Working in downtown Washington, DC, fifty years ago meant that at lunch I occasionally walked to the National Gallery of Art where at the time, the gallery showed films about various artists. One of the films was about Toulouse-Lautrec. I remember only that I liked him and was very surprised by his art. The Shy [...]
Dark skies and great inventions
Two amazing articles crossed paths with me this week. The author of the first piece has a tagline that says, “String is far more important than the wheel in the pantheon of inventions." https://hakaimagazine.com/features/the-long-knotty-world-spanning-story-of-string/ As a spinner myself, I am very open to this idea. I do admit that I have never thought of string [...]
Foolish cooking
I had a new thought in my ongoing bread experiments. It actually suggests that I’ve been a bit stupid. But here’s the thing. Recipes for soudough bread nearly universally suggest that you cook the bread at a high temperature for the effect on the crust, and rise, and all kinds of bready things. But! I [...]
Art and Saint Augustine
Yesterday, August 28, was the Feast of Saint Augustine of Hippo. Lots of people wrote about him but what I loved was the many pictures gracing the articles. The picture where he catches his heart in his hand, and it has caught fire from the Holy Spirit made me laugh. Saint Augustine, oil on canvas [...]
Sodalities in my misspent childhood
I still remember sitting in a classroom after school for a ‘sodality’ meeting. I don’t remember which one. Which sodality, I mean. I doubt if I even knew at the time that there’s more than one. I would have been perhaps ten years old. Not any older and quite possibly younger. The moderator asked me [...]