Chronicles Continued

For those who are stunned by the spelling errors that occur now and then, they have all been retrospectively corrected.

A little paperback book, published in the 70’s, has moved across the ocean a couple of times and around the continent of North America.. In the 70’s the ideas seemed note worthy, rather like the book of Vermont Folk Medicine. So how relevant at the ideas today? A couple for you to decide:

1. add whipped egg white to whipped creame to make it less caloric and stretch father.
2. when cooking brussel sprouts, add a thick crust of bread to the pan and the kitchen won’t smell
3. to keep sliced bread fresh, store it in the romertopf, rinse the lid once a month.
4. wet-on-the-inside-rainboots are quickly dry by stuffing them with full with crumpled newspaper.
5. a great number of ideas on how to wash windows. No country washes their windows with such vigor and regularity.
6. take a telephone book, punch a hole in the corner, thread a string through the hole, hang it on a hook. Use in place of paper towels!
7. want sharp scissors, cut through aluminum foil a few times*
8. rather than using traditional cord for your garden washing line, use a link chain. it will never stretch out of shape and you can hang clothes on hangers in the links.

*i paused writing to try this one. Not having a foil roll, I resurrected from the recycle bag a few empty tea-light cups and cut them up. It does indeed sharpen the scissors.

This is how you stop someone stealing your bike:

1. Use two locks. It will take a thief more time to undo two and some thieves are specialized in a particular brand of lock, this will confound them.
2. Place your bike in the rack and wrap a lock around the rack and the front wheel. This prevents the thief from carrying your bike to a dark corner to work on the lock, it stays in the lighted area.
3. Note your frame number, the brand, the color; all of this information you will need in order to report a theft. [obviously this is not going to prevent a theft].
4. Wind the chain around the rack and wheel as many times as is possible. This is better than letting it just lay on the ground. [anyone get this reasoning?]
5. Rent a storage unit at the Station.–

Wow #5 is rather like saying to the Three Little Pigs, skip the Straw and Twigs houses and go straight to brick! But of course. If we all had 20-20 hindsight up front!

If you have taken the train from any station, you have seen the thousands of bicycles jammed together in what is considered ‘parking’. I have wondered how this is overseen by the powers-that-be. I read in the newspaper that there comes a day of reckoning. The ‘action’ will take place over a week’s time. Bikes that are badly damaged or have been parked in the same spot for an extended period of time will be removed. The ‘action’ of cleaning up is to make stealing bikes less attractive. [Not quite certain what the connection there is], this is how it works. For one week, bikes without owners – called ‘orphan bikes’- will be given a sticker. If your bike gets a sticker placed on it, but it isn’t orphaned, then you are to remove the sticker and the bike will be left alone. [it would seem wise to also move it to another ‘stalling’ or storage rack]. All badly damaged bikes are disposed of, [the article doesn’t explain where or how.] Bikes that are ride-able will be impounded. If your bike is impounded, you can buy it back after identifying it on the town lot. [Rather like having your car impounded due to faulty parking in the City.] The article continues with a list of how to deter thieves.

Need to rethink ever again buying a hot water bottle second hand.

A Must See film. No way around it if you have any interest in 20th century Masters. For decades I have followed the career of Geert Jan Jansen. Although he says he has more passports than pairs of pants, this is his final name, he says his real name, but really who knows. The Documentary premiered at the the world’s largest Documentary Festival in Amsterdam known as IDFA. One of my favorite people has shown his films here. This film is beyond description. Which means, I can’t tell you anything about it, except I can tell you about the man himself. When younger, he had a gallery in Amsterdam. When meeting him I asked him if his family also had the gallery, he said no, his father was an art collector. He never attended art school, all is self-taught, grounded in one defining incident. The rent for the gallery was due and he didn’t have the money. He decided he could paint a Karel Appel, submit it for sale and use the money to continue his business. As he tells it: he never ‘copied’ the work of the known master, he made an ‘additional’ piece. This first ‘additional’ piece was submitted, subsequently sent off to Appel in NY for verification and was personally authenticated. Appel described when and where he painted it. Well, says, Geert Jan, I didn’t think I’d do it again, but then I did. His story of how he did it, the amount of work he put into studying the master, the amount of time he spent absorbing the details of the subject. For reasons he doesn’t tell, he really wanted to thumb his nose at the art world And did he! The total number of pieces of his works hanging in museums and private collections is still unknown. I would love to tell all the ins and outs but in fairness to the story find the film. At the completion of the film, he had a minute to chat and I was able to ask questions I had had for years. One was, could he duplicate the strokes of either a right or left handed painter? He can. He visits some of his works when he knows where they are. He has been told to stand back from the paintings by guards in the museum. Not to get to close. He is close because he is checking out how his aging of the painting is progressing. Little does the guard know that for three weeks the painting lay under his door mat in order to age the canvas. What and how he has done… I could sit still for hours just taking it all in. In the film he explains he signs the canvas first because the signature is important and if you have done a work and then foil the signature all is for naught. My abiding interest in all things that lead to pretensions: wine, jewelry, antiquities and art! were satiated watching this amazing story. He has a castle here in Holland, and one can make an appointment to visit. I’m there.

How could I not purchase these when reading on the packaging that they are manufactured from 9 plastic bottles. They retailed for about $10.

You are moving, and on that last day, when everything is packed and gone, you stand in the empty rooms and spaces of the house. You notice and appreciate the bones of the house. This is exactly how you feel! I work to remember that observation daily.

Black Friday has jumped the pond. There is no context for the sale only a push to sell more. And push it is. There are Black Friday sales everywhere. So far have not read of lines forming for the stores opening, but the amount of advertising is massive. Read in the paper that France is weighing a ban on advertising for Black Friday. The logic being: We can not at in the same moment reduce CO2 emissions and push for extreme consumption of goods. Amen to that

There was an invitation for coffee. I accepted. The dawning of the day began with showers, the sort of rain-storm my dad called a Sou’west’r, the sort of storm for which you stay inside by the fire or the wood-burning-stove or the couch and a book. I called the invitee and said I was truly sorry but it was too wet for me to venture out to bike. [Walk? not an option, I prefer any distance more than 20 feet to be covered by bike.] When next we met, I was told: “You’d best get yourself some sort of rain garment, you can not determine your social life by the weather.” I listened. Now I have a head-to-knee rain cape. Black hood, reflective tape seams and slits for the arms to hold onto the bike handles. Have already put it to good use! Invite me now!