Category: Books

“I Tot You Were Hungry”

I was able to tolerate the Grammy awards on Sunday evening for about the first hour and a half – then what D would call “the nonsense” started.  The highlight was Brandi Carlisle performing John Prine’s “I Remember Everything” – his gorgeous final song that earned two posthumous Grammys.

Diana and I started Monday with a run in the beautiful weather.  I completed the 20 minutes of running that finishes out Week 5 of Couch to 5K and am excited to move on to Week 6.  Only 2 more weeks after that and I’ll supposedly be ready for our first joint 5K race.  I am going to need to improve my speed quite a bit if I’m hoping to cross the finish line at the same time as McD.  Diana found an interesting race for us – the “Run for the Rose” in McKinney.  It comes with a glass of sparking rose at the finish line, snacks from Zin Zen and Sugarbacon, a commemorative champagne glass and a medal.  Sounds perfect for at least one of us.

Will, on the other hand, will not be running anywhere anytime soon.  He had surgery to remove the meniscus from his knee.  He’s had it repaired a couple of times before and this time there’s no choice but removal.  “What did he do this time?”, I hear you ask.  Well…he crouched down to install some computer cables under his new office desk and heard a pop when he stood back up again.  Sounds painful just typing it.  The surgery went well and Will is trying to be stationary for a few minutes to give things a chance to heal.  Poor Christine must be on fulltime Ollie duty now.

Tuesday was the big day for Diana – her first COVID vaccine.  I drove her over to the football stadium in Plano just in case there were any side effects on the drive home – about 25 minutes.  The process was smooth and easy – my only concern being the amount of information that was scrawled on Penelope’s windows.  No issue – they wiped it all off at the end of the flow through the parking lot.  Diana didn’t experience any side effects other than a slight pain on her arm around the shot if she pressed on it – just like a small bruise.  After that excursion, I enjoyed a nice swim at lunchtime.

We put Finn to work in the afternoon and he made a good start in painting the pool room.  He had to cover up all the dirty prints form Alicia and friends, and the kids that lived here before us.  Painting the entire wall ended up being the more efficient process.

I kicked off Week 6 Day 1 of Couch to 5K on Wednesday morning.  With encouragement from Diana, I was easy to finish without too much trouble, while picking up the pace a bit.

We watched a documentary on Netflix called “Made You Look” on Wednesday evening.  It’s about a multi-year art forgery scheme and the folks who were fooled by Rothkos and Pollocks created by an immigrant Chinese math teacher.  The top names in art authentication were all taken in until some special science ultimately showed them all to be forgeries.  The forgers ability to emulate the quite different styles of those masters, while creating original “lost” works was quite amazing.

Diana lost interest a bit as the documentary continued, and so she and Finn whipped up some delicious lemon bars from a recipe that she uncovered from her archives at Finn’s request.  You can tell it’s pretty serious business.

The bars didn’t turn out exactly as Diana had hoped and so another batch was created on Thursday night – the head chef thought they were much better.

I love this picture of my friends Wash and Zoe enjoying Saint Patrick’s Day on Thursday.

Diana and Finn started Friday with a “run/walk” and then Finn continued with his painting project.  It’s almost finished – just some spackling work to be done before all painting can be completed.  Finn and I made a run over to Rudy’s in the afternoon to pick up pulled pork for Benedicts I was planning to make for Sunday breakfast.

We decided to show Finn that there’s a lot more fun to the Dallas Fort Worth area than just what McKinney offers.  First stop – the Velvet Taco on Knox/Henderson Street, just north of downtown.  We laughed telling Finn the story of our first visit there – a late night stop after Keb’ Mo at the Kessler for my birthday.  Poor Patty and Brent waded through a torrential downpour to retrieve tacos for us.

Finn selected the chicken and waffles brunch taco and I had a shrimp and grits one.  Diana stuck with her favourite – loaded tater tots with a fried egg on top.  All enjoyed in the sun at an outdoor table.

I had an after lunch surprise in store – Finn and I had seen “Pickletopia” on a lunch time TV show and thought it looked like a fun place to visit.

Pickletopia ended up being a highlight of the day for us.  So many barrels full of delicious pickled things.  We came home with two kinds of olives, mushrooms, and “bread and butter” pickles.  Lee, the owner, shared lots of samples and stories.  Our favourite was his story about the origin of the “bread and butter” pickles.  Lee’s grandmother passed away and he selected a 1920s vintage cookbook of hers as a memento from her home.  The binding of the book was in very bad shape and he took it to the “Book Doctor” in Oak Cliff for repair (we walk past that shop on our way to Nova for dinner pre-Kessler concerts).  The repair took close to six months, and somewhere in that time the store owners called Lee to tell him they had found some recipes sandwiched in the pages that he might want.  One of them was the “bread and butter” pickle secret recipe.  He said he made it and tried it out on his uncle who remembered his grandmother’s recipe.  His uncle said, “You nailed it.”  This business is Lee’s retirement hobby and he shadowed “The Pickle Guys” in New York’s Lower Eastside to learn the business.  So nice to meet somebody that is a great story teller and loves what they do.

Next stop was Trinity Groves for a picture on the Trinity levee with the Dallas skyline as the backdrop:

We couldn’t resist stopping into Kate Weiser’s chocolate shop while we were there.  So many other places I had planned to put on the itinerary had closed – Bolsa (although opened under a different name) and the amazing charcuterie place from the Lucia guys (opening soon as a larger Lucia) – so it was good to see the chocolate shop still in business.  Patty’s favourite cupcake shop next door was also doing a very brisk business.  The chocolates and Easter eggs from Weiser really are works of art – those “Chick-a-dees” on the left really are edible chocolate.  We have several eggs to choose from on Easter Sunday.  And individual candies for each of us – key-lime pie for D, salted caramel for K, and strawberry for F.

A short drive later and we were searching for parking near the “Wild Detectives” book store and café – one of my favourite stores in all of Dallas.  I picked up “The Midnight Library”, thinking it could be a nice change of pace from the Obama book that I’m working through just now, and we all enjoyed a coffee in the lovely outdoor patio area.  What a beautiful day – perfect temperature and no humidity.  We walked around the Bishop Arts district briefly, noticing all the new construction and a massive, fancy new restaurant, and then drove over to Nova for a snack before driving home.

Nova is such a casual place but turns out such delicious and creative food.  Diana started with smoked salmon potato skins which were phenomenal.  Finn and I both had a cup of shrimp bisque with crab hush puppies.  That’s a cup?  The waiter said we could swim in the bowl size.  The soup was so good and I have some for leftovers today.

What a fun day all around!

Diana and I made an early morning (8am) trip to Market Street on Sunday to pick up supplies for the week.  This is the time to go – 5 cashiers standing out in front of their aisles waiting to check us out.  After that excitement I dug out and replaced a water sprinkler – time to turn the system back on for the spring and bring the grass out of hibernation.  Diana was busy upstairs doing some spackling work in the pool room – such a home repair enthusiast.  I helped sand and paint the taller sections.

I had promised Finn my special pulled pork Benedict for Sunday breakfast.  They turned out quite well with the “bread and butter” pickles adding a nice new flavour element.

The patrons at my diner counter seemed to enjoy the offerings.

I enjoyed this gaggle of turtles that Diana snapped on her virtual walk with Alicia after breakfast.  Gaggle – is that the right term for a group of turtles?  I’m pretty sure it’s not even close.  Let’s check.  A bale, turn, dole, or nest is the correct term, with a bale and turn applying exclusively to turtles.  Who knew?  We’ve never seen even a single turtle by that pond before.  It’s like walking along the river in Austin with bales (see how I quickly incorporated my learning to try and reinforce it) of turtles everywhere.

I enjoyed an article in The New Yorker this week about “How Parties Die, Will the G.O.P. go the way of the Whigs?”

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/03/15/what-is-happening-to-the-republicans

This piece digs into the history of political parties and how they either adjust to the times or eventually wither out.  This section about George Washington, the only Independent President in history, and his views on parties, really caught my attention:

“George Washington reluctantly ran for the Presidency in 1788. He remains the only Independent elected to that office. His farewell address, of September 19, 1796, provides the framework for the peaceful transfer of power. (It is read aloud in the Senate every year; this year, that event occurred a week after Trump’s impeachment trial had concluded there.) In the address, Washington, like a father chiding his bickering children, advised his countrymen, no matter what their political passions, to consider the fundamental bonds that connected them as Americans. Political parties were useful to check the worst instincts of a monarch, he wrote, but, in a democracy, a party

agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions.”

What an interesting and prescient commentary on recent events from over 200 years ago.

Another article about corporate takeovers of trailer home parks and the injustices being foisted on individual trailer owners included this sad commentary:

“According to a report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, there isn’t a single American state in which a person working full time for minimum wage can afford a one bedroom apartment at the fair-market rent.”

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/03/15/what-happens-when-investment-firms-acquire-trailer-parks

I realized this was true in states like New York and California but didn’t realize that was the situation in all states.  Very sad.  Not a political or social commentary – just sad when you think of youngsters trying to start out on their own these days.

I really got hooked on “A Promised Land” by Barack Obama this week.  I’m appreciating his candor and writing style more and more.  Talking about starting to contemplate a Senate run:

“I realized, our politics would never truly change.  It would always be too easy for politicians to feed the stereotypes that pitted Black against white, immigrant against native-born, rural interests against those of cities.

Ultimately wasn’t this what I was after – a politics that bridged America’s racial, ethnic, and religious divides, as well as the many strands of my own life?  Maybe I was being unrealistic; maybe such divisions were too deeply entrenched.  But no matter how hard I tried to convince myself otherwise, I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was too early to give up on my deepest convictions.”

Upon more contemplation:

“You could make a difference from such a narrow political base; with some seniority, you could secure better services for your constituents, bring a big project or two back to your home district, and, by working with allies, try to influence the national debate.  But that wouldn’t be enough to lift the political constraints that made it so difficult to deliver healthcare for those who needed it, or better schools for poor kids, or jobs where there were none; the same constraints that Bobby Rush labored under every day.

To really shake things up, I realized, I needed to speak to and for the widest possible audience.  And the best way to do that was to run for a statewide office – like, for example, the U.S. Senate.”

The insights into Michelle’s opinion along the way are quite interesting.  Here she’s concerned about how the finances of a Senate bid could work:

“‘If you lose, we’ll be deeper in the hole,’ she said.  ‘And what happens if you win?  How are we supposed to maintain two households, in Washington and Chicago, when we can barely keep up with one?’

I’d anticipated this.  ‘If I win, hon,’ I said, ‘it will draw national attention.  I’ll be the only African American in the Senate.  With a higher profile, I can write another book, and it’ll sell a lot of copies, and that will cover the added expenses.’

‘In other words’, Michelle said, ‘you’ve got some magic beans in your pocket.  That’s what you’re telling me.'”

Describing his landmark speech at an anti Iraq war rally in Chicago:

“‘I don’t oppose all wars,’ I said.  ‘What I am opposed to is a dumb war.’  I went on to argue that Saddam Hussein posed no imminent threat to the United States or its neighbors, and that ‘even a successful war against Iraq will require a U.S. occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences.'”

As Obama worked to refine his stump speech for the Senate run:

“‘Here’s the thing,’ I would say.  ‘Most people, wherever they’re from, whatever they look like, are looking for the same thing.  They’re not trying to get filthy rich.  They don’t expect someone else to do what they can do for themselves.

But they do expect that if they’re willing to work, they should be able to find a job that supports a family.  They expect that they shouldn’t go bankrupt just because they get sick.  They expect that their kids should be able to get a good education, one that prepares them from this new economy, and they should be able to afford college if they’ve put in the effort.  And they figure that after a lifetime of work, they should be able to retire with dignity and respect.'”

How Hurricane Katrina and the abysmal government efforts to help convinced Obama that he needed to speak more frequently on the National stage.  One of the most poignant passages for me in the book so far:

“A few days later, I joined George H.W. and Barbara Bush, along with Bill and Hillary Clinton, in a visit to Houston, where thousands of people displaced by the hurricane had been bused to emergency shelters set up inside the sprawling Astrodome convention complex.  Together with the Red Cross and FEMA, the city had been working around the clock to provide basic necessities, but it struck me as I moved from cot to cot that many of the people there, most of whom were Black, had been abandoned long before the  hurricane – scratching out a living on the periphery without savings or insurance.  Forgotten people and forgotten voices remained everywhere, neglected by a government that often appeared blind or indifferent to their needs.”

“If I’d been on the edge of feeling content, thinking I was in the right job, doing the right thing at an acceptable pace, Katrina and my Iraq visit put a stop to all that.  Change needed to come faster – and I was going to have to decide what role I would play in bringing that about.”

In the matter of 20 pages or less, we quickly move from Obama’s Senate career to his contemplation of a run for President.  Michelle’s early reaction to that idea:

“Michelle lifted her eyebrows as if to suggest she didn’t believe me.  ‘If that’s really true, then the answer is ‘no,’ she said.  ‘I don’t want you to run for president, at least not now.’  She gave me a hard look and got up from the couch.  ‘God Barack…When is it going to be enough?'”

And then, in answer to Michelle’s question ‘Why do you need to be president?’:

“I know that the day I raise my right hand and take oath to be president of the United States, the world will start looking at America differently.  I know that kids all around this country – Black kids, Hispanic kids, kids who don’t fit in – they’ll see themselves differently, too, their horizons lifted, their possibilities expanded.  And that alone…would be worth it.

Michelle stared at me for what felt like an eternity.  ‘Well, honey,’ she said finally, ‘that was a pretty good answer.'”

Here’s a great guitar song from Dave Alvin’s new album of outtakes from over the years.  I really like his guitar style and remember when I dragged D to see him at the Kessler – might have been the first time we went.  Her comment still tickles me, “You know this is country music, right?”

If you enjoyed that, here’s another from the same album with a Rumba guitar style.  Such a versatile artist:

This Widespread Panic song popped up my Discovery Weekly playlist.  I really enjoy this band, but they get too into their solo jams when playing live.  I watched them really lose an excited New Orleans jazzfest audience with too much noodling.

Stay safe, kind and patient.  So many of our friends are getting vaccines this last week – very encouraging.

“Haggis is Pretty Good”

This was a relatively quiet week overall – mostly just working at home.  I met our friend Vinod for lunch at Brio in Southlake on Monday.  It was nice to catch up as I haven’t really talked to him in months.  We used to see each other every day in Austin and Vinod would always come by my desk to check in at the start of the day.  In all the years that I’ve known Vinod, I’ve never seen him with any kind of facial hair – apparently his wife has given the new goatee a maximum one month lifespan.

I picked up “The Boy, the mole, the fox and the horse” at the bookstore in Southlake and gave it as a gift to Diana.  Such a beautiful book.

I stopped into the British food store in Grapevine on the drive back from Southlake and picked up supplies for “Scottish night” on Saturday – more on that in a minute.

Amy and Ray were in town to do a final pack up for their move to Santa Fe.  Diana is really going to miss her workout buddy.  We enjoyed one of McD’s excellent meat and cheese platters on Thursday evening and had a great visit.  The ladies seem to be enjoying my music selection in this picture.  Finn hung in there with us for a couple of hours before heading up to bed.  He says the music didn’t keep him awake – I hope that’s true.

Speaking of Finn – he worked hard on some art showing the evolution of “Squirtle”.  We framed it and shipped it off to Will as a thank you for all that he’s done to help his little brother.

We enjoyed coffee and some hummus and avocado toast at Duino on Saturday afternoon as we ventured out to ship the picture to Will.   Finn has become quite the coffee connoisseur (tricky word to spell correctly).

I was able to catch up with some friends that I hadn’t talked to in a while during the week – Meeksie, Ron, and Meadie.  Everyone seems to be doing well and looking forward to the time when most of us are vaccinated.  Speaking of that – Diana is schedule for her first shot on Tuesday.  I’ll be very happy in a few weeks when she gets her second dose.

Scottish night on Saturday consisted of haggis, meat pies, shepherd’s pies, mashed potatoes and baked beans – all the classics.  We did torture Finn with the piping in of the haggis and reciting of a portion of the “Address to a Haggis.”  He didn’t think he’d tasted haggis before and quite liked it.

Those are pretty much the highlights.  Finn managed to keep up with Diana for a long run on Friday – showing her how it’s done on the steep grass hill at the end of her route.  I continued to work on week 5 of Couch to 5K and am planning to finish it up and move on to week 6 on Monday.  We visited 24 Hour Fitness a couple of times so that I could enjoy a swim while Finn worked out with the weights and machines.

I made hardly any progress on my Obama book this week, instead catching up on a bit of a backlog of The New Yorker magazines.  The most interesting article in those was one about how dogs have been trained to sniff out COVID – they patrol lines of people going into sporting events and are apparently very accurate.

“In a Silent Way” by Miles Davis turned 50 this week.  I struggle with most of his electric band work from the 70s but do enjoy this one.  Ethan Hein has an excellent music blog (he’s a teacher at NYU) and his article on this album is outstanding:

http://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2021/miles-davis-in-a-silent-way/

“In a Silent Way is my favorite Miles Davis album, possibly my favorite jazz album, and one of my favorite works of music generally. Most of Miles’ music of this era is ornery and angular, but In a Silent Way is like slipping into a warm bath. The music hardly sounds like “jazz” at all. It has elements of rock and funk, but it doesn’t really sound like those either. With its three keyboard players, ultra-minimal drums and static harmonies, the album sounds more like ambient electronic music than anything else.”

One of the really interesting parts of this album is listening to the trio of keyboard players.  Chick Corea plays the Wurlitzer in the left channel, Herbie Hancock plays the Fender Rhodes (my favourite keyboard sound)  in the right channel, and Joe Zawinul (of Weather Report fame) plays the organ in the center.  Totally different sounds and feels that build against and on top of each other.  John McLaughlin (of Mahavishnu Orchestra fame) plays guitar in a very laid back groove compared to his later theatrics.

Here’s another good article about the album:

https://www.passionweiss.com/2019/12/03/miles-davis-in-a-silent-way-turns-50/

Here’s a great Sunday morning jazz song from Oscar Peterson with Ben Webster on saxophone – what an amazing strength and tone there is to his playing:

I dipped back into the Spin magazine list of the top 50 albums from 1971 again.  This time starting at number 39.  I remembered a book I read over 3 years ago that talked about all the great music created that year.  Here’s a link to that post:

https://www.keithjrobertson.com/?p=1020

Elton John’s “Madman Across The Water” is at number 38.  What?  An album that opens with “Tiny Dancer” and “Levon” isn’t in the top 3?  This is my favourite from the album:

Stay safe and kind – hard to believe that in less than a month we’ll both be fully vaccinated.

“Brrrr“

Happy Saint Valentine’s Day to all of you.  We are definitely staying inside to celebrate, except for a quick sprint that I plan later – out to the grill to cook the lobster tails.  Temperatures are falling way below freezing very quickly and are not forecast to pass back above until next Saturday.  We have an inch or snow just now and are expected to receive another 6 to 8 inches this afternoon with “near blizzard conditions.”

Weather has been the big discussion topic this week with an ice storm on Thursday causing havoc with traffic.  Several massive pileups closed almost all the major highways through and around the Dallas/Fort Worth area.  We don’t expect to be able to leave the house for the next week as several inches of snow and freezing temperatures will effectively shut down the roads until Saturday.  The temperatures on the left have been significantly reduced in the current forecast.

I was able to get out for my runs earlier this week with Week 5 Day 1 on Monday and Day 2 on Wednesday.  I squeezed a swim in between on Tuesday.  Day 2 consisted of two 8 minute runs with 5 minutes of walking in between.   I managed that fine, even in the 28 degree weather with drizzle freezing on my glasses, and was really looking forward to stepping up to the 20 minute run on Day 3 – scheduled for Friday.  The frigid weather put a stop to that – I’ll never hear the end of it if I pull a muscle in the cold.  With very little chance of a run this coming week, I may have to go back to the start of Week 5 again when things thaw out.  This being Texas, it won’t be too many months until I’m complaining about it being too hot for running.

The Monday New York Times crossword brought a chuckle with the “Pooh” answer – crossing “discombobulated” which seems like a very big word for the Monday (easiest day) puzzle.

Monday night brought the regular weekly torture – oopsy, I meant entertaining fun – of watching the “Bachelor” with McD.  Crazy Queen Victoria has left the show but it seems that things are still very silly with the remaining group of girls.

We enjoyed a new episode of “This is Us” on Tuesday evening.  Kevin was having fits getting back to Los Angeles for the birth of his first child, and the commercial was very misleading about what happens on that trip.

Anne sent us these pictures of a great pineapple sign – “Be a Pineapple: stand tall, wear a crown, and be sweet.”  Also another picture of a Mardi Gras float house.  She was planning to take Denny out for a bike ride to look at all the decorated houses.  One of the benefits of living in such a compact city.

Diana cooked up one of the more delicious sea bass steaks that I’ve had in a long time on Saturday night.  The ponzu like sauce was excellent and the fish was perfectly cooked.  Thanks D!

I finished up “Shuggie Bain” by Douglas Stuart this week, and the narrative certainly didn’t get any more uplifting as Agnes, Shuggie’s mother, continues her downward spiral with alcohol abuse.  There is a vague hope at the end that Shuggie is getting on his own feet and may have a successful future.  I did continue to find humour in some of the phrases:

“Voices crackled over the C.B.  Some man in a Teuchter accent was talking about floods on the Perth Road.”

What’s a Teuchter accent?  Well here’s the very proper definition from Wikipedia:

“Teuchter [tʲu:xtər] is a Lowland Scots word originally used to describe a Scottish Highlander , in particular a Gaelic -speaking Highlander. Like most such cultural epithets, it can be seen as offensive, but is often seen as amusing by the speaker. The term is contemptuous, essentially describing someone seen to be uncouth and rural.”

The quality of the writing is excellent throughout and I can see why it was on the Booker prize shortlist:

“She had been drinking all day.  Her mood was a low-level haar, foggy, dark and heavy, but holding steady without rain.  Shuggie did not want to burst this cloudiness and force the bad weather.”

In case you’re wondering about “haar”:

An entertaining anecdote from their first trip to Japan:

“There had to be a thousand fans waiting for us at the hotel; just an amazing turnout.  As soon as our translator announced to the crowd that The Black Crowes had arrived, two-thirds of them immediately sat down and looked disappointed.  Turns out they were expecting Status Quo, an English rock band I assumed had broken up at least a decade earlier.”

I still enjoy the music from Status Quo – so simple and yet so effective.  How quickly musical tastes can change:

“Sixteen months earlier, we had headlined Glastonbury and the Phoenix Festival.  As far as we knew, we owned the UK in the summer of 1993.  And now…that’s it?  I guess the rest of our fans were all at home listening to the new Nirvana record.”

I’ve only seen The Black Crowes once – during the first trip Diana and I made to the New Orleans Jazzfest – after a massive downpour and following a performance by Dr. John.  I remember really enjoying their show and being very impressed with Rich Robinson’s guitar skills.

Thanks to Kara for sharing this book with me.  She made a special trip to bring it to us when we were leaving New Orleans for the drive back to Dallas after the New Year celebrations.

Let’s start out the music section with something from The Black Crowes.  A favourite of mine from one of their later albums:

In a completely different musical genre, I forget how much I love this Greig piano concerto:

A great Neil Young and Crazy Horse song that The Black Crowes covered:

And finally an interesting combination – Willie and Diana Krall – with an excellent big band arrangement:

Stay safe, calm, and kind…oh, and warm as well.

“Hullo, hoo are ye?”

Let’s start out with a funny video this week.  We received this “Why Rock N Roll Will Never Die” video from Kristina.  I just love the faces on the toddler.

About this time of year, we would typically be “discussing” whether to attend the Mardi Gras season in New Orleans and looking forward to Jazzfest.  Not this year, at least not until potentially October for Jazzfest.  Anne shared this picture of Tin Men playing in front of one of the Mardi Gras float house in New Orleans.  Will saw Tin Men with the boys crew at Mirliton Festival on his 25th birthday trip to NOLA, and loved them.  They are best known to us for the classic “If You Can’t Make it Here” song – one of Timmy’s favourites and a great sing along number:

We’ve taken to reading a story from Diana’s Christmas Winnie the Pooh collection out loud if we’re not too tired when we make it to bed.  I’m still perfecting the voices for each of the characters.  Diana decided it would be good if Pooh could join us – and of course have easy access to his favourite food.  I just hope that Hunny pot doesn’t fall on my head one night when I’m sleeping.

Monday and Wednesday were both great running days – sunny with temperatures in the mid 50s.  Week 4 of Couch to 5K was much more pleasant the second time around.  The last 5 minutes of running didn’t have me puffing nearly as much as on Monday.  I hoping to make it to Week 5 next week without any injuries.

Here’s what happened after Week 4 last year:

https://www.keithjrobertson.com/?p=4657

I survived Week 4 Day 3 on Friday and have beaten my old record without any injuries.  Looking forward to starting Week 5 on Monday.

I laughed at the Scottish phrasing in the crossword puzzle:

It was quite chilly on Saturday morning and I was looking forward to reading in a cozy spot while Diana went for a run with Amy.  The best laid plans… Amy got busy and couldn’t make it and so I was drafted to go out for a walk.  That wasn’t too bad until it started raining and got really cold – I had to put my emergency headband and gloves on.

As if that wasn’t enough torture, I then made a trip to the grocery store with McD.  In all fairness, I had volunteered to get some lobster tails to do a dry run on my Valentine’s day meal.  We did pretty well – I overcooked the lobster a little bit but they still tasted great and we really liked the herb butter.  That’s a picture from the recipe and ours didn’t look too dissimilar – we got too excited about tasting them and forgot a picture.

Here’s the recipe that we used for the herb butter:

https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/a26883467/grilled-lobster-tail-recipe/

Damon sent this drone video earlier from outside of Philadelphia.  He’s getting the hang of his Christmas present and it’s snowing pretty hard there.

It won’t be snowing in Tampa today for the Super Bowl.  We’re looking forward to settling in to watch a good game this evening.  And I’m looking forward to the traditional pigs in a blanket that Diana will be cooking up.

I completed my journey through the life of John Steinbeck earlier this week.  Souder’s book does a great job of intertwining Steinbeck’s writing exploits with the history of the world at the time, traveling through the Depression, World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam.  My only beef with Souder is the way he narrates objectively for the majority of the book and then feels compelled to dismiss points of view that are contrary to Steinbeck’s in a very flippant way, with no exploration of both sides of an argument.

Most would cite “The Grapes of Wrath” as Steinbeck’s best work.  I learned two new facts about that work in this book – he lived in Los Gatos the entire time that he was working on the novel (wouldn’t you have thought that would have been well known by someone who lived in that city for 15 years? – weird), and the title comes from the line in the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” – should have been obvious I know, but never occurred to me.

“Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord

He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored”

Interestingly, it was Steinbeck’s wife, Carol, who came up with the title.

“Steinbeck thought it was fitting that the title came from a march, as the book itself was a march of epic proportions, and also because it was an iconic commentary on the helplessness of the migrants in California, whom no god was watching over.  Carol’s contribution to the book was far greater than giving it a title.  As she typed the manuscript from his crabbed handwriting, Carol revised and corrected it as she went.  Steinbeck said he was doing the first draft of the book, and Carol was doing the second.”

A parallel commentary with that I learned about in the Churchill biography “The Splendid and the Vile”.  You’ll remember that I certainly didn’t enjoy that book as much as this one.  I wrote:

“I do not recommend this book at all.  500 pages of loose history, chock full of incongruous anecdotes and gossip.  People magazine of the 1940s meets a lightweight biography of Churchill and his family meets an even lighter weight chronicle of the Battle of Britain.”

Here’s a link to the posting where I reviewed that one:

https://www.keithjrobertson.com/?p=5089

Back to the parallel commentary:

“Roosevelt wrote to Joseph Kennedy, the U.S. ambassador to Britain, telling him that Americans did not yet appreciate the fact that the world was shrinking, that mere geography could no longer protect us, and that we were experiencing “the rapid annihilation of distance and purely local economies.”  America and Europe were inherently linked, and Europe’s problems, he believed, would likely become ours.”

Here’s the passage that explains the title of this work:

“In a letter to Steinbeck in Paris, Covici subtly suggested that the trip might rekindle Steinbeck’s temper and his willingness to take on injustice , natural-born traits that had driven him to greatness and were being neglected in his recent work.  No other author, Covici believed, could get so mad at the world with such grace.”

A couple of sentences that sum up how difficult Steinbeck could be to live with.  Gwyn was his second wife:

“He’d come up and interrupt Gwyn when she was with the children and tell her they needed to discuss something and could she please come downstairs.  When she went down, Steinbeck would fix two cocktails and then sit down and start reading the newspaper.  After a while, Gwyn would ask what it was he wanted to talk to her about – whereupon he would get up and make them two more drinks.”

You might remember how much I enjoyed Steinbeck’s “Travels with Charley”, a journey around America with a French poodle.  I wrote, “I highly recommend this book.  A really enjoyable read.  Has me ready to go back and revisit all those Steinbeck classics set in Central California.”  Here’s a link to that posting:

https://www.keithjrobertson.com/?p=4629

Here’s a passage from the biography about that book:

“In January of 1962, a proof of “Travels with Charley” caught up with Steinbeck in Capri.  Covici reported that the Viking sales team liked the book better than any other Steinbeck had written – and that it would be the lead in their spring catalogue.”

My final quote:

“What the critics saw from book to book – but failed to detect as a linkage among all of them – was Steinbeck’s anger.  He was America’s most pissed-off writer.  “All his work”, Gray wrote, “steams with indignation at injustice, with contempt for false piety, with scorn for the cunning and self-righteousness of an economic system that encourages exploitation, greed, and brutality.”

I can’t contemplate the vast amount of work that was put into this biography which finishes with over 50 pages of links to the reference material used to build the story.

My next book for the week was completely different.  Here’s the Amazon summary:

“A heartbreaking story of addiction, sexuality, and love, Shuggie Bain is an epic portrayal of a working-class family that is rarely seen in fiction. Recalling the work of Édouard Louis, Alan Hollinghurst, Frank McCourt, and Hanya Yanagihara, it is a blistering debut by a brilliant novelist who has a powerful and important story to tell.”

Not a light, uplifting read, but I’ve enjoyed it so far.  Set in Glasgow housing schemes between 1981 and 1992, this is the story of Agnes’ struggle with alcoholism and her youngest son, Shuggie Bain’s, attempts to help her cope.

I’m a bit over half way through and hoping Agnes is close to hitting rock bottom.  She has moved to Pithead, a housing scheme next to a shuttered coal mine and is really struggling with everyday life.  The dialogue in the book is excellent, reminding me of early William McIlvanney.  Here are some samples:

“Ann McGee had the brass neck to call in sick again that morning.”

I haven’t heard the term “brass neck” in so many years.

“Shuggie would stand there, his back teeth pinching the inside of his cheek, and indulge their indecisiveness with a forced smile.  Then the real pantomime would begin. “Gies three breasts, five thighs, and just the wan wing the day, son.””

“The morning chill had turned his naked thighs a tartan blue.”

My favourite so far:

“I’m tired o’ watching you auld wummin dance like youse are Pan’s People.”

Commentary on the hopelessness of the times for working men:

“He had heard them say that Thatcher didn’t want honest workers any more; her future was technology and nuclear power and private health.  Industrial days were over, and the bones of the Clyde Shipworks and the Springburn Railworks lay about the city like rotted dinosaurs.  Whole housing estates of young men who were promised the working trades of their fathers had no future now.  Men were losing their very masculinity.”

A reminder of how, as a boy, I thought rubbing docken leaves on a nettle sting was somehow helpful:

“The boy grew panicked, his eyes wide in fear.  He ripped a handful of large green docken leaves out of the dirt and scraped them up and down Shuggie’s leg.”

A long forgotten sweetie:

“They sucked on soor plooms and pressed their noses against the front window of the top deck.”

Without being sounding too anachronistic, I have oft maintained that the music I enjoy most was created between 1971 and 1973, a period when creativity and musicianship were welcomed and music wasn’t pigeon-holed and created with mass market consumerism as the primary criteria.  I’ve been working my way through SPIN magazine’s list of the best 50 albums of 1971 this week.  Here’s a sampling of the excellent music from number 50 to number 40.

At number 47, “Anticipation” by Carl Simon.  In addition to the title track I really like this cover of Kris Kristofferson’s  (sung originally as a duet with Rita Coolidge) “I’ve Got to Have You.”

Two slots higher at number 45 is the debut album by the fantastic Bonnie Raitt:

Number 44 brings War’s “All Day Music”.  This was their second album after the departure of Eric Burdon of the Animals and the variety and musicianship are terrific:

Number 43 is a real highlight for me so far – Booker T & The M.G.’s “Melting Pot”.  The bass sound and runs that Donald “Duck” Dunn lays down are just amazing.  Coupled with Steve Cropper’s constant guitar creativity and Booker T’s organ playing, this is a total winner of an album:

Fleetwood Mac’s “Future Games” comes in at number 42.  This is the transition Mac from the original Peter Green led ensemble to the ultimate Steve Nicks/Lindsey Buckingham led group.  It features Bob Welch and Danny Kirwan on guitar and, for the first time, Christine McVie on some vocals and piano.  The album is fine but very pastoral sounding and a bit bleh – good background music I suppose.

I used to love “Hocus Pocus” from Focus’ album “Moving Waves” which makes number 41.  Now it sounds kitschy and contrived, but still a bit entertaining.  Not to take anything away from the great Jan Akkerman’s guitar chops.  Here’s the 23 minute (typical of the 1971 penchant for stretching out songs in multiple movements) Eruption:

And finally, rounding out the 50-40 section, the diaphanous sound of the early Stylistics – a classic example of the Philly Soul Sound.

We’ll see if I stick with this progression and enjoy the higher ranking albums as much as this wildly varied selection.

Stay safe, calm and kind to everyone.

“Roses are Red”

Having a dental crown seated is not the ideal way to start out a week, but the operation was smooth and painless.  Dirty Penelope was treated to a bath on the way back from the dentist and it’s been much quieter in the garage since.

Monday was Burns day and so we cooked up one of the tins of haggis, the lamb version, and piped it in with “Scotland the Brave” from Spotify.  I gave a poor rendition of “Address to a Haggis”, with a translated printout for Diana, and then we enjoyed the once a year or so treat – really yummy.  After that Diana was “wanting something sweet” and so, in my typically cheesy way, I guided her through to the piano and attempted a rendition of “My Love is Like a Red Red Rose”.  It was a very poor attempt, having only printed the music a couple of hours earlier.  Here’s a better attempt – see Mum, I did get some roses this year.  Diana quipped “Now I recognize it.”

Oh, almost forgot, I also read a couple of verses of “Ode to a Mouse” at our Executive Committee meeting on Monday afternoon, telling them that since diversity and inclusion was such a big topic these days,  I wanted to be recognized for my diversity as well.  Here are links to read both poems:

http://www.robertburns.org.uk/Assets/Poems_Songs/toahaggis.htm

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43816/to-a-mouse-56d222ab36e33

Going up to the elliptical on Tuesday, I came across this display of Mardi Gras beads.  Apparently McD had decided to organize our collection of beads ahead of parade season (cancelled this year) and thought the pool table provided the ideal surface.  We collected the majority of those on a freezing cold parade night on our first New Orleans Mardi Gras visit.

I went for a swim on Wednesday and enjoyed listening to a podcast where Alec Baldwin interviewed Kristin Bell.  On removing my earphones after the swim, I couldn’t hear anything from my left ear.  I assumed water was stuck in there, as happens sometimes.  On arrival home, and letting Diana know that I had enjoyed a nice swim with Kristin Bell, very cheesy again, I tried the drops we use to get water out of our ears when scuba diving.  No luck.  Now I’m getting a tiny appreciation for what Elspeth deals with every day – can’t hear anything Diana is saying if she’s coming at me from the left.  Still no joy on Thursday morning, so emailed the doctor.  Come on in for an ear lavage on Friday morning.  Ok, not sure what that is but it sounds soothing.  Turned out to be a quick and mostly painless procedure that within a few seconds had removed a wax plug that had adhered to my ear drum.  Going to have to be a bit more diligent with those earphones and the “Fit Goo” that I use to get a good seal.

The Designer Twins and Jose visited us on Friday afternoon to discuss the rumoured kitchen remodel.  We’ll see what great ideas they come back with.  One of the bigger discussion points was whether or not to keep the elevated, round section of the island.  We enjoy gathering around a meat and cheese plate there when we have another couple over.  Jose says they’re out of style and we need to consider a single long island that accommodates seating at the end.  Any input from those of you that have occupied the barstools at the raised end?  I’m scared to see the bid – so much tile and granite to be replaced.

Late breaking news on an incoming text.  Jose can start in 3 weeks.  Oh joy!

We watched the new Justin Timberlake movie “Palmer” on Friday and Saturday nights.  Second weekend in a row that we fell asleep before finishing our movie on Friday night.  We must be working way too hard during the week.  Timberlake did his usual excellent acting job in what was a pretty harrowing movie.  Spoiler alert…there is a happy ending.

I did complete week 3 of Couch to 5K on Saturday.  Diana asked me if I felt like I had a “balanced gait”.  Well, clearly by nature of the question she doesn’t believe that I do.  Apparently I lean over when landing on my left foot, or am just flat footed on that side.  Thanks, super helpful input, I’ll see what I can do about that as we enter into week 4, and I’m sure by focusing on that will develop some other anomaly.

We, one of us in particular, have developed a binging obsession with “Bridgerton.”  It’s actually pretty funny and certainly better than “The Bachelor.”  I believe Diana finished up the series last night after I fell asleep.

It’s a mistake to pull out the “Year in Review 2020” blog book and read about what we were doing exactly a year ago.  Very depressing – we attended an Eric Lindell concert, had a work happy hour at Baker St. Pub, brunch at Comedor, and dinner at Winebelly, amongst several other fun activities.  Hopefully those places hang on until we can safely visit Austin again.

I finished up “The Strangler” by William Landay this week and did enjoy the conclusion of the tale.

Michael, the Harvard lawyer brother, suffers from routine migraines and I thought Landay’s description of their onset and impact were exceptionally detailed and effective.  I assumed that he must suffer from migraines until I read the credit at the end of the book to “Migraine” by Oliver Sacks, the wonderfully talented medical writer.

The relationship between the three Daley brothers, their mother, and her boyfriend is at the core of the book, and just as central to the evolution of the plot as the history of the Boston Stranglers.

“Ricky always went a little crazy with Joe.  All that firstborn’s confidence and facile conservatism, the dense, bullying, confrontational manner, the reflexive, arrogant, empty-headed, aggressive xenophobia…Joe was Ricky’s negative image.  If they had not been brothers, Ricky was sure, they would never have been friends.  As it was, they needed Michael as a middleman.  Alone, there was a relentless fractious undercurrent to their conversations, as if their thirty-year relationship had been a single ongoing argument.  But, in the way of brothers, Ricky could not completely escape admiring Joe, who had, after all, willingly accepted the weight of their patrimony.”

I’m making good progress on “Mad at the World – A Life of John Steinbeck” by William Souder.  Souder is a good writer and has quite interesting material to draw from.  The history of the part of California where Steinbeck grew up – Salinas and the Monterey coast – was just as interesting as the background on how Steinbeck became the famous author.

Here’s a piece from the first page that I know Diana will particularly enjoy (she detests the California coastal fog).

“Ninety miles long and shaped like a sword, it follows the course of the Salinas River, which runs north to Monterey Bay.  The valley is flat between the Gabilans and the Santa Lucia mountains that separate it from the Pacific.  Here, a different fog comes  in summer, when inland heating draws in a marine layer of cooler, moist air from the ocean.  The sea-born fog does not lie still on the land, but seeps over the folded hillsides, rising and falling along the river bottom.  When the fog comes and the mountains are hidden, the world is an abstraction and you  are alone with your thoughts.”

Some history of the region, which now produces much of the vegetable crops that feed America:

“In 1602, a Spanish explorer, Sebastian Viscaino, sailed up the California coast as far as the estuary of the Salinas River.  Captivated by the harbor near the river’s mouth, and by the panorama of mountains and rocky headlands that curled into the Pacific around the northern and southern ends of a great by, he named the place Monterey.  In 1769, a Spanish expedition coming overland from Baja reached the southern tip of the Salinas Valley and found it an unpromising place.  “The hills,” their report read, “gradually became lower, and, spreading out at the same time, made the canyon wider; at this place, in sight of two low points formed by the hills, it extends for more than three leagues.”  The soil, the report continued, was poor and offered “treacherous footing,” as it was “full of fissures that crossed in all directions, whitish in color, and scant of pasture.”

Who knew that the beautiful coastline around Pacific Grove was once owned by a Scot?  Can you imagine what those 100,000 acres are worth today?

“Rising from the water’s edge in sloping terraces to a high, forested ridge, Pacific Grove was wedged between the towns of Monterey and Carmel.  In the late 1800s, there was a quiet wilderness of woods and grazing lands mostly owned by a rancher named David Jacks.  Jacks had come to the peninsula in 1849 from Scotland with an unquenchable thirst for land.  Eventually he owned more than 100,000 acres.”

Some interesting history of Stanford University:

“Young, shy, uninterested in school, and reluctant to admit to anyone what he hoped to become, Steinbeck was unlikely Stanford material.  Opened in 1891 – its first student was future U.S. president Herbert Hoover – the university had begun as a monument to Leland Stanford Jr.  The only child of Leland and Jane Stanford, Leland Jr. had died of typhus at the age of fifteen.”

“Mors was the same age as Steinbeck.  He’d grown up in Los Gatos, only twenty miles away, and entered Stanford at the age of sixteen.”

Steinbeck wandered from city to city, taking odd jobs as he worked on his writing in the evenings.

“He also got Steinbeck a job as a laborer on a project in midtown Manhattan:  the construction of Madison Square Garden, which was being rushed to completion before the end of the year.  Steinbeck’s job was moving cement up the inside scaffolding with a wheelbarrow, load after aching load.”

An interesting fact about Monterey Bay.  I had no idea it was that deep:

“Monterey Bay was one of the world’s most active fisheries, owing in part to its unique subsurface contours.  Only a short distance from shore, the Continental Shelf splits, and the bottom plunges to a depth of nearly 12,000 feet in a sheer abyss called the Monterey Bay Canyon.”

I’ve been listening to an album called “Day of the Dead” while writing this post.  It’s a series of Grateful Dead cover songs and I really like most of them.  Here’s a sampling.  Highly recommended if you enjoy their music.

Nick Lowe has a song and an album called “Trombone?”  I better check that out.

And finally this week, for some reason Shuggie Otis popped into my head and I remembered his excellent show at the Kessler several years ago:

Stay safe, kind and calm.