Settling in for a quiet weekend

We will be spending a quiet weekend in New York this week. Barry’s dental work went fine, but he is still recovering. I pureed the vegetable soup I had made a couple of days ago and that turned out to be delicious! I think I will serve it that way in the future.

I started a new project yesterday. Somehow, although I cannot for the life of me figure out how I managed to do something this stupid, I no longer have electronic versions of the pictures we took of our grandchildren from 2004 when Joshua was born through 2006. But I have literally hundreds of printed photographs, all in order, in three large albums that hold four 4x5” pictures in plastic sleeves on each page. My plan is to select a representative sample and scan them in. Yesterday, just to see how this would go, I scanned in a few. This in itself is not so simple, because if the picture is sitting on the glass just a bit crookedly, it is very hard to get the image straightened out on the page. I know you can rotate the image, but then you end up having to cut off a bit, and somehow it is difficult to get it just right. So after a few tries I had four pictures that I loaded onto Shutterfly and I started a book. The pictures don’t look quite as crisp as the pictures we have electronically do. Barry pointed out to me that I could try to increase the resolution on the scans. Unfortunately, when I tried to do just one picture, after being tied up for many minutes, an error message popped up and said that it could not do it. So I may just have to settle for the fuzzy images, which is odd when the images in my head are so clear!

I have another project upon which I hope to embark. Recently, one of my sisters took all the old home movies our father had taken while we were growing up and transferred them to DVDs. I am looking forward to sharing these with the grandchildren. Meanwhile, when Simmie was a baby, Barry and I bought a video camera that was advanced as home movie cameras were back in the 1970s. There are 27 reels in all, and at 3 minutes each that is almost an hour and a half: stay tuned for this at Sundance! Unfortunately, only about half are labeled. The images on the Super 8 tapes are very tiny, so there is no way to look at them and know what they are. If I send them off to one of the services that can transfer them onto a DVD, I have no good way to put them in chronological order. I’m still scratching my head about this one. If anyone has any suggestions they would be much appreciated.

Meanwhile, it looks like there will be one last blast of relatively warm weather this weekend before winter finally comes to stay. Maybe not warm enough for the Botanical Gardens, but at least not so wickedly cold!

Be well and have a nice weekend.

Love,

Rebecca

  

At last, a Final Jeopardy I knew!

In the category of Children’s Literature, last evening’s final Jeopardy answer was:

Joy, Nellie, and Aranea are three of the many children of this title character.

I knew this one almost immediately. Here is a recording of the author reading the last chapter of the book.

We watched the 1973 animated version of this book, which featured the voices of Debbie Reynolds as Charlotte and Henry Gibson as Wilbur, many times when our daughters were young. In the acknowledgements included in my PhD dissertation, I paraphrased the closing line of the book

She was in a class by herself. It is not often someone comes along who’s a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both.

and wrote of my PhD advisor

He was in a class by himself. It is not often someone comes along who’s a true friend and a great statistician. Randy was both.

At the risk of embarrassing him, Randy has been a true friend and a great statistician for almost 30 years.

Love,

Rebecca

Are we sure it's not winter yet?

In February of this year, I posted a Judy Collins song called “The Blizzard.” We again find ourselves in a blanket of white. So I was not surprised when I began humming that beautiful song Monday as we drove back through wooded areas of Connecticut that “sparkled like diamonds.” It truly was a magnificent sight.

Again this week I had to skip my music class! I am afraid I have not learned all that much about Beethoven this term. We will not meet for the next two weeks, which leaves just one more session for this term in early January. The weather so far does not bode well for that session. Who says winter starts on December 22^nd? If all that white covering our yard is not winter, I fear what lies ahead!

But finally today the weather is showing signs of improvement. It is sunny outside and the temperature is headed to above freezing. Meanwhile, I made a big pot of vegetable soup, motivated by the weather and by the anticipated need following some dental work Barry is having this week.

At the end of the day we went to see the movie “Nebraska.” Woody Grant (played by Bruce Dern) is an older man whose brain is on the decline. Woody receives a letter telling him that he has won one million dollars in a sweepstakes which he must claim in Lincoln, Nebraska. Although his wife and two grown sons try to explain to him that this is not for real and beg him not to go, he refuses to believe them and begins making his way to Lincoln from his home in Montana. His younger son David (played by Will Forte, who some of you may remember as one of the Saturday Night Live regulars from 2002-2010) decides to join his father on this journey, primarily to try to help keep him safe.  

Along the way, they stop to visit Woody’s brother and sister-in-law and their two sons, and see many of Woody’s relatives and old friends. When they hear that Woody is traveling to claim his prize, one by one they begin making demands that he help them financially, even making up stories of how he “owes” them for money they in fact never gave to him. Eventually, the extended family and friends find out that Woody has fallen for a scam. Woody and David make it to Lincoln, and Woody must finally accept what has happened.

The movie was shot in black and white. There are no beautiful scenic vistas here; only a bleak open countryside filled with poor and unhappy people who might as well be living in the early 20^th century rather than the early 21^st. The ending is not quite as dark as this all sounds, but I do not want to spoil it for any of you who might have a chance to see this film, which we heartily recommend. The acting was superb. Bruce Dern makes Woody seem very real, and June Squibb (not at all a familiar face to us) is excellent as Woody’s wife, Kate. What makes this movie so compelling is the Bruce Dern character, Woody. Although there were some plot twists and circumstances that seemed contrived, Woody reflected a very real situation with which many families must deal.

If you are reading this on Wednesday evening before 9 pm on the US East Coast, you can tune in to a live 20-minute internet David Roth concert by clicking here

 Concert Window

Have a nice evening!

Love,

Rebecca

Our own modern family

We had a wonderful weekend, and got to spend lots of time with the children. Ella came over for dinner and a sleep-over on Friday night, and we even prepared something other than macaroni and cheese – blintz soufflé - that she liked! We bought food from the new kosher deli near Sharon and had Simmie and family for Sabbath afternoon. Then we stayed through Sunday and made dinner for the ten of us on Sunday evening. After dinner, we played with some of the gifts we had not had a chance to give the children during Chanukah. While Joshua played with his newest HexBugs set with Barry and Eliana, Ella and Maya helped Ronen and me put together a bed we had bought Maya for her American Girl doll. These girls know how to handle a screwdriver far better than their grandmother does! I’ve attached some pictures here.

One of the things we made last night is a very simple and yummy dish from Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant called Saffron Butterflies (which sounds even better in Italian, Farfalle allo Zafferano). When we were packing to leave this morning, I found half of a half-pint container of cream in the refrigerator. I was puzzled by this, because we had doubled the recipe for the butterflies, which called for ½ cup of cream, so we should have used the entire container. It turns out that when Barry added the cream, he forgot that we were doubling the recipe. Fortunately he had remembered doubling the other ingredients, so it was still delicious. But I thought that it seemed a bit less creamy than I had remembered it. So note to family: we have to do this again soon!

Having all ten of us for dinner, with so much going on afterwards, brought to mind a television show of which we have become huge fans: Modern Family. For those who have never watched this show, let me fill you in. Jay Pritchett, the head of the family, is married to the gorgeous and much younger Gloria, who has a precocious 12-year-old son, Manny, from her first marriage, and she and Jay have now had a baby boy together. Jay has two grown children from his first marriage, Claire and Mitchell. Claire and her husband, Phil, are the parents of three kids with whom they want an open, healthy, honest relationship: Haley, a teenage daughter who's growing up a little fast, Alex, a too-smart-for-her-own-good middle daughter and Luke, a scatterbrained boy. Mitchell is raising an adopted daughter, Lily, with his long term partner, Cameron. Don’t worry if you did not catch all that, you will not be tested! I have a hard time remembering all the names but once you get to know these characters they do grow on you.

Like most television situation comedies, the antics of this clan are somewhat contrived and not especially believable. While the warmth of the interactions between these family members does feel believable, in real life it takes work to make that happen. There are significant differences in outlook and personality among the family members, but they are tied together by a collective force that is far greater than any single one of them. As parents of grown children, and grandparents of growing-up-so-quickly grandchildren, this is what we are hoping to achieve. And I think it is that feeling that has me hooked on this show. We are grateful to our friends Michal and Manny for telling us about it. Our timing was fortunate, because a variety of cable channels are showing all the old episodes, albeit in scrambled order. We have over 40 on our playlist at this point!

This is the time of year that I begin to wonder if it might be time to start thinking about relocating to a warmer climate. I guess this weather is the price I have to pay to be close to our children and grandchildren and continue my love affair with New York.

Have a good week and stay safe and warm!

Love,

Rebecca

 

Points of view

This video was posted on Facebook by a friend whose sister is undergoing treatment for a difficult-to-treat cancer. In the same way I attempt not to spoil movies, I do not want to bias your reaction to this, so for the moment I will hold my thoughts. But I would be curious to hear some points of view.

Have a great weekend.

Love,

Rebecca

Old memories, new memories

Visiting with my mother and sister dredged up an old memory. Actually, it was Barry who reminded me of this incident, which occurred shortly before I left for college.

I was the second of five children. When I graduated high school at 18, my older brother was almost 20, and my younger sisters were 15, 12, and 5. Our family had moved from St. Louis to West Hartford, Connecticut during the summer before my senior year. This move forced me to give up my friends, my top-10 high school academic rank, and many extracurricular activities. Despite this, I managed to have a pretty good senior year and made many new friends.

On a Sunday just after graduation, my parents planned a family day trip to the Catskill Game Farm, a zoo in upstate New York that has since closed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catskill_Game_Farm).

My brother and I, and perhaps my 12- and 15-year old sisters as well, were a bit old for this sort of thing, but I would have gone along willingly if not for the fact that one of my friends was hosting a big graduation party that day to which everyone was going. I can still remember the pleas and the tears. But my parents were insistent that I go with the family.

I remember very little of the place because, although I am sure it was lovely, and I might have enjoyed being there with my little sister had the timing been different, I refused to enjoy it. But clearly the memory of that day stuck with me so strongly that over a year later, when Barry and I started dating, I was still talking about it.

Barry and I were reminded of this because we were thinking about taking the family to a performance of Disney on Ice during the winter break. But we recognize that Joshua is probably a bit old for these sorts of activities now. He might be much happier getting together with friends than going to a show clearly targeted at younger children. This is exactly how it should be: children grow and their interests change, and we parents and grandparents have to shift our plans and expectations. We see this on a regular basis during our visits to Sharon. These days, the children’s plans with their friends often trump whatever the rest of the family is doing. This is especially true for the Sabbath daytime meal after synagogue, when the older children often invite friends or are invited to their homes. Although the selfish part of me misses having them around the table, I am thrilled to see that they are so popular!

Barry and I have had an ongoing discussion about this for a couple of years now, wondering if at some point our going to Sharon so frequently might not make as much sense as it did six years ago when we started spending most of our weekends there. Maya is only 5, so we had decided to table this discussion for another year or two. But as it turns out, we hope to table it for much longer. Some of you already know why: our daughter Dina and her husband Aaron are expecting a third child at the end of March. We are excitedly awaiting this new addition to our family.

It is quite cold outside, but I have an appointment with my pulmonologist today so I will be venturing out. I finally get to use the new scarf that Barry bought me when he was in the UK, along with the new wine-colored LL Bean Mad Bomber hat I bought to match it.

Stay warm!

Love,

Rebecca

Name that image

Other than my last quick “do not fear, I have not fallen off the planet” posting, it has been about a week, and a varied and busy one, since I last wrote.

We managed to squeeze in two movies last week. The first was “Dallas Buyers Club,” about the early days of the AIDS epidemic when, anxious to do anything and everything to extend their lives, patients mobilized and tried to take things into their own hands to obtain drugs that had not been approved for sale in the United States. I was interested in this film because when we moved to New York in 1991, my first job was at Lederle Laboratories where I was assigned to work on a new antiretroviral that was in the first stages of development. There was enormous excitement about this project, that this drug would be both more effective and less toxic than the only approved drug at that time, AZT. We got the trials up and running quickly. I had the opportunity to work with a terrific team and to attend fascinating meetings, many of which were attended by vocal AIDS activists. But about 8 months in, there were three deaths among patients in the trial. The patients were all late-stage AIDS patients, but there was concern that the drug was not working as had been hoped, was more toxic than had been anticipated, or perhaps both. While the jury remained forever out on precisely what caused these deaths, there was a decision to discontinue the development of the compound. It was just around that time that, by coincidence, I heard from someone at Pfizer, and the rest, as they say, is history. Still, it was a wonderful introduction to an exciting area of drug research. Some years later, a number of former Lederle colleagues ended up at Pfizer following a merger and reorganization.

A small afterthought to this story I have just told. You may be amazed, as I am, that someone who can barely remember what day of the week it is remembers this trial from over 20 years ago in such excruciating detail. This will remain forever the biggest mystery of this whole experience.

But back to the present…the movie was excellent, although intense and somewhat painful to watch. The acting was superb. There may well be some Academy Award nominations from this one.

The second movie we saw was “Inside Llewyn Davis,” the newest feature from the incredibly prolific Coen Brothers. This movie is supposed to be somewhat loosely based on folk singer/songwriter Dave Von Ronck, but can likely be viewed as a composite of many such artists who lived from hand to mouth trying to make music in the early 1960s. The movie told the story of a reasonably talented musician who could not quite get his act together sufficiently to be successful, and was ultimately so self-destructive that he even passed up an opportunity to join a group that clearly was intended to represent Peter, Paul, and Mary. The music was fantastic, and the audience were given free CDs of the soundtrack when we purchased our tickets. Growing up in the suburbs of St. Louis through the 1960s, this world is rather foreign to me. But Barry went to Stuyvesant High School in lower Manhattan in the 1960s, so the gritty streets of the Village are very real to him. I don’t know if there will be any recognition from the Motion Picture Academy, but Oscar Isaac, who plays Mr. Davis, was quite good. John Goodman, F. Murray Abraham, and Justin Timberlake are also in the film.

We had a quiet Friday evening and had Sabbath lunch at the home of friends who had also invited some other friends from our Riverdale circle. As so often happens on the short Sabbath afternoons of winter, we ended up talking and talking until Sabbath was over. The food was yummy, the company enjoyable, and the time just flew past.

Saturday night we finished packing and tried to get to sleep early because we had an early flight on Sunday. We flew down to Florida to visit my mother and sister who live there. My mother is no longer able to travel, and we had not been down to visit since the family Disney World trip in June of 2011, having been a bit preoccupied through much of 2012. It was good to have the chance to visit.

We were scheduled to fly back to New York late Monday morning. We started hearing about the terrible weather that has been moving up the East Coast for the past few days. But fortunately, our plane took off, albeit about an hour and a half later than scheduled, and the flight was less turbulent than we expected. As we started our descent, it was clear that there was a thick cloud cover over the City, but suddenly I saw something sticking out from under that blanket of white puffy cotton. Barry managed to snap a photograph with his iPhone. You can click on the image to make it larger and more clear. Can you see what it is? How cool is that? It was a delightful ending to a hectic few days.

It is snowing as I write this. Stay warm and dry!

Love,

Rebecca