OT ~ Welcome to Saturday!

Sit-a-while
on swinging porch
where tin-dippers and
sweet water
in cool touches
meet lips
from hand dug wells.

Good morning good people!


~ The Altamira Cave Paintings in Cantabria, Spain.

Kazimir Malevich, Black Suprematic Square (1915)
~
– Chen Rong, Nine Dragons (1244),

~ Leonardo da Vinci – The Foetus in the Womb (1510-13)


~ Chauvet cave paintings (30,000 years ago)

“A day spent without the sight or sound of beauty, the contemplation of mystery, or the search of truth is a poverty-stricken day; and a succession of such days is fatal to human life.”
~ Lewis Mumford
The stage is yours; enjoy...

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smiley7's picture

Supposed to be a beautiful day here "in zee mountains." Smile

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mimi's picture

@smiley7
Good morning, smiley7, I always wondered about your poetry at the beginning of your Open Threads ...

sweet water
in cool touches
meet lips
from hand dug wells.

Recently I was confronted with an issue of selling the house and garden I grew up in and I felt that I had a hard time to even consider doing it.

And I realized it had to do with our garden, because we have that "sweet water" from an old well, still flowing, after all these years. House was built in 1936 I think - and the previous owner, before my parents bought it 1954, housed a lot of wwII refugees in her house, feeding them with the produce she grew and the water from that well. How can you give a way such a treasure?

Somehow that came back to me this morning and I thought I tell you that.
Have a wonderful remainder of the day.

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smiley7's picture

@mimi
barefooted on a self sustaining farm settled in the 1600's by my mom's family, cultivated before their arrival by the Tuscarora people, who, btw, had the good sense to move to Canada early on during the European invasion.

Anyways, grandpa's house sat on the highest hill around, shaded by two giant trees, and i mean huge diameters and in the shade was a hand-dug well, big as a man in circumference and so deep, it took a moment for a rock to respond with a splashing noise. It had a gazebo-styled cover and one let the rope down by hand, turning the wooden crank handle. The water was cold and sweet; straight from the dipper.

Yes, thanks for today's memories and for being here!

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Lookout's picture

However trade day was pretty sparse...bought some nice avocados from the produce folks.

Mimi's story makes me wonder about our homestead where people have lived and died for thousands of years. We have a graveyard and a spring...birth and death wound together I guess. I've only found a couple of arrowheads in my three decades here on our place, but down the valley are large settlement sites where big springs bubble at the foot of the mountain. These days most of the land is forested or in pasture, so the time when you could walk plowed fields after a rain and find all sorts of artifacts are gone. Some of the locals have pretty impressive collections.

Truth, beauty, and mystery...Mumford had that right. I've been working on our project smiley and will get something to you soon. All the best and thanks for the OT.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

riverlover's picture

@Lookout and now many are napping their own arrowheads. I am in contact with ones from my grandparents that I saw 50+ years ago. Just be aware that some have studied the Stone Age.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

smiley7's picture

@Lookout @Lookout

the twentieth century, he was there as a city planner, architect, philosopher and writer. i've had the pleasure of studying the history of ideas with the brightest young man, his protege, at the New School, although i've lost much of the details to time, i feel the core of understanding remains, as it seems to be with most knowledge or past experiences. Of all the books i've passed on, there was a period in my life when i searched the selves of used book stores for his works which i invariably gave to some younger person. Smile

Looking forward to your work and please do think on paying a visit--late April may be a fortuitous time, more about that later.

Thanks for being here on Saturdays and carrying on the thread in my working absence!

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@smiley7 For those of us (me) who have been deprived of reading any Mumford: where would you start?
Thanks.

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hecate's picture

Malevich is lots of fun. Black Square began as a design for a stage curtain in the opera Victory Over The Sun, a Malevich collaboration with musician Mikhail Matyushin and poets Aleksei Kruchenykh and Velimier Khlebnikov, involving "the rejection of rational thought": in the opera, "the characters aim to overturn reason by capturing the sun and destroying time."

The opera is a hopeful thing:

all's well that begins well and has no end
the world will perish but there is no end to us!

but it caused people to scream and throw things.

Malevich lit on the square because he had become bored with Reality, and didn't want to be in it any more: "In the year 1913, trying desperately to free art from the dead weight of the-knife-sharpener-by-kazimir-malevich-modern.jpgthe real world, I took refuge in the form of the square." He decided geometric shapes and colors should become The Rulers. Yeehaws dragging their knuckles in the government had a Hate for this sort of thing; in 1923 they closed his art school as "a government-supported monastery," a roiling snakes' nest of "counter-revolutionary sermonizing and artistic debauchery."

Malevich was exhibited on his deathbed with Black Square above him, and his ashes were buried in a grave marked by a black square. He was then officially declared a mutant, and all his works were withdrawn from public view, remaining mothballed for more than fifty years. Stalin did not want any squares; he wanted people to paint tractors.

Malevich was just not a tractor kind of guy: when he tried, he would come up with something like that painting up above there, which clearly has way too much LSD in it.

On my first pass, I misread your poem, and thought you had written "tin-diapers," thereby referencing The Hairball's tantrum this morning about the Bad and Mean people in the Congress who have Ruined the one-year anniversary of his inauguration, by cutting off his money, because they don't like that he is going to put the brown people on the Stalin trains and exile them to the shithole countries.

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smiley7's picture

@hecate
"the characters aim to overturn reason by capturing the sun and destroying time."

Cast me please! Splendid, your addition to today's thread, i didn't know this good history of
Malevich, my son may know, however, have to ask him. Smile

"a roiling snakes' nest of "counter-revolutionary sermonizing and artistic debauchery.

This i do know, please reincarnate me, and set me down in the twenties.

Thanks for being here!

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enhydra lutris's picture

verities, with no disturbing fake news to ruin it. Thank you. Today is the final packing/get-ready day before a quick trip to the coast just to get away. We'll drag the trailer over to a state park just south of a working harbor where we can procure some fresh catch-of-the-day rockfish to grill up for fish tacos, miles of scenic coastline and bird watching in both directions, but we'll likely mostly sit, read and play cards. Among other things, that involves picking some fresh cabbage leaves from the garden for the slaw that foes in the tacos and loading up some agua.

Have yourself a good one.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

smiley7's picture

@enhydra lutris
conversations which spur memories of my west coast living, good memories.

Indulged in expensive seafood this past week in celebration of my birthday. Mostly, i eat what i catch, trout from stocked waters or the abundant sunfishes and bass that live close enough.

Put the feet up and let the waves wash away the rest!

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In keeping with some of the 60's/Woodstock music;

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I need to gain healthy weight, fast, on the cheap. Ideas?

The other day I called Trump a fat ass, which I regret, because weight issues are a bitch no matter what the cause. I am jealous that he can crave a cheeseburger, and eat it too, whenever he wants. But then he is trying to hide rosacea and I am not, don't envy that one bit. yin yang

I'm lucky to have enough money for food today, restocked the usual eggs, bread, veggies and brown rice. 3 dollars for 4 carrots at the community market, a bunch of short big ones. 5 bucks for broccoli, 6 for eggs. I also splurged on greek yogurt, and cream cheese. Two pounds of pasta, rice and wheat. To add some stroke to my heart attack I went back for one pound fresh beef, some cooked chicken, and a protein drink. My best friend is coffee, without it life has no meaning, so I have fresh bean again. Love the bean. 90 bucks total. I haven't had any meat in months, Trump reminded me to crave it too. The cooked chicken never even made it to the fridge, and I chewed on the bones. ew

90 bucks is one-third of the food budget, that's the way it is. This batch of food won't last ten days, it never does. I am losing muscle now I think, cramping up all the time. Being underweight comes with different health issues, I had no idea. Now I am open to any advice, how to gain good weight fast before something bad happens, and how to maintain a healthy weight on a low income. Hear my plaintive cries. wah

P.S. When growers talk about growing food at home, it would be helpful to know the cost of such things, including the soil itself, and the water. Buy it, rent it, amend it, whatever, healthy food needs good dirt and clean water. Here, such things are really really expensive. How much does it cost elsewhere, I am curious to know. The actual "cost of living" is not posted anywhere that I know of, median numbers are bullshit, "the data" is bullshit regionally. Even word of mouth has turned to b.s., every one scratching and clawing to get "somewhere". Different kibitz different day.

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janis b's picture

@eyo

Do you like hummus? The combination of chick peas and tahini is nutritious and calorie rich. You can make large amounts fairly inexpensively. When Avocados are plentiful and reasonably priced, that's another good option. Smaller portions more often is probably better than 3 large ones a day.

Keep strong and well.

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@janis b thanks, that's a good idea. I was soaking and cooking bulk chick peas last summer, ate 'em like a snack, delicious with lemon and salt. They probably have good tahini at the market too, I'll ask when I go back. One thing they recommended was protein powder, hemp or whey but it is a bucket for $30. That's a big investment for me, so I got the little pre-made one to try. It is soy based, I'd rather have another. It is really really great in my coffee though, which is the daily thing I almost never skip.

Thank you for the good thoughts, thanks a lot. I feel stronger already. Biggrin

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janis b's picture

@eyo

The freshly cooked chick peas rarely make it to the hummus stage. I love them warm with ground pepper. I'll try lemon with them next. Going to soak some now.

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mimi's picture

@eyo
cook them and then pound them til into a paste. You can do the same roasting them instead of cooking. Add them to any sauce you would want to eat with rice, fufu or couscous or wheat semolina. It's like your own peanut butter and makes any sauce rich in calories, vitamins and minerals. I cooked it a lot with tomatoes (canned smashed tomatoes without any seasoning in it, if fresh tomatoes are too expensive), onions and made it into a stew with added meat.

You can make fufu out of plantains, which are cheap at Cosco. Peal plantain, cook them til they are soft, than pound them into dough-like consistency and serve it in baseball-sized pieces together with a peanut enriched sauce. You can also fry the plantain, if they are a bit riper. Peanuts, canned smashed tomatoes, plantain, rice, couscous are all cheap and you can cook a good quantity to fill you up. Just add the spices yourself.
Smile

You can also make beignets pretty cheaply. Pound sweet ripe bananas into a soft mash, add flour til they make a dough you can form into little balls, add vanilla, sugar, baking powder and a bit of salt, let the dough rise and the drop the dough in small portions into a pot with heated peanut oil to fry them. They form small little golf-sized balls in the heated oil. If you want, dust them with powdered sugar and serve them as a sweet side nothingness.

It's a bit of work to prepare, but fun, if you get the hang of it.

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@mimi thanks, all that sounds so good. I think I had fufu once at an Ethiopian dinner? We all sat on the floor and ate with our hands, it was a blast and the flavors of all the dishes were outrageous. I could not believe how clean my plate was at the end, no utensils needed. No one could stand after sitting all through dinner, our creaky bones needed help to get up. lol that was fun.

Nuts, I think peanuts are the cheapest now and I like 'em. Last month I splurged on some cashews but they are 12 bucks a pound and almonds are pricy too. All the food I used to eat is just too expensive now, I understand why people eat cheap junk. I'd try if my guts could take it, but they can't. I think I saw plantains at the market, small ones. Thanks for your kibitz.

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mimi's picture

@eyo
sweet bananas. In Hawaii I have seen a lot of different bananas. Strangely the plantains that grew in Cameroon and could buy everywhere there on local markets (and that's the kind which is sold in USA at Cosco and may be other food chains) don't grow in Hawaii. So, I need to find out, how to grow them there and with what to start.

The fufu out of manioc or jams (sold as white powder in specialized stores for African and Latin American food) is very easy to make, not necessarily very nutritious, but light and easy to digest.

I hope your digestive system is well and if not that you get healthy in no time. I cook with peanut oil, it's a bit expensive, but very good for frying.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@eyo
Dried beans and dried lentils. Cook and eat with the rice. Grain + legume has way more nutritional value than either by itself.

I see no fat above, no fat is a starvation diet, guaranteed. The Hudson Bay Company discovered the hard way, so they started issuing a butter ration.

Gardening. My wife and I are lucky and have been here in this house since 1980, doing composting and worm composting, jumping on soil and compost sales and giveaways, etc. OK, all that said, let's start at the back end, we'll play economist.

ASSUME (economist mode, obviously) that you have 4 to 6 Napa or Savoy cabbages. If you trim a few outer, lower, leaves off of one (at most two) you have greens for a meal that contains other stuff as well. It keeps growing from the middle. The leaves that are now outermost become larger and new leaves from the middle move outward as yet more new leaves appear, etc. By not taking too many per plant, and rotating which plants you take them from, you can harvest a ton of greens over a long period. Starters are about $5 for 6. This game can be played with rainbow chard, Swiss chard, and all umptynine types of kale. Chard and Kale we grow from seed. Done correctly, which I've just now learned how to do, a packet of seeds lasts way many seasons at maybe 3-4 bux per packet and 6 to 8 plants per season. A few each of kale, chard, and cabbage sees to it that you have some greens daily, maybe even some for each meal depending upon how much you eat per setting. (I'll pick and chop one or two kale or chard leaves into my morning egg.)

Bush beans (green beans): a couple of seeds per bush, 3 to 4 bushes at a time = a ton per packet at maybe 4 bux per packet = many years. Each bush produces a shocking amount of beans. Stagger your planting dates a bit. Pick carefully all that are ready or enough for a meal, and come back again and again, and again. The idea is to have a fistful at dinner once, twice or 3 times per week over an extended period. When you get more than that, toss some into the morning egg.

OK, there are other things like celery and green onions that you keep regrowing. Leave the last 1/2 inch of the root end of green onions, put in a bit of water in the sun (think window sill) and when it grows a 1/2 inch or greater additional center stalk, plant in the ground. When it's tall pick it and repeat. I took one purchased bunch of green onions and regrew each of them, on average, 3 to 4 times. You can do this with celery. Cut the base off, put in some water in the window until it is about 2 to 3 inches high, plant and wait. Cut outer stalks, like cabbage leaves. They say you can cut the whole thing about the ground about 1/2 inch and it will start over, or pull up the whole thing and start over.

There are maybe 10 to 12 types of plants you can do the regrow thing and a bunch of the "cut and come again"types too.

The trick is that you need ground, or you have to container garden. The latter has a bunch of additional costs, though the web is full of suggestions for do-it-yourself fabrications, scavenging and all that. Those, as amortized sunk costs, eventually become de-minimus if you keep at it over a course of many years, but that requires 1)spare resources and 2)reasonable assurance of always having a place to engage in these practices.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

@enhydra lutris thanks, I will check the bulk bins for red beans and lentils when I go back for chick peas. You are right about the missing fat, I cut butter out when it went to 7 bucks a pound, replaced with oils which are just as expensive but healthier I thought. I was craving something dairy so I got the yogurt and cream cheese. My "kitchen" is a hot plate, a little toaster oven, and a cheap little rice cooker. I like "pot" cooking, where you throw a bunch of stuff in the pot and cook it.

Thanks for the gardening info, if I ever get access to some dirt and water I really need to grow things to feel good again. When I first arrived here there was a garden downtown, and I rented a plot, but the people got too weird and I gave it back. Later the whole effort collapsed with great drama. I am stuck waiting for another land owner to offer the same again, it could happen if it's affordable, and maybe I could grow some herbs too. A little hope.

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

@eyo

knowledgeable enough to advise you regarding the best diet alternatives for your specific situation of needing to gain weight/muscle. But, I'm 'guessing' that DuckDuckGo or Google can be your friend in this endeavor! Wink

Also, noticed that Janis, Mimi and EL have some good suggestions. (I could dig the hummus!) Anyhoo, I hope you can manage to get the muscle mass you need to stay healthy. It sounded, from the list you cited, that what you eat is healthy. I agree that protein drinks might be helpful. Obviously, I don't know what your health insurance status is, but, I would consider looking into getting prescribed a protein supplement--so you're not stuck with footing the costs. From what I've read, insurers have to cover the costs, if medically justified. (If you don't have insurance, it's possible that a Community Health Center could prescribe/furnish you with protein supplement drinks.)

Since I'm a vegetarian, I haven't touched meat or fowl in decades. I did eat and enjoy a little Halibut once in a while, though, when we resided in Alaska. The one benefit of this--low cholesterol values.

Hey, I always enjoy your perspective and comments. Please take good care of yourself!

Pleasantry

Mollie


"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."--Lao Tzu


"Purity test"??
I've come to flag that phrase, like many others, as a tool of neoliberalism in order to shut down intelligent conversation. When someone disagrees with you, their issues are not lesser than yours. The lines that they draw are not inferior to yours. They are not being "pure" when they honor those lines. Rather, they are acting with principle.
--SnappleBC

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

@Unabashed Liberal thanks, I keep thinking about going back to the health center for assistance, I have Medicare but there is nothing in my budget for the consultation, or the 20% co-pay billed later. I gave up on them after finally paying off a big bill they let me run up, for all kinds of prescription drugs that never helped, ended up harming me. After six years they punted me to County Health with an ECT referral. Getting brain shocked at the bottom of the barrel is not something I'm eager to return to if you know what I mean, what if they slip and make me even dumber? I'd rather try desperate attempts at survival by nutrition instead. Yeah I'm not crazy. lol Thanks for the kibitz.

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

@eyo

Office of Attending Physician--action. Too bad it's only reserved for our (mostly) corrupt lawmakers.

Bad

Seriously, since 'we' don't have that, I Googled, and came up with the manufacturer of Ensure--Abbott. According to the program website, it only helps if one is 'uninsured.' But, I would contact them, anyway. In my experience, I've found that in any large bureaucracy--private or public/governmental--there are almost always 'exceptions to the rule.' Plus, if they can't accommodate you, they may know of a Foundation that can.

So, below's the link and toll free phone number.

Also, it might be worth your time to contact your local 'Area Agency On Aging.' A long shot, but you never know.

Mollie

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

@Unabashed Liberal ha I always get the OPP ear worm when you mention OAP. lol Naughty By Nature - O.P.P. Right on sister, OAP is what Medicare could be and should be.

Thank you for the suggestions and phone number, it will take many more meditations for me to go back and "shop around" in that system. It just feels wrong now, there is so little actual health or care involved. It seems absurd to me to have to consult a professional to get information. One needs to be college graduated in order to succeed in health insurance now too, or something.

Great stuff in the comments, thanks everyone who kibitzed. I have ideas to chew on and digest now, more food for thought.

THANKS

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@eyo Here in Maryland, you can get spent mushroom soil for about $45 a yard (3'x3'x3'). Amazing soil amendment. Mix it half and half, or put a quart or so at plant roots. Any amount added to soil will improve it, and last for years. I've been using it for a couple years now.

I grow Striped Roma tomatoes in half and half soil; some vines got 15 to 20 feet long, although pruned stems did better. This is a tough, pretty, and tasty heirloom tomato. Thick skin, doesn't split, mostly meat, great tangy flavor. The stripers survived disease outbreaks which wiped out five other strains of mater, and they went for weeks without watering while still producing, up to the first hard freeze. Low effort crop. Other veggies show similar exceptional growth in soil amended with mushroom soil. I consider it a good long-term investment for food production. Considering the cost of seed, water and shroom soil, as a very rough estimate I got three times the return in food cost the first year.

You mention a lot of grains in your diet. Grains alone don't supply all of the amino acids which your body needs to build proteins. As noted in a comment below, legumes such as beans and lentils can supply the missing amino acids to make a complete protein. I think dairy can complement grain, too, but my dietetic knowledge is slim. Red beans and rice! Beans and rice can form a frugal basis for a lot of healthy high-cal dishes, with different spices, veggies and meat for variety. Clear disclaimer: I don't even play one on tv . I also am not an expert; these are ideas, not advice.

The only fat you show in your list is cream cheese, which I love. I use a lot of cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil, which is reputed to be the healthiest fat (I forget why). I put lots of olive oil in my rice pots, up to several tbsp per cup of dry rice. Economical if bought in the large cans, but the cheaper ones may be adulterated with lower grades. Maybe you should research olive oil, for health and calories.

A good source for the healing properties of foods is the works of Dr. James Duke, who we lost last month. His emphasis is more on medicine than nutrition, but they go together.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/245977.The_Green_Pharmacy
https://thegreenfarmacygarden.com/
HTH!

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@pindar's revenge
Glad to have you aboard. Make yourself at home.

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@JtC Good people here.

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@pindar's revenge hi there, thank you for that info and the links. I am really drawn to herb growing right now, in the middle of winter I don't know why. A healing herb garden might bring some sanity, I should find a way to make it so, somehow. That site has a bunch of archives too, a real treasure chest of links. thanks a lot

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@eyo @eyo Jim spent many years compiling an online database of medicinal plants, phytochemicals and their activities, searchable by plant or chemical. The link isn't working now, hopefully only due to the shutdown. Great resource. You can probably get his major books from the library.
http://www.ars-grin.gov/duke/plants.html
He was also a first-rate musician, could tune to concert pitch by ear. He has a bunch of vids on utube, but I don't promote any g@@gle spy sites, so I leave the search as an exercise .
Growing fresh herbs gives you a lot of return for the space. Dollar stores sell seed packs for a quarter. Nothing like fresh basil! I've also had good luck growing potatoes in flowerpots, if you're space-limited. Just put a sprouting eye in a pot of soil.
Good to meet you, just registered recently.

edit -- I've since found a working link for the phytochemical database, slightly behind the latest data:
https://phytochem.nal.usda.gov/phytochem/search

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janis b's picture

I really enjoyed the inclusion of Malevich's Black Square among all the other art. Unlike the others it is completely non-representational, but for me also holds some of the same mystery and wonder. The cracks in the paint, like the cracks in the cave wall make it even more interesting.

I'm glad to know that you are enjoying being in your element of snowy, mountain landscapes.

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smiley7's picture

making simple efforts into pleasures of discovery; thank you all!

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smiley7's picture

tomorrow, i'll be back in the evening; thanks again, everyone.

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

for today's and past Saturday OTs--read and rec, even if I can't always drop by. Glad it sounds like you're having good ski weather, lately.

Since your OTs always contain such beautiful graphics, I'll probably ask your opinion about a banner for my expat blog. I marvel at the photos/graphics that you find; so, maybe you can give me a hint where to look.

Wink

Ran across a Traditional Medicare (TM) 'reform' (as part of the ACA) that really concerns me. I was aware of a proposal to bundle payments for services, but had no idea of the extent that ACOs (Accountable Care Organizations) are intended to transform TM into a managed care program.

Aggressive

Also, fear that we'll have a fight on our hands regarding the dismantling/cutting of benefits of Medigap insurance/policies. Will keep an ear to the ground regarding this issue, and let you know if I hear anything.

Pleasantry

Mollie


"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."--Lao Tzu
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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.