Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Wednesday, July 31. 2013

A Simple Living Room

I said I'd grab a few more pics of my late parents' home before we hurriedly plan to empty it out this week. Here's their living room. I think it is very pleasant, airy and and simple. Cathedral ceiling. A serene feeling. My Dad designed the whole house, and he was not an architect.


Large, wall-length fireplace on the left, with a raised hearth doubling as a bench, and with a 4'X4' antique oil portrait of a prize cow hanging over it.


No TV of course, but a radio for WQXR and a CD player on a bookshelf. Plus a piano in case you really love music enough to try to make some.


Can walk from there to our country 1763 Congregational Church. A nice 20-minute walk in any season, any weather.






Posted by Bird Dog in Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 04:58 | Comments (15) | Trackbacks (0)

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Full Video: Rush Limbaugh goes On The Record with Greta Van Susteren
http://commoncts.blogspot.com/2013/07/full-video-rush-limbaugh-goes-on-record.html
#1 Steve on 2013-07-31 06:50 (Reply)
Pardon one small correction, BD:

"Plus a piano in case you really love music know how to play.

Just loving music isn't quite enough. :)

Looks like a nice rig. Baby grand? I grew up with a Chickering baby grand. Far better sound than an upright.

Also, no offense, but I'm afraid it's time to buy a new camera. It looks like the trusty old Kodak Instamatic is on its last legs. Don't you think those blue 4-shot rotating flash bulbs are the most modern thing you've ever seen? Anyway, I'm sure it'll be hard to let go, but at least you got your money's worth out of it.
    #2 Dr. Mercury on 2013-07-31 08:11 (Reply)
    Funny you mention Chickering. My Gramps had one, it went to my Dad's sister.

    That's a Steinway baby grand in the photo. It's coming to me, I think.

    That's a bad iPhone pic. Forgot my camera.
    #2.1 BD on 2013-07-31 08:23 (Reply)
    Nice place. Someone, probably both, had great taste in furnishings.
    I envy the Steinway baby grand and the family that requires one.
    #2.1.1 Charley Hua Chu on 2013-07-31 09:14 (Reply)
    I think BD was trying to document his folks' place, not supply an Architectural Digest layout for us. It's a lovely home: music, plants, comfortable furniture worthy of long conversations and great light. What wonderful memories.
    #2.2 jma on 2013-07-31 10:24 (Reply)
    FWIW- when the real estate agency puts it on the market make sure they get some good photos, a professional photographer with a really good camera would be warranted, rather than a point and shoot type camera wielded by the listing agent. Good photographs make a big difference now that almost everyone gets their first exposure to a property for sale on the internet.
    #3 Verde on 2013-07-31 10:18 (Reply)
    It is a wonderful room! The best part is the absence of something--the TV !
    #4 apple pie on 2013-07-31 10:28 (Reply)
    Lovely home. I see a few great mid century modern pieces. Love the windows, too.
    #5 MTB on 2013-07-31 10:50 (Reply)
    Once the furniture is gone--never go back! Keep the correct picture in your mind's eye so that it can live in your heart forever.
    #6 apple pie on 2013-07-31 11:58 (Reply)
    I want to live like that when I grow up (and I'm 62). Keep the photos coming. It's restful just to look at them. Thanks.
    #7 Park Slope Pubby on 2013-07-31 12:48 (Reply)
    If your dad had been a Viking of property a millenium ago, everything in the photo would've gone onto the funeral pyre.

    I often wondered why that custom arose --it seems to be a lose/lose solution to problems of division. Having been through the thing now, i think maybe it had to do with animism, or whatever the term is for the spiritual investment in inanimate objects, in conjunction with the natural melancholy of the far-northern tribes. Burning everything would certainly snatch up that melancholy --and turn it into fury, a well-known Viking investment property.
    #8 buddy larsen on 2013-07-31 14:21 (Reply)
    PS, just a crazy thought, but perhaps a modern analog to that Viking custom: what with those floor to ceiling transomed pre-AC windows, and that 11' top plate, and the perfect match of architrcture with the wonderful midcentury modern furniture and accessories, with a good video presentation well-marketed, with the offering including all furnishings, there's no telling how high the bids might go.
    #8.1 buddy larsen on 2013-07-31 14:36 (Reply)
    I've seen chairs like that; sat in them, too.

    Speaking of no TV reminds me of the Donald Westlake novel, "Dancing Aztecs". Guy breaks into an apartment, and the chairs face a bookcase. No TV. He's stunned...and later thinks he kinda liked that. (I think this is the funniest novel I've ever read. About 20 years so far.)
    #9 Sam L. on 2013-07-31 14:37 (Reply)
    Your mom would sit on the sofa on the right in the picture, next to the lamp?
    #10 Larry Geiger on 2013-07-31 16:10 (Reply)
    Dad turned on WQXR, made a cup of coffee, sat on the big sofa, and spread out The NY Times. Happy old fellow.
    #10.1 Bird Dog on 2013-07-31 16:28 (Reply)

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