Christmas in New York

My entire immediate family is making tracks to Puerto Rico for Christmas.

I will instead head to New York City for a sweet sojourn in my home town.

\

Williamsburg, Brooklyn New York

I'll sleep in the 'Burg, take the L train to Manhattan each day to eat bagels; gobble up ethnic food; indulge myself on Sushi; make a bee-line to New York Central; tear up at the old Art Store, now Dick Blick on Bond Street; venture into old territory and explore and discover the new.

Fuji Instax Mini 7s

I'll be certain to get over to B&H to check out cameras; and perhaps buy one, trade one in or just browse.

Red Paste for Chops

Chinese New Year

I'll wander around the back streets of China Town, buy a pot of red paste for my name chop and lunch at a fabulous dim sum restaurant.


I'll see Blake and Dickens at the Morgan; Jung at the Ruben; Man Ray at the Jewish Museum,

Tim Burton at the MoMA ©

and perhaps find my way to 53rd Street to see Tim Burton at MoMa (I just learned that tickets may make for long delays).

Rockefeller Center

If I do not dawdle, I might have time to see the skating rink aglow with Christmas lights; fashion on Madison Avenue; take the tram to Roosevelt Island; buy perfume at Bloomingdale's; drink cappuccino at some of my old cafe haunts; and take photographs of the Brooklyn Bridge.

High Tea at the Palm Court, Plaza Hotel

If the Plaza was offering high tea, it would be one of my musts, but I suspect it is still closed...instead I'll find an equally satisfying luxury in my travels.

I might even take an excursion to a pen shop.

Danger alights as my fingers tap out the the words, fountain pen.

Check out Kinokuniya in Bryant Park or RC.

What about a movie night; will I find some of those not here films in the City, like An Education?

I will not stint but indulge.

Will I be sated?

The Talented Miss Highsmith

WP's review of the book differs widely from that of the NY Times and its pre-review, so much so that I thought I was reading about two different biographies.

I look for more meat on the review plate and read the LA Times.

Mercury retrograde

21 Capricorn 46 Sat, Dec 26

5 Capricorn 35 Fri, Jan 15, 2010

21 Capricorn 46 Thu, Feb 4, 2010

Quote

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it."

-Goethe
(1749-1832)

The Films

Salon recommends: Synecdoche, New York; Platform; Inland Empire, Late Marriage.

Salon and the New York Times give Crazy Heart a review that makes it seem a "must see."

The Salon series on film recommendations here.

Avatar has had mixed reviews, but I'd like to see it for the effects and perhaps be affected by the story.

Children of Men, dystopia.

The Story of Marie & Julien (2003), a fantasy.

Art Bistro, AP recommendations here.

Truthdigs 20 best "meaningful" films here.

Quote

When obstacles arise,
you change your direction to reach your goal;
you do not change your decision to get there."
~ Zig Ziglar

Quote

Be Impeccable With Your Words
Don't Take Anything Personally
Don't Make Assumptions
Always Do Your Best

One Brief Moment: Nelson Mandela

For several days I've seen announcements about a new film about President Mandela and how well Morgan Freeman plays the role. I don't know if the subject matter, a rugby game, inspires me, the subject of "Invictus ," but I do know that Nelson Mandela has the charm and personal charisma to win the world.

I saw him on 8th Avenue. I shook his hand. I held his gaze as he held mine and we parted. A brief encounter of less than two minutes.

Recommended films, Daily Beast

Daily Beast had a segment of "neglected" films. The following interest me:

Adam, about a young man with asperger's syndrome
The Stoning of Soroya M, a Middle East tragedy and a woman's story about betrayal
Skin, a girl is born to two white parents in South Africa, with dark skin; seems poigant and timely
Lemon Tree, a grove threatened by Israeli-Palestine conflict and a woman's fight to survive personal destruction
My One and Only, a woman searches, in a comedy, her independence after searching for a "new husband."

Quema del Diablo en Guatemala

Garden of Earthly Delights (right panel),
Hieronymus Bosch, ~ 1504-1510

Many in Guatemala practice, "Quema del Diablo."

All year he hides under the bed or in the junk piled up in the corner, casting misfortune or worse on helpless mortals.

But this Monday, December 7 at 6 p.m. sharp, the devil gets his comeuppance, as he is tossed out of the house along with the trash and set ablaze in the Quema del Diablo (Burning the Devil), a tradition in many Guatemalan towns that literally sparks the beginning of the Christmas season.

~ Juan Carlos Ordóñez

Witness to your own life

Another terrific interview by Ricë Freeman-Zachery, this time with Wendy Hale Davis, bookbinder and journalist.

James Mason Retrospective

Photo via the Globe

Always among my favourites, a James Mason retrospective at the Brattle and a nice write up at the Globe.

Invention of the Jews

Sands book sounds fascinating. But will I read it?

Intimacy has yielded to oversharing

"Intimacy has yielded to oversharing," a resonating statement from Stacy Schiff's review of Thomas Mallon's new book, "Yours ever, People and their Letters, on letter writing in the New York Times.

Route 102

Blueberry Farm,
Photo: Paul E. Kandarian/For The Boston Globe

Fond memories.

The Hadza, Gatherer and Hunter, Tanzania

Photo: Martin Schoeller, National Geographic ©

I was captivated, and later enthralled by Michael Finkel's article in National Geographic about the Hadza, but sad to learn how their land, like others who live similarly, are being pushed out and beyond their lifestyle.

How will "they live a remarkably present-tense existence" if we continue to discard their ethic.

Dreams

I had some strange dreams about President Obama, and Senator McCain. Am I reading too many blogs?

The President was in danger? McCain appearing seemed unrelated.

I went to news immediately this morning to make sure nothing dramatic was occuring.

This report by the ADL is not relieving my mind.

Paced too much, too soon

Although I promised myself 15 minute work outs in getting the house and my life in order, I went overboard today, cutting down boxes and moving stuff into the car.

I managed to exhaust myself with a 40 minute stink in the cellar: one laundry done, another in the ready mode and 1/2 or 3/4 of the boxes and some other recyclables in the car.

I did, however, manage to spend another pace time going through some files, and decide to discard an entire plastic bag full.

I also had that difficult discussion I had been postponing with B and it went better than I could imagine.

Setting a Pace in a Place, Part I

Setting aside work stations

bill paying and mail collection
journal workstation
wet medium
dry medium
doodling
eating

Thinking and Doing Art

Spend a minimum of 30min each day doing some form of art.


Paper work

15 minutes alternate dates; payments to be made promptly,
15 minutes alternate dates, filing and de-cluttering of old files


Sorting and disposal

At intervals, sort more paper, magazines, clothing, 15 minutes each, 2 times per week
At the end of a two week period, put the sorted items together for disposal: to second hand store, library, offer on network etc.

At intervals, break up boxes or better yet, break up boxes on the day they go downstairs
At intervals of 1 x per month bring paper to Honesdale Recycle or 1 x per month to New York Recycle - plan visit when going to either town**

Eating better

Fat fighting foods.

Quotes

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.

Cyril Connolly
(1903 - 1974)

Quotes

Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done. ~ Louis D. Brandeis

Procrastination

Act after you plan:

• start with a written plan of action to avoid getting distracted
• keep your plan simple and straightforward
• start with the one thing you must get done today to feel productive
• should be a manageable item you can complete in 10-15 minutes
• break the day up into a number of "action sessions" for other tasks
• balance the time spent planning with time spent creating or doing
• avoid over-planning -- another method of procrastination
• before ending your day, spend 10 minutes reviewing your progress
• take time to plan your actions for the next day

Be Vision directed

• your tasks should match your values or purpose
• if not, you will find it hard to summon the energy to tackle them
• bring each task into congruence with your basic mission
• if you can't, take it off of your list

Bite sized bits

• don't put any "to-do" on your list that takes more than 30 minutes
• if it takes longer, it's actually a series of smaller "to-do's"
• break each step out and list it separately
• you don't have to tackle all the steps of a project in one sitting
• spread a large task out over several work sessions
• you will see greater progress as you check more items off your list
• you will avoid getting bogged down in one large task or project

Decide to schedule it

• determine how much you can do or tolerate at a time
• don't push yourself too far or you'll get bored or frustrated
• plan these project "pieces" into your daily activities
• set a "completion point" for accomplishing each small task
• completion points give you an end in sight to look forward to

Good enough is good enough

• don't try to do everything perfectly
• perfectionism often causes procrastination
• perfectionists would rather put it off than do an incomplete job
• rather than perfection, aim for progress
• any small step toward completion is an accomplishment

Just do it!

• do the worst job (or part of the job) first and get it out of the way
• once you tackle the part you are dreading, the rest is a breeze
• stop spending time planning and just jump into doing it
• set a time limit -- "I'll file papers for 5 minutes"
• alternate unpleasant jobs with tasks you enjoy
• delegate out items you can't make yourself do

Plan around interruptions

• interruptions tend to occur in identifiable patterns
• notice when interruptions occur, by whom, and why
• take steps to prevent those interruptions before they occur
• if they can't be prevented, learn how to delegate to someone else
• if they can't be delegated, learn how to delay until you are finished

Remember to make it fun

• make the project and environment as pleasant as possible
• play music, open a window, have a cold drink, etc.
• give yourself the best tools and work space for the project
• take a few minutes to organize your work space
• a clean desk allows you to focus without visual distraction
• it's only a chore if you think of it as a chore

Staying motivated

• find an "accountability partner" to track your progress
• schedule a regular time to check in with a friend or colleague
• rewarding your accomplishments encourages productivity
• give yourself a break, a treat, a nap -- whatever is a reward for you
• reward every step along the way, not just the end result
• the bigger the accomplishment, the bigger the reward

(The above is taken in whole from Ramona Creel. Copyright resides with the author. Content provided by OnlineOrganizing.com -- offering "a world of organizing solutions!" Visit www.onlineorganizing.com for organizing products, free tips, a speakers bureau, get a referral for a Professional Organizer near you, or get some help starting and running your own organizing business.)

Another Way to be organised: Moleskine

The Woman Who Named God

Poet and scholar, Charlotte Gordon, undoubtedly did massive research to bring, "The Woman Who Named God," to print. With so little narrative in the Old Testament about Hagar, one is left more with interpretation than fact. However, conjuncture about the role of Hagar to Abram (Abraham) and Sarai (Sarah), and later to Islam, couldn't come at a better historical cross-roads as Islam, Christianity and Judaism all continue to spar for their special place as God's Chosen.

One could postulate or fantasize about how the Middle East would have been a different landscape, with other issues, if Hagar and Ismael had remained with Abram and Sarai, or conversely, how Islam might have never emerged if Abram had followed his first instruction's from Yahweh.

It appears more women are entering the biblical writing arena, each exploring either other female biblical figures like Gordon, or exploring biblical implications, like Elaine Pagels and Karen Armstrong. Each bring a unique vision to what has been traditionally the purview of men. I welcome their perspective and applaud their academic resourcefulness.

Quotes, Shaw said,

George Bernard Shaw

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing.

Good lot of movie references for the end

Following the caption for 2012, the article covers some movies I've missed.

Trust in a todo list

Call Verizon to reset the two outlets: bedroom, studio
Ask one of Jo-Anns boys to help me

1. move furniture around
2. rug to bedroom
3. remove rug in study-office
4. move chest upstairs
5. move small table indoors (I might be able to do this myself)
   

V - the movie

Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor each morning the Devil says, "Aw crap, she's up!

A fool's paradise is a wise man's hell!

Fuller, Thomas on Paradise
Quote from Quotations Book

What Scares You?

Here are some good scares, suggested by writers in the WP.

Good breakfasts

It would be nice to have, on hand, good breakfast foods. These are promising.

A book review that might inspire me write again

Salon interviews Jonathan Lethem about his latest book, "Chronic City," and while I've read several other reviews, and listened to a podcast at the New York Times, it was the comparison to his own growing "cultural worldliness" that erupted inside.

"What made me myself," I wondered. And that in itself is a story.

I don't remember a single mentor, but rather a gradual tutoring in life that occurred, and at a distance seems to have happened almost existentially.

@ 25 October--reading a magazine piece in the New York Times, an image floated before my eyes that I hadn't thought of for three decades: a chance drama teaching gig in New Jersey, substituting for my voice coach, at age 20. John gave me that rare opportunity that was empowering and thrilling. Mentor!

@ 14 November - the ideal reader

Our children

Frederick Douglass: “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”

Splendour in the Grass

Splendour in the Grass

What though the radiance
which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass,
of glory in the flower,
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
In the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be;
In the soothing thoughts that spring
Out of human suffering;
In the faith that looks through death,
In years that bring the philosophic mind.

-- William Wordsworth

Black and White hugging each other, PBS

The ongoing series Craft in America on PBS is spectacular. And the words that many of the artists use to describe their process are inspiring and thought provoking. The artists share the inspiration that comes from memory, landscape, education and places explored and unexplored.

It is worth its weight to possibly buy the series.

An Education

How I want to see this new film about Jenny.

Both Salon and the Daily Beast are giving it rather good reviews.

And the New York Times reviews it, too, today, but not so sweetly.

What a delightful interview with Lynn Barber, the writer behind the film.

Good advice for wellness, energy

Good recommendations to promote energy.

children

Abba in the Garden

Quote: Children by Chesteron

G. K. Chesterton

Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.

Quote: Rumi on balance

Rumi said, "Out beyond ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing, there is a field. I'll meet you there."

Dick Cavett's Blog, Richard Burton

Five bits here to view from 1980 on between Dick Cavett and Sir Richard Burton.

Angel, Susan Boyle

Wild Horses - Susan Boyle

Quote: Camus

"In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer."
~ Camus

Jonson Quote

Art hath an enemy called Ignorance.
~Ben Jonson

7 Days of Dinners

Yahoo offers these 7 dinners to consider.

Isle of Forgetfulness

She walked purposefully, resolutely, trodding the dirt path into the future, mindful of her footfalls, but mindless of what was ahead.

Winston Churchill Quote

“The further backward you can look, the further forward you can see.”

4 things

- called two Senators, one local representative, one federal representative and the Democratic headquarters to learn more about the changes in medicare advantage.

- followed up with an email to ud.

- sent a proposal to the rr for a story that interests me.

- called the SPLC to get info about the possible rise of neo-Nazis and white supremacists now.

On Friendship

This piece in the Globe came today as an eye-opener in several ways.

Sweet, Simple, Skillet Summer

What an endearing read here of summer, the Cape, peaches and an iron skillet.

Nothing pleases me more than a hefty skillet, other than an easy to clean pan or pot of Italian heritage.

And separated myself by miles from good food, readily available fresh produce and ample spices, this story stoked my desire to make a peach crisp.

NPR summer book picks

Summer reading list from NPR here.

I heard the author on NPR

Now here is a review of "Roger and Me."

His experiences with non-human primates were fascinating and I found myself comparing them to my own.

PTS Flashback

Watching Criminal Minds, I just had a PTS flashback to September 11 and its aftermath.

I cried for the first time since that week.

Quote

We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered. -- Tom Stoppard (Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead)

Quotes

You must not for one instant give up the effort to build new lives for yourselves. Creativity means to push open the heavy, groaning doorway to life. This is not an easy struggle. Indeed, it may be the most difficult task in the world, for opening the door to your own life is, in the end, more difficult than opening the door to the mysteries of the universe.
Daisaku Ikeda

An idea, a title

Djerba, Isle of Forgetfulness, Tunisia

The Isle of Forgetfulness

Is there anything new in the world? The Isle of Forgetfulness.

Ulysses and the Sirens

And here more.

Jane said

I have a memory palace. It has to be big.

Custom

Some custom stationary here.

Elizabeth Golden's Dip

Chunky Blue Cheese Dressing or Dip

1 cup of crumbled blue cheese - about 4 1/2 ounces
1 cup light sour cream - I use no fat
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
pepper to taste

2012

Pushing journaling

Quotation on Writing

Mr. Ken Saro-Wiwa said that he often envied Western writers “who can peacefully practice their craft.” Yet he also recognized that wasn’t his path. As he wrote in 1993, “The writer cannot be a mere storyteller, he cannot be a mere teacher; he cannot merely X-ray society’s weaknesses, its ills, its perils, he or she must be actively involved shaping its present and its future.” (see book review section NYT, 5/3, here and here.

Rhubarb Pie

It has been more than 15 years since I had rhubarb pie and it was delicious.

Here's a recipe or two.

Quotation

You must not for one instant give up the effort to build new lives for yourselves. Creativity means to push open the heavy, groaning doorway to life. This is not an easy struggle. Indeed, it may be the most difficult task in the world, for opening the door to your own life is, in the end, more difficult than opening the door to the mysteries of the universe.

Daisaku Ikeda

Making Bread

3 Easy Steps to Making The Best Bread Ever

1. Combine 4 cups unbleached, white flour, 1 teaspoon baking yeast, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1.5 cups water. Mush around in a bowl until it forms a shaggy dough ball. Use your hands; don't be afraid! Let sit, covered with a piece of foil or plastic, for three hours (save the foil to re-use the next time you bake bread.)
2. Once it's risen, form into a round ball (using a little bit of loose flour on your hands, as it can be sticky) and plop on an un-greased baking sheet (with the smoothest side facing up). Take a sharp knife and make 3 decorative slashes on the top (to allow air to escape, and to look profesh.) Put in 450 degree preheated oven for twenty minutes, then lower to 350 for another thirty. I put a ceramic dish of water in the oven, too, which makes the bread crusty on the outside, soft on the inside.
3. Once the bread is ready, it'll look browned and if you tap the bottom it should sound hollow. Let sit on the countertop until it cools. Remember: don't cut it until cooled, because the inside of the loaf is still cooking even while outside of the oven. Serve with butter and honey, or jam, or whatever…

via Huffington

Quotes

“Courage is one step ahead of fear.” ~ Coleman Young

Challenges of Writing via Huffington

One of the challenges of writing is...writing. Here are some tips that I've found most useful for myself, for actually getting words onto the page:

1. Write something every work-day, and preferably, every day; don't wait for inspiration to strike. Staying inside a project keeps you engaged, keeps your mind working, and keeps ideas flowing. Also, perhaps surprisingly, it's often easier to do something almost every day than to do it three times a week. (This may be related to the abstainer/moderator split.)

2. Remember that if you have even just fifteen minutes, you can get something done. Don't mislead yourself, as I did for several years, with thoughts like, "If I don't have three or four hours clear, there's no point in starting."

3. Don't binge on writing. Staying up all night, not leaving your house for days, abandoning all other priorities in your life -- these habits lead to burn-out.

4. If you have trouble re-entering a project, stop working in mid-thought -- even mid-sentence -- so it's easy to dive back in later.

5. Don't get distracted by how much you are or aren't getting done. I put myself in jail.

6. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that creativity descends on you at random. Creative thinking comes most easily when you're writing regularly and frequently, when you're constantly thinking about your project.

7. Remember that lots of good ideas and great writing come during the revision stage. I've found, for myself, that I need to get a beginning, middle, and an end in place, and then the more creative and complex ideas begin to form. So I try not to be discouraged by first drafts.

8. Develop a method of keeping track of thoughts, ideas, articles, or anything that catches your attention. That keeps you from forgetting ideas that might turn out to be important, and also, combing through these materials helps stimulate your creativity. My catch-all document, where I store everything related to happiness that I don't have another place for, is more than five hundred pages long. Some people use inspiration boards; others keep scrapbooks. Whatever works for you.

9. Pay attention to your physical comfort. Do you have a decent desk and chair? Are you cramped? Is the light too dim or too bright? Make a salute--if you feel relief when your hand is shading your eyes, your desk is too brightly lit. Check your body, too: lower your shoulders, make sure your tongue isn't pressed against the top of your mouth, don't sit in a contorted way. Being physically uncomfortable tires you out and makes work seem harder.

10. Try to eliminate interruptions -- by other people, email, your phone, or poking around the Internet -- but don't tell yourself that you can only work with complete peace and quiet.

11. Over his writing desk, Franz Kafka had one word: "Wait." My brilliantly creative friend Tad Low, however, keeps a different word on his desk: "Now." Both pieces of advice are good.

12. If you're stuck, try going for a walk and reading a really good book. Virginia Woolf noted to herself: "The way to rock oneself back into writing is this. First gentle exercise in the air. Second the reading of good literature. It is a mistake to think that literature can be produced from the raw."

13. At least in my experience, the most important tip for getting writing done? Have something to say! This sounds obvious, but it's a lot easier to write when you're trying to tell a story, explain an idea, convey an impression, give a review, or whatever. If you're having trouble writing, forget about the writing and focus on what you want to communicate. For example, I remember flailing desperately as I tried to write my college and law-school application essays. It was horrible -- until in both cases I realized I had something I really wanted to say. Then the writing came easily, and those two essays are among my favorites of things I've ever written.

The Happiness Project book is due out in January. In the book, I describe my experience writing a novel in a month, inspired by Chris Baty's No Plot? No Problem! Yes, you can write a real novel in one month. It was a lot of fun.

* I always find something great on Dumb Little Man.

* If you're starting your own happiness project, please join the Page on Facebook to swap ideas. It's easy; it's free.

On the road dream

Nice (France) Railway Station*

Car, Marijke, Sarah, Belgium, Amsterdam, perhaps Jane Blake, travel, petrol station, many different roads to follow.

M and S are going to Europe. I remember my displeasure that M was going to Belgium and not Amsterdam. I wondered, as I do in life, why she has no active curiosity about where she was born.

We and I am not certain who this we is are in a vast territory. I was driving and went off the road to get petrol and use the Loo.

At the railway station we all seem to converge and I use another route while M is in the Loo.

When I emerge another person who appears to be a friend enters another stairwell and she says, "there you are."

And in the course of this brief interaction, I say it is safe, and she says, "no I'd rather go the 90 dollar route."

For reasons I can't pinpoint, yet, when reviewing this dream a few hours later, Nice's railway station came to mind. I have not been to this station since 1967. Not incidental to this connection is that when I was in Nice I was part of a traffic accident that ruptured my spleen.

Another glimpse of a dream, a message

Newport Bridge, Rhode Island

Cars, Vincenzo, Martin, little children, art work, a bridge, dolls, all appear in a dream that indicated my vision was off.

Three people sitting up front, fog, a bridge, I had to stop, pull over and get my bearings.

Dreams

Babette's Feast

One of loss, another of gain.

One in historic Germany during the Holocaust, the second more local with lots of good cooking, friends and of all people, Rene.

I am wondering how these two dreams tie into or back to my card of the day or my reading or viewing these days.

And the second dream had some interesting twists, much of which I can no longer remember, but the last bit of the dream was a telephone call to the house asking for "abundance" and suggesting Rene said we had so much to offer freebies were being offered.

In this same dream two featured players were young, male and blonde.

As I am a strong believer that all the players, characters, people in our dreams are ourselves, I have to ask myself how these young males play a role in my life.

And when I ask that question I find myself back to my card of the day picks.

Recently I have been pulling coins/pentacles, court cards and Major Arcana. If I took the last cards I pulled and did a spread I wonder what it would indicate.

I think I will try that later today or tomorrow.

Programming

Until this year I never watched a television series, especially not through to its seasonal end. But this year I did, and these left me speechless:

- NCIS I watched on the net the day after its conclusion. The team went to Israel after a Mossad agent was killed by Tony. Ziva stayed behind but at the end we see Ziva bloody and being beaten by Arabs.
- CSI-NY ended with the entire team together under attack and ducking for cover. The after-preview implied one or more of the team would not be back, but they didn't know who would be written out of the series.
- CSI-Miami ended with Eric shot accidentally by Calleigh and missing after trying to save his father.
- Criminal Minds ended after a 2hr special with Hotchner facing a masked intruder with a gun.

Quick Pear Streusel Coffee Cake

Quick Pear Streusel Coffee Cake By Gale Gand From her grandmother on her mother's side, a great baker in the Austria-Hungarian tradition, Gail found this great ample streusel coffee cake recipe in her card files. And here it is revised with a little twist from using pears instead of apples. For the cake: Unsalted butter, for the baking dish 1 1/4c. All purpose flour 2 1/4tsp. baking powder 1/2c. Sugar 1/2tsp. salt 1/2tsp. ground cinnamon One at large egg 1/2c. Whole milk 4tbsp. unsalted butter, melted 2 ripe pears (Bartlett's are preferred,) unpeeled cored and chopped approximately 1 1/2c. For the streusel topping: 1/2c. Sugar 1/4c. All purpose flour 3tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut up 1tsp. ground cinnamon Heat the oven to 400°F.Butter and 8inch square baking dish. To make cake combine the flour with the baking powder, sugar, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl. In separate bowl, beat the eggs and then mix in the milk and melted butter. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, add the pears and mix well. Pour this into the buttered baking dish. To make the streusel, mix with the sugar, flour, cold butter and cinnamon in a bowl by the pinching them together with your fingers until well combined. Sprinkle over at the top of the batter. Bake the cake for 30 to 35 minutes until it is golden and dry on top. Cool in and the pan and then cut into squares. This cake keeps for to four days covered at room temperature Recipe courtesy "Gale Gand's Brunch," written by Gale Gand with Christie Matheson, Clarkson Potter, 2009.

The final poem in Poetry Month

Written Late at Night

Almost all day I sat at the table
And, swapping two pens, wrote letters.
One of them, as a joke, was in gothic script.
I tried to be honest, avoid untruth
As far as the truth about myself and events
In their general contour was accessible to me.
Then a few longer phone conversations
And a short break to read eight poems by Cavafy.
How great! Superb! Who can write like that about desire and love,
Admitting that when they burn out
And the bitter tasting of the body is taken away,
They guide the poet’s hand. In them and only in them
All future incantations.

Poet: Janusz Szuber, Translator, Ewa Hryniewicz-Yarbrough

From: They Carry a Promise, Random House

Sal Mancini, Photographer

NPR: Meals under $10.00

Chefs submitting good meals for under $10.00.

Here is one I found.

Some Different Kinda Books She asks why we always read books about black people. (I spare her the news she is black.) She wants something different. Her own book is written in pencil. She painstakingly goes back & corrects the misspelled words. We write each day. Each day the words look like a retarded hand from Mars wrote them. Each day she asks me how do you spell: didn't, tomorrow, done husband, son, learning, went, gone . . . I can't think of all the words she can’t spell. It’s easier to think of what she can spell: MY NAME IS CARMEN LOPEZ. I am sorry I was out teacher. My husband was sick. You know I never miss school. In that other program I wasn't learning nothing. Here, I'm learning so I come. What's wrong with my husband? I don't know. He's in the hospital. He's real sick I was almost out the room when I hear the nurse ask him, Do you do drugs? He say yes. I say what! I don’t know nuthin' 'bout no drugs. I'm going off in the hospital. He's sick. I'm mad. Nobody tells you nuthin'! I didn't hear that nurse I wouldn't know nuthin'. Huh? Condoms? No, teacher. He's my husband. I never been with another man. II I think he got AIDS he still don't tell me. I did teacher. I tried to read the chart at the hospital but I couldn't figure out those words. Doctor don't say, he say privacy. The nurse tell me. She's Puerto Rican. She say your husband got AIDS. I go off in the hospital. Nobody tells me nuthin'. He come home. He say it's not true, he's fine. He's so skinny without his clothes he try to hide hisself nekkid don't want me to look. I say you got to use one of those things. He say nuthin's wrong. with him. III He stop sayin' that. Now he just say he's gonna die all the time all the time dying. I say STOP that talk, the doctor say you could live a long time my sister-in-law say, he got it so you got it it's like that. I say, I don't got it, my kids don't got it either. Teacher, I need a letter for welfare that I'm coming to school on a regular basis. IV He's in P.R., before that he started messing around again. Over the Christmas holidays he died. That's where I was at in P.R. I'm fine. Yeah, I'm sure teacher. What do I wanna do teacher? I just wanna read some different kinda book Poet: Sapphire Collection: Black Wings & Blind Angels

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Poetry Month: John Hollander

Some Playthings

A trembling brown bird
standing in the high grass turns
out to be a blown

oakleaf after all.
Was the leaf playing bird, or
was it “just” the wind

playing with the leaf?
Was my very noticing
itself at play with

an irregular
frail patch of brown in the cold
April afternoon?

These questions that hang
motionless in the now-stilled
air: what of their

frailty, in the light
of even the most fragile
of problematic

substances like all
these momentary playthings
of recognition?

Questions that are asked
of questions: no less weighty
and lingeringly

dark than the riddles
posed by any apparent
bird or leaf or breath

of wind, instruments
probing what we feel we know
for some kind of truth.

Poet: John Hollander

Collection: A draft of light

...in Pittsburgh ... to Pittsburgh

J.R. Weldin Company; 415 Wood Street; Pittsburgh, PA 15222 This is Pittsburgh's oldest store since 1852. It has stationary, pens and more.


Good Sushi, great pastry, wonderful bread.

Eat out as often as possible.

Suzanne's journal prompt

When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.
~Helen Keller

Today's Yahoo Prediction

Everything is right in front of you, waiting for you to just reach out and grab it!

Poetry Month: Mark Strand

The Midnight Club

The gifted have told us for years that they want to be loved
For what they are, that they, in whatever fullness is theirs,
Are perishable in twilight, just like us. So they work all night
In rooms that are cold and webbed with the moon's light;
Sometimes, during the day, they lean on their cars,
And stare into the blistering valley, glassy and golden,
But mainly they sit, hunched in the dark, feet on the floor,
Hands on the table, shirts with a bloodstain over the heart.

I Had Been a Polar Explorer

I had been a polar explorer in my youth
and spent countless days and nights freezing
in one blank place and then another. Eventually,
I quit my travels and stayed at home,
and there grew within me a sudden excess of desire,
as if a brilliant stream of light of the sort one sees
within a diamond were passing through me.
I filled page after page with visions of what I had witnessed—
groaning seas of pack ice, giant glaciers, and the windswept white
of icebergs. Then, with nothing more to say, I stopped
and turned my sights on what was near. Almost at once,
a man wearing a dark coat and broad-brimmed hat
appeared under the trees in front of my house.
The way he stared straight ahead and stood,
not shifting his weight, letting his arms hang down
at his side, made me think that I knew him.
But when I raised my hand to say hello,
he took a step back, turned away, and started to fade
as longing fades until nothing is left of it.

Jill Bialosky: 7 April Poetry Month

Jill Bialosky's Intruder is a volume which stretches our understanding of the creative process and the mind behind it, as in "Touch-Me-Nots," given below.

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Touch-Me-Nots She brought a little of the country into the city in the pots of impatiens she had planted. The petals white, pure, the opposite of color. She had transferred the impatiens from the garden, digging her hands into soil two parts fibrous loam, one part leaf mold and peat moss and pushing the roots into the earth. Despite the quality of the soil—its rich decomposition of life— still they would not last. The plants were hardy and tender, with thick stems and dark green leaves, the seedpods inside waiting to release, the air awash in pollen. She looked into the flower as into a pair of beckoning eyes offering sustenance independent of a body, free floating and regenerative and wholly belonging to what was impossible ever to touch.

Dreams, quote

“Dreams are renewable. No matter what our age or condition, there are still untapped possibilities within us and new beauty waiting to be born.”

Dale E. Turner quote

Ruth Padel? 3 April Poetry Month

Like Giving to a Blind Man Eyes

He’s standing in Elysium. Palm feathers, a green
dream of fountain against blue sky. Banana fronds,
slack rubber rivulets, a canopy of waterproof tearstain
over his head. Pods and racemes of tamarind.
Follicle, pinnacle; whorl, bole and thorn.

‘I expected a good deal. I had read Humboldt
and was afraid of disappointment.’
What if he’d stayed at home? ‘How utterly vain
such fear is, none can tell but those who have seen
what I have today.’ A small rock off Africa –

alone with his enchantment. So much and so unknown.
Like taking a newborn baby in your arms. ‘Not only the grace
of forms and rich new colours: it’s the numberless –
& confusing – associations rushing on the mind!’
He walks through hot damp air

and tastes it like the breath of earth, like blood.
He is possessed by chlorophyll. By the calls of unknown birds.
He wades into sea and scares an octopus. It puffs black hair
at him, turns red – as hyacinth – and darts for cover.
He sees it watching him. He’s discovered

something wonderful! He tests it against coloured card
and the sailors laugh. They know that girly blush!
He feels a fool – but look, he’s touched tropical Volcanic rock
for the first time. And Coral on its native stone.
‘Often at Edinburgh have I gazed at little pools
of water left by tide. From tiny Corals of our shores

I pictured larger ones. Little did I know how exquisite,
still less expect my hope of seeing them to come true.
Never, in my wildest castles of the air, did I imagine this.’
Lava must once have streamed on the sea-floor here,

baking shells to white hard rock. Then a subterranean force
pushed everything up to make an island.
Vegetation he’s never seen, and every step a new surprise.
’New insects, fluttering about still newer flowers. It has been
for me a glorious day, like giving to a blind man eyes.’

Listen to Ruth Padel reading a poem of Darwin’s boyhood, “Stealing the Affection of Dogs.”

J. D. McClatchy: 1 April Poetry Month

J. D. McClatchy's new volume of poems, Mercury Dressing, brings us fresh tales of the drama of love and its aftermath, exploring figures by turns heroic, operatic, and simply human.

---

Going Back to Bed Up early, trying to muffle the sounds of small tasks, grinding, pouring, riffling through yesterday's attacks or market slump, then changing my mind—what matter the rush to the waiting room or the ring of some later dubious excuse?— having decided to return to bed and finding you curled in the sheet, a dream fluttering your eyelids, still unfallen, still asleep, I thought of the old pilgrim when, among the fixed stars in paradise, he sees Adam suddenly, the first man, there in a flame that hides his body, and when it moves to speak, what is inside seems not free, not happy, but huge and weak, like an animal in a sack. Who had captured him? What did he want to say? I lay down beside you again, not knowing if I'd stay, not knowing where I'd been.

John Updike: 1 April Poetry Month

Half Moon, Small Cloud, John Updike

Caught out in daylight, a rabbit’s
transparent pallor, the moon
is paired with a cloud of equal weight:
the heavenly congruence startles.

For what is the moon, that it haunts us,
this impudent companion immigrated
from the system’s less fortunate margins,
the realm of dust collected in orbs?

We grow up as children with it, a nursemaid
of a bonneted sort, round-faced and kind,
not burning too close like parents, or too far
to spare even a glance, like movie stars.

No star but in the zodiac of stars,
a stranger there, too big, it begs for love
(the man in it) and yet is diaphanous,
its thereness as mysterious as ours.

Today's impersonal horoscope

"You are holding yourself to standards that are too high to reach. Scale them back."

A start

I come from humble beginnings.

My materal grandfather was a farmer. My paternal grandfather owned a bath house, but years of story telling by my grandmother had him a soldier before coming to America.

Quotes

Nothing is permanent in this wicked world - not even our troubles.

Charlie Chaplin
British actor, director, & screenwriter (1889 - 1977)

Quotes

If we're growing,
we're always going to be out of our comfort zone.

~ John Maxwell

Catch it before it flies away

A dream that is. A wish fulfillment dream, I'll call it.

Amsterdam, Capobianco, good friends, a wonderful outdoor/indoor cafe, with lockers. Freedom to be myself, no judgment, the possibility of a 5 year pension, a house on a straat, not a canal, slender figure, admiration of acquaintances, & some revealing clothing.

It started to rain cancelling my plans, but Capobianco reappeared and I suspect we went off together.

Then I awoke, gleeful as a girl.

Loss in Dreams

I was away, abroad and upon my return I was worried that everything would be intact. I couldn't find my apartment, 5D, in a vast side by side sprawl of apartments. I came upon what I thought was 5D but it was 5P.

I had too many things to carry, typical, and although M was with me, too much to bring upstairs.

5D kept eluding me. We found a floor manager, a strange thought, and he took my key to open the door.

He seemed to disappear, too, and we went downstairs to bring up the balance of my possessions.

We found another elevator bank.

M and I seem to be separated.

I got into the elevator with three other people--two women and a man. Strange behavior of the couple. I was still shell shocked, humbled by my loss, or separation, and suddenly before we reached the fifth floor, I realized I had probably lost my laptop.

Dream ended.

Dreams

About G; more about Marc (Worcester) and friends and acquaintances w/H.

Quote this one

“Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened," says Dr. Seuss

The Love of my life

I didn't marry the love of my life. Reluctant to commit to someone as flighty as I was then, and having already had one failed marriage, each step that brought us closer also inevitably pulled us apart.

Movies, Sex Workers

Interesting piece in Alternet. I haven't seen any of these films.

The Artful List

1. Yo te quiero much
   
2. Beanie's Treasure Box
3. Holocaust Series
4. Susan B. Anthony
5. Just Journaling
6. Just Experimenting

J sent this to me today for Valentine's Day

Paul Colin (1892­1985)

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...
It's about learning to dance in the rain.

A loving and lovely story

About a heart that passes from one to another.

Stewart Chase

“For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don't believe, no proof is possible.”

Other quotes from Criminal Minds here.

Gathering the Words, Pentacles

"Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come."

- Proverb

Writers' Rooms in the Guardian

Writers' Rooms series at the Guardian.

Gathering the Words, Pentacles

Accept losses as gains.

Gathering the Words, Pentacles

Spending money is not the solution for poverty of the Soul.

Gathering the Words, Finding the Images

As I was cleaning up the kitchen, a little, I saw the sheet music, and realized that I could use it to visualize BM:

"he was nothing but a voice"

or better yet

"he was but a voice"

Journal Suggestions from Misty for a Month

• Self Portrais
  Colours: White, Blue, Orange, Green, Red, Yellow, Pink
  Embellishments (buttons, beads, fabric etc.)
  Word Art (focus on one word)
  Alter a photo
• Just crayons
• Your favourite artist as a focus
• Shapes

Desnos: Holocaust

When I think of Desnos, I think of the beauty of his dislocated syntax. I think of possibility, freedom, a horse running free.

May Sarton quotes

Here is a reference to May Sarton quotes at Painter's Key.

If I manage to drag myself to the fires and write a short story about women's relationships these might be included...somehow, somewhere.

A good recipe for Kugel

Here's a recommended recipe for kugel--something I've never made.