.

We need real. We need deep. And she does both so well.

It all ends--even her poems--but the beauty of a poem is that you can read it again and again and put off the end just a little longer.

Kudos to Kali! 

Cheers,

Colleen:)

Web Meister responds: You speak for us all, Colleen.

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Tracking Postings – Tracking Time
Sunday, August 4, 2019

Our 485th consecutive posting, committed to 5,000.
After 485 posts we’re at the 9.70 percentile of our commitment, that commitment a different way of marking the passage of time.

By the way, our posts are always done by 6.00am the day of, but are usually available by 6.00pm of the night before.
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Friday’s Dinner posted on
Sunday, August 4, 2019

On Friday we bought 3lbs of chicken drumsticks on sale.
We slow roasted them (60min @ 200*) and then fast-broiled them against the flame until they got a nice color.
We served them with a cheddar cheese sauce (bought from Costco,) a Pesto sauce, we made, and a lemon-butter-parsley sauce made with the chicken drippings.
Inexpensive and delicious.

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Chuckle of the Day:
Sunday, August 4, 2019

I thought my wife was joking when she said she was leaving me because of my love for the Monkees.

Then I saw her face

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Today’s Thumbnail
Sunday, August 4, 2019

Sign from the Apartheid era in South Africa:
FOR USE BY WHITE PERSONS. THESE PUBLIC PREMISES AND THE AMENITIES THEREOF HAVE BEEN RESERVED FOR THE EXCLUSIVE USE OF WHITE PERSONS.
By Order Provincial Secretary Dewet
Derived from Aprt.jpg on en.wiki, corrected perspective and lighting somewhat.
Permission from photographer here.

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author, writer and editor.

He attended the University of Berlin and Harvard, where he was the first African American to earn a doctorate, he became a professor of history, sociology and economics at Atlanta University.

Du Bois was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.

Before that, Du Bois had risen to national prominence as the leader of the Niagara Movement, a group of African-American activists who wanted equal rights for blacks.

Du Bois and his supporters opposed the Atlanta compromise, an agreement crafted by Booker T. Washington which provided that Southern blacks would work and submit to white political rule, while Southern whites guaranteed that blacks would receive basic educational and economic opportunities.
Instead, Du Bois insisted on full civil rights and increased political representation, which he believed would be brought about by the African-American intellectual elite.
He referred to this group as the Talented Tenth and believed that African Americans needed the chances for advanced education to develop its leadership.

First Issue of -- The Crisis: A Record of the Darker Races, November 1910. New York: NAACP, 1910.

WEB DuBois, Oswald G. Villard, J. Max Barber, Charles Edward Russell, Kelly Miller, W. S. Braithwaite, M D Maclean -
Library of Congress, General Collections, (026.00.00) [Digital ID # na0026]

Racism was the main target of Du Bois's polemics, and he strongly protested against lynching, Jim Crow laws, and discrimination in education and employment.

His cause included people of color everywhere, particularly Africans and Asians in colonies.
He was a proponent of Pan-Africanism and helped organize several Pan-African Congresses to fight for the independence of African colonies from European powers.
Du Bois made several trips to Europe, Africa and Asia.

After World War I, he surveyed the experiences of American black soldiers in France and documented widespread prejudice in the United States military.  

Freedmen voting in New Orleans, 1867
Unknown - 19th century illustration via New York Public Library Digital Collection at [1]

Du Bois was a prolific author.
His collection of essays, The Souls of Black Folk, is a seminal work in African-American literature; and his 1935 magnum opus, Black Reconstruction in America, challenged the prevailing orthodoxy that blacks were responsible for the failures of the Reconstruction Era.

Borrowing a phrase from Frederick Douglass, he popularized the use of the term color line to represent the injustice of the separate but equal doctrine prevalent in American social and political life.
He opens The Souls of Black Folk with the central thesis of much of his life's work: "The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line."

He wrote one of the first scientific treatises in the field of American sociology, and he published three autobiographies, each of which contains essays on sociology, politics and history.

In his role as editor of the NAACP's journal The Crisis, he published many influential pieces.
Du Bois believed that capitalism was a primary cause of racism, and he was generally sympathetic to socialist causes throughout his life.
He was an ardent peace activist and advocated nuclear disarmament.

The United States' Civil Rights Act, embodying many of the reforms for which Du Bois had campaigned his entire life, was enacted a year after his death.

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Acknowledgements
Sunday, August 4, 2019

Always thanks to the Microsoft team at the Prudential Center for their unflagging availability to help with a constant flow of technological problems.

Thanks to Colleen G who was born supportive.
And to 61+ jokes for providing the material for today’s chuckle.
And to Howard D whose continuing input helps map the strategy of the blog.

Always thanks to Wikipedia, the Lead and the Thumbnail sections of the Blog very often shaped from stories taken from that amazing website. They are truly worthy of public support.


A tip o' the hat (U.S. President Calvin Coolidge, 1924

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Good Morning on this Sunday, the fourth day of August, 2019
DuBois never held political office, but helped shape our political landscape anyway.
He ranks high in my pantheon of American heroes. I collect their photos in an album that’s always with me.

Our lead picture is of W E B DuBois and our Thumbnail adds a bit more info about the man.
Our commentary stems from a cartoon daughter Kat sent.
We posted a Boston weather report and the ‘ticking calendar’ as illustrated by the growing number of posts as calendar markers.
We posted a chuckle, an email from Colleen G, and shared a dinner of chicken drumsticks.

And now? Gotta go.

Che vuoi? Le pocketbook?
See you soon.
Your love.