Skyway Art. Walking through the Skyway this week I noticed these new window murals. They are kind of cool.
It’s official. I’m retired. Day three of retirement. The countdown is over. Now I can get to all those projects I’ve been putting off for my retirement.
You might want to check out postcardbuzz.com this week. I came across some postcards from the turn of the century (1900’s). Apparently it was all the rage to send photographs as postcards. Here is one that was appropriate for the season.
Speaking of the season. We have had over 40 inches of snow this winter so far. We are running out of places to put it.
The US House of Representatives are the butt of all jokes at the moment. Specifically Kevin McCarthy. What an idiot. They have voted 10 times so far and he still can’t get elected speaker of the house. Where is Nancy when you need her?
I started reading the Raj Quartet, first one is The Jewel in the Crown. I saw the dramatization on PBS years ago. So far I am enjoying the book.
Obviously not much floating around in my head this week….
Almost 2023. Very odd. Time is a very strange thing. When you are young it can’t move fast enough. Then it just sort of stalls for a while. As people start getting married and having children and busy jobs.. it speeds up. And in a blink of an eye, the children are off to college and doing their own thing. The job either slows down or overcomes you. Or burns you out. And then time just warps. It becomes unpredictable. It breaks down into segments. The day could be long but the week could be short. Unpredictable.
This week I read Travel Light, Move Fast by Alexandra Fuller. She is watching her father die in a hospital in Budapest. Actually in Buda. Her parents were on vacation when he collapsed. Alexandra flew from the USA to help her mother and be with her father. It took him ten days to die. In that time she flashes back on his life and on her life. He was English but moved to South Africa at a young age. She was born and raised in South Africa. Or I should say Southern Africa. She lived through the war that converted Rhodesia into Zimbabwe.
I enjoyed the book. She writes well and her family is full of interesting characters. She has written several books, mostly about her childhood. She has not had an easy life, but an interesting one.
Years ago we had a tradition of having cheese fondue and ratatouille, usually on New Year’s Eve. This year I was craving cheese fondue. I ate it on Christmas Eve. Couldn’t wait. It was yummy. It goes really well with ratatouille.
Ratatouille
Peel, Slice and salt to get rid of excess moisture: 2 1/2 cups diced eggplant
Put in a deep skillet: 1/3 cup olive oil
Sauté until golden: ¾ cup thinly sliced onions (red or yellow) 2 cloves garlic
Add: 4 thinly sliced green peppers 3 cups zucchini, cut into cubes 2 cups chopped tomatoes Add the drained eggplant.
Sprinkle the mixture with: Olive oil
Add: ½ teaspoon oregano and 1 teaspoon basil
Simmer covered over low heat about 45 minutes. Uncover and continue to heat 15 minutes longer to reduce the mount of liquid
Add: Salt and fresh pepper
Serve hot or cold with sour cream.
I have also had it with lamb chops and mashed potatoes and it is delicious.
My relatives.. This is actually a postcard dated 1912. Apparently it was all the rage at the time to make your photographs into postcards. It is addressed to my grandfather and just says “My Latest”.
We are back in the deep freeze. Seven new inches of snow and temperatures well below zero F. with strong winds. Blizzard conditions. But, hey, this is Minnesota. We trudge on.
It is the first of two holiday weekends. Family, Festivities, Fun, Food. I’m making a Hazelnut Torte to take to the Xmas eve get-together. Then I will take my father to a nice restaurant for Xmas day. And it will be cold. I lived in Mexico City growing up. Our tradition was to get up the day after Xmas and load up the car and drive to Acapulco for a week. Now, that was way more fun than any other Xmas stuff. My holidays were always related to travel. Either traveling home from boarding school or traveling to the beach or, one year, we traveled to Kenya and Tanzania to see the game parks. I might need to revive that traveling tradition.
I became interested in the show Yellowstone because a new prequel just came out with Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford called 1923. So, thinking the whole show was on Paramount Plus, I signed on. I then saw there was another prequel called 1883. I have been binge watching 1883. I figured I would start at the beginning. Then I discovered the actual show isn’t on Paramount Plus, they sold it to Peacock. So if I want to watch the actual show I have to sign up with them. This is getting to be very confusing. And expensive. Maybe I can find it at the library…
Anyway, 1883 is about the Dutton family’s trek from Fort Worth Texas to Montana by covered wagon. They are traveling with a group of Eastern European immigrants. Within the first few weeks, half the people died in one way or another. Disaster after disaster. The narrator is a teenage girl who goes from despair to elation about love and nature and god’s hand in nature and the beauty of the land and the cruelty of it as well.
It made me think about my family and their trek across the sea and then half way across America. They must have traveled the same way. Covered wagons, horses. On my father’s side my ancestor came from Ireland in 1811, and bought land in Pennsylvania. They didn’t stay long. His son was born in Ohio in 1818 and they later moved to Missouri. When he found he was on the wrong side slavery, he moved his farm and family north to Illinois. After he died in 1858, the family moved to western Iowa where they had kin. My grandfather was born in Iowa in 1880. He dug in a farm and stayed there.
On my grandmother’s side, her family sailed from England to Connecticut in 1641. The family stayed there until the mid 1700’s when their house was destroyed by fire.
The father and two elder sons went into the wilderness to clear some land and left the wife and baby in a white settlement. The father and eldest son were killed by Indians. The second son, Isaac, was fourteen when he was captured by the Genesee Indians. Several years later he managed to escape but it wasn’t until he was 70 years old when he found his baby brother who had been left behind with his mother. By that time he was living in Ulster County, New York. The family stayed in New York until about 1880, when they up and moved to western Iowa. My grandmother was born there in 1881.
You can see why 1883 draws me in.
I hope you have a super duper holiday weekend!
Hazelnut Torte
½ lb shelled hazelnuts 8 eggs, separated 1 ½ cups sugar ½ cup breadcrumbs Grated rind of 1 lemon Juice of ½ lemon 1 tsp vanilla extract ½ cup whipped cream 1 cup tart jelly (I like raspberry)
Grind the unblanched hazelnuts very fine. Put 2 tablespoons of the ground nuts aside for the outside of the cake.
Beat the egg yolks with the sugar till very light. Add the breadcrumbs, lemon rind, lemon juice, vanilla and ground nuts. Fold in the egg whites whipped very stiff but not dry.
Bake in 2 layers, 30 minutes at 325 degree F. Cool in the pans.
Take out and put together with whipped cream and a little jelly spread between the layers. Whip the rest o f the jelly with a fork and spread it over the top and sides of the cake. Powder with unused 2 tablespoons of ground nuts. Decorate the top of the cake with a swirl of whipped cream. Chill before serving.
It’s that time of year… the holiday card, the holiday letter. It always includes travel, family, achievements, mostly positive stuff but sometimes includes losses as well. It’s the holidays, time to be upbeat and happy. Mine went something like this.
Happy Holidays!
We started the year off with an amazing trip to Egypt! I am still processing all the beautiful things we saw. Cairo, Abu Simbel, Aswan, and the boat up the Nile to Luxor. We highly recommend it.
In the spring I flew to San Francisco and had a lot of fun hanging out with old college friends. Golden Gate, Point Reyes, and Sonoma wine country.
I took a trip to Duluth and Lake Superior with my family. It is nice to be able to travel again. I also spent a long weekend in Washington DC with more old friends.
But the really big news is happening in January. I am retiring. Can’t wait. I have a million projects waiting for me. And Travel. Stay tuned.
Joy and Happiness to all in 2023
Nothing earth shattering but full of action and positive vibes.
I read today that a Radisson Hotel in Berlin boasted having the world’s largest Aquarium in their lobby. It had 1,500 tropical fish in it. And it broke, exploded, kaput. All the dead fish on the sidewalk. There is something just wrong about that. Is that entertainment? Looking at jailed fish on your way to your room? Ugh.
I watched the second half of the Harry and Meghan series as I’m sure many of you did too. I came away with some questions. What do they actually live on? So I looked it up. Apparently Harry’s father cut them off so they had to fend for themselves. They cut a deal with Netflix for $100 million. Harry got millions for his new book, Spare. Harry inherited some money from his mother and possibly from the Queen. So what they live on is their Name. They are selling their Name. Coming away from the show, I couldn’t help but think about the Duke of Windsor. I felt like they were both treated similarly. Is that a word? Anyway, way too much about that.
I watched a delightful film about Bhutan – Lulana: A Yak in the Classroom (2019). It is about a young man who is a teacher as part of his State service and he has a year of teaching left on his contract. He wants to go to Australia and be a singer and has no interest in teaching but they send him to the remotest part of Bhutan to teach. The experience changes him. I saw it on Netflix. A nice “holidays” film.
Good advice from Charles Bukowski….
Roll the Dice by Charles Bukowski
if you’re going to try, go all the way. otherwise, don’t even start.
if you’re going to try, go all the way. this could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives, jobs and maybe your mind.
go all the way. it could mean not eating for 3 or 4 days. it could mean freezing on a park bench. it could mean jail, it could mean derision, mockery, isolation. isolation is the gift, all the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. and you’ll do it despite rejection and the worst odds and it will be better than anything else you can imagine.
if you’re going to try, go all the way. there is no other feeling like that. you will be alone with the gods and the nights will flame with fire.
do it, do it, do it. do it.
all the way all the way. you will ride life straight to perfect laughter, its the only good fight there is.
Now that is upbeat and holiday-sie, right? Have a good week.
My sense of time has been all messed up this week. All day Thursday I thought it was Wednesday. And my weekend plans were looking like a distant future. Yet, here we are. The day after Friday. Dark and snowing. I’m looking forward to December 21, when it starts getting light again.
The Winter Solstice. I am reminded of my trip to Ireland a few years back. We visited New Grange, a Neolithic period World Heritage Site. At New Grange there is one large mound built built 5,000 years ago, before the Pyramids of Egypt or Stonehenge in England. It is an incredible display of engineering, not to mention beautiful and kind of eerie. Everybody who visits is required to join a tour. We were led into the mound for a demonstration of how the Winter Solstice lights up the cave-like structure. It is something I would like to see for real sometime. It was very cool. I am not a fan of small tight spaces and almost didn’t go in but luckily we weren’t in there very long so I didn’t have time to panic.
I decided I was not going to watch Harry and Meghan on Netflix. But I gave in and watched it. I can’t resist some good gossip. Only the first three episodes are available. The rest come out next week. Such a tease. It hasn’t changed my opinion of them but it was well done. They spend a lot of time going into English history and the Commonwealth and the slave trade and diversity and unconscious bias and mixed race. And of course the relationship the Royal family have with the press. Rather dysfunctional. Bottom line really is “who cares” but interesting none the less. Rich people’s problems….
Years ago I read the Nero Wolfe mystery series by Rex Stout. Nero Wolfe is a private detective who lives in a brownstone in Manhattan. He has a greenhouse on the roof where he grows orchids. He drinks beer and has a private gourmet chef. He is very fat. His assistant Archie Goodwin does all the legwork for him. Nero mostly drinks beer and thinks. The meals Fritz, the chef, prepares are described in detail and in 1973, the Nero Wolfe Cookbook was published. Rex Stout wrote 33 Nero Wolfe novels. After his death in 1975, Robert Goldsborough continued the series and published as recently as 2021. Apparently Rene Magritte was a fan of Nero Wolfe and titled several of his paintings after the books. When the League of Frightened Men was published in French it became Les Compagnons de al Peur (the companions of fear). Magritte painted the Companions of Fear in response to the Nazi occupation of Brussels (1940). It is a very different painting than what I normally think of when I am thinking about Magritte.
Les Compagnons de la Peur, Renee Magritte, 1942
So the whole point of this long explanation is, I just started reading the first novel in the series again, The League of Frightened Men. It holds up surprisingly well.
The Promenades of Euclid, Renee Magritte, 1955 (one of my favorites)
In an Opinion piece in the New York Times this week the phrase “it is what it is” is described as: “It relieves you of coming to a conclusion, forming an opinion, developing an action plan — and even worse, tries to be cute about it.” “It marks an intellectual and moral surrender”. The writer loathes the expression even as he continues to use it. I, on the other hand, like the expression. For me it feels like something a good buddhist would say. Let it be. You can’t do anything about it. It is what it is. Let it go. Why do you need to form an opinion or develop an action plan about everything? Calm the f*** down!
It’s another Friday. Down to my last month at work. Snow on the ground. Cold and windy.
Nothing earth shattering in the news. Death, hate, war, celebrities, rich people, poor people, homeless people, bad politics, lawsuits, repeat. My crisis of the week? Didn’t have one. Actually I haven’t been out of the house all week. I’m reading a book called Up Like Thunder by Colin T. Nelson. A VIP’s daughter goes missing in Burma (Myanmar) and this Private Investigator goes looking for her. It is kind of slow moving but interesting. Lots of color on Burma. I’m about half way through, will finish it this week.
St Paul is full of skyways connecting the buildings downtown. I use them all the time to get around out of the cold. They are all on the second floor of the buildings. From my window I can see one lone skyway way above the street that connects two buildings. It is thought to be the world’s first modern skyway, built in 1931. Merchants Bank and First National Bank merged and the buildings were next to each other. The floor heights were different so the skyway connects one building’s 16th floor with the other building’s 17th floor. It is a private skyway so, unless you work at the bank, you won’t be able to use it. It is the tallest skyway in the Twin Cities. And it is green.
I leave you with Poem VIII from Pablo Neruda’s Book of Questions:
What is it that upsets the volcanoes that spit fire, cold and rage?
Why wasn’t Christopher Columbus able to discover Spain?
How many questions does a cat have?
Do tears not yet spilled wait in small lakes?
Or are they invisible rivers that run toward sadness?
Not really fun but possibly. Looking at the world through a screen door. That could be fun. Looking at the world full of snow through a screen door. Getting more fun. Funner. Wonderlandy. It is pretty driving around town seeing the trees covered with white.
A light snow fell for most of this week. Reminded me of Moscow where it snowed constantly all winter. A weird thing was that the snow in Moscow never seemed to accumulate. It took me the longest time to figure it out. Big trucks came out at night that looked like giant crabs. They had two arms in the front that scooped all the snow into a feeder and onto a conveyor belt that took it up and dumped it into another truck behind. These trucks took the snow outside the city and dumped it into the countryside so there was never snow on the streets or sidewalks. What you ended up with was mainly ice. Black ice. I fell down a lot.
These are the trucks that push the snow into big piles so the ‘crab’ trucks can gobble it up.
So I signed up for Social Security. I guess I am ignorant but I discovered something. Once you hit your full retirement age, you can collect Social Security and work as much as you like. I always thought there was a limit to what you could earn until you were 70. But not the case. Not that I want to work but good to know.
The orange one is back. At least the press isn’t falling all over him like they used to. I hope it stays that way. I was reading today that Biden has a whole team at the White House working on ‘managing’ all the attacks that are sure to come. Sad.
After a week of 70 degree weather we are back to our normal 40 degrees. Everybody was over the moon about the warm sunny days. Obsessive me could only think about climate change… But apparently we had this weird weather back in the 1970’s as well.
I received an email the other day from a former schoolmate. She was referring people to an article by Julian Fellows, the actor and writer of Downton Abbey. In the article he talks about the summer before he went to university. His aunt was living in Colombia and wanted to start a summer camp. She needed help. So his mother volunteered him and he got on an oil tanker and spent 21 days crossing the Atlantic (his father refused to pay for airfare). During the trip he decided it would be a good opportunity to re-invent himself and go from a dull boring person to a confident interesting person. He succeeded and continues to tell a humorous account of the summer. You can read the full article if you are interested. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/oct/03/julian-fellowes-once-upon-life
The funny part is that his aunt was the Librarian at the school I went to in Bogota, Colombia – Colegio Nueva Granada (CNG). His adventure took place in 1966, but she was still librarian in 1972 when I arrived on the scene. Two of her sons and another girl from the school helped run the camp along with Julian. The camp kept going in several iterations for years after.
I think I have mastered Wordle. I pick a random word that has at least two vowels. Next I either have to find other vowels or the most common way of placing the ones that are correct. Then I go through the alphabet to find the most likely (usually unlikely) word that fits. I have done it in three tries all week. But it is work. And I usually feel let down at the end. It is such a small non-accomplishment.
My 102 year old father tested positive for COVID this week. He says he feels fine but is bored out of his mind since he has to stay in his apartment all the time. I went to see him the day before he tested positive so now I am waiting for my results. I have no symptoms so fingers crossed.
My son arrives today for a visit. It looks like this will be on the menu.
Swiss Steak is a method of preparing meat, usually beef, by means of rolling or pounding, and then braising in a pot of stewed tomatoes, either on a stove or in an oven.
No wonder there are hundreds of recipes for Swiss Steak. This recipe comes from my mother and I have enjoyed it for many years.
2 lbs round steak, in serving pieces 1 large onion, sliced
Brown steak dredged in flour in hot fat with onions, salt and pepper.
1 pt tinned tomatoes (1 15.5 oz can) I use crushed tomatoes 1 cup water 2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce 1 Tbsp brown sugar 1 Tbsp dry mustard 1 1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp lemon juice dash pepper and paprika Pour over meat in a skillet (covered)
Bake in 350 degrees F oven for 2 hours (or more) I have also made it in the crock pot. The meat should just fall apart. It goes well with mashed potatoes.
Well, it’s another Friday. Another week. My countdown to retirement is jogging along. I am down to 67 more days. Probably time to start obsessing. Actually, I’m way past that. Forms, Dates, Signatures, meetings…. My head is swimming.
I keep trying to find happy, positive, funny things to write about. I always end up back at the gloom and doom of today’s headlines. I was listening to the news this morning and literally the only thing they mentioned as far as National/International news was… drum roll… Twitter. Elon Musk took over Twitter and fired the CEO. Then with all kinds of speculation about what will happen next. Will he unblock Trump? Will he get rid of all controls imposed?
I am on Twitter but I rarely look at it. I think you have to be focused in on a particular subject to really understand any of it. But ultimately it just feeds the press and the ignorant. The ignorant press? Who cares what Elon Musk does? He is in the top 1 percent. Probably the top idiot of the top 1 percent of the top 1 percent. Why am I even mentioning him? Ugh…
Speaking of the 1 percent… Another one with too much money: Jeff Bezos. He is the one who shot William Shatner (and others) into space, for a minute. Of course my thought was, what an incredible waste of money. Shatner released his book, Boldly Go on October 4. Apparently, he had an overwhelming revelation during that flight. He saw the vast emptiness of space and the beauty of the earth. It is a common thread with astronauts. How amazingly beautiful our planet looks from space. Many are overcome by it. Shatner took it a step further and was overcome with grief. He realized we were killing our beautiful planet. So my thought is, why doesn’t Bezos pour all his money into saving our planet instead of trying to colonize Mars? Who wants to live on an ugly red planet?
How about a Travel Tidbit? Apparently today there is a big festival every year in Oshogbo, Nigeria. It draws thousands of people from around the world. I went there in the last 1970’s. It was the center for women’s fertility ceremonies and shrines on the Osun River. We were allowed into their private area and led down to the river to witness a ritual. We saw many shrines in the area. An Austrian artist named Suan Wenger created sculptures in the area – weird things that looked like huts, or female forms. She revived the area and brought attention to it and today it is a UNESCO World Heritage site. When my friend and I went there, we were the only visitors.
This is an except from September 1, 1939 by W.H.Auden.
Somehow seems relevant today…
All I have is a voice To undo the folded lie, The romantic lie in the brain Of the sensual man-in-the-street And the lie of Authority Whose buildings grope the sky: There is no such thing as the State And no one exists alone; Hunger allows no choice To the citizen or the police; We must love one another or die. —-W.H.Auden
I made Tarragon Chicken this week that turned out yummy. Sorry, no photos this time…
1 lb skinless chicken breasts cubed ½ red onion chopped 8 oz mushrooms chopped 2 cloves garlic chopped ½ cup white wine 7 ½ oz crème fraiche 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard 24 oz small potatoes cut in half 2 Tbsp chopped fresh Tarragon
Cook chicken with onions and garlic in some olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.
Add the mushrooms.
Toss the potatoes in oil, salt, pepper, and rosemary. Pour onto a baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes or until done.
In a bowl add the crème fraiche, mustard, wine and tarragon.
Add the sauce to the chicken and heat through.
Add the cooked potatoes and mix to coat. Or you can serve the potatoes separately.
I watched a documentary this week on Prime called the Bikes of Wrath. Five young Australian guys who loved John Steinbeck’s book, The Grapes of Wrath, decided to retrace the trip. On bicycles. They started out with about $400 which was the equivalent of what the Joad family had when they set out. They traveled 2,600 miles on Route 66 from Oklahoma to California over 30 days. It doesn’t really work, though. These guys are well educated, fairly affluent and competent guys from another country. They are welcomed time and again by locals putting their best foot forward. People living in poverty hand them money and food and provide lodging and care. They are overwhelmed with generosity. Because they are making a movie? Because they are non-threatening? Because they are white? Because they are male? I must say I did not have a very positive experience the time I got lost in Amarillo, Texas in the 70’s. Maybe times have changed….
I love the British Baking Show as much as the next person. But Mexican Week? Really? Brits making tacos? It was somewhat amusing to watch. They had no idea. Even the judges were a bit embarrassing in their ignorance. Luckily this week they were back on task.
Speaking of Brits and embarrassing moments… How about that Prime Minister? Five weeks must be some kind of record.
I spoke to a woman last week who said she is convinced our doom is imminent. Within the next 20 years. Climate change will destroy us all. Pollution, disease, financial collapse, food and water shortages. I think there is something in our brain that deflects all of that. When I was little, my mother was all over that. Fifty years ago, she worried about teeming landfills, water conservation, power shortages, and communicable diseases. I guess she was ahead of her time. Or was it because we lived in developing countries where all that existed already? I’ve read my share of science fiction. I know what is possible. Why can’t politicians have brains? Why can’t policy makers wake up?
Enough. Deflect deflect deflect.
And now for something completely different… (click for larger view)
Tierra del Fuego, ArgentinaGlacier, MontanaLake Como, Italy
