January 1, 2012






MY WISH FOR ALL MY FAITHFUL BITTS AND BYTES READERS:  A HEALTHY AND HAPPY 2012







EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE













CHRISTINA'S WORLD
Christina's World is a 1948 painting by American painter Andrew Wyeth, and one of the best-known American paintings of the middle 20th century.  It depicts a woman lying on the ground in a treeless, mostly tawny field, looking up at and crawling toward a gray house on the horizon; a barn and various other small outbuildings are adjacent to the house.

The woman in the painting is Christina Olson (May 3, 1893 - January 27, 1968). She suffered from polio, a muscular deterioration that paralyzed her lower body.  Wyeth was inspired to create the painting when through a window from within the house he saw her crawling across a field.  Wyeth had a summer home in the area and was on friendly terms with Olson, using her and her younger brother as the subject of paintings from 1940 to 1968.  Although Olson was the inspiration and subject of the painting, she was not the primary model; Wyeth's wife Betsy posed as the torso of the painting.  Olson was 55 at the time Wyeth created the work.

The house depicted in the painting is known as the Olson House, and is located in Cushing, Maine.  It is open to the public as a part of the Farnsworth Museum complex; it is a National Historic Landmark, and has been restored to match its appearance in the painting.  In the painting, Wyeth separated the house from its barn and changed the lay of the land.















ONE HUNDRED FAMOUS VIEWS OF EDO (TOKYO)

NUMBER EIGHTY-SIX
Naito Shinjuku, Yotsuya (Yotsuya Naito Shinjuku)
This print is an assault, from the rear as it were, on the ideology of linar perspective that dominated European painting from the Renaissance on.

Hiroshige of course knew nothing of that ideology, although this print itself is testimony to the profound influence of the techniques of perspective on his own art.  Nor could he have known of the stirrings in European art that would result less than two decades later in a frontal assault on perspective by Impressionism and succeeding modern movements.  Rather, he was simply working within the boundaries of his own pictorial ideology, which refused to accord any special privilege to a fixed point of view.


















The origin of English shoe sizing is directly connected with a grass grain and a decree issued by Edward I of England in about the year 1305. Can you name the grain and its connection with English shoe sizes?

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BRANT















   THAT I HAVE NOT READ ...
     BUT WOULD LIKE TO

When Carson McCullers was a teenager, she came to New York City to study piano at Juilliard.  She never matriculated; she lost the purse with her tuition money in it.  Such small, unredressed tragedies as these are at the silent, solitary heart of McCullers' first novel, which centers on a deaf-mute and a teenage tomboy living in a small Georgia town in the 1930s.

McCullers' characters reach out to one another for sympathy and understanding, but not all of them can complete the connection, and their isolated thoughts form a choir of amazing, transcendent poignance - music only the reader can hear.












Two compounds in artichokes, cynarin and chlorogenic acid, stimulate the sweetness receptors and make everything taste sweeter for a short period of time. Only some people (about 40-60%) experience this and sensitivity to these compounds is most likely genetically determined. The effect usually goes away after drinking some water, milk, wine, etc. (which will taste sweet).
Artichoke Bottoms are the insides of artichokes with all the leaves and choke removed, leaving just the meaty concave base.

Artichoke Hearts are baby artichokes with tender leaves that are picked before the prickly inner 'choke' has developed.

The fleshy base or heart is edible after the hairy central 'choke' is removed. The bases of the leaves are also edible.

Globe artichokes are the large, unopened flower bud of a plant belonging to the thistle family. The many leaf-like parts making up the bud are called scales. Peak season is in April and May.

Artichokes are actually flower buds.  If allowed to flower, blossoms measure up to seven inches in diameter and are a violet-blue color. Artichokes are a close relative to the thistle.

In the U.S., Artichokes were first grown in Louisiana, brought there by settlers in the 19th century.

In 1947, Marilyn Monroe was crowned the first Queen of the Artichokes!

Castroville, California is known as the Artichoke Capital of the World. (It is where Norma Jean (Marilyn Monroe) was crowned Artichoke Queen in 1947.

Cynar is an artichoke flavored aperitif made in Italy.












This food product, introduced by General Foods in 1965, was added by NASA to the galley of the Gemini astronauts. In July 1969 it traveled to the Moon on the Apollo mission. Can you name this food product?

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There have been several vegetarian astronauts.

Timothy J. (TJ) Creamer (Lieutenant Colonel, USA) NASA Astronaut (Mission Specialist Candidate).



Kalpana Chawla was both a strict vegetarian and an astronaut.  She died when the shuttle Columbia broke up in 2003.



In April, 2001, Italian astronaut Umberto Guidoni and Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield brought some luxury food items with them to the International Space Station--Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and Canadian salmon.



When Neil Armstrong and Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin sat down to eat their first meal on the moon, their foil food packets contained roasted turkey and all of the trimmings.



Tang, a powdered orange drink was introduced in 1965 by General Foods. NASA added Tang to the galley of the Gemini astronauts, and in July 1969 it traveled to the Moon on the Apollo mission.



The first American to orbit the Earth, astronaut John Glenn, carried pureed applesauce in squeezable tubes on his initial space flight.  Ham with applesauce was served to Gemini astronauts.






LOUISIANA
The design consists of the pelican group from the state seal, in white and gold, and a white ribbon bearing the state motto, "Union, Justice, and Confidence", on a field of a solid blue.
























They were first developed in Sicily and were known to both the Greeks and the Romans. In 77 AD the Roman naturalist Pliny called them one of earth's monstrosities, but many continued to eat them. Historical accounts show that wealthy Romans enjoyed them prepared in honey and vinegar, seasoned with cumin, so that this treat would be available year round. It was not until the early twentieth century that they were grown in the United States. All that are commercially grown in the United States are grown in California. They are actually a flower bud, and if allowed to flower, the blossoms measure up to seven inches in diameter and are a violet-blue color. Can you name this plant?

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GO AHEAD . . . . MAKE MY DAY!