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.
Spent a great day in NYC, mainly looking at the Picasso Fontainbleau show at MOMA, urban hiking, and getting to one of our favorite lunch places. Readers know that I am a Picasso junkie, and the amount of varied stuff he produced during a 3-month summer vacation is mind-boggling.
However, on our walking we happened to see the crane lowering the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. Cool.
Lines of people prepare to go into San Marco, but that Byzantine stuff is too much to take in. You could easily spend a day just examining the floors of that place. The Frari church is more of a church. Yes, it's still an active church and monastery but you have to remember that the Venetian population is far less now than it was historically. Probably a third, or less.
My pic is early morning. I am an early (often too early) riser:
"We reached Venice at eight in the evening, and entered a hearse belonging to the Grand Hotel d'Europe. At any rate, it was more like a hearse than any thing else, though to speak by the card, it was a gondola. And this was the storied gondola of Venice!--the fairy boat in which the princely cavaliers of the olden time were wont to cleave the waters of the moonlit canals and look the eloquence of love into the soft eyes of patrician beauties, while the gay gondolier in silken doublet touched his guitar and sang as only gondoliers can sing! This the famed gondola and this the gorgeous gondolier!--the one an inky, rusty old canoe with a sable hearse-body clapped on to the middle of it, and the other a mangy, barefooted guttersnipe with a portion of his raiment on exhibition which should have been sacred from public scrutiny. Presently, as he turned a corner and shot his hearse into a dismal ditch between two long rows of towering, untenanted buildings, the gay gondolier began to sing, true to the traditions of his race. I stood it a little while. Then I said: "Now, here, Roderigo Gonzales Michael Angelo, I'm a pilgrim, and I'm a stranger, but I am not going to have my feelings lacerated by any such caterwauling as that. If that goes on, one of us has got to take water. It is enough that my cherished dreams of Venice have been blighted forever as to the romantic gondola and the gorgeous gondolier; this system of destruction shall go no farther; I will accept the hearse, under protest, and you may fly your flag of truce in peace, but here I register a dark and bloody oath that you shan't sing. Another yelp, and overboard you go.""
That book is written for the general public. Mind-boggling. It is a wonder that it all works so well most of the time. Nothing man can make works as well, for so long. With health, I tend not to be overly curious about why things go wrong, but to be amazed about how anything ever goes right.
Mrs. BD dragged me down to Brooks, cuz moths destroyed my wedding and funeral suit. Plus she wanted my dressing to be up-to-date. Spent a fair amount of money. We do go out quite a bit and I am lazy with clothing because I am not looking to pick up chicks these days and have nobody to impress with clothing except to be appropriate for the occasion.
FYI, they have excellent help and service, and also do bespoke stuff if you want with good Italian wool. She was not entirely satisfied with the fit of the two suits she wanted for me, but the title tells you the response. Yes, well-tailored by their folks, but not perfect like some prosperous people have. Whatever.
Mrs. BD is right - men look their best in well-fitted suits, assuming they are in decent shape. Can say the same for womens' dress, of course.
I'm happy to use this stuff for a wedding, but want no more damn funerals right now. Or my own.
Local Italian men and women look great. That's how you can tell them from the tourists. Not the kids though who try to look American.
UK: Transgender activist who said 'would not matter' if the number of female murders increased if men were allowed to self-identify as women is devising ethics rules for therapists
One of Antonio Vivaldi's long-term gigs was to teach violin to orphan girls at the Ospedale della Pietà. That 18th C. building is now the Hotel Metropole. Quite a pleasant hotel, old-fashioned and Venetian-style, of course.
Lots of famous people have stayed there, including Freud. It's a ten-minute walk along the docks to Piazza San Marco.
Immediately next-door is the church where Vivaldi was the music boss - the Chiesa Santa Maria della Pieta. Convenient for Vivaldi. Their string + harpsichord group has baroque concerts every night, always sold out. Of course we went. Four Seasons and other things. Kinda wonderful. Vivaldi was known as a brilliant improviser too. Easy to believe.
That's his Chiesa, and Hotel Metropole immediately on the right:
A bunch of fun Venice and Veneto photos below the fold -
I had three Wood Thrushes munching my holly berries yesterday. Rarely see them at a 3-foot distance. They are small for birds with such amazing voices.
"Long-distance migrant. Twice a year, Wood Thrushes cross the Gulf of Mexico in a single night's flight. They spend the fall and winter in Central America. They return north in spring 2 to 6 times faster on a route that's generally somewhat farther west."
Spent a great day in NYC, mainly looking at 
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For some reason, in English this 16th C. Venetian artist is known as Titian. Some of his cool masterpieces are in the Frari church in Venice.
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