Write something, even if it’s just a suicide note.

 Gore Vidal

Learning on the Job

https://www.providencejournal.com/story/entertainment/dining/2021/01/26/looking-back-ris-culinary-giants-and-first-wave-ground-breaking-restaurants/4241575001/

I worked at Amara's, Leo's + Alforno's and learned how to cook from all of them.

Overheard

I was at the dentist's office when I heard the receptionist say she had her obituary photo already picked out. I thought. But honey you haven't even lived yet.

Camp Westwood YMCA Coventry

 https://www.visitrhodeisland.com/listing/camp-westwood/9435/

Pot Au Feu

 I just made a pot of chili using 1 pound kidney beans I cooked ahead, and 2 large cans of crushed tomatoes, the whole bunch of celery chopped, 3 big white onions chopped, fresh garlic chopped, dried oregano, basil, parsley, a splash of Chianti jug red wine, olive oil, Adobo, salt, dried red chili flakes, a pound of hamburg. (We treat meat as a spice!)

I freeze quarts for those lazy days.

When I worked at Leo's we'd add cumin and unsweetened cocoa powder and dried chili powder too.

I always need a place to land especially when I'm hungry.

Remember Al Gore?

Article

Swim to Work

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-friday-edition-1.4175499/fed-up-with-his-commute-munich-man-now-swims-to-work-every-day-1.4235907

"I'm not a monk. When I was on my bike, I would yell at cars. When I was on foot, I would yell at cyclists, and so on and so forth. And just a few metres to the side of that is the river, and if you just swim down that, it's completely relaxed and refreshing."

David takes the Isar River the two kilometres [1.24274 miles] to work every day, packing his laptop, smartphone and work clothes into a red, waterproof floating sack that he slings over his shoulder.

‘longest journey by pumpkin boat'

As It Happens

Why a Nebraska man hollowed out a giant pumpkin and paddled the Missouri River

Duane Hansen says he’s squashed Guinness World Record for ‘longest journey by pumpkin boat'

CBC Radio · Posted: Aug 30, 2022 5:25 PM ET | Last Updated: August 30

Nebraska's Duane Hansen paddled 61 kilometres from Bellevue, Neb., to Nebraska City, in his pumpkin boat, setting what he believes is a new world record. (City of Bellevue, Nebraska/Facebook)

As It Happens6:07Why a Nebraska man hollowed out a giant pumpkin and paddled the Missouri River

When Duane Hansen took to the Missouri River in a hollowed-out pumpkin, he thought he'd prepared for everything. 

"I'd thought about this for a long time, trying to eliminate anything that could possibly go wrong. And I think I did pretty good — except, when you're sitting in a pumpkin like that, it's really, really tippy," the Nebraska man told As It Happens guest host Katie Simpson.

"You have to pay attention 100 per cent of the time. You cannot stand up in the pumpkin. Absolutely not."

So Hansen kept his butt firmly planted on the cooler he used as a seat — even though it meant he couldn't access the cold beers he'd packed for his journey — and paddled 61 kilometres from Bellevue, Neb., to Nebraska City, setting what he believes is a new world record. 

Hansen says it took him 10 years to grow Berta, the pumpkin he used as a boat. (City of Bellevue, Nebraska/Facebook )

Along the 12-hour journey, he paddled through a thunderstorm, ran his pumpkin aground in a sandbar, smashed it into some rocks and battled the waves from passing vessels.

"They'll just about swamp you. I was taking on water from them, because Berta's only sitting about eight inches above the water level," he said. "Berta is the pumpkin's name. I name all my pumpkins."

Guinness World Records says it's reviewing Hansen's submission. The current record belongs to Rick Swenson, who in 2016, paddled a pumpkin 41 kilometres from Grand Forks, N.D., to Oslo, Minn.

Decade in the making 

Hansen says he set his eyes on the strange record as soon as he heard about it. He loves growing large vegetables as a hobby, and it takes a mighty powerful gourd to carry a man across a river. 

"It took me 10 years to grow a pumpkin that's big enough," he said.

Berta clocked in at 383.7 kilograms when Hansen lifted it with a small tractor, plopped it into a "homemade hot tub," sliced its top off and scooped out two five-gallon buckets worth of pumpkin guts. 

Hansen says it was a rough ride that left him with sore legs and knees, but he doesn't regret a second of it. (City of Bellevue, Nebraska/Facebook)

He set out on the morning of Aug. 25, his 60th birthday, to break the record. As he paddled his pumpkin, his friends and family followed along in a boat, documenting the journey for Guinness. Two officials from Bellevue City Hall served as his official witnesses.

"I had my whole team. I didn't do it by myself," he said. "It was an operation."

The voyage was marred by thunderstorms and pouring rain, Hansen said. At one point, one of his helpers asked him if he wanted to call it quits and climb aboard the boat. But by then, he was just 13 kilometres from his destination.

"I said, 'Are you kidding me? We're too close!'" he said.

• They thought they had the world's largest potato. But it was no potato at all

• Fed up with his commute, Munich man now swims to work every day

Despite the rough ride, Hansen says it was "worth every second." Everything went, more or less, according to plan. He only regrets that he couldn't stand up to retrieve his brewskies from his cooler.

"I tried it two times and I sat back down. That was it for that," he said.

But he admits it's probably for the best that he didn't get tipsy while he was tippy.

"Everybody was helping me, and they just would have been mad at me if that's the reason that I tipped the pumpkin over," he said. "We put a lot of time and effort into this."

---

Written by Sheena Goodyear. Interview produced by Shannon Higgins.

Out in the Open

How a psychiatry professor accidentally discovered he was a psychopath

James Fallon is determined to overcome his worst instincts

Out In The Open · Posted: Jun 15, 2018 9:31 AM ET | Last Updated: February 20, 2020

James Fallon, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine, describes himself as a ‘pro-social’ psychopath. (Daniel Anderson)

Out In The Open20:23How a psychiatry professor accidentally discovered he was a psychopath

 

This story was originally published on June 15, 2018.

No one told James Fallon he was a psychopath. 

Or maybe they had. When he was young, he'd heard again and again from people in positions of authority — a priest, a professor, a friend's father — that there was something off about him. Something dark that they couldn't quite name. But Fallon brushed it off each time.

Many years later, as a professor of psychiatry at the medical school of the University of California, Irvine, Fallon discovered his psychopathic mind for himself. 

"I'm a little bit of a snake, but I'm not really a bad guy," Fallon told Out in the Open host Piya Chattopadhyay. "But you don't want to be close to me."

Fallon made the discovery by accident.

In the late 1980s, the university got a PET scanner. Accused murderers were coming into the school to get brain scans done as part of their defences.

"They'd come in tied up in manacles," Fallon said. "We'd have these SWAT teams all over the roofs of the medical school."

Over the decades that followed, the school accumulated these brain scans. And as Fallon studied them, he was noticing patterns. Certain areas that light up in normal brains were dark. 

"So I said, my god, there's something here."

He gave talks on his findings. 

Bizarre coincidences

Meanwhile, two other events in his life were converging.

"All this happened at the same time," he said. "It was very bizarre." 

Lizzie Borden was tried and acquitted for the murders of her father and stepmother in 1892, though she remains infamous. Fallon discovered that he was distantly related to Borden.

The first coincidence came when his mother told Fallon about a historical book on his father's family.

"And there's all these nasty guys in there," he said. People who weren't so different from the murderers he'd been studying. 

Thomas Cornell Jr., an early colonial settler who was convicted and hanged for killing his mother, was a direct ancestor. And Lizzie Borden, who was famously tried for the axe murders of her father and stepmother in the late 19th century, was a distant cousin.

The second coincidence came through Alzheimer's research Fallon was conducting. The team had completed brain scans of patients. But they needed a control group. So Fallon put his family members, including himself, under the machines. 

And as he was flipping through the pile of his family's scans, he saw one that looked identical to the killers he'd been studying. 

"I said, OK guys, really funny. Ha ha," Fallon said. 

He thought the lab technicians had played a joke on him, slipping a psychopath's scan into the pile with his family. They assured him that this was no joke.

"I said, 'Whoever this person is shouldn't be walking around in society.'"

The psychopathic markers were all there. The parts of the brain that regulate conscience, emotional empathy and inhibition were turned off.

"This is probably a very dangerous person," he said. "Well, I peeled back the tape over the name, and there it was. It was my name."

He laughed it off. He still didn't believe it. He'd never been a violent guy. He was married with kids. He had plenty of friends, and a successful career.

But when he got home and told his wife about it, she said to him: "It doesn't surprise me."

He came around to the idea gradually. 

"I just started asking everybody, 'What do you think of me?' I started with my wife, my sister, my brothers, my parents. On and on. All the people close to me, including psychiatrists who I'd worked with for years who really knew me well. They all said — except for my mother, who said, 'No, you're a nice boy' — everybody else said, 'Wwe've been telling you for decades, for years, that you do psychopathic things.'"

He'd been emotionally unavailable, reckless, manipulative, getting by on charm and what he calls "cognitive empathy" — the ability to understand what others are feeling, without actually feeling it himself. 

Assessments by his colleagues were what really convinced him. His brain scans, genetic markers and behaviours all pointed toward borderline psychopathy. If a cold-blooded killer is formed through both nature and nurture, Fallon's nature suggested he was capable of terrible things. Perhaps a lack of childhood trauma had prevented him from acting on his violent instincts, he thought. 

'What would a good guy do?'

Fallon now describes himself as a "pro-social" psychopath. He's not out to prey on people. And his psychopathic tendencies are relatively benign. 

Driven by what he describes as ego, Fallon put a challenge to himself: try pretending to be a nice, normal, emotionally connected guy. He'd start with his wife. 

"Every time something came up where I was interacting with her socially, I just asked myself, 'What would a good guy do?'" Whereas in the past he might have made up an excuse to, for example, ditch her uncle's funeral and head down to the beach bar, he was now going to try doing right by her, despite his nature.

When she caught on that a sudden kindness had come over him, he assured her: "Don't take it seriously. It's just an experiment." But nice is nice. She didn't seem to mind. 

"Strangers are very safe around me," he said. "It's when you get close to me that it's a little more dangerous, because I'm going to get you to do something you don't want to do.

"So, I'm trying to control that. I figure if I tell everybody I have this, then I can't get away with anything anymore."

Cure for Hot Flashes

His emotional support animal is an alligator. They sleep in the same bed.

‘When he turns his nose toward you, that means he expects a kiss,’ Joie Henney said

By Cathy Free

August 29, 2022 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

Joie Henney holds WallyGator after dropping off food donations for a local charity last summer. (Courtesy of Joie Henney)

Joseph Henney’s emotional support animal WallyGator goes with him almost everywhere, from the grocery store to walks in the park. They hug each other and sleep in the same bed. WallyGator is an alligator.

“When he turns his nose toward you, that means he expects a kiss,” said Henney, 69, who goes by Joie (pronounced “Joe”) and lives in Jonestown, Pa., about two hours from Philadelphia. “He’s super sweet-natured.”

The two watch television together on the couch, and when Henney takes him to the farmers market, WallyGator gives hugs to shoppers — as long as they are okay with being that close to a 70-pound reptile with a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth.

“Wally is definitely not your average crocodilian,” said Henney, explaining that most people in his community are familiar with his 7-year-old, 5½-foot emotional support alligator.

WallyGator has a following on TikTok and Instagram, and he made headlines Friday after Henney took him to Love Park in Philadelphia.

Wally, an emotional support alligator, enjoyed a fountain in Philadelphia’s Love Park on Aug. 26. (Video: @SivalingamHalle via Storyful)

“He’s a very special gator, but I wouldn’t recommend that anyone get one,” he said. “If you don’t know what you’re doing, you will get bit.”

Henney’s unusual relationship with WallyGator started in 2015, he said, when a friend called from Florida and asked if he could take in a few gators that had been found in a pond in Orlando.

Henney makes a living in woodcrafting, but he has always enjoyed caring for reptiles as a pastime, he said.

Alligators are legal to own in Pennsylvania, and Henney has helped relocate unwanted alligators, snakes and iguanas to wildlife sanctuaries as a hobby for about 30 years. He keeps his rescue reptiles in his home in separate indoor enclosures that he purchased for this purpose. He then finds sanctuaries or zoos that will take them, he said.

He is usually called to rescue alligators when people take in cute baby gators as pets but they inevitably turn into large animals that can be difficult to handle, he said. They are, after all, an animal that has not changed since the time of the dinosaurs.

Henney told his Florida friend that he could take in three juvenile alligators. After a while, he sent two of the gators to reptile refuges in New York and New Jersey, he said.

But he decided to keep WallyGator, who was 14 months at the time.

“I bonded with him and was committed to caring for him,” Henney said.

“One of the problems when someone gets an alligator for a pet is they don’t realize they’re in for a long haul,” he said, noting that the reptiles can live 80 years or longer in captivity.

They breathe air and generally live in freshwater, but their skin does not need to stay wet for survival. It isn’t common for people to want alligators as pets, though it does happen more than most people realize, he said.

“When they get to three feet, nobody wants them,” Henney said. “They can bite and they’re extremely hard to handle.”

Wildlife experts agree: Alligators generally don’t make good pets, and they’re illegal to own in many states. The animals can also be deadly. Last month, an 80-year-old Florida woman was killed when she fell into a golf course pond and was attacked by two alligators.

“The jaw pressure from an alligator’s bite force is incredibly strong, and their powerful tails can whip you,” said Raul Diaz, a herpetologist and evolutionary development biologist who teaches at California State University at Los Angeles.

They are also predators who are hardwired to believe that other creatures want to eat them, so they are defensive early on, he said.

“I definitely assume that [Henney] is an exception when it comes to caring for an alligator — he’s done a good job,” Diaz said. “But most people don’t have that kind of time to devote to a pet alligator’s care.”

The large reptiles require a special diet and enrichment such as logs or live plants to hide under and running or spraying water to thrive under human care. They should never be handled by people who aren’t trained, said Matt Evans, assistant curator of herpetology at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute in D.C.

“If you are interested in working with alligators, volunteer at your local zoo or nature center or get involved with citizen science,” Evans said.

Henney has cautiously handled alligators for years, and he said he noticed from the first day that WallyGator was different.

He said he was surprised when WallyGator, then 20 inches long, didn’t try to bite him when he held him or fed him chicken legs and dead rats.

“He wouldn’t eat live rats, and he really showed a love for cheesy popcorn,” Henney said. “I thought it was different, but I was still very cautious around him.”

He felt comfortable enough around WallyGator, though, not to keep him in an enclosure, he said.

“I’ve been handling gators for years, and I’ve learned to read them,” he said. “An alligator isn’t going to attack you for no reason. I’m always careful, but I felt it was fine to let [WallyGator] roam free in the house.”

It didn’t take long, he said, before WallyGator began to follow him around the house like a curious pup. He said his leathery roomie showed affection by staying close to him and being docile.

“He enjoyed being held, and I thought, ‘Wow, this is a super nice, friendly alligator,’” Henney said.

Then, in 2017, several members of Henney’s family died, leaving him sad and grieving. That was when he and his unusual pet really bonded.

“I was depressed and WallyGator started to do silly things to cheer me up,” Henney said. “When I was on the couch, he’d pull my blanket to the floor.”

Soon, WallyGator was up on the couch with him.

Stealing the covers became a favorite pastime, along with curling up together and watching “Gator Boys” on TV. WallyGator also enjoys relaxing in his 300-gallon portable pond in the living room, Henney said, and the two will often take a dip together in a friend’s swimming pool.

Henney said WallyGator also helped him emotionally as he endured a recent diagnosis of prostate cancer and weeks of radiation treatments. He, of course, took his coldblooded friend with him.

It was several years ago, he said, when he told his doctor how much WallyGator’s antics had greatly helped reduce his depression. He was shocked when one day the physician offered up an idea:

What if he were to register WallyGator as an emotional support animal?

“I said, ‘Are you off your rocker? An alligator is the most feared animal in the world,’” Henney recalled.

But he went home that day with a letter from the doctor, stating that WallyGator qualified as an emotional support animal.

Henney filled out an application on the U.S. Service Animals website, and once it was approved, he received a certificate along with a harness and leash for his alligator. WallyGator is required to be certified every year, he said.

People were surprised when they learned that Henney’s alligator had joined the ranks of the emotional support peacock and donkey, he said. He has been known to dress him in a tuxedo and sunglasses, and sometimes even a hat.

Henney is going for yet another distinction for WallyGator: America’s Favorite Pet — an annual contest traditionally for dogs and cats. This year, the competition was opened to include animals of all kinds. The winner receives $10,000, and the final round of voting will end Oct. 27.

Henney now takes his gator to swim parties, football games, and to schools and summer camps for educational presentations about reptiles. WallyGator does not have a harness around his mouth, but he has never bitten anyone, Henney said.

“Everywhere I take him, I always ask permission first,” Henney said. “That’s very important with an alligator.”

He said he would never want to take WallyGator on a flight.

“He rode a bus once,” Henney said. “That was enough.”

“Some people are scared of alligators,” he added. “I wouldn’t want to startle anyone.”

That wasn’t a problem with Michael Helfrich, the mayor of York, Pa. WallyGator met him at City Hall earlier this year.

And seniors who live at SpiriTrust Lutheran — The Village at Sprenkle Drive, a retirement community in York, are delighted when they see the gator walking down the hall in his bright red animal-support vest.

WallyGator has visited several times, and most of the residents are eager to pet him and ask questions, Henney said. A brave few will request to hold the reptile.

“WallyGator is cool to the touch, but has the most relaxed personality I’ve ever seen,” said Hannah Tedesco, a life-enrichment leader at the center.

She invited Henney and his alligator to return to the retirement home on Nov. 15 for Steve Irwin Day.

“The first time I saw WallyGator, I stopped in my tracks,” Tedesco said. “It’s not every day that you see an alligator on a leash.”

WallyGator continues to grow and pack on hundreds of pounds. Henney said he eats a couple of chicken legs and rats every three days, along with a bag of cheesy popcorn.

Henney said it’s a safe bet that his pet gator will outlive him, so he has an arrangement with a friend to ensure that WallyGator will spend the rest of his days in reptilian comfort.

He hopes that WallyGator won’t have to move soon.

“During a hot summer, he’s nice and cool to sleep with,” he said.

Hunger

Sometimes I think we hunger for our own love. A bowl of soup and crusty bread with sharp cheese. Give that picture to yourself, whatever is truly nourishing. You decide.

the audience will follow

 The trick is—never write exposition. That’s absolutely the trick. Never write it. The audience needs to understand what the story is, and if the hero understands what he or she is after then the audience will follow it. DAVID MAMET

Sam Lipsyte

But the meaning of it all is whatever happened when you were writing, and then the power of what you made. Those are the things that matter.

Sam Lipsyte

Helen Russell

 I read a lot and I listen a lot. The last three books I’ve really enjoyed and tend to recommend are Sara Pascoe’s Animal, Robert Webb’s How Not To Be A Boy, Laura Barnett’s The Versions of Us. But mainly I people-watch and eavesdrop – and I often find myself in absurd situations. I’ve always been a magnet for the ridiculous so writing is a great way of making sense of the world around me. Plus I like to keep on learning, so I’m always keen to research new topics or different ways of living – something I find incredibly inspiring.

And only do it if you love it – because it isn’t an easy option. It’s an unusual lifestyle and a lot of work. I sweat when I write – it becomes a physical thing, acting out dialogue and blocking movement. You have to live it.

Helen Russell

Regarding the creative: never assume you’re the master, only the student. Your audience will determine if you’re masterful. DON ROFF

Don't hope that events will turn out the way you want, welcome events in whichever way they happen: this is the path to peace. Marcus Aurelius

Stop the Car!

Stop the Car!

What?

There's chairs being thrown out.

Are they in good shape?

Yes!

My husband turned the car around and I got out and jammed them into the back seat. 3 olive-green resin chairs. ROMEO-pup sat on my lap in the front seat.

Elbow Street Blackberry Bushes

 

Black Coffee

 During allergy season I crave black coffee!

Olives, I love YOU

 https://www.marthastewart.com/1067256/11-delicious-ways-cook-olives?slide=357ee688-e493-4faf-a641-2cfad61b228b#357ee688-e493-4faf-a641-2cfad61b228b

Balsamic Red Onions they are Purple!

 https://www.marthastewart.com/344990/balsamic-red-onions

Balsamic Red Onions

Balsamic vinegar takes on a sweetness that makes it the perfect glaze for red onion slices.

Everyday Food, April 2011

Credit: Anna Wiliiams

Servings:

8

Ingredients

Ingredient Checklist

• 6 medium red onions, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick rounds
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves

Directions

Instructions Checklist

• Step 1

  Heat broiler, with rack in top position. On a rimmed baking sheet, place red onions in a single layer and drizzle with olive oil, turning to coat with oil. Season with salt and pepper. Broil onions until lightly charred, 4 minutes. Flip and brush with balsamic vinegar. Broil until lightly charred, 4 minutes. To serve, transfer to a platter and sprinkle with parsley. Serve warm or at room temperature.

 

How we react to the tragedy of one small person accurately reflects our attitude towards a whole nationality

“How we react to the tragedy of one small person accurately reflects our attitude towards a whole nationality, and increasing the numbers doesn't change much.”
― Anna Politkovskaya, Is Journalism Worth Dying For?: Final Dispatches

“People sometimes pay with their lives for saying aloud what they think. In fact, one can even get killed for giving me information. I am not the only one in danger. I have examples that prove it.”
― Anna Politkovskaya

“We are hurtling back into a Soviet abyss, into an information vacuum that spells death from our own ignorance. All we have left is the internet, where information is still freely available. For the rest, if you want to go on working as a journalist, it's total servility to Putin. Otherwise, it can be death, the bullet, poison, or trial—whatever our special services, Putin's guard dogs, see fit.”
― Anna Politkovskaya

“Do you still think the world is vast? That if there is a conflagration in one place it does not have a bearing on another, and that you can sit it out in peace on your veranda admiring your absurd petunias?”
― Anna Politkovskaya

“At least a circus performance does not last long, and the regime availing itself of the services of clownish journalists has the longevity of a mouldering mushroom.”
― Anna Politkovskaya, Is Journalism Worth Dying For?: Final Dispatches

“What matter is the information, not what you think about it.”
― Anna Politkovskaya, Is Journalism Worth Dying For?: Final Dispatches

“This political line is wholly neo-Soviet: human beings do not have independent existences, they are cogs in the machine whose function is to implement unquestioningly whatever political escapades those in power dream up. Cogs have no rights. Not even to dignity in death.”
― Anna Politkovskaya, Putin's Russia

“VLADIMIR BYKOVSKY, Chuvashia: “Do you allow yourself emotions?” PUTIN: “Unfortunately, I do.” DOBROSLAVA”
― Anna Politkovskaya, A Russian Diary

“Shortly after the elections, Putin went so far as to inform us that Parliament was a place not for debate, but for legislative tidying up. He was pleased that the new Duma would not be given to debating.”
― Anna Politkovskaya, A Russian Diary

“The poor are not property owners, so the democrats ignored them. The nationalists did not. Not”
― Anna Politkovskaya, A Russian Diary

“When the Fascists entered Denmark, the Jews were ordered to sew yellow stars on their clothing so they could be easily recognized. The Danes promptly sewed on yellow stars, both to save the Jews and to save themselves from turning into Fascists. Their king joined with them. In”
― Anna Politkovskaya, Putin's Russia: Life in a Failing Democracy

“PUTIN: “No civilized state can live without a legislative institution. A great deal depends on the Duma. We expect efficient, systematic work.” ALEXANDER”
― Anna Politkovskaya, A Russian Diary

“Maintaining the territorial integrity of the state was recently one of our own main problems and priorities. By and large that task has been accomplished. Following these principles, we cannot refuse to apply them to our neighbors.”
― Anna Politkovskaya, A Russian Diary

“Alvi also told them that the main reason his family was in Moscow and not in Chechnya, in spite of how uncomfortable things were for them here, was to enable their children to go to school without a war taking place around them. Zulai was a math teacher, but she had to work at a market stall in Moscow, not something she was good at. They spent their evenings rolling chicken cutlets to sell in the morning. Everything he and Zulai did was for the sake of their children. “Well, how about that! They’re worming their way right into the center of Moscow! And they expect to be given a $500 apartment!” This was the reaction of the parents’ committee to Alvi’s appeal.
― Anna Politkovskaya, Putin's Russia: Life in a Failing Democracy

I wonder and can’t find confirmation that he is a human being.

On 7 October 2006, the widely respected Russian journalist and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya, an outspoken critic of Putin’s government and propaganda, was murdered. The courageous Politkovskaya, who was not afraid to speak and write about the atrocities of the Russian president, was shot dead on his birthday…

On this anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s birthday we offer you six quotes from Anna Politkovskaya. They are based on her long-term observations of the Russian leader.

1. What reasons do I have to dislike Putin? There are many. For one, his artlessness, which is worse than theft. His cynicism and racism. His endless war and lies. The gassing at “Nord-Ost.” The corpses of innocent victims, accompanying his entire first term. Those are corpses which could have been avoided.

2. I often wonder if Putin is human at all, or a frozen or iron statue. I wonder and can’t find confirmation that he is a human being.

3. Putin, having accidentally received enormous power into his hands, administered it to catastrophic consequences for Russia. And I do not like him, because he does not like people. He can’t stand us. He despises us. He believes that we are a means him only, a means to achieve his own personal power goals. Therefore, he can do anything he wishes to us, plays with us as he pleases, destroys us, if he wishes. For him, we are nobody. And he, having accidentally scrambled to the top, is now a king and a god, whom everybody should worship and fear.

4. Putin has propped up his rule solely on the clay struts of the oligarchy – ordinary people did not find a place for themselves in this scheme. He is friends with some oligarchs, and fights with others, and it is this that we call supreme State Administration, when billionaires who have divided oil and gas reserves among themselves, have ultimate importance.

5. Why do I dislike Putin? For the years that pass by. This summer it will be five years since the second Chechen war was initiated for the sake of Putin’s first ascension to presidency, and it is still ongoing.

6. Putin’s style of politics displays deep personal resentment. Putin has many times publicly demonstrated that he fundamentally does not understand the purpose of a debate, especially a political debate. According to Putin, a discussion between a superior and his subordinates should not be possible.  

Source: obozrevatel.co

Today is the birthday of Russian journalist Anna Stepanova Politkovskaya

Today is the birthday of Russian journalist Anna Stepanova Politkovskaya, author of Putin's Russia and A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya.

Anna was born in New York City in 1958 while her parents, who were Ukrainian diplomats, were at the United Nations, but she grew up in Moscow, graduating from the Moscow State University's school of journalism in 1980 with a thesis on the Russian and Soviet poet Marina Ivanova Tsvetaeva. Anna married and had two children and settled down to the business of becoming a fearless, award-winning reporter who would speak for the victims of conflict even in the face of great personal risk.

Anna began her career as a reporter and editor for the accidents and emergencies section at a long-running Russian newspaper, Izvestia, then moved to another paper where she wrote about social problems, in particular the plight of refugees. But it was at Novaya Gazeta, a strongly investigative Russian newspaper that was critical of the post-Soviet regime, that Anna came into her own.

She was highly critical of Vladimir Putin, the former KGB lieutenant colonel who had become the second president of the Russian Federation. As she wrote of him in a later article, "Poisoned by Putin," it was under him that Russia was "hurtling back into a Soviet abyss, into an information vacuum that spells death from our own ignorance ... if you want to go on working as a journalist, it's total servility to Putin. Otherwise, it can be death, the bullet, poison, or trial — whatever our special services, Putin's guard dogs, see fit."

During the Second Chechen War, which began in 1999 when Russian forces entered Chechnya to end its de facto independence and reestablish Russian federal control of the territory, Anna distinguished herself reporting on what she called "state versus group terrorism," documenting torture, mass executions, kidnappings, and the sale by Russian soldiers of Chechen corpses to their families so that they might be given proper Islamic burials. She came to the conclusion that the only response one could possibly expect to such treatment would be more militant resistance, more terrorism, and the recruitment of more resistance fighters.

Anna reported directly from the killing fields, putting herself in harm's way, exposing what she called "medieval barbarity" in all its red and vivid brutality. In 2001, in the course of investigating punitive raids by the Russians on Chechen families, she was detained by Russian military officials who beat her, threatened horrific acts on her children, staged a mock execution of her with a rocket launcher, and forced her to drink poisoned tea to make her sick. Anna received numerous death threats, at least nine according to a colleague at Novaya Gazeta; she never denied being afraid, but her personal sense of responsibility and concern for her informants and for the people she spoke for would not allow her to give up or run away. She never spent more than a few weeks of her life outside of Russia, and though she had a passport and a U.S. visa, she apparently never even considered leaving Russia to report from a safer location. She said once, during a 2005 press conference in Vienna, that, "People sometimes pay with their lives for saying aloud what they think ... I am not the only one in danger."

In 2004, Anna was poisoned as part of what has come to be seen as a triple-whammy against free press in Russia. En route to cover the Beslan school hostage crisis, Anna, who had taken nothing that day because in her own words, "war has taught me that it better not to eat" before a conflict, was given a cup of tea and was unconscious within minutes. She later woke in a regional hospital where her doctors told her she had been poisoned and that the tests that had been performed at the airport were already destroyed. A second journalist who reported on Chechen war atrocities and who had also suffered a kidnapping by Russian forces was detained and jailed en route to Beslan, the third hit coming when the editor of Izvestia was sacked following that paper's graphic accounts of the Beslan massacre.

On the afternoon of October 4th, 2006, Anna returned to her central Moscow flat from a shopping trip with a load of bags and parcels. She dropped the bags in her apartment and then took the lift back down. As the lift doors opened, she was shot four times in the chest and once in the head at point blank range, and was found by a neighbor, lying on the floor with the handgun and empty shell casings beside her. She was 48.

Anna's murder by all accounts appeared to be a contract killing. And in a page straight out of Ian Fleming, two years later Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB and FSB officer turned journalist who spoke against Putin for Beslan and accused him of acts of terrorism and of ordering the death of Anna Politkovskaya, was poisoned and killed by the rare and radioactive isotope polonium-210. He had apparently been poisoned by a pot of tea.

Slice red onion and drop into olive brine overnight.

Slice red onion and drop into olive brine overnight. Then, the next day add to sliced fresh tomatoes+sliced green or your favorite olives. Delish.

Is Cold Water Swimming Good for You?

According to Diwadkar, while science has long focused on the destructive nature of stress, more emerging research shows that willfully stressing your mind and body in a controlled way helps train your system to better handle stress. He believes exposure to controlled stress releases neurochemicals in the brain that may be beneficial.

This response is similar to a "runner's high." This process, known as hormesis, is empowering, boosts confidence and mood, and with practice, it may translate to stress management in daily life. 

https://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/articles/is-cold-water-swimming-good-for-me

Freedom of Expression

 https://www.aclu.org/other/freedom-expression

Paul Krugman

Opinion

Paul Krugman

Why Student Debt Relief Isn’t Elitist

Aug. 29, 2022

By Paul Krugman

Opinion Columnist

Embarrassing admission: I have been watching the TV show “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.” I’m not, in general, a fan of the superhero genre; but after “Orphan Black” I’ll watch anything starring Tatiana Maslany.

Anyway, one of the show’s plot points is that the title character is reluctant to reveal her superpowers. Why? Among other things, she’s worried (correctly, it turns out) that once people know what she can do she’ll have a hard time paying off her student loans.

I don’t think the writers were trying to make a political statement. They were just acknowledging the pervasiveness of student debt — and anxiety about student debt — in modern America. And that pervasiveness is why Republicans’ attacks on President Biden’s debt-relief policy — which they generally portray as a giveaway either to privileged elites or to lazy spendthrifts — are likely to fall flat.

Let’s talk about the numbers. The Biden administration says that its plan will provide relief to as many as 43 million Americans. That’s a lot of people, not a small, cosseted elite. In particular, data from the New York Fed say that more than 12 million Americans in their 30s — more than a quarter of that age group — still have unpaid student debt.

What this means is that even if you subscribe to the Trump diner theory of politics — according to which the only voters who matter are blue-collar guys wearing baseball caps — you should be aware that some of those guys probably took out loans to attend trade schools or community colleges, all too often getting nothing but debt in return. Even among those who didn’t take out student loans, many probably have children, siblings, cousins or friends who did. So the Biden plan will touch many people.

In short, student debt relief isn’t some kind of niche elite concern; it’s a broad, one might even say populist, issue. Initial polling on the Biden plan is somewhat mixed, with an Emerson College survey showing much stronger support than a CBS/YouGov survey. Even the latter survey, however, finds a majority of Americans approving of the plan; it even finds much less opposition among noncollege whites than you might have expected given that group’s general disapproval of all things Biden.

The other prong of the right-wing response involves invoking personal responsibility — in effect, portraying the recipients of debt relief as welfare queens. Republican efforts on that front have, however, been extraordinarily tone-deaf.

Just on general political principles, telling tens of millions of Americans that they’re lazy and irresponsible — that they’re all, as Ted Cruz put it, like a “slacker barista” who wasted years “studying completely useless things” — seems … not smart. To be brutally honest, that sort of caricature may have worked for Republicans when the insults were directed at urban Black people. But it’s likely to backfire when we’re talking about a broad spectrum of Americans who were just trying to move up in the world.

Furthermore, many of the most prominent critics of debt relief are almost comically out of touch, hypocritical, or both. Actually, scratch the “almost.”

For example, Marco Rubio has proudly declared that he paid off all his student debt — after being elected to the Senate and getting a book contract. Why can’t everyone do that?

On the hypocrisy front, the White House is having a field day mocking Republican members of Congress whose businesses received debt forgiveness under the Paycheck Protection Program. It’s true that debt relief for employers who maintained their work forces in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic was built into that program; it’s also true that later research suggests that only about a quarter of P.P.P. funds supported jobs that would otherwise have disappeared. The rest was, in effect, a giveaway to business owners.

More generally, it’s hard to take lectures on personal responsibility seriously when they come from a movement full of people — from Donald Trump, famous for stiffing his contractors, on down — who have long refused to pay money they owe. It’s hard to beat the spectacle of Stephen Moore, who Donald Trump tried to appoint to the Federal Reserve, calling people who don’t pay their debts “deadbeats”; after all, Moore’s nomination failed in part because it turned out that he had refused to pay his ex-wife $300,000 in child support and alimony.

Now, none of this means that the Biden plan should be exempt from criticism, although the vehemence with which some centrists have attacked it remains puzzling. Above all, the plan offers some one-time relief, but it doesn’t solve the underlying problem that led to all that student debt — which isn’t a proliferation of slacker baristas; it’s a society that demands educational credentials for many jobs without making education affordable.

The thing is, Biden tried to address this underlying problem; free community college was part of his original Build Back Better proposal. But he couldn’t get it through Congress. He is, however, offering some real help to millions of Americans — and Republicans clearly have no idea how to respond.

Buttermilk Scones from Baking with Julia

Recipe by : Marion Cunningham

List of Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter -- cold (6 ounces), cut into small pieces
1 cup buttermilk --
1 tablespoon grated orange zest -- or lemon zest

1/2 stick unsalted butter -- (2 ounces), melted, for brushing
1/4 cup sugar -- for dusting

4 tablespoons jam -- or jelly,
and/or
4 tablespoons dried fruit -- diced
or small, plump, such as currants, raisins,
apricots, or figs, for filling (optional)

Recipe

Position the oven racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 425°F.

Mixing and Kneading: In a medium bowl, stir the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking
soda, and salt together with a fork. Add the cold butter pieces and, using your fingertips (the first choice), a pastry blender, or two knives, work the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.It's OK if some largish pieces of butter remain--they'll add to the scones' flakiness.

Pour in 1 cup buttermilk, toss in the zest, and mix with the fork only until the ingredients are just moistened--you'll have a soft dough with a rough look. (If the dough looks dry, add another tablespoon of buttermilk.) Gather the dough into a ball, pressing it gently so that it holds together, turn it out onto a lightly floured work surface, and knead it very briefly--a
dozen turns should do it. Cut the dough in half.

TO MAKE TRIANGULAR-SHAPED SCONES, roll one piece of dough into a 1/2-inch-thick circle that is about 7 inches across. Brush the dough with half of the melted butter, sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of the sugar, and cut the circle into 6 triangles. Place the scones on an ungreased baking sheet and set aside while you roll out the rest of the dough.

TO MAKE ROLLED SCONES, roll one piece of dough into a strip that is 12 inches long
and 1/2 inch thick (the piece will not be very wide). Spread the strip with half of
the melted butter and dust with half of the sugar. If you want to spread the roll with jam and/or sprinkle it with dried fruits, now's the time to do so; leave a narrow border on a long edge bare. Roll the strip up from a long side like a jelly roll; pinch the seam closed and turn the roll seam side down. Cut the roll in half and cut each piece into six 1-inch-wide rollups. Place the rolled scones cut side down on an ungreased baking sheet, leaving a little space between each one. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Baking the Scones: Bake the scones for 10 to 12 minutes, until both the tops and bottoms
are golden. Transfer the scones to a rack to cool slightly. These are best served warm but are just fine at room temperature.

Storing: If you're not going to eat the scones the day they are made, wrap them airtight and freeze; they'll stay fresh for a month. To serve, defrost the scones at room temperature in their wappers, then unwrap and reheat on a baking sheet for 5 minutes in a 350°F oven.

NOTES : Makes 12 triangular or 24 rolled scones.

Pumpkin Scones

 https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/pumpkin-scones/

Born

“Every morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.”

― Buddha

Thankful

“Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful.”

― Buddha

Purpose

“Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it.”
― Buddha

Doubt Everything

“Doubt everything. Find your own light.”

― Gautama Buddha, Sayings Of Buddha

Holding On

“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.”

― Buddha

Three things can not hide for long: the Moon, the Sun and the Truth. Buddha

No one saves us but ourselves.

  “No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.”
― Gautama Buddha, Sayings Of Buddha

“Peace comes from within.  Do not seek it without.”
― Siddhārtha Gautama

Praise and blame, gain and loss, pleasure and sorrow come and go like the wind.

To be happy, rest like a giant tree in the midst of them all. 

Buddha

Phoebe Martone: Various thoughts that flow through the transom of my mind

 

"Look," my mother would say when I was a kid, "it's the Good Year blimp," and she'd point. The sky was a fascinating place. Sometimes there'd be an explosive noise, and my father would say, "someone's breaking the sound barrier." He said it meant the plane was going faster than sound. I struggled to comprehend that. So exotic up there in the limitless skies, way beyond what we could ever imagine; the thought of infinity makes me dizzy, but it stretches the imagination.

 

I have a problem. I can't stop loving someone once I've loved them. I can stop liking them. I can stop trusting them. But I can't stop loving them. So I still love four men. Either that or leftover love from years past still clings to me. What's the difference. I still love.

 

Flea dosing time. Not my favorite. I have a trio of the most squiggly, wriggly animals whenever it comes to flea control. I actually plan it out in my head, but I'm a defeatist. I know they can fly, if only for a brief moment, and that's all it takes. And they rat on me. They run out the kitty door and tell the others in the yard, "You better lay low. That nutty lady is at it again."

 

I have a scary looking weed out back that I need to pull out with my leather garden gloves. It's lethal looking and is growing like the plant in The Little Shop of Horrors. It's got loads of thorns and it keeps saying "feed me, feed me." Can't put it off any longer. Going in. . . I only managed to get it because I'm bigger. Next time I might not be so lucky.

 

My first apartment in San Francisco was beautiful. I think it was 1963. It was in a building right up against Stanyan Street where the park began. I loved feeling lonely in my trench coat in the fog, like somebody out of a movie. Good thing the deli wasn't far away. My mother was a wonderful cook, but she was back in New Jersey. My apartment had glass cabinets, a clawfoot tub with a view of the telephone wires, a marble sink, and plaster designs on the ceilings.

 

I remember the Blue Unicorn Cafe where there were interesting characters, and homemade cake and people playing chess. Sometimes a poetry reading or someone playing a guitar. I remember the Columbo Cafe in north beach, a tiny Italian restaurant with affordable prices, left over from times past. And the bookstores and thrift shops. My friend Mary sewed the costumes for The Lamplighters, a Gilbert and Sullivan acting company and I volunteered to sew on various trims. She told me to hold the line when the actors asked for too many geegaws on their costumes. I learned to be tough.

 

We had the first tv on the block and that's probably why the boys let me play stickball with them. I was an outdoor kid, loved my bike and my roller skates, but I was never good at sports. For stickball, you used a stick and a pink bouncer. It worked very well in the vacant lots and the apartment parking lot around the corner – only I didn't have to go around the corner; I'd cut through the back of my yard to the apartments. I liked being around the boys, maybe because I always wanted a brother. I told my mother that an older brother would be nice.

 

I used to climb trees when I was a kid. In those days, the term "tomboy" was still popular. I looked it up, and it said current meaning is a "wild, romping girl (well, I did wear rompers), who acts like a spirited boy." I broke my wrist climbing a cherry tree when the branch broke. I couldn't swim all summer and it itched inside my cast. Sometimes when I climbed trees my imaginary playmate, Marilyn Monroe, would show up. She liked to climb trees too, and she was better at it than I was. She wore a plaid shirt and jeans and said how great it was not having to dress up.

 

My mother went on mosquito patrol right before bedtime. She walked around the house with a fly swatter and checked all walls for the little vectors. It's a drag to turn out the light and hear one buzzing near your face. Mosquitos had an appetite for my cousins, and we all knew it. We three girls would set out on the trail between their house and the back end of Rahway Park and its swimming pool. They always got more mosquito bites than I did. There was something about them that mosquitos went for. If they got hard up, they went after me, but as long as I was with my cousins, I was safe. I did feel a bit guilty when I saw them scratching, but I was still glad they didn't like me so much. 

 

Phoebe Martone   8/29/2022