T Stands for Hic Sunt Dracones and Ted Geisel - Part 2

I mentioned in passing I had traveled to the Wilds of Western Massachusetts. To a Bostonian, this is the edge of the world. On a map, it would say Hic Sunt Dracones. Here There Be Dragons. This attitude comes from the simple fact that Boston is not nicknamed the Hub because the city is laid out in a spoke and wheel pattern. It's because Boston is the Hub of the Universe. Bostonians only need a brief walk or  a short subway ride (if the trolleys are on time and don't derail!) to art, history, sports, music, theater, universities. We don't really need to leave the city to find entertainment or education.

Bostonians also measure distance in terms of time. How long will it take me to get from here to there? !0 minute, 20 minutes, but if it's an hour or more, that moves into the realm of an expedition requiring snacks and a change of clothes.

As I am now used to (well, sort of) living in the Land of Hic Sunt Dracones, I bravely drove an hour West of where I live.

My friend, Al (now living beyond the end of the Earth in Portland, Oregon) was visiting her family homestead in Springfield, Massachusetts. She was house and fur baby sitting for her brother. She invited me for a play date at The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum and Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden.

Ted Geisel is better known to the world as Dr. Seuss, celebrated writer and illustrator. We started our visit at the museum with lunch at The Blake House Café. Rather than show you pictures of my half eaten lunch as I was too busy catching up with Al to take a picture, there is an image of a cup in the many photographs I took. That will be my drink reference.

Can you find it here or there? Can you find it any where?

Last week, we visited the area of the museum geared towards children. This week, we'll go upstairs to see Ted's studio and his amazing art work.

Memorabilia from Ted's days as a Boy Scout. Bow ties are cool.

He used Prismacolor pencils!

I wanted to rummage through his nibs to see what brands he used and maybe put one or two into a Nib Relocation Program. 😉

I thought the painting looked like cats.

A cat, of course.

These squiggles looked like flourishes or Lazy Eights from penmanship class. I loved doing those. (Still do.)

A note of encouragement: "When you fear you've been left in a Cave in Ga-zool, with your bottom bereft on an unfriendly stool.. ...Please know that I love you! I've been to Ga-Zool!"

Another cat.

"With or without eyedrops, writing and drawing is an unpleasant experience which I find myself avoiding. I am thinking of taking up paper hanging or mushroom farming as a new profession."

Commemorative stamp issued in 2004 at a first class postal rate of 37 cents. (The current rate is 55 cents.)

"Dear Fellow Toiler in the Vineyards of Ink...May your New Year be a great one." I want Toiler in the Vineyards of Ink to be my new title. I bet the Internal Revenue Service (U.S. tax agency) would love that one.

In Andy Fish's Pitch class, he had talked about using a to do list as a daily practice to be more productive.  What you don't accomplish one day you roll over to the next. I was amused by Ted's to do list and his revelation about his list.

"Your things to do pad is great! After writing down the same things to do 6 days in succession and running the sheets through my computer I discovered: 1. I hadn't cleaned the back closet. 2. I hadn't written to Katherine Findeisen. I now know that I probably never will and this knowledge gives me an enormous sense of satisfaction for which I thank you. Love, Ted"

We took the Oh, the Places You'll Go Elevator to the basement where there was an activity room for children. There were no children in sight and the staff was bored so they asked if we

wanted to make monster Father's Day cards. At 63 years old, I make a helluva  kindergartner.

Did you find the cup?

And Al had a little prezzie for me. She always brings me something. She's thoughtful like that.

A roll of ABC tape Just like the penmanship exemplar above the blackboard in school and some Stash Tea. From the package: "Portland Blend Black Tea in celebration of our rich history in all things tea, we've given a nod to Stash's own hometown, Portland, Oregon, the City of Roses. Rich black teas are blended with chocolaty cocoa nibs, the flavor of fresh raspberries, and visually accented with pretty blue cornflower and rose petals."

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page. 

Aches and Pains

I don't know what I did. Playing Working at the computer too long, perhaps the chair, table height is not good. Maybe a delayed reaction to hauling the very heavy recliner from the sun room to the street. (I was hoping someone would take a free chair) and then dragging the extremely weighty recliner from the curb to the garage. (everyone probably saw The Big Bang Theory episode where Penny got a free chair that was left at the curb in front of her apartment building)

Though I'm small, maybe I'm not as mighty as I think. Or once was. Maybe I'm just at that age where you wake up and things just hurt. Who knows?

A friend gave Himself a sample of Arnica CBD salve. He swears by it. The friend, not Himself. I had taken some Ibuprofen in the hopes of better living through chemistry, but I wasn't finding much relief. I decided with some trepidation to give the salve a try. After all, what did I have to lose except the pain in my shoulder.

I opened the little container and cautiously took a sniff. If this smelled like Old Man salve I wasn't going to use it. There was a very, very faint wintergreen smell. Not bad at all.

I'm not going to claim it's a miracle salve, but my shoulder feels better. Maybe the Ibuprofen worked, or the heating pad I applied. Or maybe a good night's sleep.

What do you use for aches and pains?

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Heavy rains and a clogged gutter flooded the squash.

A new garden kite to celebrate the Summer Solstice

Mr. Grosbeak

The humidity increased and the Little Dude came out of the weather house

The squash survived the flood. The gutter man cleaned out the sun room gutter. He'll return in a few weeks to install a cover so the gutter won't clog again.

Blossoms on the cherry tomato plant

Morning glories getting tall

A mountain laurel that rarely blooms decided to show off this year.

The honeysuckle vine. The hummingbird has been having a field day, but eludes me when I got to take his picture.

New gutters and downspouts

The gutter man even took care of the water filtration back wash hose

Blossoms on the milkweed

One of only three blossoms on the hydrangea. Well, that's two more than what we had last year.  I had hoped cutting it back would help produce a lot more flowers.

Some wild morning glories also called Devil's weed have invaded the snowball bushes. Seems the more you pull it out, the more it keeps coming back.

How does your garden grow?

Saturday Afternoon at the Movies

This idea came from a Facebook meme:
Over 10 days, post your 10 all time favorite films. What movie has really made an impact on you or what films can you watch over and over and never tire of? Post either the movie poster, DVD cover or even a screenshot on your timeline. No need to explain.

Only I had a hard time picking out just 10 movies so my favorites over the next few hundred Saturdays 😸 in semi-alphabetical order:me favorite films. What movie has really made an impact on you or what films can you watch over and over and never tire of? Post either the movie poster, DVD cover or even a screenshot on your timeline. No need to explain.

Only I had a hard time picking out just 10 movies so my favorites over the next few hundred Saturdays 😸 in semi-alphabetical order:

How The West Was Won (1962) Richard 😻 Widmark, John Wayne

Another one Andy won't like 😸, but if you like Westerns, and haven't seen this epic, you can find it for rent on YouTube and Amazon Prime.

The Friday Five Good Things

Five good things that happened this week.

1. When a (full) professor retires, it's customary for the school to give him a chair with the school seal on it. Himself was asked what kind of chair he wanted. A traditional captain's chair or a rocking chair. He chose the rocking chair. It arrived with some assembly required 😸 (That's what was in the large box on the front steps)

2. Had tea with Red. I hadn't seen her in such a long time I almost forgot what she looked like. She has an incredible variety of birds at her feeders and critters in her yard. I saw bluebirds, hummingbirds, a cat bird, 2 bunnies, and 2 determined squirrels who got into one of the feeders.

3. I had a nice lunch with my teacher/mentor/friend, Gerry. She also sent me home with bags of calligraphy magazines and books.

4. Saw the hummingbird at the honeysuckle vine. He refused to let me take his picture. Twice!

5. Today is the Summer Solstice!

How was your week?

Throwback Thursday - The Notebooks

To clear up some confusion, the Notebook passages posted on Throwback Thursday were written by my father and found by me after he passed away. They were his attempt to tell the family history. He was in his late 80s or early 90s when he wrote them. Today's chapter:

In September of 1960 to September of 1962, I got a job as a house counsel with a corporation called Tenax, Inc. It was a New York corporation and its operations got it in trouble with the Attorney General of Massachusetts.

It sold freezers and had a contract with a food and meat suppler. The price of the freezer was in 4 figures, about $1495 which was later discovered that it sold for $400 on the market. And plenty of complaints on the amount of food. Toward the end of its business it was discovered that the individual in charge of food supply was hitting the food supplier for a percentage of its delivery amount which cause the supplier to cut down on the weight to make up its pay to the company representative.

It was a hodge podge affair. I I discovered this difficulty about a month after I took the job and and their problem with the Attorney General and the fact that attorneys they hired before I cam, quit when they found out what the problem was all about.

So I sat down with the Boston manager and explained to him that Massachusetts laws were different than New York laws. Consequently if the corporation wanted to do business in Massachusetts it was required to conform to our laws.

2nd if I was to act as its attorney, I should have some say in the manner in which they and their sales person brought in business and I should be able to settle any legal complaints which I though would be equitable since the Attorney General was being hit with a lot of complaints they were only pushing him to bring an action against that corporation and its officers.

Also they should see the food supplier did not short change its customers. And any complaint on food quantity be honored. I also told htem that they were lucky that the media did not get into the comflict by seeking to get page 1 stories. New York agreed.

They also had besides New York and Boston in a number of other states the same business. But I did not get into how they ran their business in other states.

I began sending letters to people who were not paying and also were I should filing complaints in Courts. Of course this brought the customers or attorneys to me and I would settle the cases. Whaever I settled for, New York did not complain as the settlement took into consideration the cost of the unit, plus operating expenses and a fair profit.

I also received a copy of a letter that a customer sent to the A.G. that the salesman and company were not fit to do business with, but the attorney was respectful and fair.

The Tenax people I soon learned that they also were in 14 other states. When I was told that there was to be a meeting of all the attorney in New York and handed an airplane round trip ticket. I took the first flight out and when I was in New York took the bus and got where I was to be.

Evidently the front office had discussed me but the other atorney as I was seeted at the other end of the head table. Next to the General Attorney when he came to Boston I had him home for dinner.

In New York at the meeting it went all the way after luncheon hour. The attorney from the other states complained that they would have appreciated at least a cup of coffee at a break, while we were waiting for the elevator. They also stated that they had to leave at an early hour and didn't have any breakfast. Some said no matter what their wives would not get up to make them breakfast under any circumstances. 

I kept quiet and one of the layers asked me, "How about you?" I said my wife awoke and made me breakfast while I was dressing.

They were skeptical and the Chief Attorney said No that's a fact. I had dinner at his house and his wife is a very warm-hearted woman and hostess. and I have no doubt that she wouldn't get out of bed to make breakfast while he shaved and showered. The reaction what what a lucky guy. The General Corporate attorney then said by the way "I owe a hat." This caused one of the other attorney "What is that all about?"

So he explained that he was at the Boston office with me. And my secretary had been invited by the vice president to spend some time at the main office at New York and said that he told me taht they had asked the Boston secretary that they wanted to train her for bigger jobs. ut in reality he wanted her there to have sex with her. She was a looker. She was about 5 ft. 7 in. to 5 ft. 8 in.He then asked me how did you know they wouldn't get to her?" I said I know the people I deal with. She came to me and asked my advice. And I said I told her I didn't approve of her going. I told her that the offer of a bigger job was not there. They had other things in mind.

She replied No way! Also I said I had any number of men come to my office attorney to discuss settlement. And a number of them would stop with her on the way in or out.

So the Chief Attorney continued that they showed my secretary a great time. Took her to dinner, theater, etc. and to her hotel. She could hold her liquor was alert and the hotel was one I recommended. It was an all women hotel (forgot the name) and men were not allowed to go upstairs to their floor to say good night. They said goo night on the ground floor. And the stairways were monitored by female employees.

I said it was to have been a month, but she came back in two weeks. I further told the Chief, forget the hat. When I said they wouldn't get to home plate I knew what I was talking about. And you had already lost. 

Wordy Wednesday