Writing our Destiny aka Andrew

@planecrazy

A strange assortment of knowledge, caprice, and whims. Throw in steel pens and DnD, shake, strain and serve. He/Him/Hey You

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Writing our Destiny aka Andrew@planecrazy· 22d

Without saying your age, what's your favorite movie that came out when you were 18?

The movie poster for Blake Edward's "Victor Victoria"

Writing our Destiny aka Andrew@planecrazy· 23d

popped up in my "on this date" reminder. Still one of my favorite places, even in the extreme heat we were having back in 2022. Château de Chenonceau

Château de Chenonceau. A photo of the chateau. On the left is the tower from the original front gate, standing by itself. In the foreground you see some of the gardens, but in the background is the chateau itself. A large, white stone building with lots of windows and turrets and arches. (it extends over the River Cher) The roof is blue-gray slate and the whole is a magical building.

Writing our Destiny aka Andrew@planecrazy· 28d

The only context in which you should use the word online with someone you don't know very, very well.

A page from the Cornell Lab "All About Birds" website. The page is for the bird, "Great Tit." It includes a cute little bird with a black cap, white cheeks, yellow breast and gray back and wings.

Writing our Destiny aka Andrew@planecrazy· 28d

Working to keep cool in the heat. (Fountain of the Sun in Nice, France)

The Sun Fountain in Nice, France, from behind. View looking up at the statue of naked Apollo in the middle of a fountain, surrounded by other figures.

Writing our Destiny aka Andrew@planecrazy· 28d

Speaking of pens and Western Mass, you might enjoy my article on Josiah Hayden, one of the founders of Haydenville, MA. (just down the road from Williamsburg, MA), and early pen maker. thesteelpen.com/wp-content/u...

title text of the article: "Yankees can do anything: Josiah Hayden, Early steel pen pioneer. By Andrew Midkiff" It includes an image of a long, multi-story, wooden building that was the old blacksmith shop"

Writing our Destiny aka Andrew@planecrazy· 29d

Just lovely. Next county over from me.

A photo showing fresh vegetables and fruits at a farmer's market. The headline reads, "Local. Wake Co. reports 150+ cases of cyclospora parasite causing intestinal distress. There are more than 200 confirmed cases in the state."

Writing our Destiny aka Andrew@planecrazy· 29d

Back in 2012 we visited Chateau du Chaumont-sur-Loire, in the Loire valley where they have an International Garden Festival. Different artists set up installations. One was a group of golden Revolutionary Gnomes titled, "Liberté, égalité fraternité" designed by Flemons Warland Design Ltd.

ordered rows of large, garden gnome statues, painted gold, and each holding a rake. In the back is a French flag.

Writing our Destiny aka Andrew@planecrazy· Jul 13

When my father-in-law passed we inherited 110 carousels of 36 slides each of his and his father's Kodachrome slides from 1952-82. I arranged to get them all scanned professionally and we were able to distribute them throughout the family. So glad they survived.

A young couple in wedding clothes standing in the middle of a dirt road that stretches away into the distance. This was a wedding in Holdridge, Nebraska sometime around 1955.

A group of people sitting around a table, and other old-fashioned furniture, playing Monopoly in 1952.

San Francisco's Lombard Street, the curviest street in the US. Taken around 1953-54. Shows the very curvy street with a truck slowly working it's way down the curves interspersed with plantings.

Writing our Destiny aka Andrew@planecrazy· Jul 13

Good morning to my fellow lazy apex predators.

"YouTubers be like 'wake up at 4am and run, that's alpha!' No, it's not. Look at apex predators; they're all lazy. Bears hibernate, lions sleep all day. You know who wakes up at 4am and runs? Squirrels."

Writing our Destiny aka Andrew@planecrazy· Jul 12

Are they sweet or sour cherries? I've made this with both and sour cherries definitely work better. You just lessen the sugar with sweet cherries. And it is sooooo good! It's such a beautiful pink color, and cold and refreshing.

Recipe for sour cherry soup.

June Meyer's Authentic Hungarian Sour Cherry Soup
Recipe By :
Serving Size : 4
Categories : Hungary Soup Fruit

1 1/2 qt Water
3 tb Flour
1 c sour cream
1/2 tsp salt
1 lb fresh or frozen, pitted sour cherries
3/4 c granulated sugar

Every Family has their version of Sour Cherry Soup. It is a special
seasonal treat in Hungary when the cherries are ripe. Sour Cherries have a wonderful flavor when cooked. Some families like to make their soup with sweet cream instead of sour cream. Some add a little sherry. How ever you make this soup, you will enjoy its refreshing flavor. Regards, June Meyer.

Into a soup pot containing 1 1/2 quarts of boiling water add fresh or frozen sour cherries and granulated sugar. Stir and cook. In a separate bowl mix flour, sour cream, salt and beat until smooth. Add to flour mix, 1 cup of hot cherry sugar mix. Stir vigorously. Now add the flour, sour cream and hot cherry mix into the pot of hot soup, stir well and simmer for 5 or 6 minutes until it thickens. Cover the soup and let cool. Keep cover on while it chills in refrigerator and it will not form a thick skin. Serve very cold.
Note: to make Cherry Soup with Sweet Cream or Meggy Leves Mas Modon Cook a 1 inch stick of cinnamon with the cherries, and substitute sweet cream for the sour cream. Discard cinnamon stick when done cooking soup. Chill as above.

Writing our Destiny aka Andrew@planecrazy· Jul 10

I forgot the best. Here he is overlooking Athens.

A young sailor in blues sitting on a rock high up with the Acropolis in Athens behind him in the distance.

Writing our Destiny aka Andrew@planecrazy· Jul 10

Scanned some photos my dad took when he was in the Navy in the Med. from 1957-59. Here's one for @dreadships.bsky.social USS Canberra, the second guided missile cruiser with Terrier missiles. Based on the photos around it, probably taken near Malta c1958.

Old color photo of the middle-front section of a guided missile cruiser. The photo was taken from the deck of the Sperry, a WWII era destroyer. Both ships are underway.

The back of the photo. "U.S.S. Canberra (CLG-2) Second guided missle (sic) cruiser w/ terrier missles (sic) "SAM's"

Writing our Destiny aka Andrew@planecrazy· Jul 8

Some people have better days than others. Hope you're feeling good about yourself.

A one-panel cartoon. A woman in office attire walks into what is probably a therapist's office where a man is laying on the stereotypical psychiatrist's couch. Next to it is a chair with no one in it. The woman says to the man, "Dr. Cramer called to say he feels so good about himself as a person he no longer has to validate himself with a career and has given up psychiatry."

Writing our Destiny aka Andrew@planecrazy· Jul 5

From my page on pen prep. thesteelpen.com/2017/10/23/u...

"Potato: Yes, a potato. This is one that had been passed around as rather odd and often questioned, but then I found a reference from 1882 (below) that talks about this as a standard practice in Germany. I’ve since found out that several professional calligraphers swear by their potatoes, especially if you have an already prepped nib that needs a retouching. It seems that raw or cooked both work"

then an image of a newspaper quote "A writer in a German paper states that it is a custom in offices in that country to have a sliced potato on the desk in commercial houses. He does not state whether the esculent should be raw or not, but the probability is that it is boiled. The use of the potato is to clean steel pens, and generally act as a pen wiper. It removes all ink crust, and gives a perculiarly smooth flow to the ink. He also states that the Hamburg clerks pass new pens two or three times through a gas flame, and then the ink will flow freely."

Writing our Destiny aka Andrew@planecrazy· Jul 4

I always talked you up specifically as I did my canvassing. And this was in my front yard. You would have been great, and I’m glad that you didn’t just “fade away” but are continuing to talk about your convictions. Thank you.

A political yard sign that says, “Sarah Taber FirnOur Farms”

Writing our Destiny aka Andrew@planecrazy· Jul 4

I was immediately reminded of something I recently saw in the latest season (season 4) of the great animated series The Legend of Vox Machina on Prime. In episode 5 they break into a magical library and this looks like one of the magical library guardians.

A large, spider-like entity with multiple legs held together at glowing red junctions by magic (they limbs don't actually touch, but are floating in the air).

Writing our Destiny aka Andrew@planecrazy· Jun 29

Peppermint Pattie - Pfeffeintz - Pfeffer- Pfeffie.

A calico cat curled up sleeping in the sun. One of the black markings on her side looks like a heart.

Writing our Destiny aka Andrew@planecrazy· Jun 29

We had the room until 9:00, but people were reluctant to leave. Here's a photo I took 20 minutes after it was supposed to be over. In the photo on the left is the line to sign to guest book. Ruth impacted a lot of lives in her 40+ years as a teacher, sister, aunt and friend.

A large room with a great many people still there, mostly in groups talking to each other.

Writing our Destiny aka Andrew@planecrazy· Jun 28

Picked up the flowers for the memorial. She loved bright colors and she loved colorful flowers, and that’s what I told them. I think they understood the assignment.

Two crates in which sit one large flower arrangement and two smaller ones in the other crate. Yellow, purple, red, pink, all kinds of colors.

Writing our Destiny aka Andrew@planecrazy· Jun 28

Looks interesting! My 3g-grandfather, Archelaus Hughes Stovall, walked a mail route through the wild mountains of southern Virginia from 1838 until 1853. His route was 40 miles on foot.

Clip from a newspaper. "Mr Stewart, Senator from Patrick county, was first called for the defense and deposed to the uniform good character and honesty of Stovall for 28 years past. He has carried the mail from fifteen years, generally on his back, for a distance of forty miles. He has a large family, very poor, and has"

Writing our Destiny aka Andrew@planecrazy· Jun 26

Preparing for my wife's memorial on Sunday by rereading cards and notes sent. It seems her gift to the world was the confidence and self-acceptance she instilled in several generations of young dancers. So many grown women said that she helped them in the critical teen years to believe in themselves

Ruth, last summer, in her natural element, a ballet rehearsal room. She is smiling with pride and joy in the work of the corp of dancers you can see reflected in the mirror behind her. She was rehearsing her last ballet work at Point Park University. While she did work with university-aged students a lot, most of her teaching was in the pre-professional level, 13-18, a very important and fraught age for all. I received so many messages saying how important she was in these women's lives. Several said that they would not be who they were without her. (including a doctor and a professor, the later who said Ruth was the best teacher she ever had). Ruth definitely left the world a better place than she found it. Gone too soon at 62.

Writing our Destiny aka Andrew@planecrazy· Jun 24

Yup.

Wikipedia entry for Amphimallon Solstitiale, or summer chafer

Writing our Destiny aka Andrew@planecrazy· Jun 23

In another month my son will have to start going around with a big stick knocking down webs that stretch across the lawn before he mows. The giant orb weavers start making their impressive webs about then.

A photo of a very large, black and yellow spider hanging upside down on a plant. The Argiope aurantia grow pretty darned big around these parts. We get a few every year in our garden. Their webs can get quite large, and the anchor threads are strong enough to pull shrubs

Writing our Destiny aka Andrew@planecrazy· Jun 22

Oh, send some our way. It's rained once in the last two months. We are in extreme drought, which is not common for us. No watering anything is allowed. I love that kind of darkening, right before a big storm. I'll just have to live vicariously through yours.

10 day forecast for my area and only one day has chance of PM showers. The other days are all in the high 80s to high 90s and mostly sunny to partly cloudy. It even says today is supposed to be "Mostly Cloudy" but looking outside there are a few fluffy clouds, but partly would be the most I would say.

Writing our Destiny aka Andrew@planecrazy· Jun 22

My computer informs me that two years ago today we were here. The incredibly picturesque village of Drežnica, Slovenia nestles in the lower peaks of the Julian Alps. This whole area of Slovenia is just gorgeous and I can't recommend it enough. Beautiful scenery, friendly people

A broad panorama photo of a green valley between mountains in which you see a picturesque village with a white church, fields, trees and a blue sky with dramatic clouds around the peaks of the mountains.

The incredibly colored waters of the Soči River in Slovenia.
A photo of the bend in a river where the water is an amazing color of blue-green, kind of like corroded copper.

The Kozjak waterfall (Slap Kozjak). A photo of a deep indent of rock, almost like a cave with a crack in the roof, and at the back of it is a beautiful waterfall that flows into Kozjak river.

Writing our Destiny aka Andrew@planecrazy· Jun 22

From one of the absolute best accounts on BlueSky, @themerl.bsky.social

A photograph of an absolute unit of a ram. Positively rectangular in his proportions.

Writing our Destiny aka Andrew@planecrazy· Jun 21

To my father. You started too young but you did the best you could, which often was quite incredible. You are missed.

When my dad finally retired after over 45 years of teaching, his last school put in a section of the yearbook dedicated to him.

It’s a spread from a year book showing three pictures of my dad. In one he is riding in a pedal rickshaw ahead of one carrying my wife and I. It is in Amritsar India and is so like my history teacher dad, to be constantly talking about what’s happening. The other two pictures are from when he was in the navy as a young man including one in Athens.

A photo of a young couple (21 and 22) holding a baby.

A photo from the early 70s showing my dad on the right, with full beard and long hair. In the middle is his dad, an electrician born to a coal minor in the coalfields of West Virginia. He got out by joining the army too young and driving an ambulance in France during WWI. On the left is my uncle, dad’s older brother who was a small town policeman at this time. My grandfather and uncle are clean shaven and short hair and conservatively dressed. My dad was the hippy school teacher.

Writing our Destiny aka Andrew@planecrazy· Jun 21

Small detail of a Hieronymus Bosch painting that include a metal knight in armor and the normal assortment of strange hybrid beasts and the tortured Damned.

Writing our Destiny aka Andrew@planecrazy· Jun 17

Thanks. Three years of stage 4 cancer was quite enough. We did manage to cram as much life into those three years as possible. Her passing was peaceful and pain free.

A photo of Ruth at the top of the Duomo in Florence with the city behind her. We took this trip after her 3rd big surgery that allows her to go off chemo for 9 months.

After she restarted chemo they used some of the harsher meds which caused her to lose her hair. It never stopped her. A photo of Ruth with her hair just starting to grow back at the family Christmas.

Last year she had her work Liminal performed at Point Park University’s summer dance, where she had taught every summer for over 20 years. Liminal is a ballet about her being in that in-between space between life and death. It is very powerful and was performed to great acclaim. It was also her last choreographed work.

Writing our Destiny aka Andrew@planecrazy· Jun 17

This was a continuation from my son's baptism 20 ya, when Phil, offered John, the godfather, $1000 to do a full Lion King presentation of the naked baby when he would be handed my son by the priest after baptism. John chickened out. It was the Armenian church which is very ritual-heavy and solemn.