We had friends over for dinner last night. We made:
- Christmassy Braised Beef Shanks
- Roasted Brussels Sprouts
- Mashed Potatoes
- Coffee Ice Cream with Chocolate sauce.
Company was great, as was the food.
Books Reading: Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard 📚
In the novel, The Overstory, there is a female scientist character who discovers the interconnectedness of trees and the forest. This book is by the woman scientist who was the basis for the character.
Dinosaurs of the Sky: Consummate 19th-Century Scottish Natural History Illustrations of Birds
Wonderful bird illustrations!
The State of the Culture (2023)
For books to flourish… you need a culture that promotes reading. But most people happily live without those reprocessed trees. As a result, only 28 books sold more than 500,000 copies last year—and eight of them were by the same romance writer.
From Heather Cox Richardson this AM…
Yesterday the president and chief executive officer of Elon Musk’s SpaceX admitted the company has blocked the ability of Ukrainian troops to use the Starlink satellite system to advance against Russia.
Our first night out to hear music since the pandemic. Our frind Bruce Molsky, old time musician extraordinaire…
Books Reading: The Gift by Lewis Hyde 📚
During the cold war…
… when Congress failed to support American cultural propaganda, the CIA stepped in. As the director of the CIA’s International Organizations Devision later remarked of one congressional opponent: “He made it very difficult to get Congress to go along with some of the things that we wanted to do–send art abroad, send symphonies abroad, publish magazines abroad, whatever. That’s one of the reasons why it had to be done covertly… In order to encourage openness we had to be secret.”
… apparently, it made a huge difference for abstract expressionists…
… one has to assess every trend, regardless of how we feel about it, as something that has necessity in the universe… it’s the only way we can be honest with ourselves about what’s going on…
Books Reading: The Gift by Lewis Hyde 📚
In a land that feels no reciprocity toward nature, in an age when the rich imagine themselves to be self-made, we should not be surprised to find the interior poverty of the gifted state replicated in the actual poverty of the gifted.
Books Reading: The Gift by Lewis Hyde 📚
This is so important…
The artist who hopes to market work that is the realization of his gifts cannot begin with the market. He must create for himself that gift-sphere in which the work is made, and only when he knows the work to be the faithful realization of his gift should he turn to see if it has currency in that other economy. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t.
The haunting?
Wondering if I agree with this. What do you think?
www.themarginalian.org/2023/02/0…
Prejudice is older than this age. A comparative study of animal psychology teaches that all animals are prejudiced against animals unlike themselves, and the more unlike they are the greater the prejudice… Among men, however, dissimilarity of minds is a more potent factor in causing prejudice than unlikeness in physiognomy.
My niece is a James Beard semifinalist! 4 Upstate Restaurants Named 2023 James Beard Award Semifinalists | Chronogram Magazine
Cafe Mutton
We saw this one coming a mile away. Since opening in May 2021, Shaina Loew-Banayan’s cozy corner joint Cafe Mutton has garnered praise from every corner, with lines around the block for lunch even on weekdays. In September 2022, Bon Appetit boldly claimed the spot as one of America’s best new restaurants while the New York Times noted Cafe Mutton on its coveted list of “50 places in America we’re most excited about right now.” So making it to the James Beard Åward semifinalist round for Best Chef: New York State isn’t exactly a shocker.
A crude prototype for a Terminator type AI?
Melting Robots Are the Future, Accept It
Meet the man fueling clean energy opposition in the Midwest
Aided by a small group of allies—many of whom receive money from the fossil fuel industry—Martis has helped pass dozens of laws that ban or severely restrict clean energy development in towns and counties across the Midwest. In order to pass these laws, he’s used misinformation and fear-based tactics that wind up dividing entire communities.
Never Put Off Till Tomorrow…
My Uncle died last weekend.
This past Friday, I, my wife and my cousin drove to Holden Massachusetts to attend his funeral at the Episcopal church he attended. It was a nice service. The most meaningful part, the part that brought a tear to my eyes, was the military honors given him at the end. He had served in the Air Force as a young man, rising to the rank of Master Sergeant before he retired from active duty. A two man honor guard was sent by the Air Force. One played the most beautiful rendition of Taps I have ever heard. So smooth, silky and continuous. Continuous, that was the thing. How did he manage to play the whole thing through as if he did it on one breath? I have heard that horn players can do something called circular breathing to make such feats possible. Maybe that was it. Then, in slow and deliberate fashion, with precise and articulated movements, they unfolded an American Flag, presented it for those in attendance to see, refolded it and presented it to my Aunt. It was a secular moment. It was very moving. I hadn’t realized that service in the armed forces was membership in a tradition of honor and service for life.
This past Christmas I sent my uncle a card on which I wrote that I wanted to come visit. He was so excited that he called immediately and wanted to set up a date for the visit. I told him we had to wait because I was helping my wife take care of her mother after a heart procedure and didn’t know how that would play out and when I could free myself. Towards the end of January my wife finally felt she could leave her mother and came home. I was literally about to pick up the phone and arrange the visit when my aunt called and left a message asking me to contact my mother to let her know her brother was in the hospital and it didn’t look good. He died the next day.
My aunt asked me to be a pallbearer, which was an honor I wasn’t sure I deserved but accepted. We didn’t have to carry the casket, it was on a trolley. We only had to push-guide-follow it in and then back out to the hearse where we lifted it on to the rollers in the bed of the hearse and slid it in. The wind blew hard as the temperature plunged towards the -2 degrees F it would arrive at over night. My fellow pallbearers and I hustled back into the church for warmth and our coats. There was no graveside ceremony. I assume that was because of the cold and the wind. Can they even dig a grave in such cold temperatures? If not, where is the casket kept until they can dig it?
I learned during his funeral and at the wake afterwards that my uncle had been deteriorating for some months before his death. I might have known this if I had kept in better touch, but I’ve only recently begun to hit that place where the importance of family is heightened again. You start to feel that increase in importance as you arrive at what I call the front lines life, as you become the generation whose expiration date is next up.
A number of years ago I had a photograph accepted to a group show at a gallery in Vermont. I announced it on my Facebook page. My uncle saw the announcement and called me to find out when the opening was. I explained there wouldn’t really be a proper opening and that it was only one photograph in a crowd of them. He wanted to come anyway. He and my Aunt drove several hours to be there. I am glad they did. It is probably my fondest memory of him. I learned during the service and at the wake that he was like that. Always supporting the efforts and achievements of his children, grandchildren nieces and nephews.
I regret waiting too long to return the favor. To let him know he meant something to me. I don’t believe in life after death, only a new role for your atoms in the universe, but if I am wrong about that, I hope he knows I finally came to visit.
Books Reading: Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research by John Steinbeck 📚
One could argue, particularly if one had a gift for laziness, that it is a relaxation pregnant of activity a sense of rest from which directed effort may arise, whereas most busy-ness is merely a kind of nervous tic.
… well, after reviewing a list of films nominated for an Oscar I realized we had seen all but three of them… an unusually high proportion for us… let’s see if we can close the gap even more… we have until March 12th… could this be the year we have seen them all?..
Books Reading: Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research by John Steinbeck 📚
The process of gathering knowledge does not lead to knowing. A child’s world spreads only a little beyond his understanding while that of a great scientist thrusts outward immeasurably. An answer is invariably the parent of a great family of new questions.
… just when you think humanity has hit rock bottom… Kiwi Farms… a group of trolls praying on the vulnerable… WTF?
… so tired of hatred of the other, especially politicians scoring political points with it… we are so ill, can we cure ourselves?…
[Trump announced he would ask “Congress to pass legislation that recognizes only two genders, male and female,” and “that they are assigned at birth.”]((https://www.thebulwark.com/trumps-escalation-in-the-gender-war/)
Latest everyday mandala…
Fading away, not burning out…
From yesterday… #blackandwhite #b&w #photography #minimalist
Books Reading: Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research by John Steinbeck 📚
Everywhere it is the same: if an animal is good to eat or poisonous or dangerous the natives of the place will know about it and where it lives. But if it have none of these qualities, no matter how highly colored or beautiful, he may never in his life have seen it. p131