Sunday, September 06, 2015

The Spirit of Ethan Allen cruising on Lake Champlain



8 comments:

  1. Cruising Deanlandia!

    Today most of my family and I will be cruising on the Spirit of Ethan Allen, then gathering (with more family as well) at the Olive Garden … all because I'm turning 60 this week! :-)

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  2. Enjoy! We like the local Olive Garden, but when Naomi moved to the SF Peninsula her coworkers said it wasn't good; she checked out the local one, and so it proved to be. One would expect consistency above all else at a franchise, but the ideal is not always achieved...

    Thinking about the ideal (not that it truly applies), makes me reflect on Bernie's campaign. It seems the punditocracy simply can't get their minds around the idea that the preconceptions they formed several years ago of who would win the Democratic nomination might not hold water in the event. There is now talk of HRC falling back on and strengthening a defensive line running through the South "in case" she should not do well [read: gets knocked out] in New Hampshire and Iowa. And all the time she seems to be explaining. Reagan's dictum that "If you're explaining, you're losing" certainly seems to apply.

    --Alan

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    1. I meant to add that the longer the conventional politicians and their supporters require to take Bernie seriously, the better his chances. One could think of analogies...

      --Alan

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  3. Alan, Banacek was part of the NBC Monday Night Mystery Movie rota in the early '70s that included MacMillon and Wife for example. It starred George Peppard as an insurance investigator based in Boston, though he sometimes traveled.

    Banacek at IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068044/

    BTW the name is pronounced Banacheck. It's Polish and is something of a running gag throughout the early episodes. One bad guy repeatedly calls him Super Pol.

    I've always had great difficulty with cursive writing. If the instruction manuals you're looking at a are online, could you please provide links? Who knows, they might help me as well.

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    1. George Peppard? Insurance investigator? Sounds like a very good start!

      Links with comments to come in a little while; the best computer for accessing them is busy processing another job right now. (It CAN multitask, but there are practical limits.)

      --Alan

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  4. Hope you're having a great cruise and news!

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  5. Cat--here are the handwriting links and associated notes.
    --Alan

    Palmer Method [Click] This is a YouTube video exemplar of the Palmer cursive script, which was the long-time standard in both the parochial schools and the public schools in the US. We were taught (in the early 1950's) to form the letters, but we were not taught how to hold and move our writing instruments, which is a very important part of the Palmer Method.

    The best-seeming quick guide to handwriting improvement which I have found is this short series of online videos:

    How to Improve Your Handwriting [Click]


    Nan Jay Barchowsky [Click] is the author of the above videos, and is particularly celebrated for teaching italic cursive; but the videos above are not specific to that particular form.

    Here are links to the old (roughly century-old) instruction manuals I found online; but be forewarned--they are very laborious and pedantic by modern standards. I am using them for examples of variants of certain letters in the Palmer method, and for basics of pen grip and movement--which are pretty much what the Barchowsky videos show--although in a somewhat different method, internet videos not then being available.

    Theory of Spencerian Penmanship (1874) [Click]


    Mills Modern Business Penmanship (1903) [Click]

    Zaner's Arm Movement Method of Rapid Writing (1904) [Click]

    Palmer's Penmanship Budget (1919) [Click]


    Champion Method of Practical Business Writing (1921) [Click]

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