“Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.”
– Muhammad Ali - may our daughters, Yassie, Gabbie and the Russian sounding Sasha and Nadia learn the meaning of comaradere in their lives on earth ๐
The white plates filled with ice featured Oysters ๐ฆช We feasted on two types of rock oysters and enormous Pacific oysters. The lushest sashimi platter boasted fresh scallops, Salmon variety including sockeye, tuna. New Zealand’s Greystone complimented the yummy cheeses, the blue stirred quince paste. Mozambique ๐ฒ๐ฟ atmosphere and memories of Fiji childhood with memories of nightclubs in Sydney flowed into the tastes of falafels on Tukish bread ๐ฅ and Jewish Iggy sourdough. We arrived at 5:45 and departed just before midnight ๐. As they say in the mittleuope life is better with friends ..
... The winter solstice (summer solsticeSt John Day) may be the shortest day in terms of daylight and when there is least energy in the southern hemisphere, but the land, atmosphere and, especially, oceans are still cooling.
“Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.”
– Muhammad Ali - may our daughters, Yassie, Gabbie and the Russian sounding Sasha and Nadia learn the meaning of comaradere in their lives on earth ๐
Deep Blogger: “I have fondly admired Jessie and feel so privileged to have learned from her wisdom, her gentle elegance, and her intellect.”
“Jessie is one of the most beautiful women I have known, so kind and thoughtful and so clever too. She is a truly lovely lady.”
“I feel very privileged to have known Jessie … so wonderfully supporting, caring and kind.”
“I have always enjoyed her company and admired her attitude to all things.”
Deep Blogger: “I have fondly admired Jessie and feel so privileged to have learned from her wisdom, her gentle elegance, and her intellect.”
“Jessie is one of the most beautiful women I have known, so kind and thoughtful and so clever too. She is a truly lovely lady.”
“I feel very privileged to have known Jessie … so wonderfully supporting, caring and kind.”
“I have always enjoyed her company and admired her attitude to all things.”
And, finally, from one of her church friends …
“We have lost a soft voice, a strong faith, an enquiring mind and a great friend”.
How Nostalgia Gets Us Launched Into The Future
Long derided as a crutch, something we fall back on when the appeal of the present dims, nostalgia is a surprisingly sturdy launch point into the future. Not only does it ground us mentally and physically when the landscape shifts or founders, it focuses us, with sensory immediacy, on what we most value – and, by extension, on what we want to reflect to the world. That’s where its transformative power lies. – Aeon
COLLUSION: China Creep on Campus: Dozens of universities failed to disclose millions in Chinese donations.
Mrs Osmond (Not Related to Margy) , by John Banville
He had paused on a pathway, under a trellis of vines, and was patting his pockets and frowning—he must have forgotten something at his neighbour’s apartment, his cigar case, most probably, since it was a thing he frequently mislaid and left behind. He wore a pale loose linen suit and a cambric shirt with a soft collar; his waistcoat was unbuttoned and his straw hat was pushed far back at an uncharacteristically casual and what for anyone else would have been a comical angle, although it nevertheless gave to him, with his narrow face and tapering beard, the look of one of El Greco’s haloed, white-clad saints. Although they were separated only by some yards, he would not yet have seen her, so bright was the sunlight surrounding him and so dimly shadowed the doorway within which she stood. She made no sound or movement, only stayed still and watched him. He was usually so sharply self-aware a man that, caught there in the glare of noonday and not knowing he was observed, he appeared to Isabel unwontedly a figure of the ordinary sort, distracted, agitated, vexed both at his own forgetfulness and the stubborn way that supposedly inanimate, taken-for-granted things have of making themselves furiously elusive. (p.275)
Ah… Henry James. You either love the style of this great American novelist—designed to catch, with immense, with fiendish, subtlety, and in sentences of labyrinthine intricacy, the very texture of conscious life—or you hate it. There are 208 words in that excerpt, and we agree, I am sure, that nothing has happened, and this paragraph goes on for a page and half, and still nothing happens. What is truly remarkable about John Banville’s ‘sequel’ to James’ The Portrait of a Lady (1881) is that his style in Mrs Osmond so faithfully replicates James’s style and yet remains so readable.
Australia’s Largest State Set Aside $50 Million For COVID Arts Relief. None Of It Has Been Given Out
New South Wales was slow to establish a fund to aid struggling arts organizations, not even announcing a plan until May 24, about 10 weeks after shutdowns began. Even as Australia begins the early phases of reopening, none of the money has been awarded, and information even on how to apply or who qualifies is scarce. – The Guardian
