The Pace of Obama's Disasters

The Wall Street Journal allows one to read an article the first time, and subsequent links to the article result with a subscription form with only a portion of the article. I've posted the full article below, another of Bret Stephens' analysis of the Obama presidency.

The Pace of Obama's Disasters
Bergdahl one week. Then Ukraine. Now Iraq. What could be next?

By Bret Stephens
June 16, 2014

bstephens@wsj.com

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Was it only 10 months ago that President Obama capitulated on Syria? And eight months ago that we learned he had no idea the U.S. eavesdropped on Angela Merkel ? And seven months ago that his administration struck its disastrous interim nuclear deal with Tehran? And four months ago that Chuck Hagel announced that the United States Army would be cut to numbers not seen since the 1930s? And three months ago that Russia seized Crimea? And two months ago that John Kerry's Israeli-Palestinian peace effort sputtered into the void? And last month that Mr. Obama announced a timetable for total withdrawal from Afghanistan—a strategy whose predictable effects can now be seen in Iraq?

Even the Bergdahl deal of yesterweek is starting to feel like ancient history. Like geese, Americans are being forced to swallow foreign-policy fiascoes at a rate faster than we can possibly chew, much less digest.

On Thursday, Russian tanks rolled across the border into eastern Ukraine. On Saturday, Russian separatists downed a Ukrainian transport jet, murdering 49 people. On Monday, Moscow stopped delivering gas to Kiev. All this is part of the Kremlin's ongoing stealth invasion and subjugation of its neighbor. And all of this barely made the news. John Kerry phoned Moscow to express his "strong concern." Concern, mind you, not condemnation.

If the president of the United States had any thoughts on the subject, he kept them to himself. His weekly radio address was devoted to wishing America's dads a happy Father's Day.

Also last week, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria seized Mosul. Then ISIS took Tikrit. Then it was Tal Afar. Mass executions of Shiites in each place. The administration is taking its time deciding what, if any, aid it will provide the government in Baghdad. But it is exploring the possibility of using Iraq's distress as an opportunity to open avenues of cooperation with Tehran.

So because the administration has a theological objection to using military force in Iraq to prevent it from being overrun by al Qaeda or dissolving into potentially genocidal civil war, it will now work with Tehran, a designated state sponsor of terrorism for 30 years and a regime that continues to arm Hezbollah in Lebanon, Islamic Jihad in Gaza and Bashar Assad in Syria, to help "stabilize" Iraq. At least the White House has ruled out military cooperation with Iran. But give it time.

Here, then, is the cravenness that now passes for cleverness in this administration: Make friends with a terrorist regime to deal with a terrorist organization. Deliver Iraq's Arab Shiites into the hands of their Persian coreligionists, who will waste no time turning southern Iraq into a satrapy modeled on present-day Lebanon.

Deal brusquely with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki —who, for all his manifest shortcomings as a leader nonetheless wishes to be our ally—and obsequiously with an Iranian regime that spent the better part of the last decade killing American soldiers. Further alienate panicky allies in Riyadh and Jerusalem for the sake of ingratiating ourselves with the mullahs.

Hand those mullahs some additional strategic leverage as they head into the next (supposedly final) round of nuclear negotiations.

"We are, I am afraid, drifting in a state of semi-animation, towards the rapids." Those were the words of Hugh Dalton, Clement Attlee's chancellor of the exchequer, describing the state of Britain in the winter of 1947, on the eve of the end of Empire.

Back then, the U.K. had spent a quarter of its national treasure fighting World War II. It was still spending 19% of its GDP on its military budget. The coldest winter in its history had frozen the country's stocks of coal, causing electricity blackouts and putting two million people out of work.

The U.S. faces no such crises today. Mr. Obama blew more money on his stimulus plan in 2009 than we spent on the war in Iraq. Defense spending in the U.S. amounts to 4% of GDP. Our economy is sluggish, but it isn't crumbling.

Yet when it comes to leadership, we have our very own Clement Attlee at the top, eager to subtract the burdens of international responsibility so he can get on with the only thing that really animates him, which is building social democracy at home. Actually, that's unfair to Attlee, who could count on a powerful ally to pick up England's dropped reins, rescue Europe, stop the Soviets. Mr. Obama's method is to ignore a crisis for as long as possible, give a speech, impose a sanction, and switch the subject to climate change or income inequality.

America's retreat needn't end in tragedy, and even the Obama presidency is a survivable event. But the strategic blunders and international disasters are accumulating at an unsustainable pace. This is what the real post-American world looks like.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------Correction

The $787 billion stimulus bill of 2009 exceeded the estimated $770 billion appropriated by Congress for the war in Iraq. An earlier version of this article stated that the stimulus exceeded the costs of war in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Post-Pax Americana

Bret Stephens, Foreign affairs correspondent
for the Wall Street Journal
interviewed on Fox News

I really thought after Obama's latest press conference that he was going to leave his vacation behind, and resume his official duties.

When he didn't, that is when I began to wonder if he really has no interest in changing (I would say improving) the world's events, but rather he wants to reduce America's strength.

Below I've transcribed Bret Stephens' interview on Fox News, where he discusses his Wall Street Journal article The Post-Pax Americana World. This transcript is only of the first 21/2 minutes of the five minute interview.

The question is why is [this administration's foreign policy] failing. And there are three schools of thought. Basically, what liberals will tell you is that the world is this terribly complicated place. America is in decline. The President simply can't control events around the world. And Obama sometimes likes to explain himself that way. The second theory, somewhat more convincing, is this a simply an out of touch president who is not really giving this job his full attention. Maybe its because he won reelection he feels his legacy is secure. But time and again, the President is caught flat-footed by events. Some of his best advisers complain that he is just indifferent to the details of governance.

This is a very important insight:

The argument that I'm making in this article is it's not simply that. This is a president whose pursuing an ideological goal, which has reduced America's footprint. Environmentalists say reduce, reuse, recycle, in a sense that's Obama's view for the United States. He wants a smaller footprint for the United States around the world, and as American power and influence shrinks, you have all of these groups coming up, seeking to fill the void.

And his optimistic analysis, with which I agree:

America is in retreat, but I don't think America is in decline. When people tell you "you know, America is in decline,' hey, this is a country where fracking is happening, this is a country where iPhones are being made, I mean in so many ways there's a renaissance of American ingenuity, [which is] simply being gummed up by a regulatory state, but a president who doesn't believe in the very things that make this country great. The resources, the ingenuity, the capacity for self-renewal is in this country. The problem is not having an administration that is taking advantage of it.

I've been waiting for someone to corroborate my thoughts on the current state of affairs regarding President Obama's decisions. My thoughts are that Obama's decisions on domestic and foreign affairs are not due to incompetence, as many commentators have written, but that they are ideological decisions. I don't believe that Obama likes America as it is now, and is determined to change it.

It was by chance that I tuned into the last twenty minutes of the above O'Reilly Report on Fox New. I don't usually watch O'Reilly's program, although other Fox commentators (Megyn Kelly, Chris Wallace, Bret Baer and Brit Hume) provide intelligent insights.

This is the first paragraph from Stephen's Wall Street Journal article:

[We] are not in a post-American world of diminishing U.S. influence. We are in a post-Pax Americana world of collapsing U.S. will. Britain, it was once said, gained her empire "in a fit of absence of mind." Now Barack Obama is relinquishing U.S. dominance with about the same degree of mindfulness, and Americans seem content to go along with it.

The Islamic world can make three conclusions about the United States' current position:

a. America, or the American president, is not taking this enemy seriously
b. America, or the American president, is too weak to retaliate to this enemy
c. America, or the American president, agrees with the positions of the "enemy"

Stephens has articulated that "c" is the most likely explanation for Obama's behavior.
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Straus Park, New York

Straus Park in Bloom
[Photos By: KPA]


I am slowly processing and filing all the photographs I took during my recent trip to New York.

Here are some of Straus Park.

I have already taken several of the Park in my previous visits, but I managed to find a floral display before the statue at this visit.
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A Corner for Reading

[Photo By: KPA]

Here is a corner, with the flowers nearby, that I've managed to get whenever I go for my early morning coffee at C Cafe.

We've been having storms, rain and wind. But, the patio remains open.
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Posted BY: Kidist P. Asrat
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The Billowy Blossoms of Hydrangeas

Blue Hydrangeas
[Photo By: KPA]

Hydrangeas!
By: John Kaprielian

Hydrangeas blooming everywhere
throughout the park
At each turn another
Different yet the same.
Pale snowballs dot
one verdant bush
While another thrusts
her gaudy pink
pom-poms in my path.
A third holds blue globes aloft,
like a celestial clown
juggling earths.
Flattopped soldiers in
variegated uniforms
line one walkway
their soft blue flowers
intricate and lacy
undermining their authority,
while at the gate
spiky red giants
stand guard.

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Hydrangeas, From The Old Farmer's Almanac

With immense billowy blossoms, hydrangeas flaunt an old-fashioned charm that is hard to resist. Colors also beguile with clear blues, vibrant pinks, frosty whites, lavender, and rose—sometimes all blooming on the same plant!

The colors of some H. macrophylla flowers are affected by the relative availability of aluminum ions in the soil. Acidic soils with a pH of less than 5.5 produce blue flowers; soils with a pH greater than 5.5 product pink flowers. White flowers are not affected by pH.

Unrivaled in the shrub world, these elegant ladies are easy to cultivate, tolerate almost any soil, and produce flowers in mid-summer through fall (when little else may be in bloom). Hydrangeas are excellent for a range of garden sites from group plantings to shrub borders to containers.

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Plant type: Shrub

USDA Hardiness Zones: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Sun exposure: Part Sun, Shade

Soil type: Any

Soil pH: Acidic
, Slightly Acidic to Neutral, Neutral
, Neutral to Slightly Alkaline

Flower color: Red, Pink, Blue, Purple, White

Bloom time: Summer, Fall

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Planting
- Most hydrangeas thrive in rich, porous, somewhat moist soils. Add compost to enrich poor soil.
- They prefer full sun in the morning, with some afternoon shade; however, many will grow and bloom in partial shade. This is especially true for the bigleaf hydrangeas (see Recommended Varieties below).
- Plant in spring or fall.
- Dig a hole as deep as the root ball and 2 to 3 times as wide.
- Set the plant in the hole and fill it half full with soil. Water. After water is drained, fill the rest of the hole with soil.
- Water thoroughly.
- Space multiple hydrangeas about 3 to 10 feet apart.

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Care
For the first year or two after planting and during any drought, be sure hydrangeas get plenty of water. Leaves will wilt if the soil is too dry.

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PRUNING
When growing H. macrophylla varieties in Zones 4 and 5, don't prune unless absolutely necessary, and then do so immediately AFTER blooming. Otherwise, remove only dead stems in the spring.

If you need to prune an older hydrangea, it depends on which variety you have.

- The common Bigleaf hydrangea should be pruned AFTER flowers fade (late spring/early summer). If you prune before bloom, you may not have blossoms the following spring.

- Oakleaf, panicle, and smooth hydrangeas blossom on the current seasons' wood so they should be pruned BEFORE bloom when plant is dormant, i.e. late winter or early spring.
In the fall, cover plants to a depth of at least 18 inches with bark mulch, leaves, pine needles, or straw. If at all possible, cover the entire plant, tip included, by making cages out of snow fencing or chicken wire, and loosely filling the cages with leaves. (Do not use maple leaves.)

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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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The Life of an Artist as a Salesman

Voila!
The Infantile Exuberance of the Artist as Salesman

Infantilism is the psychology of our era. And when culture (art, music, literature, theater and even films) devolves to the infantile, what is left?

Materilaism.

More, bigger, brighter, things.

I wrote about this on the cardboard cutout cloud shapes framing the Grand Army Plaza sculptures near Central Park in New York, and of Albert Paley's iron works along the Park Avenue mall.

And this is exactly what "artist" Jeff Koons is doing.

I watched an intriguing interview of Koons on Charlie Rosen's show on PBS (here is the video).

The clever, and clearly intelligent, Koons, has spent his life upgrading the infintile to the level of art. He has used "balloon" animals, those animals we can crudely make from balloons, in order to show the complexity of life, since the balloon forces us to think about what's inside the empty space that contains air (air is not an "object" therefore the space is essentially empty). The simple animal-shaped balloon then becomes a repository for human philosophical thought.

How deep! Actually, it is as shallow as the empty space in those infantile balloons.

And as always, with contemporary artists, he takes himself very seriously, and adds all kinds of "layers" to his empty works. In his explanations for his million-dollar hoovers, he says:

"I think sales is the front line of society. I think it's a kind of a moral front line of society. My hoovers, they really are making a reference to the door-to-door salesman," (this section is around the 12:30 section of the video above).

So, I was right. I wrote the introductory words above on materialism without reviewing Koons' video. Koons goes on to explain:

...as a child, I was kind of brought up to be self-reliant. And I would sell drinks on a golf course. I would go door-to-door selling gift-wrapping paper. You know, kind of a lot like the images that are in my Celebration work. Bows, ribbons, candy.

Here is one of Koons' work from his Celebraions Series. He admits to his infantilism, and even venerates it.

I wonder at this materialism and infantilism of contemprory "artists."

I think it is to do with a profound lack of talent. These are not artistic people, but they are clever, and even intelligent.

In this era where art (i.e. creation) is venerated, what better thing than to be god-like and an artist, a creator?

And where materialism reigns, what better way to be rewarded for one's artistry than through money? One gets to be a god, and a rich god, at that.

So here we are, at a profound spiritual dearth. Contemporary artists realize that they have nothing bigger than themselves to aspire to, so all they can "celebrate" is the gaudy, shiny, material world around them.

And why produce the perfect painting when there is nothing left to paint? There is no family to aspire to (Koons is twice married, and his first wife is actually a parody of a wife), no community(says "I live down in the Wall Street area only for exclusion"), and no God.

The artist becomes the supreme creator. Where there is no god, or where he has been successfully killed, then someone has to take its place, and it is Artist that is worshiped, and who worships himself.

Here is what Koons has to say about God and his "humanitarian" beliefs:

Koons has never been religious. He was born Protestant and "grew up being taught an appreciation that other people's experiences in life and their rights." The artist is pleased to be honored by FEGS [the Jewish communal organization that deals with employment, job training and counseling.], an organization whose mission he identifies with. "There's a sense that whether somebody is Jewish or whether they're Protestant or whatever anyone's background, we have a shared history - a shared human history and our motivations, our possibilities, our desires are shared. So I really like trying to be involved with the world community as a whole, and so that why I'm thrilled to participate." [Source: The Jewish Week: FEGS honors Pop Artist Jeff Koons]

And Koons' (the Artist's) lack of artistic talent pulls him toward the infantile, pumped up to look big and impressive. Thus, Koons' supreme, infantile narcissism is evident. When Charlie Rose says to him: "You stand above the art establishment [i.e. you're so big]" Koons grimaces with an immodest "I don't know about that," as though he really does think he's great, but no-one seems to be noticing. He later on modifies his facial expression, but he is really in interview mode now, and uses the right words so as not to appear too pompous. After all, his mentors are avant-garde artists such as Picasso and Dali, and he is "trying to participate in this kind of tradition, the extension of the avant-garde." But Koons has to sell in his lifetime, and is not humble, or committed, enough to wait to be recognized after his death. He is not willing to be the impoverished artist with an afterlife, as were the majority (though not all) his avant-garde mentors.

And Koons is ready to take from anything, or anyone, to fill this dearth in imagination. He has put a giant "play dough figure" in the Whitney Museum of American Art where he currently has a retrospective.

His most blatant act of infatilism and, theft, is his "play dough figure." This is a replica of a play dough figure his son did when a very young child. This son, the progeny of Koons and an Italian porn star, is now in Italy, under the custody of his mother. Koons can only visit, but cannot bring the boy back to America. Koons has made a replica of a play dough to commemorate this disastrous family life.

Here is what he says about that:

"It was a period when I was really losing confidence in humanity, and I had only my art to hang on to. And that's what I hung on to. And so I decided to make things to try to communicate to him [his son] that if not in this moment, in the future he could realize how much I was thinking about him."

Then Koons' pomposity rises up again, and he adds:

"And at the same time, I wanted to make things that could hold up in a larger context of making art, because at the same time I wanted to be his Dad, there was also an artist performing on, you know, the level of making great works."

He continues:

"But, a piece like play dough. My son Ludwig, I bought him some play dough during a visitation, and he made a mound, and he said "Dad!" I turned and I said "What?" And he said "Dad, look. Voila!" Koons gestures expansively with his hands.

And:

"And I looked at this mound of play dough and Charlie, it was everything that I tried to do everyday of my life. To make something that you couldn't make any judgments about...Is it too much red, is it too much blue? Is it shaped right? It was perfect...And so I ended up going to my studio and making that mound."

Art not for his son, or for love for his son, but to make "great works" using his son's toys, his son's belongings! Voila!

And not only does he use his son's unformed, childish, play-figure, but exploits it, in the name of art, and makes millions out of it.

And of course, nothing is innocent or pure in Koons' infantile world. He explains about the "balloon" figures:

"I think that there's a mythic quality in Balloon Dog. There's an interior dark quality to it a little bit like a Trojan Horse..."

And about his art in relation to his son:

So that series, I was trying to maintain my confidence, my belief in humanity. To show my son how much I loved him. And at the same time to be performing on a, you know, the highest level that I could.

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Jeff Koons
Balloon Dog
High chromium stainless steel with transparent color coating
121 x 143 x 45 inches
307.3 x 363.2 x 114.3 cm
5 unique versions (Blue, Magenta, Yellow, Orange, Red)
1994-2000

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Jeff Koons
New Hoover Convertibles, New Shelton Wet/Drys 5-Gallon, Double Decker
two Hoover Convertibles, two Shelton Wet/Drys, acrylic and fluorescent lighting
99 x 41 x 28 in. (251.5 x 104.1 x 71.1 cm.)
Executed in 1981-1986

From Christie's:
Price Realized
$11,801,000 (Set Currency)

More at Christie's:
Notes on the piece: Lot Notes
Interviews with Koons

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Jeff Koons,
Play-Doh, 1994–2014
Polychromed aluminum
120 × 108 × 108 in.
Whitney Museum of American Art
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New York Stories by the Fountains

#whereandwheniliketoread
[Photo By: KPA]

In a recent post, I put up a photograph of C Cafe, in Celebration Square, Mississauga, where I go to have coffee, and sometimes breakfast.

The cafe is quiet in the early mornings (around 8am-10am), an ideal time for me to go and read. The spray of the fountains masks other noises, and it also adds a peaceful background for reading.

My photograph was not as I had wished it to be. The rain storm the night before had flooded the cafe, and the staff had piled the seats towards the back, leaving a messy cluster. I moved a couple of tables and some chairs to the front, but I couldn't rearrange the whole patio, leaving awkward spaces where tables or chairs should be.

I have always liked the pleasant rhythm of the chairs and the round tables, as they are normally arranged. I took photographs a second time yesterday morning, and I am pleased with one result, which I've posted above.

The New York Public Library is asking its members to contribute photographs of where they like to read to its twitter page #ireadeverywhere. This is actually incorrect. I think people have specific places where they like to read, and they are often particular about the time of day too. I would have called the hashtag #whereandwheniliketoread.

Mine, for now, is the quiet C Cafe, early in the morning, with a cup of coffee. I don't like to eat while reading, because eating requires some concentration to enjoy the food, to use the utensils, to keep food from getting on the book, and so on. And I associate coffee with reading, some kind of Pavlovian reflex. And the coffee should be Starbucks.

I think I will submit the photo above.

I have placed my paper cup with the coffee (they don't have ceramic mugs), my book New York Stories, and the rope sling of my bag in the frame, to have my presence in the photograph.
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Shrub Roses

Rosa glauca (Red-leaved Rose): Rose Flowers and Hips (...like little cherries)
[Photo By: KPA]

I took the photograph on the left in June (two months ago). The photo on the right I took today.

For some reason, I had a hard time identifying this rose. Today, I simply put "rose with five petals" in google, and found it!

Rosa glauca (Red-leaved Rose or Redleaf Rose; syn. R. rubrifolia) is a species of rose native to the mountains of central and southern Europe, from Spanish Pyrenees east to Bulgaria, and north to Germany and Poland. It's also found as an introduced species as far north as Scandinavia and Finland.

Rosa glauca is a deciduous arching shrub of sparsely bristled and thorny cinnamon-coloured arching canes 1.5–3 m tall. The most distinctive feature is its leaves, which are glaucous blue-green to coppery or purplish, and covered with a waxy bloom; they are 5–10 cm long and have 5–9 leaflets. The fragile, clear pink flowers are 2.5–4 cm diameter, and are produced in clusters of two to five. The fruit is a dark red globose hip 10–15 mm diameter.

Cultivation and uses
This rose was not widely grown in gardens until the end of the 19th century, when its refined wildness and beauty out of the flowering season first began to be appreciated. The flower petals fall off easily in the spray from watering hoses, as well as from wind and rain. The species is naturalised in northern Europe north of its native range, particularly in Scandinavia.

A hybrid with Rosa rugosa has been given the cultivar name 'Carmenetta'.[Source: Wikipedia]

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New York Imaginations

#whereandwheniliketoread
[Photo By: KPA]

In my previous post, I put up a photograph of C Cafe, in Celebration Square, Mississauga, where I go to have coffee, and sometimes breakfast.

The cafe is quiet in the early mornings (around 8am-10am), an ideal time for me to go and read. The spray of the fountains masks other noises, and it also adds a peaceful background for reading.

My photograph was not as I had wished it to be. The rain storm the night before had flooded the cafe, and the staff had piled the seats towards the back, leaving a messy cluster. I moved a couple of tables and some chairs to the front, but I couldn't arrange the whole patio, leaving awkward spaces where tables or chairs should be.

I have always liked the pleasant rhythm of the chairs and the round tables. I tried taking a picture a second time this morning (I went early especially for that), and I am pleased with the result.

The New York Public Library is asking its blog members to contribute photographs of where they like to read to their twitter page #ireadeverywhere. This is actually incorrect. I think people have particular places where they like to read. I would have called their hashtag #whereandwheniliketoread.

Mine, for now, is the quiet C Cafe, early in the morning, with a cup of coffee. I don't like to eat while reading. I think probably becasue eating requires some concentration, to enjoy the food, to use the utensils, and so on. And I think that I associate coffee with reading, some kind of Pavlovian reflex. And the coffee should be a Starbucks.

I think I will submit the photo above.

I have placed my cup of coffee (they don't have ceramic mugs, I asked), my book, and the rope sling of my carry-on bag in the frame, to put my presence in the photograph.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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New York Stories in Mississauga

"C Cafe captures the essence of Civic Centre. Cuisine. Celebration."
[Photo By KPA - "After the Storm with a Starbucks and New York Stories"]

I frequently go to the small cafe photographed above, the C Cafe, in Mississauga's Celebration Square, where I have my daily doses of coffee (two cups, Starbucks) and a sandwich. I've posted on Celebration Square before, where I've described outgoing mayor Hazel McCallion's contributions to this city, which includes this Square.

I go to the C Cafe to read, and currently it is to read my book of short stories, New York Stories.

The last story I read from that collection is O. Henry's The Making of a New Yorker. Without giving too much away, it is about a man, Raggles.

Besides many things, Raggles was a poet. He was called a tramp; but that was only an elliptical way of saying that he was a philosopher, an artist, a traveler, a naturalist, and a discoverer. But most of all he was a poet.

Raggles finally succumbs to the unique charms of this great big city. He's seen them all: Chicago, Pittsburgh, Boston, New Orleans, and was won over by all of them (or won them all over). But with New York:

He was defeated puzzled, discomfited, frightened. Other cities had been to him as long primers to read; as country maidens quickly to fathom; as send-price-of-subscription-with-answer rebuses to solve; as oyster cocktails to swallow; but her was one as cold, glittering, serene, impossible as a four-carat diamond in a window to a lover outside fingering damply in his pocket his ribbon-counter salary.

Here is the full (short) short story, online.


Out-going Mayor Hazel McCallion, with members of the City Council
At the opening of C Cafe, in October 2012

I took the top photo early in the morning. There had been a storm the night before, and the cafe's staff had moved the chairs and tables to the far end by the wall to allow the floor and chairs to dry down. The awning was also rolled up. By the time I got there, the sun was peaking through the clouds. I asked the waitress to roll down the awning (all by remote control). The chairs were still stacked close together. I arranged my chair and table near the front. I was the only one there for a while, peacefully reading The Making of a New Yorker.
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White Sails Billowing...

I provided my own image of a close up of water from a fountain to Edith Wharton's short story A Cup of Cold Water in my previous post, Summer Air. I got the idea from this line: White skirts wavered across the floor like thistle-down on summer air...But the same short story (in fact, the same line) gave me an idea for another image: that of sailboats on Lake Ontario. The white skirts wavering could be white sails billowing.





Harbourfront Sailboats

[Photos By: KPA]
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Golf in the Time of War

I got this blog title from the novel Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Summer Air

[Photo By: KPA]

Excerpt from A Cup of Cold Water
From the collection of short stories New York Stories
By Edith Wharton
P. 140

White skirts wavered across the floor like thistle-down on summer air...

Full story online.
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New York Stories: The Capacious Hand of God

William Morris
Thistle Design

The short story The Thistles in Sweden, by William Maxwell, in New York Stories, is a lovely montage of interiors. Of course, the most important interior of the story is Margaret's place for her new baby. And all are aided by "the capacious hand of God."

The Thistles in Sweden
By: William Maxwell

p. 16

The living-room curtains are of heavy Swedish linen: life-sized thistles, printed in light blue and charcoal grey, on a white background. They are very beautiful (and so must the thistles in Sweden be) and they also have an emotional context; Margaret made them, and, when they did not hang properly, wept, and ripped them apart and remade them, and now they do hang properly.

p. 239

...I think if it is true that we are all in the hands of God, what a capacious hand it must be."

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Flowers in the Cloisters Bonnefont Herb Garden
[Photo By: KPA]
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Round Tables

Waiting On The Algonquin
[Photo By: KPA]

There are many lovely photos of the Algonquin Hotel in New York, including this one from the hotel's website, where there is action in the flutter of the flags.

But, how many can say they managed to get this staff carrying (where is he going?) a package (looks like delivery), just outside the hotel, with his reflection in the door of the hotel? And I do manage to get some motion in the flags too.

I went in to ask about the menu, and about the history of the Round Table, and where the group sat. The receptionist did show me the table, and told me that there was some kind of guided tour. I asked to see the menu.

Well, from the dinner menu in the restaurant, a shrimp cocktail costs $20, and "parmesan crusted chicken breast" is $36. But, a Pre-theater Dinner (three course) costs $35, which is reasonable enough.

Or one could have a drink and snacks at the Lounge, as the recpetionist suggested, where "home made Algonquin potato chips with old fashioned onion dip" is $9, and the Hemingway cocktail is $21. The bar has graciously written the drinks' ingredients on the menu, where the Hemingway includes: stolichnaya, fresh grapefruit and simple syrup, with a sugar rim on the glass. Matilda the Cat has her own cocktail as the Matilda, which at $21 contains: tangerine vodka, cointreau, fresh lemon & orange juices and korbel brut. Champagne and sweet liqueurs for this cat. The menu assures us that their "cocktails are made with depth, complexity and a dexterous hand."

But what is stolichnaya? I suppose it is Hemingway's communist connection which graced this vodka in the cocktail:

As in Europe, in the 1920s and 1930s numerous American intellectuals sympathized or joined the Communist Party in the United States as young activists. Columnist Max Lerner included the term in his 1936 article for The Nation called "Mr. Roosevelt and His Fellow Travelers." Future HUAC chief investigator J. B. Matthews would use the term in the title of his last book, Odyssey of a Fellow Traveler (1938). Other famous writers who traveled included Ernest Hemingway, and Theodore Dreiser. [Source]

I would have thought the acerbic Dorothy Parker would have been a better candidate after whom to name a cocktail.

I managed to see the mural of the Round Table group on the far wall of the Algonquin Restaurant, which would have been the room where they met.




A Vicious Circle
2002
Illustration by Natalie Ascencios
[Source: NPR]

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Identifying members of the Round Table
[Source]

1. Dorothy Parker writer and literary and drama critic

2. Robert Benchley humorist and writer, managing editor at Vanity Fair and drama critic for Life and The New Yorker.

3. Matildais the Algonquin’s steadfast cat

4. Franklin Pierce Adams, best known for his column, “Conning Tower,” which appeared in three New York newspapers, The World, The Herald Tribune and the New York Post.

5. Robert Sherwood, playwright, drama editor of Vanity Fair, and wrote movie reviews for Life.

6. Harpo Marx, part of the Marx Brothers team

7. Alexander Woollcott, essayist and literary and drama critic, wrote for the New York Times, McCalls, The Saturday Evening Post, and Vanity Fair, had a weekly radio show, “Town Crier" in New York City.

8. Harold Ross, created The New Yorker magazine in 1925, Round Tablers Benchley, Parker and Woollcott contributed regularly

9. George S. Kaufman, playwright who wrote several Broadway hits, and collaborated on many works with fellow Round Tabler Marc Connelly

10. Heywood Broun, drama critic and sports writer for the New York Herald Tribune, wrote the column “Seems to Me” for 20 years covering New York nightlife

11. Marc Connelly, playwright, journalist for The Morning Telegraph

12. Edna Ferber, novelist and playwright

And next time I might be able to meet the Hotel's current, VIP: Matilda the cat.



I wrote on the Alonguin here, On Round Tables.

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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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