Watched CHANGING THE FUTURE OF OUR PLANET

 WHAT A GREAT EXPERIENCE !

For an entire hour I sat riveted to this new idea on changing and saving Planet Earth. 

My $25 donation was well worth it. 

Wish the photos of the presenters showed up. 

The Power of Stories: Writing the Future of Our Planet

Join Us Here Tomorrow at 1PM PDT/4PM EDT (Passcode: 163186) Wednesday, March 31 1-2PM PDT/4-5PM EDT Together, we are writing the future of our planet. In the same way that we are living with the deeds and decisions of the past, the choices made and actions taken by those of us alive today will bear direct impact on the generations who come after we are gone. But how we imagine our future and tell those stories can serve as a predictor of what is to come. As prelude to the first-ever Nobel Prize Summit at the end of April, Nobel Prize Laureate Martin Chalfie, screenwriter Joe Robert Cole, and novelist Kim Stanley Robinson will examine the way in which those stories have the power to impact our vision of the future. Moderated by Shahzeen Attari, who researches the factors that motivate action on climate change, this wide-ranging and eclectic conversation promises to be hopeful, optimistic, and above all, inspiring. For more Information about the Nobel Prize Summit, visit the Summit website.  The Nobel Prize Summit will be hosted by the Nobel Foundation, The National Academy of Sciences, and The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Speakers: Martin Chalfie is a University Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University. In 2008 he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his introduction of Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) as a biological marker. He is the Chair of the Committee on Human Rights at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and the President-Elect of the American Society for Cell Biology. Joe Robert Cole co-wrote the Academy Award-nominated Black Panther, for which he received a National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Award. His critically-acclaimed Netflix directorial debut All Day and a Night was released May 2020. He produced the Emmy-Winning FX series American Crime Story: The People vs. OJ Simpson, for which he earned a Writers Guild of America (WGA) Award for Outstanding Writing and is currently co-writing the sequel to Black Panther. Kim Stanley Robinson is an American science fiction writer, best known for his Mars trilogy, Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars.  He was sent to the Antarctica by the U.S. National Science Foundation in 1995 and 2016, and is advisor to the Clarion Writers’ Workshop and the Sierra Nevada Research Foundation. His most recent novel is The Ministry for the Future. Moderator: Shahzeen Attari's research focuses on the psychology of resource use and how to motivate action on climate change. Shahzeen and her lab work on problems that draw on both cognitive and environmental science, and focus on perceptions, motivations, and biases related to climate change and sustainability. She is an Associate Professor at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University, Bloomington. This will be a Zoom Event

Celery Carrot and Brown Rice Soup - World Bipolar Day - Scott is having a good ole time in his garage with his 3 new metal cabinets

 As soon as it cools down, I will eat my carrot, celery and brown rice stew, made in my crock pot.

I sprinkled it with cinnamon as a spice.

Wrote a story on WORLD BIPOLAR DAY, which was yesterday and emailed it to the Times Chronicle. Lynn was my designated reader.

Then Judy L called me and wanted me to order two books for her. I had read them when J D Salinger died. Got em from the library.

Dover Thrift editions did not have them so I ordered on Amazon. Paperbacks, new, and arriving on April 6.

She will pick them up but can't come in. 

Scott got his metal cabinets from HOME DEPOT and is assembling them in his garage. I can hear an occasional clang.

Donated $15 to the Macular Degeneration Research Foundation in memory of Aunt Selma. 

The above stories have some real zingers in them. 

I would love to have my front lawn covered with daffodils and jonquils.

I could ask my gardener what he thinks.

Also as I told Judy earlier today, after she read me one of her great poems, that I'd like to write a short story today. 

We shall see.

I have all the freedom in the world so why don't I just go upstairs and write!

Creating more park benches by tossing out solicitations into Yellow Plastic Bin - ONE MORE GREAT FOTO

 Was just sitting outside on Scott's bench while he read thru his Clipper magazine. Local ads.

I just went to the compost heap and deposited egg shells and other nasties onto the Uriah Heap. 

Even though Scott and I walked many miles yesterday before we slept, both our feet are doing well.

A white-haired gent and his very fat wife are passing by my house with their black pooch. At first I thought it might be Babb, Bill Babb, from the Giant Supermarket.

Just now, when Scott and I came home from our fabulous walk, a bearded gentlemen walked down the street.

Handsome he was but he looked like an inmate, I swear to God. 

Now, lemme share w you all the mail I got today.

Susan G Koman breast cancer.

Nature Conservancy. 

Parkinson's Diz.

Pennsylvania Law Enforcement.

Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Mothers Against Drunk Drivers.

The latter left me a stamp but it's impossible to affix it.

Sean delivered the mail today. He didn't even look at my hand-made card of AMY'S RISOTTO AND MUSHROOM BOWL until I asked him to.

Tracey will sure get a kick out of it.

Did you hear the gong go off at the Ponderosa?

Yes, I am visiting, Miz Ruth, they call me, and will make me a luncheon salad.

Scott and I walked for miles at THE LORDS NEW CHURCH. 

Spiritual Walk, read the sign.

I collected many flowers including

Sent them to Beatriz so she might identify them.

I received a very long phone message.

Went to answer it and immediately DELETED IT. One of the ways I handle these jackasses who try to mess with me.

I loved the MAXWELL HOUSE COFFEE I brewed this morning.

Ker plunk! I spilled it all out.

These Russian scientists were featured in a Times story today about their ongoing discoveries of nutrinos teeny tiny molecules that offer glimpses into black holes. These molecules enter all our bodies very quickly. If we could figure them out, we would be new Galileos.

IF POSSIBLE, GET INVOLVED IN REAL LIFE DURING THE PANDEMIC... SO WE DID ... COMMENT ON UNCLE TOMMY short story

 Scott and I got sick of watching David Janssen in DETECTIVE RICHARDSON so we hopped in his car and drove over to the new YMCA in Willow Grove/

Diamond, you should know never to point a gun at someone unless you mean to shoot. My Marine father taught me dat.

Janssen constantly had a cigarette in his mouth. Probly why he died young. FORTY EIGHT !!!

David Janssen (born David Harold Meyer) (March 27, 1931 - February 13, 1980) was an American film and television actor who is best known for his starring role as Richard Kimble in the television series The Fugitive (1963–1967). Janssen also had the title roles in three other series: Richard Diamond, Private Detective; Harry O; and O'Hara, U.S. Treasury.

Aside: Trial is on now in Minneapolis about Derek Chauvin's killing of George Floyd. My sister Lynn is watching and I told her, GOOD FOR YOU. We've gotta make these cops accountable.

Scott and walked all around the perimeter, masks at the ready. It was an arduous walk. At first a strong gust of wind almost knocked off my blue sailor's hat, but later the wind died down.

We did not see a soul. A lovely playground had been dedicated by Gail Faulkner and some others - so colorful. 

From the Internet.

We kept out of  the wetlands, of which there were plenty.

When we got home, we walked some more. Around our hilly block. 

Anything else for my Ruthie, asked Scott.

Yes I would like a good meal.

Wait till the pandemic is over, he said.

I know. I know, says I.

Was trying to find a foto of T AND T DINER, which is out of biz, but instead I found

DINER HUNTER.. Click here

Lemme check my fridge now.

AMY'S MUSHROOM RISOTTO in oven now.

Setting timer for an hour. 

Oh, timer, where art thou?

Curious minds like mine wanted to know. Read about what vaccines DO inside your body.

Vaccines train our immune systems to create proteins that fight disease, known as ‘antibodies’, just as would happen when we are exposed to a disease but – crucially – vaccines work without making us sick.Dec 31, 2020

On the way home, we pulled next to an enormous Scepter Truck. Scott loved it and said he would have no problem driving it.

"Uncle Tommy": What a great short story!!!  I am in love with it. So much rings true & interesting.  U have a way with words, my dear.  I think many people would like it, even if they know nothing about you or me.

Keep writing!

Leonard Maran is dead at age 77

Friend from Goddard College, Leonard ''Lenny' Maran is dead at 77.

Leonard, as he was called as an adult, was active in the Gay Rights Movement. When you read the obit you'll see that many people in his family died very young.

RIP - Jan 21, 2021 - Oct 31, 1943

He and the late Wendy Davidson were good friends.

Coach Iris notified me of his death, as well as someone she and husband Kim were close to.

...

Just started raining....  pouring, actually.

Since it is Sunday, I'll be at Scott's by 10 am for a subtitled film noir.

...Watched Mirande Esmonde White in the after hours. Her show takes place in the Caribbean. Thanks to Scott for that info.  

Did my exercises with her as best I could from lying in bed.

I had a terrible craving for my MEATLESS MEATBALLS.

You will not, you will not, you will not, I roared at myself.

JUST ATE FIVE OF THE LITTLE F... DARLINGS... DAMN GOOD !!!

Attempted to read in bed but the books were so heavy, I was hurting my wrist muscles n tendons.

Before eating this morning, did my exercises in the cold basement. Will power!

Gonna write THE GREENWOLD GIRLS now and SARAH AND DANIEL.

AND OF COURSE we will wanna check on the EAGLES in Hanover, PA.

Photo below is not from Hanover... green bean salad.

My short story UNCLE TOMMY was published yesterday, March 27, 2021.

Click here.

Also sent Onkar a photo of me in my mask at Walgreen's where I got two Pfizer shots. He was interested to know. They produce the Johnson and Johnson vaccine there.

Congrats to these graduates from the NY Times.

Just got the expected call from CVS.

CVS is not allowed to mail them due to Medicare rules.

That is TOTAL FUCKING BULLSHIT, I answered, but I do understand.

Will pick them up later today.

SITTING ON THE FRONT PORCH EATING MY SALAD

 YES, that was me sitting on my front porch steps and munching on a salad.

Tossed out all my coffee, well, not all. I put it in Lynn's pink cup and left it until tomorrow. Saturday. 

The story I wrote for today was DO YOU LIKE MY HAIRCUT? All I did was tell the truth.

Lifeless, straw-like grey hair that makes me look like my late mother.

Terribly windy out there. A very long many pronged branch fell from the tree in my front yard.

And then the girls came zooming up the street. Olivia and Grace.

One in her scooter, thother racing as fast as she could.

Once, Dear Reader, I was like that.

SITTING ON THE FRONT PORCH EATING MY SALAD

Whoa! My hair was blowing up off my scalp!

Still, I dug into my spinach and two red ripe tomatoes and that

delicious Cabot Cheese in the co-op up in Vermont where I once

attended Goddard College.

We sunbathed in the nude, Wendy and me, till a farmer came by

and we said Never again

JPK was there too - I wrote him today - he was hairy as a rabbit

and thought the sun would dye his hair.

Friends of mine have died. Not only Wendy but Elinor whose

Hurricaine Lamp sits lonely on my downstairs counter

She'd be shocked to learn that after her death at the old ladies' home

as husband George called it, he courted a new woman. 

Not long afterward, ole George bit the dust, our ultimate home.

Who is this handsome man on my blog? My backyard looks like a cranberry bog - Meet Bijou and the Pink Elephant

 

George Segal, dead at 87, from complications of bypass surgery, said his wife Sonia Segal.

He never really made it 'big,' - I think the co chair of my Hahnemann Department, also died on the surgery table.

Those were the days, my friends! 

Just discovered something delicious to eat - Daisy Cottage Cheese with OCEAN SPRAY Cranberry Sauce.

My Times Chronicle newspaper, wrapped in blue plastic on my sidewalk, may be illegible when I pick it up.

Shall I ask a neighbor to put it in my mailbox?

Do I have the nerve?

BTW, this is the second day of my Pfizer vaccine and I feel normal.

OMG, so many phone calls that are not for me.

Pittsburgh, Mason, Ohio, and the list goes on.

Here's how to remember the spelling of cranberry.

It has BERRY in it. 

REMEMBERING HELENE THROUGH HER PLATES

When she moved from her last house to a couple of assisted livings 

she allowed me to take a stack of blue and white shallow bowls

with me. And utensils with wood on the ends and a gorgeous tea pitcher

fit for a tea house ceremony.

She was an artist, a sculptor, a photographer. 

Buried now in the cold earth, she is not really there.

Her essence has flown somewhere unknown. 

Does she even know where she is?

Look on the find it column on my blog and you will find HAR's entire house before she moved out for good. 

AND NOW, for her first appearance on my blog, meet BIJOU and the Pink Elephant! 

Am so thrilled I copied it again.

Finally, I woke up and realized I had to pay my taxes

 

Scott drove me to my accountant's office. He found a faster way to go, down York Road.

He went in, with mask on, while I waited in car. He was out in a jiffy.

Just had a picnic lunch on Scott's bench. A humongous salad with dressing - mayo, Heinz Ketchup and Mr Mustard. Very spicy.

Noticed on the way there that T and T restaurant is gone.

Many a good meal I had there.

Tim and Terry.

Foto from Internet.

Ran into Ian, who was walking his dog Sydney. She has settled well into their household. Next thing I see as I'm walking home from picnic lunch is Ian driving the white SUV.

I had a really wild idea just now.

Will keep it a secret and after I read part of a book will get to work on it.

Well, at least the Gary Charles Salon in Roxborough PA is still in biz. 

I used to drive Rosemary there. 

Was reading SAPIENS outside on Scott's bench, wrapped in a warm sweater.

Was FREEZING.

Daniel and son Max visited - thrilling - My great potato soup - My story "Hospice Ward" is made better by Lawlor & Murphy - I made someone happy today

 

Here is Bubby and grandson Max on the back porch. We played some word games like WHICH WOULD YOU RATHER BE OR DO and TELL ME A RIDDLE.

I wear gloves because when I go in the house I WON'T HAVE TO WASH MY HANDS FOR THE THOUSANDTH TIME.

Max loves drinking from his thermos, which has a special name. You sip on it while the thermos is upright.

.....

Several years ago, my friend Yin Liu and I met at a nearby Asian restaurant. Her husband Patrick Otis Cox was somewhere else. 

In these days, there are random shootings of Asian Americans who are clustered in big cities. What is wrong with the United States. Hari Srinivasin interviewed MARGARET CHO on the News Hour tonight. 

She is a comedian and performer. View Cho's website here. 

Her husband, whose painting is on my living room wall, had died suddenly of a congenital heart disease.

I studied Kremp Florist offerings and decided on an arthurium for her, which arrived today.

She loved it. It's a house plant.

I have plenty of dried flowers in my living room. 

My hydrangeas are in bottles.

...

Got the idea of Hospice Ward since my friend Helene Ryesky died. And, yes, I would call her a near genius. 

Rem Murphy has mentioned that some of my works sound like Anton Chekhov, the doctor who became a playwright and fiction writer.

When we watch the PBS Evening News Hour, we always look at what is in the background. Well, here with Chekhov we see his rather expensive chair.

He definitely looks like a modern man. I've mentioned before my favorite story of his is Lady with a Lap Dog.

Hell, no, that's Kalie the little white dog from across the street. 

Kalie loves to bark.

Drank this earlier through a Flex Straw.

Must remember to put it on my shopping list.

We are very worried about my darling Freda Rose.

She lives at Paul's Run in Northeast Philadelphia. Will call her husband Bernie tomorrow to see how she is doing. 

She went to the hospital for something wrong with her lip.

PRAYER FOR FREDA ROSE

Never was there a better friend

We were like twins, 60 years apart

Take this, you'd say when I was about to leave

Your spacious home on North Settlement Court

You, once a poor farm girl, who lost your

beloved brother to ALS, your daughter to

an unspeakable death

You taught me the word Bashert

the coming together of the rhythms

of the universe

If it is your time to depart this teeming universe

Go peacefully, my darling Freda Rose,

knowing that Love will guide the way. 

Fare thee well, HAR, wherever you are

 

Manatawny Manor above in Pottstown PA

Dear Friends,

Helene died in her sleep this morning about 1:30. I believe that she went peacefully, and that her last thoughts were happy.

Information on services will follow as soon as I know.

With love

Jerry

There was a lovely Hebrew statement with her nephew Jerry's email.

Baruch Dayan Emet

I DID NOT WANNA GET OUTA BED THIS MORNING BUT

then I remembered since today is Thursday Scott shops for us. Made out my list, while the washing machine was bumping in the cold downstairs.

He actually shops on Friday. 

And yes it is sposed to be cold with snow flurries.

Lemme see if my oatmeal is cool.

No, it's too far away, over on the TIMES CHRONICAL on the floor.

My story about the loss of Barnes and Noble was published under the title ODE TO BOOKSTORE.

Great! How did they know that word?

A CD by Brahms is gently playing in the kitchen.

Me cannot do without music, sweet music.

SWEET HELENE

HELLO AGAIN MARVIN AND SELMA - Cousin Linda uploaded the pic onto FB

 WHY DID THIS COME OUT SO TINY?

Uncle Marvin and Aunt Selma at their house on Silsby Road.

How we loved visiting!

I will jiggle it after posting in hopes it comes out larger.

CLICK THE PHOTO and it will come out bigger. 

...

James Levine, famous conductor at the MET and many other opera houses, is dead at 77. Just read it in  the NY Times.

Sadly, he was found GUILTY of harassing and molesting younger men. One of the guys he began with when he was a teenager. 

Would YOU put up with this?

I don't want Levine's photo on my blog.

...

Am getting ready to take my income tax material to my accountant. Gonna put it in a cardboard box.

Won't go today.

...

About 90 minutes ago, I found myself asleep upstairs in my bed.

ENDURANCE by Scott Kelly was on my lap.

Disoriented, I began reading it and then remembered today is Garbage Day.

Walked around the house gathering things to throw out. Papers, plastic items, and put em in my unpleasantly fragrant TALL TRASH BAGS.

Not that cold out today. Went out in my PJs but a nice top I bought many yrs ago at the Sweater Mill in Hatboro. Black, Indian-style, with lots of tiny beads and elaborate stitching.

...

Received a LETTER today from the NY Times.

Whatever did they want?

Did they wanna hire me to write for them?

For a special price, they wanted me to get THE SUNDAY PAPER.

I get one newspaper and one paper only.

THE TIMES CHRONICLE.

It will arrive later this afternoon.

The fellow comes around in a black SUV and tosses the paper on my sidewalk.

A few other people in the neighborhood also get it.

TEEN RAISES FUNDS TO BUILD A LIBRARY IN TANZANIA 

This is amazing but I dunno if it's a good or bad idea.

The president is a Covid denier.

SO LONG FOR NOW. 

Wrestling champ named Booker T. 

What a well developed body!

FOOD LEADER MARK BITTMAN TELLS THE TERRIBLE TRUTH - BUT MAINTAINS OPTIMISM

 I’m Ezra Klein. And this is “The Ezra Klein Show.” [THEME MUSIC PLAYING]

I’ve read Mark Bittman forever. I read him at The New York Times when he wrote “The Minimalist” cooking column, which I loved. 

I don’t think I can tell you how many recipes I made from that. I bought his cookbooks. I had “How to Cook Everything,” that big red one. And then when I went vegetarian, I had “How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.” 

I did not have the baking one because I don’t bake. I read his food policy writing. He’s like my cranky food uncle. He’s been there at every step in my food journey. I’ve learned how to cook from him. And I’ve learned, I think, more importantly, a lot about how to think about food from him. 

So when he sent me his new book, “Animal, Vegetable, Junk,” I was excited. But I also was totally unprepared for what the book really is. It is this sweeping history and reinterpretation of humanity’s relationship with food, going back to our hunter-gatherer days, tracing the development of agriculture, the way that changed our social mores and the way that changed our laws, then the industrialization of agriculture, the pressure of both technological advance and the profit motive, the way capitalism and philosophy converge to create a food system that — and there’s really no other way to put this — is poisoning us and poisoning the earth and inflicting cruelty to other creatures on a scale that breaks your mind if you try to contemplate it. 

And that is not to say that system does nothing good. It feeds billions of people with a variety that we never could have imagined at another point in human history. But it’s doing those other things, the poisoning things, too. And we actually have to take that seriously. Bittman’s indictment here is sweeping. And I’m not sure you’ll hear that in this conversation I’m bought in on every piece of it. 

WOW. Just finished listening to the conversation. Ate a salad and a third bowl of potato rice green bean onion soup - delicious!

Delicious, tho, is not a part of Bittman's language.

Photo please.

Costco chickens are very inexpensive. But the chickens suffer for it. They are tortured to stay fat.

Okay gotta go upstairs and ride bike while reading a paperback.

As a kid Bittman read the SETTLEMENT COOKBOOK, as did we.

OUTSIDE now, the birds are all talking to each other. Yes, it's spring and young birds fancy turns to tweeting to their potential partners.

Wood peckers in the sycamore maple tree, chicadees filling the bird house, they will be bringing in bldg materials for their homes, no need to go to Home Depot or Strathman Lumber if you are still there.

Can you hear my washing machine filling up?

FARE THEE WELL FOR GOOD, DEAREST HELENE

 

I am celebrating your imminent demise by eating a scrambled egg omelet with everything in it - mushrooms, asparagus, onions and two eggs from Happy Hens, knowing that the force that separates you from this world of wonders is playing tug of war with you.

You are so reluctant to go. Who can blame you?

Of course I served the omelet for the two of us, you and me, in that splendid Copenhagen Blue Bowl, the most beautiful I own. 

Here, I will pop another piece of Dove chocolate into my mouth.

Earlier, I was upstairs in my Reading Room, watching the world through the lace curtains my mother made me, and you're right, she never got to an assisted living facility, thank the Lord.

The violet or indigo I watched through the curtains was magnificent. Of course it wouldn't stay as all things on this earth are impermanent.

Except you! Do you know ALL the things you taught me? You marked up your walls on Bauman Drive with my Sarah and Dan's heights.

Little kids they was then. Not now.

Not now, as I remember eating the everything omelet which, like a quilt, is covering you over and never shall I see THEE again, my darling Queen Helene!

WRTI-FM HOST DIES OF COVID - VERY VERY SAD

 

WRTI Mourns the Loss of Beloved Classical Host Bliss Michelson

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Bliss Michelson, a classical host for WRTI since 2014, an interviewer for The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert broadcasts, and an accomplished double bass player. Bliss died in New Jersey on Sunday, March 14th from complications of COVID-19. He was 71 years old.

....

Earlier I had been watching a film on YouTube which was very good and when I stopped watching, I realized I was LOW

Ate cottage cheese and Cling Peaches, which are fresh.

Then made Ralston Purina mixed with Cream of Wheat with peanut butter and baked apples and am now okay.

Still eating the enormous portion. 

....

I do feel terrible about Bliss Michelson. Thought his surname was Nickelson.

In his memory they are playing pieces featuring the double bass.

From The Strad.com