NOVEMBER 3, 2011





YOU NEEDED ME
Performed by Anne Murray












Men show their characters in nothing more clearly than in what they think laughable.









ONE HUNDRED FAMOUS VIEWS OF EDO (TOKYO)

NUMBER SEVENTY-ONE
SCATTERED PINES, TONE RIVER (Tonegawa Barabara-matsu)
We can almost hear the swish as the fisherman casts his net out over the Tone River.  The stubby lead weights around the edge of the net form a pleasing border to the intricate web within, a masterpiece of carving technique.

Through the net we see a blurred continuation of the distant shore.  Hiroshige may have taken this idea from Hokusai's "Fuji behind a Net" in One Hundred Views of Mount Fuju (Fugaku hyakkei, vol. III), but the effect here is more subtle, the execution more delicate.  An added bonus is fabric-printing on the sail in the center.

The "Scattered Pines" of the title may be seen on the shore to the left.






Columbian Exposition Issue - 1893
The first official commemoratives were the set below, Scott 230-245, issued in 1893 in conjunction with the Columbian Exposition in Chicago that year, and marking the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's voyages.
There were 16 stamps in the set, with denominations ranging from 1˘ to $5, and a total face value of $16.34, an astronomical sum for the time, easily a week's wages for the average worker.  Their cost was an issue because there were already many stamp collectors, who wanted to own an example of every stamp issued and felt frustrated both by the prohibitive cost of a mint set of the stamps and the impossiblity of finding used examples of many of the higher denominations.

Today a used set of these stamps will cost at least $2,000, while a mint set will be at least four times that.

Reproductions were issued on a set of USPS souvenir sheets in 1992, in conjunction with the World's Columbian Stamp Expo '92 in Chicago, commemorating the 500th aniversary of Columbus's first American voyage (a year early!).










Now the biggest porcelain manufactory in Europe, Herend was founded in 1826 to produce earthenware in the small Hungarian village for which it was named. At the time, Hungary was flooded with low-cost pottery, so competition was fierce. In 1839 a major turning point occurred when Mor Fischer became the Manufactory’s new owner. Taking Herend in an entirely new direction, visionary Fischer carved out the unique niche of producing dinnerware replacement pieces for Europe’s royal families to complement their valuable porcelain patterns from Germany and the Far East.

Herend was formally brought to the U.S. marketplace in 1957 by Robert and Lois Grimm, owners of a high-end dinnerware and home accessory store in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C. Upon seeing a few pieces of Herend through a chance encounter, it was love at first sight for the Grimms. Their passion for Herend soon led them to Hungary to meet with the Herend Manufactory and discuss distributing Herend in the U.S. That was the beginning of Martin’s Herend Imports, Inc., sole U.S. importer and wholesale distributor of Herend.








Painting by John Stobart
Cincinnati, The Packet Hudson Arriving -- 1880
Established in the late 18th century as Losantiville, the prime location of the settlement on the north bank of the Ohio ensured its success as one of the most important cities in what was then considered the west.  Renamed Cincinnati in 1790, it experienced unprecedented growth as a major supply center and jumping off point for westward exploration and settlement via the navigable waterways of the Mississippi Basin.

The city became an important focus of the abolitionist movement, as people from around the state made their way there to make their case for the end of slavery across the river in Kentucky.

Here, the sternwheel packet Hudson emerges from a deep shadow into evening sunlight.  Of the six riverboats named Hudson, this was number five, launched in 1875 at Murrysville, West Virginia, and completed at Wheeling.






Although the name may sound German, this is an American cheese. It was created in 1882 (1892?) by Emil Frey, an apprentice cheesemaker in Monroe, New York. He named the cheese after a singing society, where the owner of the cheese factory had taken the first samples of the new cheese. It is a cow's milk cheese, with an edible pale yellow crust, and a semisoft, pale interior with a mildly pungent flavor and distinct aroma. Can you name that cheese ???

PASS YOUR MOUSE OVER THE QUESTION MARKS FOR THE ANSWER!


From 1935 to 1937 state law in Wisconsin required restaurants to serve 2/3 ounce of Wisconsin butter and 2/3 ounce of Wisconsin cheese with every meal served.

What appears to be the remains of cheese have been found in Egyptian tombs over 4,000 years old.

The USDA issued new guidelines in 2002 regulating the size of the holes in domestically produced Swiss cheese. The size of the holes was reduced by 50% to accommodate modern cheese slicing machines that jammed with the larger holes.

Turophilia is a love of or obsession with cheese.
All cheese is made from milk, but different manufacturing and aging processes are used to produce the array of cheeses available today. Cheese is made by coagulating or curdling milk, stirring and heating the curd, draining off the whey (the watery part of milk), collecting and pressing the curd, and in some cases, ripening. Cheese can be made from whole, 2% lowfat, 1% lowfat or fat-free milk, or combinations of these milks. About one-third of all milk produced each year in the U.S. is used to make cheese.

Consuming cheese immediately after meals or as a between-meal snack helps to reduce the risk of tooth decay.

Certain cheeses--aged Cheddar, Swiss, blue, Monterey Jack, Brie, Gouda and processed American cheese--have been shown to help prevent tooth decay. Calcium, phosphorus and other components in cheese may contribute to this beneficial effect.

Cheese was popular in ancient Greece and Rome, but fresh milk and butter were not. This was probably due to the fact that olive oil was available in the Mediterranean area, where the climate would have spoiled milk and butter quickly.

Cheddar, Cheshire and Leicester cheeses have been colored with annatto seed for over 200 years. Carrot juice and marigold petals have also been used to color cheeses. 		Coloring may have originally been added to cheese made with winter milk from cows eating hay to match the orange hue (from vitamin A) of cheeses made with milk from cows fed on green plants.

The terms "Big Wheel" and "Big Cheese" originally referred to those who were wealthy enough to purchase a whole wheel of cheese. Cheese takes up about 1/10 the volume of the milk it was made from.

Greek historian Xenophon (430?-355? B.C.) mentions that goat cheese had been known for centuries in Peloponnesus.

The first cheese factory to make cheese from scratch was started in Rome, New York in 1851 by Jesse Williams. He had his own dairy herd and purchased more milk from other local farmers to make his cheese. By combining the milk and making large cheeses he could produce cheese with uniform taste and texture. Before then, companies would buy small batches of home made cheese curd from local farmers to make into cheese, each batch of curds producing cheese with wide differences in taste and texture from one another.

Leicester cheese is a hard cheese similar to Cheddar. It is usually orange-colored. Leicester's texture is crumbly, so it does not slice good, but it as great with dishes such as Welsh Rabbit (or Welsh Rarebit).






IN DISGRACE
Charles Burton Barber
(English Animalist Painter)






The Good Earth is a novel by Pearl S. Buck published in 1931 and awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1932. The best selling novel in the United States in both 1931 and 1932, it was an influential factor in Buck winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938. It is the first book in a trilogy that includes Sons (1932) and A House Divided (1935).

The novel of family life in a Chinese village before World War II was a best-seller in both 1931 and 1932 and has been a steady favorite ever since. In 2004, the book was returned to the best seller list when chosen by the television host Oprah Winfrey for Oprah's Book Club. The novel helped prepare Americans of the 1930s to consider Chinese as allies in the coming war with Japan.

A Broadway stage adaptation was produced by the Theatre Guild in 1932, written by the father and son playwriting team of Owen and Donald Davis, but it was poorly received by the critics, and ran only 56 performances. However, the 1937 film, The Good Earth, which was based on the stage version, was more successful.


Pearl S. Buck was a legend whose notoriety lives long after her death.

The first American woman to win the Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes, she used her humanity and literary talent to introduce Chinese culture to the West.

By the time of her death at age 80, she had published more than 70 books.

Because she grew up there, she understood and loved China--despite the fact that her adopted homeland banned her works for many decades. Her unique cultural grounding and powerful soul provided the perfect foundation for her acclaimed novel, The Good Earth, and the many works that followed.


Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker was born on June 16, 1892 in West Virginia while her parents were on leave from their missionary work in China.

Shortly after her birth, the family returned to China, where she was educated in both Eastern and Western traditions.

Her mother taught her American history; her father read her Bible verses.

But every afternoon, Pearl learned to read and write Chinese, spending hours mastering Confucian, Buddhist and Taoist proverbs and principles.

By the time she returned to the United States to attend college at Randolph-Macon Women's College in Virginia, she was not only steeped in Chinese culture but in love with it. Shortly after Pearl graduated, her mother's grave illness took Pearl back to China, where she met and married the first of her two husbands.

Throughout her life, Pearl S. Buck explored the complexities of the human condition. She sought to understand the ways innovation clashes with tradition, cultures inform one another and progress creates problems.		 Through her literary and biographical compassion, she achieved a rare mastery over her characters with her simple and sympathetic view of their lives.

Pearl's tender empathy also spilled over into her own life decisions. She was a tireless philanthropist who translated her missionary impulse to a zeal for bettering the world.

She fought for civil rights, women's rights and personal freedom. She pioneered foreign adoption in the United States and personally raised a dozen children.

Her years of courageous philanthropy led to an entirely new community of Amerasian children adopted into the United States.

Today, Pearl S. Buck International, the author's foundation, continues to support thousands of underprivileged children in several Asian countries.

The example Pearl set--by the woman she was, the life she led and the things she wrote--is a testament to cultural understanding, compassion and tolerance.


















ARIZONA

The 13 rays of red and gold on the top half of the flag represent both the 13 original colonies of the Union, and the rays of the Western setting sun. Red and gold were also the colors carried by Coronado's Spanish expedition in search of the Seven Cities of Cibola in 1540. The bottom half of the flag has the same Liberty blue as the United States flag. Since Arizona was the largest producer of copper in the nation, a copper star was placed in the flag's center.
























Pencil sketching is an interesting and powerful element of design. To put it correctly, pencil sketching can be termed as "the mother of graphic arts."

The general perception about drawing pencil sketches is that it is either a part of initial training given to Fine Arts students or it's a good hobby for anyone who can draw well. What most of us don't know is that making pencil sketches is almost an inevitable part of design and a unique branch of art in itself.


















Susan has been publishing her Daily Dose for years.  She did a fine job of creating email pages, but felt the need to transition to a website.  It was a big step for Susan and she has made the change like a pro.  You can visit her site by clicking on the graphic.