Saint Teresa's Thrift Shop

Sylvia and I made a date to go to Saint Teresa's Thrift Shop which is now open only Tuesday mornings 9-11 only two hours a week. She arrived with Lucy and we ate my waffles at the kitchen counter while our dogs played together in my yard. We realized the time was getting away from us. We drove over in Syl's car. I saw people were moving the console piano I spotted on Rathbun Street yesterday.

It was fun to discover Deb working at the shop. We had a blast talking about stuff and trying on clothes. I convinced Sylvia to get a straw hat that looked great on her. She bent the rim down and it looked like a Vietnamese hat. "That's how I'll wear it" I got jeans and a few vests and a cobalt blue wool scarf. Deb's dog Riley was there too and he played with Lucy, Sylvia's dog. Deb gave Sylvia a package of soup, peanut butter and a whole bunch of goodies she picked out. and she nearly fainted with joy. It was a long month she said. I had no idea she had run out of grocery money. When she dropped me off I insisted she come in for a quart of kale kielbasa soup to take home. We must look after each other. It was a fun day.

Teresa of Ávila
Saint
Saint Teresa of Ávila, also called Saint Teresa of Jesus, baptized as Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada, was a prominent Spanish mystic, Roman Catholic saint, Carmelite nun and author during the ... Wikipedia
Born: March 28, 1515, Gotarrendura, Spain
Died: October 4, 1582, Alba de Tormes, Spain
Full name: Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada
Siblings: Agustín De Cepeda y Ahumada, More

Saint Teresa of Ávila by Peter Paul Rubens
Virgin, Mystic, Ecstatic, Doctor of the Church
Born 28 March 1515
Gotarrendura, Ávila, Crown of Castile (today Spain)
Died 4 October 1582 (aged 67)[1]
Alba de Tormes, Salamanca, Spain
Venerated in Roman Catholic Churco
Lutheran Church[2]
Anglican Communion[3][4]
Beatified 24 April 1614, Rome by Pope Paul V
Canonized 12 March 1622, Rome by Pope Gregory XV
Major shrine Convent of the Annunciation, Alba de Tormes, Spain
Feast 15 October
Attributes Habit of the Discalced Carmelites, Book and Quill, arrow-pierced heart
Patronage Bodily ills; headaches; chess; lacemakers; laceworkers; loss of parents; people in need of grace; people in religious orders; people ridiculed for their piety; Požega, Croatia; sick people; sickness; Spain; Talisay City, Cebu
Part of a series on
Christian mysticism
"Universal Man", an illumination from a 13th-century copy of Hildegard von Bingen's Liber Divinorum Operum ("Book of Divine Works", c. 1165).
Theology · Philosophy


Saint Teresa of Ávila, also called Saint Teresa of Jesus, baptized as Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada (28 March 1515 – 4 October 1582), was a prominent Spanish mystic, Roman Catholic saint, Carmelite nun and author during the Counter Reformation, and theologian of contemplative life through mental prayer. She was a reformer in the Carmelite Order of her time and the movement she initiated, later joined by Saint John of the Cross, eventually led to the establishment of the Discalced Carmelites, though neither she nor Saint John were alive when the two orders separated.

In 1622, forty years after her death, she was canonized by Pope Gregory XV, and on 27 September 1970 was named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI.[5] Her books, which include her autobiography (The Life of Teresa of Jesus) and her seminal work El Castillo Interior (trans.: The Interior Castle), are an integral part of Spanish Renaissance literature as well as Christian mysticism and Christian meditation practices. She also wrote Camino de Perfección (trans.: The Way of Perfection).

After her death, Saint Teresa was considered a candidate to become a national patron saint in Spain. A Santero image of the Immaculate Conception of El Viejo, said to have been sent with one of her brothers to Peru, Canonically crowned by Pope John Paul II on 28 December 1989 at the Shrine of El Viejo.[6] Pious Catholic beliefs also associate Saint Teresa with the Infant Jesus of Prague with claims of former ownership and devotion.

Snow Comin'

Today
Snow, mainly after 2pm. High near 29. West wind around 6 mph becoming east in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 100%. Total daytime snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches possible.
Tonight
Snow, mainly before 2am. Low around 26. Northeast wind around 5 mph becoming light and variable. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches possible.

Has Never Happened in American History

25th Amendment

Bust out your magnifying glass. We're taking an up-close look at 25th Amendment of the US Constitution.
Quote #1

Passed by Congress: 6 July 1965
Ratified: 10 February 1967

Section 1. In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.

Section 2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.

Section 3. Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.

Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

The Twenty-fifth Amendment is essentially a housekeeping measure, passed to clean up some ambiguities in Article II's provisions for the presidential succession. If the president dies or resigns or is removed from office, the vice president takes over. If the vice president dies or resigns or is removed from office, the president can choose a new VP, subject to confirmation by Congress. If the president submits written notice that he is no longer able to carry out the duties of his office, for whatever reason, the VP takes over. And last but not least, if the VP and a majority of the cabinet all agree that the president is no longer capable of carrying out the duties of his office, the VP can temporarily take over as Acting President. If the president disputes his removal from office, the Congress must decide whether the president should regain the powers of his office or whether the VP should remain in charge. Needless to say, this last circumstance has never happened in American history, and it would be pretty crazy if it ever did.

Asthma very common among Olympic-level swimmers

Health News | Thu Apr 2, 2015 | 5:32pm EDT
Asthma very common among Olympic-level swimmers

By Kathryn Doyle

(Reuters Health) – - Swimmers, especially endurance swimmers, are more likely than other water sport competitors to have asthma, according to a new study of Olympic athletes.

Researchers found that about a quarter of competitors in swimming events had verified asthma, although it was more common among athletes from some parts of the world than others.

The intensity of swimmer training, or long hours spent in the water, may expose swimmers to more chlorine byproducts compared to divers or other athletes who spend less time breathing just at the water’s surface, experts said.

A long-term study would help distinguish “between athletes with asthma who self-select to swimming and those who have asthma as a result of exposure to endurance training practices,” said lead author Dr. Margo Mountjoy of McMaster University Waterloo campus in Ontario, Canada.

Mountjoy is a practicing sports physician in aquatics and a member of a Therapeutic Use Exemption Committee for the International Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Association.

She and her coauthors studied objective evidence of asthma among all aquatic athletes who competed at the 2005, 2007 and 2009 FINA World Championships and the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games in swimming, synchronized swimming, diving, water polo and open water swimming events.

Athletes with asthma were required to show proof of airway obstruction with a clinical test in order to use their inhaled medications, which are otherwise prohibited during competition.

Most years, swimming events had more participants with asthma or other airway obstruction than other aquatic events. At the 2008 Olympic Games, an exception, the synchronized swimmers and open water swimmers also had high asthma rates.

Each year, between 12 and 25 percent of swimmers had asthma. In 2008, almost 25 percent of swimmers, 26 percent of open water swimmers and 22 percent of synchronized swimmers had asthma.

In general, more athletes in endurance events like triathlon, pentathlon or cycling had asthma than those in nonendurance sports like fencing, volleyball or table tennis, the authors note.

Asthma was more common in aquatic endurance sports, which included swimming, open water swimming and synchronized swimming, than in nonedurance events like diving, they write in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

“I was not surprised to find that swimmers had a high prevalence of asthma,” Mountjoy told Reuters Health by email. “What was surprising for me to find was that there were significant differences between the endurance and non-endurance sports, as well as the distinct geographical distributions.”

More athletes from Oceania, Europe and North America had asthma than those from Asia, Africa and South America, the authors found.

“It was also interesting to find that although asthma is more prevalent in women than in men in the general population, this gender difference was not evident in the elite aquatic population,” Mountjoy said.

Some postulate that the chlorine-derived chemicals in the air of aquatic training facilities may cause asthma, she said.

“It is exposure to the chlorine and chlorinated compounds that is responsible for the changes in airway hyper responsiveness,” said Dr. Don McKenzie, who studies respiratory exercise physiology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

The more swimming you do, the more the risk increases, and elite athletes spend the most time with the chemicals, McKenzie, who was not involved in the new study, told Reuters Health by email.
Also In Health News

“If you swim in non-chlorinated pools, lakes, ocean etc. then the risk disappears,” he said.

Alfred Bernard of the Catholic University of Louvain in Brussels, Belgium, agrees the chlorine-based oxidants building up at the surface of pools that the elite swimmers actively inhale penetrate deeply in the lungs and probably cause asthma.

Divers and water polo players may hyperventilate less than elite endurance swimmers, breathe more through the nose and do not continuously inhale the chlorine-laden air just above the water’s surface, which may explain the decreased prevalence of asthma, Bernard told Reuters Health by email.

Historically, asthmatic children may have been encouraged to practice swimming and may go on to other aquatic disciplines, Mountjoy said.

“Swimmers should be aware that if they have a chronic cough, shortness of breath, or wheezing, they should seek medical attention for appropriate testing and treatment,” she said. “They should also ensure that their training environment has appropriate ventilation with respect to air quality.”

Asthmatic swimmers were no more or less likely to earn medals than other athletes, Mountjoy noted, which means it may not affect performance if properly treated.

“The health benefits of swimming are numerous and the risk of developing asthma at the elite level does not negate these other important health benefits,” she concluded.

SOURCE: bit.ly/1CVyxUz Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, online March 24, 2015.

Run With It: Asthma and Running

Always have your bronchiodilating inhaler with you at all times and use it at the first sign of wheezing. Exercise at a low intensity in the beginning and gradually build over a period of time. Use your inhaler several minutes before exercise. It may reduce your chances of an EIA (exercise-induced asthma) attack.
Asthma-Run With It! - Road Runner Sports
https://www.roadrunnersports.com/rrs/content/content.jsp?contentId=300078

Some asthmatic runners may skip a warm-up—thinking that doing so will save their lung power for their race or workout—but, as it happens, getting your lungs working hard beforehand may actually help you avoid an attack. "There's a refractory period for bronchospasm," says Roberts. "If you do a warm-up hard enough to induce some coughing or wheezing, it usually takes about four to six hours before you have as bad a spasm again."

The key is to warm up just hard enough to get a small spasm without sapping your energy. Roberts suggests running for a few minutes, then doing several short, hard pickups (bursts of faster-paced running).

Take extra precautions if you have severe asthma. If you've ever had what Roberts calls a "flash attack," in which you quickly go from feeling good to being in severe distress, you should either run with a friend or carry your cell phone—or both.

Woof to K9 of Woonsocket

Yesterday on my downtown walk I saw an officer on one knee posing with a gorgeous black German Shepherd seated in front of the officer's patrol car. There were two TV station vans and camera men with microphones. I imagine a new member of the Woonsocket Police Department K9 unit is being sworn in. Woof!

Lily-dog is an unofficial K9 police officer. She has tracked down a few criminals... but I'll save that for another day.

Sourdough Waffles, Very Forgiving

I throw everything into my waffles and my husband is very tolerant.

I use my whole wheat sourdough starter 1/2 a cup

flour 1/2 cup
(buckwheat, or corn, or rice or whole wheat, or you name it)
I use whole wheat or buckwheat or corn

1 cup of mixture of rolled oats and cornmeal(wholegrain cereal from Bobs Red Mill or King Arthur works too. Or grind your own!

kosher salt to taste (more needed when using whole grains)

herbs and spices (savory waffles love herbs)

baking soda 1/2 teasp

sugar, honey or molasses, or maple syrup or sweetened coconut
or sweetened cranberries 1/2 cup
I use coconut

pumpkin or banana puree 1 cup

beaten eggs (2)
milk or yogurt or buttermilk to the right consistency 1/3- up to 1cup

nuts or seeds (optional)

corn oil 2Tbsp

I love to start my day with an everything under the sun waffle! Freeze the leftovers or refrigerate them for later. Share with your neighbor!

Woonsocket Sidewalk Alert: UpCycle

Gorgeous sofa on Hazel Street Mint condition. (the previous owners are good people, and very tidy)
Piano on Rathbun Street, console west side of street near Privilege St.

Ruby Tuesday

(The Rolling Stones)

She would never say where she came from
Yesterday don't matter if it's gone
While the sun is bright
Or in the darkest night
No one knows, she comes and goes
Goodbye Ruby Tuesday
Who could hang a name on you?
When you change with every new day
Still I'm gonna miss you
Don't question why she needs to be so free
She'll tell you it's the only way to be
She just can't be chained
To a life where nothings gained
And nothings lost, at such a cost
Goodbye Ruby Tuesday
Who could hang a name on you?
When you change with every new day
Still I'm gonna miss you
"There's no time to lose", I heard her say
Catch your dreams before they slip away
Dying all the time
Lose your dreams and you will lose your mind
Ain't life unkind?
Goodbye Ruby Tuesday
Who could hang a name on you?
When you change with every new day
Still I'm gonna miss you
Goodbye Ruby Tuesday
Who could hang a name on you?
When you change with every new day
Still I'm gonna miss you

Songwriters: Keith Richards / Mick Jagger
Ruby Tuesday lyrics © Abkco Music, Inc

John Hurt British Actor

In a 1979 BBC mini-series, he was Dostoyevsky’s Raskolnikov, the brooding, conscience-stricken killer in “Crime and Punishment.” And in Michael Radford’s 1984 adaptation of George Orwell’s dystopian classic “1984,” he was Winston Smith, the protagonist. Mr. Hurt’s pallor, fearful expression and prominent ears made him an especially feral and unromantic rebel.

“His countenance is fishy and bizarre,” Cintra Wilson wrote in Salon in 2004. “He has dark, verminous little eyes, a smirky little mouth full of nicotine-varnished teeth, and that British complexion that evokes a poached worm. Even in his early films, he has eye bags and looks like he put on a face that was at the very bottom of his laundry basket. His body, when it isn’t a little overindulged around the abdomen, is scrawny. He has never, in any role, looked particularly masculine. The characters he plays are generally weak, immoral, murderous, slimy or insane. Yet to gaze upon John Hurt, in almost any role, is to feel a drooly adoration; he is irresistible.”

[...]
For the calm dignity he brought to this performance — a powerful reproof to those who demonized and humiliated Merrick — Mr. Hurt was rewarded with an Oscar nomination for best actor, critical plaudits and the admiration of the film’s director, David Lynch, who said 10 years later, in an interview in The New York Times Magazine: “John Hurt is simply the greatest actor in the world.” (Robert De Niro won the best actor award in 1981.)

[...]

“When I say that acting is just a rather more sophisticated way of playing cowboys and Indians, it’s my way of trying to quash all the pretentious crap that’s said about acting,” Mr. Hurt said in 1990. “What I mean is, if you pretend well enough, the audience will believe you.”

He added: “In front of the camera you try to do subtle, telling things and hope the director, and the camera, notices. You can feel when you pass something through the camera. The old Alan Ladd story is the best one in that respect. He came back from a long day of shooting out in the dusty Arizona desert and someone said, ‘Did you have a good day, Alan?’ In his soft rasp, he said, ‘Yup, a couple of good looks.’”

Article

Obama Speaks Up, Praising Protests and Opposing Religious Test

“After the first week of the Trump presidency it’s clear our country is at a cross roads. In his first week in office the president has stomped over our proud American tradition of welcoming immigrants and refugees, trafficked in alternative facts, and is attempting to fill his cabinet with billionaires and bankers. What kind of country do we want to be: one that helps the middle class and those struggling to get there or one that further rigs the system in favor of the special interests?”
Article

Artists in Limbo

“I am stuck here. I can’t leave the country and as an artist it means I can’t make shows and present my works internationally,” he wrote in an email message. “This is such a mess.”
Article

Jane Brody: The Right Way to Apologize

After learning that a neighbor who had assaulted me verbally was furious about an oversight I had not known I committed, I wrote a letter in hopes of defusing the hostility. Without offering any excuses, I apologized for my lapse in etiquette and respect. I said I was not asking for or expecting forgiveness, merely that I hoped we could have a civil, if not friendly, relationship going forward, then delivered the letter with a jar of my homemade jam.

Expecting nothing in return, I was greatly relieved when my doorbell rang and the neighbor thanked me warmly for what I had said and done. My relief was palpable. I felt as if I’d not only discarded an enemy but made a new friend, which is indeed how it played out in the days that followed.

Article

Silver Lining: Swimming and Breathing

It may seem corny but I always try to see the silver lining even in the darkest circumstances.

I am a severe asthmatic but taking up lap swimming has allowed me to develop strong lungs and breathe well. I am also a cyclothymic. My moodcycle is seasonal and is usually three months long. Swimming allows me to find meditative mood balance and breathe-well doing it. My swimming lungs now strong also allow me to play the bari sax in my marching milkman band. Fitness helps me have a balanced appetite. I love to bake multigrain sourdough breads and make kale soup. Most of all I love to teach interested folks how they can do the same.

Michael Phelps

8 Michael Phelps Quotes to Get You Fired Up

Here are 8 inspirational quotes from the G.O.A.T. to get you motivated to swim your best the next time you hit the pool.

Olivier Poirier-Leroy is a former national level swimmer based out of Victoria, BC. In feeding his passion for swimming, he has developed YourSwimBook, a powerful log book and goal setting guide made specifically for swimmers. Sign up for the YourSwimBook newsletter (free) and get weekly motivational tips by clicking here.

From his Beijing heroics, to his decade of domination of international competition, Phelps has inspired countless swimmers and non-swimmers alike with his feats of athletic prowess. He pushed the limits of what was possible in the sport to heights few thought possible, while also galvanizing a fresh generation of swimmers.

Channel your inner Phelps with these 8 motivational swimming quotes from the G.O.A.T. to get your day off on the right foot:

1. “I think goals should never be easy, they should force you to work, even if they are uncomfortable at the time.”

Our goals and dreams should stretch, prod and challenge us. They should take us to our limits and beyond, forcing us to reconsider what we consider ourselves capable of.

Doing great things requires going into the unknown, of pushing ourselves and our abilities, and yes, that means there will be moments where we are uncomfortable, where we struggle, and where we are inundated with doubt, insecurities and fear.

Don’t be afraid to set goals that scare you or make you uncomfortable. Those are precisely the ones that change the world.

2. “If you want to be the best, you have to do things other people aren’t willing to do.”

The road most traveled is the road to mediocrity. If you want to achieve the same results as everyone else, simply do what everyone else is doing.

However, if you want to achieve special things with your swimming, you must be willing to step above and beyond what is considered typical or standard.

3. “I want to test my maximum and see how much I can do.”

When things aren’t going great we tend to get lost in the performances of our competition. We start imagining them as bigger than life, that they are more deserving, more talented than we are. Instead of wasting energy and time on what the swimmer in the lane next to you is doing, direct that energy inwards and work on maximizing everything within yourself.

At the end of the day you will never be able to completely control the outcome, or what the competition does. But if you step up on the blocks knowing that you have done everything possible to make the most of your abilities, your swim will be a success whether you come in first or eighth.

4. “I want to be able to look back and say, ‘I’ve done everything I can, and I was successful.’ I don’t want to look back and say I should have done this or that.”

Not giving your full effort over the course of the year gives you a fantastic excuse come championship season: “I could have swum XYZ time if I wanted to, if I had trained hard, but I didn’t feel like it.”

The pain of regret, of the what-if’s, of wondering what may have been had you made a better effort, will always be worse than the strife you will face in the middle of a workout.

5. “I found something I love… And never gave up.”

Our swimming goals, no matter where they land on the scale of greatness, should be utterly and profoundly ours. They should belong to you – not your coach, parents, or friends.

Trying to achieve somebody else’s idea of excellence will leave your motivation flat and engagement short-lived. Once you find that which you are passionate about, lock in on it and continue hammering at it until completion.

6. “Things won’t go perfect. It’s all about how you adapt from those things and learn from mistakes.”

Phelps, despite his superhuman achievements, is human, just like the rest of us. He made mistakes out of the pool, while also falling short on his initial attempt at Spitz’ record at the Athens Games in 2004.

We all stumble at various points in our swimming career. What matters not is what happened or who is to blame. What only matters is what you decide to do next, how you decide to react to the setback or failure. We all take our lumps and bruises, what matters most to your long term swimming success is if you are willing to plod on in spite of it.

7. “So many people along the way, whatever it is you aspire to do, will tell you it can’t be done. But all it takes is imagination. You dream. You plan. You reach.”

You will always encounter negative people both in life and in the pool. Anytime you upset the status quo or challenge someone else’s idea of what is possible you are going to find resistance and negativity.

Perhaps they have limited ambitions of their own. Jealousy. Or you are chasing something they were never able to achieve. Whatever the case, it doesn’t really matter what their motivations are. Until provided with concrete, 100% proof that you are incapable of achieving your goal, act as otherwise.

8. “If you say “can’t” you’re restricting what you can do or ever will do.”

All too often when we are faced with a challenge we fall back into the well-worn position of saying “I can’t.” Those two words are comfortable, familiar, and instantly saps you of any forward momentum.

When faced at a crossroads when you feel the doubt flooding in, stop yourself for a moment and ask if the set, practice, or goal is something you can’t do, or something you don’t want to do.

Toni Morrison Quotes

“If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.”
― Toni Morrison

“You wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down.”
― Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon

“Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another.”
― Toni Morrison, Beloved

“You think because he doesn't love you that you are worthless. You think that because he doesn't want you anymore that he is right -- that his judgement and opinion of you are correct. If he throws you out, then you are garbage. You think he belongs to you because you want to belong to him. Don't. It's a bad word, 'belong.' Especially when you put it with somebody you love. Love shouldn't be like that. Did you ever see the way the clouds love a mountain? They circle all around it; sometimes you can't even see the mountain for the clouds. But you know what? You go up top and what do you see? His head. The clouds never cover the head. His head pokes through, because the clouds let him; they don't wrap him up. They let him keep his head up high, free, with nothing to hide him or bind him. You can't own a human being. You can't lose what you don't own. Suppose you did own him. Could you really love somebody who was absolutely nobody without you? You really want somebody like that? Somebody who falls apart when you walk out the door? You don't, do you? And neither does he. You're turning over your whole life to him. Your whole life, girl. And if it means so little to you that you can just give it away, hand it to him, then why should it mean any more to him? He can't value you more than you value yourself.”
― Toni Morrison

“Love is or it ain't. Thin love ain't love at all.”
― Toni Morrison, Beloved

“Make up a story... For our sake and yours forget your name in the street; tell us what the world has been to you in the dark places and in the light. Don't tell us what to believe, what to fear. Show us belief's wide skirt and the stitch that unravels fear's caul.”
― Toni Morrison, The Nobel Lecture In Literature, 1993

“At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint, or even remember it. It is enough.”
― Toni Morrison

“She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order.”
― Toni Morrison, Beloved
tags: friendship, love
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“Sweet, crazy conversations full of half sentences, daydreams and misunderstandings more thrilling than understanding could ever be.”
― Toni Morrison, Beloved

“And I am all the things I have ever loved: scuppernong wine, cool baptisms in silent water, dream books and number playing.”
― Toni Morrison

“Anger ... it's a paralyzing emotion ... you can't get anything done. People sort of think it's an interesting, passionate, and igniting feeling — I don't think it's any of that — it's helpless ... it's absence of control — and I need all of my skills, all of the control, all of my powers ... and anger doesn't provide any of that — I have no use for it whatsoever."

[Interview with CBS radio host Don Swaim, September 15, 1987.]”
― Toni Morrison

“Don't ever think I fell for you, or fell over you. I didn't fall in love, I rose in it.”
― Toni Morrison, Jazz

“Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined.”
― Toni Morrison, Beloved

“Like any artist without an art form, she became dangerous.”
― Toni Morrison, Sula

“I tell my students, 'When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else. This is not just a grab-bag candy game.”
― Toni Morrison

“You can't own a human being. You can't lose what you don't own. Suppose you did own him. Could you really love somebody who was absolutely nobody without you? You really want somebody like that? Somebody who falls apart when you walk out the door? You don't, do you? And neither does he. You're turning over your whole life to him. Your whole life, girl. And if it means so little to you that you can just give it away, hand it to him, then why should it mean any more to him? He can't value you more than you value yourself.”
― Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon

“In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.”
― Toni Morrison

“You are your best thing”
― Toni Morrison, Beloved

“Let me tell you about love, that silly word you believe is about whether you like somebody or whether somebody likes you or whether you can put up with somebody in order to get something or someplace you want or you believe it has to do with how your body responds to another body like robins or bison or maybe you believe love is how forces or nature or luck is benign to you in particular not maiming or killing you but if so doing it for your own good. Love is none of that. There is nothing in nature like it. Not in robins or bison or in the banging tails of your hunting dogs and not in blossoms or suckling foal. Love is divine only and difficult always. If you think it is easy you are a fool. If you think it is natural you are blind. It is a learned application without reason or motive except that it is God. You do not deserve love regardless of the suffering you have endured. You do not deserve love because somebody did you wrong. You do not deserve love just because you want it. You can only earn - by practice and careful contemplations - the right to express it and you have to learn how to accept it. Which is to say you have to earn God. You have to practice God. You have to think God-carefully. And if you are a good and diligent student you may secure the right to show love. Love is not a gift. It is a diploma. A diploma conferring certain privileges: the privilege of expressing love and the privilege of receiving it. How do you know you have graduated? You don't. What you do know is that you are human and therefore educable, and therefore capable of learning how to learn, and therefore interesting to God, who is interested only in Himself which is to say He is interested only in love. Do you understand me? God is not interested in you. He is interested in love and the bliss it brings to those who understand and share the interest. Couples that enter the sacrament of marriage and are not prepared to go the distance or are not willing to get right with the real love of God cannot thrive. They may cleave together like robins or gulls or anything else that mates for life. But if they eschew this mighty course, at the moment when all are judged for the disposition of their eternal lives, their cleaving won't mean a thing. God bless the pure and holy. Amen.”
― Toni Morrison, Paradise

“She was the third beer. Not the first one, which the throat receives with almost tearful gratitude; nor the second, that confirms and extends the pleasure of the first. But the third, the one you drink because it's there, because it can't hurt, and because what difference does it make?”
― Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon

“What difference do it make if the thing you scared of is real or not?”
― Toni Morrison

“Love is never any better than the lover. ”
― Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye

“There is a loneliness that can be rocked. Arms crossed, knees drawn up, holding, holding on, this motion, unlike a ship's, smooths and contains the rocker. It's an inside kind--wrapped tight like skin. Then there is the loneliness that roams. No rocking can hold it down. It is alive. On its own. A dry and spreading thing that makes the sound of one's own feet going seem to come from a far-off place.”
― Toni Morrison, Beloved

“Along with the idea of romantic love, she was introduced to another--physical beauty. Probably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought. Both originated in envy, thrived in insecurity, and ended in disillusion.”
― Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye

“Lonely, ain't it?
Yes, but my lonely is mine. Now your lonely is somebody else's. Made by somebody else and handed to you. Ain't that something? A secondhand lonely.”
― Toni Morrison, Sula

“The function of freedom is to free someone else.”
― Toni Morrison

“I never asked Tolstoy to write for me, a little colored girl in Lorain, Ohio. I never asked [James] Joyce not to mention Catholicism or the world of Dublin. Never. And I don't know why I should be asked to explain your life to you. We have splendid writers to do that, but I am not one of them. It is that business of being universal, a word hopelessly stripped of meaning for me. Faulkner wrote what I suppose could be called regional literature and had it published all over the world. That's what I wish to do. If I tried to write a universal novel, it would be water. Behind this question is the suggestion that to write for black people is somehow to diminish the writing. From my perspective there are only black people. When I say 'people,' that's what I mean.”
― Toni Morrison

“As you enter positions of trust and power, dream a little before you think.”
― Toni Morrison

“If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it.”
― Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon

“Love is never any better than the lover. Wicked people love wickedly, violent people love violently, weak people love weakly, stupid people love stupidly, but the love of a free man is never safe. There is no gift for the beloved. The lover alone possesses his gift of love. The loved one is shorn, neutralized, frozen in the glare of the lover’s inward eye.”
― Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye

Gene Demby

Running is a time to be reflective. It's the closest thing I have to ritual and prayer.
-Gene Demby
Interview in Runners World.

Runners’ Stories I'm a Runner

I’m a Runner: Gene Demby

The lead blogger of NPR’s Code Switch talks running and race.

As told to Nick Weldon Tuesday, September 6, 2016, 1:22 pm

I write about race and culture. My job is to be in the know about these conversations, think about them, frame them, and moderate them in different spaces.

Suddenly there’s this appetite for conversation about race, but it’s not like race is a new issue. It’s as old as the United States. Smartphone videos have democratized it, and now stories like police violence are something we’re all forced to look at.

I started running seven years ago, when a friend invited me out. The next day she bailed on me, so I ran by myself. It was hard, but it was beautiful outside, and I was like, I want to do this all the time. This is fun.

The idea of what is a safe space in a city has changed. Crime has gone down. But growing up in South Philly, if I talked to family or friends about running, they’d say, “You’ll only catch me running if somebody is chasing me.”

There was no template for a black runner. If you don’t see people who look like you doing something, would you necessarily assume you belonged?

Now groups like Black Girls Run are pushing the idea that this is an activity everyone can do, and things are changing. But there are still barriers. A lot of my friends who are women still get harassed when they run outside.

When I lived in Park Slope, New York, I was cognizant of being the only black person everywhere I went. I definitely see more runners of color in D.C. You give the head nod, like, Hey, I see you.

My marathon PR was in 2010 at New York: 4:00:24. My goal was under four. I was so pissed. I thought I’d easily do 3:50, 3:45, but no. Marathons are hard.

I’m not the most disciplined person when it comes to running. I run every morning around 6 a.m. before doing anything else. If I say I’ll run after work and leave it to chance, then I won’t do it.

There’s a correlation between when I’m doing my best work and when I’m running the most. It helps me marinate ideas, sharpen them.

My friends know me as the dude who runs. If you’re gonna crash with me, you have to go running with me in the morning.


Demby is also the founder of the blog PostBourgie. Previously, he was the managing editor at The Huffington Post’s BlackVoices and a staffer at The New York Times. Follow him on Twitter @GeeDee215.

Gene Demby's Favorite Quote

“The function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being. Somebody says you have no language and you spend twenty years proving that you do. Somebody says your head isn’t shaped properly so you have scientists working on the fact that it is. Somebody says you have no art, so you dredge that up. Somebody says you have no kingdoms, so you dredge that up. None of this is necessary. There will always be one more thing.”

― Toni Morrison

Diana Nyad Quotes

“I wanted to teach myself some life lessons at the age of 60 and one of them was that you don’t give up.”
― Diana Nyad

“Never, ever give up. You're never too old to chase your dreams. It looks like a solitary sport, but really a team effort”
― Diana Nyad

“What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
― Diana Nyad, Find a Way

“Whatever your Other Shore is, whatever you must do, whatever inspires you, you will find a way to get there.”
― Diana Nyad, Find a Way

“I’ve been living out loud the Henry David Thoreau saying: “What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” The quest of the Cuba”
― Diana Nyad, Find a Way

“Take every minute, one at a time. Don’t be fooled by a perfect sea at any given moment. Accept and rise to whatever circumstance presents itself. Be in it full tilt, your best self. Summon your courage, your true grit. When the body fades, don’t let negative edges of despair creep in. Allowing flecks of negativity leads to a Pandora’s box syndrome. You can’t stop the doubts once you consent to let them seep into your tired, weakened brain. You must set your will. Set it now. Let nothing penetrate or cripple it.”
― Diana Nyad, Find a Way

“I failed and faltered many times, but I can look back without regret because I was never burdened with the paralysis of fear and inaction.”
― Diana Nyad, Find a Way

“Hard work and focus and will would shape my future. Nothing was meant to be.”
― Diana Nyad, Find a Way

“Close your eyes, close your fists, and say, 'I couldn't have done it a fingernail faster.' If you can say it, and mean it, I guarantee you it will be all right, no matter what happens. No regrets.”
― Diana Nyad, Find a Way

“That down feeling, quitting, was far worse than suffering it out to the end, because that decision to quit haunts you and bleeds over into your outlook on everything else, just as not quitting buoys you for all else.”
― Diana Nyad, Find a Way

“I love that aspect of sports where you can see what kind of work, how much work, an athlete's been doing by how her body is carved.”
― Diana Nyad, Find a Way

“You will never forget what has happened to you. You cannot. And I will never replace your mother. I cannot. But you must believe that this is a beautiful world. People are basically kind and loving. You are going to live a wonderful life. You must take these memories and bury them deep in a corner of your soul. Don't live them on your skin. Tomorrow you will wake up for the first time in your new home, here with us. You will not wake up a tortured little girl. You will wake up a citizen of the world, deserving of a happy and meaningful life.”
― Diana Nyad, Find a Way

Celebration of Women

Cora, who had been in the kitchen cooking lamb stew and halibut, wandered over to share that she grew up gay in Mississippi, where she was sexually abused from age 6. No matter an individual’s experience, she said, she just wished all women would have one another’s backs.

Article

Woonsocket is the Best City to Live Run Walk and Swim in

There was a copy of runners world magazine in the locker room. They named the best US cities to run in and I have to say Woonsocket Rhode Island should be on the list. We have a bike path and we have a city with history and amazing hills and valleys a river and waterfalls. We have historic cemeteries and nearby ponds and windy scenic roads. We have two affordable to the public swimming pools. And as far as tourism we have a museum, a world famous jazz club, affordable ethnic restaurants and the kindest people from all over the world.

Sunday

I swam another 1.5 miles (towards Cuba) at the pool today at 4PM- 5:15PM. Sylvia came for supper. While she hung out with me in the kitchen I made a kale and kielbasa stew with potatoes celery onion tomato in the big pressure cooker. It was ready in 20 minutes and tasted like it simmered all day. We dipped toasted bread in the soup and I sent her home with some sweets and soup. More goodies. We have plans to visit our favorite thrift store together in a few days.

Occupational Asthma and Turpentine

source
Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2009;22(3):293-5. doi: 10.2478/v10001-009-0022-7.
Occupational asthma due to turpentine in art painter--case report.
Dudek W1, Wittczak T, Swierczyńska-Machura D, Walusiak-Skorupa J, Pałczyński C.
Author information
Abstract

Turpentine is a fluid obtained by distillation of wood resins containing mixture of terpens. It can act as an irritant and sensitiser. Most common health problem among workers exposed to turpentine is contact dermatitis. Little is know about turpentine to cause type I hypersensitivity reaction. We present a case of a 27-year old art painter using turpentine as a thinner for oil-based paints. She developed asthmatic reactions after 5 years of working with turpentine. A number of clinical procedures were performed, including clinical examination, routine laboratory tests, total serum IgE, skin prick tests to common aeroallergens, metal salts, oil-based paints and balsamic turpentine, resting spirometry test, histamine challenge, and a single-blind, placebo-controlled specific inhalation challenge with balsamic turpentine. Clinical findings and laboratory test results were normal but a significant bronchial hyperreactivity was found. During the specific challenge, dyspnoea and decreased forced expiratory volume (FEV1) were observed in late phase of asthmatic reaction. An increased proportion of eosinophils in induced sputum could also be noted 24 h after the challenge. Positive clinical response to the specific challenge as well as the morphological changes found in induced sputum served as the basis for diagnosing occupational asthma. To our knowledge, this is the first well-documented case of turpentine-induced occupational asthma.

Eyeglasses, Socks, Kitchen Faucet, Swim Cap + Goggles

I am celebrating having new prescription sunglasses, new socks, a new working kitchen faucet, and new swim cap and goggles.

Asthma

Surviving Allergy Season When You Have Asthma

Exercising When You Have Allergic Asthma

Exercise is good for you, and you can exercise safely, even with allergic asthma. A little planning is all it takes to help you breathe easier and stay in shape.
Control Your Asthma

When your asthma is controlled, you should be much more able to exercise without problems. Medicationscan help lessen asthma symptoms and prevent flares.

Talk to your doctor about what types of exercise, and how often, are right for you.
Know Your Triggers

People with allergic asthma have the classic symptoms of wheezing and trouble breathing when they're around their triggers. Everyone is different, but the most common triggers are:

Cats
Mold
Pollen
Dust mites
Cockroaches

Your doctor can help you figure out what your triggers are. Then try to avoid them when you work out.
Pick Your Day and Time of Day

If pollen makes your allergic asthma worse, keep close tabs on the pollen count in your area.

Try exercising outdoors in the early evening, when pollen counts are lower, instead of early morning when pollen counts are higher. Check online for your local pollen count before you head out.

When the pollen count is extra high, pass on your run or soccer game and exercise indoors that day instead.

Puff Before You Exercise

You should always carry a rescue inhaler, such as albuterol, with you. They work quickly to open up your airways. Use your rescue inhaler 10-15 minutes before exercising, even if you don't have symptoms.

Although it won't help your asthma, taking an antihistamine 60-90 minutes before going outside can help ease itchy eyes and a runny nose from pollen.

Warm Up

No matter what sort of exercise you prefer, warm up beforehand and ease into the activity. A few simple stretches and maybe a short walk before you run or pick up your tennis racket can set you up to make it through your exercise without breathing problems.

Love the Humidity

Warm air doesn't constrict your airways the way cold and dry air can. For that reason, swimming is often a good activity for people with allergic asthma. At the pool, you're breathing in warm, humid air that won't shut down your lungs.

Tai Chi and Addiction

Here


Tai Chi, as well as acupuncture, is being successfully used to help people break addictive patterns. A research program working with heroin addicts revealed that withdrawal symptoms decreased much more rapidly than non-QiGong control groups did. Furthermore, breaking an addiction, whether it's to cigarettes or heroin, is a very stressful endeavor. The body and mind crave and yearn constantly. This study also showed that the QiGong group had much lower anxiety and were able to find restful sleep five times faster than non-QiGong practicing addicts in recovery. The reason QiGong is so powerful lies in the essence of what an addict, or any of us stuck in unhealthy behaviors, craves.


What is it that they crave? Ultimately it is life energy. When a smoker gets a cigarette or an addict gets their fix, the first thing they do is sit back, enjoy the moment, and relax into the pleasure of their cigarette or fix. This moment of relaxed focused awareness opens their mind and body to an increased flow of Qi or energy. This is why a raging drunk can have so much energy, even when filled with alcohol. The problem is the cigarettes or drugs are destroying your body to open up to Qi, and when the drug wears off, the body clamps down, squeezing off the flow even more. So learning to open to Qi in a healthy, expansive way is one means for healing an addiction.


Note the pattern of addiction:

1. A prospective user is looking for access to Qi, or life energy, whether they realize it or not. When Qi is flowing through us we feel good, at peace, and capable.

2. When cigarettes, drugs, or alcohol are first used, the ritual of using them and/or the chemical they put in the body causes the user to relax and open to Qi flow. But this is a false and unhealthy way to open to it.

3. Since this is an artificial way to open up to the flow of Qi, the mind and body do not learn how to keep the flow open.

4. In fact, when the drug, whether it's nicotine or heroin, is gone, the body and mind tighten up even more than before. The chemicals and their reactions in the body are unhealthy and cause the mind and body to get tighter, squeezing off more Qi than ever before.

5. The user is then required to use more of the drug or to use it more and more often because now it takes a more forceful dose to open the mind's and body's gates to allow the Qi to flow through.

6. Eventually, the user's dosages, no matter how large, do not open the user to increased Qi flow or a feeling of highness. Eventually even the largest dosages give the user only a lower-than-normal flow of Qi.


7. People who are heavily hooked on cigarettes or alcohol, and even more so with harder drugs, have a look of lacking life. They are becoming void of Qi. Their mind and body have become tight.

Sage Sifu Says


The more we can tap into ways to fill our bodies with life energy using tools like Tai Chi, the less we will have to look outside ourselves for satisfaction. Our consumption level drops as our needs diminish. Therefore, Tai Chi can also help the environment because less consumption means less trash.


Tai Chi and QiGong provide us with a healthy pattern of access to life energy, or Qi. This is what we all want. When we hug a loved one, we feel their Qi mingling with ours. When we pet our dog or cat, they revel in feeling our loving intention in our Qi flowing from our hand to their body. Tai Chi and QiGong are tools to fill us with life, and they can be very effective tools for helping addicts find their way out of the maze they have stumbled into, finding a way back to being truly alive.


The best drug program is preventative. Tai Chi and QiGong will eventually be taught in schools worldwide. By teaching the mind/body awareness and powerful stress management tools these health sciences offer, many future drug, alcohol, or other addicts will avoid the desire for mood altering drugs or addictive behaviors or substances. Educating every student from kindergarten through university in mind/body internal awareness and health development techniques like Tai Chi and QiGong, as a matter of standard education, makes perfect sense.


* NOTE: World Tai Chi & Qigong Day advises consulting your physician before beginning any new exercise, herbal, diet, or health program. The research listed here is meant to stimulate a discussion between you and your physician, health insurance carrier, etc., not as medical advise. Research and comments provided here are hoped to stimulate a more robust discussion of powerful natural mind/body health tools. Popular media, health media, and government must increase attention to stunning emerging research, including the UCLA study indicating Tai Chi participants enjoyed a 50% increase in immune system resistance to viral infection.



Check for World Tai Chi & Qigong Day articles on various health conditions and Tai Chi & Qigong (Chi Kung) Therapy, that you may publish on your publication or website, by clicking here.

Any re-printed information from this website, MUST include a live link to http://www.worldtaichiday.org

Fluent French Learning Blog

Oui!

Crazy Waffles

I've waited three months for my waffle-making mood. It has arrived! I am baking buckwheat coconut cornmeal wholewheat sourdough-starter pumpkin waffles. They are amazing. If you are in the vicinity please come for breakfast. Not kidding.

Ass in the Air: Standing Desk

No longer ass to chair motto for writing: a standing desks means 'ass in the air.'

Chinese New Year, The Rooster: Exorcising Evil Spirits.

Happy Chinese New Year!
2017 is the Year of the Rooster according to Chinese zodiac. This is a Year of Fire Rooster, starting from Jan. 28, 2017 (Chinese New Year) and lasting to Feb. 15, 2018.
China Zodiac Animal - Rooster

Rooster is the tenth in the 12-year cycle of Chinese zodiac sign. The Years of the Rooster include 1921, 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017, 2029...

Rooster is almost the epitome of fidelity and punctuality. For ancestors who had no alarm clocks, the crowing was significant, as it could awaken people to get up and start to work. In Chinese culture, another symbolic meaning of chicken carries is exorcising evil spirits.

Earthly Branch of Birth Year: You
Wu Xing (The Five Elements): Jin (Metal)
Yin Yang: Yin
Years of the Rooster

Feb.8,1921-Jan.27,1922
Jan.26,1933-Feb.13,1934
Feb.13,1945-Feb.1,1946
Jan.31,1957-Feb.17,1958
Feb.17,1969-Feb.5,1970
Feb.5,1981-Jan.24,1982
Jan.23,1993-Feb.9,1994
Feb.9,2005-Jan.28,2006
Jan.28,2017-Feb.15,2018
Feb.13,2029-Feb.2,2030
Mar.1,2041-Jan.21,2042
Feb.19,2053-Feb.7,2054

Lucky Signs for People Born in Rooster Year:
Lucky Numbers: 5, 7, 8
Lucky Colors: gold, brown, brownish yellow, yellow
Lucky Flowers: gladiola, impatiens, cockscomb
Lucky Directions: west, southwest, northeast

Lucky Numbers and Colors of Rooster Lucky Flowers and Directions of Rooster
Things Should be Avoided:

Unlucky Numbers: 1, 3, 9
Unlucky Colors: white, green
Unlucky Directions: east, north

Personality of the Rooster
People born in the Year of Rooster according to Chinese zodiac have many excellent characteristics, such as being honest, bright, communicative and ambitious. Most of them are born pretty or handsome, and prefer to dress up. In daily life, they seldom rely on others. However, they might be enthusiastic about something quickly, but soon be impassive. Thus, they need to have enough faiths and patience to insist on one thing.


Strengths
Independent, capable, warm-hearted, self-respect, quick minded
Weaknesses
Impatient, critical, eccentric, narrow-minded, selfish

Love Compatibility of the Rooster

Perfect Matches: Ox, Snake
If combining with people in Ox or Snake signs, most of them will obtain everlasting and harmonious marriage lives. The connection between them can become tight. In addition, couples of these combinations always become enviable ones in other people’s eyes.
Avoid: Rat, Rabbit, Horse, Rooster, Dog
They have a large chance to obtain a tough and unstable love life if they get married with people with the above five signs. During the whole life, they always meet difficulties and troubles. However, they don’t have enough abilities to solve them because of their born different opinions and attitudes with each other. Lots of divergences will damage the relationship finally.
See more about Chinese Zodiac Sign Compatibility

Fortune in 2017
2017 turns to be the Ben Ming Nian for people with Chinese zodiac sign Rooster, which means bad fortune is going to knock their doors. It would be quite hard for them to make breakthroughs in work although many efforts are given. Accordingly, the income is also not favorable on account of being affected by career, but if they make smart budget, they could make ends meet. There will be no big problem in their relationship in 2017, as their tolerance and tenderness will diminish all the bad luck. Healthwise, they are suggested to take regular physical examinations.
Rooster Luck in 2017
See more about Luck Prediction by Month 2017
Rooster's Personality by Western Astrology Signs
They have different characteristics based on western astrological signs, like ebullient Aries, serious Taurus, confident Gemini, kind-hearted Cancer, ambitious Leo, prudent Virgo, optimistic Libra, self-disciplined Scorpio, determined Sagittarius, righteous Capricorn, creative Aquarius and wise Pisces.
Rooster's Personality by Blood Types

Blood Type O: Most of them are clever and wise. They can always find the fastest way to learn new things and adapt to new environment.
Blood Type A: They are gentle, generous and kind-hearted in ordinary life. Thus they always win high popularity among surrounding people.
Blood Type B: Type B people have keen insight when they need to make decisions. They are suitable for being the group leader because they usually can provide valuable suggestions.
Blood Type AB: They have outstanding working abilities that can easily attract others’ attention. Most of them are willing to help others even though they have more important things to do.

Which Type of 'Rooster' Are You?

People born in different years of a same zodiac sign vary in personality according to Chinese Five Elements of Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. See what kind of Roosters you are.

Types Years of Birth Personality Traits
Wood Rooster 1945, 2005 Energetic, humorous, paying great attention to family.
Fire Rooster 1957, 2017 Holding strong sense of time, trustworthy; good at managing money.
Earth Rooster 1909, 1969 Active, perceptive, like traveling and making friends.
Metal Rooster 1921, 1981 Clear mind and exceptional logic, brave to overcome difficulties.
Water Rooster 1933, 1993 Smart and agile, sensitive, keen on art and niceness.
Celebrities with Chinese Zodiac Rooster
Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Elton John, Jennifer Aniston, Anna Kournikova, Anne Heche, Alexis Bledel, Bette Midler, Cate Blanchett, Diane Sawyer, Elijah Wood, James Marsters, Jessica Alba, Matthew McConaughey, Matt Damon, Natalie Portman, Taylor Momsen, Catherine the Great, Amelia Earhart, Rudyard Kipling, Groucho Marx, Peter Ustinov, Tagore, Roger Federer, Serena Williams, Mencius, Mo-tse, Liu Che (Emperor Wu of China’s Western Han Dynasty 202 BC - 9 AD), Li Longji (Emperor Xuanzong of China’s Tang Dynasty 618 - 907), Zhuge Liang (Premier of Shu in China’s Three Kingdoms Period 220 - 280)

Recycle Upcycle

Love these
A local medical facility THUNDERMIST is throwing out linked chairs with gorgeous fabric. Clinton Street Woonsocket Rhode Island. And the Woonsocket Salvation Army is selling a kiln!

Eccentric Fashionista

There was an eccentric bipolar fashionista featured in the NYT about 4 years ago. She was from New Zealand or Australia and I am still trying to find her blog. Meanwhile I just discovered Pinterest and I am gorging myself on visual craziness. since 4:15 Am. My dog is sighing. The jazz radio is playing. I have setup my computer on my old knob and tube radio.

Roy Carruthers

Roy Carruthers worked with my step father in the 70's and my art teacher Patti Bellantoni invited him to come speak to our art class at Mamaroneck high school. I'll never forget it. He told stories about breaking into Playboy magazine to retrieve his painting. He told us his father was a plumber and used plumbers lights. Roy used these lights which had a flattening effect to achieve the rounding effect in his paintings.

ludwig mies van der rohe: Roy Carruthers: Roy Carruthers was born in South Africa in 1938 He is an Illustrator, Painter, Graphic Artist and Sculptor. Roy lived around the world after...

Roy Carruthers
Obituary

Carruthers, Roy
Roy Carruthers passed away peacefully after a long illness at Flagler Pines Nursing Center in Bunnell, FL, on Friday, May 3, at the age of 74. He was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, on December 14, 1938, to the late Robert James and Irene (Wilson) Carruthers.
Roy was an internationally known artist, award-winning illustrator and graphic designer for more than five decades. He moved from London, England to Old Greenwich, CT, in 1968. He commuted to New York City for many years and worked as an art director in the advertising industry, then as a commercial illustrator in the early 1970s. He decided to pursue a full time career as a fine artist in 1974.
A return to the advertising world in the mid-1980s brought him acclaim as Senior Vice President/Senior Art Director at Ogilvy & Mather, Inc., for his work on the Seagram's account.
Roy relocated first to Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY, in 1991. Deciding to work independently, he started his own advertising and graphic design firm there, moving it to Astoria, Queens, in 1997.
His signature style of larger-than-life figures with multiple fingers and vibrant colors painstakingly painted in oil on canvas was shown in exhibitions throughout Europe, South Africa and the United States. In 1998 he moved to Florida, initially to Ponte Vedra Beach. That year marked his resurgence as a painter and sculptor, with a sold-out one-man exhibition at Coplan Gallery in Boca Raton, FL. He settled in Palm Coast, FL, in 2002, where he continued making art works until 2008, when his health declined.
He was a warm, loving husband, father and grandfather ("Poppy") with a great sense of humor and a fondness for limericks.
Roy leaves to cherish his memory his devoted wife of 15 years, Valerie (Brooks) Carruthers; daughter Alison Carruthers Garb, son-in-law Matthew Garb; and grandsons Kyle and Ryan of Madison, CT; and former wife J. Pamela (Cory) Carruthers of Wallingford, CT. He was pre-deceased by his brother, Robert James, Jr. A memorial service was held on May 11th at First United Methodist Church in Bunnell, FL.

Flip Flops and Socks

I'm wearing purple polka dotted 99 cent socks and my purple leopard-print 2$ flip-flops. FASHIONISTA!

Circadian Rhythm

We now know that routine is an important part of bipolar management as many doctors consider bipolar disorder a circadian rhythm (biological clock) disorder and routine helps to properly set the body clock.

Read more

Swimming to Cuba

I woke up at 4:15 thinking about 'Swimming to Cuba' as a metaphor for for my daily swims. If I count I may get there in one hundred days. This is my daily desire to swim with an added purpose; connecting the nations on our planet lovingly rather than let them become divided by dangerous monsters (like the guy who just "took" the oval office). He knows that he stole it through corruption and as a full blown pathological narcissist he wants applause when all he will get is anger from the nation he betrayed.

Sixy-Four Round Trips

I woke up on the wrong side of the bed and reading the New York Times made it much worse. Finally after a dark day I raced to the pool before I missed my chance. This time I decided to count since my bathing cap made me go faster. I did five round trips in under five minutes so I kept swimming and kept counting, glancing at the clock every so often. After the first 20 round trips I put on my flippers.

I only had to stop once when my left arch of my foot cramped but I was able to massage it and then continue.

The pool attracted more people as closing time approached. The pool was, like the United Nations, delightfully diverse and this also made me feel very good.

My bad mood lifted! Next time I will swim rather than read the New York Times.

Our local pool is 60 feet long, and I counted a lap as one round trip. So I have to figure this out...

How many laps makes a mile when swimming in a 60 foot length pool? Each round-trip lap is 120 feet, about 64 laps at 120 feet per lap, and 5280 feet per mile, so 64*120/5280 = 1.45 miles, and this took me an hour.

My fantasy is to 'swim to Cuba' by swimming daily in my neighborhood pool.

Peduto Proudly Protects Pittsburgh

Mayor Peduto said that Pittsburgh “will resist…any attempt to commandeer our local law enforcement officers into a national deportation army.”

He finished the statement by lauding Pittsburgh as a welcoming city, as he often did during the presidential campaign:

Pittsburgh is, has been, and always will be a welcoming city and a diverse city. It’s in our nature. We are a tough city, a blue collar city and a city with a big heart. We will continue to show everyone the respect and compassion they deserve – regardless of who they are, where they’re from, who they love or how they found their way to our beloved city.

Politicians in New York, Seattle and other “sanctuary cities” have said they won’t be intimidated by a move by President Donald Trump to cut off millions in federal funding to such communities.

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray says his city “will not be bullied” by the Trump administration. He’s instructed city departments to rework their budgets to prepare for the possibility that federal dollars could be lost.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh is promising to let immigrants who feel threatened by the administration’s actions take shelter in City Hall if necessary.

New York City officials say they could lose $150 million in law enforcement funding mainly for counterterrorism efforts, protecting international missions and dignitaries and, arguably, safeguarding Trump Tower.

Article

Emily Eveland

Words have power. Words can put innocent people in prison, force them into exile, or get them killed. Everyone should have the chance to tell his or her version of the story before suffering such consequences.

Every story needs to be told, even the ones we don’t want to hear. A powerful memoir embraces nuances, contradictions, and multiple perspectives. When we ignore stories that fall outside the dominant narrative, we’re not telling the full truth. Worse, we may be endangering the people we’ve refused to listen to.
[...]

But I don’t write because it’s easy. I write because I’m obsessed with telling the truth, no matter how uncomfortable. And the truth is rarely as simple as “good guys vs. bad guys,” try as I might to keep complexities contained and categorized.

Article
Another piece by Eveland

Christopher Robichaud: We Need Artists...

We need artists, we need entertainers, we need salespersons, and we need politicians to bring us back to the opinions that constitute that vision, to help us endorse and consent to them. The business of politics, of opinion, is messy at times, because it does occasionally involve spin, deception, and manipulation. But if we won’t undertake this business, others will, and a different vision will be sold. We’re now seeing what that vision is, and it seems to portend that winter is coming.

Article

— Christopher Robichaud is Lecturer in Ethics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

My Father Died and My Mother became President

I don't know whether to slit my wrists or move to Canada.

The Nightmare

Danielle Drake, a community relations manager at US Together, a refugee resettlement agency, told the newspaper that Mr. Trump’s ban reminded her of when the United States turned away Jewish refugees during World War II. “All those times that people said, ‘Never again,’ well, we’re doing it again,” she said.
Article
Article

Diverting Attention

Doris Kearns Goodwin, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian who has written about Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson, said in an interview that Mr. Trump’s brazen willingness to deny “objective reality” had, if nothing else, succeeded in diverting public attention from matters of more lasting consequence, like his flurry of executive orders. “I don’t know that he is doing it strategically,” she said, “but it certainly had the impact of a magician’s sleight of hand.”
Article

Beneath the Debris

All the parties of capitalist society, all its moralists and all its sycophants will perish beneath the debris of the impending catastrophe. The only party that will survive is the party of the world socialist revolution...
- Leon Trotsky

Opposition Means

In a country where the sole employer is the State, opposition means death by slow starvation. The old principle: who does not work shall not eat, has been replaced by a new one: who does not obey shall not eat.
- Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky

The basis of bureaucratic rule is the poverty of society in objects of consumption, with the resulting struggle of each against all. When there is enough goods in a store, the purchasers can come whenever they want to. When there is little goods, the purchasers are compelled to stand in line. When the lines are very long, it is necessary to appoint a policeman to keep order. Such is the starting point of the power of the Soviet bureaucracy. It "knows" who is to get something and who has to wait.
- Leon Trotsky

Most Terrified

The United States is not only the strongest, but also the most terrified country.
- Leon Trotsky

Class Deception

The bourgeoisie, which far surpasses the proletariat in the completeness and irreconcilibility of its class consciousness, is vitally interested in imposing its moral philosophy upon the exploited masses. It is exactly for this purpose that the concrete norms of the bourgeois catechism are concealed under moral abstractions...The appeal to abstract norms is not a disinterested philosophic mistake but a necessary element in the mechanics of class deception.
-Leon Trotsky

The Wealthy Man

The wealthy man is the man who is much, not the one who has much.
-Karl Marx

The History

The history of all previous societies has been the history of class struggles.
-Karl Marx

If you can cut the people off from their history, then they can be easily persuaded.
-Karl Marx

Marx

There must be something rotten in the very core of a social system which increases its wealth without diminishing its misery.
-Karl Marx

Karl Marx

Surround yourself with people who make you happy. People who make you laugh, who help you when you’re in need. People who genuinely care. They are the ones worth keeping in your life. Everyone else is just passing through.
Karl Marx

There comes a time in your life when you have to let go of all the pointless drama and the people who create it and surround yourself with people who make you laugh so hard that you forget the bad and focus solely on the good. After all, life is too short to be anything but happy.
Karl Marx

Diego Rivera

To be an artist, one must . . . never shirk from the truth as he understands it, never withdraw from life
Diego Rivera

All art is propaganda. ... The only difference is the kind of propaganda. Since art is essential for human life, it can't just belong to the few. Art is the universal language, and it belongs to all mankind. All painters have been propagandists or else they have not been painters. ... Every artist who has been worth anything in art has been such a propagandist. ... Every strong artist has been a propagandist. I want to be a propagandist and I want to be nothing else. ... I want to use my art as a weapon.
Diego Rivera

As an artist I have always tried to be faithful to my vision of life, and I have frequently been in conflict with those who wanted me to paint not what I saw but what they wished me to see.
Diego Rivera

An artist is above all a human being, profoundly human to the core. If the artist can't feel everything that humanity feels, if the artist isn't capable of loving until he forgets himself and sacrifices himself if necessary, if he won't put down his magic brush and head the fight against the oppressor, then he isn't a great artist.
Diego Rivera

I've never believed in God, but I believe in Picasso.
Diego Rivera

I know now that he who hopes to be universal in his art must plant in his own soil. Great art is like a tree, which grows in a particular place and has a trunk, leaves, blossoms, boughs, fruit, and roots of its own. The more native art is, the more it belongs to the entire world, because taste is rooted in nature. When art is true, it is one with nature. This is the secret of primitive art and also of the art of the masters Michelangelo, Czanne, Seurat, and Renoir. The secret of my best work is that it is Mexican.
Diego Rivera

The role of the artist is that of a soldier of the revolution.
Diego Rivera

Looking back upon my work today, I think the best I have done grew out of things deeply felt, the worst from a pride in mere talent.
Diego Rivera

July 13, 1954 was the most tragic day of my life. I had lost my beloved Frida forever. To late now I realized that the most wonderful part of my life had been my love for Frida.
Diego Rivera

Art is like ham-it nourishes people.
Diego Rivera

The artist must try to raise the level of taste of the masses, not debase himself to the level of unformed and impoverished taste.
Diego Rivera

Never before had a woman put such agonizing poetry on canvas as Frida did
Diego Rivera

My cubist paintings are my most Mexican.
Diego Rivera

Every good composition is above all a work of abstraction. All good painters know this. But the painter cannot dispense with subjects altogether without his work suffering impoverishment.
Diego Rivera

I did not know it then, but Frida had already become the most important fact in my life. And would continue to be, up to the moment she died, 27 years later.
Diego Rivera

Only the work of art itself can raise the standard of taste.
Diego Rivera

I am an atheist and I consider religions to be a form of collective neurosis. I am not an enemy of the Catholics, as I am not an enemy of the tuberculars, the myopic or the paralytics; you cannot be an enemy of the sick, only their good friend in order to help them cure themselves.
Diego Rivera

I do not believe in God, yet I believe in Picasso.
Diego Rivera

Through her paintings, she breaks all the taboos of the woman's body and of female sexuality.
Diego Rivera

Botero

In art, as long as you have ideas and think, you are bound to deform nature. Art is deformation.
-Fernando Botero

I describe in a realistic form a nonrealistic Reality.
-Fernando Botero

I'm a tireless worker; I don't consider painting a work, it is not an obligation, I do it for pleasure; I haven't found anything that amuses me more than painting.
-Fernando Botero

I create my subjects somehow visualizing them in my style. I start as a poet, put the colors and composition down on canvas as a painter, but finish my work as a sculptor taking delight in caressing the forms.
-Fernando Botero

Fernando Botero: Prism of My Convictions

There's nothing more superficial to do than to paint a beautiful woman. The most beautiful portraits in art were of ugly women. If you paint Brigitte Bardot, it's a disaster. Sunsets, you have to stay away from sunsets. You paint a sunset, you are in great danger.
-Fernando Botero

I'm the most Colombian of the Colombians, even though I've lived 47 years outside of Colombia. I've lived 13 years in New York, and I never did a painting about New York. I've lived in France more than 30 years, and I've never painted Paris.
-Fernando Botero

I had wanted to be a sculptor throughout life, but to do so, I had to stop painting.
-Fernando Botero

I often think about death, and it saddens me to leave this world and not be able to paint more. I love it so much.
-Fernando Botero

You paint what you know best; what you went through as a teenager and child. My world is the one I got to know in Medellin; I never paint anything else other than that.
-Fernando Botero

Sketching is almost everything. It is the painter's identity, his style, his conviction, and then color is just a gift to the drawing.
-Fernando Botero

The circus allows one to be logical and unreal at the same time. In the circus, all is possible: there can be a man with two heads or a character with a green face.
-Fernando Botero

My work is a self-portrait of my mind, a prism of my convictions.
-Fernando Botero

An artist is attracted to certain kinds of form without knowing why. You adopt a position intuitively; only later do you attempt to rationalize or even justify it.
-Fernando Botero

I have seen Colonial churches since I was very small, Colonial painting and polychrome sculpture. And that was all I saw. There was not a single modern painting in any museum, not a Picasso, not a Braque, not a Chagall. The museums had Colombian painters from the eighteenth century and, of course, I saw Pre-Columbian art. That was my exposure.
-Fernando Botero

I follow politics very closely. I read several newspapers every day.
-Fernando Botero

In a photo, you just do a click, but in art you have to put in so much energy. This concentration of energy and attention says something that other media cannot say.
-Fernando Botero

Art is important because when people start to forget, art reminds them what happened. Like 'Guernica.' People would not remember the tragedy of Guernica today if it were not for that painting.
-Fernando Botero

In the '60s, I did many satirical portraits of dictators.
-Fernando Botero

The only duty an artist has is in the quality of the art. There is no moral obligation to denounce. An artist confronted with a tremendous injustice sometimes feels inclined to say something. Denouncing the situation is the artist's choice.
-Fernando Botero

An artist is born like a priest is born. If they are born an artist, I would tell them art is not a game: it is something very serious which completely requires everything you have to give.
-Fernando Botero

Art is always an exaggeration in some sense; in color, in form, even in theme, etc... but it has always been this way. It is the same with the nature of some works by Giotto or Massacio, or the color of life as expressed by Van Gogh.
-Fernando Botero

My popularity has to do with the divorce between modern art, where everything is obscure, and the viewer who often feels he needs a professor to tell them whether it's good or not. I believe a painting has to talk directly to the viewer, with composition, color and design, without a professor to explain it.
Fernando Botero

People say, 'What a discipline, painting so much.' I say, 'No, I love it.' Nothing amuses me as much as my work. To have discipline would be not to paint.
-Fernando Botero

I love my country, and it hurts not to be able to see my country, as I did for so many years. I hope that I will one day be able to live in a peaceful Colombia.
-Fernando Botero

I had an uncle who took me to the ring in Medellin when I was 15 years old. In school, we had someone who taught us how to bullfight.
-Fernando Botero

Before anything else, I started painting bulls and matadors. That was my initiation to paint.
-Fernando Botero

Bullfights have so much color. Not just the matador but also the bull, the arena, and the public. It's all very festive.
-Fernando Botero

Bullfights are a very cultural thing. I know many people think it's cruel, but so many things are cruel. Hunting, the electric chair, wars. These are all cruel things as well.
-Fernando Botero

Nobody ever told me, 'Art is this.' This was good luck in a way because I would have had to spend half of my life forgetting everything that I had been told, which is what happens with most students in schools of fine arts.
-Fernando Botero

I was drawing a mandolin, and I made the sound hole very small, which made the mandolin look gigantic. I saw that making the details small made the form monumental. So in my figures, the eyes, the mouth are all small, and the exterior form is huge.
-Fernando Botero

Botero Quotes

Art should be an oasis: a place or refuge from the hardness of life.
-Fernando Botero

I have the sensation of doing something good for people, more than being a trendy artist or a successful artist.
-Fernando Botero

I believe that it's better to have a conviction, believe strongly in something, and then the convictions create a style that reflects your mentality.
-Fernando Botero

Expression without culture is flat. Many artists come out of art school and start doing things that don't last. They are audacious because of ignorance. They are irresponsible.
-Fernando Botero

All my life, my girlfriends are always skinny. Beauty in art has nothing to do with beauty in reality. Why do you like primitive art? Because there is beauty in the deformity. Sometimes paintings that people consider realistic are not at all. Raphael figures look realistic, but in real life, they were deformed.
-Fernando Botero

I love art so much because of curiosity. At the start of a painting, I know 10 percent of what the painting will be, and then I have to improvise the whole thing.
-Fernando Botero

The circus is a global theme. It exists in all parts of the world - maybe not in Africa, but it exists in Asia in all parts. In Latin America, it's difficult to find a person who hasn't gone to the circus.
-Fernando Botero

The circus leaves a sweet memory.
-Fernando Botero

All the animals I've painted always have a relationship with man. I have been told that part of the knowledge of the human anatomy comes from animals.
-Fernando Botero

Fernando Botero

- at age 80...
I work more now perhaps because I know that there is so little time left.
-Fernando Botero

Man needs music, literature, and painting - all those oases of perfection that make up art - to compensate for the rudeness and materialism of life.
-Fernando Botero

A painted landscape is always more beautiful than a real one, because there's more there. Everything is more sensual, and one takes refuge in its beauty.
-Fernando Botero

Man needs spiritual expression and nourishing... even in the prehistoric era, people would scrawl pictures of bison on the walls of caves.
-Fernando Botero

The richness of an artist is the fusion of influences that have shaped his life and work.
-Fernando Botero

When you start painting, it is somewhat outside you. At the conclusion, you seem to move inside the painting.
-Fernando Botero

Sculptures permit me to create real volume... One can touch the forms, one can give them smoothness, the sensuality that one wants.
-Fernando Botero

source

Recent Article by Julius Lester

Here in April 2016.

It's Julius Lester's Birthday Today

“It ain't how long you know somebody that means anything. It's what that person mean to you in your heart.”
― Julius Lester, Day of Tears

“Goodness was not a trait you acquired; it was a value you practiced when you were on the verge of doing evil.”
― Julius Lester, The Autobiography of God

“Being a failure at living your own life as best as you can is better than being a success living the life somebody else says you should live.”
― Julius Lester, Guardian

“Some wounds go so deep that you don't even feel them until months, maybe years, later.”
― Julius Lester, When Dad Killed Mom

“But there are times when a tree can no longer withstand the pain inflicted on it, and the wind will take pity on that tree and topple it over in a mighty storm. All the other trees who witnessed the evil look down upon the fallen tree with envy. They pray for the day when a wind will end their suffering. I pray for the day when God will end mine.”
― Julius Lester, Guardian

“Dying ain't important. Everyone does that. What's important is how well you do your living.”
― Julius Lester

Bills Targeting Free Speech

Reuters

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Sarah Mackay

Sarah Mackay, the entrepreneur behind new Yoga clothing range Just Breathe says the first step in business wellbeing is to identify what is going wrong and getting more of what is right into the mix.
Article

Dr. Pamela Peeke

Consistently good choices translate into a better reading of your genetic script. You’re also carving neural highways that lay down a foundation for new lifestyle habits.
Article

A Decade-Long Week

I am exhausted by the orange man's reign of hate and fear.
Article

Marion Cunningham's Waffles

Smitten Kitchen

Must Read

The dystopia described in George Orwell’s nearly 70-year-old novel “1984” suddenly feels all too familiar. A world in which Big Brother (or maybe the National Security Agency) is always listening in, and high-tech devices can eavesdrop in people’s homes. (Hey, Alexa, what’s up?) A world of endless war, where fear and hate are drummed up against foreigners, and movies show boatloads of refugees dying at sea. A world in which the government insists that reality is not “something objective, external, existing in its own right” — but rather, “whatever the Party holds to be truth is truth.”
Article

Day in the Life of a Ballerina

Read

Libraries are a Safe Heaven in Times of Conflict

Safe haven at Woonsocket Harris Public Library.


Libraries are helping people in cities experiencing conflict around the globe by providing shelter, basic needs and books. They are liaising with organizations to bring services into their communities. In times of armed conflicts, crises and natural disasters, libraries are playing a key role in the recovery process helping to keep families together and rebuild communities. Libraries are saving lives and providing hope in uncertain times.

Article

Rhode Island is my Sanctuary State

I am hoping all of the little towns of Rhode Island and all of the states in the USA, and all of the countries of the world will be sanctuaries and that there will not be a witch hunt. The lessons of history demonstrate this is not the way.

Courageous Little Rhody!!

After Trump order on sanctuary cities, Mayor Elorza vows to protect undocumented immigrants
WPRI 12 Eyewitness News · 1 day ago
News | Elorza Defiant to Trump's Executive Order Challenging Sanctuary Cities, Could Cost Providence ...
GoLocalProv · 1 day ago
ACLU offers legal help to R.I. 'sanctuary cities' in wake of Trump orders
The Providence Journal · 14 hours ago

Dog Chews

Article

Scientists create a part-human, part-pig embryo — raising the possibility of interspecies organ transplants

Article

Treasure It: Woonsocket's Swap Shed

Here

Week of Hell

Paul Krugman ‏@paulkrugman 2h2 hours ago

Back in the old days -- in other words, last week -- the great fear was that Trump would be normalized, wrapped in dignity of his office

Not happening. Instead, we have a sort of insecure-ego death spiral underway. Being installed by Comey and Putin, it seems, isn't enough

He wants acclaim, and can't stand any ego damage over small crowds, popular vote, Mexico not being willing to pay for wall

So he lashes out -- and each time destroys even more of the respect he craves, leading to further lashing out. All this in one week!

It's hard even to imagine what comes next. After all, this guy commands the world's most powerful military.

Maybe the Senate can pacify him by making his horse a consul, or something?

Paul Krugman Tweets

Krugman

Article

Artist George Grosz

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
George Grosz
Born Georg Ehrenfried Groß
July 26, 1893
Berlin, German Empire
Died July 6, 1959 (aged 65)
West Berlin
Nationality German, American (after 1938)
Education Dresden Academy
Known for Painting, drawing
Notable work The Funeral (Dedicated to Oscar Panizza)
Movement Dada, New Objectivity

George Grosz (July 26, 1893 – July 6, 1959) was a German artist known especially for his caricatural drawings and paintings of Berlin life in the 1920s. He was a prominent member of the Berlin Dada and New Objectivity group during the Weimar Republic. He emigrated to the United States in 1933, and became a naturalized citizen in 1938. Abandoning the style and subject matter of his earlier work, he exhibited regularly and taught for many years at the Art Students League of New York. In 1956 he returned to Berlin where he died.

Flannery O'Connor

The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.
- Flannery O'Connor

Flannery O'Connor

“The novelist with Christian concerns will find in modern life distortions which are repugnant to him, and his problem will be to make these appear as distortions to an audience which is used to seeing them as natural; and he may well be forced to take ever more violent means to get his vision across to this hostile audience. When you can assume that your audience holds the same beliefs you do, you can relax a little and use more normal ways of talking to it; when you have to assume that it does not, then you have to make your vision apparent by shock -- to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost blind you draw large and startling figures.”
-Flannery O'Connor

Art is a Permanent Accusation

An Egyptian writer told a journalist friend of mine that when the United States started torturing people it was as if a light had been turned off in the whole world. I thought about that last night and thought about the howl of pain and outrage in your paintings and thought that maybe they will help to turn the light back on.

Painter/ sculptor Fernando Botero here.
Transcript

HELP US

Everyone knows that the man is a fabulator, oblivious, trapped in his own terrible needs. Republican, Democrat, libertarian, socialist, white supremacist or sebaceous cyst — everyone knows it. It is up to Republicans to save the country from this man. They elected him, and it is their duty to tie a rope around his ankle. They formed a solid bloc against President Obama and held their ranks, and now, for revenge, they will go after health insurance subsidies for people of limited means, which is one of the cruelest things they can possibly do. Dishwashers and cleaning ladies need heart surgery, too — hospital emergency rooms already see streams of sick people, uninsured, poor or unable to deal with the paperwork, coming in for ordinary care, and when upward of 30 million are left high and dry, people will suffer horribly. “Nobody is going to be dying on the streets,” Trump said. No, they’re going to die at home in their bedrooms.

The question is: How cynical are we willing to be and for how long? How long will Senate Republicans wait until a few of them stand up to the man? Greatness is in the eye of the beholder. American self-respect is what is at stake here, ladies and gentlemen. The only good things to come out of that inauguration were the marches all over the country the day after, millions of people taking to the streets of their own free will, most of them women, packed in tight, lots of pink hats, lots of signage, earnest, vulgar, witty, a few brilliant (“Take your broken heart and make it art”), and all of it rather civil and good-humored. That’s the great America I grew up in. It’s still here.

- Garrison Keillor, Washington Post