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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 22, 2020 18:27:36 GMT
This is exciting, but it's only good through tomorrow. Note that some of the films have passwords (provided). For a limited time only – October 21-23, 2020 – watch the films that were finalists for the 2019 Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film. Click the FULL VIDEO link next to the 2019 finalist films.loc.gov/programs/lavine-ken-burns-prize-for-film/prize-winnersCross-posted to Documentaries.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 30, 2020 0:53:43 GMT
Today the battery that came with my cheap Logitech mini-mouse gave up the ghost. I checked to see when I started using it: November 30 of last year. Not bad. I have two Logitech mice, this one & a fancy works-on-any-surface rechargeable one. I love them -- they are my little friends. Also today I got the electricity bill covering the period from August 23 to October 23. It was 149 pesos*. *6.97 usd / 5.97 euro / 9.28 cad / 9.91 aud
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Post by casimira on Nov 1, 2020 15:01:12 GMT
This morning while sitting on my breezeway having my coffee, a friend of ours came by with a sack of blood oranges. So many had fallen and were blown all over his backyard that he needed to unload them and we were the grateful recipients of a large portion of them. (he is not the marmalade making kind of fellow...) Minutes later another neighbor came by with a fresh baguette from a local bakery. I love our neighborhood!!!!! So many kind people.
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 1, 2020 17:00:21 GMT
None of them needed crushed banana leaves? They sell them at my Chinese supermarket for all of the Asian dishes wrapped in banana leaves (something which I have never tried to do).
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Post by casimira on Nov 1, 2020 17:34:34 GMT
HA!!! I have made them in the past inspired by some dishes we had while visiting Merida. They are splendid with fresh fish.
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 3, 2020 16:28:36 GMT
I flew out of Mexico City on American election night in 2016 when Hillary Clinton was going to win. When I arrived in Paris the next morning, Donald Trump had been elected president, albeit not by the popular vote. I will always be thankful to Air France for sparing me from watching television on election night.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 3, 2020 16:36:20 GMT
To illustrate the bizarre psychological effect that the grotesquerie of Trump-as-president has had on me:
I read Htmb's post in the Reading thread about her welcome distractions in the 2016 election and didn't get it. "What was Htmb doing at election time in 2016?", I wondered.
Now I read Kerouac's post above and my thought was, "He was in Mexico and didn't visit me?!"
Only now do I realize that I fondly remember Htmb and Kerouac being in Mexico for Muertos 2016 and that I remember the presidential election as a completely separate event which somehow took place in another space/time continuum.
Talk about compartmentalizing!
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Post by htmb on Nov 3, 2020 18:03:15 GMT
Thank all that is and isn’t holy that we were there in Mexico! Wish we’d stayed! I flew out the same time as Kerouac and landed in Atlanta, thinking Clinton was winning, only to receive a WhatsApp message from my friend Martine in Paris informing me of the ugliness that was taking place. I remember looking at a TV map of my state, seeing my home town colored in blue and most of the rest of my state shining a bright Republican red, and It immediately felt like I was spiraling into despair. Almost every day since he took office has been fraught with anxiety and a feeling of "what the hell will the monster do next."
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 3, 2020 19:02:42 GMT
Thank all that is and isn’t holy that we were there in Mexico! Wish we’d stayed! Yes -- you could have watched me crying for three days straight & on and off for the rest of the week. Would there have been enough Kleenex for the two of us? I will say that the best thing about being here is that I don't have to be polite in person to any Trump voters, or to any pandemic deniers. There's always facebook for the vitriol I feel about those people.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 9, 2021 15:10:23 GMT
My flat faces due north and in spite of 5 normal windows and 2 attic windows, for several months of the year, there is not one ray of sunshine that hits any of the windows even on a totally sunny day. Today the sun was out and it began to nibble at my windows. Each day will be better.
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Post by casimira on Jan 18, 2021 14:23:51 GMT
On Saturday, out of the blue, a package appeared in my front yard. Inside there were 3 loaves of Levy's Jewish rye bread sent to me by my brother. So very thoughtful and considerate of him as he knows how much I love it. (for whatever reason we cannot find decent rye bread here and it drives me crazy). I gave one away to a fellow ex NYer who mourns the unavailability of good rye bread. I put one of the others in the freezer. The remaining loaf I busted open and have been eating every morning. Toasted with a generous amount of butter is just the ticket. Add to that some homemade blood orange marmalade and I am in heaven.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 18, 2021 20:01:37 GMT
Oh, that was thoughtful and generous! I'll bet your marmalade is a taste of heaven, too. It's not just decent rye bread that can't be found in New Orleans. I always found the beloved "French" bread in New Orleans to be utter tasteless crap, including the famous Leidenheimer's. Has it gotten any better in the many years since I left? Ironically, the link says that "Originally Leidenheimer baked the heavy dense brown breads of his native germany..."
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Post by casimira on Jan 19, 2021 17:30:50 GMT
Oh, that was thoughtful and generous! I'll bet your marmalade is a taste of heaven, too. It's not just decent rye bread that can't be found in New Orleans. I always found the beloved "French" bread in New Orleans to be utter tasteless crap, including the famous Leidenheimer's. Has it gotten any better in the many years since I left? Ironically, the link says that "Originally Leidenheimer baked the heavy dense brown breads of his native germany..." I am not a huge fan of Leidenheimer's "French" bread. It is better than most of the others with the exception of Binders, another family owned bakery which unfortunately shuttered their doors last year. Along came (approximately 10 years ago) a tiny Vietnamese bakery Dong Phoung located way out in New Orleans East on Chef Menteur Hwy. They became an almost overnight success. Word spread about their breads and many restaurants and sandwich shops began using them exclusively. Their King Cakes have become so popular that one has to pre order to get one.
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Post by tod2 on Jan 31, 2021 11:18:38 GMT
[quote author=" kerouac2 Like Bixa, I grew up with fireflies in the American South, and there were so many that they seemed normal back then, but I haven't seen any in more than 50 years. Oddly enough, in my grandparents' village, there were glow worms, which if I am not mistaken are just the larvae of fireflies.
I suppose they are just another one of the insects that have been wiped out by pesticides in most of the world. [/quote] I am extremely delighted to report that I saw my first in what must be 40years, a solitary firefly "blip-blip-blip" past my bedroom door two nights ago. I was so excited I couldnt take my eyes off it until just as quick as I saw it, it was gone. I now purposely leave my curtains and door wide open in the hopes it's hatched from a tribe of "gloworms".
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Post by whatagain on Jan 31, 2021 19:47:12 GMT
I am to ve a great-uncle soon. My nephew and Godson is pregnant ! Such food news, esp after several miscarriages.
Then my wife best friend, who tried for a good 6 years or more to have a child, got one last year and is pregnant again.
Makes me feel so happy for them.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 31, 2021 19:57:15 GMT
I think that lockdown has given a lot of people more time to try to get pregnant.
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Post by onlyMark on Jan 31, 2021 20:48:17 GMT
Usually female though.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 1, 2021 1:41:13 GMT
Can you prove that?
Whatagain, happy news all around.
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Post by casimira on Feb 3, 2021 16:23:29 GMT
I mourn the absence of fireflies so very much. I did see some the last time I went to NY about two years or so ago. I was sitting on the front porch of my birthplace in the early evening sipping some wine. All of a sudden I saw a firefly, then ,more and more appeared. I was so excited but because I was by myself I had no one that I could share my joy with. The sight of them triggered a slew of childhood memories.
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Post by fumobici on Feb 3, 2021 16:43:20 GMT
I mourn the absence of fireflies so very much. I did see some the last time I went to NY about two years or so ago. I was sitting on the front porch of my birthplace in the early evening sipping some wine. All of a sudden I saw a firefly, then ,more and more appeared. I was so excited but because I was by myself I had no one that I could share my joy with. The sight of them triggered a slew of childhood memories. A couple of years back at the house in Tuscany there was by far the most amazing show of fireflies I'd ever witnessed. I lived in Michigan for a few years as a child and we had them there, but never anything like what I saw in Italy. A week later when my brother was there to visit there were only a few left to see. A neighbor on the other side of the same hill says her side of the hill hardly gets them at all.
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Post by casimira on Feb 3, 2021 17:05:26 GMT
I've been told and it proved itself to be true, when I was on that same trip they have a season which peaks at a certain time of the year and then gradually they diminish. I was there for the peak of them but after about ten days or so I saw less and less of them. I also think that they do not live in places with high altitudes. Case in point, they were visible in the foothills in northern Georgia on a trip there. But, while visiting an area of North Carolina at a much higher altitude I did not see any. Circa 1985 or so, while in NYC, we witnessed seeing some one evening on the grounds of the Museum of Natural History. We learned later that the place where we saw them was just underneath the window of the former office of Margaret Mead. I thought, how very cool is that?
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Post by Kimby on Feb 3, 2021 19:15:26 GMT
If fireflies are temperature sensitive that could explain both why they are not found at higher elevations (too cold) and that their numbers seem to be declining in places they once were common (warming). Possible?
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Post by rikita on Feb 11, 2021 16:32:46 GMT
not a little thing, but rather, a huge thing - agnes and i are so lucky to have my mom and my brother and family. lots of kids miss school and their friends and are sad - while agnes is happy there, plays with her cousins, plays outdoors, does school work with my mom ... she said she hopes schools stay closed a while longer ... i miss having my own space and computer a bit, but at the same time it is good as there i go to bed early, which is good for a new job ..
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Post by tod2 on Feb 11, 2021 17:12:01 GMT
That is a very huge thing Rikita. I still think,of you standing in that beautiful sari. Sorry, times change but our impression of you in your photos never does. I am over the moon that there is one happy little soul in this world. You have done a marvellous job and need to be congratulated for your devoted mothering skills.Having a family for support is very good.
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 11, 2021 17:23:48 GMT
I agree with tod that every little bit of satisfaction counts since so many people are (understandably) upset by all that has happened. Naturally, this makes me think that when things go back to "normal" there will be quite a few people nostalgic for how things were during lockdown and other restrictions.
I myself will admit that I do not at all regret the disappearance of tourists in Paris although it is not nearly as nice with all of the museums and other attractions closed. And of course the curfew.
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Post by lugg on Feb 11, 2021 20:00:07 GMT
not a little thing, but rather, a huge thing - agnes and i are so lucky to have my mom and my brother and family. lots of kids miss school and their friends and are sad - while agnes is happy there, plays with her cousins, plays outdoors, does school work with my mom . That is good news indeed Rikita .. as you said ...not a little thing but huge.
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Post by onlyMark on Feb 15, 2021 21:06:18 GMT
At last. Recognition. On a Zambia forum I've been posting advice for a long time, especially about driving/roads etc. It seems one lad hasn't asked a question yet but has been lurking. He wrote to me in a private message -
"Hi Mark, This is a personal thank you for the great information you've posted on the Zambia forum. I'm looking into doing a three week self drive trip when the world settles back after Covid 19. I've travelled all over the world including both South Africa and Senegal but I'd love to do a safari self drive. I'm a bit apprehensive but the more I read your posts the more confident I become. Keep posting and kind regards,....."
I feel all warm and fuzzy.....
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 15, 2021 21:09:13 GMT
I'm sure that he is quite right to trust your driving advice. I certainly would.
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Post by onlyMark on Feb 16, 2021 11:15:26 GMT
Next time I'm in Germany we'll do a coastal road trip down to Dakar, Senegal. Following the coast through Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania with maybe a side trip inland to visit the night market in Marrakesh. You've probably been to a few of these places anyway. About 5400km and not too strenuous because I think it is mostly tarmac now. Wasn't in my day but things progress. Stop offs in Tangier, Rabat, Casablanca, Marrakesh, Essouria (had a nice Christmas Day there one year), Agadir, and then it gets a bit rougher and unknown through Laayoune, Dakhla, Nouakchott, finish off in St Louis and then Dakar to fly home (not me, I'd have to take the car back). A month or so would get us pretty close I'm sure with enough days off for photo reports and we'd check out the best fish to eat on the way.
You'd be in charge of chocolate and sweets and make sure I don't run out.
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Post by mickthecactus on Feb 16, 2021 11:55:23 GMT
I’ve just been to Chelmsford and back...,
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