barbie girl

The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) theologian and member of german resistance movement

Children seldom misquote. In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn't have said.

Author Unknown

Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away.

George Eliot (1819-1880)novelist. Pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans

The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys.

Proverb

Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.

John F. Kennedy (1917-1963)35th president of the U.S.

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) physicist, philosopher, peace activist

You know you've made it when you've been moulded in miniature plastic. But you know what children do with Barbie dolls - it's a bit scary, actually.

Cate Blanchett (b. 1969) actor

Life is intrinsically, well, boring and dangerous at the same time. At any given moment the floor may open up. Of course, it almost never does; that's what makes it so boring.

Edward Gorey (1925-2000) author, designer and artist

notes on photos:
1) brianna and kenny trying out toys from a long by-gone era at hale farm and village, bath, ohio. july 2008.

2) me with my much loved raggedy ann. I remember having raggedy around throughout my childhood, once I went off to college, she mysteriously disappeared. she was much loved and hence much stained; I expect raggedy was the victim of some sort of purging campaign waged by my mother. however, I never had the nerve to ask and what would be the point anyway? photo taken by my dad, fall of 1956, san diego

3) em and her much loved mouse. mouse was the first 'toy' I bought for em while she was still yet a promise (e.g. I was 6 or 7 months pregnant). mouse is still around although he is now missing the black pom-pom on the end of his nose. he is still loved and adored by all the children who visit avenue c as evidence by the photo on the right of eli cuddling up with mouse (and his much beloved 'cozy' - half frog, half 'blankie'), january 2006. oh the photo above was taken in gigi's (em's great-grandmother's) garden, harwood mines, pennsylvania, summer 1982.

4) this is a photograph of my brother (in center) and two friends - I have no idea who the friends are, perhaps one went on to be a pilot and the other loves to ride motorcycles. the picture was snapped by my dad. the original a slide and later scanned and converted to digital. san diego, 1957 or 1958.

5) eli playing with the most classic of all toys - wooden blocks. who doesn't enjoy playing with blocks? december 2005.

6) ms t enjoys playing imaginative play with toy animals. the critters she is holding are artifacts from em's childhood . they were quite the rage in the mid 1980s and sold in family sets. em had families of raccoons, mice, squirrels, rabbits, and bears - each critter wore an adorable little outfit. unfortunately, these outfits are immediately removed by children of a certain age and a real pain to put back on - which explains why now we have a lot of animals au natural and a big pile of clothes.

7) barbies at the home of z who will be turning 16 in just a couple weeks. in case you haven't been paying attention, barbie is having a very significant birthday in just a few days. on march 9th, barbie will be celebrating her 50th birthday. I remember getting my first barbie in 1964. all my friends started getting barbies and so I desperately wanted a barbie. but my parents, sensible and frugal individuals that there were, weren't about to just go out and buy me a barbie. my mother told my brother and I that if we could learn to type, then we could choose a toy. at age nine, I learned the rudimentary skills of touch typing, as a reward I chose a barbie! I can't remember if my brother was motivated enough to learn how to type, and if he did what toy he chose, he would have been twelve. when I was a girl we tended to have one barbie and the big deal was to accumulate outfits. my barbie, like I, wore mainly handmade outfits. photo taken summer 2008, virginia.

8) baby bert (a rescued abandoned broken toy) now spending his days as a whimsical woodland nymph. the catskills, ny summer 2008

spoonful of sugar

Right from the moment of our birth, we are under the care and kindness of our parents, and then later on in our life when we are oppressed by sickness and become old, we are again dependent on the kindness of others. Since at the beginning and end of our lives we are so dependent on other's kindness, how can it be in the middle that we would neglect kindness towards others?

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama (born 1935)

yesterday started out looking as if it was going to be beautiful day. the sun was shining, the wind was calm and it was tuesday; the day ms t comes over to play. when ms t arrived she was well rested and looking forward to the day ahead. after all if it's tuesday it's library day!

unfortunately, it wasn't too long into story time when ms t announced that her ear hurt. as the day progressed, despite distractions, play, and children's acetaminophen the pain persisted necessitating a trip to the doctor's office. since ms t's mama is a doctor and works at a health center getting in to see a doctor was a snap. a raging ear infection was diagnosed and the course of treatment prescribed.

the easy access to health care ms t experienced should be the norm for everyone. unfortunately it is not. however, I'm heartened by signs that things will improve if we have the will to make it so. earlier this month president obama signed legislation to expand publically funded health insurance for children. it is shameful and a tragedy that the number of uninsured and under-insured americans has continued to rise - year after year. a year ago the census department reported that 47 million americans were uninsured (and many more than that are under-insured), considering the number of job losses and the reduction of benefits that people have experienced as companies try to cope with the economy I cringe to think what the numbers are now. last night president obama reiterated his commitment to health reform.

health care for all. I wonder if obama can pull a picard and get us, his crew, to 'make it so!'

walking to new orleans

It has been said that a Scotchman has not seen the world until he has seen Edinburgh; and I think that I may say that an American has not seen the United States until he as seen Mardi-Gras in New Orleans.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) humorist, writer, lecturer,
quote from a letter to Pamela Moffett, March 1859

I have yet to see the united states as I have yet to experience mardi-gras in new orleans. one of these days. the re-building of new orleans after the devastation of katrina continues, inch by inch, brick by brick, note by note, person by person. (although he lives in the pnw, blogging bud citizen k writes often and lovingly of new orleans. thanks citizen k! I appreciate the updates)

laissez les bon temps roulez
happy mardi gras!

photo: juggler in paris' richard lenoir market, march 2007

there's no business like show business

All you need in the world is love and laughter. That's all anybody needs. To have love in one hand and laughter in the other.

I'm trying to take culture and put it onstage, demonstrate it is capable of sustaining you. There is no idea that can't be contained by life: Asian life, European life, certainly black life. My plays are about love, honor, duty, betrayal - things humans have written about since the beginning of time.

August Wilson (1945-2005) American writer

this weekend was a fabulous weekend for me in terms of film, screen, and tube. on saturday f and I went to the cedar-lee, cleveland's premier movie house for independent, foreign and specialty films, to watch the five live action shorts which were nominated for the oscars. this was a great call - what better way to spend a frigid saturday afternoon but traveling around the world in a cozy theater. it is a shame that more people don't have the opportunity to view short films. all five films were wonderful and each touched us deeply in it's own way. the film 'toyland' which won the oscar for best live action short, was well quite simply brilliant. saturday night f & I made homemade pizza and settled in for a cozy evening at home. we watched the documentary 'the rape of europa' which I had checked out of the library. the film was an incredible follow-up to a the moving and powerful novel 'the madonnas of leningrad' which my bookgroup recently finished.

a couple days ago susan discovered jitney, one of august wilson's century cycle plays, is still being performed in town - which is great, I thought it left and I missed it. so yesterday afternoon I joined s & p and we headed over to east cleveland to catch the matinee. this was the first time I attended a play at the east cleveland theater (ect). if the previous productions were like yesterday's, geez, I have been missing out! this year ect is celebrating it's 41st season. since 1970 it has been performing in the former windermere presbyterian church, a gothic style church built in 1896.

ect's motto is "a place where good things happen" - a motto that was operating in every aspect of our experience yesterday. the staff and volunteers were warm and friendly, the cast was superb, and the audience was enthusiastic and appreciative. I was also very heartened to find that the house was close to being packed, so often have we attended a stage performance only to find that there are more empty seats than filled seats. but I guess after 41 years in the area, the word is out ect is a place where good things happen!

attending yesterday's performance of jitney allows me to check another play off my bucket list for wilson's cycle- only four to go. of course, I'm not adverse to seeing the same play more than once, it is always interesting to see how a director and cast interpret and perform a particular play. yesterday's play was set in pittsburgh during the 1970s and focused on the lives of a group of men working at a gypsy cab station. not to be a spoiler, but I was pleased that wilson broke chekhov's gun rule and that the gun introduced was not fired! that's not to say, well I don't want to be a total spoiler......

like most folks last night I was glued to the tube and watched the oscars. this year I did meet my goal and saw all five films that were nominated for best picture. I give last night's extravaganza a big thumbs up.

nathan lane singing there's no business like show business from love's labour's lost (2000)

walking my cat named dog

Cats seem to go on the principle that it never does any harm to ask for what you want.

Joseph Wood Krutch (1893-1970) writer & naturalist

this morning gwen woke me up by putting her nose on my eyelash. it was a new tender trick. most mornings I wake to find gwen sitting on the nightstand staring at me, obviously sending me telepathic messages to get my butt out of bed and feed her. last night however, f and I went next door for dinner and cards. we stayed up much later than usual and given the fuzzy condition of my head this morning, I guess I drank more wine than usual. perhaps my fuzzy brain was preventing gwen's telepathic messages from getting through and she figured it was time to take matters into her own paws, or rather nose.....

speaking of animal tricks, the other day I took these photos of f teaching matilda a new dance

all this attention to cats and dogs makes sweet notch feel a little excluded. notch enjoys yogurt drops, peanuts, long rides on his wheel, and teasing cats.



but back to cats and dogs the other day blogging bud dw (of barking up the bodhi tree) remarked that he was moved by the nature episode entitled why we love cats and dogs. I guess the episode premiered this past sunday, I missed it. but fortunately my local pbs station is replaying the program this weekend. thank goodness for vcrs!

this day in history: karl's manifesto was published on 21 february 1848

...in times when the class struggle nears the decisive hour, the progress of dissolution going on within the ruling class, in fact within the whole range of old society, assumes such a violent, glaring character, that a small section of the ruling class cuts itself adrift, and joins the revolutionary class, the class that holds the future in its hands. Just as, therefore, at an earlier period, a section of the nobility went over to the bourgeoisie, so now a portion of the bourgeoisie goes over to the proletariat, and in particular, a portion of the bourgeois ideologists, who have raised themselves to the level of comprehending theoretically the historical movement as a whole.
Of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a genuinely revolutionary class. The other classes decay and finally disappear in the face of Modern Industry; the proletariat is its special and essential product...

hmmm......

who remembers this one hit wonder by norma tanega, walking my cat named dog?


photo: top-ringo helping herself to a drink (ringo is not one of the cats on avenue c); bottom notch's cozy home.

pictures at an exhibition

in the early 1980s for three years we lived in a wonderful three-family home on orange street in new haven. the house was wonderful because we shared it with a variety of interesting, creative, and friendly people. we lived on the second floor, on the third floor was a young married couple who had deep roots in the area and they were 'townies' like us. however, the first floor seemed to attract students. when we first moved in a lovely young couple named jenny and karl lived there, but soon they graduated. after jenny and karl left, marty, ruth, and karen moved in.

for a while we stayed in touch with karen and ruth. after ruth graduated she taught in vermont at a progressive boarding school. we visited her which stimulated my longtime (unrequited?) love affair with vermont. however, after a year or two she went to graduate school, completed her ph.d, joined the world of academia and became recognized and accomplished in her field. I haven't had contact with ruth for at least twelve years, I think I dropped the ball when we moved to cleveland. but through the wonders of facebook, yesterday I found her name and sent a 'friend request' - so now it's whether I am accepted or ignored.

after karen graduated she went to new york city. we visited her once or twice when she lived in new york. then as often occurs, life happens and we lost touch with karen. the other day I started wondering about where karen is, I ran across a small slightly curled up photograph of a portrait that she did of em and I when em was around three years old. I can't remember if the painting was done for a class or just because - karen was passionate about painting and still is.

finding the photo, stimulated me to do a google. I discovered that karen is quite accomplished! I don't find this surprising. not only does karen's work stand on its own, I always felt that karen's work is evocative of mary cassatt, an artist whose work I (and many others*) dearly love; because of this association whenever I run across a painting of cassatt I also think of karen. by the way, at one time I did ask karen whatever happened to that portrait of em and I, she said it was sold to somebody who lived somewhere out west. it's funny to think that there is a painting of me and em out there hanging in someone's house or maybe someday being part of a retrospective exhibition on karen....her early years....

emerson, lake and palmer - the sage from their album pictures at an exhibition (1972)


*I have heard mary cassatt referred to as america's most beloved woman artist. hmmmm.....

at the library

A library is but the soul's burial-ground. It is the land of shadows.

Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887), minister, abolitionist, and writer

I love the place; the magnificent books; I require books as I require air.

Sholem Asch (1880-1957)

That perfect tranquility of life, which is nowhere to be found but in retreat, a faithful friend and a good library.

Aphra Behn (1640-1689) England's first professional woman writer, spy

A public library is the most enduring of memorials, the trustiest monument for the preservation of an event or a name or an affection; for it, and it only, is respected by wars and revolutions, and survives them

Mark Twain (1835-1910) humorist, writer, lecturer

When I step into this library, I cannot understand why I ever step out of it.

Marie de Sevigne (1626–1696) French aristocrat known for her letter writing

There is not such a cradle of democracy upon the earth as the Free Public Library, this republic of letters, where neither rank, office, nor wealth receives the slightest consideration.

Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919)industrialist, businessman, philanthropist

A university is just a group of buildings gathered around a library.

Shelby Foote (1916-2005)novelist and historian

To a historian libraries are food, shelter, and even muse.

Barbara W. Tuchman (1912-1989) historian and author

Librarian is a service occupation. Gas station attendant of the mind.

Richard Powers (b. 1957) novelist

Consider what you have in the smallest chosen library. A company of the wisest and wittiest men that could be picked out of all civil countries, in a thousand years, have set in best order the results of their learning and wisdom. The men themselves were hid and inaccessible, solitary, impatient of interruption, fenced by etiquette; but the thought which they did not uncover to their bosom friend is here written out in transparent words to us, the strangers of another age.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) philosopher, poet, essayist

Perhaps no place in any community is so totally democratic as the town library. The only entrance requirement is interest.

Lady Bird Johnson (1912-2007) first lady, entrepreneu

notes on photos:
1) detail on outside of the library of congress, washington, dc, february 2008
2) inside view of fairfax county public library, fairfax, virginia. august 2008
3) pitt library also known as the friendship free library, friendship, ny. june 2008
4) view of the main cleveland public library (cpl) from memorial plaza. cpl is the third largest public library system in the united states, the only two larger are the nyc library and the boston libary systems. this is amazing considering that cleveland ranks #40 in terms of population size. at it's heyday in the 1920s, however, cleveland was the 5th largest city in the united states. in 1970 cleveland was the 10th largest city, but since the 1970s it has been losing both population and ranking in terms of size vis a vis other cities.
5) skylight inside connecting corridor between the original main cleveland public library and the louis stokes building. the stokes wing was built in 1997, the building the stokes wing is connected to was constructed in 1925. however,a few days ago cpl celebrated it's 140th anniversary.
6) one of several carnegie libraries in cleveland. between 1883 and 1929 andrew carnegie funded 2,509 libraries -1,689 were built in the united states, 660 in britain and ireland, 156 in canada, and others in australia, new zealand, serbia, the caribbean, and fiji.
7) inside the mary couts burnett library at texas christian university, fort worth. july 2007
8) bookshelves inside lakewood public library, lakewood, ohio. june 2009
9) librarian at lakewood public library. june 2009
10) lisle free library. even the tiny little village of lisle in new york has a library!
11) sign at entrance of tomkins county public library, ithaca, ny june 2009

I have a deep and lifelong love and connection to libraries. as a child there was no place that I enjoyed getting lost in more than a library, this pleasure continues to this day. the job I loved the most while I was in high school was a work study position at the copyright office for the library of congress; I worked in a division that was transferring very old copyright documents to microfilm. throughout my undergraduate years I worked at the university library checking out books for patrons and shelving books - it was always risky to have me shelving books as one never knew what 'trouble' I'd get into if I was distracted by some treasure on a shelf. had the university I attended offered a library degree, I may have very well have gone into library science instead of pursuing the degrees that I pursued.

as the kitchen in the heart and the soul of a home, I believe the library is the heart and the soul of a community.

is there any (human made) environment better than a library? I think not! I can't wait to see how everyone who is playing theme thursday's chooses to explore libraries!!

at the library by green day (I don't know what it is, but I just love billie joe, maybe it's because in some sort of weird parallel universe he reminds me of billy?)

got my mind set on you

The February sunshine steeps your boughs and tints the buds and swells the leaves within.

William C. Bryant (1794-1878) poet, journalist, and editor

on sunday I went to see a performance of ma rainey's black bottom at the local beck center for the arts. it was very well done and all aspects of the production exceeded my expectations. I love when this happens!

ma rainey's black bottom is a play by the brilliant playwright august wilson; it is one of the plays in wilson's ten play series known as 'the pittsburgh cycle' or 'the century cycle.' personally, I prefer the moniker 'the century cycle.' first, not all of the plays take place in pittsburgh (yes, nine of the ten do, but ma rainey's black bottom does not) and second, I find that the significance of the cycle is not the location but the experience wilson sets out to capture and portray in this series of plays - the experience of blacks in twentieth century america.

several years ago I added wilson's cycle of plays to my must do/must see list (a list which I now call my 'bucket list.'). I'm doing much better with seeing productions of wilson's century cycle than with meeting my goal of reading the twenty novels in zola's rougon-macquart cycle. so far, over the last fifteen years, I have seen 50% of the wilson plays: joe turner's come and gone (1910s); ma rainey's black bottom (1920); the piano lesson (1930s); fences (1950s); and king hendley II (1980s) - five down, five to go! but, as far as the zola novels are concerned so far I've only read three of the twenty (l'assommoir or the drinking den, au bonheur des dames, and germinal - if you haven't read germinal -DO! but I digress*. anyhow, at this rate I'm going have to live a really long time or I'm going to die disappointed - I really hate to be disappointed).

by the way tomorrow is mouse medicine's second birthday! wow, time flies when you're having fun! I'm having fun, I hope you are too!

george harrison singing 'got my mind set on you' - r&b artist james ray wrote this song in the 1960s, harrison's recorded the song on his 1987 album cloud nine. the song became a number 1 song in 1988. golly, this is one george that I really miss.


*what's new?

late-breaking news

addendum: sorry the video doesn't seem to be available outside of the u.s. (or north america)....I haven't heard if the vid coming through to the mice up in canada

possessed to skate

We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) Irish literary critic, playwright and essayist

nothing to write about today (well, no time to write is more like it), but really wanted to post this pic from when tut-tut, l, and I were tootling around cleveland. right next to the rock and roll hall of fame and museum is a skateboard park. in the summer the place is packed with people; however on a cold february afternoon the place doesn't seem to get much action. but there was one hardy guy out in the cold (temperature-wise, it was well below freezing!) we spoke a bit with the guy - seems he works in a fairly high-stressed field and likes to come out to the skateboard park at lunchtime as a way to reduce the overall workplace stress, get some fresh air, and a little bit of exercise. I say right on!

happy presidents day!

visiting thomas jefferson's home w/my dad and my little sister. charlottesville, virginia, 1969.

happy presidents day from the state affectionately nicknamed 'the mother of the presidents'

Eight U.S. presidents hailed from Ohio at the time of their elections, giving rise to the nickname "Mother of Presidents", a sobriquet it shares with Virginia. Seven presidents were born in Ohio, making it second to Virginia's eight, but Virginia-born William Henry Harrison lived most of his life in Ohio and is also buried there. Harrison conducted his political career while living on the family compound, founded by William's father-in-law, John Cleves Symmes, in North Bend, Ohio. The seven presidents born in Ohio were Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Benjamin Harrison (grandson of William Henry Harrison), William McKinley, William Howard Taft and Warren G. Harding. (wikipedia)

coincidentally yesterday c-span released the results of a recent survey of leading historians, c-span asked the historians to rank and rate the presidents. not surprisingly, abraham lincoln tops the list, with george washington following a close second. according to the c-span survey, the highest ranked president from ohio is william mckinley who comes in at #16 (right behind bill clinton) and the lowest ranked president from ohio is warren g. harding who is ranked at #38. even though we are now on #44, there are only 42 names on the list. of course we can't rank president obama since he has just started his first term in office. and presidential trivia buffs may remember that we had one president who served two non-consecutive terms. although this president didn't hail from ohio, at least his name had a connection to ohio for this president was no other than grover cleveland - who by the way, ranked #21 in the c-span survey - which is dead center!

for inquiring mice who need to know the results of the c-span survey are here.


george clinton's 1993 hit paint the white house black:

brother can you spare a dime

An act of love, a voluntary taking on oneself of some of the pain of the world, increases the courage and love and hope of all.

Dorothy Day (1897-1980) social activist & co-founder of the catholic worker

on friday the world press photo of the year for 2008 was announced. the photo is a very powerful and stark image which captures a different type of conflict that is waging around the world. in fact, the image was selected because of it's resemblance to the powerful images that are found in classic war photography.

"Now war in its classic sense is coming into people's houses because they can't pay their mortgages," jury chair MaryAnne Golon said.

Fellow juror Akinbode Akinbiyi said: "All over the world people will be thinking: 'This is what is happening to all of us'."

the winning photograph was taken in cleveland, by anthony suau and shows an armed officer from the cuyahoga county sheriff’s office moving through a home after an eviction which was a result of foreclosure. the photo was taken in march of 2008 and was part of a photographic series time magazine published on the national economic crisis. to see all of the photos in suau's photographic essay the american economy: down and out click here.

dr john and odetta performing yip harburg's 1931 classic brother can you spare a dime. this video by someone called spadecaller shows the song's continued relevance by including images of what is happening today to the poor and disenfranchised of our country.


on a lighter note, I'm sure darby conley won't mind if I share this strip


photo: tsuki and gwen, february 2009

a rose and a candy bar

wishing everyone a sweet valentine's day! any holiday that provides an excuse to bring chocolate into the house is okay by me.

this morning tut-tut and her daughter l left after spending a couple days here as part of l's college tour. between tuesday and today they visited four schools, I expect tut-tut will be writing about their experience when she get back home. I was very happy that two of the schools on l's list are in northeast ohio - oberlin and case (also known as case western reserve university or cwru). although tut-tut and I have been blogging buddies since last spring, this was the first time we met in the flesh as it were. what a joy! you always feel as if you know each other quite well, especially if you've been reading someone's blog for months or even years; but you ask yourself, how well can I know someone if I never shared any space other than cyberspace? but in this crazy world of ours cyberspace is just as real as terra firma space.

we had a terrific time. the mild weather that hit the cleveland area last weekend and during the early part of this week didn't stick around. the temperatures started dropping wednesday night, by yesterday we were firmly back to winter; but what we have now is more 'authentic' than those balmy days of a week ago. so actually the return to normal was a good thing for showing l what it's really like in this area this time of year. I loved showing off a little bit of my fair city and it was fun to be able to be included in sharing part of the college tour experience. I have fond memories of when em was a junior in high school and we set off on a mother-daughter road trip to visit schools she was considering.

I know a lot of my blogging friends are also friends of tut-tut's, I put together a wee slideshow so our mutual friends can vicariously join in the fun. for all of those that know both of us, I expect your ears were burning the last couple days as we would find ourselves at times talking about shared friendships and how much fun it would be to have a really big gathering of the tribe.

dixie is wondering why she can't have a glass of wine too!

a rose and a baby ruth - now, here's an oldie!

talking fishing blues

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing it is not fish they are after.

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and naturalist

And all the winds go sighing, for sweet things dying.

Christina G. Rossetti (1830-1894) English poet

Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.

Maya Angelou (b. 1928) poet, actor, activist

The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.

Thomas Merton (1915-1968) Trappist monk, writer, photographer

The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), dutch post-impressionist painter

No good fish goes anywhere without a porpoise.

Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) mathematician, photographer and novelist

When you fish for love, bait with your heart, not your brain.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) humorist, writer, lecturer

I think food provides us the quickest way to understand each other's culture. Each dish reflects the long history of culture of each country, race and region. Talking over such dishes is the first step in promoting understanding.

Tsuyoshi Ozawa (b.1965) Japanese artist
I jotted this down a while back at an exhibition of his work @ ICP

notes on photos:
1) fish by frank gehry. fish have fascinated gehry for years; gehry's fascination manifests itself with this steel lattice fish. the fish is located in the olympic port area of barcelona at the base of two landmark towers. this coppery fish shimmers and shines in the bright sunshine of this beautiful mediterranean city. barcelona march 2007

2) a mermaid weather vane on the roof of a house. lakewood, oh, february 2009

3) in 1999 I joined a group from the university of connecticut that was going to iceland as part of a tour sponsored by the university's william benton museum. it was an amazing trip and I have been longing to go back for another visit ever since. unfortunately I did not write down the title of this piece and I am not 100% sure of who this artist is of this sculpture is, but I think it is by Ásmundur Sveinsson. I'm fairly certain that I snapped this picture when we were visiting Ásmundarsafn

I love to eat anything (well as long as it doesn't fall within my totally subjective cute food category) and I particularly enjoy fish. however, I discovered an exception to my love of eating fish when I was in iceland and experienced hakarl. during our first evening, the group I was with was treated to a dinner of traditional icelandic food and drink. during the cocktail hour, cheerful servers circulated with trays of appetizers. on one tray were little white cubes, the tray was presented to me. I asked the server what it was and she responded "fish." I probed no deeper, thinking of course, "oh fish, it will be delish!" I picked up a toothpick and speared one of the cubes and popped the sucker in my mouth. long story short, it was the most disgusting thing I've ever experienced. I immediately grabbed a napkin and spit it out, then went in search of some type of alcoholic beverage to kill the taste and disinfect my mouth.

soon I went in search of my traveling companion gig to warn her not to eat the little white cubes. unfortunately, as soon as I saw her I realized I was too late. she had just popped one of those little suckers in her mouth. unfortunately for her, her reaction to the repulsive little cube was not to spit it out but to swallow it as quickly as possible.

hakarl is considered a delicacy in iceland, however, I have to agree with anthony bourdain when he declared that it is "the single worst, most disgusting and terrible tasting thing " he has ever eaten.

4) mural in bellingham, washington. from 1997-2000 my daughter em lived in bellingham. on one visit I snapped this picture of a downtown bellingham mural. I don't know if it is still there, I sure hope so. the mural does a wonderful job capturing and celebrating the area's culture and it's connection to the land and sea.

5) fishing boats off the coast of cape breton, nova scotia. photo taken during a family vacation to nova scotia in 1996. this photo, like the two preceding it was taken with film and then retaken with my digital camera - so pardon the poor image quality.

6) fish at a zagara's grocery store, cleveland heights. february 2009

7) fishing fun with uncle f.... this photo was taken a while ago at the annual yanoshik family picnic in pennsylvania. my niece mara, whose back is to the viewer, just turned 23 - her brothers who are also in the photo I believe are 25 and 27 - but I could be wrong, I can never keep the ages straight for all the 'kids' that grace our lives. I included this photo because I just loved the look of accomplishment and glee on adrian's face as he holds up his first catch!

8) a sashimi lunch special at ohashi - yum! north olmsted. january 2009

ramblin' jack elliot performing woody guthrie's classic talking fishing blues: