11.11.11

Little Lady Griz November 11,1996 - November 9, 2011 She was all heart.

ONE HUNDRED FAMOUS VIEWS OF EDO (TOKYO) NUMBER SEVENTY-SIX

Bamboo Yards, Kyobashi Bridge (Kyobashi Takegashi)

This serene view of the full moon rising over Kyobashi Bridge recalls many earlier bridge-and-moon compositions by Hiroshige.  Here, however, he has avoided the compositional novelty of previous works in which the view was from under the bridge, and has rather emphasized the clarity of the night and the contrast of the elongated vertical elements against the finely detailed recession into the far distance. Kyobashi was the first bridge on the Tokaido south of the Nihonbashi Bridge, with which it shared the distinctive jewel-shaped metal rail ornaments known as giboshi--the near one here points directly at the moon.  The only other bridges in Edo permitted these ornaments were those leading into the gates of Edo castle.

Briards

Jamestown Exposition Issue - 1907

In 1907 the Jamestown Exposition was held in Sewell's Point, Virginia to celebrate the tercentenary of the founding of Jamestown.  Three stamps were deemed enough, with "Commemorative Series of 1907" at the top of each.

PITTSBURGH--THE MONONGAHELA WHARF SEEN FROM SMITHFIELD STREET BRIDGE, 1883 John Stobart, Artist

The second of four boats named Kate Adams is backing out from the busy landing in front of the Monongahela Hotel, seen from a viewpoint above the deck of the Smithfield Street Bridge.  She is leaving on a delivery trip to her owners, the Memphis and Arkansas City Packet Co., Memphis, Tennessee. This palatial cotton boat was built twelve miles down the Ohio at the Sewickley boat yard with her machinery installed by James Rees & Sons Co. at Pittsburgh.  The wide lower deck of the Kate Adams was designed to carry over a thousand bales of cotton during the harvest season and on the second deck the passenger accommodations were luxurious with her interior finished in ash, walnut, cherry, bird's-eye maple and mahogany. During the nineteenth century the abundance of hard timber in the Allegheny foothills of Western Pennsylvania and the iron and steel shops in the Pittsburgh area resulted in a sizeable boat building industry along the upper Ohio and Monongahela Rivers. The sternwheeler Hudson, an upper Ohio River packet, is visible to the left.  Sternwheel boats were economical to operate and well suited to the upper Ohio River trade where frequent landings at small villages and farms were required.

This skim milk cheese dates back to at least the 13th century and may date even to the 11th century. It is made only from April 1 through November 11 each year with milk from cows that have been feeding on fresh pasture. Most of the cream is skimmed from the milk which is then cooked in copper containers, pressed in cheesecloth lined molds, salted in brine and then allowed to mature. Can you name this cheese ??? PASS YOUR MOUSE OVER THE QUESTION MARKS FOR THE ANSWER!

Charles Burton Barber (English Animalist Painter)

Although there were plenty of painters willing to capture the charms of our canine chums, none did so as effectively as Charles Burton Barber (1845-1894) Having studied at the Royal Academy at eighteen, and exhibiting there from 1866, Barber caught the eye of the Queen and commissions ensued.

SYNOPSIS:  Sethe is an escaped slave in post-Civil War Ohio.  Her body is scarred from the atrocities of her white owners, but it's her memories that really torture her:  she killed her 2-year-old daughter, Beloved, so the child would never know the sufferings of a life of servitude. But in Morrison’s novels the present is never safe from the past, and Beloved returns as an angry, hungry ghost.  Sethe must come to terms with her, exorcise her, if she ever wants to move forward and find peace. Rich with historical, political and above all personal resonances, written in prose that melts and runs with the heat of the emotion it carries, Beloved is a deeply American, urgently important novel that searches for that final balance between grief, anger and acceptance.

Toni Morrison (born Chloe Anthony Wofford on February 18, 1931) is a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, editor, and professor.  Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and Beloved.  She also was commissioned to write the libretto for a new opera, "Margaret Garner," first performed in 2005.

Toni Morrison was born in Lorain, Ohio to Ramah (née Willis) and George Wofford.  She is the second of four children in a working-class family.  As a child, Morrison read constantly; among her favorite authors were Jane Austen and Leo Tolstoy.  Morrison's father told her numerous folktales of the black community (a method of storytelling that would later work its way into Morrison's writings). In 1949 Morrison entered Howard University, where she received a B.A. in English in 1953.  She earned a Master of Arts degree in English from Cornell University in 1955, for which she wrote a thesis on suicide in the works of William Faulkner and Virginia Woolf. After graduation, Morrison became an English instructor at Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas (1955–57), then returned to Howard to teach English.  She became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. In 1958 she married Harold Morrison, a Jamaican architect and fellow faculty member at Howard University.  They had two children, Harold and Slade, and divorced in 1964.  After the divorce she moved to Syracuse, New York, where she worked as a textbook editor.  A year and a half later, she went to work as an editor at the New York City headquarters of Random House.  As an editor, Morrison played a vital role in bringing black literature into the mainstream, editing books by authors such as Toni Cade Bambara, Angela Davis, and Gayl Jones. In 1987 Morrison's novel Beloved became a critical success.  When the novel failed to win the National Book Award as well as the National Book Critics Circle Award, a number of writers protested over the omission.  Shortly afterward, it won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and the American Book Award.  That same year, Morrison took a visiting professorship at Bard College. Beloved was adapted into the 1998 film of the same name starring Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover.

Mail Coach in a Storm of Snow Currier & Ives Lithograph

MISSISSIPPI

DELAWARE Adopted on July 24, 1913, the Delaware state flag has a background of colonial blue surrounding a diamond of buff color in which the coat of arms of the state is placed. Below the diamond are the words "December 7, 1787" indicating the day on which Delaware was the first state to ratify the United States constitution.  Because of this action, Delaware became the first state in the Union, and is, therefore, accorded the first position in such national events as presidential inaugurations. According to members of the original commission established to design the flag, the shades of buff and colonial blue represent those of the uniform of General George Washington.  Inside the diamond, the flag recognizes the importance of commerce (the ship) and agriculture (wheat, corn, the ox and the farmer) to the state.  Tribute is also paid to the Revolutionary War Soldiers.  The words in the banner read Liberty and Independence.

DETAIL

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.