...the end of an era.

Since the election of Donald Trump I have been keeping up an email contact with the two Republican Senators from my home state of North Carolina .  I've praised them when I felt they deserved it and more often have given them my opinion if I felt they were misrepresenting us.  I have decided to end this fruitless task and this is the last letter I wrote to them:

"Senators Burr and Tillis: The death of John McCain is not just the loss of a man of character … it is the end of an era. He was the ONE elected official in your gutless Republican party who would stand up to the ego-driven Donald Trump. Even his “close friend” Senator Lindsey Graham has become golfing buddies and a stalwart ally of the president. I have watched you both and you are no better. 

Your lack of concern for the future of our country is nothing short of mind boggling. For the past 16 months I have sent you over 40 emails and, occasionally, I have received a pre-printed response that has not even answered my concern. I am 85 years old and have lived through Nixon and the McCarthy hearings as well as countless other disgraces but I have never seen our country fall to the level that we are in now. 

Trump is wallowing in the swamp of his making and taking us down with him. Our country has become a reflection of him and is a disgrace that your lack of action has allowed to happen. I will not waste any more of my time writing to either of you. Instead I will do everything in my power to see that every spot that is up for re-election in November will be filled with a Democrat."

...and you can be assured that I will keep an eye on them too !

Thank you Brian ...

Well, today is time to post my next entry and I really don't have the heart to comment about the disgusting and incredible political news that is swirling around the Trump presidency.  You all know where I stand on this anyway.  However I still need an idea and, lo and behold, it came in the form of an email from my son-in-law Brian...complete with pictures.
 
He and my daughter Jody live in rural upstate NY and they have been deluged with rain lately.  This has saturated the soil and enhanced the growth of mushrooms in their area. With this in mind he and my daughter decided to go hunting and WOW were they rewarded for their efforts.  Here is Jody on the search:

Evidently there was an abundance of mushrooms but the big thrill was when they found some Black Trumpet Chanterelles.

 

My Google search said that Black Trumpets are very difficult to find and Brian wrote that they almost filled a Walmart bag with them !   He also mentioned that most of them are now drying in Jody's greenhouse but, to quote him "Some went into last night's pasta sauce.  Yum, yum."

 

 

So there you have it and it makes me wonder if any of you out there have cooked with these type of  mushrooms and do you have any recipes that you'd like to share.                                                         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

T\ before.

The Relay ...1957

In my last blog entry I talked of meeting my husband in NY city in 1957. He had just left "LIFE" magazine and was starting his own free lance commercial photography business. 

I have often wondered what would have happened to Dick's career (and our life together) had he stayed with "LIFE".   The picture that you see here is titled "The Relay" and it was one that he took on assignment for "TIME" magazine.  It was shot in Madison Square Garden in late 1956 and won first prize for the category in the 1957 issue of Photography Annual.  

This should have been the start of an illustrious career for Dick but it was cut short by sickness.  Photography was an entirely different business then.  For him it meant toting heavy strobe lights and other equipment, working odd hours and often traveling great distances … all things not conducive to a very brittle Type 1 diabetic.  He bravely  accepted his fate but his dream was gone and he died in 1999 at the too-young age of 59.  

My daughter and son-in-law have a small gallery of Dick's photos in their home in NY.  They are photos that he had printed and mounted himself and "The Relay" is among them.

 

1956 Dick's portrait of Margaret Bourke White

I was excited recently when I saw a well-worn autobiography written in 1963 by the famous "LIFE" magazine writer Margaret Bourke White on the sale table of our local library. Of course I bought it ("25 cents for Hardcover's") and it brought back this poignant memory.

I met my husband in 1957 in New York City.  He had left "LIFE" a year earlier to start his own business as a free lance commercial photographer.  During his 3 years with "LIFE" he was privileged to assist some of the best known photographers in the world.... not least of which was Ms. White.   It was on one of these ventures that he took a picture of her that he felt captured her adventurous nature and beauty.  He cropped and enlarged it and presented it to her on the day that he left.   

Fast forward to Dick and I marrying in 1958 and our busy days spent concentrating on enlarging his business venture.  We were still living in NY City and one evening when he came home late he explained that he'd run into his old "LIFE" group and not only did they enjoy getting caught up but they told him that Margaret Bourke White had left a letter for him before she retired but they didn't know where to send it.  Of course he was excited and couldn't wait to see what it was.

It was a lovely short letter thanking Dick for the picture and telling him that it was the best portrait that had every been taken of her.  Of course we were thrilled and when, in 1963 she came out with her autobiography we got our copy and proudly tucked her letter into the pages.  Sadly, many moves later we realized we'd lost the book with her wonderful hand-written letter inside.

Luckily memories are not so easily cast aside and it was fun to be able to resurrect this one.

FREEDOM of the PRESS ...

“Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.” Thomas Jefferson

“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.” Benjamin Franklin

“Freedom of the press is not just important to democracy, it is democracy.” Walter Cronkite

Aug. 5^th, 2018 … tweet “The Fake News hates me saying that they are the Enemy of the People only because they know it’s TRUE. I am providing a great service by explaining this to the American People. They purposely cause great division & distrust. They can also cause War! They are very dangerous & sick!”    President Donald J. Trump

SOUND FAMILIAR ????

Other quotes from the World War II master of Nazi Propaganda … Joseph Goebbels

"The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly - it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over".

"It would not be impossible to prove with sufficient repetition and a psychological understanding of the people concerned that a square is in fact a circle.  They are mere words, and words can be molded until they clothe ideas and disguise."

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.  The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences  of the lie.  It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of  the  State."

A frightening reminder … "THOSE WHO CANNOT REMEMBER THE PAST ARE CONDEMNED TO REPEAT IT"  George Santayana.

(Addendum:  I agonized over posting this; but, in all my 85 years I've never feared for the future of our country as I do now.  I simply cannot sit back and pretend there is nothing to fear and I thank you wonderful blogger friends who allow me to share my concern.)