What is that which is under you?
Take one letter from it and it is over you?
Take two letters from it and it is round you?*
____________________
This weekend dw and I took a short drive north to Centralia / Chehalis Washington and spent a day and a half doing an open studio tour. Considering the location we were surprised at the number of artist studios and the amount of good art. To be sure a lot of it was decorative/utilitarian art rather than "fine" art but nearly all of the artists we saw obviously valued craftsmanship. Three in particular -- Brad Tarbet (metal sculpture) -- and Renate & Gabriela Cowan (stained and fused glass) -- had exceptional technique.
dw bought one piece. A small vase made by Dan Sheridan, a potter with a bunch of stuff even I liked and generally I'm not much into pottery. For my part, I got a few ideas I'll cheerfully steal. We quite enjoyed the weekend. It's always fun to see art in it's natural habitat and to visit with the artists.
dw drove up, while I sat and worked on the Saturday NYT crossword puzzle. I do OK with the late week puzzles, but I'm definitely in the slow amateur category. dw, on the other hand, has almost no interest in crossword puzzles, but will ask, when I'm stuck: "Can I help?" And I will usually respond with something like:
"Five letter word -- Who was the reserve left tackle for the NY Giants in 1958?" And occasionally dw will know the answer -- surprising us both, and leaving dw just a bit smug. I don't recall last Saturday's clue, but dw again knew the answer and then she said:
"Ask me any question and I'll know the answer!"
So I said: "Why did I forget my hat this morning?" (Heavy rain was forecast for the weekend)
And dw replied: "I know, but I'm too nice to say."
I retired from the field and went back to my puzzle. (Humph! I thought. Humph. Too nice to say
indeed!)
Centralia itself --- who knew? It's a nice little town with a couple of good restaurants, two used-book stores (one well organized, the other with random piles of books, narrow aisles and a good-luck-finding-anything air) a bunch of antique/junque stores, two tourist-junk shops, and several people-actually-live-here stores, as well as some street curiosities. The downtown has some empty store fronts but the place is still alive and was a happening place Saturday night (we had to try three restaurants to get a table).
Like most people (I suspect) we had thought the area was a place to speed by at 75 mph. We thought the place had two nut-jobs but nothing else. dw discovered the area for us when she spent a couple of hours waiting for me during the Seattle to Portland bike ride. (Centralia/Chehalis was the half way point) We enjoyed it enough that we might even stop occasionally when we
drive to Seattle.
We also visited the Mina mounds. A geological (probably ice-age glacial) feature ten miles north of Centralia. It's a curiosity. We were there late in the day (gates close at 6 p.m.) so we didn't stay but a few minutes. We'll definitely return and walk around a bit. It's an odd place.
Nut Jobs: Un-missable from the freeway --- First the Dominic Gospoder monuments. These things were erected by DG (a millionaire with time on his hands) They represent Holocaust Victims, Jesus, Mother Teresa, an Eagle, American Indians and a weather vane. All are worthy enough, I guess, but it's an unusual assemblage. Some of the statues are shorter and barely visible. The tallest is over 100 feet tall. Gospoder started the project in 2001 and has since died. The Cowlitz Indian tribe now owns
the statues and intends to maintain them.
Alfred Hamilton, a turkey farmer ( smirk ) who got PO'ed in 1971 and put up the billboard. Alfred died a few years ago (at age 84) and now the messages are composed and posted by his kids. The kids try, and they are properly right-wing zealots, but they don't have the same flair their dad had. Some of Old Alfred's blazes of glory: "No Mexican Olympic teams? All the runners and swimmers are here!" --- "Evergreen: A haven for Commies and Queers." (Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA) --- "Shouldn't immigrants have to wait 21 years to vote? I had to!" --- and many more over the years. The Hamiltons often provide a "Oh, My God!" moment on the way to Seattle, but aside from the comic relief on a tedious drive, I don't think the signs have much of an effect.
Books: The Man Who Made Lists (Joshua Kendall) A biography of Peter Mark Roget, the man who wrote Roget's Thesaurus. He was "the eminent nineteenth-century polymath --- physician, physiology expert, mathematician, inventor, writer, editor, teacher, and chess whiz ---" Another one of those "Who knew?" books. I found it very interesting, similar to the Professor and the Madman (about the Oxford English Dictionary). Roget seemed to be a humorless man, fearful of going crazy like many of his family (including his mother). Late in life he apparently developed a dry sense of humor: ----- (*) and the answer is: Chair, Hair, and Air. -----
The Last Supper (Ross King) All about Leonardo Da Vinci and the painting of "The Last Supper". King also wrote Brunelleschi's Dome, and Michelangelo and The Pope's Ceiling. All three are excellent and well worth reading.
According to Pacioli, a friend of Da Vinci, old Leonardo had quite the sense of humor. One of his tricks: He made worms appear on cooked meat by chopping up the strings of a lute "in great lengths, just like natural worms," and then concealing them inside the meat. As the meat is roasted, the strings, "made from gut, will slowly twist and they will appear to be worms and those that see them will get sick." Quite the dinner host, old LDV.
Word of the day: CEPHALOPHORE -- (from the Greek for -- head-carrier ) the depiction of a saint who is carrying his own head, after being beheaded. Such as my name-sake, St. Denis of Paris who was beheaded on Montmartre, then walked 6 miles -- preaching the whole time -- to the present site of St Denis Basilica where (one upping Tom Dooley), he actually laid down his head and died. It's true that after a few beers I can be a motor-mouth but I don't think I'd make the entire six miles even without talking so I give old St Denis two big thumbs up. And so it goes. DJA
Take one letter from it and it is over you?
Take two letters from it and it is round you?*
____________________
This weekend dw and I took a short drive north to Centralia / Chehalis Washington and spent a day and a half doing an open studio tour. Considering the location we were surprised at the number of artist studios and the amount of good art. To be sure a lot of it was decorative/utilitarian art rather than "fine" art but nearly all of the artists we saw obviously valued craftsmanship. Three in particular -- Brad Tarbet (metal sculpture) -- and Renate & Gabriela Cowan (stained and fused glass) -- had exceptional technique.
dw bought one piece. A small vase made by Dan Sheridan, a potter with a bunch of stuff even I liked and generally I'm not much into pottery. For my part, I got a few ideas I'll cheerfully steal. We quite enjoyed the weekend. It's always fun to see art in it's natural habitat and to visit with the artists.
dw drove up, while I sat and worked on the Saturday NYT crossword puzzle. I do OK with the late week puzzles, but I'm definitely in the slow amateur category. dw, on the other hand, has almost no interest in crossword puzzles, but will ask, when I'm stuck: "Can I help?" And I will usually respond with something like:
"Five letter word -- Who was the reserve left tackle for the NY Giants in 1958?" And occasionally dw will know the answer -- surprising us both, and leaving dw just a bit smug. I don't recall last Saturday's clue, but dw again knew the answer and then she said:
"Ask me any question and I'll know the answer!"
So I said: "Why did I forget my hat this morning?" (Heavy rain was forecast for the weekend)
And dw replied: "I know, but I'm too nice to say."
I retired from the field and went back to my puzzle. (Humph! I thought. Humph. Too nice to say
indeed!)
Like most people (I suspect) we had thought the area was a place to speed by at 75 mph. We thought the place had two nut-jobs but nothing else. dw discovered the area for us when she spent a couple of hours waiting for me during the Seattle to Portland bike ride. (Centralia/Chehalis was the half way point) We enjoyed it enough that we might even stop occasionally when we
drive to Seattle.
We also visited the Mina mounds. A geological (probably ice-age glacial) feature ten miles north of Centralia. It's a curiosity. We were there late in the day (gates close at 6 p.m.) so we didn't stay but a few minutes. We'll definitely return and walk around a bit. It's an odd place.
Nut Jobs: Un-missable from the freeway --- First the Dominic Gospoder monuments. These things were erected by DG (a millionaire with time on his hands) They represent Holocaust Victims, Jesus, Mother Teresa, an Eagle, American Indians and a weather vane. All are worthy enough, I guess, but it's an unusual assemblage. Some of the statues are shorter and barely visible. The tallest is over 100 feet tall. Gospoder started the project in 2001 and has since died. The Cowlitz Indian tribe now owns
the statues and intends to maintain them.
Books: The Man Who Made Lists (Joshua Kendall) A biography of Peter Mark Roget, the man who wrote Roget's Thesaurus. He was "the eminent nineteenth-century polymath --- physician, physiology expert, mathematician, inventor, writer, editor, teacher, and chess whiz ---" Another one of those "Who knew?" books. I found it very interesting, similar to the Professor and the Madman (about the Oxford English Dictionary). Roget seemed to be a humorless man, fearful of going crazy like many of his family (including his mother). Late in life he apparently developed a dry sense of humor: ----- (*) and the answer is: Chair, Hair, and Air. -----
The Last Supper (Ross King) All about Leonardo Da Vinci and the painting of "The Last Supper". King also wrote Brunelleschi's Dome, and Michelangelo and The Pope's Ceiling. All three are excellent and well worth reading.
According to Pacioli, a friend of Da Vinci, old Leonardo had quite the sense of humor. One of his tricks: He made worms appear on cooked meat by chopping up the strings of a lute "in great lengths, just like natural worms," and then concealing them inside the meat. As the meat is roasted, the strings, "made from gut, will slowly twist and they will appear to be worms and those that see them will get sick." Quite the dinner host, old LDV.
Word of the day: CEPHALOPHORE -- (from the Greek for -- head-carrier ) the depiction of a saint who is carrying his own head, after being beheaded. Such as my name-sake, St. Denis of Paris who was beheaded on Montmartre, then walked 6 miles -- preaching the whole time -- to the present site of St Denis Basilica where (one upping Tom Dooley), he actually laid down his head and died. It's true that after a few beers I can be a motor-mouth but I don't think I'd make the entire six miles even without talking so I give old St Denis two big thumbs up. And so it goes. DJA
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