Walden Pond

The "footprint" of Thoreau's cabin 

Walden Pond, near Concord, Massachussetts

 

     Henry David Thoreau wrote his famed essay/book Walden about his approximate year-and-a-half living in a cabin near Walden Pond.   It was published in 1854.  Though some assume he spent his entire time isolated there, he went into the town of Concord with some regularity.  He also entertained guests at his small cabin.               

Temperature Conversion Chart

"Ink froze... The coldest day that I remember recording–clear & bright–but very high wind–blowing the snow...I notice that the face inclines to stiffen–& the hands & feet get cold soon... "  --Henry David Throeau, Journal; 23 January 1857

As the seasons change, a [humorous, spoof] guide:

60 Degrees Fahrenheit.  Southern Californians shiver uncontrollably.  New Englanders sunbathe.

40 Degrees F.  Italian & English cars wont' start.  New Englanders drive with the windows down.

20 Degrees.  Floridians put on heavy coats, gloves, wool hats & thermal underwear.  New Englanders throw on a flannel shirt.

0 Degrees.  All the people in Miami freeze to death.  New Englanders close the windows.

20 Degrees Below Zero.  Californians fly to Mexico.  New England Girl Scouts start selling cookies door-to-door.

40 Below.  Washington, D.C. runs out of hot air.  New Englanders let the dogs sleep in side.

60 Below.  Santa Claus abandons the North Pole.  New Englanders get frustrated because they can't start their "kahs."    ---Anonymous e-mail circular

E-mail circulars were a societal phenomenon of the 1990s to about 2015. They began dying off as social media use increased.  This seemed like a good place to collect and curate this passing trend of modern society. 

Camp Puns

 

 

D-Day

 "We’ll start the war from right here."   --General Ted Roosevelt*, Jr., D-Day**

*President Theodore Roosevelt's oldest son.
**June 6, 1944:  storming the beaches at Normandy, the Allies got off-course, and Roosevelt knew he had to take action. There was no turning back.

Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., fought in both world wars.  He was the oldest person and the only general onshore in the first wave of soldiers on D-Day. There is a Facebook fan page dedicted to Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. 

Central Park Caricature

Looks like me....only moreso!

     This is a detail from a joint caricature of my daughter and me, done at Central Park in New York City in 2014.  My daughter badly wanted to have one of us done together.  The artist really did not want to make my pretty daughter into a caricature; he wanted to do a straight portrait of her. When he completed it, she had fewer comic effects applied to her and looked somewhat like a cross between a young Tatum O'Neal and a young Angelina Jolie (with different hair).

     I think this is pretty funny, though I've never thought my chin was a particularly prominent feature of mine.  It's a bit Jay Leno-like here.  I would have thought even more over-sized eyes would have been to the point.  My daughter's eyes were emphasized somewhat:  we both inherited that trait from my maternal grandmother via my mother, though we have different eye colors.  I guess the artist saw something else, though.

     The word derives from the Italian caricatura, the act of loading, from the previous Latin caricarre, to load.  The idea of "loading the obvious" is behind the idea of exaggerating parts or characteristics by distortion. 

     Some of the earliest caricatures are found in Leonardo da Vinci's works.  He sometimes sought out deformed models.  In creating caricatures, sometimes the exaggerated portrait was "more to the point" than the realistic one.  The artform gradually grew in Italian aristocratic circles.

     Eighteenth century England, with its relative freedom of speech, saw the growth of political caricature.  (And the American colonists still revolted!  We see why this has remained an important American privilege.)  Out of this grew political cartoons.  

A Different Course

"In a world that's often unnecessarily cruel, strive to be unfailingly kind."     ---C. Marie Byars

     Our diverse population in the United States means that we will likely be in contact with a variety of people in our neighborhoods, jobs, and various volunteer endeavors.  Our engagement in social media puts in contact with diverse people from around the world.  In addition, we may experience conflict with those most similar to ourselves, namely our families. 

     We have to swallow our pride to be kind when others are not.  Some people take this as weakness.  But it takes real strength of character to be kind when others are not.  (This does not imply the need to be a "pushover" and accept terrible behavior, especially on an ongoing basis, from someone who's ruthless or cruel.  But we can move through a lot of the one-off instances of others' unkindness without responding in kind and take down the temperature of the interaction.)