Kintsugi
Today, listener will take a workshop in Kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken clay or porcelain with gold. Doubtful gold will be used, but at last the cat on the right will have her broken back fixed!
BTW, 80 days until Election Day
BTW, 80 days until Election Day
80 days until election day means that the first absentee ballots were sent out ten days ago; surely some of them have been returned.
ReplyDelete----Alan
{listener}
ReplyDeleteIn Vermont, *everyone* will be mailed a ballot! They may mail it back, bring it to their town clerk, or bring it to the polls on November 5th. We will, of course, have extras on hand for those who misplace theirs, once they sign an affidavit saying they lost theirs.
Do I need to mention how much I hate paper ballots?
DeleteOur precinct has been all mail ballots since before we settled here, about 1994. I don't remember when it happened, but California made it OK for small precincts some time before that, at the option of the county Clerk's office as I recall. In recent years all voters automatically get information by mail and can vote that way too. Ballots can be mailed (postage is prepaid), dropped off at the polls or at (very secure) drop boxes (which are emptied daily). All very convenient. The ballots are inspected and run through the counting machines as they arrive, but the "total" button can't be pushed until the close of polls. Oh, and registration can be done online; signature and photo are taken from the department of motor vehicles licensing files. And one can verify that one's ballot has been tallied.
Delete----Alan
-----Alan
W.A.--- out of curiosity, did you ever use the lever-type voting machines? I don't think they were ever used out here.
Delete----Alan
While we wait for Bill to answer...
DeleteIn Northampton in Hampshire Co. they had lever type voting machines in the mid 80s. Our precinct here in Springfield, Hampden Co. or, I donno, maybe it's just our ward, they do have voting machines but most people use paper ballots. You fill out your ballot and take it to the election official, who checks you off and places the ballot in the counting machine.
Dad mostly still votes in person, though he did vote by mail in the current statewide primary. Did I mention that a cousin of mine is running in the Republican primary? His mother is thrilled, but the rest of us are like, uh, yeah. A Quincy city counsel member, however well regarded, is really going to beat Elizabeth Warren! I don't think even Dad voted for him.
I've voted absentee for years, it being something of a hassle to get me down to the polls. At some point Mom and Sis started voting that way too. During the pandemic, it became plain old vote by mail
Yes, I voted with a lever machine the first election after I turned 21. Then I was drafted and on my release joined my mother in California. The lever machines had been replaceed by the time I returned to Illinois.
DeleteI recall that a way was found to tamper with the lever machine tallies, and they were replaced shortly after that became known. I remember voting on long paper ballots---marking them with X-markers and an ink pad, straight out of the 19th Century. I liked the Vote-O-Matic (IBM cards) system, but those incidents in Florida gave them a bad name.
Delete-----Alan
At the polls this week a right-winger came through, put his ballot into the machine and moaned, "We should be using paper ballots!" I calmly reminded him, "These *are* paper ballots." I guess he wants the old, long sort?
Delete{listener}
ReplyDeleteLast night, we went to VT*Grand’s play “Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead.” She played Rosencrantz! 130 lines in just the second act. No one missed a line or an entrance. A difficult and complex play, and they did it all in 2.5 weeks of Summer theater camp! If you have chance, watch the 1990 movie of it, which includes Richard Dreyfus. It helps if you know the story of Hamlet.
Impressive!
DeleteI read it many years ago. It was packaged in the same Talking Book container with Hamlet. I'd probably get more out of it now, though even as a teenager I found it interesting.
I have a copy of the College Outline Series outlines of Shakespeare's plays; I might have purchased it in high school. If not, then in junior college. It is shelved alongside my set of Shakespeare's plays. Excellent to read before attending a performance. I know "Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead" only by the title; well, off to Wikipedia to learn more!
Delete-----Alan
Back from Wikipedia; that sounds like an incredibly convoluted play!
Delete------Alan
Well, it is Stoppard.
DeleteVery convoluted, but even more confusing...unless you know a few key things. The most interesting and humourous part is that it's a play within a play. And the theatre troup that performs for the other characters in the play basically acts out the exact scenario of what actually happened ~ which Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are sent to figure out. But Hamlet stays one step ahead of them all the way through, so in addition to being a comedy it remains a tragedy.
DeleteJake Broe interview with Kiev Post re Russo-Ukrainian war [Click] Opines that come this winter Russia and the Russian government will be in a world of hurt.
ReplyDelete——Alan
Russia is having one dam failure after another due to lack of maintenance and failing to aid the flooded towns and cities; they have ordered former Soviet republics like Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzan, and Belorussia to not export refined petroleum products (gasoline, diesel fuel, kerosene) to anyone but Russia (no indication of payment method; certainly rubles shouldn't work), Russian troops surrendering en masse in Ukraine are conscripts and Chechens, and Ukraine appears poised to occupy the trenches Russia is making 30-40 km inside the border. And some other odds and ends.
Delete------Alan
Currently at The Arty Blog: Priscilla Is on the Mend [click]
ReplyDeleteApologies for the state of the blog. Everything that should be there is, just not exactly where it belongs. Still, you'll get the idea, and be able to see a photo of Priscilla.
The Arty Blog looks just fine to me. Would I be correct to assume that St. Gertrude is an unofficial saint, like Mr. Christopher?
Delete------Alan
I should have read her biography on Wikipedia first; I gather that Gertrude is an legitimate saint, but her association with cats is very recent. Learn something every day if I'm not careful.
Delete-----Alan
Ya gotta watch out for that learning business. *grin*
DeleteHurrah for Priscilla kitty being on the mend! She seems to want to stick around.
DeleteI'm thinking of changing the title of my blog. "The Arty Blog" was appropriate when it was created, but now something a bit more wide ranging seems in order. I'm thinking of "Life, the Universe and Everything."
ReplyDeleteAnother title that kind of strikes my fancy is "The View from the Blind Eye." The problem with that one is that it would seem to indicate that my visual disability is the sum of who I am. In fact, my disabilities are but a small part of who I am. Nor do I have a specifically blind standpoint. So, wouldn't that title be dishonest? On the other hand, it has a little pizzazz, which is a good thing.
Thinking of the caption at the beginning of the thread, gold could be used perfectly well in the workshop, I think; sheets of gold leaf can be so thin they can be seen through, so needn't be extremely expensive.
ReplyDelete----Alan
Turns out that was indeed an option!
DeleteI would have used gold but that copper was also offered and it matched perfectly with the accents the cats were made with! Still, it shows more than I expected, because as I worked some additional hairline cracks showed themselves and had to be dealt with. Still...for the first time in more than 15 years, the cat is again whole!
Currently at The Arty Blog: Suckers and Losers? I Think Not! [click]
ReplyDeleteA rant whose chief merit is probably the photo of my papa at the top.
George Santos to pleas guilty in fraud case...which is a plea change from non-guilty, as his trial was set to start next month
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting. Guess he didn't like his chances with a jury, eh?
DeleteI wonder if we will ever know his real name and whether he was born in the US. Probably not.
Delete----Alan
Just as my Kintsugi workshop was ending, I got a text from Wil telling me that the stern line on our sailboat had apparently come loose this morning, such that the stern swung over and scratched the boat next to ours!! So I went straight to the marina to join him and see what was needed. Another boat owner saw the issue and had boarded our boat to tie her back up properly, then let the office know. The office called the owner of the other boat, whose response was to say, "Aw, it didn't sink? Darn!" Not having used the boat much this season, and the boat already having some previous scratches, he wasn't upset. We hung around incase he wanted to have a look, but he never came! It looks to me like the propeller of our motor, which hangs off the back of the boat, made some light black scratches that are easily buffed out. And Loch Nest seems just fine. Could have been so much worse! We are definitely planning to moor the boat again next year, not use a dock slip. It's a 6 of one, half dozen of another issue, but we're all more comfortable with a mooring, truth be told.
ReplyDeleteIf you moor it rather than put it into a slip, how do you get out to it? Rowboat? Inflatable? Or? But glad to hear things worked out reasonably well.
Delete-----Alan
Yup! We have a sturdy inflatable with its own little motor. And! We perused the marina's webcam and were able to discern that the boat stern became loose at 8:53am, and the boat owner across from us pulled it back into place and secured it at 9:10am. So it was only an issue for about 17minutes! MUCH better than we feared!!
DeleteIf we join the Malletts Bay Boat Club next year, we can also be ferried out to our boat by the teenager stewards.
DeleteThe Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich; Trump’s meltdown and Kamala’s upsurge [Click]
ReplyDelete——Alan
RFK, Jr. is a mess. But he comes by it honestly enough...given that he was the 3rd of Jr and Ethel's 11 children. He had to have been scarred by his uncle's assassination and then his father's assassination. As a teen he was arrested for possession of marijuana. But then he goes to Harvard and the London School of Economics. He's working for the Manhattan DA. Life is good. However, he then fails the bar exam and it's learned he's on heroin. He goes into treatment...
ReplyDeleteYou can see that he is very bright like all the Kennedys, but he is also a mess within. I have a lot of compassion for his life situation. I also want him to get out of politics.
Jake Broe video, various stories related to Ukraine [Click]
ReplyDelete——Alan
Ukrainian excursion into Kursk and Belgorad oblasts can drive up inflation in Russia [Click] They are the bread basket of Russia.
ReplyDelete-----Alan