Maggie's Farm

That's a King Protea sitting in a water pitcher. Odd, gigantic flowers. You can read about Protea here.

Sipp says that my very old kitchen table is Chestnut, and emailed me this unstained Chestnut sample to prove it. It's the same grain:

Kandinsky has always been one of my favorite Expressionists. This is Kirche in Murnau (1909):

When people move into the White House, they get a dog. Sometimes a cat too. Some of them actually had dogs before the White House, which is a different matter. It's about Pet Politics. (As you may recall, the Clinton's Lab was promptly run over by a car after leaving the WH, and Hillary dumped her famous cat on the secretary. I suspect the Bush's still have their dogs.)

The breed the Obamas decided to exploit is the Portuguese Water Dog. It's probably a breed ancestor of the Poodle. They need more daily exercise than any White House pet is likely to get.

I don't know how anybody can live without dogs around the place.

I will post a series of random quotes from Boswell's London Journal for a while, on Sundays. As was commented on the publication of these journals:

"Boswell was the most charming companion in the world, and London becomes his dining-room and his playground, his club and his confessional. No celebrant of the London world can ignore his book."-Peter Ackroyd, from the introduction; Praise for the earlier edition: "The journal is admirably edited and annotated."-W. H. Auden, New Yorker

A friend told him "Mr. Boswell, you are the vainest man I have ever met, and yet it is impossible for me not to love you." Mr. Boswell - Jamie - is an easy person to like. His honesty about himself shines through. He is 22 at this time, journaling about his second move from Edinburgh to London in search of a cushy commission in the Footguards (which he was never able to obtain despite his extensive networking efforts).

Much of these journals documents his daily life, which is mainly social - and centered on meals. Breakfast with these friends, dinner with other friends, see a play with others, then maybe a late supper with others, perhaps after a bit of whoring, which he describes in some detail including an assessment of his performance. He is quite open about preferring "genteel" ladies for his "amorous adventures" because he lives on a tight budget and prefers not to pay.

He is a devout Anglican. He takes long walks every day, usually discussing politics or literature with friends. The great David Garrick befriends him, and, towards the end of these journals, Boswell meets Samuel Johnson. Johnson, of course, finds the young fellow to be a delightful companion. Boswell is always puzzled about why people like him so much and seek out his company, viewing himself as shallow and dull. He worries about his social presentation, especially his tendency to lose his reserve and dignity (which he constantly does). He also has recurrent incapacitating bouts of depression.

 This bit is from December 11, 1762:

I drank coffee at Macfarlane's. Erskine and he got into a dispute about the Peace and each told his antagonist that he was speaking arrant nonsense. They were seriously hot. I was much diverted at Captain Andrew's being so, who does not enter the least into common notions, and does not care a farthing whether there be peace or war or confusion in Europe, provided he and his own agreeable circle be safe and happy.

I must own that I am much of that way of thinking. I cannot help it. I see too far into the system of things to be much in earnest. I consider mankind in general, and therefore cannot take a part in their quarrels when divided into certain states and nations. I can see that after a war is over and a great quantity of cold and hunger and want of sleep endured by mortals, things are upon the whole just as they were. I can see that Great People, those that manage the fate of kingdoms, are just such beings as myself: have their hours of discontent and are not a bit happier. This being the case, I am rather passive than active in life. It is difficult to make my feeling clearly understood. I may say, I act passively. That is, not with my whole heart, and thinking this or that of real consequence, but because so and so things are established and I must submit.

Meditating calmly and finding myself situated in this sublunary system, I do not know well what to make of it. I do not rightly understand it. Guardian Angel: "Stop. How should you? God has formed men with very limited capacities." True. But still I cannot help enquiring and thinking.

Image: Boswell in his 40s. Portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1785

Massachusetts' Berkshire County (and northwestern CT Berkshires) has been a popular summering area for 150 years. The nightime is cool, even in August. It is filled with second homes and country places for those from NYC and Boston. The area is artsy and full of pretty-good, small-scale skiing. There isn't much work up there outside of once-industrial Pittsfield - and there never has been. As we have commented, 2009 is a good time to have cash to buy things, because these second home prices are falling. Take a look:

This 3-BR 1942 Cape on 0.3 acres overlooks the town of Great Barrington. $620,000:

 This 1793 eyebrow colonial in New Marlborough has 1/2 acre, 3 bedrooms. $185,000;

This 1770 center hall colonial is on 1/2 acre near downtown Sheffield. 6 BR. $725,000.

The village of Alford has a Congregational Church, an 1830 schoolhouse, and a town green. Not a single store, shop, or restaurant. This is a 4 BR 1810 farmhouse (with additions) on 4 acres. $700,000:

 Here's an 1825 village colonial in Becket. 5 BR, one acre. $430,000:

In Lenox. Not an antique, but just a walk to Tanglewood and to the pleasant antique village. 4 BR, 0.5 acres, $1,000,000.

 In Stockbridge, this 1795 renovated farmhouse. 8 BR, 4 acres. $1,000,000. I like it, but 150 acres would be better.

The perfect girlfriend isn't the possessive type, and just wants you to be happy (h/t, S,C&A):

3800 acres, with 6 miles of the Teton River, 50 miles west of Great Falls. $12 million, but probably negotiable. Nice views? Can any reader name that mountain?

 Downtown Choteau, 3 BR, $69,000:

As the angle of Mr. Sun begins to increase in the New England skies, we generally post a few boats that catch our eyes. Usually classic old boats, but this 2003 Beneteau 36 for sale seemed appealing.

They term this Farr design a racer-cruiser, but she looks like a racer to me. In this sort of economy, nice boats become more affordable. Asking 124,000.

Via Bruce Kesler, from a reader(with his permission), on our post on the film Defiance. He needs to see the film:

I read with great interest your review of the film, “Defiance,” which I have not  seen yet. I am writing a book on my family's town, Dolhinov, and have been conducting both archival research and interviews, About 450 Jews in the town—the only ones left of 5000 residents and refuges--survived fighting or living with various partisan units, primarily with the one next door to the Bielski's, the 'People Avengers" commanded by Ivan Timchuk whose chief aide was Avraham Freedman of Dolhinov. These stories are just starting to be told, partially because of the availability of new documents and studies from the post-Soviet countries.

In a unique event, about 300, including a number of my relatives, were evacuated by the Red Army on a 500-mile march through German lines, organized by Timchuk. This is an area of swamps and thick forests, perfect for partisan warfare.

A key factor was whether units had Jews as members. The Bielskis were almost unique in being commanders since in most cases, the leaders were chosen by the Soviet command from experienced veterans told to stay behind German lines in 1941.

Another feature of this area was that it experienced 18 months of Soviet occupation followed by 3 years   (though  Jews only lived through the first ten months in their  homes  or at all) of  German occupation. Those who couldn't get out at the war’s end spent the next 12 years  trying to get out of the USSR to come to Israel.

Professor Barry Rubin

Director, Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center http://www.gloriacenter.org
Editor, Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal http://www.meriajournal.com
Watch on the Middle East http://www.watchonthemiddleeast.com
Editor Turkish Studies, http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~db=all~content=t713636933%22
 

Let's say you get your hands on a fascinating 100+ year-old Caucasian rug (like the 3x5 Kuba/Shirvan in the photo), and do not want to destroy it and its history by having it walked on, cat-scratched or dog-chewed or dog-peed. (They were made for bare feet, and all Caucasian rugs were rather small.)

Well, you can hang it like a tapestry - like the work of art which it is, and focus on the details and patterns that you would cease to notice if you put it on the floor.

Rug Rat likes these wall hangers.

By Bruce Kesler -

A friend whose relatives valiantly served in US forces in World War II, and lost relatives in combat and concentration camps, credits me with similar heroism for volunteering to serve in the Marine Corps in Vietnam.  She said to me recently that she thought of me when she saw the movie Defiance, which I had not yet seen, that I would have been one of those partisans fighting back against the Nazis and locals exterminating the Jews in the Byelorussia where my family came from and the film takes place.

I replied that she gives me too much credit.  There is a big difference between my experience and theirs.  I was trained by and part of an elite armed service of the most powerful nation on earth.  They found themselves running into the forest alone or in a small group, most untrained and devoid of experience in the harsh decisions of survival or war, and fought back against the overwhelmingly powerful occupying Nazis and their local collaborators.

I told my friend that I have asked myself often over the years whether I would or could have had the sense and guts to do what they did, still with no firm answer.

I’ve now seen Defiance, and still am little closer to that personal answer, but a few other questions are answered.

None of us really know what we’ll do under stress or threat until we do, despite whatever our self-image or the guesses we may make.  However, experience tells us that being prepared in attitude and training is essential to rising to any challenge, and qualified, decisive, courageous leadership acting with integrity is essential to cohering in an effective organization. Otherwise, we are subject to the whims and follies of others, sometimes fortunately well but often not.  When our very lives are at stake, or even our or our children’s financial security, standing around awaiting someone else’s choice of our fate is less likely to be practical.

Relatively few American Jews of my generation chose to serve in our armed forces, and most have adopted near-pacifist attitudes.  Many are even conflicted about our brethren in Israel taking the measures necessary in the jaws of survival threats.

Hopefully, as if hope were enough, American Jews will not have to make those decisions for themselves, as did those in Defiance.  But, to believe in or counsel being ill-prepared or weak-kneed or effete for those Jews who do have to make those life-saving decisions is dangerously suicidal.  To engage in wishful thinking or to evade training or service here in the US is just as dangerous in being unschooled and unprepared for those training to or attacking us as Americans or Jews.

For a discussion of the existential decisions and consequences in the film Defiance, I recommend this review. Then don’t miss seeing the movie.  

At AVI. He begins:

For women of the 1930s, emotional stability, dependable character and ambition ranked as the top three characteristics they wanted in a man. Attraction and love didn't come in until No. 5. Today, women, like men, put love at the top of the list, with dependability and emotional stability rounding out the top three characteristics in Mr. Right.

Read the whole thing. It would appear that people have become more romantic in their hopes and dreams.

I keep one of these little log cabins around the place, with pine incense. It's a cheery winter olfactory treat, but not just for winter.

The air goes in the door, and the smoke goes up the chimney. Few things for $12. can give so much enduring pleasure.

Does pine incense count as second-hand smoke? Naw.

No, not batteries. It's about broadcasting electric power. This is cool. (h/t, No Pasaran)

This derives from the work of physicist Nikola Tesla.

But how long before kooks, cranks and paranoid psychotics claim that the electromagnetism is giving them health problems? Well, all they need are nice tin foil hats to keep them safe. Like the basic household one I am modeling in the photo.